May 31, 2008

Random Anime Pictures #18


Do NOT piss off Maka.
-Soul Eater, ep04

Best show of the season.  No question about it.

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May 29, 2008

Monaco By Air

I have nothing of particular interest to blog about at the moment, so instead, I'm going to react to something reader Buttons said in the comments:

"I would like to thank the FIA World Feed Director for turning on Rosberg's On-Board camera while it was being lifted off the track, quite a view!"


Look, ma, no tires!
Yes, quite the spectacular view indeed.  Only way it would be better is if there were some cars going by underneath!

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May 27, 2008

Fishing at Monaco


DAD!  I GOT A BITE!!!

Well, that's something you don't see every day...

UPDATE:  Steven asks why they're using cranes to carry the cars away.  I try to explain in the comments, but I'm not sure I did the best job in the world.  Here's a view of the accident area:

Not the most accessible location on the track, and without pulling the armco down, a truck is out of the question.

Good question, Steven! 

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May 26, 2008

Ikkitousen: Onsen Broadcast

So over at Chizumatic (linked post is NSFW), Steven is wondering about Ikkitousen ep09, the Onsen episode, and how it was edited for broadcast.  A fair question, considering that the DVD version is rather, shall we say, unrestrained (as are most of the female characters)?

Well, I was first exposed to Ikkitousen via the broadcast fansubs, which I've held onto despite owning the DVDs myself, so I can answer Steven's questions... open his page in one window, open this one in another, and you can see the differences.

Click on to compare, but be warned, the images below are NSFW (though not as bad as the ones on Steven's page)!

more...

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Harder than Chinese Algebra?

So, you've read all my joshing and poking fun at the drivers in Formula 1, and you think to yourself, "what's so difficult about this, it's just a car, right?"

See what Top Gear's Hamster, Richard Hammond, a not-inexperienced driver himself, thinks when he settles into the Renault R25.


Best quote: "I AM GOD!!!"

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May 25, 2008

F1 UPDATE!: Monaco 2008!

Monaco is called "the crown jewel" of Formula 1, but generally the race itself isn't all that exciting.  Not this time!  THIS is the F1 UPDATE!

*IT'S RAINING AGAIN...:  Take everything you know about F1 racing at Monaco, cover it with water, then throw it out and hang on.  Best race of the season so far, no contest.  As the cars sat on the grid just before the parade lap, nobody knew just exactly what the weather would bring.  The track was damp and drying, but Formula One Management was saying "rain in 15 minutes".  Everybody went safe and chose intermediate rain tires, but Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari couldn't make up their minds fast enough, saddling him with a drive-through penalty early.  Once the race began, though, everybody made it through the first turn safely and it started to look like just another Monaco...

...and then it began to rain, and the F1 UPDATE! crew began to laugh.  More nose changes than you'll see at a Hollywood movie premier.  Lewis Hamilton fishtailed into the wall and blew a tire, but no suspension damage.  It looked like his race was done, and it would have if it wasn't for David Coulthard's Chin kissing the wall, then being rear-ended by SeaBass, bringing out the Safety Car.  Suddenly, everything was back to square-one.  Massa lost it on the one place on the course with run off area, Ste Devote, and dropped back, putting BMW's Robert Kubica into the lead.  After the first scheduled pitstops, though, Hamilton had the lead.  That early pitstop to change his blown tire began to look like a godsend.  And so it was, as he took his McLaren home to the win, followed by Kubica and Massa.  In between, though, the rain stopped, and it became a guessing game.  A late Safety Car put the whole race in doubt again, as Hamilton and Kubica were on hard-dry tires, while Massa was on the softs and kept it close, to no avail.

*POINTS FOR EVERYBODY!: Seven teams earned points today, with McLaren being the only manufacturer to get both cars in the top eight (1st for Hamilton, 8th for Heikki).

*TIME OUT:  For the first time in who-knows-how-long, a Formula 1 race was ended by time limit, not by finishing every lap.  F1 races have a maximum time of 120 minutes, y'see, and when the rain came, everything slowed down.  When the time expired, there were still two laps left.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE: No, not Lewis Hamilton, though at any other race he would have won it.  F1 UPDATE! is proud, however, to give the DotR award to someone that we wouldn't ever have guessed we be giving it to... Force India's Adrian Sutil.  Throughout the weather, Sutil showed that he's got awesome driving skills in the wet as he worked his way through the field... and with a few laps left, he was sitting in a no-kidding, for-real fourth place, with a legitimate shot at a podium to boot.  Then, through no fault of his or his team's own, it all turned to ashes....  It's small consolation, Adrian, but you, far and away, deserve the Driver of the Race award.

