I've missed my deadline for a midnight daily post publication once again. That's okay though because SidepodTime is elastic and it's Sidepodcast's fault for drawing me into an interesting debate in the comments and delaying me anyhow.
Karun News
This evening's discussion centred around Hispania driver Karun Chandok's new gig as an Anthony Davidson stand in. The man handled himself incredibly well during qualifying, and while the interaction between himself and Crofty fell a little flat at times, he put in an almost faultless performance.
To a point it was almost too faultless. I mentioned in the comments it felt like I should've turned up to the broadcast with a notebook and pen for today's F1 lectures, such is the encyclopaedic knowledge contained within Karun's head. The problem of course is to me, things became a bit 'F1 for motorsport geeks' and the train of conversation left me several stops back. If you tuned in to 5Live's coverage yesterday, do let us know in the comments below what you made of it, and if possible tune in for the race today and let us know where you stand in the commentator knowledge vs. commentator enthusiasm debate.
In other "Karun News", the poor man had his laptop nicked last night and it's looking unlikely he'll be seeing it again. Thankfully the perpetrators left his F1 passes and passport, but loosing your data on the road like that must be gut-wrenching.
Seeing as we're talking F1 coverage, and specifically UK F1 coverage, do take a look at Leigh's post relating to a rather unfortunate moment in the pre-quallifying television coverage. That wouldn't have happened in a studio.
Long Time Coming
This is clearly way too much Formula 1 content for a daily post, but wait there's more.
Fernando Alonso scored a blinding pole position for the race today. It's been a hell of a long time coming for both the man and the team, so very well done to both. Alonso seemed at a loss to explain where such an almighty lap came from, he surprised even himself with that one.
Christine provided some rather ace coverage of said qualifying spectacle despite some technical setbacks along the way, have a read if you missed out on any of the action.
The last piece of information to share on the subject of qualifying was a post race conversation shown on the world feed between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Button noted from looking at the final timesheet that nobody had improved on their final runs. He appeared to have deduced this after he'd memorised the all of the top ten times mid-session.
I've no idea how he was given the data, presumably not while touring the circuit but the camera picked up Jenson correcting Lewis' assertion that Alonso's time had come on his final run. The moment offered a brief snapshot into the fantastic mind of a driver.
That really must be about it for this all-F1 daily post, so I shall see you in the comments for yet more enticing discussion.