US Grand Prix Hopeful about 2012

Promoter Tavo Hellmund has said that he remains hopeful that Austin can still host next year's planned US Grand Prix despite losing the rights to the race and the apparent support of Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

Ecclestone said he cancelled his original contract with Hellmund's Full Throttle Productions because of a breach of contract and may axe the race altogether.

The 81 year-old was left dealing with the track developers, Circuit of the Americas (COTA), but has since run out of patience with them, saying they had a week to agree to a new contract and pay up or he would scrap the event.

Hellmund, whose father worked with Ecclestone to put on the Mexican Grand Prix in the 1980s, said his company and the race organisers only had themselves to blame for the fallout.

"The reason we don't have a contract with Formula One is because as a project, we have failed many times over to fulfil our financial obligations to Formula One. It's literally that simple," he said.

"Right now we should be praising Mr Ecclestone. We were in breach on multiple issues as late as May. And he sent numerous requests and letters that we were all aware of how to fix it and we failed to do that."

Hellmund said the problem was caused by a rift between Full Throttle Productions and COTA. He said he tried to buy them out, but they declined, then he agreed to allow COTA to buy him out but they have not yet reached a deal.

"I don't really want to get into the weeds about that. Let's just say there's been a difference of philosophy and for the good of the project I'm willing to do whatever it is for the project to go forward," he explained.

The prospects of the race going ahead as planned in November next year were fading fast with construction halted at the track after COTA officials said they wanted to see a contract, then state government officials ruling out the possibility of a public bailout.

But COTA president Steve Sexton indicated on Thursday that a 2013 startup might be a possibility and Hellmund said he was still optimistic that 2012 could be saved.

"I was encouraged today to see some news reports that the door is still open for us to be able to fix that," Hellmund said.

"And I've also been encouraged in recent days to see that apparently all the funding's in place. And so with that being said I'm really optimistic and hopeful that we're going to get this done and we're going to have a Grand Prix next year."

Lotus F1 Name Row Resolved

The long-running row over the use of the Lotus name in Formula 1 has ended with an agreement for both teams involved to change their cars' names.

A meeting of F1 bosses has approved a request for Renault - sponsored by the Lotus car company - to change the name of their F1 cars to Lotus in 2012.

And Team Lotus will from next year run cars called Caterhams, and change their team name accordingly.

The Virgin team will also change the name of their chassis to Marussia.

The name changes, which relate to how the car's chassis is labelled, need to be ratified at the next meeting of the FIA World Council, F1's legislative body, on 7 December, but this will simply be a case of rubber-stamping Thursday's agreement.

Renault may also alter their official name, currently Lotus Renault GP, although they have to decide whether to do so.

The changes were approved at a meeting of the F1 Commission group of stakeholders, which also ratified the 2012 calendar as it has already been published.

There had been doubts about the Bahrain and Korean GPs - Bahrain because of continuing civil unrest and Korea because of financial difficulties.

The name changes surrounding the Lotus teams are the endgame in a bitter and complex naming dispute that has been running for more than a year.

The row began in 2009 when Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes entered a team in F1 using the name Lotus Racing, under licence from Group Lotus.

At that time Group Lotus had made it clear to Fernandes that it did not own the rights to the name Team Lotus.

But the two parties soon fell out, with Group Lotus deciding that it wanted to promote its brand in F1 with a more established team.

It agreed a sponsorship deal with the Renault team for 2011 and terminated its licencing agreement with Fernandes.

Fernandes then reverted to the historic Team Lotus name, which bought the rights to the Team Lotus name from businessman David Hunt - brother of 1976 world champion James Hunt.

Both decisions were the subject of a lawsuit which was finally resolved in London's High Court in May.

A judge ruled Team Lotus could continue to race under that name but that Group Lotus retained the right to use the Lotus marque on its road cars, and in F1 if it chose to enter its own team.

Fernandes, however, had already begun formulating a back-up plan by buying Dartford-based sportscar manufacturer Caterham in April.

That led to new talks with Group Lotus, which ended with them submitting the joint request to change their names that was resolved on Thursday.

Button Wins Japan Vettel wins F1 Title

McLaren’s Jenson Button always wanted to win the Japanese race at Suzuka, and on Sunday afternoon he finally did so in dominant style after early leader Sebastian Vettel ran into tyre wear. But third place for the 24 year-old German, separated from Button by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, was sufficient to clinch him a second consecutive world championship.

