Hamilton Wins Belgium F1 Grand Prix
August 29, 2010
Lewis Hamilton has moved back to the top of the Formula One drivers championship after a thrilling win in the Belgium F1 grand prix. Australia’s Mark Webber took second and Robert Kubica completed the podium with third.
For Hamilton and Webber is was a good day as Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso all failed to score points.
The race start was a disaster for Webber. His car stood still as the others around him charged into the first corner. He was sixth early on and then jumped up to fifth before his teammate helped him out.
Vettel went to overtake Button however with some moisture on the track he got things wrong and as he tried to dart from one side to the other he lost grip and rammed the side of Button’s McLaren. Button was out but Vettel could continue after a new front wing was fitted. Vettel later was given a drive through penalty for the incident.
That helped Webber into third position. Webber looked to go past Kubica after the first pit stop but could not quite get there. Later as rain came into play an error in pits by Kubica who overshot his pit box allowed Webber to take second.
Hamilton was very lucky to still be in the race after going wide at turn eight and escaping a gravel trap.
In the end it was to be his day and he now leads the points race with 182 to Webber’s 179. Vettel is now a more distant third with 151, then Button with 147 and Alonso 141.
In the F1 constructor’s championship Red Bull still lead by just a one point margin, 330 to 329.
Next up is the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in two weeks time.
Webber Takes Pole for Belgium F1 Grand Prix
August 28, 2010
Formula One drivers championship leader Mark Webber has picked up from where he left off before the summer break and has taken pole for the Belgium F1 Grand Prix.
Webber took pole with a time of 1m 45.778. With rain once again threatening, Lewis Hamilton went close to knocking the aussie off top spot when he lapped in a time of 1m 45.863. This saw him jump past Robert Kubica who was looking likely to take P2 on the grid after setting a time of 1m 46.100.
Sebastian Vettel will start fourth after recording 1m 46.127. Jenson Button and Felipe Massa will start from P5 and P6.
Vettel Asleep at the Wheel Gives Webber Hungary F1 Win
August 1, 2010
The champion of Saturday, Sebastian Vettel, has again failed to convert a pole position into a race victory. He has had seven starts from pole for just two wins.
In the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix the race started well for Vettel. He just managed to hold first position in an always hectic start, he then pulled away from Fernando Alonso who had moved past Mark Webber at the start.
In a matter of laps Vettel had gone out to at least a seven second lead, but then it all went wrong for the Red Bull Racing team driver.
On lap 15 the safety car was deployed and Vettel just managed to make it into the pits after jumping the kerb to cut into the pit lane entrance. Mark Webber did not pit and he took the race lead. When the safety car got the call to come off the circuit Vettel was caught napping at the wheel. He allowed a gap of more than ten car lengths to open up between himself and Mark Webber as the race restarted. The result was a drive through penalty.
As Webber had not pitted he knew he had to build a good buffer between himself and second place and that he did. He managed to stay out until the 43rd lap and by then had a lead of 23.7 second which allowed him to pit and go back out in first place. From there he cruised to victory.
The penalty for Vettel saw him drop to third position behind Alonso and despite being able to lap quicker the Red Bull did not have the speed in the straights to pass the Ferrari.
What could have been a race victory was made worse by the fact that Vettel had to settle for third, still a good result considering Lewis Hamilton failed to complete the race due to a mechanical problem that saw the then championship leader roll to a halt on lap 24.
After Webber’s fourth win of the season he now leads the Formula One drivers championship with 161 points, next is Hamilton on 157, Vettel 151, Button 147 and Alonso 141.
In the contructor’s championship Red Bull now leads with 312 points to McLaren on 304 and Ferrari who have 238.
The big news to come out of this race was the 10 grid position penalty Michael Schumacher received for a lap 66 incident when he appeared to try to run Rubens Barrichello off the track.
Barrichello later was asked if that was the most dangerous move someone had made on him in F1 and he said yes. It was lucky both drivers did not come into contact and also for Barrichello he was lucky to not hit the wall.
The F1 season now goes into the summer break. The next race, which is the Belgian Grand Prix, takes place on 29 August at the Spa track. It is race 13 of 19.
The races still to come after Spa are the Italian Grand Prix 12 September, Singapore Grand Prix 26 September, Japanese Grand Prix 10 October, Korean Grand Prix 24 October, Brazilian Grand Prix 7 November and the final race of the 2010 Formula One drivers championship will be held in Abu Dhabi on 14 November.
Still plenty to happen.
Red Bull Dominate in Qualifying for Hungarian F1 Grand Prix
July 31, 2010
If you won world championships for getting the most poles then Red Bull would have that in the bag already. As we all know it is what happens on Sunday that matters.
Red Bull again grabbed pole position after Sebastian Vettel dominated Q3. He stopped the clock at 1m 18.773 seconds ahead of Red Bull teammate Mark Webber who recorded 1m 19.184 seconds. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso grabbed third with 1m 19.987 seconds.
Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton grabbed positions four and five then Nico Rosberg, Vitaly Petrov, Robert Kubica, Pedro de la Rosa and Nico Hulkenberg rounds out the top ten.
The surprise was Jenson Button down in 11th.
Red Bull has a huge advantage over the rest of the field but it can all be for nothing if they don’t get a good start and then race away to use that speed advantage.
The race could all be decided at the start. Vettel has to nail it or we will see a repeat of past races where he has failed to go on from pole and take a win.
Last race Red Bull had a great chance to make ground on McLaren but both drivers started poorly and the McLaren drivers only lost one point overall in the constructors championship race.
Controversial Ferrari One-Two in Germany
July 25, 2010
Ferrari managed to claim a 1-2 result in the German formula grand prix. The problem is the way it happened.
It appeared that team orders allowed Fernando Alonso to move past Felipe Massa. Ferrari are saying it was not so however everyone else thinks otherwise.
The FIA thought what Ferrari had done was a breach of the sporting regulations and handed the team a US $100,000 fine after Massa moved aside for Alonso on lap 49.
Apart from Ferrari up front we saw Sebastian Vettel take third place ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Robert Kubica, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov who took out position 10.
Vettel lost the race at the start when he lost power as Ferrari drivers raced past him. Mark Webber also did not start well. He held fourth for a period but then saw Lewis Hamilton pass. Later in the race Webber had to nurse his car due to oil problems.
Some people think it is ok for team orders to determine the race order, but many don’t. A race is a race on the track and should not be decided by others. What is your view?
Leave your comments below.
Vettel Just Claims Pole in Germany
July 25, 2010
Local favourite Sebastian Vettel has claimed pole by the narrowest of margins ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. The Red Bull driver recorded 1:13.791 to jump ahead of Alonso who recorded 1:13.793.
Massa was third with 1:14.290 then Mark Webber with 1:14.347. The Mclaren’s of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will be in P5 and P6 the Robert Kubica, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg and Michael Schumacher claimed 11th spot.
Alonso had bettered the times of Vettel in Q1 and Q2 and in the first run in Q3. It was the final run from Vettel that saw him stop the clock just two thousandths of a second ahead of Alonso. It does not get much tighter than that.
Mark Webber made a mistake in the first sector of his final run to allow Massa to take P3.
Should be a great grand prix, let’s hope there is a clean start but knowing formula one there is bound to an incident on the first lap.
Providing Vettel and Webber stay out of trouble, this grand prix is a great opportunity for the team to make ground on the McLaren team.
What happened while I was away
July 16, 2010
I have just returned from a ten night cruise on the Pacific Jewel. While onboard I had limited internet access so was not able to post to this blog. Since my return I have been catching up with what has happened in the world of sport.
The big news was of course Spain winning the World Cup soccer, or was it LeBron James deciding to leave the Cavs and signup with the Miami Heat?
Spain defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in extra-time. I managed to watch some of the match on the ship and was glad to see Spain win. The Netherlands came so close to scoring when a shot by Arjen Robben was just deflected wide by the boot of the Spanish keeper Iker Casillas. As the teams battled it out in extra-time it was Andres Iniesta’s 116th-minute strike that saw Spain get the one goal that gave them the World Cup victory.
