auyongtc’s blog

… as his Mercedes-Benz V10 engine went up in smokes and caused him to retire the race early for the 3rd consecutive times this season at the inaugural Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix!

Blardy hell, I really feel like walking up to Norbert Haug (the person in-charge of the Mercedes-Benz engine for the West McLaren Mercedes F1 team) and give him a piece of my mind for building up a supposedly-reliable engine that was supposed (by this season’s regulation) to last the entire race weekend…

Not just Kimi had a engine blow on Friday practice, but on race day as well… sigh… last 2 seasons he struggled to find his maiden victory and now this season, will he have to struggle to even finish the race distance? I shudder to think of this, especially since McLaren came a long way as a racing powerhouse in Formula 1…

But mark my words about BAR Honda… especially Jense with his determination and Sato (if he behaves well on the track…)

… how do you think this will affect the turnout to the polling booths? Did the Election Committee/Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya (SPR) notice this coincidence prior to finalizing on the raceday as the polling day?

Seems like no one brought up this issue (if got, please let me know)… weird… in one country, I remember that another sporting event had to be postponed because it was a F1 grand prix weekend at that country…

I really wonder what will the local spectators that bought tickets to the race will react when they are required to exercise their rights of democracy on the race day itself… I know, the polling will be held the whole day, but that’s alright for people living around the Klang Valley going for the race… but what about people from other states? Especially those who planned to take a weekend holiday down in KL and enjoy the race? Hmm…

Really interesting to see how this will affect the election outcome… will this swing to the oppositions such as PAS’ favour?

Or will SPR place polling booth inside the Sepang International Circuit on that day just so that the spectators can vote? But that’ll be difficult anyway, if not impossible, to transfer the votes back to the respective areas in time for the count.

Update: Forgot to include this, remember that just recently some minister came up with the comment telling TV stations to not air any shows that will attract voters to stay home and be a couch potato instead of going to vote? So, with that, is TV2 gonna can the live telecast of the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix?

Any comments?

… when I won the Mild Seven Renault F1’s lean mean racing machine… it’s a Mild Seven Renault F1 mountain bike that supposedly cost over RM 3,000 (how much of that is true I’m not sure, normally marked up for marketing reasons, however the parts fitted seems quite good with Michelin tyres )

It was at the Kafe/Club 7’s life screening of this season’s F1 opening race. The event was organized by Mild Seven and I guessed correctly in the SMS quiz live at the event about how many points Renault F1 team would get at the end of this race

It was a dream start by the Ferrari team, and a superb effort by Renault after a rather weak qualifying effort yesterday. However, it’s nightmare come true for Raikkonen and the McLaren team when the race winner last season, DC only manages 8th place. Hope that McLaren can sort out their car’s reliability issues soon… anyway, here’s the result in full:

1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1h24m15.757s
2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari + 0m13.605s
3 ALONSO Renault + 0m34.612s
4 R.SCHUMACHER Williams + 1m00.444s
5 MONTOYA Williams + 1m08.590s
6 BUTTON BAR + 1m10.512s
7 TRULLI Renault + 1 lap
8 COULTHARD McLaren + 1 lap
9 SATO BAR + 1 lap
10 FISICHELLA Sauber + 1 lap
11 KLIEN Jaguar + 2 laps
12 DA MATTA Toyota + 2 laps
13 PANIS Toyota + 2 laps
14 PANTANO Jordan + 3 laps
15 MASSA Sauber + 14 laps
16 HEIDFELD Jordan + 15 laps
17 BRUNI Minardi + 15 laps
18 WEBBER Jaguar + 29 laps
19 BAUMGARTNER Minardi + 45 laps
20 RAIKKONEN McLaren + 49 laps

… and once again (yawn!) it’s a Ferrari 1-2 at the front grid for tomorrow’s race at Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia…

1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m24.408s
2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m24.482s
3 MONTOYA Williams 1m24.998s
4 BUTTON BAR 1m24.998s
5 ALONSO Renault 1m25.699s
6 WEBBER Jaguar 1m25.805s
7 SATO BAR 1m25.851s
8 R.SCHUMACHER Williams 1m25.925s
9 TRULLI Renault 1m26.290s
10 RAIKKONEN McLaren 1m26.297s
11 MASSA Sauber 1m27.065s
12 COULTHARD McLaren 1m27.294s
13 DA MATTA Toyota 1m27.823s
14 FISICHELLA Sauber 1m27.845s
15 HEIDFELD Jordan 1m28.178s
16 PANTANO Jordan 1m30.140s
17 BAUMGARTNER Minardi 1m30.681s
18 PANIS Toyota no time
19 KLIEN Jaguar no time
20 BRUNI Minardi no time

