[SPOILER] 2008 Japanese GP
 

Round 16: Fuji TV Japanese GP
Fuji, Japan

Surprise of the day: it was actually dry during both sessions!
As for the actual race, it could also be dry. That would be a first I think as all the races in Fuji have been wet so far.

Green tires:
http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x4.../d08jpn600.jpg
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...8/10/8487.html
I support their cause but it seriously doesn't look very good

Practice 1:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.910 + 23
2. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:19.063 + 0.153 24
3. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:19.279 + 0.369 20
4. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:19.399 + 0.489 31
5. Alonso Renault (B) 1:19.473 + 0.563 30
6. Piquet Renault (B) 1:19.743 + 0.833 35
7. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:20.121 + 1.211 30
8. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:20.160 + 1.250 26
9. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:20.182 + 1.272 34
10. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.217 + 1.307 25
11. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:20.288 + 1.378 26
12. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.350 + 1.440 28
13. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.620 + 1.710 24
14. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:20.628 + 1.718 23
15. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:20.657 + 1.747 33
16. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:20.753 + 1.843 32
17. Button Honda (B) 1:20.769 + 1.859 27
18. Glock Toyota (B) 1:20.823 + 1.913 37
19. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.905 + 1.995 24
20. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:21.014 + 2.104 28

Practice 2:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Glock Toyota (B) 1:18.383 44
2. Alonso Renault (B) 1:18.426 + 0.043 41
3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.463 + 0.080 40
4. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:18.491 + 0.108 40
5. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:18.725 + 0.342 39
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:18.734 + 0.351 39
7. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:18.734 + 0.351 36
8. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:18.761 + 0.378 23
9. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.803 + 0.420 32
10. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:18.863 + 0.480 45
11. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:18.865 + 0.482 39
12. Piquet Renault (B) 1:18.888 + 0.505 43
13. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:18.981 + 0.598 41
14. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:19.040 + 0.657 41
15. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:19.258 + 0.875 42
16. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:19.287 + 0.904 41
17. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:19.327 + 0.944 36
18. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:19.482 + 1.099 44
19. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:19.894 + 1.511 37
20. Button Honda (B) 1:19.999 + 1.616 42

I think the green tires look kind of cool, practice looks great with Hamilton and Massa no more than a tenth and a half apart in both sessions. After the upsets of Monza and Singapore it would nice to see the championship battle occur on track again although it looks like Toyota and Renault may have something to say about that. Of course Ferrari and McLaren always do their best to conceal their true pace in the practice sessions so there's little way of knowing how competitive the Toyotas and Renaults truely are untill we get to Q1.

Hoping for a clean dry race with no safety car or weather drama, just pure racing, although I may regret saying this on Sunday if the race turns out like Valencia did.

raining for 2nd practice looks like it will be wet for quailfy.could be a great weather man (but a terrible meterologist).

Kubica fastest in final Friday practice.

Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 4 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:25.087 19
2 12 Timo Glock Toyota 1:25.171 0.084 25
3 6 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:25.415 0.328 19
4 3 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:25.474 0.387 24
5 8 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:25.563 0.476 23
6 9 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:25.614 0.527 20
7 2 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:25.709 0.622 15
8 10 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:25.785 0.698 20
9 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:25.799 0.712 19
10 15 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari 1:25.880 0.793 24
11 22 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.901 0.814 8
12 14 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 1:25.984 0.897 22
13 11 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:26.013 0.926 21
14 7 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:26.213 1.126 19
15 23 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.239 1.152 10
16 1 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:26.277 1.190 18
17 17 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:26.662 1.575 22
18 16 Jenson Button Honda 1:26.922 1.835 26
19 20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:27.357 2.270 12
20 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:27.918 2.831 17

Seems like Massa's chance of winning the WDC is following the rain water going down the drain.

Qualifying:
Raikkonen was fastest after the first run. He then improved in his second run until Hamilton finally pipped the Finn for another pole. Massa is just in P5. Kovalainen in P3 will certainly help McLaren in the constructors' standings. Is this track good for overtaking in dry conditions? The second sector is really very tight.

