French Grand Prix results thread

[bigC]

the following will contains practice, qualifying and race results, so for those of you who don't watch the race live, be warned. :)

the McLarens were fastest (but not Kimi, who had engine problems, and will lose 10 grid spots with an engine change) but the Ferrari of Schumacher and Alonso and Fisichella's Renaults were right near the top of the grid, with Barrichello sitting in 7th. Renault and Toyota look good to get some points, but BMW and BAR were well off the pace (albeit, this is only the practice results). JV was faster then Massa--small victories, as he is likely to do something stupid to ruin his weekend. DC was 10th in the session, but his team mate Klien was at the back of the grid (second to last). bad karma?

Second practice for French Grand Prix:
1. Pedro de la Rosa, Spain, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:14.460
2. Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombia, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:15.129
3. Michael Schumacher, Germany, Ferrari, 1:15.204
4. Fernando Alonso, Spain, Renault, 1:15.242
5. Giancarlo Fisichella, Italy, Renault, 1:15.380
6. Olivier Panis, France, Toyota, 1:15.483
7. Rubens Barrichello, Brazil, Ferrari, 1:15.605
8. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Toyota, 1:15.774
9. Ralf Schumacher, Germany, Toyota, 1:15.925
10. David Coulthard, Britain, Red Bull, 1:16.371
11. Jacques Villeneuve, Canada, Sauber-Petronas, 1:16.430
12. Jenson Button, Britain, BAR-Honda, 1:16.597
13. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Sauber-Petronas, 1:16.753
14. Takuma Sato, Japan, BAR-Honda, 1:16.890
15. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Italy, Red Bull, 1:16.987
16. Mark Webber, Australia, Williams-BMW, 1:17.107
17. Nick Heidfeld, Germany, Williams-BMW, 1:17.192
18. Robert Doornbos, Netherlands, Jordan, 1:17.574
19. Narain Karthikeyan, India, Jordan, 1:17.790
20. Christijan Albers, Netherlands, Minardi, 1:18.508
21. Patrick Friesacher, Austria, Minardi, 1:18.814
22. Christian Klien, Austria, Red Bull 1:18.897
23. Tiago Monteiro, Portugal, Jordan, 1:19.186
24. Kimi Raikkonen, Finland, McLaren-Mercedes, no time
story:http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story.asp?id=129310 and:http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3250/741.html

the troubles continue for Kimi, as he would like to challenge Alonso for the top, but has had car problems once again that cost him dearly:http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=33318

[bigC]

Alonso grabs the pole, followed by Trulli and Schumacher. Kimi was third, but was dropped to 13th because of the engine change. Sato out-qualied Button (4th and 7th) while Massa narrowly beat JV, who is in 10th. Red Bull doesn't like France, and it seems the track doesn't like the RBR cars either, as they only managed a 15 and 16 on the grid. BMW continues to struggle, as Webber got 12th whilst Heidfeld is in 14th. it should be an interesting race.

story:http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3259/741.html
results:http://www.formula1.com/race/result/741/22.html

French Grand Prix qualifying:
1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1min 14.412secs
2 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:14.521
3 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:14.572
4 Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR 1:14.655
5 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1:14.832
6 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:14.887
7 Jenson Button (GB) BAR 1:15.051
8 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 1:15.406
9 Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber 1:15.566
10 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber 1:15.699

[NAZCA M12]

BMW continues to struggle, as Webber got 12th whilst Heidfeld is in 14th.

Don't think so :D That POS, improved (supposedly :rolleyes: ) chassis seems to be struggling. Did these guys actually verified that the new chassis worked better than the old one before they used it, or are they going to spend the 4 straight July races tuning it in? Sam Michael, referring to the continuous updates by the team said he'd never witnessed such a strong development programme anywhere else. Well, where else has he been then? Compared to what team? ****ing Jordan (Williams took him from Jordan)? Seems to be a difference of opinion between Webber and Michael. One is trying to turn Williams into a Jordan, the other into a Jaguar. When are Williams and Head going to wake the **** up and realize these guys aren't good enough for the team? :mad: Anyway, only a few more months for some patriotic experts-my-ass journos to blame it all on the engines. Next year they'll have to show us how their "top" chassis were held back by those "bad" engines.

