WHEN NARAIN Karthikeyan had made his debut in Formula One, many of his detractors in India had thought his first step in the game had little significance to the Indians. After all, Formula One is not an Indian sport. There are no circuits in India and motor racing had not even really taken off. It was not until 1989 that India got a full-fledged racing track near Chennai, a 3.75-km course certified to stage just the F3 races. And the plans of getting a F1 circuit in India seemed like a distant dream.

To be honest, Karthikeyan didn’t really set the track on fire in the 2005 season. His best being a fourth place finish in the Indianapolis Grand Prix, which had only six drivers running when Michelin drivers had decided to opt out of the race. The result of a mediocre season was that Karthikeyan did not feature in any of the teams in the next two seasons. But all it may change after his first place finish at the Zhuhai International circuit in China on Sunday.

It couldn’t have come at a better time for Narain and for India also. This season in A1 had been a poor one till the scene shifted to China. But what worked for Narain in this race was sheer strategy and teamwork. Starting from third on the grid, Narian went past the New Zealand driver at the second round of pit stops. Both New Zealand’s Jonny Reid and the South African Adrian Zaugg had pit stop problems, which lost a lot of time.

Even Narain gave the credit of the win to the team. He said, “The team has been working really hard at pit stop practices and they’ve done a really good job this weekend. We had excellent pit stops that really paid off and contributed to our victory. This shows that what really counts is great team work.”

India’s maiden A1 GP victory means a lot to this team. The team that had been written off since the beginning of the season fought back to win an all-important GP. Narain’s flawless performance and some great teamwork by the pit crew have brought this glory. The first time ever, we heard the Indian National Anthem being played for the winner standing at the podium, a proud moment for all Indian sport lovers.

This augurs well for Indian motor racing. With a proposed circuit coming up in India and Vijay Mallya set to take Formula One by storm next season, India has well and truly arrived in this sport. Narain will be looking forward to another stint as a F1 driver next season. For now, this is the time to enjoy the celebrations because such milestone moments don’t come often in Indian sports.

Ralf, younger brother of the seven-times world champion, suggested this week that he could be about to leave the sport after an unsuccessful test with Force India in Spain.

Michael, who retired last year as Formula One’s most successful driver after winning 91 grands prix, made clear he would support that decision.

“I don’t know what his ambitions are, but crawling around in this car, I don’t even know what it’s called… He should not do that to himself,” Michael Schumacher told Auto Motor und Sport magazine in Jerez, where he was testing for Ferrari [Images] last week.

Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) won the 2007 FIA Formula One World Drivers Chamionship fighting out the defending champion Fernando Alonso of McLaren and Current Leader Louis Hamilton of McLaren.
Kimi – 110 points
Alonso – 109 point
Louis Hamilton – 109 points

Kimi Raikkonen won his third straight Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday. And if all goes well then Kimi could be scorching the track in the National Capital Region of Delhi in 2010.

Karthikeyan has been with Williams in a test capacity for the last two years, following his debut
Formula 1
season with Jordan-Midland back in 2005.

Now the Indian is hoping to get back into a race seat in 2008, although whether he will replace Nico Rosberg or Alex Wurz, whose contracts both expire at the end of this season, is not clear

Speaking to the Hindustan Times he added though that if the Williams drive doesn’t happen, then he will continue racing in the A1
Grand Prix
World Cup of Motorsport.

“I have got a contract with Williams for next year and am hoping to get behind the wheels as a driver,” he revealed to the online version of the ‘paper. “If it doesn’t materialise though, I have got a commitment with the A1 Grand Prix and would race in it.”

The team are in its fourth incarnation having previously started life as Jordan, before becoming Midland, followed by Spyker.

But at the end of last season, Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya, in partnership with Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol, completed a successful buy-out of Spyker.

After running the rule over a number of drivers in test sessions at Barcelona and Jerez towards the end of last year, Mallya has opted for Fisichella and Sutil, with Tonio Liuzzi as reserve.

For Fisichella, who was released by Renault after a disappointing 2007 in which he finished eighth in the drivers’ championship, it will be his 13th season in Formula One.

“At the test in Jerez I was very impressed with the team’s professionalism and commitment to move forward and I hope that my experience will help them achieve these goals,” said Fisichella, who celebrates his 35th birthday on Monday.

“Contrary to what people think, this was not my only opportunity but it was the best one.

“With new owners and a competitive budget, I really think we can shake things up next year.

“I feel motivated and ready to help Force India get points on a regular basis.”

Mallya, who is chairman and managing director of the team, insists Force India will not be in Formula One next season just to make up the numbers.

