Felipe Massa and Casey Stoner are the champ for F1 and motorcycle championship.

StarSports reported that Felipe Massa led a Ferrari one-two to win the French Grand Prix yesterday and take the lead in the Formula One championship for the first time.

Massa’s third victory of the season, and eighth of his career, made the 27-year-old Sao Paulo driver the first Brazilian to lead the standings since the late triple champion Ayrton Senna in 1993.

Team mate Kimi Raikkonen, the world champion who won at Magny-Cours last year, led from pole but was overtaken by Massa just after the halfway mark when his Ferrari slowed with a broken exhaust.

Massa took the chequered flag 17.9 seconds clear of Raikkonen on an overcast and damp afternoon at the circuit in the heart of rural France.

“I didn’t expect that, sometimes you need a little bit of luck,” said Massa after Ferrari’s third one-two of the season.

“The championship is still 100 percent open and we still have many races to go.

“It’s nice but my dream is not to lead the championship, it is to win the championship. And I’m going to do my best to achieve that.”

Raikkonen could not hide his disappointment but, with his car almost stopping in the closing stages, accepted the second place.

“I’ll take the eight points and it looks much better in the championship,” he said.

Italy’s Jarno Trulli gave Toyota, mourning the recent death of former team principal Ove Andersson, their first podium finish since the Australian Grand Prix of April, 2006, after holding off McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen in a thrilling chase to the line.

The two cars came close to banging wheels on the penultimate lap as Kovalainen tried in vain to pass.

“I don’t think we touched, just wheel-to-wheel like we did in go-karting,” said the Italian, whose last podium finish was with Toyota in May 2005.

“I’d love to fight every race like that.”

Poland’s Robert Kubica, the championship leader for BMW-Sauber before yesterday’s race after winning in Canada, finished fifth with Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber sixth.

Renault’s Brazilian rookie Nelson Piquet finally took his first point in Formula One, at the eighth attempt, with seventh place ahead of team mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso in eighth.

Massa, the fourth driver to lead the championship in the space of four races, now has 48 points to Kubica’s 46 with Raikkonen ending a two-race barren run to move up to third place with 43.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who had been level with Massa in second place, finished 10th after starting 13th due to a 10-place penalty on the grid incurred for colliding with Raikkonen in the Canadian GP pit lane.

The 23-year-old Briton suffered a further blow when he picked up a drive-through penalty after 13 laps that dropped him from ninth to 16th place.

Honda’s Briton Jenson Button was the only driver to retire from the race. – Reuter

Stoner regains form to win British GP

LONDON: Australia’s world champion Casey Stoner eased to victory at the British Grand Prix yester to win his first race since March.

Stoner, who started on pole for only the second time this season, crossed the line ahead of championship leader Valentino Rossi.

The Italian’s nearest rival, Dani Pedrosa of Spain, climbed from ninth on the grid to finish third.

The Australian, riding a Ducati, never looked in danger of surrendering his advantage and finished 5.789 seconds ahead of Rossi to take his first chequered flag since the season opener in Qatar.

Rossi extended his overall lead over Pedrosa to 11 points while Stoner moved ahead of Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo into third place, 45 points behind the four-times champion after eight races.

Earlier, Briton Scott Redding became the youngest Grand Prix race winner when he won the British 125cc race at the age of 15.

The rookie also recorded the first home win at the Donington Park circuit and ended his country's 451-race wait for a 125cc winner since Chas Mortimer won in Spain in 1973.

Riding in only his eighth grand prix, Redding started on the outside of the front row and steadily chipped away at Andrea Iannone's early lead before passing the Italian with 10 of the 25 laps remaining.

Mike di Meglio of France retained the overall lead after finishing second.

Finland’s Mika Kallio edged out Marco Simoncelli to win the 250cc section and stretch his championship lead over the Italian to eight points. Spain's Alex Debon finished third. – Reuters

Can world champion Kimi Raikkonen and Casey Stoner win?

Today two of the sports stories have captured my attention. The two great motor racing drivers World champion F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen and Casey Stoner both took the pole position in their qualifying round.

World champion Kimi Raikkonen handed Ferrari their 200th pole position in Formula One in a front row sweep for the Italian team at the French Grand Prix yesterday.

Brazilian Felipe Massa, who took pole at Magny-Cours last year, was second fastest to secure the Italian team’s third one-two in qualifying this season.

The pole, the 16th of Raikkonen’s grand prix career, left the Finn perfectly placed to repeat his 2007 victory at the circuit.

Poland’s Robert Kubica, the championship leader for BMW-Sauber after his victory in Canada earlier this month, qualified seventh but will start sixth because of a 10-place penalty imposed on McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, who picked up the punishment after crashing into Raikkonen in the Canadian Grand Prix pit lane, qualified third and will start 13th.Read More

World champion Stoner revels in the wet

Reported in DONINGTON (England): World champion Casey Stoner was unstoppable in qualifying at a rain-soaked Donington yesterday to take pole position for today's British Grand Prix.

Stoner, who recorded his first pole of the season at the Catalan Grand Prix two weeks ago before finishing third, set the pace with a time of 1:38.232 on his Ducati, over six-tenths of a second quicker than Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi.

