Category: Motor Racing

Double world champion Fernando Alonso took a controversial pole position for this Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix by holding up his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the pits.

The British rookie had dominated the first two sessions of qualifying, setting the quickest time in his MP4-22. But come session three – the top ten shootout for pole position – Hamilton was denied the opportunity by his team-mate Alonso.

The Spaniard was the first car to be serviced by his team, fitting new Bridgestone tyres and fuel for the final lap run. Although he was waved out by his McLaren pit crew Alonso remained stationery for several seconds – holding up Hamilton, who was waiting directly behind… By the time the team serviced the second driver, the current championship leader had insufficient time to complete an out lap before the chequered flag.

As for Alonso, he managed to cross the start/finish line with four seconds to spare and recorded his fastest time (1 min. 19.674 secs) to take pole position. It wasn’t sporting but nevertheless, the Spaniard has the track advantage going into the race. The Hungaroring is notorious known as a difficult race circuit to overtake on, due to long corners and lack of straights…

Behind the leading two McLarens is Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber. The German took advantage by tactical errors from Ferrari, but it remains unclear whether the team is running Heidfeld’s car light on fuel for track position or has genuine pace to challenge the leaders.

Kimi Raikkonen will start in fourth, several places ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa. The Brazilian suffered a nightmare qualifying session. First the team didn’t put enough fuel into his F2007 and then, drove a pretty poor lap in session two. Massa will start the race way down in 14th position.

Nico Rosberg benefited from this strategic error by the Italian team to qualifying fifth in his Williams ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher.

Robert Kubica will start the race in seventh, with Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber rounding up the final ten places.

As for the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix winner Jenson Button, the Honda driver struggled with a lack of downforce and will start in a disappointing 17th.

So the stage is set for another Fernando versus Lewis battle. With Hamilton unimpressed by the supposedly deliberate hold up in the pits, can he seek revenge by beating his team-mate with race victory? Or will Alonso continue his winning performance following his superb Nurburgring race win two weeks ago? What about Raikkonen? Can the Ice-Man stop the silver cars? As for Massa, he needs to avoid any incidents as he recovers from a low grid position.

Qualifying times from the Hungaroring

1. ALONSO McLaren 1m19.674s
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m19.781s
3. HEIDFELD BMW 1m20.259s
4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m20.410s
5. ROSBERG Williams 1m20.632s
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m21.714s
7. KUBICA BMW 1m21.876s
8. FISICHELLA Renault 1m23.079s
9. TRULLI Toyota 1m21.206s
10. WEBBER Red Bull 1m21.256s
11. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m20.718s
12. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m20.779s
13. WURZ Williams 1m20.865s
14. MASSA Ferrari 1m21.021s
15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m21.127s
16. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m21.993s
17. BUTTON Honda 1m21.737s
18. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m21.877s
19. SATO Super Aguri 1m22.143s
20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m22.177s
21. SUTIL Spyker 1m22.737s
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1m23.774s

UPDATE: The Hungarian Grand Prix stewards are reviewing the incident involving Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton during Saturday’s qualifying.

Alonso took a controversial pole position from team-mate Hamilton after the rookie was unable to complete his final flying lap due to the Spaniard delaying his exit from the pitlane.

The two-time champion was waved to get going by his mechanics, but he stood still for some 10 seconds while Hamilton waited behind him. The delay meant Hamilton was unable to complete his final run in time.

After qualifying, the FIA decided to investigate the incident, and team boss Ron Dennis was called by the stewards.

The stewards also asked to review the radio communications related to that pitstop.

Source: Autosport.com

Well, well. It seems actions might be taken on Alonso. Will he be disqualified or have his qualifying times deleted? One thing for sure, it wasn’t sporting to hold up your team-mate who is causing you so much stress in Formula One this year. Clearly, this is getting personal for the Spaniard as he seeks to gain any advantage over Hamilton…

LATEST: World Champion Fernando Alonso has lost his pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix and will start tomorrow’s race in sixth place.

The race stewards at the Hungaroring have decided to demote the McLaren driver after reviewing evidence from today’s qualifying session, where the Spaniard held up teammate Lewis Hamilton in the pits, causing the Briton to miss out on a final flying lap and possible pole.

