Motorsports Capsules: Teen motorcycle racer killed in crash at Indy
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The motorcycle racing community mourned the death of a promising 13-year-old rider in a crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway while defending the youth circuit that allows teens to drive vehicles that can top 120 mph.
Peter Lenz of Vancouver, Wash., fell off his bike during the warmup lap for Sunday's first race at Indianapolis and was run over by another motorcycle, driven by a 12-year-old. Medical workers immediately placed Lenz in a neck brace, put him on a stretcher and began chest compressions while taking him to a hospital.
Several hours later, he was pronounced dead.
The Marion County coroner's office said Lenz died from blunt force trauma. More details could be released Monday following an autopsy on the youngest driver or rider ever killed at the 101-year-old speedway.
"Peter passed away early this morning when he was apparently struck by another rider," read a posting on Lenz's Facebook page, which was signed "Dad."
"He passed doing what he loved and had his go fast face on as he pulled onto the track," the posting said. "The world lost one of its brightest lights today. God Bless Peter and the other rider involved. 45 is on another road we can only hope to reach. Miss you kiddo."
Lenz rode the No. 45 bike, and his father was at the track Sunday.
It was the first death at the track since IndyCar driver Tony Renna was killed in testing in October 2003.
Lenz had emerged as one of America's youngest rising stars.
At age 11, he earned the "expert" license from the American Federation of Motorcyclists, and in March 2009, Lenz became the youngest rider ever to win an AFM race. This year, competing in the U.S. Grand Prix Racers Union series, Lenz had four wins, five podium finishes and was leading the MD250H classification in points.
The grown-up resume just didn't match his appearance. Listed at 4-foot-11 and 81 pounds, the baby-faced Lenz described his profession as "kid."
"Our hearts go out to the parents, family and friends of Peter Lenz," speedway CEO Jeff Belskus said in a statement. "Words cannot adequately express the sadness of our company and our employees about this tragic incident, and Peter is in our thoughts and prayers."
It wasn't the first time Lenz was involved in a serious crash.
A mechanical failure last season left Lenz with four broken bones and a severed radial nerve — all of which required surgery. By November, Lenz was healthy again and by spring, he was back in Victory Lane.
The fatal accident almost certainly will spark a debate about how young is too young for racers to be competing on one of the world's best-known tracks, whether it's inside a car or riding a motorcycle capable of exceeding 120 mph in a straightaway.
The USGPRU sanctions races across the nation, billing itself as a development circuit for motorcycle racers from ages 12 to 18. The hope is these riders eventually will compete in a world-class series.
Lenz seemed to be on his way to the top before the accident. He was struck by 12-year-old Xavier Zayat, of Flushing, N.Y., who escaped injury and did not race after the crash.
"We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss, but know that Peter is racing even faster in the sky," the Lenz family said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are now with the other racer and his family, who were also involved in this tragedy."
Racers insist age has never been the issue.
American Colin Edwards was running 250cc bikes at age 17, and Indy MotoGP runner-up Ben Spies was competing on the 125cc circuit at age 12.
"That's not like a bike too big for him, you know, I mean this is our sport, we chose to do it," said American Nicky Hayden, the 2006 world champ who called the death "terrible."
"I mean, sure, we know going in the consequences."
But are new rules needed?
Those in racing circles say no, comparing the sport to other potentially dangerous sports such as football and gymnastics. When asked about running at Indy, speedway officials pointed out that the series has stops at potentially more dangerous tracks.
USGPRU officials said this was the first fatality in the series in nine years.
Still, racing conditions were not ideal this weekend at Indy.
Hot, dry weather turned the bumpy, 2.621-mile course into a slick track that tested the world's best riders.
Reigning world champ Valentino Rossi fell four times, including a spill Sunday morning during a 20-minute warmup session. Sunday's Moto2 race was shortened after a big wreck on the first lap took out four drivers.
"This was the most difficult race for everyone," MotoGP winner Dani Pedrosa said. "The conditions were very hard because of the heat and the asphalt was very greasy."
