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Monday, August 27, 2007

Turkish Delight


Ferrari's Felipe Massa won his second consecutive Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday, beating teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Two-time defending Formula One champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren was third.

Overall leader Lewis Hamilton of McLaren had been in third place but dropped to fifth after shredding a tire on the 43rd lap. Nick Heidfeld was fourth.

At the end of the 58-lap race, Massa was 2.2 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, with Alonso 26 seconds back. Hamilton was 45 seconds behind Massa.

With five races left, Alonso gained on his teammate after being as low as sixth in the early stages of the race.

In the overall standings, Hamilton's lead was cut to five points over Alonso, 84-79. Massa is third with 69 points and Raikkonen is next with 68.

The Ferraris and McLarens continue to divide the races. In the 12 races so far, Alonso, Hamilton Massa and Raikkonen have won three each.

Massa made a reversal after his last race. He finished 13th in the Hungarian GP on Aug. 5 after a disappointing qualifying run that made him start from the back of the grid.

"Three Grands Prix here, two wins. Can't be better," Massa said. "Starting from pole, good car, difficult race. I managed to keep my concentration."

At the start Sunday, the two Ferrari drivers went to the top positions with Hamilton third. Alonso was beaten to the first turn by the two BMW-Sauber drivers and was sixth after the first lap. After five laps, he was more than seven seconds from first and, more important, almost five behind Hamilton.

"If someone told me on lap two you would be on the podium ... I would be very happy," Alonso said. "At the end, the final result is the best thing of the weekend."

Alonso was penalized five spots on the starting grid for the Hungarian GP after delaying his teammate in the pits in the final minutes of qualifying, although Hamilton refused to let Alonso pass him earlier, contrary to McLaren team orders. Hamilton won and Alonso was fourth.

At 10 laps Sunday it was still the two Ferraris ahead of Hamilton, with Alonso about 10 seconds back. Alonso was able to move into fourth past Heidfeld and Robert Kubica at the first pit stop, but he was still losing time.

Raikkonen closed to within a second.

"I made a small, small mistake and Kimi closed the gap," Massa said. "Just a small mistake made my life difficult."

Raikkonen said the result was predictable after Saturday when Massa was first, two places ahead of the Finnish driver.

"In Formula One these days the race is pretty much decided after qualifying," Raikkonen said.

Things changed on the 43rd lap when Hamilton was flapping rubber from his shredded front tire while in third place. Hamilton managed to make it to the pits to change the tire but Alonso moved into third and Heidfeld was fourth.

"I saw some bits fly off the tire," Hamilton said. "It was lucky I didn't put the car in the gravel and managed to control it back to the pits as this meant that in the end I only lost two places."

Hamilton said the tire cost him a place on the podium.

"I was pushing obviously. Without a doubt we would have finished third. I still had six laps more fuel than the Ferraris. I was hoping in those six laps I could get Kimi," Hamilton said.

"Then the tire went."

Renault's Heikki Kovalainen was sixth, followed by Nico Rosberg of Williams and Kubica.

The next race is the Italian Grand Prix on Sept. 9, followed by the Belgian Grand Prix a week later.

2007 Turkish Grand Prix Results

Pos
Driver Team
Time/Retired Grid Pts
1
Felipe Massa Ferrari
1:26:42.161 1 10
2
Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
+2.2 secs 3 8
3
Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes
+26.1 secs 4 6
4
Nick Heidfeld BMW
+39.6 secs 6 5
5
Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
+45.0 secs 2 4
6
Heikki Kovalainen Renault
+46.1 secs 7 3
7
Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota
+55.7 secs 8 2
8
Robert Kubica BMW
+56.7 secs 5 1
9
Giancarlo Fisichella Renault
+59.4 secs 10
10
David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault
+71.0 secs 13
11
Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota
+79.6 secs 14
12
Ralf Schumacher Toyota
+1 Lap 16
13
Jenson Button Honda
+1 Lap 21
14
Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda
+1 Lap 11
15
Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari
+1 Lap 15
16
Jarno Trulli Toyota
+1 Lap 9
17
Rubens Barrichello Honda
+1 Lap 22
18
Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda
+1 Lap 17
19
Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari
+1 Lap 18
20
Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari
+2 Laps 20
21
Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari
Fuel pressure 19
Ret
Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault
Hydraulics 12

