The boy Felipe done good

Just as he dreamt it, Felipe fought off his rivals and put his Ferrari on pole at Fortress Massa(aka Istanbul Park) by a hefty margin - that's three poles in a row here for the Brazilian who has most definitely got his season back on track.

Now all he has to do is win the Grand Prix for the third time in three years. In 2006 he needed a slice of luck, last year he was all-conquering, can he do it again? Congratulations to Felipe who was watched from the garage by his father and his wife.

As had looked on the cards on Friday, Heikki got the better of Lewis by a tenth which is a fantastic reposte from the Finn after his big crash in Spain. Equally it is a worry for Lewis who will have to rely on fleetness of foot off the start line to try and get past his team-mate.

This is the second time in five races that Kovi has qualified ahead of Lewis. The good news for the McLarens is that they are two and three on the grid and have split the Ferraris(with Kimi back in fourth). However watching Felipe's final flyer, as compared with that of Lewis, you could see(could you not?) how the red machine seemed better balanced and less of a handful than the McLarens which is hardly a surprise given recent form.

Robert was fifth this time, again well ahead of his team-mate Nick who was ninth. After his heroics in front of his home crowd two weeks ago, Fernando was back where the Renault looks to be realistically ranked - in seventh place. This was miles ahead of his struggling team-mate Nelson who could do no better than 17th(ouch!). There are two Red Bulls in top-10 for the first time.   

Comments

[Felipe]

Good for Heikki, well done, glad to see him bounce back in style. Good to not see a Ferrai front two... will be interesting to see how they start and what pit stop strategy they have. Shame not see BMW up there...

Also very good for Felipe, I think this will stop all the Alonso and Ferrari rumours, at least for a while. Well done Hamilton, after barrages of criticism he seems to be bouncing back, did a very quick lap with the harder tyres. Though unlike last year McLaren seem to be fighting just to stay near Ferrari. Although Kimi had a bad one, unless he's very loaded on fuel, though trying once more to get pole or go up on the grid, maybe proved that he was not so heavy...

There was a lot of sliding around, wonder if we will see a lot of spinning during the race...

And lastly, what's up with Heidfield? after having a very solid year last year, Robert is just leap and bounds ahead of his team mate.

Seems like we might have another exciting race.

[javiervivaespania]

The Qs need some thorough explanation:
1) Felipe: Fear. He is struggling to keep his credit in Ferrari, and he is making great efforts to mantain his seat for next year. No way.
2) Kovalainen: Pride. He wanted to prove that he is ok and is better than Hamilton.
3) Hamilton: Decadence. He reached his top point last year when he had someone to learn from. He qualified behind a sick Kovalainen and that is very revealing.
4) Raikkonen: Lack of punch. He might win the championship, but if he does, it will be just because there is not enough competition, with Magic on boad the worst car of the grid.
5) Kubica: Future. He will be the champion when Magic has retired.
6) Webber: Intelligence. He is in a car that is constantly improving and he is clever. However, I do not think he will finish the race.
7) Alonso: Magic. He qualified ten positions above Nelsinho. That is the reference point. Any other driver would have qualified in 16th position but he is making wonders with that car. The problem is that many of the improvements he has suggested are too expensive for Renault to implement. They need more sponsors for next year. Spain would fund Renault next year via its Tourism Office with thousands of millions of the old pesetas but everyone knows that Magic will be wearing red so there is no need to do that. They should have done that this season, but the running general elections were an obstacle.

[IDR]

What a pity, I have been in Oviedo Friday and today and I cannot watch qualy and free practice.

Upstairs

What the hell has happen to Kimi?

On the other hand, nice to see McLaren not too far from Ferrari (in any case, lets wait to pit stop)

And congrats to Kova, good return! Wouldn’t be great to see Kova winning the race? Come on kova, I bet some money on you!

Downstairs

Umm, Red bull is doing well and the new upgrade still to come…

And Williams, as always, down down down.

[Juan]

Its obvious that Alonso was full of load (sprit) this time. I think he will get 5th position or even 4th.

It would be great to watch the fight HAmilton and Kimi. Theoretically, the 2 current number one in their respective teams.

I´ve always thought that Kovalainen is doing the right thing. Keeping his mouth shut and improving in every single race. I´ve no doubt that he will be soon ahead of Hamilton. Lets see how the british heroe reacts, then.

Bye.

[Rob]

does that javier chap actually take himself seriously or is it a deliberate piss take?? haha it's like reading a Marca article.

[Dean Rodrigues]

I had my doubts about Felipe after Q2, but Kimi clearly couldn't hook it up the way he did in Q3.

