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What the hell is your problem?
Its a bit too much I guess. I partially agree that 25s penalty imposed on Hamilton in Belgian GP seems a bit harsh. Mind you, that this was completely under the rules of FIA. My problem is with extreme reactions of media about the whole incident. Media is giving it a shade of racism, which is hysterical. Mclaren has constantly blamed stewards of partiality when it comes to their car against the scarlet. Media has gone one step further to point out that Massa escaped with a fine in Valencia after the unsafe release from pits incident; while Hamilton was effectively handed a post race stop-go penalty. You have to see both the incidents to understand their intensities. Besides, the two concerned incidents took place at different locations, the offenses were completely different so there is no point relating them.
If Hamilton is claiming that he did not commit the offense, he is lying. He DID come out ahead of Kimi from the corner. Then backed off and again overtook. This counts as an offense, as for a teeny-tiny second, he hindered Kimi’s track. Hamilton later said ‘Kimi pushed me wide. I was little bit ahead and I was on the outside of turn. He pushed me to the point where I would either have been on the kerb and crashed into him or have to go on escape route, so I took the escape route.’ You see Lewis, there is this thing where you keep your foot while driving…thats called brake pedal. Use it once in a while when you are about to crash into somebody. This guy does not even consider backing off as an option. I admire his spirit, but that cost him his 1st place.
What surprised me the most was Niki Lauda’s recent outburst. I was expecting an attack on the rule itself, but instead he blasted the stewards for their decision.
If you are pointing out the absurdity of the rule itself, I have no problem. The rule is not properly formulated, but its a rule and you have to follow it.
Today’s DNA Pune edition has an article written by Dhananjay Khadilkar titled ‘Was Hamilton a victim of colour blindness?’ in which he says ‘This is a pointer to a widely held perception in Formula 1- red car always rules.’ Here we go again. Media must relearn their formulae of extrapolation and should know where to stop. While giving an example, Mr Khadilkar states ‘Last year too, FIA imposed a hefty fine of $100mn on Mclaren for their role in the spy scandal that involved Ferrari.’ How the hell is this thing related to the other? And speaking of scandal, it is quite clear that Mclaren got off with a good deal. I mean when the team’s boss accepts in front of live media that ‘Yes, we did it!’, I was surprised that FIA even considered letting them compete this year. They should have been banned for 5 yrs. And $100mn was just a moral victory for Ferrari, the sum meant nothing to them. They showed that by using the entire sum for charity under Schumi’s guidance. So media should stop bringing that up every now and then, even Ron Dennis agrees that it was fair. So what the hell is your problem?
Ye to sach hai ke bhagwaan hai….
(A crude translation of the title- It is true that god still exists)
Referring to my earlier post.. An interesting development has taken place. Hamilton has been penalised for gaining an unfair advantage over Kimi on a chicane during Belgian GP, yet again…just like in Magny Cours. The 25s penalty pushes him to 3rd place behind Heidfeld giving Massa full 10 pts. The news has acted like a painkiller for me…I can’t feel the pain now..but when the effect wears off, I will again be drowned in the reality that Kimi didn’t make it!
The revised driver’s championship standings are
1) Lewis Hamilton- 76
2) Felipe Massa- 74
3) Robert Kubica- 58
4) Kimi Räikkönen- 57
5) Nick Heidfeld- 49
6) Heikki Kovalainen- 43
Its game on. Ferrari will definitely have to concentrate on Massa now, if they want to keep their hopes alive.
Rain screws up Kimi big time
“What the #^$$*#@!!%^#*%#@#$ was that????”… My reaction after the race…I mean he almost had it…It was there… 1 more lap and it was his..But continuing the recently started tradition in Ferrari…that of getting screwed when you can almost see the chequered flag…. Kimi ran into a crash barrier to let Hamilton win. In the last 2 races, it was the blown engine. This time it was actually nothing, just impatience and over-aggressiveness shown by ‘cool-headed Finn’. 3 yrs of dominance over Spa wasted.
