Formula One - Times Online - WBLG

Jonathan Palmer pays tribute to Henry Surtees

Ed writes: This is the text of a statement from Jonathan Palmer, chief executive of MotorSport Vision, following the death of Henry Surtees at Brands on Sunday. Pics show Henry with Jonathan and, below, Henry racing and Henry with Jolyon Palmer.

 

I am absolutely devastated that 18 year old Henry Surtees lost his life in an accident in the Formula Two race at Brands Hatch yesterday. This is the saddest time in my 35 years of motor racing and my deepest sympathies are with father John, mother Jane and their daughters Edwina and Leonora, together with other family and friends.

Is it "F" for Fiasco?

 Jordi

This year the "thinking heads" of F1 decided to make a bunch of regulation changes, with two main goals:

1:To reduce cost.

2:To make racing more exciting for the spectators.

We only had 2 races, and I'm afraid to say that neither of those goals have been achieved.

We haven't seen a huge increase in the numbers of overtaking during the race, and the ones that we have seen I'm not sure if they were because the aerodynamics changes, the KERS, the difference between the two types of tires or the diffusers. In any case, it's clear who's in front, who's in the middle and who's in the back of the track, and only new designs in the cars will change that.

I read that to re-design the cars to add the diffusers will cost 25 Million Dollars per car.

KERS cost is 50 million per team, which now seem to be a waste of money (edited, thanks Steve) as some teams are taking them off their cars this weekend.

After the first excitement of seen new faces in Australia's podium, there is not much motivation left to wake up early and watch F1. The only thing that seem to keep peoples attention is the Lying-gate, Ron Denis where abouts, and A Parker's surreal comments, unless ...you are a Jenson or Rubens fan in which case you wont want to wake up either, just in case it was all a dream.

If teams can not re-design their cars very quickly (no test allowed) Brawn or Toyota will win every race to the end. I fail to see who's going to be watching TV after Monaco, when all has been decided.

What do you think?

Do they have time to re-design their cars and challange the Brawns for the championship?

Is this year more exciting ?

The people have spoken and Fernando is the best driver of the season (and that's it for 2008)

The masters
1. Fernando Alonso  - 1,071.5
2. Lewis Hamilton  -  1,061.5
3. Felipe Massa  -  989

The mid-fielders
4. Robert Kubica  -  912.5
5. Sebastian Vettel  -  895
6. Kimi Räikkönen  -  488.5
7. Nick Heidfeld  -  217
8. Timo Glock  -  208.5
9. Jarno Trulli  -  194
10. Mark Webber  -  179

The also-rans
11. Nico Rosberg  -  102
12. Heikki Kovalainen  -  88.5
13. Rubens Barrichello   -  30.5
=  Sebastian Bourdais  -  30.5
15. Nelsinho Piquet - 24
16. Adrian Sutil -  18
17. Jenson Button  -  16
18. Giancarlo Fisichella 12
19. David Coulthard  -  9
20. Takuma Sato/Anthony Davidson - 2

22. Kazuki Nakajima  -  1

The Formula One Times blog best driver of the season, as voted by you, is the Asturian master, Fernando Alonso who also previously won our best driver on the current grid poll. Fernando was not my own personal choice this season but I can understand why many of you have picked him. He had a very poor car to begin with but he and Renault have turned their season round, something which is extremely difficult to do when your main competitors are moving ahead all the time. We know Fernando is among the best at working up a car and he is among the most technically-minded of the current drivers. I would say there is little doubt that he will have played a major role in Renault's improvement. Early in the season, the Spanish pilot made one or two errors - Monaco was one example. These were uncharacteristic and, in my view, reflected his mounting frustration at being stuck in a machine which he just could not make go any quicker. He could see what he wanted to do, where he wanted to put himself on the track, but he couldn't do it. Later in the season, as things improved, we saw Fernando take his chances with both hands, just as you might expect him to. The big question next year for him is very simple: will the new Renault be any good?

Lewis in second place, is about right I would argue. He won the world championship and he produced some incredible drives but he was also erratic and unconvincing at times. As I have mentioned before, I still think it is early in his career to make firm judgements about how good he is going to be. As brilliant as he is, it is almost as if he can't face driving in a boring enough way to secure safe titles. Lewis loves to race, he is probably the best racer out there but that is not always what championship-winning campaigns are about. We are being hard on him, I know. He is the youngest ever world champion, he is only the second man to achieve a title in his second season and he has broken loads of other records along the way. Maybe this title will give him the confidence, the bounce and the experience he needs to blow the roof off the sport. Let's see what happens next year. As with Fernando and everyone else, he also needs a decent car next year, so that is an unknown at present.

Felipe is in third spot. I think he had a great season. He won the most races. He confounded his critics who said he would not make it in the post-traction control era and he consigned Kimi, the reigning world champion, to the margins. Had he not been let down by Ferrari on two occasions he could easily have won the title, as he might have done last year as well. It's funny, Felipe's image in Formula One is dogged by his woeful early performances but I think, also, by the fact that he does not look or behave like a champion. He's far too nice and sporting for starters and he does not throw his weight around. Anyway, let's see what happens next season. I feel fairly sure that he will drive Kimi into the number two spot for the second year running. (That being a comment as much about Kimi as Felipe. Once you start the downslope, it is quite hard to reverse the process, though Kimi has made noises recently indicating he believes he can do just that).

Robert K in fourth. A tough competitor who needs the tools to do the job. The pressure is on at Hinwil to deliver those for him next year. It was a weird year for BMW. They seemed to reach for the sky, touch it, then run away again, as if terrified by what they had achieved. Next year they are supposed to be big-time players, alongside Ferrari and McLaren, with Kubica leading the way to their maiden championship. He could do it, can they?

Sebastian Vettel. I wish he was going to Ferrari in place of Kimi. What a prospect that would be. Maybe Red Bull will surprise us and Adrian Newey will master the new rules better than anyone. But it would come as a surprise. Vettel is clearly no flash in the pan. We know he is quick. We also know he is highly intelligent and can handle the pressures. Maybe his talent will make him unstoppable and he will grabbed by a team that can do him justice by the end of next season. If Lewis "trains on", I imagine Sebastian could be among his main career rivals.

Kimi. Very disappointing and puzzling. Has he lost that half a yard of pace (as they say in footie)? Is it a "lifestyle" issue? Is Kimi driving himself hard enough out of the car (in training) to stay at the top? Is it, much like Nick Heidfeld, purely a quali/car issue which Ferrari can solve with their new machine? Does Kimi fight as hard as his rivals to retrieve poor race positions? Does he only drive quickest when it is too late? It's weird that he has 10 fastest laps and Lewis has two(?). The season started off well for the Iceman but almost from that moment when he careered out of the tunnel at Monte Carlo and smashed into the back of Adrian Sutil, his campaign seemed to go downhill. He got taken out in Canada by Mr Hamilton and then he had that exhaust failure in France, before going 10 races with nothing better than a third place. Whether he can come back or not, will be one of the stories to watch next season.

I could go on...I leave the rest to you guys. In the meántime, thanks to "D" for some forensic collating on this poll and to IDR for the graphics. Also, this is my final contribution to the blog for this year. Don't forget you can follow all the Formula One news at Times Online and also in the paper as we go through the winter. Thanks for all your contributions. It's been an education for me and, I am sure you will all agree, it has also been one hell of a season...

Pic of Fernando (at Interlagos '08), Ed Gorman/The Times. Click on pic and/or graphics to enlarge.

Your top-10 drivers of the season

This poll will close at 12.00 GMT on Sunday. As always it would be great to hear the views of members of the "silent majority" who read this blog but do not normally post comments, so have a go if you like. "D" will be doing the tallying up which we will publish on Monday morning.

Ed writes: Bob M, a contributor to this blog, has suggested we vote on our top-10 drivers for the season. Good idea. Here are his thoughts to start things off. (In his top-six, incidentally, I would argue with Alonso at 4 and Vettel at 6. My instinctive assessment would look more like this: 1, Massa, 2, Hamilton, 3, Alonso, 4, Vettel, 5, Kubica, 6, Raikkonen).

Bob M writes: In advance of Autocourse's top-10 (which used to be eagerly awaited – is it still? -, and was frequently controversial), I was wondering whether we should have a go ourselves. This therefore is a review of the year's performance by all drivers in Formula One.

I began by asking myself whether any of those who finished in the bottom half of the points table would merit consideration. Webber and Rosberg spring to mind. Who might they displace? Glock, Trulli, Heidfeld, and Kovalainen could all be for the chop. The remaining 6 are incontrovertibly top-10 material.

Let's start with the top-6, in reverse order:

6. Vettel - stunning 2nd half of season

5. Raikkonnen - most fastest laps, but poor qualifying has proved his undoing

4. Alonso - I know many of you will rank him first!

3. Kubica - lacklustre at the end, but otherwise brilliantly consistent.

2. Lewis – enough has been said, congratulations – awesome achievement.

1. Massa – I think he shades it; even more bad luck than Lewis this season.

As for the bottom 4, I think I would swap Nico for Heikki, who has been a bit of a Jochen Maas (if I was to think of No.2s at McLaren).

10. Rosberg

9. Glock – come on Ed, better than you thought?

8. Trulli

7. Heidfeld, normally in the shadow of his team-mate

Too many outcomes decided in the pit lane, or in the steward's office – otherwise a superlative season.

So what's your top 10?

Bob M

Numbers to chew on over the weekend

I was checking through some stats and thought it would be interesting to compare Lewis's strike rate (wins per Grand Prix started) with some of the greats. It makes interesting reading. These stats, of course, hide all sorts of important details about how long drivers were active for, what cars they drove, how competitive they were and so on.

Lewis appears near the very top of this table, not by a fluke, but because McLaren rated him as among the best young prospects they had seen. They have thus given him a competitive car from the word go, as opposed to leasing him out to serve his apprenticeship with a lesser team, and he has delivered on that early promise. Equally important, he has had a reliable car under him as well which has given him every chance of compiling an impressive start/win record compared to the drivers of yesteryear.

It is still early days in his career and it is quite possible that his rating in this respect will decay but it might also improve if he is able to impose himself on the sport - and McLaren can continue to provide him with quick cars - as some believe is possible.

I checked Fernando's rate which is pretty impressive but reflects his early seasons with Minardi and Renault. Felipe has also completed a long apprenticeship through Sauber Petronas and Ferrari before his first win last year. Since then (Turkey last year), however, his strike rate has been excellent at a victory every 2.3 races.

Fangio tops the table with an incredible 24 wins in 51 starts between 1950 and 1958. Ascari may surprise some in second place. He drove only 32 Formula One races between 1950 and 1955 for Ferrari, Maserati and finally Lancia before he was killed during practice at Monza in May 1955. He topped the podium during that time no less than 13 times.

 
Lewis Hamilton's strike rate compared to the greats - Grand Prix wins per races started

Juan Manuel Fangio: 2.12

Alberto Ascari: 2.46
Michael Schumacher: 2.73
Jim Clark: 2.88
Jackie Stewart: 3.66
Lewis Hamilton: 3.77
Alain Prost: 3.90
Ayrton Senna: 3.92
Stirling Moss: 4.12

Current drivers
Lewis Hamilton: 3.77
Fernando Alonso: 5.76
Felipe Massa: 10.4

Saturday morning update(quickly before my wife catches me)

In response to some comments here are a few more...

Damon Hill: 5.22

Jacques Villeneuve: 14.81. His rate in his first two seasons, when he scored all of his 11 race wins for Williams Renault, was 3.0.

Kimi: 8.11

The detail in the FIA draft agenda for the Geneva meeting

Before you read this, if you do, here is an excellent link for more footage of the key moments at Fuji...

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/10/8530.html

Here are the FIA proposals on power-trains for 2013 and an interim regime for 2010-2012. These are included in a copy of the draft agenda for the meeting between Mosley and the team principals in Geneva on Tuesday, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times

Power train
2013
The FIA would like to see a modern high technology power train in 2013.  We envisage a down-sized DI engine with exhaust energy and heat recovery, coupled to an electrically actuated gearbox.

However, we are completely open to new ideas.  The only preconditions are (i) that the costs of development, maintenance and unit production for the power train must be an order of magnitude lower than is currently the case and (ii) power trains must be available to independent teams at minimal cost.

2010- 2012 inclusive
At present we can offer three options.
Option 1
A homologated engine produced by a single supplier after an invitation to tender, with the current suppliers free to build an identical engine themselves (but not the gearbox), subject to rigorous controls.

Option 2
A consortium of teams obtains an engine to current rules but at much lower cost from a single supplier.  Engines from other sources to be subject to rigorous controls to eliminate differences in performance.

Option 3
A proposal from FOTA, backed by solid guarantees, for the supply of complete power trains to independent teams for less than €5 million per team per season to include 30,000 km of testing and all on-track assistance.

And finally ideas on chassis standardisation and changes to race procedures

The Chassis
The FIA envisages common parts for numerous areas of the chassis.  For example, standard suspension and wheels (ie standard "corners"), a standard underbody and other parts which are currently the subject of major expenditure but add nothing to the spectacle or to the public interest of Formula One.

