Category: Motor Racing

Fernando Alonso leads a McLaren one-two after a dominant performance in qualifying at Monza. The Spaniard set the quickest time in all three segments of qualifying to takes his second pole position of the season and the 18th of his Grand Prix career.

The double world champion’s pole time of one minute, 21.997 seconds was only 0.037 seconds quicker than his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Turkish Grand Prix winner Felipe Massa lines up in third ahead of ‘Quick Nick’. The BMW Sauber driver did a fantastic job to beat one Ferrari – that of Kimi Raikkonen – and by starting on the second row (with P4), the German could possibly spoil the weekend for the Italian team in front of the tifosi in Sunday’s race.

Raikkonen was on his back-foot after a troubled start to his weekend. First he suffered a hydraulics problem in Friday’s practice session and then during the warm-up to qualifying, had a high-speed crash under braking for the Variante Ascari chicane.

The crash caused significant damage to his chassis so Kimi was forced to switch to the spare car in order to qualify. The Finn will start tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix in fifth, three-quarters of a second slower than his team-mate Massa.

Robert Kubica lines up in sixth for BMW Sauber with Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg – seventh and eighth for Renault and Williams respectively. Toyota’s Jarno Trulli continued his great form in qualifying by beating team-mate Ralf Schumacher for the fifth time with ninth and it was a good result for Honda’s Jenson Button who managed to qualifying inside the top ten for the second time this year.

So it will be another McLaren versus Ferrari battle in Sunday’s Grand Prix. McLaren are looking very strong after a competitive showing in last week’s testing and a win on Ferrari’s home soil will be the perfect result for the team after suffering a stressful period of accusation in the latest series of the spy scandal that has rocked this year’s championship.

Ferrari really needs to strike back in their home race to prevent rival McLaren taking the main points in its quest for the world championship. But could Heidfeld spoil the day in the fast and competitive BMW Sauber? Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix will be a fascinating contest with cars travelling around 220 miles per hour!

Italian Grand Prix grid

1. ALONSO McLaren 1:21.997
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1:22.034
3. MASSA Ferrari 1:22.549
4. HEIDFELD BMW Sauber 1:23.174
5. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:23.183
6. KUBICA BMW Sauber 1:23.446
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:24.102
8. ROSBERG Williams 1:24.382
9. TRULLI Toyota 1:24.555
10. BUTTON Honda 1:25.165
11. WEBBER Red Bull 1:23.166
12. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:23.176
13. WURZ Williams 1:23.209
14. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:23.274
15. FISICHELLA Renault 1:23.325
16. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1:23.351
17. SATO Super Aguri 1:23.749
18. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:23.787
19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:23.886
20. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:24.019
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:24.699
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1:25.084

Finland’s Marcus Grönholm has beaten Frenchman Sébastien Loeb in one of the closest-fought World Rally Championship in many years.

Grönholm managed to beat his main rival by a small margin of 0.3 seconds! The title rivals were inseparable throughout the last day of the Rally New Zealand, swapping the lead three times in the final stages and being split by less than a second for most of leg three.

The Ford Rally driver looked set for a dominant victory after setting the pace on the first day, but Sébastien had other ideas. It was a fascinating contest as the two fastest rally drivers trade stages times.

The rally was decided on the final stage, the Mystery Creek Super Special. Even though Loeb took the stage honours, Grönholm had just enough of a margin to seal the victory after three incredible days of rally action.

The result brings Grönholm’s championship lead back up to 10 points with five rounds remaining.

In contrast to the nail-biting tension of the lead battle, Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen finished a distant third but was well ahead of the other drivers to take the last remaining podium spot.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa led home his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen with a dominant display in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix. The Brazilian led from the start and resisted a race-long pressure from Raikkonen to reignited his and Ferrari’s title challenge.

It was an important win for Massa as the team’s president Luca di Montezemolo had set a target of scoring 1-2 finishes in the remaining six races in order to turn the tables on rival McLaren. Now that we are heading into Ferrari’s home race in a fortnight’s time (Monza), the first stage of this target has been achieved.

It also helps that the championship leader Lewis Hamilton could only finish in fifth after suffering a puncture.

Hamilton was on course to finish in third but with just 15 laps to go, his front-right Bridgestone exploded… Luckily, he managed to get his car back to the pits but the consequent delay dropped him behind his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso – who had lost ground with a poor start – and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.

And although he salvaged four points with fifth position, his misfortune gifted team-mate Alonso a podium, which allows the Spaniard to close within five points in the race for the drivers’ title.

The double world champion was lucky to inherit third as he made a poor getaway off the grid. In fact, neither McLarens got away well at the start of the race, with Hamilton immediately losing second to Raikkonen and Alonso dropping to sixth behind the two BMW Saubers.

