Showing posts with label racing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racing. Show all posts

Monday, November 3, 2008

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton Wins the F1 Driver 2008 Grand Prix

According to the Formula 1 website, McLaren-Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton win the drivers' championship with 98 points, just 1 point ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari rounded up the podium with 75 points, coming in at third place.

Even though Massa really tried his best and won the Brazil Grand Prix, it was not enough to stop Hamilton in his tracks. Darn. I was actually gearing for Kimi to win but his point difference is simply too great for him to catch up to Hamilton. Oh gosh. Hamilton is really proving his mettle to be strong in racing. Lucky McLaren-Mecedes for getting such a superb driver.

Plus Hamilton must be feeling great that last year's disaster did not happen and he did managed to win the title by 1 point. Hee...

As for team constructors' championship, Ferrari won with 172 points on the table. Far from closest rival McLaren-Mercedes' points of 151 points. Well at least Ferrari can console themselves with this win instead of the drivers' championship. Bah!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Felipe Massa on Pole at Brazil Grand Prix

F1 website has reported that Felipe Massa of Ferrari wins the pole position at the qualifying round for Brazil Grand Prix.

He is closely followed by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Together they will form the pinnacle of the race in the Grand Prix, which is also the final race in this season.

Tomorrow's race will decide who will be the winner for this season and the Brazil fans get all the action. If Hamilton keeps his pace, he could well be on his way to win this season with a flourish.

Can't wait for tomorrow to arrive. =)

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Felipe Massa is Second While Kimi Raikkonen is Third in Chinese Grand Prix

According to this Bloomberg report, Ferrari's both drivers took the rest of the podium standings at the F1 Chinese Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa took the second spot while Kimi Raikkonen took the third spot. McLaren-Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton won the top spot with an ease that sprung from his pole win on Saturday.

During the race, Hamilton had led Raikkonen while Raikkonen led Massa. At the last crucial laps, Raikkonen allowed his teammate to overtake him to take the second spot, thus bringing the points closer to Hamilton's lead to seven points.

Now it all hinges on the final Grand Prix in the race, the Brazilian Grand Prix. If Hamilton continues his win in Brazil, he will be the youngest driver ever at 23 years old to win a Grand Prix Championship. That makes him one year younger than Fernando Alonso, who won the Championship in 2005 at age 24.

The Brazilian Grand Prix will be THE race to look out for in deciding the eventual winner for this year.

Watch out for it.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton Wins the Chinese Grand Prix

According to the Formula One's website, the newly crowned winner for the F1 Chinese Grand Prix 2008 is Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes.

So he finally won a race after so many rounds of failures and disappointments. As the Chinese Grand Prix has only just been completed, I don't have the full details of the rest of the podium standings.

I'm still waiting for Formula One to update their website. For now, at least we know who's the winner. Hamilton's dangerous driving certainly paid off here. As I don't subscribe to any sports channel, I can't see how the race turned out. Especially for Ferrari.

With Hamilton's win, McLaren looks set to win both the drivers' and constructors' championships this year.

Let's wait for more news from Formula One on that. =)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Renault's Fernando Alonso Wins the Japan Grand Prix!

Wow! According to Formula One website, Renault's Fernando Alonso had won the Japan Grand Prix, right after he won the Singapore Grand Prix.

That is a truly unexpected win for both Renault and Alonso. Wow! Looks like the former World Driver Championship holder is back with a vengence.

Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber won the second place while Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari won the third place. Judging from the writeup on the F1 website, it seemed to be a tight race for all the drivers and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren continues to encounter bad luck again.

Felipe Massa barely managed to grab 1 point from the Fuji race, thus reducing Hamilton's lead to 6 points. As for Hamilton, he bowed out of the race without grabbing any points. It was truly a bad day for both Hamilton and McLaren.

In any case, it was nice to see Kimi back on the podium, although he finished in third place. With 2 races left to go, it would be interesting to see how well he finish off in this year's drivers' championship.

Overall, it has been fun to catch all the results of the F1 race. Will Hamilton be crowned the winner finally? Only time will tell.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hamilton Takes Pole Position in Japan Grand Prix

According to Formula One's website, Lewis Hamilton of McLaren successfully took the pole position at Japan Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari came in second while Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren came in third. Poor Felipe Massa of Ferrari came in only at fifth position, after Renault's Fernando Alonso.

Looks like the race is set for another close fight between McLaren and Ferrari, with Hamilton and Raikkonen set for fighting to the race finish. But Massa should not be written off entirely as no one could be entirely certain until the race is over.

