Tuesday 14 April 2009

Stoner makes it three in a row at Qatar

0
Written by Dean Robinson
Stoner makes it three in a row at Qatar

Source: http://www.motogp.com/en/node/497782

Australian Casey Stoner has taken out the season opening round in Qatar for the third year in a row after this years edition of the race was delayed by a day due to a freak storm that swept across the circuit prior to the original start time on Sunday night. As a result of the delay I wasn’t actually able to watch the race, so this is just pieced together from what I can find.

The opening round of the 2009 MotoGP season was again a night race (the only on in the calendar) at Qatar, and because of its late start time it meant that it should have been broadcast at around 10am Australian time, which would have been perfect as I had the day off work due to Easter Monday and could have watched it, however the weather gods intervened which meant the race was pushed back to the Monday night, this resulted in a broadcast time of 4am. As much as I love watching the MotoGP I wasn’t going to get up at 4am to watch it.

Stoner easily took the win ahead of the factory Yamaha’s of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. Rossi finished 7.7 seconds adrift with Lorenzo a further 9 seconds back. Colin Edwards cam in 4th giving Yahama 3 of the top four positions, Italian Dovizioso in 5th was the first Honda across the line. The other Australian Chris Vermeulen finished 7th on his Rizla Suzuki, while team mate Loris Capirossi was the only man not to finish the race after crashing on lap 8.

I personally was expecting a lot from Stoner’s new team mate, Nicky Hayden, especially after how poorly Marco Melandri had gone last year after joining the Ducati team. He finished 12th, but this was still a decent effort considering the size of the crash he had during qualifying on Saturday. There was the possibility that he wasn’t even going to race, and had the race run (as originally planned) on Sunday he may not of, the extra day might have worked in his favor.

, , ,
Monday 06 April 2009

The B-Team does it again

0
Written by Dean Robinson
The B-Team does it again

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oranje/3411355966/

Yes the race may have been cut short by the crazy amount of rain that was dumped from the sky in just a few minutes, but I’m pretty sure that Jenson Button doesn’t mind at all, the only disappointment he might have is that the race hadn’t gone a little longer so that he could have claimed full points (only half points were awarded because the race didn’t reach 75% completion).

Brawn GP’s dream start has continued with Button claiming victory after the race was red flagged with 20-odd laps still remaining. It was a case of choosing the right tyres at the right time, even though by the time the red flag came out it didn’t matter what rubber anyone was wearing nobody was finding it easy it stay on the track, even at very low speeds.

Nick Heidfeld was second and Timo Glock got up to third after choosing to go to intermediate tyres at just the right time, for several laps before the deluge he was up to 10 seconds per lap quicker than Button and co at the front of the race, passing people at his own will.

The same couldn’t be said for Ferrari who sent Raikkonen out on full-wet tyres on a full-dry track, it only took a handful of laps to destroy the tyres, and this was still several laps before the rain even begun to arrive. His penalty was the was being passed like he was standing still, and there was nothing he could do about it. Even if he’d gone straight back into the pits and put more sensible rubber on he still would have sacrificed the same number of positions.

Mark Webber had a much stronger race than in Melbourne (where he didn’t make it pas the first corner) at time he was looking a chance for the podium. In the end it was the shuffling around with pitstops and tyres the probably kept him off the podium, but when the race ended he was in 6th, especially since it was ahead of both factory Renaults, both Ferraris and both McLarens.

I really enjoyed Webber’s battle with Hamilton for a handful of laps early in the race, yes Hamilton is struggling, but its great to see that this years rule changes have definitely even up thing between the top teams and the traditional mid-pack runners. They swapped positions a number of times, with most of Hamilton’s passes aided by his KERS system (which Red Bull isn’t using yet). Good close, fair racing, its just what has been missing in the last few years where one or two teams have been miles ahead of the rest. 2009 is looking good.

, , , , ,
Monday 06 April 2009

Jeff Gordon breaks winless drought

0
Written by Dean Robinson
Jeff Gordon breaks winless drought

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thig/3416077177/

According to NASCAR.com Jeff Gordon’s drought lasted a total of “forty-seven races. Seventy-seven calendar weeks. Five hundred and forty days. Twelve thousand, nine hundred and sixty hours.”, which is a long time to wait for a four-time champion. Gordon took victory ahead of 2008 champ Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle rounded out the podium for the Samsung 500 at Fort Worth, Texas. Australian Marcos Ambrose completed only 216 of the 334 laps before retiring with a blown engine, he ended up 41st out of 43 starters.

