Tag: Lewis Hamilton

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2014 Monaco GP: Qualifying report

2014 Monaco Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position for the second year running following a dramatic qualifying session. He’ll start alongside his Mercedes AMG teammate, Lewis Hamilton, before further team pairings of Daniel Riccardo and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) on row two and Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) claiming row three.

Rosberg set the fastest time (1:15.989) on his first run in Q3, a mere 0.59s faster than Hamilton’s best. The 2013 Monaco winner was the first of the front runners to start his second run and a lock up heading into Mirrabeau sent him down the escape road to avoid crashing into the tyre wall. That incident brought out local yellow flags meaning anyone behind had to slow through that corner leaving their second attempts thwarted.

The consipiracy theorists were quick to point out that with provisional pole already safe, and the fact that nine out of the last 10 Monaco Grands Prix have been won by the polesitter, that Rosberg had more to lose than he could gain and that his effect on the rest of the field may not have been so innocent.

A theory given oxygen by Lewis Hamilton’s icy claim in the post-quali press conference that he was “up a couple of tenths” on his final attempt at pole.

There was enough hot air in the sabotage theory to see the race stewards launch an official investigation before surmising, “The stewards examined video and telemetry data from the team and FIA and could find no evidence of any offence related to the turn 5 incident.”

We all know that Formula 1 can be a soap opera at times and the level of discussion heard following Rosberg’s innocent mistake and Hamilton’s churlish reaction is perfect proof of that.

Yet the mug punter sitting at home on the couch is the big winner, because tonight’s race is shaping up as an absolute ball tearer. Factor in the chance of some light rain on the streets of Monte Carlo and it’s pretty easy to state the race will be compulsory viewing.

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2014 Spanish Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

Here’s your pictorial fix from the Spanish Grand Prix. You’ll get to see all sorts of things after the break, so long as all sorts of things are quality Formula 1 photos from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last weekend. There’s over 90 images so take your time and be sure to enjoy them all.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Spanish GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

It’s the Lewis and Nico show in this press conference. And with five wins from five races for Mercedes AMG you can understand why.

There’s some interesting stuff in there from Lewis discussing different driving styles to Nico and Michael Schumacher, which may explain why his early struggles with the team. Clearly, that’s all in the past now.

Daniel does get a few mentions, it was his first legal podium finish after all.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Spanish GP

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has cruised to his fourth straight grand prix win overnight, taking victory in the Spanish Grand Prix by 0.6 seconds from teammate Nico Rosberg. Cruised and 0.6 seconds don’t seem to go together but in this case they do. A clean start from pole by Hamilton and alternate tyre strategies meant Rosberg was never likely to challenge for the lead until the dying moments of the race.

And so it proved. Hamilton was never totally comfortable, especially in his middle stint, but it was only ever going to be his race to lose. While it makes for good copy and some nice headlines Hamilton was not seriously threatened for position. He now also overtakes Rosberg to lead the championship race.

Daniel Ricciardo finally has his first (legitmate) podium finish and continues his role as the intermeidary between the runaway Mercedes pair and the rest of the field. Sebastian Vettel finished fourth and reminded everyone along the way that he should not be considered a forgotten four-time world champion. His charge from P15 to claim fourth should earn him most “driver of the day” type plaudits.

Valtteri Bottas was consistent all race and would be more pleased with his P5 if he wasn’t despatched from P4 by Vettel late in proceedings.

Fernando Alonso was the last of the drivers on the lead lap and he ensured Kimi Raikkonen’s renewed Ferrari career continues to disappoint by taking P6 from the Finn with a few laps to go.

Romain Grosjean collected the first points for him and Lotus in 2014 with an eighth placed finish, ahead of the two Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Full results and championship standings can be read after the break.

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Formula 1

26 seconds is all it takes to help save the planet

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

While Formula 1 continues to find its way in the new V6 power unit era we’ve heard a lot of moaning about how slow the cars are compared with the normally aspirated and relatively thirsty engines of recent years. Perhaps over a single lap that may be the case, but what about over a full race distance?

The table below compares the total time elapsed for the first four races of 2013 against the same events from 2014. Due to differences in tyre degredation and other possible variables we do acknowledge this is not a foolproof measure to establish the outright speed of the new fuel efficient regime.

We also have to stress that the Chinese Grand Prix was supposed to run for 56 laps, which it did in theory. So the total elapsed time for the full 56 laps is shown below, rather than the 54 lap result which came about due to the chequered flag first being waved on lap 55.

Location20132014Difference
Australia1:30:03.2251:32:58.710+0:2:25.485
Malaysia1:38:56.6811:40:25.974+0:1:29.293
Bahrain1:36:00.4981:40:25.974+0:3:42.245
China1:36:26.9451:36:52.810*+0:0:25.865

 

As you can see, the result in China shows it took Lewis Hamilton around 26 seconds longer to win in the race in 2014 compared with Fernando Alonso’s race winning time from 2013. That’s less than 0.5 seconds per lap slower while using around 33% less fuel. A small price to pay, don’t you agree?

If you compare Lewis’ 2013 result in China—he finished third, 12.3 seconds behind Alonso—the gap to his 2014 result is even closer—around 14 seconds—just 0.25 seconds per lap across the full race distance.

This stat has been highlighted by Joe Saward, who argues the FIA has not been proactive enough to promote this early success of the new world era:

Now that is what I call getting a better bang for your buck. And I’m willing to bet that by the end of the year the gap will have closed more and, perhaps, the races will be run even faster than they were 12 months ago.

So who has highlighted these statistics? Who has told the world that F1 is doing a brilliant job for them? If no-one says this stuff how can the sport to sell the success of its new engine formula? That leaves the way open for the naysayers and the vested interests to promote their negative messages about the sport.

Saward makes a great point. Follow the link below to read his thoughts in full.

[Source: Joe Saward]

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2014 Chinese Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

It’s okay everyone, we didn’t forget you and your love of quality Formula 1 pictures. Life just got in the way for a bit. Finally, we now bring you our selection of photos from the 2014 Chinese Grand Prix. Once again Lewis Hamilton came up trumps. He’s making a habit of this winning lark it seems and we eagerly anticipate the sport’s return to Europe to see if any of the teams can catch Mercedes.

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2014 Chinese GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

Before you get into the mostly routine press conference after the break, let’s take a look at what the Red Bull team statement gave us in light of another race where Sebastian Vettel was asked to let Daniel Ricciardo overtake him for track position.

Daniel Ricciardo: “With Seb, we were racing and you always want to hold on to your position, but the team radioed and he let me through. I did what I could after each stop and we improved the car; at the end I was doing all I could to catch Alonso and I think we got to within a couple of seconds of him as we went over the line. It’s going well with the team, I feel comfortable here and I did the best I could today. I really want that podium and we’re getting close!”

Sebastian Vettel: “I moved over for Daniel once I knew that we were on different strategies. When I was first asked, I didn’t understand as we were on the same tyre, unlike in Bahrain, so I double checked. When the team said we were on a different strategy, I moved over and then, as the race went on, I saw more and more that I didn’t have the pace. There was no point in holding Dan back. I’m not yet where I want to be with the car, but it’s an on-going process; hopefully at the next few races we will make some more steps in the right direction.”

Christian Horner: “Sebastian made a great start, but then appeared to go through the tyres quicker than Daniel and, after the second stop, it was apparent Seb’s degradation was particularly worse than Daniel, so we looked at switching him to a three-stop and therefore released Daniel who was very much focused on a two-stop at that point. Thereafter Daniel was able to close the gap to Alonso, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough to get onto the podium today.”

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Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Chinese GP

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton cruising to victory has been the story of the early season so far in Formula 1 and that narrative continued in Shanghai today when Hamilton strolled to his third race win on end at the Chinese Grand Prix.

It also says something of Mercedes AMG’s dominance over the field when a comparatively bumbling Nico Rosberg, driving a car unable to transmit its telemetry back to the pit wall, was able to recover from a poor start to take an easy second place, making it the third Mercedes 1–2 in succession.

