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Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton admitted “his heart was in his mouth” during the nail-biting conclusion to the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Englishman snatched the title at the final corner of the most dramatic race of a dramatic season, despite Felipe Massa doing all he could by winning in front of his home fans.
Late-race rainfall had unpicked Hamilton’s best-laid plans to cruise home in the fifth place he needed to deny Massa the crown and it looked like he would blow his chances of becoming champion for the second season running.

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But the McLaren man came good in the end, overtaking Toyota’s Timo Glock, who had stayed out on dry tires as the heavens opened, to snatch fifth with the checkered flag in sight.
“Before it started to rain I was quite comfortable. I was able to stay ahead of [Sebastian] Vettel and then it started to drizzle and I didn’t want to take any risks,” said Hamilton, who, at 23, becomes F1’s youngest-ever champion.
“Then he got past me and I was told that I had to get in front of him, and I couldn’t believe it. There was nothing I could do, I was just trying to keep the car on the track and my heart was in my mouth. Read more about F1 at The Circuit.

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Lewis Hamilton became Formula One’s youngest ever world champion by finishing fifth in an incredibly dramatic rain-affected Brazilian Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa won the race for Ferrari and looked set to take the title until McLaren driver Hamilton slipped past Timo Glock’s Toyota and into the crucial fifth place at the final corner of the very last lap.

Fernando Alonso (Renault) and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) completed the podium finishers, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel, whose penultimate lap pass on Hamilton had looked set to hand Massa the title, only for Glock’s gamble of staying on dry tyres in a late race shower to fail, causing the Toyota to slip from fourth to sixth within sight of the flag and giving Hamilton the title after all.

Ferrari still clinched the constructors’ title, as the two McLarens only finished fifth and seventh.

The start was delayed by ten minutes after a brief, but heavy, downpour hit Interlagos just before the mechanics were due to clear the grid.

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Felipe Massa is in position to win the Formula One championship on home soil.
Massa claimed the pole for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix with a fast lap of 1 minute, 12.368 seconds at the 2.6-mile Interlagos track.
Trailing series leader Lewis Hamilton by seven points heading into this season finale, Massa has a shot to win his first F1 championship if he finishes among the top two.
The 23-year-old Hamilton, who leads the circuit with 94 points, is guaranteed to become the youngest F1 champion if Massa finishes third or lower.
Hamilton will go out in the fourth spot Sunday, behind Massa, Jarno Trulli and defending champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Massa delighted the partisan crowd during Saturday’s qualifying session, claiming an unprecedented third consecutive pole at the event.

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Following practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Felipe Massa remained optimistic about his chances of overcoming Lewis Hamilton for the Formula One title on Sunday.

Massa, who needs to erase Hamilton’s seven-point lead to win the title in front of his home fans, had the second-fastest practice Friday, behind only Renault’s Fernando Alonso.

Alonso clocked 1 minute, 12.296 at the 4.3-kilometer (2.6-mile) Interlagos track, while Massa’s quickest lap was 1:12.305. Massa’s time was good for first place in the first session, but Alonso overcame the Brazilian in his last lap in the afternoon session.

“It might only be Friday, but it’s important to get off to a good start on such an important weekend,” Massa said. “We found a good setup for the car, which seemed to be well balanced in both sessions.”

Hamilton was only the fourth-fastest overall at 1:12.495. His 1:12.827 in the second session was good for only ninth.

source: usatoday.com

Renault’s Fernando Alonso recorded his second- consecutive victory Sunday by taking the Japanese Grand Prix. The Spaniard crossed the finish line 5.2 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica.

The victory was Alonso’s 21st career in Formula One competition.

Kimi Raikkonen, Nelson Piquet and Jarno Trulli completed the top-five.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton finished 12th and saw his World Championship points lead over Felipe Massa reduced to six points after Massa finished eighth, unofficially.

source: sportsnetwork.com

Angered by the decision to drop the Canadian Grand Prix from the Formula One calendar, teams said Friday that they wanted not one but up to three races in North America each season.
The dropping of the Montreal race left the manufacturing teams - which invest in F1 as a marketing tool to sell road cars - without an F1 presence in the world’s most important continental car market.
“We are hugely disappointed,” Honda team principal Nick Fry said at the Japanese Grand Prix. “It’s difficult to emphasize just how much.
“It will be a major topic at the next meeting of the teams. We need to look at North America on a more strategic basis.”
The dropping of the American race from the F1 calendar left Canada vulnerable, as the one-off costs of transport to North America were steep.
To overcome that economy-of-scale issue, Fry advocated two races in the U.S. and one in Canada.
“Really we need to look at how we not only get back Canada, but back to America - potentially more than once, because its such an important market,” he said.

