Giancarlo Fisichella scored Force India’s first-ever Pole position of their F1 career as he drove a superlative lap to take P1 at the Qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. It sure was a long time in coming and despite the steady improvements the team has been bringing into each of the last few races, no one expected a pole position for the team! Getting into Q2 and score points were their targets and they sure did better on the first one, can tomorrow’s race see them achieve their second target! I sure hope they do…
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli will start second on the grid as the Toyotas finally came good. So did the BMW’s who have Nick Heidfeld starting on P3. Rubens Barrichello will start fourth on the grid with Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen behind him. Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber & Nico Rosberg make up the top ten on the grid.
Q1 was a very good session for Force India as Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil were 1-2 atop the timesheets as the chequered flag fell and even though it was just the first session, it bode well for the team. A good way to impress the bosses at Ferrari since Fisichella’s being rumoured to fill-in for Felipe Massa for the last five races of the season! Luca Badoer again propped up the rear of the grid and to add insult to injury, he span out on his last flying lap and that was that! The ones to be relegated were Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Algersuari, Kazuki Nakajima, Romain Grosjean and Luca Badoer. Fernando Alonso escaped relegation by the skin of his teeth as he made a mistake on his flying lap and just scraped through another run just as the flag fell and so did Hamilton, who was teetering on 15th and must be thanking the heavens that no one went any faster!
Two in a Row!! Fernando Alonso notched up a second successive victory as he won an exciting Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji speedway as Championship leaders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa fell away at the start of the race. BMW’s Robert Kubica held onto second place in front of a spirited Kimi Raikkonen who kept off a belligerent Nelson Piquet at bay. Jarno Trulli finished fifth at Toyota’s home grand prix ahead of the Toro Rossos of Sebastian Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel. Felipe Massa came in eighth to collect just the one point for his efforts. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile finished twelfth and out of the points.
Robert Kubica, Fernando Alonso & Kimi Raikkonen - 2008 Japanese Grand Prix Podium
The race was effectively turned on its head at the start itself as Lewis ill-advised lunge into the first corner – as he was out-gunned by both Kimi and Kovalainen at the start – proved to be his undoing and causing a melee which saw the running order change dramatically. The Ferraris were pushed down, David Coulthard spun off into the wall, Kazuki Nakajima damaging his wing in the process and after the dust settled on the first and second corners, it was BMW’s Robert Kubica who emerged as the race leader in front of Renault’s Fernando Alonso! Kovalainen moved into third place in front of Kimi as Hamilton and Massa duelled further down the order and as Hamilton took advantage of a Massa mistake, the latter came back vehemently and touched and spun off Lewis who dropped down to 18th and last. Both of them had to serve a drive-through penalty which compromised their races though not their Championship fight. In other incidents of note, Toyota’s Timo Glock had to retire with a suspension damage & Force India’s Adrian Sutil was running as high as tenth but a rear-tyre puncture saw his race undone. McLaren had an off-day as Kovalainen’s race fell apart in the sixteenth lap & he was forced to retire with a mechanical problem.
Renault gambled on a short first pit-stop for Alonso and that worked out very well as he came ahead of Kubica and eked out a big enough lead over Kubica and when their second round of pit-stops came, it was Alonso who was still ahead. From thereon it was a matter of holding onto the lead and he did just that to notch up his 21st career victory and his second consecutive one this season. Down the order, Massa had a sort of mini-revival as he overtook a couple of cars to claw his way back into eighth position and thus salvage just one point. Hamilton finished out of the points but still maintains his lead in the Championship battle, now cut to just 6 points. Kovalainen’s non-finish meant that Ferrari leap back into the lead of the Constructors’ Championship over McLaren. Renault took home the biggest haul of points having finished first and fourth and consolidate their fourth position in the Constructors’ table. After them, Toro Rosso had the best race with Bourdais finishing 6th in front of teammate Vettel in 7th.
There remain just two more races in the season and time is running out for Felipe Massa to overhaul Lewis’ advantage in the championship. The next races are at Shanghai and at the Interlagos and assuming Massa is the favourite to clinch his home Grand Prix, Lewis just has to finish close to the top in each of the races to emerge Champion. But as last year showed, a couple of non-finishes could mar proceedings heavily. Hamilton must now keep his nerve and ensure a good enough result in China next week. Robert Kubica has cemented his third place position in the standings and still has a mathematical chance of winning it. Kimi, however is ruled out and thus ends his defense of the crown. The fact that he finished a race after four DNF’s and that too on the podium augurs well for his motivation levels.
BMW and Robert Kubica took their first ever Formula One victory in a very very unpredictable and topsy-turvy Canadian Grand Prix! In an incident-filled race, BMW scored a 1-2 finish with Nick Heidfeld following his teammate in 2nd position. Red Bull and David Coulthard tasted a rare success with a 3rd place finish. Toyota took the 4th and 6th places with Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli, with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa between them in 5th. Honda’s Rubens Barrichello finished 7th and Sebastian Vettel, who started from the pitlane, took the last point in 8th.
