Official F1 Thread

Melbourne Grand Prix....good god what a mess that was.

Will the Aussies pony up the dough and make this a night race next year? If so, that'd be awesome.

QUOTE

Hamilton victorious in action-packed Albert Park race

Lewis Hamilton’s win for McLaren at the Australian Grand Prix almost went unnoticed in Albert Park this afternoon - and that tells you just what sort of race it was. The 23 year-old Briton dominated an event characterised by safety car interventions following a series of dramatic incidents that all happened behind him.

Hamilton would build a lead, lose it behind the safety car, build it again, lose it again. You get the picture. But if he was impressive here a year ago, he was even better on Sunday, never losing his composure as he took the lead of the world championship with almost insouciant ease.

If it was a great day for McLaren, it was a disaster for Ferrari. Felipe Massa spun on the first lap and was then involved in an incident with Red Bull’s David Coulthard before retiring, and Kimi Raikkonen, having benefited from the second safety car intervention, slid off the road trying to pass McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and undid all that work. Then his Ferrari let him down when he was running seventh with three laps to go.

Indeed, McLaren should have had a one-two, but a third safety car intervention following a heavy accident for Toyota’s Timo Glock badly hurt Kovalainen’s chances as he had to pit when everyone had closed up. He dropped way back, was passed by Raikkonen, repassed him, then found himself overtaken by Renault’s Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard overtook both of his rivals in a wonderful move.

After fighting back, Kovalainen repassed the Renault with two laps to go, only to have his car falter momentarily as they crossed the line for the 57th time. As he wiped oil off his visor he accidentally triggered the pit-lane speed limiter and a relieved Alonso pounced to head his former team mate home in fourth place.

Ahead of them, Nick Heidfeld brought his BMW Sauber home an excellent second, chased by Nico Rosberg, whose Toyota-engined Williams was the fas-*test*-('") car on the track in the closing stages. It was the young German’s first podium.

The race began with drama as an incident in the first corner involved Honda’s Jenson Button, Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Super Aguri’s Anthony Davidson and Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel, and led directly or indirectly to their retirements.

Jarno Trulli looked set for good points until his Toyota let him down, and Nelson Piquet’s debut for Renault was little short of disastrous as he trailed at the back and failed to make it home.

Sebastien Bourdais and his Toro Rosso crew made a great call on strategy and were running fourth, ahead of Alonso and Kovalainen with three laps to go, but were stymied by engine failure. Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Super Aguri’s Takuma Sato similarly failed to make the finish.

“The team did a fantastic job as always, and the car was phenomenal, a complete dream to drive compared to last year,” a delighted Hamilton said. “They pulled me in early on both stops and that kept us out of trouble. Physically the race was a breeze, and great preparation for Malaysia, so bring it on, I’m really looking forward to it.”

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/3/7494.html

Fatal crash of Ayrton Senna at Imola, San Marino May 1994

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRs8xK3TBPQ&feature=related

Fatal crash Roland Ratzenberger Imola, San Marino 1994

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYf1wDCIsIo&feature=related

Ayrton Senna was my favorite F1 driver of all time. It sucked that both Senna and Ratzenberger passed away the same weekend. The race should have been stopped after Ratzenberger died the day before Senna. What a disasterous weekend for the F1 world.

Rest in peace Ayrton and Roland.

May they rest in peace.

Senna was my favourite growing up.

Akavak, they wont move the race to a night start, instead they have moved it to a 5.30pm start next year. Ecclestone wont renew the contract after 2010 unless its a night race. I dont understand why they wont do a night race though, Singapore is doing it. greekturkish/nixweiss.gif

Zeus i think you'll find its a 5pm start next year.

QUOTE (Zeus @ March 17, 2008 12:19 am)

Akavak, they wont move the race to a night start, instead they have moved it to a 5.30pm start next year. Ecclestone wont renew the contract after 2010 unless its a night race. I dont understand why they wont do a night race though, Singapore is doing it. greekturkish/nixweiss.gif

That blows. That circuit is begging to be lit up. Melbourne along with Monza in Italy are my favorite circuits.

Well Akavak, Sydney want's to host it after 2010. They say they will do whatever it takes to get the Eastern Creek circuit up to F1 standards for a night race. But I dont think Ecclestone wants to move it to Sydney, he wants Melbourne night race or no race in Australia. Unless Adelaide steps in with the old street circuit that was used before Melbourne, and does a night race. But the chances of that happening are 0 to -100 currently. So looks like 2010 will be the last F1 in Australia.

Melbourne has lost its F1 vibe and by the looks of things, Melbournians are no longer interested in it anymore. Promoters are bending over backwards to attract any crowds but they're failing each year... Melbourne has lost $50million just in F1 this year alone and that's of course comming out of tax payers pockets, ticket sales dosn't cover the cost of running the event anylonger.

When F1 was first introduced to Melbourne 10-15 years ago, it used to gain twice the spectator numbers than what it does now. We have a habit of losing appeal on things when it becomes too repetative.

Ciao F1 greekturkish/hang.gif