News

Marussia Formula One driver Jules Bianchi is in critical condition after crashing at the Japanese Grand Prix. Bianchi was unconscious when he was taken to a nearby hospital following a crash during Sunday's rain-shortened race and is undergoing emergency surgery after a scan revealed a severe head injury. According to Fia officials, the 25-year-old Bianchi will be moved to intensive care where he will be monitored after the surgery. The race was red-flagged with nine laps to go after Bianchi went off at Turn 7, where Sauber's Adrian Sutil had crashed earlier. The Sauber was being

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The Spa Grand Prix is the longest track in the F1 calendar with a total length of 7km per lap. Spa is famous for it’s multiple overtaking spots and famous corners such as Eau Rouge and Blanchimot. I personally love the Spa circuit as it always provides an exciting race.

Qualifying

The qualifying this year was a wet affair with some discrepancies in the usual starting order. Both Marussias and Giedo van der Garde managed to get into Q2 because of excellent tyre choices in the wet weather. This meant that both Williams and Toro Roso drivers were out along with Caterham’s Charles Pic and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez.

Q2 saw the exclusion of the other Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde in 14th, a career best for him, along with the two Marussias of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton in 15th and 16th place respectively. Sergio Perez...

The Wall of Champions is perhaps one of the most recognisable walls in Formula 1. It has claimed the cars of many champions over the years such as Hill, Schumacher, Vettel and Jacques Villeneuve the son of the great Gilles Villeneuve whom the Canadian circuit is named after. Partly wet and partly dry, this race weekend was excellent.

Qualifying

Throughout qualifying there was a steady amount of rainfall which helped in mixing the grid up for the race. Q1 saw both Marussia and Caterham drivers out along with Romain Grosjean and Paul Di Resta again. A poor showing from the Force India team as Di Resta had to start out of position again. Romain Grosjean was also put to the back of the grid after he was given a 10 place grid penalty for his collision with Daniel Ricciardo in Monaco. Q2 was disrupted towards the end by Felipe Massa spinning off...

Rosberg cleans up in Monte Carlo

Nico Rosberg took an untouchable win at his boyhood home this weekend, topping all three practice sessions, storming to pole and then dominating from the front to deliver an excellent win during an incident-strewn race around the streets of Monaco.

Mercedes put their tyre woes behind them as they led from the front, ignoring the unfolding controversy of “test-gate” as they managed the race perfectly, balancing tyre control with pace to get their season back on track with their first victory of 2013. Controlling the pack as they endured two safety car periods and a red flag, Rosberg picked his way through on a two-stop strategy to take an unstoppable victory and collect a handsome trophy, with Hamilton taking a close fourth to take them within just three points of Lotus in the constructors championship.

Into the Weekend

Two weeks after a fairly typical Spanish Grand Prix,...

The Malaysian Grand Prix usually doesn’t fail to provide a thrilling race. Last year we saw Fernando Alonso holding off youngster Sergio Perez to win in wet weather, and this time round we saw a slightly different picture. Plagued by controversy it was more the after story rather than the race itself grabbing the headlines. So let us delve into what happened over the weekend’s action.

Qualifying

Qualifying produced a mixed bag of results with it being dry for Q1 and the beginning of Q2, and wet for the rest of the hour. Q1 saw the usual suspects fail to qualify for Q2. Marussia won the battle of back end with Jules Bianchi gaining 19th nearly a second quicker that Charles Pic in the Caterham who could only manage 20th. Max Chilton wasn’t too far off Pic’s pace getting 21st and van der Garde occupied 22nd.

A new season brings a new look to Formula 1, slightly new rules, one less team and a host of new drivers. The stepped noses have gone! No more ugly cars for us to look at. Double Drs made famous by Mercedes is now banned for all the teams this season. As there is one less team this year, six cars instead of seven will be eliminated in each stage of qualifying which will still leave the final 10 to battle out for the pole position.

So let’s take a look at the drivers and teams for this year.

Red Bull

1 – Sebastian Vettel, 2 – Mark Webber

The same team from last year are back to hopefully maintain their run of excellent results not only in the constructors championship, but for three time and current reigning world champion Vettel.

Ferrari

3 – Fernando Alonso, 4 – Felipe Massa

Ferrari stick to their same driver line up which...

Lotus Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen showed exactly why he has been considered a title contender in pre-season with a solid win in Melbourne.

The 2007 world champion finished more than 12 seconds ahead of Fernando Alonso, whose Ferrari showed great pace in the dry conditions. Sebastian Vettel, who had started on pole, finished third.

Vettel’s Red Bull team will be disheartened by their lack of pace, struggling in particular with tyre degradation. “After a good two-three laps the tyres were falling apart,” said the third-placed German. “We couldn’t go as long as other people.”

It was a world away from the latter half of last season, where a Red Bull pole position had almost guaranteed a Red Bull win. Mark Webber, who had an awful start in what could be his last home Grand Prix, passed the chequered flag in sixth place.

