The 2003 French Grand Prix/GP di Francia

The French GP, Michelin's proposed home Grand Prix. According to Luciano Burti, Ferrari's Former test driver, Michelins will reign supreme. If thats the case the boys in red and the other teams using Bridgestones will have a tough weekend ahead of them. One mistake from Michael (or attack by Montoya :tongue:) could see the change of the championship leader. Weather will play a huge factor in this race. Last year this was the track were Michael secured the 2002 Drivers Championship. This year could be were Kimi takes and keeps the 2003 Drivers Championship. When Sundays race rolls around we might see only 18 cars on the starting grid. Its turning out to be an exciting weekend and it hasnt even started yet :iceslolan.

I dont know if BAR will miss out or will ever be miss this coming circuit but I do know I'll be watching out for Williams BMW and Montoya :)

Well anyways, whoever the race winner will be, I hope to see an exciting race, much more exciting than last weekend's one.

Go Williams, Go BMW, Go Montoya go! :tongue:

I have a feeling it will be a Michelin win again, and I won't be surprised one bit if Ralf takes the honours again. I hope MS finishes on the podium (at least). It is one of his favourite tracks though, but I'm not keeping my hopes up too high.

France isnt one of Ralf's favourites though... i think Kimi will take the win

Originally posted by crayzayjay
France isnt one of Ralf's favourites though... i think Kimi will take the win

Really? Darn, there's always Montoya though hehe

Kimi, hmm, with last week's race performance looking to be his race, he will be very motivated to get this one.
If he does, I think he deserves it.

Oh, there's Schumi! He played soccer just 2 days ago.
Not bad for an F1 driver considering there were the likes of Zidane, Figo, Eto and many other professional players.

BAR took place in the first qualifier, but no track time and they were one of the slowest cars there. minardi and firman led that sessions top 3:eek:

Thanks to the new rules and drying weather conditions we have what must be the freakiest qualifying session ever. If conditions were to repeat themselves tomorrow we could effectively have a reverse grid. :eek: Hope that doesn't give Max and Bernie ideas for next year.

1. 19 VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth B 1'20"817 196.488 Km/h 3
2. 18 WILSON Minardi Cosworth B 1'20"968 + 0'00"151 3
3. 12 FIRMAN Jordan Ford B 1'23"496 + 0'02"679 3
4. 9 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas B 1'24"042 + 0'03"225 3
5. 20 PANIS Toyota M 1'24"175 + 0'03"358 3
6. 15 PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth M 1'24"642 + 0'03"825 3
7. 16 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda B 1'24"651 + 0'03"834 3
8. 14 WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth M 1'25"178 + 0'04"361 3
9. 10 FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas B 1'26"151 + 0'05"334 3
10. 21 DA MATTA Toyota M 1'26"975 + 0'06"158 3
11. 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari B 1'27"095 + 0'06"278 3
12. 1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari B 1'27"929 + 0'07"112 3
13. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford B 1'28"502 + 0'07"685 3
14. 5 COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes M 1'28"937 + 0'08"120 3
15. 3 MONTOYA Williams BMW M 1'28"988 + 0'08"171 3
16. 7 TRULLI Renault M 1'29"024 + 0'08"207 3
17. 6 RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes M 1'29"120 + 0'08"303 3
18. 4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW M 1'29"327 + 0'08"510 3
19. 8 ALONSO Renault M 1'29"455 + 0'08"638 3
20. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda B 1'30"731 + 0'09"914 3

