Category: 2009

Weekend Preview: 10-11 October 2009

Feature Events

(quick version as it is very late!)


IRL IndyCar Series

– Firestone Indy 300
– Homestead-Miami Speedway
– Homestead, Florida, USA
– (17/17)
– www.indycar.com
– with Indy Lights and GrandAm

Season finale! Who will take it? Dixon, Briscoe or Franchitti?

UK TV: LIVE on SKY SPORTS 2 from 10pm Saturday, repeated at 7am and 4pm Sunday on SSX.

US TV: LIVE on VERSUS from 4pm ET Saturday.


American Le Mans Series

– Monterey Sports Car Championships
– Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
– California, USA
– (10/10)
– www.americanlemans.com
– with Atlantics

Another season finale!

UK TV: I have NO idea.

US TV: DELAYED on SPEED at 2.30pm Sunday.

Since the TV coverage utterly sucks because it is not live, listen in live to www.radiolemans.com at 10.45pm UK / 5.45pm ET US.

Other Events

Stock Car:


V8 Supercar

– Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
– Mount Panorama, Bathurst, Australia
– www.v8supercar.com.au
– UK TV: LIVE on MOTORSTV at 9PM SATURDAY


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Pepsi 500
– Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California, USA
– www.nascar.com
– UK TV: SKY SPORTS XTRA, Sunday 10pm
– US TV: LIVE on ABC, Sunday 2.30pm ET


NASCAR Nationwide Series

– Copart 300
– Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California, USA
– www.nascar.com
– US TV: LIVE on ESPN 2, Saturday 4pm ET (not covered in UK)

Sports Car / Touring Car:


DTM

– Dijon
– Dijon, France
– www.dtm.com
– UK TV: ESPN at 12.45 Sunday
– suppported by F3 Euroseries

Grand-am

– Homestead-Miami Speedway


* * * *
Sources
FORIX (sub req.)
Live Sport on TV
RadioTimes.com
Series websites as mentioned
Autosport magazine

Race Notes: Japanese Grand Prix 2009

2009 Formula 1 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Date: 4 October 2009
Circuit: Suzuka International Racing Course
Location: Suzuka-shi, Mie-ken, Japan
(PitlaneFanatic) (GoogleCircuits)
Distance: 53 laps
Tyre choices (red): SS / S / M / H

Coverage: BBC One with BBC Radio 5 Live audio
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)
Interviewers: Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie

R5 commentary: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 interviewer: Holly Samos

Coverage begins at 5am UK time. I recorded the pre-race show and watched it back after the race, on race day I got to the TV at 5.58am just in time for the start. BBC pre-show is good, but not that good.

DVR Notes

Three races to go including this one. Button has a 15 point lead over Barrichello, that needs to become a 20 point lead to win the title today. Red Bull need to score 6 more than Brawn to stay in the Constructors’ hunt.

BBC guys essentially giving the Constructors’ title to Brawn already, even if they outscore Brawn here they have a lot to do over the next two races. Have to say I agree.

Fernando Alonso has joined Ferrari, here’s a word from him:

“Ferrari has dominated F1 for the last ten years. The most popular team in teh world, the most famous team in the world you become a legend when you drive that car, whatever the performance is it is very attractive to drive for Ferrari.”

Eddie though says McLaren are about to overtake Ferrari in the table and they need to up their game. DC says Kimi is now the key to the driver market, will he go to McLaren or take the money at Toyota?

Qualifying Report with Ted Kravitz
– Friday Practice was run in the wet so by they time they got to quali on Saturday, the drivers didn’t know what cars they had underneath them.
– Webber had an accident in Saturday practice, the repairs ruled him out of qualifying so he starts from pitlane.
– Accidents from several drivers, the worst of which was Glock heavily into the tyre barrier which rules him out of the race today. He should be back for Brazil.
– Buemi caused controversy by returning to the pits after a heavy crash instead of parking it, this meant yellow flags when several drivers set their personal best (and in some cases only) lap time. For this reason several drivers were moved back five places, including Buemi.
– Vettel and Trulli line up on the front row, Hamilton and Sutil took 3rd and 4th – until Sutil had to change a gearbox and was moved back 5 places.

Grid:
Vettel, Trulli
Hamilton, Heidfeld
Raikkonen, Barrichello
Rosberg, Sutil
Kubica, Button
Kovalainen, Alguersuari
Buemi, Fisichella
Nakajima, Alonso
Grosjean, Liuzzi

Pitlane: Webber
Not starting: Glock

Jake says there were so many penalties the final grid was not announced until 10am Sunday! Overnight he saw six potential grids from six teams.

Glock says he has a cut in his leg 5-10cm long. Says he can walk, not perfectly, and it makes no sense to drive. The mechanics have the car ready, he just can’t drive it. He says it was his misjudgement on the exit of the corner.
Good stuff from Timo, admitted his error and a real shame he can’t drive this race.
DC claims the medical helicopter landed at the wrong hospital though, it had to take off and go to another..

The Buemi accident – DC says it was totally unacceptable that he didn’t stop the car and get out of the way after his crash, and instead chose to spoil the laps of those still qualifying.

