FIA F3 Intercontinental Cup - Macau : 26th Edtion,2008

[chunterer]

Mustonen and Lancaster with some work to do then!

[Lam Pak]

michael ho better than mika maki. michael will be better in race cause he deoest take risk the neighbours.

[ivanalesi]

Great for Mortara, may be it will be between him and Van Dam with Van der Zende waiting for errors as usual.
Anyone having link to the speed traps? I wonder how the 4 engines compare this season.

[bella]

i have a pile of paper with the speed traps here, but a rampant lack of interest in sitting and typing it out! give me about 10 minutes and i'll see if there's a quick way of typing it.

edit - sector 1 or sector 3? sector 1 is higher.

[Lam Pak]

toms and volkswagen engines look more beter then mercedes.i have learned to feel who is positive and who is negative and to leave the negative persons behind or when they stick out. i think it was what volkswagen needed to win. rc motorsport is a step backward and europe need to hav toms to be even best series in the world. i am sad cause i suspect that cheng congfu can be more quick in macau this year.tmw i bet for mortara, van dam, streit, hanley, alguerseri, kunimoto.

[ivanalesi]

Bella don't do it!
I found it like last year, they are just in weird place on the MSTiming website.
You should go from the top menu to Motorsport/Macau GP/2008 choose the F3 tab and on the bottom of the page is "PDF Booklet" - that's it!
http://www.mstworld.com/Results/2008/80012fm3.pdf

[bella]

good job, i was just thinking i couldn't be arsed

i'm going to back mortara. i think he might possibly not try too hard and bin it this time. it's going to take some effort to beat him.

[strider]

The speed trap at the end of Sector 1 is the most interesting. If you look at the map on page 2 of the .pdf file, you can see it's just before the braking area for Lisboa.

Hartley was quickest there in Q1. He did well to recover from losing time in P1. I rate his chances if he can keep it out of the wall, as he did in Bucharest, where he was mighty. Roberto Streit is another dark horse.

[strider]

I think I shall stop being making predictions (as above) and just stick to facts! This is how they line up for tomorrow's qualification race.

Pos Driver                 Team          Car     Time         Gap
 1. Carlo van Dam          TOM'S         D/T     2:11.846
 2. Keisuke Kunimoto       TOM'S         D/T     2:12.039  +0.193
 3. Edoardo Mortara        Signature     D/V     2:12.044  +0.198
 4. Roberto Streit         Double R      D/M     2:12.061  +0.215
 5. Sam Bird *             Manor         D/M     2:11.988  +0.142
 6. Roberto Merhi          Hitech        D/M     2:12.369  +0.523
 7. Renger van der Zande   Prema         D/M     2:12.402  +0.556
 8. Oliver Turvey          Carlin        D/M     2:12.404  +0.558
 9. Jaime Alguersuari      Carlin        D/M     2:12.412  +0.566
10. James Jakes            ART           D/M     2:12.423  +0.577
11. Brendon Hartley        Carlin        D/M     2:12.573  +0.727
12. Stefano Coletti        Prema         D/M     2:12.835  +0.989
13. Max Chilton            Hitech        D/M     2:12.869  +1.023
14. Mika Maki              Signature     D/V     2:12.942  +1.096
15. Marcus Ericsson        Carlin        D/M     2:12.988  +1.142
16. Kazuya Oshima          Manor         D/M     2:13.110  +1.264
17. Jules Bianchi          ART           D/M     2:13.124  +1.278
18. Kei Cozzolino          Now           D/T     2:13.504  +1.658
19. Walter Grubmuller      Hitech        D/M     2:13.710  +1.864
20. Franky Cheng           Signature     D/V     2:13.777  +1.931
21. Daniel Campos-Hull     HBR           D/M     2:14.325  +2.479
22. James Winslow          Ombra         D/H     2:14.399  +2.553
23. Jon Lancaster          Manor         D/M     2:14.620  +2.774
24. Basil Shaaban          HBR           D/M     2:15.412  +3.566
25. Koki Saga              Le Beausset   D/T     2:15.969  +4.123
26. Atte Mustonen          Double R      D/M     2:16.029  +4.183
27. Michael Ho             Double R      D/M     2:18.606  +6.760
28. Massaki Matsu****a     PTRS/Ombra    D/H     2:18.667  +6.821
29. Laurens Vanthoor       RC            D/V     no time

*Sam Bird qualified 2nd but was demoted to 5th for missing a weighbridge check.

Atte Mustonen was hopelessly slow, but then I noticed he only did 6 laps, so presumably took an early bath.

PS I just love the way the Tenths censor has put asterisks in the name of the Japanese guy who was 28th. Guess the letters that have been censored.

Our on-the-spot reporter missed all of this because she went to Hong Kong instead! Muppet doesn't really cover it...

[bella]

yes, and next time i'll make sure i panhandle for a subsidy for a grandstand ticket for the whole weekend. i should just be able to stretch to something for the saturday and sunday

[ivanalesi]

After FP and Q1, I didn't thought the top 5 would be in 0.2 sec Quite close.

[bella]

bickering aside (and seriously, the grandstands are unbelievably overpriced - they charge per day on saturday and sunday what they should be charging for the whole event), the weather forecast is looking dubious on sunday. one site predicts am showers (but only a 40% chance of rain, which has gone up since yesterday), and the bbc just says sunshine. it's been a lot warmer today (in my opinion), so it would make sense if there was a bit of rain on the way.

when was the last damp/wet race here?

