Nine drivers given five-second penalties
The FIA has handed five-second penalties to nine Formula 1 drivers for a safety car rules breach during the European Grand Prix.
Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Nico Hulkenberg, Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi, Pedro de la Rosa and Vitantonio Liuzzi have been penalised for "failing to stay above the minimum time set by the FIA ECU when the Safety Car was deployed."
The penalties mean Fernando Alonso is elevated from ninth to eighth, as he overtakes Buemi, and Nico Rosberg gets the final point from de la Rosa, 10th in the race.
The rest of the point-scoring positions remain unchanged.
The stewards also announced a 20-second penalty for Virgin's Timo Glock for ignoring blue flags.
Updated results and standings:
Classified:
Pos Driver Team
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
3. Button McLaren-Mercedes
4. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth
5. Kubica Renault
6. Sutil Force India-Mercedes
7. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari
8. Alonso Ferrari
9. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari
10. Rosberg Mercedes
11. Massa Ferrari
12. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari
13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari
14. Petrov Renault
15. Schumacher Mercedes
16. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes
17. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth
18. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth
20. Senna HRT-Cosworth
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth
By Pablo Elizalde
http://www.autosport.com
F1 The European GP - June 27th 2010
Vettel wins controversial European GP
Sebastian Vettel ended his victory drought with a comfortable win in the European Grand Prix in Valencia - while his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber was fortunate to emerge uninjured from a massive accident that saw him vault Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus.
Lewis Hamilton took second despite a drive-through penalty, with Jenson Button making it two McLarens on the podium. Ferrari's day was ruined by the safety car for Webber's crash, leaving Fernando Alonso only ninth and Felipe Massa 15th.
Rubens Barrichello gave Williams its best result of the year in fourth, but he and Button are among nine drivers who may yet be penalised for driving too fast during the safety car period.
Webber's bad day began when he lost out severely during an unruly opening lap, which saw wheel-banging and run-off visits throughout the field.
The Red Bull was immediately passed by Hamilton and then pounced on by the two Ferraris while out wide. His free-fall continued and by the end of lap one Webber had been elbowed all the way back to ninth.
Hamilton's run off the line was so good he was able to get partially alongside Vettel into Turn 1, where firm contact was made, sending the Red Bull slightly sideways and taking a chunk from the McLaren's front wing, though both continued ahead of Alonso, Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica, Button, the Williams and Webber.
Unable to get through the traffic on-track, Webber made an early pitstop at the end of lap seven, where he lost a few more seconds as his left front wheel proved stubborn.
That put him back out behind Kovalainen, and as he tried to pass the Lotus three laps later he went flying over the back of it on the fast approach to the Turn 17 hairpin.
The Red Bull wiped out an advertising board hanging over the track before landing upside down, rolling back onto its wheels and ploughing into the tyre barriers - though remarkably Webber climbed out unscathed.
With the safety car called, most drivers from fifth-placed Button back immediately dived into the pits, while the top four had to complete a further lap. Vettel was already past the pit exit by the time the safety car emerged, but Hamilton was right alongside it. After a moment's hesitation, he accelerated past - but having passed the relevant line across the track, that meant he would later be penalised for overtaking the safety car.
Vettel and Hamilton were therefore able to rejoin first and second, while the Ferraris were caught behind the safety car and fell to 10th and 17th - leaving the team furious.
Fortunately for Hamilton, Sauber decided not to pit Kamui Kobayashi under yellow and he jumped up to third. So while the top two charged clear at the restart - which saw Vettel hold the line despite outbraking himself and sliding luridly through the final corner - the Sauber bottled up the rest of the pack. By the time race control awarded Hamilton his penalty, he had enough of a gap over Kobayashi to take the drive-through without losing a place.
Hamilton started carving into Vettel's lead, reducing it from 14 to second seconds despite a slight delay behind the battling Timo Glock (Virgin) and Bruno Senna (Hispania), who collided shortly afterwards. But Vettel had pace in hand and was able to answer Hamilton with a new fastest lap five laps from home, putting his second victory of 2010 beyond doubt.
Kobayashi kept Button and the rest of the frontrunners at bay until finally pitting on lap 53, which handed McLaren its second podium spot, ahead of Barrichello, Renault's Robert Kubica and Force India's Adrian Sutil.
The frustrated Alonso spent the final laps all over Sebastien Buemi's Toro Rosso but ended up losing eighth to Kobayashi as the Sauber rejoined on its fresh tyres and dived past the Ferrari with a lap to go. Kobayashi then chased down Buemi too and grabbed seventh at the very last corner.
