Dovizioso seeks further step forward

Dovizioso seeks further step forward

By Matt Beer

Monday, June 1st 2009, 09:44 GMT

Andrea Dovizioso says he needs to take another step forward before he can fight for his first MotoGP victories.

The Honda rider led his home race at Mugello yesterday, having joined the leaders in the wet early stages and then jumped right to the front when he changed to slicks one lap before his nearest rivals.

But as the track dried he was unable to hold off the Yamahas and Casey Stoner, and fell back to fourth.

Although he came close to reclaiming third from Valentino Rossi, Dovizioso said the result showed that he is not right up with the frontrunners in normal conditions yet.

“We are getting closer, but still not close enough to win,” he said.

“We need to keep on working because we are still not as competitive as the fastest riders, especially in dry conditions. We’ll use this result to give us an extra boost of motivation.”

While admitting that he still needs to make further progress, Dovizioso said he was delighted with how competitive he had been at Mugello.

“The sensation of leading the race in front of my home crowd was incredible and I think overall we had a good race, he said.

“I’m satisfied. I fought like hell to take third and we were so close – only 53 thousandths from the podium! I think our race strategy was good, we changed the bike at the right moment and I pushed as hard as possible to maintain my position.

“With three laps to go I tried to keep in contact with the others and when Rossi overtook me, I managed to stay with him. Then I tried to slipstream him out of the last corner but I couldn’t make it. Anyway, all in all it was an exciting race and a positive result.”

source by//www.autosport.com

FOTA teams submit F1 entries for 2010

FOTA teams submit F1 entries for 2010

By Pablo Elizalde

Friday, May 29th 2009, 13:35 GMT

All the current Formula 1 teams have submitted their entries to the FIA for the 2010 championship, FOTA confirmed on Friday.

The Formula One Teams’ Association said, however, that their entries were conditional on a new Concorde Agreement being signed by all parties before 12th June.

“The renewal of the Concorde Agreement will provide security for the future of the sport by binding all parties in a formal relationship that will ensure stability via sound governance,” said FOTA in a statement.

The teams’ body also said that the entries were conditional on the regulations being based on 2009 rules, “identical for all competitors and amended in accordance with proposals that FOTA has submitted to the FIA.”

“All FOTA teams’ entries for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship have been submitted today on the understanding that (a) all FOTA teams will be permitted to compete during the 2010 Formula One season on an identical regulatory basis and (b) that they may only be accepted as a whole,” added the statement.

“All FOTA teams now look forward with optimism to collaborating proactively and productively with the FIA, with a view to establishing a solid foundation on which the future of a healthy and successful Formula One can be built, providing lasting stability and sound governance.”

The FIA announced earlier this year the introduction of a budget cap system from the 2010 season.

Those teams adhering to the system would get greater technical freedom, something that most FOTA teams have spoken against.

At least four of the current teams have threatened to withdraw from the sport if the two-tier system came into play next year.

The window to submit entries for 2010 closes today.

source by//www.autosport.com

Force India lodges unconditional entry

Force India lodges unconditional entry

By Jonathan Noble

Friday, June 5th 2009, 14:29 GMT

Force India has become the second team to break away from the hardline stance of the Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) and lodge an unconditional entry for next year’s championship, the team confirmed on Friday.

Following a day of speculation about whether Force India would stand firm in its alliance with FOTA’s conditional block-entry to next year’s championship, the outfit announced in Turkey that it had been forced because of ‘commercial obligations’ to go it alone and review its conditional application.

Although the decision means that eight current teams are holding out on entering F1 only if they are happy with the regulations, and a new Concorde Agreement is in place, Force India insisted that its decision was not a snub at FOTA.

A team statement said: “While the Force India team is broadly in agreement with the FOTA objectives, commercial obligations have demanded that Force India review its conditional entry jointly submitted by FOTA on deadline day.

“This has been done today with full transparency between all parties. The details of the team’s position will be discussed between Dr. Vijay Mallya and FOTA vice-chairman John Howett tomorrow. No further comment will be made until those discussions have taken place.”

The decision by Williams and Force India means that those teams could be the only current outfits that are granted an entry to the 2010 championship when the decision is made next week by the FIA about which teams to accept.

