Opening ceremony at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi

Source: ferrariworld

Report: Vettel Wins Race And World Title

He may not have led the standings the entire season, however, Sebastian Vettel is the new World Champ after a faultless drive to victory in Abu Dhabi

Vettel, starting from pole position, pulled away off the line with Hamilton right behind as Jenson Button took third place off Alonso, who had his main title rival Webber right behind him. However, the racing was soon called off as the Safety Car came out a the result of a huge accident involving Michael Schumacher and Tonio Liuzzi. And while six drivers, including Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov, pitted under the Safety Car, most did not, including the title four.

Lap 12 saw the first of the top four pitting with Webber coming in, dropping all the way down to 16th place. Four laps later, Alonso came in as Ferrari matched Red Bull's strategy and although the Spaniard got out ahead of Webber, he had to make his way through the traffic as he attempted to work his way into the points.

However, that charge came to a halt when he came across Petrov and lap after lap, unable to overtake the Renault driver, Alonso and Webber could do nothing but watch as their title hopes disipated.

Meanwhile, at at the front, Vettel and Hamilton both took their stops on lap 25 and 24 respectively, both remaining in the top five as they watched their title hopes boosted as lap after lap Alonso and Webber were trapped behind Petrov.

And as others pitted, they soon returned to the P1 and P2 slots with Vettel ahead of Hamilton. And although those pitters elevated Alonso and Webber up the order, the time spent behind Petrov meant Robert Kubica was able to get back out after his stop ahead of Alonso - and those two Renaults were the two places Alonso needed to win the World title.

The race ended with Vettel crossing the line in first place ahead of Hamilton, clinching the season finale, the Drivers' Championship title and setting a new record as F1's youngest-ever World Champ. Congratulations!

Results

01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault
02. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 10.1s
03. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 11.0s
04. Rosberg Mercedes + 30.7s
05. Kubica Renault + 39.0s
06. Petrov Renault + 43.5s
07. Alonso Ferrari + 43.7s
08. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 44.2s
09. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 50.2s
10. Massa Ferrari + 50.8s
11. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 51.5s
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 57.6s
13. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 58.3s
14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 59.5s
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m03.1s
16. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1m04.7s
17. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap
18. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
19. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
20. Klien HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 4 laps

Did Not Finish
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 44
Schumacher Mercedes 1
Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1

Source: Planet-F1

Can Mark Webber complete his rise from F1 everyman to world champion?

After a decade spent making his name in the sport Red Bull's Australian veteran is closing in on the Formula One title

Mark Webber is having the season of his life. The Red Bull driver scored his first win only last year, when he triumphed in the German grand prix, and his second victory, in Brazil, was overshadowed by being the race where Jenson Button finally wrapped up the world championship.

In 2010, though, the Australian has sprayed champagne from the top of the podium four times and leads the standings by 14 points with three races left. He was not expected to give his team-mate Sebastian Vettel a run for his money but the man who tweets under the name AussieGrit was underestimated not only by the young German in the other Red Bull but by a good chunk of the Formula One family too.

Not any more. He has driven beautifully. Monaco and Silverstone spring to mind. He has been an uncompromising racer, not giving Vettel or Lewis Hamilton an inch in Turkey and Singapore respectively. Most importantly, he has largely avoided the bouts of brain fade that can wreck a season – his on-track hooning in Melbourne when racing Hamilton being the only exception.

But there is a feeling that for Webber it is now or never, that a chance of a tilt at the title may never come again. He is certainly driving as if that is the case and that has been his strength.

Of his title rivals three (Button, Hamilton and Fernando Alonso) have been world champion. The other (Vettel) is touted as being a multi-title winner by the time he hangs up his flameproof. After a decade in Formula One Webber was considered a good pro, a team man, fast enough to do a proper job but not a champion in the making. That is why Webber is the sentimental favourite the length of the pit lane. Not only has he come up the hard way; he was not expected to do much when he got there.

Webber has also had a battle within his own team beyond racing the precocious Vettel. He was never a part of Red Bull's young driver programme, which is overseen by Dr Helmut Marko. The former Le Mans winner and F1 driver has been developing driver talent since his career behind the wheel was cut short by a stone piercing his visor during the 1972 French grand prix and blinding him in one eye. The Austrian is a strong influence in the Austrian-owned team and Vettel is his baby, his work in progress.

