Red Bull win in Turkey can ruin F1 championship title bid: Button

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 21(ANI): Reigning Formula One champion Jenson Button believes that his race for the championship title could be over in Turkey, if the Red Bull team romp away with the silverware yet again.

Button is currently fourth in the championship standings behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, and Ferarri”s Fernando Alonso.

The circuit in Istanbul should suit McLaren’s aero strengths, but if Red Bull dominates again after their 1-2 at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend, it could spell disaster for the reigning champion, The Mirror reports.

Button trails Webber by eight points, but said: “This team have the resources, the manpower and the passion to succeed and to chase, and this is what they will do.”

“We’ve had a couple of issues in the last two races with reliability and mistakes, but we have to put those behind us now and focus on the next race in Turkey. We’ve got to come with a stronger car, and we can”t make any mistakes,” he added.

The Red Bull drivers are favourites to win the title this year, with the team already leading the constructors’ championship, 20 points ahead of Ferrari.

They have consistently out-paced others till now in the season, claiming pole position for all six races. (ANI)

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Dream victory at Monaco greatest day of my life: Webber

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, May 18 (ANI): Red Bull driver Mark Webber has said that winning the Monaco Grand Prix was the best day in his life as he had dreamt of a top podium finish in the world’s ‘toughest’ race since childhood.

“It was the best day of my life. I’ve dreamt of winning the Monaco Grand Prix since I was a boy and to do it from pole position was just awesome.

“It’s an honour for me to join the list of winners for this race, which hadn’t been won by an Australian since Jack Brabham in 1959,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Webber, as saying.

“Qualifying and the race were pretty near perfect for me. The RB6 was fantastic to drive and I executed some tidy laps to take pole position from Robert Kubica on Saturday afternoon,” he said.

Webber said he expected a real challenge from Kubica, but was relieved to see Sebastian Vettel get the jump on him at the start.

“It gave me a buffer to the Renault driver, while also setting us up for Red Bull Racing’s second one-two of the season. My start wasn’t actually that great, but the run to the first corner was short and no one was able to get ahead.

“It’s very difficult to pass at Monaco and when I emerged from the first corner in the lead, I knew that the race was mine to lose,” Webber said. (ANI)

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Webber takes pole for Monaco Grand Prix

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Monte Carlo, May 15 (DPA) Mark Webber of Red Bull will start from pole position in the Monaco Grand Prix after holding off the challenge of Renault’s Robert Kubica to finish fastest in Saturday’s qualifying session.

The Australian, who also won last week’s Spanish GP, clocked 1 minute 13.826 seconds for the 3.340-kilometre street circuit to grab his third pole of the season and fourth overall.

Kubica will start from second on the grid after registering a time of 1:14.120 minutes, followed by Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Red Bull have now claimed top spot on the grid for all six races so far this season while Renault engines occupy the top three places for Sunday’s race.

‘Today’s lap just all came together, nice clean exits,’ said Australia’s Webber.

‘Three Renault engines and to get pole at Monaco is a nice feeling.’

Kubica was fastest in the final free practice session but had to yield to Webber’s superior pace in qualifying.

‘This was a good effort for us, the team and myself,’ said the Pole, adding that he thought the result was the best his team could have expected.

‘So far, so good. When you are so close it’s better to finish first but we have to be happy.’

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton had to be satisfied with fifth place while team-mate and championship leader Jenson Button qualified down in eighth spot behind Mercedes pair Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.

Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso will have to start from the pit-lane after crashing out in final free practice earlier in the day.

The two-time world champion crashed into the barriers at Massenet 23 minutes into the hour-long session and was unable to repair the damage to his car in time to register a lap time in qualifying.

Defending world champion Button leads the 2010 standings with 70 points from Alonso (67) and Vettel (60) after five of 19 season races.

‘Around here it counts a lot to have driveability,’ said Vettel.

‘I’m looking forward to tomorrow, it’s a long race and lots of things can happen.’

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Webber emulates Brabham with Monaco pole

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Australian Mark Webber looked forward to picking up the baton from compatriot and Formula One great Jack Brabham after putting his Red Bull on pole position for Sunday’s showcase Monaco Grand Prix.

