Month: August 2010

Lewis Hamilton takes his third Grand Prix victory of the season at Spa-Francorchamps following an incident-packed race.

The McLaren driver made a great start and despite running off the track during the shower period twice – at the Bus Stop chicane and at Rivage – this victory proved crucial to his championship prospects. He now leads the standings with 182 points, three ahead of Mark Webber, who recovered from a poor getaway to finish in second.

Robert Kubica took an excellent third for Renault but it could have been second. During his final pitstop, the Polish driver slid in the wet pitlane and that mistake cost him three championship points.

At the start, Mark Webber’s anti-stall system kicked-in and that brief moment allowed Lewis Hamilton to take the lead. The Red Bull started in pole position but even before the first corner – La Source – Webber was down to sixth position.

Once in the lead, Lewis Hamilton was never challenged at the front – despite a brief burst of rain that caused him to run off the track at the Bus Stop chicane on the opening lap.

Lewis pulled away from the rest at a rate of more than half a second per lap as the track quickly dried early on. He had an advantage of eleven seconds over Robert Kubica until the heavens open again on lap 35.

Pushing a little too hard on the slicks when the track was wet, the 2008 Formula One world champion slid wide at Rivage and it looked like he was about to retire in the gravel, but luckily he avoided the tyre barrier and was able to drive back on the track.

Lewis pitted for intermediates at the end of that lap, as did the second-placed Renault of Kubica and Webber, who was in third.

Webber emerged in second following a mistake by Kubica. The Renault driver overshot his pitbox and that mistake cost him a handful of seconds while his mechanics attempted to change his tyres.

After a second safety car period – which began on lap 38 when Fernando Alonso crashed out exiting Malmedy – Hamilton was able to pull away from Webber to the chequered flag.

By crashing out, Alonso’s title ambitions has hit a major blow and following his disastrous start to the race in which Rubens Barrichello smashed his Williams on the opening lap, it was unfortunate for the Ferrari driver to retire after fighting his way back up to seventh.

Taking part in his 300th Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello didn’t even finish the first lap at Spa, after losing control under braking at the Bus Stop chicane and crashing into Alonso.

Both Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel also had their championship hopes dashed, with the former suffering with front wing damage on the opening lap. That lost in downforce meant Button held a four-car train.

Seeking the opportunity to pass the McLaren, Sebastian Vettel got a run on the reigning world champion exiting Blanchimont on lap 16, but lost control of his Red Bull under braking and slammed into the side of his rival at the Bus Stop chicane – putting Button out of the race.

The young German broke his front wing and had to pit for repairs. He then received a drive-through penalty for causing the incident and later suffered a puncture after colliding with Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Force India on his way to a lapped P15. Not a great result for Sebastian Vettel with five trips to the pits as well…

Through the mayhem came Felipe Massa to take fourth in his Ferrari and Adrian Sutil – after pulling off a superb pass on Michael Schumacher – to fifth in his Force India.

Nico Rosberg was sixth for Mercedes GP after forcing his way by team-mate Michael Schumacher at Les Combes with three laps to the flag. The pair actually made contact in the same corner in the opening part of the Grand Prix.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, Vitaly Petrov (Renault) and Vitantonio (Force India) completed the top ten.

So heading into the Spa weekend, five drivers were separated by twenty points. After 44 chaotic laps, Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber took advantage and with six races left, it will be fascinating who will have upper hand with the pair split by three championship points.

