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Well, what a race!! After thinking that the race would be fought my the usual suspects of the 2009 season, what a turn around! Where shades of last year and traditional Formula One fashion was resumed. This hour belonged to McLaren and the supreme driver that is, Lewis Hamilton! The world champion holder simply had a flawless race where a lot of things just went his way! Which is a massive turn around from the last race in Germany where nothing went his way! An amazing victory for Hamilton.
So how did he do it? Well after qualifying on the second row, he sat in a good position to use the KERS button on his car. After making up a place off the line, Hamilton was eventually hunting down Webber and Alonso. The Renault driver was fuelled extrememly light so was able to pull away leaving Hamilton to chase down Webber, which he managed to do before the first lap was up! It was then down to him and his old rival Alonso. The former team mates have an amazing history together, and lets be honest, they hate each other!
Alonso was then hit with the bad luck! Coming in a couple of laps early to change worn down tyres, the right front was not put on properly! Renault will now be suspended from the next race because of this incident as it lead to his tyre later falling off, giving Lewis the perfect opportunity which he took with both hands! With perfect pitstops and amazingly fast lap times, Hamilton was able to capture his first victory this season!
With Vettel and Alonso not finishing the race, Kimi (I cannot be bothered to spell his second name but you know who I mean) was able to clinch second place in a McLaren, Ferrari one two finish with Webber getting another podium in third. As for the current championship leader, he had a tough weekend indeed. He only managed a seventh place which does not go well for his title hopes. The car has not gained any pace and has dowgraded in terms of aerodynamics! The car also cannot manage its tyres even with Button so there is limited pace. It will be interesting to see if McLaren can match a fully formed Brawn GP car.
We must spare a thought for Massa who is being held in hospital right now. Q2 yesterday saw a freakish accident in which a spring from Barrichello’s car flew off hitting Massa right on the crash helmet. It was even more freakish after having lost a Formula Two driver last sunday to a similar accident. We are told that Massa will be fine but just has a fractured skull. I’m sure he shall be fit and raring to go for the next race in Valencia in four weeks time. Let’s just hope that he is fine sooner rather than later.
What are your thoughts?
Here we are a year later in Budapest! Over the last year many aspects of the game have changed. Last years winner Heikki Kovalinen will certainly not be this years winner as we have a new front brall with Brawn, Red Bull, and Toyota. Instead of Hamilton Vs Massa, we have Button Vs Vettel! You may recall last years race as the Massa show! He literally demolished the entire race track with his supreme glowing Ferrari!
Last year he overtook the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and was three laps away from winning the race. But after an epic engine failure, the Fin Heikki took first place with Glock finishing in a stunning second! Not to mention a few punctures to other cars and almost three fires! This basically means we’re in for a boring race compared to the one of 2008.
However, it would be hard to compare this year to last with tremendous changes on the grid. This year we’ll be looking out for Barrichello to lose it again at Brawn saying they are putting Button first and Vettel trying to prove that he’s as good as Michael Schumacher! Not to mention Mark Webber showing that Aussies do have some talent after all.
My predictions on this weeks race? Well the usual will happen in practice where Rosberg shows all the potential to steal the race weekend with his own glory but inevitabley will let Williams down! After that, Hamilton will show some promise and deliver well in respect the uselessness of his car! But again, this weeks race is out of Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button!
Button has not won a race for a while now so it is becoming quite scary! But my prediction for this race weekend goes to Mark Webber. He is a sort of dark hourse but at the same time, he’s just come off a great victory in Germany! He will surely be full of confidence this weekend. Vettel will definately look good again so I expect a straight battle between both the Red Bull cars with the Brawn’s making the second row.
What are your predictions?
Vettel wins his first F1 pole in Monza
After an incredible week in Spa, with a lot of controversy off the field regarding the stewards decision to strip Hamilton of his victory but I’ll come to that part later. Like last week, the weather played a pivitol role in the outcome of qualifying at least. Heikki was consinstently fast throughout qualifying and was actually the first person to dig into the 1.35’s. But pole position went to
the phenomenal Vettel who recently signed to replace DC next season for Red Bull.
The rainy races are fantastic to watch because anything can happen which essentially closes the performance gaps between cars and relies more on driver input. Today’s qualifying was an even contest with Hamilton, Kimi and Robert Kubica getting knocked out in Q2! This was the most surprising and eventful time during the entire day. Kimi and Kubica just struggled to find time and grip and whether that’s down to car setup or just being rubbish in the wet, I don’t know.
Lewis’ P15 start is down to one thing. His/his engineer’s tire choice. The commentators called it a risk, I just think they’re damn right insane. I can see why they tried the intermediate tire as tram lines were appearing after Q1. If they really wanted to try it, they could have for a lap to see its performance. But why after seeing that it was rubbish did McLaren not bring Hamilton into the pit (just like a pit-stop) to change his tires and send him back out again on the extreme wets to get him into at least the pole position shoot out?!?!
Take nothing away from Vettel who probably would still have got pole even if the bigger three drivers qualified for Q3 as he was amazingly quick. This kid does have a bright future ahead of him and will surely be a Ferrari or McLaren driver in the future. Other good performances this weekend was Vettel’s Toro Rosso team mate Bourdais who starts in P4. Mark Webber also had a good session starting alongside Bourdais in P3.
Quick mention on Massa who also struggled. Hamilton will be hunting him down throughout the race so he must also look to head for the top of the grid. Massa starts in 6th place behind Rosberg who was also quick in Williams’ 500th grand prix weekend. Can he capture some points?
For full qualifying times and the starting grid for tomorrow’s race, click here
Yahoo: Massa driving in Valencia Grand Prix
Formula One debuted a brand new grand prix circuit this season in Valencia which will be the home of the European grand prix. I looked down the calender of this years grand prix events and was most excited to see this and Singapore (the first night race). They call it the ‘Modern Monaco’ and it has all the potential to be that with its exciting straights and sharp corners calling for maximum concentration. The narrow roads also add into the mix to separate the boys from the men.
This week was one for Felipe Massa who took pole and victory in Spain after a trumatic engine failure three weeks ago in Hungary. He set the fastest time and had an almost perfect race, a fully deserved victory. Hamilton crept behind him in second increasing his lead to 6 points in the Drivers Championship and 13 points ahead of Kimi (who as usual doesn’t look bothered). It was a midly undramatic race with only three main talking points, two of which are about the most boring man in the history of well… anything (Kimi Raikkonen).
One: Massa in the Pit Lane
He almost smashed into Sutil who was going to get out of the pit lane before him. In Felipe’s case, he couldn’t let this happen as it would of cost him valuable seconds in which Hamilton would of taken full advantage. The steward meeting after the race have given Massa a 10 000 euro fine for this mistake. Hamilton would of hoped for a 10 place grid drop for the next race but they didn’t see the need to take such drastic action. Massa wouldn’t mind that.
Two: Kimi’s Pit Lane Mistake
For his second pit stop, Raikkonen drove off a second too quickly and the petrol man hadn’t taken the nozzle out of the car. This resulted in the mechanics injury (let’s all hope he’s okay) and Kimi’s loss of precious time dropping him back to 6th behind Trulli instead of 4th infront of fellow Fin, Heikki Kovalainen. Although he ends races pretty well, Kimi’s season really looks to be getting worse every week. Something needs to happen both with Ferrari’s car and Kimi’s mentality.
Three: Kimi’s Engine Failure
Ferrari have now had two engine failures in both of their cars in two successive races. This must mean something is up. Despite this, the Ferrari’s still seem to find race pace to keep up with the McLaren’s. If this keeps on happening, Ferrari won’t win the Constructors Championship and one of their drivers won’t win the Drivers Championship.
Robert Kubica this week looked pretty fast. If all of BMW’s efforts are going into 2009, then Ferrari and McLaren have a real job on their hands. That’s all from me on this weeks Formula One. Sorry it’s not as detailed as usual but I didn’t get a chance to watch all of the race (no I wasn’t watching the closing ceremony of the olympic games.. I don’t have three hours spare to do so)!!
Heikki Kovalainen lifting his maiden F1 trophy.
What does Heikki Kovalainen have to do to win a race? Well, all he needs is 2 cars to get a puncture, 3 cars to almost set on fire and Massa to have an engine failure 3 laps to the end and BOOM! he’s got his win. Although this may seem slightly lucky, the Fin must be given credit for hanging in through the entire race and nursing the car home.
Massa’s luck however could not get any worse after his engine failure. After probably being the best driver of the day by over-taking both Hamilton and Kovalainen in the first corner, Massa and his brillian Ferrari looked back in great fashion after two very poor weeks and looked on pace with McLaren. Although slow at the beginning and at the start of the middle parts of the race, Kimi looked his old self with great pace shown at the end setting the fastest lap.
The obvious surprise of the weekend was Timo Glock who finished 2nd for Toyota. He managed to keep Kimi behind him for many laps and also gained from Massa’s loss as Kimi had to back off unless his car did the same thing.
Hamilton finished 5th which isn’t as bad as what could of been. He now increases his lead at the top of the Drivers Championship to 5 points ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and 8 points ahead of Felipe Massa. The battle is getting ever so intense and could go down to the wire like last season.
Valencia in three weeks time will be extremely interesting and no teams get to do practice sessions and Ferrari look to be improving to McLaren’s standards. Only time will tell, which team is best.
