Hugenholtz raced cars just once – at Leeuwarden in 1949. © motorsportmagazine.co.uk
With its series of high speed esses, the long curving Spoon corner, the balls-to-the-wall sweep that is 130R and the infamous end of lap chicane, Suzuka International Racing Course stands out as one of the most dramatic circuits on the Formula 1 calender today.
Suzuka’s history in Formula 1 stretches back to 1987 and (bar 2007 and 2008) has been on the calender for the duration, normally finding itself as one of the final events of the year.
As a result, it has been the venue where a number of titles were decided – most controversially at the height of the Prost / Senna years in 1989 and 1990 respectively.
In no uncertain terms, Suzuka is a true classic and it was all born under the pen of famed Dutch designer, John Hugenholtz.
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The son of a Protestant minister and peace activist, John Hugenholtz was born on October 31st, 1914 in the Dutch province of Drenthe. As a young man, Hugenholtz was a keen amateur motorbike racer, but his real interest lay in cars; yet despite his love of motors, he studied to be a solicitor, before eventually becoming a journalist.
Soon though, the pull of motor racing would draw a 22-year-old Hugenholtz to form the Nederlands Auto Race Club (NARC) in 1936. Drenthe already held TT practices and races in the 1930’s, but with momentum slowly building, the first car race eventually ran in June 1939 on the roads around Zandvoort.
The experience did not last long – the second World War broke out shortly afterward and when the Germans invaded the Netherlands, the Nazi’s secured a base around Zandvoort.
It is often believed – incorrectly – that once the war finished, Hugenholtz designed the Zandvoort circuit, when that honour resides with the winner of the 1927 Le Mans 24 Hour Race, Sammy Davis.
During the German occupation, Nazi troops built a series of communication roads and hotels in the region to accommodate victory parades, creating much of the circuit in the process. Following the defeat of Germany, Davis drew up designs that connected the communication roads, with the circuit opening in 1948.
The confusion about the designer originates around this time – within a year of the circuit opening, Hugenholtz was made the director of the track by the town’s mayor – a position that he would hold until 1974. However, he would take note of the combination of fast sweeps and cambered corners, often instilling these elements into his own designs later on – they would become something of a signature touch.
Hugenholtz was about to enter a busy period – one where he would begin to change motorsport and circuit design forever. At the 50’s drew to close, the designer embarked on a number of large projects, eventually designing (amongst others) Zolder (Belgium, 1963), the stadium section at the Hockenheimring (Germany, 1965) and Jarama (Spain, 1967).
When Hugenholtz designed Ontario Motor Speedway (with Michael Parker) in 1970, it became the first circuit in the world to receive sanctioning from the four major motorsports bodies – within a year of opening, the FIA had sanctioned the Quester Grand Prix, USAC ran the California 500, NASCAR the Miller High Life 500 and the NHRA ran a Super Nationals drag race.
The famous first turn at Suzuka. © mobilityland.co.jp
He was gaining a reputation for drawing up challenging and innovative layouts, while also advising other raceway builders across the world on circuit design; however not all circuits were deemed to be successes.
When Nivelles was opened in 1971, it was flat and consisted of seemingly endless run-off areas – when compared to the monstrous Spa-Francorchamps circuit (indeed both Zolder and Nivelles temporarily replaced Spa for a time), Nivelles was bland and featureless.
None of these have ever been as famous or as warmly received as Suzuka. The figure-of-8 track was commissioned by Soichiro Honda to be a test facility for the company. Opening in 1962, the circuit held mainly minor sportscar events and motorbike races, although at the beginning of the 70’s Formula 2 made its début at the track.
It was quite odd that when Formula 1 did eventually come to Japan that it went to the rival Mount Fuji circuit for a two-year, before Japan once again fell off the calender.
Come 1987, Formula 1 returned and this time journeyed to Suzuka (helped no doubt by Honda’s influence on the sport), where the title was settled in anti-climactic fashion during qualifying as Nigel Mansell crashed hard, gifting a third world title to Nelson Piquet Sr.
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Nivelles featured many new safety elements, but failed as a circuit. © copyright unknown
Yet for all the circuit direction Hugenholtz is famous for, he also became highly regarded for creating the first generation of catch fencing in motor racing in 1958.
Using Zandvoort as a guinea pig, several layers of chain link fences were combined with large run-off areas, with each layer decimating the speed of an out-of-control vehicle, as they speared off circuit.
As the fences absorbed an approaching car, the links stretched and swallowed the machine, allowing it to slow quickly without it hitting a solid entity. Prior to this, track were lined with either bales of hay or barriers (more to protect the crowd than the driver); collisions in these situations often resulted in death or serious injury.
Although Hugenholtz’s chain link fences saved many lives (especially when cars started to get seriously powerful toward the beginning of the 70’s), they were also the cause of much frustration as the system would often trap a driver completely if it rolled or collected the fence at an odd angle.
As time progressed, these were replaced by large gravel traps and eventually tarmac run-off areas.
Less successful were Hugenholtz’s forays into car design, overseeing two still born projects in the Dutch Barkley (1948) and later the Delfino (1989).
On January 10th 1995, Hugenholtz and his wife were involved in a crash at the Zandvoort circuit – his wife, Marianne Sophie van Rheineck Leyssius, was killed instantly, while Hugenholtz himself finally succumbed eleven weeks later due to injuries.
He would leave behind a legacy of some brilliant circuits that would play host to the pinnacle of motorsports and innovative safety features that would save many lives on track.
Suzuka track layout. © FIA
Free Practice 3
Rain, rain, rain. As the morning practice got under way, rivers of water ran across parts of the circuit, ensuring that next to no running was completed.
Jaime Alguersuari had an off exited the chicane, just prior to the start of his first timed lap.
Eventually he and Timo Glock were the only drivers to register a time – the rest of the field content with completing opening laps, before pulling in. Indeed Glock did spin when on a run at Spoon corner; the red and black Virgin floated away from his control under the severe wet conditions.
Qualifying
Due to intense rain from the morning and through the afternoon, qualifying for the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix was postponed until 10am tomorrow morning (local time).
After qualifying was cancelled, it was announced that Lewis Hamilton had to have a gearbox changed in his McLaren, which will result in a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s rearranged session.
The weather forecast tells that the rain may continue until about three hours prior to the session, meaning even that session may be a wet one.
Japan, Qualifying (October 9th)
No drivers set a time.
Japan, 3rd Free Practice (October 9th)
1 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m55.902s
2 GLOCK Virgin 2m07.497s
No other drivers set a time.
Suzuka track layout. © FIA
Free Practice 1
Both McLaren and Red Bull arrived at the Suzuka International Racing Course with multiple upgrades for the challengers. With the title run-in now reaching boiling point, McLaren brought new front and rear wings, an upgraded floor and an improved f-duct, whereas Red Bull showed up with evolutions of the front and rear wings.
Sadly for McLaren, the upgrades took a beating. Championship challenger Lewis Hamilton spun into the barriers at Degner corner, destroying the left side of his McLaren and damaging the new wings. McLaren team mate Jenson Button had a similar off just prior to the end of the session as he bounced heavily over the kerbs; however the reigning Champion, cushioned by the gravel trap, avoided an accident. While running, Hamilton secured 5th place on the timing sheets, with Button down in 12th.
The Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were once again at the top of the order with a large gap to the pack behind, headed by Robert Kubica (Renault). Vettel finished the session with a 0.048 of-a-second advantage over Webber, although both had half-a-second over the leading Renault.
Kamui Kobayashi also spun on the approach to Degner corner; however the Japanese driver saved his Sauber before any damage could be inflicted. He recorded the 14th best time. Jaime Alguersuari returned to the circuit where he had a mammoth crash at the 130R corner in 2009; the Spaniard celebrated this by going off at the much slower hairpin corner – the Toro Rosso was the slowest of the ‘regular teams’ down in 18th.
Jerome d’Ambrosio stood in for Lucas di Grassi at Virgin Racing for 1st practice and recorded a time only four-tenths of-a-second slower than team leader, Timo Glock – a very good effort by the Belgian.
Free Practice 2
Red Bull were again the fastest in second practice, but this time Sebastian Vettel was some four-tenths of-a-second ahead of team mate Mark Webber. For the second session in a row, the Renault of Robert Kubica registered the 3rd fastest time of the afternoon, but only after a spin in the middle of the ‘esses’. Kubica’s Renault team mate, Vitaly Petrov, improved greatly in the second session – the gap between the pair closed from 1.2 seconds, down to 0.5, although the Pole still has the advantage.
Sebastien Buemi also had a spin in ‘esses’, but it did not stop the Swiss driver from putting in the 16th best time, as he bettered his Toro Rosso team mate, Jaime Alguersuari by 0.05 of-a-second. Michael Schumacher was another to have an off-circuit excursion, as he attempted replicate Jenson Button’s 1st Practice spin; however the seven-time World Champion still managed to clock the 8th fastest lap in the works Mercedes machine. It will be interesting to see if he can take this momentum to qualifying and the race.
Following his crash in the morning run, Lewis Hamilton missed much of the session, only getting on track with eight minutes remaining, managing the 13th best time. The 2008 World Champion switched to the old rear wing; the McLaren upgrade was simply too damaged to be repaired.
Vitantonio Liuzzi had a difficult practice session – a poorly mapped engine control left the Italian unable to garner a good time. Both Williams’ driver were also sidelined for part of the session – Rubens Barrichello lost running with an engine problem, while Nico Hulkenberg suffered with an electrical fault.
Japan, 2nd Free Practice (October 8th)
1 VETTEL Red Bull 1m31.465s
2 WEBBER Red Bull 1m31.860s
3 KUBICA Renault 1m32.200s
4 ALONSO Ferrari 1m32.362s
5 MASSA Ferrari 1m32.519s
6 BUTTON McLaren 1m32.533s
7 PETROV Renault 1m32.703s
8 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m32.831s
9 SUTIL Force India 1m32.842s
10 HULKENBERG Williams 1m32.851s
11 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m32.880s
12 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m33.471s
13 HAMILTON McLaren 1m33.481s
14 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m33.564s
15 HEIDFELD Sauber 1m33.697s
16 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m34.005s
17 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m34.055s
18 LIUZZI Force India 1m34.310s
19 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m36.095s
20 TRULLI Lotus 1m36.333s
21 DI GRASSI Virgin 1m36.630s
22 GLOCK Virgin 1m36.834s
23 SENNA HRT 1m37.352s
24 YAMAMOTO HRT 1m37.831s
Japan, 1st Free Practice (October 8th)
1 VETTEL Red Bull 1m32.585s
2 WEBBER Red Bull 1m32.633s
3 KUBICA Renault 1m33.129s
4 SUTIL Force India 1m33.639s
5 HAMILTON McLaren 1m33.643s
6 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m33.677s
7 HULKENBERG Williams 1m33.707s
8 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m33.739s
9 HEIDFELD Sauber 1m33.791s
10 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m33.831s
11 MASSA Ferrari 1m33.929s
12 BUTTON McLaren 1m34.042s
13 ALONSO Ferrari 1m34.169s
14 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m34.271s
15 PETROV Renault 1m34.373s
16 LIUZZI Force India 1m34.379s
17 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m34.991s
18 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m35.684s
19 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m36.949s
20 GLOCK Virgin 1m37.329s
21 TRULLI Lotus 1m37.388s
22 D’AMBROSIO Virgin 1m37.778s
23 SENNA HRT 1m38.814s
24 YAMAMOTO HRT 1m39.443s
Although he hasn’t won since Hungary two months ago, the Australian has maintained a subtle lead in the title hut thanks to bringing his Red Bull home, when in not in a position to win; however it must be said that Webber was lucky to get away with his clash with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton on the streets of Singapore.
Hamilton himself is now 20 points behind Webber with fellow title contenders Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel close behind, but as we saw at Monza, the Championship run-in can change in a flash with one odd race. Right now, Hamilton, Vettel and Button need some bad luck to fall the way of Alonso and Webber should they want to stay with the front pair.
Both Vettel and Button are in need of victories – Vettel last picked up a full rack of points since the European Grand Prix in June, while Button has not been victorious at a Grand Prix since April’s foray to Shanghai. Now as the Japanese Grand Prix fast approaches, 20-odd points may not be an insurmountable obstacle to overcome, but the challenge will become ever steeper should the trailing trio leave Suzuka with that gap still in place.
There is also the small matter of the South Korea Grand Prix in just over two weeks. The circuit has still to be sign off for race-worthiness, although the final layer of tarmac was laid a few days ago, but should that race be cancelled due to an ill-prepared track, then that will leave only two races left for the title fight.
Two drivers not battling for the World Championship are Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Sakon Yamamoto (Hispania). This will be Kobayashi’s first racing visit to Suzuka in Formula 1 (he drove on Friday morning at the race last year); however Yamamoto drove at the circuit three years ago. Both drivers will be aiming to make a big impression amongst their home crowds.
