National Speed Sport News

AUSTIN, Texas - Officials with the proposed Formula One track in Austin, Texas, have revealed the layout for the track that is expected to host the return of the United States Grand Prix beginning in 2012.

With a complete length of 3.4 miles, the track will combine modern features with details reminiscent of traditional races from the 1960s. The surrounding landscape will allow for a maximumread more

FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium - Lewis Hamilton retook the lead in the world championship with a superb win in the rainy and tricky conditions of the Belgian Grand Prix. But by finishing second at Spa, Mark Webber trails Hamilton by just three points.

The duo pulled out a gap on the other main title challengers as Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso all failed to score points.

"I am soread more

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - Rubens Barrichello makes a record 300th grand prix start this weekend in Belgium. The Williams team adores the 18-year F-1 veteran for his dedication and his all-round experience. It's been a long time since the team has had a driver like that.

"Obviously we've had some very good racing drivers," said director of engineering Patrick Head, "and quite clearly Nico Rosberg isread more

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - Michael Schumacher would have been blackflagged and disqualified for dangerous driving during the Hungarian Grand Prix. But the race stewards did not have enough time to assess all the evidence during the race itself.

There were only six laps to go when Rubens Barrichello moved to the right to pass Schumacher on the main straight only to see Schumacher relentlessly squeeze himread more

BUDAPEST
Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa were playing poker in Brazil about four months ago.

"He (Massa) said, 'I have a surprise for you,'" Barrichello recalled, "and he put the helmet in which he had the accident on the table. It destroyed my night, completely destroyed my night and I started losing money with the poker and he had fun with it."

The battered helmet was the one Massa wore whenread more

Fin. St. No. Driver Country Team Laps
1 2 6 Mark Webber Australia Red Bull Racing 70
2 3 8 Fernando Alonso Spain Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 70
3 1 5 Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull Racing 70
4 4 7 Felipe Massa Brazil Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 70
5 7 12 Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault F1 Team 70
6 10 10 Nico Hulkenberg Germany AT&T Williams 70
7 9read more

BUDAPEST - What started out as a boring procession at the Hungarian Grand Prix turned into a tense thriller as Mark Webber managed to covert third place into victory after one of the best drives of his career. That third place went to his disconsolate Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel who started on the pole and had the win wrapped up until having to serve a drive through the pits penalty for aread more

AUSTIN, Texas - Tavo Hellmund, managing partner of Full Throttle Productions LP, revealed Red McCombs as the primary investor for the Formula One United States Grand Prix racing project.

McCombs is the co-founder of Clear Channel Communications and the former owner of the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs in the NBA and the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL. He also owns McCombs Partners, anread more

HOCKENHEIM, GERMANY
Four-time German Grand Prix winner Michael Schumacher qualified an unimpressive 11th and finished a distant ninth in this year's edition of his home race. He admits up front that he's not happy with his performances since making his F-1 comeback after three seasons away.

"There is an expectation out there (from the fans and media) which I think you have to be realistic that itread more

HOCKENHEIM, Germany -Jacques Villeneuve has confirmed he wants to enter an F-1 team in the 2011 championship.

"There are a number of rumors circulating at the moment and I wanted to clarify a few things before this gets out of hand," he said. "The team will be a joint venture with Durango, and based out of Italy. To be clear, right now all the money comes from corporate sponsorship and not fromread more

Fin. St. No. Driver Country Team Laps
1 2 8 Fernando Alonso Spain Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 67
2 3 7 Felipe Massa Brazil Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro 67
3 1 5 Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull Racing 67
4 6 2 Lewis Hamilton Great Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 67
5 5 1 Jenson Button Great Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 67
6 4 6 Mark Webberread more

HOCKENHEIM, Germany - "Team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited."

So states article 39.1 from the FIA Sporting regulations.

For the record, the race results of the German Grand Prix show Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finishing first and second ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button took fourth and fifth,read more

SILVERSTONE, Great Britain
The look of grim thunder on Mark Webber's face after qualifying told the whole story. The Bulls had blundered.

"I think the team is happy with the result today," he muttered.

The result was that Sebastian Vettel had won the pole using the new front wing taken directly off Webber's car. Red Bull only had two versions of the latest wing, and after Vettel's broke, teamread more

1. Lewis Hamilton 145
2. Jenson Button 133
3. Mark Webber 128
4. Sebastian Vettel 121
5. Fernando Alonso 98
6. Nico Rosberg 90
7. Robert Kubica 83
8. Felipe Massa 67
9. Michael Schumacher 36
10. Adrian Sutil 35

Fin. St. No. Driver Country Car Laps
1 2 6 Mark Webber Australia Red Bull Racing 52
2 4 2 Lewis Hamilton Great Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 52
3 5 4 Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team 52
4 14 1 Jenson Button Great Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 52
5 8 9 Rubens Barrichello Brazil AT&T Williams 52
6 12 23 Kamui Kobayashi Japanread more

SILVERSTONE, Great Britain - "Fantastic," Mark Webber radioed the Red Bull team on the cool down lap after he stormed to a dominant victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. "Not bad for a number two driver!"

