Formula 1 2008 Championship

An eventful race, although not as interesting as I was expecting.

Raikkonen made a perfect race, without any mistakes or problems, and although there were two safety-car periods, he was never really menaced by anybody, not even his team-mate.

After passing Alonso when the red lights went out, Massa always kept the second place, making this a Ferrari one-two.

Alonso did not finished the race, with an engine problem, but he was happy with the performance of the car.



Hamilton was almost all the time racing alone, and he never had really any chance of passing those in front of him.

Heikki Kovaleinen had a big crash, probably because of a failure of the piece that holds the tire in its place on wheel, and his McLaren-Mercedes ended under the tire barrier, almost completely covered by the tires.







Apparently he is OK (after a crash at an estimated 180 mph!) and he may enter next race in Turkey.

Final results.


[edit on 27/4/2008 by ArMaP]

Great to see Heikki bouncing back from the last round to take 2nd on the front row for today's race..
Sad about the Super Aguri F1 team. Less cars = less excitement.
Still, it should be an interesting race...

Unfortunately I could not see the start of the race, I had some problems with two of the programs I use to see it on the Internet (the only free alternative left in Portugal ), but I got a third program working as it should and I could see most of the race.

I was a good race, especially the recovering of Kovalainen from 18th after what was possibly a tire puncture on lap 1.

(The white line shows Kovalainen's position during the race)


Final results.


It was the first time I saw a thermal image of a refuelling, great images!
PS: here is visible that I was watching CCTV, a Chinese channel.

reply to post by ArMaP


Kimi ran into Heikki at the 1st corner which resulted in a damaged front wing for Kimi and a puncture for Heikki.
Imo, Hamilton was the star today with his 3 stop strategy. Can't wait for Monty Carlo.

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2008

Hamilton triumphs in Monaco thriller

Image credit: AP
www.ap.org...

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton emerged victorious in Monte Carlo on Sunday after a stunning drive saw him survive an

early brush with the barriers to take the win from BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica and Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Red Bull's Mark Webber came home fourth in a wet-dry race that featured the inevitable drama and two safety-car

periods. Sebastian Vettel was fifth for Toro Rosso. Full results...

www.formula1.com...

Race Results



Driver's Championship

Constructor's Championship


Note - Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.



Image credit: Ap
www.ap.org...


Image credit: Ap
www.ap.org...


Image credit: Ap
www.ap.org...


Image credit: Ap
www.ap.org...


Great race by Lewis, 1000% deserved, yet another great performance for Kubica.
I'm extremely disappointed for what has happened to Sutil: :bnghd:
a 4rth/5th place would have been an historical result for Force India.
They''ve also been seriously damaged economically, for the loss of possible money income from TV rights. Really, Kimi made a bad mistake, some apologies are needed to say the least.
I wish to Sutil another chance to get some points, because this time it would have been well deserved: really an interesting driver.

P.S.
Thanks to everyone for your contributes, and Special thanks to ArMaP for keeping this thread updated.

Wow what an eventful race that was. What a shame for Adrian Sutil. I don't know what Kimi was thinking but as they say, that's racing...
Lewis, what a star !!

It was an exciting race, and with the on-board cameras' microphones it was audible the wheel spinning when they accelerated or when they entered the tunnel and changed from wet to dry(ish) track.

Poor Sutil was surely the most unlucky of them all, losing his position in that way must be extremely frustrating, but I am sure he will have more opportunities to show his skill.

Kimi apologises for hitting Sutil

Kimi Raikkonen has apologised to Adrian Sutil for ruining the German driver’s Monaco Grand Prix when he punted him off at the chicane in the closing stages.
Sutil had been on course for a remarkable fourth-place finish for the Force India team, while Raikkonen was trying to make up ground after being delayed by a penalty and an off-course excursion.
The Finn got out of shape in the tricky downhill braking area for the chicane and slammed into the back of Sutil’s car – admitting later that he had simply made a mistake.

“I am sorry for Sutil, who I hit with just a few laps to go,” said Raikkonen.

www.itv-f1.com...