Vettel had taken the lead from the start, leaving Button fuming as he was squeezed on to the grass by the Red Bull driver and lost second as McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton went round the outside. Hamilton’s race was soon compromised by a right-rear puncture, however, and he was obliged to pit on Lap Eight. 

Vettel, however, pitted only a lap later, followed next time round by Button, Alonso and Red Bull’s Mark Webber. Tyre wear would prove a highly significant factor.

Vettel continued to lead until his second stop on the 19th lap. Once again Button stopped a lap later, but this time he was able to regain the track ahead of Vettel and thus was the race’s final pattern set.

A safety car intervention on Lap 24 appeared to throw Vettel a lifeline as debris was cleared from the chicane following an earlier collision between Hamilton and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. The stewards investigated that and decided, as they had after looking at Vettel’s opening move, that there was nothing irregular in either incident.

When the track went green on Lap 28 Button backed up the field going to the chicane then sprinted ahead, and steadily built an advantage again, as Vettel fell prey to a hungry Alonso as the Spaniard ran four laps longer before making his third and final stop to switch to the medium Pirelli tyres.

The closing stages were a straight fight between these three, and between Laps 48 and 50 Alonso slashed Button’s 4.8s advantage to a mere second before Button opened the gap up again. The delighted Englishman was 1.1s ahead by the flag despite a last-lap near-miss as he lapped Tonio Liuzzi’s HRT, and Vettel ended up 0.8s further back.

In a race notable for just one retirement - Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso stopped on Lap 12 after the right-front wheel had been improperly secured - and for the laps that Michael Schumacher led for Mercedes by staying out longer as others pitted on Laps 39 to 41, it was Webber who took fourth comfortably ahead of the recovering Hamilton, who led home Schumacher and Massa.

Sergio Perez drove a brilliant race for Sauber to take eighth place after a race-long fight with team mate Kamui Kobayashi and the Force Indias. The Mexican was closing on Massa by the finish and was well clear as Renault’s Vitaly Petrov duelled his way to ninth ahead of Nico Rosberg, who had a great run from the back of the grid in his Mercedes. 

Adrian Sutil was chasing Perez near the end before a brief off dropped him back, and he took 11th ahead of Force India team mate Paul di Resta, who finished with Kobayashi, Williams’ Pastor Maldonado and Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari right on his tail after a fierce multi-car battle.

Bruno Senna got squeezed wide in Turn Two at the start and never featured, finishing 16th in the second Renault ahead of the duelling Lotuses of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli. 

Behind them, Jerome D’Ambrosio and Timo Glock had a race-long scrap in their Virgins two laps down, with the German finally getting the verdict by just 1.2s and HRT’s Daniel Ricciardo only 2.4s further back after a never-say-die run. Liuzzi’s HRT never ran as well as his team mate’s, after all his practice and qualifying dramas, and he finished three laps down in 23rd.

So Sebastian Vettel is world champion again, and the youngest-ever back-to-back winner. “To win the world championship here is fantastic, and there are so many things I want to say in this moment but it’s hard to remember all of them,” he said. 

“I am so thankful to everyone in the team, both here at the track and at Milton Keynes, to be able to fight for the championship and find ourselves in a very strong position. It was great to achieve the goal we set ourselves already, with four races left.”

He has 324 points to Button’s 210, with Alonso on 202 from Webber on 194 and Hamilton on 178. Red Bull Racing have 518 to McLaren’s 388 in the constructors’ standings, with both teams still in the running for that title.

Vettel Poles Again in Singapore

Sebastian Vettel further emphasised his credentials as a potential back-to-back World Champion on Saturday when he claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver lapped the 5.073km Marina Bay Street Circuit in a time of one minute 44.381 seconds to go 0.351s faster than team-mate Mark Webber.

McLaren's Jenson Button was third fastest with a time of 1:44.804s, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton just five one thousandths of a second slower in fourth.

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso, winner of last year's race and Vettel's nearest challenger in the title race - the Spaniard albeit 112 points adrift - lines up fifth quickest ahead of his team-mate Felipe Massa.

Mercedes GP pair Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher start seventh and eighth respectively, while the team-by-team pattern continued as Force India pair Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta in turn qualified ninth and 10th.

Vettel could become the youngest driver in history to secure back-to-back titles if the race result goes his way, yet there was no evidence of nerves from the 24-year-old German in the hour-long session.