Heikki Kovalainen at Budapest in July. © Charles Coates/LAT
As the 2010 Formula 1 season draws to close, much of the focus of the media and fans across the world will undoubtedly zero in on the five title protagonists, as they battle through the remaining four (or three, depending on South Korea being ready) Grand Prix.
However, while the leaders prepare to have it out amongst themselves, a very different battle is taking part further down the pack, as the three new teams square up to see who will be top the top dog. Just don’t be fooled; it is just as ferocious as the drive for race wins.
Right now, Lotus Racing’s Heikki Kovalainen is leading the Championship for the new teams, but to get a better understanding of how things are coming along, I put some questions to the man himself.
Formula 1 Archive: Heikki, now that Formula 1 has left Europe and is well into the final stages of the season, how are you feeling about the year so far, both in terms of your performance and the performance of Team Lotus? Are you close to where you thought you might be pre-season?
Heikki Kovalainen: I think we’re all pretty pleased with where we are. We want to be the best of the new teams, so we’re where we aim to be. I think any more than that would have been very difficult, as we had such short time to prepare for the season, so we are where I thought we should be, but we’re not complacent. We want to keep pushing, and though we’ve frozen development on the 2010 car as we’re working on next year’s car, we’re still in a good fight with the other new guys, so that’s good.
The Finn has appeared happier this season. © Charles Coates/LAT
F1A: You have previously driven for both Renault and McLaren – both very established teams – was it difficult to team up with what was essentially a brand new outfit? What is different about working with a new squad and what are your impressions so far?
HK: It was obviously a big change – when I first went to the factory there were only about 40 people there, and Mike and Silvi’s dogs running around! But Mike and Tony brought in people who knew exactly what they are doing, so since day one we’ve been totally professional, and I don’t have to worry about the little things – I can get on with driving.
There’s a really good atmosphere in the team and we all get on really well. Tony and mike are both very open and that extends to the whole team, so it’s welcoming, but we’re as ambitious as anyone else out there.F1A: The Lotus initially looked quite reliable during its early runs, but there were a number of failures (particularly hydraulics) in the first half of the year. Did it affect morale or do difficulties like that make you and your team more determined to succeed?
HK: We always knew there would be problems – that’s obvious in year one, and with half the time to prepare as the other guys, but it was a bit disappointing when you want to push and then something out of our control means you have to pull over. But the team’s morale never dropped, not once, it makes us stronger and gives us experience.F1A:You have a very established team mate, Jarno Trulli, and in Mike Gascoyne, a very experienced Chief Technical Officer; how is that relationship coming along? Having joined a smaller team, do you find you have more chance to make a difference?
HK: It’s really good, both with Jarno and Mike. I get on well with Jarno, and there’s no issues between us at all. With Mike, he’s honest, straightforward and says what he thinks, so that means there’s no politics and you know where you stand. That makes my job easier, so I couldn’t ask for more.Kovalainen has a good relationship with boss Tony Fernandes. © Charles Coates/LAT
F1A: While not necessarily battling for points, there has been a battle to be the best of the ‘new teams.’ Have you found this to be a good motivator for both yourself and the team?
HK: It’s been great – we all want to finish in tenth, and as the battles get tighter it makes it all the more exciting on and off track, for the fans and the teams.F1A: Of course the aim is – like all teams – to get some points on the board. Do you think points are a realistic proposition in the remaining races?
HK: I think points will need one of those crazy races, but you can never say never. We need to make sure we’re there at the end, to take advantage of anything that happens ahead of us, and recently we’ve seen better reliability, and our race pace has always been good compared to our direct rivals, so we’re putting ourselves in the best position if anything does happen.F1A: Despite the ban on in-season testing, the team has made some wonderful strides this year in terms of performance gain, but still appear to be an average of around one second shy of the mid-pack at some circuits. Is it frustrating to have come so far, but still be just that little bit shy of the pace? Are you confident that the team will competing with the mid-pack for points in 2011?
HK: We always knew this would happen – nothing in F1 stands still and as we have progressed so have the teams around us – that’s just the way it is. It’s not frustrating, we have our own battle to concentrate on, and in Singapore we showed that when we do have the chance to fight with the midfield we’re not afraid to do so.F1A: When on television and other media during the year, you appear happier and more relaxed than – do you have any thoughts on that?
HK: I guess I am – I love the team, I have friends and family around me and we have a really bright future ahead of us, so it’s a good time to be racing.Kovalainen ran well for a time at Singapore. © Charles Coates/LAT
F1A: During the recent summer break, you released a short video of you playing drums with the rock band, Nightwish. Did you ever see yourself as a potential rock star or is drumming just a form of relaxation?
HK: Haha! It’s for relaxation. I’m friends with the guys in Nightwish, and it was great to get the chance to play with them, but for now it’s about racing. Who knows…F1A: Do you have a stand out moment for 2010 so far?
HK: There’s been quite a few so far, racing in Monaco where I was fighting with quicker cars and also in Malaysia to get into Q2 in front of the home fans. Also, lapping the Virgins at Singapore was good but I think we’re all focused on getting to the end of the season and securing tenth. That’ll be the stand-out moment.
In the meantime, you can follow Heikki Kovalainen and Lotus Racing on Twitter get some nice updates and access from the team.
My thanks to Heikki Kovalainen and Tom Webb (Lotus Racing Press Office).
Homestead-Miami Speedway layout
When Will Power slid out into the grey and scrubbed the turn 4 wall at Homestead-Miami Speedway early Sunday morning, the Australian handed the 2010 IndyCar title to rival Dario Franchitti on a plate.
Franchitti needed to grab pole (he did), lead the most laps (he did) and win the race to guarantee the Championship, but by the time Power was rolled in behind the pit wall, it was no longer necessary to push to the limit and the Scot worked to just bring his Team chip Ganassi run machine home and dry.
The win would eventually go to Franchitti’s team mate, Scott Dixon – his third victory of the season. Dixon started on the front row, spending much of the race playing rear gunner to the title contender, as did Andretti-Autosport driver Tony Kanaan. Kanaan initially started 8th, but quickly made his into the top 3; after stalking Dixon for lap-after-lap, the Brazilian finally made his move on lap 32 as the veteran moved up to 2nd.
Two of Kanaan’s Andretti-Autosport team mate’s, Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay also had excellent opening stints – by the fifth tour of the track, Andretti had climbed from 16th to an impressive 7th, while Hunter-Reay was running 12th despite starting from the outside of row ten, eventually moving to 10th several laps later.
Meanwhile, it had not been a good start for Power, although it was still early going. Having started from 3rd place, the Australian dipped slightly to 4th, before falling to 8th by lap 30 – even at this early stage, Power was thinking about strategy and was driving in fuel conservation mode; however his drop off was still alarming.
At least Power could claim to still be in the race (for now). Mario Moraes found himself in the pits early with steering issues and high wishbone wear on his right rear, but following repairs the Brazilian was sent back out on track, only to grind to a halt a few moments later in the slow lane with a broken gearbox – it had been a dreadful season for both Moraes and his KV Racing crew and it’s looking unlikely that he will still be there in 2011. A disappointed Moraes would comment that “…the steering started to feel a bit loose, and I came to the pits. After we have a gearbox problem. (…) It’s very frustrating.”
The stalled KV car brought out not only the pace car, but also the first series of pitstops – feeling obliged, the field dived in for fuel and new tyres, although Sarah Fisher (in danger of going a lap down) stayed out for an extra tour before eventually stopping.
Sparks ran high under the MIami lights. © indycar.com
Kanaan lost out in the 25-car mayhem following a brief stall, dropping the Brazilian three positions. Things went rather better at Penske as they managed to help Ryan Briscoe jump up to 2nd place and split the Ganassi’s – as the pack flowed back onto the track, Franchitti led from Briscoe, Dixon, the quiet Helio Castroneves and Kanaan.
Despite his relative anonymity to this point, the race had gone quite well for Castroneves – having started down in 10th, the three-time Indy 500 winner slowly picked off rivals on his way to 5th, where he held stationary behind Briscoe.
Come lap 42, the green re-emerged, but for only a short period, yet it was just long enough for Kanaan to swallow Castroneves and Dixon, promoting him into the 3rd. While Kanaan was making his progress, Dreyer & Reinbold’s Ana Beatriz scrubbed the turn 4 wall, before it hitting hard a lap later – lap 45 and the second caution period kicked into gear. This was only the fourth race of the year for Beatriz and although she has greatly impressed, it was not the ideal way to finish the season.
One rookie that was having a fantastic tun on the Miami oval was Sebastian Saavedra – the Colombian was disappointed with his qualifying run, as he timed in at 24th place, but as the laps ticked by, the Conquest Racing entry had reached the top twelve – a very good effort.
Despite the crash, racing quickly returned on lap 51 with Briscoe instantly leading a to charge at Franchitti and Kanaan, making it a three-way battle. Both would take the Scot within ten laps, with even Dixon passing his team mate. Dixon didn’t stop there though – on the 61st lap, Dixon would rob Kanaan of 2nd and a lap later, he took the lead from Briscoe.
Unwilling to give up the fight for the race quiet so easily, Kanaan took his Honda-powered Dallara around Briscoe (lap 65) and assumed the lead of the race three laps later, as he powered passed the Kiwi. Position swapping staying at full tilt for several laps as Franchitti rejoined the front end battle, grabbing the initiative – with 75 laps in the bag, Franchitti now led from Kanaan, Dixon and Briscoe. Not content with watching from afar, Power finally joined the leading group, slotting easily passed Briscoe as he chased Franchitti.
With no yellow period forthcoming, the strategists contemplated green flag stops – Ryan Briscoe was the first to blink, with the rest of the pack pouring over the course of several laps; however where the Penske crew got Briscoe out cleanly, EJ Viso’s crew were slightly less efficient. A sluggish stop from the tyre changers was worsened when Viso was signalled to leave before the fuel hose had been removed – as the Venezuelan planted his foot down, the hose was ripped clean away and dragged out by the car only to be dumped on the road. Once again, so many things were going awry for the KV team.
There was some hope for FAZZT Racing though. Alex Tagliani’s team had not had the best of days, but a top-up fuel run during the yellow for the Beatriz crash left the Canadian having to do one stop less in the race, following his pit visit on lap 101.
Andretti-Autosport’s Danica Patrick was also slowly turning her day around – Patrick had qualified 11th, but slipped down early on before climbing back up the field and into the top six. Meanwhile, Franchitti retook the lead from Kanaan, Dixon, Power and Briscoe.
As the Scot circulated, unthreatened by his great friend Kanaan, he picked up the two points for most laps lead – with Power unable to break the leading three, Franchitti was in the driving seat. Power would have no choice but to push…
It is often stated that when one relaxes, they lose concentration and make mistakes. The same is often true for those that push that little bit over the limit, where they may fall into realms that are beyond their control – on lap 134, Will Power went beyond that realm, scrubbing the barrier and leading the painfully small crowd to gasp for breath.
A damaged Power taken into care by his Penske mechanics. ©indycar.com
It was one hit too many and although there was no heavy crash or obvious sign of damage, something was not quite right. Once again, the full course caution was signalled – the field fell under the spell of the pace car, before pulling into the pits for yet another series of stops.
Before there was time to breathe, Power suffered another calamitous moment – as the Australian pulled into his pitbox, it was clear there was problem with his right rear; something confirmed as the unbalanced Penske slid sideways without control into his stall. The mechanics keen to have a closer look at the suspension discovered and bent wishbone and Power was quickly whisked behind the secondary wall to give his team a closer look.
With the full course caution out for 16 laps (the traffic lights in the pitlane were faulty, requiring lengthy attention), the Penske crew worked feverishly to get Power back on track. It would take time, the Australian losing five laps, but even the repairs were not enough – following several laps, the Penske man pulled back into the pits to retire; his race (and Championship) were now in the hands of Dario Franchitti.
Power, although disappointed, remained philosophical: “I was trying to get around Hunter-Reay, he kept changing his line, I wasn’t sure what he was going to do each time. That time he was up high...” said the Australian, before adding “…that’s racing man, that’s how it goes. I know we had a good season, just disappointing. I was trying to do everything I could because at that point in the race I knew unless I did something special, Dario had the championship… I ended up brushing the wall.”
The Penske man was not the only driver to feel pain. Tony Kanaan’s Andretti-Autosport crew were left stunned as the Brazilian pulled away from his stall with the fuel hose still attached to his Dallara; meanwhile both Bertrand Baguette and EJ Viso also left their pits with the fuel rig still connected. All three would be moved to the rear of the pack. Another driver that had dropped back was Ryan Briscoe – the Penske had pitted of his own volition just prior to the “Power yellow”, leaving him mired in 11th position for a time.
