Qualifying at the Buddh International Circuit

Buddh International Circuit – If the cars could talk, they would probably say that this is their favourite circuit. With the circuit being the newest on the calendar (to this point in the season), you can see that it is designed to test the cars at most. Many fans do not like the idea that all the new circuits are designed by German architect, Herman Tilke and have hailed these circuits as “Tilke-domes” but he certainly knows how to create a circuit to test every point of a Formula One car.

As qualifying started, the two Force India cars made their way onto track to be greeted by cheering crowds. Being the team’s home race, many fans had come to watch these two young drivers.

Before the end of Q1, we saw a few drivers push their cars to the limit and both Felipe Massa and Heikki Kovalainen spun out. Massa was able to pull it together and finished Q1 in P7. Kovalainen, on the other hand, closed out Q1 in P20.

Sometimes you can learn a lot by listening to the commentators. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are said to be working together. It was explained that whichever of the Ferraris is out in the lead, the driver will create a slip stream for the other. They will work together and when the driver behind is at maximum speed, the one in front will pull to the side and literally ‘sling shot‘ the other. Now it’s not known if this is by choice, that the two drivers are working together, but it seems to be working and is a favour that both Alonso and Massa do for each other.

Q2 may not have been all that exciting but it certainly finished very close. Q2 closed out with 0.5s covering fourth to 13th place. The Top Ten shoot out was not as exciting as previous weekends either. The top six positions were split between the top three teams.

Overall, qualifying at the Buddh International Circuit wasn’t more exciting than any other qualifying this season. Formula One asks fans to pay outrageous sums to attend an F1 weekend and it seems that the only day that has any real action is Sunday. Fans are totally against the idea of qualifying tyres, but if it can create the air of excitement on Saturday that the race day can, if it makes the drivers push themselves and their cars to the absolute limit for the best time possible on the circuit, I say, let them do it.

Sebastain Vettel	P1 Fan’s Choice To Win
Mark Webber	P2
Lewis Hamilton	P3
Jenson Button	P4
Fernando Alonso	P5
Felipe Massa	P6
Kimi Räikkönen	P7
Sergio Perez	P8
Pastor Maldonado	P9
Nico Rosberg	P10
Romain Grosjean	P11
Nico Hülkenberg	P12
Bruno Senna	P13
Michael Schumacher	P14
Daniel Ricciardo	P15
Paul di Resta	P16
Kamui Kobayashi	P17
Jean-Éric Vergne	P18
Vitaly Petrov	P19
Heikki Kovalainen	P20
Timo Glock	P21
Pedro de la Rosa	P22
Narain Karthikeyan	P23
Charles Pic	P24

Q1 107% Time 1:32.071