Playoffs Time!

So Wednesday, October 1st, the Chicago Cubs begin the 2008 National League Playoffs against the LA Dodgers.  In a year where the Cubs were pretty clearly the best team in the National League, this looks like their best chance ever to go to the World Series (knock on wood).

In tribute, I bring you what is probably the best 'baseball song' of all time.  Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Steve Goodman's "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request":

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:43 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 282 words, total size 2 kb.

Ryoumou Unpatched!

In the final episode of Ikkitousen Great Guardians, Ryoumou was possessed by a magic user, and her dragon taken from her.  She was then sent to fight Hakufu, which would have been an interesting, if short, battle: Hakufu with her dragon is more powerful than anybody.  Ryoumou at full power can (barely) stay with her; without her dragon, I'd think Hakufu'd make short work of Ryoumou.

Anyway, Ryoumou attacks by surprise, punching Hakufu through a concrete floor... and then we see her:

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:47 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 109 words, total size 1 kb.

F1 UPDATE!: Singapore 2008!

A nice night for a drive, eh?  THIS is your F1 UPDATE! for the Grand Prix of Singapore!

*GOOD NEWS:  There are two things that the crew at F1U! dislike intensely... Ferrari and He Who Must Not Be Named.  Well, and mushrooms, but that doesn't have any bearing on the race.  So the sort of day (night?) experienced by Ferrari put a grim, satisfied smile on our faces.  First, there was Massa's disaster of a pitstop, driving away with his fuel hose still attached (and sending one of his mechanics sprawling).  This eventually turned into a drive-through penalty for the Brazillian, for "unsafe release into the pit lane".  Then there was Kimi Raikkonen's unforced error late in the race, catching just a smidge too much curb in the Turn 10 left-right-left complex, sending him arrowing into the wall and throwing away a solid fifth place finish. 

*BAD NEWS:  To counter the smile on F1U!'s face, HWMNBN won the race, his first in over a year, his 20th overall, and his 50th career podium.  Even this win for Renault had a slight bit of grimness to it, however, as it was handed to HWMNBN when his teammate, Nelson Piquet Jr, slammed hard into a wall.  This brought out the Safety Car... one lap after HWMNBN had made his first pitstop.  He was also the first driver to pit, giving him a huge boost in position when everybody else stopped a couple of laps later.  Make no mistake, he was the right driver in the right car today, but jumping from 15th to a win needs help and luck, and he got it.

*SINGAPORE SWING:  Hey, Valencia, were you watching?  THAT'S how you do a new track.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE:  Nico Rosberg.  No, he didn't win, and no, he didn't pick up 14 places like HWMNBN did.  He started 8th and couldn't seem to catch a break back there in the pack.  To make matters worse, when the Safety Car came out, he was very low on fuel and had to pit before the pitlane was open, incurring a 10sec stop-and-go penalty.  But a funny thing happened: his car came alive.  He wound up in the lead by the time the safety car went back into the pits and started ripping off blisteringly fast laps.  When he finally served his stop-and-go penalty, he had opened up such a gap that he only lost a small number of places.  Good driving in the last few laps, particularly with Lewis Hamilton filling his mirrors, solidified his career-best second-place finish.  Nicely done, Wonderboy!

*TEAM OF THE RACE: Williams.  The only team with both cars in the points, and a surprise 2nd place to boot?  On a night when most of the other teams didn't exactly cover themselves with glory, Williams turned in a very solid performance and earned themselves a TotR.

*MOVE OF THE RACE:  On lap 42, Lewis Hamilton was trailing David Coulthard's Chin down the front straight.  Out of the pits came HWMNBN, rejoining the race right in front of the two.  The Chin had to slow down a bit, letting the McLaren pull right up behind the Red Bull.  Heading down the short straight to Turn 7, Hamilton swung to the left side of the track and began to charge.  The Chin edged left to give Lewis less room, but Hamilton just clenched his teeth and bulled through, pulling off a beautiful pass.

