Ferrari

The Italian Grand Prix of 2010 will be remembered by the Ferrari fans for the terrific first and third finish of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Everyone else—particularly the teams at the pointy end of the championship—will remember the race for the mistakes that the other teams seemed to make.

The blunders started from the moment that the lights went out. Mark Webber missed the start for the second race in a row, slipped back, didn’t defend his line and ended up letting Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica through. It was an uncharacteristically timid approach, perhaps the effort of a man with too much to lose.

Lewis Hamilton made the mistake of the day. Having pulled off a terrific start to move up to fourth, he then put then nose of his car where the metaphorical angels would fear to tread and clipped Felipe Massa’s rear wheel, breaking a steering arm and costing himself the chance to extend his championship lead.

It was a simple racing incident and no one is really to blame, but given Hamilton’s position and the dwindling number of races remaining, it may have been prudent to opt for a more cautious approach a la Webber. There’s an old saying about discretion being the better part of valor, that he may like to learn about.

The Renault engineers might have hit the wrong button on Sebastian Vettel’s engine management system that saw him lose a massive amount of time in a single lap before they hit CTRL—ALT—Del to reset the system and get him going faster than ever.

This particular incident had the conspiracy theorists lining up with explanations for how Red Bull were pulling a team orders stunt without getting themselves in trouble. Most vociferous of all was Eddie Jordan who is rapidly becoming the mad uncle of Formula One with his crackpot theories.

McLaren, too, got in on the act. They telegraphed Jenson Button’s pit stop over the radio, allowing Alonso to push like crazy and leapfrog the Brit and virtually secure himself the race victory.

Even Charlie Whiting and his team had an off day.  

Nico Hulkenberg managed to miss the second part of the Rettifilio chicane on no less than three occasions, once when Webber was within striking distance. Even if we discount the fact that he defended his position illegally by cutting the chicane on that one occasion, if you cut corners often enough, you’re going to gain an advantage.

Charlie and his team, however, saw nothing wrong and didn’t even think it warranted investigation.
While Webber eventually passed Hulkenberg, the time lost sitting behind him cost Webber any chance of picking up more points.

Red Bull did manage to rescue Vettel’s bad situation by keeping him out until the penultimate lap before calling him in for his pit stop, thus allowing him to get ahead of Kubica, Hulkenberg, Webber and Nico Rosberg to claim an unlikely fourth place.

But, in the sea of cock-ups, only Ferrari avoided all of the drama and secured a memorable victory. The car was flawless and Alonso and Massa did everything that was asked of them.

Love them of hate them, there is always something a little bit special about a Ferrari win at Monza. There are few fans as passionate (and irritating) as the Tifosi and their celebrations at Monza are one of sport’s great spectacles.

Sadly for them, it will probably be their last chance for the season as we revert to tracks that are more  likely to favor McLaren and Red Bull. Having said that, the Red Bull cars did look significantly off the pace in this race.

Perhaps it was just that the Monza circuit really didn’t suit them, or perhaps the extra scrutiny and of their front wing and floor system has caused the engineers to slightly stiffen the cars. Whatever the cause, it will be interesting to see if they return to form at the Singapore street circuit.

This championship season just got even more interesting.

Fernando Alonso has become the first Ferrari driver to win in Monza since Schumacher in 2006. It was a hard fought and well deserved victory, but Alonso will have to say an extra special thank you to his team who delivered the perfect strategy after Jenson Button nearly rained on the Tifosi parade!

Jenson Button may not have finished where he would have liked, but he too drove a storming grand prix and took full advantage of his decision to select a radically different set up from his team mate.

But what of the race itself? Well, on a personal level I was ecstatic to see my two F1 heroes finish P1 and P2. However, I can’t help but tell you that the race was, in truth, more dull than we might have expected.

Ferrari’s weekend may have ended with near perfection, but the race was far from enjoyable for the folks in the red garage.

Jenson Button took advantage of a spectacular start and fended off Alonso’s aggression to hold P1 as the cars exited turn one.

The Ferraris were side by side at several early stages of the first lap and Hamilton had also made a great start, putting immense pressure on third place Massa. The big winners at the start were Kubica and Schumacher. The biggest loser was Webber (down five places). Button may have counted himself in both groups as although he was leading, he had suffered small contact with Alonso damaging his diffuser.

Hamilton’s weekend came to an abrupt end though when he just pushed a little too hard trying to pass Massa in a tight snake coming through turns four and five. The McLaren driver went straight into the side of his Ferrari rival and terminally broke his steering arm (that’s on the car…. Not the driver!).

It was Hamilton’s fault, but it was extremely tight in the snake and I think the McLaren man was just as unlucky as he was over-aggressive.

Meanwhile, further back, Kobayashi retired having started from the pit lane with gear issues and Sutil decided to pit early and gamble on a long run.

