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Qualifying for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix has been wrapped up, the pole position going to Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen. Team mate Felipa Massa ended his afternoon in third. Hoping to be the cat among the pigeons though is local hero Fernando Alonso who managed to claim second, although it is expected for the Renault driver to be one of the first on the pits tomorrow. The sister Renault of Nelson Piquet Jr managed to get into Q3 as well, highlighting the improvements made to the R27. The McLaren’s appear to be on their back foot so far, but speaking to Louise Goodman after the session, Lewis Hamilton didn’t appear to be overly concerned with his fifth place grid slot. A full report will be posted shortly. Continue Reading…

I had started to write a second update to my earlier post; I don’t want to continuously swamp you with Mosley news. Like you I’m sure, I too am getting tired of the Mosley ’scandal’. However, it is important to Formula One. I don’t mean the ins-and-outs of what Max gets up to in his personal life, but what is abundantly clear to me is that Mosley cannot function, effectively, as the president of the FIA at the moment. I won’t repeat everything I said in the previous post, but this afternoon more news has been reported which compounds my feelings on Max’s current position. Continue Reading…

The second session of the Spanish Grand Prix practices finalised earlier, and Kimi Raikkonen continued to dominate in his Ferrari F2008. However, there were a few surprises along the way and the Friday tables look a little odd. Second place went to a resurgent Nelson Piquet Jr, setting a lap time on 0.1s adrift of Raikkonen. Compounding the pace of the Renault R27 was team mate Fernando Alonso in third going only a fraction slower. Kazuki Nakajima also managed to get his Williams into the mix and went fourth, his team mate Nico Rosberg going seventh and sandwiching Felipe Massa and Mark Webber in fifth and sixth respectively. Continue Reading…

The Spanish Grand Prix got underway this morning with the drivers heading out on track to complete the morning’s 90 minute session around Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. Following on from their impressive form in Malaysia and Bahrain, Ferrari continued to dominate after the three week break and posted the top two times before breaking for lunch. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen sandwiched Bahrain pole-sitter Robert Kubica in third, while the Renault’s of Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr looked pretty good in sixth and seventh respectively. Perhaps Alonso was trying to deflect attention earlier in the week when he said he wasn’t to optimistic about this race? Continue Reading…

FIA president Max Mosley was invited to Jordan this weekend to attend the country’s inaugural rally, another sport governed by the international organisation. Mosley, who was recently plastered over a Sunday tabloid in the UK, has stayed away for the two Formula One races that have taken place (or about to take place) since. The Crown Prince of Bahrain sent Mosley a letter ahead of his planned visit to the Bahrain Grand Prix essentially asking him not to attend. Max obliged and cited reasons of being very busy working with his legal team at the time. But choosing to attend Jordan this week may not have been the best idea either, as it turns out the president has been given the cold shoulder by many people. Continue Reading…

Spanish drivers Fernando Alonso and Pedro De La Rosa claim they knew nothing of the FIA’s planned launch of their anti-racism campaign, EveryRace. When asked by the press at Circuit de Catalunya, host of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, both drivers appeared bemused by new FIA initiative. The website features photographs and quotes from members of the teams competing in Formula One, designed to show how diverse the sport is. However, while drivers like Heikki Kovalainen were shown, and quotes from David Coulthard featured, it was noticeable that the two drivers from Spain (where the initial incident sparked the campaign) were absent. Continue Reading…

Super Aguri have announced that they will be participating in this weekends Spanish Grand Prix. For the past week or so the team has been in trouble after the Magma Group pulled out of a deal that would have seen major investment, a name change and cleared Honda debt for the little outfit. While no deal has yet been confirmed, and with Honda apparently refusing to offer any further help, Aguri were still preparing their cars this morning and both Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson competed in the morning’s Free Practice session. Continue Reading…

The BRDC has today confirmed the plans that were recently sent for approval to the Northamptonshire council are all running to schedule. The hope is for a major renovation of the pit and paddock complex, bringing the old circuit up to the standards set by newer tracks in Shanghai, Bahrain and Turkey. BRDC president Damon Hill spoke of the expected completion date of 2010, and negotiations for the future of the circuit as the host of the British Grand Prix are ongoing. Continue Reading…

The deal with the Magma Group that would have saved Super Aguri collapsed last week, and since then team owner Aguri Suzuki has been working hard on re-negotiating another, all in attempts to save his little outfit and enable them to continue racing. The squad have turned up in Barcelona ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, but already the deadline for sorting something out has passed, twice. And now Honda Racing CEO Nick Fry has given a strong indication that Honda are no longer willing to help them out. Continue Reading…

Continuing the feel good factor that Thursday has brought to Formula One, I can now report that McLaren, who are now located at the far end of the Spanish pit lane, invited their neighbours over for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. The neighbourly gesture was taken up by about 20 members of each team (Force India and Super Aguri) and Aguri driver Anthony Davidson took full advantage to see how the other half live. Continue Reading…