Rubens was struggling a bit today, ended up 14th on the grid.

Looks like the Chevy engine is the class of the field, took the top 5 spots on the grid, and Lotus is way behind, their highest qualifier, Alex Tagliani, is 17th.

At least Lotus's F1 team doesn't have their engines spontaneously shutting down.  Sebastien Bourdais pushed his Lotus up into the top 5 (from a last place start) until his engine stopped.

Nice quiet race, no major crashes, a little light on racing action.  Reubens finished 17th.  Not quite the result he was expecting.

So who ends up on top with new chassis and new engines?  The usual suspects:  Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi, with just enough action to think that Andretti Autosport might actually be in the mix.  It was nice to see Takuma Sato in the Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan car lead and turn competitive lap times. 

The really good news?  The engines sounded great, NO MORE FART CANS.

Finally tuning into today's pre-race show.  The DW12 cars are nearly as fugly as 2012 F1 (excepting McLaren) cars. They almost look like SCCA C-Sports Racers, or a mash of Formula Car front with open cockpit prototype rear. I know it was done for safety (no chance of the open wheel interlock now) but really 

I do have to agree that they sound much better, like actual race cars.  Don't miss the V8's...mostly because they didn't sound like 8's (damn flat crank...without the Ferrari rip).

In watching the IndyCar race, then finally catching up to the F1 Malaysia race back to back (rained all day Sunday, so not able to do much outside anyway) I did note one thing.  Money buys atmosphere. The IndyCar race looked (comparatively) like watching SCCA Club Racing.  Had nothing to do with the drivers (both sets were clean) but it's sort of amazing to me (haven't watched IndyCars since CART died) how comparatively cheap and (nearly, but not) amateurish IndyCar appears on TV.  ALMS seems only slightly better.  Guess racing in America is going  , although McLaren's pitwork seems to fit right in with the 'Muricans.

Even better, they are giving him an extra 30 minutes of practice on the ROAD COURSES!!?!?!?? What idiot feels that he needs to brush up on his road course skills? 

Having read the article, the extra time on the road courses isn't to learn how to drive, but it's to aid in course familiarity.  Personally, I were Rubens, I'd appreciate that, PLUS they give him extra tires for the extra practice sessions.  Not at ALL a bad deal IMHO, on course time sure trumps simulator time.  As I also read, he is NOT being given full "rookie" status, so he is ineligible for the "Rookie of the Year" title.  I actually think it makes sense.