Over the weekend the F1 party made its final stop in Hungary before it takes its summer break which is nearly a month long. Some of the controversy from the last few races died down a bit but Ferrari’s team orders were still fresh in the minds and on the mouths of almost every person on the grid. However, there weren’t too many opinions shared as understandably all the teams wanted to focus on the race at hand.
As usual the weekend started off with the Red Bull team dominating qualifying and Sebastien Vettel capturing the pole position and Mark Webber qualifying 2nd lining up against his hot shot teammate. The two Ferrari’s of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa earned their grid spots just behind the Red Bull team and were poised to pounce when the time was right.
When the lights went out on Sunday only one Ferrari, piloted by Fernando was able to make a move on Red Bull. Just as Mark Webber was shoving Vettel out of his way, Alonso took it upon himself to get in between the fight and steal 2nd place away from Sebastien. As Mark Webber ran away from the rest of the grid we saw a few shocking things happen: first was Lewis Hamilton’s Vodafone McLaren Mercedes suffered a driveshaft failure putting him out of the race and ending his championship points lead. The next gasp came when Nico Rosberg came into the pits for a tire change when one of his wheels literally came off and rolled through several pit crews before bouncing 20 feet straight up into the air and landing on a crew member. Luckily the crewman only suffered minor injuries.
Then just a short time later Sebastien Vettel was slapped with a drive through penalty for holding up the field by staying longer than 10 car lengths behind the safety car after an incident. As I’m writing this I am sure he is still pretty pissed off about it.
While all of that craziness was going on Mark Webber continued one of the best F1 drives ever seen, making a set of soft compound option tires stretch for a 45 lap stint! Once he built a comfortable 23 second gap on 2nd place he came into the pits to switch to the hard compound tires and finished off the race capping off a dominant performance. Since Lewis Hamilton suffered a DNF Mark Webber has officially taken over the lead in the championship points! Check out a full race report on SPEED.
Before the Indy Cars started a boring race that ended spectacularly (you’ll see in the post after this), Formula 1 put on a show in Sebastien Vettel’s hometown of Hockenheim, Germany which temporarily re-named “Vettelheim” in honor of Sebastien Vettel. The weekend started off dramatically with many drivers crashing hard during a rainy practice on Friday and Sebastien Vettel edging out Fernando Alonso for pole position by just .002 of a second at the end of Q3 in qualifying on Saturday. To make things even more dramatic for Sebastien, Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa qualified in 3rd position. This meant Red Bull’s young ace would have to start the race with two angry Ferrari’s right behind him.
It was Ferrari’s performance in qualifying that showed the world that they were definitely not going to lay down and let Red Bull or McLaren take away a championship which they feel is still within their reach. Despite having only one win so far this season (with Fernando Alonso taking the win at the first race in Bahrain) Ferrari strongly believes they have a fighting chance at the driver’s championship.
As the lights went out to signal the start of the race Sebastien tried to pull a classic Schumacher move and slice in front of Fernando Alosno but he failed miserably as both Felipe and Fernando split him and lead the pack 1-2 into turn 1. Felipe was actually the biggest benefactor from Sebastien’s blunder as he took first place with Fernando ducking in behind him. However, things didn’t stay quite in this order for the whole race.
At around lap 19 of the race as Felipe and Fernando weaved through slower traffic Fernando attempted a few moves to pass his teammate but both tries were expertly shut down by Massa. It was at this point (lap 22) that Fernando got on the radio and expressed his frustration stating that “this is ridiculous” expressing that he has a faster pace than Felipe and should be let by. Now, Ferrari can’t simply tell Felipe to “let Fernando pass you” because that would be considered “team orders” which are against the rules in F1. Instead the team got on the radio to Felipe and said something to the effect of “Fernando has a much faster pace than you, please respond if you understand this message.” Felipe did not respond but he did eventually and blatantly let Fernando pass him to take first place.
The race ended with a 1-2 finish by Ferrari with Fernando Alonso taking first and his bitter teammate Felipe Massa taking second while Sebastien Vettel landed third place.
