Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso suggests Red Bull sound like sore losers

Monaco: Red Bull sound like sore losers for complaining about the Formula One tyres, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso suggested on Wednesday. The Spaniard, winner in China in April and Barcelona this month, told reporters at the Monaco Grand Prix that it was up to the champions to explain their comments but offered a theory of his own anyway.

"We know that Barcelona was a good race for us and not so good for some of our competitors," he said. Some of these competitors claim to have a super car but the last three pole positions were for another car, when the tyres were new. It sometimes happens when you win too easily for some years, it's difficult to lose some races after."

Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel have won the last three championships and have won two of the five races so far this season. Vettel, the sport's youngest triple champion at 25, is only four points ahead of Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen with Alonso third and 17 points off the lead.

Red Bull's billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz was quoted after the Spanish race, which saw a blizzard of pitstops and Vettel end up off the podium in fourth place, as saying the Pirelli tyres were damaging the sport....more    

F1 tyre changes to be less dramatic than feared

London: Changes to the Formula One tyres due to be introduced next month will be less dramatic than some have feared or hoped for, supplier Pirelli said on Monday. Motorsport director Paul Hembery told Reuters that the Italian company would find a solution that all teams could agree on without the outcome having a major impact on the championship. He said the aim was "to make the changes that you...  

Ferrari, Lotus the F1 winners on return to Europe

London: The first European race of the Formula One season provided a boost for Ferrari and Fernando Alonso, with Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen also smiling, but left plenty of other former champions feeling the pain. While Red Bull retained their lead in both championships, they struggled with similar tyre problems to others in Barcelona on Sunday with triple champion Sebastian Vettel finishing off the podium with his lead over Raikkonen...  

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso wins Spanish Grand Prix 2013

Barcelona: Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix by nearly 10 seconds in a dominant performance in front of his jubilant home fans on Sunday to close the gap on championship leader Sebastian Vettel and get right back in the Formula One title race. Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen finished second for the third straight race, with Alonso's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa in third spot as most drivers chose a four-stop...  

Vettel fastest in second Spanish GP practice

Barcelona: Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel posted the fastest time ahead of archrival Fernando Alonso in the second practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday. Alonso had the best time in the rain-affected first session, where Vettel drove more cautiously, but the Spaniard finished .017 seconds behind the German as sunshine bathed the Circuit de Catalunya for most of the afternoon's run. Vettel clocked 1 minute, 22.808...  

Alonso sets the pace in first practice of Spanish Grand Prix

Barcelona, Spain: Ferrari teammates Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa posted the fastest times in the first practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday. After light rainfall early on, the track started to dry out midway through and times started tumbling towards the end of the session. Alonso clocked 1 minute, 25.252 seconds, making him 0.203 seconds quicker than Massa, who slowed down when he clipped a kerb late...  

Alonso optimistic he can close gap on Vettel

Barcelona: Fernando Alonso is hoping to close the gap on championship leader Sebastian Vettel at the Spanish Grand Prix. He says "until we are 75 or 80 points behind, we should be optimistic" about challenging for the Formula One title. The two-time champion trails Vettel by 30 points after just four races going into this weekend's event. But the Spaniard feels for the first time in years that Ferrari has...  

Fernando Alonso must make the most of being at home

London: Ferrari's Fernando Alonso needs to make the most of home advantage when Formula One's European season starts up in Barcelona on Sunday. The Spaniard has ground to make up on Red Bull's triple champion Sebastian Vettel after four races in Asia and the Middle East. "If I was to score our overall performance, I would only give it a six out of 10," Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis told...  

Mishaps, not car, affecting F1 campaign: Ferrari

Maranello: Ferrari are pleased with their car but ruing mishaps which have limited their success in the first four Formula One races. Fernando Alonso's performances are emblematic of the team's mixed success. He won the Chinese Grand Prix and finished second in Australia but a collision forced him to retire in Malaysia and mechanical problems led to an eighth-place finish in Bahrain. The team's chief designer, Nikolas Tombazis, rates their...  

Rare breakage blamed for Alonso wing problem

The rear wing problem that wrecked Fernando Alonso's hopes of winning in Bahrain last weekend was due to a rare component failure within the DRS system, Ferrari said after an investigation. "It's the first problem of its kind on this system seen on the three years during which it has been used," the Italian team said on their website. "The failure is not something that causes concern for the long...  

Ferrari's Alonso fastest in final practice at Bahrain

Sakhir: Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso recovered from a spin on Saturday to post the fastest lap in the third and final Formula One practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Looking for his second consecutive victory after ending a 12-race drought in China last weekend, Alonso completed a lap in 1:33.247 to finish 0.101 head of three-time defending F1 champion Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber was third fastest,...  

Alonso eyes 2nd straight F1 win in Bahrain

Sakhir, Bahrain: Having ended a 12-race drought with a dominant victory in China, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso is quickly emerging as the most likely candidate to end the dominance of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. The two-time Formula One champion has the chance to overtake Vettel in the drivers' championship with a win on Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, a race that has drawn the ire of rights groups who complain...  

Webber and Alonso provide food for thought

Manama: Mark Webber left the big question unanswered at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Thursday: Who paid for his dinner with Fernando Alonso? Ferrari's Alonso, the race winner in China last Sunday, set the ball rolling earlier in the week when he posted a picture on Twitter of himself and Webber dining together in Dubai. Alonso then deleted the image but Webber had copied and 'retweeted' it. Formula One's conspiracy...  

Preview: Mark Webber to hit the 200 mark at Bahrain GP

Manama: Formula One's most controversial race, the Bahrain Grand Prix with its simmering backdrop of teargas and petrol bombs, might just give Mark Webber something to celebrate on Sunday. Red Bull's Australian has had a pretty thin time of it recently but Sunday's race, in a tiny Gulf kingdom troubled by civil unrest since a 2011 uprising, will be the 200th grand prix of his career. The 36-year-old has been...  

Fernando Alonso remains realistic about title chances

Shanghai: Fernando Alonso has "no illusions" about his prospects in the Formula One championship despite ending a 12-race drought with a commanding victory at the Chinese Grand Prix. The dozen races without a win was the Ferrari driver's longest barren period since his winless 2009 season, and represented a sharp change of fortunes after a Did-Not-Finish result at the previous race in Malaysia. "It couldn't have gone better than this...  

Lewis Hamilton grabs pole position at Chinese Grand Prix

Shanghai: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix. Hamilton's best time on Saturday at the Shanghai International Circuit was 1 minute, 34.484 seconds, qualifying a quarter of a second ahead of Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso will start third in Sunday's race. A cat-and-mouse qualifying session saw all runners restrict their time on the track to preserve their tires for the...  

Ferrari's Alonso fastest in final practice at Shanghai

Shanghai: Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have set the two fastest times in Saturday's pre-qualifying practice session at the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix. Alonso was the quickest around the Shanghai International Circuit with a time of 1 minute, 35.391 seconds - more than six tenths of a second faster than his teammate. Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was third fastest, though there were concerns for the team with teammate and...  

Alonso laughs off team-mate Massa's challenge

Shanghai: Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso responded sarcastically to the qualifying edge currently enjoyed by team-mate Felipe Massa, saying he can't sleep and is losing his hair. Massa has qualified ahead of Alonso in the past four races - the first two this season and the last two last year - and if he does it again this weekend in the Chinese Grand Prix it will be the first time in...