Singapore Grand Prix: Qualifying Results

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Final Classification
Pos/Driver	Team	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Q3 Time
1. Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:44.519	1:44.014	1:44.801
2. Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:44.501	1:44.932	1:45.465
3. Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:44.282	1:44.232	1:45.617
4. Robert Kubica	BMW-Sauber	1:44.740	1:44.519	1:45.779
5. Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:44.311	1:44.207	1:45.873
6. Nick Heidfeld	BMW-Sauber	1:45.548	1:44.520	1:45.964
7. Sebastien Vettel	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:45.042	1:44.261	1:46.244
8. Timo Glock	Toyota	1:45.184	1:44.441	1:46.328
9. Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:45.103	1:44.429	1:46.611
10. Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:45.127	1:44.826	1:47.547
Eliminated After Q2
11. Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:45.642	1:45.038
12. Jenson Button	Honda	1:45.660	1:45.133
13. Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:45.493	1:45.212
14. David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:46.028	1:45.298
15. Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:44.971	No Time
Eliminated After Q1
16. Nelson Piquet Jnr.	Renault	1:46.037
17. Sebastian Bourdais	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:46.389
18. Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:46.583
19. Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	1:47.940
20. Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	No Time

Chandhok Turns Down F1 Test Deal

Vijay Mallya

Shortly after Force India owner Vijay Mallya suggested he would keep his current driver lineup of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, whilst offering Karun Chandhok a test driver role for 2009.

But this is not enough for the Indian racer. He wants a race seat, but not in 2010 – he wants it next season.

“If there is an option to race with Force India, then that would be great.

“But these days the testing rules in F1 mean that you get very limited driving as a test driver for any team, perhaps 5-6 days maximum in a whole year, which means that you spend a lot of time just watching other people driving around and getting rusty yourself.

“It’s nice to hear that he would like me to be involved in the team and from a patriotic and emotional angle, that’s great. But at the end of the day, races and careers have to be tackled using head and not heart.”

Should Chandhok not achieve his dream seat, he says he wants to test for a top team, and claims he is in talks with some of the sport’s biggest names.

“I would love to test with a top team and I am in discussion with some of the teams further up the field, apart from Force India.

“I think I’m ready for F1 in 2009 and given the right opportunity I think I can do a good job,” said the youngster.”

At this stage in his career, Chandhok reckons he might have to blend test driver’s role and GP2 for another season before hitting the F1 track.

Neal’s View: Although he has enough self-belief, he needs results on track, and one win in a GP2 season is not enough to suggest he is ready for promotion to Formula One racer.

Force India Reveal Clues on 2009 Lineup

Force India

When he took over the team last year, Vijay Mallya revealed he wanted an Indian driver for his squad in 2009. Sadly, for Indian motorsports fans, this dream will not be achieved until 2010 at the earliest. Mallya considers India’s top driver, Narain Kartikeyan, as simply not good enough, and their top prospect, Karun Chandhok, as not ready yet.

The squad are likely to retain current drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil for 2009, with Chandhok stepping up to test for the team.

“I would love to give Karun a go as a test driver first.

“The race seat I think he is a year away from. I need to see him winning GP2 consistently, not an odd one here and there.

“He has it in him to do it and when he does it, sure I would love to have an Indian driver in the car if I could. But at the end of the day, on the one hand I cannot be encouraging the team’s performance and then doing something that might compromise the result.”

Chandhok has won just one race in a close GP2 season, and lies 10th in the standings as the championship heads to it’s final round of the season.

Although neither of the current drivers has been confirmed for 2009, Adrian Sutil is known to have a long-term contract, whilst Mallya revealed his squad needs the Italian’s experience:

“This team desperately needs the experience of Giancarlo, has needed it, and as we design a brand new car for 2009, needs it even more,” he said.

“This team has never had the benefit in the last three or four years of an experienced driver.

“I breed and race horses, and what the jockey tells you, nobody else can. You can have the best trainer in the world, but you need a jockey to tell you how good or bad the horse is.

