Round Twelve: Belgium Review

Greetings Internet,

Well once again Spa Francorchamps has delivered some spectacular racing, between the trees of the Ardennes forest there was some outstanding action today. From the most ballsy overtaking of the entire season and probably won't be beaten for a considerable period of time, then there was the most chaotic and destructive start of the season too. What was rather interestingly missing from the equation was the rain, the same rain that doused the rest of the weekend from FP1 to the end of Q2. The clouds were grey and looming but didn't unleash their wrath.

The overall result may not have been to much of a surprise, with that German Bloke standing on the top step of the podium again - with his team-mate crossing the line behind. But the rest of the field had an eventful and entertaining day, some rather more so than others with varying degrees of success, resulting in the Safety Car paying a visit to the track. Luckily this intervention wasn't as crazy as the GP2 race where mayhem and carnage reigned behind the SLS (in the feature race anyway, haven't seen the sprint race). In between the contact and the overtaking brilliance it was a thrilling race and here, roughly is how things took place.

Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

The Race


Before the start there were questions and a degree of annoyance among the top running teams - complaining that their tyres suffered blistering in Q3, and were unsafe to race on. But this was the result of a setup decision involving camber so was in essence the teams fault, and in reality were not an immediate danger so laps could be completed before changing them. And as per the regulations the top 10 start on the tyres they qualified on unless there was some severe structural damage and would be impossible to run on.

With that matter all settled - not to Adrian Newey's satisfaction, but after all you can't win everything - isn't enough you've got pole and a dominating championship lead... There was an air of uncertainty regarding the rain everyone considered it to be a dry race except amateur meteorologist Wing Commander Petrov who was certain of some precipitation. As is turned out it may not be best to listen to Vitaly's predictions as the clouds grew clearer as the race progressed.

Off the start the Red Bull cars seemed to struggle - Vettel caught it and saved the getaway, Webber however didn't and plummeted down the order. The Mercedes cars made the best start with Rosberg up into 2nd by the La Source. Behind them however things were going to get a whole lot less civilised, Renault Squadron new recruit Bruno Senna found out that Jaime El Incognito was a little more corporeal then his name suggests when he clattered straight into him. Jaime was knocked into Alonso ruining the Torro Rosso's suspension and putting him out. This was far from the end of the contact - Timo Glock drove into Paul Di Resta, who was knocked into Button's rear wing endplate. Then the two Lotus cars connected, almost taking Maldonado's front wing with it.

On the exit of the corner, Senna's wing finally gave up showering the cars behind with the shards, which bombarded Two-Cakes-Up Button's McLaren damaging his wing and severing a wing mirror. But the damage was over for this lap anyway. While Rosberg used the superior straight line power of the Mercedes to claim the lead from his compatriot. With Massa, Hamilton and Alonso rounding the top five.

Nico only managed to hang onto the lead while the DRS was deactivated - so was passed on lap three by Vettel, and Fernando was moving through the field - driving past Lewis on the kemmel straight. Massa was next in line and a rather forceful pass was put into play there into Rivage which opened the door to Hamilton on the run to Pouhon despite being forced rather close to the grass. Alonso rounded up Rosberg on the next lap using the DRS into Les Combes. Further back off camera some contact between One-Stop perez and Buemi resulted in a damaged rear wing on the Torro Ross and a front wing on the Sauber - bringing about Buemi's retirement.

The pits sequence opened with the Red Bull's first to replace the blistered tyres, Ferrari were within a couple of laps with Alonso rejoining right infront of Webber. Mark drew alongside Fernando on the run to Eau Rouge before passing around the outside of the second part of the corner, in the greatest overtaking manoeuvre of the season. However Alonso re-took the position on the following lap through DRS power. In Button's stop he replaced the front wing damaged by parts of Senna's wing on lap one - but had to nurse the damage till the end of the stint dropping him to 19th.