After a brief delay to clear the track, the USGPRU race was restarted. Had they known the severity of the injuries, one official said they would have considered canceling the race. The three other races all started on time, though Lenz was never far from the racers' thoughts.
"This is an ugly, terrible part of this sport," USGPRU chief steward Stewart Aitken-Cade said. "You do what you can to stop it from happening as best you can. That's really all that you can do."
"Any time a racer is injured in this way and loses his life, it's tough, adult or child," Aitken-Cade added. "It just makes it especially difficult when it's a young guy like Peter."
Pedrosa cruises to Indy MotoGP victory
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — There was a brief celebration Sunday when Dani Pedrosa finished his first Indianapolis MotoGP victory, then everyone went back to mourning the loss of the youngest rider ever killed at the historic track.
At just about the time Pedrosa passed pole-winner Ben Spies for the lead, speedway officials confirmed that 13-year-old Peter Lenz had died in a crash. Pedrosa went on to beat Spies by 3.575 seconds for his career-best third victory of the season, emerging from a field of 17 riders still shaken by the earlier accident.
Spies said Colin Edwards was close to Lenz.
"I could see it crushed Colin pretty bad before the race," Spies said. "I told myself before the race I was riding my heart out for him today."
The motivated American rookie still couldn't hold off the hard-charging Pedrosa, but Spies' second-place finish was a career best.
Spies actually held the lead for six laps before the Spaniard pulled up alongside him and passed him on the front straightaway. Pedrosa, the 2009 pole winner, spent the next 21 laps making amends for his big mistake last year — an early crash that took him out of contention.
Sunday was different.
Pedrosa ran a perfect race — steadily passing riders after starting fifth, overtaking Spies early and making it look easy.
"It was a fast bike in the straightaways and it was going well into the corners," Pedrosa said.
Fellow Spaniard and points leader Jorge Lorenzo finished third in his worst result of the season, but was able to extend his season-long streak of consecutive podium finishes to 11.
"I did not start so well," he said. "I was tired and was not able to make the same pace as in qualifying. The bumps were difficult."
Temperatures created a slick track that made it even tougher.
Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi, an Italian, fell four times including during the 20-minute warmup session Sunday morning.
Three riders retired after crashing during the MotoGP race, but none were injured. The Moto2 race was marred by five accidents, including an eight-bike pileup on the first lap that prompted organizers to shorten the race by nine laps.
But the worst crash came in the morning, in a race sanctioned by the U.S. Grand Prix Racers Union.
Lenz, from Vancouver, Wash., fell off his bike and landed on the track during the warmup lap. When he started to get up, another motorcycle, driven by 12-year-old Xavier Zayat, ran over Lenz.
Medical workers immediately fitted Lenz with a neck brace, put him on a stretcher and began chest compressions before transporting him to Methodist Hospital. Speedway officials released a statement later saying Lenz had sustained "traumatic injuries."
Several hours after that, the Marion County coroner's office confirmed the first death at the speedway since IndyCar driver Tony Renna was killed during a test in October 2003. The preliminary report said the cause of death was blunt force trauma. An autopsy is expected to be completed Monday.
USGPRU officials said it was the first death in its nine-year history.
The crash delayed the start of the day's first race, and series officials said they would have considered canceling the race if they had known the severity of the injuries before it began. The other three races went on as scheduled.
Some MotoGP riders, such as Spies, knew about Lenz's death before pulling onto Indy's 2.621-mile course.
Others, such as 2006 world champ Nicky Hayden, didn't know until the race was over.
"We hate it, but we know what's going on when we put on a helmet," Spies said. "We know what can happen."
-- Michael Marot
Notebook: Hayden struggles at Indy
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Nicky Hayden finally got the contract extension he was expecting.
He couldn't celebrate the way he would have liked.
Ducati announced a two-year deal with the United States rider a day before the MotoGP race. Unfortunately, he finished sixth in Sunday's Indianapolis MotoGP after finishing in the top three the previous two years.
"I still can't believe what happened," he said. "I am incredibly disappointed because we had the pace to put in a performance today."
Hayden qualified third, but he lost his chance to win during the third lap when he ran over a drainage cover.
