F1: Hamilton Escapes Penalty In Valencia

Hamilton accused of blocking Rosberg on a flying lap.

Lewis Hamilton narrowly avoided a penalty after facing Valencia stewards over an accused blocking of Nico Rosberg in qualifying. Hamilton carried out this action to give himself clear air at the start of the lap but seemed unaware of the nearby Mercedes.

The escape means that Hamilton is able to hold on to his front row finish, just in front of Sebastian Vettel who secured pole position.

Mercedes felt that Lewis' actions halted the German's lap, and claim that it stopped him from going fastest in Q3, therefore denying him pole and a great chance to win the race on Sunday.

This is an official statement from the FIA:
'Fact: It is alleged that Car 4 Lewis Hamilton did not comply with the instructions of the Race Director, namely "cars should not be driven unnecessarily slowly between turns 21 and 25".


'Decision: The Stewards, having heard from both drivers and the team representatives, examined the video, audio and GPS evidence and telemetry data, decide to take no further action.'


'Reason: 1) The sector time for Car 4 was actually faster than a time set previously in that same sector by Car 8 Nico Rosberg, which is an indication that Car 4 was not being driven unnecessarily slowly between turns 21 and 25.


2) The smallest gap between Car 4 and Car 8 was 18 metres and 1.1 seconds.'

To summarise, the reasoning for the stewards not taking further action is that Rosberg actually went faster than the previous lap and that the cars were not actually close enough to have a serious effect on the speed of the Mercedes.

Also, it was argued that there were a lot of cars around this area of the track, therefore it could be considered unfair for Hamilton to be punished where other drivers were not. Rosberg ended up qualifying 6th on the grid for the race tomorrow.

Elsewhere in qualy, behind Vettel and Hamilton respectively, sitting on the second row is Maldonado in 3rd and Grosejean in 4th. Button looked like a he was experiencing a revival after suffering in recent racing after impressive in Practise, but disappointed once again in qualy, finishing 9th, ahead of fellow Brit Paul Di Resta of Force India. 

Here are the full results of qualifying:

1	Germany	S Vettel	Red Bull
2	Great Britain	L Hamilton	McLaren
3	Venezuela	P Maldonado	Williams
4	France	R Grosjean	Lotus
5	Finland	K Raikkonen	Lotus
6	Germany	N Rosberg	Mercedes
7	Japan	K Kobayashi	Sauber
8	Germany	N Hulkenberg	Force India
9	Great Britain	J Button	McLaren
10	Great Britain	P Di Resta	Force India
11	Spain	F Alonso	Ferrari
12	Germany	M Schumacher	Mercedes
13	Brazil	F Massa	Ferrari
14	Brazil	B Senna	Williams
15	Mexico	S Perez	Sauber
16	Finland	H Kovalainen	Caterham
17	Australia	D Ricciardo	Toro Rosso
18	France	J Vergne	Toro Rosso
19	Australia	M Webber	Red Bull
20	Russian Federation	V Petrov	Caterham
21	Spain	P de la Rosa	HRT
22	India	N Karthikeyan	HRT
23	France	C Pic	Marussia
24	Germany	T Glock	Marussia

F1: Alonso Wins In Front Of Home Fans

Fernando Alonso took the checkered in Valencia in a stunning Grand Prix. Vettel, who leaded the race all the time he was on the track, was forced to stop due to a reliability issue with the car. Hamilton was forced out of the race in the dying moments after a collision with Maldonado.

Alonso, who qualified all the way down in 11th, gradually stormed up the grid in typical Alonso style, the only way he knows, which is to drive very aggressively. The Spaniard got off to a great start from the grid and jumped a couple places going into the first corner. Progressively, he worked his way up the field and suddenly found himself in the lead after Vettel's car lost drive.

Lewis Hamilton, who started the race in 2nd, was able to hold on to 2nd for around 15 laps, but Grosjean was constantly knocking on the door, and was not able to hold him off, and Grosjean got past, after the his first pit stop, Lewis found himself in an effective third. Hamilton was frustrated on his next pit stop when the McLaren who have struggled all year with the stops, messed it up once again. This seems to get everyone thinking: Will this sway Hamilton's decision on a new McLaren contract or will he look elsewhere?

Hamilton was then further frustrated when towards the very end of the race, Hamilton fairly pushed Maldonando off the track, which we was entitled to do because he had the racing line, but then it seemed that the Venezuelan performed some sort of Kamikaze act, and launched his car into the side of the McLaren, which resulted in Hamilton slamming into the barrier and slamming out of the race, after he was overtaken by Raikkonen comfortably, due to the Brit losing all grip in his rear tires, prior to the incident. The incident is to be investigated and the Williams driver could find himself in serious trouble.

Vettel pulled up at Turn 17 just after the safety car came in, it seemed apparent that the Red Bull team was not expecting this to happen. Alonso overtook Grosjean just after the safety car came in, and with Vettel having to retire from the race, Alonso suddenly found himself leading the Valencia Grand Prix to the huge delight of the Spanish crowd.

More drama, as just a few minutes after Vettel pulled up, Romain Grosjean of Lotus, who at the time was running second behind Alonso, also pulled up, with what Lotus have confirmed as being due to a lost alternator. This meant that Hamilton could then take 2nd place

Raikkonen and Hamilton were both under investigation for overtaking under yellow flag conditions. Hamilton was cleared of the incident, but Raikkonen has not yet been, as he overtook while there were clear double yellow flags, and many of them. The stewards have been tough this year on overtaking during yellow flags and could lose his 2nd place finish.

