Alt+F1

Brazilian Grand Prix Qualifying: Massa On Pole For Title Showdown

2008-11-01T16:57:00.003Z

Felipe Massa will start the Brazilian Grand Prix, the most important race of his life, from pole position after a brilliant performance at his beloved Interlagos circuit. He knows that to stand a realistic chance of winning the Driver's Championship he needs to win the race tomorrow, and he has given himself the best possible chance. Lewis Hamilton will have to defend his seven point lead from 4th place, and possibly on a different strategy to the Ferraris. Toyota's Jarno Trulli put in an incredible performance to take a surprise second place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

The first of the three mini-sessions saw few problems or dramas for the major players. Massa, Raikkonen and Hamilton filled the top three spots and were all very close. Alonso showed the pace of the Renault with fourth. Kovalainen didn't get the most out of the McLaren and only managed 8th place, but was easily through regardless. At the wrong end of the grid the Force Indias struggled as expected and propped up the time sheets. Both Williams cars looked extremely poor despite previously looking reasonably strong all weekend long, and both went out along with Button who saw his team mate Barrichello just squeeze through into the final session.

The second session was a little more interesting than the first. For the first ten minutes or so everything went like clockwork. Raikkonen, Massa and Hamilton all looked supremely quick and held the top three places. Then all of a sudden some more un-fancied drivers started putting up some stunning lap times. We shouldn't be too surprised to see Kovalainen so quick given the machinery under him, but Vettel produced a great lap out of nowhere, as did Glock. Suddenly the top two teams felt a little bit of heat and were forced to send their drivers out again just in case.

In the end both Ferraris made it through, but Raikkonen in particular was flying a little too close to the wind for comfort with P6. Ferrari need a big performance from him in terms of the two titles, and he will also want a good showing to reclaim third place in the title race. His chances of that third place were aided somewhat by the poor performance of Robert Kubica who could only manage 12th fastest. It's a shame to see Kubica losing his way a little at the end of such a great season for him. His 2008 season looks to be ending with a bit of a whimper.

The third session was what everyone was really waiting for though, and it didn't disappoint. Massa was the first of the major players out on track for the opening salvoes of Q3 and he put in a fantastic first lap. 1:12.4 is a tidy lap in any conditions, but to do it with race fuel is very impressive. Raikkonen couldn't match his team mate, and nor could any one else. Hamilton had a very untidy first lap. He perhaps went out a little to fast on his outlap and over-cooked his tyres a tad. He almost lost the back end a couple of times throughout the lap, but kept it on the black stuff to set something of a disappointing lap.

The second and final hotlaps saw Massa again on great form. He managed to go marginally faster second time around, and ended up significantly faster than anyone else out there. Although we know Massa loves this race-track, we have to think that Massa is lighter on fuel considering he ended up almost half a second faster than his team mate Kimi. Hamilton improved significantly, but it wasn't enough to quite trouble the Ferraris. He was just five thousandths of a second behind Raikkonen, and it looked as though he would be sitting behind an all Ferrari front row. Both McLarens seemed to struggle in the middle sector and were significantly slower there than all the others drivers around them, with Kovalainen finishing just behind Hamilton.

When Alonso failed to match either the McLarens or Ferraris it looked for all the world as though it would be two Ferraris followed by two McLarens on the grid. Then out of nowhere Jarno Trulli put in an amazing lap to split the Ferraris and take second place! Trulli is known as a qualifying specialist, but I don't think even the most hardened Trulli fan would have expected this result. He must surely be VERY light on fuel, but Trulli's presence puts an interesting and unexpected element into the mix for tomorrow's title decider.

The other potential wild-card factor is the position of Fernando Alonso sitting in sixth, right behind his bitter rival Hamilton. Alonso has made no secret of the fact that he would dearly love to see Hamilton and his former employers fail tomorrow, and Hamilton certainly will not relish having the Spaniard right on his gearbox going into the first two turns.

If everyone finishes in the same place they start the race, Hamilton will be champion. However, he would dearly love to have been starting up on the front row. Both McLaren drivers have hinted that perhaps they are on a different strategy to those infront of him after seeing the pace of particularly Massa and Trulli. Could strategy be the deciding factor in the World Title? There is also the issue of tyre degradation. The option tyres Bridgestone have brought have been graining up badly in practice, and tyre management could well be a key factor. Of course, the other major factor may be the weather. Rain is still forecast for tomorrow, and when the rain falls anything can happen.

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Massa
2. Trulli
3. Raikkonen
4. Hamilton
5. Kovalainen
6. Alonso
7. Vettel
8. Heidfeld
9. Bourdais
10. Glock
11. Piquet
12. Webber
13. Kubica
14. Coulthard
15. Barrichello
16. Nakajima
17. Button
18. Rosberg
19. Fisichella
20. Sutil

Brazilian Grand Prix: Massa lays down the benchmark in first practice

2008-10-31T14:54:00.003Z

The two title protagonists both kicked off their weekends with impressive showings in Friday's first practice sessions. The closing minutes of the session saw Massa pip Hamilton to first place in a relatively quiet session that had been dominated by Hamilton up until that point.

The session began with ominous looking grey clouds around the Sao Paulo circuit, and a third of the way through the session rain did begin to fall. However, the rain wasn't more than a light shower and although it made conditions slippery (Raikkonen was the first man to spin this weekend) the conditions weren't too bad. All drivers though seemed somewhat cautious for much of the session, with very limited running for the first half an hour or so. Indeed, Kimi Raikkonen sat in the pits for over an hour before coming out to set a time. It didn't hold him back too much though, as he ended up setting third fastest time just a fraction slower than Hamilton.

So first blood went to Massa then, though I suspect Hamilton will be more than happy to follow Massa home as closely as that all weekend long. Both drivers look strong, and certainly Hamilton still looks odds on favourite to take the title on this form...

First Practice Times

01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:12.305 24 laps
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:12.495 23 laps
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:12.507 18 laps
04 R. Kubica BMW 1:12.874 24 laps
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:12.925 20 laps
06 F. Alonso Renault 1:13.061 25 laps
07 M. Webber Red Bull 1:13.298 24 laps
08 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:13.378 39 laps
09 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:13.426 28 laps
10 T. Glock Toyota 1:13.466 33 laps
11 J. Trulli Toyota 1:13.600 24 laps
12 N. Rosberg Williams 1:13.621 23 laps
13 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:13.649 30 laps
14 R. Barrichello Honda 1:13.676 28 laps
15 J. Button Honda 1:13.766 13 laps
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:13.806 24 laps
17 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:13.836 30 laps
18 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:13.861 19 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:14.704 21 laps
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:14.821 21 laps

Brazilian Grand Prix: Preview

2008-10-31T02:26:00.002Z

So, this is it. After a year dogged by the usual fair share of self-inflicted controversy in which occasionally some racing broke out, some of it sensationally good and some just plain sensational, it all boils down to this. Two men and two teams with the fate of the championships in their hands. 71 laps of Sao Paulo's Interlagos circuit to decide that fate.

Hamilton heads into the weekend with the title tantalisingly close to his grasp. Just as with last year's dramatic season finale, the task in front of him seems all too easy. But we all know what happened 12 months ago, and Hamilton will surely have those thoughts weighing heavily on his mind throughout the weekend. He only has to finish in 5th place and the title will be his regardless of other results, but anything can happen in motor racing, and this seemingly simplistic task could easily be taken out of his hands by something like a mechanical failure or puncture. Besides, we all know Hamilton is a fiercely competitive racer and not the sort to settle for 5th place, so there is always the potential for fireworks.

By contrast, Felipe Massa will be feeling comparatively little pressure. With the odds against him he knows that all he has to do is go out in front of his home fans and try to win the race. Nobody will criticise him if he fails to win the title, and if he DOES win the title the scenes of celebration will be unprecedented for the home town hero. He has nothing to lose, whereas Hamilton potentially has it all to lose.

Ferrari are comfortably ahead in the constructor's championship, and anything other than a complete disaster for Ferrari will see them claim their second WCC in a row. Realistically, McLaren will be pinning all their hopes of glory on Hamilton taking the WDC. But they will still be harbouring dreams of snatching both titles from under the noses of their arch rivals, and will be demanding a much improved showing from Heikki Kovalainen if they are to spring a surprise. Indeed, both Finnish drivers could end up being key players in both titles if team tactics come into play, although it is a role that neither will particularly relish after both having such a torrid season.

The weather has been a massive factor this season, with thrilling races at both Monaco and Silverstone and a dramatic qualifying session at Monza springing to mind. I don't think I can remember a season in which the weather has played a role so often, and the season's finale doesn't look like it's going to disappoint. Early weather predictions suggests that there will be rain at regular intervals throughout the weekend, adding further spice to the championship mix. When the rain has fallen it has been Hamilton who has been the standout driver of the field, although he and his team did make a mistake with tyre choices in the rain of Monza qualifying. Massa has struggled badly in the past with rain, particularly his humiliating experience at Silverstone this year.

You would think that on past history the rain would favour Hamilton, but all sort of strange things can happen in the wet. None more so than at Interlagos in 2003. That race was controversially started under safety car conditions such was the severity of the rain. Then an enormous crash caused by a then naive and reckless Fernando Alonso brought about a red flag. Everyone assumed Raikkonen had deservedly won the race, but that honour instead went on count back to Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella because he was last to pit, despite the fact that his car was a flaming mess at the side of the road by the time the red flag came out! Goes to show that anything can happen when the heavens open...

There has been talk in the gutter press about the potential of Massa or Ferrari attempting to run Hamilton off the road or vice-versa, much of it bizarrely instigated by Eddie Jordan. However, both drivers have been quick to point out that although they will be racing as hard as ever, neither driver would want to be tarnished by using any kind of underhand tactics to win the title. And quite right too.

Regardless of which way the championship is concluded, there is sure to be an incredible story and incredible scenes at the chequered flag. Either we will have the most talked about and most hyped man in motor sport becoming the youngest F1 champion in history, or we will have the underdog from Brazil winning the title on his home circuit, sparking off incredible scenes from the passionate Brazilian fans. Either way, it could be epic...

Chinese Grand Prix: Hamilton Edges Closer To Title With Supreme Performance

2008-10-19T10:29:00.002+01:00

Lewis Hamilton edged closer to winning the 2008 Formula One World Driver's Championship with a flawless performance in the Chinese Grand Prix. From the very first practice session on Friday morning Hamilton was a class apart from the rest of the field this weekend, and rounded off a superb weekend with a disciplined performance from start to finish in the Grand Prix. The title race is still very much alive however, as Felipe Massa claimed second place after being gifted the place by his team mate Raikkonen. It wasn't a great race, and in truth was pretty uneventful, but that is exactly what the doctor ordered for Hamilton after the turbulence of Japan last week, and his nightmare race here last year.

With the threat of rain seemingly dissipated by the start of the race the conditions looked perfect for racing. Hamilton was surrounded by threats on the grid from two Ferraris and a Renault, but he looked totally calm and relaxed as he prepared for the race, as he has looked all weekend. The same couldn't quite be said for Felipe Massa who has looked a bit on edge all weekend, particularly since his disappointing showing in qualifying.

After all the drama and controversy of the opening laps in Japan many were predicting something of the same here. It wasn't to be though, as Hamilton got an inch perfect start and led fairly comfortably going into the tricky first corner. The two Ferraris were in close company but not close enough to attempt any kind of move. Birthday boy Heikki Kovalainen got a good start and was able to squeeze around the outside of Fernando Alonso through turns one and two. This was exactly what was required of Kovalainen after his poor showing in qualifying yesterday, but he couldn't keep it up. Alonso was able to power past again down the back straight after a small mistake from Heikki in the previous corner. There was clearly no sign of Renault's supposed horse power deficit here. The only real drama at the start was a coming together between Trulli and Bourdais, which resulted in Trulli's retirement due to extensive damage to his side-pod.

During the first stint Hamilton was able to consolidate his lead at a rate of one or two tenths of a second per lap consistently. It was perfect race driving from Hamilton; every lap in the first stint was faster than the preceding one, eventually resulting in the fastest lap of the race on lap 13. The Ferraris had no answer to McLaren's pace as Raikkonen dropped ever further back from Hamilton, and Massa fell consistently behind Kimi. Alonso and Kovalainen had no answer to the pace of the top three.

The main players all came in to pit around the same time showing that there was no advantage for anyone in terms of fuel loads. There were a few back markers to contend with as they emerged from the pits, in particular Giancarlo Fisichella was being a bit of a pain for the leaders. Raikkonen especially lost time behind the veteran Italian, and made his feelings very clear with an uncharacteristic hand gesture to the Force India driver as he eventually made it past. It was pretty un-professional driving from Fisi, and I'm not entirely sure what he was hoping to prove or gain, but in the end I don't think it made any difference to the result.

The only moment of significant drama in this phase of the race was a right front puncture for Heikki Kovalainen. It just about summed up the way his season has gone. Just about everything that could go wrong HAS gone wrong. After an extremely rare engine failure last race, his puncture relegated him to the back of the field. Just to compound his miserable birthday, he was then forced to retire with a brake failure. This was bad news for McLaren in terms of the constructor's championship, but they will be thankful that at least the bad luck was befalling Kovalainen and not their title challenger Hamilton.

Raikkonen was starting to close on Hamilton by the end of the second stint, but he was nowhere near close enough to challenge for the victory. Inevitably, after the second and final round of pit stops Raikkonen dropped off the pace to allow Massa to close and pass him for second place and a vital two extra points. It's not great to see from a racing perspective, but it is the only sensible decision in terms of the title race. Also, Raikkonen was not in a position to complain after he won the title last year in Brazil due in no small part to Massa yielding to him in the closing stages. Both Ferrari drivers looked completely embarrassed by the whole experience in the post-race press conference; Massa clearly knew that he was out classed by Raikkonen all day long, but will be grateful for the points gifted to him. Whether that kind of behaviour is strictly legal or not is up for debate, but you won't see McLaren protesting as they may need to do something similar in Brazil next race.

From then on it was plain sailing to the finish for the top drivers. Hamilton clearly eased off the pace knowing that the engine he used today needs to last him for the full weekend in Brazil. Massa and Raikkonen were too far back to challenge Hamilton so just cruised to the finish to end what was in truth a pretty dull Chinese Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso took fourth place with a decent performance, but was unable to get close to the podium places. Heidfeld and Kubica came next, with Kubica able to make up several places due to his extremely long first stint. It wasn't enough to stop his title dream disappearing for at least another year though. He will be disappointed with his own performance, particularly in qualifying, and it is a shame to see his title challenge end with a bit of whimper. However, even if he had performed to the best of his ability here he would not have had an answer to the pace of Hamilton in the McLaren. Glock and Piquet rounded out the points finishers, Glock in particular having a good race today after a poor qualifying yesterday.

So going into the final race of the 2008 season Lewis Hamilton holds a seven point lead over Felipe Massa. This is exactly the same lead he held over Alonso going into Brazil last year, so the Championship is by no means a foregone conclusion yet. However, if McLaren and Hamilton show the same kind of pace, consistency and crucially maturity that they showed here, then the title should be his. Hamilton can afford to let Massa win his home Grand Prix and still be able to wrap up the title with a top 5 finish. Today Hamilton looked every bit the World Champion in waiting, and Ferrari and Massa had absolutely no answer to his dominance.

Race Result

1. Hamilton
2. Massa
3. Raikkonen
4. Alonso
5. Heidfeld
6. Kubica
7. Glock
8. Piquet
9. Vettel
10. Coulthard
11. Barrichello
12. Nakajima
13. Bourdais
14. Webber
15. Rosberg
16. Button
17. Fisichella
ret Kovalainen
ret Sutil
ret Trulli

Chinese Grand Prix: Hamilton On Pole For His Date With Destiny

2008-10-18T08:35:00.002+01:00

Lewis Hamilton will start what may be the most important race of his young career from pole position after a completely dominant performance in today's qualifying session. Just as in Fuji last week he will have Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for company alongside him on the front row, setting up a possible repeat of last Sunday's first corner drama. Felipe Massa will start from third place with Fernando Alonso pipping Kovalainen for fourth with another excellent showing. The other title contender Robert Kubica saw his chances all but vanish with a poor performance, meaning he will start the race tomorrow from eleventh place.

The conditions for qualifying were about as perfect as you could imagine; warm but not too hot, with no rain or even a breath of wind around the circuit. There would be no excuses for poor performances. The first session saw Lewis Hamilton continue his fine form from Friday's practice sessions by finishing in first place by a considerable margin. Of course, where it really mattered was at the other end of the field. After Webber's spectacular engine blow-out in morning practice Red Bull were hoping for a big performance from David Coulthard. It didn't come unfortunately, as he was held up a little by Nick Heidfeld on his final flying lap and failed to make it through to Q2. He will start his penultimate Grand Prix from 16th place. Nakajima, Button, Sutil and Fisichella make up the final four positions on the grid.

The second session saw Hamilton again dominate proceedings at the top of the time sheets. His first run on the option tyre saw him set the only lap of the weekend under 1:35s, and comfortably ahead of his rivals. However, the big story of Q2 was the nightmare that Robert Kubica was having. He needs a big result from this Grand Prix if he is to have any chance of upsetting the odds and winning the Championship, but he will find it hard now after he could only manage twelfth fastest in the session. He complained of understeer problems earlier in the session, and he looked completely out of sorts throughout the session. His poor performance was compounded by the fact that his team mate Heidfeld beat him comfortably for one of the first times this season. Rosberg, Barrichello, Glock and Piquet also dropped out at this stage.

Going into the final session it looked as though Hamilton was all but guaranteed a pole position place. It wasn't to be as simple as that though, as after the first set of hotlaps Hamilton was only sitting in fifth place. Although the cameras didn't pick it up Hamilton later confessed that he made a big mistake in turn eight which lost him over six tenths of a second. Kovalainen and Raikkonen were leading the way at the top; were they being run very light as part of a strategic game by their team? Raikkonen was the first of the main men to go out for his final lap, and he was setting green sectors throughout the lap. He was comfortably top by the end of his lap, and had set down a tough bench mark for the others to match. Hamilton was the only man up to the challenge, and he put together a sensational lap to take pole position by a full three tenths of a second. Massa couldn't match either his title rival or his team mate as he ended up in third place. Alonso put in a superb lap out of nowhere to take fourth place. Kovalainen was the last of the main contenders out there, but yet again he failed to live up to McLaren's expectations as a poor lap meant he could only manage fifth fastest.

So going into the race tomorrow Lewis Hamilton will feel confident with his brilliant performance, but will be surrounded by people out to spoil his party. Both Ferraris and Alonso have made no secret about their desire to see Hamilton suffer yet another disappointment, and Hamilton really needed his team mate up alongside him for support. It was another sad chapter in the huge let down that has been Heikki Kovalainen's first season at McLaren. He should have been at least on the second row if not the first, but he choked when it mattered most. With the possibility of thunderstorms for tomorrow's race, if Hamilton is to secure his first world championship it most certainly won't be easy. It could well be a classic...

Qualifying Result

1. Hamilton
2. Raikkonen
3. Massa
4. Alonso
5. Kovalainen
6. Webber (+ 10 place grid penalty)
7. Heidfeld
8. Vettel
9. Trulli
10. Bourdais
11. Piquet
12. Kubica
13. Glock
14. Barrichello
15. Rosberg
16. Coulthard
17. Nakajima
18. Button
19. Sutil
20. Fisichella

Chinese Grand Prix: Friday Practice Sessions

2008-10-17T10:25:00.002+01:00

Just 5 days after the dramatic and hugely controversial Japanese Grand Prix, it's back to business for the Formula One teams and drivers. Much of the pre-race press conference schedule has been dominated by questions over the baffling decisions of the race stewards in Japan, and over the driving style of a certain Lewis Hamilton. But all the talking will stop and all drivers will have to attempt to put those thoughts to the back of their minds once the track action begins in earnest in Shanghai.

This race was of course the scene of the beginning of the demise of McLaren's title aspirations last season, when Hamilton and his crew were so busy trying to out smart their team mates they made a bad call on the tyre strategy and Hamilton ended up in a gravel trap. This gifted a vital ten points to eventual champion Kimi Raikkonen, a man who McLaren clearly weren't at all concerned about at the time. And boy did they live to regret that mistake!

Whether the track will turn out to be a recurring nightmare for Hamilton remains to be seen, but going into the race he still maintains a 5 point lead in the championship despite his trials and tribulations in Japan, and has a very real chance of being able to clinch the WDC this weekend if all goes his way. His rival Massa knows that ideally he needs to win and see his team mate take second if he is to maximise his chances of winning the title at his home race in Brazil in a couple of weeks' time. Outside bet Robert Kubica knows that he needs both rival drivers to have another shocker like in Japan if he still wants a fighting chance going into the season finale.

The first practice session kicked off in subdued fashion, with the track remaining quiet for much of the first half hour. Eventually the action begun with Kimi Raikkonen being the first of the major players out to set a time. From that moment on it was a case of Ferrari and McLaren trading blows throughout the session. Kovalainen knocked Raikkonen off top spot, before Felipe Massa signaled his intent by going fastest. Hamilton had a minor off early in the session but soon recovered to go top. Everybody improved slightly, most notably Hamilton who knocked a full four tenths off his early benchmark to finish the session on top and the only man to break into the 1:35s.

The BMWs, Renaults and Toro Rossos fought it out to be best of the rest, but in truth were quite a distance away from the two leading teams. There were no surprises really throughout the field, aside maybe from Jenson Button finishing a respectable 12th place for Honda after a pretty awful weekend at their home Grand Prix last weekend.

Practice One Times

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:35.630 23 laps
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:36.020 24 laps
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.052 23 laps
04 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:36.103 21 laps
05 R. Kubica BMW 1:36.507 25 laps
06 F. Alonso Renault 1:36.661 24 laps
07 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:37.040 23 laps
08 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:37.070 32 laps
09 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:37.180 30 laps
10 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:37.278 25 laps
11 M. Webber Red Bull 1:37.491 25 laps
12 J. Button Honda 1:37.619 25 laps
13 K. Nakajima Williams 1:37.630 23 laps
14 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:37.638 22 laps
15 N. Rosberg Williams 1:37.638 26 laps
16 T. Glock Toyota 1:37.664 29 laps
17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:37.827 28 laps
18 J. Trulli Toyota 1:38.219 24 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:38.285 25 laps
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:38.479 26 laps

The second session again saw Lewis Hamilton top of the pile, as he remained the only man to dip under 1:36 at the end of the first day. The order behind Hamilton was somewhat different however, as Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet underlined Renault's late season rally by taking second and third places. Ferrari had a much quieter session this time out finishing down in sixth and eighth place.

The pace was generally a little slower all round this session as the teams focussed on long run simulations for the race on Sunday. The times seemed a lot closer as well this session, with 2nd place down to 16th being separated by less than a second. Hamilton was ahead at the front on his own, and the Force Indias and Hondas were cut adrift at the bottom, someway short of any kind of competitive pace.

Practice Two Times

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:35.750 33 laps
02 F. Alonso Renault 1:36.024 36 laps
03 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:36.094 38 laps
04 J. Trulli Toyota 1:36.159 32 laps
05 M. Webber Red Bull 1:36.375 38 laps
06 F. Massa Ferrari 1:36.480 31 laps
07 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.529 32 laps
08 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.542 34 laps
09 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:36.553 38 laps
10 N. Rosberg Williams 1:36.556 33 laps
11 T. Glock Toyota 1:36.615 33 laps
12 R. Kubica BMW 1:36.775 37 laps
13 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:36.797 33 laps
14 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:36.808 36 laps
15 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:36.925 38 laps
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:36.975 31 laps
17 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:37.473 38 laps
18 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:37.617 33 laps
19 J. Button Honda 1:37.800 37 laps
20 R. Barrichello Honda 1:37.904 36 laps

Japanese Grand Prix: Two Out Of Two For Brilliant Alonso

2008-10-12T08:09:00.003+01:00

Fernando Alonso sensationally made it two race wins in a row for his Renault team with a superb performance at the Fuji Speedway. The former champion showed title contenders Hamilton and Massa the way to keep your head under pressure, as the two young pretenders to the throne both had disastrous races with Massa collecting a single point and Hamilton ending up empty handed. Robert Kubica took a hard-fought and thoroughly deserved second place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

The start was predicted to be all important, but few would have predicted we'd get the kind of fireworks that resulted. The key factor that started it all off was Hamilton getting a poor start off the line. Within 100 yards Raikkonen was ahead of him, and Kovalainen was right alongside him with Massa in close attendance. Going into the first corner Hamilton decided to gamble and threw his car up the inside of Kimi's Ferrari, and ended up throwing the race on its head. He locked up both tyres and ran wide and off the track, forcing the two Ferraris and a few others to run wide and lose masses of time. This was great news for the likes of Alonso and Kubica who were able to avoid the mayhem in front of them and get ahead of the Ferraris and McLarens. Further down the field there was contact involving David Coulthard in the pack, and although it didn't knock him directly, his right rear suspension was broken and he was a passenger as he flew off the track and hard into the safety barriers.

Hamilton's front tyres were both badly flat-spotted, but that didn't stop him being able to put a move on Felipe Massa, as the Brazilian out braked himself mid way through the lap. Hamilton took the place in routine fashion, but Massa decided to fight back immediately. He did this though by leaving the race circuit on the inside, bouncing on the mud and bouncing straight into the side of Hamilton. A rash and very poor piece of driving from Massa. Getting too hot into a corner and out braking yourself is one thing; driving straight off the race track and into another driver to try and win a place back is quite another, and it was to cost him dearly. Hamilton was spun 180 degrees, and had no choice but to sit and wait for the entire field to pass him before he could spin back around and rejoin. His car was damaged, and his race was more or less in tatters already. Things got even worse when he was given a drive-through penalty for his part in the first corner melee. The only sugaring of the pill was that his big rival Massa was penalised for the move that spun Hamilton around.

So far, neither driver was doing much to show their world championship credentials.

Out front Kubica, Alonso and Kovalainen looked the favourites to take the victory, with Raikkonen recovering well and looking dangerous. Kovalainen was soon out of the equation though, as a very rare Mercedes engine failure ended his race prematurely as things seemed to be going from bad to worse for McLaren. Jarno Trulli was also looking in a strong position, much to the delight of the home fans, although fellow Toyota driver Timo Glock was unlucky to see his race ended with reliability problems after looking so strong all weekend.

At the first round of pit stops Kubica surrendered the lead to Alonso by taking on a few laps more fuel, and it was a strategic decision which may have cost him the race. Alonso was out in the lead with clear air, and he was where he feels he belongs and where he clearly thrives. The former double world champion showed all his class as he started firing in lap after lap of ruthlessly consistent pace, all the while edging away from Kubica. This was classic Alonso, and it was a race winning second stint.

Massa and Hamilton were both trying their best to fight their way through the field in the hope of securing a small amount of points. Massa struggled initially to make it past the slowest man on the track Jenson Button, but eventually found his feet and started putting in some good laps. By the end of his second stint he had made it up into the points positions ahead of Mark Webber, but Webber was on an ambitious one-stop strategy so Massa would have to pass him again if he wanted any points.

At the front Raikkonen was looking threatening for the win and was lapping extremely quickly. Nelson Piquet, who was having an excellent race in what has been a largely forgettable season, was now out of contention for a podium position down in fourth ahead of Trulli, Vettel and Bourdais. Sebastien Bourdais was having an eventful yet strong race. His right front tyre got stuck during his first stop which cost him valuable time, and then leaving the pits after his final stop he emerged alongside Felipe Massa. The Ferrari driver wrecklessly attempted a move around the outside of turn one, and while Bourdais held his rightful line Massa clipped him and spun himself around. The move is to be investigated by the stewards after the race and may yet yield some kind of penalty for Massa, although a slap of the wrists seems the most likely outcome.

The key battle out on track was between the two men vying for the third place position in the World Championship, and for second place in the race. Raikkonen had what looked like the faster car and closed onto the back of Kubica with ease. However, the young pole is made of stern stuff and was not willing to give up his position without a fierce fight. Down the epically long pit straight Kimi was able to slipstream up behind Kubica time and time again, but the BMW driver showed some truly superb defensive driving skills to fend off every attack from the much faster Raikkonen. It was a great battle, and one deservedly won by Kubica when Raikkonen was forced to back off and settle for third as his tyres began to degrade badly.

Tyres were to play a large part in the end of Felipe Massa's race too. After dispatching Heidfeld he now had Mark Webber's Red Bull between him and a crucial World Championship point. Webber though had been out on his soft tyres for pretty much half the race due to his one-stop strategy, and the on-board footage showed that his tyres were shot to pieces. Massa closed up to the Red Bull and looked like he should be able to cruise past with ease. Webber wasn't giving up his point without a fight though, and went defensive down the home straight. Massa decided to go down the inside, and in doing so looked as though he actually left the race circuit altogether and passed Webber whilst in the pit lane exit area. It seemed unnecessarily risky from Massa, who had such a speed advantage he could have taken his time and picked Webber off at will. This didn't seem to be a race where common sense and restraint had any place.

Except perhaps for Fernando Alonso, who due to his brilliant second stint and due to the battle between Kubica and Raikkonen had built himself such a lead he was able to cruise to his second victory in succession. It's a truly remarkable result for him and for the Renault team with Piquet in fourth place. A couple of months ago if anyone had suggested Renault were capable of winning two races consecutively they would have been laughed out of town, probably even by Alonso himself. Although there was an element of luck in both races in terms of the other drivers shooting themselves in the foot, they were both brilliant performances from Alonso. Renault will be now be desperate to hold onto him for next season. I wonder if Ferrari or BMW are kicking themselves for not pursuing his signature now that Alonso is showing himself to be a true class act?

With Hamilton ending up empty handed and full of regret for his moment of madness at the start and Massa collecting just one point, the lead at the top has been cut down to just 6 points with two races remaining. Remarkably, it also means that Robert Kubica is now just 12 points behind Hamilton and still with an outside chance of winning the title! With two races to go both Hamilton and Massa will need to regroup and get their heads back together quickly. Any more wrecklessness and foolishness in China and Brazil could see their title chances ruined. With a 6 point lead Hamilton in particular needs to learn that discretion is the better part of valour. Fortune does not always favour the brave.

Provisional Race Result

1. Alonso
2. Kubica
3. Raikkonen
4. Piquet
5. Trulli
6. Bourdais
7. Vettel
8. Massa
9. Webber
10. Heidfeld
11. Rosberg
12. Hamilton
13. Barrichello
14. Button
15. Nakajima
ret Fisicehlla
ret Kovalainen
ret Sutil
ret Glock
ret Coulthard

Japanese Grand Prix: Lewis Steals Pole with Lap of his Life

2008-10-11T14:52:00.002+01:00

A brilliant last ditch lap from Lewis Hamilton put the McLaren driver in pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix, and pole position for the World Driver's Championship. Crucially, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who looked strng throughout the early stages of qualifying, fell at the final hurdle and could only manage a highly disappointing fifth place. His team mate Raikkonen made a much better fist of things to take second place, and his job will be to put the heat on Hamilton throughout tomorrow's race and to try and take the 10 points away from him. Kovalainen is third place, and on form Fernando Alonso is fourth.

The first session saw Toyota's Timo Glock showing the Japanese fans that his great showing in yesterday's practice session was no fluke, as he went fastest of all with one of the final laps of the session. It was a great lap which knocked the two title protagonists down to second and third. Things were very close at the bottom of the time sheet where things mattered most. There were no surprises as both Force India and Honda cars dropped out, but in the final shake up it was BMW's Nick Heidfeld who joined them on the sidelines for the rest of the session. Thankfully for him his contract for next season was signed up just this week, meaning his job is safe despite yet another dismal qualifying performance.

The second session saw Felipe Massa come to life with an excellent lap early on, beating Lewis Hamilton by two tenths of a second. Both drivers were confident they'd make it through so didn't bother coming out for a second run. In the danger zone there was disappointment for Williams and home favourite Kazuki Nakajima. The Williams cars ended up fourteenth and fifteenth, last in the session, and dropped out, although Nakajima will take some heart from beating Rosberg in qualifying for one of the first times this year. Both Red Bull cars also had a bit of a nightmare by dropping out while their sister team Toro Rosso saw both their drivers make it through. Coulthard got the better of Webber for just the second time this year, while Nelson Piquet was sandwiched between the pair of them in twelfth place.

