F1 - The Australian Grand Prix - 27.03.11

Vettel takes commanding Australia win

Sebastian Vettel opened his title defence with a comfortable victory in an Australian Grand Prix that proved intriguing, but not did deliver the level of incident predicted with the new DRS overtaking system and Pirelli tyres.

Lewis Hamilton coped with a broken floor on his McLaren to take second, but the star of the race was Renault's Vitaly Petrov, who made the most of an excellent start and a fine race drive thereafter to take his maiden podium in third.

While the top three made it to the finish on two stops, three-stop plans consigned Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Mark Webber (Red Bull) to fourth and fifth - though this was better than Alonso might have expected after falling to ninth at the first corner. Jenson Button was only sixth for McLaren after being penalised for an incident with Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Vettel tore away from the field in the opening stages, leading by three seconds after just two laps, with Hamilton and Webber holding second and third.

Petrov had made an excellent start to blast through to fourth, with Button and Alonso going wide at Turn 1 as they went three-abreast with the Renault, allowing Massa to slip ahead of Button and leaving Alonso right down in ninth by the time he got off the kerbs and grass.

Alonso made very swift progress past Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and was soon catching Massa and Button - whose battle for fifth place was frantic. With his DRS making little difference, Button tried all kinds of creative lines to get ahead the Ferrari, with no success until lap 10, when he went around the outside into the fast right-left Turn 11/12 at the end of the back straight, but had to take to the escape road and cut the second part of the corner to complete it.

That would lead to a drive-through penalty, while Alonso immediately pounced and passed Massa into Turn 13 as the Brazilian regained momentum after his near-miss with Button.

Before he took his penalty, Button had a brief battle with Vettel, who had made a relatively early pitstop on lap 14 and emerged behind the Briton. Hamilton had whittled the Red Bull's lead down to 1.5s by then, but staying out two laps later before his first tyre stop cost the McLaren time to the leader rather than being an advantage - as even after having to battle past Button around the outside of Turn 4, Vettel was 6.5s clear of Hamilton once both were back up to speed.

That gap rapidly grew to 12s over the next stint - and the reason became clear when sparks started shooting out from under the McLaren, the front part of its floor having become detached and started rubbing on the ground. Aside from a trip over the Turn 1 grass, Hamilton did a remarkable job to keep his car both on the road and near the lead pace - though his chances of pressuring Vettel were over and the German cruised to an ultimately comfortable victory.

Webber could not keep up with the top two and by half-distance was 26s adrift and only just ahead of Petrov and Alonso. Both the Red Bull and Ferrari chose to make three pitstops, while Petrov - like Vettel and Hamilton - changed tyres just twice.

Alonso got ahead of Webber at the third stops, helped by the Red Bull running wide at Turn 3 on its out-lap. With Webber on the softer tyres for the final stint, he was able to attack Alonso at first, before the Ferrari pulled out some breathing space. Both charged up behind Petrov in the final laps, but the Russian had just enough in hand to hold on and take a brilliant third. Fifth-placed Webber parked his Red Bull on the grass immediately after crossing the line.

Button fell to 12th following his penalty but recovered to sixth, finally making it past Massa again with 12 laps to go. The Ferrari then made a late tyre stop, leaving Massa ninth behind the two Saubers.

Sergio Perez was a remarkable seventh on his debut, having managed to get through the distance with just a single tyre change on lap 23. That left him not far adrift of Button, and clear of Sauber team-mate Kobayashi.

Sebastien Buemi took the last point for Toro Rosso, with the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta running in the points for a while before falling back to 11th and 12th.

Rubens Barrichello provided plenty of entertainment in the first half of the race, as he recovered from a first-lap trip over the Turn 3 gravel and scorched through the field with a series of overtaking moves. But a wild long-distance dive down the inside of Nico Rosberg's Mercedes at Turn 3 on lap 23 was just too bold, and left Barrichello spinning, needing a new front wing and earning a drive-through penalty. Rosberg had to retire in a cloud of smoke, his cooling system seemingly damaged in the impact, while Barrichello eventually parked his car too.

His team-mate Michael Schumacher sustained a puncture when hit by Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari on the first lap, and eventually retired due to the after-effects after 19 laps trailing around at the back. Alguersuari needed a new front wing and finished 13th.

Petrov's Renault team-mate Nick Heidfeld made little progress from his poor grid position and was only 14th ahead of final finishers Jarno Trulli (Lotus) and Jerome D'Ambrosio (Virgin). Timo Glock's Virgin, Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus and Pastor Maldonado's Williams all retired with mechanical issues.

The Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia;
58 laps; 307.574km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h29:30.259
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 22.297
3. Petrov Renault + 30.560
4. Alonso Ferrari + 31.772
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 38.171
6. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 54.300
7. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1:05.800
8. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:16.800
9. Massa Ferrari + 1:25.100
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Heidfeld Renault + 1 lap
15. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 2 laps
16. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:28.947

Not classified/retirements:

Driver Team On lap
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 50
Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 49
Rosberg Mercedes 22
Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 19
Schumacher Mercedes 19
Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 10
Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1
Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1


World Championship standings, round 1:

Drivers: Constructors:
1. Vettel 25 1. Red Bull-Renault 35
2. Hamilton 18 2. McLaren-Mercedes 26
3. Petrov 15 3. Renault 15
4. Alonso 12 4. Ferrari 14
5. Webber 10 5. Sauber-Ferrari 10
6. Button 8 6. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1
7. Perez 6
8. Kobayashi 4
9. Massa 2
10. Buemi 1

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

Rally Mexico - 03 - 06 Mar 2011

Loeb clinches another Mexico victory

Sebastien Loeb took the fifth Rally Mexico win of his career in ultimately dominant fashion once his rally-long rival Sebastien Ogier crashed out on the final leg.

The event was dominated by the two works Citroens, with Ogier leading most of day one apart from a brief period when Loeb nosed ahead.

Loeb then took charge on Saturday as Ogier lost a little - though not much - time running first on the road. But it turned around again when Loeb picked up a 50-second penalty for being late into SS15 having had to fix a gearshift issue before the stage start.

