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Pos  Driver         Team                    Time               Laps
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:22.839            27
 2.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:22.915  + 0.076   32
 3.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:23.061  + 0.222   20
 4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:23.154  + 0.315   22
 5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:23.210  + 0.371   38
 6.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:23.415  + 0.576   23
 7.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:23.708  + 0.869   31
 8.  Kubica         Renault                 1:23.709  + 0.870   32
 9.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:23.852  + 1.013   30
10.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:23.857  + 1.018   29
11.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:24.181  + 1.342   35
12.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:24.380  + 1.541   36
13.  Petrov         Renault                 1:24.407  + 1.568   21
14.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:24.448  + 1.609   29
15.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:24.517  + 1.678   35
16.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:24.547  + 1.708   32
17.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:24.785  + 1.946   31
18.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:25.106  + 2.267   24
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:26.204  + 3.365   38
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:26.306  + 3.467   41
21.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:26.631  + 3.792   31
22.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:26.676  + 3.837   25
23.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth            1:29.498  + 6.659    5
24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth                                 3
 

Pos  Driver         Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:23.693            28
 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:23.790  + 0.097   27
 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:23.967  + 0.274   25
 4.  Kubica         Renault                1:24.120  + 0.427   25
 5.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:24.129  + 0.436   30
 6.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:24.446  + 0.753   26
 7.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:24.512  + 0.819   19
 8.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:24.543  + 0.850   24
 9.  Massa          Ferrari                1:24.648  + 0.955   22
10.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:24.756  + 1.063   26
11.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:24.841  + 1.148   28
12.  di Resta       Force India-Mercedes   1:24.923  + 1.230   23
13.  Petrov         Renault                1:25.292  + 1.599   25
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:25.318  + 1.625   29
15.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:25.320  + 1.627   20
16.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:25.334  + 1.641   24
17.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:25.897  + 2.204   19
18.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:26.772  + 3.079   19
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:26.898  + 3.205   12
20.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:26.956  + 3.263   17
21.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:27.374  + 3.681   14
22.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:28.256  + 4.563    8
23.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:28.516  + 4.823    4
24.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth           1:29.870  + 6.177   17
 

Former Liverpool and Lyon boss Gerard Houllier has been appointed the new manager of Aston Villa.

The 63-year-old left the post of technical director at the French Football Federation to return to English football after six years away.

He takes over from caretaker Kevin MacDonald, who had been in charge since Martin O'Neill left on 9 August.

Chief executive Paul Faulkner said: "He [Houllier] understands the ethos of our club and shares our core values."

No announcement has yet been made on the future of MacDonald, who stepped up from his position of reserve team coach when O'Neill left before the start of the season.

Phil Thompson, Houllier's number two at Anfield, had been linked with the assistant manager's role at Villa Park but has decided to continue working as a television pundit.

He said: It was hugely flattering and enticing to be asked, I had no choice but to turn the offer down.

"With Gerard, you are signing up to 12-hour days. You have to be totally committed. I would throw myself at such a challenge again but at the same time I do not want to uproot my wife and two boys and I'm not someone who could live away from them through the week."

The length of Houllier's contract has also not yet been revealed.

He will be formally presented to the media on Friday, with his first game in charge away to Stoke on Monday.

"Two of the key qualities which we identified as being of crucial importance in our search for the new manager were experience of managing in the Premier League and a strategy for building on the existing strengths in our current squad," said Faulkner.

"Gerard Houllier comfortably satisfies these criteria."

Houllier admitted it had been a "very difficult decision" to leave his post in France but he was "very happy and proud to join this great and historic club".

"I could not turn down the opportunity to manage a club whose approach, both on and off the pitch, I have long admired," he stated.

"Aston Villa is one of England's biggest clubs and has an amazing set of fans.

"This is a tremendous challenge and one I am very much looking forward to taking on."

Houllier has an impressive record in club management, having led Liverpool to the FA Cup, League Cup and Uefa Cup Treble in 2001.

After leaving Anfield, he managed Lyon between 2005 and 2007, winning two league titles.

His other former clubs include Paris St Germain and Lens, and he also coached France between 1992 and 1993, when he failed to secure qualification for the 1994 World Cup finals.

McLaren has confirmed that it has had to modify its car to avoid failing the more stringent flexible bodywork tests being introduced at this weekend's Grand Prix - but says it has managed to turn the change into a performance upgrade.

