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Massa and Kimi - what now?

Felipe Massa should have won the European Grand Prix after being robbed of victory by Fernando Alonso four laps from the end. - Yeah, yeah - I know what you're saying - "then he should have driven faster" - but it's still pretty disappointing.

I'm also very upset with Ferrari's continued problem of failing to maximise on points when the team has the obvious performance advantage over McLaren - the main reason why the Maranello-based outfit trails its British counterparts by 27 points in the constructors' championship.

I'll describe this European Grand Prix nothing other than disappointing. Ferrari had a very competitive car and they were starting from first and third places. But they are going home with just eight points thanks to Felipe's second place.

At the end of a race run in changeable weather, - dry, wet, dry again and more rain at the end - Felipe saw himself miss out on a win which he richly deserved, losing out in the very last moments when the track was wet once again. Unfortunately, he said he had vibrations with his rain tires which made the car difficult to drive.

I'm also very disappointed for Kimi, stopped on lap thirty five by a problem with the hydraulic system. WTF?! Once again it shows that you do not go far without reliability. There is still a long way to go in this season and anything could yet happen in the seven remaining races.

This was a race in which Ferrari were capable of picking up maximum points. There is much to regret because if they do not make up ground in the classification while they are as competitive as they were in Nurgurg, then the situation gets more complicated.

Toro Rosso to dump its drivers

It's not a secret anymore: Scuderia Toro Rosso would rather get rid of its drivers sooner than later. Earlier this week Scott Speed already admitted that his bosses weren't too happy with him and team-mate Liuzzi, but today team boss Franz Tost has said he would like to get rid of his drivers.

Earlier this week Scott Speed complained that he didn't feel any support from his team boss. He was quoted as saying: "It's been that way for the last two years, and it's a lot more now. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read the press and know that Franz and Gerhard are pushing like hell to get rid of me and Tonio."

Some reports said Speed was assaulted by Franz Tost after the race as Tost would have grabbed Speed by his shoulder to stop him from walking away. But the Scuderia Toro Rosso team boss said it was nothing like that. He told Swiss newspaper Blick: "When Speed returned from his incident on Sunday I asked him why he flew off the track. He just smiled at me and asked 'Why did my pitstop have to take that long?' and walked away immediately. At that point I grabbed his shoulder and told him that this is not the way to discuss these matters."

Tost doesn't believe there is a war going on in his team but he is pretty unhappy with the way his drivers are performing at the moment. He said: "I'd rather have none of my current drivers in our car at the moment."

Alonso wins at the Nürburgring 2007

Lewis Hamilton's championship lead was slashed as he failed to score points in a dramatic European Grand Prix won by his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard took the lead from Felipe Massa's Ferrari with five laps left in a race defined by rain showers.

Hamilton finished ninth and is now just two points ahead of the world champion, with Massa a further nine behind.

Mark Webber's Red Bull was third as Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen retired, dealing his title hopes a heavy blow.

The Finn was in third place at Germany's Nürburgring behind Massa and Alonso when his engine started to cut out shortly after half distance and he was forced to retire.

Raikkonen remains 18 points behind Hamilton with a maximum of only 70 still available in the remaining seven races.

Hamilton's hopes of scoring points were dashed in a torrential early shower of rain.

After starting 10th following his crash in qualifying, he was up to fourth after the first few corners.

But it was pouring down by the time the cars were halfway around the first lap.

Debutant Markus Winkelhock in the Spyker, who had started from the pit lane on wet-weather tires, assumed the lead as everyone else pulled into the pits to change tires.

But the rain was soon so hard that cars were spinning off all over the place and the race was stopped after four laps.

Hamilton was among six drivers - including Honda's Jenson Button - to go off at the first corner, where the track was under water, but he kept his engine running and was able to rejoin the race at the back of the field.

The re-start took place under blue skies on a still-damp track, and Massa and Alonso wasted no time in passing Winkelhock.

But Hamilton gambled on using dry-weather tires at the re-start, and initially it did not pay off - he ran off the track and into the gravel on the first racing lap.

He managed to rejoin, though, and was soon setting fastest laps as he attempted to make up lost ground, prompting the other leading runners to come in to the pits to follow his lead in fitting dry tires.

Hamilton drove flat out for the rest of the afternoon and had hauled himself up into eighth place when a late shower of rain hit with  nine laps to go.

While the other drivers immediately pitted to change tires, Hamilton stayed out on his dry-weather tires, hoping to benefit from the others' stops.

But his second gamble of the afternoon also failed to pay off - the rain continued and Hamilton was forced to stop with five laps to go, dropping him to 10th.

He gained one place before the end at the expense of Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella.

The battle at the front was equally eventful.

Once the race had settled down after the re-start, Massa led from Alonso and Raikkonen, and the Brazilian slowly began to build an advantage over the McLaren driver.