Team boss Christian Horner replied: "Well done Mark, you can smile now!"

Webber had been seething rather than smiling during the previous 24 hours as he was incensed that the Red Bullread more

VIRY-CHATILLON, France - Robert Kubica will remain with Renault through the 2012 Formula One season after signing a two-year contract extension with the team.

"It was a straightforward decision for me to continue with a team where I feel at home," said Kubica, who joined Renault at the end of last year. "What's important for me is to be in the right atmosphere, with a good group of people, whereread more

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - While the situation is improving, Formula One still needs to do a lot more for the fans. The traditional scenario of the F-1 show breezing into a country, doing very little promotion, putting on three days of practice and a race, and then leaving has to change.

"There is no central marketing for F-1 at the moment which there clearly should be," McLaren team principal and FOTAread more

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - In the not too distant past the negative remarks made by members of the Ferrari team after the European Grand Prix would have resulted in, at the very least, a stinging rebuke by former FIA President Max Mosley. Ferrari may even have been summoned to explain its actions in front of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council. But former Ferrari team principal turned FIA President Jeanread more

VALENCIA, Spain
The similarities between Montreal and Valencia: Two cities with street tracks adjacent to water and the city center.

The contrasts: The Canadian Grand Prix played to a packed house all three days, and the whole of downtown vibrated with enthusiasm and excitement about the race and Formula One. The European Grand Prix, meanwhile, had virtually empty grandstands on Friday. Theread more

VALENCIA, Spain - Mark Webber walked away bruised but unhurt from a wild ride Sunday after his Red Bull somersaulted high through the air and then slammed into a tire wall during the European Grand Prix.

Webber, who had made an early pit stop, came up fast behind Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus on the back straight. When Kovalainen braked far earlier than Webber expected, the Red Bull hit the back of theread more

1. Lewis Hamilton 127
2. Jenson Button 121
3. Sebastian Vettel 115
4. Mark Webber 103
5. Fernando Alonso 96
6. Robert Kubica 83
7. Nico Rosberg 74
8. Felipe Massa 67
9. Michael Schumacher 34
10. Adrian Sutil 31

Fin. St. No. Driver Country Team Laps
1 1 5 Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull Racing 57
2 3 2 Lewis Hamilton Great Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 57
3 7 1 Jenson Button Great Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 57
4 9 9 Rubens Barrichello Brazil AT&T Williams 57
5 6 11 Robert Kubica Poland Renault F1 Team 57
6 13 14 Adrian Sutil Germany Forceread more

VALENCIA, Spain - "The most important thing out of today is that Mark (Webber) survived a very nasty looking accident intact," Red Bull Renault team boss Christian Horner told National Speed Sport News after the European Grand Prix through the streets of Valencia.

"The second most important thing is that Sebastian (Vettel) delivered an exemplary drive. He was faultless, and controlled the raceread more

PARIS - The FIA World Motor Sport Council announced a number of changes to the Formula One World Championship Wednesday, including naming Pirelli as the new tire supplier and the addition of an adjustable rear wing next year.

Pirelli will replace Bridgestone as tire supplier for the series in what will be the first year of a three-year contract next season.

The series will also introduce newread more

MONTREAL
F-1 went back to Montreal after a one year absence and the town celebrated in grand fashion.

As usual, the entire center of the city pulsated with parties and concerts and festivals and all sorts of things happening each night.

Entire streets were shut down and turned into party venues. The restaurants, many of them with open-air balconies, were jammed. Traffic was jammed on the streets asread more

MONTREAL - Most of the races this year have had a good blend of drama, on-track battles, excitement and tension. The Canadian Grand Prix had all that and more thanks one simple but complex element - the tires.

The result: six lead changes between five drivers and McLaren Mercedes scoring its second one/two finish in as many races.

"It was an interesting race," Lewis Hamilton said after his secondread more

ISTANBUL
The news that the United States Grand Prix will be staged at a new track built near Texas's capital city of Austin came as a huge shock.

Nobody was expecting Bernie Ecclestone to make the surprise announcement on the official F-1 Web site on May 25 that a 10-year deal had been signed for Austin to host the race starting in 2012.

Former race driver Tavo Hellmund, the managing partner ofread more

1. Mark Webber 93
2. Jenson Button 88
3. Lewis Hamilton 84
4. Fernando Alonso 79
5. Sebastian Vettel 78
6. Robert Kubica 67
6. Felipe Massa 67
8. Nico Rosberg 66
9. Michael Schumacher 34
10. Adrian Sutil 22

Fin. St. No. Driver Country Car Laps
1 2 2 Lewis Hamilton Great Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 58
2 4 1 Jenson Button Great Britain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 58
3 1 6 Mark Webber Australia Red Bull Racing 58
4 5 3 Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team 58
5 6 4 Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team 58
6 7 11 Robert Kubicaread more