Let's get back to racing this weekend as the recent spy scandal has been the talk of the town this weekend and probably will be for a very long time to come.

It's dominated the summer season and things just got even bigger with the news that McLaren have lost all their constructor's points for this season and won't be allowed to score any more, and that they have been hit with a whopping $100 million fine.

Hopefully all the rubbish which has been going on will not affect this weekend's race outcome, as we need to get back to fighting on the track with cars not fighting in the courtroom with wooden hammers.

So, as we return to this wonderful 4.3 track, newly updated with a new pit and paddock, it's Kimi Raikkonen who is hoping to get his Ferrari title challenge back on track, as he has won here in 2004 and 2005. This track should suit the Ferraris quite well, and his team-mate Massa hopes so after his terrible non finish last time out in Monza.

But it is the McLaren guys who are really under pressure this weekend, and they need to deliver. Fernando Alonso lies only three points behind title leader Lewis Hamilton after his win in Monza and things have never been this close.

Hamilton will be looking to put everything behind him as he races on this track, and I'm sure he will be looking for the win.

If everything goes according to plan it should be a brilliant and tight race, and early indications are showing that things are neck and neck!

P1:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40658

P2:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40661

Post away guys and girls!

Brilliant, only one week between GP'S. Yeah, and i have live timing for this one.

But as for the winners and losers of the race, i really don't know how the top 4 will come out.
I think Kubica will lead for BMW. followed by Nick and Kovy.

I think Sutil will shine a bit more here, not enough to get him points, but enough to race the STR's and beat them.

I want Massa to win of course, but i think it will so tight, its anybodys guess.

Woot! Spa is back! We missed yoooouuu!

Williams hasn't had the best start to the weekend, but practice is practice, so I'm sill confident. I see it's still close at the top though :D

I reckon it will be Fernando's race, well I hope so anyway :p The Ferraris will probably be stronger though, especially as it's the each driver for himself. That is unless BMW can pull out something incredibly special to beat the new World Constructors champions!

Woot! Spa is back! We missed yoooouuu!

Williams hasn't had the best start to the weekend, but practice is practice, so I'm sill confident. I see it's still close at the top though :D

Haha yeah, we missed you Spa. :p

For my brilliant prediction, I think it will be a McLaren front row lockout, and a McLaren winning the race. That said, I jinx everything, so expect to see Yamamoto on pole and Sutil winning by like, ages.

For my brilliant prediction, I think it will be a McLaren front row lockout, and a McLaren winning the race. That said, I jinx everything, so expect to see Yamamoto on pole and Sutil winning by like, ages.

Well, Mr. Gascoyne has come out and said that Spyker can realistically make it to Q2! I mean, I know they were sort of up in pace in FP2, but whether it will be enough is another question.

I would have picked Spa to be a Ferrari circuit, but McLaren may have found solutions to their apparent lack of pace they've suffered at longer, less tighter circuits. I can't tell yet though, but I have a feeling that whoever tops FP3 will be the eventual winners, baring technical difficulties and the like.

^^well sutil is 15th in saturday practice, so its not a bad indication of were they can be

Also kimi is heading practice half way through, i just checked for fun.

EDIT:
Looks like Yamato and Kubica spun of, hopefully we can see more of that during the race and spice things up a little

Got a call yesterday from a guy from my class that was at practice. The sound of the F1 cars were great. I'm realy happy Spa is back, Qualifying is in about an hour and a half I think.

Pos No Driver Q3
1 6 Kimi Räikkönen 1:45.994
2 5 Felipe Massa 1:46.011
3 1 Fernando Alonso 1:46.091
4 2 Lewis Hamilton 1:46.406
5 10 Robert Kubica 1:46.996
6 16 Nico Rosberg 1:47.334
7 9 Nick Heidfeld 1:47.409
8 15 Mark Webber 1:47.524
9 12 Jarno Trulli 1:47.798
10 4 Heikki Kovalainen 1:48.505
11 3 Giancarlo Fisichella 1:46.603
12 11 Ralf Schumacher 1:46.618
13 14 David Coulthard 1:46.800
14 7 Jenson Button 1:46.955
15 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi 1:47.115
16 17 Alexander Wurz 1:47.394
17 19 Sebastian Vettel 1:47.581
18 8 Rubens Barrichello 1:47.954
19 22 Takuma Sato 1:47.980
20 20 Adrian Sutil 1:48.044
21 23 Anthony Davidson 1:48.199
22 21 Sakon Yamamoto 1:49.577

Well Alonso beat Hammy :) What happened to the Hondas/Super Aguris...though?

