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Round 8 of the 2008 F1 season at Magny Cours.
Transcript
00:00:00It's heritage, the image of a car blasting along a dusty tree-lined road.
00:00:10Today, France also has hosted a future to a team which two weeks ago in Canada won its
00:00:16first ever Grand Prix and to a driver who may become world champion.
00:00:21Today they will pick up their first ever victory as a constructor and the first for Robert
00:00:27Kubica.
00:00:28BMW and Robert Kubica achieved that rarest of wins, a victory that was the first for
00:00:34both driver and car.
00:00:36Kubica's teammate Nick Heinfeld was second.
00:00:39They were perfect on a day when others were not.
00:00:42Collision, Hamilton, Hamilton.
00:00:45Red light at the pit out, car's stopped.
00:00:48Lewis is out, guys.
00:00:50Today, a new chapter is about to be added to the long history of racing in France.
00:00:56As the French Grand Prix unfolds on Fox Next.
00:01:26In addition to hosting the first ever auto race in 1894, France was a part of the first
00:01:36Formula 1 schedule in 1950.
00:01:38For the 18th year, the French round of the Formula 1 world championship takes part in
00:01:43the heart of the legendary valley on a two and three quarter mile track in Madicor.
00:01:48Welcome to the Formula 1 French Grand Prix on Fox.
00:01:53Hello, everyone.
00:01:54I'm Bob Varsha with David Hobbs, Steve Matchett and Peter Winsor.
00:01:57It is a gray day.
00:01:58We've had a few raindrops this morning, but for now, it is dry.
00:02:03After all, even if it does rain, that only makes the race even more exciting.
00:02:08A huge crowd on hand.
00:02:09Let's get right to our Toyota story lines for today's French Grand Prix.
00:02:15The first topic is Ferrari domination.
00:02:17A Ferrari driver has won this race seven of the last 11 runnings.
00:02:21Last year, Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa made it a Ferrari 1-2 from the front row
00:02:25of the grid.
00:02:26This year in qualifying, it is once again Ferrari across the front row.
00:02:31Kimi and Felipe are simply in a class of their own in France.
00:02:35David Hobbs?
00:02:36Well, McLaren, on the other hand, are a little bit off the pace, there's no doubt about it.
00:02:39But even Sir Lewis Hamilton did qualify third, but after that incident in the pit lane two
00:02:45weeks ago in Canada, he got penalized 10 spots, which puts him down into 13th.
00:02:49And his teammate Kovalainen, who qualified seventh, got five spot penalty for ignoring
00:02:55the yellow flag in practice.
00:02:57So they are starting off in 10th and 13th.
00:03:01This is what caused the fracas in Canada.
00:03:03He ran right at the back of Kimi Räikkönen, who as you can see, did not think a lot about
00:03:07it.
00:03:08Steve Matchett?
00:03:09Well, for me, it is BMW.
00:03:10Remember at the Grand Prix of Canada at Montreal, we saw Robert Kubica and BMW both take their
00:03:16maiden victories and finish that race on a high.
00:03:19Here in France at Magny-Cours, with different spec tires, a different type of track, different
00:03:24downforce on the car, these guys are struggling.
00:03:26They can get no better than third row on the grid.
00:03:30If they want to repeat that tremendous success that they had at the previous Grand Prix,
00:03:35they have it all to do, guys.
00:03:37They've got it all to do here in Magny-Cours.
00:03:40But they're still walking on a cloud.
00:03:42After that moment two weeks ago in Montreal, when Robert Kubica took the first victory
00:03:47for himself and for his BMW Sauber team.
00:03:51He is standing by now down on the starting grid with Peter Windsor.
00:03:57Thanks Bob.
00:03:58Robert, yesterday you said you weren't that happy with the front end of the car, but hey,
00:04:01guess what?
00:04:02You won your first Grand Prix two weeks ago, you're only P5 on the grid here, it's not
00:04:05too bad.
00:04:06Yeah, it's not too bad, but it could be better.
00:04:09For the race, we expect quite a difficult race, we'll see how will be the weather condition,
00:04:13but anyway, we will try our best and score as many points as possible.
00:04:17Very difficult to tell, but what was it like out of the pit lane there, out on the circuit?
00:04:21We were saving a lot of fuel, so I was not pushing, but it's quite slippery, and there
00:04:27is some drops coming down in corner 5 in different part of the track.
00:04:31Robert, thanks for talking to us, very best of luck.
00:04:33The Canadian Grand Prix winner for you, back to you Bob.
00:04:35All right, thank you Peter.
00:04:37Well if Robert Kubica is going to get to the front and win again, he's going to have to
00:04:40go around a two-time world champion.
00:04:43Fernando Alonso with Renault has put in another sparkling qualifying performance, he'll be
00:04:49up on row two, and he's with Peter Windsor now.
00:04:52Fernando, to spell something for us, everybody's saying you're on light fuel, ain't true, eh?
00:04:58Probably between all of the people now in the front runners, maybe we are the lightest
00:05:03ones, but it's a matter of having some distance, some seconds in the pocket when you stop for
00:05:09the first time, so we need to open a gap in the first couple of laps.
00:05:13We look forward to you opening that gap, thank you very much.
00:05:15Good to see Fernando Alonso smiling.
00:05:18The air show is underway, the drivers will be in their cars shortly, and we'll be ready
00:05:23for round eight of the 2008 Formula One World Championship.
00:05:28The one and only French Grand Prix from Manicours, stay with us.
00:05:35Welcome back to Manicours, the drivers are now in their cars on the grid, preparing to
00:05:39roll off for the formation lap, they will come to a stop and wait for the lights.
00:05:45Scheduled for 70 laps of this two and three quarter mile circuit, as you can see, it's
00:05:49getting a little dark on the horizon, a strong chance of rain this afternoon.
00:05:57As pole sitter Kimi Räikkönen takes the field on its way, let's take a look at the
00:06:01starting grid for today's French Grand Prix brought to you by Bridgestone.
00:06:05All Ferrari across the front row, Kimi Räikkönen, the reigning world champ, brings the brand
00:06:09its 200th Formula One pole position, but coming off two races without a point, the Iceman
00:06:14needs to score badly today.
00:06:17Next to him, Felipe Massa makes it the third all Ferrari front row of 2008.
00:06:21Row two, the Renault of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, his second best grid position
00:06:25of 2008, but only nine points in the bag so far, alongside the Toyota of Jarno Trulli,
00:06:30also his second best grid of the year, but he doesn't have a great record at this track.
00:06:35On row three, Robert Kubica, the winner two weeks ago in Canada, his breakthrough for
00:06:39BMW Sauber.
00:06:41Next one, Mark Webber of Australia, who ties his best starting position of the year, by
00:06:45far his best ever here at Manicour in the Red Bull Renault.
00:06:48Mark Webber's teammate, David Coulthard, a previous winner here in 2000, lines up his
00:06:52Red Bull in seventh on the podium two weeks ago in Canada.
00:06:55Next to him, the second Toyota of Timo Glock, his best starting position this year.
00:06:59On row five, Nelson Piquet, Jr., who has been told by Renault, it is rumored, that he has
00:07:04three races to raise his game, or look for something else to do.
00:07:07Next to him, equally young, Henke Kovalainen of Finland, in the first of the McLaren Mercedes.
00:07:12Qualified sixth on Saturday, but was demoted to tenth for interfering with Mark Webber's
00:07:16run.
00:07:17The second BMW of Nick Heidfeld, finished second two weeks ago in Canada, but eleventh
00:07:20on the grid today.
00:07:21His second worst start in 29 races, alongside the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel, the youngest
00:07:26driver in the field, giving the team their best start since he was ninth on the grid
00:07:30in Melbourne.
00:07:31On row seven, Lewis Hamilton, in the second McLaren, had the third quickest car in qualifying,
00:07:36but dropped ten places to thirteenth for crashing into Raikkonen in the pits in Canada two weeks
00:07:40ago.
00:07:41Next to him, Sebastian Bourdais, the former champ car star in North America, the only
00:07:45Frenchman on the grid.
00:07:46He'll be a crowd favorite, but he's struggling with his Toro Rosso Ferrari.
00:07:50Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams Toyota starts in fifth in spot, but he's been making up
00:07:54a lot of ground in his last few starts.
00:07:57The Honda of Jenson Button starts alongside him.
00:07:59Honda's still having a miserable season, but his teammate, Rubens Barrichello, did
00:08:03lead some laps in Canada.
00:08:05On row nine, all-force India Ferrari.
00:08:07Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth in each of the last three years here.
00:08:10He'll be hard-pressed to do that today.
00:08:12Next to him, Adrian Sutil, his young teammate from Germany.
00:08:16Nico Rosberg, son of eighty-two world champion KK Rosberg, having been penalized ten spots
00:08:21after a pit lane accident in Canada, starts nineteenth.
00:08:24And Rubens Barrichello, in the second Honda, starts dead last after changing his gearbox
00:08:28this morning and incurring a ten-spot penalty.
00:08:30There's Flavio Briatore in the dark glasses, team principal of the factory Renault team.
00:08:36It's taking the field a long time to get to their starting positions.
00:08:41These guys up toward the front have been sitting there for a while.
00:08:43Yeah, they don't like that at all.
00:08:44Engines start to overheat because these cars rely on moving to keep the engines cool.
00:08:48There's a look at the weather conditions.
00:08:49Once again, a strong threat of rain.
00:08:51Here come the lights.
00:08:52And the volume for the start.
00:08:53Good start for the front row, three wide behind the Ferraris.
00:09:04Yarnell Truly with a great launch.
00:09:06Looks like he's up to third ahead of Robert Kubica.
00:09:15On to the golf straightaway.
00:09:16There's a golf course just behind this grandstand, but the grandstand is packed.
00:09:21He's out on the links today.
00:09:22Robert Kubica down.
00:09:23Truly.
00:09:24You've got to watch it around his hairpin.
00:09:26Get wheels locked up.
00:09:27We often see a lot of accidents here.
00:09:29All on board now with Lewis Hamilton.
00:09:31Yeah, we're on board with Hamilton.
00:09:34He's one of the few guys, probably one of only two, that's running on the soft compound.
00:09:37Pretty much all the field on him.
00:09:39Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:09:41You can't do that.
00:09:42He didn't make up any position.
00:09:43He'd already got by one of the Vettel in the Toro Rosso.
00:09:48He just forgot where he was on the racetrack.
00:09:50He was pushed out too far trying to get around him.
00:09:52He was too wide going in.
00:09:53Look at the two Ferraris, though, just leaving the field.
00:09:58Everyone was afraid that Ferrari had speed in hand.
00:10:01In fact, Kimi Raikkonen, once assured of the pole position, was on a quicker lap in Saturday's
00:10:06final qualifying, and he aborted the lap.
00:10:08He knew he didn't need it, and he wanted to save the fuel.
00:10:10Hamilton up on his teammate now, Aki Kovalainen.
00:10:14I saw something fly off one of those cars there.
00:10:16Did he hit him?
00:10:19Yeah, I think I saw something come off somebody's car.
00:10:22I think it was a little bit of Kovalainen's rear wing.
00:10:29Truly and Alonso.
00:10:30You heard Alonso say he's light on fuel, he needs to get up there.
00:10:33When you're light on fuel, you have to get to the front.
00:10:36Absolutely.
00:10:37We saw Robert Kubica have the better start than Alonso off the line.
00:10:41Alonso tries Truly in the Toyota around the outside, and then the over-under in the Adelaide
00:10:46hairpin.
00:10:47Will it happen?
00:10:48He'll have better acceleration being light.
00:10:50Milano Trulli is one of those guys who's having a bit of a trouble with his car.
00:10:54He still stays in front, but he's being hounded by Alonso.
00:10:57Like I said at the start, Trulli...
00:11:00Oh!
00:11:01Alonso going wide.
00:11:02Too close, David.
00:11:03It was running too close in the slipstream of the Toyota.
00:11:06Again, Alonso thinking back to the start of the race.
00:11:09He said he had to be fast, he had to be light, and he is.
00:11:13Kubica got the better start of him.
00:11:16He managed to get past Kubica.
00:11:19And this guy is also on a charge.
00:11:21This is Kovalainen, his teammate, right behind the guy with a white stripe on the tyres.
00:11:25The softer compound tyres is Lewis Hamilton.
00:11:28He was absolutely desperate to make a move on Kovalainen.
00:11:31He's got to, because obviously Hamilton's further up in the World Championship,
00:11:36but these two guys have just got to score points this weekend.
00:11:39No points two weeks ago in Canada.
00:11:42Obviously zero, so they're now 20 points behind Ferrari in the championship.
00:11:46Up with Nelson Piquet here, going through that very fast...
00:11:51This is the Estoril curve.
00:11:53Long, very fast corner.
00:11:55We've seen a lot of people plowing around in that gravel on the outside there.
00:11:59This is well under his tail here.
00:12:01Could make a move down to the hairpin.
00:12:07Piquet doing a bit of judicious blocking there.
00:12:10Hamilton, of course, is the guy that's got to make ground,
00:12:12because I think he's a little bit lighter than his teammate.
00:12:14And he's also got the soft tyres on that,
00:12:16signified by that white stripe around the tyre.