Alonso was adamant that he remained stationary for ten seconds because his engineers had told him to, while team boss Ron Dennis told reporters after the session that the incident was a result of Hamilton himself ignoring team orders earlier on in the session, therefore leaving the two drivers out of sequence.

The stewards talked to representatives of the team and reviewed recordings of the car radio transmissions before making their decision, over eight hours after qualifying ended.

The stewards of the Hungarian Grand Prix have also penalised the McLaren team, saying the outfit will not be awarded any constructors points in tomorrow’s race.

This comes along with a five-place demotion for Fernando Alonso, who has lost his pole position and will start tomorrow’s race in sixth place.

The stewards said they did not accept the team’s explanations nor Alonso’s for the incident in today’s qualifying, which saw the Spaniard hold up his teammate Lewis Hamilton, causing the Briton to lose the opportunity to run another flying lap.

McLaren have the right to appeal the stewards’ decision.

Source: Autosport.com

Wow! Not only Alonso loses his pole position but the team won’t be allowed to score championship points in the race… It hasn’t been a good couple of days for Formula One and McLaren – especially with the recent ‘spy’ scandal.

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso won a thrilling European Grand Prix after beating Felipe Massa in a chaotic, rain-interrupted and dramatic race at the Nurburgring.

It all started with a sudden heavy deluge, which flooded the track during the opening lap. Many cars simply struggled in the extreme wet conditions and aquaplaned right off the circuit! At the first corner alone, six cars went into the gravel trap and these include the two Toro Rossos (Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi), Jenson Button in the Honda, Spyker’s Adrian Sutil, Nico Rosberg in the Williams and Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren!

Luckily for Hamilton, he managed to keep his car off the tyre wall and got back on track. He was a lap down, but under the 2007 Formula One regulations, the championship leader was allowed to unlapped himself under the Safety Car laps that were run as the race restarted after a 20-minute halt.

Hamilton had earlier suffered a tyre puncture when he was involved in a silly BMW-Sauber crash involving the team-mates of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld on the run-down to the first corner…

With so many incidents on the track, the race was wisely red flagged on the fourth lap. Incredibly, Formula One rookie Markus Winkelhock – making his Grand Prix debut in the Spyker – was leading the field, thanks to the team’s great strategy call to place him on full wets after the parade lap.

The race restarted a short while later under the Safety Car. Immediately, Markus Winkelhock’s Spyker dropped backwards as the team took the gamble to fit extreme wet tyres in the hope of another sudden downpour. It didn’t and the race resumed with Massa leading ahead of Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen had earlier led the original start to the race but when the heavens opened, the Finn tried to head into the pits but unfortunately understeered off! At the second restart, Kimi gained some extra places by pitting a lap sooner than the others for dry Bridgestone tyres (as the track was drying out). He then gained rapidly on the leading pair, only to retire on lap 34 when his Ferrari started cutting out…

As for Alonso, he was losing touch on Massa – as much as eight seconds – until the clouds darkened again in the last 10 laps… The entire field had to pit yet again to go back on to intermediates, and Alonso proved substantially faster than Massa on the wet track.

The Spaniard was all over the back of the Brazilian’s Ferrari, and although Massa managed to resist him for two laps, the McLaren swept around on the outside of Turn 5 – with a touch of wheel-banging – on lap 55, then proceeded to pull away and claim an extremely important race victory.

Later the Brazilian complained of a set of tyres that vibrated badly and he wasn’t pleased by the double world champion’s overtaking move. Still, he managed to finish the crazy race in second.

Finishing in third was Red Bull’s Mark Webber. The Australian drove a fantastic race in the mixed weather conditions to earn his first podium finish since Monaco 2005. He had risen to third during the early chaos, then regained the place when Raikkonen retired.

Alex Wurz was close behind in the Williams and came within 0.2 seconds of stealing third from Webber as the two cars crossed the finishing line. But in the end, Wurz settled with fourth.

David Coulthard completed a great weekend for Red Bull Racing with fifth ahead of the BMW-Sauber pair (Heidfeld and Kubica respectively), who had recovered from their early tangle in the original race start.

And finishing in the last remaining points position was Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn took a gamble to make a premature switch to intermediates as the rain approached at the end of the race. Heikki was originally in fifth but took the risk to change the tyres a bit too soon.

As for Lewis Hamilton, the world championship leader suffered a nightmare weekend with a non-points finish in ninth. Despite that, Hamilton drove a determined race and was unlucky to be caught-out in the wet/dry/wet conditions.

