McLaren wins the Bull fight

Just finished watching the Turkish Gran Prix and what a disaster for the RedBulls. RedBulls were pretty much settled as one-two either Mark Webber or Sebastian Vettel getting the victory, but what a disaster for them when Vettel tried to overtake Webber. Vettel was constantly closing on Webber and he knew when to overtake; but did his team mate give him room? Unfortunately no and not only that, they collided and it was race over for Vettel while leaving Webber with a damaged front wing. Both McLarens passed the damaged Webber and passed the chequered flag after few laps giving a much deserved victory for Lewis Hamilton.

During qualifying both McLarens matched the pace of the RedBulls giving 2nd position for Lewis Hamilton and 4th for Jenson Button. And during the race Hamilton was keeping very closely with Webber till the first pit stop where he really shouldn’t have pitted. The pit release gave Vettel the advantage over Hamilton and his trouble was doubled. Somehow Vettel and Webber had a little dance while overtaking and gave upper hand for both McLarens. McLaren’s F-duct worked very well to keep up with the Bulls. While the RedBull’s and McLaren’s were only a second or two from each other the rest of the cars were nowhere to be found.

McLaren’s traditional rival Ferrari is lacking pace a lot and their car is not in a good shape howsoever. Meanwhile Renault has improved a lot during the past few races. But none of these teams could keep up with the RedBull’s or the McLaren’s.

Rationalist Day 2010

I was quite surprised when I heard there is a group called "Rationalist Association" existed in Sri Lanka. After that one member from our group “Secular Sri Lanka” has contacted the president of the Rationalist Association and he was told that their association is organizing a day called Rationalist Day 2010.

We at Secular Sri Lanka thought of attending the event for the purpose of introducing our web site Secular Sri Lanka among the members of Rationalist Association. So I borrowed a good quality camera and a tripod from a friend to cover the event. And we have given a good publicity about this event from our website as well.

Rationalist Day - 2010

Finally the day arrived - 18th May 2010; we went to this place called “Punchi Theater” at Borella with our equipment to get the video and to present our site. I also printed some handbills to distribute among the members of the Rationalist Association. The President of the Rationalist Association in his welcome speech itself gave an extensive introduction to our website and the group. It was something I didn’t expect. Then just after the keynote speech from Professor Carlo Fonseka a member from our group introduced our group and the website to the audience. I must say the audience was very excited about the effort we have put so far. After that the Rationalist Day was pretty much in our hands, there was a time allocated for a discussion and throughout the discussion the topic discussed was a Secular Sri Lanka. This is by far the best discussion I have ever had with a bunch of professors. Long story short, we rocked Rationalist Day 2010.

Link(s): Secular Sri Lanka, Secular Sri Lanka - Alternative Link

Karting with Rookies

We were planning to do this Go-Kart session for over a month, due to many reasons it got postponed. Finally we made it to the Speed Drome Go-Kart track on Sunday, 9th May 2010 around 10.30 am. It was the first time I’ve been to Speed Drome in a morning. The place was very quiet; no one else was there apart from the bunch of us.

The Karts

So I briefed my rookie friends Lahiru, Rajeev and Jo for the race. We went to the pit lane and geared up for Karting. Normally when I race with others it’s impossible to overtake because they are real pros, but the rookies have got it all wrong. They were way too wide on every corner and overtaking was just a piece of cake. I remember myself karting for the first time in the same track couple of months ago but I pushed the kart hard enough and gave a real hard time for the experienced fellows on the track. After the 10 minute session we pitted and got the timesheets, it was a complete disaster for me. My lap time was not good enough. Of course all the slow carts on the track had something to do with it but the main factor was the track temperature. The tarmac had some vapor even though it was 10.30 am. It was a cloudy day and there were no direct sun light to heat up the tarmac. However this karting session was not a competition. I was just showing the fun side of karting to my friends.

Karting at Speed Drome

Coral Sands - Hikkaduwa

Corel Sands Hotel at Hikkaduwa is not a very luxurious hotel but a decent location for an outing. Below are few pictures from an outing from 1st to 2nd May 2010.