Franchitti still led, but this time Dixon held his rear, with Andretti, Castroneves and Dan Wheldon waiting to pounce. Dixon wasted no time in moving passed Franchitti once the green was waved on lap 150, however the Scot would quickly slip to 5th position as Andretti (lap 154), Wheldon (lap 158) and then Castroneves (lap 159) swept passed. Andretti meanwhile, continued his surge, taking the lead from Dixon, but on lap 166 another yellow – this time for debris on track – squared up the field once again.
On this occasion, a precious few took to the pits, Andretti and Franchitti amongst them dropping the pair to 7th and 8th respectively – with Power out of contention, Franchitti would only need a top-ten finish and with 30 laps remaining, the Scot was well on target for this. It would propel Castroneves into a temporary lead over Dixon, Kanaan, Patrick and Wheldon. Just behind the group of five was the ever impressive Vitor Meira – it had been a tough couple of years for Meira at AJ Foyt Racing, but the plucky Brazilian had once again quietly climbed into the top-six with another solid drive.
The action came quick and fast when green conditions returned on lap 172, following a false start the previous time around. Kanaan, desperate for a win to add to his Iowa success earlier in the season, jumped both Castroneves and Dixon to claim the front, only for Dixon to surge back ahead only a few corners later.
Danica Patrick made it a five-way battle for the lead, albeit briefly – with 175 laps down, Milka Duno ended her 2010 campaign with a thud and a crash in turn 4. The Dale Coyne driver lost control of her Dallara-Honda solo midway through the corner – yet once again the crowd drew breath…
As the car drifted away from the Venezuelan, she shot across the track, nearly removing Franchitti in the process – a close call for the Scot. It was a piece of double fortune for Franchitti – this late yellow would ensure that he (and others) would have more than enough fuel to get to the end. As for Duno, it is unknown if she will return – she remains under probation for now, but it quite possible that her may not be renewed for 2011.
Alex Lloyd picked up Rookie of the Year honours. © indycar.com
The Duno mess was quickly cleared and upon the restart (lap 181), Dixon ran into the the distance, never to be touched again; however the battle for 2nd was on.
Kanaan and Patrick – not the best of friends off track – fought tooth and nail for the runner-up spot; initially they were joined by Castroneves, before he settled into a tame 4th spot. Lap-after-lap, Kanaan held off his superstar team mate – forcefully on occasion – but Patrick proved to be too much, slicing passed the veteran Brazilian on the penultimate tour and claiming 2nd place.
With the chequered flag approaching the season, Patrick had done just enough to get into the top-ten in the points standings, while Kanaan would come home 3rd in the race, but the best of the Andretti cars in the Championship.
Patrick told reporters after the race that “…after I crossed the line, I thought it wasn’t a win but it felt like one. It was a good way to end the season. We’ve had our high points and we’ve had our low points. Hopefully we can improve the car to be better next year. That was a pretty hard charge there at the end. Hopefully, Tony and I put on a good show for the fans, so thanks to them for coming out.”
Dixon, however, was far from worried about Patrick or Kanaan – in the end, the Kiwi took a comfortable win by a clear 2.7 seconds over Patrick. It was enough to secure Dixon’s 25th all-time IndyCar win and it lifted him to third in the standings ahead of Castroneves.
Once in victory lane, Dixon was his usual stoic self, saying that “…we stayed at the front most of the night, we saved a bit of fuel, worked on the car for the traffic. We had some great pitstops as well. Luckily enough it played out perfect.”
Castroneves, himself, fell behind team mate Ryan Briscoe at the last breath, with Briscoe taking a solid 4th following a late race dash up the order.
Vitor Meira kept his 6th spot – it was his best oval finish of the season and it gave him twelfth in the overall points. Marco Andretti took 7th with Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon in 9th. It was enough to secure ninth in the Championship for Wheldon, only four points shy of Andretti in the final totals.
After 300 miles of running, Andretti and Wheldon squeezed Dario Franchitti in 8th position and while it may not have been the glorious that he would have wished for, it was enough to give him the title by five points – his third IndyCar Championship in four years.
A jubilant Franchitti was quick to thank those around him for his title. “What a great job from this target crew because we’ve had to fight for every single thing this year. Let me tell you, number three, it feels bloody good. I want to celebrate this moment. My teammate Scott Dixon could not have done any more today to help me out. And the fact that he won the race, you know, double celebration.”
Graham Rahal ended the season with a fine run to 10th in his Newman-Haas machine, albeit one lap adrift and just ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay (11th) and Alex Lloyd (12th). It was a good result for Lloyd and his top-12 was enough to confirm the Englishman as rookie of the year ahead of Simona de Silvestro. De Silvestro, herself, did not have a good run in the race, she struggled to get to grips with her HVM run car -in the cooler night conditions – the ‘Swiss Miss’ crossed the line in 23rd, three laps down.
Ed Carpenter (13th), Alex Tagliani (14th), Bertrand Baguette (15th), Sebastian Saavedra (16th), Raphael Matos (17th) and Takuma Sato (18th) all finished one lap and out of the limelight. For Sato, it had been a poor season – unable to profit from his experience, the ex-Formula 1 pilot found himself crashing far too many times.
Franchitti celebrates with wife, Ashley Judd and team boss, Chip Ganassi. © indycar.com
It had been a remarkable weekend for KV Racing, but not in a way that many positives can be extracted – for the first weekend this season, none of their three regular runners crashed. EJ Viso solidified this when he rolled home in 19th (two laps down), ahead of Hideki Mutoh (20th) and Justin Wilson (21st). Sarah Fisher came home 22nd and three laps adrift – there have been plenty of rumours that the 30-year-old will be stepping out the car in order to go into full-time management of her fledgling squad, but that has yet to be confirmed.
And with that, the 2010 IndyCar season has come to an end and while Homestead may not have delivered the thriller it did last year, it once again provided some excellent action with eighteen changes for the lead between seven drivers and much passing in the ranks below.
Dario Franchitti goes the Champion for the third time – can he make that four in 2011 as the IndyCar series rolls into its final season with the current chassis combination.
Roll on next March.
Race Rating: 3.5 out of 5
——–
IZOD IndyCar Homestead 300 (Round 17, October 2nd)
Pos Name Team Time/Gap
1 Scott Dixon Team Chip Ganassi 1:52:08.5580s
2 Danica Patrick Andretti-Autosport + 2.7587s
3 Tony Kanaan Andretti-Autosport + 2.7698s
4 Ryan Briscoe Team Penske + 3.7827s
5 Helio Castroneves Team Penske + 5.3324s
6 Vitor Meira AJ Foyt Enterprises + 7.2126s
7 Marco Andretti Andretti-Autosport + 8.3637s
8 Dario Franchitti Team Chip Ganassi + 11.1401s
9 Dan Wheldon Panther Racing + 22.2521s
10 Graham Rahal Newman/Haas + 1 lap
11 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti-Autosport + 1 lap
12 Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne Racing + 1 lap
13 Ed Carpenter Panther/Vision Racing + 1 lap
14 Alex Tagliani FAZZT Racing + 1 lap
15 Bertrand Baguette Conquest Racing + 1 lap
16 Sebastian Saavedra Conquest Racing + 1 lap
17 Raphael Matos De Ferran/Dragon Racing + 1 lap
18 Takuma Sato KV Racing + 1 lap
19 EJ Viso KV Racing + 2 laps
20 Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas + 2 laps
21 Justin Wilson Dreyer and Reinbold + 2 laps
22 Sarah Fisher Sarah Fisher Racing + 3 laps
23 Simona de Silvestro HVM Racing + 3 laps
R Milka Duno Dale Coyne Racing + 30 laps (accident)
R Will Power Team Penske + 57 laps (damage)
R Ana Beatriz Dreyer and Reinbold + 158 laps (accident)
R Mario Moraes KV Racing + 175 laps (mechanical)
| 2010 IZOD IndyCar Championship (Round 17) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Racing) | 602 |
| 2 | Will Power (Team Penske) | 597 |
| 3 | Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) | 547 |
| 4 | Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) | 531 |
| 5 | Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske) | 482 |
| 6 | Tony Kanaan (Andretti-Autosport) | 453 |
| 7 | Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti-Autosport) | 445 |
| 8 | Marco Andretti (Andretti-Autosport) | 392 |
| 9 | Dan Wheldon (Panther Racing) | 388 |
| 10 | Danica Patrick (Andretti-Autosport) | 367 |
| 11 | Justin Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold) | 361 |
| 12 | Vitor Meira (AJ Foyt Enterprises) | 310 |
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Jean-Karl Vernay may well have been declared the 2010 Indy Lights Champion when he fired up on Saturday evening, but the final race of the year belonged to Davey Hamilton Racing’s Brandon Wagner in only his fifth race of the season, although not without some tight competition from all sides.
Starting from 3rd in the pack, Wagner instantly jumped ahead of Wade Cunningham and polesitter Pippa Mann to claim the lead, before Cunningham himself took 2nd spot from the London-born racer. James Hinchcliffe also had a fabulous start – the Canadian jumped from 6th to 4th by lap 3 as he found ways passed both Philip Major and Charlie Kimball. By the eighth lap, Hinchcliffe swept passed Mann and three laps later, he progressed to 2nd as he moved beyond Cunningham.
Kimball had an awful beginning to the race and it was only going to get worse – a slow getaway from the outside of row one saw the American fall down the order; a digression that continued throughout the running.
Yacaman's spin caused Dan Clarke to crash. © indycar.com
By lap 14, Mann forced her way back into the top-three with a pass on Cunningham, but almost as soon as the move had been completed, the first yellows of the day had been signalled.
Colombian driver Gustavo Yacaman had been running in the mid-pack when he lost the rear of his Dallara exiting turn 2 in front of Dan Clarke. Some quick reactions from Clarke meant he missed Yacaman – just – but the former Champ Car driver could not avoid the wall. With a thud, Clarke’s race (and season) was over. Yacaman would soon find himself lapped as he pitted twice under caution.
Green conditions returned on lap 24, but whereas Wagner and Hinchcliffe pulled away, Mann fell towards the clutches of Cunningham and Martin Plowman, eventually dropping to 5th place. Cunningham joined the battle for the lead with Wagner and Hinchcliffe on lap 29, although the pace proved too much for Plowman. It did not take long for Mann to pull back up to the tail of Plowman and get by the Englishman for 4th.
One driver that certainly wasn’t struggling was Adrian Campos Jr. The Spaniard had a difficult run in qualifying, he eventually placed his Team Moore Racing car in 10th position, but had made his way into the top-six by lap 40. Passes on Plowman (lap 54) and Mann (lap 64) would take Campos Jr. to 4th position, albeit too far behind Cunningham to take a podium.
With the gap between the leading trio less than 0.3-of-a-second apart, both Hinchcliffe and Cunningham charged Wagner for the lead, but the Davey Hamilton Racer had an answer for each attack. By the 47th lap around, the front-running trio became a pair as Cunningham began to fall away – Wagner, however, maintained control while they lapped backmarkers. It seemed that Hinchcliffe might use the lapped cars as an opportunity to get a run on Wagner, yet still nothing came his way.
One of those backmarkers happened to be the newly crowned Champion, JK Vernay – the Frenchman qualified a lowly 13th, but spent the race running around 15th place while he struggled around the Miami circuit.
Wagner takes the chequered flag for the first time. © indycar.com
Vernay’s Miami woes mattered little to Wagner. As the chequered flag approached, the race leader pulled away from Hinchcliffe, building an unassailable gap out front. With just over 40 minutes on the clock, Brendan Wagner completed the 67-lap run to take his first Indy Lights victory in front of Hinchcliffe by 0.7 of-a-second. Although, the gap shrunk somewhat on the final tour, the American looked in control having driven a fantastic race, laying down a marker for next season in the process.
Hinchcliffe’s 2nd in the race simply solidified his runner-up position in the standings, some 23 points shy of Vernay, while Wade Cunningham propped up his season end with a podium in only his second 2010 event.
Adrian Campos Jr’s late race charge to 4th also propelled him in the final standing; in the end he finished sixth in points only six points adrift of Pippa Mann who claimed 5th in both the race and series. It was a good end of year run for the Londoner – following her return injury at Sonoma, Mann collected four consecutive top-5’s (including a win at Kentucky). Considering she was tenth in the Championship with four races left, fifth is indeed a stellar achievement.
Martin Plowman eventually rode home 6th on the road, but it was enough to lift him above Charlie Kimball in the Championship; despite starting on the front row, the American had a dire race and he simply fell backwards, finally crossing the line in 13th.
JK Vernay, 2010 Indy Lights Champion. © indycar.com
Daniel Herrington took 7th ahead of regular Philip Major, with returnee Dillon Battistini taking 9th position. Sean Guthrie had something of an invisible race on his to 10th and lapped, but still several seconds ahead of series débutante (and USAC runner) Henry Clarke (11th).
