The F1 Grand Prix

[Aurelien]

Juan Pablo Montoya finally got his first victory this year by claiming the first place in Silverstone last night. He started at third position but quickly overtook Fernando Alonso on the first corner, forcing the Spaniard to be stuck behind the Colombian for the rest of the race.

Kimi Raikkonen once again got 10-grid penalty for changing engine (dang Mercedes needs to build more reliable engine that doesn't blow up every week) and forced to start at 12th position. He immediately went up to 8th in the first lap, but then got stuck behind Michael Schumacher's Ferrari who happened to be stuck behind the good-at-qualifying-but-slow-as-snail Jarno Trulli's Toyota. That practically blew away the chance for Kimi to win the race.

Giancarlo Fisichella started at 6th but managed to spend most of the race on fourth position until he finally passed Jenson Button for third position. He even had his teammate Alonso under pressure for a while until somehow he screwed up his car during the pit stop by not able to start the car. As he stalled the car for a few precious seconds, Kimi Raikkonen, who admitted that he actually saw what happened to Fisichella in the pit stop on the big screen while racing, managed to overtake him. So in the end, Kimi got the third podium while the Italian Giancarlo only got fourth after stalling in the pit for the second straight race.

So we got a McLaren leading a Renault in the 1-2 and 3-4 position. Unfortunately for McLaren, Fernando Alonso was still ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, which means furthering the gap between the two drivers into (I think) 26 points. The good sign for McLaren is Kimi's second successive fastest lap in as many races. He clocked in the fastest lap of the race on the very last lap because he, and I quote, "had nothing to do" at that time. So he just went for broke and did the fastest lap, showing that McLaren does have the pace to win and he's definitely able to do so if he had better starting grid.

The surprise of the year was of course still held by Ferrari's inability to compete with the frontrunners at all. Michael Schumacher finished at 6th position while Rubens Barichello finished at 7th (or was it 8th?). Both of them really had a tame race ... a.k.a. B O R I N G.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Calupict]

I wonder why Kim's machine always blow at this past two week. I hope it wouldn't happen this week. Finally two McLaren at victory. I'm happy (bored with two scarlet cars)

Wow a long reviw Pes

[Aurelien]

And the curse to the Iceman in Germany continues ..... I feel sick to be honest. Kimi Raikkonen was yet again robbed from victory due to technical failure to his silver McLaren while leading the race very comfortably.

It was apparent that McLaren was the dominant car in Hockenheim from the very first qualifying session to the start of the race. Montoya was unlucky during the qualifying as he spun out at the last corner, leaving him with last place starting grid. But as I've mentioned before, the McLaren was dominant, shown clearly at the beginning of the race.

Raikkonen easily led the pack, was never pressured by Alonso. In the mean time, Montoya quickly jumped up to position 9 from dead last in just a few laps. As for the other cars, there were so many incident in the opening lap that it wasn't really funny .. but quite amusing.

Villeneuve, Sato, Webber, Trulli, and I think Barichello as well (couldn't quite remember about him) alll got some damage to the car and were forced to go to the pit. The worst was of course what happened to Webber as he was forced to retire on the opening lap .... or NOT ... as the TV tried to trick me into thinking that while that sneaky Aussie guy actually went back to the track and ended up 12 laps behind when Alonso finished the race. Hahahahaha.

But yeah, in the end, Alonso claimed first while Montoya brilliantly finished up the race at second position. Jenson Button claimed third while Fisichella got fourth after managing to beat Michael -I-can't-do-anything-now-that-Ferrari-isn't-the-best-car-anymore Schumacher. Little brother Ralfie got sixth while veteran David Coulthard ended up in seventh just right in front of the Sauber car of Felipe Massa.

What annoyed me is Alonso's comment that said that he deserved to win just because he finished the race. While I understand that he doesn't want to be seen as admitting that McLaren/Raikkonen is better than him, I find that comment to be quite arrogant and insulting. It's one thing to want to stay positive, but it's another when you start to claim something that you don't own, Alonso.

Grrr.... of course I'm a Kimi Raikkonen fanboy .. so don't be bothered. LoL.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Exile]

Button managed a legitimate podium at last, I'm mildly happier even if he is still calling the car not up to scratch in his interviews. Hopefully it's inspiring BAR to sort out some of their issues.

Black Pesmerga - as our resident Kimi Raikkonen fan boy I want to ask you if you believe that the engine's blowing week after week is the fault of McLaren in your eyes or if you admit to the possibility that it is actually Kimi Raikkonen's style of driving the car that is causing his engine problems. Perhaps it's a combination of both these factors, all I can say is Montoya is doing a better job of finishing races this year it seems. Shame about his qualifying lap - he could of taken this race too and I'd rather he had won over Alonso - I'm neutral on Alonso while I'm a Montoya fan because I believe him to be a passionate driver and sportsperson. I respect that as you know Pes.