Mercedes, too, will be slightly disappointed by the result.

Another win for Sebastian Vettel sends him 13 points clear of Fernando Alonso in the championship standings with only three races left. The Indian Grand Prix was the penultimate Asian race and we have the race in Abu Dhabi this weekend to look forward to before F1 moves to the Americas.

In Other News…

Nico Hulkenberg has signed for Sauber for the start of next season. He has impressed everyone with his great driving and overtaking this season for Force India, and is now destined for a team slightly higher up the order. The front runner in replacing Nico at Force India looks to be Adrian Sutil who used to race for the team prior to 2011. Jaime Alguersuari has been linked with either replacing Nico or joining him over at Sauber. Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso have confirmed that they are keeping both of their drivers next season. Daniel Ricciardo...

Mark Webber takes the honours in Brazilian Grand Prix as Vettel nurses ‘Kinky Kylie’ home.

The final race of the season proved to be more than a foregone conclusion with Sebastian Vettel suffering with a gearbox problem and having to nurse his car home, Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren retired with a broken gearbox and Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock caused chaos in the pit lane as he set off before his wheels were on his car.

It was a thrilling way to end the 2011 season and from the very start it was going to be something special. All the cars made it safely through the first corner with the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Filipe Massa moving up a place each to fourth and sixth place respectively and Jenson Button threatening Mark Webber but as the race wore on it became apparent that no one was going to have an easy race.

RedBull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel claimed another title to add to his collection at the Interlagos circuit as he snatched a record breaking 15th pole position from his team mate Mark Webber.

RedBull’s ‘WunderKind’ took the record set in 1992 by Nigel Mansell in the dying seconds of qualifying for tomorrows Brazillian Grand Prix as he crossed the line almost a second faster than Webber.

Webber himself had just pipped Jenson Button who was looking likely to have secured McLaren a front row place ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton but Vettels performance shuffled the McLarens back into third and fourth places leaving the Ferraris struggling to match the pace set by their rivals.

Fernando Alonso was the faster of the Ferrari drivers and had seemed to find the limits of his car better than his team mate Filipe Massa who was wrestling with a stiff set up that...

Lewis Hamilton fought a terse battle with Fernando Alonso to take a convincing victory after Sebastian Vettel made an unscheduled exit from the race on the first lap at the Yas Marina circuit today.

Vettel looked confident that he would bring another race victory after his qualifying performance yesterday but fate conspired against him and after flying ahead in his usual style he was pitched unceremoniously from the track as his right rear tyre suddenly exploded. The young German was spun violently across the runoff area with his tyre in shreds and despite managing to limp back to the pits he was clearly unhappy when his engineers told him the damage was to severe to repair.

As Lewis Hamilton took full advantage of his good fortune and set about building up his lead, further down the field the Mercedes Petronas pairing of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg pushed each other...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseoduke/6340894942/

Fia F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2011

Race Report

Hamilton seizes glory as Vettels luck runs out.

Lewis Hamilton fought a terse battle with Fernando Alonso to take a convincing victory after Sebastian Vettel made an unscheduled exit from the race on the first lap at the Yas Marina circuit today.

Vettel looked confident that he would bring another race victory after his qualifying performance yesterday but fate conspired against him and after flying ahead in his usual style he was pitched unceremoniously from the track as his right rear tyre suddenly exploded. The young German was spun violently across the runoff area with his tyre in shreds and despite managing to limp back to the pits he was clearly unhappy when his engineers told him the damage was to severe to repair.

As Lewis Hamilton took full advantage of his good fortune and...

New Delhi, Oct 25: India's brush with classic automobiles will complete a historic journey when 28 vintage and classic automobiles dating from 1920-70 take the roll of honour at the F1 Drivers' Parade Friday.

The vehicles, registerred with the Heritage Motoring Club of India, will carry 24 F1 racers from 12 teams, including Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, N. Karthikeyan and Adrian Sutil.

Auto-collector and restorer Awini Ambuj Shankar will drive Ferrari racer Fernando Alonso in his 1930 Studebaker Commander - a family heirloom - that drove Mahatma Gandhi from an area behind Birla Temple.

Hi! Blitz, a premium lifestyle magazine introduces India.s aspiring affluent to the good life, covers iconic personalities from all walks of life, their indulgences, creates celebrities and redefines lifestyle trends among the celebrated. It captures the current lifestyle boom in India with lush photos matched with witty, intelligent editorial content. It educates and creates lifestyle benchmarks for readers to aspire to. Hi! Blitz covers the latest trends/brands through its celebrity columns. With F One, the world's fastest and most dangerous sport headed to India in Delhi, Hi! Blitz magazines latest issue grabs the winning zeal and stylish panache of the India Grand Prix by featuring Bollywood's hottest female actor with the magnificent Force India team car. The October cover girl, Deepika Padukone, personifies the spirit of F1 perfectly. She hails from an illustrious sports background, has watched her father, Prakash Padukone, play grittily to win and, from the...