US-Qatar planning Formula 1 takeover

Something is cooking in Formula 1. CVC Capital Ventures the majority shareholders of F1 may be trying to divest off their shares, if BBC reports are to be believed.

And surprisingly the prospective investors are a consortium comprising RSE Ventures of America and Qatar Sports Investments. RSE Ventures is owned by property tycoon Stephen Ross and owns football team Miami Dolphins. Qatar Sports Investments is a Sovereign fund of Qatar and owns the Paris St- Germain football club.

The deal, which is not finalised yet, could be anywhere between 7 and 8 billion dollars. There are other bidders also who are prospecting acquisition of the Formula 1 shares.

At present there is an F1 Grand Prix held at Austin, Texas and no races are held at Qatar. Infact it is said that when Bahrain signed in to host the first race in middle east, it had a clause that there can be only two races in Middle East. So apart from Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, there cannot be a third race in Qatar.

Qatar, with the FIFA football worldcup in its bag, albeit controversially, is looking at increasing its sports footprint and hence bringing in more tourist revenue, as well as investments.

America is the home of automobile majors, although these automobile companies have declined, the demand for automobiles continues as well as the demand for motorsports.

Nascar is popular in America and despite the sole F1 race at Austin, Formula 1 hasn't caught the imagination of the american public. American ownership of Formula One management may kick start the love for Formula 1 in USA.

It also may be a good opportunity for CVC to exit Formula One as the viewership has been declining. Bernie Ecclestone is also not growing younger any longer and the shrewd businessman that he is, it is not wonder that he may be looking at exiting F1 by enchasing his 5% shares and any other additional bonus that he wants.

The final word on this hasn't been heard yet. 

Grid Penalties for Fernando & Ricciardo

Fernando Alonso of McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull have been slapped with massive grid penalties for the Austrian F1 Grand Prix on 21st June, 2015.

Fernando Alonso has gone beyond the permitted 4 engines and is now using the 5th engine. That automatically gets 10 place starting grid penalty. However, Alonso apart from using his 5th Honda engine is now on the 5th turbocharger and 5th MGU-H. The later two attracts 5 place grid penalty each totaling upto 20 grid point penalties for Fernando Alonso. Since his McLaren is too slow and is most likely to qualify barely before the two Manor Marussia racing cars and if luck permits then before his teammate Jenson Button and any other unfortunate racer to have a qualifying problem, he cannot consume all his grid penalties. So he is likely to be slapped with time penalties in the race by giving 10 second stop go penalty. Given that McLaren with its Honda engine is in such bad shape, does it actually matter where Alonso starts?

However, Daniel Ricciardo will obviously be in a worse position with that 10 place grid penalty as he is mostly a top ten qualifier with his Red Bull car and Renault engine and is currently in the 7th position in the drivers championship with 35 points. This hits Red Bull hard as they now can look at Daniil Kvyat to challenge the front runners. Daniil Kvyat is 8th in the drivers championship with 19 points.

Lewis Hamilton wins Malaysian Grand Prix

Hamilton wins Malaysian Grand Prix

It was a dominant display from Lewis Hamilton in the Malaysian Grand prix. He started from Pole and won without any hiccups. Unlike the season opening race in Australia, Hamilton didn’t suffer any problems and finished the race in style. Hamilton needed 3 pit stops to complete the 56 lap race.

Lewis Hamilton’s teammate Nico Rosberg finished second. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull to a third place finish. Though Vettel was P2 in qualifying, he was overtaken at the start by Rosberg as well as Ricciardo. In the first couple of corners. At one point it appeared that Vettel was about to catch Rosberg, but soon Vettel fell behind.

Vettel’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo had to retire in the 49th lap. Before that he was handed a 5 second stop/go penalty. His front hit the kerbs and dragged for a while, infact for three races it scraped the track before he was brought in to pit.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari benefitted from Ricciardo’s misfortune and finished in 4th position. In the 54th lap he took the benefit of fresh tyres to overtake Nico Hulkenberg of Force India who finished in 5th position. Hulkenberg was the only top ten finisher to use a 2 stop strategy as opposed to the 3 stop strategy employed by others. The other 2 stopper was Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham who finished a creditable 13th. However, Alonso’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen was not so fortunate as he got a puncture after getting hit by Magnussen of McLaren in the 2nd lap. Kimi finished in 12th position.

