Tag: Romain Grosjean

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2013 Japanese Grand Prix in pictures

2013 Japanese Grand Prix

On the surface Sebastian Vettel’s win at the Japanese Grand Prix looked to be a solid victory crafted with determination and a solid strategy. The conspiracy theorists out there would suggest Red Bull’s decision to keep Vettel on a two-stop strategy, while switching Mark Webber to a three-stopper, was all about providing an opportunity for Seb to forge a win from third place, while harming Mark’s chances of a first win for season 2013.

Certainly, Vettel’s own radio calls late in the race asking the team to keep Mark away from him would lend support to that theory. But former Red Bull driver David Coulthard is having none of that, suggesting if it were true that Mark would be telling the world all about it.

All we can do is wonder what would have happened if Mark was able to bully his way past Romain Grosjean with the effectiveness which Vettel did. Instead, it took Mark seven laps to find a way around the Lotus driver by which time any chance of a challenge to Vettel’s lead had been lost.

Which means our regular F1 pictorial update gives us yet another opportunity to look at that bloody finger!

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2013 Japanese GP: Post-race press conference

2013 Japanese Grand Prix

After missing out on the win at today’s Japanese Grand Prix, Mark Webber explained he started the race on a two-stop strategy, but the team switched him to a three after his first stop.

“I think we tried to race Romain at the start and then in the end we switched to the three,” Mark said. “So I was the meat in the sandwich, trying to beat Romain on a two and then all of a sudden we decided to do a three. I was a little bit surprised. I asked was it the right thing to do because I felt we could get to the lap we were looking to get to.”

Daniel Ricciardo reflected on his drive-through penalty, which he says cost him a points finish. “I am disappointed not to have scored some points today, because I am convinced I was heading for the top ten, which would have been an encouraging result, after struggling with the balance of the car on Saturday,” he said.

“We started on the Hard tyre and after I made a good start to move up two places, it was looking good as I passed Bottas on the track and moved up the order as those on the Medium pitted ahead of me. I was moving up the order again after my first stop and then I made a move on the outside of Sutil at the 130R and got past him. But after that, I ran wide onto the grass, which lost me a bit of time. Sadly, the Stewards decided I had gained an advantage by going off the track and had to take a drive-through penalty, which of course ruined my race.”

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

[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 Japanese GP

Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 Japanese GP

Oh how all of Australia wished Mark Webber could convert his pole position into a race win at the Japanese Grand Prix today. Yet, just as Stuart MacGill’s cricketing talent was never fulfilled thanks to the presence of Shane Warne, Webber had to once again watch, seemingly powerless, as his teammate went on to craft another grand prix victory. Mark left to content himself with second place.

Both Red Bull drivers made clumsy starts from the front row and the Lotus lead-driver-in-waiting Romain Grosjean took the opportunity to take the lead into the first corner from P4. In the melee of the start Vettel clipped Lewis Hamilton’s left rear. Hamilton had made a good start too, but his race was ruined after the subsequent puncture and damage to his floor of his Mercedes AMG eventually sent him into retirement.

The rest of the field was left to fight over the scraps as the leading trio got down to the business of winning the race. A mix of strategies—Webber, three stops; Vettel and Grosjean, two stops—meant we spent the bulk of the race waiting for Mark’s final pit stop so we could finally see what would happen next.

Grosjean left himself the longest final stint on his tyres and after Vettel emerged from his final stop behind the Lotus driver his task was to overtake as soon as possible in order to build a lead in anticipation of Webber’s closing pace in the last few laps. True to form Vettel got the job done, forcing his way past Grosjean without losing too much time.

Webber entered the pits in the lead, with the gap back to Vettel closing by the lap. But with a brand new set of prime tyres, and close behind Grosjean, he had 10 laps to overtake the Frenchman and set about chasing down Vettel. What Vettel made look easy, Webber made look hard. He eventually did get past Grosjean, but with just two laps left in the race, the damage was done and Vettel cruised to a seven second victory.

Daniel Ricciardo had an anonymous race and finished in P13, one place behind Jean-Eric Vergne. Daniel’s race was affected after he ran wide on the exit of 130R overtaking Adrian Sutil. The race stewards said he gained an unfair advantage by running off the circuit and issued him with a drive-through penalty. Elsewhere not much else happened.

Today’s win is Vettel’s fifth in a row since the mid-season break and his ninth race win of the year. Fernando Alonso’s fourth place was enough to delay Vettel’s championship party for a couple of weeks until the teams reassemble for the Indian Grand Prix.

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2013 Korean GP: Post-race press conference

2013 Korean Grand Prix

One of the nice things about a grand prix held at a more convenient time for those of us following Formula 1 from the southern hemisphere is that we can follow the post-race activities in real time. That means you can read the press conference transcript before you go to bed.

Before you do, here’s what the Aussies had to say. Mark Webber first: “The incident with Sutil was obviously the end of my race today. It was in Turn 3 on the restart, everyone bottles back up and I was looking for a big exit on the next straight to use some KERS on Daniel (Ricciardo) and the Williams. Then Sutil, I don’t know what happened, but obviously he hit me from the inside and that was that.

