Saturday Qualifying : Bahrain Grand Prix

A POLE ON POLE!!!! My my how I've longed to say that. :D

Its good to see a non-Ferrari/McLaren car on the pole. Well most of us have been reckoning that BMW look to give the front runners some sort of competion. It sure seems that they might have a pretty strong race tomorrow.

Robert Kubica took the first pole of his career in his BMW by coming in ahead of the very in-form Felipe Massa (Ferrari). Massa who had been the most dominant driver in the free-practise as well as the first two qualifying session, fell short of Kubica's time by 0.27secs. Lewis Hamilton (Mclaren) made a strong comeback from his friday's accident to put in the third fastest time on board, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) in fourth and Heikki Kovalainen (Mclaren) in fifth. It was a fairly subdued performance from both the top-rung Finns, after their podium finish performances in the Malaysia.

Nick Heidfeld (BMW) came in sixth despite a lot of struggle with the handling of his car. Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Nico Rosberg (Williams) came in seventh and eight respectively. Honda had reasons to celebrate after Jenson Button made it to the top ten ahead of Fernando Alonso (Renault).

Red Bull had a disappointing qualifying session with Mark Webber coming it at 11th and David Coulthard coming in at a dismal 17th. Rubens Barichello(Honda) lines up 12th ahead of Timo Glock (Toyota) , Nelson Piquet Jr (Renault), Sebastian Bourdais (Toro Rosso) and Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) who all failed to make it past the second qualifying session.

Force India who are yet to make it past the first qualifying session, saw their drivers line up towards the end of the pack, yet again. Giancarlo Fisichella came in 18th and Adrian Sutil could manage 20th position. Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) came in 19th. Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato in their Supar Aguris came in towards the end of the pack and will start the race from 21st and 22nd postion.

Though we all know that starting on pole doesnt always guarantee a win, we sure hope for some dramas and action tomorrow. And for the record, I'd love to see that BMW on the top spot. Peace!!

Raikkonen reigns supreme in Malaysia

Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen are back in the title hunt with the defending world Champions winning the second race of the Formula One 2008 season.

Raikkonen who started second on the grid won the race ahead of Robert Kubica of BMW and Heikki Kovalainen of Mclaren Mercedes. Pole sitter Felipe Massa spun out to retirement at half-distance of the race, which spoiled the chances of a dominant one-two finish for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton, who started from 9th due to a penalty, came in 5th despite a disastrous first pit stop. Jarno Trulli managed to fend off a late charge from Hamilton and came in 4th.

Earlier, Massa started out well from the pole fending off a strong challenge from Raikkonen into the first corner. However he never managed to pull away from the Finn, who was always about 2 seconds behind him. Raikkonen did one lap extra than Massa and a superb in-lap allowed him to rejoin ahead of Massa after the pit stops. He continued to pull away from the Brazilian thereafter, before Massa spun out into the gravel and ending his race.

Nick Heidfeld came in 6th in his Williams ahead of Mark Webber in Red Bull and Fernando Alonso in Renault, who rounded up the top eight cars. David Coulthard in the Red Bull overcame mid-race pressure from Honda's Jenson Button and Renault's Nelson Piquet to take ninth position.

Good news for Force India supporters that Giancarlo Fisichella finished the race in 12th position ahead of Honda's Rubens Barichello. The other Force India car of Adrian Sutil retired on lap 7.

Major disappointment came for the Williams team after a podium finish in Melbourne. Nico Rosberg tangled with Timo Glock on the first lap, taking the Toyota out of the race and breaking the Williams' front wing.

The German could only recover to 14th, while his teammate Kazuki Nakajima fell off the pace in the closing laps and dropped to last, behind the two Super Aguris.

Both the Toro Rosso cars of Sebastian Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel failed to finish the race.

We head into Bahrain in a couple of weeks. In two races we have had different podium finishers. The season 2008 looks to be a promising one with things being a lot more open. Until the next race, Drive safely everyone!!

Picture source: F1-live.com

Saturday Qualifying : Malaysian Grand Prix

We head on to Malaysia for the second race of the 2008 season. The Sepang International circuit which is rated among the best and the most challenging circuits by the drivers and critics alike, is the venue for the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix. It boasts of some of the best pit garages and media facilities and even more impressive grandstands.



Coming to the qualifying sessions, Ferrari came out on the top after a dismal performance in Australia last weekend. Ferrari fans will be a happy lot. As rain threatened to play spoil sport in the afternoon qualifying session (and it never came down!!), Ferrari showed that they still are the ones to beat. Felipe Massa claimed the pole position, almost half a second clear of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferraris looked totally dominant today as they qualified ahead of the two Mclarens of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, who came in 3rd and 4th respectively.



