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Old 04-04-2008, 10:23 AM
  #31  
Flying Finn
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Originally Posted by mdrums
Yeah, I was at a Porsche dealer event last night and Sasha Massen talked about that. The LMP2 Penske Spyder will not go into the pit speed limiter unless you are in 1st gear. You would think a high tech F1 team would have had that figured out years ago huh?
You would, especially since other teams have it that way... Well, Mc also has it like that now.

Hamilton had a nice wreck today.
Old 04-04-2008, 11:00 AM
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I'm going with Kovalainen this weekend. After two podiums, its time to step up.

Kimi 2nd
Hamilton 3rd
Massa - the dirt devil
BMW 4th and 6th
Nico to split the BMW's - 5th
Trulli - 7th
Alonso - 8th
Mark Webber 9th
Sea Bass also in the dirt.
Glock 10th
Coulthard - 11th
Piquet - 12th

There's my top 12. Guess we'll see.
Old 04-04-2008, 11:06 AM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by Lothar
I'm going with Kovalainen this weekend. After two podiums, its time to step up...
I would definately like to see that for two reason, he's a Finn and because that would put more pressure on Hamilton.
Unfortunately I don't think it will happen though.
Old 04-04-2008, 11:38 AM
  #34  
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Default Massa fastest as Hamilton crashes

By Matt Beer Friday, April 4th 2008, 12:31 GMT

Felipe MassaFerrari continued to dominate Bahrain Grand Prix practice in the second session, with Felipe Massa again leading teammate Kimi Raikkonen in a one-two.

The Brazilian ended the afternoon almost one second quicker than Raikkonen, having lapped in 1:31.420 in the final seconds.

McLaren finished third and fourth, but Lewis Hamilton ended the afternoon in the barriers.

The Briton lost control of his car on the exit of Turn 7 and spun across the track, hitting the opposite barriers side-on and causing heavy damage to the right-hand side of the car. Hamilton was unharmed in the incident.

Raikkonen and Hamilton swapped the top spot between them in the early stages, before Massa took control with a 1:32.722 lap, 0.127 seconds quicker than Hamilton's previous best.

Bar a few minutes when Raikkonen edged ahead with his final run, Massa remained on top for the rest of the afternoon. He improved his time to 1:32.393 on soft tyres, which Raikkonen beat by 0.066 seconds with three minutes remaining.

But Massa responded in emphatic style, going fastest by 0.907 seconds with his last lap of the day.

Heikki Kovalainen had languished near the foot of the top ten in the first half of the session, then improved to third later on. He was 0.095 seconds quicker then teammate Hamilton even before the latter's accident.

BMW's Robert Kubica finished the session in fifth place, 1.4 seconds off the pace but only 0.5 seconds behind Raikkonen.

Williams continued their strong morning form with Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima taking sixth and eighth respectively, split by Red Bull driver David Coulthard.

Sebastien Bourdais was as high as second for Toro Rosso early in the session. He was eventually pushed back to ninth, ahead of Renault's Nelson Piquet, who was two places ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:31.420 30
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:32.327 + 0.907 30
3. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.752 + 1.332 30
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:32.847 + 1.427 26
5. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:32.915 + 1.495 29
6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.022 + 1.602 34
7. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:33.048 + 1.628 27
8. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.098 + 1.678 33
9. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.197 + 1.777 37
10. Piquet Renault (B) 1:33.247 + 1.827 37
11. Button Honda (B) 1:33.710 + 2.290 33
12. Alonso Renault (B) 1:33.755 + 2.335 26
13. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:33.782 + 2.362 34
14. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:33.822 + 2.402 38
15. Glock Toyota (B) 1:33.856 + 2.436 30
16. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:33.966 + 2.546 35
17. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:34.023 + 2.603 36
18. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:34.388 + 2.968 35
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:34.405 + 2.985 34
20. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:34.787 + 3.367 30
21. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:35.288 + 3.868 24
22. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:35.712 + 4.292 25
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Old 04-05-2008, 07:45 AM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by flight747
I thought I'd start this thread early as it's a week out and the Malaysian [B]GP talk is dying down.

Don't want to sound like a homer, but I'm predicting the Ferrari 1-2 (Massa over Kimi) that didn't come in Malaysia, is coming to Bahrain! McLaren fights back coming in 3-4 (Hamilton over Heikki), BMW solid as usual, Williams bounces back from horrible time at the last race and Trulli's Toyota finishes in the points. Reasons:

1. Tilke track. Ferrari does well at this traditional type of circuit.

2. Exclusive winter testing. The only 2 teams to test at Bahrain in the off season were Ferrari and Toyota. The knowledge they picked up will pay off for this race as compared to their competitors.

3. History.
a. Ferrari has always gone well at this track since it's inception a few years back.
b. Massa has shown a history of coming back strong after disasterous races when his back has been against the wall. The unfortunate thing is that he is inconsistant.

