Formula 1: Italian GP Qualifying Results

McLaren may have tried to secure some publicity by opening its only Italian showroom in Milan just before the local GP, but on the track, it was Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel who captured the spotlight with his 10th pole position of the year in Monza.

Vettel was almost half a second faster than Lewis Hamilton who beat his teammate, Jenson Button, by a mere 0.052 seconds. The Tifosi had to be content with Fernando Alonso’s fourth place –not a bad result, if you consider that he is one place ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa will start from sixth position, ahead of Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and the two Mercedes’ of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Bruno Senna, nephew of the late Ayrton, completes the top ten of the starting grid with the second Renault.

The race, which is the last Grand Prix in Europe for 2011 since Formula 1 moves to Asia for the next five races before the season finale at Brazil, starts on Sunday at 12:00 GMT.

Via Espn

PHOTO GALLERY

Formula 1: Italian GP Qualifying Results

McLaren may have tried to secure some publicity by opening its only Italian showroom in Milan just before the local GP, but on the track, it was Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel who captured the spotlight with his 10th pole position of the year in Monza.

Vettel was almost half a second faster than Lewis Hamilton who beat his teammate, Jenson Button, by a mere 0.052 seconds. The Tifosi had to be content with Fernando Alonso’s fourth place –not a bad result, if you consider that he is one place ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa will start from sixth position, ahead of Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and the two Mercedes’ of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Bruno Senna, nephew of the late Ayrton, completes the top ten of the starting grid with the second Renault.

The race, which is the last Grand Prix in Europe for 2011 since Formula 1 moves to Asia for the next five races before the season finale at Brazil, starts on Sunday at 12:00 GMT.

Via Espn

PHOTO GALLERY

Formula 1: Belgian GP Race Results

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso summed up perfectly the outcome of the Belgian GP that took place yesterday at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes forest: “Red Bull had a pace advantage of one second of something like that today. And in the final part of the race maybe more, maybe 1.5 seconds. So when you have a car that is 1.5 seconds faster than the rest it’s easy for you to stop one lap earlier or one lap later.”

And this despite the fact that RBR’s cars faced a problem with tire blistering and asked for permission to change the car’s suspension settings. The stewards denied their petition and the team even considered changing the settings anyway and taking the penalty, starting from the pit lane.

In the end, they decided to race, and it proved to be the right choice. Sebastian Vettel was once again the winner, extending his lead to 92 points over his closest rival, team mate Mark Webber who finished second.

The final place on the podium went to McLaren’s Jenson Button who put in an excellent performance despite starting from 13th place on the grid. Alonso admitted that fourth place was the best he could do, and is currently third in the driver’s standings. But the championship, with just seven races remaining, seems a done deal for Vettel and Red Bull Racing for the second year in a row.

However, the man who stole some of Vettel’s glory at Spa was none other than Michael Schumacher, who celebrated his 20th anniversary of racing in Formula 1. And not only did he put on a show for the cameras, with both his former (Ferrari) and current team (Mercedes), awarding him presents, but he showed that no matter what his detractors say, he still has what it takes to compete despite being 42 years old.

On the same track that 20 years ago he made his maiden appearance in Formula 1, finishing an impressive seventh with a second-tier car and despite never ever having driven there, on Sunday he fought closely with his team mate Nico Rosberg and beat him fair and square, crossing the finishing line in fifth place.

Via ESPN

PHOTO GALLERY

Infiniti's Sebastian Vettel-Inspired FX50 Performance Concept Breaks Cover

When the doors open to the 64th IAA International Motor Show on September 13, Infiniti will premiere a new concept study that takes the firm's partnership with F1 racing team Red Bull to the next level.

The Infiniti FX50 Performance Concept was inspired by reigning Formula One World Champion and Red Bull driver, Sebastian Vettel. The 24-year old German, who is Infiniti's first ever Global Brand Ambassador, is said to have helped in the design of the FX50 study.

The Japanese company is keeping mum about the technical details of the FX50 Performance Concept, but the photo shows that it is based on the facelifted model featuring Infiniti's new corporate grille that we first saw earlier this month.

Unique elements to the concept include the redesigned front bumper with LED daytime lights incorporating a carbon fibre apron, the shape of which mimics the design of an F1 car's front wing.

Carbon fibre can also be found on the newly designed side skirts, the roof spoiler, and the rear bumper, while Infiniti did away with the roof rails. Also included are Vettel badges on the front fenders and newly styled alloy wheels shod in performance tires.

PHOTO GALLERY

Red Bull Flugtag Moscow 2011

Spectators in Moscow were treated to the site of humorously designed makeshift aircraft plunging into the Muskova River during the Red Bull Flugtag Moscow 2011 competition.



38 teams took part at the Flugtag – which means ‘flying day’ a competition in which teams in fancy dress attempt to pilot human-powered, home-made flying machines off a six-meter-high platform into water.

F1: Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Report

It's probably getting kind of old, but a Red Bull has once again claimed pole position this year. This time Sebastian Vettel is the one who managed to break teammate Mark Webber's two previous pole positions, while also beating the two McLarens piloted by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button to start from the first row of the Hungaroring circuit on Sunday.

The two main contenders for the pole position seemed to be Vettel and Hamilton, and that’s the way the fight ended, with Button and the two Ferraris behind them. However, it’s Felipe Massa who will start from the second row relegating Fernando Alonso, who celebrated both his 30th birthday and 30th race with the Scuderia team, to fifth place.

Mark Webber in the second Red Bull couldn’t match the pace of the front runners, ending up more than half a second slower than Vettel in sixth place.

Mercedes GP put in a solid performance with Nico Rosberg in seventh and Michael Schumacher in ninth place on the grid. It’s just that the 7-times World Champion and the man who has broken almost every record in Formula 1 was beaten (by 0.8 seconds) by his team-mate, but also by a Force India, that of Adrian Sutil.

PHOTO GALLERY