Toyota finally seem to be making progress with Jarno Trulli qualifying 5th and team mate Timo Glock qualifying 10th. Toyota team bosses would be happy to see both the cars in the top ten.


BMW Sauber had a slightly disappointing outing with Robert Kubica and and Nick Heidfeld placed 6th and 7th respectively. Nick Heidfeld had to work past the traffic of too many cars as he went out to put in a flying lap. The sight sure was a treat for all racing enthusiasts.


The Red Bull of Mark Webber lines up 8th ahead of two time World Champion Fernando Alonso in Renault, who qualified 9th. The other Red Bull of David Coulthard will start 12th and Nelson Piquet Jr in his Renault wil start 13th. The Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barichello will start 11th and 14th respectively.


Coming to the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel and Sebastian Bourdais, they could only manage 15th and 18th places. Bourdais made a mistake which saw him running off the track and lose his final run in the first qualifying. The biggest disappointment was Williams, who managed to get a car on the podium in the last race. Nico Rosberg had hydraulics issue and never recovered. He came in 16th and Kazuki Nakajima came in 18th but will drop back at the end of the grid as a result of penalty suffered in Melbourne.


The Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella threatened to push out a few drivers from making it to the second qualifying but that was short lived. He finishd 17th and Adrian Sutil came in 20th. Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson start 19th and 21st in their Super Aguris.


The Ferraris look dominate the race tomorrow, IF they have their reliability issues sorted out and their drivers don't make mistakes similar to Australia. Happy racing everyone!! :)



Driver's Line up:
1. Felipe Massa 1′35.748
2. Kimi Raikkonen 1′36.230
3. Heikki Kovalainen 1′36.613
4. Lewis Hamilton 1′36.709
5. Jarno Trulli 1′36.711
6. Robert Kubica 1′36.727
7. Nick Heidfeld 1′36.753
8. Mark Webber 1′37.009
9. Fernando Alonso 1′38.450
10. Timo Glock 1′39.656
11. Jenson Button 1′35.208
12. David Coulthard 1′35.408
13. Nelson Piquet 1′35.562
14. Rubens Barrichello 1′35.622
15. Sebastian Vettel 1′35.648
16. Nico Rosberg 1′35.670
17. Giancarlo Fisichella 1′36.240
18. Kazuki Nakajima 1′36.388
19. Sebastien Bourdais 1′36.677
20. Takuma Sato 1′37.087
21. Adrian Sutil 1′37.101
22. Anthony Davidson 1′37.481

NOTE: Kazuki Nakajima will start at the end of the grid due to penalty imposed during Australian Grand Prix incident.

NOTE 2: Lewis Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, third fastest, were each penalised five grid positions for impeding rival drivers at the end of the final session.

F1 Sepnag, track details

Location:	3.5 km east of Kuala Lumpur Airport, Malaysia
Grand Prix Held:	8
Years:	1999-2006
First Grand Prix:	17 Oct 1999
Last Grand Prix:	19 Mar 2006
Opened:	1999
Circuit/race Length:	3.444 miles (5.542 km) - 310.408 km (56 laps)
Circuit Details:	Permanent road course, Clockwise,
Corners:	15 turns: 10 right-hand and 5 left-hand corners
Lap record:	Juan Pablo Montoya, BMW WilliamsF1 Team, 1:34.223 min (2004)
Spectator capacity:	33000 in main 'double' grandstand, 100000 in 4 'natural' stands
Address:	Sepang International Circuit SDN, BHD,. 64000 KLIA, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Start time (local/UTC):	2008: 15.00 hrs/07.00 hrs (CET 08.00 hrs)
Travel tip:	Selangor Hotels

Winner 2007:	Fernando Alonso, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, 1 hr 32:14.930 min
Pole position 2007:	Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, 1:35.043 min
Fastest lap 2007:	Lewis Hamilton, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, 1:36.701 min

Courtesy F1complete.com

World Championship standings, round 1:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
1.  Hamilton      10        1.  McLaren-Mercedes       14
2.  Heidfeld       8        2.  BMW Sauber              8
3.  Rosberg        6        3.  Williams-Toyota         8
4.  Alonso         5        4.  Renault                 5
5.  Kovalainen     4        5.  Honda                   3
6.  Barrichello    3        6.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1
7.  Nakajima       2      
8.  Bourdais       1       

Normal Service Has been Resumed

"Normal service has resumed" a Mclaren Mechanic told Lewis Hamilton over the radio, "another seventeen races like that and its in the bag" and looking over todays performance it doesn't seem to be that far off the mark. frankly speaking, with no disrespect to Heidfeld, or Nico, if the game had played out just a little be differently it would have been a Mclaren 1-2.

