European GP - Wolf’s Valencia Diary - Sunday
Felipa Massa wins 2008 European GP
It was nice hot and sunny Sunday here in Valencia. The F1 race unfortunately turned out to be a procession, at least at the front. If not for Ferrari mess ups there would hardly be any excitement. Felipe Massa pulled away after the start of the race and Lewis Hamilton (to the delight of local fans here) was no match for him. Massa had a bit of a scare after his second pit stops, but he managed to keep clear from Sutil and went on to win the race. Hamilton settled for second. Kubica’s 3rd place was never threatened by the other Ferrari and McLaren.
Kimi Raikkonen provided the excitement today. First he ran away with the refueling hose still attached to his car and ran over one of his crew members after his second pit stop. Then a while later his engine let go and the smoke covered the start finish line.
To the disapointment of the local crowd Fernando Alonso’s race barely lasted a lap. Kazuki Nakajima (the commentator on track called him Nico Nakajima 
) rammed into the back of Alonso’s Renault and the race was over for the home hero. Unfortunately I have to say, the atmosphere would sure be much better with Alonso on track.
For the record, if anyone wonders, Lewis Hamilton is not the most popular driver in Spain
Lucas di Grassi wins GP2 race in Valencia
The GP2 race was more exciting event. On Saturday few drivers ran out of fuel (Pantano, Senna), but as Sunday races are shorter there was little danger of the same happening. Instead we had some crashes - Grosjean shortly after taking the lead from Filippi, Senna (while set for podium finish) slammed his car into the wall, Petrov spun of before the bridge, but rejoined the race. The race win went to Petrov’s team mate Lucas di Grassi.
Vitaly Petrov Valencia Sunday
And here few more photos from Sunday:
My lunch - excellent by the way !
Paella Valenciana
The firecracker show after the podium ceremony:
Firecrackers
And some happy Felipe Massa fans:
Massa Fans
I will be back once I get back from this trip . Stay tuned ! prediction game results probably on Tuesday.
tags: Tags: 2008, European GP, GP2, Massa, race, Valencia
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August 25th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Well it wasn’t that super exciting which all we expected, and that’s a pitty for such a long way for you surely…
Anyway, there are many years and new rules are coming
I believe next year’s setups for this circuit can be extreme, if the cars were difficult to control on the rear end, next year will be funny to follow specially on the hardest braking spots and where tractoin is needed. Valencia’s Street Circuit would be a place for trouble if to think so. Anyway, the race wasn’t extremly fast, as the best lap times didn’t arrive to the 1:37s. Seems the drivers turned too much carefully with unknown race parameters and didn’t drive that speed which was expected. After all, I think this track is real fun 
One of the best organizations ever!! And that’s just the 1st GP, the TV broadcast has been really good and some innovative things happened as the pit girls were not only young ladies, there were also some Spanish “machos” (they still doesn’t suit my taste, but woman may be pleased) and the moment which drivers went to podium was really nice, the “pit girls” were waiting them with a pleasant applause, it has been a new way after all 
What may be lacking is overtaking, but this lacks in any circuit! The moments of confusion in Ferrari didn’t amaze me much, but still doubt they can have such luck as last year???… Seems to me that the formation which built Stefano Dominecali isn’t the strong block which we were used years ago, and they faint between success and miserable results. Raikkonen, as for me, is quite far away from his wishes to defend the title with his poor results. Massa is getting the man who can take the lead if something serious happens to McLaren in the next races. So I’ll keep on saying that Felipe is doing the job and performing a great pace last races, the mistakes in the beginning of the season are the only reason that he isn’t with the comfortable place of the championship leader.
About the early departure of Alonso to the box, that’s a pity, that was really unlucky but races are that. Kazuki!! Nakajima had it the same difficult to avoid the RBR of Webber, who was surprisingly crossing by the middle of the trajectory coming from the side runaway in the chicane, some heavy breaking and that was all, the Renault was approached from behind by the Williams which just entered into the corner. Anyway, there could be reasons to ban Nakajima or Webber, one for just crashing the car when could be avoided just by breaking like Alonso or Glock did, or Webber by cutting the chicane with the result of invasion of driving line, provoking that crash behind (http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=VsXvLpe6_CU). But the stewards decided to do nothing.
Congratulations again for Nico for some points for Williams
Kotenoks last blog post..Jose