Grand Prix 2011 Indian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Is the season over yet?

Unfortunately the answer is no as the F1 circus rumbles onto India for a brand new track, but after problems with the construction of the track, there is a degree of hesitation as not everyone is overjoyed about the prospect of a race there at the current moment in time. Added to the fact that it is another Tilke track, many fans aren't optimistic for an exciting race, but we've been proven wrong before. After all, we thought 2011 would be a close championship!!

Red Bull reasserted itself as the best car on the track after a dominant win in Korea with Vettel taking yet another win as he continues to rewrite the record books in the same way as Schumacher used to, just not as controversially as the elder German. Mark Webber had his strongest races recently pushing Hamilton very hard for second place, perhaps showing that he still has it for next season.

Hamilton put a long list of poor races behind to finish second in Korea after taking his first pole position of the season and it turned out after the race that he was running with tyre bits in the front wing which was costing a good couple a tenths a lap, something which would surely have cost him a true crack at a third race victory of the season, but at the very least it shows that he's getting back to his best, but a split with his partner might explain a less than happy mood recently.

Ferrari are constantly lingering as the team behind the top 2 and they are almost in a race with themselves as they are far quicker than Mercedes but not quick enough (mainly Massa) to challenge the Red Bulls and Mclarens for victories, particularly on a consistent basis after the problems with the EBD after Silverstone.

In the midfield there is a serious log jam as Mercedes, Renault, Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso fight over points and championship places as a lot of money is at stake for 4th-8th in the championship and it's probably the best place to see action at the moment as the racing has been close and extremely well fought with different cars being better at each different circuit with none having the best all round package of the 5 teams. Now even Team lotus is getting involved in the action as they are starting to beat some of these cars on pure pace which will no doubt please the owners, and Kovalainen beating Petrov on pure pace in Singapore would particularly have pleased the team after the rows with Group lotus this season.

No-one knows what to expect from the Indian track, but early reports indicate it's better than previous Tilke tracks, but then it can't be worse than Bahrain and Abu Dhabi really.... We hope so anyway.

For Galahad's superb write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/buddh-international-circuit/
 
Tyre choice is soft (yellow) and hard (silver) which might be interesting. Hards are perhaps 2s slower so maybe even the big teams will need to use the softs in Q1... There is quite of lot of info in the Pirelli link.

Just to confuse everyone though, they are saying that the softs are the prime and the hards the option, so that free practice is on the softer tyres. :s
 
While Red Bull believe this could be the 2nd fastest circuit with an average speed of 235kph, Pirelli believe it will only be around 210kph.

Also I don't know if it's been mentioned but the selection of tyres the teams will have this weekend is different, with team having 6 sets of options (or softs) and 5 sets of primes (or hards), usually it is vice versa with 5 sets of options and 6 sets of primes, this move was made as teams often don't use all the hard tyres resulting in them being wasted.
 
Don't rule it out.

The fact that he will drive in FP1 means he is eligible to drive in the GP, so there may be a late swap.

Doesn't he have to drive on a Saturday session?

I seem to remember Toyota wanted Kobayashi to drive at Suzuka '09 but the FIA said he couldn't because he didn't take part in FP3 or Qualifying, only FP1.
 
Doesn't he have to drive on a Saturday session?

I seem to remember Toyota wanted Kobayashi to drive at Suzuka '09 but the FIA said he couldn't because he didn't take part in FP3 or Qualifying, only FP1.

Think they may have changed that due to the Suzuka 09 situation with Glock, rather than a Saturday session I think you can do any session before qualifying and be eligible to race. Not sure though
 
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