Fernando Alonso’s victory at the Nurburgring means he has reduce the points gap to team-mate Lewis Hamilton by two points as Formula One heads to Hungary in two weeks time.

European Grand Prix, 60 laps

1. ALONSO McLaren 2h06m26.388s
2. MASSA Ferrari +8.1s
3. WEBBER Red Bull +1m05.6s
4. WURZ Williams +1m05.9s
5. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m13.6s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +1m20.2s
7. KUBICA BMW +1m22.4s
8. KOVALAINEN Renault +1 lap
9. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap
10. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
11. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
12. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
13. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +26 laps
R. SATO Super Aguri +41 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +42 laps
R. WINKELHOCK Spyker +47 laps
R. BUTTON Honda +58 laps
R. SUTIL Spyker +58 laps
R. ROSBERG Williams +58 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +58 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +58 laps

Fastest lap: MASSA 1m32.853s (lap 34)

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen took pole position for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, in a session interrupted by an accident that befell the championship leader of Lewis Hamilton.

The McLaren driver had just set the fastest section time when he suffered a front-right wheel failure on the approach to the fast Schumacher S. The silver car slew straight on, bounced over the gravel trap before crashing hard into the tyre wall.

After impacting the wall, Hamilton was seen moving his legs in the cockpit. The British rookie attempted to extricate himself from the cockpit but was clearly in some discomfort and stopped to await medical assistance.

The qualifying session was immediately red-flagged while the doctors attended to Hamilton, who waved to the crowd while being stretchered away to the medical centre.

McLaren subsequently confirmed that Hamilton sustained no serious injuries, broken bones or bruising, and that he did not lose consciousness during the crash. The Englishman was taken to Koblenz Bundeswehr Hospital for a precautionary CT scan, which proved to be entirely normal. As is normal, Hamilton will require a final sign-off by FIA Medical Delegate Gary Hartstein on Sunday morning before he is allowed to race. The team expect the outcome of this to be positive.

The cause of the shunt was a problem with the right-front wheel airgun during the previous pit stop in which Hamilton’s McLaren was fitted with its last set of Bridgestone tyres before his all-out qualifying run. The wheelnut could not be fitted properly, and a second airgun was needed to cure the problem. However, back on track the wheel was still able to move enough to generate sufficient damage to cause it to fail.

The session was red flagged for 30 minutes as the damaged car was recovered, and repairs were made to the conveyor belt round the tyre wall. When the session resumed, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa lapped in one minute, 31.778 secs to set provisional pole. But this was immediately beaten by team-mate Raikkonen with a time of one minute, 31.450 secs.

As for the double world champion, Fernando Alonso was actually faster than the Finn in the first section but he then had a major oversteer moment in the middle of his fast lap and as he crossed the start/finish line, the Spaniard could only record the second fastest time with one minute, 31.741 secs.

This was Raikkonen’s first pole position since the season’s opening Grand Prix at Melbourne and judging by his previous two race performances, the Finn is looking great for a hat-trick of wins.

Behind the leading three came the BMW-Sauber pair of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica – fourth and fifth respectively. Mark Webber did a splendid job to qualifying his Red Bull in sixth (14 places ahead of his team-mate David Coulthard, who was eliminated at the first knock-out stage).

Heikki Kovalainen was the only Renault in the top ten with P7. As for Giancarlo Fisichella, the Italian struggled and could only managed 13th position.

The Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher will line up in eighth and ninth on the grid – despite Trulli spinning at the final chicane at the end of the third session.

And starting behind them all will be Lewis Hamilton. The championship leader will start the race carrying the same fuel load as when he competed in qualifying.

Sunday’s European Grand Prix will be a fascinating contest as the three championship contenders’ battle for the overall win. Will Raikkonen go for his hat-trick of race victories? Can Alonso reduce the points gap to Lewis with a better grid position? What about Massa, can the Brazilian challenge his Ferrari team-mate and take the win himself? But I suspect all the focus will be on Hamilton. The British driver will start in his lowest grid position this season and it will be interesting how well he will race against Heidfeld, Kubica, Webber, Kovalainen, Trulli and Schumacher in his comeback to score valuable championship points. It should be highly entertaining at the Nurburgring!

European Grand Prix starting grid

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:31.450
2. ALONSO McLaren 1:31.741
3. MASSA Ferrari 1:31.778
4. HEIDFELD BMW 1:31.840
5. KUBICA BMW 1:32.123
6. WEBBER Red Bull 1:32.476
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:32.478
8. TRULLI Toyota 1:32.501
9. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:32.570
10. HAMILTON McLaren 1:33.833
11. ROSBERG Williams 1:31.978
12. WURZ Williams 1:31.996
13. FISICHELLA Renault 1:32.010
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:32.221
15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:32.451
16. SATO Super Aguri 1:32.838
17. BUTTON Honda 1:32.983
18. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:33.038
19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:33.148
20. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:33.151
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:34.500
22. WINKELHOCK Spyker 1:35.940

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen takes his second consecutive Grand Prix victory by beating the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, who finished second and third respectively.

The Finn’s latest victory at Silverstone means he is now just 18 points behind the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton, as we go into the second half of this exciting Formula One season.

Lewis Hamilton, the star of the qualifying session with his sensational pole position, could only finish in third. He seemed to be struggling with the balance in his MP4-22 and was disappointed not to take the race win in front of thousands of his home fans. Still, he should be satisfied that his finishing record of nine podiums in nine races is truly remarkable. He still leads the title race by 12 points ahead of McLaren team-mate Alonso.

The Spaniard started the race in third and despite leading the middle stint of the 59-lap race, the double world champion had to settle for second behind the race-winning Ferrari of Raikkonen.

How did the Iceman get in front of the McLarens? Kimi revealed that it was all down to running a longer middle stint and setting those crucial fast laps to jump ahead of the silver cars.

“We had a good car all day, all weekend actually, in the race I just tried to save some fuel and look after the tyres on my car and once Lewis pitted I tried to push and gained some time on him,” Raikkonen said.

“Then Fernando did a very short stop, so we knew that we were going to run longer in the second stop [stint], so we just tried to push as hard as he can and obviously he came in and it was enough. After that it was pretty easy.”

The Finn’s back-to-back victories means he is now a likely candidate to challenge Hamilton for the championship title and Kimi admits that he is becoming more confident in the F2007 as the season goes on.

“It is going to be a long season still,” he said. “We seem to have a good speed right now, I think it depends also on the circuit conditions and the [different] places where we go, but I am really happy now with the car.

“All weekend it has been good and yesterday I just had a mistake, which made our life a lot more difficult than it should have been in the race, but we came out with a win and that’s the main thing.”

Indeed, the Ferraris were the fastest cars at Silverstone and this victory for Kimi Raikkonen means the 2007 world championship will be a fascinating contest between four of the quickest drivers in the sport.

Finishing in fourth was Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber, who drove a great race despite a late challenge from Felipe Massa, who stalled his Ferrari on the starting grid. The Brazilian was puzzled why his engine cut out on the parade lap and was forced to start the race in the pits. Running a lighter fuel load and using the grippy ‘white stripes’ Bridgestone, Massa was flying in the early stages of the British Grand Prix. He managed to pass several cars and to finish in fifth was an impressive recovery drive. But if Felipe didn’t have that problem, he could have been a contender for the race win…

Nick Heidfeld finished in sixth, thanks to running a longer stint after originally qualifying in ninth. The German was the last remaining driver to be on the lead lap. Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen managed to pass his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella in the final pit stop for seventh position.

As for the other British drivers racing in their home race, Jenson Button managed to use a one-stop strategy to his benefit with P10. Red Bull Racing’s David Coulthard was a place behind, but poor old Anthony Davidson. After going off in qualifying to warm up his Bridgestones, the Super Aguri driver was forced to retire after ‘extreme’ handling problems that could not be solved.

It may not have been a classic race after a thrilling qualifying, but you can never discount Ferrari and the Italian team seem to have the advantage as we reach the season’s midpoint.

Hamilton still leads the standings with 70 points from Alonso on 58, Raikkonen now up to 52 thanks to his two recent wins, with team-mate Massa on 51. In the constructors’ championship, McLaren still leads the way but by 25 points over Ferrari.

