F1 2004 - Let the race begin :D

[MPI]

Bloody brilliant drive by Jenson, the third sector time was stunning. Most people are speculating about the fuel load, but I'm not so sure they're running excessively light actually...

There's some inaccuracies in that news clip(?) you posted though... Jenson wasn't the first breaking into the 19:s this weekend, Montoya did it first in pre-qualifying. And 0.025 seconds should of course be 0.25 seconds...

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Yep .. awesome driver by Jenson.

Maybe we'll see a Jenson/Honda/Bar win after all.

Yes that's supposed to be 0.25 secs

Go! Go! Go!

US

 

[Unknown Soldier]

BUTTON STUNS FERRARI AT IMOLA - Better Qualifying report

Jenson Button produced an inspired lap to clinch his first ever pole position in Ferrari’s backyard.

Button stunned the Tifosi by deservedly pipping a hard-charging Michael Schumacher at Imola.

The BAR star stormed around the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in 1m19.753s to chalk up yet another first in what is fast becoming a very memorable year for him.

Schumacher, who has started every race this year from first on the grid, gave it everything in a bid to beat Button's time.

And the world champion eventually paid the price at Variante Alta, where he nearly lost control over the kerbs, dropping precious tenths of a second and handing top spot to Button.

The Briton still had an anxious wait while the Williams completed their flying laps but Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher could manage only third and fifth places.

The result understandably produced scenes of riotous celebration in the BAR garage. After all, this was not only Button's maiden pole but the team's too.

Everyone had expected the Ferraris to be further ahead than ever this weekend. And while they may yet prove difficult to beat in race trim, it was refreshing to see someone - and especially a Brit - end Schumacher's hegemony in qualifying.

The German will have team-mate Rubens Barrichello directly behind him in fourth, the Brazilian splitting the two Williams.

And after struggling for much of the weekend, Renault duo Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli put in solid laps to qualify sixth and ninth.

Jaguar's Mark Webber could have beaten the pair of them but slipped wide at the second Rivazza and had to settle for eighth, just behind Takuma Sato.

Cristiano da Matta pipped David Coulthard to the final spot in the top 10. The Scot had been impressive in first qualifying but, not for the first time, produced a lacklustre lap when it counted.

Lower down the grid, there was a boost for Jordan's Giorgio Pantano, who outqualified more-experienced team-mate Nick Heidfeld for the first time.

The session started with a bang when the hapless Zsolt Baumgartner spun at the Variante Alta, the same corner that later caught out Schumacher. The Hungarian completed his lap 20 seconds adrift of team-mate Gimmi Bruni.


But Baumgartner has escaped starting on the back row of the grid because two cars failed to set times.

One of those was the McLaren of the luckless Kimi Raikkonen. Just when the Finn must have been thinking his luck could get no worse, yet another engine problem was detected during first qualifying, necessitating a change before the race.

Raikkonen completed his installation lap in order to scrub his tyres but did not bother with a flyer as he would have been forced to start last anyway.

Joining Raikkonen on the back row will be Giancarlo Fisichella.

The Italian’s season of frustration continued when stewards informed him that a second would be added to his time for failing to back off when the yellow flags were out in morning practice.

But that handicap became academic when a gearbox problem left Fisichella stranded in the garage.

Grid for the San Marino Grand Prix

1 Button BAR 1m19.753s
2 M.Schumacher Ferrari 1m20.011s
3 Montoya Williams 1m20.212s
4 Barrichello Ferrari 1m20.451s
5 R.Schumacher Williams 1m20.538s
6 Alonso Renault 1m20.895s
7 Sato BAR 1m20.913s
8 Webber Jaguar 1m20.921s
9 Trulli Renault 1m21.034s
1 da Matta Toyota 1m21.087s
11 Coulthard McLaren 1m21.091s
12 Massa Sauber 1m21.532s
13 Panis Toyota 1m21.558s
14 Klien Jaguar 1m21.949s
15 Pantano Jordan 1m23.352s
16 Heidfeld Jordan 1m23.488s
17 Bruni Minardi 1m26.899s
18 Baumgartner Minardi 1m46.299s
19 Raikkonen McLaren No Time
20 Fisichella Sauber No Time

 

[Mendel]

Raikkonen completed his installation lap in order to scrub his tyres but did not bother with a flyer as he would have been forced to start last anyway.

