Posts Tagged ‘ Singapore GP ’

Singapore Grand Prix 2009

• Posted in F1 2009 . F1 News

Singapore Grand Prix 2009
25 – 27 September, Singapore

Lewis Hamilton more than made up for his last-lap crash at Monza two weeks ago with a flawless performance under the lights in the Singapore Grand Prix that secured his and McLaren’s second win of the season.

Meanwhile Jenson Button moved a step closer to realising his world title dreams, overcoming a disastrous qualifying session to beat his Brawn GP team-mate and title rival Rubens Barrichello to fifth place and thereby extending his championship lead by one point.

Vettel set off in hot pursuit of Hamilton after an early challenge from Williams’ Nico Rosberg faded, but squandered his hard work when he broke the pit lane speed limit during his second stop for fuel and tyres.

Their rivals’ misfortune will have been music to the ears of both Button and Barrichello who, for much of the race, had laboured unremarkably from grid positions of 11th and ninth respectively.

The pair struggled to make an impression up to the appearance of the safety car following a crash involving Force India’s Adrian Sutil and BMW’s Nick Heidfeld on lap 21.

And while the safety car helped Hamilton, who had just pitted, fellow Englishman Button watched his fuel advantage over a number of rivals, carried over from Saturday’s qualifying, evaporate.

Sutil’s incident with Heidfeld came in Turn 14 on the 20th lap when he tagged the back of Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, which had been holding up a train of cars since the start. As the Force India spun it hit an innocent Heidfeld and both retired. Romain Grosjean was the other retirement, stopping early with suspected brake problems on his Renault.

The result leaves Button on 84 points to Barrichello’s 69 with three races to go, while Vettel remains third with 59 and Webber fourth on 51.5. In the constructors’ stakes, Brawn have 153 points to Red Bull’s 110.5, but McLaren are closing fast on Ferrari with 59 to 62.

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.

Singapore Grand Prix

• Posted in Singapore GP . Singapore Grand Prix

Undoubtedly, the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix will go down in history as the first ever night race.

It is definitely a spectators’ race rather than driver’s one. All tickets for the 2008 race were sold out and the same thing is expected for 2009. It is also great for the European fans who will watch the race on TV at a normal time and don’t have to stay up all night.

The drivers however are not to pleased. From their prospective the event could be described as hot, humid and bumpy. Very, very bumpy!

Allegedly, it requires twice the amount of energy to complete a lap on the Marina Bay Street Circuit, than a lap on the circuit in Monaco. The kerbs and the pit entry had to be modified ahead of the race, as they were causing a lot of problems.