*MOOOOOO-OOOVE OF THE RACE:  While in general, we here at F1U! prefer to give these awards to the actual drivers, there are moments that are so egregious that they must be honored.  Today's winners are the Ferrari engineering staff, for creating the stupid "automatic lollypop" that led to this:

If Felipe Massa loses the Driver's Championship by a couple of points, this is why.  Bravo, Ferrari, here's your Moo.

*DRIVER COMMENTS OF THE RACE:

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:53 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 1069 words, total size 7 kb.

F1 Quals: Singapore 2008

Here's the provisional grid for the race:

1	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:44.519	1:44.014	1:44.801
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:44.501	1:44.932	1:45.465
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:44.282	1:44.232	1:45.617
4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:44.740	1:44.519	1:45.779
5	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	McLaren-Mercedes	1:44.311	1:44.207	1:45.873
6	Grizzly Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:45.548	1:44.520	1:45.964
7	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:45.042	1:44.261	1:46.244
8	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:45.184	1:44.441	1:46.328
9	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:45.103	1:44.429	1:46.611
10	Kazoo Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:45.127	1:44.826	1:47.547
11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:45.642	1:45.038
12	Jenson Button	Honda	1:45.660	1:45.133
13	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:45.493	1:45.212
14	David Coulthard's Chin	Red Bull-Renault	1:46.028	1:45.298
15	HWMNBN	Renault	1:44.971	no time
16	Nelson Piquet Jr	Renault	1:46.037
17	SeaBass	STR-Ferrari	1:46.389
18	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:46.583
19	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:47.940
20	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	no time

No writeup today.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 148 words, total size 9 kb.

Rumpole

For fifteen years, Rumpole was the greatest cat ever.  He wasn't the smartest of cats, and there's no way anybody who saw him try to jump on the couch would call him graceful, but he was everything you'd want in a cat.  Affectionate, playful, funny, and almost never grumpy.  Essentially, he was my cat.  When I went to visit Momzerduck and Ph.Duck, he'd always come running and be waiting at the door for me.  When I was sick, say from having a tooth removed, he'd come stay with me at Pond Central for a week or two, just to help cheer me up.  He was my buddy, my pal, and a great friend.  Just a week ago, he came back from the vet, with a diagnosis of "okay, but old."  He'd lost a few pounds since his last visit, and had slowed down dramatically.

Over at Fark, someone made a LOLcat out of his picture that perfectly summed him up:
Today, we had to put Rumpole to sleep.  I can't stop crying.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:42 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 173 words, total size 1 kb.

F1 Practice: Singapore 2008!

Wow.  Just... wow.  I have no idea how the race will go on Sunday, I have no idea how the track will be for actual racing, but I do have one idea...

If nothing else, this race is going to be amazing visually.  Under the track lighting, these cars just glow; to whit:

The lighting gives us great views of other things, too:

The circuit itself looks like a winner, too, challenging and hard, but fair, with a lot of unique bits to give it some flavor (unlike, oh, say, Valencia).  I suspect there's going to be a problem with the pit-out, however.  It releases right into the driving line for Turn 1, and even in P2 today, we saw the Toro Rosso of SeaBass squeeze himself as close to the inside wall as possible because Grizzly Nick Heidfeld was coming down hard on him... and despite SeaBass' giving him as much room as he could, Heidfeld still blew the turn.  It's not a stretch to imagine there being a nasty crash at that point during the race.

But the above pictures just don't do the look of the cars under the lights justice.   When the McLaren first came on track, I gave one of those low whistles of amazement... it was just that stunning.

It didn't rain, which is surprising as it always rains in Singapore, but we did get an idea about what'll happen if it does: plank dust.  As the cars ran over rough spots on the track, they wore away bits of the FIA legality plank, throwing what was essentially sawdust into the air... where it hung around.  It was quite thick in the air at some points, and didn't much want to disperse.   It was almost like a thick fog, which could play hob with the drivers if it really DOES rain.

Still, this is at least a promising beginning for the Grand Prix of Singapore.

Finally, who says the F1 teams can't have a little bit of fun once in a while?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:14 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 366 words, total size 3 kb.

