F1 2008 Round 12 - European Grand Prix, Valencia - 22nd-24th August 2008

[Cougar]

The 2008 European Grand Prix will be the twelfth round of the 2008 Formula One season. It will be held from August 22 to August 24 at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain.

Kimi Räikkönen's third place at the Hungarian Grand Prix means he closes the gap to championship leader Lewis Hamilton of McLaren to 5 points. Räikkönen's Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa is in 3rd place, 3 points behind the Finn.

Scuderia Ferrari lead the Constructors' Championship by 11 points from McLaren-Mercedes after Heikki Kovalainen won the Hungarian Grand Prix for the English Constructor. BMW Sauber are 10 points behind McLaren.

Although it will be the first race at Valencia, the European Grand Prix has been held 17 times in Formula One. Fernando Alonso won the 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Germany for McLaren-Mercedes. He and Rubens Barrichello are the only former European Grand Prix winners in the field.

The European Grand Prix has been held in Spain twice before, both times at Jerez de la Frontera. The 1994 race was won by Michael Schumacher, whilst the 1997 race was made infamous by Michael Schumacher's attempt to run Championship rival Jacques Villeneuve off the track, handing Villeneuve the title. Mika Häkkinen eventually won the race.

(I got lazy again! So the above race blurb courtesy of WIKI!!)



Drivers standings AFTER the HUNGARIAN GP (unofficial)

		Driver	Team	Nat.												Points 1		L.Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes		10	4	P13	6	8	10	RET	P10	10	10	4	62 2		K.Raikkonen	Ferrari		1	10	8	10	6	P9	RET	8	5	3	6	57 3		F.Massa	Ferrari		RET	RET	10	8	10	6	4	10	P13	6	P17	54 4		R.Kubica	BMW-Sauber		RET	8	6	5	5	8	10	4	RET	2	1	49 5		N.Heidfeld	BMW-Sauber		8	3	5	P9	4	P14	8	8	5		P10	41 6		H.Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes
9		M.Webber	Red Bull-Renault		RET	2	2	4	2	5	P12	3	P10	RET	P9	18 (1x4th)
10		T.Glock	Toyota		RET	RET	P9	P11	P13	P12	5	P11	P12	RET	8	13 11		N.Piquet	Renault		RET	P11	RET	RET	P15	RET	RET	2	RET	8	3	13 12		R.Barrichello	Honda		DSQ	P13	P11	RET	P14	3	2	P14	6	RET	P16	11 13		N.Rosberg	Williams-Toyota		6	P14	1	RET	1	RET	P10	P16	P9	P10	P14	8 (1x3rd) 14		K.Nakajima	Williams-Toyota		3	P17	P14	2	RET	2	RET	P15	1	P14	P13	8 (1x6th) 15		D.Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault		RET	P9	P18	P12	P9	RET	6	P9	RET	P13	P11	6 (1x3rd) 16		S.Vettel	STR-Ferrari

Davidson only last on countback as Sutil has a 19th. Bother Drivers have each got a 15th and 16th position.

EDIT:Some comestic changes to fit the page.

[Cougar]

Constructors standings

	Team	Points
	Ferrari	111

European GP: Recent Results

Year	1st place	2nd place	3rd place
2007	Fernando Alonso	Felipe Massa	Mark Webber
2006	Michael Schumacher	Fernando Alonso	Felipe Massa
2005	Fernando Alonso	Nick Heidfeld	Rubens Barrichello

	Driver	Laptime
2007 Fastest lap	Felipe Massa	1.32.853
2007 pole position	Kimi Räikkönen	1.31.450
Lap record	None	None

Laptimes a bit pointless as different track

Weather Links

BBC Weather: www.bbc.co.uk
Weather UnderGround www.wunderground.com
Animated Rainfall Forecasthttp://weather.msn.com (Click "Precipitation forecast" just below the map)
Rainfall Radar http://www.meteogroup.co.uk

And especially for all those Martins out there!! GOOGLE EARTH WEATHER HACKS!

European Grand Prix Time Table (local)

DAY	LOCAL Time	UK Time
Fri 22nd August 2008
Friday Practice 1	10:00-11:30	09:00-10:30
Friday Practice2	14:00-15:30	13:00:14:30
Sat 23rd August 2008
Saturday Practice	11:00-12:00	10:00-11:00
Qualifying	14:00	13:00
Sun 24th August 2008
Race	14:00	13:00

European Grand Prix LIVE Chat

Please don't forget to join us in the ten-tenths chat room for live coverage of the Grand Prix!

At the time of going to press the web chat is down. But usually you can log-in through the web here If you can change the "Racer" nickname to your tenths name that
will be helpfull also.

So for now to access the chat you'll need to use a client.

