Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) won the Belgian Grand Prix overnight. Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing), who started the race from pole position, finished second. While Robert Kubica (Renault) capped off a great weekend for him with third place, although it could have been more. The full text from the post-race press conference is available below. A picture gallery from the race will follow soon.
[Source: FIA]
Formula One’s mid-season break is almost over. That means it’s time for the Belgian Grand Prix. Mark is also back to tell us about Belgian sausages, rain and, of course, one of the best circuits on the F1 calendar. For a bird’s eye look at the Spa F1 circuit click here. The view from the Red Bull simulator can be seen after the break.
Let’s hope we see Webber leaping for joy late on Sunday night!
After Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix in July he celebrated on the podium with what now seems to have become his trademark crab-like leap. The crab-leap made a re-appearance at Hungary, too.
In true internet stylez a few wags have taken an idea and run with it to create a new e-phenomen. Sourced from the autosport forums here are a few of the best Leaping Webber’s found online. If these pics don’t quite float your boat, then why not check out Mark’s Chippendale routine.
You may remember Mark first created a bit of an internet ruckus thanks to the Canberra Milk television commercial, which AUSmotive first brought to people’s attention in March.
[Source: autosport forums]
UPDATE: It looks like the Leaping Webber images may have originated from a Spanish forum; CLICK HERE for more.
Adrian Newey, full-time F1 technical director for Red Bull Racing and part-time racer, found himself in a spot of bother on the weekend while taking part in a Ginetta G50 race at Snetterton in the UK.
On lap 10 of the 18 lap race Newey was pushed wide by a competitor before suffering reasonably heavy contact on the final corner with Tony Hughes. After the impact Hughes was able to free himself from the car and he appeared okay. Newey, however, was taken to hospital for observation.
Lawrence Tomlinson, Ginetta chairman released the following statement, “Adrian has been taken to a local hospital as a precautionary measure after being clipped by Julien Draper of Barwell Motorsport which caused Tony Hughes of Speedworks to have a side on collision with Newey’s DynoJet car.
“It’s testament to the strength of the G50 roll cage that the car withstood heavy impact and there were no serious injuries.”
A YouTube video of the incident is available below.
[Source: autosport | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Last year Flavio Briatore found himself in a bit of a pickle. Fixing a Formula One race tends to do that, I guess. At the time Mark Webber stood by his man, declaring he would not seek another manager if Briatore’s right to continue as Webber’s agent was taken away. Now, in return, Briatore has tipped Mark to win this year’s F1 world championship.
Speaking to Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport, The Flav said Webber is the driver to keep an eye on, “Watch out, Webber is on his way to win the title: what he has done in Hungary on Sunday was phenomenal. But I’m not tipping Webber just because he is one of my drivers, I only state what everyone has seen from home.
“Mark is a driver capable of exceptional feats. He has now reached a maturity and inner calmness that can take him really far. In Hungary he was the first one understanding that he could take a risk in running for three-quarter distance on the soft tyres he had at the start. That was the winning move, but it also demonstrated how much he uses his brain, unlike many others.”
[via autosport.com]
The 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix; Red Bull Racing’s 100th GP, Mark Webber’s 150th GP and his 6th career victory. The Aussie now leads the drivers championship and Red Bull have finally reached the top of the constructors tree. There’s seven races left in 2010, can Mark and RBR maintain the rage?
Elsewhere, Michael drove his old pal Rubens up the wall. Sebastian had a mid-race nap and Robert drove into Adrian. Here’s a surprise, too; think of the six drivers from the new teams (Lotus, Virgin and HRT), if they were running their own mini-championship who do you think would be leading the charge? A gold star for you if you picked out the name Karun Chandhok.
[Thanks to Micky for the Chandhok tip]
Mark Webber has just won an extraordinary Hungarian Grand Prix, in doing so he has reclaimed the lead of the 2010 world drivers championship. It was a fortunate turn of events that, in the end, delivered Webber a comfortable win from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and his Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel started the race on pole, with Webber in P2 and Alonso P3. The Ferrari man jumped Webber off the line and very nearly took the lead from Vettel into Turn 1. Vettel was able to fend off Alonso’s challenge and the notoriously difficult to pass Hungaroring looked like providing another boring procession.