So with Hamilton out of the race and Button off to a great start, here are your positions after one action packed lap:

Button, Alonso, Massa, Rosberg, Kubica, Hulkenberg, Vettel, Schumacher, Webber, Buemi, de la Rossa, Alguersuari, Liuzzi, Petrov, Trulli, Glock, di Grassi, Kovalainen, Yamamoto, Senna, Sutil

The early exciting pace continued as Alosno and Massa put pressure on Button and Webber fought his way back by masterfully fighting Schumacher for P8. (The close battle began at turn one and finished with Webber forcefully holding position through turns 4 and 5.

By around lap 19 the race had significantly cooled and although there were some stories from Sutil working his way through the new teams and Alguersuari being penalised for cutting corners, nothing much had changed.

Everyone perked up when Vettel radioed in to report engine issues but although the German was passed by his team mate, his new Renault power box managed to sort itself out.

The race at the front was closeish, but the problem was that both drivers were significantly faster at different parts of the track. This simply meant that towards the end of the lap Alonso had caught Button, only to lose him through sector one. Sure the pressure was interesting, but it wasn’t edge of your seat stuff.

Perhaps the biggest drama at this stage came from the sight of an ambulance in the pit lane! God knows how it happened… but Yamamoto managed to exit his pit box with his radio engineer still fiddling around in the cockpit!

No doubt a terrifying experience for the radio man, but thankfully he’s only got to worry about a few grazes and a bruised ego!

The pit stops seemed to come rather late for this Grand Prix and it was Kubica who was the first of the top runners to come in. The Pole pitted on lap 34 and rejoined one place down in P9.

The crucial stops came a few laps later when Button took to the pits on lap 37. The McLaren driver had driven excellently all race but had he done enough?

Meanwhile Hulkenberg was thrown from the pit lane into a fiery battle when he joined just in front of a scrap between Kubica and Webber. The Williams man slowed Kubica up enough for Webber to force his way through to P7.

Back to the front now and on lap 38 Alonso took to the pits. Button was now in P3 and gunning like mad for the first turn! Unfortunately for Button, The Ferrari team did a super job and Alonso found himself wheel to wheel with his rival going into turn one. The fight was close but driven expertly by both men, Alonso came out of it the victor.

Massa pitted one lap later but was unable to leapfrog Button effectively deciding the top three.

This all meant that the positions were now:

Alonso, Button, Massa, Vettel, Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Webber, Kubica, Schumacher, Petrov, Barrichello, Buemi, Liuzzi, de la Rossa, Alguersuari, Sutil, Glock, Kovalainen, Trulli, di Grassi, Yamamoto

The final laps were dominated by a fierce battle between Webber and Hulkenberg. The German Williams driver did a good enough job holding the superior Red Bull at bay, but this was thanks in no small part to the fact that Hulkenberg kept cutting corners. Once or twice is acceptable, but the rookie just couldn’t keep to the track and for some unexplained reason, the stewards took no action!

Webber was furious and although he finally made it past on lap 50, his post race interview showed just how angry the Australian was. Webber believed that if it wasn’t for Hulkenberg he could have finished P4.

There was some promised excitement from Vettel’s last lap pit stop, but in reality the German driver had done enough on track to recover a strong P4 result.

Alonso crossed the line to the cheers of thousands of proud Italians, but the podium celebrations were a little subdued. I think Alonso may have been tired, Button was certainly pleased, but Massa looked pretty unhappy?

So not a classic Italian Grand Prix, but it has blown the Championship open again. Great to see my two favourite drivers first and second, and a fantastic result as far as the Title is concerned. Next stop Singapore…

Drivers’ Title Top Three
Webber 187
Hamilton 182
Alonso 166

Constructors’ Top Three
Red Bull 350
McLaren 347
Ferrari 290

Result
1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari
2 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
3 Felipe Massa Ferrari
4 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP
6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault
7 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth
8 Robert Kubica Renault
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP
10 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth
11 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari
12 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes
13 Vitaly Petrov Renault
14 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari
15 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari
16 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes
17 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth
18 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth
19 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth
20 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth

Ret Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth
Ret Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth
Ret Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
Ret Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari

Alonso claimed pole position ahead of what should be an exciting race at Monza after narrowly beating Button to the top spot. Ferrari teammate Massa came third, followed by Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.

Starting at the last row of the grid, Hispania driver Sakon Yamamoto qualified last once again, although he shouldn't get over confident after Glock's demotion due to a gearbox replacement leaves the Japanese driver in 23rd place. Sakon paid tribute to the team who prepared the car well, and said afterwards that he had not been able to practice on the option tyres. As in the other races, he is likely to be the last person that finishes tomorrow - if he finishes. Timo Glock qualified 21st but was placed at the back after a seal on his car's gearbox had to be broken after final practice. He had problems on a final set of tyres and had no grip on the rear of the car. If he works well he should get past the Hispania drivers and possibly past his teammate and a Lotus or two, but it is unlikely that he will get into the points.

Bruno Senna starts 22nd after qualifying 23rd, and will probably revert back to his qualifying position as the second last car to finish. According to the driver, he had traffic on his best laps, but he did the best he could. Lucas di Grassi is promoted to 21st, after qualifying 22nd, and he said he extracted the maximum from his car as it was set up for the race tomorrow. He might be involved in a battle with the Lotus team ahead of him, but there will be a massive gap to Sauber in this race.

Vitaly Petrov qualified in 15th position, but lost five places due to holding up Virgin driver Timo Glock on his first timed lap in the first qualifying session. Despite having a relatively fast car, he could not get the same speed as his teammate, and only managed to outpace Pedro de la Rosa and Jaime Alguersuari in the second qualifying session. He starts in 20th place, just behind the Force India of Liuzzi who was unable to set a competitive lap time and finished 19th. Despite Petrov's inexperience, he should be able to make up a few places and possibly grab one or two points.

Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli were the fastest of the new teams, despite mainly stopping development on this seasons car. Kovalainen finished 19th and Trulli just ahead in 18th and deserved their places on the grid, and they will both be promoted one place after Petrov's penalty. Despite this, two faster cars will be behind them, and both Petrov and Liuzzi should expect to get through, unless the latter has some car problems once again.

Pedro de la Rosa was the slowest car in Q2 as he finished just under four tenths behind his fellow Spanish driver Jaime Alguersuari, who will start 15th and 16th. After Toro Rosso's slightly improved performance in practice and qualifying, I expect Alguersuari to hold off the challenge of De La Rosa, but Petrov and Liuzzi are likely to pass both. There may be an in-house battle as Buemi will be fighting with Alguersuari, possibly leaving them both to make a mistake similar to Germany, and the Sauber driver behind could benefit, although he shouldn't be able to get past Kobayashi.

Sebastien Buemi topped the speed charts several times in practice, but was unable to transform this into faster lap times. He has slightly more experience than Alguersuari, and this may show in the race, because apart from that they are evenly matched. I don't see him being able to pass Kobayashi, who starts one place ahead of the Swiss driver in 13th, although I don't see anyone being able to pass the Japanese driver who has had many good performances. Kamui Kobayashi, who signed a new contract for 2011, may challenge Schumacher and Sutil, and may be able to equal his best performance in Valencia if he gets lucky.

Michael Schumacher isn't having the best comeback in Formula One, and he qualified in 12th, but should be able to get some points. He admitted he wasn't expecting to have a competitive car in Italy, and this showed. Adrian Sutil was expected to perform better at a low downforce track, but finished just outside the top ten in qualifying. I expect him to get ahead of Barrichello, but in theory should not be able to challenge the greater speed of Kubica's Renault.

The slowest of the drivers in the top ten was Rubens Barrichello, who was around 1.4 seconds behind the pole position of Fernando Alonso. Although challenging Kubica may be tough, his teammate proved that it is possible in that car. However, he may spend more time trying to avoid being pushed into a wall by Schumacher behind him. Kubica qualified nineth and should do well, even if a podium position is out of reach.

Nico Hulkenberg is only two thousandths of a second ahead of Kubica, and I suspect this will show in the race as he is hunted down by the Polish driver. Ahead of him is another Nico, as Nico Rosberg managed to get the Mercedes into seventh position, and they may be able to tactically plan some rise through the positions through the pit stops, and may even be able to get ahead of Vettel after the Red Bull had a poor performance at a lower downforce circuit.

Sebastian Vettel qualified sixth and might have trouble getting past Hamilton. If Hamilton finishes ahead, I think that the German will be mentally out of the championship after he failed to score points in Belgium. Hopefully he won't lose control as he tries to overtake once again, although it may make the championship more interesting if he takes out Lewis, who qualified one place ahead of him after opting for a low downforce setup and taking off the F-duct, unlike his teammate. The British driver has acknowledged that he will be sliding through the corners, but he will have good speeds on the straights.

Mark Webber, who is three points behind Lewis Hamilton in the championship, may have a tough battle, but unless Felipe Massa makes a big mistake he will probably stay in fourth, the same place he qualified. Felipe Massa will be behind Alonso, as the Brazilian qualified third, and is likely to get past Jenson Button because of his setup, but is likely to stay behind Alonso because of what Ferrari have named "team strategy and tactics" instead of the straightforward old-fashioned 'team orders.'

Button decided against taking off the F-duct for this weekend, and that decision paid dividends as he starts on the front row despite having a higher downforce package. The British driver expects that the car should have good pace for long runs on heavy fuel loads, and he wants to win the race, which may be possible. The biggest problem to that is Alonso, who starts on pole in Ferrari's home race. Judging by his pace in qualifying, he should win, and that is what I think will happen tomorrow, barring a massive mistake. He had an advantage by having two sets of new tyres, and his time of 1:21.962 on the first run grabbed pole. In my opinion, he should hang on to the top spot, and a Ferrari one-two is within reach. However, Jenson Button could spoil the party...