He extended his qualifying record for the season to 11 poles in 14 races with his first flying lap of Q3 and subsequently made no effort to try and improve his time.

Webber was able to knock Hamilton off the front row as the Briton was poised for his fifth P2 start in succession.

However, a puncture sustained in Q2 limited the McLaren star to only one run in the top-10 shoot-out in order to save a set of the faster supersoft tyres.

The Q2 session was red-flagged after six of the 15 minutes due to Kamui Kobayashi ploughing into a barrier at turn 10 after he had hit a raised kerb through the chicane.

The impact lifted his Sauber a few feet into the air, the car then landing with a thud, and with no time to correct his line before careering straight on and out of qualifying, leaving the Japanese in 17th.

Team-mate Sergio Perez starts 11th, the Mexican ousted from the top 10 at the death by Di Resta.

Like team-mate Sutil and Schumacher, the Scot opted not to set a time in Q3 and instead save tyres for what is likely to be a three-stop race.

Following his travails on Friday when he only managed seven timed laps due to a number of issues, Di Resta performed superbly to make it into the top 10.

Williams finally showed signs of life with Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado 12th and 13th, with the Toro Rossos of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari sandwiching 15th-placed Bruno Senna (Renault).

For the first time this season the Renault of Vitaly Petrov failed to make it out of the initial 20-minute session, with the Russian dropping to 18th after Senna's last-gasp effort knocked his team-mate out.

It was Petrov's worst qualifying performance since the Korean Grand Prix last year, finishing a staggering 3.5secs behind Vettel, who topped Q1, and a second off Senna.

The Lotuses, Virgins and Hispanias take up the final six spots on the grid, with Vitantonio Liuzzi bringing up the rear, although within the required 107% time.

Describing his satisfaction of driving around the Singapore circuit, Vettel said: "It's an exceptional track.

"Either you like it or hate it, with a lot of thinking going on, and if you operate on the limit then it's difficult to get it right every single corner.

"It's so easy to lose time, not just a couple of hundredths, but a couple of tenths. It's a great challenge."

Vettel's latest pole allowed him to move within three of equalling Nigel Mansell's 1992 record for number of poles in a season. However, he said he is not yet eyeing that particular record.

Exceptional

Vettel said: "That was pretty exceptional. Nigel had an incredible year, and although we're not doing too bad, it's wrong to start thinking about those things.

"The focus is on the race. We focus on the moment to get everything right every single time, which sounds easy, but not every weekend."

Webber declared himself as "overall satisfied", and although very quick in the first two sectors felt it was a front-row place gained rather than a pole lost.

He added: "This is a challenging venue, and one of my best Saturday sessions, which has put me in a good place for the race tomorrow."

Button said: "For me the lap was good - both my laps actually.

"Last night I didn't expect to be here, but we made quite a lot of improvements overnight, and the pace has been good all day.

"I'm happy to be third, but the worry tomorrow is I've not driven with high fuel, so we'll have to see and try make the best of it."

Times

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 44.381secs, 2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:44.732, 3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:44.804, 4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:44.809, 5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:44.874, 6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:45.800, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:46.013, 8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP No Time, 9 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India No Time, 10 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India No Time, 11 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.616, 12 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:48.082, 13 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:48.270, 14 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:48.634, 15 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault 1:48.662, 16 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:49.862, 17 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari No Time, 18 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:49.835, 19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 1:50.948, 20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 1:51.012, 21 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 1:52.154, 22 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 1:52.363, 23 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-F1 1:52.404, 24 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 1:52.810

Note: Vitantonio Liuzzi received a five-place grid penalty after an incident in the Italian Grand Prix, however as he qualified in 24th place he remains there.

Sam Michael to join McLaren

Outgoing Williams technical director Sam Michael will begin a new role as McLaren sporting director in 2012.

The Australian, who announced in May he would resign from Williams at the end of this season, will now focus on McLaren's trackside operations.

"I'm extremely excited to be joining McLaren," Michael said. "They are one of the all-time greats of Formula 1."

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said Michael would bring "experience and expertise to our pitwall".

Michael's last grand prix in his capacity as Williams technical director will be at the next race in Singapore.

He is not due to travel to the final five races of the season with Williams but could appear in the paddock with McLaren, even though he will not start his new role with them until 2012.

While former McLaren engineer Mike Coughlan - the man at the heart of the 2007 spy-gate scandal - has returned to Williams as chief engineer, Michael takes on a new position within McLaren's technical team.

