How Raikkonen and Perez missed the cut in Q1

2015 Austrian Grand Prix

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[interactivecharts]Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez were the major victims of a rain-hit start to qualifying in Austria.

Both drivers had to look on as their team mates progress not only into Q2, but went on to qualifying the in the top five of the grid. Why did Raikkonen and Perez fall while Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg and others progressed?

Raikkonen used some characteristically choice words on the radio when told he’d been bumped out of qualifying. He had good reason to be surprised – only the two Manor drivers were slower.

Raikkonen revealed afterwards he was supposed to do three timed laps at the end of the session, but he wasn’t able to get them all in. Vettel was in a similar situation – he only got two quick laps in at the end of Q1, but his were significantly quicker than Raikkonen’s. Vettel’s first lap was half a second quicker than Raikkonen’s second attempt, despite the fact the track was in better shape by then.

But this wasn’t just a case of Raikkonen struggling to get the best out of the car in tricky conditions. Traffic was a factor as well, as Sergio Perez explained:

“I found myself right behind Fernando [Alonso] and I spent the whole lap behind him. I couldn’t get any closer as I would have lost all my downforce, and I had Kimi behind me so I couldn’t drop back.”

“It made it very difficult for me and in the end I was less than a tenth off the time I needed to make Q2.” And who was one-tenth of a second faster and took the last place in Q2? Alonso…

With the track ‘ramping up’ rapidly, offering more grip with every passing minute, the last drivers across the finishing line before the chequered flag appeared were in the best position to take advantage.

Another driver who got the raw end of that deal with Jenson Button. “I was one of the first to cross the finish line in Q1,” he explained, “so everyone had a bit more time to improve while the circuit was drying.”

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Lap times

The graph below shows each driver’s quickest time (in seconds) as each minute passed during Q1.

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Nico Rosberg 81.492 81.492 81.492 81.492 79.039 79.039 79.039 79.039 79.039 76.543 76.543 76.543 71.883 71.883 70.976 70.976
Carlos Sainz Jnr 81.873 80.903 80.903 80.903 79.407 79.407 79.407 79.407 79.407 79.031 79.031 73.59 73.59 71.676 71.676 71.676 71.158
Sebastian Vettel 86.206 86.206 79.218 79.218 79.218 79.218 79.218 79.218 79.218 72.399 72.399 72.399 71.184 71.184
Max Verstappen 81.006 81.006 81.006 79.814 79.814 79.814 78.677 78.677 78.677 78.677 74.332 74.332 74.332 72.86 72.86 71.307 71.307
Nico Hulkenberg 81.352 81.352 81.352 81.352 81.352 81.352 81.352 81.352 73.645 72.558 72.558 71.319 71.319
Pastor Maldonado 87.192 82.161 82.161 82.161 82.161 82.161 77.636 75.385 75.385 74.144 74.144 74.144 72.634 71.661 71.661
Romain Grosjean 84.867 82.487 82.487 82.487 82.438 82.438 82.438 82.438 82.438 78.795 73.64 73.64 71.821 71.821 71.821 71.821
Felipe Massa 77.831 77.831 77.831 77.831 73.354 73.354 73.354 71.83 71.83 71.83
Valtteri Bottas 77.297 77.297 77.297 77.297 77.297 73.675 73.675 71.991 71.894 71.894
Daniel Ricciardo 76.37 76.37 73.66 72.934 71.973 71.973 71.973
Felipe Nasr 80.344 78.099 78.099 75.623 75.623 75.623 75.623 75.623 72.652 72.001 72.001
Daniil Kvyat 82.461 81.612 81.612 81.612 79.404 79.404 79.404 79.404 79.404 79.404 79.404 79.404 77.17 77.17 72.092 72.092
Lewis Hamilton 81.821 81.141 81.141 81.141 80.261 80.261 80.261 80.261 80.261 75.348 73.196 73.196 72.218 72.218 72.218 72.218
Marcus Ericsson 85.883 85.883 85.883 85.883 85.883 85.883 85.883 85.883 85.883 85.883 83.339 74.269 73.054 72.388 72.388 72.388 72.388
Fernando Alonso 84.108 84.108 82.517 82.517 82.517 82.517 82.517 82.517 77.64 75.956 74.86 74.86 74.86 72.508 72.508
Sergio Perez 85.623 85.623 84.984 84.984 84.984 84.091 83.191 83.191 83.191 83.191 83.191 76.388 76.388 76.388 74.007 72.522 72.522
Jenson Button 83.025 83.025 83.025 81.154 81.154 81.154 81.154 75.239 75.239 75.239 73.261 73.261 73.261 72.632 72.632
Kimi Raikkonen 87.791 81.041 81.041 81.041 81.041 81.041 81.041 81.041 81.041 75.411 75.411 75.411 72.867 72.867 72.867
Roberto Merhi 86.334 84.575 84.575 84.298 84.298 84.298 84.298 84.298 84.298 84.298 84.298 84.298 84.298 75.89 74.996 74.996 74.071
Will Stevens 89.508 86.61 86.61 86.61 86.61 86.61 86.61 86.61 86.61 86.61 84.209 84.209 78.972 78.063 76.2 75.368 75.368

