German Formula One driver Adrian Sutil was recently handed down a suspended 18-month prison sentence by a court in Germany after he was convicted of an assault charge.

The 29-year-old was accused of attacking chief executive Eric Lux, co-owner of the former Renault-Lotus (now Lotus) team, with a champagne glass in a Shanghai nightclub. After the incident that occurred after the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix in April, Lux suffered an injury to the neck which required him to have 24 stitches. Sutil was therefore charged with grievous bodily harm.

Sutil apologised when he appeared at the Munich court on Monday’s first day of proceedings, saying he had not intended to harm Lux and that the injuries were an “unintentional accident”.

Sutil is currently without a drive for 2012 after being replaced by Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg at Force India in December.

Source: Sky News

Approximately 60,000 spectators came out in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire over the weekend to see Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel and seven-times GP winner Mark Webber drive their Red Bull Racing cars on the city’s streets.

Milton Keynes hosted the free event in honour of another Championship winning season where Vettel and Webber came directly from the end-of-term FIA awards’ ceremony in Delhi.

The team members, celebrating their double World Champion success, were joined by David Coulthard, who drove a Nascar, Red Bull stunt rider Chris Pfeiffer and F1 presenter Jake Humphrey.

“It’s great to be here in Milton Keynes which is where the cars are built and everyone from the factory works. It’s nice to say thank you and to see all the fans from the area,” said Sebastian Vettel commenting on the event.

source: Supersport 

FIA, Formula 1′s ruling body, has finalised the 20 race calendar for 2012.  The calendar was approved on Wednesday at the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) meeting in New Delhi.

The F1 Grand Prix will kick-start the season in Melbourne, Australia from the 16th to the 18th March. The U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas remains on the list as race organizers recently announced a 10-year deal with F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, ending a contract dispute that threatened to kill the race and a new $300 million track as work on the Circuit of The Americas was halted for several weeks during the dispute. The race will mark F1′s first in the United States since 2007. Despite concerns in Bahrain due to a bomb explosion outside the British embassy last weekend, the scheduled dates for the 20th to the 22nd April remain unchanged. You can view the complete list of the 2012 F1 locations on the Formula 1 website.

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Formula One team Renault has confirmed that Robert Kubica will miss at least the early part of the 2012 F1 season as he struggles to recover from serious injuries that he sustained in a rally crash in February.

Kubica suffered massive injuries to the right side of his body, almost severing his forearm as well as fractures to his leg and shoulder as a result of the near fatal accident. Although Renault had hoped that their number one driver would have made a full recovery to participate in the 2012 season, this is unfortunately not the case. Renault said he can walk freely and has regained movement in his elbow and hand, but will need more rehabilitation work to get himself up to the high levels of fitness required for F1.

Kubica has said that his recovery has been very encouraging and his doctors are continuously impressed with his progress but he also described this year’s events as “the most difficult period of my life.”

source: Supersport

Lewis Hamilton is hoping his victory in Abu Dhabi is just the start of his return to the top of Formula One.

The McLaren driver has had, in his own words, his “worst” season ever in F1 this year, winning just two races ahead of Sunday’s grand prix at the Yas Marina circuit.

Spending more time in the stewards’ offices than he had done on the podium, Hamilton was in desperate need of a strong finish to the Championship.

And it was handed to him on a plate on Sunday when pole-sitter and proverbial race winner Sebastian Vettel retired on the first lap, gifting the lead to Hamilton.

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Despite the recent deaths of IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon and MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli on te tracks, Michael Schumacher has said that motorsport safety has been greatly improved in recent years and that these kind of tragedies are more a product of fate than anything else.

“If something has to happen, that is something I would call fate, and fate is something we are all faced with,” Schumacher said. According to the Formula One champion, total safety in this kind of sport is impossible and that the nature and goal of the drivers is to push their cars to limit rather than think of the risks involved.

Wheldon, a British national, died after colliding with the catchfence and catching on fire on the track during a 15 car accident in Las Vegas while Italian Simoncelli died when he lost control of his bike and then his helmet and crashed into two other drivers in Sepang.

source: skysports

Jenson Button may have won the Japanese GP, however, the McLaren driver concedes the glory belongs to Sebastian Vettel, who clinched his second World title.

Heading into Sunday’s 53-lap grand prix, Button was the only man standing between Vettel and the Drivers’ Championship. But with the Red Bull racer needing just one point even Button’s victory could not prevent him from sealing the crown.

“I think it should be Seb who we talk about because this guy has done a good job this year,” Button said. “However hard we tried we have not been able to touch him all year, so congratulations.

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