00:12:19He's got the soft tyres on, his teammate's got the hard.
00:12:21Hard to overstate the pressure on 22-year-old Nelson Piquet Jr.,
00:12:25the son of a three-time world champion.
00:12:27Nelson Sr., a bit of a Little League father.
00:12:30The team has asked him to sort of step away a little bit,
00:12:32and try to ratchet down that pressure on his son.
00:12:35But he has not produced the results that were expected of him
00:12:38from the Renault factory team this year,
00:12:39and he needs to do that soon.
00:12:41Another look at the starts.
00:12:42Boy, the Red Bull's very slow to get away.
00:12:45The two dark blue cars.
00:12:47There goes Gluck down the inside there, going around.
00:12:50Vettel.
00:12:52There's Kubica that makes the move.
00:12:55On Alonso.
00:12:58Yeah, Alonso was hoping to grab some positions off the start,
00:13:01but it didn't happen.
00:13:02Ooh! Oh!
00:13:03One of the four Cyndia cars got into the back of Jenson Button's Honda.
00:13:07I think that's Adrian Sutil.
00:13:08Ripped a bit of his ring off.
00:13:11Here are the two McLarens.
00:13:12Hamilton right up on Kovalainen's gearbox.
00:13:16There's Nick Heidfeld and the bright white BMW Sauber.
00:13:22Kubica's been relegated to...
00:13:24Yeah.
00:13:25A traffic jam can happen in a hurry if the speeds these guys run.
00:13:28Kovalainen trying to get around the inside there.
00:13:30Piquet didn't come off.
00:13:32Now, this is a very fast run down to the Nurburgring chicane.
00:13:36I mean, these cars just look like they're on rails.
00:13:40On board with Kovalainen, trying to get down the inside of Piquet.
00:13:43Goes in a bit early there,
00:13:44so he's going to compromise his speed off the corner.
00:13:58Down two gears for that chicane, that MLS chicane.
00:14:01But that's what 19,000 rpm sounds like.
00:14:06Well, up front, Kimi Räikkönen.
00:14:07There he is.
00:14:08Fast lap after fast lap.
00:14:10That one, 1.17.058.
00:14:13Behind him, teammate Massa and the other Ferrari.
00:14:1517.433.
00:14:17Then Jarno Trulli, 18.1.
00:14:20Everybody else follows on from there.
00:14:24On board with Alonso.
00:14:26He's got a block up ahead.
00:14:27This is on the first lap.
00:14:28That's Kubica.
00:14:32Boy, he muscled his way past there, didn't he?
00:14:34Yeah, he did.
00:14:36You saw Kubica's hands flashing knuckles there, working hard.
00:14:40Oh, here's the damage.
00:14:42Now, this is another incident.
00:14:43This is Jebsen-Buss, isn't it?
00:14:46There goes Hamilton around his teammate.
00:14:48Is that right?
00:14:49At the Adelaide hairpin.
00:14:50Yeah.
00:14:51That puts him up into ninth spot now.
00:14:52One out of the points.
00:14:53Now he's going to have to deal with Piquet.
00:15:00Hamilton needs to make ground.
00:15:02I think he's a bit light on fuel.
00:15:04Boy, locking up there.
00:15:05Both of the McLarens locking up going to that 180 degree corner.
00:15:08But Hamilton's got to make up more ground because he's on the soft tires.
00:15:16Boy, as you were saying, David,
00:15:17these cars are so fast to change direction.
00:15:19On board with Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren.
00:15:23I think his teammate led him by there.
00:15:26Notice the white stripe on the softer or option tire.
00:15:30Bridgestone brings two.
00:15:31Oh, is that off at the back?
00:15:33Is that what happened to Button?
00:15:34This is a replay.
00:15:35That's what happened to Button.
00:15:37Went in there behind that wall looking fine.
00:15:39Came out looking not so good.
00:15:41Front end.
00:15:42Frappe.
00:15:43It's second hand, you might say.
00:15:47Okay, here comes Hamilton.
00:15:49Hot on the heels of Nelson Piquet.
00:15:52Getting back to the tires.
00:15:53Bridgestone has brought their two middle of the range tires.
00:15:57The medium and soft.
00:16:00Steve mentioned in our coverage of Canada two weeks ago.
00:16:02Each driver is required to use at least one set of each of the two tires available.
00:16:12As you can see, very rural here in Manicours.
00:16:14About a three hours drive south of Paris.
00:16:18Former French President Francois Mitterrand is from this part of the country.
00:16:21Boy, Hamilton's doing an awful lot of tire locking.
00:16:25Piquet went a little wide there.
00:16:26Piquet went a bit wide, but Hamilton locking up those fronts all the time.
00:16:29He'll be putting nasty flat spots on there.
00:16:31Getting some vibration back to the wheel.
00:16:33Button in the Honda pits.
00:16:35Oh dear.
00:16:36Boy, Honda are having a terrible year.
00:16:38There's no doubt about it.
00:16:39They've got Ross Brawn, ex-Ferrari chef, dig deep on board now.
00:16:44But hasn't been able to make much impression on the results so far.
00:16:49Well, he was up front about it.
00:16:50He said, I don't think I can at this point.
00:16:52What I've got to do is look at the systems in place and start working on next year.
00:16:56In fact, it's rumored that Honda has basically decided this is the car they will use the balance of the year.
00:17:01And we'll look forward to 2009, when some very radical new aerodynamic rules will come into effect.
00:17:07Oh boy, look at old Hamilton there.
00:17:09Much quicker through the beginning part of Estoril, but not so good coming off.
00:17:13It's one of those penalties you've got to pay.
00:17:15If you're too fast in, you can't come off quick.
00:17:17But he's trying to desperately get in the tow now from Nelson Piquet.
00:17:21Nah, just too far back.
00:17:23He locks up that left front again.
00:17:25Jeebus.
00:17:26He needs to be a bit careful.
00:17:30Listen to that car accelerate.
00:17:322.4 liter V8 engine revving to 19,000 RPM.
00:17:36With a gearbox that changes gears in, oh, about 50 milliseconds.
00:17:41We'll take a break.
00:17:46Welcome back to Manicours in France.
00:17:48The French Grand Prix here on Fox.
00:17:50That blue tire smoke comes from the bridgestones of Lewis Hamilton.
00:17:54Who is desperately trying to get by Nelson Piquet Jr.
00:17:58The number two driver for the factory Renault team.
00:18:00Well, I thought he had it that time.
00:18:02He had a great tow.
00:18:03He came off Estoril right behind him.
00:18:05Had a great tow.
00:18:06Let's have another look at this.
00:18:08But of course, Piquet hugging the inside line.
00:18:11And again, he locks up that left front big time.
00:18:13He must be getting a lot of flat spots on there.
00:18:16Both of these drivers, graduates of the GP2 program.
00:18:20The stepping stone to Formula 1.
00:18:22GP2 races appear on Fox.
00:18:24Ah, excuse me, on Speed.
00:18:26He'll be desperate to get past Piquet.
00:18:28Piquet is now 1.7 seconds behind Mark Webber.
00:18:32Losing ground to Webber.
00:18:34And Hamilton can go quicker once he gets around Piquet.
00:18:37But he just can't get around him.
00:18:39Yeah, once he does get around him, you're right, David.
00:18:41He'll be absolutely gone.
00:18:42This is not a McLaren strategy at all.
00:18:45The Renault chassis is absolutely no match for the McLaren chassis.
00:18:50Or shouldn't be.
00:18:51I can only assume that Renault are running significantly less wing,
00:18:54which is making Piquet fast.
00:18:56In fact, very fast.
00:18:57He's currently the quickest non-Ferrari out there.
00:19:02In a straight line.
00:19:03Yeah, if you run less wing on the car now, let's see whether or not...
00:19:07No, he just has another look, but he can't do it.
00:19:09Just too far back.
00:19:10Because the McLaren, for some reason, this weekend,
00:19:12is off the pace in a straight line.
00:19:14And of course, if you're off the pace in a straight line here,
00:19:16you're doomed.
00:19:17Because the only real overtaking spot is into that Adelaide hairpin.
00:19:20Look at the gap between the two Ferraris and the rest of the field.
00:19:24Jeepers.
00:19:27Yes, David, it's a very good point you make.
00:19:29In the pit lane here, a lot of discussion about the wing levels
00:19:32that McLaren have been running.
00:19:33David Coulthard, the red bull driver,
00:19:35saying on Thursday that he thought the McLarens would be
00:19:37blasting past everyone in a straight line,
00:19:39based on their performance in Canada.
00:19:41But here, quite clearly, they've had to run more downforce
00:19:44than they perhaps would like to,
00:19:46in order to get the grip level they've found.
00:19:48And it's not so easy for them to pass on the straight.
00:19:50But part of the problem is that long, long right-hander,
00:19:52as Steve said.
00:19:53You get into the toe there, you get turbulence,
00:19:55and it's very difficult to be close to the car in front.
00:19:57Yeah, actually, Peter, now that you look at the cars,
00:20:00look at the rear wing configuration of the cars.
00:20:02And when you get a good shot of the Renault,
00:20:04you'll see that the rear wing is arched like this,
00:20:06which is an indication of being a low downforce wing.
00:20:09The McLaren wing is looking like this on the back.
00:20:12Again, indication of much more wing on the back.
00:20:14Okay, Jarno, you are pulling away
00:20:16three tenths of a lap from Alonso.
00:20:18Very good. Keep pushing.
00:20:22Boy, that's like a breath of fresh air
00:20:24for Jarno Trulli and the Toyota team.
00:20:26Boy, that's not in Alonso's script at all.
00:20:30Toyota is mourning the passing this week
00:20:33of the founder of their Formula 1 team,
00:20:35Ove Andersson of Sweden,
00:20:37who was tragically killed in a vintage rally
00:20:40in his beloved South Africa.
00:20:43Very much missed this weekend.
00:20:45And the Toyotas are wearing black strips on the car
00:20:48in memory of Andersson.
00:20:50It's interesting to see how McLaren and Renault
00:20:52are approaching this track, how different they are.
00:20:54And to give a little idea,
00:20:56the less downforce on the car,
00:20:58like Renault are running, as we're saying,
00:21:00as David was saying, faster down the straights,
00:21:02but they struggle around the corners.
00:21:04Conversely, more downforce on the car,
00:21:06more aero grip pushing the tires into the track,
00:21:09means that you're gonna be slower down the straights,
00:21:11because of the drag you're carrying in the wing,
00:21:13but you will run faster, more grip,
00:21:15more stability through the corners.
00:21:17So you've got to look, it's one offset against the other,
00:21:20and McLaren are just so frustrated
00:21:22because you can't get close enough to the Renault
00:21:24to take the fight to the car in the corner.
00:21:28Right here, he's very quick through the beginning
00:21:30of this corner, but fades towards the end
00:21:32and has not quite closed up here to get a good draft.
00:21:37And Steve, on top of that,
00:21:39if you're running a lot of downforce,
00:21:41as Toyota are as well,
00:21:43you can do a much better job of looking after the tires.
00:21:45That's one of the reasons, I think,
00:21:47that Toyota are so good on light fuel and heavy fuel load,
00:21:50because they're running a bit more downforce.
00:21:52They're not particularly quick on the straight either.
00:21:54Of course, when you get trapped behind one of these cars,
00:21:56as Lewis is, it's a nightmare.
00:21:58Absolute nightmare.
00:22:00This is virgin territory for Nelson Piquet Jr.
00:22:03He has only run in the points,
00:22:05that is, the top eight positions,
00:22:07a total of three laps all season to date.
00:22:10He's been there since the start of this race,
00:22:12ten laps ago.
00:22:14Nelson Piquet is lapping in 1.186,
00:22:16as opposed to Raikkonen's 1.168,
00:22:18so nearly two seconds off the pace,
00:22:20which means that Hamilton is also lapping there.
00:22:22Normally, you'd expect the Ferraris
00:22:24and the McLarens to be separated by no more
00:22:26than about half a second a lap, if that.
00:22:28So this is absolute disaster
00:22:30for Hamilton to get stuck behind Piquet,
00:22:32of all people.
00:22:34Ferrari averaging laps 1.186.
00:22:36He's 1.18 seconds quicker
00:22:38than anyone else in this race.
00:22:40And in terms of top speed,
00:22:42Raikkonen, 188 miles an hour,
00:22:44Massa, 190 miles an hour,
00:22:46Piquet,
00:22:48quickest of the rest of the straight line.
00:22:50Oh, boy, look how quick he is into the corner,
00:22:52but then gets into the wash at Piquet
00:22:54and loses time.
00:23:01He's too far back.
00:23:04Gotta rethink that strategy.
00:23:06Oh, boy.
00:23:08They hit him a little earlier
00:23:10than they might otherwise have intended.
00:23:12As the saying goes,
00:23:14that's why we run the races.
00:23:16Just can't forget.
00:23:18There's your top four
00:23:20and the second four.
00:23:22Back at Manicours,
00:23:24driving down the pit lane,
00:23:26serving a penalty, Lewis Hamilton,
00:23:28who was docked by the stewards
00:23:30for short-cutting that chicane
00:23:33and passing Sebastian Vettel
00:23:35in the opening laps of the race.
00:23:37Here's another look at the move.
