2008 Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix

[MP4/4#12]

Well, i`m just jealous of xyneid, so i hope it rains !!!!!!!

[Ali]

From the official weather forecast:

Turkish lessons, don't get jealous haha, I'll take an umbrealla

5 GÜNLÜK HAVA TAHMİNİ: WEATHER FORECAST FOR 5 SUCCESSIVE DAYS
Cuma: Friday
Cumartesi: Saturday
Pazar: Sunday
Sıcaklık: Temperature
Hadise: Condition of Clouds
Nem: Humidity

[lealjaime]

its going to be rainnig it qualifying ???

[color]

interesting:

Ferrari found loophole in engine freeze?

[Soyyo]

Team-by-team summary: Friday, Turkey

FERRARI
Felipe Massa topped the morning session despite a flurry of spins, while Kimi Raikkonen was stranded in the pits with a gearbox problem. Raikkonen then headed the afternoon time sheet, but his fastest lap was a couple of tenths shy of Massa's morning best, and only fractionally faster than Lewis Hamilton's McLaren. "I struggled a bit to find the right settings," the championship leader said.

MCLAREN-MERCEDES
Hamilton split the Ferraris in the afternoon, but he was still shy of the fastest times of the day, set by Massa and the second McLaren - driven by his teammate Heikki Kovalainen - in the morning.

RED BULL-RENAULT
David Coulthard's best effort in the afternoon netted him the fourth best lap time of the three hours of Istanbul practice, but in the morning he had been slower than Mark Webber and 17th. Webber accepted the blame for crashing at turn six in the afternoon.

BMW-SAUBER
Robert Kubica's morning mileage was marred by a suspension problem, but he was sixth quickest in the afternoon, while Nick Heidfeld struggled with the cooler temperatures - and often damp track - to get heat into his tyres and was 7th (morning) and 10th (afternoon).

TOYOTA
The highlight of Timo Glock's Friday was a trip over the kerbs which damaged his front wing, but he did narrowly beat his teammate to tenth best in the morning. Trulli regained his usual couple of tenths advantage in the afternoon, though, slotting into seventh.

WILLIAMS-TOYOTA
Eighth and thirteenth for Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg respectively in the ultimate 90 minute session, and Nakajima was also quicker than his German teammate in the morning.

RENAULT
Ninth for Fernando Alonso in the afternoon, with Nelson Piquet a distant sixteenth. The gap between the teammates was similar in the morning as well, when Alonso was fourth quickest. "Encouraging for the rest of the weekend," the Spaniard said.

HONDA
Jenson Button, fifth in the morning and 11th in the afternoon, was narrowly faster than the record-setting Rubens Barrichello in both sessions, as the pair ran with front wheel covers for the first time.

FORCE INDIA-FERRARI
Giancarlo Fisichella's chances of rising above the last row of the grid were dealt a blow when he ran a red light in morning practice, incurring a three-position grid penalty. Adrian Sutil's afternoon was halted with a clutch problem, so he was well off the pace, but he did pip his teammate in the morning to 14th.

TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
Istanbul is the final outing for Toro Rosso's STR2, and given that it appears the slowest F1 car in Turkey, the Faenza based team is unlikely to be lamenting the occasion. After Barcelona, Sebastian Vettel is happy that he at least appears back on the pace now.

Source: http://www.f1way.com/news/2008/may/9/te ... day-turkey

[Soyyo]

TIMES AND TIRE COMPOUND

Ferrari
Felipe Massa was the fastest driver of the morning and Friday's practices sessions with the hard compound, his lap time was 1min 27.323secs
Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time for Friday's afternoon practice session with 1min 27.543secs, also on the hard compound.

McLaren
Heikki Kovalainen was the second fastest driver in the morning with a time of 1min 27.456 secs (a gap of 0.133secs with Massa) using the medium compound.
Lewis Hamilton was the second fastest driver, in the afternoon practice session, also with medium compound (a gap of 0.036secs with Kimi)

Taking the above in account: is McLaren really closing the gap with Ferrari?

[Soyyo]

Kimi had gear problems during Friday morning practice. Ferrari choose to repair it instead of change it.
Can somebody tell me if it was a new gearbox or the old one that has to last 4 races?

[Ali]

Kimi had gear problems during Friday morning practice. Ferrari choose to repair it instead of change it.
Can somebody tell me if it was a new gearbox or the old one that has to last 4 races?

http://www.f1zone.net/viewtopic.php?p=53242#p53242

Besides, the problems teams experience on Friday's do not impose any penalty. They're free to blow up gearbox or engine.

[JoostLamers]

Interesting FP3 results...:
1. Webber
2. Alonso
3. Coulthard
4. Rosberg
5. Massa
6. Trulli
7. Hamilton
11. Raikkonen
12. Kovalainen

[Ali]

TIMES AND TIRE COMPOUND
Taking the above in account: is McLaren really closing the gap with Ferrari?

Well, I advise you to wait for Q2 in order to see a clear view where teams actually are. Fuel loads are also a factor as well as the tyre choice and track traffic.

In this morning for example, Mark Webber's lap time in May (18ºC) in FP3 was the same with Felipe Massa's Q2 time in 2007 in August (~30ºC). Does it mean Red Bull is matched with Ferrari? Nope, it only means 3 lap-quali run ;) But still promosing for both Red Bull and McLaren. Ferrari is not that superior to others.

But keep an eye on Speed Trap. Reds are really flying.

[williams96]

Good to see that Webber did bounce back like he said he would yesterday. Clearly has a lot of confidence in the car. Perhaps they will be on top of Renault's pace today in qualifying and maybe tomorrow.

For me Ferrari still look like they are going to dominate. I'm sure they are sand bagging more in practices this year compared to last. Also going to be interesting to see how Button's weekend goes now he has said he's going to be driving for Honda again next year.

[AzShadow]

In FP3 the midfield teams are doing Q2 while the top teams are doing Q3. That's the difference. I'd expect Massa to get the pole and as he's supposed to have the higher fuel load too this time, it will probably be another Bahrain. Kimi has been dissatisfied with his car all weekend.

The interesting thing is if some teams (McLaren, BMW, Renault...) try to beat Ferrari in Q3 with a lighter fuel load and thus get the pole.

[Lilellatho]

I think McLaren has a good chance to snatch pole here. On a track that is colder than normal, they seem to be able to get their tyres working a lot better in their first laps. It seemed like all weekend the Macs set their best times towards the beggining of their stints while for Ferrari it was the other way around.
And when I say McLaren I think Lewis. Heikki has been close to him all weekend and could challenge him but he's always had more fuel in quali, so not a chance there. :tired:

[JoostLamers]

In FP3 the midfield teams are doing Q2 while the top teams are doing Q3. That's the difference. I'd expect Massa to get the pole and as he's supposed to have the higher fuel load too this time, it will probably be another Bahrain. Kimi has been dissatisfied with his car all weekend.

The interesting thing is if some teams (McLaren, BMW, Renault...) try to beat Ferrari in Q3 with a lighter fuel load and thus get the pole.

First 16 within a second... :|

[AzShadow]

Yeah it's sad that Heikki is always put on the supporting strategy. He had a couple of laps worth fuel before his accident in Barcelona so he probably would have snatched pole then if he had been on the same strategy as the Ferraris.