[SPOILER] 2008 Bahrain GP

[blue8]

Round 3: Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix
Sakhir, Bahrain

Hopefully the race weekend is more exciting than the ongoing off-track drama concerning Mosley.

Free Practice 1:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/4048/08f1rd3free1yq9.jpg

[blue8]

Free Practice 2
Massa remains on top of the timesheets and leads a Ferrari 1-2. Meanwhile, championship leader, Hamilton, crashes.
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.


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

[Mattk]

Massa showing good speed again. Perhaps this race he can finish without stuffing up.

[toffytofik]

Kubica's on pole!!!! :thumbup:

[zondamaniac]

BMW is really catching up, this will be an interesting season with 3 teams fighting for wins!

[nthfinity]

Ol' Feliipe Massa took a road in the Fail Boat this morning..... lets see how the race goes, and see if he can actually manage to go a race distance w/out spinning :P

Kimi needs some work to do to have a good result.

Well done Kubica :D

[styla21]

BMW on Pole!!:clap:
*Runs around house with shirt pulled over head :w00t:

[blackbird51]

Robert Kubica (my fellow countryman) was very fast. I hope he will keep his pace in the race ;) In my opinion his main rival won't be always spinning Massa but Iceman - Raikkonen.

[yellky]

GO ROBERT GO !! :thumbup:

oh btw - proper way to pronounce: KubiTZa (not KubiKa)
:mrgreen:

[5vz-fe]

BMW sure is impressive this season. It only took them 2 season to get sauber into speed, that's some insane progress.

[Mattk]

Yeah, they've got some good speed on those cars, and a couple of solid, consistent drivers.

[yellky]

poor poor start by KUB :/
but HAM was even worse..

and HEI is flying!

:: edit ::
MAS is still on track ;)

[Jona]

WTF is wrong with Hamilton? Why is he giving hand signals to everybody he passes?

They are on the same goddamn lap, there is no reason to do that. It is not their fault that he is not anywhere near the top positions today. Does he think that everybody should just let him go past? It is a competition! Extremely bad behaviour.

Is he just so frustrated because he is slow and makes a lot of mistakes? If yes, it is his fault. He shouldn't be pissed to the other drivers just because they are faster.

[blue8]

I don't get Hamilton's hand signals either... didn't seem appropriate.
Great day for BMW, despite Kubica's poor start. They're leading the constructors' championship now! Between today and Barcelona, I bet we'll be hearing a lot of Hamilton vs Alonso all over again!!Excellent performance by Massa and Raikkonen! Hopefully, throughout the next 15 rounds, it will be a three-horse race for the constructors' championship with 6 drivers in contention (too good to be true though)

I am slightly disappointed by the TV coverage as there were a number of incidences that weren't shown.

[zondamaniac]

yeah...ron dennis should tell hamilton that he's not lapping others...

[Carbodiox]

Which 1s? Cos same porogram is produced for every tv station and comments only are changing so im sure i've seen exactly the same thing and didint notice incidences that weren't shown.

Question to blue8

[xecutioner]

ferrari vs bmw

was great but im sure they toom it easy for the last 10 laps anyways

great race from massa and about time, he was really quick all weekend n deserved to win it

kimi i think had a mixed weekend but still he had a good race and a great start

kubica just keeps on impressing every race and same with heidfeld with hes last min fastest laps

i hope mclaren get there stuff together bc they will be the number 3 team behind bmw

heiki mm i dont know wat happened to him for the race but he pulls out a really quick lap at the end which was a waste

now how bout lewis vs asslonso

mclaren should protest bc it did cost lewis points, i dont know wat asslonso was doing but yeh it wasnt great
but then again lewis should of had a better start and all that stuff with asslonso wouldnt of happened

super aguri are terrible in traffic, sato just makes me laugh holding ppl up and u can tell the drivers are scared to pass him after hes history lol

well 3 weeks till the next round

i hope mclaren come back

[blue8]

Which 1s? Cos same porogram is produced for every tv station and comments only are changing so im sure i've seen exactly the same thing and didint notice incidences that weren't shown.

Question to blue8

Yeah it's only the comments that differ. I probably shouldn't have used the word incidences... some stuff, like during the opening laps, I don't recall seeing how Kimi regained his place from Kovalainen after turn 1. According to race control, there was some oil leak from turn 4-6, which as Kubica said, made him slide a bit. I didn't see those things.

Race results:
http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/876/08f1rd3racexw2.jpg

[Mattk]

Cos same porogram is produced for every tv station and comments only are changing so im sure i've seen exactly the same thing and didint notice incidences that weren't shown.
You didn't notice them because they weren't shown. :P

Good stuff from Massa, finally showing what his potential is.

[5vz-fe]

^Unfortunately, the current point system favors consistency.

[Carbodiox]

^^^
But don't u think thats rather good?

[5vz-fe]

I'd rather see more drivers trying to fight for the top step then settling for 2nd.

[Mattk]

Yeah, I reckon the old system of 10, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 was much better at rewarding top placings. Not only were there fewer points in total on offer, there was a bigger bonus for winning.

[5vz-fe]

The reason for the change in point system is because MS and Ferrari is consistently winning.

The current point system gives very little wiggle room if the top drivers are consistently on the podiums. As a result, if 1 of the top drivers crashed out in 1 race, it will take 5 wins to catch up the 1 mistake if the other top competing driver(s) is consistently settle for 2nd (which is highly likely)

[Mattk]

Yeah, I remember reading an article comparing the operation of the current system to the old system in the first year of the change, and it concluded that Michael Schumacher was losing out in the drivers' championship and Ferrari was losing out big time in the constructors' championship. However, Ferrari in the early 2000s was in crush mode. Now, it looks like Ferrari, McLaren and BMW are all very even. The situation has changed, and it's time we go back.

[zacknolden]

Ah yeah! The building of the Sakhir track was started in 2002 with high domestic interest about the project as it gave a future to the next generation of Bahraini racers.