It has been really interesting to watch the free pratices and qualifying so far(worth the 3am wakeups). The control ECU that prevents traction control and controlled engine braking is great as expected, the driving is much more spectacular.
Ferrari and Macca seem to be much closer matched than expected in qualifying. I think Kimi would have taken the pole if he had not had that glitch in the car, but the margin would not have been that big. Fantastic to see BMW up there as well, Kubica made a fantastic lap and a great recovery from the error, most would have lost much more time at that situation. The white cars appear to be quite close to the top two on a short stint, it will be interesting to see how things pan out over long distance.
Behind them it's expectedly tight between the next seven teams. If the performance differences won't increase considerably over race distance this pack is going to be very entertaining to follow, now that drivers generally make more mistakes which makes overtaking possible. Exceptionally good efforts today by Toyota by hauling both their cars to top 10, Honda for hauling their cars almost within a second from the top and Vettel for his pace.
Tomorrow's race is going to be extremely interesting. The lack of driver aids has obviously made driving trickier and full concentration is needed. Combined with the extreme temperatures forecasted for tomorrow (I think 43 degrees celcius was mentioned during the broadcast, along the term 'hottest GP ever') it is going to be a real test for the drivers. Can't wait!
And in the meantime, there's the Sebring 12 hours to follow as well