Obligatory Recorded Button Interview
Says he didn’t think of slowing down for the stewards, trots out some excuse that he didn’t know what would happen with cars behind if he’d slowed down. Well if everyone obeyed the flags they would have slowed down too.. he does have the point that four other drivers did not slow down so he would’ve been in danger, but that’s crap, they should always obey the yellows, they are there for a reason.
Says for the championship the next two circuits suit their car more than this one so it is looking good for him. For this race though he’s got cars ahead which are heavier on fuel so he’s not sure how that’ll turn out, says it’ll be a fun race.

Back to the pitlane. Ross Brawn appears. He says the team will take this race as it comes. [Very philosophical because they know Red Bull has a car advantage here].
Eddie tell Ross he wants a promise: If Brawn wins this race he wants a rendition of ‘My Way’ in the karaoke club tonight – Ross agrees!
Ross says they’re fortunate that Webber had his accident and it takes pressure off them, ‘we don’t need a huge number of points here’.

Lee has recorded a piece with Vettel.
He’s talking us through his pole lap. Says the car is ‘a bit more lazy’ with race fuel onboard. This is the “5th gear through here, turn right here” sort of thing.
Lee says he has a good strike rate of converting poles to wins, but he says he doesn’t care about statistics. #SorryGavin
He’s looking back to 2007 when Kimi was 17 points down with 20 on the table, two races to go, and Kimi still won the title.

DC walking around the merchandise area! This weekend you can buy Jenson Button themed cushions and Jenson Button themed cookies.. okaaay..

Gridwalk with Martin Brundle

Vettel, P1: “Jarno is next to us [and Lewis behind], the run to turn one is not that long. We should be alright against both of them.”

Hamilton, P3: “I’m racing for the team, want to get the result. We’re in a good spot, there’s a lot of road before turn one so hopefully on the clean side I’ll get a good start. I was looking at the replays of the last few years and the outside of turn one doesn’t look a good place to be, so go for the inside.”
[Odd that he says there’s a lot of road and Sebastian says there isn’t.. a clue to their mindset?]

Heidfeld, P4: “So far so good, luckily I did lift in qualifying and others didn’t so they got penalties and I didn’t. I’d like more top speed, we’re slowest in the ranking because our 7th gear is too short.”
Martin: That’s ‘ranking’, everyone, make sure you get that right. [Heidy has a lisp]

Quick stop at Ferrari to get a good look at it while no-one is around, Martin says the cars are starting to look more like they were last year with all the aero developments being added.

Martin points up to his commentary box which is a ten minute walk from the grid so he has to get out of here, quick time for one more person..

Andy Shovelin, Button’s engineer: “Gonna be a difficult start, if we get off the line well we can do something in the race, definitely a tough afternoon. We think we’ve got a speed advantage in a straight line. He’s always relaxed on race day, that doesn’t worry him too much.”

Japanese National Anthem

Track guide with Martin and Rubens Barrichello. Rubinho says this place is special, along with Spa it is one of the top two circuits F1 visits. 130R is easier than it used to be, the entry is the same ‘wow’ as before but they’ve widened the exit. Keep off the astroturf all around the track, it slows you down.

Ted Kravitz says Sutil will be the first to pit, lap 14. Race win contenders on laps 17 or 18, with a long stint of 28 laps for Kubica.

Eddie, pick a winner: Trulli. [interesting choice, outside chance, could do it]
David, the title? Brawn will get the Constructors’ but not Drivers’. [I agree]

Live Notes

Formation Lap. 53 lap race.

1.2.3.4.5..Go!

Awesome stuff on the first lap, very fast and frantic and yet everyone is through! Amazing. I swear the cars look 2x faster here than at the likes of Bahrain or Shanghai.
Buemi very slow away at the back.

L1 (Lap 1 completed) – Vettel leads Hamilton, Trulli, Heidfeld, Kimi, Rubens, Sutil, Rosberg, Kovy, Kubica, Button.

Alonso passes Liuzzi. Webber pits despite starting from last, he’s changing from soft to hard tyres.

L3 – Webber pits again, his headrest has come loose and he goes a lap down while they try to fix it.

L4 – Lots of replays. Jenson passes Kubica! 10th.

Fuji TV directing this race, not FOM as per usual, so we’re getting a very odd choice of camera shots.

L6 – Webber pits again, guess this is now a test session for him.

L8 – Vettel is 3.3sec up on Hamilton, then a 1.9sec gap to Trulli and 3.1 to Heidfeld.

L9 – Vettel gets another half second up.

L12 – Button’s radio: Kubica is still a threat behind.
I can’t hear JB’s response. Something about Sutil.

L14 – Sutil vs Kovalainen – SPIN! Adrian spins around, Heikki runs wide and Button passes the pair of them for 8th and one point!

L15 – Buemi retired for some reason. He’s with Holly:
“We had a problem on the start with the clutch, and it finally failed.”

L16 – Hamilton pits and takes the harder tyre.
Sutil also pits from 12th.

L17 – Trulli is in, he’s out between Hamilton and Button.

L18 – Button pits and takes the harder tyre. Out in clear air. Fisichella also in.

L19 – Vettel pits from the lead, he’s taking hards as well. Barrichello, Heidfeld, Raikkonen also in.
Webber has picked up a penalty for ‘unsafe release from the pits’. Not his day.

