For a man who follows Formula One, Football and Rugby Union, this weekend comes as a Christmas gift, albeit a few months late.
First up the 2008 Formula One season has been flagged off with Friday's practice sessions at Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia. From highlights on the ITV website, the absence of traction control could be seen, heard and felt as almost everyone took a walk in the park. What I will be looking forward to, tomorrow during the qualifying is the time sheets. I am predicting the cars to be around a few tenths of a second slower than last season with the absence of electronic aids, because the drivers will want to exercise a lot of caution whilst cornering and taking off. It will also be interesting to see them start off after pitting. Contrary to my preview, Red Bull, in the form of Mark Webber seemed to be amongst the front runners, which came as a surprise. Also Giancarlo Fisichella's time sheets showed that Force India mean business.
The top eight in practice 1 read as follows:
Raikkonen, Hamilton, Massa, Kovalainen, Webber, Alonso, Kubica and Glock. In terms of teams it reads Ferrari, Mclaren, Ferrari, Mclaren, Red Bull, Renault, BMW and Toyota.
Practice 2, however said a slightly different story, with Hamilton leading the pack from Webber, Massa, Kovalainen, Coulthard, Raikkonen, Trulli and Rosberg. This translates into Mclaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mclaren Red Bull, Ferrari, Toyota and Williams. However we still do not know who was carrying how much load.
Traditionally the Australian GP sees the top teams running a two stop strategy with the first stop occuring between laps 17 and 23 and the second stop occuring between 35 and 41 unless the teams have done something drastic and decide to go for a 3 stop strategy like Ferrari did way back in 2004. It will be hard to determine who is more likely to spring a surprise. Will it be Renault? Will it be the ever conservative Mclaren? Or will it be the volatile, but efficient strategists at Ferrari? I cant wait for the five red lights to go off!
First up the 2008 Formula One season has been flagged off with Friday's practice sessions at Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia. From highlights on the ITV website, the absence of traction control could be seen, heard and felt as almost everyone took a walk in the park. What I will be looking forward to, tomorrow during the qualifying is the time sheets. I am predicting the cars to be around a few tenths of a second slower than last season with the absence of electronic aids, because the drivers will want to exercise a lot of caution whilst cornering and taking off. It will also be interesting to see them start off after pitting. Contrary to my preview, Red Bull, in the form of Mark Webber seemed to be amongst the front runners, which came as a surprise. Also Giancarlo Fisichella's time sheets showed that Force India mean business.
The top eight in practice 1 read as follows:
Raikkonen, Hamilton, Massa, Kovalainen, Webber, Alonso, Kubica and Glock. In terms of teams it reads Ferrari, Mclaren, Ferrari, Mclaren, Red Bull, Renault, BMW and Toyota.
Practice 2, however said a slightly different story, with Hamilton leading the pack from Webber, Massa, Kovalainen, Coulthard, Raikkonen, Trulli and Rosberg. This translates into Mclaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mclaren Red Bull, Ferrari, Toyota and Williams. However we still do not know who was carrying how much load.
Traditionally the Australian GP sees the top teams running a two stop strategy with the first stop occuring between laps 17 and 23 and the second stop occuring between 35 and 41 unless the teams have done something drastic and decide to go for a 3 stop strategy like Ferrari did way back in 2004. It will be hard to determine who is more likely to spring a surprise. Will it be Renault? Will it be the ever conservative Mclaren? Or will it be the volatile, but efficient strategists at Ferrari? I cant wait for the five red lights to go off!
Elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, we will get to see if Manchester United are able to overtake Arsenal once again this season as they face Derby County at Pride Park Stadium, while Liverpool host Reading, Roy Keane's Black Cats entertain Chelsea and the team to beat this season, Arsenal host Middlesborough.
The draws for Champions League quarter finals have been made and we will not see all four English clubs in the semi finals yet. The draw reignites some old rivalries, albeit with some new fervour:
Arsenal (England) v/s Liverpool (England)
Manchester United (England) v/s AS Roma (Italy)
Schalke o4 (Germany) v/s Barcelona (Spain)
Chelsea (England) v/s Fenerbahce(Turkey).