In the final session the first marker set down was from Timo Glock, but his time was immediately bettered by Kimi Raikkonen as the first of the big guns to set a time. It was an excellent lap from the Finn, proved by the fact that Massa and Hamilton could barely get within two tenths of him. Come the second round of hotlaps Raikkonen was again the first man out, and he improved upon his first time with a blistering time of 1:18.6. After such a poor run of form, suddenly Raikkonen was looking like the World Champion he is supposed to be. Massa improved, but not significantly and would start behind Kimi no matter what.

At that point Ferrari had a provisional front row lock-out, and the pressure was most definitely on for Lewis Hamilton. And boy did he deliver when it mattered! He set fastest split times in all three sectors on his way to pole position by well over two tenths. Obviously we still have to see how things will pan out with regards to fuel loads, but if he is carrying a "sensible fuel load" as Ron Dennis asserts, then it was certainly one of the greatest laps of his young career. That wasn't the end of the drama however, as things were about to get much worse for Ferrari and Massa. Heikki Kovalainen managed to get ahead of Massa, and also Hamilton's former bitter adversary did the Brit a massive favour by getting up into fourth place, thus relegating Massa to the third row of the grid.

It's going to be a fascinating first stint tomorrow, one which could possibly decide the title. The onus is on Raikkonen to try and get himself ahead or at least keep the pressure on Hamilton. However, he will also have compatriot Kovalainen breathing down his neck. Any prolonged battle between the Finns could leave Hamilton free to cruise away to victory. And all the while Felipe Massa will be having to battle his way past Alonso, one of the sport's toughest competitors, and Kovalainen as quick as possible. We know Massa has great ability when he is out in front and things are going his way, but there are still large question marks over his ability when his back is against the wall and things are going against him. How he reacts to today's disappointment in the race tomorrow may well be a defining moment in his career.

If Hamilton is able to extend his lead to over 10 points with two races remaining, he will have one hand on the championship trophy. Massa needs the race of his life tomorrow to keep his hopes alive.

Qualifying Result

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:18.404
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:18.644
03 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:18.821
04 F. Alonso Renault 1:18.852
05 F. Massa Ferrari 1:18.874
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:18.979
07 J. Trulli Toyota 1:19.026
08 T. Glock Toyota 1:19.118
09 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.638
10 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.167
11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:18.187
12 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:18.274
13 M. Webber Red Bull 1:18.354
14 K. Nakajima Williams 1:18.594
15 N. Rosberg Williams 1:18.672
16 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:18.835
17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:18.882
18 J. Button Honda 1:19.100
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:19.163
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:19.910

Japanese Grand Prix: Glock is fastest in Second Practice

2008-10-10T14:23:00.003+01:00

It was a much happier second session of the day for the Japanese contingent at the Fuji Speedway as Toyota's Timo Glock put in an excellent showing to take P1. There was other reason for hope for the Japanese fans with Kazuki Nakajima putting in an excellent lap late on to finish in seventh. It wasn't all good news for the Japanese though, as Honda continued to look fairly dreadful.

The exploits of Glock knocked the title race off the headlines for a while, although Hamilton and Massa weren't far off the pace. Second place though went to Fernando Alonso who really is driving out of his skin at the moment. With his destination for 2009 still in doubt he is really showing the F1 world that he is a driver of the finest calibre. Renault will be desperate to keep him, Honda will be desperate to sign him up no matter what the price tag, and I wonder if Ferrari are perhaps looking on ruefully, knowing that they have written Alonso out of their plans for the foreseeable future?

In spite of its relatively long circuit length, a lap of Fuji in a Grand Prix car is quite short, largely down to the monstrously long pit straight. This means that lap times end up being very close and competitive. The top four drivers were separated by barely more than a tenth, and with just one second covering places one to seventeen. The only two drivers really cut adrift iin terms of pace were Jenson Button and, strangely, Nick Heidfeld. BMW really do look to have thrown the towel in for this season, as Kubica also failed to impress significantly. They appear to be just going through the motions until next season. The closeness at the top though goes to show just how vital tomorrow's qualifying session will be, with any slight errors potentially meaning a handful of grid slots are lost...

Practice Two Times

01 T. Glock Toyota 1:18.383 44 laps
02 F. Alonso Renault 1:18.426 41 laps
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:18.463 40 laps
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:18.491 40 laps
05 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:18.725 39 laps
06 M. Webber Red Bull 1:18.734 39 laps
07 K. Nakajima Williams 1:18.734 36 laps
08 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.761 23 laps
09 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:18.803 32 laps
10 J. Trulli Toyota 1:18.863 45 laps
11 R. Kubica BMW 1:18.865 39 laps
12 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:18.888 43 laps
13 N. Rosberg Williams 1:18.981 41 laps
14 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.040 41 laps
15 R. Barrichello Honda 1:19.258 42 laps
16 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:19.287 41 laps
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:19.327 36 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:19.482 44 laps
19 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:19.894 37 laps
20 J. Button Honda 1:19.999 42 laps

Japanese Grand Prix: First Blood to Hamilton in First Practice

2008-10-10T05:33:00.002+01:00

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest man in the first practice session for Sunday's all important Japanese Grand Prix. He took top spot ahead of title rival Felipe Massa, whilst several other of the form drivers put in good showings, whilst a few big budget teams floundered.

The first practice session of the weekend got under way with pretty much perfect weather conditions, in marked contrast to the last time the Fuji Speedway saw any F1 action. In last year's race the drivers would have been better off equipped with out-board motors rather than their usual ultra-effective drive train. Today though the weather looked beautiful.

So beautiful in fact that for the first half hour of the session it looked as though the teams were just chilling out, enjoying the spectacular views of Mount Fuji. Aside from the odd installation lap here and there, the only drivers out setting any sector times were the Toyota drivers Glock and Trulli, clearly keen to set the pace at their teams very own stomping ground.

Raikkonen was the first of the big hitters to emerge, and he was soon followed by the rest of the field as the track slowly started rubbering up. Both Ferraris immediately looked quick and Massa led the way for much of the session. However, it was his main rival Hamilton who finally took the honours by being the only man so far to dip into the 1:18s. Massa wasn't far behind in the very low 1:19s, followed closely by the Finnish contingent Kovalainen and Raikkonen.

Following up their first race victory in nearly two years, Renault looked very strong throughout. No surprises as Alonso was the quicker of the two drivers, but Piquet put in a decent showing on the back of his Singapore horror show to come in P6. Vettel and Bourdais again looked competitive in the Toro Rosso, which only serves to underline how far back BMW have slumped since their race-winning form of early-to-mid season. Kubica struggled to 8th, while Heidfeld wound up 14th after two minor 'offs'. Red Bull too continue to be shown up by their junior team, as they looked very average. On their home soil both Japanese teams looked pretty weak, with their cars occupying 15th to 18th place. The top-brass in the board rooms of Toyota and Honda will not be impressed.

Practice One Times

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m18.910s
2. MASSA Ferrari 1m19.063s
3. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m19.279s
4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m19.399s
5. ALONSO Renault 1m19.473s
6. PIQUET Renault 1m19.743s
7. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m20.121s
8. KUBICA BMW 1m20.160s
9. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m20.182s
10. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m20.217s
11. SUTIL Force India 1m20.288s
12. ROSBERG Williams 1m20.350s
13. WEBBER Red Bull 1m20.620s
14. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.628s
15. TRULLI Toyota 1m20.657s
16. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m20.753s
17. BUTTON Honda 1m20.769s
18. GLOCK Toyota 1m20.823s
19. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m20.905s
20. FISICHELLA Force India 1m21.104s

Japanese Grand Prix: Preview

2008-10-10T05:25:00.003+01:00

With F1 fans still reeling from the shock of Canada being dropped from the 2009 calendar, still feeling aghast at the suggestion of standardised 'spec' engines from one of the sport's kingpins, and still being vexed by the portents of impending doom from the sport's other kingpin, it's back to business as usual for the teams as the Japanese Grand Prix weekend gets under way at Fuji Speedway.

With just 3 races to go the World Championship race is looking like a straight two-way fight between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. Raikkonen is still within sight of the front two, and he made a miraculous run to glory in the final races of last season while McLaren proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot, but few would bet on history repeating. In an identical car, Felipe Massa is simply outperforming the much higher-paid Finn, and Hamilton doesn't have the distraction of a bitter rivalry with a highly competitive team mate to concern himself with this year. The Brit's current 7 point advantage is significant, although not insurmountable, and crucially gives him the comfort of knowing that he doesn't have to win any of the final three races and still become champion.

Of course, Hamilton is a great racer and will be very much going out to win all three of the remaining races. However, I think he is starting to show signs of the maturity and restraint that was lacking a year ago, and which possibly cost him his title shot in '07. Last time out in Singapore he had the distinct chance of second place after the final safety car period, but chose not to challenge Nico Rosberg, and instead settled for a sensible and hard-fought third place. Would the Lewis Hamilton of 12 months ago done the same? I doubt it. I suspect if he finds himself in P2 during this race then we won't see him challenging too hard for the win, and settling for the 8 points. Not the best entertainment perhaps, but the sensible route to WDC glory.

Interesting things to report from the pitlane side of things are that Ferrari have decided to eat humble pie with regard to their controversial (ie farcical) pit light system. They didn't learn their lesson from having their fingers burnt in Valencia a couple of months ago, and ended up getting well and truly incinerated in Singapore, with catastrophic/hilarious results. The "don't fix if it ain't broke" lollipop comes back in the Ferrari pit. Also, all cars this week will be running with green paint in the grooves of their tyres, support F1 Going Green. I guess with only three races left before slick tyres return, they had to find some way of milking the grooves for all they're worth before they're gone forever, regardless of how silly it may look.

Singapore Grand Prix: Alonso back where he belongs as Ferrari hit the self-destruct button

2008-09-28T15:14:00.003+01:00

Formula One's first ever night race was won in fine style by Fernando Alonso, as Ferrari and Felipe Massa saw their championship chances take a massive hit under the spectacular setting of central Singapore. Lewis Hamilton was able to increase his championship lead with a third place finish in the safety car affected race, and Williams' Nico Rosberg scored his best ever result with an excellent second place finish.

From the start both Massa and Hamilton made good starts, with Raikkonen breathing down the neck of the pair of them. The only way Hamilton would have braved a move into turn 1 would be if they were alongside going into the corner. However, he wasn't close enough so slotted in behind him. It was all fairly smooth, event-free running for the front three cars in the opening lap. The same couldn't be said for the rest of the field, as there was some great wheel to wheel action throughout the first half of the lap.

Robert Kubica bumped across the turn 1 kerb and nudged the side of Kovalainen. The McLaren driver did well to stay pointing in the right direction, but he lost places to Kubica, Vettel and Glock. The Finn made a move past Glock, but the Toyota driver regained the position almost immediately with a fine move.

Cars were running three and four abreast through the opening few corners, and it was a testament to the skill of the drivers that nobody came into serious contact with either each other or the walls. From then on the race settled into a race of two halfs. The front half of the field were out racing hard, setting a pretty hot pace. The back half of the field were well and truly stuck behind Trulli. The veteran Italian was clearly on a very long first stint with a full tank of fuel, and was lapping an incredible FIVE seconds behind the pace of the front runners. The two Williams cars, Alonso, the two Red Bulls, Button and Bourdais were all queued up nose-to-tail behind the Toyota. This would be the first real test of the Singapore circuit in terms of ease of overtaking.

Rosberg took a first bite at Trulli into turn 1 but was WAY too hot and ran wide. It took another half a dozen laps before Rosberg was eventually able to launch his Williams up the inside and get past. That opened the floodgates, and Nakajima, Alonso and others all flew by Trulli in a short space of time.

Meanwhile at the front of the field Massa was holding a steady advantage to Hamilton, and Raikkonen was suddenly the fastest man on track gaining on Lewis rapidly. Hamilton's team mate Kovalainen was in P7 and clearly struggling to keep pace with Vettel and Glock. It seemed clear that the McLaren just wasn't as competitive as the Ferrari out front.

Then the race was turned completely on its head. Nelson Piquet had yet another of his trademark embarrassing crashes, losing the back end and spinning off heavily into the wall. He was OK, but it was a big impact leaving debris all over the track and the stewards had no choice but to send out the safety car. This was bad news for those running low on fuel and needing a pit stop, most notably Rosberg and Kubica who had no choice but to come in when the pitlane was closed and take stop and go penalties. However, it was great news for the likes of Alonso and the two Red Bulls who had pitted just before Piquet's accident. From being way down in the field and fighting for the odd point, suddenly they all looked in strong positions for podium finishes.

All of the big hitters were able to save enough fuel to make it to the opening of the pit lane, and they all came in ASAP. This is where Massa's dream weekend so far took a massive turn for the worse. As he was refuelling the Ferrari team were looking for a spot in the traffic to release him while the back markers streamed past him in the pit lane. Somebody hit the green light on Ferrari's controversial pit release system and Massa hit the gas. Disaster struck for Massa as the fuel hose was still lodged in the side of his car. It ripped it out of the bowser and injured one of the mechanics in the process. Massa had to stop at the end of the pitlane and wait for his pit crew to sprint the length of the pits to come and free the hose. This put him dead last on the circuit, and worse was to come. It was clear that Massa had been released straight into the path of the Force India of Sutil, bringing back memories of Valencia. Massa wasn't able to escape with just a fine this time however, and he was rightly punished with a drive-through penalty, effectively ruining his race completely.

So with Massa's race in tatters, and Raikkonen being held up and dropped down out of the points, could Lewis Hamilton take full advantage and extend his lead in the championship to the full eleven points? As things settled down after all the drama he was stuck in behind the Red Bulls and Alonso who had pitted before the safety car, and also Nico Rosberg who was due to serve a penalty. It was certainly going to be a mammoth task.

The mammoth soon became a mere elephant as Mark Webber was forced to retire with a mechanical failure. A real sickener for Webber, whose Red Bull career has been blighted by reliability issues from day one. Hamilton was bottled up behind Coulthard who was driving well and using all his experience to fend off his fellow Brit, and his chances of 10 points were diminishing with each lap. Nico Rosberg spent a good half a dozen laps out front setting a blistering pace before the stewards decided he needed to come in for his penalty. It was baffling really, as there was absolutely no doubt about his penalty. This time spent out in the lead put him in a great position for a podium finish.

However, it was at this point of the race that Fernando Alonso really came alive with the prospect of his first race victory in a year very much in his sights. He had been the fastest man in the final two practice sessions of the weekend, and was clearly distraught to see his race seemingly ruined by a fuel line problem in qualifying. He was driving superbly now though, and was getting close to matching the pace of the Ferrari and McLaren from the early stages of the race. Only a problem or a safety car could potentially take the victory away from him...

Hamilton had already made his way past Coulthard and things looked set for an Alonso-Rosberg-Hamilton finish. That was until Felipe Massa and Adrian Sutil again conspired to cause some great drama. Massa spun off going into the short tunnel and bumped the safety barriers. He was able to get away, but Sutil was clearly put off by the slow moving Massa and ended up ploughing straight into the barriers. The front end of his car was buckled, and the safety car was required to clear the Force India out of a dangerous area.

Alonso's lead was cut instantly, and there would have been some white knuckles and chewed fingernails on the Renault pitwall for the restart. However, they needn't have worried though. The Spaniard used all his experience on the restart to gain himself a huge lead and effectively guarantee his race victory. There were no real changes in the positions throughout the field, as Hamilton had clearly settled for the 6 points of third place. Kimi Raikkonen still managed to ruin yet another points finish with an awful mistake putting him into the wall at turn 10, but that was the final action of the day as Alonso was able to clinch a hard fought and well deserved 20th victory and 50th podium of his career.

Going into the final few races of the season Lewis Hamilton now leads the championship by 7 points when just a couple of hours ago it looked unlikely that he'd be leading at all. Ferrari really only have themselves to blame. They got plenty of warning as to the unreliability of their pit release mechanism from the Valencia race. They weren't lucky enough to get away with it this time though, and it may well end up costing them and Felipe Massa the World Driver's Championship.
Race Result

1. Alonso
2. Rosberg
3. Hamilton
4. Glock
5. Vettel
6. Heidfeld
7. Coulthard
8. Nakajima
9. Button
10. Kovalainen
11. Kubica
12. Bourdais
13. Massa
14. Fisichella
ret Raikkonen
ret Trulli
ret Sutil
ret Webber
ret Barrichello
ret Piquet

Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying: Massa lights up first ever night time qualifying

2008-09-27T16:35:00.002+01:00

Felipe Massa gave his world title chances a massive boost with a superb lap in the dying minutes of qualifying to take pole position ahead of his main rival Lewis Hamilton. On a track which looks exceptionally tight and narrow, subsequently meaning passing opportunities will be very limited, pole position could prove to be all important.

Formula One's first ever night time qualifying session got underway with perfect weather conditions. None of the rain that has been predicted for the weekend has thus far fallen while the cars are out on track, meaning that if it happens in the race it could well be something of a lottery with all the drivers out on full dry set-ups. The first section of qualifying saw its first incident when veteran Giancarlo Fisichella understeered wide into the crash barriers, removing his front wing in the process. This effectively ended his session as he was unable to even register a time. Sutil and Barrichello both unsurprisingly dropped out. Sebastien Bourdais was the next to drop out, and he was clearly struggling with the set-up of his STR car as at times it looked more like he was tarmac rallying rather than driving a grand prix car. Nelson Piquet was unable to build on his excellent showing this morning as he too bit the dust early on.

Barely a couple of minutes into the second section there was heartbreak for Renault and Fernando Alonso, as his car ground to a halt out on the circuit with a mechanical failure before he was even able to set a lap time. It was a cruel blow to Alonso as he had looked exceptionally quick all weekend long. A weekend that had looked so promising for Renault now looks likely to be a real struggle with Alonso and Piquet starting alongside each other in 15th and 16th place.

The rest of the drama of the session revolved around the trials and tribulations of Lewis Hamilton. After missing out on final qualifying in Monza after a tactical blunder, it looked as though history may have been about to repeat itself. McLaren took things pretty casual and came out late to set their first flying lap. This was almost their downfall, as Hamilton made a mistake in turn 1 and had to abort the lap. He then had to come out and throw caution to the wind for the final three minutes of the session with 2 laps worth of fuel in his tank. He again looked scrappy and failed to impress on his way to P8 on the time sheet. There were plenty of other drivers out there on hot laps though, so he was by no means safe. Glock and Nakajima both jumped ahead of Hamilton, pushing him right down to the brink of elimination. Webber, Trulli, Coulthard and Button were all out too, and seemed to have the potential pace to ruin McLaren's afternoon. However, they all seemed to have poor laps and Hamilton was luckily able to survive the cut.

The final session saw Hamilton back to his usual self, and after the first round of hot laps the usual suspects were up near the top of the time sheet. Heikki Kovalainen was out on the super-soft option tyre, and he was struggling badly down in 10th. The option tyre appears to be overheating and graining badly in the heat and humidity here, the harder tyre definitely looks the preferred choice. Vettel was again looking excellent up in fourth place, with Raikkonen, Hamilton and Massa ahead of him.

The final laps saw Raikkonen out first ahead of Hamilton, then Massa. Raikkonen was going quicker than he had earlier on, but he was still struggling to match his team mate's first flying lap. He crossed the line in second place. Just seconds later Hamilton crossed the line to go into provisional pole position. He didn't have a great first couple of sectors, but put in a blistering final sector to heap the pressure on Massa. The Brazilian though was not fazed in the slightest, and he set fastest split times in all three sectors to comfortably take pole by over half a second. It was an absolutely stunning lap from Massa, which seemed to come out of nowhere. It is very unusual for pole position to be clinched by such a large margin; is Massa on a lighter, more aggresive fuel strategy, or was it just the perfect lap? We'll have to wait until the first stints of tomorrow's race to find out...

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Massa
2. Hamilton
3. Raikkonen
4. Kubica
5. Kovalainen
6. Heidfeld
7. Vettel
8. Glock
9. Rosberg
10. Nakajima
11. Trulli
12. Button
13. Webber
14. Coulthard
15. Alonso
16. Piquet
17. Bourdais
18. Barrichello
19. Sutil
20. Fisichella

Singapore Grand Prix: Saturday Practice

2008-09-27T14:21:00.002+01:00

A bit of deja-vu on the timesheets after Saturday's final practice session before qualifying, as Fernando Alonso again pipped former nemesis Lewis Hamilton to P1, with Felipe Massa in third spot. Below them things were somewhat different though, as Nelson Piquet Jr proved that Alonso's pace in the Renault is no fluke by coming in P4.

Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button both continued their good weekends so far by coming in 5th and 6th respectively. The normally flying Finns both looked less than impressive though, with Heikki Kovalainen down in 13th and Kimi Raikkonen way down in 17th after a scrappy session including a spin.

Saturday Practice Times

01 F. Alonso Renault 1:44.506 19 laps
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:45.119 12 laps
03 F. Massa Ferrari 1:45.246 16 laps
04 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:45.249 17 laps
05 N. Rosberg Williams 1:45.386 16 laps
06 J. Button Honda 1:45.409 20 laps
07 R. Kubica BMW 1:45.425 17 laps
08 M. Webber Red Bull 1:45.450 21 laps
09 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:45.477 18 laps
10 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:45.599 17 laps
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:45.689 19 laps
12 K. Nakajima Williams 1:45.982 18 laps
13 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:45.982 12 laps
14 R. Barrichello Honda 1:46.073 21 laps
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:46.180 22 laps
16 J. Trulli Toyota 1:46.221 18 laps
17 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.482 10 laps
18 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:46.794 6 laps
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:47.166 14 laps
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:47.727 19 laps

2008 Singapore Grand Prix: Friday Practice Sessions

2008-09-26T22:12:00.002+01:00

This weekend sees the inaugural running of the Formula One Grand Prix of Singapore, and also sees the very first night race in F1 history. With heavy rain also predicted at some point over the weekend the race on the all new street circuit may well be one of the most challenging races of the season for the drivers and teams. The track is unfamiliar, the rain could make the roads of Singapore treacherous, and none of the drivers have experience of driving a Grand Prix car through floodlit heavy spray. Throw an incredibly close title race building up to its climax into the mix, and we may have a truly memorable race on our hands.

Whilst the whys and wherefores of Bernie Ecclestone's desire to hold a race under floodlights for the benefits of TV scheduling are still being debated, the fact remains that it is going to happen come what may. Using hundreds of high powered floodlights to light up the track does seem to fly in the face of F1's supposed commitment to promoting improved energy efficiency, but so far it seems to work well enough. The main concern has to of course be driver safety, and no drivers seem to have complained about poor visibility.

The one thing that did immediately cause some consternation amongst drivers are the newly nicknamed "tortoise-shell" bumps lining the kerbs at turn 10. They are there to prevent drivers cutting chicanes, a very hot topic in F1 today since Hamilton's misadventures in Belgium, but they are so high that a slight mistake would result in the car being trashed on the bumps and put out of the race. Charlie Whiting took heed of the team's and driver's concerns and ordered that the bumps be greatly reduced in size.

In first practice Lewis Hamilton set the early benchmark by finishing at the top of the timesheets, a fraction of a second ahead of title rival Felipe Massa. Raikkonen was third and Kovalainen fourth, but almost a full second behind team mate Hamilton. There were few surprises throughout the rest of the field, perhaps with the exception of Jenson Button who dragged his dog of a Honda into their first half-respectable position in months.

The brand new circuit did provide a fair few early thrills and spills. Mark Webber took the dubious honour of Christening the armco safety barriers after running wide and removing the right front corner of his car on the wall. A terrible start for the Aussie's weekend. It looks as though the very fast final corner could the one that grabs the headlines at this track. Heikki Kovalainen had a huge spin on the exit of the corner. Rubens Barrichello had an even bigger spin mid-corner and ended up going backwards into the safety barriers.

However, the biggest talking point of the session was provided by Jarno Trulli. He spun out on the final corner and was left stationary, facing backwards on the racing line. Naturally he got himself out of the way as soon as possible, but chose to do this by driving for about 20-30 metres IN THE WRONG DIRECTION down the pit straight, then turning around back into the pit lane. In doing so he broke one of the golden rules of race driving - NEVER drive the wrong way on the circuit. Trulli landed himself a $10,000 fine for his misdemeanour; not very dignified for one of the veteran members of the GPDA.

Practice One Times

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:45.518 20 laps
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:45.598 23 laps
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:45.961 24 laps
04 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:46.463 20 laps
05 R. Kubica BMW 1:46.618 23 laps
06 N. Rosberg Williams 1:46.710 25 laps
07 F. Alonso Renault 1:46.725 29 laps
08 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:46.964 24 laps
09 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:47.175 30 laps
10 J. Button Honda 1:47.277 30 laps
11 S. Vettel Toro Rosso 1:47.570 28 laps
12 K. Nakajima Williams 1:47.662 23 laps
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:47.706 27 laps
14 S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:48.097 16 laps
15 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:48.517 23 laps
16 R. Barrichello Honda 1:48.725 19 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:48.839 24 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:48.906 25 laps
19 J. Trulli Toyota 1:49.064 29 laps
20 M. Webber Red Bull 1:53.703 4 laps

The second practice session saw much of the same kind of action as the first, with McLaren and Ferrari drivers trading blows at the top of the timesheets. It looked for the majority of the session that Hamilton would again be pipping Felipe Massa to the P1 spot. That was until Fernando Alonso sprung a major surprise by taking the Friday honours with a fine lap in the dying seconds of the session.

Kovalainen was third this time out, with compatriot Raikkonen down in seventh. Not a great day for the World Champion, as he continues to look second best to Massa in the Ferrari team. Kimi was fractionally ahead of Button who again impressed in eighth place. Jenson in due a good drive, as he has seemed pretty lacklustre in recent months. Motivation must be pretty tricky when the team has so clearly just given up on this season, but he still needs to show he's out their fighting regardless. The only other talking point of the session was Timo Glock spinning and taking the nose off his Toyota.

Practice Two Times

01 F. Alonso Renault 1:45.654 30 laps
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:45.752 28 laps
03 F. Massa Ferrari 1:45.793 31 laps
04 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:45.797 31 laps
05 N. Rosberg Williams 1:46.164 34 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:46.384 36 laps
07 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.580 25 laps
08 J. Button Honda 1:46.901 32 laps
09 K. Nakajima Williams 1:47.013 32 laps
10 T. Glock Toyota 1:47.046 22 laps
11 M. Webber Red Bull 1:47.137 15 laps
12 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:47.145 35 laps
13 S. Vettel Toro Rosso 1:47.300 33 laps
14 S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:47.487 24 laps
15 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:47.640 31 laps
16 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:47.760 36 laps
17 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:47.965 12 laps
18 R. Barrichello Honda 1:48.009 25 laps
19 J. Trulli Toyota 1:48.059 28 laps
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:48.311 36 laps

Italian Grand Prix: Vettel shines in the wet as Hamilton drowns

2008-09-13T14:35:00.002+01:00

Incredible scenes in Monza today as one Italy's home teams secured a fabulous pole position, and a fourth position to boot. But it wasn't the giant of Italian motorsport Ferrari that took the headlines, it was the perennial minnows, Toro Rosso (neé Minardi). 21 year old Sebastien Vettel was the man who stunned the motorsport world with a fantastic performance to take his first ever pole, surely the first of many in the young boy's career, and team mate Sebastien Bourdais also put in an excellent performance in dire conditions to secure fourth place. While the unrestrained joy for Toro Rosso will rightfully take the headlines, the other big story of the day will be the huge disappointment for the main title contenders, particularly Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen who sensationally both failed to make it through the final session.

Rain always seems to cause great drama in motorsport. You only have to look at Monaco, Silverstone and Spa this year for evidence of that, and today's torrential weather in northern Italy didn't disappoint. The first session held no real surprises, as the tricky conditions made it a slippery but level playing field for the drivers. All of the major players made it through safely, and few would be surprised to see Sutil, the two Hondas, Nakajima and Piquet dropping out. All the drama was to kick off in Q2...

At the start of the session the conditions were fairly poor, and everyone knew that the weather was only due to get worse and worse as the session progressed. It was clear that the best times of the session were going to be set early on. It seemed as though there was an ever-so-slightly drying line on the track after the first session, and crucially some drivers took the massive gamble of trying to squeeze in a lap on intermediate wet tyres. Most notably Lewis Hamilton was out on inters, and it was to cost him massively. Almost as soon as he went out the rain started to fall heavily, and his plans went out of the window. All the drivers out on full wet tyres were able to set decent lap times while Hamilton floundered. The Ferraris also got caught out as they both failed to set a lap time early in the session.

The rain only got worse and worse throughout the session, and really there was little chance for those out of the top 10 to improve. Hamilton especially was having a torrid time. He was fuelled heavily and didn't want to come in, but clearly he wasn't at all happy with the set up of the car and with hindsight should perhaps have come in to change something about his car, whether it was wing angle or tyre pressures. Raikkonen too was struggling, and at one point it looked as though all three title contenders would fail to make it through. However, Felipe Massa somehow managed to find some grip from somewhere and squeezed into the final session by the skin of his teeth. That could potentially be the biggest lap of his entire career, as it gives him a massive advantage over his title rivals, and will be favourite to now leave Monza with the lead in the driver's championship.

So with the fans still in shock from the failure of Hamilton and Raikkonen to make it through, the final session got under way with the rain still falling heavily. Sebastien Vettel had looked strong all day, and he and his team mate Bourdais were the early pace setters. Massa didn't look as though he was wanting to have a crack at the pole position; he must be fuelled very heavy for the race knowing that Hamilton and Kimi will be too. This meant that the opportunity was there for someone to cause a real surprise. As the clocked ticked down Vettel's early time still stood, and as the rain worsened nobody was able to match it. The scenes were incredible in the Toro Rosso pit as the mechanics first watched Massa fail to make the time, and then the other big threat Kovalainen missed out by a fraction of a second. Mark Webber put in a stellar lap to take third place, bumping Bourdais down to fourth at the death.

With the weather due to be no where near as treacherous tomorrow it sets up what could be one sensational race tomorrow. Vettel will be starting from pole with the chance to make history for the minnows from Faenza. His first challenge will be to hold off Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren. He will surely be the favourite for the race tomorrow, and McLaren will be desperate for him to at least stay ahead of Massa and take some points off the Ferrari man. The other big story will of course be watching Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen trying to fight their way through the field from their lowly grid slots. It could well be a classic...

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Vettel
2. Kovalainen
3. Webber
4. Bourdais
5. Rosberg
6. Massa
7. Trulli
8. Alonso
9. Glock
10. Heidfeld
11. Kubica
12. Fisichella
13. Coulthard
14. Raikkonen
15. Hamilton
16. Barrichello
17. Piquet
18. Nakajima
19. Button
20. Sutil

Italian Grand Prix: Friday Practice

2008-09-12T17:54:00.004+01:00

Kimi Raikkonen ended the day at the top of the timesheets after a severely rain-interrupted first day of action in Monza. The first session was all but a total washout, with only the second session seeing any meaningful running from the teams. If it rains like it did during fist practice, we may be lucky to get a race at all on Sunday!

Not much to report from the first session other than rain, rain, rain.

And then some more rain.

There was hardly any meaningful running throughout the session, with neither McLaren even bothering to set a lap time. The only incident of note was Kazuki Nakajima putting his Williams into a gravel trap and ending his session barely before it had begun. The rain got so bad towards the end that the pit lane drains were all overflowing, and the session was red-flagged. The early stoppage meant that Sutil and Fisichella were the fastest two drivers of the day in their Force Indias!

