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The 2nd Friday Practice session for Round 17 of the 2008 F1 season at Shanghai.
Transcript
00:00:00We'll see you in just a moment.
00:00:09Right now, boys. Right now.
00:00:13Come on, mate. He's in our race.
00:00:16Come on, mate. He's in our race.
00:00:16Come on, mate. He's in our race. Let's get past him. They touch
00:00:17Let's get past him. They touch
00:00:17Let's get past him. They touch their smoke coming off the
00:00:20their smoke coming off the
00:00:20their smoke coming off the back of the car.
00:00:26back of the car. The Shanghai International
00:00:28The Shanghai International Circuit has attracted motor
00:00:30Circuit has attracted motor racing from all around the
00:00:32racing from all around the world.
00:00:33world. MotoGP, V8 Supercars and A1
00:00:35MotoGP, V8 Supercars and A1 Grand Prix.
00:00:36Grand Prix. But here, this weekend, it is
00:00:38But here, this weekend, it is all about the fifth
00:00:39all about the fifth consecutive year of the Formula
00:00:41consecutive year of the Formula One World Championship.
00:00:43One World Championship. One practice session already
00:00:45practice session already out of the way today.
00:00:46out of the way today. This right now is all about
00:00:48This right now is all about the second 90-minute session
00:00:49the second 90-minute session of the 2008 Chinese Formula
00:00:53of the 2008 Chinese Formula One Grand Prix.
00:00:54One Grand Prix. Hi, everyone.
00:00:55Hi, everyone. Lee Diffie standing in for Bob
00:00:57Lee Diffie standing in for Bob Varsha who is busy in
00:00:58Varsha who is busy in Las Vegas at the Barrett Jackson
00:01:00Las Vegas at the Barrett Jackson Auction and as always,
00:01:01Auction and as always, I'm joined by David Hobbs, Steve
00:01:03I'm joined by David Hobbs, Steve Matchett and track side
00:01:04Matchett and track side is Peter Windsor.
00:01:05is Peter Windsor. Peter will be talking with us
00:01:06Peter will be talking with us all throughout this second
00:01:08all throughout this second practice session.
00:01:09practice session. Speaking of practice, one
00:01:10Speaking of practice, one has already occurred today.
00:01:11has already occurred today. One session that is and let's
00:01:13One session that is and let's take a look at the highlights.
00:01:14take a look at the highlights. Martial arts star Jet Lee in
00:01:15Martial arts star Jet Lee in the Ferrari garage.
00:01:16the Ferrari garage. Congratulating Felipe Massa on
00:01:17Congratulating Felipe Massa on a job well done.
00:01:18a job well done. The others, third place, Robert
00:01:19The others, third place, Robert Kubica there sitting in the
00:01:20Kubica there sitting in the car.
00:01:21car. Lewis Hamilton points lead at the
00:01:22Lewis Hamilton points lead at the moment.
00:01:23moment. The track was definitely green
00:01:24The track was definitely green this morning as Kimi Räikkönen
00:01:25this morning as Kimi Räikkönen found out.
00:01:26found out. Backed off the track here.
00:01:27Backed off the track here. Kept the engine running though
00:01:28Kept the engine running though so he was able to rejoin.
00:01:29so he was able to rejoin. And Lewis Hamilton himself, oh,
00:01:30And Lewis Hamilton himself, oh, used all the runoff.
00:01:31used all the runoff. You can see how dusty the track is
00:01:32You can see how dusty the track is at this time of day.
00:01:33at this time of day. But it wasn't just McLaren
00:01:34But it wasn't just McLaren having problems, here's Toyota
00:01:35having problems, here's Toyota having problems.
00:01:36having problems. Jarno Trulli nearly hits the wall
00:01:37Jarno Trulli nearly hits the wall and Rubens Barrichello getting
00:01:38and Rubens Barrichello getting the Honda all out of shape.
00:01:39the Honda all out of shape. Now, does this look familiar
00:01:40Now, does this look familiar from last year?
00:01:41from last year? Remember, last year's race, Lewis
00:01:42Remember, last year's race, Lewis Hamilton beached his McLaren
00:01:43Hamilton beached his McLaren in this exact same gravel trap.
00:01:44in this exact same gravel trap. Couldn't get it out.
00:01:45Couldn't get it out. Nelson Piquet, Jr., for Renault
00:01:46Nelson Piquet, Jr., for Renault in this morning's practice
00:01:47in this morning's practice session, does the same, but
00:01:48session, does the same, but does manage to break free of
00:01:49does manage to break free of the gravel.
00:01:50the gravel. Back to the championship
00:01:51Back to the championship contenders, Robert Kubica was
00:01:52contenders, Robert Kubica was fifth fastest in the morning
00:01:53fifth fastest in the morning with a 1.36.507.
00:01:54with a 1.36.507. Felipe Massa set the fast time
00:01:55Felipe Massa set the fast time here, which is the
00:01:56here, which is the fastest lap time of the day.
00:01:57fastest lap time of the day. He's going to have to
00:01:58He's going to have to try and get a little bit of a
00:02:19try and get a little bit of a lead.
00:02:20lead. This man here, Lewis Hamilton,
00:02:21This man here, Lewis Hamilton, took the top spot away from
00:02:22took the top spot away from Massa.
00:02:23Massa. Nearly four tenths better than the
00:02:24Nearly four tenths better than the Brazilian.
00:02:25Brazilian. He was the only driver to break
00:02:26He was the only driver to break into the water.
00:02:27into the water. One minute, 35 does not
00:02:30One minute, 35 does not it do to哈哈.
00:02:31it do to hahaha. Hamilton taking to Shanghai
00:02:33Hamilton taking to Shanghai very nicely despite what
00:02:35very nicely despite what occurred last year.
00:02:39occurred last year. We joined this second
00:02:42We joined this second practice session in progress
00:02:43practice session in progress with P.K., as Steve mentioned,
00:02:46with P.K., as Steve mentioned, made that error early on.