The Australian's role will focus on development and management of the team's trackside operations as well as working closely with drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

"I'm very pleased to welcome Sam as an important senior addition to our race team," added Whitmarsh.

Lewis and Jenson are grade-one drivers, and therefore regard it as an enormous privilege to be able to work with both of them.Sam Michael

"I'm certain he'll work extremely well with our senior technical management team, which I firmly believe will now become the strongest in all of F1."

The role of McLaren sporting director was last held by Dave Ryan, who was fired by the team for his part in "lie-gate" at the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, where Hamilton was disqualified for misleading race stewards.

Michael has now filled that vacant role but his appointment is not expected to affect anyone else's position within the team.

The Australian joined Williams in 2001 as chief operations engineer and was later promoted to technical director, a position he held for eight seasons.

"I've spent 11 seasons with Williams, have many fond memories, and truly wish them all the best," Michael said.

"In the near future, however, I will become 100% focused on McLaren. I already know and respect many of the team's senior technical management figures, and becoming a member of that excellent working unit was one of the prime attractions of this new position.

"Equally, for some time I've closely observed and greatly admired both Lewis and Jenson as grade-one drivers, and therefore regard it as an enormous privilege to be able to work with both of them."

The restructure at Williams has already seen Jason Somerville arrive as the team's new head of aerodynamics, while Mark Gillan will join the team as chief operations engineer later this month.

The team's co-founder Sir Frank Williams commented: "I am delighted that Sam has found a new role that will enable him to continue to apply his energy, passion and experience to F1.

"On behalf of everyone at Williams, I wish him a successful move to his new team."

Alonso Concedes F1 2011 Battle

Fernando Alonso believes that Sebastian Vettel is certain to retain the F1 world title and is now focused on finishing second.

Red Bull driver Vettel won Sunday's Italian Grand Prix to move 112 points ahead of Ferrari's Alonso.

"Six races to go so obviously the championship is impossible," said Alonso. "Not mathematically but we are no longer in contention.

"We are fighting for second place in the championship."

Alonso, who finished third behind Vettel and Jenson Button at Monza, added: "It's always better to finish second than fifth.

"I think I'm second today after Mark Webber's retirement, so I will try to get second place as I did last year. We try to enjoy every race, we try to go for individual victories."

Vettel's Red Bull team-mate Webber has also conceded that the German is now certain to retain his title.

"I think we are all battling for second place now," said Webber, who crashed out of the Italian Grand Prix as Vettel cruised to his eighth win of the season.

"Sebastian needs to have a very, very incredible finish to take the championship off him."

Australian Webber, now third in the standings with Button on 167 points, had a frustrating afternoon at Monza after starting fifth on the grid.

He attempted to overtake Felipe Massa going into the first chicane but lost his nose after clipping the Ferrari and then crashed out as he made his way back to the pits as the front wing got trapped under his car.

"I tried to bail out of the move but clipped the kerb," explained Webber.

"The front wing was under the car and I lost steering. This [race] is a missed opportunity for me."

Massa was unhappy with the move, which left him facing the wrong way up the track.

He rejoined the race and finished in sixth, 42 seconds behind race winner Vettel.

Monza a 'missed opportunity' admits Webber

Massa said: "I was in front of him [Webber] and he tried to pass me on the outside [of turn two].

"There's nothing to say, he pushed me out and it was unfortunate because I lost all the possibilities for my race."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hopes to wrap up the title in Singapore.

"Our approach to Singapore will be exactly the same as every other grand prix so far this year. We'll go there to try and win it," he said.

"He [Vettel] came close there last year so it would be great to win that race and the championship will take care of itself."

Vettel added: "The ultimate goal this season was to defend our title, we are in a good position but we will see.

"I think we just do Singapore as we did all the other races this year. Go there and take it step-by-step and see what we can do.

"I love the circuit. It is a long circuit so I am looking forward and we will see what happens then."

2011 STANDINGS

Sebastian Vettel - 284 points

Fernando Alonso - 172

Jenson Button - 167

Mark Webber - 167

Lewis Hamilton - 158

Vettel Close to Another F1 Title

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel moved ever closer to his second consecutive world championship with a totally dominant victory at Monza, his eighth of the season.

