Tag: mercedes

F1 2015: Hungarian GP Review – “This victory is for Jules” – Vettel

Formula 1 headed to the Hungarian grand prix with a heavy heart after the passing of Jules Bianchi. The hope was that it could put on a show that the young Frenchman would have revelled in. As fate would have it the Hungaroring saw the best and most dramatic race of the season.

It wasn’t a surprise to see Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg lock out the front row of the grid. But the ultra-quick starting Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen turned the race on its head from the second the lights extinguished. The two scarlet Ferrari’s exploded off the line and swept into first and second halfway through the first lap.

Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton lost three positions off the line but it was only the start of a dramatic afternoon of racing. The defending champion would first run wide at the chicane and later incur a drive-through penalty and lose his front-wing in a clash with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

By the mid-way point of the race Vettel and Raikkonen had built a nearly fifteen second lead over Nico Rosberg which left the Mercedes driver in a fairly distant third place. Ferrari looked set for a one-two finish but a MGU-K (kers) failure of Raikkonen’s car meant an eventual retirement for the Finn. A cruel end to a very good race.

Ferrari would have to face more pressure as Vettel had to cope with a safety-car completely eradicating his healthy lead after Nico Hulkenberg’s front-wing failed spectacularly littering turn one with shards of carbon fibre. It didn’t take long for Rosberg to take second-place off a wounded Raikkonen but again the German was unable to make an impression on Vettel’s number five Ferrari. By now Daniel Ricciardo, on the quicker option, tyre was catching second-placed Rosberg and with a handful of laps to go lunged for the inside line into turn one. It appeared to be a clean move on the Aussie’s side but Rosberg’s cut back on the exit of the corner ensured a damaged front-wing for the Red Bull and a punctured right-rear for himself.

This incident promoted Daniil Kvyat into second and with the nifty reward of his first ever F1 podium. Ricciardo recovered to third with Max Verstappen scoring an impressive fourth place finish. This marks the first race since the 2013 Brazilian grand prix which did not feature a Mercedes driver on the podium. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso boosted the team’s morale with a fighting fifth place finish.

It is on such dramatic days and moments that world championships turn. Hamilton was given a helping-hand with the safety car but needed a new nose after sliding into the side of Ricciardo at turn one. He was also given a drive-through penalty and emerged from the pitlane in twelfth. It looked for the majority of the race as if the lead of the drivers’ championship would go to Rosberg. Miraculously, after several incidents and a penalty Hamilton fought his way to sixth and extended his championship lead.

Romain Grosjean finished seventh for Lotus ahead of a recovering Rosberg who finished eighth ahead of Jenson Button in ninth. Marcus Ericsson took the final point in tenth for Sauber.

Up front Sebastian Vettel serenely led the way from lights to flag. The four-time German champion is now equal with Ayrton Senna on 41 victories. He capped the impressive win by dedicating it to the memory of Jules Bianchi.

July 27, 2015
2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

TV UNILATERAL

So Lewis, your fifth pole here in Budapest, quite a big margin over your team-mate, you must be very happy with the way today has turned out – you’ve been fastest in every track session this weekend?

Lewis HAMILTON: It’s been a good weekend so far, yes. I think coming here I’ve always had, generally, good experiences here, but loving the weather, loving the city. But also… I love the track. It feels a bit like an old go-karting circuit that we used to race on many years ago when we had super special soft tyres and super grippy, you know, and I think with the temperatures it gives us a lot of grip here. But me and Nico wouldn’t be up here if it wasn’t really for this team. They’ve done an exceptional job all year long but just to improve coming into this weekend, you can definitely feel it, so big thanks to them.

Well done. Nico, talking about the margin, it was close early on through the weekend, it was pretty close between you but in the later stages of qualifying it just seemed to grow. What was the story from your side?

Nico ROSBERG: I don’t have an explanation. Qualifying went pretty much to plan, everything, but just didn’t find the pace and it’s been a bit up and down all weekend for some unexplained reasons, so just need to look into it tonight. Definitely not happy with the way it went today.

Ok thank you. Coming to you Sebastian, obviously not the best practice sessions for either you or the whole Ferrari team but it looks like you managed to turn it round when it really mattered for qualifying. How did you do it?

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it’s true, we had a difficult day yesterday, let’s say, with something stopping us, slowing us down and it was difficult to get a feel for the car. So, for today, I’m glad that we found direction, we went and took it a little bit easier, trying to build it up in FP3, which worked, and then throughout qualifying the car kept coming to us, kept improving. I think third is the maximum we could do today, so we can very, very happy, especially with the rough start to the weekend and now obviously hoping for a good race. Who knows, on this track usually there are a lot of things happening on Sunday, so maybe we can do something against these guys, but I expect a tight race also to people behind – to the Williams and the Red Bull in particular.

Thank you and coming back to you Lewis, perhaps surprisingly on a track on which it’s quite difficult to overtake, the race isn’t always won from pole position. In fact, in the last ten years you’re the only person who has managed to do it, so being on pole at this stage is not necessarily a slam dunk; plenty of work still to do tomorrow.