The 33-year-old’s second pole in the space of a week continued his team’s stranglehold on the top slot, with Renault-powered Red Bull chalking up six out of six this season.

Webber secured it by three tenths of a second from Poland’s Robert Kubica in a Renault, with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel pushed into third place in Saturday’s qualifying at the harbourside circuit.

“The first lap went ok, I brushed the Armco (barriers) pretty hard at the start of the second sector…I finished that one and then went for another. It just all came together,” said the Australian, winner in Spain from pole last weekend.

The pole at the most evocative race in Formula One was the fourth of Webber’s career and the first at Monaco by an Australian since triple world champion Jack Brabham in 1967.

Brabham, now the oldest surviving champion at 84, also took his first F1 win in Monaco in 1959 — the only time an Australian has won on the unforgiving streets of the Mediterranean principality.

“I wouldn’t be here without Jack Brabham,” said Webber, reminded of the fact. “My Dad followed Jack when he was a young boy and that started I suppose the dream in the Webber household.

“Jack is an absolute legend of the sport and he’s been very good to me over the years…of course it’s an honour to get the pole today but it would be the biggest highlight of my career if I can join him tomorrow.”

ALONSO ABSENT

Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa completed the second row in fourth place.

His team mate Fernando Alonso, a two times Monaco winner, watched qualifying from the garage after wrecking his car in final practice. The Spaniard, second in the championship behind McLaren’s Jenson Button, will start from the pit lane.

“This is the worst possible place to have to start from, given that overtaking is always problematic,” said Alonso.

“It was my mistake but it was also very unlucky, because with an impact at 90 (kph) you don’t normally write off a chassis.”

World champion Button, last year’s winner on the metal-fenced streets with Brawn GP, just sneaked through to the third and final phase of qualifying and secured eighth slot on the grid.

The Briton was unhappy with Massa however, accusing the Brazilian of impeding him.

“He backed off to get a clear lap for the next lap and he cost me time, so what happened can’t be any clearer. I don’t know what he was thinking,” he said. “He obviously wasn’t looking in his mirrors…he blatantly slowed me down.”

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 winner, qualified fifth with Germany’s Nico Rosberg alongside for Mercedes and back in front of team mate Michael Schumacher — who said the younger German had also cost him a quick lap.

Schumacher, a five times winner in Monaco and making a comeback at the age of 41 and after three years out, qualified seventh.

Fears that qualifying could be crash-strewn and chaotic, with three much slower new teams on the track and expanding the field to 24 cars since last year’s race, proved unfounded.

The only casualty was Renault’s Russian Vitaly Petrov, who slewed into the barriers at Ste. Devote in the second session and starts 14th.

(Editing by Alison Wildey

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Rosberg apologises to frustrated Schumacher

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Nico Rosberg apologised to a frustrated Michael Schumacher on Saturday after the seven times world champion complained he had been slowed by his Mercedes team mate in Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.

Rosberg was outqualified for the first time by the 41-year-old in Spain last weekend but turned the tables on his fellow German by taking sixth place on the starting grid for the season’s most glamorous race with Schumacher seventh.

“I have to say from my perspective that all of our colleagues drove very fairly. The only car that blocked me was my team mate,” Schumacher told television reporters after the session.

“It’s a shame but there you go. It happened in quali three (the third phase) when there were only 10 cars on the track.”

Rosberg, son of Finland’s 1982 world champion Keke, told reporters he had apologised for a situation that Mercedes said was their fault rather than the driver’s because they sent him out at the wrong time and the radio had failed as well.

“I feel extremely frustrated about today because we had a good car all weekend and as a team we didn’t perform well in Q3,” said team principal Ross Brawn.

“There was a problem with Nico’s car getting out of the garage,” he explained.

“The last thing we wanted was to have our two cars on the same piece of track… the plan was to split them but when we came to release Nico’s car we had a problem with releasing it. It left the garage 20 or 30 seconds later than we planned.

“So then we had both cars together and Nico was getting squeezed,” added Brawn. “I think Michael was annoyed after the second or third lap… when I explained to him what happened he was OK, just frustrated…. we cocked up.”

