Barcelona Testing Update: Day 1

Felipe Massa was fastest at Barcelona by 2.7 seconds, the Brazillian was on of many drivers testing slick tyres. Ferrari were also testing a new nose section which has 2 slots cut into the top surface to aid downforce.

Honda's Alex Wurz was seconds, with McLaren's tester Pedro De La Rosa 3rd, testing 2009 aerodynamics. Nick Heidfeld was fourth for BMW on 2008 tyres.

Later in the test, Michael Schumacher will once again take to the track for Ferrari.





Day 1 Results:

1. MASSA Ferrari 1m18.339s
2. WURZ Honda 1m21.059s
3. DE LA ROSA McLaren 1m21.556s
4. HEIDFELD BMW 1m21.679s
5. PIQUET Renault 1m22.125s
6. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m22.197s
7. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m22.431s
8. GLOCK Toyota 1m22.590s
9. LIUZZI Force India 1m22.846s

BTCC Rockingham Review

There were 3 different race winners in another exciting day of BTCC action.

Gordon Shedden won for Team Halfords in his Honda Civic in race 1, leading home Darren Turner and Vauxhall's Matt Neal. Independant driver Adam Jones was 4th in his petrol powered Seat Leon. Fabrizio Giovanardi was 5th in race 1, with Matt Jackson 6th.

In race 2, Matt Jackson took a fine victory from 6th on the grid, with Giovanardi second having started 5th. Darren Turner led initially in his diesel Leon but then lost momentum when he was passed by Giovanardi. Jackson followed past as well into second and soon after overtook Giovanardi when the Italian ran slightly off the track.

For race 3, the top 8 places were reversed for the grid, meaning Adam Jones and Tom Chilton started on the front row. The start was aborted so everyone could change to wets as the rain was coming down hard. Once the race did get underway, Colin Turkington pulled out a big lead, only to lose it when the safety car was deployed. This benefitted Jason Plato who had earlier had a 30 second stop go penalty as his mechanics were on the grid after the 3 minute limit before the race. When the race restarted Turkington lost his lead to Tom Chilton after a couple of laps, who then ran wide letting Turkington back through. Matt Jackson attacked the RAC car, but there was contact sending Jackson into the gravel. Eventually Matt Neal got past Turkington, and went on to take his first win in 13 months. Turkington came home 7th, losing many places in the closing stages. Tom Chilton and Adam Jones made it onto the podium, with Gordon Shedden 4th, Giovanardi kept his championship lead with 5th, and Plato recovered to take 6th. Rob Collard and Erkut Kizilirmak took their first points of the season with 8th and 10th respectively.

Championship Standings after race 6:

1 Fabrizio Giovanardi, VX Racing, 63

2 Mat Jackson, BMW Dealer Team UK, 56

3 Gordon Shedden, Team Halfords, 50

4 Matt Neal, VX Racing, 47

5 Darren Turner, Seat Sport UK, 38

6 Jason Plato, Seat Sport UK, 35

7 Colin Turkington, Team RAC, 30

8 Tom Chilton, Team Halfords, 25

9 Adam Jones, Team Air Cool, 23

10 Tom Onslow-Cole, VX Racing, 20

Moto GP Estoril Review

Rookie Jorge Lorenzo took his maiden Moto GP win in only his 3rd race in Portugal. He led home Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi, who was a long way off the top 2. Pedrosa made a late charge for victory but could only manage 2nd.


Reigning world champion Casey Stoner was out of the top 10 at one point, but finished up 6th. Nicky Hayden was set to finish 4th, but he crashed, Colin Edwards inheriting the position. James Toseland, Chris Vermulen, Loris Capirossi and Shinya Nakano rounded out the top 10.

After Estoril the championship table looks like this:

1 J Lorenzo, Yamaha, 61
2 D Pedrosa, Honda, 61
3 V Rossi, Yamaha, 47
4 C Stoner, Ducati, 40
5 J Toseland, Yamaha, 29
6 L Capirossi, Suzuki, 26
7 J Hopkins, Kawasaki, 24
8 C Edwards, Yamaha, 22
9 A Dovizioso, Honda, 21
10 N Hayden, Honda, 19

DTM Hockenheim Review

Audi dominated as defending champion Mattias Ekstrom took victory at Hockenheim.