L20 – Not a stellar race so far.. for Suzuka I’m disappointed, this race usually has drama – maybe we used it up yesterday. Most of the racing was on the first lap.

L21 – ALG complains about Rubens holding him up. Davidson, 5Live: “Well PASS HIM THEN!”

L22 – Rosberg pits, was running just behind Vettel and drops down to 9th.

L25 – Lewis radio.”OK Lewis, you need a 3 second gap to Trulli.”
“OK Lewis..” his engineer always starts like that. “OK Lewis, an anvil is going to be dropped on your head at turn 4, turn 4.”
Kovalainen pits.

Strategy races. Meh. Wonder if we’ll be clamouring for them back next year when refuelling is banned, just so fuel stops give us a break.

L29 – Groskjean runs wide at Spoon Curve. Loses a place.

L31 – Vettel sets fastest lap on lap 30. Alonso was very heavy on fuel, he’s the only one yet to stop.

L32 – Liuzzi passes Nakajima! Front straight. Kaz tries to run him off the road or into the wall by swerving over, Tonio’s having none of it, love it Tonio – we like Tonio.

L33 – Fastest Lap from Raikkonen in 5th. Catching Heidfeld quickly.

L36 – Raikkonen pits from 5th and is out in 8th.
L37 – Heidfeld in…and out, Raikkonen beats him! They made that work. Nick is out in front of his team-mate and holds him up massively.

L38 – Hamilton pits.
L39 – Kubica tries to pass Heidfeld at Spoon! Can’t do it, loses time but by the chicane he’s caught him again.
L40 – Trulli pits, quick stop, he’s beaten Hamilton!

Fisichella and Kovalainen pit, Fisi beats him on strategy but Heikki pushes his way through in turn 1 – Fisi was caught sleeping by a Finn at turn 1 at Suzuka… I’ve heard that before somewhere.

L41 – Vettel pits from the lead, slight problem on the right front but he’s so far ahead it doesn’t matter.

L42 – Kubica pits. Wonder how much time he lost behind Heidfeld.
Of the current frontrunners, Barrichello and Rosberg have yet to stop.

Oddly, this race hasn’t been great yet it seems to have gone by very quickly. Only 10 to go.

L43 – Barrichello pits and is out ahead of Button! Change of running order for the team-mates. Title-deciding?

L45 – big accident for Alguersuari. SAFETY CAR
Spin at 130R. Radio – he says he’s fine.
Rosberg pitted and is out ahead of the Brawns, he did that because the Brawns were running slow under yellow before everyone caught the Safety Car.

Hamilton is reporting a KERS issue just like in Singapore. He got it cleared then, can he now?

Replay: Alguersuari took the inside of 130R and got on the grass, through the advertising hoarding and on to the gravel – the gravel sends him into the tyre barrier.

Longish hold while he is recovered in the ambulance and the barrier is fixed.

L50 – Restart. Seems nobody made a move.. until the chicane at the end of the lap, Button takes a look, not close enough. Kubica too. Nah.

L51 – Kubica very good on braking, looking to pass Button.

Webber gets fastest lap… in last after 5 pit stops..

Last Lap

Kubica trying.. nope.

VETTEL WINS!
Lights to flag, flawless run.
Trulli 2nd, Hamilton 3rd.

Title fight? Barrichello 7th and Button 8th. Jenson made up a lot of places but Rubens fell back, not sure why, but he still got a point nearer to Button – not sure it will be enough. Vettel took a nice chunk of points out of the pair of them.

Parc Ferme
Podium
Anthems
Champagne!

Query over Rosberg’s position – BrawnGP say Nico went too quickly on his in-lap for his second pit stop, when he stopped under the Safety Car. On the lap they catch the SC they have to hit a computer-generated lap time readout on their dashboard for safety reasons and Brawn say he failed to do so, and was too quick.

Conference

Vettel, P1:

“What a race. With pole position and strategy-wise we were the favourites but first of all we have to do the start. We were pretty confident, we’ve had good starts in the past, it was closer than I thought it would be in turn one, all of a sudden I saw a Silver Arrow on the inside. I tried to push every lap, the car was fantastic. With strategy we were 2 laps longer than Lewis in the first stint. It was pretty much in control until the soft tyres in the last stint, I was taking care of my tyres apart from the fastest lap. Finally we made it, the last couple of races were a little bit up and down. Good to be back in 1st position.”

Trulli, P2:

“I knew the start would be the hot spot of the race and most difficult, Hamilton is strong on the start with KERS, this time the car pulled away pretty well but obviously came by. From then it was fantastic, qualifying laps with Lewis, closing the gap and pushing again. After the first stop again chasing closely, I was really enjoyed it because the car was strong. Eventually thanks to the strategy we got him at the last pit stop. Really happy.”

Hamilton, P3:

“We had a great race, tried to get both of them at the start but they both got a really good start which is not always the case. Sebastian drove a good race and pulled away into the distance, Jarno and I were battling with our times, after our first stop I lost KERS. I had to have a 3 second gap before our last stop and I lost half a second or something, good job by these two and we’ll battle until the last race.”

