Button, Webber and Massa did not make it through Q2

Very tactical Q3 here. Q3 is almost over and hardly any cars have been out, but it looks now like most of them are about to have a last dash!

Hamilton's last dash was a dash short of petrol - he couldn't make it back to the pits with the required litre or more fuel left. So although he Set the fastest time in Q3, he has been totally excluded from qualifying and will therefor start the race in P24.

Maldonado lost P1 to Alonso by the first corner, however his pace is very similar to Alonso's and in fact has put in a 'fastest lap' and is maintaining a gap of about 1 second to Alonso.

laps 9/10/11 and the cars are all piling into the pits for the harder tyres.

Alonso comes in leaving Maldonado in P1, but Maldonado pits a couple of laps later, handing the lead back to Alonso. The gap's about 3 seconds now.

Senna is hit from behind by Schumacher, they both go off, Schumacher loses his front wing and beaches in the gravel trap. Senna manages to keep going though.

DiResta has just passed Webber....and so has Massa....and now Webber pits for a new nose. Don't know what happened yet.

Now that all these pit stops have shaken down, the first four are the same as they were before all the stops started:-

Alonso

Maldonado

Reikonnen

Grosjean

Poor Webber is now way back in 17th.

Incident involving Vettel and Massa is to be investigated - Vettel might have ovtaken under a yellow flag.

Maldonado pits - P2 to P3

Alonso pits and is now only P3, BEHIND Maldonado. So Maldonado will lead once Raikkonen pits.

Both Vettel and Massa get drive through penalties for 'Failing to slow for a Yellow Flag'

Senna has now had to retire because of the incident with Schumacher.

Vettel comes in from P6 for his drive through penalty, hes now P9 and Massa's now P16 after his.

Hamilton's currently P5, but his strategy seems to be one stop fewer than most of the others.

Button's just been passed by Kobayashi, who is attacking Rosberg now for P6 and thet're both catching Hamilton, who pits now. I think that puts him onto the same number of stops as the rest. He's P14 now.

Apparently MacLaren are saying Hamilton WILL NOT stop again - with 30 laps to go, out of 66.

Vettel has just flown past Button for P7

Pic gets a drive through penalty for ignoring blue flags.

Maldonado pits from P1, it's a slow stop, he emerges in P3!

Vettel's just been in for a new nose now too.

Maldonado's only 15 seconds behind Alonso, so might be ahead when Alonso pits.

And that's exactly what has happened, as Alonso emerges P3 after pitting.

Maldonado's being held up by Raikkonen, but eventually gets past and now Alonso gets held up, he gets past a bit sooner.

Raikkonen pits now to P4

Raikkonen's just been told that Maldonado and Alonso will be pitting again and Grosjean's still to make his last stop too. If that's all true then Raikkonen will win....as long as he doesn't have to stop again himself.

Vettel's just passed Button again and has now got Hamilton in his sights.

Kobayashi takes P5 from Rosberg as Rosberg locks up.

Vettel's now less than half a second behind Hamilton and a few corners later he slips comfortably past and now takes Rosberg.

Alonso's tyres seem to be dropping off, but Maldonado's seem to be holding out.

With only two laps to go Raikkonen's less than 2 seconds behind Alonso....but doesn't manage to make up the gap and finishes just point 4 of a second behind Alonso.

A few laps ago Webber managed to pop into 10th place, so both Red Bull's are in the points, though not quite as high as we usually see them.

Apparently Maldonado is already a hero in Venezuela....they're joking now that he'll be president soon, now that he's won a GP.

Monaco

Schumacher has been given a 5 place penalty for running into the back of Senna in Spain.

Lots of cars having incidents during practice.

Maldonado's car seems to be quite badly damaged.

Ooooh!........Maldonado's been given a TEN PLACE penalty for the crash, and collision with Perez. which damaged his car.

Guess who backed Maldonado last night 

Not a track I like - usually a procession.

Overhyped is Monaco.

Let's see if Hamilton is a racer.

Are you Pedro de la Rosa? He's just said much the same thing!

Qualifying's better than the race Fluffs 

I agree, I've often said that to Mr. Fluffy Thing. though occasionally you get a really exciting race as well.

There's no doubt it's a bottle track.

OMG!  

What?

Had to go into the other room as Sky's not on the TV that's in the computer room.

It's a crazy season.

At last  

Tyre choices are soft and super-soft.

Williams have succeeded in repairing Maldonado's car in time for qualifying.

Hulkenberg gets reprimanded for holding up Perez during practice.

Q1

All cars pile out onto the track right away, there could be a few compromised situatioms coming up.

Perez hits the barrier, he loses a tyre and the session is red flagged. Looks like his qualifying is over as he's not able to get back to the pits unaided.

Also, as he's not set a time he'll be starting in P24 - as long as the stewards agree to let him in the race. (I'm sure they will.)

13:10 - 1 minute to go to the restart.

