Tag: force india

F1 2016: Austria Gp Review – Hamilton, Lord Of The Ring

Over the course of a grand prix weekend a driver normally runs close to two hundred laps. It’s uncanny then that everything can be made or undone by one lap.

In Saturday qualifying, a wet and dry session, Lewis Hamilton steered his Mercedes to pole position in dominant fashion. While teammate Nico Rosberg qualified second on the road he moved down the grid due to a gearbox penalty. It promoted Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg to the second front-row starting position of his career. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, also hit with a gearbox penalty, fell down the starting grid, which promoted McLaren’s Jenson Button to third place.

As Hamilton led cleanly from pole position it didn’t take too long for Hulkenberg and Button to fall by the wayside. Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, now into second, kept Hamilton relatively honest with a gap of 3.5 to 4 seconds in the first stint. A recovering Sebastian Vettel was soon running third behind teammate Raikkonen.

Ferrari’s advantage rested on the fact that, as Hamilton’s closest rival, Raikkonen started the race on the supersoft tyre, which, theoretically, should last longer than Hamilton’s ultrasoft tyres. However, for a reason unbeknownst to most Ferrari called Raikkonen in only one lap after Hamilton’s own visit to the pitlane. It dropped the Finn to sixth behind both Red Bull drivers. Ferrari’s strategists, not for the first time this season, had made the wrong call.

As Hamilton and Raikkonen dived intot he pitlane it left Vettel in the lead of the race. However, as the German driver started lap 27 he suffered a violent delamination to the right-rear supersoft tyre. It speared the Ferrari into the pitwall and out of the race. Ferrari do not believe that they pushed the tyres beyond their limits and Vettel’s laptimes before the incident would suggest that the set of tyres were well within working range.

After a short safety-car stint to clear up Vettel’s tyre debris Rosberg resumed the lead of the race on lap 32 with Hamilton in second. After both Merc driver made their second stops Nico Rosberg was delivering a drive at the Austrian grand prix worth remembering. He fought he way through to the lead of the race with consistent speed and superior strategy.

But Hamilton wasn’t giving up and closed the gap to four tenths of a second on lap 67. Rosberg seemed unflustered right until the final lap of the race. The German driver made a mistake into Turn 1 handing Hamilton the advantage. Hamilton had a run on the lead into Turn 2 as Rosberg let his car run wide and made contact with Hamilton. Rosberg got off worse in the exchange as he limped home in fourth with a damaged car. The stewards imposed a 10-second penalty on Rosberg for causing a collision but he remained fourth overall. As it were Rosberg’s brake-by-wire system went into passive mode on the pit-strait. However, it’s clear from on-board footage that he was trying to run Hamilton wide.

Behind race-leader Hamilton Red Bull’s Max Verstappen narrowly held onto second after running a 56-lap stint on the soft tyre. Kimi Raikkonen recovered Ferrari’s dubious strategy call to finish third as Rosberg limped home in fourth. Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth ahead of one of the stars of the race Jenson Button. The Brit out-performed his McLaren to finish in sixth ahead of Romain Grosjean (7th), Carlos Sainz (8th), and Valtteri Bottas (9th). The other star of the afternoon was Manor F1’s Pascal Wehrlein who scored his first career point in tenth.

There is no rest of the sport that never sleeps as the F1 paddock heads straight to legendary Silverstone circuit for this weekend’s British grand prix.

(All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

July 4, 2016
2016 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)

TV UNILATERAL

Lewis, it was one of those days when I guess it was all about the timing of the switch onto the slick tyre and then actually coming across the line it must have been extremely exciting, the final few minutes of that session?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it was a really fun session. It was one of those sessions that it starts off dry, goes wet, and quite incredibly here it dries up so quickly, it’s like driving through fog at some stages. I think it just added to the excitement of the while thing. I’d never driven here in the rain before and being a new surface as well it was very, very slippery. It was drying up corner by corner and at the end it was about getting that last lap. The previous lap was a good lap as well but if I had finished that lap I would have been right behind Daniel Ricciardo, so I backed off, which was a big risk really. If I didn’t finish my lap or there had been a yellow flag I wouldn’t have been able to get pole, but it was the risk I took and fortunately it paid off, so very happy with it.

Well done. Turning to you, Nico, you’re second but it’s a bittersweet feeling I imagine, knowing that you’ve got to go back five places on the grid after the accident this morning and the subsequent gearbox penalty. A shame really, because your preparations for the race up to that point had been pretty ideal. Tell us about your day and your prospects from here?
Nico ROSBERG: First of all, a really unbelievable job from everybody, even Lewis’ mechanics came on to my car to try to get it out in time, so that was a huge team effort. We got it out 11 minutes to go in Q1, so it was really tight and awesome, so that was great. And then a very exciting qualifying, going dry-wet-dry and it was unbelievable how quickly it dried in the end then to get back on to slick tyres. I think Lewis just did a good job there in the very end, so that’s it. Second not first, but it’s OK. The five places will be quite costly… well, very costly of course for tomorrow, unfortunately. I’ll make the best of it anyways and try to get a good race from there.

OK, thank you for that. Nico Hulkenberg, welcome back. Reminiscent, conditions-wise and the way you drove, of Brazil a few years ago, in the Williams days. You must be absolutely ecstatic and set yourself up now, moving up to the front row of the grid with Nico Rosberg’s penalty, for a great day?
Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, no, absolutely, it reminded me a lot about Brazil and I was feeling really good in the car and it was just a flashback to back then. I was feeling really good and to be honest, I was expecting a little bit better, so when he said third… I wasn’t disappointed. A great effort from the team. Not an easy session to be out there at the right time, it’s all about timings. The car performed well, we put it together, so a very solid job and a very good starting position for tomorrow.

