F1 The German GP - July 25th 2010

Alonso leads Ferrari 1-2 in Germany

Fernando Alonso led Felipe Massa in a Ferrari one-two at Hockenheim as the Italian team revitalised its season - but the win came amid controversy as Massa backed off to allow Alonso to pass him.

Poleman Sebastian Vettel was only third for Red Bull on home ground, ahead of the McLarens and Mark Webber.

Massa had gained the lead at the first corner, after both Ferraris made better starts than Vettel. The German focused on squeezing Alonso towards the pit wall, allowing Massa to sweep around the outside of both, with Vettel pushed back to third.

The trio ran in close company at first, before the Ferraris started dropping Vettel following the pitstops.

Alonso immediately seemed quicker on the harder tyres, closing right onto Massa's tail and drawing alongside on the backstraight as they lapped Bruno Senna and Timo Glock on lap 20.

But then Massa lifted his pace and started pulling away, setting several new fastest laps and opening up a 3.4-second lead.

It did not last though, as Alonso responded with some fastest laps of his own, getting the gap back down to under a second. On lap 47, Massa's engineer Rob Smedley told his driver that "Fernando is faster than you" and asked him to confirm he 'understood'. Next time around, Massa lifted off after the hairpin and Alonso accelerated past on the straight to take the race lead, denying Massa victory on the first anniversary of the horrific Hungaroring crash that ended his 2009 season.

Vettel occasionally trimmed the Ferraris' advantage, and a late push got him onto Massa's tail, but he was unable to pass.

The McLarens were never fast enough to fight for the podium and finished fourth and fifth, enough to keep them in the points lead. Lewis Hamilton managed to pass Webber on the first lap, with Button doing likewise by running through to lap 21 before his tyre stop. Webber then had to drop back from the McLarens to nurse his engine amid worryingly high oil consumption.

A lap down, Robert Kubica (Renault) beat the two Mercedes to seventh, with Nico Rosberg getting ahead of Michael Schumacher during the pit sequence after a good start from the elder German had earlier swapped their positions.

Renault got both cars in the points as Vitaly Petrov took 10th, while both Williams lost ground on the first lap and could not recover into the points, despite Nico Hulkenberg waiting until lap 34 before pitting.

Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa also tried a bold strategy, running the first 51 laps on one set of hard tyres before changing to softs, but his plan for a late charge was stymied when he hit Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus, breaking his front wing and taking the Finn out of the 'new teams' class' lead, as he had been just ahead of Timo Glock's Virgin up to then.

Other teams in trouble were Toro Rosso and Force India, who both saw both their cars damaged in first-lap incidents - in Toro Rosso's case after Jaime Alguersuari crashed into the back of Sebastien Buemi at the hairpin.


Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Alonso Ferrari 1h28:38.866
2. Massa Ferrari + 4.196
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 5.121
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 26.896
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 29.482
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 43.606
7. Kubica Renault + 1 lap
8. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
9. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap
10. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
11. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
14. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 2 laps
17. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 2 laps
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
19. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:15.824



By Matt Beer
http://www.autosport.com

F1 The British GP - July 11th 2010

Webber takes commanding Britain win

Mark Webber responded to the Red Bull front wing controversy in the best way imaginable by taking a commanding British Grand Prix victory ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button.

Polesitter Sebastian Vettel's chances of victory were ruined by a first-lap puncture, although he recovered to seventh, and there was further controversy over stewarding decisions after a contentious penalty for Fernando Alonso left the Ferrari outside the points.

Webber made a much better start than his team-mate and reached Copse first, despite Vettel's best efforts to squeeze him. Vettel then lurched off the road at Becketts with a right rear puncture, potentially the result of a slight touch from Hamilton's McLaren at the first corner.

Felipe Massa was also trundling back to the pits with flailing rubber - he had been side by side with his slow-starting Ferrari team-mate Alonso through the first corner and wheel banging at Becketts left the Brazilian with a puncture as well.

Webber therefore led from Hamilton, with this pair rapidly dropping quick-starter Robert Kubica (Renault) in third, who had Rosberg's Mercedes and Alonso all over the back of him.

Pitting slightly earlier than Kubica did not work for Alonso, whereas running a little longer did the trick for Rosberg. Eager not to lose more time, Alonso went down the outside of Kubica into Vale on lap 17, and completed the pass by nipping over the kerbs and cutting the first apex of Club.

He then sprinted away after Rosberg, while Kubica was assured that Alonso would be ordered to let him back through. That became a moot point three laps later though, when Kubica retired with a differential problem.

The stewards therefore ruled that Alonso should take a drive-through penalty, a decision announced just before the safety car came out so that debris could be cleared following contact between Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber) that left chunks of the latter's rear wing deposited on various straights. With Alonso having to take his penalty immediately after the restart, he tumbled straight to the midfield.

