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Belgian F1 Grand Prix Results & Review

Molli Fire — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:18:59 +0000

Hamilton flew into the lead from the very beginning and maintained that lead throughout. Button was close behind at first and it looked like McLaren might celebrate a 1-2 victory until he was gored by Vettel during a light shower in the 16th lap. Vettel managed to get a new nose and continue the race, but Button was out. Massa held firmly in 4th for most of the race, neither shining nor shrinking from the challenging course. Constantly changing weather & tyre choices led to a few dramatic spinouts plus a few epic wrecks. As always, Spa delivered a more exciting race for spectators and drivers alike.

Belgian Grand Prix Final Results

1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:29:04.268
2 Mark Webber RBR-Renault +1.5 secs
3 Robert Kubica Renault +3.4 secs
4 Felipe Massa Ferrari +8.2 secs
5 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +9.0 secs
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP +12.3 secs
7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP +15.5 secs
8 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari +16.6 secs
9 Vitaly Petrov Renault +23.8 secs
10 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes +34.8 secs
11 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari +36.0 secs
12 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari +39.8 secs
13 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari +49.4 secs
14 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth +1 Lap
15 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault +1 Lap

As for Rubens Barrichello, perhaps he was too confident because he was celebrating his 300th Grand Prix. Like a birthday boy high on sugar from his own birthday cake, he lost control and plowed into Alonso. Luckily Alonso was able to drive away, but Barrchello didn’t actually finish his 300th GP race. He described the incident, which was reported on Cosworth’s Formula 1 blog:

“It was very difficult to know how wet the track was on the opening lap but it was fully wet when I came into Blanchimont,” Rubens said. “I was closing the door on Nico Rosberg and when I touched the brakes, even though it was quite early, it wasn’t sufficient to stop the car and I went straight on into Alonso, for which I’m sorry. It was also sad for my own team because we’d had such a positive weekend.”

More @ Early exit for Rubens at Spa – Latest News – Cosworth F1.

More race results and commentary @:

Formula1.com
SpeedTV Racecast

Rain Tyres & Red Flags At Belgium Grand Prix

Molli Fire — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:31:44 +0000

Rain tyres weren’t enough to prevent spinouts and red flags at the infamous Spa-Francorchamps circuit this weekend as rain wreaked havoc on the Formula 1 practice sessions and qualifying races. GP2 fans must’ve been pretty excited to see Timo Glock set the fastest lap in the 1st practice session @ 2:06.752 in pouring rain! However, he didn’t make it past Q2, despite lapping in P15. Fernando Alonso was quickest in the 2 practice sessions and seemed to have more grip in his newly modified Ferrari. But in the end, it was Mark Webber who shone through the clouds, celebrating his birthday with a pole position in tomorrow’s feature race.

Red Flag In Q2

The red flag appeared during Q2 when Vitaly Petrov lost control of his Renault. The car was in a bad spot & had to be removed, causing a race restart. At the press conference later that day Petrov explained:

“It was a very disappointing session for me today. On my out-lap on slick tyres, I went on the kerb at the exit of turn nine and lost control of the car because of the standing water. I wasn’t able to get started again, so that was the end of my session.”

Lotus & Virgin Advance

But with top drivers having so much trouble, underdogs found their opportunity to push through to qualify. Lotus and Virgin finished with places in the late teens and early 20′s during practice #2 and again in qualifying. Formula1.com describes the 2 teams’ results -

Practice #2:

Lotus reasserted themselves in the newbie stakes, with Heikki Kovalainen just ahead of team mate Jarno Trulli, 1m 53.480s to 1m 53.639s. Lucas di Grassi took his Virgin round in 1m 54.325s for 21st, followed by Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto’s HRTs on 1m 55.751s and 1m 56.039s respectively. Timo Glock was at the back on 2m 03.179s, having put his Virgin into the tyre wall after appearing to lose the back end on a wet kerb.

(More @ Practice Two – Alonso keeps his grip on Spa)

Q2 Race:

[After Petrov's car was removed] rain out the back of the circuit turned the whole thing into a crapshoot as cars slipped and slithered around. With seven minutes left the order was Hamilton, Button, Massa, Barrichello, Barrichello, Rosberg, Webber, Liuzzi, Schumacher, Alonso, Glock. Vettel was 17th… Then 18th, as he momentarily got bumped by Trulli. But by then it was drying slightly again, enough for the German to jump temporarily to third before another rash of improvements thanks to enhanced conditions pushed him back down to 11th as Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Barrichello, Kubica, and Schumacher jumped up.

(More @ Qualifying – Webber and Hamilton on Spa front row)

Maldonado And Parente Dominate GP2 At Spa

Molli Fire — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:21:23 +0000

We knew Parente was going to make things interesting this weekend, but I was hoping his biggest rival would be Perez instead of Maldonado. It was clear Perez was having trouble with his car on Belgium’s famous circuit (more info in previous post) Still, I was hoping he’d place in the top 5 after seeing him fly out of his starting position. Instead, Maldonado remains top dog – now with Parente right on his tail.

Results of GP2 Feature Race 1:

1. Pastor Maldonado Rapax 52:27.763
2. Alvaro Parente Coloni Motorsport +0.243
3. Romain Grosjean DAMS +4.766
4. Charles Pic Arden International +13.815
5. Luca Filippi Super Nova International +16.085
6. Oliver Turvey iSport International +21.117
7. Sergio Perez Addax +21.713
8. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden International +27.375
9. Giedo van der Garde Addax +30.834
10. Johnny Cecotto Jr. Trident Racing +32.342

According to GP2Series.com, the action was fierce and competitive from start to finish:

The Venezuelan had to work hard all day for the victory: he held station behind d’Ambrosio when the lights went out and fought off a huge push from title rival Sergio Perez, who got a storming start from seventh on the grid to P3 just behind Maldonado and ahead of Oliver Turvey out of Ste Devote, while behind them Dani Clos was delayed by a stalled Fabrizio Crestani and then ran over the rear wheel of Sam Bird: the pair were out on the spot, prompting a safety car to remove their vehicles.

Read more @ Maldonado hangs on for dramatic sixth win on GP2Series.com

The fact that Parente did so well this weekend is testament to his driving skills – the Coloni team hadn’t seen good results until they put Parente behind the wheel.

This post will be updated with more video and play-by-play action as it becomes available…

GP2 Practice & Qualifying Affected By Rain At Spa

Molli Fire — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:22:58 +0000

Maldonado was the only driver with a clear view as he raced ahead of the pack in the rain at Spa-Francorchamps during the GP2 free practice on Friday. Most drivers were trying not to destroy their cars before the feature race and seemed relieved to pull into the pit when the practice was halted. GPUdate reported the details:

The Venezuelan set a best time of 2:16.498 halfway through the rain-affected session: he was the first man on track to be sure of a clear view and was constantly fastest in a session that was not likely to see too much action, given the conditions.

Just after Maldonado set his fastest lap the heavens opened and everyone tried their best just to get back to the pit lane; there were a number of spins on their return and unfortunately for Fabio Leimer he was a passenger as his car found the wall – the impact prompted a red flag period, ahead of an early halt to the session.

More @ Maldonado fastest as rain halts Spa practice – GPUpdate.net.

Practice Results:

1. Pastor Maldonado Rapax 02:16.498
2. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 02:18.368
3. Alvaro Parente Coloni Motorsport 02:18.651
4. Michael Herck DPR 02:18.816
5. Romain Grosjean DAMS 02:19.233
6. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 02:19.342
7. Oliver Turvey iSport International 02:19.579
8. Marcus Ericsson Super Nova International 02:19.603
9. Fabrizio Crestani DPR 02:19.914
10. Sam Bird ART Grand Prix 02:19.968
11. Sergio Perez Addax 02:20.009

Qualifying Results

The downpour continued into the qualifying race and completely changed the lineup on grid for the feature races. By the end of the qualifying race, Merck was on pole, Maldonado was 3rd, Turvey 4th, Perez 8th, Bird 9th, Clos 12th and Parente wasn’t in the top 10 at all – coming in 16th instead, just behind Bianchi. Check out the horrible visibility in this highlights video:

(Full results of the qualifying race are at the end of the video…)

Apparently, Sergio Perez faced the most difficult qualifying race of his career, despite being at one of his 2 favorite circuits. (“Spa y monza son mis dos pistas favoritas!”) It sounds like his car wasn’t set-up properly for Spa’s particular challenges, according to PerezRacing.com:

Perez suffered with the balance of the car and had problems with understeer, resulting in the Dallara Renault could not enter the complex curves of the mythical Spa Francorchamps with good maneuverability.