Pre-Qualifying for the French Grand Prix

1 Verstappen Jos - 1.20.817
Minardi-Cosworth

2 Wilson Justin - 1.20.968
Minardi-Cosworth

3 Firman Ralph - 1.23.496
Jordan-Cosworth

4 Heidfeld Nick -1.24.042
Sauber-Petronas

5 Panis Olivier - 1.24.175
Toyota

6 Pizzonia Antonio - 1.24.642
Jaguar-Cosworth

7 Villeneuve Jacques - 1.24.651
Bar-Honda

8 Webber Mark - 1.25.178
Jaguar-Cosworth

9 Frentzen Heinz-Harald - 1.26.151
Sauber-Petronas

10 Da Matta Cristiano - 1.26.975
Toyota

11 Barrichello Rubens - 1.27.095
Ferrari

12 Schumacher Michael - 1.27.929
Ferrari

13 Fisichella Giancarlo - 1.28.502
Jordan-Cosworth

14 Coulthard David - 1.28.937
McLaren-Mercedes

15 Montoya Juan Pablo - 1.28.988
BMW-Williams

16 Trulli Jarno - 1.29.024
Renault

17 Raikkonen Kimi - 1.29.120
McLaren-Mercedes

18 Schumacher Ralf - 1.29.327
BMW-Williams

19 Alonso Fernando - 1.29.455
Renault

20 Button Jenson - 1.30.731
Bar-Honda

What the hell is this :confused: :confused:
I missed pre-qualifying because my stupid alarm didnt go off :mad:. But may favorite channel Speed replays it twice so I'll have to catch it later. Thats probably the most messed up grid you can get. On Ferraris site it says "A wet first hour", did guys like Minardi's head out first and then it started raining? I'll be interested to see what happend in this Qualifying session to say the least.

Edit:
Hey you beat me to it :biggrin2: :devil: :biggrin:

no it was damp when the top guys when out and dried by the time minardi and all those went out. Firman even had a small off on his lap and came about around and still got first at one time.

Too slow Michael! Beat you to it. Feel free to keep up the tardiness for the rest of the weekend :tongue:

Originally posted by RallyRaider
Too slow Michael! Beat you to it. Feel free to keep up the tardiness for the rest of the weekend :tongue:

and to think I just finished watching it and thats what they call it LIVE here in Singapore, I'm gonna complain to my cable providers :lol:

I wa only able to watch 1/2 of the qualifying due to urgent matters (like my car being towed away for a ridiculous reason, andI had to pay quite a bit to get it back :angryfire ). Anyway, would have loved to see that! Although two weekends in a row the new qualifying format, IMHO, screws itself as drivers are clearly not placed in equal circumstances for everyone. Oh well.

BAR drivers were unable to take part in Q1, but they look set to be in action for the rest of the weekend (see the other thread in a minute).

Stoddard must have been over the moon over this, right? ;)

and to the back of the timesheet he goes.

wow, what a fantastic "pre" grid. Missed qualif live, but hope its repeated later. Anyone from UK know if ITV showing it later tonight??

If Minardi can have this kind of luck, maybe my favorite "under dog" team, Jaguar, will get in the top 3 this Sunday. :smile:

Jaguar ran really well i thought, they should do well this sunday. I'll be cheering for them too.

I think Wilson's lap was disqualified, so everyone moves one spot up the grid.

ralf and montoya are on the front row, followed by schumi and kimi.

Yep, not really surprising though. And Ralf is on a roll!!! :eek: Seriously, when the car is capable of it and after a good result or two the guy is just brilliant! I never really liked him, but I'm very impressed with his performances since Monaco.

yes he has impressed me lately. I guess thats what rumours will do to you:tongue:

wow, that fella is proving his critics wrong including me :biggrin:
Must be Montoya's driving thats rubbing up on him or a few or alot of pointers from brother Schumi.
I hope he can maintain his performance although it may just be a form kind of thing.

Go Williams! Go BMW! Go Montoya.....er go Ralf go! :tongue:

Well, top 7 at least. Note Ralf! Also not Rubens... :redface:

M.SCHUMACHER 58
K.RAIKKONEN 51
R.SCHUMACHER 43
JP.MONTOYA 39
F.ALONSO 39
R.BARRICHELLO 37
D.COULTHARD 25

Well Im happy to see that Michael is not only in the top three but ahead of Kimi :biggrin:. Its not good when Kimi's up front, we all remember what happend last time he started out up front (he pulled away from the rest of the pack). And if Michael cant be up front Im glad another Schumacher, Ralf is. Should turn out to be a good race tomorrow morning.

here's my prediction for 2morrows race.

Ralf, JPM and MS collide while they pass first time in Adelaide hairpin. Kimi goes into lead and wins while DC holds of Fernando-boy by testbraking him a couple of times. Also at Adelaide hairpin, Alonso can't avoid him and both go off. It starts to rain and more then half the field spins off. Finally when the spray settles. The French see Panis coming in 2nd and Verstappen 3rd! Barichello does not finish either because of a screwed up pit-stop. Ferrari boys mistakingly put diesel into his car instead of petrol and Rubinho stalls at the end of the pit blocking all other cars for several minutes. All engines are overheating and for the remainder off the pack that means end of race. Except for Kimi, Panis and Verstappen who already pitted and where back on the track when it happened.

1. Kimi
2. Olivier
3. Jos.

Would be really stupid right. http://forum.depaddock.net/images/smilies/clown.gif

Originally posted by Michael Schumacher
Its not good when Kimi's up front, we all remember what happend last time he started out up front (he pulled away from the rest of the pack).

Yeah you're absolutely right, it is not good when Kimi is up front. It is bloody brilliant! May we see it frequently for the rest of the year. I agree with (some of :lol:) Guido's predictions - here's hoping for a first corner squabling sibling synchronised spinout!

Funny qualifying result. If you look closely, except for a few exceptions like Ferrari and Jaguar, all team mates qualified very close to each other.

ANother piece of speculaiton - if McLaren finish one-two, Williams three-four and Ferrari don't score then the constructors championship will be very interesting! Not much chance of a double Ferrari DNF though.

Originally posted by huudo
here's my prediction for 2morrows race.

Ralf, JPM and MS collide while they pass first time in Adelaide hairpin. Kimi goes into lead and wins while DC holds of Fernando-boy by testbraking him a couple of times. Also at Adelaide hairpin, Alonso can't avoid him and both go off. It starts to rain and more then half the field spins off. Finally when the spray settles. The French see Panis coming in 2nd and Verstappen 3rd! Barichello does not finish either because of a screwed up pit-stop. Ferrari boys mistakingly put diesel into his car instead of petrol and Rubinho stalls at the end of the pit blocking all other cars for several minutes. All engines are overheating and for the remainder off the pack that means end of race. Except for Kimi, Panis and Verstappen who already pitted and where back on the track when it happened.

1. Kimi
2. Olivier
3. Jos.

Would be really stupid right. http://forum.depaddock.net/images/smilies/clown.gif

:cwm27:

Not at all I could see that happening.

Originally posted by RallyRaider


Yeah you're absolutely right, it is not good when Kimi is up front. It is bloody brilliant! May we see it frequently for the rest of the year.

Yes let us see him start up front, pull away from everyone then have his engine blow up :biggrin:.

J/K, it was like watching Michael from one of the races last year, besides the engine letting go. Does anyone know why it blew?

Originally posted by Michael Schumacher


:cwm27:

Not at all I could see that happening.

of course not. I was just acting silly, hence the clown smilie :biggrin:

And I was being sarcastic :biggrin:.

Go Jaguar!!!
hopefully we can get some more points this weekend. maybe just maybe we might get two cars in the top 8.
Webber just has to drive like he's been doing and it should all fall into place.:bigthumb:

Ferrari needs a new No.2....... and Michelin's! :tongue:

Alonso!!! :mad: Jesus Christ!!! He should have parked the car immediately! What if it brings a safety car now?? Rookie :rolleyes:

Maybe there's a new high grip engine oil they use for these situations! :icon16:

DC tried to drive off without paying for his fuel! :tongue:

Both Renault's gone! :rolleyes:

Michaels up to THIRD :biggrin: :grinyes:

The French Grand Prix Results

1. R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW
2. MONTOYA Williams BMW - + 0'13"813
3. M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari - + 0'19"568
4. RAIKKONEN McLaren Mercedes - + 0'38"047
5. COULTHARD McLaren Mercedes - + 0'40"289
6. WEBBER Jaguar Cosworth - + 1'06"380
7. BARRICHELLO Ferrari - 1 lap
8. PANIS Toyota - 1 lap
9. VILLENEUVE BAR Honda - 1 lap
10. PIZZONIA Jaguar Cosworth - 1 lap
11. DA MATTA Toyota - 1 lap
12. FRENTZEN Sauber Petronas - 2 laps
13. HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas - 2 laps
14. WILSON Minardi Cosworth - 3 laps
15. FIRMAN Jordan Ford - 3 laps
16. VERSTAPPEN Minardi Cosworth - 4 laps
17. 7 TRULLI Renault - 25 lap
18. 8 ALONSO Renault - 27 lap
19. 11 FISICHELLA Jordan Ford - 28 lap
20. 17 BUTTON BAR Honda - 49 lap

A McLaren win, eh, Guido? ;)

To be honest, I am extremely surprised and pleased to see MS finish in front of the McLarens. How exactly that happened I don't know. Kimi was comfortably ahead before the pitstop, and after it - MS was ahead just as comfortably.

Ralf Schumacher!!! :eek: That was a classy drive. A revelation of the year for me. He never looked threatened, controlled the race from start to finish. Of course, he didn't pass anyone, but hey, starting from pole and leading the whole race (every single inch of it!!!), we'll forgive him that, won't we ;) He also had more fuel on board at the start than anyone else. Juan, not a bad race, never looked like threatenning though. MS - don't know how he did that. KR - don't know how he didn't do that. DC - what can I say ... Not his fault, though. Rubens - oh for Christ's sake!!! Lapped!

Ferrari - great pit work, I guess couldn't have done more. Williams - the second 1-2 in a row. They're back and if Michelin can keep it up, they are championship contenders this year. BTW, Head just apologised live on RTL to Ralf for the chritizism after Canada ;) McLaren - the new car is overdue! Renault - double kaboom on home turf :) And also, did Button run out of fuel? His team were ready for him, and when he slowed down, he was weaving as if trying to find some more fuel in the tank.

Kimi must have had problems to drop behind Schumacher like that. How can he challenge for the title if his car can't handle the stress, time and time again gifting points to Schumacher and Ferrari? Getting stuck behind Alonso after the second stop didn't help either. Why didn't McLaren release Coulthard to chase Michael down? Not smart, another gift.

Another great performance by Williams.

Kudos to Williams for turning their season around, it wasn't all down to tyres for them.

Kudos to the Ferrari braintrust for the strategy adjustment which put them ahead of McLaren.

RB, what is up with you?! :rolleyes:

One simple sentence brings me happyness; There will be a rerun tonight and tomorrow :smile:

Well all I can say. I'm delighted at the 1,2 finish for williams.

It could have been Montoya's race if in the 3rd pit stop did it a sec faster for him or had they caught Ralf 1 sec slower. The aerial view camera saw Ralf just catching Montoya behind.
After that Montoya just sat back and accepted the 2nd place even though MS was creeping behind.

Not as exciting as the last circuit race but all the same.

Next on Silverstone! in 2 weeks time.

Way to go Williams!

Looks like a pretty good battle is heating up that should last to the last race, i hope. Im glad williams is starting to get their car sorted out.

