Vettel takes Pole for the Canadian GrandPrix

RedBull came out on top in Montreal as Sebastian Vettel took pole position for tomorrow's Canadian GrandPrix. Meanwhile team-mate Mark Webber will start from 4th on the grid. Lewis Hamilton continued his great qualy performances as he will start second on the grid. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso will
start the race in 3rd place.

It was a disappointing session for Kimi Raikkonen's side of the Lotus garage as the finish will start the race from 12th on the grid while team-mate Romain Grosjean will start from 7th on the grid.

It is a very long race tomorrow so anything can happen.

Hamilton fastest in FP1 as Lotus look strong

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in Friday practice one for this weekend's Canadian GrandPrix, the Briton has been dogged about question's regarding his future as his current McLaren deal runs out at the end of the year. He has announced that he will leave a decision about his future until the end of the season.

Meanwhile the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean set the early pace ending FP1 in 14th  and 15th place with Kimi completing 41 lap's the most of any driver on the grid.

Canadian GrandPrix Preview

This weekend the Formula One circus makes it’s first trip of 2012 to North America for the Candian GrandPrix in Montreal. Last year’s race was the best race I had ever seen. The race was rain delayed and when it eventually got underway Jenson Button drove sensationally.

Up until this year a Formula One race was time limited to 2 hours however last year the Canadian GrandPrix was an incredible four hours and eight minute’s long. Jenson had a horrible start to the race, he ended up at at the back of the pack following a drive through penalty and an incident with team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

So far this season in the first six race’s of year we have had six different winners from five different team’s and I believe that we will get our seventh winner this weekend as I fully believe that the Lotus F1 team will be competing for the win.

At last year’s race going into the final lap of the race, Sebastian Vettel was leading for RedBull Racing with button in second place when Vettel made a mistake that allowed Jenson to overtake him and take a fantastic win for McLaren.

In Monaco two week’s Mark Webber dominated the race weekend, taking Pole position and the race win. The top six driver’s in the championship are seperated by 25 points or a race win.

This weekend’s race will see Sauber F1’s Sergio Perez take part in his first Canadian GrandPrix as he missed last year’s race following a violant crash in Monaco.

It is going to extremely interesting to see what happens this weekend. It is intriguing to see how McLaren have only scored one race win this season in the opening race of the season in Australia. Since then the team’s race performance have fallen away. Unlike last year there will only be one DRS zone during the race.

This weekend’s race could be disrupted by student’s who plan to protest in Montreal about the hike in tuition fee’s in universities, they have said that they will disrupt the online presence of Formula One for the weekend.

Since the Monaco GrandPrix two week’s ago, Jenson Button has been extremely busy, Last Saturday he was in Athy in Co. Carlow, Ireland for a triathalon and on the Sunday he was in Dublin taking part in the hugely successful Bavaria City Racing Dublin festival demonstrating the 2011 Candian GrandPrix winning Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-26.

I went to Bavaria City Racing last weekend and it was an incredible experience. I saw Jenson do a run in Manchester last August and that was fantastic experience. However to see a Formula One car driving on the street’s of my hometown was an incredible experience.

Kubica undergoes elbow surgery

Former Renault F1 driver Robert Kubica under went further surgery last month to help improvement the mobility of his arm. The Polish driver was involved in a horrifying rally accident in Italy last January which partially severed his wrist and he suffered severe injuries that forced him to sit out the 2011 F1 season. He was then left without a drive for 2012 as the Lotus team opted to replace him with Kimi Raikkonen.

Kubica has had a horrible time with the injuries he sustained. He broke his leg in the accident and just as that healed he was out for a walk and slipped on ice reopening the fracture in his leg. It has now been revealed that he under went surgery last week to help improve the mobility in his elbow. During the surgery parts of Kubica's elbow were removed a replaced with prothesis which it is hoped will enable the Pole to fully control a car steering wheel.

The news comes just day's after the Lotus team refused to give Kimi Raikkonen permission to compete in the Finnish Rally. I believe that this was the right decision on the team's part and Kimi himself fully understands why he can't take part in the rally.

As for Kubica, do I think he'll return to Formula One? I doubt it somehow. The reason I think this is because he hasn't driven a Formula One car since the end of 2010 and the fact that he has had some major setback's in his recovery means that the likelihood of him getting a drive in a competitive car is extremely remote. Plus the fact that in season testing is banned means that there is no opportunity for him totest a current F1 car.

I think it is a great shame that a driver of Kubica's talent is not competing in Formula One. The Pole managed to take a fantastic win in Canada in 2008. So far he has not attended any GrandPrix since his accident. So we will have to wait and see what happens.

It has been reported that reigning Formula One Champion Sebastian Vettel has a 'Get Out Clause' in his RedBull contract. That is the claim of RedBull's motorsport adviser Dr Helmut Marko. His comments come on the back of rumuors in Monaco last weekend that Vettel has signed to race alongside Fernando Alonso at Ferrari in 2014.