Hamilton came out amongst cars who hadn't stopped yet between Kobayashi and Sutil, he managed to pass the Sauber on the exit of Radillon but Kamui's car had a significant straight line advantage over the McLaren which was running a little too much downforce. Kobayashi moved to the outside of Hamilton as the Brit moved across - contact was made and Lewis was propelled rather significantly into the outside barrier. The armco was rippled and torn while Hamilton initially seemed a little winded from the impact - and the Safety Car was deployed. Martin Whitmarsh seemed to want to shove all the blame in the world at Kamui which is rather uncalled for, it was a racing incident with Lewis more at fault for the crash, but naturally he wouldn't see that.

Alonso and Webber decided not to pit under the Safety Car intervention, and thus inherited the top two positions, while Schumacher had found his way into the top 10 from the final grid slot. On the restart Rosberg unleashed his straight line power on Massa and Button continued his comeback passing Rubens for 10th. But Jenson wasn't done there - next in his sights were One-stop Perez and Wing Commander Petrov who were battling among themselves. Coming into La Source Two-Cakes-Up Button scythed down the outside of Vitaly and kept going to pass Sergio as well - two cars, one corner and the Jenson charge was well under way.

Then after a first half of overtaking and collisions there was a nice period of calm with Vettel now leading from Alonso, Webber, Rosberg and Massa - with Jenson quickly joining the queue. In addition to Button being on a Canadian spec comeback drive, Schumacher was still heading up the leaderboard, now chasing Sutil for 7th.

Button broke the peacefulness with another spectacular pass round the out-side of Massa at the Bus-stop (yes passing happens here but I still don't like the corner - put the old one back), clattering wheels between the apexes. Rosberg was next up and the DRS was barely enough to power past the faster Mercedes on the Kemmel straight - Jenson's most recent pass was followed by a radio message asking where the next car was. A sort of "Right who's next then, I'm coming for you" level of focus and determination.

With 14 laps to go the final round of pit-stops commenced with both Red Bulls going to the harder of the compounds to cover off Ferrari with Alonso on the same strategy - Massa however had to make a double visit to pit lane as a result of a puncture in the first set. Button had already used the harder compound and stayed out a little longer to have a shorted final stint on the softs, his cue to pit was after Vettel having stopped could just drive past on the fresher tyres.

Alonso's pace on the harder tyres was weaker than the cars around him with Webber making a more traditional overtake with the DRS compared to the immense move into Eau Rouge earlier on. He was also falling back towards Jenson who thought he had yet another pass left in him. With Renault Squadron in disarray, as Senna was on demolition duty - the role of formation flying fell to Mercedes as Michael had caught his team-mate. Here was the driver who started last on the grid right behind the one who lead the first lap - illustrating the strength of Schumacher's drive. In equal machinery the DRS gave Michael the edge and 5th position. It turned out Two-Cakes-Up Button did have another pass in him and his victim was Fernando Alonso, who didn't fight to hard as Jenson's softer tyres, raw speed and momentum made the pass inevitable.

The front two were too far away in the closing laps, and Red Bull crossed the line with another victory in the hands of Sebastien Vettel, and welcomed Webber home in 2nd. Jenson claimed a very impressive podium position ahead of Alonso, Schumacher was the top Mercedes on his 20th anniversary in 5th with his team-mate in 6th. Adrian Sutil lead a quiet race displaying Alguersuari levels of stealth to claim 7th, Wing Commander Petrov encountered difficulties on the final lap losing a place to Massa to finish behind him in 9th. Then Pastor Maldonado after a rather controversial qualifying scored a point in 10th.

That German bloke seems to be running away even further with the championship and Red Bull are so far away they could enter the rest of the season on bicycles and still win. But those championships don't matter, here it's bonus points so lets see how they finished...

The Official Bonus Points Championship points winners.

After a fantastic race and a brilliant outside broadcast involving cake, double cake in fact - take that Jenson I had two cakes too... But in between the racing and double word scores points will be awarded and here are the winners from today.