British Grand Prix result after 59 laps

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1hm21m43.074s
2. ALONSO McLaren +2.4s
3. HAMILTON McLaren +39.3s
4. KUBICA BMW +53.3s
5. MASSA Ferrari +54.0s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +56.3s
7. KOVALAINEN Renault +1 lap
8. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
9. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
10. BUTTON Honda +1 lap
11. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
12. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap
13. WURZ Williams +1 lap
14. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps
15. ALBERS Spyker +2 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +6 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +16 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +24 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +30 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +37 laps
R SUTIL Spyker +43 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +51 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1m20.638s

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton will start his home race on pole position after beating Kimi Raikkonen in the final moments during an exciting hour of qualifying at the British Grand Prix.

Initially, Hamilton’s team-mate Fernando Alonso set the quickest lap around the former RAF airfield with a time of one minute, 20.147 seconds. The Spaniard set the benchmark with the harder Bridgestone tyres.

Then French Grand Prix winner Raikkonen came speeding out of Luffield, only to run wide at Woodcote… This little mistake costs the Finn the forward momentum in his Ferrari, but his efforts was still good enough to beat Alonso’s time with one minute, 20.099 seconds. At least the Iceman was ahead of his team-mate, Felipe Massa, who lines up in fourth with one minute, 20.265 seconds.

It all looked over, but Lewis was only halfway around his final qualifying lap and in the second split, was even quicker than Kimi! As the 22-year-old crossed the start/finish line in front of tens of hundreds of his home crowd, the world championship leader pulled a remarkable save with a sensational pole position.

His time of one minute, 19.997 seconds means Lewis has an advantage going into first-ever British Grand Prix. Behind the tense Ferrari versus McLaren battle came the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica with a surprising Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota (fifth and sixth respectively).

Lining up on the fourth row are the Renault drivers, with Heikki Kovalainen out-qualifying his team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella by five hundredths of a second.

And rounding up the top ten is BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld, and Schumacher’s team-mate Jarno Trulli.

What about the other British drivers – how did David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Anthony Davidson fared in today’s qualifying session?

Well, DC was happy enough to sign a new contract with Red Bull Racing for 2008 and the popular Scot will line up in twelve, one place behind his team-mate Mark Webber.

As for Jenson Button, he had a disastrous qualifying session for his home Grand Prix. Jenson only managed 18th on the grid after encountering traffic and yellow flags. In fact this was caused by his Honda B-team colleague Anthony Davidson, who strangely lost control of his Super Aguri between Brooklands and Luffield and ending up in the gravel…

Right, the stage is set for an exciting British Grand Prix of recent times. Any of the top four drivers has a strong chance of victory, but all of the crowd’s expectation resting firmly on Hamilton’s young shoulders. Every time that he has started from pole this year, he has won. So the signs are looking positive and providing he doesn’t make any mistakes during a frantic 60-lap Grand Prix, Lewis could extend his lead in the drivers’ standings and edge closer to winning that ultimate prize, the 2007 title.

Starting grid for the 2007 British Grand Prix:

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1:19.997
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:20.099
3. ALONSO McLaren 1:20.147
4. MASSA Ferrari 1:20.265
5. KUBICA BMW 1:20.401
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:20.516
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:20.721
8. FISICHELLA Renault 1:20.775
9. HEIDFELD BMW 1:20.894
10. TRULLI Toyota 1:21.240
11. WEBBER Red Bull 1:20.235
12. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:20.329
13. WURZ Williams 1:20.350
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:20.364
15. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:20.515
16. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:20.823
17. ROSBERG Williams 1:21.219
18. BUTTON Honda 1:21.335
19. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:21.448
20. SUTIL Spyker 1:22.019
21. SATO Super Aguri 1:22.045
22. ALBERS Spyker 1:22.589

Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen rediscovers his winning form by taking an all-important race victory in Magny-Cours. Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa finished close behind in second with the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton in third.

It was a dominant race from the two scarlet cars, after the recent set back in the last three Grand Prix events. This race victory was crucial for Kimi as many critics in the Formula One paddock were questioning his ability as a racing driver – he is widely known as the quickest driver in the sport and many were predicting that he would be the strongest candidate to win the world championship. But after the first few races, the ‘Iceman’ has been under-performing especially when team-mate Massa was achieving the better results in qualifying and in the races.

This latest achievement, his eleventh career Grand Prix win, means Kimi remains a championship contender despite a shaking start to the 2007 season (the Finn took his first victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, but after that struggle to match his team-mate let alone the McLaren pair of Hamilton and Alonso).

