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"The 2007 Formula 1 season"

I want somewhere to stick my thoughts on the Formula 1 season as it progresses so I'm going to do that here. Feel free to join me if you want.

Hmmm, Alonso makes a mistake in sector 2 and misses out on pole position. He would have got. James Allen said that Alonso was quickest in the first 2 sectors but his 3rd was rubbish. The timing screen said that Alonso was quickest of all in sectors 1 and 3 with Raikkonen half a second faster in sector 2.

Hamilton starting 10th which will be tough depending whether he races at all. It all depends on the doctors orders.

Looks like Red Bull has a similar pace to Renault depending on fuel load. Coulthard not so good in the same car as Webber and Fisichella not doing a good job.

It looks certain that Hamilton's lead will be cut tomorrow but by how much, we'll have to wait and see.

Ouch, that was a nasty accident for Hamilton there. It seemed like the inside of the tyre caused the blowout, which could suggest brakes or wheel bearing or perhaps a tyre pressure or deformation causing rubbing on mechanical parts.

Whatever it was, the car speared into that tyre barrier at well over 100mph and stopped sharply. That's a fast left hander he was turning into.

EDIT: Wheel gun problem means the wheel wasn't secured properly. Scary because Alonso was just about to start his fast lap and that was with the dodgy gun.

McLaren and Hamilton with the fastest time of the day but Ferrari faster in the afternoon session, where the cars will do most of the running over the weekend.

Again, it looks like BMW are the 3rd best team out there. Honda with Button had a good run in the 2nd session.

I was a little surprised to see Winkelhock get the drive at Spyker. Maybe he has the money that Klien didn't have. I think F1 has been quite harsh to Klien. He has been decent in his career so far and yet doesn't have a drive. Such is life in F1 I guess.

Looking forward to the weekends action.

This could be a bit of trouble for McLaren. Hopefully, McLaren haven't benefitted in any way or there could be talk of points deducted or even expulsion from the Championship.

Klien has been linked predominantly with the Spyker seat but I'm not sure how much money, if any, he'll give to them and I can't see them paying him to drive the car.

Albers has been crying 'unfair dismissal' today.

I wouldn't be suprised to see Karthikeyan in the second Apyker seat. They've got Sutil doing a great job, so why not have a pay driver in the second seat.

I would think they'd need the extra cash to help their development, otherwise even the Aguris and the Torro Rossos will be ahead of them.

McLaren have been summonsed to the FIA to explain their part in this spying row with Ferrari:

BBC Article

Interesting to see how it pans out.

That's Albers out of Spyker. There had been rumours recently but the teams excuse was that a sponsor of Albers pulled out. Spyker, no doubt, rely heavily on drivers bringing sponsors into the fold.

It is slightly curious though. They let Monteiro go last season, who I thought did a better job and I thought it was because Albers was Dutch. Albers has not performed well and Sutil has been getting the better of him for a number of races now. I would assume performances were a major factor.

Honda had the right tactics considering their position, the problem is, of course, still the car; though at least they have made a improvements. It is weird how Red Bull's performance seems to be so inconsistent, hopefully they'll iron out the dents in the car as woeful reliability aside, it does have some geniune speed. And I hope they can bring out the best in the car, as if there's the same top 8 constantly it does get a tad boring.

McLaren's problems with setup and bad luck with traffic have cost them badly, so the gap may not be as wide as it appears, but if Raikonnen is so resurgent, that creates a few problems as well.

It did seem like Ferrari had an advantage but I believe that Alonso could have won the race or at least have been in front of Raikkonen after the 2nd stop. Alonso was quicker than Raikkonen in that 2nd stage of the race and some traffic problems just hurt him. I just don't believe that Ferrari could turn around that much of a deficit to that kind of advantage.

McLaren did seem to be struggling with the setup though. There was less wind today and maybe McLaren didn't quite adjust to compensate for that change.

BMW have lost a bit of ground but are still ahead of Renault comfortably.

The Honda cars seem good on one stop fuel loads but that really isn't enough as the top 4 teams are just starting to look like locking out the top 8 places. I think only Red Bull could break into that group at the moment as they seem good in some tracks and not so good on others, plus reliability problems as well.

The Championship is looking a bit tighter now but Massa will now be struggling to take it. He'll need to start dominating.

Ralf is probably light but Trulli is probably heavier. Toyota's are going well all weekend so far so I'd say that pace is fairly genuine.

The practise sessions I'd agree with that assessment. Ferrari's were well ahead in practise. They don't look so hot in qualifying but all it takes is for them to have a couple of laps more fuel and it is possible that they do have a significant speed advantage.