I’m turning into quite the Formula 1 addict, and I’m taking you down with me!

This weekend I’ve been watching all the practice sessions and today’s qualifying session. The practice sessions weren’t even a tad interesting (maybe I’m not an addict after all), but the qualifying session was far better.

Filipe Massa and Ferrari fucked up real good in the pits during the second part of qualifying. They replaced all four tires on the car, but forgot to refuel. During part one and two of the qualifying session the cars are loaded with as little fuel as possible to reduce they weight. The result of the refueling error was that Massa’s Ferrari ran out of fuel just 20 meters after he left the Ferrari garage and they had to push him back and refuel. By the time they were done, the tires were cold and with limited grip, Massa was unable to make it to the third part of the qualifying session and starts 14th in tomorrow’s race. I laughed. Twice.

Strange things also happened in the pits during the third part of qualifying. After a short pit stop for new tires, Fernando Alsonso got the good-to-go from the lollipop man, but for some reason he just sat there like a zombie for ten seconds. Behind him, Lewis Hamilton queued up to get his own tires replaced, but with Alonso still standing in the pits he had a hard time with just that. When Alonso finally accelerated, Lewis did not have enough time to complete another qualifying lap. The result was that Alonso just managed to get ahead of Lewis and is now starting from P1 tomorrow, while Lewis is start from second place in the grid.

From the TV images, it looks like Alonso is deliberately stalling to slow down Lewis, but during the press conference he said that the team was holding him back to make sure he would not run into traffic during his last qualifying lap. If that is indeed the case, McLaren made a terrible mistake. If it’s not the case, Alonso is a dick. We’ll probably get more details tonight or tomorrow.

This round we also see two new drivers in the grid, Sakon Yamamoto racing for Spyker (replacing Christijan Albers) and Sebastian Vettel racing for Toro Rosso (replacing Scot Speed). Christijan Albers was kicked out of Spyker because he failed to pay his bills, while Scot Speed allegedly had a fist fight with the head of the Toro Rosso team and decided to get another job.