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

Williams Focusing on 2009’s FW31

One of the first Frank Williams F1 cars, the FW06

Williams-Toyota part-owner Frank Williams says his team will focus the majority of their efforts on their 2009 car after another disappointing performance at the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend.

The Grove-based team were tipped as one of the favourites to fight behind the top squads during pre-season testing, and they lived up to that when Nico Rosberg finished on the podium in the opening race in Australia.

Williams’s performances, however, have become worse as the season progressed, as non-privateer teams progress more rapidly than independents like Williams, and the team have scored just two points in the last seven races. They are currently tied with Toro Rosso-Ferrari in seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Williams said during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend that his team are not planning any more significant developments for the last five races of the 2008 calendar, and instead will focus on 2009.

“We recognise that we are right at the back of the grid effectively, too often though not every time. We recognise that this year’s car is almost as developed as we can successfully do it, short of a major revamp of all the aerodynamics and next year’s car [with the drastic rule changes for 2009] is the one where we pin our hopes.

“We’re not saying ‘watch out for our next race’ because it isn’t going to be like that. We just have to soldier on and get more out of what we’ve got.

“There are one or two little bits for the remaining races but essentially our main focus is on next year’s car because it is almost a fresh start for everybody with the aero rules. We started on that quite a long time ago and we will see how it works for us.”

Several new rules will come into play next season in order to improve the spectacle by reducing speeds and increasing overtaking, in a revamp that could see any team make a significant jump in performance.

Williams is confident his team will do a good job with the KERS system to be introduced next season, although he believes that building it themselves will not mean they will have an advantage over their rivals.

“It is not as though it will give us a particular advantage. We think, as most manufacturers, we will do a good job with KERS. Patrick [Head] has his own group in the company and we have been working on it for a number of months. It is much more affordable if you do it yourself providing you are successful with it.

“We are doing it because we have to do it. I imagine most people will come out with roughly similar horsepower.”

Neal’s View: The sweeping rule changes for 2009 meant that many teams switched focus to 2009 once they realised they were not going to be competitive in 2008. The 2009 cars will see an end to the evolutionary development (because of the rule changes) and any car could be winning races next season. Although the top three should still be at the front, there is no reason why Honda, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull, and even Williams cannot close the gap.

Video:Webber/Vettel on the Streets of Singapore

Fans wanting to see what to expect at the inaugral night race in Singapore can look at many computer-generated videos on the internet. However, I am told (because I cannot view these for myself just yet) that these are the most impressive!

To see Webber (English commentary) click here

For the more adventurous, Vettel’s German version is here.

STR Extend Ferrari Engine Deal

STR3: Ferrari Powered

Italian Scuderia Toro Rosso’s team chief announced that the Faenza-based team will continue to use Ferrari’s customer engines. With the team’s STR3 chassis performing so well at present, and the senior Red Bull team comparatively struggling with their inferior Renault power, despite using a nearly identical car, it had been rumoured that Renault-powered Red Bull Racing might attempt to take over STR’s Ferrari contract. Ferrari handed the engine deal to STR at the start of 2007 in order to take the Renault deal.

Japanese driver Takuma Sato’s forthcoming test, meanwhile, stirred speculation that Toro Rosso might be considering using Honda engines.

In a statement, Franz Tost confirmed that Ferrari’s 2.4 litre V8 is the main reason behind the team’s strong showings of late.

“We are very happy with our arrangement with Maranello, which indeed is why we have recently extended our supply agreement with them.”

Tost also said the team is happy with its current driver lineup, including Sebastien Bourdais, whose future on the grid is in doubt, despite a strong showing in the Belgian Grand Prix.

“We are happy with both  of them.”

“As for Bourdais, after a difficult period, he too has stepped up a gear in the past few weeks, as could be seen from the fact that, until the very last lap in Belgium, he had out-performed his teammate.”

Neal’s View: Ferrari push the limitations of the regulations to the absolute limit, so the Ferrari engine will always be strong.

Belgian Grand Prix: Glock loses hard-fought point

Toyota's Timo Glock

It has been announced that Timo Glock has been given a 25-second penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag in today’s Belgian Grand Prix. The German passed Red Bull-Renault driver Mark Webber in the dying stages of the race when yellow flags were being waved at the scene of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen accident.

The time penalty drops Glock out of the points to 9th and sees Webber promoted to the last points-paying position.

Neal’s View: The rules are there for a reason. There can be no complaint here.

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

Vettel To Test RB4 At Jerez

Vettel in Brazil, 2007

STR’s Sebastian Vettel is to get his first taste of the Red Bull-Renault RB4 since being confirmed as their 2009 driver when he tests for the team at Jerez in Spain later this month.

The German already has experience of the car, having been drafted in for a test at Barcelona in February when he stood in for the injured David Coulthard.

However, he will be given a two day run at Jerez on September 17 and 18 to get acclimatised to his new team and the Renault engine that he will use in 2009 before returning to Toro Rosso for the remainder of the season.

Vettel’s future teammate Mark Webber says he is excited about the arrival of the German, who has received a lot of interest since his strong performance in Valencia.

“You talk about short memories in F1.

“He (Vettel) had how many first lap shunts at the start of the season. Two or three good races and here we are. That is the reality of it.

“It is good, really good, and he is a very experienced youngster. There are not many of them around. Red Bull finally have the fruits of their (young driver) programme, which is great for Red Bull Racing.”

When asked if he was observing Vettel’s performances closer now that he was going to be his future teammate, Webber said:

“Not really. He will test the car in Jerez so it will be interesting to see how he goes there driving the same car, engine and electronics, that sort of stuff.

“But it [the real comparisons] will start in February next year. Next year is so different and I am concentrating on myself, we have enough things to do and I am trying to get as many points as I can before the end of the year.”

Neal’s View: Red Bull have secured one of the rising stars of Formula One, but can they produce a car to match? Adrian Newey’s done it before, but not for a few years.