Autoblog

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix

Formula One is fast, and fast is dangerous. That's the assumption formed on the basis of decades of fatal crashes in the sport when the slow advancement of safety measures couldn't keep up with the ever-increasing speeds of grand prix racing. But those assumptions and those safety measures were again put to the test this weekend in Spain, where McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen crashed at 220 km/h (137mph) into a wall of tires, resulting in an estimated impact force of 26 Gs. The crash, which occurred on the 22nd lap of the race, was attributed to a wheel/tire malfunction, and Kovalainen is expected to return in two weeks to race in Turkey.

As jarring as it was, Heikki's crash was only one of the many times the safety car was deployed in a race that was dominated by the color yellow of the caution flag. The next most dominant color at Catalunya, however, was surely red, as Ferrari dominated the race virtually from start to finish, with Kimi Raikkonen sailing to an easy checkered flag with his team mate Felipe Massa close behind. Towards the end of the race, Kovalainen's teammate Lewis Hamilton was closing in on Massa, but ended up taking the third step on the podium, giving defending champion Raikkonen a commanding nine point lead over Hamilton. The perfect finish for Ferrari likewise gave the team a commanding lead in the constructors' championship, leading 47 to BMW Sauber's 35 and McLaren's 34. BMW, which entered the race with the lead for the constructors' title, didn't fair as well as hoped, with Kubica finishing an admirable fourth while his teammate Heidfeld came in outside the points in 9th after suffering a drive-through penalty. However, that wasn't nearly as bad as second-tier rival Renault did under the Spanish sun, with neither local hero Fernando Alonso nor his teammate Nelsinho Piquet completing the race. All in all, a shocking nine drivers retired before the last lap, including Nico Rosberg (Williams), Rubens Barrichello (Honda), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri), both the Toro Rosso drivers (Bourdais and Vettel) in addition to the Renaults and the aforementioned Kovalainen.

Follow the jump for the full results, current standings after four rounds of the 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship and a video of Kovalainen's crash.

[Source: Autosport]

The critics have been silenced, and silenced good.

Michael Schumacher retired a seven-time world champion, but his eighth title narrowly escaped him right down to the line at his farewell grand prix in 2006. Retiring after losing the championship two years in a row to a younger Fernando Alonso, many started asking if the driver that dominated the sport for so long still had it in his, ahem, "advancing" age.

Those pundits got their answer when Schumacher briefly returned to F1 in taking the wheel of the Ferrari F2007, this year's title-winning car, at an official FIA-sanctioned Formula One testing event in Spain this week. The focus of the event, the first since the end of the season, was to give the teams a chance to run the cars without traction control and with the standardized engine control unit (ECU), as mandated by the 2008 regulations.

Schumacher drove for the first two of the three day test session, and on both days his lap times sat at the very top of the time sheets. Unfortunately, spokespersons were quick to point out that this did not herald Michael's return to the grid, just a one-time event. So the rest of the drivers can sleep easier.

[Sources: Italiaspeed and Ferrari]

Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. Remember the story we brought you a couple days ago about the Mercedes employee in Spain who trashed Lewis Hamilton on Wikipedia? Yeah, pretty ridiculous, we know. But the British media, if you can believe it, is actually taking it seriously.

The Daily Telegraph referred to the incident as a "cheap shot" fuelled by "Spanish paranoia", while the Daily Mirror claimed that "Spain's Fernando Alonso has inflamed home fans".

Daimler said they're investigating the matter, the IP address of the *ahem* perpetrator having been traced back to its office in Spain. Wikipedia removed the edits and temporarily locked the entry. That any newspaper worth its ink is even acknowledging what amounts to no more than one person's fanaticism is just ridiculous. Stay tuned to see what the Spanish papers have to say...

[Source: F1i.com]

Mercedes-Benz, which supplies the engines to the McLaren team where British rookie Lewis Hamilton and Spanish champion Fernando Alonso have been battling it out on and off the track all season, is hunting down one of its employees in Spain. The as-yet unidentified employee, evidently an Alonso fan, logged on the Wikipedia and posted some less-than-flattering remarks about Hamilton, who enters the final round of the 2007 F1 season with a commanding lead over his rivals.

The employee modified a quote from Michael Schumacher on the Hamilton Wiki to read "I know he is quite ugly, but if he keeps this up I'm sure he will reach F1." (Modification italicized.) Deep. In his edit, the employee also lambasted Hamilton for a crash with Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel at the Japanese Grand Prix.

In response, site administrators removed the edits and locked the page from further modification until October 20, the day before the final round in Brazil. Meanwhile Mercedes, which confirmed that the IP address originates from its Spanish headquarters, is trying to find out exactly who's culpable, while issuing a reminder to its staff about its internet policy. And we thought NSFW pornographic material was a problem in the workplace.

[Source: Autosport]

Click image for photo gallery

It's the holiday season in Europe, during which workers shut off their PCs and then vanish for like, a month. Many head for the water, and Spain's beaches are a popular destination. Given that there will be plenty of eyeballs congregating along the coasts, MINI has decided to give them something to look at by whipping up a Cooper that drives on water. This messianic MINI will be appearing at Spain's Mediterranean beaches throughout the vacation season. Not only is it a cool publicity stunt, it's also given us a possible answer to the question, "What would Jesus drive?"

[Source: MINI via AutoblogGreen]

We were wondering whatever happened to Volvo's treasure hunt promotion that coincided with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The prize of $50,000 in gold and the keys to a new Volvo were buried somewhere near Davey Jones' locker on the ocean floor, but until today there was no word on which lucky treasure hunter had navigated the mess of riddles and clues to find it.

23-year-old Alena Zvereva from Ekaterinburg, Russia has been chosen as the winner, but her prize will have to remain wet a little while longer as Odyssey Marine Exploration, the deep-ocean shipwreck exploration company with which Volvo partnered, has found real treasure somewhere in the Atlantic. The real booty consists of $500 million worth of gold and silver coins at a secret deep ocean site that Odyssey has named the 'Black Swan'.

Follow the jump read more about how the Spanish government has gotten involved and delayed the delivery of Zvereva to her prize.

[Source: Volvo]

When the engine on Massa's or Raikonnen's Ferrari monoposto overheats and catches fire, that's one thing. When the engine on a customer's personal Ferrari GT car goes up in flames, it's an entirely different story, distinguished primarily by the lack of emergency fire marshals and pit crew to handle it when it happens out on the open road.

Pictures are floating around the internet, much to be presumed embarrassment of Ferrari, of a brand-spankin' new 599 GTB Fiorano following a "spontaneous" fire emanated from under the hood. The car was taking part in the Ferrari 60 Relay event passing through the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Earliest reports indicate that, feeling left out as all those Enzos and 360s were totaled, the 599 lit itself on fire on a bet. Someone ought to have a talk with the other little Ferraris about the dangers of peer pressure.

[Source: Dariomotor and Jalopnik]

The case for a second grand prix in Spain is growing stronger. The prospective site would be the Valencia circuit, the race track on Spain's Mediterranean coast that most of the F1 teams use for testing. The city of Valencia has recently undergone considerable renovations for hosting the America's Cup sailing regatta, particularly around the port area that has transformed the city into a Spanish Monaco. Now, city officials wonder what will happen after the America's Cup is over. Their ideal solution, it would seem, would be to secure a grand prix, but while the popularity of F1 in Spain has skyrocketed with Fernando Alonso's back-to-back world titles, Spain already has a race in Barcelona, leaving Valencia to fight several uphill battles to get their own.

Germany and Italy have both lost their second grands prix for next year, so the idea of Spain getting a second seems counter-intuitive. Overall, the number of races in Europe has been going down, with talk of even France and Britain having to possibly alternate seasons.

There'd be a couple of ways of making it work, though, and they're more than semantics. One possibility would be to make the Valencia race a Mediterranean Grand Prix, drawing in with the possibility of alternating with a site in North Africa, a region which hasn't hosted F1 racing for many years. Another door opens with the achievements of the Catalonian separatist movement which has been gaining autonomy. Catalonia encompasses Barcelona where the current Spanish Grand Prix is held, which, if it were to become the Catalonian Grand Prix, could leave the door open for Valencia to assume the mantle. The Valencia track doesn't have a lot of spectator seating, leaving race organizers to either put up temporary grandstands or potentially make the race an exclusive VIP-only venue.

Unlike other locations bidding for a race, the Valencia circuit is already built and up to F1 standards. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone says it's far from a fait accompli, but it could be closer than we'd think.

[Source: GrandPrix.com]