First Practice Times

01 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:32.842 18 laps
02 R. Barrichello Honda 1:33.428 14 laps
03 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:33.695 19 laps
04 T. Glock Toyota 1:36.800 13 laps
05 N. Rosberg Williams 1:36.900 9 laps
06 F. Alonso Renault 1:36.965 10 laps
07 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:37.142 20 laps
08 J. Trulli Toyota 1:37.214 13 laps
09 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:37.392 5 laps
10 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:37.754 13 laps
11 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:38.057 11 laps
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:38.303 7 laps
13 J. Button Honda 1:39.062 12 laps
14 F. Massa Ferrari 1:40.233 5 laps
15 N. Heidfeld BMW no time 1 lap
16 K. Nakajima Williams no time 2 laps
17 R. Kubica BMW no time 1 lap
18 H. Kovalainen McLaren no time 1 lap
19 M. Webber Red Bull no time 1 lap
20 L. Hamilton McLaren no time 1 lap

The second session was far more interesting, with the track now starting to dry. As you would expect the times tumbled throughout the session, and there was plenty of running from all the major teams as they sought to make up for lost time from the first session washout.

As the track dried out and more and more rubber was laid down the lead changed hands more times than could be remembered, but by the end of it Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen took the Friday honours. His success came on the back of some great news for Kimi and his Finnish fans, as it was announced just before the session that he has signed an extension to his current contract which will take him to the end of 2010. I'm not sure how great that news is for the Tifosi, because to be honest Kimi really hasn't looked the part for most of this season. It certainly isn't good news for Fernando Alonso, the man who many thought would be the man to take over from Kimi in 2010. His options for the future seem to be narrowing somewhat, with BMW now being a likely destination for the Spaniard.

The BMW's looked very quick in the second session, finishing 2nd and 3rd. Kubica edged out Nick Heidfeld, the man most believe will have to make way for Alonso if the rumoured move is to take place. Kubica did have a rather spectacular spin into the second chicane towards the end of the session, but no lasting damage done. Lewis Hamilton was fourth for McLaren in a fairly solid performance for the young Brit. It was a very close session all round though, with the top four drivers separated by barely more than a tenth of a second.

Title contender Felipe Massa was a little further adrift down in sixth place, with Williams' Nico Rosberg getting himself between Massa and Hamilton in fifth with a good performance. Force India surprisingly managed to continue their "good form" from first practice, with Adrian Sutil actually making it into the top 10 on merit in 9th place. Toyota seem to have taken something of a step back in terms of pace compared to earlier in the season, as Trulli and Glock looked terribly slow as they did in Spa. Hopefully for them that means that they are merely focusing all their development attention on 2009. Renault too looked pretty dismal, with Alonso way down in 18th and Nelson Piquet dead last after an embarrassing spin at the Retifilio left him wedged high and dry on the speed bumps, meaning he needed rescuing by the marshalls!

Practice Two Times

01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:23.861 31 laps
02 R. Kubica BMW 1:23.931 26 laps
03 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:23.947 29 laps
04 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:23.983 25 laps
05 N. Rosberg Williams 1:24.110 33 laps
06 F. Massa Ferrari 1:24.247 34 laps
07 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:24.365 29 laps
08 M. Webber Red Bull 1:24.521 35 laps
09 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:24.669 22 laps
10 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:24.773 35 laps
11 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:25.100 25 laps
12 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:25.192 39 laps
13 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:25.204 24 laps
14 R. Barrichello Honda 1:25.296 25 laps
15 J. Button Honda 1:25.309 34 laps
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:25.330 28 laps
17 T. Glock Toyota 1:25.397 28 laps
18 F. Alonso Renault 1:25.481 22 laps
19 J. Trulli Toyota 1:25.753 29 laps
20 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:26.195 23 laps

Italian Grand Prix Preview

2008-09-11T19:40:00.002+01:00

So whilst the dust is still yet to settle on the hugely controversial Belgian Grand Prix just four days ago, there is no time for the teams and drivers to take time out and take their eyes off the ball. Sunday will see Monza hosting the Italian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton looking to put his recent disappointment behind him and try to increase his slim world championship lead in Ferrari's own back yard.

With Kimi Raikkonen's title ambitions seemingly in tatters for this year at least, Ferrari will be looking to Felipe Massa to lead the line in their battle with McLaren. He has certainly been on excellent form recently. The only time that he doesn't look a World Champion in the making is when the rain starts to fall, which is when he tends to end up looking rather amateurish. He will not have been thrilled to learn that there is rain predicted for the Grand Prix weekend, and lots of it! The Italian GP is normally run in balmy heat under glorious blue skies, but on the odd occasion it does rain it REALLY rains.

Rain will be just what the doctor ordered for Lewis Hamilton, as every time it has rained so recently he has excelled; notably Silverstone and Monaco this year and Fuji last season. The real challenge for Hamilton could well be one of temperament. Will he be able to put last week's disappointment (to put it mildly) behind him and focus 100% on the task at hand, or will he still be distracted and let his emotions get the better of him?

Breaking News: Hamilton Stripped of Victory

2008-09-07T17:28:00.000+01:00

Breaking News: Hamilton has been stripped of his race victory. He has been given a 25 second penalty, pushing him down to third place and gifting the victory to Felipe Massa.

Enormously controversial decision, one which I'm sure will cause much consternation for weeks to come and potentially cast a negative shadow over the whole of this year's driver's championship. Just when people start to talk about Formula One for all the right reasons again, after a truly classic race, the stewards threaten to drag the reputation of F1 through the sh*t yet again...

Belgian Grand Prix: Hamilton holds his nerve in classic Spa thriller

2008-09-07T15:34:00.003+01:00

Lewis Hamilton cemented his place at the top of the Formula 1 World Driver's Championship with a stunning victory in a rain affected Belgian Grand Prix. Despite starting from pole position it was a victory that looked highly unlikely for much of the race, as Kimi Raikkonen looked to be driving his way back into title contention on this his favourite track. However, in the dying moments of the race the rain began to fall and chaos ensued; in one of the most thrilling finishes to an F1 race in years Raikkonen ended his race and his world title defence in the crash barriers on the exit of Blanchimont corner. Felipe Massa finished second to keep himself firmly in the contest for the title, while Nick Heidfeld secured an amazing third place despite starting the final lap in ninth place!

After a morning of fun and games in the rain for the GP2 drivers the track was still damp as the main event was due to begin. There was no rain predicted for the hour or so, so all drivers barring Nelso Piquet took the option of starting on dry tyres and braving it out for the first couple of laps. From the start everyone seemed to get away relatively cleanly and Hamilton lead comfortably going into La Source. Jarno Trulli had an incredible start and was scything through the field only to be bumped from behind be Sebastien Bourdais. This caused the field to bunch up and a number of cars to run wide, with Heikki Kovalainen being the big loser dropping from 3rd way down to 12th. Raikkonen was the beneficiary as he managed to get right in behind Massa through Eau Rouge and then tow straight past his team mate into Les Combes.

By this point Hamilton had gained himself a comfortable lead and was enjoying the clean air out front. Coming into La Source for the second time though the race changed complexion dramatically. Downshifting for the hairpin Hamilton locked his rear tyres and the back end snapped loose. The half spin meant Raikkonen went wide onto the run off zone for the second time in succession. Hamilton recovered his spin very quickly and managed to just maintain his lead through Eau Rouge, but Raikkonen was so close that he was able to draft straight by him on the straight just as he had done to Massa the lap before. Raikkonen had gone from 4th to 1st in less than two laps; it seemed that he was finally getting his act in gear after weeks of mediocre performances had the paddock and press doubting his championship credentials.

Raikkonen began to creep away from Hamilton slowly but surely, with his extra downforce really paying dividends through the second sector of the lap and Pouhon in particular. Hamilton was able to stay well ahead of Massa, and he in turn was ahead of Alonso who had had an excellent start. Kovalainen was beginning to recover from his awful start and was taking positions left right and centre from the mid field runners. However, his eagerness soon got the better of him as he got a little too bold into the Bustop trying to overtake Mark Webber, and he locked up on the greasy inside line and bumped the inside of Webber and earned himself a drive through penalty. Just as that was occurring the leaders came in to pit. Hamilton was in first, and unfortunately for him ended up rejoining the circuit right behind his team mate who in turn was now bunched up behind Kubica. What little chance Hamilton had of getting past Raikkonen in the pits had disappeared, as Raikkonen pitted next time round and was able to avoid all traffic and increase his lead easily.

For the rest of the second stint the status quo was more or less maintained. Raikkonen had a 5-6 second lead over Hamilton, and Hamilton himself had a similar gap over Massa. Behind them Alonso was maintaining fourth place well, and the two Toro Rosso drivers were having a great day. Bourdais was putting in easily his best performance of his F1 career, keeping the BMW of Kubica at arm's length, and Vettel right in behind Kubica. It looked likely as though the top three or four positions would remain as they were for the rest of the race.

Thankfully for the spectators though, the infamous Ardennes weather was about to have a say in the matter. Rain was predicted to fall with around 5 or 6 laps to go, with the potential to cause some real headaches for the strategists, and cause some real stress and difficulty for the drivers themselves. First things first, the second pit stops took place and the drivers all switched to the less fancied prime tyre. Immediately Raikkonen did not look comfortable on the less grippy tyre, and Hamilton began to close in on him at a rate of knots. In looked that Hamilton may even have a chance of getting past Kimi before the rain fell, as he closed the gap to around 1.5 seconds. However, Raikkonen suddenly got to grips with the new tyres and was able to stabilise the gap at about 2 secs. Any rain now would surely set up a grand stand finish for the final laps...

And so it proved! With about 6 laps remaining light spots of rain started to fall all around the track, and the track started to get visibly slippier and the lap times increased dramatically. Hamilton was again closing on Raikkonen, and as the rain worsened Hamilton got to within striking distance. On the run up to the Bus Stop Hamilton forced Raikkonen to go very defensive, and he went for a pass around the outside. He looked to have made the position, but Kimi had other ideas. He forced Lewis wide and onto the escape road. Hamilton was told on the radio to immediately give the position back, which he did very quickly. But no sooner was Raikkonen back in front than Hamilton was attacking again. He sold him a dummy on the outside and jinked to the inside to take the lead. Kimi got a little too close to comfort at La Source trying to regain the lead and actually hit the back of Hamilton. Lewis was unfazed though, and he headed off down to Eau Rouge with his lead intact.

The rain was getting worse and worse, and each and every corner was becoming a voyage into the unknown with regards to grip levels, especially for those still trying to fight for position and without the option of taking it cautiously. Raikkonen clearly wasn't giving up without a fight, and was pushing Hamilton all the way. When they reached Fagnes chicane they came across Nico Rosberg who was recovering from a spin, and Hamilton was forced wide and onto the grass, allowing Kimi back in front. It seemed a cruel stroke of luck for Hamilton as it seemed to have stolen his victory away from him. However, Raikkonen's lead was incredibly short lived as he spun almost immediately, letting Hamilton back through. Things really were getting dangerous out on track, a fact that was to be proved by Raikkonen on the exit of Blanchimont. Hamilton looked to have overcooked it slightly and ran right across the kerbing and white lines. Amazingly this didn't send him into a spin, and he was able to continue. Raikkonen wasn't so fortunate though, as he ran wide onto the concrete run off and the back snapped wide. He was then a passenger as his car skidded nose first into the barrier and was trashed, along with any realistic hope of Kimi retaining his title.

At this point many drivers chose to pit for intermediate tyres just for the final lap, but both Hamilton and Massa decided to brave it on dry tyres. It must have been the slowest final lap in history, as both drivers coasted home desperately trying to avoid an embarrassing incident. Both kept their cool and made it home safely to secure the points and make the title battle a close two horse race. Behind them all hell was breaking loose though, as those drivers who pitted for new tyres suddenly found themselves 30 seconds a lap faster than those in front. Heidfeld was the man to gain the most, as he stormed through the field to take a highly improbable podium finish, rounding off what had been a very good weekend for the German. Alonso too had an incredible final lap to take fourth place. Spare a thought though for the poor Toro Rosso drivers, particularly Bourdais. He and Vettel began the final lap third and fourth respectively, and on for the greatest finish in the team's history. However, at the chequered flag Vettel had dropped to fifth and Bourdais all the way down to seventh amidst the last lap chaos.

So going into Monza in just a week's time Lewis Hamilton has increased his championship lead over Felipe Massa, and Kimi Raikkonen's title challenge is all but over. Yet again Hamilton has proved to be the class of the field when the chips are down and the rain is falling. The McLaren may not quite be able to match the raw speed of the Ferrari at this point in the season, but if Hamilton continues this consistency and reliability the title may well be his to lose...

Race Results

1. Hamilton
2. Massa
3. Heidfeld
4. Alonso
5. Vettel
6. Kubica
7. Bourdais
8. Glock
9. Webber
10. Kovalainen
11. Coulthard
12. Rosberg
13. Sutil
14. Nakajima
15. Button
16. Trulli
17. Fisichella
18. Raikkonen ret
ret Barrichello
ret Piquet

Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying: Hamilton the class of the field in Spa

2008-09-06T14:35:00.003+01:00

Lewis Hamilton secured one of the most important pole positions of his young career in Saturday's qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. At a track where Ferrari were expected to dominate, the McLaren drivers ended up in first and third leaving Massa and especially Raikkonen with plenty of work to do tomorrow afternoon. Nick Heidfeld produced one of his best displays of the year to come in fifth place ahead of Alonso, Webber, Kubica and the two Toro Rosso drivers.

The conditions were decidedly cool with dark clouds surrounding the circuit. Fortunately for the drivers the rain that threatened to throw a spanner in the works never arrived, and the whole session was run in dry conditions. The first session didn't really throw up too many surprises; all of the main contenders made it through comfortably and without incident, and the predicted strugglers went out of the first hurdle. Both Hondas looked pretty appalling, their blushes saved only by perennial back markers Force India and the terribly out of sorts Kazuki Nakajima.

The second session again saw the main title rivals get through without any real issues. There was a real surprise at the top of the timing screens though, as Toro Rosso's under pressure Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais was fastest of all. Fastest in Q2 doesn't really count for much in the end, but I'm sure it's a moment Bourdais will remember for a long time. Kovalainen was second behind the former Champ Car ace ahead of his team mate Hamilton. McLaren were looking extremely comfortable, with Lewis Hamilton running the fewest laps of anyone in the entire field by this point in the day. Were Ferrari holding anything back in store for Q3?

Felipe Massa was the first man out in Q3 and would be the man setting down the benchmark time for everyone to match. He made a bit of a balls up of the final chicane though, and lost plenty of time. Raikkonen was easily faster than Massa, but then both McLarens went faster still and looked very comfortable. Heidfeld continued his excellent showing from yesterday by getting ahead of Massa. Vettel did not bother going out for the first round of flying laps. He clearly was happy enough just to stay in P10 and fill his tank to the brim for race day.

Everyone came in and bolted on a fresh set of option tyres and went out to do battle again. This time around Massa held it together really well and went fastest so far. It looked an excellent lap from the Brazilian, and he seemed to squeeze out everything the Ferrari had to offer. Raikkonen couldn't match his team mate, a situation which has now become the norm for the increasingly beleaguered world champion. But behind Kimi on the road Hamilton was absolutely flying, and he crossed the line a full 3 tenths quicker than Massa. A brilliant lap from the young Brit, one which his team mate Kovalainen couldn't quite match. McLaren couldn't quite manage the front row lock out they would have hoped for, but Heikki at least managed to split the two Ferraris in third place. Heidfeld took a well deserved 5th place ahead of a strong performance from Alonso. Webber edged out the struggling Kubica by the slimmest of margins for 7th place, with Bourdais putting in his best showing of his F1 career in 9th ahead of Vettel.

So the run down to La Source on the very first lap will be a straight fight between this year's two main title contenders. Massa will be looking for a repeat performance of his brilliant first lap in Hungary two races ago, but may find it tricky given that La Source is a somewhat easier corner to defend from pole. It should be a great fight between the two, and a perfect test of their title credentials. Hamilton certainly looked a little faster here today, but the suspicion is that he's running a little lighter in the first stint. It should be fascinating to watch, especially if the Ardenne Forest throws up the kind of changeable weather it is famed for at any point during tomorrow's race...

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Hamilton
2. Massa
3. Kovalainen
4. Raikkonen
5. Heidfeld
6. Alonso
7. Webber
8. Kubica
9. Bourdais
10. Vettel
11. Trulli
12. Piquet
13. Glock
14. Coulthard
15. Rosberg
16. Barrichello
17. Button
18. Sutil
19. Nakajima
20. Fisichella

Belgian Grand Prix: Saturday Practice

2008-09-06T10:58:00.002+01:00

Nick Heidfeld was the fastest man in Saturday's final practice session before the action starts in earnest in this afternoon's qualifying. BMW have not looked competitive all weekend, so many will have been surprised to see the German pipping McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen to the top spot in this rain affected session. Title contenders Hamilton and Massa were 4th and 5th respectively, with Kimi Raikkonen a couple of places further back in 7th.

The track was wet as the green light signalled the start of the session, and as a result there was very little running for the first half an hour. A few of the midfield runners and back markers came out early on to do a bit of track sweeping and getting a feel for the circuit. Several of the leading drivers like the McLaren boys didn't even come out of the pits until the final 10-12 minutes of the session.

Unsurprisingly, as the track cleared throughout the session the times dropped dramatically. The early times were up in the high 1.50s bracket, but by the end of the session were a full ten seconds per lap faster. The likes of Vettel and Bourdais started to up the pace with about twenty minutes to go in the session, being the first drives to dip under 1:50s. Raikkonen was the first of the big boys out to play, and he immediately looked quick. He went faster than the Toro Rossos, and could have gone faster still but for a huge lock up into the Bus Stop that put him right off the track temporarily.

The two McLaren drivers were next to show their hands. On his very first flying lap Hamilton knocked a massive 1.3 seconds off the fastest time, and Kovalainen wasn't far behind. Massa was the last of the main drivers to take to the track and he too looked quick, although not quite up to the times of the McLarens.

As the session began drawing to a close Nick Heidfeld put in a blistering lap to go P1 and the only man in the 1:47s. It was a real surprise as Heidfeld has been struggling all year with his one lap pace, and his team mate Kubica has been having a torrid time trying to get his tyres to work for him so far this weekend. Hamilton had a bash at taking the P1 slot and looked to be comfortably going to make it before he too locked up at the Bus Stop and had to bail out of going for the apex. Yesterday's fastest man Alonso put in a great lap at the death to slot in just behind Heidfeld, but he was quickly bumped down the pecking order by Kovalainen going P2.

There is probably not a lot we can learn about the relative pace of the lead cars. The McLarens were quickest on paper today, but none of the main drivers put any serious miles on their cars. I would still expect Ferrari to be red hot favourites to take the pole today, with the McLarens in close company.

Belgian Grand Prix: Friday Practice Sessions

2008-09-05T18:46:00.002+01:00

The first practice session of the Belgian GP weekend was run under dry but overcast skies at Spa-Francorchamps, and gave the F1 teams and fans a good glimpse of the genuine pace of some of the title contenders. As expected, it was Ferrari who led the way with a slight advantage over McLaren. And as with recent races it was Felipe Massa who had the edge over Kimi Raikkonen in the red cars, and Lewis Hamilton who had the edge over Heikki Kovalainen in the silver cars.

The session was fairly plain sailing for everyone with no major incidents on track. Behind the top two teams the best of the rest were Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber, putting any fears about the Renault engine's reported lack of ponies to one side. It was also a good session for Toro Rosso who are enjoying a great few weeks, with the two Sebastiens 7th and 8th. Bourdais though did end the session with a broken car after it stopped out on track with a mystery fault.

It was a truly pitiful display from the Honda team who ended up last and second last. It really is amazing that a team with such massive funding can end a trouble free session over 3 seconds off the leaders' pace. I hope for their sake that they have just given up on this season and are just pouring all their resources into their 2009 challenger.

Session two included much more fun and games. The classic Ardenne weather materialized half an hour into the session, making the conditions highly treacherous as Mark Webber found to his cost. He was the first of the day's casualties as he put his Red Bull into the barriers at Beau Rivage, ending his session. After the heavy showers stopped the drivers started to venture out on track to get some valuable track time under their belts.

If this really is a make or break race for Kimi Raikkonen as some have speculated, he could have done without stuffing his Ferrari backwards into the tyre wall at Turn 9. He limped back to the pits, but minus his rear wing, bringing his Friday to a close earlier than planned. He wasn't the only driver having difficulties in the slippery conditions though, as Giancarlo Fisichella spun his Force India into the barriers quite spectacularly, bringing out a red flag. After the track re-opened it wasn't long before more drivers ended up struggling. Nelson Piquet managed to do a perfect imitation of Raikkonen's earlier shunt, becoming the fourth driver to go for an early shower.

As the session drew towards a close it was Felipe Massa who was again looking the class of the field. However, the form book was turned on its head in the final moments as Fernando Alonso put in a stellar lap to go P1; a great way to bounce back after the massive disappointment of his Valencia weekend.After the chequered flag dropped there was still some drama as Robert Kubica's car broke down while he attempted a practice start, rounding off what was a pretty mediocre session all round for the BMW team.

Going into tomorrow's qualifying it certainly looks as though Felipe Massa's Ferrari is the car to beat, although with more rain predicted for throughout the day tomorrow who knows what kind of result the session may throw up...

Practice One Times

01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:47.284 25 laps
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:47.623 25 laps
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:47.878 27 laps
04 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:47.932 24 laps
05 F. Alonso Renault 1:48.104 25 laps
06 M. Webber Red Bull 1:48.428 28 laps
07 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:48.557 30 laps
08 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:48.958 24 laps
09 T. Glock Toyota 1:48.997 26 laps
10 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:49.068 24 laps
11 R. Kubica BMW 1:49.139 25 laps
12 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:49.185 26 laps
13 N. Rosberg Williams 1:49.611 30 laps
14 J. Trulli Toyota 1:49.625 14 laps
15 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:49.849 18 laps
16 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:49.986 27 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:50.117 19 laps
18 K. Nakajima Williams 1:50.125 30 laps
19 J. Button Honda 1:50.464 24 laps
20 R. Barrichello Honda 1:50.905 25 laps

Practice Two Times

01 F. Alonso Renault 1:48.454 21 laps
2 F. Massa Ferrari 1:48.504 16 laps
3 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:48.740 19 laps
4 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:48.805 17 laps
5 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:49.328 10 laps
6 N. Rosberg Williams 1:49.405 17 laps
7 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:49.427 29 laps
8 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:49.585 22 laps
9 J. Trulli Toyota 1:49.715 23 laps
10 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:49.725 22 laps
11 R. Kubica BMW 1:49.875 22 laps
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:49.922 20 laps
13 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:49.948 20 laps
14 T. Glock Toyota 1:50.281 24 laps
15 K. Nakajima Williams 1:50.364 20 laps
16 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:50.740 11 laps
17 J. Button Honda 1:50.925 19 laps
18 R. Barrichello Honda 1:51.238 22 laps
19 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:51.334 19 laps
20 M. Webber Red Bull 1:51.640 7 laps

Belgian Grand Prix Preview

2008-09-05T00:56:00.002+01:00

This weekend sees the Formula One circus step into the final third of the season; the home stretch as the race for the title really heats up. Going into this weekend McLaren's Lewis Hamilton holds a slender lead over his main rivals from Ferrari, Massa and Raikkonen. However, on the evidence of the past couple of races Ferrari are the team to beat on pace, and Spa is traditionally a circuit that suits their cars. Hamilton may have his work cut out to still be top of the tree come Sunday evening.

Kimi Raikkonen is the current master of the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit, with multiple victories here in the past. If ever the Finn needed one of his great Spa performances, it's now. On his current form he is in danger of driving his way out of his lead driver slot at Ferrari. On the evidence of the past few races Felipe Massa is quicker, more consistent, and more able to produce the goods under pressure than Raikkonen. If Massa out performs Kimi again then Ferrari will surely be left with no choice but to focus all their efforts behind the Brazilian for the remainder of the season.

Of course, Spa is one of those magical places that has the ability to rip up the form book and throw it out of the window. Particularly so when it is wet, as it is predicted to be for much of this weekend. Many racing purists have complained that the unique challenges of Spa have been neutered somewhat by modern safety regulations, making it a tame imitation of what it once was. But when the rain falls (and by God it really knows how to rain in this part of Belgium!), Spa is as challenging and treacherous a circuit as you could ever wish to find. When water starts to flow down the slope of the infamous Eau Rouge corner you know you're going to be in for a wild ride! The lack of traction control this year could make things all the more spectacular, judging from the carnage of the last seriously wet race at Silverstone a couple of months ago.

On that day Lewis Hamilton reigned supreme, while Massa and Raikkonen both struggled in the awful conditions. If Ferrari prove to be on top again, McLaren and Hamilton may be performing a rain dance on the eve of battle to try and swing the race in his favour...

European Grand Prix: Massa Wins First Valencia Grand Prix?

2008-08-24T15:42:00.002+01:00

Felipe Massa took the chequered flag in the inaugural European Grand Prix in Valencia to record what should be a well deserved fourth victory of the season. However, the race result is still in doubt due to the fact the race stewards are going to be investigating an incident in the pit lane during Massa's second and final stop, which could yet gift the 10 points to Lewis Hamilton. In truth it wasn't a great race, and the most exciting action happened in the pitlane, mainly with Ferrari attempting to shoot themselves in the feet as much as possible. Kubica finished the race strongly in third, but Kimi Raikkonen ended up retired and pointless after an engine failure.

If Massa is to be denied his victory it will be extremely harsh on the young Brazilian as he drove a faultless race from lights to flag. After some discussion over night Massa ended up starting from pole on the right hand side of the grid instead of the left as had been originally expected, and quite right too. The advantage this gave him allowed him to take the perfect line through the opening corner and lead the race from the first lap onwards. He didn't have to worry too much about Hamilton behind him from the start as the McLaren driver didn't get the best of starts and was more worried about fending off Kubica's BMW through the opening corners.

Amazingly everyone managed to get through the tight turn 2 relatively unscathed, in stark contrast to the GP2 races earlier in the weekend. Sadly that wasn't to be maintained throughout the rest of the opening lap. Firstly David Coulthard got a nudge from behind and spun, putting him right down to last place, then disaster struck for home favourite Fernando Alonso. To the horror of the 100,000 Spanish fans lining the circuit Alonso got rear ended by Kazuki Nakajima's Williams, removing his rear wing. He limped back to the pits and the Renault mechanics tried to get the car back out on track to try and put on a show for the fans, but on closer inspection there was damage to the rear suspension and gearbox so the towel was thrown in. Alonso is the main reason this Grand Prix came to Valencia, and he will have been furious to see his race ruined so early on and to be unable to perform for his hordes of fans.

From then on it was pretty plain sailing for most of the field for the first stint. Massa managed to edge gradually ahead of Hamilton, and Hamilton in turn edged ahead of Kubica. Behind him Kovalainen had made it in front of compatriot Raikkonen from the start and was managing to keep the Ferrari behind him with relative ease. The Ferrari was probably the faster car, as evidenced by Massa's blistering pace out front, but due to the tight nature of the track there was little opportunity to overtake.

The question now was one of fuel loads. Hamilton's only hope appeared to be if Massa had been running significantly lighter in qualifying. Massa was indeed the first to pit, and strangely that was bad news for Kimi Raikkonen. Massa was released from his stop straight into the path of his team mate, meaning Kimi was stuck behind a much heavier car while Kovalainen, the man he was challenging, was able to cruise away into the distance. Not great strategy work from Ferrari it must be said.

Hamilton though was not able to stay out too much longer and was next to pit. He made a good stop, but despite setting the fastest lap of the race while out in front was unable to put any significant dent in Massa's 4 second lead at the front of the field. And things didn't get much better for Hamilton as this second stint was where Massa really put the hammer down. Massa made it look pretty effortless behind the wheel, slowly but surely putting tenth after tenth after tenth between himself and Hamilton. Lewis wasn't driving badly, the McLaren just didn't have anything more to give on the day.

Then things finally got a little bit interesting in the final pit stops. Massa was bunched up behind backmarker Sutil as they both entered the pits. Both had pretty much identical pit stops, but Ferrari were clearly anxious to get their man out in front of the back marker and released him right alongside the Force India. Due to the extremely tight pit lane exit Massa was forced to back off and pull in behind Sutil. There was no contact, but it certainly was very risky from Ferrari, and sure enough the announcement was made that they were under investigation for the incident.

But then things took a turn for the weirder, as it was then announced that the incident was to be investigated AFTER the race. This would mean that Massa would take the chequered flag but with the possibility of subsequently being stripped of the trophy. Investigating incidents after the race normally only occurs if the incident in question happens in the final 5 laps of the race. However, there were more like 20 laps to go when this incident occurred. The decision was a baffling one, and one which has the potential to throw some real controversy over the race and title challenge. The evidence was there for all to see. Either it was dangerous or it wasn't, the decision should be a fairly straighforward one for the stewards. Why on earth did they dodge the bullet and delay the decision? It just didn't make any sense.

While Ferrari were still worrying about what penalty may befall their lead driver (and let's be honest about this, on current form Massa has to be the lead driver in the team. Raikkonen doesn't look anywhere near capable of mounting a consistent title defence at the moment), things got much worse for the team. Raikkonen pitted, and whilst the fuel rig guys were still trying to pull the nozzle free Kimi floored the throttle. The nozzle was still very much attached, along with the two guys holding it, and one poor pit worker got clobbered by the rear wheel of the Ferrari. Kimi hit the brakes, but the damage had been done and the mechanic looked pretty badly hurt. Thankfully it seems that the mechanic is going to be OK, but it was still a horrible looking incident.

Replays showed that Raikkonen had NOT been given the green light to leave the pits from Ferrari's unique pit lane release system, but he went anyway. From the video footage it seems that the world champion was at fault. He was able to continue racing while his mechanic was stretchered to the medical centre, but not for long. While stepping on the gas on the exit of the final corner he lost drive, then pulled over out of the racing line as his engine detonated in smokey fashion. It brought to the end a pretty awful weekend for Raikkonen, one of many this season, and was Ferrari's second engine failure in as many races. They seem to have pace, but there are real question marks over their reliability and over the mind set of Kimi Raikkonen who is losing ground in the title race and does not appear to have much of an answer to Massa's brilliant pace of late.

Aside from Adrian Sutil stuffing his Force India into the barriers in the closing laps, that was about as far as the excitement went in this Grand Prix. Massa cruised to the chequered flag some seven seconds clear of Hamilton with Kubica putting in a very strong performance to take third. Kovalainen had a quiet day back in fourth, with both Trulli and Vettel keeping him honest with fine displays for fifth and sixth. Glock got seventh, and Rosberg claimed Williams' first points in a while with eighth place.

Whatever the result of the stewards' inquiry, Hamilton will still hold the championship lead as they head to Spa-Francorchamps. It was a fairly poor race from a spectators' point of view, and the organisers will be hoping that the wholesale changes to the F1 regulations next year will yield a more exciting race with more overtaking opportunities next year. They will also be hoping that Fernando Alonso (possibly Honda bound?) will be able to stay on track for longer than one lap. And we will all be hoping that there is no nonsense with delayed investigations, that only serve to confuse and confound F1 fans and drivers alike.

Provisional Race Result

1. Massa*
2. Hamilton
3. Kubica
4. Kovalainen
5. Trulli
6. Vettel
7. Glock
8. Rosberg
9. Heidfeld
10. Bourdais
11. Piquet
12. Webber
13. Button
14. Fisichella
15. Nakajima
16. Barrichello
17. Coulthard
ret Raikkonen
ret Sutil
ret Alonso

*subject to investigation after race regarding pit lane incident.

European Grand Prix Qualifying: Massa Masters the Streets of Valencia

2008-08-23T14:38:00.004+01:00

Felipe Massa will start the first ever Grand Prix on the streets of Valencia's harbour from pole position after a perfect final lap knocked Lewis Hamilton off top spot by 2 tenths of a second. Of the drivers from the two big teams it was only really Massa and Hamilton who turned up to the party in the final qualifying session, with the Finns Raikkonen and Kovalainen back in fourth and fifth respectively. Robert Kubica put in an excellent performance to to take third, and could well be the cat amongst the pigeons as the three big title rivals stream down towards the crucial turn 2 on the opening lap.