But was one lap enough for that? How many laps do you need to drive to make tyres optimally... eh... "scrubbed"? Anyways... as I am a Finnish F1 fan... imagine my pain! No... you can't

 

[Mendel]

Hehehe Imola is just a 1H drive from my home in Bologna... Awwww the memories... Dreadful place to live in (Imola i mean), but hey, i'm a Bologna aristocrat... (yeah right...)

Oh...my...god... you make me jealous You have no idea how much I would want to just take a 1 hour bus to my closest F1 track and witness the race with my own eyes... probably I would be hugely disappointed having seen nowhere near as much as through my tv at home but even so... Wish I could be there

 

[V3]

Ohh I can't wait for the race, this should be a good race.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Schumacher again at Imola

Michael Schumacher kept up his remarkable start to the 2004 Formula 1 World Championship, scoring his fourth win from four starts in the San Marino Grand Prix. Pole sitter Jenson Button led until the first round of pitstops, but had to settle for a distant second place.

Early on, it looked like someone – at last – had got it together to take the fight to Schumacher and Ferrari. Button made a cracking start, and drove away from Schuey in fantastic style early on, Jenson admitting to "wringing the neck of the car". By the end of lap one, he was an amazing 2.7secs ahead – although that was exaggerated by Schumacher getting tangled up with Juan Pablo Montoya on the opening lap.

Reality was to strike eight laps in, when Button headed for the pits and Schumacher, who closed in on him but could not challenge, stayed out until lap 11 and set some amazingly quick lap times that were right on qualifying pace. Schuey rejoined with a six-second advantage, helped by the fact that Button's first stop was relatively slow.

Rewinding to that opening lap, Schumacher infuriated Montoya with his tactics at Tosa, Juan Pablo attacking around the outside of the hairpin, just as he did at the Nurburgring last year, but this time Michael hustled the Colombian onto the dirt on the exit. That allowed Ralf Schumacher to get a run on Montoya up the hill, but Juan Pablo squeezed him onto the grass, which allowed the second BAR of Takuma Sato up to fourth.

Once Schumacher was in front, it was what technical director Ross Brawn classed as a "straightforward race" for him. The only blip came after his second stop, when Michael struggled for pace for a couple of laps. An 18sec lead dipped as low as 14.4s at half distance, but Schuey got the hammer down once more and normal service was resumed, and win number 74 was a formality.

"It too a lap or two to get up to temperature and give chase to Jenson," he said of the opening laps. "It was mindblowing what Jenson did on the opening lap. I thought it was raining in front of me and dry for him! He was going into nowhere. I knew it would be a busy and tough afternoon, but we were able to keep up our pace and they seemed to drop off a little bit from their initial pace."

On his scrap with Montoya, Schuey said: "It was very slippery on my side of the grid and I was fighting with Juan. Obviously I wanted to avoid him getting by, because I knew I was going to get faster, and I wanted to stay in touch with Jenson."

Button might have been disappointed to lose his shot at victory, but it didn't show after the race. His first ever runner-up spot was only threatened when Takuma Sato's Honda engine blew in massive style with a handful of laps remaining, but a reduction of pace meant everything hung together.

"The first lap was fantastic," he said. "I was very happy with my pace in the first stint. After we refuelled, I seemed to struggle a little bit compared to Michael. The car was a little bit twitchy today, more than we'd expected, so it was a little difficult to drive. Even with those problems, the pace was still pretty good."