LH: Absolutely. The work’s not always done on a Saturday, I’ve got lots of work to do tomorrow but in terms of how the weekend has gone I’m incredibly happy with that. I think it’s so far been one of the best… I can’t remember having the performance I’ve had this weekend on any weekend, so I’m really happy with that. There’s a long way down into Turn One and the race is incredibly tough physically but also technically for the car, but I feel confident in my team and my car and hopefully we can convert it tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, you’re obviously feeling on top form this weekend, so you’re obviously happy about that. How important is it to go into the summer break as the guy who won the most recent grand prix, to have that period of reflection knowing that you ended that first part of the season on a high?

LH: It’s not really what you think about, to be honest. There’s been times when I’ve not won, gone into that break and you manage to switch off and enjoy it just as much. So, of course, when you leave, having done what you planned to do, it makes a next few days following – but other than that, you get over it and you move on and do whatever you have to do, and train – but I’m taking all the steps possible to make sure it’s a nice summer break.

Q: Question for you Nico on the strategy. We mentioned earlier on that it’s not always won from pole, this race. In fact the top three is normally where the winner comes from, so still plenty of chances for you in the race and clearly strategy is going to be part of that. It looks to me as though you both saved a set of new soft tyres – you reused a set for your first run in Q3, is that correct? What advantage does that give you?

NR: I don’t think I saved a set, no. Not this time no. But I’m not 100 per cent sure! It was a bit all over the place, the qualifying. But strategy, yeah, there’s going to be some opportunities, definitely, also in terms of strategy. Let’s see. Going to go into that tomorrow morning. Strategy is discussed tomorrow morning. But anyway, car-wise, if anything, my balance is for the race – which is not what I wanted but it’s the way it’s gone.

Q: Sebastian, I think it’s the seventh time you’ve qualified in the top three in the first part of the season but, as you mentioned earlier on in your previous answer, it’s not been a weekend without problems for Ferrari – so maybe you could tell us a little bit about what you were dealing with as a team – and also, how come, despite so many strong qualifying performances, you’ve never managed to win this race.

SV: Yeah – because I never managed to cross line first on Sunday! Yeah, it’s a great race and a definitely want to win it – hopefully tomorrow– we’ll see with a bit of luck. Obviously in normal conditions it’s difficult to beat these guys. But as you touched on, I think it was a great recovery from a very, very bad day yesterday where we had issues with the car. Obviously Kimi had the wing failure in FP1 which caught us out also a little bit in FP2 and then, yeah, just things slowing us down. And on top of that the balance and the rhythm wasn’t there. So, not a great day and not that easy to recover but spent a lot of time last night trying to clear up the situation and fortunately it worked. We started off on a much better foot this morning and obviously were able to carry that into qualifying. We knew it will be tight, especially with Red Bulls as they showed very, very strong pace yesterday but we managed to stay ahead – so that’s good for today but for tomorrow obviously there’s a big job to be done. We focus on the race, trying to defend that third place and, as I said, I wouldn’t mind if I could turn your question around and answer in a different way tomorrow.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, I think it’s predicted that tomorrow it will be about eight to nine degrees cooler than it is now. How do you think that will affect your performance, keeping in mind that Ferrari usually goes well in the hot weather, and also how confident are you that you will be able to stay ahead of the Red Bulls in those conditions?

SV: Well, I considered it hot today – 37 or 36 degrees – so I still consider 28 degrees to be fairly hot. I think in England they would call it a heatwave. (It’s not that bad, it’s bit better in the summer). Overall, I think it’s still hot tomorrow. We’ll obviously see what the weather does but I think it should be fine.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) To all of you, the strange thing here in Hungaroring is if Lewis Hamilton wins, Kimi Raikkonen is always second. What do you think about that?

LH: I don’t know what to say to that.

SV: I don’t think Lewis cares.

LH: It’s good for Kimi.

Q: How about you, Nico? You’ve tended to finish exactly where you started all season, with a couple of exceptions. You wouldn’t want that.

NR: No, I hope none of those things apply.

Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, yesterday you said that you started to think that this might be your favourite track. After your fifth pole position here, do you state that this is your favourite track now?

LH: You know it’s really hard to pinpoint your favourite track in your career really because there are so many different ones. They all have such different characteristics but I honestly just really enjoy driving this track. I think it’s the combination – as I said earlier – with the tyres and the surface. It’s quite bumpy, the way the corners are, on camber, off camber and the way that the track just flows. It’s so much fun. Monaco’s fun but I don’t know, I think that including the city with all the great architecture and that, I think it might be potentially just edging out Monaco. Maybe.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport Magazines) Seb, how worried are you about the Red Bulls and do you think that it’s just this track or have they actually made a step closer to you?

SV: Well, I think they have made a step closer to – ultimately – Mercedes, if you consider them being at the front so if you look at the gap they had, I think some races ago, and the gap they have now, they are a lot closer. I think it was fairly evident at Silverstone already so it was expected that they have a strong weekend here as well. So I expect them to be strong tomorrow, but we managed to outqualify them which means that we are quicker. Obviously yesterday we cannot really compare because for us it was not a good day. Hopefully we can get a good comparison in tomorrow’s race and come out on top.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Nico, I think we have heard you talking on the radio about something going wrong with the aero balance and you had so much understeer and maybe the tyre pressures were wrong. Did your car behave differently than in P3? So what might have been the problem?

NR: I generally just wasn’t happy and I don’t understand it so we need to look into it. It was a bit just inconsistent so difficult to explain. I don’t know. But I wasn’t happy with the general way qualifying went.

