Narain Karthikeyan in 2013

Narain Karthikeyan in 2013

Narain Karthikeyan who was racing for HRT in 2012 is not in the F1 grid in 2013 as HRT became bankrupt. Narain Karthikeyan was then in talks with Force India, however, Force India just wanted Narain Karthikeyan's money and wanted him to be the test driver which he refused. Vijay Mallya of Force India is never interested in sharing the limelight with another Indian. So he has never given Narain Karthikeyan even a test drive, but continually berates him as a bad driver. Same case with Karun Chandhok.

Narain Karthikeyan now has decided to race in the Auto GP world series. The first race of this series is in Monza, Italy on this saturday. Narain said "I have decided to accept the invitation of Michael Zele (team owner), as it keeps me driving a high powered single seater. " Narain further added ,"I have worked with Zele racing before, and known Michael for a long time. I am looking forward to the first race, as I know this track very well."

The cars in this are similar and are powered by Zytek engines with Lola providing the chassis. Wish Narain all the best!

Hamilton wins Inaugural US GP

Hamilton wins Inaugural US GP as Vettel posts fastest lap

In a thrilling Formula One  US Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton snatched the win from pole sitter Sebastian Vettel. Title contender Fernando Alonso came third as Mark Webber retired.

In a controversy before the start of the race, Ferrari changed the gear box of Felipe Massa so that he got a five place grid slot penalty. Massa was to start at 5th and Fernando Alonso at 8th. Fernando Alonso would have started on the dirty side of the grid which would is estimated to yield two places during the race start. By exploiting the loop hole in the laws, Ferrari changed the Gear box of Massa so after the penalty Fernando Alonso started at 7th and Massa dropped down to 11th. Alonso immediately took benefit of the decision as he quickly moved to fourth and then after Mark Webber retired was on third. Though Alonso traded a few places up and down during the pitstops, he ended in the podium in third place behind championship leader Vettel.

Felipe Massa finished a creditable 4th behind Fernando Alonso.

Michael Schumacher who started at 5th went slower every lap and kept on sliding back till he made an early pit stop to change into hard tires. However, he could not make the hard tires last and then had to make another pit stop and ended a lap down and in 16th position.

Jenson Button had a strong race despite his poor starting position and finished at 5th ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus. Romain Grosjean had a spin and appeared to damage his tires and went back to the grid. He then changed to hard tires and set fastest lap times after about 10 laps in the hard tires. This made other drives rush to change to hard tires.  Grosjean finished at 7th place. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India who is off to Sauber after this season held off the charging Willams drivers Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna and they finished in 8th, 9th and 10th positions respectively.

Sergio Perez of Sauber finished outside the points at 11th, followed by Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso at 12th, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes at 13th. Kamui Kobayashi finished at 14th followed by Paul di Resta of Force India at 15th ahead of Schumacher at 16th.

Schumacher became the Formula One driver to have driven the maximum miles in races. Schumacher after driving two laps in the Formula One US GP broke the record of Brazilian Rubens Barrichelo.

Vitaly Petrov held off his team mate Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham to finish 17th and 18th respectively. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia finished 19th and 20th respectively followed by Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT at 21st and 22nd positions.

Mark Webber and Jean-Eric Vergne retired in the Formula One US Grand Prix.

After the Formula One US Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull leads the drivers championship with 13 points more than Fernando Alonso of Ferrari. The season ending Brazilian Grand Prix will be a thrilling affair. At the Formula One US Grand Prix Red Bull won the constructors championship. It is to be seen if Sebastian Vettel can hold back Fernando Alonso to win the Formula One drivers championship.

Inaugural US GP pole for Sebastian Vettel

Inaugural United States GP pole for Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel managed to score the pole in the inaugural Grand Prix in Austin by using parts that were specially flown in the night before. Red Bull has been relentlessly developing the car to ensure Sebastian Vettel to win the drivers championship. In comparision his competitor for this years driver's championship title Fernando Alonso has been forced to depend on his individual brilliance as his Ferrari team has been lagging behind in this development race. Ferrari being a marque team with a huge motor racing history as well as sports car business is lagging behind Red Bull which is a soft drinks company. The humiliation for Ferrari can't be more. Considering the fact that in 2010, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel stole the title from Fernando Alonso in the last race.

