Formula One News — May 2007

There was an upset in the world of rallying at the weekend when World Champion Sebastien Loeb crashed out of the lead on the Rally Italia, leaving victory to Marcus Gronholm. The win also gives Ford driver Gronholm the lead in the Drivers' championship and extends Ford's lead in the Manufacturers' title race.

According to reports in today's F1 Racing monthly magazine, the FIA is now making the first steps towards the introduction of 2.2-litre V6 turbocharged engines, running on biodiesel fuels, in F1 in 2011.

The right to broadcast Formula 1 races in Spain has become a useful asset thanks to the efforts of Fernando Alonso and the current rights-holder Telecinco. The interest in F1 has grown dramatically in the last three years and the station now gets an audience of around six million people at each Grand Prix.

Danica Patrick set the pace in the opening day of the second week of practice for the Indianapolis 500, lapping the Speedway at 221.189mph, ahead of Target Chip Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Penske's Sam Hornish Jr. Patrick's Andretti Green Racing teammates Marco Andretti and Dario Franchitti completed the top runners. Patrick has already qualified eighth for the race.

Markus Winkelhock, the Spyker Formula 1 test driver, has been called up by Audi to stand in for injured multiple Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, who is still recovering from a huge accident with Alexandre Premat in Hockenheim. Winkelhock competed in the DTM in 2004 with a year-old car in the DTM before trying to break into F1.

The Spyker car company has been working its way through some cash-flow problems of late as it tries to get itself organised to meet demand for its road cars and pay for its adventures in Formula 1.

Morienval Press, a sister company of Grandprix.com today, launches the world™s fastest F1 magazine, Grand Prix +, a dramatic and exciting new concept in publishing that marks the innovative introduction of the first motorsport e-magazine in Europe designed to cater to all types of race fan.

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is currently conducting a design study into the possibility of a street race in the city.

Sebastien Bourdais is back in a Toro Rosso-Ferrari tomorrow at Paul Ricard - and there is no doubt that the team already has an option on his services for 2008. That option has yet to be taken up but obviously the tests are the next step in the process.

Honda has switched James Rossiter to the Super Aguri F1 team from his current position as official test driver with Honda Racing F1.

There was a certain amount of irony to be found lurking in the corridors at the Circuit de Catalunya. During the weekend, rival Valencia announced a new race, which will be called the European GP. The Catalans responded by announcing a new deal for the Spanish GP to take them to 2016.

Spanish GP - Race Notes

Spanish GP - Sunday Photos

Spanish GP - Sunday Press Conference

Spanish GP - Sunday Team Quotes

Spanish GP - Race Results

The whisper from Holland is that Jos Verstappen may get to test for Spyker in the course of the next few months. This rather odd move appears to be an attempt to promote the team (using someone other than Paris Hilton) and to spur Christijan Albers into better performances.

Felipe Massa headed into the Spanish Grand Prix with the opportunity to add second victory to his win in Bahrain.

Spanish GP - Saturday Photos

Spanish GP - Saturday Press Conference

Spanish GP - Saturday Team Quotes

Spanish GP - Qualifying Results

Lewis Hamilton led the final practice before qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, beating double World Champion Fernando Alonso by 0.079s. The biggest surprise however was that the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were third and fourth fastest, ahead of David Coulthard's Red Bull-Renault and the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen.

Spanish GP - Practice 3 Results

The word in the F1 paddock in Barcelona is that there are to be some fairly major changes in the aerodynamic team at Maranello in the next few months with two aerodynamicists on their way to McLaren and the team's chief aerodynamicist John Iley rumoured to be on the move as well.