August 31st, 2009 at 06:55pm Under Computers
Sharkoon has just introduced a new micro ATX case, the Temptation which supports only microATX motherboard.
The compact case measures 245×310×445mm, weighs 4.8kg, and is made of premium aluminum. It comes with two exposed 5.25″ bays, a front I/O panel with one eSATA, two audio connectors and two USB 2.0 ports. Additionally there are two removable [...]
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August 31st, 2009 at 06:22pm Under Racing
Force India boss Vijay Mallya says no one has called him about Giancarlo Fisichella moving to Ferrari to replace under-performing test-driver Luca Badoer for the reaming races of 2009.
Fair neough but what Autosport is also mentioning is that FIF1 apparently still has debt with Ferrari over the…
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By Mikel Add comment
August 31st, 2009 at 05:36pm Under Racing
Timo Glock would have scored points but for his fuel rig failure
The Belgian Grand Prix was fought out between the two drivers who’ve made the best starts in F1 this year: Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Plus, where would Timo Glock have finished without his fuel rig problem? And just how bad was it for Luca Badoer? Read on to find out.
Belgian Grand Prix - lap one
Kimi Raikkonen got off to his usual KERS-assisted flier. He picked up four places on the opening lap, and has gained a total of 23 places on the first lap of races this year – more than any driver bar Giancarlo Fisichella, who has also gained 23.
Further back the destruction at Les Combes cut a swathe through the field and helped several other drivers make big improvements. Rubens Barrichello, however, had his worst start of the season, losing ten places. He also gave away nine at Istanbul and five at Melbourne, and is statistically the worst driver at getting away from the start line this year.
Kimi Raikkonen vs Giancarlo Fisichella (click to enlarge)
The fight for the lead was close but you couldn’t really call it a battle. With KERS at his fingertips, Raikkonen was easily able to keep Fisichella at bay.
Still Fisichella kept up the pressure in the hope of a mistake from Ferrari or Raikkonen.
Kimi Raikkonen and Luca Badoer (click to enlarge)
Duncan Stephen asks on his blog whether Luca Badoer achieved a record by being the first driver to finish last yet still be on the lead lap. At Singapore last year Fisichella matched his feat of finishing 14th and last of the runners while still being on the lead lap. However Raikkonen was officially classified 15th in that race after crashing out four laps from the end. Has any other driver finished last, lower in the standings, while also being on the lead lap?
What impresses me is that, putting Badoer’s lamentable performance to one side, the rest of the classified runners finished within 55 seconds of each other. Unfortunately Badoer was almost as far behind 13th-placed Kazuki Nakajima as the Williams driver was behind Raikkonen. The yawning gaps between Raikkonen and Badoer’s lap times above tell the story.
Belgian Grand Prix race chart (click to enlarge)
It’s worth looking up Timo Glock on the race chart above and noting that, if he hadn’t lost five seconds with a refuelling rig problem at his first pit stop, he would have been in the points. Certainly he would not have ended up behind Nico Rosberg. At the end of the race he would have been somewhere near the front of the Heikki Kovalainen, Rubens Barrichello, Rosberg and Mark Webber battle.
Belgian Grand Prix lap chart (click to enlarge)
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August 31st, 2009 at 05:55am Under Computers
The Taiwan-based provider of memory cards PhotoFast has recently rolled out two compact SATA drives, G-Monster miniSATA TypeS and miniDOM TypeZ.
TypeS
Available in capacities of 2GB to 64GB, both of them measure 45×37×7.5mm, weigh 10g, feature a MTBF of 2.5 million hours, delivering maximum read/write speed of 110MB/60MB respectively.
TypeZ
G-Monster mini TypeS supports 1.5/3.0Gbps SATA I/II interface, [...]
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August 31st, 2009 at 04:56am Under Racing
Kimi Raikkonen lines up Giancarlo Fisichella for a pass
Spa-Francorchamps proved once again why it is the king of F1 tracks. The Belgian Grand Prix had crashes, passes and a form book-defying result.
Take a look back at today’s Grand Prix with this collection of pictures showing the race from start to finish.
More pictures
Images (C) Ferrari spa, Brawn GP, Renault/LAT, Williams/LAT, Bridgestone, www.mclaren.com, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India F1 Team, Toyota F1 World, BMW ag
By Mikel Add comment
August 31st, 2009 at 04:55am Under Racing
Kimi Raikkonen had Giancarlo Fisichella in his mirrors for most of the race
Kimi Raikkonen ended a 26-race losing streak by winning the Belgian Grand Prix for the fourth time in his career.