This put Ogier back in front, although he could perhaps consider himself lucky to escape any penalty for accidentally driving into service before the rescheduled regroup on Friday lunchtime - an incident examined in two stewards' meeting.

Loeb was soon closing in once more, helped by Ogier suffering a temporary loss of power, and the champion emerged with a commanding lead when Ogier went off on Sunday's first stage and damaged his Citroen too badly to continue.

That left Loeb to cruise to the finish and get his 2011 title bid started with the 63rd win of his World Rally Championship career.

"That was a very hard weekend, a terrible fight with Ogier until today," said Loeb. "He was really, really pushing hard.

"I think we've done nearly a perfect weekend, some small troubles but not many for a new car. I'm satisfied with the performance - the DS3 is very fast."

Ford ended a tough event with a double podium for Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala. Hirvonen dropped back while running first on the road on Friday - and was very perturbed when he carried on losing time even when he had a better road position for leg two. But he retained the championship lead and also grabbed the bonus points for winning the rally-ending power stage. Latvala was delayed by two punctures.

The combination of rough stages, high altitudes and hot temperatures meant a high attrition rate for the still-new 2011 WRC machines. Petter Solberg recovered to fourth despite losing seven minutes with an electrical glitch on his Solberg Citroen on Friday, Stobart Ford's Mads Ostberg rebounded from a puncture to drive carefully to fifth and his team-mate Henning Solberg took sixth despite miscellaneous glitches.

The other two Stobart entries retired when well-placed: Matthew Wilson losing a possible career-best finish to electrical failure when fourth, and Evgeny Novikov's engine overheating due to radiator damage while fifth on his return to the championship.

Dennis Kuipers rolled the Ferm Ford out of seventh on leg two, and Ken Block managed to retire the Monster Ford no fewer than three times, thanks to two electrical failures, and a minor accident. Remarkably he was still on course for 10th until yet another electrical glitch on the penultimate stage dropped him to 13th.

The attrition rate was such that Federico Villagra came back to take a point in the Munchi's Ford despite picking up a day's worth of superally penalties when he took a wheel off the car on Friday's first stage, struggling with brake problems on his return and then breaking a driveshaft on the final stage.

Kimi Raikkonen was not present this time - Mexico being one of the events he is skipping in his reduced 2011 programme.

Nasser Al-Attiyah hung on to take S2000 class victory in seventh overall ahead of the fast-closing Martin Prokop. Ott Tanak had been Al-Attiyah's main rival until crashing on Saturday, while Juho Hanninen never regained the ground lost when he spun and broke reverse gear on Friday's opener. He escaped a penultimate-stage roll to finish third in class, ninth overall.

Leading finishers:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h53m17.0s
2. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 1m38.4s
3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 2m23.9s
4. Petter Solberg Solberg Citroen + 7m18.4s
5. Mads Ostberg Stobart Ford + 8m43.5s
6. Henning Solberg Stobart Ford + 9m50.0s
7. Nasser Al-Attiyah Barwa Ford + 13m21.5s
8. Martin Prokop Czech Ford + 13m35.0s
9. Juho Hanninen Red Bull Skoda + 14m48.7s
10. Federico Villagra Munchi's Ford + 48m17.2s

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

Rally Sweden - 10 -13 Feb 2011

Hirvonen resists Ostberg for victory

Mikko Hirvonen held off Mads Ostberg to win the first event of the World Rally Championship's new era by just six seconds after three thrilling days in Sweden, as Fords filled the podium.

The 2011 season-opener will be remembered equally for the spectacularly close competition offered by the latest generation World Rally Cars - with just 15s covering Hirvonen, Ostberg, Petter Solberg, Jari-Matti Latvala and Sebastien Ogier starting the final day - and the emergence of Ostberg as a potential winner.

In his first event in a competitive car, the former Subaru privateer opened up a half-minute lead on his first day with Stobart Ford, making the most of running 10th on the road.

The lead quintet concertinaed on Saturday as stage conditions slowed those at the head of the running order, but road position was less of a problem this morning, when Hirvonen - who had overhauled Ostberg halfway through leg two - pulled away from his pursuers.

Then on the final loop this afternoon Hirvonen found loose snow more troublesome than before and started losing time to Ostberg, who went into the deciding Gustavsfors stage just 4.9s off the leading factory Ford.

However Hirvonen had enough in hand on the 4.16km course to hold off Ostberg and claim his first win since the same event a year ago, while Ostberg secured his maiden WRC podium.

"I was fairly nervous before the last stage," Hirvonen admitted. "It's been a fantastic start by the team - a new car and victory straightaway."

Ostberg was more than happy with second despite coming so close to victory.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "Today has been difficult. We tried a little bit to catch Mikko but he was quite quick and I didn't dare to push as hard as I could. Second overall in Sweden, I'm absolutely happy with that."

After a disappointing morning today, Latvala (Ford) regained confidence and flew through the final loop, winning two of the three stages to move back into third place ahead of Ogier, who was less happy with his car following service.

Ogier claimed three extra bonus points by winning the first Power Stage - with the final stage of the event shown live on television and extra points awarded to the top three. Loeb and Latvala completed the Power Stage scorers.

In a bizarre finish to the rally, fifth-placed Solberg had to hand his car to co-driver Chris Patterson for the final road section and special stage, the Norwegian having been caught speeding by Swedish police earlier in the event. Patterson brought the car carefully through the stage to finish fifth.

World champion Sebastien Loeb never featured at the front. Running first on the road in the worst of the snow on Friday was a huge handicap, and with two punctures and a loss of power from a snow-blocked intake slowing him further, he had to settle for a lonely sixth for Citroen.

In a one-off Ford appearance paid for by a fundraising drive among fans, P-G Andersson had a weekend of incidents interspersed with stage wins, leaving him a frustrated seventh thanks to all the delays.

Kimi Raikkonen made an encouraging start to 2011 by bringing his Ice 1 Citroen to the finish in eighth. He starred on the second loop of leg two, when he set a string of top-six stage times.