Rain was there, but it wasn’t just in Kimi’s track, was it? 19 other drivers were on the same track. How in the world could a Ferrari hit a wall where both the Toro Rossos managed to score championship points?
Now, from the beginning. Great start by Raikkonen! Overtakes Massa on 1st lap. Closes in on Hamilton and overtakes him in no time. Smooth pit stops. 4 Laps to go….and it starts to rain. Hamilton starts to zoom in towards the F2008 ahead of him. I automatically cross my fingers. Kimi holds on for 1 lap. Both of them start to lose control. No time left to dive into the pits and change to intermediate tyres. They come wheel to wheel 2 times and Hamilton outpaces kimi on a slow corner. I am thoroughly dejected. But wait… there is still hope.. Kimi bounces back.. out of turmoil caused by back runners, he manages to squeeze his way out ahead of Hamilton. And BOOM! Ferrari into the wall. All over. Its finished. Hamilton strolls past the chequered flag in on the slowest finishes of F1.
A very eventful race I must say. It had excitement worth 2 races…made up for boring Valencia. But I really thought it would end with Italian anthem. I guess I will have to wait till Monza next weekend.
The most boring race of the season
Thats what it was. On an excellent street circuit of Valencia, the race was a total bummer. There was virtually no overtaking. Though Massa managed to win comfortably ahead of Hamilton, I did not enjoy the race 1 bit. Results
Track was amazing. It seemed like a dangerous one, but turned out to be safe. Only Sutil drove into the wall, but you cannot blame the track for that. The view was fantastic and good camera work made it perfect. Aerial view of Ferrari passing over a bridge was a real treat. Steve Slater expressed a valid concern about the camera work. It was evident from the qualifying session that we would have seen Local Hero (or Brat!!) Alosno for the better part of the race. But he retired on the first lap itself (courtesy: Nakajima…god bless him!) so dodged a bullet there. Did not have to see him at all!
Kimi’s season looks grim. He expressed concern over qualifying performance. He improved that by qualifying 4th. But lost track position to Kovalainen on the starting grid itself. Things got worse during 2nd pit stop when Kimi started with refuelling hose attached in a hurry to overtake Kovalainen, dragging the refueller with him. Scene was pretty ugly. As if this was not enough, Kimi’s engine blew on the following lap. Thats 2 in a row. Man, whats up with Ferrari? Fisichella and both the Torro Rosso Ferrari engines survived with relatively good results but the main Ferrari engine blows with 9 laps to go.
Hamilton has taken important lead of 6 pts over Massa. Things are not turning out in the right direction for Ferrari even after a win.
Hamilton can’t make it 3 in a row
Hungaroring maintained its tradition of producing unexpected results as Kovalainen emerged an unexpected winner after Massa’s Ferrari engine got blown up with only 3 laps remaining. Timo Glock finished his magical weekend with a well deserved 2nd position. Kimi showed that he is not finished yet with a podium finish. Results
The weekend began with everyone speculating a hat trick for Hamilton. Kovalainen was 2nd fastest which meant 1st all Mclaren front row of the season. Massa was 3rd and Kimi at a frustrating 6th position. But Massa overtook both the Mclarens on the 1st corner itself with an excellent overtaking maneuver from the outer racing line and put pressure on Hamilton straightaway. The dust factor played a significant role in the 2nd stint as Hamilton’s tyres could not bear his excessive aggression, leaving him limping on the track with a flat front left tyre. This meant a clear run for Massa, but ultimately, it was not meant to be. With 3 laps to go, Ferrari engine blows up on the fastest segment of curve leaving no choice for Massa but to park his F2008 near the pit wall. A real depressing scene! Reminded me of 2006 season when Schumacher had to retire from P1due to tyre failure with 3 laps to go and Alonso retired.
