McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was fastest in practice Friday for the Turkish Grand Prix, while Brawn GP’s uncharacteristic lack of pace could give its rivals a strong chance of putting the brakes on the leader’s dominant start.
The Finnish driver set a fastest lap of one minute 28.841 seconds across both practice sessions to edge Renault’s Fernando Alonso by 0.006 seconds.
Williams driver Nico Rosberg was the only other driver to finish under the 1:29 mark, while BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and Kazuki Nakajima of Williams rounded out the top five.
Formula One leader Jenson Button of Brawn GP had a best lap of 1:29.430 – more than half a second off Kovalainen’s pace…Â Details
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So far 2009 has been one of Formula 1’s biggest ever fairytale stories for Jenson Button. In 2007 and 2008 he had terrible cars, which gave him absolutely no hope of battling at the front. Even the best drivers, including the likes of Fernando Alonso, wouldn’t have been able to extract much more from those two forgettable cars.
Over the winter Jenson Button had been none the wiser over whether he would be actually racing at all in 2009. He came so close to being placed on the Formula 1 scrapheap. Now six races into the 2009 season he has won 5 races and holds a 16 point lead over Rubens Barrichello in the drivers’ championship, and 28 points over Sebastien Vettel. Button has simply obliterated the opposition so far.
The Englishman showed signs throughout his F1 career that he was potentially a great driver…Â Details
For the first time in his three years in Formula One, Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion, and his McLaren Mercedes car are far from being front-runners this season. After finishing third at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton was later disqualified for lying to race stewards about an incident during the race. Since, he has finished no better than fourth and scored only nine points. Hamilton, who has won the title in every series in which he has raced, is now in ninth place, 42 points behind the leader, Jenson Button. He spoke recently with Brad Spurgeon of the International Herald Tribune about his season.
Q. How does it feel to suddenly find yourself in such an uncompetitive car?…Â Details
The Formula One Teams Association could form a breakaway series if its conditional entry for next season’s championship is rejected by governing body FIA.
FOTA said on Friday at the Turkish Grand Prix that it wasn’t “bluffing†over the possible threat, describing it as a “worst case scenario†in the standoff over budget caps and other changes for next year.
“What we are asking is reasonable,†FOTA vice chairman John Howett said. “Should the entries be rejected we need to sit down and discuss next steps. We do have a number of scenarios and scenario planning, and the worst case scenario would be to have to establish our own series.â€
The eight teams want to …Â Details
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