Coulthard to beat Klien

DC should like Monaco, living there and should know track significantly better.
Going smaller on him as first 15 minutes will be fun to watch and some highprofiled driver might miss out final shootout due to traffic.
Any crash might land some of quicker ones behind yellow flags

In FP 1 and 2 Coulthard was faster than Klien and lets hope that trend continues
season numbers so far
Qualifying: 3-3

race h2h
NICK HEIDFELD- Villeneuve

Villeneuves engine got damaged in transport and he will lose 10 places in grid and then Nick will end up being close to 1,45 max

so a nice clear valuebet

Ville been doing in Barca , but on track where it is hard to pass losing 10 places will be a nice pain in the ass

might also be better h2h at BAW vs Willy
too lazy to check there , and place 5 eur

quali h2H RALF - Trulli

looks like Trulli is struggling with car in free practice 2,
done 5 laps by setting no time

also thi sseason ralf outdueling Trulli quite good nothing compared to last season when Trulli dominated Ralf

Ralf up this season 4-0 in quali, lets hope that 5th one will come right here

TRULLI 1.75 / Ralf Intertops quali H2H

taking Trulli here

Trulli hit a bad season start where Ralf dominated him ,
also Ralf hit a lucky finish in Australia in that safety car GP.

However lateyl Trulli has coped much better with new Toyota updates ,
settting fastest time in testing in Barca etc

also after FP2 Trulli is 0.6 sec ahead of Ralf , (Ralf didnt make any laps in FP1)

looks like trulli likes Imola more (he was rain hampered in AUS)

Quali H2H

Alonso- Fisichella

Alonso has so far had not really good qualis with getting pumped extra fuel etc,

Fisichella however is type who likes lighter car and has edges in quali

and we can welcome news that in Imola he will use B spec engine

Giancarlo Fisichella will be the first Renault driver to get his hands on the RS26B engine in competition, when he debuts the uprated unit at this weekend's San Marino Grand Prix.

The RS26B has been billed as an evolutionary step over the initial Renault V8 introduced at the start of the season, with the team looking to gain performance by increasing peak revs and improving areas like cylinder filling and combustion. In qualifying trim, Chevrier expects a gain of several tenths.


engine might not last the race but should be good in quali
also backable for pole alongside Button

San Marino GP
Jenson Button pole @6.5

its not a secret that Button likes those quick tracks like Australia, Canada , Imola etc as the Honda power is useful on straights

also Honda takes upgraded car to San Marino as it has alway sbeen in past also that Imola is place where first major upgrades are used

Honda:

Honda has promised more power from its V8 engine in next weekend's San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. The team has traditionally done well at the Imola circuit - as has Button and together the feeling inside the team is that this will be their best chance of winning a race.

"We've put a good number of miles on the latest spec engine this week and successfully ran the engine to its target mileage," Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda's engineering director said of the new-spec V8. "We are happy with the countermeasure for the issue that Jenson suffered in Melbourne and we will be introducing a more powerful engine for Imola."

Button knocked a pole in last GP in Australia. (pole also in Canada in 2005 -another stop and go track )
Major factor could be also Fisichella as he drives lighter and Alonso usually goes on track with heavier car as he knows that renault has the pace in race

s for the San Marino Grad Prix itself, Button has had some good results there in the past, most noticeably a second place finish in 2004, after starting from pole. He also finished on the podium there last year too, but was later disqualified as the car was underweight.

"I've always really enjoyed racing in Imola," continued the Englishman. "The track has a mixture of different types of corners and a few chicanes and is quite challenging for the drivers. There's always a fun atmosphere and it's a track where I have great memories.

"In 2004 I qualified in pole position here which was my first pole in F1 and finished the race in second place.

San Marino GP

Heidfeld not to finish BAW 2.9

see previous post about Villeneuve ...

But with Imola placing major demands on engines, and the same units being pressed into service for a second weekend, BMW motorsport boss Mario Theissen has admitted it will be a ???challenge??? to get both cars to the chequered flag.

???Both Nick and Jacques will be using the same BMW P86 engines they finished with in Australia,??? he said.

???With the short development time we had for the new engines, that continues to present a challenge for the team.

???Both engines are still at the stage of development we had reached prior to the race in Melbourne.

???And, with its high downforce requirement and uphill sections, Imola is a track which generally puts a lot of strain on the engines.???

Villeneuve echoed Theissen??™s concerns: ???Imola is a fun track, but it is the second race on the engine so we will have to be a little bit careful,??? the Canadian said.