Red Bull RB4 - front wing revision

For Monaco Red Bull revised the bridge profile of the RB4's front wing. The central section was flattened and broadened, while the outer extremities were widened and now feature a long deep slit. These changes were adopted to increase the level of downforce at the car's front end. The slits boost the pressure of the airflow passing through them, which in turn improves the efficiency of the front wing's two large flaps.

www.formula1.com...

Honda RA108 - front wing development

For Monaco Honda introduced a series of small changes, in various areas of the car. A couple of the most interesting were to be found at the front. Two inclined trapezoidal winglets were added to the inner face of the front wing's endplates, not to increase downforce, but to better control the airflow directed towards the flaps of the wing and the front suspension elements. The extra winglets work in conjunction with the 'elephant ears' added in Spain, which for Monaco featured a small rounded endplate on each side (upper arrow). These two changes helped the front-end sharpness of the car's handling - crucial in the confines of the Monaco streets.

www.formula1.com...

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2008

Montreal
Race Date: 08 Jun 2008
Number of Laps: 70
Circuit Length: 4.361 km
Race Distance: 305.270 km
Lap Record: 1:13.622 - R Barrichello (2004)

GP Canada | Official website

Tickets: The 2008 Grand Prix du Canada is sold out.

A lap of Montreal (BMW)



A lap of Montreal with Honda’s Alex Wurz
Honda’s reserve driver Alexander Wurz talks us through a lap of the Montreal's famous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ahead of this weekend’s action…

Montreal is a nice Grand Prix. It feels quite similar to Australia in that everyone likes going there and there is a great city nearby that offers good restaurants and a vibrant atmosphere. I made my F1 debut at this race in 1997, so I associate it with the moment when it all came together for me and I like going back to Canada as a result.

Coming straight after Monaco, the cars feel strange to drive in low-downforce trim. They are always sliding around and you have to get your head around the fact that you rarely find a good balance. Tyre graining is also a big issue.

You arrive at Turn One in sixth gear and it's one of those corners that invites you to brake too late. You want to use the left-hand kerb as much as possible and if you brake too late, the car becomes unstable and the kerb feels much worse than it actually is. This corner leads straight into a first-gear right-hander, which is very slippery early on in the weekend but improves as more rubber goes down.

Turns Three and Four make up another chicane and as the track improves you can jump the chicanes and be very aggressive. You run very close to the right-hand barrier at the exit, before positioning the car on the left in preparation for the flat-out right-hander.

The next chicane is quite bumpy under braking, but you can still brake very late and use the kerb on the left. You have to be careful not to unsettle the car because you need to be flat through the right-hander, which is followed by a long straight. Then you go under a bridge and you're into another chicane, which has only one turn-in point. It's very easy to miss the entry point here and every year we see drivers getting it wrong and going straight on.

Next comes the hairpin. It is second or third gear, depending on your gear ratios, and it's very important to have good traction at the exit because the longest straight on the lap follows. You're flat-out for 15 seconds, before stamping on the brakes for the final chicane. You try to brake later and later into here, but you have to be careful because things can go wrong very quickly. A small mistake and you'll be in the 'wall of champions' before you know it.

The two best overtaking points on the lap are into the hairpin and the last chicane, but it's not so easy due to the marbles off-line, especially late in the race.

www.formula1.com...

I read the track is breaking up. According to Webber;

Mark Webber, Red Bull (10th, Q1 – no time):
“I was going okay, but the track was breaking up and there were marbles on the racing line. Unfortunately, on the way back to the pits at the end of the second session, I was slightly off line, got onto the marbles and couldn’t bring it back. I’m not sure how they’re going to manage with the track tomorrow, but everyone’s in the same boat. I think we’ll need to use motocross bikes, as it’s not realistic in a Formula One car, you’ll need to drive on the grass or on the inside of the hairpin."
source

Should be an interesting race...

A very exciting race with an unexpected result!

On a very difficult track, Lewis Hamilton managed to hit Raikkonen while the Finnish driver was waiting for the green light at the end of the pit lane.



Hamilton was also hit by Rosberg, but Rosberg could rejoin after replacing the front of his car.

Kubica kept his racing cool and grabbed his first (and well deserved) victory, on the same track where he had a big crash last year.

His team-mate Nick Heidfeld made also a very good race, making a one-two for BMW.

David Coultard was third after a clean and good race.

Alonso had a problem with his gear-box, ending what could have been the best race of the year for Renault.

Massa, after a problem with the refuelling, had to make a recovering that took him from 17th to 5th, including a double overtake at the hairpin.


Both Toyotas had a good race, finishing on in front (Glock 4th) and the other behind (Trulli 6th) Massa.

Also a good race for Barrichello (7th) and Vettel (8th), who started from the pit lane.

The race ended with the tack very slippery, creating some accidents and some spins, like this one from Fisichella.

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2008

Kubica takes maiden win in dramatic Canadian Grand Prix

BMW Sauber finally took their long overdue maiden victory in Montreal on Sunday, as Robert Kubica led Nick Heidfeld home in a fabulous one-two on a day when early leader Lewis Hamilton inadvertently crashed his McLaren into Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in a pit-lane collision during the first round of refuelling stops.

As a result of his first win, Kubica now leads the world championship fight with 42 points to Hamilton and Massa’s 38 and Raikkonen’s 35.
At the start Hamilton sprinted away from pole position, leaving Kubica to fend off Raikkonen. But the safety car neutralised that when it was deployed to recover Adrian Sutil’s Force India from a dangerous position on the 17th lap.

Full article
www.formula1.com...

Final results



Driver's championship

1 Robert Kubica 42
2 Lewis Hamilton 38
3 Felipe Massa 38
4 Kimi Räikkönen 35
5 Nick Heidfeld 28
6 Heikki Kovalainen 15
7 Mark Webber 15
8 Jarno Trulli 12
9 Fernando Alonso 9
10 Nico Rosberg 8
11 Kazuki Nakajima 7
12 David Coulthard 6
13 Timo Glock 5
14 Sebastian Vettel 5
15 Rubens Barrichello 5
16 Jenson Button 3
17 Sebastien Bourdais 2
18 Giancarlo Fisichella 0
19 Nelsinho Piquet 0
20 Takuma Sato Japanese 0
21 Anthony Davidson 0
22 Adrian Sutil 0

Constructor's championship

1 Ferrari 73
2 BMW Sauber 70
3 McLaren-Mercedes 53
4 Red Bull-Renault 21
5 Toyota 17
6 Williams-Toyota 15
7 Renault 9
8 Honda 8
9 STR-Ferrari 7
10 Force India-Ferrari 0
11 Super Aguri-Honda 0

Note - Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

Hamilton and Rosberg penalized for pit-lane collision

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Williams’ Nico Rosberg will drop 10 places on the grid at the next round of the championship in France as penalty for their pit-lane incident in Canada.

Hamilton ran into the back of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, which was stopped at a red light at the pit exit. The resulting damage put both men out the race, with Hamilton admitting he had not seen the light in time.

Rosberg then ran into the rear of Hamilton’s stricken McLaren, but was able to rejoin the race, despite damage to the front of his Williams.

www.formula1.com...

I'm very happy for Robert Kubica:
he's an excellent driver (one of my favourites) and he's a very humble person. He's also a strong personality: a road accident left him with a broken arm, he was almost loosing it forever.
This driver will win the WC: it's just a matter of time.



[edit on 8/6/2008 by internos]

Real racing in the virtual world

Sat on the start grid, foot poised over the accelerator, you wait for the row of red lights to extinguish.
Alongside you are top names like Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. The cars' engines are screaming and everyone is poised to go. For any Formula One fan the chance to race against their heroes would be a dream come true.
source

Wow, this sounds absolutely amazing..

iOpener Media has a patented system that sucks in real-time GPS data from racing events and pumps it out to compatible games consoles and PCs. This means you can race in real-time against the like of Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. The company also claims to have an AI that solves the problem of overtaking and crashes."
source

I can't wait for this and by the look of it, it won't be long. Brilliant !!

Another almost perfect race for Ferrari, with another one-two, and a great race for Trulli, putting a Toyota on the podium for the first time in three years.