Lewis Hamilton, driving his penultimate race for McLaren gave a big fight to Sebastian Vettel but had to settle for second position scoring 1:35.766 s to Vettel's 1m 35. 657seconds.

Mark Webber of Red Bull came third and was allowed to retain his place though he missed a mandatory post qualifying weigh in.

Romain Grosjean outqualified his fancied team mate Kimi Raikkonen to score a 4th postion. However, he picks up a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. So Kimi Raikkonen will now start at 4th position.

Michael Schumacher - the God of Formula One - driving the penultimate race before his retirement, scored a strong sixth position. Due to Grosjean's penalty, he will now start at fifth position. His much younger teammate Nico Rosberg starts at a poor 17th position. As usual, Nico Rosberg was quick to jump to his defence and talked about using a different exhaust system than Michael. Nico Rosberg was faster than Michael in FP1 and FP3 and had never talked about using a different exhaust system than Michael Schumacher. However, he choose to give an excuse when he was 11 places lower than Michael Schumacher in Qualifying. This has been the story in every race when Micahel Schumacher is faster. On the other hand, Michael Schumacher being a self assured person doesn't even talk about equipment deficiency when his car breaks down or when that leads to his slower times.

Ferrari team mates Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were 7th and 9th and will now start at 6th and 8th due to Romain Grosjean's grid penalty.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India, brought some good news for his team at a time when both the majority owners of Force India are having financial troubles, by qualifying in 8th place. His team mate Paul di Resta will start at 13th.

Pastor Maldonado of Williams will start at 10th position whereas his team mate Bruno Senna will start at 11th. Jenson Button of McLaren will start at a poor 12th position, separated by a massive ten positions from his teammate Lewis Hamilton who will start second. Since Hamilton is leaving McLaren after this season to join Mercedes, the McLaren team will be ruing the mistake they did by not giving in to the demands of Lewis Hamilton. Some of those sore points which led to Lewis Hamilton's moving away to Mercedes was the right to retain the winner's trophy. McLaren wanted to take away the trophy won by its drivers.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso gave a good account of himself by scoring the 14th position. He was followed by the Sauber's of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi at 15th and 16th.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso was 18th. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia scored 19th and 20th positions ahead of the two Caterham cars of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov. With Marussia now being ahead of Caterham in the driver's championship due to Timo Glock's 12th place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix, and the Marussia showing more pace than the Caterham cars, it appears that Marussia will score the 10th place in the team championship. That should be worth about 20 million pounds and will come as a severe blow to the Caterham team.

The rear was brought up by Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT. Narain Karthikeyan's car stopped with a problem. The HRT team is financially very weak and its management is hoping to sell the team outright. It is not sure if the HRT team can do a good job in the race, as there are some doubts about the parts being used. They have stopped development long time ago due to paucity of funds.

It would be good if an Indian company like Tata's can buy this F1 team outright and invest resources and turn it into a winning team. Narain and the Indian fans deserve it. 

Kimi wins first race for Lotus in Abu Dhabi

Kimi wins Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, first after comeback

Accidents galore in the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012 as Kimi Raikkonen wins for Lotus.

Pole setter Lewis Hamilton had a engine failure and had to stop. This handed over the race lead to Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus and despite some challenges and safety cars, Kimi held on to the lead for his first win of his comeback.

There were some first lap incidents. Nico Rosberg had to pit following a first lap incident. However, later Nico Rosberg ploughed into Narain Karthikeyan in a scary accident and flew over his car into the barriers. Fortunately, neither of the drivers were hurt. This incident will be investigated after the race.

Romain Grosjean who had to drop down following an incident later on again got caught in another incident triggered by Sergio Perez. This resulted in Mark Webber getting hit by Romain Grosjean there by ending Webber’s race. Sergio Perez was given a stop go penalty for this incident.

Michael Schumacher who had started the race in medium tyres had climbed upto 10th and then 8th position. However, the second safety car resulted in a left rear puncture and he had to pit again thereby ruining his race.

Sebastian Vettel who was disqualified from qualifying started in the pits. However, his team could change his gear ratio and he had a very fast car. He moved up by passing the slower cars and benefitted from the safety car triggered by Nico Rosberg. So Sebastian Vettel took advantage of the safety car and then pitted to take the soft tyres and scythed through the field. In the lap 52 Sebastian Vettel could finally overtook Jenson Button in the second DRS zone and moved into third position.

Fernando Alonso the wily competitor held off Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel and finished second. Alonso then did fastest laps to close the gap between him and Kimi Raikkonen.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012 Final Results:

1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
3. Sebastian Vettel Redbull
4. Jenson Button McLaren
5. Pastor Maldonado Williams
6. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari
8. Bruno Senna Williams
9. Paul di Resta Force India
10. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
13. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham
14. Timo Glock Marussia
15. Sergio Perez Sauber
16. Vitaly Petrov Caterham
17. Pedro de la Rosa HRT

Retirements in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012

Charles Pic
Romain Grosjean
Mark Webber
Lewis Hamilton
Narain Karthikeyan
Nico Rosberg
Nico Hulkenberg

Hamilton storms to Pole in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012

Lewis Hamilton who was competitive all weekend in his McLaren, stormed to the pole in F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012. His time of 1.40.630 was set earlier and others could not better it in their final runs. Mark Webber of Red Bull scored the P2 with a 1:40.978 followed by his teammate and Championship leader Sebastian Vettel at 1:41.073. Sebastian Vettel stopped his car in the track. It is to be seen if he is going to be penalised for that as by rule the cars should have enough fuel to come back for inspection.

Pastor Maldonado who was also competitive in his Williams was P4 with a time of 1:41.226. He was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus at 1:41.260. Jenson Button of McLaren was P6 with a time of 1:41.290.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who is 13 points behind the championship leader Sebastian Vettel, will start at 7th position with a time of 1:41.582. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes complete the 4th row with Alonso.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari will start in the 5th row. He was 9th with a time of 1:41.723. Romain Grosjean of Lotus will give him company in the 5th row as he came 10th with a time of 1:41.778.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was 11th, Sergio Perez of Sauber 12th and Paul di Resta of Force India was on 13th.

Michael Schumacher surprisingly failed to qualify for Q2 and came 14th. He admitted that he made an error and wanted to go for another run, but his team engineer told him that the checkered flag has already been waved and he could not go for another round. Michael Schumacher has to now depend on his fast starts during tomorrows race and beat some of the cars in the opening lap to have a good race.

Bruno Senna came in 15th. He was on the verge of being relegated in Q1 as he had Sergio Perez blocking him. This incident will be investigated. However, Bruno Senna simply could not match the pace of his team mate Pastor Maldonado who scored a brilliant P4.

Kobayashi who had scored a brilliant 4th position in the Japanese Grand Prix, is on the verge of losing his drive for next year as his performances are woeful to say the least. Today he qualified at P16. Daniel Ricciardo who hopes to retain his place in Toro Rosso next year scored P17.

The drivers who were knocked out in the Q1 were the usual suspects: Jean Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso, Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham, Charles Pic of Marussia, Vitaly Petrov of Caterham, Timo Glock of Marussia, Pedro de la Rosa of HRT and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT. Narain Karthikeyan of HRT is driving in this circuit for the first time. It didn't help that HRT again made the decision to sit out Narain Karthikeyan in the first practice P1 on friday. Interestingly, HRT being a spanish team has never taken a third driver to drive the P1 in Pedro de la Rosa's place.

More information awaited regarding the Stewards verdict on the pending investigations about Romain Grosjean's unsafe release infront of Fernando Alonso and also Sergio Perez blocking Bruno Senna.

Vettel wins Indian Grand Prix 2012

Vettel wins Indian Grand Prix from Pole

Sebastian Vettel scored an easy win starting from Pole. He could ward off the challenge of Fernando Alonso who was 9.4 seconds behind. Mark Webber who started second, finished behind Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton tried to win the third place from Mark Webber but could not do so despite Webber having a KERS problem. Hamilton was 0.6 seconds behind Mark Webber. Hamilton's team mate Jenson Button came 5th and he set the fastest lap time on the 60th and last lap.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari came 6th. Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus was only 0.7 seconds behind Massa and finished at 7th. Raikkonen now doesn't have any hope for the drivers title. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished 8th, Romain Grosjean of Lotus finished 9th and Bruno Senna finished 10th.

