Earlier today we dropped into MotorSportRetro.com and noticed these very cool posters. They’re created by Adelaide-based graphic designer Sean Kane. There’s a series of five posters in total, three featuring Ayrton Senna (2 x Lotus, 1 x McLaren), one with the 1991 Le Mans winning Mazda 787B rotary and one with Juha Kankunnen’s 1986 Peugeot 205 T16 E2 Group B rally car.
They’re very cool. And you can buy them all for yourself if you want!
Here’s your pics from an epic British Grand Prix at Silverstone. If not for a customary dodgy start we may have been looking at Mark Webber with hands raised in triumph in the photo above. Instead Mark almost won, on the back of a gutsy recovery effort.
Ifs, buts and maybes—as likeable and charismatic as Mark has been during his F1 career—that pretty much sums him up. Now that his Porsche move has been confirmed, we can enjoy the Mark Webber F1 farewell tour. Certainly a win at Silverstone would have been a great way to start the journey, but a win at the Nürburgring, the venue of his maiden grand prix victory would have a nice symmetry to it as well.
Oh yeah, well done Nico Rosberg. A solid win for you. There’s over 90 pics from the British GP ready to be enjoyed after the break.
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG) has won an incident-packed British Grand Prix, just 0.765 seconds from Mark Webber (Red Bull). Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) filled the final podium position.
But where to start with the drama this race contained! Off the start line Webber was slow to move, although it appeared he may have been ever so slightly baulked by Rosberg ahead of him. That put the Aussie in thick of the action going into the first corner and unavoidable contact was made with Romain Grosjean (Lotus). Webber was forced wide, with a damaged front wing, and rejoined the track in fifteenth place. His day seemed over.
Out front Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG) made the most of his pole position to establish a two second lead over Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull). But on lap eight the story of the day, and Pirelli’s worst nightmare, emerged when Hamilton’s left rear tyre delaminated before it spectacularly exploded. He limped back to the pits and rejoined in last place.
Alas that was the first of four delaminations for the day with Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) to lose their left rear tyre in the same fashion as Hamilton soon after. As a result there was debris around all over the place and the Safety Car was deployed to clear the track.
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) inherited the lead from Hamilton and was able to post a small gap back to Rosberg after racing resumed on lap 21. Rosberg stayed in touch with Vettel, but on lap 41 the triple world champion coasted into the last corner with gearbox problems, stopping on pit straight. The Safety Car was brought out to move Vettel’s car out of harm’s way.
Webber, who had worked his way back through the field was in third place after Vettel’s retirement, came in for a final tyre stop coming out behind the Safety Car in fifth place. When racing resumed there were six laps remaining, Rosberg in the lead heading towards his third grand prix win. Webber looked the most likely to challenge, if he could overtake the cars ahead.
Shortly after the restart Sergio Perez (McLaren) suffered the final tyre blowout of the race, he was narrowly avoided by Alonso who was preparing to pass the young Mexican. Thankfully a Safety Car wasn’t needed and we were treated to an exciting race to the flag.
Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) stood between Webber and Rosberg. Mark was able to quickly pass Ricciardo and Sutil in the chase for the lead and Raikkonen, on old tyres, was also overtaken without too much bother.
Less than two seconds separated first from second and Webber really needed to within one second of Rosberg so he could benefit from DRS. To Rosberg’s credit he was able to fight hard to keep his lead out of Webber’s reach to take the race win. Another lap or two may have seen a fairytale victory for Mark, but it wasn’t to be.
For all his troubles Lewis Hamilton also drove a great race and finished fourth. All of the top four drivers will have been pleased to have made some inroads into Vettel’s championship lead.
Daniel Ricciardo slipped down to eighth on his old tyres. His late fade out will be softened by the fact teammate Jean-Eric Vergne retired at about two thirds race distance.
It was a deserved win for Rosberg as the Mercedes AMGs were fast all weekend. He’ll take renewed confidence into next weekend when the German Grand Prix takes place at the Nürburgring.
Lewis Hamilton has blitzed the field to claim pole position for the 2013 British Grand Prix. The 2008 world champion set a best lap of 1:29.607, four tenths quicker than his Mercedes AMG teammate, Nico Rosberg (1:30.059).
So it’s another Mercedes front-row lockout, followed by a pair of very closely matched Red Bulls. Sebastian Vettel (1:30.211) will start from P3. In his final appearance at Silverstone Mark Webber (1:30.220) will line up on P4, just nine one thousandths of a second off Vettel. That’s Mark’s poorest qualifying result here for five years.
“We were up against it to get on the front row against the Mercs, they’re on another level as they have been for the last few events,” Webber explained. “It was disappointing to get pipped by Seb there at the end by a hundredth, it was very close. I was happy with the first part of my lap, but I could have done better in the last sector.”
It’s expected the Red Bulls will have better race pace than the Mercedes duo, a familiar theme so far this season and Webber is hoping there’s more to come. “We have a good balance for qualifying and race pace in terms of where we prioritised things. It should be an interesting race, we can get a good result from there,†he said.