*TEAM OF THE RACE:  Nobody.  We can't give any team praise this race.  Everybody had problems this time around, from McLaren's Heikki Kovaleiniinninninnie stalling on the grid to Ferrari not being able to decide on a tire for Kimi to BMW botching the setup on Grizzly Nick Heidfeld's car to Renault deciding to go to dry tires a few laps early, while teams like Williams or RedBull did nothing to distinguish themselves, earning their points merely by surviving.

*MOVE OF THE RACE:  It's always a tense moment.  The lead car(s) are lapping their way through the field, when they come up on two (or more) cars battling for position.  The trackside marshals throw up the blue flag, telling the slower cars to move aside for the leaders.  The problem is doing it without surrendering an inch to the cars you're fighting.  In this case, Massa came up on Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg on the run down to the hairpin.  Button and Rosberg moved over to let Massa go by, everybody braking all the while.  Rosberg, however, jumped behind Massa, and stuck his nose under the Ferrari's tail (so close that is Massa touched the brakes any harder, Rosberg would have been in the cockpit with him), preventing Button from getting back inside.  Perhaps an ungentlemanly move, but perfectly legal (and sneaky as all hell).  For that, Rosberg, you deserve the MotR!

*MOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE:  We understand that F1 is hard.  Very hard.  So hard that it makes idiots out of the best drivers in the world.  That's why we created the award that celebrates the bovine in every driver, the Mooooo-ooove of the Race.  To begin with, the F1 UPDATE! crew wanted desperately to give the Moooo-oove to Kimi Raikkonen for losing control of his car and spearing into the rear of Adrian Sutil's Force India, ruining the outstanding 4th place Sutil had in hand and forcing them both into the pits (and crushing Sutil's suspension).  It would have served him right.

However, cooler heads prevailed.  Instead, the Mooo-oove goes to an earlier case of stupidity.  HWMNBN had been following Grizzly Nick Heidfeld closely for a couple of laps, almost being able to pass, but not quite.  Now, it's quite difficult to pass at Monaco, but there ARE some places to do it.  For the most part, however, the hairpin is NOT one of them, not without some assistance from the car ahead of you (see: Button, Rosberg, Massa, Move of the Race).  HWMNBN, perhaps realizing that he didn't have a chance in hell of doing anything this race anyway, decided to force the issue.  He sauntered inside of the BMW by not braking, then couldn't make the turn.  The result was not pretty:

Heidfeld, in fact, wound up forced into a spin, banging back into HWMNBN.  This brought both cars to a dead stop, blocking the entire track and bringing six or eight other cars to a complete halt on the streets of Monaco.   Completely pointless pass attempt that nearly ruins your car, someone else's car, and turns "race" into "park"?  Well done, HWMNBN, here's your Moooooo-ooove!

*DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:




more...

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May 24, 2008

F1 Quals: Monaco 2008!

"I don't like Monaco," says Felipe Massa.  "I never have.  But I'm beginning to like it a little bit more."  Kimi Raikkonen's view on the matter?  "Obviously, I would have preferred to be on pole and there's no point denying it, but two Ferraris ahead of the rest is a great result for the team."

Yes, the unexpected result of an all-Ferrari front row-- on the track that McLaren historically dominates-- has really thrown the Grand Prix of Monaco into a cocked hat.  44 of the past 54 races at Monaco have been won from the pole, which would suggest that Massa is going to run away with this one, except for one little thing:

...rain.

There is an 80% chance of rain during the race, which takes everything in that cocked hat and dumps it into a gutter.  All bets are off when it rains at Monaco; F1 Update! officially goes on the record as saying that we have no clue who's going to win on Sunday.