00:23:39He drops up on him there,
00:23:41gets down the inside,
00:23:43obviously gonna make the pass pretty easily,
00:23:45but he's left himself out on the line
00:23:47to drive somewhat.
00:23:49Can't turn in because Vettel's there,
00:23:51so he goes right across the corner.
00:23:53He doesn't pick up any more time,
00:23:55but of course, if he hadn't done that,
00:23:57he wouldn't have been able to stay
00:23:59in front of Vettel.
00:24:01But why didn't they stop Lewis Hamilton,
00:24:03change tyres and refuel,
00:24:05as he's got to drive through the pit lane anyway?
00:24:07You can't do that to the Sporting Wrecks.
00:24:09The penalty is you have to drive through,
00:24:11you have to drop your speed down
00:24:13to the speed limit in the pit lane there,
00:24:15but the team are not allowed
00:24:17to work on the car.
00:24:19How's the balance, Brando?
00:24:21How's the balance?
00:24:25Very poor grip.
00:24:27Oversteer is lost, people.
00:24:31Very poor grip with oversteer.
00:24:33Yeah.
00:24:35And it looks like, from that on-board,
00:24:37it looked a bit gloomy, didn't it?
00:24:39Even more gloomy.
00:24:41It did. When we first came to that shot,
00:24:43I thought we saw spots before the on-board camera
00:24:45lens wipe cleared.
00:24:47Well, this is a very short pit lane
00:24:49here at Magnet Corp.
00:24:51Typically, we tend to see three,
00:24:53occasionally four stops.
00:24:55Ferrari tried that with Michael Schumacher,
00:24:57seven-time world champion a few years ago,
00:25:00We are now getting towards that first
00:25:02pit stop window, lap 14 to lap 17.
00:25:04There or thereabouts,
00:25:06these guys will be thinking about
00:25:08coming in for fuel.
00:25:16So after that penalty, Lewis Hamilton
00:25:18down to 13th spot, behind
00:25:20Heidfeld, Vettel, Coulthard,
00:25:22Kovalainen again, his teammates.
00:25:24Renault into the pit lane.
00:25:26Just rode along with Kimi Räikkönen,
00:25:29a lap of 116.650,
00:25:31another new fast lap.
00:25:41So Alonso into the pits,
00:25:43and there was the reason for the exchange
00:25:45of information, the radio exchange
00:25:47between team and driver.
00:25:49The team wanted to know how the driver feels
00:25:51with the car, so they can make a last-minute
00:25:53tire pressure adjustment.
00:25:55If they can put a little bit more or less pressure in,
00:25:57it will alter the balance of the car suddenly.
00:25:59Try and take some of that oversteer
00:26:01out of the car with that fresh tires.
00:26:03You can see just how short that pit lane is.
00:26:05So short, in fact, that
00:26:07Lewis Hamilton's drive-through penalty
00:26:09only cost him about 12 seconds
00:26:11on the track.
00:26:13Alonso rejoins
00:26:15behind Nick Heidfeld
00:26:17for 12th place.
00:26:19So that's another obstacle that Lewis Hamilton
00:26:21will have to overcome.
00:26:24You remember last year,
00:26:26there's Hamilton coming up the back.
00:26:28Last year, when Alonso
00:26:30was driving for McLaren, he had a tremendous
00:26:32die split with
00:26:34Nick Heidfeld. Alonso
00:26:36was penalized again in qualifying,
00:26:38was put back in the grid, and had
00:26:40a heck of a job to get past Heidfeld
00:26:42in the race.
00:26:45We'll keep talking about
00:26:47fast lap.
00:26:49Mostly in connection with
00:26:51Kimi Raikkonen, who has set the fast lap
00:26:53in the last four consecutive races.
00:26:55He is now tied
00:26:57with Nigel Mansell
00:26:59for third
00:27:01on the all-time list
00:27:03with 29 fast laps
00:27:05with the offered bonus points,
00:27:07which they do not.
00:27:09Raikkonen would be at much better shape
00:27:11if he was in the race.
00:27:13Raikkonen would be in much better shape
00:27:15in the championship than he is right now.
00:27:19Ferrari crew looks on.
00:27:21Well, to show you what we were talking about,
00:27:23Lewis Hamilton stuck behind Nelson Piquet.
00:27:25I know it's very difficult for first-time
00:27:27viewers of Formula One
00:27:29to understand why these cars can't get past
00:27:31each other, even if you've got a much quicker car.
00:27:33And Hamilton, on his very
00:27:35first lap, after his
00:27:37drive-through, was over a second
00:27:39quicker than he was in any lap
00:27:42before that, following Piquet.
00:27:44So you can see that if he'd managed to get around
00:27:46Piquet, he would have pulled away very quickly.
00:27:48But it's all so much easier
00:27:50said than done, because as you can see,
00:27:52there's just not enough
00:27:54space to overtake. It's not like an oval,
00:27:56like a heavily banked oval.
00:27:58Of course, you can run these cars side-by-side.
00:28:00You can't run them side-by-side around these flat
00:28:02corners.
00:28:04Let's look at Raikkonen in replay.
00:28:06Ooh, a little lock-up.
00:28:08It's in the 180, I believe.
00:28:10The 180-degree corner.
00:28:12That's exactly it. It's a long
00:28:14left-hander into that 180.
00:28:16And they've been sliding a lot coming off
00:28:18that corner.
00:28:22Checking the championship
00:28:24standings coming in, Robert Kubica
00:28:26leads by four points over Lewis
00:28:28Hamilton, who is tied for second
00:28:30with Felipe Massa. Seven points
00:28:32behind the leader is Kimi Raikkonen,
00:28:35and 14 points behind Kubica's
00:28:37lead is his BMW Sauber
00:28:39teammate, Nick Heidfeld.
00:28:41Then there's a 13-point
00:28:43gap back to Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren.
00:28:45So right now, it's a five-driver
00:28:47battle for the world championship.
00:28:49Ferrari leads the
00:28:51constructor's standings over BMW Sauber.
00:28:53The new power in Formula One
00:28:55by just three. We'll be back.
00:28:59Welcome back to Manicour. No, it's not
00:29:01déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra
00:29:04might have said. This is Lewis Hamilton making his
00:29:06first pit stop for McLaren Mercedes.
00:29:08Off with the soft compound tires,
00:29:10on with the hard.
00:29:12It's a used set of tires, but no white
00:29:14line around. So, as we were saying earlier
00:29:16on, you have to use both
00:29:18sets of tires, both compounds, so
00:29:20McLaren
00:29:22are okay. Oh boy, a lap down on the lead
00:29:24Ferrari. Look at that. Just not their
00:29:26day at all. No.
00:29:28Hamilton had passed Fernando Alonso
00:29:30for 12th just before pitting.
00:29:32What a big pass it was, too, here.
00:29:34Coming into Estoril, gets down
00:29:36the inside, and just whistles by
00:29:38very quick on entry into that
00:29:40Estoril. Look at this.
00:29:42Another shot.
00:29:44I don't think Alonso even saw him coming.
00:29:46That was a shock to the Spaniard.
00:29:48Jarno Trulli and Robert Kubica
00:29:50pit from third and fourth.
00:29:58A lot of fuel going in the BMW.
00:30:02They enter.
00:30:10Kimi Raikkonen has lowered fast lap
00:30:12yet again to a 16.630.
00:30:19There's Kubica running on the hard
00:30:21compound tires. BMW all weekend
00:30:23have been saying, yeah, we just can't
00:30:25make our mind at what tire we prefer.
00:30:27We've tried the soft, we've tried the hard,
00:30:29we've tried it at different times of the day.
00:30:32The drivers like one, then they like the other.
00:30:34The data seems to back that up.
00:30:36We just really haven't got a clue what tire
00:30:38the car works best on.
00:30:40Kimi Raikkonen, race leader.
00:30:42Ferrari in for their stuff.
00:30:44Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.
00:30:46That certainly caught BMW off guard.
00:30:48These guys, however, they seem very good
00:30:50on both sets of tires.
00:30:52On long run, on short run,
00:30:54typically they're saying the soft compound
00:30:56tire, a little bit more grip, but not
00:30:58quite as much stability as the hard
00:31:00compound tire. Conversely, more stable
00:31:02tire, more consistent, but not quite
00:31:04as durable, excuse me, not quite
00:31:06as much grip from the hard tire.
00:31:08Swings and roundabouts.
00:31:10While we were in break, Jenson Button retired
00:31:12his Honda.
00:31:14After a checkered start
00:31:16to this race,
00:31:18Timo Glock pits, Adrian Sutil
00:31:20pits, front and back of the running order.
00:31:24It must be such a boost to a driver's
00:31:26confidence to have a car like this Ferrari
00:31:28that just does everything well.
00:31:30You just feel like you can drive on water.
00:31:34Before the day is over, they may have to.
00:31:36Yeah, Massa getting frustrated
00:31:38because he's in traffic. He's just seen his
00:31:40teammate come in, Kimi Raikkonen,
00:31:42leading the race so far. Massa
00:31:44right behind him.
00:31:46Massa was very frustrated with the fact
00:31:48he didn't take pole yesterday.
00:31:50He really wanted that, and it was Ferrari's
00:31:52200th pole in the history
00:31:54of Formula 1, which is a very big
00:31:56little
00:31:58accolade to
00:32:00Kimi Raikkonen, but he knows he wants
00:32:02a terribly good result here. Ferrari are
00:32:04after a one-two, but they've got to get
00:32:06out of that traffic.
00:32:12Blue move-over flags
00:32:14for Nico Rosberg,
00:32:16who's still languishing
00:32:18down in 17th spot,
00:32:20which is surprising.
00:32:22I mean, I know he qualified at the back
00:32:24after that penalty, but I thought he would have
00:32:26made up a bit of ground on some of the cars in the race,
00:32:28but not so.
00:32:30And right behind him,
00:32:32of course, is Lewis Hamilton, who's had his drive-through
00:32:34penalty, then his first pit stop.
00:32:36Look, Rosberg locking up there.
00:32:38Philippe Massa must be going to stop
00:32:40within the next couple of laps, Steve.
00:32:42Yeah, I'm sure he is, and he's very
00:32:44frustrated because, again, he's seen Raikkonen
00:32:46get a good stop. His engineers would have
00:32:48told him, Kimi Raikkonen, good stop.
00:32:50He's out in good track position. You've got
00:32:52to push now. You cannot afford
00:32:54to lose time in this traffic.
00:32:56Your teammate is getting away from you.
00:32:58See the running order
00:33:00and the world feed graphics across the bottom of your screen.
00:33:02That last lap,
00:33:04not very quick, you know, for the guy that's got to
00:33:06push, push, push to try and make some
00:33:08up here he goes.
00:33:14Now, the key here is how long
00:33:16will they keep Massa in the pits?
00:33:18How much fuel will they put on board?
00:33:20That's the part of the pit stop that takes time.
00:33:22Changing the tires is fairly quick.
00:33:24Three and a half seconds. A lot of fuel
00:33:26going in. Now, where is Kimi Raikkonen?
00:33:28Almost exactly the same time
00:33:30in the pits as
00:33:32Raikkonen. They did a little bit of a
00:33:34wing change there too, I think.
00:33:36There's Raikkonen, yeah.
00:33:38It is so slow, always,
00:33:40as they come out of the pit lane
00:33:42at any of these Formula 1 tracks because they're on
00:33:44that speed limiter.
00:33:46The speed differential between the cars
00:33:50Mark Webber from third in the Red Bull
00:33:52Renault. You notice not only are the pits
00:33:54short, but the pit lane is very narrow.
00:33:56For this race, they've adopted
00:33:58the Monaco pit lane
00:34:00speed limit. Just about 36 miles
00:34:02an hour. Normally, it would be almost twice
00:34:04that.
00:34:06It's Adrian Newey.
00:34:08Legendary
00:34:10Formula 1 designer with a lot of championships
00:34:12to his credit. He pens the Red Bull
00:34:14cars these days.
00:34:17For a salary
00:34:19well up into eight figures.
00:34:23Think about that for a minute.
00:34:31So the order is now
00:34:33Massa, Raikkonen,
00:34:37Piquet,
00:34:39and now Kovalainen and
00:34:41Kulpar. And this is Piquet in front,
00:34:43Kovalainen on board with now.
00:34:45So he also couldn't dispose of Nelson
00:34:47Piquet and
00:34:49Piquet absolutely scoring
00:34:51some very, very strong points.
00:34:53This race so far, this is exactly what
00:34:55he needs to do and what his father
00:34:57needs to do because his job is a bit
00:34:59precarious at the moment with Renault, but
00:35:01certainly scoring a lot of points
00:35:03for the team today so far.
00:35:08Is that some kind of ruse by
00:35:10McLaren Mercedes? Go into the pit lane and
00:35:12then leave?
00:35:14That's exactly what it was.
00:35:18A ruse, mon ami.
00:35:20These teams watch each other like
00:35:22hawks. Yeah, and they have
00:35:24to be very careful when they pull that sort of
00:35:26stunt because there is a regulation which says
00:35:28the team are only allowed out of the garage
00:35:30when they're going to service the car.
