Virgin Racing?s Korean Grand Prix ended in frustration as both cars fail to finish the race, but this time it wasn?t entirely their fault.
As heavy rain delayed the start, hopes were high that conditions could open the door for an unlikely points finish and with it give Virgin 10th ...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/oaZxwFT4-KY/blame-placed-solely-on-sebastien-buemi
Timmy Mayer Francois Mazet Gastón Mazzacane Kenneth McAlpine
The 1993 Japanese Grand Prix is the selected race in the latest edition of our classic Formula 1 series.
Last week, we asked readers to tell us which of three great races they would most like to see - the 1990, 1993 and 1995 Japanese Grands Prix - and the overwhelming choice was Ayrton Senna's victory in 1993.
The full 'Grand Prix' highlights programme broadcast on the BBC at the time is embedded below, with the shorter highlights of it and the other races linked underneath. There are also short and long highlights of Sebastian Vettel's victory in an incident-packed Suzuka race last year, too.
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WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1990 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1993 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1995 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH SHORT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
WATCH LONG HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2009 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
Because of the Commonwealth Games, the classic races will not be shown on the red button, either on digital and satellite or on Freeview.
I have to say that I was surprised by just how popular the 1993 race was - it outdid the other two choices by something like five to one.
The 1993 race witnessed a great drive by Senna, and was full of action and intrigue both during the race and afterwards, but I have to say I thought the famous crash between Senna and Alain Prost at the start in 1990 would be the most popular choice.
There was all the drama of the start, Nigel Mansell putting paid to his chances by breaking his Ferrari's driveshaft with an over-exuberant getaway from a tyre stop, and the unusual podium of two Benettons and local hero Aguri Suzuki.
The 1995 race also made a strong case for itself - a superb drive from Michael Schumacher, comedy retirements from Williams drivers Damon Hill and David Coulthard (although it's fair to say the team's no-nonsense technical director Patrick Head wasn't laughing) and a battling drive from Ferrari's Jean Alesi before his retirement (also with a driveshaft failure).
Having said that, it is hard to argue against 1993. It was one of Senna's great wet-weather victories after a race-long battle with arch-rival Prost and there was the sub-plot of Eddie Irvine's electrifying grand prix debut.
Drafted in by Jordan for the last two races of the year, the Northern Irishman qualified an excellent eighth, and used his knowledge of Suzuka gleaned from three years in Japanese Formula 3000 to pass Schumacher and Hill at the start.
Later in the race, while battling with Hill, Irvine had the temerity to unlap himself from Senna. And when the great Brazilian, a little the worse for wear, confronted Irvine about it after the race, he did not find the novice as apologetic as expected - the two got into a heated argument which ended with Senna punching Irvine.
A number of you asked on my last blog whether there was film of this argument. There isn't. But the journalist Adam Cooper was in the room with Irvine at the time, and he recorded the whole thing. A transcript of the row was published in Autosport magazine - for which both Cooper and I were working at the time - and you can read it here.
There were also questions about why we had not chosen the 1996 race, when Hill clinched the world title.
The answer is in the name of this series - classic grands prix. Hill is a popular man, and with good reason, but in no way could that race be called an all-time classic in comparison with others we have chosen.
To recap, the title battle had distilled by the time of Japanwhich was the last race of the season, into a fight between Williams team-mates Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.
Hill led by nine points going into the race - which meant the only way Villeneuve could be champion was if he won and the Englishman was out of the points.
Villeneuve increased the tension by qualifying on pole, ahead of Hill, but his chances were effectively ruined within seconds of the green light, when the Canadian made a poor start and dropped to sixth, behind Hill, Benetton's Gerhard Berger, Mika Hakkinen's McLaren, Schumacher's Ferrari and Irvine's Ferrari.
Villeneuve managed to get past Irvine, but was still in only fifth place when he retired when a rear wheel came off going into Turn One with 15 laps to go. Hill, meanwhile, led untroubled from the start, going only as fast as he needed to, keen to conserve his car.
A popular result, yes, especially in Britain. But a classic grand prix it was not.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/10/your_classic_grand_prix_-_race_3.html
Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg Eddie Cheever Andrea Chiesa
"It's not been our greatest weekend," McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh admitted even before the Japanese Grand Prix started. Two hours later, it did not even look that good for Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Hamilton's pre-race assessment of it being one of his "worst weekends" was pretty much spot on.
After the race, Whitmarsh put a brave face on things, saying it was not the "bigger disaster" he had feared at some points over the weekend. But the reality is that Suzuka dealt a heavy blow to the championship hopes of both McLaren drivers.
Button finished fourth, a place ahead of Hamilton, but their three title rivals - Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber of Red Bull and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso - annexed the podium, and for the first time all season both Englishmen are more than a win off the championship lead.
That watershed moment - as it may well turn out to be - has come at the worst possible time, with just three races to go and with both the Red Bull and the Ferrari expected, on current form, to be quicker cars than the McLaren at those tracks.
Given the expected dominance of the Red Bulls at Suzuka, Japan was always going to be an exercise in damage-limitation for McLaren. Instead, the damage was to some extent self-inflicted.
Hamilton started things rolling with his crash in first practice on Friday morning, which was exactly what he did not need after accidents had put him out of the last two races.
That meant Hamilton managed only six flying laps on Friday and put him on the back foot for the rest of the weekend. And things got worse when it emerged that McLaren had to change his gearbox, earning him a five-place grid penalty.