“The Force India Formula One team is a serious project and we wanted to make a statement to this effect with our driver line-up,” said Mallya.

Thieves fled with 21 carat diamonds worth crores under the nose of 47 security guards from Panchratna building in Opera House on Monday.

The diamonds were stolen from the office of trader Hitesh Patel who has said he does not know the exact value of the stolen stones.

Duplicate keys?

In his report to the D B Marg police, Hitesh said the thieves might have used duplicate keys to enter his office in room number 541 of the building.

Some of Mumbai’s biggest diamond traders have offices in Panchratna.

1. Also see: Schumacher returns to the track

Germany beat England at Wembley on Sunday as Michael Schumacher and Sebastien Vettel won motorsport’s end of year Race of Champions Nations Cup charity event.

Formula One’s retired seven-times world champion and rookie Vettel saw off Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen and Marcus Gronholm in the team final.

Narain, racing in the Zhuhai International Circuit for Team India, zipped to his team’s first A1GP victory in China by winning the Feature Race on Sunday.

The 26-year-old Spaniard announced his return to the French team on Monday after a turbulent season at McLaren.

India has been hoping to stage a Grand Prix since Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian F1 driver in 2005.

And the news comes after leading Indian businessman Vijay Mallya recently acquired the Spyker team and renamed it Force India.
Race promoters, the Indian Olympic Association, announced in September that Formula One management had approved two sites on the outskirts of New Delhi to build a circuit.

When he took the checkered flag at Darlington despite steam spewing from his engine, it looked as if nothing could possibly go wrong for him.
When the sky opened up at just the right moment at Pocono to ensure Gordon another victory, there seemed to be no doubt that Gordon was on course for a fifth Nextel Cup championship.

And when his precious daughter, Ella, was born in late June, the first-time father realized that 2007 would go down as the greatest year of his life.

The seven-time F1 champion, who retired at the end of the 2006 season, went around the Circuit de Catalunya in one minute, 21.918 seconds in Ferrari’s F2007 car.

The 38-year-old Schumacher, who hasn’t raced since the Brazilian Grand Prix in October 2006, will be joined by current Ferrari driver and former teammate, Felipe Massa as winter testing continues on Wednesday.

Four-time rally champion Sebastien Bourdais of France made his test debut with Toro Rosso. The Frenchman’s best time was 1:24.193.

During the first round of Stepneygate hearings earlier this year, during which it was McLaren’s authorised possession of Ferrari secrets that was being probed, Renault’s name came up in McLaren’s own investigation.

The Woking team’s investigators alleged that a former McLaren team member had passed on several CDs filled with their information to Renault.

Although this matter was not looked into at the first round of hearings, McLaren’s lawyers passed the information on to the FIA, who launched their own investigation into the matter.

And that has now led to motorsport’s governing body calling Renault up on charges of spying.

According to a FIA statement, Renault stand accused of being in possession of technical details relating to McLaren’s 2006 and 2007 F1 cars.

The FIA alleges that between the period of September 2006 and October 2007, Renault had unauthorised possession of documents and confidential information belonging to McLaren.

The infomation included the ‘layout and critical dimensions of the McLaren F1 car, together with details of the McLaren fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system, hydraulic control system and a novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars.’

Renault will have to face the WMSC at a hearing in Monaco on Thursday, December 6.

“It’s half for pleasure, half for technical reasons,” said a spokesman.

Whilst the divorce was expected, its confirmation remains shocking in the sense that the marriage should have been a match made in heaven. Instead, Alonso’s solitary season will be remembered only for acrimony and the nightmare spectre of the Stepneygate scandal that resulted in the team’s expulsion from the Constructors’ Championship due to the indiscretions of Alonso’s email exchange with test driver Pedro de la Rosa.

Alonso’s disgruntlement centred on his belief that the team favoured Lewis Hamilton throughout the British driver rookie year. Having allegedly blackmailed Dennis to install him as the team’s number one driver, Alonso’s departure ironically confers that status on Hamilton instead.

Hamilton can thus be regarded as the only winner in the split. McLaren have lost a driver who, despite the distraction of the interminable internal bickering, came within two points of winning a third successive World Championship. As for Alonso, with his route into Ferrari blocked by Felipe Massa’s recent contract extension, his next move is bound to be a backwards step.

The Spaniard has won few friends over the past twelve months but, after months of denouncements and accusations, Alonso was noticeably contrite and dignified in his farewell to the team.

Wishing the entire team “the best for the future”, he admitted: “I know there have been suggestions of favouritism within the team and people say a lot of things in the heat of battle, but in the end I was always provided with an equal opportunity to win.”