When F1 officials learned of the radio transmission between the Ferrari pit and Felipe Massa they were not happy. They allowed Fernando Alonso to keep his victory however, Ferrari was fined $100k for violation of the “no team orders” rule. They were also submitted to the World Motorsport Council (WMSC) for further possible penalties. That is certainly a tough break for Ferrari who fought valiantly to get a much needed win.
While Audi was kicking butt in LeMans, F1 was putting on their own show in another French speaking country. Once again the Canadians got to enjoy the pageantry of F1 while us Yankees had to settle with watching it on TV. If you did get a chance to watch you would have seen Lewis Hamilton dominate the weekend and go on to win the race leading a McLaren 1-2 finish with Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari bringing up third. Lewis drove a pretty masterful race and with his teammate Jenson Button in tow they pulled off a second consecutive 1-2 finish. Lewis and Jenson now lead the driver’s points standings respectively while many are starting to question of the Red Bull show is over. Check out SPEED’s full post-race report for the juicy details.
In between watching Iron Man 2, celebrating Mother’s Day, and my birthday I tried to keep up with what weekend motorsport news. This weekend Formula 1 was back from its short break and ready to take over Barcelona, Spain. There were a few pics for the win in Spain, namely Fernando Alonso (Spain being his home track), and the young dynamo Sebastien Vettel (just because hes a badass). However it was Sebastien’s teammate Mark Webber who gave an absolutely dominating performance and took the win for Red Bull Racing. Can you believe it? Mark freakin’ Webber! Good job Mark! Check out a full race report from speed by clicking the red text.
The F1 grid landed in Malaysia over the weekend and battled unpredictable weather mixed in with severe heat at the Sepang Circuit. There was a lot of pre-race speculation on the ability of Red Bull Racing to get their ace driver Sebastien Vettel through an entire race. In case you forgot Sebastien had two consecutive DNF’s due to mechanical reasons and both came after dominant performances. The pressure was on the Red Bull garage to complete an event much less win. Fortunately it seems as if the Red Bull team does well under pressure because not only did Sebastien finish the race he won and with teammate Mark Webber right behind himRed Bull Racing got their first 1-2 finish of the season! Now that the fastest driver is in a car with no issues McLaren and Ferrari need to start sweating. It looks like there will be a three-way battle for the title this year.
There was talk after the Bahrain GP that perhaps the FIA took the gonads out of F1 competition with their new rules and such. In fact some were even referring to the Bahrain GP as the “Boring GP”. However all that was erased over the weekend in Australia. There was a ton of passing and dicing, including a demolition derby into turn one during the first lap. As I suspected Sebastien Vettel was on a mission to redeem the win he felt was rightfully his after his dominating performance at Bahrain was nullified by a busted header during the final laps.
This time Vettel shot his way to the front and wasn’t going to let a cracked exhaust header keep him from victory. Technically he accomplished this goal, because it wasn’t a cracked exhaust header that kept him from victory it was a busted wheel! Once again a dominant performance was dashed by a car malfunction. You can imagine that someone from Renault is getting yelled at right now by the young German.
After Vettel was taken out of the race by his own car Jenson Button took over the lead and held on as a epic battle between hometown boy Mark Webber, Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, and Fernando Alonso raged on behind him. But those guys weren’t able to kick up enough dust to disturb Jenson’s drive and he cruised along to victory followed by Kubica (2nd) and Massa (3rd).
I would have loved to see Mark Webber win in his home country or Lewis get a repeat win in the place where he made his F1 debut but Jenson Button was just delt the right hand in this round. It looks like the old McLaren/Ferrari battle may be making a comeback for 2010.
For the second time the F1 cars raced with a background of the night sky and on a track saturated with super bright night-sun lights. That can only mean one thing; They’re back in Singapore! Before the race many were wondering if Alonso could repeat his ill-gotten win from last year or if instead the Brawn GP cars would continue their domination. However it seemed that almost all the drivers on the grid had trouble finding grip in Singapore’s tight, low speed corners. There were more than a few crashes during practice and qualifying. In fact both Brawn GP cars had a date with the wall at one point or another over the weekend.
