Burn rubber on those wide corners; welcome F1, excited to see you

On Friday morning, the Formula One teams’ personnel, including the drivers, arrived early at the circuit and got down to work. It was business as usual for them, but for India, it was a historic day. The engines began revving up by 9.30 am and when the pit lane exit lights went green at exactly 10 am, the inaugural Indian Grand Prix was go! First out was Adrian Sutil in his Sahara Force India car, followed by Karun Chandhok in his Team Lotus car and then Narain Karthikeyan in the HRT. Chandhok cheekily passed Sutil and went on to set the first-timed lap ever at the Buddh International Circuit. A nice piece of history for the man who won’t be racing on Sunday and he was happy about it. Maybe it also marked what the other drivers have been talking about —  good overtaking opportunities readily available here. Soon enough, McLaren’s Jenson Button cried out on radio, ‘love the track!’ And that feeling was mutual amongst all drivers as they took part in two practice sessions on the day. If there was one complaint then it was about the dust on the circuit. But that is normal for any new track. More rubber is expected to go down by the time the race comes along and the supporting events will surely help in that. However it will still ‘play a crucial role on Sunday as tyres will be affected if cars venture off the racing line’, as world champion Sebastian Vettel put it. It will be highly adventurous if someone decides to do that. F1 cars often follow a particular racing line through most part of the circuit and it is only while overtaking that different racing lines come into effect. As it is with its fast flowing curves, this Indian circuit is ripe with wide turns and corners, providing this opportunity again and again. So if any of the drivers wants to overtake a clutch of cars by heading off the racing line and attacking the corners, it will make the action quite interesting. [caption id=“attachment_118680” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Mclaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button steers his car.PTI”] [/caption] That though is for later. This day buzzed with the arrival of a new race on the F1 calendar and none were beaming more than the Indians involved with this motorsport. Force India owner and team principal Vijay Mallya described it as a ‘dream come true.’ Karthikeyan was simply too chuffed for words, at loss for words at times, overcome with emotion. Chandhok was a bit disappointed that his participation as a driver was over when the first practice session ended, but he found solace in the BBC commentary booth. The impressions from the morning practice session said enough about another interesting battle between Red Bull and McLaren . Lewis Hamilton led from Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber , while Jenson Button finished fourth. But Lewis was penalised for not slowing down for a yellow flag late in the session and was given a three place penalty for qualifying. He won’t be scoring a pole here this year. Actually the reason for him not slowing down remained a little mysterious. There were two consecutive yellow sectors when he was on his last hot lap in the first session, and he supposedly missed the second one. But the rules are rules, and he will endure the penalty. Ferrari had an awful morning. Fernando Alonso’s car came to a standstill after only four laps and he spent the next few minutes watching his own face being played up on the giant screen, before eventually returning to the track. His team-mate Felipe Massa was testing a new front wing on his car for 2012 and he did well to finish seventh. But then the Scuderia came back with a vengeance in the second practice session. Massa finished first and Alonso took third to make it an interesting trio of teams heading into Saturday qualifying. Meanwhile Michael Schumacher and Mercedes GP felt confident about their day, as did Toro Rosso and the two teams will clash again like they did in Korea. But all eyes will be on Force India on Saturday to see if they can make it to the final session of qualifying. It is imperative for the team to do well this weekend, it has been stressed on umpteen occasions. Adrian Sutil finished eighth  in the morning and Paul Di Resta was 11th. In the afternoon session, they were both in the top ten, finishing seventh and nineth, respectively. Mallya talked in the press conference about the team giving 110 percent this weekend. Early in the first morning session, a dog had run out on track bringing out the red flag after only five minutes of running. Beyond that there weren’t any real glitches and it seemed Formula One began yet another normal weekend of its ever bloating calendar. However, it certainly was more than ‘normal’ for the many Indians – fans, team personnel and media members alike – gathered here.  It is a special time in this part of the F1 world. (The writer is the author of soon-to-be-released History of Formula One: The Circus comes to India.)