For the first time since Brazil 2008 a Ferrari will start a Grand Prix from pole position and could it have been at a better track!?

Indeed, Fernando Alonso’s performance marks only the second time a non Red Bull driver has occupied the top spot in 2010. So, with the positive result in Paris earlier in the week and a super strong show on track today, was the 2010 Italian Grand Prix qualifying as good for the F1 fans as it was for the Scuderia?

Qualifying One

Glock opened the session with a 1:31:692, and we were treated with some early action when Petrov blocked the German driver whilst exiting the pits. Glock was furious; Petrov will no doubt face a penalty.

It was clear from this early session that both McLarens, Ferraris, and even the Williams cars looked fast. It also looked as if the Red Bulls were delivering on their fearful comments that Italy would not be a strong track for them.

McLaren seem to be carrying out an experiment this weekend and it was interesting to see such visually different set ups for the silver cars. Button, with the larger shark fin and "F duct" was racing with a much heavier downforce set up than his team mate.

Having been on holiday for the last race, and having to cope with the less than informative French coverage of Spa, it was refreshing to see that the directors of the Italian GP had finally decided to display all 24 drivers' positions and times down the left hand side of the screen (rather than cutting out positions two through to six to fit larger names down the side).

It was with this very welcome addition that I can tell you the full standings with seven minutes remaining:

Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Button, Rosberg, Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Vettel, Webber, Kobayashi, Petrov, de la Rossa, Schumacher, Buemi, Alguersuari, Suttil, Liuzzi, Glock, Trulli, Kovalainen, di Grassi, Senna, Yamamoto.

With five minutes remaining, the session was effectively finished when Liuzzi’s car packed up and forced the Italian driver to call it a day.

So Q1 as predictable as ever as far as the results were concerned, but not a total waste of time as we got to see some strong performances from a range of pole challenging drivers.

Q1 Top Three

Massa
Alonso
Hamilton

Out

Trulli, Kovalainen, Liuzzi, Glock (who will start last due to a gear box change penalty), di Grassi, Senna, Yamamoto

Qualifying Two

I would say this was probably the least exciting session of qualifying today as the fastest 10 drivers weren’t really challenged, though there was some late excitement.

Alguersuari set the pace with a 1:24:459, but as the session continued the positions changed so many times it took me a while to find a quiet moment to copy down the times!

With seven minutes left here are your positions:

Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Kubica, Button, Hulkenberg, Webber, Rosberg, Vettel, Barrichello, Sutil, Schumacher, Buemi, Kobayashi, Petrov, Alguersuari, de la Rossa.

It was clear that the final battle would fall between McLaren and Ferrari, that the Red Bulls weren’t fast enough, and that Schumacher was yet again heading for the early exit door!

The last few seconds were reasonably close with a bit of a showdown between Sutil Barrichello and Schumacher, but when it really came down to it, the Williams driver had what it took.

Q2 Top Three

Alonso
Button
Hamilton

Out

Sutil, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Buemi, Petrov, Alguersuari, de la Rossa.

Qualifying Three

Massa started this one, joined by almost all the other top runners. The Brazilian set the pace with a 1:22:547, but he was quickly blitzed by his team mate Alonso.

It was very interesting to see Button get the measure of Hamilton in this session, but I must admit it wasn’t particularly close.

The positions five minutes in were:

Alonso, Button, Massa, Hamilton, Webber, Vettel, Kubica.

The Williams chose to go out for their single runs relatively late, but stayed around P9 and P10.

It became clear that Hamilton had made a small mistake on his run so it looked as if the second runs were going to be a lot closer than they actually proved to be.

As an Alonso and Button fan I was of course very excited to see the two drivers lock out the front row. However, I can’t tell you that it was particularly tense.

So not tense, but certainly interesting. Tomorrow should be a good one for F1 fans. I’d like to see if Alonso can deliver on his pace, it’ll be great to watch the different McLaren strategies unfold, and never discount the Red Bulls. The Italian GP is a classic and will no doubt deliver a fantastic show.

Provisional Grid

1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:21.962

2 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.084

3 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:22.293

4 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:22.433

5 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.623

6 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:22.675

7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:23.027

8 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:23.037

9 Robert Kubica Renault 1:23.039

10 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:23.328

11 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:23.199

12 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:23.388

13 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:23.659

14 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:23.681

15 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:23.819

16 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:23.919

17 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:24.044

18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:25.540

19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:25.742

20 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:25.774

21 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:25.934

22 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:25.974

23 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:26.847

24 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1:27.020

Today saw Ferrari escape further sanctions from the FIA over the "team orders" incident at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim in July.

