Singapore GP: Alonso shines in the lights to take the win in 1st ever night Grand Prix!!!!!

The cards fall for Fernando Alonso! From F1-Live.com

The first ever Formula One night race saw Fernando Alonso take a stunning victory from 15th position on the grid on a day when a safety car and pit errors turned the tables in favour of the former champion and the Renault team.

Ironically, the fuel pressure failure on Alonso’s R28 in qualifying yesterday - combined with the antics of team-mate Nelson Piquet, forced a risky strategy and a timely safety car respectively that gave the former champion the chance he grasped to claim his 20th Grand Prix win.

The 61-lap race saw Felipe Massa dominate the opening laps of the race, pulling away from championship rival Lewis Hamilton with some ease to enjoy a comfortable four second advantage. That advantage was swiftly turned into a massive deficit after Nelson Piquet planted his Renault firmly in the wall and brought out the first safety car period of the race.

While the unfortunate Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg were forced to pit whilst the safety car was on track and the pit lane closed, Massa, Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and the other front runner were able to wait for the pits to open before they all stopped together for that critical first stop.

Not for the first time this year there was a big error from the Ferrari team. Massa received the signal to leave the pit, only to find the fuel hose still attached, crew in the way and the ever unfortunate Adrian Sutil motoring serenely down the pit lane. Massa came to a halt at the end of the pit lane having narrowly avoided the Force India and waited on the team to come and collect the fuel hose before he could continue.

That put Massa to the back of the field and the subsequent drive through penalty for a dangerous release (remarkably similar to Valencia where he received a fine only) effectively ended his race. The Brazilian would take the chequered flag in 13th position and lose ground in the title race.

Alonso meanwhile had opted to take the soft tyre for an aggressive first stint on low fuel and had pitted ahead of the safety car. This vaulted him up to fourth position on track behind two drivers who had yet to pit at all and Rosberg who was soon to take a stop and go penalty for pitting while the pits were closed.

The race played out and Alonso duly took the lead, controlled the pace and took the chequered flag ahead of Rosberg who despite the penalty, finished just three seconds behind the race winner. Rosberg was perhaps fortunate that he was able to pull a large advantage at the restart of the race, thus nullifying to a large extent his drive through penalty.

FINAL RESULTS:

1) Fernando Alonso - Renault

2) Nico Rosberg - Williams - Toyota

3) Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - Mercedes

4) Timo Glock - Toyota

5) Sebastien Vettel - Scuderia Toro Rosso - Ferrari

6) Nick Heidfeld - BMW

7) David Coulthard - Red Bull - Renault

8) Kaz Nakajima - Williams - Toyota

DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP:

1) Lewis Hamilton - 84

2) Felipe Massa - 77

3) Robert Kubica - 64

CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP:

1) McLaren - 135

2) Ferrari - 134

3) BMW - 120

Giants 26, Bengals 23 F/OT

From NFL.com

Carney's field goal in OT lifts Giants over Bengals

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants are off to their best start since 2000, thanks in large part to a little tiptoeing in overtime by Amani Toomer and the sure leg of 44-year-old John Carney.

Carney kicked a 22-yard field goal with 8:39 left in the extra session after Toomer danced the sideline on a 31-yard reception, and the Super Bowl champions overcame a strong effort by the winless Cincinnati Bengals for a 26-23 victory on Sunday.

"My message today was ... it ended up being really the power of the will," coach Tom Coughlin said. "It wasn't our best game, by any means, but we hung in there, we kept battling and scrapping, and in what was not our best game, we found a way to win against a good football team."

The play that set up Carney's fourth field goal was the long pass from Eli Manning to Toomer down the left sideline on a third-and-10 from the Bengals 38.

It was difficult to tell whether Toomer got both feet in bounds. The Giants hustled to the line of scrimmage and handed the ball to Derrick Ward for a 3-yard run to the Bengals 4, precluding a video review.

"I couldn't tell," Toomer said when asked if he was in bounds. "I just got as many feet down as I could."

