Turkish Grand Prix
It’s been so long (three weeks!) since the last Grand Prix, so I posted a “catch up” entry a couple of days ago.
Anyway, the inaugural Grand Prix of Istanbul is finally here, so here’s the weekend’s schedule:
| Circuit (local) time | EDT (GMT -4hrs) | TV coverage | |
| Friday Practice 1 | 1100-1200 | 0400-0500 | x |
| Friday Practice 2 | 1400-1500 | 0700-0800 | Live on Speed |
| Saturday Practice 1 | 0900-0945 | 0200-0245 | x |
| Saturday Practice 2 | 1015-1100 | 0315-0400 | x |
| Saturday Qualifying | 1300-1400 | 0600-0700 | Live on TSN & Speed |
| Race | 1500-1700 | 0800-1000 | Live on TSN & Speed (pre-race @ 0730) |
[sources: official F1 site; TSN; SpeedTV]
And here’s the top of the points tables (see the whole thing here):
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Turkish Grand Prix – Friday practice
Highlight of first practice session – quite a few drivers spun/slid off because the track is so green
Pedro de la Rosa set the best time of the session @ 1:27.882
Minardi have a new Friday driver – Toccacelo
Still lots of cars spinning / running wide, including CK (more than once), NK, FM, KR, MS, JV, VL, RZ, JM, RB
The circuit was designed by the same person who created the Malaysian track (Herman Tilker), and you can see the similarities.
Turn 8 looks interesting – it’s really four apexes.
There’s also a fair bit of elevation change.
The forecast is for rain “sometime” this weekend; it looks a bit grey & overcast but it’s unlikely to rain during this practice session.
It looks like a lot of debris being thrown up in some corners but it’s actually the paint from the rumble strips!
Quickest drivers: R.Zonta (1:25.583); PdlR; JPM; KR; JB; VL; FA; GF.
New boy Toccacelo is still a good 7secs off the pace and down in last place
[Weekend schedule] [F1 calendar, 2005]
Living for the weekend
The wait is killing me! Three weeks between Grands Prix – I’m getting withdrawal symptoms!
So it’s good to see the Turks are prepared for the race!
Tight security measures have been put in place ahead of the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul on Sunday.
Two thousand paramilitary police will patrol the new circuit, fans will pass through metal detectors on entry and all vehicles will be searched.
Mumtaz Tahincioglu, head of the Turkish Motorsports Federation, said: “Measures we’re taking here for security purposes have been doubled.”
In the last month alone, Turkey has suffered two fatal terrorist attacks.
[BBC]
The Istanbul circuit is brand new, so some of the drivers have been learning the track via games (apparently the new PlayStation game includes it) or video recordings of road cars driving round it. [BBC]
In other news since the last GP:
- Barrichello leaves Ferrari and joins BAR (next season)
- BAR have told Button that he’s on his own if he fights Williams about his contract (to join Williams) for 2006
- Felipe Massa moves from Sauber to Ferrari, which John Watson says “will make Ferrari weaker”
- Cosworth will supply Williams with 2.4 litre V8 engines for 2006
- Leonardo DiCaprio is likely to play the part of Jacques Villeneuve in the 2007 movie about the Canadian world champion and his father, Gilles
Toronto beer festival
10th anniversary Toronto (Fort York) beer festival
Warning: woman driver?
The first woman driver in Formula One?
[I don't know why WordPress has a problem with this; the link is http://www.livejournal.com/community/f1/351446.html]
Basically it’s a dig at Jenson Button for continually changing his mind. See, it’s not funny now.
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