Weekend racing preview

Ok race fans we are back up and running.

After three weeks off the formula one funny farm is back at the brand new street circuit at Valencia for the European Grand Prix. It is a street circuit, a circuit type that, aside from Monaco, F1 does not frequent very often. The track is a little unlike most street circuits in that is is fast and relatively wide with opportunities to overtake. This track could very well see some accidents and the appearance of the safety car, so reaction to this will probably be what determines the winner of the race. McLaren have proven recently that they have been very good at this and Lewis Hamilton has proven to be good at tight and twisty circuits so I tip him to be the favourite for the win, although Ferrari will be very strong as well, the red machines are just too good this year. Of the others so far Fernando Alonso and Renault will probably be best placed to be best of the rest as BMW are struggling on tyres and Renautl have figured it out recently. Fernando will really want to impress his home crowd so don`t be surprised to see Renault do a little grandstanding in final qualifying to get Fernando on the front row. If there are some surprise points finishers on Sunday look to Torro Rosso to be there, Sebastein Vettel has been impressive all season and was fastest in first practice while struggling teammate Sebastien Bourdais was fourth. Of course in reality first practice means very little, but it could be a sign that Torro Rosso are still improving as the season progresses. We will see in qualifying what happens, but this points to being a very entertaining race, and we won't even need rain!!

The IRL is in California this week at Infineon raceway (sears point) a twisty and hilly track that is tough on the drivers. Scott Dixon has to be the early favourite as he has run well in pretty much every race and with the Penske team scrambling to get cars ready after a fire destroyed their primary cars and with Andretti-Green racing just starting to sort their affairs out there appears to be little competition for the big red (target) machine. Some of the former champ car teams like Newman/Haas/Lanigan and KV could compete for the win, but in the end it always just seems that despite leading and being fastest they struggle with strategy and end up giving the race to A Ganassi or Penske driver. Dixon has a commanding lead and could concievably clinch the title on sunday if he wins and Helio Castroneves has a particularly poor day. All of the top teams tested at Sonoma this week so it may end up being a case of the have's beating up on the have nots and so a Ganassi, Penske, or AGR win seems the most likely. There are 27 cars in the field for the race and so there could be quite a few cautions, especially with a trigger happy race director and the number of accident prone muppets in the field so strategy may be the deciding factor, something again that the big teams do best at. Infineon has not been a track prone to surprises and so don't expect one here, hopefully we at least get a good race.