Sea View

Hotel View

Outdoor Restaurant View

Dinner Table(s)

McLaren’s have come out strong once again

Having topped both Practice 1 and 2, McLaren looked strong in Friday’s practice sessions. During the Practice 3 the McLarens were placed 2nd and 4th by the RedBulls getting 1st and 3rd position. We only saw little action from Ferrari’s and the Mercedes. During the Qualifying having topped both Q1 and Q2, Lewis Hamilton impressed his fans. However the Top 10 shootout didn’t work for Hamilton that well. RedBull’s secured the Pole Position for the 4th consecutive time at Chinese Grand Prix giving Sebastian Vettel the Pole position.

It was a dramatic Grand Prix race indeed. Fernando Alonso’s “Jump Start” came out as a surprise for the well experienced driver. He was given a drive through penalty for that. Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Robert Kubica had the advantage on tyres and were virtually ahead of others by a very far. McLaren’s tyre strategy was again different for Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton made 4 pit stops altogether while his team mate did only two. Nico Rosberb was leading in the early part of the race gave the track position to Button because of a mistake he made. Hamilton having to battle the RedBulls, Renaults and seeing the big red Ferrari’s in his rear mirrors managed to pass the Russian newcomer Vitaly Petrov with the massive Top Speed of the powerful McLaren. He subsequently passed Kubica and Rosberg and climbed up to the second position behind team mate Button. Hamilton was catching Button but then lost time and Rosberg was catching Hamilton. Hamilton however responded with the superb last few laps and was only a second behind Button when they saw the Chequered Flag.

It was a much needed McLaren one-two win at the end. McLaren are now leading the Constructor’s championship ahead of their traditional rivals Ferrari. Jenson Button is the current driver’s championship leader. Sabastian Vettel is indeed the man to watch. But there is an interesting fact. Nico Rosberb again both out-qualifying and out-racing his team mate Michael Schumacher is currently in the 2nd place of the driver’s championship. Nothing can be predicted because it’s only the start of the season. Lot more action can be expected when the races moves to Europe.

Start of the 2010 Formula 1 season

Have seen two interesting races; Bahrain and the Australian Grand Prix. In both Sebastian Vettel took the pole position with flying laps at the qualifying. But unfortunately for Vettel he couldn’t win any races even though he did amazingly well in the start of each race. Those Television commentators always talks about the reliability issues with new cars on the track but what about the RedBull car? In both races Vettel was forced to give up because of problems with his car. However his colleague’s car didn’t face any technical issues in either race.

According to the reviews there are 4 very powerful teams in this season namely Ferrari, RedBull, McLaren and Mercedes. In a media interview Lewis Hamilton has said that his car McLaren MP4-25 hasn’t got enough pace as the rival RedBulls. However having technical difficulties in the Vettel’s car McLaren did gain more points in both races.

There is another special highlight of today’s race despite for his poor qualifying result, Hamilton was chasing Robert Kubica for the 2nd position and at one moment he almost got through, but the surprisingly Hamilton came in to the Pit Lane and pushed back to fifth :( He was behind the two Ferraris for many laps and at the very last moment made contact with Mark Webber and lost another position.

Lot of changes has happened so far and I’m expecting lot of action from all the teams in the rest of the season :)

Speed Drome

Speed Drome

There is an outdoor Go-Kart track located near the parliament grounds. I’ve seen it many times but have never been there. I had no plans and I called Udara to check what he was doing. He said he is near Speed Drome with Dinendre. Then I asked them to wait there till I come so we can do some karting, he called back and said you need to wear shoes and he is coming home to get his pair of shoes. I asked my sister whether she is interested to come and she said ok. Went to Udara’s place and picked up Udara and his sister Bagya. Dinendre has done some karting and he gave us basic instructions when we arrived at Speed Drome.

The ticket cost was Rs. 750 for 10 minutes, so all 5 of us got the tickets. While we were waiting we saw another group racing karts. It was faster than I expected. And they were really good at drifting at the corners. Finally it was our turn and we went to the pit lane. Soon as we walked in we were given a paper which has the set of rules that to be obeyed. Then we were given helmets and a pair of gloves for each. Then we got in to these tiny Go-Karts and some guy came and stared my Go-Kart, I was racing from the very first second. Too bad I spun while taking turns few times. Then some instructor came and told me that I need to slow down at the bends and blah blah blah...

10 minutes was way too short, I really wished I could do few more laps. This is good for a change and trust me the moment I got out of the kart I was so exhausted. Karting is fun, should do it more often :)

Karting at Speed Drome

Link(s): http://www.speedrome.lk