The Indian Grand Prix 2012 didn't have much of first lap excitement as the usual suspects Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado and Kamui Kobayashi kept their cool. However, it was Jear-Eric Vergne who clipped Michael Schumacher's rear right tyres forcing him to pit. Since then it was an immensely forgettable race for Michael, as he was lapped in no time. Though he was setting comparable times as the top drivers, the time spent in slowly moving to the pits with a completely shredded rear tyre ensured that he couldn't move up. He was driving on 18th place and one lap down when he retired.

It is a sad race for Mercedes as well, as Nico Rosberg too finished outside the points. It would be interesting to hear Ross Brawn's excuses as he has been giving one excuse after the other in the last three years. To save his skin, he also ensured that Mercedes lured Lewis Hamilton to the team and forced Michael Schumacher to retire.

Narain Karthikeyan in the opening laps was told to mind his brakes, so he drove within himself. His teammate Pedro de la Rossa spinned and hit the barriers due to a brake problem. Narain finished at 21st position.

Final positions in Indian Grand Prix 2012:

1. Sebastian Vettel             Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso            Ferrari
3. Mark Webber                 Red Bull
4. Lewis Hamilton             McLaren
5. Jenson Button                McLaren
6. Felipe Massa                 Ferrari
7. Kimi Raikkonen            Lotus
8. Nico Hulkenberg           Force India
9. Romain Grosjean          Lotus
10. Bruno Senna                Williams
11. Nico Rosber                Mercedes
12. Paul di Resta              Force India
13. Daniel Ricciardo        Toro Rosso
14. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber
15. Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso
16. Pastor Maldonado      Williams
17. Vitaly Petrov              Caterham
18. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham
19. Charles Pic                 Marussia
20. Timo Glock                Marussia
21. Narain Karthikeyan    HRT
22. Michael Schumacher Mercedes RETIRED (5 laps down)
      Pedro de la Rossa       HRT        (Accident) 18 laps down
      Sergio Perez               Sauber     RETIRED (40 laps down)


Sebastian Vettel's Indian Grand Prix win was the 4th win in a row for him. 

Vettel leads Redbull to 1-2 in Indian Grand Prix Qualifying

Vettel leads RedBull 1-2 in Indian Grand Prix 2012

Sebastian Vettel continued with his dominant run and scored the pole position which was barely 0.044 seconds than his team mate Mark Webber.

The second row is occupied by the McLaren drivers lead by Lewis Hamilton.

The third row now belongs to Ferrari drivers lead by Fernando Alonso.
Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus was seventh followed by Sergio Perez of Sauber. Amul would be very happy sponsoring the Sauber team. Pastor Maldonado of Williams was 9th followed by Nico Rosberg who didn’t choose to make a run in Q3.

Michael Schumacher was the big casualty as he could not qualify for the Q3 and was only 14th fastest with a time of 1:26.574. He was more than half a second slower than his team mate Nico Rosberg. We are not sure why there was a such a big gap between the two. In the last few grand prix races it was Michael who was generally faster than Nico Rosberg. We hope tomorrow will be better for Michael Schumacher as this will be his last Indian Grand Prix.

A late run from Pastor Maldonado resulted in him going to the top spot in Q1. The Williams team gave a strong performance in the Indian Grand Prix.

Heikki Kovalainen breached his Caterham in the dying minutes of Q1. He was eliminated in the Q1 along with Jean-Eric Vergne 1:27.525, Vitaly Petrov 1:28.756, Timo Glock 1:29.613, Pedro de la Rosa (1:30.592), Narain Karthikeyan (1:30.593) and Charles Pic (1:30:662). The 107% time was 1:32.071 and hence all drivers qualified and we will see a full grid tomorrow.

Narain Karthikeyan excelled in the Indian Grand Prix and was just one thousandth of a second slower than his team mate. He qualified at P23 followed by Charles Pic of Marussia.

Qualifying results of Indian Grand Prix 2012

1. Sebastian Vettel Redbull
2. Mark Webber Redbull
3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren
4. Jenson Button McLaren
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari
7. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
8. Sergio Perez Sauber
9. Pastor Maldonado Williams
10. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus
12. Nico Hulkenberg Force India
13. Bruno Senna Williams
14. Michael Schumacher Mercedes
15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
16. Paul di Resta Force India
17. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber
18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham
20. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham
21. Timo Glock Marussia
22. Pedro de la Rosa HRT
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT
24. Charles Pic Marussia

Red Bull scripts Vettel's victory in Korean Grand Prix 2012

Red Bull stage manages victory for Sebastian Vettel's in the Korean Grand Prix to catapult him into the driver's championship lead.