Arie Luyendyk Jr had an embarrassing weekend – the son of the twice Indy 500 winner was off the pace in qualifying and even managed to spin on the parade lap – he came home 12th, only 1.6 seconds ahead of Kimball. Rodrigo Barbosa struggled at Miami with finish of 14th spot – the Brazilian secured twelfth in the Championship with only part-time runners.
JK Vernay and Gustavo Yacaman (16th) were the only other runners, with Dan Clarke being the sole retirement of the race.
Although there was not huge amounts of passing up front, the battle between Wagner and Hinchcliffe remained tense and exciting throughout. What a shame that there was barely a crowd around to see it.
Race Rating: 4 out of 5
——–
Firestone Indy Lights Homestead 100 (Round 13, October 2nd)
Pos Car Driver Team Laps Gap Ave Speed Status
1 32 Brandon Wagner Davey Hamilton Racing 67 0.0000 146.898 Running
2 2 James Hinchcliffe Team Moore Racing 67 0.7006 146.856 Running
3 77 Wade Cunningham Sam Schmidt Motorsports 67 9.0836 146.353 Running
4 22 Adrian Campos Jr (R) Team Moore Racing 67 10.1335 146.290 Running
5 11 Pippa Mann Sam Schmidt Motorsports 67 10.9261 146.243 Running
6 27 Martin Plowman AFS / Andretti-Autosport 67 16.7705 145.895 Running
7 36 Daniel Herrington O2 Racing Technology 67 17.9919 145.822 Running
8 49 Philip Major (R) Sam Schmidt Motorsports 67 27.5436 145.257 Running
9 29 Dillon Battistini Bryan Herta Autosport 67 29.1602 145.162 Running
10 4 Sean Guthrie Andersen Racing 66 2.7679 144.541 Running
11 34 Henry Clarke (R) Davey Hamilton Racing 66 10.8308 144.066 Running
12 24 Arie Luyendyk Jr Alliance Motorsports 66 13.3672 143.917 Running
13 26 Charlie Kimball AFS / Andretti-Autosport 66 14.9748 143.822 Running
14 18 Rodrigo Barbosa PDM Racing 66 19.7898 143.541 Running
15 7 JK Vernay (R) Sam Schmidt Motorsports 66 28.9129 143.010 Running
16 10 Gustavo Yacaman Wayne Taylor Racing 65 6.8165 142.116 Running
17 40 Dan Clarke (R) Walker Racing 14 -.—- 179.768 Contact
| 2010 Indy Lights Championship (Round 13) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | JK Vernay | 494 |
| 2 | James Hinchcliffe | 471 |
| 3 | Martin Plowman | 392 |
| 4 | Charlie Kimball | 388 |
| 5 | Pippa Mann | 313 |
| 6 | Adrian Campos Jr | 307 |
| 7 | Dan Clarke | 304 |
| 8 | Sebastian Saavedra | 303 |
| 9 | Philip Major | 299 |
| 10 | Gustavo Yacaman | 293 |
| 11 | Stefan Wilson | 278 |
| 12 | Rodrigo Barbosa | 241 |
In 1909, Moore-Brabazon completed the first circular mile in Britain in an aeroplane; however prior to his run, the pilot was met with some mocking from those in attendance. Specifically, one was heard to say that Moore-Brabazon would complete the task “when pigs fly.”
Following his successful run, Moore-Brabazon took to the air once again several days later to do the task once again, but this time as a joke, he took a pig on board with him just to show that pigs could, in actual fact, fly.
I have no idea who took this photo, but the caption by the way, is mine.
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Tonight, Londoner Pippa Mann secured her third Indy Lights pole position of the 2010 season.
The popular Sam Schmidt driver took the top spot with a two-lap average speed of 186.597 mph ahead of AFS / Andretti-Autosport’s Charlie Kimball.
Whereas Mann and Kimball grasp of the front row was solid, the pack behind was tantalisingly close. Brandon Wagner (Davey Hamilton Racing) and Philip Major (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) nabbed 3rd and 4th respectively.
Although the gap between the pair of the second row was tiny, it would not compare at all to the following drivers. The returning Wade Cunningham and one-time title contender James Hinchcliffe registered identical speeds – Cunningham was awarded the 5th spot by virtue of setting it first.
Mann (left) with team boss, Sam Schmidt. © indycar.com
Gustavo Yacaman (7th) and Martin Plowman (8th) were also separated by mere thousandths, while Sean Guthrie (9th) was very close behind. Adrian Campos Jr picked up the outside of row five for Team Moore Racing ahead of series rookie and USAC driver Henry Clarke (11th). Namesake and former Champ Car driver, Dan Clarke will line up 12th.
Down in 13th, JK Vernay only needs to start the pace lap tomorrow to crowned Indy Lights Champion for 2010 thanks to an absurd points system that allows drivers to score points once they fire their engines. Indeed, it is a drawback, as it kills the relevance of this race before it even starts.
Daniel Herrington (14th) and Dillon Battistini (15th) both make their second appearances of the season, with Arie Luyendyk Jr returning for his fourth event – he will start 16th. A well off the pace Rodrigo Barbosa will be at the tail of the field tomorrow evening – the PDM Racing driver clocked a time that was well off the pace.
The 13th and final round of the Firestone Indy Lights gets the green flag tomorrow at 9pm (BST) with pre-race starting 15 minutes beforehand. Race coverage can be found solely at indycar.com.
Homestead-Miami Speedway, Qualifying (October 1st)
SP Car Driver Team Time Speed
1 11 Pippa Mann Sam Schmidt Motorsports 57.2999 186.597
2 26 Charlie Kimball AFS / Andretti-Autosport 57.3782 186.343
3 32 Brandon Wagner Davey Hamilton Racing 57.4754 186.027
4 49 Philip Major Sam Schmidt Motorsports 57.5151 185.899
5 77 Wade Cunningham Sam Schmidt Motorsports 57.5373 185.827
6 2 James Hinchcliffe Team Moore Racing 57.5373 185.827
7 10 Gustavo Yacaman Cape Motorsport / Wayne Taylor Racing 57.6442 185.483
8 27 Martin Plowman AFS / Andretti-Autosport 57.6479 185.471
9 4 Sean Guthrie Andersen Racing 57.6587 185.436
10 22 Adrian Campos Jr. Team Moore Racing 57.6866 185.346
11 34 Henry Clarke Davey Hamilton Racing 57.8194 184.921
12 40 Dan Clarke Walker Racing 57.8194 184.921
13 7 J.K. Vernay Sam Schmidt Motorsports 57.9153 184.614
14 36 Daniel Herrington O2 Racing Technology 58.0053 184.328
15 29 Dillon Battistini Bryan Herta Autosport 58.1707 183.804
16 24 Arie Luyendyk Jr. Alliance Motorsports 58.2679 183.497
17 18 Rodrigo Barbosa PDM Racing 59.0573 181.045
| 2010 Indy Lights Championship (Round 13, Qualifying) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | JK Vernay | 479 |
| 2 | James Hinchcliffe | 431 |
| 3 | Charlie Kimball | 371 |
| 4 | Martin Plowman | 364 |
| 5 | Sebastian Saavedra | 303 |
| 6 | Dan Clarke | 291 |
| 7 | Pippa Mann | 283 |
| 8 | Gustavo Yacaman | 279 |
Homestead-Miami Speedway layout
Dario Franchitti took one crucial step to retaining the IZOD IndyCar Series title with pole position at Homestead Motor Speedway.
The 37-year-old Scot picked up the top spot with a 2-lap average speed of 213.187 mph, claiming the extra point in the process and leaving him just 11 points shy of Championship leader Will Power.
It was a Team Chip Ganassi lock out on the front row, with Franchitti partnered by team mate Scott Dixon alongside him, while the second row was occupied by two of the three Penske Racing machines – Power will take the green flag from 3rd and Ryan Briscoe, an encouraging 4th. Qualifying was not quite as fruitful for the final Penske runner – Helio Castroneves registered only 10th in his Honda-powered Dallara.
First out in the session was Dan Wheldon and the Manchester-born driver notched 5th spot in what may be his final race for Panther Racing; only one row ahead of part-time team mate Ed Carpenter (7th). The Panther pair have squeezed former-Minardi driver Justin Wilson into a spot on the outside of the third row.
Tony Kanaan was the fastest of the four Andretti-Autosport entries with the 8th fastest run – next up for the team is Danica Patrick in her green-and-black Go Daddy.com machine (11th), while both Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay had difficult day’s as they picked up 16th and 20th positions respectively.
KV Racing Technology will be going into this weekend’s race desperately hoping that there will not be crash damage to repair and it was the final runner of the day, Takuma Sato, that gave them some hope for the race with a run that placed him in 9th. EJ Viso and Mario Moraes also had decent runs; registering 12th and 13th positions in the process – some hope for a trio of racers that may well be looking for a seat for 2011.
Franchitti secured his 2nd pole of the season. © indycar.com
Bertrand Baguette continued his positive form for Conquest Racing as the young Belgian driver grabbed 14th position. His new team mate for this weekend – Sebastian Saavedra may well be disappointed with his run that gave him 24th, but the former-Indy Lights (?) driver will hopefully be able to improve on that in the race itself.
Both Alex Lloyd and Simona de Silvestro are battling for Rookie of the Year honours going into this race, but that pair were outshined by Brazilian pilot Ana Beatriz – this will the fourth outing of the season for Beatriz with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, and she will take the green flag in 15th position. Beatriz, who has performed very well in the few sightings of her this season is the final driver to replace the injured Mike Conway, who has been missing since his crash at the Indianapolis 500 in May.
De Silvestro, meanwhile, placed her HVM provisionally 25th; while Lloyd will get away from 22nd position. Lloyd’s Dale Coyne Racing team mate, Milka Duno, will be making what could be potentially her final start tomorrow from last place.
On the ninth row, fan favourite Sarah Fisher is also lining up for what could be her final race as rumours spread that she may be about to go into full-time team management. The lady from Ohio planted her Fisher Racing car in 17th alongside the Newman-Haas car driven by Graham Rahal (18th). Rahal’s Newman-Haas partner, Hideki Mutoh had a poor session qualifying on the outside of row 13, as the Japanese driver struggled in the Miami evening.
Alex Tagliani qualified his FAZZT Racing machine in 19th position as the Canadian brings his first year as a team owner to a close. Vitor Meira took the inside of row 11 in his AJ Foyt Enterprise’s car, and Raphael Matos rounds off the grid – the Brazilian starts a disappointed 23rd as he aims to put a forgettable season behind him.
Green flag for the final race of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series is tomorrow night at midnight, with coverage starting at 11.15pm (BST) on indycar.com and at 11.30pm (BST) from Sky Sports 4.
Homestead-Miami Speedway, Qualifying (October 1st)
Pos Driver Team Ave Speed (mph)
1. Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 213.187mph
2. Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 212.908mph
3. Will Power Team Penske 212.580mph
4. Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 212.158mph
5. Dan Wheldon Panther Racing 211.933mph
6. Justin Wilson Dreyer and Reinbold 211.630mph
7. Ed Carpenter Panther/Vision Racing 211.444mph
8. Tony Kanaan Andretti-Autosport 211.392mph
9. Takuma Sato KV Racing 211.355mph
10. Helio Castroneves Team Penske 211.240mph
11. Danica Patrick Andretti-Autosport 211.013mph
12. EJ Viso KV Racing 210.928mph
13. Mario Moraes KV Racing 210.741mph
14. Bertrand Baguette Conquest Racing 210.738mph
15. Ana Beatriz Dreyer and Reinbold 210.715mph
16. Marco Andretti Andretti-Autosport 210.698mph
17. Sarah Fisher Sarah Fisher Racing 210.671mph
18. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas 210.629mph
19. Alex Tagliani FAZZT Racing 210.520mph
20. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti-Autosport 210.030mph
21. Vitor Meira AJ Foyt Enterprises 210.017mph
22. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne Racing 209.433mph
23. Raphael Matos De Ferran/Dragon Racing 209.311mph
24. Sebastian Saavedra Conquest Racing 209.308mph
25. Simona de Silvestro HVM Racing 208.986mph
26. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas 208.579mph
27. Milka Duno Dale Coyne Racing 207.961mph
| 2010 IZOD IndyCar Championship (Round 17, Qualifying) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Will Power (Team Penske) | 587 |
| 2 | Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Racing) | 576 |
| 3 | Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) | 501 |
| 4 | Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) | 497 |
| 5 | Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske) | 450 |
| 6 | Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti-Autosport) | 426 |
Jarno Trulli under the Singapore lights. © Lotus Racing
I have absolutely no idea what is going in this now public battle between Group Lotus (Proton) and Lotus Racing (Tony Fernandes).
