Posts Tagged ‘ F1 News ’

Suzuka 2009 Qualifying – Vettel 1st, Button 7th

• Posted in F1 News

Sebastian Vettel grabbed pole for the Japanese Grand Prix with championship leader Jenson Button in seventh after a crash-strewn Suzuka qualifying session.

In a scrappy final session the German took his Red Bull round in 1m 32.160s to hold off Jarno Trulli who did 1m 32.220s for Toyota.

Lewis Hamilton was third for McLaren, while his friend Adrian Sutil took an outstanding fourth on the grid for Force India.

Japanese GP 2009 starting grid

1. VETTEL Red Bull
2. TRULLI Toyota
3. HAMILTON McLaren
4. SUTIL Force India
5. BARRICHELLO Brawn
6. HEIDFELD BMW
7. BUTTON Brawn
8. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
9. KOVALAINEN McLaren
10. BUEMI Toro Rosso
11. ROSBERG Williams
12. ALONSO Renault
13. KUBICA BMW
14. GLOCK Toyota
15. ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso
16. FISICHELLA Ferrari
17. NAKAJIMA Williams
18. GROSJEAN Renault
19. LIUZZI Force India
20. WEBBER Red Bull

Suzuka 2009 Friday Practice

• Posted in F1 News

Adrian Sutil put Force India at the top of the timesheet in a second practice session at Suzuka that was a virtual washout.

A lunchtime downpour saturated the circuit and prevented any meaningful running until more than hour into the 90-minute session.

For a long while it seemed nobody would even set a time during second practice at Suzuka on Friday. Shortly after Heikki Kovalainen had set the fastest time in the morning the rain got heavier, and after the two Toro Rossos each did a lap in the afternoon, nobody ventured out for over an hour.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest in the afternoon and the defending world champion savoured the challenge of his first race at the famous figure-of-eight-shaped circuit.

“This is the best track I’ve ever driven,” Hamilton said afterwards. “It’s something very special for me and I had a great time today, even though it was wet.

“We didn’t do much running – we weren’t supposed to be running this afternoon, but I couldn’t help it: I just had to go out and have a little bit of fun!

Singapore 09 Qualifying – Hamilton on pole as Barrichello crash

• Posted in F1 News

Lewis Hamilton will start the Singapore Grand Prix on pole after a poor session for Brawn GP saw Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button finish in 10th and 12th.

Barrichello, trailing Button by 14 points in the title race, was fifth fastest but crashed late on and drops five places after changing his gearbox.

Button failed to make the top 10 as the championship leader produced an error-strewn display to finish 12th fastest.

Sebastian Vettel had just set the fastest time in sector one for Red Bull, while Williams’ Nico Rosberg had done likewise in sector two.

Hamilton was also preparing to go quicker still as were Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Renault’s Fernando Alonso, Toyota’s Timo Glock, BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen.

But since Barrichello crashed 26 seconds before the chequered flag was due to fall, they were all out of luck. The grid would be formed on the basis of their first run times.

However, what was set to be a tantalising climax to the session never played out after 37-year-old Barrichello slammed into the wall at turn five after losing control of his BGP 001 under braking after appearing to hit a big bump.

“It’s a disastrous session for us,” admitted team boss Ross Brawn. “We underestimated the competition in second qualifying because we used one old set, then one new set, and didn’t get the car balanced well on the new set.

“We were perilously close to losing both cars in that session. The shoot-out wasn’t bad, looking at the fuel weights, but that topped it off for us.

“With Jenson dropping out of third qualifying, Rubens had the maximum chance to get some points on Jenson. We’ll have to see what we can recover on Sunday.”

Kimi Raikkonen was another with a glum face after 1m 47.177s left his Ferrari only 13th, ahead of Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso on 1m 47.369s and Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on 1m 47.413s.

Renault rookie Romain Grosjean will line up alongside Liuzzi on the back row in 19th after struggling with the brakes on his R29 from the off in qualifying after a new set were installed before the session.

The Frenchman enquired over the radio whether his brakes were working at all after running down the escape road at turn seven on his out-lap and despite completing 10 laps over the next 20 minutes couldn’t get near the cut line. f1 bbc

Singapore GP Practice 2: Vettel fastest

• Posted in F1 News

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel clocked the quickest lap of Friday practice for the Singapore Grand Prix as crashes interrupted each session at Marina Bay.

The German lapped in one minute 48.650 seconds in the second session to beat Renault’s Fernando Alonso by 0.274secs.

Rubens Barrichello topped the first session ahead of his Brawn team-mate and championship leader Jenson Button.

Renault’s Romain Grosjean and then Red Bull’s Mark Webber crashed out on the dusty, slippery street circuit.

Kovalainen was then relegated to third in the closing seconds as Fernando Alonso harried his R29 around the bumpy street circuit to a time just 0.274s slower than Vettel, giving Renault a much needed boost after its most troubled of weeks.

BMW’s big car upgrade introduced for this weekend’s race continued to show promising potential as Nick Heidfeld claimed fourth, with Button dropping to fifth following Brawn’s morning 1-2.

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Renault gets two-year suspended F1 ban

• Posted in F1 News

Renault have been given a two-year suspended ban from Formula 1 for their role in fixing last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.

The team were called before governing body the FIA to answer charges they had asked driver Nelson Piquet Jr to crash to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win.

Former team boss Flavio Briatore has been banned from FIA sanctioned events for an unlimited period.

Ex-engineering director Pat Symonds has also been excluded for five years.

Briatore and Symonds parted company with Renault last week at the same time as the French car giant said they would not contest the charges.

The FIA agreed not to pursue action against Piquet for his role in uncovering the details of the scandal.

In addition to banning Renault, the WMSC handed out hefty individual penalties to Briatore and Symonds. Neither will be allowed any involvement in FIA-sanctioned motorsport, Briatore indefinitely and Symonds for the next five years.

Piquet, who was dropped by Renault in July, was granted immunity from sanction for volunteering his evidence in the investigation.

“We are very sad to find ourselves in front of the Word Motor Sport Council today,” said Renault team president Bernard Rey after the Paris hearing. “By way of background, as a result of our own enquiries, we informed the FIA last week that we would not defend the charges and we accepted our responsibilities in relation to the incident in Singapore and we immediately took appropriate action inside the team.

The governing body said the severity of Briatore’s penalty was the result of the both nature of the scandal and “his actions in continuing to deny his participation in the breach despite all the evidence”.

The FIA said Renault’s former driver Nelson Piquet Jr, who was found guilty of conspiring with Symonds and Briatore to cause the crash with helped its other driver Fernando Alonso win the race, “apologised unreservedly” for his part in the plot, but will face no personal punishment after the FIA offered him full immunity in exchange for a full disclosure of the facts.

Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, has been cleared of all involvement in the plot and the FIA thanked the double world champion for his help with its enquires after he appeared at Tuesday’s hearing.