d’souza’s on the move…

So we decided to make the move and upgrade to a bigger home. We’ve moved in with Nuha’s parents whilst we build our home in Northgate. We’ve chosen to build with Alliance homes as we loved their designs. We’ve made some small changes to the layout and picked our colours so now its time to sit back and wait for construction to begin…

Riverfire 2010

Riverfire 2010 brought together nearly a million people who took their position around Brisbane’s winding river. The annual event didn’t disappoint either with blackhawk helicopters, F111 jets and spectacular fireworks keeping the crowds entertained. Here are a few memories of the night…

Photos of the River City

Here are some more photos taken last weekend when borrowing my brother in law’s Nikon D5000. Great little camera.

Not bad for a no.2 driver!!

Those were the words that Webber used on the pit-to-car radio after the race. Team boss, Christian Horner, responded with a “you can smile now, Mark”. It was a telling remark about where Webber’s emotions were at and further illustrates the growing ill-feeling within the team. Webber drove a dominant race with pace to spare whenever he needed it. His teammate, Sebastian Vettel, was relegated to the back of the field after a puncture in the first corner on the opening lap. He bounced back to 7th thanks to a fortunately timed safety car to cleanup some debris from de la Rosa’s Sauber’s rear wing. A man who had the opposite luck to Vettel was Alonso who was called in for a drive through penalty after illegally overtaking Kubica by cutting a corner. However, the timing of this penalty coincided with the safety car which completely ruined Alonso’s race. Kubica retired shortly after Alonso overtook him so although the penalty fit the crime, it was a harsh reality.

McLaren had a much better than expected weekend. They tried their new blown diffuser upgrade and found instability under breaking, a common drawback found when first implementing this configuration. They spent all of friday trying to make it work before making a call late on friday night to revert back to their pre-Silverstone package. This meant that they were back at square one in terms of setup and spend hours on the simulator back at base trying to catchup. They ended up finishing the race in 2nd and 4th which was a testament to the great starts both drivers had and the reliability of the McLaren package. Its race was much better than qualifying, a trend we have seen all year and this is what has enabled them to keep a lead in both championships.

So onto Hockenheim next, a circuit that is a shadow of its former self, but still has some entertaining sections and corners where overtaking is possible. Will Red Bull self destruct, will McLaren make their blown diffuser work, will Ferrari realise the potential they have been promising in the last two races, will Renault and Mercedes make the next step to join the top 3? All these questions and more will be answered in just over a week’s time.

red bull – on another collision course?

Before Saturday’s all important qualifying session, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner ordered the only remaining Silverstone spec front wing to be transferred from Webber’s car to Vettel’s. He reasoned this on championship position and weekend performance thus far. It is a very strange move that will only serve to increase the niggling suspicion that Red Bull are trying to bolster Vettel’s championship chances at the expense of Webber’s. The front wing is alleged to be worth about a tenth of a second – the same gap that Webber trailed Vettel by.

The Red Bull’s were 8 tenths quicker than the next car meaning that driver clashes and reliability aside, a 1-2 is very likely. Alonso and Hamilton are well placed to fight for the last step on the podium and given their recent history (Alonso complained about Hamilton in Valencia), fireworks and aggressive driving is to be expected.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX, Qualifying
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:30.841 1:30.480 1:29.615
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:30.858 1:30.114 1:29.758
3. Alonso Ferrari 1:30.997 1:30.700 1:30.426
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.297 1:31.118 1:30.556
5. Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.626 1:31.085 1:30.625
6. Kubica Renault 1:31.680 1:31.344 1:31.040
7. Massa Ferrari 1:31.313 1:31.010 1:31.172
8. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:31.424 1:31.126 1:31.175
9. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:31.533 1:31.327 1:31.274
10. Schumacher Mercedes 1:32.058 1:31.022 1:31.430
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:31.109 1:31.399
12. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:31.851 1:31.421
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:32.144 1:31.635
14. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.435 1:31.699
15. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:32.226 1:31.708
16. Petrov Renault 1:31.638 1:31.796
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:31.901 1:32.012
18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:32.430
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:34.405
20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:34.775
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:34.864
22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:35.212
23. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:36.576
24. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1:36.968

British GP – friday form guide

So Webber leads the pack on friday by nearly four tenths. He always goes well around here and has two points to prove – 1) that he is completely over his Valencia accident and 2) that there was never anything wrong with Vettel’s old chassis. Vettel and the two Ferraris appear to be the main challengers with the Merc boys finding some improved speed in the car compared to Valencia. Ferrari in particular never got a chance to show their full pace in Valencia with Alonso starting to turn on the fastest laps when the infamous safety car was deployed. After that, the only thing that Alonso was interested in turning on was the tears, repeatedly moaning to his crew over the radio about how unfair it was that Hamilton had passed the safety car. I expect them to be fast around here now that they seem to have both tricks (an F-duct rear wing and a blown diffuser) working well on the car.

The hometown duo, Hamilton and Button, were finding their way in the updated McLaren but have yet to find a sound setup for saturday’s qualifying and more importantly, sunday’s race. Word on the street is that the ‘blown diffuser’ aspect of the upgrade package will be removed for the rest of this weekend and reintroduced in Hockenheim in two weeks time. Will be interesting to see how competitive they can be around Silverstone without this ‘must have’ mod.

A notable mention must also go to Petrov for finishing friday’s sessions in front of his highly regarded team mate, Kubica. Another driver who has impressed all year is Sutil. He has consistently been putting in fast times with the Force India and has not given Liuzzi an easy time. He should get his chance to shine (possibly a top 6 spot) in the lower downforce tracks like Spa and Monza.

BRITISH GRAND PRIX, Free Practice 2

1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:31.234 15
2. Alonso Ferrari 1:31.626 + 0.392 26
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:31.875 + 0.641 24
4. Massa Ferrari 1:32.099 + 0.865 25
5. Rosberg Mercedes 1:32.166 + 0.932 29
6. Schumacher Mercedes 1:32.660 + 1.426 27
7. Petrov Renault 1:32.745 + 1.511 28
8. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.757 + 1.523 22
9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:32.787 + 1.553 27
10. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:32.967 + 1.733 32
11. Kubica Renault 1:33.019 + 1.785 30
12. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:33.164 + 1.930 28
13. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:33.200 + 1.966 24
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:33.402 + 2.168 23
15. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:33.728 + 2.494 27
16. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:33.836 + 2.602 36
17. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:34.051 + 2.817 29
18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:34.643 + 3.409 36
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:35.465 + 4.231 25
20. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:36.237 + 5.003 24
21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:36.553 + 5.319 21
22. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:37.019 + 5.785 27
23. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1:38.303 + 7.069 32
24. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:42.901 + 11.667 3

friday photos at kangaroo point, brisbane

Here are two of the clearest photos I took last night – not bad for my first shoot with a DSLR (Nikon D5000).