F1 Discussion Thread

[Val]

BARCELONA, Spain, April 26, 2008 (AFP) - Defending drivers´ world champion and early season leader Kimi Raikkonen of Finland on Saturday secured pole position for Sunday´s Spanish Grand Prix.

Best moments

Michael Schumacher in the pitbox at Ferrari during the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying (what was he doing there? Looking for free lunch? )

The top qualifyers of the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix. 1st Kimi Raikkonen, 2nd Fernando Alonso, 3rd Felipe Massa

Timo Glock driving on the long straight of the Catalunya circuit of Spain.

Dietrich Mateschitz (Red Bull Founder) and Robert Doornbos (race driver)

Mark Webber driving out of the pit on Friday before the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix.

But on a warm, dry and sunlit spring afternoon at the Circuit de Catalunya, it was the performance of local hero Spaniard Fernando Alonso that captured the public imagination.

Double drivers´ world champion Alonso clocked a superb lap in the closing seconds to go briefly top of the times and ended up second only after Raikkonen had eclipsed his effort in the final seconds.

Raikkonen´s Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa was third fastest ahead of Poland´s Robert Kubica in the leading BMW Sauber with Briton Lewis Hamilton struggling to make fifth place for McLaren Mercedes.

His team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalianen was sixth ahead of Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull, Italian Jarno Trulli of Toyota, German Nick Heidfeld in the second BMW and Brazilian Nelson Piquet in the second Renault.

The first two mini-sessions saw the removal of 12 slower drivers from the fray.

In the first session, when Raikkonen was the fastest man, Briton David Coulthard in his Red Bull failed to make the cut by finishing 17th, just ahead of Sebastian Vettel of Germany in his Toro Rosso.

Also out went Italian Giancarlo Fisichella of Force India, German Adrian Sutil, his team-mate, Briton Anthony Davidson of the cash-starved Super-Aguri team and his partner Japanese Takuma Sato.

The second part-session saw the elimination of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, in his Honda, Kazuki Nakajima in a Williams, Jenson Button of Britain in a Honda, German Timo Glock in a Toyota, German Nico Rosberg in a Williams and Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais in a Toro Rosso.

Next Race:

Catalunya: Spain



Sunday 27 April - 14:00: local time. 9am here in Brazil.

Good luck.

[Captain Beefheart]

Great job from Alonso and the Renault team as well. I suspect he's a bit light on fuel, but still a great step forward for the team, a podium would be too much to ask for but a Top 5 finish would be alright.

[Val]

Beef ...

could you go to the introduction thread and say something about your car there?

Flying Finn strolls to Spanish victory

The podium after the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix: 1st Kimi Raikkonen, 2nd Felipe Massa, 3rd Lewis Hamilton.

BARCELONA, Spain, April 27, 2008 (AFP) - Defending drivers world champion Kimi Raikkonen extended his lead in this year´s title race to nine points on Sunday when he drove to a comfortable victory in an incident-filled Spanish Grand Prix.

The Finn, driving a Ferrari, led from start to finish, bar the pit stops, to dominate the contest and consolidate his and his team´s position as the in-form outfit after four races this season.

Raikkonen´s win was his 17th in a career often beset by bad luck in earlier times and endorsed the wideheld feeling that he has happier at Ferrari and in the form of his life.

His Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa drove a solid race to finish second, after starting third on the grid, ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren-Mercedes.

But Hamilton´s team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen produced the day´s most spectacular and worrying moment when his car suffered a front-left puncture at 240 kph.

He lost control and flew off the track into a tyre barrier.

It took five minutes to pull his car clear and lift him out on to a stretcher, but he was later declared to be uninjured and stable after being taken to the medical centre - though he was flown to a local hospital as a precautionary measure.

Poland´s Robert Kubica continued his fine form by finishing fourth for BMW Sauber ahead of Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull and Briton Jenson Button in a Honda.

Japanese Kazuki Nakajima finished seventh for Williams and Italian Jarno Trulli ninth for Toyota.

The race saw the Safety Car sent out twice following accidents.

Home hero Fernando Alonso of Spain was forced to retire in his Renault after blowing the engine. He started an unexpected second on the grid, but failed to match that in front of a crowd of more than 115,000 spectators at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Raikkonen made a fast, clean start to take the lead from his 15th pole position and first this year.