00:02:49in japan a week ago he had a very strong run in japan last week coming fourth from 12th on the
00:02:56grid so he did a good staff job very workmanlike set some very quick laps led for a few laps
00:03:02and uh really got very close to kubica and raikkonen who are duking it out for third
00:03:07rushed up up on them but i think he uh spoiled his tires probably as did a lot of people last
00:03:12week but right now he's heading the timesheets on this the second session but a lot of people
00:03:16to go out yet and a lot more people to have a go including of course the the championship leaders
00:03:21hamilton weber well hamilton uh vettel of course have been going as well raikkonen and massa
00:03:27have not been out at all yet in this second session morning time scrolling across the
00:03:31bottom of your screen and uh in case you've looked up a little bit late i'll roll through
00:03:35them for you as we mentioned hamilton massa raikkonen was third fastest ahead of kovalainen
00:03:41kubica posted the fifth fastest time alonso last week's winner and the singapore winner
00:03:46was sixth fastest ahead of nick heidfeld and heidfeld will be hoping to stay where he is
00:03:52certainly in that top 10 bordet pk and sebastian vettel in the top 10 from this morning session
00:03:58but we've got a long way to go we can enjoy the next hour and a half and we say a big hello and
00:04:02welcome to peter windsor thank you very much lee great to be here great to hear your voice too
00:04:08remember some happy times with you back in australia yeah as you say five years this place
00:04:13has just changed dramatically driving to the circuit you would not believe it is the same
00:04:17part of china five years ago it was basically well basically just deserted paddy fields now
00:04:21as a veritable city built up around this grand prix circuit so a very good example of how grand
00:04:27prix race can work very well for a country most of the mechanics a lot of the formula one people
00:04:32looking very bleary-eyed and tired these double headers especially when they're flyaway double
00:04:36headers really taking their toll as you can probably hear my voice is a bit croaky i've got
00:04:40a bit of flu and i actually don't even do any work so you can imagine what it's like for the guys in
00:04:43the garage anyway it'll be an interesting session i think it's one of big big tailwind has built up
00:04:49since the first session this morning it's a tailwind down the main pit straight so what
00:04:53effect that will have on the times and the drivers we will see now well we're looking at robert
00:05:01kubic a bit lurking at the back there's lewis hamilton who's about to jump to the top of the
00:05:05time sheets robert kubic had a good run this morning there's that corner that we saw lewis
00:05:11hamilton go right wide on there in that highlight package when he went very wide on the exit up
00:05:17this is the quickest part of the track there you see the speed coming up on the left there 308
00:05:21kilometers for robert kubic for us this morning we're doing 316 there's old kubic going wide
00:05:28and as we saw from that highlight package the track is very green so this extra 90 minutes
00:05:34will come in very valuable steve one of the talking points from the japanese grand prix was
00:05:38the mixed weather conditions and the cold ambient temperatures i think it's going to be a lot better
00:05:42here it's certainly going to be considerably warmer yeah it is absolutely um it's a very
00:05:49interesting track here now let's just watch robert kubic in the bmw as he locks it up and we're going
00:05:54locked it up and we're going to see we're going to see a lot of this as uh as peter was saying
00:06:00still very green out there on board with kubic's bmw see we're going to see this a lot throughout
00:06:08the weekend a little bit of understeer there as the car went down into that corner but as the car
00:06:14as excuse me as the track picks up pace and there's more rubber laid down we're going to
00:06:19see a lot of cars struggling from understeer
00:06:24okay we'll plan for four time laps but it'll be no problem to do an extra one or two if we need them
00:06:35team communication between reichen and his engineers chris dyer looking at the tire wear
00:06:43tire degradation looking at fuel runs but you see how these cars are moving around and they're
00:06:47going to be moving around an awful lot right throughout the weekend it's a it is a real
00:06:52challenging track this when we first introduced this what five years ago now i wasn't sure about
00:06:56the track the configuration the layout but actually i like it it's a lot of engineering
00:07:01challenge of this track again another very very long straight david well it's a herman tilker
00:07:08design track and it's a very typical herman tilker has those same funny corners got that very tight
00:07:13hair but along at the end of that long straight which is really your best overtaking opportunity
00:07:18in the whole racetrack as they exit here onto the pit straight turn one is a very uh difficult
00:07:25corner to get right must be difficult at the end it is obviously very difficult for the driver so
00:07:28you come in at a terrific pace and then it just gradually slows down all through this long right
00:07:33hand and at his turns one two and three you're looking at and then four is where it suddenly
00:07:38flicks left so you're losing speed all the way through the corner
00:07:44and gently as we mentioned earlier in the highlights program guests of ferrari here this weekend
00:07:53steve we were talking a little bit about the ambient temperatures here it is relatively cold
00:07:57they were expecting about a week ago it to be very hot here but it's not the ambience
00:08:01a little bit down and that could again be a problem in terms of one lap speed for ferrari
00:08:06because guess what the compounds and the constructions here brought here by bridgetown
00:08:10even harder than they were in fuji we've got the hardest you can possibly go on the scale here
00:08:15and right now ferrari will be hoping for much hotter weather than we have and we saw in fuji
00:08:19how big an issue that can become everybody locking up going into the first corner there i think the
00:08:23only guy that didn't lock up is heki kovalainen and that's because he wondered why nobody else
00:08:27was breaking and decided that he would break first but uh it is going to be an issue i think
00:08:32if the weather continues to be as cool as this and there is some rain predicted for tomorrow
00:08:37you're right peter these tires are very hard we're going to see a lot of lateral load put
00:08:42through these tires as well something we saw at uh fuji as well acceleration those traction events
00:08:50where the car's got a lot of lateral load on it it has a lot of lateral load going into turn one
00:08:54turn two around there he's got a great mixture of slow speed corners
00:08:59as you see that that's almost exactly the same spot that his teammate went off this morning
00:09:07yeah he's got slow speed corners some fast quick corners some long straights as we've
00:09:12said before really difficult to get the car set up here you want to try and put softer springs
00:09:18on the back of the car to help with the traction give better traction out of those slow speed
00:09:22corners conversely you want some relatively stiff springs on the front to try and give that quick
00:09:28change of direction around seven eight and down into nine and then of course you want to take
00:09:34the wing off as we saw at japan there for that straight because we've got another very long two
00:09:41long straights here actually but certainly that long straight as you come out of that turn 13
00:09:46down into turn 14 very long straight so a real mixture a real challenge for the drivers and
00:09:52the engineers and despite that spin from timo glock he is third fastest at the moment behind
00:09:58sebastian vettel who was out with the softer of the two compounds of tires lewis hamilton still
00:10:04the fastest at the moment and jano truly in fourth so a good strong start to friday practice
00:10:11for the toyotas we'll be back speeds coverage of the fia formula one world championship is
00:10:18brought to you by bridgestone passion for excellence
00:10:30we are back at the shanghai international circuit second practice session continues
00:10:3590 minutes in total and mclaren mercedes lewis hamilton the championship leader
00:10:40has just improved his own time he's setting the pace at a 1 35 7 over
00:10:45heikki kovalainen at a 1 36 7 9 so it's mclaren mercedes 1 2
00:10:50vettel's been pushed back to third glock and truly
00:10:57speaking of kovalainen
00:11:02similar problems but now i have massive rear oversteer the rear grip is very poor
00:11:11but still front giving up in the middle of the corners
00:11:16what i noticed i was on the outlap for behind
00:11:20who's there very close and i couldn't gain any any centimeter any meter in the toe
00:11:30bmw saubers robert kubica not all that pleased and now says he couldn't gain any centimeters
00:11:36in the toe which is unusual with these long long straights you can really get a good toe
00:11:41off these cars so their aerodynamic package must be just a little bit off somewhere
00:11:45because at the moment he's down there in the 17th spot before we got to kubica's radio transmission
00:11:51we were leading to kovalainen and peter at the previous grand prix kovalainen was performing
00:11:57well we saw that engine let go which for these days certainly in the last 18 months to two years
00:12:04the reliability has been beautiful for mclaren mercedes but that was taking us back to 2006