Swedish driver Ekstrom led an Audi 1-2-3, Timo Scheider and a distant Tom Kristensen making up the podium. Scheider was close to Ekstrom all race, pushing him hard and rarely falling more than a second behind. Bruno Spengler was the highest placed Mercedes in 4th, with another Audi, Marting Tomczyk in 5th. Tomczyk was unable to find a way past the Mercedes of Spengler, depite nearly colliding with him with 2 laps to go.

Jamie Green was 6th after a queit race, and former champion Gary Paffet was 7th in his 2007 spec car. Debutant and former Grand Prix winner Ralf Schumacher was 14th. He had a quiet race and was unable to get close enough to the battle between Alexandre Premat, Markus Winkelhock and Paul di Resta too attempt a move.

Former Formula 1 driver Christijan Albers was the only non finisher.

Selected Driver Quotes

"The car was simply fantastic. I want to thank Audi Sport and everyone in my team who had a part in creating such a good car. These were the best prerequisites. I was able to really enjoy the race because the car did everything I expect a racing car to do. In the end, we clinched places one to three, which is great for the team. I think after such a good weekend, we definitely deserved this result." Mattias Ekstrom, P1

"At my first DTM race the atmosphere was fantastic, which was a pleasant experience. Unfortunately, our race didn’t go according to plan because we had a few problems. But we did finish and can learn from this." Katherine Legge, P18

"We had a very good day on Saturday, but Sunday was a bad day. I had a normal start. After that, I was fighting with Markus Winkelhock and the other Audi drivers. But then Ralf Schumacher came from behind and hit my right front wheel. As a result my suspension broke." Christijan Albers, DNF

"My race was good even though it hadn’t started well. I lost a few places at the start. The car had a great setup and was running very well over the whole distance. After my second pit stop I caught Bruno (Spengler). It was a very tough but always fair duel. I was lacking a tiny bit of speed to overtake him. It was the first race, so a scoring points is more important than trying to force the issue." Martin Tomczyk, P5

BTCC Rockingham Preview

The BTCC returns to Rockingham for the second round of the 2008 championship. In the opening races at Brands Hatch Fabrizio Giovanardi made the best possible start to his title defence, taking 2 wins and leading the championship after the first 3 races. Matt Jackson also impressed, taking 2 podiums and trailing Giovanardi by only 2 points. Colin Turkington improved race by race, and took a win in race 3. Seat are yet to maximise the full power of their new Diesel Leon, but Jason Plato still managed to get on the podium.

Last year Rockingham was a very good circuit for Vauxhall. They took a 1-2 in race 1, the Giovanardi won again in race 2 with Tom Chilton 3rd. Jason Plato won the 3rd race in 2007. Vauxhall were so strong here last year due to the superior power they had over Seat, but now with their new diesel, Seat will have some extra power. We will just have to see if the drivers can maximise what the car can do though, or if they are still getting used to it. Matt Jackson and Colin Turkington are sure to be strong again, and the Team Halfords Honda Civics could also be up fighting for the podium.

We are also likely to see a very close battle for lower points positions as the likes of Rob Collard, Stephen Jelley, Steven Cane, Adam Jones, Matt Allision and father and son combo Mike and Andrew Jordan go wheel to wheel.

I predict very fierce competition at Rockingham this weekend, definitely one not to be missed!

VIDEO: ONSLOW-COLE vs CHILTON, BTCC ROCKINGHAM 2007

Current Driver Standings

1 Fabrizio Giovanardi, VX Racing, 37

2 Mat Jackson,BMW Dealer Team UK , 35

3 Jason Plato, Seat Sport UK, 26

4 Matt Neal, VX Racing, 20

5 Colin Turkington, Team RAC, 20

6 Gordon Shedden, Team Halfords, 17

7 Darren Turner, Seat Sport UK, 15

8 Mike Jordan, John Guest Racing, 10

9 Tom Onslow-Cole, VX Racing, 9

10 Tom Chilton, Team Halfords, 6

WTCC Mexico Review

Former Formula 1 driver Tiago Monteiro took his first World Touring Cars Championship victory in the second race in Mexico.