10pts: Michael Schumacher - For coming from the very back to a point where he could pass the early leader to finish 5th on his 20th Anniversary
8pts: Two-Cakes-Up Button - A brilliant drive with a lot of outstanding passes, two at La Source and Massa at the Bus-Stop in particular
6pts: Mark Webber: That pass on Alonso is reason enough - millimetres from a massive accident
5pts: Adrian Sutil: A performance of El Incognito standards scoring points without ever being caught on camera, well with Jaime attacked someone else had to do it
4pts: Pastor Maldonado: After a rather insane Saturday to score his first point of the season from 21st
3pts: Nico Rosberg: For the start avoiding the carnage and taking the lead on the opening lap
2pts: John&Mary: I am going to combine your scores it was an outstanding outside broadcast
1pt: Spa - Francorchamps: For being the best racing track on the planet

The Also Official Penalties Championship

• Bruno Senna - For testing out how incognito Alguersuari actually is be ramming him in La Source
• Timo Glock - For ramming Paul Di Resta also in the La Source collisions 
• Sergio Perez - For attacking Sebastien Buemi off camera which forced the Torro Rosso out of the race

The Still Official Dodgy Dealings Championship

• One penalty point for Martin Whitmarsh for his nonsensical raving about the Hamilton/Kobayashi crash ploughing all the blame at Kamui for a racing incident Hamilton caused. There would have been a penalty point for Hamilton for his initial assessment but he took a fair knock and has apologised claiming full responsibility. 
• Renault Squadron - For replacing Squadron Leader Heidfeld and completely ruining my naming system, I'll have to come up with something for Bruno but these things need to flow willingly or they sound forced

Looking to Monza


After the high speeds of Spa, time for something a little slower perhaps, well not exactly  - Monza is the fastest circuit on the calender and the concluding race to the European season. The ultimate temple of speed and power deep in the heart of Ferrari country, the home of the loyal Tifosi.

The only shame about heading onward to Monza is that it means there is a whole year before we get to visit Spa again, but the Italian GP is an event in it's own right with slipstreaming battles and plenty of potential for overtaking into the various chicanes. It may not be Spa but it is certainly worth looking forward to it is going to be magnificent...

Belgium: Pre-race

Greetings Internet,

The qualifying from a very changeable Spa-Francorchamps has been completed, escaping the rather significant rain shower in the area which made the GP2 race rather entertaining. It was probably the only race I've seen where there were more crashes, retirements and overtaking under the safety car. It's amazing what rain can do to an event. But back to the mains game and just because the F1 session avoided the bulk of the rain they certainly didn't have it easy...

It was a session in drying conditions with a little shower in Q2, but by the time Q3 rolled around the cars were on slicks and something rather unheard of so far this weekend was that there was more than a dry line appearing. It's certainly not dry any more after the recent shower. But now to look back on how the unpredictable conditions ended up producing a rather predicable result at the front, with a couple of changes further down the order.

Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk

Qualifying 

After the final practice session was quite wet indeed from an early morning shower - the track was a long way from any dry running - on rain since FP3 meant intermediates were the natural decision as the surface water has ran off the tarmac. The radar was a flurry of incoming showers predicted for the first section of the session as a result everyone charged to the pit lane exit, in that race Torro Rosso were the champions scoring an early 1-2 in the pit lane duel. Ahead of Virgin Racing and HRT.

The track started to get rather full, but being four miles long there was enough space for traffic not to be too much of a problem, well it wouldn't have been if they all left the pit lane with some space between them all. But racing drivers and teams being the way they are all wanted to be on track ASAP. With that threat of rain on the horizon. This haste must have caused problems in the Mercedes garage as Michael Schumacher on his 20th anniversary of his début found his rear wheel falling off. The car was propelled into the barrier before Rivage and then out of qualifying to a back row starting position

STR topped the time sheets, just by being at the head of the queue and setting the first times, Red Bull were next out and obliterated the time-sheets Webber ahead of Vettel. Before the McLaren pairing took residence up front. With Schumacher in the fence, the field thought they were safe - believing the remaining six relegation positions would fall to the three newer teams. But with the track drying out, and the feared rain not arriving yet the times were tumbling, the concept of safety was rather a tenuous one. There were times in the session when both Saubers were in relegation then the Williams were next to hold position in the drop zone. As the session drew to a close the originally high flying Lotus racing cars had been overtaken by the mid field and knocked out. However that didn't sit well with Kovalainen as rain was starting to fall. Even encountering traffic entering pit lane Heikki dragged the green machine out of the drop zone and into Q2, at the expense of Paul Di Resta.

