WRC Argentina – Loeb wins, Loeb leads

   I don’t suppose the result of the Argentine Rally will come as a shock to many. Sebastien Loeb in the Citroen won by over two and a half minutes and leads the championship, having now won three of the first four events.The only real surprise is that for the second rally in a row the runner-up was Subaru’s Chris Atkinson who is finally adding some consistency to his outright natural speed. 

 Loeb didn’t have it all his own way how-ever. Mikko Hirvonen produced a spell-binding first leg in the rain and fog to finish the stage an astonishing 48 seconds faster than his ford team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala. Loeb slithered across the finish line in the belief that he was just 10 seconds quicker than the Ford driver until his team confirmed that Hirvonen’s time was 16 minutes 29 seconds not 17 minutes…… “Fuck” was Loeb’s one word response.  

  Hirvonen extended his lead until the lunch break imediatlty after which he shattered his suspension on a sizable rock handing the lead, not to team-mate Latvala, who had rolled on stage two and broken his rear suspension on stage four, but to, yeah you guessed it, Loeb. And from then Sebastien just Loebed it home to yet another victory.

   Atkinson had a mostly fine first day and generally blew his team-mate Petter Solberg to the weeds. At one point he was 41 seconds ahead of the former world champ. Two slow speed spins on the second last stage of day one wiped off 38 seconds of that lead however and so Chris had only a three second lead overnight. Solberg had a better start two day two and when team orders came into effect (oh sorry, they don’t have those any more) Atkinson was in a comfortable third place. He kept up a reasonable pace though and when Solberg’s electrics died on Sunday morning Chris was back in second, a good minute and a half ahead of Loeb’s Citroen team-mate, Dani Sordo who is slowly improving on gravel surfaces.

   The attrition rate being what it was, just two other WRC regulars finished in the points. Mikko Hirvonen came home in fifth place after taking advantage of the super-rally rules as did Gigi Galli who finished seventh. This leaves Loeb in the lead with 30 points from Hirvonen on 25, Atkinson 22 and Latvala 16. Solberg in back in 7^th place with just 9 points.

 Sam Snape

F1 Ferrari fight back in Malaysian GP

   Just one week after many writers (myself included) gave Ferrari a roasting over their Australian GP performance, especially their self basting, roasted V8s, the team proved what a bunch of know-nothing prats we experts are. Nothing like a bit of self flagellation to get the week off to a good start. Something you may hear a bit more about in coming weeks. Raikkonen and Massa would have finished a comfortable one-two if Felipe hadn’t had his second brain explosion in as many weeks and toss his red steed into the background scenery yet again. 

 Picking up the pieces once again was BMW who had Robert Kubica finish second on this occasion with McLaren’s Kovalainen taking the last podium spot. Depending on what you wanted to watch the first twenty odd laps were quite entertaining. If you wanted to watch a brawl for the lead then it was not as the Ferraris pulled away from the rest of the field with Kimi just waiting till Massa pitted before putting in a blinder of an in lap himself and taking the lead upon exiting the pits. And for the lead, that’s all she wrote folks and there’s not much I can add. Kimi first, Felipe dust.

 Behind them Kubica held on as best he could but slowly dropped away and ran a very lonely race for his second place.   Behind them though was an excellent scrap with a fast starting Webber in the Red Bull holding off determined challenges from Hamilton’s McLaren and Trulli in the Toyota. Webber pitted first and due to a fairly long stop dropped places to both Trulli and Kovalainen but still held off Hamilton due to an equally lousy first stop by the Brit when a wheel nut locked on the front right wheel. Even so, after Massa’s moment Webber was still in fifth place and looking strong. Another longish pit stop on lap 39 saw both Hamilton and Heidfeld pass the Aussie but he still managed to hold off Alonso’s Renault to take seventh place. In reality, this was about as good as could have been expected in such a reliable race. He was behind just one Ferrari, two McLarens and two BMWs and all of them should finish, if they finish, in the top six based on pace. The only interloper was Trulli’s Toyota which came home an excellent fourth despite dropping over 15 seconds to Hamilton in the last 13 laps. 

