Watch highlights of the final race of the 2012 season where Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel had an incredible drive after crashing at the start of the race with major damage to his RB8. Vettel didn’t win the race but he did finish high enough to ensure that he had more points than Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
In the same race we also said goodbye to one of the best drivers in formula 1, Michael Schumcher. This was his final race of his F1 career. #KeepFightingMichael
The penultimate round of the Formula 1 World Championship brings us to the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Usually the final Grand Prix of the season, but this year things are a bit different. But that doesn’t matter. No matter where on the calendar you put the Brazilian Grand Prix, you are guaranteed unpredictability in the race. We don’t even have to remember that far back either. Who can forget the 2012 race where Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso fought to the bitter end to just narrowly loose out to Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel for the Drivers World Championship.
The drivers title for 2014 is still wide open. Either one of the Mercedes drivers could win it. Love it or hate it, the double points rule at the final race of the season does make things very unpredictable. But at the same time it casts a shadow over the drivers title if the driver who wins it, wins because of the double points in the final race. Will it be a deserved title or not?
Lower down the order, the rest of the teams are still fighting for position for the Constructors Championship. Red Bull look to have second place all sewn up. The battle for third between Ferrari and Williams is still ongoing. The slow and twisty nature of the Sao Paulo track will suit the Ferrari’s more than the Williams. Ferrari on the other hand need both their drivers to finish in strong positions. Williams will make the best out of the situation. Ferrari need to weary of McLaren who are just 49 points adrift.
This week times will not be as late as they were for the American Grand Prix, but we can expect early evening times for the people in Europe and Africa, with early morning times for the folks over in the eastern regions of the world.
Here are your broadcast times for this weekends Brazilian Grand Prix(All times are GMT+2):
Free Practice 1: 14:00
Free Practice 2: 18:00
Free Practice 3: 15:00
Qualifying: 18:00
Race: 18:00
In general terms a conundrum is defined as a difficult and confusing problem. In Nico Rosberg terms the conundrum is Lewis Hamilton. The latest win in Texas gives Hamilton five consecutive race victories and leaves Rosberg without any answers.
As the weekend started to take shape it was Rosberg who stepped up to the qualifying plate. The German got the better of Hamilton by a hefty four tenths which Hamilton would later chalk up to “brake issues.” Nevertheless, at the first hurdle it was Nico Rosberg who pulled it off.
The first stint of the race too was all Rosberg as he controlled the initial laps. The sting was taken out of the start of the grand prix as a collision between Force India’s Sergio Perez and Sauber’s Adrian Sutil brought out the safety car on lap one. Both drivers’ race was ended by the coming together and Perez has been given a seven place grid penalty for the Brazilian GP.
The two Williams drivers, very much embroiled in a constructor’s fight with Ferrari, shadowed the Mercedes duo for the first stint of the race without ever being able to launch a serious threat on any of the first two positions. For the most part Felipe Massa looked set for the final step of the podium but Red Bull’s plucky Aussie once again lived up to his billing. Daniel Ricciardo snatched third from the Brazilian in yet another afternoon of mighty fine wheel-to-wheel racing.
By lap 24 Hamilton has eroded the two-and-a-half second gap that Rosberg had steadily built and flung his car down the inside of Turn 12 and into the lead of the race. It wasn’t a swashbuckling, throw caution to the wind kind of move either from Hamilton. It was calculated and infused with an ominous hunger. Five straight race wins sends quite an imposing message to the other side of the garage.
For once Valterri Bottas finished second to teammate Massa in a quiet fifth place. Fernando Alonso dragged a reluctant Ferrari up to sixth and managed to hold off a late charge from Sebastian Vettel. The Red Bull driver’s didn’t look sharp after a pitlane start but a late stop for fresh rubber breathed some life into his afternoon. Kevin Magnussen brought his McLaren home in eighth ahead of Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado. The Lotus turned out to be the surprise package of the weekend and ran competitively in the points for most of the afternoon.
Jean-Eric Vergne was stripped of ninth place after incurring a penalty for a collision with Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman ultimately finished tenth. The mid-field battle for points was responsible for some spicy wheel-to-wheel battles as several drivers duked it out. Both Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen finished outside the points and a lap down on the leaders.
