Formula 1 and Other Motorsport 2006

[ewan]

lol

[kodster]

@ Mark

@ Glen - not necessarily. I personally think its fun. Ive been to Woodbine Racetrack a few times...or is this just an opinion?

[armadrillo]

@ Kody - i was thinking from a tv point of view. I only tend to watch the grand national and then only if im in and not busy. Never been to a race track but friend said its quite good. I would imagine it is very similar to the Dogs. Been there once for a works do and had quite a fun evening.

Back onto F1.
Mike Gascoyne has been suspended by Toyota Due to a fundamental difference of opinion with regard to the technical operations of its Formula 1 team.
Seems like Toyota have hit the panic button pretty quickly after the a poor start to the season.

[kodster]

Hopefully Toyota can recover from this...if not theyre pretty much screwed. I think Renault have a good chance in the Constructors championship.

[tom_b]

Soz about the delay, been trying out my new game, TOCA Race Driver 3 & relaxing from a Grand National celebration where the 2 horses I backed, Hedgehunter & Clan Royal finished 2nd & 3rd, if only I picked Numbersixvalverde. Anyway, horse racing aside, here are the results from the Tour de Corse & the GP2 season opener at Valencia. Heres what happened in each, starting with the WRC.

WRC Top 8: Tour de Corse
1: Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Kronos Citroen) 3h43m5.4s (A strong result which makes me think that this was a well deserved win considering the last two wins were handed to him on a plate. Still someone has to pick up the spoils. Hope hes put under pressure soon)
2: Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautainien (Ford) +29s (Struggled here in comparison to Catalunya)
3: Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Kronos Citroen) +1m48.7s (Electrical problems on 1st stage but tremendous fightback to final podium spot. I hope Sordo can find more sponsorship to continue beyond Argentina)
4: Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford) +1m59.2s (Escapes collision with rock face on final stage to scrape 1st drivers points since Monaco. Come on, Mikko)
5: Alex Bengue/Caroline Escudero (Peugeot) +2m47.7s (Best Corsica finish)
6: Xavier Pons/Carlos del Barrio (Kronos Citroen) +3m10.2s (Unable to keep 3rd in afternoon stages on day 1 before being passed down to 6th)
7: Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor (OMV Peugeot) +5m1.3s (Steady result)
8: Stephane Sarrazin/Stephane Prevot (Subaru) +5m21.9s (Top Subaru man, as asphalt tyre tester, hell have a lot of homework to do before Germany in August)

Best of Brits (or as I should rename it, the Matthew Wilson Watch )
17: Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr (Stobart VK Ford) +27m4.2s (Off on day 2 proved costly but recovered under SupeRally rules)

Retirements (Im not mentioning co-drivers
1: Jari Matti Latvala (Off on stage 6, broke his thumb in the impact, poor Jari)
2: Luca Betti (Off on stage 6)
3: Kris Meeke (Engine failure on stage 7, any costly dent to his JWRC charge)
4: Pavel Valousek (Mechanical on stage
5: Francois Duval (Off into the scenery on stage

WRC Drivers Standings (Round 5/16)
1: Loeb (46)
2: Gronholm (35)
3: Sordo (20)
4: Stohl (13)
5: P.Solberg (10)
6: Bengue (9)
7: Hirvonen (7)
8=: Carlsson, Gardemeister & Sarrazin (6)
11=: Atkinson, Galli, Pons & H.Solberg (5)
15=: Kopecky & Radstrom (4)
17=: Duval, Katajamaki & G.MacHale (3)

WRC Manufacturers Standings (Round 5/16)
1: Kronos Citroen (59)
2: Ford (56)
3: Subaru (3
4: OMV Peugeot (21)
5: Red Bull Skoda (11)
6: Stobart VK Ford (10)

JWRC Drivers Championship (Round 3/9)
1: Aava (14)
2: Beres (12)
3: Tirabassi (11)
4=: Andersson & Prokop (10)
6: Rautenbach (9)
7=: Casier & Sandell (
9: Meeke (6)
10=: Kara, Kosciuszko, Pressac & Valousek (5)
14: Pinomaki (4)
15=: Burkart & Zachrisson (2)
17: Bonato (1)

Next WRC Event: Rally Argentina, April 30th (Support Events: JWRC & PWRC)

Now the GP2 results from Valencia.

Race 1 Top 8 (F1 Scoring with 1 point for pole and 1 point for fastest lap)
1: Nelson Piquet Jnr (Piquet Sports)
2: Lewis Hamilton (ART)
3: Adrian Valles (Campos)
4: Nicolas Lapierre (Arden)
5: Jose Maria Lopez (Super Nova)
6: Gianmaria Bruni (Trident)
7: Michael Ammermuller (Arden)
8: Ernesto Viso (iSport)
Fastest Lap: Lapierre (1m22.16

Race 2 Top 6 (Scoring 6 down to 1 with 1 point for fastest lap. Top 8 from Race 1 reversed)
1: Ammermuller (Arden)
2: Viso (iSport)
3: Lapierre (Arden)
4: Piquet Jnr (Piquet Sports)
5: Bruni (Trident)
6: Hamilton (ART)
Fastest Lap: Piquet Jnr (Unknown)

GP2 Drivers Championship (Round 1/11)
1: Piquet Jnr (16)
2: Lapierre (10)
3: Hamilton (9)
4: Ammermuller (
5=: Valles & Viso (6)
7: Bruni (5)
8: Lopez (4)

GP2 Teams Championship (Round 1/11)
1: Arden (1
2: Piquet Sports (16)
3: ART (9)
4=: Campos & iSport (6)
6: Trident (5)
7: Super Nova (4)

Next GP2 Meeting: Imola (22/23 April, support event to the F1 San Marino Grand Prix)

[jamesb]

I heard a whisper that honda have empolyed the sugarbabes to sit on the pitwall on the last lap of races from now on.

in the event of more engine failures they are available to push the button

on a serious note, toyota just got rid of their best asset, and yes im including drivers in that.

[kodster]

Man...Toyota arent gonna recover from that, are they? :sad:

[armadrillo]

Well i think Toyota might just recover.

Jarno trulli just went fastest at todays test in Barcelona attended by all the teams apart from Midland(hmm big loss there then).

Time will tell if it is just a fluke!

[jamesb]

the effects will not be immidiate, loosing mike will be a huge blow towards the end of the season, and next year. the year after that whichever team gets him will see the benefits, and so toyota will have them to deal with. Personally I see mike as the best designer in f1, but that is a personal opinion, so people like Adrian Newey obvously come into the same league.

[tom_b]

Qualifying for tommorrows San Marino GP is as follows:

1: M.Schumacher (Breaks Sennas record of 65 poles)
2: Button
3: Barrichello
4: Massa
5: Alonso
6: R.Schumacher
7: Montoya
8: Raikkonen
9: Trulli
10: Webber
11: Fisichella
12: Villeneuve
13: Rosberg
14: Coulthard
15: Heidfeld
16: Liuzzi
17: Klien
18: Speed
19: Monteiro
20: Albers
21: Sato
22: Ide (Last chance saloon apparently)

Also GP2 saw British hopes dashed in this weekends 1st of 2 races, Adam Carroll hit the barriers and Lewis Hamiliton was black flagged for passing the safety car, will he race tommorrow? Ill bring all the GP2 results tommorrow. But also what chance a Honda win? I wouldnt bet on it, not on Ferrari turf.