Alonso ready to play hardball in Korea

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso says he must go on the attack at the forthcoming Korean Grand Prix in order to stop championship leader Mark Webber pulling further ahead in the title race.

Following his third place behind the Red Bulls at Suzuka last weekend, Alonso trails Webber by 14 points with three rounds remaining. He now believes the inaugural Yeongam race could prove decisive in the 2010 championship battle.

“In Korea we will have to attack because now we must close the gap to Webber,” said Alonso, after acknowledging Ferrari had little hope of beating Red Bull in Japan. “To lose any more ground would make the situation more complicated.”

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button saw their title challenges fade somewhat at Suzuka, but Alonso believes it is too early to rule anyone out, even though he admits the focus must now be on keeping Webber in check - something in which team mate Felipe Massa could play a critical role.

“Too many times this year we’ve seen someone come back into the game after they’d seemed out of it - and that could easily happen again,” added Alonso. “Having said that, perhaps the only one who can afford a bad weekend is Webber: for all the others it would perhaps mean giving up any chance, especially the ones who are a bit behind today.

“The Korean Grand Prix could therefore start to be decisive for some - and for me it will be important also to be able to count on my team mate Felipe. I know that he will be really hoping to make up for two negative results and he has all the capacities required to return to the podium.”

Alonso is looking forward to seeing the Korea International Circuit in the flesh after relying on virtual reality for guidance up to now, the venue having only been granted official FIA approval earlier this week.

“We’ve been working on the new track for a few days on the simulator: the first two sectors are very quick with long straights while the last sector reminds me of the last part of the circuit at Abu Dhabi,” he commented.

“The tarmac is wide, which should make it possible to try overtaking moves. I’m always curious to discover a new circuit, both from a personal and professional point of view. From next Wednesday onwards I will try to discover if the simulations have been accurate enough. Then we will have a few more kilometres of running available on Friday compared to usual so we can find the right feeling on the track.”

The Korean Grand Prix takes place at Yeongam on October 22-24.

I must beat Stoner: Rossi

AAP

Valentino Rossi has pinpointed Australian motorcycle master Casey Stoner as the man to beat in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

Rossi is ignoring Stoner's embarrassing first lap exit from the Malaysian GP last Sunday as the Italian bids to end his own long losing streak at the Island.

And the seven-time world champion said he is back to 100 per cent mentally after the setback of a broken right leg forced him to miss four mid-season races.

Advertisement: Story continues below Rossi has not won the Australian GP since 2005 although he has been a regular visitor to the podium, including a close second to Stoner last year.

Stoner is targeting a fourth consecutive win in his final Island race for Ducati, following on from Rossi's previous dominance at the track, where he won between 2001-2005.

"The Malaysia race was a bad day for Casey but I'm sure he is the man to beat at Phillip Island," Rossi said.
"Last time I won was in 2005 so I will try but Casey and Ducati are very, very fast at the Island so I need to be at 100 per cent to try and beat him.

"And I also cannot forget (newly crowned world champion) Jorge Lorenzo because for this race he does not have the pressure of the championship.

"And Lorenzo has extra motivation because he wants to demonstrate that now he is world champion with no pressure he can win.

"And I love Phillip Island, I think I can make a good result there."

After an injury-plagued season Rossi claims his mental approach to racing is now back despite a nagging shoulder tendon injury.

He won his first race since suffering a broken leg in June with a spellbinding performance in last Sunday's Malaysian GP.

It has taken three months for him to set himself physically and mentally to win again but in Sepang he won with a brilliant display, carving through his rivals from 11th place on the first lap.

"This was one of my best ever races, a Valentino Rossi-style win," Rossi said of Sepang.

"My confidence came back and winning from 11th was something great.

"When I went into turn three on lap one I was crying, I said f***, I saw 10 bikes ahead, I was desperate.
"But then I saw Stoner crash and I had been scared about Stoner for the race win in Sepang.