Other measures, such as a minimum height for the centre of gravity, restrictions on the use of certain materials or the homologation of certain major components (eg the "tub") for a period of time, may also be appropriate. 

We invite FOTA to make proposals together with a time scale for introduction.

Race procedures
The FIA would welcome suggestions for changes to the rules for going racing, with a view to reducing costs.  We believe that priority should be given to things which the public cannot see (eg telemetry) rather than visible parts of "the show" (eg refuelling during the race).

The FIA would also like to hear teams' views about the distribution of garage space and space in the pit lane.

Changes to the shape and cost of Formula One

It looks increasingly likely that very significant changes in Formula One technical regulations and costs are going to be driven through against the wishes of some of the teams. The Times has obtained a copy of the draft agenda for the meeting between Max Mosley and the team principals in Geneva next Tuesday and it makes interesting reading.

One important aspect we did not have any room for in the paper today are the proposals in the agenda documents for dealing with the differentials in engine performance on the grid under the present engine freeze. The FIA explanatory notes for the meeting deal with that issue as follows:

2009
When the decision was taken to "freeze" the engines, certain teams asked for and got a period of time in which to address reliability problems and re-tune for 19,000 rpm.  Some teams took advantage of this period to improve the power output of their engines.  This was not intended.  Other teams did not improve their engines, believing performance to have been "frozen".  This has produced unfair and inequitable differences in performance.  The World Motor Sport Council has therefore decided that engine performance will be equalised in accordance with the 2009 Sporting Regulations in order to re-establish the position as it was when the freeze was agreed.

The FIA would like to discuss with FOTA technicians how best to achieve equalisation in a way which is fair to all and involves minimal cost.

One, unrelated, final thought before flying to China...
Many of you have no doubt noticed is what appears to be the start of a change in policy on the part of FOM regarding key video clips of incidents during races which are normally removed from sharing sites for copyright reasons. However, pressure from contributors to sites like this one, appears to have convinced Bernie that it is in the interests of the sport to allow greater access to these images. That's a big step forward, non?

Donington looks(even) less likely

Most people in Formula One are sceptical that Donington will be ready to host the British Grand Prix in 2010, if ever. Developments today will only deepen that scepticism with the resignation of Lee Gill, the chief operating officer, plus several other key players in the management structure also leaving.

The key question is this: will Bernie E have the nerve to cancel the British Grand Prix in 2010 even if Lewis is the reigning world champion or even a recent past champ? I doubt he would do that. It would be a massive PR disaster for Formula One in Britain, it would irritate many of the teams who are based in England and Lewis himself would be justifiably annoyed that he would not be able to drive on home soil.

Bernie is a hard man but he is also a pragmatist and, as we have seen recently, strongly-held positions in Formula One "politics" can quickly go soft. Even though the BRDC irritates the hell out of him, he may have to deal with them again...in the meantime we await developments. Maybe Simon Gillett(chief executive at Donington) is going to pull a rabbit out of this particular hat...

Gfehr's Tribute to Phil Hill

EG writes: Gfehr submitted this thoughtful tribute to Phil Hill(Formula One champion for Ferrari in 1961) who has died, as a comment on the Tommy Byrne post. Have a read...

While on the subject of antique drivers - or as close to it as I can manage, topic-wise - I would like to note the passing of another troubled (in another way) F1 driver of the past.  Phil Hill, first American F1 champion, just died at 81.

There are many ways to contrast him with Byrne, the chief of them being he was a champion.  And by dint of ability alone, even if his championship came at the expense of von Trips (his teammate) and several spectators at Monza in 1961.  That was how those things were decided in those days.  Who got the prize, often as not, came down to who was still alive.

What little that came across about him in the very meager print media available to me at the time suggested that he was mostly worried, if not terrified.

But he was also very fast - driven, you might say.  It was an antidote to his lack of self-confidence, and an expression of that very odd feeling you get only in places such as Los Angeles, his home: that nothing is permanent, nothing is "real", unless you force it (and yourself) to be so.

Anyway, in that same 1961, when I was still a teenager, I wandered into a newsstand and saw a cover of Road & Track magazine.  It had a color photo of an extremely odd little blood-red Ferrari with twin nostrils and the motor in the back, (of all places) skittering through a curve at Monaco.  Can't say for certain it was Phil Hill (rather than von Trips).  But I've been intermittently curious about F1 ever since.

The Wild Life of Tommy Byrne

There can't be many books on motor racing quite like "Crashed and Byrned - The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw". This is a ragged, raw and brutally honest(in some respects) account of the career of Tommy Byrne, the supremely talented Irish driver whose career promised much but then exploded in a self-destructive orgy of drink, drugs, hookers and occasional violence after his failure to make it in Formula One.

The premise of the book is that Byrne was as good as Ayrton Senna but that few, apart from him, understood this and that Formula One conspired to deny him the glories that were his destiny. Coming from an unstable and extremely poor background in Dundalk(he refers to himself, as he believed others saw him, as the "knacker from Dundalk"), he was ill-equipped to handle the inevitable ups and downs of a driving career and whenever things went against him, he resorted to self-destructive therapy.

By Byrne's own account - ably assisted here by Mark Hughes - his biggest weakness was his belief that the world owed him what he called "respect"(another word for a chance in the best car, and a multi-million pound salary) because he was fast. When he didn't get the respect he thought was his due, he went beserk. Byrne, in this account, exhibits an explosive cocktail in his personal make-up of extreme arrogance about his ability combined with a visceral inferiority complex about who he was and the combination destroyed his career.

The book dwells heavily on a critical test session Byrne drove for McLaren and alleges the team de-tuned the car, despite which Bryne drove it faster than anyone had until then. It also dwells on a fateful meeting before that test between Byrne and Ron at which the young Irishman believes he blew any chance he had of making it. Byrne has been haunted by that encounter and the test that followed it for the rest of his life.

Byrne's is a compelling if somewhat disjointed narrative with some colourful language, and you won't be able to put it down. It reads more like the hard-luck story of a journeyman boxer than a racing driver and if you've read Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, there's quite a bit of that in it too, especially when Byrne ends up racing in Mexico,(the climax of his own "savage journey to the heart of the Formula One dream"). It is a pity there are not more photos - I for one would have relished some scrap book stuff, even if Byrne was the "driver you never saw".

Hopefully writing the book has been a therapeutic exercise for Byrne who has been to hell and back more than is advisable but has apparently found stability in a new life as a racing coach at the Mid Ohio circuit in the States.

"Crashed and Bynred - The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw" by Tommy Byrne and Mark Hughes is published by icon books www.iconbooks.co.uk price £10.99 

Is Formula One a proper sport?

Chatting to my wife the other day about the Olympics and Formula One, she stopped me in my tracks with the immortal phrase, "yes, but Formula One is not a proper sport." Sorry? "Not a proper sport...." I begged to differ but I must admit it got me thinking.

Is Formula One too complex to be compared with simpler sports like football, tennis, cricket, judo, swimming etc etc where the input of the individual is paramount? These are sports, even in a team setting, where the game is played in isolation as it were and with little or no machinery involved. The coaches have an input into the players but once the athlete takes to the field they are alone with their skills, their emotions, their strengths and weaknesses.

This never happens in Formula One because the driver has got to have something to drive and the purity of his input is thus always compromised by the "active" input of others. This is why we can have endless debates about the quality of one driver as against another, because it is so hard to tell who is better than who. But does any of this disqualify Formula One from being a sport?

In my book Formula One is best seen as a team sport, comparable to sailing(very similar to the America's Cup), where the driver, the mechanics, the designers, the strategists, the dieticians, and every one else involved are contributing to an overall sporting performance. In the media we tend to underplay this because we know that fans are mainly interested in drivers. But most drivers know it all too well. Hence the well-worn expressions of gratitude from winners for the "fantastic job" done by their team.

But what about the driver? Is he a sportsman? Of course he is. Because he is part of a team and his input is critical to the success of the whole. He has to change his footwear to do what he does(an old one, that) and his contribution requires the application of many key features of sporting endeavour; speed, anticipation, accuracy, concentration, competitiveness, bravery, tactical nous and the ability to improvise when things go wrong.

"But how can it be a sport when it is dominated by money and each driver's equipment is different; sport should be a fair test," counters Mrs G. This is where she is on stronger ground I suspect because we all know that in Formula One especially, the power of money and political power, translates into speed on the track. On any given day, Lewis, Heikki, Kimi and Felipe have the best chance of winning while Adrian, Sebastian, DC or Giancarlo have next to no chance, barring the intervention of the weather or other drama.

So how can Formula One be classed as sport when four drivers are driving faster cars than everyone else and most of the competitors have no chance of winning? Sounds like a good argument for a one-design Formula One championship which, of course, would be about as pure a form or motor racing as you could get. But I still see a proper sport. Again just as in America's Cup, Formula One is a multi-disciplinary activity combining - amongst other things - the skill of a racing driver with the skill of designers and the ability of a management team to come up with the funding to build the best car and then successfully run a racing and development programme. At the pinnacle of every sport, the real fight, in any case, is usually only between a small handful of elite competitors - just look at Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool - and Formula One is no different.

Mrs G will not give in however. In her view the America's Cup itself is barely a proper sport and, like football, is afflicted by money and would be a lot better if all the teams were in the same boat. So I can't win.

Formula One, of course, is not the only sport which suffers from doubts about its sporting status in the minds of many. Horse racing is afflicted by this - faster horses, slower horses, lots of politics, loads of money, the horse/jockey conundrum - even if it is enlivened by the enigma at the heart of it - the unknowable mind of a horse.

This morning we were watching the Olympic triathalon. Swimming, bike racing(admittedly a machine) and then running. Gruelling, competitive, unbelievably tough and huge emotions on display at the end. "Now that is what I call sport" was Mrs G's view and it is hard to argue with that.

The finish to that race reminded me of one other important facet of all sport - the emotional element, the capacity to stir the heart, to bring tears of joy and sadness and to provide a setting for human beings to strive for what many others perceive as "greatness". I would say Formula One qualifies in the top bracket in this respect.

Bits and bobs

The team principals or their deputies are meeting today in Maranello. My understanding is that Luca di Montezemolo is chairing it and the goal is to come up with a framework to enable the teams to sort out technical regulations for 2011 by the end of October as demanded by Mosley.

The aim of the new rules includes cutting operating budgets and fuel consumption by 50%. If the teams fail to come up with a new package by the deadline, Mosley has said the FIA will impose a new regime on them.

The teams have until the last day of this month to enter next year's championship. After initially delaying on Bernie's advice, it seems they are now starting to send off the forms. Red Bull and Toro Rosso have done so and others, including Force India, are following suit.

Meanwhile there are more rumours about Fernando and Ferrari. He is said to be looking for a house in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. Is this significant?

Several of you have asked about the FIA checks on Lewis's engine. From what I have been told, it seems this is a purely routine operation which should not turn up anything untoward unless, of course, McLaren have broken the rules in any way.

Flavio seems to be suggesting some teams have abused the rules in this area in the course of this interview(in which he also calls for a complete overhaul of Formula One). To quote him:  "The problem is that us, Renault, have stuck to the letter of the current regulations on frozen engines, and we've been buggered: others didn't do that and are far ahead, while we suffer. It's not fair."

Mika puts his finger on it

Interesting to read these thoughts from Mika about Lewis which very much match my own view about his mood recently. Last season we saw a similar change in him as the season progressed. But this time there is more experience informing his approach and he is, arguably, in a stronger position psychologically as a result.

There was a nasty moment during the test at Jerez this morning when a mechanic touched one of the BMW cars after it had run with the new KERS package and received a big electric shock. He was taken to the medical centre but was not thought to be seriously injured.

One other thing; here are Darren Heath's thoughts on Kimi's uncertain future..

Three drivers, nine races, 48pts each; who is it going to be?

We are just about to start the second half of this gripping season. We do so with three drivers tied on equal points and with Robert Kubica just two points behind. I would argue that he, however, is a long shot for the title because the car is not good enough yet. That leaves the other three. Here is a bit more information(originally prepared for the paper) on them and an assessment of the state of play in terms of their winning chances.

