Renault disqualification would make Rosberg F1 winner

Sep.6 (GMM) If winner Fernando Alonso is disqualified from the 2008 Singapore grand prix, Nico Rosberg will retrospectively record his first formula one victory.

Renault pushes Williams to re-join FOTA

Sep.3 (GMM) Renault reportedly wants Williams to re-enter the formula one teams association FOTA before it agrees to supply the British outfit with engines for the 2010 season.

Renault exclusion would make Rosberg a winner

If 2008 Singapore Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso is disqualified from the results following the Renault team's hearing before the World Motor Sport Council to answer suspicions of cheating, Nico Rosberg will retrospectively record his first Formula One victory...  

Rosberg sees himself as 2008 Singapore winner

In the wake of the World Motor Sport Council decisions regarding the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix race-fix scandal involving the Renault team, Williams driver Nico Rosberg remains frustrated that he cannot be declared the winner of last year's race...  

Renault point the finger at Briatore

The FIA is considering changing its rules to avoid a repeat of any avoidance of sanction in the race-fixing affairRenault today pinned the blame on Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds for the race-fixing scandal that has tarnished their name as senior executives refused to be drawn on the team's future in Formula One.As the French carmaker embarked on a damage limitation exercise to cushion the impact on its reputation, it also emerged that the FIA is considering changing its rules to avoid a repeat of the likely situation next week when the disgraced pair will avoid personal sanction for their role in the affair.Renault's chief operating officer Patrick Pelata admitted to French radio station RTL that "there was a fault and a fault requires a sanction". "Flavio Briatore considered he was morally responsible and resigned. We will know more about the details after what will happen on Monday with the FIA," he said. "For the moment we have assumptions but it is clear that basically there was a fault. We don't like this, nor do we want a fault by two people to reflect upon the whole company and the entire Formula One team."But he refused to be drawn on whether the company would maintain a presence in Formula One beyond the end of the season, even if it escaped a ban on Monday. Speculation had surrounded its future intentions, even before the current controversy."This is not the debate today. We will have it calmly," he said. "Formula One is the world's most-watched show and you have to respect that. Formula One has been in the vanguard of progress for car technology. It is probably not the case at the moment, but it could be again and it is always what Renault have tried to do."Since Briatore and Symonds dramatically quit on Wednesday, effectively admitting they persuaded Nelson Piquet junior to crash deliberately during last year's Singapore grand prix to hand an advantage to his team-mate Fernando Alonso, it is only the team that will face a World Motor Sport Council hearing in Paris on Monday as the FIA effectively has no power over the pair under the International Sporting Code. Piquet had earlier been offered immunity in return for detailing the plot.The 26-strong council, headed by the FIA president Max Mosely, will decide on a suitable punishment for Renault after it dramatically declined to offer a defence to the allegations. The team could yet be suspended from the sport or, more likely, handed a huge fine.The loophole also means that Briatore's stake in Queens Park Rangers is unlikely to come under Football League scrutiny under its fit and proper persons test. The League rules only permit it to act if an individual is banned by a recognised sporting body. "We will continue to monitor the situation at the FIA but will not speculate on future developments," said a spokesman.Despite being well-practised in dealing with the fall-out from successive scandals, the shockwaves from Renault's effective admission of guilt continued to reverberate around the sport. Experts said that most of Renault's sponsors would be looking closely at Monday's ruling. Its title sponsor ING is withdrawing from Formula One at the end of the season in any case."This is serious, it's cheating. If you were a sponsor of Renault, would you want to continue with that sponsorship? There will be a reputational damage clause and they would be perfectly within their rights to terminate," said Scott Garrett, a director at sponsorship agency Synergy and former head of marketing at Williams.Sir Jackie Stewart said: "There is something fundamentally rotten and wrong at the heart of Formula One." But former driver Eddie Irvine claimed it had been blown out of proportion. "In the past every team has done whatever it could to win – cheat, bend the rules, break the rules, sabotage opponents. This is just the FIA going on a crusade," he told the BBC.Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull Racing, said that the loss of Briatore's colourful persona would be noticed. "Flavio has been one of the main characters in F1 for the past 20 years and his presence will be missed, I'm sure."Five in the frameAlain ProstRan his own Formula One team from 1997 to 2001 but failed to match the success he achieved behind the wheelOlivier QuesnelTook over from Guy Frécquelin as head of Citroën's rally team and helped mastermind the continued domination of Sébastien LoebFrédéric VasseurRuns the day-to-day operations of the ART GP2 team which is part owned by Nicolas Todt, the son of FIA presidential candidate Jean TodtDavid RichardsChairman of Prodrive and Aston Martin. Masterminded the successful Subaru rally team and later had stints as head of Benetton and BARCraig PollockJacques Villeneuve's ex-manager and the founder of British American RacingRenaultFlavio BriatoreMotor sportFormula OneOwen GibsonAlan Henryguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

