He underwent emergency surgery on Saturday. From AP-
Ferrari driver Felipe Massa underwent surgery on life-threatening skull injuries Saturday from a high-speed crash during Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying. He was in stable condition in the intensive care unit of a military hospital.
The accident happened when a loose part from another car hit Massa in the helmet, causing him to veer into a tire-lined barrier at about 120 mph. The front of his car was shredded, with both tires gone and the front nose open.
The 28-year-old Brazilian also sustained a concussion but was conscious when airlifted to AEK hospital, his team said.
*****
Massa underwent surgery about an hour after arriving at the hospital. Hospital doctors subsequently said his condition was “serious, life threatening but stable” at a news conference, but ultimately ruled the Formula One driver was in “stable, satisfactory condition.”
Say a prayer for Massa.
Here’s a video of the crash.
A little over 30 years ago, F1 driver Tom Pryce was killed after he collided with a track marshall. These cars travel at high speed and any impact with items large or small can have fatal consequences for a driver.
Ed Hinton of ESPN compares this news to a Force Five Hurricane.
Eight Formula One teams began preparations for a rival series after failing to resolve their dispute with motor sport’s governing body over financial constraints on Friday.
Ferrari, which has participated since the first season in 1950, and current leader Brawn GP headed the list of Formula One Teams’ Association members to announce the split ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
FOTA, which also includes McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, said it would not compromise on the quality of the series by signing up unconditionally for the 2010 F1 season under the FIA’s plans for cost-cutting. The FIA’s deadline for entry was later Friday.
FOTA’s statement criticized the FIA’s “uncompromising” stance and attempts, along with the commercial rights holder Formula One Management, to divide its member teams.
As it stands, Williams and Force India will be the only current teams on the F1 starting grid next season while three new outfits — Campos Racing, Team US F1 and Manor F1 Team — are also due to enter.
FIA president Max Mosley was insistent on introducing a voluntary $60 million budget cap for teams to curtail a “financial arms race” in F1. Those that don’t agree to the cap would have more technical restrictions, something Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo had called “fundamentally unfair.”
Ferrari’s part in this rebellion differentiates it from past affairs. So the threat of creating another racing series is certainly a serious one.
In the present economic climate, can another racing league be formed and started in a matter of months. Sports around the world are cutting back now. Color me skeptical for the moment. I think a compromise will be worked out.
The Turkish Grand Prix was the first 2009 race not won by a pole sitter. From AP-
Brawn GP’s Jenson Button won the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday for his sixth victory in seven Formula One races.
Button overtook pole sitter Sebastian Vettel on the first lap following a mistake by the Red Bull driver and held on for a 6.7-second win over Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
Vettel, the first driver not to win from the pole in five races at Istanbul, finished third after opting for a three-stop strategy.
Button leads the standings with 61 points. Teammate Rubens Barrichello, who retired after starting third, has 35 points. Vettel has 29 and Webber 27.5.
“[It's] the first race where the car has been absolutely perfect,” Button said. “This car is just outrageous. Before this, I really believed the Red Bulls were on our pace, but today we were a step ahead.”
Button’s fourth straight win — the best streak by a Briton in 17 years — makes him the fifth driver to achieve six victories in a season so quickly. The previous four — Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher — all went on to win the championship.
Nigel Mansell was the last British driver to win four straight in one season when he took the title in 1992. Button joined Mansell, Damon Hill, Clark, Jackie Stewart and James Hunt as the only Britons to win six races in a season.
How does a perennial also ran go to the top of his sport in such a short period of time? I don’t know, but commenters feel free to give your own theories.
The other premier late May auto race was done today. From AP-
Brawn GP’s Jenson Button won the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, capturing his fifth victory in six races to extend his Formula One championship lead.
“We’ve got Monaco baby,” Button said after crossing the finish line 7.6 seconds ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello. Button’s fourth start-to-finish victory of the season was the first for a British driver at the famed street circuit race since Jackie Stewart 36 years ago.
Button leads with 51 points. Barrichello has 35 after his fourth runner-up finish here and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, who crashed out after 16 laps, is third with 23 points.
“I think we’ve proven this weekend that our package has worked and we’re looking very strong for the next couple of races,” Button said. “This was a massive win.”
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen earned Ferrari its first top-three finish of the season by taking third. Felipe Massa was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who took his points tally to 19.5.
Button has won more Grand Prix races in 2009 then he did in eight previous years of racing on that circuit. What has caused the sudden change in his racing fortunes. Skill, good luck, or some ‘innovation’ to the cars he races?
It was also his fourth straight Formula One triumph. From AP-
Jenson Button won his fourth Formula One race of the season Sunday by taking the Spanish Grand Prix ahead of Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello.
Button’s two-stop strategy proved decisive as he became the ninth straight winner from pole position at the Circuit de Catalunya, even after Barrichello overtook him out of the start.
“I crossed the line first and this is a race where I didn’t really think I was going to,” Button said.
Barrichello’s extra pit stop allowed Button to make up the difference, and the Briton won by 13 seconds to extend his championship lead over his teammate to 14 points after five races.
“I had the race in my hands and I was quite surprised when they told me they were switching Jenson to two [stops],” Barrichello said. “I would like to understand why they changed that.”
Mark Webber finished third ahead of Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, who trails Button by 18 points in third overall.