Toomer is one of the best in the league at getting both feet down, said Manning, who hit 26 of 43 passes for 289 yards.

Coughlin said that the umpire moved off the ball so the Giants knew that the replay official had allowed the play to stand.

The Bengals wanted referee Jeff Triplette to review the play. He could not do it in overtime unless asked by the replay official.

"I don't know if that was a completion or not," said Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who had 12 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown. "But yeah, man, you have to review that. It's too close. I don't know. I was on the side. I thought it was an incompletion, obviously. But yeah, it was close.

"I thought they would review it; they didn't. It was a catch. They won."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the replay official looked at the play and ruled it legal. Aiello said the official would have prevented the ball from being snapped if he had any doubts.
Carney, who was signed before the season to fill in for the injured Lawrence Tynes, has hit all nine of his field goal attempts this season.

"I realize at this point in my career and this opportunity, I am a relief pitcher and when my job is done I will go back to the bullpen and hope for another opportunity somewhere around the league," Carney said.

Brandon Jacobs scored on 1-yard run and Manning threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Boss to seemingly give New York a 23-20 victory with 1:50 to play.

But the Bengals (0-3) drove 71 yards and got a 21-yard field goal from Shayne Graham on the final play of regulation.

There were three scores in the final 4:39. A 17-yard pass from Carson Palmer to Houshmandzadeh gave Cincinnati a 20-16 advantage. Then the Giants went 68 yards in nine plays to retake the lead.

But Palmer drove the Bengals again, hitting Houshmandzadeh on passes of 20, 8, 16 and 9 yards to set up Graham's tying field goal.

Graham also kicked field goals of 22 and 30 yards for the Bengals, who are 0-3 for the first time since 2003, coach Marvin Lewis' first season. Chris Perry, who rushed for 74 yards on 20 carries, also scored on a 25-yard run.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter?game_id=29565&displayPage=tab_gamecenter&season=2008&week=REG3&override=true

Giants 41, Rams 13

From NFL.com

ST. LOUIS -- Justin Tuck swatted Marc Bulger's pass out of the air, plucked it from his shoulder pad, and then had time to take in the scenery en route to the end zone. His 41-yard interception return in the fourth quarter was one of several big plays by the New York Giants' defense in another stifling effort.

"I looked at the Jumbotron and saw I had enough room to slow down," Tuck said. "I don't need to sprint into the end zone. I like to act like I've been there."

The defense spent the entire afternoon in the Rams' backfield, sacking Marc Bulger six times while limiting St. Louis to a fluke touchdown in a 41-13 victory on Sunday.

"Hopefully, this is the start of big things to come," Tuck said. "Six today, but we had the opportunity to have more. You know, you're never satisfied."

Eli Manning threw three touchdown passes, sparking an offense that got one touchdown in the opener with a 97-yard drive in the third quarter. Much of the scoring was window dressing in the Giants' 12th straight victory away from home, a run that includes their Super Bowl victory last February.

The Giants (2-0) have not lost a road game since their opener last season and set an NFL single-season record with 11 straight wins away from home in 2007.

The Rams (0-2) came up with another dud in their home opener, which also served as a tribute to late owner Georgia Frontiere, and are 3-for-24 on third-down conversions in their first two games.

"Our quarterback can't be a pinata," tight end Randy McMichael said. "We've got to give him time."

Coach Scott Linehan fielded only one question in his postgame news conference, prefaced by a lengthy diatribe critical of his team's shortcomings and pointing out the offense has yet to play a down inside the 20. He did note that, unlike in the opening 38-3 blowout loss at Philadelphia, the Rams were in the game until the last half of the fourth quarter.

"The bottom line is we can't expect to win games playing the way we're playing," Linehan said. "We didn't finish, and they did."

Tuck added a pair of sacks and Fred Robbins also had two sacks for the Giants, who got to the quarterback only once in their opening 16-7 victory over the Redskins.

