Sunday day weather
- Heavy Rain Shower
- Max: 18°C
- Min: 15°C
- Wind: S 16mph
Posted on 04/15/2010 8:55:34 PM PDT by Chode
CHINESE GRAND PRIX
Venue: Shanghai International Circuit
Date: Sunday 18 April, 0800 BST
Lap length: 3.387 miles
Race laps: 56
2009 winner: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
First grand prix: 2004
Shanghai, China
Lets go Racing...on/off if you want on or off the f1 list mash here to get added/removed
Up...
1st practice Vettel, Vettel, Vettel.
I saw in practice at the WRC Rally of Turkey that Kimi’s time was equal to the Finn who is second in the championship behind Loeb, Jari-Matti Latvala.
Are there any live internet feeds during the race? I tried one last race and it was useless.
that feed is the only one i know of, sometimes it works, sometimes not...
thx...
Definitely nice weather for it. Hope it holds up for the weekend, this week’s been ugly.
ya want on da list???
McLaren and Ferrari gear up for China 2:25
Hamilton ends Chinese Friday on top
Lewis Hamilton moved to the top of the timesheets in the second free practice session at the Shanghai International Circuit on Friday afternoon. It was an all-Mercedes Benz-powered top four as Red Bull Racing finished fifth and sixth on what was a complicated day for championship leaders Ferrari.
Following a highly-dramatic first 90-minute practice period on Friday morning, in which Ferrari's Fernando Alonso suffered another engine failure and Toro Rosso's Sébastien Buemi flew off the circuit with a bizarre suspension problem which resulted in both front wheels detaching themselves from the car, conditions remained dry.
It may have been dry although ambient temperatures of 17°C (63°F) ensured that a number of jumpers were being sported in the grandstands by the relatively small numbers of fans who attended the circuit, bringing with them a selection of banners in support of F1 drivers past and present.
Just one car came to a halt on-track this afternoon as Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus suffered a loss of power steering (hydraulics-related) as well as a suspected oil leak, with the Finn having to pull over to the side of the track at Turn 10. Vitaly Petrov's Renault suffered a lurid spin at Turn 7, managing to rejoin, although Buemi did not make the session as Toro Rosso continued repairs following the spectacular morning shunt.
Traffic proved to be an issue for both McLaren and Ferrari, with hands being shaken out of the World Champion cockpits of both Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, annoyed by the tactics of Lucas di Grassi and Bruno Senna, respectively; the Hispania driver provided his own amount of gesticulation at Turn 6, however, when frustrated with a car which refused to turn into the apex.
There was a spin for Vitantonio Liuzzi at Turn 1, as the Italian returned to the helm following another outing for Force India reserve driver Paul di Resta in the first session, and Michael Schumacher also suffered a small moment at the first corner as his Mercedes ran wide and met the outer edge of the track.
There appear to be greater concerns at Ferrari, though, and the Maranello team will be hoping to make the most of the final practice hour on Saturday morning after Alonso - running with an f-duct system for the first time - and current championship leader Felipe Massa could manage no more than 10th and 11th places.
Jarno Trulli led the way for Formula 1's newest teams, finishing 18th for Lotus. Three places further back, Karun Chandhok placed strongly for Hispania despite a near-miss with Robert Kubica's Renault at Turn 11.
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i love that shot... 
very interesting, i did not know the floor pan was notched for the rear tire like that.
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My guess is the the cutout is so close to keep the airflow going where they want it to go
Pretty tight
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yeah, i understand the concept, i just never saw it up close. iirc, in the past they were not allowed to cover any of the tire at all???
I suppose that open wheel means from where you begin to measure
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ears, right. i remember when i thought the Ferrari and Matra V12's were loud, and those damn shirking Honda V16's, but... that was all at ~9,000-10,000rpm, not the 10 and now 8 cylinder 18-20K ear shredders of today
check this out... Matra
Sebastien Buemi escapes 200mph crash unhurt in Shanghai 
Buemi's wheels shear off in F1 crash
Sebastien Buemi escaped unhurt after the front wheels flew off his Toro Rosso car in a dramatic crash during Chinese Grand Prix practice.
The Swiss, 21, careered off the track at the end of the long back straight, where cars are doing about 194mph.
Buemi said: "From in the car it was not a problem. I just lost both wheels."
Toro Rosso said the crash had been caused by a failure of the front-right upright, which caused an immediate failure of the same part on the left.
The crash happened with 10 minutes remaining of the first session while Buemi was on only his sixth lap after sitting out the majority of the 90-minute session because of a brake-system leak.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8624282.stm
We don't have F-duct advantage - Hamilton Despite setting the fastest time in free practice for the Chinese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton is not letting his hopes get too high ahead of qualifying.
Hamilton led the field in the second session after his team-mate Jenson Button set the pace during the morning running. McLaren's high top speed, a result of its F-duct, was expected to give it an advantage in Shanghai but Hamilton said the overall package of the car is no better than its competitors.
"We may have topped the timesheets in each session, but I don't necessarily think today's times make us the favourites for this race," he said. "The car does feel good, but our pace looks pretty similar to some of the other cars on long runs. Everyone talks about us having a straight-line advantage, but that's not true - other cars have the same speed as us at the end of the straight.
"We're a little bit quicker than some teams, but, equally, they're able to run more downforce. It's about getting a good balance - and we feel we've got that. We're continuing with the good feeling we felt in Malaysia, but we've made some further subtle changes and they were encouraging. I come out of today with a positive feeling - we'll now keep our heads down and concentrate on gaining a strong qualifying position tomorrow."
Button was pleased with his start to the weekend, but he too is not getting carried away.
"Today's been good," he said. "This afternoon was a little frustrating: on my new-tyre run I ran into traffic - which you seem to get in every session - but the actual work we've done, and the direction we've taken, has been positive. There are a few more things we need to do, but we're almost getting the maximum out of the car - especially on the long runs. We're moving in the right direction.
"There are a few things we can still tweak over the course of this evening, but I think we've come here with a pretty good car from lap one. Of course, some of the teams haven't shown their hand yet, but you can tell from the long-run times that they're competitive. Maybe we're not on their pace yet, but we've got tonight to make further improvements to the car."
3rd practice...
grid...
| Position | Country | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | S Vettel | Red Bull |
| 2 | Australia | M Webber | Red Bull |
| 3 | Spain | F Alonso | Ferrari |
| 4 | Germany | N Rosberg | Mercedes |
| 5 | Great Britain | J Button | McLaren |
| 6 | Great Britain | L Hamilton | McLaren |
| 7 | Brazil | F Massa | Ferrari |
| 8 | Poland | R Kubica | Renault |
| 9 | Germany | M Schumacher | Mercedes |
| 10 | Germany | A Sutil | Force India |
| 11 | Brazil | R Barrichello | Williams |
| 12 | Spain | J Alguersuari | Toro Rosso |
| 13 | Switzerland | S Buemi | Toro Rosso |
| 14 | Russia | V Petrov | Renault |
| 15 | Japan | K Kobayashi | BMW Sauber |
| 16 | Germany | N Hulkenberg | Williams |
| 17 | Spain | P de la Rosa | BMW Sauber |
| 18 | Italy | V Liuzzi | Force India |
| 19 | Germany | T Glock | Virgin |
| 20 | Italy | J Trulli | Lotus |
| 21 | Finland | H Kovalainen | Lotus |
| 22 | Brazil | L di Grassi | Virgin |
| 23 | Brazil | B Senna | Hispania |
| 24 | India | K Chandhok | Hispania |
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