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Standings

Driver's Standings

Pos Driver Nationality Team Points
1 Lewis Hamilton British McLaren-Mercedes 84
2 Fernando Alonso Spanish McLaren-Mercedes 79
3 Felipe Massa Brazilian Ferrari 69
4 Kimi Räikkönen Finnish Ferrari 68
5 Nick Heidfeld German BMW 47
6 Robert Kubica Polish BMW 29
7 Heikki Kovalainen Finnish Renault 19
8 Giancarlo Fisichella Italian Renault 17
9 Alexander Wurz Austrian Williams-Toyota 13
10 Nico Rosberg German Williams-Toyota 9
11 Mark Webber Australian Red Bull-Renault 8
11= David Coulthard British Red Bull-Renault 8
13 Jarno Trulli Italian Toyota 7
14 Ralf Schumacher German Toyota 5
15 Takuma Sato Japanese Super Aguri-Honda 4
16 Jenson Button British Honda 1
16= Sebastian Vettel German STR-Ferrari 1
18 Rubens Barrichello Brazilian Honda 0
18= Scott Speed USA STR-Ferrari 0
18= Anthony Davidson British Super Aguri-Honda 0
18= Adrian Sutil German Spyker-Ferrari 0
18= Christijan Albers Dutch Spyker-Ferrari 0
18= Vitantonio Liuzzi Italian STR-Ferrari 0
18= Markus Winkelhock German Spyker-Ferrari 0
18= Sakon Yamamoto Japanese Spyker-Ferrari 0


Teams Standings
Pos Team Points
1 McLaren-Mercedes 148
2 Ferrari 137
3 BMW 77
4 Renault 36
5 Williams-Toyota 22
6 Red Bull-Renault 16
7 Toyota 12
8 Super Aguri-Honda 4
9 Honda 1
10 STR-Ferrari 0
10= Spyker-Ferrari 0

Saturday, August 25, 2007

2007 FORMULA 1™ Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix

Ferrari's Felipe Massa loves Istanbul Park. After taking his first pole and his first win here last year, he grabbed pole again on Saturday afternoon by a hair from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, and their respective team mates were third and fourth.

After the switch to medium tyres and minimal fuel loads, it was Hamilton who set the final pace with 1m 27.373s, but just as McLaren were celebrating, Massa came barrelling out of the last turn to depose him with 1m 27.329s.

Pos No Driver Team

Q3 Laps
1 5 Felipe Massa Ferrari

1:27.329 18
2 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes

1:27.373 17
3 6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari

1:27.546 18
4 1 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes

1:27.574 17
5 10 Robert Kubica BMW

1:27.722 17
6 9 Nick Heidfeld BMW

1:28.037 17
7 4 Heikki Kovalainen Renault

1:28.491 24
8 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota

1:28.501 20
9 12 Jarno Trulli Toyota

1:28.740 24
10 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault

1:29.322 24
11 23 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda


12
12 15 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault


12
13 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault


12
14 8 Rubens Barrichello Honda


12
15 7 Jenson Button Honda


12
16 17 Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota


14
17 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari


9
18 11 Ralf Schumacher Toyota


7
19 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda


8
20 19 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari


6
21 20 Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari


9
22 21 Sakon Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari


7

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Karthikeyan hopeful of Williams drive

Narain Karthikeyan remains hopeful of securing a race-seat with Williams next season. The Indian driver is currently testing for the British team, a role which he has filled for the last two years.

And the 30-year-old revealed that he still has designs on replacing either Alex Wurz or Nico Rosberg in the Williams cockpit.

However, the former Jordan driver has a seat lined up in A1 racing should this fail to materialise.

"I have got a contract with Williams for next year and am hoping to get behind the wheels as a driver," he told The Hindustan Times.

"If it doesn't materialise though, I have got a commitment with the A1 Grand Prix and would race in it."

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Expert Opinion

Former world champion Mika Hakkinen believes Fernando Alonso is struggling to come to terms with being beaten by a rookie. Lewis Hamilton leads the title race by seven points from bitter McLaren rival Alonso following a contentious Hungarian Grand Prix.

The team-mates are no longer on speaking terms following their row after qualifying when Alonso was adjudged to have deliberately impeded Hamilton in the pit lane.

Alonso was subsequently demoted from pole to sixth on the grid, leaving Hamilton to claim the third win of his debut season and take a step nearer world title glory.

Hakkinen, who won the championship in 1998 and 1999 with McLaren, said: "Fernando is the double world champion while Lewis has just started his career.

"But he has already caused him a number of worries, something that Fernando is struggling to accept.

"McLaren treat both drivers equally but Alonso just can't accept such strong competition from a novice."

Hakkinen is confident embattled team boss Ron Dennis will be able to resolve the furore.

Speaking in Caracas, Venezuela, promoting a campaign warning against the dangers of drinking and flying, Hakkinen added: "For Ron the situation is troublesome but he is absolutely the right person to be able to deal with it."

Singapore eyes street circuit work

Singapore will begin road works on its street circuit next month before hosting its debut Formula One Grand Prix event next year, the government and the promoter said.

They said the 5.05-kilometre (3.13-mile) street route would offer "a number of overtaking opportunities, fast turns and technically challenging sections."

More than 70 percent of the circuit is made up of the city-state's existing road network.

The world motorsport's governing body FIA in July set the date for the Singapore Grand Prix for September 28 next year.

The design of the paddock, which will house the control tower, garages for the teams, hospitality lounges, the press room and other facilities, is also being finalised, it said.

"We are confident that both the circuit and paddock building will be officially endorsed very soon," said tourism board chief executive Lim Neo Chian, who chair's the event's working committee.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has said the Singapore race may be held at night in a bid to boost global TV ratings, although there are still safety issues that needed to be resolved.