The Rams' 3-13 season in 2007 repelled fans. The last two home games, against the Packers and Steelers, had nearly as many visiting fans. The Rams briefly won back a restless fan base when Torry Holt scored on a 45-yard pass while flat on his back on a ball twice deflected by safety Kenny Phillips.

But the Giants immediately answered with an 82-yard drive capped when Ahmad Bradshaw was untouched on a 16-yard swing pass that made it 27-13 with 7:18 to go. Tuck's return came after he deflected Bulger's pass, and Bradshaw added a 31-yard run to cap a 21-point fourth quarter.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/recap?game_id=29550&displayPage=tab_recap&season=2008&week=REG2

Italian GP: History is made at Rain Soaked Monza as Vettel takes his first GP win!

From F1-Live.com

Sebastian Vettel made history this afternoon at the Italian Grand Prix as he dominated the 53-lap event taking the chequered flag 12 seconds ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. In doing so, Vettel becomes the youngest Grand Prix winner in the history of the sport and launches the Toro Rosso Ferrari team ahead of both Williams Toyota and Red Bull Renault in the constructors’ championship.

It was a flawless drive from the young German racer from the pole position in tricky conditions once again. The race started behind the safety car but even at the end of the first racing lap, Vettel had pulled a two second advantage over Kovalainen in the McLaren Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton aside, Vettel never looked like anything other than a race winner.

Heikki Kovalainen was never a contender for the race win which will be a concern for the Finn on a day when he had a great chance of securing his first win on merit. Like Vettel he used a standard two stop strategy switching from full wet tyres to intermediate tyres for his final stint.

Robert Kubica drove a smart race from 11th position to finish third, just eight seconds behind Kovalainen. The BMW Sauber driver made great use of a one stop strategy to vault ahead of those stopping twice and unlike some, had enough fuel to ensure that his one and only stop was at the optimum time for the switch from wet to intermediate tyres.

Fernando Alonso ran a similar strategy to Kubica and was the second driver today to change to the intermediate rubber as the circuit started to dry from the mid-way point. It was another excellent run from the former champion as he took the chequered flag, less than four seconds behind Kubica.

Nick Heidfeld also has a strong run in the second BMW Sauber, but lost ground to Kubica at the start and then drove a strong race and managed to fend off a sustained attack to finish in fifth position.

Felipe Massa started sixth and finished in the same position on a more traditional two-stop strategy. Massa’s undoing was the timing of his pit stops that dropped him behind the one-stopping Heidfeld, a position he would not be able to recover from. The Brazilian will not be too unhappy with the result however, as he takes another small nibble out of Lewis Hamilton’s championship lead.

Starting 15th, Hamilton had it all to do and the McLaren driver came very close to making it a major upset this afternoon at Monza. Hamilton took enough fuel on board ahead of the race to go the distance with one stop. However he did not take enough fuel to choose the ideal time for that stop. With the circuit drying, Hamilton pitted ahead of some of the other one-stoppers and took a second set of full wet tyres. Had the rain continued, he would have been able to challenge Vettel for the victory. As it was, Hamilton had to make an unscheduled stop to take on the intermediate tyres and he would finish in seventh position.

FINAL RESULTS:

1) Sebastien Vettel - Scuderia Toro Rosso - Ferrari

2) Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren - Mercedes

3) Robert Kubica - BMW

4) Fernando Alonso - Renault

5) Nick Heidfeld - BMW

6) Felipe Massa - Ferrari

7) Lewis Hamilton - McLaren -Mercedes

8) Mark Webber - Red Bull - Renault

DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP:

1) Lewis Hamilton - 78

2) Felipe Massa - 77

3) Robert Kubica - 64

CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP:

1) Ferrari - 134

2) McLaren - 129

3) BMW - 117

Belgian GP: Controversy at Spa as Hamilton is penalized, handing Massa the win!

