Malaysian Gp Practice ***spoiler***

Current wx in Sepang has mostly cldy skies - wx forecast for P2 is showing isolated T-storms, 89F, heat index 96F, 30% precip

It's the Davidson - Wurz show continued from the '05 season. <43 secs remain and 16 cars on track. KR and JPM are the only "heavy hitters" out thus far and they aren't showing complete lap times.

Carol


Wow - Massa is in P1 - fastest S2 & S3 times - good for him.

<30 left wonder what specifics JPM is testing - his S3 time is 65.8 vs his teammate's 52.8; Trulli S3 is 62.7 and Alonso S3 is 61.5 in the meanwhile, Massa is doing a 39.9 in S3???

 

< 17 and caution flag for Monteiro - did something in S2

Carol

< 5 and Doornbos also stops in S2

 

well, it's still sunny here, 2 mins to go. but i guess the title of the thread should be the malaysian GP, not kuala lumpur..lol, 2 totally different things. hey, what happened to ms?

 

There's no commentary during practice!

As far as the ones that really count (take away the Friday drivers) - it's JPM, DC. MS, FM - Michael had the fastest S2 time a few minutes ago but JPM did a slingshot from way down the ladder to P4.

Only a couple more hours and it's on SpeedTv.

Carol

Hey Brian - aren't you there at practice or are you there with a laptop and cell phone??

 

whats the time there carol? it's 1205 pm here...hehe..obviously...lol

 

It's 10:06 pm in central Texas right now - according to the formula1 site it showed you 14 hours ahead of central time - I have to find something to do for the next couple hours to stay awake!

Sounds like you had a fantastic time according to your thread - how do you plan to top that!?!?

Carol

I found some interesting trivia regarding the Malaysian GP:

Alonso's first Sepang pole in 2003 made him the youngest pole-sitter ever, surpassing Rubens Barrichello at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix. Jarno Trulli made it a shock all-Renault front row - their first since Paul Ricard in 1983. Moreover, it was only the second dry-weather qualifying in the previous 17 years in which there was no Williams, Ferrari or McLaren on the front row.

Alonso set many of his age records that weekend - he was also the youngest man to lead a race and the youngest to score a podium, aged 21 years 237 days. Nico Rosberg's presence already meant that these records would be under scrutiny this season, but after the German's stunning debut in Bahrain, they look under serious threat. Nico was seventh in the first race of 2006, just as Alonso was in 2003, so history is on his side.

One mark that Rosberg cannot threaten single-handedly is the record for the youngest average age for the three podium finishers. At Sepang in 2003, 23-year-old race winner Kimi Raikkonen was flanked by 30-year-old Rubens Barrichello and 21-year-old Alonso, making it the youngest trifecta ever, and beating the mark set by Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter at the 1974 Belgian GP at Nivelles-Baulers.

That record didn't stand for long - Alonso elevated himself to being the youngest F1 winner later that season in Hungary, and while Raikkonen was again with him, the presence of Montoya on the rostrum - three years Barrichello's junior - meant the record changed hands once more.

 

actually, i didn;t go for the practise. altho, i do have tix. it's just not worthy, if u asked me. the circuit is 45 mins away from my home, but the heat will kill me b4 raceday...lol... but i have a tight scheldule tomoro, with the quali, then i have to rush back, shower, and head back to the circuit to party with DJ tiesto. btws, i went to the gala dinner yesterday, hoping to catch a glimpse of schumi, never happened tho. but i spotted and took pics of 2 F430s outside the mandarian oriental hotel. i guess that's schumi's, and maybe JT...

 

Weather.com is showing a heat index of 100 around next practice session. Sounds like you have a great day in the works tomorrow - enjoy! Don't forget to post your photos.

Catch you again in about 1.5 hours.

Carol

 

So, Massa's concentration issues continue. C'mon Felipe, pull it together! Rossi is still a possibility, after all

 

Geez, give him a break. He made one mistake last week and other than that and the 50 second mistake the crew made, he'd been in the hunt.

 

Cool Mercedes ad on SpeedTV.

Massa in P2

 

I take it you didn't see him go off into the grass/gravel a few minutes ago. It's not so much that he's had a couple of misfortunes in the first race, it's that his pathology is to make the critical mistake. He's a skilled and competitive driver, but he's been plagued by errors often in his F1 career. It would be nice to see him get through this weekend without degrading more into his past rep.

 

Speed TV must be really stupid. I checked their TV listing today and it said Friday 1 AM F1 Qualifying. I thought that I had missed Practice and that it was Thursday 1 AM on their website. They just said on TV that the Grand Prix will be Saturday 1:30 AM EST. The commentator said "late Saturday night." Do they seriously not know how to tell time? THE DAY CHANGES AT 12:00 AM!

 

even with his little off he's got the same S1 times as Kimi; S2 down .3 and S3 down .2 - he's now in P3 behind Wurz - Fisi is now in P4 - wonder when Nico is going to come out?

 

Watching JPM pull his own car into pit lane was hilarious! I bet MS made that rule because he knew JPM would be the only person that would break it, hahah!

 

That was a pretty cool move JPM made pulling his car back across the line in pit lane - wonder if he'll end up going back 10 places - he requested an engine change but to no avail - time will tell....

 

Response was to SpeedMoore. Not looking for bad things for Felipe, quite the opposite. I think it's important for him to raise his game and leave the old Massa behind. I would like to see Keke's son out there again.

Ferraris look to be competitive this weekend. It almost sounded like MS was going 9/10ths in that last series of curves. Didn't seem to be really pushing for time.

 

How can Toyota get this so wrong? They have the biggest budget, they are several years in now and they have experience with other racing series, including open wheel. One would expect them to be in the mix among the top-5 teams.

 

I saw it, he's still green.

 

Sounds familiar........Ferrari 2005