Besides the mega quick Lewis Hamilton-shaped conundrum that Nico Rosberg has he faces an even bigger dilemma. Rosberg’s problem isn’t that
he can’t win it; it’s that he doesn’t know how to win it. He hasn’t had to deal with an unrelenting teammate before certainly not while at the same time being the focus of so much attention. Hamilton’s move to take the lead of the race came from pretty far back and it was Rosberg’s caution that consigned him to second best. This isn’t a call to throw all rationality out of the window but through all of this sport’s history it has been courage that has made and defined its champions. As impressive and consistent as Rosberg has been this season he just doesn’t seem to have the uncontained hunger to win it.
It is far from over and Brazil’s legendary Autodromo Carlos Pace has always been the wildcard in the Formula 1 calendar. Here, the unpredictability seems to ratchet up a notch or two and it tends delivers some of the most astounding results. Rosberg faces a deficit of twenty-four points and call to unleash all he has on a near unbeatable teammate.
Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne was slapped with a 5-second penalty after the United States Grand Prix for his collision with Lotus’ Romain Grosjean in the closing stages of the race.
Vergne finished the race in P9, but after being handed a 5-second penalty, he was classified as P10.
Vergne crashed into Grosjean towards the end of the race with somewhat of a late dive down the inside into T1. Both did, in fact, make the corner, but Verge carried more speed and ran wide which resulted him in colliding with Grosjean’s Lotus. Grosjean was pushed wide and conceded another place to his team mate, who moves up to P9 after Vergne’s penalty.
“Jean-Eric came into Turn 1 and bumped into me, broke my front wing and my floor and I couldn’t really recover,” said Grosjean
“I was on the radio saying ‘guys, that’s not fair, he [should] get something’, because I could have got P8.
“I may not get my points and position but it’s good that Pastor scored and we were finally able to fight with Ferrari and Toro Rosso.”
Vergne who is fighting for a 2015 seat at Toro Rosso felt that he needed to do something and he could not just wait behind his fellow countryman.
“I had to do something, I was not going to stay sitting behind waiting,” Vergne explained.
“I saw the opportunity and I went for it. He closed the door but it was too late.”
Photo credit: Scuderia Toro Rosso F1
Force India’s Sergio Perez will drop 7 places down the grid for this weeks Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo after being branded as “reckless” by the FIA after his collision on the opening lap of the United States Grand Prix with Sauber’s Adrian Sutil.
The Mexican also gets two points deducted off his super licence for his behavior.
The collision happened on the opening lap at T15 at the Circuit of Americas. Perez dived down the inside of Sutil to attempt a pass but looked like he went too deep on the brakes and could not slow down sufficiently to avoid hitting Sutil. He made slight contact with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the process. But there was no damage reported by Raikkonen
A statement about the incident from the FIA read as follows: “The driver of car No.11 (Perez) could not reasonably have expected to complete the manoeuvre. His collision with car No.99 (Sutil) was reckless.”
Perez described the incident as “Unfortunate”
“What happened today is really unfortunate,” he said
“I made a move on Adrian [Sutil] at turn 15 when he left the door open, so I went up the inside. Then Adrian started to close the door and I had to try and brake later than him.
“By doing so I was unable to avoid contact with Kimi [Raikkonen], which caused me to make contact with Adrian also. I just didn’t expect Kimi to be in that position. It’s a big shame because I had a great chance to keep up my run of points finishes and I was determined to do well in such an important race. I feel very sorry for all my fans who came to support me this weekend and I’m disappointed I could not give them a race to remember.”
Adrian Sutil was left seething after the accident as he had the best starting position for the team and for himself.
“Idiot! Perez just F**king kicked me off the circuit!”he said over the radio to his team.
“It was such a shame and so disappointing and so unnecessary,” Sutil said.
“We were hoping for a great result today and because of a silly action like this we missed everything.
“It is very disappointing that we missed our biggest chance of points because of this move.”
Photo credit: Sahara Force India Formula 1
DRIVERS
1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3rd Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Mario Andretti)
Hello Austin, another exciting and beautiful race in the record books. Amazing, guys. All my deputies here. Lewis, if my math is correct it’s your tenth win this season, a 24-point lead in the championship. Oh my gosh. Three races, two wins and a second, is there anything you can tell me about your secret here?
Lewis HAMILTON: You know, this is an incredible place. I’ve got such great support here, so a big, huge thank you to the fans here. Again, I’ve been so fortunate – I’ve got an incredible team, an incredible and I had a great competitor today and I’m really grateful to be up front. I’m really excited. It’s such a privilege to be representing my country and to be at the top of the driver wins is really quite special.
