lewis hamilton grabs another headline

[ mclaren, montreal, lewis hamilton, formula 1 ]

yeah, another post on lewis hamilton. this guy is really taking the formula 1 circus by storm. it was just a matter of time before he grabbed his first pole, and he did it at montreal - the circuit of the 'wall of champions'. it is also a matter of time before his first win sinks.

what makes this pole more amazing is the fact that lewis has never been to circuit gilles villeneuve. so basically he came, he saw, and he conquered. of course it wasn't really that simple. the montreal track is one that is very demanding on brakes and suspensions; thus car balance has to be perfect.

alonso is definitely pressured now, and he shouldn't deny it. alonso was seen chasing for pole position on the last lap, but couldn't as he made an uncharacteristic mistake at the hairpin (could be the point they radioed in on lewis' pole) and then at the penultimate corner. uncharacteristic is definitely a sign of a person under pressure.

this is an alien situation for alonso right now. having a teammate fast enough to beat him at any given day, or perhaps even having a faster teammate (period), must be a fact difficult for him to swallow. there are so much attentions on lewis, alonso surely feels that his thunder has been stolen. without the media to continuously inflate his ego, he has to work harder to earn it. he cannot afford to mess up, because if he does, his star teammate will be there to benefit from it. lewis hamilton must be alonso's least favourite name in the world.

alonso was asked if he would give lewis advice on starting his first pole, here's how he answered it (rather funny):

Q: (Randy Phillips – The Gazette) Fernando, do you have any advice for your team-mate starting for the first time from pole position?
FA: We will see tomorrow, I think today has been a good qualifying for the team again, a good job by everybody – first and second. The team should be very happy today.

Q: (Randy Phillips – The Gazette) But do you have any particular advice for Lewis?
FA: No advice. Don’t be too aggressive in the first corner and let me go through. (Laughter)

NH: The same for me please.

anyways, p1 and p2 are definitely great results for mclaren. the cars looked fast and flawless during qualifying, with superb downforce that made the cars stick. you wouldn't expect anything lower. many (especially ferrari) were caught surprised by mclaren's pace, as it was believed that mclaren's monaco speed was a one-off. not so it seems, and mclaren is definitely pulling away from the field.

so who is there to stop mclaren? ferrari? i don't think they can. the ferrari magic has disappeared ever since michael's departure. when michael was around, you'd ask yourself, "the situation is bad, but could he pull out a rabbit from his helmet?" you couldn't really doubt him. now you have massa and kimi, but no magic. how about bmw? impressive but not there yet. maybe quick nick has learned some card tricks of his own.

although a mclaren 1-2 is very likely for tomorrow's race, but watch out for some fireworks. a mclaren fireworks.



previous posts:
monaco recap
wonderful video by shell
lewis crash! boom! bang!
are you ready for monaco?
f1 circuit chief sacked for corruption

four consecutive poles for ferrari

[ ferrari, barcelona, felipe massa formula 1 ]

that's impressive. more so for massa, who has been on pole for three consecutive times. i have to admit, it was rather fulfilling to see massa spoil the spanish party. if you paid attention, you could actually hear the sound of a few hundred thousand heartbreaks when massa stormed through the line.

however, qualifying is no longer about who's the quickest; rather who is the lightest. it seems quite clear that massa and alonso are on a light fuel strategy, while kimi and hamilton have the heavier one. will the heavier strategy come into play? i don't think so. i personally think it's easier to win the race if you're up in front.

however, it isn't going to be straightforward. i think mclaren and ferrari are very evenly matched, with maybe ferrari being slightly quicker. so ferrari may be in front of the mclaren, i don't think they'd be able to lose the silver cars from their exhausts. it could come down to some fiery overtaking battles, or it could come down to some intelligent pitstop strategies for the win. i'm praying for the former.

away from the leaders, the bmw are consistently the third best team on the grid. they appear to be a low profile team, just quietly doing their job. nobody has paid much attention to them, as you hear more discussion on the demise of toyota and honda teams. i think they are going to be a team to watch out for this season, as they will spring some surprises. with superior bmw engineering, the biggest wind tunnel within the f1 fraternity, and a smaller ego for being a copycat, i believe they may even have a chance to win a gp. mark my word.

finally, fantastic stuff from super aguri again! although their cars aren't reliable at the moment, it's definitely fast. well, at least faster than the 'original' honda team. they managed to qualify both cars into q2, and was looking very strong to even get into q1 - before the cars broke. i'm actually quite looking forward to the day when both cars get into q1, embarassing button and rubens even more. good luck super aguri.

i'll make some predictions for the race. ferrari one-two, and alonso third. heidfeld continues to get fourth, with hamilton not managing to finish for the first time. one of the renaults (kovalainen perhaps) scraping for top eight, trying to fend off a super aguri. hahahaha... and coulthard will be up there somewhere as well.

so bring it on barcelona! it's going to very exciting. the european leg is always so much better than the opening leg because of new car developments, better comfort level from the teams, and more passionate ambience. so i hope this year's spanish gp won't disappoint us.