“Similarly, I firmly believe driver feedback on a car is invaluable and that is where Giancarlo is performing a very valuable role for us.”

Neal’s View: It’s hard to say how well the current pairing have performed, since they have had to drive the worst car on the grid, but Giancarlo and Adrian must have impressed the only man that matters, the boss!

Belgian Grand Prix: Predictions

Formula One Blog likes to test it’s knowledge by predicting the outcomes of qualifying and races, so here are our thoughts on today’s race. Unfortunately, time is limited so we will only cover the points positions.

1st: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes)

2nd Felipe Massa (Ferrari)

3rd Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

4th Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes)

5th Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault)

6th Fernando Alonso (Renault)

7th Sebastian Vettel (STR-Ferrari)

8th Sebastian Bourdais (STR-Ferrari)

Check back later to see how close we were.

New Poll: Who will win the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix?

Pole-sitter: Lewis Hamilton

Following a thrilling qualifying session that saw a fantastic lap from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, and both STRs in the top 10, Formula One Blog has issued a new poll.

Click on the link in the top right corner of the page to vote on who you think will win tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix!

Qualifying Predictions: How close were we?

As some of you may have seen, we at Formula One Blog earlier put our neck on the block and tried to predict the results from today’s qualifying. Our predictions can be seen here.

So how did we do?

We got the front row correct, albeit in the wrong order as Lewis Hamilton beat Felipe Massa for pole.

Our prediction of the second row was spot on, with Heikki Kovalainen outqualifying Kimi Raikkonen.

The third row saw Nick Heidfeld qualify 5th (we thought it would be Jarno Trulli), but we were correct in Fernando Alonso qualifying 6th.

We also got the fourth row correct, unfortunately in the wrong order, as Mark Webber took 7th, and Robert Kubica grabbed 8th.

The fifth row was a surprise STR-Ferrari lockout, as Sebastian Bourdais (9th) outqualified his teammate Sebastian Vettel (10th). We thought it would be Nick Heidfeld in 9th and Timo Glock in 10th.

We thought that Jenson Button (Honda), Nelson Piquet Jnr. (Renault), David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault), Sebastian Vettel (STR-Ferrari), and Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) would drop out in second qualifying period, however we were only correct with Piquet, Coulthard, and Rosberg. Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, also, did not make the top-ten shootout.

Finally, we thought the first to go would be Adrian Sutil (Force India), Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India), Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota), Sebastian Bourdais (STR-Ferrari), Rubens Barrichello (Honda). Swap the surprising Bourdais for Jenson Button, and we would have been spot-on.

Neal’s View: All in all, we predicted the grid quite accurately. Qualifying was not what you could call wet, so surprises should have been few and far between. Did anyone predict Sebastian Bourdais getting into the final session?

Spa Qualifying: Times

Final Classification
Pos/Driver	Team	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Q3 Time
1. Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:46.887	1:46.088	1:47.338
2. Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:46.873	1:46.391	1:47.678
3. Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:46.812	1:46.037	1:47.815
4. Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:46.960	1:46.298	1:47.992
5. Nick Heidfeld	BMW-Sauber	1:47.419	1:46.311	1:48.315
6. Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:47.154	1:46.491	1:48.504
7. Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:47.270	1:46.814	1:48.736
8. Robert Kubica	BMW-Sauber	1:47.093	1:46.494	1:48.763
9. Sebastian Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	1:46.777	1:46.544	1:48.951
10. Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	1:47.152	1:46.804	1:50.319
Eliminated after Q2
11. Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:47.400	1:46.949
12. Nelson Piquet Jnr.	Renault	1:47.052	1:46.965
13. Timo Glock	Toyota	1:47.359	1:46.995
14. David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:47.132	1:47.018
15. Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:47.503	1:47.429
Eliminated after Q1
16. Rubens Barrichello (BRA)	Honda	1:48.153
17. Jenson Button (GBR)	Honda	1:48.211
18. Adrian Sutil (GER)	Force India	1:48.226
19. Kazuki Nakajima (JAP)	Williams-Toyota	1:48.268
20. Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA)	Force India	1:48.447

Spa Free Practice 3: Times

1. Nick Heidfeld (GER)	BMW-Sauber	1:47.876
2. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)	McLaren-Mercedes	1:48.165
3. Fernando Alonso (ESP)	Renault	1:48.307
4. Lewis Hamilton (GBR)	McLaren-Mercedes	1:48.356
5. Felipe Massa (BRA)	Ferrari	1:48.692
6. Sebastian Vettel (GER)	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:48.768
7. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)	Ferrari	1:48.815
8. Nico Rosberg (GER)	Williams-Toyota	1:48.836
9. Nelson Piquet Jnr. (BRA)	Renault	1:48.946
10. Mark Webber (AUS)	Red Bull-Renault	1:49.054
11. Jarno Trulli (ITA)	Toyota	1:49.057
12. David Coulthard (GBR)	Red Bull-Renault	1:49.125
13. Robert Kubica (POL)	BMW-Sauber	1:49.250
14. Sebastian Bourdais (FRA)	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:49.256
15. Timo Glock (GER)	Toyota	1:49.535
16. Kazuki Nakajima (JAP)	Williams-Toyota	1:49.830
17. Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA)	Force India	1:49.949
18. Adrian Sutil (GER)	Force India	1:50.034
19. Rubens Barrichello (BRA)	Honda	1:50.061
20. Jenson Button (GBR)	Honda	No time

Belgian Grand Prix: Qualifying Predictions

Formula One Blog is not scared to it’s neck on the line and predict the eventual grid for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix. Here’s what we came up with:

Pole: Felipe Massa (Ferrari)

2nd Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes)

3rd Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes)

4th Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

5th Jarno Trulli (Toyota)

6th Fernando Alonso (Renault)

7th Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber)

8th Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault)

9th Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber)

10th Timo Glock (Toyota)

Drop out during Q2:

Jenson Button (Honda), Nelson Piquet Jnr. (Renault), David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault), Sebastian Vettel (STR-Ferrari), Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota)

Drop out during Q1:

Adrian Sutil (Force India), Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India), Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota), Sebastian Bourdais (STR-Ferrari), Rubens Barrichello (Honda).

Neal’s View: This is my prediction based on the strength of those involved. However, rain at Spa often throws up many surprises, and, should qualifying be in the rain, expect more of the same.

Spa Free Practice 2: Times

1. Fernando Alonso (ESP)	Renault	1:48.454
2. Felipe Massa (BRA)	Ferrari	1:48.504
3. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)	McLaren-Mercedes	1:48.740
4. Lewis Hamilton (GBR)	McLaren-Mercedes	1:48.805
5. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)	Ferrari	1:49.328
6. Nico Rosberg (GER)	Williams-Toyota	1:49.405
7. Sebastian Vettel (GER)	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:49.427
8. Adrian Sutil (GER)	Force India-Ferrari	1:49.585
9. Jarno Trulli (ITA)	Toyota	1:49.715
10. Nick Heidfeld (GER)	BMW-Sauber	1:49.725
11. Robert Kubica (POL)	BMW-Sauber	1:49.875
12. David Coulthard (GBR)	Red Bull-Renault	1:49.922
13. Sebastian Bourdais (FRA)	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:49.948
14. Timo Glock (GER)	Toyota	1:50.281
15. Kazuki Nakajima (JAP)	Williams-Toyota	1:50.364
16. Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA)	Force India-Ferrari	1:50.740
17. Jenson Button (GBR)	Honda	1:50.925
18. Rubens Barrichello (BRA)	Honda	1:51.238
19. Nelson Piquet Jnr. (BRA)	Renault	1:51.334
20. Mark Webber (AUS)	Red Bull-Renault	1:51.640