Very well done. Lewis, coming back to you, on a serious note we saw a couple more suspension failures during that qualifying session with Kvyat and Pérez. What’s the feeling among the drivers, what’s the conversation going to be this evening and what’s the concern there?
LH: I can’t speak on behalf of all the drivers, but for me those yellow kerbs are quite dangerous. We’ve now seen a couple of incidents already. I don’t know how many more of those it’s going to take before a car ends up in the wall and perhaps someone gets hurt. I’m sure Charlie and the FIA are looking at it but that’s definitely an area we can improve. The idea is good, because they definitely don’t want us running wide and using the outside of the circuit but perhaps another solution is going to be needed.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, one of the interesting talking points arising out of the second part of qualifying was the decision by Ferrari and Red Bull to go out and set their time on the supersoft tyre. You and Nico had both used the ultrasoft but then right at the end you went out and had a bit of a look on the supersoft just as some rain began to fall. So, your thoughts on why you went the way that you did in the first instance and what happened at the end there.
LH: I just did what I was told! I think our strategists understand that that ultrasoft was the better tyre. We had the supersoft available I think they perhaps saw – I’m guessing – I’m assuming they saw that the Ferraris had gone out and they thought we might try to go out and see if we could do a time on it, even though we think there is a time delta between the two. Naturally a hard tyre often goes further so that doesn’t seem like such a bad option. They have qualified on supersofts?

Yes – they’ll start on the supersofts and so will Red Bull
LH: OK, that’s not a bad thing. I think the ultrasoft is not a good tyre for the race. It’s going to be a struggle to get a lot of laps out of it so the strategy will be interesting tomorrow. Obviously those guys are starting behind me so I’m hoping I have a bit of an advantage at the start just from being on the softer tyre but… yeah, in practice my tyre lasted for four laps, so I think for Nico it lasted maybe eight? He says five. So it’ll definitely be tricky but we’ll do the best we can with it.

Q: OK, the same question to you Nico. Your race, the first stint is going to be much more complicated because of where you’re starting. So your thoughts on this situation going into the race tomorrow. And also, picking up on what I was asking Lewis before about the kerbs, is it just a case now of, for the rest of the weekend, staying off them – or is there more to it than that?
NR: For sure yeah, need to stay off them. I even stayed off them in qualifying now most of the time, except for when it really counted. Tyres is going to be tough tomorrow but the thing is we don’t really know because the temperature is going to drop so much so who knows how the tyres are going to be? For sure in the hot it was really tough but maybe in the cold it’s going to be better.

Q: Nico, coming to you, obviously your team is going through a bit of a purple patch at the moment with podiums in Monaco and Baku recently. You’re still looking for your first Formula One podium personally. You must be feeling that tomorrow may well just be your day. Are you very optimistic and excited going into tomorrow’s grand prix?
NH: Yes. First of all I’m happy and excited about today. Special circumstances obviously with the rain in Q3 and then the drying-up track but for sure starting second is a very good starting position. Tomorrow we’ll do what we can. I’m not thinking too hard about that now. We’ll do that in the next couple of hours and tonight and tomorrow but our car has made huge steps forwards since Barcelona really and ever-since we’ve scored a lot of points and a few podiums so yeah, we’re on a good slope, we have good momentum and just try to carry it into tomorrow and make it into another good Sunday.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Angélique Belokopytov – AutoDigest) Lewis, yesterday you considered that you were not at your top level. So what did change? Did you improve since yesterday? Was it work more on your mental, or the car or maybe both?
LH: A little bit the car but mostly I just had to find time today. Nico had been performing well all weekend and it was just chipping away at improvements, constantly looking at my data, trying to figure out where I was losing the time and how I could improve. Bit by bit, corner by corner… at one point there’s five corners where I’m down, then it’s four corners I was down, then two, then just one corner where I was down. That’s something that… then it rained and I was thinking ‘Jeez, I’ve finally got into this position where I can perhaps battle for pole with Nico’ and then it rained – but fortunately those are conditions I like as well, so it made it a little bit easier, I have to say, when it got into those conditions ‘cos it’s then a bit more about who takes the most risk, I guess.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Hulkenberg, we received indication on the screens that you were under investigation because of the yellow flags in Q2. Are you aware of this?
NH: No, I wasn’t aware that I’m under investigation. I think it was the incident where Sainz’s car’s engine blew up and he was parked on the right on the main straight. I did lift, I did lose time there but still with new tyres, track improvement I might have gone faster, I don’t know but we will see. I’m not too concerned.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, when you came in here, you stopped to watch your lap – all the lap – what was your view of it, what was your analysis of your own lap?
LH: I could have been faster! I was looking at some places where… you know, when you do a lap like that it’s really difficult to… you know, the previous lap maybe I had an oversteer moment in one corner, you don’t know if it’s dried up and what… it probably has dried up on that next lap so you don’t know just how much you can push on each corner. In hindsight… hindsight’s always a great thing – there were drier patch and more grip and more potential in some corners that I did, but it doesn’t matter because I’m where I need to be. That’s what happens when I watch it. I’m just thinking could be a little bit more there, a little bit more there.

Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Nico, I would like to know – maybe you said it before but I don’t know – but when this accident happened, was it because you touched the kerb or is it because there was a mechanical problem in the car and the suspension was broken?
NR: The suspension broke. On the kerb, on the normal exit kerb, the first one, the thin one.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) To all of you: there’s a possibility that next year maybe we will have a bigger version of the Austrian Grand Prix, a new track layout but of course the old one, the Osterreichring. Are you satisfied with this information? Would you like to compete with Formula One cars on this or is it OK now?
LH: Me personally? That’s the best news I’ve probably heard in Formula One for a long time. They’re going to take a track back to what it should be or what it was previously. The track is nice as it is now but I’ve not seen the old track but I can imagine going up into the mountains and into the woods it’s going to be epic so I really hope they do that personally.
Q: Nico, your Dad raced here on the old one, any thoughts on that?
NR: I just watched the video from 1982, one of the closest finishes with my Dad finishing second and definitely it looks very exciting so yeah, if they do that, cool.
NH: I wasn’t even aware. Don’t know what the layout was but yeah, whatever. Fine.

July 2, 2016
Hamilton claims dramatic Austrian GP pole

Lewis Hamilton claimed the pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix during a dramatic Q3 qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Rain arrived towards the end of Q2 to wet the circuit and leave drivers starting the Q3 session on intermediate tyres before the track dried really quickly enouch for slicks to be viable.

Nico Hulkenberg was the first driver to switch to ultra-softs and set a sequence of fastest laps before Hamilton bettered his time with a 1:07.922. Rosberg finished second, half a second behind Hamilton but is set to drop to start from seventh thanks to his gearbox penalty.

Hulkenberg will therefore move to second with McLaren’s Jenson Button starting from third – pending an investigation by the stewards for Hulkenberg not slowing down on the yellow flags for an incident for Carlos Sainz Jr.

Kimi Raikkonen will start from fourth tomorrow, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Valterri Bottas, Rosberg, and Max Verstappen. Felipe Massa completes the Top 10 behind the demoted Vettel who qualified fourth but will start 9th after his gearbox penalty.

Esteban Gutierrez only just missed out on Q3. He’ll start the Austrian GP from 11th place.

Pascal Wehrlein scored a career best for himself and the Manor F1 team qualifying in 12th place. Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso will start from 13th and 14th place.

Carlos Sainz Jr and Sergio Perez follow – Perez suffered a rear suspension failure.

The guys over at Renault didn’t make it through to Q2 with Kevin Magnussen and Jolyen Palmer finishing 17th & 18th ahead of Manor’s Rio Haryanto and Daniil Kvyat.

Kvyat suffered a right-rear suspension failure in a a pretty hectic crash, spinning out, clipping the wall at Turn 8 and ending up in the gravel at the final corner. Drivers are raising concerns about the kerbs causing the multiple suspension failures over the weekend so far. Hamilton expressed concerns in the press conference as did Kvyat and a few other drivers. Lewis went as far as calling the kerbs dangerous

Kvyat was not able to continue after his car was pretty much written off leaving the Toro Rosso team with a big task to complete to prepare for tomorrow’s race.

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr did look capable of competing for Q2 but will start from the back row of the grid.

Join us for live chat and commentary for tomorrow’s Austrian GP on Twitter @F1Madness.

July 2, 2016
F1 2016: Austrian Gp Free Practice 1 Report – Rosberg Runs Quickest

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg set the quickest time in the first free practice session ahead of the Austrian grand prix.

The first free practice session for the 2016 Austrian grand prix got underway in sunny conditions at the Red Bull Ring. The drivers quickly hit their stride with some blistering lap times early on in the session with Nico Rosberg’s 1:08:166 having been a record breaking lap.

The German driver would improve to a 1:07:373 by the end of the session to record the quickest lap ever around the current configuration of the Red Bull Ring. Teammate Lewis Hamilton set the second quickest time with a 1:07:730. The two Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were third and fourth with Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top five.

Dutch driver Max Verstappen exited the session early after clouting a kerb which broke a steering arm and left his Red Bull beached in a gravel trap. No other major incidents were recorded but for a few spins from several drivers.

Ferrari were expected to test the Halo 2 head protection system but chose not to do so. The McLaren team ran several updates including a new rear wing and conducted a back to back test on a new floor.

Free Practice One Standings:

July 1, 2016
F1 2016: Austrian Gp Preview – Quali The Key In Austria

From the medieval city streets of Baku the Formula 1 paddock travels to the crisp countryside of Austria for the eighth round of the 2016 championship.

A case could never be made that Formula 1 lacks diversity. It swops the mostly tight confines of the Baku City circuit for the mountains and fresh air of Austria’s Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. Located in the picturesque Styrian Mountains the 4.3 kilometer circuit is dotted with only nine turns. The average speed of a lap around the Ring is estimated at 224 kph while 70 percent of the lap is spent at full throttle.

There are only seven braking zones around a lap but they are big stops from high speeds, which classifies the brake wear rate as high. This no longer appears to be an issue for Mercedes in 2016 but should they not be running in clear air it could rear its head.

As the shortest lap on the calendar at less than 70 seconds the grid is expected to be tighter, which makes qualifying vital. In 2015 the top three positions in qualifying were covered by four tenths of a second. The circuit’s four long straights mean that there is opportunity for overtaking but getting past a car with a good straight-line speed will be difficult.

For this year’s grand prix teams and drivers have selected the yellow-walled soft, red-walled supersoft, and purple-walled ultrasoft tyres. Both Ferrari drivers have selected nine sets of the ultrasoft tyres while Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have each opted for eight sets of the purple-walled tyres. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have chosen seven sets of the softest compound. Tyre wear last year was minimal as Daniel Ricciardo was able to run a fifty lap stint on the soft tyre before needing to pit.

Ferrari’s tyre choice could be put down to fact that this track surface is a relatively smooth one with normally cool conditions. This combination often presents some struggle in getting tyres to the optimum temperature. As they’ve continually struggled to get the tyres to their optimal working range Ferrari should find it easier to do with the ultrasoft tyre. This will be a crucial element of Ferrari’s progress and position this weekend.