[strider]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

After FP and Q1, I didn't thought the top 5 would be in 0.2 sec Quite close.

Very true. It's especially close over such a long lap. The reality is that probably any of the top ten or twelve could be on the podium.

Originally Posted by bella

when was the last damp/wet race here?

I have no idea, but the thought is pretty terrifying.

I have been a few times and once there was some light rain on the Saturday, but that was before the WTCC muscled in, so there was no F3 action on that day. I was trying to walk around the back part of the circuit and see if there were vantage points there, but up to the point where I abandoned the attempt due to the rain I had failed miserably.

[strider]

Qualification race results:

Pos Driver                  Team          Car         Gap
 1. Edoardo Mortara         Signature     D/V   29:20.769
 2. Keisuke Kunimoto        TOM'S         D/T      +1.189
 3. Roberto Streit          Double R      D/M      +2.904
 4. Oliver Turvey           Carlin        D/M      +3.364 
 5. Sam Bird                Manor         D/M      +3.984
 6. Jaime Alguersuari       Carlin        D/M      +4.623
 7. Stefano Coletti         Prema         D/M      +4.952
 8. Marcus Ericsson         Carlin        D/M      +8.799
 9. Daniel Campos-Hull      HBR           D/M     +22.448
10. Kei Cozzolino           Now           D/T     +23.056
11. James Winslow           Ombra         D/H     +26.786
12. Laurens Vanthoor        RC            D/V     +28.090
13. Jon Lancaster           Manor         D/M     +42.871
14. Koki Saga               Le Beausset   D/T     +48.578
15. Walter Grubmuller       Hitech        D/M     +49.439
16. Mika Maki               Signature     D/M     +57.740
17. Roberto Merhi           Hitech        D/M   +1:06.943
18. Massaki Matsu****a      PTRS/Ombra    D/H   +1:31.545
19. Nicola de Marco         RC            D/V   +1:44.930
20. Brendon Hartley         Carlin        D/M     +3 laps

Retirements

    Michael Ho              Double R      D/M      7 laps
    Basil Shaaban           HBR           D/M      4 laps
    Kazuya Oshima           Manor         D/M      3 laps
    Carlo van Dam           TOM'S         D/T      3 laps
    Renger van der Zande    Prema         D/M      0 laps
    James Jakes             ART           D/M      0 laps
    Max Chilton             Hitech        D/M      0 laps
    Jules Bianchi           ART           D/M      0 laps
    Franky Cheng            Signature     D/V      0 laps
    Atte Mustonen           Double R      D/M      0 laps


Fastest lap, Hartley 2:13.169 on lap 6

[chunterer]

Several cars retired with '0 laps' attributed to them I see?

Bit of over exuberance at the first corner by any chance?

[Martin Haven]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Several cars retired with '0 laps' attributed to them I see?

Bit of over exuberance at the first corner by any chance?

has all the hall-marks... unless there was just a rash of mechanical problems or grid stallers...

[runshaw]

Hartley has some work to do, shame as he got fastest lap. What happened with him and Jakes? He is so quick but his results have been all over the place this year. Outclassed by Turvey and Alguersuari again. Winslow doing his usual solid job, and with a Mugen-Honda in the Ombra team, he's never raced with them before!

[ivanalesi]

What a shame for van Dam, I was looking forward to the battle between him and Mortara. Also van der Zende and Oshima are 2 other strong competitors who got into the wars...
Some drivers moved a lot of places, but there have been 1st lap traffic jams, so you don't know how everyone moved places.
Tomorrow is going to be sunny according to the Weather Channel, so no chances of rain.

[strider]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Several cars retired with '0 laps' attributed to them I see?

Bit of over exuberance at the first corner by any chance?

Not a bad guess, chunterer! If you haven't already seen it it, the report on autosport.com here explains a lot. The red mist seems to have caught out quite a few and the trouble with that in Macau is that if it happens to one, it then affects others who get caught up in the accident.

The problem is that the first 'corner' is flat at all times, but it you're going to go through alongside others you have to give them room.

The second corner. Mandarin, is also flat once the tyres are up to temperature, but not really side-by-side even then, so why the three leaders tried it on the first lap is beyond me.

Oliver Turvey did well to be best rookie. He's one who would always keep a cool head.

Mortara is looking good for tomorrow's race, particularly if the VW engine has a slight edge as it appears to have.

I don't know where the blame lies between Jakes and Hartley, but the sad thing is that Brendon was unclassified, as he lost 3 laps having the damage repaired. He can still start tomorrow's race, but just for the hell of it and I'd expect him to do 15 qualifying laps in a row.

There are plenty more individual stories on crash.net.

[AUTOLEGEND]

can anyone one pm me a stream. I'd really like to watch the race. thanx

[strider]

The morning warm-up has just finished. Brendon Hartley was quickest in 2m 11.071s, by some way the fastest of the weekend. A statement of intent, if you like.

[runshaw]

What is the F3 record around Macau? All the drivers were posting bloody quick times just in the warm-up, quite risky!

[strider]

I've had a look back for a few years and it looks as though 1m 11.777s by Marko Asmer last year is the record. There have been a two or three years when people just ducked under the 2m 12s barrier, but maybe we'll see the bar lowered this year.

The track always improves massively as the weekend progresses, so today's the day.

[N.A-D.R]

is there a stream? id really love to watch it. thanks

[MCWB]

Yep, http://www.justin.tv/mordane1