   Other items of note were Nick Heidfeld setting his first ever Fastest Lap in the BMW, Nelson Piquet gave a vastly more competent performance in the Renault and despite the winner, at least two Ferrari engines, in Sutil’s Force India and Vettel’s Toro Rosso again went “POP”. So far, five Ferrari engines have hand-grenaded in the first two races. No one else has suffered a failure yet. 

  So do we really know anything more than we did a week ago. Not really, except that if you ever think you know what’s going to happen, you’re a berk. With McLaren strangely off the pace, and that won’t happen often, we haven’t seen the big two up against each other yet. Will Ferrari’s fragile engines be solved, or will they be the difference at the end of the year? Will Massa figure out how to drive without traction control? For a full race that is. Will BMW sneak a win soon? We only have to wait another couple of weeks to get the next clue. Chat to yer then…… 

Sam Snape 

F1 Hamilton dominates the Australian GP

  Well after so many thousands of miles of testing the 2008 F1 season finally kicked off and some of the questions have been answered. Yes, the McLaren is fast. Yes, the BMWs were sandbagging in testing and are actually fast. No, the Ferrari pace in the last few tests was not sandbagging, they are not quite as fast as they thought they were and Yes, the Williams and Red Bulls are at the front of the chasing pack. Oh, and Yes, Massa’s depth perception is not all that good under pressure.  

    Just how long this will remain is the ongoing question. Undoubtedly Ferrari will be busting their nuts to get back on terms with McLaren as soon as possible but uncle Ron and his squad will be working just as hard to make sure that doesn’t happen. Wouldn’t they enjoy THAT after last year.

   In the end, Hamilton in the McLaren dominated practice, dominated qualifying and dominated the race, stating as he hopped from his car after an hour and a half of racing in almost 40 degree temperatures “It was a breeze”. And to prove his point he sprinted up the stairs to the podium. And an odd podium it was too, as there was no red in sight. Nick Heidfeld had brought the BMW-Sauber home in second ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Williams. One had to feel a bit sorry for Kovalainen who would have finished in second had it not been for some awful timing as the safety car came onto the track after Glock’s big moment just as Heikki was due to pit for fuel. As it was he had to stay out until the pits were opened and this dropped him to the tail of the field. He then stormed back up to fourth place getting past Alonso with just one lap to go. Pity about that last lap, because the McLaren slowed unexpectedly as they crossed the line to begin the last lap and Alonso powered back past, and try as he might, Kovalainen could not repeat his previous laps efforts and Alonso claimed fourth place on his return to Renault. That probably pleased him too, after last year.

   Ferrari had a shocker. Intermittently fast, they never seemed to have everything heading in the same direction at the same time. And then all their engines went pop. Massa could only manage fourth on the grid and had his first brain fade at turn one when he proved that some drivers do need traction control and spun  unaided into the wall. He then drove well to get up to the rear of Coulthard’s Red Bull, but there he stayed. Unable to find a way around, you could see the frustration rising until he attempted a dumb-arsed lunge up the inside of turn one launching a furious Coulthard into the air and out of the race. “If he doesn’t appologise, I’ll kick three colours of shit out of the little bastard.” Was DC’s reaction to this crass bit of driving. Can’t imagine him saying that in his McLaren years, can you? Fortunately for Massa his Ferrari engine then died on the other side of the track so it was quite a bit of time before DC got to have a word with him.

    Raikkonen’s race wasn’t much better. Ferrari claimed a fuel feed problem put him out of qualifying, he ended up starting 15^th, problem was, on the on-board camera you could quite plainly hear the engine revving away like mad. Just not going anywhere. Helped by the first lap carnage he leapt up to eighth by the end of lap one and was then stick there behind Barrichello’s Honda until getting by on lap 18. Some mesmeric laps then saw him catch Kovalainen and Kimi was battling him when the safety car came out to clean up the debris resulting from Massa’s brain-fade. Kimi got the run on the McLaren on the restart but did not get his braking right going into turn 3 and chucked all his hard work into the kitty litter. He would repeat the manouvre a few laps later and may still have finished fourth had his engine not lunched itself with just a few laps to go.

