Viewing Thread:
"F1 2013"

Below are the results, upcoming races, and drivers and constructors standings:

Results

Australia - 1st Raikkonen, 2nd Alonso, 3rd Vettel
Malaysia - 1st Vettel, 2nd Webber, 3rd Hamilton
China - 1st Alonso, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Hamilton
Bahrain - 1st Vettel, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Grosjean
Spain - 1st Alonso, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Massa
Monaco - 1st Rosberg, 2nd Vettel, 3rd Webber
Canada - 1st Vettel, 2nd Alonso, 3rd Hamilton
Great Britain - 1st Rosberg, 2nd Webber, 3rd Alonso
Germany - 1st Vettel, 2nd Raikkonen, 3rd Grosjean

Upcoming Races
Hungary 28th July
Belgium 25th August
Italy 08th September
Singapore 22nd September
Korea 06th October
Japan 13th October
India 27th October
Abu Dhabi 03rd November
United States17th November
Brazil 24th November

Drivers Standings

1 Sebastian Vettel 157
2 Fernando Alonso 123
3 Kimi Raikkonen 116
4 Lewis Hamilton 99
5 Mark Webber 93
6 Nico Rosberg 84
7 Felipe Massa 57
8 Romain Grosjean 41
9 Paul di Resta 36
10 Jenson Button 33
11 Adrian Sutil 23
12 Sergio Perez 16
13 Jean-Eric Vergne 13
14 Daniel Ricciardo11
15 Nico Hulkenberg 7

Rest yet to score

Constructors Standings

1 Red Bull 250
2 Mercedes 183
3 Ferrari 180
4 Lotus 157
5 Force India 59
6 McLaren 49
7 Toro Rosso 24
8 Sauber 7

Rest yet to score

5 by the end of the race!

Not a good day for the tyre manufacturers but all credit to Hamilton going from last to finish 4th.

What on earth is going on? 3 punctures/explosions on the rear left for 3 different cars?

Looking forward to the GP today, just had a look at the weather and its supposed to be clear skies and sunshine all the way which is a lot better than it was in P1!

Even though Hamilton grabbed pole by nearly 1/2 a second he's not too optimistic about his chances:

"It's incredible - it feels just like it did in 2007.

Just to see the crowd here today is fantastic. Such a great turnout for everyone and that was a lap for them; I hope that tomorrow we can do something special for them.

This is really down to the team. They've just been doing a phenomenal job and improving the car constantly. I haven't been feeling 100% comfortable in the car all weekend so I was really happy to finally get a lap.

I think undoubtedly it's going to be tough for us to keep Sebastian behind.

But our long-run pace wasn't as bad as we've seen in the past so I'm hoping with the temperatures and with a bit of care we can nurture the tyres to get a good result.

I'm going to be pushing and giving it my all tomorrow, as I'm sure Nico will as well, to try and finish up ahead."

If he keeps up his form from yesterday he'll surely win though!

In other news Paul di Resta has been DQ'd from qualifying as his car was found to be underweight:

Paul Di Resta has been excluded from British GP qualifying after his Force India was found to have been underweight.

The Scot had qualified in a career-best fifth place for his home race but will now either start from the back of the pack or the pit lane on Sunday after scrutineering checks had found his car to be 1.5kg below the mandatory minimum weight limit of 642kg.

The infringement contravenes both Article 26.1 of F1's Sporting Regulations, and Article 4.1 of the Technical Regulations, with the penalty imposed the same as the ones suffered by both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel last year when they were found to have insufficient fuel in their cars.

Di Resta's demotion means Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo inherits the Scot's place at the head of the third row, with the second Force India of Adrian Sutil also moving up a place to sixth.

It also serves to move title contenders Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso up an additional position apiece after both struggled in qualifying and propped up the top ten on the timesheet.

Prior to news of the weight infringement breaking, Di Resta had hailed Force India's qualifying performance as "remarkable", particularly as it was achieved on the back of successive Q1 exits in both Monaco and Canada when the team made strategic mistakes in mixed weather conditions.

And have a look at this spectacular crash from GP3 yesterday:

GP3 Crash

A storming lap from Hamilton gives him pole nearly 1/2 a second faster than his teammate Rosberg with both Red Bull's on the second row.

Button a disappointing 11th and Massa way down in 12th, only 2 places behind Alonso in 10th.

