Formula One 2010

[Lineker]

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS


The Italian Grand Prix

Autodromo di Monza, Italy;

53 laps; 306.720km;

Weather: Sunny.


Classified:


Pos  Driver        Team                       Time

 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h16:24.572

 2.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     2.938

 3.  Massa         Ferrari                    +     4.223

 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    28.193

 5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    29.942

 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    31.276

 7.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +    32.812

 8.  Kubica        Renault                    +    34.028

 9.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    44.948

10.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +  1:04.200

11.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +   1:05.00

12.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +  1:06.100

13.  Petrov        Renault                    +  1:18.900

14.  De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap

15.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap

16.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap

17.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps

18.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +    2 laps

19.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps

20.  Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps


Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:24.139


Not classified/retirements:


Driver        Team                         On lap

Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               47

Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 12

Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             1

Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               1



World Championship standings, round 14:                


Drivers:                    Constructors:             

 1.  Webber       187        1.  Red Bull-Renault          350

 2.  Hamilton     182        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          347

 3.  Alonso       166        3.  Ferrari                   290

 4.  Button       165        4.  Mercedes                  158

 5.  Vettel       163        5.  Renault                   127

 6.  Massa        124        6.  Force India-Mercedes       58

 7.  Rosberg      112        7.  Williams-Cosworth          47

 8.  Kubica       108        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             27

 9.  Schumacher    46        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10

10.  Sutil         45       

11.  Barrichello   31       

12.  Kobayashi     21       

13.  Petrov        19       

14.  Hulkenberg    16       

15.  Liuzzi        13       

16.  Buemi          7       

17.  De la Rosa     6       

18.  Alguersuari    3       


All timing unofficial[/code]


Silly boy Lewis. So avoidable; and he's already come out and admitted it could have cost him this years drivers championship. Could Alonso really catch up though? The remaining fly-away races are all supposedly going to be tracks which really suit the Red Bull's... we'll see.


An Hispania mechanic was taken to the medical center at Monza following an incident during a pitstop at the Italian Grand Prix.


The mechanic was apparently hit by Sakon Yamamoto's car when the Japanese completed his pitstop. An ambulance had to enter the pitlane during the race to attend the mechanic.


HRT said He has remained conscious all the time and that the "situation was under control".


An update on his condition is expected later.


[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39kbeW2C3-o[/media]


Ouch.


Also, in addition to pushing hard to break away from their Cosworth engine deal two years early, Lotus Racing is set to officially announce before the Singapore grand prix that it will be officially renaming to the name it originally raced under all those years ago, Team Lotus. Tony Fernandes purchased the rights for the title from former team owner David Hunt.

[Adam]

And there goes my interest in the race within the space of thirty seconds.

Well it peaked mine.

Not the best race ever really, it was never going to be. Pretty cool to see Ferrari winning if only for the crowd at the end of the race and at the podium! It is also sort of good for Webber in the title race-Alonso started the day 5th so was the worse off of the 5 contenders, and his closest rival didn't even complete one lap of the circuit. Gonna be an interesting season finale, I'm hoping Mark can hold on, if he can secure another victory and be consistent now we're supposedly going back to tracks that favour Red Bull, then he should take the crown.

[Lineker]

Lots of murmurs going around that Nick Heidfeld is set to replace Pedro de la Rosa at Sauber for the rest of the season. Interesting to see if the FIA take a stance on it seeing as he had recently become Pirelli's test driver for the development of their 2011 tyres...

[Katsuya]

YAY, Heidfeld is confirmed as replacing de la Rosa for the rest of the season. Ultimately it's the best move that Sauber could have done, Pedro really wasn't performing and I always thought it was an odd decision - especially when they had either Heidfeld or Fisi, two much more recently employed drivers, available from the beginning of the season.

[Lineker]

I've always like Heidfeld, good for him.

Kimi Raikkonen has approached Renault about a 2011 seat but team principal Eric Boullier is ready to give Vitaly Petrov every chance to prove himself in the remaining races.

[Sam]

I like Petrov, I think they should keep with him rather than hire Kimi, I know he is great and all but that's when he can actually be bothered to race.

[LUKIE]

Petrov, when he is on, has produced some good results. I don't know if it's him or his cars performance. But then again, even Kubica seems to be in cruise control at the moment, which makes me think Renault have pulled the plug on this season, and told the guys to take it easy as they pump everything into next seasons car.

