Torro Rosso 1st, Red Bull last

Generally I thought, the cream rising to the top in a very tricky session, though not completely reflected in the final times.

maybe the cream did rise to the top.... but it's just other cream than you expected....

Ferrari and McLaren look very close.

BMW look like they have some speed but only Kubica is showing it.

Well I did expect Kimi to end up ahead of Felipe. It seemed that Kimi's instinctive speed had him well ahead in the first few laps, then by hard work with his impressive-looking engineer Felipe caught up and in the end was quicker. I'd love to know more about Felipe's conversations with Rob Smedley and Kimi's with Chris Dyer.

I am stunned by Toro Rosso's performance. Brilliant work by Vettel and Bourdais.
Wouldn't it be great if things went the same way in the race.

Don't forget that Kimi ruined his last lap which would have been quicker than his previous time.

As for the track, the environment is non-existant. It has no atmosphere at all.

Ferrari seem to be struggling with understeer, but that could look worse than it it due to the track being so incredibly dusty.

Kimi looks totally out of sorts this year... Massa is becoming the team leader at Ferrari. Watching the shots of practice, he seems to be getting a lot of attention from the engineers, a bit like a certain Mr. Schumacher used to.

Vettel and Bourdais were on glory laps with low fuel... they will beat the Red Bulls this weekend but they are going to be back in midfield.

Red Bull should just give up and stick with Toro Rosso... sell RBR instead ;) I wonder if Vettel is having a few second thoughts about moving...!

It totally feels like the US street tracks. Flat with nothing but walls on the left, walls on the right and walls in front. Lap itself is pretty interesting, but visually it's incredibly boring.


Heads-up for TV director: MORE ONBOARDS!!!!

did he have a uniform made from engineering diploma's?

Massa worked very close with MS, perhaps he picked up some knowledge about setup work from it.

Am I the only one in finding this new GP venue a bit underwhelming?

Valencia is a great town and things are really happening there since the 2007 America's cup, but this track is really disappointing to me, just F1 cars running on an semi industrial estate between concrete walls.

Nope this is not what I expected this new venue to be, but let's hope the racing will be exciting.

Some kind of on-board footage anywhere?

dont be silly. It seems the director enjoyed seeing the concrete walls and half hidden cars behind buildings, far more.

These are the slower drivers in each team, with the gap to their teammate, in order of humiliation...

Fisichella 1.57
Heidfeld 1.17
Piquet 0.72
Raikkonen 0.66
Button 0.63
Bourdais 0.60
Rosberg 0.38
Kovalainen 0.34
Webber 0.24
Glock 0.11

Which means absolutlely nothing because we've no idea of fuel loads or setups.

Toro Rosso is team for sale and doing glory laps

As for the track it looks dull from on boards cams. Big concrete half pipe. Hard to tell which city your are in to be honest. But let's leave the judgement untill we see what racing it allows to on Sunday

It's not meant as conclusive, don't be silly.

There are some clues there, that's all. Any driver will beat his teammate in every session if he can, unless the team's running a programme that prevents it. But chances are they ran similar programmes this morning and fuel/tyre comparisons will be this afternoon. And setup is a key part of F1...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzGa5UydqjA

No I very much agree. It's all white walls with some colored curbstones.
Little or no scenery and it all looks the same. Reminds me of U.S. streetraces which I am not particularly fond of.

Good thing is that the track itself seems very good though.

Yeah that track looks a bit underwhelming :-/
After seeing pictures from Valencia (especially at the McLaren launch last year) I thought we were gonna be seeing a new Monaco, but it looks incredibly .... concrete.

It's like detroit expectin in, like, a nice city.

What a sh1t circuit. I thought the days of driving round car lots were over but it seems the Spanish Euro talks sweetly to Bernie.

I cry when I see this and think of the SC's that will ruin a race and possibly someones championship on Sunday - when circuits like Imola, the Nurburgring and soon Silverstone lie dormant. FUF1.

if theres 1 major probem,its that alot of the corners and parts of the track seem to be practically identical,making the job of working out where cars are on the track a near impossibility

Vettel, classy stuff.

Bourdais and Glock, too.

McLaren and Ferrari look pretty even at the moment.

Great sense of speed conveyed by the trackside barriers, I think it looks pretty promising.