I have to admit to missing the race today I was out at a party last night and I didn't get home in time - I caught the end on the radio in the car on the way back. Was it overall an exciting one this week? Sounded like it was reasonable from what I heard but you obviously can't get a good impression of the whole thing from commentary of the last 3 laps. What lap did Raikkonen drop out on - was it quite far into the race?
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Aurelien]

Raikkonen dropped out on lap 35 or 36 .... I think at that time he had 11 seconds lead over Alonso (both have pitted once).

As for whether it was Mercedes problem or Kimi's driving style, I personally think that it's 99% Mercedes. I understand that it was Kimi's driving style that cost him the victory at European GP (Nurburgring sp?) when he practically destroyed the front right tyre. But driving style should not affect the machinery that much, especially since the 2 out of last 3 problems occurred during practice sessions. And with the last issue happening only 36 laps into the race, and Kimi didn't really drive wildly at all since he had comfortable lead practically for the whole race up to that moment, it shouldn't have been caused by his driving style.

Of course I'm biased because I'm his fanboy, but I just don't see how his driving style could destroy the machine like that. And I think Mercedes themselves had made statements in the past admitting that it was their fault and that they'd definitely try their best to solve the problem. If it wasn't their fault, I think they'd say that Kimi needed to drive differently.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Aurelien]

Okay, the Hungarian GP has finished, and w00t w00t, it's Kimi Raikkonen claiming the victory. For once, it's the Iceman with the good luck while the Spaniard Alonso got the bad luck. Very very good news for me, almost perfect. Why? Read through a little bit further.

The first lap was obviously the most enternaining lap as it was full of action. Michael Schumacher quite cleanly went through to lead the race from pole position. Juan Pablo Montoya started well at second place, holding Jarno Trulli at his back. This allowed Kimi Raikkonen to jump from fourth to third place while Trulli got stuck at fourth right in front of his teammate, little brother Schumacher.

Now we went to the first corner and he comes the action packed things. Ralfie got a little lock up on his tyres and Alonso got caught hitting the Toyota car, damaging his front wing. In the mean time, Barichello also ran straight to someone's car (couldn't quite remember whose) damaging his front wing as well. Christian Klien who was safe turned out to be the first casualties of the race as Villenueve gave him a bit of a bump, flipping Klien's car upside down. Thankfully, it was a full bump and the car landed back normally, leaving Klien okay.

But that's not it for the Red Bull team, as Alonso's wing got damaged, the debris flew all over the place. Some of the bits and pieces got left in the race track right in front of Mark Webber's BMW Williams. He saw it at the last moment and dived to the left to avoid the contact, but David Coulthard was left with no chance. His tyre was easily destroyed and he spun out of the race. Red Bull team didn't even make it to the first lap of the race. Later on, DC said that he didn't even know what he hit as it happened so quickly.

Alonso, Barichello, and I think Monteiro were all forced to make a pitstop at the end of the first lap. Alonso got out at 17th with Barichello in front of him. The Spaniard never recovered ever since, finishing outside the points.

Then we got back to the race, and somehow Kimi Raikkonen had passed Montoya to claim second position. He tailed Schumacher until McLaren pulled him into the pit for the first pit stop for the race at lap 10. Schumacher got in for his first stop at around lap 14 and he still came out in front of Raikkonen. Montoya, by then, was leading the race until he had his first stop at lap 22. Unfortunately for him, he went out just right behind Schumacher-Raikkonen duel.

The German and Finn then quickly sped away from the heavy-loaded Colombian as they grew the gap even further. But it seems that Montoya was on a 2 stopper while Schumacher and Raikkonen were on 3 stoppers. So it might still be a good thing for Montoya at that time.

The turning point occured when Schumacher dived in to the pit for his second pit stop earlier than Raikkonen. Though the Iceman only got 1 lap longer, it was enough to jump Schumacher because of Kimi's short stop (5.8 seconds I think?). Ever since then, Kimi easily ran away from Schumacher as the Ferrari had no chance of catching up.

So at that time, we got McLaren 1-2 in Montoya-Raikkonen which would've been perfect for me. But as well know by now, McLaren isn't the most reliable team when it comes to reliability and somehow Montoya's car simply slow down and he parked his car back to the garage.

Anyways, in the end, it's all good as Kimi Raikkonen grabbed the victory with Schumacher brothers completing the podium (little brother behind the big brother btw).