Massa and Alonso made what they thought would be their final pit stops shortly after Raikkonen's retirement, on laps 37 and 38, and soon the world champion began to make in-roads into the Ferrari's seven-second lead.

Alonso had cut Massa's lead to four seconds when the weather played into his hands.

Much faster than Massa in the slippery conditions, he quickly caught the Ferrari.

The Brazilian earned the world champion's wrath with some robust defensive driving - although Alonso later apologised for saying Massa had driven into him deliberately - but the Spaniard finally took the lead with a brave move around the outside of turn five.

"I enjoy this kind of race, it was incredible," Alonso said during the interview on SPEED.

"In dry conditions the Ferraris were quicker than us. The rain at the end helped, our car seems to be quicker in the wet. Always when it rains I am quite happy and I have some fun."

Webber drove a strong race to reward Red Bull with their first podium finish in a difficult season plagued by poor reliability.

The Australian had to fight off a late challenge from Williams driver Alexander Wurz, who used all his experience and guile to take advantage of the chaotic conditions - just as he did in Canada last month - and finish fourth.

Heikki Kovalainen looked set to finish fifth after the latest in a series of impressive races, but he and Renault gambled on stopping early for wet tires with 10 laps to go.

That dropped the Renault driver to eighth and promoted Webber's team-mate David Coulthard to fifth.

The BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica were sixth and seventh.

 

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European Grand Prix result after 60-lap race:

1.  Fernando Alonso (Spa)      McLaren-Mercedes  two hours six minutes 26.358 seconds
2.  Felipe Massa (Brz)        Ferrari   8.155 seconds behind
3.  Mark Webber (Aus)      Red Bull-Renault  at 1:05.674
4.  Alexander Wurz (Aut)     Williams-Toyota  1:05.937
5.  David Coulthard (GB)    Red Bull-Renault    1:13.656
6.  Nick Heidfeld (Ger)      BMW Sauber           1:20.298
7.  Robert Kubica (Pol)       BMW Sauber           01:22.415
8.  Heikki Kovalainen (Fin)  Renault              1 lap behind
9.  Lewis Hamilton (GB)     McLaren              1 lap
10. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault              1 lap
11. Rubens Barrichello (Brz)  Honda                1 lap
12. Anthony Davidson (GB)   Super Aguri-Honda  1 lap
13. Jarno Trulli (Ita)         Toyota               1 lap
R Kimi Raikkonen (Fin)     Ferrari              34 laps completed
R  Takuma Sato (Jpn)          Super Aguri-Honda  19 laps completed
R  Ralf Schumacher (Ger)    Toyota               18 laps
R  Markus Winkelhock (Ger)  Spyker-Ferrari     13 laps
R  Jenson Button (GB)      Honda                two laps
R  Adrian Sutil (Ger)       Spyker-Ferrari    two laps
R Nico Rosberg (Ger)       Williams-Toyota    two laps
R  Scott Speed (US)           Toro Rosso-Ferrari two laps
R  Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita)    Toro Rosso-Ferrari two laps

R = retired

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:32.853, lap 34

Even Matched Practice One in Germany

McLaren and Ferrari duked it out at the Nurburgring as practice for the European Grand Prix got underway this morning, with BMW Sauber right in there with them.

So far it appears all three teams are evenly matched, with Hamilton setting the pace on 1m 32.515s chased by Kimi (1m 32.751s), Alonso (1m 32.932s) and Heidfeld (1m 32.975s).

Not far behind of course, Robert Kubica (1m 33.205s) and Felipe Massa (1m 33.605s), were fifth and sixth , with Ralf Schumacher (1m 33.825s), Jenson Button (1m 33.936s), David Coulthard (1m 34.062s) and Rubens Barrichello (1m 34.142s) flying the respective flags for Toyota, Honda and Red Bull.

The Nurburgring is quite a high-grip circuit, but there were nevertheless a fair number of off-track excursions as drivers pushed too hard. Massa erred in Turns Three and Four, Winkelhock in Turn Four, Speed in Turn Three, Fisichella in Turn Six, and Schumacher in Turn 10. None sustained anything more than temporary embarrassment.

German Markus Winklehock was confirmed as Spyker's reserve driver, and made his Formula One race debut with the team this weekend’s European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

Winkelhock temporarily steps into the seat left vacant by Christijan Albers, who parted company with Spyker last week after contractual difficulties. The team have yet to confirm who will partner their other race driver, Adrian Sutil, for the rest of the season.

Winkelhock, 27 and from Stuttgart, is the son of the late Formula One and sports car racer Manfred Winkelhock. He made four Friday practice appearances for Spyker (then Midland) last year and was named an official test driver ahead of the 2007 season. This year he has also continued to compete in the DTM touring car series in Germany.