After his early contretemps with Schuey, Montoya was consigned to racing for third as he was unable to live with Button's pace either. In the latter stages he had to raise his pace to keep Renault's Fernando Alonso at bay, but Juan Pablo was keen to stress his unhappiness after the race about what happened on the opening lap.

"I went to pass him and he closed the door on me," said Montoya. "I had to back off, and he did the same at the next corner. Coming out of the turn [Tosa] he came straight towards me and hit me, putting me in the grass. It's very disappointing to see racing like that."

Alonso's fourth place was what he described as a "tough one". Only after his final stop did he rise to fifth, ahead of battle between team-mate Jarno Trulli and the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello. The Spaniard then set off after Ralf Schumacher, and attacked the German under braking for Tosa after Ralf made a mistake on the exit of the second chicane.

Although he got half his car alongside, Schumacher turned in – effectively spinning himself around the Renault, which escaped unscathed. Alonso said: "I tried to overtake him and he closed the door, unfortunately we touched. At least we both finished the race [Schumacher slipping back to seventh], so that was okay. I think he saw me trying to pass, and he closed the door in a bad way."

US

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Sato flies at Mugello
BAR-Hondas top the times with latest Barcelona-spec engines

Takuma Sato gave further confirmation of BAR's gathering speed when he set the fastest time on the third day of the Mugello test - almost half a second quicker than Michael Schumacher went the day before.

"The car has improved so much," said Sato, "and the engine is so good." The engine he was talking about is a new version of Honda's V10, which he and Jenson Button will use in Barcelona.

Sato had used his Barcelona-spec motor yesterday too. It had completed its scheduled mileage by the middle of today and so was changed for another, further-developed, unit. However soon after the change, the Japanese driver's car ground to a halt with a driveshaft failure.

Button was also on-hand and running a Barcelona-spec engine. He was second fastest, marginally outside Schumacher's Wednesday mark. The Briton had both a new front wing and a new rear wing to try, while Sato only got to use the new front wing.

"We were doing a tyre test and an aero test - a normal session for us," explained Button. "We found some small improvements and tried some new parts for the next grand prix."

Sato's driveshaft failure meant that he couldn't complete his own tyre programme ahead of Barcelona, and so will have to rely on input from Button, who continues testing tomorrow. Sato will hand his car over to Anthony Davidson.

Olivier Panis was third quickest for Toyota. The Frenchman was scheduled to run set-up and tyre programmes, but ran into a chassis problem and could not complete his tyre runs, which were taken on by test driver Ricardo Zonta. The Brazilian eventually ran a monster 130 laps over the course of the day - almost twice as many as anyone else.

Rubens Barrichello was the only Ferrari driver present. He was due to work on set-up and tyres, but ran into chassis problems and only completed 45 laps, with a best time of 1m20.896s.

Finally Minardi joined the party with Gianmaria Bruni who was working on set-up and trying to find some of the speed that the team has found elusive to date. The Italian's best lap was significantly slower than anyone else's.

The test continues tomorrow.

Mugello testing day 3 (unofficial)
Pos Driver Chassis-engine Tyres Time Laps
1 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda M 1m19.150s 67
2 Jenson Button BAR-Honda M 1m19.601s 62
3 Olivier Panis Toyota M 1m20.107s 54
4 Ricardo Zonta Toyota M 1m20.123s 130
5 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 1m20.896s 45
6 Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth M 1m23.921s 68

--------------------------

So will Barcelona be the first track that Ferrari fails to win?

US

 

[London Geezer]

So will Barcelona be the first track that Ferrari fails to win?

US

I wouldn't hold my breath... I mean, i'm italian, i want Ferrari to take over the world and make us all Ferrari Drones, but come on, a bit of variety wouldn't hurt...

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I wouldn't hold my breath... I mean, i'm italian, i want Ferrari to take over the world and make us all Ferrari Drones, but come on, a bit of variety wouldn't hurt...

