Since becoming the seventh individual winner from the opening seven races, we suspect Lewis Hamilton is still in seventh heaven and celebrating his 2012 Canadian Grand Prix victory. If you couldn’t manage the 4am start, here’s 90-odd photos from the race to show you what you missed out on.
If nothing else, the bright sunny conditions were a welcome contrast after last year’s epic downpour.
If you took the wise move to enjoy your public holiday and sleep in, missing this morning’s Canadian Grand Prix, then well done to you. We hope you enjoyed your rest, because it wasn’t the most exciting race we’ve seen this year.
Even though both Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez have been on the podium before in 2012, they would have been surprised as any to be sharing the champagne with Lewis Hamilton. Mostly, this was due to Ferrari (Alonso) and Red Bull (Vettel) gambling on a one-stop tyre strategy and losing.
All three took their chance to celebrate their moment in the Montreal sun and you can read their post-race thoughts from the official press conference after the break, with thanks to the FIA.
[Pic: Sauber Motorsport AG]
Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar, pictured above with Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats, has been suspended for 14 days while parent company DRB-Hicom carries out an investigation into his activities amid concerns over misuse of company funds. And, boy, isn’t Tony Fernandes making the most of the opportunity to kick Bahar while he is down. More on that later; here’s a snippet from the official Group Lotus plc statement on Bahar:
“As a result of a number of media inquiries, Group Lotus plc can today confirm that, following an operational review, chief executive Dany Bahar has been temporarily suspended from his role to facilitate an investigation into a complaint about his conduct made by Lotus’ penultimate parent company, DRB-Hicom Bhd.
“In Bahar’s absence, Datuk Lukman Ibrahim (Proton’s deputy CEO), Mohd Khalid Yusof and Aslam Farikullah (representatives of Lotus’ parent companies) have been authorised by Lotus’ board to handle and conduct the day to day management and affairs of the Lotus Group. They will be assisted by Rusman Zaihan. They have been authorised to take up these duties during the suspension period.”
Okay, then, let’s get back to the bitchiness being exhibited by Fernandes, Malaysian businessman, owner of Caterham Cars and boss of former F1 outfit Team Lotus. A short while ago he took to twitter and said the following (excuse the spelling mistakes):
“So the mess at group lotus is finally being told. No one listened to us. Syed Zainal and bahr out. Chairman gone. Kamil of DRB is a good man but what a mess he’s inherited.
“Ego is a bad thing. Sued by Group Lotus. Abandoned by Clive Chapman . All so unecessary. But now we are real happy at Caterham.
“We could have done so much with Group Lotus and the F1 team in the true Lotus spirit building from scratch not renaming a team. and created cars that people want
“But now we recreate the spirit of Lotus in caterham. Exciting days ahead.”
We’re not entirely sure if any of that is based on fact or is just plain fantasy on Fernandes’ part, but it makes for some juicy reading. As we suspected, the kiss and make up statement from Bahar and Fernandes after their F1 naming fallout was indeed based on fiction.
Group Lotus also has form at responding to swipes from Fernandes, let’s see if they sharpen their fingernails again. It’s all a bit high school tantrum-like really.
[Source: This is money, The Sun Daily & BBC]
Hey, in case you missed it: MARK WEBBER WON THE MONACO GRAND PRIX!
We’re still pretty excited by the result and if you are too then we’ve got over 100 pics from the race to serve as a lasting memento.
Enjoy!
Here’s our smoke-free look back at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. Did anyone outside of Williams give Maldonado a chance. Indeed, did anyone inside Williams even think a win was theirs for the taking?
Perhaps a perfect example of how open the 2012 F1 season has been so far can be seen by looking back to the Bahrain race. After qualifying the highest placed Williams was in P15; before half race distance both cars had retired. Vettel and Red Bull won in a canter.
In Barcelona, Maldonado lapped the Red Bull of Webber and wasn’t too far from repeating the dose on Vettel. It doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. But it makes for fascinating viewing. Bring on Monte Carlo!
If you could have asked Sir Frank Williams how he would like to celebrate his 70th birthday you’d reckon a race win would have been at the top of his wish list. Of course, that wish did come true thanks to Pastor Maldonado, who added the distinction of being the first Venezuelan to win an F1 race. A nice way to achieve your first podium in the sport.
Sadly, though, the good times at Williams were short lived with that horrible fire which took place in their garage about 90 minutes after the race. We wish those affected a quick and full recovery.
With thanks to the FIA we bring you the full transcript from the post-race press conference at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. It’s worth noting this was recorded before the Williams fire had started.
[Pics: Williams/LAT Photographic]
On the final day of testing in Mugello Lotus driver Romain Grosjean repeated his efforts from Day 2 and remained the fastest man around the free flowing 5.245km circuit.
Grosjean’s time was set in the afternoon session and the mark of 1:21.035 was the best time recorded over the three days. Fastest in the morning session overnight was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. That was enough to keep him second fastest on the day, ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari and young Aussie Daniel Ricciardo for Torro Rosso.