Oh and talking about Nico, seeing Williams on the podium in the first race of the season was a happy surprise. all the potential that Nico and Williams showed last year is coming to fruit and its not just because the Red cars failed to perform they were good in their own right, so good in fact that they were the only other team other that the silver arrows to have both cars finish and they hustled Lewis all the way to the chequered flag. That reminds me the, we had predicted that the midfield was going to be tight, and was going to be closely fought, but we had expected to have BMW and Williams doing that not Ferrari.

And what a change a good team and attitude makes, last year at the same time after the first GP at the same place Flavio Briatore had described Heiki Kovalainen's debut as rubbish and today midway through the race he was leading the GP.

talking about Flavio, even though Alonso finished fourth, Renault's season opener was a disaster. the cars didn't do well, especially not to the standards of the performance that sowed that they had a two time world champion on board. and Nelson Piquet Jr. had a torrid time and then retired.

The race was marred by three safety car periods, One after the First lap mess which involved five cars and then some time in the middle and then Timo Glock had that awesome crash. during the third quarter of the race. all thru this Hamilton, The 23 year-old Briton, dominated an event characterised by safety car interventions following a series of dramatic incidents that all happened behind him.

Hamilton would build a lead, lose it behind the safety car, build it again, lose it again. You get the picture. But if he was impressive here a year ago, he was even better on Sunday, never losing his composure as he took the lead of the world championship with almost insouciant ease. He went on to prove that last year was no fluke for him and the others better watch out for him.

the race began with drama and ended in drama when the third safety car period cost a Mclaren 1-2, honda had a good perfomance of Barichello(later Disqualifieed from Sixth for exiting the pit lane under a red light) and barring the first corner incident the sign were there that even their second car would have been good. Sato was entertaining as usual, holding up the far superior car of Massa for some time, he deserves a better yet a tobust car which can stand the forces he puts the car through. oh and of the F1 rookies Sebastian Bourdias was impressive, he was set for 4th place finish if his Ferrari engine hadn't give up the ghost. Similarly both the Toyotas were impressive, with Timo Glock justifying Tokyo's faith in him until his crash, at least and Jarno Truli on the way to some points, when his engine died on him.


For the Italian uber team it wasnt a good day none of their cars finished, today Kimi as usual overdrove his car into retirement, for some reason no team ca provide him with a car that can stand the torture he puts them through, based on current performance last years Ferrari was the only car that could match him. Kimi is talented no doubt and should ahve had more race wins and championships to show for all the years he has spent in formula one, of his cars the Sauber's were perennial midfielder the Mclaren that he drove were fast but fragile, but Ferrari's have always been bullet proof at least for the last ten years they have been. but then Mclaren's ahve always been Fast but fragile, he has to learn to temper his driving style to the car or he will sqander his potential, Oh he was qualified 8th albeit 5 laps down and scored one point but some how no one imagined that he would be so far down in the points standing. Seeing that there were six Ferrari engined cars on the grid today that solitary point scored by the World Champion, no less wont please Maranello at all.

One thing that worries me is that only 8 cars were classified as finished of which only five ever went the complete race distance and there were three saftey car periods, this, even by Melbourne standards is pretty down, it makes you wonder weather it was luck or was the removal of driver aids that affecting, F1 needs to be more exciting not more dangerous, and its not as if it hasnt been exciting in the past. The closest season was last year. but

but that is not for me to think about, its time to head onwards to Sepang next week and let the games continue.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	1:34:50.616	1	10
2	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW	58	+5.4 secs	5	8
3	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	58	+8.1 secs	7	6
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	58	+17.1 secs	11	5
5	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+18.0 secs	3	4
6	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	57	+1 Lap	13	3
7	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	55	+3 Laps	17	2
8	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	Engine	15	1
Ret	4	Robert Kubica	BMW	47	Accident	2
Ret	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	43	Accident	18
Ret	18	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	32	Transmission	19
Ret	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	30	Accident damage	20
Ret	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	29	Engine	4
Ret	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	25	Accident	8
Ret	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	19	Electrical	6
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	8	Hydraulics	22
Ret	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	0	Accident	14
Ret	16	Jenson Button	Honda	0	Accident	12
Ret	19	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	0	Accident	21
Ret	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	0	Accident	9
Ret	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	0	Accident	16
DSQ	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	58	+52.4 secs	10

Note - Barrichello disqualified from sixth place for exiting the pits under a red light.