Rankings

The graph below shows each driver’s overall position as each minute passed during Q1.

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Nico Rosberg 3 4 5 6 1 2 5 6 8 7 14 17 3 4 1 1
Carlos Sainz Jnr 2 1 1 2 1 4 5 8 9 7 12 3 6 1 1 6 2
Sebastian Vettel 14 15 2 3 6 7 9 13 16 1 6 9 2 3
Max Verstappen 1 2 2 1 2 5 1 4 5 6 1 7 12 8 13 3 4
Nico Hulkenberg 5 9 10 12 13 13 16 18 8 7 10 4 5
Pastor Maldonado 13 7 8 10 11 13 2 2 4 5 11 13 11 5 6
Romain Grosjean 7 6 8 9 11 12 14 14 14 11 4 7 2 2 7 7
Felipe Massa 2 3 5 10 2 5 11 3 8 8
Valtteri Bottas 1 1 4 8 15 10 12 6 9 9
Daniel Ricciardo 6 12 9 9 5 10 10
Felipe Nasr 7 3 4 3 5 10 15 16 12 11 11
Daniil Kvyat 5 5 6 7 3 4 7 8 10 14 17 19 19 20 12 12
Lewis Hamilton 4 3 4 4 6 6 9 10 11 3 1 3 4 7 13 13
Marcus Ericsson 4 9 11 13 14 15 16 18 18 18 18 6 2 5 8 14 14
Fernando Alonso 8 10 10 12 13 15 15 15 9 11 13 14 17 15 15
Sergio Perez 3 8 10 12 13 13 14 16 16 16 17 13 16 18 16 16 16
Jenson Button 7 9 11 8 9 11 12 1 2 8 4 10 15 17 17
Kimi Raikkonen 14 3 3 7 8 10 11 12 15 9 14 15 14 18 18
Roberto Merhi 5 6 9 11 12 14 15 17 17 17 20 20 20 17 18 19 19
Will Stevens 6 10 12 15 16 16 17 19 19 19 19 19 18 20 19 20 20

2015 Austrian Grand Prix

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    Author information

    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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    7 comments on “How Raikkonen and Perez missed the cut in Q1”

    1. Profile Photo

      AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
      20th June 2015, 21:15

      Great analysis. Also interesting to see how close Hamilton got to being knocked out. He was fastest on minute 14, and 13th by minute 18, only about 0.3s faster than Perez.

      1. Profile Photo

        Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
        21st June 2015, 0:09

        @adrianmorse Yep, he came up on Button and lost the last lap. If he was a little slower before that it might have been similarly critical..

    2. Profile Photo

      John H (@john-h)
      20th June 2015, 23:43

      These excuses by the drivers. If you’re not in the right position, then make your own gap and don’t end up behind a McLaren that is also on a hot lap in the first place. This isn’t the team’s fault, the driver should be able to see down the road and adjust accordingly. Just admit you messed it up and get on with the race.

      1. Profile Photo

        Estesark (@estesark)
        21st June 2015, 4:07

        What if the team sends a driver into a gap that turns out not to exist, and there’s no time to drop back and still get a flying lap in? Not always the driver’s fault.

      2. Profile Photo

        David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
        21st June 2015, 7:23

        @john-h And get a penalty for impeding Kimi? Seriously?

    3. Profile Photo

      svianna (@svianna)
      21st June 2015, 1:05

      It can happen to the best drivers and teams, but when you have a sequence of substandard qualifying sessions, especially when your team mate consistently outperforms you MUST concede that Raikonnen’s time in an F1 top team is coming to an end.

      1. Profile Photo

        stjs16 (@stjs16)
        21st June 2015, 8:15

        +1

    Comments are closed.