Who’s hot?
McLaren
are looking good out there. Lewis
Hamilton was quickest in morning practice only to pick up a
three-place grid penalty for ignoring double yellow flags. Harsh but fair
I’m afraid.
Who’s not?
The commentary boxes have not gone down well. They don’t have any windows so
we’ll be relying entirely on the race feed. I might as well be in Shepherd’s
Bush.
The circuit – Tricky but rewarding.
I think the Buddh circuit will be challenging track for the drivers; the blind
crests are interesting and elevation changes are always fun. I don’t think
the blind crests will overly worry the drivers. Most of Monaco is blind but
you always know exactly what is coming around the corner. Mind you, if a dog
is just around the corner – as we saw yesterday morning – that will not be
funny.
Weather – dusty
The challenge for the drivers this weekend will be to get to grips, literally,
with a completely ‘green’ track that has seen months of construction work
result in a thick layer of dust which probably won’t disappear until the end
of next year’s race. Although the track has been designed with nice wide
corner entries in an effort to encourage overtaking, drivers aren’t stupid.
There’s having a go and then there’s diving down the inside on a dusty track
when you are going at the same speed as the car next to you, but you can’t
stop because of the dust. Leaving the racing line will be risky.
Prediction
Difficult to say as this is the first ever race here. But McLaren and Red
Bull are the form teams.
TV Times Qualifying: Saturday 9.30am BBC ONE
Indian Grand Prix: Sunday 9.30am BBC ONE