The article quotes Perez saying:

“It was a very difficult qualifying session, we had no speed. The car was much in front of us in the second sector, and that prevented me from finding a good line, I had no grip. I think that eighth was the best we could do today, we had the speed to have been later, but tomorrow is another day.”

Perez shared similar statements via twitter on Friday: “Muy complicada la calificación!! Muy poca visibilidad.. Mañana es otro día lo intentaremos todo!” And on Saturday: “Teníamos la velocidad para haber peleado x la victoria lástima la penalización!!!mañana es otro día arrancando 2do :( fue un error mio:( ”

Feature race results coming up next!

More info about the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium:
on mut8 – Spa Francorchamps Grand Prixview
on wikipedia – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Alvaro Parente Racing In GP2 – Not F1 – At Spa

Molli Fire — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 06:32:41 +0000

Portugal’s Álvaro Parente returns to GP2 this weekend after his F1 sponsors fell short! He’s agreed to drive for Scuderia Coloni, the same team he drove to pole in the GP2 Asia series earlier this year.

According to GPUpdate.net:

Having switched from GP2 with Ocean Racing Technology to F1 with Virgin for 2010, Parente’s relationship with the latter fell through when key sponsor the Tourism Institute of Portugal failed to complete payments to the Sheffield-based outfit.

At this time, it’s unclear whether Parente will continue racing in GP2 for the rest of the season, or if this is a one-off opportunity. The Scuderia Coloni press release quoted Parente saying, “I race at Spa-Francorchamps, after that we will see what happens.”

Read more @ Parente returns to GP2 by replacing Valerio on GPUpdate.net

And @ Álvaro Parente back to GP2 with Coloni on GP2Series.com

More about Scuderia Coloni, plus Parente’s career highlights @ ScuderiaColoni.com

Spa Francorchamps Grand Prixview

Molli Fire — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:59:02 +0000

Spa Francorchamps in Belgium is one of the world’s most exciting circuits for drivers and spectators alike. These past few weeks without any Grand Prix racing haven’t been easy, but this weekend at Spa will be well worth the wait. Enjoy a little track history, videos and whatnot in the meantime:

Kimi Raikkonen takes Eau Rouge in a Ferrari:

The official Spa GP website sez:

The race was completely redesigned in 1979 to correspond to the safety standards of the world’s other great automobiles races, in particular, the Formula One. The present track is 6.973 km long.

The track is highly technical, alternating between straight lines and rapid curves. Due to its high-speed winding turns, very slow loop (La Source), and famous « Raidillon » (Eau Rouge), this track offers sensations unknown on other tracks, to both drivers and spectators.

F1 News:
From the official Formula 1 website – Belgium preview quotes – HRT, BMW Sauber, Mercedes, McLaren

GP2 News:
Parente returns to GP2 by replacing Valerio on GPUpdate.net

Nigel Mansell & Ginetta Return To Racing

Molli Fire — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:14:03 +0000

Nigel Mansell will join his 2 sons, Leo & Greg, at Silverstone circuit next month. I just read the good news @ Planetlemans.com which sez:

The Beechdean Mansell 4.5-litre Ginetta-Zytek 09SB makes its first appearance since the Le Mans 24-hours driven by Leo and Greg Mansell, the sons of 1992 Formula One World Champion, Nigel Mansell. Nigel, himself, promises to be back behind the wheel for the final round of the LMS, which takes place on his home ground Silverstone on Sunday, September 12. The Beechdean Mansell 09SB is the only British entered car in the front running LMP1 class for the Hungarian race.

(Mansell drove the JPS Lotus as well as the Canon/elf Williams FW14B-Renault, 2 infamous cars…) Sounds like September is going to be a very exciting month for racing – in Le Mans, Formula 1 and GP2… Now for something you’ll really like – pix of Nigel’s ol’ John Player Special car, the Lotus as seen at the Monterey Historics on August 15th:

2010 Monterey Historics Reunion Racing [Photos]

Molli Fire — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:51:38 +0000

Laguna Seca became a wonderland over the last two weekends as the racetrack filled with rare and beautiful specimens of classic racecars. Race teams & passionate individuals all set up shop around the California circuit to participate/practice for the Pre-Reunion and Reunion races. Here’s photos from the 2 events plus a few from the weeks of preparation leading up to the 4-day Reunion August 12-15th 2010:

[Click on thumbnails to see larger image, then click on big image if you want to see full size image...]