A beautiful job, obviously. You had work to do. You’ve done that in the past. You made a beautiful pass on your friend here Nico and I think you might have caught him by surprise a little bit but after that in clear air it looked like clear sailing, because it looked like the car just worked perfectly for you?
LH: The car was great today, but you know what, where’s the Stetson? Can I use your hat?
MA: In a minute… I’m still on official duty.
LH: Oh yeah, you’re the sheriff.
Nico, great start, brilliant pole. It looks to me like you were caught a little bit by surprise on that overtake early on in the race and once Lewis got into clear air it seemed like you had a tough time. Nevertheless a one-two, many times this year, a brilliant performance by both of you and kudos to Mercedes.
Nico ROSBERG: yeah, it definitely kind of sucks to me today, but that’s the way it is (inaudible). It took too long for me to find my rhythm. Once Lewis got by I found my rhythm, but it was too late, so that kind of sucked. But anyways, thank you to all of you; you’ve been fantastic today. As I see, you’ve had a great time, that’s important and it’s great that F1 is in Texas.
Seventy-five points still available before the end of the season, so the fight is still open right. Daniel, wow! Eight podiums this season, you’re just right there aren’t there aren’t you? Keeping these two pretty honest aren’t you? That’s fabulous to see.
Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah we’re doing what we can. We all had a great weekend. So, firstly, thanks to all the fans. It’s honestly a pleasure to come out here. Austin’s great – the circuit, the facilities, the town, everything’s good. So thanks to Red Bull for giving me the package to fight for the podium today and I’m really happy with third place.
That was brilliant obviously as I said. Some of your overtakes are textbook. As a young man it’s amazing. It’s fun to watch, honestly.
DR: Thanks. This place is great. You can overtake here, there are a lot of opportunities. I got Magnussen on lap one and then Fernando on the restart, so it wasn’t too boring out there.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, well done, what an amazing run of races you’ve had, these five victories, absolutely fantastic. How have you felt about those?
LH: It’s been an incredible run. This whole season has been incredible really. Just an unbelievable job done by the team. Nico was very quick in qualifying yesterday. Obviously I said I had a couple of problems and I corrected them today and, never know how the race is going to go but I pushed as hard as I could, particularly in the first stint. And the second stint I seemed to be even quicker on that stint. Once I got past Nico it was really just about controlling it. Coming here today, just having that same determination and hunger to get that win. And, as I said, there’s not a better crowd really to do that in front of.
Q: Tell us about that overtake. How did that happen? How did you feel about that? Was it all DRS? How did it actually happen?
LH: It’s obviously a very good circuit to be able to follow but it’s not easy and it was very hard through the middle sector to try to stay as close to him as possible and get as close as I could to the DRS zone. And I was quite a bit back, I would say, but I felt very confident, there was a big headwind into 12, and I just felt like I was waiting for the moment really, to just be just close enough to throw it up the inside. And that’s what I did. There’s a kind of… you have to decide how much of a risk you’re willing to take. Nico wasn’t defending there really so almost caught him unaware. And after that, really I was just trying to maintain it. But what an incredible achievement. I’m so grateful. Big thank you to all my team and to my family because the results that I’ve had and the amount of wins that I’ve had wouldn’t have been possible without those people.
Q: You talked yesterday about brakes and also a little bit about a flat-spot. There was no sign of that during the opening laps?
LH: No, there was no problem. Fortunately it was a small one. But when the Safety Car came out I did have that big difference of around 100°C between the left front brake and the right front, so was trying very hard to keep it as high as possible but fortunately once we got going again it started to rebalance itself and I didn’t have too many problems. Locking was still there but it didn’t seem to hinder me.
Q: Nico, great start again the overtake saw you back in second place. What happened there?
NR: Yeah, the start was good so thanks to the team for that, that worked out really well. It’s pretty simple that I didn’t find my rhythm early on. It took a long time, like all the way until after Lewis passed me. In the overtake, I knew there was a chance. Maybe he would try or not, so I went kinda, halfway defensive but Lewis just did a good job and that’s it. Five or ten laps later I started to find a better rhythm and then I felt OK – but it was unfortunately just way too late.
Q: At one point, for something like five laps in succession, you were lapping so close, the two of you, within thousandths of a second of one another, I guess that when you’d found the rhythm.
NR: Yes. That’s the period went I started to feel more comfortable. I never gave up in this race, of course, I was just fully determined all the way to try and put the pressure onto Lewis, try and get a bit closer, but it just wasn’t possible today.
Q: And you radioed in that you hit a kerb at some point. Was there any lasting effect from that?
NR: No, it’s just that with these kerbs around the back there, if you take a little bit too much, they’re quite high and it was a little bit of a thump but everything was OK. Again, they’ve built a good car. Robust.
Q: Daniel, fantastic pace to get past both of the Williams. It looked like the car really came into its own in the middle of the race.
DR: Yeah. I think we had good pace. Williams were strong. I think we used good strategy to get ahead of them basically, and that paid off. But yeah, the first few laps were fun. We dropped a few places on the start but then got Magnussen into 12 and then Alonso on the restart so, couldn’t really hang with the Williams at first but it seemed like the longer the stint went, the more pace we had. Really happy with third. As we know, Mercedes are a bit out of reach, so third I think was the best we could do today.
Q: And when you had the Williams behind you, within the DRS capability as it were, a slippery Williams with a Mercedes engine, you must have thought it was all over.
DR: Yeah, Felipe was coming on strong at the end. I could see him. At the beginning of the stint I pulled but then he came back stronger than he expected. I don’t know if he had DRS or not but I was trying to do a little bit down the straights so he couldn’t get too much in my tow. But anyways, I think we held on pretty comfortably in the end but they had good pace and kept me honest until the last lap.
Q: So really happy to be on the podium.
DR: You betcha!
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Sef Harding – Zero Zone News) Lewis, you’ve been focused out there like a Jedi knight this season. Big numbers for you: this makes five in a row and ten wins through the season. Did everything just come together for you today, once you had the car hooked up?
LH: I like the Jedi knight reference! That’s cool. Yeah, today, just really doing my homework. Before the race there’s a lot you can do to really understand what opportunities could come up and in different scenarios, how you approach it and I felt very much on top of that as I have done for quite some time. Just went into the race with the belief that I could win it. Incredible support from my fans, even from when I was in New York this week. The support from my fans and the tons of flags out there and team tops and team caps, I really am so grateful for that support that I have here in the US. It’s amazing. I hope it continues to grow over the years. Great weather, the circuit’s just fantastic. I went into the race thinking I need another race just like 2012 and it was just like that. I was catching him through exactly the same points at which I was catching Sebastian. There wasn’t a moment in the race when I didn’t think that I would get him. Once I was past, as I said, I was able to relax for a second and really try to manage the tyres, because I knew that perhaps he would push at some other point. And so I was always having to respond. It’s such a great feeling when you have a race like that, it just feels great that you’ve really done it as best as you can.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action/National Speed Sport News) Daniel, as you said, a slow start. What happened at the start and also, looking forward to next weekend, the Red Bull is second best here, how will it be in Interlagos?
DR: I don’t really want to talk about the start! We’ll see. I feel that it was my fault today. It just didn’t feel like I got the procedure right but I will have to look back and see the ins and outs. But I think it was… for getting off the line poorly, I think we had good damage limitation. Yes. Think I picked a better line in turn one and then, as I said, got Kevin back in turn 12 so in the end we only lost one spot. I think it could have been a lot worse. Yeah, we’ll work on that and then Brazil, hopefully we’re strong. In the past, it has definitely been a good track for Red Bull but I think, again, it’s going to be that last step on the podium that we’re going to fight for. I don’t know. I would like to say that I could catch these two but I think I will be happy with third but let’s see how we go.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo OnLine) Nico, now there are 24 points difference to Lewis; do you go to the two last races with the same approach until now, or emotionally inevitable that it affects you? And Daniel, can you describe the manoeuvre to overtake Alonso and then Massa in the operation of pit stops?
NR: Same approach from me: fully committed, full attack, try and be on pole in qualifying and then win Interlagos and that’s it. There are still many points to be had and a lot can still happen. Same as all the time.