The provisional grid:

Pos
Driver Team Q1Q2Q3
1
Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:15.190    1:15.110   
1:15.787
2
Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:15.717    1:15.404 1:15.815
3
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes  
1:15.582    1:15.322 1:15.839
4
Heikki Kovalainen    
McLaren-Mercedes 1:15.295    1:15.389 1:16.165
5
Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:15.977    1:15.483 1:16.171
6
Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:15.935    1:15.287 1:16.548
7
HWMNBN Renault 1:16.646    1:15.827 1:16.852
8
Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:16.306    1:15.598 1:17.203
9
Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:16.074    1:15.745 1:17.343
10
David Coulthard's Chin 
Red Bull-Renault 1:16.086    1:15.839 no time
11
Timo Glock Toyota 1:16.285    1:15.907
12
Jenson Button Honda 1:16.259    1:16.101
13
Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:16.650    1:16.455
14
Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:16.756    1:16.479
15
Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:16.208    1:16.537
16
SeaBass STR-Ferrari 1:16.806

17
Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:16.933

18
Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari 1:16.955

19
Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:17.225

20
Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:17.823


You may note that The Chin made it into Q3, but was unable to turn a lap therein.  That's because at the very end of Q2, he slammed into the inside wall just out of the tunnel, probably due to a zorched tire.

Assuming the team doesn't have to change his engine or gearbox, he'll be starting 10th.

Oh, this is going to be good, this is going to be good...

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May 22, 2008

F1 Practice: Monaco 2008!

Nobody in the harbor today in P2, but both of the Renaults managed to derange their rear wings at Saint Devote, with HWMNBN actually losing his altogether...

...a pity, that.

Lewis Hamilton set fast lap for the entire day in the low 1:15s, which would have put him on the pole (by nearly a half second!) last year, AND would have been the fast lap of the race last year to boot. 

There's something about Monaco that makes the viewer at home realize just how difficult it is to drive a F1 car... probably because the track is so narrow, but it just feels like any car at any time is going to turn itself into carbon fibre shards and scrap metal.  Instead, the driver (usually) manages to keep at least three inches away from the armco barriers... a small amount to us, an infinity of room to the wellbeing of a car.

The loss of traction control did cause some lurid slides today, including one by Hamilton in... Rascasse, I think it was, where his rear suspension was saved from being turned to toothpicks only because of the race curbing.  As it was, he got his left-rear MAYBE an inch away.  Yep, that close.

But wait!  As if that isn't going to be exciting enough, rain is expected both during quals AND during the race.  I've never seen a rain race at Monaco, but in 1996 the race was held in the wet.  Three cars survived to take the checkers, and the car that took third was in the pits when the race ended.

Could be interesting... could be interesting indeed.

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May 21, 2008

World Cosplay Champion?

The Brickmuppet took my advice and blogged on the World Cosplay Championships.  That gives me a reason to post this:

Some may take this as proof that I hate my readers.
Please remember, I had this on my hard-drive.

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SKY GIRLS "Dear Dad..." Pointers

I was wondering why I was suddenly getting comments on posts almost a year old!  Turns out some other poor sucker adventurous soul stumbled onto Sky Girls TV, both Pete and Steven linked to one of my "letters home" posts on the show.

...and Pete mentioned that the he couldn't find my post for the Sky Girls OVA.  Oops.  The link changed when Pixy changed our blogging software to minx... and I didn't notice.  The pictures extend off the main frame, too.  Again, software change.

So, I thought I'd make this post, so the "letters home" posts can be found easily in the future.

The Sky Girls OVA post from January 8th, 2007 can be found here.  There are comments in the hover-text of each picture, but Firefox doesn't display them.  Pity, they were my favorite part of the post.

The Sky Girls TV post from July 30th, 2007 can be found here.

...and keep an eye out for the letter home from the Fishing Trips!  Coming soon...

Oh, but it is...

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May 19, 2008

ARIA's End

Iwon'tcryIwon'tcryIwon'tcryIwon'tcryIwon'tcryIwon'tcryIwon'tcryIwon'tcryIwon'tcryIwon'tcry

Dammit...

Dammit...

Dammit...

*sobbing like a little baby*


No, ARIA... thank you.  Over the course of 52 episodes and one OVA, you've introduced me to a wonderful world, full of wonderful characters, characters that I honestly cared about.  There's no action, there's very little drama (except in some special cases), and some would say there's almost no storyline.

There's just Akari, Aika, Alice, and all the rest of your people.  And that's all that's needed, because you did it right.  I like them.  For the first time in my 15 years of anime watching, I actually wish I could live in the world you've created. 

There's no higher praise than I can bestow on a series than that.  I cannot recommend this show enough. 