"I was trying to be smooth and just lost the front a little bit there and dug my knee in to save it and it just about ripped me off the bike," he said. "At first, I felt a sharp pain, and then I really didn't notice it until the end."
At least he has security. The Owensboro, Ky., native joined Ducati last year after spending his first six years with Honda. He will be reunited with Valentino Rossi, who will leave Fiat Yamaha to join Ducati next season.
"Last year, I felt like I rode for Ducati, but this year, I feel as if I am a Ducati rider," he said. "The team, sponsors and Ducati fans have really taken me in and supported me a lot, and I hope to pay them back with the results they deserve."
Ducati president Filippo Preziosi said he was pleased to have Hayden back.
"It is no secret that he is a rider who never gives up; his whole racing history shows it," Preziosi said. "As a person, his tenacity is an example for us all because he shows us nothing is impossible if you truly believe," he said.
MOTO2 SHORTENED: Spain's Toni Elias won a crash-filled Moto2 event.
The race was shortened from 26 to 17 laps, in part because of an eight-bike crash in turn two during the first lap.
Elias took the lead right after the restart, but after a few lead changes, polesitter Julian Simon took the lead during lap 11.
Elias regained the lead for good in lap 12, while Simon, another Spaniard, finished second.
There were a total of five crashes in the first nine laps. In all, 10 of the 36 riders who started did not finish.
Roger Lee Hayden, younger brother of Nicky Hayden, started 29th and was one of the riders involved in the early crash. He recovered and finished 17th.
125cc WINNER: Nicolas Terol won the 125cc event, the best of four Spaniards who finished in the top five.
Pol Espargaro finished third, Efren Vazquez fourth and Esteve Rabat fifth.
It was Terol's second straight win and his second win in Indianapolis. He won the 125cc race in 2008.
Sandro Cortese of Germany finished second after getting off to a poor start.
"I think the first meters were quite OK, but then I let the clutch go too early and after the first lap I was maybe 12th or something and then I had to fight back," Cortese said.
Polesitter Marc Marquez, also of Spain, finished 10th.
AOYAMA FINISHES: Japanese racer Hiroshi Aoyama finished 12th out of 17 riders in his first race since breaking his back two months ago.
He rode in a specially designed harness that was designed to give him extra support.
"It was quite a tough race for me, but I was glad I could get some points," he said. "The race was very long and very tough. This was the first step for us to come back, and I'm glad we got the finish that we did."
Aoyama had to balance trying to ride fast and be safe.
"I could not crash at all," he said. "As a rider, I want to go fast, and being careful makes that difficult. This race was a critical test for me, and to finish was very big for me."
ATTENDANCE: Attendance fell for the second straight year, days after it was announced that the event would return in 2011.
A total of 136,184 spectators attended the three days of action. Sunday's total attendance of 62,794 fell from 75,130 last year, when the combined total for the weekend was 146,680.
The three-day total for the first event in 2008 was about 170,000.Still, Ballard was positive about the future.
"A lot of people know that I'm trying to get the name of Indianapolis out across the world, and this event really, really helps in doing that," he said. "There's a lot of economic impact and development as a result of this event."
SPECIAL GUESTS: Jay Leno waved the flag to start the MotoGP race and presented the winner's trophy to Dani Pedrosa.
Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner, presented the second-place trophy to American rider Ben Spies. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard gave the third-place trophy to Jorge Lorenzo.
-- Cliff Brunt
Nationwide
Boris Said wins Nationwide race at Montreal
MONTREAL (AP) — Boris Said has made a living helping NASCAR drivers master road courses with the expertise he's accumulated racing around the world. With his 48th birthday looming in three weeks, he finally helped himself.
Said came back from an early spin and won the Nationwide race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday, edging Max Papis by a nose on a green-white-checkered finish to win the crash-filled event.
"I can't believe it!" Said shouted over the radio of his 09 Ford to team owner Robby Benton. "I'm going to keep trying until I win a Cup race."
