Tag: Nico Rosberg

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Formula 1 Lotus Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2013 Indian GP: Post-race press conference

2013 Indian Grand Prix

In the unlikely event you haven’t heard the news, Sebastian Vettel is now a four time Formula 1 world champion, thanks to his Indian Grand Prix victory. There’s no surprises that Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean didn’t attract too many questions in the post-race press conference; it’s not every day a guy wins four titles in a row.

Before you get to the transcript of the post-race press conference a few words from Mark Webber (DNF) and Daniel Ricciardo (P10).

Mark Webber: “Obviously I’m pretty disappointed with today’s race, but there is not much I can do, the alternator went wrong with very short notice so we had to stop straight away. It’s tough because we did a lot of things right this weekend, but I’ve got a smile on my face as I could not have done any more.

“Well done to Seb on his Championship and also to all the Team; to get a fourth title is amazing. It’s been a great job by the whole team to achieve the title four years on the trot and it has once again set itself as the benchmark for the others.”

Daniel Ricciardo: “I am pretty pleased with today’s performance, even if during the race I thought we were looking better than a tenth place finish, especially after the first stint went well and the pace was looking good. It seemed as though we could have matched Sutil and Di Resta, so there’s a little bit of disappointment about the fact I couldn’t get past them and get a couple more points. Generally, I am pleased with what I did in the car and now we move on to Abu Dhabi, where we have a lot of support, so I hope we can give them a good result next Sunday.

“Vettel? Phenomenal! Particularly since the summer break, when he grabbed the title and never let anyone else look at it.”

[Pic: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]

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Formula 1 Lotus Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 Indian GP

Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 Indian Grand Prix

It’s just too easy for him isn’t it. So it would seem from afar at any rate.

Sebastian Vettel has cruised to victory at the Indian Grand Prix and in doing so secured his fourth consecutive world championship. He’s just 26 years old and while he has his fair share of detractors noone can take away what he has achieved. It’s quite remarkable.

From pole position, Vettel established an early lead; 2.4 seconds by the end of Lap 1. It was clearly a case of how far for the Red Bull ace. He took a small risk by pitting early to rid himself of his soft compound tyres but then showed his class by carving his way through the field to re-establish a race winning position.

Despite a messy start, suffering light contact with both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber spent quite a bit of time leading the race. His different tyre strategy giving him an early edge over the other drivers around him. The plan was to establish a strong enough gap over Vettel to keep the lead. On this day, again, Vettel was unstoppable and his victory proved to be a formality. However, Mark was driving well and was on track for a comfortable second place.

Unfortunately for Mark he was instructed by his team to retire on account of an alternator problem. Vettel received a few warnings, as well, but he still posted quick laps and managed to win the race by almost 30 seconds over Nico Rosberg.

Even with Vettel’s huge achievement the drive of the day goes to Romain Grosjean who fought his way to P3 after the disappointment of starting from P17. His growing maturity has been one of the stories of the latter half of the season.

Daniel Ricciardo drove a long first stint, running as high as third and may have had eyes on a better result than the P10 he managed. That said he’ll be pleased with his efforts after he managed to hold off Fernando Alonso in the closing laps to grab a championship point.

And not much else really matters from tonight’s race because, deservedly, it’s all about Sebastian Vettel. His win secured a fourth constructors’ title in succession for Red Bull as well. Instead of returning his car to parc fermé, Vettel chose to entertain the crowd with a series of donuts on the main straight. Is there a better way to celebrate a record-breaking dual championship result?

It’s worth noting at the mid-season break, after the Hungarian Grand Prix, Vettel lead the championship title race by 38 points over Raikkonen. Handy, but not insurmountable. Fellow world champions Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were also in touching distance. Since then, though, Vettel has won the ensuing six races and his unbeatable championship lead is now a staggering 115 points.

Vettel joins Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher as the only men to win four world titles. By some margin Vettel is the youngest man to achieve this record. The rule changes of 2014 may well upset Red Bull’s on-track dominance, making a fifth title harder to predict. But you sense a fifth world crown, and perhaps more, will come before he retires from the sport.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2013 Indian GP: Qualifying report

2013 Indian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel pole has pole position for another grand prix, with a pair of Mercedes AMGs on his tail. Nothing new there and yet the biggest stories to come out of this latest round of qualifying centre around tyre selection.

Vettel blitzed the field needing only one flying lap in Q3 to set a time nobody could match (1:24.119). Nico Rosberg was the best of the challengers, but was a over seven tenths behind (1:24.871). Lewis Hamilton qualified third (1:24.941).

In fourth place is Mark Webber (1:25.047) and while the three guys ahead of him qualified on the faster option (softs) tyres, Mark elected to use the primes (mediums). On that basis he’s happy with P4 and the expectation he’ll be able to run a longer first stint with the plan to build up a decent lead.

“We thought it was worth trying something a little bit different with the strategy today, so that’s why we ran the primes in Q3,” Mark said. “We thought we would probably be a bit further back than the second row to be honest, so it turned out to be a good session for us.

“We’re in a good position to capitalise on a different approach tomorrow. The option tyre (used by the first three cars) shouldn’t last too long and we’ll be on a different strategy.”

Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean, who has shown excellent recent form took the gamble that the primes would be enough to progress from Q1 and he missed out by some margin too, half a second. He’ll be starting from P17 and will be one to watch when the lights go out.

Daniel Ricciardo (1:25.519) failed to make Q3 by just six hundredths of a second and will line up from P11. His Toro Rosso teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne (1:25.798), will start from P14.

“When I crossed the line, my engineer came on the radio and told me I was currently P9 and I thought this could be good, but a few corners later I had dropped to P11. So I was a bit disappointed, even if I think I probably got the most out of it,” Daniel explained. “All the same, we did a good job in qualifying and being eleventh, I get a free tyre choice for the start, although I know some of the top ten opted to do their final runs on the Prime.”

And so Vettel claims his 43rd career pole position and needs only a fifth place or better in the race to wrap up a fourth consecutive world championship. It looks like only a mechanical failure or accident stands in the way of the inevitable.

The full transcript of the post-quali press conference featuring the first three drivers can be read after the break.

[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Formula 1 Lotus Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2013 Singapore GP: Qualifying report

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

Sebatsian Vettel has once again shown his and Red Bull’s dominance over the rest of the field by claiming pole position for tonight’s Singapore Grand Prix. The three-time world champion played with his contemporaries by choosing to set just one flying lap in final qualifying (1:42.841) and despite some tense final moments it proved enough to give him P1.

Vettel has been quick all weekend and is chasing a third successive win at Marina Bay, so claiming pole was no surprise. However, Mark Webber wasn’t happy to have qualified fourth (1:43.152), behind Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG, 1:42.932) and Romain Grosjean (Lotus, 1:43.058).

“I’m a bit disappointed to be fourth,” Webber said, “It’s quite tight and there were some good lap times being set. We’re on the second row, it would have been better to have been on the front row, but it’s a long race tomorrow and we can do something from there. We’ve got a very good race car. It was hard to match Seb in the last sector; he’s always been strong in Turns 20 and 21.”

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG, 1:43.254) will start from the third row, with Felipe Massa (Ferrari, 1:43.890) alongside him. We’re quite sure Fernando Alonso (Ferrari, 1:43.938) won’t be quite as amused as us to see he will start the race behind his teammate, from P7. Although, we’re also quite sure Fernando will finish the race ahead of Massa.

Esetban Guiterrez (Sauber) was the star of Q2, comfortably getting himself into the final qualifying session. But he figured his job was done and he did not set a time in Q3 and will start from P10.

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso, 1:44.439) once again edged his car into Q3. He’ll start from ninth, three places ahead of teammate Jean-Eric Vergne.

“That was not an easy session and we had to work harder here to get to Q3 than we did in a few other races where we have managed it,” explained Daniel. “I was a bit disappointed not to get a little bit more time out of my lap in Q3, with Jenson a couple of tenths ahead and it would have been nice to get that.

“As for the race, the guys who went out in Q2 might have a little bit of a tyre advantage, so let’s hope that doesn’t have too much influence tomorrow. We will race as hard as we can and hope to stay in the points.”

Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) was perhaps the surprise of qualifying, missing out on Q3. He’s down in P13 and can put his woes down to a bad back apparently.

The full transcript from the post-quali press conference can be read after the break.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

VIDEO: Nico Rosberg talks about his helmet

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG

Nico Rosberg from Mercedes AMG has taken time out to talk to about the features of his helmet. It’s short and sweet and you might even learn something!

[Source: Wired]

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Ferrari Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Nico Rosberg wins 2013 British GP

2013 British Grand Prix

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.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

VIDEO: SLS AMG Gullwing – F1 Safety Car

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing

MercedesBenzTV have just released a new video on their SLS AMG Gullwing F1 Safety Car. Bernd Mäylander, official Safety Car driver, tells us what all the buttons do. Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg also pop in for a chat to tell us what a great car the Gullwing is. Remember, if you take $464K from under your bed you can have a Gullwing all of your own.

Check the clip in full below.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

Michael Schumacher returns to F1 at Valencia

MercedesGP - Valencia day 1

Michael Schumacher is back! His eagerly anticipated return to Formula One with MercedesGP took its first step overnight with the season’s first test session, held at Valenicia.

Speaking at the end of the day Schumacher, who set the third fastest time, said “It was a perfect rollout for the new car today. I felt totally comfortable and really had a feeling that everything was very natural. It felt just like at the very beginning of my career in 1991 when on the first lap, I thought ‘wow that was really fast’ and then on the second lap, I was just extremely excited. I feel like a young boy again and really enjoyed myself out there.

“We did a good job today, just making a few control checks, and the most important thing was that the car ran reliably. With Nico and I covering 79 laps between us, it was a superb job by the team.”

A full list of times from day 1 can be seen here (there were only 8 runners). There are two more days remaining on the Valencia testing schedule. Nico Rosberg will be the only MercedesGP driver to take to the track tomorrow, while Schumacher will return on day 3.

After the jump you will find more pics of Schumacher on track and in pit lane, along with statements from teammate Nico Rosberg and Team Principal Ross Brawn.

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