Of the other WRC entries, Matthew Wilson (Stobart Ford) won a late battle with Khalid Al Qassimi (Abu Dhabi Ford) for ninth, with top-class newcomer Dennis Kuipers' FERM Ford 13th and Ken Block (Monster Ford) 14th after a weekend of building snow experience.

Henning Solberg might have been in the podium fight in the other Stobart car, but after charging up the order on Friday afternoon, he crashed out on Saturday's first stage.

Martin Semerad cruised to an easy Production class win once early lead combatants Anders Grondal and Patrik Flodin retired and were excluded respectively.

S2000 drivers Patrik Sandell and Eyvind Brynildsen were sensationally fast in Friday's snowy conditions, setting top-six times overall. While Brynildsen dropped out with an engine failure, Sandell clung on in the points until the final morning, ultimately finishing 11th.

Overall result:

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Mikko Hirvonen Ford 3h23m56.6s
2. Mads Ostberg Ford + 6.5s
3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 34.0s
4. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 47.7s
5. Petter Solberg Citroen + 1m31.2s
6. Sebastien Loeb Citroen + 2m30.3s
7. P-G Andersson Ford + 6m22.0s
8. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen + 7m02.3s
9. Matthew Wilson Ford + 10m11.5s
10. Khalid Al Qassimi Ford + 10m31.1s

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

Rally Great Britain 11 - 14 Nov 10

Loeb clinches Rally GB victory

Sebastien Loeb rounded off the World Rally Car era with his eighth win of the 2010 season in the Rally of Great Britain.

The world champion defeated Petter Solberg by 19.1 seconds in the end, with Solberg also missing out on the runner-up spot in the championship as Jari-Matti Latvala took third from his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen on the penultimate stage, giving him enough points to finish second in the standings.

Though Loeb's win was ultimately relatively comfortable, the first half of the rally had seen the Citroen driver, his team-mate Sebastien Ogier, Latvala and Solberg covered by just a few seconds in a spectacular lead battle.

Once Latvala had damaged a tyre on Friday afternoon and Ogier had crashed on Saturday morning - costing him second in the championship - it came down to just Loeb and Solberg, and despite the 2003 champion's best efforts, Loeb had the speed to pull away today and clinch the final win for the current generation of cars before next year's new rules.

"It was really tough, Petter was going very, very fast at the start of the rally," said Loeb. "He made nearly no mistakes, he's still really fast. I enjoyed it a lot."

After his Friday delay, Latvala steadily gained on Hirvonen, edging into third with one stage to go and wrapping up second in the championship - a satisfying achievement for a man who started the year as number two in his team.

Dani Sordo completed the top five for Citroen Junior, not far behind the Fords and several minutes clear of Stobart Ford's Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson.

Kimi Raikkonen (Citroen Junior) had a quiet run to eighth, with Mads Ostberg making it home ninth after another troubled weekend in the Adapta Subaru.

Andreas Mikkelsen and Ott Tanak won the S2000 and Production classes respectively as Xevi Pons and Armindo Araujo took the two titles. Both had looked comfortable for most of the weekend, with Pons' life getting easier still when main rival Jari Ketomaa rolled out of second this morning. Pons finished third behind the impressive Craig Breen.

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h14m54.0s
2. Petter Solberg Citroen + 19.1s
3. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 1m35.3s
4. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 1m53.3s
5. Dani Sordo Citroen + 2m12.2s
6. Henning Solberg Ford + 6m26.5s
7. Matthew Wilson Ford + 8m37.8s
8. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen + 10m27.9s
9. Mads Ostberg Subaru + 12m13.7s
10. Andreas Mikkelsen Skoda + 14m01.2s

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

F1 The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - November 14th 2010

Vettel wins championship and race

Sebastian Vettel became Formula 1's youngest-ever world champion by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with chief rivals Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber just seventh and eighth.

The 23-year-old German led comfortably from the front all afternoon, save a few laps before Jenson Button made his late pitstop. But it was what happened behind Vettel that changed the course of the championship.

Pre-race favourite Alonso only needed to come home in the top four to secure title, even if Vettel won, but his day - and title hopes - were ruined when he spent most of the afternoon looking at the back of Vitaly Petrov's car in the lower reaches of the top 10, thanks to an early shuffling of the race order.

Instead, Nico Rosberg and the Renaults of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov capitalised on alternative strategies offered by an early-race safety car period to finish fourth, fifth and sixth, and relegate Alonso and Webber down the order.

The vital chain of events was triggered by Webber's early pitstop to discard the first set of tyres, on which he was slipping backwards from Alonso's rear wing.

The Australian resumed on lap 13 in 16th place, behind Jaime Alguersuari's Toro Rosso. Massa had been running closely behind Webber, so Ferrari responded by pitting him to see if he could get out ahead of the Red Bull.

When he emerged behind, and Webber lapped 0.8 seconds faster than Alonso next time round, Ferrari made the decision to bring the Spaniard in to ensure he stayed in front of Webber.

He did, but that strategy failed to take into account Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov, who had pitted under a safety on the first lap. That meant that although Alonso had Webber covered off, he was nowhere near the fourth place he needed to deny Vettel the title.

Not only that, but while Alonso was stacked behind Petrov - with Rosberg another two seconds up the road - Kubica stayed out on a long first stint and jumped up the order. His Renault had started on the harder compound tyre after failing to make it through to Q3, but that allowed a late first stop.

Kubica found himself in the thick of the battle for the lead when Vettel and Hamilton rejoined after their stops. With Alonso so far down the order, Hamilton became the biggest threat to Vettel's championship. But the Briton couldn't find a way around the Renault, and by the time Kubica pitted on lap 45, Vettel was 10 seconds up the road and in control.

But in that time, Kubica had extended the gap back to Alonso's pack to 24 seconds - plenty for his pitstop. He resumed ahead of team-mate Petrov, with Alonso seventh.

Button, who was running just five seconds ahead of Alonso in the early stages, remained in third - easily clear of the Rosberg group by the time he resumed from his pitstop on lap 39.

The first-lap safety car period that later proved so pivotal to the championship was, coincidentally, partly caused by Rosberg - the driver to benefit most from it.

