A.Wayne

Friday 24th August 2007


Bernie Ecclestone is expecting a McLaren winner at the end of this year's Championship, although which of the two he's unsure.

With six races remaining McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton is leading the Drivers' Championship standings while his team-mate Fernando Alonso is in second place, seven points adrift.

But whether Alonso's experience will see him come to the fore or whether Hamilton's Michael Schumacher-styled ability will see him claim his first World title, the Brit isn't' saying.

"I don't know - it's difficult to know," Ecclestone told The Times.

"I suppose you would have to say Alonso is favourite because of his experience.

"But the way the other guy (Hamilton) is performing - if you took his hat off and put bloody (Michael) Schumacher's hat on, you'd say Schumacher was driving, wouldn't you?"

Despite his backing of Alonso, Ecclestone has said he hopes that McLaren hit trouble to get Ferrari more back in the hunt for the Championship.

The F1 supremo, though, is hoping Ferrari can pull back some points in the next few races in order to ensure a four-way fight for the title at the very end of the season.

"I'd like to see both the McLaren cars stop and Ferrari get some points and have four runners up there (in contention)," he said. "You'd have to put your money on McLaren, but you never know."


Turkey 07

Flying Finn

Itwasamishap.

GREEK-TURBO-RACER

As much as I favor FA over the spoiled brat LH, the wild card here will be Kimi. If his equipment stays together, and he drives the way he does, it will be no shock to me that the ICE MAN be the champ at years end. The advantage I see Kimi having is the 2 Macleren boys fighting each other more than the other drivers on the track.

Let's see what happens.

Theo

A.Wayne

a Mis-hap, wow , OK....I still think Massa is faster, at worst case, there is nothing between them for speed....

A.Wayne

Vettel , who was touted as the next great wonder after his debut with BMW @ Indy , struggles to find pace against Liuzzi , Now my friends , do you still think you can tell who is faster than whom, in F1, how fast was Scott, would he have looked like a WC in the making in A BMW or a Mclaren ? as Vettel did,
Ahhh, As LH has shown it is good to have a Papa , a good Uncle and a Local GP race , that makes cash for Bernie....


P1.

16. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:30.612 + 2.624 21
17. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:30.624 + 2.636 15
18. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 1:30.876 + 2.888 12
19. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:30.917 + 2.929 22
20. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:31.383 + 3.395 22
21. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:31.445 + 3.457 31
22. Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:32.270 + 4.282 35

P2

18. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:30.530 + 2.061 24
19. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:30.702 + 2.233 24
20. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:30.801 + 2.332 16
21. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:31.153 + 2.684 32
22. Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:31.175 + 2.706 32

multi21

Coulthard is trying to rent space in Massa's head. The funny part of this is that Massa will let this get to him and the reaction (if something else goes wrong this weekend) will be priceless. I don't think that is it was deliberate, more incompetent than deliberate. Remember Ferrari pit mishaps of yesteryear.

We know Todt favors Massa, but I believe Todt to be a man of integrity and would not do anything to purposefully sabatage Massa or Kimi. However, after this weekend F will have to put their weight behind one driver or the other. It may be too little too late, however.

Nordschleife

I didn't know you did satire

R+C

multi21

You said it yourself, it's an Italian team. Things that look one way can be misinterpreted.

BTW, it that true about the America's Cup, re: the cigarettes?

Nordschleife

Absolutely, they soon learned however, at first they thought we could mind read, but you'd see all the *** ends going overboard lol

R+C

A.Wayne

Friday, August 24th 2007, 16:04 GMT

Participating: John Howett (Toyota), Frank Williams (Williams), Ralf Schumacher (Toyota), Alexander Wurz (Williams).

Q. Question for all four of you: we saw a lot of drivers going off the circuit today with minimal penalty; is that something we're going to see in the race, is it something that you approve of? It's interesting to see mistakes relatively unpenalised?

Ralf Schumacher: What do you mean by penalised? It's happening more and more in Formula One because of safety. You have a tarmac run-off and that's why you come back onto the track, which I think makes sense anyway, doesn't it? It has happened here in previous races, yes, so I guess it will happen again.

Turkey is a very slippery circuit and especially off-line it's very difficult and that's why a lot of drivers - we obviously try to push - we try to be as fast as we can do that. You can't always be one hundred percent within the line and that's when it happens.

Alex Wurz: Ralf is right. We discussed this at length in the GPDA with Charlie (Whiting) and it's the compromise you have to make, but we all want safer race tracks and high safety standards. That's why we have the asphalt run-off areas and that's the simple reason why we are not penalised coming back on it and you don't lose too much time. And I'm sure you would agree with me that you prefer safer race tracks and us being around a bit longer than in some early days.