To be honest... I quite like it. I've always liked the concrete walls in streetraces. Gives you more sense of speed and are far less forgiving than a runoff

Scenery isn't much I must admit, but hey, the scenery isn't why I watch F1. I think this track might give us some nice racing. I quite like the image of f1 cars between 2 concrete walls.

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=mzGa5UydqjA

Look how Vettel uses the run-off area at 17s and gains a lot time I think. Especially after the bridge you can use the run-off area to accelerate for the next straight.

I guess if you cant bash Alonso, anything Spanish will do hey. Whats wrong with racing within a lot of walls, it sure beats wide open spaces that dont punish big ,mistakes., the types of track that litter the calender these days. This is a genuine tough street circuit, great track. You mention Imola one of the worst and most boring tracks in history. You know ur stuff as usual.

I said this on another forum, thanks to the dirt, its quicker to go off the track than stay on the racing line in places.

My thoughts exactly. It's not Baby Formula after all. Mistakes should be punished.

Who saw - Kimi screwed up his final lap (which was qualy run) or one in the final stint?
It seems the same problem that was in two last race - difficulties with handling and a lot of understeering.

I agree with the sentiment, but the current safety car rules make a mockery of racing.
There is an inverse ratio between the chances of a SC and the chances of a well-merited finishing position.
Mind you, looking on the positive side, the 'lapped car' rule at least means we get to see some overtaking.

Agree about Vettel, very classy, and Ferrari = Mac, should be close .

Bourdais though was 0.63 behind Vettel, that made me think. And with 24 corners on a fast dirty new track, with strict orders not to put it in the wall, that was a real driver's challenge - I had a feeling that any team would be keeping a close eye on how quick their drivers were this morning, especially anyone they're not sure about. Bourdais and Piquet looked a bit rocky, and as for poor Nick...

Exactly. Many people complain at the same time saying that the surroundings are not nice but also that real tracks have gone or on the verge of going out of the calender. Complain about money (I like airwise always critizising Spain) paid to Bernie. But they all avoid to put the comments of the drivers saying is a good and funny track to race. Hey if you want a nice track surrounding you have to ask Walt Disney, not Bernie. Sorry but some people who call themself "real" fans are quite stupid.

Beats Bahrain anyday...

Onboard with Kubica, FP1


edit: fixed link, full lap now

Can anybody who followed FP1 tell us, whether the huge time differences are due to the fact that Vettel et al really got used quicker to the track, or whether it was just a who-drives-last-has-less-dust-and-thus-is-quicker rain-like lottery?

who was the nutcase track invader? only saw the aftermath of that.

My impression was the quick guys were quick all session, and the slow guys slow all session, except Felipe who really improved.

here is the invader, lol:

That's the problem, Kimi is always ruining his last lap, and quite often during qualifying - His race pace can't always retrieve the situation.

Scenery.....?

Jeez guys, don't you have eyes in your heads? Where on earth do you get scenery like this, with the port, the sea, the bridge and a beautiful city in the background? Where can you watch ordinary traffic running parallell to F1 cars? Since it's a street track it's obvious it has a lot of concrete walls, and since it's built in a port area it's even more obvious there will be some storage buildings quite near, but please try to lift your eyes a bit. :\

I liked the track.
Wall proximity really gave me the idea of speed with the on boards.

Seems much better than Barcelona.

Actually - most of this isnt streets - it's tarmac that's been built or rebuilt for the race. It's not Phoenix or Monaco or Long Beach or Surfers Paradise. It's a LOT more like Caesars Palace. I'm liking it more as the practice goes along, but I still wonder what might have been if they had done it a mile down the road at the Palau.

Doug

I like the track... A true driver's challenge... One of the turns looks exactly like Long Beach, CA. The view from the yachts is cool too..

I think a great deal depends on what camera angles they use. I've only been dipping in and out, but they seem to be using more/different cameras in the second session, and that has made the track look more interesting.

Massa is quick at the moment

anybody know where a guy can get live video online?

I think the quali/race day coverage will look a lot better, I've only seen the onboard footage, and from there it looks extremely dull - mainly down to the high concrete walls instead of the armco at Monaco (where you could then see beyond it)

With overhead shots and so on, I'm sure it'll bring the place to life a bit more.

crazy canuck, check your PM's

Mark