Last year, Carl Edwards passed Marcos Ambrose on the final turn to win here, and it seemed like a repeat when Papis dove past Said entering the final chicane. The lead last only for a split second, though. Said never lost momentum and sped back by as Papis sailed wide, and he outraced him to the line.
The margin of victory was .012 seconds, fifth-lowest all-time and closest since 1998 at Homestead.
"I thought I went pretty deep," Said said. "I wanted to be careful, I didn't want to overshoot it. When he went that deep, if he makes it he deserves it."
Papis, driving Kevin Harvick's No. 33, didn't and Said had his first career Nationwide victory in 22 races over the past decade and his second in NASCAR. He also won a truck race at Sonoma in 1998, his only triumph in 127 previous starts across NASCAR's top three series.
French Canadian star Jacques Villeneuve started on the front row and was third in his No. 32 Toyota, followed by series points leader Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard.
"You need the fastest car at the end of hte race," said Villeneuve, who elicited roars from the animated crowd when he briefly got past Papis with one lap to go. "We just didn't lead the race long enough. We were just behind some road race experts the last three laps. It was one thing to get by him (Papis), but it was tough. I didn't make it stick."
Robby Gordon had the lead when the race restarted for the final time, but he ran out of fuel and finished 14th.
Ambrose, the pole-sitter, and Edwards had combined to win the previous five road races in the series and it appeared they would challenge each other for the win on Sunday. They combined to lead more than 50 laps, but both dropped out with mechanical problems.
On a restart with six laps left, Gordon led Papis to the green and the two tangled in the second turn, a sweeping right-hander. Papis was forced into the grass on the inside and Gordon drove through, too, but maintained the lead after both recovered.
Seconds later, Villeneuve hit Jason Leffler as four cars collided to bring out another stoppage, setting up a three-lap shootout.
But the race was interrupted one last time when Trevor Bayne, JR Fitzpatrick, and Keselowski collided to bring out the seventh and final caution. NASCAR stopped the race for 13 minutes while the track was cleaned to set up a green-white-checkered finish for the second straight year and put the pit crews on edge as they all contemplated fuel.
Crew chief Miles Stanley said Gordon could go the distance, but he pitted on lap 48 of a race that went 77, and the final caution created some doubt.
"This is a little bit of overtime," Stanley said. "We weren't counting on that caution. We'll see what we've got."
"It's going to be exciting," Villeneuve's crew chief Trent Owens said. "I hope we can close this thing out. We need one real bad. It doesn't matter if we finish third, fourth, or fifth. We want to win."
With only 11 cars on the lead lap, it provided the cars in doubt a chance to stop for a splash of fuel. There were no takers and Gordon was warned to keep pace before the green flag waved. He ran out right after the restart, giving Said the lead as Papis fought off a challenge from Villeneuve to make his final charge.
"If the race doesn't have a caution at the end, we win," Gordon said. "We made our bed this morning."
Gordon returned for the race for the first time in three years to make amends for the inaugural and controversial 2007 Nationwide race here when he crossed the finish line first but was denied the victory because he had ignored a black flag. He was a disappointing 16th in qualifying on Saturday because of a brake problem and had to start at the rear off the field because his crew fixed it when the cars were impounded.
That put Gordon on a fuel strategy plan, and it appeared to be the right call when Ambrose retired with electrical problems with just over 20 laps to go and Edwards suffered a broken track bar with less than 10 laps remaining around the 14-turn, 2.71-mile layout. Edwards finished 20th, falling 365 points behind Keselowski with 10 races remaining in the season.
At the drivers' meeting, Ambrose picked to start on the right heading into the first curve, a hard lefthander leading into the sweeping right. He made the strategy work over and over, outracing Villeneuve at the start and after the first three cautions.
Those cautions flew in the first 13 laps, the third involving six cars, including Gordon's right rear.
Villeneuve spun Said on the 34th lap heading into the 10th turn, a hairpin right, but Said recovered quickly to stay on pace.
The last two Nationwide events here were plagued by rain. Sunday's race was run under sunny skies with temperatures in the 80s.
-- John Kekis
Notebook: Max Papis has a day to remember at Montreal
MONTREAL (AP) — Max Papis may no longer be running a full Sprint Cup schedule, but he still gets stoked when things go right in whatever he's driving.