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This, it emerged, was as a result of damage it incurred in Hamilton's race-ending collision with Webber in the previous race in Singapore. McLaren hoped that it would survive, but it became clear through Saturday that it would not, and they had to take the hit.
After the wash-out on Saturday, Hamilton qualified third on Sunday morning, a quite superb performance given his lack of track time. But that became eighth following his penalty, and from there he was never going to beat the Red Bulls or Alonso.
Bringing back memories of his stunning drive to third in a poor car in Suzuka last year, though, Hamilton gave it a go. He was fantastic both before and after another gearbox problem intervened and he lost third gear, and subsequently fourth place to his team-mate.
That second gearbox problem meant Hamilton, despite his Friday crash, ultimately got as many points as he was ever going to get at Suzuka. But, as he put it himself, the last three races have made winning the championship "very difficult".
For his part, Button's gamble on taking the harder tyre for qualifying failed to pay off.
Whitmarsh believed it cost Button a place on the grid and if that is true it could have been the difference between finishing third and fourth in the race.
Alonso made a poor start from his fourth place so, had Button been ahead of him on the grid, it is inconceivable to think the world champion would not have beaten the Ferrari into the first corner.
That would have given him critical track position. Alonso was faster than Button in the race but had the Englishman been ahead Button would probably have beaten the Ferrari anyway.
For Button, that would have meant being 28 points off the championship lead rather than 31 as he is now. In such a tight season, that could make a huge difference.
Trying to emphasise the positives, as all the best managers do, Whitmarsh pointed out both that there are still 75 points available and that McLaren have more developments to come in the final three races.
But the team's promises of performance have not always delivered what they expected on the track this season and the fact remains that McLaren have had the third fastest car at the vast majority of the races this season.
Only at Spain, Turkey and Canada has it been demonstrably faster than the Ferrari, and only in Turkey, Canada and Italy than the Red Bull. McLaren and Hamilton had got into the championship lead by maximising their potential better than either of their rivals. That ability seems to have escaped them for now.
What made it worse was that Suzuka, actually, was one of McLaren's better races in terms of performance - and it was always going to be Ferrari's weakest of the final four.
Had the weekend gone smoothly for McLaren they might well have beaten Alonso with both cars - they certainly had the qualifying pace for that. To miss that opportunity could prove very costly indeed.
"Anything can happen," Whitmarsh said. "The leading guys could fall off at the next race, Lewis could win, and all of a sudden you'd be right back in it."
That's what the Japanese GP did for McLaren - realistically, they know the championship is now out of their hands, and they are relying on something going wrong for the top three.
Webber, meanwhile, has extended his lead in the championship, from 11 points over Alonso going into the race to 14 after it. But the Australian will be feeling anything but comfortable.
Vettel is now tied on points with Alonso - although classified only third because he has won one less race - and the result means that, were Red Bull to finish one-two in all the remaining races, Webber can not finish second to his team-mate in all three and still win the championship.
On pure performance, that is what Red Bull should do. But, as Alonso pointed out, that must be considered unlikely on the evidence of the season so far.
"Of the 16 races of the championship," he said, twisting the knife a little, "15 of them were Red Bull circuits and they won only seven. So in the remaining three races, I think it will be difficult for Red Bull to be one and two every race because always something seems to happen.
"If something does happen, we need to take the opportunity. If not, it will be hard because we know in 2010 the Red Bull has been the dominant car."
Alonso may, though, be playing down his chances.
The changes to the rules on bodywork flexibility seem to have brought Red Bull back towards their rivals - their advantage in Japan was nowhere near as big as it was in Hungary, a similarly favourable track.
On top of that, none of the remaining circuits are likely to be as good for Red Bull as Japan.
South Korea, on 24 October, is an unknown quantity, but while there are a lot of corners at Yeongam that will favour the Red Bull so, too, are there long straights which will tip the balance back to the Ferrari and the McLaren. That may leave things dead level between all three. It will be fascinating to see.
The bumps and long straights at Interlagos in Brazil may also give Ferrari the chance to take on Red Bull on a level playing field. Only at Abu Dhabi may Red Bull reasonably expect a significant advantage.
There are doubtless many twists to come in the best F1 championship in years, decades even - but for Hamilton and Button, at least for now, it looks a long shot.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/10/mclaren_drivers_hopes_hanging.html
Walt Faulkner William Ferguson Maria Teresa de Filippis Ralph Firman
Bugatti must be really confident in the buying power of the rich folks of India considering that the company has introduced the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport in the country despite the ridiculous 110% import tax tacked to items like foreign exotic cars.
Add the car?s cost to the tax it comes with and to be able to purchase a Veyron in the country would mean that you would have to pay a staggering $3.6 million. Apparently, Bugatti is undeterred by the mammoth tax cars like the Veyron will be given, opting to focus more on the huge potential of the spending power of wealthy locals, which, according to analysts, could reach $14.7 billion as fast as 2015.
Satya Bagla, head of Exclusive Motors Pvt., the company that carries high-end brands Bugatti, Bentley, and Lamborghini, said that the Indian market, specifically the wealthy, are beginning to open up their bank accounts. ?People have more spending power and are getting more aware of owning beautiful things,? she said.
?They are more ready to show their wealth.? Must be nice.
Bugatti to begin selling Veyron in India despite 110% import tax originally appeared on topspeed.com on Sunday, 31 October 2010 18:00 EST.
John RiseleyPrichard Giovanni de Riu Richard Robarts Pedro Rodríguez