There is no doubt that Nico Rosberg is sitting pretty. He starts the weekend with a 24 point lead over Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in the race for the driver’s title. The fickleness of Formula 1 demands that even a gap of 24 points must not be taken for granted. It’s this approach that has been Rosberg’s secret in 2016; to take every race on its individual merit. But the two Merc drivers might have to focus on more than just each other, especially in Saturday qualifying.

Williams are notoriously good performers at the Austrian grand prix thanks to the Mercedes power unit and Red Bull are no slouches thanks to the stop up they’ve made with the upgraded power unit. But while they are looking at each other all of them are aware of what Mercedes can deliver. On several occasions in 2016 its been shown that the Silver Arrow is not as potent when it runs in dirty air and under pressure. The qualifying session on Saturday will be the critical point for any driver or team to stop a complete Merc domination.

June 29, 2016
Watch: Tracking an F1 Drivers Eyes

Just where does a Formula 1 driver look while he’s driving around the circuit? Nico Hulkenberg takes part in this fascinating insert.

The Force India driver drives around the track with an eye tracking device which shows just exactly where he looks when entering corners, exiting corners and at a start of the race.

June 23, 2016
F1 2016: European GP Review – Rosberg Rules In Baku

If you’d asked most people to point out Azerbaijan on a map they would probably struggle. If you then told them that its capital city Baku is going to host its first F1 race in 2016 it would possibly have been met with reluctant enthusiasm.

Nevertheless, on the edge of the Caspian Sea the Azeri organisers plotted a street circuit unlike any other. The combination of the stunningly high-speed section and incredibly tight section around the city’s beautiful medieval architecture merged perfectly to highlight the strengths of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. The German driver cleaned house in Baku by taking pole position, fastest lap and the race win in dominant fashion.

Rosberg led cleanly off the line and was never challenged as he completed the 51-lap race on a one-stop strategy. It yielded his fifth win of the season and a sizeable increase in his lead atop the driver’s table. As faultless as Rosberg’s weekend preceded so the opposite was true for teammate Lewis Hamilton. Seemingly out of sorts, Hamilton stuck his Merc in the wall on Saturday and confined himself to a tenth place starting position. An ERS (energy recovery system) issue disrupted his charge through the field. Thanks to the FIA regulation, which bans certain radio communications, Hamilton was left to figure out the setting himself. The Brit was able to eventually resolve the issue and set two blisteringly quick laptimes before cooking his tyres.

Behind race leader Rosberg Sebastian Vettel overtook Daniel Ricciardo for second. To cover the Red Bull stop Ferrari called Vettel into the pits. However, the driver overruled the pitwall and stayed out. It paid off ultimately as Vettel finished second without any realistic shot at victory.

Force India’s Sergio Perez secured third to score his second podium in three races. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen ran third for nearly the entire race. The Finn stopped early on lap 8 and ran a 43-lap stint on the soft tyre. But a five-second penalty for crossing the pit-entry line and a late ERS issue meant he was unable to keep Perez at bay. Eventually Raikkonen, suffering with a bout of food poisoning, finished fourth. Lewis Hamilton finished a lonely and disappointed fifth ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in sixth.

Both Red Bull drivers were forced onto two-stop strategies with overheating rear tyres and faded badly throughout the race. Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh ahead of teammate Max Verstappen in eighth. Nico Hulkenberg brought his Force India home in ninth while Williams’ Felipe Massa scored the final point in tenth.

All expectations were that the safety car would appear several times throughout the race given the tight confines and close proximity of the walls. But all twenty-two drivers were exceptionally well behaved and there were no major incidents. In fact, only four drivers did not make it to the chequered flag. Toro Rosso has some investigating to do as both their drivers, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz, were forced to retire with suspension issues. Manor Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein retired with brake failure as Fernando Alonso’s McLaren was pulled into the garage with a gearbox failure.

Remarkably Rosberg had the same ERS issue as Hamilton but was able to rectify it by changing the right settings. This resounding victory increases Rosberg’s championship lead to 24 points over Hamilton. But given that thirteen races remain on the calendar the race for the 2016 driver’s crown is just warming up.

(All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

June 20, 2016
2016 Formula 1 European Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)
3 – Sergio PEREZ (Force India)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Eddie Jordan)

Azerbaijan, Baku: what an amazing city and what an amazing race and we have your winners here today. Nico, tell us, you needed this today didn’t you, your fifth win of the season? Tell us about it.
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, Eddie, it’s been an amazing day really, an amazing weekend. Thank you all here in Baku for welcoming us in this way. It’s been spectacular, great track you’ve made, really exciting racing. Of course, for me the weekend went perfectly: qualifying, race, everything to plan, so it was really awesome.

When we saw you at the beginning of the week, you had some concerns about how you would approach this particular weekend. That’s all forgotten about I expect?
NR: No concerns; flat out.

Brilliant result for your today, we’ll come straight back to you. Second place, ladies and gentlemen, please, Sebastian Vettel. Come on Seb, tell us, second place in Canada, second place here, is this a complete Ferrari revival or are you going to have a word with Sergio, your boss and your President at Ferrari. Are you going to look for more horsepower?
Sebastian VETTEL: Well, first of all, thank you very much. It’s the first time we are here in Azerbaijan. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it’s been a great track, a great pleasure, a great welcome for all of us. I think the circuit is incredible. You need to be ‘well-equipped’, let’s put it this way, around here, so some proper high-speed corners and very, very close. Today has obviously been a great job for us. Already by the end of yesterday the car was coming alive. We were struggling a bit on Friday, but to see where we are now I think is a great recovery. Second place in a row, two times on the podium now in a row after Canada, which is great, scoring some good points – even though this weekend was a bit different to last week. But still I think the pace is there, the car is good, we are coming along, so all in all a great day and thanks to the team.