00:35:32And that is again on the grounds
00:35:34of safety following that awful black
00:35:36weekend at Himmler in 94 when
00:35:38Ayrton Senna was
00:35:40killed in the car and we had accidents in the pit
00:35:42lane. After that, they changed the
00:35:44regs that the mechanics were not allowed
00:35:46to be in the pit lane until their guy
00:35:48was coming in to be serviced. But
00:35:50when you're pulling those little ruses, it's very
00:35:52easy for a team to complain and protest
00:35:54that you shouldn't be out doing that stuff.
00:36:02Hamilton down in 18th spot
00:36:04behind Nico Rosberg in 17th
00:36:06and not Rosberg because he'll be humming right along now
00:36:08because his car is very lightly ready
00:36:10to come in for a stop any minute. Hamilton
00:36:12of course at the moment is pretty heavy just having
00:36:14had his fuel stop. But there again
00:36:16it's just not quite quick enough
00:36:18down the straight to administer
00:36:20the coup de grace into that
00:36:22Adelaide hairpin.
00:36:24Now this is Kovalainen
00:36:26and Piquet pit together.
00:36:34Not sure who that was.
00:36:36Right in front of Alonso, it's
00:36:38Mark Webber.
00:36:40He kept it off the wall but lost
00:36:42the position to Alonso for 10th.
00:36:44Oh, Piquet
00:36:46stays ahead of Kovalainen in the pit lane.
00:36:48Oh, Kovalainen.
00:36:54Wow!
00:36:56Oh no, the kid's
00:36:58trying to keep his job and he pulls a stunt
00:37:00like that. He's just coming up on Kovalainen
00:37:02and that must be Trulli.
00:37:04Timo Glock.
00:37:06Wow!
00:37:08Piquet comes right back by.
00:37:12Piquet and Glock. Oh, Piquet comes
00:37:14back. The German.
00:37:16No, not close enough.
00:37:18Oh, now he does take a look down the inside.
00:37:20Piquet went a bit
00:37:22wide there which allowed Timo Glock to go on.
00:37:24Nah, not this time.
00:37:26Into that
00:37:28chicane where
00:37:30Hamilton
00:37:32had that mistake.
00:37:36Timo Glock, another graduate
00:37:38of the GP2 program. He is the
00:37:40reigning champion, took the title last
00:37:42year.
00:37:44Rosberg and Hamilton, also GP2
00:37:46champions. Piquet was a runner-up.
00:37:54Meanwhile, Kovalainen gets away.
00:37:56Let's have a look. This will show the story, guys.
00:37:58That's Piquet up ahead. Watch him suddenly slow.
00:38:00Well,
00:38:02I can only assume that Piquet Jr.
00:38:04was just a little bit slow getting off the pit lane
00:38:06speed limiter.
00:38:08Well, you saw his rain light, the blinking
00:38:10rain light on the back of the car went out.
00:38:12Does that signify anything?
00:38:14He just got it right.
00:38:16Kovalainen just made the better move
00:38:18and away he went. Unfortunately for Glock,
00:38:20because now Piquet's tires are up to temperature
00:38:22so the grip will be there.
00:38:24Toyota really needed to make the move
00:38:26on the Renault chassis earlier on when the
00:38:28tire grip was like. Yeah, absolutely.
00:38:34We're already 26 laps into
00:38:36this race.
00:38:42Sebastian Vettel, the youngest driver in the race
00:38:44who qualified 12th, is now up to 5th
00:38:46but obviously he's got to make his stop yet.
00:38:48But still in all, he has been showing
00:38:50surprising pace around here this
00:38:52week until yesterday. I mean,
00:38:54he was right in the top four or five
00:38:56right in the top four or five
00:38:58all weekend on both practices on Friday
00:39:00and the practices on Saturday morning
00:39:02but unfortunately when it came to qualifying in the afternoon
00:39:04he was only able to manage 12th.
00:39:06But still in all, the lad
00:39:08and I mean a lad, he's only
00:39:10just 20, doing a very, very good job
00:39:12this year.
00:39:14Miuraikinen continues serenely
00:39:16on his way. Of course,
00:39:18that is the case in the most two recent
00:39:20races where he scored nothing.
00:39:22We'll be back.
00:39:24Welcome back to the
00:39:26countryside of the Loire Valley in southern
00:39:28France. We are
00:39:3030 laps into this
00:39:3270-lap French Grand Prix on Fox.
00:39:34I'm Bob Varsha with Peter Windsor, David
00:39:36Hobbs and Steve Matchett. We ride
00:39:38with race leader Kimi Raikkonen's
00:39:40Ferrari.
00:39:54It's an interesting battle.
00:39:56Those guys have got up the top. Raikkonen
00:39:58and Massa, the two Ferraris. The gap is
00:40:006.6 seconds.
00:40:02But Massa
00:40:04has about 4 laps more fuel
00:40:06on board. So it's Massa's job now.
00:40:08He's got to stay on the tail of Raikkonen.
00:40:10He cannot afford Raikkonen to
00:40:12open up that gap. Remember
00:40:14then when Raikkonen pits, Massa will be
00:40:16able to run for 4 laps longer
00:40:18than the Ferrari.
00:40:20So it's Massa's job now.
00:40:22Massa will be able to run for 4 laps longer
00:40:24to basically
00:40:26leapfrog his teammate
00:40:28Raikkonen in the pits during that second
00:40:30pit stop.
00:40:32Robert Kubica reeling
00:40:34in Jarno Trulli for 3rd place.
00:40:36While we were in break, Sebastian
00:40:38Vettel and Nick Heidfeld pitted from 4th
00:40:40and 7th respectively. They now run
00:40:4212th and 13th.
00:40:46You are racing Trulli.
00:40:48Similar strategy.
00:40:50You are 7 tenths quicker than him.
00:40:56So do the math. Catch him and pass him.
00:40:58Interesting, of course. English, the
00:41:00language of Formula 1.
00:41:02You've got a Polish driver here and a German
00:41:04team. But of course they all speak to each other
00:41:06in English.
00:41:08Which is essential when it comes to setting
00:41:10the car up. They all want to understand
00:41:12what a roll bar is and wing and that sort of thing.
00:41:14So everybody speaks the same language, which
00:41:16is always English. It's quite fascinating
00:41:18when you're in those pits.
00:41:20Italian drivers, Spanish drivers,
00:41:22French drivers, German drivers,
00:41:24all speak in English to each other.
00:41:28Kubica closing up
00:41:30in the BMW Sauber.
00:41:32But he's 7 tenths quicker.
00:41:34This weekend we asked the poll how he's
00:41:36feeling now that he's made the breakthrough
00:41:38and taken his first Formula 1 win.
00:41:42I'm the kind of person
00:41:44which is looking forward so
00:41:46I will keep pushing
00:41:48this victory.
00:41:50Jump me into the leader of the championship
00:41:52after seven races.
00:41:54It's a really important moment.
00:41:56We have achieved the target of the team
00:41:58to win a race this season.
00:42:00And I hope the team will
00:42:02shift or will think
00:42:04about shifting the target
00:42:06of next year, which was fighting
00:42:08for the championship to this year.
00:42:12And I suspect Robert Kubica
00:42:14had an agenda
00:42:16in saying that last comment.
00:42:18I hope the team will switch its strategy
00:42:20from gunning for the championship
00:42:22next year to this.
00:42:24A big part of the fun of Formula 1
00:42:26is the intramural battle between teammates
00:42:28to get the team behind
00:42:30their individual efforts.
00:42:34Well, he's leading the world championship
00:42:36at the moment, half that win.
00:42:38The team is second
00:42:40in the constructors championships.
00:42:42Really looking pretty hot
00:42:44to maybe capture both titles.
00:42:46The way the Ferraris are going today,
00:42:48it's going to be a bit of a tough old road
00:42:50to hoe.
00:42:54Steve, it's interesting to see Robert's performance
00:42:56right now. He definitely appears to be
00:42:58quicker than Jarno, picking up most of that speed
00:43:00in the straight line. The problem in the first
00:43:02stint may be, as in the
00:43:04previous two or three races, has been getting the
00:43:06tyre pressures right on that BMW.
00:43:08It's a critical car in terms of balance.
00:43:10Recently, Robert's been saying in the first stint
00:43:12they found it very difficult to get the pressures
00:43:14exactly right. But now, stint two,
00:43:16with feedback, they've obviously got those pressures right.
00:43:18BMW looks very good now.
00:43:20Yeah, absolutely
00:43:22right, Pete. Again, we were saying earlier on
00:43:24that BMW and the drivers have been
00:43:26complaining just not being able to pick
00:43:28the tyre, can't get the shafts to work.
00:43:30But now, as more rubber seems to be
00:43:32laid down on track,
00:43:34they do seem to have got the car to work. You're right.
00:43:36Both of those guys on the same
00:43:38strategy. BMW
00:43:40and Toyota. Truly, we should expect
00:43:42both of those guys to come around a lap
00:43:44to 48.
00:43:46Lap 48.
00:43:48We're going to take
00:43:50another quick break
00:43:52while we're away. Excuse me.
00:43:54During this segment, Giancarlo Fisichella
00:43:56hit it, leaving just three drivers who have
00:43:58not.
00:44:00Back to
00:44:02Manicour, where the battle between
00:44:04the Ferrari teammates is heating up.
00:44:06Graphic at the bottom of your screen.
00:44:08That man, Felipe Massa, in the yellow helmet
00:44:10is rapidly closing the gap
00:44:12to his teammate. Going out the bottom of your screen,
00:44:14Kimi Raikkonen.
00:44:16He is rapidly closing it. Just a couple of
00:44:18three laps ago, he was over six seconds behind.
00:44:20Now, he's just
00:44:22over two seconds behind. So having a
00:44:24heck of a run. Kaz Nakajima pulls out
00:44:26of the pit lane, having made his one
00:44:28and perhaps only pit stop in the
00:44:30Williams-Toyota. His teammate,
00:44:32Nico Rosberg, on an
00:44:34identical one-stop strategy, if it
00:44:36appears, the only man who has yet to
00:44:38stop.
00:44:42Bob, in the pit lane, everybody staring
00:44:44at the two Williams-Toyotas in amazement
00:44:46because all the math showed that
00:44:48on a one-stop strategy, there was no way
00:44:50of getting the Bridgestone tyres to last. So
00:44:52full marks to, well, certainly to
00:44:54Kaz Nakajima, because not only has he
00:44:56made it through to the first half of the race, but he's done
00:44:58so well ahead of his teammate, the more
00:45:00experienced Nico Rosberg. So very good drive
00:45:02by Kaz Nakajima.
00:45:04No question about it. Another of the
00:45:06growing number of second-generation
00:45:08Formula One drivers.
00:45:12His father, Satoru Nakajima,
00:45:14spent several years in Formula One.
00:45:18There's Patrick Head, team
00:45:20co-owner and technical
00:45:22guru at Williams-Toyota.
00:45:26He's been Sir Frank Williams'
00:45:28partner in that fabled team for
00:45:30years.
00:45:32Making a nice job of that chicane there,
00:45:34using a bit of kerb, but not too much.
00:45:36Sebastian Bordet,
00:45:38the Scuderia Toro Rosso
00:45:40Ferrari just ahead. Bordet
00:45:42not having a great race. He has just
00:45:44been lapped in 15th place.
00:45:46Look how close
00:45:48Massa is now. I mean, he's right with
00:45:50Raikkonen. So Raikkonen must be
00:45:52having some sort of
00:45:54trouble. The thing is, we thought
00:45:56it was traffic at first.
00:45:58No question. Massa much
00:46:00faster than the reigning world champion
00:46:02right now. Whoa. Nearly a second
00:46:04to lap.
00:46:06He's got to be kidding me.
00:46:08He's got to be kidding me.
00:46:10He's got to be kidding me.
00:46:12He's got to be kidding me.
00:46:14Nearly a second to lap.
00:46:16That's a huge amount.
00:46:18So Kimi Raikkonen must be in some sort
00:46:20of problem. Guys, earlier on we
00:46:22just saw Kimi Raikkonen go down
00:46:24the front straight and I thought I saw
00:46:26something.
00:46:28We think Raikkonen may have a problem. He's in a
00:46:3019.1.
00:46:40Well, what do we know about that problem, Steve?
00:46:42Look, there's a problem on Raikkonen's
00:46:44car. I think it's the exhaust
00:46:46is broken on the car.
00:46:48Keep your eye this side at the back of the car.
00:46:50You're going to see something flapping around right
00:46:52there. It's the exhaust pipe.
00:46:54I saw it going down the main straight and I thought
00:46:56at first it was Kimi signaling with his arm
00:46:58because it was such a long shot.
00:47:00That's why Kimi's slow. The
00:47:02exhaust system is broken on the car.
00:47:04Now we've got to bear in mind the massive
00:47:06latent heat build-up
00:47:08that will be happening inside Kimi
00:47:10Raikkonen's car. Remember, these suspensions
00:47:12are carbon fiber. If you
00:47:14get that red hot exhaust
00:47:16gas glowing back onto the
00:47:18carbon fiber suspension,
00:47:20it will burst into flame. That's the
00:47:22reason Kimi's slow. He's now
00:47:24driving on the telemetry figures from
00:47:26the team. There he goes.