Btw, on quite an unrelated note, there has been news that Felipe Massa would leave Sauber to join the Ferrari next year to replace Rubens Barichello. The older Brazilian seems to be joining BAR as a replacement of Jenson Button who is heavily rumored to go back to Williams despite the British wanting to stay at BAR.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Aurelien]

This time, it is the report of the debut of the Turkish Grand Prix for Formula 1.

The starting grid was headed by Kimi Raikkonen grabbing yet again another pole position this year. Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault was second, while teammate the Spaniard Fernando Alonso was third. In fourth position, it was Kimi's own teammate Juan Pablo Montoya as the McLaren had first and fourth versus the Renault who had second and third. I don't care about the rest of the drivers, so I'll skip. Just a note that Takuma Sato started from the pit.

On the first lap alone, there was quite some things to notice. First was the obvious start itself where Kimi Raikkonen lost his first position to Fisichella and struggled to keep Alonso behind him. Montoya did not really push hard either leaving the Italian leading for a short time. A very short time, as before the end of lap 1, Kimi Raikkonen had manage to regain the lead from the Renault.

Somewhere before that, Felipe Massa really tried so hard at the start, maybe too hard as he managed to get damage to his own car, definitely a lost front wing involved with many different drivers. Then fast forward a little bit, Renault using a team order to let Alonso passed Fisichella so that he can fight it out with Kimi.

Surprisingly, the two Renaults were low on fuel as both pitted early after only around 15 laps into the race. They made a long stop in Alonso's 10 second stop while Fisichella suffered from failure in the fuel load where the fuel did not go into the car for a few seconds, wasting precious time.

The most interesting thing to note IMO is the really weird case of BMW Williams and their right rear tyre. First, it was Nick Heidfeld who got a punctured right rear tyre. Then Mark Webber also got the same puncture in the right rear tyre. Around 10-15 laps after, Webber once again got the puncture in his right rear tyre. A few laps afterwards, Nick Heidfeld got another puncture in his right rear tyre. That's a spanking four right rear tyre puncture happening to them. It's just bizzare. They finally quit as they felt that it might be dangerous to simply replace the tyre when it happened 4 times like that.

An interesting crash also happened between Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher as the former world champion refused to give way to the Aussie. They touched each other, the Ferrari spun while the BMW lost its front wing. Luckily it happened really close to the pit lane, so both pitted safely.

Another weird thing that I noticed is that despite so many incidents happening with debris all over the place from crashes after crashes, there seem to be no yellow flag or safety car required to clean up the track. That's really weird, though good.

In the end, it's Kimi Raikkonen in P1 while Fernando Alonso was lucky enough to pass Juan Pablo Montoya after the Colombian made a mistake to claim P2. The second McLaren finished third, while the second Renault finished fourth. Kimi cutting the lead off Alonso for another 2 points with (I think) 5 races left.

The full result:
1 K. Räikkönen McLaren 1:24:34.454
2 F. Alonso Renault + 18.609
3 JP. Montoya McLaren + 19.635
4 G. Fisichella Renault + 37.973
5 J. Button BAR + 39.304
6 J. Trulli Toyota + 55.420
7 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1:09.296
8 C. Klien Red Bull + 1:11.622
9 T. Sato BAR + 1:49.987
10 R. Barrichello Ferrari + 1 laps
11 J. Villeneuve Sauber + 1 laps
12 R. Schumacher Toyota + 1 laps
13 R. Doornbos Minardi + 3 laps
14 N. Karthikeyan Jordan + 3 laps
15 T. Monteiro Jordan + 3 laps

Did not finish
16 C. Albers Minardi + 10 laps
17 M. Schumacher Ferrari + 26 laps
18 N. Heidfeld Williams + 29 laps
19 F. Massa Sauber + 30 laps
20 M. Webber Williams + 38 laps
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Calupict]

Dunno why since Kimi lost at 29th May (at Hockenheim if Im not wrong) when his tyre's car blew up I cannot stand to watch F1 again. A kind of trauma if Kimi lost again. I watch only the end when he done the victory lap. Now Kimi need 14 points again (if I'm not wrong) to pass Alonso.

[Its A Catapult]

I used to watch back in the day when Schumacher was still in Benneton and Damon Hill in Williams...those were great battles.

Honestly, I just don't care about Kimi Raikonnen and Fernando Alonso. I never liked Schumacher so watching him struggle was fun. I watch when I can but don't follow it like I did when I was younger.

[Aurelien]

Well I don't know about you, but last week's (or was it 2 weeks ago?) Japanese Grand Prix was definitely one of the best that I've seen for the past 4-5 years.

