F1 Madness

Tag: mercedes amg f1

  • Lewis Hamilton blasts his way to Malaysian GP pole

    Lewis Hamilton blasts his way to Malaysian GP pole

    Lewis Hamilton put in the fastest lap recorded at the Sepang International Circuit to claim his 57th career pole position ahead of tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix. He also joined Micheal Schumacher as the only driver in history to tally up more than 100 front row starts during his Formula One career.

    And he did it in style too. After topping the time sheets for all three free practice sessions, the British driver stormed his way to a very dominant Malaysian GP pole setting a blistering 1:32.850 – four tenths of a second faster than Mercedes team mate and F1 championship title rival Nico Rosberg.

    malaysia-rosbergRosberg however suffered a run of errors during his qualifying session and found himself only P5 after his first Q3 run. He only just survived a mistake around the final corner to grab P2 from Red Bull rivals Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

    Sebastian Vettel could only manage P5 for Ferrari, and will have team mate Kimi Raikkonen lining up next to him on the third row. Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg will fill up the fourth row of the grid.

    The two outgoing Formula One drivers line up next. McLaren’s Jenson Button, who is this weekend running his 300th grand prix rung in a strong performance taking the ninth spot on the grid with Felipe Massa rounding out the top 10 in his Williams.

    Williams team mate Valterri Bottas will start from 11th place and have free choice of the tyres he’d like to start the race on. Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez took 12th and 13th place with Kevin Magnussen claiming an impressive 14th place on the grid.

    Toro Rosso drivers Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz will line up next to each other in the eighth row ahead of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. A mistake at the final corner cost Jolyon Palmer the chance of getting through to Q2 and he’ll start from 19th place. P20 belongs to Esteban Ocon who outqualified Pascal Wehrlein for the first time since he joined the Manor team. Fernando Alonso who has a 45 place grid penalty only registered one completely useless lap time and he’ll of course, start from the back of the grid.

    malaysia-qualifying-classification

  • Lewis Hamilton says he’s mentally stronger than Nico Rosberg

    Lewis Hamilton says he’s mentally stronger than Nico Rosberg

    Mercedes driver and current Formula One World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton believes that he has the psychological edge over his team mate Nico Rosberg in their battle for the Drivers’ Championship title this season.

    The defending world champ was accused of compromising Rosberg’s race during the Chinese Grand Prix this past weekend and responded smugly during the post race press conference. Following Rosberg’s ongoing claims, Hamilton said that he’s always thought of Rosberg as being a strong mental contender but that he has the edge over his team mate this season.

    “I’ve always said he is really strong mentally,” Hamilton said. “But I’d like to think I’m stronger this year.”

    Nico Rosberg very unhappy with Lewis HamiltonRosberg claimed that Hamilton deliberately slowed down during the race, making him vulnerable to attack from Vettel behind him. It would seem that Ferrari’s new pace has caught even Rosberg by surprise and that the German driver could think of no other reason why Vettel would be breathing down his neck.

    Lewis however disputed the claims saying that it is “not my job to look after Nico’s race”. Hamilton made it clear that he was controlling his pace up front to ensure that he was looking after his tyre usage and that he’d have enough tyre left to maintain his lead. Lewis made it clear that if Nico wanted to pass him, he should have tried. “If I’d been second, with lots of pace, I’d have been pushing to get passed, but Nico didn’t,” Hamilton said.

    “Take a step back. It’s racing. I wouldn’t have sat back two seconds to get to the end of the stint, I’d have tried to get passed.”

    After much to and fro, plenty of media focus and a team debriefing, Rosberg announced that their disagreement is now a “thing of the past” and that they will “move forward”. Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff also called an end to the dispute saying that there was no doubt in his mind that Lewis Hamilton “didn’t do it on purpose”.

    “Nico was in trouble, he couldn’t get near Lewis because he needed to protect his tyres and Sebastian was increasing his pace. So it is understandable from both.”

    It would seem that we’re good to go to move on from the litle fiasco but you can bet your bottom dollar that this team mate rivalry is far from over! It’s Lewis Hamilton vs Nico Rosberg and you better get your popcorn ready!

    Photo credits:

    Lewis Hamilton, Chinese GP Podium Celebrations: Courtesy of Daimler, Mercedes AMG F1

    Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Post-race press conference: Screen capture, Sky F1