This morning's Practice session was dull as dishwater. The teams didn't get onto the track until 15 minutes had gone by (and we discovered that approximately half the crowd brought airhorns. The other half discovered that they were going prematurely deaf about 1 second later), and after that, the action came slow and spurious.

The high points both came from Parky. He set the fast lap at 1:10.8xx, which was only something like a half-second off the lap record, set with a 3.0L V10. Amazing what they can do with aerodynamics... really helps hold the car to the road, no matter what.

Except when they don't, as Parky wound up flooping about in turn 7. *shaking head* Perhaps the best driver in the history of F1, and he's spinning as much at Fast Yuji. Weird.

Quals were amazingly anticlimactic. Ferrari dominated all three sessions, ending up Parky and Massa, 1-2. Jarno Trulli gave us the laugh of the day, breaking something minor in the rear suspension as he went into the turn 12-13 complex. This resulted in him dragging the legality plank all the way through those turns AND halfway down the straightaway, and as Official First Reader Mallory mentioned to me in an e-mail, "It looked like the Toyota was throwing up." The Legendary Announce Team described it as "not dragging the plank, but running it through a lumbermill." Alas, he went back to the pits and never re-emerged.

The positive surprises of the day would have to be Rubens Barrichello, sitting 4th on the grid; Jack Newtown at 6th; Ralfy-boy rediscovering that the right-hand pedal makes the car go faster and ending up 7th; and American Scott Speed making it out of the 1st session and ending up 13th, a fine result considering the handicaps the Toro Rosso runs under.

The negative surprises, however, are much more... well... surprising. Fernando Alonso in 5th? Kimi Raikkonen 9th? JP Montoya not making it out of the 2nd session? Takuma Sato outqualifying both Trulli AND Glamourboy Rosberg?

They say this track is schizophrenic. After watching quals, I believe it. Should make for a REALLY fun race on Sunday. See ya here then!

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