The McLaren Racing team has withdrawn from this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix after a team member tested positive for coronavirus, the team said on Thursday. The positive test at McLaren follows four crew members of fellow Formula One team Haas being quarantined due to the outbreak.
Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who incurred a penalty that ensured he finished second behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel at the Bahrain Grand Prix, has issued an apology to his Mercedes team.
Formula One teams headed to China on Monday still unsure whether their return trip would take in troubled Bahrain for the following grand prix next week amid safety fears and increasingly loud calls for that race to be cancelled.
BAR, runners-up to Ferrari in the championship last season, have yet to score a point in two races.
Champions Red Bull claimed a Formula One first on Sunday by sending a female team member up to the podium to collect their constructors' trophy after Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel led a Ferrari one-two at the top of the timesheets in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, ending the stranglehold of previously dominant champions Mercedes. Vettel lapped the Sakhir Circuit in a best time of one minute 31.683 seconds, 0.040 faster than team mate Kimi Raikkonen on the supersoft tyres. It was the first time this season that any driver from outside the Mercedes pairing of Nico Rosberg and triple world champion Lewis Hamilton had ended practice on top. Hamilton was quickest in all three sessions in Australia two weeks ago while championship frontrunner Rosberg led his team mate in Bahrain practices one and two on Friday. Rosberg was third fastest in practice three, his time of 1:32.104 slower than Friday when he did 1:31.001, with Hamilton fourth.
Formula One race in Melbourne will proceed as planned this week and there is 'no chance' fans will be excluded because of coronavirus fears
The reinstated Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix is likely to be cancelled because of opposition from teams, commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone said on Wednesday.
Germany's Sebastian Vettel put returning compatriot Michael Schumacher in the shade on Saturday with pole position for Red Bull at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Schumacher, the seven times champion returning at the age of 41 after a three-year absence, qualified seventh for Mercedes.
Bahrain will host a Formula One Grand Prix until well into the next decade after announcing a long term contract extension on Monday, organisers said.
Ferrari kept Brazilian Rubens Barrichello off the track for Saturday's opening practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix after having to rebuild his new car's gearbox.
The Force India Formula One team vanished from television screens for the second day in a row at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, triggering speculation that they had been punished for pulling out of Friday practice.
'I think the team has obviously done a really, really great job, a lot of hard work, commitment and... things start to click'
Monaco's Leclerc, who had started on pole position for the first time, lost power with 10 laps to go while leading and finished third with an extra point for the fastest lap.
Bahrain is a safe place to race and this weekend's Grand Prix will go ahead as planned, Formula One's governing body and commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone said in a joint statement on Friday.
Germany's Nico Rosberg stayed ahead of team mate Michael Schumacher to put Mercedes on top of the timesheets in practice for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday. After compatriot Adrian Sutil had stolen some of the returning seven-times champion's limelight in the first session with the quickest time for Mercedes-powered Force India, Rosberg went faster in the afternoon.
Some opposition activists have dubbed the big-money race a "tool of repression" and made repeated calls for it to be cancelled.
Formula One star Lewis Hamilton lost a chance to win the Bahrain Grand Prix after his pit crew made the mistake of fixing his car during the race.
Sergio Perez shook off the gear-box change penalty to claim his and Sahara Force India's second podium place of the season with a third-place finish at the European Grand Prix while Nico Hulkenberg took the ninth spot, in Baku, on Sunday.
McLaren have written to Formula One's governing body to apologise for misleading stewards and accepting wrongdoing ahead of a hearing next week that could suspend the team from the championship. A source, who declined to be identified, said earlier that Whitmarsh had written to Mosley, the FIA and race officials to offer "an unreserved apology" for lying to stewards at last month's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
"The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar was confirmed as previously published," the International Automobile Federation said in a statement issued after a World Motor Sport Council meeting in New Delhi.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa needs to repeat last year's dominant victory in Bahrain on Sunday to silence his critics after a poor start to the Formula One season. While McLaren's Lewis Hamilton leads the standings with 14 points, three clear of Ferrari's World champion Kimi Raikkonen and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, Brazilian Massa is yet to score.
Renault have accused rivals McLaren of opening up a Formula One arms race with their controversial rear wing even though it has been ruled legal by the sport's governing body. The McLaren car passed inspections on Thursday at the Sakhir circuit and the team said they consulted the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) throughout the design process.
India's new Formula One entrant Karun Chandhok has thanked Bernie Ecclestone for helping him to fulfill his lifelong dream.
Cancelling the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday would only "empower extremists", the country's Crown Prince told reporters on Friday, following pro-democracy protesters' calls to mark the event with "days of rage".
Champions Renault apologised to Italian Giancarlo Fisichella for the engine problems that left him fuming at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Be it a Nokia or an Apple iOS device or a Blackberry or an Android smartphone, you will never be away from the F1 action.
Italian Jarno Trulli seized pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday with Toyota team mate Timo Glock qualifying in second place for the team's first front row sweep. Red Bull's young German Sebastian Vettel, winner in the wet in China last weekend, will start Sunday's race in third place with championship leader Jenson Button alongside in his Mercedes-powered Brawn GP.
Alpine's target is to fight for the championship within 100 races of the start of Formula One's new rules era, which will begin with the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 20.
Bahrain has arrested several people accused of stealing and burning cars amid heightened security in the island kingdom before Sunday's Formula One race, which the opposition sees as a chance to publicise a pro-democracy campaign.
The qualifying will be split into two separate Saturday sessions as of next week's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Ferrari's last win before Sunday was with Sebastian Vettel in Singapore in September 2019.
Karun Chandhok's truncated Formula One debut last weekend was tougher than he expected and the Indian driver admits his Hispania (HRT) team faces a long, hard season.
Chandhok, who will be only the second Indian to race in Formula One after Narain Karthikeyan in 2005, will make his debut on Sunday with less experience behind the wheel of his car than any driver in recent memory. Until Saturday's first knockout qualifying session, he had not even driven it out of a garage, let alone around a corner or down a straight.
Motor racing chief Max Mosley, fighting to keep his job after a sex scandal, defended his behaviour, saying he is "the victim of a disgusting conspiracy". In a letter addressed to Peter Meyer, head of Germany's ADAC Automobile Club, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) president said his actions had been "harmless and completely legal".
Former motor racing chief Max Mosley added his voice on Sunday to those opposed to Formula One racing in Bahrain this season, warning that the sport would pay a heavy price for the decision.
The Briton hired to oversee reform of Bahrain's police force has written to the head of Formula One's governing body to calm security fears about next week's Grand Prix, saying he often felt safer living in the kingdom than in London.
Race stewards ruled that Rubens Barrichello was released from his pitstop by Ferrari when it was not safe to do so.
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