Q2 started minus both HRT's, Marussia Virgin Racing entries, Di Resta, Trulli and Schumacher. The circuit was a little damper as light rain speckled the intervening period between the two sessions. With the track expected to get wetter as the rain continued, another queue formed at the end of pit lane, and once again it was the Torro Rosso Team that claimed the first two positions, and the initial benchmark times. But their reign was short lived as Alonso claimed the top position. Times were changing rapidly Vettel went fastest ahead of Button and Webber - Fernando down to 4th.

Then we Eau Rouge claimed it's first car, and so far it's only car - (Leal managed to avoid hitting anything when it got him in GP2) - Adrian Sutil took a little too much of the curb on the final part, Radillion, and span off into the inside wall damaging the car to put him out. The debris on the track forced a red flag as it was not possible to send marshals to one of the fastest corners in the world to collect a shattered front wing and rear suspension.

That all cleared up and the rain stopping again, there was a new queue in pit lane - which STR won again, and were joined by the rest of the field - with only six minutes on a drying track traffic was going to be a problem - as they all left at the same time. Alonso spent the outlap whining at the cars around him demanding through some mythical Ferrari superiority that people should let him past, which holding up Kovelainen in the process. Despite his ramblings he managed to go fastest, harnessing the raw power of moaning. Two-Cakes-Up Button was called in, the team thinking he was safely through, but fell down the order and into relegation. Positions were swapping rapidly at the other side of the top 10, Sauber and Torro Rosso were fighting over the top ten places vacated by Button and Schumacher.

It was Perez and Jaime El Incognito who claimed those positions, another spot was almost up for grabs as Hamilton claim close to going out. On his final effort he encountered a collection of cars trapped behind Heikki, both Willams cars were in the way trying to find space and complete a fast lap at the same time. As the Williams cars fanned out in the Bus-Stop Hamilton saw an opening an nudged Maldonado out the way to confirm his place in the top 10. However this didn't end well, further retaliatory contact was made on the exit of La Source - A-la-NASCAR where Pastor attacked Lewis although the Brit also moved at the Williams car. The McLaren was damaged but not severely. The Stewards have reprimanded Hamilton and issued a 5-place grid drop to Maldonado.

Off into Q1 with all division one cars, Renault Squadron back in the final session along with Perez and El Incognito. But the track was now dry, well had a dry line in to run on at least. So it was slicks all round - except Rosberg who tried inters but decided against it. Massa didn't take an immediate liking to the dry tyres running off wide on the exit of Malmedy after a spot of oversteer. Webber set the initial pace with a time, and improved his pace to stay ahead over the chasing pack, Hamilton and Alonso came close but couldn't take pole.

Further back El Icognito and Senna were having exceptional sessions jumping ahead of Fernando and Rosberg. Then the time for the final lap arose and a Webber pole was looking increasingly likely but Hamilton found some extra time and jumped into the lead only to be beaten again by Sebastien Vettel to claim his ninth pole of the season. Rosberg recovered the positions lost to Senna and El Incognito, and Massa found himself in 4th beating team-mate Alonso for the second race in a row. Perez and newly promoted Wing Commander Petrov rounded off the top ten.

The Official Bonus Points Championship Points Winners


From an exiting session who will be given the points from today...

• Heikki Kovalainen - Making it in to Q2
• Bruno Senna - Very solid performance for a first time in the car despite the controversy
• Felippe Massa - For managing to beat the Faster Alonso
• Jaime El Incognito - Very strong qualifying performance 
• Torro Rosso - For winning all the pit lane queues except Q3 which belonged to Alonso 

The Also Official Penalties Championship

Only one penalty has been issued and that went to Maldonado for the contact with Hamilton

The Still Official Dodgy Dealings Championship

I have to award a penalty point to Alonso for his whining in Q2, complaining that no-one was letting him past, well Mr Alonso you don't have any special privileges but what you do have is a penalty point. 