After being bathed in glorious sunshine all yesterday the weather was decidedly gloomy and overcast for today's session. The spectre of rain loomed throughout the session, and there were brief spots of rain falling across the track at one point, but the track remained dry. The cool conditions definitely didn't suit the drivers too well though, as they struggled to get their tyres working in the early part of the session, particularly the option tyre.

In Q1 we had a real surprise in terms of the fastest man on track. Jarno Trulli was quickest despite missing out on this morning's practice session with mechanical problems. All of the major players got through without too much trouble, but there were surprises elsewhere too. Toro Rosso looked strong as they had done all weekend, but their big brothers Red Bull struggled badly. Coulthard failed to make it through, and Webber only just made it through. There was further disappointment for British fans as Jenson Button also dropped out. Button had looked pretty quick all weekend long, so it was a real surprise to everyone to see him joining team mate Barrichello on the sidelines for the rest of qualifying.

Q2 got underway with very light rain beginning to fall. It didn't last though, and didn't seem to make conditions any more slippery than they already were. The big story from this session was the massive disappointment for the Spanish fans as Fernando Alonso could only manage 12th fastest in the session. He had been looking reasonably strong all weekend, and would have certainly have expected to be making it through to the final session. However, on his final lap he ran wide coming out of the bridge section and skidded across the kerb losing him vital time, and probably giving him a sore backside in the process. With Piquet in 15th place this was pretty disastrous news for Renault, and also for the Valencia race promoters who would have been desperate to see Alonso doing well here.

At the front Sebastian Vettel continued his fantastic weekend and his impressive season so far by topping the time sheets. Could he be about to spring a real surprise in the final session? Sadly no, he couldn't quite maintain his head of steam in the final session. He put in a good performance to finish in P6, but a mistake on his final lap ended his chances of getting in amongst the big boys. Still, with Bourdais in a decent 10th place it was easily Toro Rosso's best qualifying performance yet. Hard to believe they are supposed to be one of the minnows of the F1 world, and a team that Dietrich Mateschitz is wanting to sell off.

After the first round of hot laps Ferrari were looking very strong. Both Massa and Raikkonen had put in strong laps, Kovalainen seemed to be struggling a little with his McLaren, and Hamilton made a costly error braking for the final turn that left him well adrift of the Ferraris. Hamilton knew he had to up his game in the final minutes, and he certainly rose to the challenge. He was the first of the major players to set his final flying lap, and he jumped straight to the top of the time sheets. The gauntlet had been very much thrown down to Kimi and Felipe. Raikkonen was first to step up to the plate, and he failed to impress, finishing well over two tenths shy of Hamilton. Kimi stayed on the prime tyre for his final lap, and I wonder whether he now regrets that decision.

The spotlight fell on Felipe Massa next, and he didn't disappoint. Running the softer option tyre he drove a completely clean lap and set a blistering time to take pole position by 2 tenths of a second. After his bitter disappointment in Hungary three weeks ago, this will have been the perfect tonic. Kubica was still out on track in the BMW, and he put in a great lap too. He squeezed out every last tenth the BMW had to offer, but it was only good enough for P3. Still an excellent performance from the Pole.

So Massa and Hamilton will lead the field on a voyage into the unknown tomorrow afternoon in the first ever Grand Prix start in Valencia. There is still some debate as to which side of the track will be the most favourable for the run down towards the opening turns, with some pundits claiming that starting in P2 may actually yield a better start. We'll have to wait and see, but one thing's for sure, Hamilton will be looking for a bit of revenge over Massa after the Brazilian got the jump on him at the start in Hungary.

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Massa
2. Hamilton
3. Kubica
4. Raikkonen
5. Kovalainen
6. Vettel
7. Trulli
8. Heidfeld
9. Rosberg
10. Bourdais
11. Nakajima
12. Alonso
13. Glock
14. Webber
15. Piquet
16. Button
17. Coulthard
18. Fisichella
19. Barrichello
20. Sutil

European Grand Prix: Saturday Practice Session

2008-08-23T11:30:00.002+01:00

Robert Kubica set the pace in the final practice session before Saturday afternoon's qualifying session for the European Grand Prix. It was a session in which the drivers from the big two teams were keeping their powder dry for the most part; Felipe Massa was the quickest of the four in fifth place, with team mate Raikkonen as far down as fifteenth.

Williams showed some good pace in this session with Rosberg and Nakajima second and fourth respectively. It was also another good session for the Toro Rosso team, and this time it was Sebastein Bourdais who led the way up in third place. After a very inconsistent debut season thus far Bourdais seems to be really enjoying himself here in Valencia. The track character is quite similar to some of the American street circuits he will have been familiar with from his days as Champ Car champion, and it really seems to suit his driving style.

Lewis Hamilton was a respectable seventh place, but he doesn't look entirely happy on here yet. At one point in the session he went fastest of all on his first lap on the soft compound tyres, and then almost immediately spun off the track. He appears to have good pace when he manages to hold it together, but will need to up his consistency if he wants to score well here and cement his lead in the driver's championship. Title rival Kimi Raikkonen had a very quiet session this morning way down in 15th, but he showed he had good pace over one lap by being fastest of all yesterday, so will not be unduly worried by his position today.

Saturday Practice Times

1. R Kubica BMW-Sauber 1:38.754
2. N Rosberg Williams 1:38.877
3. S Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:39.009
4. K Nakajima Williams 1:39.270
5. F Massa Ferrari 1:39.276
6. S Vettel Toro Rosso 1:39.300
7. L Hamilton McLaren 1:39.314
8. N Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1:39.335
9. Coulthard Red Bull 1:39.421
10. N Piquet Renault 1:39.452
11. M Webber Red Bull 1:39.597
12. J Button Honda 1:39.628
13. F Alonso Renault 1:39.652
14. H Kovalainen McLaren 1:39.802
15. K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:39.802
16. T Glock Toyota 1:39.919
17. A Sutil Force India 1:40.019
18. G Fisichella Force India 1:40.059
19. R Barrichello Honda 1:40.512
20. J Trulli Toyota no time

European Grand Prix: Friday Practice Sessions

2008-08-22T18:13:00.004+01:00

After a three week long mid-season break Formula One is back, and it has made the journey to the first of two brand new street circuits - Valencia, Spain. As ever with F1 there is no such thing as a "holiday", perhaps with the exception of the drivers. The teams will have been working feverishly on squeezing a few extra hundredths of a second out of their cars since Hungary, and will be anxious to see the fruits of their labour out on the baking hot tarmac in Valencia.

The track itself has definite echoes of the Monte Carlo street circuit, with the course looping its way around the picturesque harbour against the back drop of the gleaming Mediterranean Sea. However, in terms of the track layout the character of the track should be very different. There are plenty of very high speed corners here, particularly the likes of turn one, and the track is also quite wide and spacious throughout, in stark contrast to more traditional style street circuits like Monaco. First impressions of the track are very favourable, with a great variety of corners, hopefully some good opportunities for passing, and a very eye-catching bridge section across the harbour.

Friday's first practice session began with the track naturally very green, and also extremely dusty due to the baking heat and lack of rain in Spain at this time of year. Times tumbled rapidly throughout the session as the track began to clear and rubber up, and all drivers were out putting plenty of mileage down in order to get used to the unfamiliar circuit. No doubt they will have been in the simulators at the factory in the past few weeks, but no amount of simulation can prepare you for the real deal.

At the end of the first session it was Toro Rosso's German sensation Sebastien Vettel who took the weekend's first headlines with an excellent lap in the dying moments to oust Ferrari's Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton managed to take P3 despite a spin in turn 2 late on in the session. He wasn't the only one taking advantage of the generous run-off areas here, with home favourite Fernando Alonso also running off the circuit at one point and Jarno Trulli having a minor pirouette.

To underline Toro Rosso's vast improvement Sebastien Bourdais put his STR3 up into fourth place. This was in stark contrast to the fortunes of Toro Rosso's big brothers over at Red Bull who managed to finish the session propping up the time sheets in last and second last place. David Coulthard had a brush with a crash barrier on his final run, just to make matters worse.

The second session saw most teams and drivers focussing on longer runs for the majority of the session, before the battle for the top spot heated up in the last ten minutes or so. At the chequered flag it was world champion Kimi Raikkonen leading the way with the fastest lap of the weekend so far. Fernando Alonso entertained the Spanish crowds with second place, and a spin at turn 2 to boot, and Jenson Button was a surprise third place finisher.

So far both Ferrari and McLaren are unsurprisingly looking strong, with Ferrari perhaps having a slight edge so far. It really is quite difficult to judge though with all drivers spending time just getting comfortable on the new circuit. For instance, Toro Rosso were nowhere near as competitive in the second session, and Rubens Barrichello finished dead last despite teammate Button coming third. We probably won't get a really good idea of who's hot and who's not here until we get down to the nitty-gritty of qualifying tomorrow.

Practice One Times

01 S. Vettel Toro Rosso 1:40.496 29 laps
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:40.654 27 laps
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:40.822 21 laps
04 S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:41.099 31 laps
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:41.163 23 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:41.281 24 laps
07 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:41.317 27 laps
08 K. Nakajima Williams 1:41.329 26 laps
09 F. Alonso Renault 1:41.385 31 laps
10 N. Rosberg Williams 1:41.706 22 laps
11 R. Barrichello Honda 1:41.830 27 laps
12 J. Trulli Toyota 1:41.930 27 laps
13 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:41.951 23 laps
14 T. Glock Toyota 1:42.036 27 laps
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:42.107 32 laps
16 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:42.453 23 laps
17 J. Button Honda 1:42.460 29 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:43.075 25 laps
19 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:43.312 23 laps
20 M. Webber Red Bull 1:43.524 24 laps

Practice Two Times

01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:39.477 30 laps
02 F. Alonso Renault 1:39.497 39 laps
03 J. Button Honda 1:39.546 35 laps
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:39.678 31 laps
05 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:39.712 31 laps
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:39.954 30 laps
07 T. Glock Toyota 1:39.967 32 laps
08 R. Kubica BMW 1:40.149 35 laps
09 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:40.439 32 laps
10 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:40.500 23 laps
11 M. Webber Red Bull 1:40.585 24 laps
12 N. Rosberg Williams 1:40.607 34 laps
13 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:40.696 23 laps
14 K. Nakajima Williams 1:40.742 34 laps
15 J. Trulli Toyota 1:40.877 32 laps
16 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:40.982 36 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:40.999 32 laps
18 N. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:41.084 31 laps
19 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:41.246 38 laps
20 R. Barrichello Honda 1:41.377 31 laps

Onboard vid of the new track - Youtube - Kubica Onboard Valencia Friday Practice

Hungarian Grand Prix Race Report

2008-08-03T15:27:00.001+01:00

Lewis Hamilton will head to the European Grand Prix in Valencia with a slim lead in the driver's championship after a dramatic and unpredictable race in Budapest. The usually tedious race threw up a couple of real surprises, most notably for Hamilton and title rival Massa, meaning that in the end Heikki Kovalainen sensationally took the chequered flag for his first ever F1 race victory.

As ever with races on the Hungaroring, the run down to the first corner would be all important. So often here the man who leads out of the first corner ends up winning the race. With both McLarens on the front row it seemed like the script was pre-written for a straightforward victory for Lewis Hamilton. Felipe Massa clearly hadn't read the script though, as when the lights went out he got an inch perfect start off the line. Kovalainen struggled off the line with starting from the dirty side of the track and within 100 yards Massa had passed him.

Massa was now tucked into the slip stream of Hamilton on the run down to turn one, and was clearly carrying far more speed than the McLaren. Lewis went defensive on the inside as Massa drove up alongside as they approached the braking zone. On the brakes Massa locked up slightly but managed to recover just enough to squeeze Hamilton onto the kerb on the inside. Hamilton wasn't able to get the power down quite as effectively as Massa and the Brazilian won the drag race down to turn two. It was the perfect start from Massa and a real shock to the system for McLaren, who would have expected to have this race sewn up fairly early on. Indeed, the frustration was evident as Hamilton very nearly lost it through the high speed turn three as the back end snapped wide suddenly and he had to correct, losing more ground to Massa.

Behind the battle for the lead there were some very close battles in the very tight opening couple of corners. World Champion Kimi Raikkonen didn't have particularly good start, just to compound his distinctly average qualifying performance. He would have been looking to get past the BMW and Toyota in front of him off the line, but instead ended up losing sixth place to Fernando Alonso's Renault. Another driver having a bad start was Vettel. He lost a place or two from the start, and then at the final corner of the first lap found himself squeezed out onto the run off area. He dropped from 11th to 15th. There was a much better start for Rubens Barrichello who ended the opening lap un in 12th place ahead of team mate Button, despite starting all the way down in 18th. A good couple of minutes for Brazilian F1 fans!

The race settled down within a lap or two into a fairly comfortable pattern with the tight twisty nature of the track making following the car in front closely or overtaking extremely difficult. Hamilton was staying fairly close to Massa but not close enough to attempt a pass. If anything, Massa was starting to pull away slightly. The pace advantage the McLarens were supposed to have didn't seem to be materialising. It wasn't as though Hamilton wasn't pushing or driving well, he was pulling away from team mate Kovalainen in third at almost half a second per lap. So far it was just a flawless performance from Massa.

The big question on everyone's mind now was that of fuel loads. Who was running lighter than who in qualifying? Did the McLarens really have that much in hand over their rivals? Massa was the first of the front runners to pit, doing so with a 3 second or so lead over Hamilton. It was a good stop for Massa, and we all waited to see how much further Hamiton could run. The answer was: not very far. Hamilton was in next lap, showing that the two lead cars were indeed very closely matched on pace and fuel. Lewis had no where near enough time in the lead to have overhauled the deficit to Massa, and he emerged back behind the Brazilian.

Everyone had expected Timo Glock to be running extremely light after his stunning performance in qualifying yesterday, but amazingly it wasn't the case. He actually had MORE fuel on board than the front runners, and emerged from his first stop in an extremely strong looking fourth position. The other star of qualifying Robert Kubica wasn't having as good a day. He had nowhere near the pace to match Glock, and after the first stops he had gone backwards in a big way. The other talking point of the first round of pit stops was the fact that there were three minor fires while cars were refuelling. Bourdais received a face full of fire extinguisher foam after his Toro Rosso caught fire. Rosberg was next to have a fiery exit from his pit box, followed by Barrichello in the Honda. There hadn't been any modifications made to the fuelling rigs, so the sweltering heat must have been the culprit.

During the second stint Massa still had the edge over Hamilton. It wasn't a huge difference, but a tenth here and a tenth there meant that he was slowly but surely creeping away into the distance. After all the doubts over Massa after his appalling race in Britain, Massa was doing exactly what was necessary to get his title challenge back on track. Of the two Ferrari drivers, it was Massa looking the most likely title challenger. Raikkonen was still staring at the gear box of Alonso's Renault as he had been all day long. Timo Glock was still having a fine performance, managing to keep a comfortable distance between himself and those behind him, and Kubica was still struggling in the BMW.

Everyone was eagerly checking the timing computers to see how big the gap between Massa and Hamilton was, trying to calculate how many more laps Lewis would need to run in this stint to have any chance of getting ahead of Massa. However, that was all suddenly rendered irrelevant when the cameras cut to Lewis's McLaren creeping through a gravel trap very slowly. It soon became apparent that his left front tyre had punctured, meaning he was having to creep around the circuit back to the pits. He didn't appear to hit anything or go off the track before hand, so it was either a random tyre failure or he ran over some debris. Either way, terrible luck for Hamilton, especially as it appeared to hand the race victory to his biggest rival Massa on a plate.

Hamilton pitted and changed to the super-soft option, meaning he would have to run 25 laps on the notoriously hard wearing tyres. He emerged in 12th place, with a real mountain to climb to limit the damage to his title challenge.

As the second stops arrived for everyone else it was a routine stop for Massa as he had a massive gap back to Kovalainen and had no need to push too hard. In the other big battle on track between Kimi and Fernando, traffic conspired to wreck Alonso's chances. He pitted first, but emerged right in the middle of a battle between the two Williams drivers and Fisichella. He lost at least a second or two, meaning that Raikkonen was able to pass him in the pitstops fairly easily. Raikkonen now had clear air in front of him for the first time in the race, and we would see what kind of pace he had underneath him. With Kubica having a bit of a nightmare and Hamilton's puncture, it looked as though it would be a straight fight between Glock and Kimi for the final podium place.

Hamilton had recovered well and had his old adversary Alonso in front of him, several seconds down the road. That would be his target, but certainly not an easy one. Massa meanwhile appeared to have eased off the gas and was cruising, as the gap to Kovalainen was shrinking with every lap. In the sister Ferrari, Raikkonen was setting fastest laps as he was finally able to show what pace the Ferrari really had. Nice of him to show up to the Grand Prix at last, shame it was about a day and a half too late.

Just when everything seemed set for a well deserved and comfortable victory for the flawless Massa, disaster struck. With just 3 laps remaining his engine blew coming past the pits, causing him to grind to a halt on the home straight. His distress was clear for all to see, as his victory was stolen away from him by the unreliability of the Ferrari. You couldn't really imagine a worse place for something like that to happen, right on the home straight right in front of about ten thousand fans in the grand stands.

The cruel blow for Massa meant that Kovalainen was leading the race, after having a quiet and fairly ignominious performance. He was nowhere near able to match the pace of Massa and Hamilton in front of him, yet here he was with the finish line in sight. He was able to cruise to his first ever F1 race victory with plenty of room to spare. Probably not the circumstances in which he dreamed his first win would come, but a win is a win and it is a moment he will remember for the rest of his life. Massa's misfortune also meant that Timo Glock was promoted to second place and his first ever podium. A fantastic performance from the German. He ended the previous Grand Prix in the back of an ambulance, yet here he was two weeks later on the podium! It also meant that Kimi Raikkonen lucked his way into the final podium spot. After a pretty mediocre performance all weekend long he managed to come away with a sizeable point haul.

Alonso was able to hold off Hamilton for fourth place, but Hamilton will not have too many complaints with fifth place after his puncture earlier on. He leaves Hungary still with a lead in the championship standings, which will be of huge comfort to him and McLaren. Ferrari will be furious with themselves though for throwing this one away. After their drivers finally managed to get their act together, they were let down by a reliability problem. Back to the drawing board before Valencia for the Scuderia. Little of this will matter to the top two finishers today though. Kovalainen will party the night away after his first ever victory, and Glock will be equally delighted with his superb second place that has really announced him on the global stage in a big way.

Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Report: Can Anyone Stop Hamilton?

2008-08-02T14:54:00.004+01:00

Lewis Hamilton was the class of the field as he cruised serenely to pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix. In the final session he beat his team mate Kovalainen into second place with room to spare, making things extremely difficult for Hamilton's title rivals in the Ferraris in tomorrow's race. Felipe Massa was third and Kimi Raikkonen was a very disappointing sixth place in the sister Ferrari. Kimi was pushed down the grid by two excellent 'comeback' performances, with Kubica returning to form in the BMW and Timo Glock coming back after a nasty accident in Germany to record his best qualifying performance to date.

The whole session played out under perfectly sunny conditions, ideal for the fans and drivers alike. The first session saw the main championship protagonists make it through comfortably, with the McLarens looking very strong and Raikkonen down in a slightly disappointing 6th place, a position he was to become very familiar with. As per usual with Q1, all the action took place in the squabble for 15th place. With the renaissance of the Toro Rosso team the battle for the final places in Q2 was to be fought between the Honda and Williams drivers, who look to be really struggling for pace at this point in the season.

In the final moments of the session both Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg put in excellent laps to get into fourteenth and fifteenth place. This nudged BMW's Nick Heidfeld down into the drop zone. The German was on his final lap though, and was strong favourite to make it through. However, fate managed to conspire against him in the final turns of the lap. Entering the final hairpin he had Sebastien Bourdais in front of him being held up battling for track position with a Toyota. Bourdais had to back right out of the throttle which ended up putting him right in the path of Heidfeld. Nick eventually ended up skidding across the astro-turf on the outside of the turn and could not improve his lap time. His displeasure was clear for all to see as he was gesticulating at the car in front, but really it was just a case of rotten luck. The incident is being investigated, but it would be extremely harsh to punish Bourdais for it. This was just what Heidfeld didn't need though, as he has struggled with tyre performance in qualifying all season long, and this will have done nothing to silence the doubters.

The second session ended with Felipe Massa in top spot, ahead of Timo Glock's Toyota. After his nasty accident in Germany Glock appears to have bounced back with some great form here. He was getting the better of his qualifying-specialist team mate Trulli for the first time this season. Hamilton was a little further down the field than may have been suspected, but he was clearly taking it easy and doing just what was needed to get through to the final session.

In the closing moments things heated up as per usual, with the battle seemingly being between the drivers from the two Red Bull teams. Webber and Vettel were looking strong in the top ten, with Coulthard just fractionally behind them. However, things were to be upset somewhat when Nelson Piquet put his Renualt up into ninth place, knocking out Vettel. He's followed up his best ever race in Germany with his best ever qualifying performance, good stuff from the young Brazilian. One of the final men across the line was Jenson Button. The Honda has looked pretty horrible all weekend, and with Barrichello down in 18th some may have thought Button would be delighted just to get up to 15th place or so. Button though loves this track after scoring his only ever race win here in 2006, and put in a great lap to put himself in P12, way better than was expected of him.

The final session was expected to be the Lewis Hamilton show, and he didn't disappoint. He has looked extremely comfortable in the car all weekend long, and seems to have pace to spare. In the dying moments of the session he set the fastest lap, but the next fastest lap was his own opening hot lap, which just underlines his superiority here. Kovalainen put in a strong performance to complete the all important front row lockout for McLaren, just edging out Felipe Massa by a few hundredths of a second. Robert Kubica put in a great lap for fourth place, finally getting the BMW hooked up after looking pretty ordinary throughout free practice, and Timo Glock also put in a superb lap to take fifth. Glock may well be light on fuel given how far ahead of his team mate he is, but great stuff nonetheless.

Kimi Raikkonen will be hoping that Glock is indeed light on fuel, and that his Ferrari is running a heavy first stint, otherwise he could be in line for a fairly miserable race tomorrow. At this crucial moment of the season he really isn't rising to the challenge of defending his world title. There have been rumours filling the F1 press for a couple of months now that Kimi is considering retirement when his current contract expires in 2009. Whether all this speculation his distracting him, or he just isn't happy with the set up of the car remains to be seen, but unless he gets his backside in gear quickly he can kiss goodbye to any hope of retaining his championship. Felipe Massa is looking the driver most likely to take the fight to Lewis Hamilton at the moment, and given that we know how poorly Massa seems to handle pressure situations, Ferrari are not in an enviable position at the moment.

Alonso continued his decent form with a 7th place, ahead of Trulli, Webber and Piquet.

So given the strength of McLaren so far this weekend, and the tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring track, only a fool would bet against a silver car taking the chequered flag tomorrow. Of course, the race to the first corner will be all important here, and Kovalainen will need to have his wits about him to fend off Massa given that he will be starting on the dirty side of the grid. The other major factor tomorrow may well be tyre wear. So far the softer compound tyres have not performed well in the sweltering Budapest heat. All drivers will have to run at least one stint on the soft tyres, and given how badly they have been graining up in practice, it will be a real test for the drivers to manage things effectively.

Provisional Race Grid

1. Hamilton
2. Kovalainen
3. Massa
4. Kubica
5. Glock
6. Raikkonen
7. Alonso
8. Webber
9. Trulli
10. Piquet
11. Vettel
12. Button
13. Coulthard
14. Bourdais
15. Rosberg
16. Heidfeld
17. Nakajima
18. Barrichello
19. Fisichella
20. Sutil

Hungarian Grand Prix: Friday Practice Sessions

2008-08-01T18:26:00.003+01:00

Lewis Hamilton ended the first day of track action at the Hungarian Grand Prix on top, but the day ended fairly even for the top two teams with Ferrari dominating the opening session and McLaren dominating the afternoon's proceedings. Whilst this news will not really surprise anyone, the apparent strength of Renault on this opening day may surprise a few. Fernando Alonso was the "best of the rest" in the first session, and Nelson Piquet built on his first ever F1 podium from the last race by coming second place in the second session. On current form they are looking the team most likely to cause problems to Ferrari and McLaren, and may have leap-frogged BMW in terms of pace.

The first session was relatively quiet with very few drivers venturing out on track early on. When the action did get going with a vengeance it was Ferrari who came to the fore. Felipe Massa ended the session on top, with his team mate Raikkonen four tenths adrift in second. Kovalainen and Hamilton took the next two spots on the time sheets, with Alonso and Glock in fifth and sixth respectively. The times tumbled dramatically throughout the session as the notoriously dirty and dusty Hungaroring circuit gradually rubbered up.

The second session saw yet further time improvements and ended with four drivers breaking into the 1:20s. Hamilton, Kovalainen and Alonso have been regular residents in the top four on the time sheets, but the man in second would most certainly have raised a few eyebrows. Nelson Piquet split the two McLarens by taking second spot, building on a decent P8 from the first session. He excelled at this track in his GP2 days, and he clearly loves the track. He had a truly awful first half of the season, and then lucked into a podium finish in Germany. Has he perhaps finally found his feet in the sport?

Ferrari had a fairly unremarkable second session with Massa and Raikkonen in 5th and 6th. It wasn't a great day for the other team running Ferrari engines with Sebastian Vettel ending up stopped out on the circuit in similar circumstances in BOTH sessions. There was no suggestion of driver error at all, just mechanical gremlins and bad luck for the talented young German. He managed a total of just 9 laps throughout the two sessions and will have a lot of work to do come Saturday's brief practice session.

The other talking point arising from today's sessions was McLaren's interesting new nose/wing arrangement that was first seen out in testing in recent weeks. It has drawn comparisons with that of BMW and also Honda's 'bunny ears', and shows that there is no sign of McLaren letting up in terms of their car development heading into the season's run-in. There was no sign of it in the first session, but it was eventually seen in the second session. The wing didn't really seem to add or subtract too much from the McLaren's times, but it was notable that Hamilton's fastest time of the day was set with the 'old' wing.

Practice One Times

01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:20.981 19 laps
02 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:21.345 21 laps
03 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:21.410 17 laps
04 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:21.535 18 laps
05 F. Alonso Renault 1:21.802 18 laps
06 T. Glock Toyota 1:21.931 22 laps
07 R. Kubica BMW 1:22.267 18 laps
08 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:22.326 19 laps
09 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:22.370 22 laps
10 J. Trulli Toyota 1:22.457 25 laps
11 M. Webber Red Bull 1:22.654 23 laps
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:22.700 16 laps
13 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:22.900 26 laps
14 J. Button Honda 1:22.917 27 laps
15 R. Barrichello Honda 1:23.093 26 laps
16 N. Rosberg Williams 1:23.147 21 laps
17 K. Nakajima Williams 1:23.274 22 laps
18 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:23.353 25 laps
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:23.459 28 laps
20 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:23.923 4 laps

Practice Two Times

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:20.554 35 laps
02 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:20.748 38 laps
03 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:20.760 33 laps
04 F. Alonso Renault 1:20.923 35 laps
05 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:21.009 36 laps
06 F. Massa Ferrari 1:21.010 36 laps
07 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:21.138 46 laps
08 R. Kubica BMW 1:21.363 36 laps
09 J. Trulli Toyota 1:21.505 42 laps
10 N. Rosberg Williams 1:21.581 34 laps
11 T. Glock Toyota 1:21.662 39 laps
12 M. Webber Red Bull 1:21.733 43 laps
13 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:21.837 34 laps
14 K. Nakajima Williams 1:21.902 33 laps
15 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:21.955 41 laps
16 J. Button Honda 1:22.150 41 laps
17 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:22.197 36 laps
18 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:22.358 37 laps
19 R. Barrichello Honda 1:22.448 33 laps
20 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:22.945 5 laps

Hungarian Grand Prix Preview: Hamilton in his element?

2008-07-31T23:13:00.004+01:00

After racking up hugely impressive back to back wins in tricky conditions in both Britain and Germany, championship leader Lewis Hamilton heads to the Hungaroring looking to score his third win in a row and his second consecutive victory in Budapest. Ferrari will have been licking their wounds after taking a bit of a pounding in the past couple of races, and will be determined to turn the tide of McLaren victories. It's getting toward the crunch time of the season as they get closer to the final run in, and any more mistakes for Ferrari could be catastrophic.

Last year's Hungarian Grand Prix became notorious for the pit lane incident during qualifying rather than anything that happened during the race. The highly embarrassing pit lane squabble between Hamilton and then team mate Alonso was the first major public indication that there were serious problems within the team; problems that would eventually lead to them throwing away the World Driver's Championship that one of the McLaren drivers should have won.

There should be no such worries for Ron Dennis and McLaren this year as Heikki Kovalainen has just put pen to paper on an extension to his contract, and given that he's so far behind the front runners in the title race he will no doubt be playing the team role and supporting his team mate's title challenge. This could well be McLaren's secret weapon in the title run in. Last year they had two drivers fighting for the championship and they ended up taking points of each other and fighting bitterly between themselves, while Kimi Raikkonen came from nowhere to to take the title. This time Kimi and Massa are extremely closely matched, and whilst they may not be at each other's throats like Alonso and Lewis last year, neither driver will be willing to play the good team mate and take a supporting role. Lewis knows he has a team mate that will be well and truly focussed on helping his title challenge.

Another team looking to impress in Hungary will be BMW. Their constructor's title challenge has gone off the rails somewhat in recent races. Strangely it has been ever since they had that remarkable 1-2 finish in Canada that their fortunes have taken a bit of a dip. However, they have had good form here in recent years and the high downforce, tight and twisty nature of the track seems to suit their car. Also this race is a favourite for both of their drivers. Heidfeld has finished on the podium here two years running, and Robert Kubica made his spectacular debut here in 2006.

Amazingly it seems as though we may get some unpredictable, unsettled weather conditions throughout the course of the weekend yet again, for the third race running. Early forecasts are suggesting that thunderstorms are likely to hit intermittently throughout Saturday and Sunday, potentially causing all sorts of fun and games in qualifying and the race. The rain has already contributed to two fantastic races this season, in Monaco and Britain, could it be about to happen again?

German Grand Prix Race Report: Lewis Dazzles in Hockenheim

2008-07-20T15:25:00.003+01:00

Lewis Hamilton sensationally won an excellent German Grand Prix in fine style, with a battling performance to take the lead in the World Driver's Championship. It was a great day for the young Brit as he saw his main championship rivals have mediocre performances, which will give him and his McLaren team enormous confidence as they build towards the climax of the season. Young Nelson Piquet incredibly ended up in second place after a good performance and a huge slice of luck with his pit stop strategy, leaving compatriot Felipe Massa in third place.

From the start Hamilton and Massa both got perfect starts, and Lewis went defensive early on into turn 1 to emerge with the lead. Any chance of Massa continuing the battle through turns 2 and 3 was prevented by Hamilton's teammate Kovalainen going on the attack from P3. Massa had to make his Ferrari as wide as possible into the hairpin to hold position, which bottled up the field behind him. This was great news for Robert Kubica who had the best first lap of all. He had already leap-frogged Raikkonen off the grid, and while Trulli and Alonso had to take evasive action to avoid Felipe and Heikki at the hairpin, Kubica squeezed through to take fourth place.

Throughout the opening couple of laps all drivers on track were an absolute credit to themselves and to their sport. They were going into some very tight corners 3 and 4 cars abreast with cold tyres and brakes, yet nobody came into contact at all. Superb race craft from all drivers involved for them to all emerge unscathed from the opening laps. A refreshing change from the demolition derby of Silverstone two weeks ago!

After a poor start Kimi Raikkonen knew the pressure was on to get himself back up towards the podium positions. There ensued an interesting battle between the two World Champions in the field, Kimi and Alonso, over sixth place. Alonso was on the defensive, and showing all his guile and experience in making his Renault as wide as possible. However, he seemed to be struggling a little with traction out of the slower corners in the Renault. There were no such issues for Kimi, and after Fernando got a little loose on the exit of turn 2, Raikkonen was able to power past him through 3 and 4.

