Monday, March 24, 2008

Formula One - Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix

The warm up lap, followed by the start of the race!


Kimi Raikonnen and Felipe Massa (Scudeira Ferrari) would lead most of the way, and I enjoyed watching the duo pair up in front of the pack for many a lap at the start of the race ...


Track side! I went down from my seat (5 rows up) to the bottom row to have a feel ... and it was EVEN louder. Ear piercingly loud, and the vibrations were incredible ... so much so it was difficult to even take photos, the camera was practically vibrating with the 19,000 rpm cars!


We had a perfect view of the pits!
The Star ... "Hamilton, winner of the season-opening Australian GP last week, finished in fifth place after a pit-stop mistake by his crew delayed him by nearly 20 seconds. " This was actually caused by a problem with an air-gun, oh oh!


Here's the Renault ING team at work!


The best in the business ... Ferrari pit crew had no problems!


Oh oh ... the only drama in the race (besides the botched Mclaren Mercedes pit job for Hamilton!) ... On the 31st lap, Massa spun out of an easy second place!
I love the pit action!
More race action ...

Another Ferrari pit stop ... Go Kimi!
Hamilton Lewis, winner of the 1st GP of 2008 (Australia) played catch up most of the race ... Check this out with 36 laps to go and with 1 lap to go, he was 6th and then 5th.

Red Bull ... gives you wings!


Kimi cruising to the finish ... and a Finnish fan with a cool fish-rod-style Finland flag!

My dad and his Nikon D80 :-)

Go Scudeira Ferrari!
Sepang will never be forgotten by first time podium finishers by Polish driver Robert Kubica (BMW) who came in second ... And, fellow Fin Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes) in third place.
And the final results ...
1 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:31:18.555 / 10 pts
2 Robert Kubica BMW +19.5 secs / 8 pts
3 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes +38.4 secs / 6 pts
4 Jarno Trulli Toyota +45.8 secs / 5 pts
5 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +46.5 secs / 4 pts
6 Nick Heidfeld BMW +49.8 secs / 3 pts
7 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault +68.1 secs / 2 pts
8 Fernando Alonso Renault +70.0 secs / 1pt
This is a pic of a very happy Heikki Kovalainen, who came in 3rd, scoring 6 points for Vodaphone Mclaren Mercedes!
Other news ...
Renault ING team results ... Fernando Alonso salvaged a solo point in 8th place, and Nelsinho Piquet came in 11th.
Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais was the first retirement, falling off on the opening lap. Rosberg clobbered Timo Glock then, too, necessitating a pit stop for a new nose cone. The Williams continued, the Toyota was through for the day.
Adrian Sutil suffered a mechanical problem that stopped his Force India out on the track, while Sebastian Vettel suffered either engine or transmission failure that brought him to a smoky halt.
In all ... only 5 retirements, with 17 finishers. Guess it was due to the GREAT WEATHER, as well as the drivers getting used to the absence of Traction Control and other electonic aids!
The result leaves Hamilton still leading the world championship for drivers with 14 points, ahead of Raikkonen and Heidfeld on 11 apiece. In the constructors’ chase, McLaren lead with 24, ahead of BMW Sauber on 19 and Ferrari on 11.

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