If Hamilton can keep this form into tomorrow he'll be extremely hard to beat!

P2's on the BBC at the minute if anyone fancies watching it.

P1 was a bit of a washout:

First practice for the British Grand Prix was held in familiar conditions - persistent rain - at Silverstone on Friday morning.

The bad weather, which first arrived on Thursday afternoon, resulted in a damp squib of a session with little in the way of running. Yet the forecast for Saturday and Sunday is rather better and so, from the teams' point of view, there seemed little sense in working through their usual programmes of trying out new parts and performing set-up work.

No lap times were posted until the final 15 minutes or so, with Daniel Ricciardo topping the arbitrary timesheet with a lap of 1:54.249s. More cars took to the track in the closing minutes although Charles Pic - who subsequently spun off the track, damaging his Caterham - probably wished he hadn't.

Ricciardo, a contender for a seat at Red Bull following Mark Webber's announcement on Thursday that he's leaving F1 at the end of the season, also completed more laps - ten - than anyone else.

Kimi Raikkonen, also in the frame for a move to the World Champions, in contrast decided that less was more. The Finn, who admitted in an interview on The F1 Show on Thursday night that he had held "small talks" with Red Bull about partnering Sebastian Vettel, failed to even complete an installation lap.

At least Raikkonen was able to keep warm and dry. Neither were options for the spectators present - once more in impressive numbers - whose dedication was rewarded with long periods of silence.

P2 starts at 2pm. Alas, the forecast suggests that the cloud will linger for the rest of the day, although the hope is that the weekend will finally bring sunshine.

The sense of frustration extends beyond that felt by those watching. A number of teams have significant upgrades for the weekend and, as always, Friday is the time to try them out.

Raikkonen's team have more than most, including a new front wing. More intriguing, though, is the news, revealed by Ted Kravitz on Sky Sports F1 that they hope to race their passive DRS device this weekend.

Lotus first trialled the device, which offers a straightline speed boost independent of DRS, almost a year ago but have yet to fine-tune it sufficiently to for them to race.

Not very surprising given these last few years and his age.

Webber's off at the end of the season:

Red Bull driver Mark Webber has decided to leave F1 at the end of this season.

The 36-year-old Australian is joining German company Porsche's new sportscar programme, which includes an assault on the classic Le Mans 24 Hours.

Webber had options to stay in F1, either with Red Bull or another top team, but feels it is time to move on in his career.

Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen is favourite to replace him, with Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo or Jean-Eric Vergne options.

Webber described it as an "honour" to race for Porsche, adding: "Porsche has written racing history as a manufacturer and stands for outstanding performance and technology at the highest level.

"I'm very much looking forward to this new challenge after my time in Formula 1. I can hardly wait to pilot one of the fastest sports cars in the world."

In 12 years in F1, Webber has won nine grands prix, achieved 36 podium finishes, 11 pole positions and 15 fastest laps and twice finished third in the World Championship.

Webber's best season was 2010, when he led the championship for much of the year before faltering in the final three races, falling behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

He has developed a reputation as a tough but fair competitor, with a direct and honest approach to the media, whose time at Red Bull has been characterised by an uneasy relationship with Vettel.

The German is championed by the company's motorsport adviser Helmut Marko, and Webber has often felt he has not benefited from the same support.

The tension has boiled over on several occasions during their five years as team-mates, most recently at this season's Malaysian Grand Prix, when Vettel ignored a direct team order not to overtake Webber to win the race.

The German initially apologised after the race, but subsequently said he would do the same thing again.

Webber was furious and it was widely believed that the drivers' fractious relationship meant he could not stay with Red Bull in 2014.

But Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz, with whom Webber has always had a close relationship, made it clear he could stay on if he wanted to, saying in April: "Whether he retires, only he will choose but Mark is definitely a candidate for 2014. He is always welcome with us."

Webber did consider staying with Red Bull for another season. But he has decided that with the big change in regulations next year that will dramatically alter the demands of F1 it is a good time to move on to a fresh challenge in a new category where he believes his long-term future lies.

He has never been a fan of the rapidly degrading Pirelli tyres that have been used in F1 since 2011 - Webber believes they prevent drivers pushing to the limit throughout the race, a characteristic he believes should be an integral part of the sport.