Reflecting on the day Grosjean appreciated the opportunity Mugello presented and is looking ahead to next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
“It was another nice day today so I have been lucky with the weather here. We continued to work on the car and have gained more valuable data. We made a big change to the car at lunchtime and everything went according to plan,” Grosjean said.
“Mugello puts high demands on the driver so it’s been a very good experience for me—and quite a workout! We were conducting a specific programme of evaluating components, so to be quick relative to our opposition even when we were not looking specifically to try to top the times is satisfying. I’m happy at the progress we’ve made here in Italy and looking forward to seeing how well this translates into lap time when we get to Barcelona.â€
A full list of times and more pics from Lotus can be seen after the break.
[Pics: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]
Clear and sunny conditions greeted the F1 teams in Mugello overnight and to celebrate the positive change two drivers headed the lap charts at day’s end. The resurgence of Lotus (nee Renault) continued when Romain Grosjean set a time of 1:21.603 early in the morning session. He stayed top until close to the end when Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi matched his time. Amazing.
Sebastian Vettel (+0.2s) and Mark Webber (+0.3s) were next quickest in their Red Bulls. Mark drove in the morning before the RBR team made changes to the car for Vettel’s afternoon run. The day also brought the absolute shock news that Felipe Massa set a faster time than Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso!
What’s that? Oh, Fernando didn’t drive today. That explains it then.
After the day’s proceedings Grosjean enthused: “It’s always good to end the day on top, but we have to remember that in testing lap times mean very little. Having said that, the car felt great and I was very comfortable from the start. This test gives us an opportunity to try things that we wouldn’t have time to do during a race weekend, so hopefully it’ll help us to keep pushing forward. We’ve done a lot of setup work today, and for sure we’ll need to take some time to look through all the data and analyse what we need to focus on tomorrow, but it’s a good baseline for the final day.â€
A full list of times and more pics from Lotus can be seen after the break.
[Pics: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]
Finally, the Bahrain Grand Prix has been run and won. In our picture gallery we’re pleased that there’s mostly images of F1 cars doing their thing and not of local protesters causing disruptions.
After making a real effort to try and understand the root of the issues, we’re actually still not sure what to make of all the fuss in Bahrain. Was it opportunistic violence from a bunch of kids, or merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of genuine human rights concerns. While leaning towards the latter, perhaps it was a bit of both, maybe?
The biggest shame of it all is the world’s eye will probably stop keeping watch until the F1 circus is back in town next year. We hope and wish the people of Bahrain good fortune in finding more common ground with their ruling family and that it is a more peaceful environment when the sport returns.
There’s 80+ images for you after the break to help you remember the race. Of course, the first time Vettel finishes ahead of Webber this year he would have to bloody win, wouldn’t he!
If nothing else this year F1 has delivered variety. And so it was at a mostly trouble-free Bahrain Grand Prix. Four different race winners, from four different teams in the opening four races. It’s also the first time Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean have stood on the podium this year. Indeed, it’s the first time ever in F1 for Grosjean.
With thanks to the FIA we bring you the full transcript from the post-race press conference at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix. See if you can work out why Vettel was asked by Red Bull to stop in pit lane immediately after crossing the line.
[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images, Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]
Sebastian Vettel has returned Red Bull to winning form by taking a start to finish victory today in Bahrain. It’s the fourth race of the year and Vettel is the fourth man, from the fourth team, to win a race in the 2012 F1 season.
Either way a new driver/team combo was going to be seen with a sterling effort from the Lotus F1 Team seeing Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean fill the minor placings.
Last week it was Mercedes power behind all three podium winners, this week Renault powered the first four places.
Mark Webber proved mister consistency by finishing his fourth race in fourth place. He spent most the race in clean air, unable to make any ground to Grosjean but comfortably ahead of the drivers behind him.
Daniel Ricciardo’s excellent qualifying position quickly evaporated thanks to a poor start and he was soon down in P17, behind his Toro Rosso teammate, after starting from P6. In the end he finished the race in P15.
The 1965 Lotus 38, powered by a 500hp Ford V8, was the first mid-engine car to win the Indianapolis 500. Adding to its provenance immeasurably is the fact the great Jim Clark was the man at the wheel that day.
While this exploded view showing the 38 is hundreds of individual parts is spectacular to look at, it’s nothing compared to the beauty of the finished article. There’s something pure about top line racing cars from that era, perhaps it’s the lack of wings and engine covers. What you see is very much what you get with these machines.
You can click on the image above for a larger and full version of the disassembled Lotus 38. And if you thought that was cool, you’re going to love the video from Road & Track we have for you below. It shows 2010 Indy 500 winner, Dario Franchitti, talking about the 38. Then, better for us, but more so for him, Franchitti was privileged to drive a few laps around the Brickyard as well.
[Source: Megadeluxe]