The two different make-ups of the circuit – the slow speed and then the high-speed – did you enjoy that difference between the two?
SV: Yeah, definitely, especially because in the low speed you have to tackle quite a lot of kerb and be very, very aggressive. Very easy to get caught out. I think a lot of people lost a lot of money because they were betting on a safety car and we didn’t have one! I think it also speaks for the quality of the drivers. So it was a clean race. I expected a couple of safety cars, but it didn’t come out. But it’s a great circuit, a great challenge and with the high-speed sections where it’s really narrow it’s a lot of fun.

Well, it’s delightful to see you on the podium; we all love it. Ladies and gentlemen, the pride of Mexico! You’ve got a lot fans here.
Sergio PEREZ: Many Mexicans I hope.

We thought you’d blown it yesterday: you ran into the wall with a lap to go in the qualifying [sic] and to have to need a new gearbox, I said “well, he’s just cost the team a podium”. You’ve proved me wrong!
SP: Me either. I knew yesterday when I put the car in the wall in P3 that this was a big chance for us to score a massive result [potentially lost]. I was so frustrated with myself. Then going into qualifying, my boys did an amazing job to fix the car, to put everything together. And then I had to do the job, you know. I had to get on with the job. We had a great qualifying but still we were starting P7 today and we had to make our way through. Very good start, very good first lap. Very nice overtaking in Turn Two for Massa and Kvyat and then fighting with Kimi all the way to the end. I knew that he had a five-second penalty, but it was still nice to get him on the last lap.

Exactly – how sweet was it just to pip him on the last lap?
SP: Very nice. Although I knew that the podium was secure but when I saw the opportunity, that it was safe enough to do it and no risk at all, I went for it, because it obviously feel a lot nicer to finish the race P3.

Well, we’re very pleased, amazing drive from seventh to third. We come back to the winner – Nico! Nico we have to talk about the championship. You won the first four races, everyone thought it was in the bag and then you had a couple of little hiccups, so to speak. Are you back with a vengeance?
NR: To be honest, today I’m just enjoying this win, because that’s what I came here for. I wanted to win Baku and it worked out, so ecstatic, can’t wait to go down and see everybody….

You could answer my question!
NR: I’m not answering the question; I’m avoiding it! I’m going to go down and see everybody and big celebrations.

Q: Nico, great victory for you this afternoon: Pole, win, fastest lap, led every lap. Would you say that’s the most dominant of your five victories in 2016?
NR: It’s been a great and awesome weekend, really, yeah. Everything went cleanly, y’know, from the beginning to the end. And even in the race, it was a special feeling out there in the car because it felt like I could do whatever I wanted the thing would just stick to the line, stick to the ground, there was no risk of making mistakes or anything. It felt really, really special and I’m very, very happy. It’s been an awesome result, first time here, y’know, I think it’s been a big success. The track is exciting, definitely, and a lot of overtaking also today I hear – I think, I’m not sure but I think so – so all in all good.

Q: Your team-mate Lewis Hamilton had a few technical dramas it would seem along the way. Anything going wrong with your car or was it perfect all the way through?
NR: I think I had the same but I’m not sure. It was just a matter of getting out of ti with the right combination of switches.

Q: Sebastian, great recovery by you and Ferrari this afternoon – but are you a little bit unnerved by the pace of the man on your left [Rosberg]?
SV: Surely it’s not great news but all weekend they’ve been very, very quick. First session, after four laps they were putting lap times in that took us the probably the whole day to copy – so yeah, I think we didn’t have a good day on Friday, we were lacking pace. The car didn’t feel bad but it was just not quick enough. Then we changed quite a lot for Saturday, changed again quite a lot going into quali, so we did what we could here, reacting to it and came back and in the end finishing second… of course we benefitted a little bit from the problem that Lewis, or the mistake that Lewis did yesterday because both Mercedes were very, very quick throughout the weekend – but that’s how it’s done. So I’m very happy and very proud. We kept our head in and, as a team, worked well. Shame that Kimi couldn’t quite keep the third place but, for sure, he made it very nice for me to secure the second. Obviously at that point with a lot of laps to go we didn’t know how quick Lewis will be and how much him and Checo would be able to catch up so it has priority to make sure that we ran away. Surprised there was no Safety Car but, all-in-all, it’s been a great track and a great weekend.

Q: Checo, you’ve made it hard for yourself this weekend. How much satisfaction do you get from this third place?
SP: A lot. I knew that the podium was possible today but it was very hard, very hard work to get it. We really did an incredible first lap to get around the Williams and the Toro Rosso. I think that was one of the keys. The first laps were really difficult with the graining. Just basically not panicking. The easiest thing would have been to stop when the graining occurred, especially when Kimi and some people behind stopped and we decided to stay longer. It cleaned up. That was one of the keys of my race. Obviously pitting early to go onto the one stop and as soon as I left the pits I was under pressure from Lewis. So I couldn’t introduce nicely my tyres. I had to push straight away. The warm-up with the soft for me was a bit difficult. Those first laps were really tricky to keep Lewis behind. Then I managed to open a gap and then I was attacking Kimi but at the same time looking after the tyres, thinking that there’s going to be a Safety Car at some point. Unbelievable it didn’t happen. I was just looking after my tyres to make sure I made it to the end. I think Kimi was very strong with his pace given the lap-age that he had. I knew that he had a penalty, so I get pretty close to him, and at the end I saw the opportunity that it was safe enough to do it and it was good to take it and finish in P3. It is well-deserved for the team because they have done an amazing job. All my boys to fix the car from yesterday, so very pleased. It’s only the eighth race and we’ve done two podiums already. It’s been an incredible year so far.