Front-runners Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen were involved in a pit-lane accident and both were out of the race. Adrian Sutil’s stall brought out the safety car and the lead runners pitted, afraid that the pit lane would close anytime. While Raikkonen was at the end of the pit exit waiting for the light to go green, Hamilton ploughed into the back of him and Nico Rosberg hit the back of Hamilton! Kimi’s and Lewis’ cars were damaged beyond repair and both got out, shook hands, and retired into their garages. Rosberg was able to continue after changing the nose wing. After the shakedown, Nick Heidfeld emerged as the race leader and had a 20+ seconds gap over teammate Kubica with a pit stop still to be made. Drivers who were caught out by the marbles on the track included the Renault of Fernando Alonso whilst teammate Nelson Piquet retired with brake problems.
The race threw up a great result for BMW who are just 3 points behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship but more importantly, Robert Kubica is leading the Drivers’ Championship from Hamilton and Massa who’re tied on points with Kimi Raikkonen further behind in 3rd place. This sets up the battle for the title race rather nicely. The next race is in two weeks time – the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton grabbed the pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix – for the second year in a row – at the last possible instant with a blinder of a lap. On a track which was fast breaking up at the newly-relaid turn 10, Ferrari were the fastest in sectors 1 and 2 but were losing out a hell lot of time in the 3rd sector. Kimi Raikkonen did string together a decent lap on his final run but again lost time in the final sector to end up P3. BMW’s Robert Kubica took P2 at the track where he had a horrific crash last year. Renault’s fortunes seem to be on the upswing as Fernando Alonso brought round his car in P4. Nico Rosberg’s Williams is in P5 – making it five different cars in the top five positions. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was P6 with Heikki Kovalainen, Nick Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello behind him. Rounding off the 10th position was the Red Bull of Mark Webber who had a spin n’ wall-bang in Q2 and did not run in Q3.
Drivers to drop off in Q3 were Bourdais, Sutil, Button, Fisichella and Vettel whilst Q2 drop-outs were Piquet, Glock, Trulli, Coulthard and Nakajima. Much of the attention was on the deteriorating track surface at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit and the track had to swept off the debris at the end of each qualifying session. That was the place where the Ferraris were losing much time but there were also indications that they were carrying a bit more fuel than Hamilton. If Kimi doesn’t let Hamilton get away too far ahead in the race, a superior strategy could yet see him win the race. Of course, Hamilton isn’t to be discounted. He won his first F1 race over here last year and he would want to do an encore. And in between these two, Robert Kubica could still throw in a surprise result. All’s set for a cracking Canadian Grand Prix tomorrow!!!
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa scored his third successive victory at the Istanbul park circuit and his second of this season as he staved of the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton to take the chequered flag at the Turkish Grand Prix. Pole-sitter Massa was briefly challenged – and passed on the 24th lap – by an aggressive Hamilton but his two-stop strategy compared to Hamilton’s three-stop-strategy stood him in good stead and he clinched victory by just under four seconds. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was third in a bravura display in spite of a damaged front-wing and an engine that was into its second race. BMW and Renault were the usual best-of-the rest with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finishing 4th and 5th with Fernando Alonso in 6th. Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg took up 7th and 8th place respectively.
Its damningly frustrating when you know the race is going on at a frenetic pace and you’re not able to watch it! That was exactly what happened to me with the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday evening. Star Sports wasn’t tuned into by the CableOp until the 7th lap of the race – by the time which Massa was fending off a marauding Hamilton, P2 Heikki Kovalainen was down at the tail-end of the grid, Kimi Raikkonen had the BMW of Robert Kubica ahead of him and the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella and the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima were ‘out’ of the race! I was to know later that there was an incident at the start of the race wherein Kimi’s and Heikki’s cars had contact resulting in a puncture for the McLaren and a damaged wing for the Ferrari. Fisichella had rammed into the back of Nakajima, taking both of them out of the race. Sebastian Bourdais was the only other retirement. Kimi Raikkonen scored the fastest lap.
Ferrari achieved a 1-2 finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Felipe Massa leading teammate Kimi Raikkonen. After a “could-have-been-1-2” at the Malaysian Grand Prix, this race certainly showed that Ferrari has the most comprehensive package of all the teams. Pre-season testing here might have helped them a bit but there’s no denying the fact that they had the quickest cars on track. Massa outgunned pole-sitter Kubica at the start and sped off into the lead with Kimi fast on his heels. Kimi managed to pass Kubica a few laps later and the order remained thus. BMW had a terrific day on-track as Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished 3rd and 4th respectively. Pole position, 11 points plus the lead of the Constructors’ Championship – not a bad day at all by any means.
McLaren though, did have a pretty bad day, with Lewis Hamilton having a sluggish start to the race and dropping down to 10th before clobbering the back of Fernando Alonso and having to pit for new nose wing and a tank-full of fuel. He eventually finished 13th, well outside the points and relinquishes the lead of the Drivers’ Championship to Kimi Raikkonen. The lone silver lining for McLaren was Heikki Kovalainen’s 5th place finish and the fastest lap of the race. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli finished 6th with Red Bull’s Mark Webber in 7th place and Williams’ Nico Rosberg taking up the final point in 8th place. Continue reading “Bahrain Grand Prix – Sunday Race – Ferrari 1-2”→
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