Formula One News — August 2006

Lewis Hamilton drove a blinding race on Sunday in Istanbul to take command of the GP2 Championship, stopping a recent run of success by Nelson Piquet Jr. Piquet won the race on Saturday while Hamilton drove a strong race to finish second.

There are rumours in F1 circles that McLaren has agreed a major sponsorship deal, worth around $20m a year, with Spain's Banesto.

The outstanding thing about the qualifying session in Istanbul on Saturday was Michael Schumacher's time in the Q2 session when he lapped the Turkish circuit at an astonishing 1m25.250s.

Turkish GP - Saturday Photos

Turkish GP - Saturday Press Conference

Turkish GP - Saturday Team Quotes

Turkish GP - Qualifying Results

Michael Schumacher topped the bill in dramatic fashion in Istanbul on Saturday morning with a lap time that was seven-tenths faster than the two Renaults.

Turkish GP - Practice 3 Results

The Formula 1 world has already moved on from the mass damper affair but perhaps it is worth considering for a moment that this is not the first time that the FIA technical department has changed an interpretation of the technical regulations - it's own interpretation at that - at an inopportune moment.

On several occasions this year BMW has run cars with lighter fuel loads in order to make the right impression in F1 and on Friday in Istanbul the team did it again with F1 newcomer Sebastian Vettel setting the fastest time in his first day of action in F1.

Turkish GP - Friday Photos

Turkish GP - Friday Press Conference

Turkish GP - Friday Team Quotes

Turkish GP - Practice 2 Results

Sebastian Vettel may be the youngest driver ever to drive a Formula 1 car in a Grand Prix event, but he has also set another new record on Friday in Turkey, being fined by the FIA stewards just nine seconds after the start of his F1 career.

Kimi Raikkonen kicked off the Turkish Grand Prix weekend with the fastest time in Friday's free practice at the Istanbul Park F1 circuit with a best lap of 1m28.315s, almost half a second clear of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.

Turkish GP - Practice 1 Results

Turkish GP - Thursday Press Conference

The JCB construction machinery company is reported to have ambitions beyond the world of diggers and its chairman Sir Anthony Bamford has indicated that it might be interested in buying the Jaguar brand from the Ford Motor Company, if Ford was willing to sell Jaguar on its own.

The giant Ford Motor Company is reported to be considering going private in order to buy time to restructure its ailing automobile business. Ford's share price is currently $7.75 which means that the cost of going private could be as little as $13.3bn.

Gustav Brunner and Panasonic Toyota Racing have been haggling over a severance deal for a long time and the problem has now gone to court in Cologne with Toyota offering $1.7m in compensation but Brunner apparently holding out for more.

Mario Illien cannot build Formula 1 engines for a year or two because of a deal he has with Mercedes-Benz, but that does not mean the Swiss engine designer cannot win races in MotoGP.

Jim Wright, the former head of marketing at Williams, has joined Scuderia Toro Rosso to fulfil a similar role.

Antonio Pizzonia turned up in the F1 paddock in Budapest recently, looking to see if there was any chance of work in the future. The former Jaguar Racing and Williams driver presumably did not hear what he wanted to hear as he is to return to Champ Car racing this weekend at the wheel of a Rocketsports Lola in Montreal.