00:47:28That's the move. Well, of course, not only
00:47:30the heat too, but with the exhaust pipe
00:47:32broken, these are very carefully tuned
00:47:34exhaust pipe lengths, so the exhaust
00:47:36pipe breaks because he'll lose a
00:47:38ton of power. You may remember a few years
00:47:40ago, Michael Schumacher in Ferrari
00:47:42had the same problem, and he
00:47:44had to finish the race by listening to
00:47:46his engineers giving him the exact
00:47:48speed that they could drive the car to
00:47:50control the heat. I think it was like Monaco
00:47:522000. And
00:47:54they got the telemetry figures off the car. The engineers
00:47:56go fast, go slow, controlling
00:47:58the cooling inside the car.
00:48:00That's what Raikkonen's got to do now.
00:48:02Just shows you how sensitive these cars
00:48:04are. Because Sebastian Bordet following
00:48:06will be really thrown into a quandary.
00:48:08Should I really overtake the
00:48:10world champion and the world champion
00:48:12elect? That doesn't seem right to me. It must be
00:48:14taking a few minutes for the team
00:48:16to say, yes, you can go by
00:48:18him.
00:48:20And he did it like the world champ
00:48:22was tied to the ground. Here's a replay.
00:48:28Well, Kimi had to let him go
00:48:30there. I mean, obviously from a team's point of view,
00:48:32but there you see that exhaust pipe.
00:48:34That's a danger to anybody
00:48:36behind him.
00:48:38It's only being held on by the temperature
00:48:40sensor. I mean, absolutely.
00:48:42He has to be considered for a black flag.
00:48:44Well, if it was a
00:48:46McLaren, he would be black flag, but they'll
00:48:48take their time to decide whether to give him a black
00:48:50flag. They'll wait till it falls off and then they'll say,
00:48:52well, it's all right now.
00:48:54Yeah, you
00:48:56bring up a good point, Bob. It is now at the discretion
00:48:58of the race director. He can
00:49:00insist. He doesn't necessarily have to black
00:49:02flag the car to which would be
00:49:04an automatic disqualification, but
00:49:06he can insist that Ferrari bring
00:49:08that car into the pits for immediate
00:49:10mechanical repairs, whether or not
00:49:12they can do anything to get him out there to make anything
00:49:14of it in the race. We don't know.
00:49:16Well, that's what I was getting to give him the meatball,
00:49:18get him in there and at least
00:49:20remove the threat to the other competitors.
00:49:24I believe that's Bordet on the road behind him.
00:49:26We'll take a break and return with more
00:49:28from France.
00:49:32We're in the area of southern
00:49:34France. Manicours. The French Grand
00:49:36Prix continues here on Fox.
00:49:38Now in the second half of the race. I'm Bob
00:49:40Varsha with David Hobbs, Steve Matchett and Peter
00:49:42Windsor. Felipe Massa
00:49:44now leads teammate Kimi Räikkönen, but the
00:49:46world champion in danger of falling into the hands
00:49:48of those behind due to his
00:49:50mechanical problem. Here's a pass for
00:49:52sixth place. Hanky Kovalainen and
00:49:54the silver and red McLaren Mercedes
00:49:56on Mark Webber's Red Bull Renault.
00:49:58That's how to do it. He just managed to take
00:50:00a tighter line on the inside coming out
00:50:02of Adelaide and then flooring.
00:50:04He'll be glad about that
00:50:06because Alonso Pit. Alonso
00:50:08has been setting some very quick laps
00:50:10from fifth place.
00:50:18Soft tires, I believe, going on.
00:50:22Get a lot done with that many people attending
00:50:24to the car. Oh, slow getting
00:50:26off. He'll be good to
00:50:28go. There's about we needed about seven seconds
00:50:30of fuel to get Alonso to the end of the race.
00:50:32Certainly the case, but there was
00:50:34a little bubble getting the fuel nozzle off.
00:50:36But those things are heavy. I mean,
00:50:38they're like 40 kilos. That's 80
00:50:40pounds in weight. Fuel
00:50:42hose, very heavy
00:50:44nozzle for those guys to lift and they have
00:50:46to be so accurate to position it on
00:50:48the car to make sure it clicks
00:50:50into place and disconnects correctly.
00:50:52So it comes out behind Heidfeld
00:50:54is 12. So he will now be
00:50:56in 13th spot. Right behind
00:50:58him now is Lewis Hamilton.
00:51:02Boy, Hamilton keeps
00:51:04struggling like mad. He just makes
00:51:06a bit of ground and it all falls apart. He's
00:51:08gonna have to stop again himself soon.
00:51:10He'll be the next car lapped by race leader
00:51:12Felipe Massa. He's doing the same sort of
00:51:14laps as Massa. He's
00:51:16done a 17.7 his last lap
00:51:18as was Massa's 17.7. But of course
00:51:20he's 59
00:51:22seconds or a minute behind.
00:51:26They're not working out well for McLaren at all.
00:51:28We said at the top of the show with our storylines,
00:51:30you know, McLaren really had to do
00:51:32something big today. But boy, oh boy,
00:51:34they're gonna slip down badly
00:51:36in the Constructors' Championship
00:51:38if the race were to stop now. And of course,
00:51:40Lewis Hamilton's chance at World Championship is
00:51:42slipping away too.
00:51:46And Kimi Raikkonen, recall,
00:51:48after two races without a point scored,
00:51:50crashing into Adrian
00:51:52Sutil on the streets of Monaco,
00:51:54being crashed into in the pit lane by
00:51:56Lewis Hamilton in Canada.
00:51:58No points for Raikkonen
00:52:00in the last two races. He desperately
00:52:02needs some this weekend.
00:52:04This onboard camera,
00:52:06Mike, the engine doesn't sound too
00:52:08bad, does it, Steve?
00:52:10That's right. For saying the collector
00:52:12in the secondary part of the exhaust system is
00:52:14dangling off the chassis. No,
00:52:16it doesn't sound bad at all.
00:52:18Looking at Raikkonen's times, and we're talking about
00:52:20him feeding off the telemetry from the engineers
00:52:22who control the cooling,
00:52:24not that far off Massa's times.
00:52:2622.4 for Massa in sector 1,
00:52:2822.8. So there is a difference,
00:52:30but not a massive difference.
00:52:32Well, he's a second slower than Jarno Trulli,
00:52:34but Jarno Trulli's 22 seconds behind,
00:52:36so...
00:52:38there's only just enough
00:52:40laps left, and there's four
00:52:42extra laps, because when having called him up,
00:52:44you've got to pass him then.
00:52:46See, the Ferrari mechanics
00:52:48seem to be doing a little bit of twitching in the background
00:52:50there, that this would be early
00:52:52for a Ferrari pit stop. We just saw
00:52:54Almondo as well,
00:52:56the chassis engineer from
00:52:58Ferrara. These guys are probably
00:53:00trying to figure out some way
00:53:02of repairing that car.
00:53:04Well, it is only
00:53:06a slide-on fit component,
00:53:08but I dread to think how much damage
00:53:10to the chassis, the bodywork, the fixings
00:53:12around that part of the car,
00:53:14has happened with that flailing exhaust system.
00:53:16I just don't think
00:53:18Ferrari would be able to make a good enough
00:53:20repair.
00:53:24And Steve, the other issue, just looking at the back of the
00:53:26Ferrari garage at the moment, obviously
00:53:28a lot of worried faces there.
00:53:30A lot of engineers looking at telemetry
00:53:32from the car to see if there's any indication of
00:53:34isolated heat build-up caused
00:53:36by that exhaust failure. It's only a
00:53:38one-way radio system now in Formula 1 now,
00:53:40in terms of getting information, but certainly
00:53:42having a broken exhaust does
00:53:44open a whole cobweb
00:53:46of problems and nasties in terms of
00:53:48heat. Oh boy, absolutely it does.
00:53:50The other thing they have to bear in
00:53:52mind, guys, is when they come in, if Raikkonen
00:53:54has to take on fuel,
00:53:56there's going to be a lot of heat
00:53:58around that exhaust when they open that hatch
00:54:00to connect the fuel hose.
00:54:04Well, I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, that exhaust plume
00:54:06is going to heat up everything in that area.
00:54:10Alonso leading Hamilton for
00:54:1212th. Odd position for
00:54:14both men. We'll take a break
00:54:16and return with more from the French Grand
00:54:18Prix at Manicours.
00:54:22Welcome back. A lap
00:54:2446 of 70 in the French Grand Prix.
00:54:26Robert Kubica pits his BMW
00:54:28Sauber from 4th.
00:54:32I think that was Timo Glock
00:54:34going by on the racetrack.
00:54:36David Coulthard's
00:54:38Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel's
00:54:40Scuderia Toro Rosso.
00:54:42And the BMW
00:54:44rejoins. On soft
00:54:46tires, but of course enough fuel now to go
00:54:48to the end of the race.
00:54:52I believe he's in 10th place.
00:54:56On board Lewis Hamilton.
00:54:58Hamilton struggling mightily to get
00:55:00past Alonso here. He's got a good toe
00:55:02down the straight here through the golf straight.
00:55:04I can't believe
00:55:06he's going to do that. Yeah. Ooh.
00:55:08He's going to come off the corner
00:55:10quickly. Yep. Got him that time.
00:55:14That's the second time he's passed
00:55:16Alonso today. Last time he passed him
00:55:18then the very next lap had to come in for fuel.
00:55:20So hopefully
00:55:22he's going to be able to put some distance between himself and Alonso.
00:55:24Oh, Alonso going deep into the 180
00:55:26there. He seems to prefer
00:55:28that line, does the Spaniard.
00:55:30Maybe he thinks he gets a better drive off.
00:55:32Sebastian Bourdais pits from 14th
00:55:34while we watch this. He comes from quite a long way
00:55:36back here too. I mean, it's not like Alonso to be
00:55:38caught, not caught napping, but
00:55:40not willing to give up
00:55:42the corner. No. Very,
00:55:44very willingly gave up the corner.
00:55:46I suppose they were telling him, don't worry, he's going to have to stop
00:55:48again anyway, so you'll pick up it and
00:55:50Alonso did not.
00:56:00Going to take you Kovalainen.
00:56:04Every race is important,
00:56:06but your home race is especially
00:56:08important. And this, of course, being France
00:56:10is the home race for
00:56:12Renault. So we ask their number
00:56:14one two-time world champ, Fernando Alonso
00:56:16how important that is to the team.
00:56:20For the team
00:56:22has been always a special race.
00:56:24You can feel it from the
00:56:26outside. I think the engineers, the
00:56:28mechanics are with the same approach.
00:56:30But in terms of marketing,
00:56:32in terms of guests, VIP,
00:56:34it's a lot of important people here.
00:56:36So you want to do well because everybody
00:56:38is expecting a lot from you.
00:56:44Not looking particularly good for
00:56:46Renault. Alonso has been able to improve
00:56:48the qualifying performance
00:56:50of the factory Renault cars, but
00:56:52the race pace still doesn't quite
00:56:54seem to be there.
00:57:00Here's Heikki Kovalainen in fourth
00:57:02behind Massa, Raikkonen and Trulli.
00:57:04It's about seven seconds
00:57:06behind Trulli's Toyota.
00:57:08Kovalainen just a little bit
00:57:10quicker than Trulli, but he's seven seconds behind.
00:57:12But Kovalainen has driven a stout race.
00:57:14Qualified seventh yesterday afternoon
00:57:16in terms of sheer speed, but got that five-spot
00:57:18penalty, which put him back to tenth.
00:57:20You might say, why wouldn't he go
00:57:22back to twelfth? But of course, there are other people
00:57:24with penalties as well, but shuffled him back up again
00:57:26a little bit. But anyway, he's done a good job
00:57:28so far. Yeah, he has. He's fast.
00:57:30Kovalainen's fast.
00:57:32He's certainly faster than Trulli's
00:57:34Toyota chassis right now. Kovalainen has
00:57:36about five laps in hand over Trulli.
00:57:38And again, we have to watch for that
00:57:40when Trulli makes his second stop.
00:57:42Kovalainen, that'll be the time then that Kovalainen
00:57:44will have to really push
00:57:46to close down that gap.
00:57:48Make best advantage of that. He could
00:57:50well come out in third spot
00:57:52ahead of Trulli after the start.
00:57:54McLaren need those points like they need
00:57:56oxygen. I mean, they had a terrible week
00:57:58last week. No points at all.
00:58:00Ending up 20 points
00:58:02behind Ferrari in the Constructors'
00:58:04Championship, which is an awful lot to
00:58:06claw back for the rest of the year. And if they don't score
00:58:08many points today, it's going to be disastrous.
00:58:10This 26-year-old Finn has
00:58:12always had the speed, but he just seems
00:58:14to be that little bit unlucky. Had a very
00:58:16tough year in his
00:58:18rookie season with Renault last year.
00:58:20As you see Mark Webber bring the Red Bull
00:58:22Renault into the pits.
00:58:24Well, Piquet, Glock,
00:58:26Stade, and Kubica
00:58:28will almost certainly pass him in this pit stop.
00:58:30And probably Vettel as well.
00:58:32Glock is also pitting.
00:58:34There's Glock. Well, Glock won't pass him in this pit stop.
00:58:36Boy, it is close down there.
00:58:38It's very close, isn't it?
