Ritter v4.0

Must be good to be JB (in general and) at this race. Championship sewn up, just go out drive fast and have fun.

DanR

just watched practice and the track looks fantastic!

multi21

Kovalainen leads McLaren 1-2 on Friday
30 October 2009 / Results / Photos


Heikki Kovalainen moved ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton to lead a one-two result for the McLaren team in Abu Dhabi's second free practice session on Friday evening. The silver pairing led the way from World Champion Jenson Button as Sebastian Vettel, who finished fourth, saw his last quick lap compromised by Giancarlo Fisichella's Ferrari.






With the sun already setting as the second 90-minute practice began, the field found itself circulating the brand-new track under lights as the session came to a close at 6:30pm local time. Temperatures may have dropped from those witnessed in the afternoon but the growing crowd was still able to enjoy the round figure of 30°C (86°F).

The infamous Yas Marina pit exit did not provide the chaos some predicted it could have although there are busier and more hectic sessions still to come this weekend; Nick Heidfeld was closest to having a problem as the rear end of the BMW stepped out inside the tunnel. With the German finishing 13th, it was a generally disappointing day for the Hinwil team on the manufacturer's final weekend in Formula One; the second car of Robert Kubica was grounded at the Turn 7 hairpin following an engine blow-up.




A mixture of sand and construction dusk made for a slippery surface
At the sharp end, Kovalainen led the way from Hamilton with a lap time of 1:41.307, over two and half seconds quicker than the Englishman's pace-setting effort of the first session. The Woking team therefore looks in good shape to retain third position in the Constructors' Championship this weekend, not least because the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Giancarlo Fisichella wound up 10th and 17th respectively.

Fisichella, whose 5-race experience with the Scuderia has been a frustrating one, also grabbed attention by slowing down the Red Bull of Vettel on its flying lap; with the German gesticulating angrily in the cockpit, the man attempting to defend the championship runner-up spot finished fourth, behind Button, as Kamui Kobayashi's Toyota impressed with a top five position.



Luxury, noise and speed appear to make a good combination at Yas Marina...
The second Red Bull and Brawn cars of Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello were locked together in seventh and eighth places as the Force India of Adrian Sutil - which suffered a small number of off-track moments due to a brake problem - recovered to a respectable 11th. Kubica, who watched much of the session from the BMW garage, rounded out the field in 20th spot.

Despite a number of off-track excursions, there were no yellow flags for the duration of the session.


The hour-long third practice session will begin at 2pm local time on Saturday (GMT +4), finishing two hours before the final qualifying of 2009. The progress of both sessions, as well as Sunday's race, can be followed live on GPUpdate.net.

FGL28

Hamilton,

Because he was driving like his *** was on fire.



for those who do not know the computers he sits on were very very hot today.

Flying Finn

Well, I had high hopes and indeed the track & facilities look fantastic, clearly some sheik has dumped a ton of money on this but as a race track...

I'm so sick and tired of these Tilke tracks and I'm not even talking about lack of passing & boring races they ALWAYS produce.
I'm talking about lack of challenging turns and just the good, natural flow of corners & straights great tracks have.
This track has two pretty fast corners, rest are just stop & go, "Mickey Mouse" corners. Kimi said the track is kinda boring because the lack of corners that require *****.

Look at old, real race tracks, Silverstone, Monza, Spa and compare them with these modern Tilke creations.

On one had we have Copse, Maggots, Becketts & others at Silverstone, Lesmos, Variante Ascari & Parabolica at Monza and of course Eau Rouge, Rivage, Bouhon, Fagnes etc. at Spa while at these Tilke tracks we have, well, 1st of all, they don't even have the cool names as the old ones but I can only think of one great corner which is T8 at Turkey, other than that, it's just too clean and boring stuff.

I can't understand Bernie's love affair with Tilke, if I was the head of F1, I would have various designers, not only one, especially when his tracks are boring, one after another.

Something needs to be done, these new places, while cool looking and awesome architectonically at least in some case, are not good race tracks.

Sorry for the rant, I just miss the big *****, challenging track of old days I guess.

ltc

^ + 1

Larry Herman

I see that Sato is so confident that he doesn't even need to go out and practice.

ltc

Actually, he did go out and practice.
Since it's Halloween, he was wearing a costume to make him look like another driver.

Larry Herman

Ohhh. That could explain why "Button" is right up front.

ltc

Shhh!

multi21

Visually, this track is amazing, but once again, the proof will be tomorrow when people actually try to pass one another and not just set fast lap times.

The weights have not been published yet, but top five:

1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Webber
4. Rubens
5. Jensen

Kimi down in 11th
Alonso out in Q1 in 16th
Heikki in 13th, but will probably take a 5 grid penalty for gearbox change after he lost 2nd gear.
Fisi in dead last

With testing banned until FEBRUARY!!!! (ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS), most drivers will not get accustom to their new cars and the new season starts in March!!!

Since the German GP, Hamilton/McLaren have scored the most points out of any team on grid. Given the fact the McLaren chassis is working so well (with a dominating qualifying today as well), coupled with the fact that both McLaren and Hamilton don't need to acclimate themselves to a new car and driver ala Ferrari (1 new driver in alonso and Massa that needed to prove himself again), Williams (2 new drivers), Renault (2 new drivers), Brawn (Rubens is out, Button on the fence), Toyota (looks like 2 new drivers), all 4 new teams for 2010, etc. etc., I only see the Red Bull/Vettel combination challenging McLaren for the title in 2010.

fast_freddy

Amazing speed from Hammy, wow! It'll be interesting to see what his fuel load is. While he is undoubtedly "light", I would guess it's not appreciably lighter (more than 2-3 laps of fuel) than the others.

Funny comment by Varsha when he was wondering outloud while Todt wasn't wearing official FIA gear. He quipped that perhaps they don't come in childrens sizes.

the flyin' scotsman

Vettel and Webber scream around the track getting pole and 2nd place only for LH to put in a faster time of more than 0.5sec,

Interesting pics of Todt, Ron Dennis and Mr Ferrari all milling around the pits.

wanna911

I can answer at least one of those which is fairly easy. McClaren know they need two #1 drivers to beat Ferrari who have two #1 drivers, with two #1's in McLaren's everyone else will be a piece of cake except Ferrari.

Secondly Kimi wants the money, and McLaren can give it to him, Kimi hasn't had a clear #1 status in a while, he'll be ok at a close number 2 especially with 39 million (or however much it was). And he'll have a chance to stick it to his old team, which is always good motivation considering they took an injured Massa and new Fernando over him.

the90

I received an email from a race engineer for a GP2 team last week, who indicated that the facility was fantastic, the track layout however, was quite boring.
Having watched qualifying, his words are the very definition of 'understatement'. A shame.
I'm fortunate to have Watkins Glen 2 hours drive from my house.