"Then I knew that I couldn't lose time in the traffic. The difficult part started when I took the lead and felt my power go down. I lost some adrenaline.

"But I said okay, I haven't come from 11th to be second so I found some energy to win over the final laps."
Rossi paid tribute to a late set-up change from his Adelaide crew chief Jerry Burgess that transformed his bike for the Sepang race.

"After qualifying Jerry and I looked deeply into the data to understand the grip problem and the modification he made worked," Rossi said.

Rossi and Burgess will both leave Yamaha at the end of this season to join Ducati next year in a bid to win a record eighth world championship together.


Korean Grand Prix ready to Go

It has been the on-off saga of the Formula 1 season – will the track for South Korea’s first ever Grand Prix be ready in time for starters orders on October 24?Indications last night appeared to confirm F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone’s confident prediction on Saturday that the country's brand new circuit would get the go-ahead. The long-delayed inspection of the Yeognam site by world motorsport's governing body started yesterday – nearly three weeks late - with officials upbeat after the initial checks. Doubt has engulfed the viability of the Korean GP track in recent weeks after it emerged builders were running months behind schedule, with widespread claims made that the track was unfit to host a leg of the prestigious competition. Work on the surface was completed just a couple of days before FIA technical director Charlie Whiting’s arrival at the Yeongam circuit, located in the country’s rural southwest corner, about 250 miles from capital Seoul. It would be a tremendous economic blow if the track were to fail the inspection since both this year's event and the 2011 race would be binned. But representatives from the Korea Auto Valley Operation, the organization in charge of the site, said initial feedback from Whiting was positive and they were confident it would be given the green light. Work started on the counter-clockwise track in 2007 and should have been completed in July. The builders blamed the delays on unusually high rainfall and the fact the area on which the circuit is being built is former wetland. The troubles surrounding the site were compounded less than two weeks ago when a crane crashed into the main grandstand, though the organizers said there had been no major damage. Question marks have also been raised over the popularity of F1 in Korea and the wisdom of hosting the race so far from the beating heart of the country, where more than half South Korea’s 48 million population lives. The inspection is expected to continue into today, but with Korean media outlets suggesting there are unlikely to be any further problems - in tune with Ecclestone's weekend remarks - the momentum seems to suggest disaster has been averted. Speaking to a London tabloid, Ecclestone claimed the Koreans were overcoming the problems at the site. He said: “I will be there, the world will be watching, and we will have a great race. I've seen photographs and the top layer of the track has been laid. They will pass the inspection.”


Hunter Road crash claims one adult, injures four children

Four children, ages 3 to 16, were injured and their uncle killed after his car crashed head-on into a sport-utility vehicle towing a camper Monday on Hunter Road west of Ooltewah.

Victor Carr, 30, of Ooltewah, who was driving a 1992 Pontiac Grand Prix, died, police said. The driver of the 2002 Ford Explorer, 57-year-old Cleveland resident Charles Shavis Jr., sustained minor injuries.

An 8-year-old was airlifted from the scene in critical condition while two other children were transported by ambulance, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Janice Atkinson said. The fourth child, the 16-year-old, was transported for treatment by a private vehicle, she said.

All were taken to T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital.

The collision happened about 12:30 p.m. Monday in the 5400 block of Hunter Road, police said.
Preliminary evidence shows that the Pontiac, which was traveling westbound, crossed the center line and hit the Ford as it was traveling eastbound, Atkinson said. The overall investigation, however, is ongoing, she said.

It isn’t yet known if the people involved were wearing seat belts or if speeding was involved, police said.
The accident occurred about a half mile from the site of a proposed apartment complex that stirred controversy earlier this year. Residents and others, including Bobby Scott, a member of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, did not support the complex proposal. They cited heavy traffic, a lack of shoulders and curves in some parts of Hunter Road.

“The odds are, you’re going to have some problems if you travel through there,” Scott said.

But, he added, even if efforts and funding were made available to improve Hunter Road, accidents would still occur.