The safety car was a lifeline for Vettel, who had made little progress up to that point, but then started carving through the traffic with a string of spectacular passes, including one on Michael Schumacher. Sutil - who had also put a bold move on Schumacher after the restart - proved Vettel's toughest rival, and it took many laps of tough battling before the Red Bull driver finally muscled through to take seventh on the penultimate lap.

Far away from this excitement, Webber delivered a masterclass at the front of the field. Hamilton managed to tag along until the pitstops, but thereafter Webber was unstoppable, reeling off fastest laps whenever required and leading by 6s before easing off at the end.

Rosberg returned Mercedes to the podium with a strong run to third, despite losing a barge board when sweeping round the outside of the yet-to-stop Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso mid-race. The German finished just ahead of Button, who surged through from 14th to fourth thanks to a great first lap and staying out much longer than most before his tyre change.

Rubens Barrichello gave Williams its second straight top five finish, with Kamui Kobayashi following him home for Sauber's best result of the year.

By the time Vettel was clear of Sutil that pack was too far ahead to reach, so he had to settle for seventh, followed by countrymen Sutil, Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg.

Alonso's race got even worse when he sustained a puncture in a brush with Tonio Liuzzi's Force India, leaving him 14th, one place ahead of Massa, who needed a further set of new tyres after spinning on the exit of Luffield late on.

RACE RESULTS

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1h24:38.200
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1.360
3. Rosberg Mercedes + 21.307
4. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 21.986
5. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 31.456
6. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 32.171
7. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 36.734
8. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 40.932
9. Schumacher Mercedes + 41.599
10. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 42.012
11. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 42.459
12. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 47.627
13. Petrov Renault + 59.374
14. Alonso Ferrari + 1:02.385
15. Massa Ferrari + 1:07.489
16. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
17. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 1 lap
19. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:30.874


By Matt Beer
http://www.autosport.com

Rally Bulgaria 9 - 11/7/10

Loeb leads Citroen rout in Bulgaria

Sebastien Loeb and Citroen clinched an utterly dominant victory in the World Rally Championship's first visit to Bulgaria, with the champion leading a top four sweep for his manufacturer.

Bulgaria was the first asphalt round of this year's WRC - but with three of the remaining six rounds on sealed surfaces, the result is ominous for Ford, which could only manage fifth and sixth as Dani Sordo, Petter Solberg and Sebastien Ogier filled second through fourth places in their works, Solberg and Junior Citroens respectively.

No one looked capable of stopping Loeb from the moment the rally began. He blitzed his rivals on Friday's stages, building a half-minute cushion that he could nurse through the rest of the event, driving conservatively this morning to ensure his fourth win of the season.

"It's been perfect - a very good first day, then the second day had difficult conditions, it was important to just keep the rhythm and not make any mistakes, not take any risks," Loeb said.

Sordo fended off Solberg for second after a tough rally-long battle. At half-distance the Spaniard seemed to have wrapped up the position, but a Saturday afternoon surge from Solberg meant they were just five seconds apart this morning. Solberg trimmed more time from his rival on today's first stage, before Sordo responded with a run of stage wins that allowed him to claim second by 6.8s.

Ogier was in the fight with Sordo until a misheard pace note saw him spent a minute off-course on Friday afternoon and fall from second to seventh. He was soon back up to fourth, but with the top three out of reach by then, he too cruised to the finish.

Ford had lost touch with Citroen even before an incorrect tyre choice saw Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala struggling on inappropriate hard tyres on Saturday morning's damp stages, costing them huge amounts of time. Latvala was slowed further by power steering issues and finished a minute adrift of his team-mate in sixth.

It looked initially like Ford might not even get in the top five, as Kimi Raikkonen delivered his best WRC performance yet to run fifth for Citroen Junior on Friday. But the Finn's great run ended with a crash on the final leg one stage, although he returned under superally to finish 11th - a final-stage off meaning he could not catch 10th-placed Henning Solberg, who was delighted with his first taste of the new S2000 Ford.

Solberg's move to S2000 gave P-G Andersson a chance at Stobart Ford, and he delivered a solid seventh on his return to WRC machinery, ahead of Hungarian driver Frigyes Turan, who had a good rally in an ageing Peugeot 307, and Andersson's struggling Stobart team-mate Matthew Wilson.

Thierry Neuville followed up his Ypres Rally podium with a dominant maiden Junior class win. He had battled with Mathieu Arzeno until the Frenchman was delayed by first a puncture, then a crash.

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h02m39.2s
2. Dani Sordo Citroen + 29.5s
3. Petter Solberg Citroen + 36.3s
4. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 1m55.0s
5. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 3m17.8s
6. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 4m28.5s
7. P-G Andersson Ford + 5m25.2s
8. Frigyes Turan Peugeot + 7m04.0s
9. Matthew Wilson Ford + 9m28.6s
10. Henning Solberg Ford + 13m06.0s

By Matt Beer
http://www.autosport.com