Well I've got the time trials and actual race setup for a reminder on my DVR, but I may change them to a recording since I've got alot of other stuff to work on this weekend. Also I've got the race in B'ham (on SPEED) setup with a reminder too. This is a good weekend for racing.

Ok, the starting grid for today's race looks like (according to www.formula1.com)...

1 22 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.218 1:14.603 1:15.666 13
2 2 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:14.921 1:14.747 1:15.859 16
3 23 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.476 1:14.855 1:16.143 17
4 11 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:15.560 1:15.122 1:16.191 21
5 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:15.917 1:14.943 1:16.385 19
6 1 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:15.201 1:14.949 1:16.389 19
7 4 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:15.985 1:15.109 1:16.521 20
8 10 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:15.900 1:15.481 1:17.014 20
9 15 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari 1:15.532 1:15.420 1:17.244 22
10 9 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:15.975 1:15.338 1:17.503 20
11 12 Timo Glock Toyota 1:15.560 1:15.508 17
12 3 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:15.596 1:15.581 14
13 7 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:15.863 1:15.633 16
14 16 Jenson Button Honda 1:15.993 1:15.701 15
15 14 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 1:15.927 1:15.858 15
16 8 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:16.083 10
17 6 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:16.189 7
18 17 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:16.246 10
19 20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:16.657 10
20 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:16.963 10

Anyone changing their bets?

Is this Toyota's highest grid position this season? Is it a turn around or a fluke?

Does the possibility of rain help Hamilton? He's been the best in the rain since his intro to F1.

If it rains, it will definitely help Hamilton out tons. I don't know what it is about that kid, but he has talent for sure.

My bet is still on Massa. He is damn amazing so long as he keeps his concentration and doesn't make the stupid little mistakes that ruin his ranking every year.

What was going on with Raikkonnen? He is starting behind Alonso, and Alonso shouldn't even be in the same league (just going by cars alone, not driver talent).

If it rains I can definately see Hamilton at the very least in the top 2, otherwise he'll have to fight for whatever position he can pull out of it. And I see Massa finishing in the top three whatever the weather outcome is.

Well congratulations to Hamilton for pulling out the win and pulling ahead in the points race. There were a few moments of nail-biting while I watched the race and several great passes.

I think the highlight of the day was Nelsinho Piquet leading his first Grad Prix and coming in second on probably the greatest timed pit stop in history. Way to go "PK"! How cool was that???

Best race to date. Hamilton's drive (minus Heiki's pulling over) was superb. Kimmi drove like he had one hell of a hangover. Massa did not impress me with not being able to pressure Piquet. Massa's lucky it did not rain. 3 laps down at Silverstone? I was happy to see a lot of passing even in the back of the pack.

It was great watching the last 25 laps, Hamilton pitting, then working his way up from 4th to 1st!! Wow.

I don't know who it was, but they broke their right rear suspension coming out of the corner onto the straight, then put it into the wall, it all happened in a blink of an eye.

^I believe it was one of the BMW-Sauber drivers that broke the rear suspension.

This race was one of the most exciting F1 races I've ever seen. There was plenty of passing and without traction control it is more in the "hands" of the driver than in previous years where a computer was doing alot of the work.

It was Timo Glock in a Toyota who crashed due to the broken rear suspension

Heikki owed it to Lewis anyway, otherwise, if Lewis came in the pits, Heikki would've lost more position.

I was interested in how many times Hamilton has sat on the pole and how many total races he's won... This season he's had pole position 3 times and won 4 times. Last season was 6 poles and 4 wins, but if you look at podiums then he is definately the "next generation Schumacher" and 18 podiums in the last 27 races.

Anyone catch the race this weekend? I completely forgot about it with everything else that's been going on.

I watched most of it at least the start and finish, fell asleep duing the middle though.

I'm guessing that it wasn't a very exciting race then?

I didn't really think so. The only very exciting stuff was the pit stop by Massa where they let him go and he almost ran into __________, I forgot, and then Kimi's engine blew. Massa led the whole race so not alot of action up front. After the first pit when Hamilton came out and was probably two seconds behind Massa I fell back asleep. It was pretty obvious then where the top 4 or 5 were going to finish unless something happened like a blown engine by Kimi.

I can't believe that the points race is so damn close between Hamilton and Massa. Two points? I would absolutely love to see Massa come out as a world champion. He has the talent, he just needs to stay calm.

I have the last two races on DVR but haven't watched them. I was so hoping Massa was going to win. Here's a couple of shots of what 2009 could look like for the cars.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...rrari09zt1.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...earcfbb577.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...erocfbb577.jpg

Looks like more straight line speeds, and that rear wing looks horrible besides that it's really not that bad.

The rear wing reminds me of Top Fuel dragsters. :dunno: We'll have to wait and see what the final designs are gonna be.

That's what they all will look like. And I hear they are cutting budgets on a lot of parts so we will see how it goes. First race is end of this month. US team comming in 2010.

McClaren Action Shots

Ferrari Action Shots

Rear wings look a lot skinnier.

less than a month until AUSSIE GP!

Man I've been watching practice and qualifying and it's amazing. With all the changes everyone's cars are so different from last year and each other. Even though I'd seen pics and a couple of vids of the new cars, the front wings to me look much larger than I thought they were watching the cars on track. The diffuser issue had been interesting, curious as to how that will turn out next week. And to have a new team on top of the grid... gonna be one hell of a season.

So who watched qualifying?? WOW!!! Looks like it may be a very interesting year.

Good timing, well I guess you are.

Haha, yeah I am and I'm going to watch them again this afternoon. Can't wait for the race, with everything that's been going down it's going to be one hell of race. SPEED has some new graphics which are cool and also shows the KERS status. It's definitely shaping up to be an exciting race in more ways than one!

Brawn GP??? WTF???
Hour and a half left!


-Ted

Brawn GP 1-2 after the incident for Barichello???
Hardcharging Kubica and top-performing Vettel knocks themselves out???
Hamilton to podium after a sluggish start???


-Ted

Hard to believe 3 weeks ago they didn't have a team... and finish 1 and 2 today.

Man that was one hell of a beginning for the season. A crazy start, first corner first action as usual and then end under caution! Kubica and Vettle messed up a good ending for each other, Ferrari ends up like they did last year there, and Hamilton ends up with 3rd place (Trulli got penalized after the race). Button almost screwed it up for Brawn with his last pit stop. What else? :)

So many variables now with all the new car designs, diffuser differences, KERS or no KERS, tires not only being slick but are 2 grades apart this year... I can't wait for next weekend to se what happens.

Hamilton was excluded from the Aussie GP.

Button is now 2-0! What a start to the season for him! The race was red flagged so he only received 5 points for the win though. I'm liking this season so far.

What!?! When did that rule go into place?! MAn F1 is getting more complicated every year!

But yeah that is so awesome for Brawn GP. Kudos for finding a loophole in the diffuser rule and taking advantage of it.

I think that rules has been there for a while. I could be wrong though. But it states the leader must make 2 laps for the race to be official, but if he doesn't make at least 75% of the laps then everyone only receives half the points.

Man, how much would that suck if Button has a chance to win the championship, but losses it because he only got 5 point that race.

Well, looks to have been another great race! I had to follow via text updates... haha. Red Bull picks up it's first F1 win ever with a 1-2 finish. Glad to see Weber have a good race. That guy has some serious bad luck. Brawn GP was 3-4. FIA ruled that the "double diffusers" are legal and Brawn will also retain their first two wins. Hamilton finished 6th.

I'm not reading this until I watch it!! That's the only bad thing about being at DGRR, I missed the race. :driving: