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[przemo]

I got another prediction:

Forecasts throughout the week have maintained that the event will be predominantly dry, with temperatures well into the 30 degree Celsius range at times.

During the last 24 hours, local weather sources have indicated that thundery showers are possible in the extreme heat of the day, but that the risk is generally low.

Friday is predicted to be dry and extremely warm with a maximum air temperature of 30 degrees Celsius, but also with a slight chance of storms later in the day.
linky

And here it says it may rain but only Saturday night.

I never believe forecasts though

[7UpJordan]

I know, how about some trick reverse logic? When it says it will rain, it won't rain, when it says it won't rain, it will rain.

Steve Rider: And then there's the imminent threat of rain Mark.
Mark Blundell: Cor blimey 'guv look at those clouds! *camera then shows a smuttering of white clouds which look nothing like producing any rain*

[EwanM]

I know, how about some trick reverse logic? When it says it will rain, it won't rain, when it says it won't rain, it will rain.

Steve Rider: And then there's the imminent threat of rain Mark.
Mark Blundell: Cor blimey 'guv look at those clouds! *camera then shows a smuttering of white clouds which look nothing like producing any rain*

Well this is the wettest season since 1995, when there were only 3 fully dry weekends.
Crazy.

[McLaren Fan]

From autosport.com:

Q & A: Massa bullish ahead of Hungarian GP

By Jonathan Noble Thursday, July 31st 2008, 16:42 GMT

Just four points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa has never been closer to winning the title in his Formula One career. But his Ferrari team have won only once in the last five races, as Hamilton's McLaren seems to get stronger and stronger.

Kimi Raikkonen is also lurking, just three points behind Massa in the standings. But all this does not seem to unnerve the Ferrari man, as he insists the Italians remain strong and reminds all that this time last year, their situation was much worse.

Autosport.com caught up with Massa for his analysis of the situation, ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Q: What do you feel now about what happened in Germany?

Felipe Massa: "Well, for sure in the last race we didn't find the right performance as we were supposed to have. We understood for sure many of the things that happened in the last race, although I don't want to comment about them because they are (only) for us.

"It is important to understand how it is going to be at this race. And for sure it will be different to the last race, in terms of the performance at the last race. We don't know if it will be easy to win or not, because we know we have a McLaren who are very strong, but at least I think we can be competitive here."

Q: You were dominant at the French Grand Prix, but in the last two races it is McLaren who have dominated. Do you think they are now ahead in terms of the performance of their car?

Massa: "No. It is so easy to say that because they won the last two races that they are the kings. But before these two races they were not the kings. We know how this sport works and we are just a little bit after the middle of the championship, and we still have a long way to go.

"I think we have a good team, we are in the front in the constructors' championship and are second and third in the drivers' championships. We are not far behind, we are very close, and in F1 things can change very easily.

"We are 100 percent motivated to be competitive here and not just here, but also from now on until the end of the season. Then we see at the end if we did everything right or not."

Q: Stefano Domenicali has said in the last few days that Ferrari are not in 'crisis'. But is it fair to say you are in a bit of a slump?

Massa: "Well, to be honest if you take this championship we are better than last year at this time. So I don't think it is the time to change everything - it is the time to work even harder and follow the direction that is good for our car and good for our team. That is what we are doing now.

"We know in a sport like this, that you can have a good day and you can have a bad day - and it is important to focus on what we want. And what we want is not everybody reacting to the media and what they wrote. We want to win and we know the direction - we won many times and we won't change because we had a bad race."

Q: Ferrari have won only once in the last five races. This is not the sort of result expected of Ferrari, so how disappointed are you by that?

Massa: "It is true, but we won many races as well. The last five races are not important, what is important is the championship until now. And it will be even more important until the last race. It is true we had a bad result, but we have had many good results.

"And we need to focus and concentrate on what we think is good, and what we think works to make our car even quicker - and be competitive to win other races."

Q: Do you think the difference to McLaren is only about circumstances - like the weather and temperature? Or is it that they have developed their car quicker than you?

Massa: "Well I think for sure they did a good job in the last few races. But for sure they were favoured by the conditions. I think we can be very competitive again and we are in the direction to push very hard to improve our car - especially with development.