Lewis Hamilton
Age: 23
Lives: Geneva
Status: single(girlfriend is Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger)
Team: McLaren Mercedes
Formula One debut: Australian Grand Prix 2007
Grand Prix contested: 26
Grand Prix wins: 7
Pole positions: 7
Wins this season: 3(Australia, Monaco, Silverstone)
Total points this season: 48
Salary: £18 million a year
Hobbies: playing guitar, computer games, listening to music
Season highlight: destroyed the field when winning at Silverstone in the wet by 68 seconds
Season low: driving into the back of Kimi Raikkonen's car in Canada
The purist's view: he has the mark of greatness
The naysayer's view: he is ahead of himself and treats himself as "champion in waiting"
Strong points: car control in wheel-to-wheel combat, desire to win
Weak points: lack of experience, "unforced" errors(desire to win), distracted by too many commitments away from the track
He said: "I was born for this"
Ace in the hole: five-year contract with McLaren worth £75 million
Champion chances: favourite

Kimi Raikkonen
Age: 28
Lives: Zurich
Status: Married(to Jenni Dahlman, former Miss Scandanavia)
Team: Ferrari
Formula One debut: Australian Grand Prix, 2001
Grand Prix contested: 130
Grand Prix wins: 17
Pole positions: 16
Wins this season: 2(Malaysia, Spain)
Total points this season: 48
Salary: £25 million a year
Hobbies: ice-hockey, pet dogs, drinking
Season highlight: pole, fastest lap and race win at the Spanish Grand Prix
Season low: smashing into Adrian Sutil's Force India car in the closing stages at Monte Carlo
The purist's view: the fastest man in Formula One
The naysayer's view: does he really care if he is champion or not?
Strong points: speed, the long game, Finnish warrior spirit or Sisu
Weak points: can switch off
He said: "I'll only carry on doing this as long as I'm enjoying it."
Ace in the hole: confidence gained from winning the world championship in 2007
Champion chances: second favourite

Felipe Massa
Age: 27
Lives: Monaco
Status: Married(to Anna Raffaela Bassi)
Team: Ferrari
Formula One debut: Australian Grand Prix, 2002
Grand Prix contested: 96
Grand Prix wins: 8
Pole positions: 12
Wins this season: 3(Bahrain, Turkey, France)
Total points this season: 48
Salary: £10 million a year
Hobbies: Go-Karting, soccer, computer games, on the beach with family
Season highlight: wins the Turkish Grand Prix for the third consecutive year
Season low-point: dreadful race in the wet at Silverstone(finished last and spun his car five times)
The purist's view: he is not good enough to drive for Ferrari
The Massa camp says: he is fast enough and has enough raw talent to be champion(if he is so bad in the wet, then what about Monaco?)
Strong points: qualifying
Weak points: errors when driving under pressure, needs detailed direction from the team
He said: "This year I feel strong and motivated because I have everything I need to fight on an equal footing."
Ace in the hole: Michael Schumacher's advice and support
Champion chances: the dark horse

With Lewis's fans at Goodwood - year two

Another year, another appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed for Lewis where the crowd were eager to see him and celebrate again his win at Silverstone. On both this visit and last year's, Lewis came to the Festival on an "upswing". Last year it was on the back of consecutive wins at Montreal and Indy, this time it was Silverstone and that sort of background certainly makes these types of things much easier and more fun for him.

Twelve months ago we used to talk about the "Hamilton effect", a term used to describe the huge impact Lewis was having in his first season in Formula One on the British collective psyche both in and out of sport. This visit to Goodwood reminded me that, even though Lewis is now an established force, that effect is still very much in evidence. He has given a big boost to British motorsport and I think it would be fair to say that he remains hugely popular in Britain where his fans fervently believe he will be champion soon and not just once either.

Standing in the sunshine waiting for him to appear with Lord March on the balcony of Goodwood House, I could have asked anyone and got roughly the same positive answers. They love Lewis and have taken him to their hearts. Here, for example, are the thoughts of Jeff Hudson, a gentleman in his 40s from Fareham in Hampshire.

"He's a little bit more inconsistent this season but he's a young lad and he's going to be going forward all the time. He is going to be, more than likely, the best British driver ever and he will rival Schumacher. He's got a lot of guts - he doesn't care, he just goes for it - and he'll win whatever the conditions. He was brilliant today. He said the right thing - his parents have been behind him and that's the most important thing - we are behind our kids exactly the same."

And here are the thoughts of Sarah Annison, a 37-year-old woman who was running a stall with her boyfriend at the festival..

"He is fantastically down to earth - just a really nice guy - I watch every Grand Prix with him in it, that's why we are here today. He will be world champion this year. He is definitely going to pull it back; it will be an absolutely fantastic year. Everyone I was standing with were taking pictures and they were really, really, buying into what he was saying and I think he is just very, very good with crowd spirit so he definitely gets everybody on his side. It's nice that he's taken time out of his life to come down here."

Wandering through the trees I came across the imposing figure of Nick Faldo, the six-time golfing major winner who s also a big Hamilton fan who reckons the young McLaren Mercedes driver has got all the right clubs in his bag. "I have been following his career - I called it," said Faldo. "I mean the guy is absolutely so good. I knew he was going to come out and be a winner like last year. I thought it was no surprise that he did so well. He's got something special in his mental approach, he's comfortable with it all. The more comfortable you are, the more easily you can deal with things and it looked like, straight away, he was going to come out and be a winner. We know what motor racing's like - anything can happen to a driver or a constructor - but, inside, he knows he's got it and he's got inner patience as well. He knows that one day he is going to make it."

So there you have it, the view of the fans on a beautiful morning in West Sussex. And, to finish, a word from Lewis himself talking to ITV's Steve Ryder at the top of the hill about that win at Silverstone. "I think Silverstone showed that anything can happen and you can achieve anything when you put your mind to it, even with all the tough things going on around outside. You just home in and focus on what you really want. If you have the desire then anything is possible and I showed that weekend that, even though I was fourth and things weren't looking great and great things weren't being said about me, I was able to pull out a good race and do a good job."

Finally, Lewis was asked what car he would love to drive up the hill at Goodwood, if he could just come on his own and have a go. He said it would have to be a Formula One car and he would choose the McLaren MP4-8, Senna's car from 1993(with the squashed hedgehog stickers on the side for every race in which the McLaren beat the Williams cars). Senna managed five wins in that machine including, of course, that epic drive in the rain at Donington(the home of the British Grand Prix from 2010!).

Reflections on the British Grand Prix

Another extraordinary weekend in the business/political world/sport that is Formula One. Max and Bernie were going full pelt to set the pace in the early stages - new rules, a peace pact, Donington, you name it - then there was Lewis who seemed to be stuck in one groove when getting to only fourth in quali, only to stun us all in the race with an absolutely matchless performance.

There are always ifs and buts about any drive in Formula One as we have debated before here(especially after Lewis's win in Monaco). How much of it was the driver, the car, tactics, tyres, weather, luck, mistakes by other teams or other drivers? In this case I believe there are very few other explanations required. Lewis was in a class of his own and I would imagine that even his most fervent detractors must see that a guy who can drive like that in those conditions has got something extra.

I wrote about his determination to remain "cool, calm and collected" in the race in today's paper. My feeling however is that Lewis's biggest weakness might well be his unbridled competitiveness and his inability not to go "go for it" when he sees a chance. His start yesterday was full of risk which could have ended in tears again. Once through however he settled down, even if he kept his pace higher right to the end than his pitwall might have wanted.

It is this fighting quality which makes him so exciting to watch(Fernando is the same) but it also accounts for the "all or nothing" feel to his results this season which are in such contrast to last year. Is the consistent Lewis of the early part of 2007 the real Lewis or is the erratic Lewis of 2008 the genuine article? Time will tell one way or another. (Click on the image below for a year-on-year comparison). But it was a great race and fantastic to see a British driver put all his talent on show for a packed home crowd.

Having said all of the above, Lewis did not win the race on his own and McLaren and he were in perfect harmony at Silverstone on Sunday, getting all their calls right. By the way, Martin Whitmarsh admitted afterwards that they were amazed and delighted when they saw that Ferrari were not changing Kimi's tyres. They could hardly believe their luck. It's weird how Ferrari seem to make these sorts or errors. What they probably need is a stocky, rather pessimistic Englishman who is always(correctly) expecting the English summer weather to get worse; Ross Brawn would fit the bill perfectly.

Lewis is, at the moment, a better race driver than qualifier. Heikki out-did him on Saturday, albeit in a car which was two laps lighter and Felipe has "done" him in quali several times this season. But in the heat of battle Lewis leaves both of them in his wake. The old karting moves, the awareness of gaps opening up and the commitment to take them. All that sort of stuff which brings us back to that dangerously competitive streak. You can't have one without the other.

Anyway what of his rivals? Well Heikki has done his reputation no good this weekend. He had a great opportunity to carve his own name in glory but he faded again in the race in the same machinery as his team-mate. He looks less self-confident in the car, less committed and weaker competitively than Lewis. There is no official ranking order at McLaren but there can be few people following Formula One who do not believe, as I do, that Heikki is now the de facto number two as much by his own efforts as by the team's decisions.

As far as Ferrari goes, well it was a race they will definitely not want to dwell on for too long or they may seriously come to doubt themselves. We have already visited Kimi's tyre strategy error but what of Felipe? I got a far amount of ribbing in the press room as we watched the Brazilian spinning like a top on his way to finishing 13th at the end of one of the worst drives in recent Formula One history. Having talked him up, the "I told you so" brigade were making the most of it. Clearly Felipe is not a wet weather driver(odd, given that it rains a lot in Sao Paulo), something we saw last year when he looked hopeless at the Nurburgring with Fernando in his mirrors. On the other hand, he wasn't too bad at all at Monaco, it has to be said. But how relevant is this going to be? In the dry(normal) conditions in which Formula One is staged, Felipe is devastatingly quick in qualifying and he can get his car to the finish pretty well so he is still a proper candidate for world champion.

BMW are fading from the battle, unless they spring a technical surprise starting at Hockers. Mark Webber must have been furious with himself, spinning it early on having been left standing at the start. He drove well afterwards but it was a case of too little too late.

That's about it apart from the fauna. I read that some of you thought they were rabbits. They looked like hares to me...

The pic is another superb shot by Darren Heath which was taken from the footbridge which is quite a long way away from the podium down the straight. Darren has a new exhibition of his Formula One work which you can check out here.   

Imperious Lewis thrashes the lot of them at a wet Silverstone

Just a "stub" for now to say what a thoroughly resounding victory that was from Lewis on a day when he was in class of his own. The boy was back to his very best once again in the rain, and he produced a result against a backdrop of the heaviest out-of-the-car pressure he has probably ever experienced. And in front of his home crowd at a packed Silverstone.

While everything went so well for Lewis, the same cannot be said for almost everyone else, especially Heikki and Ferrari who had a shocker. Felipe doesn't seem to "get" wet driving at all - he spun so many times I lost count. Then there was that decision by Ferrari not to change Kimi's tyres which, to my mind was the turning point. It was an error which had the McLaren pitwall pinching themselves...

I'll leave it to you for now...more later... 

Heikki blows them all away; great day for Red Bull

It has been on the cards all weekend, and for quite a while in fact, and now Heikki has done it. A marvellous drive to secure his first pole on a track he knows well. Pole position by more than half a second is some achievement and sets the "Niceman" up beautifully for a crack at his first win. The Finnish driver remarked afterwards that his car has never been better balanced all year and was equally good through the fast corners and the slow.

While Heikki prospered, Lewis was less impressive. He led the rankings in Q2 but then made another mistake during his first flying lap in Q3 when he ran off at Priory onto gravel and grass. His second attempt could get him, ultimately, only to fourth and he looked and sounded pretty disappointed with himself afterwards. He seems to be very error-prone just now - maybe he was trying too hard in front of his home crowd, but he has made this sort of mistake this season when he has needed a passport too. There was a telling moment in the latter stages of Q3 when his race engineer was heard on the radio telling him: "You are fastest in the first two sectors - do not overdrive, do not overdrive."

It was a superb day for Red Bull which scored its first ever front row start thanks to an excellent late charge by Mark Webber who was on provisional pole until Heikki snatched it at the death. A "home" track for them, it will be interesting to see how they get on in the race, especially with Christian Horner assuring everyone that it was no fluke. "It's not showboating - it's a genuine result," he said.

For the Ferraris it was a strange afternoon with both cars struggling in the early sessions before Kimi got himself in the hunt with an effort which secured third on the grid, notwithstanding the fact that his car looked a handful. The formbook(which says this is generally a Ferrari track) looks like it might need updating. Were the red cars struggling with the cross-winds more? Felipe had another setback with a frozen wheelnut which stopped him in the pits in Q3 and left him in ninth place. The good news for Kimi is that all his championship rivals are behind him on the grid.

Over at BMW, Robert was unable to compete in Q3 because of what appeared to be a steering issue with his car; Nick took advantage getting himself up to 5th. This equals his best performance in quali this year at Melbourne and follows a dismal sequence when he has been unable to get heat into his tyres, the way Robert seems to be able to do. The bearded German has been working on this in recent weeks and it appears to be starting to pay off.

Weatherwise, after staying largely dry for quali - there was some wet stuff on parts of the track in Q1 - the forecast for tomorrow is still very unsettled. However, the detailed analysis suggests it might just be dry for the race with rain before and after it. Should be interesting either way.

   

The importance of practice

Over the two years I have been watching Formula One I have grown wary of basing too much on Friday and Saturday practice and have come to dismiss it as nothing more than a rough guide to both qualifying and the race. However, I sat up and listened when, driving out of Silverstone on Friday night(in the mighty Skoda), I heard an interesting interview of Anthony Davidson on BBC Radio Five.

Anthony was talking about the way drivers view practice and reminded us that, between team-mates, practice times are hugely important. As he said "it is important to be on top all the time." He noted that Heikki had out-performed Lewis in both sessions on Friday(as he did again in the rain affected session today).

He said if it was him on the losing side of this equation, he would spend all night with his head in a lap-top trying to work out where to save the time necessary to beat his team-mate and then set out the next morning with nothing more on his mind than an intention to "destroy" his rival on the time-sheets.