4. Tires: Bahrain surface is usually lacking in grip levels due to sand blowing across the surface. Bridgestone has announced that they will be bringing an even softer compound than they did last year (also plays into reason #2 as their data points for cars without T/C and engine braking were gathered from winter testing from Ferrari and Toyota). The McLarens have shown to be a little harder on their tires than last year which could be a problem on longer stints.

Flame away...
Hey , get your butt in here you haven't added diddley after starting this


Rosberg fastest in final practice - Bahrain

autosport.com

By Matt Beer Saturday, April 5th 2008, 09:06 GMT

Williams driver Nico Rosberg continued his team's promising Bahrain Grand Prix weekend by going fastest in the final free practice session at Sakhir.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa was second, having been fastest until teams switched to soft tyre runs and qualifying simulations in the closing minutes.

As has been their habit in final practice so far in 2008, Ferrari and McLaren appeared to focus on heavier fuel loads in preparation for Q3.

Massa was the only member of the usual top four near the front, as teammate Kimi Raikkonen ended the session in ninth, with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton in 10th and 18th respectively.

Ferrari sat out the first 37 minutes of the session - preferring to let their rivals clean away the dirt built up by the support races.

When Massa did emerge, he immediately showed his potential by leaping straight to the top of the timing screens with a 1:33.219 lap, beating early pace-setter Rosberg by 0.202 seconds.

Teammate Raikkonen made errors on both his first two flying laps, including a trip across the Turn 13 run-off area on his second lap. When he finally produced a clean lap at the third attempt, he was half a second slower than Massa.

After Hamilton damaged his McLaren's tub in his heavy practice accident on Friday afternoon, the team built up their spare chassis to use for the rest of the weekend.

Apart from a period when Hamilton held second place behind Rosberg, McLaren did not feature amongst the front-runners in the session.

Massa remained on top until the final minutes, when the wholesale switch to soft tyres saw a flurry of changes in the top ten. BMW's Robert Kubica was briefly fastest, but was pushed right back to seventh as others improved in the last minute.

Rosberg was first to usurp Kubica, lapping in 1:32.521. This was 0.205 seconds faster than Massa's final effort, with Mark Webber producing a similar late improvement to take third for Red Bull.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli, Webber's teammate David Coulthard and Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima completed the top six ahead of Kubica and Renault's Nelson Piquet.

The level of activity in the closing stages was such that the Hondas fell to 14th and 16th, having been third and fourth with three minutes remaining.

Times were also extremely close, with just 1.03 seconds covering the top 14 cars.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:32.521 17
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:32.726 + 0.205 10
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:32.742 + 0.221 16
4. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:32.901 + 0.380 18
5. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:32.918 + 0.397 14
6. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:33.020 + 0.499 16
7. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:33.024 + 0.503 18
8. Piquet Renault (B) 1:33.074 + 0.553 16
9. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:33.237 + 0.716 10
10. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.367 + 0.846 15

11. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.372 + 0.851 17
12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:33.392 + 0.871 20
13. Alonso Renault (B) 1:33.445 + 0.924 13
14. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:33.551 + 1.030 18
15. Glock Toyota (B) 1:33.595 + 1.074 20
16. Button Honda (B) 1:33.600 + 1.079 17
17. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:33.651 + 1.130 14
18. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:33.659 + 1.138 14
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:33.857 + 1.336 18
20. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:34.074 + 1.553 16
21. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:34.591 + 2.070 18
22. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:34.952 + 2.431 16
Old 04-05-2008, 09:42 AM
  #36  
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Congrats to Kubica & BMW Sauber!!!

Maybe little light but still great job. Kimi seemed to struggle agan in quali but should be good tomorrow. Will be an interesting race!
Old 04-05-2008, 10:18 AM
  #37  
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Default A pole on pole

Maiden F1 pole for Kubica, BMW in Bahrain

By Matt Beer Saturday, April 5th 2008, 12:13 GMT
autosport.com

Robert KubicaRobert Kubica took his and BMW Sauber's first Formula One pole position with a stunning lap in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Pole beat favourite Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who had dominated Friday practice, by 0.027 seconds.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen will share the second row.

Massa held provisional pole after the first flying laps of Q3, but only by 0.011 seconds over Kubica.

Hamilton then briefly beat both when he lapped in 1:33.292 on his second run, but the McLaren driver did not stay on top for long, as Kubica responded with a 1:33.096.

Although Massa's second lap was sufficient to reclaim the front row position from Hamilton, his time of 1:33.123 was not enough to beat the BMW driver to pole.

World champion Raikkonen could only manage fourth, three tenths of a second slower than teammate Massa. Heikki Kovalainen completed the top five in the second McLaren.

Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld was 0.7 seconds slower than the pole-sitter in sixth place for BMW.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Nico Rosberg (Williams) will share the fourth row, Trulli having been second fastest in the first qualifying segment.