As part of the range of measures taken to address the controversy over allegedly flexible wings, cars will be subjected to extra tests to their floors from Monza.

Tim Goss, chief engineer on McLaren's MP4-25, acknowledged that the new tests would be much tougher for the team that the front wing checks that were ramped up for Spa.

"We haven't had to make any modifications to front wings in terms of bodywork flexibility," he said during the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in teleconference.

"As far as the 'bib' is concerned, the new off-set load test is challenging and we've had to make minor modifications just to make sure that we're well inside the deflection limits that the FIA are going to set on that. We've modified our bib, and we've taken the opportunity to roll it up into a minor performance upgrade."

He believes the Monza changes will have forced the entire pitlane into modifying their cars.

"I think as far as the off-set bib test is concerned, I would expect most teams would probably have had to make changes to comply with that," Goss said.

"As far as articulated planks are concerned, there are a number of teams that run floor-skids in multiple pieces and the FIA have tightened up on that to ban articulated skidblocks. I'd imagine other teams would have to do modifications for that.

"As far as the wings are concerned, the evidence from Spa was, you'd have to say, that there seemed to be fewer cars running more flexible wings."

Goss is confident that the modified McLaren will be extremely competitive at Monza, not just because the car is expected to be well-suited to the circuit, but because recent upgrades have now started paying off. Following a run of disappointing races - and particularly a bad weekend at Hungary - McLaren regained ground and won at Spa.

"We have a very ambitious car aerodynamically, so really we think we've got a good chance of occupying the front row and a good chance of challenging for a race win," said Goss of McLaren's Monza prospects.

"We were shocked and disappointed at our performance in Hungary - the Red Bull seemed to be particularly competitive on longer, flowing corners and certainly in Hungary we weren't able to compete with them.

"Our performance at Spa was partly due to circuit characteristics but also we did bring substantial and significant performance upgrades to the car.

"We've been playing catch-up on blown diffusers for a couple of races and we're actually just getting to grips with setting the car up around it. We made some significant developments there and that is hopefully going to carry us through to not just circuits like Spa and Monza, but through the remaining circuits that we've got this season."

FIA president Jean Todt says motor racing's governing body could not hand Ferrari any further sanctions for using team orders at the German Grand Prix, because there was not enough evidence to prove it had broken the rules.

With the FIA's World Motor Sport Council having decided to simply uphold the $100,000 (USD) fine Ferrari was handed at Hockenheim during a disciplinary hearing in Paris on Wednesday, Todt says that without proof of team orders being used there was little else the FIA could do.

"Before you say you are guilty, you need to be able to prove that you are guilty," Todt said in an interview with the BBC.

"And if you understand all the parts that have been asked, everyone has denied that it was a team order."

When asked to respond to suggestions that, despite Ferrari's denials, many people believed the outfit had used team orders, Todt said: "I tend to agree as well."

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali welcomed the decision of the governing body to not hand further sanctions down, and thought moves to review the team orders ban would be good for the sport.

(Update)USD vs JPY new 15 Year Low 83.35 -Sept 8, 2010(Intraday Trading)

Lotus is close to finalising a switch to Renault engines for next season - but the deal still depend on whether it can find an agreement with Cosworth to end its contract with the engine-supplier, two years before the contract end.

ALLSPORT understands that a deal has been agreed in principle for Lotus to secure a supply of Renault customer engines for 2011 – which would see the team receive the same specification of power-unit as other customer team, Red Bull Racing.

It is believed the move came out when Lotus originally sought out a new supplier of gearboxes and transmissions for next year – after frustrations with reliability in that area.

Renault was happy to supply its gearbox and transmission units ,but to increase its engine supply deals, it made a big effort to sell its power unit as part of the package too.

However, despite sources suggesting that a deal is ready to be signed for Lotus and Renault to tie up for the first time since 1986, Lotus still needs to resolve contractual issues with Cosworth, its current engine-supplier.

As part of the deal it made when it entered F1 this year, Lotus signed a fixed three-year contract with Cosworth – and it is believed there is no way back that would allow the team to get out of that unless the engine supplier was willing to do so.

It is not clear at the moment whether a financial settlement can be reached for Cosworth to agree to cut short its deal, or whether Lotus will be forced to delay its Renault ambitions.

Neither Lotus nor Cosworth have elaborated on the situation, and both insist that there are no plans for their relationship to change for now.

The MSCI World Index slid 1.1 percent and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 1.2 percent at 4 p.m. in New York. The gaps between 10-year German bond yields and Irish and Portuguese debt grew to all-time highs, while the German-Greek yield spread increased to the widest since May. The yen rose to as little as 83.53 per dollar as the Bank of Japan refrained from increasing bank loans. Ten-year Treasury yields lost 10 basis points to 2.6 percent. Gold futures closed at $1,259.30 an ounce.

Formula One is no paragon of virtue. Any sport which allows Flavio Briatore to stroll around the Monaco paddock topping up his perma-tan six months after being found guilty of ordering a young driver to crash his car - even if his ban was overturned due to a technicality - is of dubious moral persuasion.

Scandals crop up on a regular basis and teams are forever seeking to bend the rules in their favour, to buy themselves that crucial advantage.

Crucially, though, what the public see out on track is each and every team and driver giving their utmost to be the quickest out there.

It is for this reason that the row over Ferrari's team orders at Hockenheim is so significant. It is not about corruption in sport so much as the corruption of sport at its most basic level.

With their manipulation of the outcome of the German Grand Prix, Ferrari stand accused not merely of breaking the rules but of betraying the very spirit of competition. It is a serious charge.

The erosion of trust that follows such cynicism, so the argument goes, will inevitably lead fans to question how deep the stitch-up goes; whether what they are paying to watch is, in fact, little more than World Wrestling Entertainment on wheels.

What it is important to remember is that there are two separate issues here.

Ferrari cheated, of course, and for that reason they should be punished when the World Motor Sport Council convenes in Paris on Wednesday. But the second issue, the larger issue, is over the ban on team orders in general, which is hugely problematic both from an ideological and a practical viewpoint.

Ferrari can argue, for example, that no explicit order was ever given in Germany. Rob Smedley, Felipe Massa's race engineer, merely informed his man that Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso was faster than him.

There has been speculation in the Italian press that Ferrari might be prepared to launch civil action on precisely this point of order should their sentence be too harsh.

So what will happen on Wednesday? Ferrari will argue that everyone is doing it. Always have, always will. It's a little rich to single them out, your honour.

It is no defence. If everyone is doing it, everyone ought to be punished. The fact that they are not is merely indicative of how silly the rule is.

In theory, the World Council can dish out anything from a hefty fine to exclusion from the championship.

This, after all, is the same Article 151c of the International Sporting Code which landed McLaren with a £50 million fine for spying on Ferrari in 2007.

Former FIA president Max Mosley feels Ferrari should be stripped of all the points they won in Germany.

However, with Alonso trailing Lewis Hamilton by 41 points after failing to score in Spa last time out, perhaps the powers-that-be would prefer not to dock him a further 25 points and, in all likelihood, remove him from the championship race.

A deduction of the team points accrued in Germany and a suspended ban is considered more likely.

Expedience should not come into it. Ferrari were caught red-handed and have given the governing body no choice. It is ironic that the hearing should take place four days before the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

It is ironic, too, that Jean Todt, the man in charge of Ferrari at Austria in 2002 should now be running the FIA.

But that should not mean an opportunity to retell the old joke that the FIA stands for Ferrari International Assistance.

Then there should be a proper debate over the future of team orders.

Scuderia's use of banned team orders at German GP

Lap 1 Felipe Massa jumps from third to first, ahead of Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Lap 47 Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley comes on pit-to-car radio to say: “OK Felipe, Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?”

Lap 49 Massa runs wide, allowing Alonso past. Smedley says: “Good lad. Just stick with it now. Sorry.”

Alonso wins the race, but Ferrari are fined $100,000 by race stewards for breaching Article 39.1 of Sporting Regulations: “Team orders which interfere with the race result will be prohibited.”

The rule was introduced after the 2002 Austrian GP, when Rubens Barrichello made way to allow Ferrari team-mate Michael Schumacher victory.

The market for buying MPs is open. There has been constant news of MPs defecting to other parties since the dispersal of the red shirts in May. Does it portend a dissolution of the House leading to a new general election, a Post Today writer asked.

The movement of MPs defecting to other parties has occurred during two important political sessions: the government censure debate in the House of Representatives and the 2011 budget bill debate.

The no-confidence debate resulted in a cabinet reshuffle after most Puea Pandin Party MPs abstained from voting for Bhumjaithai ministers. This forced Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to rethink the cabinet, kicking Puea Pandin ministers out of the government. However, former Puea Pandin secretary-general Chaiyos Jiramethakorn was able to persuade some fellow Puea Pandin MPs to stick with the coalition government by defecting to Bhumjaithai. He was rewarded with the post of deputy education minister in the reshuffle.