The Portugese driver passed the Chevorlet of Alain Menu at the start and never looked back, as Menu held off the chasing pack. Gabriele Tarquini and then Rickard Rydell found their way past Menu, but it was Rydell who took second place, and the lead in the championship, when Tarquini put a wheel off the track with only two laps to go. Yvan Muller was 4th, and triple world champion Andy Priaulx took BMW's only point of the weekend in 8th. After the race Monteiro said, "It was obviously my goal and one of the reasons to come to WTCC to be in a competitive car, but of course until you win your first one you never know. Today was the day. But it was a whole team job - we've done a great job since the beginning of the season."

Earlier in the day Jorde Gene led from lights to flag to take victory. Gene withstood pressure from Seat teammate Ricard Rydell in the closing stages to take his 4th WTCC win. Nicola Larini took 3rd in race 1, with none of the BMW's scoring any points, Andy Priaulx being the highest placed BMW in 10th.

Driver Standings

1 Rickard Rydell, Seat, 26

2 Gabriele Tarquini, Seat, 24

3 Yvan Muller, Seat, 22

4 Jordi Gené, Seat, 15

5 Andy Priaulx, BMW,14

Manufacturers Standings

1 SEAT, 69

2 BMW, 40

3 Chevrolet, 28

4 Honda, 0

Bahrain Grand Prix Review

The 2008 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix saw Felipe Massa kick start his championship campaign. The Brazilian had come under fire in the media after two DNF's in the opening two rounds of the season. Starting from 2nd, beside polish driver Robert Kubica (who scored his and BMW's first pole position) Massa led from the start, and outdrive his world champion teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who got 2nd securing Ferrari a 1-2. BMW were easily the 2nd best team, with Kubica scoring his second successive podium in 3rd, and Nick Heidfeld coming home 4th.

Heikki Kovalinen was a distant 5th for McLaren, who had a disasterous day. They weren't really on the pace of the Ferrari's and BMW's, and Lewis Hamilton could only manage 13th after initially bogging down at the start, then coliding with his former teammate Fernando Alonso, having to pit for a new nose cone. Suggestions the Spaniard deliberately brake tested Hamilton wereas dispelled after the race when telemetary was studied.

Rounding out the top 8 were Jarno Trulli, who continued to demonstrate the pace of his Toyota, Mark Webber for Red Bull who took his second successive 7th and Nico Rosberg picked up a point with 8th for Williams.

Selected Driver Quotes

"This race was quite difficult, I didn't want to make any mistakes, I wanted to bring the car home and control the pace, I had all the time in my mind what happened in the last race and I am sure that is normal, and what is in my mind now is the victory." Felipe Massa, Winner

"We look at a bad weekend and we finished second, so never mind, next race will be different. We are leading the championship and that is the main thing, but it was not the easiest weekend for sure. I never am too happy at this circuit, but I think out of these first three races it is important to get many points." Kimi Raikkonen, 2nd

"It's very good to be on the podium for the second race in a row but without the problems on the second lap, I might have been able to fight with Kimi. (The Pole slipped on oil losing second to Raikkonen) I was going to pit. I didn't have any information about the oil and lost a place to Kimi. But anyway it's a good result and it's good for the team to be leading the constructors' championship." Robert Kubica, 3rd

"It was very difficult, and we knew that. The whole weekend has been quite bad for us apart from yesterday being in Q3, which was the only nice surprise of the weekend. The rest has not been good enough, not our level. In the race we were struggling and behind all the teams we are fighting with, Williams, Red Bull, and Toyota. So we cannot be happy with the result." Fernando Alonso, 10th

"It was a disaster. It was a very poor performance and I sort of let the team down today. It sort of went bad from the beginning, but I'll keep my chin up and move on and bounce back in the next race." Lewis Hamilton, 13th

Final Result

1. MASSA Ferrari +1hr31m06.970s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +3.3s
3. KUBICA BMW +4.9s
4. HEIDFELD BMW +8.4s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren +26.7s
6. TRULLI Toyota +41.3s
7. WEBBER Red Bull +45.4s
8. ROSBERG Williams +55.8s
9. GLOCK Toyota +69.5s
10. ALONSO Renault +77.1s
11. BARRICHELLO Honda +77.8s
12. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
13. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap
14. NAKAJIMA Williams +1 lap
15. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +1 lap
16. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
17. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
18. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
19. SUTIL Force India +2 laps
R. PIQUET Renault +17 laps
R. BUTTON Honda +38 laps
R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +57 laps

Fastest lap: KOVALAINEN 1m33.193s

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