KIMI POLE = KIMI WIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its Kimi's race and McLaren are on the backfoot this weekend !

With Massa 2nd there is no chance Alonso and Hamilton are gonna win no chance its Ferrari's weekend lets soak it up people !!!

So yeah its also good to have Spa back on the calender watching the qualifying reminded me just how good the circuit is.

So close near the top 3.
Kimi just ahead by 0.021. Then Massa Just ahead by 0.08.
But Lewis on the backfoot, a fair bit further behind. It could of gone anyway today, but kimi was really on top of things.

But since Kubica is sent to 15th, we'll get to see him do some stunning drving tommorrow, looking forward to that, and that means Rosberg is 5th. Wow. For a track williams said they wouldn't be so fast at, to be on front of the BMW's is the best work from Williams this season.

I was expecting to see sutil a bit higher, but the Toro Rosso's just seemed to have pulled some speed from nowhere, and beat both Super Aguris.

i another great drive was Webber, doing great to make the top 10 despite red bulls mess up, and then setting a competetive time too. great result, lets just hope it dosen't come to reliabilty again.


But one thing i have to point out is that forget anyone else having the most bad luck, kubica steals that. Hes not had a clean race since britan. Thats 5 bad races in a row, plus he had one of the worst crashs for a while. Germany, hit by Heidfeld, Hungary, quali probelm, Turkey, messed up startegy. Italy, pit probelm

It was a good race. I saw so many fights between drivers.

Kubica was sent down to 15th place. This is bad. Anyways he will try.

Heidfeld finished 5th behind Rosberg. :|

Kimi is the pollman. I was prepared for this. He did a great race. THen Massa, Alonso and Hamilton. Good for ferrari.



In big straights when the TV coverage shows "in car", i turn the volume to high. Just to hear these wonderful engines achieving 300++km/h. Awesome! :p

Well, Mr. Gascoyne has come out and said that Spyker can realistically make it to Q2! I mean, I know they were sort of up in pace in FP2, but whether it will be enough is another question.

I would have picked Spa to be a Ferrari circuit, but McLaren may have found solutions to their apparent lack of pace they've suffered at longer, less tighter circuits. I can't tell yet though, but I have a feeling that whoever tops FP3 will be the eventual winners, baring technical difficulties and the like.

I always thought it would be a really really tough job for the Spykers to get into Q2, and I thought it would happen, because late in on Q1 Yamamoto was 17th but then everyone improved by a massive margin, almost something like 1 second per lap, so he got bumped down way down the order, which was unfortunate.

Thing is about Spyker, to me they're still not an F1 team in my eyes. There's been so many choppings and changes, and they're going to be sold and bought again, and the Spyker name will be gone, with what, only around 12 months' time in F1? It's getting ridiculous.

But yeah, I was wrong again (no surprise there lol), and Ferrari got a front row lockout, good for them, not so good for McLaren, will be hard for them to win, but anything is possible.

^^well sutil is 15th in saturday practice, so its not a bad indication of were they can be

Also kimi is heading practice half way through, i just checked for fun.

EDIT:
Looks like Yamato and Kubica spun of, hopefully we can see more of that during the race and spice things up a little

Alonso spun today quite easily I think, so yep you're right, anything can happen, Spa is a brilliant racetrack and let's hopefully not have a boring race, as most of them this season have been, apart from one or two. Some of the most interesting stuff this season has happened off the track, which is a shame.

So yeah its also good to have Spa back on the calender watching the qualifying reminded me just how good the circuit is.

I totally agree, it was like watching the cars go round on a totally different track, it was brilliant, all the other tracks seemed to be a little bit run of the mill but this one was absoutely brilliant to watch back in action. The new Bus Stop chicane is brilliant, and there will be some overtakes there.

But what you said about Kimi pole Kimi win, Massa has a very very good chance into Eau Rouge, the straight and Les Combes, and loads of other places, so there will be overtaking. Hopefully Hamilton can get past Alonso.

But yeah, all in all a good qualifying session, I enjoyed it. Great laps from the Ferrari, I have a feeling that if Ferrari didn't have continuos reliability problems both drivers would be within 5 points of the McLarens, but it's their own fault that they are in this situation. I can't see any of McLaren's engines failing unless something drastic happens and I feel the championship is just between the McLaren guys; it's like Ferrari are racing for a lost cause now. It's either Alonso or Hamilton for the championship. I can't see a Brazilian or a Finn lifting the title, I'm afraid.