Now if Chelsea win, they will meet either Arsenal or Liverpool in the semi finals. This is will be a repeat of sorts for them as they defeated Arsenal in the quarter finals way back in 2004. They also lost to Liverpool in the semi finals, the next year, when Liverpool went all the way in Istanbul. If Liverpool defeat Arsenal, it will be the third time they will face Chelsea in the semi finals of the competition, provided Chelsea too win.
The Other interesting quarter final draw is the one between Manchester United and AS Roma. What surprises me is that excatly like last year, United travel to Roma first and then host Roma eight days later. It was a memorable tie last season, when United lost 1-0 at Rome and then hammered Roma 7-1, with Carrick's superb volley from outside the box initiating the annihilation. If United go through, they are likely to face Barcelona, with whom they played out two 3-3 draws in 1998-99 group stages. However if Schalke 04 win against Barcelona, United face the prospect of squaring off against a German side in the semi finals. The last time this happened, they lost to Bayern Leverkusen, who lost to eventual champions Real Madrid in the 2001-2002 season at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
The RBS 6 Nations reaches its final match-day this weekend, with England playing Ireland and Italy playing Scotland in games that are nothing but formalities. England coach Brian Ashton has taken a brave move of dropping hitman flyhalf Johnny Wilkinson in favour of young blood Danny Cipriani after last weekend's debacle at Murrayfield, when England lost to Scotland, 15-9, thus handing Scotland their only win of the competition so far.
The clash that everyone is waiting for, however is between Wales and France. After winning the triple crown last weekend, Wales are well on their course to the Grand Slam. The men to watch will be Lee Byrne and Shane Williams for Wales and Vincent Clerk for France.
All in all, an explosive weekend on tap!
The draws for Champions League quarter finals have been made and we will not see all four English clubs in the semi finals yet. The draw reignites some old rivalries, albeit with some new fervour:
Arsenal (England) v/s Liverpool (England)
Manchester United (England) v/s AS Roma (Italy)
Schalke o4 (Germany) v/s Barcelona (Spain)
Chelsea (England) v/s Fenerbahce(Turkey).
Now if Chelsea win, they will meet either Arsenal or Liverpool in the semi finals. This is will be a repeat of sorts for them as they defeated Arsenal in the quarter finals way back in 2004. They also lost to Liverpool in the semi finals, the next year, when Liverpool went all the way in Istanbul. If Liverpool defeat Arsenal, it will be the third time they will face Chelsea in the semi finals of the competition, provided Chelsea too win.
The Other interesting quarter final draw is the one between Manchester United and AS Roma. What surprises me is that excatly like last year, United travel to Roma first and then host Roma eight days later. It was a memorable tie last season, when United lost 1-0 at Rome and then hammered Roma 7-1, with Carrick's superb volley from outside the box initiating the annihilation. If United go through, they are likely to face Barcelona, with whom they played out two 3-3 draws in 1998-99 group stages. However if Schalke 04 win against Barcelona, United face the prospect of squaring off against a German side in the semi finals. The last time this happened, they lost to Bayern Leverkusen, who lost to eventual champions Real Madrid in the 2001-2002 season at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
The RBS 6 Nations reaches its final match-day this weekend, with England playing Ireland and Italy playing Scotland in games that are nothing but formalities. England coach Brian Ashton has taken a brave move of dropping hitman flyhalf Johnny Wilkinson in favour of young blood Danny Cipriani after last weekend's debacle at Murrayfield, when England lost to Scotland, 15-9, thus handing Scotland their only win of the competition so far.
The clash that everyone is waiting for, however is between Wales and France. After winning the triple crown last weekend, Wales are well on their course to the Grand Slam. The men to watch will be Lee Byrne and Shane Williams for Wales and Vincent Clerk for France.
All in all, an explosive weekend on tap!
No comments:
Post a Comment