2008 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX

The only Desert Grand prix track was a cruise ground for Felipe Massa, perfectly maneuvering through rough complex corners and giving not even slightest chance for other drivers and finishing at track position. It was a Felipe Massa's show all over with one color, RED at podium along side with Kimi Räikkönen ending the race giving no scope for other teams as well as fans.

Bahrain has a very well composed track with complex curves and well designed terrain with 5.4 km of circuit length and a grueling race of 57 laps.

Robert kubica(BMW) after being at the pole position(1st ever) after Saturday qualifying with Massa along side at P2 failed to gain the momentum due to some hitch in engine, giving leadway to Massa . Lewis had worse problems with engine not coming to full power and was bogged down to 10th position from P4 at start. To make matters worse for Lewis, he shot into Alonso's renault during gear shift ruining the front guard. Lewis was soon in for an early pit shop by lap 2.

Kimi Raikkonen gave a wheel to wheel to Robert Kubica during lap 2and leapfrogged to 2nd position. The outcome of race was written by 2nd lap with no further surprises or any mistakes made by either the teams or the drivers.

The only other interesting part of the race was Lewis fighting for position with Force India driver
Giancarlo Fisichella giving tough fight for a long time for 13th position. Finally after many laps of trying, Lewis slings past Fisi.

It was day for Felipe Massa with a 6th GP win and a vindication after disastrous start of season; Not a single move was wrong, maintained the right pace and distance with Kimi through out. The podium finish was after 1.31 hours with Ferrari racers at first and second and BMW driver Robert at third position.
Though Ferrari won the Constructor's trophy, it was BMW which shot up to 1st position in Constructor's championship.






Drivers Championship

Kimi Räikkönen 19
Nick Heidfeld 16
Lewis Hamilton 14


Constructors Championship

BMW 30
Ferrari 29
McLaren-Mercedes 28

Watch for more...

2008 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX

Kimi Räikkönen stood out as undisputed king at Malaysian Grand Prix after having had a disastrous weekend at Australian Grand Prix. The 16 times grand prix winner and 2007 Formula 1 champion was at the pole position after the Saturday qualifier. Kimi shared the pole position with Felipe Massa, another Ferrari driver. With both the Ferrari drivers at the pole position it was an anticipated as a day for Ferrari after it had a disappointing start in Australian grand prix by scoring just 1 point. It was grueling race with 56 laps that lasted for 1.31 hours for a race distance of 310.4 Km.



It was a good start for both Ferrari drivers; Massa taking lead around the first corner and continued to remain in 1st position for 14 laps. It was then Kimi over took Massa’s position and it a perfect sail for Kimi thereafter. Kimi got a good hold of the new rules with traction control lacking in this race for which he struggled in the last race. Its was during 30th lap that Massa lost the control being too ambitious to take over Kimi and skid sideways with rare wheel spin.

Lewis Hamilton, Australian Grand prix winner did not have a great day either during qualifying or race. He started off at 22nd position after qualifier and fought up to 2nd position and there disaster strikes again for Mclaren with a 19 sec halt at pit stop with a problem at the front right wheel. After this stop he was pushed down to 11th postion. At the end of the race, Lewis managed to drive up to 4th position efficiently maneuvering ahead of Nick Heidfeld, leaving him at 5th position.

Its been Toyota’s most competitive show with Jarno Trulli sailing past the track. Reliability and consistency has always been a concern for Toyota and have invested more money than Ferrari in order to achieve this. It has definitely paid off and was noticeable in this race.

Heikki(McLaren) has proved that he is another great find in McLaren-Mercedes camp after finishing at 3rd position with Robert Kubica at 2nd position.

At the end of the race, it was Kimi Räikkönen day out being next to perfect and did not have a single problem from the start to the finish line.

Points for top 4:

Kimi Raikkonen – 10
Robert Kubica - 8
Heikki Kovalainen - 6
Jarno Trulli - 5

Top 3 Teams

McLaren Mercedes – 24
BMW – 19
Ferrari - 11

Awaiting 2008 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX on 6th April ...

2008 Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix

It’s a great start for 2008 Formula 1 season as the first race kicked off at Melbourne, Australia.

Lewis Hamilton capturing the pole position after the practice day had a perfect start along with Robert kubica in the first row and moved ahead over the very first corner.

While this corner was initial boost for some racers to move past others, it turned to be a disappointment for Giancarlo Fisichella representing the new entrant in racing circuit, Force India when he was pushed off the track by other cars moving wheel to wheel in their enthusiasm to overtake others soon after the race started.

Fisichella was not the only unfortunate one, even David Coulthard, 13 times champion was throw out of the race with broken suspension in an attempt to prevent Felipe Massa from over taking. Interestingly, Kimi Raikkonen and Massa (both from Ferrari) fell pray to the curiosity to overtake and were thrown out of the track. The main reason being the lack of Traction control as per the new rules which these veteran drivers have been used to. The new GP2 drivers took advantage over these new rules.

Kimi had a pretty good opening but lost control over the vehicle more than twice when tried wheel to wheel over corners and lack of traction control turned nightmare for him. Massa went wheel to wheel with David and when David didn’t give him enough space, it was the end of his race as

Massa rolled ahead. Massa dint have the laugh for too long as his race also struggled due to lack of traction control. Ferrari was put on the back foot when both their drivers struggled to remain till the end of the race. Toyota racer too had a disastrous end when the car hit the brake guard and flew over the track shattering pieces. Barrichello was also penalized for crashing a team member fuelling the car at the pitstop. At the end of 58 laps, only 9 out of 20 were finished the race.

If these were the mishaps during the race, it was Lewis Hamilton who had perfect start and remained the same till the end. It was not one time did he make a mistake and give an opportunity for the opponent. Fenando Alonso having had a bad position after practice came over the rest to 4^th position and proved again that it’s a Champions drive. Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg maintained a similar strategy and moved ahead of their positions finishing at 2^nd and 3rd positions. Finally, it was Lewis Hamilton’s day at start of the season at Australian Grand Prix.

Points for top 4:

Hamilton – 10
Nick – 8
Nico – 6
Alonso – 5

Top 3 Teams

McLaren Mercedes – 14
BMW – 8
Willams – 8

Watch this blog for more F1 updates and the next race takes us to Malaysia, Sepang.