F1 The Singapore Grand Prix - September 26th 2010

Alonso holds off Vettel for vital win

Fernando Alonso has continued Ferrari's late charge for the 2010 world championship with a lights-to-flag victory in the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Spaniard saw off a late challenge from Sebastian Vettel to take the win, with Mark Webber completing the podium in the other Red Bull.

As well as keeping Alonso squarely in the title hunt, the race dealt another blow to the hopes of Lewis Hamilton, who failed to finish for the second race in a row. Team-mate Jenson Button salvaged something for McLaren by finishing fourth.

Alonso's win proved to the relatively straightforward, as although Vettel was never far behind him, nor was he ever really close enough to mount a serious challenge. The pair held their positions after pitting on the same lap, and the it was only on the final lap that Vettel managed to get close enough to think about having a look.

But Alonso managed to keep him at bay; the Spaniard's cause being helped by yellows at the final corners courtesy of Heikki Kovalainen, whose Lotus had burst into flames on the main straight a lap earlier.

Webber's third place owed much to a tyre gamble when the safety car came out on lap three to remove Tonio Liuzzi's stricken Force India from the circuit. The Red Bull pitwall decided to roll the dice and bring Webber in from fifth to change to the harder tyre - the Australian being the only one of the frontrunners to do so.

He returned to the track in 11th and over the laps that followed regained enough ground that he was able to leapfrog the two McLarens in the pits. Hamilton later had a chance to get the place back on a restart when Webber became bogged down behind a lapped Virgin, but the pair made contact that resulted in the Briton's car being sufficiently damaged to put him out of the race. Webber, miraculously, was able to continue unharmed.

Despite being urged to push in the closing laps, Button was unable to get within range of Webber and settled for fourth ahead of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg,

Williams got both of its cars into the points with Rubens Barrichello sixth and Nico Hulkenberg ninth, the pair being split by Renault's Robert Kubica (who spent the final laps making an entertaining recovery from a puncture) and Force India's Adrian Sutil.

Felipe Massa claimed the final point for Ferrari in tenth, the Brazilian having pitted on lap two after starting from the rear of the grid following his problems in qualifying.

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Alonso Ferrari 1h57:53.579
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 0.293
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 29.141
4. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 30.384
5. Rosberg Mercedes + 49.394
6. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 56.101
7. Kubica Renault + 1:26.559
8. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:52.416
9. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1:52.791
10. Massa Ferrari + 1:53.297
11. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
13. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap
14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
16. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 3 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:47.976

By Mark Glendenning
http://www.autosport.com

F1 The Italian Grand Prix - September 12th 2010

Alonso wins for Ferrari at Monza

Fernando Alonso revitalised his title challenge by claiming a highly popular victory for Ferrari in its home race at Monza, ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button and Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.

The result was even better for Alonso as erstwhile championship leader Lewis Hamilton damaged his McLaren on the first lap and retired, and while Red Bull's Mark Webber inched into the points lead, he could only finish sixth. His team-mate and fellow title contender Sebastian Vettel was fourth.

Button had made the better start, shrugging off both Alonso's attempts to squeeze him off the line, and then a tap from the Ferrari at the Rettifilio - which did minor damage to both cars - to hold the lead.

As Alonso jinked around behind the McLaren, both Massa and Hamilton tried to take advantage. Hamilton took a speculative look down the inside of Massa into the Roggia chicane, but was only partially alongside the Ferrari, and as Massa turned in on the racing line, contact was made that broke Hamilton's steering, sending him ploughing into the Lesmo gravel and out.

The only consolation for Hamilton was that his main championship rival Webber had been shoved back to ninth on the first lap, two places behind Red Bull team-mate Vettel, as fast-starters Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Robert Kubica (Renault) and Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) filled the top six.

The top three easily pulled away from Rosberg, with Alonso clinging to Button's tail and taking the odd look at passing. Both took turns setting fastest laps as they tried to make a break, with the gap never getting larger than 1.5 seconds, and generally much smaller, while Massa lurking just a few seconds behind.

The stalemate lasted nearly two thirds of the race, as Monza's kindness to tyres meant pitstops did not start in earnest until the closing stages.

Button was first to change tyres, coming in at the end of lap 35. Alonso stayed out just one lap longer, but it was enough to overcome Button's advantage, rejoining right alongside the McLaren, clinging to the inside through the Rettifilio to hold the lead, and then immediately setting a new fastest lap to escape from Button.

As Alonso disappeared to take this third win of the year - and the first that was not aided by either attrition ahead or controversial team tactics - Button easily held off Massa for second.