Behind him, his Ferrari team-mate Massa went left and wide to pass Alonso on the outside as they swept towards the first corner.

The big sun-bathed crowd of 115,000 spectators crowded into the Circuit de Catlunya gasped in disappointment, but there was nothing that Spain´s double world champion could do to prevent the Brazilian passing him with sheer speed.

Hamilton, starting fifth, took advantage of the cars swerving in front of him to spear down the inside of Kubica and, after almost running off the circuit, to squeeze ahead of him on the inside of turn one.

For both men, their aggression paid off as on this tortuously predictable circuit, where overtaking during the race is so notoriously difficult, it secured them good positions.

On the same lap, the opening one, however, there was drama when German Adrian Sutil spun and then hit his compatriot Sebastian Vettel, the Force India car smacking the Toro Rosso with enough force to wreck both of their races.

This brought out the Safety Car for two laps before Raikkonen began his charge again, opening up a clear 2.7 seconds lead by lap 10 ahead of Massa as the two Ferraris ran away at the front.

Alonso, Hamilton and Kubica filled positions three to five with Kovalainen sixth in the second McLaren.

Another accident on lap eight ended the hopes of both Nelson Piquet and Sebastien Bourdais, the Brazilian driving his Renault into the second Toro Rosso when he attempted an outrageously ambitious passing move down the inside. The Frenchman retired with a shrug and soon afterwards was joined by Briton Anthony Davidson who abandoned the race in his Super Aguri car. For the cash-starved Honda-supported team, it was a minor catastrophe in a season of worry - they do not know if they will survive for more than another week.

Piquet´s car was left abandoned out on the track at turn 10.

Alonso was the first man to pit, followed swiftly by the two Ferraris and Hamilton, but as the order was shuffled during the stops, Kovalainen speared off the track at turn nine, ramming his Renault heavily into the tyre-barrier. The front of his car was buried deep in the tyres and the Finn, in the cockpit, was out of sight seemingly in serious danger of bad injury.

But after several minutes his car was finally extracted and after he was lifted on to a stretcher he was well enough to signal with a ´thumb´s up´ that he was well and apparently unhurt.

Slow-motion replays from the cockpit footage showed that his car went out of control when his left front wheel blew up at 230 kph. It looked like a straightforward tyre failure.

On resumption, Raikkonen was left to build his lead again as the two Ferraris led the field. Hamilton was third, Kubica fourth and Alonso, after the stops, fifth. It did not last long.

As Raikkonen completed his 35th lap, Alonso pulled to a halt, his engine spewing out blue smoke.

The Renault power unit had failed dramatically. His fans in the big crowd gave him generous applause and he responded as he walked back to the pits.

Nico Rosberg, of Germany, then retired in similar, if more dramatic fashion, when his Williams car´s Toyota engine blew up as he parked by the pit wall on the main straight.

This left only 13 of the 22 starters still running.

Massa was first to make a second pit-stop as Raikkonen set another fastest lap and pulled further clear before pitting himself ahead of Hamilton and Kubica.

This left Raikkonen ahead by two seconds, as they headed to the chequered flag with Hamilton closing the gap on Massa to just nine-tenths of a second as they crossed the line.

[Val]

Massa wins Turkish Grand Prix

Felipe Massa wins the 2007 Turkish Grand Prixclose

ISTANBUL, May 11, 2008 (AFP) - Brazilian driver Felipe Massa won the Turkish Grand Prix here on Sunday for the third successive year and his seventh career victory.

The Ferrari pilot beat home Briton Lewis Hamilton while reigning champion Kimi Raikkonen was third.

Fast rising Polish driver Robert Kubica took fourth while BMW Sauber stable-mate Nick Heidfeld was fifth, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was sixth. Australian Mark Webber and German Nico Rosberg filled the other points scoring places.

Raikkonen retained his lead in the overall standings.

[Val]

Hamilton dominates second practice session

Lewis Hamilton driving his McLaren MP4/23 at Monaco

MONACO, May 22, 2008 (AFP) - Briton Lewis Hamilton dominated Thursday´s second practice session for Sunday´s Monaco Grand Prix.

Hamilton´s time in the afternoon session was the quickest of the day and gave the McLaren driver major encouragement for Sunday´s 66th running of the showpiece event.

