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Hamilton, Massa, and The Belgian Grand Prix: Bizarre Business at Spa

With Complete Championship Standings

Felipe Massa

Lewis Hamilton set the pace this past weekend at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and seemed destined to walk away with the Belgian Grand Prix win. It was not to be though.

The real strangeness happened after the race was over. Race stewards watched the replay over and over again, trying to determine if Hamilton gained an unfair advantage when he tried to overtake Kimi Räikkönen even though he didn’t have the line. It turns out he did, he apparently took a short cut inside the corner while off the track (aka “straightlined the chicane”). The stewards gave him a 25 second penalty for that, which moved Massa up to the top spot and put Hamilton behind Heidfeld, but still ahead of Alonso. I always hate when any type of competition comes down to a technical decision.

Either way, this race will go down in the books as a win for Ferrari with a small asterisk and footnote next to the record. The result was enough to ensure Ferrari kept their lead in the constructor’s championship and Massa has pulled within two points of Hamilton in the driver’s title.

Hamilton, before the decision - ugh, awkward “can we have that bottle of champagne back plz?”

Belgian Grand Prix race results

1	MASSA	Ferrari	1h22m59.394s
2	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	+ 9.3s
3	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 10.5s
4	ALONSO	Renault	+ 14.4s
5	VETTEL	STR-Ferrari	+ 14.5s
6	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	+ 15.0s
7	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	+ 16.7s
8	WEBBER	Red Bull-Renault	+ 42.7s
9	GLOCK	Toyota	+ 67.0s
10	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 1 lap, transmission
11	COULTHARD	Red Bull-Renault	+ 1 lap
12	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	+ 1 lap
13	SUTIL	Force India-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
14	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	+ 1 lap
15	BUTTON	Honda	+ 1 lap
16	TRULLI	Toyota	+ 1 lap
17	FISICHELLA	Force India-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
18	RÄIKKÖNEN	Honda	+ 2 laps, accident
19	BARRICHELLO	Honda	+ 26 laps, gearbox
20	PIQUET	Renault	+ 32 laps, accident
Fastest Lap	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	1m47.930s

NOTE: Hamilton was initially classified first, but had 25 seconds added to his race time for gaining an advantage through cutting the final chicane. Glock was initially classified eighth, but had 25 seconds added to his race time for passing under yellow flags.

Driver’s Championship Standings so far

1	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	76 Points
2	MASSA	Ferrari	74 Points
3	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	58 Points
4	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	57 Points
5	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	49 Points
6	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	43 Points
7	TRULLI	Toyota	26 Points
8	ALONSO	Renault	23 Points
9	WEBBER	Red Bull-Renault	19 Points
10	GLOCK	Toyota	15 Points
11	PIQUET	Renault	13 Points
12	VETTEL	STR-Ferrari	13 Points
13	BARRICHELLO	Honda	11 Points
14	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	9 Points
15	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	8 Points
16	COULTHARD	Red Bull-Renault	6 Points
17	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferraro	4 Points
18	BUTTON	Honda	3 Points

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	FERRARI	131 Points
2	MCLAREN-MERCEDES	119 Points
3	BMW SAUBER	107 Points
4	TOYOTA	41 Points
5	RENAULT	36 Points
6	RED BULL-RENAULT	25 Points
7	WILLIAMS-TOYOTA	17 Points
8	STR-FERRARI	17 Points
9	HONDA	14 Points

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

Ferrari may supply engines for Honda's ex-F1 team

Filed under: Motorsports, Honda, Ferrari

Ross Brawn, who joined the Honda F1 team as Technical Director in 2007 after an extremely successful stint across the paddock at Ferrari, has said that the now-ownerless ex-Honda F1 team he manages would like to ink a deal with its Italian competitor for engines to power its Formula 1 racers. Now that Honda has officially pulled its factory support from the program, the team will need a good, reliable powerplant if it has any chance remaining competitive, and Ferrari already supplies engines to Scuderia Toro Rosso and Force India in addition to its own Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro factory effort.

Regardless of what powerplant Brawn's team chooses, it isn't likely to get an early shot at testing. At this point, the team is just looking to stay on the track as it attempts to find itself a new buyer and any success found on the track for the '09 season would just be icing on the cake. Thanks for the tip, Eric!

[Source: F1 Fanatic - Photo: Tim Wang CC 2.0]

Ferrari may supply engines for Honda's ex-F1 team originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mercedes-Benz Unveils AMG Safety Cars for 2008 Formula 1 Season

amg safety car
At the recent 2008 Geneva Auto Show, Mercedes unveiled the 2 AMG models to be used as safety cars for the upcoming F1 season. This is the 8th generation of safety car since 1996 when AMG started being the official F1 supplier.

Two different cars are used, each with a distinct purpose. One is usually a coupe that sits (idling the whole time, with driver Bernd Maylander inside in full race gear, air conditioning blasting) on the side of the race track waiting to storm out anytime there is a yellow flag and all the race cars have to be speed-limited and coast around behind it for a couple of laps. The other car is a station wagon that drives behind the cars for lap 1, and comes out like an ambulance when there is a severe crash.

This year, instead of a traditional coupe, the safety car is based on a convertible - an AMG SL63 replaces the CLK 63 used in 2006-07. This SL is a good 480 lbs lighter, thanks to a fixed roof and generous helpings of carbon fiber. Other significant upgrades include big carbon ceramic brakes, better cooling, a roll bar, racing seats, four-point harnesses, as well as redesigned front and rear fascias.

The medical car is a C63 AMG Estate, kitted with a bunch of sophisticated emergency safety equipment. It is always occupied by the same driver, and co-driver (both physicians) for every race. There are 2 additional medical personnel that ride in the back.

Both cars feature the venerable 6.2L AMG V8 - the SL coupe with 525 horsepower, and
the wagon with 457 hp. Both cars also feature dash mounted tv screens, so occupants can watch the race closely (without commercials) while parked trackside.

Another exciting season of Formula 1 kicks off in Australia next weekend.