Many suggestions were made over potential punishments. These ranged from a lenient slap on the wrist, to a strong points penalty, and even the absurd suggestion of throwing the team out of the championship. In the end, Ferrari were only made to pay the legal fees for the hearing.

Let's start with some background to the story.

At the start of the German Grand Prix, Felipe Massa jumped pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso. After a couple of failed overtaking attempts, Alonso dropped back from the Brazilian.

Following the stops, at about two-thirds distance, Massa received a radio communication from Rob Smedley, his race engineer. He told Massa, "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?" Soon after this message was received, Massa mysteriously slowed on the exit of the hairpin, allowing teammate Alonso to overtake him.

After this occurred, Massa received another message from Smedley, saying "Good boy, sorry."

Alonso would take victory, with Massa finishing 4.2 seconds behind.

The stewards were puzzled at these messages that Massa had received, with the last message in particular catching their eye. While Smedley claimed that he was saying sorry about being overtaken, the FIA stewards had deemed that the Ferrari team had breached Article 39.1 of the FIA Sporting Regulations, and also Article 151c of the FIA International Sporting Code. These refer to a ban on team orders and bringing the sport into disrepute, respectively. They were subsequently fined $100,000, with the matter referred to the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

Ever since the Grand Prix, many opinions have been thrown around the paddock.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner called it "the most blatant team order ever." Mercedes GP CEO Nick Fry said, "[Massa] was putting in a great performance. It doesn't seem fair regardless." Former Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher, now at Mercedes, commented that "Massa is way behind Alonso and Ferrari felt Alonso needed to win the championship."

This is not the first time Ferrari have been in the spotlight, with the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix being the other high-profile incident the Prancing Horse have been involved in.

Two Grands Prix and one court case later, the decision has been made to not further punish Ferrari over the controversy. Furthermore, the FIA has said it will review the rule regarding a ban on team orders, and possibly scrap it altogether.

Personally, I think the FIA have made a bad move.

Yes, the team orders rule is flawed, but they have been a part of Formula One since the beginning. Many have questioned the implication of it, with opinions on this becoming more vocal since the German Grand Prix.

However, a rule is a rule, with Nick Fry telling Autosport magazine, "I think the first thing is that we all have to obey the rules. Whether you like it or not the stewards and the FIA have the final say."

The German Grand Prix controversy was a chance for the FIA to put this and other demons to rest. Not only could they have backed up implementing the rule in the first place, they could have also lost their reputation of being "Ferrari International Assistance."

Instead, the FIA are left further embarrassed, and the critics are more vocal than ever. BBC Formula One anchor Jake Humphrey tweeted, "Ferrari International Assistance is trending on Twitter and the messages flooding in to me aren't positive." It's a view shared across the whole community.

The rule looks set to be removed for next year, meaning that it has had no use in the eight seasons it has been "enforced." The fans feel cheated. They feel their sport is being made a mockery of by its governing body. They were robbed of a popular winner in Massa, but as has been proved with the events of recent weeks, Formula One doesn't do sentiment.

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap in two rain affected Friday practice sessions. He set the time in the second practice session as he was lucky to be the first driver out of the pits after a red flag, leaving him with no traffic to hold him up on his flying lap.

First Practice

After 14 minutes of the first session, Timo Glock set the first fastest lap with a 2:06.752 in the rain. However, after the first third of the session, many drivers ventured onto the track, and Pedro de la Rosa beat his time by nine-tenths of a second. Sutil then went faster with 25 minutes later with a 2:05.117 on the extreme wet tires, before Alugersuari beat the time, but Sutil soon got the top spot back. Alonso went fastest ten minutes later with a 2:02.582.

At the halfway point of the first session, and despite Vettel going faster, Alonso once again claimed the top spot. Despite very rainy conditions and some lightning, many drivers stayed out to test upgrades for their cars, but the drivers who didn't have to test stayed in the pits, showing how the teams treat many of these sessions as testing sessions because there is no in-season testing. With 36 minutes to go, however, all the drivers retreated inside to avoid the heavy rain.

Michael Schumacher was the first driver to come back onto the track with 22 minutes to go in the session, despite the rivers of water in some areas of the track, but he ventured back into the pits without setting a lap time. Toro Rosso driver Alguersuari went out and set a lap 4.5 seconds off the pace, complaining on his team radio that "there is too much water on the track."

Despite the sun coming out, many teams stayed in because of the water standing on the track, leaving only a small threat that anyone else would reach the top spot in practice as only the HRT of Yamamoto and Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen were out on track. The rain eased away for the last ten minutes, leaving the track to dry up for some drivers to set their fastest laps, but no one could beat Alonso's improved time of 2:00.797 in the first session.

Second Practice

Massa beat De La Rosa's initial time by five seconds to be on top of the leaderboard after eight minutes in the second session. He was joined by Alonso as the track dried out further, who then set the first time under two minutes with a 1:59.490.