Vettel finally emerged a surprise fourth. In the early stages it looked like he was set to retire, as he reported engine problems over the radio and lapped 2s off the pace for a while, allowing Webber past as he did so. But some system tweaks appeared to solve the problem, and by virtue of staying out until the penultimate lap before finally pitting, Vettel beat Rosberg to fourth.

Webber had to fight hard to take sixth, scrapping past Hulkenberg with three laps to go, having been enraged by the Williams cutting chicanes and defending firmly to stay ahead. Kubica lost out to the Williams in the pits, then to Webber as Hulkenberg came out right in front of him and cost him momentum, pushing him back to eighth.

Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) and Rubens Barrichello (Williams) completed the top 10. Last year's winner Barrichello had lost ground on the first lap and only gained the final point when Renault's Vitaly Petrov - on a similar strategy to Vettel - finally pitted on lap 51.

Tonio Liuzzi recovered from his disastrous qualifying to chase Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) and Barrichello home in 12th. But Liuzzi's Force India Adrian Sutil could only finish 16th following a first lap incident.

Virgin's Timo Glock narrowly beat Heikki Kovalainen to new team honours in 17th, as the latter's Lotus team-mate Jarno Trulli retired in a cloud of smoke late on, having led the 'class' most of the way.

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Alonso Ferrari 1h16:24.572
2. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 2.938
3. Massa Ferrari + 4.223
4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 28.193
5. Rosberg Mercedes + 29.942
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 31.276
7. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 32.812
8. Kubica Renault + 34.028
9. Schumacher Mercedes + 44.948
10. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:04.213
11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:05.056
12. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 1:06.106
13. Petrov Renault + 1:18.919
14. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
17. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps



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

Rally Japan 10 - 12/09/10

Ogier clinches victory in Japan

Sebastien Ogier clinched his second World Rally Championship victory and his first in the works Citroen team by overcoming Petter Solberg in Japan.

Citroen privateer Solberg had led the majority of the event and looked set to take a stunning win, the first for an independent entry for at least 16 years, until a broken damper cost him ground on the final loop of stages this afternoon.

He held on to second, but could not prevent Ogier pulling out a 15.7-second lead and claiming the victory, despite the Frenchman having never contested this event before.

"It's amazing, I'm really, really happy," said Ogier. "Arriving here I said 'okay, it will be a difficult rally for me - I don't like this kind of stage, it's very rough and it's my first time.' But immediately we found a good feeling and a good rhythm, and now we have won, so it's perfect."

Solberg's participation in the rally had initially been in doubt due to illness, but once the full-length stages began on Friday he shrugged off his fever and controlled the event.

He briefly lost the lead when he was given a 10s penalty for jumping a stage start on Saturday afternoon, before moving back to the front as others used slowing tactics to avoid running first on the road today. The damper problem meant he was never able to demonstrate if he would have been able to hold off Ogier despite his road position.

"Obviously I never thought we would go so well after the flu and the fever and everything - I felt terrible at the start of the rally," said Solberg. "But the car worked really well and I really had a good feeling for everything. Unfortunately we had this problem with the car. But I'm really happy."

Both works Fords had also been in the thick of the battle for victory during a thrilling weekend, but both were denied by mechanical problems. Jari-Matti Latvala recovered from a Saturday afternoon driveshaft breakage - which happened just after Solberg's penalty had given him the lead - to chase down Dani Sordo and reclaim third from the Citroen Junior driver with four stages to go.

Mikko Hirvonen fared worse, though. He started today second behind Solberg and poised to challenge for the lead, only for a differential problem to strike. With no service today, Hirvonen had to nurse his car through the entire leg, and tumbled to sixth.

He finished behind championship leader Sebastien Loeb, who was out of sorts all weekend and finished 53.3s behind team-mate Ogier in fifth. But with Ogier still 43 points adrift in the standings, Loeb looks near certain to clinch his seventh consecutive WRC title on home turf in France at the start of October.

Henning Solberg (Stobart Ford) and Federico Villagra (Munchi's Ford) completed the WRC runners, with Ford's Khalid Al Qassimi, Stobart's Matthew Wilson and Citroen Junior's Kimi Raikkonen crashing out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Jari Ketomaa led the S2000 contest from the outset and finished ninth overall ahead of class rival Martin Prokop. Patrik Flodin dominated the Production division once Toshi Arai had crashed out of the lead on Friday morning.

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Ogier Citroen 3h10m26.4s
2. Petter Solberg Citroen + 15.7s
3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 26.0s
4. Dani Sordo Citroen + 35.2s
5. Sebastien Loeb Citroen + 53.3s
6. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 1m13.5s
7. Henning Solberg Ford + 3m03.1s
8. Federico Villagra Ford + 10m17.9s
9. Jari Ketomaa Ford + 14m47.1s
10. Martin Prokop Ford + 15m20.8s

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