“You can’t take the human element out of it,” he said. “Now you can help — sure it helps to have a better road and a wider road. But we’re not going to get it to where we’re not going to have accidents.”

Japanese GP - Sunday - Race Notes

Vettel dominates Japanese GP

Sebastian Vettel led a Red Bull-Renault 1-2 finish ahead of his team mate Mark Webber by 0.9 seconds, tp take the victory at today's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, followed by Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari in third place, 2.7 seconds behind.

The win is Vettel's third victory of the season, and Red Bull's seventh. Webber extends his championship lead to 220, 14 points over Alonso and Vettel, who are now tied with 206 points, Hamilton falls to fourth place with 192 points, and Jenson Button on 189 points. Red Bull-Renault leads the constructors championship with 426 points ahead of McLaren-Mercedes with 381 and Ferrari with 334 points.
Jenson Button (13.5s) in the McLaren-Mercedes finished in fourth, followed by his team mate Lewis Hamilton (39.5s), with an ailing gearbox in fifth, Michael Schumacher (59.9s) in the Mercedes GP in sixth, Kamui Kobayashi (64.0s) in the BMW Sauber-Ferrari finishing his home Grand Prix in seventh, his team mate Nick Heidfeld (69.6s) in eighth, Rubens Barrichello (70.8s) in the Williams-Cosworth in ninth, and Sebastien Buemi (72.8s) in the Toro Rosso-Ferrari in the final points paying position.

Before the start, coming around to the grid, Lucas di Grassi crashes his Virgin-Cosworth at the 130R corner - the Brazilian emerging unhurt, explaining that he felt something break at the back of the car.

At the start Vettel jumps to the lead from pole-position - Robert Kubica in the Renault passing Webber for second into the first corner, followed by Alonso in fourth. Vitaly Petrov, clipping the front of Nico Hulkenberg, and then pirouetting around the front of the Williams, spearing off into the outside wall on the pit straight - both are out of the race. Massa gets squeezed to the inside at the first corner, gets onto the grass and slides wide, hitting Vitantonio Liuzzi - taking both out of the race. The Safety Car is deployed.
Rosberg, Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock and Bruno Senna all pit at the end of the first lap.

On lap 3, behind the Safety Car, Kubica's right-rear tyre goes missing at the hairpin and the Pole pulls off the track from second place.

The running order is Vettel leading Webber, Alonso, Button, Hamilton, Barrichello, Schumacher, Heidfeld, Adrian Sutil and Jaime Alguersuari in tenth.

Button complains of brake vibrations. The Safety Car remains out as Kubica's car is removed. Hamilton has the same complaint about his brakes - the team tells the drivers that it will go away when the race resumes.
At the end of lap 6 the Safety Car pulls in, and the race goes green, Vettel stays in the lead over Webber and Alonso.

On lap 8, Nico Rosberg passes Buemi at the 130R for 12th place, but then goes wide and Buemi re-passes. Schumacher passes Barrichello for sixth place at the chicane. Vettel sets fastest lap.
At lap 10, Vettel continues to push out his lead over Webber to 1.5 seconds, followed by Alonso (4.4s), Button (6.0s), Hamilton (6.7s), Schumacher (9.3s), Barrichello (11.5s), Heidfeld (12.7s), Sutil (13.2s) and Alguersuari (14.0s) in tenth place.

Webber sets fastest lap, but Vettel responds and retakes it the next lap - the Red Bulls running in the 1m36s, Alonso and the McLarens in the 1m37s.

On lap 13 Kobayashi passes Alguersuari for tenth place as they enter the hairpin, the two making minor contact.

On lap 15 Sakon Yamamoto goes slightly wide and Trulli passes him for 15th place.

On lap 18 Kobayashi passes Sutil into the hairpin to take ninth place. At the end of the lap Heidfeld and Sutil are the first to pit.

The stewards announce that the investigate the incidents at the start between Hulkenberg and Petrov, and also Massa and Liuzzi.