But these positions may yet be subject to change, with the stewards set to investigate whether Button, the Williams, the Renaults, the Force Indias, Buemi and Pedro de la Rosa exceeded the permitted speed on their way back to the pits under yellow.
For now at least, de la Rosa has his first point of the year, gaining 10th when Nico Hulkenberg's Williams retired late on.
Mercedes' weekend got even worse in the race, with Nico Rosberg losing ground on the first lap and finishing 12th, and Michael Schumacher wrong-footed during the safety car and ending up 16th after multiple pitstops.
By Matt Beer
http://www.autosport.com
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h40:29.571
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 5.042
3. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 7.658
4. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 20.627
5. Kubica Renault + 22.122
6. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 25.168
7. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 30.965
8. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 31.299
9. Alonso Ferrari + 32.809
10. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari + 42.414
11. Petrov Renault + 43.287
12. Rosberg Mercedes + 44.382
13. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 45.890
14. Massa Ferrari + 46.621
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 48.239
16. Schumacher Mercedes + 48.826
17. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 1 lap
18. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 4 laps
Fastest lap: Button, 1:38.766
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 50
Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 9
Webber Red Bull-Renault 9
F1 The Canadian Grand Prix - June 13th 2010
Hamilton heads McLaren 1-2 in Canada
McLaren took its second successive one-two finish as Lewis Hamilton led home Jenson Button in an action-packed Canadian Grand Prix in which high tyre wear played a pivotal role.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished third, but would rue a potential lost victory, as he had been passed by both McLarens at different moments when wrong-footed by others cars.
Red Bull had to settle for fourth and fifth - Sebastian Vettel nursing a car problem for much of the distance, and Mark Webber losing the lead when his strategy of leaving the super soft tyres until the final laps failed to pay off.
It was immediately clear that the softer tyres were going to be very fragile, for while Hamilton held the lead off the start, within a few laps Vettel - on the harder rubber - was all over the back of him. Alonso ran just behind them, with fourth-placed Button fending off an equally menacing Webber until the Red Bull dived past into Turn 8 on lap five, just before Button pitted.
Webber then swiftly caught the Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso train at the front, lining up a move on the Ferrari just as it came in for harder tyres on lap seven. Hamilton pitted from the lead at the same moment, falling behind Alonso in the stop and coming off second best as they charged down the exit road side by side.
That moved Red Bull into one-two formation, but it was clear that even the medium compound tyre was not faring too well, as Alonso, Hamilton and Button started catching the lead duo at up to one second per lap on their fresh rubber.
The Red Bulls came in on laps 12 and 13 and split their strategies - Vettel taking the super soft tyres for his next stint while Webber postponed that task and stuck with mediums.
Fellow medium runner Sebastien Buemi, who had advanced up the order as those ahead stopped, then found himself leading for Toro Rosso for a lap, with the battling Alonso and Hamilton on his tail.
On that lap, Alonso's failed attempt to pass Buemi down the outside into the hairpin gave Hamilton a chance to draft the Ferrari on the next straight - moving the McLaren from third to first in the space of a few yards as Buemi immediately pitted.
Alonso stayed with Hamilton though, and as their next set of tyres started to wilt, he became ever more threatening. The Ferrari was just lining up a move for the lead on lap 26 when Hamilton decided to stop again, diving straight in to get another set of hard tyres. Alonso, Vettel and Button followed suit in quick succession, while Webber stayed out, assumed the lead and trying to keep his medium tyres intact as long as possible to shorten his stint on the fragile super softs.
At first the plan worked well, Webber pulling out a 10s lead over Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Vettel as they ran in fairly close company in second to fifth positions.
But by lap 39 Webber's tyres were going off too, and heavy traffic made life even tougher for him. Before long Hamilton was right back on his tail, taking the lead on lap 49 and encouraging Webber to pit next time around to finally take on super softs, dropping him to fifth.
Vettel was unable to keep pace with the McLarens and Alonso, the team speaking over the radio of a 'problem being managed', so it became a three-way battle for the lead going into the closing stages as the track rubbered in at last and the tyres gained durability.
Button made it a McLaren one-two with 15 laps to go when Alonso was trapped behind Karun Chandhok's Hispania and lost momentum. The champion set off after Hamilton and started to chip away at the leader's advantage, though a new fastest lap by Hamilton nine laps from the end sent a clear message to his team-mate. The top three then spread out, with McLaren cruising to another one-two and Alonso at least getting back on the podium after two tough races.