Vettel:

“Tactic was to get a good start, after that look right look left, quickly I noticed I had a decent start so I stayed in the middle. Fortunately apart from that I didn’t have wheel-to-wheel racing this race. The speed of the car was fantastic, this circuit is unbelievable. I really enjoyed myself today.”

Race Result

Driver Gap Pts
1 Vettel 53 laps 10
2 Trulli 4.8sec 8
3 Hamilton 6.4sec 6
4 Räikkönen 7.9sec 5
5 Rosberg 8.7sec 4
6 Heidfeld 9.5sec 3
7 Barrichello 10.6sec 2
8 Button 11.4sec 1
9 Kubica 11.7sec
10 Alonso 13.0sec
11 Kovalainen 13.7sec
12 Fisichella 14.5sec
13 Sutil 14.9sec
14 Liuzzi 15.7sec
15 Nakajima 17.9sec
16 Grosjean 1 lap
17 Webber 2 laps
DNF Alguersuari Accident
DNF Buemi Clutch
DNS Glock Accident

There was a query on Rosberg’s position – but after the race it was confirmed he would not receive a penalty because his dashboard showed a low-fuel warning rather than his lap time delta for the SC period, this was a fault with the common ECU everyone uses and so not the fault of Williams or Rosberg.

Drivers’ Championship

Driver Prev JPN Total
1 Button 84 1 85
2 Barrichello 69 2 71
3 Vettel 59 10 69
4 Webber 51.5 51.5
5 Räikkönen 40 5 45
6 Hamilton 37 6 43
7 Rosberg 30.5 4 34.5
8 Alonso 26 26
9 Glock 24 24
10 Trulli 22.5 8 30.5
11 Massa 22 22
12 Kovalainen 22 22
13 Heidfeld 12 3 15
14 Kubica 9 9
15 Fisichella 8 8
16 Sutil 5 5
17 Buemi 3 3
18 Bourdais 2 2

Vettel closes in! Can he pull a Raikkonen and fight his way back into contention? Rubens could still take it too, but the odds are still in Button’s favour.

Constructors’ Championship

Constructor Prev JPN Total
1 Brawn 153 3 156
2 Red Bull 110.5 10 120.5
3 Ferrari 62 5 67
4 McLaren 59 6 65
5 Toyota 46.5 8 54.5
6 Williams 30.5 4 34.5
7 Renault 26 26
8 BMW 21 3 24
9 Force India 13 13
10 Toro Rosso 5 5

All over bar the formalities, Brawn are 35.5pts ahead of Red Bull with only 36 available. This title should be won in Brazil. Keep an eye on Ferrari vs McLaren though, just two points in it for 3rd and the resultant extra squillions in TV money next season!

Next Event

The next race is the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Sao Paulo on 18th October – the penultimate round. As it is Brazil it is an evening race for us in the UK, 5pm start (4pm-ish on TV) which is a great time for a title decider- and remember Interlagos, where ANYTHING can happen.

That’s it from Japan. I am moving house during the week of the 12th and it might run into Brazil weekend, if my internet is restored in time I’ll be live-tweeting and live-commenting the race as usual with blog notes appearing later in the week.

Flag courtesy of 4 International Flags

Weekend Preview: 3-4 October 2009

Feature Events


FIA Formula 1

– 2009 Formula 1 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
– Suzuka International Racing Course
– Suzuka-shi, Mie-ken, Japan
– (15/17)
– www.formula1.com
– Map and Guide by Pitlane Fanatic
– with Porsche Carrera Cup Japan

We’re back at Suzuka! F1 fans have missed this place after a couple of visits to the sanitised Fuji circuit, both of which suffered with heavy rain. Suzuka is thankfully untouched other than a bit of resurfacing, a new pit complex and a lick of paint!

In any given season whenever they are on the calendar the top two circuits drivers list as their favourites are Spa and Suzuka. Designed in the 1960s as a test track, this circuit has everything. A tricky first section, a fast last section and the only track crossover in major motorsports as well as the potential for rain, as we saw in Friday practice which heavily limited the running.

Remember Jenson Button only needs to outscore Rubens Barrichello by five points to be crowned the 2009 F1 Champion.

UK TV: LIVE on BBC ONE from 5.00am Sunday, repeated at 2.00pm.

US TV: LIVE on SPEED from 12.30am ET Sunday (Saturday night), repeated at 10.00pm.


MotoGP

– bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal
– Estoril
– Portugal
– (14/17)
– www.motogp.com
– with 250cc, 125cc

UK TV: LIVE on BBC TWO at 12.30pm.

US TV: DELAYED on SPEED at 6pm Sunday.