On lap 20 Barrichello pits from seventh place, switching to the prime tyre - he rejoins in 12th.

At lap 21, Vettel continues to lead Webber by 2.3 seconds, followed by Alonso (8.1s), Button (12.4s), Hamilton (13.7s), Schumacher (20.8s), Kobayashi (32.2s) and Buemi (37.2s) in eighth place - Alguersuari pits from ninth.

On lap 22 Hamilton pits from fifth place, switching to the prime tyre, rejoining in seventh behind Kobayashi. Schumacher pits from fifth place on the next lap - rejoining behind his team mate Rosberg in ninth place.
On lap 25 Vettel pits from the lead and Alonso pits as well - rejoining in third and fourth places. Hamilton passes Kobayashi into the first corner to take fifth place.

On lap 26, at half distance, Webber pits from the lead, rejoining in third place behind his team mate. Hamilton sets the fastest lap. Button, yet to pit, takes over the lead.

On lap 27 Schumacher threatens his team mate Rosberg for eighth place place, but Rosberg stays ahead. The Mercedes team tells Schumacher that there are no team orders, but that Rosberg knows to be sensible if Schumacher makes a move on him.

On lap 29 Alonso sets fastest lap. Buemi pits from seventh place.

At lap 30, Button, who was the only car amongst the leaders to start on prime tyres and has still not made his first stop, leads Vettel by 2.9 seconds, followed by Webber (5.1s), Alonso (10.9s), Hamilton (16.3s), Kobayashi (26.7s) yet to pit, Rosberg (35.1s), Schumacher (35.6s), Heidfeld (38.6s) and Barrichello (42.3s) in tenth place.

On lap 33 Yamamoto pits.

On lap 35 Hamilton sets fastest lap. Kovalainen pits on the next lap from 14th place.

On lap 39 Button pits from the lead, rejoining in fifth place on soft tyres. Kobayashi pits from sixth place and rejoins in 12th place. Vettel sets fast lap.

On lap 40 Hamilton reports to his team that he has lost third gear.

At lap 40 Vettel leads Webber by 2.0 seconds, followed by Alonso (4.2s) in third, Hamilton (10.6s), Button (17.1s), Rosberg (40.1s), Schumacher (40.3s), Heidfeld (42.4s), Barrichello (45.5s) and Sutil (47.2s) in tenth place.

Button sets fastest lap - the first in the 1m34s range.

Hamilton, with his lap times suffering, falls into the clutches of his team mate Button.

On lap 44, Button passes his team mate for fourth place. Kobayashi passes Alguersuari on the outside of the hairpin for tenth place - the to battle, making minor contact. Sutil's Mercedes engine is smoking, he spins in the 130R corner, and then pits. Alguersuari pits as well. Kobayashi's sidepod showing some damage.

On lap 46 Button sets fastest lap in the 1m33s. The top three positions covered by less than five seconds. Kobayashi closes on Barrichello in ninth.

On lap 49 Rosberg's left rear tyre comes off, and the German spins into the tyre wall from sixth place, the driver getting out of the car unhurt. Kobayashi passes Barrichello for eighth place.

On lap 50 Kobayashi passes his team mate Heidfeld for seventh place into the hairpin.

At lap 50 Vettel leads Webber by 1.9 seconds, followed by Alonso (3.8s), Button (15.3s), Hamilton (29.5s), Schumacher (56.4s), Kobayashi (62.5s), Heidfeld (65.9s), Barrichello (66.5s) and Buemi (69.9s) in tenth place.

On lap 51 Vettel sets fastest lap.

Mark Webber sets fastest lap on the final lap, but Vettel holds on to take the victory.


Japanese GP - Sunday - Race Results

  Grand Prix motor racing

Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver. Innovation and the drive of competition soon saw speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), but because the races were held on open roads there were frequent accidents with the resulting fatalities of both drivers and spectators.

