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The Goodwood Festival of Speed

There's nothing I like more than fast cars and the Goodwood Festival of Speed sums up everything I love about motorsport. This year the event takes places between June 28^th and July 1^st.

Obviously, it's the Forumla One drivers and teams at the event that really interest me. My beloved Caterham will be there as will Red Bull, Force India, McLaren, Lotus, Ferrari, Mercedes and Williams.

There will also be appearances from past drivers such as Sir Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, Sir Stirling Moss and Emerson Fittipaldi.

Along with all the chances to see drivers up close there is also the exciting 1.16 mile hill climb. Jenson Button, for example, will be driving the MP4-26 up the hill and Mark Webber the RB6.

It's a great chance to see some fantastic cars, drivers and drink in some of the atmosphere that you really only can get from motorsport.

For more information please visit www.goodwood.co.uk

The Spanish GP comes to a fiery end

Overall the race was quite exciting and found myself torn between wanting Alonso or Maldonado to win. I'm actually pleased with how things turned out. What a loved birthday present for Frank Williams to have a win after so many years.

There was all sorts of excitement on track.

Lewis Hamilton ran over the wheel his pit crew had just removed as he headed back out after a pitstop.

Michael Schumacher was handed a five-place grid penalty after running into the back of Bruno Senna, taking them both out of the race.

There seemed to be issues with the Red Bull nose. Both Webber and Vettel went into the pits for a change during the race.

There was a lot of looking after tyres.

Final Result: 1. Maldonado 2. Alonso 3. Raikkonen 4. Grosjean 5. Kobayashi 6. Vettel 7. Rosberg 8. Hamilton 9. Button 10. Hulkenberg 11. Webber 12. Verge 13. Ricciardo 14. Di Resta 15. Massa 16. Kovalainen 17. Petrov 18. Glock 19. de la Rosa 20. Perez 21. Pic 22. Karthikeyan 23. Senna 24. Schumacher

Race over and we all headed off to the pub. I tweeted about my lovely beer only for someone to reply 'did you see after the race?' What had I missed? Quickly scrolling through my timeline I soon realised there had been a fire in the Williams Garage. What a way to temper a great race.

A combination of SkyGo, YouTube and Twitter soon got us the story (and a lot of unfounded rumour).



 It actually amazes me how chilled the BBC lot were about it but I suppose they weren't right in the heart of the action in the pit lane like the Sky presenters were. 



That's a lot of smoke. It sounds like a number of people were injured, most with spoke inhalation but there's nothing too serious.

Although the fire was contained to the Williams garage and quickly put out, engineers from the surrounding teams were all rushing in to help. It looks like some Caterham and Force India staff were injured while helping to extinguish the flames. The official statement from Williams is below.

"After today’s Spanish Grand Prix a fire occurred in the team’s garage which originated from the fuel area.

"Four team personnel were injured in the incident and subsequently taken to the medical centre. Three are now receiving treatment at local hospitals for their injuries, while the fourth has been released. The team will monitor their condition and ensure they receive the best possible care.

"The team, the fire services and the police are working together to determine the root cause of the fire and an update statement will be released in due course.

"The Williams F1 Team would like to thank all of the teams and the FIA for their support in today’s incident."

I hope everyone involved is okay and am sad that this puts a bit of a downer on Maldonado's win.

Video: Red Bull Movie

 

 How have I only just seen this? A beautiful piece of video.

 (Plus Mark Webber dressed like that does ridiculous things to me.)

I think Rob Smedley's face sums up Massa's recent performance

Via F1-Gifs

You can add Rob Smedley to the list of F1-folk I'm slightly obsessed with. (As many people on Twitter pointed out, that list is LONG.)

The Malaysian GP

Credit: Sauber Motorsport AG

I think Sunday's race was most certainly the Perez show. He came second behind Fernando Alonso and in front of Lewis Hamilton after a rather interesting wet race.

The race was red-flagged early on due to rain. Although, Vergne managed to do the last few laps before the flag on inters so it can't have been that wet. Regardless, everyone got to take a little break and put full wets on.

No ice cream for the Iceman

Alonso got ahead during the restart and things stayed that way for the rest of the race.

Perez found himself up in second and he was gaining on Alonso. We thought that he was going to nab the Ferrari on the final laps. That was until Perez made a mistake and went wide putting him back five seconds from Alonso.

I'm, generally, not an Alonso fan but I'm pleased he won. He drove well. Nothing compared to Perez, though! A Sauber up in second was amazing to see and the shots of Peter Sauber all teary after the race was heartwarming!

Again, Mark Webber finished ahead of his team mate but it wasn't such a great result for McLaren. Hamilton seemed somewhat pleased with 3rd but Button finished down in 14th after having to make his way up from the back of the grid after a run in with Karthikeyan.

Third-placed Lewis Hamilton said: "I think we can be satisfied. First of all congratulations to Fernando and Sergio, they both drove fantastically well and it was very difficult to catch them.

"I can't really complain, I was on the podium for the second race in a row."

Although, I'm pretty sure he didn't look too happy as he said that.

Final Result: 1. Alonso 2. Perez 3. Hamilton 4. Webber 5. Raikkonen 6. Senna 7. Di Resta 8. Vergne 9. Hulkenberg 10. Schumacher 11. Vettel 12. Ricciardo 13. Rosberg 14. Button 15. Massa 16. Petrov 17. Glock 18. Kovalainen 19. Maldonado 20. Pic 21. Karthikeyan 22. de la Rosa 23. Kobayashi 24. Grosjean

Why is Hamilton such a grumpy face?

Image Credit: McLaren F1 team

Despite getting a podium finish, Lewis Hamilton just wasn't happy after the race in Australia. Now, we all know he wants to win, above everything. But you'd think he'd at least be a little happy with 3rd place, even if he was still behind Vettel and Button.

I'm in two minds about this. For the most part I want to tell him to shut the fuck up, stop worrying about bad starts and what went wrong in the race and be happy that he got 3rd. This would lead to a more chilled Lewis Hamilton who would be focused on the race at hand rather than mistakes made in the previous race etc.

I think he's gone from not being focused enough to being too focused and as a result he's being a wanker.

However, I also think that with passion and determination - along with all that skill - why should he be happy with 3rd place? No one wants to come 3rd, you want to WIN. Hamilton won't be happy with anything other than that.

Ayrton Senna had it right. He said: "When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough."

So part of me thinks, good on you Lewis. Fight until the bitter end.

Senna also said: "Being second is being first to the ones who lose."

That puts it in another perspective. I want Hamilton to win races (although I'd rather Button won races) but I'm bored of him looking grumpy-faced on the podium. 

I'd kill to come third in a Forumula One race.