In the meantime, it's good to see mercedes breaking an engine. Those ****ing ****s have been breaking engines in every test they've done lately but of course nobody said a thing, plus everything runs fine in the races, it only breaks in testing. Unfair :mad:

[bigC]

Alonso led the entire race, winning his 5th of the season, whilst a good race by Kimi landed him in 2nd (after he started well down in 13th), followed by the Ferrari of Schumacher. that Mercedes powered car was amazing: he qualified 3rd with a heavy load of fuel, going 28 laps before re-fueling (who knows what would have happened if the team wasn't forced to change the engine). despite finishing 2nd, Kimi was not happy with the result, as any true competitor would only be happy with victory. Button scored BAR's first legitimate points of the season when he finished 4th, both Toyota's scored points (in 5th and 7th), whilst the other Renault was in 6th. JV for Sauber got 8th, whilst his team mate Massa had to retire. Villeneuve, hoping that he'll be retained when beemer takes over next year, sounded really positive about his race weekend gushing that: “It was good to score another point today, but what was even more enjoyable was the fact that we were more competitive than I expected we would be. That was very encouraging.”
Sato had an interesting day, running of the track a couple of times and only managed an 11th place. Rubens was a disappointing 9th, as he had braking issues that made his car difficult to drive. Williams had yet another brutal weekend, as both cars were well back and virtual non-factors in the race. JPM was in the points when his car suffered from mechanical problems and he was forced to drive off the track, his race over. both Minardis had rear left tire blowouts, but rather then being a Bridgestone issue, it may have been the fault of Minardi engineers.

story:http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3265/741.html
results:http://www.formula1.com/race/result/741/8.html
quotes:http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3267/741.html

Williams' worst weekend? Williams' relationship with BMW must have soured even more at the lack of performance this weekend. Webber also had problems with the underside of the chasis overheating the ****pit, making it unbearble for him to drive:http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3266/741.html and:http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=33347

Ferrari is not fast enough to overtake Renault and McLaren:http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=33348
next weekend, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone! :D :beer:

[Shamrock]

This sucks!

I tried to stay up and watch the race this weekend on SPEED, but I couldnt make it. I fell asleep watching the GP2 race, and so went to bed, hoping that F1 would be re-aired. GUESS WHAT !!!! SPEED is not going to re-air it AT ALL...so I had to get my results from here. Thanks BigC for the F1 coverage SPEED couldnt provide

Freakin' SPEED channel, I bet they re-air NASCAR event 9 times!!!!!

[NAZCA M12]

Well, that was one hell of a **** race. One of those races with little to no action on the track and most of the overtaking happening in the pits. It was almost the "perfect" chess-like no overtaking maneuvers/strategic **** aplenty "race", true to Mosley's vision of proper F1. If Silverstone turns out to be a similarly unbelievable race i don't know if i'll be able to handle the excitement :p :thumbdwn:

Anyway, Renault was great, at least one of it but whilst most journalists are talking about a dominant win (idiots), i'd call it a repeat of Hungary '03 or sth, which must have been Alonso's first F1 win. What do i mean? Back then it was a very quick Renault on slow, twisty tracks and a hugely competitive Williams, victory on sheer pace would have been between R Schumacher and Alonso. However, there was a slow (yeah tell us sth new) guy with a very good qualifying lap that mixed things up. He jumped to second at the start, and his **** pace allowed Alonso to open up an unassailable lead, while the rest of the grid were behind him unable to pass on possibly the worst track with regards to overtaking. See anything familiar? This time it wasn't Webber/Jaguar but Toyota's Trulli who created a train of cars behind him allowing Alonso again to disappear. No i don't think his Renault all of a sudden became 1,5s per lap faster than the rest of the field including his team-mate. Trulli without a doubt remembered his gaffe last year (where he left the door open in the last corner and Barichello punished him and snatched third) and made sure nobody passed him.

