ESPN: Felipe Massa won his third race of the season, and with it took over the lead of the F1 world championship for the first time.

In taking the chequered flag in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, and on a momentous day for Massa, he also became the first Brazilian to top the drivers’ standings since his hero in Ayrton Senna led the way 15 years ago.

Massa now leads an enthralling four-way title race by two points from BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, and five from Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who came home second at the Circuit de Nevers. read all »

Kimi Raikkonen took Ferrari’s 200th pole position on Saturday as he and team mate Felipe Massa dominated qualifying for the French Grand Prix. Others may have set the practice pace, but when it mattered the red cars had a small but crucial margin over McLaren in the final sector. Raikkonen put in a lap of 1m 16.449s compared to Massa’s 1m 16.490s. 

Lewis Hamilton was third despite admitting to making mistakes on the exit to Turn Seven on each of his fast laps. His best time was 1m 16.693s which dislodged Renault’s Fernando Alonso (1m 16.840s) and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 16.920s), but the Englishman will start 13th when his ten-place grid penalty from Montreal is taken into account. He must, incidentally, run the same fuel load as that with which he qualified, even though he starts outside the top 10.

Unfortunately, our Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil came in 18th and 19th position respectively. Tough luck Force India, tough luck.

The Race day itself starts at 4:30 p.m. on the 22nd, with the actual race starting at 5:15 p.m. on Star Sports.

Force India Formula One Team will be looking for an upturn in fortune in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours after disappointing results in Monaco and Canada.

Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella’s outing in Candain Grand prix ended in a heart-break as both retired midway through the race. Before that Sutil suffered a crash in Monaco Grand Prix that dashed his hopes of a podium finish. The Vijay Mallya co-owned team will look to register a finish for bopth the cars at the Magny-Cours circuit in the heart of rural France June 20-22. The race will be on the eight round of the 18-round series, and the first of seven consecutive races in Europe.

The Qualifying round will begin at 5:27 p.m. on the 21st of June, on Star Sports.
The Race day itself starts at 4:30 p.m. on the 22nd, with the actual race starting at 5:15 p.m. on Star Sports.

With Kubica’s win and confidence portrayed at the Canadian Grand Prix, one doesn’t know what to expect at France. Although, luck might have been on his side with Hamilton and Kimi taking a slight detour on route. 

Look at the Driver’s standings though, the top four contenders - Kubica, Hamilton, Kimi and Masa - are sure to have a tough fight at this race. 

Take your guesses now, cause the French Grand Prix is just round the corner. The Qualifying round will begin at 5:27 p.m. on the 21st of June.

The Race day itself starts at 4:30 p.m. on the 22nd. The actual race will start at 5:15 p.m. though if you don’t want to waste time with the pre-race events. And due to the Euro games, Star Sports will be broadcasting this event, thankfully, Live.

Robert Kubica has promised he will be “giving it everything” in his bid to become Formula One world champion this season

Robert Kubica surprisingly finds himself leading the way after seven grands prix and his maiden win in Sunday’s race in Canada. Lewis Hamilton’s farcical shunt into Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane played into Kubica’s hands, allowing him to claim victory. The 23-year-old is now four points clear of McLaren star Hamilton and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, with reigning world champion Raikkonen seven points adrift.

Kubica, though, knows that winning a race is one thing, but the title is something completely different with such an accomplished trio hunting him down. “I did not expect to be leading the championship after seven races, as our car is not the fastest on the grid,” remarked Kubica. “However, we have total reliability. We were still experiencing a few problems in this area last year, but since then we’ve made huge improvements. “Added to which, the pit crew has done a great job, as has everybody in the team. “I have collected points regularly so far this year, but of course I don’t know if that is going to continue. “I will focus on the grands prix one at a time and try to take maximum points in every situation. “Of course, consistency is an important factor, and I hope we are also able to make further improvements to the car. Then we can achieve good things.”Whatever happens, we have to do all we can to make the best of the situation.

Kubica, whose breakthrough win was at a circuit where he survived an horrendous smash last year, conceded to no nerves over the closing laps as he sensed victory. The laid-back Pole added: “I just concentrated totally on not making any mistakes over the final 15 laps. “They were the longest, but also the most relaxed laps of my Formula One career so far, as I had no pressure and only needed to bring the car home.”