I'm Portuguese

US

 

[hjs]

http://emails.spymac.net/DTMEstorilVids.rar
http://emails.spymac.net/DTM_estoril.zip

I just saw the overtake action from the dutch guy Alberts in this movies, very cool action !!
(watch the long movie or dtm_stroril_amasingtwitchandsave )

When will he be in the F1?

 

[London Geezer]

Hehehe Imola is just a 1H drive from my home in Bologna... Awwww the memories... Dreadful place to live in (Imola i mean), but hey, i'm a Bologna aristocrat... (yeah right...)

Oh...my...god... you make me jealous You have no idea how much I would want to just take a 1 hour bus to my closest F1 track and witness the race with my own eyes... probably I would be hugely disappointed having seen nowhere near as much as through my tv at home but even so... Wish I could be there

Yes that's it,
1) It's very expensive to get there, and it's VERY VERY expensive to get nice seats, as in so u can see more than 10 meters of track
2) On TV the cars look MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH slower than they really are. It's kinda scary at times... On TV the camera follows the cars, therefore you can't really see the speed of them, apart from the In-Car views. Seeing the cars racing in front of you is downright SCARY. Their accelleration, their pure SPEED...
3) Did i mention it's quite expensive? even to just sit on the grass to look at 2 square meters of tracks with coloured blurs passing by every now and then...
4) The cars are LOUD. Again, TV doesn't really give that impression MUCH. If you're there, it can get a little too much at times depending on your distance from the cars, and on how many cars are in front of u at once... Deafening at times...

 

[MPI]

Well, well, well... will 2007 be the last year of F1 as we know it? Today's shocker is the teams actually agreed to most of Oswald Mosley's boy's crap.

http://www.autosport.com/newsitem.asp?id=27086&s=5 (reg. required, but hey, it's autosport ffs)

This makes me sick to my stomach, actually. I mean, wtf? The only good thing I can see ATM is that semi-auto boxes stays and qualifying is changed. Got to let this sink in. I'm in shock.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Well Monaco GP is up and it's about the best chance to see someone other than MS win a GP this year. Last year JPM won and if he or Button can get ahead of MS in Qualifying then they might just be able to win the GP.

Bets up.. Whois gonna win?

My bet MS.

US

 

[Bjorn]

Bets up.. Whois gonna win?

My bet MS.

US

You're not going to get high odds on that one though

 

[Unknown Soldier]

You're not going to get high odds on that one though

hey you never know. Lets take the facts. Ferrari haven't won at Monaco for the last two years. Coultard won in 2002 and Montoya in 2003.
Montoya had Pole position in 2002 and didn't in 2003.

Montoya is most probably the best bet to win the Monaco Gp this year .. although MS has a very good chance. Then also don't rule out Button who is after his first GP win.

US

 

[StefanS]

hey you never know. Lets take the facts. Ferrari haven't won at Monaco for the last two years. Coultard won in 2002 and Montoya in 2003.
Montoya had Pole position in 2002 and didn't in 2003.

Montoya is most probably the best bet to win the Monaco Gp this year .. although MS has a very good chance. Then also don't rule out Button who is after his first GP win.

Well, last year Montoya drove a modified BMW, which was constructed for Monaco only (less distance between axes). But this year their chasis is so complex that they won't have that option.
Button could be a rival for MS, though.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Michael Schumacher started as he intends to continue by setting the pace in the first practice session ahead of Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix. The Ferrari star, who already has five wins from five races to his credit this year, stopped the clocks in 1:16.502s, nearly eight- tenths faster than his nearest rivals. In what was an action-packed first session, BAR Honda continued to show the way to all but Michael Schumacher as Takuma Sato took the second spot less than a tenth of a second ahead of team-mate Jenson Button.

While things appeared to be relatively smooth for Ferrari and BAR, some of their rivals suffered problems even at this early stage of the weekend.