After a brief read up on the situation (starting way back when Colin Chapman started Lotus Engineering right to the present day), I found myself light-headed and in need of a nap. Sport-related politics often does this to me; Formula 1-related politics just makes want a drink.
Maybe I’ll just take another nap instead and wait for this Lotus shindig to simmer along into an intergalactic explosion…
Singapore track map. © FIA
Championships are won over the course of a long, gruelling season, but every so often a drive stands out that defines that title. Today Fernando Alonso delivered just such a drive and took a step closer to burying his guilt-touched victory at Marina Bay in 2008. It was close though.
In fact, the margin of victory over the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel was only 0.2 of-a-second, but despite how perilously near the young German got to Alonso, there was a feeling that the double-World Champion had just enough in hand.
Alonso definitely helped himself with an aggressive getaway, weaving from the pole slot to the racing line, blocking an attack from Vettel as he did so and while the leading pair retained a stalemate, Jenson Button had no issues with taking the fight to his McLaren team mate, Lewis Hamilton.
As both got away from the line, Button jumped Hamilton only to give 3rd spot back to Hamilton approaching the exit – had it been anyone else, Button may well have pushed harder; however space in the opening few turns is tight and taking out one’s team mate is not best advised. Hamilton, on the racing line on the entry into the first corner, squeezed back passed the reigning Champion.
Neither Nick Heidfeld nor Vitantonio Liuzzi were as subtle. With the field circling the Marina Bay for the first racing laps, the pair bumped and scraped over 14th place, before the German slipped hard into Liuzzi’s rear. The contact, albeit brief, dislodged Heidfeld’s front wing, but damaged Liuzzi’s right rear suspension beyond repair; where the Sauber driver could pit for a new part (slowly), the Force India man was out of the race. Liuzzi parked his mortally wounded machine near the infamous ‘Singapore Sling’ – an act that would eventually bring out the safety car.
It was not the most auspicious of starts for Force India – Liuzzi’s team mate, Adrian Sutil – who had started on the eighth row alongside the Italian – took to the escape road at race start to avoid a potential accident; an action that would land him with a 20-second time penalty after the race. Another German driver, Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) also skipped the race track and would garner the same time penalty after the race.
The timing of the safety car worked very well for Felipe Massa. The Brazilian started 23rd following a gearbox failure in qualifying and with nothing to lose, pitted at the start of lap 2, changing to the hard tyres – with the safety car deployed less than a lap later, Massa found himself back at the tail of the pack with his obligatory tyre stop already completed. The Brazilian was originally to start dead last, but shortly before the race, Jaime Alguersuari suffered a water leak in his Toro Rosso – the Spaniard would start, but he did so from the pitlane.
As the field huddled together, a line of drivers from 12th downwards poured into the pits to get their stops out of the way, but the most significant was the car leading the trail. Red Bull, seeing Mark Webber stuck in 5th with little hope of passing Button, pulled the Championship leader into the pits to change to the hard tyres. The Australian emerged in 11th place, but without the need to pit again; however Webber would need to pass some cars to make this strategy really work.
The race restarted at the start of the 6th lap, with Webber instantly getting to work on the cars ahead. First up was the Virgin of Timo Glock (promote up the order by not stopping); the Red Bull also made moves by Kamui Kobayashi (lap 7), Michael Schumacher (lap 12) to bring to 8th place and under the wings of Rubens Barrichello. Sadly for Webber, the veteran would prove to be a wall that he struggled to break the Williams wall down.
It also proved to be disappointing for Vitaly Petrov – the rookie found himself running in the top ten early on, only to be touched by Hulkenberg in an ambitious manoeuvre – a move that would cost both vital positions.
Glock was also proving to be a barrier to overtaking. While the Virgin is certainly short on downforce and stability, not many would question the pace delivered by the Cosworth engine; however Glock was also delivering a stellar drive. For lap after lap, the German driver held a train of cars at bay, headed by Sutil (12th), Hulkenberg (13th) and Massa (14th). It would not be until lap 15 that Sutil finally found a way passed the Virgin, followed by Hulkenberg, Massa and Petrov a lap later – the Virgin would eventually fall to 17th position by the 20th tour, his tyres struggling under the pressure.
Fernando Alonso certainly did not look like he was under any pressure. With startling consistency, the Spaniard set fastest lap after fastest lap, Vettel was not letting his title rival get away – lessening fuel loads saw the front running machines pick up more and more pace; however Alonso would also be worried about the already pitted Webber.
Alonso would need approximately 31 seconds to spare if he wanted to clear Webber and the Ferrari driver would get it. As the Red Bull driver was stuck for an age behind Barrichello, the gap grew ever larger until Alonso hit his target on the 19th lap – trapped behind the Williams, the race win would allude Webber, as soon would 2nd position. With race passed the one-third point, Webber was now racing for 3rd place; a position that was more than attainable.
Meanwhile, the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton was still holding his 3rd place spot. By the 25th tour of the Marina Bay course, the 2008 World Champion had fallen some 21 seconds behind Alonso, but had a comfortable 6-second lead ahead of 4th place Button – by definition a quiet race for the McLaren team.
Hamilton only had 20 seconds over Webber – it was not enough to clear the Australian; something that became apparent when the McLaren driver pulled into the pitlane on lap 29. His tyres changed, Hamilton fed back onto the track to find himself nearly ten seconds behind the Red Bull driver – unless something very dramatic happened, the podium would be lost.
Also in the pits at the same time as Hamilton was the Lotus of Jarno Trulli. The part-Malaysian/part-British team have spent the entire season plagued by hydraulic problems and the Singapore Grand Prix would be no exception – with just less than half the race completed, one Lotus was already parked as Trulli climbed from his stricken machine.
The leaders were the next to stop for fresh tyres on lap 30. Vettel had closed the gap to 2 seconds, but it was not enough to overhaul the Ferrari – both stops were clean, but Vettel very nearly stalled as he left his pit, ensuring the Ferrari driver had a safe lead.
Another to pit was Jenson Button – the reigning Champion had spent the previous five laps taking chunks of time out of Hamilton, but it was not enough to jump his team mate; the gap to Hamilton was simply too large.
While the leaders were busying themselves with service, Kobayashi and Schumacher were battling over 9th spot with the veteran just ahead. The pair had been close for several, but it got too close on the 30th lap – Schumacher, baulked slightly while lapping a backmarker, left a small gap for the Sauber driver. The gap was never going to be big enough and Kobayashi speared the Mercedes driver into the tyre barrier.
Schumacher got away with it, although he pitted to be certain of no damage; however within two laps Kobayashi, desperate to make up for lost time, plunged into the guardrail entering the tunnel – race over. Remarkably, after several cars avoided the stricken Sauber, Bruno Senna missed the warning signals and ran into the side of Kobayashi’s car – he too, would retire on the spot, ending what had been a dreadful weekend for the Brazilian. Senna’s Hispania team mate, Christian Klien would retire only moments later with hydraulic problems.
With two cars precariously stuck into the wall, the safety car re-emerged, neutralising the race.
This was not good news for either Barrichello or Robert Kubica – both had yet to pit and would have to do so as the field clambered together, it would eventually cost them a position apiece. With 34 laps in the books Alonso still led from Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Button, and Nico Rosberg, although the gap had been squeezed to virtually nothing.
It did not take long for Kobayashi and Senna’s cars to be cleared and the race restarted on lap 36 and once again Alonso and Vettel surged ahead.
Mark Webber was not quite as fortunate on the restart. The Australian found himself behind both Virgin machines at the restart and while Glock moved aside, Lucas di Grassi proved to be a moving chicane – as the Brazilian baulked the Red Bull driver, Hamilton grabbed the initiative and pulled into Webber’s slipstream. As the pair raced down straight towards turn 7, Hamilton inched ahead ever so slightly, yet Webber held the inside line – in a corner with enough room for only one car, both surged into it, hoping the other would bail out. Neither did and with a severe clunk, Webber’s right front nudged the left rear of Hamilton, damaging the suspension of the McLaren – the 2008 World Champion was out on the spot and for the second consecutive race would claim no points.
It was very much a racing incident and with a title at stake, neither was willing to give in, yet it may end up proving costly to Hamilton come Abu Dhabi.
The Webber / Hamilton clash proved to be not the only incident on circuit. Amazingly enough, Schumacher found himself clashing with the other Sauber of Nick Heidfeld on lap 37 – the pair found themselves battling further down the field.
The pair collided into turn 7 as well in a similar fashion as the Webber / Hamilton; however this time Schumacher surged from ever further behind in a move that was never going to work – Heidfeld slid into the barrier and out of the race, but Schumacher – with a damaged front wing managed to carry on to the pits.
This was turning into a horrible race for the German contingent.
Robert Kubica was also having a tough day. Following his earlier pitstop under the safety car, the Pole found himself with a slow puncture on the 46th lap – after his earlier stop dropped him to 7th, this would see the Renault driver fall out of the points altogether.
He would not take long to recover. On fresh rubber, Kubica swiftly found the back of the points train and began to make some moves – Buemi made it difficult for a time, but could not hold Kubica behind (lap 52); within a lap, Buemi pitted for soft tyres. A lap later, the Pole was easily let through by team mate Petrov to get into the points positions.
Even Massa was easy for the Renault – as the Ferrari driver struggled on tyres that had done well over fifty laps, he simply had no answer for the Polish powerhouse. Moves passed Hulkenberg (lap 55) and around the outside of Sutil into turn 5 (lap 56) saw Kubica regain his 7th position; however Barrichello was simply too far ahead to make a top 6 a possibility.
Kubica wasn’t the only fast man on track at this late stage. Sebastian Vettel busied himself setting fastest lap after fastest lap behind Alonso, but the Red Bull driver just did not have enough for the Ferrari as the gap rarely got to less than-a-second.
Vettel had a little help from the backmarkers – the leading pair found themselves approaching a battle for 13th between Heikki Kovalainen and Schumacher on lap 58. Alonso and Vettel soon made their way passed the pair, but Schumacher would use this opportunity to grab the place off of Kovalainen. Within one tour, Buemi had also caught the Lotus and attempted a dive bomb on Kovalainen for 14th – it was a ridiculous move and one that was never going to work out.
As Buemi slammed into the rear of Kovalainen, the inevitable hit cracked open the fuel pressure valve on the Lotus and while Buemi was able to continue on, Kovalainen ground to a halt on the start / finish straight as his airbox caught fire. The rear of the car quickly became engulfed in flames, yet incredibly no marshals were on hand to put out the blaze. With fire extinguishers handed to him by the Williams pit crew, the Finn doused the flames himself. It was an unfortunate way for Lotus to end the race; however the team took much encouragement from Kovalainen’s race pace.
Precious little of this mattered to Alonso as started the 61st and final lap. Although he kept his Ferrari just one second ahead of Vettel through the final laps, the double-World Champion never seriously looked as if he would be threatened by the Red Bull driver in the final few turns and as they pair crossed the finish line to take the chequered flag, Fernando Alonso claimed his second Singapore victory. This time, it was legitimate.
It was simply a master-class by the Ferrari, but a large amount of credit also for Sebastian Vettel. The young German pushed Alonso for the entire race, but he just did not have enough to steal the win on this occasion.
Mark Webber completed the podium with a drive that evenly mixed ballsy overtaking and ballsy strategy – pitting at such an early stage could easily have backfired for the Australian had he stayed in traffic, but the Championship leader made all the right moves to slot into a podium position. Jenson Button could not do enough to better 4th spot – in reality, the McLaren’s were the 3rd best car all weekend, meaning Singapore was all about damage limitation; however this result now leaves the Briton a full 25 points shy of Webber in the title hunt.
Nico Rosberg had another good, if silent run in the points as he took 5th position ahead of the Williams of Rubens Barrichello (6th). Robert Kubica crossed the line in 7th spot ahead of both Adrian Sutil and Nico Hulkenberg; however post-race penalties for the pair dropped the German pair to 9th and 10th respectively. Felipe Massa rescued his race somewhat with a solid run to the flag, helped by a first lap stop for the hard tyres.
Vitaly Petrov is bound to be disappointed with his 11th place finish – the early race contact with Hulkenberg was one of many factors that denied him points, but ultimately his lack of pace on destroyed tyres late on also dropped him back. Jaime Alguersuari also had a quite Grand Prix – he had looked pretty quick through Friday, but his pre-race failure put paid to any hope of points as he came home 12th.
Neither Michael Schumacher or Sebastien Buemi could improve on 13th and 14th respectively once passed Heikki Kovalainen – while Buemi was fairly anonymous on track, Schumacher had a tough time as this latest generation took no prisoners. Lucas di Grassi came home in 15th, the last of the runners, although Kovalainen was still classified in 16th, despite the late race blaze.