FOTA’s remaining members have said that they will remain united in their decision about plans for 2010 – meaning that either all of them or none of them will enter next year.

Toyota F1 president John Howett, who is vice-chairman of FOTA, said on Friday that Force India would now probably join Williams in being suspended from the teams’ organization.

“It is likely they may be suspended,” explained Howett. “I haven’t really had the opportunity to speak to Vijay directly, but he has committed in accordance with FOTA a conditional entry and apparently, due to commercial issues, totally unrelated to another team or support, they felt obliged because of other binding legal activities due to funding or other issues, they needed to submit an official entry.

“He will be here tomorrow and I will speak to him, and I have to say it is the intention of FOTA to suspend them based on a face-to-face discussion with Vijay. But he has confirmed to me through Bob Fearnley that he is totally supportive and committed to FOTA.”

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Q & A with Jenson Button

Q & A with Jenson Button

By Jonathan Noble

Thursday, June 4th 2009, 15:54 GMT

Jenson Button comes to Turkey as a dominant championship leader, with the benchmark car underneath him, and amid increasing speculation about whether he will commit his future to Brawn – and if so, for how much.

He tackled all these topics on more as he addressed the media at a damp Istanbul Park this afternoon.

Q. Have you found out why Brawn was slower than Red Bull in the last wet race in China?

Jenson Button: I think the Red Bulls are bloody quick in the wet. Maybe not with the way the diffuser is now, maybe that might make a difference, we’ll have to see. We know a lot of the reason why we weren’t so competitive, and it’s amazing how you can find that chunk of time. We were over a second slower than the Red Bulls, but we know where a lot of the time is and it’s an easy thing to put right, we just haven’t had any practice to see if it does work.

Q. You’ve won on every type of track so far, surely there’s no reason why that won’t continue this weekend?

JB: If everyone had the same car coming here, then maybe not. But we do have a couple of improvements, we have something different with the aerodynamics. It’s not really a big step, it’s just trying to stay ahead of the game. I think that the Red Bulls should work quite well here. The car that they had in Barcelona, if they brought that here they would be competitive. We’ll have to see if their diffuser makes a difference on this circuit.

But they’re expected to be competitive and I think they will be. If you look at the times in the races previous to Monaco, they were very competitive. You could say that they have been as quick as us, they just haven’t got it together over the race weekends. You can’t blame KERS cars, I think strategy is important, and a few other things. They haven’t had race wins, but I think they’re quick enough to fight with us for sure.

The Ferraris will be quick here too. I think they’ve made up ground at every race and they performed very well, especially in Monaco. You can say it’s a different type of circuit, but there’s a lot of slow speed here and they’ve got KERS for the drag up the hill, which should help them quite a bit. So those two teams will be strong.

McLaren I think will be quick for most of the circuit but I think they’ll struggle so much with Turn 8 that maybe they won’t be there over a lap time. And Toyota maybe will be competitive because they’ve reverted to a previous aero package and they’ll be quite good at a circuit like this.

Q. There have been stories suggesting you are discussing big pay deals to stay with Brawn beyond 2009…

JB: I haven’t spoken to anyone about it. I’ve read the articles and that’s about it. Even after reading the articles I haven’t spoken to the team about it because I’m not interested. I’m here to race and I don’t want to talk about money. I don’t want to talk about anything else. It’s irrelevant at the moment. I’ve got to concentrate on this weekend, and that’s what I’ve got to do at every race we go to. I’m not thinking about money at all. I was with this team and continued with this team because I thought the car would be competitive, that’s all.

Q. Do you see yourself staying at the team long term?

JB: I’m very happy here, as you can imagine, I’ve won five out of six races. It’s not something that I’m going to talk to the team about until much later in the season. A lot, lot later in the season. Because I’m having a great time, but I know that it could end very quickly if you take your eye off the ball, so that’s not what I’m going to do.

Q. Fernando Alonso said today that he expects him to wrap up the title by early summer, what would you say to that?

JB: That would be nice, but I can’t see it happening with the way the system is. We’ve had six races and I’ve only got a 16-point lead. It’s not a lot. If nothing changed now it would only two races before the end of the season when I would have won it, and there’s so much that’s going to happen before then. It’s definitely not going to be a walk in the park. You can see that by the competitiveness of the other teams. If you look through all the data after the races, their lap times are the same as ours, we’ve just done the better job on the weekend. But they will get it right, for sure. But hopefully not too often.