After topping the speed charts in Happy Hour for Sunday's Nationwide race, Papis qualified ninth in Kevin Harvick's Chevrolet and was ecstatic because he knew he had a good ride for his first Nationwide race of the year.
"It's good for the morale," said Papis, who has one top-10 in five starts in NASCAR's truck series and not much to show in 18 Cup starts for Germain Racing. "I even told myself, 'When you're in a good car, you do your best and results will come.' "
It did on Sunday. Papis ran up front all afternoon at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and passed eventual winner Boris Said entering the final chicane on the tricky 14-turn layout. Unfortunately, Papis swung too wide and Said beat him to the line by a nose in the fifth-closest finish in series history — .012 seconds.
"We had a strong race car, but it's not a win," Papis said. "It's maybe the first time that I had a chance to really sit in a car that had a legitimate chance to win and we came down to the last corner."
This season in Cup, Papis has had two blown engines, suffered overheating problems in three races, and also has a handful of start-and-parks. He has plans to drive the truck series next year.
The 40-year-old Italian, an accomplished road racer, won three times in the former CART Series and has won the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. He's made 35 Cup starts in three years. His best finish this year was 22nd at Texas and on the road course at Watkins Glen.
"I'm pretty proud. I came a long way," Papis said. "When I came here the first time a couple of years ago, I was definitely a fish out of water. Now, I feel I've improved tremendously. It's like Christmas four months early for me."
ROAD COURSE RINGERS: The NASCAR Nationwide race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday had a strong group road-course talent in Marcos Ambrose, Robby Gordon, Boris Said, and Max Papis, along with Canadians Ron Fellows, Jacques Villeneuve, Patrick Carpentier, J.R. Fitzpatrick and Andrew Ranger.
Series leader Brad Keselowski is intent on joining them. After finishing last in his first series road race at Mexico City in 2007, Keselowski's average finish in the next 12 road races was 6.9, including consecutive career-best fourth-place efforts at Road America and Watkins Glen earlier this summer.
He made it three straight fourths on Sunday after starting eighth in the crash-filled Nationwide race in Montreal.
"It takes a little bit of experience," said Keselowski, fifth last year at Montreal. "Experience is going to get you farther than anything else, just doing it yourself. I can watch Shaquille O'Neal dunk all day long, but I don't think I'm going to be able to dunk. It takes a little bit of experience, and I think I can get there."
RANGER'S ROOST: Rising French Canadian driver Andrew Ranger started from the pole and won the NAPA Auto Pro 100 in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series on Sunday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
After surviving an early challenge from series points leader JR Fitzpatrick, who had to retire with a broken axle, Ranger beat Jason Bowles on a restart with two laps to go and had a lead of several car-lengths entering the final lap on the 14-turn road course.
Bowles made one final charge heading into the 10th turn, a hairpin right-hander, blatantly slamming the right rear of Ranger's No. 27 Dodge and gaining the lead.
The 23-year-old Ranger, who won the series championship in 2007 as a rookie and in 2009, recovered quickly. He drove up to the back bumper of Bowles' No. 11 Dodge, spun him into the outside wall entering the final two turns, and cruised to the victory over Don Thompson Jr.
"The restarts were really tough on me. I was lucky to get through the first corner," said Ranger, a native of Roxton Pond, Quebec. "My car was just all over the place. To see the white flag, I feel really nervous, trying not to make a mistake. We drove into the hairpin and he came really hard. He passed me, but it's my town.
"I was actually really (peeved) and came down to the chicane," Ranger said. "I pushed him a little bit. I don't know what happened. I hit him a little bit, yeah."
Ranger poked his left arm out his window in triumph after crossing the finish line and did a smoky burnout to the delight of the Canadian fans, who roared their approval.
Bowles finished 21st, one spot behind former Montreal Canadiens defenseman Patrice Brisebois and two behind Fitzpatrick.