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton was simply cruising away from Felipe Massa at the front of the field. He was consistently lapping half a second per lap quicker than the Ferrari, and very quickly had amassed a ten second lead. It transpired that Hamilton was running a little lighter than the rest, but not enough to justify that difference in pace. He was in a class of his own in this early phase of the race.

He emerged after his stop in front of fourth place man Jarno Trulli, and with a huge amount of fuel in his tank judging by the length of his stop. He seemed to make a mistake while getting up to speed, and Trulli managed to get the place back. Hamilton looked keen to make amends straight away and went on the attack, but Trulli was about to come in to pit anyway so the McLaren team urged Lewis to just be patient.

As the first pit stops played out everything worked out beautifully for Lewis Hamilton. Massa was clearly struggling to hold onto the pace of the McLaren, and his other title rival Kimi Raikkonen wasn't impressing at all further down the field. Kubica was still performing well in the BMW as was Kovalainen, and Vettel was impressing yet again in the Toro Rosso. The youngster was having a great little battle with two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso who was starting to struggle a little in the Renault.

Just as everything looked set for a simple victory for Hamilton, the race was turned on its head. On the exit of the final corner Timo Glock's right rear suspension buckled as he nudged the kerb, and he was sent spinning violently backwards into the pit wall at high speed. He was sent bouncing back across the track leaving a trail of debris behind him, and the safety car was immediately deployed. Due to the sheer amount of broken Toyota left across the pit straight it turned out to be a rather long safety car period.

As the pit lane opened nearly the whole field dove in to make their second and final stops. The notable exceptions were Nelson Piquet who was on a bold one-stop strategy, Nick Heidfeld, and race leader Lewis Hamilton. It seemed a baffling decision from the McLaren team, as it would effectively have been a “free” pitstop for Hamilton, but they didn't take it the opportunity. Whether they were worried about the length of the safety car period, or worried about Lewis driving a long final stint on the softer option tyres who knows, but it didn't seem a great idea.

One thing that did play in their favour was that Hamilton was able to avoid the congestion and confusion in the pit lane. Several teams had to queue their drivers in the pit boxes, notably the two Ferraris. On the exit of the pits there was a somewhat controversial incident involving Vettel and Alonso. The Toro Rosso team released Vettel right alongside Alonso, something that according to the regulations they shouldn't do. It resulted in Alonso effectively being pushed wide on the exit and running over the white line. It was a bit naughty from the Toro Rosso team, and I'm a little surprised they weren't punished for it. It would have been extremely harsh for Vettel as it was completely out of his hands, but Alonso was rightly furious about it.

Hamilton knew he had to use whatever fuel he had left in the car to eek out as much of a gap as possible over Massa. As he did in the early stint of the race, he disappeared from the cars behind him as he was consistently massively quicker. Although Massa wasn't impressing in the Ferrari, Hamilton didn't have the time to get enough of a gap. As he emerged from his final stop he was behind his team mate Kovalainen, with Massa, Heidfeld and Piquet off in the distance. He had 15 laps of maximum attack mode ahead of him if he was able to regain his lead.

Unsurprisingly, Kovalainen didn't put up too much of a fight with Lewis, and he made his way through at the hairpin. Massa was next in his sights, a few seconds up the road. Heidfeld pulled off into the pits for his final stop from the lead of the race, amazingly handing P1 to Nelson Piquet who had started on the second to last row of the grid! Massa really wasn't making any headway in terms of catching Piquet despite having theoretically a much faster car. It wasn't long before Hamilton was on the gear box of the Ferrari and ready to make his move.

What should have then emerged was a fantastic tooth and nail battle between two championship contenders for the lead of race. Instead, what we saw was Lewis Hamilton stealing candy from a baby. Within a few corners Hamilton was tucked neatly into the slip stream of the Ferrari on the run down to the hairpin. Massa took the correct defensive line and looked to be making things very difficult for Lewis. Then inexplicably, mystifyingly, ludicrously, Massa simply opened the door as wide as possible for Hamilton. He may as well have layed out some “Welcome Home” banners, put the kettle on and baked a nice cake for Hamilton, such was the ease with which he allowed him to glide past. It was terrible race driving from Massa, and on the evidence of that it is precisely why the likeable Brazilian will never become a World Champion.

There was some excellent battling further down the field too, with Vettel, Kubica and Trulli fighting over the final points paying position. Kubica had slipped down somewhat after Kovalainen overtook him with the move of the race around the outside of the Mercedes chicane. The other move competing for move of the race was Coulthard's move on Jenson Button into turn 2 earlier in the race, though Coulthard then blotted his copy book somewhat by colliding with fellow veteran Rubens Barrichello and taking the Brazilian's front wing off.

The final man left in Lewis' path was Nelson Piquet who was having the race of his life, despite a torrid qualifying session yesterday. Hamilton closed the gap within a couple of laps, and then put a similar move on Piquet into the hairpin. Nelsinho didn't fight too hard, but then again he isn't challenging for a world title. He was just absolutely thrilled to be keeping his car on the track and heading for his first podium finish.

From there on in it was plain sailing for Hamilton. What should have been an extremely hard battle to salvage victory from the jaws of defeat turned out not to be so tricky after all. He drove the last 3 laps in clear air and was able to take the chequered flag with time to spare. It was a brilliant performance from Hamilton in front of the thousands of Mercedes fans in the crowd. Given the rather lacklustre performances from his two rival Massa and Raikkonen, Hamilton will now be the clear favourite to go on and claim his first ever world championship. On this evidence, and judging from his performance in the wet of Silverstone, Hamilton is currently in a class of his own.

Hamilton's problems from earlier in the season look to be well and truly behind him. He is no longer over driving the car, and he seems to have a cooler head on his shoulders at this present moment. Ferrari on the other hand seem to be struggling; both drivers are struggling for pace and more importantly consistency. Felipe Massa seemed rather chuffed with himself on the podium after the race. I suspect he may have had the smile wiped from his face after meeting with his team for debrief, because the way he let Hamilton through so easily was inexcusable. With Ferrari seemingly in a bit of muddle, is there anything to stop Lewis Hamilton at this point in the season?

Race Results

1.Hamilton
2.Piquet
3.Massa
4.Heifeld
5.Kovalainen
6.Raikkonen
7.Kubica
8.Vettel
9.Trulli
10.Rosberg
11.Alonso
12.Bourdais
13.Coulthard
14.Fisichella
15.Nakajima
16.Sutil
17.Button
18.Barrichello ret
19.Webber ret
20.Glock ret

German Grand Prix Qualifying: Hamilton in the Driving Seat

2008-07-19T14:52:00.003+01:00

Lewis Hamilton scored a last gasp pole position for McLaren-Mercedes right in the heartland of Mecedes-Benz at Hockenheim today. He will start tomorrow's German Grand Prix alongside one of the men with whom he currently shares the World Championship lead, Ferrari's Felipe Massa. It was a very poor day for the other man vying for the title though, as Kimi Raikkonen could only manage sixth place in a very competitive Ferrari. He was edged out by compatriot Heikki Kovalainen, as well as a couple of superb laps from Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso.

The session got underway under slightly overcast but warm and dry conditions. A swirling wind had a few drivers on their pit radios complaining of struggling with balance early on in the first session, but otherwise the conditions were pretty good for driving race cars. At the top of the timesheets it was the expected Ferrari vs McLaren battle ensuing, with Felipe Massa leading the top four drivers. He badly needed a good performance after his horror show at Silverstone last time out, and it was the perfect start to his day's work.

Massa's fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello came back to earth with a bump after his brilliant podium in Britain by getting knocked out in the very first session. He will start 18th, ahead of the two Force India cars on the back row. Nelson Piquet had a very poor session finishing 17th. After seemingly having a bit of a recovery in this very troubled debut season of his, he now seems to have gone backwards again. His misery was to be compounded later in the day when team mate Alonso showed just what the Renault car is capable of in expert hands. Nakajima was the final man to miss out, being squeezed out very narrowly by Jenson Button.

The second session saw much of the same up at the front of the grid, with Lewis Hamilton this time narrowly edging out Massa's Ferrari for top spot. The top four drivers were through safely, but Fernando Alonso was able to squeeze into the top four st the expense of Raikkonen, who wasn't really impressing so far.

The battle for the final spots in the shoot out was between the likes of all four Red Bull drivers, the BMW cars, and the Toyota of Glock. In the end there was disappointment for two of the German drivers as Glock and Heidfeld missed out by the narrowest of margins, with compatriot Rosberg a little further back. However, Germany's new favourite son Sebastien Vettel restored some pride as he put in an excellent performance to get into the top 10. Toro Rosso team mate Bourdais looked like he could be in with a shout of getting into the final session, but after setting a very good first sector he looked up hugely going into the hairpin and disappeared off onto the run off zone; his day was over. Both Red Bull Racing drivers did well to get through into the final session.

The final session saw a real split between the top 7 drivers and the next three. Webber, Coulthard and Vettel were having their own miniature battle for 8th, 9th and 10th, but were at least a full half a second adrift of the rest of the field. Webber was eventually 'victorious', with Vettel getting into 9th ahead of the man he will replace at Red Bull, David Coulthard. Kubica will start alongside Webber after a decent session. He seemed to drive pretty strongly and cleanly, but the BMW just seems to have lost the edge they had over the rest of the mid field. Perhaps they are focusing more towards their 2009 challenge?

Going into the final minutes of the session Massa was quickest. Raikkonen seemed to have found a bit of pace at last and went second fastest behind Massa. However, his team mate then increase his advantage to a full half second, really showing just how much quicker he is than his team mate this weekend. The two McLarens were the next cars to enter the Stadium sector with Kovalainen heading for the line first. He went bouncing through the grass on the exit of the final turn, but still had enough pace in hand to get ahead of Raikkonen. Hamilton was next through and kept things much more tidy through the final corners to snatch a brilliant pole position by nearly 2 tenths of a second. The action wasn't over yet though, as Fernando Alonso and qualifying specialist Jarno Trulli were both still out on track. Both drivers caused a real upset by getting ahead of World Champion Kimi Raikkonen. Clearly they are quite light on fuel, but brilliant laps from the two former Renault team mates nonetheless.

So going into tomorrow's race, the first of the second half of the season, it is advantage Hamilton. However, the start will be as crucial as ever with Felipe Massa breathing right down his neck. One of the key points of interest will be how long it takes Kimi Raikkonen to get ahead of the two cars in front of him on the grid. If he gets bottle-necked for more than a few laps then the top three cars may well have disappeared down the road and left him with no chance of a race win. He will be desperate to keep in touch though, as if Massa starts to edge out something of a lead over these next couple of races Ferrari may consider putting more effort behind the Brazilian's title push, at the expense of the current champ.

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Hamilton
2. Massa
3. Kovalainen
4. Trulli
5. Alonso
6. Raikkonen
7. Kubica
8. Webber
9. Vettel
10. Coulthard
11. Glock
12. Heidfeld
13. Rosberg
14. Button
15. Bourdais
16. Nakajima
17 Piquet
18. Barrichello
19. Sutil
20. Fisichella

British Grand Prix: Race Report

2008-07-06T14:45:00.002+01:00

Lewis Hamilton has won a thrilling, rain soaked British Grand Prix to delight his thousands of partisan home supporters at Silverstone, and his millions of fans across the UK. It was an action packed race from start to finish, which ended up with a couple of surprise podium finishers, some spectacular on track action, and a three way tie for the World Championship lead.

The big question on the grid was one of tyre choice. The rain had been falling intermittently all day long, and the track was decidedly wet for the formation lap. The heavy rain tyre would probably have been the ideal choice for the start given all the standing water, but with 20 cars on track the standing water was going to be lifted from the track within a few laps, so everyone went with the intermediate wet tyres. Inevitably, this would make things extremely treacherous for the first couple of laps.

From the start Kovalainen got a good start from pole, but Webber caught a little too much wheel-spin from P2 and was immediately into the clutches of the fast-starting Hamilton. Lewis was able to put his McLaren right down the inside into Copse, and appeared to leap from fourth to first in the space of one corner. His team mate Kovalainen had other ideas however, and held on tenaciously around the outside of Copse despite some contact with Hamilton. They were side by side going into Maggots, but Lewis recognised discretion was the better part of valour and didn't try anything outrageous on Kovalainen. Great racing from the pair of them.

Coming out of Chapel it all went horribly wrong for Mark Webber. After already losing out to Hamilton and Raikkonen off the start he lost the back end under power and spun 180 degrees. He was left stranded coasting backwards down the Hangar straight, and could do nothing but sit and watch the entire field scream past him, and hope that nobody hit him. All of his superb work from yesterday was completely undone in an instant.

Webber certainly wasn't the only driver to struggle on the opening lap. World Championship leader Massa spun on the exit of Abbey and was swallowed up by the pack. He was to spin again on the second lap of the race on what was a dismal afternoon for the Brazilian. Nakajima also had difficulties at Abbey, bouncing through the gravel. Then David Coulthard, on his last ever home Grand Prix appearance, clipped the rear of Vettel in Brooklands and sent the both spinning off into the gravel for an early bath. That rounded off an horrendous first lap for both Red Bull teams, with only Bourdais managing to keep his car pointy end first.

Out front Hamilton was pressing Kovalainen hard for the lead, with Raikkonen sitting in behind the pair of them and hoping to capitalise on any coming together in front of him. After a couple of laps of great defence from Kovalainen, he eventually got a poor run out of Chapel, allowing Hamilton to close down the Hangar Straight. Heikki could have defended again into Stowe, but his team mate was storming down the straight behind him and any defence would have risked putting both McLarens out of the race. Hamilton dove up the inside, and the 90,000 strong British crowd roared as he took the lead for the first time in the race.

As the standing water cleared and the race settled down into the first stint, Hamilton was edging ahead in the McLaren, with Fernando Alonso putting in a good stint getting up to fourth place, and Mark Webber clawing his way back up the field after his early spin. Massa should also have been streaming up through the backmarkers towards the points, but he was struggling terribly. It took him 16 laps just to get past one car at the back of the field. He may as well not have bothered though, as he was to become very familiar with that last place position throughout the race.

As the end of the first stint approached, Raikkonen was suddenly catching Hamilton at a rate of knots. The McLaren is notoriously hard on its tyres, and again it seemed that the inters were starting to go off for Hamilton. They pitted together less than a second apart. It was in this pitstop that Ferrari's strategy decision threw away any chance of a Kimi win. With the rain clouds closing in Ferrari chose to keep the same, badly worn inter tyres for Kimi. Hamilton changed to fresh inters, and it was clearly the correct choice. As the rain began to fall Kimi's tyres had too little tread left to move the standing water, and Hamilton cruised away at the front at the rate of 4-5 seconds per lap. Kimi had looked seriously capable of taking the win away from McLaren, but all hope of that was now destroyed.

With the rain falling the conditions were incredibly challenging for all the drivers out there. Alonso and Webber were the other drivers that stayed on worn inters along with Kimi, and all three struggled terribly in this stint. Webber ended up spinning several times, as did Kimi. None could match the display of Massa though, who managed to spin at least 5 times throughout the Grand Prix, putting a massive dint in his championship aspirations. However, at least they all managed to finish the race, which is more than could be said of the likes of Sutil, Fisichella, Piquet and Button who all spun off and out of the race. The biggest surprise out of the spinners was championship contender Robert Kubica, who spun at high speed and ditched it in the gravel trap. In truth, it hadn't been a good weekend for him up until that point anyway, as he was being eclipsed by his team mate Heidfeld for the first time in a while.

There were three drivers on a march. Barrichello was on heavy rain tyres and was lapping massively faster than anyone else. He was up as high as second at one point, but a problem with his fuel rig meant he had to make an extra stop and he had to settle for a brilliantly earned third place. Nick Heidfeld was one of the few drivers who was enjoying the conditions on his intermediate tyres. He was driving superbly and was heading through the field at a phenomenal rate. His march through the field included two maneuvers in which he overtook two cars in the space of one corner. He may have been struggling with the set-up of the BMW so far this season, but this performance showed that he is a brilliant racer, and one of the best and boldest overtakers in Formula One.

The other man on a charge though was Lewis Hamilton. On the same intermediate tyres as everyone else he was lapping 4, 5, even 6 seconds per lap faster than some of his rivals at some points during this stint. It was some absolutely mesmerising driving from Hamilton, and it was this stint which set up what ended up being a comfortable victory for Hamilton. He may as well have been on a different race track for that period, such was the difference in speed between Hamilton and his rivals. This was the strongest way possible in answering his critics, who had been questioning the hype surrounding Lewis, and wondering whether he really is all he's cracked up to be. This performance showed that he really is the real deal, and then some.

Although it turned out to be a comfortable victory for Hamilton, that wasn't the end of the fun for the spectators. There were great battles throughout the field right until the final lap of the race. Raikkonen put in a good recovery after his tricky middle stint, and battled his way through the to a strong fourth place. It was a real champion's performance from Kimi, despite his problems. Fernando Alonso too was showing some of the brilliance that took him to back to back titles as he fought with Kimi and Kovalainen for lap after a lap. Eventually he lost out to the two much faster cars, but it was an excellent, battling performance from Alonso.

Even right down to the final corners of the race there was drama, as Nakajima lost seventh place to Jarno Trulli after he had been challenging for sixth with Alonso. It will no doubt have infuriated the Williams team, who had implored the young Japanese to focus on defending from Trulli, and not fighting Alonso for sixth.

So after a stunning driver, arguably the greatest of his short career, Lewis Hamilton now heads a 3-way tie for the World Championship lead with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. With half of the season still to go, it is sure to be a thrilling race for the title all the way to Brazil. With this performance though, and the apparent strength of the McLaren car, Hamilton will now be installed as the bookie's favourite. It was a magnificent performance to win what was a magnificent British Grand Prix, and showed just a great a track Silverstone can be, and how it will be sorely missed from the calendar after next year.

Provisional Race Result
1. Hamilton
2. Heidfeld
3. Barrichello
4. Raikkonen
5. Kovalainen
6. Alonso
7. Trulli
8. Nakajima
9. Rosberg
10. Webber
11. Bourdais
12. Glock
13. Massa
ret Kubica
ret Button
ret Piquet
ret Fisichella
ret Sutil
ret Vettel
ret Coulthard

Donington to Host British Grand Prix from 2010!

2008-07-04T12:05:00.003+01:00

The BRDC and British motor racing fans were given something of a shock today as Bernie Ecclestone announced that Donington Park would be the new home of the British Grand Prix from 2010 onwards. It appears next year's race will be the final Silverstone Grand Prix as Bernie has finally followed through on his repeated threats to take the GP away from Silverstone unless they commit to improving the circuit facilities.

It will be a massive disappointment to Damon Hill and the rest of the BRDC, who have been fighting tooth and nail to secure the funding to improve the track facilities enough to ensure the future of the GP. Silverstone held its very first Grand Prix back in 1950, and it has been a near permanent fixture on the F1 calendar ever since. It has a rich history in the sport, and it will be sorely missed by many. Corners like Copse and the Maggots/Becketts complex are some of the fastest and most thrilling of any F1 circuit, and have been favourites with fans and drivers for many years.

Donington Park last held a Grand Prix back in 1993, when it played host to the rain affected European Grand Prix, won spectacularly by Ayrton Senna. It is a very good circuit, and has held many GT races and MotoGP events over recent years. The facilities aren't yet anywhere near the standard required of an F1 circuit, and I'm sure the BRDC would argue that currently they are way behind Silverstone in that respect. However, there are concrete plans in place for the redevelopment of Donington over the next year, which no doubt proved convincing enough for Bernie.

"Finally the uncertainty is over. A contract has been signed with Donington Park and the future of the British Grand prix is now secure," said Ecclestone.

"We wanted a world class venue for Formula One in Britain, something that the teams and British F1 fans could be proud of.

"The major development plans for Donington will give us exactly that. A venue that will put British motor sport back on the map.

"I am sorry that we could not have helped Silverstone to raise the money to carry out the circuit improvements and run Formula One.

"I believe that the government should have supported them which would have cost probably less than .002% of the government's commitment for the Olympic Games."

British Grand Prix: First Practice

2008-07-04T12:00:00.003+01:00

At the end of a dry first practice session it was first blood to Ferrari and to championship leader Felipe Massa. He narrowly edged the McLaren duo of Hamilton and Kovalainen off the top spot, but his morning ended disastrously as his Ferrari ended up buried backwards in the safety barriers at Stowe corner, with half of its rear end missing. Certainly a dramatic start to proceedings at Silverstone!

The top three in the session, Massa, Kovalainen and Hamilton, were separated by less than five hundredths of a second, showing just how closely competitive the top two teams are at the moment. Kimi Raikkonen was a further three tenths back, and Robert Kubica another four behind him. Fernando Alonso again showed that the Renault has developed some real pace by finishing sixth in the session despite only completing seven laps. He was followed by Sebastien Vettel, who yet again showed that he is a real star in the making by comfortably beating all three of the other Red Bull stable cars.

There was a fair bit of on and off track action to keep the spectators entertained. Adrian Sutil tested out the strength of the Force India suspension by launching his car across the bumpy grass at Becketts. Thankfully the wishbones were up to the task and he was able to continue. David Coulthard had a hairy moment on the exit of Luffield whilst trying to get the power down on the grass, and Lewis Hamilton had plenty of his usual crowd pleasing opposite lock antics. Jarno Trulli had a spectacular 360 spin in the Brooklands Complex, but kept the Toyota on the black stuff.

However, the big moment of the session came with half an hour remaining. On the flat out run down the Hangar Straight towards Stowe Fernando Alonso's Renault engine detonated spectacularly, forcing him to pull off and retire from the session. As all eyes were on a furious Alonso and his stricken Renault car, Felipe Massa came storming down the straight. There must have been plenty of Alonso's oil on the track, as the moment Massa touched the brakes the car swapped ends violently. He was a passenger as the car was sent hurtling towards the barriers at about 150mph. He eventually hit the barriers hard in virtually the exact same place Michael Schumacher binned his Ferrari here in 1999, breaking his leg in two places. Fortunately Massa sustained no injuries to speak of as the car impacted rear end first. The same could not be said for his car however, as the right rear side of the car suffered massive damage. It will be interesting to see whether Massa will need and kind of gearbox or engine change after this, which could potentially ruin his race. It will also be interesting to hear what Massa has to say about the Silverstone marshalls, as there appeared to be no yellow and red flags being flown to warn him of the possible danger...

Practice One Times

01. Massa Ferrari 1:19.575
02. Kovalainen McLaren 1:19.587 + 0.012
03. Hamilton McLaren 1:19.623 + 0.048
04. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:19.948 + 0.373
05. Kubica BMW 1:20.367 + 0.792
06. Alonso Renault 1:20.436 + 0.861
07. Vettel Toro Rosso 1:20.588 + 1.013
08. Piquet Renault 1:20.653 + 1.078
09. Coulthard Red Bull 1:20.698 + 1.123
10. Rosberg Williams 1:20.744 + 1.169
11. Webber Red Bull 1:20.892 + 1.317
12. Glock Toyota 1:21.102 + 1.527
13. Heidfeld BMW 1:21.107 + 1.532
14. Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:21.166 + 1.591
15. Trulli Toyota 1:21.265 + 1.690
16. Nakajima Williams 1:21.282 + 1.707
17. Button Honda 1:21.901 + 2.326
18. Sutil Force India 1:22.169 + 2.594
19. Fisichella Force India 1:22.219 + 2.644
20. Barrichello Honda 1:24.123 + 4.548

British Grand Prix: Preview

2008-07-04T02:51:00.003+01:00

With McLaren-Mercedes licking their wounds after two mallings in two consecutive races, first at the hands of BMW and then by Ferrari, they will be seeing their 'home' Grand Prix as the perfect opportunity to fight back. Young Brit Lewis Hamilton has lost vital ground in the driver's championship, and the McLaren team has fallen massively off the pace in the constructor's standings. They need to win, and they need to win big in front of their home fans if they are to get their title aspirations back on track.

Ferrari meanwhile have cruised to the top of both standings after their near faultless 1-2 finish in the French Grand Prix last time out. Massa will be strong favourite to emerge from Silverstone with his championship lead intact, and it would take a near miracle for BMW to overhaul Ferrari's advantage in the constructor's championship. Kimi Raikkonen will take an engine swap after his exhaust failure in the closing stages of the French GP, but will avoid a 10 place penalty after the added clemency this year's rules provide with regards to engine changes. Every body gets one free swap per season, so Kimi will not risk taking any chances with the engine that took such a pounding in Magny-Cours.

Much of the media spotlight inevitably has fallen upon Lewis Hamilton after two fairly disastrous races in a row, but even more so here as this is his home Grand Prix. With David Coulthard in a midfield Red Bull and Jenson Button in a catatonicly slow Honda, all British hopes lie with the McLaren driver with the possibility of being the first Englishman to win here since Johnny Herbert back in 1995. He showed very well in testing here last week, just to raise hopes that little bit further. There's no denying he has the talent to win here, and he may well have the car to win. A nation expects. No pressure then kiddo!

Of course, McLaren aren't the only British based team on the grid. Williams, Red Bull, Renault, Honda and Force India all run their F1 operations out of the UK. Indeed, Force India's factory is a mere stone's throw away from the Silverstone pit lane. With most of the staff of these teams present at the circuit on race day to cheer their drivers on, and combined with the rich history of the event, it is one of the races that the teams would dearly love to win.

Few of these teams have a chance unfortunately. However, the real fairy tale ending on Sunday would be for Red Bull's David Coulthard to win his third British Grand Prix. On Thursday he announced that he would be retiring at the end of this season. You couldn't imagine a better way for him to bow out of the sport than by winning his last ever home Grand Prix.

While the chances of that are clearly rather slim, one factor that could make it a slight possibility is the prospect of rain. The British "summertime" is in full swing in early July so, naturally, cool temperatures and intermittent heavy rain have been predicted all weekend long. It should be noted that rain was predicted for the past two races, and it never really came. But if it's going to happen anywhere it's most likely to be in the changeable climes of Great Britain! It could really mix things up come race day, and in qualifying too, so the potential for a shock result or two is definitely there.

So, will this be the start of a great McLaren fightback? Or will this be the weekend that Ferrari really started to engrave their name into both trophies again?

French Grand Prix Race Report: Ferrari to the fore on their favourite track

2008-06-22T16:37:00.002+01:00

Felipe Massa retook the lead in the F1 World Driver's Championship with a comfortable victory for Ferrari in today's French Grand Prix. He was able to lead home his teammate Raikkonen for a dominant 1-2 Ferrari whitewash, while one of their biggest rivals suffered a nightmare day ending up in a lowly 10th place.

From the start it was formation flying for the Ferraris as Raikkonen led Massa through turn 1, and they were able to set about building a healthy lead at the front. Alonso in third place had a poor getaway and was immediately at the mercy of Trulli and Kubica. Both drivers got through, but Kubica got ambitious down the outside of the Adelaide hairpin and Alonso was able to recover one of the positions he had lost.

Many eyes were on Hamilton and Kovalainen, both well down the field after receiving penalties, to see what kind of start they would make. In truth, neither driver got off to a great start. Hamilton got stuck behind Heidfeld on the grid, and Kovalainen got held up with the Red Bull of David Coulthard plummeting down the field after a poor start. The biggest drama of the opening laps was yet to come however, and it involved another controversial incident for Lewis Hamilton.

He knew he had to get past as many cars as he could as fast as he could, and the next man in his sights was Sebastien Vettel. He got alongside him on the run down to the Nurburgring chicane and tried an ambitious move down the outside. He got through, but couldn't avoid running wide and cutting across the second half of the chicane. It was a very marginal call, but Hamilton decided NOT to give the position back to Vettel. It looked as though he had gotten away with it, but after what seemed like an age the announcement came that the race stewards were investigating the incident. After a few minutes the inevitable drive-through penalty came, effectively ruining his chances of a decent finish.

By the time the penalty was announced Hamilton had passed his team mate and was bottled up behind the Renault of Nelson Piquet. Unusually, the McLaren didn't really have the pace to get past the Renault. Even when Lewis got into the slipstream of Piquet he didn't have anywhere near the straight line speed to make a pass into the hairpin. Even without the drive through penalty the McLaren didn't really look quick enough to have made it through the field to get a podium finish.

Meanwhile, at the front of the grid it was as easy as can be for the Ferraris. Raikkonen was beginning to build a gap to Massa, and Massa was leaving Trulli for dead in third. It didn't look as though anyone could stop Raikkonen from winning, and from it being a comfortable Ferrari 1-2 finish.

Trulli was holding firm in third place with Alonso and Kubica in close company. As was suspected, Alonso was running very light in qualifying and was the first man to pit. He came out right in front of his old adversary Lewis Hamilton, and it wasn't long until they were swapping paint again! Neither car was damaged as Hamilton squeezed past the fat-with-fuel Renault, but it was more high risk,scrappy driving from Hamilton.

Alonso's early stop meant that Kubica was able to emerge from his stop ahead of him, and was now hot on the heels of Trulli in third. Trulli was putting in an excellent performance, and although he wasn't able to keep on the pace of the Ferraris he was managing to hold Kubica and Alonso at arms length. It looked as though the battle for the final podium place was going to be the most interesting on track squabble for the rest of the day. Kubica and Alonso had always been in contention, and now Kovalainen had played his way firmly into the picture after being fuelled very heavy from the start.

However, the action at the front wasn't over by a long shot. Although we didn't see much of it on the TV screens, we could see from the timing screens that Raikkonen was all of a sudden losing about a second and a half per lap. Massa was closing on him at a rate of knots, and it seemed like Kimi definitely had a problem. Eventually the cameras picked up Raikkonen and we could see his right hand exhaust exit flapping in the air stream. It wasn't long before Massa was right on his tail, and the only sensible option was for Kimi to let his team mate through. In doing so he was effectively handing the the world title lead to Massa, and losing even further ground in his title defence.

Eventually Raikkonen's times stabilised and he was able to make second place comfortably his own. Not great news for Raikkonen exactly, but we saw Michael Schumacher have to retire from a race with a broken exhaust in 2000, so it could potentially have been much worse for him.

Behind him the heat was on in the battle for third. Kovalainen had closed to within about a second of Trulli with 10 laps to go, and was pushing hard just as drops of rain began to fall. The rain turned out not to be too severe and was only enough to cause a few slippery moments here and there. Kubica was holding station in fifth place, waiting to pounce on any kind of incident between the McLaren and Toyota and a the potential for a collision was certainly there as Kovalainen was pushing Trulli extremely hard. A few years ago here Rubens Barrichello stole a podium finish from Trulli in the dying moments, and Kovalainen was hoping for a similar moment of weakness from the Italian.

Behind the battle for third there was a final bit of drama for Fernando Alonso. After all the promise from qualifying yesterday it had all gone wrong for the Spaniard. On badly worn soft tyres he was in a battle with Mark Webber, and he ran badly wide in the hairpin. However, not only did Webber gain a place but his young team mate Piquet also squeezed through, resulting in the first really impressive performance from Piquet in his F1 career.

In the final two laps Kovalainen knew he had to make a brave move if he was to snatch the podium away from the impressive Trulli. He got a good run out of '180' and pulled alongside the Toyota on the run up to the second high speed chicane. It was always going to be in incredibly ballsy move to pull off, and in the end it was a move too far the Finn. After some contact at 160+ mph Kovalainen had to take to the escape road and settle for fourth place and some decent championship points for the first time in a while.

Out front Massa cruised serenely to his third victory of the year, and put himself into pole position for the long title run in. Raikkonen scored points for the first time in a few races, but his race will still be tinged with a bit of disappointment. Jarno Trulli was undoubtedly the driver of the day though. Not only was he quick throughout the day he also had to withstand severe pressure from a number of different drivers throughout the day. It was a real highlight in his career, and a fitting tribute to the founder of Toyota Motorsport Ove Andersen who tragically lost his life in a rallying incident in the past week.