At the end of the race there was a fantastic podium. Alonso in 1st, Raikkonen in 2nd, Schumacher in 3rd. Schumacher climbing 9 places to his podium finish. Mark Webber had a great race, finishing in 4th place after qualifying way down in 19th. Nico Hulkenberg, finished the top 5, with teammate Paul Di Resta finishing 2 places behind in 7th.

Here are the full results:

		Start	+/-
1	Fernando Alonso - Ferrari	11	+10
2	Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus	5	+3
3	Michael Schumacher - Mercedes	12	+9
4	Mark Webber - Red Bull	19	+15
5	Nico Hulkenberg - Force India	8	+3
6	Nico Rosberg - Mercedes	6	–
7	Paul di Resta - Force India	10	+3
8	Jenson Button - McLaren	9	+1
9	Sergio Perez - Sauber	15	+6
10	Pastor Maldonado - Williams	3	-7
11	Bruno Senna - Williams	14	+3
12	Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso	17	+5
13	Vitaly Petrov - Caterham	20	+7
14	Heikki Kovalainen - Caterham	16	+2
15	Charles Pic - Marussia	23	+8
16	Felipe Massa - Ferrari	13	-3
17	Pedro de la Rosa - HRT	21	+4
18	Narain Karthikeyan - HRT	22	+4
19	Lewis Hamilton - McLaren	2	-17
20	Romain Grosjean - Lotus	4	-16
21	Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull	1	-20
22	Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber	7	-15
23	Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso	18	-5
24	Timo Glock - Marussia

Formula 1 11/06/12: Hamilton Wins In Thrilling Race

A delighted Hamilton sprays the crowd with Champagne.

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Lewis Hamilton was able to secure his first victory of the season, and McLaren's first victory since Jenson Button's in Melbourne. Hamilton's victory means that the beggining of the 2012 season has seen 7 different winners from the first 7 races, an extraordinary achievement, showing how close this season is panning out to be. The result for Hamilton means that he now tops the Driver's Championship with 88 points, Alonso just two points behind him on 86.


The last 10 laps of the 70 laps race, was filled to the brim with drama and excitement. In the early stages of the race, Hamilton was able to surpass Vettel, through the first round of stops, which the only stop planned for most of the front runners on the grid. The middle section of the race was led by Hamilton. McLaren decided to stick to their choice, and continue to run the two-stop strategy despite the Brit's lead. After Vettel pitted, Hamilton had the easy task of catching up to Alonso, and passing him on the back straight, with the help of DRS and the poor condition of Alonso's tires, and took the lead in the race, and held on comfortably to win.


Alonso, in the Ferrari, was running a one-stop strategy, a risky move, as the tires could easily not last for the entire race. This is exactly what happened to the Spaniard. With 10 laps to go, Alonso was leading, but in a dramatic end, Alonso's tires had no grip left, and his race pace dramatically fell. As a result, his challengers, Hamilton, Grosjean, Perez and Vettel, were lapping around 3 seconds faster than him. All 4 of these drivers passed the Spaniard.


Sebastian Vettel dramatically came into the pits with less than 10 laps to go in the race. This was because he looked to be going the same way as Alonso, so Red Bull made a drastic decision to pit the German and put him on fresh tires. As a result, Vettel immediately set a new fastest lap of the race, and set the fastest lap of the race overall, on the final lap. From the pit stop, Vettel fell to 5th, but was able to gain a place on struggling Alonso before the end of the race, to get into 4th. The result could have easily been a lot worse for him had the team not decided to pit.


In comparison to Alonso and Vettel, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez were able to make the one-stop strategy work, and were able to keep their tyres in good condition until the end of the race. Grosjean climbed all the way to second place, while Perez made a giant leap from 15th, to a podium finish, in 3rd.


Vettel's Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, went on a two-stop strategy and was able to make it work to reasonably good effect, finishing in 7th. Webber finished one place behind Rosberg in 6th - at the end of the race, Rosberg was only 3 tenths of a second behind Alonso, but was just unable to overtake the struggling Spaniard.

Leaderboard - Final		Points	Time/Lag	Avg. mph
1	Lewis Hamilton - McLaren	25	1:32:29.586	198.027
2	Romain Grosjean - Lotus	18	+2.513 Sec	197.938
3	Sergio Perez - Sauber	15	+5.260 Sec	197.84
4	Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull	12	+7.295 Sec	197.767
5	Fernando Alonso - Ferrari	10	+13.411 Sec	197.55
6	Nico Rosberg - Mercedes	8	+13.842 Sec	197.535
7	Mark Webber - Red Bull	6	+15.085 Sec	197.49
8	Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus	4	+15.567 Sec	197.473
9	Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber	2	+24.432 Sec	197.159
10	Felipe Massa - Ferrari	1	+25.272 Sec	197.13
11	Paul di Resta - Force India	0	+37.693 Sec	196.691
12	Nico Hulkenberg - Force India	0	+46.236 Sec	196.391
13	Pastor Maldonado - Williams	0	+47.052 Sec	196.362
14	Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso	0	+1:04.475 Sec	195.753
15	Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso	0	LAPPED	194.67
16	Jenson Button - McLaren	0	LAPPED	194.489
17	Bruno Senna - Williams	0	LAPPED	194.439
18	Heikki Kovalainen - Caterham	0	LAPPED	193.984
19	Vitaly Petrov - Caterham	0	LAPPED	193.824
20	Charles Pic - Marussia	0	LAPPED	189.425
21	Timo Glock - Marussia	0	LAPPED	188.421
22	Michael Schumacher - Mercedes	0	LAPPED	193.645
23	Pedro de la Rosa - HRT	0	LAPPED	189.402
24	Narain Karthikeyan - HRT	0	LAPPED	187.42