Author: Pat W

Delayed Race Notes: F1 Spanish Grand Prix 2009

2009 Formula 1 Gran Premio de Espana Telefonica
Circuit: Circuit de Catalunya
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Coverage: BBC One
Distance: 66 laps

Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)
Race commentary: Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
Pit and paddock reports: Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie

Tyre selection (red): SS / S / M / H

** Disclaimer – These are notes taken during the race. They may or may not make any sense and I have only edited them for brevity, punctuation and grammar. **

** Apologies for the delay in writing up my notes, I have been insanely busy! **

BBC coverage is a GO at 12.10pm UK time. 50 minutes to race start.

We’re straight into a Button pre-recorded package.

Qualifying recap with Ted:
– The last 8 races here have been won by the driver on pole – but KERS may have an effect this year.
– Onboard lap with Button, a very smooth lap. I remember that I didn’t post an onboard lap in the preview because I didn’t write a preview. Oops.

Kimi Raikkonen at the official opening of the Ferrari Store in London. I was in that store a month ago! Not sure why they held the official opening a month after the real opening. He is interviewed while sat in a F430.
– “Not as strong as we should be. You can’t expect anything in Formula 1 it changes so quickly.”
Its quite hard to know what he is saying here.. He says the ice cream thing in Malaysia was a big story out of nothing, he was retired already. Also saying that a budget cap would mean it is not Formula 1 any more.

12:30pm / 1:30pm local time and the pitlane is open for 15 mins to allow cars to run the recon laps and make their way to the grid.

Package: Martin is walking the track with Rubens Barrichello.
There is a big bump on turn in to turn 9 (Campsa), this is where Heikki crashed last year.

Lee is with Alonso: ‘Long race anything can happen.’

Martin is on the grid, a little early perhaps?
He’s noticed the track is more black with rubber on the right-hand side, though the other side is the racing line and supposedly has more grip – says the support race drivers may have laid rubber for their start.

Nicole who is Lewis Hamilton’s girlfriend says lots of words but doesn’t add to the sum knowledge of F1 fans the world over so we’ll gloss over this bit.

Martin is at the back of the grid for some reason.

Bourdais: ‘It’s a tough race here especially to pass, when you start 17th it doesn’t make it easier. Keep plugging away, keep doing what we do, there’s a lot of potential but we didn’t use it this weekend. We’ll try to hang on and do our best.’

Fisichella, how’s it going?: ‘Not great, I had a bad qualifying session with the traffic and the tyres locking. We have some new bits here. I still love this sport, love to drive a Formula 1 car.’

Martin: It’s just as intense down here as it is at the front.

Sutil: ‘Bit difficult here in Barcelona to do anything in the race. Try to push as hard as possible. I’m so happy to race with this team and we’re doing progress.’

Spanish National Anthem
FOM cutting to crowd, drivers on grid, atmosphere. Love it.

Ted’s fuel adjusted qualifying round up.
Predicted stops: Alonso lap 14, Button 15, Barrichello and Webber 16. Massa looking good at lap 18. Hamilton on a 1-stopper.

Ted live with Rubens, you’re faster than Ferrari: ‘Yeah but I don’t have their turbo button and it’s difficult to pass a KERS car.’
Turbo button? Methinks Rubens needs a refresher on what KERS is.

12:50 / ten mins to go: drivers are getting in to their cars

About 5 to go: FOM sweeper logo, BBC hands over to Jonathan and Martin upstairs.

Very low flying by one of the helicopters. The pilot at Spa is a lunatic, wonder if it is the same guy…

START ORDER

Button (pole), Vettel
Barrichello, Massa
Webber, Glock
Trulli, Alonso
Rosberg, Kubica
Nakajima, Piquet
Heidfeld, Hamilton
Buemi, Raikkonen
Bourdais, Kovalainen,
Sutil, Fisichella

It is Nick Heidfeld’s birthday.

Engines are firing and mechanics are clearing the grid, as the Alonso fans go wild at the back of the circuit somewhere.

Formation Lap

All get away cleanly.

