F1 2008 Round 8 - French Grand Prix, Magny Cours 20th-22nd June 2008

[Sodemo]

Well France is merely days away, is this Magny Cours holding the French GP for the last time?

On a personal level, I certainly hope it is, as I can't stand the place, I actually prefer any of Tilke's creations.

But anyway, it looks to be a near certain good track for Ferrari, they have always gone well at Magny Cours, so I expect that McLaren, BMW and any other team trying to challege Ferrari may find life hard at the French venue.

Weather currently is set for cloudy skies and sun, so any hope of another wet race is looking doubtful.
http://uk.weather.yahoo.com/FRXX/FRXX0164/index_c.html

[ralf fan]

Did someone mention Magny Cours? I just went into a sudden state of coma.

[duke_toaster]

Damn ... I was about to post this. Given that Soddy hasn't, here are the tables that we all love :P

Drivers standings

	Driver	Team	Nationality	Points
	Robert Kubica	BMW-Sauber	Poland	42
	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	Britain	38
	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	Brazil	38
	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Finland	35
	Nick Heidfeld	BMW-Sauber	Germany	28
	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	Finland	15 (1x3rd)
	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	Australia	15 (1x4th)
	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	Italy	12
	Fernando Alonso	Renault	Spain	9
	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	Germany	8
	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	Japan	7
	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	6
	Timo Glock	Toyota	5 (1x4th)
	Sebastien Vettel	STR-Ferrari	5 (1x4th)
	Rubens Barrichello	5 (1x5th)
	Jenson Button	Honda	Britain	3
	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	France	2
18th	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1x10th
19th	Nelson Piquet Jnr	Renault	1x11th
20th	Takuma Sato*	Super Aguri-Honda	1x13th
21st	Anthony Davidson*	Super Aguri-Honda	1x15th
22nd	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1x16th

Constructors standings

	Team	Points
	Ferrari	73
	BMW-Sauber	70
	McLaren-Mercedes	53
	Red Bull-Renault	21
	Toyota	17
	Williams-Toyota	15
	Renault	9
	Honda	8
	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	7
	Force India-Ferrari	1x10th
	Super Aguri-Honda*	1x13th

French GP: recent results
[SIZE=2]

Year	1st place	2nd place	3rd place
2007	Kimi Raikkonen	Felipe Massa	Lewis Hamilton
2006	Michael Schumacher	Fernando Alonso	Felipe Massa
2005	Fernando Alonso	Kimi Raikkonen	Michael Shumacher

	Driver	Laptime
2007 fastest lap	Felipe Massa	1:16.099
2007 pole position	Felipe Massa	1:15.034
Lap record	Michael Schumacher	1:15.377 (set in 2004)

[Marbot]

Second only to Hungary in the 'snoozeathon' rankings.

This is a race that definitely needs rain!

But it looks like we won't get any!

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/07260.html

[Bononi]

Uhn... too early ?

[RaiseYourFist]

Personally I think Magny Cours is a very neat track, its just very narrow and fast so overtaking is close to impossible.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Bononi

Uhn... too early ?

Indeed.It would probably have been better to schedule the race for September or October.

[Super Hans]

After the dramatic thrills and spills of Turkey, Monaco and Canada, we return to a track which really sorts the men from the boys. If you can sit through the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, you know you're a real fan.

Seriously though, I'm hoping that Hamilton might liven things up with a spirited charge through the field.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by RaiseYourFist

Personally I think Magny Cours is a very neat track, its just very narrow and fast so overtaking is close to impossible.

So it's crap then!

France can do better than this.

[dsg]

Originally Posted by Super Hans

Seriously though, I'm hoping that Hamilton might liven things up with a spirited charge through the field.

Another charge into the field, would certainly liven things up.

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by dsg

Another charge into the field, would certainly liven things up.

Touche!

Something tells me he'll be paying particular attention to red lights this weekend.

[Marbot]

Hopefully Lewis has taken another look at the 'Highway Code' and will be a little more clued up about what's happening in the pit lane.

[Marbot]

Scorchio!

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2008/...prix-expected/

[Down F0rce]

Autosport are saying thunderstorms all weekend, like the did in Canada. We can only hope.

[Knowlesy]

Hmm. Magny Cours.

Well, safe to say this will be utterly dreary unless it rains.

Perhaps the evil, non-underdog, media hogging, pitlane crashing Brit will liven things up with a charge through the field. Sadly, having seen Alonso's efforts last year amount to absolutely zero, I doubt we can expect too much in the way of excitement barring an impromptu and wholly unnecessary red light disco at the end of the pitlane.

[mac]

Well, my normal disdain for this race has been moderately tempered by the hopes of seeing what Lewis can do from midpack.

I think McLaren's qualifying strategy will be interesting - does Lewis qualify as per normal and aim to get as high as possible with a low fuel load - thereby starting (say) 11th with minimal fuel load?

Or does he aim to qualify fifth or sixth - thereby starting 15th or 16th with a heavy fuel load?

Wow, I found another interesting aspect to this weekend!!!!

[Marbot]

Cars from 11th on the grid usually 'fuel up' anyway,so there's no need for Hamilton to run 'light'.

So that's the interesting bit out the window then.

It's interesting that a 'deep depression' could possibly be cured by a 'deep depression'..............what sort of shape is the track in?

[Cougar]

Hmm I forgot about FP1 .. Did I miss any excitement?

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Cougar

Hmm I forgot about FP1 .. Did I miss any excitement?

No,nothing happened for the first half hour and then nothing happened when the cars went out on the track.Apparently Cows could be heard eating grass and ringing bells in nearby fields (they have campanologistic herbivores in France).

Practice 2 must surely be better,but if the local cows can do a decent rendition of 'Frere Jaques'..........

[Born Racer]

We go from a track that was breaking up to one that certainly won't.

I don't have the same dislike for this track as some; whilst the races aren't usually exciting, the circuit itself is a bit different. The quick chicanes look fun, and Turn 8 is an odd one, a left-hand hairpin where you have to wait to put the power down a bit and where the line is not so clear.

[Mystery]

I may be in a pretty small minority here but I will always here a soft spot for Magny Cours as it is to date the only GP I have seen in person (last year) and as a spectacle it was great. Clearly much more fun in the wet though and turn 8 is indeed good to see - you get a huge amount of variation in line from those keeping it tight to the apex and others out to the Piquet line over by the marshals station

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Cars from 11th on the grid usually 'fuel up' anyway,so there's no need for Hamilton to run 'light'.

So that's the interesting bit out the window then.

Except he has his 10 place penalty to serve, and I believe if he makes it to Q3 he still has to run that fuel load, no matter where he starts in the field after penalties. But I've been wrong before.

[Born Racer]

The kerbs look high in the final chicane, but the drivers are still smacking over them to the point where it appears a gentler approach would help their speed all the way down to the second corner.

[mjstallard]

That Renault (in the hands of one of their drivers, at least - Fernando is carrying 11kph more than Nelson through the apex of turns 11/12) seems to have improved this weekend...that long awaited suspension update looks to be doing the trick.

[mjstallard]

Yikes. Fernando fastest, Vettel fifth. The race may be a bore, but qually could be slightly interesting yet.