Still, they do have the speed here, which is good, because it's incredibly competitive between these two teams, and hopefully we will see these two teams fighting it out at the top, as always.

Alonso, a good lap from him, just getting the better of Hamilton. His position is not safe though, because I believe Hamilton will have a shot at him, try to get past him on the first lap.

And 4th isn't a bad place to be, yes Hamilton would have prefered to get further up the grid but you win some, you lose some and if he has his head screwed on he could be a winner tomorrow.

A McLaren winning the race I'm not exactly sure about, but it's anyone's game to be honest.

Button did well, 13th place not a bad result for him, can't see a Honda getting into the points though which is unfortunate.y

Nonetheless looking forward to the race, should be a good one. Just wish we had more participation in the GP threads though!

_

Qualifying report:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40681

Actually. This morning with GP2 there was very little mistakes made, they all did well. and there was another Mika vs Schucy moment. It wasn't for the lead or anything, but a cool moment. I'll not spoil much more for you Ben.


but my bet is that Yamato will fly of somewhere, Sutil will overtake someone, and Webber will get points.
Plus i think Roseberg will end up 4th, with Kubica ending up behind Heidfeld in the end

Toyota to be strong. Ralf to start 12th only to put in a spectacular race and charge through the field to 11th, courtesy of a Red Bull Racing gearbox failure for Webber.

New grid now.
Fisi has engine change
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/9/6790.html

Think, with Rosberg on the clean side, and lewis on the dirty, we might see roseberg take 4th off the line. We all know hes a great driver, and could easily be capable.

YESSS!!! Great display from the Ferrari team. Winning the constructors championship today.(You see Benny, nothing is over 'till it's over =P)

Not the best race at Spa ever, but still some nice fights. Like between Kovaleinen and Kubica, showing they're both good drivers.

Good to see too that the B-spec Spyker is really doing better then the old car. Sutil was driving faster lap times than alot other drivers.

Great job by the Ferrari team and drivers. 3-straight Spa winner Kimi set fastest laps early, but Massa was fastest overall on lap 34.

Gotta love this headline: "Hamilton Fails to Spa-Rkle."

I wish they had stripped the McLaren drivers of points. If they had; a howling mob of tens of thousands of fans would have stormed the organizers' and officials' suites and lynched(hung) the lot of them! I whizz on Ferrari's "free" constructor's championship!

CarRocker, did you make it to Assen or Zolder for the Champ Car races?

Well this weeks race was slightly better. Firstly I'd like to take the time to mention SUTIL, who was in P12 beating a Honda and competing against a Red-Bull, it shows he is a worthy driver, and taht Spyker has been improved :)
Secondly, SATO, he may be in a Super Aguri, but he does tend to race above his 'level'.

Thirdly, Mark WEBBER, who actually finished the race, meaning that he drove very well, driver of the day definitely.

ROSBERG, showed his talent today, as well, yes he lost his 5th, but to a BMW, that can only be expected, so well done to them.

Apart from that, Kimi had an exceptional race, Massa, I think has lost his title hopes now, but he is vital to Kimi's campaign. Alonso drove another good race, a little cheeky at the beginning maybe, but this is racing, so hey ho, it happens. Hammy is losing his sparkle, definitely. I wonder if he's starting to feel the pressure a lil'?

Heikki, I think did well keeping 8th, his strategy wasn't particularly appropriate and that enabled a lot of people to overtake, but, well, at least it happened!

Nice racing from Kubica as well, I like his style a lot, and I'm sure he will be a champion in the years to come, BMW look promising right now.

So yeah, I'm pretty happy :)

Pos No Driver
1 6 Kimi Räikkönen
2 5 Felipe Massa
3 1 Fernando Alonso
4 2 Lewis Hamilton
5 9 Nick Heidfeld
6 16 Nico Rosberg
7 15 Mark Webber
8 4 Heikki Kovalainen
9 10 Robert Kubica
10 11 Ralf Schumacher
11 12 Jarno Trulli
12 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi
13 8 Rubens Barrichello
14 20 Adrian Sutil
15 22 Takuma Sato
16 23 Anthony Davidson
17 21 Sakon Yamamoto
Ret 7 Jenson Button
Ret 17 Alexander Wurz
Ret 14 David Coulthard
Ret 19 Sebastian Vettel
Ret 3 Giancarlo Fisichella

CarRocker, did you make it to Assen or Zolder for the Champ Car races?

Nope.:( I really wanted to, but was unable to go. Not enough time and not enough money.