Grand Prix motor racing eventually evolved into formula racing, and Formula One can be seen as its direct descendant. Each event of the Formula One World Championships is still called a Grand Prix. Formula One is still referred to as Grand Prix racing.

The origins of organised racing

Motor racing was started in France, as a direct result of the enthusiasm with which the French public embraced the motor car.[1] Manufacturers were enthusiastic due to the possibility of using motor racing as a shop window for their cars.[1] The first motor race took place on July 22, 1894 and was organised by Le Petit Journal, a Parisian newspaper. It was run over the eighty mile (128 km) distance between Paris and Rouen. The race was won by Albert de Dion, although he was not awarded the prize for first place as his car required a stoker and the judges deemed this outside of their objectives.[2]

In 1900, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the owner of the New York Herald newspaper and the International Herald Tribune, established the Gordon Bennett Cup. He hoped that the creation of an international event would drive automobile manufacturers to improve their cars.[3] Each country was allowed to enter up to three cars, which had to be fully built in the country that they represented and entered by that country's automotive governing body.[3] International racing colours were established in this event.[3] In the United States, William Kissam Vanderbilt II launched the Vanderbilt Cup at Long Island, New York in 1904


The first Grands Prix

The first event to carry the name Grand Prix was the Pau Grand Prix in 1901,[4] although this race was a one-off and the term Grand Prix was not in wide usage at the time.

The only race at the time to regularly carry the name Grand Prix was organised by the Automobile Club de France (ACF), of which the first took place in 1906. The circuit used, which was based in Le Mans, was roughly triangular in shape, each lap covering 105 kilometres (65 miles). Six laps were to run each day, and each lap took approximately an hour using the relatively primitive cars of the day. The driving force behind the decision to race on a circuit - as opposed to racing on ordinary roads from town to town - was the Paris to Madrid road race of 1903. During this race a number of people, both drivers and pedestrians - including Marcel Renault - were killed and the race was stopped by the French authorities at Bordeaux. Further road based events were banned.

From the 32 entries representing 12 different automobile manufacturers, at the 1906 event, the Hungarian-born Ferenc Szisz (1873–1944) won the 1,260 km (780 mi) race in a Renault. This race was regarded as the first Grand Épreuve, which meant "great trial" and the term was used from then on to denote up to the eight most important events of the year.[5]

Races in this period were heavily nationalistic affairs, with a few countries setting up races of their own, but no formal championship tying them together. The rules varied from country to country and race to race, and typically centered around maximum (not minimum) weights in an effort to limit power by limiting engine size indirectly (10–15 L engines were quite common, usually with no more than four cylinders, and producing less than 50 hp). The cars all had mechanics on board as well as the driver, and no one was allowed to work on the cars during the race except for these two. A key factor to Renault winning this first Grand Prix was held to be the detachable wheel rims (developed by Michelin), which allowed tire changes to occur without having to lever the tire and tube off and back on the rim. Given the state of the roads, such repairs were frequent.


Racecourse development

For the most part, races were run over a lengthy circuit of closed public roads, not purpose-built private tracks. This was true of the Le Mans circuit of the 1906 Grand Prix, as well as the Targa Florio (run on 93 miles (150 km) of Sicilian roads), the 75 miles (121 km) German Kaiserpreis circuit in the Taunus mountains, and the French circuit at Dieppe (a mere 48 miles (77 km)), used for the 1907 Grand Prix. The exceptions were the steeply banked egg-shaped near oval of Brooklands in England, completed in 1907, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, first used in 1909 with the first Indianapolis 500-Mile Race in 1911, and the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, in Italy, opened in 1922.

