2008 French Grand Prix

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Le Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours... I like the track, but not on the level of "this is one of the world's best tracks." I guess the overall flow of the track really appeals to me. This is one of the few tracks in the world that appeals to me for reasons other than a track's environment or the track itself. It's just a track that appeals to me in a certain way that I've deemed likeable.

This track is a song. There's a certain beat to the track that a racer must memorize and master to make consistent laps around. You can go pretty fast with some kinks along the way. The Adelaide corner (Turn 5) will be the first corner to truly test you as you've enjoyed Turns 1 through 4. The second "verse" of this song is Turns 6 through 9. Have to stay on pace and have a solid drive through these sections. The "bridge," if you will, would be turns 9 through 14 before closing out the song with an amazing conclusion in turns 14 through 17. Then, you do several more encores through a technical French course like this one. Just a rhythm about this track that makes it a very interesting track. Have to be at in perfect harmony racing at full song around this track.

I guess my storyline for this race is if Kubica, coming off a win at the track where he suffered a vicious crash the year before, can be able to have an inspired drive to hopefully keep up the good work. He'll need to because people with last names of Hamilton, Massa, and Raikkonen are coming for him. So it was Le Mans for me this past weekend, now another French venue (in a much different sport) this weekend. Interesing to see who gets to stand on the top stand of the podium at race's end.
 
Early Predictions for drivers I'm bothered about:

Massa on pole, 2nd, 3rd and 4th to be scrapped out by Kubica Heikki and Kimi, possibly Alonso. Piquet Junior at least 10 places behind Alonso. Vettel makes it through to round 2 in his first chance to qualify the STR3.
 
Hamilton to qualify in the top 4, start 11th-15th, finish the race between 4th and 6th. Win for Kimi, Massa and Kubica also on the podium.

I really want Heiki to do well, he has a chance of a podium but not a win.
 
DQuaN
Hamilton to qualify in the top 4, start 11th-15th, finish the race between 4th and 6th. Win for Kimi, Massa and Kubica also on the podium.

I really want Heiki to do well, he has a chance of a podium but not a win.
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Seems quite possible. Early, but I'll go with:

Kimi / Kubica / Massa / Hamilton / Heidfeld / Heikki

I'd expect to see Heikki up higher if I didn't consider his bad luck.
 
I'm expecting (as always) a win from Massa. And I hope Piquet can finally have a good race now that he's in a familiar track.
 
Predictions:

Massa
Kubica
Raikkonen
Heikki
Heidfeld
Alonso
*unknown*
Hamilton

With Piquet slightly less terrible than usual.
 
I predict a Ferrari 1-2
I think if Massa gets the pole, he will win. So:
1. Massa
2. Raikkonen
3. Kubica

I hope Vettel does well. With Sato and Davidson out my new favorite underdog is Vettel.
 
I predict

1. Kimi
2. Massa
3. Kubica
4. Heikki
5. Heidfeld
6. Alonso
7. Trulli?
8. Hamilton
 
I predict

1. Kimi
2. Kubica
3. Massa


I want

1. Alonso
2. Vettel
3. Heidfeld
 
1. Massa
2. Kimi
3. Kubica
4. Heidfeld
5. Hamilton
6. Heikki
7. Alonso
8. Coulthard

Do we get points if we get this right ? :dopey:
 
Kimi
Massa
Kubica

If I had my way, Hamilton outside the points ;P
 
Friday First Free Practice:

imagem2yv6.jpg


Friday Second Free Practice:

imagemzi4.jpg


http://f1.gpupdate.net
 
Vettel and Alonso running strongly :)
 
TheCracker
Renault frog-pleasing tactics ;)
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Yes, but they need to have the pace to begin with. I doubt the rest of the field slowed down for the purpose of Renault showing off for the home crowd.

Let's see you get round faster than Massa, Dan! :lol:

And besides, it's good enough for second faster time overall...so far....
 
Danachronism
Yes, but they need to have the pace to begin with. I doubt the rest of the field slowed down for the purpose of Renault showing off for the home crowd.
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I bet he was running on fumes ;)
 
TheCracker
I bet he was running on fumes ;)
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Well then I bet he was running on a full tank of fuel, after a very filling lunch, attempting laps with "Rock the Casbah" stuck in his head, distracting him.


We have equal proof at this moment in time. :)
 
Danachronism
Well then I bet he was running on a full tank of fuel, after a very filling lunch, attempting laps with "Rock the Casbah" stuck in his head, distracting him.


We have equal proof at this moment in time. :)
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For once this season I dragged my ass out of bed to not be disappointed. Fernando Alonso has given me reason for hope that the planets are back in alignment. I hope that wasn't a 'low-fuel' stunt. However, we shall see tomorrow. Acuna matata...
 
mustang245
For once this season I dragged my ass out of bed to not be disappointed. Fernando Alonso has given me reason for hope that the planets are back in alignment. I hope that wasn't a 'low-fuel' stunt. However, we shall see tomorrow. Acuna matata...
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More likely that he actually pushed it in practice as well as loading with less fuel than everyone else. Everyone else was probably doing their standard practice pace to check that the setup of the car was alright, whereas he was told/decided to push the car a bit for a bit of show.
I'll be very surprised tomorrow if he's on the front row.
 