00:12:09wasn't it that's that's right it was a shocking failure for mclaren that because really heck he
00:12:15could have won that race could have won it pretty easily uh the problem has been traced to an inlet
00:12:19valve failure the inlet valves these days made in the united kingdoms very much a british operation
00:12:25that um but of course the question now is although heck he has a new engine will they be slightly
00:12:31nervous and running it maybe a little bit quieter bearing in mind this engine as in lewis's car has
00:12:36to do the next two grand prix i say that lewis still has the joker to play he's the only one
00:12:40of the top drivers guess what there is a lot of discussion right now about whether you are
00:12:46technically allowed to play the joker in the last round of the championship in brazil
00:12:50a cursory reading of the regulations would suggest that you can but if you read them in more detail
00:12:55actually it's a little bit vague and mclaren because of all the trouble they've had with
00:12:59the faa over the last two years have decided not to take the risk now of playing the joker
00:13:04in brazil unless it's a really dramatic failure because the rules are not worded clearly enough
00:13:09and i think that's a rather uh poor reflection on the state of uh the rules these days and indeed of
00:13:15mclaren's position in formula one because it should be clear whether or not you can do it
00:13:18but they don't want to take the risk so they're not going to play the joker for lewis in brazil
00:13:21as i speak at the moment i think in light of everything that's been going on over the past
00:13:25few grand prix steve don't you have to play it with a pretty straight bat you you do absolutely
00:13:31it is a very very difficult time as far as formula one and the rule makers are concerned and you do
00:13:37not want to do anything without the permission really of the faa and even on saying that you
00:13:44know the discussions that we've had with charlie white and the race stewards things seem to be
00:13:48fluid even after what you think is a fairly solid and stable decision or advice from the rule makers
00:13:54we've been talking a lot about the shanghai international circuit david would you take us
00:13:58round the bmw track analysis well just under 3.4 miles it's quite long and as you can see
00:14:05very complex the typical herman tilker circuit 16 turns on this track you go down that first
00:14:11straight uh the long straight at the front there and into turn one two and three it's very difficult
00:14:15you arrive there around about 190 miles an hour and you lose speed all through there so really
00:14:20breaking on the edge as you go into those two corners in that very sharp little left-hand kink
00:14:25and accelerating all the way out there as it unwinds and five is a very fast right hand sweep
00:14:30six is a medium speed right hander then seven and eight are very quick sweepers nine not so quick
00:14:37then nine and ten really one into into one corner and then you have the same reverse of the first
00:14:42corner the tight one going in then it unwinds all the way out through 13 down to 14 which is a real
00:14:48overtaking hairpin and then out of 15 through 16 which is a mid about a fifth gear left-hand
00:14:54sweeper a long fast entry onto that front straight overtaking return one's not easy here but it has
00:15:00been done but this is the premier place for overtaking that we're looking at right now
00:15:06lewis hamilton as we ride with truly lewis hamilton steve mentioned that he doesn't necessarily
00:15:11classify this track as a technical track per se but there are several corners that make it
00:15:16challenging and interesting well let's look at turn one if we stay on board truly long enough
00:15:22you can see what the driver view is come down here about 190 then just back off and start to
00:15:27change down through the gears but not doing much braking you're just letting the car slow it down
00:15:31because these cars have terrific braking effect just by lifting up the throttle then out of four
00:15:38right on the throttle as he unwinds there you should be able to do that flat out then this
00:15:41is that quick right hand sweeper turn five
00:15:51so there's some good sweepers here but some pretty tight entries another left-hand sweeper
00:15:56here as you come up to uh this right hander but as you can see no real overtaking opportunity anywhere
00:16:04there now you're coming up to reverse at the first turn where you go in a pretty uh quick run
00:16:11down here uh truly on the soft tires could be some overtaking there but a bit difficult the
00:16:18guy's got to be at least somewhat helpful and you go in slow and then you accelerate all the way
00:16:23through here so you want really good lateral grip here and you want good traction because that is a
00:16:27long long right hander and you really want to be able to lamp on it all the way through to get you
00:16:32out of good speed as you come out onto this long straight every rpm you've got on board as you come
00:16:37out of that corner you maintain all the way down here and hopefully outbrake somebody into this
00:16:41turn 316 kilometers an hour let's go for eyes we're doing
00:16:59while we're enjoying this lap with jano truly dramas here at the end of the pit lane for robert
00:17:05kubica steve yeah you see one of the mechanics one of the engineers going down to kubica's car
00:17:09and look here is taking out a cooling fan off the car but look here this is the key thing the mechanic
00:17:16is over the pit outline that is against the sporting regulations the team are not allowed
00:17:23to go past that line if that happens if there's any problem with the car the marshals and the
00:17:29marshals alone have to get the car and push the car back into pit lane so well a potential penalty
00:17:37looming for bmw it's so easy to do when the car stops and we've talked about it in broadcast in
00:17:43the past when you see a car stored for example such as reichen and running out of fuel a few
00:17:48races last year when the mechanics run up to get the car to bring the car back it's spain but if
00:17:55you cross that white line you are potentially doomed and they couldn't push it back of course
00:17:59because believe their master's car was right behind it right sebastian bordet at the moment
00:18:06is a little further down in the order at 17th at the moment it's lewis hamilton over jano truly
00:18:11kovalainen vettel and rossberg is in the top five plenty of news coming
00:18:18from the chinese grand prix this weekend that we can get our teeth into over the next hour and nine
00:18:22minutes and mark weber after scoring his 100th formula one career point last week courtesy of
00:18:32bordet's 25 second penalty that pushed him back down to 10th and elevated masser to seventh and
00:18:39himself to eighth we'll be looking for another point scoring position here in shanghai
00:18:46sun's getting pretty low in the face of these guys they go through that hairpin and also down
00:18:50the front straight coming out from the shadow of the grandstand as they turn into the straight here
00:18:56sun there the shadow on the track causing uh difficult life conditions
00:19:01so the first half an hour almost done a full hour of practice still to come
00:19:08so
00:19:13this may be the most dramatic first turn of the season 67 laps to go here come the lights
00:19:18hamilton a little slow to get away it looks like like it's going to get him by the first turn and
00:19:22hamilton will retake first and now he's wheel to wheel with his teammate oh this is for fifth place
00:19:30hamilton doesn't need
00:19:43oh wow now there is the new race leader fernando alonso
00:19:47kubica is five laps longer you need to sprint like hell mate sprint like hell
00:19:51it's a raikkonen battle
00:20:01again looking back at last year's championship it all came down to one point
00:20:10i'm gonna try the inside anyway wow here in 2008 if probably enough he does it again singapore
00:20:19japan
00:20:24it was a great race wasn't it thoroughly enjoyable just a week ago well it was very
00:20:30enjoyable and that duke out between kubic and raikkonen was extraordinary but when you notice
00:20:35kubic had pushed raikkonen off the road on the outside he didn't get a drive-through penalty
00:20:40did he how about this guy here how about this poor guy here absolutely sebastian bourdain
00:20:46got a 25 second penalty for having the temerity of driving out of the pit
00:20:52top man in the championship top man in the times at the moment lewis hamilton who we ride with a
00:20:57135 75 still the fastest time and he is remains the only driver in that 135 bracket and he's
00:21:05still on the harder tires too he's still on the control tire so i'm gonna look at turn one
00:21:11this is a great turn tricky little brute and as you say it tightens up on you doesn't it big time
00:21:17right there i mean very difficult to find your right line through there and get lined up for
00:21:22this one because you want to come off here very well because you've got quite a long
00:21:28fast bit here you've got this sweeper but nevertheless it's still flat out
00:21:32naturally lewis hamilton has been uh in the spotlight this past week
00:21:36post the japanese grand prix peter just reading the notes from yesterday's official press
00:21:41conference uh there was a lot a lot of questions thrown at fernando alonso in regards to some of
00:21:46the comments he made about allegedly helping uh felipe massa in his quest to win the world
00:21:54championship did things get a little heated there well they certainly did um lee it was it was a
00:22:00bizarre press conference to be honest because for fernando to say that in front of lewis hamilton