Looking To Tomorrow 

Well this is the Belgian GP so it is going to be epic, even just to look at the racetrack in awe of the spectacle of it all. But the forecast suggests that it may be dry tomorrow so it will be a complete voyage into the unknown to for the grid, and in the place of the unknown is where madness lies - maybe not GP2 levels of madness but still some craziness. However there is nothing certain in the skies above Spa and anything can come out of there, perhaps not sheep but still it's rather unpredictable. 

Under dry conditions, it could be a Red Bull race from the front and another Vettel victory, with the others not too far behind, the rest of the podium could be very close indeed. But regardless of what the conditions throw at them there will be some major points of interest - the major one being Michael Schumacher starting from he very back of the grid in a much faster car than those around them. But there is one problem, unlike previous charges from the back, the charger has had a tyre advantage, this time all the cars around him have fresh tyres having done all their qualifying in the wet so it won't be so easy. 

Things are set up fantastically for an epic race on an epic track, and an outside broadcast too, it is going to be brilliant lets hope that Spa Francorchamps live up to the immensity it deserves.  

Round Twelve: Belgium Preview

Greetings Internet,

After the summer break normal service is to be resumed, there would have been a third Top Gear video during the interval but there was a small matter of a show to do in the meantime - it's fortunate there wasn't a race last weekend or the reports would have been rather sporadic and delayed. But all that has been concluded and another exciting instalment of this year's championship is ready to be played out just across the channel - and then up and east a bit.

And what a racetrack we are returning to - the epic, the wondrous and the magnificent Spa Francorchamps in Belgium. The greatest of all the tracks on the current racing calender - and quite probably on the surface of the calender, there is the Nordschleife and the Mt Panorama tracks but Spa is very special indeed. An event which has been littered with mayhem and excitement of the course of it's existence from multi-car pile ups, and fighting in the pit lane - torrential downpours and a Jordan 1-2. And that was just in 1998. Spa has been the scene for many legendary moments - Hakkinen passing Schumacher while lapping Riccardo Zonta on the Kemmel Straight, the BAR's being destroyed in qualifying in Eau Rouge. Oh yes Spa its the biggy.

Credit to the FIA for the circuit graphic

The Track

Where do I begin, a layout with corners that strike equal amounts of fear and excitement into the minds of anyone who encounters them. Flowing seamlessly through the Ardennes like a snaking meandering river of asphalt greatness, between the hills and walls of trees. Bends that just compel a driver to throw more speed at them and others which make you want to lift off to make sure you emerge out the other side with all four wheels on the car. All in all, Spa has everything you could ever want from a race track - if Spa was a woman then she'd... well anyway I can't be biassed or there would a whole lot of bonus points going somewhere, and the championship would be rather compromised.

Anyway... back to the race track. It has one of the highest average lap speeds of the season, spending 70% of the layout at full throttle through some of the most intense corners of the year. It would be impossible to discuss the Belgian track without drawing the attention to the ominous corner that is Eau Rouge - towering over the support paddock and the GT pit-straight. Rising like a monolithic tsunami out of the ground - a looming wall of tarmac, the prominent feature of the track. The drivers all strive to make the epic corner flat out, current downforce levels make that so much easier but for the smaller less well equipped teams it is a lot more of a challenge.

With Eau Rouge almost straight lined by technological advancement, along with Blanchimont towards the end of the lap the real challenge moves to Pouhon - a double apexed left hander which drops away downhill throughout the corner. Not quite flat in the current cars, although Red Bull are probably getting close - as the demonstrated in Turkey's Turn 8. The mid-speed flowing corners around the Les Combes and Les Fanges sections are equally as enjoyable, as the car hugs the curbs and washes from one corner to the other with effortless synchronized moment.   

But of course, Spa the greatest track in the world has too fallen victim to the cruel and destructive hand of track modification. In some respects it was necessary - to bring the pit complex up to standard allowing more room in the lane and garage space. But to tamper with the actual layout itself is close to sacrilege or something. Agreed adding run-off and replacing gravel-traps with tarmac may have been a good idea considering the size of the accidents seen at Spa Burti and Zonta are prime examples. However re-shaping the bus-stop chicane never quite settled so well - the new interpretation is a shadow of it's former self, slow and cumbersome. Aimed at making overtaking easier, and that has worked, but bring back the pre-2003 version thank you very much.

