Stewart wins third race of the year at New Hampshire

Stewart started 13th and wound up winning for the third time in four races, passing at will inside and outside in a dominant performance in the New England 300.

Once again, the 34-year-old Stewart climbed the fence. Since Loudon isn’t Daytona, when he reached the top of the fence, he couldn’t just climb into the flag stand. This time he had to clamber over and onto the stairs leading to the stand, where he grabbed the checkered flag, waved it, pumped his fists and acted in general like a kid half his age. And a crowd of 100,000 at New Hampshire International Speedway roared its approval.

“Yes,” said Stewart, “it wore me out climbing up on the fence again. And, yes, I’m still too old and still too fat to be doing it. I’m going to have to hire a trainer because I do plan on winning some more races this year. So I’m not going to not do that that. I’m going to have to get a trainer so I feel better after I get up there.”

After starting 13th, he picked up seven positions in the first 20 laps and reached first place by lap 51. By race’s end, those behind Stewart were mainly left scratching their heads.
(more…)

Eddie Irvine has ruffled a few feathers at BAR Honda by insisting that Jenson Button would be no match for Michael Schumacher were they to become team-mates next season.

The former Ferrari driver, who missed out on winning the F1 title in 1999 by just two championship points to McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen, said the rumours circulating around Silverstone over the weekend suggesting that Button was about to replace Rubens Barrichello were ‘laughable’.

“There is no surer way of seeing your value plummet, than being constantly upstaged by someone with the same machine,” he said.

“That is why any suggestion Jenson will go to Ferrari next season is laughable. Michael Schumacher would just blow him away. And that would not be a great career move.

“Anyway, Ferrari are not interested in Jenson. The man they really have their eye on is McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen.”

Irvine, who partnered Schumacher at Ferrari from 1996 to 1999, once compared the experience to being constantly hit around the head with a cricket bat.

Michael Schumacher insists the title race is anything but over but confessed the gap to the leading two manufacturers is still too wide.

The Ferrari ace was forced to settle for third place after watching championship leader Fernando Alonso disappear into the distance and eventually cross the line over a minute ahead of his F2005.

“We are quick enough to be in with a shout of victory, and this is obvious,” he said. “The gap to Alonso is wider than we would have liked and even Kimi’s form was striking,” admitted the seven-times world champion.

“Still, we have to be pleased with third place as the race could have gone worse. After the times we set on Friday and Saturday, I thought that we really were in with a chance of victory”.

The reigning champion believed that some improvements have been made. Qualifying, which had been one of Ferrari’s biggest concerns, saw much improved times on those from the previous races.

“Now we have to try to obtain good results and be competitive at every stage of the weekend,” he said. “We have already improved and there is no reason why we cannot continue to do so. The important thing is to persevere and believe in ourselves. We have to stay as calm as we have been until now and concentrate on the work to be done.”

Despite the odds, the German was not about to concede his championship crown just yet. “Firstly, the second half of the season begins now and logic dictates that the gap is still bridgeable. Secondly, I am a realist and as such am a lover of mathematics; there is still the probability of winning.

“Formula 1 is such a changeable sport that it would be foolish to give up on the title. We are not so foolish. As I have said, we have to focus on getting back to the top. We will be trying to do this at Silverstone this weekend”.

Narain confident of giving his best

For the first time in his debut Formula One season, Narain Karthikeyan actually sounds confident. And it’s not the fourth-place in the controversial US Grand Prix that’s given him this feeling but the venue of this weekend’s race: Magny-Cours, of which both he and Jordan have fond memories.

For Jordan, the French Grand Prix is where it won its last GP, through the efforts of Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1999. And though Frentzen had vast experience, no one, Narain points out, expected him to win. “It was a combination of teamwork and strategy, apart from the German’s grit”, Narain told this website’s newspaper.

While Jordan has a happy history at the circuit, Magny-Cours was where Narain secured the first major win of his career during last year’s Nissan World Series. That race saw him lead from start to finish but, in the second race later that day, he managed fourth place.

The circuit, a combination of slow corners and tight hairpins, usually tests drivers to the limit. Narain, though, says it suits his style of driving. “Though the World Series is very different to F1″, he says, “I’m hoping to exploit my knowledge of the track. I’ve always found a good balance and rhythm here and enjoy driving on it.”

(more…)

Schumacher to quit soon says brother Ralf

Michael Schumacher will soon retire from formula one because he is no longer enjoying himself behind the wheel, his brother Ralf has predicted.

“I don’t believe that Michael will be driving for very much longer,” said the younger of the two German racing brothers in an interview with Sport Bild newspaper. “He’ll stay as long as he’s having fun with it. The success in past years was obviously a lot of fun for him; he’s not having that fun at the moment and I’m very anxious to see what will happen if it stays like that until the end of the season.”

(more…)