Indian GP

30th October, 2011. The schedule was released today.

Must say this has come sooner than I expected.

Another Indian in F1

Karun Chandhok becomes the second Indian in F1 after signing up with HRT F1. Cool!

Fisichella gives Force India first pole in Belgium

I'd stopped keeping track of F1 this year, but this is something that has everyone here standing up to take note ....

"If anyone tells you Formula One racing is predictable, they weren’t watching at Spa on Saturday as Giancarlo Fisichella took pole position for Force India ahead of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld. Yes, you read that right. In one of the best qualifying sessions of the year the times in Q1 were separated first to last by only 1.8 seconds, in Q2 by eight-tenths and in Q3 by one second." Text from F1.com

Edit: Fisichella drove a brilliant race finishing 2nd behind Ferrari's Raikonnen. Force India earned their 1st points in 30 races.

Malaysian GP

Button is the man & Brawn GP the constructor, proving that their wins in the Australian GP were no flash in the pan. The race lasted only 31 laps because of rain & winners were awarded half points.


I'm still too amazed by the huge success achieved by this team.

F1 season 2009 begins

It seemed the new year was still a new year till the other day, but here we are as F1 season 2009 began today with the Australian GP. Time flies.

There had been a lot of talk regarding the new rule changes for this year & I frankly hadn't given them much importance. I guessed it would have as much of an effect as the previous rule changes over the years had had .... marginal.

But, if today's race is anything to go by, there has been one hell of an impact.


Brawn GP, who had taken over Honda's team after the Japanese decided to give up their F1 ambitions for this year, became the first team since 1954 to achieve a 1-2 on debut! And that, I think is just stunning ..... I didn't even know their name till the beginning of this race. What a start to the racing season for the debutants!

Force India finished 9th, just one position adrift of a point. Which is cool for last season's perennial back markers.

Hamilton is champ

Too bad McLaren couldn't get a hold of the Constructors'. But Hamilton did get his hands on the Drivers' .... and what a race it was!

The last race of 2007 was hugely disappointing for McLaren fans when Raik upstaged the 2 Silver Arrows to win the Drivers' by 1 point. And it seemed something similar would happen this year when Sittu called me up at midnight to say that Hamilton was running at 5th with Massa 1st - exactly what Ferrari needed for a win.

But it turned out to be different in the end - with an overtake by Hamilton on the final corner of the final lap! How's that for nail biting finishes?

Chinese GP

Hamilton wins it for McLaren & is now 7 points ahead of Massa. The championship is all but in the bag for the Silver Arrows ..... yes!

Singapore GP

I have never been a fan of street circuits & this race proved to be similar. Low speeds, frequent crashes & almost no overtaking. And since this was the 1st ever night race in F1's history, it was all too dark as well.

Alonso won a race after a long, long time. Massa crashed out & that means Hamilton retains his lead in the Driver's even though he finished 3rd.

Belgian GP

Hamilton wins a rain affected race, but is later penalised 25 seconds for cutting a chicane. He drops down to 3rd handing victory to Massa & his lead drops to 2 points.

Force India finish on 13th & 17th. Nice!

European GP

There was a GP going on at Valencia while the world was watching the Olympics.

Massa finished 1st with Hamilton 2nd. Maclaren now trail Ferrari by just 8 points. The next few races should be interesting.

Hungarian GP

Kovalainen gets his 1st F1 win. Ferrari's Massa was unlucky after he had an engine failure 3 laps from the finish. He wasn't the only unlucky one though. Hamilton finished 5th after a puncture.

McLaren are just 11 points behind Ferrari now.

German GP

Hamilton wins & now leads the Drivers' standings!

British GP

An extremely wet race saw the 2 McLarens move into 1-2 before the 1st turn itself in one of the best ever pieces of overtaking I've ever seen.

Almost everyone had a spin-off, but Hamilton finished a superb race as winner.

There's now a 3 way tie for 1st place in the drivers' between Hamilton; Raik and Massa.

French GP

Another disappointing race for McLaren. Ferrari are running away with the season.

Canadian GP

On a Montreal track that came in for a lot of flak for being potholed(!), there occured an even stranger incident on the pitlane.

BMW got a lucky win handed to them by the circumstances. Hamilton will receive a 10 place drop in the next race as penalty.

Monaco GP

McLaren win & Hamilton is back at the top of the Drivers' standings!

Turkish GP

A very keenly fought race with Hamilton and Massa going back and forth for the 1st place throughout. In the end it was Ferrari getting 1st and 3rd with Hamilton at 2nd.

Spanish GP

A Ferrari 1-2 with Hamilton bringing in 3rd for McLaren. Ferrari have looked strong in the last couple of races.

Fisichella was briefly in 8th place but couldn't hold on till the end. Else we might have seen Force India gethering it's 1st points.

Bahrain GP

A Ferrari 1-2 as Force India manage to bring both cars across the finish line for the 1st time. Fisichella finished at 12th, ahead of McLaren's Hamilton!

And yes, McLaren had a really bad race. The cars were just not looking good.

Malaysian GP

Raikkonen finished 1st after a superb race. Mclaren ended up 3rd & 5th.

Force India's Fisichella managed 12th while Sutil DNFed. It's better than the last race at least.