Now it is time to introduce the video to support the review, filmed not exactly on location but from my living room. Out of all the laps to drive for these features this was easily the most entertaining, it may only be a virtual representation but still it's very pleasurable to hurtle a car through Eau Rouge and round the lap... anyway slight moment there little lost in an earlier thought, bonus points were involved. But that little digression aside here is the video to support the Belgian GP.

It may not have been the fastest of all laps at 1:55 but it was rather enjoyable.

What to Expect


This weekend could see the most dramatic alteration to the form-book since the beginning of the European season. The teams have had a long time to make adjustments and developments to their cars, sure there was an enforced cool down period during that time where no work was to be undertaken but there will still have been a lot of updates and parts to bring to the cars. Add to that data, that this circuit is one of two rather uniquely high speed venues on the calender which plays to the strengths of certain engine suppliers and car downforce configurations. I don't think we'll see a repeat of 2009 where Force India were the quickest team in the low downforce races with Fisichella taking pole and only lost to a KERs pass by Raikkonen. But some mid-field runners may be a little closer to the front.

In division one, the ration of power should remain fairly stable - Ferrari and McLaren have the edge in outright power and straight line speed but Red Bull will have the advantage over the flowing middle sector, making the lap times rather equal. Mercedes could join division one this weekend, given that their car does have a straight line speed advantage over the other cars with one of the most effective DRS systems in the paddock. Down at Renault Squadron leader change is afoot - Squadron Leader Heidfeld has been pushed aside, hardly fair after they nearly set fire to him in Hungary. To take over the seat is Bruno Senna - escapee from HRT last year in their revolving door driver scheme. The motive behind the move is rather questionable as Heidfeld has the highest points score in the team and is more experienced then the improving Wing Commander Petrov.

In the mid-field the competition is very tight, all of the central grid teams will be close to entering the top ten with Renault Squadrons reformed ranks not secure in the final session. The likes of Force India and Williams could go well here, in a group which may be lead by Torro Rosso - all to the detriment of Sauber who could be looking at a challenging weekend. It is this part of the grid along with the newer teams who will be looking to benefit from Spa's infamous weather. The local micro-climate is prone to anything from light drizzle to a monsoon, it is very likely that there will be rain at some point during the three days of running. According to Lotus' twitter page the track has already seen rain today. And that won't be the last shower.

KERs and DRS


Both of these devices will see their maximum effectiveness at a track like this with so much full power running. KERs reached an important milestone here in 2009 where it was the first win directly related to having the system installed, when Kimi passed Giancarlo on the exit of Radillon on KERs power. But with all the cars barring the three bottom teams having the system there won't be that advantage, and with 70% of the lap at full power the allocation could become spread rather thin across the lap. On the other had this long lap could allow for strategic deployment of the KERs power with an array of possible zones to attack in.

Then there is the DRS, in qualifying it will be a major advantage given the amount of time it can be open for on the lap. There has been a ban of the system's use in Eau Rouge for obvious reasons - should the system come open in that corner the size of the resulting accident would be immense. The ban is for safety reasons on the most dangerous corner on the track. However it seems that in the qaulifying sessions the DRS will be available from the exit of Stavelot up to the 'bus-stop'. This contains the rather quick Blanchimont corner - easy under normal conditions but would they want to go through there with the wing open. If it is possible then clearly downforce levels have gone too far.

As for the race itself there is to be one single DRS zone, starting on the exit of the final part of Eau Rouge, radillon corner and will end at the end of the Kemmel straight leading into Les Combes. One of the more active overtaking places on the circuit, which will be aided by the addition of the DRS.

The Belgian GP is one of the most anticipated races of the season, it may not have the ceremony of Monaco or the theatre of Monza but as a race track and as an event Spa-Francorchamps is without equal the atmosphere between the trees in the mountains is unbeatable. Even from my chair - or an outside broadcast sofa the power and expectation of the place leeches through the television. Sure a flowing track can provide processional racing but Spa is very different - with the unpredictability of the weather, the chance of utter carnage and the finest element of danger.