It seems that the front wheel that was hit by Maldonado in practice had failed and resuted in the crash that ended Perez' qualifying.

Vettel and Raikkonen are only P16 and P17, but are both running again.

Kovalainen goes to P17 and puts Raikkonen P18

Raikkonen goes to P5 so Kovalainen is P18 and Vettel is P17

Vettel goes to P4

Kovalainen runs again, but remains P18

Q1 drop zone

18. Kovalainen

19. Petrov

20. Glock

21. de la Rosa

22. Pic

23. Karthikeyan

24. Perez

Q2

Di Resta, Picciardo and Senna are first out.

All the rest quickly join them. They're all on Supersofts except Grosjean.

Current drop zone:-

Vergne

Senna

Grosjean

Vettel

Ricciardo

Raikkonen

Kobayashi

Vergne hits the barrier and breaks his front wing which lodges underneath the car. He manages to limp back to the pits without halting the session.

Vettel runs from P14 to P9

Current Drop Zone:-

Hulkenberg

Raikkonen

Grosjean

Di Resta

Vergne

Senna

Ricciardo

Vettel and Kobayashi are P9 and P10

Hulkenberg goes to P8. Button, Vettel and  Kobayashi are P9,10 and11

Grosjean goes to P10,  Vettel, Kobayashi and Raikkonen all move down to P11 to 13

Vettel runs again and goes P8, pushing Hulkenberg, Button and Grosjean to P9, 10 and 11

Kobayashi runs to P10, Button and Grosjean go to P11 and P12

Grosjean now goes P8. Vettel, Hulkenberg, Kobayashi and Button move to P9 to P12

Raikkonen runs from P13 to P10, so Hulkenberg now joins Kobayashi and Button in the drop zone.

Q2 drop zone:-

11. Hulkenberg

12. Kobayashi

13. Button

14. Senna

15. Di Resta

16. Ricciardo

17. Vergne

Q3

Rosberg comes out first, a few others soon follow.

Maldonado to P1

Grosjean to P1

Schumacher to P2

Rosberg to P1

Hamilton to P3

Webber to P3

Raikkonen to P7

Massa to P8

Vettel aborts his run

Alonso to P5

Webber to P1

Hamilton to P3 (again)

Massa to P6

Schumacher to P1

Grosjean runs from P5 - and stays P5

Final Qualifying:-

1. Schumacher

2. Webber

3. Rosberg

4. Hamilton

5. Grosjean

6. Alonso

7. Massa

8. Raikkonen

9. Maldonado

10. Vettel

11. Hulkenberg

12. Kobayashi

13. Button

14. Senna

15. Di Resta

16. Ricciardo

17. Vergne

18. Kovalainen

19. Petrov

20. Glock

21. de la Rosa

22. Pic

23. Karthikeyan

24. Perez

When asked earlier about his 5 place drop, Schumacher joked about how starting 6th wouldn't be too bad....and amazingly that's exactly from where he will be starting.

Maldonado originally dropped from 9th to 19th, but has now incurred a further 5 place drop. So will be starting from 24th.

I haven't forgotten about finishing off last season, but I've mislaid my notes.

Another box in case.

Canada qualifying:-

Usual Suspects fell by the wayside in Q1

18. Kovalainen

19. Petrov

20. Vergne

21. de la Rosa

22. Glock

23. Pic

24. Karthikeyan

Q2 was less predictable and a few names DIDN'T get into Q3 that are normally expected to be there.

Maldonado hit the wall coming out of the last chicane and executed a lovely 360 degree spin, but his car was too damaged for him to continue and so fell to P17 by the end of the session.

At the end of the session several cars were making alast dash and who was in and who was out were changing rapidly. At one point both Force Indias appeared to be through to Q3, but in the end only one made it.

11. Kobayashi

12. Raikkonen

13. Hulkenberg

14. Ricciardo

15. Perez

16. Senna

17. Maldonado

Q3 and they're all out going hell-for-leather, but Button doesn't seem to be doing too well.

Di Resta comes in again without setting a time - is Force India settling for 10th again? All the rest have set times now, even if some of them are not that great.

Several are out running again in the last few minutes.

Massa to P1

Hamilton to P1

Vettel to P1

Webber to P3

Vettel runs again and sets an even faster P1

Alonso to P2

Rosberg to P5

Hamilton to P2 but he would still have been P2 even if Vettel HADN'T set an even faster time.

Di Resta P8 (Yay, they didn't just settle for 10th place!)

Final Results and grid positions.

1. Vettel

2. Hamilton

3. Alonso

4. Webber

5. Rosberg

6. Massa

7. Grosjean

8. Di Resta

9. Schumacher

10. Button

11. Kobayashi

12. Raikkonen

13. Hulkenberg

14. Ricciardo

15. Perez

16. Senna

17. Maldonado

18. Kovalainen

19. Petrov

20. Vergne

21. de la Rosa

22. Glock

23. Pic

24. Karthikeyan