The new circuit at Turkey seems to have impressed the drivers and it will be interesting to see how the newly finished surface holds up under a F1 race.

The circuit is anti-clockwise which is not as common as clockwise circuits in F1.

An interesting comment by F1 driver Massa may make you smile... or cringe:

"I already won there for Sauber because I did the race on my PlayStation - and I did it on the difficult level against all the other championship runners! Usually these computer games are very accurate in the way they depict the circuits and there are some quick corners, elevation changes and long straights, a bit like the Nurburgring in Germany."

The new track has some elevation changes and a good variety of corners and sections to keep drivers busy. German designer Herman Tilke who also designed the circuits at Sepang, Bahrain and Shanghai, brings us this new 5.34km circuit at Istanbul. The project was plagued with all manner of setbacks including the weather and was completed barely in time for the F1 debut.

The season will be over in 6 rounds. Can Alonso fight off the assault of Kimi and snatch his first F1 championship? Bridgestone reportedly have made great inroads in the last few weeks and we already know the Ferrari is fast so the cat may be amongst the proverbial pidgeons for the rest of the season. BAR have strengthened while Williams have faltered. Toyota advance progressively every time they put rubber to tarmac. 2005 has certainly been a season of changes.

I hope those of you who enjoy F1 really enjoy this next round. It's always interesting to see a new racetrack in action!

Once kimi is in that ferrari (granted if F1 is still among us at the time), it'll be micheal all over again.

Its the first new Herman Tilke track that I like. His other recent ones have been bland and soul-less to please the health and safety bods. With this one he seems to have been thinking about the drivers and how to make it a challenge for them. Practice and Qualifying have proved that he has definately done that. So its a good one!

The problem with new tracks is the rules about the run offs, Im all for driver safety but when you see a car on a track with asphalt run offs that are wider than the track itself, it looks like they have laid kerbs down on a Car park. No scenery or any interesting features unlike spa or Monaco. . .

Oh well, Lets hope they can overtake on this track!

Now i know why massa is so good. He practises with a PS2!
Damn, i should have read this before i placed the bets. But I trust Ben.. erm Renault and Toyota this time.

(and just in case, will have my money back if the race ends like it starts for top 3)

Kimi won, thats good put Montoya spinned the double victory from Mac, and gave points to Alonso, way to go Juan

In the victory seromony (or what is that called) they putted the finnish flag wrong way around, upside down! How is that even possible? I take that offensive thats allmost the same as dropping it to ground or burning it...

Quote from Blackout :

I take that offensive thats allmost the same as dropping it to ground or burning it...

I highly doubt that the person who hung the flag upside down was having thoughts of burning your country's flag. Mistakes happen. No harm done.

The Otodrom seems a lot like an LFS track to me. I mean, Montoya had a LFS moment with Monteiro which seems to characterise the tracks' similarities. I can't wait for this to be modded into LFS if it ever does

I remember last year at the Superfund-3000 race at Dijon the track personell hadn't got british hymn. The team representative who was at the podium just spontaneously sang "God, save the Queen" entirely into a TV camera (thus everybody heard that through loud-speakers)

Quote from Gunn :

I highly doubt that the person who hung the flag upside down was having thoughts of burning your country's flag. Mistakes happen. No harm done.

Whereas I agree with that, I think it's inexcusible for such a 'mistake' to occour at such a highly-watched event. Imagine if they had hung an American flag upside down, or British, or any other "well-known" flag, there'd have been outrage. I agree with the post, it's insulting and offensive.

Nuff said. Good race.

Quote from BlackSpider :

Whereas I agree with that, I think it's inexcusible for such a 'mistake' to occour at such a highly-watched event. Imagine if they had hung an American flag upside down, or British, or any other "well-known" flag, there'd have been outrage. I agree with the post, it's insulting and offensive.

Nuff said. Good race.

Fair enough. I guess its up to each individual to decide whether to treat such a situation as an unfortunate oversight, or an outrageous scandal. I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt rather than go searching for someone to hate. There's too many disputes over tiny little things these days, anyway.....

There have been past incidents of a particular anthem or flag to be absent from a GP, I seem to recall a story where Happy Birthday was played in lieu of one poor racer's anthem.

I can imagine what kind of scandal it would have been if it had been american flag...If they watch F1, what I just dont believe... But how its even possible...flags have pins (or what are they) on the side where they should be attacthed to the flagpole...so it should be impossible to put it wrong way around, right? It wasnt such flag then I suppose...

And I dont search anyone to hate, or attack, it made me just litle sad/angry when watcing it, Fin won, national song and great feeling but the flag is upside down wtf?! :S

btw, how do you put British flag wrong way around? Cross is in the middle, right?..it does look like it

A one-sided flag may appear backwards when the wind is blowing the other way maybe?

Was good to see Kimi win, he's had so much bad luck with reliability. I thought button raced very well too.

well one more victory for kimi but he cant get alonso anymore 22 points is to much, about montoya and monteiro, the incident fault was of Montoya, coz he ovetook monteiro in a braking zone and moved into his front, braking quite soon and fast, and monteiro lost his aerodynamic support in the front and the accident was inevitable, exists a agreement between the pilots, for who overtake in the braking zone the driver cant change his racing line, or either, was to the left and was there that he had to brake, to prevent this type of situations. It is an agreement well clearly.

About the flag is a really sad situation in F1, i already saw more situation like this one in some other gps like the flag in the wrong driver, is sad to see it in F1.

Regards

Here are the lap charts for Turkey.

Quote from Blackout :

...
In the victory seromony (or what is that called) they putted the finnish flag wrong way around, upside down! How is that even possible? I take that offensive thats allmost the same as dropping it to ground or burning it...

Somehow they managed to get it the right way when Kovalainen was standing at the middle (won GP2 sprint race).

btw. anyone notice that the podium places were somewhat oddly arranged? I mean, the top 3 GP2 race drivers were standing in 3-1-2 order (which was odd to me), but the F1 top three were standing in the "normal" order (2-1-3).

Quote from Janezki :

Somehow they managed to get it the right way when Kovalainen was standing at the middle (won GP2 sprint race).

Yea..I was wondering how they did with the flag in GP 2

Quote from BlackSpider :

or British, or any other "well-known" flag, there'd have been outrage. I agree with the post, it's insulting and offensive.

How do you hang the Union Jack upside down?

Quote from ajp71 :

How do you hang the Union Jack upside down?

Fly it in Australia.

I was there and it was fantastic!!!

Here are some pictures from Istanbul GP:

http://www.nos-tr.com/en/forum ... posts.asp?TID=24&PN=1



FIA GTR, DTM and MOTO GP will be at Istanbul in next days.

Quote from HASTA :

I was there and it was fantastic!!!

Here are some pictures from Istanbul GP:

http://www.nos-tr.com/en/forum ... posts.asp?TID=24&PN=1



FIA GTR, DTM and MOTO GP will be at Istanbul in next days.

Damn, that was the best race this year (that I can remember) and you were there, damn that must have been awesome


You should have taken some pics of the good looking girls to

Quote from MyBoss :

You should have taken some pics of the good looking girls to

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/7840/f1girls6sl.jpg

aaiiiiitee :-D


I really have to stop saying aiiite