It's good to see the Williams team doing so well, I'm glad to see the "other" Schumacher in the front for a change. I feel bad for Ferrari (a little) after their domination the last several years (last year in perticular). How much of the change do you think is caused by the new rules. Or is B.M.W. that much better?
Kimi did look promising here lately and David could have placed on the podium today. But like they say, $#%& happens!
---TEX---

Well I woke up around lap 45 when Michael was still in 5th. To say the very least I wasnt impressed. But then he came in for his third and final pitstop and was suddenly in 3rd :eek:. What I heard was that the new set of tyres Kimi got were crap, kind of like the second set Michael got last race (were his times dropped and JPM came flying up on him). Ralf deserved to win that one, he pretty much dominated the weekend besdies the stupid pre-qualifying. Its got prettu exciting near the end when Michael was gaining 1-2 seconds a lap on Montoya. Overall I was pleased with this race. Now on to Silverstone :bigthumb:.

ok, so here are my impressions to the race. Fantastic to see RS, JPM and MS take each other out at Adelaided hairpin. Kimi drove a solid race and took yet another deserved win. What a joke with that Diesel-story and Rubinho. To take the further pack out after more then half the field spun off while it started raining. Anyway, no one would have predicted a race like this. Kimi first, Panis second and Jos the Boss third, with only 3 cars finishing...



















............








and then he woke up


:lol:

On a more serious note, this must have been the worst coverage I've seen in ages. With a bad job did the French TV do. I've watched Rubinho for laps and laps and laps... :bloated: Missed half of the action because of that. Also timing-wise it was absolutely 0.0 :mad:

It seems that Williams really have sorted the FW25. Ralf proving to be a solid driver when the car is set-up perfectly. It makes absolutely sence what we're seeing right now.

McLaren where on top of the game in the first races, leaning on the experience with the modified last years car. McLaren dropped back and Williams was still sorting out the car. In the meanwhile Ferrari gained a couple of victories because of Schum's capabilities. Not because of the car. Now that Williams has it's car well developped - mid season - they seem to have the strongest package. Williams is the main Ferrari challenger for the title this year. Not McLaren. a bit like 1991, when Senna was leading and Mansell in the Williams made a strong return.

I think Kimi just got a bad batch of tyres, this sort of thing happens you know, not everytyre is the same. This hapened to micheal last race too

The coverage wasnt to great here in North America atleast from the part of the race I saw. The camara's were mostly on Ralf and Montoya. I didnt see Michaels third pitstop and most important, I only saw Kimi a couple times, and it didnt show too much of Michael when he was chasing down JPM. But what can you do :dunno:.

/\/imbus - Thats pretty much what the boys on Speed Channel thought.

Originally posted by /\/imbus
I think Kimi just got a bad batch of tyres, this sort of thing happens you know, not everytyre is the same. This hapened to micheal last race too

He was complaining of getting stuck in traffic behind backmarkers, and that's where he lost the time to Shumi, so MS was able to take 3rd after the 3rd batch of pitstops. Near the end, he had a braking problem, losing brakes on one disc :eek: So afterall, the battle damage was limited to a maximum with MS only gaining 1 point in the standings.

It'll be a fight till the end :eek:

I also wasn't impressed with the coverage. We missed MS-DC battle at the start, we weren't shown MS-KR positions after the last pitstops (and Magn Cours has a great opportunity to switch the shot from the pit exit to the start-finish straight and turn 1!!!)

And to think about it, the race wasn't too exciting as well. The only overtaking was done by RB (on much much slower cars!) - or at least the one we've been shown on TV. But it's the novelty factor of Williams and Ralf winning that makes me to say that the GP was exciting to watch. And guess who predicted the result rather accurately!!! (
hint: me!!! :)

Have you seen the Ferrari (and BAR/Jrdan/Sauber as well) testing schedule for next week? Busy busy busy. Also there was a story on pitpass that top engineers (top as in pretty much the top) from Bridgestone attended the race. Seems like an "all hands on deck" time for the Japanese company. Fingers crossed ;)

Sounded like Bridgestone might be ready to copy Michelin's more squared tyre design. Do something, anything, just fix it. :rolleyes:

I agree with those who think this close competitive battle at the top could carry on for many races, maybe to the end of the season. I am so glad we are not seeing a repeat of the Ferrari dominance seen in the previous two seasons. Nothing against Ferrari or MS, it just makes watching more fun when you do not know who will win after the first lap. I hope Williams and McLaren can keep the pressure on Ferrari.