Thank you, Jeff, for introducing me to ARIA.  Thank you, RightStuf, for licensing the series.  Heck, I'll even thank Tokyopop for releasing the manga (which has become only the third manga series I've purchased, after a few volumes of Ranma 1/2 back in the mid-90s, and Azumanga Daioh in 2007).

But it's going to be hard to adjust to knowing that there won't be any new stories of Neo-Venezia coming.


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F1 on SPEED: Monaco 2008!

As races go, it usually isn't all that much.  But there is no brighter jewel for a F1 driver to have in his crown than the Grand Prix of Monte Carlo.  David Coulthard's Chin owns a hotel in Monaco, a few drivers (and Spanky Mosley, too) live there.  And it's the only street circuit in Formula 1 (at least until the Singapore race), to boot.  Only Monaco lets you nibble some expensive cheese while a multi-million dollar high-tech whizwagon flies by, merely feet away.

Of course, you have to be very rich or very lucky to have a shot at being THAT close to the track.  Even if you're not one of the megabuckers, though, the grandstands around the track are still closer than any other on the F1 calendar.

Monaco is well-known as the tightest track on the calendar, with absolutely no room for error.  In the past, traction control could keep most cars off the armco barriers, but this year?  Even the slightest fishtail will spell doom, particularly at Sainte Devote, Tabac and Anthony Noghes.  Of course, the Hairpin is the tightest turn in F1 (over 180 degrees, to be exact) and requires special suspensions for the cars to be able to even attempt it.  With a normal suspension, the inside of the front wheels would actually mill their way through the suspension arms.

Thankfully, our friends at SPEED will be bringing us all the action from Monaco!

Coverage begins on Thursday, May 22nd, from 7am to 830am, with live coverage of Practice Session 2.  Note that this is different from every other race on the calendar; usually this is on Friday, but Monaco plays by its own rules.  There's a replay on Friday from 1130a to 1p.

Saturday, May 24th brings us Quals from 7a to 830a, plausibly live.  In the past, Monaco has been known for being a processional, rather than a race, so your qualifying place is tremendously important here.  Of course, with TC missing, who knows?

Sunday, May 25th is the real deal, the Grand Prix of Monte Carlo, from 630a to 9a, LIVE.  See if we get a car into the harbor this year!  There's a replay from 4p to 630p, too, in case you want to watch that other race...

Of course, F1 UPDATE! will keep you up to date on what's happening all week long!

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May 17, 2008

Blogpathy, or "I can't think of anything to post about, so here's some pictures."

Actually, it's not so much that I can't think of anything, but more I'm not feelin' the whole blogging vibe right now.  So here's something interesting I found on Fark...

It seems Giancarlo Fisichella isn't the only one who likes to put things that shouldn't be on top of other things on top of other things:


This is an example of a thing that shouldn't be on top of
other things, on top of other things.


So is this.
The story on this is actually quite interesting.  It's an uncontrolled airport (no tower, in other words), and the alleged "pilot" of the top plane didn't see the other plane on the runway when he came in to land... and landed on top of the bottom plane as it was beginning its takeoff run.  That's some mighty fine flyin' there...

Actually, I would have expected more damage, but I'm a duck... what do I know from planes?

UPDATE: Rule 34 is in effect... this is obviously how they make R/C planes.

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May 16, 2008

Greatest FARK thread EVAR!!!

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May 14, 2008

It's Snowing... Sad Girls Everywhere!

...well, not really.  I got home, made myself some dinner, and settled into the Comfy Chair to watch Mythbusters.  Rerun.  What to watch whilst I dined on tortellini and salad?

Yep.  Kanon '06, DVD 4 just came out (I know I could have ordered it from Robert, but... well, I didn't), so lets fire it up.  Sure, I've seen the episodes before, but it's only while I eat dinner.

Two hours later, the DVD came to an end, and I didn't notice how the time had passed, as is usually the case when it comes to episodes 13-15, also known as "the end of the Mai arc."  I forgot just how GOOD the storytelling is in those episodes... so much so, that I got hooked all over again.

Which is amazing to me.  I've seen the show maybe four times all the way through, and spent a long, long time with it for "...Angel", you'd think I'd maybe be tired of it by now?

I just killed a demon... I'm going to Disneyland!
Nope.  Not by a long shot.  It doesn't hurt that the video quality is perfect, too, even on The Pond's low-quality TV.  There are only a couple of things I can complain about concerning ADV's performance. 