Sensing a need to put his name at the forefront of Christian Horner’s mind, Daniel Ricciardo (Torro Rosso, 1:30.757) shone throughout qualifying to earn himself sixth place on the grid. He’ll start alongside Paul di Resta (Force India,1:30.736), who will be very pleased with himself to start his home race from P5.
Also pleasing for Ricciardo is the fact his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne (1:31.785), and fellow applicant for the vacant 2014 Red Bull Racing seat, could only manage the thirteenth best time. It’s a great result for Daniel who is ahead of both Ferrari and both Lotus drivers.
“Coming off the back of a bad couple of races, I expected to be strong here and I was more motivated than ever,” said Ricciardo. “However, if I’d been told I could be sixth this afternoon, I would have been surprised. We were very close to Di Resta in fifth, but we can be happy with this position.
“Now I am looking forward to the race when I hope I can come away with a good handful of points. I’d like to think I could finish at least in the same place I am starting from. It would be nice to do even better and I will be pushing hard to achieve that.”
While we were off last week the FIA International Tribunal delivered its verdict on the so-called secret tyre test carried out by Pirelli and Mercedes AMG.
The test was brought into question on account of Mercedes using a 2013-spec car driven by Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, complete with disguised helmets. Such circumstances would appear to be a clear breach of the rules which ban in-season testing. In handing down its findings the International Tribunal said Mercedes did gain an unfair advantage.
A portion of the detailed ruling, which has been published by the FIA, reads:
It is inconceivable that Mercedes did not obtain a material advantage from three days of testing even if only as a result of the running of its car(s) – wholly irrespective of any matter relating to tyres.
Further, Ross Brawn candidly accepted in his evidence that it was inevitable that some advantage had been obtained, although he regarded that advantage as having been minimal.
Yet, on the face of it, both parties got away with it.
Officially, both Mercedes and Pirelli have been reprimanded and Mercedes will be forced to sit out the three-day young driver test to be held at Silverstone next month.
Since the young driver tests have been moved to mid-season, instead of after the final race, they have morphed from an opportunity to assess young talent to a more season-specific test where teams will extract useable data for the remaining races.
So, on the surface, the penalty will hurt Mercedes, but really, it’s all a bit wet lettuce leaf. The FIA, meanwhile, says it will endeavour to clarify matters regarding testing to ensure similar incidents don’t happen again.
Official commentary from the FIA can be read below.
The 2013 Canadian Grand Prix was a pretty easy day out for Sebastian Vettel. Indeed those ‘Mounties’ were as close as anyone got to him on race day. We didn’t want you to miss out on the fun, so here’s 86 images from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that will bring you as close to Vettel as any of his competitors got.
Back whenever it was that the FIA started to interview the drivers on the podium after each race (2012 British Grand Prix) we thought it was a clumsy approach. To be fair, there were some teething problems and it did get better. It’s true, also, that fans at the track probably deserve to hear from the drivers they have paid, in many cases, several hundred dollars to watch.
And yet, when you read the transcript below, you won’t really get too much of a clue that all the while during Eddie Jordan’s interview with Sebastian Vettel the German was being booed while Fernando Alonso was being cheered along.
To be fair, the transcript does read a little odd and Jordan seems to cut-off Vettel. In fact he did cut-off the race winner mid-sentence partly to stop the jeering from the crowd we suspect. It was a bad look all around and perhaps the FIA may have cause to reconsider the practice of on-track interviews.
For now, we expect the status quo will remain, as it probably should, but as much as we dislike Vettel at times, he deserved better than the Canadian crowd gave him.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
The Sebastian Vettel–Red Bull dominance of recent years was captured perfectly at the 2013 Canadian Grand Prix, as the three-time world champion converted his 39th career pole position into his 29th career victory.
Vettel wasn’t troubled during the 70 lap race and the 14.4 second margin back to Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) in second place flatters the rest of the field. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) rounded out the top three.
Mark Webber (Red Bull) flirted with the podium positions for much of the race, despite minor front wing damage suffered on lap 37 in a collision with Giedo van der Garde (Caterham). Webber was not pleased with van der Garde’s actions either, slamming the 28-year-old as a “a pay driver with no mirrors”.
“I got a sensational start, but I didn’t have too many places to go,” said Webber.”We lost some time with Nico in the first stint, and the car was getting hot behind him in the slip stream. Once I got in free air, the car was handling much better. Then we had the incident with Giedo van der Garde which caused some front wing damage and made it more difficult; the whole top section of the wing was gone on the left hand side, so it didn’t help from then on. I don’t know what he was doing.
“There were some positives from today, but it would have been nicer to have finished a bit further up the road.â€
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) finished fifth, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) who finished a career-best sixth.
Daniel Ricciardo was well behind his Toro Rosso teammate and could only manage P15. “I got a really good start, making up two positions off the line,” said Ricciardo afterwards. “I felt we could have a good race, but after just four laps, the car was oversteering like crazy and I couldn’t manage the tyres anymore. As the race went on, we tried to improve the car balance and maybe we improved it a bit, but our pace was really slow.