However, on lap 15, before teams were planning to bring in their drivers for scheduled pit stops some debris from one of the Force India cars was positioned precariously in the middle of the track. The Safety Car was deployed and the entire field took advantage to make their compulsory tyre change; with the exception of Webber, Rubens Barichello (Williams) and Jarno Trulli (Virgin Racing). Chaos reigned in pit lane, too, with a crash between Robert Kubica (Renault) and Vintonio Liuzzi (Force India), a loose wheel from Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes bouncing down the lane among the teams and cars everywhere.
It’s the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, held just outside of Budapest. That means Mark is thinking of a tight twisty circuit, a long race and the ladeeez are easy on the optic nerve, too. Well, that’s what Mark said. Don’t believe me; then check out his virtual preview after the break.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso won the 2010 German Grand Prix. Good for him, it was a hard fought victory and if only that lowly team assistant in the bottom left of corner didn’t ruin the photo opportunity above as the Spaniard held the winning trophy aloft. Who is that guy anyway? Has anyone ever seen him before?
Actually, come to think of it, he could be the little bugger who stole Ferrari’s $100,000 social club kitty. Poor Fernando had no money for champagne to celebrate his win because of that guy. A professional outfit like Ferrari really should keep such team matters in check. There’s no “I” in team, after all.
You can see a few pics from Hockenheim after the jump. I must apologise; a number of the images provided have a Ferrari sweep car in the way, spoiling the view of Alonso’s car. No matter, though, the sweep car found its place before the chequered flag. Phew!
Ahead of this weekend’s German Grand Prix Red Bull Racing have announced they will adopt a parity policy as they move to put the British GP front wing fiasco behind them.
The team now has enough parts to cover for contingencies ensuring both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel can race in equal spec machinery. However, if faced with a similar situation to Silvertsone again, where only one part is available, then the driver with the most championship points will be favoured.
Christian Horner explains, “If the component fails through no reason of the driver—and let’s not forget that it wasn’t because Sebastian had smashed the wing, it was a component that failed—then the same rules will apply. But we will work very hard to hopefully not be in that unenviable situation again.”
In further news, it has also been revealed that the revised front wing was removed from Webber’s car as a precautionary measure prior to qualifying at Silverstone. Following the failure of the part on Vettel’s car in the final free practice session the team looked over Webber’s front wing and discovered some ares of concern. The wing was removed and both cars were prepared for qualifying using the old wing design. It wasn’t until half an hour before qualifying that the Red Bull were confident the new component could be used.
This weekend Mark is thinking about a lot of German drivers on the grid, a huge history and repeating his 2009 success. A matching pair of German Grand Prix victories at the Nürburgring and Hockenheim would make a nice set, don’t you think.
With victory at Silverstone overnight Mark Webber became the first driver to win three races in 2010. And, following that qualifying wing-swap controversy with teammate Sebastian Vettel, what a satisfying win it was too.
Webber was determined to take the lead by the first corner and after the race he explained, “It was pretty straightforward. I made a good start. I was very keen to make it my corner and it worked out well for me, so it was good.”
The Australian was still firm in his views when asked in the post-race press conference about the situation from qualifying, “Yesterday was a really unique situation. It was the first time that the team had really had one component. Honestly I would never have signed a contract again for next year if I believed that that was the way it was going to be going forward. That’s why I was disappointed yesterday and was honest with you guys. Let’s see how it goes in the future but I just keep doing what I do and hopefully it’s enough.”
The complete transcript from the press-conference is now available at Formula1.com. Also, selected team and driver quotes recorded after the race, including words from Vettel, can be read as well.
After the jump a set of Red Bull Racing images captured from race day and qualifying are available. Images from other teams to follow soon.
UPDATE: SMH.com.au brings us some amazing allegations of intra-team rivalry at Red Bull Racing: “Webber’s mechanics were said to have removed the ‘old’ front wing that Webber had been forced to race with and waved it at Vettel’s side of the garage.”
UPDATE II: New pics from McLaren, Mercedes GP, Williams, Sauber, Force India, Toro Rosso, Renault and Ferrari added below.