previous posts:
disapproval for singapore gp?
terrible f1 accident
from champions to insignificance
star of bahrain qualifying
missing schumacher and brawn

star of bahrain qualifying

[ super aguri, bahrain, anthony davidson, formula 1 ]

yeah yeah, we all know massa grabbed pole yesterday at bahrain. personally, i wasn't very surprised by it. lewis hamilton was second, followed by kimi and alonso. kimi and alonso could be on a heavier fuel strategy. well, we'll see who of the four will come out top on race day.

however, none of them was the star of bahrain qualifying. lewis hamilton did great to finish for his first ever front row. it was inspiring, and there's great future for this guy. he will be the star of the future, but not quite at bahrain.

it was anthony davidson who was the star. now, i must apologize to super aguri for labelling them 'f1's biggest waste of time' last year. what they had to go through to put a car on the grid must have been difficult, so i'm impressed to see how far they've progressed.

to be fair to spyker though, the super aguri team is ultimately a honda b-team. therefore, all sorts of information, be it mechanical setup, technologies, tyre informations, etc. are passed down from the top. even their chassis is basically last year's honda.

what is impressive is the fact that anthony davidson managed to not only out-qualify his teammate takuma sato, but also the not-quite-star-quality star drivers jenson and rubens of the parent team. we all know of his speed during friday's practice, and we have seen him performing when given the chance to race. so, i'm sure it's vindication for anthony after being denied of the race seat at honda year after year.

point to note, anthony was recently injured at the australian gp and wasn't quite fit for the malaysian gp. but from the look of yesterday's qualifying, he has made a speedy recovery and is eager to do well. he drove his heart out, and almost made it into q3 qualifying at 13th. positive result, i like.

well, i hope he continues to do well in the race tomorrow, and not get overly excited about his good performance and to throw his chances away. we all know how different a race is as compared to qualifying. so all the best!


read super aguri f1 team's qualifying statement

p.s. let's see if massa can utilize a second chance to lay his sepang ghost to rest at bahrain.



previous posts:
missing schumacher and brawn
come! and get some airasia kisses
four mirror mclaren explained
traction control axed!
kimi happier at ferrari

exciting qualifying for sepang

[ ferrari, sepang, felipe massa, formula 1 ]

it must have been the best qualifying sepang has ever seen. plenty of action, and plenty of surprises. i'm sure the crowds would have been pleased. speaking of which, it also must have been the most populous qualifying for sepang. sepang is known for being empty during qualifying, but not this year though. this year, the crowds came.

that's good news. i'm happy for sic and the organizers, for after eight years, they may have finally done something right to draw in the people. they better, especially with neighbour singapore knocking on the f1-host door. i didn't bother to check out the price this year, but i do know that ticket sales were slow. to be fair, malaysians do like to do things slow. always waiting for free tickets and best bargains, perhaps.

as for the qualifying, it was surprisingly exciting. cars were eager to get out, even after they have done a week of testing here, so we did get actions for much of the hour. we didn't see much of the spyker, scuderia tr, and the super aguri, but as usual they took up most of the last few spots. among them though, is rubens (the one who said he could beat michael schumacher anytime of the day). well, maybe they need to work harder as jenson wasn't any better. so, honda is in deep shit.

horrible result for the renault as well. the renault mechanics' reactions said it all as they were utterly disappointed for becoming losers from champions, and sepang has confirmed it. best pals david coulthard and alex wurz didn't fare very well too and are stuck close to one another behind, so we might be seeing some budding actions again tomorrow.

bmw and toyota continued to finish in the top ten. good job, but just filling the gaps and nothing very exciting from them. ex-teammates nico and webber also finished in the top ten, with nico doing better in the car that webber left from. i do wish that nico continues to beat webber, nothing will please me more.

finally, the mclaren and the ferrari. it was really their show this afternoon as there's nothing between the two of them. neck and neck, from q1 to q3. when the rain threatened the show, the teams carried out their performances flawlessly, hitting the timesheet early on despite having full tanks. they continued to run completely mix of strategies, between the rival teams and even between respective teammates. bridgestone's white band on the tyres helped us to identify which compound they were using, and i got to say, it was very entertaining and informative.

but there could be only one pole sitter, and that belongs to felipe massa. he stole the pole from alonso, who had beaten kimi raikkonen at the very last second, with a 0.3s advantange. good stuff from massa. hamilton, who was shown to be disappointed with himself, took fourth. ferrari, mclaren, ferrari, mclaren. :)

so brace yourself for a potentially exciting malaysian gp tomorrow. with the element of rain, it could be chaotic and unpredictable. if there's no rain, then the heat will put the test on the engines. the beginning of the race, as usual, will decide everything. on a track like sepang, it's usually p1 to p1. if massa manages to keep his first spot, he could potentially gallops his way to victory. but so could alonso, kimi, and hamilton - if they manage to pass.



previous posts:
come! and get some airasia kisses
four mirror mclaren explained
traction control axed!
kimi happier at ferrari
melbourne gp... yawn