Jenson Button got Honda into the top ten for the first time this season, edging up to 10th in the final moments of Q2 and then securing ninth place, just ahead of Renault's Fernando Alonso. Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello will start 12th.

Red Bull Racing had a disappointing session. While Mark Webber missed out on a top ten spot by 0.009 seconds and will start 11th, while teammate David Coulthard blamed a straightforward lack of speed for his Q1 elimination after ending up 17th on the grid. He was 0.018 seconds away from making it through to Q2.

Timo Glock (Toyota), Nelson Piquet (Renault) and Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) could not match their respective teammates Trulli, Alonso and Rosberg, and were knocked out in Q2.

While Glock briefly made it up to ninth before other drivers' improvements pushed him back to 13th, Piquet and Nakajima's best efforts were only good enough for 14th and 16th.

Sebastien Bourdais out-qualified Toro Rosso teammate Sebastian Vettel for the first time and also made his first Q2 appearance. The Frenchman will start 15th, with Vettel only managing 19th.

Force India again failed to make it beyond Q1. Giancarlo Fisichella moved up to 18th with a last-gasp effort after abandoning his last flying lap following an error, while teammate Adrian Sutil was 20th.

The Super Aguris will fill the back row, with Anthony Davidson ahead of Takuma Sato for the first time this season.

The Japanese driver caused a brief red flag after spinning on the exit of the final corner, damaging his car's rear wing and suspension on the pit entry barrier.

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:32.893 1:31.745 1:33.096 12
2. Massa Ferrari 1:31.937 1:31.188 1:33.123 12
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:32.750 1:31.922 1:33.292 13
4. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:32.652 1:31.933 1:33.418 12
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:33.057 1:31.718 1:33.488 12
6. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:33.137 1:31.909 1:33.737 15
7. Trulli Toyota 1:32.493 1:32.159 1:33.994 19
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:32.903 1:32.185 1:34.015 22
9. Button Honda 1:32.793 1:32.362 1:35.057 17
10. Alonso Renault 1:32.947 1:32.345 1:35.115 17
11. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:33.194 1:32.371 12
12. Barrichello Honda 1:32.944 1:32.508 12
13. Glock Toyota 1:32.800 1:32.528 15
14. Piquet Renault 1:32.975 1:32.790 15
15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:33.415 1:32.915 15
16. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:33.386 1:32.943 15
17. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:33.433 7
18. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:33.501 5
19. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:33.562 9
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:33.845 6
21. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:34.140 9
22. Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:35.725 5
Old 04-05-2008, 11:16 AM
  #38  
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Massa and Raikonnen will be starting from the dirty side of the track. Bahrain may bring new meaning to the term "dirty" given the sand that blows 24/7. I'm betting on Massa to take someone out by the first turn, maybe like....Hamilton. Of course, there are no team orders in F1.
Old 04-05-2008, 11:56 AM
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Love that hot Pole on Pole action!

When Peter Windsor asked Kubica what his first career pole meant to him, I could only imagine the reply being... "Well, you know, we have a saying in Krakow... You always remember your first Pole..."
Old 04-05-2008, 12:51 PM
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Yes..and hopefully his first pole won't be his last Pole.
Old 04-05-2008, 03:32 PM
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Go! Alonso...
I'm lobbying FA to BMW-Sauber next year!!!
Old 04-05-2008, 03:41 PM
  #42  
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Congrats to BMW. The more serious competition the better. Now if Toyota could start performing up there it would be great. It seems that Honda will remain lost again this season. I hear that there is some French manufacturer running, but they are of no consequence due to having poor drivers.

Is it just me or was Hamilton's crash in practice pretty much the exact same thing that Massa did in the race in Malaysia? These guys are missing TC more than I thought they would. I hope Massa can manage to stay on track tomorrow.
Old 04-05-2008, 08:24 PM
  #43  
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.... the rest is beyond the words but this is not his last word . As I siad: Senna was a great person/racer and Kubica is the same.
Old 04-05-2008, 10:01 PM
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I hope Kubica has more than fumes in his fuel cell. I'd realy like to see him do well.
Old 04-05-2008, 10:05 PM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by A.Wayne
Hey , get your butt in here you haven't added diddley after starting this
I try to stay away from this forum until I've seen practice, qualifying or the race on tape. 4:00 a.m. start for us on the left coast is rough.

After reading my initial post, I think I'll stick to what I have. I've very happy for Kubica and BMW as a whole, but I believe him to be light and shuffle back after the 1st set of pit stops are complete. The other thing that was discovered on the BMW during winter testing is that this year's chassis is hard on rear tires and given all the sand on the track and no T/C, the BMW might suffer during long runs. Kubica might settle into 4-6 position when it's all said and done.

As I predicted, Massa is back with a vengence, easily out pacing everyone by a wide margin the entire weekend. I still think he's going to win, but he will be 3rd after T1 on lap 1. The Ferrari's on the dirty side of the track is going to be ugly and I think they'll lose a spot or 2 off the line.

It should be a great race.


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