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A bubbling Lewis Hamilton was keen to keep his composure after claiming pole for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix, knowing that he is close to becoming Formula One’s youngest champion.
The Briton — seven points ahead of nearest rival Felipe Massa with three races remaining — beamed with delight after grabbing his sixth pole position of the year and his second in succession at the Fuji Speedway.
And with Brazil’s Massa only able to qualify fifth, the 23-year-old who drives for McLaren Mercedes knew that he had taken a significant step towards his ultimate goal.
“I will try to take each race as it goes,” said Hamilton, who won here in torrential rain last year.
“We as a team have to put a really strong effort in to continue with the momentum we have.
“I am approaching the races exactly the same as I have this season. I don’t need to change anything, just keep the car on the road and score some good points.
“I had a good qualifying session, quite a bit different to Singapore. We didn’t have any problems through Q2, it was pretty straightforward. The first lap didn’t seem to be very good.

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OMAYA, Japan — Robert Kubica of BMW set the fastest time in a wet practice session Saturday ahead of qualifying for Sunday’s Formula One Japanese Grand Prix.
The Polish driver set a best time of one minute 25.087 seconds on a track made wet by morning rain at Fuji Speedway. Toyota’s Timo Glock was again prominent, setting a time that was just 0.085 seconds behind Kubica. Glock, who topped the time sheets in dry conditions Friday, indicated Toyota could be a threat to the top teams on the track its parent company owns.
The leading times of the session were all set in the closing moments when the track was at its driest in improving conditions.
Prior to the last burst of laps, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was top of the timesheets, but was quickly relegated to seventh.
Massa trails McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton by seven points in the drivers’ championship with three races remaining.
Hamilton was 11th quickest in morning practice.
Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr. was third fastest and BMW’s Nick Heidfeld fourth best.

source: canadianpress.google.com

Renault’s Fernando Alonso has won the first Formula One night race after starting 15th on the grid in Singapore.

The Spaniard finished ahead of Williams driver Nico Rosberg, while McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was third.

Hamilton extended his championship lead to seven points over Ferrari’s Felipe Massa with three races remaining.

Massa had started in pole position but fell out of contention when he drove away from the pits with the fuel line still connected to his car.

Teammate Kimi Raikonnen also had a bad night, crashing with three laps to go.

Mark Webber failed to finish but his Red Bull team-mate David Coulthard was seventh.

from: theage.com.au

Felipe Massa looks to be planning a repeat of his Valencia performance after he took a comfortable pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday evening.

The Brazilian upped the ante after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen had set the fastest times, lapping his F2008 in 1m 44.801s. With Hamilton next on 1m 45.465s ahead of Raikkonen on 1m 45.617s, it is probably safe to assume that Massa is running to a lighter fuel strategy.

McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen split the two BMW Saubers on his final run, his 1m 45.873s leaving him between Robert Kubica (1m 45.779s) and Nick Heidfeld (1m 45.964s).

Monza winner Sebastian Vettel was the only Red Bull-backed runner to make the top 10 this time, taking his Toro Rosso to seventh on 1m 46.244s ahead of Toyota’s Timo Glock (1m 46.328s) and the Williams duo of Nico Rosberg (1m 46.611s) and Kazuki Nakajima (a top 10 first timer with 1m 47.547s).

Q2 weeded out Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 45.038s), Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 45.133s), Red Bull’s Mark Webber and David Coulthard (1m 45.212s and 1m 45.298s respectively), and the unfortunate Fernando Alonso, whose Renault quit on him with fuel supply problems in Turn 18 during his out lap.

