Exams again, but read the quote by Felipe Massa after the race, he reckons that a Turkish Passport may be worth it.

Felipe Massa: “It’s fantastic to have got the hat trick here in Istanbul: it might really almost be worth asking for a Turkish passport! It was a very tough race but the team work magnificently, giving me a great car. When Hamilton came underneath me at an incredible pace, I preferred not to take too many risks: the pit wall informed that he was clearly running a lighter fuel load even if we were not certain he was on a three stop strategy. When that became clear, we were calmer, knowing we had everything in place to go for the win. My engineer, Rob, guided my pace and I drove in such a way as to keep ahead of Lewis. Maybe the hard tyres worked better today, but from what we saw over the weekend, the softs were more competitive and in any case, the difference was not that great.”

A1 Team India secured its second win of the season when Narain Karthikeyan took victory in the Brands Hatch season finale Feature race this afternoon while GBR’s Robbie Kerr notched up another home race podium after a beautiful drive, just losing out to India during the second round of pit stops.

Twenty-eight-year-old Kerr maintained his second place grid spot behind Karthikeyan at the start, pressuring the race leader in the opening stages of the 48-lap race. When India and third-placed Ireland made their first mandatory pit stop on lap eight, GBR opted to stay out in clean air and come in on lap nine. After a fantastic pit stop from the British crew, Kerr rejoined in the lead ahead of India and Ireland. The British racer held P1 until his second compulsory stop on lap 32 when he emerged just behind India to rejoin the action in second. Kerr was unable to pass Karthikeyan during the remaining laps and went on to cross the line second and secure third place overall for GBR in the final championship standings.

Newly crowned A1GP champion A1 Team Switzerland’s Neel Jani joined India and GBR on the podium in third position, the Swiss racer’s 11th podium finish of the season, while China’s Congfu Cheng finished in a superb fourth place after a great weekend at a circuit he knows well from his British F3 days.

Fifth place was taken by Franck Montagny, helping France secure fourth position in the championship. Montagny was followed across the line by the Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen in a solid sixth, moving the Dutch team into seventh overall in the championship, four points ahead of Germany in eighth.

Defending champion A1 Team Germany endured a disappointing end to season three, finishing eighth in the overall standings. Michael Ammermüller finished 11th in the Sprint race and 19th in the Feature, after a puncture just 10 laps from the end, when he was running in third place, ruined his chances of a podium position this afternoon.

Narain Karthikeyan, who took his maiden A1GP race win in Zhuhai, China in December last year, was delighted to score India’s second race win:

‘I think I made a good start. Robbie tried to go round the outside but I defended that move. When we came out of the first pit stop I had a coming together with Adam Carroll - I didn’t see him because I had a moment and he tried to go up the inside and I hit him. But anyway, a great result for A1 Team India and after the final pit stop my car was mega. I made a mistake at Sheen but at the end it was all good!’

Image Copyright : A1GP.com

Well Honda’s (Nick Fry ?) arrogance to selling the team combined with a financial crunch has helped reduce the grid by 2 cars. The Super Aguri team were not allowed to access the Istanbul track facilities quite embarrassingly with the team and trucks being turned away as i have heard.

A while ago there was talk of Spice Energy buying the team given the condition that Indian drivers be given a chance. At that time super egoistic Nick Fry had rubbished the condition and now he has infact rubbished the team which was looking more promising than Honda’s own team. The statement from the team read ::

“We find it difficult to establish a way to continue the activities within the environment surrounding F-1 and as a result Super Aguri have concluded to withdraw from the championship”

Magma group of Dubai and Weigl AG also couldn’t save the ailing team in last-minute efforts.

Aguri Suzuki who was a racer himself had the following to say :

“Super Aguri will be ceasing its racing activities as of today,”

“It had always been my dream to be a Formula One owner. The past two and a half years have flown past but I have no regrets.”

“Magma pulled out suddenly, and without any explanation, and since then I have been flying all over the world talking to other companies but was unable to secure a deal.

“Financially it was just impossible to continue in F1 with the enormous budgets needed today. We did reach a basic agreement with Weigl but were always battling against time.”

He also criticised Nick Fry :

“I don’t understand how suddenly Nick Fry needs to be commenting on everything,” said Suzuki.

“Honda were our backers and he’s not the CEO of Honda. I have no interest in Nick Fry whatsoever and have no idea what he was talking about.”

The references are to Nick Fry’s criticism of all companies which tried to save Super Aguri, its also rumoured that it was Nick Fry who had told the FIA that Super Aguri will no longer participate in formula one.

The withdrawal leaves the future of Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato uncertain.

Am busy with exams again, so here is AT&T William’s Turkish GP preview for you all, se what the Williams team is hoping to get out of the 2008 formula one Turkish Grand Prix.

The 2008 FIA World Championship proceeds to Istanbul next week for round five of the season and the fourth Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday 11 May. Located on the Bosphorus Strait, which acts as a gateway between Asia and Europe, Istanbul is renowned for it’s traditional versus modern dichotomy and provides for one of the most culturally diverse destinations on the calendar. 

A relative newcomer still having only made its debut in 2005, the Hermann Tilke- designed Otodrom is a lesser known proposition than last week’s race at Barcelona, but its state of the art facilities put it on a par with Bahrain and Shanghai from a driver, team and fan perspective. With two more points added to its Constructors’ total following Kazuki Nakajima’s seventh place in Barcelona, the AT&T Williams team will continue in its pursuit of points-paying finishes to fortify its position in the Championship.  

Nico Rosberg :

I’m looking forward to Turkey. It was our strongest race last year in terms of pace in
comparison to the front runners so I think we can do well there. The circuit itself is great
and it should suit our car. We’ve spent some time analysing our performance in Spain,
where we took the wrong set-up direction with the car in the opening sessions. We’ve
learnt from that mistake so we should definitely take a step forward next weekend. I’m looking forward to it.

Kazuki Nakajima :

I’m not particularly familiar with Turkey’s circuit, but I did race there last year in GP2 and liked the track so hopefully I can do a good job for the team in my debut there in an F1 car. I will try my best to get a good result and score some more points.

Sam Michael, Technical Director, Williams F1

Istanbul’s Otodrom has a couple of overtaking opportunities per lap and a good mixture of high, medium and low speed corners. The circuit has a great layout and always produces something exciting during the race.

The Turkish Grand Prix normally takes place in August, when it’s always really hot. With the race falling earlier this year, though, the temperatures are likely to be much cooler which will have an impact on bodywork configuration and tyre selection. Downforce is some way off the maximum level because of the long straights, so car set-up is arranged around that.

Lewis Hamilton in an interview said that McLaren needed to improve following their poor showing in the last 2 F1 races. Although he said proximity to Ferrari was encouraging, but he said that improvement was needed.

“There are areas where we definitely need to improve,” 

“But it’s comforting to know that we are relatively close to Ferrari.”

“It’s great to see a few more teams a lot closer in qualifying the top six drivers were all bunched up”

“It’s great for the sport it’s what motor racing’s all about.

“That’s when the teams need to find more millions to find another 10th of a second so I’ll go and push the bosses.”  Lewis Hamilton said