Q. You’re now a hot property, presumably there is interest from other teams wanting to sign you?

JB: It obviously looks good when you read it, but I have no interest in discussing anything with anyone at the moment. I’m very happy, I’m doing what I’m here to do, and that’s winning races and leading the championship. I’m not thinking about next year yet.

Q. Turn 8 must have been horrendous in last year’s car, presumably you’re now looking forward to it?

JB: I am, but it’s probably the weakest corner on the circuit for our car. I think that the Red Bull will be very competitive through there. If you look at Barcelona in the two high speed corners they were taking one and a half to two tenths out of us each of them, which is massive. Everyone says ‘your car must be amazing’ in high speed, but it’s not compared to the Red Bull. So that’s an area we need to work on, for sure. We’re not as weak as the McLaren, for example, in high speed corners, but it’s an area we’ve got to work on because it’s not only going to gain or lose you a lot of time in Turn 8 because it’s such a long corner, but it can damage the tyres if you haven’t got the balance right.

I’ve been watching a lot of data from previous years. The good thing is there’s only one high speed corner on the circuit. Coming here I was thinking Red Bull are going to be very, very strong – are we actually going to be able to touch them? But if you think about it, it’s not a high speed circuit. There are so many long straights you think it’s a high speed circuit, but it’s only really Turn 8.

Q. So is that more of a worry for Silverstone then?

JB: Yeah, that is a bit of a worry, but I hear it’s not so much of an issue, just one long corner, it’s not as much of a problem as Silverstone.

Q. So are you concerned about Silverstone?

JB: Not really concerned, but we’re going to have a lot of competition there and it won’t be an easy race, that’s for sure. But at the moment I’m not thinking about it too much. Let’s think about this one for now. I’m sure we can sort out some of our issues in the high speed corners. We’ve got something different aerodynamically, the front wings are a bit different, and hopefully that will help us.

Q. Do you find yourself being congratulated more these days?

JB: People in the past were very friendly and saying ‘we know it will happen in the end’ but this year’s obviously very different. But it’s the same in a way because you never get anyone trying to be funny or cocky.

Q. If Ferrari keeps getting quicker, do you think you will have to start running shorter first stints and carrying less fuel in qualifying?

JB: The problem is if you do that and you do get trapped, you’re screwed completely. It’s a difficult one, because going into qualifying and thinking maybe you haven’t got the pace of the others and you go a bit shorter, then everyone starts going shorter and shorter and then if you don’t get the perfect lap you’re totally screwed in the race because you’re stopping early and you might get stuck behind someone. So it’s a difficult one. But also if everyone’s going shorter, say lap 13 or 14 for example, and you think ‘I don’t want to go that short’ so you go to lap 18, then you could end up sixth on the grid. So it’s a really difficult one.

You have to read what’s happened this year. Sometimes you’ve got to do something completely different. It might work, it might not. Qualifying’s difficult at this point of the season, to know what to do. Hopefully we’ll have good pace, and if we haven’t it’s going to be a tough one.

