Qualifying Rule Changes Announced By FIA

The FIA have announced that they have changed the rules that govern driver in laps at the end of qualifying.  The change has been made after the last grand prix in malaysia which sore the two mclaren cars impede the final qualifying lap of Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso.  This was deemed to be unfair and also extremely dangerous.

After completing their final qualifying lap the two Mclarens drove slowly back to the pit lane in the racing line of the track, this resulted in Heidfeld having to quickly alter his path to avoid a nasty accident.

“Our clarification to the teams and drivers will be that cars returning to the pits having completed their flying lap or laps will be required to do so within a time that we will set,” an FIA spokesman confirmed to Reuters.

“This could be approximately 120 percent of the normal time as we do to prevent drivers going very slowly to the grid (on the pre-race formation lap) to save fuel.”

This change will greatly improve safely but will mean that cars start with less fuel for the main race, we think the rule is a good addition as it ensures safety for all drivers and also prohibits drivers impeding each other. The new rules will come in to use during the next grand prix in Bahrain.

Alonso Says He Could Quit At The End Of The Season

Fernando Alonso has revealed that he could quit the Renault formula 1 team at the end of the season.  The two time world champion returned to Renault after a roller-coaster ride of a year at Mclaren in 2007.  He has also revealed his disappointment with his uncompetitive car.

“I’m at Renault because I wanted to get back to winning, like in 2005 and 2006, if not this year then next year,” Alonso revealed to a spanish newspaper today.

“But I have an option to leave so I can be in the best possible car, and it is clear Ferrari is one of the best.” This statement supports rumours that Alonso’s return to Renault would be short lived as he waited for a spot at Ferrari.  He has even commented on Felipe Massa’s disastrous opening two races.

“It’s early to talk about moves and rumours, but Massa has had two bad races with mistakes and that has kicked off speculation,” Alonso said.”It’s logical, but it’s too early.”

Malaysian Grand Prix Podium Photo

The Malaysian grand prix was full of unexpected events (as usual). One thing that is not unusual is that Kimi Raikkonen came in first and landed himself another podium accompanied by Robert Kubica in second and Heikki Kovalainen in third.

Malaysian Grand Prix Results 2008

1 Kimi Räikkönen

2 Robert Kubica

3 Heikki Kovalainen

4 Jarno Trulli

5 Lewis Hamilton

6 Nick Heidfeld

7 Mark Webber

8 Fernando Alonso

9 David Coulthard

10 Jenson Button

11 Nelsinho Piquet

12 Giancarlo Fisichella

13 Rubens Barrichello

14 Nico Rosberg

15 Anthony Davidson

16 Takuma Sato

17 Kazuki Nakajima

Ret Sebastian Vettel

Ret Felipe Massa

Ret Adrian Sutil

Ret Timo Glock

Ret Sebastien Bourdais

Kimi Raikkonen Wins Malaysian Grand Prix

Kimi Raikkonen started on the front of the grid in second place along side team mate Felipe Massa.  Both ferrari’s started strongly with the two men in fine form setting the pace at the front.  Then disaster struck for Felipe Massa when he spun off the track and got stuck in the gravel trap. This strange moment gave Kimi the invite he needed to dominate the race from then on.

Robert Kubica came in second and thouroughly deserved it after a solid drive that kept the ferraris honest. Heikki Kovalainen came in third ahead of Jarno Trulli and team mate Lewis Hamilton. 

The race result means that Lewis Hamilton remains ahead in the drivers championship by three points ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. The next race in Bahrain is set to be a corker - we can’t wait!

Lewis Hamilton Has A Nightmare In Malaysia

Lewis Hamilton had a flyer last week in Australia and did not encounter any problems, this week was a complete contrast as Lewis seemed to have a complete nightmare in Sepang.

