Bitch, please

A rumour has circulated in the Hungarian paddock last weekend, that Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen, who won the world championship for Ferrari in 2007, is on the verge of returning to Maranello. This, of course, is utter rubbish.

I´m really not quite sure where the rumour originated from, but as always, a comment here or there can suddenly erupt to ‘breaking news’ stories. One idea is that Kimi has been asked if he is to stay with Lotus for another season, and knowing Kimi´s usual stance towards the media, his response is in the region of ‘let´s see, shall we?’ This is apparently enough these days to spark the rumour that of course he is returning to Ferrari.

Another explanation is that some guy called another guy, who has a friend who kows someone at Ferrari. And this guy overheard a conversation in the break room, where some of the staff perhapsmade a wishlist of drivers they would like to have racing for them.

When you read the articles, and there are a lot of them, they tell the same story. “As crazy as it seems” tends to be a good start on some articles, and the reporter doing it, should really stop right there and think it through. Yes it is crazy. Very much so. Remember that Kimi was paid a hefty sum of money not to race in the 2010 season, and Kim later admitted that the relationship between him and Ferrari could have been better. However, Kiimi also said that he has no bad feelings about anything.

Naturally the teams are looking at which driver is doing good, and who is progressing and there can be no doubt that Kimi Raikkonen´s return to the sport, has been a real boost to F1. He is fifth in the championship, has scored points in all races bar one, China, has visited the podium five times already and with 116 points he is only one single point away from Lewis Hamilton´s fourth place, six points from Sebastian Vettel´s third place and eighth from Mark Webber in second.

Teams have a list of drivers they would like, and this season that list is growing bigger for every race. And why? Unpredictability. The first seven races featured seven different race winners, including Pastor Maldonado. For some people that is enough to put his name on the list, despite the fact that he has only scored points in two races out of eleven, where as Bruno Senna has scored points in six events, and is only a handful of points away from Maldonado. Just to compare.

The list includes Nico Hulkenberg, Paul Di Resta, Sergio Perez, and just for good measure I´ll throw in Felipe Massa as well, along with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, both have been linked with a move to Ferrari. Heikki Kovalainen is another name whi pops up, the talented Finn is dragging a car which weighs the same as Belgium around the circuits, and Mark Webber admitted to be taling to Ferrrai, before signing for another year with Red Bull. SO that´s almost half the entire field.

So what does Kimi himself say to all this commotion?

After his stunning performance on Sunday in Hungary, The Telegraph insisted that this was enough of a boost for Kimi to ‘hint’ that Ferrari is not off the table. Here is what Kimi said:

“I always said that I had no bad feelings against Ferrari,” Raikkonen said. “When I had my time with the team I won my championship there. Things could maybe have happened in a nicer way at the end but life goes on.

“I am happy where I am now but you never know what happens in the future.”

So can we stop this now?

150th pole for McLaren

Lewis Hamilton secured McLaren´s 150 pole, when he set a late time of 1:20.953, improving on his own best time, which already had given him pole.

But it wasn´t a walk in the park. As the clock ticked, Hamilton´s early fastest time, seemed to be well out of the reach of even the usual extremely fast drivers, and a calm and collected Hamilton was seen sitting in the garage, waiting to see what would happen in the dying seconds. And sure enough, we saw another close qualifying session, right to the end, in which Sebastian looked to be stealing pole from the Stevenage Speedster.

Vettel was fast in Sector 1, then lost very little time in Sector 2, but eventually finished P2. But out of the blue came Romain Grosjean, an expert qualifier I must say, to snatch P2 from Vettel and Grosjean must be having a great time in that Lotus these days.

Fourth placed finisher is Jenson Button, so perhaps a strong weekend for the McLaren boys, as Hungaroring is very difficult to overtake on. Starting positions is everything. Kimi Raikkonen is starting P5 ahead of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, then double positives for Williams, as Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna both made into the top tenth, while Nico Hulkenberg starts tenth.

Mark Webber is disappointed to be starting P11, ahead of Paul di Resta and Nico Rosberg, who looked to be suffering during the session. Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi represents Sauber in P14 and P15, while Jean-Eric Vergne starts ahead of Michael Schumacher in P17.

Final finishers are Daniel Ricciardo P18, from Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov, Charles Pic, Timo Glock, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan.

Move over Hammy, Webber tops final practice

Red Bull´s Mark Webber put up a fight against McLaren´s Lewis Hamilton, to compete for the P1 position i nthe final practice session at Hungaroring, ahead of the qualifying session starting in a few hours.

With a 1:21.550, Webber was little more than one tenth faster than Hamilton, who was P1 for some time. Vettel made it to P3, just 0.028 behind Hamilton, as Bruno Senna completed another great session result and finished fourth. Fernando Alonso fifth, Kimi Raikkonen sixth, Romain Grosjean seventh, Felipe Massa eighth, Paul di Resta ninth and Jenson Button tenth.

Pastor Maldonado makes it elevent, then it´s Kamui Kobayashi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov, Charles Pic, Timo Glock, Pedro de la Rosa and Narai Karthikeyan.

 

 

Hamilton remains fastest as rain hits Hungaroring

Half way through the second practice session at Hungaroring, the rain started to fall. And fall it did.

During the dry runs, Lewis Hamilton was able to stay in front of the field, his second time this weekend, in a time of 1:21.995. Kimi Raikkonen finished in second, with a surprise third place finish for Bruno Senna. Fourth is Felipe Massa from team mate Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button gos sixth and Paul Di Resta seventh. Eighth is Sebastian Vettel, ninth is Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher remains tenth.

The rain fell hard and briefly stopped the action on the track, until a few drivers ventured out to examine the conditons. And one who did that, was Michael Schumacher, who suffered a minor bump with the barriers, as he locked the brakes going into Turn 12. The conditions were treacherous, but it soon cleared up and drivers could switch to the dry tyres again to complete the session.

From 11th it´s Nico Rosberg leading Pastor Maldonado, Nico Hulkenberg, Mark Webber, Kamui Kobayashi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Damiel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Vitaly Petrov and Heikki Kovalainen.