SPARK PLUGS: None of the first three Nationwide winners at Montreal — Kevin Harvick, Ron Fellows and Carl Edwards — dominated enough to score a perfect driver rating of 150.0. At both Road America and Watkins Glen this year, wins were coupled by a perfect rating: Edwards at Road America and Ambrose at Watkins Glen ... Ambrose led the most laps in each of the first three Nationwide races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve — 37 in 2007, 27 in 2008, and 60 last year. He finished seventh, third, and second, respectively ... Two Nationwide road races have ended with a last-lap pass — Carl Edwards passed Marcos Ambrose on the last turn at Montreal last August and Dale Earnhardt Jr. passed Ron Fellows on the last lap at Watkins Glen in June 1999 ... Ron Fellows made his 18th road-course start in the series, the most of any driver in Sunday's lineup ... 70-year-old retired Canadian general Lewis MacKenzie finished 15th among 30 drivers in the Formula Tour 1600 race. Driver and television commentator Didier Schraenen finished eighth but suffered a heart attack afterward and was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery. The 51-year-old Schraenen, a three-time Canadian F1600 champion and a racing analyst on the RDS all-sports network, was reported in stable condition.
-- John Kekis
IndyCar
Despite good show, IndyCar might leave Chicagoland
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — The IndyCar series put on another strong race at Chicagoland Speedway, with the leaders spending much of Saturday night zigzagging in traffic while inches apart at speeds of more than 200 mph.
But when Dario Franchitti crossed the finish line first, it might have marked the last time IndyCar runs at one of its most entertaining venues for the foreseeable future. When the series' 2011 schedule comes out, Chicagoland might not be on it.
"I think it would be a shame," second-place finisher Dan Wheldon said. "It always produces the racing that I think the fans like to see. I think for the most part, this was a show, which is what's important, but it's also fun to drive. I think the series obviously has to be very diverse to attract and appease everybody, and this is always a good event."
IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said Saturday that he has had discussions with officials from Chicagoland and its parent company, International Speedway Corp., but wasn't sure if they're "all on the same page right now."
Chicagoland's prestige in NASCAR is rising; next year, it will host the first race in the Chase. But its stock seems to be falling in IndyCar.
An attendance figure wasn't immediately available for Saturday's race, but there were large patches of open space in the grandstands. Bernard hinted that some tracks currently on the IndyCar schedule aren't doing enough to market their events.
"We want to talk to all the promoters, we want to get all of them here and say, 'OK, which one of you want to do the best job for IndyCar, which ones are going to act on their marketing, which ones are going to make sure they try to bring as many fans as possible?'" Bernard said. "We're still in that process. We're down to those final stages of really determining who those are, but that's where we're at."
Bernard said he is talking to several potential promoters about bringing the series back to the Milwaukee Mile, which withdrew from hosting major racing events after past promoters ran into financial problems and a suitable replacement couldn't be found.
It's not clear whether a deal can be struck to bring IndyCar back to Milwaukee in time for next season, or what weekend the race might be held. But it is clear that IndyCar probably wouldn't race in two markets so close to each other.
"Chicago has been a great place, great races," Bernard said. "We have great fans here. (But) it would most likely be Chicago or Milwaukee possibly. I mean, I don't know if we need both."
Having Milwaukee back on the schedule certainly would be a nod to tradition; the track ran its first auto racing event in 1903 and is best known for hosting an Indy-style race the weekend after the Indianapolis 500.
But from a pure entertainment value perspective, trading Chicagoland for Milwaukee on the schedule would be a step backward.
Consider this: Franchitti beat Wheldon to the finish line by 0.0423 of a second on Saturday — and it was only the sixth-closest IndyCar finish at the track.
"I hope it was as entertaining for the fans as it was for the drivers," Wheldon said. "It was pretty hairy at times."
IndyCar drivers talk about Chicagoland in much the same way that NASCAR drivers talk about their series' two restrictor-plate tracks, Daytona and Talladega: It's a remarkable show for fans, if a little bit unsettling from where the drivers are sitting.
Franchitti acknowledged that Chicagoland wasn't his favorite place to race, even though he has won there twice, on Saturday and in 2007.