Jenson Button of McLaren finished in sixth position. He was followed by the Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valteri Bottas in 7th and 8th positions respectively.

Magnussen of McLaren finished a lap down in 9th . Kvyat of Toro Rosso took the 10th and final points paying position.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus would be a relieved man as this is the first time a Lotus car in this season could finish a race. He did well by holding off Kimi Raikkonen. Romain finished in 11th position. His teammate Pastor Maldonado was however done in by Jules Bianchi in the 1st lap and had to retire in lap 7. Bianchi retired in lap 8.

The Caterhams of Kobayashi and Ericsson finished in 13th and 14th positions. These positions may become critical later in the season and may decide the 10th placed team.

Max Chilton of Marussia finished in 15th position.

Retirements in Malaysian Grand Prix

Driver             Team              Lap

Ricciardo         Red Bull          49

Gutierrez         Sauber             35

Sutil                Sauber             32

Vergne            Toro Rosso     18

Bianch            Marussia           8

Maldonado      Lotus                7

Perez               Force India       0         

Lewis Hamilton scores Pole for Mercedes in Germany

Lewis Hamilton snatches the pole position in Germany for the German team.

It was an interesting formula one qualifying in Germany. In the Q1, only Redbull and Mercedes used medium tyres, and all the other teams had to resort to soft tyres to qualify. The soft tyre is about 1.5 seconds faster than the medium tyres. This shows that Mercedes and Redbull have an edge over others in this circuit.

Eliminations in Q1 in German Grand Prix

The usual suspects were eliminated in the Q1, namely:
Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado, Charles Pic, Jules Bianchi, Geido Van der Garde, Max Chilton. There was slightly nearly four and half seconds difference between the fastest and the slowest car in Q1.

Sergio Perez was in danger of not qualifying for Q2 as he was down at 18th position before he put together a lap in the dying seconds of Q1 to move into Q2.

Intense drama in Q2 in German Grand Prix 2013

There was lot of drama in the Q2
In the Q2, the Red Bull team kept their drivers in their garage and released them with about five and half minutes remaining what appeared to be for a single run. They appeared to be saving their soft tyres. Vettel and Webber posted identical sector times in S1 and S2 but webber scored a slower S3 and as a result Vettel took P1 position in Q2 ahead of Hamilton and Webber.

Mercedes decided not to run their drivers again as they were initially 1-2. However, in the dying seconds of Q2, Grosjean came ahead of Hamilton and then Alonso scored a provisional P1 to be just inched by his team mate Felipe Massa. Then Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Jenson Button all pushed through to push out Nico Rosberg out of Q3. Kimi Raikkonen did a flyer to score P2 in Q2 in the last few seconds. The difference between Hamilton was 1:30.152 and Rosberg 1:30.326

Drivers eliminated in Q2 in F1 German Grand Prix 2013

11. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
12. Paul di Resta Force India
13. Sergio Perez McLaren
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber
15. Adrian Sutil Force India
16. Jean Eric Vergne Toro Rosso

In Q3, both the Ferrari drivers and Jenson Button of McLaren came out on medium tyres. Perhaps they expect the soft tyre not to last only for a short time so that they will get advantage if they use a medium tyre.

There was a fight for the pole as Vettel went fractionally ahead of Hamilton with a great third sector. However, Hamilton hit back by knocking off 0.2 seconds in the first sector, matching Vettel in the second sector and again besting him in the third sector. So Lewis Hamilton scored 1:29.398 seconds to Sebastian Vettel’s time of 1:29.501 seconds. It was a happy moment for Mercedes as they got the Pole in Germany, their home country. The German fans roared when Lewis Hamilton scored the pole. The blow of Nico Rosberg, a german driver of Mercedes not qualifying for the Q3 was forgotten.

Mark Webber or Red Bull scored P3 with a time of 1:29.608 followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus who scored 1:29.892. Both of them will start in the second row.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus scored P5 with time of 1:29.959 and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso scored P6 with 1:30.528.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari came ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso for the 7th and 8th positions with times of 1:31.126 and 1:31.209 respectively.

Jenson Button of McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber didn’t register a time. This allows them to choose a tyre ie. both of them can either start with soft tyre or medium tyres.

It is a proud moment for Nico Hulkenberg, another German, to be on P10 as his previous races this year are forgettable.

It would be a very interesting race tomorrow in the F1 German Grand Prix 2013

Revised Starting Grid in Spanish Grand Prix

Penalties and Revised Starting Grid in Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying

Esteban Gutierrez was deemed to have impeded Kimi Raikkonen in Q1, during the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying and was handed a 3 place grid penalty. So he demotes to 19th from his16th position.

Felipe Massa who qualified in 6th position was deemed to have obstructed Mark Webber of Red Bull during Q2. Felipe will now start at 9th position.

The Starting Grid for Spanish Grand Prix after penalties:

1. Nico Rosberg             Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton         Mercedes
3. Sebastian Vettel         Red Bull
4. Kimi Raikkonen         Lotus
5. Fernando Alonso        Ferrari
6. Romain Grosjean       Lotus
7. Mark Webber             Red Bull
8. Sergio Perez               McLaren
9. Felipe Massa              Ferrari
10. Paul di Resta            Force India
11. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso
12. Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso
13. Adrian Sutil             Force India
14. Jenson Button          McLaren
15. Nico Hulkenberg     Sauber
16. Valeri Bottas           Williams
17. Pastor Maldonado   Williams
18. Giedo va der Garde  Caterham
19. Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber
20. Jules Bianchi           Marussia
21. Max Chilton            Marussia
22. Charles Pic              Caterham

Raikkonen wins Australian Grand Prix 2013

Raikkonen wins Australian Grand Prix

Raikkonen wins first race of 2013. in a topsy turvy race, where fortunes constantly fluctuated with changing weather conditions.

There were many drivers who led the race from time to time, however, it was Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus who go the first race win of the year under his belt with a two stop strategy. The Redbulls at the end didn't have the race pace to win despite showing impressive pace in the F1 Australian Grand Prix qualifying.

There were four retirements in the race. Rosberg who had led the race for sometime was one of them when his car failed in 26 laps. Maldonado of Williams too retired in lap no. 24. Ricciardo of Toro Rosso retired in lap 40. Nico Hulkenberg, the new Sauber recruit failed to start the race due to a fuel pump problem. He must be feeling bad as his replacement in Force India, Adrian Sutil led the race for sometime when other cars had pitted.

The Final standings in Australian Grand Prix are as follows:

1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull
4. Felipe Masa Ferrari
5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
6. Mark Webber Red Bull
7. Adrian Sutil Force India
8. Paul di Resta Force India
9. Jenson Button McLaren
10. Romain Grosjean Lotus
11. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
12. Sergio Perez McLaren
13. Gutierrez Sauber
14. Valeri Bottas Williams
15. Bianchi Marussia
16. Charles Pic Caterham
17. Max Chilton Marussia
18. van der Garde Caterham

Retirements in Australian Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo
Nico Rosberg
Pastor Maldonado
Nico Hulkenberg

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. 

Vettel's gamble fails, to start from back of the grid

Sebastian Vettel disqualified from Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying

Sebastian Vettel had stopped his car on the track after qualifying without bringing it back for inspection. It was said that he stopped it due to some undisclosed problem with the fuel pump. As we had mentioned http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/11/hamilton-storms-to-pole-in-abu-dhabi.html that this will invite an investigation, Sebastian Vettel was investigated and it was found that his Red bull car didn't have the mandatory 1 litre fuel. He was disqualified from the qualifying results and will start from the pitlane for the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

A FIA statement said that "The stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the Qualifying Session. The competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid."


In another development Sergio Perez was warned for blocking Bruno Senna, however, no penalty was given.

The F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be exciting as Sebastian Vettel will try and hope to salvage some points after starting from the back of the grid and Alonso will try to maximise this opportunity to wipe out the 13 point deficit to Sebastian Vettel in the championship race. Since Sebastian Vettel will not start at third position, Mark Webber who starts at second position will not has to let Sebastian Vettel past him. However Mark Webber will try and fight for the race lead and when Fernando Alonso will overtake the other cars and move to the front, Webber will try to hold him up as much as possible. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand, aggressive driver that he is, will try to win this race from pole. This may be one of the last few opportunities when he starts from the pole as in the next season he will be driving Mercedes, which has failed in the last three years to create a good car.

The 2012 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be interesting.

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Revised Starting Grid 2012

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

Mark Webber the Lead Bull in Korean Grand Prix

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix 2012 Qualifying was great for Red Bull as they scored a 1-2 position. However, it was Mark Webber who scored the Pole position for Red Bull instead of Sebastian Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton was on the verge of failing to qualify for Q2 but could do so at the end qualifying at 16 in the Q1 to make the cutoff for Q2. He then scored P3 position in the final leg of qualifying.


Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was P4 followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus at P5.

Felipe Massa was driving close to half a second of his illustrious team mate Fernando Alonso and it appears that Ferrari is going to retain Massa as that means there would not be any other young driver to challenge Alonso and hence harmony is maintained. He scored a P6.


Following Massa is the “first lap nut-case” Romain Grosjean of Lotus at P7. So the people who are in danger tomorrow of being shunted out in the opening lap are Massa, Kimi and Alonso.

McLaren’s Jenson Button failed to make it to Q3 as he qualified at P11. McLaren team might be thinking what they have lost, as Jenson Button as well as their recruit for 2013 Sergio Perez at P12 failed to make to the Q3. Also all other teams have both their drivers in Q3 except McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India made it to the Q3 at the expense of Jenson Button and scored a good P8 ahead of the two Mercedes cars.


Mercedes team would have breathed a sigh of relief as both their drivers made it to Q3. Michael Schumacher had a run earlier and put in a good time and was five thousandths of a second faster than Jenson Button who remained at P11. Nico Rosberg came in a P9 in the Q3 followed by Michael Schumacher at P10. This is after sometime that Rosberg has outqualified Michael in a qualifying.

Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg saved their tyres and elected to only choose a single run in the Q3.

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix 2012 qualifying started on a bad note for Narain Karthikeyan as he failed to start due to a brake problem. He will be able to drive on Sunday on the discretion of the stewards.

Final Qualifying Positions for Korean Grand Prix

1. Mark Webber
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Fernando Alonso
5. Kimi Raikkonen
6. Felipe Massa
7. Romain Gorsjean
8. Nico Hulkenberg
9. Nico Rosberg
10. Michael Schumacher
11. Jenson Button
12. Sergio Perez
13. Kamui Kobayashi
14. Paul di Resta
15. Pastor Maldonado
16. Daniel Ricciardo
17. Jean-Eric Vergne
18. Bruno Senna
19. Vitaly Petrov
20. Heikki Kovalainen
21. Charles Pic
22. Timo Glock
23. Pedro de la Rosa
24. Narain Karthikeyan (no time)

Formula One drivers championship standings after Japan

Formula One Drivers Championship standings

The Formula One Championship is now in an interesting stage. The lead of Fernando Alonso in the drivers championship has come down drastically due to his retirements and Sebastian Vettel's back to back wins.

Lewis Hamilton had a bad outing in Japan and his championship hopes appear to be virtually over. Especially since his equations with his team has evaporated culminating in his announcement of his Mercedes deal.

Kimi Raikkonen hasn't won a race in this season and unless he wins the next few races his championship hopes are also over. With the superior pace of Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel would have dreaming of a third consecutive drivers championship title.

Ranking	Driver	Team	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	194
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	190
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	157
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	152
5	Mark Webber	Red Bull	134
6	Jenson Button	McLaren	131
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	93
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	82
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	69
10	Sergio Perez	Sauber	66
11	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	50
12	Paul de Resta	Force India	44
13	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	43
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	37
15	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	33
16	Bruno Senna	Williams	25
17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	8
18	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	7
19	Timo Glock	Marussia	0
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0
21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	0
22	Jerome D'Ambrosio	Lotus	0
23	Charles Pic	Marussia	0
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0
25	Pedro de La Rosa	HRT	0

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

Michael Schumacher retires from Formula One

Michael Schumacher retires from Formula One racing

Michael schumacher - The God of Formula One - has announced his retirement.  In a shocking move earlier his Mercedes team had announced Lewis Hamilton in his place. http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/09/mercedes-shows-door-to-michael.html

Now Michael Schumacher has decided not to drive for any other team and retire from the sport for the second and final time. In 2006 Michael Schumacher had retired when he was driving for Ferrari. Ferrari had announced signing of Kimi Raikkonen as his replacement. It was widely believed that instead of forcing Felipe Massa out of the team, Michael Schumacher gracefully retired. However, his ambitions were burning and when Felipe Massa suffered the accident and Ferrari approached Michael Schumacher, the racing fires within him was stoked. He then came and drove for Mercedes team. With the Mercedes team now showing him the door, he had options of going to Sauber. However, he declined to drive for them and has retired.

Michael Schumacher was very competitive and from his demeanor one could see the fires burning. However, without a drive in Mercedes, he has now decided to call it quits from F1.

Though Michael Schumacher said that I still feel that I am capable of competing against the best but the time sometimes comes to say goodbye and this time it might be forever. And he added for good measure "During the past month I was not sure if I still had the motivation and energy which is necessary to go on. It is not my style to go on if I am not 100 percent with it but with today's decision I feel relieved."

7 Word Titles, 91 Race Victories and 155 podiums. Michael Schumacher still remains the most successful driver ever. At 43 years of age, he still burns bright, as a testament to his super human abilities. However, at 43 years, even The God of Formula One is mortal and has decided to bow away. While appreciating all he has done, Michael Schumacher's retirement from Formula One has broken our heart that we will not see him driving any more after this year.

Lewis Hamilton in Pole in Italian Grand Prix Qualifying

2012 Italian Grand Prix Qualifying | Formula One

Lewis Hamilton scores pole position in the 2012 Italian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton lead his teammate Jenson Button to lock out the front row in the 2012 Italian grand Prix qualifying. In a closely fought qualifying, 0.5 seconds separated the top 5 drivers. Out of this the top four were only separated by 0.3 seconds.

The 2012 Italian Grand Prix is expected to be a bit different as the “bulldozer Grosjean” has been banned for this race and in his place comes in Lotus reserve driver Gerome d’ Ambrosio. This would be his first race. And expectedly he qualified at 16^th vis-à-vis the 8^th position of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen.
However, the major surprise came from the Ferrari drivers. Felipe Massa who is widely expected to lose his drive in Ferrari at the end of the season scored a P3 where as his teammate and world championship leader Fernando Alonso could only score the 10^th position.

Paul di Resta, scored the 4^th position with a phenomenal time of 1:24.204. Michael Schumacher came 5^th at 1:24.540. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel at 1:24.802. Nico Rosberg who had a very poor outing in the previous race came in 7^th with a time of 1:24.833. Kobayashi came in 9^th at 1:25.109.

At the back of the grid, Narain Karthikeyan was very happy as he could beat his team mate Pedro de la Rosa 0.188 seconds.

2012 Italian Grand Prix Qualifying 

1.     Lewis Hamilton               McLaren       1:24.010

2.     Jenson Button                  McLaren       1:24.133

3.     Felipe Massa                   Ferrari           1:24.247

4.     Paul di Resta                   Force India    1:24.304

5.     Michael Schumacher      Mercedes       1:24.540

6.     Sebastian Vettel              Red Bull        1:24.802

7.     Nico Rosberg                  Mercedes       1:24.802

8.     Kimi Raikkonen             Lotus              1:24.855

9.     Kamui Kobayashi           Sauber            1:24.109

10. Fernando Alonso            Ferrari            1:25.678

Q2

11. Mark Webber                 Red Bull         1:24.809

12. Pastor Maldonado          Williams        1:24.820

13. Sergio Perez                   Sauber            1:24.901

14. Bruno Senna                   Williams        1:25.042

15. Daniel Ricciardo            Toro Rosso     1:25.312

16. Jerom d’Ambrosio         Lotus              1:25.408

17. Jean-Eric Vergne           Toro Rosso     1:25.441

Q3

18. Heikki Kovalainen         Caterham       1.26.382

19. Vitaly Petrov                  Caterham       1:26.887

20. Timo Glock                    Marussia        1:27.039

21. Charles Pic                     Marussia        1:27.073

22. Narain Karthikeyan        HRT               1:27.441

23. Pedro de la Rosa            HRT                1:27.629

24. Nico Hulkenberg            Force India     -

                        

This grand prix is going to be interesting as the championship leader Fernando Alonso is starting in 10th position and his competitors are ahead of him. Lets see how the race unfolds tomorrow. Out of the top five qualifiers three are using mercedes engines. Will Michael Schumacher win this Grand Prix. Or will Lewis Hamilton with this race after suffering many mishaps in the previous races and bring his title efforts back on track?