Other Events

Open-Wheel:


Superleague Formula

– Autodromo di Monza
– Monza, Milan, Italy
– (5/6)
– www.superleagueformula.com
– UK TV: Highlights on Eurosport 2 at 11pm.
– Supported by GT Open and F3 Open

Stock Car:


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods
– Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, Kansas, USA
– www.nascar.com
– UK TV: LIVE on SKY SPORTS 3, Sunday 8.30pm
– US TV: LIVE on ABC, Sunday 1pm ET
(I am aware the difference between 1 ET and 8.30 UK makes no sense whatsoever, unless the US have a 2.5hr pre-race or their clocks changed)


NASCAR Nationwide Series

– Kansas Lottery 300
– Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, Kansas, USA
– www.nascar.com
– US TV: LIVE on ESPN 2, Saturday 3pm ET (not covered in UK)

Sports Car / Touring Car:


FIA GT

– Petit Le Mans (see above)
– Paul Ricard, France
– www.fiagt.com
– UK TV: MotorsTV 4pm
– suppported by FIA GT3

International GT Open

– Monza
– Supporting Superleague, with F3 Open


BTCC

– Brands Hatch GP
– Brands Hatch, Kent, England
– www.btcc.net
– UK TV: ITV4 from 11.30am
– suppported by Porsche UK, Ginetta, FRenault, Clio Cup
– final round!


Brazilian V8

– Campo Grande


Argentinian TC2000

– Punta del Este

Britcar

– Britcar 500
– Silverstone, England

Rally:

World Rally Championship

– Rallye de Espana
– www.wrc.com

Other:

World Superbikes

– Magny-Cours, France
– UK: Eurosport at 9.30am (race 1 live) and 5.15pm (race 2 delay)
– US: SPEED at 3pm (race 1 delay) and 4pm (race 2 delay)


* * * *
Sources
FORIX (sub req.)
Live Sport on TV
RadioTimes.com
Series websites as mentioned
Autosport magazine

Race Notes: Singpore Grand Prix 2009

2009 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix
Date: 27 September 2009
Circuit: Marina Bay Street Circuit
Location: Marina Bay, Singpore
(PitlaneFanatic) (GoogleCircuits)
Distance: 61 laps
Tyre choices (red): SS / S / M / H

Coverage: BBC One with BBC Radio 5 Live audio
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)
Interviewers: Ted Kravitz and Lee McKenzie

R5 commentary: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 interviewer: Holly Samos

Coverage begins at 12.10pm.

DVR Notes

Jake – “Lights out in Formula One usually signifies the start of a race, tonight in Singapore it its lights on.”

Quick recap:
Four races to go including this one.
Button leads Rubens by 14, less than 30 pts cover the top four.
Brawn have a healthy lead over Red Bull.

DC says he didn’t appreciate the spectacle of a night street race last year, he was too busy working and preparing for driving. This year he’s been able to take it all in.

Recap of Singapore 2008’s Renault/Piquet race-fixing. Are we bored of this yet? I know I am, so let’s skip this bit other than to say title sponsor ING and associate sponsor Mutua Madrilena this week pulled out of supporting the team, I believe they might be still be a personal sponsor of Alonso but I’m not entirely sure.

EJ and DC are asked if it reminds them of any past incidents. They bring up Senna vs Prost at Suzuka in 1990 when Senna just drove Prost into the gravel at turn one to seal the championship. We get a replay – Murray Walker! More of this next week when we visit Japan, no doubt.

Jordan says we need to restore confidence in the integrity of F1. Agreed!

Qualifying
– Grosjean complained of brake issues. Knocked out in Q2.
– Fisichella yet to adapt to the Ferrari. “Not easy, nice to have one complete day of testing to feel better with the setup”. Meanwhile Raikkonen could only manage 13th.
– Button struggled with handling, he was out in Q2.
– Hamilton, Vettel and Rosberg were setting fast times until Barrichello hit the wall and ended the session. Rubens was 5th but will start 9th – firstly he had a 5-place penalty to 10th for an unscheduled gearbox change after worries about the unit at the last two races, but then Nick Heidfeld was found to be under-weight and was sent to the back of the grid.
– Hamilton’s time secured pole, with Vettel 2nd and Rosberg 3rd.

Grid:
Hamilton, Vettel
Rosberg, Webber
Alonso, Glock
Kubica, Kovalainen
Barrichello, Nakajima
Button, Raikkonen
Buemi, Trulli
Sutil, Alguersuari
Fisichella, Grosjean
Liuzzi
Pitlane start: Heidfeld

After Heidfeld was sent to 20th position for being underweight in qualifying, BMW elected to change his engine and gearbox and start him on full tanks from the pitlane.

To a recording bit with Hamilton earlier on race day. It is hot and humid in Singapore so he’s having to keep hydrated often. Says Singapore has great fan support (presumably for he and the team), second only to the British GP. He says his hotel blacked out his windows because the F1 personnel are staying on European time, so they are sleeping in the day, getting up at 2pm and going to bed at 6am.

Live with Ross Brawn:
“Fairly disappointing qualifying. Fine on Saturday morning, even Q1 we weren’t too bad. Out in Q2 with Jenson and it all started to fall apart. Heidfeld’s penalty puts us on the good side of the grid, small mercies. Difficult track, got to bide our time and hope opportunities come. Scoring some points would be a great result.”

Jake says this place is lit by 3 million watts of power. 500 million people are gearing up to watch this race.

DC saying “you really don’t want to get off-line, the dust sucks you into the wall, you saw what happened to Rubens yesterday.”

We’re hoping it won’t rain, as is possible. It is a long race anyway and who knows how it would affect the visibility, with glare from the lights reflecting on the track. This happened in Qatar last year for the MotoGP night race which had to be postponed a day.