The real interesting part of quali from my angle was the fact that Lewis was able to go substantially quicker on harder tyres than he could on the softer option tyre. This suggests to me that Lewis could well produce a surprise result tomorrow as he's gonna be quick on those harder prime tyres over longer stints, and then can do a splash-and-dash on the option at the end.

Having said that, I think he's fighting for 2nd, or indeed 3rd if Kimi gets the McLarens off the start...

[Jatin]

@Javiervivaespania

Either u have a very twisted sense of humour or a very twisted sense of reality. Either way....hilarious...thanks for that.

[Lucy]

javiervivaespania haha your comment made me howl with laughter you're such a good comedian.
By the way (not like you'll care or take notice) Lewis was on hards Heikki wasn't.
For hard tyres Lewis was still fast but i'm sure 'magic' would have been faster eh? ;-)

[colin grayson]

so alonso is magic is he javier ?qualified 10 places ahead of his novice team mate ..sounds about right to me
how come he couldn't do it last year then ? how good must hamilton been as a novice then !
kovo must be the fittest driver there after the testing he has been through the last 2 weeks ; and how much faster was he than hamilton with tyres that by general concensus were 0.3 secs faster , let me guess...and also which tyre is going to be used for most of the race !!!

and I am not so sure that alonso wants to be number 2 driver at ferrari next year

[Heini]

What an exciting qualy :) Well, actually it was exciting largly because of Heikki. Great to see him in the first row. Just hoping that the start will go well.

And hopefully Kimi will get a good start too. Wouldn't mind if he got past LH in the start. Though I'm not worried if that doesn't happen. Kimi is very good in races and on this track we may even see some passes. And I do believe Ferraris work better in Turkey than McLarens.

For some fun... A finnish newspaper is having "Witch is the best Kovalainen" competition. Readers sent there drawings of Heikki and now we get to vote witch is the best. You maybe don't understand the text but the pictures are great. My favorite is the first one. It has cunningly samekind of grin as Heikki.
Here's the link:
http://www.hs.fi/viihde/artikkeli/1135235943244
The competition is still open for a few days.

[Derek Smith]

It's so difficult to know what to read into the grid positions. Kimi habitually carries more fuel that Massa and that is the easy answer to the gap but, on looking at qualifying, it seems that Kimi's car had lost the plot.

And was it just tyre choice that kept Hamilton from second or even first? It's enough to give one a headache.

It appears that the race for pole is merely a question of tactics, the benefits of which may well depend on a pacecar deployment.

Is it good for the sport? Maybe. Can much be made of the grid positions? No.

But one thing it is is a bit disappointing. It seems a little pointless now. It was much more exciting when they could remove fuel caps on a Saturday evening.

[Anon]

The Toota-Red Bull- Williams fightseems ready to have a inner.

If Webber puts in a sixth place and if David brings himself back up (and he needs to score points or else all hell will break loose on him soon) Red Bull will clearly lead the fight, followed by Toyota. Williams seem to be off-pace and have been outscored by Toyota and Red Bull ever since Australia.

Ferrari- steady pace, I think Kimi is going for race pace rather than quali pace. He'll probably split the McLarens at the end. He did do a mistake on Turn 8, however, so maybe his fourth place is really what he deserves. Heikki (and Lewis) must be on low fuel so it is possible that he overtakes Massa which would really irritate him. By the way, I would say Massa Fortress is in Brazil. Alonso Kingdom is in Monaco (closely followed by Hungary Castle) and Kimi seems to be good everywhere.

McLaren- probably using low fuel. Will be very interesting to see how Lewis handles Heikki in the first turn. Lewis seemed quite depressed dring the pres conference. Maybe his slump isn't over yet- after all, the slump was interrupted by a win in Australia. So maybe this third place in Spain is just another quirk.

BMW- I would imagine that they have a lot of fuel onboard. They're down-to-earth approach might involve them having one pi sop or something. Nick seems to be down in a hole recently. I'd be surprised if it was just Kubica's form which is making him weak.

Red Bull- Last year, their archrivals were Williams, and now it seems that they are ready to take the upper hand. Webber is showing wesome pace in the car and Coulthard seems to have woken up. Last year, David seemed to be the most consistent of the drivers. Now, he's also consistent, except the standards have gone real low.

Renault- Alonso continues to dominate his teammate. Nelsinho must be completely submissive by now. Anyway, I tink he too is running with more fuel. At one point he was as high s second (there were like four drivers out, but still they were the top car) and now he's seventh, so maybe he can overtake Webber in the pits (by which I mean Webber pits earlier than him).

Toyota- Keep on fighting, Jarno. He seems to be giving all he has this season. THe old boss of Ferrari suggested having him as a driver at Ferrari-mainly because he's Italian, but the guy is good. I had my money down that Timo would get the better of him, bt nope.