Schumacher, making his comeback after three years in retirement, has won five times in Monaco and a sixth win would equal the record of the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna.

“I don’t think it would have been my quickest lap time anyway but it would have been a banker and that was my aim — to put a banker in and then go obviously full attack for the last lap,” said Schumacher of the incident.

(Editing by Ken Ferris

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Kubica hails Renault return to front row

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Poland’s Robert Kubica celebrated Renault’s return to the quick end of the Formula One starting grid on Saturday after he qualified on the front row for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The French manufacturer, world champions in 2005 and 2006, failed to win a race last year and ended the season in turmoil with a suspended permanent ban from the sport after a race-fixing scandal.

Although Fernando Alonso took pole in Hungary last July, before the scandal broke, and finished third in Singapore, the team’s future was up in the air until a takeover was agreed in December with Luxembourg-based businessman Gerard Lopez.

Since then, Kubica has helped revive their fortunes with some determined drives and Saturday’s qualifying was his best grid placing of the year so far.

“It’s a great day for us,” he told reporters. “Five months ago the team was not sure whether we would exist and we are here in Monaco on the front row.”

Kubica finished second in Australia, fourth in Malaysia and fifth in China and is now a challenger again for what would be only the second win of his career.

In Spain last weekend he had qualified only seventh, well adrift of Australian Mark Webber’s Red Bull on pole. Webber was again on pole in Monaco but the gap was reduced to less than three tenths of a second this time.

“If the same car (Webber’s) is one and a half seconds quicker in Barcelona, there is no reason why we should qualify in front of them,” Poland’s first and only F1 driver said of his performance.

“I was already surprised by our pace in free practice and qualifying but miracles don’t happen from one day to another.

“Of course when you are so close you are a bit upset but we have to be realistic and it was a great day for all of Renault.”

Kubica, always at home on a street circuit and winner in Canada in 2008 with BMW Sauber, was confident for the race.

“Generally the characteristic of the car is similar to two days ago and to this morning, actually this morning I felt the car was a bit better with changes more for the race,” he said.

“I was scared with a lot of fuel we would have too much bottoming, so we put up a bit the ride height and raised the car a bit…in qualifying we were slightly at a disadvantage but I think for the race it will be a bit better.

“Of course in Monaco the race is a bit different, it is not about race pace but bringing the car home, pitting at the right moment, getting out of pitstop without traffic,” said the Pole.

(Editing by Alison Wildey

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Webber puts Red Bull on pole in Monaco

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Australian Mark Webber dreamed of emulating compatriot and Formula One great Jack Brabham on Saturday after putting his Red Bull on pole position for the showcase Monaco Grand Prix.

The 33-year-old’s second pole in the space of a week continued his team’s stranglehold on the top slot, with Renault-powered Red Bull chalking up six out of six races this season.

Webber secured it by three tenths of a second from Poland’s Robert Kubica in a Renault, with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel pushed into third place.

“The first lap went ok, I brushed the Armco (barriers) pretty hard at the start of the second sector…I finished that one and then went for another. It just all came together,” said the Australian, winner in Spain from pole last weekend.

The pole was the fourth of Webber’s career and the first at Monaco by an Australian since triple world champion Jack Brabham in 1967.

Brabham, now the oldest surviving champion at 84, also took his first F1 win in Monaco in 1959 — the only time an Australian has won on the unforgiving streets of the Mediterranean principality.

“I wouldn’t be here without Jack Brabham,” said Webber, reminded of the fact. “My Dad followed Jack when he was a young boy and that started I suppose the dream in the Webber household.

“Jack is an absolute legend of the sport and he’s been very good to me over the years…of course it’s an honour to get the pole today but it would be the biggest highlight of my career if I can join him tomorrow.”

Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa completed the second row in fourth place.

His team mate Fernando Alonso, a two times Monaco winner, watched qualifying from the garage after wrecking his car in final practice. The Spaniard, second in the championship behind McLaren’s Jenson Button, will start from the pit lane.

World champion Button, last year’s winner on the metal-fenced streets of the principality with Brawn GP, just sneaked through to the third and final phase of qualifying and secured eighth slot on the grid.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 winner, qualified fifth with Germany’s Nico Rosberg alongside for Mercedes and back in front of team mate Michael Schumacher.

