The FIA has clarified as to why the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix was aborted.
Viewers only saw flashing orange lights at the start/finish line, then Michael Schumacher being pushed back into the pit lane, and then a team radio snippet of him stating that he turned the engine off.
It has emerged that Schumacher only turned off his engine due to the flashing orange lights, which were used because the Mercedes driver himself had not parked within his designated spot on the grid.
Schumacher eventually started the race from the pit lane, before a drive-through penalty, a loss of tyre telemetry, and a puncture forced him to retire.
Sebastian Vettel’s second position is under threat, as the stewards have announced an investigation into an illegal overtake in the German Grand Prix.
Two laps from the end, Vettel approached the hairpin of the track, on the outside of Jenson Button. While the McLaren gave him room at the exit, Vettel went straight to the run-off area, floored the throttle, and re-entered the track ahead of the McLaren.
On the team radio, Button stated:
"I’m not sure that was correct the way Sebastian got past.
The most important thing is he wouldn’t have overtaken me if he was on the circuit."
Both drivers dodged questions on the matter afterwards, so it will be left to the stewards to see if Vettel keeps his 2nd place. Personally, I feel that Vettel made no attempt to legally pass Button, and wouldn’t have been able to overtake him without putting all 4 wheels off the track.
Update: Here’s a video I found of Michael Schumacher doing the exact same thing 9 years ago. No penalty (or investigation) was given. (Overtake at 2:45)
The 24 Hours of Le Mans has concluded today at the Circuit de la Sarthe, with Audi roaring away with 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th places.
There were 22 drivers there today who have previously raced in Formula 1. Some finished well up the field with consistent drives, while others were involved in terrifying crashes. Here is the report of the F1 drivers from today’s race:
Brundle & Brundle impress in LMP2
Sky F1 commentator and former F1 driver Martin Brundle, along with his son Alex, competed in the LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) category.
Clocking in an impressive 340 laps overnight, the father-son pairing finished 5th in class, and 15th overall. However, during the race, they were forced to switch to right-foot braking – a first for Alex – after problems began to develop on the car.
Alternator and throttle issues prevented them from battling for a podium finish, but the elder of the two stated he was pleased with his racing return.
Davidson lucky after horrific crash
Further up the field, 2007 Super Aguri driver Anthony Davidson was competing for the overall victory with the resurgent Toyota team. He took control of the #8 car, about 80 laps into the race.
However, a horrific smash with a Ferrari 458 (GTE Pro category) sent Davidson flying into the barriers, and the Toyota out of the race. After being sent to hospital to treat him for shock and back pain, it was confirmed that Davidson had suffered two broken vertebrae in the crash.
However, from watching the replay, you could argue that he is lucky to be alive:
Teammate Sebastien Buemi, a former Toro Rosso driver, drove a fantastic stint to bring the #8 Toyota within 3 seconds of the lead beforehand. Stephane Sarrazin – a once-off driver for Minardi, also drove well in his opening stints.
McNish and Gene throw away vital positions for Audi
2002 Toyota F1 driver Allan McNish has moved on to the Audi Le Mans team, this year racing the #2 R-18 e-tron quattro, a hybrid 4-wheel drive car. He inherited the lead from the #1 car, and was in contention for the race win.
However, when lapping a backmarker, McNish spun out and hit the barriers, losing vital time with repair work:
Amazingly, just minutes beforehand, fellow Audi driver Marc Gene (former Minardi and BMW Williams driver) had clashed with another barrier, this time on one of the Mulsanne chicanes. Earlier in the race, the same car was crashed in the exact same spot by Romain Dumas.
Both cars were repaired, at the same time, by the Audi crew, and sent out within 10 minutes – an incredible performance by the team.
Wurz and Nakajima suffer bad luck at Toyota
Besides Davidson’s crash, the sister Toyota car was in the wars as well.
The #7 car was running second after a safety car restart, with former Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima at the wheel. However, he clashed with the radical Nissan Delta Wing, forcing both cars to undergo extensive repairs.
The Delta Wing was out, while the #7 Toyota never recovered. Benneton and Williams racer Alexander Wurz brought the car out of the pits, but it repeatedly stuttered to a halt.
It was a disappointing end to a promising campaign for the Toyotas, but they’ll be back even stronger next year.
Bruni and Fisichella win GTE Pro category
2004 Minardi driver Gianmaria Bruni and Jordan, Renault and Ferrari driver Giancarlo Fisichella experienced success at this year’s Le Mans.
They won the GTE Pro category in the #51 Ferrari 458. While Fisichella was the one who crashed the car on Friday, forcing the car to start at the back of the grid, he did well to move 3 laps clear of his nearest competitor.
Brabham and Chandhok impress in JRM HPD
David Brabham – son of 3 times world champion Jack Brabham – and Karun Chandhok (2010 HRT racer) finished 6th overall in the LMP1 category.
They were racing for the JRM team. Despite some stalling while Chandhok attempted to leave the pits, the #22 car was brilliantly reliable, and briefly ran ahead of some of the Audi R18s.