Renault’s Nelson Piquet lost out to Coulthard’s final effort in Q1, the Brazilian’s 1m 46.037s leaving him 16th in the line-up. Sebastien Bourdais didn’t get it together either, failing to push his Toro Rosso beyond 1m 46.389s. Rubens Barrichello’s weekend didn’t get any better for Honda, with 1m 46.583s for 18th.

The two Force Indias were at the back. Adrian Sutil lapped in 1m 46.940s, but Giancarlo Fisichella did nothing to endear himself to his mechanics, who had worked flat out to get him running near the end of the session following his earlier practice shunt, only for him to put his repaired VJM01 off into the barriers in Turn 3.

source: formula1.com

Fernando Alonso took the honours again in Saturday evening’s final session of practice for the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix, and with Nelson Piquet fourth it proved to be a good one for Renault.
Alonso set his time right at the end of another busy hour of running under the floodlights, just after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton had set the benchmark of 1m 45.119s to depose Felipe Massa’s 1m 45.246s for Ferrari. That itself had just beaten Piquet’s 1m 45.249s.
Alonso’s 1m 44.506s, the fastest lap thus far this weekend, suggests that he was running a minimal fuel load.
Alonso, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Red Bull’s Mark Webber all had off-course moments, usually because of the numerous bumps, Kazuki Nakajima grazed a wall with his Williams, and there was something of a pantomime as Kimi Raikkonen slid up an escape road and was not helped out of it by the marshals after stalling his Ferrari’s engine.
The biggest incident concerned Giancarlo Fisichella, however. The Italian went over the kerbs in Turn 10 - which Lewis Hamilton had emphatically said earlier needed to be avoided at all costs - and launched his Force India into the outside wall. He was unhurt, but the VJM01 sustained wing and front suspension damage.
Nico Rosberg continued his promising form with fifth fastest time of 1m 45.386s for Williams, followed by Honda’s Jenson Button (1m 45.409s), BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica (1m 45.425s), Webber (1m 45.450s), and the Toro Rosso duo of Sebastian Vettel (1m 45.477s) and Sebastien Bourdais (1m 45.599s). Heidfeld (1m 45.689s), Nakajima and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen (both 1m 45.982s) completed the runners below 1m 46s.
Honda’s Rubens Barrichello led those in that bracket with 1m 46.073s, ahead of the Toyotas of Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli (1m 46.180s and 1m 46.221s respectively), then came Raikkonen, stranded on 1m 46.482s, David Coulthard, limited to six laps by technical problems, on 1m 46.794s, Fisichella (1m 47.166s) and Force India team mate Adrian Sutil (1m 47.727s).

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source: formula1.com

SINGAPORE — Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton believes qualification will hold the key for Sunday’s first ever night race at the Singapore Grand Prix due to a lack of overtaking opportunities.
The McLaren driver’s first impression of the street circuit is that passing will be at a premium, meaning much will hinge on Saturday night’s qualifying, due to begin at 10 p.m. local time.
“Overtaking is going to be very tricky, as it is at all street circuits,” Hamilton said Thursday. “There will be a little bit less overtaking than at the other circuits we have.
“It’s going to come down to qualifying.”
The lack of potential passing will take little away from the Singapore spectacle, with F1’s first ever night race to pass through the downtown marina district.
Added to that is the constant threat of rain in tropical Singapore, combined with the floodlights to make the most challenging of driving conditions.

“We are driving at 200 mph with lights flashing in our eyes and we will have to see how we deal with that,” Hamilton said.

However, Red Bull’s David Coulthard, a veteran of 243 grands prix, said he expected little difference between night and day racing aside from aesthetics.
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After their intensive test at Mugello last week, Ferrari believe they have resolved the issues which have caused both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen to struggle for pace in wet conditions in recent races.
During the three-day session, the Italian team discovered that their lack of competiveness in the rain (seen at the British, Belgian, and most recently Italian races), was caused primarily by the car’s inability to get sufficient heat into its brakes, rather than its tyres.
“The team looked in detail at set-up work, especially in the wet conditions prevailing when Felipe was driving on the final day,” said Ferrari on their official website. “The team analysed data from the Monza weekend very carefully, which revealed that the main issue that hampered the performance of the F2008 in the rain-affected Italian GP was the difficulty in getting the brakes up to the correct operating temperature.”
“Unable to use the brakes properly, this had the knock on effect of preventing the tyres then getting up to their optimal temperature range. This was particularly noticeable in the first few laps following the fitment of the intermediate tyres. Furthermore, this situation was exacerbated when the cars were running in traffic.”
As a result of their discovery, Ferrari have changed the F2008’s set-up to prevent a repeat occurrence of the drop in competitiveness.
High ambient temperatures in Singapore mean the team were not expecting problems this weekend anyway, but the breakthrough could prove crucial to their title chances should it rain - as is often does - at the cooler Chinese and Japanese races.