The older German, a five times winner in Monaco and making a comeback at the age of 41 and after three years out, qualified seventh.

Fears that qualifying could be crash-strewn and chaotic, with three much slower new teams on the track and expanding the field to 24 cars since last year’s race, proved unfounded.

The only casualty was Renault’s Russian Vitaly Petrov, who slewed into the barriers at Ste. Devote in the second session and starts 14th.

(Editing by Alison Wildey

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Webber on pole for Monaco Grand Prix

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Australian Mark Webber made sure of Red Bull’s sixth successive pole position after qualifying quickest for the showcase Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday.

Poland’s Robert Kubica split the two Red Bulls by putting his Renault alongside Webber on the front row and ahead of Germany’s Sebastian Vettel.

Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa completed the second row in fourth place.

His team mate Fernando Alonso, a two times Monaco winner, watched qualifying from the garage after wrecking his car in final practice. The Spaniard, second in the championship behind McLaren’s Jenson Button, will start from the pit lane.

World champion Button, last year’s winner on the metal-fenced streets of the principality with Brawn GP, just sneaked through to the third and final phase of qualifying and secured eighth slot on the grid.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Alison Wildey

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Virgin plan to be around for many seasons – Branson

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Virgin Racing are in Formula One for the long haul despite currently being among the slowest teams on track, billionaire owner Richard Branson said on Saturday.

“This Virgin will go all the way to the end of the season, and hopefully for many seasons yet,” he told reporters at the Monaco Grand Prix when asked about fears that one of the new teams could drop out before the final race of 2010.

“If they continue the kind of progress we’ve made to date, we will be delighted and will continue to support it, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t,” added Branson.

“There will be technical problems, but even the teams who are spending 300 million on their cars have technical problems,” he added.

“We went into this with our eyes open and we plan to stick with it as long as they get other sponsors on board, which they are managing to do.”

Branson’s Virgin Group sponsored title-winners Brawn GP last season but decided to go it alone as one of three all-new teams this year. Their drivers are Brazilian Lucas di Grassi and Germany’s Timo Glock.

The Briton said he had no regrets about the decision, even if Virgin are struggling to get their cars to the chequered flag.

“It’s actually just as fun being the new boy on the block as winning,” he declared. “It’s a different kind of experience. If we’d stuck with Brawn for another year we would be 50 million worse off, and they’re not winning.

“So supporting and building a new team from scratch is very exciting.”

Lotus team boss Tony Fernandes, also an aviation entrepreneur like Branson, has challenged the extrovert Briton to wear an Air Asia stewardess uniform and serve his passengers if Virgin end the season behind his outfit.

Neither team have scored any points so far but Virgin are behind Lotus on race placings.

“I’m still trying to avoid having to don an air stewardess outfit and serve on one of Tony Fernandes’ planes and head off to Malaysia,” said Branson.

“I haven’t shaved my beard and moustache off since launching Virgin Brides many years ago, so hopefully we can avoid that spectacle.”

(Editing by Ken Ferris; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Alonso wrecks Ferrari, to miss qualifying

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Fernando Alonso will start Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix from the pit lane after wrecking his Ferrari in final practice for the showcase race of the Formula One season.

A Ferrari spokesman said the Spaniard, a two times winner in the Mediterranean principality with Renault and McLaren, had damaged his chassis beyond repair in the crash on Saturday morning and would not take part in qualifying.

Double world champion Alonso is currently second in the championship, three points behind McLaren’s Jenson Button after five races.

Alonso ripped the right front wheel off the car and smashed into the metal barriers at Massenet on the approach to Casino square.

The stricken red car was then craned off the track in front of the luxury Hotel de Paris.

Stalking back to the garage, Alonso blamed himself for the accident and told a BBC pitlane reporter that he had simply “lost the car.”

Ferrari confirmed there had been nothing wrong with the car.

“He’s not doing qualifying,” a spokesman said. “We can’t repair it. We need to change it (the chassis) and there’s nothing you can do in two hours.”

The Italian team have not won in Monaco since Michael Schumacher’s fifth triumph in 2001 and have not started any race on pole position since 2008.