Of all the races in the season the Belgian GP is something very special indeed and there is no better way to bring the summer break to a close... so sit back and revel in the unfolding greatness that is Spa Francorchamps for the 2011 Belgian GP.

Summer Break 2 - More Testing.

Greetings Internet

With Spa still several days away there was time to throw another couple of Blogmobiles around the Test Track and to add to the power lap board which was looking a little empty with only two laps on it - and over the season other cars will be added possibly without the videos being posted unless I can think of a way of incorporating it into the regular schedule or programming is it were.

So this time the two cars that are going to be used are firstly the 2006/06 Champcar World Series Lola - the blogmobile which made it's début at the Spanish GP earlier in the year before being replaced by the DP01 07 chassis from Nurburgring. The second of the cars in this edition is the Subaru Impreza WRC which was to be used in the Monaco video - which ended up being rolled in the Swimming Pool section alleviating it of it's doors and other panels in the process. The 1960's Indycar should have been on the schedule the one that actually ran the lap but I deleted the mod to conserve drive space when I was clearing out the game folder - that and the Subaru is plenty of fun.

There are only two major Blogbmobiles to send round to completed the table of all the cars that have done laps (with the exception of the 60's Indycar). Those being the Epsilon Euskadi EE1 LMP1 car used for the Canadian GP weekend and the Le Mans support video, and then there is the DP01 which is the current Blogmobile which started it's role in Germany and the support video from the Nordschleife.

So here is the newest video - and I know there is room to make the cars go faster, just by being better at the whole thing but, I may end up updating the lap board when I re-do the early laps when a consistent amount of fuels and tyre compound is assigned. Because at the moment the laps are run using the mod creator's default setting for car setup and fuel levels, rather then any consistency.

The Summer break

Greetings Internet

While the folk in the F1 paddock are on their enforced holiday with factories shutting down. Everyone heading off home to enjoy the torrential rains of the British summer. But here in this little corner of the internet I have three weeks to fill while there are no cars on track until Belgium at the end of the month. During this downtime I have a plan, a plan that was dreamt up several race weekends ago but only set in motion over the past couple of days. You see I have several cars that I have used for the various videos across the season, and this gap gives me the opportunity to find out - very scientifically which one is best via a series of challenges. Alas this series really only contains one challenge but there are several vehicles to get through.

So here we have another video, to float in the sea of emptiness that is the summer break. Where I took a convertible Panoz and painted it yellow - for continuity purposes only, well and it looked better in yellow and went for a virtual drive in Italy on a 72km route. Pretty much made the blog's virtual vacation about 50 minutes long before it was back to filming something a little more productive. And to let the testing begin - the things you can do with a virtual recreation of the Top Gear track and a series of race cars.

I''ll introduce now the first video of the summer break - featuring a Panoz Esperante Cabriolet (now in yellow), and the first blogmobile to turn a wheel for the Malaysian GP, the 2010 Indycar chassis. With others yet to come ideally.

Expansion

Greetings Internet,

I know with only nine races to go this a little late in the proceedings and on the whole I'm not entirely sure whether it will last or work out too well - it is more of an experimental thing at the moment. But this little blog has expanded from this corner of the internet into a new, wider world. It is something I have been playing with in my mind over the past couple of races of how to provide a more accessible variation instead of just having the rather long winded posts across a race weekend. At the time I didn't have the technology to make this jump, or more accurately i didn't have a cable to recharge the technology to optimise my presence here and there now.

The blog now has it's own twitter page, I know heady heights indeed - right now there is not a lot on it considering it has only existed for a couple of moments and might not be that active. It's primary purpose is to be used in race and other sessions for a sort of live feed from things here via portable technology - which I can now charge and operate after a considerable amount of time in hibernation...it still thought it was 2008. I sure it wasn't mothballed that long ago but still a long time.

Anyway just to lest the world know, all the very patient people who actually read through my admittedly rather long posts that something else is stirring, and that is is a work in progress to bear with me on that. I am after all just one man with a chair and a cake shortage - yes Jenson I had to buy cake because you haven't sent any

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