Kimi Win's F1 - No more pushing and shoving!

Kimi - Can he keep it up? We know he's fast. He's proved that. This could be his year. Lookout Ferny. Could this be the year of real racing now that Ferrari isn't the dominator?

Kimi Raikkonen and Girlfriend walk and talk during F1 

greatreporter.com - Raikkonen wins Spanish Grand Prix

By Ryan Breslin United Kingdom
Kimi Raikkonen won the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on Sunday in spectacular style taking him to third place in the drivers' championship…

Raikkonen set the tone for the day with a storming qualifying display in the morning to grab pole position. He went on to lead the race from start to finish at the Circuit de Catalunya.

He made an excellent start building up a 10 second lead over the rest of the grid in just a few laps, which he extended to 27.6 seconds over the course of the race.

Raikkonen said the his car performed perfectly throughout the whole weekend.

“We knew we would be strong and it was an easy win,” he said.

“I was pushing hard until the pit stops, but then I was far enough ahead that there was no point pushing harder. I didn’t need to go full speed at the end of the race.

“I am very happy for me and for the team because everyone has worked so hard and I hope to start winning more,” he added.
greatreporter.com - Raikkonen wins Spanish Grand Prix

FIA Sunday press conf: Top three�-�Latest News from Planet-F1.com

Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli attended Sunday's post-race press conference for the Spanish GP...

Q: Kimi after all the promise, poles and speed, a great and reliable run from start to finish...
Kimi Raikkonen: Yes it was very good, the car has been perfect the whole weekend and we knew that we should be pretty strong in the race. From the beginning, I pushed until the pit stop and then I saw I was leading by so much that there was no point really, anymore to put the car under so much pressure so I kept the pace up, but I didn't go full speed and won quite easily. Finally, it happened. Last race was close already. I am very happy for myself and also for the other people who have put so much effort into the car and everybody is working hard and finally we get some results. The test team has done well and everybody is working perfectly. So, hopefully we can now start winning more.
FIA Sunday press conf: Top three�-�Latest News from Planet-F1.com

Helsingin Sanomat - International Edition - Sport

Kimi R�ikk�nen and McLaren-Mercedes enjoyed an almost-perfect weekend in Barcelona, as R�ikk�nen led from start to finish in the Spanish Grand Prix to record his first win of the Formula One season.
In so doing he broke the Renault stranglehold on the Manufacturers' Championship race and interrupted a streak of three straight wins by Fernando Alonso.
Racing in front of his adoring home fans, Alonso had to be content with second spot, which still keeps him in a comfortable lead in the drivers' standings.

The previous GP at Imola had seen wheel-to-wheel racing between Alonso and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, and also a very quick McLaren until R�ikk�nen was forced to retire with a driveshaft failure. Hence the pundits had forecast real excitement and drama in Spain.
Helsingin Sanomat - International Edition - Sport

Alonso at speed.................... 

Fernando Alonso of Spain (R) admires lingerie model Marina on the eve of the first qualifying session of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne, 06 March 2003. Alonso will be starting in a Renault for the first race of the 2003 Formula One season on 09 March. AFP PHOTO/Paul CROCK - (I say is the bra and panties made of Nomex?) 

Very busy in the Renault Pit 

FIA wants to disqualify BAR from F1 championship

Paris, France (Sports Network) - During a hearing in front of an appeals court the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile (FIA), Formula One's governing body asked that the BAR-Honda team be excluded from the 2005 F1 championship.
In a statement, the organization claimed "The team set out deliberately to gain an illegitimate and unfair advantage over other teams."
It asked that the BAR team be excluded from the championship and fined at least one million euros.
The Sports Network - Formula One Racing

CBC Sports: BAR-Honda receives two-race ban

The BAR-Honda Formula One team has been suspended for the next two races after an appeals court ruled Thursday that a driver violated a weight rule at last month's San Marino Grand Prix.

BAR-Honda driver Jenson Button's car was found to be five kilograms below the minimum 600-kg minimum limit at the San Marino event on April 24.

"It is not possible for the court to find that Lucky Strike BAR-Honda deliberately committed fraud," the four-judge panel said in a statement. However it said, the team displayed "a highly regrettable negligence and lack of transparency."

Under the ruling, Button and teammate Takuma Sato will be stripped of the 10 points they earned in San Marino. Button finished third, while Sato was fifth.

It was the first time BAR-Honda racers had finished a race all season.
CBC Sports: BAR-Honda receives two-race ban

Schumi vows to fight back

Imola - Like a wounded lion, Michael Schumacher roared back in defence of his Ferrari family on Sunday when he finished second behind Fernando Alonso's Renault in the San Marino Grand Prix.

At 36, with seven drivers' titles behind him and a succession of five championship wins to his name, he proved there was still plenty of fight in him as, after starting 13th on the grid, he forced his way through the field to take the runner-up spot, just a split second behind the winning Spaniard.
Schumi vows to fight back

F1 Season Not Over - by Egmont Sippel

In 2002, after a dominant Ferrari performance in the Australian GP, Williams's technical guru Patrick Head said on the grid of the Malaysian race: "Anybody who thinks that Michael Schumacher is going to run away with this year's championship, simply doesn't understand F1 at all."

As it turned out, Schumacher won the title in the 11th race of the season, in Hungary. In the process, Ferrari made a mockery of Head's vast knowledge, wisdom and insight, gathered over a quarter of a century at the cutting edge of F1.
Wheels24 - formula 1

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has denied he masterminded Britain's $30m "Great Train Robbery".

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has denied he masterminded Britain's $30m "Great Train Robbery".

"There wasn't enough money on that train (for me)," the self-made billionaire grinned.

But Bernie, 74, does admit knowing the getaway driver. He told London's Independent newspaper that he gave Roy James a job when he came out of jail.

Roy, a friend of Damon Hill's F1 racing father Graham, had been a pretty quick race driver.

"James asked me for a job," Ecclestone - former owner of the Brabham F1 outfit - revealed, "but I wasn't going to let him drive".

Instead, he commissioned James, also a talented silversmith, to make a trophy - the very one still given to the best F1 promoter each year.
Wheels24 - formula 1