Barrichello- outqualis his eammate, something he's been doing regularly. I think Button is very demoralized at Honda. Some people say he is a great pilot, a guy wh could be super-successful. But I've never really seen him drive an impressive race. He is luckier than Rubens, but he has to be careful because Rubens seems to have a firm upper-hand.

Piquet- by now Briatore must be getting impatient. Maybe Alonso has been defending Nelson, because I don't know why Flav hasn't been scolding him like he did Heikki last year. The thing is that if he wants to get rid of Nelson, it's much more difficult than getting rid of anybody else, because Nelson has a champ dad who won't be forgiving if his son doesn't get what he wants.

Force India- they have the commitment. Without Super Aguri, they now fall last, which is a pity. But their time will come soon. They'll socre points soon enough.

Well, so far I've seen every race except Malaysia and I will see Turkey at five int h morning tomorrow. I've seen every quali except Bahrain (which is shame, I would have loved to seeRobert take pole, but I was out of town).

Good day to everybody. As far as race predictions, this is a super difficult one to predict.Spins and reliability will have a big role here. Hopefully we'll get some good overtaking. I wana see some powerful starts fro Kimi and Fernando- I think they have some more cards up their sleeves.

[Ed Gorman]

Big night for Galatasaray in Istanbul after they won the Turkish league. The fans are out in their thousands celebrating and honking their car horns...it's like a Turkish version of Fellini's Roma.

Here is my incredibly adventurous prediction for tomorrow. I see Felipe winning from pole, Lewis getting the better of Heikki at the start and going onto finish second and Heikki finishing third. Kimi has a "boring" race and comes in fourth. Dull, I know, but it has the ring of truth(maybe). Finally the number of finishers: 17(pretty high, I know).

[IDR]

@ED,

Jo jo jo!

Those horns have distorted your mind!

Lets go with mines after some lemoncello:

1st Kova (Felipe goes out of track, three podiums in a row is too much for him)

2nd Kimi (he overtakes Kubica during 2nd pit stop)

3rd Kubica

4th F Alonso He overtakes Webber at the start and...

Poor L Hamilton... ¿remember that estrange word... Chuncking I think it was?

Oh my God! too much lemoncello indeed...

[Anon]

Coudn't disagree more, Mr. Gorman.

Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I think this rae will have some dynamics in store for us.

First off, Heikki is far tooclever to easily get overtaken by lewis. We've seen how Heikki has escaped from Kimi in Japan last year and Australia this ear. THe guy is smart at tempting drivrs into mistakes. And Idon't see Lewis doing an overtaking maneuvre like that on the bat.

It will be interesting to see that if the BMWs have a lot of fuel, how farcan they go? I believe the McLarens are pretty empty, so they will pitfast and maybe Robert and Kimi can get past Lewis or both. I think Robert has more fuel than Kimi, so maybe the whole order will switch.

Alonso probably has more fuel on board than everyody in front of im except for BMW. I am speculating now but I think this is reasonable.
I think e should be able to get past Webber for a solid sixth place.

We will also see how Coulthard will advance, because he has more fuel than anybody else. I am very curious to see how he performs, but his recent performances have been very disappointing.

I think it'll be interesting, but that is what is great about F1: you can't predict the unexpected.

Turkey actually allows for overtaking, so this will be better than Spain.

On a side note: Heidfeld. Is he in a slump? He was ninth in he Spanish quali and said he was disappointed. His race pace was pretty good though, ad if not for the ten second penalt he probably would have gotten some points. Now ninth in TUrkey, but Nick says hecan come back.

lthough some may find Javier funny, his point about Piquet and Alonso is good. To see how good Alonso is doing, we have to see the pace of the ar and then compare him to his teammate, while allowing or the teammate a good argin of error because he is a rookie.

But still, Fernando's domination of Piquet has been total. THe only thing Piquet has done is set a better race lap in Bahrain, where Pquet retired and Alonso' car was damaged. I wonder whether it is thecar that is very bad, Piquet good, and Alonso super-good or if it is an OK car, a bad Piquet, and a good ALonso.

[Jordi]

It's interesting to read that some of you suggest that Hamilton wrong choice of tyres was actually a premeditated strategy.

"...so I opted for the prime tyre (for Q3) because I felt it would be more consistent. I did it and I guess I made the wrong decision."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67292

Javierspanya: Keep it up!

I agree with Ed, Felipe will have an easy win. Hamilton is a better starter than Heikki (as long as he presses the right button) although, did you see Hamiltons lap in Q3? He was all over the place!
I think Hamilton is pushing very hard, too hard. We have seen him making mistakes before (actually cost him the championship last year) because he hasn't been able to manage his talent. He will not settle for second and I have the feeling that he will not finish the race.
Kimi having a boring day? May be, but he could also have a hangover free day and put the mclarens under pressure. There is no doubt that the Ferraris are faster.

