Drivers Champoinship points

Rookie Hamilton claims first F1 win

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton [Images] took his first Formula One victory on Sunday, keeping his cool in a chaotic Canadian Grand Prix [Images] to take the outright lead in the championship.

Starting in pole position, in just his sixth race, the 22-year-old Hamilton became the first black driver to win in the sport and the first rookie since Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya [Images] for Williams in 2001.

German Nick Heidfeld was second for BMW Sauber with Alex Wurz of Williams taking third place at the circuit where he made his debut a decade ago.

Hamilton now leads the championship with 48 points, eight clear of team mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso [Images] who finished seventh.

Hamilton had finished on the podium in all five of his opening races before Sunday's race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

In an incident packed race, Ferrari's [Images] title contender Felipe Massa [Images] and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella were disqualified while BMW's Polish driver Robert Kubica was taken to hospital after a horrific crash.

The safety car was deployed four times.

Hamilton showed great composure, while those around him were scraping into walls and pirouetting around corners, to confirm his status as a future champion.

Hamilton gained the upper hand over Alonso at the first turn when the Spaniard ran wide, sped over the grass and found himself stuck behind Heidfeld in third place.

By lap five Hamilton was 3.2 seconds clear of Heidfeld with Alonso trailing a further 1.2 seconds behind in third.

Alonso later received a 10 second penalty for entering the pit after the safety car had come out, effectively ending his chances.

Alonso's dismal day was completed when he was overtaken by Japanese driver Takuma Sato's Super Aguri with two laps remaining.

Kubica was flown by helicopter to hospital after his BMW hit a Toyota on the approach to the hairpin on lap 27 and took off, flying through the air and slamming into a concrete wall at high speed before barrel-rolling across the track.

Television reports said the Pole had broken a leg.

Alonso leads McLaren one-two in Monaco

Double world champion Fernando Alonso won the Monaco Grand Prix for the second year in a row on Sunday, with team mate Lewis Hamilton completing a McLaren one-two.

The Spaniard's second victory of the season, and 17th of his career, took him back to the top of the Formula One championship on race wins but level on 38 points with 22-year-old rookie Hamilton.

Hamilton, the youngest driver to lead the championship, continued his stellar start to the season with his fifth successive podium finish.

The Briton, runner-up for four races in a row, crossed the line four seconds behind the winner.

Brazilian Felipe Massa was third for Ferrari, 69.1 seconds adrift of Alonso, to take his tally to 33 points. Renault's Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was fourth for the champions' best result so far this year.

In an uneventful race through the metal-fenced streets, the top four followed their grid positions with Alonso again starting on pole after winning with Renault last season and lapping all but his team mate and Massa.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen finished eighth after a costly error in qualifying forced him to start 16th at a circuit where overtaking is rare. The Finn remained fourth overall but a hefty 15 points adrift of the McLaren drivers.

Original report here

Massa wins Turkish Grand Prix

Brazilian Felipe Massa roared to his first Formula One victory in Turkey on Sunday as Ferrari team mate Michael Schumacher failed to find a way past championship leader Fernando Alonso.

While the young Brazilian raced to the chequered flag from pole position, Renault's world champion Alonso and Schumacher were locked in a thrilling no-holds-barred battle for second place.

The two title contenders were nose to tail over the closing laps, with seven times champion Schumacher doing his best to force a way past and the 25-year-old Spaniard repelling every effort.

Second place stretched Alonso's overall lead to 12 points with four races remaining.

However Ferrari slashed Renault's lead in the constructors' championship to a mere two points. Renault now have 160 and Ferrari 158.

"Thank you boys, thank you," shouted Massa, punching the air in delight at a result that he could barely have expected when he and undisputed team number one Schumacher had lined up together on the front row.

Briton Jenson Button, a first-time winner like Massa at the previous race in Hungary, finished fourth for Honda with McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa fifth.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth for Renault with Toyota's Ralf Schumacher, Michael's younger brother, seventh and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello eighth for Honda.

Schumacher's hopes of a 90th career win were effectively scuppered by the intervention of the safety car on lap 14 with Massa leading and the German in second place and Alonso further back in third.