His Mercedes team-mate Michael Schumacher was delayed on the inside of the track by the defending Rubens Barrichello. Rosberg tried to drive around his team-mate into the chicane but they were squeezed together and Schumacher spun on the exit.

Just as he was trying to restart, Vitantonio Liuzzi arrived on the scene, in the middle of a pack with nowhere to go. His Force India hit and climbed up the front of the Mercedes and blocked the track. It was this that prompted Rosberg and Petrov to make their early stops.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h39m36.837s
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 10.1s
3. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 11.0s
4. Rosberg Mercedes + 30.7s
5. Kubica Renault + 39.0s
6. Petrov Renault + 43.5s
7. Alonso Ferrari + 43.7s
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 44.2s
9. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 50.2s
10. Massa Ferrari + 50.8s
11. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 51.5s
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 57.6s
13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 58.3s
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 59.5s
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m03.1s
16. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1m04.7s
17. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
18. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Klien HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 4 laps

By Steven English
http://www.autosport.com

F1 The Brazilian Grand Prix - November 7th 2010

Vettel win sets up Abu Dhabi showdown

Sebastian Vettel ensured that the title fight will go to Abu Dhabi by beating Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso to victory at Interlagos today.

The German took the lead at the start of the race and never allowed Red Bull team-mate Webber a look in. Webber's second place clinched the constructors' title for Red Bull, but Fernando Alonso's third limited his loss in the points table.

Pole winner Nico Hulkenberg's time in the sun was short-lived, as he was out-dragged to the first corner by Vettel and then demoted to third by Webber at Turn 4.

It took Alonso another six laps to get by the Williams, thanks mainly to some skilled and spirited defence by Hulkenberg once he settled into the race. By the time Alonso had clear air he was seven seconds behind Webber, and even then lapping half a second slower.

Hamilton was next in the queue to pass Hulkenberg and was stuck there for another eight laps, unable to make a move stick, until the Williams dived into the pits on lap 15.

So Vettel and Webber were freed from the start right up until the safety car was called out when Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed at Turn 2 with 20 laps remaining. Vettel had a retained a lead of between two and four seconds over his team-mate for the duration, including their event-less pitstops.

Vettel had the lapped Robert Kubica between himself and Webber at the restart and bolted - three seconds clear after one lap, four and a half after three. From there on he had no trouble managing the gap to his team-mate.

Behind, Webber had to see off a threat from the closing Alonso in the final laps as the Spaniard shared fastest laps with the Red Bull drivers following the safety car. In the end, Alonso couldn't get close enough and settled for third and taking his championship lead to Abu Dhabi,

Hamilton was fourth and within range of Alonso at the finish, another to benefit from the late safety car. He was complaining of grip problems throughout the race and was delighted to take the opportunity of a free pitstop when the safety car came out.

But he was towards the back of the queue and had traffic to deal with before he could attempt to close on Alonso. Once freed, he was able to set a fastest laps of his own but was already eight seconds down the road and had no chance of closing in. He's now 24 points behind Alonso with 25 available in Abu Dhabi.

Button gave Hamilton some company in the closing stages, thanks to his gamble early on. He made his first tyre stop just 12 laps in, which helped him to vault up the order, passing the two Mercedes, Hulkenberg and Kubica when they made their stops.

He came back in to discard his heavily-worn tyres at the safety car, and - like Hamilton - retained his position thanks to the cars behind him that did not stop being a lap down and stuck behind the safety car.

Rosberg also stopped (twice in fact, thanks to a radio glitch-inspired confusion) and resumed his places inside the top seven alongside team-mate Michael Schumacher, with Hulkenberg and Kubica heading the train of lapped cars in eighth and ninth.

Kamui Kobayashi claimed the final point after a fraught race-long scrap for the spot that involved Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi and Rubens Barrichello at various stages of the race.

Rubens Barrichello was 14th after picking up a puncture while battling with Alguersuari, ahead of countryman Massa, whose already poor race was ruined early on when he had to stop twice due to a problem with a wheel nut.

Heikki Kovalainen was first of the new cars home, leading team-mate Trulli home well clear of Virgin's Timo Glock and HRT's Bruno Senna.

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h33:11.803
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 4.243
3. Alonso Ferrari + 6.807
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 14.634
5. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 15.593
6. Rosberg Mercedes + 35.300
7. Schumacher Mercedes + 43.400
8. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
9. Kubica Renault + 1 lap
10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
12. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Massa Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
16. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
17. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
22. Klien HRT-Cosworth + 6 laps

By Steven English
http://www.autosport.com

F1 The Korean Grand Prix - October 24th 2010

Alonso wins, takes lead in Korea

Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Korean GPFerrari's Fernando Alonso stormed into the world championship lead by winning a wet and delayed Korean Grand Prix, on a disastrous day for Red Bull that saw Mark Webber crash out of second and Sebastian Vettel have an engine failure while leading.

Lewis Hamilton boosted his title prospects with second for McLaren, but a lowly 12th all but ended his team-mate Jenson Button's hopes.

Racing would not actually start until nearly one hour and three quarters after the scheduled time. The rain forced first a short delay, then four laps behind the safety car, then a pause of nearly an hour, and then a further 13 laps of following the pace car before conditions were deemed satisfactory - to the delight of Hamilton, who had been adamant over the radio, unlike most of his peers, that the track was dry enough for racing.

Vettel immediately pulled out a 2.8-second gap over Webber on the first lap of racing. Then it all went hideously wrong for the pre-race championship leader next time around, as he ran slightly wide at the right-hander heading into the 'city' section, and spun into the opposite wall, before rebounding back and collecting the passing Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, which had overtaken Hamilton for third at Turn 3 a lap earlier.

With two wrecked cars to collect from a narrow section of the course, the safety car returned for a few more laps before racing finally got underway in earnest. Vettel made a break once again, establishing a three-second cushion over Alonso before the next safety car interruption on lap 30, when Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi - who had already tipped Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus into a spin - speared into Timo Glock's Virgin at the end of the long straight.