Although the Spaniard managed to re-pass both Robert Kubica and Heidfeld during the first pit sequence, Alonso had already fallen 14 seconds adrift of the leaders by this time. He proceeded to match Hamilton’s pace, but could not gain any ground and would not have bettered fourth place if his team-mate’s race had run trouble-free.

Finishing in sixth went to Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen, who drove a strong race and at one point, actually led the Grand Prix! The Finn even had a opportunity to pass Hamilton’s damaged car in the closing stages of the race, but in the end Kovalainen crossed the line a second adrift behind the McLaren.

Nico Rosberg was another driver who put in a fine performance for Williams. The German finished in seventh, just about holding off the chasing Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber. Kubica’s strategy of making early pit-stops cost the BMW Sauber driver dear, as he fell behind Alonso, Heidfeld and Kovalainen in the first sequence. And then he lost out another race position to Rosberg at the final stops.

But no such worries for Ferrari, as the team scored an impressive result. This was Massa’s second consecutive Turkish Grand Prix win and the Brazilian has significantly close the points gap between himself and the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton to just 15 points.

In the constructors’ championship, McLaren retain their lead with 148 points to Ferrari’s 137, while BMW Sauber are still a healthy third on 78 as the championship moves to Monza.

Turkish Grand Prix race result – 58 laps

1. MASSA Ferrari 1h26m42.161s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +2.2s
3. ALONSO McLaren +26.1s
4. HEIDFELD BMW +39.6s
5. HAMILTON McLaren +45.0s
6. KOVALAINEN Renault +46.1s
7. ROSBERG Williams +55.7s
8. KUBICA BMW +56.7s
9. FISICHELLA Renault +59.4s
10. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m11.0s
11. WURZ Williams +1m19.6s
12. R SCHUMACHER Toyota +1 lap
13. BUTTON Honda +1 laps
14. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 laps
15. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +1 laps
16. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
17. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
18. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
19. VETTEL Toro Rosso +1 lap
20. YAMAMOTO Spyker +2 laps
21. SUTIL Spyker +5 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +49 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1min. 27.295 secs

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa beats the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton in the final moments of qualifying to take his fifth pole position of the season.

The Brazilian has a good record at the Istanbul Park race circuit. Massa scored his first pole position and race victory last year, so to repeat his qualifying performance this season is a fantastic achievement.

Initially, Lewis Hamilton had the advantage after making the switch to the white stripes Bridgestone tyres during his final run. The Formula One rookie set the benchmark with a time of one minute, 27.373 seconds. But as his McLaren team were celebrating, Felipe Massa had the faster momentum out of the tricky final sequences of corners to cross the line with a time of one minute, 27.329 seconds.

This edge out Hamilton down to second but both drivers out-performed their respective team-mates, who will line up behind in third and fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen blew his chance to take top spot when he made a slight error into the penultimate corner. His time of one minute, 27.546 seconds was sufficient enough to keep McLaren’s Fernando Alonso down in fourth with a lap time of one minute, 27.574 seconds.

The double world champion opted for the harder Bridgestone compound in his bid to set the quickest time, but this gamble didn’t work and will line up on row two.

Behind the Ferrari and McLaren pair, Robert Kubica drove a great lap to record one minute, 27.722 seconds to take fifth for BMW-Sauber. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld is directly behind with one minute, 28.037 seconds, while Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg in the Williams completed row four with one minute, 28.491 seconds and one minute, 28.501 seconds respectively.

Row five comprises Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on one minute, 28.740 seconds, and Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault on one minute, 29.322 seconds.

Star performance of qualifying goes to Anthony Davidson. He beat his Japanese team-mate Takuma Sato by a long margin (Sato will start in P19), so to qualifying his Super Aguri just outside the top ten is a remarkable achievement for the British driver.

Looking at the times between the Ferraris and McLarens, Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix will be very tense for the four drivers as the championship moves into the final six races of the year. Felipe Massa is determined to turn his pole position with race victory, while his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen needs to strike back on else the Finn drops out of contention for the 2007 drivers’ title. As for Lewis Hamilton, he has track advantage over Fernando Alonso so another good result at Istanbul will be a huge benefit towards achieving his dream result of winning his first title in only his first season of Formula One racing. Alonso on the other hand, will want to close down the championship points gap by outracing both his team-mate and the Ferrari pair. It should be a thrilling race!