00:58:44Kovalainen has been penalized
00:58:46twice this year for interference
00:58:48with other cars during qualifying.
00:58:50He was also nicked in Turkey.
00:58:52And on both occasions, it was not
00:58:54deliberate.
00:58:56Now, I thought this weekend was, I said
00:58:58at the top of the show, he got pushed back
00:59:00by spots for a yellow flag infringement.
00:59:02It was because he supposedly blocked
00:59:04Webber in qualifying, but
00:59:06when we saw it, it certainly didn't look...
00:59:08I mean, there was a clutch of traffic there.
00:59:10Traffic's traffic. I mean, you can't just
00:59:12suddenly magic yourself off the road.
00:59:16There is Fernando Alonso.
00:59:18A lot of speculation about where the
00:59:20two-time world champion will be next year.
00:59:22Truly pits.
00:59:24P3. Yeah, here we go, guys.
00:59:26Now, this is the time.
00:59:28Kovalainen and McLaren have got to push
00:59:30now.
00:59:32Close down that gap. Remember, we think
00:59:34about 4.8 seconds
00:59:36of fuel. Less than 5 seconds of fuel
00:59:38is all Toyota needs. So it's going to be a relatively
00:59:40fast stop. There it is. Total time is
00:59:427.1. And now
00:59:44Kovalainen's got to go. He's got to close
00:59:46down that gap. He could well be looking good
00:59:48to take third spot.
00:59:50From fifth, as Truly exits.
00:59:56See how far back they fall.
00:59:58Piquet looks to be in position to do
01:00:00himself a world of good.
01:00:02Some of those results the team has been desperate
01:00:04to get from the rookie. Boy, he needs it
01:00:06like he needs it. Like he needs it.
01:00:08So far this year,
01:00:10he's been a bit lackluster.
01:00:12A bit.
01:00:14There's the running order.
01:00:16Truly
01:00:18in fourth with two stops.
01:00:20It's a great run for Toyota.
01:00:24It's a great run for Truly here.
01:00:26He really has not a lot of luck
01:00:28at this track. There's no doubt about it.
01:00:30He's retired a lot of times.
01:00:32He's had a 10th, a 7th, a 5th,
01:00:34a 4th, and a 5th, and a 12th
01:00:36last year. So not a great history
01:00:38here.
01:00:44Piquet came out on track ahead
01:00:46of his teammate, Alonzo.
01:00:50That would be a real jaw-dropper.
01:00:58Checking the lap times.
01:01:00Felipe Massa with a 17.9.
01:01:02Raikkonen about 3 tenths slower
01:01:04than Kovalainen, 3 tenths quicker
01:01:06than the race leader. We'll be back.
01:01:10Welcome back. The Ferrari team
01:01:12falls on Kimi Raikkonen's
01:01:14lap as he pits from second place.
01:01:18Now you can hear that flagellant sort of engine
01:01:20note. But they made no
01:01:22attempt to remove the components
01:01:24off the car or do
01:01:26any sort of repair to the car.
01:01:28They had a look at it. You could see the mechanics
01:01:30looking around the rear of the car to see what sort of
01:01:32damage there was to the bodywork,
01:01:34but they didn't do anything with it at all.
01:01:36This is Heikki Kovalainen.
01:01:39We'll be looking for Jarno Trulli on the exit.
01:01:41This will be a battle for the third spot
01:01:43on the podium.
01:01:46Is that Trulli on the left?
01:01:48I think Trulli might have gotten it.
01:01:51Is that Kubica for the
01:01:54fourth?
01:01:56I think Kubica is going to... Is he going to get him?
01:01:58It's going to be awfully close. No, he's not.
01:02:02Now the question is, heat in the tyres.
01:02:04How much grip will Kovalainen have
01:02:06in his McLaren chassis now?
01:02:08We'll find out when he makes
01:02:10this braking area for the Adelaide
01:02:12hairpin.
01:02:14Looks like he's in good shape.
01:02:16Coulthard pits from fifth. Hamilton from seventh.
01:02:22Race leader, Felipe Massa,
01:02:24has lapped everyone up to tenth place.
01:02:26Nelson Piquet.
01:02:28I suspect
01:02:30Hamilton's going to come out behind
01:02:32Piquet again.
01:02:34Nightmare sort of
01:02:36scenario.
01:02:38A bit noir throughout this entire...
01:02:40Whoa, whoa, whoa.
01:02:42Is that Kovalainen there trying to hold Kubica off?
01:02:44Kubica's got full heat in his tyres.
01:02:46Kovalainen's just building up now.
01:02:48Yeah, it's a sort of nightmare.
01:02:50How that would be for...
01:02:52Hamilton if he sees Piquet
01:02:54in front of him yet again.
01:03:00If he was a Frenchman, he'd be saying,
01:03:02SACRE BLEU.
01:03:04There's raindrops on the camera lens.
01:03:08Well, I thought it was going to be...
01:03:10I thought it was going to be...
01:03:12I thought it was going to be...
01:03:14I thought it was going to be...
01:03:16Well, I thought I saw some raindrops on a camera lens
01:03:18Well, I thought I saw some raindrops on a camera lens
01:03:20about ten laps ago.
01:03:22We were talking about rain...
01:03:24The FIA were talking about rain in five minutes.
01:03:26Here comes Massa.
01:03:28Well, it's a dramatic slowdown of speed there, isn't it?
01:03:34Only four seconds now.
01:03:36This is going to be fast.
01:03:38Very tight between the tyres and the fuel delivery.
01:03:40Ooh, okay.
01:03:42Wow, the right rear corner, guys,
01:03:44didn't give an awful lot of confident body language
01:03:46during that pit stop.
01:03:48There should be one very clear signal
01:03:50from the guy that's operating the wheel gun.
01:03:52Hand in the air.
01:03:54Typically, they have a Dayglo glove
01:03:56or a stripe as well
01:03:58that the mechanic at the front
01:04:00with the lollipop can see,
01:04:02or the chief mechanic controlling the pit stop.
01:04:04I'm not suggesting we have a problem,
01:04:06but they just didn't seem overly confident.
01:04:08Let's have another look at that pit stop
01:04:10and keep your eye on this rear corner.
01:04:12The car just didn't seem...
01:04:14See, these are the Dayglo gloves
01:04:16I was talking about.
01:04:18He's reaching in.
01:04:20He reached in as the car began to move.
01:04:22You could just tell they weren't confident.
01:04:24And what the guy was worried about
01:04:26was the locking mechanism
01:04:28to prevent the wheel backing off.
01:04:30Of course, they put on a single wheel nut
01:04:32and gunned very tight,
01:04:34but there is a reg that you must have
01:04:36a little locking device
01:04:38to make sure that in the event of the wheel nut coming loose,
01:04:40it cannot come off and therefore
01:04:42you lose the wheel.
01:04:44But there it was. Ferrari obviously had a problem with that.
01:04:46And they're calling for rain
01:04:48for the next 30 minutes.
01:04:50They called for rain about
01:04:52half an hour ago.
01:04:54They said it was going to be here in five minutes,
01:04:56but it never seemed to materialize.
01:04:5830 minutes will be spring champagne.
01:05:02So, is everyone finished, gentlemen?
01:05:06Massa, Raikkonen, Trulli, Kovalainen,
01:05:08Kubica, Weber.
01:05:10A bit of a cold shower for the Canadian winner
01:05:12two weeks ago.
01:05:14Fernando Alonso in seventh.
01:05:16Nelson Piquet in eighth.
01:05:18A big boost for him.
01:05:3813 laps to go in the French Grand Prix.
01:05:40And a moment ago, the weather forecast
01:05:42came up. Sprinkling for the
01:05:44next 30 minutes,
01:05:46the Parapluies have gone up
01:05:48in the grandstands.
01:05:50And this is Hamilton
01:05:52closing up
01:05:54on Timo Glock for tenth.
01:05:56Going right by the Toyota.
01:05:58And there are those raindrops
01:06:00on the camera there.
01:06:02Goes around the outside.
01:06:04Does he manage to hold it as they go into these Adelaide hairpins?
01:06:06Cuts across the front of Glock to make sure he does
01:06:08hold it. But look at this, too.
01:06:10Alonso, currently in seventh spot.
01:06:12Mark Weber right in front of him. Mark Weber
01:06:14had about a three-second advantage just a couple of
01:06:16laps ago. Alonso really
01:06:18honking on here. Terrific
01:06:20pace.
01:06:26Alonso's got nine points so far
01:06:28this year. He'd desperately like to add
01:06:30another four or five to that.
01:06:32Right behind him, his teammate.
01:06:34Nelson Piquet hanging on there
01:06:36in eighth spot at the moment with the final point
01:06:38in his pocket, if he can maintain that.
01:06:40Something he desperately
01:06:42needs.
01:06:44307.6
01:06:46kilometers per
01:06:48hour.
01:06:50Hamilton still in tenth spot in the second
01:06:52McLaren. Out of the
01:06:54point so far. It's just
01:06:561.3 seconds behind Davy Coulthard
01:06:58who's going to be very difficult to overtake.
01:07:00So he's about ten seconds out
01:07:02of eighth spot. And of course, he's going to have to get past his
01:07:04Bate Noir. Look at that right now.
01:07:06And notice those top speeds from
01:07:08about 180 to about 191
01:07:10miles an hour in a straight line.
01:07:12And now it's raining that heavily.
01:07:14And you're on not slick tires
01:07:16but not treaded tires.
01:07:18They're just grooved slicks.
01:07:20Yeah, they're dry
01:07:22weather tires. The grooves around
01:07:24these tires are put in, not in
01:07:26any way to give additional grip.
01:07:28It's there to take
01:07:30the rubber away from the track.
01:07:32It's to reduce the contact patch
01:07:34between the tire.
01:07:36Again, a regulation
01:07:38requirement.
01:07:40Jarno Trulli had a bad race
01:07:42at Monaco in the wet and it's showing up again
01:07:44now under pressure now from Heikki Kovalainen.
01:07:46He's lost a lot of ground, Trulli,
01:07:48to Kimi Räikkönen and Kovalainen and Robert
01:07:50Kubica now right behind Jarno
01:07:52Trulli. That is going to be a close race
01:07:54right to the finish. Trulli struggling now as the rain
01:07:56begins to fall. Now Kaz Nakajima
01:07:58is pitting the Williams-Toyota
01:08:00from 14th.
01:08:02Do you try wets? At least
01:08:04intermediates and hope to pick up a few quick
01:08:06positions before the race ends?
01:08:08Oh! Well, he does
01:08:10that all the time. Alonso goes out there all the time.
01:08:12Yep.
01:08:14And that's what happens when he does get out there.
01:08:16Technical rule changes
01:08:18this year took away traction control
01:08:20so when it does get wet
01:08:22these cars are definitely much more of a handful
01:08:24than they used to be. On board now
01:08:26with Kovalainen. Next year Formula
01:08:28One is planning to go back to complete
01:08:30slick tires.
01:08:36There's the gap between
01:08:38him and Trulli.
01:08:40So Trulli wiping his
01:08:42visor there to try and get rid of some of those rain
01:08:44splashes we saw.
01:08:46A lot of marble
01:08:48build-up on the outside. Yeah. Around
01:08:50Estoril. That long
01:08:52sweeping corner and the dive down
01:08:54from Golf down into the Adelaide hairpin
01:08:56where we are now.
01:08:58Kovalainen is picking up on Trulli
01:09:00over a second a lap and right behind him
01:09:02is Robert Kubica who's also
01:09:04cracking along quicker than
01:09:06Kovalainen. So Kovalainen will be
01:09:08desperate to get past Stiano Trulli
01:09:10to make sure he
01:09:12keeps the BMW of Kubica at
01:09:14bay.
01:09:16Try to keep Kovalainen
01:09:18behind.
01:09:22That never occurred to me.
01:09:24I never thought about that. That would be a good idea, yeah.
01:09:26Thanks for bringing that up. Good point.
01:09:28There, I'll make a note.
01:09:32Oh, Kovalainen really
01:09:34hounding him big time now into the Lise
01:09:36hairpin. Is he going to be able to out-drag
01:09:38him down here on the line? Whoa! Goes
01:09:40wide.
01:09:42Fins are famed
01:09:44for their car control in tricky conditions.
01:09:46Look at Kovalainen.
01:09:48Kubica coming up
01:09:50from behind.
01:09:54Ten laps to go. This race is
01:09:56long from over, especially
01:09:58if it keeps raining.
01:10:02Trulli hasn't seen a podium step,
01:10:04a top three finish
01:10:06for 55 races going back
01:10:08to the Spanish Grand Prix in 2005.
01:10:10He seemed to be pretty quick through
01:10:12Estoril there. Too
01:10:14quick for Kovalainen. Leaves him
01:10:16too far behind, I think. Although he's in the
01:10:18tow. No, no, no, can't
01:10:20do that. But he, of course, watching his mirror like a
01:10:22hawk now for Kubica. Yeah.
01:10:24All three of these cars, to me, look to be
01:10:26running very similar levels of downforce.
01:10:28It's not that disparity with what we've seen between
01:10:30Renault and McLaren.
01:10:32All these guys have got quite a lot of wing on the
01:10:34car. We're going to see any
01:10:36locking up here at this 180. Hard on the brakes.
