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LONDON  - Even commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, whose ideal Formula One season would be decided at the very last corner, could hardly have dreamed of a championship like this one.

 With just over a third of the distance gone, and an unprecedented seven different winners from the first seven races, the ultimate winner of the 2012 driver's crown is anyone's guess.

 Even calling the winner of the next race in Valencia is tough, with two of the six world champions on the grid - Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher - yet to win in this most unpredictable of seasons.

 A mere three points separate the top three in the championship standings with the top five split by less than the 25 for a win and 13 races remaining.

 "It's absolutely wide open. It's a dream for the sport," declared America's former champion Mario Andretti after McLaren's Lewis Hamilton won in Canada on Sunday.

 "Formula One for so many years has been quite predictable...that's out of the window now. Somewhere the rules are working, something is working. So don't fix it," he told Sky Sports television.

 Just when a team believe they have cracked the code, the Pirelli tyres make them think again.

 "This is what is going to be normal for the season," Hamilton told reporters after being joined by Lotus driver Romain Grosjean and Sauber's Mexican Sergio Perez on the podium.

 "That's just my feeling, but then again my guess is as good as yours...we're still trying to fully understand these tyres.

 "Sometimes you're overheating them, sometimes you're not heating them up enough. We don't understand why sometimes a Lotus is quicker than us, or a Mercedes is quicker than us and then we're quicker than them another time.

 "But I think it's great for Formula One, it's great for the fans to see," said the 2008 champion, while adding that seven was now quite enough different winners.

 BETTER HANDLE

 After watching his double world champion Sebastian Vettel qualify on pole position for the second year running in Montreal, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner sounded confident enough.

 "I feel the Red Bull technical team are doing a great job to try and understand the new regulations," he said. "We are starting to get a better handle on what these tyres like."

 On Sunday, with Vettel finishing fourth after a late stop forced on him by tyre wear, there was less optimism: "Perhaps we were just a little bit too hard on the tyres," said the Briton.

 The problem for teams and drivers has been finding the balance that allows them to extract the most from the tyres.

 Sunday was ultimately a battle between one-stoppers and two-stoppers, with McLaren getting it right for Hamilton with a second stop while Ferrari kept Fernando Alonso on one and paid the price.

 But it goes further than that. Grosjean and Perez did just one stop each but were able to reel in Alonso's Ferrari on tyres that still had plenty of life in them.

 "We could be really smart here today and say that they messed the strategy up, Ferrari and Red Bull," said McLaren's sporting director Sam Michael.

 "But if you look at Lotus and Sauber, they made that strategy work. I think that one of those cars had tyres that were over 45 laps old."

 Track temperatures play a big part in the equation, as do driving styles and the timing of the stops. But Pirelli are still keeping everyone on their toes.

 "I think it's good. The fact that you have to manage your car and your tyres is part of being a race car driver," said Canada's outspoken 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve.

 "The problem is that when they (the tyres) do give up, it's too sudden, too strong, too much of a give up. The drivers feel that the tyres are still OK so they stay out and the team make the decision to try and make it work.

 "But instead of losing a second a lap, they then lose four or five seconds a lap. That is wrong. You used to get four or five laps to figure out whether it is going off too much, now you get half a lap."

 Ferrari had a brief window of opportunity, maybe one lap, where they could have pitted Alonso for a second time and kept Hamilton covered. Instead, perhaps reassured by the Spaniard feeling that his tyres were holding up, they took a gamble.

 It failed but nobody could say they were entirely sure they had got it right.

 "There were times in that race where you wondered have we got it right, are their tyres going to last? All our analysis told us we were doing the right thing but until it unfolds you are never quite sure," sid McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh.

New Delhi, June 11  Sania Mirza failed to protect her top 10 ranking in doubles, slipping to 12 in the latest Women's Tennis Association (WTA) charts released Monday, and that leaves her with no choice but to get a wild card if she has to play at the London Olympics.

Monday was the cut-off day set by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for direct qualification on the basis of the rankings after the French Open. The top-10 in doubles in both the men and women's category earn a direct qualification.

Among men, Leander Paes is the only Indian to qualify for a direct entry in the doubles as he retained his seventh position in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings after the French Open.

The AITA selection committee comprising Jaideep Mukherjea, S.P. Misra, Rohit Rajpal, Zeeshan Ali and Sai Jayalakshmi along with two government nominees will decide Friday, who between Rohan Bopanna (World No.12) and Mahesh Bhupathi (World No.13) will partner Paes.

With Sania failing to make it on the strength of her ranking, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) is trying hard for a wildcard for her. Paraguay's Veronica Cepede Royg and Liechenstein's Stephanie Vogt have been offered two of the four wild cards.

AITA selector S.P. Misra told IANS that since Sania dropped out of top 10 only a wildcard can determine her hopes at the London Games.

"A wildcard can only help her get an entry into the singles and doubles for Olympics. In doubles, she can propose her doubles partner but the AITA selection committee will finally decide the combination," said Misra.

Sania's second Grand Slam title with Bhupathi and the first at the French Open has made sure the pair is India's best bet at the Games, but Paes is still the front-runner to team up with her in London.

The AITA will announce the team June 15 as ITF has set June 21 as the deadline to confirm the entry of eligible players for the Games.

MUMBAI  - Standard & Poor's said on Monday that India could become the first of the so-called BRIC economies to lose its investment-grade status, less than two months after cutting its rating outlook for the country.

 Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee rejected the rating agency's report, saying there would be a turnaround in India's "growth prospects in the coming months", according to a government statement.

 "Pranab Mukherjee said that the Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) have reposed faith in the Indian economy and had already poured in $12 billion in the first five months of the current calender year..." the statement added. "This is the highest net FII inflow in the last five years for the corresponding period."