It was sad to see Sutil drop so many places. He was right on front of truli, but it came to pit stops, and so many people were on 1 stops today, it was just very unfortunate, if he to was 1 stopping, i think he could of held that position better. But i think at the start he did do some good overtaking, which we never got to see, but for Sutil to get a Spyker past midfield cars, i think is just brilliant.

As for people saying sutil does go off to often, part of that is due to the Spyker car being very unforgiving.

Webber also did a great race to say in the points, and Rosberg getting 6th, despite the fact, the williams car doesn't seem to be so fast during the race.
i think if all goes well for Rosberg, he might even catch up to kovy in points, if he does an extremely good job for the rest of the season, which i think he can.

But wurz, what can i say, hes as good as gone from Williams. Beaten by Luzzi in quali, then falling to last, while Roseberg manages 6th. I think from today, Sutil deserves a drive at Williams

As for the top 4, well its just the same, it comes to quali at the end, and overtaking just dosen't happen at the top of the grid now.



But i have one complainant, and its the commentators, they whine on about lewis far far too much. They were going on about how lewis could overtake Alonso, and when he didn't, they made excuses for him. The commentators usually don't yell whos their favourite to win, but it all to obvious who they seem obsessed with. Yes lewis is a great driver, but so is alonso, its not like the second hes behind alonso, its because theres somthing wrong, Alonso isjust faster at some circuits.

Plus i hate to admit it, but with the next few tracks being unknowns to Lewis, i think Alonso could take the WDC, and i can't stand the thought of that lieing cheating prick winning again

^^

Yeah ITV always make excuses for lewis when he doesn't overtake and things like that its more james Allen then Martin Blundle though James Allen loves Hamilton I swear he would jump off a cliff if Hamilton told him too lol.

Gotta say a great race from Kimi and overall a very good weekend for Ferrari but I do agree with Cheeky I fell Hamilton is beginning to lose his spark definently.

I have got to give credit to Sutil before I went out he was in front of Trulli and behind Coulthard and was really punching above his weight and no doubt he is a future world champion.

I'm just about to watch the whole race now has I recorded it so I'm gonna watch it all now will probably make another post about the GP after.

Does anyone else hate how ITV always go to the adds, and then you miss somthing.
I wish BBC would start showing it next year, so we don't have to put up with having to listen to what Marks and Spencers have for sale this week

You're right, ITV have far too many adverts. It's really annoying because they are quite long adverts too...

When I watch it on French TV though (TF1), once they put on the adverts I can change it onto the Italian and miss none of the action :p.

Having said that, this weekend's GranPrix was so boring I fell asleep ... haha

It was a great race in my opinion. It wasn't so boring.

Kimi was the winner. Gongrats to him. I really liked his driving.

Massa drove stable and with confidence.

Alonso and Hamilton were pretty good.

Rosberg did a great race and the new contract will be to Williams again :p.

Heidfeld did a great race too. At the begginning he lost 2 places. But in the end he corrected his mistake. Kubica was so good. I like his driving style. He's aggressive.

In car sights were great. Especially in the straights.

The race was awesome. It was a really good result for Ferrari taking in 18 points for the constructors and drivers championship. The Mclarens were doing good as well but they lacked the pace to give the red cars a run for their money. Also, Alonso is now 3 points behind Hamiltion in the drivers standings, so we should a great battle in the final few races of the season, it should be great to watch.

It was also great to see Mark Webber finish in the points, he did a great overtaking maneuver on Kovalainen in the early stages of the race, good job to him.

Does anyone else hate how ITV always go to the adds, and then you miss somthing.
I wish BBC would start showing it next year, so we don't have to put up with having to listen to what Marks and Spencers have for sale this week
Yeah, but it's not going to happen :p

The race was awesome. It was a really good result for Ferrari taking in 18 points for the constructors and drivers championship. The Mclarens were doing good as well but they lacked the pace to give the red cars a run for their money. Also, Alonso is now 3 points behind Hamiltion in the drivers standings, so we should a great battle in the final few races of the season, it should be great to watch.

It was also great to see Mark Webber finish in the points, he did a great overtaking maneuver on Kovalainen in the early stages of the race, good job to him.

