I think the racing should be very exciting, although I'm not sure where the overtaking places are. I'd expect the Safety Car to be in use quite a bit, particularly if the conditions are as difficult as they were in qualifying. In theory, they should be better, because all the cars will be on track and circulating at the same time, which will overcome the problem of dust and dirt on the surface. For the record (courtesy of autosport.com):
Code:
Sprint race starting grid:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Jonny Reid New Zealand 1:15.241
2. Adrian Zaugg South Africa 1:15.522 + 0.281
3. Loic Duval France 1:15.628 + 0.387
4. C.Vietoris Germany 1:15.724 + 0.483
5. J.Bleekemolen Netherlands 1:16.036 + 0.795
6. J.Summerton USA 1:16.101 + 0.860
7. Adam Carroll Ireland 1:16.182 + 0.941
8. Robert Wickens Canada 1:16.201 + 0.960
9. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1:16.386 + 1.145
10. Sergio Jimenez Brazil 1:16.408 + 1.167
11. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:16.423 + 1.182
12. Edoardo Piscopo Italy 1:16.472 + 1.231
13. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1:16.731 + 1.490
14. Joao Urbano Portugal 1:17.147 + 1.906
15. John Martin Australia 1:17.309 + 2.068
16. Cheng Cong Fu China 1:17.340 + 2.099
17. Chris Alajajian Lebanon 1:17.682 + 2.441
18. David Garza Mexico 1:17.809 + 2.568
19. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1:17.811 + 2.570
20. N.Karthikeyan India 1:17.961 + 2.720
21. Satrio Hermanto Indonesia 1:18.421 + 3.180
22. Adam Khan Pakistan 1:18.635 + 3.394
Code:
Feature race starting grid:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Loic Duval France 1:15.296
2. C.Vietoris Germany 1:15.331 + 0.035
3. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:15.476 + 0.180
4. Robert Wickens Canada 1:15.588 + 0.292
5. Jonny Reid New Zealand 1:15.618 + 0.322
6. Joao Urbano Portugal 1:15.620 + 0.324
7. Adrian Zaugg South Africa 1:15.651 + 0.355
8. J.Bleekemolen Netherlands 1:15.795 + 0.499
9. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1:15.895 + 0.599
10. J.Summerton USA 1:15.898 + 0.602
11. Sergio Jimenez Brazil 1:16.024 + 0.728
12. John Martin Australia 1:16.106 + 0.810
13. Adam Carroll Ireland 1:16.115 + 0.819
14. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1:16.198 + 0.902
15. David Garza Mexico 1:16.313 + 1.017
16. Edoardo Piscopo Italy 1:16.524 + 1.228
17. Chris Alajajian Lebanon 1:16.556 + 1.260
18. Cheng Cong Fu China 1:16.761 + 1.465
19. N.Karthikeyan India 1:16.791 + 1.495
20. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1:17.526 + 2.230
21. Adam Khan Pakistan 1:17.556 + 2.260
22. Satrio Herman Indonesia 1:18.106 + 2.810
I'm sure Team GBR will be disappointed with those results, but I think what they (and everyone else) have to realize is that the whole level of competition has been cranked up by several notches this year. Look where Narain Karthikeyan is, for example, and he won the last race!