That's how it was between him and Takuma at the erstwhile Super Aguri outfit. Of course Anthony also reminded us that this is all done in a very sporting manner and that it is quite possible to be on good terms with your team-mate socially and then go out and drive like hell to beat him on the track.

So, yes, Heikki has got the initiative over Lewis this weekend so far and, on Anthony's analysis, Lewis will be feeling pretty miffed by now and will be looking for revenge once the real action starts. It is interesting how Heikki seems to do well in the build-up but then falls victim to ill-fortune, or just fades a little, when it matters. I still believe he is due a really good result but, with the forecast this weekend, you wouldn't want to predict anything too confidently.

In today's paper we have a long look at the state of "planet Lewis" and at the surprising decision to move the British Grand Prix to Donington. Below are Heikki and Lewis's respective times this weekend so far.   

Friday morning
Heikki: 2nd fastest, 1:19.587, 15 laps
Lewis: 3rd, 1:19.623, 13

Friday afternoon
Heikki: 1st, 1:19.989, 35
Lewis: 3rd, 1:20.543, 31

Saturday morning
Heikki: 3rd, 1:21.266, 14
Lewis: 5th, 1:21.668, 14
 

Phew....

Crumbs, there is so much going on, it is difficult to know where to start(and the day-job is getting a bit lively).

In bullet points this is what has happened in chronological order at Silverstone so far

* Lewis accepts a challenge from Jenson to do a triathlon for charity and is then promptly withdrawn from it by his father and manager Anthony(very poor PR - underlines again the very obvious reality that "team Hamilton" needs its own full-time media consultant).
* DC announces his retirement at the end of this season when he is widely believed to be joining the new BBC television team as paddock-based expert in place of Mark Blundell(who has joked recently that he has brought a new sofa, all the better to watch the racing next year from home).
* Mosley writes to the teams setting out a radical overhaul of how Formula One is going to be run and gives them three months to write a new set of technical regulations.
* Bernie and Max reveal that they have called a truce as we exclusively report in today's paper. Is this a real end to hostilities or a temporary ceasefire? Why did it happen? I understand the two men met after three months of cold war. Whose idea was the meeting? One thorn in Bernie's side that remains is the Formula 2 championship. Will this be quietly forgotten?
* Practice session one. A warm dry morning sees Felipe head the time-sheets only to have a dangerous high-speed crash at Stowe when his left-front wheel skidded on oil left by Fernando's exploding engine. The Brazilian hit the tyre wall quite close to where Michael Schmacher had his big shunt in '99. There was big damage to the rear of Felipe's car but apparently none to him fortunately - a big setback for him which will leave him on the back foot for the rest of the weekend.
* The FIA announces that the British Grand Prix is safe but that it will move to Donington Park from 2010, a possibility first mooted during the French Grand Prix. This has left the press room stunned. Clearly Bernie has totally lost it with what he calls "shitty" Silverstone. My guess is that this will be a hybrid deal where Bernie will take over Donington during Formula One weekends and will plough a good deal of his own money into the place in return. There is a huge amount to do and there are some in the media centre here who do not believe the move will ever happen.

Err..that's it for now. Whatever next? Lewis signs for Ferrari???    

The race at the airfield - could be wet and windy

Just about to leave for Silverstone - I guess we should start thinking about who is going to win the British Grand Prix.

My gut feeling is that the circuit on the airfield in Northamptonshire is still a Ferrari track and, with that in mind, I would be erring on the same sort of prediction I made for Magny-Cours. That would be Kimi(with a new engine) leading Felipe to the flag with Heikki third.

On that occasion, a technical failure on Kimi's car, which has prompted the engine change, made a nonsense of that prediction. This time Kimi is due a smooth run. But I am going for Heikki again. In France this was in acknowledgement of the impact that Lewis's "carried-over" penalty from Canada would have; this time there is no penalty from the stewards but there is a penalty from the fame-game for Lewis.

Maybe he will prove to us that he can do it all; play with the rich and famous, turn up for umpteen sponsor engagements and then still win - or even get on the podium - at his home Grand Prix. I hope he can, but I doubt it...This is quite important in terms of his chances in the overall championship. He has slipped 10 points off the lead and he must at least get something on the board this weekend(for the first time in three races).

BMW seem to be concerned that they are falling off the top-three and have ear-marked Silverstone and Hockenheim as critical to their season. Robert always tells it as it is and he has warned that the team still has a lot to do. "We are currently far from the pace we need in order to challenge our front-running competitors and it's no secret that we need some good updates to get back to the level of competitiveness we showed in the early part of the season," he said earlier this week.

"The missed podium in Magny-Cours shows that we cannot rely on the others hitting trouble. Lewis's penalties probably just put one less car in front of me at the finish line. In Magny-Cours our gap to Ferrari was the highest so far and this was emphasised by the fact that some other teams have instead closed the gap to us. It's a signal that we need to take very seriously - and one we must react quickly to."

The spanner in the works for everyone is going to be the weather. The UK is under the influence of two Atlantic low pressure systems which are bringing rain and wind throughout the weekend. For Sunday, the Met Office is predicting a Low centred right over southern England. If this develops as advertised, this is could affect either qualifying or the race or both, although I have noticed, over the past few days, that even the short-term forecasting seems to be more than usually inaccurate.

Rain could help Robert and could help Lewis. It could also help Fernando who likes Silverstone. Even DC was talking about a possible win if it rains. That seems a very long shot for the Scot as he prepares for his 15th and, almost certainly, his last British Grand Prix. Predictions here...

Pics by the crap photographer from last year(IDR: I think these were taken with the Canon PowerShot S51S. Correct? It is a nice camera but is too big to carry around and the lens cap keeps falling off. Apart from that it's great.)

Lewis goes sailing

The Hugo Boss sponsorship of McLaren required Lewis to go for a day's sailing on Saturday aboard the big black yacht which takes its name from the German fashion house and I was lucky enough to be invited along for the day. We sailed in the annual 50-mile round the Isle of Wight race and won our class(Open 60s) before being disqualified for a collision at the start.

In the past when DC got to do this, there never seemed to be much wind but Lewis saw this powerful boat at its best, fully-powered up and storming along the outside of the island at top speed and with the British triple Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie at the wheel. All in all it was a dramatic day and Lewis seemed to enjoy himself immensely. He proved to be a pretty good first-timer on the wheel(this was his first ever day on a sailing boat) and he tried a few of the other tasks on board without getting sea-sick.

I will not bore you with the parallels between top level yacht racing(particularly the America's Cup) and Formula One. Suffice it to say the two sports are very close in the sort of disciplines required. Good team work, excellent management, advanced design concepts, rigorous testing and reliability and so on and Lewis could certainly see the parallels. I think he was genuinely impressed by the technical sophistication of the boat and by the commitment of men like Alex Thomson, its skipper, who race these machines solo round the world and they don't do it for the money.

For those interested, Thomson is one of a group of Brits racing in this year's Vendee Globe non-stop solo round the world race which sets sail from France in November. No British skipper has ever won this blue riband event(Ellen MacArthur was second in 2000/01) but Thomson has the boat and the experience to do it. His main weakness has been his inability to pace himself - he has crashed out of two solo round the world races so far - but he believes he has learnt his lessons and can go the distance this time. Might be worth a bet.

We had a great day aboard his boat and it was fascinating seeing Lewis out of his natural environment. As always he got stuck in gamely and impressed those on the crew who had seen him only on television up until then. Incidentally, the general view amongst the sailors seemed to be that Lewis will be world champion one day, but maybe not this year or even next.

The sailing came in the midst of a very busy(too busy?) few days for Lewis in the build-up to Silverstone. He followed testing by going to the Nelson Mandela birthday bash in London. Then he was on the boat after no sleep at all(he had to leave London at about 4.00am). Then he made an appearance at Brooklands on Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure what he did on Sunday but on Tuesday he is in Amsterdam for the Reebok sponsorship announcement and then he will be thinking about the race track in Northamptonshire. I wonder what schedules Felipe and Kimi have had to fulfil, or wanted to fulfil in the past week.

Anyway the crap photographer had a bit of a go and emerged with some rubbish pics for your enjoyment. The picture at the start of this post is by the professionals at onEdition and shows Hugo Boss being driven by Lewis on its way through the Needles Channel. The rest are from the "CP" himself. As you can see, Hugo Boss is some boat. I had a big disaster on board when, having got some great interviews with Lewis, Alex and Ben using my digital recorder, I was having a chat with Lewis about Silverstone when a big wave swamped the back of the boat and destroyed the recorder. In 10 years as a sailing reporter that had never happened once... 

Stop press: strike looming

Ooh ahh...the multi-millionaires are thinking of going on strike. Whatever next? Crumbs this is going to take some good PR spin I would have thought. It emerges in the feverish(not) atmosphere of the paddock at Magny-Cours that some of the best paid sportsmen in the world are thinking of taking industrial action - withdrawing their labour.

The reason? The huge and sudden and retrospective increases in the cost of the superlicences which have gone from £1,350 per year to £7,858 per year. At the same time the levy on drivers for every point they score in the championship has increased from £350 per point to £1,570 per point. This means that the licence and levy for Lewis and Kimi for last year was of the order of £180,000 each. (It was a lot less for Anthony Davidson and will be a lot less for Fernando this year, for example).

Now that sounds like a lot of money to you and me. But when you are earning a minimum of £15 million a year(Lewis is on a basic salary of £75 million over five years; Kimi earns at least £20 million and most likely a lot more), it is not that much, especially when the money raised is going towards safety improvements at the various circuits.

Anyway Fernando was the first to talk about it in his pre-race press briefing in the Renault motorhome. He said the drivers were all agreed they would consider some form of strike action - he wasn't sure what - at Silverstone. This could be anything from not taking part in a practice session one imagines, to something really serious like failing to turn up for the drivers' parade. It is impossible to imagine them not racing in the Grand Prix - imagine how that would go down with the paying public?

"It is a very serious matter," said Fernando. "It is a ridiculous price. We are all agreed that it is not fair that it has increased so much. It is something we need to look at. I don't know what the solution will be or what we will do but a strike at Silverstone, that it is one possibility. Why not? We have approached the FIA two or three times about this but we have not had positive answers. Nothing has been agreed with them."

At the pre-race press conference, Lewis, Felipe and Robert all endorsed Fernando's comments and backed him, even if Felipe admitted this was the first he had heard of it. Kimi, however, expressed sympathy with the militants but said he did not think strike action was the right way to go.

It conjurs up some great images doesn't it? A group of tax-exiled multi-millionaires huddled round an old oil drum keeping warm in sponsored great coats while taking time to whistle and cat-call at their colleagues who had the gall to "cross the start line" in one of the fastest and most expensive racing cars on the planet.

They could go to arbitration I suppose - that would be ACAS. But they would be up against one of the most formidable legal minds in public life - one Max Mosley. He imposed the price hikes and explained why earlier this year. "A lot of people who have otherwise been meeting the bill said 'hang on a minute, these drivers are all earning megabucks and we are spending a fortune to try and make sure they are safe.' So hence the increase," said Mosley.

Are the drivers right? Or should they take their medicine and shut up about it?

That crash in Montreal in full

Just a quick post from Magny Cours which is looking rather nice in the sun. There is talk of thunderstorms for Sunday which might help Lewis...

Knowing how people like to debate these issues, I thought I might share a flavour of the conversation over dinner on Wednesday night at our hotel. There were five Fleet street hacks present and for well over an hour a heated exchange of views about Lewis's crash in Canada dominated our evening.

To simplify: one side of the table was arguing that what Lewis did in the pitlane was no different to what Kimi did at Monaco. They were both racing incidents in the heat of battle and no more criticism should be directed at Lewis than at Kimi(main proponent here was Garside, Daily Telegraph). Lewis had a lot on his mind, he would have been raging about losing race position to Robert and Kimi and he made a mistake. End of story.

The other side of the table would have none of this and argued that what Lewis did was almost unforgivable(main proponent, McEvoy, Mail). The point was being made that crashing into a parked car while going at 35mph when the traffic lights were flashing red(and the team had warned him about it over the radio) was a silly and unnecessary error. While both drivers made mistakes, Lewis's was more readily avoidable, the argument went. As one advocate of this view put it: "Lewis's mistake would have embarrassed his Granny".

It was also being argued that Kimi's loss of control/crash happened at 180mph on a damp track(easily done, understandable etc) and, once he lost the car, his smash into the back of Adrian was unavoidable. But on the other hand, Kimi looked to some of us, in the moments preceeding the crash, like a man who had decided he was going to get past Adrian at all costs. Did he not just over cook it, in his impatience to get on?

Also if Lewis was such a clutz, what can be said of Nico who crashed when there were three cars parked in front of him?

The argument split the table 3:2 in favour of McEvoy. It led to a wider discussion about whether Lewis is going to fulfill his considerable potential in Formula One or not. There was also mention of the conspiracy theory about China and Brazil. Did Lewis press the wrong button, did the car suffer a glitch or did something else - something really weird - happen? Was China Lewis's fault or the pitwall's fault?

On it went into the night fuelled by a few bottles of the local produce...   