Hamilton dominated the practice early on before Williams driver Nico Rosberg of Germany switched to softer tyres midway through the session and recorded a time of 1:15.533 eclipsing Hamilton momentarily.

Rosberg was quickest for ten minutes before Hamilton also switched to softer Bridgestone rubber and posted a time of 1:15.140, beating the Williams´ time by almost four tenths of a second.

Rosberg was able to hang on to second place ahead of Ferrari duo, defending champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen and Brazilian Felipe Massa, with Heikki Kovalainen of Finland fifth in the second McLaren.

Renault driver Fernando Alonso of Spain managed to finish seventh despite damaging his car at Saint Devote. The Spaniard span off damaging the suspension and rear wing but was able limp to the pits, and still posted the seventh best time.

In the first practice run, Raikkonen edged Hamilton to the fastest time.

In a session interrupted by a long red flag to attend to a loose drain cover, Hamilton had been quickest prior to the interruption, having lapped in 1:17.078 early on. He then improved the benchmark to 1:16.216 shortly after the session was restarted.

But with nine minutes to go, he was usurped by Raikkonen, as the Ferrari driver produced a 1:15.948 to beat Hamilton by 0.268 seconds.

Those times stood as neither driver managed a clear lap on their last runs.

Kovalainen beat Raikkonen´s initial sector times in the second McLaren, but could not sustain the advantage around the final part of the lap and ended up third.

[Val]

Ferrari dominate as Massa grabs pole in Monaco

Felipe Massa gets pole position for the 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix.

MONACO, May 24, 2008 (AFP) - Brazilian Felipe Massa secured pole position for Sunday´s Monaco Grand Prix when he outpaced his Ferrari team-mate and defending champion Kimi Raikkonen in the final seconds of Saturday qualifying.

The Latin American made nonsense of his declared hatred of the unforgiving street circuit in the Mediterranean principality by producing a sublime effort to outpace not only Raikkonen, but also both McLaren drivers.

Raikkonen ended up second ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren team-mate, Finn Heikki Kovalainen, who was fourth.

They will share the second row of the grid after failing to build on their speed earlier in the weekend.

In effect, this also means that Massa is favourite to grab his third win of the season and the eighth of his career in Sunday´s traditionally-processional race around the old harbour.

It was Massa´s 12th career pole position and Ferrari´s first pole in Monaco since 2000.

Poland´s Robert Kubica was fifth for BMW ahead of German Nico Rosberg in a Williams. Twice champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso in a Renault was seventh and Italian Jarno Trulli eighth for Toyota.

That left the two Red Bulls of Australian Mark Webber and David Coulthard in ninth and 10th places.

Coulthard had a huge accident but escaped unhurt at the end of the second mini-session.

The first mini-session in warm, but overcast conditions saw the prompt elimination of the two Toro Rosso drivers Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais and German Sebastian Vettel, who will start the race from 16th and 18th places respectively, along with Brazilian Nelson Piquet in his Renault, who was 17th.

German Adrian Sutil in a Force India was 19th and his team-mate Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was 20th, an outcome that meant they fill the back row of the grid.

Massa was fastest in the opening mini-session when the conditions were benign - an air temperature of 20 degrees, a track temperature of 24 degrees and humidity of 75 per cent. Rain appeared imminent.

The second mini-session was led by the Ferraris, with Massa on top, but the action was overshadowed by Coulthard´s crash in the closing seconds.

The Scot´s Red Bull appeared to hit the barriers at around 260 kph in the tunnel and the first sign of trouble was the sight of a wheel flying ahead of his car into the sunlight.

The Monaco-resident´s car then appeared after smashing into the barriers with both right wheels missing.

The session was red-flagged. He was unhurt and when the debris was cleared the session resumed. He had clocked the 10th-fastest time.

The second mini-session saw the removal from the fray of German Timo Glock in his Toyota, Briton Jenson Button in a Honda and German Nick Heidfeld in a BMW Sauber. They will start 11th, 12th and 13th on the grid.

Japan´s Kazuki Nakajima in a Williams and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in the second Honda were 14th and 15th.

That left the leading teams to enjoy the final shootout in dry conditions with the sun attempting to make an appearance. It certainly shone on Massa.

[bigbear]

Damn it Danicka Patrick is out of the Indy 500 Race today!

[Jocasta]

Thank goodness for the rain, it made for an exciting race when it can often be so boring in Monaco.