Raikonnen was in front until his Ferrari had an exhaust problem (apparently a broken exhaust, as can be seen in the following image, just behind the Shell logo), but his car recovered some power and kept in front of the pursuing pack made by Trulli, Kovalainen and Kubica.


Kovalainen was fourth in front of Kubica, who tried in the last laps to pass Kovalainen but finished a little behind the Finn and Trulli.

Webber was sixth and Piquet was seventh, after passing Alonso when he made a mistake.

Lewis Hammilton was only 10th, after being penalised for cutting trhough the chicane and because of that keeping the position he had gained in the previous turn.


Final standings:

reply to post by ArMaP


Thanks for the excellent (as always) update ArMaP

Ferrari cpnfirmed that Kimi's Ferrari had an exhaust broken, and besides it was laying on the engine cover, and burned it away, not far from some cables.
While i'm happy for this success, i have to say say that FIA has been benevolent with Kimi, because his situation could have been interpreted as hazardous for the other drives, and we had the proof when Kimi lost the terminal part of the exhaust ( i don't know where exactly it fell): Kimi's car engineer explained that the performance of the car was jeopardized because the sensors started to send false data, and the engine was mapped on the wrong data: Ferrari managed to take Kimi's car to the end just because there was a "recovey" mapping that allowed Kimi to keep Trulli far enough despite his average lap was 1 sec + slower than Felipe's one.
Great race by Trulli, he has been able to defend his position and brought to Toyota a very important result

2008 FORMULA 1 SANTANDER BRITISH GRAND PRIX

Race Date: 06 Jul 2008
Number of Laps: 60
Circuit Length: 5.141 km
Race Distance: 308.355 km
Lap Record: 1:18.739 - M Schumacher (2004)


www.formula1.com...

Practice one - Massa fastest, but crashes heavily

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa set the fastest time in Friday’s first practice session for the British Grand Prix here at Silverstone this morning, but also brought out the red flag for 15 minutes after crashing immediately after establishing the benchmark.

The Brazilian had just lapped in 1m 19.575s when he encountered freshly
spilled oil at Stowe corner, courtesy of Fernando Alonso whose Renault
had just lost its engine. The Brazilian’s Ferrari snapped sideways and
went off backwards, hard, into the tyre wall on the outside. Massa was
unhurt, but his F2008 is a mess.

www.formula1.com...
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hamilton's hotlap, 2007: 1:19.885

Nothing like a wet track, especially now without traction control, to make for an interesting race!

A fantastic race for Lewis Hamilton, even with one (at least) off-track excursion he looked like he was racing on a different track, finishing with 68.5 seconds over a surprising Nick Heidfeld in second and 82.2 seconds over even more surprising third Rubens Barrichello.

Only second and third finished on the same lap as Hamilton, all other drivers were lapped at least once, with Massa making his worst possible race while keeping on the track, he spun so many times that I lost count!

Hamilton managed to pass Raikonnen and Webber on the start, and on lap 5 he passed Kovalainen on the straight.

From this point he was never out of first place, pulling away almost every lap.

Kovalainen spun on lap 11, being passed by Raikkonen, who made a discrete race and finishing fourth.


Alonso and Piquet were making a great race, but after the first pit-stop Alonso decided not change the tyres, and when it started to rain again he started to loose places and had to make a pit-stop sooner than he should (Raikonnen made the same decision of not changing tyres and suffered the same fate).

On lap 28 Heidfeld managed to pass Raikkonen after Kovalainen had passed him and on the same turn he also passed Kovalainen, getting two places in a few metres.


On lap 36, a problem with the Barrichello's pit-stop forced Button to wait on the pit lane, although that did not affected Button's race because he stopped on lap 42.


Piquet went out of track and had to retire on lap 37, finishing what was his best race so far.


At this time Barrichello, who had chosen extreme wet tyres was the fastest on track and he went from ninth to second in six laps! Unfortunately, the problem on his previous pit stop forced him to another stop, making him loose his position, but he had gained so much that he rejoined in third.

On lap 41 Kubica went off track and had to retire, finishing another great race by the Polish driver.

Rosberg hit the back of Glock's car and damaged his front wing, forcing him to a pit stop.