With now only four races remaining (should Korea actually go ahead), Webber has extended his lead at the top of the standings to 11 points, although his main chaser is now the in-form Fernando Alonso. Two consecutive retirements for Hamilton have dropped the Briton to third spot, some 19 points shy of Webber and now only 2 points ahead of Vettel. Jenson Button has fallen to fifth with 177 points.
Although hardly the most exciting race of the year, Marina Bay always does enough to keep one busy and this year was no exception and thankfully there was no race fixing (that we know of) to taint the event. This time around, Fernando Alonso took the race fair and square.
In two weeks, Formula 1 moves to Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix – one of the most majestic circuits on the calender, Suzuka rarely provides much in the way of overtaking, but has still managed to produce some of the most classic races of all time. A real drivers circuit, it is an absolute joy.
Race Rating: 3 out of 5
——–
Marina Bay, Singapore Grand Prix (Round 15, September 26th)
1 ALONSO Ferrari 1h57m53.6s (61 laps)
2 VETTEL Red Bull +0.3s
3 WEBBER Red Bull +29.1s
4 BUTTON McLaren +30.4s
5 ROSBERG Mercedes +49.4s
6 BARRICHELLO Williams +56.1s
7 KUBICA Renault +1m26.6s
8 MASSA Ferrari +1m53.3s
9 SUTIL Force India +2m12.4s*
10 HULKENBERG Williams +2m12.8s*
11 PETROV Renault +1 lap
12 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +1 lap
13 SCHUMACHER Mercedes +1 lap
14 BUEMI Toro Rosso +1 lap
15 DI GRASSI Virgin +2 laps
16 KOVALAINEN Lotus +3 laps
R GLOCK Virgin +12 laps
R HEIDFELD Sauber +25 laps
R HAMILTON McLaren +26 laps
R KLIEN HRT +30 laps
R KOBAYASHI Sauber +31 laps
R SENNA HRT +32 laps
R TRULLI Lotus +34 laps
R LIUZZI Force India +60 laps
(*Both Sutil and Hulkenberg received 20-second post-race penalties)
| Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | 202 |
| 2. Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 191 |
| 3. Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 182 |
| 4. Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing | 181 |
| 5. Jenson Button | McLaren | 177 |
| 6. Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 128 |
| 7. Nico Rosberg | Mercedes GP | 122 |
| 8. Robert Kubica | Renault | 114 |
| 9. Adrian Sutil | Force India | 47 |
| 10. Michael Schumacher | Mercedes GP | 46 |
| 11. Rubens Barrichello | Williams | 39 |
| 12. Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 21 |
| 13. Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 19 |
| 14. Nico Hulkenberg | Williams | 17 |
| 15. Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India | 13 |
| 16. Sebastien Buemi | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 7 |
| 17. Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber | 6 |
| 18. Jaime Alguersuari | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 3 |
| Constructor Team | Points |
|---|---|
| 1. Red Bull Racing | 383 |
| 2. McLaren | 359 |
| 3. Ferrari | 319 |
| 4. Mercedes GP | 168 |
| 5. Renault | 133 |
| 6. Force India | 60 |
| 7. Williams | 56 |
| 8. Sauber | 27 |
| 9. Scuderia Toro Rosso | 10 |
Layout of the Thomson Road circuit. © Copyright unknown.
Mention the ‘Singapore Grand Prix’ and thoughts of night racing, bright lights …and, of course, Nelson Piquet Jr instantly come to mind.
Although the 2008 Grand of Singapore was the nation’s first step into Formula 1, it was not the first time the Great Prize was contested there.
At a time when Singapore was still part of Malaysia, a Grand Prix was put into plan by the Singapore Motor Club.
Yet Singapore did not have a permanent circuit, and thus a temporary layout was was carved out near the Nature Reserve at the heart of the island.
The scale of the event was such that the Motor Club had no choice but to seek the assistance of the Ministry of Social Affairs to help in running the event. Being a temporary street circuit, measures were needed to ensure public life and safety would be disrupted as little as possible.
Running around the Old Upper Thomson Road, the track consisted of a mile-long start / finish kink, two tight hairpins, several fast sweeps and a brilliantly named tight right-hander called “Devil’s Bend.” The mixture of high speed and hard braking meant that riveting racing on the nine-turn, 3 mile circuit would be a near certainty.
The Grand Prix weekend would play host to many formulae and forms of racing, including both cars and motorbikes. While the motorbike races accepted makes with varying ranges of power output, the car support races often included short runs from production saloons, vintage cars and high powered sports cars.
However, it was the Grand Prix itself that held the attention of crowds.
Graeme Lawrence (seen here in the Tasman series) had a lot of success at Thomson Road. © Copyright unknown.
Débuting during the Easter of 1961 to Formula Libre and Australian Formula 2 rules, the Orient Year Grand Prix ran to 60 laps in its early years, until 1969.
From then until 1971, the event would be run as two separate heats – a 20 lap ‘sprint race’ followed by the main event thereafter. From 1972 to ’73, the Grand Prix became a single 50 lap run.
The first Grand Prix on the island was won by Ian Barnwell in an Aston Martin DB3S and a good turn out and positive press saw the event return a year later; only this time called the Malaysian Grand Prix. So popular was the race that it quickly established itself as one of the main flyaway races of the off-season.
Alongside meetings in Macau, Japan and southerly excursions to Australia and New Zealand, the Malaysian Grand Prix would finally gain status as part of the World Racing Calendar in 1963.
It wasn’t all smooth running though. When the Grand Prix returned in 1964, the organisers found themselves struck by a Singapore monsoon wash-out (not unlike the one that red flagged the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix).
In treacherous conditions , the race was delayed for over 90 minutes before the green flag was finally dropped. It was probably not the wisest of moves by the organisers for within five laps, the Grand Prix was halted following several serious accidents – the event would be annulled and no winner declared.
In August 1965 the island finally gained independence from Malaysia and the event officially became known as the Singapore Grand Prix the following year. Now shy of a recognised race, the Malaysian organised a Grand Prix of their own for various formulae, running at the Shah Alam Circuit from 1968 until 1982 and then a once-off race in 1995.
Now under home rule, the island of Singapore embraced the truly international race and such was the popularity of the event that by the mid-60’s, crowds at the event had already surpassed 100,000 people on race day alone.
Local racing heroes, such as Yong Nam Kee, Lee Han Seng and Rodney Seow were all successful at the track as was Hong Kong native Albert Poon, but it was Tasman Series Champion, Graeme Lawrence that garnered the most plaudits, with three victories during the sprint race years.
As the years ticked by, the event grew substantially – in 1972, a record 430 entrants gained spots in the Grand Prix’ fifteen events, with participants from all over the world (146 motorbike entries along with 284 cars for the various formulae).
Programme for the 1967 event. © Copyright unknown.
The final running of the race was taken by part-time Formula 1 driver, Vern Schuppan in a March-Ford – it would be one of several non-Championship races that the Australian would take during the period.
In fact, Schuppan also managed to notch up two victories at the Macau Grand Prix following his Singapore success.
But while Macau lives on, the days of the Grand Prix on Thomson Road were numbered.
The circuit layout brought many complaints from drivers, with much dissent aimed squarely at the lack of run off area anywhere around the track. Often slick, the circuit’s fast sweeps and Devil’s Bend were frequent accident spots – in fact the latter corner would claim three lives over the course of Grand Prix’ existence.
Following the 1973 running, motor racing was banned from Singapore and the race disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared, with the government claiming that the Grand Prix promoted dangerous driving amongst civilians.
They would also acknowledge that it was next to impossible to implement adequate safety measures for the circuit layout.
Over time, these feelings eased and with the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang growing in stature, the ban on motor racing was reconsidered, before finally being dropped in late 2005. The road was now clear for Grand Prix racing to return to the island of Singapore, but this time as part of the World Championship, circling the Marina Bay area.
With several years of preparation behind them, the first Singapore Grand Prix in 35 years ran in September 2008 and – with a little help from Nelson Piquet Jr – it became possibly one of the most famous and controversial Grand Prix of all time.
Singapore track layout. © FIA
Free Practice 3
Rain fell some hours prior to practice, but even by the green light, the track was still rather damp as the road struggled to clear water. The times would gradually drop bit by bit as the circuit dried out, but it was still proving to be difficult to master around certain corners.
Turn 5 being one of them – the quick righter hander retained a good deal of water late into the evening; something that would eventually catch out Lewis Hamilton, Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Rosberg.
Someone not caught out was Sebastian Vettel. The Red Bull driver set the fastest time around the Marina Bay circuit, again with a large gap in hand over his competitors.
Ferrari – having decided to drop the F-duct following yesterday’s session – had heir two drivers in the top 4. Fernando Alonso took 2nd place just over half-a-second behind Vettel and 0.3 of-a-second ahead of team mate Felipe Massa(4th). The Ferrari pair squeezed Lewis Hamilton in 3rd spot; however Hamilton’s McLaren partner, Jenson button was unable to register a solid time, leaving the reigning World Champion in 13th.
At the rear of the pack, Bruno Senna spun around at the entry of turn 10 chicane, as the young Brazilian struggled in his Hispania Racing machine. Senna eventually finished last on the timing sheets, something not helped by him running off circuit at turn 18 as the clock ran out.
Qualifying
Just when Red Bull entered a phase when they were to kings, Fernando Alonso dethroned them in spectacular style. The double-World Champion threw his Ferrari around the Marina Bay street circuit to lay claim to his 2nd pole position of the season and his 2nd in a row. This time Sebastian Vettel was Alonso’s closest rival, with the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton in 3rd place – just. Both Vettel and Hamilton really let their respective machines hang out around the 23-turn course – on this day, it was simply not enough. The top three had two runs in the final session, but their time from their initial runs were enough to solidify their positions. More disappointed were Jenson Button and Mark Webber – as they took the chequered flag, both improved, but only enough to register 4th (Button) and 5th (Webber).
Surprisingly, the fastest Brazilian in qualifying was the Williams driver, Rubens Barrichello – the veteran let his confidence reign on the brightly lit streets and will be happy to be sharing the third row with the Championship leader. Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica found themselves paired on the fourth row, while Michael Schumacher (his first top ten in qualifying since July) and Kamui Kobayashi secured the fifth row of the grid.
Jaime Alguersuari topped the list of drivers knocked out at the end of the second qualifying period. The young Spaniard had been looking at a top ten spot during practice, but couldn’t make it work when it mattered most; however he was still somewhat ahead of his Toro Rosso team mate, Sebastien Buemi (14th).
Between Alguersuari and Buemi were Nico Hulkenberg (12th) and Vitaly Petrov (13th) – both of whom had been hoping to do better. Unfortunately for Hulkenberg, his fate was sealed before qualifying – the German needed a new gearbox and garnered a five-place grid penalty as a result (he’ll start 17th), a fact that left him angry after his run. As for the under pressure Petrov, he threw his Renault into the barrier at turn 4, damaging his right rear suspension and ending his session prematurely. Prior to qualifying, the Renault team had decided to leave the F-duct off of Petrov’s car to help him learn the track, but it was not enough to get the Russian up to speed. Upon his return to Formula 1, Nick Heidfeld qualified put in the 15th best time, but managed to go quicker than both Force India’s headed by Adrian Sutil.
Timo Glock headed the battle of the new teams, as the German took led the group ousted from the first qualifying period. The Virgin Racing driver just beat his team mate Lucas di Grassi (20th) by less than half-a-second, as they squeezed the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen in 19th spot. Jarno Trulli struggled in the second Lotus and planted his green and yellow car on the 11th row of the grid in front of both Hispania’s. A spin for Bruno Senna at turn 4 did not help his cause – the Brazilian found himself well out-qualified by his new Hispania Racing team mate, Christian Klien (22nd).
Felipe Massa stopped on track ten minutes into the opening period – an electronic issue killing his engine and gearbox leaving him in a precarious position on the road at the exit of turn 14. It brought out the the red flag, while corner workers busied themselves trying to clear his Ferrari – the fraught Brazilian never got in a lap time and will start from last.