Buemi was among those who had already taken on intermediates, and everyone still on full wets followed suit during the caution. Vettel and Alonso had passed the pits when the yellow came out so had to do another lap, but Vettel retained his lead. A problem with the right-front wheel change on Alonso's car let Hamilton into second - but not for long, as the McLaren ran wide at Turn 1 at the restart and handed the place straight back.

Vettel could not escape to the same extent in the next stint, with Alonso and Hamilton lurking within a few seconds of him, but still seemed to have the race under control until his Red Bull's Renault engine erupted at the start of lap 46.

Alonso then edged away from Hamilton in the gloom to clinch his first win of the year and open up an 11-point lead over Webber, with Hamilton's second place putting him up to third in the standings, 10 points further adrift.

Felipe Massa completed the podium in the second Ferrari after a consistent race, while Michael Schumacher produced his best performance of the year by taking fourth, the Mercedes driver flying in the very wet opening laps.

Renault's Robert Kubica slipped through to fifth, passing both Williams as their tyres faded in the closing stages. Tonio Liuzzi followed him through to take sixth for Force India, as Williams's potential fifth and sixth became seventh (Rubens Barrichello) and 10th (Nico Hulkenberg, after a pitstop). Sauber got both cars in the points again, Kamui Kobayashi in eighth ahead of Nick Heidfeld.

Button was running sixth when he made a relatively early stop for intermediates, which dropped him to the tail of the midfield pack in 16th, behind various cars which had made even earlier stops. He then lost more ground as all those able to pit under the safety car got ahead of him, and when he bounced off the road while battling with Adrian Sutil's Force India. Struggling with the McLaren's handling and tyre wear, Button had a late spin and finished only 12th.

Other drivers to slip up included Vitaly Petrov, who had a massive crash at the final corner when seventh on lap 40, Sutil, who had a series of wheel-banging incidents and excursions while battling with Saubers until finally breaking his suspension against Kobayashi's car, and Lucas di Grassi, who spun his Virgin into the wall while trying to pass Sakon Yamamoto's Hispania.

Heikki Kovalainen was top new team driver for Lotus, despite a pitlane speeding penalty, while his team-mate Jarno Trulli had a spin, a clash with Bruno Senna's Hispania and eventually a race-ended hydraulic problem.

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

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Alonso Ferrari 2h48:20.810
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 14.999
3. Massa Ferrari + 30.868
4. Schumacher Mercedes + 39.688
5. Kubica Renault + 47.734
6. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 53.571
7. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:09.257
8. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:17.889
9. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 1:20.107
10. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1:20.851
11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:24.146
12. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1:29.939
13. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
14. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
15. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:50.257

Rally Spain 22 - 24 Oct 10

Loeb cruising towards Spain win

Sebastien Loeb, Citroen, Catalunya 2010Sebastien Loeb is still on course for another Rally of Spain win with two stages to go, while behind him Dani Sordo's chase of Petter Solberg is building towards a final-stage showdown.

With Loeb having been alone out front since Sebastien Ogier crashed on Saturday morning, the focus on the final day is on the works Citroen team's bid to get a one-two as home favourite Dani Sordo closes in on privateer Petter Solberg.

Sordo started the day 16.9 seconds down on Solberg, and trimmed 4.9s from that by winning the opening 42-kilometre El Priorat stage, where Solberg felt he had been too cautious in the mid-section as he tried to avoid his tyres fading later. With Sordo 1.2s quicker on the following La Serra d'Almos too, the gap is now 10.8s.

Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) made a final bid to stay in the battle for second on El Priorat but soon realised from the split times that the Citroens ahead were uncatchable, so has now settled for fourth.

Hungarian privateer Frigyes Turan's impressive run ended when he crashed out of seventh on SS13, which means that position now features an unusual battle between Khalid Al Qassimi's works WRC Ford Focus, and Henning Solberg's Ford Fiesta S2000 - the Norwegian determined to upstage a few of the 'big' cars as he revels in the new machine.

Turan's retirement put Ogier (Citroen Junior) back on course to salvage a point as he rapidly gained on 10th-placed Dennis Kuipers - but Ogier had a scare when he damaged his suspension on SS14 and had to conduct roadside repairs to get back to service.

In the Junior title battle, Hans Weijs Jr now leads the class after Yeray Lemes had a puncture. If Weijs stays in front, he will be the category's final champion regardless of where pre-rally points leader Aaron Burkart - currently fifth under superally after his crash yesterday - finishes.

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

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h06m28.9s
2. Petter Solberg Citroen + 44.6s
3. Dani Sordo Citroen + 55.4s
4. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 1m24.6s
5. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 6m22.7s
6. Matthew Wilson Ford + 7m27.1s
7. Khalid Al Qassimi Ford + 11m37.1s
8. Henning Solberg Ford + 11m42.1s
9. Ken Block Ford + 14m38.9s
10. Dennis Kuipers Ford + 16m33.0s

F1 The Japanese Grand Prix - October 10th 2010

Vettel leads commanding Red Bull 1-2

Sebastian Vettel finally returned to the top spot of the podium by taking a flawless victory in the Japanese Grand Prix for a second straight year.

His Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber was a close second, and extended his championship lead to 14 points over third-place finisher Fernando Alonso and Vettel, now up to joint second thanks to his first win since Valencia.

McLaren's title hopes took another blow as Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, the latter hobbled by the loss of third gear, finished fourth and fifth.

Most of the incident in the race was compacted into the opening minutes - although the destruction began even before the start, when Virgin's Lucas di Grassi had a massive, and bizarre, crash at the 130R on his way to the dummy grid.

Then when the race got underway, the fast-starting Vitaly Petrov (Renault) clipped Nico Hulkenberg's Williams and slammed into the barriers on the pits straight, moments before Ferrari's Felipe Massa took to the grass going into the first corner and speared into Tonio Liuzzi's Force India.

The safety car was immediately brought out, and one of the race's most intriguing possibilities was removed during the yellow. Robert Kubica had split the Red Bulls off the line, but the second-placed Renault pulled off on lap three after shedding its right rear wheel while cruising around behind the pace car.

