Fun F1

Valencia Circuit - One word - gorgeous!

European Grand Prix - One word - boring!

Despite being a rather boring race it was great to see a different track. Not only that, it was a rather beautiful track. Love the fact the cars had a bridge to go over too - nice touch Will be very interesting to see the Singapore Grand Prix later this year too. Anyway, back to the race, drivers and teams…

Felipe Massa - If ever a win was truly deserved it was this one. What a great way to come back from such a disappointment in the last round. Massa is driving like a man who well and truly deserves to be world champion. It’s amazing to think he had some really embarrassing moments earlier in the year. He’s put it all together now though and is showing he’s worthy. Well done!

Also, I don’t know what this cowabunga/shaka hand thing he was doing at the end of the race was, but it was funny   It was either cowabunga or a Twinings ad…
Lewis Hamilton - Not his best race, but still a strong result especially given he was a bit ill.

Kimi Raikkonen - The fact that his engine blew up doesn’t really hide the fact that his race performances are just terrible lately. I wonder if he can put it all back together like Massa did…

Fernando Alonso and the Spanish Fans - Oh, the pain!!   But hey, I think his qualifying performance was more painful…

Renault Engine - Seems to be the top of everyone’s most hated/unwanted list lately…

Robert Kubica - A rather “anonymous” drive. Nothing exciting, but another good result. Shame he hasn’t been able to keep the points ticking that well since his win earlier in the year…

Heikki Kovalainen - Another number 2 drive… and that could be number 2 as in driver or as in “I need to do a number 2″…

Sebastian Vettel - Proving once again he’s a star.

Red Bull vs Toro Rosso - Wow.. the Toro Rosso guys are really making their car work well now. Surely Red Bull can’t just blame the Renault engine alone can they? Maybe..

Toyota - Keep an eye on them, especially Timo Glock (even though Jarno Trulli finished higher)…

Honda - ke!?

Nick Heidfeld - It was nice knowing you…

I can’t imagine what Felipe Massa is feeling right now. After some dodgy drives this year he put together a stunning and perfect performance on Sunday - and all for nothing. Well, almost for nothing…

Felipe Massa - He may not have finished first, but he definitely won on Sunday. Felipe has won our respect and no doubt the respect of many others. More importantly - he broke Lewis Hamilton - a psychological victory that is possibly worth more than 10 points. Lewis was miles quicker than anyone all weekend, yet Felipe managed to break his confidence by sticking it to him in the first corner. Lewis, surprisingly, had no comeback after that. As the track warmed up, so did Massa. 3 laps from his most outstanding victory ever his hopes went up in smoke… Let’s hope he doesn’t get too depressed over the result. At the end of the day he’s still in the championship fight and he’s proved he would be a worthy champion to everyone.

Timo Glock - Wow. Where did Toyota come from? Again, another driver bouncing back from an accident with such a strong drive! Definitely up there with Massa for driver of the day!

Lewis Hamilton - Everything was pointing to Lewis completely dominating again, until Massa broke that sense of invincibility. Very unlucky with yet another tyre failure. Keeps it interesting I guess

Kimi Raikkonen - Fernando Alonso is really starting to cause problems for Kimi in races isn’t he? The fact is though, Kimi should be further up the front in qualifying so he doesn’t have to deal with passing Alonso for the majority of the race. He had great race pace once in clear air. Makes you wonder what could have been… Still, valuable points in the bag so not a total disaster like previous races.

Heikki Kovalainen - Some may question why we put Heikki so far down on the review… Well, he wasn’t really a factor in the race despite winning it. It’s like Heikki is just there for the ride. The performance difference between him and Lewis is ridiculous. Let’s hope this victory gets the monkey off his back and increases his confidence so he can close that gap. Needless to say, Heikki was very lucky to inherit the win from Massa. At least he seems like a nice bloke so congrats Heikki! Just make sure it’s not a one-off!!

Renault - A good strong race from both drivers. It’s always interesting to see how Nelson Piquet Jr keeps coming from a terrible grid position to a good result lately. And this time he didn’t even need the help of the pace car!

BMW - Hmm… Has development stopped?

Refuelling Rigs - How many fires can you have in one day? Thankfully no-one was hurt. I wonder if the manufacturer of these rigs is the same manufacturer that’s made them all these years. It’s one thing that they don’t seem to work half the time, it’s another thing when safety is an issue…

Is this the reason for Kimi’s poor form in Germany?

Poor Kimi.. he’s had a rough few weeks with pushing over photographers and now this… Admittedly it looks like it’s the woman who made contact with the girl as she got excited for an autograph from Kimi, but still, not a nice look…

I know it’s still early in the season, but it might be a good time to put that bet on Lewis Hamilton for the championship. McLaren are clearly faster than Ferrari now and the fact that Kimi’s driving is leaving a lot to be desired doesn’t help the cause at all…

Lewis Hamilton - Simply in another class, again…

McLaren - Talk about shooting yourself in the foot - their strategy of not bringing Lewis in during the safety car period was plain stupidity. They would have had egg on their face if Lewis had tangled with the cars he had to pass to retake the lead (which could have so easily happened given Lewis’ all-or-nothing passing style).

Nelson Piquet Jr - What a fantastic drive to 2nd place!! Well, not really… that was sarcasm there…   Still, I’m happy for Nelson but talk about luck! I wonder where he would have finished without the pace car.. 6th….. 6th last that is..?

Fernando Alonso - While I’m sure he’s happy for Nelson, he’d also be a bit disturbed that the Brazilian has outperformed him for a few races in a row - regardless of the luck involved. I think the turning point was when Sebastian Vettel forced him over the white line on the exit from the pits. I think Alonso was justified in being angry about that but it then seemed he lost the plot from then on. To his credit he did perform some nice passes throughout the race - usually with Kimi then passing him each time though…

Felipe Massa - Well, he did better than teammate Kimi at least but still…

Kimi Raikkonen -  What on earth is going on there? Kimi just hasn’t been himself in the last few races. It’s as if something was changed on the Ferrari that doesn’t work for him at all. Any ideas? Anyone? Aside from the lack of outright pace he did well to stay out of trouble while passing the likes of Alonso and others.

Ferrari - They’ve certainly lost a lot of ground to McLaren.

BMW - They’ve lose even more ground to McLaren and Ferrari…

Nick Heidfeld - If this guy could qualify better he’d probably be up there with teammate Robert Kubica in the championship.

Robert Kubica - Seems to be suffering by the fact BMW are dropping off the pace. Give him a quick car and he’s super quick. Give him a slow one and he just doesn’t seem to get much out of it.

Edit: Seems YouTube has taken down the original video, so we had to link to a video with commentary from, erm… Borat…

I didn’t realise until after the race, but before the British Grand Prix on Sunday Kimi Raikkonen pushed the well renowned photographer Paul-Henri Cahier to the ground when he got a little too close. According to the Ferrari camp, Paul was standing on Kimi’s equipment. According to Paul’s web site, he never touched Kimi’s equipment nor touched Kimi himself.

To me it looks like his camera lens touched Kimi’s helmet as Kimi bent down. The fact that Kimi takes his helmet off straight away would seem to confirm this (is he checking the helmet isn’t damaged?). In any case I put this down as a “racing incident” (ie. both parties are to blame)

What does everyone else think? In any case, it’s not quite as entertaining as Kimi’s former teammate Juan Pablo Montoya though…