The Times and The Independent on Sunday in England have both suggested that Vettel has a clause in his RedBull contract specifically related to 2013, that if the team does not finish above a certain position in the championship Vettel is free to leave the team. However it is also understood that the same clause is in place in relation to RedBull and if Vettel doesn't perform in 2013 the team are free to release him.

It was extremely interesting because when this story broke Vettel was very quick to pledge his future to RedBull. Now another interesting piece of info is the fact that Vettel's career is managed by RedBull and Marko and that he doesn't have a management team persay.

It was a similar situation with Lewis Hamilton at McLaren up until a last season when McLaren suggested that Hamilton get a management team in. As far as I understand it with Lewis Hamilton who is yet to sign a contract extension at McLaren it is his management team who are holding out for a more lucrative deal from McLaren this is despite speculation that he was set to sign a £100 million deal with the team.

I think that the driver market is going to be extremely interesting at the end of the season. With seats potentially available at Ferrari, McLaren, RedBull, Mercedes, Force India, Toro Rosso and Caterham.

So my predictions for the line - up of the grid for 2013 are

RedBull: Sebastian Vettel/ Mark Webber? / Daniel Ricciardo?

McLaren: Jenson Button / Lewis Hamilton? / Mark Webber?

Ferrari: Fernando Alonso/ Felipe Massa? / Mark Webber?

Mercedes: Nico Rosberg/ Paul Di Resta? / Michael Schumacher / Lewis Hamilton

Force India: Nico Hulkenberg / Paul Di Resta? / Jiles Bianchi?

Sauber: Sergio Perez/ Kamui Koboyashi

Lotus: Kimi Raikkonen/ Romain Grosjean

Toro Rosso: Jean Eric Vergne / Daniel Ricciardo

Caterham/ Heikki Kovalienen/ Vitaly Petrov/ Giedo Van Der Garde? / Alexander Rossi? Felipe Massa?

Marussia: Charles Pic / Timo Glock

HRT: Pedro Dela Rosa / Narain Karthikeyan

Another week, another Ganassi 1 - 2

The Indianapolis 500 was a massive success for Target Chip Ganassi Racing last weekend as they scored a 1 - 2 finish with Dario winning the race for the third time elevating him to the lead of the Indy Oval Championship. This weekend it was Dario's team-mate Scott Dixon's turn to take the honors at a chaotic race in Detroit. The race was red flagged for two hours due to the track breaking up due to the pressure of the cars.

Dixon started the race from pole position while Dario managed to work his way through the field from a poor qualifying position to finish the race in second just behind Dixon but ahead of points leader Will Power. Dario lies in third in the championship behind Dixon and Will Power.

It has been a great return to form for Honda who have really struggled to match the pace of the Chevy engine that is in the back of Will Power's Penske Racing Racing car, and now they (Honda) have won two races in a row with the Target car. I was delighted to hear that Dixon won the race yesterday as he came so close to winning to the 500 last weekend.

It is going to be interesting to see if Honda can keep up this performance level for the rest of the season. It was a disappointing race for IndyCar newcomer Rubens Barrichello after winning rookie of the year at Indy last weekend the Brazilian retired from the Detroit GrandPrix with mechanical problems.

Bavaria City Racing Dublin a MASSIVE success!!!

An estimated 110,000 spectators braved the wet weather in Dublin today for the first Bavaria City Racing Festival to hit Dublin. The main draw for the day was 2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button who put on a mind blowing show in his McLaren MP4 25 the car that he won last year's Canadian GrandPrix in.

I went to Bavaria City Racing and enjoyed every minute of it. McLaren weren't the only F1 team in attendance as the Caterham F1 team demoed their car with Giedo Van Der Garde behind the wheel.  The sound of F1 engine's in Dublin City Centre was amazing. One thing I found was that you didn't have to spend mega money to enjoy the show. I arrived in the city centre very early and took up my vantage point at the barrier opposite the Central Bank and had a perfect view.

As I said we had more then F1 at the event, The Monster Energy Rally team were there along with GP2 and Super Bike among others.

Bavaria put on a fantastic show and it was the first time the event was held in Dublin. Hopefully it is the first of many. It was a roaring success. Bavaria held a city racing event in Rotterdam. The Dublin circuit was very similar to Monaco in that is was very narrow however the circuit was the longest Bavaria circuit at 5.1km.

I was initially sceptical about the event but it was AMAZING and I really enjoyed it and it was fantastic for Dublin.

JB on in action in the MP4 26 

Van Der Garde in action in the Caterham F1

JB takes a lucky competition winner for a ride in the McLaewn MP4-12C

Dani Sordo's 2011 Mini WRC

Copyright 2012 Ben Johnston