Massa's in 10th now.

Button still two second behind Webber.

17 cars still running.

Vettel's 0.9 seconds behind Alonso - probably 17 laps left before 2 hours is up.

Kubica pits for a second time. from P6 - exits in P14. They reckon it was a slow puncture.

Incident between Webber and Hamilton - No further action.

Stewards must have concluded it was Hamilton's fault - or maybe just 'A racing incident.'

Kubica battling Buemi for 11th.

Only 10 laps to go - battle for tenth place is between Petrov and Kubica - team mates.

Kubica gets through without much of a final struggle and has now passed Massa for P9.

Kubica has now stormed his way to P7. Only one place down from where he was when he got that puncture!!!

Kovalainen in P13 is the latest car to be lapped.

Secondlast lap and Kovalainen's car catches fire. He pulls up in front of the grandstand and gets an extinguisher passed to him and puts the fire out himself. Of course the yellow flags are out and this prevents Vettel from passing Alonso.

Result:-

1. Alonso
2. Vettel
3. Webber
4. Button
5. Rosberg
6. Barrichello
7. Kubica
8. Sutil
9. Hulkenberg
10. Massa
11. Petrov - lapped
12. Alguersuari - lapped
13. Schumacher - lapped
14. Buemi - lapped
15. di Grassi - lapped
16. Kovailainen - retired
17. Glock - retired
18. Heidfeld - retired
19. Hamilton - retired
20. Klien - retired
21. Kobayashi - crashed
22. Senna- -crashed
23. Trulli - retired
24. Liuzzi - retired

Addendum - Although Alguersuari finished in 12th and was lapped, his car was still in the garage when the formation lap got underway. So I think he must have started from the pit lane and last. Given that, I think finishing in 12th was a very respectable result.

Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg has had 20s added to his Singapore race time for leaving the track and gaining an advantage on lap one. It follows an identical penalty for Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

Sutil was given the penalty first and was dropped from 8th to tenth. So Hulkenberg went from 9th to 8th and Massa from 10th to 9th, but then Hulkenberg was dropped to 10th, so now Massa is 8th and Sutil 9th.

Japanese Grand Prix

Suzuka, 8-10 October 2010

Fri 8 Oct: Practice 1 0200-0330; Practice 2 0600-0730

Sat 9 Oct: Practice 3 0300-0400; Qualifying 0600

Sun 10 Oct: Race 0700

 

It's very wet and everyone's wearing their jackets. The cars are set up for dry conditions. There's talk of the qualifying being delayed....or even not happening at all.

If there's no qualifying then apparently the grid order will be by grid number.
So, Button and Hamilton would be P1 and P2,
Scumacher and Rosberg would be P3 and P4
Vettel and Webber would be P5 and P6

Then:-

Massa and Alonso
Barrichello and Hulkenberg
Kubica and Petrov
Sutil and Liuzzi
Buemi and Alguersuari
Trulli and Kovalainen
Klien and Senna
Hiedfeld and Kobayashi
Glock and di Grassi

There's talk of Qualifying at 6:30 BST,but everybody is realistically expecting it to be delayed to Sunday morning, local time.

Apparently the race itself will happen, no matter the conditions, but it is forecast to be dry.

Qualifying now delayed to 0700 BST and I understand will be abandoned  by 0830 BST, if it hasn't started by then.

Weather's getting worse it seems.

BBC has abandonned the GP. They will be back at 0200 BST Sunday.

Qualifying officially delayed 'til tomorrow morning.

I'm afraid I will not be up at 2 am for the qualifying, but I will be here for the race at 7 am.

Hamilton to drop five places on Suzuka grid

Lewis Hamilton will drop five places on the grid for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix after McLaren decided they needed to replace his car's gearbox. Qualifying for the Suzuka race will take place on Sunday morning, after heavy rain on Saturday forced the FIA stewards to postpone it.

McLaren noticed abnormal oil pressure in Hamilton's gearbox during Saturday’s rain-hit Practice Three. The British team believed they had solved the issue, but when they fired up the car in the afternoon, the problem had worsened and they opted to change the gearbox.

The penalty is another blow for the British driver, who has completed only a handful of laps at Suzuka this weekend after crashing out of first practice on Friday. He is currently third in the driver standings, 20 points behind leader Mark Webber.

So, his best possible starting position will be P6.