Hamilton’s woes began on Saturday when he and team mate Heikki Kovalainen were dropped five places on the grid for impeding Nick Heidfeld’s last qualifying lap. All seemed to be going well when Lewis managed to gain five places on the opening lap to claw his way back to fith place, he was then kept at bay by Red bulls Mark Webber. 

“I got a really good start and was pretty happy as we jumped five positions from ninth to fifth,” Said Hamilton. “I was pushing Mark for a very long time, but being behind someone, no matter how quick you are, it is really difficult to get past. We were in a good position for a shot at third place at least.”

Lewis went in for his first pit stop when disaster struck. The pitstop was supposed to get Hamilton back out on to the track into clear air for his middle stint but instead the front right wheel gun had some kind of malfunction that resulted in a loss of around 14 seconds which dropped him back to 11th place.

From this moment on the race was an uphil battle but Lewis continued to fight his way up the field to fith place. The afternoon could have been a lot worse and Lewis has gained four points from this weekend. Both he and Mclaren can now worry about Bahrain in two weeks time.

Removal Of Videos

We have regrettably removed the you tube videos from the video section due to a email from the FOA. We are discussing what we can and can not show on this site with them and will keep you posted, we apologize for any problems this may have caused you - we feel your pain! We also apologize to the FOA.

Watch this space as we will have video again soon in the form of video podcasts and audio podcasts to keep you updated with all the latest f1 news!

Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying Results 2008

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:35.347	1:34.412	1:35.748	17
2	1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:35.645	1:34.188	1:36.230	13
3	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.227	1:34.759	1:36.613	12
4	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:35.392	1:34.627	1:36.709	18
5	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:35.205	1:34.825	1:36.711	18
6	4	Robert Kubica	BMW	1:35.794	1:34.811	1:36.727	13
7	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW	1:35.729	1:34.648	1:36.753	13
8	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:35.440	1:34.967	1:37.009	18
9	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:35.983	1:35.140	1:38.450	18
10	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:35.891	1:35.000	1:39.656	20
11	16	Jenson Button	Honda	1:35.847	1:35.208		15
12	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:36.058	1:35.408		12
13	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	1:36.074	1:35.562		12
14	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:36.198	1:35.622		15
15	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:36.111	1:35.648		15
16	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:35.843	1:35.670		13
17	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	1:36.240			9
18	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:36.388			9
19	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	1:36.677			8
20	18	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:37.087			9
21	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:37.101			10
22	19	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:37.481			9

Ferrari Are Fastest in Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying

Ferrari are set to start the malaysian grand prix at the start of the grid after finishing in positions 1 and 2 in qualifying today. Felipe Massa managed to squeeze in a final lap time of 1m 35.748 seconds at the end of qualifying, his time was half a second faster than team mate Kimi Raikkonen  who managed a 1m 36.230 second lap. This would suggest that Felipe has less fuel on board than Kimi, either way I am sure Ferrari are thrilled with their drivers performance so far this weekend.

One team that will not be happy is Mclaren who have had five places taken from both drivers for holding up drivers during the end of the third qualifying stage. This means that Kovalainen will start in eighth place and Hamilton ninth after the pair had initially finished in fourth and fith places respectively.

This means Jarno Trulli will start in p3 and Robert Kubica will start in fourth, the drop for Mclaren may cause trouble for the team as they now have to fight through a very competitive pack to try and regain places - it should be an exciting race.

BBC Gain Rights To Broadcast Formula 1 In 2009

It has been announced that the BBC have won the rights to broadcast formula 1 races from 2009, the last time the BBC showed formula 1 was in 1996 so it will be a welcome return for them. It will aso mean formula 1 without breaks! I love the job ITV does at the moment and I can only hope they keep the best bits when the transfer to the bbc is made.

“I am delighted to conclude this new deal with the BBC,” Bernie Ecclestone revealed. “I wish to thank ITV for their commitment to Formula One and the high quality of their coverage. It is an exciting time in Formula One and the BBC has some innovative new ideas to consolidate and expand our UK fan base.”

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