source by// www. autusport.com

Wins for Fabrizio (Ducati) and Spies (Yamaha) at Monza

Sunday, 10 May 2009 19:26

Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) and Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) shared the wins in an exciting fifth round of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. 118,000 spectators witnessed Fabrizio’s maiden Superbike win in race 1 and Spies making amends in race 2 for his first race disappointment, when his Yamaha ran out of fuel at the final corner. Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) crashed out in race 2 after being hit by a bird but still leads the table with a 54 point advantage over Spies.
Race 1
The first Superbike race of the day saw a thrilling end to one of the best races ever seen at Monza. The race had to have two starts, after two crashes at the first chicane of lap 1 involving Tamada, Hill, Corser, Neukirchner and Roberts led to it being interrupted. The German came off the worst with a broken right femur and dislocated right foot, while Roberts picked up various bruises. The outcome of the race was decided at the final curve. Spies was well on his way towards a fifth win of the season when in the Parabolica his Yamaha ran out of fuel just a few metres from the line. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) capitalized on Spies’ misfortune to take his first win in Superbike. Team-mate Noriyuki Haga finished second to maintain his points lead. The third place battle also saw a thrilling end as Max Biaggi took his Aprilia over the line, but the Italian was penalized 20 seconds for cutting the chicane, leaving Ryuichi Kiyonari (Ten Kate Honda) to take the final podium position after a spectacular mid-race recovery from a poor start. Fourth went to Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki Alstare), ahead of the British pair of Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike). Both BMW and Kawasaki placed riders inside the top 10, Ruben Xaus taking the German four-cylinder machine to seventh while a still unfit Broc Parkes fought hard for tenth place.
Michel Fabrizio: “Well, I really didn’t expect this win, even though I’d been up at the front for the past two days. I had a small problem when the gearing hit neutral after Ben and I touched and I was not able to find second. He got away a bit from me but I thought I had to fight until the very end because I was convinced I could do it. But I think his fuel finished, a real pity for him.”
Noriyuki Haga: “For sure we did a great race, and it was really tiring, unfortunately on the last lap and the last corner Ben had to stop, but for us we did a great job so I want to say a big thanks to all the team. My bike was working good but this weekend we had a little problem that we tried to find but we didn’t resolve and it wasn’t perfect.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari: “My start was very bad in race one but I was able to fight back lap by lap during the race. Still I can’t believe this result because on the last lap I thought fifth, but when the race stopped I was in fourth and when I got to my pit box my team told me I was third, so I was very surprised and happy.”

Results: 1. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 31′50.758 (196,459 kph); 2. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 0.239; 3. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 8.175; 4. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 11.001; 5. Rea J. (GBR)Honda CBR1000RR 12.447; 6. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 13.693; 7. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 19.172; 8. Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 24.989; 9. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 26.930; 10. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 27.418; 11. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 27.752; 12. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 29.545; 13. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 30.952; 14. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 31.414; 15. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 36.998; 16. Muggeridge K. (AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 42.732
Race 2
Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) immediately made amends in race 2 by dominating from start to finish. The Texan left everyone standing after just a few laps and went on to win his fifth race of the season. This win, together with the crash at the Parabolica on lap 3 of points leader Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox), keeps the championship battle wide open. Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) now becomes a credible title candidate after crowning his Italian weekend with an excellent second place. Fabrizio managed to hold off Ryuichi Kiyonari in the final stages, the Japanese rider repeating his race 1 result. A superb fourth went to Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), while Max Biaggi (Aprilia), in fifth place, could have been further up the standings had he not made a mistake while fighting amongst the group and he was unable to make up the gap again. Tom Sykes took another sixth place for Yamaha, while Leon Haslam (Stiggy Racing Honda) made up for his race 1 retirement with a seventh place. Troy Corser did not take the start in race 2 after his two crashes today, but BMW honour was held high by Ruben Xaus, who again finished in ninth place. Broc Parkes again scored more points for Kawasaki in thirteenth.