Going into the British Grand Prix Massa leads the title but it is certainly close. The top four drivers (Massa, Kubica, Kimi and Hamilton) are separated by just ten points, so it's still anyone's game from now until the end of the season...

French Grand Prix Qualifying: Ferrari lock out the front row in France

2008-06-21T14:04:00.002+01:00

Kimi Raikkonen led home Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa to score a fairly comfortable front row lock out for tomorrow's French Grand Prix. With Hamilton receiving a penalty and BMW looking strangely out of sorts it was always looking likely to happen. The only man you would have thought was capable to stop him was Heikki Kovalainen, but he wasn't able to step up to the plate and spoil Ferrari's party, much to the disappointment of McLaren. In fact it was Fernando Alonso who got closest to stealing the headlines from the Scuderia, putting in a great performance in front of the Renault fans.

After stunning the F1 world with a 1-2 finish in Canada last time out, perhaps the biggest talking point of the days events will be the poor showing of the BMW team. They struggled from the beginning of the very first session with understeer problems on corner entry and oversteer on exit. On a short track like Magny-Cours where the cars are very closely matched in terms of time throughout the field, those tenths of a second that slip through your fingers when struggling to get a car locked on to an apex are crucial. Heidfeld struggled to make it through even the first session, and then ended up 12th in the second. Kubica was lucky to make it through to the final ten, although he did recover to finish 7th (effectively 6th after Hamilton's penalty).

BMW's disappointment was good news for the likes of Renault, Toyota and Red Bull. Fernando Alonso finished fourth (net third) to delight the French fans. Perhaps Renault have fuelled him light and put him on a three stopper to snatch a few headlines, but it's still a decent performance from Alonso who is driving on top form here this weekend. Toyota really pulled it out of the bag today with a very strong performance from Trulli. It's always hard to work out what's going on with Toyota as they are the masters of inconsistency; one race they're average, one race they're poor, then the next race they're up on the second row!

Another team that would have expected to profit from BMW's woes is Williams, but they really disappointed today. After all the early season optimism and Rosberg's podium at Australia things really seem to be fizzling out for them, with Rosberg and Nakajima in 15th and 16th respectively. Still, at least they aren't Honda! They are really struggling badly at the moment. Perhaps the worst part of all is that neither driver is complaining of any problems with the cars or any handling difficulties. Their car drives well, but they're just plain slow.

Honda and indeed Williams look to have been overtaken by the Toro Rosso team, who have really got their new car firing well. It's a mark of how far they've come when they are disappointed at the fact that they didn't get Vettel into the final session. They'll just have to settle for 13th and 14th, which is still a very respectable finish for a team of their size and resources.

With Lewis Hamilton knowing that wherever he finished he would drop 10 places the final session was as much about strategy for McLaren as it was about outright pace. It seems likely that Hamilton will run a 3 stop strategy and try to stay lighter than his rivals throughout the race. Hamilton will have wanted to finish first on the timesheets, with Kovalainen also looking strong in order to try and disrupt the Ferrari's plans. As it was, Hamilton finished a decent but slightly disappointing 3rd (net 13th) and Kovalainen a very disappointing 6th. There is very little Heikki can do to influence the race from the third row, barring some kind of miracle first lap. He'll have a tough enough job just getting past the likes of Alonso who is clearly running a little light.

So after a pretty faultless performance from Massa and Raikkonen it is Ferrari's race to lose. Unless they manage to take each other out at the first hairpin there should be little to stop them scoring a 1-2 finish. The only thing that could really throw a spanner in the works from them is the potential of thunderstorms. Rain always makes things unpredictable in racing, and there is a strong possibility of safety cars in those kinds of conditions, which could play into the hands of the likes of the McLarens. Either way though, you'd be a fool to bet against a red car taking the chequered flag tomorrow.

French Grand Prix: Free Practice 2

2008-06-20T14:33:00.003+01:00

Fernando Alonso sprung something of a surprise in Friday's second free practice session for the French Grand Prix by edging out the Ferraris to take top spot. It was more of an eventful session this time out, with several drivers taking high speed trips through the kitty-litter. Thankfully nobody hit anything solid at the end of it, but it was evidence that the drivers are really pushing to find the absolute limits of grip out there.

Again the session was run under blue skies and glorious sunshine with no sign of the thunderstorms that had threatened to cast a shadow over proceedings. Thankfully there was far more running in the early part of the session than in first practice.

As previously mentioned, there were several drivers pushing beyond the limits of gri[ in this session. The outside of turn 7 was proving particularly popular, although these days it's all astroturf and tarmac in the run off area so there is little chance of a major incident there. Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to sample the gravel on the outside of the high speed Estoril corner, and he wasn't to be the last. Aside from a chipped front wing and a bruised ego there was no major repercussions for Hamilton.

Fisichella and Piquet both managed to go too hot into the second to last corner and ended up in the gravel, but they also managed to avoid hitting anything. The man who came closest to a serious incident was Felipe Massa in the dying moments of the session. He ran wide on the exit of Estoril and kept his foot in as he bounced across the gravel. He came within about a foot of clipping the tyre barrier at very high speed.

Massa couldn't quite repeat his excellent showing from earlier in the day and ended the session in second place behind Alonso. Kimi Raikkonen was in close attendance in third place with Hamilton in fourth. Perhaps an even bigger surprise than Alonso in first place was Sebastien Vettel in fifth. He beat the likes of Robert Kubica and Heikki Kovalainen on pace in yet another superb showing for the young German.

It was a good day in general for Toro Rosso with Bourdais putting in a good showing in 13th place too. They look as though they are really getting their act together and could well start pressing their big brothers Red Bull in terms of pace. They certainly seem to have left behind the likes of Honda, who are again struggling badly. After what seemed like a mini recovery after their appalling pre-season they seem to have gone backwards and are now battling with the Force Indias at the very bottom of the time sheets!

But the headlines belong to Fernando Alonso who looks to have found some real pace here. It will make it all the more galling for him that he had that problem right at the end of first practice, which looks like it will cost him places on the grid. He looks as racey as ever though, and was certainly the most spectacular driver through the tricky final chicane. Several times he was seen airborne across the bumpy kerbs, and then using armfuls of opposite lock to keep the Renault out of the barriers. Normally that sort of driving doesn't pay dividends in terms of lap times, but Alonso seems to have found a way to make it work for him!

Free Practice Two Times

01 F. Alonso Renault 1:15.778 37 laps
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:15.854 24 laps
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:15.999 42 laps
04 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:16.232 28 laps
05 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:16.298 42 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.317 35 laps
07 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:16.340 36 laps
08 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:16.458 43 laps
09 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:16.543 39 laps
10 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:16.572 36 laps
11 N. Rosberg Williams 1:16.682 42 laps
12 J. Trulli Toyota 1:16.743 43 laps
13 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:16.758 42 laps
14 K. Nakajima Williams 1:17.002 32 laps
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:17.092 39 laps
16 M. Webber Red Bull 1:17.106 38 laps
17 J. Button Honda 1:17.244 37 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:17.394 42 laps
19 R. Barrichello Honda 1:17.591 27 laps
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:17.868 33 laps

French Grand Prix: Free Practice 1

2008-06-20T13:50:00.003+01:00

Felipe Massa started his French GP weekend off in perfect style by comfortably setting the fastest time here in first practice. He led Lewis Hamilton by a full 7 tenths of a second come the end of the session, with Kovalainen, Raikkonen and Kubica trailing even further in his wake. It was a fairly uneventful session in terms of on track incident, but many drivers complained of struggling to find grip on the 'green' track. Nobody was as frustrated as Fernando Alonso however, as he ended the session prematurely in smokey fashion.

With the skies looking relatively clear and the sun shining it seems to be a perfect day for burning some hydrocarbons around a racing track, but few drivers managed to get fully to grips with the circuit. Whether it is a problem with the track itself, or with the tyres that Bridgestone have brought to France remains to be seen, but there have been plenty of lock ups and slides, and a few drivers complaining of graining on their tyres.

For the first 25 minutes of the session literally nobody set a single time! Most drivers had a quick installation lap, but nothing serious. Eventually things got going, and one of the early men to impress was Sebastien Vettel. This kid really does have rare pace and talent. Given a few years' development and a good car he really could become a superstar.

Eventually it became the expected battle between Ferrari and McLaren for the top spots. McLaren looked the strongest early on, but toward the end of the session Felipe Massa really came to the fore. By the end of the session he was the only man in the 1.15s, and comfortably so at that. The McLarens looked decent throughout, but didn't have the outright pace to match Massa.

After a spin by Trulli towards the end, the session ended in rather dramatic fashion. Fernando Alonso was forced to stop out on track with his Renault gushing out huge plumes of smoke. It looked suspiciously like an engine failure, and will surely mean a ten place penalty for him for the race on Sunday. Bad news for Alonso and the partisan Renault fans, and a real shame as he was looking decent in terms of pace throughout the session.

Free Practice 1 Times

01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:15.306 22 laps
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:16.002 22 laps
03 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:16.055 20 laps
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:16.073 21 laps
05 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.377 19 laps
06 F. Alonso Renault 1:16.400 23 laps
07 J. Trulli Toyota 1:16.758 32 laps
08 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:16.838 27 laps
09 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:16.870 21 laps
10 T. Glock Toyota 1:16.886 31 laps
11 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:17.063 31 laps
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:17.234 21 laps
13 M. Webber Red Bull 1:17.269 22 laps
14 N. Rosberg Williams 1:17.394 30 laps
15 R. Barrichello Honda 1:17.491 25 laps
16 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:17.683 27 laps
17 K. Nakajima Williams 1:17.696 25 laps
18 J. Button Honda 1:17.928 21 laps
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:18.072 27 laps
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:18.673 13 laps

French Grand Prix: Preview

2008-06-20T13:11:00.003+01:00

This weekend the Formula 1 circus moves to France to shatter the idyllic peace of the French countryside region of Nevers, and for possibly one of the last ever times at the Circuit Magny-Cours. If it is to be the last ever race here, hopefully the track can provide us with one final dramatic race to give us something to remember it by. Traditionally the circuit has been a Ferrari stomping ground with Michael Schumacher in particular enjoying incredible success here. With one of their main rivals suffering a 10-place grid penalty for this race, Ferrari would have to be strong favourites to continue their rich vein of form here on Sunday.

All the talk in the wake of the excellent Canadian Grand Prix has revolved around Lewis Hamilton and his uncharacteristic mistake in the pit lane. The controversial incident eliminated both Hamilton and current Champion Raikkonen, thereby handing a debut race victory and the World Championship lead to Robert Kubica. As a result Hamilton will start the race with a 10 place grid penalty, and something of a mountain to climb if he is to avoid losing ground in the championship battle to the likes of Massa, Kubica and Raikkonen.

Last year's French GP winner Kimi Raikkonen will be looking to rediscover his touch and get his title defence back on track. Obviously, last time out he was unlucky to be taken out of the race in that bizarre pitlane incident, but prior to that he had been looking rather indifferent. Indeed, after a troubled start to the year it is his teammate Felipe Massa who has been looking much the stronger of the two Ferrari drivers on current form. The young Brazilian will see this weekend as an excellent chance to depose Kubica from his spot at the top of the standings.

One man who could have a key role to play here is Heikki Kovalainen. After some bad luck and a couple of weak performances it is looking like he is out of the running for the WDC. However, his McLaren team will be desperate for him to get amongst the Ferraris and Kubica to try and take as many points off them as possible. With Hamilton likely to be fuelled extremely heavily from the start, McLaren may run Kovalainen light to cement pole position and to try and control the pace of the race from the front for as long as possible.

A lot of the discussion and speculation in the media in the run up to the event has revolved around Renault's Fernando Alonso. He will be looking to put on a good show in front of the French Renault fans who fell in love with him as he stormed to two back-to-back titles for the team in 2005 and 2006. It is highly unlikely though that he will repeat his excellent victory here in 2005, or even come close to it. The Renault isn't competitive enough, and that is the main reason so much speculation has continued to follow the Spaniard. He is yet to commit to another year at Renault and is said to be considering his options for 2009, with strong rumours in the air that he has already signed a pre-contractual agreement to drive for Ferrari in 2010.

The track itself here isn't a bad one. It is super smooth and usually in excellent condition, and the highlights are two super-fast chicanes where you really get to see Formula 1 cars being worked to their limit. With sweeping changes to the aero regulations for 2009 it is unlikely that we'll ever see cars cornering at such vicious speeds through corners like these again, so it's definitely worth paying as much notice as possible before F1 cars get somewhat neutered. There is also one VERY tight hairpin which creates overtaking opportunities aplenty. This will be the point where we'll no doubt see Lewis Hamilton making his moves on the slower cars to try and battle his way through the field.

The other big factor here this weekend could well be the weather. We have been predicted scattered thunderstorms throughout the weekend, and they could play havoc with race day if they hit at the right time. The predicted rain didn't quite come in Montreal, and we'll have to see whether the drivers will be as lucky this time with the weather. One man praying for the rain to come will be Hamilton. It will open up options for him to get creative with his strategy to try and drag himself up toward the podium places, and also he just loves the rainy conditions as Monaco last month, and Fuji last year proved.

Canadian Grand Prix: A Star is Born on a nightmare day for the sport's major players!

2008-06-08T20:47:00.002+01:00

Robert Kubica has taken a surprise maiden Grand Prix victory in a thrilling race on the tarmac (and cement!) of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. It marks an incredible rise to prominence of the young Pole, who gained notoriety after an horrific accident here twelve months ago. This time though it was his driving talents that took the headlines, as they have been doing all season long. And after years without a win, the BMW-Sauber team took their first ever victory in style by making it a one-two with Heidfeld in second ahead of Davic Coulthard's Red Bull. And as if this wasn't already fairytale stuff for Kubica and BMW, the victory means Kubica now leads the WDC standings with BMW just 3 points behind leaders Ferrari in the WCC!

From the start Hamilton and Kubica both got perfect starts from the front row. As they filtered into turn one Fernando Alonso was the big loser as he got out of shape mid way through the complex and saw Nico Rosberg drive right around the outside of him and up into fourth. Barrichello got an excellent start and found himself up two places to 7th place after the first few corners, and Nakajima managed to leapfrog both Red Bulls and get himself up into P10.

By the end of the first lap Barrichello had surrendered one of the two positions he'd gained back to Kovalainen, and then within a couple of laps he was back where he started in ninth after Heidfeld made a good move on him into the hairpin. As drivers gradually got to grips with the inconsistent track there was some good racing out on track. Nelson Piquet was finally showing some signs of fighting for his F1 life as on consecutive laps he first passed Timo Glock into turn 1, and then Glock's teammate into the hairpin. Whatever work the organisers had done to the track before the race seemed to be working early on, as the track surface wasn't breaking up as badly as first feared.

The first retirement of the race wasn't due to the suspect track, but a simple mechanical failure for Adrian Sutil. His car ground to a halt on the side of the track and it all seemed pretty undramatic. However, this most ignominious of endings for the Force India actually ended up bringing about the most significant action of the race, and arguably the whole championship so far...

Sutil's brakes caught fire at the side of the track and marshalls were required on track. Race director Charlie Whiting decided to err on the side of caution and called for the safety car. By this point Lewis Hamilton had earned himself a comfortable lead and was looking on course for an easy victory. The safety car immediately negated his advantage, and he and the McLaren team decided to make their first stop, along with second placed Kubica and third placed Raikkonen. As they reached the end of the pitlane the red light was still on. Kubica and Raikkonen stopped side by side on the white line, but both Hamilton and Rosberg didn't see the light in time. Hamilton tried to take evasive action but couldn't avoid hitting the back of Raikkonen, and Rosberg in turn hit the back Hamilton.

Both title protagonists were now out of the race with their cars too badly damaged. Rosberg was able to continue but needed another stop for a new rear wing. It was a mistake from Hamilton, but his McLaren team must also have to take a portion of the blame. They should have learned their lesson after Juan Pablo Montoya was black-flagged from the race in 2005 for running a red light, and should have been screaming at Hamilton over the radio to watch out for the red light. But the team are also culpable because Hamilton shouldn't have been behind Kimi and Kubica anyway; it was a poor pit stop from the McLaren boys before it all kicked off at the pit lane exit. Lewis was suitably apologetic towards Raikkonen as he trudged sheepishly down the pit lane to his garage, but it would have been of little consolation to Kimi who saw any chance of points evaporate through no fault of his own.

Of course, the big winner from all of this was Robert Kubica. He was able to rejoin the race with no damage at all, and was looking comfortable for the race win. He was well back in the field, but had plenty of fuel on board. As a strange twist of fate it ended up being a straight fight between Kubica and his own teammate Heidfeld for the win, with not a Ferrari or McLaren in sight. Heidfeld was fuelled longer from the start, and having plenty of laps under the safety car allowed him to brim his tank at his first stop and run right to the end of the Grand Prix. He emerged from his lengthy stop just in front of Kubica with Fernando Alonso also in close attendance.

Kubica and Alonso both had to make one more stop but had an extremely heavy BMW in front. After a couple of laps Nick Heidfeld was given the order to let Kubica through, but obviously parked his BMW right on the apex of turn 2 to stop Alonso getting through too. The chase was now on for Kubica, as he knew he had to gain himself a 21-23 second gap for his second stop. He started putting in some great laps in the clear air he had and pulled away from Heidfeld at a rate of knots. Arguably Kubica's biggest ally was now Fernando Alonso. Heidfeld was spending his time fiercely battling off the Renault man, and it was undoubtedly hindering his lap times. With hindsight it would perhaps have been advisable to to let the much lighter Alonso through and concentrate on his own race, but it was better for the neutral fans as we saw the two having an excellent scrap.

Alonso looked like he may have gotten past at the hairpin a couple of times, only to run wide on the cement dust and let Heidfeld back through. By the time Alonso spun off the track and into the wall on the “marbles” at turn 7, both of their races had effectively been spoiled. Kubica had gained himself the time he needed, and Alonso had lost an eternity stuck behind the BMW which would have ruined his strategy anyway.

While all this was going on there was plenty of action elsewhere. Nelson Piquet spun in turn 3 and just managed to avoid the wall. He reversed out and VERY nearly got collected by Felipe Massa at high speed in what would have been a very nasty accident. Piquet was later to retire due to badly worn brakes in what was yet another massive disappointment for the young Brazilian, although there were slight signs of improvement early on. The way the safety car interrupted many teams' strategies meant that the order on track was highly unfamiliar. At one point Barrichello led from Coulthard and Trulli; surely one of the oldest top threes in Formula 1 history!

The strategy really didn't work out well for Barrichello, as after his stop he ended up plummeting down the field to finish in 7th. Still, a couple of championship points is more than he would have expected from the weekend. Kazuki Nakajima was having a decent race, having some good battles with the likes of the Toyotas and Hondas. Things went pear-shaped however, when he damaged his front wing by getting too ambitious under braking and needed to pit. As he turned into the pits his front wing got trapped under the car, lifting his front wheels off the ground. He was a complete passenger as he car careered into the pit wall.

So what of the other Ferrari and McLaren cars? With Hamilton and Raikkonen out it was a great opportunity for Felipe Massa to take the lead in the tile race. He wasn't having the best of days with regards to strategy and traffic though. He ended up making THREE pit stops when all of the front runners made just one, which was really through no fault of his own. There was certainly no lack of fighting spirit from Massa as he produced some thrilling moves throughout, most notably a DOUBLE passing maneuver in the hairpin. One of the men he passed there was Kovalainen, who wasn't having a good day at all. After being thrashed in qualifying by his teammate he seemed to be struggling more than most to get to grips with the tricky conditions. He did get unlucky with the strategies and had to pit twice, but still in the closing stages he was ousted from the final points paying positions by young Vettel who had yet another stellar day in the Toro Rosso.

Giancarlo Fisichella spun out in turn 4 and ended up in the barrier. Strangely, this didn't bring out a safety car even though it looked like a more dangerous position than the one Sutil's car ended up in. Ferrari brought Massa in for a splash and dash expecting a safety car, but it simply never came.

Robert Kubica was now cruising to a comfortable debut victory for him and the BMW-Sauber team, with Heidfeld and Coulthard nailed on to round off the podium. It wasn't a formality lower down the field however, as Massa was still desperately trying to gain as many points as possible. He came across the back of the two Toyotas who were running line-a-stern and was pressuring hard. Exiting the hairpin Glock lost traction on the loose surface, meaning Trulli was forced to back out of the throttle. This allowed Massa to cruise past Trulli on the long back straight. He couldn't quite get past Glock too, but still an excellent battling performance from the Brazilian.

So after a breathless and thrilling race with plenty of action and passing, and some high profile mistakes too, we have a new race winner on Formula 1's books and a new leader in the title standings to boot. Of course, it would be hard to imagine Robert Kubica ending the season at the top of the pile given the strength of the Ferraris and McLarens. Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen will still be ahead of him in the betting for taking the title. It does though marks a rise to stardom for the young Pole, and will certainly have the sports big money teams taking plenty of notice. He is out of contract at the end of the year, and BMW may well have a serious fight on their hands to keep him with the Hinwil based team. The world could well be his oyster...

Provisional Race Results

1. Robert Kubica
2. Nick Heidfeld
3. David Coulthard
4. Timo Glock
5. Felipe Massa
6. Jarno Trulli
7. Rubens Barrichello
8. Sebastien Vettel
9. Heikki Kovalainen
10. Nico Rosberg
11. Jenson Button
12. Mark Webber
13. Sebastian Bourdais
ret Fisichella
ret Alonso
ret Piquet
ret Nakajima
ret Raikkonen
ret Hamilton
ret Sutil

Canadian Grand Prix: Qualifying Report

2008-06-07T19:36:00.002+01:00

Lewis Hamilton recorded his second consecutive Montreal pole position with a blistering last minute lap to oust the impressive Robert Kubica. He wasn't just faster by a small margin either, he completely blitzed the field, which suggests that he may be running lighter than the other front runners on the grid. However, arguably the biggest story of qualifying was the condition of the track; it looked truly terrible as it broke apart throughout the session. The lap times were slow, and the drivers were incredibly cautious. Heaven only knows what sort of state it will be in during tomorrow's race after all the support races.

The session today was perfectly dry, and it was a beautifully warm and sunny day. Ideal conditions for driving a race car in theory. In practice however, things panned out rather differently as the track slowly began disintegrating from early on in the session. It was really disappointing to see, and Mark Webber in particular vented his frustration about the state of the track after he spun off at the end of Q2 and ruined his shot at the top-10 shootout. Lewis Hamilton's pole-setting time was a full TWO seconds slower than his pole time last year, which just shows how awful the track had become by the end of the session.

The first of the three sessions was fairly uneventful. With Vettel already out after his practice crash, and Button pulling out with a broken gearbox, there were only three more people to be eliminated. There were no shocks to be had, as the remaining Toro Rosso driver and both Force India drivers dropped out. Hamilton was comfortably fastest, and the only man to break under the 1:17s mark all afternoon.

The second session was a little more eventful. Jarno Trulli entertained the fans with some beautiful pirouetting in his Toyota. Needless to say, it didn't do him much good as he finished 14th ahead of Piquet and dropped out. Coulthard also dropped out, but complained about getting held up by Piquet who was on one of his patented epically slow hot-laps. Nakajima also dropped out after looking decent all weekend, and he was joined by Glock who put in one of his best showings of the season by beating his teammate for the very first time. As previously mentioned, Webber ended the session in the barriers and was robbed of the chance to fight it out in the final shootout.

Rubens Barrichello impressed by making it through to the final shootout for the first time in a while. He couldn't improve from ninth and last of the runners in the final session, but plenty of reason to be optimistic for one half of the Honda garage. For the rest of the field, it seemed to be a question of "who dares wins". Many drivers were extremely cautious in the deteriorating conditions, whereas the likes of Kubica and Hamilton seemed to throw caution to the wind and were throwing their cars over the kerbs with abandon. It seemed to work for them as they locked out the top row quite comfortably.

The Ferraris weren't too impressive, finishing in 3rd and 6th place for Raikkonen and Massa respectively. Whether they are heavier on fuel or not remains to be seen, but they may have their work cut out to stop Hamilton extending his lead in the championship.

Heidfeld and Kovalainen didn't impress at all, down in 8th and 7th place. More worryingly for them they were both comprehensively thrashed by their teammates. They were also well beaten by arguably the two stars of qualifying; Williams' Nico Rosberg and Renault's Fernando Alonso. They both managed to split the two Ferraris, and can be extremely happy with their day's work. They will both be hoping to convert their good performances into solid points finishes tomorrow after they both missed out in Monaco with accident filled races.

So tomorrow will be something of a voyage into the unknown for the drivers as they set out on a track which seems almost certain to fall to pieces throughout the course of the race. Lewis Hamilton is certainly in the ideal position as he will be able to avoid the trouble that will almost inevitably occur. There will probably be plenty of safety car periods throughout, just like last year. I think Mark Webber summed things up perfectly when he said they should be out on motocross bikes tomorrow, not Grand Prix cars...

Provisional Race Grid

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:17.886
02 R. Kubica BMW 1:18.498
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:18.735
04 F. Alonso Renault 1:18.746
05 N. Rosberg Williams 1:18.844
06 F. Massa Ferrari 1:19.048
07 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:19.089
08 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:19.633
09 R. Barrichello Honda 1:20.848
10 M. Webber Red Bull no time
11 T. Glock Toyota 1:18.031
12 K. Nakajima Williams 1:18.062
13 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:18.238
14 J. Trulli Toyota 1:18.327
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:18.393
16 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.916
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:19.108
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:19.165
19 J. Button Honda 1:23.565
20 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso no time

Canadian Grand Prix: Third Practice

2008-06-07T17:53:00.002+01:00

Sadly your intrepid reporter didn't get to see this session, but apparently it was a rather eventful one. Piquet spun out (again), Bourdais bent his rear suspension on the barriers, and his young teammate Vettel trashed his car in the same place. His car was so badly damaged he will be forced to sit out qualifying, but should be ready in time for the race tomorrow. It's a real shame, as he had been looking really strong all weekend. Stay tuned for today's qualifying report!

Canadian Grand Prix: Second Practice

2008-06-06T20:46:00.001+01:00

After a quiet first session, World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton showed his hand in the second free practice session of the day by taking P1 on the time sheets. He ended the dry session over a quarter of a second faster than Robert Kubica, who had his second P2 of the day. The BMWs seem to have recovered somewhat after two races off the pace, and seem to be right back in the thick of things with the Ferraris and McLarens. It looks very close between the top 3 teams, and should make for a fascinating qualifying day tomorrow.

The big news for the Tifosi though will be the sight of Felipe Massa's car grinding to a halt on out on the circuit with what could have been gearbox problems. It didn't look good for the Brazilian, and we will have to see whether he will end up incurring a penalty. Certainly some headaches for the Ferrari engineers.

The Red Bull and Williams cars again looked like the best of the rest, although Mark Webber almost trashed his car in the dying minutes of the session with a spectacular spin. The gravel trap did its job though, and he was able to continue without any damage. It was a poor session for Renault, with Fernando Alonso looking out of sorts. He had a shocker of a race here last year, and any anxieties about that performance won't have been helped with a couple of spins in the session, one of which ended in him stalling the car and needing to hitch a lift back to the pits.

Sebastien Vettel yet again impressed for Toro Rosso, while Toyota had a marginally better session this time out despite a big spin for Glock. The Hondas failed to improve however, and again looked pretty horrible all session long. Button in particular seems to be struggling to find a good setup on the Montreal circuit. The only man he was able to beat was Nelson Piquet Jnr, who again looked completely abject and devoid of any confidence whatsoever. He really is having a torrid time for Renault so far this season.

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:15.752 42 laps
02 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.023 41 laps
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:16.093 39 laps
04 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:16.331 36 laps
05 F. Massa Ferrari 1:16.413 27 laps
06 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:16.589 43 laps
07 M. Webber Red Bull 1:16.604 39 laps
08 N. Rosberg Williams 1:16.767 37 laps
09 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:17.019 43 laps
10 J. Trulli Toyota 1:17.068 46 laps
11 K. Nakajima Williams 1:17.242 37 laps
12 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:17.334 31 laps
13 R. Barrichello Honda 1:17.462 39 laps
14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:17.508 39 laps
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:17.549 31 laps
16 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:17.559 38 laps
17 F. Alonso Renault 1:17.644 30 laps
18 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:17.813 37 laps
19 J. Button Honda 1:17.842 39 laps
20 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:18.076 17 laps

Canadian Grand Prix: First Practice

2008-06-06T17:07:00.003+01:00

The first practice session for Sunday's Grand Prix got underway under stormy skies in Montreal, with few cars venturing out on track for the first 15 minutes or so of the session. It was raining quite hard, and the conditions out on track were extremely tricky, as evidenced by the performances of those who did try their luck. About half way through the session the rain stopped and the track began to dry out. Inevitably the times began to tumble, and in a very busy final five minutes it was Ferrari's Felipe Massa who took top spot.

The likes of Trulli, Fisichella, Alonso and Sutil were the first drivers to tip-toe out on track, and they were finding that traction was virtually non-existent. In the slow corners like the opening complex and the hairpin, the cars were chugging along as though they were driving on ice, such was the difficulty in getting any power down. Once they got a bit more accustomed to the conditions they tried to push a little bit, and Trulli was the first to find himself bouncing across the wet grass at the Turn 8 and 9 chicane. He wasn't to be the only one by any means, and indeed Trulli himself had more off track excursions than any other driver on track.

The big hitters were choosing to keep their powder dry early on, leaving the smaller teams to clean the track up a bit before they headed out. The only driver from the "big 3" teams to go out early on was Heidfeld, and he immediately went fastest. Those in the crowd who came to see the likes of Raikkonen and Hamilton would have been slightly disappointed by the lack of running from McLaren and Ferrari. Indeed, Hamilton turned just 8 laps in the session (the fewest of anybody) on his way to P6 on the time sheets.

His teammate Kovalainen was the second quietest driver out on track with just 10 laps under his belt, although his 3rd place proves that the McLaren has plenty of raw speed here. Kubica and Raikkonen each drove 12 laps, finishing 2nd and 5th respectively. The busiest of the headline drivers was also the fastest, as Felipe Massa took the honours in this first session. The session wasn't without its dramas for Massa though, as he went skidding through the wet grass at one point towards the end of the session as the drivers started to switch to dry tyres.

The Red Bulls, Williams and Renaults seemed pretty evenly matched (Nelson Piquet Jnr excepted). Vettel added another impressive session to his already glowing CV by beating the likes of the Hondas and Toyotas. The Toyotas drove more laps between them than any other team, and by some margin. It didn't appear to do them much good in terms of lap times though as they languished down in 13th and 14th place. The Hondas looked even worse throughout the session. Button and Barrichello both spent time in the grass run-offs, and they finished the session with a dismal 18th and 20th (last) place.

So first blood to Ferrari, but there was so little running in the session it is difficult to draw any conclusions from this session about how things will shape up in qualifying tomorrow...

Times

01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:17.553 14 laps
02 R. Kubica BMW 1:17.809 12 laps
03 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:18.133 10 laps
04 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:18.182 13 laps
05 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:18.292 12 laps
06 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:18.303 8 laps
07 M. Webber Red Bull 1:18.712 11 laps
08 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:18.809 12 laps
09 K. Nakajima Williams 1:18.971 24 laps
10 F. Alonso Renault 1:19.005 13 laps
11 N. Rosberg Williams 1:19.093 20 laps
12 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.228 21 laps
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:19.346 28 laps
14 J. Trulli Toyota 1:19.568 31 laps
15 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:19.815 16 laps
16 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:19.888 15 laps
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:20.091 23 laps
18 R. Barrichello Honda 1:20.173 17 laps
19 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.541 16 laps
20 J. Button Honda 1:21.542 17 laps

Canadian Grand Prix: Preview

2008-06-06T16:26:00.003+01:00

After the thrills and spills of a soaking wet Monaco two weeks ago, the Formula One circus crosses the Atlantic for its one and only trip to North America this season. As well as all the technology and speed, the glitz and glamour, and the controversy, Formula One appears to have brought the wet weather from Monaco with them to Montreal. The predictions are for scattered thunderstorms throughout the course of the weekend, mixed in with some high humidity and occasional sunshine. We could very well have our second wet race in succession!