Montoya very correctly said his car is unbelievable and he is right. But he too, has been unbelievably owned by his team-mate, unbelievably craptacular unfortunately. And of course, he'll be driving the wheels of the car come Brazil (like he did in '04 for example, he always does) but what about the rest of the season? He may win the odd race but where's the attacking style? Heck, if he keeps being so slow, Raikonnen will be able to break an engine on Fridays, get the 10 place penalty and still start the race alongside him. :p Many say that Canada '05 was a repeat of France '03 in his viewpoint. Well, i for one am not sorry for him. McLaren keep saying that they treat their drivers equally but their history suggests otherwise: When a fresh faced Prost joined the team with the old hand (Niki Lauda) in the team, Lauda had the better car. Later, when Prost was the established driver and a young Senna came, it was Prost who had the better car. After 1988, Dennis knew which one was the future for the team and Senna was the preferred choice. Berger was never treated equally against Senna (they didn't even take into consideration his tall frame when designing the car) and after both were gone, Hakkinen was always favoured by Dennis, just ask DC. That trend continued with Raikonnen. Montoya must have been dreaming of destroying him but i guess he doesn't mind being a servant to the teams no. 1. At least he's paid better now.

Whatever, that chassis is indeed unbelievable. When a McLaren driver is pushing hard in a lap, you don't see the car moving around a lot, but a great time comes almost effortlessly. Of course, having finished 5th last year they now get a "small" advantage of running a third car on Fridays and collecting more than 30% additional data in order to setup their car for the race. The top 4 teams get a few more days of testing but can a few days of testing in various tracks be compared with the additional data that you get through a third car on the track you are about to RACE two days later? I say the latter is invaluable for a top team. Renault used to have that advantage in previous years and that helped them greatly move up the order. BAR had that advantage last year and in many races they ended up with the fastest car. Why did the FIA came up with that equal to all rule fails me. It's as fair as qualifying. Maybe they wanted to emphasize their stupidity? The needn't have done, we know.

Back to Renault, Trulli once said after he moved to Toyota that the team was never equal to its drivers and that they would always protect Alonso. Anyone see the trend with Fisichella's car suffering from all types of troubles while Alonso's always runs fine? Has anyone noticed that in many cases on Fridays Fisichella does the most laps whereas Alonso's car is sitting in the pits? Many people have said that they have a no.1 driver and a guinea-pig. Could that be true? I will say this: Fisichella, whether he drives for Jordan or Minardi or Sauber or whatever, truly excels in particular tracks including of course his home races : Brazil, Monza, Spa, Imola but above all, he always, ALWAYS excels in Canada. To see him that far in the race but particularly in qualifying is suspicious to say the least.

Over at Williams, they probably broke the record in pit-stops on Sunday. Is that the same team that frightened everyone with their pace in the same venue 2 years ago? They encountered various weird problems during the race. Heidfeld's car behaved oddly down the straight and Webber burnt his ass on the sister car. Well, hasn't he done that again with the Jaguar? I guess that's the car getting its revenge on him for being such an asshat a few days ago, when he expressed the opinion that Williams should part with BMW and make a clean start. He needn't have done that, everybody knows who's "child" he is and who pushed hard for him to get signed to that team. However, if he knew a few elementary things about being a true team player, that would be in difficult situations to always shut the **** up, work quietly and never take sides in the middle of the season, even if you are right :mad: This team has seen enough in the past two months, having him throwing gasoline to the fire is hardly helping the situation. Perhaps he should take a lesson from his team-mate. I hope they give him inferior engines compared to Heidfeld's for the rest of the season. That'll teach him. :D

If one forgets the various problems they had on race day, where was the improvement that the new aerodynamic parts would bring? I guess it was the engine's fault that the car ate its front tyres then? Surely they didn't have problems during qualifying too? If they are incapable of even verifying the step forward that new parts should bring before using them, then they should go back to the older aero spec for Silverstone. What have they managed now? They are at a loss as to why the car is actually slower than before and they have no time to respond, at all. On top of that, they have to make do with propagandistic anti-Williams articles from various sites like ITV's and its self-called experts (and if they mean experts at ****-sucking McLaren and Raikonnen all the time then i agree) trying to fuel animosity between Williams and BMW: Now they say that Theissen criticized Williams and characterized their race as "weak"? Wow, that was one hell of a heavy word wasn't it? So, if one goes to their garage after they got lapped in the race with a ****ing Jordan splitting them and say "that was a weak race for such a team" is he going to hear a "no it was a great effort. Stop being critical" or a "yeah no kidding. Tell us something new mother****er" response? It's one thing being critical and another stating the obvious. Weak was in fact a very gentle word bearing the situation. Junk **** would me more appropriate and honest. Now Frank says that the team still has the money and infrastructure to be successful next year whether it keeps the same engines or not. Great. There's just one thing: What is his definition of successful? Roll on Silverstone.