Buemi sent to the back of the grid

2011 German Grand Prix

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Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, Nurburgring, 2011

Sebastien Buemi will start the German Grand Prix from the back of the grid after his car failed a technical check.

His Toro Rosso fell foul of article 19.8.3 of the technical regulations, which governs the testing of fuel samples.

A statement released by the team said: “During Friday’s FP1, Buemi’s car had a fuel pressure problem, which then got worse at the start of FP2 which is why he did not do a timed lap in that session.

“After FP2 the entire fuel system on his car was changed. When the fuel sample was taken from his car after qualifying, it did not match the one provided to the FIA prior to the start of the season.

“The team believes that some part of the new fuel system contained a chemical that contaminated the fuel and caused the non-conformity.”

Buemi had originally qualified 16th. See here for the revised grid: 2011 German Grand Prix grid

2011 German Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    19 comments on “Buemi sent to the back of the grid”

    1. Maybe a bit of rain, not enough to start on wets and work on the cars, just enough to get Buemi leading like Winkelhock did after lap 2 or so!

      1. That will be epic.

    2. So in terms of qualifying battle, does this +1 Algusuari? Buemi qualified ahead of Jaime but is now at the back of the grid, although he keeps his time?

      1. no i think it still remains +1 buemi.

    3. If this were Lewis Hamilton getting the penalty, the blog would come alive with people claiming that the penalty is unfair because Hamilton needed a new fuel system, and how were his engineers to know that the new system was contaminated enough to alter the fuel sample? But because it’s Buemi, nobody cares too much.

      1. The Swiss guard were seen leaving Vatican city, en route to an industrial area of Modena just after the news broke.

      2. Myles Woerner
        24th July 2011, 5:11

        I think people would be complaining if Buemi had qualified on pole or on the front row. If Hamilton had qualified 15th, and then been demoted, I’m sure people wouldn’t care quite as much either. And why does everything always have to come back to Hamilton? The guy can’t get a break. Take a chill pill, PM

        1. Agree with both. If it was Hamilton it would have been ‘look like everything is against him, no luck once again’.

          There would have been more fuss, but given he was 15th and 6 of teh cars below him are 1 second minimum slower in quali pace, it’s not the end of the world. Really he has lost a small amount of time due to getting past slow cars and then lost out to his teammate and Kobayashi.

          If it was anyone fighting for a win, let there be thunder!

      3. No wonder that “technical problems” caused the article about top-rated races on F1 Fanatic to go down. It was nothing to do with Button and Hamilton winning all those top-rated races ;)

        1. If you’re accusing me of taking the article down and lying to everyone about it that is both wrong and insulting.

          Not only did I make it entirely clear what had happened with the article, I restored it as soon as possible, put it back in the top bar on the homepage, and drew attention to the restored article both on Twitter and in the daily round-up – all so as many people as possible could see it had been fixed.

          As you seem to have such a low opinion of me I encourage you to go away and read some other website.

      4. I think you’ll find that there are considerably more Hamilton fans than Buemi fans. Mclaren is much bigger and successful that Torro Rosso as well, but feel free to lead the out-cry.

    4. It should be interesting to see what Buemi is capable of doing starting dead last.

    5. So even though his car failed technical checks, he qualifies anyway? I wonder what would happen if HRT ran in illegal car in qualy and scraped inside 107% by a tenth or so. (Not suggesting that Buemi should be removed, just wondering how the judgement is made on this)

      1. Geordie Porker
        24th July 2011, 10:49

        An interesting question…I would imagine there is some detailed information about the mismatch which the stewards take into account when making their judgement(?).

        If the car had been aerodynamically illegal (for example) then surely it would have been DQd (see Sauber in Aus, but I accept that was during the race, not Quali).

        I can therefore only assume that the chemicals found can be demonstrated to have been human error and not “performance enhancing.”

        Anyone got any further thoughts or details?

      2. If HRT had an irregular car for Friday and Saturday they wouldn’t be allowed to race.

    6. To the best of my memory I’m unaware of a driver being “sent to the back”, I’m more familiar with a driver being docked 5,10, 15 (cumulative) places which takes him to the back by default. When was the last time this happened anyone?

      1. He hasn’t been “sent to the back”, he’s had his time(s) deleted, which puts him in the same position as a driver who doesn’t set a time at all in qualifying – ie. at the back of the grid. Obviously he’s been allowed through the 107% rule as the car is clearly fast enough with or without corrupted fuel.

      2. I think it happened to Heidfeld at Singapore once.

      3. HounslowBusGarage
        24th July 2011, 10:32

        Isn’t that what happened to Schu at Monaco? (The ‘parking’ incident, 2006)

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