Surprisingly Raikkonen’s closest contender wasn’t in a Brawn or a Red Bull or even a McLaren – he was chased around every lap of Spa by Giancarlo Fisichella.
The Italian, now tipped to join Raikkonen in Ferrari at Monza, finished second for Force India.
If Fisichella’s pole position on Saturday was a shock, his consistent race pace on Sunday was utterly incredible – and very timely.
Ferrari’s Luca Badoer brought up the rear of the field, finishing 47 seconds behind the next finisher. It inconceivable Ferrari could tolerate another race with this kind of performance, and Italian television channel RAI is already claiming Fisichella will be in the car at Monza.
As the race got started Fisichella preserved the lead and didn’t look like losing it. From sixth on the grid Raikkonen elected to use the tarmac run-off area on the outside of turn one to avoid getting held up by other cars. He re-joined the track in third, sprinted through Eau Rouge and picked off Robert Kubica at the top of the hill.
He arrived at Les Combes going quickly he couldn’t stop in time, and bumped along the kerbing around the outside of the track. Kubica took evasive action but couldn’t avoid tagging the back of the Ferrari, breaking his front wing end plate.
Jarno Trulli, who started second, also damaged his front wing, but the real carnage kicked off behind them.
Jenson Button made a clean start from 14th and took a look at the outside of Heikki Kovalainen heading into the corner. Suddenly Renault’s Romain Grosjean charged in, tipping Button into a spin.
As their cars headed for the barriers Lewis Hamilton – who had started slowly and picked up some damage at La Source – slowed down to avoid the wrecked cars and got hit by Jaime Alguersuari. All four cars were eliminated.
After the race the stewards consulted the video replays but elected not to punish anyone.
Read more: Belgian Grand Prix start crash (Video)
The crash also had repercussions for the leaders. Fisichella had enough of a lead over Raikkonen not to be troubled by the Ferrari’s KERS – but the arrival of the safety car wiped it away.
Sure enough, Fisichella was a sitting duck at the restart on lap four. Raikkonen, one of few drivers to have started on soft tyres, breezed past him on the straight.
Fisichella lost little ground to Raikkonen in the opening stint. Behind them came Kubica, battling on despite his front wing damage, Timo Glock, Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld.
Sebastian Vettel appeared in seventh shortly after the safety car came in, after apparently being allowed past by Nico Rosberg. Vettel had complained Rosberg had passed him illegally under yellow flags. Had race control got involved again as they did at Valencia?
Rubens Barrichello began his recovery from a disastrous start. Just like at Melbourne and Istanbul, the brawn had bogged down badly at the start and he was lucky to avoid being hit. As the race resumed he moved up to 13th by passing Luca Badoer.
The second Ferrari was, once again, a long way off the pace. Adrian Sutil, who’d been to the pits after the first lap, went clean off the track in order to get around Badoer on lap eight.
Robert Kubica and Timo Glock were the first of the leaders to pit on lap 12. Toyota brimmed Glock up with enough fuel for 20 of Spa’s long laps, keeping him in the pits five seconds longer than Kubica. After that Glock plummeted down the order and never looked like making it back into the points.
Jarno Trulli retired a few laps later – and so, having qualified second and seventh, Toyota contrived to get absolutely nothing out of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen and Fisichella came in together on lap 14 – Raikkonen had started with more fuel, so either Ferrair had chosen to bring him in early (unlikely) or Fisichella had done a better job of saving fuel during the safety car period. The Force India driver switched onto the soft tyres, and continued his pursuit.
In hindsight, if Force India had given him a splash more fuel than Raikkonen at this point, Fisichella could have won the race. But it wasn’t to be.
Heidfeld and Webber came in on the same lap, and for the second race in a row Red Bull cut it very fine when releasing Webber from his pit box. This time Heidfeld had to get off the throttle to avoid contact, and the stewards wasted no time in handing down a drive-through penalty.
But Heidfeld took care of matters himself, passing Webber at Les Combes. The Red Bull driver then fell into the clutches of Barrichello, who bravely blasted around the outside of Webber and Blanchimont.
Webber served his drive-through penalty on lap 18, just as Rosberg was making his first pit stop and surrendering the lead he’d inherited.