   This seemed to be the story of the race for anyone with Ferrari engines, Torro Roso debutant, Sebastian Bourdais, would have finished fourth had his engine not gone pop as well. His team mate, Vettel didn’t make it past the first corner undamaged, nor did Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India-Ferrari. His team mate, Sutil only managed nine laps so there were some long faces in the Ferrari paddock.

   Some long faces at Red Bull too. Mark Webber looked a sure top ten qualifier until his right front brake disc exploded on his first run in Q2. Mark had set second fastest time in the second practice session on Friday and was showing consistent pace until that disc went south. He managed to avoid the first corner carnage but was given the gentlest tap on the left rear by Anthony Davidson’s Super Aguri Honda coming out of turn three and that was his race done after about twenty seconds. Gee, don’t some guys get all the luck.This is starting to become a bit (Chris) Amon-esque.

 Then Massa monstered DC. In the second squad as stated, Vettel got caught up in turn one and Bourdais’ Ferrari sprang a leak just two laps from home. Mind you, with all the chaos, Bourdais was still classified seventh and scored a couple of points. One more than Ferrari got for Raikkonen’s non-finishing eighth. 

  Williams had a very good day with Rosberg driving quickly and consistently into an excellent third place and Kazuki Nakajima finishing sixth. And Kazuki didn’t even run over any of his mechanics. He did launch it off the road a couple of times but that’s what you really expect of a guy in his second race. Lewis Hamilton had made it VERY hard on new drivers these days. Speaking of new guys, Nelson Piquet Jr had a weekend he will be happy to relegate to the history books. Problems in practice saw him qualify the Renault down in 21^st place and he also

suffered a rear end problem in the race which saw him plod around slowly until pulling out on lap 31. Things can only get better for Nelson, we know after all, he does know how to drive a car quickly. 

  Poor old Rubens Barrichello also had a race to forget. Or about two minutes to forget as his race was rather quite good. He was about to relegate last year to the history books and claim his first points for Honda until he had to pit for fuel while the pits were closed due to Glock’s wrecked Toyota. Not only would that stop give him a ten second penalty, from which he would recover and finish sixth on the road, but it also saw him exit the pits against the red light, and this would eventually see him disqualified from the race results.The quicker Ross Brawn takes control of the race team the better for all at Honda.

 For full results & times, see the entry in the database. 

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1h34:50.616 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +     5.478 3.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     8.163 4.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    17.181 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    18.014 6.  Barrichello   Honda                 (B)  +    52.453 7.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap 8.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    2 laps 9.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    3 laps Fastest lap: Kovalainen, 1:27.418 

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lapKubica        BMW Sauber            (B)    50Glock         Toyota                (B)    44Sato          Super Aguri-Honda     (B)    33Piquet        Renault               (B)    31Massa         Ferrari               (B)    30Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)    26Trulli        Toyota                (B)    20Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)    9Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)    1Button        Honda                 (B)    1Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda     (B)    1Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    1Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)    1  

World Championship standings, round 1:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:              1.  Hamilton      10        1.  McLaren-Mercedes       14 2.  Heidfeld       8        2.  BMW Sauber              8 3.  Rosberg        6        3.  Williams-Toyota         8 4.  Alonso         5        4.  Renault                 5 5.  Kovalainen     4        5.  Honda                   3 6.  Barrichello    3        6.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1 7.  Nakajima       2      

 8.  Bourdais       1 

 Sam Snape  18-3-08

A1GP Ireland Storms to Superb Maiden Victory as GBR Takes Double Podium

Mexico - A1 Team Ireland was on sensational form in Mexico City this afternoon to win the thrilling Feature race from Great Britain and USA, becoming the 15th nation to win an A1GP race. It is a fantastic result for Portadown's Adam Carroll in his debut season for the team, and particularly well timed as the win comes just one day before Ireland celebrates St Patrick's Day (17 March). The top three title contenders - Switzerland, New Zealand and France - all endured difficult afternoons and failed to score any points.

A green flag signalled the start of the action-packed 47-lap race in hot and sunny weather conditions (36 degrees C), after the first start was aborted due to technical problems with the starting lights.

