Ooh Ahh, Felipe spins and "Pepe" is expecting...

First practice was pretty uneventful apart from a couple of session-shortening errors from Felipe who spun twice and was restricted to just nine laps as a result of flat-spotting his tyres. The Ferraris look dominent and were half a second up on the McLarens, with Kimi leading the way from Felipe and then Lewis third.

At McLaren there does not seem to be too much concern but I think it is fair to say the paddock is generally expecting a Ferrari masterclass this weekend with Lewis and Heikki left to fight over third place. The same pattern may well hold for Turkey, but let's see...but we should always remember that practice can be very misleading.                   

The word from Kimi's camp by the way is that the Iceman is loving his first season as champion and, contrary to the trend of some recent speculation, he has no plans to call it a day at the end of this season or even next when his contract at Maranello expires. In fact it was put to me that Kimi is very likely to sign up for another few years at the end of 2009 rather than walk away.

One of the passions in the life of Kimi are his two dogs, a German shepherd called Ajax and a Jack Russell(awesome beasts) called Pepe. This blog can exclusively reveal that Pepe is having puppies which is naturally causing some excitement in the Raikkonen Swiss family home. There could be quite a few of them.

I wonder what they might be called?

Comments

[Heini]

Just a short comment, 'cause I should be working and not writing here ;)...

From Kimi's interview for finnish media: Kimi thinks Ferrari is still ahead of McLaren and BMW, but he is interested to see how much other teams have developed during brake. Especially BMW compared to McLaren. He knows how fast situations can chance and he's not thinking about chanmpionship yet. Main goal is to get as many points as possible from every race.

Heikki has said that he isn't worried about the next race even though last two races hasn't gone as planned. He knows McLaren still has a fast and competitive car. And he also ain't suprised about how good BMW is.

[Kohque]

Well, I just finished following the second practice of the day and I can't really understand the times I have seen.

The first practice went more or less as expected. Ferrari was drving in a parallel universe followed in a distant second by McLaren, and Kubica's BMW in third.

However, the second practice shows Raikki at the top, Piquet and Alonso closely behind at second and third respectively, Nakajima fourth! and Massa fifth.

The times were over a second and half slower for the Ferraris, so I guess the leading teams may have decided to experiment with their settings (tyres, aero, etc.). Some thoughts Ed. Thanks!

Three things stand out:

1)Renault is two tenths of a second faster than the middle teams and relatively close to McLaren and BMW. Awesome improvement!

2)Hamilton has been considerably faster than Kovi in both practices, though the British went onto spinning mode again.

3) Hamilton has a very slim chance to beat either Massa or Raikki. It would probably better if keeps on eye on the rear in case Kubica's BMW get a new aero improvement in the coming races.

[Bob]

Let's wait and see what tomorrow brings, I was bothered by the problems McLaren seemed to have with both the cars. Still, better to work out the bugs on Friday that during qualifying runs.
Might have to watch out for Alonso, he looks determined to put on a good show for the home crowd.

[B Cave]

The headline should be: "Nelsinho goes 0.013 of a second faster than "magic" Alonso in front of home crowd in second practice!"

[D]

^
Ed >

Your comment about Kimi's future plans would seem to be consistent with the interpretation by some on this blog of the timing and the message implicit in Luca di Montezemolo's recent comments in regard to the employment prospects the Asturian hero.

Speaking of whom, did I spot the Greatest Racing Driver the World Has Ever Seen having a spot of bother with the pace of another rookie team-mate in both sessions today?

Or is magic the art of making one's personal 0.6 sec speed advantage disappear?

Magic is, after all, how one describes the art of making people believe in things that aren't real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHYnahPkJI8

Let's hope Flavio doesn't have to start putting Nelsinho on a five-stop strategy to keep things at Renault under control.

^
Heini >

Thanks for that. Don't get caught, though. Remember there could be a hidden camera in your secretary's bra.

[Manc]

Practice 2 finish...
As you said above, practice seasons can be misleading and more than conclusions, what we can get are feelings.
The first thing I would like to point out is those two spins of Massa. For sure tonigh he will have to deal with those ghosts that he thought were put away in Bahrain. BTW around the middle of practice 2, he spend nearly a minute to finish S1 and then went straigh to pits, I couldn't find anything about this in different reports, but look suspicious to me.
Other feeling I get is that this weekend, for McLaren, start to look similar to the last one. Not finding the pace, Hamilton underperfonming in sectors 2 & 3 and mechanical problems for Kova.
In the mean while BMW has done, at first glance, an unimpresive practice seseion, but is it not what they been doing till now? I fear than tomorrow they will put the hammer down, and who knows, maybe with a nervous Massa, they will get the pole in the pole again. He is proving himself as a great qualifier.
And for Renault, despite their second and third position in p2 I still see them a second behind Ferrari & Co. Just to say that till the last minutes the season was dominated first by Force India, then Williams and finally Renault. We will have to wait till tomorrow to see if the can get ahead of the intermediate cars.