Apparently there was no controversy with this race. Next stop for the Formula One circuit- The Grand Prix of Monaco. That street course and the Monza site of the Italian Grand Prix are the only two tracks I remember seeing on television.
The Formula One circuit is trading on and off the race course drama for rain now. From AP-
Sebastian Vettel gave Red Bull its first ever Formula One victory after leading throughout to win a soggy Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
For Vettel, who beat Australian teammate Mark Webber by 10.9 seconds, it was his second career victory. The German completed 56 laps on the slick, 3.39-mile Shanghai International Circuit in 1:57:43, averaging 96.61 mph.
Points leader Jenson Button of Brawn was third, extending his lead after three races to six points. The Briton won the first two races — at Australia and a rain-shortened event in Malaysia.
Button’s Brawn teammate Rubens Barrichello was fourth, holding off the McLaren duo of Heikki Kovalainen and defending series champion Lewis Hamilton, who had just one pit stop along with seventh-placed Timo Glock of Toyota.
Besides being the second straight race to be rained on, this was the third F1 even to see Ferrari shut out of the points. Something that hasn’t happened since 1981.
After three straight races in the Pacific region, the drivers start heading back to F1′s traditional home, Europe. Their next stop is Bahrain, after that the Spanish Grand Prix.
No word if he danced after the verdict was announced. From the Sun-Sentinel-
Brazilian race car driver and “Dancing With The Stars” champ Helio Castroneves was acquitted Friday of most charges that he worked with his sister and lawyer to evade more than $2.3 million in U.S. income taxes.
A federal jury acquitted Castroneves on six counts of tax evasion but hung on one count of conspiracy. When the sentence was read, Castroneves broke into sobs and leaned against his attorneys for support.
The jury also acquitted Katiucia Castroneves, 35, who is her 33-year-old brother’s business manager, on the tax evasion counts but also hung on the conspiracy. Michigan motorsports attorney Alan Miller, 71, was acquitted on all three counts of tax evasion and one count of conspiracy. The jury deliberated six days after a six-week trial.
Castroneves, speaking in his native Portuguese, expressed profound relief.
“I just want to thank God and my fans, and all of the people who prayed for me,” he said outside the courtroom, still fingering a rosary.
With this behind him, will Castroneves be selected for a position in the Obama administration? Stay tuned!
The NASCAR driver was surprised by the empty seats last weekend in Atlanta.
Despite warm temperatures and sunny skies, Atlanta Motor Speedway was a tough draw on Sunday. Though the announced crowd was 94,400, the grandstands were at most two-thirds full for the Cup race.
“To me, this is some of the best racing we’re putting on in the series anywhere we go,” Jeff Gordon said. “I know there’s a lot of race fans around here. I’m a little baffled by it. I’ve been hearing that they were going to have some empty seats. It’s hard to say.”
When people fear losing their job or have trouble paying their bills, they naturally cut back on luxuries. Like listening to what bozo athletes think they should be doingspending money to go to sporting events. Someone please inform Gordon that US unemployment right now is higher than it has been in 25 years. Thank you.
It happened at the home of Luca di Montezemolo’s daughter after Lewis Hamilton won the Formula One title last weekend. From Reuters-
MILAN (Reuters) – Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo smashed a television set after seeing McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton snatch the Formula One world title from Felipe Massa in last weekend’s season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.
“I broke the television, I must tell the truth,” Montezemolo told a news conference at a Ferrari event in Mugello on Sunday.
“When a television breaks it makes a terrible bang. My daughter in the other room was given an awful fright. Luckily we had another television so I was able to watch the podium ceremony, which I enjoyed.”
Ferrari’s Massa won his home grand prix and was poised for championship victory before Hamilton overtook a slowing Timo Glock on the final bend to finish in the fifth place he needed to clinch the title.
“I reckon that in the history of F1, we have never seen a world championship decided on the last bend of the last lap of the last grand prix,” added Montezemolo, who saw Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen steal the title last season in the final race.
“Miracles, when they happen, usually only happen once. I say that because last year was a miracle. A repeat is usually impossible. In Brazil, with Massa, we were in the process of producing another miracle.”
Normal grown men don’t smash television sets. I suggest Luca di Montezemolo take some anger management classes.
The caption for the above photo reads-
Ferrari’s President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo smiles as he arrives for the third practice session at Monza racetrack in Monza, Italy, September 8, 2007.
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Felipe Massa was declared the winner of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton was penalized for cutting a corner during a late duel with world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Hamilton crossed the line 14.4 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Massa in a dramatic finish that saw Raikkonen crash into a barrier, but the McLaren driver was penalized 25 seconds for his illegal maneuver.
Race stewards said in a statement that Hamilton “cut the chicane and gained an advantage” that allowed him to take the lead from Raikkonen in the rain-splashed finale.
The penalty from FIA demoted Hamilton to third, with BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld promoted to second.
I honestly don’t follow auto racing enough to recall if this ever happened before. Back in the 1970′s I followed the sport quite a bit and remember a dispute at the 1972 Indy 500. Jerry Grant was leading when he a flat tire forced him to pit. He overshot his pit, and his car was re-fueled using another driver’s supply. Grant finished 2nd, but after the race was penalized for what happened and placed 12th.