Red Bull therefore resumed one-two formation at the restart, with Vettel and Webber easily pulling away from Alonso (Ferrari) at around a second per lap initially.

The only time they were headed was when Button's alternative strategy allowed him to lead from laps 25 to 38, as the world champion ran long on his hard tyres before changing to softs and mounting a late charge.

His targets were Hamilton and Alonso. A battle between the two had seemed to be brewing until Hamilton reported the loss of third gear in the final stages. He tumbled away from the Ferrari and let Button pass him with ease at the hairpin on lap 44. Hamilton was able to hang on to fifth, while the gap to Alonso was too great for Button to close in the time remaining.

Michael Schumacher returned to the top six after one of his strongest races of the year. He looked set to finish behind Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who had pitted under the safety car at the start, until the younger German lost a wheel and had a big crash at the S curves with five laps to go. Rosberg had earlier escaped a near-miss with Sebastien Buemi when an attempt to pass the Toro Rosso on the outside at the 130R went awry.

Late entertainment was again provided by Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi. Running an identical strategy to Button, he dived past Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) and Adrian Sutil (Force India) at the hairpin in his first stint, but fell behind both after finally pitting.

He flew on fresh tyres, though, surging past Alguersuari again - with the Toro Rosso breaking its front wing trying to retaliate - gaining a place when Sutil's engine blew (and sent him spinning scarily at the 130R), then passing Rubens Barrichello's Williams and his Sauber team-mate Nick Heidfeld to delight the home crowd with a hard-earned seventh.

Heidfeld scored his first points back with Sauber in eighth, while Barrichello was only ninth having been passed by Schumacher on-track and Heidfeld in the pits even before falling victim to Kobayashi. Buemi completed the top 10.

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h30:27.323
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 0.905
3. Alonso Ferrari + 2.721
4. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 13.522
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 39.595
6. Schumacher Mercedes + 59.933
7. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:04:038
8. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 1:09.648
9. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:10.846
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:12.806
11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
12. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
13. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps
14. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
15. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
16. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
17. Rosberg Mercedes + 5 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:33.474

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

Rally France 01 - 03 Oct 10

Loeb secures seventh title with win

Sebastien Loeb clinched a record-extending seventh consecutive World Rally Championship title with another consummate victory - the 60th of his career and his sixth of the season - in his home rally in France.

Any result other than a Loeb win this weekend would have been the shock of the decade given his and Citroen's unstoppable form on asphalt in recent years.

Sure enough, he established a 40-second lead in the first half of the rally and then eased his pace and drove carefully to protect his advantage and ensure a straightforward victory. The event's new location meant he secured the title in his home town of Haguenau in front of a vast and ecstatic local crowd.

"For sure it makes it really special - it's incredible for me to win the seventh title here in Haguenau," said Loeb, whose win also clinched the manufacturers' title for Citroen. "I couldn't expect so many people here. To win the title here is the best thing that could happen this year."

Dani Sordo made it a one-two for the factory Citroen team, ultimately by a comfortable margin - though he had been part of a close four-way battle for second earlier in the weekend.

Sebastien Ogier (Citroen Junior), the only man who could still mathematically deprive Loeb of the crown, broke his suspension and had to stop when third on Saturday afternoon, while small errors and delays dropped Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen) and Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford) back in third and fourth. Nevertheless, a sixth podium of 2010 delighted Solberg, and Latvala made a real breakthrough with his asphalt speed this weekend, taking several stage wins.

Latvala's Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen struggled throughout, though. Severely lacking in confidence in his car, he finished a distant fifth.

The top cars pulled so far away from the rest of the field that Ogier was able to take sixth via superally when he returned for leg three.

Munchi's Ford's Federico Villagra beat Matthew Wilson - the only Stobart WRC class entry this weekend - to seventh by 11s after a rally-long battle. Kimi Raikkonen (Citroen Junior) had held that position on day one, before two accidents on Saturday brought his rally to an end.

Hydraulic problems and some errors confined Ken Block to 12th place, but the Monster Ford driver did complete a full rally distance for the first time in his fledgling WRC career.

World Touring Car Championship leader Yvan Muller enjoyed his WRC outing in a Solberg-run Citroen Xsara, despite a fuel system issue forcing him to retire mid-way through leg one. He rejoined via superally and finished 43rd.

Although the unregistered Henning Solberg was the top S2000 car in ninth overall, the official SWRC class win went to Patrik Sandell after a thrilling contest with Eyvind Brynildsen, which finally ended when Brynildsen - who had thrown caution to the wind after a puncture dropped him to second - rolled this morning.

Thierry Neuville was dominating the Junior category until he hit a rock and picked up the first of two punctures. With the same happening to subsequent leader Hans Weijs Jr, it was wildcard entrant Jeremi Ancian who took a shock win.

There were no such surprises in the Production class, which Armindo Araujo controlled throughout.

This weekend marked the first time that the Rally of France had been held in the Alsace area rather than its traditional Corsican base. An enormous number of spectators turned out to see Loeb's coronation, but various crowd issues meant much of the itinerary was delayed by between 30 minutes and an hour - although the only stage to be cancelled was the penultimate test today, which was sacrificed to ensure the final stage, televised live in France, went ahead on schedule.

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h05m49.3s
2. Dani Sordo Citroen + 35.7s
3. Petter Solberg Citroen + 1m16.8s
4. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 1m29.3s
5. Mikko Hirvonen Ford + 3m43.8s
6. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 11m55.9s
7. Federico Villagra Ford + 14m15.4s
8. Matthew Wilson Ford + 14m26.9s
9. Henning Solberg Ford + 16m48.9s
10. Patrik Sandell Skoda + 17m12.3s

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

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

F1 The Belgian Grand Prix - August 29th 2010

Hamilton wins chaotic Belgian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton moved back into the lead of the Formula 1 World Championship with a dominant victory in a chaotic Belgian Grand Prix.

The British driver was the class of the field all afternoon and survived two safety car periods and a trip through the gravel during a wet segment of the race to defeat Mark Webber by 1.5 seconds.

Hamilton grabbed the lead at the start of the race when polesitter Webber bogged down on the line and dropped to sixth as his Red Bull's anti-stall mechanism kicked in.