Poland’s Robert Kubica was quickest in the final practice for Renault with a lap of one minute 14.806 seconds, ahead of Alonso’s Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa.

Australian Mark Webber, who won in Spain last weekend for Red Bull, was third fastest with 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton fourth for McLaren on a cloudy morning in the Mediterranean principality.

Schumacher, the seven times world champion returning with Mercedes at the age of 41 after three years out, was sixth on the timesheets, behind compatriot Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull.

Formula One champion Button was 10th for McLaren and said he was struggling for grip.

(Editing by Alastair Himmer and Alison Wildey. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Alonso to miss qualifying after Monaco crash

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Fernando Alonso will miss qualifying for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix and start the race in last place after crashing his Ferrari in final practice, the team said on Saturday.

A Ferrari spokesman said the car was too badly damaged to repair in time and the double world champion, who had been fastest in previous practice on Thursday, would start the race from the pit lane.

Alonso was not hurt in the accident.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Alison Wildey

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Blue flags make Lotus F1 boss see red

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Formula One’s blue warning flags are making Lotus team boss Tony Fernandes see red.

The Malaysian told Reuters at the Monaco Grand Prix that he would like to get rid of the flags, waved by marshals to tell slower drivers to move aside when they are about to be lapped during a race.

“Drivers are paid to overtake, whether they are back markers or at the front,” said the aviation entrepreneur, whose men can expect to be looking in their mirrors and moving out of the way repeatedly in Sunday’s race.

“I think it would be good for the sport to get rid of blue flags.

“In the days of (the late team boss) Ken Tyrrell, he would never let any car pass,” added Fernandes.

“If it’s really hard for a world champion to get past a back marker then I think it’s a sad day for racing. I think racing is all about getting past people and overtaking and adding a little bit of ‘je ne sais quoi’.

“You’ve got a driver saying it’s ridiculous that he’s lapping someone four times, so why should he be complaining about overtaking a guy that he’s lapping four times?,” added the Formula One newcomer.

Fernandes’ comments were controversial in the light of safety concerns ahead of Sunday’s race, with some of the sport’s new teams lapping seven seconds slower than the frontrunners on a tight and twisty circuit where overtaking is extremely challenging.

Under the sport’s regulations, a light blue flag tells a driver that he must move aside to be lapped. If he ignores three successive blue flags during the race, he faces a penalty.

Fernandes said abolishing them would make the sport less predictable.

He dismissed safety fears, saying that there was also a concern for the slower drivers if they had to constantly move off the racing line and worry about what was behind them.

Some of the tail-enders said after last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix that they were able to complete as few as 15 of 66 laps without a blue flag being waved at them.

Germany’s Timo Glock, who drives for the new Virgin Racing team, added that he expected to see lots more on Sunday.

“We had a lot of blue flags coming up in Barcelona and Barcelona is a really easy track to have a look at your mirrors and see and judge where the others are.

“That will be a bit more challenging here,” he said.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Kovalainen bids big at Monaco charity auction

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Lotus Formula One driver Heikki Kovalainen was the biggest bidder at a Monaco Grand Prix charity auction, shelling out 300,000 euros ($381,100) towards an AIDS project in Cambodia.

The auctioneer did not name the Finn but the former McLaren driver told Reuters after the event on Friday night that he had made the bid, although multi-millionaire team principal and Air Asia airline boss Tony Fernandes was also present.

“It is my money but Tony pays my salary,” said Kovalainen. “I have been looking to do something for a long time. This is a good cause.”

The sum will cover half the budget of a project to provide 320 permanent homes for 1,760 people living with AIDS/HIV in the country.

Organisers said the Elton John AIDS foundation would contribute a matching donation.

The seven lots at the Amber Lounge auction raised a total of 520,000 euros for the charity, including 50,000 splashed out by an anonymous bidder on a pair of black and white diamond cufflinks.

Formula One drivers, led by McLaren’s 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, took part in a fashion show before the auction, attended by celebrities including former tennis great Boris Becker and actress Elizabeth Hurley.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Alastair Himmer. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Button accuses Massa of screwing his qualifying at Monaco

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 16 (ANI): Formula one champion Jenson Button has accused Ferrari’s driver Felipe Massa of screwing his qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, where as Michael Schumacher complained that he was impeded by his own Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg.