Race results from Spa-Francorchamps, 44 laps:

1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h29m04.268s
2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +1.571
3.  Kubica        Renault                    +3.493
4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +8.264
5.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +9.094
6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +12.359
7.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +15.548
8.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +16.678
9.   Petrov        Renault                    +23.851
10.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes      +34.831
11.  De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari            +36.019
12.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari        +39.895
13.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari        +49.457*
14.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth         +1 lap
15.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault          +1 lap
16.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth            +1 lap
17.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth           +1 lap
18.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth           +1 lap
19.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth            +1 lap
20.  Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth              +2 laps

*Twenty-second penalty for cutting the chicane

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1m49.069s

Not classified/retirements:
Alonso        Ferrari                   38 laps
Button        McLaren-Mercedes          16 laps
Senna         HRT-Cosworth               6 laps
Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          1 lap

World Championship standings, round 13:

Drivers:
1.  Hamilton     182
2.  Webber       179
3.  Vettel       151
4.  Button       147
5.  Alonso       141
6.  Massa        109
7.  Kubica       104
8.  Rosberg      102
9.  Sutil         45
10. Schumacher    44
11. Barrichello   30
12. Kobayashi     21
13. Petrov        19
14. Liuzzi        12
15. Hulkenberg    10
16. Buemi          7
17. De la Rosa     6
18. Alguersuari    4

Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault          330
2. McLaren-Mercedes          329
3. Ferrari                   250
4. Mercedes                  146
5. Renault                   123
6. Force India-Mercedes       57
7. Williams-Cosworth          40
8. Sauber-Ferrari             27
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari         11

Next race: Italian Grand Prix, Monza. September 10-12.

Championship leader Mark Webber takes an important pole position at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit, setting a time of one minute, 45.778 seconds.

This was Red Bull Racing’s twelfth pole position of the season and the Australian’s fifth. The margin between Webber and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was less than a tenth of a second following a rain-affected qualifying session.

Robert Kubica will start in third in the F-duct Renault ahead of Sebastian Vettel. As for Fernando Alonso – who was the fastest in Friday’s two practice sessions – the Ferrari driver will line up tenth on the grid.

The Spaniard lost significant time at the damp La Source hairpin and posted a lap time that was 1.6 seconds slower than Hamilton.

Jenson Button was able to improve his grid position despite the rain at the end of Q3 to demote Felipe Massa down to sixth.

Rubens Barrichello will start seventh for Williams, as he celebrates his 300th grand prix, with Force India’s Adrian Sutil joining the race veteran on row four.

This was a bad qualifying session for Mercedes GP as both drivers were hit with grid penalties. Nico Rosberg in particular will lose five places following a gearbox change after the final practice session leading into qualifying.

As for Michael Schumacher, who made that aggressive move on Rubens at the Hungaroring, the seven-time world champion will start the Belgian Grand Prix in P21.

The first session began with most of the grid queuing up at the exit of the pit lane as they anticipated an incoming rain shower. But as the cars negotiated their out laps Renault’s Vitaly Petrov spun into barriers after exiting Turn 9, which brought out the red flag.

The resulting red flag period delayed the session just long enough for a deluge to hit Rivage and Stavelot on the first flying lap.

Lucas di Grassi, Adrian Sutil and Jarno Trulli all went off at Stavelot, while the McLarens of Hamilton and Button left themselves enough clear track to go straight to the top of the timesheet.

Sebastian Vettel had waited in the pits for 45 seconds longer than everyone else and was only P17 – the circuit much wetter by the time he completed his lap.

But as the track dried in the next ten minutes, that allowed the Silver Arrows and Williams to leap into the top five on slicks at the end of Q1.

The Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa also went out on slicks hoping to jump up into Q2, but slid off the road at Rivage and Stavelot respectively and were out.

Di Grassi and Petrov were unable to post times after their incidents, and were joined by Sakon Yamamoto, Bruno Senna and Trulli in being eliminated in Q1.

No more rain fell during the second part of qualifying and it was fascinating to see the drivers adopting different tyre strategies to set the quickest time in the damp and yet drying track.

The McLarens once again made the right call and Hamilton’s first flying lap was an impressive 1.7 seconds faster than anyone else. In fact both Lewis and Jenson were the only cars break into the one minute, 46 second barrier.

As for the Red Bulls, Vettel and Webber recorded a reasonable lap time in order to progress into Q3.

Adrian Sutil, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso survived trips off the road early in Q2 but all three were able to take part in the top ten shootout.

The same couldn’t be said to Jaime Alguersuari, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sebastien Buemi. The trio were eliminated while Heikki Kovalainen pipped Timo Glock to be the quickest of the new teams with P16.

The final qualifying session saw Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber heading the timesheet with an initial pole position that was four tenths of a second faster than anyone else.

Yet again the weather played a role in the proceeding with a small shower hitting the start/finish line as the drivers were heading out for their second runs.

This was a disaster for Fernando Alonso, who had only managed tenth with his first run and wasn’t able to improve. Team-mate Felipe Massa suffered as well, with his car on the dirt exiting Malmedy.

But the McLarens were able to go quicker with Button in particular able to lap in a time of one minute, 46.206 seconds to knock Massa down to P6.

As for Hamilton, he found another four tenths of a second to join Webber on the front row of the grid, but he missed out on that decisive pole by less than a tenth of a second (pole time: one minute, 45.778 seconds).

Despite the set back, Hamilton is in the best position to take the lead from Webber in Sunday’s race thanks to his powerful Mercedes engine and straight line speed advantage with the F-duct system.

Sunday’s race is going to crucial and it will be fascinating if the element of rain will play a factor in this year’s championship battle.

Qualifying times from Spa-Francorchamps:

1. Webber        Red Bull-Renault      1m45.778s
2. Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m45.863s
3. Kubica        Renault               1m46.100s
4. Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      1m46.127s
5. Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m46.206s
6. Massa         Ferrari               1m46.314s
7. Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth     1m46.602s
8. Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m46.659s
9. Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth     1m47.053s
10. Alonso       Ferrari               1m47.441s
11. Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m48.267s
12. Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  1m48.680s
13. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m49.209s
14. Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        1m50.980s
15. Rosberg      Mercedes              1m47.885s*
16. Glock        Virgin-Cosworth       1m52.049s
17. Trulli       Lotus-Cosworth        2m01.491s
18. Kobayashi    Sauber-Ferrari        2m02.284s
19. Senna        HRT-Cosworth          2m03.612s
20. Yamamoto     HRT-Cosworth          2m03.941s
21. Schumacher   Mercedes              1m47.874s**
22. de la Rosa   Sauber-Ferrari        2m05.294s
23. di Grassi    Virgin-Cosworth       2m18.754s
24. Petrov       Renault               no time

*Five-place penalty for a gearbox change
**Ten-place penalty for illegitimately impeding a rival driver during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Mark Webber scored his fourth Grand Prix victory of the season at the Hungaroring after benefitting from his team-mate’s penalty. The Australian now leads the world drivers’ championship while the Red Bull Racing team heads the constructors’ standings as Formula One heads into the summer break.

His drive on the softer option tyre was highly impressive. As for his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, the pole sitter was penalised with a drive-through penalty that cost him a certain victory. The German was left angry over this penalty and in the end had to settle with third, chasing Fernando Alonso to the chequered flag.

By scoring a great result in Red Bull Racing’s one hundredth race in Formula One, Webber now heads the championship with 161 points, four ahead of Lewis Hamilton – who had to retire with technical problems.

The Australian was bundled down to third on the opening lap behind his Red Bull Racing team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

But a combination of a perfect strategy call from his pit crew and some exceptional speed in the RB6 helped Webber to beat Alonso to the flag by 17.8 seconds.

The key to Webber’s victory was the deployment of the safety car on lap 15, which allow the track marshals to recover debris from Vitantonio Liuzzi’s front wing between Turns 13 and 14.

While most drivers pitted for their mandatory tyre changes, Red Bull Racing decided to leave the Australian out on track and move into the lead.

As the race resumed Webber led from Vettel, Alonso, Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. The Australian was aware he needed to pull out enough of a gap to enable him to make his single pit stop under green flag conditions.

His challenge was made easier when team-mate Vettel was given a drive-through penalty for failing to keep within ten car lengths while behind the safety car, which dropped the German to third behind Alonso.

When Webber did eventually make his tyre change – on lap 43 – he had built up a lead of over twenty-three seconds. The Australian was able to rejoin the race still with four seconds in hand over the Ferrari.

As for Lewis Hamilton, by this stage of the race the McLaren driver was out with a suspected gearbox failure. That retirement means he has surrender his lead in the championship to Webber, who now has a four-point advantage.

Finishing in fourth was Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. The Brazilian was unable to match the pace of the leading trio and at the flag was 27.4 seconds adrift from the race winner.

Vitaly Petrov drove a sensational race in his Renault as he took a career-best fifth place, one position ahead of his 2009 GP2 Series title rival Nico Hulkenberg.

Hulkenberg’s Williams team-mate Rubens Barrichello held sixth for quite a while but made his tyre change late which dropped the Brazilian down the order.

The Saubers of Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi finished in seventh and ninth respectively in between the McLaren of world champion Jenson Button, who had an awful opening lap.

As for Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion was on course to finish in tenth, but came under late pressure from Barrichello, who had far fresher Bridgestones in the latter stages of the Grand Prix.

The Brazilian closed onto the gearbox of his ex-Ferrari colleague and looked set to pass the Silver Arrows heading down to Turn 1 with a few laps left.

Coming out of the final corner, Barrichello got the slipstream from the Mercedes but Schumacher was quite aggressive in defending by squeezing his rival up against the pit wall. This incident was very dangerous but Barrichello held his nerve and took the final points position. An investigation will be made by the race stewards over that move by Schumacher.

Another driver who had the speed to finish in the top ten was Renault’s Robert Kubica. But unfortunately his race was compromised by a pit lane collision with Adrian Sutil while the safety car was out.

It was an unsafe release by the Renault pit crew and as Kubica accelerated, he was hit hard by Sutil’s Force India, who was turning into his own pit box.

Robert continued but was given a ten-second stop/go penalty for causing the incident. The Polish driver decided to pull out altogether a few laps later.

As for Sutil, his car was badly damaged and had to retire out on the spot. Nico Rosberg was also out after losing a right-rear wheel that left him stranded at the pit exit.

The only other retiree was Jaime Alguersuari, who pulled his Scuderia Toro Rosso off the track with smoke pouring from its engine bay on the second lap.

So a great result for Mark Webber. This race victory was crucial to his title prospects and the Australian should be proud of his achievements at Red Bull Racing. The RB6 is the class of the Formula One field and it will be fascinating to see if Ferrari and McLaren can close the performance gap after the summer break.

Race results from the Hungaroring, 70 laps:
1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           1h41:05.571
2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +17.821
3.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +19.252
4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +27.474
5.  Petrov        Renault                    +1:13.100
6.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +1:16.700
7.  De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
8.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +1 lap
9.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
10. Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +1 lap
11. Schumacher    Mercedes                   +1 lap
12. Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
13. Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
14. Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +3 laps
15. Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +3 laps
16. Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +3 laps
17. Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps
18. Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +4 laps
19. Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth               +4 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:22.362

Not classified/retirements:
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             25 laps
Kubica        Renault                      25 laps
Rosberg       Mercedes                     17 laps
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes         17 laps
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           2 laps

World Championship standings, round 12:

Drivers:
1.  Webber       161
2.  Hamilton     157
3.  Vettel       151
4.  Button       147
5.  Alonso       141
6.  Massa         97
7.  Rosberg       94
8.  Kubica        89
9.  Schumacher    38
10. Sutil         35
11. Barrichello   30
12. Petrov        17
13. Kobayashi     17
14. Liuzzi        12
15. Hulkenberg    10
16. Buemi          7
17. De la Rosa     6
18. Alguersuari    3

Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault          312
2. McLaren-Mercedes          304
3. Ferrari                   238
4. Mercedes                  132
5. Renault                   106
6. Force India-Mercedes       47
7. Williams-Cosworth          40
8. Sauber-Ferrari             23
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10

Next race: Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps. August 27-29.