"We are pushing even harder to get things ready before we expect it. That is how we are working now, and hopefully we can have a different result on Sunday."

Q: Lewis Hamilton is number one at McLaren and you and Kimi (Raikkonen) are equal at Ferrari. Sooner or later do you think there could be a decision to change that?

Massa: "For the moment where we are is very close in terms of points. For sure, maybe when we see that one driver has a lot more points than the other driver we will see what we can do. But it is not the case now, and it doesn't change anything at the moment for us. We are always working the same and we will keep it like that."

Q: How much of a disadvantage is it to you that McLaren appear to be concentrating on Lewis Hamilton?

Massa: "It's no disadvantage."

Q: You have said you understand what went wrong in the last few races. Do you think you have solved the problems like temperature of tyres and brakes?

Massa: "Yes I think so. I think we have solved many of the problems we had at the last race. And that is true also for the problems we had in the past as well.

"If you remember last year in Monaco, we had a disastrous race but we had again a good race after. For sure when you have a big problem you work very hard on the problem you had in the race, and you try to change things.

"If you go back to Monaco this year, we had the best car there but didn't win because it was a complete lottery. But we had everything to win the race there, so we understood the problem and we are working hard to be competitive when we approach difficult times again."

Q: How is the shark fin?

Massa: "It doesn't change anything in the car, it is the same. It is just another development, another evolution. At every test we have had different things, but many things we have are not visible for you guys. Sometimes there are things that are not visible but it doesn't mean it is not different."

Q: You talked about implementing solutions to the problems you have had in the last few races. Are they the sort of things that will lift you back to the front of the grid, or will it take longer?

Massa: "I hope so. I think there is enough there, but even if we understand the problem and improve things - for sure the others are improving as well. So we come here, and I think we have the possibility to win the race, but I am not sure. We need to see how the race goes, but what I am sure is that we won't have a problem to be competitive - which we were not in Germany."

Q: Judging by how close the championship is, do you regret not making it harder for Lewis Hamilton to get by you in Germany?

Massa: "I didn't have the possibility to fight. I was in trouble with my car and with my brakes. If I had a normal car, for sure he wouldn't pass me."

Aside from some blatant straw-clutching, how many frigging times does Massa need to say "for sure"!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

[scotty]

I know, how about some trick reverse logic? When it says it will rain, it won't rain, when it says it won't rain, it will rain.

Steve Rider: And then there's the imminent threat of rain Mark.
Mark Blundell: Cor blimey 'guv look at those clouds! *camera then shows a smuttering of white clouds which look nothing like producing any rain*

Well this is the wettest season since 1995, when there were only 3 fully dry weekends.
Crazy.

I've said it before on here and i'll say it again, thank fck for global warming!

[EwanM]

I think it's a very good time to discuss practice.
First things first. I see Mclaren are using those Horns. Like BMW UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGLYYYYYYYYY!

Mind you... so are the shark fins.

[przemo]

So it's after quali...
A very good result for Glock I have to say, Toyota is heading for a nice result here. I'm also happy for Kubica, because he did better than I expected . Seems like the prime tyres work better for him. Raikkonen was a disappointment - half a second slower than his teammate? Maybe Kubi can finish in front of him this time, so he will come closer in the WDC to Kimi
Seems like McLaren are heading for a 1-2, but IMO only if it doesn't rain

[Hanwombat]

I was cheering for Timo to get Pole! He drove a fantastic qualifying

Kimi, completely lost interest in my opinion

Lewis, well done, he knew he had it in the bad

Hurray for Heikki I was worried when he was down in ninth

Well done Massa, I do like the chap

BMW, dunno what happened today, Kubica edged his way back in, but Nick

Well done to both Renaults for getting into Q3, they seem to be moving forward

Trulli, woo well done, though down in ninth, not his best

I really do feel for Williams also

[Denthúl]

I was cheering for Timo to get Pole! He drove a fantastic qualifying

Kimi, completely lost interest in my opinion

Lewis, well done, he knew he had it in the bad

Hurray for Heikki I was worried when he was down in ninth

Well done Massa, I do like the chap

BMW, dunno what happened today, Kubica edged his way back in, but Nick

Well done to both Renaults for getting into Q3, they seem to be moving forward

Trulli, woo well done, though down in ninth, not his best

His first lap time in Q3 was weird. I think it was a 1:22 or something like that, which would indicate that he had traffic or made a mistake during the lap. It will definitely be interesting to see how he and Lewis compare in terms of fuel loads tomorrow, though I'm not sure that Heikki will have a significant amount more fuel than Lewis like he has in some races earlier in the season.