F1U!'s Favorite Car

The Tyrrell P34:

Okay, yes, it looks a little weird to our eyes, but there was a good concept behind it.  Since the biggest cause of drag on a F1 car is the tires, and by the rules you can't cover the tires with bodywork, just make the front tires smaller!  Brilliant!

Of course, by reducing the size of the steering tires, you lose grip.  No problem, just add another set!  Add a well-faired nose, and you've almost managed to cover the tires completely and still stay within the rules.  Now THAT'S how F1 is supposed to work.  Brake cooling was a constant problem however, and the front tires constantly distorted at high speed (being smaller than the rears, they rotated faster.  Stresses easily dealt with by the larger tires became much more pronounced in the 10" fronts).  The car also had unique steering properties... so much so that while Patrick Depailler was able to figure it out, his teammate Jody Scheckter was never comfortable behind the wheel.

In 1976, the P34 actually finished 1-2 at the Swedish Grand Prix, took 2nd at the Japanese Grand Prix in a huge rainstorm, and had some other podiums as well.  While it competed in 1977, shortly thereafter the rules were changed to define a F1 car as having four wheels, consigning the car to the ash heap of history.

Corgi released a diecast car of the P34, which I was lucky enough to own back when I was a young duckling.  Wish I knew what happened to it!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:47 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 259 words, total size 2 kb.

Hamilton's Appeal Ruled "Inadmissible."

The FIA's International Court of Appeals has thrown out Lewis Hamilton's appeal of his 25 second penalty, applied post-race at Spa, on the grounds that the appeal was "inadmissible".

In their decision, the International Court of Appeals cited Paragraph 5 of Article 152 of the International Sporting Code, which states: “Penalties of driving through or stopping in pit lanes together with certain penalties specified in FIA Championship regulations where this is expressly stated, are not susceptible to appeal.”

Even if they were applied in error.

Color me shocked.

So Felipe Massa is now officially the winner of the 2008 Grand Prix of Belgium, Hamilton is dropped officially to third, and the FIA has taken yet another step towards complete irrelevance. 

The person that crossed the line first at Spa, having done nothing wrong, has had his victory taken away... and I'll going to go so far as to say that it was taken away because he was driving the wrong color car. 

We here at F1 UPDATE! will finish this season, but then we'll be taking a long look at whether we want to be associated with this sport any more.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:02 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 195 words, total size 1 kb.

F1 on SPEED: Singapore 2008!

While we wait for a decision to be made on Lewis Hamilton's appeal of his penalty at Spa, let's take a look at the this weekend's race at Singapore. 

This is a race that will consist of a number of firsts: first time at the Singapore circuit, first F1 night race, and potentially the first wet night race (60% chance of rain at race time).  There's not a whole lot we can say about the circuit yet because, unlike Valencia earlier this season, this really is a street circuit, like Monaco, while Valencia's circuit ran around a marina.  As a result, the Valencia track could easily be set up for other races.  The Singapore circuit, on the other hand, runs on working city streets.  Here's the track map:


Happily, this is the first new F1 racecourse NOT designed by Hermann ("I hate passing") Tilke.  It's based off a suggested trackplan by him, though.  The fastest spot on the circuit is expected to be the run-in to Turn 07, where the simulations suggest the cars will be hitting about 200mph before slamming on the brakes.  Twice the cars will be running across bridges over water, between 12 and 13, then 13 and 14.  The run to the first turn takes the cars UNDER a highway, as does the turnout from 21.

Very interestingly, the short straight between 18 and 19 seems to run UNDER a set of temporary grandstands as well.  Hopefully, there won't be any car fires or blown engines at that point.  Yeesh.

Simulations also indicate that this course is going to be the highest downforce track on the calendar... even more than Monaco, which doesn't seem possible.  Lots of 90-degree turns out there, though, which one would expect from a modern city.

