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.

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

Australia - Qualifying

What a start to the season! Firstly, I was disappointed not to see Caterham get through to Q2, I thought their pace in testing and how the drivers had been talking about the car, that one of them would have a good enough lap to make it through.

Lots of offs with drivers. Looks like just putting a wheels on the astro turf is a great way to end up spinning/in the gravel/looking like a twat. I think the drivers, Vettel in particular, are struggling without the extra downforce of the blown diffuser. There was a lot of wiggly driving from Vettel.

Mercedes are doing something right, though! Their interpretation of the rules that allows them to have an f-duct that directs air to the front wing when the DRS is open is brilliant. However, Redbull and Lotus are talking to the stewards about this being an illegal development saying it is driver-operated aerodynamics. We'll probably see the outcome of this before the weekend is over.

I think Mercedes have done what they did with Brawn in 2009 and interpreted the rules brilliantly to bring a car with a slight advantage over the other teams.

Raikkonen made a mistake during Q1 and got knocked out. A huge surprise as I'd been rooting for him since he first showed good form during testing.

Alonso had a lovely spin and ended up in the gravel causing him to go out in Q2. I saw a Ferrari spinning and instantly assumed it was Massa, who eventually ended up 16th. The Italian papers are going to rip them to shreds.

In Q3 I was sure that Mercedes and McLaren were going to put in stonking laps until Vettel got out there and did what he does best. One final quick lap!

That wasn't the case. Hamilton flew, soon to be followed by Button. The icing on the cake was Romain Grosjean coming in at 3rd with the Red Bulls and Mercedes behind him. Just think what Kimi might have been able to do had he not got knocked out in Q1.

Rosberg would've been up there, perhaps on pole if his wheel hadn't locked on his hot lap. He ended up 7th but I think we'll be seeing great pace from both him and Schumacher tomorrow.

Now I'm looking forward to Mark Webber having a good start (yeah right), more pirouetting from Massa and the surprises at in the middle of the pack carving their way up to the front. Namely Kimi and Fernando.

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

Iceman finishing position

While in the pub this evening we decided to make our predictions for the coming Australian GP. Naturally, we made quali predictions (I reckon Webber, Schumacher, Button) and also decided to put a pound on where we thought Kimi Raikkonnen would finish after Sunday's race.

Here I introduce you to the majority of my little F1 group.

Kimi will finish...

• Jet - 6th
• Ben - 4th
• Adam - 5th
• Chris - 3rd

Would anyone like to have themselves added to our list? Do you agree/disagree, want to hate on us for not saying he'll win all the things?

What I've missed about F1

The Australian Grand Prix is looming like a massive, excitable puppy. As a result this week is dragging for me (so much in fact that I decided to bide my time by creating an entire blog...).

To kill more time I've put together a list of what I've missed over the winter break. I think I might actually be having withdrawal symptoms. Although, the shakes are more down to the fact that I haven't had any alcohol since Saturday.

Anyway, what I've missed -

1. The sound of the cars - Especially live, the noise when I went to Spa was glorious. Except when the Renaults went round with their exceptionally loud blown diffuser. 
2. Mark Webber's grumpy relationship with the press conference orange juice
3. Those rare moments were Sebastian Vettel wasn't leading the pack
4. Sausage sarnies during the early morning races
5. Weekend bets between my group of friends
6. Jake Humphrey's trousers
7. Eddie's shirts - Oh, come on! They were a source of amusement
8. Shouting at the TV - There was a lot of that between our McLaren/Red Bull/Ferrari/Team Lotus-supporting group
9. Martin Brundle's grid walks - And how endlessly uncomfortable they made me feel
10. Silly BBC build up footage - Such as Eddie buying a shirt in India and the BBC vs. McLaren pit stops.

Anything to add, ladies and gents?

I suppose I should say welcome

I've decided to start a blog, if only to get the inane F1 ramblings out of my head and onto a screen.

I am shallow, dedicated and biased. Deal with it.

You are welcome to ignore all the labels attached to this post. I seem to have chosen the most complicated blog template in the world so this is necessary. (I don't understand the world any more. I'd be better off passing a notebook around that contains all the shit I want to write about.)

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