DR: Fernando on the restart; I don’t think that, from memory, the two Williamses didn’t get a great restart so it sort of bunched us all up. We were close and I saw Fernando cover a bit but it’s so wide at turn one, I knew there was a bit more room on the inside. I guess I committed to that, already out of the last corner when I knew I was close enough and that worked, so that was good but then Massa or Valtteri cut in late. I was very shallow on the apex and I nearly actually collected the Williams but I’m sure Fernando was watching me and saying ‘it’s all over here. He braked too late. Silly boy.’ It was close but that worked well and then I think just the undercut worked to our advantage. I don’t know if Felipe had a slow pit stop or not but yeah, that probably helped us out and I think our pit stop was pretty quick so that was the story there.
Q: (David Estrada – The Port Arthur News) Lewis and Nico, you guys had a very similar tyre- changing strategy today. Do you think it was done intentionally, to level the playing field between you two? And do you guys see that continuing in the future races?
LH: It wasn’t because of that. It was because if you look at some of the races, you have been able to offset. Usually the first driver will have the optimum strategy, but then the second driver usually has… say it’s option, prime, prime, the second driver would have a chance of doing option, prime, option but the option’s quite weak here so you had to run option, prime, prime. It was much much slower to run an option, so then we were both on that strategy and that’s why I had to push so hard to make sure I got by as soon as possible because I wouldn’t have that opportunity later on.
Q: (Matthew Walter – Bleacher Report) Lewis, now if you were to finish second in the next two races, no matter what Nico did, you would still be World Champion, so does this change your approach at all, in terms of maybe being a little bit more conservative, taking fewer chances or is it the same for you?
LH: It doesn’t really change, same as for Nico really, because we’re hunting for those points. I think during the year you have to be balanced in the risks you take and I think that so far I’ve not been taking too many risks. I’ve done what I’ve needed to do to get by in the safest way, in the cleanest way, which has worked all year, so I should just continue to do the same. Even in this race, I was looking after the car, trying to nurse it home and make sure that it had no problems, and I think really you’ve just got to keep going until the last chequered flag.
Q: (Steve Aibel – Drafting the circuits) Daniel, the atmosphere here in Austin and Texas, you seem to really have embraced. You’ve talked about Sixth Street, wore a cowboy hat but the thing that I think really embraces you to the State is that number on your hat. Is there any way you can talk about the three and the influence of Dale Earnhardt in picking that number?
DR: Yes, you’re absolutely right. I love this place. I’m definitely not alone but yeah, it is special, it’s cool. And then yeah, the three. I was a big fan of Dale Earnhardt. I’m a fan of motorsports but I’ve followed NASCAR since I was very young. It was follow Dale and it was my first go-kart number as well. When Formula One said you can pick your numbers this year, it was a no-brainer for me to chose the three and then once they agreed I could run it, I thought what better way to have the style of Dale on my helmet. Yeah, it’s been pretty cool. Dale Junior has seen that we’ve spoken via social media a little bit and it’s really nice that he’s supportive of that. So really quite honoured, obviously, to represent that in Formula One.
Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday) Lewis and Nico, no matter what the result is at the next race, the Abu Dhabi race will be the determining who wins. There’s fifty points on offer, various scenarios and mathematical computations can be played out. Any views on this, how you approach it?
LH: I think I just said I would do exactly the same. There isn’t much more to add to it, just going to be exactly the same as I approached this weekend and previous races: I want to win.
NR: For me, that’s great to hear of course, because then there’s a definite shot at the championship this year, even with the points that I’m now behind and anyways, there’s still Brazil to come so in Brazil it’s even possible to completely turn it around. You never know what will happen there so I’m sure it will be an exciting end to the season. I hope it’s going to be exciting for the fans, that’s the most important thing also, that we put on a good show which I think we managed to do today. I look forward to the last two races. With the car that we have, it’s awesome, it really is.
Photo by courtesy Pirelli
In a surprise admission that the current commercial agreement with the teams had lead to the current financial issues being experienced by smaller teams in F1, Bernie Ecclestone says that the only way to solve the current financial crisis is for bigger teams to make some sacrifices.
In a rather long press briefing by the F1 ringmaster, Ecclestone was quoted as saying that the distribution of the monies payed to teams is being done incorrectly.
“The problem is there is too much money probably being distributed badly – probably my fault,” said Ecclestone. “But like lots of agreements people make, they seemed a good idea at the time.”
Ecclestone seemed very sympathetic to the situation but because he does not own F1, he’s powerless to do anything to remedy the situation.
“If the company belonged to me I would have done things in a different way because it would have been my money I was dealing with. But I work for people who are in the business to make money.”
