Talking of India!

Indian Grand Prix, 2011

Track:- Greater Noida



Alas this is super elevated so there are not massive roller coaster style hills at each end of the straight. Shame, that would have made a interesting track! Another Tilke masterpiece of dullness. I hate new tracks, largely because Tilke is always the one designing them and he can never design a decent track. He has a monopoly on track design and I have no idea why because for the fans he is not particularly good at it. Ah well.

There will be two DRS zones, the first on the shorter back straight and the second on the long straight (with the massive hills at each end)

Date:- 28-30 October

Friday 28 October:

Practice one - 0530-0700;
Practice two - 0930-1100

Saturday 29 October:

Practice three - 0630-0730;
Qualifying - 0930-1030

Sunday 30 October:

Race - 0930

Thankfully the times are a little more palatable this time round and no having to decide whether to watch the F1 or the Rugby World Cup, haha!

And this track really is brand new and an inaugural event! Haha!

Lets hope for a great, exciting track and i'm wrong...

Graham

 

Guess who's got a penalty already:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/form...e/15489950.stm

Three place grid drop for ignoring double waved yellows.

Just watching FP2. Looks like quite a good track.

 

That should put him alongside Massa then

I think I've figured out why Tilke is so poor at circuit design - (like many here) he doesn't know the difference between "break" and "brake"

 

Seems odd that two drivers get a penalty for ignoring double yellows, both of whom go on to complete a fastest lap. Just a little odd, did the marshalls make it obvious? Just musing.

The pit lane exit looks pretty hairy, the exit leads into turn 1 almost immediately and it is blind to the drivers coming out of the pits to see traffic already doing high speed down the pit straight. Worth looking out for in the race on Sunday.

The track is very dusty and is continuing to accumulate dust so the cars were struggling for grip.

McLaren ended FP2 on heavy fuel, with Hamilton in P4 and Button on P6.

Red Bull, Vettel P2 and Webber P5

Ferrari, Massa P1(!) and Alonso P3

Force India, Sutil P7 and Di Resta P9

 

Dembo in having a dig at Hamilton shocker

What's the betting we have another race ruined by piss poor stewards. Is it me or has this season been more about the stewards than the racing?

 

Stupid Virgin Media. For some reason, my V+HD has chosen not to record quali. Which is odd, because it's going to record the race. Grrr. I don't have time to watch it this afternoon.

 

You didn't miss much, it was pretty dull.

 

There is no quali as yet on the BBC site either, there is a clip named quali as it happened but in fact that is only the vettlel lap.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/form...e/15505966.stm

The track looks really good. Nice and wide, fast and flowing, with potentially plenty of overtaking opportunities. The back straight seems to go on forever!

Looking forward to tomorrow - new tracks level the playing field a little. Especially really dusty ones!!!

 

What's really good about it is the way they have to connect the corners up. Lots of times you see drivers making a small mistake and then paying a price going off at the next corner. And when they were going off it was through a load of dirt which would slow them down significantly, rather than a too-easy tarmac area or race-ending gravel trap. Which is how it should be.

A bit crap having a kerb big enough to break the suspension like that. Massa didn't cut the corner by a huge amount, and I guess if his suspension hadn't broken he might have been thrown up in the air.

I think Vettel will stroll away at the front yet again, but we might have a good race for second.