In 1908, the United States of America became the first country outside France to host an automobile race using the name Grand Prix (or Grand Prize), run at Savannah. The first Grand Épreuve outside of France was the 1921 Italian Grand Prix held at Brescia. This was quickly followed by Belgium and Spain (in 1924), and later spread to other countries including Britain (1926). Strictly speaking, this still wasn't a formal championship, but a loose collection of races run to various rules. (A "formula" of rules had appeared just before World War I, finally based on engine size as well as weight, but it was not universally adopted.)
In 1904, many national motor clubs banded together to form the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR). In 1922 the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) was empowered on behalf of AIACR to regulate Grand Prix racing and other forms of international racing. Since the inception of Grand Prix racing, competitions had been run in accordance with a strict formula based on engine size and vehicle weight. These regulations were virtually abandoned in 1928 with an era known as Formula Libre when race organisers decided to run their events with almost no limitations. From 1927 to 1934, the number of races considered to have Grand Prix status exploded, jumping from five events in 1927, to nine events in 1929, to eighteen in 1934 (the peak year before World War II).


The Pre-WW II years

The 1933 Monaco Grand Prix was the first time in the history of the sport that the grid was determined by timed qualifying rather than the luck of a draw.

All the competing vehicles were painted in the international auto racing colors:

green (British racing green) for Britain,

blue (Bleu de France)for France,

red (Rosso corsa) for Italian,

yellow for Belgium, and

white for Germany.

Beginning in 1934, the Germans stopped painting their cars, after the paint had been left off a Mercedes-Benz W25 in an effort to reduce weight. The unpainted metal soon had the German vehicles dubbed by the media as the "Silver Arrows".

French cars continued to dominate (led by Bugatti, but also including Delage and Delahaye) until the late 1920s, when the Italians (Alfa Romeo and Maserati) began to beat the French cars regularly. At the time, the Germans engineered unique race vehicles as seen in the photo here with the Benz aerodynamic "teardrop" body introduced at the 1923 European Grand Prix at Monza by Karl Benz.

In the 1930s, however, nationalism entered a new phase when the Nazis encouraged Mercedes and Auto Union to further the glory of the Reich. (The government did provide some money to the two manufacturers, but the extent of the aid into their hands was exaggerated in the media; government subsidies amounted to perhaps 10% or less of the costs of running the two racing teams.)[6] The two German marques utterly dominated the period from 1935 to 1939, winning all but three of the official Championship Grands Prix races run in those years. The cars by this time were single-seaters (the riding mechanic vanished in the early 1920s), with 8 to 16 cylinder supercharged engines producing upwards of 600 hp (450 kW) on alcohol fuels.

As early as October 1923, the idea of an automobile championship was discussed at the annual autumn conference of the AIACR (Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus) in Paris. However, discussion centered around the increased interest in racing by manufacturers and holding the first European Grand Prix at Monza in 1923. The first World Championship took place in 1925, but it was for manufacturers only, consisting of four races of at least 800 km (497 mi) in length. The races that formed the first Constructors Championship were the Indianapolis 500, the European Grand Prix, and the French and Italian Grands Prix. A European Championship, consisting of the major Grand Prix in a number of countries (named Grandes Epreuves) was instituted for drivers in 1935, and was competed every year until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.


The post-war years and Formula One

In 1946, following World War II, only four races of Grand Prix calibre were held. Rules for a Grand Prix World Championship had been laid out before World War II, but it took several years afterward until 1947 when the old AIACR reorganised itself as the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile or "FIA" for short. Headquartered in Paris, at the end of the 1949 season it announced that for 1950 they would be linking several national Grands Prix to create Formula One with a World Championship for drivers, although due to economic difficulties the years 1952 and 1953 were actually competed in Formula Two cars. A points system was established and a total of seven races were granted championship status including the Indianapolis 500. The first World Championship race was held on 13 May at Silverstone in the United Kingdom.

The Italians once again did well in these early World Championship races, both manufacturers and drivers. The first World Champion was Giuseppe Farina, driving an Alfa Romeo. Ferrari appeared at the second World Championship race, in Monaco, and has the distinction of being the only manufacturer to compete throughout the entire history of the World Championship, still competing in 2010.


Grandes Épreuves by season


1906–1914

1921–1929

1930–1939

1946–1949

Other events included

Grand Prix drivers