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Enthusiast Groups => Motorsports => Formula One => Topic started by: fasteddy on September 22, 2007, 02:09:44 PM
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By Pablo Elizalde Friday, September 14th 2007, 09:36 GMT
Kimi Raikkonen dominated the opening practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix, finishing over half a second clear of his closest rival.
The Ferrari driver posted a best time of 1:47.339 after spending a long time in the pits before finally kicking off his work.
The Finn completed 16 laps and finished 0.542 seconds ahead of championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who led McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso, third fastest.
The session took place under clear skies and the weather is expected to remain dry during the weekend.
Raikkonen's promising start was in contrast with teammate Felipe Massa's poor session, the Brazilian failing to set a time.
Nick Heidfeld was fourth quickest, with Williams driver Nico Rosberg splitting the BMWs, finishing ahead of Robert Kubica.
Alex Wurz completed a strong start to Williams' weekend by finishing in seventh place, in front of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen. Jenson Button continued to show improved form from his Honda team by rounding up the top ten.
The session saw few incidents, with Massa's exit the highlight of the 90 minutes.
The Ferrari driver's day came to an end after just two laps after he went off at the Rivages corner. His Ferrari seemed to go just go straight off the track at the exit of Les Combes, the Brazilian's car nudging the tyre barriers head-on.
Massa ended at the bottom of the timesheets without a timed lap.
The Ferrari driver finished right behind Sakon Yamamoto, whose session also finished early when he stopped on track with some six minutes to go.
The Spyker driver wound up over a second behind teammate Adrian Sutil, who showed good pace with the B-spec car and finished in 19th position.
Drivers were allowed to practice starts at the end of the session to test the new track surface.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:47.339 16
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:47.881 + 0.542 19
3. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:47.994 + 0.655 17
4. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:48.052 + 0.713 20
5. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:48.372 + 1.033 18
6. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:48.605 + 1.266 20
7. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 1:48.920 + 1.581 20
8. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:48.994 + 1.655 19
9. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:49.138 + 1.799 22
10. Button Honda (B) 1:49.330 + 1.991 22
11. Fisichella Renault (B) 1:49.380 + 2.041 25
12. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:49.548 + 2.209 21
13. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:49.894 + 2.555 23
14. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:49.931 + 2.592 19
15. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:50.264 + 2.925 22
16. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:50.482 + 3.143 27
17. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:50.640 + 3.301 16
18. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:50.648 + 3.309 20
19. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:50.768 + 3.429 22
20. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:51.628 + 4.289 12
21. Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:52.379 + 5.040 21
22. Massa Ferrari (B) No time 2
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Alonso quickest in practice 2 - Belgium
By Pablo Elizalde Friday, September 14th 2007, 13:33 GMT
World champion Fernando Alonso moved to the top of times in second practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, in a session dominated by McLaren.
Alonso's best lap of 1:46.654 was the fastest of the day, and 0.111 seconds quicker than teammate Lewis Hamilton's.
Felipe Massa bounced back from a dismal first session to post the third quickest time, nearly three tenths behind Alonso. The Ferrari driver had completed just two laps in the morning after going off and crashing against the tyre barriers.
Teammate Kimi Raikkonen, fastest in the morning, had to settle for fourth position in the afternoon. The Finn, looking for his third consecutive win at Spa, was over half a second slower than Alonso after completing 26 laps.
Toyota driver Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher shone for the Japanese squad, finishing as fifth as sixth fastest, ahead of Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and Red Bull's Mark Webber.
The top ten was completed by Robert Kubica in the BMW-Sauber and Heikki Kovalainen in the second Renault.
Webber's teammate David Coulthard was one of few drivers who hit trouble during the session. The Scot pulled off at the Fagnes chicane with an apparent mechanical problem, but later managed to return to action once his car had been fixed.
Adrian Sutil crashed his Spyker after 24 laps, going off at the exit of the Les Combes corner. The car sustained some damage and the German was unable to continue in the session.
Toro Rosso's Tonio Liuzzi managed just nine laps in the afternoon, finishing over four seconds off the pace.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:46.654 29
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:46.765 + 0.111 29
3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:46.953 + 0.299 27
4. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:47.166 + 0.512 26
5. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:47.491 + 0.837 33
6. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) 1:47.946 + 1.292 34
7. Fisichella Renault (B) 1:48.086 + 1.432 30
8. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:48.271 + 1.617 29
9. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:48.279 + 1.625 37
10. Kovalainen Renault (B) 1:48.567 + 1.913 38
11. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:48.606 + 1.952 36
12. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:48.840 + 2.186 32
13. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:48.883 + 2.229 17
14. Button Honda (B) 1:48.919 + 2.265 29
15. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:49.364 + 2.710 31
16. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 1:49.393 + 2.739 28
17. Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:49.697 + 3.043 32
18. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:49.720 + 3.066 34
19. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:50.168 + 3.514 23
20. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) 1:50.399 + 3.745 24
21. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) 1:50.542 + 3.888 24
22. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:50.865 + 4.211 9
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Raikkonen leads all-Ferrari front row
By Matt Beer Saturday, September 15th 2007, 13:04 GMT
Kimi Raikkonen beat Felipe Massa to pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix, as Ferrari secured only their first row sweep of the season.
The McLarens took third and fourth, with Fernando Alonso ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Massa had escaped a scare in Q1 when a problem with the rear of his car meant he only left the Ferrari garage with four minutes of the session to spare. But he easily proceeded through to Q2 and then Q3, where he beat Raikkonen's provisional pole time on his final run.