00:22:06he was sitting right behind him actually he wasn't in front of him but to say that in lewis
00:22:09hamilton's very near company um and expect lewis to accept that and not react to it was completely
00:22:16ridiculous i thought and it just showed that fernando you know he's still very very bitter
00:22:21about everything that happened at mclaren last year quite why he is bitter i think steve and i
00:22:26both agree that he has you know is a question that we cannot answer but he is incredibly
00:22:30vitriolic about vitriolic about mclaren and when we spoke to him later we're going to run hopefully
00:22:35some of that interview tomorrow um he said it's really against mclaren that he's feeling this and
00:22:40he's going to do all he can to make sure that ferrari win the championship and not mclaren
00:22:43quite what that means it remains to be seen you know i'd love to see the look on flavio's face
00:22:47when he weighs felipe pass with two laps to go in the brazilian grand prix it's interesting
00:22:53what you say peter because after that press conference i saw a release by alonso saying well
00:23:00i think my i think my comments have been taken really out of context what i meant by that was
00:23:05should massa pick up more points yeah than me you know i'll be very thrilled for him but
00:23:10when you talk to him later it seemed to be more anti mclaren than anything
00:23:19and he said if i had my way you know obviously aside from himself i'd like robert kubica to
00:23:25win the championship because of their strong friendship over all these years but it's
00:23:30interesting there's a little bit of tension around at the moment absolutely right and jenson
00:23:34button comments after that as well i think alonso just kind of wants to be in the limelight because
00:23:40his chances for the championship are obviously over he's not going to do that but he doesn't
00:23:43want people to forget him well people aren't going to forget him he's a two-time world champion and
00:23:47he said he's one two on the truck absolutely sebastian bordet incidentally has slotted into
00:23:55second at the moment with a 136.5 so it's hamilton bordet truly
00:24:00kovalainen vettel in the top five as we enjoy this ride with kimi raikkonen
00:24:25so
00:24:33so
00:24:49quick reminder that sunday at 2 30 a.m please join david steve peter and myself for live coverage of
00:24:57the chinese grand prix as i mentioned we kick things off at 2 30 a.m eastern of course that's
00:25:02a very early morning or a late start if you're on the west coast and that's with the acura pre-race
00:25:07show as always first up and then things roll at three so stock up on the coffee of course and
00:25:14maybe a little bit of red bull uh i think there is a combination of stars not being completely ready
00:25:23so probably not pushing hard enough with the outside and also traffic
00:25:28uh the car transformed itself as soon as the the williams went out of the way uh i was like
00:25:35two seconds or three seconds behind him but it still seemed to affect the car dramatically
00:25:44did he say he was three seconds behind him and it was affecting him dramatically
00:25:48being affected by also being affected by the tires david he said you know the tires are just
00:25:53not up to temperature and that's his fault that's the driver's fault having to you need to work those
00:25:58tires around here as we've been saying ambient temperatures are low it's pretty cool out there
00:26:03and with these very hard tires the drivers are going to have to lean on the tires to get the
00:26:07compound to work and steve you know we almost take it for granted now don't we that the toro
00:26:16rossos are going to be quicker than the red bulls here they are again look at sebastian vettel p5
00:26:20fastest red bull driver mark weber p14 it is just amazing the job those guys have done
00:26:25and we constantly look for reasons for that one of the things that um materialized in japan is that
00:26:31because they run a very different gearbox on the toro rosso they actually have a cleaner airflow
00:26:35under the back of the car and that's something i'm sure that adrian knew he's not very happy about
00:26:39because he'd like the a team to have the cleanest airflow beer and aerodynamicist but i gather that
00:26:43toro rosso gearbox is a gem a nice slide there from felipe massacre under the pit straight good
00:26:48stuff um but i gather that's something that they're going to be looking at next year also
00:26:53interesting i think that when sebastian vettel drove the red bull for the first time i believe
00:26:57it was a herev test they took they put him onto brembo brakes and normally red bull always run
00:27:03hitco's but they wanted to make sure they had exactly the same cockpit spec and by that i mean
00:27:08the brake pedal feel as well as other aspects um so when he drove the car he was on brembos
00:27:13personal best times for rossberg in all three sectors that elevates him to the third fastest
00:27:22time hamilton bordet rossberg truly kovalainen massa vettel reichen and alonso rounding out
00:27:31the top 10 you're watching practice live here on speed we'll be back
00:27:49it's not the first time today for ferrari's kimi reichen and to spin that is here at the shanghai
00:27:55international circuit we saw it happen once in the opening practice session and here again
00:28:00just as we were going to that last commercial break steve you read something into this well
00:28:05it just it just goes to show how quickly they lose traction when they're around here
00:28:11i mean in a in a heartbeat that's at that turn 12 where 11 and 11 transitions into turn 12
00:28:18it's where you start to lay on the elwelly power to go uh to exit that corner where i say you
00:28:23should be able to get on the you want to be able to get on a throttle early on on that turn 12
00:28:27as it unwinds robert kubica while we were watching the replay there jumped himself from
00:28:33like 16 to 6 on the soft tires just taking the soft tires to do it so he may not be too happy
00:28:39with that looking at the way that reichen and ferrari lost it there david in down in turn 12
00:28:46it's a it's a corner that has a lot of understeer you know you're going to suffer from a lot of
00:28:51understeer there and i wonder whether or not they just cured that understeer on the ferrari
00:28:55but by so doing obviously went to oversee it goes to oversteer rapidly yeah
00:29:00yeah in a heartbeat as i say yeah absolutely basically there are you know there are two
00:29:06ways of curing if you have understeer you can try and cure the understeer itself understeer is
00:29:13you know you turn the steering wheel and the car wants to go straight on it doesn't want to change
00:29:16the direction you can try and crank some more wing on the front to try and cure that give a
00:29:20little bit more front downforce conversely you can try and play with the rear suspension as well
00:29:26but try and stiffen it up a little bit but and that's what will happen if you put too much
00:29:31if you make the rear of the car too stiff too responsive at the back
00:29:35and going to snap oversteer oversteer the rear of the car breaks away
00:29:42steve i can't help thinking that a lot of that understeer oversteer
00:29:45balance and imbalance is related to this problem we've been talking about this hard
00:29:49bridgestone tyre here getting temperature to it we know it's difficult for ferrari on these
00:29:53relatively short runs once they get temperature in the tyres the sweet spot will be there but
00:29:56until that happens it is going to be a fight between understeer and oversteer yeah absolutely
00:30:01well it's always been like that you know understeers you oversteers you understeers and
00:30:06you fiddle and fuck around and chase it all day long i think you know and it's and uh you know
00:30:11you've got so many variables with the aerodynamics with the tyres obviously with the mechanical
00:30:16suspension there where you can get more grip or and it's just when those things go racing is a
00:30:22huge compromise and with a long straight like this you have to sacrifice some downforce and
00:30:27some wing because you've got to be going fast at the end of this straight you really have
00:30:33it's clear for all of us to see there jano truly uh opting for the option tyre and he at the moment
00:30:40has the fifth fastest time hamilton bordet rossberg block and truly so again toyota's
00:30:46proving to be solid in early weekend practice just as they were in japan a week ago truly has
00:30:54never had a great run at this track and he's looking to turn that around wow pulls himself
00:31:01up to second on the timesheets but of course you know today is like we've said before many many
00:31:06times all this testing we're seeing today this is all data collecting and one way or another on tyres
00:31:12fuel consumption see how the things are gonna do for your pit stop strategy and of course which is
00:31:17to do with fuel consumption and and tyre wear and degradation and of course how the soft tyres go
00:31:23with the hard because don't forget you've got to use both sets of tyres in the race it's essential
00:31:28that you do that so you really have to work out the best strategy to get the best use out of the
00:31:33two types of tyre which is the clicking bit steve it is absolutely yeah and it's a sporting reg it's
00:31:39a requirement of the regs that you have to use both compounds and again they're designated by
00:31:44having that white stripe or lack of a white stripe the softer tyre with a white stripe around so
00:31:49you know as a rule of thumb the idea is the tyre that you least like the one which is least
