Grosjean penalised
One thing has already been decided ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Romain Grosjean will start last in his Lotus. The Frenchman, fourth here a year ago, was given the penalty for exceeding his allocation of power-unit components for the season; he is using a sixth Renault engine this weekend. Teams are prohibited from using more than five engines during a season. With only 20 cars racing this weekend, in the unlikely event Grosjean set the fastest time he would still be demoted to the back of the grid. He faces further penalties in the race, however, due to it being unlikely he will be able to drop the full 20 places; his average qualifying place this year is 14th. If he owes one to five grid places after qualifying is over he will have five seconds added to his race time. If it is six to 10 places, it will be a 10-second penalty, and if he owes more than 11 places he will face a drive-through pit-lane penalty during the race.
Lynn wins GP3 title
British driver Alex Lynn won the GP3 title on Friday as his only championship rival, compatriot Alex Stoneman, failed to get pole position for Saturday’s feature race. Stoneman needed the four bonus points for best time to keep alive his hopes of catching Lynn, but he was second quickest in his Koiranen GP car, almost half-a-second slower than German Marvin Kirchhofer. Lynn will start fourth for today’s 14-lap race, which begins at 12.05pm.
Vandoorne on pole
Stoffel Vandoorne, the reserve driver for McLaren-Mercedes, will start Saturday’s GP2 race from pole position. The Belgian led qualifying with a time of one minute, 48.088 seconds in his ART car. Jolyon Palmer, who was crowned champion last month in Russia, was second. The Briton starts on the front row for the feature race, which will run over 31 laps, and begins at 6.40pm.
Pirelli stocking up
Paul Hembery, the motorsport director of Pirelli, is forecasting a variety of strategies in Sunday’s F1 race. The supersoft and soft tyres have been brought by the Italian tyre supplier to Yas Marina Circuit for the race, with each driver having to use both compounds in the 55-lap event. “Wear and degradation is low on the soft tyre, which we expect to be the main race tyre,” Hembery said. “With a gap of just over a second between the two compounds, we think that the supersoft will be the best choice for qualifying, but this time difference leaves plenty of strategy options open.”
Horner backs Ecclestone
Christian Horner, the Red Bull Racing team principal, came to the defence of Bernie Ecclestone on Friday for his comments on Formula One’s target audience, albeit in a roundabout way. Ecclestone, the chief executive of the Formula One Group, caused a surprise last week when he said he was not interested in targeting a young audience for the sport. Ecclestone, 84, had said he was more interested in people who were interested in products coming from F1 sponsors. “I’d rather get to the 70-year-old guy who’s got plenty of cash,” he had said. “So, there’s no point trying to reach these kids because they won’t buy any of the products here.” On Friday, Horner quipped: “What you have to remember is that when you are 84 a 70-year-old is still pretty young.”
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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