British grand prix – live!

Join Gemma for all the action. Any insights, questions or comments can be e-mailed hereLap 17: Raikkonen (P10) has leap-frogged Nakajima (P11) in those stops. Hamilton - being held up by the slower Kubica - tells his engineer he cannot pass as he has no grip.Lap 16: Kazuki 'I'm running on a wisp of fuel' Nakajima is the first to pit. He stays on the harder tyre. Vettel does another fastest lap. Button is now 27.4 seconds adrift of the leader. Raikkonen also pits.Lap 12: Not much drama to report I'm afraid folks. Here's the order: Vettel, Barrichello, Webber, Nakajima (I know!), Raikkonen, Rosberg, Trulli, Button, Massa, Glock, Fisichella (go on my son), Heidfeld, Alonso, Kubica, Hamilton, Piquet, Bourdais, Buemi, Kovalainen and Sutil.Lap 11: My carefully-positioned boyfriend... erm, sorry, I mean track-side mole... is embedded at Club. But all he has to report is that there are plenty of chips being consumed (gernerous servings too, apparently). And it's a bit chilly.Lap 10: Vettel's lead now 10 seconds and he's just posted another fastest lap. Webber maintains his close pursuit of Barrichello but has not thrown any moves.Lap nine: Hamilton's engineers have told him he must get past Kubica (P14). But the Brit said yesterday that his car is so poor the only way to drive it is slowly.Lap eight: Heidfeld is running well in 12th, having started 15th, despite his poorly nose (on the car, you understand).Lap seven: Vettel's lead is over 7 seconds now, but there's only eight tenths between Barrichello and Webber. Button still in eighth - he's over 15 seconds shy of the race leader now.Lap five: Webber is six seconds behind his team-mate in third. He'll need to get past Barrichello if he wants to hunt him down. Kubica has taken 14th from Hamilton - looks like happened when Alonso (in P13) ran wide and held up Hamilton, allowing the BMW through.Lap four: Over the radio we can hear Heidfeld's engineer telling him 'box! box!' (which means pit, not slam another driver in the face) for a new nose. But the militant German says 'nein'. He'll wait until the first stop. Vettel's lead now 4.4sec.Lap three: Vettel is storming - he made almost a second on Barrichello in that lap. Kovalainen wins the prize for worst start: he lined up in 13th and he's back in 19th.Lap two: Vettel's lead is already 2.5seconds, he's the fastest car on track. Hamilton is up to 14th already - he can see a points finish in his sights. Button has re-passed Massa for eighth.Lap one: Trulli also dropped down the order at the start. The Ferraris both got flyers - Massa looked fantastic surging past Button. The order in the top ten after the first tour: Vettel, Barrichello, Webber, Nakajima, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Trulli, Massa, Button and Glock.The start: Vettel good start, keeps ahead of Barrichello and Webber. Button has dropped down to eighth.Most of the frontrunners - apart from the Williams cars - are starting on the softer option tyres. We're about to get underway...Enough politics. We're counting down to the start of the GP now. It looks a little breezy at the former airfield. Flavio Briatore has told the BBC's Martin Brundle that he "loves" Bernie Ecclestone. Victoria Pendleton "cannot believe" that she's been standing on the Formula One grid. And Lewis Hamilton is casting round for a pair of binoculars so he can get a glimpse of the front of the pack...More breaking news: The Big Row has given Donington Park a 'get out of jail free' card. Apparently, if the planned breakaway goes ahead, the circuit bosses can pull out of their contract to host the GP. Which would help them out of any hole, were they not to achieve the funding necessary to bring the circuit up to scratch, wouldn't it?I think the news editor will pull out my computer's power cable if I don't mention The Big Row. The latest news: in a quote that will leave the City's finest barristers