Let’s open this up to the floor…

Q: (Sebastian Vettel – Scuderia Ferrari) Question to anyone. Who won the Le Mans…?
Porsche
SV: How did Toyota manage to lose?
Last lap
SV: Retired? Nooooooo…!

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Sebastian, going to the very first part of the race, can you confirm that you were asked to come into the pits but you preferred to stay out?
SV: Yeah, yeah, basically I was called in. We wanted to react to Daniel who pitted. He was struggling a lot with his tyres; obviously we passed him and then he went into the box. But I had a decent feeling, the pace was quite OK, I thought, and then we decided to stay out so I was asking the team to stay out, the tyres felt OK and I wanted to keep going. I was maybe at that point, seeing that Daniel was struggling and feeling that the tyres were not feeling so comfortable in the first, six, ten laps, a bit worried that the second stint would be very very long. In the end I don’t think there was much in it. Obviously we lost position to Kimi who undercut us but obviously we played well as a team together to make sure that when I came out behind him with the fresher tyres to use the pace and secure second place.

Q: (Oana Popoiou – F1 Zone) Sergio, do you think you had the pace to fight for a victory today if it wasn’t for the grid penalty?
SG: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think we could have fought Nico. He was very strong, in another league, but certainly I would have had a really good fight with Sebastian for P2.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globo Esporte.com) Sebastian and Sergio, we saw in Monaco and Canada some teams more close to Mercedes and here Mercedes was one second faster per lap. How do analyse that please?
SV: Well, I think they had a very strong package here. I think, as I explained, Friday was a bad day for us and we managed to recover, get away from here with a second place. I think it’s the optimum so we can be happy with that but surely not happy with the gap. Why they are quicker? I think looking at the comparison yesterday they were gaining quite a lot down the straights. I think maybe we carried a little bit too much wing. The other bit, we were losing quite a bit in low speed corners. Arguably they are doing something clever to pick up some pace there in low speed, the way they treat the tyres but if there’s something clever to be done, we need to be as clever as them and not be lacking that.
SP: Yeah, for us I think relatively on this track we certainly got a little bit closer to Mercedes but not a lot. I think everyone else dropped behind and they lost some performance so for us, I think the track suited our car well. Obviously a good power unit and I think good balance around the track. People were probably struggling more than we did but I think that was the main reason why we managed to be so much further up.

Q: (Jerome Bourret – L’Equipe) For all of you, after we have seen yesterday in qualifying and during the GP2 races, we were all expecting a crazy race. It hasn’t been the case; do you have any explanation for that? Have you been more cautious or was the track less tricky than yesterday?
NR: I think for sure a little bit the experience helps in that case. We’re all much more experienced and we’re able to avoid the incidents better and we also learned a lot from what was going on in the GP2 for sure, because we were watching and that was mayhem so I think we picked up a few things there as well and that’s it, but very surprising anyways.
SV: Well, surprised, yes, but then again I think it speaks for the quality. I think we’ve talked a lot about this track being high risk, dangerous. It reminds me. A couple of months ago I had a very nice lunch with Sir Stirling Moss. Obviously in ‘their’ time, you can argue it was very dangerous everywhere they went and he said it was a big deal of the reason why he jumped in the car, because it was dangerous.. Otherwise anybody could do it, so the thrill of it was exactly that challenge. I think we had some corners here where you don’t want to think about what’s happening if you get it wrong, very little room for mistakes and error but then it definitely makes you more alert, you’re awake and obviously you try to go as hard as you can and push but I don’t think we were taking it easy, any one of us, but equally, obviously, you don’t take any stupid approaches to risk because it could end quite badly.
Q: Checo, how do you describe the lack of safety car?
SP: To be honest, I’m very surprised, given how difficult this track is but it also speaks for the quality of the drivers that we have in Formula One. It’s not that we were taking it easy out there, I think we were all pushing and every braking point you really feel it can go wrong at any point. There is no room for mistakes in any place. The very least that can happy to you if you make a mistake is you lose a couple of seconds but I’m really surprised and I think well done to everyone because nobody made a mistake. Very surprised for that.

June 19, 2016
2016 Formula 1 European Grand Prix: Post Qualifying Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Sergio PÉREZ (Force India)
3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull)

TV UNILATERAL

Nico, that was an emphatic performance by you and Mercedes, just how good was qualifying for you?
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, it was great. It was one of the more challenging sessions out there, but everything worked out well. There was a bit of reorganizing because for example in Quali 3 Lewis had an off in front of me, so I had to abort that lap and then I just had one more attempt at the end, but that worked out fine. No, I’m very, very happy. It was great.

How was the car technically for you, because we saw Hamilton obviously have a few problems in that session?
NR: Yeah, I’m really pleased with that, because all weekend we’ve been building towards it and in qualifying it was really optimum, so it felt good.

Congratulations to you. Sergio, if I can come to you: second on the grid, but does that feel like pole position for you?
Sergio PÉREZ: Yeah, it does. To be honest it does. The effort the whole team has done… especially all my boys today to put my car together, first of all to make the qualifying. Obviously I’m a still a bit angry, no, from the mistake of this morning. But very happy, I think it’s a mix of feelings today. I think the lap that we put together in Q3 was very, very strong. It was a very difficult session for me, because obviously there is not a lot of time. After a crash you obviously lose some confidence. To get it back, to get in the rhythm again was great. Very pleased with that and hopefully tomorrow we can do a lot of progress and aim for a very strong position. I think definitely the team deserved. Obviously, with the penalty I’m starting seventh. I think the team deserves more than and hopefully tomorrow we can put together a strong race.