 The S&P report sent the rupee and stocks lower, but analyst Takahira Ogawa said "nothing has changed" from April, when the agency downgraded the outlook on India's credit rating.

 "We are simply providing further explanation of our views on India sovereign," he said in an emailed response to Reuters.

 India's sovereign rating is BBB minus, the lowest investment grade rating. In April, S&P lowered its outlook on the rating for Asia's third-largest economy to negative from stable.

 "Slowing GDP growth and political roadblocks to economic policymaking are just some of the factors pushing up the risk that India could lose its investment-grade rating," S&P said in a statement on Monday but dated June 8.

 The report is titled: "Will India Be The First BRIC Fallen Angel?"

 Indian stocks fell into negative territory after the S&P statement, while the rupee skidded to as much as 55.82 to the dollar, a near one-week low, from 55.45 earlier.

 The benchmark 10-year bond yield rose 2 basis points after the statement was released. Traders said the bond markets were not greatly affected because offshore investors hold a small share of the market.

 Kumar Rachapudi, fixed income strategist at Barclays Capital in Singapore, said the moves in the rupiah and bonds may not have been warranted in response to the S&P news.

 "While the report is new, the content in itself is probably not," the strategist said. "The discussion in this report has largely been covered in their previous report when S&P revised the outlook in April."

 The latest report comes after India posted March quarter annual growth of 5.3 percent, its weakest pace in nine years and far below expectations.

 "Setbacks or reversals in India's path toward a more liberal economy could hurt its long-term growth prospects and, therefore, its credit quality," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Joydeep Mukerji.

 The so-called BRIC economies consist of Brazil, Russia, India and China. India has the lowest S&P rating of all the BRIC countries, and is the only one with a negative outlook from the rating agency, it said in the report.

 While India's credit rating is under pressure for a downgrade, fast-rising emerging market Indonesia is on the up and has just joined the ranks of investment-grade nations. Many see it as the new "I" in the BRIC acronym.

 "The combination of a weakening political context for further reform, along with economic deceleration, raises the risk that the government may take modest steps backward away from economic liberalization in the event of unexpected economic shocks," Mukerji said in S&P's Monday statement.

 The government's inability to push through reforms is widely blamed for yawning current account and fiscal deficits that have driven the rupee to a record low against the dollar. In addition to slowing growth, India is plagued by persistently high inflation.

 "S&P's warning clearly highlights the challenge facing the Indian economy, which has been crippled by the complete dysfunctionality of the government machinery," said Upasna Bharadwaj, economist at ING Vysya Bank in Mumbai.

Angelina Jolie who is all set to get married to longtime partner Brad Pitt has picked her wedding date with the help of a Buddhist monk.

According to sources, the 37-year-old actress is expected to marry this summer and the star chose the top secret date with some spiritual help.

"Angie has used Buddhist astrology in the past to help her pick the best or most auspicious days for important moments in her life," Contactmusic quoted a source as telling the National Enquirer magazine.

"She's relied on the Buddhist calendar to plan medical procedures and vacations for herself, Brad and the kids. She's even used it for picking the dates of her movie openings.

"That's when Angie was completely converted to Buddhist astrology and she's not taking that chance with Brad. Angie is convinced the date of their union will guarantee their future happiness," the source said.

According to friends, Pitt with whom Jolie raises six children, is happy to go along with whatever the actress thinks and says that she can take her time with choosing the date.

"Brad just goes with the flow. He told Angie to take as much time as she needs.

"After eight years and six kids together, they clearly aren't rushing into marriage," the source added.

Developers and gaming companies see the social-networking giant's new app-discovery platform as a boon for business.

In a move that is sure to make many app developers happy, Facebook this week launched its App Center, which aims to help users find apps to use on Facebook.com, iOS, Android, and the Web.

The new platform let users can browse apps by category and find out which apps their friends are using. The discovery platform already boasts 600 apps, including Draw Something, Shazam, Pinterest, and Viddy.

“The App Center helps high-quality apps grow by promoting those that people enjoy the most,” Bruce Rogers, a programmer at Facebook, said on the company’s developer blog. Facebook originally announced plans for the App Center last month.

The App Center isn't really a marketplace as much as it is a search tool--think more Yelp than iTunes. Each app gets its own profile page, complete with ratings, reviews, images, and a list of all the users’ friends who have downloaded the app. When logged onto Facebook on the Web, users can browse apps by categories like News or Travel, then send a notification to their phone, where the install page in the Apple Store or Google Play center will automatically appear.

That is where the real promise lies, says Bo Fishback, co-founder and CEO of Zaarly, a mobile app that lets users buy and sell goods and services to people nearby.

“The cool thing for us is, it will help to bridge the Web-to-mobile divide,” Fishback says. “We’re a heavily mobile company, but we also have a Web presence. If you’re on the Web, the chances of you discovering us accidentally is not very high.”

Other start-ups are more excited about the prospect of getting their apps in front of the eyes of Facebook’s 900 million users without having to shell out thousands of dollars in advertising.

“We’re a bootstrapped indie developer,” says Thomas Chung, vice president and general manager at Playforge, which makes interactive games like Zombie Farm and Tree World. “That means mean we don’t throw gobs of money at the problem of getting our games discovered. We think the App Center will strongly facilitate word-of-mouth discovery for quality games.”

Chung said Playforge submitted its app to the App Center last week, and there was only one pain point: having to submit artwork that is inconsistent with the specs for the Apple App Store, where the developer sells most of its games.

“It would make it much more seamless if there were more overlap on that aspect,” Chung says. “But of course, we are still grateful for any new channels that would give more affordable or free mobile distribution.”