Lewis and Felipe are still here, Kimi and Fernando nowhere

Last year, the World Drivers' Championship was won and lost by only 1 point - involving Kimi Raikkonen of Finland, Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Fernando Alonzo of Spain (pictured below). Now that Kimi and Fernando are out of the picture, Lewis finds a new nemesis in Felipe Massa.

Who will win this year's WDC? The penultimate Grand Prix at Shanghai this Sunday will give us a clearer picture of the race to the finish - with 5 points separating Hamilton and Massa. Join us at Phi Bar on October 19 3pm (Manila time) for the free viewing.

Metrowalk Everyday

Well, not really everyday, but I must admit, Metrowalk has been my crib for the past couple of weekends because of my current addiction to F1 race - an addiction rekindled by my good friend Cholle.

My first time at Phi Bar was during the free viewing of Spanish Grand Prix 2008 last April 27. According to Cho, the attendance that night was considerably low - at 26. Anyway, Cho and I won a lot of prizes from the organizers (headed by Pinoy F3 and rally driver Mike Potenciano) including UNO and C! magazines (Cho actually received a free one-year subscription of C! for winning a totally honest trivia game hahaha), car cleaners (which are so useless), Toyota caps (woohoo!), BMW pouches (which my father loves), Phi Bar VIP Card (10% discount card), and 50 pesos. It was Andy (the US expat on the right) who won the money for us - he predicted the correct combination of the top 3 finishers in the right order (Kimi, Massa, Lewis). Zaldy (the guy to the right of Cholle) made a deal with us that whoever came up with the right guess should willingly split the prize money among the four of us. Too bad, Andy's bet was identical with those of 12 other people. So instead of getting the whole PhP2600 pot, we settled with just PhP200 - thus, 50 bucks for each of us. It was a great night not just for the F1 fans, but also for Scuderia Ferrari and its drivers who we were rooting for - Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. They gave Ferrari a 1-2 result that brought the team in front of the constructors' championship race.

Two weeks passed, it was May 11, the race day for the Turkish GP. Okay okay, it was Mothers' Day... so before I went to Phi to attend another free viewing, I made it sure that my whole day was spent with my mother and my family. I also managed to greet as many people, especially the moms in my phonebook, as possible through SMS - and of course birthday boy CL. Alright, back to F1... Ralph was able to join us this time (congrats, for graduating from the UP College of Business Administration). We were not so lucky this time in the raffle draws, but hey, I won in the fantasy game. I bet that Massa would win the race, Lewis would be the runner-up and Kimi coming in third - and that was the exact order of the podium finishers after they completed 58 laps of the circuit. I won PhP300... again, I did not get the whole pot of PhP2700 because 8 other contestants guessed the same combo. The prize somehow subsidized our bill for the evening - we had a bucket of beer (I think, we ordered a couple of bottles more) and a platter of thank-heaven-for-this-oh-so-yummy-nachos. Also, we all got free F2020 fuel saver (which again, is not so useful 'cause I don't have an effin' car!) and the same issue of C! mag which Cho and I got during the Spanish GP. Baduy!

Another twin-podium appearance for Ferrari - if I haven't mentioned it above, I must tell you that I am a Ferrari fan - notice the red shirts? And a Kimi fan, as well. So we headed out of Phi smiling. Scuderia Ferrari is now 19 points clear of its closest competitor BMW Sauber and 21 points ahead of long-time rival McLaren-Mercedes; Raikkonen has already amassed 35 drivers' points while Massa and Hamilton are tied in second with 28 apiece. Then we spent an hour in El Pueblo eating ice cream and fries while reminiscing the good old times and planning future gimiks/outings where hopefully, more Barkadahan peeps will be able to attend. After some deliberations, it's final - we'll be in Galera on the 30th of May until the 1st of June. Details to follow my friends. Hehe.

I was also in Metrowalk last Saturday, at Elbow Room specifically, for OJ and Nel's pre-wedding party. Vernon & Mshel, Daniel & Felise, Philip & Dae, Cheson, Elaine (OJ's sister) and other friends of the bride were there to celebrate the couple's last few days of singlehood. The food was insane - it was terrific! Got some booze, played some billiards and joined in fun games that fit the theme of the party - shower/stag party in one hahaha.

I can't wait for OJ and Nel's wedding which will be held on Sunday, May 18th at the Fort Bonifacio Officers' Clubhouse. I, too, can't wait for the Monaco GP race day on May 25th. I invite both F1 and non-F1 fans out there for another free viewing at Phi. The race commences at 8pm.