Fernando Alonso extended his reputation for delivering more than his car can give by finishing third, able to hold off a late charge from Daniel Ricciardo who came home fourth. The young Aussie once again ruffled the feathers of four-time world champ Sebastian Vettel, who finished fifth.

Around mid-race distance Ricciardo was on a two-stop strategy and at the time Vettel was planning to three-stop. With fresher tyres Daniel was closing in quickly on his more credentialled teammate and for the second race in a row an order from the team came through asking Vettel to let Ricciardo past.

Vettel’s initial response over the radio, after establishing both men were on the same tyres, was, “Tough luck!” Although, on the next lap Vettel opened the door for Daniel and the impressive youngster went through. To rub further salt into Vettel’s wound the team later switched him to a two-stop strategy.

After the excitement of Bahrain, this was not a race for the ages. The only incidents of any note came during the early stages of the opening lap when Felipe Massa and Alonso clunked wheels. Almost immediately afterwards, in a separate incident, Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas interlocked wheels. It was a stroke of good fortune for all four drivers that no damage was done and all managed to finish the race uninhibited.

That said, Felipe Massa’s chance at a stronger points haul was ruined when his Williams crew completely botched his first pit stop. To call it a comedy of errors would have been kind. In the end the Brazilian resumed the race in last place and did well to fight back to finish P9.

Reliability improved across the field, too, with only two drivers failing to finish the race. Adrian Sutil retired early with an engine problem, while the Lotus of Romain Grosjean succumbed to a gearbox failure.

Trivia buffs will be keen to note an oddity to the final result thanks to the chequered flag first being shown to Lewis Hamilton on lap 55 of the 56 lap race. That mistake meant the final classified result reverted back to the positions on lap 54.

You can see the full lap 54 positions after the break, along woth updated championship tables.

There will be a delay in our F1 in pictures gallery for this race. We expect to have the images ready for you by next weekend, or hopefully before.

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2014 Chinese GP: Qualifying report

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton made light work of the wet conditions to comfortably claim pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. It’s his third pole position for the year and his 34th career pole, a new British record.

Hamilton’s time (1:53.860) was almost six tenths faster than Daniel Ricciardo’s best lap (1:54.455), who outqualified Sebastian Vettel (1:54.960) for the third time in four races. Vettel will start from P3, alongside Nico Rosberg (1:55.143).

Former teammates Fernando Alonso (1:55.637) and Felipe Massa (1:56.147) will line up on the third row, ahead of Valtteri Bottas (1:56.282) and Nico Hulkenberg (1:56.366).

The top 10 is rounded out by the Renault-powered duo of  Jean-Eric Vergne (1:56.773) and Romain Grosjean (1:57.079).

McLaren will be wondering where its pre-season pace has gone, only able to qualify in P12 (Jenson Button) and P15 (Kevin Magnussen).

Technical problems prevented Pastor Maldonado from setting a time in Q1 and he will start from the rear of the grid at the stewards’ discretion. Given he has a five-place grid penalty for flipping Esteban Gutierrez at the last race it would spice things up a little if the stewards said, “No race for you!”

Weather conditions for the race are expected to be cool and dry, which should see Mercedes increase its advantage over the Red Bulls who need rain to have any chance of closing the gap over a full race distance.

The full post-quali press conference transcript can be read below and Sebastian Vettel’s response to having a “more competitive teammate” is worth a read.

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2014 Bahrain Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

It took almost 58 years for Mercedes to repeat its 1-2 podium result from 1955. And after doing so in Malaysia last week it took just seven days to do it all over again in Bahrain, a world away from the era Juan Manuel Fangio once ruled.

Lewis Hamilton collected his second win on the bounce and it seems the only thing that can stop the two Mercedes AMG drivers will be each other. If they keep up that spectacular on track dicing it won’t be too long until the pair come to blows.

After the break you can relive the first night time race in Bahrain and the 900th grand prix of the modern era.

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2014 Bahrain GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

The post-race press conference from the Bahrain Grand Prix features questions mostly aimed at race winner Lewis Hamilton and his teammate Nico Rosberg. As you might expect many of the questions concentrate on their close racing. We would have loved it, though, if someone asked: “Your relationship seems close and friendly now, but if you keep wheel-to-wheel racing like that what happens if, or when, you guys make contact, how will that affect your relationship?”

Meanwhile, with perhaps another lap or two Daniel Ricciardo may have been able to get his Red Bull onto the podium. Instead we’ll have to make do with his comments from the team’s press release.

“It was an awesome race; it was exciting,” Daniel said. “I think the first stint was a bit follow-the-leader, but from the second stint onwards, the race really started to turn up the heat and there were more battles going on in front and behind—it was good to be a part of them.

“We got close to the podium today, I think within half a second, so I was doing all I could. The car came to me as the race went on and I was happy with how I moved up through the pack, so a good day.

“It was good fun to race Sebastian, it was hard but fair and we left each other room. That’s what we want from each other and we discussed it beforehand, we’re racers and that’s what we enjoy doing.”

It’s also worth hearing Sebastian’s words, given he was overtaken for position by his younger and more inexperienced teammate.

“Daniel proved that there was a little bit more to get from the car today,” Vettel explained. “I couldn’t really get to that bit, so I’m not so happy with my day.

“It was straight forward with Daniel today, we worked well together as a team and we raced well, but surely I would like to have finished higher up.”

The transcript of the post-race press conference featuring the first three drivers is available in full after the break.

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Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Bahrain GP

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has edged out his teammate Nico Rosberg to win the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix and the pair delighted fans all around the world in doing so.

The quality of racing throughout the field all race was first class, with most scraps taking place behind the leading Mercedes drivers. The men in the silver arrows must have felt obliged to bring some spice to the front of the field and they gave us some brilliant wheel-to-wheel racing.

After Pastor Maldonado exited the pits following his final pit stop he decided he didn’t need to worry about too much about the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez ahead in Turn 1 and just speared into him, flipping the young Mexican who eventually landed back on his wheels and escaped serious injury.

The wash up from that incident was the obligatory penalties for Maldonado and a Safety Car which bunched up the field and was released with 10 laps to race.

Quickly speeding off into the distance was leader Hamilton with Rosberg hot on his heels. The pair pitted just as the Safety Car came out and Rosberg was on the grippier and theoretically faster Soft tyres. We were set for a grandstand sprint finish and that’s exactly what we got.

Out front the Mercedes pair diced for the lead with millimetres separating cheers from tears. It was great to watch and afterwards Hamilton and Rosberg appeared good humoured and shared a few laughs. One thing is certain, though, if they keep racing that closely there will be contact and we could have a repeat of Turkey 2010 on our hands.

The raw pace of the Mercedes AMG F1 W05 was brutally exposed when you consider the winning margin was 24 seconds from the race winner to P3. That’s not to say the racing behind was boring, though, far from it!

Sergio Perez emerged as the best of the rest in what is just Force India’s second ever podium result. Yet the man who will attract more headlines is Daniel Ricciardo who finished fourth after starting back in P13. In doing so he established once again that he is not afraid of his four-time world champion teammate and fought his way past Vettel on track as he edged his way through the field.

Nico Hulkenberg picked up more good points for Force India and split the Red Bulls, with Vettel finishing sixth.

The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished in P7 and P8 respectively. The latter may have expected more after starting from P3. The top 10 was rounded out by the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.

With the Mercedes power unit being the clear stand out so far this season McLaren will be bitterly disappointed to have endured a double retirement. Kevin Magnussen pulled off track on lap 40 and Jenson Button returned to the pits with just a couple of laps to go.

All in all it was a very exciting race and if there is a coming to blows at some stage between Hamilton and Rosberg this season could get very tasty indeed! Equally, the RB10 is a very strong chassis and if Renault can find some power then Mercedes could have a fight outside of its own garage.

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