Posts Tagged Alonso

Lewis Hamilton Crashes Out of Italian Grand Prix as Jenson Button Splits Massa and Alonso

Posted by on Monday, 13 September, 2010

Lewis Hamilton | Italian Grand Prix 2010
The Italian Grand Prix is always an event which brings entertainment value at it’s highest, just not normally at the expense of the leader of the chamionship and not in the first few seconds of the race..

The grid line up hosted the top 3 teams within the top 8 positions, with Lewis Hamilton failing to improve on his free practice pace using the lower placed rear wing and no “F” duct and sitting on the third row from the front.

But, this didn’t seem to affect him off the line, as he sprinted to the front and began to rub shoulders with the Ferrari’s, which ended his day about 45 seconds into the first lap with a broken front suspension arm.

This didn’t seem to bother Jenson Button, who went out in front and managed to put a couple of seconds between himself and the Ferrari’s, which was short lived folloing the first round of pit stops where Alonso managed to jump him and get back on the track only inches in front of Button.

As for Australian Mark Webber, he managed to lose a few valuable places off the line and kept getting backed up in traffic wherever he was on the curcuit – leaving him to come in behind team mate, Vettel.

The final top positions were:

1. Fernando Alonso 1:16:24.572
2. Jenson Button        +2.9 sec
3. Felipe Massa           +4.2 sec
4. Sebastian Vettel    +28.2 sec
5. Nico Rosberg         +29.9 sec
6. Mark Webber         +31.2 sec
7. Nico Hulkenberg +32.8 sec
8. Robert Kubica      +34 sec

This makes Mark Webber leader of the championship due to Hamilton collecting a DNF.

Current Positions and Standings

DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
01 Mark Webber 187
02 Lewis Hamilton 182
03 Fernando Alonso 166
04 Jenson Button 165
05 Sebastian Vettel 163
06 Felipe Massa 124
07 Nico Rosberg 112
08 Robert Kubica 108
09 Michael Schumacher 46
10 Adrian Sutil 45
11 Rubens Barrichello 31
12 Kamui Kobayashi 21
13 Vitaly Petrov 19
14 Nico Hulkenberg 16
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi 13

MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
01 RBR-Renault 350
02 McLaren-Mercedes 347
03 Ferrari 290
04 Mercedes GP 158
05 Renault 127
06 Force India-Mercedes 58
07 Williams-Cosworth 47
08 BMW Sauber-Ferrari 27
09 STR-Ferrari 10
10 Lotus-Cosworth 0

Share
Category: Sports   , , , , , , , ,
Comments (0)

F1 Ruling For Ferrari Firmly Places Wedge In Divide

Posted by on Friday, 10 September, 2010

FIA | F1 | Motorsport Governing Body
Let’s face it, within the F1 Industry you will never become a “sit on the fence and run with the wolves” sort of person. It’s either one way or the other, your in and follow the guidelines, or you go the complete opposite.

The F1 Championship was created back in 1958, over 60 years ago – and team orders have never been something which the drivers have ignored, well up until now that is. And, as we have witnessed over the first part of the season, some are getting ever frustrated being told what to do.

You only have to look at the Webber / Vettel incident where it was evident that Vettel took a sudden desire to get all close and comfortable with his team mate Webber, and ended bringing the two of them off giving the win away to Hamilton. The pictures which were broadcast of Christian Horner told the full story.

Then, like the feeling of nothing was going to happen in the German GP, we clearly heard the “riddle” style instructions from Ferrari which indicated “team order” had to be adhered to, bringing Alonso to the front and leaving Massa in a an understandingly upsetting second place.

What we want as a member of the viewing public is a more transparent sport, one that can be understood from it’s instruction manual and seen as result driven by expertise and not manufactured to fit the situation.

One thing is for sure that if I was following the sport and going to the events, I would be pretty miffed if I found that my idle was being steered in a different direction to what he wants, making him become a “second” driver in the team and not equal.

Whilst over the last weeks we have seen the shame brought on to the Cricket scene by the Pakistan players, lets hope that this is not a clear indication of what could be manufactured for the Motorsport industry.

FIA Ruling
So, as the story stands right now, the FIA fined Ferrari $100,000 (£66,000) because they could see that the coded message which was relayed over the radio not once, but twice, actually told Massa that he had to slow down and let Alonso passed. This ruling was upheld on Thursday by The World Motorsport Council.

Amongst the best of us, this paints a completely new picture, for now. The FIA have not nailed the door shut, and have given the teams a new order in which they can understand as being; “We do not tolerate this style of racing, so if you decide to follow this methodology then be prepared to be punished financially!”

At £66,000 a pop, do YOU think that the teams are going to worry too much about it?

Based on the fact that we knew team orders existed over 8 years ago when they were “claimed” to have been banned, this only strengthens the theory that where there is a will, there’s a way.

Unfortunately for Ferrari, they got caught doing something which we are told does not happen – but let’s face it, it wasn’t the most encrypted message, was it?

Maybe I should send over my 4 year old son to operate the radio, I’m sure he could dream up something better than “He’s faster than you, so let him pass!”

Share
Category: Motoring   , , , , , ,
Comments (1)