2012 IRL Season

Tough break for Takuma Sato today. He was heading for a 3rd place finish in Long Beach, but got spun out on the final lap by Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Barrichello had an eventful finish as well, getting tangled up in a major traffic jam that essentially blocked the circuit at the hairpin. He was eventually classified 9th, one place behind Sato. It was a good drive for Rubens, coming up from 22nd.
 
Great race at Long Beach, one of the best street circuits in the world IMHO (although I preferred th original lay-out of 38 years ago). Saturday had LeMans cars racing there along with Indy car qualifying. Quite the spectacle! I think the new Indy cars are quite attractive, far better than the stepped nose, snowplough front winged F1 monstrosities. Rubens and SAto both ran in the top 5 for a while, which I thought was quite impressive.

A very entertaining racing weekend, which everyone should attend at least once.
 
Barrichello finished P10 today after looking very impressive and running P3 at one point, Takuma Sato finished 3rd on F1 watch and I forgot about Justin Wilson, Will Power won but you would think some smart arse would realise 2x2 restarts are pathetic, every time it just ended in full course cautions
 
It was a fun race to watch. Sato made a great pass to get up to third. Will Power is hooked up in his Penske just like Vettel last year.

Jos, I couldn't agree more. 2x2 rolling starts are so anticlimactic and the restarts from a caution just breed more cautions and ruin the flow of the race. However, that seems to be how American sports are run, stop and go.
 
those 2x2 starts need to go at least off restarts. id also like to see a standing start at the beginning of the race. but what a drive by takuma sato! Bourdais needs to replace Ryan Briscoe at Penske or just get a different ride with an actually good team. That dude is talented.
 
Briscoe starts from pole for next week's Indy 500. Barichello starts from 10th. Not too shabby for the Brazilian considering there are cars that haven't got a spot so far.
 
Impressive that he was up so high never having raced an oval before. Only 2 positions behind his legendary teammate Kanaan, who had to have helped a bunch with Barichello's setup.
 
Come on Rubens! I think coverage starts at 4:30 so F1 should be finished by then, if there's a red flag, at most 30 minutes can be missed! What odds can you get on Rubens or Jean Alesi winning?
 
It will only take 10-15 laps for Alesi to go a lap down. No shot of him winning unless all 32 other cars wreck, which is highly unlikely. I don't see Rubens being capable of challenging for a win, but a top ten or even a top five could happen. Wilson maybe for a top 10, he hasnt been great here or on ovals in general. Same goes for Bourdais, who I usually would give good odds now that he doesnt have the snail-like Lotus engine but this isnt his game. Sato has been ridiculously fast at times this season, and if he makes it 500 miles unscathed could finish better than all the other F1 guys. My money is on Marco Andretti though. Andretti looks strong and hes proved he can play the fuel mileage game.
 
Franchitti fastest in Carb Day, Sato was 4th and best of F1 alumni. Rubinho is only 17th and Alesi second last. This was the last practice before Sunday's race. :)
 
Sato did well, Alesi will probably just park after 3 laps anyways, Rubens was just mediocre but starts high up and knows how to race, should be fine. Bourdais also looked solid but they werent really giving us in the grandstands the drivers speeds. Other F1 alumni Justin Wilson seemed to be doing a lot of slow in and out laps and not too many fast ones.

On another note according to EJ Viso the Chevrolet engines have smaller air intakes than the Hondas and suffer on hot days like today. Race day Sunday is expected to be much of the same- could be a concern for the Chevy racers.

Also Esteban Guerrieri won one heck of a Freedom 100. Six or seven drivers running two and three wide into the corners in a small pack, tons of passing. Guerrieri just happened to be out front when Jorge Goncalvez crashed with just two laps left.
 
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