Alonso's only 2 points behind I believe!
01 Lewis Hamilton 97
02 Fernando Alonso 95
03 Kimi Räikkönen 84
04 Felipe Massa 77
05 Nick Heidfeld 56
06 Robert Kubica 33
07 Heikki Kovalainen 22
08 Giancarlo Fisichella 17
09 Nico Rosberg 15
10 Alexander Wurz 13
Yup :)

Actually. This morning with GP2 there was very little mistakes made, they all did well. and there was another Mika vs Schucy moment. It wasn't for the lead or anything, but a cool moment. I'll not spoil much more for you Ben.


but my bet is that Yamato will fly of somewhere, Sutil will overtake someone, and Webber will get points.
Plus i think Roseberg will end up 4th, with Kubica ending up behind Heidfeld in the end

I missed the GP2 race yesterday, I was out somewhere, doing something, which is really annoying as it sounded like there was some really great stuff going on in that race.

I guess I'll just have to catch the highlights sometime on YouTube when it's up, because I really want to see the race.

YESSS!!! Great display from the Ferrari team. Winning the constructors championship today.(You see Benny, nothing is over 'till it's over =P)

You're so very right mate, but if it wasn't for some cheating I would have been the victor. :p Nah just kidding mate, it's a very true saying and applies to a lot of things in life.

I wish they had stripped the McLaren drivers of points. If they had; a howling mob of tens of thousands of fans would have stormed the organizers' and officials' suites and lynched(hung) the lot of them! I whizz on Ferrari's "free" constructor's championship!

Turns out that Max Mosley wanted to ban Alonso and Hamilton from this year's championship; fortunately there were other members who strongly disagreed with him and that didn't happen. Luckily Mosley didn't get his way (IMO).

Plus i hate to admit it, but with the next few tracks being unknowns to Lewis, i think Alonso could take the WDC, and i can't stand the thought of that lieing cheating prick winning again

Yeah I feel the same way, hopefully Lewis can get his act together for Japan.

Does anyone else hate how ITV always go to the adds, and then you miss somthing.
I wish BBC would start showing it next year, so we don't have to put up with having to listen to what Marks and Spencers have for sale this week

Lol. :p It's always a lottery when the F1 comes back on, you never know if someone's going to end up in the gravel trap or not.

Good race from Raikkonen today though, must have been exciting for him although it wasn't really exciting to watch, in the middle everyone just seemed to be following eachother into the corners and not much really went on. I hope to god these wings and stuff come in soon to try and even things out and make overtaking easier.

But anyway, Kimi now has an outside chance of the championship, although he really does need either Alonso or Hamilton or both of them to crash out at some point if he has a really really good chance at the title.

Nonetheless, a dominating win for him today which will give him the confidence going into Japan, and he's not on equal race wins with Alonso, four, shame he's 11 points behind him in the standings. But nobody could touch him today, not even Massa, as soon as he got out of the first lap first I knew he was going to win. He stepped up into that extra gear to win the race comfortable, even if Massa did get slightly closer to him near the end of the race. Still, a commanding victory and a thoroughly deserved one at that aswell. He's now got three wins on the spin, 2004, 2005 and 2007, so he really is the Spa master. Well done to him, and also for Massa who had a slightly lonely race in second place, faster than the McLarens but slower than Raikkonen.

Alonso and Hamilton had a fairly uneventful race, apart from the moves at the start (which by the way I thought Alonso unfairly barged Hamilton off the track, Alonso had room, could have braked, instead he turned into Hamilton) and I can see where Lewis is coming from on that front.

Still he didn't really have the pace to challenge Alonso really today, he was much faster and had the setup whilst Hamilton did not. He's gonna feel the pressure in the next few races and somebody needs to sit him down, have a chat with him and tell him everything is going to be okay.

Behind the top four though there were some good battles going on, especially with Webber, Kubica and Kovalainen, Webber getting a well deserved 2 points for 7th place, with some good overtaking.

Kubica just missed out on a point today, unluckily against Heikki, whilst Heidfeld got a 5th, best result he could get today, good for him and more points for him aswell.

Toyota, 10th and 11th, just cannot seem to score the points right now which is unfortunate, because they sometimes have good qualifying perfomances but just cannot seem to translate that into race pace.

Honda, bad race for Barrichello, down in 13th place but even worse for Button who retired with 7 laps to go. Button would probably he slightly relieved to retire after I suppose that must have been a very very frustrating result for them, and for me aswell.

The backmarkers, really well done to Sutil for getting 14th place, as high as 12th and hustling the back of DC genuinely, so that's some great pace from them. Well done, although Yamamoto finished last of the classified runners in 17th place. 16th and 17th for Sato and Davidson for Super Aguri respectively.

Bring on Japan in two weeks, I have a feeling that whoever wins there will go on to win the title. (But then again I'm probably horrendously wrong lol.)

_

Race Report:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40710