Massa crashes out in Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying.

Accidents in Formula 1 are fairly common.....crashes that cause serious injury are (thankfully) rare.

But two separate accidents that combine together to cause serious injury must be the rarest.

Yesterday, during qualifying, Rubins Bellichello's Brawn GP car suffered a mechanical failure (accident 1) and shed what looked like a spring from his suspension.

This spring bounced along the track with Massa approaching at 200 kmph.

As Massa approached turn 3, the spring struck the side of his helmet, almost knocking him out. (Accident 2).

Semi-conscious, Massa had his feet on both the brake and accelerator but managed to reduce his speed to 100kmph before hitting the tyre wall of turn 3.

Although

Massa's injuries were serious (fractured temporal and base of skull) and can be fatal, they

were not life threatening on this occasion.

Check out the BBC's Formula 1 website for the latest on Massa's condition.

5 out of 6 for Jenson!

Well, what can we say? For a driver who didn't have a drive just 6 months ago - here he is, now with a commanding lead of the F1 points table.

But what's with the running? Surely the drivers don't have to run their lap of honour?

Well, it seems Jenson was so overwhelmed with the whole situation, he parked in the wrong place!! - with the lesser also-rans!!

And so he had to run (so as not to keep the Crown Prince waiting!!) back to the podium. Not that it's a podium at Monaco. More a raised platform! 

Well done Jenson!! Here's to the next one!!

Massa

Massa chasing the two Brawns who are in P1 & P2.
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Formula 1 - 2009 Season. The cars are launched!

With just 39 days until the start of the 2009 F1 season, there are loads of changes to the rules and regs that govern the sport.
The main ones are around the aerodynamics of the cars - those silly little winglets and stuff are banned this year.

As a result, the cars have a very different look......a more organic, natural look.

So, here is the McLaren car.

And the Ferrari:

Round 8 - Magny-Cours (Grand Prix de France)

Here it is - Round 8.

Lewis was starting in 13th place on the grid, due to his 10 place penalty after shunting Räikkönen in Canada.

And then, after gaining a place by cutting a chicane, the resulting drive through penalty pretty well finished Lewis' chance of a podium place.

Round 4 from Spain

Here's round 4 from Spain.

Round 2 - Malaysian Grand Prix.

Here we go.......Round 2

Malyasian Grand Prix 2008 at Sepang

Rosberg had a depressing weekend in Malaysia

McLaren's wheel covers caused Lewis problems at Sepang in Malaysia
Raikkonen was in dominant form in Malaysia
Trulli and Toyota had a superb Sepang, Malaysia

Kovalainen proved to be McLaren's leading light at Sepang, Malaysia
Kubica had a superb run to second at Sepang in Malaysia

Massa made an early exit in Malaysia
Raikkonen clebrates his return to the top in Malaysia

Australian Grand Prix - Video Highlights

The FIA are now producing a short video, containing the highlights of each round of this season.I'm planning to put each one on the blog as soon as it's available. Here's the one from the first round, Australia.

Formula 1 - 2007 Review

This will get your pulse racing!!

Australian Grand Prix

Well, here we are - at the start of the 2008 Formula 1 season.

As always, the first venue is Melbourne, Australia. And here's the rub.

I'm sat here in the UK and it's 10:45 in the morning. The race has already been run some 6 hours earlier and I 've also Sky+'ed it. (Recorded it onto a PVR).

ITV are re-running the race at 3:00pm and so we have 2 choices -

Either run the recording and watch it now - or wait until 3:00pm and watch the re-run on the TV. Whatever we choose to do (the beer's in the fridge, chilling nicely) we can't afford to accidently see or hear the result on the TV, web, newspaper etc. (That's why I'm blogging......to give me something to do!!)

I did try to stay up and watch the race live........but fell asleep!! When I did wake up, the race was still some 45 mins away. I was so tired I couldn't wait until then and went up to bed!