F1: Yas Marina

Well, let’s start with a little off track rumor and innuendo as the race itself promises to be incredibly boring unless you care about who finishes 6th for the season.

The first tidbit is that Bahrain is back on the calender, HIS Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander and Bahrain Motor Federation Honorary President expressed confidence yesterday which title in and of itself tells you what a tinpot dictatorship Bahrain is.  Bernie will feel right at home.

In other news there may or may not be racing at the new ‘Circuit of the Americas’ track in Austin Texas, the $300 Million Boondoggle Rick Perry is financing by firing teachers ensuring that Texas schoolchildren will be even more ignorant due to class overcrowding than their Confederate Christianist textbooks already make them.

You see, Bernie doesn’t need Rick so much now that he has Chris Christie in his pocket.  Who wants to swelter when you can watch from your Wall Street Fat Cat Corporate Shelter?  Not only are the commute times from the Hamptons shorter, but the food is better unless you like Tex-Mex which you can get from Bobby Flay anyway.

If that seems a lot of races, not to worry.  Ecclestone will probably dump Yeongam for having the temerity to try and renegotiate their contract.

Miscellaneous AFP stories- Rosberg signs with Mercedes, Schumacher plays coy (that’s an ornamental carp to you), Hamilton goes zen, and a season recap.

Now some racing related stuff.  Finally found a source for the compounds they’ll be using today.  Mediums and Softs, not the Super Softs the commentators were saying.  Do these guys get anything right ever?  There will only be 2 pits tops and there’s just not a lot of speed differential between the compounds.

It’s a twi-night race which will create visibility challenges as the sun sets.  When the track cools the engines will develop more power and the tires less grip which could make things more slippery except that it’s a very fast track with few turns.  Teams are running their low downforce configurations and there are 2 DRS zones, but don’t expect a lot of passing because they won’t have to slow down much (creating opportunities).

The Cosworth engines that the Williams are running are flat worn out.  Maldonado has already had to accept a 10 grid spot penalty for using a 9th and Barrichello is saving his last fresh for his home race at Interlagos.  Only 2 teams will be using Cosworths next year.

Teams attempting to emulate the Red Bull ‘Wiggle Wing’ are experiencing aerodynamic inbalances that cause them to oscillate and hit the track at the ends of the 2 long straights.  If that’s your cup of tea then I recomment the Razor Spark.

Hamilton had fastest Practice this morning, which really doesn’t make up for his disappointing Qualifying performance.  If you hurry you can still make book on his having a collision with Massa.

Speed will be broadcasting the exhibition GP2 All-Star race starting at 6 am.  Re-broadcast of the main event at 4 pm.

Pretty meaningless tables below.

Starting Grid

Grid Driver Team Q-Time Q-Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 01:38.5 16
2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:38.6 15
3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:38.6 14
4 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 01:38.9 19
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:39.1 16
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:39.7 20
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 01:39.8 17
8 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 01:40.7 18
9 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:40.8 17
10 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 01:40.4 15
11 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 01:40.9 18
12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:40.9 18
13 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 01:41.0 15
14 Bruno Senna Renault 01:41.1 15
15 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 01:41.2 16
16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 01:41.2 17
17 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 01:43.0 11
18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 01:43.9 11
19 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 01:44.5 9
20 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 01:44.6 9
21 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 01:44.7 8
22 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 01:45.2 8
23 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 0
24 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 01:41.8 13

Driver Standings

Rank Driver Team Points
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 374
2 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 240
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 227
4 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 221
5 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 202
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 98
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 75
8 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 70
9 Vitaly Petrov Renault 36
10 Nick Heidfeld Renault 34
11 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 30
12 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 27
13 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 26
14 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 21
15 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 15
16 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 14
17 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 4
18 Bruno Senna Renault 2
19 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1

Constructor Standings

Rank Team Points
1 Red Bull 595
2 McLaren 442
3 Ferrari 325
4 Mercedes 145
5 Renault 72
6 Force India 51
7 Sauber 41
8 Toro Rosso 41
9 Williams 5
10 Team Lotus 0
11 HRT 0
12 Virgin 0

47 comments

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  1. More pointless than usual.

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate that most teams already have a full complement (and then some) of drivers and we won’t be seeing any of these people with a ride next year.

  2. Bumper cars like Indy and Turn Left.

  3. Clear visors with tinted tear offs.

    Duh.

  4. Soapblox errors @ DD.

  5. Hamilton

    Alonso

    Button

    Webber

    Massa

    Rosberg

    Schumacher

    Sutil

    di Resta

    Buemi

  6. Pits preparing for stops.

  7. Hamilton

    Button

    Alonso

    Massa

    Webber

    Rosberg

    Buemi

    di Resta

    Sutil

    Schumacher

  8. the cars are all garbage after the next race anyway.

    They took a 2009 Marlboro and ran it over the unpaved dirt in Austin with a celebrity driver.

  9. Hamilton

    Alonso

    Button

    Massa

    Webber

    Rosberg

    Sutil

    Schumacher

    di Resta

    Kobayashi

  10. that Vettel has had to drop out?

  11. Hamilton

    Alonso

    Button

    Webber

    Rosberg

    Sutil

    Schumacher

    Kobayashi

    Petrov

  12. Leaders will all have to switch to Mediums.

  13. On this track they’re more like suggestions.

  14. Hamilton

    Alonso

    Rosberg

    Webber

    Button

    Massa

    Schumacher

    Sutil

    di Resta

    Perez

  15. Commenting seems to be working now but still getting the occasional status error

  16. Hamilton

    Alonso

    Webber

    Button

    Massa

    Rosberg

    Schumacher

    Sutil

    di Resta

    Kobayashi

  17. Last lap.

  18. Hamilton

    Alonso

    Button

    Webber

    Massa

    Rosberg

    Schumacher

    Sutil

    di Resta

    Kobayashi

    They should all have been like this.

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