Kimi's Germany

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen hopes he can make it three in a row on Sunday. The Finn doesn't have a strong record at the Nürburgring though. In 2005 he was close to winning the race but in the final lap his tire exploded.

I don't know what it is about Germany - Kimi has never had any luck there during his entire Formula One career. He's always been competitive at the Nürburgring and at Hockenheim, but something always happened to stop him from winning. Let's hope that he can turn around things here in his first time with Ferrari.

Raikkonen is currently third in the Formula 1 championship standings with 52 points.

Honda keep Button & Barrichello

Britain's Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello have been confirmed as Honda's drivers for next year's Formula One campaign.

It means that 2008 will be Button's sixth year with the team while Barrichello will be entering his third season, having joined in 2006.

These guys just haven't had the performance to be competitive this year. But what they do have is a very solid team of people which has been boosted recently by some key new appointments.

Every team has good times and bad, and I think that their recent difficulties are behind them and that next year looks promising.

Button has only picked up one point this season, while his team-mate has yet to get his name on the drivers' standings.

Let's see how they do in the remaining eight races.

Got to Love Racing

Is Hamilton Human Afterall?

It looks as if the British Grand Prix opened up the first tiny cracks in the phenomenon that is Superboy Lewis Hamilton.

At his first pit stop at Silverstone on Sunday, the 22-year-old who monopolized the coverage of the weekend made what appeared to be his first mistake under pressure.

Hamilton must have known as he came into the pits that the race was not going to plan.

Despite running less fuel, the Englishman had failed to shake off Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso before his first pit stop.

With a lighter car, he should have been able to open up a gap, but they had both stuck resolutely to his tail. Hamilton had been holding them up, and he knew they were out on the track proving it.

Desperate to rejoin the race as soon as possible, he misinterpreted the movements of his pit crew and started to accelerate away while the fuel hose was still attached.

Hamilton being Hamilton, he reacted quickly enough to stop the car before doing any damage, but not before a point had been made.

Clearly the guy is human, after all.

It says a lot about the impression Hamilton has made this year that there should be any surprise about a rookie making that sort of mistake. But Hamilton, it has become abundantly clear, is no ordinary rookie.

The telling thing about this incident was not just that it was the first obvious error Hamilton has made in a race all year, but that it came in his least competitive showing since the Malaysian Grand Prix in March.

Although his stunning pole position lap hid the problem, Hamilton struggled throughout the Silverstone weekend - and more obviously than he has done at any race this year.

He was not happy with his car, and he was not a match for Alonso through the demanding, high-speed corners of Copse and Becketts, which - as Whitmarsh pointed out - are a pride thing for racing drivers.

McLaren summoned by FIA

McLaren have been summoned by Formula One's governing body, the FIA, to face charges of breaking the sport's rules.

The team are embroiled in a spying row following claims their chief designer Mike Coughlan illegally received information from rivals Ferrari.

McLaren face charges at a 26 July hearing of "unauthorised possession of documents and confidential information belonging to Ferrari".

Coughlan has already agreed to tell Ferrari how he got hold of the data.

Following an internal investigation, the FIA has called McLaren to answer charges of breaching Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

That rule states something like ..."any fraudulent conduct, or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition, or to the interests of motor sport generally"...

In a statement the FIA said the information "could be used to design, engineer, build, check, test, develop and/or run a 2007 Ferrari Formula One car."

Coughlan was suspended last week by McLaren after a 780-page dossier of Ferrari design information was found in his house.

Ferrari have accused Coughlan and his wife Trudy of stealing that information.

A hearing at the High Court on Wednesday was cancelled when Coughlan agreed to provide an affidavit to explain how he acquired the documents.

McLaren team boss, Ron Dennis, has maintained the team's innocence throughout and is confident the FIA will clear them of any wrongdoing.

Dennis said: "I can categorically state there are no developments whatsoever that have occurred on our cars relating to this."

Will this cause McLaren any embarrassment? What do you think?

If McLaren are found guilty the FIA has the power to expel the team from the championship or deduct points.

McLaren's British rookie Lewis Hamilton leads team-mate Fernando Alonso by 12 points in the drivers' standings, while McLaren have a 25-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors' race.

Heidfeld sits out Spa test

Nick Heidfeld has decided to miss BMW Sauber's test at Spa due to a recurring back pain. The German driver first complained of the problem on the Friday of the French Grand Prix and sat out practice as a consequence.

However, he recovered well enough to participate with the rest of the weekend and was also able to contest the British Grand Prix last weekend, finishing fifth on race day. It is believed the decision to not test is just a precaution and after two grands prix on consecutive weekends it is probably the best time to rest. The team's other race driver Robert Kubica will be testing today instead.