"There's nothing wrong with the track at all; great track, great fans," Franchitti said. "But yeah, I much prefer more if it's in the driver's hands."
The big packs of close-running cars might be thrilling to watch, but some drivers don't like having their fates tied so closely to fellow drivers not making mistakes.
"That's the trouble with this style of racing sometimes," Franchitti said. "Sometimes it's either how brave or how stupid you want to be. And there were some very nice moves made out there, and there was some bloody stupid moves made out there, and there was also just some misunderstandings out there."
So if Chicagoland isn't on the schedule next season, Franchitti might not miss it.
"When you're three wide and three rows deep, look out," Franchitti said. "I'm just glad everybody got out of here in one piece tonight."
-- Chris Jenkins
Formula 1
Hamilton wins Belgian GP to take F1 lead
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (AP) — Lewis Hamilton overcame a late scare to win the Belgian Grand Prix and regain the overall lead of the Formula One championship Sunday.
Hamilton ran off the track with nine laps to race but recovered to keep the lead and edge second-place Mark Webber of Red Bull.
"I locked my wheel and went wide," Hamilton said. "I just clipped (the wall). But I was able to get away with it."
Webber dropped to second in the overall standings after failing to defend his pole position with a clutch problem giving him a poor start off the line.
Jenson Button's championship hopes took a hit after the defending F1 champion was knocked out of the race when Sebastian Vettel crashed into him during a failed overtaking maneuver.
Hamilton's 14th career win gave the Briton 182 points — three more than Webber — as the top two opened up a gap over the other title favorites.
"It was a pretty mixed up race (so) I'm happy with second in the end," Webber said.
Vettel stayed third with 151 points, Button is fourth with 147 and Fernando Alonso of Ferrari abandoned the race after spinning out to remain fifth on 141.
With six races to go and the Italian GP next on Sept. 12, Alonso believes the championship remains wide open.
"In the next race maybe it's the opposite (results) and we go back to the positions we had yesterday afternoon," the two-time world champion said. "For us, it's still a possibility."
Robert Kubica of Renault was third in the race ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferrari, while Force India's Adrian Sutil completed the top five.
Hamilton's victory means nine of 13 races have been won by drivers not on the pole. Red Bull has taken the pole for 12 of the 13 races.
"When you have a weekend and a race like that, when it can be a lottery, and you can come out on top — I'm really, really happy," said Hamilton, who finally picked up a victory at Spa after having one taken away in 2008 for cutting a chicane.
Hamilton jumped into the lead as Webber started slowly to sit fifth behind Kubica, Button, Vettel and Massa.
Button overtook Kubica to put McLaren in control, while Alonso dropped into 18th after surviving Rubens Barrichello's crash into him on the second lap, with the safety car deployed and rain falling. Barrichello didn't return to complete his record 300th GP.
Vettel pushed ahead of Kubica into third behind the McLarens and Webber got past Massa for fourth when the safety car came in and the sun came out.
But the circuit was still slick and Vettel skidded into the side of Button.
"It's a massive blow, a massive blow," Button told the BBC. "It was looking really good. I don't know what happened with Sebastian."
Vettel could only apologize after another erratic move left him without points. Vettel collided with Webber in a similar move to go out of the race in Turkey.
"Obviously it was not my intention to destroy his race or mine," the German driver said. "I tried to out-brake him on the outside. I lost the car under braking on the bump and then I couldn't really control it anymore."
After knocking Button out of the race, Vettel's drive-through penalty knocked him into 13th and a punctured tire lap saw him drop out of the points to finish 15th.
Rain fell over the close of the race with Hamilton losing the line and going into the gravel at Rivage. But the 2008 F1 champion, who picked up his first win here, avoided the wall and his 12-second lead allowed him to stay in front.
Webber jumped ahead of Kubica following a poor pit stop by the Polish driver and Hamilton hung on in the rain after the safety car was deployed with five laps to go after Alonso lost control after coming out Les Combes.
Mercedes pair Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher finished sixth and seventh. Schumacher, with six career wins at the Ardennes circuit, had started 21st.
-- Paul Logothetis