Vettel had to play second fiddle initially to the fast-starting Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, and then trail him obediently behind the safety car after an out-of-control Tonio Liuzzi spun down the grass on the inside going into Turn One and triggered mayhem at the start which accounted for his HRT, Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and Vitaly Petrov’s Renault. Williams’ Rubens Barrichello, Force India’s Adrian Sutil and HRT’s Daniel Ricciardo lost valuable ground in the melee and, after the race, Liuzzi was handed a five-place grid penalty for the next event in Singapore.

When the racing resumed on Lap Four it quickly became clear that the Ferrari was not going to stay ahead, and Vettel calmly breezed round the outside of it in the Curva Grande on Lap Five, despite having two wheels in the dirt, and then simply headed off to an easy triumph.

Alonso was then momentarily reeled in by similarly fast-starting Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, who was containing Lewis Hamilton as McLaren team mate Jenson Button played a waiting game in their wake after dropping to seventh initially. Hamilton tried lap after lap to pass Schumacher, but was rebuffed.

He made it briefly at Curva Grande on Lap 13, only to be repassed immediately thanks to the Mercedes’ greater straight-line speed. Then on Lap 16 as Schumacher closed the door in Curva Grande, Hamilton had to put his right-hand wheels on the grass. As he lost momentum, Button was able to drag past with his KERS and then immediately took advantage of his DRS to squeeze by Schumacher going into Ascari.

As Button settled into a chase of Alonso that would yield fruit on the 36th lap at Curva Grande, Hamilton struggled in Schumacher’s wake until finally getting by going into Ascari on Lap 27.

Over the remaining laps Button held station behind runaway Vettel, trading fastest laps with him, as Hamilton closed to within half a second of Alonso on the final lap after claiming the fastest lap accolade a lap earlier. A small understeering mistake in Parabolica cost him his chance of the podium, however, and he had to settle for fourth.

Schumacher faded to fifth, ahead of the ever-unlucky Felipe Massa. Mark Webber lost his front wing in the first chicane against the car of the Brazilian, who was defending fifth place on the fifth lap. The Ferrari spun, and Webber crashed at Parabolica later that lap because his Red Bull had minimal frontal downforce as he headed to the pits. Thus delayed, Massa trailed in 10.3s adrift of Schumacher.

The final points went to Jaime Alguersuari who drove extremely well for Toro Rosso to seventh, while Senna failed by half a second to dislodge Paul di Resta from eighth as the Force India driver resisted his late charge. The Scot’s success moved the team ahead of Sauber, into sixth place in the constructors’ championship.

Alguersuari’s team mate Sebastien Buemi took the final point, ahead of the Williamses of Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello, the Lotuses of Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock’s Virgin and Daniel Ricciardo’s HRT which, like Jerome d’Ambrosio’s Virgin, had been left behind on the grid. The Belgian failed to finish, as did the Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez as they battled for midfield points, and Adrian Sutil’s Force India.

Such is Vettel’s lead that, were things to go his way, he could wrap up the title at the next round in Singapore. Currently he is 112 points clear with 284. Alonso moved to second place today with 172, with Button and Webber third on 167 and Hamilton fifth with 158. Red Bull have 451 points to McLaren’s 325 and Ferrari’s 254.

Vettel Poles Yet Again

Sebastian Vettel comfortably claimed his 10th pole position of the season after setting a blistering lap in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The reigning world champion, who holds a commanding points lead in the race for this year's title, posted a fastest lap of 1 minute 22.275 seconds in the top-10 shootout.

Lewis Hamilton was almost half-a-second adrift in second place, while his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button will start the race from third.

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso grabbed fourth place in front of the Italian tifosi, with Mark Webber completing the top five after setting a lap that was nearly seven tenths slower than team-mate Vettel.

Felipe Massa rounded out the third row ahead of Vitaly Petrov, while the Mercedes duo of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg and the Renault of Bruno Senna made it into the top 10.

Alonso set the benchmark at the start of the final part of qualifying after benefitting from a tow from team-mate Massa.

But Vettel then slotted into top spot with the McLarens close behind him before the reigning world champion spoiled what would have been an even faster lap by getting sideways through Ascari.

All the main contenders were virtually nose-to-tail on the final round of flying laps, with Vettel at the back of the queue.

Button was up after the first sector but ended up abandoning his lap and diving into the pits, while Hamilton made a mistake at the second chicane and failed to improve his time.

With no-one else able to match Vettel, the German had already been assured of pole position by the time he crossed the line, but that did not stop him going even faster to finish the session well ahead of the rest.

Earlier, in the first part of qualifying, Hamilton set the quickest time ahead of Vettel with Button in third as the signs looked promising for McLaren after a slightly disappointing final practice.

Pastor Maldonado lost his front wing after a spin on the exit of Parabolica but recovered to make it through to Q2, with Jaime Alguersuari dropping out alongside the Lotuses, Virgins and Hispanias.

The front-runners bolted on the softer tyres for Q2 and the lap times immediately began to tumble, with Vettel becoming the first driver of the weekend to dip below the 1:23 barrier.

The leading four teams occupied the first eight places, while behind them the Renaults of Petrov and Senna grabbed the last two places in the top-10 shootout.

Times

01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m22.275

02. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.725 + 0.450

03. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.777 + 0.502

04. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m22.841 + 0.566

05. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m22.972 + 0.697

06. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m23.188 + 0.913

07. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m23.530 + 1.255

08. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m23.777 + 1.502

09. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m24.477 + 2.202

10. Bruno Senna Renault No time

11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m24.163 + 1.249

12. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m24.209 + 1.295

13. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m24.648 + 1.734

14. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m24.726 + 1.812

15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.845 + 1.931

16. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m24.932 + 2.018

17. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.065 + 2.151

18. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.334 + 1.358

19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m26.647 + 2.671

20. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m27.184 + 3.208

21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m27.591 + 3.615

22. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m27.609 + 3.633

23. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1m28.054 + 4.078

24. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m28.231 + 4.255

Vettel and Webber Make Red Bull Day

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber turned the tables emphatically on McLaren and Ferrari to score a dominant Red Bull one-two in a gripping Grand Prix in Belgium on Sunday.

The race began with slow-starting Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso being hit at La Source by Bruno Senna’s Renault, who later received a drive-through penalty. Further back, Timo Glock hit Paul di Resta’s Force India, the Virgin driver also receiving the same penalty.

Up front, Vettel grabbed the lead, but he and Webber (whose anti-stall ruined his start for the second year in succession) and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso had taken a lot out of their Pirelli tyres in qualifying and knew their life was limited. There had been pre-race moves for the Italian company to supply teams with fresh front tyres, but the FIA would not allow that, nor for any team to make changes to their front camber angles without starting from the pit lane.

Nico Rosberg grabbed the lead for two laps before Vettel passed the Mercedes. Then Webber was the first to pit, on lap three, with Vettel coming in from the lead two laps later. That put Rosberg ahead again until Alonso led for two laps before pitting on lap eight. That put Lewis Hamilton into the lead after a slow start, but the McLaren was also in for fresh rubber by lap 10.

At this stage there was more overtaking up and down the field than you could shake a stick at, a fierce battle between the Ferraris and Hamilton particularly enlivening the fifth lap as they raced wheel-to-wheel and Hamilton followed Alonso’s lead in squeezing by Massa in a breathtakingly brave move on the run down to Pouhon. 

On the ninth lap Webber pulled a spectacular pass on a startled Alonso on the downhill run to Eau Rouge. And a lap later, Vettel went round the outside of Rosberg at Blanchimont. This was Grand Prix racing in the grand manner, without any influence from DRS.

The world champion was back in the lead by lap 10, but pitted when the safety car came out on 13. Hamilton had been pushing back up after his stop and had climbed to fifth, chasing Vettel, Rosberg, Webber and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi who had yet to make a pit stop. But the Sauber was still closer than Hamilton had expected at Les Combes and he moved over too much to take the line and caught his left rear wheel on Kobayashi’s right front.

The contact spun the McLaren anti-clockwise into a very heavy shunt with the barriers, ringing his bell and triggering the safety car intervention. Adrian Sutil, Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button, Daniel Ricciardo, Jarno Trulli and Jerome D’Ambrosio also pitted like Vettel, and by the time the race resumed the order on lap 18 was Vettel (who had passed Alonso going up Kemmel on lap 17), Alonso, Webber, Rosberg and Felipe Massa.

Behind them Sutil fended off Schumacher, who had piled up from his back-row start, Button, whose rear wing had been savaged by Di Resta in the opening lap melee, Vitaly Petrov and Sergio Perez.

Vettel steadily pulled away from the Ferrari, and now clearly owned the race. So it became a matter of whether the Ferrari could hang on in second. It couldn’t. Webber began to haul it in after a long stint on the medium Pirelli tyre, and after the final stops around the 30-lap mark the Australian slashed a four-second deficit and overtook the red car with DRS on the 37th lap going up the hill after Eau Rouge.