An Awkward Race(to get to)

Well, well...I am sitting in Luton airport - yes the iconic "Luton airport", awaiting a Formula One charter flight to Clermont Ferrand and I have been reading through the debate about Fernando in the comments to the post below. Clearly Fernando is going to remain a highly controversial figure for the remainder of his Formula One career and, I suspect, he will forever be associated in some people's minds with what he did, or did not do, last year. There is no point in going through it all again - there are plenty of references in the comments about what went on. It just underlines again the unfortunate mess Fernando has made of his career out of the car. I have always found him - even if he is understandably very nervous of the British press - a warm and personable individual, but you can tell he is headstrong and thus requires good advice, especially in the heat of the moment. And that, of course, is what was lacking last year at critical times when Fernando needed to stand back, take a deep breath, and think carefully about how to proceed and the consequences of his actions. Unfortunately he did huge damage to his prospects by rushing ahead.

It is interesting, isn't it, that Fernando won the poll comfortably ahead of Lewis(4th) who beat him overall(just) last year. My explanation for this is partly that the poll was about the here and now, not what we thought last December. In the intervening time, Lewis has shown frailties and Fernando strengths which have changed perceptions. Also it is not accurate to argue that Lewis simply blew Fernando off the track last season; he did nothing of the sort. In fact they were always very close and it was often hard to say who was quickest at any one time, depending on how you measured it. The main difference between them was that Lewis was driving with the innocent abandone and untrammelled optimism of the rookie while Fernando had a reputation to protect and a growing sense of anger about how he was being treaated. No doubt this debate will run and run.

Back to Luton. This plane is laid on because Magny Cours is a very difficult location to get to from Britain and elsewhere. There are no easy answers(fly to Paris and car; Eurostar and train and car; camper van from home via Le Mans{true petrol heads only}) and that is one of the reasons why it is being consigned to the dustbin of motor racing history after this race. We fly to Clermont Ferrand and then drive up to our hotels spread around in the countryside. Last year Garside, myself and Johnny McEvoy of the Mail stayed in a run-down Chateau owned by a Dutch family which was tucked away in a fold in the hills about 50Kms from Magny Cours. I quite liked it. It was creaky, a bit spooky and the family owned a great dog called Basil, after John Cleese in Fawlty Towers, who was trained to fetch our golf balls which we hit on the back lawn towards the trees. I think we had a 7-iron and Basil never missed a trick, bringing them right back to our feet. Of course we had to put up with Garside's lectures on what a great golfer he is but it was a nice way to spend the evenings.

This time I am in a hotel much nearer the track where the ITV crew are staying. The flight, by the way(I know some of you are interested in this sort of stuff), seems to have quite a few journos on board, a sizeable McLaren contingent, Force India people, and mechanics from Renault and Williams. Anyway the French Grand Prix is in our sights. For Lewis this looks like being a real test of character. He cannot afford to allow any frustration about what happened in Canada and the subsequent penalty to get to him and he is going to have to grind it out and hope he can score some points. As many of you have pointed out, the French track is a very difficult one to pass on(unless you are driving on PlayStation with the damage "off"), so Lewis is going to have to bide his time and hope events assist him. Somehow it feels a crucial race for Lewis as he seeks to re-establish his championship momemtum.

Magny Cours is a Ferrari track/fortress so Kimi and Felipe are likely to be very strong. Kimi is back on the warpath, hungry for points apparently, having been seriously annoyed by his misfortune in Montreal while Felipe had some brilliant moments in Canada, but will be looking for a better result this time. Then of course we have to consider Robert. Surely he cannot be world champion in this year's BMW? One would imagine, given the performance deficit he is still struggling with, he will have his work cut out this weekend. Finally Heikki is overdue a good finish and a bit of luck. France could be his moment.

For what it's worth, here is a prediction for race finish:

1. Kimi
2. Felipe
3. Heikki
4. Robert

Plane to catch...

Fernando is on his own at the top

EG writes: Anon(the real one) has done his maths and here is the result of our poll to find the top-five drivers in Formula One right now. The numbers confirm that Fernando is out on his own (he is my choice as number one) and, despite some voting along "party lines", the Spanish double world champion has won this particular race fair and square.

I have been a fairly strong critic of Fernando's conduct out of the car last season but have admired his skills behind the wheel. It is sad that such a great driver is tooling around in the wrong machinery and might yet go to even more wrong teams before he ends up at a right one, if he ever does. It is still a legitimate question as to whether Fernando will ever be world champion again. For example, if he does get back into a top car in two years time say, he may not be the driver he was last year. Only time will tell. In the meantime we are getting used to seeing him looking frustrated, like a bear with a sore head...

Anyway thanks to Anon for suggesting this thread and doing the numbers, despite being on the road this week by the sound of it. Here is his analysis.

ANON(THE REAL ONE) writes:

OK so here goes. A few notes before the winners.

First, the points system went like this: five points for first place, 4 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd, 2 for 4th, and 1 for fifth.

I had to ignore a lot of posts because they only listed four people or had a tie. I apologize but it is not statistically fair to post these and I tried to give warnings to people that their votes would not be counted.

Also, remember that this vote has been taken in light of the recent Canadan GP, where Kubica took his fist win, Lewis made the howler of his career, and Fernando drove like a madman until he well, failed (sorta).

The WINNER:

1st FERNANDO ALONSO
By 102 points, the clear out winnner. Fernando enjoyed a massive turnout from both Spanish and British. It may be a result of pity for him, to see a man who could certainly win races be humbled in a Renault. But one thing is sure: with such a margin, he would win despite any nationalistic votes (if you cancel all nationalistic votes, not just those for him).

2nd KIMI RAIKKONEN
Kimi had one big disadvantage in this poll - he was neither Spanish nor British, the two main pools of people from this blog(Note from Ed: Spanish readers have slipped to third in the rankings behind Britain and the US). But he tried hard and, after having fallen back 102 points, he kept pace with Fernando. At one point however, it looked like the 3rd place man would overtake him. And about that third-placed man, what a surprise!

3rd ROBERT KUBICA
He had a hard duel with the fourth-placed guy. Anyway, scoring your debut win gets you votes! I think there was one guy who claimed he was Polish and who voted for Kubica - so really, a well deserved "podium" finish.

4th LEWIS HAMILTON
Well, if this poll was taken right after Monaco, the results would certainly have been different. At one point, Lewis was within striking range of Robert and looked ready for the overtake. It didn't come though, and Robert drifted ahead and at one point it looked like he might snatch second from Kimi.

5th FELIPE MASSA
Felipe's inconsistency, alas, made his voting income very inconsistent. A lot of people (me included) simply didn't put him in the top five. A slight reminder though - he has finished in the points as many times as Lewis and Kimi and more times than Heikki. In fact, his retirement in Australia was mechanical which would make him more consistent than Lewis, who had two non-mechanical crashes. Not trying to bash Lewis (I think he's the better driver), but I had a feeling of pity for Massa.

So here are the totals for each driver.

Alonso 569 RENAULT
Raikkonen 467 FERRARI
Kubica 419 BMW
Hamilton 356 MCLAREN
Massa 157 FERRARI
Heidfeld 44 BMW
Rosberg 40 WILLIAMS
Webber 27 RED BULL
Vettel 21 TORO ROSSO
Kovalainnen 15 MCLAREN
Button 10 HONDA
Coulthard 9 RED BULL
Sutil 8 FORCE INDIA
Trulli 6 TOYOTA
Barrichello 5 HONDA
Sato 3 SUPER AGURI
Bourdais 1 TORO ROSSO
Fisichella 1 FORCE INDIA
Glock 1 TOYOTA

As you can see, I marked the teams they were driving for. Here are the combined totals for the team-mates. This way, we can see which team has the best line-up, in our opinion.

Ferrari 624
Renault 569
BMW 463
McLaren 371
Williams 40
Red Bull 36
Toro Rosso 22
Honda 15
Force India 9
Toyota 7
Super Aguri 3

Notice there were three drivers with no votes. They were Davidson, Nakajima, and Piquet. I find this harsh on Davidson and Nakajima especially, as even Fisichella, Bourdais, and Glock got into the points.

Unfortunately I won't be back until Thursday, so I won't be able to answer your comments. But anyway, really hope you enjoyed the post and thank you again Mr. Gorman to have kindly acquiesced to my request.

Take care all of you and hope for a great Magny-Cours Grand Prix!

Bernie has a go at the top-five

Just as an adjunct to the top-five drivers thread which we will close on Tuesday morning (9.00am French time), here are the views of Bernie Ecclestone who has seen a lot of drivers come and go over the years. Along with his choices are some comments from him. On Felipe he did not say much only because we forgot to discuss him in detail. Apologies for that. (However I know he is a big fan of Felipe. When he made his initial selection he named a couple of drivers and then said "Massa, for sure"). His view of Robert is interesting and suggests, possibly, that he should be ranked above Lewis.

1. Fernando
"If he was still in a McLaren he would be showing Lewis the way home - I don't think there is any doubt about that. I never asked the guy - I'm going to ask him one day - when he signed for McLaren, whether he was told he was number one. Because if he didn't ask and he wasn't told, he would have assumed he was. Having a guy that's never been in a F1 car in the team with him, he'd expect to be number one wouldn't he? And that's what the problem was. When he found out, although he should have been number one, of course he wasn't."

2. Lewis
"The difference with Lewis is that, last year he didn't have to prove himself because he was the new kid on the block and he wasn't expected to finish a race. This year, people say he should have won the world championship last year, and therefore he's under pressure to make sure he does it this year."

3. Kimi
"I think the problem with Kimi is his desire to win is perhaps not strong enough for him to do what it takes to win. And that's not just while he is in the car. Michael's desire to win was such that he would work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to improve the car so that he could win. That's the difference."

4. Robert
"If you saw him in a McLaren or a Ferrari, I think I'd put my money on him blowing away Hamilton."

5. Felipe
"Smashing guy."

I asked Bernie to name one other driver in a lesser car who had struck him as having the quality to make it to the top.

Sebastian Vettel: "I think he's a guy that could get the job done."

Who are the top-five best drivers in Formula One right now?

We have already enjoyed choosing the best Formula One driver of all time(that was Ayrton Senna by some distance). Anon(the real one) has asked for a thread on the best Formula One drivers on the grid right now. We are a few days away from the green fields and cows of Magny Cours, so why not?

This time, shall we try and make it, as Anon says, not your favourite drivers but your best drivers in terms of sheer ability behind the wheel. For the purposes of this poll let's forget everything else, by which I mean all out of the car issues, and just concentrate on driving and racing skill.

We want your top five of the current 20 on the grid(or 22 counting Anthony and Takuma) in ranking order.

Among the trickiest issues, obviously, is trying to balance the ability of drivers against the "ability" of the car they are driving. For example, isn't Sebastian Vettel a much better driver than his Toro Rosso allows? Maybe. The same could be said of Mark Webber(or is he just the most unlucky man in Formula One?) Some - quite a few in fact - believe Felipe is flattered by a Ferrari. Others are adamant that Jenson is a world champion in waiting(yet more swear he is most certainly nothing of the sort). How good are Heikki or Nico as compared with Lewis? All three are new boys with a long way to go but we have to judge them on what we have see so far. Also what about Adrian? He showed in Monaco that he is as good as anyone didn't he?

Then there are the merits of the established talents. Rubens has a big record of his own. Kimi is a favourite of the "real racer" school but are there elements missing from his contribution on the track? Nick Heidfeld gets very little publicity here but he is a seriously good driver. Should he be discounted because he is finding it harder to settle into this year's BMW than Robert? And what about Robert? or Fernando? Is Robert something else altogether or is that just hype because his car isn't as good as the Ferraris or McLarens? Has Fernando demonstrated, in a Renault, that he has feet of clay or has he shown that he is a genuine legend of the sport(Javier will no doubt put us right on this).

So there you have it, your top five...have fun. We'll keep this open for a good week and then the statisticians will no doubt get stuck in.

Two years in

The French Grand Prix in 2006 was where I started as motor racing correspondent for The Times. As I begin my third year, here are a few thoughts on what has been going on.

The old regime
All along this has felt like the beginning of the end of an era. Formula One has been dominated by a small group of big players over the last 25 years, both to its benefit and its cost, and there is a sense that this period is coming to an end.

All the big players are now much nearer the end of their careers than the beginning and soon several of them will move on. Thus the landscape of the sport is going to change fairly dramatically over the next, say 3-5 years, and my guess is we will look back on this phase as a sort of fin de siecle(and a pretty dramatic one at that).

My impression, coming in "new" to the sport is that Formula One carries way too much baggage. There are too many people who have been around too long whose motives at any moment are based not on the best course of action available to them, but on a need to settle scores and so on.

Formula One has thus become far more "political" than it need be, far more dominated by a small group of highly egotistical individuals than it should be. As a journalist this, of course, produces extraordinary stories and sub-plots away from the race track, all of which makes Formula One what it is: a compelling soap opera with a bit of racing thrown in every now and again. But, standing back, there is a clear argument to be made for a new approach, for new people at the top and for the focus to shift back to the racing, the cars and the drivers.