The big news in the NBA was of course the LeBron James decision to join Miami Heat and create the dream team of himself, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He said the reason was that he wants to win championships. You can see the reasons why for yourself in the video below.
Mark Webber winning the Brittish Formula One grand prix was another big item. Webber was a bit annoyed with his team after they gave exclusive use of an updated front wing to Sebastian Vettel. Vettel took pole ahead of Webber however the Australian got the jump on his teammate at the start of the race and was never headed. The win moved Webber to third on the driver’s championship.
“I’ve always loved Silverstone,” said Mark. “I won at the track in Formula Ford, Formula 3000 and in Sportscars and to win there in F1 is the icing on the cake. The British Grand Prix is one of the most prestigious races on the calendar; every driver wants to win it and I’ve now got the trophy sitting on my mantelpiece.”
Another big event taking place right now is le Tour de France. I saw that Australia’s Cadel Evans had taken the leader’s yellow jersey only to see him drop off the pace in a later stage. It was revealed later that he had broken a bone in his elbow after a fall. Following stage 11 Evans was in 18th position 7 minutes 47 seconds behind race leader Andy Schleck.
The big news out of stage 11 was the disqualification of Mark Renshaw for headbutting Kiwi Julian Dean during a sprint finish.
Webber Takes to the Air and Vettel Wins European F1
June 27, 2010
Mark Webber will want to forget the European F1 Grand Prix in a hurry. He went from 2nd to 9th at the start and then spectacularly crashed out of the race on lap 8.
Webber was looking to overtake Heikki Kovalainen at high speed and got caught out by what he claimed was early braking. He clipped the back of Kovalainen’s car and that sent his car skywards. He flipped landed upside down and then turned again to land on his wheels before crashing into the tyre wall at high speed.
Thankfully Webber jumped out and walked away unscathed.
Getting back to the race it was Vettel who got away from pole still up front and from there he used good pace to keep Lewis Hamilton in second. The two almost could have crashed out on the opening lap as the two cars touched.
After the Webber crash and the deployment of the safety car 10 drivers rushed to pit. This haste cost them later as 9 of the 10 were awarded a 5 second penalty, with Glock getting 20 for ignoring blue flags.
At the end of the day it was Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil, Kobayashi, Alonso, Buemi, Rosberg who took the top ten positions.
Lewis Hamilton still leads the championship race with 127 points, Button 121, Vettel 115, Webber 103, Alonso 98.
Red Bull Back Up Front
June 26, 2010
After finally missing out on taking pole at the Canadian F1 Grand Prix the Red Bull Racing team has hit back at the European Grand Prix and taken the top two spots.
Sebastian Vettel claimed pole with a time of 1m 37.587s ahead of Mark Webber with 1m 37.662s. Champion leading Lewis Hamilton surprised himself by taking third position on the grid. His time was 1m 37.969s ahead of Fernando Alonso with 1m 38.075.
Hamilton may have gone faster however a big slide on turn 12 cost him time.
Felipe Massa took 5th, Robert Kubica 6th, Jenson Button 7th, Nico Hulkenberg 8th, Rubens Barrichello 9th and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the top 10.
All interest will now be on the start of the race. Can the two Red Bull team mates get away with a clean start?
Lewis Hamilton Wins Canadian F1 GP
June 13, 2010
Lewis Hamilton has led McLaren to a 1-2 result in the Canadian F1 grand prix and now leads the Formula One drivers championship.
The former world champion started alongside Sebastian Vettel after Red Bull’s Mark Webber took a 5-spot penalty for a gearbox change.
Hamilton crossed the line with a 2.2 second advantage over Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso managed to get in between the McLaren’s and Red Bulls to take third position. Vettel was fourth and Webber fifth.
Hamilton now leads the Formula One drivers championship on 109 points with Button 106, Webber 103, Alonso 94, Vettel 90, Rosberg 74, Kubica 73, Massa 67, Schumacher 34 and Sutil on 23 rounds out the top ten.
Early in the race the Red Bulls took the lead after Hamilton pitted for tyres. In the end they also had to pit and that left Hamilton to drive away for what he described as a tough win.