Has the pace of the car surpassed your expectations?
SP: Yes, definitely. I think we were expecting ourselves to be strong around here but not that good. To come away with P2 in this track… it’s so easy to mistake, so easy to clip the wall and just damage your car. Unfortunately it happened to me in the worst possible time in P3 and yeah, so I think we have to look forward to tomorrow and do a strong race.

Well done. Daniel, if I could come on to you. You set exactly the same time as Sebastian Vettel at the end of Q3 there. Just give us a word on what it was like to get the job done when there was only two minutes of the session remaining?
Daniel RICCIARDO: It was hectic; it was intense. Yeah, thanks to the guys, the team, for getting me out at the front and giving me that clear track to obviously make sure that I got a lap in. My first run in Q3 was pretty average to say the least. I made a few mistakes. Then obviously I thought I had one more chance but then the red flag came out. I thought that was looking like that was it. They got me out in front and then I put in the lap, so it was good. I knew not everyone would get a lap, so I was just trying to thing “do a good enough lap to at least jump up from seventh”, but in the end it was third. I think Seb… I maybe gave Seb a little bit of a tow, I don’t know how close he was to me, but it was good, very close and I’m really happy to bounce back with top three.

Well done to you. Nico, if I can just come back to you and get some thoughts ahead of tomorrow’s race. It’s the first grand prix here in Baku, what do you think are going to be the main flashpoints in the grand prix?
NR: Well, I think they’ve done a great job up to now, with the track especially. We’ve seen one of the most exciting qualifying sessions for a long time. Of course I understand that the gap was pretty big in front but there was a lot going on all over the place, and that’s down to the track. Also, the race I’m sure is going to be very exciting. It’s one of the easiest tracks to overtake, so there’s going to be a lot of changing places I think, probably a lot of safety cars as well, exciting re-starts and everything, so it should be a good show.

Who do you think are going to be challengers?
NR: Of course it’s going to be Daniel… [Ricciardo raises his hand behind Rosberg]. What’s so funny about that? Of course it’s going to be Daniel, Sebastian, Kimi and then Lewis. Never forget him. He can always come back from tenths as he’s shown very often this year.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Nico, you didn’t even do a second run in Q3, how much more time was there in your car?
NR: It wasn’t planned to do a second run. We’d planned one run and just hit it two times: lap two and lap four. Lap two was looking good but Lewis went off in front of me so I had to back out of that one, and then went again on lap four so it worked out well.

Q: And Checo, was there any more to come from your car?
SP: Not on that lap, definitely not. I think that lap was quite strong, hitting every single braking point, getting the exits as close as possible to the wall. I struggle to think that lap could have been better but definitely I think there was some track improvement towards the end but obviously with the track position that I had – obviously I had the Williams and the Red Bull ahead, and we were tight on time as well. I had to warm up the tyres but at the same time I had to go very quick to be able to make it. It was just a disaster. We were all racing the last lap, so it wasn’t a proper chance but I think the lap that I did was pretty special.

Q: Daniel, the other two guys have been there or thereabouts all weekend. We’ve seen the Red Bull performance fluctuate a little during practice. Is the car now where you want it?
DR: We definitely improved today. We took a step in the right direction. Already this morning we were looking like we were in a better… more in the competition. Yesterday we struggled and it didn’t help with me losing a bit of track time with the crash in P1. So, yeah, qualifying was good, we were able to chip away at it. Q3 wasn’t very clean. The first lap was… yeah, made a few mistakes and didn’t put it together and then yeah, obviously the red flag made the second run… just go out and try to set a time. Obviously I put in a time which was good enough to be here so I’m happy with that. I think we recovered well. Did I think we’d be here yesterday? No. Did I think we’d be starting on the front row? Not really – but thanks to Pérez and a few circumstances I think we’ve put ourselves in a really good position.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ralf Bach – Auto Bild Motorsport) A question for Nico. How sad are you that there is only one Mercedes in the front row?
NR: It’s always divided, you know? On the one side I’m sad for all my team colleagues because they want to have a one-two – and it’s still possible tomorrow but it’s going to be more difficult now, for sure, but you know that Lewis has shown very often that from tenth place he can come back strong, and where he finished easy second in Russia, y’know, so for sure still need to reckon with him.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – globoesporte.com) Daniel, we had the impression you crossed the line of the pit entrance in your last lap. What is the agreement yesterday in the briefing with Charlie Whiting when it happens?
DR: Yeah, so I think it was originally… well I thought you couldn’t cross anything, and then the notes from last night said if you put all four wheels inside the pit entry line then you have to commit to pitting but otherwise you can straddle… you can split the line, as long as you keep two wheels on the track, let’s say, it wasn’t a problem. I’m pretty sure that’s what I did.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Question to Nico. You always did two warm-up laps to set your fast time. Does that mean if tomorrow there are some restarts after the start we will see again the scenario we saw the last two races with the Mercedes, that you have a warm-up problem?
NR: Let’s see. It’s not been our strength recently but we’ve worked on it and today everybody needed two laps, not just us. It was the optimum for everybody – so I think it will be OK.

Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Sergio, you said in Spanish something like ‘that was the best lap of your life’. And in terms of just the track, we can say this is the track you love most or just because of the circumstances?
SP: First of all, I think the car has worked really well around here. For some reason we are very competitive, we struggled to understand what is making us so competitive and yeah, I think that my lap has definitely been one of my best laps in such a difficult place to get 100 per cent of the car. It was definitely difficult so yeah, I’m pleased with the result. Obviously the penalty of tomorrow is a bit of a shame but let’s see what we can do tomorrow. I think this is a track where you can overtake and you can have a good race so it will be good to enjoy the race. I think there will be a lot happening, a lot of safety cars, a lot of things happening so looking forward to tomorrow.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) All of you crossed the finish line on the very left side. Is there a reason for that? Why is it better than let’s say on the other side?
NR: Everybody was following Daniel!
DR: I think it’s probably… it looks good, it looks aggressive, you know? If you go down the middle of the straight, it doesn’t look so spectacular but if we hug the wall and brush, it looks spectacular.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) It’s not less bumpy or something like that?
DR: The straight is bumpy, sure, and to be honest, I think all of us, all weekend are trying to find where there’s less bumps and I think it’s actually even changed a little bit compared to yesterday.. But yeah, I think the key for Checo and I today was not the way we took the straight, it’s turn 15. I think having the crash there was very character-building and that’s the reason we’re here today.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globo Esporte.com) Daniel, here is a genuine power unit engine and it looks like you’re in very good shape and concerning what you just said, is it because if you go near the wall, it’s the more straight line, it means shorter distance? You’re fighting for thousandths of seconds…
DR: Yeah, yeah. You want to find… there’s a few jokes in my previous answer but yeah, you want to find the shortest line and then the line of least resistance. Yeah, that’s why I was doing it!
Oh, the engine? Yeah, it looks like everyone’s a lot closer this weekend. The Mercedes-powered cars seem quite quick from yesterday; Force India and Williams were very competitive. We had to take a little bit of downforce off to try and get closer but yeah, as Canada, we’re seeing improvements so we’re getting there.

Q: (Oana Popoiou – F1 Zone) Sergio, we are yet to see a clean race for Force India. Is it going to happen tomorrow?
SP: I hope so, I really hope so. I think the team definitely deserves it. I think Nico had a problem today. I think he should definitely be around here, you know, and hopefully tomorrow we can put together a great race and make a lot of progress and who knows what can happen? It’s going to be a lot going on in this race and hopefully we can do a strong performance tomorrow.

Q: (Niharika Karnasingh Ghorpade – Top Gear India Magazine) To all three of you: almost 60 percent of the drivers have had off-track moments at T15, T3 or T4. How do you think you’re going to avoid those in tomorrow’s race, knowing how critical it is?
NR: It is a very exciting track, it’s a tough track so that’s why we have been seeing so many mistakes everywhere and that’s why tomorrow’s race is going to be – for sure – very very interesting and I think there’s going to be a lot going on.
SP: Yeah, we’re pushing to the maximum and sometimes more than that. As soon as you go over it you pay for it. It doesn’t matter if it’s T15 or it’s T2 or T3, it doesn’t matter, you really pay for it here. Tomorrow, I think, you’re going to see some crashes, some mistakes. Hopefully not me again but there will obviously be mistakes around this place because it’s so difficult and we are all pushing to the maximum.
DR: Yeah, I think they’ve really done a really great job with the circuit. It’s very challenging, very easy to make mistakes so I think that’s what’s going to create an exciting race. It makes it difficult for us but that’s why we enjoy racing as well. We love the challenge and some of the real modern circuits, I feel, are too open and you don’t really get that sense of risk and reward and that adrenaline rush that you get through, so here, you get that on several corners and you know if you brake a little bit late you’re going to pay the price. In saying that, I think it’s still done safely, I think if you crash, the run-off or how the barriers are shaped it’s safe but sure it’s going to ruin your race. I think it’s got a really good balance.

June 18, 2016
Hamilton makes it a practice clean sweep

Mercedes reigning F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton stole the quickest time at the top of the final practice timesheets, ahead of the first ever qualifying at the Baku City Circuit, for the European Grand Prix.

Hamilton made it a clean practice sweep in the final minutes of the practice session with a time of 1:44.352 on the super soft tyres. Rosberg had held on to the top spot for most of the hour long session but missed the mark by 0.258s after Hamilton’s final quick lap.

Force India made a strong showing with Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez running 3rd and 6th respectively. Perez however was set to improve considerably and was on a really good lap but got caught out by a crosswind and crashed into the wall just after the chequered flag fell on the session.

Perez went very wide out of Turn 15 and banged the right rear of his VJM09 into the wall leaving his Force India mechanics with plenty of work to do to get ready for qualifying.

Daniel Ricciardo brought his Red Bull home 4th fastest with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel completing the Force India sandwich.

Max Verstappen finished 7th fastest ahead of Jenson Button, Daniil Kvyat and Kimi Raikkonen to complete the Top 10. Raikkonen had been in the pits for a great deal of the practice session with an engine problem.

Fernando Alonso was 11th fastest with Carlos Sainz Jr., Romain Grosjean and Felipe Massa lining up behind him.

Esteban Gutierrez was 15th fastest with the Renault duo of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer split by Pascal Wehrlein further back. The Saubers and Manors took their familiar positions on the timesheets.

Valterri Bottas was not able to set a time for the practice session after a loose cable duct cover flipped off under his Williams’ downforce and damaged the sidepod of his FW38.

Bottas was on his way back into the pits after an installation lap when he drove over the loose metal cover and ripped his sidepod. The Williams mechanics worked hard to repair the damage but were not able to send him back out before the end of the session.

Join us for the inaugural qualifying at the Baku City Circuit at 3pm GMT+2! We’ll be on Twitter @F1_Madness with live commentary and F1 banter throughout.

Final Practice Session timesheet:

June 18, 2016