Pit stops were eventful as well. As many as 3 pit fires were seen as Bourdais, Barrichello and Nakajima experienced refuelling rig malfunctioning. Pit crew showed tremendous composure to bring the situation under control. All other teams had to check their rigs thoroughly as well. I hope the event will be properly investigated.
Some important news in F1 world. Kovalainen will stay with Mclaren for the next season as well. He proved the decision right with an emphatic win. With Coulthard retiring, Vettel will join Webber in Red Bull for the next season. The guy can produce wonders given a stronger car. And Bruno Senna is being speculated as his replacement at Toro Rosso. If it happens, F1 will see the next generation of Rosberg, Piquet and Senna together back on track. Toyota is showing consistent pace and have potential to challenge BMW later this year. The new technology is not quite working out for Force India as of now. But experts believe that they are better prepared for the next season.
Ferrari Makes a mess at Hockenheim
A day to forget for Ferrari. Massa finished 3rd after starting 2nd. Kimi could do no better than 6th. Nelson Piquet Jr. whose 1 stop strategy worked out just perfect finished 2nd after starting 17th. Can’t believe I am saying this, but hats off to team Renault. Results
The race was a bit monotonous till Timo Glock’s disastrous accident. It brought out the safety car. All the front runners except Hamilton, the race leader, took their 2nd pit stops in the safety car period. This decision almost worked against Mclaren when hamilton came out of the pits in 3rd position. Hamilton showed the true colour of his MP4-23 with 3 successful overtaking maneuvers in last 12 laps. Although, overtaking of Kovalainen was a poorly crafted drama. Any driver with a pinch of self esteem would have put on a better show while silently following the unstated team orders. Star Sports camera caught Ron Dennis talking to ‘Somebody’ on the team radio just as the two Mclarens were approaching the 2nd hairpin. But I don’t think he is that stupid to violate an FIA norm at this stage of the season.
I must say that Hamilton drove in an unnecessarily aggressive manner. Steve Slater rightly mentioned this as an example of ‘Ruthless Driving’. Piquet and Massa did well while backing off. Massa almost came back with an equally potent reply. But eventually it was MP4-23 who took the crown.
And a weirder race
The race, as a whole was very very weird. But I must say that this was a race that was most influenced by ‘Luck Factor’ But I will come to that later. Hamilton and Mclaren did something that even Ferrari engineers could not understand. There was no way to explain a 66s gap between Lewis and 2nd place Nick Heidfeld. Hamilton lapped everyone but Nick in front of his home crowd, which was ecstatic with the victory of home hero. The results
A nightmare of a track for most of the teams. The weather was actually whimsical. Track conditions were very difficult to judge. Almost all the cars spun atleast once on an unevenly wet track. Massa set a new record of six 360 degree spins in a single race. No wonder he finished last. He proved once again that he is not dependable.
Ferrari made a huge mistake that cost Kimi his podium position. During his 1st regular stop, Ferrari decided to continue with the same intermediate weather tyres. Lewis, who entered pits along with Kimi, switched to new intermediates. On the next lap itself, Lewis cleared a gap of 3 sec. That meant an unscheduled pit stop on 30th lap for tyre change with lost track position, messed up strategies and heavier car for the rest of the race at the expense of 2 pitstops for Kimi. Very unprofessional show by Ferrari. Kimi even lost a couple of seconds in 2nd pit stop due to poor signaling. At the very back, Massa was racing against his own car to keep it on the track. Fortunately, Alonso, who completed his race on 1stop strategy with no tyre change, lacked pace in the end and was overtaken by the two Finns Kimi and Hekki.
Now about the Luck factor.
- Sure, it was a pathetic start for Webber. Lost his position to Lewis. But things could have been worse. On the opening lap, he spun 180 degrees right in the middle of track with cars zooming past him at 305kmph. Visibility was poor due to spray, and anyone could have hit him head on. But he survived and completed the race.