weeping into their copies of the Sunday Times this morning, Max Mosley has said that a resolution is imminent. "I think we would rather talk than litigate," he said. "We are very, very close as far as the facts are concerned. It's just if the teams want to sit down and iron out the last few difficulties." So are we close to a resolution then? Let's hope so: my fingernails are already bitten to the quick and I can handle any more last-minute re-writes. But what do you care about my bleeding hands - email me with your thoughts.Elsewhere on the grid, the Williams pair were light-fuelled and running highly. But the big story had to be Lewis Hamilton's dire 19th position. He wasn't helped by the red flags coming out owing to Adrian Sutil's heafty shunt, but the reigning champion later claimed he had little more to come from his curtailed flying lap. At least it'll be fun to watch him try and work his way up the field. Funny, though, how we've been uttering that line for the past few races. But we absolutely won't say 'what a difference a year makes'. That would be too cliched. Ooops.So Vettel, the only man other than Jenson to have won a grand prix this season, sits on pole. And what a lap it was. Information on the fuel loads released last night showed that the young German's car was carrying two more laps of fuel compared to team-mate Webber - with the Brawn GP drivers' cars carrying less than both the Red Bulls. So you'd have to fancy that the energy drink-powered cars have the edge, right? Both drivers praised recent technical developments made by the Milton Keynes-based squad, while Button could only whinge about his skitterish Brawn.1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault2. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn-Mercedes3. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault4. Jarno Trulli, Toyota5. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams-Toyota6. Jenson Button, Brawn-Mercedes7. Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota8. Timo Glock, Toyota9. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari10. Fernando Alonso, Renault11. Felipe Massa, Ferrari12. Robert Kubica, BMW-Sauber13. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes14. Nelson Piquet, Renault15. Nick Heidfeld, BMW-Sauber16. Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India-Mercedes17. Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso-Ferrari18. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes19. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes20. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-FerrariBut let's say 'pah!' to those anoraks at the circuit anyway - they were smugly expecting to watch hero-de-jour Jenson Button triumph, weren't they? Not so confident now though. Sixth on the grid? What's all that about we demanded after yesterday's qualifying session. No grip, according to Sir Jenson of Frome. Skating around like a duckling on an icy pond, apparently. Ole Button has written off his chances of victory already, so what can we expect from today's race? Let's remind ourselves of the grid...Well hello. So you're not one of the 90,000 people who've made the pilgrimage to Silverstone for it's last-ever Formula One grand prix* (*possibly) then? Never mind. I was going to say that it'll probably rain and you're better off tucked up on your sofa watching the action with a mug of tea and a packet of Hob Nobs. But I have to report that when I left home this morning - the Briggs abode being close enough to the track that the fat cats' helicopters were interfering with my television signal as I tried to watch Roary the Racing Car early this morning - the skies were a beautiful blue and not a drop of moisture threatened my 'do.Formula oneMotor sportBrawnToyotaFerrariToro RossoRed BullForce IndiaRenaultSauberWilliamsMcLarenLewis HamiltonJenson Buttonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds