Ferrari Makes a mess at Hockenheim

A day to forget for Ferrari. Massa finished 3rd after starting 2nd. Kimi could do no better than 6th. Nelson Piquet Jr. whose 1 stop strategy worked out just perfect finished 2nd after starting 17th. Can’t believe I am saying this, but hats off to team Renault. Results

The race was a bit monotonous till Timo Glock’s disastrous accident. It brought out the safety car. All the front runners except Hamilton, the race leader, took their 2nd pit stops in the safety car period. This decision almost worked against Mclaren when hamilton came out of the pits in 3rd position. Hamilton showed the true colour of his MP4-23 with 3 successful overtaking maneuvers in last 12 laps. Although, overtaking of Kovalainen was a poorly crafted drama. Any driver with a pinch of self esteem would have put on a better show while silently following the unstated team orders. Star Sports camera caught Ron Dennis talking to ‘Somebody’ on the team radio just as the two Mclarens were approaching the 2nd hairpin. But I don’t think he is that stupid to violate an FIA norm at this stage of the season.

I must say that Hamilton drove in an unnecessarily aggressive manner. Steve Slater rightly mentioned this as an example of ‘Ruthless Driving’. Piquet and Massa did well while backing off. Massa almost came back with an equally potent reply. But eventually it was MP4-23 who took the crown.

No ban on Tyre warmers- Revised rule changes for 2009 Formula 1 season

It was clarified today that there will not be ban on tyre warmers because of safety reasons. Good news for the teams. Bernie Eccleston has appealed to the teams to cut down expenses to half by 2011. So looks like there will not be any direct limitation on spending.

The Raceday show before British Gp was amazing today. Steve Slater presented did a track report just like the pitch report. Renault celebrated their 10th birthday of their development center. It was annoying. But an engineer performed ‘Happy Birthday’ tune with an engine using throttle. That was amazing.

Johnny Walker ‘Drive Safe’ campaign was also interesting. They have started a new design your own helmet simulation competition. Winner will get a helmet made from the designer of Lewis Hamilton’s helmet. Check out this site

And a weirder race

The race, as a whole was very very weird. But I must say that this was a race that was most influenced by ‘Luck Factor’ But I will come to that later. Hamilton and Mclaren did something that even Ferrari engineers could not understand. There was no way to explain a 66s gap between Lewis and 2nd place Nick Heidfeld. Hamilton lapped everyone but Nick in front of his home crowd, which was ecstatic with the victory of home hero. The results

A nightmare of a track for most of the teams. The weather was actually whimsical. Track conditions were very difficult to judge. Almost all the cars spun atleast once on an unevenly wet track. Massa set a new record of six 360 degree spins in a single race. No wonder he finished last. He proved once again that he is not dependable.

Ferrari made a huge mistake that cost Kimi his podium position. During his 1st regular stop, Ferrari decided to continue with the same intermediate weather tyres. Lewis, who entered pits along with Kimi, switched to new intermediates. On the next lap itself, Lewis cleared a gap of 3 sec. That meant an unscheduled pit stop on 30th lap for tyre change with lost track position, messed up strategies and heavier car for the rest of the race at the expense of 2 pitstops for Kimi. Very unprofessional show by Ferrari. Kimi even lost a couple of seconds in 2nd pit stop due to poor signaling. At the very back, Massa was racing against his own car to keep it on the track. Fortunately, Alonso, who completed his race on 1stop strategy with no tyre change, lacked pace in the end and was overtaken by the two Finns Kimi and Hekki.

Now about the Luck factor.

• Sure, it was a pathetic start for Webber. Lost his position to Lewis. But things could have been worse. On the opening lap, he spun 180 degrees right in the middle of track with cars zooming past him at 305kmph. Visibility was poor due to spray, and anyone could have hit him head on. But he survived and completed the race.
• Same thing happened to Massa. Only on his 5th spin, he almost blocked the entry to pits. Things would have been a lot messier.
• All the front runners spun, but no one was trapped in gravel.
• Barrichello shut the mouths of everyone by making it to the podium. No one, not even Honda race engineers expected this. But he kept his cool. Survived a couple of spins and pulled off a stunner.
• Sutil and Bourdais lost control on the track, and went sliding straight on the track with cars just missing them.

• During 2 spins, two rabbits just went past the cars. Thankfully, unhurt.

There was no sign of Rupert Grint in pits. But I did see the great Sachin Tendulkar on the grid behing Bernie Eccleston and Jackie Stewart. Sachin’s passion for speed is well known. I was just too happy to see him on an F1 circuit.

A weird qualifying session

Silverstone circuit saw an unexpected qual result as Kovalainen grabbed the pole from Webber on the very last run. He was a whopping 0.5s faster than Webber. Following Webber was Kimi. Heidfeld out-qualified teammate Kubica for the first time this season as Kubica did not participate in Q3. Massa will start 9th. He is probably still in shock from yesterday’s accident caused by oil spill from Fernando Alonso’s blown engine (could he BE more annoying). Both Ferraris seriously lacked pace and were outpaced by even Vettel’s Torro Rosso for most of the race.

Disappointing day for home crowd. Hamilton panicked in Q3, oversteered on penultimate run and finished 4th. Button could not even make it to Q2. Coulthard, on his last GP in front of home fans, was 11th fastest.

After the session, while reporting to FIA, everybody congratulated Hekki on his brilliant performance (Alonso pinched his butt…GOD!! Somebody stop him) Everybody, but Hamilton, who just sat there staring nowhere. He did not even acknowledge him. That was a bit rude of him.

The weather at Silverstone was amazing. Rain was seen on 1 side of the track while pits had nice sunshine. Rain is also expected tomorrow, so race is bound to be interesting. Apparently, British GP is going to be shifted to Donington Park from 2010. F1 will sure miss one of its fastest circuit.

Julian Bailey, former Lotus driver was commentator. His commentary was basically circling around denying each and every claim made by Steve Slater (who was accurate most of the times), except on 1 point…that Rupert Grint, who was standing in Red Bull pits was in fact, ’some character from Harry Potter’. I don’t think I can stand him for an entire race. Chris Goodwin, where are you?