French Grand Prix (Alonso wins)

[Ed]

This is the place to discuss everything related to the tenth round of the 2005 season taking place at Magny-Cours in France between the 1st and 3rd of July.

The French Grand Prix Preview is now available here.
The main French Grand Prix Main Page is available here.

To submit your 8 'n' Pole Picks for France click here, to register in the competition click here (it is never too late to enter as the winner of each round wins a prize in addition to the overall prizes)

The Team preview page is now available here

Previews availabe from (updated as they become available)
Williams, BAR, Renault, Toyota, Sauber, McLaren, Jordan

Michelin, Bridgestone

Team and Driver quotes:
Friday Practice
Qualifying
Race

FIA Press Conferences
Thursday with Fernando Alonso, Tiago Monteiro, Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli
Friday with Colin Kolles, Jean Todt, Pierre Dupasquier, Hiroshi Yasukawa
Saturday with Fernando Alonso, Jarno Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen
Sunday with Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Jarno Trulli
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Your predictions in 2010 - Drivers - Constructors

[Ed]

The event timetable for the French Grand Prix

Friday
1st Friday Practice 11:00 local time - 09:00 GMT
2nd Friday Practice 14:00 local time - 12:00 GMT

Saturday
1st Saturday Practice 09:00 local time - 07:00 GMT
2nd Saturday Practice 10:15 local time - 08:15 GMT
Qualifying 13:00 local time - 11:00 GMT

Sunday
Race 14:00 local time - 12:00 GMT
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Your predictions in 2010 - Drivers - Constructors

[Ed]

The latest weather forecast for the French Grand Prix (last updated 2 July)

Friday
1st Practice - 11:00 - 17 - Cloudy
2nd Practice - 14:00 - 21 - Showers

Saturday
1st Practice - 09:00 - 17 - Partly Cloudy
2nd Practice - 10:15 - 18 - Partly Cloudy
Qualifying - 13:00 - 21 - Partly Cloudy

Sunday
Race - 14:00 - 28 - Sunny
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Your predictions in 2010 - Drivers - Constructors

[JayVee]

Light rain

Did you see that Kapel

Maybe you can pray to make it heavy so we can finally see Karthikeyan do his stuff. He's been pretty ordinary lately

So no one is predicting anything until after the hearing ?

Comeon, we'll have a race in France no matter.

Watch Alonso The Cute, he'll be on fire. Kimi will try, Montoya will give up, Webber needs to calm down and the Ferraris won't shape
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I'm back and yes supporting Alonso "The Cute" in the Ferrari!

[Kapel]

[mlittle]

I only have one wish this weekend in regards to the French GP...That there actually will be a race held and not the fiasco everyone saw at Indy last time out.
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Who'd thought? mlittle's now going into the forum world.....as an admin.
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[Julian Mayo]

[Kapel]

I hope the race this weekend is exiciting(which usually isnt here) especially with the situation & build up for this race.
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An F1 Idiot!!!

[Julian Mayo]

[Byron Forbes]

Being a Webber fan, to me the most interesting thing this year is -

1/ Will Williams win a race?

and

2/ If they do, which driver will be the first to do it?

Wonder what these new aero bits will do?

[<T-K>]

Montoya will get his first win of the season ( he needs one)

Kimi and button will be fighting for second for 80% of the race before button makes a silly error and spins, rejoining just behind D.C, who get his 1st podium of the season (and by no means his last)
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"I allow a lot of room for improvisation and funny stuff. I always feel planned." Michael Bay

[Jim Watt]

My Goodness! I've been away from my computer for some time, trying to forget about the Indy Fiasco, so I'm shocked SHOCKED to see so little interest in the Grand Prix de France at Magny Cours!!

I mean, forgive me, but isn't Mushlin a French Marque? So surely the course will be familiar to them? Their computers will be able to simulate the sorts of conditions their precious tyres will encounter, bien sur?

I AM intrigued by Julien's interesting conspiracy theory? Perhaps Inspector Clouseau has been put on the case? The Pink Panther might as well be managing the distribution of tyres to all the Mushlin runners, don't you think?

At any rate, Jay Vee seems to think the Columbian chauffer for McLaren will take himself out (via some sort of violation of French procedure as in apres-moi s'il vous plait? Non, Non, apres vous! etc. etc.) and the Cute Spaniard in the bright blue French machine will take the top of the podium. But T.K. believes JPM will actually WIN the race! How to reconcile these differences?

Most intriguing of all is the notion that a Williams machine (British chassis, Cherman motor and French sabbats) will find its way to the front! With an Australian driver??!! Why not! Why not indeed!! Wouldn't it be good for the sport!

In the olden tymes I'd have said any such outcome is impossible. But given the recent history, I'd not be surprised to find D.C. on the top step. His advantage, of course, is that his machine is not so finely tuned that one tiny little element being one tiny little bit out of adjustment doesn't result in the complete failure of the entire enterprise. Like, for instance, Mushlin tyres.

mlittle's Smoky Yunick quotation is a delightful one. I had forgotten it, but it is, of course, perfectly true that whatever isn't explicitly forbidden is implicitly allowed. We saw that rule applied at Indy: If you don't like your competitive chances you are allowed to park your machine. On the grounds that racing is, dare I say it?!, dangerous. Shocking, no?

The rumor (and I stress that I have no support for it and am not likely to ever have any!) around town [Indy, that is] is that Davy Coulthard was furious at not being ALLOWED to race. And that he was not alone.

But it's all corporate harmony in F1, isn't it? (Except of course for the Minardi boss who makes up for not winning by whinning.)

enough said. I'm off to 8 n' pole to see how far down the list I can fall this week!

Cheerio. Or, excuse me, Bonne Chance Mes Amis!

[mlittle]

Jim, thanks for the compliment. Smokey Yunick was, truly, one of the great innovators of the American auto-racing scene back in the 60's and 70's. Granted, his expertise was in stock-cars, not Indy or F1, but you could literally give him a copy of any series' rulebook(CART, IRL, NASCAR...heck, even the F1 regs.) and he'd not only show you where all the supposed "loopholes" were in the book, he'd probably would end up using em' as well.

BTW, I saw the Speed Channel broadcast of the USGP and, unless I'm mistaken, Coulthard was near-fuming over the Red Bull team's radio, telling anyone that heard him that he was willing to take his chances w/those Michelins. Unfortunately, the commentators covering the race(either Steve Matchett or Derek Daly) stated that it was the team principals who told their drivers to "park" their vehicles at the end of the formation lap. In other words, Jim, that wasn't a rumor--Coulthard was not only furious at not being allowed to driver, he wasn't the only driver who felt that way.
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Who'd thought? mlittle's now going into the forum world.....as an admin.
The Sci-Fi Station Come by and visit!

[JayVee]

Jim,
I am intrigued by your conspiracy theory that the Mushlins will not work on the Renault but will do the trick on the McLaren's

The Mushlins won 8 and stuffed 1. They will win 9 of the remaining 10. Barrichello will win China (for pretending to be the nicest bloke in F1 )

Alonso The Cute will win at least 5 of those
(France, Germany, Hungary, Brazil and Japan, those for sure )

There you go, a bit of insight from my crystal ball

Fernando vouloir victoire dans La france!
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I'm back and yes supporting Alonso "The Cute" in the Ferrari!

[Ed]

The FIA Thursday Press Conference is now available here with Fernando Alonso, Tiago Monteiro, Kimi Raikkonen, Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli
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Your predictions in 2010 - Drivers - Constructors