Singapore, Qualifying (September 25th)
1 ALONSO Ferrari 1m45.390s
2 VETTEL Red Bull 1m45.457s
3 HAMILTON McLaren 1m45.571s
4 BUTTON McLaren 1m45.944s
5 WEBBER Red Bull 1m45.977s
6 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m46.236s
7 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m46.443s
8 KUBICA Renault 1m46.593s
9 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m46.702s
10 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m47.884s
11 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m47.666s
12 PETROV Renault 1m48.165s
13 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m48.502s
14 HEIDFELD Sauber 1m48.557s
15 SUTIL Force India 1m48.899s
16 LIUZZI Force India 1m48.961s
17 HULKENBERG Williams 1m47.674s (* 5-place penalty for gearbox change)
18 GLOCK Virgin 1m50.721s
19 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m50.915s
20 DI GRASSI Virgin 1m51.107s
21 TRULLI Lotus 1m51.641s
22 KLIEN HRT 1m52.946s
23 SENNA HRT 1m54.174s
24 MASSA Ferrari no time
Singapore, 3rd Free Practice (September 25th)
1 VETTEL Red Bull 1m48.028s
2 ALONSO Ferrari 1m48.650s
3 HAMILTON McLaren 1m49.000s
4 MASSA Ferrari 1m49.023s
5 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m49.056s
6 WEBBER Red Bull 1m49.212s
7 HULKENBERG Williams 1m49.304s
8 KUBICA Renault 1m49.520s
9 SUTIL Force India 1m49.916s
10 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m49.949s
11 PETROV Renault 1m50.040s
12 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m50.053s
13 BUTTON McLaren 1m50.060s
14 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m50.067s
15 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m50.067s
16 LIUZZI Force India 1m50.868s
17 HEIDFELD Sauber 1m51.016s
18 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m51.027s
19 GLOCK Virgin 1m52.340s
20 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m53.146s
21 DI GRASSI Virgin 1m53.297s
22 TRULLI Lotus 1m53.681s
23 KLIEN HRT 1m54.826s
24 SENNA HRT 1m55.367s
Singapore track layout. © FIA
Free Practice 1
As the green light flickered on at the pitlane exit, the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen was the first to venture out on to the Marina Bay circuit. Having rained heavily some time prior to practice, intermediate tyres were the order of the early evening; however the track conditions were to change subtly as cars pounded around the Singapore track.
The track was not the only thing to change – Sakon Yamamoto had come down with “food poisoning” on Thursday night, leaving the Hispania team to announce former Red Bull and Jaguar driver, Christine Klien to drive in his place.
As announced the day after the Italian Grand Prix, Nick Heidfeld has replaced Pedro de la Rosa at the Sauber team for the rest of the season. Fairuz Fauzy also sat in for Jarno Trulli at Lotus, while Jerome d’Ambrosio made his Formula 1 weekend début at Virgin, becoming the 19th Belgian to pilot a top-level car at a competitive weekend.
Both Red Bull and McLaren showed up with various aerodynamic and suspension updates, with more expected in Japan (in two weeks). The updates would serve the Red Bull the most. With the track drying up late on, Mark Webber claimed the top spot ahead of the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher, while Sebastian Vettel ended up 4th on the time sheets. The McLaren’s were somewhat more conservative on track – Button eventually registered the 6th best time and Lewis Hamilton in 18th.
At Renault Robert Kubica was running the F-duct, while team mate Vitaly Petrov ran the regular rear wing – both ended up in the top ten with Petrov (10th) behind Kubica (9th); however the Pole ran very few laps.
Kamui Kobayashi spent much of the damp part of the session at the top of the standings, but he would eventually fall to 12th by the end of the first 90 minute run as the dry pace of the Sauber became more apparent.
Free Practice 2
Red Bull were on top in the second practice as well; this time, it was Sebastian Vettel that was fastest, with Mark Webber in 2nd; however the gap to the rest of the field was quite ominous. Webber, though, trailed Vettel by quite a gap – the Australian lodged a time that was 0.6 of-a-second behind his team mate. As the teams ran race weights later in the session, the Red Bulls remained the faster of the runners. Next up on the sheets was McLaren’s Jenson Button, a clear one second behind the Austrian cars and ahead of his team mate of Lewis Hamilton (5th).
On a fast lap, Fernando Alonso overshot the entry into turn 18, diverting his Ferrari into the escape road. The Spaniard reversed back onto the track, but stalled his car. He had previously set the 4th fastest time, but his off-track excursion ended his practice run prematurely.
Both Renault were using their F-duct during the session, but sadly for Robert Kubica, his car spent much of the session sidelined with hydraulic issues, leaving him stranded in 9th on the time sheets, but still ahead of his rookie team mate, Vitaly Petrov (14th). Timo Glock was having huge problems with his Virgin, as the German found his red and black machine severely unstable on exit of a number of corners – the search for balance going awry. However, Glock (20th) would still register a time 1.3 seconds faster than his under pressure team mate Lucas di Grassi.
The ‘Singapore Sling’ was altered slightly to spread the kerbs outs and it caught out Robert Kubica early on. Jaime Alguersuari and Fernando Alonso also had adventures over the high kerbs, but suffered quite as much as Adrian Sutil in his Force India.
The German driver entered the section far too fast, hopping the kerbs hard and getting a lift into the air. As he came down, the front left took the full brunt of the fall and the wheel was partially torn from its suspension mountings, leaving the Force India 16th and considerably damaged. Sutil carried on to the pits on three wheels – an act that landed him a $10,000 fine from the stewards.
Alguersuari also swiped the wall hard on the exit of turn 19, but managed to continue on for an extra lap, despite the huge hit his right rear suspension received. His Toro Rosso team mate, Sebastien Buemi also rubbed the wall, but not with as much force as his Spanish compatriot.
Singapore, 2nd Free Practice (September 24th)
1 VETTEL Red Bull 1m46.660s
2 WEBBER Red Bull 1m47.287s
3 BUTTON McLaren 1m47.690s
4 ALONSO Ferrari 1m47.718s
5 HAMILTON McLaren 1m47.818s
6 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m48.302s
7 MASSA Ferrari 1m48.341s
8 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m48.679s
9 KUBICA Renault 1m48.855s
10 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m48.889s
11 HULKENBERG Williams 1m49.153s
12 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m49.438s
13 HEIDFELD Sauber 1m49.558s
14 PETROV Renault 1m49.608s
15 LIUZZI Force India 1m49.896s
16 SUTIL Force India 1m49.984s
17 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m50.191s
18 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m50.896s
19 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m51.878s
20 GLOCK Virgin 1m52.150s
21 DI GRASSI Virgin 1m53.431s
22 TRULLI Lotus 1m53.526s
23 SENNA HRT 1m54.725s
24 KLIEN HRT 1m55.542s
Singapore, 1st Free Practice (September 24th)
1 WEBBER Red Bull 1m54.589s
2 SCHUMACHER Mercedes 1m54.708s
3 SUTIL Force India 1m54.827s
4 VETTEL Red Bull 1m55.137s
5 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso 1m55.160s
6 BUTTON McLaren 1m55.333s
7 LIUZZI Force India 1m55.510s
8 BUEMI Toro Rosso 1m55.523s
9 KUBICA Renault 1m55.672s
10 PETROV Renault 1m55.914s
11 ALONSO Ferrari 1m56.090s
12 KOBAYASHI Sauber 1m56.339s
13 HEIDFELD Sauber 1m56.458s
14 ROSBERG Mercedes 1m56.598s
15 KOVALAINEN Lotus 1m56.603s
16 BARRICHELLO Williams 1m56.615s
17 HULKENBERG Williams 1m56.840s
18 HAMILTON McLaren 1m56.884s
19 MASSA Ferrari 1m57.760s
20 GLOCK Virgin 1m59.034s
21 D’AMBROSIO Virgin 1m59.275s
22 SENNA HRT 1m59.783s
23 KLIEN HRT 2m03.424s
24 FAUZY Lotus 2m05.694s
Moraes and Sato have taken eachother out on occasion. ©kvracingtechnology.homestead.com
What a time to be in Jimmy Vasser’s or Kevin Kalkhoven’s shoes. Their KV Racing Technology team has been forced to rebuild more cars in a single IndyCar season than most teams would car to do in five, as their trio of regular drivers – Takuma Sato, Mario Moraes and EJ Viso – and part-time pilot Paul Tracy have amassed approximately 30 wrecked cars in 16 race weekends.
A clearly pensive EJ Viso at Motegi. ©kvracingtechnology.homestead.com
The real disappointment has been Takuma Sato. The ex-Formula 1 driver arrived with much promise, but has only delivered repair bills – for all the years that I have watched Sato race, I have never seen him crash as much as he has this year. It’s now become a surprise when he sees the chequered flag.
Sato did manage to deliver at Motegi with a 12th place finish (he started 10th), but the Japanese veteran still dented some carbon fibre following a smash during Saturday practice.
Paul Tracy has only competed in two races for KV this year (Toronto and Edmonton), having not qualified for the Indianapolis 500 in May. On both those occasions, the Canadian scored some very welcome points, but with limited funds at his disposal, his time in the driver’s was cut short – a similar situation faces him next year.
So what next for KV Racing? At this stage it is not impossible to see a clean slate for the team come 2011 – there are certainly enough good drivers available (should they have the money) and it would be tough to argue why any of the current posse should be maintained.
With Webber finishing down in 6th and Hamilton retiring early on at the famed Italian circuit, good results for Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel have brought them right back into the fight.
It means that this weekend’s night race at Marina Bay in Singapore could be hugely important – especially if the weather forecast proves to be correct. Heavy rain and thunder storms are expected tomorrow (and for the rest of the weekend) and while they’re not expected to fall during the sessions themselves, drainage could be a problem for the drivers. As this is the only Grand Prix under lights, there may be worries about the possibility of drivers been partially blinded by floodlight reflections from a shiny, wet surface should the rain arrive.
Prior to the Italian Grand Prix, the title race was supposedly down to just Webber and Hamilton, but now the title challengers are all within one win of eachother – all it could take is one mistake and the face of the Championship will change irrevocably, again.
One driver not challenging for the title that may yet still get a few column inches is Nick Heidfeld. The former-Mercedes driver returns to Sauber to replace Pedro de la Rosa who was dropped just after the Italian Grand Prix – it will be Heidfeld’s first race since he drove for the Sauber squad (in the guise of BMW) at last November’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The oval at Motegi (highlighted). © Copyright unknown.
And so it is down to the wire. The IndyCar Series ran its 16th race of 17 early this morning (very early in my case) in front of a very healthy crowd and good runs for both title contenders – Will Power (Penske) and Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) – means the Championship will run right to the wire once again.
Power entered this race with a 17-point advantage and the possibility to wrap it all up should it go wrong for Franchitti, but by the drop of the chequered flag, the Ganassi driver had gotten just a little bit closer. However this day belonged to one of the other Penske drivers, Helio Castroneves.
The Brazilian had secured his second pole position of the season (the first being Indianapolis) and on race day in Japan, Castroneves ran off into the distance claiming the victory, fastest lap and most laps led – it was quite simply an awe inspiring drive in a race that stuttered with caution periods aplenty. The third Penske of Ryan Briscoe took to the outside of the first row, while the title fighting had the second row all to themselves.
As the green flag flew on what was one of the hottest IndyCar races in recent history, Castroneves shot off into the distance, while Power dipped down to 5th behind Franchitti and Marco Andretti in his Andretti-Autosport machine. Power’s nosedive through the standings was halted in dramatic fashion – as the field swung through the exit of turn 2 on the second lap; all, that is, except Bertrand Baguette. The Conquest Racing driving appeared to lose his rear end midway through the turn and his the turn 2 SAFER barrier very hard, ripping off part of the rear end in the process – the Belgian seemed puzzled, lamenting that “…I don’t know really what happened. I lost it out of (turn) 2 without any reasons…”
Almost immediately, the safety car appeared. With nothing much to lose, Paul Tracy, Alex Tagliani, Simona de Silvestro, Justin Wilson and series returnee Roger Yasukawa took this chance to pit and top up with fuel. Unfortunately for Tagliani, the FAZZT racer was found to be speeding in the pitlane and was duly sent to the back of the pack.
Sparks flew high as the cars bottomed out on the Japanese track. © indycar.com
The green flew again on lap 11 and once again Castroneves jumped into a commanding lead. Behind the Brazilian, a wonderful battle was unfolding as both Briscoe and Franchitti charged eachother hard, swapping 2nd place amongst themselves for several laps. Power meanwhile had fallen to 6th behind the Andretti-Autosport car of Tony Kanaan.
The early signs for the four-car Andretti-Autosport team were somewhat positive, with their other drivers – Danica Patrick and Ryan Hunter-Reay – running in the top ten with no problems.
No problems. That was exactly what Castroneves was having. With 30 laps under his belt, the three-time Indy 500 winner had 2.5 second cushion over Briscoe, who had now pulled a small gap over 3rd place Franchitti. No one else was even in the picture. Castroneves’ lead became 3.8 seconds by lap 39 when Franchitti jumped ahead of Briscoe and into 2nd place. Will Power also had a moment; a wiggle caused the Australian to be swallowed by traffic as he fell to the fringes of the top ten.
Seconds later, the next full course yellow came out and Helio’s commanding lead had evaporated. As the field slowed, it became clear that the Dale Coyne machine of Alex Lloyd had hit problems and was considerable slow on the back stretch – his throttle linkage broken. Unable to make it back to the pits, the 2007 Indy Lights Champion found himself being towed back to the pits for repairs. Lloyd would return to the action on lap 62, albeit a 15 laps behind the leaders.