The FIA
If this is the end of an era for the sport, one suspects and hopes it is also the end of an era for the FIA. The past two years has witnessed a disproportionate level of intervention by the FIA together with the painful(to him and everyone else who is witnessing it) death throws of the career of its president. Jean Todt is a very debatable way forward, even if he is among the best qualified(in a technical sense) for the job. As JYS has argued, the depoliticisation of the FIA is long overdue.

A few fairly random highlights and lowlights(from a very short time watching Formula One for a living)

Best drive
Michael Schumacher at the Brazilian Grand Prix 2006. The great German driver went out with style with a riveting display at Interlagos. This was the best example of someone leaving at the top of their game. I can still see him getting inside Kimi at Turn 1 with three(or so) laps to go and thinking 'I am going to have to re-write this'. And thus the story that day was not about Fernando winning the world title for a second time but Michael "stealing the show" on his retirement.

Second best drive
Fernando Alonso, Hungary 2006. This was the day Jenson won but it was also the day I saw for the first time what a brilliant pilot(to use the continental expression) Fernando is. Unlike almost any other driver, Fernando seems to dominate his car with his skills and personality. You can't mistake him. Exciting, committed, brave, I have said all this before. If he was a footballer, he would be one of those players who, every time he gets the ball, you would be thinking "something's on here"...

Most memorable moment
Sad to say this was not on the track but the "meet the press" session at McLaren in Hungary after the infamous "pitlane-gate" episode last year. Etched in my memory is the vision of Fernando saying nothing, sitting on a stool and eating a pear with a ferocity never seen before in the history of fruit eating. All around him the press pack was baying for blood and McLaren was falling apart before our very eyes.

Worst memory
Turning up for my first Grand Prix at Magny Cours to find my hotel locked at 1.00am. The note on the door invited me to enter my "booking number" into the machine on the wall - the "reception automatique". I did not have a booking number. After trying in vain to find alternative accommodation, I ended up "sleeping" in the aforesaid car in a square in Moulins. This was all about travel technique; knowing which flight to catch; knowing where to fly to and knowing that it is better to travel with Kevin Garside whenever possible.

Worst hotel
Suzuka 2006. I don't know what it is called but if you can imagine sleeping in an ashtray, that would be roughly the idea. (The worst hotel of my entire career is still a place on the Iran/Iraq border which was so appalling that even a smokefest in Japan doesn't get close).
 
Best track
Difficult one. I like a lot of the tracks. Some you like for the racing, some for the atmosphere, some for both. Among my favourites are Suzuka(racing), Spa(monza in the hills), Monaco(you can't not love it), Interlagos(drums), Silverstone(a field of battle), Montreal(big test), Monza(tifosi in the woods). If I had to pick one it would be Spa for the circuit, Monza for the atmosphere and Silverstone for nostalgia(just shows I can't pick one).

Venue city
The best venue city is Barcelona. The worst, by a short head, Bahrain.

Pretty interesting huh?

Well, the blog has come alive and this time it is about motor racing. Makes a change doesn't it? Imagine if Fernando had smashed into Lewis in the pitlane, or Lewis had smashed into Fernando. The place would have gone even crazier. The indignation...let's not even think about it...

Anyway, back from Canada, I wanted to make one simple point. Remember the beginning of the season? Back then there was a genuine fear that this year was going to fall flat after all the excitement and intrigue of 2007. I am not referring to Mosley who has become a wholly unwanted and entirely unnecessary distraction(he should have resigned no less than 72 days ago), I am talking about the racing.

Who would have thought that, seven races in, we would have four different winners with Lewis, Felipe and Kimi each with two victories and now Robert and BMW with one? What a perfect set-up for the rest of the season. We have seen some great races, not least the last one, and who knows how this is going to develop as we move back to Europe for the summer season.

Some pointers:
Felipe: if and when he becomes world champion, three-quarters of the press room will still be saying "yeah, but he's rubbish". Well I say, he is pretty good rubbish.

Kimi: some believe he has gone off the boil but his hunger is still there and he was looking more determined in Canada until his race was ended.

Lewis: making more mistakes than last year when he compiled nine consecutive podium finishes in a row. This time he has won two races, been on the podium on two other occasions but has also failed to score twice - the same total in this respect as for the whole of last season.

Robert: the best driver so far with few, if any mistakes, and excellent speed in the fifth or third fastest car(depending on how you count it). But Robert has repeatedly made clear that, all other things being equal, the BMW is still not a race winner on regular tracks.

McLaren and Ferrari: while their drivers are making mistakes so are both of these teams with strategy errors, fuelling errors, rules errors...I suspect that it will be in this area that the race for the drivers' title might be won. In other words it will go to the best driver from the team which makes the fewest mistakes from now on.

Felipe/Kimi-Lewis/Heikki: you have to say that Lewis has an advantage because Heikki is so far behind in the points. Although McLaren still say both drivers are getting the same opportunities, they are, surely, going to err in Lewis's favour when push comes to shove from now on. (Before people attack: I am not saying they should do this, I am saying they probably will do this).

A note about Lewis in Canada. I am not unhappy about his penalty. I said "some journalists" were wondering whether it was a bit harsh. I have no view. He has got what he has got and now he must deal with it. From his point of view, the big problem is going to be trying to come through the field at Magny Cours, one of the worst tracks for overtaking in Formula One.

Mosley(for it is he): some of you may be interested in my colleague Matthew Syed's latest contribution on this. We should leave Mosley alone, he argues. What do you think?   

Image: Another "car" pic from Montreal. Ed Gorman/The Times. BTW, on this subject, Ron was saying on the grid what a beautiful piece of work that rear wing is. Pity Nico didn't think so too...

Robert gets his prize; Lewis has a howler and Kimi is not happy about it

What a great day for BMW Sauber. A one-two in Canada for Robert and Nick. Exceptional driving from Robert who took full advantage of the hand that fate played him and drilled it home. A great driver gets his first win. He sounded matter of fact about it afterwards. He wants more and in the press tent people expect him to deliver more. The bottom line with Robert is this: he is driving the fifth fastest car but he now leads the world championship. What more impressive testament to his skills and commitment could you want.

If Robert had a day to remember, Lewis had one to forget, driving into the back of Kimi in the pitlane. Kimi was understandably angry afterwards. "If I go at 300kph and lose control and hit somebody, it is natural," he fumed in reference to his smash with Adrian at Monte Carlo. "But if there is a pitlane speed limit and two cars are stopped and you hit them, it is stupid. I saw a red light and chose to stop. Unfortunately someone else saw a red light and chose not to." To give him his due, Lewis apologised for his error and was clearly disappointed with himself.

Just one other thing in the short time available. Another great drive from Fernando, even if it ended prematurely(something we will find out more about). Watching him all over the back of Nick's BMW was compelling stuff. He had no business being there in the Renault. Another driver of rare ability and guts(as I always say). 

Anyway let's hear it for a great Canadian GP. Seven races in we have three four different winners. Great stuff...

STOP PRESS: Lewis and Nico have been penalised 10 grid places for Magny Cours. Is that about right? Too harsh, some journalists were saying that at the track. What do you think?

Lewis puts it on pole for the second time in Montreal; drivers very unhappy about the track

Lewis showed his mastery of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve by putting his MP4-23 on pole with a gutsy final lap which relegated provisional pole-sitter Robert Kubica to second by the hefty margin of six-tenths.

The word all weekend is that Lewis has been loving his return to the scene of his first Grand Prix win and now he has got himself in excellent shape to repeat that feat tomorrow.

Within McLaren, Lewis was all-conquering with Heikki, who has looked far less comfortable in the car, some way back in seventh. While Robert comprehensively outdrove Nick(8th) yet again, the big news was the disappointing performance of the Ferraris with Kimi the best of them in third(a second behind Lewis) and Felipe way down in sixth.

No doubt we will hear more about this but I noticed how much Kimi seemed to be fighting the car, compared to Lewis(who was quickest in all three sessions) going through the chicanes.

All three top drivers commented on the poor quality of the surface and the breakdown of the track at particular corners, especially the hairpin at Turn 10(Lewis also mentioned Turn 2 and the exit of Turn 7).

Kimi was particularly vocal about this saying he had a car to get pole but the surface made it impossible to get traction at Turn 10. He predicted the race is going to be a "nightmare" and said the circuit managers should get some new people in to maintain the surface(something which Robert and Lewis agreed with). Robert said you only need to be 10-20cms wide at the apex of the corners and you are onto the dirt and marbles and your lap time has gone.

Lewis said he was comfortably ahead pace-wise this weekend. At the end he had two laps to get back to the top of the timings. His first go, he said, was a "shocker" but the second was almost as good as last year's pole for him, even if he did lose time at Turn 10. The track condition there he said was even quite dangerous.

The forecast is mixed for tomorrow with talk of wind and possibly rain and thunder. There were some drops of rain on visors at the very end of quali but nothing more than that.

A special mention for Fernando who showed yet again his rare ability as a racer with an excellent qualifying performance which put him in fourth place, ahead of Nico, Felipe and Heikki. Fernando's struggling team-mate Nelson, could get only as far as 15th.
      

Total rubbish pic of press room TV moniters during post-quali press conference. Ed Gorman/The Times

Lewis looking good in Montreal

Just a quick note after a hectic day at the track where the focus was barely on the cars once again in a sport which looks like heading for a big showdown between itself and its world governing body. The view among some is that "we ain't seen nothin' yet" in the battle between Formula One and Mosley and there are some fairly dramatic options on the table. There was an important meeting of the team principals in Montreal today chaired by Bernie - more on that in the paper.

While Wall St tumbled and the oil price shot up(together with the US jobless rate; CNN's "Situation Room" is hard to turn off), Lewis looked very impressive on the track where he won his first Grand Prix 12 months ago. We look at his progress since then and the constrasting views about him among fans around the world also in Saturday's paper.

In Friday practice the McLarens did not do much in the morning session when the track was damp and saved their tyres for the dry conditions in the afternoon when Lewis went comfortably quickest in the closing seconds from Robert(who was second in both sessions) and then Kimi.

The word at McLaren is that Lewis, whose Mum has flown over from England for the weekend, was building in confidence in the car and really enjoying himself on a circuit he seems to like. We watched him in, in his phrase, "leaning on his car" as he found his lines; seeing him and others rip through the final right-left chicane and then dice with the "wall of champions"(see pic taken on Thursday) was thrilling.

Lewis offered an upbeat summary of his work ahead of qualifying and a race for which the forecast is looking a little uncertain with some teams predicting it will stay dry and others expecting showers on both days. "We chose not to use our allocation of wet tyres for the majority of the opening session but managed a run on dry tyres towards the end of the morning," said Lewis.

"In the afternoon, we were able to improve the car on every run - I felt very comfortable with the set-up and balance, particularly when we switched to the option tyre, which allowed me to lean on the car as the track conditions improved. We've still got some work to do ahead of qualifying and the race, but we've already got some positive running under our belts," he added.

While Heikki struggled for balance and the Renault's struggled for pace, the Ferraris were there or thereabouts and the two drivers seemed reasonably happy. Felipe's car suffered a technical "blackout" of some kind towards the end of the afternoon session which stopped his running after the Brazilian had run fastest in the morning. Brakes take a hammering at this circuit and the Scuderia worked on this area of its cars throughout the day.

Here's Kimi: "I am quite satisfied with this first day of testing. We were always quick. The car turned out to be well balanced right from the morning and I think we can aim for the top spots over the weekend. From what we have seen today, there is not much difference in the performance of the two types of Bridgestone tyre we have available to us, but the track conditions are bound to change over the next couple of days. At this track it is very important to have the brakes sorted in the race and we also worked on this." 

Generally the combination of low downforce, high speeds and plenty of bumps, gave all the drivers a good test even if there were surprisingly few incidents. Among two I saw were a spin for Fernando and a bang against the wall for Timo. It's a great track this one with a unique setting...   

Cars in Canada - blogpics

On the river in Montreal

So here we are in Canada trying to shift the focus back to racing(not very easy when Luca di Montezemolo calls for Mosley's resignation and then tries to retract). Sometimes you wake up in a hotel in a foreign country - and not the same one you were in a few hours earlier - and grope for a lightswitch which isn't there. This morning I did that in the Holiday Inn in downtown Montreal, my addled brain thinking I was still in a small hotel in the Opera district in Paris. But then it gradually dawned on me that, in fact, I have flown across the Atlantic and this is North America. Such is life in Formula One, especially when you have a "political" scandal to follow at the same time as the racing.

I flew with Air France and we managed to get an exit row in eco which made things a little better legroom-wise. I haven't done much on flights this year so far. This one was a little different in terms of Formula One personnel than the normal group I travel with from London. Among those on board were the Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Bourdais and several members of his team and, travelling in first class, I believe in seat 1A, Max Mosley's chief "man in the paddock" Alan Donnelly, who does not like The Times one bit just now. As I and Johnny McEvoy of the Mail noticed, Donnelly was so far in front of us in the plane that he took off several seconds before we did and reached Canada ahead of us as well. Such is life for employees of big-spending organisations like the FIA.