July 25, 2015

Hamilton storms to Hungarian GP pole

Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton stormed his way to securing the pole postion for the Hungarian GP. This is Hamilton’s ninth pole position of the season for his Mercedes team.

Hamilton posted a lap time of 1:22.020 to end the session half a second quicker than his title rival and team mate Nico Rosberg.

ebastian Vettel beat his former Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo to third place by only a hundredths of a second, setting up a nice enough battle for the podium position for the Hungarian GP.

Kimi Räikkönen recovered from a water leak during final practice ahead of the Hungarian GP to line up in fifth place on the grid, ahead of fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas.

Red Bull’s Dabiel Ricciardo will start in 6th place with team mate Daniil Kvyat behind him in 7th. The Williams team disappointed with their highest position from Felipe Massa in eighth place.

Max Verstappen progressed through to Q3 and went ninth, with Romain Grosjean rounding out the top 10.

Neither of the Force India drivers made it through to Q3 as Nico Hülkenberg placed 11th, with Sergio Pérez in 13th. The duo were split by Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz Jr., with Pastor Maldonado in 14th position.

Fernando Alonso made it through to Q2 but his car came to a standstill on the approach to the final corner, bringing out the red flags. Alonso tried pushing his car to the pits so that he could get back out in time but alas, remains in 15th place.

McLaren team mate Jenson Button finished the session in only 16th place, complaining about ERS deployment issues on the straight on his hot lap.

Sauber continued to struggle, finishing with Marcus Ericsson in 17th and Felipe Nasr 18th.

Manor Marussia once again occupied the final two slots as Roberto Merhi beat Will Stevens by half a second.

Pos	Driver	Car	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:22.020
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	+0.575s
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	+0.719s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	+0.754s
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	+1.000s
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	+1.202s
7	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull/Renault	+1.312s
8	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	+1.517s
9	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Renault	+1.659s
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Mercedes	+2.161s
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	+1.806s
12	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	+1.849s
13	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	+2.441s
14	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Mercedes	+2.589s
15	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	No Q2 time set
16	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	+2.719s
17	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	+2.823s
18	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	+2.977s
19	Roberto Merhi	Marussia/Ferrari	+5.396s
20	Will Stevens	Marussia/Ferrari	+5.929s

July 25, 2015

F1 2015: Hungarian GP Preview – Racing At The ‘Ring

Formula 1 returns after a three week break to the Hungarian grand prix. However, the excitement has been significantly dulled. The passing of Jules Bianchi has been a surreal and deeply unfortunate reality.

While the mood is solemn the best way to honour the life of Jules Bianchi is by putting on a great show around Hungary’s Hungaroring circuit.

It’s a special place for both McLaren drivers as it is the venue of their first wins in the sport. In 2003 a fresh faced Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag in his blue and yellow liveried Renault and in 2006 Jenson Button turned on the magic on a damp circuit in his BAR Honda to take the top step of the podium.

Times have changed since then for these two who now find themselves teammates at a struggling McLaren Honda team. The 2015 season has been arduous for all involved but Fernando Alonso believes that the Hungaroring and the second half of the season will hold some opportunities for McLaren to show the gains it has made. “I think the second part of the year will show a completely different McLaren, much more competitive,” says the Spaniard. “The steps that are coming are quite big. This is not too difficult when you are at the back of the grid and two seconds off the pace – every step then is half a second or eight-tenths. When you are fighting for a podium you [only] gain 0.1s every two weeks. I think we will get much closer to the top guys in the second part of the championship.”

The Hungaroring’s layout is a flowing mixture of low to medium speed corners with a few elevation changes. This coupled with the lack of any significant straights decreases the demand on the power unit. Due to its flowing nature the circuit offers, in most areas, offers only one ideal line which will limit the chances for overtaking. Consequently, a good qualifying position becomes a major strategic advantage.

Pirelli have selected the medium and soft compounds for the weekend and expect the combination should provide a good balance between performance and reliability. “This selection is soft enough to provide the mechanical grip needed to negotiate all the corners, yet hard enough to withstand the punishing weather conditions and track layout of the Hungaroring. This is not always the easiest circuit to overtake on, so tyre strategy can make a real difference,” says Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.

Ferrari experienced a difficult British grand prix but Kimi Raikkonen thinks that this was a once-off. “We’ve seen at other circuits it depends a lot on the layout of the circuit and what tyres we run,” said the Finn.”I expect it to be a different story in the next race and at different circuits again. Hungary I’m sure it will [be better]. Silverstone was not the ideal weekend. The others were a bit faster. I’m sure it will be a bit more easy there but we will see.”

Williams delivered a considerably better performance at Silverstone which led Rob Smedley to believe that the team is capable of beating Ferrari to second place in the constructor’s championship. The team believes that a steady stream of small upgrades at every race will make the difference but remain realistic about their potential this weekend. “We know we are still missing a bit in the low speed and we are big enough to hold hands up and say that is the case,” says Smedley.”We’re looking at all sorts of ways of recuperating that.”

For nine months all motorsport fans had hoped to receive the news that Jules Bianchi had woken up and was well on his way to recovery. Sadly, this news will never come and his enormous potential will remain unfulfilled. It is the worst possible outcome but it is not the end of Jules’ legacy. It has reaffirmed the commitment to safety above all else and that is a gift of which the impact and importance cannot be measured. Ciao Jules and thank you.

July 21, 2015
F1 2015: British GP Review – Hamilton Shines At Silverstone

One-hundred and forty thousand fans were treated to quite a race around the famed Silverstone circuit.

Lewis Hamilton thrilled the home crowd with pole position on Saturday ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg while Williams locked out the second row of the grid. At this point you would’ve been forgiven if you’d assumed that it was going to be another Mercedes dominated afternoon. Felipe Massa rocketed off the starting line and straight into the lead of the race followed by teammate Valtteri Bottas.

The Finnish Williams driver soon fell prey to a determined Lewis Hamilton but held of Nico Rosberg to settle in third. An accident involving both Lotus and both McLaren’s brought out the safety car and saw the end of the race for Romain Grosjean and Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso clunked into the side of his teammate but was able to continue after a stop for a new nose.

The restart of the race saw Hamilton launch an attack on race leader Felipe Massa but the canny Brazilian held his line and the position. The move sent Hamilton off the circuit at Club corner and into third as Valtteri Bottas seized second place. The fight for the lead of the race was a welcome sight and more so was Hamilton’s doggedness. In truth Hamilton’s championship fight is not with Massa and he couldn’t have been faulted for choosing the cautious route, but he didn’t. At the heart of Lewis Hamilton is still an out-and-out racing driver whose sole ambition is to win and that is what he put on display in that move.

The Williams driver couldn’t manage to run away from Mercedes but they were holding their own. As if to underline the difficulty of overtaking in Formula 1 Felipe Massa was able to resist a visibly quicker Bottas during the phase of the race. The Williams pitwall initially called off the fight between their drivers but quickly changed course and gave their drivers the freedom to fight. Despite this Bottas was unable to overtake his teammate.

Lewis Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners into the pitlane and used the undercut to perfection as he took the lead of the race as the two Williams made their respective stops. The front running back had now reshuffled with Hamilton in the lead from Massa, Rosberg and Bottas.

It wouldn’t be Silverstone if the weather didn’t have some sort of impact on proceedings. At first the rain was steadily falling on one side of the circuit while the other remained bone dry. As drivers were slipping and sliding their way around several drivers including Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso gambled with a switch to intermediate tyres. It proved a touch too early for Raikkonen who shredded his intermediates on the drying surface.

Lewis Hamilton timed his tyre switch to perfection as the rain started falling once more as he exited the pits on the green-walled intermediate tyre and retook the lead of the race. Rosberg made his stop a lap later and emerged in second place where he would remain until the chequered flag. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas chances of the podium evaporated as the pair struggled for pace in the wet conditions. The duo eventually finished fourth and fifth as a slightly later call for intermediates from Vettel meant that the Ferrari jumped both Williams’ into third place.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat finished sixth while Nico Hulkenberg brought home his heavily revised Force India in seventh ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. The sister Force India of Sergio Perez finished ninth ahead of Fernando Alonso who ended a miserable non-point scoring run with tenth place.

To win on home ground is something special and Hamilton has now done it three times. This win is an invaluable boost of confidence that could carry him all the way to that coveted third world championship title.

July 6, 2015
2015 Formula 1 British Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Frankie Dettori)

Well done, Lewis, what a race. How important is it to win in front of your home crowd?

Lewis HAMILTON: Firstly, just thank you to everyone for coming out today and making my weekend. I was gunning the whole way and I really just wanted to do it for you guys… we did it. I’m so thankful for all the support. I couldn’t have done without you guys. Every lap I could see you out of the corner of my eye and I just felt you spurring me along, so thank you so much.

I need to ask you: what happened at the start, a bit of a hairy moment there?

LH: To be honest my clutch was good; it’s just that we had really quite poor grip I think at the start. I think it was particularly the same for Nico. It made the race even more exciting to be honest. We just kept pushing and if I’m honest that probably made it more exciting for the fans.

Do you think the pit stop was the winning move?

LH: I think for the first time probably in my career I made the perfect choice tyre wise and so I’m really, really happy with that. I just managed to keep the car going. I think I lost a lot of temperature in my slicks, so no…. you guys are the best. I love you guys.

Well done Lewis, let me grab a word with Nico. Nico, a good second, how hard was it driving the last few laps in the rain?

Nico ROSBERG: Yeah it was a good race. I was pushing hard to try and catch Lewis under the difficult conditions but then he just made the better call with the pit stop, so that’s where I lost it. Fair play to him, he did a great job all weekend. You’ve been amazing, really absolutely unbelievable, a great atmosphere here, really a pleasure to drive in front of all of you and that’s it.

Well done. I’ll go over to Sebastian. I’m a bit of a Ferrari fanatic, so I have to give you a hug. Do you think the rain made a big difference in the end of grab third place?

Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, without the rain we would not be on the podium. I think we kept our head down and were patient enough to wait until the rain properly started to pour down. In the end, that’s England for you – a couple of minutes later you have sunshine, so obviously it helped us today, we did the right choice, we came in on the perfect lap and the team did a great job on the radio as well. So thank you very much and thanks to everyone, it’s a great atmosphere today.