Frank Williams: Well, the first thing I want to say is that you are clearly an FIA man because you hadn't started before you mentioned the word penalty! I think my view is a bit different. I think Formula One needs to make race tracks more like this for one reason: they actually promote - unlike other tracks - overtaking.

The other side of that is that if a driver does make a mistake, it costs them five seconds and a bit of dignity but he's back in the race. The antithesis of what I'm saying is the corner at the end of that fabulous straight at Barcelona, which, in my opinion, is screwed up by a very fast - too fast – chicane, and gravel and sand traps everywhere. If you get in there you're finished.

Every year someone's off there and the race is over for him. I can't speak for a driver, but I get the impression the track is very safe. They take risks but that's fun, it jumbles up the order. It's what Bernie wants, isn't it? We're all here for TV. It's a show, Flavio says and I think in the main he's right.

John Howett: I don't think I have anything more to add. If you lose five seconds, you've probably lost a couple of places, that's a big enough penalty.

Q. A question for drivers and perhaps team owners as well: have you run both specification of tyres here, are you quite happy, are they going to last the race, especially with excessive heat here?

RS: This year's situation, as we are all in the same situation for the first time we are here, both tyres seem to be in a workable window, although the track temperatures are very extreme, so that shouldn't be an issue at all.

AW: You're never happy but I'm sure the tyres will last, both sets of tyres. The soft one – there are not any problems like we had in Canada where we had super high graining on the soft tyre. That's definitely OK here but there are still differences in the tyres, so it still gives you a little bit of a challenge for the race: which tyre to use at the start and the other stints you're doing.

Q. John, can you just clarify the situation with the contracts with your drivers?

JH: I guess it's no secret, really. Jarno has a contract and we're in discussion with Ralf and we're studying the driver market and Ralf is still definitely on our list. He's doing a very good job at the moment, as we've seen in the last two or three races and we're just not prepared at this moment to make a decision which is very tough and I have a great deal of personal sympathy with Ralf but that's the position. We're waiting to see what moves and I can assure you that Ralf is on our list. We feel that we can wait longer.

Q. This Grand Prix is the 100th for Toyota...

JH: It's the 100th Grand Prix, I believe, yes. The reason we're not really pushing it (is because) the fiftieth year of Toyota in motor sport I think was last week and therefore that's the predominant issue and I would say that within that total chapter Formula One is one small part, but yes, we're happy it's our hundredth Grand Prix and we're still pushing for the elusive win in the future.

Q. Ralf, obviously a good result in Hungary, and here you started fifteenth last year and raced to seventh. A good time today; how are you feeling about this race?

RS: Well, last year, I qualified fifth but I had an engine change, that's why I started fifteenth. The track, for both last year's and this year's cars seems to be alright. It's only Friday, you don't know how it's going to look tomorrow but our aim is to have both cars in the top ten and from there to score some points which we desperately need if you look at our championship points' situation at the moment, and that's what we're fighting for.

I think in the last few races we have really picked up pace. If anything, I was a bit unlucky in Hungary not to score a few more points and that's why I hope we can achieve it here.

Q. So you really feel that you are top six regularly?

RS: At the moment for the last few races, yes, we have momentum. There was a clear trend after America. We have had a few issues, my mistake in America and other technical reasons why we did not finish but the team is working really hard and the car is improving and we are finding our way with the tyres and things are looking good.

Q. Alex, Friday driver here last year, you must be looking forward to racing, what are your feelings after the first day?

AW: It is a very difficult track. You already mentioned that we are driving off without being penalised, but it is a very tough track to get right. There are two or three corners that are really slippery and then there is the super quick Turn 8, and medium speed corners in the third sector.

All the corners don't require one set-up and so it's a compromise of driving style and set-up from start to finish. On top of that it is very hard physically. Turn 8 has seven seconds at 4.5g, which is pretty tough for our little necks!

Q. One of my colleagues pointed out that you have scored points in crazy races so far this season. Are you happy with your performances?

AW: Well, better to score points in crazy races than not to score points! They are races where you can make a bit of a difference if you think about what is going on and drive in a controlled way as well as having a very strong team behind you, which pits you at the right time and makes the correct decisions on tyres, like at Nurburgring.

And I was very happy not only with this race but other race craft as well. Like straight into my head comes Malaysia where I started 18th on the grid after some technical issues. But forget about this, the race was great and in the first 10 laps I overtook eight guys and they were not out there for a Sunday afternoon drive. I had great races together with Nico in Bahrain, you know, we were overtaking each other at least six or seven times.

Monaco was a super strong race with no mistake from the first to the last lap, I only slid wide once which cost me two tenths and that was it, every other corner was on the limit. Of course I am not satisfied with some of my qualifying, that is clear. I seem to make it up in the race but I could have a much easier time and could bring even more benefit to the team if I could just put the corners together. It is not that I am missing the speed, it is just getting it together for that one qualifying lap.