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from: formula1.com

Whoever thought that Singapore was just a skyscraper-studded spot is way off the mark. As well as its world-famous highrise skyline, the Asian city also boasts the beautiful Sentosa Island for visitors in search of something more relaxed. The former British naval base is currently in the middle of a $10 million refurbishment, but the tropical paradise, complete with gorgeous beaches, is already considered one of the world’s most glamorous resorts.

So it comes as no surprise that Red Bull - a team always in search of the ultimate party venue - identified Sentosa Island, and in particular Siloso beach’s Cafe del Mar, as the perfect place to celebrate Formula One racing’s first-ever night race. With over 70 percent of its surface area covered with rain forest, lush vegetation dominates the island’s landscape, but it was the 3.2-kilometre beach that made the party’s setting so exquisite.

Food from all over the region - as well as every imaginable Red Bull-based cocktail - was on offer to the delight of the party crowd, who were present in their legions. So much so that it seemed that every party soul the town could offer had made an appearance, as well as famous faces from the Formula One paddock, who after an exhausting day at the track wanted to sink their toes into the spotless white sand.

And for those who needed another reason to find their way over the bridge that links Sentosa to the main island there was a stunning performance by Maxi Jazz, the lead singer of British band Faithless. An eager motorsport fan, Jazz has recently tried his luck on circuits around the globe driving a Porsche 997 in the Porsche Carrera Cup. He’s also a frequent performer at Red Bull parties and when the DJ performed his smash-hit record Insomnia, the beach seemed to sizzle as the crowd went crazy.

Midnight heralded the arrival of the four Red Bull drivers, and the hundreds of guests attending the party swiftly became some of the most passionate race fans imaginable. Cameras flashed, women screamed - and all the drivers went wide-eyed at their welcome. After that reception - and with a late start to the next day’s on-track action - the celebrations continued well into the small hours.

And as the glitzy party drew to a close, everyone left confident that the sport had stamped its glamorous mark on the beach resort. All that remains now is for the sport to do the same back at the circuit, as Singapore central gets its first taste of Formula One power on Friday evening.

from: formula1.com

Two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso says he has some concerns over one of the turns at this weekend’s night time Grand Prix in Singapore.
The first night race in Formula One history will take place at the Marina Bay street circuit and there are numerous concerns over the event.
With rain arriving at the circuit only adding to worries about the race, Alonso has also voiced his concern over Turn 10 on the track - a tight chicane.
The Spaniard believes cars may be damaged at the corner, and says that it is now too late to find a satisfactory solution.
“It is not the best solution they could find I think,” Alonso said.

Worried
“We worry that if we miss the chicane you miss the line and have to go over the curves.
“It could damage the chassis or the damage the car at the bottom. If you damage one car it’s not a problem as you can take the T-car but if you damage two you go home.
“It is a concern at the moment but I don’t know what is a better solution and I don’t know if they are able to do it quickly.”
Alonso and the rest of the drivers have been keeping to European time to ensure that they are at their best during the night for the big race.
Renault driver Alonso has also been walking the street circuit in the city state to avoid any nasty surprises once qualifying begins.
“It is not difficult to keep to European times,” added Alonso. “I have watched films until three and then slept before waking at one in the afternoon.

Walk
“At a new circuit the first lap you walk with the team is very important as you assess the corners and try to guess what speed will be needed at that corner, where will be the breaking point and which gear you will use.
“It takes a bit longer on a new circuit than a normal lap on one you know already but it was interesting because our simulations were a little different to how it was in reality.”
Alonso expects overtaking to be almost impossible this weekend, likening the task to trying to get past a driver at Monaco.
“It will be exactly the same as Monaco,” he said. “On this circuit I really see no way of overtaking.”

from: skysports.com