British tabloid The Sun called the McLaren driver ‘Lewis Whamilton’ after another bad day at the office for the 2008 world champion.
On Saturday, Hamilton was reprimanded at Spa-Francorchamps for his bizarre qualifying crash with Pastor Maldonado, and the Williams driver said after Sunday’s grand prix: “He did the same today … I think he needs to be more focused on his race”.

Rookie Maldonado was referring to Hamilton’s race-ending crash with Kamui Kobayashi.

Sauber’s Kobayashi said: “I don’t know what I needed to do — maybe go into the gravel for him?”

Niki Lauda, speaking to Germany’s motorsport-magazin.com, was unequivocal: “He takes things to extremes. He’s only got himself to blame.”

But Hamilton initially refused to take the blame, telling reporters afterwards: “As far as I was concerned, I was ahead of whoever I was racing and then I was hit by them.”

He later apologised to Japan’s Kobayashi via Twitter.

“After watching the replay, I realise it was my fault today 100 per cent.

“I didn’t give Kobayashi enough room, though I thought I was past. The team deserves better from me,” said Hamilton.

A furious Fernando Alonso has accused FIA stewards of manipulating Sunday’s European grand prix.

The Ferrari driver was running behind Lewis Hamilton at Valencia when the safety car was pulling onto the track to attend to Mark Webber’s crash.

The McLaren passed the FIA vehicle and was penalised with a drive-through penalty but finished the race in second place.

“One who respects the rules is ninth, and the one who does not respect them is second,” Alonso is quoted by the Spanish sports website as.com.

He was also critical of the time it took the stewards, this weekend including former grand prix winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen, to reach the decision to penalise Hamilton.

“It seems it was very difficult to watch a replay; it takes many laps,” said Alonso sarcastically.

“Everything is against us.  They allow everything and it’s a shame the public has today seen a race that is not quite real.”

(GMM)

Apr.19 (GMM) Felipe Massa was not happy with his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso in the wake of Sunday’s Chinese grand prix.

With Alonso facing the prospect of queuing in the pitlane for service behind the sister Ferrari, he overtook the Brazilian on the pit entry road, forcing Massa to take avoiding action on the grass.

Stefano Domenicali said afterwards that he only saw the incident later in a video replay, but Italian reports say the team’s boss threw his hands into the air when he saw the pass on the pitwall live.

The Italian said it had been “just a racing incident”, and played down suggestions of “problems” between the Latin pair.

But Brazilian reports said Massa was visibly upset with Alonso as they emerged from their cars in parc ferme, and reportedly only raised his eyebrows before refusing to comment when asked if he thought the Spaniard’s move was rude.

And he told Brazil’s Globo: “Alonso put his car next to mine and, when I saw him, I knew that we could have an accident. So I thought about the team and it made me lose more than three places.

“Of course I’ll talk to him,” Massa, 28, added.

Alonso, now three places ahead of former title leader Massa in the drivers’ standings, played down the incident.

“If he was not my teammate, there wouldn’t be so much talk about it and for me it was a normal move and it definitely won’t compromise our relationship,” he said.

Well that’s how it panned out as the reigning F1 World Champion delivered a well judged and much deserved drive to notch up his second victory of the season. Prior to the start of the Chinese Grand Prix, at Shanghai International Circuit, few would have predicted a Jenson Button win, fewer would have waged odds on a McLaren 1-2.

The race under heavy Shanghai skies had everything: a dry spell, a semi-wet phase, wet with rain fall, first lap mayhem, a jump start and generous doses of overtaking.

It was by no means plain sailing (excuse the pun) for Button who took the lead on lap 19 and controlled the race from that point on, well almost, as in the final laps he faced a relentless challenge from team mate Lewis Hamilton who again was the star of the show with a gritty drive to second place.

Nico Rosberg, again showed impressively, bringing his Mercedes GP home third making it an all Merc powered driver podium. Rosberg flew the flag for the Silver Arrows as his illustrious team mate Michael Schumacher could only manage 10th place in an afternoon in some high profile battles which alas saw him come out second best in just about all of them. Twice he was overtaken with remarkable ease by Hamilton, Vettel and Webber, lost a battle with a rookie late in the race and was taken by a Ferrari on the very last lap which relegated him to tenth.

Fernando Alonso brought his Ferrari home in fourth, which was an impressive feat considering that the Spaniard was given a drive through penalty for jumping the start. It was marginal but replays showed the scarlet car edging forward before the lights went off. Hence he led briefly from the start. Team mate Felipe Massa was nowhere near Alonso’s pace all weekend and scrapped his way to ninth, well and truly overshadowed.

Renault again were impressive with Robert Kubica taking fifth place in yet another strong drive for the team and crowning a good day with rookie Vitaly Petrov having an action packed day with a  number of excursions, but also a number of duels with some big names and seventh place was a just reward for the Russian who clearly revels adverse conditions.

Sebastian Vettel who started on pole in his Red Bull will be wondering where it all went wrong. A win in conditions that he thrives in was almost a foregone conclusion prior to the start. But it was not to be and sixth is scant reward for a race that somehow escaped the team. Mark Webber who shared the front row defied his experience with some silly mistakes which saw him come home eighth. There will be few smiles in their garages.

YF1

With a last-lap pass of superspeedway ace Todd Bodine, Timothy Peters won Saturday, February 13^th night’s NextEra Energy 250 Truck Series race at 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.

With a push from polesitter Jason White passed Bodine on the backstretch and won the race to the finish line. Bodine, who had won the previous two season openers at Daytona, crossed the stripe in second place but spun into the infield grass after taking the checkered flag.

“I can’t believe it — this thing drove like a Lexus tonight,” Peters said of his No. 17 Toyota Tundra. “We just won Daytona! I was just content where I was at, but the No. 23 [White] came up and gave me a great run.

“I can’t believe it — I’m going to Disney World!”

Peters’ only previous win in the series came at .526-mile Martinsville Speedway.

Dennis Setzer, White and Matt Crafton rounded out the top five, as Bodine took solace from his second-place run — magnified by wrecks that ruined the nights of defending series champion Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner, perennial contenders for the Truck Series title.

“You’re a sitting duck leading,” Bodine said ruefully. “I saw the replay when I was sitting down there in the mud [after spinning]. Timmy did what he had to do.

“We’re disappointed. There’s no doubt about it. But second’s nothing to sneeze at.”

Two separate crashes on the pace laps — before the race had started — promised an action-filled evening, and, indeed, before the race was a lap old, Aric Almirola took the field three-wide in Turn 3. Austin Dillon, making his first superspeedway start, broke loose between trucks and ignited a nine-truck collision that damaged the trucks of Kyle Busch and Landon Cassill, among others.

“I really don’t know what was happening,” Dillon said after exiting the infield care center. “I was sucking up to Jason White and someone got under me. Just looked like they weren’t being very patient there to start. Just caught in the middle and got banged around there a few times and tried to save it — just nothing I could do there.”

Hornaday was the victim of a 10-truck wreck after a bump from Ricky Carmichael turned him into the outside wall at the end of the backstretch on Lap 32. The same wreck ruined the winning chances of front-row starter Elliot Sadler. Skinner’s race ended early after a tap from Peters launched him into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 62

Summary of the results: 1 Timothy Peters (Toyota); 2 Todd Bodine (Toyota); 3 Dennis Setzer (Dodge); 4 Jason White (Ford); 5 Matt Crafton (Chevrolet); 6 Nelson Piquet Jr. (Toyota); 7 Stacy Compton (Toyota); 8 Johnny Benson (Ford); 9 Donnie Neuenberger (Chevrolet); 10 J.J. Yeley (Chevrolet).