Q. Frank, could we just tell us what the contractual situation is with engines and drivers for the future?

FW: I can't tell you because I don't want to! John has said it all really. Alex is very highly regarded in our team, as Ralf is in the other Toyota team and our short list is very short.

Q. But both drivers are out of contract at the end of the year?

FW: It depends how you want to read or describe the contract. I am not going to talk about it anymore, so best move onto something else.

Q. What about the situation with engines? Have you got Toyota engines for another year?

FW: I would rather John answered that, I think he knows the contract better than me.

JH: Yes!

FW: There are two parties to this contract, it is better that one of them says, rather than me blurt out what the truth is.

Q. Frank, you are perhaps the only independent only involved in racing. Other teams have other business interests. How difficult is it in that climate to keep the team going?

FW: It is meant to be difficult in F1. I am sure Honda and Toyota and even McLaren, who have their own difficulties of one sort or another, so it's nothing different for our team. Everyone enjoys very much what they do and it is worth making the effort to carry on. There is no regret whatsoever as you can imagine.

As you can well imagine being here and being asked difficult questions in press conferences is not my favourite time but being in F1 is very enjoyable for most people in the paddock, I think. Running any business is difficult and if you say it is easy you are heading for a big fall.

Questions From The Floor

Q. (Richard Williams - The Guardian) Frank, you are one of the few people in the history of the sport who know what it's like to have two drivers in your team fighting for the World Championship at the same time. When push comes to shove is there anything that a team principal can, or should, tell his drivers in order to regulate that state of affairs and keep the team's competitive healthy?

FW: Our view, for which we have sometimes been criticised, has always been to get on with it but don't knock each other off the road stupidly.

Q. (Alan Baldwin - Reuters) Frank, you mentioned that your driver short list is short, but are you confident that Nico will be staying with Williams next year?

FW: Well, I think he knows the value of a fixed contract, most racing drivers do. We have a fixed contract with Nico, that is beyond question.

A.Wayne

Hamilton tops final practice - Turkey

By Matt Beer Saturday, August 25th 2007, 09:05 GMT

Lewis Hamilton emerged fastest in the Turkish Grand Prix final free practice session at Istanbul.

The McLaren driver had escaped a scare early in the session when his McLaren cut out and stopped on the grass in the pit exit as he attempted to begin an installation lap.

Fortunately for Hamilton, his car was close enough to be retrieved by the pit marshals and the McLaren team. Repairs were effected swiftly, and he was able to join the session before the half-hour mark.

He initially went fourth fastest, and then improved to a 1:27.325 on his next run to usurp initial pacesetter Felipe Massa by 0.041 seconds.

The championship leader stayed on top as none of the top four drivers managed to improve when they switched to the softer tyres for their last runs.

Both Massa and Kimi Raikkonen set new fastest times in the first sector, but could not maintain the performance through the rest of the lap and had to settle for second and third, ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton's own attempt to find time on the soft compound ended with a spin at Turn 7. He rejoined without drama and his position at the top of the timesheets was not threatened.

Williams' Nico Rosberg was the fastest driver outside the McLaren/Ferrari quartet for most of the hour and duly ended up fifth, ahead of the two BMWs.

Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen languished down the order initially, before improving to eighth and 10th at the end - split by Red Bull's Mark Webber.

Jenson Button suffered a hydraulic leak during the session and had to cruise back to the pitlane, but Honda quickly rectified the problem and got him back on track to set the 15th fastest time.

Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato made the only notable mistake of the hour, as he spun into the Turn 3 gravel with 12 minutes to go.

He could not rejoin and dropped to 20th in the session results, just behind Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, who had a major slide through Turn 8 on his last run.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.325 12
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:27.366 + 0.041 15
3. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:27.506 + 0.181 16
4. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:27.743 + 0.418 13
5. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:28.056 + 0.731 16
6. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.184 + 0.859 18
7. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:28.224 + 0.899 21
8. Fisichella Renault (B) 1:28.261 + 0.936 20
9. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:28.337 + 1.012 15
10. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:28.364 + 1.039 17
11. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 1:28.413 + 1.088 16
12. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:28.448 + 1.123 14
13. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:28.481 + 1.156 20
14. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:28.520 + 1.195 21
15. Button Honda (B) 1:28.548 + 1.223 16
16. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:28.715 + 1.390 18
17. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:28.755 + 1.430 16
18. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:28.937 + 1.612 20
19. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:29.408 + 2.083 19
20. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:29.436 + 2.111 14
21. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:30.044 + 2.719 22
22. Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:30.712 + 3.387 21

All timing unofficial

A.Wayne

Massa beats Hamilton to pole in Turkey

By Matt Beer Saturday, August 25th 2007, 12:01 GMT

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix, as the Brazilian repeated his 2006 Istanbul result.