From F1-Live.com

t was a most dramatic day in the Ardennes once again and this time the action extended beyond the chequered flag. Rain ahead of the 44-lap Belgian Grand Prix and then in the final stages of the race turned the 13th round of the world championship on its head and effectively ended Kimi Raikkonen’s championship hopes. Lewis Hamilton slithered across the line to record what was to be his ninth victory of his career. However, this being Formula One, there would be a few more twists and turns before nightfall at Spa Francorchamps and Felipe Massa was later handed the race win by the race stewards.

It was Raikkonen who made the best of the tricky conditions on the first lap to move from fourth position on the grid to take the race lead at the start of the second lap as pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton spun his McLaren Mercedes at La Source.

Raikkonen took control of the race but was unable to shake Hamilton with the gap fluctuating between two seconds and six seconds throughout the bulk of the race. The turning point - in terms of racing - came three laps from home as light rain began to fall and immediately Raikkonen was forced to back off allowing Hamilton to close right in and challenge for the lead into the final turn with just over two laps remaining.

Hamilton attempted the pass around the outside of the right-left turn – formerly the ‘bus stop’ - but with no room as Raikkonen took his normal racing line, Hamilton was forced off track before rejoining on the main straight. Not deterred, Hamilton pounced and made a clean pass on the Ferrari driver into La Source.

This is the move that would later cost the McLaren driver the race victory as it was determined that he had in fact gained an advantage over his Ferrari rival on the run to the first turn.

With the rains now falling harder and the race just a lap and a half from its conclusion, Hamilton and Raikkonen pushed as hard as they dared in the conditions but both were forced to take avoiding action as Nico Rosberg’s Williams Toyota spun and rejoined in front of them. Hamilton took to the grass and rejoined while Raikkonen had a quick spin before resuming.

Seconds later Raikkonen lost the Ferrari for a second and final time and spun into the retaining wall on the approach to the final turn. Hamilton slithered around the final lap to take the chequered flag ahead of Felipe Massa . It was a sensational final few laps of the race only soured by the post race penalties.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080907153323.shtml


FINAL RESULTS:

1) Felipe Massa - Ferrari

2) Nick Heidfeld - BMW

3) Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - Mercedes

4) Fernando Alonso - Renault

5) Sebastien Vettel - Scuderia Toro Rosso - Ferrari

6) Robert Kubica - BMW

7) Sebastien Bourdais - Scuderia Toro Rosso - Ferrari

8) Mark Webber - Red Bull - Renault

DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP:

1) Lewis Hamilton - 76

2) Felipe Massa - 74

CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONSHIP:

1) Ferrari - 131

2) McLaren - 119

3) BMW - 107

Giants 16, Redskins 7

From NFL.com

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants won the Super Bowl with defense and they kicked off defense of that title with more of the same.

Playing without Pro Bowl linemen Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora, New York limited the new-look Washington Redskins to 11 first downs and 209 total yards and gave indications that these Giants are back for another run in a 16-7 victory that ushered in the NFL season Thursday night.

"We played well and it's no surprise to us," defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. "We feel like we got capable guys and we held them to very few yards other than the two-minute situations where they got most of their yardage. We are confident in our defense and feel like if we stick with the scheme we'll have success all year."

Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress and the rest of the offense that started the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots also came up big in spoiling the debut of Redskins coach Jim Zorn and his West Coast offense.

Manning capped a game-opening 84-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run and recently signed John Carney kicked three field goals as the Giants scored on their first four possessions in posting a rare home win. They won their final 10 road games en route to capturing their third Super Bowl, but they were 3-5 at home, losing the last four games.

The win capped a fun-filled opening night for Giants fans, who saw the retired Strahan hold up the Lombardi Trophy just minutes before the opening kickoff.

"It was a great opening to the season," said Manning, who completed 19 of 35 passes for 216 yards and an interception. "There was a lot of emotion, a lot of excitement. You could feel it in the crowd. It was great to see Michael holding the trophy.

"It was a great crowd. They were fired up. It was good to play well at home and to win a game at home. It's been a while."

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/recap?game_id=29528&displayPage=tab_recap&season=2008&week=REG1