00:31:54effective is the one you want to use for the shortest stint typically you tend to find that
00:31:58you use the tyre you don't like at the end of the race when you're guarding position and try and use
00:32:03it just for a very short stint so the tyre that you do like use that for the two opening stints
00:32:08if you're going for a two-stop strategy well we have seen people in safety car situations where
00:32:13they come and slap the the rock whatever there's a worse time for them on the car done a lap come
00:32:18back swap back to the others and uh and pulled a bit of a flanker there it's it's regs you're
00:32:23allowed to do it but of course it can work like a charm you know lee i was um i flew over with nick
00:32:31heidfeld actually from japan japan to china excuse me and i was very impressed because um he
00:32:38he was completely on his own he had no manager no physio no trainer nothing and he actually carried
00:32:44a briefcase as distinct from a laptop thing with papers bulging out of it he looked almost like a
00:32:48normal human being i was astonished bearing in mind that this is a formula one driver and guess
00:32:52what he had his cap attached to that briefcase he looked like a guy that actually values caps and
00:32:57doesn't just throw them away when he's worn them once again astonishing for a formula one driver
00:33:01good to see good old nick he's he's a little different from the bunch isn't he i've spoken to
00:33:06him multiple times and he he chooses his words carefully they're in measured portions but what
00:33:12do you think's going on peter what he needs to uh kind of pull himself up by the bootstraps a little
00:33:17at the moment because he was lost in japan well he was but at the end of the day he's just a great
00:33:22number two to robert kibitzer isn't he i mean you want teams with a balanced driver lineup and i
00:33:27kibitzer heidfeld's a perfectly balanced one in the same way hamilton kovalainen is you know
00:33:32massa reichen and that's they're too they're both too quick to be number twos but nick heidfeld does
00:33:37a good job he's going to have good days and bad days he's been like that throughout his career
00:33:40but when he's on a good day he does an extremely good job when he's on a bad day the other guy does
00:33:45the job so no problem
00:33:50it is still lewis hamilton leading the way the only driver
00:33:53in the 135s as we see the birthday boy kimmy reichner 29 today
00:34:15is
00:34:45you
00:34:48second practice session from the shanghai international circuit live here on speed
00:34:51welcome back everyone lead iffy along with steve matchett david hobbs and peter windsor
00:34:55great to have you with us updating you on the championship hopefuls lewis hamilton is still
00:35:01leading the way felipe massa is six and robert kibitzer is eight at the moment second free
00:35:08practice here steve a lot of news and david a lot of news coming out of china this weekend of course
00:35:14the cancellation of the french grand prix on the 2009 schedule uh drivers are calling for perhaps a
00:35:20former driver to be in the steward's room to assist with making calls and yet again engines
00:35:26has raised its ugly head yeah there's a lot of strange stories circulating around the paddock
00:35:32this time of year but certainly as far as the technical stories go lee the i the story broke
00:35:37a couple of days ago that max is interested in doing something to change the engine regulations
00:35:43already to try and equalize the engine power between all the engine manufacturers some of the
00:35:49teams think they have more power than others some teams believe they've got less power therefore
00:35:53than their opposition people like reno and honda these guys are saying we're down on power and
00:35:58therefore we're compromised because we're in an engine restricted you know basically an engine
00:36:02freeze for five years it's going to it's bound to affect our performance for five years but what i
00:36:08don't understand and i'm interested to hear what peter's heard up and down the paddock as well is
00:36:13how possibly are the different engine manufacturers supposed to get together
00:36:18to equalize engine power they're all made differently that is one of the fundamentals
00:36:23of formula one is that each constructor makes their own engine and i just don't understand
00:36:28for a second how it's possible the engineers can all get together and come up with a common
00:36:32figure for horsepower seems extraordinary to me
00:36:37i think it is complete nonsense steve and you know call me a cynic but i put it under the heading
00:36:41of things that are never going to happen but are on the agenda to distract the people at
00:36:46the meeting from something else that they may not be noticing that is going to be slipped through
00:36:49uh you're absolutely right i mean personally i don't think there's anything wrong with the
00:36:52regulations as they are at the moment we have fantastic parity between the engine suppliers
00:36:57i mean reno was saying they were a bit down on power guess what they've just won the last two
00:37:01grand prix they weren't exactly slow on the straight in balenciaga it's not a big deal
00:37:06exactly every time everybody says they're down on power they're quick in the straight
00:37:10and and on top of anything else we've got curves coming on the cars next year on the engines next
00:37:15year and that's going to cause enormous differences between the engines the way you use the
00:37:19overtaking button etc etc so we've got that coming so i think we should call it on any further engine
00:37:25regulations maybe we could come down a fraction on revs just to get an even longer life out of
00:37:29the engine maybe get four races out of them instead of of two maybe come down to 18 000
00:37:33something like that but i think the engines sound fantastic they look fantastic we've got
00:37:37a great array of manufacturers in formula one things have never been healthier despite the
00:37:42economic global recession and you know if it ain't broke don't fix it well we also keep getting these
00:37:49technical changes forced down everybody's throat all in the guise of saving money and of course
00:37:55every one of these changes costs millions and millions of dollars yeah absolutely
00:38:01Clarence Ron Dennis was saying exactly that yesterday he said look i'm all in favor of any
00:38:07changes if we if we think it will improve the sport but just please tell us once and for all
00:38:13what are we supposed to do are we in an engine freeze he said he's just laid off a lot of his
00:38:18technical staff who were responsible for performance development on the engine and
00:38:24he's traded those people for people that are working on durability the longevity of the engine
00:38:30people with different engineering skills now there's a rumor seems to be circulating that
00:38:34we're going to have to come up with another new engine or some way of altering the engines
00:38:38he's going to have to restaff again and he quite rightly says and David you back it up right there
00:38:43every one of these changes cost millions of dollars in a time when Max Mosley and the FIA
00:38:49stamping his fist down and saying we need to cut costs we need to cut costs well again
00:38:54if you want to cut costs leave the sport alone
00:39:00well i can tell you one way to cut costs straight away and that is they need to get
00:39:03rid of all the ridiculous team motorhomes they have at the european races that's been estimated
00:39:08now straw poll in the paddock is that in the formula one industry in total 85 million dollars
00:39:14a year are spent on motorhomes i'm not talking about food and beverage or the paddock club i'm
00:39:18just talking about taking those huge hotel like edifices to european races red bull have got three
00:39:25that run in juxtaposition and that doesn't include the floating one they build up for monte carlo
00:39:29look at the headcount involved in doing that the trucks mclaren have 14 trucks just for their
00:39:34motorhome i mean it is insane and formula one does need to look as if it's cutting its cloth a little
00:39:39bit and to have that sort of profligate spending in the motorhome area i think is ridiculous and
00:39:43they should really cut back and at the flyway races as i speak they have nice little purpose
00:39:48built huts buildings some of them temporary some of them permanent for the teams and they
00:39:52work perfectly we don't need those ridiculous motorhomes i can remember being at a test day
00:39:58once at hareth i counted 85 transporters at the test at the test 85 they spend more on food and
00:40:09drink they do on the cars practically and of course yeah the most profligate profligate thing
00:40:14of the whole weekend of course is the paddock club which last year i saw an article in the financial
00:40:20times last year the finance the paddock club pulled in something like 145 million dollars
00:40:28in ticket prices because it's about a four and a half thousand dollar ticket to go over the weekend
00:40:33sebastian vettel on screen currently holds the 11th fastest time peter what was the news on
00:40:39following the japanese grand prix and his mount fuji expedition whoa big moment from young
00:40:47sebastian there that was another expedition exactly he did it he tom clarkson alexander
00:40:54vertz and lorenzo bianca a photographer set off i think it was at about two one or two o'clock in
00:40:59the morning on monday morning and got to the gate um which is closed until 3 30 a.m
00:41:07at about 3 15 and sort of bribed the guards to let them start earlier alexander vertz tried to