Yet, all was not well with the opposition Puea Thai Party when some MPs, including list MP Somboon Wanchaithanawong and Nakhon Nayok MP Wutichai Kittithanesuan, decided to jump ship for Bhumjaithai while Sakon Nakhon MP Chumphol Boonyai and Saraburi MP Porapol Adireksarn defected even before the censure debate.

Meanwhile, during the 2011 budget debate, there was constant news about MPs defecting. It was believed the budget bill would allocate many more funds to certain constituencies that belong to the government camp than to the opposition. Some Puea Thai MPs would rather get money into their own turf so as to prop up their popularity. For this reason, they would rather defect to a party that could siphon a lot of funds to please the local voters. The Bhumjaithai Party is a favoured destination as the party controls three important ministries: Transport, Commerce and Interior.

When debate on the budget bill was over, Puea Thai suffered three more defections to Bhumjaithai: Roi Et MP Piyarat Muensaen, followed by Natee Suthinpueak (commonly known as movie star Krung Srivilai) and Chiraphan Limsakulsiriwat, both Samut Prakan MPs.

Bhumjaithai is not the only party encouraging MPs to make a move. Former premier Banharn Silpa-archa's Chart Thai Pattana Party has also made an alliance with the "three Ps" of Puea Pandin (Phinit, Phairoj, Precha) who together command 12-14 Puea Pandin MPs. Time will tell whether Puea Pandin Party will merge with Chart Thai Pattana to contest the coming general election or remain a loose political alliance.

The Democrat Party is the odd one out in not seeming to be interested in the MP market. But for now, the only coalition party that is attracting MPs from other parties is Bhumjaithai.

The question is, what makes Bhumjaithai so attractive that some Puea Pandin and Puea Thai MPs have decided to jump ship? The Post Today writer conjectured that Bhumjaithai was in a good position to court electoral votes as the party controls the important Interior, Transport and Commerce ministries, which could easily influence local politics in various areas.

The second factor is the party's financiers are quite strong, as strong as Puea Thai. Chavarat Charnvirakul of the SinoThai group and Vichai Raksri-aksorn of the King Power group are two big shots who could rival former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra himself.

The last factor is de facto leader Newin Chidchob, who is regarded as a loyal, generous and dependable politician who never abandons his fellow MPs.

However, the reasons for some Puea Thai MPs defecting are not solely to do with the appeal of Bhumjaithai and its de facto leader Newin. Internal conflicts within Puea Thai are playing an important role. During the April-May disturbances, some MPs in Puea Thai did not feel at ease that their boss had allowed the red shirts to dictate the party's direction, creating confusion among local MPs who were asked to pay the expenses of some red shirts leaders to join the protests in Bangkok.

When the red shirts were defeated at the Ratchaprasong showdown in May, some Puea Thai MPs began to question the boss's strategy of employing the red shirts to topple the government, which is backed by the military, saying Thaksin and the red shirts were committing suicide for daring to fight the military. The result was always going to be obvious.

Some Puea Thai MPs were also miffed by the red shirt leaders in Bangkok as well as red shirts in the provinces who competed with local MPs in fielding candidates for local elections and Bangkok's by-election. They were dismayed that Puea Thai leaders let the red shirts grow so powerful that friction arose between Puea Thai MPs and the red shirts leaders.

Another factor was that some Puea Thai MPs saw the Abhisit government becoming stronger and stronger as Mr Abhisit managed to convince the coalition partners not to abandon the coalition government. They also dare not hope to see the Democrat Party dissolved by the Constitution Court as no one knows how long it will take to deliberate the party fund case now before the court and reach a verdict.

All these factors have prompted some Puea Thai MPs to abandon the party and seek shelter with Bhumjaithai as they think they will have a better future in terms of financial support and influence in contesting the coming election.

But this does not mean the defection of some Puea Thai MPs will lead to a general election soon if Mr Abhisit chooses to continue to administer the country for a while longer. However, nothing is certain in politics and a general election could be held at any time. For this reason, all the political parties are accumulating a war chest to fight the coming general election, concluded Post Today.