Heidfeld splits the Audis with Lola
Nick Heidfeld, who has had a stunted career in F1 to say the least, was driving for the Lola team, and managed to finish ahead of one of the Audi cars.
He was driving with Nicolas Prost (son of Alain Prost) and Neel Jani (Lotus test driver), both of which are aiming for drives in F1 in the future.
With excellent reliability, the trio worked their way up to 4th place overall, and ruined a 1-2-3-4 finish for the Audi team. In fact, had any major problem befallen the top 3 cars, Heidfeld and co. would have finished on the podium!
Schumacher was deemed to have caused an avoidable accident
Michael Schumacher has been punished for causing a collision with Bruno Senna at today’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Under braking at turn 1, Michael hit the back of Bruno’s Williams, causing both cars to spear into the gravel trap. Schumacher retired on the spot, while Senna continued on for half a lap before pulling over.
After the incident, Schumacher branded Senna an “idiot”, claiming he moved in the braking zone, but the stewards saw the event differently.
Michael will drop 5 places in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.
American racing driver Alexander Rossi will make his first appearance in Formula 1 at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The 20-year-old will replace Heikki Kovalainen at Caterham for Friday practice 1.
Rossi has won the 2006 Skip Barber Western Regional, as well as the 2008 Formula BMW Americas and Formula BMW World Final. He tested for the Caterham team – back when it was known as Team Lotus – in last year’s young driver test in Abu Dhabi.
He is currently competing in Formula Renault 3.5 with Arden Caterham Motorsport, partnering Red Bull-back Lewis Williamson.
At the announcement today, Rossi said:
"I am looking forward to getting back into the F1 car in Spain and I want to thank
the team for the chance to run in FP1 in Barcelona.
I have a clear goal for the session – make sure I run to the plan set by the
engineers, not make any mistakes and learn as much as I can over the whole weekend."
Lewis Hamilton’s streak of pole positions in 2012 is set to end, after the McLaren driver was forced to change his gearbox for the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.
This leaves him with a 5-place grid penalty for the race. Gearboxes are specified to last 5 races in 2012.
So far, Lewis has started every race of the season on pole position, but with this news, he cannot qualify higher than 6th on Saturday.
Jaime Alguersuari will test for Pirelli’s F1 division for the rest of this season.
He joins Lucas di Grassi at the team, as they both replace Pedro de la Rosa, who tested for the tyre manufacturer last year.
Pirelli are using a Renault R30 2010 race car for their testing programme. They will take part in 4 tests in Jerez, Spa, Monza and Barcelona.
Alguersuari was dropped from Toro Rosso this year alongside Sebastien Buemi, and was replaced by the duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne. For this year, he is commentating on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Button's impressive victory could have been ruined by a fuel error
It has been revealed that Jenson Button’s Australian GP win was not as easy as it looked – the Briton was running extremely light on fuel.
Jenson took the lead at the first corner from his teammate, and controlled the race from there. However, team principal Martin Whitmarsh revealed that a fuel miscalculation almost ruined his race. He worryingly stated that Button was in “severe” fuel saving mode by lap 8:
"We were more than marginal. Had we raced unfettered we would not have got to
the finish line with either car, so from lap eight we were in severe fuel
saving mode."
With this, the safety car appearance during the race surely saved Button and McLaren from an embarrassing retirement.
Whitmarsh also said that he felt a 1-2 finish was within reach, following the team’s front row lockout on Saturday. Despite this, he praised Button’s driving style during the race:
"He drove a really beautiful race: smooth, controlling, and he pressed when he
needed to - just like a champion would."
Sergio Perez has been relegated to 22nd on the grid after qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.
The Mexican driver was forced to change his gearbox after Q2, and will be dropped 5 places for tomorrow’s race. It was this gearbox issue that halted him from setting a time in Q2.
Perez said that he was still adjusting his car in Q1 when the failure occurred:
"We made some set-up changes to the car today and in Q1 I was busy adapting my
driving style a bit.
In Q2 I knew exactly what to do but then I could not shift any more because of
a gearbox problem. It is a true shame as there was a lot more to come from the
car and from myself."
Perez was disqualified from last year’s Australian Grand Prix result following a rear wing technical infringement.
Seeing as neither HRT will start the race, Sergio will be the last driver on the grid.
HRT will not race tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix after failing to qualify.
The troubled team failed to qualify within the 107% rule by over a second, and the stewards threw out their request to take part in the race.
This is the second year a row that HRT have failed to qualify for the first race of the season. Narain Karthikeyan, who was 1.4 seconds off the 107% rule, blamed DRS and hydraulics failures on his F112:
"I didn't have the DRS working and had issues with the power steering, so we
could have easily been in.
The DRS alone is worth about nine tenths [of a second], and the power steering
is virtually non-existent, it's almost impossible to drive. I think the problem
is that the hydraulics are getting so hot, the viscosity of the fluid is thinner."
Interestingly, Karthikeyan also claimed the team would struggle massively in Malaysia. He cited cooling issues on the F112, combined with Kuala Lumpur’s extreme temperatures, as the reason for this.
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