Nico Rosberg recovered from being pushed back into the midfield during a messy first lap to take sixth for Mercedes, ahead of Renault's Robert Kubica, who had a wheel-banging battle with Michael Schumacher in the early stages that saw both take to the grass.
Schumacher's tyre troubles were worse than most - the Mercedes pitting three times and still lapping 4s off the pace in the final stint. Buemi passed him for seventh, and he was then caught by Felipe Massa. The Brazilian and Tonio Liuzzi managed to tangle twice during the first two corners of the race, damaging both cars. After pitting for repairs, they charged back towards the points, only for Massa to lose his front wing when Schumacher sternly defended his position with six laps to go.
Liuzzi then took up the challenge of trying to overtake Schumacher, who slid over the final chicane and banged wheels with the Italian more than once as he fought mightily to at least hang on to ninth. He could not though, with a bruising last lap seeing the seven-time champion tumble to 11th behind both Liuzzi and his Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil.
Other drivers hitting trouble on the first lap were both Saubers and Vitaly Petrov. The Renault took to the grass on the run towards the first corner and ended up spinning into Pedro de la Rosa, damaging both cars, with Petrov also receiving a jump-start penalty. The second Sauber was soon heading for the pits too - Kamui Kobayashi sliding into the wall at the final chicane as he jousted with Nico Hulkenberg's Williams.
By Matt Beer
http://www.autosport.com
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1h33:53.456
2. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 2.254
3. Alonso Ferrari + 9.214
4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 37.817
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 39.291
6. Rosberg Mercedes + 56.084
7. Kubica Renault + 57.300
8. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
9. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
11. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap
12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
14. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
15. Massa Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps
17. Petrov Renault + 2 laps
18. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
19. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 5 laps
Fastest lap: Kubica, 1:16.972
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 50
Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 43
De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 31
Senna HRT-Cosworth 14
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2
Rally de Portugal - 28 - 30/5/10
Ogier seals maiden WRC victory
By Steven English
Sebastien OgierSebastien Ogier clinched his maiden World Rally Championship victory in Portugal on Sunday.
The Frenchman secured the win by keeping fellow Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb at bay during the day's earlier stages and sealed the achievement on the final two-kilometre superspecial asphalt stage in the Algarve stadium.
Ogier went head-to-head with Loeb for the finale in the stadium and beat the reigning world champion by 0.2s, giving him an overall winning margin of just 7.9s.
"It's just perfect," said Ogier. "It was an amazing weekend, I pushed from the first day until now - all weekend it was a big battle and very hard to keep Seb [Loeb] behind me.
"To win my first rally like this, after a big battle with Seb, is just perfect. In New Zealand I lost it but I said that when I did win, it would be even more happy - and I am very happy today."
Loeb conceded that he was simply unable to beat Ogier over the weekend and congratulated his countryman on his maiden win.
"He has done very, very well here - he was unbeatable," said Loeb. "I lost too much time on the first day. Then we couldn't make up the gap in the two next days.
"He was very, very fast. He is a real contender now. He showed that he was a lot faster than anyone else in Portugal. For me, second place is not so bad for the championship. It was important to score points."
The final stage was won by Federico Villagra, setting a time 0.7s quicker than second-placed Matt Wilson, with Kimi Raikkonen third. Ogier and Loeb were two seconds slower than Villagra in sixth and seventh.
Dani Sordo cemented his third place, well over a minute behind the two leading Citroens, while Mikko Hirvonen nicked fourth place thanks to Petter Solberg crashing in the superspecial.
The Norwegian was exiting a left-hander when he got out of shape and ended up with two wheels on top of the water-filled bollards. He escaped a big accident but had to stop and restart, and dropped 14 seconds to Hirvonen - losing out overall by just 3.7s.
Despite finishing in third place on the final stage, Raikkonen was disappointed to end the event in 10th place after suffering tyre problems and falling two places on the final day.
"This afternoon there was one right-hander with something on the inside and I went on two wheels, broke the front right tyre and I lost two places," said Raikkonen. "That's life, but at least I finished and learned the rally."
By Steven English
http://www.autosport.com
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Ogier Citroen 3h51.16.1s
2. Sebastien Loeb Citroen +7.9s
3. Dani Sordo Citroen +1m17.6s
4. Mikko Hirvonen Ford +1m32.0s
5. Petter Solberg Citroen +1m35.7s
6. Matthew Wilson Ford +7m10.1s
7. Mads Ostberg Subaru +7m28.3s
8. Federico Villagra Ford +10m36.1s
9. Khalid Al Qassimi Ford +10m55.8s
10. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen +11m34.3s
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