Massa's Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren's Fernando Alonso will share the second row.

Going into the final runs of Q3, Massa, Raikkonen and Alonso were covered by just 0.054 seconds, with Hamilton four tenths adrift after a lacklustre first flying lap.

But Hamilton found six tenths of a second on his last attempt, lapping in 1:27.373 and going straight to provisional pole.

He stayed there for mere moments however, as Massa beat him by 0.044 seconds with his own last lap.

An error in the final complex meant Raikkonen failed to improve and remained third.

Alonso took the unusual decision to return to the harder compound tyres for his last qualifying run, but could not match his soft tyre time and dropped to fourth.

The BMWs occupied their usual 'best of the rest' position for most of qualifying and will start from row three. Robert Kubica beat Nick Heidfeld by three tenths in Q3 after they had set absolutely identical times in Q2.

Heikki Kovalainen took seventh for Renault, with Nico Rosberg continuing his strong practice form to take eighth for Williams.

Compatriots Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella will share row five.

Anthony Davidson came close to giving Super Aguri their second ever top ten start as he leapt to eighth in the closing moments of Q2. But improvements by Fisichella, Rosberg and Trulli saw the Briton edged back down to 11th - 0.022 seconds from reaching Q3, and still equal to his career-best start.

His teammate Takuma Sato could only manage 19th.

Red Bull had an underwhelming qualifying session, with Mark Webber needing a couple of attempts to break out of Q1, and then only managing 12th on the grid, one place ahead of teammate David Coulthard.

The Hondas took 14th and 15th, Rubens Barrichello ahead, while Williams' Alex Wurz's qualifying struggles resumed as he found himself 16th following an error at Turn 10 on his first run and a poor second flying lap.

Ralf Schumacher also reverted to the disappointing qualifying form that had marred the first half of his season, with errors and set-up issues leaving him 18th on the grid, behind Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi. The Italian outpaced new teammate Sebastian Vettel by 0.6 seconds, as the German rookie took 20th.

As usual, the Spykers were slowest of all. Adrian Sutil beat Sakon Yamamoto by 1.1 seconds after the Japanese driver had a spin at the chicane.

Turkey qualifying breakdown Session 1 Session 2 Session 3
Pos Driver Team Pos Time Lap Pos Time Lap Pos Time Lap

1. Massa Ferrari 3. 1:27.488 4 4. 1:27.039 3 1. 1:27.329 11
2. Hamilton McLaren 4. 1:27.513 3 3. 1:26.936 3 2. 1:27.373 11
3. Raikkonen Ferrari 1. 1:27.294 4 2. 1:26.902 3 3. 1:27.546 11
4. Alonso McLaren 2. 1:27.328 3 1. 1:26.841 3 4. 1:27.574 11
5. Kubica BMW Sauber 5. 1:27.997 3 5. 1:27.253 3 5. 1:27.722 11
6. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 6. 1:28.099 3 6. 1:27.253 3 6. 1:28.037 11
7. Kovalainen Renault 7. 1:28.127 7 8. 1:27.784 6 7. 1:28.491 11
8. Rosberg Williams 8. 1:28.275 3 7. 1:27.750 6 8. 1:28.501 11
9. Trulli Toyota 11. 1:28.318 7 9. 1:27.801 6 9. 1:28.740 11
10. Fisichella Renault 10. 1:28.313 7 10. 1:27.880 6 10. 1:29.322 11
11. Davidson Super Aguri 9. 1:28.304 6 11. 1:28.002 6
12. Webber Red Bull 15. 1:28.500 6 12. 1:28.013 6
13. Coulthard Red Bull 14. 1:28.395 6 13. 1:28.100 6
14. Barrichello Honda 16. 1:28.792 6 14. 1:28.188 6
15. Button Honda 13. 1:28.373 6 15. 1:28.220 6
16. Wurz Williams 12. 1:28.360 6 16. 1:28.390 8
17. Liuzzi Toro Rosso 17. 1:28.798 9
18. R.Schumacher Toyota 18. 1:28.809 7
19. Sato Super Aguri 19. 1:28.953 8
20. Vettel Toro Rosso 20. 1:29.408 6
21. Sutil Spyker 21. 1:29.861 9
22. Yamamoto Spyker 22. 1:31.479 7

A.Wayne

FINN - PACE

A.Wayne

LUIZZI OUTPACE VETTEL " AGAIN " SPEED SMILES , BERGER -HIDES

PTurbo965

Need a Ferrari 1-2 finish to keep things interesting. A McLaren double blow up with no points would help a lot too.