Ben Spies: “What could have been, that was a tough pill to swallow. We put our head down in race 2 and had to get into a good rhythm in the first 12 or 14 laps because we were obviously having a problem at the end of the race. I had to slow down and do the short-shifting trick and make sure everything was good till the end.”
Michel Fabrizio: “Ben really deserved this win after what happened in race 1. He was really determined at the start. I had to race with my second bike because of the problems in race 1 with my first bike so it took me a bit of time to get used to it as I had been using bike 1 for the last three days. I’ll have to wait a bit longer now for my second win.”
Ryuichi Kiyonari: “I’m happy with these results but a little bit disappointed because I tried to follow Fabrizio but I cannot pass him. My bike was very fast on the straights but my braking was not so good today.”
Results: 1. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 31′49.252 (196,614 kph); 2. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 2.665; 3. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 2.810; 4. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 7.706; 5. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 7.863; 6. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 10.383; 7. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 11.586; 8. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 21.112; 9. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 22.112; 10. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 22.261; 11. Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 23.453; 12. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 32.956; 13. Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 37.166; 14. Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 43.085: 15. Baiocco M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 43.088; 16. Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 43.825
Points (after 5 of 14 rounds) – Riders: 1. Haga 200; 2. Spies 146; 3. Fabrizio 125; 4. Haslam 103; 5. Sykes 90; 6. Biaggi 81; 7. Laconi 77; 8. Rea 77; 9. Neukirchner 75; 10. Kiyonari. Manufacturers: 1. Ducati 225; 2. Yamaha 180; 3. Honda 141; 4. Suzuki 89; 5. Aprilia 84; 6. Bmw 59; 7. Kawasaki 19
World Supersport
Cal Crutchlow is proving to be the man on form in the championship with his second win of the season at Monza. The Yamaha World Supersport rider now has an 18-point lead in the championship over his closest rival, Eugene Laverty (Parkalgar Honda), who finished fourth. The race came to a head four laps before the end, when Crutchlow gradually pulled away from Fabien Foret (Yamaha World Supersport) and Laverty to take the win. The battle for the podium was an exciting one, with Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Provec) powering up through the field to take a superb second place. The Spaniard managed to get the better in a sprint finish, confirming his Kawasaki to be right on the pace. Team-mate Katsuaki Fuijiwara followed this up with sixth place. The two Hannspree Ten Kate Honda men, Andrew Pitt and Kenan Sofuoglu were never in the hunt, finishing fifth and ninth respectively, while Garry McCoy and Gianluca Nannelli took the two Triumph Be1 machines to top 10 finishes.
Results: 1. Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 29′34.605 (188,029 kph); 2. Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2.660; 3. Foret F. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 2.716; 4. Laverty E. (IRL) Honda CBR600RR 2.780; 5. Pitt A. (AUS)Honda CBR600RR 9.270; 6. Fujiwara K. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX-6R 9.332; 7. Pirro M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 20.178; 8. McCoy G. (AUS) Triumph Daytona 675 20.221
Points (after 5 of 14 rounds) – Riders: 1. Crutchlow 99; 2. Laverty 81; 3. Sofuoglu 72; 4. Pitt 54; 5. West 52; 6. Lascorz 47; 7. Foret 44; 8. Aitchison 34; 9. Pirro 33; 10. Veneman 28. Manufacturers: 1. Honda 108; 2. Yamaha 99; 3. Kawasaki 58; 4. Suzuki 28; 5. Triumph 27
Superstock 1000
Victory in the third round of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup went the way of Claudio Corti (Suzuki Alstare) after a thrilling last-lap sprint around the Parabolica to the line with another of the pre-race favourites, Xavier Simeon (Ducati Xerox). The Italian attacked on the inside line and held off his Belgian rival by just 0.01 seconds. Thanks to this win, his second of the season, Corti returns to the top of the table, with a one-point lead over Simeon. The final podium slot went to Javier Fores (Kawasaki Pedercini), who remained in the leading battle until the last few laps. Daniele Beretta (Ducati Xerox) scored his best result of the season with fourth place, making up for a bad start that eliminated any chance of him fighting for the win. Aprilia finally produced a good performance at Monza with Federico Sandi finishing in eighth place.
Results: 1. Corti C. (ITA) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 20′10.356 (189,533 kph); 2. Simeon X. (BEL) Ducati 1098R 0.010; 3. Fores J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 4.560; 4. Beretta D. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 6.777 ; 5. Barrier S. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R1 7.406; 6. Jezek O. (CZE) Honda CBR1000RR 17.620; 7. Verdini L. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 20.616; 8. Sandi F. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 22.373
Points (after 3 of 10 rounds) – Riders: 1. Corti 61; 2. Simeon 60; 3. Fores 42; 4. Berger 41; 5. Beretta 28; 6. Barrier 27; 7. Jesek 8. Burrell 18; 9. Baz 16; 10. Ortega 11. Manufacturers: 1. Suzuki 61; 2. Ducati 60; 3. Honda 51; 4. Kawasaki 42; 5. Yamaha 35; 6. Aprilia 8; 7. MV Agusta 8
Superstock 600
Italian Danilo Petrucci (Yamaha Trasimeno ) had a triumphant day at the Monza track, winning the race and moving back into the lead of the table. Previous leader Gino Rea (Ten Kate Honda) could only manage ninth place at the finish. Petrucci didn’t have an easy time however as he was pushed all the way by wild-card Ferruccio Lamborghini (Media Action Yamaha). An Italian 1-2-3 was completed by another wild-card Fabio Massei (M2 Yamaha), who got the better of Vincent Lonbois (MTM Yamaha), Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS Yamaha), Marco Bussolotti (Yamaha Trasimeno) and Eddi La Marra (Lorini Honda). Lamborghini and Massei were later disqualified for technical infringement.
Results: 1. Petrucci D. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 15′17.215 (181,897 kph); 2. Lonbois V. (BEL) Yamaha YZF R6 5.375; 3. Guarnoni J. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 5.429; 4. Bussolotti M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 5.457; 5. La Marra E. (ITA) Honda CBR600RR 5.709; 6. Gregorini G. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 11.133; 7. Rea G. (GBR) Honda CBR600RR 14.007; 8. Litjens J. (NED) Yamaha YZF R6 20.721;
Points (after 3 of 10 rounds) – Riders: 1. Petrucci 50 2. Rea 50 3. Guarnoni 43; 4. Lonbois 40; 5. Litjens 38; 6. Bussolotti 26; 7. Kerschbaumer 25; 8. La Marra 22; 9. Lombardi 21; 10. Guittet 21.