Massa, Schumacher and Alonso all pitted together and the German had to wait in the queue while Massa was attended to first, allowing Renault to get Alonso out ahead of the German. A first lap collision put paid to the hopes of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, winner from pole position of last year's inaugural race at the Istanbul Park circuit.

The Finn, who could be announced as a Ferrari driver at the next race in Italy, was caught up in a six car shunt at turn one after Fisichella spun and was left facing the oncoming cars.

Raikkonen, hit by Toro Rosso's Scott Speed, crawled back to the pits with a shredded left rear tyre. But there was clearly a problem with the car when he returned to the track and he ploughed into the tyre wall.

Original Report here

Alonso penalty adds to team woes

Original report here: www.bbc.co.uk

Renault's Fernando Alonso will struggle to make the top 10 on the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix after picking up a two-second qualifying penalty.

Alonso was punished for a deliberate brake test and for overtaking under a flag in Friday's second practice.

It is another blow for Renault who are not enjoying the best of weeks.

The French team, so dominant earlier in the season, had already scrapped their plan to use a "mass damper" considered crucial to their cars' performance.

The new design was banned by the FIA before last week's race in Germany only for the race stewards to pass it as legal.

Renault had intended to use the "mass damper" - a counterweight mounted on springs within the nose of the car - in Hungary but were forced to change their minds when it became clear that the FIA still considers the stability-aid to be illegal.

World champion Alonso, who has seen his championship lead shrink from 25 points to 11 in just three races, struggled last Sunday without the system.

By contrast, rival Michael Schumacher won his third straight grand prix and with six races to go is back in contention for an eighth world title.

The Ferraris have shown well in practice in Hungary and Schumacher could slash the lead still further if Alonso is stuck down the grid on a track where it is hard to overtake.

Alonso was docked one second for overtaking when yellow flags were waved to indicate a hazard towards the end of Friday's practice.

And he was penalised a further second after an incident with Red Bull test driver Robert Doornbos.

Alonso gesticulated angrily at the Dutchman after being held up on the start-finish straight. He weaved ahead and then slowed dramatically at the apex of the corner, forcing Doornbos to take avoiding action, a move the stewards interpreted as a brake test.

Alonso claimed he was just reminding Doornbos to use his mirrors but the stewards said his actions were "unnecessary, unacceptable and dangerous".

Earlier, a Renault spokesman said the team had "reconsidered" its decision to use the "mass damper" following a communication from the FIA explaining why it thought it was illegal.

The spokesman added that the team hoped they would not be as far off the pace in Hungary as they were in Germany.

"That was more down to tyre wear at Hockenheim," the spokesman said.

Renault learned before the German race that they would not be allowed to use the system, which they pioneered last season and which has subsequently been adopted by six other teams.

The FIA said it considered the system to be illegal because it helped the cars' aerodynamics.

But the FIA's race stewards in Germany then passed the system as legal - only for FIA bosses to say they intended to lodge an appeal against that decision.

As that appeal will not take place until after this weekend's race, Renault felt they could not risk running the system in Germany as they could have subsequently lost any points they scored if the FIA won its appeal.

But the FIA indicated after the German race that it would not seek to retrospectively punish any team using a "mass damper" if its appeal was successful.

That initially seemed to convince Renault to use the system in Hungary but a subsequent letter from FIA race director Charlie Whiting changed their minds.

Renault were hurt by the ban more than other teams because their entire car was designed around the system, whereas others had simply added it on at a later date.

nd the blow is even worse because F1 is in the middle of a ban on testing, which means the team cannot try out ways of improving the car other than at races, where track time is limited.

Engineering boss Pat Symonds admitted the team's performance was harmed by not running the "mass damper".

He said after the German race that "it goes without saying that removing it degraded our performance, otherwise the component would not have been on the car throughout the season.

"After using the device for the first time in the final races of 2005, the design and development of this year's car was optimised with it in place.

"The ride and the behaviour over kerbs of the R26 at the last race was certainly not as good as we have been accustomed to this year. But there were other factors at work as well."

Renault also struggled with tyre blistering, which was almost certainly worsened by not using the "mass damper", but they are hopeful that a new tyre for Hungary will solve that problem.

The team will also continue with a new aerodynamic package that was introduced in Germany, where its effectiveness was limited by the team's other problems.