01:10:38You can see the rain on the screen.
01:10:43Boy, oh boy.
01:10:45Can Jarno Trulli hold on?
01:10:50Or will he suffer another disappointment
01:10:52in France? He's had a few over the
01:10:54years, but for now, he's got that
01:10:56third place. We'll be back.
01:10:58From the helicopter above the
01:11:00Montecourt circuit in France, you see the raindrops
01:11:02on the camera lens, and we
01:11:04still have eight laps of this
01:11:062.75 mile circuit
01:11:08to go. Now, moments
01:11:10ago, Kimi Räikkönen
01:11:12had the final denouement,
01:11:14you might say, with regard to that
01:11:16flapping exhaust
01:11:18exit. You see it come
01:11:20off an exit screen
01:11:22left.
01:11:24There it goes.
01:11:26We have liftoff.
01:11:28Finally got rid of it.
01:11:30It was only held on by the lambda wire.
01:11:32The lambda sensor was the only thing
01:11:34holding the thing on for, well, lap
01:11:36after lap after lap. I can't believe
01:11:38they made him do something about it when he brought him in for his
01:11:40stop. Well, I can't believe that Ferrari didn't want to do
01:11:42something about it. At least just take it off to prevent
01:11:44any damage to the wing or suspension.
01:11:46This is an intense battle
01:11:48for third spot, and of course, that third spot
01:11:50means the third step on the podium.
01:11:52An incredibly important place for a race driver
01:11:54to be. Obviously,
01:11:56in terms of Kovalainen and this
01:11:58man here, Ron Dennis,
01:12:00absolutely vital to get those
01:12:02extra points and the kudos
01:12:04of having a third
01:12:06spot. And, of course, McLaren
01:12:08need those points, right? They need
01:12:10oxygen at the moment. I mentioned
01:12:12that Trulli has had his share of disappointments
01:12:14here at Manicour. Perhaps
01:12:16the worst coming into this race was
01:12:182004 when he was racing as
01:12:20Fernando Alonso's teammate at Renault.
01:12:22Final lap. Final
01:12:24chicane.
01:12:26He got passed by
01:12:28Rubens Barrichello in a Ferrari.
01:12:30Lost that podium position
01:12:32and departed the team shortly
01:12:34after.
01:12:38Kimi Räikkönen losing
01:12:40over a second the lap to his teammate, Felipe
01:12:42Massa, who we are on board with here.
01:12:46Who has a massive lead overall.
01:12:48This does not
01:12:50all go well for other teams as they go
01:12:52to Silverson in two weeks' time, which is also
01:12:54another very fast circuit.
01:12:56And the Ferraris seem to do so well
01:12:58on these quick circuits.
01:13:00Animated conversation there.
01:13:02I wonder what they were talking about.
01:13:06It didn't have the body language of
01:13:08OK, we got him now.
01:13:14Unless
01:13:16Räikkönen drops pace
01:13:18severely. They've got
01:13:20first and second pretty well locked up.
01:13:22Rihanno Trulli is a lot quicker than
01:13:24Räikkönen, but he's way too far behind to pick
01:13:26up all that time in just six laps.
01:13:28Räikkönen's last lap was a
01:13:3019.0. Massa's
01:13:32last lap was a 17.9
01:13:34and in third place Trulli was an 18.3.
01:13:42As things stand,
01:13:44Felipe Massa will move into the lead
01:13:46in the Drivers' World Championship.
01:13:48He'll have another shake-up.
01:13:50He will become the first
01:13:52Brazilian driver to lead the World
01:13:54Championship standing since
01:13:56Ayrton Senna, three-time
01:13:58World Champion after the 1993
01:14:00Monaco Grand Prix.
01:14:08That'll make headlines in
01:14:10Motor Racing Crazy Brazil.
01:14:18Look at the gap he has
01:14:20to his teammate. Where's the other Ferrari?
01:14:22Here it comes.
01:14:26Räikkönen.
01:14:30Räikkönen.
01:14:32Disappointed, but certainly happy
01:14:34to have second-place points.
01:14:36Not renowned for his luck
01:14:38is our Kimi Räikkönen. He has had some
01:14:40terrible luck in a number of races
01:14:42over his career. That's Rubens
01:14:44Batekello behind in the forlorn Honda.
01:14:46Once upon a time, Rubens Batekello was a race
01:14:48winner for Ferrari. We'll be back.
01:14:52Five laps remaining in the Formula
01:14:54French Grand Prix here on Fox,
01:14:56along with Peter Windsor, David Hobbs,
01:14:58Steve Matchett, I'm Bob Varsha.
01:15:02Looking down on the battle between Jarno Trulli
01:15:04in third place and Heikki Kovalainen
01:15:06in fourth.
01:15:08Jarno Trulli, who's not
01:15:10renowned for his wet-weather skills, certainly
01:15:12seems to have come to life now and holding
01:15:14Kovalainen off pretty well with only four
01:15:16laps to go.
01:15:18An equally intense battle
01:15:20is going with his teammate, Lewis Hamilton,
01:15:22intense spot, trying to get around David
01:15:24Coulthard. He's making up lots of time on
01:15:26Coulthard, but again, getting around David Coulthard
01:15:28is not the easiest thing in the world. And even if he did,
01:15:30he'd still be out of the points, because in front
01:15:32of Coulthard is Nelson
01:15:34Piquet.
01:15:36He's having a great race.
01:15:38Yes, it's just one point,
01:15:40but it is a huge point,
01:15:42or would be a huge point for Nelson Piquet,
01:15:44especially finishing
01:15:46as he is currently running, right
01:15:48behind his far more celebrated
01:15:50and highly paid teammate, Fernando Valenza.
01:15:52Well, it would be the only point Nelson Piquet has scored
01:15:54this year so far, this being
01:15:56round eight. So, yes,
01:15:58he would definitely like to get that point.
01:16:02Although, Bob, I think if the late
01:16:04great James Hunt was with us, he would say
01:16:06the worst sort of race driver is the driver
01:16:08that responds to pressure when he thinks
01:16:10his drive is under threat. He should be quick
01:16:12all the time. But nonetheless, it's early days for young
01:16:14Nelson, so we'll see what happens. Sure. Good point.
01:16:16I'll buy that. It's a very good point.
01:16:18We saw that last year when
01:16:20Kubica joined the BMW Sauber team,
01:16:22Heidfeld being a long
01:16:24time member of that team, and he
01:16:26definitely upped his game enormously
01:16:28when Kubica started being quicker than him, almost
01:16:30from his first race with the team.
01:16:32And I said that a couple of years ago.
01:16:34You know, when a driver suddenly picks up speed
01:16:36because his teammate is suddenly quick, it's
01:16:38a terribly bad sign for him.
01:16:40And, of course, very bad for the designers, the
01:16:42engineers, of course, who suddenly find
01:16:44out a whole different parameters of how well
01:16:46their car could go. Well,
01:16:48that's right. That's a good point,
01:16:50David, I would say, because the driver
01:16:52is, of course, the last link in
01:16:54the chain, and you could invest
01:16:56millions of dollars trying to get the absolute
01:16:58nth degree of performance out of the car,
01:17:00but at the end of the day, it's got to
01:17:02come down to the driver to
01:17:04make the final difference.
01:17:06Guys,
01:17:08it's still a long way to go in the mind of Jarno
01:17:10Trulli, but you've got to say, at the moment, as Hecky
01:17:12Kovalainen dives again down the inside but
01:17:14fails to make it, that Jarno Trulli
01:17:16has driven under pressure virtually
01:17:18from the start of this race. First Robert
01:17:20Kubica, then Fernando Alonso, now
01:17:22Hecky Kovalainen. It's very, very difficult
01:17:24trying not to look in your mirrors any more
01:17:26than you need to. He's driven very well under pressure.
01:17:28You could almost say, regardless of what happens
01:17:30next, but, of course, he needs to finish now.
01:17:32He needs to finish third. That was an
01:17:34interesting little irony at work here.
01:17:36If Jarno Trulli is deprived
01:17:38of this podium by the fin
01:17:40Hecky Kovalainen, Jarno's
01:17:42name is not Italian. It is Finnish.
01:17:44His parents were a great admirer
01:17:46of the great Finnish motorcycle racer
01:17:48Jarno Saarinen.
01:17:50Boy, I thought
01:17:52Kovalainen had him on the ropes
01:17:54there, but lost a bit
01:17:56of ground, went into the imminent
01:17:58chicane too quick.
01:18:00Came out not quite quick enough, now he's behind,
01:18:02going to Lise. I think he was a little bit
01:18:04too close, David, and I think the front
01:18:06end washed away. I think he was starting to suffer
01:18:08with understeer on the front tyres, look.
01:18:10When you get so close behind
01:18:12the car in front, you
01:18:14lose the aerodynamic wash
01:18:16of air over the front wing, which secures
01:18:18the front of the car to the track.
01:18:20What are we seeing here?
01:18:22It's one of the Force India
01:18:24cars, obeying the
01:18:26blue flag.
01:18:28Oh, Alonso goes wide.
01:18:30What's going on? Piquet
01:18:32goes by his teammate, Fernando
01:18:34Alonso.
01:18:36How's that going to finish?
01:18:38Oh, my goodness,
01:18:40there's Flavio Briatore, the
01:18:42recently married
01:18:44team principal.
01:18:48Don't throw it away now, Nelson.
01:18:53Meanwhile, Kovalainen
01:18:55and Trulli. Oh, wow, look at this.
01:18:57I mean, Kovalainen. Oh,
01:18:59here he goes. Final lap.
01:19:01Go on! Oh, they touched!
01:19:03They touched! Oh, and Kovalainen
01:19:05does... Oh, boy.
01:19:07The same kind of
01:19:09chicane cut that
01:19:11Lewis Hamilton did earlier, but I think he
01:19:13was forced into that one.
01:19:15Well, Trulli closed
01:19:17the door on him rather abruptly there,
01:19:19touching wheels. Luckily, they didn't get
01:19:21entwined and launch each other into the
01:19:23air. Meanwhile...
01:19:25Well, that got old Kovalainen's attention, I'll tell you.
01:19:29Robert Coombs is sitting back
01:19:31there thinking, yeah, that's it, boys. You take
01:19:33each other out, and I'll finish third.
01:19:35That was the penultimate lap. Masa had
01:19:37already cross-start finish. Here's another look.
01:19:41Oh, Trulli
01:19:43never lifted. Well, he moved
01:19:45over a bit on him, too.
01:19:47I don't know. Look here, he moves over.
01:19:49Look, look there. There he is. He moves over.
01:19:51Well, and I'm holding the line.
01:19:53Yeah.
01:19:55Terribly sporty. That's a very difficult
01:19:57corner to go by, side by side.
01:19:59This is the shuttle.
01:20:01There he goes. He moves over him, yeah.
01:20:03Oh, boy.
01:20:05Well, he could argue he was going
01:20:07for the line. Nevertheless, final
01:20:09corners for Felipe Masa, who scored
01:20:11no points in the first two races
01:20:13of the year. Since then,
01:20:15his third victory
01:20:17in six races to go
01:20:19with a second, a third, and a fifth.
01:20:21The hottest driver in Formula 1
01:20:23right now is Felipe
01:20:25Masa, the new world championship
01:20:27leader.
01:20:29Some way behind. Here
01:20:31comes his teammate. Oh, nursing
01:20:33at home after that exhaust header broke
01:20:35away, Kimi Raikkonen.
01:20:37A very hard-earned eight points
01:20:39for second. And here's the
01:20:41battle for third. Trulli and Kovalainen
01:20:43Trulli has it
01:20:45at the flag.
01:20:49Kovalainen, of course, the winner of the
01:20:51Canadian Grand Prix in the white car there with the red
01:20:53helmet, Robert Kubica coming in
01:20:55fourth, fifth.
01:20:57Mark Webber for sixth.
01:20:59Nelson Piquet for seventh.
01:21:01And teammate Fernando
01:21:03Alonso in eighth.
01:21:05Who would have
01:21:07picked those top eight?
01:21:09Aside from the Ferraris, of course.
01:21:11Now the celebrations
01:21:13begin. We'll be back for the podium
01:21:15ceremony.
01:21:19Welcome back.
01:21:21There are our top three finishers. Felipe
01:21:23Masa in the middle, Kimi Raikkonen
01:21:25on the left, Jarno Trulli
01:21:27on the right.
01:21:31Big, big victory
01:21:33for Felipe Masa.
01:21:35Oop, nearly fell
01:21:37off the podium there.
01:21:39Would have been a tad embarrassing.
01:21:41And that will put him in the lead of the World Championship at the moment
01:21:43by two points
01:21:45over Robert Kubica.
01:21:47Jarno Trulli's first podium for
01:21:49a long time.
01:21:51Since 2005.
01:21:53There's Luca Baldisari, team manager
01:21:55with Scuderia Ferrari.
01:21:57These trophies must be heavy.
01:21:59They seem to have quite a time getting them in the air.
01:22:01Oh, boy. Boy, it's easy to forget that
01:22:03we were speculating about Felipe Masa's
01:22:05job in the beginning of the year when he was
01:22:07having so many troubles.
01:22:11Well done, Kimi.