Technically, the lighting system is quite complex.  First off, they won't be using the traditional flagging system for the race.  Instead, there'll be 35 LED panels around the circuit that'll act as the flags.  For illumination, however, there'll be between 1500 and 1600 "light projectors" at 2000w each, with one roughly every 10 feet or so.  They'll be using 12 electrical generators to generate the 3.2 million watts required, with almost 109km of cable.  The lights will be hung off of 6km of truss surrounding the track.

They ran a test of the lighting system this past weekend; the above shows the "Fullerton Road" bridge, between 12 and 13.  The lights will be on one side of the track only, to reduce glare on the TV cameras.  Since the cars are only three feet high or so, shadows aren't expected to be a problem.

This'll be a fun one, that's for sure, and SPEED will be bringing us their usual expert coverage.  Friday, we have the usual Practice 2 session, from 830a to 1015a, which will be 930pm local time.  Late night for the F1 Circus!

Saturday, from 9a to 1030a, we get the first ever night Quals session.  Even later night for the F1 boys, as that session won't start until 10pm local!

Finally we get the race on Sunday, from 630a to 9a.  It'll be quite the spectacle, that's for sure, and F1 UPDATE! will be all over it.

See you then, but check in on Tuesday for the results of the Penalty Appeal!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:55 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 555 words, total size 4 kb.

Ikkitousen Great Guardians: This One's For Steven.

I admit, I'm way behind the curve on watching Ikkitousen Great Guardians.  I'm only up to ep05 at the moment, and I'm really not enjoying it all that much.  Sure, sure, there's fanservice everywhere, and that's nice and all, but the creators seem to have a hard time figuring out if this is going to be a serious series (like Dragon Destiny) or a comedy.

As a result, we've gotten a good intro episode, two serious eps (02 and 03), and now two particularly stupid ha-ha episodes (04 and 05).  And when I say "particularly stupid", I mean "as stupid as you can imagine Ikkitousen can be, except worse." 

Episode 05 is so mind-numbingly dumb that I've taken two days to watch 12 minutes of it.  My IQ level, none too high to begin with, plummets every second I watch.

However, it's not entirely bad.  It's a beach episode, and at roughly the 9:38 mark, this appears on the screen:

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 303 words, total size 3 kb.

Cubs Win! Cubs Win!

The Cubs are heading back to the postseason!  Not only that, but this is the first time in 100 years that they've made it in back-to-back years to boot.  AND, just to make it a little bit sweeter, they clinched today by beating the hated Cardinals, 5-4, at Wrigley.

It's a big first step, but it's just a first step... next, they've got to win the first round of the playoffs.  Then the league championship series.  THEN the World Series.

But boy, it was nice to see 'em win today!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:09 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 106 words, total size 1 kb.

Yarrrrrrrrrrrr... *UPDATED*

Avast ye bilge rats!  'Tis International Talk Like A Pirate Day, yarrrr.

UPDATE: 

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:29 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.

No Content

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:54 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 36 words, total size 1 kb.

Random Anime Picture #26: THERE'S Something You Don't See Everyday...

-Ikkitousen Great Guardians, ep02

Ryoumou, laughing?  I don't think that ever happened in the first two series!  Even her biggest fans (like yours truly) would say that she was always something of a Gloomy Gus before this...

Okay, yes, Hakufu just did something dumb (again), but still!  This is a major breakthrough in Mou-chan's characterization!

Wait... did I just imply that Ikkitousen has character development?  The world is surely coming to an end...

UPDATE:

-Ikkitousen Great Guardians, ep03

Ryoumou as a middle-schooler.   My brain asplode.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 95 words, total size 1 kb.

Twofer: A Duck In Anime AND A Random Anime Picture!

-ARIA The Origination, Picture Drama 01

...and from the same source, a Random Anime Picture:

I'm sorry, I don't often break out the Otaku Phrasebook, but I've got to here:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.

The Shortest Trial In History

It was so short that we the jury never even made it into the courtroom.  Plea bargain... we sat around in the jury room for a couple of hours twiddling our thumbs.  It appears, however, that the defendant had a poor attitude towards the legal system, as he apparently caused a little ruckus in the courtroom.  Exciting, yay.  Of course, we weren't there, but that's what the judge told us when he came in to tell us that we were free.