San Marino GP

same situation with engines as last time , using old engines on a track which really strains engines much

small stake because like last times team decided to change engine before race despite getting 10places grid penalties

comments from BMW

But with Imola placing major demands on engines, and the same units being pressed into service for a second weekend, BMW motorsport boss Mario Theissen has admitted it will be a ???challenge??? to get both cars to the chequered flag.

???Both Nick and Jacques will be using the same BMW P86 engines they finished with in Australia,??? he said.

???With the short development time we had for the new engines, that continues to present a challenge for the team.

???Both engines are still at the stage of development we had reached prior to the race in Melbourne.

???And, with its high downforce requirement and uphill sections, Imola is a track which generally puts a lot of strain on the engines.???

Villeneuve echoed Theissen??™s concerns: ???Imola is a fun track, but it is the second race on the engine so we will have to be a little bit careful,??? the Canadian said.

San Marino race H2H
RALF Schumacher - Rubens Barrichello

Trulli topped thursdays testing surprisingly and it shows that Toyota finally is going upwards.
They fired their technical director Mike Gascoyne last week .

I thougth rather betting Trulli vs Heidfeld but since Ralf is performing better in races and also Barrichello is having a nigthmare season start also .
and Heidfeld sometimes is just magnificient.

Barri cant even qualify good in 3 GPs before 2006 and races look somewhat better but looks like he is struggling with traction control and Hondas brakes , he has admitted that himself .

Honda's Rubens Barrichello was forced to abandon testing earlier than expected on Friday, during the third and final day of the teams test at the Circuit de Catalunya, after trapping a nerve in his shoulder.

Barri somewhat likes the track but his Honda handling hasnt been the best around

San Marino is also a stop-go track mostly like last GP Australia .
maybe also worth a punt Trulli pole with 0.5 units as some bookies might release odds 80-100 Trulli pole later next week

news cut
Jarno Trulli served further notice of Toyota??™s recent progress by topping the times on the third day of testing at Barcelona.
But it has been quietly gaining competitiveness on the racetrack and Trulli underlined the point by pacing an 18-car field on Thursday.

The Italian had an unspecified technical glitch in the morning but was otherwise delighted to have at last found a decent set-up on the TF106.

???This is a huge improvement for me and today??™s results show that we are moving ahead,??? he said.


Ralf Schumacher (Car 7):

"The Imola circuit is technically very demanding - with lots of long straights and slow corners which are especially tough on brakes. The venue has been kind to me in the past and I've always enjoyed good results - particularly when I took my first ever grand prix win there in 2001. By contrast the circuit has not been that good for Toyota down the years although both Jarno and I scored points last year.

Barrichello
Barrichello's focus now switches to the San Marino GP next weekend at Imola and after scoring his first points for the Brackley based squad in Melbourne, when he finished seventh overall, he is eager to score more points. The track itself though has mixed memories for him and while he has finished on the podium there several times, he had a big accident there in 1994, the same weekend that claimed the life of his friend and mentor Ayrton Senna.

"The Imola circuit is a good one for the drivers. I really like the layout and the challenge of setting up the car which is not easy. Imola has had its ups and downs for me; I have had a lot of support from the fans there in the past but there are also some very sad memories. Our difficulties during the last race in Australia have made us work even harder in testing over the last couple of weeks and there is a good feeling that we have made some solid progress. The whole team feels positive about next weekend and I share those feelings so we're hoping for a competitive race," he concluded.

Villeneuve will use old engine in Australia
Jacques Villeneuve not to finish race @2.7 BAW

well pick looks farty now as Willy decided to change engine before quali and
will lose 10 places but has new engine



as he says himself in interview

Having said that, the circuit in Australia is another that's heavy on engines, and this will be my second race with the engine I used in Malaysia," he added. "So we'll have to exercise a certain amount of caution during the weekend."

so I go for the smoke here with small stake for this clear value bet
because problem could be that team decides to change engine before GP just to fnish the race
just to remember that Heidfeld blew his engine in 2nd race in Malaysia

a good value bet as Monteiro had huge back problems today in free practice and if it comes back he will never complete race distance

In Friday's free practice session Tiago Monteiro could only complete 28 laps. In the second practice session he hurt his back, which made it impossible for the Portuguese to continue driving the M16. Apart from his back problem he also suffered from a fuel system problem that stopped his car in first practice after only eight laps.
"I had to stop just after we put fresh tyres on. My back was blocked," explained Monteiro. "A nerve pinched. It was hurting terribly. So I did not take advantage of the new set of tyres. The physio, Alex, treated me about one hour after the session. But it still hurts."