By this stage Button’s race had finally started to come alive, and a strong drive saw him picking people off until he was Alonso’s big threat over the final laps. He decimated a 6.8s gap to the Ferrari and dived past it at Les Combes on the 42nd lap. After Hamilton’s accident, that was a big boost for McLaren in a race they had expected to win.

In the end Schumacher took fifth for Mercedes after team mate Rosberg was instructed to ‘save fuel’, and Sutil got some respite when the challenging Petrov also had to go into conservation mode and was passed by Massa, who had to make a third pit stop after picking up a puncture. Petrov hung on for ninth ahead of Pastor Maldonado who took the final point - his first in F1 - for Williams ahead of Di Resta and Kobayashi.

Senna recovered from his drive-through to take a disappointed 13th, leading home the Lotuses of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen both of which lost ground when they were forced to a halt in the first-corner mayhem.

Barrichello was 16th after a late stop necessitated when he damaged his front wing on the back of Kobayashi while challenging him going into the chicane, as local boy D’Ambrosio brought his Virgin home ahead of team mate Glock.

Tonio Liuzzi was the final finisher, with everyone from Trulli downwards a lap behind. The HRT driver’s team mate Ricciardo retired, as did Perez after a drive-through for an incident with Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi and a series of pit stops. Besides Hamilton and Alguersuari, whose steering and front suspension were damaged when Senna hit him, Buemi also failed to make it home after running as high as sixth on the opening lap and being a points contender until damage to his rear wing sustained early on caused it to collapse after six laps.

In the drivers’ championship Vettel looks increasingly omnipresent with 259 points, ahead of Webber on 167, Alonso on 157, Button on 149 and Hamilton on 146. Massa remains sixth with 74, but Schumacher’s fifth hoists him clear of the ninth-place scrap with 42 points to Rosberg’s 56. In the constructors’, Red Bull had a very profitable day, garnering 43 points to bring their leading score to 426 ahead of McLaren on 295 and Ferrari on 231.

Hackers Post Distasteful Button Hoax

Hackers who posted a story on Jenson Button's official website claiming he had been seriously injured in a car crash carried out a "distasteful hoax", his spokesman has said.

The story appeared on Saturday night saying the F1 driver was in a "critical condition" in hospital following a "serious accident" in Hungary.

The website was taken down soon after the post emerged.

Button later said on Twitter that he was "completely fine".

The British driver tweeted on Sunday: "Morning everyone I'm sure you've realised by now but someone hacked into my website last night, I'm completely fine and on my way to #200 (his 200th Grand Prix)."

Button added: "The guy who did it obviously didn't have any better offers on a Saturday night so stayed home to do that instead #getsomefriends."

A spokesman for the McLaren driver said a hacker had breached the site's security and added: "The story is completely untrue and is a very distasteful hoax.

"The website was immediately taken down and its security will now be reviewed. Jenson was asleep in bed when we were made aware that someone had hacked into his site and made the untrue claims.

"We can assure people that he is completely fit and healthy and will be taking part in today's race."

The hacker had posted the story on www.jensonbutton.com and his representatives were made aware just after 23:30 BST on Saturday.

They later posted an explanation of what had happened, adding to Button's fans: "We can only apologise for any alarm this may have caused."

Button, 31, and his team are in Hungary for Sunday's Formula One Grand Prix, in which he will start third on the grid.

Sebastian Vettel Secures Hungary Pole

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images Europe

Just when it seemed that Lewis Hamilton had done enough to take pole position in Hungary after the first runs in Q3, lapping his McLaren in 1m 19.978s, Sebastian Vettel pushed his Red Bull to the front with seconds to spare with a lap of 1m 19.815s.

While it was a good session for both, it was a minor disaster for Fernando Alonso who had been third fastest going into the final runs. The Spaniard failed to better his earlier 1m 20.365s and dropped to fifth for Ferrari as McLaren’s Jenson Button improved to 1m 20.024s and his own team mate Felipe Massa to 1m 20.350s.

Mark Webber improved to 1m 20.474s for sixth in the Red Bull, with Nico Rosberg’s 1m 21.098s for Mercedes putting him on the fourth row with Adrian Sutil for company. The Force India driver lapped in 1m 21.445s. Michael Schumacher will start ninth in the second Mercedes on 1m 21.907s, while Sergio Perez, who didn’t run in Q3, will be 10th for Sauber.

