Massa leads a Ferrari 1-2 in France

A strong Ferrari 1-2 saw the end of the French connection this season. Half way into the 2008 season, Ferrari seems to be unbeatable leading the constructors’ championship. Last year round it was here that Kimi started his fight back to go on & win the 07 Drivers’ Championship.

The Mangy Cours circuit at Nevers, France which has been a Ferrari stronghold since long saw a strong performance from both their drivers. Both the drivers put a very strong performance to take home another all Ferrari first row in qualifying & victory.

Kimi outpaced his teammate to take pole. First stint saw Kimi go in & come out of pitas as the race leader. But it was not to be so for long. After he had built up a lead of around 10 seconds on his teammate, there was a mechanical failure on his car half way thru the race. The exhaust pipe broke loose &started flapping thus reducing the balance of the car. Massa gained close to a second every lap to take race control from then on. At the end of the race, Kimi’s car had a hole burned near the engine on the chassis. It was a totally dejected Kimi on the podium.

Lewis put in a strong performance recording a 3^rd fastest time which effectively meant he started 13^th on the starting grid courtesy the 10 place penalty handed to him in Canada. If you think this was all then hold your horses he had to face another penalty during the race which effectively meant he had no chance of a points finish. He was handed a drive thru penalty for straight lining the chicane and going one position up in the 4^th lap. Lewis battled all day, first behind the Renaults & battling thru the field to finish 10^th on the grid.

The French GP this year saw a huge number of penalties being handed to drivers. First it was Lewis & Nico being given the 10 place penalty for their incident in Canada. Hekki faced a 5 place penalty for impeding Mark Webber during Q3 of qualifying. Rubens had to change his gearbox the morning of the race which meant he also was handed a 5 place penalty.

The French race this season this year saw just one retirement & in those terms it was one of the most boring races of the season. Except for some spirited driving by Hekki to take home as many points as possible & an equally determined race by Trulli to defend his third position till the end rest was nothing much to write home about.

There was a small incident when the Honda car of Button clipped the back of Bourdais. This caused damage in the nose & even after replacement of nose, Button seemed to struggle a lot. This forced his retirement. His teammate who got penalized for a gearbox change managed to end the race in 14^th just ahead of Heidfeld. After a 1-2 finish in Canada the BMWs were not as strong as they were expected to be in Nevers circuit. Heidfeld struggled all weekend long in his BMW ending his race in 13^th. His teammate who now has a clear chance of taking the Drivers’ Championship also struggled despite finishing in 5^th just behind Trulli & Hekki.

Hekki can again feel he was undone a bit by circumstances. It was all about being in the wrong place at the wrong time for the Finn. Just when he was on his cool down lap he found himself in the last place he wanted to be. He was caught behind Williams car of Kazuki Nakajima & behind him was Mark Webber setting a qualifying lap. This resulted in spoiling Mark’s timing in the dying moments of the qualifying session. Despite the fact that he managed to anchor his car in order to let Webber go the damage was done. This happens to be the second time Hekki was involved in this sort of incident this year. Ron Dennis quoted this as a positional confusion.

The Toyotas seem to have turned a new leaf with Trulli & Timo doing well in qualifying to manage a 4^th & 8^th respectively. While Trulli stole the 3^rd position from a determined Alonso to defend it aggressively till the end, his teammate had to race Lewis for quite a while & then Vettel for track positions. Timo seems to have settled more so well in the Toyota team now.

Mark Webber in the Red Bull Renault team car out raced & out qualified his teammate DC to bring home a very well deserved 6^th. DC managed to stay ahead of his fellow Brit Lewis in McLaren. A very good show from the RBR Renault team, in front the home crowd of their engine suppliers Renault. So good a performance that they out paced the home team! The home team did not disappoint the crowd either, both the Renault cars finishing in points for the first time.

Alonso was for the first time outpaced by his teammate Nelson who was ever so determined to do well. He drove a very hard fought race fending off Lewis for some time & then racing his senior & Renault’s No. 1 driver Alonso. At the Adelaide hair pin, with a lap or so to go, Alonso went too far taking the outside line this gave Nelson a sniff of a chance & that was all he needed. Nelson grabbed the opportunity with both hands & finished ahead scoring his first points of the season.

The Williams team had a forgettable weekend. Despite both drivers finishing the race, no points were scored. Only consolation would be that of Nakajima out pacing & out qualifying his team mate Nico. Nico needs to pull up his socks & do well the next race.

The Force India cars were having a bad weekend. The handlings of the car being a reason of complain with both the drivers. Fisi had a terrible accident in this circuit back in 2002 & he still admits that memories of the race still scare him.

The STR Ferraris of Vettel & Bourdais started 12^th & 14^th on the grid. Vettel managed to keep his position on track while Bourdais slipped a further 3 places.

At the end of the French GP the Drivers’ Championship has a new driver on top in form of Massa. Massa becomes the second driver after legendary Senna to lead the Drivers’ Championship. 4 races 4 different drivers on top what more could spice up the race?

Massa leads Kubica by 2 points with Kimi trailing a further 3 points. Ferrari seems to have the Constructors’ Championship in the bag with a 17 point lead over BMW.

The next race is in Silverstone Circuit in Great Britain in 15 days time. But, before the race the teams get to do a testing in Silverstone this week.

So stage is all set for a Royal Battle.

Till then & now… Drive safely.

Maiden victory at Montreal

Another incident packed race unfolded at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal. BMW picked up their Maiden victory, Maiden double podium finish & for the first time a BMW driver leading the Drivers’ Championship. The best weekend of the career for the Munich based team since inception. At the start of the race not many would have fancied for a BMW on the first step of the podium but as things unfolded it was to be so.

On Saturday the track held up pretty well for a deteriorating one. It was business as usual for the front runners. Kimi came up with a stunning lap at the dying minutes of the qualifiers to take P1 but was not to be. Pole stole Pole from the Finn. The Poles’ party hopes were dashed by Lewis Hamilton who took his maiden victory here 12 months back.

The starting grid had all the major constructor teams in the lineup from positions 1-5 McLaren, BMW, Ferrari, Renault, Williams. A clean start to the race saw Lewis pull away almost 8-9 second lead over Robert & Kimi. Nico had a good start as he managed to get past Alonso in the first few corners.

It was as if the race had decided to be one dimensional. Adrian Sutil in the Force India car, the hero of the Monaco race had other plans. His brakes got very hot & were on fire. He was forced to stall the car to the side. This caused the first safety car periods.

Most of the front runners went in as soon as the pit lane entry opened. Lewis came speeding & crashed into Kimi who was waiting for the pit lane exit to open. Nico also clipped the rear of Lewis at the same time. It was really busy one way pit lane traffic with close to top 7 cars pitting.

After this incident, Robert Kubica was in the lead with Nick behind. Alonso joined behind Nick. Massa was a victim of circumstances as he was called into pits again to be properly fueled. When Massa rejoined he was at the back of the field in 18^th place & forced to fight thru the traffic to go up again. Massa ended his race on 5^th.

Hekki had a clean race throughout but clearly he was struggling & did not finish in the points. He had to battle it hard with Vettel in the leading STR car. Vettel managed to score the last points up for grabs.

Toyota meanwhile had a great outing at Montreal with a double points finish. The best result for the team this season. Timo Glock finished 4^th & Trulli 6^th. Both the drivers were on a single pit stop strategy. As the record books would have it the Toyota drivers lead the race for a brief period of 5-6 laps. Glock seemed to be very high on fuel as he pitted in 42^nd lap of the race.

Honda too were on a single pit stop strategy for Rubens. Rubens drove well & finished in the points, but could have finished higher than he did. Jenson did well to finish in 11^th after stating from the pit lane. Honda is showing improvements as the season progresses. Ross Brawn is surely having a big impact.

The story of the day belonged to a veteran of 230+ GP starts. Yes, it was the grand old man DC. DC managed to put a great show by finishing on 3^rd step of the podium. His teammate Webber, who out qualified him did not have much of a finish as he ended up finishing 12^th.

Williams team did not manage to score any points with Nico finishing 10^th close behind Hekki while Kazuki had to retire. The STR team would be happy to see both the drivers finish the race. While Vettel managed to score the last available points his teammate Bourdais finished 13^th.

Renault had a double retirement. Alonso who was on a hot pursuit of Nick Heidfeld had a gearbox failure & spun his car close to the escape route on the track. His teammate the much under pressure Nelson managed to race ferociously against the Toyotas till he too was forced to retire with technical problems.

The end of the Canadian GP leaves us in a peculiar situation with BMW leading the Drivers’ Championship & Ferrari managing to hold on to Constructors’ Championship just 3 points clear of BMW. Kubica leads Drivers’ Championship with Lewis & Massa tied in 2^nd with Kimi in 4^th.

With the season headed for a Battle Royal, we head to French GP in 15 days time. Hope the French Connection brings the teams good luck.

Till ten & now, Drive safely.