Weekend Preview: 31 Oct – 1 Nov 2009

The last F1 race of the year and also the final rounds of F2, but the first weekend of the new GP2 Asia season.

Feature Events

FIA Formula One World Championship

– 2009 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
– Yas Marina Circuit
– Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
– (17/17)
– www.f1.com
– with GP2 Asia Series, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Chevrolet Supercar Middle East

The last F1 race of the year, and hasn’t it flown by? Both the Championships have been won so the paddock can let its collective hair down. The only pressure to perform will lie upon those still working on contract negotiations for 2010 – right now only a handful of deals have been announced. There is also the matter of McLaren vs Ferrari for 3rd position in the Constructors’ race, remember the higher you finish the better garage spot you get next season, not to mention the extra squillions from the TV money sharing agreement.

This is the first ever event held by the all-new Yas Marina circuit, another Tilke effort, and it should be a fun one. The first half of the track is fast and interesting, the second half after the chicane is a bit stop/start Mickey Mouse but at least we can look at the LED-lit hotel.. The other thing to note is this is a dusk race starting at 5pm local time, meaning we start in daylight and end at night, a first for F1 though perhaps not so impressive to those in the US who are used to this sort of thing.

UK TV: LIVE on BBC ONE at 12.10pm Sunday

US TV: LIVE on SPEED at 4.30pm ET Sunday.

Other Events

Single Seater:

GP2 Asia Series

– Abu Dhabi
– Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi, UAE
– www.gp2series.com/en/website/2009gp2asia
– Eurosport: Race 1 highlights on E1 at 12pm Saturday // Race 2 live on E1 at 9.30am Sunday

The first round of what is a cut-down GP2 Asia Series this season, rather than travel around Asia they will be restricting themselves to two visits each to Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, which is a shame.
I am not sure what genius at Eurosport thought it would be a good idea to restrict TV coverage of the Feature race to a 30 minute highlights show directly up against live F1 qualifying (albeit the BBC’s pre-qual show).

FIA Formula Two

– Barcelona
– Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
– www.formula2.com
– Eurosport: Race 1 live on E1 at 1pm Saturday // Race 2 live on E1 at 11am Sunday

Season finale of the relaunched F2.

Stock Car:

NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Amp Energy 500
– Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Alabama, USA
– www.nascar.com
– UK TV: SKY SPORTS XTRA at 6pm Sunday
– US TV: LIVE on ABC at 12pm Sunday

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

– Mountain Dew 250 Fueled By Fred’s
– Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Alabama, USA
– www.nascar.com
– US TV: LIVE on SPEED at 3.30pm ET Saturday (not covered in UK)

Sports Car / Touring Car:

FIA WTCC

– Okayama
– Okayama, Japan
– www.fiawtcc.com
– with Asian LMS and FBMW Pacific
– Eurosport: Race 1 live on E1 at 4.30am Sunday // Race 2 live on E1 at 6.45am Sunday
Repeated during the day at more civilised times..

The penultimate rounds of the touring car series is held in Japan, last year Tom Coronel went very well here despite being an ‘independent’ runner against the factory teams – can he repeat that this year?

Asian Le Mans Series

– Okayama
– Okayama, Japan
– www.asian-lemans-series.com
– with WTCC and FBMW Pacific
– Eurosport 1 at 10.15am Saturday and 5.30am Sunday

This test event for Le Mans racing in the Asian market consists of two races over the weekend, I believe the winner of the event as a whole will be whoever wins the second race. It is effectively a 6hr race split in half. It isn’t a big field by LMS standards with only 22 cars, but still as big as the American LMS this year with the added appeal of each class winner gaining an entry to the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours.
If the event is successful it could be the precursor to a new series being developed to run alongside the LMS and ALMS in this part of the world – though you have to say the cancellation of the 2nd leg, due to be held at Shanghai next week, does not bode well. Still, I wish it success.

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Sources
FORIX (sub req.)
Live Sport on TV
RadioTimes.com
Series websites as mentioned
Autosport magazine