F1 News

Italian Grand Prix 2010 – Race Report

• Posted in F1 News . Italian GP

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso wins at Monza

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso leapt back into title contention after winning a thrilling battle with McLaren’s Jenson Button in the Italian Grand Prix.

“Most of the thanks for the win is to the mechanics,” said Alonso.

“The pit stop felt so quick. I stopped, they changed tyres and there was a green light. I didn’t even have first gear in.

“When I came out of the pits I saw he was quite far behind and I thought OK, we have done it but I forgot he was coming at 320kmh (199mph) and he closed very fast.

“We went in the first corner nearly side by side and then I nearly spun when I got on the throttle.”

The Spaniard moves up to third in the championship, 21 points behind new leader Mark Webber of Red Bull, who leapfrogged McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

It was a disastrous day for Lewis Hamilton in the other McLaren, who jumped to fourth as Mark Webber’s Red Bull again started slowly, but at the second chicane Massa’s left rear wheel came into contact with Hamilton’s front right, and by the first Lesmo the McLaren driver was in the gravel, his day done.

Italian Grand Prix result

1 ALONSO Ferrari
2 BUTTON McLaren +2.9s
3 MASSA Ferrari +4.2s
4 VETTEL Red Bull +28.1s
5 ROSBERG Mercedes +29.9s
6 WEBBER Red Bull +31.2s
7 HULKENBERG Williams +32.8s
8 KUBICA Renault +34.0s
9 SCHUMACHER Mercedes +44.9s
10 BARRICHELLO Williams +64.2s
11 BUEMI Toro Rosso +65.0s
12 LIUZZI Force India +66.1s
13 PETROV Renault +78.9s
14 DE LA ROSA Sauber +1 lap
15 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +1 lap
16 SUTIL Force India +1 lap
17 GLOCK Virgin +2 laps
18 KOVALAINEN Lotus +2 laps
19 YAMAMOTO HRT +2 laps
20 DI GRASSI Virgin +3 laps
21 TRULLI Lotus +7 laps
22 SENNA HRT +42 laps
23 HAMILTON McLaren +53 laps
24 KOBAYASHI Sauber +53 laps

Belgian Grand Prix 2010 – Race Report

• Posted in Belgian GP . F1 News

Hamilton won Belgian Grand Prix 2010

Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix after an incident-packed race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Hamilton took control of the race with a perfect start from the outside of the front row, while pole-sitter Webber bogged down as his Red Bull’s anti-stall function kicked in and tumbled to seventh place.

Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso crashed out, and Sebastian Vettel failed to score a point.

“I’m ecstatic, it was a great weekend,” said Hamilton, whose driving was praised by his team principal Martin Whitmarsh. “A race like that can be a lottery, so I’m so happy and grateful to come out on top.”

Belgian Grand Prix 2010 Result (44 laps)

1 HAMILTON McLaren 1h29m04.3s

2 WEBBER Red Bull +1.6s

3 KUBICA Renault +3.5s

4 MASSA Ferrari +8.3s

5 SUTIL Force India +9.1s

6 ROSBERG Mercedes +12.4s

7 SCHUMACHER Mercedes +15.5s

8 KOBAYASHI Sauber +16.7s

9 PETROV Renault +23.9s

10 LIUZZI Force India +34.8s

11 DE LA ROSA Sauber +36.0s

12 BUEMI Toro Rosso +39.9s

13 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +49.5s

14 HULKENBERG Williams +1 lap

15 VETTEL Red Bull +1 lap

16 KOVALAINEN Lotus +1 lap

17 DI GRASSI Virgin +1 lap

18 GLOCK Virgin +1 lap

19 TRULLI Lotus +1 lap

20 YAMAMOTO HRT +2 laps

R ALONSO Ferrari +7 laps

R BUTTON McLaren +29 laps

R SENNA HRT +39 laps

R BARRICHELLO Williams +44 laps

Belgian Grand Prix 2010 – Qualifying

• Posted in Belgian GP . F1 News

Webber preserved his growing championship momentum as he seized pole for the Belgian Grand prix in a typically rain-affected Spa qualifying session.

This means Red Bull have taken 13 pole positions in the 14 races this season.

But Hamilton delivered a superb performance to take second, ahead of Kubica.

Sebastian vettel wasn’t able to do better on his final lap and so ended up fourth in the second Red Bull, while world champion Jenson button did find time on his final run to snatch fifth place.

Belgian GP starting grid

1 WEBBER Red Bull

2 HAMILTON McLaren

3 KUBICA Renault

4 VETTEL Red Bull

5 BUTTON McLaren

6 MASSA Ferrari

7 BARRICHELLO Williams

8 SUTIL Force India

9 HULKENBERG Williams

10 ALONSO Ferrari

11 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso

12 LIUZZI Force India

13 BUEMI Toro Rosso

14 KOVALAINEN Lotus

15 GLOCK Virgin

16 ROSBERG Mercedes*

17 TRULLI Lotus

18 KOBAYASHI Sauber

19 SENNA HRT

20 YAMAMOTO HRT

21 SCHUMACHER Mercedes**

22 DE LA ROSA Sauber

23 DI GRASSI Virgin

24 PETROV Renault

Belgian Grand Prix 2010 – Friday practice

• Posted in Belgian GP . F1 News

Fernando Alonso posted the quickest lap times in each one of Friday’s two practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Spanish driver signalled his intention with a lap of 2 minutes, 0.797 seconds in a rain-affected morning session.

Then he capitalised on a chaotic finish to a mainly dry afternoon stint to stop the clock at 1:49.032, 0.125 seconds ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

Hamilton was 3rd but Red Bull’s championship leader Webber was 2.6secs off the pace at Spa.

Kubica, testing the team’s brand-new F-duct aerodynamic system, came through 4th fastest and Alonso’s teammate Massa was sixth.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, third in the drivers’ rankings, was 0.657secs behind and reigning world champion Button of McLaren was a further 0.066secs back.

Alonso ended up on top but his rivals may point to the open track on which he was able to post his top time following a red flag towards the end of second practice.

Williams driver Rubens Barrichello, who is set to become the 1st Formula 1 driver to contest 300 races this weekend, was almost 1.1secs off the pace.

Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher goes into the race with a 10-place grid penalty after nearly running Barrichello into a pit wall at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Belgian Grand Prix free practice session two times

1 ALONSO Ferrari 1m49.032s
2 SUTIL Force India 1m49.157s
3 HAMILTON McLaren 1m49.248s
4 KUBICA Renault 1m49.282s
5 MASSA Ferrari 1m49.588s
6 VETTEL Red Bull 1m49.689s
7 BUTTON McLaren 1m49.755s
8 DE LA ROSA Sauber 1m50.081s
9 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m50.128s
10 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m50.200s
11 PETROV Renault 1m50.251s
12 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m50.341s
13 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m50.382s
14 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m50.682s
15 HULKENBERG Williams 1m50.831s
16 LIUZZI Force India 1m51.520s
17 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m51.523s
18 WEBBER Red Bull 1m51.636s
19 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m53.480s
20 TRULLI Lotus 1m53.639s
21 DI GRASSI Virgin 1m54.325s
22 SENNA HRT 1m55.751s
23 YAMAMOTO HRT 1m56.039s
24 GLOCK Virgin 2m03.179s

German Grand Prix 2010 Qualifying

• Posted in F1 News . German GP

Vettel on pole - German Grand Prix 2010

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel will start on pole position at his home Grand Prix in Germany after he edged out Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso by 0.002 seconds.

After Red Bull’s Mark Webber made a mistake in the first sector of his final run, he was jumped by Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari, who thus starts third after a lap of 1m 14.290s. Webber is fourth on 1m 14.347s.

Alonso had looked set to end Ferrari’s long wait for a pole – which stretches back to the final round of 2008 – after impressively topping the first two qualifying segments and then setting the pace in the early Q3 forays.

“We have to be happy, we are in the first row for the first time, that’s a step forward for us,” said Alonso.

“We expected the Red Bulls to give something more in Q3 as we have seen them do before.

“We are in a way surprised to be that close and finally fighting for pole position after 10 races, it took a little bit of a long time but now we are very close.”

German Grand Prix 2010 Grid

1 VETTEL Red Bull

2 ALONSO Ferrari

3 MASSA Ferrari

4 WEBBER Red Bull

5 BUTTON McLaren

6 HAMILTON McLaren

7 KUBICA Renault

8 BARRICHELLO Williams

9 ROSBERG Mercedes

10 HULKENBERG Williams

11 SCHUMACHER Mercedes

12 KOBAYASHI Sauber

13 PETROV Renault

14 DE LA ROSA Sauber

15 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso

16 BUEMI Toro Rosso

17 TRULLI Lotus

18 KOVALAINEN Lotus

19 SUTIL Force India

20 SENNA HRT

21 LIUZZI Force India

22 YAMAMOTO HRT

23 DI GRASSI Virgin

24 GLOCK Virgin