The white lines were treacherous, as shown by Sebastien Buemi in the early part of the session, who lost control going into a corner but then regained control of the car. Lewis Hamilton then went faster just as it started raining, before yellow flags came out as Timo Glock and Vitantonio Liuzzi went off the track, but the latter managed to drive away with a damaged front wing, unlike Glock, who went into the wall as another victim of a slippery white line.

After the yellow flags went away, Massa went fastest once again, but then Renault driver Kubica went faster by 0.280. Due to the circuits length, in several places it was drying out but in other areas it was quite wet, which led to some mistakes around the track, but these were only punished with slightly slower lap times rather than crashes. Adrian Sutil went faster around the track after a third of the session, and it stayed that way until Jaime Alguersuari set the fastest time by over two seconds.

Alguersuari was the first driver to go out onto the track on slick tires and set the fastest time in the second and third sectors, and setting the third fastest time, before setting two consecutive fastest times, showing how dry the track was getting. The yellow flags came out again for Jarno Trulli, who went onto the grass at one corner. As more drivers went on the slick tires, Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest lap with a 1:53.678, which was just faster than Alguersuari, before trading places at the top for another lap.

Rubens Barrichello went off the track and Mark Webber seemed to have a problem with his engine as he was driving slowly, but the team found that it was fine and he went back up to full speed. Jenson Button then went very fast in his McLaren to go under one minute 50 seconds with a 1:49.755, 1.974 seconds ahead of nearest rival Kobayashi. The gap was narrowed by Kubica to 0.118 seconds, before Sutil went to the top, but Hamilton went almost half a second faster than the time of the Force India driver.

Renault's F-duct seemed to be working as Robert Kubica kept posting competitive times in his car, and he was the fastest driver through the speed trap, but his teammate was far adrift of the lead. Sutil set the fastest lap time once again, before a red flag came out with fifteen minutes left, with race control suggesting that there "may be spectators in a dangerous area," depriving the drivers of an important portion of time to practice driving in the dry conditions, as the red flag was only lifted with 4 minutes to go.

However, another minute was lost because of a problem with the lights at the bottom of the pit lane. This left all the drivers with one final flying lap, which was heavily affected by traffic, meaning only Alonso (who was the first out of the pit lane) managed to beat the top time with a 1:49.032.

The factories are open. Summer has been and gone, and now we enter the final straight of the season.

Formula One comes back from the summer break with a vengeance at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit, with the 7.004 km track set to entertain a titanic race.

Set deep in the Ardennes forest near the German border, the circuit first hosted racing in 1922 on the frightening 14.9 km "triangle" track. Although the track has undergone a number of layout changes, the modern layout still embodies the spirit of the track which blitzed through small Belgian villages.

The Title Protagonists

The 2010 running of the Belgian Grand Prix looks set to go down to the wire. The track plays both to the strengths and weaknesses of the three leading cars—Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren.

The long blast from La Source to Les Combes, via the spectacular Eau Rouge (pictured), will suit the McLarens most. With their "F-Duct" and powerful engine, they should be strong in this section, and they should also be strong through Blanchimont into the Bus Stop chicane.

Ferrari also have a strong record on this track, having won for the past three years (although critics will always maintain Lewis Hamilton should not have had his 2008 taken away from him in the stewards room). Fernando Alonso may not have won here in the past, but he will be fired up in the push to get amongst the title contenders.

Spa has been earmarked as one of Red Bull's weakest tracks. The Renault power-plant in the back of the RB6 is one of the weakest engines on the Formula One grid, although it does possess good traction, which will surely aid Red Bull coming out of the first-gear La Source hairpin. Their biggest gains are to be found in the twisty second sector of the track, with many excited by the thought of an RB6 plunging down Pouhon.

All three teams have their problems though. McLaren have been searching for pace all season, and argue that the summer break came at the wrong time for them. They haven't won since Canada four races ago, and whether they have made significant improvements since Hungary remains to be seen.

Ferrari and Red Bull are both suffering from in-fighting at the wrong time. With Ferrari engaging in a war of words with former driver Niki Lauda over the summer, they will have to ensure that it has been put to the back of their mind.

Red Bull meanwhile are still embroiled in a favouritism row over who gets preference in the title race. At a track like Spa, any shenanigans could prove spectacular, costly and indeed terrifying, with not much run-off compared to other tracks.

The Midfield Battle

With so many teams beginning to hit form in the past couple of races, the battle for the lower points places looks set to be as titanic as the battle for the win.

The ones to look out for are Renault, Sauber, and Williams. For Renault, it is Vitaly Petrov in particular. Since being told to kick up a gear by Renault, he has went from strength to strength. His Hungaroring weekend was the perfect example of a man racing for his Grand Prix future. Renault will be looking for more of the same this time round.