It was a classic performance from the Iceman as you would expect from him, but it was quite unlucky race for his Ferrari team-mate Massa. The Brazilian led from pole position and was in command throughout the French Grand Prix, only to lose out in traffic.

As for Lewis Hamilton, he was left to settle for a distant third. Despite that, he maintains his impressive finishing record with another podium place and actually extends his championship lead over Fernando Alonso by 14 points.

Ah, yes Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard had a difficult race no thanks to a problem with his gearbox during qualifying. The team repaired his MP4-22 and decided to switch Alonso to a three-stop strategy, in the hope of scoring points. He even started the race on the ‘white stripes’ Bridgestones to give optimum grip in a way of gaining places in the opening laps.

Unfortunately, this plan backed-fired as he was stuck behind ‘Quick Nick’ in the BMW Sauber for a number of laps. The duel between Nick Heidfeld and Alonso was the main highlight of the 2007 French Grand Prix as the two drove quite fiercely for track position.

It was very exciting to see the double world champion trying to overtake the BMW Sauber and on one occasion, he got by only to run wide and lost the place again.

Alonso eventually got by with a spectacular overtaking move into the fast Imola chicane. The McLaren had the better momentum on the BMW out of the 180-degree hairpin and determined to get ahead, claimed the inside line into the sweeping fast bend. Heidfeld backed off and had to drive across the kerbs to give space.

But in end, Fernando still finished behind Nick due to the disappointing race pace in the McLaren and his compromised race strategy.

Finishing in fourth was Robert Kubica, who drove a solid race after missing out at Indianapolis due to his sizable accident in Montreal. To finish behind the leaders was a great result for the Polish driver.

Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella came home in sixth, despite being overtaken by his old team-mate Alonso in the race. This race result will be quite pleasing for Renault, as the past champions attempt to rediscover their winning form.

And finishing in the last remaining championship point was Jenson Button in the Honda. Finally, after a couple of difficult months, Jenson and his Japanese team have achieved a top eight result. Hopefully, the improvements to the ‘Earth’ car means this won’t be a one-off so expect a better performance in the next few races.

The next stop in this season’s Formula One World Championship is the British Grand Prix. The title fight between Ferrari and McLaren will be even more fierce and judging by the Italian team’s Silverstone test and this 1-2 result in France, Hamilton heads to Silverstone with a slightly less bright prospects of becoming the first rookie to win his home race.

French Grand Prix, Magny-Cours – 70 laps

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1hr. 30mins. 54.200secs.
2. MASSA Ferrari +2.4s
3. HAMILTON McLaren +29.7s
4. KUBICA BMW +41.7s
5. HEIDFELD BMW +48.8s
6. FISICHELLA Renault +52.2s
7. ALONSO McLaren +56.5s
8. BUTTON Honda +58.8s
9. ROSBERG Williams +1m08.5s
10. SCHUMACHER Toyota +1 lap
11. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
12. WEBBER Red Bull +1 lap
13. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
14. WURZ Williams +1 lap
15. KOVALAINEN Renault +1 lap
16. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps
17. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +15 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +42 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +69 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +69 laps
R. ALBERS Spyker +70 laps

Fastest lap: MASSA 1min. 16.099secs

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa will start the final Magny-Cours race, scene of this year’s French Grand Prix, ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

The Brazilian set a best lap time of one minute, 15.034 seconds beating the championship leader by less than a tenth of second. This was Massa’s fourth pole position this season and its first front row start for Ferrari since May.

Raikkonen lines up behind the leading pair giving a Ferrari 1-3 on the grid. This demonstrations that the Italian team are not out of the contention in the championship battle with rival McLaren, despite under-performing in the previous three races. A strong result in Sunday’s race will be a great reward for Jean Todt and his squad.

As for the double world champion Fernando Alonso, the McLaren star hit trouble with a suspected gearbox problem. The Spaniard didn’t even set a lap time in the all-important top ten shootout in session three and provisionally, will start in the race in tenth position (if the team decides to replace the Mercedes-Benz engine, he will drop another ten places due to the Formula One regulations).

This is bad news for Fernando, as he is desperate to claw back the ten-point gap over his team-mate and leader of the drivers’ standings Hamilton. It will be a very difficult 70 laps for Alonso to recover from.

