We have a short break from F1 racing, a bit of breather after the 2 hot races in Australia and Malaysia. This is the right time to relax and listen to something funny. Fatfish, the regular F1Wolf reader and last year’s prediction game champion sent me a link to a podcast from Singapore. The topic was the Singapore Formula1 race and the now famous ticket sales fiasco.

Follow this link and listen to Mr. Brown’s take on what has been going on in Singapore.

Warning - Parts of the show are spoken in serious Singlish (Singapore accented English) .

F1Wolf

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It took a bit longer this time to make something out of the pictures I took in Australia but better later than never . Here you can download 2008 Formula 1 Screensaver - Australia featuring all 22 drivers.

You can also check out some of my photos in the 2008 Australian F1 GP photo gallery.

Over the coming weekend I will prepare few high resolution photos for download.

F1Wolf

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As a response to the requests from comments below the 2008 Formula 1 Engine Statistics post, here is the overview of the gearbox situation - who will start the next race with a new and who with an old gearbox (O - old, N - new). The 2008 rules require the gearbox last for four races. Change of the gearbox earlier reuslts in 5 places grid penalty.

2008 Formula 1 Gearbox Statistics

Timo Glock had his gearbox changed in Australia.

F1Wolf

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Here is the current status of old and new engines (O - old, N - new) for the next race. A little star (*) next to driver means that driver already used up the one penalty free engine change for this season.

I will update this table after every race. Every effort is made to keep the information here correct. But if you spot any mistake, please feel free to let me know in the comments below this post.

2008 Formula 1 Engine Statistics

Related: 2008 Formula 1 Gearbox Statistics

F1Wolf

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After the crazy Australian GP it looked for a while we may have another mad weekend in Malaysia. The rain and storm predictions however did not materialize (yet again ) and so we had an opportunity to see what the form of the teams is under normal conditions (if the usual heat and humidity in Sepang can be considered normal conditions).

The Ferraris took the most out of their front row starting positions. Raikkonen made a better start but did not look too eager to fight with Massa in the first corner. He cruised in safe distance behind his team mate. When Massa went in for his first pit stop Raikkonen picked up speed and emerged ahead of Massa after his own pit stop. From then on it was all about Ferrari cars lasting the race distance. Then on lap 31 Massa spun off the track chasing nobody and being threatened by no one. He blaimed the spin on something at the back of the car, the team did not seem to see anything wrong with the car …

Raikkonen did not make any Melbourne-like mistakes this time and went on to win his first race of 2008 season. This also means at least one Ferrari car made it to chequered flag after both their cars failed to finish in Australia.

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F1Wolf

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The round two results are in ! Few very good performers from round 1 missed out on this one, few woke up too late . On the other hand we have several new players joining in - welcome guys ! The winner of the round 2 is stew of F1-ToGo with 20 points. There was no special prize for this round, but being in the lead after 2 rounds must feel good . I am not doing too well, but hey, I am in a good company .

20 - stew
18 - fatfish, nieuwe
17 - Klokan, f1 portal, Rich, Raj
16 - mcw3, deaddogsmoking, zblkhwk, joelsandeep
15 - Steve Robertson, Ben, kotenok, F1Wolf, Ozzi, shaun, Ram
14 - blazena, Arun
13 - Kaylen

And here are the standings after Round 2:

36 - stew
35 - Steve Robertson
34 - Klokan
32 - f1 portal, mcw3
31 - deaddogsmoking, Ben, kotenok
30 - fatfish, zblkhwk
29 - Rich
28 - nieuwe, F1Wolf, Ozzi
27 - Kaylen
26 - blazena
17 - Raj, brabhamburger
16 - joelsandeep, igi
15 - shaun, Ram
14 - Arun, Queen Bee, fantoci
13 - Chobi
12 - Rob The Flying Dutchman

F1Wolf

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Dominant Ferarri performance in Malaysia resulted in win for Kimi Raikkonen (and retirement for Felipe Massa). Strong second place went to Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) and third to Heikki Kovalainene (McLaren).

2008 Malaysian F1 GP Result:

1. Raikkonen - Ferrari - 1h31:18.555
2. Kubica - BMW Sauber + 19.570
3. Kovalainen - McLaren +38.450
4. Trulli - Toyota +45.832
5. Hamilton - McLaren +46.548
6. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber +49.833
7. Webber - Red Bull-Renault +1:08.130
8. Alonso - Renault +1:10.041
9. Coulthard - Red Bull-Renault +1:16.220
10. Button - Honda +1:26.214
11. Piquet - Renault +1:32.202
12. Fisichella - Force India + 1 lap
13. Barrichello - Honda +1 lap
14. Rosberg - Williams-Toyota +1 lap
15. Davidson - Super Aguri +1 lap
16. Sato - Super Aguri-Honda + 2 laps
17. Nakajima - Williams +2 laps

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F1Wolf

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The second race of the 2008 season is here - the circus moves to Malaysia this weekend. The weather forecasts suggest the weather may not be all sunny during the weekend. This is not going to make the predictions any easier

Few people missed out on round one but with 17 rounds still to go there still may be a chance to collect enough points to fight for the win. All one needs is few results like our round 1 winner

So place your predictions in the comments below this post:

Top eight finishers in the race
Pole position
Fastest lap

The sumary of the rules - click here

Round 1 results and standings - click here

Do not forget - the predictions must be placed before the qualifying starts.

F1Wolf

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All sorts of weather predictions (no rain in next 20 minutes, rain within 7 minutes, no rain for another 20 minutes) turned to early minutes of Q1 into a frenzy. All the cars (except Kovalainen and BMW Saubers) went out right away to record some times before the rain. No rain came… Fisichella, Nakajima, Bourdais, Sato, Sutil and Davidson were the unlucky 6 not to make it ot Q2. Fisi missed out by 4 tenths … Jarno Trulli was the fastest driver in Q1.

Both McLarens went out quickly in Q2, took P1 and P2 but Kimi got quickly ahead of both of them with fastest lap of the weekend. Massa was second fastest ahead of Hamilton, Heidfeld and Kovalainen. Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Nelson Piquet, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello were eliminated in this session. Not the best of days for Williams today.

The rain stayed away for the Q3 too. Ferraris were clearly faster than McLarens and locked the front row. Pole position went to Felipe Massa ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. In McLaren also the number 2 got ahead of his no 1 team mate - Kovalainen will start from P3, Hamilton from P4. Jarno Trulli squeezed in ahead of BMW Saubers of Kubica and Heidfeld. Heidfeld’s final run has was however compromised by slowly moving Timo Glock (P10). Will be interesting to see if the stewards take in action here … Fernando Alonso had hard time with his not that easy to handle Renault and definitelly can’t be unhappy with starting from P9.

Update: Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen have been summoned by stewards after Fernando Alonso and Nick Heidfeld complained about being blocked on their final run.

Update 2: Both McLaren drivers have been penalized for blocking their rivals at the closing stages of Q3. Hamilton and Kovalainen were moved 5 places down the grid.

Full qualifying results inside the article

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F1Wolf

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The final practice session in Malaysia did not make us any smarter. McLarens seem to have played the same game as they did week ago in Australia. They did not get anywhere near top ten. BMW Sauber show again they are a force to be reckoned with. After pretty quiet session Heidfeld stepped on the gass towards the end and clocked the fastest time. One can expect Kubica being able to do the same should he chose to … Ferraris did better than last week in the final practice. It may be a sign of less troubled weekend for them. Massa has been quicker so far but that may have something to do with fuel loads and race strategy.

Toyotas seem well capable of Q3 and points. Button in Honda continued showing strong pace and may also hope for a place in top 10 in qualifying.

Nelson Piquet is doing much better than last week. It may have something to do with the fact that he knows the Sepang track from his A1 racing here. He outpaced Alonso by few tenths …

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F1Wolf

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