He is 37 this August, an age that for a Formula 1 driver he has admitted is "long in the tooth in some people's eyes", and recognised that even if he stayed on for another year, his time in the sport was limited.

Webber could have gone to another top team - at least one approached him - but felt that would be the wrong thing to do.

For one thing, Red Bull has produced the fastest car in F1 since 2009; for another he decided against a move to Ferrari last year partly because he felt that with time running out on his career the effort of getting used to a new environment was not worth it.

He will now spearhead Porsche's attempt to revive its glory days at Le Mans, a race it has won 16 times, the last in 1998.

Webber has raced at Le Mans twice before - with Mercedes in 1998 and 1999.

He was on pole position in 1998 but the car he shared with Germans Klaus Ludwig and Bernd Schneider retired after only 19 laps.

The following year an aerodynamic flaw in the Mercedes car caused him to flip on two separate occasions at more than 200mph, both times emerging without injury.

He said afterwards that he would never return to Le Mans because of the danger involved, but the lure of representing Porsche has proved too much to resist.

That is certainly getting off lightly.

I think the fact that Whiting gave some sort of permission probably helped, but hopefully Pirelli will think again before they run more tests.

Think they'll be pleased with the verdict, it could have been a lot worse:

Mercedes have suspended from next month's young driver test and both the team and Pirelli reprimanded for their respective parts in 'Testgate', the International Tribunal has announced.

After a morning of waiting following Thursday's mammoth, and at times heated, seven-hour hearing into the controversial Barcelona tyre test at the FIA's Paris headquarters, Formula 1's governing body announced that both parties had been punished for taking part in the 1000km Barcelona test.

However, given fears had been that Mercedes might face a more hefty punishment should they have been adjudged to have contravened Article 22 of F1's Sporting Regulations regarding in-season testing their subsequent reprimand and ban from the three-day Silverstone test is relatively minor - with the team's lawyer himself himself having suggested the latter sanction to the court in the event the ruling went against his client.

The FIA themselves added following the verdict that it intended to consolidate the control of F1 tests.

"The FIA wishes that lessons are learnt from this case and from the decision handed down. To this end, the FIA will make sure, in association with all F1 teams, that its control of the testings is strengthened," it said in a statement.

In Thursday's hearing the FIA's counsel, Mark Howard, had argued vociferously that both Mercedes and Pirelli had contravened Formula 1's Sporting Regulations in regards to in-season testing by conducting the post-Spanish GP test with a Mercedes' 2013 car and may have also breached Article 151c of the International Sporting Code by engaging in "any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition".

Mercedes, who had protested their innocence in the matter since news of the test first broke of the morning of the Monaco GP last month, reiterated during the course of their submissions to the Tribunal that the Barcelona test was "conducted by Pirelli" and therefore the team themselves hadn't contravened Article 22.1 of the Sporting Regulations which bans full in-season testing with a current car.

The Brackley team's lawyer, Paul Harris QC, also cited an email exchange between FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting and the governing body's legal advisor Sebastian Barnard which they claimed had given them the green light to put forward their W04 for testing with race drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

However, the FIA had already insisted during its prosecution that only the World Motor Sport Council have the authority to allow such a change in the regulations and the views Whiting expressed were only an "opinion" rather than formal permission.

Pirelli's lawyer, meanwhile, had argued that given the tyre firm were an F1 supplier, as opposed to a competitor, the FIA had no power to sanction them under its statues and in any case its separate commercial agreement with the governing body didn't specify what kind of car they could run in their permitted tests.

The International Tribunal verdict in full

'On 5 June 2013, further to protests lodged during the 2013 Monaco GP by Red Bull Racing and Ferrari Scuderia Team against cars n°9 and 10 (Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team) for having conducted with Pirelli a three day tyre testing using a 2013 car on 15, 16 and 17 May in Barcelona, the President of the FIA, acting as the FIA Prosecuting Body, sent to the President of the International Tribunal a notification of charges against Pirelli and a notification of charges against Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.

'On 5 June 2013, Pirelli and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team have been convened by the President of the International Tribunal to appear before a judging panel of the International Tribunal.

'Decision of the International Tribunal

'The Tribunal, after having heard the parties and examined their submissions, decided that:

'Mercedes be reprimanded;

Mercedes be suspended from participating in the forthcoming "three day young driver training test";

Pirelli be reprimanded. and rejected all other and further conclusions.