More to come, still uploading!!

Webber Wins Grand Prix Hungary

Molli Fire — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:07:14 +0000

Red Bull pushed ahead of McLaren today with Mark Webber winning the Hungarian GP & Lewis Hamilton retiring before reaching the finish line. Webber was way ahead of the pack by mid-race and kept his distance until the checkered flag dropped. Formula1.com described Webber’s performance:

…when he swept into the pits on the 43rd lap he had 23.7s in hand and was easily able to retain his lead. More than that, on fresh medium-compound Bridgestones he then rebuilt that 23s-lead as Alonso kept an increasingly frustrated – and extremely angry and disappointed – Vettel at bay.

Alonso was almost 18 seconds behind Webber at the end of the race, but it was fast enough for second place. By the 69th lap, Vettel was 2.8 seconds behind Alonso and appeared to be settling for 3rd place. Massa pulled into 4th place with seemingly no trouble nor extra effort. Petrov was 5th, Hulkenberg 6th, de la Rosa 7th, Jensen Button 8th while his teammate Hamilton failed to finish, Kobayashi 9th and finally Barrichello was 10th. Schumacher narrowly missed a points position when Barrichello beautifully overtook him, pushing the former champion into the 11th position.

Webber now leads the championship with 161 points.

Read more @ Hungary win gives Webber title lead on Formula1.com

And RaceCast Lap by Lap on SpeedTV.com

Watch the race highlights:

Current Championship Standings

Red Bull – Webber 161 points
McLaren – Hamilton 157 pts
Red Bull – Vettel 151 pts
McLaren – Button 147 pts
Ferrari – Alonso 141 pts
Ferrari – Massa 97 pts
Mercedes GP – Rosberg 94 pts
Renault – Kubica 89 pts
Mercedes GP – Schumacher 38 pts
Force India – Sutil 35 pts
Williams – Barrichello 30 pts
Renault – Petrov 17 pts
BMW Sauber – Kobayashi 17 pts
Force India – Liuzzi 12 pts
Williams – Hulkenberg 10 pts
Toro Rosso – Buemi 7 pts
BMW Sauber – de la Rosa 6 pts
Toro Rosso – Alguersuari 3 pts

Vettel Sets New Record At Hungoraring [Video]

Molli Fire — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:03:37 +0000

Once again, Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Massa and Hamilton dominate the qualifying lineup with Vettel in pole position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix in Hungary. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel however set the new track record for Hungoraring with a lightning fast lap in 1:18.773!!! Here’s the video from his car’s cam:

Watch the full qualifying event online (streaming video) at:
2010 Round 12 Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Race on Youku.com

Sebastian Vettel

The report from Formula1.com describes the fierce competition between Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren during the final qualifier:

Sebastian Vettel was in a world of his own in qualifying as he thrust his Red Bull to a fastest time of 1m 18.773s, and his second-run lap of 1m 18.832s would have been sufficient to win him the pole too as team mate Mark Webber could not improve on his first effort of 1m 19.184s.

The only man to get anywhere near the Australian was Fernando Alonso with 1m 19.987s for Ferrari, then there was a big gap to Felipe Massa on 1m 20.331s in the other Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton who achieved McLaren’s dream with a top-five time, 1m 20.499s.

More @ Formula 1 News on the official F1 website.

Hungaroring Circuit

Click on image to see full size

Hungaroring is a new circuit for Hungary and apparently wasn’t the country’s original choice of venue. SpeedTV reports:

A street circuit was first proposed but the idea was quickly dropped and instead a brand new track was suggested and built in a valley 19 kilometres outside Budapest. The layout of the valley provided natural vantage points for the spectators.

SpeedTV’s RaceCast also reminds us that Hungoraring was also the circuit where Damon Hill passed Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari in 1997, but missed the checkered flag due to mechanical failure.