Alonso set the pace in Q2, ahead of Button and Webber, as a late improvement for Schumacher bumped Paul di Resta whose 1m 22.256s didn’t match Force India team mate Adrian Sutil’s 1m 22.000s. Behind the Scot, Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld were 12th and 14th for Renault on 1m 22.284s and 1m 22.470s apiece, sandwiching Kamui Kobayashi on 1m 22.435s in his Sauber. It was a poor session for Williams; Rubens Barrichello posted 1m 22.684s with only intermittent use of KERS, and Pastor Maldonado had a technical problem which prevented him from leaving the garage. Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari was 16th, splitting them, with 1m 22.979s.

Alonso just pipped Hamilton and Vettel in Q1, as Sebastien Buemi was the first who did not make Q2 after lapping his Toro Rosso in 1m 24.070s. The Lotuses were close, as Heikki Kovalainen jumped ahead of team mate Jarno Trulli, with 1m 24.362s to 1m 24.534s.

Behind them things could barely have been closer, as Timo Glock just beat Tonio Liuzzi, Daniel Ricciardo and Jerome D’Ambrosio for 21st. The German lapped his Virgin in 1m 26.294s, the Italian his HRT in 1n 26.323s, the Australian his sister car in 1m 26.479s, and the Belgian his Virgin in 1m 26.510s.

They were actually fighting for 20th, however, as Buemi drops to 23rd because of the five grid place penalty he incurred for his collision with Heidfeld in Germany.

Alonso Seizes Ferrari Silverstone Win

Fernando Alonso produced Ferrari's first victory of the Formula One season at the British Grand Prix on Sunday after championship leader Sebastian Vettel's hopes were thwarted by a pit-stop blunder.

Vettel was overtaken in the Silverstone pits by Alonso just after the halfway point when the Red Bull driver's mechanics struggled to attach a wheel.

The problem in the pit stop with Sebastian and we were in the lead at that moment, but who knows what might have happened after that," Alonso said. "I knew it was a race to be calm, make no mistakes, to not be off the track, and with that I knew the car had enough for victory and it came."

A 27th career victory for Alonso lifted the two-time World Champion to third in the standings behind the Red Bull duo of Vettel and Mark Webber.

"Today it is 60 years since Ferrari won its first Grand Prix in Formula One," Alonso said. "And today we won on the same circuit with the same passion."

Vettel didn't linger on the pit-spot issue, saying that "Ferrari beat us fair and square."

"There were little mistakes here and there," said the German, who has won six of the opening nine races. "You can't get it right all the time, but credit to Ferrari — they have been getting stronger and improving their car, so it shows we need to keep pushing hard."

There was controversy on the final lap as Vettel increased his lead in the drivers' championship to 80 points over Webber, who had started from pole.

Webber had been ordered by the team to hold his third place and halt his pursuit of Vettel, who had jumped ahead of the Australian at the start when they started from the front row.

Webber said he was "not fine" with the situation, disclosing that he had ignored "probably four or five" orders not to pass his teammate.

"Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best," Webber said. "I wasn't going to crash with anyone. I try to do my best with the amount of one way conversation I was having — I was trying to do my best to pass the guy in front."

Red Bull's bosses, though, stressed that they were trying to secure the maximum points possible for the team, which has a 110-point lead over McLaren in the constructors' championship.

"I can understand Mark's frustrations but we cannot give away a load of points," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. "We did not want to see our drivers in the fence at some time in the last two laps, which is how it would have ended up.

Mark is not out of the championship race but we could not afford to risk losing points. Mark should be fine with that, he is a team player. Second and third is a very strong result."

"That was as close as it's going to get," Hamilton said. "I had a good start, made some places up but unfortunately towards end I had to save fuel. I had to give Webber his position.

Then on the last lap they said now you can push and I was like, 'Thanks, after I'd let him catch me up' but I was not giving him that position."

Hamilton is fourth in the championship, tied on 109 points with teammate Jenson Button, whose race ended on lap 40 after exiting the pits with an unsecured front-right wheel.

"The guy on the front right lost a wheel nut and he went to get another one but as he turned I think the lollipop man thought we were good to go," Button said. "It is very disappointing — in front of my home crowd, I was enjoying the race, my pace was good," Button said. "Hopefully we won't have this sort of issue again. Anyone who had pace near the end had a chance of a podium and I definitely had pace."