01:22:13You and the team did a great
01:22:15job to bring that car home.
01:22:19Nice job.
01:22:25Good job for Jarno Trulli as well.
01:22:27He held off Kovalainen and he looked like he was going to
01:22:29lose it. Then, really
01:22:31gave him a bit of a nudge there
01:22:33with just a couple of laps to go.
01:22:35See him pointing to the black armband on his left arm.
01:22:37Memory of
01:22:39Obi Anderson.
01:22:45And there goes the bubbly.
01:22:47Nice job, gentlemen.
01:22:51Well, the rain never materialized like it
01:22:53should have done, but of course it did give everybody
01:22:55a bit of a moment of pause for thought there
01:22:57with just a few laps to go.
01:22:59People slipping and sliding around a little bit and the pace
01:23:01dropped fractionally, but these guys, you know,
01:23:03even when the rain's raining on the car,
01:23:05they still keep hanging right in there.
01:23:11And now Masa
01:23:13gives it to his team boss.
01:23:15We'll take a break and return
01:23:17to begin wrapping things up
01:23:19from Benicourt.
01:23:23Welcome back to Benicourt.
01:23:25The race is over. A surprise come from behind
01:23:27victory for Felipe Massa
01:23:29for the second straight year of Ferrari
01:23:311-2 suite. Let's go to the interview
01:23:33room and our top three finishers
01:23:35with Peter Windsor.
01:23:37Congratulations to the three podium finishers
01:23:39of the French Grand Prix. Third for Panasonic
01:23:41Toyota, Jarno Trulli.
01:23:43Second for Scuderia Ferrari Malbra,
01:23:45Kimi Räikkönen, and heading the Scuderia's
01:23:47third 1-2 of the season, scoring his
01:23:49third victory of the season, Felipe Massa.
01:23:51Felipe, congratulations.
01:23:53A brilliant win for you from the front row.
01:23:55Obviously, Kimi led early on, then he had the problem
01:23:57with the exhaust, but nonetheless,
01:23:59it was a difficult, difficult race for you
01:24:01and you won it conclusively by the end.
01:24:03It was fantastic.
01:24:05I didn't expect that.
01:24:07Sometimes we need a little bit of luck.
01:24:09Today,
01:24:11we had a little bit of luck due to what's
01:24:13happened with Kimi, with his
01:24:15exhaust. Fortunately, he could finish the race.
01:24:17But
01:24:19it was for sure a good present.
01:24:21I was already quite comfortable
01:24:23in the second position. He had a
01:24:25very, very quick pace.
01:24:27I'm sure it would be very, very difficult for me
01:24:29to pass him, but anyway,
01:24:31it was a great race.
01:24:33We showed our performance
01:24:35here. For sure,
01:24:37we don't know exactly the performance from our competitors
01:24:39because they were a little bit behind, but
01:24:41I think we are in the
01:24:43right direction. The team did a fantastic
01:24:45job. All the suppliers
01:24:47especially because
01:24:49all the time we need to bring
01:24:51a good fuel
01:24:53and a good lubricant
01:24:55as well.
01:24:57Great job from everybody.
01:24:59Especially, I'm very happy
01:25:01because now
01:25:03we advanced a lot more in the championship.
01:25:05For sure, we
01:25:07still need to work a lot, but
01:25:09we are in the right direction.
01:25:11It did start to sprinkle with rain towards the end.
01:25:13Tell us about the track conditions.
01:25:15It was very difficult over there because
01:25:17sometimes it was coming
01:25:19some drops and
01:25:21you could feel straight away that the
01:25:23track is not the same anymore.
01:25:25Instead of risk, I was always
01:25:27slowing even more than I
01:25:29needed because
01:25:31I had a very good
01:25:33gap, so I was not
01:25:35risking anything.
01:25:37At the end of the
01:25:39race, it was not raining very
01:25:41heavily for us to think of
01:25:43changing tyres or whatever.
01:25:45Anyway, it was
01:25:47a good drive and a fantastic job
01:25:49from the team. You say that
01:25:51Kimi had the pace, but from the
01:25:53outside looking in, it looked as if you had a couple of
01:25:55laps in hand in terms
01:25:57of fuel. How do you think it might have
01:25:59gone?
01:26:01We had two laps different in terms
01:26:03of fuel.
01:26:07In two laps, you cannot
01:26:09be three tenths slower. I was always
01:26:11three tenths slower and I saw
01:26:13that it was going to be difficult to beat him.
01:26:15You need to be at a similar pace,
01:26:17maybe one tenth slower. It was not
01:26:19the case. I saw that he had a great pace,
01:26:21maybe a little bit better balanced car
01:26:23and I didn't want to risk.
01:26:25Even second was already
01:26:27a great result. First, even better.
01:26:29A great result for the team.
01:26:31Kimi, commiserations to you.
01:26:33I guess delighted to have scored
01:26:35points in a race where you had a relatively
01:26:37serious mechanical failure on the car.
01:26:41Yeah, it's disappointing in the end.
01:26:43Really having
01:26:45a good car all weekend, being
01:26:47on a pole, leading it quite
01:26:49easily and then
01:26:51I had a problem
01:26:53with the car, but unfortunately
01:26:55that happens sometimes.
01:26:57In one way, we are still lucky to finish the race
01:26:59and get eight points.
01:27:01During the last couple
01:27:03laps, the car almost stopped a few times.
01:27:05I mean, even it's disappointing
01:27:07not to win, even we should
01:27:09have maybe, but
01:27:11I still take the eight points and
01:27:13it looks much better now in the championship.
01:27:15Well, not much better, but
01:27:17we are in a more comfortable
01:27:19position and
01:27:21great results for the team.
01:27:23Just unlucky
01:27:25situation. We can see problems
01:27:27with the exhaust just after half distance. What was it
01:27:29like, from your point of view, driving the car
01:27:31in terms of what you felt?
01:27:33We just lost massively power, so
01:27:35that was the biggest problem.
01:27:37It just lost all the power
01:27:39and then it came back and
01:27:41was just slow in a straight line
01:27:43and especially out of the low-speed
01:27:45corners was so difficult.
01:27:47I mean, luckily
01:27:49we were fast enough in the beginning
01:27:51to pull away from the others
01:27:53and we had enough gap in the end.
01:27:55I expect
01:27:57that a few more laps and we would
01:27:59not finish the race.
01:28:01I mean, like I said before,
01:28:03it's a bit disappointing not to win,
01:28:05but still eight points is good
01:28:07for the championship. It's good results for the team
01:28:09and
01:28:11everybody did their best, but
01:28:13unfortunate things in racing, it happens.
01:28:15We've seen that in the past races and
01:28:17still we have won too,
01:28:19so it's a great thing.
01:28:21How bad was the problem when the rain started towards the end of the race
01:28:23in terms of
01:28:25throttle response and power?
01:28:27No, it was like bad
01:28:29traction control. Basically no power
01:28:31out of the corners, so it didn't really affect
01:28:33me at all, but of course it got a little bit
01:28:35slippery in some places, but
01:28:37it made quite a lot
01:28:39of damage in the corners, so
01:28:41like I said, it's good that we finished the race.
01:28:43Congratulations to you, Kimi.
01:28:45And Jarno, turning to you,
01:28:47congratulations, Toyota's first podium
01:28:49since Australia 06, a great podium
01:28:51too, under pressure from the first corner
01:28:53right to the end, a wheel-banging incident
01:28:55with Heccy in the closing lap.
01:28:57Well, it was a difficult race,
01:28:59it was a great result, a great weekend
01:29:01for our team, and we were
01:29:03just pushing really hard, because we wanted to
01:29:05dedicate it to Ove Andersson,
01:29:07which has done a lot for the
01:29:09Toyota Motorsport team, and
01:29:11it comes at the right time, and it's also nice
01:29:13to be here with all Italian flags, because
01:29:15tonight Italy is going to play.
01:29:17It was a great race, hard, tough,
01:29:19we had quite a good pace,
01:29:21but obviously some other cars were still
01:29:23quicker than us, but we
01:29:25managed to do a very good weekend
01:29:27from Friday, Saturday qualifying,
01:29:29very good start, then my pace
01:29:31was obviously reasonable, but
01:29:33I had to hold up some cars quicker
01:29:35than me, and I had to fight really really
01:29:37hard, which is anyway what
01:29:39people expect from Toyota from me.
01:29:41Well, it looked as if you were in difficulty
01:29:43when the rain started, Heccy closed the
01:29:45gap there, talk us through that and that battle
01:29:47with Heccy. Well,
01:29:49it's obviously difficult to judge
01:29:51how bad is the rain when you are
01:29:53in front, it's easier to be behind
01:29:55someone else. I was taking a little
01:29:57bit of care, and normally our car
01:29:59always struggles a little bit on colder conditions
01:30:01and in the sliding conditions,
01:30:03but I managed then
01:30:05to get back into the rhythm as soon as
01:30:07the rain stopped, and I did my job.
01:30:09And that wheel-banging incident
01:30:11with Heccy? I don't think
01:30:13we touched at all, I think it was just
01:30:15wheel-to-wheel, like
01:30:17Go-Kart, so it was a dream coming true
01:30:19because obviously it's a lot of years
01:30:21that I was expecting to do such a nice
01:30:23fight. I would love to
01:30:25fight every race like that, but obviously
01:30:27we need to improve our car, we need to get more
01:30:29pace, and this is all I'm asking
01:30:31to the team, which is doing anyway a great job,
01:30:33compared to last year. The car is much
01:30:35more competitive, everybody are much more together,
01:30:37more motivated, and
01:30:39things are moving on.
01:30:41Brilliant job, well done.
01:30:43And Felipe, returning to you, the first Brazilian
01:30:45to lead the World Championship since the late
01:30:47great Ayrton Senna,
01:30:49and a great run for you here, third,
01:30:51second, and now first in three races of the
01:30:53French Grand Prix, and the fourth
01:30:55leader of the Championship in four
01:30:57races. We go now to the British Grand Prix,
01:30:59things could never be tighter.
01:31:01Yeah, for sure, I mean, we are
01:31:03still in the, even,
01:31:05I mean, we're still in the middle of the Championship,
01:31:07and we still have a lot
01:31:09of races to go, so
01:31:11we cannot
01:31:13think different than we
01:31:15always will think
01:31:17until now, you know, we need to do
01:31:19our job, and we need to think about
01:31:21scoring points race by race,
01:31:23even if it's not possible to win.
01:31:25As I said, I was happy already with second,
01:31:27but, you know, first even better.
01:31:29So we need to take
01:31:31all the opportunities we can to
01:31:33be in the front
01:31:35all the time.
01:31:37It's possible, so...
01:31:39But, you know, it's always nice to
01:31:41lead the Championship, hopefully we can
01:31:43stay in that position.
01:31:45Congratulations to
01:31:47Felipe Masson, his third victory
01:31:49here, we'll take another break, and return
01:31:51to wrap things up from Manicour.
01:31:55Back in Manicour, Brazilian Formula One fans
01:31:57have something to celebrate, a surprise
01:31:59come from behind win by one of their own
01:32:01in the French Grand Prix. Here are the results.
01:32:03Felipe Masson, the first man to win three
01:32:05races this year, then followed by his teammate Raikkonen,
01:32:07the Indiano, Trulli, and the Toyota, good result
01:32:09for them, Kovalainen, Robert Kubica,
01:32:11Notzke is in Canada a couple of weeks ago, Weber,
01:32:13Nelson Piquet, beating his teammate
01:32:15Alonso, surprising there for the top points.
01:32:17These chaps out of the points,
01:32:19David Coulthard just misses out there in
01:32:21ninth, Lewis Hamilton, it ain't gonna
01:32:23be his day, that's for sure.
01:32:25And here's a look at the final six, Jenson Button,
01:32:27the only car to officially retire,
01:32:29that's the fewest this year.
01:32:31Race for the midway point of the season, here's how the Driver
01:32:33Championship stands. Well, Masson takes the lead,
01:32:35but as you can see, very close between the top four,
01:32:37and also very close between the
01:32:39next four, so could change a lot
01:32:41as the year goes through. And in the
01:32:43Constructors' Championship, well, Ferrari
01:32:45out there in front, 91, just
01:32:47nine points short of
01:32:49the Magic 100, BMW Sauber
01:32:51in second spot, 74, McLaren
01:32:53Mercedes, third on the board, with
01:32:5558 points.
01:32:57And that'll do it from Manicor, if you'd like to
01:32:59hear the full post-race driver interviews,
01:33:01catch the Encore broadcast of the
01:33:03French Grand Prix on Speed, Wednesday
01:33:05at 12.30pm ET.
01:33:07And join us in two weeks for
01:33:09the British Grand Prix weekend. We'll begin on
01:33:11Friday, July 4th at 8am ET,
01:33:13with the second Friday practice, Saturday
01:33:15the 5th, qualify, also at 8am,
01:33:17and then on Sunday, July 6th
01:33:19at 1pm ET, we'll switch
01:33:21to Fox for the British Grand Prix.
01:33:23For David Hobbs, Steve Matchett,
01:33:25and Peter Windsor, I'm Bob Harsha.
01:33:27We'll see you in two weeks' time from Great Britain.
01:33:29Au revoir, everyone.