Race Results : Formula1.com

Qualifying, Australian Gp

On a day that Ferrari might prefer to forget, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton opened his 2008 world championship challenge by grabbing pole position for the Australian Grand Prix from a super-impressive Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber.

With Kimi Raikkonen already sidelined after fuel pump problems in Q2, team mate Felipe Massa had to uphold Ferrari honour alone in Q3, but after recording 1m 27.178s on his first run, he failed to improve on his second. Kubica, meanwhile, was on a blinder that resulted in 1m 26.869s even though he ran wide in Turn Nine. The Pole kept his foot in it and didn’t appear to lose an awful lot of time, and planted his BMW Sauber on the front row for the first time in his career.

Hamilton’s smoother 1m 26.714s, however, was good enough to settle the issue and to give the Briton his seventh career pole. €t was a good day for McLaren, with Heikki Kovalainen taking third, ahead of Massa, with 1m 27.079s.

Nick Heidfeld’s 1m 27.236s was good enough for fifth in the second BMW Sauber, then came Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on 1m 28.527s, Nico Rosberg’s Williams on 1m 28.687s, David Coulthard’s Red Bull on 1m 29.041s and Timo Glock’s Toyota on 1m 29.593s. Sebastian Vettel made it through to Q3 for Toro Rosso, but was unfortunate to suffer mechanical problems on his first out lap, and thus starts tenth with no time.

Q2 got off to a bang when Mark Webber spun his Red Bull in Turn 6 after a suspected front-right brake failure and momentarily brought out the red flag. That coincided with the news that, having trickled as far as the pit-lane entry with a dud Ferrari in Q1, Raikkonen was not allowed under Article 33.2 of the Sporting Regulations to take any further part in qualifying, as his car had effectively stopped on circuit. Thus Webber automatically took P15, Raikkonen P16.

The session also saw the demise of the Hondas, Rubens Barrichello finishing 11th on 1m 26.173s and Jenson Button 13th on 1m 26.259s; Fernando Alonso’s Renault on 1m 26.188s, and Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams on 1m 26.413s.

Q1 weeded out both Force €ndias, Giancarlo Fisichella just missing the cut with 1m 27.207s and Adrian Sutil spinning in his efforts to better 1m 27.859s, which left him 19th. Between them was debutant Sebastien Bourdais, who took his Toro Rosso round in 1m 27.446s.

Likewise, the Super Aguris were split. Takuma Sato was 20th with 1m 28.208s, ahead of Renault's Nelson Piquet Jnr who continued to struggle to 1m 28.330s, and Anthony Davidson on 1m 29.059s.

FINAL LINE-UP FOR AUS GP
1. Lewis Hamilton, Britain, McLaren-Mercedes, 1 minute, 26.714 seconds.
2. Robert Kubica, Poland, BMW-Sauber, 1:26.869.
3. Heikki Kovalainen, Finland, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:27.079.
4. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Ferrari, 1:27.178.
5. Nick Heidfeld, Germany, BMW-Sauber, 1:27. 236.
6. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Toyota, 1:28. 527.
7. Nico Rosberg, Germany, Williams, 1:28.687.
8. David Coulthard, Britain, Red Bull, 1:29.041.
9. Timo Glock, Germany, Toyota, 1:29.593.
10. Sebastian Vettel, Germany, Toro Rosso, did not start.
Eliminated after second session
11. Rubens Barrichello, Brazil, Honda, 1:26.173.
12. Fernando Alonso, Spain, Renault, 1:26.188.
13. Jenson Button, Britain, Honda, 1:26.259.
14. Kazuki Nakajima, Japan, Williams, 1:26.413.
15. Mark Webber, Australia, Red Bull, did not finish.
16. Kimi Raikkonen, Finland, Ferrari, did not start.
Eliminated after first session
17. Giancarlo Fisichella, Italy, Force India, 1:27.207.
18. Sebastien Bourdais, France, Toro Rosso, 1:27.446.
19. Adrian Sutil, Germany, Force India, 1:27.859.
20. Takuma Sato, Japan, Super Aguri, 1:28.208.
21. Nelson Piquet Jr., Brazil, Renault, 1:28.330.
22. Anthony Davidson, Britian, Super Aguri, 1:29.059.