Hamilton Fastest In Japan. (Friday Practice)

1) Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes (B), 1:18.734

2) Alonso, McLaren-Mercedes (B), 1:18.948 + 0.214

3) Massa, Ferrari (B), 1:19.483 + 0.749

4) Trulli, Toyota (B), 1:19.711 + 0.977

5) Raikkonen, Ferrari (B), 1:19.714 + 0.980

6) Kovalainen, Renault (B), 1:19.789 + 1.055

7) Fisichella, Renault (B), 1:19.926 + 1.192

8) Coulthard, Red Bull-Renault (B), 1:19.949 + 1.215

9) R.Schumacher, Toyota (B), 1:19.969 + 1.235

10) Kubica, BMW Sauber (B), 1:20.069 + 1.335

11) Webber, Red Bull-Renault (B), 1:20.069 + 1.335

12) Wurz, Williams-Toyota (B), 1:20.233 + 1.499

13) Rosberg, Williams-Toyota (B), 1:20.270 + 1.536

14) Button, Honda (B), 1:20.336 + 1.602

15) Heidfeld, BMW Sauber (B), 1:20.462 + 1.728

16) Sutil, Spyker-Ferrari (B), 1:20.736 + 2.002

17) Barrichello, Honda (B), 1:20.889 + 2.155

18) Liuzzi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B), 1:20.985 + 2.251

19) Vettel, Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B), 1:20.997 + 2.263

20) Davidson, Super Aguri-Honda (B), 1:21.007 + 2.273

21) Yamamoto, Spyker-Ferrari (B), 1:21.305 + 2.571

22) Sato, Super Aguri-Honda (B), 1:21.352 + 2.618

Briatore Weighs In On McLaren Scandal

Flavio doesn't have much sympathy for Dennis and McLaren and he asks a very valid question which I have highlighted below in an excerpt from another article I read today.

Briatore declined to answer whether he feels compassion for Ron Dennis after his team was fined $100m and kicked out of the 2007 constructors' title.
"I don't want to play the judge," said the Italian. "If Ron Dennis believes firmly that he did nothing wrong, then he should appeal.
"I can only comment on what I see. Last year McLaren were nowhere, and now they drive for the title. I am not the one who can judge from where this performance jump came from.
"This was not a case of an engineer carrying a bit of data from another team. If you read the detail of the World Council meetings, it becomes clear that a constant flow of information took place over a period of months," Briatore said.

Well said Flavio, millions of us are wondering where the hell the massive performance jump came from as well. We all know that it didn't come from Alonslow, that's for damn sure.

McLaren Guilty...Again.

OK, so the updates have been a while in coming, but a lot has been going on and I wanted to wait until 95% of it cycled through the press.

First, a quick race re-cap. The Turkish Grand Prix went to Ferrari with a beautiful 1- 2. Fast-forward to Italy and McLaren return the favor with a stunning 1-2 on Ferrari’s home track. This was the very first win for McLaren on this track…ever. Now, peel ahead to the Belgium Grand Prix and the Big Red Machine returns the favor with a brilliant 1-2. This coming Sunday we will be in Japan racing on a track that hasn’t seen an F1 car on it in some 30 years. It should be a very interesting weekend indeed.

Now, onto the main event.

I’m sure that by now most of you have read the documents that the FIA released in regard to the Mclaren thievery and mega-spying incident. If you haven’t, they can be found at these links.
To get the full impact of this situation you must read them in order starting with the July 26th findings, then September 13th (both at link 1) then the reason for the judgment handed down (link 2).

1. http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2007/September/190907-01.html
2. http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2007/September/140907-01.html

Having read the above documents my suspicions have been confirmed. McLaren are god damn lucky to still be racing. They are quite simply cheats, liars, whinging jagoffs or whatever else you wish to call them. The only reason they are still racing is because their drivers were all granted immunity for handing over their e-mails and because Formula 1 would lose much more as a whole if McLaren were excluded these next two years, monetarily speaking of course. The team is here nor there.

Remember folks, they were found guilty of possession of the Ferrari documents on July 26th but were handed out zero punishment because insufficient evidence of benefit or usage was available. So to go in to a second hearing on Sept 13th already guilty when new evidence has become available and expect to get fully exonerated is just stupidity at it’s best. Nice try Ronny boy.

A few of my colleagues keep saying things like “Ya, but the Ferrari guy started it all. Ferrari should be excluded or punished in some way”. And while that might be very true that yes, he did start it, McLaren’s big downfall came in sitting on those documents for several months and indirectly benefiting from them a way back at the beginning of the season in Australia by calling out Ferrari on their “movable” floor. McLaren would never really say how they got the tip off for that but it is my opinion that they got it from the documents. Doesn’t matter anyway, once those e-mails came out between the engineers and the two drivers Alonslow as well as Mr. De La Rosa it was game fucking over for McLaren. That clearly demonstrated that knowledge of the Ferrari dossier had traveled further up the McLaren ladder then they had previously let on. I mean c’mon Ron, when you say only a rogue employee knew of the documents and that he was nothing but a measly office manager who happened to be earning over 1 million pound sterling / year, I got two things to say to that. 1) Stop fucking lying and 2) can I apply for his job at the current salary? I’ll bet a fiver that you knew of the doc’s the whole time Ron, but true to form you are one of the great spin masters and you almost pulled it off. Oh, and by the way, the Ferrari guy who started it all is currently being prosecuted for industrial espionage under Italian Law so don’t worry. He’s going to get his. Trust me.

The real tragedy will be if Alonslack wins the drivers title. Surely that would not be fair at all because truth be told, he should have been disqualified with the team.
The other fucking nightmare that is brewing today is that Fernando might be going to Ferrari next year. I pray he does not. He certainly doesn’t deserve the drive whatsoever. Imagine a whinging little prissy boy of a driver who was basically found guilty of cheating, given immunity, and then carries on to claim the Championship thereby taking it with him to the team he benefited from all this season via the avenue of inside information. To hell with that I say. And shame on Ferrari if they hire him.

Well, enough for now. See you all at the track this Sunday in Japan.