BMW Sauber in the dumps?!

[astroboy]

Impressive race in land down under.. BMW looks strong for the season, Toyota too is very competitive... but looks like the "Mercedes+Hamilton" package is pretty untouchable..

 

[Jay Bigbang]

What a race! I'm happy with BMW Sauber's 2nd position finish but would rather it be achieved by dogfight rather than lucky strategy. It pisses me off though that Nakajima who took out Kubica would only be penalised at the next race while retaining 3 points for Williams in the Aussie GP. This resulted in Williams being 1 point ahead of BMW Sauber in the Constructors' Points!

Ummm...i think u got wrong there mate. Sauber BMW and Williams now both sharing 8 points each with Sauber now at SECOND position in constructors points pole. Thanx to Heidfeld second positon result in this race. Cheers!!

Btw, its a fantastic result today at GP Australia. Just awesome. It will be sweeter if they win in Sepang next week. Fingers crossed. :rock:

 

[Juan Powerblow]

Ummm...i think u got wrong there mate. Sauber BMW and Williams now both sharing 8 points each with Sauber now at SECOND position in constructors points pole. Thanx to Heidfeld second positon result in this race. Cheers!!

Btw, its a fantastic result today at GP Australia. Just awesome. It will be sweeter if they win in Sepang next week. Fingers crossed. :rock:

Not quite sir, the latest news is Barichello has been disqualified (black flag) for a pit lane infringement. As such, Nakajima moved up one place to 6th and earns 3 points. Combined with Nico's 6 pts, that makes Williams total at 9 points, one more than BMW Sauber and hence 2nd spot on the Constructors' Championship.

 

[Juan Powerblow]

The relevant article on Barichello's disqualification is as follows:-

Stewards on Sunday disqualified Rubens Barrichello from sixth position in the Australian Grand Prix because the Honda driver ran the red lights at the pit lane exit.

The news means that Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who otherwise had a nightmare first race as reigning world champion before stopping with a technical defect, moves into the points, as he was provisionally classified ninth and last.

Barrichello's infraction occurred after he served a pit lane penalty for illegally pitting for fuel in safety car conditions, and he also knocked over a couple of his pit members when he pulled away before the fuel hose was removed.

Oddly, the chaotic final classification of the Melbourne race means that both Raikkonen and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais scored points without actually finishing the Grand Prix.

Before Barrichello's exclusion was made official, rookie Bourdais said: "I hope we get two points and in a first Grand Prix, that's not too bad!"

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

 

[Jay Bigbang]

Not quite sir, the latest news is Barichello has been disqualified (black flag) for a pit lane infringement. As such, Nakajima moved up one place to 6th and earns 3 points. Combined with Nico's 6 pts, that makes Williams total at 9 points, one more than BMW Sauber and hence 2nd spot on the Constructors' Championship.

Ooppss,my bad. Sory bro. Kinda late receiving the latest news. :dontknow:

 

[ALBundy]

Impressive race in land down under.. BMW looks strong for the season, Toyota too is very competitive... but looks like the "Mercedes+Hamilton" package is pretty untouchable..

I think its too early to tell if McLaren is faster than Ferrari at the moment. Ferrari's race was clearly compromised in Kimi's case as he was carrying plenty of fuel and was using a harder tire compound (which inevitably compromised his setup), given his grid position. From pre-season testing till now, Massa is definitely having problem driving with traction control system.

Kubica and Heidfeld looked great, and if BMW Sauber can find another 0.3 - 0.5 sec, then they could challenge for race wins.

But Hamilton is looking unflappable, just like what Schumi!!:rock:

 

[Juan Powerblow]

I think its too early to tell if McLaren is faster than Ferrari at the moment. Ferrari's race was clearly compromised in Kimi's case as he was carrying plenty of fuel and was using a harder tire compound (which inevitably compromised his setup), given his grid position. From pre-season testing till now, Massa is definitely having problem driving with traction control system.

Kubica and Heidfeld looked great, and if BMW Sauber can find another 0.3 - 0.5 sec, then they could challenge for race wins.

But Hamilton is looking unflappable, just like what Schumi!!:rock:

Every week presents new challenges since the teams would have come out with different aero package for each track. I think Sepang is gonna be quite different from Albert's Park. In fact, BMW has historically done better at high speed tracks like Sepang, Montreal etc. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they do better in Sepang this weekend.

 

[Juan Powerblow]

Ferrari test driver Marc Gene says he is surprised that wrongly pressing the button for the pit lane speed limiter ruined McLaren newcomer Heikki Kovalainen's quest for fourth place in Australia.

Kovalainen on Sunday said he accidentally pressed the button as he tore a rip-off from his helmet visor, which undid the effort of his daring overtaking manoeuvre on Fernando Alonso.

"I was surprised," Spaniard Gene wrote in a column for the newspaper El Mundo.

Despite McLaren's denials, Gene is convinced that pressing the wrong button also caused Lewis Hamilton to slow down in the title-deciding Brazilian Grand Prix last October.

"It is incredible that McLaren still have not done anything about it after that incident cost them so dearly," he remarked.

Gene points out that Ferrari's own speed limit system can only be activated when a driver is in a low gear, not at close to top speed on a main straight, as was Kovalainen at the time of his finger trouble at Albert Park.

© CAPSIS International
Source: GMM

 

[Juan Powerblow]

Renault officials had little to be pleased about after a difficult opener to their 2008 season.

Team boss Flavio Briatore, though, saved a haughty smile for late in the Melbourne race, after his McLaren counterpart and nemesis Ron Dennis was captured by live television pumping the air with delight.

Dennis was clearly delighted when Heikki Kovalainen muscled past Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard who spectacularly fell out with his British team in 2007 before switching back to Renault.

"What I enjoyed the most in this race was seeing Ron Dennis' face," Briatore, referring to Kovalainen's subsequent accidental pressing of the pit lane speed limiter that allowed Alonso to snatch fourth place back, is quoted as saying by El Pais.

Briatore also mischievously said that he hoped Dennis' long flight back to Europe would be long enough for the Briton to "digest" the setback.

To the Spanish newspaper Diario AS, meanwhile, Alonso admitted to also celebrating when his McLaren successor Kovalainen accidentally pressed the pit lane limiter.

"After seeing on the (big) screens how McLaren reacted when he passed me, naturally I did the same when I went back in front," he said.

© CAPSIS International
Source: GMM