Button was the chief victim, McLaren’s championship leader hitting out after he was impeded by Massa going into the final corner, The Telegraph reports.

He ended the session eighth fastest, three places behind his team mate Lewis Hamilton, and afterwards called for the stewards to intervene.

“It’s disappointing because he screwed that lap of mine and also the next one because I had to drop back. I don’t know what he was thinking,” Button said.

Massa claimed in his defence that he, too, had been held up by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

Mercedes, the last of the ‘big four’ teams, also had a frustrating day.

Rosberg and Schumacher claimed sixth and seventh on the grid respectively, but the former felt he could and should have been on pole, The Telegraph reports. (ANI)

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Driver with biggest balls will win in Monaco: Hamilton

May 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 15 (ANI): Formula One ace Lewis Hamilton, who is hoping to win his second Monaco Grand Prix, has said that the driver with the biggest balls should come out on top in Monaco.

The Briton triumphed in Monaco in 2008.

“Here you are always on the edge and think if you brake a little bit too late, you’ll be in the barrier. This is a track where you really have to have serious confidence in your car.

“When you say people outside of F1 could never understand what it feels like to drive around a track, this is the place where you really could never get anywhere near to understanding,” The Sun quoted Hamilton, as saying.

“There is nowhere else you could experience anything close to what we experience here. And even when you are away for a year you seem to forget how crazy this race is.

“There is a certain buzz and special atmosphere here. When you have a good car here it just feels phenomenal – and this car feels light years ahead of last year’s car,” he said.

Hamilton heads into the race 21 points behind title pacesetter Button after his cruel tyre failure in Barcelona last week.

But Hamilton is confident he can still regain his drivers’ crown this year, despite lying sixth in the standings going into the sixth round of the 19-race season.

“I don’t feel I’m at the point where I need to turn it around as such because what needs turning around is just my fortunes. We’ve got the pace and the speed to get better results than we have been getting. We have the power in our hands,” he said.

Hamilton’s biggest threat could come from former teammate Fernando Alonso, who dominated Friday’s practice sessions for Ferrari. (ANI)

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Button hopes to repeat Monaco Grand Prix glory

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 12 (ANI): Jenson Button recalls the time when he had to jog 300 metres, up to the Prince of Monaco to receive his Monaco F1 trophy.

After describing the winning of the Grand Prix as his most embarrassing moment, he doesn’t mind reliving it.

“It”s going to stay in my mind forever, running up to Prince Albert of Monaco and saying, ”I”m sorry I parked in the wrong place”,” The Sun quoted the F1 champ as saying.

Describing how the Monaco win had a special place in his heart, Button said, “As he handed me the trophy and I lifted it above my head, it really dawned on me what I had achieved.

“To hammer a car around that Monaco circuit, in between those walls, the armco barriers – it”s like driving a go-kart round your living room!

“Every lap gets more and more difficult because the barriers seem to get closer and closer. Mentally it is so, so draining.

“It”s such a special race. I think every driver will agree with me that it”s the first race you would love to win in a Formula One car,” he said nostalgically. (ANI)

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Hamilton hopes secret new helmet will help him to win at Monaco

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 12 (ANI): Former Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton is hoping that a new helmet design will help him to head off his rivals.

Hamilton has been synonymous with a yellow helmet as sported by hero Ayrton Senna during the three-time champion”s illustrious career.

For the previous three races around the principality, specialist jewellers Steinmetz have provided the McLaren drivers with diamond-encrusted helmets.

This year, though, it sounds like Hamilton has something a little different as he is refusing to give the game away.

He said: “I”ll be wearing a specially-painted helmet for the occasion.

“When you see it you”ll know why I”ll be hoping for it to swing the odds in my favour,” The Sun quoted him, as saying.

Hamilton is now gearing up for the Monaco Grand Prix.

He said: “I love the Monaco circuit. It”s the greatest track in Formula One and my victory there in 2008 is still probably my best win and one of the greatest moments in my career. It was an incredible day.” (ANI)

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Monaco Grand Prix could be a disaster: Hamilton

May 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 11 (ANI): Formula One ace driver Lewis Hamilton has said that Monaco Grand Prix could be a disaster as back markers will cause a smash on Monte Carlo’s steel-lined streets.