Another team having trouble in the pits was Renault – again. They struggled to replace Fernando Alonso’s front-left wheel as the fairing had been damaged in contact on lap one. Not wishing to incur a repeat of their Hungary penalty, the team kept Alonso back while they made sure the wheel went on, and shortly summoned him back to the pits after letting him out. He was the sixth and last retirement of the day.
On lap 31 the two leaders came into the pits together for the final time – and once again left with Raikkonen ahead of Fisichella. Though he surely could have lapped quicker than the Ferrari had he been ahead, Raikkonen was able to use his KERS button at the start of the straights to ensure Fisichella couldn’t get close.
Vettel made his final stop on lap 35, leap-frogging Kubica for third – and then began closing on the leaders. But once it became clear he wasn’t going to catch them he prudently turned the revs down, as he’s already on his seventh unit out of eight.
That decided the podium, and the BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld behind were settled in fourth and fifth. Kovalainen briefly came under threat from Barrichello, until the Brawn’s Mercedes engine began spewing oil. Barrichello backed off and managed to coax the car to the chequered flag, impressively without losing a place – although his engine cover caught fire after he got back to the pits.
Rosberg held onto eighth ahead of Webber, who finished a point-less ninth for the second race in a row. He has fallen back behind his team mate in the drivers’ championship and lies fourth.
Glock finished tenth ahead of Sutil, 42 seconds behind team mate Fisichella, after his early pit stop plus a spin at Fagnes.
The final classified runners were Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Badoer – the latter 47.9s behind the rest of the field, and surely not likely to reappear in a Ferrari in two weeks’ time.
Who will be Raikkonen’s team mate at Monza? Ferrari are expected to decide tomorrow.
Read more: Belgian Grand Prix race result
I can’t pick anyone other than Giancarlo Fisichella for driver of the day. He thrived on the new-found pace of the Force India, reminding us all of those days when everyone thought of him as the great up-and-comer with so much untapped potential. A win only passed him by because of the safety car period at the start, after which he was never going to keep Raikkonen at bay.
Raikkonen and Rosberg must get honourable mentions, however. Both are in excellent veins of form – particularly Rosberg, who dragged his car into Q3 and rode his luck to grab a point. Here’s who you picked on Twitter:
lacanta – If you haven’t gathered from my twitters so far this afternoon, I’m nominating Fisichella as Driver of the Day! Yippee!
hashsport – Vettel
GittleBos – Giancarlo Fisichella. Of course. Time to eat a potato pizza in his honour (that’s his favourite)!
BaburM – kimmmmaayyyyy!
MarkF1 – Fisichella as it is the best race he as driven in years.
reeley – Giancarlo Fisichella the driver of the race for me.
therealtopper – probably fisichella
alboreto – Fisi of course.
fwon – I do think Fisichella was the driver of the race. Perhaps he should of won, but he competed with Kimi for the whole race
mum_zee – can only be one driver – Fisico
formula1fran – I think I have to say Fisi. Thrilled Kimi won, but Fisi worked harder I think. Never felt so sorry for 2nd place finisher!
Mikee87 – Driver of the race has got to be Bernd Mayländer. They should put him in the Ferrari instead of Badoer.
asynadak – Kimi!
randomflowers – I’m going to say Seb V, simply because he started 8th and finished 3rd! (and Kimi… and Fisichella!)
fissijo – fisichella… But then he is my driver of the race most races!
planetf1 – FISI
primaveron – Kimi Raikkonen and Fisichella!
Who was your driver of the day? Name them in the comments.
Read more
Images (C) Ferrari spa, Brawn GP, Renault/LAT, Williams/LAT, Bridgestone, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India F1 Team, Toyota F1 World, BMW ag
By Mikel Add comment
August 31st, 2009 at 04:55am Under Racing
Nelson Piquet Jnr crashed out of the Singapore Grand Prix on lap 14
After last year’s Singapore Grand Prix there were plenty of conspiracy theories that Nelson Piquet Jnr crashed deliberately to help Fernando Alonso win the race.
Those theories are now being given credence by Brazilian F1 journalist Reginaldo Leme, who claims Renault are to be investigated by the FIA over the result of last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Brazilian TV station Globo also carried the report during its Belgian Grand Prix coverage today. The allegation is that Piquet was ordered to crash by the team to help Alonso win the race. Here’s a paragraph from the race report which explains the scenario:
Alonso, who along with Rosberg had started on the less favourable super-soft tyres, made his first pit stop. Although he fell to last it proved extraordinarily fortunate timing when his team mate crashed two laps later, Nelson Piquet Jnr backing his car into the wall in front of the grandstands by the Marina.
