Mallya's Force India to ask for Raikkonen's ban after Sutil incident

Force India's Adrian Sutil and the team's chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne were summoned to the Monaco Grand Prix stewards after the German lost a potential fourth place following an accident with Kimi Raikkonen.

After an inspired performance the Force India driver was set for an improbable fourth-place finish when he was hit from behind by an out-of-control Kimi Raikkonen with just 10 minutes remaining.

Sutil was on course to finish a career-best fourth when, shortly after the second re-start of the race following the deployment of the Safety Car, he was hit from behind by Raikkonen as the Finn lost control exiting the tunnel. As luck - well, bad luck - would have it, the Ferrari driver was able to continue, but the damage to the Force India was terminal. Sutil, close to tears, was beyond consolation.

The latter was fending off the Ferrari at the restart when disaster struck as the pair exited the tunnel and braked for the chicane.

Raikkonen lost control of his F2008, crashing heavily into the back of Sutil, resulting in both drivers heading to the pits for repairs.

But, while Raikkonen was able to head back out with a new nosecone, Sutil's car.

"The frustration is that if that had been a Force India driver hitting a world champion we would expect to get a one or two race ban, but when it is the other way around it is disappointing that the stewards... well you know I hope they look at it and act accordingly," said Gascoyne.

Felipe Massa's Bahrain win splits the title race wide open

Brazilian Felipe Massa stormed to victory here on Sunday for his second successive victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix and answer his mounting bank of critics as his Ferrari team celebrated a comfortable one-two with Kimi Raikkonen finishing second.

The 26-year-old Latin American, who had failed to score a point after an error-strewn performance in both opening races, came home as a comfortable winner ahead of his team-mate defending drivers world champion Finn Kimi Rakkkonen.

They came home first and second ahead of third-placed Pole Robert Kubica of BMW, who had started from the first pole position of his career, and his team-mate German Nick Heidfeld.

This was enough for the BMW-Sauber team to lead the constructors' championship for the first time.

McLaren duo penalised for Malaysian Grand Prix

McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen have been penalised five grid places for impeding rivals during qualifying at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The pair had been on the second row but Hamilton will now start in ninth, one place behind his Finnish team-mate.

After qualifying they were summoned by the stewards to answer complaints they held others up in the last session.

They ruled Kovalainen blocked Renault driver Fernando Alonso and Hamilton had obstructed BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.

The FIA said Hamilton was "travelling at a very slow speed on the racing line", while Kovalainen was also charged with committing the same offence against Alonso.

Hamilton and Kovalainen had completed their fast laps and were slowing down to conserve fuel.

But Heidfeld complained their actions had cost him vital seconds in the final qualifying session, when 10 drivers go all out for the top grid positions.

"Most of the cars were already very slow when I was on my flying lap, just like they were parked on the circuit," he said.

"Both of the McLarens were in front at turn four, in the middle of the racing line.

"I just couldn't drive on the line that I wanted and, even more importantly, I could not brake where I wanted to.

"If you look at the times, they were very, very close - I lost two tenths and I think that would have put me third."

Hamilton felt he was not at fault, although did apologise to Heidfeld.

"I was pretty much out of the way," he said after emerging from the stewards' meeting. "If I held him up then I apologise for that."

Alonso, who left McLaren after a turbulent season to rejoin Renault, also felt he was denied a quick lap by the McLarens.

"I could have done better in Q3 this afternoon as I was with Heidfeld on a fast lap while the others were going slowly, and that affected me a bit, which is a shame," the double world champion said.

However, the McLaren team defended their drivers and insisted they had done all they could to make sure their rivals were able to cleanly complete their flying laps.

"There was clearly an issue there and it's unfortunate," chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said.

"If you look at the footage, our guys squeezed in as much as they could and slowed and we don't think they impaired Nick.

"I can understand his view that having all of those cars around when you're trying to concentrate on a quick lap isn't ideal."

McLaren accepted their punishment and said in a statement: "We accept the stewards' decision but would like to add that neither Lewis nor Heikki impaired any of their competitors deliberately."

Heidfeld was still not happy to accept their explanation and said: "If they did the best that they could do, they didn't do very well.