Renault are facing a tough task holding on to their lead as Ferrari's tyre supplier Bridgestone has appeared to have an advantage over Michelin in the last three races.

Schumacher wins in Germany

Source: www.rediff.com
July 30, 2006 19:51 IST

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher blasted the Formula One title race wide open on Sunday with a commanding one-two victory in his home German Grand Prix.

While the 37-year-old celebrated the 89th victory of his incredible career, serenaded by air-horns and his jubilant army of red-shirted fans, Renault's world champion Fernando Alonso limped home fifth.

The Spaniard's overall lead was slashed from 17 points to 11, leaving his championship hopes on a knife-edge with six races remaining.

Schumacher, in what some fear could be his final race appearance in Germany, took the lead after 10 laps when McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen pitted and the rest was straightforward.

On a blazingly hot afternoon in southern Germany, Schumacher and Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa were in a race of their own as they anchored the team's second one-two finish in three starts and tyre partner Bridgestone's 100th grand prix success.

They crossed the line in close formation, just 0.7 seconds apart. Raikkonen, who had started on pole, was out of sight in third place and 13.2 seconds behind.

Briton Jenson Button was fourth for Honda, ending a run of five races without points.

Alonso, who had qualified a disappointing seventh on his 25th birthday, made up two places at the start but then faded and was never in contention for the second race in a row.

The Spaniard, who now has 100 points, would have been staring at his worst result in almost a year had Australian Mark Webber, wrestling every scrap of performance from his Williams, not retired eight laps from the finish while running ahead of him.

Alonso also survived a big scare five laps from the end when he went wide, the car bucking and jumping over the gravel before he regained the track just in front of Italian team mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Fisichella finished sixth, with Toyota's Italian Jarno Trulli seventh and Austrian Christian Klien taking the final point for Red Bull.

Germany's Nico Rosberg failed to get past the first lap, crashing into the tyre wall, while Canadian Jacques Villeneuve also had a crash in the BMW Sauber.

France boosts Schumacher's title hopes

Source: www.rediff.com

Even if the odds are still against him, Michael Schumacher believes he can turn his record eighth French Grand Prix win into an eighth Formula One championship.

The Ferrari driver's dominant victory at Magny-Cours on Sunday -- with the pole position and fastest race lap on his way to a 150th career podium finish -- only fuelled that confidence.

"We have clearly made up ground and we have to keep on working at that pace and for sure everybody will just keep pushing for the last seven races," said the first driver to win the same Grand Prix eight times.

"It's far from being over."

Yet the 37-year-old German also knows that his young Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa, who started on the front row on Sunday for the second weekend in succession, can make or break those dreams.

While Massa's third place helped Ferrari's constructors' championship hopes, Schumacher needs him to do more -- to drive a wedge between him and his Renault rival.

Unless Alonso makes a major error, about as likely as a Honda victory this season, the balance of power remains with the 24-year-old Spaniard who has a comfortable lead of 17 points.

With seven races remaining, Alonso needs to�finish only second in every race to retain the title even if Schumacher wins one after the other.

It has been more than a year since the Renault driver retired from a race and nearly that long since he last failed to score points.

In 11 races, Alonso has won six and finished second four times. He fully expects to be winning again soon, possibly in Schumacher's Hockenheim home race next week.

CRUSHING RESPONSE

France was Schumacher's second win in a row, and 88th of his career. The last time he had back-to-back victories, at Imola and the Nuerburgring in April and May, Alonso's response was instant and crushing.

The Spaniard made a pointed reference to that on Sunday.

"I think Indianapolis was a strange race...from the tyres and the difficulties we had last year," he said, casting his mind back to the race before Magny-Cours.

"Maybe we were too conservative or whatever. I think here we were close but not quick enough.

"It's the same as Nuerburgring and Imola but at that point Ferrari seemed to have more development than anybody else and everybody thought that they would win all the races," he added.

"And then we won four consecutive races and hopefully this will happen again from the next race on."

A victory in Hockenheim would be sweet revenge for Ferrari's win in Renault's backyard.

The hope is that Germany also throws up a more entertaining battle than Sunday's largely processional offering at Magny-Cours.

Anyone who watched Sunday's MotoGP at the Sachsenring, with Valentino Rossi leading a thrilling four-way battle to the finish, would welcome that.