Michael Schumacher on pit wall but away from the Ferrari prat perch and by the catch fence instead, sunglasses on, awaiting the cars.

Kimi radio but I really have no idea..

Grid

I still maintain a Formula 1 start is like no other form of racing and that includes the multitudes of other standing starts… Tension…

1.2.3.4.5.hold.GO!GO!GO!

McLaren on grass, Barrichello takes the lead, crash at turn 2!
Toyota spins around and gets hit. STRs involved. Lots of debris.

SAFETY CAR

It was Trulli. Replays. Both Toro Rossos are out and so is Sutil.
Sutil actually avoided another incident at turn one so was in the runoff area, just as he rejoined he had nowhere to go as Trulli speared in front of him. Sutil had no choice but to t-bone him.

Trulli was pushed on to the gravel and it spun him into the pack, which caused the STRs to perform evasise manouvres.. into each other.

4 laps complete (L4) – Safety Car in this lap

L5 RESTART

Alonso vs Webber, Alonso gets ahead briefly but Mark takes it back.

L6 Kovalainen is travelling very slowly. REPLAY of Hamilton passing Piquet for 12th.

L10 BMW is not running KERS at this race. They are running 9th and 11th.

L12 Buemi: ‘I saw a car going over my head, that’s more or less it.’

L14 Button sets fastest lap in 2nd place. Ted predicted Alonso to pit this lap but the Safety Car threw that out of the window.

L15 Ted is reporting now that Kimi’s KERS has broken.

L17 Glock is the first to pit.

L18 Brawn guys are in the pitlane. Button had the lighter car in qualifying and he pits now.
Kimi Raikkonen is slowing! He’s on tickover trying to find somewhere to park.

Only 14 cars remaining, already!

L19 Barrichello and Webber both pit. Where is Button? Miles away!
Rosberg was fuelled a long way from the start and he’s just behind Barrichello in 4th now.

L20 Massa and Vettel both pit.
Order is now: Barrichello, Rosberg, Button, Massa, Vettel, Heidfeld, Kubica, Hamilton, Webber.
Some yet to stop. Webber had a slow out lap.

L22 Radio to Rubens: Jenson has switched to Plan A and you have to make this work.

L23 Kubica pits from 8th, should drop behind quite a few cars though.

L24 Heikki with Lee: Lost 1st-5th gear behind the Safety Car. Coming out of the last turn I lost 6th to 7th as well, I lose the drive of the car but 4th came back so I tried to get back to the pits but it was game over. I’m not going to let this get to me and I’ll fight back even harder in Monaco.

L25 Hamilton radio: If you can keep up with the BMWs we can pass them on the pit stops for a points finish, but you need to keep up.

L26 Kimi with Lee: Something wrong with the throttle control. A the start I couldn’t see the lights because the rear wings are so high.
Rosberg has pitted but I missed it, was it shown? He’s 9th now.

L27 Order: Barrichello, Button, Massa, Vettel, Heidfeld (not stopped), Hamilton (not stopped), Webber, Alonso, Rosberg, Fisi, Nakajima, Glock, Kubica, Piquet
Only 14 runners and Rubens just set the fastest lap.

L30 Bit processional now. We are waiting for strategies to play out.

L31 Barrichello pits from the lead, a very short stint for him. 3 stopper? Button now leads. 6.7sec for Rubens.
Heidfeld and Hamilton have pitted.

L32 Hamilton is out alongside Glock and Kubica and beats them. Kubica trying it on Glock! Martin Brundle says “that’s a very unorthodox place to try a pass”.

L37 Button has a 5 second lead over Massa, who is 1 sec over Vettel, who is 4.1 over Rubens. Webber is right behind Rubens.

L38 Team radio pushing Rubens for fast laps to beat Button.

L40 Ted with Brawn man, is it true you wanted Button to win the race?: ‘ No they have equal chance, their engineers are the ones making the calls this early in the year.

Someone please inform Martin Brundle of the correct way to say Sebastian Vettel’s name. It is not Vett El. He’s nothing to do with Superman.

