Team orders, anyone?
Fernando Alonso won a very contentious German Grand Prix at Hockenheim yesterday. The Spaniard was given the lead of the race by his team mate Philipe Massa after a coded message was relayed to him over the pit radio. This breaking of the rules gave interest to an otherwise boring race (bring back the old layout, I say).
Sebastien Vettel came third (and probably happy to be a bit part player after Silverstone), with Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button a distant fourth and fifth. Marc Webber, hamstrung by oil consumption problems, rounded out the top six. Oh, and Mercedes were awful. They'd have been better off using one their vans! The days of Schumacher dominating all he surveyed are now very distant.
Team orders are nothing new and were never seen to be wrong until that infamous day in 2002, when Ferrari management ordered Rubens Barrichello to let Michael Schumacher through to take the win on the last corner. Barrichello had been inspired all weekend bested his German team mate in the race, yet was expected to slow right down and let him through. It was such an obvious and cynical move that the FIA banned team orders.
Unfortunately that was a knee-jerk reaction and now stops team managers from being able to give orders to their drivers. A simple order to instruct the number two driver to keep his position behind the team leader to maximise their championship chances, is no longer allowed. So through the utter cynicism and disregard for sportsmanlike behaviour, the Ferrari team got an important part of team management banned, therefore making it a underhand practice.
And yesterday it came back to bite them on the backside.
Flipping ‘eck!
Every now and again, you see a crash in a motor race that makes you involuntarily swear like a trooper. This SEAT race at Brands Hatch made me do just that when I saw this almighty crash:
The incident does appear to be one of those flukes of racing nature that could happen anywhere and at any time. It was lucky that the car did not hit the either the marshals or the ambulance van. Fortunately no one, including the driver, was badly injured.
Pedrosa beats Lorenzo to Sachsenring victory
Dani Pedrosa took victory at the Sachsenring on Sunday, beating championship leader Jorge Lorenzo into second place. Casey Stoner took third after just beating Valentino Rossi to the flag. The main feature of the race however, was the frightening crash involving the LCR Honda of Randy De Puniet, Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista and Pramac Ducati's Alex Espargo. De Puniet crashed and was still laying on the track injured, while the other two smashed into the Frenchman's Honda. The race was stopped and grid positions were decided on where the riders were when the red flag was shown.
Of the three riders involved, De Puniet was the most badly injured, suffering a broken leg. The LCR Honda rider was already injured having been involved in a practice accident the day before, hitting Ben Spies bike as they both skidded off on the oil dropped by Lorenzo's broken Yamaha. As a result of his accident, De Puniet will have to sit out the next round at Laguna Seca.
Once the race was restarted, Pedrosa shot into the lead with countryman Lorenzo behind him. The Yamaha rider would take the lead on lap 2 with the Honda rider making several attempts to regain the lead. When he did however, it was a lead he was not going to relinquish for the rest of the race. Further back, Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi had a battle royal for third place, with the two riders swapping places no fewer than eight times until the Ducati edged out Rossi and his Yamaha on the very last corner.
Andrea Dovisioso came home fifth with the Hair Bear himself, Marco Simoncelli, behind him in sixth.
Red Bull gives you (old) wings!
Marc Webber won the British Grand Prix on Sunday and I was there to see it! Having been to several Grand Prix both here and in Europe over the last ten years, I can say that this was probably the best one I've seen. Almost as a rebuke to my last post, in which I ran down the calibre of the Grand Prix support races, there was a good race in every category. However, I do have a feeling that this may be in some way to do with the layout of the Silverstone track. The new circuit seemed to give even more opportunities for overtaking, along with Silverstone's signature white-knuckle fast corners.
Support races and layout's aside, the main story of the weekend was the controversy that erupted in the Red Bull team. Both cars had been fitted with a new developmental front wing, which Seb Vettel managed to smash in an off during practice. It was then ordered that Webber's wing should be transferred over to his team mates car. Whether or not this was a major contributing factor to the car's overall performance is neither here nor there, but what it shows to the outside world is a clear preference for Sebastien Vettel to be champion this year. If the team was being run to a joint number one system, then Vettel would have just had to make do with the old wing.