Its good to c that the jags had another good showing. reliablity of the jags are getting better. webber showed he had pace with the big boys.

its good to c that Ralf can actually put a couple of good races together and now hes not far of the championship lead. ok so micheal and kimi might have to have a failure at the next GP but hey anything is possible!!

And Williams are just 3 (!) points behind Ferrari ;)

Speaking of Barichello. Did he already renew his contract??

If not, he's certainly making sure Ferrari is not going to renew it. Jee, he had difficulties in overtaking JV. Took him like 4 or 5 laps :eek:

Did he actually overtake him? If so, I must have missed that part, but I certainly didn't see that. Didn't he get past because he had to make 1 less pitstop?

yes, that's it. He overtook him when JV went into the pits

French GP - fastest laps in the race

1. Juan Pablo Montoya - 1'15"512 - lap 36
2. Ralf Schumacher - 1'15"698 - lap 37
3. David Coulthard - 1'15"981 - lap 17
4. Michael Schumacher - 1'16"303 - lap 19
5. Kimi Raikkonen - 1'16"609 - lap 19
6. Jarno Trulli - 1'17"025 - lap 33
7. Fernando Alonso - 1'17"029 - lap 11
8. Mark Webber - 1'17"068 - lap 47
9. Rubens Barrichello - 1'17"104 - lap 47
10. Jenson Button - 1'17"149 - lap 19
11. Olivier Panis - 1'17"398 - lap 36
12. Antonio Pizzonia - 1'17"416 - lap 67
13. Jacques Villeneuve - 1'17"786 - lap 49
14. Cristiano da Matta - 1'17"870 - lap 63
15. Heinz-Harald Frentzen - 1'18"099 - lap 18
16. Jos Verstappen - 1'18"754 - lap 66
17. Nick Heidfeld - 1'18"994 - lap 21
18. Giancarlo Fisichella - 1'19"093 - lap 23
19. Ralph Firman - 1'19"345 - lap 13
20. Justin Wilson - 1'19"588 - lap 25

Originally posted by ales
French GP - fastest laps in the race

1. Juan Pablo Montoya - 1'15"512 - lap 36
2. Ralf Schumacher - 1'15"698 - lap 37
3. David Coulthard - 1'15"981 - lap 17
4. Michael Schumacher - 1'16"303 - lap 19
5. Kimi Raikkonen - 1'16"609 - lap 19
6. Jarno Trulli - 1'17"025 - lap 33
7. Fernando Alonso - 1'17"029 - lap 11
8. Mark Webber - 1'17"068 - lap 47
9. Rubens Barrichello - 1'17"104 - lap 47
10. Jenson Button - 1'17"149 - lap 19
11. Olivier Panis - 1'17"398 - lap 36
12. Antonio Pizzonia - 1'17"416 - lap 67
13. Jacques Villeneuve - 1'17"786 - lap 49
14. Cristiano da Matta - 1'17"870 - lap 63
15. Heinz-Harald Frentzen - 1'18"099 - lap 18
16. Jos Verstappen - 1'18"754 - lap 66
17. Nick Heidfeld - 1'18"994 - lap 21
18. Giancarlo Fisichella - 1'19"093 - lap 23
19. Ralph Firman - 1'19"345 - lap 13
20. Justin Wilson - 1'19"588 - lap 25

The glaring one is Webber being faster than RB who had every reason to set THE fastest lap of the race! :rolleyes:

Originally posted by ales
French GP - fastest laps in the race

1. Juan Pablo Montoya - 1'15"512 - lap 36


Where were those laps near the end of the race when Michael was gaining 1-2 seconds a lap on him.