L42 Hamilton on the radio saying the rear tyres are finished. Massa and Vettel both pit. Massa remains ahead and they rejoin to a clear track.

L44 Radio to Rubens: The two cars ahead stopped earlier than expected. Alonso pits from 4th (was 6th before Massa and Vettel stopped). He is out next to Hamilton – close! And Fernando beats him.
The crowd cheers.

L45 Onboard with Lewis with some dodgy looking front tyres too. He’s faster than Alonso in a straight line but all over the road in the corners.

L46 Kubica and Piquet pit. Brundle says the hard tyres now fitted to Massa and Vettel “are costing them two seconds per lap”, pitting early certainly did not help them. A gift to Brawn! They were close enough to challenge before, not now.

L48 Button pits from a lead of 10 seconds over Barrichello. Rubens leads but has his 3rd stop to make – what is interesting is Button has that lead but needs to spend longer on the hard tyres to Barrichello.
Hamilton pits as well.

L49 Rosberg pits from 6th. Chance of points!

L50 Barrichello pits suprisingly early as he catches traffic. Did he go long enough? Webber follows him in close behind.
Button retakes the lead and Rubens and Mark both take position from Massa and Vettel! That’s the soft tyre for you. Now they are all on the same tyre and all fuelled to the end.

L51 order with 15 to go: Button, Barrichello, Webber, Massa, Vettel, Alonso, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Nakajima, Hamilton, Glock, Kubica, Fisichella, Piquet

L52 Massa is being told to save fuel despite Vettel being all over him.

L56 Radio again, Smedley: “This fuel consumption is too high, we won’t get to the end, we’ll have to pit again.”
Massa: “Well what can I do??”

He might have to give up the place to Vettel to make the end!

L57 Webber slowly catching Barrichello?

L58 McLaren were to beat BMW. Hamilton is now 9th with Heidfeld 7th and Kubica 11th.

L59 Ted is at Ferrari, he says they didn’t get enough fuel into Massa’s car. The computer says they did but they measure the rig after each stop and it was too heavy!

L61 Vettel just can’t get nearer to Massa anywhere. He’s close behind but not close enough. On the plus side it does seem he is able to follow much more closely than the cars could with the old aero rules.

L62 Vettel passes Massa!
Felipe has backed off a lot now, has he given up the place to make the finish? There’s a big gap to Alonso but with 4 laps to go and short-shifting already… hmm.

Jonathan: So they took your advice?
Martin: I hardly think so..

Replay with radio, Smedley: Let him go, let him go, we are a lap short.

Martin: A lap is a lot. I’m gonna get a job as a strategist.

L64 Button laps Hamilton who is 9th.

FINAL LAP
Crowd on their feet because they can see Alonso catching Massa VERY quickly. 6 seconds per lap.

Fernando just drives around Felipe at turn 3. Easy pickings.

BUTTON WINS!

Barrchello 2nd, Webber 3rd
Massa finishes 6th, 1.4s over Heidfeld.

Cool-down lap.

Massa has run out of fuel, he’s parked it on the slow lap!

Parc Ferme
Button climbs on to the car, gets down to hug Rubens.

Four wins for Jenson this year! Slap in the face to all those who wrote him off while he was stuck in crappy Hondas.

Top 3 drivers are in the waiting room before the podium. Rubens says to Jenson “I don’t know how I lost the race.” Button says “I feel for you man.” Just then Mark Webber walks in and says to Rubens “Felipe f***ked up my race”. Ha!

Podium, British anthem.

Dignitaries with trophies.

Champaaaaaagne!!