Gridwalk with Martin Brundle.
– Lightning in the sky but the rainstorm is not heading for the race track.
– Rubens, P9: “Everything is okay. It looked bigger than it was [the crash yesterday], from here I need to move forward. Clean side of the track does make a difference, for the support race just standing on the pitwall you could see a lot of dust.”
– Brundle says to John Button while walking by.. “here I’ve got a present for Jenson, a glow stick, and make sure he eats his carrots!”
– Very quick line from the PM of Singapore, he tips Hamilton for the win.
– Martin says this will be a race all about saving the rear tyres. Trying to find “Teflonso” – ha!
– Rosberg, P3: “Looking forward to a strong race, I have more fuel than Sebastian and I’m on the better side of the grid. (Hamilton) looked strong in qualifying, will be difficult to beat him and he has KERS.”
– Vettel, P2: “Its a long race, 61 laps is a long way to go. First of all survive the first corner, first lap. Who knows what happens.”
We lost the gridwalk camera feed so he throws back to Jake in the pits.

Singapore National Anthem
Fact: Singapore has been an independent nation since 1965.
Unfortunately their anthem sounds like a lot of other anthems, or Eurovision Song Contest entries.

Shots of Ari Vataen and Jean Todt quickly shaking hands on the grid. Not a staged thing, looks like Todt and his entourage were walking through and Ari, alone, fights his way through to get a handshake..

Track Guide.. new pit entry and exit. The turns have been extended out into the runoff area and are tighter than last year, to create space for the pit access.
New kerbs at the turn 10 chicane.. last year we had saw-tooth affairs which were not good, this year we have kerbs similar to the new ones at Monza the other week. Chicane is a bit tighter than before, drivers not happy though. Turn 17 now known in F1 as Piquet’s Corner!

Ted Kravitz says Vettel has only 42kg of fuel on board, compared to 51kg for Hamilton. Lewis is quickest and heaviest of the frontrunners. Lots of stoppers between lap 17-21, Button is fuelled heavily to lap 28.

Mario Theissen! We like Mario. He looks like Ned Flanders. Talking about Heidfeld’s penalty:
“It was a mistake, we found out a ballast weight was not correctly placed. We indicated it to the FIA and the penalty was to go to the back of the grid. If it was intentional we would not have indicated it!”
Speaking of which we get Heidfeld team radio, which the BBC completely ignore in order to hear David Coulthard speak about tyre management. Both EJ and DC tip Hamilton for the win.

Grid reminder:
Hamilton, Vettel
Rosberg, Webber
Alonso, Glock
Kubica, Kovalainen
Barrichello, Nakajima
Button, Raikkonen
Buemi, Trulli
Sutil, Alguersuari
Fisichella, Grosjean
Liuzzi
Pitlane start: Heidfeld

Live Notes

Engines firing.

1:00pm UK time – Formation Lap

Grid

1.2.3.4.5..Go!!

L1 Hamilton clear in the lead. Everyone through turn one. Rosberg 2nd.

Alonso pushing Webber. Goes wide. Webber and Glock clear Alonso.

L2 Cars stringing out already.

Replays:
Vettel had a lot of wheelspin on the dust. Slow away.
Webber ignored the kerb to pass Alonso on the wrong side of it – could get penalised.

L4 Grosjean pits and enters the garage.

L5 Hamilton radio “Possible KERS issue”. He’s told to disable the KERS.

L7 Webber told let Alonso through, for passing wrong side of kerbs.. He also let Glock through.

L8 Not sure why Crofty thinks it was Red Bull’s decision. He said it was “ultra-conservative” from them. Surely it was an order from Whiting…

On the replay Webber looks to take a good line through the corner, that kerbing is in a really strange place. If they moved it back that corner could make a good passing place!

L10 Radio calls.. Sutil told to manage the engine due to overheating stuck behind Alguersuari, then Fisichella is told about Sutil’s message and to pass him!

L12 Buemi runs wide on to the dust, Raikkonen passes him.

L14 Liuzzi goes for Fisichella, they are side by side… yellow flag! Liuzzi has to back out. I’m unable to see the reason for the flag at that corner.

OK we see it now – debris from Glock’s Toyota (slowmo replay shows it falling off). In the wrong place as well, on the exit of the only decent passing place on the circuit! Always the way.

Order: Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Glock, Alonso, Webber, Barrichello, Kubica, Kovalainen, Button, Nakajima, Raikkonen, Buemi, Alguersuari, Sutil, Fisichella, Liuzzi, Trulli, Heidfeld.

L18 A brave (stupid?) marshal runs to collect the debris under double-waved yellows* – as Vettel pits to emerge in 7th behind Barrichello. I’m not sure you could pay me to do that – and these guys aren’t paid.
* single waved yellow warns the driver of danger, double flags mean slow down and be prepared to stop.

L19 Rosberg pits, he’s out ahead of Rubens but crosses the pit exit line early. Rubens passes him on the next corner. Penalty coming for Nico. Webber also pitted.

L20 Glock is in, so is Barrichello. Glock out behind Nakajima. Barrichello is just ahead of Raikkonen now.

