It has been all over the news. Mohammad Bin Sulayem, 14 times Middle East rally champion, now head of the local automobile federation was taking part in a drag race with a Ford GT40 at the Dubai Autodrome. But shortly after he accelerated down the straight he lost control of the car, spun and smashed into the pit wall. He was OK but the same can’t be said about the car. Here are two videos:

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It usually takes a while for brand new team to roll out their merchandise but Brawn GP managed to do it rather quickly. The caps, polos, T-shirts and jackets are already available, several die cast models can be pre-orderd already including the Limited Edition 1:43 Diecast Minichamps Brawn GP 1 & 2nd Finish Australian Grand Prix 2-car set with special packaging (due out in 4th quarter of 2009). This is a souvenir I may be thinking about myself. After all new teams do not finish 1-2 on podium in their first ever race that often and this time I happened to be there to witness it .

Click here to see the current Brawn GP merchandise range.

Vitantonio Liuzzi - on his way back to F1 racing via A1 ?

The 2009 season has only just begun and so did the whispers and rumours about future of the drivers. Of course there is the usual and never ending “Alonso to Ferrari” talk (some suggest this is already a done deal from 2011 or even 2010 depending on what the Iceman does). There are also claims that Vitantonio Liuzzi has a race deal with Force India from 2010 and Grandprix.com speculates that the one of the goals of his upcoming A1 adventure may be to brush up his racing skills before jumping back to F1 car. And according to grandprix.com that may happen even before 2010 if Giancarlo Fisichella continues to disappoint. To make things even more interesting Vijay Mallya expressed some interest in Bruno Senna …

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With the F1 racing taking a short break before the Chinese Grand Prix the attention will for a while turn to FIA, diffusers and McLaren. Although with FIA we can never tell and they may come up with a surprise not too many people expect the diffusers used by Brawn, Toyota and Williams to be ruled illegal. The situation where the outcome is less clear is what will FIA do with McLaren (yet again).

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The results for round 2 are in. The scores are higher than in round one. If you can’t find yourself in the results and you know you placed the prediction, let me know. The predictions were not all placed under the correct post and as a result I might have overlooked something.

Round 2 results:

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Sorry sight, empty grandstands during qualifying

After watching the weekend of F1 action from Sepang I wonder:

1) The grandstands were empty all Friday and Saturday. That is clear message that not too many people really care whether the F1 is in town or not. And that is after 10 years of trying to create some interest in F1 in Malaysia. I am sorry, but having the qualifying for F1 race in front of empty grandstands that simply is not right …

2) Then, because the European TV audiences are more important than some common sense, the race has to start at 5pm, time that makes the race very likely to get extremely wet. Yes, rain is part of our lives and it rains at Spa, Silverstone, Nurburgring, it can even happen at Hungaroring … The difference is the odds that the race that starts at Sepang at 5pm will be hit by storm are really big and the organizers must know it very well. Still, to keep the race that only costs them money, that local people do not really care about, they back down and accept the 5pm race start.

So, the local people are not interested, the race must be making big loss, the normal race start is too early in the morning for the fans in Europe and apparently the only way how to make them in Europe to watch is to run it at the hour of rainstorms.

What is the point in having the F1 race in Malaysia ?

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And then came the rain ...

Every time the F1 comes to Malaysia the first thing on everybody’s mind are the chances of rain. And they are always said to be quite big. Surprisingly however, so far the only proper rain came down on 2001 Malaysian GP. I went to the Sepang race three times in very recent past. All the races and if I remember well even all the practice and qualifying sessions were always dry (altghough humid and hot). The only visibility problems I remember was the haze that came out of nowhere and covered the track back in 2005. What I also remember however is that every time I was in Kuala Lumpur this time of the year it rained heavy every day in the early evening. Early evening was the time the heavy rain came down yesterday. Early evening also was when the 2009 Malaysian GP was still in full swing thanks to that wise decision to move the start to 5pm … Why on Earth did the organizers agree to such a late start is beyond me … Anyway, back to what happened before the rain stopped the race.

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It is time for another mini F1 quiz. As there is no F1 race this week there is no special GP theme of the quiz this time. All the questions however have something to do with how the 2009 F1 championship has started or with the wet or seriously wet races of the past:

All the answers will be revealed after you complete all 10 questions. As usual please no googling for answers . And do not forget to share your result in comments ! If you missed the past quizzes you can try them too – click here.

2009 Malaysian GP - Red flag with 23 laps to go

The predicted tropical rain has arrived and … spoiled the race. After few changes between wet and intermediate tyres the heavy rain arrived and the race was red flagged with 23 laps to go. Jenson Button won the second race in the row, ahead of Timo Glock and Nick Heidfeld. Button also scored a hattrick of pole position, fastest lap and the race win. However as the race ended before 75% of the full race distance, only half the poits will be awarded. Moving the race start to 5pm was not that smart idea after all …

Race result:

1. J. Button – Brawn GP – 1:10:59.092
2. N. Heidfeld – BMW Sauber + 22.700
3. T. Glock – Toyota + 23.500
4. J. Trulli – Toyota + 46.100
5. R. Barrichello – Brawn GP + 47.300
6. M. Webber – Red Bull + 52.300
7. L. Hamilton – McLaren + 1:00.700
8. N. Rosberg – Williams + 1:11.500

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Lewis Hamilton misled by his team ?

The Times Online brought a story out today suggesting that Lewis Hamiton (and his father) got so angry following the events in Australia that Hamilton contacted the FIA president Max Mosley, expressed his frustration over what has happened that he was considering leaving the team and the sport. Mosley apparently advised the driver not to do this.

Here is the link to the article:

Lewis Hamilton wanted to quit over Melbourne lies

My question is, was this a genuine expression of frustration over what his team got him into, or an exercise to limit the possible further sanctions to himself by blaming all on the team in the same way the team put all the blame on Dave Ryan ?

Nico Rosberg, starting Malaysian GP from P4

Here is some useful pre -race info ahead of 2009 Malysian Grand Prix. This is how the starting grid will look following the 5 places penalty to Rubens Barrichello (gear box change) and 10 places penalty to Sebastian Vettel (carried from Australia). Numbers in brackets indicate starting weights, those marked with * are declared weights (cars eliminated in Q1 and Q2):

Provisional starting grid 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix:

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Jenson Button Brawn GP - Second pole position in a row

Q3:
Jenson Button will start from the pole position again after edging out Jarno Trulli by 0.092 s in the final qualifying session. Vettel and Barrichello finished 3rd and 4th but both will be relegated down the grid because of their penalties. So Timo Glock and Nico Rosberg will form the second row tomorrow.

Qualifying Times 2009 Malaysian GP

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