If you're using Firefox, download the Chatzilla addon as the best alternative
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/16

Else, download any other IRC client, e.g. http://www.icechat.net/site/

The IRC server is irc.phishy.net, and the room is #motorsport (type "/join #motorsport" without the quotes when you're connected).
If you need any help in joining the chat room.. PM me and I'll try and help if I can.

Other Links

Live Timing
Race Schedule (and other f1 news)
Direct link to 2008 F1 Predictions - Round 12, Europe
All other F1 Predictions Contests

[Good Times]

I see Alonso has said Renault have a surprise for this race.
Is that beer can's on the track & nutter's !

[Marbot]

Maybe Alonso's surprise will be a visit to the podium.

I'll post these webcams....again.

http://webcam.comunitatvalenciana.co...ncia-puerto-71

Nice work again Cougar.

[Bononi]

Sticking this one for Fast Cougar !

[JeremySmith]

Cougar, your work, and your effort are really stunning..Am I repeating myself?

[Super Hans]

This should be an interesting race. What are everyone's predictions?

I can foresee two of the BIG FOUR putting themselves out of contention with unforced errors (probably Hamilton & Massa), and the other two having lacklustre races.

Alonso will ride the wave of public support to finish 1st.

[chillibowl]

Just thinking about how much track he is willing to use in places like Monaco, Hamilton's aggressive style may just be a disadvantage to him here. but i suspect a few drivers will introduce themselves to the barriers.

Alonso winning would be awesome. a low fuel quali a la Spain to get pole and then just staying ahead of the pack could be his ticket to gold.

[duke_toaster]

I think we will see a race with several SCs (possibly getting near Canada 07) and driving a mistake-free race will be important. Hamilton could win this one, but I think Massa won't do well here.

[chunterer]

Massa's GOT to do well here d_t!

Alonso will figure high up maybe in qual, but I doubt he'll have enough pace in the car for the win, good as it would be!

I'll be interested to see if Glock can once again humble Trulli and get the Cologne car in the top 6 again?

[hyphen]

I'm in Tribuna 4 at turn one & pit exit.
anyone else experiencing Valencia's first F1 live?

PM me if you want to hook up

_h

[Ralf's Girl]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Renault take the 'low fuel, high grid position' approach with Alonso, as they did at the Spanish GP. I don't think it works particularly well, but maybe he likes a glory run in front of his home crowd.

I think it could throw up a couple of surprises - maybe another unusual visitor to the podium - but I've been horribly conventional in my entry to the predictions competition. I think after Hungary, Hamilton and Massa will both be pretty fired up - although that's not necessarily conducive to getting through the race without stuffing it in a wall.

[RaiseYourFist]

The hot weather will play in Ferrari's hands and going against my predictions post I now think it might give Kimi his first win since April.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Ralf's Girl

I wouldn't be surprised to see Renault take the 'low fuel, high grid position' approach with Alonso, as they did at the Spanish GP. I don't think it works particularly well, but maybe he likes a glory run in front of his home crowd.

It's a track that has a high safety car possibility,so a short fuelled car is taking a very high risk of being caught out.Anyone going for a one-stop strategy will have a much better chance of avoiding a penalty.

[Bleu]

Low fuel strategy can also well turn into advantage. Let's say Alonso has pit stop on lap 15 and most front-runners around lap 20. Safety car between Alonso's and other front-runners would be highly beneficial.


edit: Please someone mod change the first post as it screws the page right now.

[Cougar]

Originally Posted by Bleu

....edit: Please someone mod change the first post as it screws the page right now.

Screws it right now? What is it doing? Seems to work fine for me and I assume everyone else? Or is the table getting too big and making your window scroll vertically?

Good news for the live chatters!!

European Grand Prix LIVE Chat

Please don't forget to join us in the ten-tenths chat room for live coverage of the Grand Prix!

You can now log-in through the web here It should already have your tenths nick in there so use that if you can

You can still use a chat client if you like...

If you're using Firefox, download the Chatzilla addon as the best alternative
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/16

Else, download any other IRC client, e.g. http://www.icechat.net/site/

The IRC server is irc.phishy.net, and the room is #motorsport (type "/join #motorsport" without the quotes when you're connected).
If you need any help in joining the chat room.. PM me and I'll try and help if I can.

Thanks goes to the bosses for sorting it!

[Cougar]

Who is about for FP1 then

Is anybodies ITV video working? Mine is stuck loading..

[crozier74]

Nah, mine's the same

Shame, would like to have a first look at the track and all the cars scrabbling for grip haha.

[djinvicta]

Mine stuck too. Have e mailed ITVF1..

[tux]

Videos up now

[bgeorge104]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

Mine stuck too. Have e mailed ITVF1..

My ITV video working now after an F5

[Cougar]

Yep mine a bit jerky but working.

[duke_toaster]

F1 website down.

[duke_toaster]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0205

[Suze]

Video link is working fine here now, good way to spend the afternoon at work Do ITV normally have a link up so you can watch practise?