Here on the island track in the St Lawrence the temperature is coolish and the weather forecast has rain in it for the weekend. Given the nature of the circuit, this could produce a humdinger of a race on Sunday. This morning I was having breakfast in the aforesaid Holiday Inn with some of the reporters from Autosport(picking up, as Garside claims of me, "expertise by association") and they were saying that the real lesson of Monaco is that there is very little - if anything - to choose between the Ferraris and the McLarens just now. Their view is that the teams have honed in on each other and the deficiencies of one on this track or that track, are not nearly so clear cut as they were. The implication being that the rate of development over the rest of the season is going to be very important(as always) and second, that getting set-up right at each race weekend and responding to different track conditions is going to be vital.

We saw Lewis. He was in good form and we had a good-natured laugh with him about his father's successful attempt to drive a £330,000 Porsche through a hedge. We were wondering afterwards whether the car was actually Lewis's - it had a foreign plate. The McLaren driver seems worried about Ferrari pace on the long straights here but otherwise was reasonably confident about his prospects for the weekend. Earlier at the official FIA press conference Kimi talked at length in response to questions from McEvoy about retirement and did not rule out going at the end of this season. The Iceman always says he will go when he stops enjoying Formula One and always hints that he hates all the media hoo-haa around the racing. However Kimi seems much more relaxed in press conferences than last year and often looks as if he is enjoying them. Ferrari staffers are privately sceptical he will hang up his boots this year or even next. But you never know with Ferrari do you?

Bob Kubica was there looking thinner than ever and talking straight as always. You get it as it is from the Pole whose reputation as a racer is right up there these days. He made it clear that the press conference was the last time he was going to answer questions about his accident last year and also made it clear that the whole subject bores him and certainly does not keep him awake at night. Kubica is realistic about BMW's pace and remarked that the running he did in Monaco on Thursday and Saturday morning in the dry, had shown that the car is still not capable of finishing second in standard conditions. "The car has to improve if we want to beat the Ferraris and the McLarens...and if we want to win a race this year which is the target of the team," he said.

Err...that's it for now. Tonight it's the big Toyota annual dinner for the British media in a swish restaurant downtown(La Queue de Cheval - The Horses Tail) where the waiters do that really annoying "performing the menu thing". I prefer just to read it myself. Anyway I will try to remember what we had to eat for the bon viveurs among you...

   

Friday in Monte Carlo - Bruno Senna, a boy from Brazil

Another beautiful day in Monaco with some great action on the track from the testosterone kings, aka the GP2 boys, with Bruno Senna driving to an emotional debut win on the track that his uncle loved so much and made his own.

The Times Formula One blog greatest F1 driver of all time is Ayrton Senna

EG writes:

Well here is the result which many of you were no doubt expecting. I wouldn't argue with it  for a minute. Senna was an extraordinary man and an even more remarkable driver whose death cut short a glittering career. He is still mourned throughout the motor racing world and his charisma, his individuality and his sublime skills at the wheel are still the talk of the Formula One press room. It's great to see Michael Schumacher given his due. IDR, a great supporter of this blog from Spain, has done a superb job with the stats and the graphics, I think you will all agree. Brilliant. Here is his summary of the poll.(BTW, don't forget, you can click on the images to enlarge them. The first one of Senna is top-dollar).

Download top10_tables.doc

Download TopTen.xls

IDR writes:

TOP-10 GREATEST DRIVERS OF ALL TIME
The party is over and, according to this poll, Ayrton Senna, the Prince of Monaco, the Rainmaster, is the greatest driver ever. Talking about Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher some years ago, a great Italian aficionado told me: "Ayrton could be a leader in every profession he would choose, whereas Michael can only lead a motor racing driver career."

I couldn't agree more on this. Ayrton Senna was not only the driver but the man also, and for this reason, when I made my own list, I adjusted what the stats show me and gave Ayrton the pole. Some posters have commented that Ayrton was not an angel. Of course he was not. As every driver in the "F1 Olympus" he has his lights and his shadows.

But some of you will probably still remember the moment in which he stopped his car in the middle of a race (Spa Francorchamps 1992), to save the life of Eric Comas who had a terrible accident driving his Ligier Renault. That was the man.

Finally, all of you know how limited my English is. I have found a way to express my views: Images. (I hope Ed will publish the ones I have sent to him). I wish you like Ayrton's composition. And following his quote, I'm pretty sure that our heart hides feelings that cannot be understood. Well I must say that some of them are easier to understand than others (Takuma Sato in one reader'sTop-10 list…)

Now, lets go with the maths:
First of all, we've seen 215 comments!. Not to bad in seven days. And I have been able to account more than 107 top-10 lists!

As Ed has asked for the top-10, not top-8, I decided not to use the same scoring system as Formula One. I have given 10 points for the 1st, 9 for the 2nd and so on. Not very sophisticated, but it works.  In any case, and for those of you quite focused on stats, I have also made the calculation using the F1 scoring system. (10 points for first, 8 for second, 6 for third…) You can see below both rankings. 

There are not many changes comparing both. In the Top-10 just to mention that using F1 scoring, J Clark is over JM Fangio and F Alonso is over N Lauda.

I also counted the number of "Poles" (First position in the top-10 lists) each driver has received from the posters. In that case, things change much more and there are some new names in the Top-10 Poles. Senna's position is really impressive!
You can see the results in the pic I have sent to Ed.

My apologies to GEORGE FROST who has gave 10 points to Henry Miles Fitzalan-Howard, Earl of Arundel. Despite his noble origins, he is not an F1 Driver yet. He raced last year for Fortec Motorsport in Formula BMW UK and won the Rookie Cup. I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little to see his name in the picture!

Other questions about how I made the stats. I only take in consideration those lists with no less than 8 drivers… more precisely at least 8 different drivers! JUAN I would like to know who drivers are in your Top-20, just in case this extended one contains other names than Senna! I made an exception with AARON (Top-7 list) and I have also included it. And sorry OLD DANES but despite I love di Stefano, Zidane, Maldini… I have not been able to find a good excuse for considering them.
ANTONIO XIXON BUT IN UK had a great idea; he summarized the opinions of his friends and colleagues. I put this list in the stats. (And his owns, of course).

On the other hand, some of you have shown some concerns about including pre-F1 drivers. I have considered all of them. They have not competed in what is known as F1, but all of them set the base of motor racing, (together with some car's builders as Bugatti, Maserati, Auto-union, Alfa Romeo…)
Etore Bugatti was asked for the break's problem his cars were consistently showing. He answered: " I build cars for running fast, not for braking". (I wonder what would say current drivers about this!)
Maybe those men should not be considered as F1 drivers, but they were the truly heroes of motor racing.

I really enjoyed so much to participate in this thread, and as in F1 races (not current races btw), I have seen some amazing overtaking. S Moss over F Alonso and N Lauda just at the end of this "race" with the extra-propulsion of the final posters!

Finally, I would like to mention those WDC winners that nobody has named them in their Top-10 list. They are "The forgotten Champions"
Giuseppe Farina (Alfa Romeo) 1950
Phil Hill (Ferrari) 1961
Jody Scheckter (Ferrari) 1979
Alan Jones (Williams) 1980

Who are the top-10 greatest F1 drivers of all time?

Look, I know this is a big question to ask and I know I haven't given you any warning but I have been meaning to ask it for a while and, it being a bit early to get into pre-Monaco predictions, here goes.

Who are the top-10 best Formula One drivers of all time? Err that's it. Send in your votes and one of the talented statisticians who read this blog - or several - will no doubt work out what the readers of this blog have decided(after 10 days). We need loads of you to vote so, if I may, I'd like to encourage the silent majority of thousands who regularly read this column, but do not normally comment, to make a contribution.

Of course I cannot simply pose this question then put my fingers in my ears and run...There have been some interesting stabs at this old chestnut recently which are worth considering. First my distinguished colleague at the Guardian, Alan Henry, brought out a book earlier this year entitled "The Top 100 F1 Drivers Of All Time"(Published by ICON Books/iconbooks.co.uk). Then F1 Racing magazine in its May issue(www.f1racing.co.uk) published the results of an e-mail reader poll, entitled "100 Greatest Drivers Ever".

Now there is a lot to consider here. The only thing I would say is that, if we are talking about Formula One drivers, then in my view, you have to look at the complete package. It is so hard to succeed in Formula One precisely because it is not just about driving and skill on the track but a total "life challenge" if you like. You have got to be brilliant on the track in every department; you need to be good technically; you need to have an educated sense of the business and politics of the sport; you need to understand how to develop your career and make the right moves at the right time and, all of that has got to add up to you being in the right machinery at what, consistently, is the right time. (This, for example, as many of you will have noticed, is why I rate Michael Schumacher so highly).

Henry's book is interesting and provocative. Alan is a great "student of the game" with unrivalled experience and a track record covering Formula One which goes back to when I was in short trousers. It is a standing joke with him these days about how long he has been in the paddock - just now it is something like 37 years(!) I reckon the cheeky-chappy in Alan was having a bit of fun with this pot-boiler, not least because he puts Michael at 11 and Stirling Moss at number one. Big calls both.

Here is Alan Henry's top-10

1 Stirling Moss
2 Jim Clark
3 Ayrton Senna
4 Alain Prost
5 Alberto Ascari
6 Juan-Manuel Fangio
7 Bernd Rosemayer
8 Jackie Stewart
9 Tazio Nuvolari
10 Mika Hakkinen

Darren Heath: A picture from Turkey or "Curvature of the Earth"

Darren Heath is one of the best photographers specialising in motorsport and a veteran of 20 years standing in the Formula One paddock. The Times Formula One weblog asked Darren to select one image from the hundreds he took in Turkey last weekend which best sums up a superb Grand Prix at Istanbul Park.

Darren has chosen this essay on Felipe Massa roaring through Turn 11 at 180mph with the TV chopper in the background. Darren did not name the image but I would say "Curvature of the Earth" seems appropriate. (Imagine the noise).

Here is Darren's own comment on the picture which will enlarge if you click on it.

"As the world  watches from the helicopter-mounted camera, Felipe Massa blasts his Ferrari up the hill on the exit of turn 11 driving towards his third consecutive Turkish Grand Prix win at Istanbul Park last Sunday. 

What I like about this picture, apart from capturing the helicopter in shot, is the light from the late afternoon sun giving the green painted concrete an almost metallic sheen perfectly complementing the dramatic sky, the red of the car and track edge.

Formula One is so much more than cars simply completing 60 or so laps on a Sunday afternoon, being  arguably the perfect 21st century sport of aesthetes. My desire to convey this beauty through the lens is what drives me to strive for pictures such as this."

A few notes on Darren

Age: nearly 40
Clients(include): Bridgestone, Sunday Times, Philip Morris, FIA
Mission statement: "The pictures I enjoy doing are the more creative, artistic side of it, a different side to the sport, not just cars going round corners. There is so much more that we see at Formula One and I aim to show that in a creative way using light and colour to maximum effect.
Favourite track: "I say Monaco because it is just the most extreme experience to see cars going so quickly down a track which is narrower than your front room. I love Suzuka and Spa, but Monaco is the best."
Favourite driver: "Senna. The charisma and the ultimate speed. Close to the top of the list of all-time memorable experiences was seeing Senna doing qualifying laps - seeing him on what seemed like a different level to everyone else."
Dislikes about Formula One: "I try to be positive about it. Like a lot of people in the sport, I am impatient, but you have to be patient to do our job."
The future: "I love it. I am enjoying this season. I enjoy each season I do more than the previous one and I can't see that stopping any time soon."
Football team: West Ham United

Darren has his own Formula One blog and website where you can read his reflections on each Grand Prix and see more of his pictures.

Pic of Darren by yours truly(The crap photographer)

Glory for Felipe again in Turkey; top drive from Lewis

Felipe pulls off three wins in a row at Istanbul Park in a race for the cognoscenti which saw Lewis manage to make a three-stop strategy work and finish in second place, one better than where he started. Kimi was third just behind Lewis with the two BMWs led by Robert Kubica fourth and fifth.

The race was low on incident with 17 finishers, the most dramatic being a "climb-over" coming together featuring Fisi and Kazuki Nakajima just after the start. Another casualty at the start was Heikki who, after a poor get-away from second on the grid, tapped Kimi's Ferrari going through turn 2 and picked up a puncture which forced him to pit. This put him to the back of the field. After some entertaining battles, especially through turns 12, 13 and 14, the Finn finished 12th.

A great drive from Felipe who was understandably delighted at the finish with his second win of the year, raising three fingers to the sky in celebration. Lewis too had an excellent day. He pulled off a nice pass on Felipe going into turn 12 and managed to build a gap at the front of the field in the middle of the race which was enough to keep him ahead of Kimi and Robert at the end. In his short final stint in the soft tyre he looked reasonably comfortable ahead of Kimi and held onto second place by half a second.

Kimi incidentally drove the race's fastest lap despite going through the whole Grand Prix with a broken front wing as result of his tangle with Heikki.

The result leaves Kimi still in the lead in the championship with 35 points but with his advantage over Lewis(28pts) cut from nine points to seven. Felipe is now level-pegging with Lewis in joint second, with Robert third on 24 points.