With temperatures hovering in the mid-twenties, the Monaco weekend kicked off with the first 60-minute practice session of the day. Anthony Davidson set the initial pace in his BAR Honda, trading places several times with Fernando Alonso until the Renault driver set a 1:18.640s best and Juan Pablo Montoya vaulted into third spot behind Davidson. With Montoya lapping fast, team-mate Ralf Schumacher’s session proved brief as he stopped his BMW Williams at Piscine after just three laps and without having recorded a lap time.

At the mid-point of the session, notable in their absence were the Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Giancarlo Fisichella meanwhile banged in a fast lap 1:18.441s on his fourth tour in his Bridgestone shod Sauber to take the fastest time away from Alonso and Renault.

The session was brought to a halt after 32-minutes as Mark Webber brought his Jaguar Ford to a halt with a reported engine fire. The Australian had just recorded the fifth fastest time of the session in the newly liveried Ocean’s 12 and Steinmetz R5 and now faces the very real possibility of starting the race towards the back of the pack if the team are forced to change the V10 unit.

After a seven-minute halt to proceedings, Davidson resumed his quest to top the timesheets, moving fastest on a 1:17.791 as ‘team-mate’ Jenson Button slotted into second position. Seconds later it was all- change as Michael Schumacher moved to the head of the timesheets with a lap in 1:17.593s, a position he would retain until the dying minutes of the session when Ricard Zonta produced the surprise of the session in his Toyota – a lap in 1:17.426. Not to be out-done by a Toyota test driver, Schumacher immediately responded with a lap in 1:16.502, a time that would remain unbeaten. Sadly for Zonta, both Takuma Sato and Jenson Button also beat his best time as the session drew to a close.

With Michael Schumacher out front ahead of the impressive BAR Honda duo of Sato and Button, Ricardo Zonta was an impressive fourth fastest. To put the Brazilian test driver’s pace into some kind of perspective, regular Toyota racers Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis were 13th and 14th fastest, some 1.4 seconds adrift.

David Coulthard took the fifth spot for McLaren Mercedes, half a second clear of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who was just 10th fastest. Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest in his Renault closely pursued by Davidson’s BAR Honda and Jarno Trulli in the second Renault.

Over at BMW Williams, Juan Pablo Montoya dropped to ninth by the end of the session while Ralf Schumacher – Pole Position holder last year at Monaco – the session was a disaster as the German failed to record a time.

Giancarlo Fisichella topped the timesheets briefly in his Sauber, but soon dropped too 11th overall while Felipe Massa was 16th. Surprise of the session – or disappointment of the session – was Rubens Barrichello who was just 12th fastest in his Ferrari F2004, some 2.119s slower than Michael Schumacher.

Over at Jaguar, the session was not what they would have wished for. With Webber eliminated after an engine fire, Bjorn Wirdheim completed 18 laps before his R5 cried enough and stopped on track at the exit of the tunnel. Christian Klien was just 17th fastest ahead of Giorgio Pantano’s Jordan Ford.

Timo Glock completed 15 laps in his Jordan until problems curtailed his running for the session, but still managed to out-pace Nick Heidfeld who lies flat last in the Championship Standings and has gone on record this week in saying he wants a more experienced team- mate. Heidfeld was 21st ahead of Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner and Bas Leinders in their Minardis.

 

[V3]

Incidents or accidents filled race. Haven't seen one like that since Brazil last year. Congrats to the new winner Trulli. Pretty much lead the race all the way from poll.

What do you guys think of this race ? It was pretty scary when one of the car flip.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Incidents or accidents filled race. Haven't seen one like that since Brazil last year. Congrats to the new winner Trulli. Pretty much lead the race all the way from poll.

What do you guys think of this race ? It was pretty scary when one of the car flip.

I thought it showed many reasons why Monaco should no longer be a F1 circuit. It's boring (except for the accidents) in terms of driving/overtaking and dangerous, and would not be allowed on a modern track. It's part time nature showed in the atrocious and often dangerous marshalling. It's a wonder no driver or marshal was killed.

Of course no one will say a word against it because it's where they take all the corporate sponsors to booze it up every year in order to losen their pockets.