Hopefully, this week, I'll be able to watch Speed Racer, Indiana Jones and Harold and Kumar.

That's all from me tonight... until then!

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PS: Thanks Cholle and Mark, for all the pictures. I am still waiting for Mike's pictures. For more F1 viewing images, visit this link. :)

PPS: To all grammar police out there, please proofread my article 'cause I composed it during the wee hours of the night (which is getting more usual these days) while my brain was already ready to shutdown. :P

BMW Sauber here, Scuderia Ferrari there, McLaren-Mercedes Everywhere... plus Williams-Toyota on the side.

The 2008 Formula One Season has just recently kicked-off and the races for both driver's and constructor's championships are just as intense as the summer heat in Asia. With the first three of the scheduled eighteen Grand Prix's this year already completed, three teams found themselves separated by only one point from one another in the scoreboard.

While defending champ Ferrari has claimed two of the three victories via first place finishes from likewise defending champ Kimi Raikkonen in Sepang, Malaysia and Felipe Massa in Sakhir, Bahrain, it is McLaren-Mercedes sophomore driver Lewis Hamilton who drew the first blood in Melbourne, Australia where 13 out of 22 cars failed to complete the whole course under the blazing sun down under. Nonetheless, it is BMW Sauber leading the charts with 30 points - with three for three podium finishes from Nick Heifeld (2nd - Australian GP) and Robert Kubica (2nd - Malaysian GP, 3rd - Bahrain GP). Ferrari is in second with 29 (Raikkonen also ended up as Massa's runner up in Sakhir and 8th in Melbourne) and McLaren in third with 28 (Heikki Kovalainen was 3rd in Sepang and 5th in both Melbourne and Sakhir while Hamilton was 5th in Sepang). The only other podium appearance comes from Williams-Toyota's Nico Rosberg who placed 3rd in Melbourne.

As the circuit enjoy a three-week hiatus from competition before engaging again in three successive races staring April 27, many teams and drivers alike may want to regroup themselves and assess each other's performance in order to stop the domination of this year's Big 3 teams early in the season. One driver who has to re-evaluate himself is Fernando Alonso. After severing ties with both McLaren and former teammate Hamilton, whom he was tied for second place in last year's driver's championship race, Alonso went back to Renault where he is now experiencing a slumping showing. He is currently on a dismal 9th spot with 6 points after placing 4th in Melbourne, 8th in Sepang and 10th in Sakhir. FYI, he had a minor collision with Hamilton in the early stages of Bahrain GP causing Hamilton's car to lose its nose cone. For more team assessments and preview of the European series visit the official site of F1.

On April 27, the Gran Premio de España will kick-off in Barcelona, Spain. Two weeks later, it will be Turkey's turn in Istanbul and then Grand Prix de Monaco in Monte-Carlo after another two weeks. Massa, Alonso and Raikkonen were the past 3 winners of the Spanish GP and Ferrari is the undisputed top constructor with 10 wins, but we may witness a comeback from Hamilton after a career-low 13th place finish in Bahrain. This may also serve as the best venue for him to vindicate himself in front of all his Spanish critics who are either driven by racial biases and/or the fact that he is their countryman Alonso's adversary. But leave all the controversies behind, and concentrate on the race track for you might not notice how far the Big 3 would pull away from the rest of the field after this European series.

Massa (2 wins for Ferrari in 2006 and 2007) and Raikkonen (1 win for McLaren-Mercedes in 2005) hold the only 3 stages of Turkish GP held so far - so Istanbul may also be considered as Ferrari's turf. FYI, the Istanbul Park Circuit is only one of the three anti-clockwise circuits in the F1 calendar - the other two being Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy and Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil - where Ferrari has a good record as well. Alonso and Raikkonen were the last winners in Monte-Carlo with McLaren-Mercedes leading the constructor's tally at 14 wins. This will be a free-for-all race but McLaren will emerge as conqueror of Monaco yet again.

After the Bahrain GP, here are the latest tabulations for driver's and constructor's championship races:


The 2008 F1 Season has just begun and the mercury is quickly rising. Let's wait for the next three races to unfold and then, we will see if my predictions are correct. FYI, I am a Ferrari fan and I root for Kimi.

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Sources: Formula1 and Wikipedia

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Next Issue: NBA Regular Season - The Best of 2007-2008 in review.