For a while it seemed like Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen would take the pole in Monaco on Saturday afternoon, after a series of quick laps left him on 1m 14.927s, but right at the end Jenson Button rushed through to take his customary pole for Brawn with 1m 14.902s. Team mate Rubens Barrichello, celebrating his 37th birthday, snatched third with 1m 15.077s.
Britain’s Jenson Button won the opening race of the 2009 Formula One season after dominating the Australian Grand Prix for the newly-formed Brawn GP team.
Button, who started from pole at Albert Park, was claiming the second victory of his 154-race career to complete a remarkable reversal of fortunes for the former Honda team who were facing an uncertain future when the Japanese car manufacturer withdrew from F1 late last year.
Button’s teammate Rubens Barrichello, who started second on the grid, made an appalling start and damaged his front wing in a first corner collision, but he completed a 1-2 for Brawn after profiting from a late collision involving Red Bull’s Sebastien Vettel and Robert Kubica of the BMW-Sauber team.
Promising young German Vettel was coming under pressure from Kubica for second place when the pair collided on turn three, the race finishing under the safety car as the debris was cleared off the track.
Button was emulating the feat of the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio, who won for Mercedes in their Formula One debut in 1954, and paid immediate tribute over race radio to technical guru Ross Brawn, who led a management buyout with Nick Fry to rescue the team from extinction.
“Thank you, you’re a legend, it’s going to be a great year,” he said.
Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who had started the race from the pit lane after a technical infringement in qualifying, finished third, but lost the position to world champion Lewis Hamilton after incurring a time penalty. Hamilton had started at 18th on the grid.
Timo Glock finished fifth in the second Toyota with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain sixth for Renault.
Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Toro Rosso rookie Sebastien Buemi completed the points-scoring positions.
In contrast to his teammate Barrichello, Button made a perfect start and quickly built a commanding advantage.
The safety car was deployed for the first time after 18 of 58 laps when Kazuki Nakajima of Japan crashed heavily in his Williams.
But Button quickly rebuilt his advantage from the restart, briefly coming under pressure from Vettel and the charging Kubica after the second round of pit stops before crossing for a fairytale victory.
“An amazing day,” he said.
Hamilton was delighted with his high finish after what looked set to be a disastrous weekend for last year’s dominant dominant teams with the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen out of the points.
“We did the best job we could, it just showed the true spirit of the team,” he told BBC Sport.
The build-up to the first race of the season has been dominated by a row over an aerodynamic device used by the Brawn, Toyota and Williams teams. The three teams are racing under appeal after rival manufacturers questioned the legality of their rear diffusers which are said to give them an unfair advantage.
The FIA, motorsport’s world governing body, will consider the appeal after next weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix where Button and the Brawn GP team will start strong favorites.
source: edition.cnn.com
The Brawn team made its Formula One testing debut on Monday, with Jenson Button setting the fourth-fastest time at the Circuit de Catalunya.
It marked the team’s first full test since Ross Brawn announced last week he bought out the former Honda team, clearing the way for a full lineup of 20 cars at the Australian Grand Prix this month.
Button showed the new BGP 001 car will be competitive, clocking a best time of one minute 21.140 seconds after 82 laps. BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was fastest in 1:20.338, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli also topping the Brawn car.
“We have enjoyed a positive opening day of running at our first test,” Button said. “We did experience a problem with the gearbox late in the day but we knew we might face some reliability issues in view of our lack of testing. … It’s early days yet, but generally it has been a positive start to our pre-season preparations.”
Brawn took over the former Honda F1 team after the Japanese auto manufacturer pulled out of the sport in December because of the high cost of competition.
Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press – via google.com
Formula One team bosses have unveiled plans designed to save the sport amid the world financial crisis.
The Formula One Teams Association, which represents the 10 current teams in the sport, announced its blueprint for the future Thursday at a news conference in Geneva.
The group believes team budgets can be halved by next year. It wants to provide affordable engines, ban in-season testing and limit technological updates.
FOTA also proposes giving broadcasters use of radio conversations between drivers and mechanics.
The group also wants race winners to get 12 points instead of 10.
Races could be reduced to a maximum of 155 miles, or 1 hour, 40 minutes.
source: AP Associated Press
All Formula One’s car manufacturers and current teams are prepared to commit to the sport until the end of 2012, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said on Thursday.
“All the teams and car manufacturers are prepared to commit to enter in the new Concorde Agreement until the end of 2012,” he told the first news conference held by the new Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA).
Montezemolo, who chairs the organisation and is also head of Italian carmaker FIAT, said the teams had agreed proposals that would halve the cost of competing in Formula One by next year compared to 2008.
The measures, some yet to be fully approved by the governing FIA, included slashing the costs of engines and gearboxes and making some parts, such as the controversial new KERS energy recovery system, standard from 2010 while “preserving the sport’s DNA“.
There would also be a further reduction in testing and personnel attending races.
Formula One carmakers have been hard hit by the global credit crunch, with Honda already announcing in December that they were pulling out and concern about the commitment of Toyota and Renault.
Montezemolo - Formula One Teams' Association
FINANCIAL CRISIS
However, Montezemolo, offering the teams’ blueprint for the future of the sport, said the global financial crisis could also be a positive.
“The crisis represents a huge opportunity to improve Formula One, in terms of cost, competition and to really look ahead,” he said.
He said the teams were now in legal discussions about signing up to a new version of the confidential Concorde Agreement which governs the commercial side of the sport.
“We hope and we think that we can be in a condition to sign the Concorde Agreement before the start of the season,” Montezemolo added.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said the teams had proposed various measures to improve the sport on the track, including a new points structure from this season that would offer a greater reward for winning races.
Under the proposal, to be put to the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) later this month, the current scoring of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 would be changed to 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1.
Constructors’ points could also be awarded for the fastest pitstop during the race from 2010, with another proposal to reduce race distances to 250km or a maximum of one hour and 40 minutes.
source: reuters.com
Brawn GP will replace Honda Racing in the 2009 Formula One world championship after Japan’s No. 2 carmaker sold the team to its former manager Ross Brawn.
Brawn, Honda’s team principal last year after working with seven-time champion Michael Schumacher at Ferrari and Benetton, bought all the shares in the Brackley, England-based team, Honda Motor Co. said in a statement today. Honda spokeswoman Yasuko Matsuura declined to give financial terms.
“The past few months have been extremely challenging for the team, but today’s announcement is the very pleasing conclusion to the strenuous efforts that have been made to secure its future,” Brawn, a 54-year-old Briton, said in an e- mailed statement.
The sale means 10 teams will start the March 29 season- opening Australian Grand Prix at a time when Formula One costs are coming under closer scrutiny by automakers experiencing the worst global sales slump in decades. Honda quit the most-watched motor sport in December and put the team up for sale to save more than 20 billion yen ($203 million) a year.
Ross Brawn
Following Honda’s departure, teams agreed to slash costs by 30 percent by banning testing during the season and sharing data on tires and fuel — previously areas of fierce competition. Yesterday they announced further plans to halve overall budgets in 2010 compared with last year’s level.
Brawn GP will use engines supplied by Mercedes-Benz in this year’s championship. The new team retained Honda’s driving lineup of Britain’s Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, who held off the challenge of fellow Brazilian Bruno Senna, the nephew of three-time world champion Ayrton Senna.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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