Qualifying continues, without Zhang Guan, the battle for the pole position seems to be in suspense again, and the drivers on the track are also working harder, they all hope to obtain the pole position.
The Force China team has not given up hope. Although Zhang Guan has retired, they still have Barrichello. Barrichello was also a strong player at the time and could continue to compete in the cruel sport of Formula One. Fighting for 16 years is enough to show that he has the ability of a first-class driver, and his experience is more suitable than other drivers can match. He also has double-digit qualifying pole positions and seven race wins in his career, so no one would be surprised if Barrichello wins the pole position.
At this time, Barrichello also understood the team's current situation, so he increased his horsepower, hoping to regain the pole position for the team.
The veteran powerhouse Ferrari returned to the garage early. Although their car has canceled the kinetic energy recovery system, they still have no hope of competing for the pole position. For Ferrari, it has lost its meaning to continue to appear in the third qualifying session. It is not as good as Go back to the garage early to adjust the car.
Barrichello failed to create a miracle in the end. He lost to Red Bull Racing's Webber by 0.03 seconds. Red Bull's car is indeed very suitable for running on such a comprehensive track, and Webber is temporarily in the first place.
The countdown to the third quarter of the race has ended, and there are still cars on the track that are still making their final sprint. Now it can be said that "one lap determines the outcome."
"Am I first now?" Webber asked the team over the radio.
"Yes. You are in first place temporarily, but there are several cars behind you completing the final timed laps."
"Including Vettel?" Webber then asked.
"Yes," the team replied.
Webber said nothing. He felt that if there was anyone on the track who could be faster than him, it would be his teammate Vettel. Both of them are driving the same car, and in terms of driving skills, the future four-time champion Vettel is obviously better than Webber.
The next moment, the team's prompt came from Webber's headset: "I'm going to tell you some bad news. Someone is faster than you. You have been passed. You are now in second place."
"Is it Vettel?" Webber asked immediately.
"No, it's Alonso!" the team replied.
"Alonso? Renault is suddenly so fast." There was a hint of surprise in Webber's voice.
…
The Renault team a few years ago was also a giant in Formula One. They once competed with Ferrari in the Schumacher era. Alonso drove that blue Renault racing car and attacked the car king Schumacher for two consecutive years, shattering Schumacher's dream of the eighth championship twice in a row, while Alonso won two consecutive championships and became The only driver who can beat Schumacher head-on.
In recent years, Renault's cars have become increasingly weak and they have withdrawn from the ranks of the top teams. But Alonso is someone who can beat Schumacher after all. Even if he is driving a broken car, he can often achieve good results.
In the Chinese race, Alonso's car canceled the kinetic energy recovery system and installed a double-layer diffuser with a transition plate. This double-layer diffuser was airlifted from Europe overnight after the International Automobile Racing Association announced compliance. of. In the previous practice, Alonso's car did not perform well, which also made many people think that Renault's double-layer diffuser was a failed product.
But now it seems that the result is exactly the opposite. Alonso surpassed Webber and ascended to the first place with a time of 1 minute, 36 seconds and 381 seconds. Although Renault's car does not have the best speed, Alonso's technology makes up for many shortcomings in speed.
However, behind Alonso, there is another person who also has the world's top skills, and that is the future four-time champion Vettel. And Vettel also has a faster car.
Just a few seconds after Alonso ran the fastest lap, Vettel also crossed the finish line, with a time of 1:36.184, 0.2 seconds faster than Alonso. Of course, Vettel refused to let him take it. Reached the pole position for this station.
The top three starters are Red Bull Racing's Vettel, Renault Racing's Alonso and Red Bull Racing's Webber. It is worth mentioning that these three teams all use Renault engines. Obviously Renault's engines are very suitable for this. A track. Barrichello was fourth, followed by Toyota's Trulli and Williams' Rosberg.
As for Zhang Guan, although the result given by the race meeting is 10th, everyone knows that Zhang Guan will definitely start at the last place tomorrow.
…
Qualifying has ended, and in the entire maintenance area, only the Force China team's garage is still busy. They need to change the engine of Zhang Guan's car, and this work is the same as reassembling the car. After replacing the engine, the car still needs to be debugged. Of course, this debugging can only be done in the garage and not on the road.
According to the rules of the competition, other cars have been sealed. If you want to debug or replace parts at this time, you will have to bear the penalty of starting backward. Formula One has very clear penalties for this type of punishment. For example, if you want to change the transmission, you have to move backward. Starting from five places, you have to start ten places back to change the engine, start from the pit area when debugging the car, etc.
Zhang Guan was already the last one on the grid, so even if he got a new car, he would still be the last one on the grid. The team also simply replaced all the spare parts with a new set.
In the back office, Zhang Guan and Ross Brown were discussing tomorrow's strategy.
"The preliminary cause of the engine explosion has been found out, and it was caused by excessive temperature. We looked at the data from the practice session and found that your engine had an engine temperature that was too high during practice, but at that time The temperature dropped quickly, so I didn’t pay much attention to it, but it turned out to be a big mistake.” Ross Brown said.
"This engine actually doesn't have much mileage. We finished the Australian Grand Prix, but only ran half of the Malaysian Grand Prix, so it shouldn't cause problems now." The team's technical director Zander continued: "According to our The original strategy was to change the engine after the China Grand Prix, but some other teams even planned to use the first engine to finish the Bahrain Grand Prix.”
Zander took out a report and continued: "I compared Zhang Guan's engine temperature data in previous races, and made a horizontal comparison with the engine that Barry switched, and then compared the data of the previous four test engines. , judging from the data, the data of the engine that exploded was slightly abnormal, so our technical team initially determined that the cause of the engine explosion was defective quality of the engine, and this should be an isolated case."
Ross Brown nodded: "Send the relevant data to Mercedes-Benz. They may be more eager to know the reason than we are."
After Ross Brown finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Guan, and then said: "Tomorrow, you will start last, and we will have to use a one-stop heavy fuel strategy when driving."
Zhang Guan thought for a while, but shook his head. He said, "Fill up the gas for me!"
Chapter 14 has been delivered, please give me a guaranteed monthly ticket!
(End of chapter)