Hamilton blasted the also-rans as dangerous in Spain on Sunday and says cars going six seconds a lap slower could cause a massive shunt.

“It could be a disaster. It’s just very difficult when there is such a big difference in speed,” The Sun quoted Hamilton, as saying.

“So far, fortunately, there have been no incidents and it”s been okay. But Monaco will be very tough,” he added.

Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button know how dangerous Monaco’s streets can be.

Hamilton smacked into the barriers in qualifying last year while Button was taken to hospital after a horrific 180mph shunt in 2003. (ANI)

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Wheel failure ruins Hamilton’s day in the sun

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Lewis Hamilton cast around for positives on Sunday after a wheel rim failure pitched him out of the Spanish Grand Prix while in second place and with only a lap to go.

The misfortune left the McLaren driver further than ever behind championship leading team mate Jenson Button after five of 19 races.

“I’m absolutely gutted that my accident happened so close to the finish, but that’s motor racing,” said the 2008 champion, who set the fastest lap of a race won at a canter by Red Bull’s Mark Webber at the Circuit de Catalunya.

“The guys did an incredible job all weekend, though.

“There are many more races to go this season and I’ll keep my chin up. I know we can still fight for this championship,” added the 25-year-old.

The silver McLaren, with the front wheel flapping and flailing, careered off the track and into the tyre wall without any warning.

Instead of closing the gap at the top to a single point ahead of next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton dropped to sixth overall and 21 points adrift of Button.

“Up until that point it was pretty positive, I was just cruising to the finish line,” he said.

“I didn’t sense anything odd before the accident, the car was feeling great, so that’s why it was such a surprise,” added the driver, who has earned scant reward for some thrilling drives this season.

The blowout was similar to one that Hamilton suffered at the Nuerburgring in his 2007 debut season and the Briton reflected ruefully that he seemed to have more than his fair share of such incidents.

“It’s my third or fourth tyre blow out in my career. More than most people have in their whole lifetime,” he said.

Button, who finished in fifth place, also had his own problems when the dashboard display failed just as he was trying to get past the Mercedes of seven times world champion Michael Schumacher.

“He lost the dash early in the race, he then couldn’t run the launch sequence at the pitstop,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh.

“That then caused clutch drag, because he was at too high rpm, the wheels were spinning and that delayed the pitstop. Otherwise he would have come out ahead of Michael quite easily. So it was no fault of the driver.”

Button said the car’s pace was encouraging, which made the failure even more frustrating.

“As everyone knows, it’s almost impossible to overtake around here and Michael was moving about a bit to make sure I couldn’t get past,” he said.

“Fifth wasn’t the result we’d wanted and it wasn’t the result we really deserved either because we were pretty quick.”

(Editing by…To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

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Mercedes compromise plan could end F1 budget row

May 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Mercedes compromise plan could end F1 budget rowHamburg – Mercedes has come up with a compromise which could end in the Formula One budget cap row between the teams and the governing body FIA, British daily The Times reported on Thursday.

The Times said that Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug has suggested a two-stage plan to reach the budget cap of around 45 million euros (63 million dollars).

The teams are said to have discussed the plan on the weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix and on Wednesday in London.

“Haug and his colleagues in Stuttgart have come up with a compromise proposal that appears to be flexible and subtle enough to satisfy the teams and Max Mosley, the president of the FIA,” said the paper.

“There was optimism last night that a deal could be in place in time for most, if not all of them, to enter next year’s championship by the FIA deadline of tomorrow (Friday).

FIA announced a budget cap for the 2010 season, which prompted Ferrari and others to threaten withdrawal from the sport. The official FIA deadline to register teams for 2010 is Friday.

Under the Mercedes plan, teams will be allowed to spend 100 million euros in 2010 and then reach the original cap in 2011.

Haug did not want to confirm his contribution, telling the German Press Agency dpa on Thursday: “It doesn’t matter who comes up with the plan as long as it is constructive and solves the problem.” (dpa)

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