Australia's Chris Vermeulen was third fastest on a Suzuki to make his first appearance on the front row of the grid this season.

The American pair of Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards make up the second row for the race alongside Italian Andrea Dovizioso. Spain's Dani Pedrosa, Rossi's nearest championship rival who trails by seven points, finished ninth.

The poor weather meant Alvaro Bautista's 250cc provisional pole time set on Friday could not be challenged. Italy's Marco Simoncelli and Hector Barbera of Spain complete the front row while championship leader Mika Kallio was 14th.Read More

The absence of Tiger Woods

File Pictures of Tiger Woods at the Mines Resort City Kuala Lumpur Golf Tournament.
By S.S.Kanesan/The Star

Tiger Woods, the 32-year-old American nursed a painful knee all week before clinching his 14th major title at the US Open on Monday, winning a 19-hole playoff against compatriot Rocco Mediate.

Moments after securing his 14th major title and his 65th career victory on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods admitted he had defied doctor’s orders to compete at Torrey Pines in San Diego.

He conceded he needed to follow medical advice for the sake of his long-term career.

“While I am obviously disappointed to have to miss the remainder of the season, I have to do the right thing for my long-term health,” he said

The absence of Tiger Woods for the rest of the 2008 season will be a little like trying to stage the fairytale ball without Cinderella, or the Oscars without the prized statuettes.

In many ways, Tiger Woods is golf and he has almost single-handedly ushered in an era of multi-million dollar endorsements and lucrative appearance money since turning professional in 1996.

Next month's British Open, where Woods is a three-time champion, will proceed at Royal Birkdale without him, as will the Aug. 7-10 PGA Championship where he has triumphed on four occasions.

The game's leading player will also be absent from the Sept. 19-21 Ryder Cup in Louisville, Kentucky where the US will be bidding to end a run of three successive defeats by Europe.

Above all, though, the fans will miss Woods for the rest of the year and this will be translated into plunging television ratings at golf tournaments where he normally plays.

His uncanny ability to produce moments of magic almost on demand when they matter most, followed by his trademark fist pump, provides golfing theatre beyond the reach of his rivals.

Compatriot Kenny Perry, a 10-times PGA Tour winner who played with Woods on the US Ryder Cup team in 2004, accepts that Woods's absence will be sorely felt.

“It's going to be tough for the sponsors and the Tour,” said Perry

# Wounded Tiger survives playoffto claim third US Open Title

Nadal wins in French Open

PARIS: Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer in the French Open final for the third year running yesterday and joined Swedish legend Bjorn Borg as the only man to win four straight titles at Roland Garros.

The Spaniard scored a stunning 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 triumph over the world No.1, taking the last nine games of the match, in stark contrast to the two four-set battles he edged to see off Federer in the two previous finals.

Federer was powerless to stop the barrage of heavy top spin fired at him as he slumped to a demoralising hiding. If he was a rapier, Nadal was a sledgehammer and in that matchup there was only ever going to be one winner.

Nadal has now won all 28 matches he has played at Roland Garros and having just turned 22, he is well on his way to replacing Borg as the greatest claycourt player of all time. He did not drop a set all fortnight. Read More

Related article:

Nadal vs Federer

Historic win for Robert Kubica

I was sad to know that two 0f my favourites Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen were out as they crashed into each other.

StarSports reported that Robert Kubica won the Canadian Grand Prix from BMW team-mate Nick Heidfeld as Formula One history was made after Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen had to retire over a bizarre pit lane crash.

The first career win for a Kubica and for BMW-Sauber as an independent team in the sport came 12 months after the first Polish driver in the sport miraculously escaped a horror crash on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve all but unharmed.

Kubica's win over Heidfeld came just minutes ahead of another German-Polish duel, on the football pitch at Euro 2008 in Austria.

If the victory wasn't good enough, Kubica also claimed the world championship lead from fourth place before the race with 42 points. Hamilton and Ferrari's Felipe Massa have 38 each and Raikkonen 35.

“It is sensational,” said BMW motorsport chief Mario Theissen. It was the first win for BMW-Sauber, while Ralf Schumacher won in 2001 for a BMW-powered Williams on the same course. Read More

Kubica ‘thanks’ Hamilton after first Grand Prix win

Lewis takes pole position in Canadian Grand Prix

Starsports report


MONTREAL: Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position with a scintillating Canadian Grand Prix qualifying performance yesterday.

The world championship leader took his first ever pole in Montreal last year and he was even more impressive this time around, clocking a time over six-tenths of a second faster than that of his nearest rival.

It took some last-gasp dramatics though. Hamilton pulled out all the stops on his final lap to push BMW’s Pole Robert Kubica back into second place.

In bright sunshine and poor track conditions, Kubica just could not quite do enough to deny the 23-year-old Briton his eighth career pole position and his second this season.

Hamilton won from the front in Canada last year and after his electric final qualifying lap of 1:17.886, he will be confident of a repeat come today’s race on the tricky, high-speed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Fernando Alonso will start third on the grid for Renault and will be joined on the second row by Ferrari’s Finnish world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

Nico Rosberg achieved an excellent fifth for Williams with Brazilian Felipe Massa having to settle for sixth in the second Ferrari.Read more