www.wsbk.com

BMW confident of further progress

BMW confident of further progress

By Edd Straw and Pablo Elizalde

Sunday, May 10th 2009, 16:19 GMT

BMW motorsport boss Mario Theissen says he is confident for the upcoming races after showing improved form at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The German squad introduced a major upgrade package for the Barcelona race and moved closer to the front-running teams, with Nick Heidfeld finishing in seventh position after having started from 12th.

Theissen concedes BMW is still off the pace of the leading teams, but he is optimistic of more progress in the next races.

“We are not as quick as the front-runners but we are competitive and that makes me confident for the coming races,” Theissen said after the race.

“We can gain a bit more through set-up work and we will have improvements in the coming races.”

Theissen felt Robert Kubica should have also been in the points today, but the Pole was hindered by traffic and wound up 11th.

“Robert I thought he could get past Glock, who had a very poor start,” Theissen added. “But then he got stuck behind him and that was about it. He lost five places in the first corner. His strategy was forward oriented and now he was stuck behind cars who could stay out longer than him, so no chance.

“Robert did a fantastic qualifying yesterday and he really deserves his first points.

The BMW boss said the team will introduce more improvements for the next race in Monaco, where he is hoping for a strong showing.

“Monaco is different, it’s not about aero performance, it’s more about mechanical traction. I hope we can demonstrate our potential as well.”

www.autosport.com

Massa says championship is over

Massa says championship is over

By Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde

Sunday, May 10th 2009, 15:14 GMT

Felipe Massa has conceded Ferrari’s championship chances are over after Jenson Button scored his fourth win in five races at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Button has 41 points out of a possible 45 so far this year, and the Briton and his Brawn team dominated the Spanish race on Sunday.

Massa scored his first points of the year at Barcelona and is already 38 behind Button. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen is tied with Massa on three points.

The Brazilian reckons his chances of fighting for the title are over.

“In the championship? No, I don’t think so,” Massa told reporters when asked if he could catch Button. “We need to be realistic. After five races they won four.

“Even if we improve massively and we are three or four tenths if front of them they will still score points. So forget it.”

Massa was nonetheless encouraged by his team’s step forward since the last race, but he admits Ferrari is still behind Brawn.

“In Q2 we were two tenths slower. In qualifying, in Q3 we were four tenths slower because of the fuel. Usually the picture is similar in the race,” he said. “Two tenths in the race is quite a big difference. Most of the time they were going slowly away. So that’s the real picture at the moment. Maybe we are still a couple of tenths behind.

“Red Bull I don’t know because I was always in front of Vettel, so I don’t know if I was holding him a lot or he was really similar.

“We still need to improve, but I think if you compare the car we had in this race and the car we had before it’s a big stop forward. That’s really, really encouraging.”

The Ferrari driver looked set for fourth today but was forced to slow down in order to save fuel, in the end dropping to sixth.

Massa said the problem had been with the refueling and not with the calculations.

“We didn’t have a problem with the calculations. We had a problem with the machine. But I don’t know if the problem was human or the machine. We need to analyse what was the problem. It was very frustrating.

“You fight the whole race and then you have to back off. I was already saving fuel in the last run, but it was not enough, so I had to really back off and let Vettel go. I lost a position to Fernando and almost to Nick, so it was quite frustrating.”

www.autosport.com

Brawn denies team orders suggestions

Brawn denies team orders suggestions

By Jonathan Noble

Sunday, May 10th 2009, 17:24 GMT

Brawn GP chiefs have strongly denied any suggestion that they used team orders to hand Jenson Button victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Rubens Barrichello had led the way early on, but it was Button who triumphed in the end after he was switched to a two-stop strategy at the first round of pitstops.

