Although thoroughly pleased with the results of the Turkish Grand Prix. One might say it was a pretty uneventful race. With Felipe Massa leading virtually flag to flag upon capturing his eighth career pole position. As the Istanbul circuit is where Massa claimed his first career pole position and victory exactly one year ago.
With the Iceman being unable to pass the Brazilian. Kimi Raikkonen had to settle for following Massa across the line for a dominant Ferrari 1-2. Nevertheless there were some entertaining aspects to this weekend’s Formula 1 race.
Talk about the Sarcasm channel. As SPEED’s Peter Windsor told us that the Honda boyzs call Q3 (Final Qualifying) the “Ice Cream Lady” session… Since that’s when the lads are busy buying ice cream after once again NOT making it into the final qualie session.
With best TV broadcasted driver radio transmission of the season being provided by Rubens Barrichello. As team leader Jenson button had been pleading with the engineers to please have Rubens pull over.
Err, “Rubens, Jenson claims he’s two seconds a lap quicker than you.”
To which Rubens replied. “DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH!”
Alex Wurz reported that the massive “Quad Apex” or four apex-pie as David Hobbs calls it. Is truly a “Hobbo” neck stretcher. With drivers experiencing 4.5 G’s for a FULL six seconds. And this is on an anti-clockwise circuit, which means the wrong side of the drivers neck is under these heavy contortions.
So just what is a Pay driver? Well in Sakon Yammamoto’s case. It means a driver who’s raced outside of his country for seven years and he’s NEVER scored a single point in any category he’s contested!
In deference to the tidily-winks occurring between the McLaren Beastie Boyzs. Mercedes Benz decided to present Fernando Alonso with a gift commemorating his 100th Grand Prix start. (Including the 2005 USGP Michelin tyre debacle…) As the German automaker presented the Spaniard with a solid silver replica of the firm’s all conquering W196. *1954-55)
To which upon the “Ronster” seeing, couldn’t resist telling Ferdi “We wanted to give you something heavy to THROW at us!”
And throwing even more fuel to the fire. As both of the factory Honda’s were demoted to the final starting row upon replacing both drivers’ race engines. Anthony “ANT” Davidson had a brilliant weekend. Flirting with making his first Q3 session with an excellent 8th fastest lap before being pipped in the final moments to end up in 11th. As ANT started once again ahead of BOTH Factory Honda’s, his “super Best Friends” teammate Taku and Toyota’s Ralfanzo.
And how the mighty have fallen… As it was reported that seven times World Champion Michael Schumacher’s 1997 Monaco and Spa winning Ferrari fetched a paltry $1.04 million at the recent RM Auctions event held in Maranello on May 20th.
Meanwhile Rubens Barrichelo’s Suzuka winning F2003 sold for $2.08 million. With Felipe Massa’s debut winning 248F1 fetching a sum of $2.23 million.
But the star of the show was the 24 Heurs du Mans winning 1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM driven by Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien. Along with being raced victoriously by Pedro Rodriguez the following year in the US.
Interestingly the exquisite Ferrari barchetta was driven daily to work by its Japanese owner in New York from 1965-74. With the 330TRI/LM garnering a record hammer price of $9.28 million paid by an anonymousSwiss bidder…
