Formula One 2012

[Lineker]

Today promises to be a cracking race. Hoping that Alonso can keep the title race alive until Interlagos next week.

Sebastian Vettel converted his domination of United States Grand Prix practice into the anticipated pole position at Austin, as his title rival Fernando Alonso struggled to ninth.

In a Q3 battle that saw everyone hammer round on long runs trying to bring their tyres to life, Vettel put in a 1m35.877s with two minutes to spare.

He nearly got a surprise from Lewis Hamilton, who closed to within 0.051 seconds of the Red Bull, which was now cruising.

Vettel started another flying lap and dug deeper still, crossing the line at 1m35.657s.

Hamilton was still setting very competitive sector times on his last attempt, but ultimately ended up a tenth short.

The McLaren driver still prevented an all-Red Bull front row, forcing Mark Webber back to third.

Lotus showed very strong form in fourth and fifth with Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen, although the former will drop back five places due to a gearbox change penalty.

That will elevate Michael Schumacher into the top five. Just as his Formula 1 career appeared to be limping to a depressing second end, the seven-time champion showed great form throughout Austin qualifying to go sixth quickest, although he may yet face censure for blocking Alonso in Q2.

Alonso struggled mightily to make his Ferrari's tyres work in Q3, weaving frantically between flying laps.

His team-mate Felipe Massa managed better and took seventh, with Alonso back in ninth between the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Williams of Pastor Maldonado.

Hamilton was the only McLaren in the top 10 shoot-out. An apparent throttle problem left Jenson Button crawling back to the pits in Q2, and he was pushed down to 12th.

Jean-Eric Vergne's 14th place marked his best qualifying result since the Spanish GP in May. The Frenchman has been eliminated in Q1 eight times this year - but at Austin it was his Toro Rosso team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who fell early.

Q3 remained elusive for Bruno Senna and Paul di Resta, who were 11th and 13th as their respective team-mates Maldonado and Hulkenberg made it to the final segment.

Sauber had been among the teams most concerned about tyre warm-up issues on Friday, and the problems did not relent in qualifying. Sergio Perez - in front of a large Mexican spectator contingent - and Kamui Kobayashi were a long way off the pace in 15th and 16th.

Nico Rosberg was a full 1.4s slower than Mercedes team-mate Schumacher in Q2, and that resulted in 17th position.

Marussia ended Q1 in jubilant mood after beating Caterham in emphatic fashion. Both Timo Glock and Charles Pic outpaced the green cars, with Caterham's lead runner Vitaly Petrov 0.8s off Glock's time.

Despite its troubled start to the weekend, and Narain Karthikeyan parking at Turn 2 with a mechanical problem, HRT got both cars within the 107 per cent qualifying margin with several tenths to spare.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time          Gap   

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m35.657s

 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m35.766s   + 0.109

 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m36.174s   + 0.517

 4.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m36.587s   + 0.930

 5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m36.708s   + 1.051

 6.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m36.794s   + 1.137

 7.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m36.937s   + 1.280

 8.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m37.141s   + 1.484

 9.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m37.300s   + 1.643

10.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m37.842s   + 2.185

Q2 cut-off time: 1m37.404s                                   Gap **

11.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m37.604s   + 1.808

12.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m37.616s   + 1.820

13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m37.665s   + 1.869

14.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m37.879s   + 2.083

15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.206s   + 2.410

16.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m38.437s   + 2.641

17.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m38.501s   + 2.705

Q1 cut-off time: 1m38.862s                                  Gap *

18.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m39.114s   + 2.556

19.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m40.056s   + 3.498

20.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m40.664s   + 4.106

21.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m40.809s   + 4.251

22.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m41.166s   + 4.608

23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m42.011s   + 5.453

24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m42.740s   + 6.182


107% time: 1m43.317s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2[/code]


Ferrari is considering replacing the gearbox in Felipe Massa's car before the start of the United States Grand Prix.


The Brazilian is set to line-up sixth on the grid at Austin, two places ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso, but his engineers are understood to be concerned about the state of his gearbox.