Those actions prompted conspiracy theorists to suggest that the team used the strategy to favour Button – something that has been strongly rebuffed by Brawn chiefs Nick Fry and Ross Brawn.

When asked to respond to suggestions that the strategy choice was a deliberate ploy to favour Button’s title charge, Fry told AUTOSPORT: “No. Both sides of the garage were racing.

“Listening to what was going on there was huge determination – firstly for Jenson to make the gap, and then on Rubens’ side of the garage with a bit of frustration at the end that they didn’t make it happen.”

Brawn said that the team never expected the switch to a two-stop to favour Button, and it was only poor lap times from Barrichello in his third stint that cost him the victory.

“If you look at the lap times on the tyres and the fuel, there was a period of the race where he was a lot slower than expected,” explained Brawn. “And that’s what cost him the race because Jenson on more fuel was quicker.”

When asked if he was worried that Barrichello had believed team orders had been used, Brawn said: “I hope not, because we’re not. You saw at the first corner that there are no team orders. Rubens made a great start and got past Jenson.

“I’d love to see Rubens win a race and see his crew win a race because it would be great for the team. There is no priority being given.”

Speaking about Barrichello feeling unhappy after the race, Brawn added: “It’s natural. Any driver who gets beaten and is happy is not a driver I want in the team.

“The fact that Rubens is unhappy is a healthy sign because I’d feel very strange if he was quite content to be second behind Jenson.”

Barrichello’s poor lap times in that penultimate stint were the result of an unidentified problem on his car which cost him time when he needed to build up a cushion over Button.

Speaking about the reasons for switching Button, Fry said: “Obviously he was shorter on fuel than Rubens, and we assumed he would pull away at the front and build a bit of a gap. When that didn’t happen, it was necessary to split them.

“It was something that we had talked about a lot before the race anyway. It was something we had planned for, and it turned out to be the best. We were a little bit worried about [Felipe] Massa and [Sebastian] Vettel, for Rubens that is, and that faded when they both came into the pits together.

“That was a bit of a surprise as we thought Vettel was going to go a bit longer than that. I don’t know if they did that deliberately or that was the plan.”

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Button leads Brawn 1-2 at Spanish GP

Button leads Brawn 1-2 at Spanish GP

By Matt Beer

Sunday, May 10th 2009, 13:42 GMT

Jenson Button stretched his incredible run to a fourth win in five races by beating his Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello to victory in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Barrichello had vaulted into the lead at the start, but Button switched to a two-stop plan at the first stops and maintained a strong enough pace on heavy fuel to emerge ahead when the strategies had finished playing out.

Mark Webber completed the podium for Red Bull, as his front row starting team-mate Sebastian Vettel’s race was compromised by getting stuck behind Felipe Massa’s Ferrari off the line.

While all eyes were on Massa’s KERS-shod car at the start, it was actually Barrichello who made the best getaway, sweeping around the outside of Button into Turn 1 as Massa squeezed past Vettel to take third.

Further back, Jarno Trulli jinked to avoid Nico Rosberg in the first complex and ended up running wide into the gravel and spinning back across the circuit. The Toyota speared into Adrian Sutil’s Force India, with the two Toro Rossos violently tangling in the background as Sebastien Buemi slowed in avoidance and was collected by team-mate Sebastien Bourdais.

This led to a four-lap safety car period, after which Barrichello and Button pulled away from Massa, Vettel and Webber in unison through the opening stint.

Although Button was the lighter car this stage, at the stops he took on a very large fuel load, while Barrichello stuck to a three-stop plan.

That meant the Brazilian rejoined with a clear lead – but now had to mount a charge to pull out enough of an advantage over his team-mate.

Barrichello proceeded to lap 0.7-1.1s quicker than Button, but the 12-lap run to his second stop was not sufficient, and he rejoined 8s behind.

There was another chance to try and strike back during the final pit sequence, when Button would be first to go onto the slower hard compound tyres. However Button had managed to pull 12s clear of Barrichello, who in any case stopped only two laps later.

