Brits on Pole

Mike Conway has said that he is pleased with how his second opportunity to test in a Honda F1 car has gone. He joined fellow GP2 racers Andreas Zuber and Luca Filippi for a try-out after the trio impressed at the first winter testing session in Barcelona.

The FIA has announced that it intends to sue The Sunday Times newspaper over an accusation that it has behaved unfairly towards McLaren. A statement issued after the World Motor Sport Council meeting in Monaco said the body had been given the go-ahead to make the legal move.

Will Lewis Hamilton have a potentially championship-winning car at his disposal in 2008? Or will he be forced to compete in a machine that’s been hobbled because it’s considered illegal? That question will not be answered until February – leaving McLaren with less than a month to cope with any consequences before it is required…

Renault has not been penalised for possession of confidential data belonging to its rival McLaren because there was no proof that the team benefited from it. That is the finding of the World Motor Sport Council, released today after its verdict in the case was announced yesterday.

The Times has just published a long and illuminating interview with Sir Jackie Stewart, in which he discusses his career in F1, its appalling safety record at the time and the toll that the deaths of many friends and colleagues took on him.

The Renault Formula One team has walked out of a courtroom in Monaco having been found guilty of possessing confidential information belonging to another team – but has remained unpunished. The World Motorsport Council found Renault in breach of the regulations for its actions over computer disks with details of the McLaren car. But it…

This quote from Kimi Raikkonen, turning up innocuously on the BBC’s motorsport site on the day that was supposed to mark Michael Schumacher’s triumphant return to Jerez, made us smile rather broadly.

Lewis Hamilton had to surrender his top-ranking rookie status at Jerez to Robert Kubica today after the Pole laid down a blazing lap time to easily top the standings. And youth triumphed over experience on a day when the best performance Michael Schumacher could muster was a mere eighth.

Wednesday at Jerez was a great day for the British drivers – with Lewis Hamilton topping the rankings and David Coulthard running him a very close second.

The BMW Sauber team shone on the first day of testing at Jerez on Tuesday, with Nick Heidfeld putting in the fastest lap of the day. He was closely followed by Jenson Button for Honda, who came in a little more than a tenth of a second behind him.