With the teams revealing their 2009 Formula One cars we also have chance to see some of the 2009 F1 drivers helmets. Here they come, including the new yellow helmet of Jenson Button . I will be adding more (or better) pictures as they become available.

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Kimi Raikkonen's last win came way back in April in Spain

The 2008 Formula 1 driver rankings continue with part 3 – ranks 10 to 6. I did not have too difficult time to select the five drivers for this post but giving them their ranks was a bit different story. Here is how I settled it:

10th Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari had bad start to the season in Australia but few races later, after Spanish GP, it looked like Kimi may be the man to beat in 2008. Unfortunately for him, that was the high point of his season. The mid season slump took him out of contention and by the time his form returned all he could do was to support Felipe Massa. He was outqualified by his team mate 12:6 and that says something about the roots of his problems. At the end Raikkonen managed to reclaim the 3rd place in drivers championship but only because the second McLaren driver was nowhere near the top and the BMW Sauber and Kubica lost the plot in the final 2 races. He made my top 10, but only just.

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Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber

The speculations about the future of Nick Heidfeld are over. BMW Sauber has confirmed their 2009 drivers line up. The announced today they will retain both Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld in the 2009 season. Christian Klien will also stay on as a test driver.

“We see Nick and Robert as a strong driver pairing and Christian as an experienced test driver. We are in no doubt that we will again achieve our ambitious aims with them in the team’s fourth year.” – Mario Theissen.

Nick Heidfeld has been under fire this season but the fact is that he lies 5th in the championship standings ahead of one McLaren drivers and at the same time only 8 points behind his highly rated team mate…

It now looks even more likely that Fernando Alonso will stay with Renault in 2009.

See the 2009 F1 Driver Line Up here

Photo: BMW Motorsports

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Kazuki Nakajima, Williams

We entered the last month of 2008 Formula 1 season and after a short period of silence the drivers market there seems to be a lot happening on drivers market.

Williams team confirmed yesterday their 2009 drivers line up will remain the same as this year – Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima. Rosberg’s drive has been confirmed for a while already, Nakajima being the Toyota boy doing a decent rookie job was expected to continue. No real surprises here.

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Felipe Massa, 2008 Belgian GP

So, we finally had a race that went to the wire. It actually went even further and the final result was amended about 2 hours after the race with 25 second penalties to Timo Glock (overtaking Webber under yellow flags) and the controversial one to Lewis Hamilton for cutting the chicane. The debate on that Hamilton’s penalty has already begun below another article. I wil focus this review more on the race action itself and later today post my take on the whole controversy.

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2008 Belgian F1 GP - Podium

Lewis Hamilton was handed 25 secs penalty for cutting the chicane in the wheel to wheel fight with Kimi Raikkonen in dying stages of Belgian GP. This move, following Massa’s no penalty in Valencia, will no doubt spark new hot debates about the stewards’ decision making.

The penalty means Felipe Massa was handed the race win, Nick Heidfeld moved up to 2nd, Lewis Hamilton dropped to 3rd. Only 2 points now separate Hamilton and Massa …

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FIA cinfirmed McLaren have lodged an appeal against Hamilton’s penalty that demoted him to third place in the Belgian Grand Prix.

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2008 Belgian F1 GP - Podium

Kimi Raikkonen lead most of the race but the rain in the closing stages changed the fortunes for several drivers. After some wheel to wheel racing Lewis Hamilton took the win, Raikkonen crashed out and Felipe Massa collected 8 points for 2nd place. The incident between Raikkonen and Hamilton is however still under investigation… The gamble on intermediate tyres paid off for Nick Heidfeld who took the final podium place. Great result for Fernando Alonso in 4th (although it for a while looked like he and the team threw it away with the last minute tyre change) and another strong result for Toro Rosso. Both Bourdais and Vettel were in 3rd place for a while on the last lap but at the end the wet tyre gamblers Heidfeld and Alonso prevailed… Timo Glock overtook Mark Webber for the final point on the last lap. He however did so under yellow flags. He was hit with 25s penalty and and Mark Webber took that last point from this race.

It is fair to say this race is a candidate for the race of the season. Full race report to follow tomorrow.

2008 Belgian F1 GP result: (provisional)

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Nick Heidfeld

Back in July I posted my prediction for the 2009 drivers line up. At that time I did not predict too many changes. Since then there was no announcement that would contradict my prediction. There were few that confirmed it – McLaren will keep both their drivers, Ferrari semiofficially stated that both Massa and Raikkonen will race for them next year, “sources” also say that BMW Sauber took up their option on Kubica and will keep him for another year.

There however have been some summer developments and several drivers may be in danger of loosing their current Formula 1 seats.

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Nick Heidfeld missed out on Q2 on a track where he will have tough time overtaking any of the midfield cars ahead of him. Sebastien Bourdais was demoted 5 places for impeding Heidfeld in at towards the end of Q1 and will start the race from P19. Unless a sudden storm hits the track or safety car comes out in a right time these 2 guys’ Hungarian GP has been ruined already …

After watching the replay of the qualifying session later on in the evening I still did not feel Bourdais really deserved the penalty. I think the violent fist waiving from these days not-so-quick Nick made the incident look much worse than it actually was. But that is not the point. My point is, should the race stewards make decisions in these kind of situations right away ?

Heidfeld finished 16th in Q1. If Bourdais’ demotion came before Q2 has started, Heidfeld could take part in it. It happened to BMW Sauber (even Kubica) already this season that their Q1 was horrible but at the end qualified rather high up on the grid. By making their decision an hour or so after qualifying the stewards basicaly spoiled the race for both drivers. Heidfeld won’t be able to do much from P15 (unless he does Button 2006). And Bourdais from P19 … not exactly what a guy in his situation needs …

The only winner here is Jenson Button who finished at P15 in Q1 and later after great run claimed P12 in after Q2.

Photo: Red Bull / GEPA

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I do not want to say this was the best race of the season but it sure was entertaining. We could see some serious racing with overtaking up and down the grid, we had a safety car following a crash (luckily without any serious injury), we could see a serious strategy blunder and impressive recovery from it and 2 Brazilians on podium, one of them being Piquet jr. !

McLaren dominated the weekend from Friday but the close fight between Massa and Hamilton in qualifying promised some possibility of a fight for the race win. At the end we had a fight but more thanks to McLaren getting it wrong than Ferrari getting it right. Lewis Hamilton pulled away right from the start and Massa never looked like a serious opposition. Early on even Kovalainen was a threat but after few laps Massa pulled away from him. Not sure why because Heikki was not that much more heavy than Massa. In the meantime Hamilton managed to build a decent lead in front.

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