Ya! F1 weekend. I still hate, hate, hate V6 hybrid turbos and their passenger car sound, but my gosh I am an F1 junkie.
Quali might be interesting. FP1 ran okay but FP2 was mostly washed out by rain and FP3 shortened by a couple red flags. One of the FP3 red flags was caused by Nasr hitting the wall (video below). He went to the medical center for checks, I don't know how that turned out plus the team will have to scramble to get his car back together in time to qualify. Button stopped during FP3 and due to a resulting engine change (or change to some other part of the power unit, not sure which) he will miss quali again. Verstappen had an engine change, add the resulting 10-place grid penalty to his 5-place penalty from Monaco and he will drop 15 places after quali. So, he'll likely start dead last and, if there aren't 15 places for him to drop, there will be time penalties added to make up for it. Hamilton crashed in the rain in FP2 and didn't get in a good lap in FP3 where he ended 20th on the time sheet. I think Alonso had an engine change that kept him out of most of FP3. There were probably more issues I'm not remembering right now but it all adds up to no one being happy with the amount of running they got in during practice and a number of effects on the grid. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlhitjgiWw"]F1 2015 Canada Montreal - Felipe Nasr Crash FP3 RED FLAG - YouTube[/ame]
I'm surprised more folks don't throw their cars off the track with the violent weaving they do. Wonder if Nasr's tires where warm when he hit the wall. Hope he is healthy & learned a bit about weaving.
Martin Brundle quipped in Q1 that he held his breath till Nasr passed the same point during his out lap. the Sky Sports commentary is much better. Might be the accent though too.
There's a SPOILER in here for anyone who hasn't yet watched quali. . . . . . . . . . . An FP3 incident was investigated after qualifying. Vettel penalized for overtaking during red flag conditions. Note the last line, Vettel fessed up. This means Vettel and Verstappen will bring up the back of the field due to penalties with Button just ahead of them (I think). Should be fun to watch. :yesnod:
From today's post-quali interview. Look at those expressions, esp. Raikkonen's eyes, seems almost caption contest worthy.
This may be the starting grid...still confusion over who is supposed to be where as result of penalties and 'official' grid to be announced 1 hr before race start. I think Button starts from pit lane?