Sure enough, as the other drivers made their pit stops Alonso inherited the lead and won the race. This came a day after qualifying down in 15th due to a car failure.
Piquet was, of course, dropped by Renault earlier this year and later launched a vitriolic attack on former boss Flavio Briatore. It doesn’t take a cynic to wonder if he might just be trying to get revenge on his old team.
Here’s a look back at some footage of the crash:
Piquet also spun on the warm-up lap in Singapore. More evidence he was capable of spinning without being told to? Or was he getting in a practice spin ahead of his big moment?
I still think it’s a bizarre conspiracy but if Piquet himself claims it’s true then, notwithstanding his obvious antagonism towards the team, the FIA are surely going to have a look.
Do you think the claims are true? Here’s links to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix coverage from last year, and other relevant articles, to help you make your own mind up:
Thanks to Sandro and Dank for the tips!
By Mikel Add comment
August 31st, 2009 at 04:55am Under Racing
Giancarlo Fisichella scored a remarkable second at Spa - and could’ve won
Giancarlo Fisichella finally gave Force India their first ever points in Formula 1 on their 30th attempt.
He chased Kimi Raikkonen around every lap at Spa-Francorchamps, rarely more than a couple of seconds behind. With Raikkonen’s temporary team mate Luca Badoer enduring a second dire race, speculation is rife Fisichella will be a Ferrari driver at Monza.
Fisichella kept his lead from pole position at the start while Raikkonen used his KERS – and plenty of the tarmac apron at the first corner – to get a run past Robert Kubica into second.
The Force India driver might well have stayed ahead of Raikkonen if the safety car hadn’t been scrambled following the first lap crash. But on the restart Fisichella was powerless to resist Raikkonen’s KERS-powered attacks and lost the lead on the run to Les Combes.
Raikkonen was never out of Fisichella’s sights all race long – the pair even pitted on the same lap twice. An extra lap of fuel at his first stop could have been enough to get Fisichella the lead – but even so what the team achieved was remarkable enough.
Fisichella has driven well this year, particularly at Monte-Carlo where he was ninth and only a few seconds away from scoring Force India’s first point.
With that milestone finally achieved – and their first podium to boot – can they go one place better at Monza?
The result lifts Force India from last in the constructors’ championship to ninth ahead of Toro Rosso. It means they’re in line to earn a lot more money at the end of the season, a precious lifeline for the cash-strapped team.
Read more
Images (C) Force India F1 Team
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August 31st, 2009 at 04:55am Under Racing
Kimi Raikkonen returns to the top step of the podium, Giancarlo Fisichella grabs a first point – and seven more – for Force India, and Rubens Barrichello finishes seventh in a bonfire.
What did you think of the Belgian Grand Prix? Rate the race and leave a comment below.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
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August 31st, 2009 at 04:55am Under Racing
| Driver | Points | |
| 1 | Jenson Button | 72 |
| 2 | Rubens Barrichello | 56 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | 53 |
| 4 | Mark Webber | 51.5 |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | 34 |
| 6 | Nico Rosberg | 30.5 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | 27 |
| 8 | Jarno Trulli | 22.5 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | 22 |
| 10 | Heikki Kovalainen | 17 |
| 11 | Timo Glock | 16 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | 16 |
| 13 | Nick Heidfeld | 10 |
| 14 | Robert Kubica | 8 |
| 15 | Giancarlo Fisichella | 8 |
| 16 | Sebastien Buemi | 3 |
| 17 | Sebastien Bourdais | 2 |
| 18 | Romain Grosjean | 0 |
| 19 | Nelson Piquet Jnr | 0 |
| 20 | Luca Badoer | 0 |
| 21 | Kazuki Nakajima | 0 |
| 22 | Jaime Alguersuari | 0 |
| 23 | Adrian Sutil | 0 |
| Driver | Points | |
| 1 | Brawn | 128 |
| 2 | Red Bull | 104.5 |
| 3 | Ferrari | 56 |
| 4 | McLaren | 44 |
| 5 | Toyota | 38.5 |
| 6 | Williams | 30.5 |
| 7 | BMW | 18 |
| 8 | Renault | 16 |
| 9 | Force India | 8 |
| 10 | Toro Rosso | 5 |
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