With the controversy relating to FIA President Max Mosley still circulating the media, the F1 teams, manufacturers and drivers will be glad to get back to motor racing and hopefully making the headlines for all the right reasons. This time last year the Canadian Grand Prix made big headlines for two main reasons; firstly the debut victory of McLaren prodigy Lewis Hamilton, and secondly Robert Kubica's miraculous escape from a horrific mid-race accident.

There have been some much needed modifications to the track and the safety barriers that line the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve which will hopefully reduce the chances of another monster crash. Work has also been undertaken to try to improve the track surface itself, which has caused severe problems for the past two Grand Prix here as the surface breaks apart due to the heavy use from the F1 cars and all the support racing. The surface hasn't been fitting of the world's elite motor racing competition for some time now, but hopefully those problems will have been successfully remedied this weekend.

Lewis Hamilton returns to the circuit that holds so many happy memories for him after taking the lead in the World Championship standings last time out in Monte Carlo. The Ferrari duo of Massa and Raikkonen will be looking to hit back at McLaren after a disappointing race in Monaco, and they are the pre-race favourites to be on the top spots of the podium this weekend. Monaco suited the McLaren car, but the long straights here in Montreal should suit the Ferraris perfectly. Lewis Hamilton has already spoken of his worries over the superior straight-line speed of the red cars.

If the race does indeed turn out to be wet, then it could be another rare opportunity for some of the minnows at the back of the pack to make a name for themselves. Adrian Sutil and Sebastien Vettel were the two youngsters who shone in Monaco; will someone else get the chance to shine on Sunday? We'll have to wait and see...

Monaco Grand Prix Race Report: Tears and Cheers on the Streets of Monte Carlo

2008-05-25T15:27:00.003+01:00

Lewis Hamilton has taken his first victory on the wet streets of Monaco in a truly epic two-hour race. It was a race of drama, of bravery, of fortune and of heartbreak as the often processional race in Monaco was transformed by the changeable conditions. The win moves Hamilton to the top of the standings as current leader Raikkonen had a dismal race for Ferrari, much to his own cost and that of the true hero of the race Adrian Sutil.

The drama of the race began way before the allotted 2pm start time. With around half an hour to go before the start the track was fairly dry and there was no rain in the air, but everyone could see the rain clouds closing in rapidly from the mountains above Monte Carlo. The key question would be one of tyre choice, and all teams and drivers were leaving it as late as possible to make their decision as the rain finally began to fall with just minutes to go before the start. Some were even to leave it TOO late, as we would find out later.

In the end everyone bar Nelson Piquet began the race on Intermediate wet tyres, which seemed like the right choice given the greasy conditions. As they began the formation lap disaster struck for Heikki Kovalainen as his car appeared to stall on the grid. His pit crew pushed him frantically back to the pits so they could restart him at the back of the field. After his accident in practice he did a superb job to get his car onto the second row, but all that good work was undone in an instant.

The start would be a voyage into the unknown for the whole field, as they attempted a racing start in the wet for the first time since the ban on traction control. Off the line Massa and Hamilton both got away superbly, but Raikkonen caught too much wheelspin and bogged down off the line. By St Devote Hamilton was ahead and Raikkonen sensibly let him slot into the Ferrari sandwich. Thankfully, good sense prevailed throughout the field and nobody tried to be hero into that treacherous first corner. There was no contact or incident to speak of, for which all the drivers deserve huge credit.

As the drivers tip-toed around the opening couple of laps to get a feel for the circuit it was immediately apparent who was looking the most confident. Massa and Hamilton both began driving away from the rest of the field. Kimi Raikkonen in third looked distinctly unhappy in the slippery conditions and was much slower than his team mate and his other title rival Hamilton. Nick Heidfeld made an excellent start and was up to seventh and last year’s winner Alonso was showing his Monaco experience with some impressive early pace.

One of the heroes of qualifying Nico Rosberg was the first man to have an incident, and it was to be the first of many for the young German. He nudged the back of the car in front at the Loewes Hairpin and broke his front wing. The next major incident was for the pre-race favourite Lewis Hamilton who slid wide on the exit of Tabac and punctured his rear tyre on the Armco barrier. It seemed like disaster early on for the young Brit as he limped back to the pits, but such was the pace of the front two early on he was able to rejoin in fourth place after new tyres and a splash of fuel.

Alonso was pushing like mad, and put a superb move on Webber into Mirabeau. However, his over-confidence in the wet was soon to cost him as he slid into the barriers at the top of Massenet. He got away with it with just a broken rear wheel and no suspension damage. He came in to pit and decided on a full wet tyre, as the rain was worsening. In terms of pace it proved the right choice, but he was unable to exploit the advantage as he had lost so much track position after his crash.

Alonso wasn’t the only man to struggle at Massenet, as first Coulthard then Bourdais slid off into the barriers in quick succession. There was no reprieve for either driver as both cars were wrecked and the safety car was required to assist in the clearing of debris. Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen was given a drive through penalty for not having his tyres on the car three minutes before the start of the race. It was an awful school-boy error from the Ferrari team. Kimi stayed out for as long as possible to minimise the hit from his penalty, but is was still costly for him.

As the race settled down again Massa was leading Kubica who was impressing in the BMW. Felipe was looking strong but a slight loss of concentration on the way into St Devote was to cost him dearly. He out-braked himself slightly and ended up down the escape road. He spun the Ferrari round quickly, but not quick enough to save him from losing his race lead to Kubica.

While all eyes had been at the front of the field, and on those who were hitting the barriers, young Adrian Sutil had incredibly crept his way up into sixth place in the Force India. He kept his head while many other more experienced drivers were losing theirs, and showed some superb car control to man-handle his sluggish Force India up the grid. It was a great performance from the youngster, and looked in a strong position to get some decent points.

At the back end of the grid it was somewhat bizarre to see some world class drivers in quick cars battling it out fiercely for 13th, 14th and 15th place. Kovalainen, Alonso, Heidfeld and Rosberg were all in close company, along with Jenson Button and the two Toyotas. Glock had a particularly eventful race; he ended up beating his team mate despite having THREE spectacular spins throughout the race. A very lucky boy indeed.

With the clouds clearing and the sun beginning to shine, there was a distinct dry line beginning to show. It was getting towards the time where someone will take a gamble on dry tyres. Fernando Alonso was to be the guinea pig for the rest of the drivers as he skidded his way out through the pitlane puddles on grooved tyres to rejoin the race. After a scary moment on the Swimming Pool exit he gradually got his act together and was starting to show some pace. Piquet was the next to go to grooves. The rookie though barely made it through a single lap before binning his Renault at St Devote.

Webber was next up, and although the tyres gradually came to him he probably blinked too soon as he lost a position to Sutil, who was now sitting in an incredible fourth place. While all this had been going on Lewis Hamilton had quietly managed to cruise away at the front of the field. Incredibly, that early crash had actually worked in his favour as the extra splash of fuel he was able to put in was allowing him to stay out much longer than anyone else. Is lead was close to 40 seconds by the time he had to pit for dry tyres, and was able to emerge comfortable in front of the rest. Massa was fuelled to the finish but the strategy was not working for him as he had to make an extra stop for dry tyres and lost track position to Kubica.

It now looked like a straightforward cruise to the finish for Hamilton on a nicely drying track. However, his good friend Nico Rosberg soon put paid to that notion by proving that the track was still dangerous by stepping off the dry line at the Swimming Pool and slamming into the wall twice at speed. His car was a write off, and the safety car was needed to clear the masses of debris, although thankfully he was completely unhurt.

The field was bunched up again, and there would be a 10 minute sprint to the finish in the dry conditions. Hamilton got a great start from behind the safety car and started to pull away from Kubica. The young Pole seemed more concerned by his mirror-full of Ferrari than the McLaren up ahead.

Sutil was just a handful of laps away from a real fairy-tale result in fourth place, but would have his work cut out to keep a Ferrari at bay on the dry tyres. His job was cut cruelly, heartbreakingly short though, as Raikkonen lost it under braking for the chicane and clattered into the back of Sutil, breaking the rear end of his car. While Kimi was able to pit and continue to the end, Sutil’s day was done. Understandably he was utterly inconsolable in the pits. Kimi will certainly have some grovelling to do next time they see each other, as it really wasn’t clever driving from the World Champion.

So after two hours of frantic action, Lewis Hamilton was able to clinch his hard earned first ever Monaco victory in very trying circumstances. He will be the first to admit that he was a bit lucky after his crash, but I’m sure that won’t dampen his celebrations in the slightest. Kubica took an excellent second place, but will perhaps feel a little aggrieved as he was the only one of the top three who didn’t make a single mistake. The other two on the podium both made errors, but got away with them. Massa will be slightly disappointed to come away with third after starting from pole, but it was still a strong performance on probably his least favourite track, so not too bad overall.

As Hamilton now takes over the championship lead, I think the key question to emerge as the dust settles will be who from Ferrari will mount the biggest challenge to McLaren and Hamilton? Raikkonen is the team leader and reigning champion, but in the last few races he has been comprehensively out-performed by Massa. Today in particular was an awful day for Kimi. He made mistakes, but even worse than that looked slower than his team mate most of the afternoon and didn’t look confident at all. Massa is clearly the man of form. Will Ferrari be considering putting more weight behind a Massa title push? One more result like this for Massa and I think they will have to seriously consider it…

1. Hamilton
2. Kubica
3. Massa
4. Webber
5. Vettel
6. Barrichello
7. Nakajima
8. Kovalainen
9. Raikkonen
10. Alonso
11. Button
12. Glock
13. Trulli
14. Heidfeld
Ret Sutil
Ret Rosberg
Ret Piquet
Ret Fisichella
Ret Coulthard
Ret Bourdais

Monaco Grand Prix: Qualifying Report

2008-05-24T14:05:00.004+01:00

On form Felipe Massa secured something of a shock result in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix by taking pole position. The boy from Brazil, who claims he hates the Monaco street circuit, beat the much fancied McLarens and his teammate Raikkonen with whom he will share an all Ferrari front row. Massa himself appeared as surprised as anyone during the press conference, as he was clearly thrilled with his own performance. Raikkonen looked considerably less impressed though, as most would have expected him to beat Massa comfortably. Is Massa emerging as a genuine favourite for the title?

It had been predicted all week long that the McLarens would be the cars to beat in Monaco, with their superior traction and stability over the kerbs. Few would have predicted anything other than a Hamilton pole position, yet he will have to settle for third place behind two Ferraris. Interestingly, throughout the afternoon Hamilton was massively quicker than anyone during the first sector but couldn't maintain it over the course of a full lap. Either his set up isn't quite right for the second half of the lap, or he was cooking the tyres too early in the lap and losing pace later on. Of course, we will have to wait and see what the situation is regarding fuel loads in tomorrow's race. Have McLaren gone too conservative in their race strategy? Have Ferrari been too aggressive? Or was it just a case of the red cars being quicker than the silver ones?

Robert Kubica had an excellent qualifying session, finishing just thousandths of a second away from a place on the second row. He will share the third row with Nico Rosberg, who has so far been the star of the weekend in the Williams. Rosberg fell short of upsetting the big boys as he had threatened to do earlier in the weekend, but P6 is an fine performance all the same. Fernando Alonso will struggle to make it a hat-trick of Monaco victories from P7 in his extremely tail-happy Renault. Interestingly he chose to stay on the harder tyre throughout qualifying as he didn't like the balance on the softs. That could cause problems for him if the weather stays dry and he needs to use the option tyre in the race. Trulli is 8th while Webber is in a solid P9 ahead of his teammate Coulthard.

DC didn't make it out onto the track in Q3 after binning his Red Bull spectacularly while braking into la Nouvelle Chicane in Q2. The car snapped right violently as he jumped on the brakes at over 180mph, and he speared into the armco and slid off down the escape road at great speed. Whether it was just a case of the rears locking up over the vicious bumps down there, or some kind of mechanical failure at the rear of the car remains to be seen. Compatriot Jenson Button had a similar kind of accident here in a BAR in 2003 and ended up being carried from the cockpit unconscious and stretchered straight to hospital after hitting the old tyre wall down there, but no such worries for DC. He narrowly missed the tyres and went straight down the escape road, such are the fine margins here at Monaco. Button's 2003 accident HERE..

Button himself will start in 12th alongside Timo Glock's Toyota in 11th place. Nick Heidfeld was 13th for BMW, which was arguably as big a surprise as Massa's pole position. We will have to wait and see whether there was a problem for Heidfeld, as his BMW should have been at least in the top ten. Nakajima is 14th after being comprehensively thrashed by his Williams teammate Rosberg, ahead of Rubens Barrichello.

No major surprises as to who went out in the first qualy session with both Toro Rossos and both Force Indias missing out. Piquet was the man to join them, which is no great shock as he has looked like the guy struggling the most to cope with the demands of the Monaca circuit, from his spin in Thursday practice to his erratic qualifying performance.

Almost the very instant the F1 cars returned to their garage after qualifying the rain began to fall in Monaco for the second GP2 race. It is looking increasingly likely from the forecasts that tomorrow will indeed be a wet race, and that will really be a wildcard factor for everybody on the grid. Normally qualifying strongly will virtually guarantee you a strong finish at Monaco (reliability worries excluded), but in the rain nothing is certain. Without traction control it will be treacherous for the drivers, particularly if there is standing water from the start on the run up to the first corner. It will be even more interesting if the race isn't wet throughout. If it starts dry and turns wet later on, or vice-versa, it could easily throw the teams' meticulously planned strategies out of the window. It should be fascinating to watch.

Provisional Starting Grid

1. Massa
2. Raikkonen
3. Hamilton
4. Kovalainen
5. Kubica
6. Rosberg
7. Alonso
8. Trulli
9. Webber
10. Coulthard
11. Glock
12. Button
13. Heidfeld
14. Nakajima
15. Barrichello
16. Bourdais
17. Piquet
18. Vettel
19. Sutil
20. Fisichella

Monaco Grand Prix: Practice Two

2008-05-22T14:34:00.003+01:00

Lewis Hamilton signaled his and McLaren's intent to return to winning ways with a blistering lap to take the top spot in Thursday's second free practice session. His 1:15.1s lap put him almost a full four tenths of a second ahead of the rest. The man who took the spot behind Hamilton wasn't either his teammate or a Ferrari driver. It was Williams' Nico Rosberg, who was proving his form in the first session was no fluke. The young German is on fire so far in Monaco, and he will no doubt have raised a few eyebrows in the paddock.

Kimi Raikkonen followed up his fine performance in first practice with a solid third place for Ferrari ahead of Massa, Kovalainen and Kubica. Kubica's BMW though was a full 1.1 seconds behind Hamilton's time, which will be disheartening for them after their poor showing in Turkey. Perhaps BMW are beginning to wane after their excellent early season pace?

Fernando Alonso was seventh, but it was a rather eventful session for Alonso and indeed the whole Renault team. Firstly Nelson Piquet spun at the apex of St Devote and went backwards into the tyre barrier. Fortunately he was able to driver himself out of the barrier, but his rear wing was damaged and needed replacing. Then shortly after that Fernando Alonso also lost the back end going through St Devote. He would on the opposite lock, but was eventually saved from spinning by his rear end clipping the armco barrier. He was able to keep the car pointing the right way up the hill, but ended up losing his rear wing in the process. The session was red flagged to clear the debris.

Adrian Sutil was another driver who tasted armco in this session. He caught too much kerb in la Rascasse and bounced into the barrier on the corner exit, damaging his front wing. In truth, both the Force Indias and Toro Rossos have struggled badly so far. Teams with their limited budgets and resources aren't able to prepare unique suspension set ups in the multi-million pound simulators like the big teams do, and they struggle with the unique demands of the Monte Carlo bumps and kerbs.

Elsewhere, David Coulthard finally got some track time under his belt after the team fixed what turned out to be a throttle problem in first practice. He finished in 14th place, just behind his teammate Webber. The Hondas have looked pretty decent so far in practice, with both drivers in the top ten in this session. They look fairly evenly matched on pace with the likes of the Renaults here, which is good news for the Japanese squad.

So the drivers now go for their day off on Friday (the only circuit where that happens), while the teams will no doubt be hard at work preparing their cars and doing the maths for the all important race strategies. The action will recommence on Saturday with a morning practice session, and then the qualifying session which is perhaps more important here than at any other circuit.

Practice Two Times

01 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:15.140 40 laps
02 N. Rosberg Williams 1:15.533 39 laps
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:15.572 42 laps
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:15.869 37 laps
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:15.881 39 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.296 34 laps
07 F. Alonso Renault 1:16.310 27 laps
08 J. Button Honda 1:16.351 45 laps
09 K. Nakajima Williams 1:16.372 40 laps
10 R. Barrichello Honda 1:16.418 32 laps
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:16.426 44 laps
12 T. Glock Toyota 1:16.688 46 laps
13 M. Webber Red Bull 1:17.094 39 laps
14 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:17.131 39 laps
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:17.246 35 laps
16 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:17.251 33 laps
17 J. Trulli Toyota 1:17.379 28 laps
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:17.581 38 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:18.176 31 laps
20 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.225 38 laps

Monaco Grand Prix: Practice One

2008-05-22T14:09:00.002+01:00

Kimi Raikkonen took first blood in the opening practice session of the Grand Prix weekend, beating the McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen into second and third respectively. Felipe Massa took fourth for Ferrari as the two big teams looked in a class of their own at the front of the field. Nico Rosberg produced the surprise of the session, getting his Williams into P5 ahead of the likes of the BMWs.

Practice One got underway with the Monaco harbour bathed in beautiful Mediterranean sun. with no sign of any rain. There were major incidents as the drivers seemed to take things pretty tentatively in this first session while the track rubbered up a little. There was the odd lock up here and there, but no real spins or crashes.

The biggest drama of the session came about an hour in when the session was red-flagged. It wasn't for any accidents or breakdowns though. Several drivers had complained about a drain cover coming loose on the uphill run out of St Devote. After inspection from the race director a welder was called for and the problem fixed. Hopefully that will be the last problem of its kind to worry about, but it was certainly a strange one. The organisation and preparation for this race is usually absolutely meticulous and perfect.

As the session progressed it became clear that the drivers were favouring the harder of the two tyres. Bridgestone has brought some of its softest compounds to Monaco this weekend, but it seems the drivers are struggling to get more than a lap or two out of the option tyre. They're just too soft for the abrasive nature of the track. It will be interesting to see how this affects race strategy when all drivers will be forced to drive at least one stint on these super-soft tyres.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli ended his session by pulling off into the escape road after his car started smoking as it went through the tunnel. Nick Heidfeld was another to run into difficulties as he parked his BMW in Casino Square with a mystery technical gremlin. David Coulthard barely made it out of the pits in his Red Bull, just doing a few sighter laps and not even setting a time.

Practice One Times

01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:15.948 26 laps
02 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:16.216 26 laps
03 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:16.248 27 laps
04 F. Massa Ferrari 1:16.292 25 laps
05 N. Rosberg Williams 1:16.653 27 laps
06 R. Kubica BMW 1:16.653 27 laps
07 F. Alonso Renault 1:17.498 25 laps
08 R. Barrichello Honda 1:17.511 26 laps
09 M. Webber Red Bull 1:17.798 22 laps
10 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:17.883 26 laps
11 T. Glock Toyota 1:17.942 26 laps
12 J. Button Honda 1:18.153 25 laps
13 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.245 30 laps
14 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:18.263 13 laps
15 K. Nakajima Williams 1:18.274 28 laps
16 J. Trulli Toyota 1:18.360 16 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:18.360 25 laps
18 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:18.955 32 laps
19 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.176 35 laps
20 D. Coulthard Red Bull no time 3 laps

Monaco Grand Prix: Preview

2008-05-22T13:48:00.001+01:00

After the thrills and spills of Istanbul, the glamorous centre-piece of the Formula 1 season is upon us - the 66th running of the Grand Prix de Monaco. With the ban on traction control for 2008, the bumpy street circuit in Monte Carlo has been the most eagerly anticipated race of the year. The track will once again be Formula One's greatest challenge for a driver, with no nannying electronics to bail them out of trouble, and the armco barriers that line the course being as punishing as ever. This will be especially true if the rain showers that are predicted for Saturday and Sunday materialise!

The Monaco circuit couldn't be a greater contrast to the circuit in Istanbul last time out. The perfectly manicured track, with its wide and super-fast sweeping corners and enormous run-off areas are being swapped for the dirty, bumpy, oily and painfully tight and twisty streets of the Principality. This is one of the few races of the season where traction and suspension compliance play as big a role as engine power and aerodynamic grip, if not more. Make a mistake in the fast corners at Istanbul and you have yards and yards of run-off tarmac to bail you out. Make a mistake in Monaco and you will be greeted with the armco barriers.

As such, it has been predicted that the McLaren cars will be the most suited to this track. Whilst the Ferraris appear to have the advantage on the 'normal' race tracks, the McLaren is deemed to be the best car on the grid at riding the kerbs and bumps. Of course, this is all just guess work from the pundits and Ferrari will undoubtedly still be strong. Plus this is one of the few tracks where driver skill will really make a significant difference, so having the best car may not count for everything come race-day.

Fernando has been the guy on form here in recent years, winning the last two Grand Prix consecutively. However, he will be in an inferior Renault car this year around and he will struggle to make it a hat-trick. One feels his best chance will be if rain falls. Lewis Hamilton was second here last time out, and has professed that this is his all time favourite circuit. He always excelled here in his Formula 3 and GP2 days, and drove pretty well here last year. If McLaren do indeed have the best package then Hamilton will surely be the man to beat.

Kimi Raikkonen is a past winner here, back in 2005 in a McLaren. He will have a great chance of doubling his Monaco tally here, although Ferrari seem to have had a strange hoodoo at this circuit in recent years. Despite being a dominant force in F1 for years they haven't taken the chequered flag here since Michael Schumacher in 2001. Felipe Massa will have a job on his hands to repeat his Turkey success here as he is one of the drivers who is struggling the most with the loss of traction control. He may struggle even more if it rains. Still, he may yet upset the form books.

The other two former winners in the field this year are Jarno Trulli and two-time winner and Monaco resident David Coulthard. However, neither driver will be expected to challenge for podiums here. Both drivers will be hoping to get themselves into the points for Toyota and Red Bull respectively, although the battle in the midfield will be as fierce as ever.

If the rain does fall as some have predicted, then we could have a real spectacle on our hands. The last wet race in Monaco was in 1996 and only FOUR cars made it over the line, with Olivier Panis scoring one of the biggest shock victories in F1 history in Ligier-Mugen-Honda. Another notable wet Monaco race was in 1984 when the race was abandoned after 31 laps with just 9 cars still running, and the numbers falling rapidly. That race was of course most fondly remembered as the day that youngsters Ayrton Senna and Stefan Bellof stunned the F1 world with their pace and their bravery in the wet. Sadly neither man is still with us, god rest their souls...

Turkish Grand Prix: Race Report

2008-05-11T14:38:00.004+01:00

Felipe Massa has secured an excellent pole to flag victory for the third successive year with a fine performance, and played his way firmly back into contention in the title race. Behind him there was a fantastic scrap for second place between the two drivers currently at the top of the points standings, Raikkonen and Massa. It was a thrilling race with passing, some great wheel-to-wheel racing, and some fascinating strategy.

It was the perfect start for Felipe Massa who lead the pack down the very short straight into turn one, but there was the customary opening lap drama behind him. Hamilton got an excellent start and made it past his team mate to squeeze into P2. Kovalainen seemed to get off the line well but strangely bogged down and was falling into the clutches of Raikkonen and Kubica. Kubica made a successful pass around the outside but Kimi found himself boxed in on the inside and had to back out of the throttle. It wasn’t enough to stop coming into light contact with Kovalainen and caused a left rear puncture to the unlucky McLaren driver. As a result of Kimi slowing Fernando Alonso was also able to get past and into fifth place

At the back of the grid there was a rather nasty collision caused by Giancarlo Fisichella. From the back row of the grid he went steaming into the braking zone at turn one way too fast and launched his Force India right over the back of Nakajima’s Williams. In the process he also punctured ‘Mr Unlucky’ Sebastien Vettel’s tyre and damaged his own team mate’s front wing. In his defence there were cars jinking left and right in front of him, but a man of his experience should know better than to go screaming so fast into what is a notoriously tricky first corner. This is the third year in a row that Fisi has failed to make it past the first corner.

During the first stint there emerged a great battle for the lead at the front of the pack. Massa and Hamilton were in a class of their own as they traded fastest laps consistently, and rapidly dropped third placed man Kubica. Raikkonen was making a good recovery and managed to get back past Alonso, although in truth Alonso just gifted him the position. We know the Ferrari is the much faster the car, but it would have been nice to see at least some kind of a fight from a double world champion. Very disappointing.

Entering the first round of pit stops Hamilton was the first man to blink, coming in surprisingly early. He was catching Massa and in truth was probably being held up a little. Whether he was really completely out of fuel or decided to change strategy mid-race we will have to see, but it was a bold move to come in so early. It was a very short stop, and it looked like he was running a risky and very bold three stop strategy. Massa came in a few laps later and was able to emerge from the stop in front of Hamilton, but the young Brit had the bit between his teeth and with a lighter car was very quickly pressuring Massa.

Championship leader Raikkonen was the last of the front runners to stop, which put his qualifying performance into perspective somewhat, and he was able to get out comfortably in front of Kubica. Meanwhile, further down the field there was a snake of very close cars in the midfield with Piquet, Button and Glock and ahead of them Trulli was getting racey with Coulthard.

With his aggressive pitstop strategy Lewis Hamilton knew he had to get past Massa as soon as possible, and he did just that. Despite Massa taking a very defensive line on the long run down to turn 12, there was just a hint of a gap and Hamilton took it with a perfectly executed late-braking manoeuvre. With clean air in front of him for the first time Hamilton set about gaining as much of an advantage as possible, and he quickly romped away into the distance. This period would perhaps decide the fate of the race.

After another super quick pit stop from the McLaren boys Hamilton was back out on the track, but behind both Ferraris. It looked as though Massa had done enough whilst following Hamilton to be able to hold onto his lead and his incredible record at the Turkish Grand Prix. Hamilton though was within a couple of seconds of Raikkonen. The story of the race would now be about who would come out on top out of the two championship protagonists.

There was some fantastic racing further down the grid, facilitated by the excellent design of the Istanbul Park circuit. Kovalainen was fighting his was back through the field after his early puncture, putting some great moves on the back markers. He had one particularly good fight with Toyota’s Timo Glock, who is well known from his GP2 days as being one of the most aggressive wheel-to-wheel racers around. He wasn’t about to give up his position without a fight! Although the Glock did well to fend him off through the final complex of corners, Heikki was able to power past him down the pit straight. Either the Mercedes engine has a big horsepower advantage over the Toyota, or the McLaren has a lot less drag. Nelson Piquet also had a great duel with Jenson Button just in front of them.

After Hamilton’s final splash and dash style stop he emerged fractionally in front of Raikkonen. Now however he was on the soft tyres which he hated so much throughout free practice. Could Hamilton hold off the Flying Finn?

In the end he was able to keep the world champion at bay by just 0.4 seconds and secure his best result for quite a while. He has a huge debt of gratitude to his pit crew who put together three fantastic stops which enabled him to squeeze ahead of Kimi for the final stint.

The BMWs followed in fourth and fifth, but in truth they were nowhere near the pace of the leaders. They have definitely fallen back somewhat since the last race. Alonso put in a decent performance to beat Mark Webber fairly comfortably, and Nico Rosberg was the final point scorer. He had one of the best battles of the race with his old GP2 sparring partner Heikki Kovalainen, but eventually got back ahead of him after the McLaren driver’s final splash and dash. Coulthard finished ninth after a good race-long battle with fellow veteran Jarno Trulli.

In the end, after all the drama of the race the biggest thing we learned from the race was that Ferrari are no longer creeping ahead of the pack in terms of pace. McLaren have definitely pegged them back somewhat. This bodes extremely well for the rest of the championship. If there are plenty more close battles like this for the rest of the season then Formula One fans will be in for a treat!

Turkish Grand Prix: Qualifying Report

2008-05-10T15:08:00.002+01:00

Istanbul specialist Felipe Massa notched up his third successive Turkish Grand Prix pole position with a consummate display for Ferrrai. It wasn't all glory for the Scuderia as McLaren took second and third place on the grid with a strong performance, leaving World Champion Kimi Raikkonen in fourth. The top two teams seemed to be in a class of their own as fifth place man Robert Kubica was over four tenths of adrift of Raikkonen.

The session got underway in cooler than expected conditions with crosswinds potentially causing problems in some of the Istanbul circuit's extremely high speed corners. With the withdrawal of the Super Aguri team the qualifying rules were re-jigged somewhat, meaning that just five cars would be eliminated in the first two sessions. This may at first seem an advantage for the remaining teams, but in reality the Super Aguri's were always virtually guaranteed to be eliminated in the first session anyway. This means that now there is increased potential for someone from the more established teams to drop out in the first session if they make a mistake.

The big losers with the loss of Super Aguri will probably be Force India as they are now going to be odds on favourites to be filling the back row of the grid at every Grand Prix, and so it proved to be here as Sutil and Fisichella were the two slowest cars in the first session. They were joined on the sidelines by Sebastien Bourdais in the Toro Rosso, but also surprisingly by Kazuki Nakajima and Nelson Piquet. Nakajima had looked strong earlier in the weekend so will be extremely disappointed with his performance today. Piquet though was the worst performer in qualifying today.

At the start of the season in Melbourne Piquet had the excuses that he was struggling with a poor handling car, and that he was driving a completely unfamiliar circuit. Now though he has a Renault that is performing very strongly and is driving circuits that he has driven plenty of times before. He is fast running out of excuses and has nowhere to hide after that dismal display.

The stars of the first session were Timo Glock and Sebastian Vettel. Vettel impressed simply by making it to the second session in the Toro Rosso, and Glock impressed with an excellent P4. However, neither driver could replicate the magic in Q2. Glock especially disappointed by somehow ending up last of the 15 remaining runners, behind Vettel even. The guy clearly has pace but needs to build much more consistency into his driving.

They were joined in the drop zone by the two Hondas of Button and Barrichello and the Williams of Rosberg. Honda seem to have struggled a little this weekend after a couple of really promising displays in the last few races. Williams too are struggling a little and are dropping further behind midfield rivals like Renault and Red Bull. They are struggling to live up to their pre-season form.

Coulthard put in an excellent lap in this session to get through to the final shootout for the first time in a while. It had been reported by some that he was under pressure from the team after a couple of poor races. He certainly answered a few of those critics with his performance today. He eventually finished in 10th place on the grid but will be encouraged by this showing. In fact, the whole Red Bull team will be encouraged after Mark Webber put together an excellent lap to take P6 in the sister Red Bull.

In between the two Red Bulls were Fernando Alonso, showing Renault's big improvement in pace, qualifying specialist Jarno Trulli, and Nick Heidfeld in ninth. It was a disappointing performance from birthday boy Heidfeld, and capped a pretty disappointing day for BMW all round. They were expecting to be able to challenge the Ferrari and McLaren drivers for places on the front two rows, but in truth were no where near. After a superb start to the season it seems that maybe the BMWs are struggling to live with the pace of progress at the pointy end of the grid.

There were a couple of points of real interest in the final minutes as the big boys went for the glory. Firstly, Lewis Hamilton looked to be having all sorts of balance problems in the daunting turn 8. He had a massive slide on one hot lap, and did brilliantly to even stay on the track at all. This was on the harder, prime tyre so it was expected that he would make the switch to the softer option tyre for his final run. Lewis surprised everyone however by sticking on the harder compound for his final lap. He apparently felt that the softer tyre was losing performance by the end of the lap and preferred to run with the hard. He drove an excellent lap and put his McLaren 3rd despite still fighting the car all the way through turn 8. His teammate showed what the McLaren could do on the softer tyre though by putting together an excellent lap to get onto the front row of the grid alongside Massa.