[Katsuya]

I don't think 3rd at Spa = cruise control, really. Only thing that's got on top of him recently is that Rosberg seems to have been able to get some good results (but that could just be because of the uniqueness of Spa + Monza) that's moved him ahead in the table. He's still doing stupidly well this season, especially since he's ahead of Schumi by about 60 points.

Hopefully Renault keep Petrov and Williams keep the Hulk, if only because it'll be nice to see them give rookies a second season. I'd imagine Hulkenburg will stay, but Petrov has to deal with Kimi, Glock and Heikki all going for that seat too, it seems. Although I'm guessing Liuzzi's not going to be at Force India much longer so that seat should hopefully be free.

[LUKIE]

It just seemed he was in cruise control at the Italian Grand Prix. But then again, maybe not. More I think about it.

He has shown tendencies to not go hammer and tongs like every other driver during qualifying, usually content with getting his laps over and done with and sitting in the pits and waiting for the final results. It just seemed he wasn't putting much effort in. He managed to get up to fifth at the start of the race with a very good start, then I dunno, just kind of fell off.

He's still my favourite driver <3

[Katsuya]

I'm sure I heard something about another error in his pit stop. I think he was the first one of the leading cars to pit, too, so he was always going to be at a disadvantage (it seemed that the later you stopped the better in this race). I'm looking forward to seeing what he does around Brazil since he did so well there last year; if it weren't for just how well the top five have done, I'd have put money on him winning a race this year.

[LUKIE]

It's going to be interesting in a couple of years (maybe even next year), because Force India, Renault, Williams, possibly Sauber, will all have highly competitive cars. In fact, this season has been one of the most interesting in a long time.

[Lineker]

Hasn't Glock been confirmed for next year by Virgin already?

Romain Grosjean will conduct Pirelli's next Formula 1 test at Monza next week after being drafted in as replacement for Nick Heidfeld.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Lineker

[Lineker]

Force India are set to promote young Scot Paul di Resta to a race seat next year, but which one depends on whether the team can keep hold of Adrian Sutil. If they do manage to then Liuzzi would be dropped.

Pedro de la Rosa is now the new Pirelli test driver, completing a role swap with Heidfeld. He'll be helping Romain Grosjean.

Finally, Bernie Ecclestone, the senile old twat he is, is still harping on about the points system and he wants his stupid gold medals idea relooked at.

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone plans to make a fresh push to introduce his gold medal system into the sport, after suggesting that the new points system introduced this year has not improved matters.

Despite an ultra-tight championship battle between Red Bull Racing, Ferrari and McLaren, which has left five drivers in contention for the title with five races remaining, Ecclestone believes F1 would have been better off going for his 'winner-takes-all' concept.

Under Ecclestone's plans, the world championship would be awarded to the driver who scored the most victories in a season. If drivers were tied, it would then go on countback for second or third places.

If that system was in operation today, Mark Webber would be leading the title chase on four wins, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton on three wins and Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel on two.

Speaking at an announcement that German insurance company Allianz has extended its deal to be involved in F1, which will now include its logos being featured on the safety cars, Ecclestone said he was not impressed with the new points system used for the first time this year.

"If you look at the points system, it has made absolutely no difference," said Ecclestone. "If we had the old system it would be exactly the same position as now. Which is strange.

"Maybe they will wake up and think about my gold medal system now. Because Mark would have four gold medals now and two other guys with three, so the championship could go all the way to the wire."

When asked if he could see the medal system being accepted, he said: "Yes, for sure. They will see now what could happen, let's wait and see."

Speaking about this year's title battle, Ecclestone believes that the winner of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix would take a big step forward in his title ambitions - although reckoned Red Bull Racing duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were favourites.

"I think whoever wins here, is going to be in a better position," said Ecclestone.

"I honestly would not like to say who I think [will win]. Obviously Mark has got a good chance and I think Red Bull Racing are going to be very quick here, so I think you have got to say that certainly one of the Red Bull guys is the favourite at the moment."

[Cheeky Hughes]

lol, Ecclestone.

[Lineker]

Quite.

Bernie Ecclestone has been urged to abandon his fresh push to introduce a 'winner-takes-all' system in Formula 1, with leading figures adamant the move would be wrong for the sport.

Grand Prix racing's commercial supremo said in Singapore on Thursday that he believed the new-for-2010 points system had not worked - as it had failed to make the season any more exciting than it would have been under the old points structure.

Ecclestone reckons the situation would wake up the sport to the need to adopt his preferred medal system - whereby the world championship would be handed to the driver who takes the most wins over the season.

But Ecclestone's idea has not won support among the men involved in the current championship fight – which has already been billed in some quarters as one of the most exciting ever.

Former world champion Lewis Hamilton said: "I get on really well with Bernie, but I disagree with him personally. Everyone has got their own personal views, but I don't agree with the golden medal idea.

"At the end of the day we are pushing as hard as we can already to win the races. It doesn't matter if you give us a gold medal or you give us a trophy. We want to win more than anything. So even if you gave us a gold medal we would still be doing exactly what we are doing right now. It would not make any difference whatsoever.

"As far as having the most race wins winning the world championship – I don't think that is a true reflection of someone's performance. For example, if Red Bull had not failed their car so many times this year, they would have won the championship ages ago and we might as well have gone home.

"They had qualified on pole for 11 races and it would have been a blow over, and it wouldn't have been fun. And I don't think the fans would have enjoyed it. I am pretty sure that the majority of the fans will agree with what I am saying."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, whose team has won six of the 14 races held so far this season, said: "The only thing I will say is that the points sometimes are deceptive with the gaps that are there – and as we have seen those points reduce very, very quickly.

"I don't think the points have contributed – because had it been under the old or current system then the same five drivers would be pretty much in the same position.

"There are merits to rewarding more to a winner, in the scenario we have now, but if you have a runaway leader like in the Ferrari days then there is a disadvantage. But, at the end of the day, it is the same for everybody, whether it is medals or points whatever they are."

World champion Jenson Button also reckons that the introduction of a medal system would have big implications for smaller teams on the grid.

When asked about Ecclestone's belief that the points system had not worked, Button joked: "Oh yeah, I don't think it's been an exciting season at all!

"Seriously, I think for the first three people it is exciting in the championship – when you are right at the front it could be really exciting. Last year I would have loved that and could have sat out the last few races and gone on a big holiday for three months, but this year it has been so close it has been a fantastic season. The points system has worked.

"The problem is also for the smaller teams. If it is a medal system then there have probably been four or five teams this year that would have got a medal, and that is really tough for a lot of teams on the grid.

"At the moment there are three teams at the back and they are a little bit away from getting points. It is still difficult, but to get that point is so exciting for them.

"If it becomes only for the top three, then they know they are never going to score a medal in a season, so it is difficult. For the smaller teams and teams not right at the front it is not as exciting, as there is less to go for."

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I hate the medal system because it would give ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the mid/rear-grid teams to fight for.

[Gazz]

I don't see Bernie's argument, if we'd have had medals this season, we would have five drivers battling for the world title in pretty much the same positions as they are now and the championship would probably go down to the final race, which it probably will do anyway.

I also agree with Hammy, only 5 drivers representing 3 teams have won races this season. What's the point in racing for the other 8 teams or drivers like Kubica who are consistently in the points despite not having a top level car? With medals they're would be no difference between him this season and Chandhok. The sport would end up like the WRC with two manufacturers and a worldwide television audience of about 6 people and a goat.

In short, retire Bernie, you're a joke.

[LUKIE]

The points system as is, is perfect. It gives all of the back runners something to fight for. Make 10th and you get a point (and funding from FIA!). In the olden days, you had to make 6th to be eligible for funding, which was impossible, which was basically why all the new teams flunked within 1/2 years.

It's not just about who wins anymore. It's a lot about consistency, and gives a lot more meaning to the back gridders (which is why most of the coverage this season has been on 4-10). It's been an awesome sport to watch.

[Adam]

"Maybe they will wake up and think about my gold medal system now. Because Mark would have four gold medals now and two other guys with three, so the championship could go all the way to the wire."

Well done Bernie. Because the current points system isn't causing it to go down to the wire at all, is it?

This system they've introduced for this year is fantastic. The medals system would be shit and dull, plus most of the drivers would be driving for absolutely nothing. Good job nobody else sees the medals system as a good idea, just Bernie.

[Lineker]

Nick Heidfeld's new helmet. Now that is fucking gorgeous.

Rubens (top) and Buemi (bottom) also have new helmets for Singapore: