Sepang Weekend Thread

[Kiwi3]

Asp Says:
At public request, I'm split the Sepang and car performance threads back out.

Unforunately, I need to leave the first post, otherwise I'll delete the entire thread, so - erm, carry on...

[Asa]

Rookie 1 just completed their session at Sepang, fastest time is 1:51.096 by Danny Watts.

[Asa]

Rookie 2 session also completed. Nicolas Prost is fastest: 1:50.6.

[Mak]

Neel Jani looking good. 2nd in practice. Danny 1st but with doing 2 sessions prior was able to get most from new tyres, as was Narain. Next practice will be more telling with all on used tyres. Still a long way of last years best lap, 1:47.6.. (1:50.0) was it damp,or just no grip down jet? Duval is also there abouts..

[strider]

Complete list of P2 times:

Pos Driver                Team              Time         Gap
 1. Danny Watts           Great Britain     1:50.038
 2. Neel Jani             Switzerland       1:50.110  +0.072
 3. Narain Karthikeyan    India             1:50.187  +0.149
 4. Loic Duval            France            1:50.277  +0.239
 5. Jeroen Bleekemolen    Netherlands       1:50.363  +0.325
 6. Filipe Albuquerque    Portugal          1:50.404  +0.366
 7. Adam Carroll          Ireland           1:50.559  +0.521
 8. Earl Bamber           New Zealand       1:50.583  +0.545
 9. Clivio Piccione       Monaco            1:50.618  +0.580
10. Fairuz Fauzy          Malaysia          1:50.620  +0.582
11. Daniel Morad          Lebanon           1:50.962  +0.924
12. Ho-Pin Tung           China             1:51.291  +1.253
13. Marco Andretti        USA               1:51.358  +1.320
14. Adrian Zaugg          South Africa      1:51.439  +1.401
15. Felipe Guimaraes      Brazil            1:51.520  +1.482
16. John Martin           Australia         1:51.642  +1.604
17. David Garza           Mexico            1:51.775  +1.737
18. Edoardo Piscopo       Italy             1:51.954  +1.916
19. Satrio Hermanto       Indonesia         1:52.406  +2.368
20. Jin-Woo Hwang         Korea             no time

Impressive effort by Danny Watts, but I would think some other drivers will be able to find more time tomorrow, Adam Carroll for one.

Doesn't Neel Jani have a very impressive record here?

[gomick]

adam carroll has pole for both races - did a 1:47.124 in the 2nd qualifying session...

[Mak]

What has happened to Korea??

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally Posted by Kai

Actually they are, A1GP pole last year was a 1.48.6...

When I said what I said last night I figured there was more to come from the cars in qualifying, (which has been shown in qualifying) which is why I wasnt comparing them to the previous A1 GP car and rather the current specifcation GP2 Asia car, and whilst the fastest A1 GP time this year was 1.5 seconds faster than last year it is still pretty dissapointing. If anything though the cars are more comparable to WSR in terms of pace, they are slower than Formula Nippon which had a pole time this year of 1:43.61. The A1 cars are however quite a bit faster than the Formula Renault V6 Asia times which had a pole of 1:58.429 this year, although that should be expected as the series is just above F3.

[strider]

Originally Posted by gomick

adam carroll has pole for both races - did a 1:47.124 in the 2nd qualifying session...

Sorry to disappoint you, but Adam only has pole for the feature race. Neel Jani has it for the sprint race.

All the drivers were allowed to use power boost for one complete lap, but only once in the four segments. Surprisingly Jani used it to get pole for the sprint race, but even so should be much higher on the grid for the feature, being the qualifying king of Sepang.

Times below.

Sprint race:

Pos Driver                  Team            Time         Gap
 1. Neel Jani               Switzerland     1:47.154
 2. Loic Duval              France          1:47.747  +0.593
 3. Earl Bamber             New Zealand     1:47.779  +0.625
 4. Filipe Albuquerque      Portugal        1:48.930  +1.776
 5. Edoardo Piscopo         Italy           1:49.007  +1.853
 6. Danny Watts             Great Britain   1:49.076  +1.922
 7. Adam Carroll            Ireland         1:49.197  +2.043
 8. David Garza             Mexico          1:49.293  +2.139
 9. Jeroen Bleekemolen      Netherlands     1:49.323  +2.169
10. Narain Karthikeyan      India           1:49.350  +2.196
11. Adrian Zaugg            South Africa    1:49.528  +2.374
12. Marco Andretti          USA             1:49.650  +2.496
13. Fairuz Fauzy            Malaysia        1:49.753  +2.599
14. John Martin             Australia       1:49.998  +2.844
15. Felipe Guimaraes        Brazil          1:50.085  +2.931
16. Clivio Piccione         Monaco          1:50.171  +3.017
17. Ho-Pin Tung             China           1:50.274  +3.120
18. Daniel Morad            Lebanon         1:50.382  +3.228
19. Satrio Hermanto         Indonesia       1:51.423  +4.269
20. Jin-Woo Hwang           Korea           no time

Feature race:

Pos Driver                Team               Time         Gap
 1. Adam Carroll          Ireland            1:47.124
 2. Danny Watts           Great Britain      1:47.340  +0.216
 3. Daniel Morad          Lebanon            1:47.645  +0.521
 4. Fairuz Fauzy          Malaysia           1:47.648  +0.524
 5. Filipe Albuquerque    Portugal           1:47.680  +0.556
 6. Jeroen Bleekemolen    Netherlands        1:47.825  +0.701
 7. Narain Karthikeyan    India              1:47.848  +0.724
 8. Marco Andretti        USA                1:47.866  +0.742
 9. Loic Duval            France             1:47.993  +0.869
10. Ho-Pin Tung           China              1:48.126  +1.002
11. Clivio Piccione       Monaco             1:48.242  +1.118
12. Felipe Guimaraes      Brazil             1:48.323  +1.199
13. John Martin           Australia          1:48.586  +1.462
14. Satrio Hermanto       Indonesia          1:48.839  +1.715
15. Earl Bamber           New Zealand        1:48.866  +1.742
16. Neel Jani             Switzerland        1:48.980  +1.856
17. Adrian Zaugg          South Africa       1:49.061  +1.937
18. David Garza           Mexico             1:49.537  +2.413
19. Edoardo Piscopo       Italy              1:49.885  +2.761
20. Jin-Woo Hwang         Korea              no time

[Mak]

over 1.5 sec's quicker with extra power boost certainly turned qual upside down. Hope it does'nt backfire. They do have a couple of months to get new parts though. Still hope they don't keep it in future as it makes the championship a bit of a lottery. Ireland. Portugal and GB seem tohave made the best from the format.

[RichardRenes]

There may be another factor: new tarmac!!!!

Jeroen Bleekemolen said that there simply wasn't as much grip as expected.

[gomick]

Originally Posted by strider

Sorry to disappoint you, but Adam only has pole for the feature race. Neel Jani has it for the sprint race.

You didnt disappoint me - sorry, forgot they have 4 qualifying segments not the 2...

[Kiwi3]

Sorry perhaps I should have kept the car performance thread separate.

For me I hope the A1GP car will be as quick as GP2 in order to continue attracting top drivers, Italy and Brazil for example...

Entertaining races today, and the best thing for me was confirmation that the new car does allow close racing and overtaking. There won't be any overtaking at Taupo but on decent circuits there will be.

[gomick]

Missed the sprint race - great drives by the top 2 in the feature race, good to see young Andretti doing his thing & John Martin bringing the aussie car home 4th

[jackschmidt]

I am a bit ****ed at the race today. Bad call on penalizing Jeroen and it took them also quite a while before deciding to penalize him for the shunt on Narain. I also don't know why Neel was bumped to the back of the racing grid. Kind of irritated with the new power boot joker lap crap that penalizes quick drivers because they don't have the extra horse power that would not be available for an entire lap in a real race anyway. It's not real performance that is deciding the grid.

Lastly, the word of the day is "box". I had hoped Fairuz Fauzy would get a podium. It would help the Malaysian team gain some sort of prestige if they do it in Sepang. But no... luck had to conspire against him.

I hope Earl Bamber stays in New Zealand. He's a young kid and he's showing good pace. It's a tough feature race and he managed to bring home some valuable points.

Overall, I had hoped for a great Sepang weekend, but what I got was a bit of a mish-mash. Greatly disappointed overall.

[jackschmidt]

Originally Posted by strider

I want to talk about Sepang!

Sure. To add to my dismay, having a pitstop in the sprint race is about the most idiotic thing I have ever seen. It's like having an F1 race in those computer games where you set like a twelve lap race and they force you to have a single pitstop. Too little for a real strategy.

Also, I am getting a little agitated with the mandatory pitstops because it will penalize drivers who have had the misfortune of needing extra pitstops for punctured tyres and nose cone changes. Instead of changing the strategy towards a recovery drive, they have to deal with having to stop more than their competitors. It is an almost immediate guarantee that you're screwed.

[strider]

Originally Posted by jackschmidt

Sure. To add to my dismay, having a pitstop in the sprint race is about the most idiotic thing I have ever seen. It's like having an F1 race in those computer games where you set like a twelve lap race and they force you to have a single pitstop. Too little for a real strategy.

Also, I am getting a little agitated with the mandatory pitstops because it will penalize drivers who have had the misfortune of needing extra pitstops for punctured tyres and nose cone changes. Instead of changing the strategy towards a recovery drive, they have to deal with having to stop more than their competitors. It is an almost immediate guarantee that you're screwed.

I think I agree with all of that, certainly the bit about a pit-stop in the sprint race. I know the reason for not having it in Zandvoort was the weather and in China it was the narrowness of the pit-lane, but the races were all the better for it.

