Monday 14 May 2012

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 28th and July 1st.

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

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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.

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