Motorsports Mondial

Senna at Spa

Photo. Lotus Renault Media

Bruno Senna is back in Formula 1 this weekend at Spa with Lotus-Renault team. Behind him is team manager Eric Boullier and, second from right, French driver Jean-Eric Vergne.

 

Money talks and Heidfeld walks. Bruno Senna is back in Formula 1. The Brazilian will race at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. Reports, though not confirmed by the team, are that he may also race in the next round at Monza, which will see the season finale of GP2 series. And the plot thickens.

The GP2 Championship is led by Romain Grosjean and may even be decided in the Ardennes forest on Sunday. Grosjean is now under the wings of Gravity Management, part of the Genii Capital. The Swiss-born Frenchman may replace Senna after Monza as he is being groomed to take over the seat of Robert Kubica if the Pole star is unable to make a full recovery to compete in F1.

Nick Heidfeld was a victim of BMW’s withdrawal from F1 following the worldwide financial meltdown. The German driver from Mönchengladbach  won the 1999 Formula 3000 Championship and made his F1 debut in 2000 with Prost. He was supported in his early career by McLaren-Mercedes and was set to drive for the Woking team till the Ice Man walked in from the cold.

Kubica’s unfortunate accident earlier this year opened the door for Heidfeld. Much was expected based on his experience and despite leading Petrov in the points table, the performance has not been career saving, let alone enhancing. This in turn opened the door for boys and bucks from Brazil.

Genii Capital has now merged with a Brazilian company, Worldwide Investments, and choice of Senna did not surprise many. The nephew of triple world champion raced in Formula BMW, British F3 and GP2 before making his F1 debut last year with Hispania Racing Team.

 

— Nasir Hameed

   Greetings and Raidillon regards.

 

Spa Francorchamps Friday practice times:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps
 1.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m50.321s            22
 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m50.461s  + 0.140s  18
 3.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m50.770s  + 0.449s  9
 4.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m50.838s  + 0.517s  9
 5.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m51.218s  + 0.897s  14
 6.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m51.242s  + 0.921s  22
 7.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m51.655s  + 1.334s  20
 8.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m51.725s  + 1.404s  17
 9.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m51.751s  + 1.430s  8
10.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m51.790s  + 1.469s  13
11.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m51.922s  + 1.601s  22
12.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Cosworth     1m52.750s  + 2.429s  20
13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m52.780s  + 2.459s  25
14.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m52.911s  + 2.59 s  24
15.  Sébastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m53.009s  + 2.688s  24
16.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m53.156s  + 2.835s  17
17.  Bruno Senna         Renault               1m53.835s  + 3.514s  20
18.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Renault         1m55.051s  + 4.730s  20
19.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m55.494s  + 5.173s  22
20.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Renault         1m56.202s  + 5.881s  15
21.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m56.816s  + 6.495s  20
22.  Tonio Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth          1m57.450s  + 7.129s  19
23.  Daniel Ricciardo    HRT-Cosworth          1m57.612s  + 7.291s  24
24.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               2m02.234s  + 11.913s 12