The British driver was never challenged at the front - despite a brief burst of rain that caused him to run off the track at the Bus Stop chicane on the opening lap.

He pulled away at a rate of more than half a second per lap as the track quickly dried early on, and had an 11s advantage when another, heavier, bout of rain began on lap 35.

Pushing too hard on slicks with the track becoming wetter, the 2008 world champion went off into the gravel at Rivage, but was able to avoid the barrier and drive back onto the track.

He pitted for intermediates at the end of that lap, as did the second-placed Renault of Robert Kubica and Webber, who lay third.

Webber emerged second, however as Kubica overshot his pit and cost himself a handful of seconds while his mechanics attempted to change his tyres.

After a second safety car period - which began on lap 38 when Fernando Alonso crashed out - Hamilton was able to pull away from Webber to the end. He now leads the Australian by four points with five races left.

Alonso, whose retirement signalled a major blow to his championship ambitions, had fought his way back up to seventh after a disastrous start to his race.

Williams driver Rubens Barrichello, celebrating his 300th grand prix, clobbered into the Ferrari driver at the Bus Stop on the opening lap, putting himself out and relegating Alonso to the tail of the field.

Both Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel also had their championship hopes decrease. After suffering front wing damage on the opening lap, McLaren driver Button had a train of four cars backed up behind him during the opening part of the race.

Vettel, third, got a run on the world champion exiting Blanchimont on lap 16, but lost control of his Red Bull and slammed into the side of the McLaren at the Bus Stop - putting Button out of the race.

The German broke his front wing and had to pit for repairs. He then received a drive-through penalty for causing the incident and later suffered a puncture after colliding with Vitantonio Liuzzi's Force India on his way to a lapped 15th place.

Through the madness came Felipe Massa to fourth in his Ferrari and Adrian Sutil - after pulling a superb move on Michael Schumacher - to fifth in his Force India.

Nico Rosberg was sixth in the best of the Mercedes cars, which each made only one stop during the race when the rain came. He elbowed Schumacher aside at Les Combes with three laps to go and finished a place ahead of his team-mate.

Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Vitaly Petrov (Renault) and Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) completed the top 10.

RESULTS

Classified:

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1h29m04.268s
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault +1.571
3. Kubica Renault +3.493
4. Massa Ferrari +8.264
5. Sutil Force India-Mercedes +9.094
6. Rosberg Mercedes +12.359
7. Schumacher Mercedes +15.548
8. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari +16.678
9. Petrov Renault +23.851
10. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari +29.457
11. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes +34.831
12. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari +36.019
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari +39.895
14. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
15. Vettel Red Bull-Renault +1 lap
16. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth +1 lap
17. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth +1 lap
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth +1 lap
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth +1 lap
20. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth +2 laps

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1m49.069s

By Jamie O'Leary
http://www.autosport.com

Rally Deutschland 20 - 22/8/10

Loeb remains unbeaten in Germany

Sebastien Loeb stretched his astounding unbeaten run in Rally Germany by winning the event for an eighth time with another dominant performance.

Citroen driver Loeb was never headed this weekend, pulling out an ever-increasing lead over his team-mate Dani Sordo before eventually triumphing by 51 seconds. Loeb's fifth win of 2010 extends his championship lead to 58 points with four rallies to go, meaning he could clinch his seventh consecutive title in Japan next month.

Sordo was satisfied with second place on his return to the factory team, particularly as he was in his first rally with new co-driver Diego Vallejo. He had kept Loeb within sight until the Frenchman's blistering performance on the Saturday morning run through the 48-kilometre Panzerplatte stage built a secure lead.

"A very good victory for me again - the eighth one in a row," said Loeb. "It's incredible, I really have a good feeling on this rally. I wouldn't like to be beaten here, and this time it's all okay again."

Contesting the event in WRC machinery for the first time, Sebastien Ogier (Citroen Junior) made a quiet start before taking fourth from Mikko Hirvonen and then closing on Jari-Matti Latvala - taking third when the Finn spun on Panzerplatte.

Latvala went on to secure fourth, scant consolation for Ford on a weekend that saw transmission problems on both Saturday and Sunday forcing Hirvonen to retire, Ken Block's Monster Ford suffering a broken alternator on a road section, and returnee Francois Duval crashing his Stobart Ford heavily on Panzerplatte while running fifth.

Petter Solberg would have featured in the podium fight had he not lost several minutes to two damaged tyres on Friday. He took five stage victories as he fought back to fifth place.

The closest battle ended up being between Matthew Wilson and Kimi Raikkonen for sixth. The Stobart Ford driver slipped ahead of the Citroen Junior man when Raikkonen made some small errors on Sunday morning, and then held the position despite the Finn winning the rally-closing superspecial.

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen 3h59m38.3s
2. Dani Sordo Citroen + 51.3s
3. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 2m13.3s
4. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford + 2m33.9s
5. Petter Solberg Citroen + 6m47.7s
6. Matthew Wilson Ford + 8m46.7s
7. Kimi Raikkonen Citroen + 8m50.5s
8. Khalid Al Qassimi Ford + 17m36.5s
9. Mark van Eldik Subaru + 17m53.0s
10. Patrik Sandell Skoda + 17m58.8s

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

F1 The Hungary GP - August 1st 2010

Webber charges to Hungarian GP win

Mark Webber took the lead of the Formula 1 world championship with victory in an enthralling Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Australian was bundled down to third at the start behind his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

But a combination of a perfect strategy call from his pit crew and some exceptional speed throughout the middle of the race helped him to beat Alonso to the chequered flag by 17.8 seconds.

Key to Webber's victory was the deployment of the safety car on lap 15 to enable the recovery of debris between turns 13 and 14.

While most drivers pitted for their mandatory tyre changes, Red Bull pulled a strategic masterstroke as Webber was left out on the circuit and moved into the lead.

As the race resumed Webber led from Vettel, Alonso, Lewis Hamilton's McLaren and Felipe Massa's Ferrari, the Australian knowing that he would need to pull out enough of a gap in the remaining laps to enable him to make his tyre change under green flag conditions.