On lap 51 Kovalainen spun again, letting Raikkonen and Alonso pass him.


At this time, Alonso was starting to be slower than his rivals, probably because of tyres, like had happened before, and he was passed by Raikkonen and Kovalainen.

Nakajima and Trulli were right behind Alonso, but were too far to catch him, and Trulli even managed to pass Nakajima in the last lap.

This race had the return of the thermal camera for the pit stops, but, as in the first time, it was only used once.



It also had spins for all tastes, but near the end of the race the "favourite" spot was before entering the start-finish straight.





Final standings
Pos No Driver                Team                  Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1   22 Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      60   1:39:09.440  4     10
2   3  Nick Heidfeld         BMW Sauber            60   +68.5 secs   5     8
3   17 Rubens Barrichello    Honda                 60   +82.2 secs   16    6
4   1  Kimi Räikkönen        Ferrari               59   +1 Lap       3     5
5   23 Heikki Kovalainen     McLaren-Mercedes      59   +1 Lap       1     4
6   5  Fernando Alonso       Renault               59   +1 Lap       6     3
7   11 Jarno Trulli          Toyota                59   +1 Lap       14    2
8   8  Kazuki Nakajima       Williams-Toyota       59   +1 Lap       15    1
9   7  Nico Rosberg          Williams-Toyota       59   +1 Lap       20
10  10 Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      59   +1 Lap       2
11  14 Sebastien Bourdais    STR-Ferrari           59   +1 Lap       13
12  12 Timo Glock            Toyota                59   +1 Lap       12
13  2  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               58   +2 Laps      9
Ret 4  Robert Kubica         BMW Sauber            39   Spin         10
Ret 16 Jenson Button         Honda                 38   Spin         17
Ret 6  Nelsinho Piquet       Renault               35   Spin         7
Ret 21 Giancarlo Fisichella  Force India-Ferrari   26   Spin         19
Ret 20 Adrian Sutil          Force India-Ferrari   10   Spin         18
Ret 15 Sebastian Vettel      STR-Ferrari           0    Spin         8
Ret 9  David Coulthard       Red Bull-Renault      0    Spin         11


The Championship standings are also very interesting at this moment!

Drivers
01 Lewis Hamilton     48
02 Felipe Massa       48
03 Kimi Räikkönen     48
04 Robert Kubica      46
05 Nick Heidfeld      36
06 Heikki Kovalainen  24
07 Jarno Trulli       20
08 Mark Webber        18
09 Fernando Alonso    13
10 Rubens Barrichello 11

Constructors
01 Ferrari              96
02 BMW Sauber           82
03 McLaren-Mercedes     72
04 Toyota               25
05 Red Bull-Renault     24
06 Williams-Toyota      16
07 Renault              15
08 Honda                14
09 STR-Ferrari          7
10 Force India-Ferrari  0


[edit on 6/7/2008 by ArMaP]

reply to post by ArMaP

ArMaP, i don't know how to thank you for providing us with a very detailed and impartial account of the events which took place on sunday. While all were waiting for a huge series of mistakes by Hamilton, these have been made by Ferrari, as well as Massa made the worst race of his career, imho.
Now the standings speak by themselves: we have four drivers within two points: yes, some incidents like the ones that involved Raikkonen in Canada and France, may have caused a loss of points to the finnish driver, but in my opinion the present standings are deserved, in general, by each driver. All in all, now we have some good reasons to look forward to the next races.
Thanks again.

FORMULA 1 GROSSER PREIS SANTANDER VON DEUTSCHLAND 2008


Hockenheim
Race Date: 20 Jul 2008
Number of Laps: 67
Circuit Length: 4.574 km
Race Distance: 306.458 km
Lap Record: 1:13.780 - K Raikkonen (2004)

Friday analysis - Hamilton ahead, but for how long?

Overcast conditions, some rain, a drying track and changing winds conspired to create conditions at Hockenheim on Friday that were very different to those at the test here last week. Thus all of the teams were obliged to rethink their set-ups on a generally difficult day.

At the end of it all, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton emerged as the clear leader - in terms of pace at least. However, with so many variables entering the equation, Saturday’s qualifying session could yet prove a very different affair...