Beginners Guide To Formula one

Over 55 million people all over the world travel to watch Formula 1 Racing events (or F1 Racing, as it is also called). This figure represents how many people watch the races live—millions more fans view the races on television. In fact, the series of races—known as the Grand Prix—is watched by enthusiasts in over 200 countries.

Each Grand Prix event spans over the course of an entire weekend. Two free practice sessions are allowed on Fridays (except for the Grand Prix in Monaco, where practice sessions are on Thursdays). Another practice session is held on Saturday, followed by a qualifying session. The actual Grand Prix race is held on Sunday.

Luckily, the millions of people who travel to these racing events are not stuck waiting an entire weekend for the racing excitement to begin. Typically, other races (such as the GP2 Series) are held throughout each Grand Prix racing weekend. These are serious races—winners soon graduate to racing in the F1 series.

Your Guide to Formula One Flags

When watching an F1 race, there may be flags of various colors waving at any given time. Spectators might get confused if they are not knowledgeable about the meanings of the different colors of the flags. So, here’s a quick rundown of some of the most common flags.

Yellow flags usually indicate trouble ahead on the track or road, such as crash-related debris. Green flags mean that this debris or trouble has been cleared up and drivers are free to proceed. Red flags indicate that the race or session has been suspended.

A blue flag waved at a driver means that he needs to allow a faster driver to pass. White flags indicate that there is a slow-moving vehicle on the track, such as an ambulance or tow truck.

Of course, all race fans know the meaning of the black-and-white checkered flag—that signals the end of the race, and is shown first to the winner. This is the flag all drivers want to see first!

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

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