Well done Sebastian and one last word with Lewis: any message to the fans, they’re all here to see you

LH: My mum’s down here! As I said, I’m so elated; you can’t imagine how happy I am. I started to tear up on that last lap, just really hoping I could hold onto it for you guys and man, I felt you all way. I hope we can come back next year… I’m going to keep pushing for this championship. Thank you so much for all the support. Now, let’s party.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, maybe one of the key talking points was the pace on slick tyres on a damp track: over a second a lap faster than your competitors.

LH: Firstly, just a very, very special weekend for me. To see so many fans out this weekend, I thought that I’d seen it all here last year but I’m really just… I love those guys – thank you so much for coming. An amazing job done by the team back at the factory, such a large group of people, to make the car that me and Nico have to race as we have. The race was very, very tough. Very slippery off the start, I think for both of us – but it made it more exciting. I was chasing down the Williams. Very, very hard to get close and overtake but yes, very good. I got close enough on the first pitstop. Came out ahead after a really good out-lap. And then the rain came and I think I just lost temperature in my front tyres. It’s always trickier for the guy who’s out in the lead because you’re the first one to get to it and it’s questionable how much risk you take. But yeah, for the first time actually, I think the first time in my whole Formula One career, I made the perfectly right choice in coming in now. I could see the rain coming more and I’ve never had that before, so I feel extremely happy about that. And after that was just… I kept seeing as I was going around, Turn Seven, the last corner I could see in the crowd just cheering me on every time I came by and just spurring me along. I just didn’t want to drop it for them. And really I’m also very honoured just to be here representing the Brits, to have the British flag up there.

Q: Nico, not perhaps the start that anybody expected. It was a Williams 1-2 for the first 20 laps of this grand prix. You, obviously, weren’t able to get ahead of them – because you had second choice of strategy I guess at the first stop – so you found yourself behind them and you were then told, “right, we go Plan B, be aggressive”. Tell us a little bit about that phase of your grand prix.

NR: Yeah, that was not such a great phase because I had these two Williams in front and was completely blocked and couldn’t get close. So that was a bit annoying. And then I was very thankful when the rain came. I felt great when it started raining. I really was able to attack and pass both Williams and close in on Lewis a lot. I was hoping it would stay more or less like that, and I thought I could attack Lewis at some point – and then Lewis boxed. I was pretty sure it was the wrong call because it was still touch-and-go at that time. So I was actually quite happy that he boxed. But then it was the right call in the end. It started raining more on that lap. So, that was it. Anyways, I had to take that chance because just following Lewis into the box is definite lose for me, so I might as well take the chance, stay out and do one lap more at least. It didn’t work out. So that’s it. Gave it everything and didn’t work out.

Q: Sebastian, it’s fair to say it wasn’t looking too rosy up until the point at which it rained. You did the same timing as Lewis. Did you feel the same way as Lewis? Was it something that you motivated yourself? Were you slightly surprised by what was going on around you with the other cars? Did you think it was your birthday when you realised where you were?

SV: I don’t know. I had a bad start but then we obviously, more or less, came back to fifth and sixth – so where we started – but obviously the gap was too big to the cars in front. Then there was some rain around six-seven – so around Luffield. And, yeah, it was only there so it was quicker to stay out on dries. But then I noted… it’s a tough call to make. If it rains, yes, some cars are already pitting, you obviously think about it but if the majority of the circuit is dry, there’s no point. Then I came out of Chapel and down the Hangar straight, noticed a lot more rain. I was trying to look at the clouds, all the laps before and though, ‘well, that’s the lap to go’. Because it was significantly more intense, the rain. It wasn’t just drizzle, it was proper rain and I decided to box. Once I was in the box I was told that Lewis decided to – the leader – decided to pit as well so I thought, yeah, should have been a good call. And then it was a surprise because I had Kvyat behind me when I boxed, and I came out behind him – like I saw him when I came out of the box. I don’t know what happened to him in between. But I guess at that point already the track was quite poor.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Thomas Maher – formulaspy.com) Question for Lewis. Lewis, when you were following the two Williams drivers in front of you, do you think they might have compromised the their own strategy slightly by leaving Massa in front of Valtteri.

LH: I don’t know really. I think it’s too early on to say whether it compromised their strategy but obviously it’s a race. It was a race for them – but Valtteri was quicker, if that was him in second, but I don’t think… say it was me and Nico. It’s not for the team to tell you to let the dude past, because you’re racing. So, but I think Williams were doing a great job up until then.

Q: (Sean McGreevy – CSMA Magazine) Lewis, after a really action-packed exciting British Grand Prix, what’s your response to people and critics claiming that F1 is boring?

LH: Firstly, thank you. It was exciting for me. I think the start really made it exciting, obviously. I don’t know how the rest of the race went but you say it was very exciting. I think the English weather helped with that. I think there’s still some things… their views are probably still valid in many ways but also sometimes I guess it’s a bit of an indication for us not to throw our toys out of the pram and say everything’s wrong, that we’re not too far off the mark, hopefully and hope that we have more races like this.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Serra) Sebastian, can you make a final balance of this weekend, because we saw Ferrari struggling and now you’ve got a podium? Is it just like a Christmas gift or there’s something coming also from the team, your talent of course, from the situation? Can you make a summary, please?