Both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso were excellent. Kimi started in 17th position yet winning the race after clipping Fisichella's 20 second lead little by little that was ended by the Finn overtaking the Italian in the last lap. Alonso was good too, especially that overtakin manouvre that he took when he passed Schumacher as he took a 130 mph turn by going 180 mph... that was NUTS, then when he overtook Mark Webber by going through the grass a little bit .. the Spaniard really took risks knowing that he had nothing to lose now.

I'm predicting tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix to be as exciting as the Japanese because Alonso would be loose and taking risks while the McLarens of Raikkonen and Montoya would really want to take the construction championship title. With the Renaults starting in 1-2 while Kimi got 3rd and Montoya got 5th, I bet we'll be looking at a very tight race. I just hope that Renault wouldn't use Fisichella as a "shield" to slow down Kimi while letting Alonso run away at the beginning of the race.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Its A Catapult]

I'm really a NASCAR/IRL fan so a car coming from last to win doesn't impress me all that much.

It seems 90% of the time the pole sitter or 2nd spot win the race.

[Aurelien]

Didn't you just contradict yourself there? If you think that it's 90% of the time that the pole sitter or 2nd spot win the race, shouldn't you be impressed if a car coming from last actually wins the race?

I'm not too familiar with NASCAR, but is it the one with an oval shaped circuit where you go one way for like a thousand laps?
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Its A Catapult]

[Aurelien]

Well I guess it depends on the people. While I agree that F1 was boring when Michael Schumacher dominated a few years ago, it was mainly because it was a one-man domination. There was no competition whatsoever.

On the other hand, this year we got a Renault-McLaren rivalry in Fernando Alonso-Kimi Raikkonen and also to a certain degree Giancarlo Fisichella - Juan Pablo Montoya. You might like to see a race that have 25-30 people having a shot to win it, but to me, that's not entertaining because there are too many people able to win it that the winner might simply win it because they got "lucky" for the day instead of earning the winner status. Having diversity in winners is important to avoid boredom, but having no particular rivalry is even worse.

Sure that guys like Jacques Villeneuve wouldn't win a race from last under normal circumstances, but at the same time, why would you want that to happen anyways? It's obvious that his car isn't the fastest. So there's no point in wishing that he'd win the race. And at the same time, it's always good to see a Sauber Petronas car getting into the top 8, which is a more reasonable target for them to achieve.

You could say that Alonso and Raikkonen dominated F1 this year, and that's true. But the competition in F1 isn't only about the number 1 spot all the time. It's still entertaining to watch Toyota, Ferrari, Honda, Red Bull and BMW Williams competing for the third spot behind Renault and McLaren this year.

And I'm not 100% sure how many cars are there in a NASCAR race, but seriously, I'd rather watch Alonso-Kimi running away in front of the others compared to watching 30+ cars going one way in an oval shaped circuit for hundreds of laps. The circuit is boring because there's no (significant) variation whatsoever and the race seems to take forever to end. So why would I want to watch something that is practically a repetition for hours and hours?

But then again, that's just me. You obviously have a different opinion and I respect that. So thank you for sharing your opinion anyways.

Looking back at your initial post, you said that you enjoyed Schumacher (Benneton) vs Damon Hill (Williams) rivalry back in those days. Considering that now we still have a 2-man rivalry just in form of Alonso (Renault) and Raikkonen (McLaren), I don't see what the difference between the two rivalried other than the people involved and the year. My guess is that you're a Damon Hill fan, and now that he's no longer here, you're just not interested. Not the F1 factor, but the driver factor because I can also say that 80% of the times, the winners back then would be either Schumacher or Damon Hill as well.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Its A Catapult]

es, but back in the day there were other strong competitors...

Coulthard, Alesi, Berger, Hakkinen, etc...

They would also be big factors in not winning a title, but getting themselves in the mix and putting gaps between the forementioned duo.

You also had Bennetton, Williams, McClaren, and Ferrari in close competition...Williams has fallen off the map...Who know what Ferrari's problem is...yeah, blame the tires but think there's other issues. Bennetton is Renault now right?...I assume so cuz they look exactly like Bennetton's old cars.

It's just a knwoing that a McClaren or Renault is going to win barring getting neat Takuma Sato...or an equipment failure.

You say Fisichella and Montoya, etc...but it seems these guys are never up to par with their teammates...I didn't even think Montoya was all that great when he raced in CART either.

It just seems to me there's not enough talent in F1...maybe 4 or 5 guys who are good and the rest wouldn't even be able to hack it in CART.

Next year the competition will probably be able tighter with the V10 gone.