Female First Motorsport roundup

30 November -0001

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31st August

Missed a race? Catch up, here, with the weeks events in F1, Rallying and British Superbikes

Formula 1
This Sunday, the F1 cars will be at Monza, for the Italian Grand Prix, and the Ferrari team are not hopeful of a podium finish on their home soil, even though number one driver, Schumacher has finished in the points for the last 4 races, there.

The team could not compete with the rest of the field in Turkey, last week, leaving Schumacher to retire in last place, after what the driver said was his worst race of the season, so far. But the driver said that the team had shown an improvement, so he was hopeful that the Italian race would be the start of a return to form.

Meanwhile, rumors of a transfer to Ferrari, for McLaren ace, Kimi Raikkonen have been rife, recently, but the Finn says that there's nothing in them.
Raikkonen said: "As I have said on a number of occasions this season already when asked about the rumours, I am completely happy with my team."
McLaren and Ferrari said that the rumors were false.

Meanwhile, the Williams team have been puzzling over the tyre problems that plagued their race in Istanbul, last week. With no other Michelin teams suffering similar problems, the blame was focused on the FW27. Williams have now determined that Mechanical setup, Tyre deflections, and bodywork configuration, were amongst the causes of the problems. Although their engineers say they are confident that there will be no more problems in Italy, it doesn't look as though they're quite sure.

According to the drivers, the Monza track was in poor condition for testing, last week, but, it still promises the fast paced, high speed action it always has and most of the teams are looking forward to a competitive race.

Monza GP - 4th Sept.

Rallying
Rallye Deutschland promised to be an exciting race in it lived up to all expectations. Citroen dominated the weekend, finishing first and second, in both WRC and J-WRC, leaving them six points clear in the manufacturers table, though they are not in a position to rest on their laurels.
Citroen Motorsport boss Guy Frequelin said: "I'm not the sort of person who assumes anything until it's done. It's looking good, but it can still go wrong."

Loeb said: "This is the rally my childhood friends come to watch and I really wanted to win it again; it's great to have succeeded. Like François, we pushed hard on Day 1, and then it was a case of controlling from in front. That's less fun, but that was amply outweighed by the pleasure we derived from scoring such a superb result for the team. It's looking promising for the rest of the season."
Duvall, who took second place seems to be making up for his terrible start to the season

Third and fourth place were Rivals, Peugeot, keeping them close to their fellow french team in the championship, and allowing Markko Martin to close in on Third place in the Driver standings.

Next month sees the Rally come to the UK, as the Welsh circuit is prepares for Rally GB, and this could mark a comeback for 2003 Champion Colin McRae, with the Skoda team.
He said: He said: "Rally GB is obviously very special to me, and I am looking forward to giving the fans something to cheer. Although I haven't competed in a world rally car since 2003, the team have put together an extensive testing programme which will give me the opportunity to evaluate the Fabia and have it set up to my liking.
"It will also allow myself and Nicky to get ourselves up to speed before the event itself."

Rally GB, 15-18th September, starts and finishes at Cardiff's Inspiring Millennium Stadium, which will also host a special stage on the Saturday night - the first time a WRC stage has been run indoors.

British Superbikes
British Superbikes has been marred by Tragedy, this week, as Junior Rider, Chris Jones was killed in a tragic accident at the start of British 125GP Championship race at Cadwell Park. He was just 14.
The youngster was an extremely talented rider, who had great potential at the sport he loved and he will be sadly missed.
The incident, which involved nine competitors, including another teenager, aged 14 as well as a 38 year old man, who were both seriously injured, comes just two weeks after a 28 year old was also killed in an accident at the raceway.

The tenth round of the BSB Championship was dominated by the Ducati team, from the very beginning, as they secured the two front row start positions. Leon Haslam is third in the standings and needed to capitalise on the poor performance by the Honda Duo, who struggled throughout the weekend.

The Championship was thrown wide open as Honda rider Michael Rutter toppled from the second race an the championship lead, simultaneously.

Tommy Hill, of Yamaha took the opener, after a good race, he was in third, but a blinding bot of luck hit him, in the penultimate lap, as Lavilla and Haslam ran wide and onto the grass, and the Yamaha rider passed them for first place.

Hill said: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing – I sitting there in third place and then all of that happened in front of me – they always say you need luck in racing if you are going to win, but I am still shocked.

Haslam made no such mistakes in the second race, however, as starting from pole, he led the second race, to a comfortable win, followed by Team-mate Lavilla, who took second place by half a second.

Rutter crashed out of fourth place at Chris curve, leaving the Championship open and HM plant Honda team mate, Kiyonari to grab third place.

The British Superbikes Action moves to Oulton park on Sunday 11 September.

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