L21 Hamilton pits – he beats Alonso who has yet to stop.
Drive-through penalty for Rosberg for crossing pit exit line. Replays showed him fully on the race track before he darts back across the blend line to pit exit side.

SAFETY CAR

Sutil tries to pass Alguersuari and spins – as he tries to recover he t-bones Heidfeld and knocks Nick around. Adrian tried to continue the spin to turn it into a 360 but forgot to look for traffic. His fault, no question.
New front wing for Sutil. Heidfeld is out on the spot with broken suspension, he manages to clear his car to the escape road. This ends Heidfeld’s record run of races without retirement, he got up to something like 42 consecutive races! That’s more than two seasons!

L22 Lots more pitting. Button, Kovalainen, Alonso, Nakajima, more.
Alguersuari departs with his fuel hose attached! Stops but not before the equipment his fuel man is pulled down. He went before the stop board was lifted!

L23 New Order:
Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Glock, Alonso, Barrichello, Kovalainen, Button, Webber, Kubica, Nakajima, Raikkonen, Buemi, Trulli, Fisichella, Liuzzi, Alguersuari, Sutil.

Rosberg still needs to take is drive-through penalty. This SC has worked wonders for the one-stoppers who have come in now, but not helped the two-stoppers who have lost their track advantage. I have completely lost track of who that is. Who needs to come in again and who doesn’t? I should keep notes or something.

L24 Team radio : Rosberg will follow SC in to take his penalty.
Sutil pits under the SC, goes into the garage.

L25 GREEN FLAG – Rosberg did not take his penalty.

L27 No change in the order. A couple of little looks on the restart.
Race Control: Incident involving cars 6 and 20 to be investigated after the race. Sutil and Heidfeld.

L28 Rosberg takes his penalty and he’s now behind Trulli in 14th.

L31 Through half distance. If we get another Safety Car we’ll hit the 2hr limit.

L34 On 5Live, Sutil blames Heidfeld for driving over his front wing, unbelievable!

L35 Rosberg pits for tyres and fuel. He’s quite a way back now, out of contention. Shame.

L38 There’s not a great deal going on, though now Hamilton and Vettel are trading fast laps and are only half a second apart.

Replay: Vettel’s right wing mirror (and associated aero devices) have come off.

L39 Rosberg passes Alguersuari. Jamie just pulls over and lets him go.

L40 Vettel pits from Hamilton’s tail, and he’s back out behind Jenson Button for 7th.

22 laps to go. This isn’t a great race, but not the MOST boring I’ve ever seen. Try watching Valencia, Magny-Cours, Imola-with-chicanes and the before-they-fixed-it Hungaroring.

L41 Buemi pits twice in two laps, his fuel rig broke down and they had to use the backup.
Vettel – speeding in the pitlane!
Replay – he’s broken his rear diffuser on a kerb.

L44 Vettel takes his drive-through for pitlane speeding.

L45 Webber pits, lots of black dust from the brakes. He rejoins 14th behind Fisichella and Liuzzi.

L46 Glock pits from 2nd. He’s now behind Kovalainen in 6th. Button is catching this group.
Webber spins at turn 1! He’s backwards in the tyre barrier.

Hamilton take the opportunity to stop, in case of SC.

Brake failure for Webber – we saw it coming with that dust earlier.

Also pitting: Barrichello, Kovalainen, Nakajima, Fisichella, Liuzzi.

No Safety Car, track has been cleared. Alonso leads.

L48 Both Toro Rossos are pulled in retire – worried about brakes too? Seems so.

L50 Alonso pits from the lead. Hamilton now leads. Fernando is now 4th.

L52 Button pits from 2nd. Does he beat Barrichello? Yes! He is 5th after starting 11th.

L53 Raikkonen pits from 7th, he’s out in 10th, bad day for Ferrari.

9 laps to go. Top ten: Hamilton, Glock, Alonso, Vettel, Button, Barrichello, Kovalainen, Kubica, Nakajima, Raikkonen.

Vettel has brake problems – sister car crashed, sister team withdrawn setting fastest laps. He’s 6.3sec behind Glock. Glock is only 7.7sec behind Hamilton, a good race from Timo.

Heidfeld with 5Live: “Sutil started moving without switching his brain on. 42 races without stopping, pity it came to an end.”

L56 Clouds of black brake dust from Button’s car.

L58 Ross Brawn on the radio to Button, he’s told to back off and bring it home. Rubens then told about Button’s issues… “Can I catch him??” “Um, no, you’re 10 seconds down at the same speed.”
Actually he is over a 1sec lap faster, but he’s almost certainly going to have the same problem if he pushes and with 3 laps left there’s no point risking it to close a 10 second gap.

L59 The only battle remaining is Kubica-Nakajima-Raikkonen for 8th position and the final point.

Last Lap

Lewis Hamilton wins!
Glock 2nd, good run
Alonso 3rd
Vettel, Button, Barrichello Kovalainen and Kubica round out the points.
Nakajima somehow holds off Raikkonen in what is possibly the first time in a while I’ve seen him not simply wave the other guy past him..