So, I think we will have 2 interesting races. One between Heikki, Hamilton and Kimi, and the second one between Kubica, Webber and Alonso.

My prediccions
1-Felipe
2-Kimi
3-Heikki
4-Kubica
5-Alonso

[Dean Rodrigues]

RE: Heini

Great link - some classics in there, although number8 seems to be quite substantially in another league to the others. What really amazed me is how prevalent the the umlaut (I don't know if you call it that but it's what it's called in German) is in Finnish. Practically every vowel has one! Incredible...

Ed - I'm going to be driving from home in Kent back to uni slap bang during the GP (in order to be back in Oxford in time for the title-deciding Premiership kickoffs), so I sincerely hope that the race is as boring and un-action-filled as your prediction suggests it might be.

Knowing my luck, Adrian Sutil will probably drive a stormer from last place and give Force India their maiden victory, overtaking Felipe on the last corner having already carved Lewis round the outside of Turn 8. Though if that does happen, I will probably perform a May Day-style jump off Magdalen Bridge.

[IDR]

@HEINI

Great drawings!

I have voted for the drawing showing Kova at the podium with F Alonso 2nd and L Hamilton in the 3rd position

Quite funny to see the angry face of F Alonso! But seems to me that he is dressing Renault colours not McLaren’s ones, and then the face should be smiling!

It’s incredible the quality of the faces of the three drivers.

[CHIUNDA]

Ed, i am just surprised that u have hazarded a prediction - that is pretty out of character.

[Heini]

Hi, Dean!

Had to check what you meant by umlaut (pair of dots above a vowel). We say ääkköset :) But it includes only ä and ö. We don't use dots in any other letters.

Prediction for the race:
1. Massa
2. Kimi
3. Heikki

Maybe we have to wait for finnish one-two yet a little while longer.

[Candela]

Javiervivaspania: my sentiments exactly! ... I think I've fallen in love.

[Gary M]

Seen as we are making predictions...

The first ever real dead heat in F1 history!

1 - Kimi
1 - Massa
3 - Alonso

In an action packed race Lewis Hamilton is quickest off the start and pressing the wrong button manages to cause a huge pile up which sees nearly every single car taken out of the race in a super slow speed incident at the first corner.

From the wreckage emerges Sebastian Vettel and it quickly transpires he is the only car left in the race, he has glory in his sights as he accelerates towards the second corner when he unfortunately has to swerve to avoid a tree that has appeared at the apex to turn 2 and ends up spinning into the gravel.

When the race re-starts over an hour later we discover that Max Mosley has given the go ahead for Kimi to take his place behind the wheel of the freshly painted red safety car with Massa next to him in the passenger seat and Alonso having a bit of a nap in the back seat.

It is from this point a fairly uneventful race with the only moment of drama being Kimi's Celine Dion CD getting stuck in the stereo and forcing them to listen to the Turkish top 40 for the remainder of the race.

Alonso nearly wins the race as approaching the finish line he wakes up and managing to climb out of the sun roof he nearly makes it to the front of the bonnet, putting himself briefly into the lead. But a quick bit of thinking from Massa and his Indiana Jones whip ensures that he has to settle for 3rd place on the podium.

Ferrari have asked for the constructers points from the race, claiming that the safety car has used some of their top secret features. It looks likely that they may well get them.

Not a bad race really.

[Oliver]

Heikki is pretty clever and he won't stand in the way of Lewis. Clearly, Hamilton is going to overtake Kovalainen as soon as he can, regardless of whether Heikki is faster or not. This is his firt season in a competent car, so he can't miss the opportunity of being slowlier than his team-mate! He won't ruin it wining races! If Lewis realizes that Heikki is able to be faster than him, the Finnish will be invited to leave the team at the end of the season. Then he would have to return to Renault, he would have to fight to be on the points... He should not annoy the boss or he will be fired!

Yes, Hamilton will overtake Kovalainen, and the Finnish will smile at the end of the race, just as Barrichello used to do it when he was at Ferrari...

Anyway, second drivers have always behaved properly. Why do you think Nelsinho is doing it that bad? You might say he is doing all he can with that car and Fernando is just an amazing driver, but the truth is Piquet wants Alonso to be as happy as a first driver can be, so while the Spaniard don't see him in his rear-vision mirror, the Brazilian will keep his seat.

My prediction:

1.- Kimi
2.- Lewis
3.- Felipe
4.- Heikki
5.- Fernando
6.- Special K (come on, his name is Robert... You know who I'm talking about)