“We didn’t change so much on the car since Friday, so why we were so slow is a mystery to me at the moment.â€
Both McLaren drivers finished outside of the points in P11 and P12, ending McLaren’s 64-race run of at least one car scoring championship points.
In awful post-race news it emerged that a marshal was killed in a terrible accident with a crane removing Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber. The marshal slipped while out of sight of the crane driver and was run over. He was rushed to hospital and passed away last night. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues.
[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
Rain and a red flag couldn’t stop Sebastian Vettel from claiming his 39th career pole position overnight. The Red Bull driver set the fastest time (1:25.425) at the Canadian Grand Prix and will start ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, 1:25.512).
Next is a surprise result for Valtteri Bottas (Williams, 1:25.512), who will start from P3, easily the best qualifying position in his short F1 career. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes, 1:25.512) may have started the last three grands prix from pole, but the best the Monaco Grand Prix winner could manage was fourth.
Mark Webber (Red Bull, 1:25.512) will line up on the third row of the grid in P5, with Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 1:25.512) alongside from P6.
Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso, 1:27.946) outqualified his teammate Daniel Ricciardo (1:27.946) and it’s the first time this year both made it into Q3. Vergne will start from P7 and Ricciardo qualified tenth but will start from P11 (see below).
Felipe Massa again found trouble in qualifying, following up his crash at Monaco with another barrier-finding moment here in Canada. That brought out a red flag in Q2 with just under two minutes left to run. When the track re-opened all the remaining cars lined up in pit lane to chase entry into Q3.
Several drivers were side-by-side in pit lane, leaving some drivers outside the designated fast lane, which is not strictly allowed. However, only Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Daniel Ricciardo were penalised. Both were given two-spot penalties and will now start from P10 and P11 respectively. In a quirk of process both drivers only move back one grid place, as explained by the FIA.
Sebastian Vettel has made it back-to-back wins for Red Bull Racing at the Monaco Grand Prix by claiming victory in a dramatic race overnight. His fifth win of the year, and his first on the famous street circuit, has given him a seemingly unassailable 58 point lead in the drivers’ standings. Fernando Alonso achieved Ferrari’s best result for the season to date by finishing second, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button.
As always, Monaco provided plenty of action and gave us the first Safety Car laps of the year. The race was heading for a thrilling climax with Vettel, Alonso and Button all nose-to-tail with six laps remaining. All drivers were on different tyre strategies with Vettel, having only stopped once on lap 16, hoping to hold his track position by running 62 laps on the Prime tyres.
Vettel was somewhat forced into a one-stop strategy after the usually lightening quick Red Bull crew made a hash of his first pit stop (9.6 seconds) and followed that immediately after with a worse stop for Webber (15.5 seconds); all but ruining the Australian’s race, who did well to fight back to fourth place.
Meanwhile, in the closing stages Alonso’s tyres were fresher than Vettel’s, but still 20-odd laps old, while Button’s three-stop race meant he had the cleanest and quickest rubber of the top three.
On lap 72, while fast approaching slower traffic, the leading trio were lucky to miss a bit of kerfuffle immediately ahead of them involving Vitaly Petrov (Lotus Renault GP) and Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso). The pair crashed into the barriers and caused the second Safety Car period of the race, which quickly turned into a red flag after initial concerns over the well being of Petrov. With just six laps left to race it was first thought the race would end and Vettel would be declared the winner. Petrov was safely removed from his car and it subsequently appears he will be okay.
While Petrov was being attended to the cars formed up on the grid and under red flag conditions were able to make the most of a relatively lengthy delay by making minor adjustments to their cars if required. Crucially, this also gave teams the chance to fit fresh rubber if available to them. Ultimately, this handed Vettel the race who, after the restart, was able to hold off Alonso and Button for what looked like a comfortable win. Although, at various times all three men on the podium would have felt like they were best placed to win.
You can read what they had to say after the break. Video highlights are available at the One website.
[Pic: Ferrari]
Despite being teased by our own Mark Webber when he scored pole position, the Spanish GP ended up being yet another Sebastian Vettel victory. That’s four from five races for the 2010 champ and history suggests that impressive start is already enough to put Vettel at almost unbackable odds to make it a second world crown.
As usual there’s some great pics from the latest race and there’s a couple of shots where you can see how dramatic the marbles are with the new Pirelli tyres.
We’re already in another Grand Prix week with the classic Monaco GP just a few days away. Can Mark match his unstoppable performance from 2010, or is he fast becoming a broken man with shattered confidence?
In a little over six months the Formula One calendar will see the first ever Indian Grand Prix. The world’s latest F1 track is located 25km out of New Delhi in the Buddh district. No surprise, then, to learn the new facility has been named the Buddh International Circuit.
The new racetrack is the latest to roll out from Tilke GmbH and features 16 turns over 5.141km. Expected average speed is a shade over 210km/h and the predicted lap time is around 1 minute 27 seconds.
After the break you can see Karun Chandok preview the Indian track in a clip produced late last year for circuit owners, Jaypee Sports International.
UPDATE 17 October: Click HERE for a new preview of the the Buddh International Circuit from Red Bull Racing and Mark Webber.