Formula One News — March 2007

Australian GP - Race Incidents

Australian GP - Race Results

Felipe Massa is to change his engine before the start of the Australian Grand Prix. This means that the Ferrari driver will have to take a 10-place grid position penalty and so will start last.

Kimi Raikkonen gave notice of his intentions this year by taking pole in Melbourne by half a second. Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari had gone with a gearbox problem in the Q2 session and so the fight to be first bridesmaid went to Fernando Alonso in the McLaren.

The Spyker F1 team took the rather odd step of protesting only the Super Aguri team after qualifying on Saturday. It seems that the protest was designed to ascertain whether the FIA Stewards would be willing to make any decisions on the subject before things on to proper legal action.

Australian GP - Saturday Photos

Australian GP - Saturday Press Conference

The word in the Melbourne paddock is that Spyker has filed an official protest against Red Bull regarding the question of chassis design in 2007. We await developments.

Australian GP - Saturday Team Quotes

Australian GP - Qualifying Results

Champ Car driver Nelson Philippe was spotted in the F1 paddock in Melbourne and the whisper is that the 20-year-old Frenchman is trying to talk his way into a test drive in Formula 1 as his career in America has run out of steam because of the financial demands of the teams in the United States.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of the morning practice on Saturday in Melbourne, lapping the Albert Park circuit in 1m26.064s. He finished ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault, which was four-tenths adrift and then the impressive Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren,

Australian GP - Practice 3 Results

Felipe Massa topped the timesheets at the end of the first day of testing in Melbourne, beating his Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen. He was a tenth clear of F1 debutant Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren.

Work at Spa is progressing at speed so as to be completed in time for the Belgian Grand Prix later this year. The work includes a large amount of earth-moving to allow for the construction of a new pit building and paddock area.

The annual Grand Prix Ball is a big event in Melbourne and this year the organisers decided to give Bernie Ecclestone a bit of a surprise and made a special presentation for Mr E, in recognition of his work in Melbourne and his 59 years in the racing business.

Australian GP - Friday Photos

Australian GP - Friday Press Conference

Australian GP - Friday Team Quotes

Australian GP - Practice 2 Results

Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap of the first practice session for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, lapping the track in 1m29.214s, a time that was 1.4secs faster than Felipe Massa's Ferrari.

Australian GP - Practice 1 Results

Nick Heidfeld is going to run a BMW F1.07 around the old Nurburgring next month. The 14-mile track has not been used for Formula 1 since Niki Lauda's accident in 1976.

Mario Illien has announced that his MotoGP team will not be attending the next round of the series although engine development work will continue while the team tries to track down financial backers.

Australian GP - Thursday Press Conference