The first is their insistence on translating "Akiko-san" as "Mrs Akiko".  While that might be technically correct, it comes off as clumsy to American ears/eyes/whatever when it's said five or six times in a scene.  The second is the packaging: there's nothing in the DVD box except, well, the DVD.  I would have really liked a booklet of some sort, like what they did with the non-thinpack Azumanga Daioh DVDs.  Budget cuts, I'm sure, but...

Oh well... if those are my biggest complaints, then it's still pretty darn great.

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May 13, 2008

Random Anime Picture #18


Not entirely what she was hoping for...
-ARIA the Origination, ep10

Aika looks like my brain feels.

Over at the Duck U. Bookstore, we've finished the main part of the school year and, with commencement done, bid our graduating seniors "adieu."

Which means we get to slow down, relax a bit, right?  Nope... some summer classes start on Thursday, the rest in June, and in July we'll be getting in the books for the fall semester of the next school year, which starts in August, and then it all begins again.

I had a day off last week, Saturday, which was spent trying to revive Momzerduck's computer (no dice, someone with better skillz and testing equipment needs to work on it)... worked Sunday, will work this coming Saturday.  I'm tired, and my brain doesn't want to work on anything very hard.

Which is why, instead of watching the last two episodes of ARIA, I find myself watching Ramen Fighter Miki.  No brains required (or allowed!).

A more coherent post will come along eventually.

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May 11, 2008

Now THAT'S A Car...


Why do I like to watch ITV's coverage of F1?

Jimmy Clark's Lotus 49, still drivable 40 years on.  A fuel tank with an engine and a steering wheel.  No seatbelt.  Dangerous to drive.

And one of the coolest looking beasts ever.

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F1 UPDATE!: TURKEY 2008!

A terrible bit of driving, an excellent bit of driving, a risky fuel strategy and a broken record... this is the F1 UPDATE! for the fifth round of the Championship!

*TURKISH DELIGHT:  Michael Schumacher was the last driver to win the same race three years running; now Felipe Massa has matched that, with an extra filip.  Not only has Massa won the Turkish Grand Prix three years in a row, he's also had the pole for all three of those races and nearly led every lap of all three to boot.  Think Mr. Massa likes the Istanbul Otodrom?

*TUMBLIN' DICE:  There are times in any season when a team has to gamble on a strategy if they want a chance to improve themselves.  Today, McLaren knew their cars were going to run badly on the soft compound tires.  They also knew that the Ferraris were faster when the cars had equal fuel on board.  So they rolled the dice on a three-stop strategy.  This would give them the ability to run light on fuel the entire race, as well as limit the amount of time they'd spend on the soft tires (remember, FIA regs say the teams have to run both hard and soft tires during a race).  The result of this gamble was clear: Lewis Hamilton wound up 2nd and was charging down hard on Massa.  Heikki Kovaleinninninnie suffered a puncture in the first complex of turns and wound up 12th, so we can't really judge the strategy on the basis of his run.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE:  On the face of it, Massa should win today, but instead, we here at F1 UPDATE! are going to give the award to someone else:

Congratulations to Honda's Rubens Barrichello for breaking Ricardo Patresse's record for most F1 starts all-time!  Even though you finished 14th on the day, you're still the DotR!

*TEAM OF THE RACE: Ferrari.  Obviously the class of the field, though perhaps not by as much as was expected.  Still, 1-3, pole and fast lap by Kimi Raikkonen is pretty darn good. 

*MOVE OF THE RACE:  Thanks to the removal of traction control, this exciting track has become even better.  We had passing going on all over the place all day long, and most of them were contenders for the MotR.  However, a pass for the lead trumps them all.  On lap 24, Lewis Hamilton had a lighter fuel load than Felipe Massa and had to get past the Ferrari to have any chance to make the three-stop strategy work.  Hamilton got a tow down the straight and ate up the space between the two cars in great chunks, then moved inside of Massa.  Both braked late into the turn, Massa tried to close the door on the McLaren, but Lewis was having none of it.  Massa had to jerk his car outside and Hamilton got past... then ran away in a hurry.  Hamilton only had the lead for a few more laps before he had to hit the pits again, it was still a great pass, and well deserves the Move of the Race.

*MOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE:  The glitz and the pagentry of the F1 Circus can never completely mask the taurean aspect of some of the drivers.  For that, we created the Mooooo-oove.  Today, the award was decided before all the cars were through the first turn on the first lap.  Giancarlo Fisichella was, apparently, distracted by something bright and sparkly, and completely neglected to slow down as he rocketed into turn one.  Meanwhile, Kaz Nakajima was just trying to make a left turn, doing nothing wrong at all.  The result?

Believe it or not, that picture just doesn't do the incident justice.  Here's a look from another angle:


Yeesh.  Neither driver was hurt, though the Force India was out of the race immediately.  How about Nakajima's Williams?  What sort of shape was it in?

No rear wing, at least one flat tire, and one of the wings on the airbox ripped off?  Yep, that's pretty impressive!  Congratulations, Giancarlo Fisichella, you just won a Moooooo-ooove, and you're beginning to invite comparisons to the infamous "Fast" Yuji Ide!

*DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

more...

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May 10, 2008

F1 Quals: Turkey 2008!

Ho-hum, another race, another pole for Felipe Massa.  His third in a row, Massa ripped off what would be a surprisingly quick lap at the end for anybody else, but we're coming to expect that sort of thing from the Ferrari driver.  He nipped McLaren's Heikki Kovelainenninninnie for pole at the last second.  It's still the first time Heikki's been on the front row.

Heikki's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, managed to bring his steed into third on the grid, beating Kimi Raikkonnen of Ferrari out by .13 seconds, who in turn shoved Robert Kubica into 5th on his last lap of Q3.

An interesting strategy for the two RedBull drivers, who were only on track long enough to turn one hot-lap each.  Mark Webber managed 6th place, but David Coulthard's Chin couldn't get off 10th.  Still, one has to expect that they've got a bunch of fuel in the tanks, and they didn't use much of it at all, so expect them to get a longer run than might be common.  Whether it'll work or not remains to be seen.  HWMNBN, Jarno Trulli, and Nick Heidfeld, who had been having troubles coming to grips with his BMW all day, finish up the top 10.

The provisional grid:

1    
Felipe Massa             
Ferrari                         
1:25.994   
1:26.192   
1:27.617
2 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes  
1:26.7361:26.290 1:27.808
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.192 1:26.477 1:27.923
4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:26.457 1:26.050 1:27.936
5 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:26.761 1:26.129 1:28.390
6 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:26.773 1:26.466 1:28.417
7 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:26.836 1:26.522 1:28.422
8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:26.695 1:26.822 1:28.836
9 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:27.107 1:26.607 1:28.882
10 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:26.939 1:26.520 1:29.959
11 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:27.367 1:27.012
12 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:27.355 1:27.219
13 Jenson Button Honda 1:27.428 1:27.298
14 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari 1:27.442 1:27.412
15 Timo Glock Toyota 1:26.614 1:27.806
16 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:27.547

17 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:27.568

18 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 1:27.621

19 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:27.807

20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:28.325


The track at the Istanbul Otodrom is driving much different for this race than in the past two.  Part of that, surely, is because of the lack of traction control, but a good portion of the reason is the weather.  In the past, this race has been in August and the ambient air temps have been pushing 95o F, with the track temps well over 110o.  Today, the temps were thirty degrees cooler, and it had rained earlier to boot.  While no rain is expected for the race, the air is supposed to be cool-ish, which is making Bridgestone very nervous: the "soft" tires they've brought to the track (actually the medium compound) aren't very good in cool air.  There's already been reports that they've suffered severe cases of graining.

So, how the teams make their tire choices might be even more important than normal on Sunday.  We'll find out...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:52 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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May 09, 2008

Friday Practice: Turkey 2008

I'm sure it was a fascinating practice session and all that.  I hear that Mark Webber bent his car, which might have been interesting; considering how fragile the Red Bull is, the thing probably shattered into a gazillion pieces.

(UPDATE: here's a screencap...

Hm.  Hard enough to blow the suspension apart, but not hard enough to crumple the nose?  How does that work?)

Unfortunately, the audio/visual team over here at the F1 UPDATE! headquarters bollixed up the recording session, so I got to see a grand total of zero minutes and zero seconds of Friday's Second Practice session.

Oops.

However, all is not lost!  I did find this:


...and how could anybody NOT like a chibi SuperAguri racer?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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