- Same thing happened to Massa. Only on his 5th spin, he almost blocked the entry to pits. Things would have been a lot messier.
- All the front runners spun, but no one was trapped in gravel.
- Barrichello shut the mouths of everyone by making it to the podium. No one, not even Honda race engineers expected this. But he kept his cool. Survived a couple of spins and pulled off a stunner.
- Sutil and Bourdais lost control on the track, and went sliding straight on the track with cars just missing them.
- During 2 spins, two rabbits just went past the cars. Thankfully, unhurt.
There was no sign of Rupert Grint in pits. But I did see the great Sachin Tendulkar on the grid behing Bernie Eccleston and Jackie Stewart. Sachin’s passion for speed is well known. I was just too happy to see him on an F1 circuit.
A weird qualifying session
Silverstone circuit saw an unexpected qual result as Kovalainen grabbed the pole from Webber on the very last run. He was a whopping 0.5s faster than Webber. Following Webber was Kimi. Heidfeld out-qualified teammate Kubica for the first time this season as Kubica did not participate in Q3. Massa will start 9th. He is probably still in shock from yesterday’s accident caused by oil spill from Fernando Alonso’s blown engine (could he BE more annoying). Both Ferraris seriously lacked pace and were outpaced by even Vettel’s Torro Rosso for most of the race.
Disappointing day for home crowd. Hamilton panicked in Q3, oversteered on penultimate run and finished 4th. Button could not even make it to Q2. Coulthard, on his last GP in front of home fans, was 11th fastest.
After the session, while reporting to FIA, everybody congratulated Hekki on his brilliant performance (Alonso pinched his butt…GOD!! Somebody stop him) Everybody, but Hamilton, who just sat there staring nowhere. He did not even acknowledge him. That was a bit rude of him.
The weather at Silverstone was amazing. Rain was seen on 1 side of the track while pits had nice sunshine. Rain is also expected tomorrow, so race is bound to be interesting. Apparently, British GP is going to be shifted to Donington Park from 2010. F1 will sure miss one of its fastest circuit.
Julian Bailey, former Lotus driver was commentator. His commentary was basically circling around denying each and every claim made by Steve Slater (who was accurate most of the times), except on 1 point…that Rupert Grint, who was standing in Red Bull pits was in fact, ‘some character from Harry Potter’. I don’t think I can stand him for an entire race. Chris Goodwin, where are you?
Italians Rule Magny Cours
With Ferrari 1-2 and surprise podium finisher Jarno Trulli, it was a wonderful day for Italian fans at French GP. See the results
Kimi Räikkönen managed to secure 200th pole for Ferrari on an uneventful Saturday. He was leading the race comfortably until his F2008 lost an exhaust manifold midrace. The hot exhaust from engine burned some part of the engine cover. The situation looked dangerous, but Ferrari crew looked unworried. ( I practiced some hardcore cursing when Star Sports took a commercial break just as Kimi entered pits with a blown exhaust ) But this was Kimi’s 1st race on this engine so he has to use the same one at Silverstone two weeks later. Ultimately Kimi had to give up his position to speeding Massa, as he was losing tremendous power.
The ‘Uselessness’ of some of the FIA rules was proven here also as Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for ‘Overtaking outside racing line’. Isn’t it FIA’s job to make sure that driver loses time if he drives off racing line? Starting 13th after a 10 stop penalty because of pit lane incident in Canada, Hamilton struggled very hard to finish 10th.
According to me, Trulli was the most impressive driver. He held back a clearly faster Hekki Kovalainen for more than 20 laps. It was a classic example of Experience vs Speed. He ‘truly’ deserved his place on the podium.
BMWs lacked pace and did not look like a team that finished 1-2 in Canada. Both the Force-India cars finished the race, for a change. Nelson Piquet Jr. overtook Alonso on a very last lap to finish 7th and opened his championship points account.
Massa leads Driver’s championship by 2 points from Kubica. The championship is wide open!
Moving on.. 