Making his return back in the BMW-Sauber cockpit is Robert Kubica. The Polish driver missed out on taking part in the previous race at Indianapolis due to doctors’ orders after his horrifying crash at the Canadian Grand Prix. Now that Robert is back behind the wheel, he qualified in an impressive fourth – three places ahead of team-mate Nick Heidfeld.

Between the BMW drivers are the two Renaults with Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen – fifth and sixth respectively. This is the team’s best qualifying effort so far this season.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli qualified in eighth with Nico Roberg in ninth for Williams. The German produced another solid display in qualifying and will line up on row five alongside the unfortunate Alonso.

As for Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri, the Japanese takes a ten-place grid penalty for overtaking Honda’s Jenson Button under waved yellow flags in the last race.

Yet again, the number two drivers at Ferrari and McLaren have upstaged their leading colleague. But in the case for Fernando, the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-22 let him down… Can Felipe go for the win to end Ferrari’s winless period after three disappointing races or can Lewis score that hat-trick of race victories before he arrives as a hero in his home race at Silverstone? The final French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours could be a thriller!

Starting grid for the French Grand Prix

1. MASSA Ferrari 1:15.034
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1:15.104
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:15.257
4. KUBICA BMW 1:15.493
5. FISICHELLA Renault 1:15.674
6. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:15.826
7. HEIDFELD BMW 1:15.900
8. TRULLI Toyota 1:15.935
9. ROSBERG Williams 1:16.328
10. ALONSO McLaren 1:15.084
11. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:15.534
12. BUTTON Honda 1:15.584
13. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:15.761
14. WEBBER Red Bull 1:15.806
15. SPEED Toro Rosso 1:16.049
16. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:15.915
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:16.142
18. WURZ Williams 1:16.241
19. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:16.366
20. ALBERS Spyker 1:17.826
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:17.915
22. SATO Super Aguri* 1:16.244

* Penalty imposed after United States Grand Prix

Juan Pablo Montoya has finally achieved his dream result by winning a NASCAR Nextel Cup race last Sunday.

The ex-Formula One driver – who last competed in the United States Grand Prix for McLaren back in 2006 – described the maiden victory as one of the greatest moments of his racing career.

The Colombian has had a difficult start in stock car racing with his first ever race ending in a fireball! Since then, Montoya has been slowly learning the race craft in driving on ovals and has impressed the American public with his speed despite so-so results.

But this latest performance at Sears Point – the first of only two road course events on the Nextel Cup schedule – Montoya used his road racing experience to move up from a disappointing 32nd on the 43-car grid all the way to the front.

“I can’t even believe,” Montoya said. “It’s been an amazing day for the whole team. We had a fast car, just looked after it all day long, the strategy worked good, great pitstops and just had everything fall into place, you know. One of those days when you’re meant to win you’re going to win, whatever happens.”

“It’s huge,” when asked to compare his win with his other race victories as a professional racing driver. “I would say right now it’s the biggest thing I’ve done.”

“In open-wheel racing, I was expected to win. In stock cars, I wasn’t. This is as big as any victory. You could say it’s as big as winning the Indy 500 or winning Long Beach. For me winning Long Beach [Champ Car race, in 1999] was probably cooler than winning the Indy 500 because it was my first ever-big race. Winning here is my first-ever big race in stock cars. They’re all right up there. I kinda think this is my favourite. It’s amazing.”

The Colombian pulled off some bold overtaking moves on the California track, but the key to his victory was knowing when to save fuel during the final sting of the race.

“They told me it was going to be close,” Montoya added. “I mean, you always drive very careful with the throttle, letting the car roll and I thought ‘I’m going to be good, it’s going to close.’ I’m thinking ‘I don’t want to get to the end and get second’, you know. So I drove a bit harder, went by Jamie (Johnson) and then started saving a bit more fuel.”

Team boss Chip Ganassi, whose outfit Montoya won the 1999 Champ Car title and the Indianapolis 500 in 2000, said patience has become part of the feisty repertoire for JPM.

“Those of you who didn’t know him before, he’s changed quite a bit,” Ganassi said. “He’s a lot calmer, if you can imagine that. He actually came on the radio today and said ‘it’s too early to race these guys’.

“I was looking around thinking I had somebody else’s radio or something. He’s a changed man, all in a positive way.”

Montoya’s victory was the first for a Hispanic driver in Nextel Cup history and as such was a landmark for NASCAR, as the series hopes to expanse by tapping into new markets including Europe.

