Interesting bit of technical info, apparently, the blown floors used by the Renault powered teams (Lotus Renault with their exhaust in front of the sidepod and Red Bull) use 10% more fuel than the other teams.
Renault blown floor uses 10% more fuel | Racecar Engineering | Race car technology explained
EDIT:
40 minutes 'till the start of qualifying. I’ll update as soon as I can.
HOLY SHIT!
Vettel with a last minute 1:34.870 pipping Hamilton to P2 by a tenth of a second.
First two rows are now exactly the same as in Australia.
On a different note, someone give Kobayashi a competitive car, that kid would be right up there with better machinery backing him up.
ah fuck, I shouldn’t have read this thread yet.
More incredibly…
Huge shocker
BOTH Hispania Racing cars qualified for the race.
LOL
/caps
2 more hours. Just watched the practice runs, Vettel and Webber were sandbagging until the Q3 round.
Get your hype on, we might have rain for today’s race.
Prediction: Vettel wins again
Damn you Sebastian!
That said, since I missed the race, can anyone explain why Lewis was penalized?
I watched it, but didn’t know he was penalized. He was in 3rd and went off the road and then pitted for tires it dropped him to 7th or 8th. Vettel rolled out and Heidfeld kept Hamilton behind him for the first 15 laps or so, after that it was all Vettel after pit stops.
Fernando closed on Massa at the finish, but Massa didn’t pull over. LOL Fred probably pissed.
Alonso was also penalized the same as Hamilton, 20 second penalty added on to their race time - but Alonso didn’t lose any positions after the penalty.
Either way Lewis only had hard tires in the last 17 laps. They must have been banking on it to rain.
Webber is a G. Dude pitted 4 times, did not have a working KERS, set the fastest lap time and went from 11th to 4th. The RB7’s are beasts without a working KERS.
My boy Petrov decided that racing was not his calling, he rather fly 
Which sucks because if you watch the replay he is trying to turn, the wheel must have already been broken long before it fell off.
Great race, super exciting stuff. Can’t wait for Shanghai.
Apparently, Lewis was penalized for doing two moves to block Alonso when you’re supposedly only allowed one. Still don’t understand why that rule is in place though.
alonso smashed into him. The FIA is so stupid sometimes.
also
http://pic.phyrefile.com/s/sc/schumacherm/2011/04/11/2zgar6s.jpg
the rudderless russian!
Renault is looking strong this year… is there technology sharing with them and redbull?
Not sure if they are sharing engine information with one another (or even if that is allowed), but both teams are using the Renault RS27-2011 engine.
You know now that I think about it, I remember Coulthard saying redbull was sharing some stuff with renault.
And sauber and ferrari are sharing too.
Did they ever say why his steering wheel came off? I bet when he launched over that bump, he pulled it off while shitting his pants. Shit is dangerous though, because he went straight back across the track and couldn’t steer to avoid anything.
If you watch the full replay, Petrov wheel must have malfunction long before he took flight. Right when in enters the turn you see his steering wheel turning, but the car doesn’t turn until it hits gravel and falls off due to the impact of the car landing. F1 is dangerous in general. But yes, lucky nothing happened to him or others.
Not sure if that is looking too far into, but that is what I saw.
/edit: Surprised that no one mentioned this.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/4/11928.html
I’m already planning for it.
So, as expected, there’s much hullabaloo over Red Bull’s “flexible” front wing.
First there was the argument on whether or not they were legal and now we have Ross Brawn saying that teams should either copy it or just shut up.
Anybody up watching?
Fierce 20 laps so far.
Button pitted at the same time as Vettel, right ahead of him and stopped in Vettel’s pit, cost him the position since Vettel got out first.
Webber, I don’t know what kind of weekend this guy is having, bad Q, bad race so far.
Wow, Webber recovered for a podium. I guess he just had a terrible first stint, because second half of the race he charged all the way to the front.
Good race for Hamilton.