The weekend marked the end of the long F1 break and we were long overdue for our fix. Things picked up at the historic Spa Francorchamps circuit for the 2010 Belgian GP. The weekend started off with Mark Webber taking control of qualifying and earning pole but Lewis Hamilton was hot on his heels and managed to nab the second spot on the grid. Sebastien Vettel had a bit of a bobble in his performance and qualified fourth.
When the lights went out the next day Mark Webber fell asleep at the wheel and had a horrible start which Lewis Hamilton was more than happy to capitalize on and that was all she wrote. While Lewis was running away from the field Sebastien Vettel was trying to fight his way to the front after some bad tire decisions put him in mid-pack. He actually lost control at one point and slid into the back of Jenson Button, taking him out completely. Vettel’s car was ok but the stewards didn’t like his stunt at all and smacked him with a drive through penalty which pretty much threw him to the back of the pack. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton drove on to his first race win since June and preserving his championship points lead. While Sebastien Vettel’s championship chances may be totally done all because of a wet track and a bad decision. Check out a full race report on SPEED’s website.
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.
Just after the Formula Drift party was winding down the Formula 1 jump-off at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix was getting started. Silverstone came back this year in a big way. The entire track was refreshed and extended making the total distance just over 3 miles. It was also announced that Silverstone just renewed its contract with the FIA and would be on the F1 schedule for the next 17 years.
With all of that pageantry out of the way the grid got down to business and like half the races so far Red Bull Racing dominated practice and qualifying with Mark Webber taking the pole and his teammate Sebastien Vettel taking the spot right next to him. However despite being next to each other on the front row things were not too friendly between the two Red Bull Drivers. Webber was put-off when the upper brass of the RBR team decided to take a new experimental front wing off his car and put it on Vettel’s car, leaving Mark with an out-dated piece that reduced his straight line speed. Although it didn’t seem to hamper his performance all that much since he ran away from the pack as soon as the lights went out. Meanwhile, in Vettel-ville Sebastian had a major incident at the start and cut a tire. After the tire was replaced in the pits he emerged at the back of the pack. Eventually he fought his way to a 6th place finish but it was Mark Webber who snagged the victory.
Mark is now third in points behind Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton while Vettel sits 4th in points. However the season is only half over so both RBR drivers are more than within striking distance to the points lead. I can’t wait to see how the rest of this season plays out!
The F1 grid visited Fernando Alonso’s hometown over the weekend for the 2010 European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain. Since F1 started visiting Valencia the races have always been more than eventful. This year was no exception! Things started out normal enough, with Sebastien Vettel on the pole and the McLaren cars not far behind. However, when the lights went out things immediately got dicy. First Vettel got into Hamilton at the first corner and damaged Hamilton’s front left tire. Lewis fought with some severe vibrations until he was able to get into the pits and have his crew address the problem.
The real fireworks came just after the halfway point of the race. Mark Webber was barreling down on an off-pace Hekki Kovalainen. Hekki knew that he was off the pace and attempted to make room for Mark to go by but, Mark already picked the path he would take and Hekki crossed it. The resulting collision had Webber nearly flipping over in mid-air before landing right side up. Luckily Webber was just shaken and stirred but not seriously hurt.
Mark Webber/Hekki Kovalainen incident:
This nasty incident naturally brought out the safety car and that is when things really got interesting. As the safety car came out the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felpe Massa followed instructions per the rules and lined up behind the car, slowing down. Lewis Hamilton actually passed the saftey car which is a big no-no. As the race went on the race stewards announced that Lewis would face a drive through penalty. But Lewis’ pace was so fast and he was so far ahead that despite having to take a leisurely cruise through the pit lane he did not lose a single position. Ferrari was furious about this had have been spouting off about it ever since.
While all this drama was going on Sebastian Vettel was busy putting a 14 second gap on the rest of the pack. The young German kept things smooth and drove his Red Bull Racing Renault to a victory, making him the third different winner in Valencia in the last three years. Lewis still remains the leader in the points but with Mark Webber’s accident Sebastien was able to pass his teammate in the points standings. Good job Sebastien! You can check out the race re-cap by the SPEED trio.
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.
Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! You may have been too busy BBQ-ing to pay attention to all the racing that went on Sunday so I’m going to attempt to give you all a quick re-cap starting with F1. This weekend the F1 grid landed in Istanbul, Turkey for the Turkish GP (go figure). As usual during practice and qualifying the two Red Bull Racing cars had strong performances. However the real surprise was Lewis Hamilton who stuck his nose in the battle of the two Red Bull teammates and qualified in row 1 for the first time this season.
When the lights went out on Sunday both Red Bull cars attempted to get a jump in the field but they couldn’t shake Hamilton who appeared to be on a mission from the speed gods. Once he found his opportunity he passed a increasingly slowing Mark Webber for the lead. While Lewis worked on building a cap an unexpected battle unfolded between Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel. For some reason Mark continued to get slower each lap while Vettel got faster. However, Webber fought with everything he could to keep Vettel behind him which led to the two drivers eventually colliding against each other in lap 40. This allowed Lewis and his teammate Jenson Button to move past the squabble leading to a 1-2 finish for the McLaren Vodafone team while Mark Webber limped to 3rd keeping him at the top of the points standings.
You can guarantee there was a long discussion in the Red Bull paddock after the race. You can read a full post race report on SPEED TV’s website. The next round will be in Canada and I’m sure we’ll learn about all the drama before the next race weekend.
I know what you’re thinking but this isn’t a spoiler alert because I checked the listings and they aren’t replaying the Monaco GP race any time soon. So quit your whinin’! Anyway, Webber pretty much dominated the weekend. He was fast in practice, qualified on the pole, and then ran away from the entire grid by leaps and bounds as soon as the lights went out. To celebrate Mark, his car designer Adrian Newey, and team principal Chrstian Horner all jumped into a pool at the Red Bull VIP area. Now Mark and his teammate Sebastien Vettel are tied for first in the driver points. Can this be the begining of a internal team battle for the rest of the season? Who knows!? But I’m glad things aren’t boring! Check out a full race report on SPEED.
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.
Red Bull Racing always has fresh videos right before a big race and I love them for it! In their latest they put their young gun Sebastien Vettel in a simulator to take us for a virtual lap around Barcelona. Oh, don’t adjust your audio Vettel is in fact speaking his native German tongue but no worries because Red Bull tapped Mark Webber to translate. It gets interesting indeed..
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