During the press conference on Saturday it was clear that the Australian was furious and that anger probably contributed to his fine performance the next day. Indeed, from where my brother and I were sitting at Stowe corner, Webber seemed to be putting in a muscular, controlled performance that tempered aggression with mature race-craft. In fact, his performance was probably the only constant in the whole race (apart from Lewis Hamilton's dogged pursuit of him).
At the other end of the scale, Fernando Alonso's fiery, exciting and ultimately unrewarding drive was fascinating to watch. It was a gloves-off and slightly unhinged show of great car control. His hounding of Robert Kubica and the Force India's later on in the race was great to watch. Although the Spaniard's ham fisted attempt at overtaking the Pole did seem to take a bit of the shine off things (and earned him a drive-through penalty). Thanks to this and the collision with team mate Massa, one gets the impression that Ferrari need to pull their socks up a bit.
Special mention should go to Jensen Button's fourth place, especially after the Englishman started in 14th on the grid. He made up sixth places on the first lap, stayed out and changed his tyres late to jump two places and capitalised on Kubica's retirement. All in all, an excellent save of a weekend that could have turned into a disaster for the McLaren driver.
Bruno Senna was strangely absent from the Hispania racing team this weekend, with Japanese driver Sakon Yamamoto stumping up the cash to take his place for the race. He needn't have bothered, the cars were painfully slow. An old bedford van would have been as effective!
Now it's over, I'd better start saving my pennies for next year!
Silverstone, here we come!
It is the Formula 1 British Grand Prix this weekend and I for one am excited. Why? Because I'm going, that's why! Last year myself, my father, brother and uncle went off to watch it as we feared that it would be the last ever British Grand Prix. The race itself was a bit tedious, I must say and I'm hoping that the new layout will give us the type of racing that we saw at the bike Grand Prix a few weeks ago.
The other problem is the support races, as they really are a Bernie stitch-up these days, with GP2, GP3 and Formula BMW clogging the programme. How about a bit of local colour? Incorporating a round of the British Formula 3 and the BTCC would provide a far more entertaining curtain raiser to the main event (I believe this always used to be the case). For example, I went to the Spanish Grand Prix in 2003 and one of the support races was a Seat Ibiza Challenge race; brilliant entertainment! 25-30 tin tops racing around the track, smashing into each other! Something a bit more like that would help immensely.
Slight moans aside, I'm very much looking forward to this weekend. I presume that this is going to be a Red Bull weekend as their car is the proverbial rocket on fast tracks and with it's alterations, Silverstone is once again extremely quick. Damon Hill and the British Racing Drivers Club have spent their financial investments wisely as the track is looking great. Plus, guess who's the driver steward for this race? Nigel Mansell!!!!!!!
I think I'm going to have a lie down...
Lorenzo continues his dominance in Spain
If Jorge Lorenzo doesn't win add this years MotoGP world championship to his two 250cc world championships, I will be very surprised indeed. The Spaniard took his third win in succession at the Catalunya circuit in Spain on Sunday, driving off into the distance thanks to a combination of his indisputable talent and the performance advantage of the factory Yamaha.
Dani Pedrosa continued Honda's string of good results with a well deserved second place. His team mate Andrea Dovisioso was less fortunate, crashing out whilst attempting to challenge Lorzeno. Casey Stoner continued in his attempts to rescue his so-far scratchy season with a well ridden third. The exciting Randy De Puniet finished another impressive race weekend in fourth on the LCR Honda.
Perhaps the most significant event of the whole weekend was the sickening crash suffered by stand in rider Carmelo Morales in the Moto2 race. Following the Kenny Moyes, the Spanish rider touched the American's back wheel and was thrown off on the main straight. The bouncing bike landed on him twice before vaulting over the fence. Fortunately, Morales survived what was a horrifying accident. If you haven't seen it, here it is and it's not for the faint hearted...