“I think in a way it’s going to be good for the whole NASCAR sport,” JPM said.” I think me winning today is going to bring a lot of attention the next few races.”

Lewis Hamilton took his second consecutive Grand Prix victory at Indianapolis after a race-long duel with his McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Fernando Alonso. Hamilton’s second win follows last weekend’s fantastic performance in which the young rookie scored his dream result after only six races.

Lewis led from pole position and despite constant pressure from Fernando in the 73-lap race; the championship leader drove a commending race from the front.

The only situation for Lewis came on lap 38, in which the Toro Rosso of Vitantonio Liuzzi held him up. The backmarker heading into the pits, but the lost of momentum gave Alonso the slipstream as they headed onto the pit straight. The two silver cars were wheel-to-wheel but Lewis held his line into the first corner – defended his track position – and that frustrated Alonso.

In the end, McLaren achieved another perfect one-two result that pleases Ron Dennis, the team’s manager. The Vodafone-sponsored team are on a roll after dominating the Monaco Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa finished in a lonely third, ahead of his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen – who recovered after losing two places at the start. The Finn spent his opening stint trapped behind the BMW-Sauber of Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen’s Renault. Kimi eventually went passed both after switching to the soft Bridgestone tyres at his first stop, which gave him the opportunity to set the fastest lap as he gained on his team-mate near the final stages of the race.

Kovalainen followed up with his recent performance in Canada with a strong fifth place finish, having led for several laps thanks to his long opening stint. The late retirement of Nico Rosberg with engine failure in his Williams, made life a little easier for the Finn.

Rosberg’s sad demise was a bonus for Toyota’s Jarno Trulli, who finished in sixth after fighting off the challenge of Mark Webber in the Red Bull. As for Sebastian Vettel, the 19-year-old driving for BMW-Sauber, scored a point on his debut with eighth.

But that was a small reward for the team as Nick Heidfeld had been heading for a possible fourth until power steering and gearbox problems intervened to drop him to fifth, and then to prompt his retirement with hydraulics failure on lap 59.

As ever Lewis Hamilton was the star of the weekend and after winning his first Formula One race in Montreal a week ago, the Briton is overwhelmed with emotion in how well it has gone so far.

“What a dream,” said a delighted Hamilton. “To come into two circuits that I didn’t know, first time, to really come out with such pace and see the team moving forward and being competitive.

“They have done a fantastic job. This wouldn’t have been possible without them, and the guys here did a fantastic job.

“It is a perfect team and I am glad I put the icing on the cake.

“Really I am just extremely pleased and proud of the team. I never thought in a million years I would be here against these drivers here. It is a great leap in my career and my life, I am thankful to my family and the guardians of the team.”

Hamilton admitted it was tough to keep Alonso behind him, especially during the second stint, when Alonso was right behind.

“The first couple of laps were close and then I managed to pull a slight gap and maintain it, and in the middle stint my tyres started to grain so Fernando was right up my tail,” Hamilton added.

“It was extremely difficult, he was in my slipstream, it was very tough but he fought very well, very professional but in the end I was able to pull a gap, maintain it and win the race.”

Hamilton has now scored 58 points in seven races, ten more than Alonso and 19 more than Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. In the constructors’ standings McLaren are now 35 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ title chase.

The Formula One circus heads back into Europe in July with another back-to-back racing weekend in France and Britain. Can Lewis continue his winning form and scored that home victory in Silverstone? Or will Alonso strike back in his bid to defend his title?

US Grand Prix result – 73 laps

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1h39:09.065
2. ALONSO McLaren +1.5s
3. MASSA Ferrari +12.8s
4. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +15.4s
5. KOVALAINEN Renault +41.4s
6. TRULLI Toyota +66.7s
7. WEBBER Red Bull +67.3s
8. VETTEL BMW +67.7s
9. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
10. WURZ Williams +1 lap
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
12. BUTTON Honda +1 lap
13. SPEED Toro Rosso +2 laps
14. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
15. ALBERS Spyker +3 laps
16. ROSBERG Williams +5 laps
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +5 laps
R. HEIDFELD BMW +18 laps
R. SATO Super Aguri +60 laps
R. COULTHARD Red Bull +73 laps
R. BARRICHELLO Honda +73 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +73 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN – lap 49 1min. 13.117secs.