A Ferrari spokesman confirmed that the Italian outfit was looking closely at the matter, but said that no final decision had been made.


"We are evaluating the situation right now," the spokesman said.


A penalty for Massa would lead to a five-place grid penalty and drop him down to 11th of the grid.


However, the move would prove to be a bonus for Alonso, who would move up one place to seventh - which is crucially on to the cleaner side of the grid.


Massa, who would also move to the cleaner side of the grid, had warned on Saturday night that those drivers starting on the dirty side would be at a big disadvantage.


"I think it will be the biggest difference you ever saw at a start," said Massa. "It will be massive. This morning I did the start on the left, and I was slower than in the wet."


Lewis Hamilton has urged race officials to clean the grid for the United States Grand Prix over fears that those starting on the dirty side of the track will be hugely disadvantaged.


Hamilton was pole position man Sebastian Vettel's nearest challenge in qualifying at Austin, but him missing out on the top spot means he will start from the lesser-used left-hand-side of the grid.


A number of drivers had already expressed big concerns about how bad the grip levels would be on the new track, with some suggesting they could lose as many as four places on acceleration alone.


It is for this reason that Hamilton believes as much as possible should be done to ensure parity for the drivers who have qualified at the rear of each row.


Speaking about a practice start he did from the dirty side of the grid on Saturday morning, Hamilton said: "It wasn't very good. It was really poor; I barely went anywhere when I let the clutch out.


"That is why I am saying they need to clean the inside because it is just as slippery as when we started driving yesterday.


"While the track is bedding-in now and getting much, much better, that part is untouched, so it is going to be very much the same as the pitlane, which has no grip at all.


"I don't know what they have got to do. But at least clean it."


Although Hamilton is convinced there is a disparity between the two sides of the grid, McLaren team-mate Jenson Button did a practice start from the right side of the start-finish line and is not as convinced.


"I am the only car who has done a start on the clean side of the grid and that wasn't good either. There is just such low grip," he said.


"On the straights we are not putting rubber down. We might be cleaning the circuit but there is no rubber down, so it is very, very slippery. And the slippiest part of the circuit is the pitlane.


"You come out of the pitlane and in qualifying it is the first time we have run with 100kph limit, and you would say 100kph is too fast for the pitlane. There is just no grip and it is the same for the start.


"I don't think one side of the grid is going to have a better start than the other. The dirty side has had a lot of rubber put down from all the practice starts that were done this morning."

[Starvinho]

Time does the race start, 6pm?

[Adam]

And Ferrari have broken the seal on Massa's gearbox purely to promote Alonso to the clean side of the track. Basically just cheating.

Really hope Vettel wipes the floor today, winning the title.

[Lineker]

Ted is reporting on Sky Sports F1 right now saying that no seals have yet been broken.

And it's not cheating, it's tactical.

[Katsuya]

And Ferrari have broken the seal on Massa's gearbox purely to promote Alonso to the clean side of the track. Basically just cheating.

Really hope Vettel wipes the floor today, winning the title.

I was sure they'd do that.

[Adam]

Ted is reporting on Sky Sports F1 right now saying that no seals have yet been broken.

And it's not cheating, it's tactical.

Tactical cheating.

[Katsuya]

How is it cheating? Unsportsmanlike, yes, but it's not cheating. If it were cheating the FIA wouldn't let them do it.

Besides, Red Bull can negate it by changing Webber's gearbox.

[Lineker]

Correct Kats. No rules are technically being broken.

[Lineker]

Ferrari confirm the five-place grid penalty.

[Katsuya]

It's only benefitting him in theory, anyway. He still has to negotiate Grosjean, let's face it. It also massively hampers them in the Constructors.

[Adam]

Fair enough, cheating is the wrong word.

I disagree with the lack of integrity surrounding it. I don't like team orders as it is and this is just pre-emptive team orders. If Alonso is truly the best then he can claw back the points from lower down the grid, and on the dirty side.