Sauber have found a lot of pace since James Key took over the technical department. Kamui Kobayashi has been finding his feet in the C29 and seems to have returned to the same form which impressed so many towards the end of 2009, with his drive from 23rd to ninth last time out in Hungary being his most impressive of the season. Pedro de la Rosa also earned some points in Hungary for the Hinwil outfit with his most impressive weekend of the season.

Williams have also been finding their feet again after a tricky mid-season. Nico Hulkenberg took his best finish of the season in Hungary, while Rubens Barrichello found himself in the wars with Michael Schumacher on the way to 10th, and they're confident they can keep it up for the rest of the season.

This leaves the likes of Mercedes and Force India with the prospect of not taking much if anything from Belgium. Michael Schumacher has a grid penalty for his over-enthusiastic defending in Hungary, and will do well to get anything out of his Belgian weekend. Force India return to the site of 2009's biggest shock, when Giancarlo Fisichella took a shock pole for the outfit based at Silverstone. They'll do well to repeat that form again, and with Vitantonio Liuzzi looking uneasy with his VJM03, he's another driver racing for his future.

Potential For a Shock?

As mentioned before, Force India shone here last year due to their impressive pace with low downforce.

This year, that mantle could fall to one of the new teams. Lotus could be this year's Force India, if they're able to extract good speed out of their Cosworth engine. Virgin have been making noise about their new updates, and it remains to be seen whether they will work on the track.

HRT meanwhile are confident they have good race in store for Belgium, although they still have not released a large updates for the F110 chassis. And as they have stuck with Sakon Yamamoto ahead of Karun Chandhok, who won a GP2 race at Spa in 2007, I don't see hem anywhere other than at the back.

The Weather

With the track being surrounded by forest, Spa is often described as having its own micro-climate, with every race shrouded in the possibility of rain. This year is no exception, with early predictions saying rain is possible towards the end of qualifying, and also during the race.

This year's Belgian Grand Prix looks set to be as spectacular as ever, and with so much unpredictability surrounding the weather, it may even be the best for years.

Observations/Experiences/Opinions:

For as long as Formula 1 has been in my blood (probably since I watched my first race back when Speed Channel was called "Speedvision"), I have been enthralled with the speed, danger, and just about every other aspect of this sport.  However, for that same amount of time, I have heard people bickering about how Formula 1 is boring, and there isn't enough excitement...there isn't enough passing, etc.  To these people I say, horse feathers!!!! 

I have had the opportunity to fly up to Indy (twice) before F1 dropped that race from their schedule, and I must say, this was THE time of my life...One of the coolest things I have ever done! In the coming years, I plan on attending many more F1GPs.

Having said this, it may have something to do with races like Monaco (street circuits) that force these negative ideas and opinions from the lips of the critics.  These thoughts may stem, in part, from the fact that these are narrow streets which make passing a dangerous business...on the contrary, there is enough history, wealth, extravagant architecture and danger at Monaco for the FIA to implement a schedule that sees that circuit raced upon two or three times a season. It is simply exquisite!

Now I understand, if you are looking for bumping, crashing, and a plethora of cars passing each other to make your racing experience more pleasurable, Formula 1 might not be your bag.  Go ahead, watch Nascar or some other form of racing. I mean, when I am race deprived, I might watch Nascar for ten or so laps, and I can appreciate it for what it is, but that simply is NOT the sport that gives me thrills.

Annoyances:

One thing I am very tired of...the rules changing every season in order to "make it more interesting" for fans. I don't need the rules altered season after season, and I am sorry if the smaller (fiscally) teams cannot make a break into the sport. F1 is the elite class of auto racing, and I am okay with it that way! Why "dumb it down" every season...or after "this team" or "that team" has been dominating for "too long"? Nonsense! Keep the same rules for 5...or even 10 years and let all teams make adjustments to those rules. The top R & D teams might acclimate to the rules faster than the others, but it would give the "lacking" teams time to make the necessary adjustments as well. It frustrates many fans when the rules are turned upside-down every year, and I am certainly no exception to that!

Excitement:

Every single F1 race start (regardless if Ferrari is up front or not) my heart rate elevates like I just ran 10 miles! I love it...lack of passing or not. Cars pulling up to 5-6 G's (loads that would be near lethal to non highly athletic people), RPM's in excess of 17, 18, 19,000, 0-100-0 mph in less than 5 seconds, speeds exceeding 200 mph, and 0-60 times of better than 2 seconds!!!! What's not to like? That's boring?  Well how about the simple fact that the creme de la creme of modern technology, the best drivers, teams, engines, etc. are all a part of F1. Anyone who cannot see and appreciate that needs to remember that the technology that is developed by these world class teams, engineers, and mechanics slowly trickles down to civilian automobiles. I can't understand why people are not more interested in that alone.