One well-connected paddock insider suggested that, should Webber win the title when they tot up the points in Abu Dhabi, he might climb out of his car, tell Marko where to stick it, walk away from F1 and go and race V8 Supercars back home in Australia.

It would be a shame if that were to happen because the sport needs more drivers like Webber: honest, open, funny and, most importantly, fast. He leads by 14 points after Japan and his team say they are giving each driver a fair hand but the gap is narrowing. Can Webber hold on? The last three races will be fascinating.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

AutoSprint: Into Kimi’s World

Exclusive interview
Räikkönen without secrets

June is time for drawing up a balance sheet. Six months after the “big leap”, the ex F1 Champion tells about himself. And he often surprises.

Excited girls. Noisy kids. And above suspicion men of fifty. They would all ready to give a push with the elbow or to tread on somebody toes at their side if only they could get an autograph, or even take a photo with him. He himself, who is afraid of the crowd. Life is strange. Kimi Raikkonen withdraws, shrinks, hides himself when he’s surrounded by a human mass that chases him. It’s the price to pay for the notoriety, for the title won in F1 with Ferrari and for having answered no, one day, to GPs to switch to the less famous rallies. The only way to survive in this situation is to retire into himself, in his own world. The Kimi’s world.

Away from the crazy crowd
But it’s not so impossible to speak with him. You just need to wait for the right moment and being in the conditions he prefers. Almost like the wild animal which lets you get closer when you expect it less and just for few moments. Then Kimi comes out of the den and he brings himself into play. He speaks. A long time.

“The F1? I watch it on tv and I don’t miss it. Well, the driving, of course yes. But not all the rest. No, thanks. I have thought about rallies for years. I’ve always wanted to race them, at a high level if possible. I couldn’t wait anymore, then it would be too late. At the end of 2009 it was ended with Ferrari and there weren’t the conditions to come back to McLaren or to another top team. The moment of doing what I had always dreamt had come.”

- So, farewell to F1, without regrets. After nine seasons, with a Title and 18 victories. Who will win the Championship this year?
- “One of the RedBull drivers. Or Hamilton.”

- And about Sch., what do you think?
- “It’s his own choice.” (He said this shrugging his shoulders, and making you clearly know that Raikkonen doesn’t agree...)

- And Kimi? Will he come back to F1?
- “I’ll make my decision calmly, in peace, without any pressure from the outside. My contract in Rally is for 2010 only, but I’m not in hurry to decide. No pressure.”

- How do you feel six months after your big leap?
-“I’m learning. Every time it’s all new for me. Lanterna race was my eleventh rally of my new life, the first one on tarmac with a WRC car. I learn in every race, I go on more and more, trying to understand every secrets, every detail.”

He doesn’t say it, but you have to consider that Raikkonen has always to fight against competitors who know by heart stages that on the contrary he sees for the first time. So it’s in the Championship and so it was at the Lanterna, where he had to fight on a surface almost unknown for him – in a rallying level obviously – against people who could even make those stages with closed eyes. Someone even lives there, where the rally is, but Kimi didn’t cut a poor figure, not at all. And this also considering that at the start the stages were a bit dry and a bit wet, thing that is not an advantage for a rookie.

- But are you satisfied of the level you have reached so far? Did you expect more or you thought to be lower?
- “No, I’m not satisfied. Well, not completely. In Turkey I went well, I drove like I wanted and the final result was satisfactory. In Mexico, if I didn’t go out, it wasn’t going too bad. But in Portugal I had some more problems that I didn’t expect. We can say that it depends on every single rally. In Portugal, like in Jordan, I didn’t like myself. In Mexico and Turkey I did. Sweden was the first race, so...”

- What comes in your mind when you have to compare F1 and Rally?
- “You can’t compare them. The driving itself is completely different. The rally level his very very high. If you put any top F1 driver in a WRC race, he will be in a mess. Kubica apart! You can learn the circuit, but in rally every curve is different and it’s impossible to remember them all.”