Long cooldown lap.
Parc Ferme. Lewis happy!
Podium
Anthem
Trophies
Champagne

Lots of post-race rambling from the trio in the paddock. Now the drivers:

Button with Lee: “I wish I’d done those laps in qualifying. Good race, I got stuck behind Heikki but got past him when he pitted. Happy to get Nakajima off the line, that was key for me.”
McKenzie throws him a curveball by asking him about the second safety car – there was only one, Lee! Jenson says he doesn’t remember the second one.. he’s very positive for Japan.

BBC main coverage is out of here double-quick time in order to show a rerun of Eastenders. Really? I mean.. really??? Come on.. No press conference. BUT we can hit the (free) red button service to catch more interviews, that’s where we find the conference. (UK TV has gone for interactive extra channels instead of a lot of HD, for now)

Conference with Peter Windsor:

Hamilton: “Very tough race. Race was pretty straightforward, managed to get a big enough gap. I knew I was 5 laps longer than [Vettel], all I had to do was keep him behind. Big thank you to the team and my family.”
Windsor: “You had trouble with the KERS button early in the race.”
Hamilton: “I had no problem in the car but the team said we had a fault, I had to disable it and re-engage it and it worked fine after that. Had pressure from Nico in the beginning. There’s corner after corner, there’s no real break here. The fans here are amazing.”

Glock: “Really good race for me, the start was a bit messy but then then a good first stint. Before I came here I knew the driver can make a difference here. I lost the view of where the other guys are, my team did not say to me where I am, suddenly they said you are safe for P2 and I was really surprised!”

Alonso (collar unbuttoned in order to not show ING sponsorship!): “Result is great for us, first podium of the season. First lap was a little bit stressful side by side with Mark, then Timo took the benefit in turn 8, so the battle with Mark I lost a position to Timo and we finished right behind him but no complaints, fantastic for us, we had the pace all weekend.”

This coverage on the interactive channel continues for another hour, it is called the BBC F1 Forum and there is a lot more chat, interviews, F1 personalities come and pay a visit, all good stuff and far too long to note down here!! Interestingly in this one, Martin Whitmarsh may just have let slip that Kimi is coming in to replace Heikki simply by being terrible at denying a rumour put to him..giggling away like a schoolkid.. All good fun.

Race Result

Driver Gap Pts
1 Hamilton 61 laps 10
2 Glock 9.6sec 8
3 Alonso 16.6sec 6
4 Vettel 20.2sec 5
5 Button 30.0sec 4
6 Barrichello 31.8sec 3
7 Kovalainen 36.1sec 2
8 Kubica 55.0sec 1
9 Nakajima 56.0sec
10 Räikkönen 58.8sec
11 Rosberg 59.7sec
12 Trulli 73.0sec
13 Fisichella 79.0sec
14 Liuzzi 93.5sec
DNF Alguersuari Brakes
DNF Buemi Gearbox
DNF Webber Brakes
DNF Sutil Damage
DNF Heidfeld Accident
DNF Grosjean Brakes

Drivers’ Championship

Driver Prev SIN Total
1 Button 80 4 84
2 Barrichello 66 3 69
3 Vettel 54 5 59
4 Webber 51.5 51.5
5 Räikkönen 40 40
6 Hamilton 27 10 37
7 Rosberg 30.5 30.5
8 Alonso 20 6 26
9 Glock 16 8 24
10 Trulli 22.5 22.5
11 Massa 22 22
12 Kovalainen 20 2 22
13 Heidfeld 12 12
14 Kubica 8 1 9
15 Fisichella 8 8
16 Sutil 5 5
17 Buemi 3 3
18 Bourdais 2 2

Vettel keeps pace with the Brawn drivers but realistically this is now a fight between the two teammates – Seb needs to be out-scoring these two by some margin and he isn’t doing so. Equally, Rubens is 15 points behind Jenson now so has a lot of work to do. If Jenson scores 5pts more than Rubens in Japan he is Champion.

In the meantime, Hamilton manages to get a good score on the board while Raikkonen gets a big fat zero – the opposite to Monza – and so closes the gap once more, taking Rosberg’s position as he does so. Alonso and Glock take higher positions in the midfield bunfight.

Constructors’ Championship

Constructor Prev SIN Total
1 Brawn 146 7 153
2 Red Bull 105.5 5 110.5
3 Ferrari 62 62
4 McLaren 47 12 59
5 Toyota 38.5 8 46.5
6 Williams 30.5 30.5
7 Renault 20 6 26
8 BMW 20 1 21
9 Force India 13 13
10 Toro Rosso 5 5

Brawn have got this one pretty much sewn up now, with only three races remaining it is a tall order for Red Bull to catch up. There are 18 points available at each race if a team places first and second, that’s 54 points over the next 3 races with a gap of 42.5 between the top two.

The action is in the midfield where Ferrari and McLaren are after 3rd but seemingly not able to take big scores in the same race as their rival, and there’s a big fight for 6th where Renault may have started a late surge.

Next Event

The next race is the FujiTV Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka this weekend! An early start for this one, BBC TV should kick off at about 5am UK time with the race start at 6am. That’s 1am US Eastern, assuming they carry it live. I’ll be live-tweeting and live-commenting the race as usual, with blog notes appearing later in the week. In the meantime my Weekend Preview ought to be up on Friday. See you over the weekend!

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