, , ,
Monday 06 April 2009

Briscoe starts IndyCar season with a win

0
Written by Dean Robinson
Briscoe starts IndyCar season with a win

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunsurfr/3410418686/

Australian Ryan Briscoe has taken out the first round of the 2009 IndyCar series on the Streets of St. Petersburg. He finished ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay (2nd) and Justin Wilson (3rd). Briscoe’s Team Penske teammate Will Power (also Australian) came in 6th ahead of pole sitter Graham Rahal who finished 7th.

, ,
Sunday 05 April 2009

Drift opener this week at Long Beach

0
Written by Dean Robinson
Drift opener this week at Long Beach

Source: http://www.themotorreport.com.au/19635/hyundai-and-red-bull-sponsored-genesis-coupe-drift-car-to-be-piloted-by-rhys-millen/

2009 sees Formula DRIFT entering its sixth year, and the first round begins with practice on April 9th at Long Beach ahead of Saturday’s main event. Several of the top drifters are in possession of new weapons for the forthcoming season including reigning champ Tanner Foust (Scion tC), Vaughn Gittin Jr. (2010 Mustang GT) and Rhys Millen (Hyundai Genesis Coupe).

With the number of new cars that will be on show and a huge field of 47 cars competing for the 32 positions in qualifying on Friday, it appears that the ‘global financial crisis’ hasn’t hit Formula DRIFT in the same way that it hit the Drift Australia series which itself has been reduced to a single round later in the year.

Millen, who is now running a brand new Hyundai Genesis Coupe, is possibly better known here in Australia for the Pontiac GTO (Holden Monaro) that he ran a few years back, showing that you didn’t need something small and Japanese to go drifting. His choices to step out of the GTO for a Solstice, and now a Hyundai, are more than likely fueled by the size of the check that accompanies them…

, , ,
Sunday 05 April 2009

Button makes it 2 from 2 for Brawn

0
Written by Dean Robinson
Button makes it 2 from 2 for Brawn

Source: http://www.formula1.com/gallery/race/2009/806/general/

Jensen Button has claimed pole for tomorrows Malaysian F1 GP ahead of Trulli and Vettel. The front portion of the grid is full of Brawn, Toyota and Red Bull for the second weekend in a row.

Button’s teammate Rubens sits 4th, keeping both the Mercedes customer cars way ahead of their factory rivals Hamilton and Kovalainen who ended up 13th and 14th respectively. Ferrari were disappointing again with Kimi 9th and Massa starting way down the back in 16th. Mark Webber could quite match the speed he’d shown in the earlier practice but still sits comfortably in 7th. The fast man from practice, Rosberg could only manage 6th when it counted and Alonso rounded out the top 10.

, , ,
Monday 30 March 2009

Trulli penalised, Hamilton to 3rd, Vettel fined

1
Written by Dean Robinson
Trulli penalised, Hamilton to 3rd, Vettel fined

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/coldtrackdays/3396554980/

Following the completion of yesterdays race Jarno Trulli was penalised for overtaking Lewis Hamilton under the safety car, he had 25 seconds added to his time which dropped him back to 12th and lifted Hamilton on to the podium. Sebastien Vettel was handed a $50,000 fine and a 10 position grid penalty for next weeks Malaysian GP for causing the accident that took both Kubica and himself out of the race with only a handful of laps remaining.

Update: The incident has been reinvestigated by the stewards, they found that Hamilton and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes “acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the Stewards”, and as a result Hamilton has been excluded from the results, and Trulli’s 25s penalty has been reversed. McLeran won’t be appealing the findings.

, , , ,
Sunday 29 March 2009

Button caps dream weekend with maiden win for Brawn GP

2
Written by Dean Robinson
Button caps dream weekend with maiden win for Brawn GP

Source: http://www.formula1.com/gallery/race/2009/805/tv_images/

As the commentators expressed at the end of the race, anybody who picked the trifecta of Button, Barrichello and Trulli did exceptionally well. I think Brawn’s performance in their first testing session let everyone know that they meant business, and despite being the last team confirmed, the last car revealed and the last car tested they came out well and truly on top with the first win of the season.

