European GP - Preview
While the world's nations battle it out in the Footie World Cup, F1 lands in Valencia for the European Grand Prix. The halfway point in the championship sees McLaren on a roll with two wins from the last two races, while early season pace setters Red Bull are on the back foot after the post-Turkey fall-out. Lewis Hamilton, who has taken those last two victories ahead of Jenson Button, has finished second for the last two races in Valencia and will be hoping to go one better. McLaren have more updates for the MP4-25 and the reckoning is that the Spanish street track should suit the silver cars. The main reason for this is because McLaren have a very well developed 'F-duct' - it's the only system truly built into the chassis- but Valencia sees the introduction of the devices by WIlliams, Force India, Mercedes & Red Bull. Not all of them may race it though. Ferrari (who will be reeling from Italy's ignominious exit from the World Cup) have a major update to the F10. Fernando Alonso will be racing in front of his home crowd and will be eager to get a second win of the year. Felipe Massa won the first race around the 'Spanish Monaco' in 2008 but it would be a brave man who would bet on Massa this year. It appears that Alonso has demoralised the Brazilian with his speed and commitment and Felipe now lies 42 points off the championship lead. The Italian legends recently celebrated their 800th race in F1 and the newly reformed Lotus team will be taking part in their 500th event in Valencia. Of course it's only Lotus in name only but they seem like the best prepared and most competitive of all the new teams and it's not too much of a stretch to think that they could nick a point to make this weekend truly special. The 5.4 km street track is located in the city's port and gives the teams headaches as, like the CIrcuit Gilles-Villeneuve, is not a permanent track so the track will be very green and evolving all the time over the weekend. Also, like the Canadian track, Valencia is high speed with long straights and heavy breaking into 25 tight corners.
author: Simon White
published: 24/06
There are no comments on this story yet.
if you were logged in you could comment on this item
| 