Sunday, March 19, 2006

The champagne flowed for Renault under the hot Malaysian sun today as Giancarlo Fisichella led home the second ever Renault one-two. Fisichella, starting from pole was absolutely flying in his first stint, setting 15 consecutive fastest laps before coming in for the first of his two pitstops. Alonso, who started from eighth place owing to Renault accidentally adding more fuel than was planned before qualifying, was upto third as he came out of turn one and drove a champion's race to finish second ahead of the Honda of Jenson Button. Speaking of champions, multiple world champion Michael Schumacher finished sixth after starting from 14th on the grid. The German changed his engine before qualifying and was penalised ten places and ended up fourteenth on the grid. However, he showed the pace of the Ferrari 248F1 and had he not been docked ten places, he would have definitly been challenging for the win. Felipe Massa, his team mate who started from the back of the grid, he too changed his engine, finished just ahead in fifth place.

Columbian Juan Pablo Montoya came home in a points scoring fifth place for Mclaren after teammate Kimi Raikkonen crashed out on lap one. It was a bad day for the Williams team as both Webber and Rosberg, who had been competitive in qualifying retierd with blown engines. Red Bull Racing also had its wings clipped both Coulthard and Klien trundled to a halt. Jacques Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher came home in the final two points-scoring positions.

The F1 circus now heads to Australia in two weeks time and five teams look competitive going into the race - Renault, Honda, Ferrari, Mclaren and Williams. Who will take the top step of the podium? Your guess is as good as mine!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

THE NEXT PRANCING HORSE:
Ferrari are set to unveil their next supercar at the 76th Geneva Autoshow. The new car christened the 599GTB Fiorano, is the best V12 to have emerged from Maranello so far, or so Ferrari claims. The name, according to Ferrari tradition, comes from the engine capacity which is 5,999 cubic centimeters or 6 litres. The 6 litre V12 set at 65 degrees develops an awesome 620bhp. The car's acceleration from 0-100 is a neck-snapping 3.7secs and 11 seconds from rest to 200kmph. The car has a power to weight ratio of just 2.6kg/bhp and vmax is 330kmph. Each cylinder has a capacity of 499 cubic cms and the compression ratio is 11.2:1. The car's headlights are reminiscent of the 612 Scaglietti and the raised tapering portion of the bonnet reminds one of an Enzo. The rear lights are circular and this also resembles the Enzo's rear lights but the Enzo featured double circles while this has one taillight on each side.

For me it would be the ultimate supercar, yet, and I can't wait to drive it!! But by the time I can actually afford a Fiorano, they'll be sold out. Sucks for me, doesn't it??