Hun Sen realises the folly of supporting Thaksin

The Cambodian government announced on Aug 23 that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had resigned as a personal adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen and as economic adviser to the Cambodian government, citing personal difficulty in fulfilling the roles. This paved the way for Bangkok and Phnom Penh to restore normal diplomatic relations, noted Nongnuch Singhadecha writing for Matichon.

Even though some Thai critics remarked that it was a staged act by Thaksin and Hun Sen and that the Thai government should not put much faith in Hun Sen, Nongnuch believed it was in Cambodia's own interests to dismiss Thaksin as an adviser - otherwise Thailand would not resume normal diplomatic ties.

After Thaksin resigned from his positions, the two countries returned their ambassadors to their posts in Phnom Penh and Bangkok respectively. Diplomatic relations had been downgraded to the charge d'affaires level when Thaksin was appointed adviser in November last year.

Nongnuch speculated that Hun Sen finally realised that supporting Thaksin openly and wholeheartedly was not in the best interests of Cambodia. As time passed, Hun Sen realised that holding "junk stock" like Thaksin and hoping for a quick profit would not materialise and that Thaksin was static on a declining trend and could even plunge to a lower level than his IPO price as there was no positive news to support him. In the parlance of stock speculators, Thaksin stock has no future.

The situation after the red shirt unrest in April-May with the total defeat of the red shirts made it quite clear to Hun Sen that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who Hun Sen used to ridicule as unlikely to last long, could now consolidate his position and that it would be sometime before a new general election is held, and it is not even certain that Puea Thai will take power. The economic news in Thailand is also encouraging in that GDP growth for the first and second quarter was at the forefront in Asia, consolidating the position of Mr Abhisit even further.

Hun Sen's open support of Thaksin was the main obstacle to unifying Asean, which aims to become a common market and attract trade and investment to the region. The Asean market boasts more than 500 million people with Indonesia alone having 240 million. The region is a magnet for overseas investors from the West and Asian economic giants China, Japan and South Korea. Those countries do not want to see Asean countries mired in conflicts just because Hun Sen saw personal ties with Thaksin as more important than the interests of Cambodia and Asean.

Objectively speaking, Hun Sen committed a diplomatic misstep in taking on board a fugitive from justice. It soured relations between Thailand and Cambodia. Whatever angle one looks at it from, there was no need for Hun Sen to officially announce the appointment of Thaksin as his personal adviser and an economic adviser to the Cambodian government. If Hun Sen had been wiser, he would not have put all his bets on Thaksin and announced the enmity against Mr Abhisit. He could have quietly appointed Thaksin on an informal basis to help him and the Cambodian government. With no official announcement, Hun Sen could have avoided souring diplomatic relations with Thailand while hedging his bets if Puea Thai came to power.

On the Puea Thai Party front, Thaksin loyalists argue that he was not dismissed from his advisory position but resigned voluntarily to improve relations between the two neighbours. If that were the case, Nongnuch wondered why Thaksin had not thought about this when he accepted Hun Sen's invitation to become an adviser. If he had not really wanted to sour relations between the two countries, he should not have accepted the position in the first place. The fact he accepted meant he cannot deny that he wanted to show the Abhisit administration and its backers that he was still accepted as a respected international figure by Thailand's neighbour to the point where that country did not care much about good relations with Thailand.

Nongnuch said if Thaksin was really behind the violence aimed at toppling the Abhisit administration, as many believe, he should now know that using force and violence to fight the military establishment is futile, seeing the failure in April last year and April-May this year. Violence will not succeed as it is not the democratic way.

If the red shirts continue to agitate and obstruct ruling politicians who are doing their duty in the countryside, it will give even more legitimacy to Mr Abhisit's claim to continue to rule until his term expires late next year without having to be forced to dissolve the House early for a general election, citing that the situation is still not peaceful and that candidates may not be able to campaign freely throughout the country without facing obstruction.

The resounding defeat of Puea Thai in Bangkok's local elections on Sunday, Aug 29, even though the Democrat Party did not sweep all seats, means that Bangkokians do not think too much of the red shirts torching Bangkok in May.

Puea Thai claimed only 42% of eligible voters bothered to come out to vote and thus this election did not reflect the true feeling of Bangkok voters. Nongnuch begged to differ, arguing that with the two main parties fighting tooth and nail to win over Bangkok voters, it would be unthinkable that the true, die-hard red shirt supporters would sit tight and let the Democrat supporters have their day as the memory of the red shirt defeat in May was still fresh in their minds.