A proposed idea from Ecclestone is for teams to take a portion of the teams’ prize money and place that into a fund that will be able to assist struggling teams. He will then equal the amount of the contribution by the teams and place the money from CVC, the company that owns the commercial rights to F1, into the same pot.
Although it may see like a viable idea, he does not think that teams will like the idea.
“I would say to people getting a chunk of money that I would like to take a percentage of their performance-related payment,” Ecclestone said.
“I would put that money together to divide among the three or four we know are in trouble, and then I would put in the same amount of money.
“But there would not be one team that would think it was a good idea.”
Ecclestone says that he knows what the problem is and that he’s dealt with issues that are bigger than this. The difference with this situation is that there are large amounts of money involved.
“It’s not the biggest crisis I’ve dealt with, but I’m not happy,” he said.
“It’s just you are talking about larger amounts of money, so therefore it is more difficult to solve.
“We’ll have to do something about it because we can’t all sit back nicely, relaxed and think the problem will go away.
“It’s not like having the flu and taking a few tablets and it will disappear.
“The situation is such that if enough people want it resolved, we can resolve it.
“It’s a case that the people involved in the sport will have to want to look after the sport and be prepared to make some sacrifices.”
Drivers:
1 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
3 – Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
TV UNILATERAL
Q: Nico, a very strong pole position, a big margin for you. How do you feel about that? And things are really hotting up, I guess now, with just three races to go?
Nico Rosberg: Yeah, great day, very happy. It worked out really well, you know. Together with my engineers I really arrived at a car in the end in qualifying that I was happy with, the balance was good. Because it was quite a challenge, because the wind was changing and then this morning the conditions were quite different, a lot colder, so the track was changing all the time and it wasn’t that easy to get everything right but in the end we got to a great set-up, a great car, so I’m pleased with that. So first place of course today is awesome but you know the race is what counts, so I still need to focus fully on tomorrow and to bring it home.
Q: Well done. Coming to you Lewis, fastest in practice, fastest in Q1, but from Q2 onwards it seemed to be a bit of a troubled session for you, particularly with braking, in Q2 and again in Q3 I think?
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, Nico did a great job today. I really struggled with braking, yeah. When you look at the brake temperatures, the left brake was always around 100 degrees less than the right front brake. It just kept catching. No matter what I did, even if I braked earlier and tried to save it, it would still lock. So that was perhaps where I was losing a lot of the time. But even if that wasn’t the case I think Nico was perhaps too quick today.
Q: Is that an issue for you for the race, with that set of tyres?
LH: Potentially, yeah, so I need to try to see… maybe they can scrub them down or something and try to fix it overnight.
Q: OK, thank you for that. Coming to you Valtteri: your sixth time in the last eight Grands Prix that you’ve qualified in the top three. That’s some run of form.
Valtteri Bottas: Yeah, a pretty good qualifying again. I’m really pleased with the couple of good laps I got in Q3 today actually. It’s been a difficult weekend from my side for some reason, to get to a good rhythm and then finally during the qualifying I could really trust the car, like you should do. Really happy for us as a team, again, we locked the second row. It’s a good starting position for tomorrow’s race because we have still important three races to try to keep a good position in the constructors’ championship.
Q: Very well done. Coming back to you again Nico, this track, particularly from the start, one of the characteristics here at the Circuit of The Americas has been the difference between the clean side and the dirty side of the grid. You must be pleased you’re on the right side of that tomorrow?
NR: I haven’t thought that far yet, but if you say it then yes, that’s great, another extra advantage for the clean side of the grid, you know, starting first. Of course the start is going to be important, need to make the most of that and stay ahead.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: So Nico, that, I think, is the sixth Mercedes front row lock-out in a row, which is certainly a statement about the dominance you’ve got in the car and the way you continue to stay ahead of everybody. Margin of nine-tenths to Valtteri today, it was four-tenths in Sochi – but you too haven’t been immune from brake problems this weekend, have you? Is this something worrying you at all going into the race?
NR: We’ve had a few issues in general on the car this weekend, on both cars and so yeah, we need to try to get it all right for tomorrow – but personally I’m not worried about that at all because if I would start worrying about that, it’s not going to be good for performance. So I’m very confident the team’s going to get the job done and just concentrate on what I can influence on my driving. I’m not worried.