While no doubt partially relieved to have parted company with Alonso, the tone of Dennis’ commentary was of disappointment and puzzlement that the alliance of Alonso and McLaren had so spectacularly failed to dovetail.

“He is a great driver but for some reason the combination of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Fernando has not really worked out, and in the end we reached a stage where none of us could find a way to move forward. We all believe that our joint decision to part company is for the best, and we will now continue to focus on our 2008 World Championship challenge.”

There was no indication from the team on who will replace Alonso as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate next season, but Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalkanien and Jenson Button are bound to be considered as the leading contenders.

“This really is a dream come true for me,” said Chandhok. “Ever since I was four years old I’ve dreamed of being behind the wheel of a Formula One car and this is a day that not just myself, but my family and everyone who has supported me over the years, has thought about for a long time. I really have to thank everyone involved at Red Bull Racing for this opportunity; I’m really looking forward to it.”

“Karun has been supported by Red Bull for a couple of years now and his progress in GP2 this year has been clearly evident, culminating in a win at Spa,” commented team principal Christian Horner. “Barcelona presents a good opportunity to put Karun in one of the cars for his first F1 drive.”

Chandhok secured his 2007 GP2 drive after being crowned the 2006 Asian Formula Renault V6 champion, with seven wins and nine pole positions.

Going into the eighth lap of the grand prix, Hamilton’s McLaren lost power for roughly 30 seconds dropping him down from fourth to 18th place.

The team later reported that the rookie had suffered a temporary gearbox failure.

Hamilton, though, has now allegedly confessed that it wasn’t a failure but he had in fact accidentally turned off his car.

“My finger slipped on the steering wheel and I accidentally pressed the button used for the starting sequence,” he reportedly told French-language daily newspaper La Presse.

“The car went into neutral and I had to reinitialise the system, that is, reload the gearbox management program.”

McLaren have offered no comment on the story. But it is worth reminding readers that only yesterday Ron Dennis spoke out angrily about the amount of inaccurate reports appearing on the internet…

Race stewards then investigated alleged fuel irregularities by Williams and BMW Sauber, but decided not to punish them.

Had they been disqualified, Hamilton would have finished fourth, earning him enough points to become world champion.

McLaren notified motorsport’s world governing body, the FIA, late on Sunday of their intention to appeal against the stewards’ verdict.

The problems with the BMW Sauber and Williams cars centred on a technical infringement – a fuel-temperature irregularity – which could have given them an advantage.

Nico Rosberg finished fourth in his Williams while the BMW duo of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were fifth and sixth.

But after a three-hour hearing, the race stewards chose to impose no penalty on either team, ensuring Raikkonen could celebrate the first F1 title of his career by finishing one point ahead of Hamilton and McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The first floodlit night race in Singapore, as well as the first Indian team in tycoon Vijay Mallya’s takeover of Spyker, will add to surging interest in an area of increasing importance to the sport.

“Somebody once told me in America that Asians are slow starters, but once they get up to speed they go past pretty quick,” Mallya said at Sunday’s season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

“I think the Asian giant is awake and that has been propelled by the awakening of the giant within the giant which is India.”

Mallya, whose business interests range from Scotch Whisky to commercial aviation, has asked the governing body to rename Spyker as Force India.

He believes India, with a booming economy and youthful population, is ready for fuller immersion into Formula One.

“A lot of young people in India want to have an alternative to cricket and I think Formula One is the right sport,” said Mallya.

INDIAN FIRST

There is still some way to go before another Indian driver follows Narain Karthikeyan [Images], who raced for Jordan in 2005, on to the Grand Prix starting grid but the signs are still encouraging.

This year had a first with the Indian anthem sounding out at a Grand Prix weekend when Karun Chandhok took his first victory in the GP2 support series at Spa in Belgium.

“I think he is at least a year away [from Formula One]” said Mallya. “I know that he is committed to GP2 for 2008 so we will see how he performs.”

India is also due to host a Grand Prix in 2010, with South Korea pencilled in for then as well and Abu Dhabi making its debut in 2009.

Singapore will literally light up the championship when it hosts Asia’s first street race in late September, with the South East Asian state appointing a contractor last week to illuminate the circuit.

If those races, in addition to the existing rounds in China, Malaysia, Japan, Australia and Bahrain, will make it more of a world championship than ever, much still has to be done before Asia mounts a genuine challenge on the track.

Hamilton, who started from pole position, dropped to fourth after his first pit stop, but regained the lead after 41 laps to finish ahead of Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen in a Renault and Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari.