Kimi Raikkonen will start the French GP from pole position, his second of the season and 200th for Ferrari in F1. Felipe Massa will line up alongside him after being only few hundreds slower. There will be unusual second row - Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli. Alonso will sure fancy his podium chances now …

With Hamilton dropping 10 places from his P3 McLaren will have to do with Kovalainen’s P5 and Kovalainen’s 5 place penalty for impeding Webber, McLaren are in for some tough time. This was not the best of qualifying sessions for BMW Sauber - Kubica will be on P6, Heidfeld did not even make the cut to Q3 … Timo Glock and both Red Bulls make up the rest of the top ten. Well, almost, Nelson Piquet will take up P10 P9 after Hamilton’s and Kovalainen’s penalties …

Toro Rosso did well for most of the weekend but not when it mattered the most and both cars got elimitaned in Q2. They still did better than the Hondas though … Nico Rosberg just about made it to Q2 but P15 combined with his 10 place grid penalty will see him starting from the very back of the grid …

French GP Qualifying Results:

1. K. Raikkonen - Ferrari - 1:16.449
2. F. Massa - Ferrari - 1:16.490
3. L. Hamilton - McLaren - 1:16.693 (will be demoted 10 places)
4. F. Alonso - Renault - 1:16.840
5. J. Trulli - Toyota - 1:16.840
6. H. Kovalainen - McLaren - 1:16.944 (will be demoted 5 places)
7. R. Kubica - BMW Sauber - 1:17.037
8. M. Webber - Red Bull - 1:17.233
9. D. Coulthard - Red Bull - 1:17.426
10. T. Glock - Toyota - 1:17.596

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Time for the final part of this miniseries - look at title chances of Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton’s season has begun well. Although not going to Australia as a favourite he took full advantage of Ferrari technical issues and driver errors. First race, first win in a bag. He however had to wait till Monaco for his next win. If the races in Australia and Monaco reminded us about Hamilton’s qualities, the Bahrain and Candian GPs brough back memories of Shanghai and Brazil 2007 … Last year this time Hamilton was yet to finish outside top 3, this year he already has 2 pointless races to his name … But still, he is second in the driver’s standings and only 4 points behind. Not too bad position to be after 7 races knowing that the guy ahead may not have faster car.

Current position: shared 2nd
Points: 38 (4 behind the leader)
Results so far this season: 1 - 5 - 13 - 3 - 2 - 1 - DNF

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Time for part 3 of this miniseries - Kimi Raikkonen. It would be fair to say that before the start of 2008 season Kimi Raikkonen was probably the hottest candidate for 2008 title. The Ferrari car looked strong during the winter testing, the 2007 title took lots of pressure from his shoulders and all the woes of being in the new team were things of the past. His start to the season was a bit shaky with quite a lot of mistakes in Australia. Two race wins and two podiums from next 4 races put him to the top of the championship standings and well back into the contest. Two races later however he finds himself out of top three …

Current position: 4th
Points: 35 (7 behind the leader)
Results so far this season: 8 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 3 - 9 - DNF

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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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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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The race start was little disappointing - all the cars made it and for the first 13 laps the race was rather uneventful. Lewis Hamilton pulled away from Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen. He looked like the man to beat. The only excitement came from Nelson Piquet overtaking every car that got in his way. But then Adrian Sutil spun off and safety car was out on track. Once the pitlane opened pretty much all the cars that were not on one stop strategy dived into pitlane. Raikkonen and Kubica jumped ahead of Hamilton after their pitstops but had to stop at the red light at the pitlane exit. Lewis Hamilton did not look up to check the light, he did not look ahead to check the cars in front him and hit the rear end of Raikkonen’s car. Nico Rosberg joined the party moments later and rammed into Hamilton. Kubica escaped unscathed but Hamilton and Raikkonen were out of the race…

Hamilton’s stupid mistake opened the door for BMW Sauber. It looked first the luck was on Heidfeld’s side. Once the race restarted he pulled away from the field helped by not that quick Barrichello in second place. After his pitstop he still returned ahead of his team mate but the “hint” on team radio about slowing down lighter Kubica made the trick. Kubica passed Heidfeld and never looked back. BMW drivers were definitely helped by misfortune of their main rivals but … they grabbed the opportunity and more importantly made no mistakes in a race that was all about not making any mistakes … Deserved 1-2 finish for BMW and clearly popular win for Kubica just about a year after his scary crash at the same track … Nick Heidfeld now remains the only driver without DNF this season … Did not make him to look too happy on the podium though …

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Monaco GP has some history of special helmets and liveries. Here is recap of four special helmets I noticed this year - the diamond helmets of McLaren drivers, Monaco flag and track map helmet of Nelson Piquet and 200 race anniversary helmet of Giancarlo Fisichella.

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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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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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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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