Formula 1
Without doubt the major event in the world of royal auto racing during the last week became Belgian Grand Prix. The teams got back from short vacations and went to the circuit in Spa which is considered one of the best race tracks by the majority of pilots. Lots of high-speed corners, many places for overtaking, capricious weather — all these things make the Belgian stage interesting and unpredictable.
During the free practice sessions on Friday (July 23) and qualification on Saturday rain was interfering with the plans of pilots and teams. But in spite of the forecast, rain left the circuit alone during the race itself. Following the results of qualification the first four positions were taken by the pilots of Mercedes and Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton had a traditional pole position start, Sebastian Vettel was the second, Mark Webber — third and Nico Rosberg — fourth. One more tyre scandal almost broke out in Belgium. Vettel and Alonso suffered punctures during the qualification, but Pirelli representatives blamed a metal plate shed by a car. Indeed there were no tyre problems during the race. Sebastian Vettel overtook Hamilton — who was the first on the start — on the first lap and conducted ‘his own’ race not letting anyone else take the lead. Second podium stage was taken by Fernando Alonso who managed to break through from the 9th place. Third place was taken by the pole holder Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Räikkönen had to park his race car in the boxes due to brake failure on the 26th lap. Podium ceremony of Grand Prix winners was almost disrupted by Greenpeace activists who were protesting against Shell — the title race sponsor at Spa. FIA might slap a fine on Spa organisers as order and security procedure is under their responsibility.
On August 21 Sergey Sirotkin visited Sauber team base. There he talked to the team engineers and had a seat fitting. Now it can be seen that Sauber is obviously planning to take Sergey, who soon turns 18, to their Formula 1 race line-up in the next season. As stated by the team principal Monisha Kaltenborn, she fully understands the responsibility, as it might turn out that Sirotkin becomes the youngest F1 driver ever.
Pascal Couasnon, who directs Michelin's competition unit, gave an interview to the Italian La Figaro during World Rally Championship stage in Germany, in which he made it clear that there were no plans on meeting with FIA representatives or Bernie Ecclestone regarding the return of the manufacturer to Formula 1. “We are present in Rally and Endurance racing”, said Couasnon, “We follow F1 closely. But the way in which it is presented today disappoints me. Changing a tyre after a few laps, does not offer a beautiful image of an important product for the automotive industry.”
World Rally Championship
Really close to the circuit of Spa in Belgium on the same days the 9th round of the World Rally Championship held in Germany took place. Asphalt stage brought a lot of surprises. Sébastien Ogier, who was leading after Thursday’s stage, crashed and damaged his Polo WRC on day one on Friday. His teammate Jari-Matti Latvala took his place. But he crashed on the special stage of Arena Panzerplatte on Saturday. After that an epic battle between the Finnish driver, Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo started. Eventually Dani Sordo abandoned a longstanding tradition and finally broke his WRC victory (he used to come only second and third before). Thierry Neuville was second and Mikko Hirvonen took the championship bronze. The Russian pilot Evgeny Novikov finished the race at the 10th position. After the crash on the first racing day Evgeny had to start according to Rally 2 system and was not able to compete for top places.
Breaking news
Michael Schumacher agreed on taking part in the famous Race of Champions. The competition will be held for the second time at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand between the 14th and 15th of December. Last year Team Germany's Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel beat Team France in the Nations Cup. This year Michael is looking for a victory in the individual championship which was won by Romain Grosjean last year. The legendary German pilot notes that he is still spending a lot of time on four wheels on racing tracks and that’s why he is in good shape. Michael Schumacher became the first driver to confirm his participation in ROC 2013.
The Russian pilot Daniil Kvyat became the winner of GT3 — a racing feeder series for Formula 1 — in Belgian Spa on Saturday. Unlike the main series, these competitions were full of tense situations. Kvyat’s teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. became a victim of a hasty attack by Jack Harvey. The crash resulted in two damaged cars 9 laps before the finish line and presence of a safety car on the track.
Roman Rusinov took the second place in the VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring held on the famous ‘North Loop’. It’s a fairly popular, democratic and massed series with plenty of different classifications which has been attracting Russian pilots for a long time. Both amateurs and professionals in racing take part in these competitions. Russian sportsmen succeeded many times within their classifications but Rusinov managed to take silver in the overall standings.
Photos formula1.com, wrc.com, raceofchampions.com