Massa and Vettel pitted in unison at both their stops, and on each occasion Ferrari managed to stay ahead of the Red Bull. Having run close behind Button for most of the race, they lost touch with the Brawns – and get jumped by the late-stopping Webber – thanks to making relatively early final stops and then having to spend a long time on the hard tyres.

The Brawns and Webber were able to lap 2s quicker as they continued on softs, leaving Massa and Vettel a distant fourth and fifth.

Vettel finally made it ahead of Massa with four laps to go as the Ferrari had to back off and save fuel, too little having been delivered at its final stop. He eventually fell back to sixth.

Fernando Alonso (Renault) did well to take a quiet fifth given his light fuel load, passing the slowing Massa on the last lap. He had been involved in a wild battle with Webber at the restart that saw the Renault squeeze past the Red Bull using its KERS advantage, only for Webber to dive back ahead under braking at Turn 1.

BMW’s Nick Heidfeld used a long middle stint to beat Williams’s Nico Rosberg to seventh. The second BMW of Robert Kubica was only 11th after losing ground on lap one.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) dropped to last avoiding the first corner crash, then made good progress in the middle of the race before severe tyre wear saw him fall off the pace. He eventually beat Timo Glock to ninth, the Toyota never recovering from falling into the midfield thanks to an earlier first stop than most.

Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen’s poor weekends failed to improve in the race. Both gained several places amid the first lap chaos until for their cars to crawl into retirement early in the race.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Spanish Grand Prix
Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain;
66 laps; 307.104km;

Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  1h37:19.202
 2.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  +    13.056
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    13.924
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    18.941
 5.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    43.166
 6.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +    50.827
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    52.312
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +  1:05.211
 9.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +     1 lap
10.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Barrichello, 1:22.762

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)    18
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)    8
Trulli        Toyota                (B)    1
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    1
Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    1
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)    1

World Championship standings, round 5:                
Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Button        41        1.  Brawn GP-Mercedes      68
 2.  Barrichello   27        2.  Red Bull-Renault       38.5
 3.  Vettel        23        3.  Toyota                 26.5
 4.  Webber        15.5      4.  McLaren-Mercedes       13
 5.  Trulli        14.5      5.  Renault                 9
 6.  Glock         12        6.  BMW Sauber              6
 7.  Alonso         9        7.  Ferrari                 6
 8.  Hamilton       9        8.  Williams-Toyota         4.5
 9.  Heidfeld       6        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      4
10.  Rosberg        4.5
11.  Kovalainen     4
12.  Massa          3
13.  Buemi          3
14.  Raikkonen      3
15.  Bourdais       1       

All timing unofficial

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Melandri: Hayate not far off the pace

Melandri: Hayate not far off the pace

By Michele Lostia and Matt Beer

Wednesday, March 11th 2009, 09:33 GMT

Marco Melandri is optimistic that the Hayate Kawasaki will be more competitive than it looked in testing, having agreed to race for the team this year.

The Italian was announced as the new team’s rider when Kawasaki confirmed that it would retain a MotoGP presence for 2009, but Melandri said he would not commit to Hayate until he was confident the bike was on the pace.

Although he was in the midfield for most of last week’s Qatar test, Melandri has now decided to start the year with Hayate. He believes a rear traction issue is hiding the 2009 Kawasaki’s potential at present.

“At the end of the day I think the gap to us in Qatar isn’t realistic,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport.

“In any case, we have just one big problem. The front end is good, the engine is a lot better than I had expected power-wise, but especially with the power curve during the initial phase of opening the throttle.

“We have absolutely no traction [at the rear end]. It’s a problem that emerged in (Olivier) Jacque’s first test in Australia. They’ve made a modification, but it doesn’t solve the problem.

“We’ll get some new material at Jerez and I hope that will solve the situation. Also because I think that beyond that, the racing department in Japan will only do revisions more or less. And that’s already a good thing because only they can put their hands on that engine.

“Let’s start off the season and we’ll see. I want to stay optimistic: if we solve our problem, than the midfield runners aren’t far off.”

Melandri said he ultimately decided that it was better to be on the MotoGP grid with a midfield bike than to sit out the season.

“I’m a rider with a suitcase, and to stand still for one year would be really bad,” he said

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