About 2 weeks ago I asked a question if Robert Kubica has become a serious title contender. It looks like the Montreal race gave us the answer. Kubica’s maiden F1 win has not only broken the 24 race McLaren/Ferrari Formula 1 race wins monopoly but also propelled him to the top of the championship standings after 7 races. Whoever can achieve that amongst the competition from Ferrari and McLaren drivers simply has to be taken seriously …

Current position: 1st
Points: 42 (4 ahead of 2nd and 3rd)
Results so far this season: DNF - 2 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 2 - 1

Although his season has began with DNF Kubica made his intentions quite clear right at the start. After a strong qualifying run in Melbourne he barely missed out on pole position at the Australian GP. The maiden pole position came in Bahrain, the maiden win in Canada. Seven races, six top four finishes, 4 podiums, one win, one pole position. This all in a car that at least for now still is only the 3rd best on the grid … The comparison with Alonso and Renault in their 2005 and 2006 title winning seasons comes to mind …

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F1Wolf

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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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It is Monaco Grand Prix and the Paddock is buzzing with rumours. This brings out the second edition of this series of posts. (See the first here.)

I am not really surprised to hear that “Fernando Alonso has just inked a deal to drive for Ferrari in 2010″. I do not expect anything bigger than this to come out this weekend. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. It may be, remember how Kimi Raikkonen signed for Ferrari. It may also be just a purposely started rumour to unsettle the drivers market. Let’s see what happens next, but I do not expect to find out the truth anytime soon.

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F1Wolf

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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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The 2008 Turkish Grand Prix will mark 257th F1 Grand Prix for Rubens Barrichello. This will make Barrichello the most experienced driver in F1 history, surpasing the 256 mark set by Riccardo Patrese. There has been questions about when exactly will Barrichello reach the record mark but I am not going into the details of the confusion. It has been done excellently elsewhere (see this post). The deal now is that 2008 Turkish GP is the one, so let’s leave it there.

Rubens Barrichello seems to have been around F1 forever. He entered the F1 circus in 1993. Here are some other names that were on grid in 1993 - Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher, Riccardo Patrese, Jean Alesi, Martin Brundle, Gerhard Berger, Johnny Herbert, Mark Blundell, Michael Andretti, Mika Häkkinen, Alex Zanardi, Eddie Irvine, Aguri Suzuki. Perhaps with an exemption of Michael Schumacher all these names remind me of a totally different F1 era… He scored points in his debut season. The first podium came in his second F1 season, 1994 Pacific Grand Prix.The same season he however had his most serious accident - the heavy crash during 1994 San Marino Grand Prix Friday practice (video inside the post) - and was lucky to walk away. Later that year he was on pole position for the first time. The points, podiums and pole position came quickly but for his first Formula 1 race win he had to wait longer than anyone before him - till 2000 German Grand Prix. Eight more race wins (all with Ferrari) followed. The last race he has won (as it stands) was the inaugural 2004 Chinese Grand Prix. The last time he made it to podium was the infamous 2005 United States Grand Prix where he only had Jordans and Minardis to beat …

Here is little summary Barrichello’s F1 career:

Milestones:

1993 South African Grand Prix - F1 debut in Jordan
1993 Japanese Grand Prix - first F1 points (5th place)
1994 Pacific Grand Prix - first F1 podium (3rd place)
1994 San Marino Grand Prix - serious accident in Friday free practice (video)

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Kimi Raikkonen won his second race of 2008 season ahead of his team mate Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton returned to podium for the first time since Australian GP. Jenson Button scored first points of the season for Honda. Only 13 cars made it to the finish in a race that featured 2 safety car periods and a scary looking Kovalainen’s heavy crash. Fernando Alonso’s hopes for good result were cut short by a spectacular engine failure.

2008 Spanish GP - Race result

1. Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 1:38:19.051
2. Felipe Massa - Ferrari + 3.228
3. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren + 4.187
4. Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber + 5.694
5. Mark Webber - Red Bull + 35.938
6. Jenson Button - Honda + 53.010
7. Kazuki Nakajima - Williams + 58.244
8. Jarno Trulli - Toyota + 59.435

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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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F1Wolf

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The testing last week did not reveal too much. Not that we ever can tell too much about the form of teams from a test, but we can tell pretty much nothing after the last Barcelona test . Here is my view of what may have changed.

First look at the top 3:

Ferrari looked to be damn fast on slicks and with the hole in the nose. But not that different times were later achieved for example by Barrichello and Alonso, also on slicks. Ferrari’s speed early on in the test does not reveal much … McLaren cars were quite slow last week but both de la Rosa and Hamilton did lots of laps on their test days and outright speed might not have been their focus. Quite the same can be said about BMW Sauber. All three top teams are optimistic on their own form but cautious at the same not knowing the true gains of the other 2 …

Down to midfield now:

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F1Wolf

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