In the opening lap of the Korean Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who started on 2nd of the grid moved to the side of pole sitter Mark Webber and then pulled ahead without much resistance from Mark Webber and Webber watched the flanks and stopped Lewis Hamilton from attacking Vettel. A scripted move perfectly executed by the Red Bull drivers to give Sebastian Vettel the lead. In an relatively incident free race, Mark Webber finished second followed by Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari finished at P4, Kimi Raikkonent of Lotus was 5th, followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India at 6th. Romain Grosjean of Lotus, managed his restrain his urge of causing mayhem in the first lap and finished 7th. In a fantastic race for Toro Rosso team, both their drivers drove from the back of the grid to finish in points - Jean Eric Vergne in 8th and Daniel Ricciardo in 9th. Lewis Hamilton who was struggling with tyre wear finished at 10th.

In what was an ugly demonstration of the Korean track's poor quality construction and materials used, the astro turf came off and got stuck in Lewis Hamilton's car slowing him down in the last few laps. However, he still managed to hold on to the 10th place keeping Sergio Perez at 0.3 seconds behind him.

In the opening lap of the race, Kamui Kobayashi did the Grosjean act of hitting other cars. Kamui Kobayashi's kamikaze act took out Jenson Button of McLaren and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes in the first lap. Kobayashi was handed with a drive through penalty and later retired from the race. There was only one more retirement in the form of Pedro de la Rosa of HRT.

Sergio Perez, who is heading to McLaren next year in place of Lewis finished at P11 followed by Paul di Resta of Force India at P12. Mercedes had poor race pace and Michael Schumacher's car despite his race craft, could not finish within points. He finished at 13th position.

The sad pace of the Mercedes cars may have actually made Schumacher to wait till October to announce his decision and made Mercedes to sign up Lewis Hamilton and then forcing Michael Schumacher to retire.

Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna of Williams finished 14th and 15th. Vitaly Petrov led the two Caterhams to finish at 16th followed by Heikki Kovalainen at 17th. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia finished at 18th and 19th. Narain Kathikeyan of HRT - India's lone F1 driver - finished at 20th position.

Sebastian Vettel wins F1 Japanese Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel wins the 2012 F1 Japanese Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel started on pole and won the race which he dominated.


The Suzuka circuit is 5.807 kilometer long and this being the 50th grand prix staged at that circuit, there was no dearth of drama. Sebastian Vettel could stay ahead of the collisions caused by crash prone Roman Grosjean as well as Bruno Senna.

Romain Grosjean hit Mark Webber ruining his race. Mark had to pit for a new nose for his car. Romain Grosjean was handed over a 10 second stop go penalty. This shows that he has not learn’t anything from his ban and it is time FIA takes a strong view of this incident and bans him for a season from Formula One.

Fernando Alonso, the championship leader was also out in the first lap. Intitially it appeared as a puncture and later Ferrari confirmed that a gentle tap from behind by Kimi Raikkonen resulted in a puncture that resulted in Alonso out of the race. Bruno Senna took out Nico Rosberg and was later slapped with a drive through penalty. He is another driver, Williams has to get rid of at the end of the season despite his famous surname attracting sponsorships from Brazil.

Felipe Massa who is in danger of losing his drive at Ferrari this year, made the most of the situation and drove up and finished the race at second position. This was his first podium since Korean Grand Prix in 2010.

Michael Schumacher who started at 23rd position due to his 10 place grid penalty just finished outside the points at 11th position. Daniel Ricciardo gets credit for holding Michael Schumacher off for the 10th position. Michael Schumacher said that "I couldn't get past him because the Toro Rosso was so quick in the straights. That's why we have to say we couldn't have got much more out of it today. Now let's see how things go in Korea."

Narain Karthikeyan retired on Lap 35. Romain Grosjean retired in the last lap.

Sebastian Vettel winning the F1 Japanese Grand Prix changes the championship position.

