The Japanese Grand Prix is this weekend

Kovalainen actually had the best time before his McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton supplanted him when the rain was at its worst. Eventually Nakajima would take over for Williams before eventually being passed by Kovalainen later in the practice session. Force India’s Adrian Sutil had the third best time of the practice session, just ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the first Ferrari and Buemi for Toro Rosso.

The second session of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix in the afternoon took awhile to get going because of the rain that just didn’t want to go away. Eventually, they did get the second session started after a delay of over an hour, and once again the faster times occurred later in the round, after the track had dried a little. All of the drivers accept for Brawns cars and Kovalainen recorded a time in the second session.

Adrian Sutil recorded the fastest time of the second session for Force India in 1m 47.261s. Just behind him was Sebastian Vettel with a time of 1m 47.923s, his team mate Tonio Liuzzi in a time of 1m 47.931s and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in 1m 47.983s. Nakajima had another good practice session for Williams and certainly pleased his Japanese fans with a time of 1m 48.058s in his FW31. Behind him was Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Buemi in 1m 48.691s, Renault’s Fernando Alonso in 1m 48.693s and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli with a time of 1m 48.737s. Alguersuari was next with a 1m 48.802s, just ahead of BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and his 1m 48.861s and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in 1m 48.886s.

“Image: Zuma Press”

Post from: EveryJoe

Japanese Grand Prix Practice Sessions

Hungarian Grand Prix will run on Sunday July 26, 2009

Lewis Hamilton reinforced McLaren’s fast pace by registering his best lap time of 1m 22.554s, just ahead of German Grand Prix winner Mark Webber’s Red Bull race car, which had a best lap time of 1m 22.615s. Kazuki Nakajima in the second Williams car qualified third in the first session, a fraction of a second behind at 1m 22.619s

Jarno Trulli finished the session with the sixth fastest time in his Toyota, Kimi Raikkonen was seventh, Felipe Massa eighth, Fernando Alonso was ninth in his Renault, and Jenson Button qualified tenth for Brawn.

Lewis Hamilton was able to dial his McLaren in a little better in the second session in the afternoon on the pavement of the Hungaroring circuit near beautiful Budapest, Hungary. The field had been trying to best the 1m 22.126s of his teammate Heikki Kovalainen since he had made his appearance on the track early in the session. Hamilton was one of the last cars to finish and zipped around the track in 1m 22.079s to just beat the time of his teammate and record the fastest time of the session. Nico Rosberg had a strong second session for Williams and finished third, Mark Webber had the fourth fastest time, Kazuki Nakajima was fifth, and Sebastian Vettel had the sixth fastest time of the second session. Rubens Barrichello had the fastest time of the session for Brawn but was still seventh, just ahead of Jarno Trulli in his Toyota and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld, while Tim Glock in the second Toyota rounded out the top ten in the second session of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“Image: Zuma Press”

Post from: EveryJoe

Hungarian Grand Prix Tomorrow

Shanghai is next on the Formula One schedule

The other teams will certainly be disappointed with the news, but will soon recover and implement diffusers of their own using the disputed designs. This will take time, how much, and will they implement them before Shanghai, only they know, but the likely seems remote that they could install them and test them before Shanghai.

The Shanghai International Circuit is a technical course that the drivers generally enjoy, with a variety of slow and fast sections requiring proper speed management and opportunities to pass at several points. The total length of the track is a moderate 5.451 kilometers, and it has the general shape of the Chinese character “Shang”, which translates as high or above in the English language. The set up of the cars will be critical as they need speed and balance through the high-speed corners and but good mechanical grip for the hairpin corners. The course designers created a beautiful course with seven right and seven left turns, with several opportunities for the drivers to pass slower traffic. One of these passing areas is Turn One and another is the tight corner at the end of the 1.1 km straight stretch that demands the cars brake from speeds in access of 320 km/hr on the area of the track between Turn 13 and Turn 14.

Watch carefully this weekend when your watching for these areas of the track, they will be where all the excitement will probably occur, and enjoy the race.

Image: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Shanghai International Circuit is Next

Here are some great games to check out this week:

Tonight: #4 Tennessee at Florida – many analysts believe the two-time defending champion Gators are on the NCAA tournament bubble. A win over the Vols would all but guarantee Florida a spot in the Big Dance.

Thursday March 6th: #7 Stanford at #2 UCLA – a big-time Pac-10 showdown that should not be missed. Stanford is one game behind the Bruins in the Pac-10 standings and needs a victory to pull even with the Bruins.

Saturday March 8th: #1 North Carolina at #5 Duke – Tar Heels vs. Blue Devils. The Cameron Crazies. Williams vs. Krzyzewski. Arguably the most storied rivalry in college basketball, the stakes are even higher in this game as both teams are ranked in the top 5. Duke upset UNC last time out, but the Heels are healthier now. This could be the game of the year.

Post from: EveryJoe

Games to watch this week – March 5th