Though, there was one driver who seemed to find harmony with the tight turns and high speed straights of Singapore, and that was Lewis Hamilton. He qualified on the pole on Saturday and that was all he needed. He lead the race practically from start to finish never getting a proper challenge from Brawn GP or Red Bull F1. He finished a full 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Timo Glock and third place Fernando Alonso. Check out the video below for the post-race wrap up.
The previous weekend was one of ups and downs for Formula 1. Things started off very badly on Saturday when Felipe Massa was knocked unconscious in what some could only describe as a “bizarre” accident. Felipe was rushed to a local hospital and put into a medically induced coma from which he has since awoken and is responsive. However some are reporting that due to sever damage to nerves in his left eye his racing career may be over. Hopefully that won’t be the case. Although if Felipe is unable recover before the next race (Valencia GP) Bernie Ecclestone is hoping that Ferrari may ask Fernando Alonso to take over driving duties. How is this possible? Well the entire Renault team (except drivers) are banned from the next race due to a saftey infraction.
So now for some good news. It looks like Lewis Hamilton is back to old form as he had a dominant performance all weekend and eventually charged his way to his first win of the 2009 season while the current leader Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team suffered a sudden and harsh downturn in performance, only able to muster a 7th place finish for the weekend. Has Brawn GP hit their limit? Can McLaren and Lewis Hamilton turn the season around and become a contender again? Stay tuned! Same F1 time, same F1 channel! I’m so cheesy sometimes…anyway.. Check out the video below for the SPEED discussion on the results.
You thought with the Long Beach Grand Prix in our back yard we’d forget about Formula One?! Not bloody likely! Anyway lets get on with it. In the first race of the season that a Brawn GP car doesn’t take the pole is also the first race that Red Bull Racing gets its first pole position ever thanks to Sebastien Vettel. While announcers and on lookers were surprized that Lewis Hamiton finally made it to the Q3 session Vettel was busy masterminding his blazing lap. Once he got out of the pit he didn’t put a wheel wrong and just when it looked like Mark Webber was going to win the pole position Vettel swoops in and snatches it away from his teammate and then Fernando Alonso swoops in and takes second position away from Webber but the Austrialian still hung onto third.
Stay tuned to SPEED this weekend to watch the Shanghai GP.
Qualifying Results
1 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Renault) 1:36.184
2 Fernando Alonso (Renault) +0.197
3 Mark Webber (Red Bull Renault) +0.282
4 Rubens Barrichello (Brawn Mercedes) +0.309
5 Jenson Button (Brawn Mercedes) +0.348
6 Jarno Trulli (Toyota) +0.651
7 Nico Rosberg (Williams Toyota) +1.213
8 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) +1.905
9 Lewis Hamilton (Mclaren Mercedes) +2.411
10 Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso Ferrari) +3.137
11 Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)
12 Heikki Kovalainen (Mclaren Mercedes)
13 Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
14 Timo Glock (Toyota)
15 Kazuki Nakajima (Williams Toyota)
16 Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso Ferrari)
17 Nelson Piquet (Renault)
18 Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber)
19 Adrian Sutil (Force India Mercedes)
20 Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India Mercedes)
Well I guess this means Alonso’s win in Singapore wasn’t just a fluke. The Japanese Grand Prix was more of a boxing match with cars between Ferrari and McLaren. While the silver and red were slap-fighting the Spanard shoved them both out of the way and took his spot on the top of the podium.
As the race started Lewis Hamilton decided to bum-rush his way through the two Ferraris while his teammate Hekki followed suit and ran both reds off the track. Later on Felipe Massa returned the favor by nosing in on Hamilton in a corner which spun the brit out. Later on Massa took out some extra aggression on Bourdais who was just minding his business but since we know how the FIA goes it was Bourdais who got the penalty instead of Massa (what a surprize right?).
In all this hub-bub (yes I said it!) Fernando and the Renault squad fought their way to the front with Robert Kubica giving chase and that was all she wrote. Those two remained ahead of the carnage and in the end Alonso crossed the line first with Mr. Kubica right behind him. Kubica’s second place finish keeps him mathamatically alive for the title being only 11 points behind Hamilton.
Formula 1 is fun…
Check out what Varsha and the guys had to say about the whole thing:
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