F1: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

As usual, you got the good stuff yesterday.  Today I’ll just ramble.

Overall Qualifying was more entertaining than it usually is.  Conditions were wet with rain in fits and a drying line at the end when they brought out the Softs.  If it rains again today many teams will be in trouble since you only get 3 sets of Inters for the weekend and you had to use them all during Practice and most of Qualifying.

Schumacher lost his wheel nut, no deeper explanation given yet.  Button walked back his rather harsh criticism of McLaren, he felt he had been called in too early but later said he lost track of the lap count and didn’t give it all he might have.  Senna did much better than expected despite a faulty KERS which is a big problem for Heidfeld, but also for Romain Grosjean who clinched his GP 2 title yesterday.  Hamilton’s contact with Maldonado after the end of Qualifying was resolved in favor of Hamilton with Maldonado suffering a 5 position penalty and Hamilton a mere reprimand.  All 4 drivers who failed the 107% rule were given passes to race.  So much for that rule.

As an aside, has anyone besides me noticed that there is much more media attention now that the season is almost finished?  Yesterday’s Evening Edition coverage came from all 3 wire services- AFP (11), Reuters (28), and AP (44).

What will we see today?  Well it kind of depends on the weather.  If Irene knocks out my power, internet, or cable I won’t see much, you’ll have to make your own fun.  It has rained all weekend at Spa and if it’s not dry enough for Softs I don’t know what the stewards will do (my Dad says they’d be idiots not to issue another set of Inters and Wets).  I note that as I write this during the start of the GP 2 preliminary you can see shadows, but there are clouds in the sky.

Other than that there are some fast guys at the back of the grid so there will be some off lead racing as people move up.  There have been no substantial changes to the cars except Renault who has been falling farther and farther behind Mercedes in the second tier group.

Scuderia Marlboro UPC has taken it’s engineering group off this year’s car and put it on next year’s machine.  ‘We must get off to a fast start!’ says Maranello.  They said that last year and the year before too.  The truth is that only 2 teams are strong enough to continue development for this year AND develop for next- McLaren and Red Bull (which is strong enough to support 2 teams).

The Driver’s Championship is all but decided.  Heidfeld’s mathematical chances were that he had to finish first and Vettel DNF for all the remaining races and everyone else is in pretty much the same boat.  The Constructor’s Championship would be closer if McLaren made better decisions and could ever finish 2 cars in the same race.

This is race 12 of 19, not halfway, and who knows, lightning could stri

• F1: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site
• Speed Racecast

Enjoy the rest of the season.  Speed coverage starts at 7:30 am.  Pretty tables below.

Starting Grid

Driver Standings

Constructor Standings