This Week in Motorsport
Formula Fun!
Formula One World Championship
Round 10
Großer Preis von Deutschland
Sunday, 22 July 2012

Reigning double World Champion Sebastian Vettel ('10 & '11) of Red Bull (Renault) finished second, only a few seconds behind double World Champion Fernando Alonso ('05 & '06) of Ferrari, but after the race was penalized twenty seconds for a supposedly illegal overtaking maneuver against '09 World Champion Jenson Button of McLaren (Mercedes). Button inherited second place while Vettel fell back to fifth; Button gained three points in being promoted from third to second while Vettel lost eight points in the demotion. I call shenanigans! Rules enforcement in Formula One is dreadfully inconsistent, with some drivers being penalized when other drivers who execute identical maneuvers are not. In this, F1 is like every other sport in the world: The zebras have a very difficult job, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating when they make an error.

Round 11
Magyar Nagydíj (Grand Prix of Hungary)
Sunday, 29 July 2012

Lots of fun was had around the tight, tortuous Hungaroring, with '08 World Champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren just barely fending off the Lotus (Renault) of '07 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen. Lotus had a very good day, with Räikkönen's teammate Romain Grosjean fending off Vettel to claim third place, the last step on the podium.

After Hungary, the F1 summer break began, with each team compelled by the regulations to shutter their factory & do no development work on the race cars for a full fortnight; whether this fortnight came at the beginning of the break or the end, no work could be done for two consecutive weeks. I hope one & all had a lovely holiday!

Round 12
Grand Prix of Belgium
Sunday, 2 September 2012

This was one of the most exciting grands prix I've ever seen, & the perfect way to welcome back Formula One after the August recess. I freely admit that I am hopelessly biased as Spa-Francorchamps is my very favorite track, but even beyond that this year Belgian Grand Prix delivered pure motor racing gold. A massive kerfuffle at the first corner of the opening lap knocked out the McLaren of Hamilton, the Ferrari of Alonso, the Lotus of Grosjean, & the Sauber (Ferrari) of Sergio Pérez, & thoroughly shuffled the field. Button won from the pole, but behind him Vettel sliced & diced his way through the field from twelfth after the shunt at La Source hairpin to the second step of the podium. There was action everywhere, with six of the top ten finishers having qualified outside the top ten on the starting grid. Spa showed just how much difference a driver can make on a circuit that has room & opportunities for overtaking/passing. Man alive, I wouldn't get sick of Spa if F1 ran there thrice a year!

Round 13
Gran Premio d'Italia
Sunday, 9 September 2012

Like the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza is one of four circuits on the F1 calendar that were on the first F1 calendar in 1950. I respect the history of Monza, but in my eyes it suffers in the comparison with Spa. My indifference to the track aside, the grand prix was one I'd like to forget, with both Red Bulls failing to finish, the second D.N.F. (Did Not Finish)of the year for Vettel & the first for Mark Webber. Hamilton won from the pole, the third consecutive pole & victory for McLaren, stretching back to Hungary before the break. In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren has gained major ground on leaders Red Bull, Button's D.N.F. being the closest thing to a positive Red Bull could take away from the weekend. The only other good news was that Pérez, in his Ferrari-engined Sauber, passed both Ferraris (Alonso & Felipe Massa) to claim second; the tifosi would have loved to see both of the "Prancing Horses" on the podium instead of in third & fourth. Massa was ahead of Alonso 'til the team ordered the Brazilian to make way for the Spaniard, who tops the Drivers' Championship standings; it warmed my black heart to see the Italians resort to such skulduggery.

Round 14
Grand Prix of Singapore
Sunday, 23 September 2012

In the oppressive equatorial heat (even at night) of Singapore, Vettel pulled away from Button in the dying minutes following the second safety car period to claim only his second victory of the '12 campaign. Hamilton lead from pole, with Vettel in hot pursuit, 'til the Mclaren's gearbox gave up the ghost. Pastor Maldonado of Williams (Renault) started from second, having posted a blisteringly fast time in qualifying, but faded at the start, faded more in the pit stop rotation, & eventually retired with hydraulic gremlins; it was the shunt-prone Venezuelan's first front-row start since his win from pole in Spain, but as in every race since that triumph in Spain Maldonado walked away from the grand prix without scoring any points.

Thrilled as I was by Vettel's win, which moved him back to second place in the Drivers' standings & increased Red Bull's lead over McLaren in the Constructors', disaster struck elsewhere; Timo Glock of Marussia (Cosworth) finished in twelfth, moving Marussia ahead of Caterham (Renault) into the final revenue-sharing place in the Constructors' Championship. Caterham (new to the sport as Lotus Racing in '10, rebranded as Team Lotus in '11 before becoming Caterham for this year), whose season-best finish is thirteenth in the Grand Prix de Monaco, expected to challenge the midfield teams this year, but instead find themselves no longer even reliably the best of the back markers. Egad!

Formula, Too
G.P.2 Series
Round 8
Hockenheimring, Germany
Saturday & Sunday, 21-22 July 2012

James Calado, a British driver I inexplicably favor, won the second, "sprint" race of the German Grand Prix weekend.

Round 9
Hungaroring, Hungary
Saturday & Sunday, 28-29 July 2012

The Hungaroring is a fun track that I wish I got to see in use more than one weekend a year. There are more European racing series available on the website speed2.com (similar to espn3.com), but thus far the "online channel" is not available to me through my internet/cable provider.

Round 10
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Saturday & Sunday, 1-2 September 2012

There was almost as many shunts in the G.P.2 races as in the f1 grand prix, almost but not quite. Calado finished second in Race 1 (the "feature") & third in Race 2 (the sprint). The difference betwixt the two races are these: the feature is approximately one-third longer & features a mandatory pit stop, during which at least two of the four tires must be changed; the sprint is shorter &, as its name implies, has no mandatory pit stop. The cars start the sprint in the order in which they finish the feature, with the top eight finishers being inverted, the feature winning starting the sprint from eighth place & the eighth-place finisher in the feature starting the sprint from the pole.

Round 11
Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy
Saturday & Sunday, 8-9 September 2012

Italians won both races at Monza, Luca Filippi prevailing in Race 1 & championship-leader Davide Valsecchi winning Race 2. There are currently no Italian drivers competing in F1.

Round 12
Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore
Saturday & Sunday, 22-23 September 2912

My father has joined me in watching motorsport (to be discussed in a future "This Week in Motorsport" post, subtitled "Frankenstein's Monster"). Thus, we now record races on the D.V.R. & watch them together on the giant flatscreen television set in the family room, instead of me recording them on my V.C.R. & watching them solo on my old cathode-ray-tube television set in the living room. I would look up races online, finding which races I intended to watch on each broadcasters' website & then setting the V.C.R. for the appropriate time & channel; my father prefers to scan the television listings, or use the D.V.R.'s "search & record" function. Last weekend, he simply failed to record the G.P.2 races, which Speed Channel broadcast directly before the F1 grand prix. He claims that he simply never saw it in the on-screen listings; I have long warned him of the danger of simply missing or overlooking a desired program via his preferred technique. I am chagrined that I was right, for I'd have liked to see the G.P.2 finale in Singapore. *grumble grumble*

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Go Sailor, "Windy" from Go Sailor (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"So go ahead and marry her, and don't mind me,
It's what I get for being blind…

"So go ahead and marry her, it's what you want,
I hope that your forever stays…

"So go ahead and marry her, she's really nice,
She's everything that I can't be…"