[Antonio Xixon but in UK]

Unfortunately, some of us had to work and help England not to fall more in "depression", economical, psychological, etc.

"D", just a point made by my Finnish girlfriend: Heinni is a girl's name. That doesn't mean that she can't have a female secretary, but I think that you are, as I was, thinking that Heinni was a man. No offense Heinni, actually quite refreshing.

Tomorrow sacrificing Chelsea-Manchester's to see the qualifying.

[Henkka]

A storm warning from Finland.

Kimi's comments for the Finnish Media: (my translation)

"If we get a good lap (in the qualifying), and the car works tomorrow as well as it did today, it seems that we do not have any problem in getting the pole."

I do not remember having seen/heard Kimi so confident ever...

Good luck for the opponents!

[IDR]

@D

"El nano" is not egoistic at all... he gives his team-mates everything he puts on the car!

But you know, when one ask a Chef for his recipe he always hide “the special touch” ingredient.

Magic has 0,2 second in his pocket!

[Kohque]

@B CAVE
Nelshino have done almost the same times than Alonso, which confirms that the improvements in the car are consistent with the times. On the other hand, Nelshino made 38 laps against only 16 from Alonso. Nelshino's best time only came 14 minutes later, which may have well being due to lower fuel load. I think the first practice is more representative with bot drivers almost matching their times.

Whatever the case, we will see real improvements from all the teams today. The McLarens had few issues yesterday so the times of Kovalainen are a bit misleading.

[A Parker]

D and B Cave, is history repeating itself re. "Magic" - being outpaced by a rookie and losing his .6 second?

[adam]

Perhaps one of Pepe's puppies might be named Fernando.My aunt had an airdale called Fernando, a good name for a dog.
Talking of which I wonder if magic will be rattled by Nelsons apparent increase in speed.It was about this time last year Fernando fell off the track six times at the same corner.

[Anon]

Heini >

Thanks for that. Don't get caught, though. Remember there could be a hidden camera in your secretary's bra.-D

Maybe Heini should investigate the premises just to make sure he isn't getting spied on. =D

[Juan H]

Well, the same unpolite people continue discrediting Alonso as usual....what is amazing is that they do it using what seems apparently objective data. I am sorry, but it looks like there is one team that is loosing pace steadily since last year, while there is another one showing just the opposite trend....very likely because the extra 0.6 sec this guy brings to the TEAM.

If I am wrong and Lewis wins, I will have no problem whatsoever congratulating him. Can I expect the same from you?

[D]

^
I wasn't really having a dig at Fernando; I respect his driving greatly. I was just baiting those of his messianic followers who have no sense of humour. Shame on me.

There are some of his supporters, such as IDR, who have not only an excellent sense of humour but an excellent understanding of Formula One (and many other fine things). I'd be the first to agree with him that the Asturian Ace carries at least a fifth of a second in his back pocket and a great deal of experience in setting up a car to suit him, as well.

It has to be said that those who post to English newspapers miss much until they can understand the British sense of humour.

A subscription to the noble organ "Private Eye" would assist them greatly.

http://www.private-eye.co.uk

PS. My thanks and regards, respectively, to our Spaniard of Kent and his thoughtful Finnish lady. And my apologies, should any be needed, to our much valued friend Heini.

[I]

Adam, yours is the name of a rat I had when I was a kid.

By the way, I guess you Britons are likely very glad because of the outstanding performance of the whole Team McLaren and his star Lewis. It seems that Alonso took some of the "magic" from McLaren to the bullshit he drives in Renault, didn't he?

[Heini]

No apologies needed :) But just to make sure for everyone, I am a woman (and I don't have a secretary).

Don't know why most of the F1 fans I meet are men. I mean, I know very little about the technical side of how the cars and motors actually work, but you don't need to know those things to enjoy watching races. And even though I am an engineer (civil) that don't have an influence on the matter cause I've been watching motor racing since I was a kid. Thanks to my dad, who is also a fanatic F1 and rally fan :) And to add an interesting notion, my little sister is also F1 fan, but my little brother doesn't care for motor racing at all. So, where does the enthusiasm for motor racing come from?