Race Result

1. Button 66 laps
2. Barrichello +13.0s
3. Webber +13.9s (to Button)
4. Vettel +18.9s
5. Alonso +43.1s
6. Massa +50.8s
7. Heidfeld +52.3s
8. Rosberg +65.2s
9. Hamilton +1 lap
10. Glock +1 lap
11. Kubica +1 lap
12. Piquet +1 lap
13. Nakajima +1 lap
14. Fisichella +1 lap

DNFs
Raikkonen (throttle)
Kovalainen (gearbox)
Trulli (accident)
Buemi (accident)
Bourdais (accident)
Sutil (accident)

Driver Points

1. Button 31 + 10 =41
2. Barrichello 19 + 8 = 27
3. Vettel 18 + 5 = 23
4. Webber 9.5 + 6 = 15.5
5. Trulli 14.5
6. Glock 12
7. Hamilton 9
8. Alonso 5 + 4 = 9
9. Heidfeld 4 + 2 = 6
10. Rosberg 3.5 + 1 = 4.5
11. Kovalainen 4
12. Massa 0 + 3 = 3
13. Raikkonen 3
14. Buemi 3
15. Bourdais 1

Constructor Points

1. Brawn Mercedes 50 + 18 = 68
2. RBR Renault 27.5 + 5 = 32.5
3. Toyota 26.5 + 6 = 32.5
4. McLaren Mercedes 13
5. BMW Sauber 4 + 2 = 6
6. Renault 5 + 4 = 9
7. STR Ferrari 4
8. Williams Toyota 3.5 + 1 = 4.5
9. Ferrari 3
10. Force India Mercedes 0

The next round is the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, for which I hope to write a preview in 24 hours time. Don’t forg

Weekend Preview: 16-17 May 2009

Feature Events

MotoGP

– Grand Prix de France
– Le Mans Bugatti Circuit
– Le Mans, France
– (4/17)
– www.motogp.com

Much as last year the forecast for this weekend is for rain, it could be fun! I have to say I don’t usually enjoy events at this racetrack – the short Bugatti circuit, that is – but last year’s was very interesting due to the different tyre strategies involved. In fact the DTM race at same venue was under similar conditions. Is there a micro-climate we should be aware of?

TV Guide:

UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12:30pm

US – DELAYED on SPEED at 1pm ET

Support races: 250s, 125s, etc.

Other Events

NASCAR All-Star Race

– Lowe’s Motor Speedway
– Charlotte, South Carolina, USA
– (non-points)
– www.nascar.com

Not a part of the Sprint Cup but featuring all of the drivers and teams, this is basically a race for the sake of entertainment and a shedload of prize money. I don’t really understand how it works and quite honestly I don’t care.

TV Guide:

UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 2 at 12.30am Saturday night / Sunday morning, repeated on three times across Sky Sports during Sunday.

US – LIVE on SPEED at 7pm ET Saturday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday), Truck Series (Friday)

American Le Mans Series

– Grand Prix of Utah
– Miller Motorsports Park
– Tooele, Utah, USA
– (4/10)
– www.americanlemans.com

Last week the European LMS held their last round before Le Mans and this week the Americans do the same. Simon Pagenaud and David Brabham raced last week for Peugeot at Spa (Pagenaud won) and this week both are on ALMS duty for Acura in the de Ferran and Highcroft entries respectively.

Of note here is the high altitude of the course which adds an extra dimension to the challenge of the race. The ALMS isn’t in as great a form as it used to be and they’ve had to bring in some GT3 cars as field-fillers, yet while the quantity is down the quality of entrants at the sharp end of each category is as high as it ever was.

Note – while many ALMS races are on Saturday, this race takes place on SUNDAY.

TV Guide:

UK – DELAYED BY ONE WHOLE WEEK to 5pm on May 24th, that’ll be shortly before the Indy 500 then… :stupid:

US – DELAYED at 10pm ET Sunday on SPEED (the race happens at 2.15pm ET)

Support races: Atlantics, Star Mazda, IMSA GT3 Cup, IMSA Lites

DTM

– Hockenheimring
– Hockenheim, Baden-Wurtemburg, Germany
– (1/10)
– www.dtm.tv

At long last the DTM gets started! After what seems like an eternity since the end of their 2008 season in October the German tintops heavily reliant on little aero tabs finally start their season. I’m not sure which genius decided they’d start in May but I suppose it separates them from all the other championships which start in March/April.

Mercedes vs Audi once again then and it looks like the 2-yr-old cars have been ditched, which is great news. It means Kat and Susie can finally demonstrate their known abilities against the rest of the 1-yr-old field, and a well-driven 1yr car can mix it with the current cars and certainly gets noticed. It could be a good year to watch DTM – unfortunately the FTA coverage on MotorsTV has vanished to be replaced with coverage on the pay-monthly Setanta.

TV Guide:
UK – DELAYED at 10pm on Setanta Sports 2

Support: Formula 3 Euroseries


FIA WTCC

– Race of France
– Pau, France
– (4/12)
– www.fiawtcc.com

Pau is a crazy place. Imagine Macau if it only had the narrow part, and fast. The racing isn’t always great but it’s worth a look to check out the precision driving, particularly over the chicanes with walls very close by. Of course it could all get horribly embarrassing very quickly indeed.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Eurosport at 11.45am (race 1) and 1.45pm (race 2).

Support: Formula Master (LIVE between the two touring car races)


Grand-Am Rolex Series

– Laguna Seca, California, USA
– (4/12)
– www.grand-am.com

TV Guide:
UK – highlights at silly o’clock midweek on Five
US – SPEED at 4pm ET


FIA GT

– Adria, Italy
– (2/8)
– www.fiagt.com


BTCC

– Donington Park
– Leicestershire, England, UK
– (3/10)
– www.btcc.net

It’s on!! Donington Park has finally corrected the problems which blighted the running of events between February and this month by realigning the run-off area at the new tunnel and the circuit now has a licence! The BTCC races at Donny are always a lot of fun so make sure you check it out. Those outside the UK can surely get a stream somewhere…

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on ITV4 from 11.30am, they will flash up the race schedule during the programme so that you can plan your day according to which support races you want to watch.

Supports: Clios, FRenault, Porsches, Ginettas


FNippon & JF3

– Suzuka, Japan

* * *
That’s it, if ever if you think I’ve forgotten something please point it out in the comments.

Don’t forget, in addition to these races there are also the final two qualifying sessions for the Indy 500. Third Day qualifying is on Saturday to fill positions 23-33 and on Sunday there is Bump Day as the last-chance qualifying. I’m not sure how many bumps there will actually be, it doesn’t seem like many so unlike last week I won’t be following it all that closely.

I tried an experiment on Twitter on Thursday night. I tweeted some race results, just the top few places, as an idea to promote discussion of series people may not usually follow. It turned out to be a bad idea! It doesn’t work at all on Twitter – but I think it may just work on the blog. I will be writing a test post at some point over the next few days using the format as these Previews and we’ll see how it goes.

Finally, an apology for the lack of updates recently. I am in the final stages of an accountancy course and I have been concentrating on that!

Enjoy your weekend!

Weekend Preview: 9-10 May 2009

Feature Events

FIA Formula One World Championship

– Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Telefonica 2009
– Circuit de Catalunya
– Montmelo, Catalonia, Spain
– (5/17)
– www.formula1.com
– Track Map

The teams have their luxurious motorhomes (palaces?) back, races are at their usual times again, and people actually will actually be on site watching with their eyes – Formula 1 is back in Europe!

Questions to be asked this weekend:

Which teams will choose to run KERS this week? Which teams will have added a new diffuser? Will the crazy-looking wings actually generate passing at what is usually one of the most boring races of the year? This place will be a true test of the new regulations.
Find out on Sunday!

TV Guide:

UK – LIVE on BBC One at 12:10pm with the usual suite of options appearing on the Red Button when the race starts at 1pm.
Qualifying is LIVE on BBC One at 12:10pm Saturday.

US – LIVE on SPEED at 7:30am ET
Qualifying is LIVE on SPEED at 8am Saturday.

Support races: GP2 Series, FBMW Europe, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.
The schedule is here and you can convert to your time zone on the sidebar.

You can listen to a short preview of the event here to get up to speed on the current news.

Other Events

IRL IndyCar Series

– Pole Day for the Indy 500
– Indianapolis Motor Speedway
– Speedway, Indiana, USA
– www.indycar.com

Indy’s long qualifying process starts with the big one, qualifying for the top 11 spots including the pole position! The draw for the qualifying order takes place on Friday night with the first car in line due to start the four-lap average from 12pm ET (I believe?).

After the 11th run the ‘bumping’ begins – the field is limited to 11 positions and the slowest gets knocked out on each faster run.

Repeat for positions 12-22 on Sunday and positions 23-33 next Saturday. Yes, this means if you are quick Sunday but not Saturday you might qualify in 12th with a faster time than the guy in 11th…

Finally, next Sunday is the last chance qualifying of Bump Day when whole field is opened up again and the slowest car regardless of position is bumped off the list.

There is copious TV coverage in the US but I’d imagine this one is best followed online using the radio, live timing and all of your Twitter friends!

TV Guide:

US – Versus has a huge level of coverage from 12:00pm to 6:30pm EDT on Saturday and Sunday with the same again for next week’s sessions.

UK and elsewhere – www.indycar.com live streaming video with live timing (go to the main page and check the options)

NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Southern 500
– Darlington Speedway
– Darlington, USA
– (11/36)
– www.nascar.com

This is another Saturday night race.

TV Guide:

UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 2 at 12.00am Saturday night / Sunday morning, repeated on three times across Sky Sports during Sunday.

US – LIVE on FOX at 7pm ET Saturday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Friday)

Le Mans Series

– 1000km of Spa
– Spa-Franchorchamps
– Francorchamps, Belgium
– (2/5)
– www.lemans-series.com

Peugeot rejoin the series in the final European sportscar race before the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month. They’ll be up against the Lola Aston Martins and the Kolles Audis.

The GT2 battle will be as fraught as ever as well!

TV Guide:

UK – Updates on Eurosport at 11:45am (30 mins) and 5pm (1 hr). Pretty shoddy for a six hour race I must say.

Support races: Radical European Masters, Classic Endurance Racing, Formula Le Mans, British GT

GP2 Series

– Circuit de Catalunya
– Montmelo, Catalonia, Spain
– (1/10)
– www.gp2series.com

F1’s feeder series proper gets going after the diversion of the Asia Series. I have to say I need to do some reading up on who is doing what, and which drivers have been promoted from junior categories, because I’m a little bit behind on my GP2 news! Should be fun though.

TV Guide:

UK – Feature race doesn’t seem to be live on Saturday at all, we have to wait until 8am Sunday to watch it on Setanta Sports 1 followed directly by live coverage of the Sprint race.

This is a major step down in coverage compared to what we have been used to – we have had live coverage of the this or its predecessor F3000 for well over a decade, perhaps nearer two decades. This is not good news.

World Superbikes
– Monza, Italy

Don’t follow it so I don’t know…

* * *
Please note there will be no dedicated F1 Preview for the Spanish Grand Prix as regrettably I do not have time to write one. I have a lot of exam and project work to do so the blog will remain quiet for the next couple of weeks – but I will still be updating my Twitter account!

Weekend Preview: 2-3 May 2009

Feature Events

MotoGP

– Gran Premio bwin.com de España
– Jerez de la Frontera
– Jerez, Spain
– (3/18)
– www.motogp.com

MotoGP’s globetrotting is on hold for a while as the series begins a two month, 5-round European leg with the first of three(!) visits to Spain this season, just as with most seasons. I’m completely out of the loop with MotoGP this year because I haven’t had time to watch the first two rounds, I’m sure I’ll catch up at some stage though.

TV Guide:

UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12:30pm with delayed coverage on Eurosport 2 at 2pm.

US – LIVE?? on SPEED at 6pm ET

Support races: 250cc, 125cc, Red Bull Rookies Cup

Other Events

A1GP World Cup of Motorsport

– Brands Hatch
– Kent, England, UK
– Configuration: Grand Prix
– Track map: Don’t be silly, you know what Brands Hatch looks like
– www.a1gp.com

This is the final round of the 2008/09 A1GP season, a very tumultuous season in which anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Cancelled events, reinstated events, reinstated events that were cancelled, trouble with the cars, trouble with the finances…
It has still be fun racing though and let’s hope they are able to hold a 5th season for next winter!