Twenty-five-year-old Adam Carroll, who topped the time sheets in free practice on Friday, started the race from fifth and leapt up the order to second behind Switzerland's Neel Jani after amazing work from the Irish team during the first compulsory pit stop on lap nine. He held position until lap 34 when he pitted the emerald green car for the second time and rejoined the action as race leader after another sensational stop. The crowds roared as Carroll, who was making his 14th race appearance for Ireland, crossed the line first to take his and the team's first ever A1GP victory.

Great Britain's Oliver Jarvis put in a brilliant performance to race from fourth on the grid to finish second, notching up a double-podium on his final outing for the British team this season and picking up more valuable championship points. Jarvis also scored a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race and this weekend's points haul moves GBR up to fourth in the title table behind France.

USA's Jonathan Summerton, who scored his nation's best ever result at Mexico City last year when he finished second in the Feature race, was once again on superb form, charging through the field from seventh on the grid to finish third and take the final podium position ahead of the Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen.

Pole-sitter Canada's Robert Wickens got a good start but lost the lead to Switzerland on lap six and fell down the order to third during the first round of pit stops. By lap 31 Wickens was running in fifth place as GBR and USA managed to overtake the 19-year-old who had been battling with an over-heating car and clutch problem from lap one. The Canadian racer, who said this was the hardest race he has ever driven, went on to cross the line in fifth position.

Having snuck through and taken the lead from Canada's Robert Wickens on lap six, title leader Switzerland's Neel Jani dominated the action until lap 34, when he came in for his second compulsory pit-stop at the same time as Ireland. After another stunning pit stop from the Irish crew, Carroll took the lead from Jani, who was shortly after hit with a drive-through penalty for unsafe release from his second stop, demoting the Swiss star to 19th at the chequered flag.

New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who was running in seventh for the first half of the race, ran wide at the chicane on lap 25 and brought out the safety car, allowing the pack to bunch up behind race leader Switzerland. Reid rejoined the action in 18th ahead of Mexico and finally crossed the line 12th.

Home nation A1 Team Mexico's David Garza, who led the race for two laps during the second round of pit stops, scored his nation's best ever home race result, making up eight places from the back of the grid to cross the line 14th.

Feature race winner Adam Carroll was delighted to score Ireland's first win and paid tribute to his team's incredible work in the pits:

'It's been three long years for the team and it's my first year in A1GP. I think everybody just saw our true potential this weekend especially with the guys with the pits stop. We knew they were capable of doing those times and today they pulled it off and it won us the race. I'd just like to say thanks to everybody, we've put in so much effort and this is for everybody who has believed in A1 Team Ireland. Hopefully this is just the start and we will finish the year extremely strongly and try to come back and win the championship next year.

He continued:

'We tried to relax and just go racing and have a bit of fun. We still put in the hard work but I think everyone was just a bit more relaxed and we were able to show our true potential. We knew the guys could do it and they did and hopefully this is the first of many - it's just fantastic. I had champagne in my trophy and I don't think the celebrating will stop tonight - it will probably finish sometime tomorrow afternoon, I just hope everybody makes the flight!'

Oliver Jarvis, who notched up two podium finishes today on his final race outing for GBR this season, said:

'Mexico has been a fantastic place for me. I've had four great results here and we really wanted the win today but unfortunately Ireland just did a fantastic job, a whole team effort, but we are happy to go away with two seconds. It's some strong points and we will look forward to going into the last two races and especially Brands Hatch on 4 May.'

USA's Jonathan Summerton raced from seventh on the grid to third, to score the team's third ever podium finish and the second of his A1GP career:

'It was again very similar to last year, we had a very quick car at the end and I was really happy with the car the whole race. At first we had a little bit of a problem but we managed to change a bit of the set up through the tyres and then we just kept chasing people down as quickly as possible. I'm happy with third. I was trying my best but it didn't happen.'

Switzerland leaves Mexico on 128 points ahead of New Zealand on 113 and France, who failed to pick up any points this weekend, on 108. Eight nations, including today's Feature race winner Ireland, are still mathematically in with a chance of winning the championship as the thrilling series returns to China for the penultimate round in Shanghai on 11-13 April 2008.

Feature race results

2007/08 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport points standings

Fastest lap: A1 Team GBR set the fastest lap in the Feature race, lapping the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 1m.21.417s with a speed of 180.6 kph on lap 37 of the 47 lap race.

Next race: A1GP Shanghai, China, 11-13 April 2008

A1GP New Zealand Wins in Mexico City

Mexico - A1 Team New Zealand raced to its third Sprint race victory of the season in this morning's incident-packed race at Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in perfect weather conditions, moving them up to second place in the championship. New Zealand held off Great Britain who crossed the line second to secure a superb podium finish while Switzerland took the final podium position, increasing its title lead as France failed to score any points.

The 22-car field was forced to reform on the grid for a second time after the scheduled start of the 20-minute race was red-flagged, as eight teams were involved in collisions at the rolling start and many sustained damage to their cars.

Once the debris had been cleared from the track, the race finally got underway and the pack jostled for position heading into turn one. Pole-sitter South Africa's Adrian Zaugg held the lead while GBR's Oliver Jarvis moved up two places to snatch third, slotting in behind New Zealand's Jonny Reid and just ahead of Switzerland's Neel Jani.

Reid started to hunt down Zaugg and by lap three 'Black Beauty' had taken control, snatching the race lead from Zaugg when he locked up and went straight on at turn one as a result of a slow puncture sustained at the start, putting the South African car out of the race.

A spinning Filip Salaquarda in the Czech Republic car at the final turn brought the safety car out on track on lap five, allowing the field to bunch up behind New Zealand. The action restarted on lap eight and Reid started to pull away from Jarvis in the British car, who was under pressure from Switzerland's Jani.

The Kiwi went on the win the race ahead of GBR's Jarvis in second, collecting crucial championship points and moving New Zealand to 15 points behind title leader Switzerland, who finished the race third.

China's Cong Fu Cheng, who collided with Malaysia's Alex Yoong on lap eight, picked up a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

All 22 nations are now preparing for the main event of the weekend in Mexico City, a 70-minute standing start Feature race with two compulsory pit stops, which starts at 15:00 this afternoon.

Sprint race winner New Zealand's Jonny Reid, who has his sights firmly set on the championship lead, reflected on the first start melee:

'It has been a very difficult couple of rounds especially in Durban, but that's motor racing and it's really good to bounce back here with a win and survive the carnage at the first start. Adrian accelerated and braked and accelerated and braked, then Neel almost ran into the back of me and I think Olly ran up the back of someone as well. So to clear the first corner I was much more relaxed and then I could start working on Adrian. I managed to be the last of the late brakers into turn one and over take him. Our focus is on the championship lead and we will do everything we can from P6 in the Feature race. It's ideally not where we deserve to start after the yellow flag in the last run in Qualifying but there are a few drivers in the same boat. You can still win the race from there that's for sure.'

GBR's Oliver Jarvis, who managed to hold off Switzerland's Neel Jani to take second, is targeting a Feature race win this afternoon in what will be his last outing for the British team this season:

'I'm not sure what happened with the powerboost, it happened in the first start. I only pressed the button once and then it used them all up so maybe a small problem but it meant I was under pressure from Neel. Fortunately I could get a bit of a gap in sector three, a bit of breathing space down the straight, but he did push me hard off the re-start. I'd love to go out with a win this afternoon. It would be fantastic for myself and also for the team. The team really needs solid finishes so if we can get a podium in the Feature race I'll be happy, but not as happy as I would be with a win.'

Title leader Neel Jani was satisfied with his third place finish for the Swiss team this morning:

'I think third was the maximum I could do today, I was struggling a little bit with the car, especially in the bumpy sections and I just went for third spot and I just wanted to secure that. I tried at the re-start to get Olly but it wasn't quite enough, but third place is ok for me.'

Sprint race results

Fastest lap: A1 Team China's Cong Fu Cheng set the fastest lap (1m21.589s) of the Sprint race on lap 11.