..P-1 P-2 for Ferrari

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa will start from pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix for the second consecutive year, after lapping the Sepang circuit in 1m 35.748s in the final session of qualifying. The fact that the Brazilian was half a second faster than team mate Kimi Raikkonen suggests that he was running less fuel, but either way the two of them seemed happy enough as McLaren’s best runner was Heikki Kovalainen in third. Raikkonen posted 1m 36.230s, Kovalainen 1m 36.613s. Lewis Hamilton was fourth, on 1m 36.709s, which was just enough to beat Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, and the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, who were all closely matched on 1m 36.711s, 1m 36.727s and 1m 36.753s. You can bet that there are some fuel load discrepancies in there somewhere. Mark Webber will start alongside Heidfeld on the fourth row, with 1m 37.009s, the stewards having agreed to let Red Bull’s cars run after Friday’s problems, while Fernando Alonso and Timo Glock share row five for Renault and Toyota respectively with 1m 38.450s and 1m 39.656s. Q2 weeded out Jenson Button, who was nevertheless reasonably pleased with 11th fastest time for Honda of 1m 35.208s; Red Bull’s David Coulthard on 1m 35.408s; Nelson Piquet on 1m 35.562s for Renault; Rubens Barrichello in the second Honda on 1m 35.622s; Sebastian Vettel with 1m 35.648s for Toro Rosso; and Nico Rosberg for Williams on 1m 35.670s. The leading Q1 faller was Giancarlo Fisichella, who took his Force India round in 1m 36.240s. Kazuki Nakajima hoped for better than 1m 36.388s which left him 18th (but he loses 10 places on the grid for his incident with Robert Kubica under the final safety car in Australia). Thus Sebastien Bourdais gets 18th place on the grid in the second Toro Rosso (1m 36.677s), having spoiled his chances of getting into Q2 by sliding off the road in Turn Four on his final run. The Super Aguris of Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson were separated by Adrian Sutil’s Force India. Sato lapped in 1m 37.087s, Sutil in 1m 37.101s and Davidson 1m 37.481s; they will start 19th, 20th and 21st respectively. Altogether, it was an interesting session, with the indication that Ferrari have an edge, and that McLaren will be relying on the start again to stage a repeat of last year’s success.

Watta Finn-ish.......

Finally, after two near-misses, Kimi Raikkonen has his very own world championship. It may have been a long time coming but what a one to win. By bettering double world champion Fernando Alonso and the sport’s newest superstar, Lewis Hamilton, Raikkonen has secured Ferrari their first driver title of the post-Schumacher era and denied former team McLaren their only compensation from a difficult season.Back at the season-opener in Australia, Raikkonen was already looking like a champion-in waiting. Taking pole, victory and fastest lap to boot, he dominated the Melbourne race weekend. Of course, the McLaren duo were also in the mix, as was Raikkonen’s team mate Felipe Massa, but it was the Finn who looked to have the advantage.Fast forward to mid-season, however, and it was different story. As Hamilton, Massa and Alonso traded wins, Raikkonen seemed to slip by the wayside. Struggling to adapt to the new Bridgestone tyres, the 28-year-old went six races without a victory. With less than half the points of championship leader Hamilton, his title chances looked decidedly bleak.For one thing, luck seemed to have deserted him. An electrical failure in Spain and an accident during qualifying in Monaco were just two of the mishaps which seriously dented Raikkonen’s mid-season challenge. A faulty wind tunnel back at the factory was also wreaking minor havoc on Ferrari’s programme of development.But just as matters looked to be irretrievable, fate moved in his favour. In France, whether down to clever strategy, hard work or just plain good fortune, Raikkonen began to look at ease in the F2007. Backing up his victory at Magny-Cours with another in Silverstone, a revival was on the cards. Even the hydraulics failure at the Nurburgring did little to dent Raikkonen’s resurgence. With the impetus on his side, the quietly determined Finn hauled in valuable points to close on leader Hamilton. Although reliability problems continued to plague the Italian squad, it was Massa who seemed to bear the brunt of their effects with the Brazilian’s title fight eventually petering out after his suspension strife in Monza. Raikkonen’s charge, meanwhile, was unrelenting. With his title hopes further strengthened by dominant victories in Belgium and China, the Finn arrived in Brazil for the final race of the season still in the running.Seven points adrift of Hamilton, and three shy of Alonso - he needed a victory to seal the deal. He had history on his side, however. Back in 1986 - the last time three men were still in contention at the season finale - outsider Alain Prost had taken the championship in Adelaide after a sterling drive for McLaren, pushing out Williams team mates Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet. In Sao Paulo, Raikkonen was favourite to win the race, but his title hopes would rest just as heavily on the performance of his rivals. But as with Prost, it all came together. He won the race, with team mate Massa protecting him in second. Alonso had no answer to the Ferraris’ pace and gearbox gremlins demoted Hamilton to seventh.Despite Raikkonen’s title challenge taking some severe knocks in the early stages, the ‘Iceman’ has fought back with admirable determination. Against the odds, he has done it. By outstripping team mate Massa, taking on the might of the McLaren duo and muscling his way into the title showdown in Brazil, Raikkonen has shown himself not only to be a worthy replacement for Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, he has also proved himself a worthy world champion. Congratulations Kimi!

kimi....Very much in the game!!

The Formula One championship was blown wide open on Sunday after Lewis Hamilton failed to finish in China, allowing his two rivals Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen to make it a three-way fight in Brazil.
In bizarre circumstances on a damp circuit in Shanghai, Hamilton looked to be cruising into the record books as he led second placed Räikkönen by eight seconds at the halfway point.
With Hamilton’s tyres deteriorating, his McLaren team failed to bring the rookie driver into the pits – it proved to be a costly error.
On lap 31, the British sensation, who was limping around the circuit, having already lost the lead to the Finn, overcooked his entry into the pitlane and slid off into the narrow gravel trap, ending his hopes of wrapping up the championship.
A disconsolate Hamilton confessed he was 'gutted' after making a schoolboy error – a costly mistake but insisted he could finish off the job in Brazil.
"My tyres were finished," he said as he walked back towards his garage. “These sort of these things happen. I’m sorry for the team, but I can still do it.”
He said: “We were having a great race, we didn’t know if it was going to rain or not. I couldn’t see that my tyres were finished as my mirrors were dirty,” he explained.
"I haven’t made a mistake all year and to make it on the way into the pits is not the way to do it," he added. “We still have one more race to go ... we can still do it.”
McLaren's CEO Martin Whitmarsh said it was the team’s fault for not calling Hamilton earlier.
"With hindsight we left him out a lap too long. The weather was variable at that time,” he explained.
"In the end it was a lap too late. I think for Lewis it was a very disappointing day. It was our decision. We didn’t want to come in and put on the wrong tyre."
Hamilton's retirement allowed Räikkönen to close the gap to just seven points whilst Alonso, who finished second is now only four points adrift. It means all three drivers have a shout for the Drivers' Championship in the last race of the season in two weeks.
"We're back in the championship and it'll be interesting in the last race," said Räikkönen, who handed Ferrari their 200th grand prix victory.

kiMi is bAck..

Kimi Raikkonen headed home Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix with a dominant performance that assured the Italian squad of the 2007 constructors’ title. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth for McLaren, but this time the silver arrows were no match for the red cars. Raikkonen beat Massa by 4.6s (the gap had been 1.4s the previous lap), but Alonso was 9.6s behind (having been 16.4s in arrears the previous lap until the Ferraris eased off). Hamilton was a further 9.2s adrift, having lost three seconds with a slide off the road in Pouhon on lap 43.The result enabled Alonso to close in again on Hamilton’s series lead; the Englishman has 97 points to the Spaniard’s 95, with Raikkonen now on 84 and Massa 77.Nick Heidfeld claimed fifth place after his usual tidy race for BMW Sauber, recovering from running wide in the first corner at the start avoiding Alonso and Hamilton, who were involved in their own fight which saw the Spaniard push his team mate wide on the exit to the hairpin and then slam the door on him up the hill through Eau Rouge.Nico Rosberg had another good afternoon for Williams with sixth place, ahead of Mark Webber’s on-form Red Bull, and the best battle of the race saw Heikki Kovalainen take the final point for Renault after holding off the BMW Sauber of a determined Robert Kubica by half a second.Toyota took 10th and 11th with Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, neither able to sustain their qualifying form.Tonio Liuzzi had his best result of the season with 12th for Toro Rosso, ahead of Rubens Barrichello’s Honda, Adrian Sutil’s well-driven Spyker, the ill-handling Super Aguris of Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson, and Sakon Yamamoto’s Spyker.Jenson Button retired with technical maladies after 37 laps, when just staying ahead of Liuzzi; Alex Wurz retired after a spin in Turn 18; David Coulthard’s Red Bull lost its power-steering after a hydraulics failure; Sebastian Vettel was being shown the way by Liuzzi when his Toro Rosso stopped wanting to turn right; and Giancarlo Fisichella retired after a lap in his Renault with suspected suspension problems.

Red Alert @ Belgium...

Ferrari have their first all-front-row start of the season here at Spa, after a dramatic end to Saturday afternoon's Q3 qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix.Kimi Raikkonen took pole position away from team mate Felipe Massa during the final runs on Bridgestone’s soft rubber, the Finn’s 1m 45.994s lap beating the Brazilian’s 1m 46.011s. Massa locked up slightly in the final chicane, and felt that made the crucial difference.McLaren’s Fernando Alonso seemed to have blown his chances with a spin on his penultimate run, losing control at Rivage, but he recovered quickly and got a final chance on another set of tyres. He made the most of it for a lap of 1m 46.091s to push team mate Lewis Hamilton down a place on the grid. The Englishman lapped in 1m 46.406s.

Ferrari rules the turkish GP

- It was a Ferrari lockout as Felipe Massa repeated last year’s success in Istanbul and won the Turkish Grand Prix for the second consecutive year.
Ferrari were always considered to be favourites, even before they arrived in Turkey in the middle of last week and in a repeat of 2006, Massa led from pole relinquishing his lead only to make his two mandatory stops.
“It’s amazing. The third time here in Istanbul but the second race in a row winning from pole,” he told reporters in the post race briefing.
“I love the track, I love the place and here is where my career made a switch and I started to win races and fight with the front runners. It is a very special place for me and to have a second consecutive win here, it’s difficult to find the right words.”
Kimi Räikkönen looked slightly aggrieved in second place and must have been rueing what might have been but for a mistake during Saturday’s qualifying which cost him a certain pole and a possible race victory.