Thursday, August 24, 2017

What to watch this Weekend (Aug 25th - Aug 30th)

  • Formula 1 - Grand Prix of Belgium; from circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. Practice. Friday @ 8am - 9:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live
  • Formula 1 - Grand Prix of Belgium; from circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. Qualifying. Saturday @ 8am - 9:30am (CNBC(HD)) live
  • Formula 1 - Grand Prix of Belgium; from circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. Race. Sunday @ 7:30am - 10:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live
  • IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship - From VIR in Alton, Virginia. Sunday @ 1:30pm - 4:30pm (FS1(HD)) live
  • Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD) replay 
  • Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 9pm - 9:30pm (VelocityHD) new
  • RMD Garage. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new
  • Garage Squad. Wednesday @ 10pm - 11pm (VelocityHD) new
The summer break ended with Vettel powering through a steering problem that threw his rack out of ratio on left hand turns, to take the checkered flag ahead of Raikkonen. Hams showed good pace mid-race and passed Bottas to attempt to get ahead of one of the Ferrari's, but the Ferrari's were too strong at the Hungaroring and he ended up giving the 3rd position back as promised on the final turn with a speedy Verstappen in hot pursuit. Verstappen was the lone Red Bull to finish the race, after a 10-sec penalty, due to a much too hot turn entry which led to him putting his right front wheel into the left radiator of Ricciardo's car, emptying it of it's fluids and ending his race on lap one. Alonso was strong all weekend as was McLaren; he finished 6th and enjoyed some sunshine underneath the podium, reenacting his sunbathing on this same track in 2015 after his car broke early in the race, while the champagne was being popped -- his teammate Vandoorne took 10th putting both cars in the points for the first time in ages. Hulkenberg got forced off the track by Magnussen and later retired with possibly-related car issues, Massa was out with an illness which gave Paul Di Resta an opportunity to drive a 2017 F1, but ended up having to retire late due to some car issues and Kimi was pissed on the podium once again being thwarted from a possible race win when he was out pacing Vettel but didn't get team orders to pass; in retrospect their 1-2 finish justified the decision to leave positions as is, but since passing is so hard to do and a 1-stopper was the plan for most of the field, you'd run through your tires if you chased too hard which would ruin your race (with a second pit-stop). With the checkered flag dropped, McLaren has leap frogged Sauber to get into 9th spot and Ferrari closed the gap to Mercedes from 55 to 29. The Driver's Championship standings are as follows: Vettel, Hamilton (-14), Bottas (-33), Ricciardo (-85),  Raikkonen (-86), Verstappen (-135). Spa will bring us back to the power tracks, so we'll see if Mercedes can counter what Ferrari has done in Budapest with the Fiat CEO breathing down Arrivabene's neck all race.

Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of TheHoonigans.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017