"I was approaching my last lap on the option tyre and it would have been my quickest lap if not for the McLarens driving in the middle of the racing line at 80kph."

Australia F1 night race ruled out

State officials have ruled out staging a night Grand Prix in Australia, despite Bernie Ecclestone saying the future of the race may depend on it.

Formula One boss Ecclestone wants a race under lights to satisfy European television viewers

The current contract ends in 2010 but Victorian state premier John Brumby said the government would do everything possible to keep the race in Melbourne. However, Brumby insisted: "There won't be a night Grand Prix."

Race organisers and the Victorian state government, which gives financial backing, are optimistic they can hold on to the event.

Brumby added: "We will take whatever steps are reasonable and whatever steps are practical to keep the event."

The start time of this season's curtain-raiser in Australia was pushed back to 0430 GMT and could start 90 minutes later at 0600 GMT in 2009.

But Ecclestone is seemingly unimpressed with the compromise.

"That's not what we're looking for. It needs to be a night race," he stated.

"It would be nice if the race was on at midday or 2pm for European audiences but I guess that would mean it starting in the middle of the night in Australia.

"Obviously, the later it is in Europe the better as far as I am concerned. I suppose it is easier getting up at 6am than 3am, so perhaps that's something."

Formula One newcomer Singapore will stage the first night grand prix this season in September but Australian organisers maintain that racing under lights at the temporary track at Albert Park is not viable.

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker said: "We've got 300 hectares of land here.
"It's just not lighting the track, it's lighting the whole park to protect our patrons."

Brumby said that the prospect of holding a race down under at 10am on a Sunday - Saturday night in Europe - has also been raised.

But he feels Asian television audiences are increasing and could overtake Europe as the biggest Formula One spectator market in the future.

"I think there are going to be a lot of viewers in our time zone," he said.

"On Sunday the race went into Europe early in the morning. We will look at other times but there won't be a night grand prix and I don't think we need to hold a night grand prix."

The Melbourne race is also losing money. The 2007 event cost Australian taxpayers 35m Australian dollars (£16m) and this year's grand prix is expected to total A$40m (£18m).

Why Force India F1 will not be popular in India

Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, £65m, a dedicated social networking site, go-karting initiatives.
All this and more is what Force India, the first and only Indian-owned team in Formula One, is using to force itself into the cricket-driven psyche of India.
Force India, the latest iteration of the former Jordan team, will race in this year's F1 world championship with veteran driver Giancarlo Fisichella and the up-and-coming German Adrian Sutil.
But it is what the team represents that makes this re branding so potentially seismic.
The new owner of the team, drinks baron Vijay Mallya, is hoping to tap into the huge potential of the rapidly-expanding Indian economy - an aim shared by many of F1's power brokers.
A country where cricket is followed as a religion and no other sport comes even remotely close to that, including its national game hockey, F1 has long been considered to be out of reach for most Indians.
But with an upwardly mobile aspiring class that numbers 300 million and growing, even this elite sport could find fertile ground.
And if Force India and F1 manage to attract even a small percentage of those people, that is still millions of potential new devotees.
But, Indians always like everything foreign. We have many urban population who are soccer fans but they are fans of European soccer. They don't care much about Indian soccer team or even clubs. There are more Manchester United fans than those of all the fans of Indian Clubs put together.
With so much pro-Indian controversies going on at regular intervals and the advent of twenty20 cricket it is going to be a near Impossible task for Mallya to challenge the popularity of cricket or soccer in urban populace.
Even the F1 fans would root for Ferrari,Mclaren and renault.

Merc considers McLaren buyout

Mercedes-Benz is on the verge of buying a majority shareholding in the McLaren group, a move which could spell the end of Ron Dennis's control of the British formula one team. The potential buyout seemed a step closer yesterday with the unveiling of the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 car for the forthcoming season in the German manufacturer's ultramodern museum complex in Stuttgart. It was the first time in their 13-year partnership that McLaren had unveiled their new formula one car on Mercedes' home turf and Dennis took very much a back seat at the formal press conference.

Hamilton can better Schumi

With four podium finishes Lewis has made it it clear that he in the coming years will be a force to reckon in Formula 1 . I think he has all the talent require to equal if not better most of Michael Schumacher's records .