I think that Lewis had the better ways around the circuit than most of his rivals today, he was definitely driving better than most, with perhaps the exception of Kubica who, despite seeming to have a good way around in his Q3 laps, did not really have the car to compete with the McLarens. Also, I was quite happy to see Piquet in Q3 and not too far off Alonso's pace today. I think it shows that the decent few results he has had lately have boosted his confidence sufficiently to allow him to produce more of them. The Toyotas are also running well, and it seems that it will be a very tight battle between Red Bull, Renault and Toyota for fourth place, and all three seem to be catching up to BMW Sauber in terms of pace, though I don't think that they will have much chance of passing them for third place.

[al4x]

toyota are doing the best (bar mclaren atm)

i think renault are behing toyota here and level with rbr, maybe a bit better, hope np has more fuel

[przemo]

I was cheering for Timo to get Pole! He drove a fantastic qualifying

Me too, but I somehow knew that Lewis would spoil it

Timo wants to beat Kimi tomorrow:

Glock - I hope to beat Kimi tommorow
Saturday, 02 August 2008
Timo Glock had these comments after qualifying: "I trust my team, car was good over all weekend. It was tricky with tyres and conditions. Sometimes I couldn't go pace in out lap which cost me time, unfortunate I lost time in first sector, P5 is OK. I will be battling everyone, we need to see tomorrow on tyres, tricky to get to podium, if we can keep Kimi behind us it would be great."
linky

which will probably be hard to do, because Kimi seems to do better in the race than in qualifying, but if he manages to do that, then all the better. I'll be cheering for him.

[McLaren Fan]

I think that Lewis had the better ways around the circuit than most of his rivals today, he was definitely driving better than most, with perhaps the exception of Kubica who, despite seeming to have a good way around in his Q3 laps, did not really have the car to compete with the McLarens.

I agree. Hamilton looked as if he owned the place all weekend. I don't recall seeing a driver as relaxed as he was during a qualifying session. Kubica drove very well, but sadly for him the car is just not quick enough. The amount of grip the BMW losing is also staggering; according to Heidfeld he had lost a lot of grip by turn eight! Another guy who impressed me was Vettel. He out-qualified Bourdais again and I liked some of the lines he was taking into the corner; he must exit the corner a lot faster than many people (assuming they had the same car, of course). Glock drove pretty well and would probably still have beaten Trulli even if his lap was problem-free. The Ferrari looks a bitch to drive; Massa couldn't hit an apex to save himself. Somehow, he actually managed not to do too badly, particularly in Q2, but I think that says more about what McLaren were doing and how far McLaren and Ferrari both are ahead of the rest. Raikkonen, once again, continues to waste his talent. This is simply not acceptable from a driver of his class, the defending world champion and a guy on his wages. From a McLaren point of view, I hope they keep him for next season. But from a Ferrari point of view, somebody like Alonso, Kubica or Vettel can't come soon enough. Button did a good lap in the Honda, so their new suspension must have had some impact. What can you say about Williams? This is getting really embarrassing now. They can't even do well on tracks that supposedly suit their car. It's incredibly sad to see a team of Williams stature struggle so much.

The race tomorrow will be both interesting and uninteresting. We won't see a lot of overtaking and McLaren are the favourites to trounce everybody tomorrow, but further down the field there is a chance of seeing some positions change slightly. We also find out for sure just how much McLaren have improved their tyre degradation problem.

[Denthúl]

Yeah. I think that tomorrow's race is basically down to whether Lewis or Heikki is carrying more fuel, really. That is, without the intervention of safety cars or, somehow, rain.

[Frosty]

I think Henki may be heavier.

[McLaren Fan]

I think Henki may be heavier.

I would not surprise me if he was. Kovalainen tens to run a lap or two's worth more fuel. Unfortunately for Kovalainen, his race pace tends to drop off slightly. If that happens tomorrow - and part of me thinks it will - Hamilton will be let off the hook.