Just take Alonso, the winner of the first ever night race at the Singapore Grand Prix. No one expected him to take the winner's podium since he started the race at fifteen place. Even Alonso himself admitted that the race was over for him until the incidents of the safety cars came into the picture.

So even though Massa might seem to be on a losing end here, it remains to be seen who will be the eventual winner for the Japan Grand Prix. No doubt Hamilton will try to pull his lead of seven points over Massa to greater lengths. Will fate comes in to play trick on him? Or will he finally win the winner's podium here?

Too bad I don't have any access to the Grand Prix. However I will check by Formula One's website to see who will be the winner. Of course, my wish is to see Kimi Raikkonen win but it's all up to fate.

This year's Formula One Drivers' Championship is full of excitements and changes. Will Hamilton wins as expected or will he be dethroned by a black horse? It remains to be seen with 3 races left on the circuit.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Nintendo's New DSi Coming Soon

According to CNEt's Crave, Nintendo is going to release a new successor to the incredible successful DS Lite, the DSi.

Judging from the pictures below, it looks like Nintendo's gotten itself a bestseller. Yet again. But will it help to defeat the almighty Sony PlayStation Portable a.k.a. the PSP?






I personally own a PSP and so far I am very happy with its performance. The games that are designed for the PSP are varied and fun as well. There's no lack of choices of games to choose from.

Now I'm hooked on playing Burnout Legends and it's gotten me crazy over cars too. Just look at the Formula One posting which I did the other time. It's addictive, I can honestly tell you that. Which other car game will let you crash your car and still award you points for doing so? In fact, the more spectacular the car crash is, the more points you will get awarded. It's so fun!

Right, back to the DSi.

For now, it's not yet available in Singapore and so there's not much comparison to make between PSP and the DSi. From the pictures, all I can say is that the new look is definitely much more gorgeous and sexy than before. Nintendo fans would find it hard to say no to this baby.

Furthermore, this sleek baby comes with a SD card slot which definitely is a big plus for the gamer. Besides offering the options to store more games, it also offers music playback as well as images storage.

By the way, it is reported that the DSi will come equipped with a 3 megapixel camera and that seems to put it on top of the PSP right now. The PSP doesn't come with an internal camera, you will need to purchase an external camera which will definitely add cost to your total package.

Nonetheless, it's still early days yet and fans in Singapore will have to settle for wait. Japan will be the first country to get the new DSi since Nintendo originated from Japan (I think). By the time it comes to Singapore's shores, we would have more information to make a comprehensive choice then.

Who will win, PSP or DSi? You decide.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Renault's Fernando Alonso Wins Singapore Grand Prix!

Oh my gosh! What an exciting race it had been tonight!


The starting line up to the race


The inaugural Singtel Singapore Grand Prix has just ended with a surprise winner: Fernando Alonso of Renault. He was not expected to win since his starting grid position was 15, way behind that of Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who's gotten a pole position, and Kimi Raikkonen as well as McLaren-Mercendes's Lewis Hamilton.

The race was literally full of drama. Just a few laps into the race, Renault's Nelsinho Piquet crashed spectacularly into the barrier wall and had to retire from the race. This led the safety car to come out for safety control and this turned the tide in the race greatly.


Piquet's Crash Into Barrier Wall


Due to the safety car race round, Felipe Massa pitted after the round's end and it proved disastrous. Felipe Massa's car was getting refuelled and he was given the green light to go when he drove off with the fuel pipe still attached to his car. One of his mechanics was seen falling to the ground as well. As a result, Massa was given a drive-through penalty for unsafe release from a pit stop. This greatly reduced his chances of winning tonight's race as he fell to last position despite grabbing the pole position from his title rival, Lewis Hamilton.


Felipe Massa's refuelling disaster




Then another car crashed into the barrier near the floating platform but I'm not too sure who is it though. Probably it's Sutil from Force India.


This is probably Sutil's car


Safety Car to the Rescue


But the next car to crash was so totally unexpected that it made me felt very sad. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen had crashed onto the barrier wall and he managed to steer his car away before the safety car came out. So that's it for Ferrari tonight. No points at all. He had such high hopes of breaking into the top 3 positions just moments before he crashed. Oh boy. Guess life does not go your way everytime.


Kimi's Crash


After all these incidents, the one car that stood out from the crowd was Renault, driven by Fernando Alonso. Through it all, he remained calm and he maintained his racing pace so that Williams' Nico Rosberg had no chance of cutting him through to the finish line and had to settle for second position. Still, it is a career high for Rosberg and it's definitely worth celebrating too.


Alonso's the Winner of F1 Singapore Grand Prix




Tonight's race truly belonged to Alonso. There's no mistake about it. He came up from position 15 to take the winner's spot and that's no mean feat. Plus he also proved that he still has the mettle on what it takes to win a Grand Prix. Former teammate Lewis Hamilton poised no threat to him at all and was forced to take third position, behind Nico Rosberg.


The F1 Singapore Grand Prix Results




At the podium, Alonso was handed the winner's trophy by Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Alonso took a little bit of time to inspect this new trophy and it was cute to see him do that.


Alonso taking his well-deserved rest


Podium Finish


PM Lee Presented the 1st Place Trophy to Alonso of Renault


A Jubilant Alonso


2nd Place Trophy for Nico Rosberg


3rd Place Trophy for Lewis Hamilton


See how Alonso inspected his trophy with PM Lee looking on. Hee!


Overall, Lewis Hamilton still leads the pack with 84 driver's points in the table. Looks like Raikkonen has no more chances of winning this current championship and that probably applies to his teammate Massa too. With 77 driver's points on hand, Massa is 7 points behind Hamilton and there's only 3 races left to go for this championship.


Drivers' Championship Rankings


Unless a miracle happens, Lewis Hamilton looks likely to win this championship with ease provided he maintains or improves his current form. Furthermore, he's hungry for a championship win and I'm sure he will go all out to win the remaining 3 races.

For now, the curtains has settled on Singapore's inaugural Grand Prix with a big bang. However, we will be back with a roar come next year. The world has seen Singapore's glory and its beauty at night. There shall be more to offer once the integrated resorts are completed by next year.

Now, let's celebrate our Formula 1 success!!!


Let's Celebrate!


Press Conference for Singapore Grand Prix Winners


Cheers! ^_^

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Felipe Massa Takes Pole for Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying

Fresh from watching the Singtel Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying Round on tv, Felipe Massa of Ferrari has emerged to take the pole position for tomorrow's F1 night race.

It was a tight fight between Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Each of them took the 1st, 2nd and 3rd position respectively. Massa's impressive form simply blew away the competition and Hamilton was no match for him.

As for Fernando Alonso, he crashed out during the qualifying round and his frustration could be seen on tv as he vented his anger.

Anyway, I posted screenshots of the qualifying round listings below:






And so, the stage is set for tomorrow's night race. Who will win the race? Is it going to be Felipe Massa or will Lewis Hamilton defends his title successfully? With a single point difference separating the 2 drivers, tomorrow's night race is certainly going to be very exciting indeed.

Drive on, man.

Vrooooooooom!!!

=P

Friday, September 26, 2008

F1 Makes History in Singapore

It was a night to remember for it's the first time in the history of both F1 and Singapore that a night race is scheduled here.

Tonight, we got a glimpse of what's coming on this Sunday night. The F1 drivers tested and practiced on the Singapore Grand Prix circuit and part of it was shown live on national TV on Ch 5. It was a sight to behold for it's been a long time ever since the last time a race had been held here. And for Singapore, it's the first time that an international racing competition is held here and this is the opportunity for Singapore to show the world what it's got to show.

I anticipated for this day for quite a while, though I never went the extra mile and bought the tickets to the Grand Prix at Marina Bay. Many reports have already been written about this historical event and it's bound to be crowded with lots of F1 enthusiasts. I would rather stay at home and watch the event on TV in my own comfort. This way, I don't have to jostle with other people to get a view of the racing cars.

Well, I know nothing beats the experience of being able to watch F1 racing directly at the circuit but the ticket pricing is so high that I rather stay at home and watch. Besides, when the event ends, I don't have to endure big crowds while trying to get home using the public transport.

Besides, my viewing experience will be enhanced by my Samsung 40" LCD TV. That alone is enough to entice me to stay at home and watch the race.

Oh man, I can't wait for Sunday night to arrive so that I can watch F1 racing on our homeland. Plus I want to see who will win Singapore Grand Prix this year. Will it be Lewis Hamilton, or will Felipe Massa dash his dreams by winning the event? Or will Kimi Raikkonen finally gets his much-needed break here? We don't know much here but from the practice just now, only 1 name stood out.

Fernando Alonso.

He scored the fastest lap time on scoresheet, giving new hopes of a win here for Renault team. In addition, a win here would mean that he will be Singapore's first ever Grand Prix winner and that's an honour too.

How will things come out? I do not know but I do know that I shall be tuning in to tv tomorrow night to watch the qualifying rounds. That would be so exciting. Wee!!!