Starting grid for the Turkish Grand Prix

1. MASSA Ferrari 1:27.329
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1:27.373
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:27.546
4. ALONSO McLaren 1:27.574
5. KUBICA BMW 1:27.722
6. HEIDFELD BMW 1:28.037
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:28.491
8. ROSBERG Williams 1:28.501
9. TRULLI Toyota 1:28.740
10. FISICHELLA Renault 1:29.322
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:28.002
12. WEBBER Red Bull 1:28.013
13. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:28.100
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:28.188
15. BUTTON Honda 1:28.220
16. WURZ Williams 1:28.390
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:28.798
18. R SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:28.809
19. SATO Super Aguri 1:28.953
20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1:29.408
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:29.861
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1:31.479

Since 2002, only one driver remained unbeatable on the Rallye Deutschland. His name? Sébastien Loeb. His achievement? Winning the event for the sixth time, thereby closing the championship gap to rival Marcus Grönholm to eight points.

Loeb dominated the three-day event with ease and it was fitting that his main championship rival lost track position after losing control in his Ford Focus. Grönholm should have finished in second, but under extreme pressure by the flying Citroen of Francois Duval, the Finn went off in the final stage… Handing the position to Duval.

Grönholm managed to continue in his damaged car and was lucky to finish fourth, behind his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen.

After crossing the line, Frenchman Loeb expresses his gratitude to Duval for pressuring Grönholm into his error.

“I must say thank you to Francois Duval because he was pushing incredibly hard,” Loeb said.

Duval was equally thrilled with his second place. “I pushed a lot… I’m very happy – after eight months (away) it’s incredible.”

So a great drive by the two Citroen WRC drivers. The championship now heads to New Zealand in two weeks time. Can Sébastien Loeb reduce the points gap further?

After a two-month break, the World Rally Championship returns to the former 1000 Lakes venue and Marcus Grönholm scored his seventh career Rally Finland win.

In fact, it was a dominate performance by the Ford Rally Team as Grönholm and team-mate Mikko Hirvonen finished in first and second.

World champion Sébastien Loeb could only manage third. The Frenchman is now 13 points adrift of the Finn in the championship standings.

Grönholm is the first driver in the modern era of the WRC to win an event seven times.

“When I was a young driver in the 1990s I could never have thought that I would ever win here, but seven times looks very good,” said Grönholm.

“I’m very happy, and it’s nice to get the 10 points here before we head to Germany.”

The epic Loeb versus Grönholm title battle continues on the Rallye Deutschland on August 17th.

Lewis Hamilton has scored his third Grand Prix victory of the season with a dominant lights-to-flag win at the Hungaroring. Kimi Raikkonen finished in second with Nick Heidfeld in third.

As for Fernando Alonso, who was relegated to sixth after his professional foul during qualifying, recovered to finish in fourth but the spectre of McLaren’s appeal in the constructors’ championship and the fall-out from the qualifying drama will hang over the sport for the rest of the season.

It wasn’t an easy race for Hamilton, as he had to withstand constant pressure from his Ferrari rival. In addition, the British rookie was struggling with a problem with his steering in his McLaren MP4-22 so to stay ahead is still a pretty impressive achievement.

Robert Kubica finished in fifth for BMW-Sauber ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher – who was leading the frustrated Alonso for most of the 70-lap race.

Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) finished in the remaining points places.

As for Felipe Massa, the Brazilian finished in a frustrating P13, no thanks to a rare error from Ferrari – who forgotten to put fuel in the car in qualifying!

And what a difference a year makes for Jenson Button in the Honda. Winner of the crazy wet-dry race, the British driver struggled with a lack of competitive pace in his ‘earth’ car and was forced to retire with engine failure. As for Rubens Barrichello, the Brazilian finished dead last and two laps down on the leaders…

It wasn’t a thrilling race at the Hungaroring, especially when you consider the last 24 hours of events. The on-going rivalry between the double world champion and his young British rookie is getting out of hand and even McLaren are having difficulty on keeping tabs on the growing tense situation.

The only positive for Ron Dennis – team principal at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – is that Lewis Hamilton still leads the drivers’ standings. He holds a seven-points advantage over Fernando Alonso as Formula One takes a three-week break. This has come at the right time when you consider the recent ‘spy’ scandal and the controversy surrounding the two drivers during qualifying. Formula One needs to focus its attention on the track rather than off-track politics, as this year’s championship has been the most competitive for some time. Hopefully the tense atmosphere will be cleared once racing gets under way in Turkey in late August.

Hungarian Grand Prix, 70 laps

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1h35m52.991s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +0.7s
3. HEIDFELD BMW +43.1s
4. ALONSO McLaren +44.8s
5. KUBICA BMW +47.6s
6. SCHUMACHER Toyota +50.6s
7. ROSBERG Williams +59.1s
8. KOVALAINEN Renault +1m08.1s
9. WEBBER Red Bull +1m16.3s
10. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
11. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
12. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
13. MASSA Ferrari +1 lap
14. WURZ Williams +1 lap
15. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
16. VETTEL Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
18. BARRICHELLO Honda +2 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +28 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +29 laps
R. BUTTON Honda +35 laps
R. YAMAMOTO Spyker +66 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1m20.047s (lap 70)

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)