Raikkonen then responded with a 1:45.994 lap, usurping Massa by 0.017 seconds.
Alonso lost his first Q3 flying lap to a spin at Rivage. But his next run took him to third, only 0.097 seconds slower than Raikkonen, with Hamilton a further four tenths of a second adrift on the outside of row two.
BMW's Robert Kubica was fifth fastest but will lose ten places having required an engine change before the session.
That will elevate Williams' Nico Rosberg to fifth, ahead of Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld.
Mark Webber took eighth, despite leaving the pitlane too late to complete a second flying lap in Q2. Fortunately for the Red Bull driver, his first run had been sufficient for eighth in the session.
The final two top ten spots went to Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Renault's Heikki Kovalainen.
Giancarlo Fisichella missed the top ten cut for the second time in a week, ending up 11th, ahead of Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard.
Jenson Button managed to get more speed out of the Honda than teammate Rubens Barrichello throughout practice, and the pattern continued into qualifying, as Button took 14th while Barrichello struggled to 18th.
Toro Rosso and Spyker had both set promising times in practice, but only Vitantonio Liuzzi managed to get through to Q2. He beat Williams' Alex Wurz to 15th, while teammate Sebastian Vettel was just 0.015 seconds away from reaching the second session but had to settle for 17th.
Adrian Sutil moved up to 12th in the closing moments of Q1, before being pushed back down to 20th as others improved. Teammate Sakon Yamamoto was at the bottom of the timesheets again, with the struggling Super Aguris of Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson taking 19th and 21st.
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Raikkonen takes third straight Spa win
By Matt Beer Sunday, September 16th 2007, 13:27 GMT
Kimi Raikkonen took his third consecutive victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, comfortably edging away from teammate Felipe Massa in a Ferrari one-two.
The McLarens were no match for the Ferraris and had to settle for third and fourth, with Fernando Alonso finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and narrowing the rookie's championship lead to just two points with three rounds remaining.
The result meant that, pending McLaren's decision to appeal their penalty, Ferrari are constructors' champions.
Massa had briefly challenged Raikkonen on the outside at the start, before settling into second place.
Just behind, the McLarens were also wheel to wheel into La Source. Alonso edged Hamilton onto the extended run-off area, but the Briton found excellent traction and accelerated back on track level with his teammate.
They then ran side by side into Eau Rouge, with Alonso holding on around the outside at the first part of the corner before claiming third as the track turned right.
Raikkonen proceeded to dominate the race, easily establishing a four second lead over Massa and maintaining it to the flag.
The McLarens ran longer stints, but simply lacked the pace to get on terms with the leaders, and fell 20 seconds adrift in the middle stint.
Hamilton went four laps further on his second fuel load in a bid to vault ahead of Alonso, but the Spaniard found more speed on his fresh tyres than his teammate could muster from his very light car, and Hamilton rejoined six seconds behind him.
He pushed hard to close the gap, even going off the road briefly at Pouhon, but had to settle for fourth.
The result means that Hamilton is now two points ahead of Alonso, with Raikkonen closing to within 13 points of the leader.
Nick Heidfeld lost ground running wide at La Source on the first lap, but jumped ahead of Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber in the first stops and then pulled away from them to secure fifth. Rosberg also edged away from Webber and finished sixth.
Renault's Heikki Kovalainen used a one-stop strategy to fend off the charging Robert Kubica for the final point. After his engine change penalty in qualifying, Kubica made good progress in the opening laps but lost time behind the one stopping cars in the middle stages.
The two-stopping Jarno Trulli again lost ground at the start and consequently spent the race in traffic. That meant he finished behind his one-stopping Toyota teammate Ralf Schumacher in 11th. Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi took 12th.
The star of the largely uneventful race was Spyker's Adrian Sutil, who used a relatively light fuel load to charge through the field to 12th in the opening laps. He ultimately finished 14th, right behind Honda's Rubens Barrichello.
Jenson Button retired the second Honda with hydraulic problems, the same failure that also eliminated Red Bull's David Coulthard.
Alex Wurz also dropped out after a messy race that saw him spin at the Bus Stop and then fall to last - behind Sakon Yamamoto - when he ran across the grass at Les Combes.
The race hardly even got going for Giancarlo Fisichella, who retired with a suspension problem on the opening lap.
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS
The Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium;
44 laps; 308.176km;
Weather: Sunny.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1h20:39.066
2. Massa Ferrari (B) + 4.695
3. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 14.343
4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 23.615
5. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 51.879
6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:16.876
7. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1:20.639
8. Kovalainen Renault (B) + 1:25.106
9. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 1:25.661
10. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) + 1:28.558
11. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1:43.633
12. Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
13. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1 lap
14. Sutil Spyker-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
15. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) + 1 lap
16. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) + 1 lap
17. Yamamoto Spyker-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
Fastest lap: Massa, 1:48.036
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Button Honda (B) 37
Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) 35
Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 30
Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 9
Fisichella Renault (B) 2
World Championship standings, round 14:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. Hamilton 97 1. Ferrari 161
2. Alonso 95 2. BMW Sauber 90
3. Raikkonen 84 3. Renault 39
4. Massa 77 4. Williams-Toyota 28
5. Heidfeld 56 5. Red Bull-Renault 18
6. Kubica 33 6. Toyota 12
7. Kovalainen 22 7. Super Aguri-Honda 4
8. Fisichella 17 8. Honda 2
9. Rosberg 15
10. Wurz 13
11. Webber 10
12. Coulthard 8
13. Trulli 7
14. R.Schumacher 5
15. Sato 4
16. Button 2
17. Vettel 1
All timing unofficial