00:41:13give them some free honda t-shirts but apparently they didn't make much impression but eventually
00:41:16they got up there and they climbed up and they were there at the summit at dawn it was minus
00:41:2115 degrees and the four of them huddled together and great pictures were taken i gather for f1
00:41:27racing the magazine and and then they sort of slid down alexander vertz showed them how to sort
00:41:32of slide on gravel and sort of best um mountain bike tradition and they all got down safely and
00:41:39it was a wonderful wonderful thing so it's apparently sebastian still uh still talking
00:41:44about it i mean it just blew his mind he loved it and david if i could just finish by saying
00:41:48a lot of that hospitality money of course i think that's one area where they don't need
00:41:51to touch formula one because a lot of that money has been spent in the paddock club
00:41:55it's been spent by uh guests being entertained by sponsors and a lot of new business is done
00:42:00in a formula one paddock these days and you'll find that for every dollar spent
00:42:03a dollar of new business is generated that is what formula one's all about and
00:42:07i think it's the physical motorhomes that need to be cut back not the hospitality
00:42:11where are you eating down peter i'm not eating david i'm suffering as ever as you can imagine
00:42:17up and down the pit lane i thought you got some caviar stuck in the back of your throat
00:42:20was making that slightly grabby sound hamilton's still the fastest and the only one in the 135
00:42:27so 135.75 over truly bordet rosberg and timo glock still in the top five with 37 and a half minutes
00:42:36remaining in this second practice session and he's on soft tires now so uh is he gonna do he's a
00:42:42little bit slower than his own best time in that sector one on the soft tires wow that right rear
00:42:47tire looked a little bit low to me going around that corner
00:42:56and have a bit of a go here let's have a look at the second sector the first sector was
00:43:00nothing uh special oh second sector now well this is uh interesting
00:43:08the mclaren does not do well on these uh on the softer tire
00:43:13i think that must have been just a visual shot just how much lateral load inside loading but
00:43:18you can really see the wall of the tire working overtime
00:43:26but as i said at the top of the show you know there is the you have to lean on the tires around
00:43:30here to get a good time out of them i wonder if he'd be quicker on the second lap was unusual for
00:43:36wonder if he'd be quicker on the second lap was unusual for the uh softer compound but
00:43:43so he completes that lap here at the site of his very first formula one career retirement
00:43:51the shanghai international circuit a little over half an hour left stick with us
00:43:58look at that right rear it's got it's got a great big hole in it yeah there's
00:44:01a great big hole in that right rear is that the quarter yeah it is look at it he goes
00:44:10we're going avoid the tire wall don't try he's beached it oh wow just tried just too long to
00:44:21stay out those tires are absolutely it's over boys and we will have a championship going to
00:44:28the final round in brazil in two weeks it appears yes it wasn't the only reason but
00:44:35it was one of the contributing factors that prevented lewis hamilton from winning
00:44:40the formula one driver's world title in his rookie season and interestingly two of the three title
00:44:47contenders this year both hamilton and kubica did not finish here last year robert suffering
00:44:52hydraulic failure and hamilton only made it just over the halfway mark of this grand prix last year
00:45:01well from his point of view you know it was a rookie i mean you know the guy's still only done
00:45:0620-odd grand prix um and so he was a relative rookie and but the team should have uh spotted
00:45:13that time and had him in you know a couple laps earlier but it was one of those things
00:45:16or the weather was going to change and they were due to come in for fuel anyway you know
00:45:21should we just leave out another couple of laps and we fill it up change the tires and we'll be
00:45:25set to the end uh so it's not easy another one of those compromises absolutely and i'd
00:45:32love to tell you what that running mechanic was doing there underneath the chassis but i have no
00:45:35idea well you just heard the voice of steve matchard and i want to remind you that every
00:45:44weekend i need to guide you to speed tv.com for a new installment of steve matches chalk talk as
00:45:51always steve will give you a closer look at the intricate technical details except working on
00:45:57reno chassis that make formula one racing so amazing hey what have you got on tap this week
00:46:02mate oh it's all about the underside of the reno r28 chassis i don't know we need to clear a shot
00:46:10of what that guy was doing to find out maybe changing the the plank on the underside of the
00:46:15car this week i thought we'd have a look at the track here have a look at the track map and we'll
00:46:20have a look at some corners of the track and how the cars are set up for this grand prix track a
00:46:25couple of things i did see when i was researching the still photography for this week's edition of
00:46:30chalk talk is just how wide the track is that shot shows it there incredibly wide you could
00:46:36run three cars down here i've got a great shot of running of exactly that three chassis running
00:46:40down towards term one and they don't seem to be cramped at all i think kimi raikkonen on his
00:46:46opening lap on the soft tires and he's doing slightly better time i think than hamilton did on
00:46:54his soft tires he's not going as quick as hamilton went on the control tire but he's still i think
00:47:00he's doing a quicker lap on these softer tires than hamilton did on the soft tire so that's
00:47:05i mean interesting just to put a period on steve's chalk talk you can see that tomorrow
00:47:09look for that tomorrow on speed tv.com but don't look too hard if you can't find it
00:47:17less than half an hour remaining here in shanghai at the international circuit
00:47:21who will finish on top they're all chasing hamilton right now but plenty of time left
00:47:25just under 27 and a half minutes remain here at shanghai international circuit
00:47:30felipe masses first run on the softer tires we'll see how this compares to the work that
00:47:36lewis hamilton and kimi raikkonen have been doing hamilton has clocked in 25 laps it's
00:47:42been a solid workload thus far none more out there at the moment than mark weber he's posted
00:47:4725 laps it's been a solid workload thus far none more out there at the moment than mark
00:47:53weber he's posted 30 laps and alonso's been putting in a heavy workload as well with 27
00:48:03i just want to highlight that white stripe for any new viewers that
00:48:07are wondering we talk about the soft tires and the hard tires and how they're designated
00:48:13it's very clear to see on these it wasn't very clear to see at the previous grand prix i mean
00:48:18certainly i i was struggling to see at the last grand prix bridgestone brought some tires that
00:48:22had green banding around all the stripes apart from the the white coating for the uh for the
00:48:29soft compound and i don't know what you thought lee when you were watching the race i i was really
00:48:34struggling to tell the difference well i was watching the grand prix and i heard you say
00:48:39that and i i do have to agree with you a little bit because certain light and
00:48:42certain camera angles it was a little bit hard to identify exactly where they were
00:48:48the thing that i found funny was that bob varsha told me david had binoculars in
00:48:53here looking at the monitors to try and see them he's still looking
00:48:58haha
00:49:14he's just uh missing a bit in turn one and then exit of turn six otherwise
00:49:22otherwise i think it's quite good
00:49:27while we're away in that last commercial break nakajima spun and it was very much in the same
00:49:33style as we saw truly and reichen and in the earlier practice session this morning very gentle
00:49:38very easy spin nakajima last week out qualified uh nico rossberg but today rossberg's looking
00:49:45pretty hot he's up there in fourth spot behind sebastian borde is also looking very strong he's
00:49:50been up in the third spot there pretty well the whole session and nakajima is down in 12
00:49:56nico rossberg is fourth so nakajima will want to be doing better than he's doing at the moment
00:50:03but as we say this is friday you don't know what they're doing well the results of the last race
00:50:08seem to have invigorated bmw these guys are saying both of the drivers champions and the constructors
00:50:16again we've seen a bit of a chick there in the armor of ferrari and mclaren and it ain't over
00:50:21till it's over they're trying to get to grips as well looking at the bmw comments
00:50:28previewing this race and we didn't really understand why the car he started off very
00:50:33well we made some developments and then we just dropped off and didn't seem to have pace relative
00:50:37to the opposition again this is something we've talked about before i don't really think that's
00:50:42bmw's fault per se i i think it's just that amazing development between ferrari and mclaren
00:50:48that these guys sort of scratching their heads thinking wow what do we have to do to get on
00:50:53terms with those fellas i mean everybody's making progress but just not at the rate of these guys
00:51:00steve it is a it is a mystery that but again in fuji i think we saw some indications of where
00:51:06the problem might be we talked quite a lot at fuji about how bmw at turn six to happen we're