Small crowd in Istanbul sees Bruno Senna hit dog

A thin crowd at Istanbul Park witnessed a strange and dangerous moment in the GP2 race before the the Formula One Grand Prix when Bruno Senna(nephew of the late, great Ayrton), hit and killed a stray dog. The animal was running along the track with another when the GP2 cars approached at speed. One car missed them but Senna had no chance of avoiding the black and white dog when it suddenly ran into his front left wheel. Result: smashed suspension; dead dog.

This is, needless to say, highly dangerous. Had Bruno hit it head on, it could have killed him. The young Brazilian looked angry when he got back to the pits. It seems he was annoyed with his pitwall for not warning him there were animals on the track. With all the sharp-shooters around Istanbul Park where the security level is high, it is surprising the dogs ever made it to the track. Apparently this area of land used to be a big wild dog nightclub before they built the track and dogs keep coming back. Let's hope none of the Formula One drivers hit a white elephant during this afternoon's Grand Prix.

Afterwards Senna commented as follows:
“The race was going really well up until the incident with the dog. I made a good start, kept out of trouble and seized every opportunity that came my way without taking any risks. The car was really good and I knew we could score some useful points. I was following Mike Conway quite closely when he suddenly moved to the right. I thought he had a problem so I went to the left… and that’s when I saw the dog for the first time. It ran right, so I went left, but then it turned again, hit my wheel and that was that. I couldn’t believe it.”

Ferrari's current rich vein of performance is causing grumbling elsewhere on the pitlane. Have they got 30 extra horse-power? Have they been subject to the same level of scrutineering of their engines as everyone else? I checked with the man from the FIA and the rule-making body is quite happy that all is in order and Ferrari are operating under the same rules and regs as everyone else.

A few "rubbish" pics of the Renault garage for your enjoyment. Click on image to enlarge.

The boy Felipe done good

Just as he dreamt it, Felipe fought off his rivals and put his Ferrari on pole at Fortress Massa(aka Istanbul Park) by a hefty margin - that's three poles in a row here for the Brazilian who has most definitely got his season back on track.

Now all he has to do is win the Grand Prix for the third time in three years. In 2006 he needed a slice of luck, last year he was all-conquering, can he do it again? Congratulations to Felipe who was watched from the garage by his father and his wife.

As had looked on the cards on Friday, Heikki got the better of Lewis by a tenth which is a fantastic reposte from the Finn after his big crash in Spain. Equally it is a worry for Lewis who will have to rely on fleetness of foot off the start line to try and get past his team-mate.

This is the second time in five races that Kovi has qualified ahead of Lewis. The good news for the McLarens is that they are two and three on the grid and have split the Ferraris(with Kimi back in fourth). However watching Felipe's final flyer, as compared with that of Lewis, you could see(could you not?) how the red machine seemed better balanced and less of a handful than the McLarens which is hardly a surprise given recent form.

Robert was fifth this time, again well ahead of his team-mate Nick who was ninth. After his heroics in front of his home crowd two weeks ago, Fernando was back where the Renault looks to be realistically ranked - in seventh place. This was miles ahead of his struggling team-mate Nelson who could do no better than 17th(ouch!). There are two Red Bulls in top-10 for the first time.   

Sebastien Loeb is projecting a poor image says the FIA(!!!!)

This story by The Times's correspondents in Paris is worth a read. There's not much to add...

I notice also that Charles Bremner, our chief Paris correspondent, has done a nice piece on the old Citreon Deux Chevaux on his blog which some of you might enjoy.

Stop press: apparently this picture of Loeb at the end of the Mexico rally was the one which offended the FIA...

A big weekend for Felipe

If Felipe is going to mount a serious challenge to Kimi and Lewis for this year's world title, you would think he must win at Istanbul Park this weekend. This, of course, is one of Felipe's favourite tracks where he drove to his first emotional Grand Prix victory in 2006 from pole. He then managed exactly the same feat last year and it would be quite something if he could do it a third time in succession.

Kimi is growing in confidence all the time and there are few in the paddock who do not regard him as already the de facto "number one" at Ferrari. Another win this weekend for him - it would be his third in five races with one second place to boot - would put him in the driving seat in more ways than one and Felipe will be left, arguably, playing catch-up for the rest of the season.

The track in Turkey is superb and should be capable of producing exciting racing. The pitlane exit is spectacular(downhill), turn eight is a monster and turn 12 is ripe for overtaking. However last year the race was dull apart from a "chunking" incident for Lewis with 15 laps to go(his front right tyre stripped just after he exited Turn 8, dropping him from third to fifth). Istanbul Park has some of the fastest sections on the calendar(from 9 to 12), but also some tight corners(4 & 5 and 12 & 14), but few are expecting McLaren to be quick enough in either department to take advantage.

The battles ahead thus look to be between Kimi and Felipe for glory and Lewis and Robert for third on the podium. As mentioned before, if Robert can qualify ahead of Lewis and then get a good start in the race, Lewis could have his work cut out to beat him. It is interesting that while Robert has struggled at the start, Nick made an excellent get-away in Spain, so it can't be long before the Pole gets it right.

We go to Turkey much earlier this year than last(August) and this will be my third visit to a track now run by Bernie himself after the local organisers were nearly bankrupted by an FIA fine for breaking the rules on the podium ceremony in '06. While the track is great, this race is infamous in Formula One because of the horrendous traffic congestion on the roads from downtown Istanbul, across the Bosphorous to the Asian side where the track is based.

So here we go again. Eight hours watching cars go very fast and at least four hours-a-day stuck in them, trying to get there and back, very slowly...

Anon's stats; comparing this year with last

EG writes: Anon is a busy blogger. Here is some interesting analysis from Anon to keep us going through the weekend.

Anon writes: Well, it seems IDR has been putting the pressure on. Awesome work. Here are what I find interesting in terms of stats: These stats will focus on the difference the new regulations are making.

Drivers in the points
Right now 13 drivers have scored in the points - 59% of the grid. At the same time last year after the Spanish Grand Prix, 13 drivers were in the points. So no difference.

Retirements
By averaging the numbers of retirements, we find that in '07 there were 5.75 cars per race that crashed out (up until Spain). This year (I include Bourdais and Kimi who did not finish the Australian GP, I also include Rubens's disqualification as a retirement), there are 8.25 retirements per race.

Teams in the points
This year, nine teams are in the points. At the same time last year, there were eight teams in the points.

Importance of pole position
Out of the first four races of last year, three races were decided from pole. This year two races have been decided from pole.

Performance of McLaren/Ferrari
McLaren had won only one of the races last year, Malaysia. Like last year, they have only scored one win. However, last year they out-scored Ferrari in every race except Bahrain. Now Ferrari have out-scored them in every race except Malaysia.

Conclusions
In terms of who has scored points, this year is the same as last. In respect of which teams have scored more points, it is more generous this year. There are many more retirements this year. Ferrari have the upper hand, but it is true that McLaren are scoring the same amount of wins as last year and last year they were very competitive, so there's light at the end of the tunnel.

The Times's very own James Major gives you the low-down and the prices on the Spanish GP

EG writes: James Major is the online sports editor at The Times. He travelled to Montmelo as a corporate guest but watched the race as an ordinary punter sitting in the stands. (I tried to get him a pass for the paddock but failed!). Here are his impressions of the value for money side of it, the racing and the crowd. Completing the job, James has filed his best pictures at the end(click on images to enlarge).

James Major writes: With only the 1992 British Grand Prix under my belt - I watched Nigel Mansell storm to victory on a terrific day at Silverstone in 1992, paying £5 for entry - I approached the Spanish Grand Prix as an F1 novice. Let me know whether you agree with my first impressions of the "Formula One Experience"...

Kimi makes it look easy at Montmelo; 26Gs for Heikki

Here is a slightly modified version of a quickie race report originally filed for Times Online. More on the race at Montmelo later.

The Spanish Grand Prix proved what the build-up to the race had suggested, that the Ferrari's are out in front in this year's design race just now and Kimi Raikkonen in particular has hit a rich vein of form.

With a one-two for the red cars from Maranello - Felipe Massa drove a solid race to finish second - Raikkonen has now extended his world championship lead after four races from three to nine points from Lewis Hamilton in second.

For the McLarens it was a mixed and dramatic afternoon. Hamilton who started fifth on the grid, made an excellent start (reminiscent of some of his best last year) and got ahead of Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber. He then drove a steady race to finish third with Kubica tracking him all the way to the finish.

Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, meanwhile, endured a frightening high-speed crash on Lap 22 when his front left wheel exploded going through Turn 9. The Finn's car buried itself and him in the tyre wall, but amazingly he appears to have escaped with only concussion and a sore elbow after experiencing 29Gs and an impact lasting 100 milliseconds (according to Martin Whitmarsh).

The local hero Fernando Alonso starting from second on the grid in what some of his fans have dubbed the Renault "family car", was immediately taken by Massa and then drove unchallenged in third place until, predictably, he became the first of the leaders to pit.

At the halfway point, Alonso had just inherited fifth place from BMW's Nick Heidfeld (who was penalised for re-fuelling when the pitlane was closed), when the Spaniard's engine caught fire, ending his race, to the disappointment of his thousands of fans, many of whom left before the finish.

Only 13 cars completed a race which saw a long safety car period while Kovalainen was recovered from his heavily-damaged car.

Rubens on his record-equalling 256th start, had a race to forget and retired after driving one lap with his front wing impaled under the front suspension.

Fernando denied by late surge from the Iceman

A great qualifing session before a packed house at Montmelo saw Fernando drive his heart out to stick the Renault on provisional pole, only to be denied at the death by the Kimster who snatched the top spot by just under a tenth.

A Renault up at the top of the field is something we haven't seen for a long time and it will have given the French team a huge boost. An emotional Fernando said afterwards he was not expecting to be so competitive this weekend.

"I knew that only Kimi was running behind so when I crossed the line I knew it was front row in the worst case, so that is something we didn't expect at all, not in this race or maybe during the whole season, so I cannot be more happy than I am now," said the Asturian hero.

"The car feels better," he added. "I am happy with the car and we made a step forward no doubts. We found more at the test when we compared the changes back-to-back and we saw here a clear result, a big improvement in the car. All weekend it has been difficult with the track conditions. For the race we will see what we can do. But this second place of today is more than we expected for the whole weekend."

An up-beat but certainly not ecstatic Pat Symonds spoke in the paddock afterwards and indicated there is still a long way to go. He said he thought a podium finish tomorrow is unlikely and said he still believed there are six cars quicker than the Renaults(Ferrari, McLaren and BMW). He also said he believed McLaren were having a particularly poor weekend.

But Symonds stressed that second place on the grid was a big positive for a team which struggled through all of last year and has had a difficult start to this campaign. "We're not where we want to be. Let's enjoy the moment but let's not pretend it's anything that it isn't - mixing optimisim with realism is quite difficult to do in sport," he said. It will be interesting to see where Fernando pits tomorrow.

Apart from Fernando, significant points were the first pole for Kimi this season and the first time this year he has qualified ahead of Felipe. Once again Robert got in ahead of the McLarens and well ahead of his team-mate. The down to earth Pole is fast establishing himself as the de facto numero uno at BMW. But what of the McLarens? Lewis got in just ahead of Heikki but fifth and sixth on the grid is not where they want to be in a performance which seems to underline that the "silver arrows" are not on the pace just now. The "up and down" Williams team, meanwhile, had a "down" day with Kazuki 12th and Nico 15th.

As I write there is a typically hair-raising GP2 race entertaining the crowd...

Super Aguri get the green light

Super Aguri will race this weekend following an eleventh hour decision by Honda to come up with the cash to get them to the end of Sunday and then home again. This is believed to be in the region of $200,000(yes, Formula One is an expensive business).

The "crap photographer" is back with a picture exclusive

This blog's crap photographer is back with a sensational picture exclusive. Robert Kubica standing in front of his own image on the BMW team lorry especially for The Times Formula One weblog. Fantastic. And you can tell he really enjoyed it!

Seriously here are some pictures of the superb new livery on the BMW Sauber lorries which we are seeing for the first time this year at the first European race of the season. Last year the BMW trucks were pretty spectacular as this blog illustrated; this year they are even better.

Amongst them is a shot of the BMW truck with the team's new mission statement - "All for 1" -written on the side which you may or may not be able to read. Just in case you can't, here it is: "Formula One is more than just a sport. It is an attitude. A common will to reach the top. Thousands of miles of racetrack stretch before us. 18 Grand Prix wait for us to prove our will to win. And this is the goal we are bound to: boosting on our past successes and making 2008 the year of our first victory. This is the one challenge we dare to face. This is the one aim we follow. In every second. In every thought of every single member of our team."

Click on pics to enlarge. (A couple of people have noticed these pictures are entitled "animals". I apologise for this. They are on the same file as some pictures of animal sculptures which include a huge elephant made of wire which I can share with you if anyone is interested. It is not so much "an elephant in the room" as "an elephant in an English garden").

Gary asked about the "big white building" in the first picture. Yes, that is the BMW Sauber motorhome which is trucked all over Europe. An impressive, light and airy structure, it is one of the  best in the paddock. The food inside is excellent too.