Bottom Line:

If you cannot appreciate Formula 1 the way it is, and the way it has always been, find something else to watch! If you are bored with watching stock cars shaped and decorated to look like the latest Chevy Impala (even trucks) go around in circles for hundreds of laps, give Formula 1 a shot!  Afterall, (come 2012) even Austin, Texas will be in on the Formula 1 action with a new circuit scheduled for ground-breaking in December (2010). Now that's a radical notion!

In most sports, it is accepted that influencing the outcome of an event by means other than fair competition is cheating. Even in F1, where sportsmanship is a puny weakling being menaced by muscular thugs, it is illegal for a team to fix the result of a race by ordering a driver to concede a place.

Yet at Hockenheim 2010 we saw Ferrari arrange for Felipe Massa to throw away a race win in favour of Fernando Alonso.

Undoubtedly then, a blatant sporting crime was committed in front of our very eyes. But who is the guilty man, the fellow who should bear our outrage as a stain on his record?

Let us consider the suspects, and examine the case against each of them.

Fernando Alonso

The volatile Spanish driver was certainly the beneficiary of the crime, and that is often a whodunit clue.

Indisputably a driver of the first rank, he is building a reputation as an arrogant and tantrum-prone brat. But I have to suggest that being a prima donna is built into the personality of an F1 driver, and in the case in question Alonso did what any of his peers would have done.

Massa pulled over, and Alonso zipped past, it would be foolish to fault him for that.

Verdict: Not guilty.

Rob Smedley

Smedley was the public voice of the crime. He was ordered to communicate the team order that was the specific offence, and he did so.

But at the end of the day, Smedley is just a spanner-monkey, not a key decision maker, so he cannot be made responsible.

Not Guilty

Stefano Domenicali

As Ferrari team principal, Domenicali is very much the team's public face. It was him who gave Smedley the team order to pass along, and who made duplicitous statements to the media after the race.

Yet, Domenicali is only one cog in the Ferrari machine. A very important cog, true, but he does not act alone or without clearance from the top of the food chain.

Verdict: Not guilty

Luca Cordero di Montezemolo

The suave Ferrari president is Domenicali's boss. It is hard to believe that Domenicali would pull such a serious stunt as violating F1's rule against team orders, and doing so in the most blatant manner, if he did not know he had support from above.

Montezemolo very much has his finger on the pulse of Ferrari's business interests, which are inextricably linked with the interests of their major sponsors, such as Spanish bank Santander.

His job does not require him to be a champion of sporting conduct in F1, only to achieve the best business results for Scuderia Ferrari and its partners.

I submit that Montezemolo may have approved of the crime, but that he could not have caused it to occur.

Verdict: Not guilty

Felipe Massa

There is only one man who can be held directly responsible, the man who accepted an illegal instruction, and allowed Alonso to pass him. It was in his hands to carve a reputation for proud and honourable independence by the ignoring the team order relayed to him by Smedley, but he made the wrong choice, the weak choice.

In doing so, he engulfed F1 in a storm of controversy, besmirched his own reputation, and totally eliminated himself as a championship contender for now and forever.

He has become a thing to creep about in Alonso's shadow with an invisible #2 branded on his forehead.

Felipe baby, what's the matter with you? Have you considered growing a pair?

Verdict: Guilty as charged.

Four days after the controversy that surrounded the German Grand Prix, the apparent atmosphere in the Formula One paddock is still very intense.

All key players involved in the team orders dispute have had a few days to take a step back, calm down, and plan word-for-word their reactions to the inevitable media grilling that will continue at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa today spoke out about the incident for the first time since Sunday's race.

"The time I say I am a No. 2 driver, I will not race anymore," he said in Thursday's press conference.

Massa insists there is still a harmony between himself and Ferrari, and a mutual understanding of his role within the team.

"For sure I have spoken to everybody inside the team. As I said I am not here really to race, I am here to win. That is really my point. As long as I am in the condition to win, we need to go to the end, to fight for the victory.

"I am a professional, I work for the team, and everybody has to understand my point."

It's worth noting that the Brazilian still feels the need to express that he works for the team, a seemingly obvious point but one very relevant under these circumstances.

Massa has clearly been conditioned now by Ferrari, and has played the perfect PR person for the team since he let Alonso pass after instructed to do so by his engineer whilst leading at Hockenheim.

His handling of the intense questioning posed to him by a flock of journalists postrace was sublime, and Fernando Alonso has no doubt come out of this incident with the most damaged reputation.

"You remember what happened in 2007 and 2008, so I don't think I have to go through all the points," Massa continued.

"If the team really has the chance to win the championship, I want the best for the team."

This all but confirms Massa's resignation to playing supporting driver at Ferrari, at least for the remainder of the 2010 season.

It'll be interesting to see how team principal Stefano Domenicali chooses his words in comparison with his driver when he faces the media during tomorrow's press conference.