His task was made easier when Vettel was given a drive-through penalty for failing to keep within 10 car lengths of his team-mate while behind the safety car, which dropped the German to third behind Alonso.

When Webber did eventually make his tyre change, on lap 43, he had built up a lead of over 23s, and that enabled him to rejoin the circuit still with 4s in hand over the Ferrari. It was an advantage he extended all the way to the finish and to his fourth win of the season.

Hamilton, by this time, had retired with a suspected gearbox failure. That ensured that he lost his championship lead to Webber, who now has a four-point advantage over the Briton.

Massa was no match for the front three, but finished an untroubled fourth.

Vitaly Petrov drove a sensational race in his Renault as he took a career-best fifth place, one spot ahead of his 2009 GP2 Series title rival Nico Hulkenberg.

Hulkenberg's Williams team-mate Rubens Barrichello held sixth for a long time, but made his tyre change late and dropped down the order.

The Saubers of Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi finished seventh and ninth, sandwiching the McLaren of world champion Jenson Button.

Michael Schumacher looked on course to round out the top 10, but came under late pressure from Barrichello, who had far fresher rubber in the latter stages of the race.

Barrichello closed onto the tail of the Mercedes looked set to pass Schumacher heading down to Turn 1 with a few laps left.

Schumacher squeezed him against the pit wall - for which race stewards will investigate him after the race – but Barrichello held his nerve and took the final points position.

Another man with the pace to finish in the top 10 was Robert Kubica, but his race was effectively ended by a pitlane collision with Adrian Sutil while the safety car was on-track.

Kubica was released by the Renault team into the path of Sutil's Force India, which had already begun to turn into his own pit stall.

The Pole continued, only to be given a 10s stop/go penalty for causing the incident. He retired a few laps later.

Sutil, however, was out on the spot and so too was Nico Rosberg, whose Mercedes shed its right-rear wheel just seconds earlier and left him stranded at the pit exit.

The only other retiree was Jaime Alguersuari, who pulled his Toro Rosso off the track with smoke pouring from its engine bay on the second lap.

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1h41:05.571
2. Alonso Ferrari + 17.821
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 19.252
4. Massa Ferrari + 27.474
5. Petrov Renault + 1:13.100
6. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1:16.700
7. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
8. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1 lap
9. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
10. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
11. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap
12. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
13. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
14. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 3 laps
15. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 3 laps
16. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
17. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
18. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 4 laps
19. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:22.362


By Jamie O'Leary
http://www.autosport.com

Rally Finland 29 - 31/7/10

Latvala claims superb home victory

Jari-Matti Latvala claimed the biggest win of his World Rally Championship career so far by holding the Citroens to earn victory in his home event Rally Finland.

Latvala became Ford's only hope after his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen - who had set a spectacular early pace - had an enormous crash on Friday morning. Hirvonen's accident had put Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen) into the lead for a while, but by the middle of day one Latvala had pulled ahead.

As Solberg slipped back thereafter, the two factory Citroens started chasing Latvala down. Sebastien Ogier had made a quiet start to his first rally in the factory line-up before raising his game and charging through to second, while his team leader Sebastien Loeb had dropped as low as seventh initially having damaged his car's front aerodynamics early on Friday.

A string of stage wins for the Citroen duo kept Latvala under pressure, and Ogier went into the final two stages of the event - which saw a full weekend's rallying squeezed into two days under a new-for-2010 format - just 10 seconds adrift. But Latvala had things under control and managed to clinch victory with a similar margin.

"This is something that I have been dreaming of since I was a very, very small boy," said the ecstatic winner.

Despite being defeated, Ogier was thrilled to take second on his factory debut.

"It's fantastic weekend for me," said the Frenchman. "To finish second is better than I expected for sure. Jari-Matti was incredibly fast. It's a perfect result."

Loeb won a late battle with Solberg to finish third, which he was content with having decided not to risk everything this weekend with an ample points lead in his pocket already and a string of asphalt rounds ahead.

"Third place is not what we prefer, but I didn't come here especially for the win," said Loeb. "I wanted to score some points. It's not my rally, I know. We can always get good results but it's a difficult rally for me. Third place is not so bad for the championship."

Dani Sordo, demoted to Citroen Junior to make way for Ogier in the factory line-up, was a top three contender at first before fading away to finishing a distant and confused fifth.

Matthew Wilson held on to sixth for Stobart Ford by just 7.1 seconds as Mads Ostberg - whose Adapta Subaru had suffered a puncture on Friday - surged back up the order. Having been two and a half minutes down on Wilson immediately after his puncture, Ostberg reckoned this had probably been his best ever drive.

Returning legend Juha Kankkunen (Stobart) took an excellent eighth in his first WRC round for eight years. He had hoped before the event that he could battle with countryman Kimi Raikkonen's Citroen Junior car, and got his wish as they fought for seventh until Raikkonen went off and lost nine minutes this morning, leaving the ex-Formula 1 driver back in 25th.

Also missing out on points was Stobart's Henning Solberg, who looked set for his best rally in a long time as he fought with Loeb on the cusp of the top five on Friday morning, only to crash out.

Intercontinental Rally Challenge points leader Juho Hanninen popped back to the WRC and came away with ninth overall and an S2000 class win. Jari Ketomaa had led the class at first until hitting electrical problems.

The Production class also saw an early leader strike trouble as Juha Salo made a mistake and lost the lead to Pirelli Star Driver Ott Tanak, who dominated thereafter.

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

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Jari-Matti Latvala Ford 2h31m29.6s
2. Sebastien Ogier Citroen + 10.1s
3. Sebastien Loeb Citroen + 26.0s
4. Petter Solberg Citroen + 30.7s
5. Dani Sordo Citroen + 1m45.0s
6. Matthew Wilson Ford + 5m43.7s
7. Mads Ostberg Subaru + 5m50.8s
8. Juha Kankkunen Ford + 7m49.0s
9. Juho Hanninen Skoda + 9m05.0s
10. P-G Andersson Skoda + 10m15.7s

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