[Val]

Melbourne to keep Grand Prix until 2015 - report

The podium after the 2008 Australian Grand Prix: 1st L. Hamilton, 2nd N. Heidfeld, 3nd N. Rosberg

SYDNEY, June 15, 2008 (AFP) - Melbourne is set to keep its Formula One Grand Prix until 2015, and without moving it to night-time, a media report said early on Sunday.

A new deal is expected to be signed within days, according to News Limited, following rampant speculation over the event´s future.

A senior government source reportedly said a verbal agreement had been reached and an announcement was "imminent."

"We haven´t signed the deal but we´re going to quite soon," the source was quoted as saying.

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone had threatened to strip Melbourne of the event if it is not held at night to satisfy European TV audiences.

The new extension is expected to include a later start at around 5:00 pm (0600 GMT) but not night-racing.

"We have ruled out a night race and that is not negotiable," said Victoria state tourism minister Tim Holding.

"This is a good event for the state. It´s one we want to keep and we´ll be working hard to ensure that it does remain here in Melbourne in the years ahead."

The Grand Prix switched to Melbourne from Adelaide in 1996 and the current contract expires in 2010.

[Plastic Flute]

Hi Guys !

July 27 is Josh Hartnetts 30Th Birthday. Of Course All the Bunnies are excited about this Milestone.


But We do need Transportation and Music. Please keep in mind Missy will be joining us.

So if you have have a chance please let us know if you all are avail for hire. RSVP In Joshtopia : A Feast will be had thread.

[Val]

Raikkonen on pole for French GP

Kimi

MAGNY-COURS, France, June 21, 2008 (AFP) - Defending drivers world champion Kimi Raikkonen lived up to his promise on Saturday when he claimed pole position for Ferrari for Sunday´s French Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old Finn clocked a best time of one minute and 16.449 seconds to outpace his nearest rival and team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa by just 0.041 seconds, the pair making sure it was an all-Ferrari front row.

And Raikkonen insisted he could have gone even faster.

"I had quite a bit faster lap on the lap I came in, but the team told me to box it because I was fastest anyhow, there was no point to waste a lap of fuel," said Raikkonen, who has not scored a point in the last two races.

"That last lap I was at least two tenths faster so just at the last moment I turned in when I was at the last chicane, when the team told me to box.

"We had good speed all weekend, the car has been working well and it has been a great weekend so far but tomorrow we have to finish and hopefully we can win because we need some points."

Briton Lewis Hamilton was third-fastest for McLaren Mercedes, but he will be relegated 10 places to 13th on the grid as a punishment for his crash in the pitlane where he ignored a red light at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest for Renault, a result that means the double world champion will start third with Italian Jarno Trulli alongside him on the grid for Toyota.

Hamilton´s McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen was sixth and will start fifth ahead of Pole Robert Kubica, the championship leader, in his BMW Sauber, Australian Mark Webber and his Red Bull team-mate Briton David Coulthard, and German Timo Glock who completed the top ten fastest times for Toyota.

The pole was the 16th of Raikkonen´s career and gives him a great chance of bouncing back in the drivers´ championship in which he is currently fourth behind Kubica, Hamilton and Massa.

After a warm morning, the afternoon qualifying session began under blue skies with the temperature rising to 27 degrees Celsius in the air and 45 degrees on the track.

The first part-session saw the swift elimination of German Adrian Sutil and his Force India team-mate Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who will fill the back row of the grid, behind the two Hondas of Briton Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.

Also knocked out was Japanese Kazuki Nakajima of Williams who will start from 16th on the grid.

The second mini-session saw the departure from the fray of Nakajima´s team-mate German Nico Rosberg, meaning that the rear three rows were in pairs of Williams, Honda and Force India.

Also out were local hero Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais of Toro Rosso and his team-mate German Sebastian Vettel who should share the seventh row of the grid.

German Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber and Brazilian Nelson Piquet, who was fastest for Renault in the morning´s final practice session, were also unable to progress to the top-ten shootout in the final session.

That began slowly, but soon picked up pace and incident when Trulli sent his Toyota into a spin at the hairpin, the Italian recovering his car to rejoin the action.

That was followed by the increasingly familiar sight of Hamilton running off the circuit and across the trackside dirt -- before rejoining the fray as the session entered the final decisive minutes.

Best moments: