2011 European Grand Prix

Spain  2011 European Grand Prix
Race details
Race 8 of 19 in the 2011 Formula One season

The Valencia Street Circuit
Date 26 June 2011
Official name LV Grand Prix of Europe
Location Valencia Street Circuit, Valencia, Spain
Course Temporary street circuit
5.419 km (3.367 mi)
Distance 57 laps, 308.883 km (191.931 mi)
Weather Clear, Fine and Dry[1][2]

Air Temp 27 °C (81 °F)[2]
Track Temp 47 °C (117 °F)[2]

Pole position
Driver Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Time 1:36.975
Fastest lap
Driver Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Time 1:41.852 on lap 53
Podium
First Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Second Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari
Third Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault

The 2011 European Grand Prix (formally the LV Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race held on 26 June 2011 at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. The race, which was the eighth round of the 2011 Formula One season, was won by defending world drivers' champion and championship leader Sebastian Vettel, who was driving a Red Bull car. Vettel, who started from pole position, also recorded the fastest lap of the race on lap 53, giving him a hat-trick.[3] After a race-long battle, Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso and Vettel's teammate Mark Webber finished the race in second and third respectively. The race was notable for having the fewest retirements and the most finishers ever in a Formula One Grand Prix.

As a consequence of the race, Vettel extended his lead in the Drivers' championship standings to 77 points over Jenson Button and Webber. By finishing first and third, Red Bull extended their Constructors' championship standings lead to 89 points over nearest rivals McLaren.

Report

Background

In the week leading up to the Spanish Grand Prix, FIA race director Charlie Whiting announced that the Canadian Grand Prix would see the introduction of a secondary Drag Reduction System (DRS) activation zone.[4] The plan for a secondary DRS zone would be continued at the European Grand Prix, with the first zone incorporating the long back straight on the approach to Turn 12, and the second zone using the stretch from Turns 14 to 17. Future use of a second DRS zone will depend on its success in Montreal and Valencia.

The FIA originally announced a ban on the off-throttle blown diffuser concept to be introduced at the British Grand Prix.[5] While the planned date for the ban was kept in effect, extra limitations were introduced for the race in Valencia.[6] This ban prohibits teams from running "extreme" engine maps in qualifying before reverting to a "safer" map for the race. The ban effectively means that teams are forced to run the same engine maps in both qualifying and the race.

The European Grand Prix also marked the race debut of Formula One tyre supplier Pirelli's medium-specification tyre compound.[7] The medium compound tyre was selected as the white-banded harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound as the softer "option" compound.[8]

This race was scheduled to be the last where off-throttle blown-diffusers were used; however the ban did not continue after the British Grand Prix and proved to be temporary. In Germany all the teams returned to use what was commonly referred to as Valencia specification, or Valencia-spec diffusers. The concept was eventually banned for 2012.

In Canada, Sebastian Vettel had lengthened his Drivers' Championship lead to 60 points. He had 161 points, and nearest title contenders Jenson Button, winner of the last Grand Prix, Red Bull teammate Mark Webber and the second McLaren of Lewis Hamilton had 101, 94 and 85 respectively in second, third and fourth positions. Fernando Alonso's Ferrari had crashed out in Montreal, likewise Hamilton, and stayed on 69 points in fifth. Red Bull led the Constructors' table with 255 points, McLaren were in second with 186 and Ferrari were in third with 101. Renault were fourth with 60 and Mercedes were fifth with 52.

Practice

In the first free practice session, Mark Webber was the fastest car on track by eight tenths of a second ahead of Renault's Vitaly Petrov, Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton for McLaren made it four different cars in the top four. Nick Heidfeld, in the second Renault, completed the top five, ahead of Felipe Massa and Jenson Button. Championship leader Sebastian Vettel was down in sixteenth place, two and half seconds off the pace of Webber. Karun Chandhok, who filled in for Jarno Trulli at Lotus was the only of the 24 drivers not to set a time. Nico Hülkenberg filled in for Paul di Resta at Force India and Daniel Ricciardo took Narain Karthikeyan's seat at HRT.

Alonso was the fastest man in the second session, once again narrowly followed by Hamilton. Vettel had moved himself up into third for this session, and fellow German, Michael Schumacher, was fourth. The remaining Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and the two Renaults completed the top ten places. Jaime Alguersuari was the only driver not to set a time in the session. Trulli, di Resta and Karthikeyan all returned to their seats for the session. In the sole Saturday session, Vettel set the quickest time ahead of Alonso, Massa, Webber, Button, Nico Rosberg, Hamilton, Schumacher, Petrov and then Heidfeld.

Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel took his seventh pole position from eight races in 2011, closely followed by Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber, who completed the front row. The second and third fastest qualifying teams followed – the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton (third) and Jenson Button (sixth) split by the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso ahead of teammate Felipe Massa. The Mercedes cars were seventh and eighth with Nico Rosberg in front of Michael Schumacher. After that, the Renaults and Force Indias fought to make the top 10 – one of each going through – they were followed by a similar battle between the Saubers and Williams cars. Sébastien Buemi was the one Toro Rosso in Q2, ending up seventeenth, with teammate Jaime Alguersuari eighteenth. The back three rows on the grid were filled up by the new teams – Narain Karthikeyan qualifying last and almost a second behind Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Race

The race was very hot, the average temperature around 47 °C (117 °F).

At the start Sebastian Vettel led easily from pole, with team mate Mark Webber behind. Felipe Massa had a good start from fifth, driving straight between and past Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at Turn 1; but because Massa looked down the outside of Webber at Turn 2, Alonso could cleverly get back in front of Massa on the inside of Turn 3. Bad starts from the McLarens meant Hamilton dropped from third to fifth, and Jenson Button dropped from sixth to seventh – behind Nico Rosberg. Button later retook sixth place from Rosberg a few laps later into Turn 2. Before the pit stops the order was now Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Massa, Hamilton, Button, Rosberg, Schumacher (the four fastest cars in the top eight spots).

It seemed like the Ferraris had made great improvements since Canada because their pace was at least equal to the McLarens, and significantly faster at some stages of the race. The McLarens had quiet races, Button stuck in sixth, while Hamilton used the undercut to get past Massa in the pit stops for fourth, where he would finish the race.

Fernando Alonso engaged in a race long battle with Mark Webber for second while Vettel stormed away into the distance. Early on in the race Alonso overtook Webber in the first DRS zone, on the inside of Turn 12. However, in the pit stops, great Red Bull strategy got Webber back in front. Ferrari later used the pit stops to get Alonso back in front of Webber. A radio message to Webber, telling him to go slower due to gearbox troubles ensured Alonso's second place.

Michael Schumacher finished a disappointing 17th after a misjudgement from him, when he exited the pits, where he ploughed his front wing into the side of Vitaly Petrov's Renault. This meant he had to pit again the following lap demoting him to 17th, where he stayed on a circuit notoriously difficult to overtake on. Although, Schumacher admitted after the race that seventh and eighth was the maximum for the two Mercedes cars. Sergio Pérez did a respectable job of preserving his tyres so he only had to pit once, he finished eleventh after starting in sixteenth. His Sauber teammate, Kamui Kobayashi, finished in sixteenth place, the first time in 2011 he did not finish in the top ten. For the second race in a row Jaime Alguersuari justified his position in Toro Rosso by finishing eighth. He did this, even though he started eighteenth. Another driver on a good race was Mark Webber, calling it his "best race this year". Yet, he was still beaten by his teammate Vettel, who took his sixth victory from eight races.

Post-race

After the race both McLaren drivers told the media that there was work to be done, particularly improvements in the aerodynamics of their car.[9][10]

The European Grand Prix had the most classified finishers (24) beating the record set in the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix. The Grand Prix is notable as it was only the fourth World Championship Grand Prix where there were no retirements, the others being the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix (fifteen starters), the 2005 United States Grand Prix (six starters) and the 2005 Italian Grand Prix (twenty starters).

The track was criticised by former Formula One driver Martin Brundle after the race, claiming its nature makes it difficult for drivers to overtake making the race boring.[11] Former Formula One commentator Murray Walker claimed "the race was the least eventful race of an action packed season".[12]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos No Driver Constructor Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Grid
1 1 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:39.116 1:37.305 1:36.975 1
2 2 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:39.956 1:38.058 1:37.163 2
3 3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:39.244 1:37.727 1:37.380 3
4 5 Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:39.725 1:37.930 1:37.454 4
5 6 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:38.413 1:38.566 1:37.535 5
6 4 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:39.453 1:37.749 1:37.645 6
7 8 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:39.266 1:38.373 1:38.231 7
8 7 Germany Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:39.198 1:38.365 1:38.240 8
9 9 Germany Nick Heidfeld Renault 1:39.877 1:38.781 no time 9
10 14 Germany Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:39.329 1:39.034 no time 10
11 10 Russia Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:39.690 1:39.068 11
12 15 United Kingdom Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:39.852 1:39.422 12
13 11 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:39.602 1:39.489 13
14 16 Japan Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:40.131 1:39.525 14
15 12 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1:39.690 1:39.645 15
16 17 Mexico Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:39.494 1:39.657 16
17 18 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:39.679 1:39.711 17
18 19 Spain Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:40.232 18
19 20 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1:41.664 19
20 21 Italy Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1:42.234 20
21 24 Germany Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:42.553 21
22 23 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1:43.584 22
23 25 Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:43.735 23
24 22 India Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:44.363 24
107% time: 1:45.301

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 1 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 57 1:39:36.169 1 25
2 5 Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 57 +10.891 4 18
3 2 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 57 +27.255 2 15
4 3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 57 +46.190 3 12
5 6 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 57 +51.705 5 10
6 4 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 57 +1:00.065 6 8
7 8 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 57 +1:38.090 7 6
8 19 Spain Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 56 +1 Lap 18 4
9 14 Germany Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 56 +1 Lap 10 2
10 9 Germany Nick Heidfeld Renault 56 +1 Lap 9 1
11 17 Mexico Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 56 +1 Lap 16
12 11 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 56 +1 Lap 13
13 18 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 56 +1 Lap 17
14 15 United Kingdom Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 56 +1 Lap 12
15 10 Russia Vitaly Petrov Renault 56 +1 Lap 11
16 16 Japan Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 56 +1 Lap 14
17 7 Germany Michael Schumacher Mercedes 56 +1 Lap 8
18 12 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 56 +1 Lap 15
19 20 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 55 +2 Laps 19
20 21 Italy Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 55 +2 Laps 20
21 24 Germany Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 55 +2 Laps 21
22 25 Belgium Jérôme d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 55 +2 Laps 23
23 23 Italy Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 54 +3 Laps 22
24 22 India Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 54 +3 Laps 24

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos. Driver Points
1 Germany Sebastian Vettel 186
2 United Kingdom Jenson Button 109
3 Australia Mark Webber 109
4 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton 97
5 Spain Fernando Alonso 87

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos. Constructor Points
1 Austria Red Bull-Renault 295
2 United Kingdom McLaren-Mercedes 206
3 Italy Ferrari 129
4 United Kingdom Renault 61
5 Germany Mercedes 58

References

  1. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "2011 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE (Race)". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 26 June 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  2. Holt, Sarah (26 June 2011). "Sebastian Vettel beats Fernando Alonso in European GP". BBC Sport (BBC). Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  3. Straw, Edd (20 May 2011). "Double DRS zone from Canadian GP". Autosport (Haymaret Publications). Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  4. Scarborough, Craig (19 May 2011). "FIA: Ban on Aggressive off-throttle Engine maps". Scarbsf1 (Craig Scarborough). Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  5. Noble, Jonathan (21 June 2011). "FIA in new engine mapping clampdown". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  6. Elizalde, Pablo (21 June 2011). "Valencia race debut for medium tyres". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 22 June 2011.
  7. "Pirelli announce tyre choices for remaining races". Formula1.com (Formula One Group). 7 October 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
  8. "Lewis Hamilton plans to fight for Formula 1 title". BBC Sport (BBC). 27 June 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2011. Aerodynamically I think we need an improvement for Silverstone because we're not moving forward and that's what we need to be concentrating on.
  9. "Fernando Alonso concedes defeat in Formula 1 title race". BBC Sport (BBC). 27 June 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2011. We need some really good upgrades. We need to get our heads down and come up with something – particularly aerodynamically, I think. We need to get our heads down and come up with something – particularly aerodynamically, I think. We need to take some risks.
  10. Brundle, Martin (27 June 2011). "Martin Brundle on the European Grand Prix". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  11. Walker, Murray (29 June 2011). "Murray Walker's F1 season review part two". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 26 September 2011.

External links

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