F1 Japanese Grand Prix Results:

1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari
3. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber
4. Jenson Button McLaren
5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren
6. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
7. Nico Hulkenberg Force India
8. Pastor Maldonado Williams
9. Mark Webber Red Bull
10. Daniel Ricciardo Torro Rosso
11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes
12. Paul di Resta Force India
13. Jean-Eric Vergne Torro Rosso
14. Bruno Senna Williams
15. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham
16. Timo Glock Marussia
17. Vitaly Petrov Caterham
18. Pedro de la Rosa HRT

Retired

Romain Grosjean Lotus
Charles Pic Marussia
Narain Karthikeyan HRT
Sergio Perez Sauber
Fernando Alonso Ferrari
Nico Rosberg Mercedes

Vettel wins Singapore Grand Prix as Lewis retires

Sebastian Vettel wins as Lewis retires in Singapore Grand Prix

The Formula One Singapore Grand Prix saw many crashes and accidents, but the race started without mayhem as Grosjean kept his cool after coming back from a one race ban. Lewis Hamilton started from pole and retained his position. Pastor Maldonado who started in second position was passed by Sebastian Vettel as well as Jenson Button, still he retained his cool and didn’t press the destruction button.

Still there was an incident at the back of the grid where the two Caterham driver’s collided.

There was no surprise element, as both the Mercedes cars which didn’t run on the Q3 in the qualifying also choose the Super soft tyres. Michael Schumacher was told to cool his car while his teammate overtook him.

Lewis Hamilton was unfortunate that his gearbox broke down and he had to retire.  Narain Karthikeyan who was the last person to go for his pitstop amazingly running 20 laps in his supersoft tyres, hit the barriers on lap 33 and his front right wheel came off forcing a safety car to be deployed. Immediately all the drivers who hadn’t done their pitstops choose to do so. Alonso had earlier taken his pit stop, so was Raikkonen. So they choose to stay out during the safety car period. Niko Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez didn’t choose to make their pit stops and they were the only ones to have done one stop after the safety car was taken out.

It was sad for Narain as Tata Tea had just choosen to sponsor HRT car for the Singapore as well as the Indian Grand Prix.

During the safety car period, in lap 37, Pastor Maldonado was told by his Williams team that his car had a problem and he needs to stop the car. This resulted in the both the front runners retiring from the race.

Disaster stuck again for Michael Schumacher as in lap 41 he ran into the back of Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso. So interestingly Michael Schumacher has never got any points in Singapore. The safety car was redeployed. Did Schumacher get his braking wrong like last year or was it a problem with his brakes as he locked up. Fortunately, there was no animosity displayed between Schumacher and Jean-Eric Vergne as they both patted each others back. This looks like Schumacher’s fault and this incident will be investigated after the race by stewards. It is surprising that the God of Formula One, Michael Schumacher has ran into the back of another driver twice in Singapore Grand Prix.

Towards the end there were some competitive times posted by Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button as they knew that the race will not run its full 61 laps as according to rules the race can run only for a maximum of two hours. However, Button couldn't sustain the pace and Vettel won a comfortably.

Bruno Senna who was running in at 10^th position told his team that he has a loss of power and stopped his car barely a minute before the finish.

Final Result of F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2012

1.     Sebastian Vettel

2.     Jenson Button

3.     Fernando Alonso

4.     Paul di Resta

5.     Nico Rosberg

6.     Kimi Raikkonen

7.     Romain Grosjean

8.     Felipe Massa

9.     Daniel Ricciardo

10. Mark Webber

11. Serzio Perez

12. Timo Glock

13. Kamui Kobayashi

14. Niko Hulkenberg

15. Heikki Kovalainen

16. Charles Pic

17. Pedro de la Rosa

18. Bruno Senna

19. Vitaly Petrov

Retirements in Singapore Grand Prix 2012

Michael Schumacher – Lap 41

Jean-Eric Vergne – Lap 41

Pastor Maldonado – Lap 37

Narain Karthikeyan – Lap 33

Lewis Hamilton – Lap 23

                                            

Singapore Pole for Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton scores pole in Singapore Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton blitzed to the pole position in F1 Singapore Grand Prix with a time of 1m:46.362s. He was nearly half a second faster than the second placed Pastor Maldonado. Maldonado has been erratic and has picked up a spate of penalties this season, however, he has shown speed as well and have won a race this year. No one had imagined that the williams team, after their pathetic showing last year, will be in the front row.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who had dominated the friday practice sessions was third followed by Jenson Button of McLaren.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who has completely outplayed his team mate Felipe Massa, came in at 5th with a time of 1m 47.216s. Force India's Paul di Resta scored a 1m 47.241s to join Alonso in the 3rd row.