Hamilton qualified 3rd, but the penalty means he will start P8.

Massa didn't survive Q2 and willstart p12.

Grid line up:-

1. Vettel
2. Webber
3. Kubica
4. Alonso
5. Button
6. Rosberg
7. Barrichello
8. Hamilton
9. Hulkenberg
10. Schumacher
11. Heidfeld
12. Massa
13. Petrov
14. Kobayashy
15. Sutil
16. Alguersuari
17. Liuzzi
18. Buemi
19. Trulli
20. Kovalainen
21. di Grassi
22. Glock
23. Senna
24. Yamamoto

di Grassi has had a mystery accident on his way to the grid. Nothing broke, but the car veered off the track.

Most people starting on the soft tyre, but Button and a few tail enders are starting on the harder ones.

Start seemed unremarkable , but suddenly Petrov goes off at right angles to the race line. He hits Hulkenberg on his way and he's out too. On the other side of the track Massa rumbles across the grass then shoots sideways across the track and connects with a Force India - another two cars out and they've not even made it to the second corner - Safety Car out and a few cars pit for a tyre change.

Meanwhile Kubica gets into 2nd place,but mysteriously loses a wheel and has to pull up,

Only 18 cars left and it's only lap4 or 5.

Safety Car in at the end of lap 6.

Buemi passes someone, but immediately goes wide and loses the place again.

Schumacher and Barrichello have a tussle and Schumacher wins. He's now P6.

Button and Hamilton have a problem with overheating brakes under the Safety Car, but it's disappearing now that they're running at normal race speed.

Raceseems to have settled a bit.

Top 6:-

Vettel
Webber
Alonso
Button
Hamilton
Schumacher

Barrichello pits from 7th and exits 12th.

Hamilton pits from 5th and exits 7th

Schumacher pits from 5th now and exits 9th.

Vettel and Alonso pit from 1st and 3rd and exit 3rd and 4th.

Hamilton passes Kobayashi for 5th.

Schumacher (8th) and Rosberg (7th) having a battle for 7th, Schumacher not quite close enough to pass Rosberg yet.

Race Order:-

Button
Vettel
Webber
Alonso
Hamilton
Kobayashi
Rosberg
Schumacher
Heidfeld
Barrichello

Button still to pit, but he's not far enough ahead of Hamilton to be able to pit and exit still ahead of him.

Hamilton's actually getting closer to Button, so it looks less likely that he can avoid pitting and exiting behind Hamilton.

Button (P1) and Kobayashi (P6) pit.
Button exits P5 and Kobayashi exits P12, behind Alguersuari.
So Vettel and Webber are one and two again.

Hamilton's got another gearbox problem.

Button passes Hamilton. Only 12 seconds behind Alonso and 9 laps in which to catch hin.

Sutil's engine has just blown. He's out of the race from a points position.

ACCIDENT!!!!

Rosberg's rear wheel comes off and he crashes into the tyre wall.
But no Safety Car.

Kobayashi nearly hits the medical car as he pulls into the Park Fermé.

Race result:-

1. Vettel
2. Webber
3. Alonso
4. Button
5. Hamilton
6. Schumacher
7. Kobayashi
8. Heidfeld
9. Barrichello
10. Buemi
11. Alguersuari
12. Kovalainen
13. Trulli
14. Glock
15. Senne
16.Yamamoto
17. Rosberg - retired
18. Sutil - retired
19. Kubica - retired
20. Hulkenberg - retired
21. Massa - retired
22. Petrov - retired
23. Liuzzi - retired
24. di Grassi - retired

South Korean Grand Prix

Yeongam, 22-24 October 2010

Fri 22 Oct: Practice 1 0200-0330; Practice 2 0600-0730

Sat 23 Oct: Practice 3 0300-0400; Qualifying 0600

Sun 24 Oct: Race 0700

Ooooh!

F1 drivers criticise 'dangerous' new Korea track

Formula 1 drivers have criticised the new Korean Grand Prix track, claiming the pit-lane entry is dangerous.

The pit entry is on the exit of a blind corner, and drivers are worried about the speed differential between cars racing and those coming into the pits.

Petrov is already under a 5 place drop as a penalty for causing an unavoidable accident last time out.

Q1:-

5 minutes gone and there are only 6 times set - but there are several cars piling out now.