00:51:11to run a very high second rather than the third gear that everybody else was able to take it in
00:51:17and when he was off camera after the race we'd stopped doing all the official interviews
00:51:21i said to robert why were you running that high second turn six you and nick and he just smiled
00:51:26and said drivability this is our problem and i think that may be it i think it could be that we
00:51:32saw mercedes and ferrari make a little bit of progress with the power curve the shape of the
00:51:37power curve mid-season this year reno have responded they've improved their power curve and
00:51:41i'm not sure if bmw have made the same improvements in the back half of this year and it's now
00:51:46starting to hurt them in terms of how they put the power down coming out of slow corners and
00:51:50that in turn of course affects tire wear breaking all sorts of other issues and of course ferrari
00:51:55made a big bound forward with their power and of course this brings up another subject or returns
00:52:01to the old subject of these are supposed to be frozen engines so how are these guys improving
00:52:06the power curve the torque of the drivability and the reliability while they're under a freeze
00:52:11if the whole thing seems completely uh extra incomprehensible yeah well they're allowed to
00:52:18change this is the this is the gray area within the sport of regs you're allowed to change components
00:52:25in the interests of reliability yeah but you know you know as well as i do yes
00:52:31they're all very reliable already well that was one of the things pat simmons the executive
00:52:36director of reno was very quick to note this week he said no no no there's been no performance gain
00:52:41there's been no performance increase we made adjustments steve as you said in the name of
00:52:46reliability yeah
00:52:51vettel off track the running order at the moment with 21 just under 22 minutes to go hamilton
00:52:58truly borde rossberg massa has now moved into the top five glock reichen and kubica
00:53:05kovalainen and heidfeld in 10 this man on screen sebastian vettel is in 11th
00:53:12the hondas who are they are both in pit lane at the moment as we watch the replay vettel
00:53:17hondas are 19th and 20th well boy i mean they're just having another absolutely gruesome weekend
00:53:24out in asia which is of course their home just across the sea in japan and
00:53:29japanese grand prix last week they qualified down at the bottom and boy oh boy i mean
00:53:34you know being a mid-pack towards the end of mid-packs bad enough but to be
00:53:38last and second to last for honda is just absolutely unreal
00:53:46when you consider the amount of world championships that they have won
00:53:50and ross braun must be i mean i thought that when he went there he would
00:53:54you know galvanize the team and make some changes but of course the car was already set
00:53:59couldn't really change the car for this year but um boy i hope he's got something up his sleeve for
00:54:04next year nick heidfeld in front of his teammate nick heidfeld down in 10th
00:54:15i think back to last year when we were all blown away the way in which kimi raikkonen
00:54:21won the world championship at the very last race meeting well with two races to go last
00:54:26year china last year raikkonen was some 17 points out of the lead of the championship
00:54:33kubica is only 12 with two to go it's extraordinary even now and you know think back to raikkonen
00:54:41world championship you know i said it back then and i still think i'm not entirely sure how he did
00:54:46it i mean he was absolutely nowhere close really with a couple of races to go as you would imagine
00:54:54kubica has the mindset that i'm just gonna go and do what i can do i know i need a bit of
00:54:59misfortune from the others but it can happen back in shanghai and the closing 17 and a half minutes
00:55:19of the second 90 minute practice session leading up to the chinese grand prix for the fifth
00:55:27consecutive year and three of the four previous winners are active drivers here this weekend
00:55:35kimi raikkonen the defending race winner
00:55:40still lewis hamilton leads the way there's been a lot of good long runs going on right now david
00:55:46there is they're all well as i said before you know big data collecting day today so
00:55:51we know that hamilton just in the long run so did kimi raikkonen so did Felipe Massa
00:55:55uh so those guys are really getting down to really making their decisions for tomorrow's
00:56:01qualifying and of course sunday's race this is much about running the tire the soft tire
00:56:08on different fuel loads right you can do a six lap run but you may find that they've got enough
00:56:13fuel on board for 20 laps for example and then look at the tire degradation with the extra weight
00:56:19on board from that data they'll be able to work out whether or not they can use that tire in the
00:56:24race and for how long and with the times they're doing with those tires yeah i think after running
00:56:3033 laps on the softer compound tires last weekend in japan red bull and mark weber could give the
00:56:36rest of the field a bit of feedback on that nico rosberg is still sitting in fourth spot
00:56:43uh he's on the prime tire and on the soft ones at the moment but he's having a very good run
00:56:48as is sebastian bordeaux is in the pitch at the moment but he's still in third
00:56:53oh bordeaux's got a little bit of a point to prove some redemption to seek out as well and
00:56:58steve's still looking for some definitive direction for 2009 yeah absolutely still have
00:57:06not made the decision gerhard berger and uh the scudria torosso guys still waiting on that decision
00:57:14whether or not to re-sign bordeaux and bordeaux is you know basically now come out and said look you
00:57:20know now is the time to make you i've got my career to think of you know if you guys don't
00:57:25want me then i need to i need to start talking to other people yeah well i think the last few
00:57:29races i mean he really has done extremely well i mean in monzer he qualified fourth and the
00:57:35thing stalled on the line i don't think that was his fault because they couldn't get it started
00:57:40but in the race he did like the third fastest suddenly be pushed out by weber and masser now
00:57:44mark weber if he finishes second here that's only going to push him down to 12th so uh he needs to
00:57:49do as well as he can obviously reichen it has never had a poll here in china of course he's
00:57:54the defending race winner and he hasn't had a poll in nine races since manny paul
00:57:59we'll see if the fin can pull one out here well they got one tire change left
00:58:05four and a half minutes remaining in q3
00:58:09well the ferrari have been grafting all weekend and they certainly look like they've worked
00:58:14cobalt island jumps the top 36.9
00:58:2036.9 that's uh 1.7 seconds slower than he was in q2 so he's not that light
00:58:26unless he made a bit of a mistake
00:58:28just over four minutes to play in this session in q3
00:58:34Toyota mechanics getting ready to change tires on truly's car
00:58:39now with under four minutes to go with this is a point of q3 we should expect to see the guys start
00:58:44to peel in they just get one more lap then come in change tires here's where is lewis hamilton
00:58:51doing exactly that from mclaren careful that gravel trap
00:58:56okay lewis um time loss is all middle sector as i'm sure you're aware you also lost three tenths
00:59:01last sector to reichannen your first sector was very good first sector fastest by two tenths
00:59:08well the first sector takes you down into turn one and around that tight
00:59:13corner david turns two and three where the car really tightens up
00:59:17the middle sector where steve hallen was trying to explain it to us
00:59:21is losing the time it's really turn six seven and eight it's that fast change of direction section
00:59:26at the back of the track if you like where you really need a good stable front end
00:59:31yeah and he looked pretty good through uh well i'm just out of sector two they're going to turn
00:59:3611 12 and 13 which is a keyhole effort like uh turn one really um and he looked pretty good
00:59:42through there but obviously not good enough and he's been quickest all the way through
00:59:47obviously they've been working beavering away changing noses changing a lot of things on the
00:59:58car and whatever they've changed certainly is uh looking pretty strong at the moment
01:00:04they're very interested to know fuel loads relative to each other now the big constructors
01:00:08these guys versus ferrari how much fuel is on board hamilton's car
01:00:13how far was i okay lewis you were six tenths off in that lap but that was all middle sector you
01:00:20were six tenths off six tenths in middle sector hamilton's been serviced kovalainen has come in
01:00:25the other nine cars are on track kovalainen's quickly being serviced he's back out here we
01:00:29have a two minute shootout all 10 cars are on track i just highlighted the middle sector that's
01:00:35the point of the track there where mclaren are telling lewis hamilton that he's struggling
01:00:40it's that fast change of direction where you need a good stable front end across the car
01:00:44not too much roll that is starting to roll and drift off
01:00:49146 to play boys kovalainen reichen and weber massa hamilton hamilton going for his seventh
01:00:57hole of the season massa going for his sixth hole of the season here's reichen and 130 left in q3
01:01:04all right how's he going to turn one this is a critical turn
01:01:19pedal with an impressive first sector he's down in eighth at the moment for toro rosso
01:01:26boy this is interesting intriguing kovalainen reichen in the two second drivers for
01:01:32mclaren engineering guys were called up to talk to charlie whiting from red bull
01:01:41well this is down to that turn one which is such a difficult corner to enter
01:01:47this is down to that turn one which is such a difficult corner to enter
01:01:57it's so easily done around that corner because the more you push it the more
01:02:01understeer it induces and that just then unsettles the car
01:02:07but you're talking about the red bull incident it is it's that fine line between performance
01:02:15and reliability where is where is the line well of course the cars have to pass their
01:02:20crash tests of course and there's there's several crash tests they have to do but
01:02:25red bull do seem very fragile bordet finished the opening practice session
01:02:30eight he finishes the second practice session trackside
01:02:36the pacific north the final seven minutes of practice in the lead up to the chinese formula
01:02:44one grand prix lewis hamilton who is the fastest man on track in this session at a 1 35 7 will we
01:02:51see him eclipse that time in these closing minutes let's not lose sight that the world
01:02:55championship can be decided here this weekend if things go right for hamilton but remember what a
01:03:02wonderful weekend it was 12 months ago here in shanghai for ferrari not only for the two factory
01:03:08cars but for the ferrari powered toro rossos as well is that a sign for 2008 it's going to be a
01:03:15gripping weekend of racing now with just six minutes to go hamilton coming out on the soft
01:03:24tire again or the softer compound has he got a lot less fuel and see how much of the time he can crank out
01:03:34all looking very good for lewis i've got to say right now he's been very quick from the start
01:03:38that's one of the toyotas gets nicely out of the way for him but guys i don't know what you think
01:03:42it's almost as if you know if lewis is on the pole and it looks perfect that's what he makes
01:03:45his most mistakes it's a really weird thing going on with him at the moment but but the interesting
01:03:50thing of course in fuji was that he did not make a good start off the line from the pole on the
01:03:54clean side of the grid now ron dennis in the interview we did afterwards said well he was
01:03:58running a lot of fuel but talking to the engineers afterwards when we got here to china the suggestion
01:04:04is that he did indeed have some clutch problem nothing to do with lewis but there was a clutch
01:04:08problem on the car and mclaren are going to have to make sure that that doesn't happen again because
01:04:12if he gets swamped into this first corner here ever tightening radius it'll be a complete nightmare if
01:04:17he wants to get through without damaging the front wing or something like that this is even worse
01:04:21place to overtake than japan actually
01:04:34so final five minutes heidfeld is on a quick one at the moment currently in 10th and his first two
01:04:44sectors look good i'll update you on where heidfeld ends but it's hamilton truly borde
01:04:49rossberg massa and glock the top five right in the six well heidfeld if he keeps up that
01:04:56pace he said he could jump to uh he could jump as high as third
01:05:04to reduce only 25 three sector one and 28 five for sector two personal best
01:05:13from there i thought we were getting the japanese coverage
01:05:19i think it's a theme that we're going to run with here david though we'll see that a lot
01:05:23it's a characteristic of the shanghai circuit let's see where it puts my belt forth good lap
01:05:28yeah it was a good lap
01:05:39check this out replay of lewis hamilton
01:05:47one of the good things about the shanghai international circuit is the abundance of runoff
01:05:52yeah that paved run-up has been an absolute godsend for these drivers
01:05:55it's safer the cars stop on it quicker than they do on the gravel fun enough
01:05:59and of course it gives them uh
01:06:04room to make a mistake 19 cars running at the moment only massa and the ferrari is in
01:06:11nelson pk goes p2 it's hamilton pk truly borde and heidfeld in the top five weber is on a quick
01:06:19one as well first two sectors look good reichen and starting to step it up so too is cubita
01:06:25not necessarily a good second sector though where does weber end up weber goes for 15th to fourth
01:06:31so it's hamilton pk truly weber borde the boys are turning it on in the final three minutes yeah
01:06:37it's taking some time for these soft tires to start setting any sort of fast times but now
01:06:42they are doing we're seeing one or two drivers setting personal best and you're right weber
01:06:46doing a great job there 25 3 28 4 42 5 personal best there and that puts him fourth in the red
01:06:52ball nick heidfeld up there at six now eclipsing his teammate robert cubas is down in 11th
01:06:59the kimster coming down to this uh very tight hairpin at the end of this long straight
01:07:04effectively massa and hamilton hamilton down in fourth and fifth i wonder guys hamilton's up in
01:07:11that first sector again like he was in the last run so as long as he doesn't run the tires off in
01:07:16that i wonder whether or not the second driver's the team strategy from both mcclaren and ferrari
01:07:22is to run cobalt lining and reichen in light get those out to run the rabbits run as a rabbit and
01:07:28control the pace of the race as you say that steve reichen has set the fastest second sector with a
01:07:3428 8 now that's just been better by hamilton with a 28 7 one tenth better than reichen just 20 seconds
01:07:41remain in this qualifying session so he cleaned up that second sector pretty good now he comes out
01:07:46onto this final long straight coming out of that corner very essential to come out of that turn 13
01:07:51quick because you've got a long long long straight down here reichen and should go to the top and then
01:07:56that will be quickly eclipsed by hamilton if he can hold it together in the third sector he was
01:08:02told his second sector wasn't good enough hamilton's improved what's reichen and got to the top
01:08:06with a 136 64 but here comes lewis whoa a bit of a bit of a wobble there this is it boys it's now
01:08:15on that pole position he takes it away from reichen and but felipe mass is still out there
01:08:22felipe mass is a master getting the ball robert kubica looking suitably down at mouth there well
01:08:27the two men he's fighting in the world championship are out there on track he is not
01:08:32hamilton is on top weber jumps to p4 with a 137 zero here comes massa this is the last shot at it
01:08:4030 can't do it he doesn't do it boys
01:08:45what is hakey got he jumps to fifth kovalainen in fifth alonso fourth wow
01:08:52hamilton reichen and massa alonso kovalainen
01:08:58final shot top end of the circuit kovalainen currently lying in fifth spot
01:09:05mclaren would love for kovalainen to beat massa certainly needs to get
01:09:09ahead of alonso it's now or never no he doesn't do it
01:09:15it so lewis hamilton grabs pole just like he did last year at shanghai boy oh boy
01:09:23and by a big margin two three tenths over kimi reichen and
01:09:29and kubica's left to think about what could have been he's been struggling this weekend here in
01:09:34china but this man has not he showed everyone what he had yesterday by dominating both practice
01:09:40sessions lewis hamilton has been comfortable right from the first session here in shanghai
01:09:46pedro de la rosa there with his hands on his hips he's their chief test driver looking suitably
01:09:51happy about that felipe massa still looking pretty strongly in third with alonso alongside him
01:09:57kovalainen i don't think mclaren will be very happy with kovalainen being down in fifth they
01:10:01wanted him in those front two rows well how about that seventh pole of the season for lewis hamilton
01:10:07we'll hear not only from hamilton but our top three with speeds peter windsor when we come back
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01:10:58vegas barrett jackson continues tomorrow 6 p.m eastern only on speed formula one on speed
01:11:07shanghai china an ancient city of splendor plays host to a modern quest for glory we've reached
01:11:14the penultimate round we need everything you've got come on push an all-night focus on lewis
01:11:19hamilton so much history he could make as he attempts to avoid a tremendous amount of pressure
01:11:24another late season disaster it's over boys lewis hamilton tumbles down formula one grand
01:11:30prix of china live coverage continues tomorrow at 2 30 a.m eastern only on speed i'm passionate
01:11:36about wind tunnel because i'm passionate about racing we're gonna have some fun tonight wind
01:11:40tunnel is great because it's always interesting it's always different it's always fun it's always
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01:11:49know what people are thinking what's on your mind the phone calls and the emails are the heart of
01:11:54the show tunnel heads never cease to amaze me the fans get excited about this stuff and they come
01:11:58here to share that excitement sunday wind tunnel with dave despain live 9 eastern only on speed
01:12:05on an all-new wrecked rush hour mayhem rip chicago forcing bill to handle a big wreck
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01:12:23roll like a rock star with rnr custom wheels and performance tires
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01:12:39i'm lee diffy we'll see you tomorrow for qualifying and f1 debrief so long
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