The warring Red Bull teammates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber need to be quick with their patch up work or otherwise close compatriots McLaren could surely use the situation to their advantage.
There have been talks about indifference between the two teammates as well as an internal division and in such a situation, the Red Bull outfit will definitely find it difficult to come up with positive results in Canada. The positive sign is that the supposed culprit Webber has shown intentions to patch up as he mentioned – We’ll probably have a difference of opinion about what happened until we go to our graves, but we’re both adults and we need to find a way of racing together. If the two cannot manage to get their relationship back on track, they won’t be sharing information as much at the next race and that, as per Jenson Button will benefit McLaren hugely.
The F1 fanatics were treated with a race of their lives as Lewis Hamilton managed to win the seventh edition of the 2010 GP in Istanbul. It was a dramatic finish to a race where team Red Bull almost managed to clinch both the top spots, but sadly a clash between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel saw Hamilton take the advantage.
Mark Webber who appeared to be the culprit behind the collision managed to finish third, as he left his team-mate Vettel in a furious state after the race. Even team boss Christian Horner was angry at both drivers as he stressed on the need of the drivers giving each other room and none of the two sadly yielded.
Lewis was followed by team-mate Button on the podium and Mercedes GP driver Michael Schumacher grabbed the fourth spot.
25 year old Briton Lewis Hamilton is finding himself making news for all the wrong reasons this year. His ‘weaving’ defensive driving act at the Malaysian Grand Prix has been heavily criticized by a number of F1 experts and news is that the weaving act will be discussed by at the pre-event drivers’ Briefing in Shanghai.
Hamilton was severely criticized by Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello of Williams and Pole Robert Kubica of Renault for his car handling when he defended against Kubica’s team-mate Russian Vitaly Petrov. Barrichello also mentioned that the drivers also have a kind of verbal agreement that you should move only once during the protection of your line.
Hamilton’s defensive tactics were worthy of punishment as it was against the sprit of the competition. Mark Webber is however of the opinion that this issue should be “tidied up” when the drivers congregate for their pre-race briefing in Shanghai.
As F1 pushes for better road safety measures, star F1 McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was charged by the Victorian Police for exactly the opposite reasons. Lewis, the 2000 F1 champion was caught doing burnouts in his company car which is a silver 2010 E500 saloon. Lewis was pulled over by a Victorian Police divisional van and he will now be summoned for an improper use of a motor vehicle. His vehicle was also impounded for 48 hours but the officer on duty did appreciate the Briton’s co-operation. Lewis issued an immediate apology to team McLaren condemning his act, while he was terribly worried about denting his repute and he was visibly upset.
This year’s 2008 Monaco Grand Prix was a real challenge as bad weather continued to change the race. Even the winner Lewis Hamilton and Mclaren were dominated by the weather on lap 5 when Hamilton’s Mclaren hit a barrier puncturing his right-rear tyre forcing him into an early pit stop. He managed to come back and win the shortened event, after his 76th lap, BMW’s Kubica coming in 2nd and Ferrari’s Massa 3rd..
The race was wet at the start and saw many mistakes and errors take place, however these conditions did not continue and we saw the track start to dry, the weather kept looking like it was going to rain but it just never happened. As the drivers and manufacturers didn’t have the privilege of time, travel they had to decide what tires to use, intermediate or dry. Most drivers went with dry tyres and this decision ended up paying off.
Because Lewis had an early pit stop it meant he had enough fuel to gain the lead while the others had to have pit stops during the middle of the race. Eventually he had a good 40 second lead, which was all undone by Nico Rosberg’s bad crash on lap 61. The safety car came out for a few laps and then the race continued. On lap 69 Kimi Raikkonen ran into the back of Adrian Satu who was sitting in comfortable fourth and then disqualified. This is being looked into. The race was then continued with Lewis Hamilton and Mclaren taking the win. This was a great race to watch! Can’t wait till the Canadian Grand Prix starts!
Brazilian pilot Felipe Massa won the Istanbul Grand Prix, for the third time in a row and managed to send Ferrari in the first place for constructors consolidating their leadership, while he is second in pilots championship. The podium was completed with Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) who was 3.7 seconds slower and then followed by the other Ferrari pilot, world champion, Kimi Raikkonen just half a second behind Hamilton.
Massa was in pole-position at the start and finished first when the checkered flag was waved. Istanbul is the first grand prix ever won by the Brazilian pilot, so it’s obvious why he ended up with a passion for Turkey.
Here are the results of the Turkish Grand Prix:
1. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1 hr 26 min 49.451 secs
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren +00:03.779
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 00:04.271
4. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 00:21.945
5. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 00:38.741
6. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 00:53.724
7. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull – Renault 01:04.229
8. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams – Toyota 01:11.406
9. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull – Renault 01:15.270
10. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 01:16.344
11. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 1 lap
12. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 1 lap
13. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1 lap
14. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1 lap
15. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1 lap
16. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India – Ferrari 1 lap
17. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 1 lap
r. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso – Ferrari 34 laps
r. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams – Toyota 57 laps
r. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India – Ferrari 58 laps
(rank: r = retired, nc = not classified)
No Formula One race the weekend that just passed but we still have some news. Honda Racing F1 Team decided to sign a contract with Will Stevens, a 16 year old, just like McLaren did years ago with Lewis Hamilton. The guy is not even out of high school but he has a signed piece of paper with Ross Brawn and Nick Fry’s signatures, that will probably put him in the big league of F1 racing in the next few years.
Is it just me or it’s becoming a trend to recruit young fellas with badass driving instincts? Could this be the winning recipe.
Will Stevens, has the FIA-CIK KF2 European and Asia-Pacific, International Open Masters KF2, WSK Junior ICA and MSA British Junior titles to his name and five national championships. When did he got the time?
via AutoBlog
Massa managed to get his first points in this year’s championship, after returning to one of his favorite race tracks and winning the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix. He won it in 2007 and came back for another medal after big issues in the first two races this year, when he retired. “I love this circuit. I’ve always been very, very strong here. We knew we could count on a great car and that certainly proved to be the case,” Massa said. These are his first 10 points after failing to finish in Australia and Malaysia.
Second place, Kimi Raikkonen, wasn’t that happy (“It’s not bad” he said) for his second place, 3 seconds behind Massa, but the fact that he’s now the leader of the world championship brings satisfaction.
BMW did good, with Kubica in the third place Nick Heidfeld taking the fourth, 4.9 seconds behind the winner and respectively 8.4 seconds.
Lewis Hamilton made a mess of the race. Started third, inexplicably hit Fernando Alonso of Renault in the back and headed to the pits for repairs. He finished on the 13th spot.
Kovalainen of McLaren on fifth and Jarno Trulli from Toyota finished the top6.
Picture copyright : F1-Live
What would you expect from a Formula 1 driver that had a great season this year and finished 2nd on Top Gear’s test track, to do 80mph on the high way? I guess Lewis Hamilton, the boy wonder as newspapers call him, can explain that speed is in your blood so I guess that’s the reason why he was caught speeding with 40mph more than the limit, near Laon, a city in the north of France.
Though Hamilton was “polite and cooperative” consequences included a suspended license for one month and his Mercedes impounded. We will see the 22 year old racer in the 2008 F1 season driving for McLaren, but in the meantime his teammate Heikki Kovalainen should give him a ride if needed.
via TopGear
Kimi Raikkonen has become the 2007 Formula One World Champion. In a hectic race where each of the top three could have won it, it was Raikkonen who led his team mate over the finish line to win his first Brazilian race and his first world champion. After so many close attempts, Kimi is a worthy champion, and after his convincing display today around Autodromo Carlos Pace, McLaren will be kicking themselves for letting it slip away. From the first lap, it looked as though Ferrari would dominate, but what happened over the course of the Grand Prix wasn’t what was expected. Read the rest of this entry »
