2012 F1 - Spain

[TeaLeaf]

May 13th will see the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.  Here's the schedule to help you plan your diary:


May 11: Free practice 1
10:00 local | 08:00 GMT | 09:00 BST

May 11: Free practice 2
14:00 local | 12:00 GMT | 13:00 BST

May 12: Free practice 3
11:00 local | 09:00 GMT | 10:00 BST

May 12: Qualifying
14:00 local | 12:00 GMT | 13:00 BST

May 13: Race
14:00 local | 12:00 GMT | 13:00 BST

[sulky_uk]

so thinking of driving up to see that.......doubt the wife will approve

[Lameduck]

so thinking of driving up to see that.......doubt the wife will approve

Next best thing, rejoin Life for Speed, the fuel cost nowt and you can have a beer between races

[TeaLeaf]

After some chaotic timing tables in Free Practice 1,2, & 3 we ended up with an even more surprising Qualifying session.   Who'da thunk it?

McLaren really need to get a handle on the human errors they are making, it's killing their season (and Lewis' in particular).  The car looks good enough to get a decent haul of points, but they're handicapping their own drivers badly at the moment.   Almost 0.6 seconds faster by Hamilton is a massive performance, respect for his lap (it's on the BBC website if you want to watch it), I don't think he left an inch of extra performance anywhere it was pretty perfect and awesome to watch.

Max marks to Maldanado, his first pole despite the odd circumstances.

Max marks to Alonso again too for dragging his dog of a car around into 3rd (ultimately 2nd) on the grid.

The grid is really mixed up, so it should prove an interesting race *if* the DRS zone works for this circuit!

[Sneakytiger]

i can see lewis leaving mclaren if these errors persist.

[Sparko]

I can't see him leaving tbh, but McLaren have really got to pull their socks up, the worry is its the simpler things that they are making mistakes on, it must be so frustrating for lewis.  I reckon he will still finish in the points ......just

[Snokio]

Who would of expected that result! Good race! :thumb:

[sulky_uk]

awesome race:yahoo:

[T-Bag]

I massively disagree with the decision to disqualify Lewis from qualifying. A punishment hugely disproportionate to the crime. The worst that should have happened is the lap he was on should have been discounted, or failing that his Q3 time dropped. A disqualification just emphasises how unnecessarily hard the stewards always seem to come down on Lewis.

As for the race, it was a good one. Hamilton and Kobyashi certainly made it fun to watch while Maldanardo and Alonso battled to prove how entertaining not passing someone can be. A very good race albeit one of which the result was decided by the stewards on the Saturday.

Notes:
I appreciated Vettle having to work for some overtakes. Although not in a vastly superior car anymore he still is managing to make some rather unconventional overtakes which makes me appreciate him more (although I still don't like him).
Hamilton's rear left pitman cocks up again (and considering the how close he was to Rosberg at the end it could have cost him a place).
Massa and Webber are sinking into their underdog positions with their respective teams. Massa looked as if he was going to turn things around at the start of the race only to have a fairly uninteresting one.
di Resta was also hugely disappointing this race after showing promise throughout the first stages.
The Lotus cars are certainly going to be interesting this season keeping up fairly well in the constructors with McLaren despite having an number of DNFs, I forsee many more podiums at this pace unless Ferrari can fix their car and give Massa a kick up the backside (he's certainly going next year at this rate with so many talented drivers around to take his place)

[sulky_uk]

massive fire in williams garage

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12476/7754041/Fire-breaks-out-at-Williams

[sulky_uk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9QLET_u1DA