TV Guide:

UK – LIVE on Sky1 at 1:30pm
NOTE THIS IS SKY 1 NOT SKY SPORTS 1!

US and elsewhere – www.a1gp.com

Support races: Formula Palmer Audi, GT Cup, Lotus Elise Trophy, Formula Junior, Sports 2000, Heritage GT

NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Russell Friedman 400
– Richmond International Speedway
– Richmond, USA
– (10/36)
– www.nascar.com

This is a Saturday night race. According to AUTOSPORT (now in ALL CAPS!) there was a competition and the winner had the race named after him, hence the Russell Friedman 400. Only in NASCAR..

TV Guide:

UK – LIVE on Sky Sports Xtra at 12.30am Saturday night / Sunday morning, repeated on SSX at 5:30pm Sunday.

US – LIVE on FOX at 7pm Saturday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday)

FIA World Touring Car Championship

– Race of Morocco
– Marrakech, Morocco
– (3/12)
– Track map
– www.fiawtcc.com

An all-new event on a street circuit which was only finished a few weeks ago, and which the 3-time touring car champion Andy Priaulx described on Twitter as being “like Monza without the runoff”!

TV Guide:

UK – LIVE on Eurosport at 1:45pm (race 1) and 2:45pm (race 2)

US and elsewhere try here – www.fiawtcc.com

Support races: local series

FIA GT Championship

– RAC Tourist Trophy
– Silverstone, England, UK
– Configuration: Grand Prix
– (1/8)
– www.fiagt.com

This is due to be the final year of FIA GT before the all new FIA World GT series kicks off in 2010, and some of the all-new-spec GT1 cars are on the grid for this race albeit some 3 seconds off the pace of the highly tuned current breed. I’m sure a lot of time will be clawed back as the new cars get into their groove.
I had hoped to attend this race because I’ve never seen a proper sportscar race in person, unfortunately other things have got in the way and I’m unable to make it. As always this will be a 2-hour event.

TV Guide:

UK – Same-day delay in full at 10pm on Setanta Sports 2, with 1hr highlights on Sky Sports on Thursday at 6:30pm and 30 mins on Channel 4 at 7am on the 17th.

Listings for Europe/Middle East.

Support races: FIA GT3 European Championship, FIA GT4 European Cup, Cooper Tires British F3 International Series

Formula Renault 3.5

– World Series by Renault
– Spa-Francorchamps
– Francorchamps, Belgium
– (2/9)
– www.worldseriesbyrenault.com

The series which is a bit like GP2 but not as good heads for the hills of Belgium this week. You need to know about it though because it discovered Fernando Alonso, Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel.

TV Guide:

UK – Race 2 LIVE on Eurosport at 12:45pm, no apparent coverage of race 1 so I’d expect short highlights of it just prior to the green light for race 2.

Support races: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, Megane Trophy

Grand-Am Rolex Series
– Thunderbolt Raceway
– New Jersey Motorsport Park, New Jersey, USA
– www.grand-am.com

UK – highlights on Five overnight in the week
US – 1pm ET on SPEED

Australian V8 Supercars (& F.Ford)
– Winton, Australia

Brazilian V8 Stockcars
– Brasilia, Brazil

Super GT
– Fuji, Japan

Spanish GT & F3
– Ricardo Tormo Circuit, Valencia, Spain

* * *
Do we like the sub-headers? Very Champ Car aren’t they?
These posts are becoming a great deal of work so you may find they are pared back to basics in future weeks.

On a personal note, my area finally gets the Digital Switchover on Wednesday! The wider area has it already but with my town in an aerial blackspot we rely on a repeater transmitter – that transmitter gets switched on the 6th. This should mean I get to play with the BBC’s red button service for F1 and MotoGP, as well as watch ITV4’s coverage of BTCC and Tour de France!