Sunday, March 23, 2008

malaysian grand prix 2008

After the disastrous weekend in Melbourne, I was apprehensive coming into this weekend's grand prix. Hoping fervently that one week is enough to recover from one of the worst season starters, I prayed that it won't be a heartbreaking weekend.


No disappointments during qualifying, it was a Ferrari 1-2!!! Massa outqualified Kimi, but knowing Kimi is the more aggressive driver, their grid positions were fine with me. Hamilton and Heikki were 4 and 5, that was okay with me, too. Showed that Ferrari outpaced McLaren.

To make things sweeter, BMW's Nick Heidfeld put a complaint about the Macs being obstructive in his final fast lap. Thankfully, the stewards saw that indeed, the slowing down McLarens were on the racing line, interfering with the lap times of Heidfeld and Alonso. They decided to demote the Macs five places down. This put Heidfeld and Alonso two places up, and Lewis and Heikki smack into midfield.


The race start was great, with Raikkonen getting a better start than his teammate, but Massa defended his position and managed to stay up front. Things changed after the pit stops, when Raikkonen had good in and out laps, effectively putting him in front of Massa despite their pit times being almost identical. This sealed victory for Kimi.


The ending would've been sweeter if Massa finished second, but not surprisingly, he self-destructed (again!) and got himself stuck on the gravel pit. This is beginning to worry me, because for two straight races, Massa's made driving errors that took him out of the race. Ferrari needs Massa to generate some points in order to win the constructors' championship. So far, their only points are those scored by Raikkonen.


So, Bahrain is next...hopefully, this time, it'll be a 1-2 for Ferrari.

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