I think a driver who makes an early pit-stop in the feature race should be allowed to change all four wheels and treat that as his first mandatory stop, because, as jackschmidt says, he will already be at a disadvantage, and having to run the tyres for longer than planned won't help either.

As for today, Neel Jani was masterful in the sprint race and Adam Carroll equally so in the feature.

The problems that GBR had were the sort I expected them to have the last (and first) time out. I don't think he collision was really Danny Watts' fault either. It looked to me as though he was unavoidably pincered.

Last, but no means least, John Watson will probably have to issue a public apology before I forgive him for calling Danny "incredibly arrogant" in the pre-race interview with Adam Carroll. He has obviously made no effort to get to know Danny, which is inexcusable for someone in his position.

As Danny said, he and Adam have known each other since they were instructors at the racing school at Silverstone and then raced against each other in British F3. Sure, he may have been taking the mickey out out of Adam gently, but that's Danny. He's always upbeat and positive and his glass is always half-full, never half-empty.

[jackschmidt]

Originally Posted by strider

As for today, Neel Jani was masterful in the sprint race and Adam Carroll equally so in the feature.

This race certainly made me wonder if we are getting a pattern where the pole sitters are poised for an almost an assailable win. I hope not.

Originally Posted by strider

The problems that GBR had were the sort I expected them to have the last (and first) time out. I don't think he collision was really Danny Watts' fault either. It looked to me as though he was unavoidably pincered.

It certainly looked unavoidable. If I were Loic, I would have done the same and if I were Danny, it would have been the same outcome. It's certainly just the way it is. Danny had nowhere to run and Loic almost made the move stick.

Originally Posted by strider

Last, but no means least, John Watson will probably have to issue a public apology before I forgive him for calling Danny "incredibly arrogant" in the pre-race interview with Adam Carroll. He has obviously made no effort to get to know Danny, which is inexcusable for someone in his position.

Actually, I didn't notice this. Primarily because John Watson has quite possibly the worst interviewing skills I have ever seen on tv. They should make an attempt to get someone like Martin Brundle and pencil out Watty.

Originally Posted by strider

As Danny said, he and Adam have known each other since they were instructors at the racing school at Silverstone and then raced against each other in British F3. Sure, he may have been taking the mickey out out of Adam gently, but that's Danny. He's always upbeat and positive and his glass is always half-full, never half-empty.

Certainly I look forward for more of Danny Watts. He's a good kid and has shown some good pace. Katie should keep him.

[strider]

Originally Posted by jackschmidt

Actually, I didn't notice this. Primarily because John Watson has quite possibly the worst interviewing skills I have ever seen on tv. They should make an attempt to get someone like Martin Brundle and pencil out Watty.

Certainly I look forward for more of Danny Watts. He's a good kid and has shown some good pace. Katie should keep him.

To be fair, Diana Binks did the interview and Watson made his comment afterwards during the race commentary.

The fact that it was Diana was doing the interview would have made both drivers more relaxed and jokey, because she has the same job in BF3 and has known them since then.

[Zack]

Team Directory: information about team and its seat holder ..engineering group! .we had incorrect info last weekend ....
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9376/snap2qu9.png

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What a entertaining event by A1GP! plus new online Telemetry is magnificent. Ferrari car is very good and for now at least it seems to be overtaken'able without ugly looks!

Over the weekend i think Ireland was the best Team ... took maximum points and now has healthy lead in championship points table. Its was mix day for Champions Switzerland(most experience team & Driver in A1gp) good in sprint and ended up with silly mistake in Feature race .. over aggressive! From Qualifying France look good but sadly got punch GBR .
What a horrible BLACK day for India First used by USA & Brazil as launching pad! then NED knocks from back! ..all n all it can't get worst then this!

[Lam Pak]

i am so disapoint. on tv the car looks brigt. i dunno who used satires and harsh language not caring who got upset but china a1 team keep slow due to team. china need to change team to win. emergency. ho pin tung is gp2 win driver and team is no getting a pattern.

[nkfan]

poor Narain .... he didnt get a single lap done..

[diabloA1]

Poor Fairuz!

Was running strongly in 3rd for the feature and was closing in on Portugal. A1GP is investigating the radio interference with Team GBR which caused him to pit unnecessarily. Very disheartening for the team given that it is their home race and with the highest turnout ever.

[RichardRenes]

noticed how Jeroen Bleekemolen was a bit slow on the start? After Cheng-du, we appearantly do not trust launchcontrol anymore. (isn't launchcontrol a driver aid anymore these days ?)

Jeroen said he started the car manually, and he isn't as good at it yet as he was with the old car.

[Kiwi3]

Did seem to be a very good crowd at Sepang, what the exact crowd size was.

John Watson is usually ok as a commentator, but has always been poor in the post qualifying and post race interviews. It's downright rude how he doesn't allow drivers to finish answering his questions.