It was not the only piece of drama in the Moto2 race, as Alex Debon managed to trigger a multi-bike pile up at the first corner. The FTR rider tried to make up some places by going up the inside, but managed to take out a large part of the 41 strong field.
The race itself was won by Yuki Takahashi, with Thomas Luthi in second and Julian Simon in third. Andrea Iannone was penalised with a ride through penalty after overtaking Takahashi under a yellow flag. He eventually finished 13th.
As for the 125cc race, it was the same as the last race with Marc Marquez winning, the camera focussing constantly on his old man and our Bradley finishing again in fourth. Zzzzzzz
Continuing our high speed Eco-battle…
As saving the planet is the subject of the day today, I've dug up another interesting story, this time about Porsche's attempts to make a hybrid car. It does sound unlikely that one of the world's most famous high performance car manufacturers has created a car that attempts to harmonise with the environment, but it's true.
The 911 GT3 R Hybrid has been built with a standard petrol engine, but with an additional electric motor which powers the front wheels. This is used as a boost for when extra power is needed, for either speed on the straights or when overtaking. When not in use, the motor is recharged by the turning of the front wheels.
Now as we all know, the Germans are very meticulous and thorough. They had to test it and where did they chose to test? Only at the Nurburgring 24 hours! This demanding event is not held on the small Grand Prix track, but on the 14 mile monster itself.
Take a look at the car in action below:
F1: Environmentally friendly?
Formula One team are planning to cut their emissions by 15% over the next three years. The most inward and reality cocooned sport on the face of the planet has decided to clean up it's act? How has this come about? Well, unsurprisingly the impetus has come from sponsors, anxious to be associated with cleaner products. As a result, FOTA is looking to:
- Use smaller engines such as a 1.5 litre turbo.
- Reduce fuel allotment to maybe 80kg.
- A rationalisation of the race calendar to prevent numerous continent crossings.
For more info on this, take a look at this story on the BBC website.
Vettel wins at Valencia
Sebastien Vettel won the European Grand Prix at Valencia on Sunday, while team mate Marc Webber suffered a horrific crash which fortunately left him unharmed. His Red Bull was launched off the back of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus as the car flipped over onto it's airbox, skidded along before turning over again and crashing into the barrier. My first thought was that the Australian was very seriously injured, however he was only dazed. For more on the crash, click here.
Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button finished second and third respectively, putting them first and second in the drivers championship. Fernando Alonso was fuming that Lewis Hamilton's overtaking of the safety car ruined his race and that the drive through penalty that the Englishman received did not affect his end placing.
Grand Prix Gold!!
Ayrton Senna. Donington 1993. An absolutely classic first lap where the Brazilian overtakes the top five cars and takes control of the race. That particular Grand Prix has since gone down as one of the Brazilian's greatest victories and you can enjoy it here, here and here!!!
Lorenzo continues MotoGP dominance in Holland
Spain's Jorge Lorenzo took another win at the Dutch TT on Saturday, further cementing his championship lead. It was his first premier class victory at Assen, having previously won once in the 125's and twice in the 250 class, finishing three seconds ahead of Honda's Dani Pedrosa. I imagine there are few riders in the paddock who would like to get their hands on that number 46 Yamaha, currently sitting unused on the other side of the garage!
Andrea Iannone took his second successive victory in Moto2 class, ahead of championship leader Tony Elias and Thomas Luthi. Second place was probably a relief for Elias, who had struggled with several problems in the last few rounds, only finishing 10th at Sliverstone last time out.
Mark Marquez also continued a run of dominance in his class, taking the 125cc Dutch TT win. The Spaniard opened up a two second advantage and did not relinquish it. Nicolas Terol and Pol Espargo finished second and third respectively. Our own Bradley Smith finished fourth and here's to hoping that the Oxfordshire lad gets another Grand Prix win this year.
Apart from my longing for the circuit van Drenthe to reinstate it's old layout, I really wish that the television producer would stop following Marquez's father around the Assen pit's. They've done it for the last two races as well and it's getting annoying. Anyone would have thought he was the 'star', for crying out loud...