SV: It’s not easy. It’s not a Christmas gift. Santa Claus wasn’t there waving me into the pits so he didn’t tell me which lap to dive into the pits. It was our own decision and obviously not a lot of people got it right but we did so that’s our choice and that’s what we achieved today. Other than that, obviously it was not a very good weekend for us. We expected to be stronger. I think we were surprised by the pace of Williams on Saturday in qualifying and also on Sunday. I think you could also see it was not a good weekend from ourselves because the gap simply to the top was larger than at previous events I don’t think that we did a step back but I think we just couldn’t find the right direction this weekend and obviously if you’re not P1, P2 it’s quite tight between us, Williams, the Red Bulls were very quick this weekend. I think they’d taken a step forward and that’s what happens.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, I know the trophy is about ten years old – or out of date, I should say…

LH: It’s not out of date. I’m pretty sure they have an extra slab underneath because they’ve run out of space so I think underneath – no it’s not there but like it goes here but it continues to go here, another pillar.

SV: Why did they give you the wrong one?

LH: It’s not attached though, it sits on top of it. I think so.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) But how good is it that rather than a cheap plastic one, compared to last year?

LH: It makes a big difference.

SV: But you need the bottom part.

LH: Last year obviously I didn’t get to have that necessarily on the podium but it’s a very proud moment to be out there and to receive it again. I remember the first time I had the privilege of having that experience in 2008 and the response from the crowd then, but just to see a sea of British fans out there today with the British flag and all the caps and stuff is just a huge day for me, really really special day. I can’t really find the words to explain how happy I am. Hopefully you see it in my smile.

Q: (Simon Cass – The Daily Star) Lewis, about the second stop, that was your call. The first one looked like a great call from your team. After Monaco, I suppose they owed you one with that one and it got you back into the lead. Is that right?

LH: Well, I think overall globally it was just great teamwork. I think the team were continuously speaking to me, the tyres were feeling good so I could have kept going for longer, but it was getting closer to the point that Williams hadn’t stopped and I was close enough… I was actually close enough on the previous lap but close enough finally… literally as I came round that last corner to say ‘guys, you know the tyres are perhaps going to go off quite shortly’ and so they said then ‘box, box, box’ and I came in that lap. It was a real quick decision after that. Then I pushed like crazy on the out lap and it really hooked up a real nice lap and to come back out in front was a great feeling. And after that was really trying to balance the… I know I had a long long way to go. Twenty or thirty laps here is a long way. You do ten and you think you’ve already done thirty. Then I could see the weather getting worse and worse and you’re thinking ‘please hold off’ because if it doesn’t rain, we’re good.. If it rains it makes it a lot harder and I tell you it was one of the trickiest races I’ve had here. Obviously 2008 was very very hard but still, very very tricky.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) To the Mercedes drivers: did the Williams have a particularly good start and or did you have a particularly bad start? If it was bad, what happened?

NR: Bad start, no explanation. We need to look into it afterwards.

Q: Lewis, you mentioned on the radio on the parade lap that you had poor traction off your burn-out.

LH: Yeah, just the grip is different from track to track but particularly on my side. As I did the burn-outs to the grid, the wheels were just spinning easily and in some places you try to do the burn-outs and there’s so much grip that you can’t actually get the wheels to light up. This one it was like so easy. As I dropped the clutch, just wheel spinning, I’m looking in my mirrors to see what’s going on but it just keeps on wheel spinning, so I’m thinking jeez, I’m going to lose my position to at least someone and obviously the Williams came past. I fought back and got second back but then I tried to challenge Massa on the restart and just went a bit too risky too early maybe. But anyways, you could see I was trying.

July 5, 2015
Hamilton revels in British Grand Prix home crowd pole

Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton claimed his 8th pole position for the 2015 F1 season at the qualifying session for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Hamilton’s Q3 benchmark time of a 1:32.248 put him on pole ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton failed to improve in his final flying lap but his first was enough to secure pole with Rosberg almost half a second behind him, the latter claiming his front left tyre felt “strange” in the final minutes of the session.

The Williams team had a very strong session, finishing as the second strongest team with Felipe Massa beating his team mate Valtteri Bottas to third postion – a full 0.8 seconds behind Hamilton.

Ferrari, who were expected to have made progress ahead of the British Grand Prix after spending engine tokens for development, were nothing short of disappointing and clearly have not made as much progress as the Williams team have. Kimi Raikkonen beat team mate Sebastian Vettel to fifth place while Daniil Kvyat took seventh for Red Bull.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the British Grand Prix top 10.

Sergio Perez was 11th in the upgraded B-spec Force India, after having his final flying lap deleted due to track limits at Copse – something which seemed to catch many of the drivers out during the course of the session.

Romain Grosjean was 12th, while Max Verstappen who finished 13th made no secret of his frustration with his car which was a very different machine to drive than he’d had during the final practice session.

Pastor Maldonado was 14th fastest, Marcus Ericsson 15th, and Felipe Nasr missed out on a spot in Q2 by just 0.011s and will start from 16th.

McLaren’s miseries continued with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button only managing 17th and 18th.

Manor Marussia will take up the back row of the British Grand Prix grid with Will Stevens ahead of Roberto Merhi.

The track limits rule will apply during today’s British Grand Prix with stewards taking a zero tolerance approach to drivers leaving the track at Copse.

