What did schumi say via team radio at the end?

Indeed, it was reminiscent of some of his laps back in the V10 days, the difference being back then they had the torque to still get a strong exit without bogging down.

Jeez man. Its only qualifying. The race is long and there are slower cars in front of them.

That and the speed advantage and Schumacher's great starts give me optimism for tomorrow.

While I honestly hoped for top 8 qualifying, 11 is not the end of the world given the pace on the longer stints. Lets hope there won't be any strategical brain fades.

Check Haime and Koba longer stints from yesterday.

Did anyone see the sector times for his two fast runs in Q2?

I recall the German commentator was saying he did PBs in sector 1 and sector 2 of the first run, which should have put him easily in the top 10 seeing how his best lap was a .9 something and the time to beat in Q2 was a .8 something.

Live timing didn't work.

Actually I thought Ross was on to a clever strategy. Use up the softs in Qualy, save the hards for the race and do one less pit stop. But then he puts him out on hards in Q2 and just misses.

MS gave an interview to RTL. My German is far from brilliant, but I believe he said that on his penultimate lap (the one where the tyres were fresh), KERS did not work. Then it worked on his last lap, but the tyres were done.

I say this with caution, but I believe I got his words right.

He also said that the car was definitely capable of a top 10 result.

He's been losing time in Q3.

Edit: S3, not Q3

Maybe the RTL guys weren't talking right or I am not remembering well, but if they did say his second timed lap of Q2 (the 1.26.1 or what it was) had Personal Bests in Sectors 1 and 2, how would KERS have ruined the lap in the sector where it is used the least?

Also, I did notice Schumacher used Kers on the finish-start straight, while Hamilton had used all his up by Turn 11.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90233

Says he did Q1 and Q2 on the same set of softs, then used a new set for Q3 when KERS wasn't working properly.

That's worth 3-4 tenths if KERS didn't work at all over an entire lap.

To me it looked like he made an error just before he passed the FI (not at all related to the FI) but through those sweeping corners just into S3.

OK , what to do tomorrow? Start with hards, and trying to do 2 stopper? Or crazy 1 stopper. 30-35 laps with hards and 20-25 laps with soft? I think softs will be good at the start for 8-9 laps(heavy cars). After first stop they will come back behind Michael , most of them. Interesting strategy for tomorrow. Just hope it will be not shit strategy as always.
James Allison, Technical Director LRGP: “The race may not be as frantic as we expected”

Ok Schumacher posted a 1,25.971 Let's say the KERS is worth half a second; 1,25.471 Now let's say the error cost him half a second; 1,25.000, now let's say the tyres went off on the second lap and lost him 1 second. 1,24.000.

In lala land that means Schumacher posted a 1,24.000... Vettel in his Red Bull still posted a 1,23.529

Oh my goodness.

Ha!

With the KERS boost he would have made the cut,though. Less than 9 hundredths in it.

About the KERS, they can use it only for 6,6 sec per lap like in the race? Or they can use it as much as they like in Qualy and FPs?

6.6 seconds per lap at all times.

I think a 2 stopper would be the most sensible, not that we've seen a race with anyone on P's yet.

"We" are still having problems, apprently.
It took Ferrari two seasons to see through Kimi, why should MErcedes be any different.

KERS worked in his fastest lap according to him.

Yes the KERS worked but the tyres were gone! So when the tyres were working the KERS system didn't & when The KERS worked the tyres did not work.

KERS worked for the whole second attempt in Q2, not only the last lap of the second attempt.

I'm giving Michael two more races and then no excuses any more. I will have to face the reality - the man can only get older, not vice versa. That's it. These half of a second that he often was behind Nico last season are killing me

Did Michael start to use new simulator? It is very good tool in KERS and ARW usage, where on the track to use them. Also Nico said that he can make his setup for the next race on the simulator and to iron things on the track? If Michael don't use simulator I guess he is disadvantaged?

Am gutted.It hurts me to see Michael missing out Q3.


Hope he does well in the race to finish ahead of Nico

Let's see what the race will bring tomorrow. And the season is still very long so no need to panic people.

He was just 0,3 sec off Rosberg when he failed to get into Q3 so that's not a big gap and we all know last year he was the faster one during the race most of the time.

MS was rarely faster than Rosberg in races last year, most of the time Rosberg was clearly the faster man. I was expecting more from him this year ( I had money on him to beat NR and Heidfeld to beat Petrov, those turned out well), but this qualy didnt go well. But the season is young still.

I doubt Schumacher cares- he looked very down after qualifying today. Even if he ups his game it doesn't matter, he won't be able to fight at the front which is what he wants.

Yes obviously they expected to be a lot closer to the front.

2 stopper? that would mean starting losing 2-3s per lap after some time, and end like canada last year...

You are right, it was practice. I should have at least waited until after qualifying.....11th!
And slower by over 1/2 a sec. to his teammate.

Hard hard soft soft.

Thats how i expect his stints to go tomorrow.

Let's see how well he can get a start at the green light. He was pretty good at this last year.

Then again, racing is a totally different beast than anything else.

And he escapes an grid penalty as well!

Why you put it here? It is about the two MGP drivers. And Lewis.

i cant believe Michael is struggling because of his age, I mean, it aint like Barrichello is much younger....

----

Michael being in 11th; starting on hards, when the softs go off of the 10 cars in front, could be interesting;

I agree with the above, hard-hard-soft-soft is the way I see it;

so is he starting on hards or softs now ?

Your guess as good as anybody else's. Don't think they will tell.

I doubt we'll know until the blankets come off on the grid tomorrow.

good point, so is anyone starting on hards from the top 10 ?

Top 10 start with softs I think.

So we have been reduced to this? Making excuses for a diva who never needed it in the old days.

A diva who insists that she can still hit the high notes . . . but can't.

It's not so much that the car was slow (I won't go into his vaunted development skills), as much as his repeat of the behaviour we witnessed a the start of last season. The arrogance, really.

Kudos to Rosberg. He quietly went about his business. Ignored the dismissive remarks Schumacher made about him . . . AGAIN. And then schooled him when it came time to perform . . . AGAIN.

Hey, I've been an admirer of the old Schumacher. Who can forget the stellar performances of the old days (well, I suppose that the detractors . . . Moss, etc., can ), his wresting winning drives out of a clearly inferior machine, circa 1996. But this is not that guy. With that guy, it was NEVER a question of being overshadowed by his teammate . . . regardless of WHO he was and what the circumstances were. THIS is not THAT guy.

I don't begrudge the man is right to drive in F1 . . . he's still good enough to do that. But please spare us the superciliousness.

Those who are emotionally invested in this driver doing well are in for a long year, I'm afraid.

As for this race: I expect him to finish out of the points. Since his return I've seen nothing to suggest that he is good at nursing a recalcitrant machine. In fact, he's rather too harsh on his tyres.

Enjoy the race, everyone.

Ah well, qualifying wasn't his strongest point throughout his career anyway. It's not without reason he took the quali record last.

All the stellar performances I remember were in the races.

Well, I will enjoy the races as I'm not busy trying to think od smth to blame on Michael again.

No, I don't know, show me any stats showing that. All I know is he was behind other cars for almost whole race.

And he was 4th in first corner last year(from 7th). Before he was taken out. From first to last(or out of the race,Vettel) it is short way usually.

Vettel is in another solar system speed wise, to everybody. I can't understand why he wasted another lap after posting the pole time. There wasn't a prayer of anyone beating it.

Let's see how the race goes. MGP has the straight line speed to do some damage.

So? carbonfibre clearly said "faster one during the race most of the time", which is not true, because Nico was faster on 38 laps compared to 12 of Michael.

As you said he was behind other cars the most of the race, he made some overtakes. Nico was free. OK , Michael was not faster then. I guess we clear this problem.