With the pits open, the pack crawled in and although Castroneves led the way out, a change directly behind him saw Briscoe grab 2nd back off of Franchitti.
Racing got under way again on lap 49 and with incredible repetition, Castroneves began to streak away at the front, pulling out 1.5 seconds within a few laps of the stint. Castroneves would continue to streak away until his progress was dented yet again on the 67th tour – another full course caution.
This time it was the KV Racing machine driven by Mario Moraes that brought out the yellows. As his Dallara flew through the second turn, his suspension appeared to give way, pitching the Brazilian very hard into the SAFER barrier. It would be a long caution as Moraes sought medical attention for back pain and needed to be carefully lifted from his car; however reports from the hospital have since declared him in good condition, if a little sore. In the meantime, the pitlane readied itself for activity once again, with most of the field pitting – apart from Raphael Matos (de Ferran/Dragon Racing) and Hideki Mutoh (Newman/Haas Racing), both of whom would circle in 1st and 2nd respectively under caution.
The leading pair got a big break when the green flag waved again on the beginning of lap 77 – Castroneves (now in 3rd following his stop) very nearly lost the rear of his Penske while exiting the final corner. The loss of momentum gave Matos and Mutoh some much needed breathing room, but also allowed Briscoe to surge passed his team mate, but not before Franchitti swallowed both of them to assume 3rd spot – Castroneves now found himself in 5th position and fighting off the attentions of Patrick.
Franchitti himself would lose out shortly afterwards. With the lead in his sights, Ryan Briscoe grabbed 3rd position from the Scot (lap 82), before taking 2nd away from Mutoh (lap 85). The Australian then assumed the lead from Matos on lap 87. In the mess of overtaking, Castroneves also took both Franchitti and Mutoh to move into the top-3 and eventually swooped by Matos for 2nd (lap 96). Not far behind this group, Power, Kanaan and Scott Dixon (Ganassi) were fighting hard over 7th, 8th and 9th positions – with Dixon winning that particular battle. As for Matos and Mutoh, both eventually lost their strategy gamble, as first Matos took to the pits on lap 102, with Mutoh stopping for fuel and tyres a lap later – both would find themselves lapped and out of the running in 18th and 19th positions respectively.
Simona de Silvestro was another driver whose race turned sour just after the mid-point, although one could argue that it had been a difficult weekend non-stop for the HVM driver. Already 11 laps down after five long stops, a constant vibration at her front end proved to be too much and the car was parked for the day.
While the race drew to an early close for the ‘Swiss Miss’, things were only just beginning to hot up at the front. Briscoe at one point held a 1.5 second advantage over Castroneves, yet by lap 106, this was already down to half-a-second as the Brazilian drew ever closer. Inch-by-inch, Castroneves pulled himself towards the rear wing of his team mate, but with a shudder his advance was halted yet again – turn 2 had claimed another victim, this time the veteran Paul Tracy. This incident was minus the damage inflicted upon Baguette and Moraes, as the Canadian simple scoured the outside barrier, but it was enough to destroy his suspension – Tracy was out and so were the yellow flags.
Once again pitstops were on the cards and this time everyone pitted and with supreme efficiency, the crews turned their respective machines around – some better than others though – Castroneves jumped Briscoe to once again claim the lead.
Local hero, Hideki Mutoh ran well for a time, before dropping back. © indycar.com
For once, the yellow period was brief and green flag conditions resumed on lap 121. As if written in stone, Helio tore away from the pack, but Franchitti was not so willing to let Briscoe get clear – within one lap, the Scot had swallowed up Briscoe and claimed 2nd spot, but even Franchitti had nothing for Castroneves. By lap 135, the Penske had nearly 3 seconds on his Ganassi rival.
Briscoe, meanwhile found he had a fired-up Danica Patrick on his tail. The Motegi race-winner from 2008 started 12th, but had fought way through the field and was running a solid 4th, just ahead of the continuing Dixon/Kanaan/Power battle for 5th.
With almost predictable timing, the Castroneves’ surge was brought to a standstill once again. The Penske driver had pulled close to 4 seconds out on Franchitti, when Alex Lloyd hit the wall at the exit of turn 2 with a sickening thud – the Dale Coyne driver lost his right front suspension in the middle of the corner, plunging him into the SAFER barrier nearly head on. Remarkably, the 25-year-old climbed out of his Dallara almost immediately with no problems.
This time the safety crew stayed out for quite a long time, as parts of Lloyd’s car had wedged themselves underneath the barrier; while they were being removed, the field pitted for the final time. While Castroneves maintained the lead, Briscoe beat Franchitti out of the pits to claim 2nd spot – or so we thought. Upon inspection, Franchitti had only just inched his way ahead of the Penske at the pit exit line and Briscoe was ordered to give 2nd back to the Ganassi driver. Power meanwhile, jumped to 4th with a stunning stop from his crew.
The green flag flew for the final time on lap 168 as (again) Castroneves took advantage of a clear track to take a commanding lead ahead of Franchitti – today the Scot simply had no answer. With Power running 4th, Briscoe let his team mate through into 3rd position “out of courtesy”, leaving Power to charge after his Championship rival. Danica Patrick was one of the runners that Power had jumped in the stops and Wisconsin native was ever eager to get her top-4 place back, as she engaged Briscoe in a fight to the flag.
Two of Patrick’s Andretti-Autosport team mates were still in a battle with Scott Dixon for lower positions, as the Ganassi man fought Kanaan and Hunter-Reay over 6th spot. The final Andretti-Autosport driver, Marco Andretti, was losing his battle for 10th spot with Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon – both of whom had virtually invisible races.
None these concerned Castroneves one little bit. As the laps ticked down, the gap to Franchitti got larger and larger – 1.7 seconds on lap 177, 2.4 seconds three laps later and then 3.5 seconds by lap 189. Unsurprisingly, Franchitti had other things on his mind – once released by Briscoe, Power tailgated Franchitti for the final 30 laps, looking for a gap, searching for a space or even a mistake. None were to come. Although the gap between the two title protagonists was a paper thin 0.3 of-a-second, Power just did not have enough to slip by. Even when the pair blocked slightly while lapping Milka Duno, Franchitti maintained both his composure and 2nd place.
Castroneves celebrates his 25th IndyCar win at Motegi. © indycar.com
When they did eventually cross the line and take the chequered flag, Franchitti had done enough to stay ahead of Power, but neither were even close to Helio Castroneves.
Afterwards, an admittedly jubilant Helio Castroneves celebrated his 25th IndyCar win, but this late-year run must bring into question his early season form. As the title contenders fought gallantly amongst themselves in the final stages, Castroneves simply tore off into the distance claiming his third win of the year by 4.5 seconds – on this day, nothing was going to touch him.
Ryan Briscoe secured a Penske/Ganassi 1-2-3-4 result, but Danica Patrick brought her Andretti-Autosport home in 5th place ahead of the final “Big-Two” car, driven by Scott Dixon. This was Patrick’s 32nd consecutive race finish and is enough to maintain her 11th spot in the Championship standings.
Dixon’s battle with Tony Kanaan went to line, with the veteran Kanaan claiming 7th, but a late race dash by Graham Rahal brought him a very good 8th place. Hunter-Reay fell to 9th in the final few laps, finishing only 0.2 of-a-second ahead of Wheldon at the line – the final Andretti-Autosport car with Marco Andretti was 11th at the flag. Takuma Sato ran to a solid, if unspectacular 12th in his first race in Japan since his outing at Suzuka in 2007, as he just followed Andretti across the line.
Alex Tagliani recovered from his early penalty to lead a gaggle of cars across the line – the Canadian took 13th spot in front of Mutoh (14th), EJ Viso (15th), Justin Wilson (16th) and Vitor Meira (17th), all of whom were separated by mere tenths-of-a second. After leading during the race, Raphael Matos faded late-on, claiming 18th position across the line.
There were only two other finishers as Milka Duno ran a quiet, but credible race to be classified 19th (3 laps down) and series returnee Roger Yasukawa was the last to take the flag in 20th spot, albeit five laps adrift.
With only one race to run, Franchitti is now only 12 points behind Will Power in the Championship battle with 53 points available, something that should make for yet another exciting decider. However, with Power claiming his first oval podium of his career, surely he is the one heading to Homestead brimming with confidence – Franchitti was able to claim the oval trophy at Motegi, but that seemed to be at the back of his mind.
His recent string of results means that Castroneves has now jumped to 3rd in the points battle ahead of Scott Dixon, while both Ryan Briscoe (5th) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (6th) trail the Kiwi by a virtually unattainable distance.
This was not an amazing race by any stretch of the imagination but there was enough going to keep one more than occupied. Next up is Miami on October 2nd – where the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series will be decided.
Race Rating: 2.5 out of 5
IZOD IndyCar Motegi 300 (Round 16)
1. Helio Castroneves Team Penske 2h04m04.4780s
2. Dario Franchitti Ganassi Racing + 4.5746s
3. Will Power Team Penske + 5.0743s
4. Ryan Briscoe Team Penske + 6.4825s
5. Danica Patrick Andretti-Autosport + 7.6057s
6. Scott Dixon Ganassi Racing + 8.3641s
7. Tony Kanaan Andretti-Autosport + 9.4093s
8. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas + 11.7163s
9. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti-Autosport + 12.2125s
10. Dan Wheldon Panther Racing + 12.4720s
11. Marco Andretti Andretti-Autosport + 15.5007s
12. Takuma Sato KV Racing + 16.0693s
13. Alex Tagliani FAZZT Racing + 17.6774s
14. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas + 18.2811s
15. EJ Viso KV Racing + 18.7349s
16. Justin Wilson Dreyer and Reinbold + 19.4293s
17. Vitor Meira AJ Foyt Enterprises + 20.1047s
18. Raphael Matos De Ferran/Dragon Racing + 21.2346s
19. Milka Duno Dale Coyne + 3 laps
20. Roger Yasukawa Conquest Racing + 5 laps
R. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne + 69 laps (contact)
R. Paul Tracy Dreyer and Reinbold + 86 laps (contact)
R. Simona de Silvestro HVM + 115 laps (mechanical)
R. Mario Moraes KV Racing + 134 laps (contact)
R. Bertrand Baguette Conquest Racing + 199 laps (contact)
IZOD IndyCar Series (Round 16)
1. Will Power Team Penske 587 points
2. Dario Franchitti Ganassi Racing 575
3. Helio Castroneves Team Penske 501
4. Scott Dixon Ganassi Racing 497
5. Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 450
6. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti-Autosport 426
7. Tony Kanaan Andretti-Autosport 418
8. Dan Wheldon Panther Racing 366
The Nordschleife layout. In the bottom left is the Südscheife – the two together made the full circuit.
As Formula 1 has left Europe for the 2010 season, it is almost certain that many will gripe about some of the modern tracks that the series will visit over the next six weeks, while praising the gems that are Interlagos and Suzuka.
Those two circuits have become treasures within the wider community of Formula 1 and it is very easy to see why. The sweeping corners, fast straights and terrific challenges that they present hark back to the days when Formula 1 truly was the toughest form of motorsport in the world. Add to that, their individual styles also made each race stand out a great deal.
The curse of some of the modern tracks is not merely their layout, but the fact that they are designed, structured and built by the same team of people, led by one man. It only requires a short time on any racing simulator and the nature of how similar modern F1 circuits are to eachother becomes quite apparent.
A few months ago, I briefly wrote about the Benguela circuit in Angola – the fantastic little course touring car and motorbike course was simply wonder to drive (albeit it on a simulator). With only nine corners over a 1-and-a-half mile stretch, it was fast and fun – Valencia with 25 turns over 3.3 miles does not give me such a thrill due to its stop/start nature.
Times like these make me want to flashback to “simpler times” and ironically the “simpler times” do not get much tougher than Germany’s magnificent Nordschleife. The ‘Green Hell’ (as nicknamed by Sir Jackie Stewart) was used in Grand Prix racing until 1976 and actually the northern loop of the whole circuit and came in at a mere 14.1 miles with 160 corners. The full circuit – known as the Gesamtstrecke – connected both the Nordschleife and the Südschleife (southern loop) was came in at 17.5 miles with 187 corners, but after the start of the Second World war, the full circuit was never used in competition again.
The Nordschleife clung on to its Grand Prix place until Niki Lauda’s fiery accident on the opening lap of the 1976 German Grand Prix sealed its fate. The circuit was dropped and replaced on the Formula 1 calendar with the Hockenheimring and would not return until 1984 in the guise of the Nurburgring, when it stands now in a much shortened format.
Admittedly, even in the safe environment of a simulator, the Nordschleife seems incredibly daunting and it can be quite hard to keep ones concentration up when corner-after-corner come at you virtually non-stop; so here are some people who did it for real… some of whom also happened to be quite fast too.
TheMotorsportArchive.com 