While it's obviously a light-fueled run, it is faster than what everyone, bar Massa, managed on their FP1 hotlaps.

Plus, that time would've been midfield-ish in last year's Q2 qualifiying session - and considering everyone is much slower this year at Magny Cours (Most of the field at 1'15.7, compared to last year's 1'14.8 flat in Q2), that's not a bad place to be in.

Danachronism
Let's see you get round faster than Massa, Dan! :lol:
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Nah, his car will break down. [/stir]


FP3 Updates:

1) Piquet leading the time-sheets with 18 minutes to go, with a 1'15.75 - that means raw qualifying-pace on the Renault. And a massive morale-boost for the Brazilian. Update: Still leading, almost done with FP3.. Webber and Vettel up there behind him.

2) Finished now - Piquet, Webber, Vettel and Rosberg on top, but damn, 1st to 18th separated by less than a second! :eek:
 
Here are the times for the saturday practice.

1 6 Nelsinho Piquet 1:15.750
2 10 Mark Webber 1:15.759 0.009
3 15 Sebastian Vettel 1:15.827 0.077
4 7 Nico Rosberg 1:15.974 0.224
5 1 Kimi Räikkönen 1:16.003 0.253
6 11 Jarno Trulli 1:16.147 0.397
7 22 Lewis Hamilton 1:16.182 0.432
8 14 Sebastien Bourdais 1:16.235 0.485
9 2 Felipe Massa 1:16.256 0.506
10 9 David Coulthard 1:16.282 0.532
11 12 Timo Glock 1:16.344 0.594
12 5 Fernando Alonso 1:16.437 0.687
13 23 Heikki Kovalainen 1:16.545 0.795
14 4 Robert Kubica 1:16.617 0.867
15 8 Kazuki Nakajima 1:16.644 0.894
16 16 Jenson Button 1:16.651 0.901
17 17 Rubens Barrichello 1:16.658 0.908
18 3 Nick Heidfeld 1:16.687 0.937
19 21 Giancarlo Fisichella 1:17.365 1.615
20 20 Adrian Sutil 1:17.612 1.862
 
Danachronism
Well then I bet he was running on a full tank of fuel, after a very filling lunch, attempting laps with "Rock the Casbah" stuck in his head, distracting him.


We have equal proof at this moment in time. :)
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Alonso has quite happily said that it was a result of running low fuel loads....

Alonso blew his engine at the end of the morning session, but bounced back to head the afternoon’s times. He was the first to admit that owed much to respective fuel loads, but the Spaniard said he was happy enough with the performance of his R28 with some new parts trialled first in last week’s test in Barcelona. Piquet showed an improvement in form, mainly staying on the track and gathering valuable data.
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Source - http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2008/6/7964.html


...regards

Scaff
 
Quali begins. Cmon the Vettel and Ferraris, and Alonso. And thats about it :D
 
Well it seems SPEED is having problems at the moment because I am getting no broadcast from them. I sure was looking forward to watching qualifying too. 👎
 
We lose the 2 F1FI's, Nakajima, barrichello and Button. Be interesting to see who makes the top 10 of Vettel & Piquet, and if Heidfeld does at all.
 
Hiedfield struggling, had to use the softer tyre just to survive S1
 
The coverage just came back . . . and now its off again. :banghead: :grumpy:

And now it is back on!

And it is back off . . . :grumpy: :banghead: :grumpy:
 
Okay, that is one of the worst ever qualifying attemp by BMW. I mean, this circuit really punished the BMW, especially Heidfeld. The commentator said that his smooth driving style didn't suit both the car and the track, which led to his disappointing 12th position. 👎 Likewise, Kubica did well to reach Q3 and is up into 6th position after Hamilton's 10 place penalty. Should be interesting to see him make up the places during race day.

Ferrari is on the front row as always, but Alonso did an amazing job brining the Renault up to 3rd! :dopey: Hopefully anything bad doesn't happened to him, he really should deserve a podium finish after all that he had been through..... Toyota were also one of the surprises of the weekend with a good qualifying run. But this has always been the track which favors the Toyota......
 
That Renault is light, that's for sure, but it was fast even when others were light. Alonso 3rd, Trulli 4th... Amazing stuff.

Too bad Heidfeld didn't make Q3 - and by mere hundredths of a second over Piquet and Kubica. Piquet and Heidfeld paid dearly because the field was just so amazingly close.. Rosberg's done for this race - starts last, and was very, very unsatisfied with his pace in the post-Q2 interview on RTL, complaining about balance, grip, and general lack of speed despite making only "a tenth or so" of adjustments towards the race.
 
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