Formula 1 Race Thirteen: Race

The race began as it ended, almost. Webber began on pole, with Hamilton in second and Kubica third. Hamilton ended up winning with Webber second and Kubica still third. But in between, three of the championship challengers – Vettel, Alonso and Button – lost their chances of points.
It started with Webber's anti-stall kicking in off the line, which allowed Button to go second, Kubica third and Vettel fourth. At the end of the first lap, drizzle on the track caused a lot of spinning, and Barrichello slid into the side of Alonso. While the Ferrari got away safely, Barrichello was out in the first lap of his 300th Grand Prix.
Lap seven, and Senna went out with a suspension problem. Meanwhile, the few drivers who had changed tyres when the rain began were in trouble, since it had not caused any real problem for cars with dry tyres and quickly stopped. This included Alonso, who ended up down in 20th.
Rosberg, Schumacher and Petrov quickly rose through the table, and would end up in the points, with the two Mercedes saving their tyres in case it rained properly – which it did, and the strategy paid off. Starting from 21st, Schumacher finished 6th.
After a good start, Vettel had a bad race. He chased Button until lap 17, when in the final turn he collided with the MacLaren driver, who went out. Vettel not only lost position, thanks to a pit stop, but he also had to serve a drive-through penalty. Later, he clashed with Liuzzi, giving himself a left rear puncture and losing any chance of points.
Both Force Indias ended in the points, and showed that their car was still suited to Spa – last year Giancarlo Fisichella got pole position for the team.
Alonso put himself out of the race. On full wet tyres when the rest were on intermediates (or dry, if they were stupid) in some moderate rain, he spun and hit the wall twice before leaving his car in the middle of the track. The safety car was deployed, and he got his first retirement. Only Massa has not had a single retirement this year, which is much better than his 2009 season performance (quite aside from the accident).
With this result, Red Bull lead the constructors' championship by one point, but Hamilton leads the drivers' championship by 3!

Next weekend there's no Premier League, but there are a lot of European qualifiers on the 2nd/3rd and 7th of September.

Formula 1 Race Thirteen: Qualifying

The weather was all over the place today, with Q1 starting dry. Petrov managed to spin out early on, putting his fast car at the bottom of the grid. The session was red-flagged, and by the time it restarted the rain had arrived.
Two Virgin cars spun, leaving Di Grassi facing backwards – the driver didn't get in any faster lap, so he ended up twenty-third.
Spins also for the two Saubers left them out in Q1, but Glock (Virgin) and Kovalainen (Lotus) made it through to Q2.

In the second session, things were really drying up, making the lap times much faster. Unsurprisingly, the two new team drivers were sixteenth and seventeenth, but the Lotus's time was not far off Buemi's.
The two Mercedes just failed to get into Q3, and their penalties (10 places for Schumacher, 5 for Rosberg) put them 21st and 17th respectively. Schumacher's old team mate Barrichello did make it. So there were two MacLarens, two Ferraris, two Red Bulls, two Williams, one Renault and one Force India in the form of Sutil in Q3. Last year, Force India got pole.

This wasn't the case this year. Red Bull ended up with pole position, with Hamilton in second and Kubica third. A bad session for Ferrari – and incoming rain right at the end – left Alonso in tenth. After other penalties for unscheduled changes (to come overnight, I expect), the final positions will be revealed in the morning.

Formula 1 Race Thirteen: Preview

Celebrations!

Red Bull's Mark Webber celebrated his 34th birthday today (Friday), which is especially exciting since he's leading the World Championship. Meanwhile, it's the 300th Grand Prix for Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, which is the most of any Formula 1 driver ever, and he's still going strong!

This race, Michael Schumacher is demoted 10 grid places after his actions in Hungary. He didn't turn up to Barrichello's 300th race celebrations yesterday evening, which was probably a good thing as it avoided questions. The most awkward questions would be about how he apologized to his ex-teammate: by text!

The most intriguing thing about this race is how close the points are between the top five drivers: Webber has 161, but fifth-placed Alonso has 141. That's a difference of only 20 points, where a victory gets you 25 points. Anything could happen. Anyone could win, and three of the five drivers - Hamilton, Button and Alonso – have won a world championship. The other two are in super-fast Red Bulls!

The weather looks to be all over the place this weekend. We've seen pouring rain and sunshine already in Friday practice. With changeable weather, things seem to be in Schumacher's favour, so he may well be able to take back his lost positions. I predict that he will finish in Q2 and end up amongst the new teams' drivers.

Chandhok was again up in the BBC commentary box for practice 1 and 2. It must be a bit disappointing not to race, although it gives Yamamoto a chance. Next week he will be in Korea in a Red Bull! Not for the race, which is in October, but in their show car around the new track. As a former Red Bull Junior Team member, he has represented them before.

The biggest event of today was the red flags in Practice 2, caused, apparently, by kids climbing a fence around the circuit. In the end, Alonso went fastest in both sessions. More to come tomorrow.

Random Interesting Point: Only two drivers have not had a single retirement this season: Alonso and Massa, two drivers in the same team. Ferrari are winning the reliability contest.