Klien pushes Senna (HRT race review)

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Bruno Senna found Christian Klien a tougher proposition than his previous two team mates, but neither driver finished in Singapore.

Christian KlienBruno Senna
Qualifying position2223
Qualifying time comparison (Q1)1’52.946 (-1.228)1’54.174
Race position
Average race lap2’03.114 (+0.545)2’02.569
Laps31/6129/61
Pit stops11

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Christian Klien

Made an impressive return to F1 in place of the unwell Sakon Yamamoto.

He out-qualified Senna by over a second and the two lapped at a similar pace in the race, Klien usually ahead by a couple of tenths.

A hydraulic failure ended his race.

Despite his performance expect Yamamoto to be back in the car for his home race in two weeks’ time.

Compare Christian Klien’s form against his team mate in 2010

Bruno Senna

Despite several spins in practice and qualifying, Senna showed better pace in the race and was just five seconds behind his team mate at the halfway point.

But he could do nothing to avoid hitting Kamui Kobayashi’s crashed Sauber:

As soon as I came out of the corner and into the braking area the flags came out, but it was too late and there was no way to avoid the accident. The marshals were just too late and I didn’t have any notice of what was going on. It’s just one of those days.
Bruno Senna

Compare Bruno Senna’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 Singapore Grand Prix

    Browse all 2010 Singapore Grand Prix articles

    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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    21 comments on “Klien pushes Senna (HRT race review)”

    1. Watching the accident several times Bruno was really unluckly but also luckly that Sutil and Massa didn’t smashes into him also. I think that would be a redflag because the rumble would sper the road totally.

      1. Turn 18 is a blind turn-in. Completely blind. It’s pretty much the only thing it has going for it; it’s a compeltely pointless corner. I also spotted the red-and-yellow oil flag when the field came around under safety car, so I’m guessing that might have had something to do with Senna’s accident.

        That said, he did overdrive the car all weekend.

    2. Senna was unlucky in the crash, not much he could have done.

      Although his lack of experience showed up in qualifying. I think the pressure of an experienced team-mate got to him a little.

      He is a rookie, and I’m sure he’ll handle it differently next time.

    3. http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=388728&FS=F1

      Klien says the F110 “handles like a rally car”.

      1. “I should probably ask Kimi Raikkonen for advice.

        Heh, not Raikkonen xD

    4. Have to say I was amused to see the margin Klien had over Senna in qualifying. Perhaps the HRT isn’t quite so bad as we thought and it’s Senna being mediocre…

      The above data would seem to indicate he was slower in the race though, maybe not.

      1. Indeed, imagine what that says about Yamamoto and Chandhok as well. Senna had a good reputation in comparison to those two!

      2. Senna lasted longer, giving him the chance to do more laps later in the race when the cars are lighter.

        1. Senna didn’t last longer. He hit into the back of the crashed Sauber and then Klien pulled into the pits whilst the resulting safety car was out and stopped.

          1. D’oh! You are of course right…

            1. Although, when you look at it, it doesn’t make a difference.

              Your point was that Senna’s average race lap was low artificially. Which it is, but for another reason.

              Klien’s last (and extra) lap appears to be counted, but obviously that was really slow because of the SC and an apparent mechanical failure.

              Senna was clearly much closer to Klien in the race than qualifying. I think the pressure got to him during that session.

    5. did senna hit traffic in qualy?

    6. I must say I did feel Senna was pretty bad this weekend as far as blue flags go. He held up countless amounts of drivers from what I saw.

      Also, good on Klien. I think that was a pretty heroic effort given he hasn’t done a qualy session in 4 years.

    7. Does this mean we now know Senna’s measure?, has he been found wanting?

      or does that car need a driver that knows how to slide through gravel instead of being “on-rails”.

      Without the tech data only time will tell.

    8. didn’t Senna block Hamilton for a third of a lap?

    9. Keith, something I notice that could be usefull is comparing drivers lap times (during the race) only for the time that both were on track. What we see in many cases is that if one driver is doing much better than the other and retires, the other will have better lap times due to low fuel laps, that the other wasn’t able to do.

      This chart is another example. In the text you say that Klien was faster than Senna, bue the table above shows that Klien was, on average, +0.5s slower than Senna, because senna retired and Klien ran some laps with the safety car.

      If the statistic took into account only the laps in which both drivers were running, it would be much more significant.

      1. Yeah I’m thinking of removing the average lap data it can be misleading.

    10. Great drive for Klien. Wonder if that one drive will get him a race seat for next year.

    11. Indeed it just goes on to show how low the driving standards at HRT are. Someone at the team please Take out these sponsored aberrations and let De La Rosa and Klien race in the next season.

    12. Do anyone other than me think that Kilen should keep his seat for the remaining of the season, though if will be tough in Japan.

    13. I think Senna’s reputation has been dented slightly with Klein.It’s only his first season, lets hope it gets better.
      Will HRT F1 still be around next year and where would Senna go?
      Ain’t teams and drivers already negotiating?

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