“There was quite a lot of damage at the back of the car and I hope it hasn’t gone towards the chassis—we will have to see before the next race. Before that I was very happy with how I drove and we’d got back to a very good position before I got the puncture. After the Pirelli tyre failure on Perez’ car, I was very lucky to miss the tread of the tyre that came off and then unbelievably I managed to get a puncture from going through the debris.”

For his part Adrian Sutil has both escaped penalty from the stewards and said sorry to Mark: “At the restart I lost the rear of the car under braking for turn three. I really don’t know why because I was not braking late and the car just snapped. I hit Webber so I apologise for ending his race. It’s a disappointing end to the race because I believe there was still a chance of a point.”

And Daniel Ricciardo: “I think we did all we could today in the race. I had a decent first stint and tried to run as long as possible on the Prime tyre. The car wasn’t perfect but it was good enough to be in a points position with a few laps to go and I was hanging on nicely to ninth.

“It’s déjà vu, as I had the same scenario here last year, when I came down to Turn 3 with a few laps to go, I braked and the car immediately shot to the left. That time it cost me one place. Once I got out of the cockpit this time, I could see there was a mechanical problem at the front left corner. Personally, I was really pleased with my performance in the car today. Maybe we didn’t have a top ten car but I was able to fight in the top ten. But for myself and the team it’s frustrating to get no reward. Now all we can do is look ahead to Suzuka.”

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

[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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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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2013 German Grand Prix in pictures

2013 German Grand Prix

Here we are with a bumper edition of F1 pics this week. There’s over 100 photos from the 2013 German Grand Prix for you below, there’s some really great images too. We hope you like them.

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2013 German GP: Post-race press conference

2013 German Grand Prix

One of the benefits of Kimi Raikkonen finishing so close to Sebastian Vettel in the German Grand Prix is that it gave the media at the post-race press conference a chance to quiz both drivers about the possibility of racing in the same team next year. As you’d expect both played a fairly straight bat, but it was still interesting to read what both had to say on the topic of replacing Mark Webber in 2014.

[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Sebastian Vettel wins 2013 German Grand Prix

2013 German Grand Prix

For all of the amazing things Sebastian Vettel has achieved in his Formula 1 career, a win at his home grand prix had eluded him. But not any more. Victory at the Nürburgring for his first German Grand Prix trophy is Vettel’s 30th career win, becoming only the sixth driver in F1 history to reach that mark.

Close behind the Red Bull ace was Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) who finished strongly, just one second adrift of Vettel. The final podium position was taken by Romain Grosjean (Lotus).

For Vettel it was a controlled race, but behind him there were two bizarre incidents that helped to shape the result. Mercifully, neither included the exploding tyres we saw in Silverstone last week. The first incident ruined Mark Webber’s race. The Aussie made a great start from P3 and challenged for the lead into the first corner. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG) was swamped by the two Red Bulls and Vettel took the lead.

At the first round of pit stops Webber’s left rear wheel was not put back on correctly, yet he was still waved out and metres later the wheel came loose. Unfortunately the wheel bounced down the pit lane and hit a cameraman. Reports suggest the cameraman suffered minor injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. Mark was able to rejoin the race, after being pushed back into his pit box, albeit a lap down.

The second incident started on lap 22, when Jules Bianchi (Marussia) pulled to the side of the circuit after his car caught fire. The flames were extinguished and the car was abandoned awaiting collection from the marshals. Two laps after the car came to rest, it began to roll down the hill, across the track before coming to rest thanks to an advertising hoarding. Cue the Benny Hill theme, but thankfully no harm was done.

What Bianchi’s runaway car did do was bring out a Safety Car. This not only allowed the field to bunch up, but also allowed Mark Webber to unlap himself. Racing resumed on Lap 30, half race distance.

Vettel maintained his lead, despite a late charge from Kimi Raikkonen. Webber was able to put in a commendable recovery drive to finish in P7, which included a pass on Sergio Perez on the second half of the final lap. Not a bad effort after being dead last after the Safety Car came in.

Speaking after the race Webber expressed his disappointment, knowing he had the package to fight for the win. “Today was a bit of a nightmare and you want to wake up tomorrow and have another go at it,” he said. “We had an excellent start and were in a great position leading up to the first stop with Seb, but we lost all of that. We lost a lot of points today and a chance to challenge for the win, but there’s no rewind button now.”

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso) was unhappy with his day, which saw him start from P6 only to finish in P12. “A frustrating and rather dull race for me,” Daniel said. “After the start, I was able to hold position on the Option, but once we pitted for the Prime tyre, I really struggled for pace and couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to in order to get more out of the car.

“I can’t explain why for now, so we will need to look at the data to see why we were just too slow for much of the weekend.”

On the positive side for Ricciardo, his teammate, Jean-Eric Verge, was forced to retire with a hydraulics problem.

[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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