Do you think Robert Kubica can go all the way and win the Formula one title? Drop us a line and let us know what you think.

Formula 1: Robert Kubica has scored his and BMW Sauber’s first Formula One victory after an eventful afternoon at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Kubica led home team mate Nick Heidfeld to take the drivers’ championship lead, with David Coulthard third for Red Bull.

The face of the race changed early on, in the pit lane, when polesitter Lewis Hamilton crashed into the back of Kimi Raikkonen, whose Ferrari was stationary at the pit exit awaiting a green light during a safety-car period. Williams’ Nico Rosberg then ran into the rear of Hamilton. Rosberg was able to rejoin the race, pitting for a new nose a lap later, but Raikkonen’s and Hamilton’s cars were too badly damaged to continue. Too bad for Kimi, he certainly looked like he had a chance to win. But its just as well, the last time he crashed into Force India’s Adrian Sutil. 

Full results

Next up is the Grand Prix de France at Magny-Cours from 20th-22nd June. We’ll keep you posted on that. 

The Grand Prix of Monaco 2008 is said to be one of the most interesting and dramatic races in recent memory. After McLaren’s whitewash in Monte Carlo last season, few were predicting a Ferrari victory in this year’s race. However, all that changed after the red cars locked out the front row on Saturday. What no one could have predicted, however, was how just how unpredictable Sunday’s race would be.

On a day when it all went wrong for Ferrari, with both team and drivers admitting mistakes. Ferrari’s Massa looked in control in the wet early stages, but gradually this one slipped away from him.

Things went wrong for Raikkonen even before the start when a wheel location problem put Ferrari beyond the three-minute warning signal on the grid and ultimately resulted in a drive-through penalty that dropped him from second place on the 13th lap. Thereafter he was running fifth, a long way behind Sutil, when the second safety car threw him a lifeline. He muffed that by losing control exiting the tunnel when the race went live again on lap 68, and took his nose off again on the Force India. Ninth just about said it all for the Finn, as he lost his championship lead.

So at the checkered flag it was a jubilant Hamilton from Robert Kubica then Massa with Australian Mark Webber fourth, continuing his good run of points finishes this year. All in all it was a great race which saw Massa slip up again and Hamilton regaining the lead in the 2008 Championship.

The results of the Monaco Grand Prix 2008 | The Complete analysis | Review by Gadgetfreaks

So this leads us to the next Formula One event, the Grand Prix Du Canada. 

Star Sports India will broadcast this Live and, in colour! The Race Day is on 8th June at 9:30 p.m. It will begin with a 45 minute ceremony of sorts. The actual race will begin at 10:15 p.m. which will be followed by a Checkered Flag event at 12:15 a.m. (9th June).

Note that there will be Qualifying race on 7th June at 10:30 p.m.

Our buddies over at Go Force India have written a tasty article on Adrian Sutil’s bad luck at the Grand Prix.  

Well, the qualifiers at Monaco didn’t throw anything new at us as far as Force India is concerned, Fisichella & Sutil qualified 19th & 20th respectively or was it the other way around with Sutil 19th? Can’t remember for sure. But raceday sure had something special for Adrian Sutil, the German after 66 laps in the Monaco race was running at 4th with some 7 minutes left in the race, the Force India pit garage was pretty gay, Sutil was driving contentedly for a finish and probably planning how he’ll throw his fist in the air and the celebrations back in the team garage. And well, it just was not to be, the car behind him; the finish Sutil oh so wanted was ruined by the Finnish driver behind him. The Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen lost control at the exit of the tunnel and crashed with Sutil’s Force India car. There was news that Raikkonen did go and apologize to Sutil for spoiling his race but that did not console the German Force India driver. 

What did Sutil have to say about this? Read the rest of the article at Go Force India

Brazilian Felipe Massa swept to a hat-trick of Turkish Grand Prix victories from pole position on Sunday with another domineering display for Ferrari at Istanbul Park. The Latin American triumphed by 3.7 seconds ahead of McLaren’s British driver Lewis Hamilton with reigning champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen less than half-a-second behind in third in the other Ferrari.

Hamilton pulled off the overtaking move of the race on Massa and denied Ferrari likely one-two despite adopting a three-stop fuel strategy compared to his rival’s two stopper. But there was no stopping Massa who controlled the 58-lap race on the 5.338km track which he clearly loves. Riakkonnen’s lead in the championship was cut to seven points with Massa now second, on counter back, from last year’s runner-up Hamilton.

Further down the field, Force India’s Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella drove right over the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, missing the Japanese driver by inches but sending them both spinning into retirement in the gravel after collision at the start.

The 92nd Indianapolis 500-mile race, often known as Indianapolis 500 or just Indy500 is set to take place on the 25th of May, 2008. An American race held annually over the Memorial Day weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana, the event lends its name to the IndyCar class of formula race cars that compete in it.

The IndyCar Series practice began May 4. Time trials will take place over the two weekends prior to the race (May 10–11 and 17–18). The final practice, as well as the Firestone Freedom 100, will be held Friday, May 23.

Twenty-two starting positions for the 92nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 remain in play as rain washed out Second Day Qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Qualifications will continue Saturday, May 17 when positions 12-33 will be filled.

The Indianapolis event will air Live on ESPN India on the 25th of May at 10:20 p.m. with an estimated duration of 3 hours 40 minutes.

The Indy500 event broadcasted in India will begin with: read all »

Giancarlo Fisichella’s hopes of pushing his way up the starting grid for the Turkish Grand Prix have taken a dent with news of a three-place grid penalty for the Italian. The Force India left the pitlane while red lights were showing at the beginning of Practice 1 on Friday and will be docked three positions from his final qualifying slot as a result. The experienced Italian exited the pit lane at the start of the first official practice session at the Istanbul Park circuit when the pit exit lights were red. Under race conditions such a breach of the regulations would result in disqualification but in this instance, the stewards of the meeting have imposed the grid-place penalty on the 35-year-old that will take effect after Saturday’s qualifying. Fisichella has targeted Q2 in qualifying since the beginning of the 2008 world championship but has so far been eliminated at the first hurdle at all four races so far this term.

Turkish Grand Prix 2008

The Qualifying race will be aired Live on Star Sports India on 10th May 2008 at 5:30 p.m.

The Race day will be on 11th May at 4:30 p.m. IST on the same channel. From there we proceed to the actual race at 5:15 p.m. which should last for about two hours followed by a ten minute Chequered Flag event for ten minutes after the race.

Inaugurated in the year 2005, the Istanbul Park circuit is the venue of the Turkish Grand Prix. Also known as Istanbul Racing circuit or initially Istanbul Otodrom, the track is located near Turkey’s capital city, Istanbul. It is located on the Asian side of the Istanbul. Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone hailed the circuit as the best race track in the world. 

The 2008 FIA World Championship proceeds to Istanbul for round five of the season and the fourth Turkish Grand Prix. Located on the Bosphorus Strait, which acts as a gateway between Asia and Europe, Istanbul is renowned for it’s traditional versus modern dichotomy and provides for one of the most culturally diverse destinations on the calendar.

“Istanbul itself is a cool city,” says Honda Test Driver Alex Wurz. “I’ve been there a few times and there are amazing places to go out, and great things to see. The Bosphorus is spectacular; if you’re going to the race, you should make a point of looking at it and feeling its history.”

I’m looking forward to Istanbul,” adds BMW driver Nick Heidfeld. “This city is one huge international metropolis in a totally unique location. There’s a lot more to discover there than our schedule ever allows.”

Lap Distance: 5.338km (3.309m) 
No. of Laps: 58 
Race Distance: 309.6km (193.5mi) 
Fastest Lap Record: Montoya 1:24:770
Fastest Pole Record: Raikkonen 1:26:797
2007 Race Winner: Felipe Massa 1:26:42.161 
No Of Grand Prix Held: 3

The Qualifying race will be aired Live on Star Sports India on 10th May 2008 at 5:30 p.m.

The Race day will be on 11th May at 4:30 p.m. IST on the same channel. From there we proceed to the actual race at 5:15 p.m. which should last for about two hours followed by a ten minute Chequered Flag event for ten minutes after the race.