Ambitious But Rubbish

…of motorsports is upon us! Yes, after what seems like forever since Hungary, Formula 1 resumes in Belgium this weekend on what is, in my estimation (and no doubt others’ as well) the best circuit in motorsports today, the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes. So far no one can know if tomorrow will see rain or shine, and the weekend has been a mixed bag in that regard, to say the least.

Spa is, of course, the home of the famous Eau Rouge corner, which this year has an extra factor at play. With no refueling drivers will have to tackle the difficult uphill right-and-left turns carrying some 75kg of additional weight compared with past years. As Jenson Button put it, “It will be a buzz. You have to have big balls, and I’ve brought them this weekend.”

What Button hasn’t brought, however, is good luck as he was caught out by late rain in qualifying, ironically a day after telling reporters that McLaren had learnt its lesson on wet qualifying days. He still managed a respectable 5th place, while Hamilton only missed out on pole by less than 1/10th of a second. Webber is on p1, Kubica (!) scores Renault’s best quali of the season with third, followed by Vettel in 4th. Ferrari could only manage very disappointing 6th and 10th places for Massa and Alonso respectively (!). Barrichello will start his 300th grand prix in 7th place, followed by Sutil and Hulkenberg.

Qualifying was marred by quite a few difficulties. Petrov crashed early in Q1 and failed to record a time; additionally four drivers (Rosberg, Buemi, Glock and Shumacher) were hit with grid penalties. The big winners from these position switches are Lotus; Kovalainen will start the race in 13th place and Trulli in 15th. That’s by far the best positions for the Malaysian team this year, even if it wasn’t achieved in the most elegant of ways. Schumacher’s already-known 10-place grid penalty put him in P21, and that should make the race interesting.