Thursday, September 27, 2018

What to watch this Weekend (Sept 28th - Oct 3rd)

  • Formula 1 - Russian Grand Prix; from the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. Practice 1. Friday @ 3:55am - 6am (ESPNU(HD)) live
  • Formula 1 - Russian Grand Prix; from the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. Practice 2. Friday @ 7:55am - 10am (ESPNU(HD)) live
  • Formula 1 - Russian Grand Prix; from the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. Practice 3. Saturday @ 4:55am - 6:30am (ESPN2(HD)) live
  • Formula 1 - Russian Grand Prix; from the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. Qualifying. Saturday @ 7:55am - 9:30am (ESPN2(HD)) live
  • Formula 1 - Russian Grand Prix; from the Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia. Race. Sunday @ 7am - 10:30am (ESPN2(HD)) live
  • Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 7pm - 7:30pm (VelocityHD) replay
  • Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD) replay
  • Bitchin' Rides. Tuesday @ 8pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) replays
  • Garage Squad. Season 5 Ep6. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new
  • Wheeler Dealers. Wednesday @ 10pm - 11pm (VelocityHD) new
Singapore was another important and exciting race. I think the most significant thing that came out of Singapore was that Red Bull was really fast, but Mercedes via Hamilton proved much faster than anyone expected and Ferrari couldn't match it despite their best efforts. Qualy was the same story as the actual race. You would assume Ferrari would show race pace and chase Hamilton down, but that's not what really happened. Whatever Merc is doing to improve show corner pace seems to be working, and it's lead to some larger gaps between Hams and Vettel, along with Merc and Ferrari as constructors. Verstappen was quick and was faster than even Vettel with his Renault powertrain around the streets of Singapore. Ricciardo was also quick and thankfully his car didn't let him down so he finished 6th -- Fernando was in a similar boat, where his car didn't fail him; he finished 7th.

The biggest talking point from this race was Sergio Perez. He was involved with two major incidents in this race, the first being putting Ocon in the wall on lap one (which looked like more of a racing incident and an optimistic outside line attempt by Ocon, but the cynical among us have doubts) and later a high-speed incident with Sirotkin -- the latter seeming to be clearly the result of him being frustrated and complaining that the Williams wasn't getting out of the way after his poorly timed pit stop put him behind him after running in the top ten. The Williams Merc power kept Sirotkin ahead of Perez everywhere it mattered and it eventually boiled over. This resulted in Perez ramming his car into him during an attempted pass on lap 33 that looked like it wouldn't stick; for this second incident he was penalized 5 seconds. However, he had to pit as well due to a puncture that resulted. These two incidents lead to the team potentially getting a double points finish to snake eyes, plus a damaged car. Plenty of F1 talking heads and fans were calling for a race ban given the seeming deliberate dangerous action at very high speed. Point Force India is trying to get as many points as they can after the re-entry into the F1 field a couple races ago, but this is quite the setback which will make the new ownership think much harder about keeping Perez in the lineup for 2019.

With the checkered flag dropped, the Driver's Championship standings are as follows: Hamilton, Vettel (-40), Raikkonen (-107), Bottas (-110), Verstappen (-133), Ricciardo (-155). The other notable is that Alonso is in 8th spot and Merc has a 37pt lead over Ferrari. Sochi Autodrom is another technical track that typically favors Red Bull and Ferrari, but Merc has had a strong run since this track was added to the calendar. This weekend will be absolutely critical for Ferrari to make a run at both Chips.
Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of Autosport.

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