British Grand Prix Qualifying Photo Credits: Mercedes AMG Petronas

July 5, 2015
2015 Formula 1 British Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3rd Felipe MASSA (Williams)

TV UNILATERAL

Lewis, it was the first run in Q3 again for you – absolutely perfect – that nailed it. Pole position for your home grand prix, how are you feeling?

Lewis HAMILTON: It’s a special day. It’s special when you get the pole position here on your home turf. So many people have come today and this weekend and they really do motivate me through the weekend, so it’s particularly special when you do get the pole. Generally, it’s not been the smoothest weekend, it’s been a bit up and down in terms of set-up and balance and getting laps and throughout qualifying, I made a change to the car, going into qualifying, which was perhaps not spectacular for the quali lap but hopefully will be good for the race. But I’m really, really happy and once I got to Q3 I kind of could just go all out and get that lap in. So, yeah, incredibly happy and my brother’s here with me as well, so big thank you to everyone for all the support.

Thank you. Nico, you missed out today; you were saying on the radio there were a few problems there on the final run, you weren’t completely happy with the balance of the car. Was it something to do with the front tyre?

Nico ROSBERG: Well, first of all the first lap was really good, so there’s not much to say about that, Lewis was just one tenth quicker, which is annoying, but that’s the way it is. Other than that, really awesome to see how many people have come today. Out in the grandstands it’s incredible, it’s full house already more or less today. It’s great to see how enthusiastic everybody is in this country about our sport. And then the last run, something strange. Nobody improved on that one or not many at least. Felipe did? There was something wrong with my left front, so I had big understeer. There was something very wrong, don’t know, we need to look into what it was.

OK, thank you for that. Felipe, you’ve done it again, not only ahead of your team-mate but once again ahead of both Ferraris; good day for you.

Felipe MASSA: Yeah, I think it was a fantastic day for us. As they just said, it’s amazing to see how many people are here. It’s also our home grand prix for the team, so I’m sure it was great to see me and Valtteri third and fourth. We were fighting each other through the qualifying, especially in Q3. I just managed to get a fantastic lap at the end and improve a little bit his lap time. So happy and really looking forward tomorrow that we can have a very strong race, especially in this fight with Ferrari, so today was a very important day for us to see that we can be in front of Ferrari with both cars. I hope we can be also tomorrow. It’s really nice and I’m very happy with what we did today and we just need to concentrate for tomorrow now.

Very well done. Coming back to you Lewis, tomorrow the chance to equal Nigel Mansell and Jim Clark as a three-time British Grand Prix winner. Tell us a little more about what the crowd has been doing to motivate you this weekend and also your two previous wins have come from outside the top three so presumably this makes your task a little easier tomorrow?

LH: I think the previous times… well, naturally I’ve been very fortunate to have had those two wins here and the support has been incredible every year. It’s the banners that are out there, it’s the flags, it’s the team caps, it’s the messages that get sent every day through social media. I was replying to some just before qualifying and they just really create the atmosphere and that buzz. When I’m about to start my lap or when I finish my lap, looking out of the corner of your eye and you know those guys are there, they’re right behind you, so I hope that that wave of energy that they give will help to carry us tomorrow.

Q: Lewis, pole a lot this season, clearly qualifying has been much, much stronger in 2015 than it was at this stage in 2014. What do you think has made the real difference, as far as you’re concerned?

LH: I don’t really know. Naturally that was something that I wanted to improve this year and last year obviously, I think I had seven poles in the whole year. It made the races a lot harder for me, to obviously get past Nico on those occasions, which I did on quite a few occasions – but generally made the races a lot harder to win. So that obviously was a focal point. It’s difficult to say where it’s improved. That first lap in Q3 has been a really important one and generally just through the year I’ve been having good laps in that session. That’s… generally thought the qualifying session wasn’t going great, I had a lot of understeer and… so through the session you’re putting in more and more wing but… and also the wind it all over the place throughout this great track, it makes it very tricky. But, yeah, I’m really happy with that lap, felt fantastic, particularly the middle sector. My favourite part of the track when you go through Copse and then Maggotts and Becketts, it’s fantastic and I really hooked it up on that lap, which made the difference.

Q: It’s interesting that, isn’t it Nico? Because between the two of you since the beginning of last year it’s fairly unusual for whoever gets fastest in the first run of Q3 to be overturned in the final pole position. It does seem to be quite important between the two of you, that first run.

NR: I don’t know. I didn’t see that trend. And yeah, anyway, for me today it was all to play for with the second run – still pushing all out for sure and the chance was there because it was so close.

Q: And a word from you Felipe about the conditions. In the first two parts of qualifying, we saw a lot of drivers exceeding the track limits at Turn Nine and having their times deleted – a lot of drivers – was that ever an issue for you? And how much of a part did the diagonal crosswind into Copse play in that?

FM: Actually it was a problem. It was so easy… it’s a corner where you want to try everything you can – but you have also the wind which sometimes is pushing just a little bit and you lose a little bit of line and you go forwards off. But I was very careful at the beginning not to go off there – but that I was just pushing a little bit harder every lap, a little bit, just to understand what was really the limit but not going to high – and I just managed to do a good job and not passing the lines there.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport magazines) Felipe, you’re really up there at the top of this group here. Do you feel you’re driving maybe even better than in 2008?

