Formula 1 Race Nine: Qualifying

Yes, I'm expanding! I'm no longer just focusing on the World Cup (although of course I will for the next couple of weeks until it has ended), and moving into other sports, such as Formula 1.

Today was the qualifying for the ninth race of the Formula 1 season: the European Grand Prix, in Valencia. It's the second race to take place in Spain.

The top qualifiers were the Red Bulls, with Sebastian Vettel taking his fourth pole position. Along with his team mate Mark Webber, he's the best qualifier of the year – both have an average qualifying position of second place. However, Vettel comes ahead of Webber thanks to never dropping below third in qualifying.

As expected, the worst qualifiers are the six in the new teams. Worst is Indian Karun Chandhok, followed by his team mate Bruno Senna. The final four positions have almost always been shared between these two, DiGrassi and Timo Glock – DiGrassi qualified before his teammate for the first time today. Glock is the only one to have pulled out of the final four positions, once under his own steam and once – in the Malaysian grand prix – thanks to mistakes by some of the top runners, when he got into Q2.

Looking into the race tomorrow, who will win? A lot of F1 depends on qualifying, and the rest – especially in tracks where it's hard to overtake – depends on luck. Well, Webber is the only driver to have always had points. Rosberg, Massa, Kubica, Hamilton, Button and Alonso have each missed out on points only once. Alonso is looking for a home win, while Maclaren are looking for another 1-2 to cement their lead.
At the other end of the table, several drivers have retired in almost all races. Trulli, Senna, Kobayashi, Glock and De La Rosa have each had problems in six races. But it's half way through the season, so cars have been improved.

Will we see points for any of the new teams? Perhaps. They need to work hard to be able to survive and make it into a second year of Formula 1. This sport is far too risky to make winner predictions, but I will say that Algesuari will come around 11th. He's very consistent in his performance, and has never retired.