So, my jury duty has been discharged for at least a year, and so ends my fourth experience in the jurist pool... in 10 years.  I'm just lucky, I guess.

Really, I'm not complaining.  This country doesn't ask us for much in return for being citizens... taxes and the occasional stint on a jury.  I'm okay with that.  It's not like mandatory military service or the like.

Though the setup in Heinlein's Starship Troopers seems pretty logical to me*...





^{_{*now let us see how long it takes for the calls of "fascism" to show up.}}

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:35 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 181 words, total size 1 kb.

Those Fools Know Not What They've Done...

I was empaneled for a jury.  The trial begins tomorrow morning.

What fools these mortals be.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 23 words, total size 1 kb.

MOAR ARIA!!!!11eleventy11!

Okay, so they're not new episodes, exactly.  Something called "picture dramas," actually, which were included on the ARIA the Origination DVDs.

A picture drama is more like an comic book with audio.  The seiyuus read their lines over still pictures, in other words.  For a show like, oh, Dirty Pair, this would be awful.  However, this is ARIA we're talking about here: slow-paced, relaxing, casual.  There was hardly any action to animate to begin with (though the animation quality was very good in the final series), so this is perfect.

And the art is pretty solid, too:

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:27 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 236 words, total size 2 kb.

F1 UPDATE!: ITALY 2008!

It never rains at Monza.  Never.  Never ever.  But it did in practice.  It did in Quals.  Did it during the race?  THIS is your F1 UPDATE!

*WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS:  The last time there was a wet race at Monza was 1985.  By coincidence, that was also the first year in F1 for a little independent team from Italy named Minardi.  There have only been four rainy races in the 59 year history of the Italian Grand Prix.  Make it five, as it was so wet today that the race started behind the safety car.  It appeared that Toro Rosso's gamble on a wet-weather setup had paid off, but would Sebastian Vettel be able to hold off the McLaren of Heikki Koveleaninninnie, starting right behind him?  Very quickly it became obvious that the answer had a seriously good chance of being "Yes", as Vettel ran away from the rest of the field when the safety car went in on lap two.  By the end of the first flying lap, the Toro Rosso driver had a two second lead on Koveleinaninninnie, and it was growing every lap.  Then the question became "how much fuel does Vettel have?"  He must be light, how else could he fly away so quickly?  Well, yes, he did have less fuel, but only by a couple of laps... after his pitstop on lap 18, he fell back to fourth, but everybody else still had to stop.  After the leaders had all stopped... Vettel was leading again, by a good 15 seconds.  Lewis Hamilton, who started 15th, was on a one-stop strategy and had closed up on the Toro Rosso, getting as close as one second behind, but he had to stop and disappeared.  Vettel was never challenged again, and cruised to a 12 second win for his first victory, his team's first victory, and becoming the youngest winner in F1 history.

In 2005, Minardi was sold to Dieter Maeterschitz, founder of the Red Bull empire, to become Toro Rosso. 

*YOUTH IS WASTED ON THE YOUNG:  Not only did Vettel win the race to become the youngest winner in F1 history, but with Heikki Koveleaininninnie finishing second and Robert Kubica third, this was the youngest podium in F1 history.  When Michael Schumacher retired after the 2006 season, people said that F1 was doomed.  Then some kid named Lewis Hamilton appeared, and now Vettel, Kubica and Heikki have all won their first races this season.  Michael who?

*DRIVER OF THE RACE:  Duh.  Sebastian Vettel made a grand total of zero mistakes on a slick, slippery track and never had to worry about a serious challenge as a result.  Yes, he had the advantage of driving at the front of the thundering herd, meaning he was the only person to actually be able to see all day, but at any second he could have skidded into a graveltrap or a wall.  He didn't, and completely earned this victory.