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.071 1:17.462 1:18.404
2. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:18.160 1:17.733 1:18.644
3. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:18.220 1:17.360 1:18.821
4. Alonso Renault (B) 1:18.290 1:17.871 1:18.852
5. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:18.110 1:17.287 1:18.874
6. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:18.684 1:17.931 1:18.979
7. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:18.501 1:17.541 1:19.026
8. Glock Toyota (B) 1:17.945 1:17.670 1:19.118
9. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:18.559 1:17.714 1:19.638
10. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:18.593 1:18.102 1:20.167
11. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:18.303 1:18.187
12. Piquet Renault (B) 1:18.300 1:18.274
13. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:18.372 1:18.354
14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:18.640 1:18.594
15. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:18.740 1:18.672
16. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:18.835
17. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:18.882
18. Button Honda (B) 1:19.100
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:19.163
20. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:19.910

The Green option tires seem like crap... where did they come from?

Can someone give me the new link from where I can find all the F1 races that Motorworld uesd to have?

I remember that there were a link on this webpage before but now it's gone... and I didn't save it in my bookmarks!

P l e a s e . . . . . :crying:

They're the same tires as Bridgestone have been supplying all year, just with a bit of extra paint.

Qualifying was fairly interesting, looked like Webber/Red Bull made a blunder with Webber only getting one run in Q2 and missing his chance at a second run by not crossing the line before the checkered flag. Raikkonen was definitely a surprise in Q3 but Hamilton managed to one-up him. Felipe didn't look very good with race fuel but I think he will probably make a few places off the line and possibly be in contention for the lead early on like Raikkonen was in Spa.

Shaping up to be an interesting race, the Raikkonen/Hamilton battle should be very interesting as Kimi has very little to lose at this stage so he will be going all out to take some points and vent a little of his frustration on Hamilton.

Possibly race of the year.
Kubica vs. Kimi was simply awesome to watch. Congratulations to Alonso and back-to-back wins, and Dunce award goes to Hamilton for driving like a rookie.
Honorable mention to Piquet for a great 4th place. :)

Massa was driving like an ass. Shame on the FIA for penalizing them both on that incident, Massa should have been black flagged.

Ferrari International Assistance comes to help again.

u're wrong..
for THAT incident only MAS got the penalty.
i think HAM was penalized for his driving in the very first corner.

well, they both are good drivers, they both drive very good cars but, DAMN IT, they made too many stupid mistakes - they both dont deserve to win the championships.
i keep my fingers crossed for KUB (there's a good polish saying: `gdzie dwoch sie bije, tam trzeci korzysta` which could be translated to something like `two are fighting, third gets the prize` - again? ;))


:: edit ::
that's a nice picture..
http://m.onet.pl/_m/048fa2ad0119d4de...2b5706,9,1.jpg

News! Massa is classified as 7th place after stewards penalized Bourdais with 25-seconds. The Frenchman finished 7th but has now dropped to 10th which means Massa earns 2 points (now 5 points adrift Hamilton) and Webber gains 1 point.

Exactly the kind of race I wanted! Two of the leading championship contenders going down the field! Would have been great if Raikkonen made it to second so that we would have a four-car shoot-out in the last two races. Unfortunately, Kimi has officially relinquished his championship title as he is 21 points behind Hamilton with only 20 points left. I'm guessing he decided to back-off to avoid any risks and to finally score some points. He's a team player.

Congrats to Alonso for being brilliant again!

Apparently, Hamilton hasn't learned his lesson. I thought after Singapore in the last few laps, he learned to be cautious and play it safe for the title. He blew it right away trying to regain the lead from Raikkonen who isn't even his main challenge. As for Massa, I'm glad that at least he fought hard to get back at the points. In Singapore, he just gave up after the pit-stop incident and the penalty.

Kubica also drove great today. The BMW didn't seem to have the pace all weekend but he made it work somehow. I want the title to go to him or Massa. Anyone notice that lately, he has been openly criticizing the team for not doing enough development with the car. There were wild rumors of tension between him and the team... Regardless, I actually like that attitude. He seems to be pushing the team really hard

Most exciting first corner incident we've had in a while! The drivers have done well for the most part of the season to avoid any accidents but that was seriously boring.

Hoping for more excitement next week!

crazy bourdais gets penalized were was he supposed to go massa had room he was trying to pinch him down anyway makes for a good last two races just sucks for bourdais i like him he has not had the best of luck this year. ferrari took a big lead in the constructors dont know what massa was going banzai at hamilton for but made for interesting championship

I can't understand Bourdais being penalized, he was covering his line??