Although we are yet to reach half the season mark I think it is safe to say that the result of Canadian GP reduced the number of 2008 F1 title contenders to four - Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. I do take the liberty to count Kovalainen and Heidfeld out of title fight and it will probably not take too long before their teams do the same… Let’s have a quick look at these four and begin with Felipe Massa.

Current position: shared 2nd
Points: 38 (4 behind the leader)
Results so far this season: DNF - DNF - 1 - 2 - 1 - 3 - 5

Massa’s start to 2008 season was a nightmare. His DNF in Melbourne may have been result of a mechanical trouble but it was the spin on lap 2 followed by similar spin a week later in Malaysia (throwing away 2nd place) that prompted media talks about his immiment departure from Ferrari. He however handled the media pressure well and came back with vengeance in Bahrain. Still the Bahrain win did not help him to silence the critics, it was just another win from pole position without having to overtake anybody … The win in Turkey, although thrid in a row for Massa in Istanbul, did not help him much either. After all, it was just a win on his favourite track …

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F1Wolf

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Felipe Massa’s Turkish GP win last weekend was his third in a row on the Istanbul track. I wrote in my previous post that this the first time this has happened since Michael Schumacher… Well I was not exactly right …

Michael Schumacher’s most recent hattrick of wins on the same track was his United States Grand Prix string of wins from 2003 to 2006. These were actually 4 race wins in a row. The hattrick came after the “great” win in 2005 …

There is however one more, even more recent hattrick - Kimi Raikkonen’s 3 Belgian Grand Prix wins in a row. Raikkonen won in Belgium in 2004, 2005 and in 2007. There was no Belgian Grand Prix in 2006.

Photo: Daimler Media

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Felipe Massa made full advantage of his pole position and strange 3 pit stop strategy of Lewis Hamilton and won his 3rd Turkish Grand Prix in a row. Lewis Hamilton split 2 Ferraris and finished second ahead of championship leader Kimi Raikkonen. Solid race for Kubica and Heidfeld, points again for Webber, Alonso and Rosber. Sebastian Vettel finished a race finally …

2008 Turkish GP Race Result:

1. Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 1:26:49.451
2. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren + 3.779
3. Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari + 4.271
4. Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber + 21.945
5. Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber + 38.741
6. Fernando Alonso - Renault + 53.724
7. Mark Webber - Red Bull + 1:04.229
8. Nico Rosberg - Williams + 1:11.406

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F1Wolf

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Felipe Massa will start the Turkish GP from pole position, as predicted by many people on this site . His neighbour on front row will be Heikki Kovalainen. Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen will line up on second row. There are suggestions that Kimi might have been slowed down by Alonso… I haven’t seen that, will have to wait for more on that. Both Red Bulls made it to Q3 for the first time this season.

This was another disapointing day for Nelson Piquet … Getting out after Q1 is not what Flavio Briatore signed him for …

2008 Turkish GP Qualifying Results:

1. F. Massa - Ferrari - 1:27.617
2. H. Kovalainen - McLaren - 1:27.808
3. L. Hamilton - McLaren - 1:27.923
4. K. Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1:27.936
5. R. Kubica - BMW Sauber - 1:28.390
6. M. Webber - Red Bull - 1:28.417
7. F. Alonso - Renault - 1:28.422
8. J. Trulli - Toyota - 1:28.836
9. N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber - 1:28.882
10. D. Coulthard - Red Bull - 1:29.959

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F1Wolf

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I managed to see bits and pieces of the first practice. It started with wet track between turns 3 and 9 due to late cleaning . It continued with cars sliding all over the place (and not because of the late cleaning). Felipe Massa was the fastest driver of the session but he also managed to get off the track more than once (I saw twice). He needs to make friends with Turn 8 . Not sure what happened to Kimi, he did one timed lap and ended up at the tail of the order. But if the weekend continues the way it has begun, we may see some interesting action on th track. Not the best show from the Red Bull family …

Kimi Raikkonen recovered from the gearbox problems and recorded the fastest time in second practice just ahead of Hamilton and Massa. Rain affected early stages of the session only but the track seemed quite damp till the end. Cars however spent the whole session on dry tyres, at least as far as I could tell. There was not much grip and the off-track trips continued in second session too. Mark Webber crashed his car, few drivers lost the rears of their cars. How I wish there is about this much for qualifying and the race .

To follow the practice, qualifying and race live, check this link for info.

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F1Wolf

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Kimi Raikkonen will start the Spanish GP from pole position confirming the strength of the Ferrari package in Barcelona. It is also the first pole position of the season for Raikkonen. He will however have an unexpected neighbour on front row - Renault with Fernando Alonso in the cockpit. Felipe Massa missed out on front row and will start from P3.

Robert Kubica qualified well again - P4  ahead of both McLarens. The silver cars have exclusive rights to row 3 in Barcelona and they will not be too happy about that. Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli proved again they are masters of qualifying - P7 and P8 are great results for Red Bull and Toyota. Nick Heidfeld may be heavier than his team mate but still, P9 is hardly a starting position he would have hoped for. Nelson Piquet made it to Q3 adding his bit to what definitelly was a very good day for Renault.

The midfield is extremely even. Only few tenths separate 11th from 15th.

This was a disapointing session for Coulthard (eliminated in Q1), Vettel (beaten by his team mate again), Sutil (7 tenths behind Fisichella and less than a tenth ahead of Davidson in pennyless Super Aguri…).

Is Renault that good all of a sudden or did Alonso only go for home qualifying glory in a lightly fueled car ? We will see tomorrow.

Spanish GP Qualifying Results:
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Shaun left this comment yesterday under one of the Barcelona test posts:

Why is Schumacher testing for Ferrari instead of Raikkonen or Massa ? sorry if this is an obvious question.

Well, good question and I do not think it is obvious. Ferrari has Raikkonen and Massa plus test drivers proper Gene and Badoer. But they still use Michael Schumacher and used him again in Barcelona this week. Schumacher did one day of testing. This was half of what Massa did, but about a day more than Kimi (thanks to rain on Thursday). Why is he still testing ? And why do they keep two other test drivers on payroll when they do not use them (almost) at all?

He still probably gives the team valuable input but is his input more valuable than input from one of the race drivers would be ? How does Kimi like the fact that he gets less running ? Perhaps he likes it and is actually thankful to Schumi for stepping in . But as far as I remember Kimi was never too excited about having Schumacher around.

Perhaps it is only publicity stunt as no matter what people may think about Michael Schumacher, he is a phenomenon that still attracts lots of attention.

Or perhaps it is just something that Jean Todt cooked up before leaving the team and Domenicali has to live with it now …

Well, who knows. The fact remains, Schumi is still around and he is definitely not slow.

There is another blog post on Michael Schumacher today here …

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It looks like the first day day of Barcelona testing was all about the new Ferrari hole. The fact that the combination of the new hole in the nose part of Ferrari car and the slick tyres resulted in 3 seconds gap between Massa and the second fastest car, Honda of Alex Wurz, is one of the reasons the expected hole got so much attention.

McLaren slow times should not be taken too seriously though. If you look carefully at the pictures from Barcelona, you can see the tiny almost Monza like rear wing on de la Rosa’s car. McLaren obviously spent the day focusing on 2009 season rather than updates for the next race. BMW Sauber did not run on slicks yesterday, so Heidfeld’s times can’t be compared to Massa either …

One thing remains fact nevertheless, the Ferrari was scary quick on Monday in Barcelona.

While browsing the pictures from yesterday’s test, the only other ineteresting thing I spotted were the front wheel covers on Renault. If I am not wrong, that is new.

There is a nice picture gallery from Barcelona here. The site is in Spanish.

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And now it is time for a very biased post

Remember this ?

3 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 3 – 3

These are the first nine races of 2007 season (and Hamilton’s F1 career) - 9 podiums, 70 points

Now compare with this:

5 – 2 – 4 – 1 – DNF – 7 – 1 – 5 – 13

These are the results of Lewis Hamilton in last 9 F1 races - 3 podiums, 43 points.

The F1 Racing magazine had an article with title like this in their last issue:

“Lewis set to be champ after Australia win”

I could not believe they actually wrote that. To sum up the article, because most of the Australian GP winners in past years went on to win the title, Hamilton now must win the title. If this is the fact I do not see why we need 18 races, but whatever …

Now compare Hamilton’s stats with this:

1 – DNF – 2 – 6 – 3 – 2 – DNF – DNF – 1

Last 9 races, 5 podiums, 45 points

Not great either, but better than Hamilton’s last 9. Who is that? Well, Felipe Massa… More podiums and more points in last 9 races than Hamilton.

Hamilton has been already crowned 2008 F1 champion by some, Massa has been already replaced by Vettel or Alonso in Ferrari by many … Well different drivers get different treatment …

I admit these stats are rather twisted but if others can fool around with numbers why can’t I . I decided to use 9 races statistics for 2 reasons:

a) The 9 consecutive podiums for Hamilton would make a nice benchmark
b) Nine races makes pretty much half of a season …

Just for the record, no, I do not think Hamilton should be dropped …

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First win (and first points) of the season for Felipe Massa, first 1-2 finish for Ferarri (and for anybody) this season, second consecutive podium for Robert Kubica. Race to forget for McLaren …

2008 Bahrain Formula 1 GP Result:

1. F. Massa - Ferrari - 1:31:06.970
2. K. Räikkönen - Ferrari + 3.339
3. R. Kubica - BMW Sauber + 4.998
4. N. Heidfeld - BMW Sauber + 8.409
5. H. Kovalainen - McLaren + 26.789
6. J. Trulli - Toyota + 41.314
7. M. Webber - Red Bull + 45.473
8. N. Rosberg - Williams + 55.889

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