HE NEEDS TIME TO GROW

Benoit Nogier – He goes faster than music

Who’s better than a technician to describe a driver? Benoit Nogier frequently sees Kimi Raikkonen at work, so it’s perfectly able to judge him.

- What kind of rally driver is Kimi?

“On the gravel, at the beginning, he made slide the car too much. While the others, Loeb, Ogier and so on, usually try to run along the road in the shorter way, he skidded a lot. In a finnish way old style, I would say, but today that kind of driving doesn’t worth. You lose downforce and traction and you can see it in the final times.”

- Speaking about laptimes, why is Kimi still so far away from the top at the end of the race? "Today rallies are very fast, we can’t forget it. And he has improved a lot. It’s all about experience. In Portugal he was at 1.5-1.7 sec/km, in Turkey, where he felt better, the gap was less than 1 sec/km.”

- Is he an istinctive or a calculating driver?

“Both. Like all the good drivers. Today Kimi is aware of his level, he knows what it is. He has understood he has to improve and he’ll improve on the way. He has to know everything, make more experience. He just lacks of that. He has the skills to go fast but he lacks of experience and so he takes risks that he doesn’t even know he’s taking. Speaking about one who exaggerates, in France we say: “he goes faster than music”. And that’s what Kimi did, for example, in Mexico.”

- Does he feel the changes of the car?

“Yes. But he’s never sure if he’s going in the right direction.”

- What kind of results can we expect from now to the end of the year?

“It’s difficult to say. All the rallies are new for him, Finland apart, where anyway he raced with a Super200 and not with a WRC. Japan and Wales are both two difficult races for one who has never raced there. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to see what will happen on the tarmac in Bulgaria, specially after the second place he got at the Lanterna Rally.

- What do you like most in Kimi?

“His sobriety”.

And he maliciously smiles, Nogier, while he’s saying it...

KaJ Lindstrom Raikkonen’s co-driver

He is more secure now

One that has run for two World Championships (2002 and 2003) beside Tommy Makinen, winning Montecarlo’s Rally, should be satisfied. Instead, Kaj Lindstrom is facing the adventure beside Raikkonen with beginner’s enthusiasm. The 41 years-old is an expert after 20 rally seasons.

What have you and Kimi have said to each other, before and after the last super special, in the Lanterna Rally?

“Before, we were talking about pushing and trying to keep Ogier behind us. Later we said to ourselves that we were to slow. All here. We ruined the front-left and the rear-left wheels in the penultimate stage, that long one: signs of battle. It was a great challenge, and for the first time Kimi felt like a real rally driver”.

And Now?

“Now he has grown. Having battled like that with Ogier, that is the driver of the moment, it has been much more profitable in sight of Rally Bulgaria. We go there in order to be with the big ones. This is the difference between here and there. But we think about nothing: just drive”.

Raikkonen seen from his point of view…

“He is a pretty boy, easy going: it’s easy to do things with him. He has approached Rally with the right attitude, knowing how to drive but wanting to learn with humility. He has never thought: this I know already. And he doesn’t expect miracles”.

What is missing now to arrive to the summit?

“Experience, just that. Talent he has more than enough, but rallies are completely different from F1. He doesn’t want to rush, he have said this to you before

MAREK NAWARECKI (Citroen PR) - It's a Global Challenge

Even from the media point of view – well, above all from that – Kimi Raikkonen makes himself conspicuous. So, we asked to a PR what is the impact on the media of such a character.

- Does it work more one like Loeb or like Raikkonen?

“Kimi has a large following around the world – explains Marek Nawarecki. Loeb too. But the difference is that Raikkonen attracts new people, not necessarily informed about rally, so he “fishes” in a new kind of audience. That is very good for this sport. On the contrary, Loeb attracts the fans who already follow the rallies.”

- What does it mean to have a character like Raikkonen in a team like Citroen?

“Firstly I have to say that it’s a great honour for us the fact he chose us, above all if we consider that he came from two myths of the races like McLaren and Ferrari. Then, we like a lot the kind of challenge that he’s facing. His adventure is a nice story, mainly for the sport. Also because none of the F1 drivers has ever competed in rally at this level, the highest level, and in this total way, that is to say applying himself in an exclusive way."

Source: AutoSprint
Courtesy:_TaniaS_ and WHATEVER