Kimi Raikkonen was unable to challenge the McLarens or his teammate after running into trouble on his final lap. There seemed to be a miscalculation from Ferrari in terms of getting Kimi some clean air on track, and he ended up catching Fernando Alonso's Renault in the middle of his hot lap. He undoubtedly lost a tenth or two negotiating his way past the Spaniard and his chance at pole was gone.

With Kimi's traffic problems and Hamilton's unusual decision to go with the harder tyre it is hard to get a good read on the fuel loads of the top four runners, so we will have to wait until tomorrow's first stint to see how things pan out. The McLaren team will see this as a perfect opportunity to hit back at Ferrari with Kovalainen and Hamilton both with the chance to pressure Felipe Massa off the start line. We have seen Massa crumble under that sort of pressure before, but this is the track that he appears to be the most comfortable on so he should have enough in reserve to hold off the silver cars. We shall see...

Qualifying Times

01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:27.617
02 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:27.808
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:27.923
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:27.936
05 R. Kubica BMW 1:28.390
06 M. Webber Red Bull 1:28.417
07 F. Alonso Renault 1:28.422
08 J. Trulli Toyota 1:28.836
09 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:28.882
10 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:29.959
11 N. Rosberg Williams 1:27.012
12 R. Barrichello Honda 1:27.219
13 J. Button Honda 1:27.298
14 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:27.412
15 T. Glock Toyota 1:27.806
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:27.547
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:27.568
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:27.568
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:27.807
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:28.325

Turkish Grand Prix: Friday Practice Two

2008-05-09T13:56:00.004+01:00

Kimi Raikkonen showed no ill effects of his hampered running this morning by cruising to the top of the time sheets in the second Friday practice session. Things were desperately close at the top of the order this time out with Kimi edging out Hamilton by just 3 hundredths of a second, and Felipe Massa just a fraction behind the top two. The big surprise was that there were two British drivers in the top four, breaking the Ferrari-McLaren dominance.

David Coulthard was the man to raise eyebrows throughout the paddock with a fine lap to take fourth place. It was a remarkable improvement over his seventeenth place from this morning's session. However, the smiling faces were only on one side of the Red Bull Racing pit as Mark Webber binned his car on the exit of turn 6 early in the session, ripping the front end off and bringing out a red flag in the process. He ran a bit wide onto the bumpy run-off area and tried to keep his foot in, but evidently lost traction and the rear end got away from him.

He wasn't the only driver having difficulties with car stability in the high-speed corners, as nearly half the field came very close to dropping it at one point or another. The extra wide run-off areas at the Tilke designed circuit undoubtedly saved a lot of pricey carbon fibre from destruction, and saved lots of extra hours for the mechanics in the pit garages.

Both Renaults nearly lost it in the very first corner of the track, Alonso in particular had a miraculous save early in the session. Hamilton too was seen sawing away frantically at the wheel of his McLaren several times through turns 1 and 2. Rosberg cut across the track at turn 2 also at one point. Jenson Button wisely got out of the throttle and took to the run off area on the exit of the super fast turn 8 as he ran wide and the rear end got loose on him.

BMW's Robert Kubica was also seen bouncing across the track at one point, and it wasn't the greatest day all round for the German team. They are expecting to be right up on the pace of the Ferraris and McLarens this weekend, but have shown no signs of that so far. Nick Heidfeld was overheard on the team radio complaining of a lack of rear stability in the high speed corners. They will have to make a big improvement if they are to be in a position to fight for the top spots in tomorrow's all important qualifying.

Practice Two Times

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m27.543s
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.579s
3. MASSA Ferrari 1m27.682s
4. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m27.763s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren 1m27.954s
6. KUBICA BMW 1m28.431s
7. TRULLI Toyota 1m28.619s
8. NAKAJIMA Williams 1m28.664s
9. ALONSO Renault 1m28.681s
10. HEIDFELD BMW 1m28.817s
11. BUTTON Honda 1m28.826s
12. GLOCK Toyota 1m28.849s
13. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.907s
14. FISICHELLA Force India 1m29.008s
15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m29.024s
16. PIQUET Renault 1m29.212s
17. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m29.462s
18. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1m29.630s
19. WEBBER Red Bull 1m29.633s
20. SUTIL Force India 1m30.832s

Turkish Grand Prix: Friday Practice One

2008-05-09T12:47:00.003+01:00

In Friday's first practice session Ferrari proved that they definitely have the pace at the Istanbul circuit, but question marks remain over their reliability. Felipe Massa finished first on the grid ahead of the McLarens of Kovalainen and Hamilton, but Kimi Raikkonen finished dead last after a gearbox problem meant he couldn't do any serious running. Ferrari are confident that the gearbox will not have to be replaced and that they will not incur any penalty, but it's still not a great start for the WDC leader.

Times throughout the midfield seemed to be a lot more spread out than they have been in the past couple of races. Where at Barcelona a couple of tenths separated the midfield teams, here there is more like a couple of seconds separating them. This is quite a long, high speed circuit, and any weaknesses in straight line speed will be really exposed here.

Renault again looked strong with Fernando Alonso fourth fastest. BMW didn't have the best of sessions with Heidfeld in seventh and Kubica way down the field after suffering from rear suspension trouble. The Hondas looked strong by taking fifth and eighth place. The teams from the Red Bull stable seemed to struggle the most with none of their four cars breaking the 1:30 barrier. They all finished roughly 3 seconds off the pace of Massa's Ferrari.

Practice One Times

01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:27.323 16 laps
02 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:27.456 17 laps
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:27.752 15 laps
04 F. Alonso Renault 1:28.284 16 laps
05 J. Button Honda 1:28.919 12 laps
06 K. Nakajima Williams 1:29.002 19 laps
07 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:29.024 21 laps
08 R. Barrichello Honda 1:29.068 11 laps
09 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:29.082 23 laps
10 T. Glock Toyota 1:29.103 19 laps
11 J. Trulli Toyota 1:29.329 24 laps
12 R. Kubica BMW 1:29.330 7 laps
13 N. Rosberg Williams 1:29.367 20 laps
14 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:29.756 23 laps
15 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:29.811 23 laps
16 M. Webber Red Bull 1:30.088 21 laps
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:30.340 13 laps
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.388 19 laps
19 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.426 21 laps
20 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:30.732 3 laps

Turkish Grand Prix: Preview

2008-05-09T05:09:00.004+01:00

This weekend sees the fourth running of the Formula One Turkish Grand Prix at the already much-loved Istanbul Park circuit. Ferrari head into the weekend as very much the team to beat, as they top both driver and constructor championship standings. McLaren and BMW though are not too far behind and will both be looking to get in amongst the two Ferrari drivers and cause an upset.

The Istanbul Park circuit is one that has become an instant favourite of most of the drivers due to its many elevation changes, mixture of high and low speed corners, and the now infamous super-fast Turn 8. I seem to recall Jarno Trulli being the only driver on the grid who wasn't really that excited by the track, but when even Kimi Raikkonen is moved to describe the track in glowing terms like "terrific" you know it's a goody. I don't think I've ever heard Kimi use such an expressive word!

I suspect Kimi will be even more enthusiastic about the circuit if he and Ferrari can continue their fine early season form and take another 1-2 finish like last time out in Spain. Kimi will have a fight on his hands though; if not from McLaren and BMW then certainly from Felipe Massa who loves this circuit, and beat Kimi here fair and square last year. McLaren (with a fully fit Heikki Kovalainen) and BMW will be desperate for it not to finish as another Ferrari 1-2 however, as they are already losing vital ground in both championships. They both need to try and claw back that crucial tenth or two that they have been missing in the past couple of races in relation to the Ferrari. We will see what difference any revisions to the aero packages will make on this relatively low downforce, high speed circuit.

Ferrari themselves have made arguably the most significant change in terms of aero by choosing to ditch the 'holey nose' debuted in Barcelona in favour of a more traditional front aero set up. They were still blisteringly quick before Spain anyway, so I don't think any Tifosi need worry about this apparent retrograde step.

Elsewhere it looks to be business as usual in the vicious and closely fought midfield battle. Renault will be looking to consolidate the advantage that they managed to eek out over their rivals in Spain, although I doubt there will be any repeat of Fernando Alonso's headline stealing low-fuelled qualifying performance. There was some wild speculation over the past week that Red Bull stalwart David Coulthard was on the brink of being given the boot after his troubled start to the 2008 season. This appears to have just been some over active imaginations though, as he is here and racing, and shows no signs of being dumped by the team. If he were to be dropped it would be extremely harsh of the team considering everything DC has done to help build the team since its inception in 2005.

This race should see the swan song of the current Toro Rosso chassis before the move to the brand new car that Sebastien Bourdais stuffed into a wall in testing three weeks ago. Honda have announced that Rubens Barrichello will be running a special livery to commemorate his record 257th Grand Prix appearance.

The only other news to report is that, due to the demise of Super Aguri, Saturday's qualifying session has been amended. The first two sessions will see just 5 cars eliminated each instead of 6. This will leave the usual 10 car shoot out for the thrilling final session of qualifying.

And then there were ten...

2008-05-09T02:55:00.002+01:00

The 2008 Formula One season was supposed to mark a new dawn for the sport. As well as the much needed ban on electronic driver aids we would have a new set of aerodynamic regulations that would rob the cars of most of their downforce, thus facilitating better racing. We would also have a full paddock of 12 teams, filling all 24 available grid slots, and a brand spanking new Concorde Agreement clarifying the barbed issue of 'customer cars'. However, the reality appears to have fallen some way short of the dream we were promised. Some of these things have been postponed for a while, some seem destined never to occur. How did this happen? And who (if anyone) is to blame?

The protracted demise of the much-loved Super Aguri team means that for the rest of the 2008 season there will be just 20 cars on the grid. Up until the autumn of last year it had looked certain that there would be a full grid of 24. Super Aguri were continuing to raise eyebrows by punching above their bantam-weight, and David Richards' Prodrive team was coming together with the prospect of using McLaren customer chassis.

Things started to go sour, however, when it appeared that Prodrive weren't going to be able to use customer cars after all. It had been expected that a new Concorde Agreement to begin January 1st 2008 would allow some provision for customer chassis. Max Mosley had long since stated that this was his preference, as he believes privateer teams to be the real heart and soul at the basis of motorsport. The sport's last great remaining privateer Frank Williams, for one, wasn't so keen on the idea. Quite understandably he has been a little miffed that he and his team spend tens of millions of pounds each year or research, testing, development and manufacturing of their own chassis, when another team may simply roll up and buy an off the shelf item from another manufacturer.

Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso have managed to wriggle through a loophole to get around this issue, and Super Aguri had also been effectively acquiring customer cars from Honda for the past season and a bit. But the uncertainty and grey areas remain, and in that climate it became impossible for David Richards to enter F1. There's no way he or his investors could risk ploughing the vast sums of money required into an F1 team with the prospect that they wouldn't be allowed to enter this year, or possibly even next year. As well as a great team builder, Richards is a shrewd business man who has made his living out of successful racing teams. He is not a billionaire playboy type like Vijay Mallya who is willing to use Force India as his F1 plaything and not a serious business venture. How long until he gets bored or he realises that his chances of success are virtually zero remains to be seen.

At the time of Prodrive securing the nomination from the FIA for the last remaining garaged in the 2008 paddock there were allegedly teams and business men queuing around the block for the chance to hand over their $30 million bond. What chance of them now trying to succeed where Richards and Aguri Suzuki have failed? Very little I would imagine. Until an amended Concorde Agreement is put in place which will allow for customer cars, no team will be looking to simply buy from the likes of McLaren, Toyota or BMW. The only available route would appear to be to buy what remains of the Super Aguri team, which as been put up for sale by the administrators. But it would be an extremely ambitious individual or group that would take on the Super Aguri project given the problems they have had.

The notion of a team starting up from scratch and building a brand new chassis isn't even a vaguely realistic option given the enormous costs involved.

But isn't this the way things always used to be? Are things really any different now? In the 80s and early 90s new Formula 1 teams would come and go with the passing of the tides, often with hilarious consequences. One needs only to search the annals of F1 Rejects to witness some of the many spectacular failures like Andrea Moda or Pacific. Heroic failures like Super Aguri are part and parcel of what F1 is all about surely? The difference now is that the cost of even getting a team to the grid is simply enourmous, let alone the cost of making a team vaguely competitive. Where in the past any adventurous millionaire could cobble together a few bits of carbon fibre and an engine and have a blast at qualifying for an F1 race, now even billionaires like Alex Schnaider of Midland F1 are frightened off by the sheer scale investment needed to do any serious racing.

Whilst Max Moseley and FIA have campaigned furiously for reduced costs and more privateer involvement, the manufacturers' stranglehold on the sport has only grown stronger. One has to go as far back as Juan Pablo Montoya's Brazilian Grand Prix victory for Williams in 2004 for the last time a privateer team won a race. And even that was a one-off in that season. Every race since has been won by a team with big time manufacturer support. Williams have continued to battle on valiantly, but with the exception of a sprinkling of podiums here and there they haven't even come close to seriously worrying the big boys. If a team with the experience, expertise and resources of Williams can't take the fight to the manufacturers, what chance of a small upstart team even scoring points let alone winning races?

The saddest part of all of this is that it seems impossible to imagine how this situation could be overturned in the future. The fact is that Formula 1, like all the world's major sports these days, in not just a sport. It's big, big business. You can throw all the cost-cutting measures at it as you like, but while there are budgets available to be spent, F1 teams will spend every last penny. And nobody has more spending capacity than the big manufacturers. The move to 'greener' KERS technology system in 2009 will sadly only increase the manufacturers' willingness to spend big in the pursuit of F1 glory in an attempt to show off their wonderful new green technologies to the wider car buying market, thus undermining all the FIA's hard work in attempted cost cutting. Any prospective privateer entry would be a fool to think that he/she will be able to have even the faintest hope of mixing it with the big boys in this climate.

There are simply too many sharks in the F1 ocean. There is no room for the little fishies to swim anymore.

Giving The FIA a Bad Name...

2008-05-08T01:57:00.005+01:00

No, this is not an article about Max Mosley's shenanigans in a London basement. There is a far more serious issue of public image facing the FIA. One that has the capacity to undermine the very foundations of the organisation. This is big news people, prepare to be stunned...

Sebastien Loeb doesn't shave enough.

Absolutely despicable behaviour from the 4 time World Rally Champion and hero to millions. I don't know how he sleeps at night; anyone would think he was free to be able to style his facial hair any way he saw fit?! Thankfully the FIA have been on the case and recommended that the TV companies don't show any lingering close-ups of Loeb for fear of bringing the sport into disrepute, thus saving us precious rally fans from Loeb's hideous visage.

A brief synopsis of this latest farcical story: FIA delegate and head of African motorsport Surinder Thatthi lodged a complaint with the powers that be that Sebastien Loeb was looking far too unkempt when receiving his winner's trophy at WRC Rally Mexico. Morrie Chandler, the head of the FIA's rally division, upheld the complaint and advised the TV companies not to focus heavily on rally winners if they have not taken sufficient care over their appearance. (Apparently neither Thatthi nor Chandler have considered the fact that after several hours in a red-hot cockpit wearing a crash helmet, one's hair may end up looking a little ruffled.)

What made the matter all the more baffling was the language used in an email from Chandler, reprinted in Paris' le Figaro newspaper. "The same thing happens in football and other 'virile' sports. Of course such people are an insult to real men."

So if football and other such pursuits are 'virile' sports, what does that then make rallying? Impotent?! Perhaps that would explain the WRC's drooping viewing figures and dwindling manufacturer interest over the past few years, as fans have seen the sport increasingly neutered and softened since the peak of the Group B days.

Naturally the French press are more than a little put out by this revelation. le Figaro have seen it as an example of double standards from the FIA; ie how can the FIA be sensitive enough to complain about a driver's facial hair while the President of the organisation is up to all manner of extravagant sexual exploits with ladies of the night?

Whilst they may have a valid point, I feel the most important matter arising from this is that this whole exchange of emails occurred some weeks before the Max Mosley sex scandal broke. So who has passed this on to the newspaper now, in the run up to the crucial vote over Mosley's future on June 3rd? Or have the newspaper been sitting on the story, waiting for a perfect time release it to further undermine public confidence in the FIA? Can't help but thinking that, as story after story slowly trickles its way into the press, is there someone behind the scenes pulling the strings, orchestrating the media hatchet job on the FIA? Hmmmm...

Whatever, I think the upshot of this is that as head of Rally affairs for the FIA Mr Chandler should focus more attention on attracting more viewers, manufacturers and sponsors to the floundering World Rally Championship and stop worrying about the appearance of one of the sport's brightest and best stars. Either that or he should just do the honourable thing and resign his position, leave the rallying to the "real men," eh Morrie?

Honda Switch Off Super Aguri's Life Support

2008-05-06T15:57:00.004+01:00

The news that F1 fans had been hoping would never come has finally broken: the Super Aguri F1 team have withdrawn from the 2008 World Championship. They will almost certainly not be returning for 2009 or beyond either. Honda have been generously bank-rolling the team for several weeks now, but enough was finally enough and Aguri Suzuki was forced to announce the team's withdrawal this morning. The news that F1 fans had been hoping would never come has finally broken: the Super Aguri F1 team have withdrawn from the 2008 World Championship.

They have effectively been running on life support supplied by Honda for the last few months, but finally Honda have pulled the plug. The writing was on the wall when the potential takeover deal by the DIC funded Magma Group fell through at the last minute. There was a glimmer of hope last week when the German Wiegl Group expressed an interest in funding the team, but that turned out to be yet another false dawn for Aguri Suzuki. The team, who were in debt to Honda to the tune of $100million, were refused entry to the paddock at the Istanbul Autodrome, and they have now decided to call it a day.

It is extremely disappointing news for the F1 world. Firstly, they are one of the most like-able teams around. They have relished their status as plucky underdogs since they entered F1 in the 2006 season, and have thrilled audiences with some great shock performances. For the neutral fan they have been one of the most exciting teams to follow, and they have been most F1 fans' "second team". No fans ever had a bad word to say about the team.

Sadly it wasn't always the case with the rest of the F1 teams as the thorny issue of customer cars (they effectively drove the previous year's Honda) has plagued them for some time. Suzuki himself has stated that the uncertainty over the future of driving customer cars has been one of the reasons they have struggle to find long-term financial backers.

Some have been quick to blame Honda for refusing to offer help to Super Aguri, but that really isn't fair. Honda have done more than what was reasonably to have been expected of them over the last couple of years. They have bailed them out consistently, and have continued to provide them with engines, chassis and technical support despite lack of payment from SA. At the end of the day Honda are running a business, and they can't continue pouring money and resources into a team that is destined not to survive. Sad but true.

So F1 will continue without one of its most popular teams, and without two talented and very well liked drivers in Sato and Davidson. A sad day all round for the sport.

Full statement from Aguri Suzuki...

In order to realise my dream to become an owner of a Formula One Team, I applied for a grid position in the FIA Formula One World Championship in November 2005. Since then, I have participated in the championship for two years and four months as the Super Aguri F1 team, but regretfully I must inform you that the team will be ceasing its racing activities as of today.

The team has competed against the many car manufacturer backed teams and has succeeded in obtaining the first points after only the 22nd race, finishing in ninth place overall in the 2007 Constructors’ Championship.

However, the breach of contract by the promised partner SS United Group Company Limited resulted in the loss of financial backing and immediately put the team into financial difficulties. Also, the change in direction of the environment surrounding the team, in terms of the use of customer chassis, has affected our ability to find partners.

Meanwhile, with the help of Honda, we have somehow managed to keep the team going, but we find it difficult to establish a way to continue the activities in the future within the environment surrounding F1 and as a result, I have concluded to withdraw from the Championship.

I would like to express my deepest thanks to Honda, Bridgestone, the sponsors, all the people who have given us advise during various situations over the past couple of years all the Team Staff who have kept their motivations high and always done their best, Anthony Davidson who has always pushed to the limit despite the very difficult conditions, Takuma Sato who has been with us from the very start and has always fought hard and led the team and lastly our fans from all over the world who have loyally supported the Super Aguri F1 team.

Spanish Grand Prix: Race Review

2008-04-27T14:37:00.003+01:00

Kimi Raikkonen cruised to one of the easiest victories he will ever earn in today's Spanish Grand Prix. After securing pole position with an excellent lap in qualifying yesterday he was the clear favourite for the 10 points, and he didn't disappoint with a flawless lights to flag victory. The 130,000 strong Spanish crowd were left deflated as their hero Fernando Alonso didn't make it to the chequered flag, whilst Lewis Hamilton returned to the podium after his dismal weekend last time out in Bahrain.

In truth it was a fairly dull race, as they usually are at the Circuit de Catalunya. There were a couple of safety car periods which inevitably closed the field somewhat to keep things quite tight in the top four places, but without those it would have been a truly awful race.

Off the start line Kimi Raikkonen made a decent start which enabled him to reach turn one in the lead, which perfectly set up his race win. Crucially, behind him the man with the best start was Felipe Massa who was able to squeeze around Fernando Alonso and into second place. Lewis Hamilton put his nightmare start in Bahrain behind him and made a great move on Robert Kubica to take fourth place.

Going into turn four Adrian Sutil in the Force India tried a ridiculously over-ambitious move on David Coulthard which resulted in contact and a spin. Sadly Sebastien Vettel was left with nowhere to go and collided with Sutil's stricken car. Rotten luck for young Vettel as it saw the end of both of the young German drivers' races. This brought out the first safety car of the day and allowed the pack to close up behind Raikkonen.

From the restart there was little movement in the field, largely due to the high speed, high downforce nature of the Barcelona circuit. Raikkonen was setting fastest laps out front, Massa was in tow, and Alonso was able to keep Hamilton at bay (much to the delight of the Spanish fans).

Nelson Piquet had another disappointing race in what is proving to be a tricky debut season for the Brazilian. He had an off braking into turn 10 losing him numerous places, and then whilst attempting to recover he made an ambitious late move on Sebastien Bourdais in the same corner. They came into contact and both cars ended up retiring with broken front suspension. Both Toro Rossos were out after just a handful of laps, completing a miserable weekend for the team.

As indicated by Alonso's remarkable qualifying performance, the Renault was the lightest car on the grid and he was first to pit. However, Alonso didn't appear to be quite as light as we may have expected - only a couple of laps lighter than Massa - so it seems Renault really have made a huge leap forward in pace. Inevitably the early stop for Alonso allowed Hamilton to gain a position into third, and he now had the Ferraris in his sights and a mirror full of BMW.

Everything was routine for the Ferraris in the first round of stops and they rejoined comfortable first and second. Davidson sadly had to retire due to a punctured radiator after some track debris, and then came the biggest incident of the race. Whilst approaching the super-fast, blind right-hand Campsa corner Heikki Kovalainen suffered a freak failure on his front left corner. This sent him spearing off across the gravel trap at close to 140mph, and he eventually came to a sickening halt by diving underneath the tyre barriers. The scene was reminiscent of Luciano Burti's horrible accident at Blanchimont, Spa in 2001, and the level of obvious concern shown by the track marshalls was also similar.

The safety car and medical car were immediately deployed, and there followed around 10 minutes of anxious waiting for any news of the fate of Kovalainen. There were huge sighs of relief all round when the cameras picked up Heikki Kovalainen being stretchered away giving a big thumbs-up to the applauding crowd. All the news so far suggests that he has no serious injuries.

The safety car was terrible news for Nick Heidfeld as he was the last man yet to stop, and was running out of fuel. He had to come in to refuel while the pitlane was effectively closed, meaning he would have to take a penalty once the race resumed. It completely ruined his race, putting him in last place on the track. This rule really needs to be changed as it seems to serve no real purpose, and penalises those like Heidfeld purely out of bad luck.

As the race got underway Hamilton was close to the Ferraris and Kubica was still keeping him honest. Those front four gradually disappeared into the distance leaving the rest of the field miles behind. The pattern of the rest of the race was now set with Hamilton able to keep in touch with Massa and Kubica able to hold onto Hamilton, but whenever they got within a second of the man in front they were hit with terrible understeer from the dirty air in front. This track simply does not provide good racing. There are too many high speed corners and not enough long braking zones for drivers to make moves.

This was highlighted by the fact that Nick Heidfeld was having a torrid time getting past Fisichella despite having a massively quicker car. It eventually took a mistake from Fisi in the final corner for Heidfeld to be able to get a run on him down the main straight and make an excellent move around the outside of turn one. On most circuits it would have been like taking candy from a baby for a BMW to get past a Force India, but not here. In fact, the stats now show that it is EIGHT races in a row where the pole sitter has cruised to victory here. Let's hope the new European Grand Prix down the road in Valencia will be a bit more interesting!

With a dozen or so laps to go Timo Glock made a silly move on Coulthard which damaged both of their cars, and will probably result in him having a penalty of some sort handed down to him at a later date. Again, the nature of the track meant Coulthard found it difficult even to get past Sato despite having a car that was about 4 seconds a lap faster at that point in the race!

Whilst making his record equalling 256th race appearance Rubens Barrichello somehow managed to knock his own front wing off while pitting. This eventually caused damage to his car and resulted in a retirement. Then the Spanish crowds were hearbroken by a massive engine failure in the back of Alonso's R28. It was rotten luck for Alonso who was driving a decent race and was probably due a fifth place finish. That meant Rosberg inherited a points paying position, but that wasn't to last long as his Toyota engine blew and the Williams ground to a halt on the main straight.

You could almost sense the frustration of the likes of Kubica and Hamilton as they were both pushing extremely hard but didn't really have a hope in hell of getting close enough to try a pass. They both drove great races but weren't really able to put on much of a show for the crowd. However, they will both be heartened as they showed good race pace and were not crushed by the Ferraris as some had expected them to be. Ferrari clearly have the upper hand at the moment, but McLaren and BMW are both still in there fighting hard, and it's not over by a long shot.

Behind the front four Webber, Button, Nakajima and Trulli all had good but very quiet races to round out the rest of the points paying positions. The unlucky Heidfeld wasn't able to recover after his penalty and finished ninth, losing his second place in the driver's championship in the process. Fisichella put in one of the performances of the day to come tenth after running as high as eighth place at one point. Encouraging signs for Force India.

So moving on to Turkey, the Ferrari team cemented their advantage in both championship races, and Kimi Raikkonen will now be on very short odds to take his second consecutive WDC. However, there were encouraging signs for McLaren (freak accidents aside) as they seem to have gotten over their little blip last time out. BMW too are still consistently there or thereabouts. It's still all to play for...

Provisional Race Results

1. Raikkonen
2. Massa
3. Hamilton
4. Kubica
5. Webber
6. Button
7. Nakajima
8. Trulli
9. Heidfeld
10. Fisichella
11. Glock
12. Coulthard
13. Sato
ret Rosberg
ret Alonso
ret Barrichello
ret Kovalainen
ret Davidson
ret Bourdais
ret Piquet
ret Sutil
ret Vettel

Spanish Grand Prix: Qualifying Session

2008-04-26T14:01:00.003+01:00

Kimi Raikkonen took an easily predicted pole position in Saturday's qualifying session in Barcelona, but there were surprises aplenty behind him as Ferrari weren't quite as dominant as they were expected to be. Indeed, Kimi's fifteenth career pole came at the expense of home favourite Fernando Alonso, who came within a whisker of providing the shock of the season so far. Still, the Spanish fans will be going home extremely happy after that result!

The first session passed largely without incident for the first 15 minutes or so, with Ferrari's predicted dominance showing. But in the final seconds of the session things went crazy as the times started tumbling. It appears that the track had lost a bit of pace and took the first 15 minutes or so to "rubber in" and start yielding the truly quick times.

It would be nigh on impossible to relate all the changes in position in those final seconds, but as a reference Jenson Button was in P9 about ten seconds after the chequered flag dropped, but by the end of the action he was right down in P16, only just making it through to the second session! David Coulthard was the big loser of the session. He was second quickest in practice this morning but could only manage a lowly 17th place. Fisichella, Vettel, Sutil, Davidson and Sato joined him on the sidelines for the rest of the session.

The second session again showed the Ferrari's pace, but BMW started to come to the fore with Kubica especially putting in a great lap. All of the main players made it through to the final session without too much fuss. Again, things were ridiculously close in the midfield. Sebastien Bourdais, probably the star of Q1 was the slowest man out on track, and in the final shake up he was joined by Rosberg, Glock, Button, Nakajima (out-pacing his teammate for the first time ever) and Barrichello.

The final session caused the real talking points of the day though, with a sensational finish. Kimi Raikkonen had a poor first hot lap, struggling with understeer in his car. Massa too wasn't impressing and it looked for a short while as though Ferrari were about to fumble the ball at the vital moment. The McLaren's looked decent, but they will be a tad worried as to why their obvious one-lap pace didn't translate to good pace with heavy fuel loads. They had to settle for fifth and sixth place for Hamilton and Kovalainen respectively.

BMW were again showing they had the measure of the McLarens with Kubica looking to repeat his brilliant performance of a few weeks ago. It looked for a while as though he had a shot at front row grid slot as he made it to P2 behind Massa who recovered reasonably well. However, the big surprise was to come in the dying seconds after the clock had run down to zero. Fernando Alonso sent the thousands of Spanish fans wild with a brilliant lap to take first place on the time sheets. I don't think anybody could quite believe it, especially the likes of McLaren and BMW who had their thunder well and truly stolen.

The dream was to be shattered for Alonso just seconds later though, as Kimi Raikkonen finally got his act together to take pole at the final moment. We all knew that Renault had taken a big step forward during the Easter break, but I don't think anyone thought they had jumped that far forward. In all honesty we have to assume that they will be very light on fuel and will struggle to make it to the podium for the race tomorrow. However, having the Renault up there on the front row really throws the cat amongst the pigeons for the race tomorrow, with things being made very difficult now for the BMWs and McLarens to be able to challenge the Ferraris.

Kimi Raikkonen will be the red-hot favourite for the race tomorrow, but it should be a fascinating battle behind him due to Alonso's incredible performance.

Spanish Grand Prix: Saturday Practice

2008-04-26T12:12:00.003+01:00

Whilst Ferrari and McLaren spent time working on heavy fuel running in Saturday's final practice, Constructor's Championship leaders BMW took their chance to show their hand in Barcelona. Nick Heidfeld took top spot ahead of David Coulthard's Red Bull with Fernando Alonso again impressing for Renault in third place.

The best any of the Ferrari or McLaren drivers could manage was ninth place for Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton was eleventh, Raikkonen thirteenth and Kovalainen fifteenth. Elsewhere Nelson Piquet Jnr was the only driver to leave the circuit during the session, running wide after a lock up, but there was no damage to speak of. In general it was a fairly quiet and cagey session throughout, and again there were few clues as to how the midfield battle will shape up. Everyone is just so close!

In terms of times things were very tight all the way down the grid. Excluding the Super Aguris who were again way off the pace, the entire field was separated by just 1.2 seconds per lap. Even perennial strugglers Force India (nee Jordan/Midland/Spyker) appear to have made a decent step forward in pace, leaving poor Super Aguri trailing in their wake.

Practice

01 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:21.269 19 laps
02 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:21.465 16 laps
03 F. Alonso Renault 1:21.599 16 laps
04 R. Kubica BMW 1:21.717 23 laps
05 J. Trulli Toyota 1:21.771 21 laps
06 S. Bourdais Toro Rosso 1:21.942 19 laps
07 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:21.992 18 laps
08 J. Button Honda 1:22.060 17 laps
09 F. Massa Ferrari 1:22.075 16 laps
10 T. Glock Toyota 1:22.081 23 laps
11 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:22.094 15 laps
12 N. Rosberg Williams 1:22.174 19 laps
13 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:22.176 18 laps
14 K. Nakajima Williams 1:22.189 16 laps
15 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:22.220 16 laps
16 S. Vettel Toro Rosso 1:22.292 20 laps
17 R. Barrichello Honda 1:22.350 17 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:22.466 22 laps
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:22.689 21 laps
20 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:23.726 16 laps
21 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:23.921 15 laps
22 M. Webber Red Bull no time 2 laps