I hope everyone got up early or stayed up late to catch the very first peeks of the 2011 Formula 1 season.
If you recorded it or just watched the highlights then I suppose that’s good enough too. It was a pretty mixed bag of things happening today, starting off with a very overcast day with chances of rain. When all the drivers got out onto the field they all did a number of installation laps and so it wasn’t for a while that we saw some actual times from the racers. In the first practice as per usual the top teams’ drivers were leading the times and setting the fastest laps one after the other. McLaren didn’t really stick their neck out here but more was in store from them later. The track took a few victims in the corners and caught out quite a handful of the drivers some even spinning out while going relatively straight. Come second practice and we see conditions improve a bit after some light showers. The footage of each team using their rear wings is incredible, each unique in its own way and strangely addictive to watch and where they use it. The moveable rear-wing will be an interesting feature of this season but for this race it’s been associated with a few bad corners where the drivers aren’t taking it off early enough and subsequently running off into the gravel.