Mark Webber came in at 7th position with a time of 1m 47.475s followed by Romain Grosjean who came back to racing after serving a one race ban. Grosjean scored a 1m 47.788s.

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes didn't drive a single lap in the Q3 will start at 9th and 10th position for the Sunday race.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India will start at 11th followed by Kimi Raikkonen at 12th.

India's Narain Karthikeyan again beat his team mate Pedro de La Rosa in qualifying and they scored the 23rd and 24th place.

Will Lewis Hamilton score another victory in the night race at Singapore? Will the Mercedes drivers Schumacher and Rosberg get any advantage due to not running in Q3? Apart from having an extra set of tyres to use in the race, not driving in the qualifying also means that they can decide to choose either of the tyre compounds ie. either the soft or the super soft tyres during the opening. According to the rule, anyone driving in the Q3 would be forced to use the same type of tyres which they used for qualifying. Will this give a bigger advantage to Mercedes?

Tomorrow's Singapore Grand Prix F1 race will certainly be interesting.

Hamilton wins from Pole in the 2012 Italian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton wins from Pole in the 2012 Italian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton won from Pole while his teammate Jenson Button retired. Sergio Perez drove was pretty fast and he finished at 2^nd position even though he started from a lowly 13^th position. Fernando Alonso scored a superb third after starting from 10^th position. His teammate Felipe Massa was behind him in 4^th position though he started at P3. Kimi Raikkonen who started at P8 finished at 5^th position just ahead of Michael Schumacher.

In the 29^th lap Alonso made a pass on Vettel at the second chicane. Vettel didn’t leave any space and the incident was investigated by the stewards. Vettel was handled a drive through penalty for forcing Alonso off the race track. This helped in Michael Schumacher who was just behind Vettel at 5^th position, moved ahead. Kimi Raikkonen too moved ahead as Vettel rejoined the race in 9^th position. Later he retired from the race in 48^th lap. His teammate Mark Webber retired 4 laps later at Lap 52.

Jenson Button who had started the race in 2^nd position retired in 34^th lap due to mechanical problems. In the same lap Sergio Perez did a best lap with a 1:28.720 seconds.

Michael Schumacher unfortunately took a second pit stop. He and his team mate Rosberg were the only drivers to take two pit stops among the top ranked drivers. Michael Schumacher then dropped down the order and had to fight back to take the 6^th place 0.3 seconds behind the 5^th placed Kimi Raikkonen. Paul di Resta of Force India scored 8th, Kamui Kobayashi was 9th and Bruno Senna of Williams was 10th. Narain Karthikeyan of India was 19th. 

Final Results of 2012 Italian Grand Prix

1.     Lewis Hamilton               McLaren        

2.     Sergio Perez                     Sauber                       

3.     Fernando Alonso              Ferrari           

4.     Felipe Massa                    Ferrari

5.     Kimi Raikkonen               Lotus

6.     Michael Schumacher       Mercedes

7.     Nico Rosberg                   Mercedes

8.     Paul di Resta                    Force India

9.     Kamui Kobayashi            Sauber

10. Bruno Senna                    Williams

11. Pastor Maldonado           Williams

12. Daniel Ricciardo             Toro Rosso

13. Jerom d’Ambrosio          Lotus

14. Heikki Kovalainen          Caterham

15. Vitaly Petrov                   Caterham

16. Charles Pic                      Marussia

17. Timo Glock                     Marussia

18. Pedro de la Rosa             HRT

19. Narain Karthikeyan        HRT

Retired

20. Mark Webber                  Red Bull

21. Nico Hulkenberg             Force India

22. Sebastian Vettel              Red Bull

23. Jenson Button                  McLaren

24. Jean-Eric Vergne            Toro Rosso

Best Lap: Nico Rosberg 1:27.239 on Lap 53.