Button had things go his way pretty much all race, the only things that seemed to threaten were the regular safety cars which brought him back to the rest of the field. Behind him there was a little more happening. McLaren’s weekend went from bad to worse with Kovalainen’s race ending shortly after the first corner incident that also involved Heidfeld, Barichello and Webber.

Ferrari looked to have decent speed early on but Kimi had issues and finished 16, and Massa crashed out 13 laps from the end. While his teammates races was short Hamilton, who started from the rear of the grid gradually clawed his way through the field and wound up finishing 4th. I dare say that given who the rest of his weekend had gone he was pretty happy with that.

Trulli and Glock from Toyota, who had both received grid penalties overnight for an illegal rear wing, stayed consistent to finish 3rd and 5th respectively. Sebastien Buemi had a strong debut race for “Team Sebastien” picking up a point for his efforts, closely followed by his teammate Bourdais.

Webber again hit bad luck in his home GP after being tangled up in the first corner incident with Kovalainen and co, he had to pit to get his front wing replaced and from then on he was basically stuck at the back of the pack, although the brain snap of Vettel and Kubica gave him a couple of extra spots right at the end.

And then there was that brain snap. With only a couple of laps left sitting second Vettel had a bad exit out of one corner and on the run in the next corner Kubica looked to go around the outside, Vettel hit the stoppers (too) late, the touched mid corner which half spun Kubica, both ended up with damaged front ends.

They looked like they might have gotten away with it until they both reached the next bend and promptly found that their cars weren’t steering as well as they had been, Kubica hit the wall hard removing both left hand wheels in the process and Vettal stuck the left hand corner of his car into the wall breaking the suspension. Vettel tried to limp it back to the pits, but gave up before he got there. Because of their incident the safety car came out again and when it peeled off into the pits there was just one corner left.

The odd moves of Vettel and Kubica promoted Barrichello (who has now started more Formula 1 GPs than anybody else in history) to second to complete the dream 1-2 finish for Brawn GP on debut. Its a nice change to see someone other than Ferrari or McLaren win, so lets hope that they can keep it up and it wasn’t just a one off fluke.

Full results after the jump.

» Continue reading Button caps dream weekend with maiden win for Brawn GP

, , ,
Saturday 28 March 2009

Brawn GP qualifies 1-2 on debut

0
Written by Dean Robinson
Brawn GP qualifies 1-2 on debut

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/broadview/3392019736/

Now come the questions as to why on earth they couldn’t manage this during all those the years that Honda was throwing copious amounts of money into the team. Lets take a quick look at it, same drivers, mostly same personnel, new cars (but everyone is in the same boat), new owner (yes, but Brawn was there before too) and new Mercedes engines… yeah that’s probably got something to do with it…

, ,
Saturday 28 March 2009

Virgin enters Formula 1

1
Written by Dean Robinson
Virgin enters Formula 1

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/broadview/3393953562/

In the weeks before it was announced that Ross Brawn would be the new owner of the deceased Honda F1 team, the rumours were doing the rounds that Richard Branson was a potential candidate to become the newest team owner in the Formula 1 paddock. As it has turned out and owner he is not, a major sponsor though he is.

On Saturday morning prior to the second practice session for the opening round of the Formula 1 season at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit, Branson announced that he would be sponsoring the newly formed Brawn GP team though his Virgin brand. And sure enough the next time the cars rolled out, filling small sections of the pain white cars were Virgin logos, I would imagine that come round 2 we’ll see a much more prominent livery to reflect the sponsorship.

Branson also talked briefly about how he hope to contribute to Formula 1 through areas such as making the sport greener – one way he is hoping to do this is through an eco-friendly fuel that one of his companies has been developing. Like most things, if Richard Branson says he wants something to happen, he will probably make it happen.

I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who would see Branson’s involvement in the sport as a negative thing, he wouldn’t be just getting involved for the fun of it (well, maybe a little bit), he means business, as does Ross Brawn.

, , ,