Q: Lewis, I don’t know if you know but tomorrow is six years to the day since you won your world championship: November 2nd 2008. So I’m sure you’ll be hoping to channel the Interlagos spirit into tomorrow’s Grand Prix – but how much is that vibration on those tyres going to cause you a problem? Can you drill down a little bit more into that for us?
LH: Well the vibration isn’t that bad. It’s a minor flat spot. They’ll rebalance it and hopefully won’t feel too much with it. The issue is just locking. If I can’t fix that left brake, then that will be a continuing issue throughout the race. And obviously flat spots lead to blistering so I’ve got try and make sure we can fix that this evening.
Q: Coming to you Valtteri, you got your first points in Formula One here 12 months ago. Tell us about the race in prospect for you and also why you were behind Felipe pretty much the whole of today and how you managed to nail him when it got to the business end of qualifying.
VB: Yeah, it should be an interesting race. I think especially the guys behind us are going to be really quick and we’re now in a good position in the team’s championship and it’s going to be an important race for us to get good points with both cars. It’s not going to be easy. So we will really need to try to get everything right tomorrow. Really look forward to the race here, it’s always good fun. In qualifying and in general from the practice, I managed to improve myself a lot during every session and really got the car to a good set-up only just before the qualifying and for the qualifying – so I could really trust the car a bit better in the qualifying and get those lines right and get every corner right. I knew that Q3 is the one which is going to matter, and I needed to get everything right and be on the limit and then that’s when I tried to squeeze everything that there was – and I feel I managed to do so.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, where did you also find those tenths that you found in your Q3? Quite impressive pace after always being behind Lewis during the practice.
NR: What was the reason? I finally got there on set-up, together with my team. We just continued to improve the car all the time and just got it right and I felt comfortable in the end. I was able to push and it felt good balance. Nailed the lap, got the lap really well, so it all worked out.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / National Speedsport News) To the two Mercedes guys, when you have troubles like you did today, little troubles, does it frustrate you or does it motivate you in a way, to say ‘I’m going to beat this and get on top of it and go even faster’.?
NR: Neither of the two really. It’s always a bit frustrating to have something like that in the moment but then, I’ve learned to move on to just accept and concentrate on the things that I can influence and just keep on it. That’s what I tried to do today and it worked out well.
Q: Lewis?
LH: The same.
Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) To all three of you, you may or may not be aware that there is a very real threat tomorrow – it’s not speculation, it’s not hearsay – of three teams, Force India, Sauber and Lotus, opting to boycott this race. What impact do you feel that would have on Formula One? Nico?
NR: No comment. Because I have not heard anything about this and it would not be the right thing for me to even comment on something like that.
Q: Lewis?
LH: Same.
Q: Valtteri?
VB: Same. No comment really. I don’t know anything about this situation so I can’t really say much.
The Sauber Formula 1 Team confirmed that young Swedish rookie, Marcus Ericsson will drive for them next season.
The announcement was made by Sauber Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn at the Circuit of the America’s after Saturday’s qualifying session.
“He did not have an easy rookie season this year, hoever he kept calm and improved continuously, ” said Kaltenborn.
“We are convinced that signing Marcus can give the team a fresh impetus”
Ericsson started in F1 with Caterham at the beginning of the 2014 season. He was left without a drive after Caterham was placed under administration.
“Fresh from a very turbulent week, I was suddenly given my best early Christmas present ever,” said Ericsson.
“Sauber has put its trust in me for 2015 and it makes me proud, as Sauber is known to be one of the best teams in developing young drivers.
“It will be a great challenge. I will give my very best to develop both as a driver, and to be part o the challenge to put Sauber back closer to the front where it belongs”
Sauber say that they will announce their second driver at a later date. Rumors, however, have been circulating that Giedo Van De Garde will get the nod for the No.2 driver spot. This will leave their current two drivers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez out of racing seats for 2015
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat will drop 10-places down the grid because of an engine change.
Toro Rosso fitted a 7th engine to Kvayt’s car before the start of qualifying for the United States Grand Prix. Kvyat’s team mate, Jean-Eric Vergne had his engine replaced on his Toro Rosso as well, but did not incur any penalty because the engine was an old unit.
Kvyat who qualified in P14 will drop 4 places to the back of the grid and will drop a further 6 places down the grid in Sao Paulo.
McLaren’s Jenson Button, after qualifying in P7 will start tomorrows race in P12 after changing his gearbox.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel will start from the pit-lane tomorrow after taking his 6th power unit for the season.