Which slot? You don't mean the tunnel, because that hasn't reappeared. To me it looks like they've reverted to the Sauberesque coanda ramp.
"Woah!" Scary face man startles Hamilton. please log in to view this image The ridge is apparently the maximum height of the bulkhead. Possibly one of the saddest photos you'll see this season:
What? The tunnel? They did - that's what you were hopping about about proclaiming Vettel to be a better car designer than Newey. It hasn't reappeared so I wondered which slot you were referring to?
I never consider the fastest combo that is of the same nationality as the crowd. The track was evolving every minute and nobody bothered to try and beat it with 25 minutes to go when he set it, so for me it's just Spanish hype to drag in the punters.
Well I assumed that was the problem the tunnel, but now it's "back" so I guess it must of been sorted if both cars are using it.
Bottas must be the biggest shock, how good is the williams? We may see more different teams win a race this season than in any of the modern era (meaning since I've been watching) as Williams, Lotus & Sauber seem to have cars and drivers that can perform fairly well at the sharp end.
It was only practice, but it was really nice to see Alonso in P1, and even better to see smiling faces in the Ferrari garage.
I was watching Bottas on board earlier in the season and he looked a real tidy driver, I think he'll be quality when he finally gets a race seat, better than Senna and Maldonado. The smiles were the most ominous sign, they looked really satisfied with how things went suggesting they haven't just underfuelled the car. I think Red Bull and McLaren are holding a bit back though, and I didn't notice Mercedes using DRS once in the whole session.
BBC reporting that McLaren have just received a lot of upgrades in boxes and a new chassis. Rear of the RB8: please log in to view this image
Can see HRT copying that. Good to see Bottas doing well, For reasons I can't explain I fully intend to support him when he gets a race seat
Good pic - I didn't spot that earlier on the video feed. I see what you mean now. That's a bit scary though, in a way. Where does the air feeding into that big slot come out? To me it looks like a big duct, effectively, feeding the diffuser. This isn't elegantly using the coanda effect to guide the airflow under the exhaust and onto the diffuser, it's using a duct to channel it. It's the tunnel but it's not graceful.
Ignoring the times for the moment because they've not shown their hands yet - Alonso at the top again and Massa in fourth with only a DDRS and a Red Bull in between. EDIT: Someone tell Vergne to stop spoiling things with his 6/1000ths. EDIT: Bah! Nice lap by Vettel. Let's hope it's his best all weekend.
Now here's a thought, can that tunnel be used as a "DDRS" variant? Or is there a rule in place for that? It just seems more and more Newey is making it more agressive.