*TEAM OF THE RACE:  Double Duh.  Minardi Toro Rosso had the perfect strategy for the race, executed it perfectly, and timed their pitstops to perfection.  Those two stops went flawlessly, and as a result, they were rewarded with a dominant victory.  Toro Rosso has about 1/10th the number of employees of McLaren, and are considered the "junior team" of the two Red Bulls.  Yet Minardi Toro Rosso has entirely crushed their more senior teammates.  Embarrassing for Red Bull, great for F1.  Bravissimo, signores!  Now do it again and we'll start talking about a fourth "big team".  Darn shame SeaBass stalled his car on the grid, otherwise we might be talking about a double podium for y'all.

*MOVE OF THE RACE:  On lap 36, Lewis Hamilton had to go back into the pits to switch from full-wet tires to intermediates.  He was still getting the speed from the heavy weather rubber, but they were quickly going away on him; it wasn't wet enough for them.  Into the pits he went, and on cold tires he was forced to watch Mark Webber steam past him in the first chicane.  Immediately thereafter, the McLaren went ripping off after the Red Bull, and with a grand total of one turn's worth of experience on the Intermediates (which couldn't've been heated to race levels yet), Hamilton outbraked Webber into the second chicane.  Nothing more than a driver at the top of his profession showing what could be done, and how to do it.

*MOOOOOO-OOVE OF THE RACE:  What happens when you take the best drivers in the world... and you remove their brain for a second or two?  You get the Mooooo-oove of the Race.  Today's Mooo-oove goes to Giancarlo Fisichella (again).  On lap 13, he somehow managed to run his Farce India into the back of David Coulthard's Chin's Red Bull in the first chicane (top speed: 45mph) with enough speed to damage his front wing.  The wing, wobbling as he went, stayed on the car just long enough to fall off in Parabolica, sending Fisi straight off into the wall... where his entire car got borked, thereby becoming the first and only car to retire from the Italian Grand Prix.  At his home race, too!  Bravo, Giancarlo, Qui è il vostro premio della mucca!

*DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:12 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 1440 words, total size 10 kb.

F1 Quals: MONZA 2008!

It never rains at Monza.  Never.  Never ever.  So what happened in the Quals session today?

It rained.  A lot.  Unfortunately, it was raining here in Duckford as well.  A lot.  Six inches worth overnight, some reports are saying.

As you can imagine, The Pond's satellite feed was pretty much borked, so I haven't even watched quals yet!  While I'm trying to d/l it as I type this, it's going to take some time.  So instead of waiting, here's the provisional grid:

1	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:35.464	1:35.837	1:37.555
2	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.214	1:35.843	1:37.631
3	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:36.001	1:36.306	1:38.117
4	SeaBass	STR-Ferrari	1:35.543	1:36.175	1:38.445
5	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:35.485	1:35.898	1:38.767
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:35.536	1:36.676	1:38.894
7	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:35.906	1:36.008	1:39.152
8	HWMNBN	Renault	1:36.297	1:36.518	1:39.751
9	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:35.737	1:36.525	1:39.787
10	Grizzly Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:35.709	1:36.626	1:39.906
11	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:35.553	1:36.697
12	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:36.280	1:36.698
13	David Coulthard's Chin	Red Bull-Renault	1:36.485	1:37.284
14	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:35.965	1:37.522
15	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.394	1:39.265
16	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:36.510
17	Nelson Piquet Jr	Renault	1:36.630
18	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:36.653
19	Jenson Button	Honda	1:37.006
20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:37.417

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's Bizarro Grid!  Sebastian Vettel on the pole?  Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen AND Robert Kubica not making it out of Q2?   Three Red Bull cars in the top four?  Vettel becoming the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history?  Inconcievable!

It becomes somewhat clearer when you realize that it's NOT expected to rain tomorrow, so the heavy hitters are probably set up for a dry track.  The other teams, like STR, are probably gambling and dialed themselves in for wet weather, which helped them today, but could kill them tomorrow.

After I watch the quals, I'll throw in some more info here if warranted.  But still... TORO ROSSO???

This is madness.  MADNESS, I tell you.  The mind boggles!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:51 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 338 words, total size 9 kb.