[Lineker]

The dirty side is stupidly dirty though, some are saying that drivers can expect to lose up to four places off the grid, if they're unlucky enough.

Team orders are just part of the parcel of the sport in today's day and age. It isn't another Austria '02.

[Gazz]

It's only benefitting him in theory, anyway. He still has to negotiate Grosjean, let's face it. It also massively hampers them in the Constructors.

Not particuarly, if what they say is right and that the odd side of the grid is worth 2 places at the start, Massa starting from 6th would end up 8th and Massa starting from 11th could end up 9th.

And then Hamilton/Grosjean/both dicks into the back of someone and bingo, he's back where he started.

[Lineker]

Confirmation:

Felipe Massa has been given a five-place grid penalty for the United States Grand Prix after the team elected to make a tactical breakage of a gearbox seal.

The Brazilian was set to line up sixth on the grid, two places ahead of his team-mate Fernando Alonso, for the first race at Austin.

Their positions meant they would be starting on the dirty side of the grid - which looks like being a huge disadvantage because of the slippery nature of the track off line.

However, after fevered speculation about the possibility during race morning, Ferrari has now confirmed that it has opened the gearbox on Massa's car. Although officially deemed a 'gearbox change', the team has not actually replaced the unit, merely broken the mandatory seal.

A statement issued by the FIA confirmed that the penalty was imposed for a gearbox seal being broken.

"The Ferrari team has broken one seal on the gearbox of car #06, driver Felipe Massa. The seal was applied on the RHS cross shaft cover.

"According to article 28.6e of the 2012 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations this is deemed as a gearbox replacement and this replacement took place before the end of five consecutive events.

"As this is not in compliance with Article 28.6 of the 2012 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, the driver should drop five places on the starting grid at this event and I am referring the matter to the stewards for their considerations."

The stewards later confirmed that Massa would drop five places.

The result moves Massa down to 11th, while Alonso moves up to seventh spot - crucially on the clean side of the track.

The Spaniard is trying to reduce a 10-point championship deficit to polesitter Sebastian Vettel with just two races remaining.

Ferrari says Felipe Massa fully backs its decision to deliberately give him a gearbox penalty for the United States Grand Prix in order to boost his team-mate Fernando Alonso's Formula 1 championship hopes.

Massa falls from sixth on the grid to 11th as a result of the move, while Alonso is elevated from eighth to seventh.

A statement from Ferrari expressed the team's gratitude to Massa, and emphasised that the Brazilian was in total agreement.

"It was a decision agreed by both drivers," said the statement. "We've always maintained that the interests of the team come before that of the individual drivers and this has always been our very transparent policy.

"Felipe has fully comprehended the reasons behind this decision and so he's once again proven his total dedication to the team - something for which we would publicly like to express our gratitude."

The statement also underlined that the primary consideration was not elevating Alonso by a position, but to ensure the world title aspirant was on the clean side of the grid.

Drivers fear the 'even' side at Austin will be significantly dirtier and hamper the starts of all those on that side.

"The reason for this [penalty] was for strategy considerations, with the objective of maximising Alonso's start potential given that he's still in with a chance to win the drivers' championship," it said.

"We saw yesterday that starting from the dirty side of the track would have been penalising: there was a significant risk of finding ourselves too far behind the leaders at the end of the first lap."

Rich/Kats/Adam etc, seeing as this is a possible title decider that we're all watching, maybe we should all jump into the IRC room?

[Adam]

I would if I had a way of adequately following this. BBC's text feed is always a bit behind and I can't watch it live with the NFL on.

[Lineker]

....so fuck the NFL?

[Adam]

But my team is winning! Today is not a day to say fuck the NFL!

Fuck it, I'll watch the F1.

[Lineker]

Crofty made the comment during one of the practice sessions but I'll repeat it - this helicopter pilot is fantastic. Great shots!

[Lineker]

Yet another KERS failure for Webber, and this time it's terminal.

[Lineker]

Lewis takes the lead.