I feel that both Prancing Horse cars are fueled lightly for a 3-stopper race tomorrow. Same feeling for Montoya and the unlikely faces of Button, Alonso, Webber and Sato… I guess the likes of Ralf and the McLaren drivers are on a 2-stopper… this will definitely make the race tomorrow interesting…

Sad for DC though, he had a small bump off the grass on the last corner during his flying Q2 lap… let’s just wait and see how the race shapes up the 2004 F1 season…

… and where the hell is Alex Yoong? Not that I’m hoping to have him back into the F1 scene… but not too long ago, he claimed that he’ll be back for next season with a race seat and it doesn’t seem to be happening…

All but 2 teams have confirmed their race drivers for the 2004 season. The 2 teams are the Jordan and Minardi team. Jordan has yet to announce who will be the Nick Heidfeld’s teammate but rumours seem to point Ralph Firman and Jos the Boss.

And I don’t suppose Alex Yoong will fit in a Minardi car next season, no way after all that shit Alex brought to Minardi, in terms of unpaid sponsorships

I should really go find Alex and interview him - see what he’s got to say now… tee hee

Anyway, here’s the list of confirmed drivers:
Ferrari
- Michael Schumacher
- Rubens Barrichello

BMW-Williams
- Ralf Schumacher
- Juan Pablo Montoya

McLaren
- Kimi Raikkonen
- David Coulthard

Renault
- Fernando Alonso
- Jarno Trulli

BAR
- Jenson Button
- Takuma Sato

Sauber
- Giancarlo Fisichella
- Felipe Massa

Jaguar
- Mark Webber
- Christian Klien

Toyota
- Olivier Panis
- Christiano da Matta

Jordan
- Nick Heidfeld
- ???

Minardi
- Gianmaria Bruni
- ???

… will I bet on ARSEnal in any football match!

*ptooi!*

ARSEnal

ARSEnal

Goodnight!

… today at Old Trafford ended with Manchester United going to the top of the Premiership table (at least for a couple of hours since Chelsea’s playing Bolton now) after beating Kevin Keegan’s Manchester City side 3-1.

Paul Scholes is really my hero for this match - not only for scoring 2 goals, but also for preventing a goal right on the goal line to ensure that I get my bonus this weekend to get myself a little something for xmas…

Okay, been a tiring day… gonna call up Sarah before I doze off to sleep (yay! I’m sleeping normal again! )

… is what the new McLaren MP4-19 is capable of in testing as of today!

Pedro de la Rosa broke Jerez’s lap record at 1m16.210s with other cars at least half a second behind. David Coulthard had just broken Valencia’s lap record a fortnight ago (I wrote about it here)

Here’s another glimpse of the car to watch out for in the next season!

Click on the image to enlarge

… that was the goalscorer’s tally in the thrashing of Aston Villa at Old Trafford!

Man United 4 - 0 Aston Villa! Glory glory Man United!

2 easy finishing by van Nistelrooy and then 2 superb effort by Diego Forlan in the closing minutes sealed off the match.

Elsewhere:
Magpies 1 - 1 LiverFool (dad lost RM 50 on this match )
Leeds 1 - 1 Chelsea All-Stars
Spurs 5 - 2 Wolves
Boro 0 - 0 Pompey
Birmingham 0 - 4 Blackburn
Leicester 1 - 1 ARSEnal No-Stars (suspension mar LOL!)
Fulham 2 - 1 Bolton

Great weekend of football - both Chelsea and Arsenal drew in their away match and Manchester United gave a big thrashing…

Got my extra allowance thanks to Manchester United!
Thanks CheeV!

… coz McLaren’s back with an excellent car, the MP4-19 that’s able to go a full grand prix distance and break lap record at Valencia, Spain. Best of all, this 2004 season’s challenger is already running so well, just a day past Thanksgiving!

DC was almost two tenth of a second faster than JP Montoya in a Williams-powered car. Ferrari and Williams, be afraid, BE VERY AFRAID!

Okay Schumi, you can piss in your pants now…