FM: I feel good. I feel that I’m driving well, understanding the tyres and trying, y’know, putting the right lap and…

LH: …2008 was pretty good though!

FM: 2008 I had more pole positions – but the car was more competitive. The problem is them! [LH and NR] If they were a little bit slower maybe I could have been on pole today! That’s the problem compared to 2008. But I feel good. I feel really in good shape.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport magazines) Lewis and Nico, I read something about you guys having a barbecue together. Was that last night or tonight? What can you tell us about it?

NR: We’re here with motorhomes, sleeping in the middle of the track, everybody, all the drivers together. Not in the same motorhome obviously. It’s good fun, I invited the team, and Lewis as well, of course, so we had a good evening, team barbecue.

Q: How’s his cooking Lewis?

LH: Nico doesn’t… I’ve never seen him cook! He has this great motorhome, and this nice setting outside for everyone so it was good to have all the team there. It’s a nice evening for everyone and Nico invited me along. I was next door, so I would have gone anyway! The barbecue was great but I didn’t get to eat too much. He put all these sweets out just for me. He knows that’s going to make me heavy – but I didn’t go there – so that’s good.

Q: (Sean McGreevy – CSMA Club Magazine) Lewis, throughout your career you’ve met many personalities, many famous people, Hollywood stars to Nelson Mandela. How did meeting and spending time with the Queen compare to all of them?

LH: I’ve been very, very, very fortunate to meet these people and with the Queen – it’s really strange because people made up some silly stories recently about my meeting with the Queen but it was actually amazing. It was great to… firstly be invited back to sit with her and have lunch. But growing up, seeing her on TV all the time and then having her right next to you, so you can literally have a normal conversation was just…never in a million years thought that would ever happen. And the same with meeting Mr Mandela: when you walk into a room and he’s sitting there in his silk shirt and it’s like walking in to see the King. The atmosphere, as you walked in with him, it was immense, incredibly special man so I’m very, very grateful that I got to be in the presence of both these great people.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Grand Prix Plus) Lewis, I was interested because you were chatting with Felipe earlier and you and he have a bit of history together. At the beginning of your career, the two of you were pretty close and then things went into a rather unhappy phase when you tended to blame each other for things that perhaps you might have regretted afterwards but I wondered if you have healed all that up – looks like you have – but I wondered if there’s another driver from another team in whom you take an interest or who you regard as a particular friend in Formula One?

LH: Well, Felipe was a friend of mine before I got to Formula One, when I was in Formula Three and in GP2. Sometimes he would invite me along to some dinners so we had some great times before then and then obviously had a great battle in 2008, fantastic battle in 2008, he drove incredibly well. Then we definitely had a difficult year, I think. Somehow we always happened to be together on the track and the majority of the time I was behind him and Felipe is very good at making the car as wide as the track. It was very hard to get by.

FM: He was a little vague. You were not really concentrated on that year.

LH: I say it’s the other way round. But I’ve never ever had any problems with him. There was nothing ever to get fixed so…

FM: I was just saying that in 2011 he was not really concentrated you know? But anyway, I have a good relationship with most of the drivers. I think the problem with Formula One is that we are together but everybody is separated, you know? I don’t think this is really nice, so I think the problem with Formula One is that we need to be… We fight on the track, but outside we need to be… I’m sure that nobody knows each other in a proper way but I’m sure everybody’s… maybe most of the drivers are very nice but maybe we don’t know each other because is too separated. We need to be more open, we need to be closer. It’s not a problem to go out to dinner with another driver. For me that’s pretty normal, it’s what we miss in Formula One. At least, that’s what I see.

LH: We do get along with other drivers but I can’t pinpoint a particular one.

Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Lewis, do you feel extra pressure trying to win your home Grand Prix for the third time, I think? And speaking of pressure, did you happen to catch the Heather Watson/Serena Williams match last night and your thoughts on that?

LH: Honestly I didn’t get to see the big match and I don’t know who won. (Serena Williams) I thought she would, yeah, which is fantastic. There’s definitely extra added pressure. It comes from yourself, mainly because you know that so many people save up through the year to come here, spend a fortune on team merchandise and flags and camping and hotels, whatever it may be, and then they come here and they are here to support you and you just want to make sure that you put the icing on top of the cake. They’re already having a great weekend with the great weather but if you can deliver then there’s that extra bit of pressure to do that. But I think that pressure is a positive pressure in which I would hope that I can thrive off.

July 4, 2015
F1 2015: British GP – Hamilton Tops Final Practice

Lewis Hamilton has set the fastest time in the final practice session ahead of the British grand prix.

The current world championship leader experience a difficult Friday which left him trailing behind teammate Nico Rosberg for both of the free practice session. However, overnight changes made to his Mercedes enable Hamilton to set the fastest time overall in the hour long session. The number 44 Mercedes clocked a fastest time of 1:32:917.

Nico Rosberg kept close company to Lewis Hamilton in second place ahead of the Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. Toro Rosso drivers Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz completed the top six. Verstappen was quoted yesterday as saying that his Toro Rosso is second only to the Mercedes in terms of pace. The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were seventh and eighth with Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado completing the top ten.

McLaren’s continued their plan of saving on engine mileage but Fernando Alonso’s car still ran into problems. A suspected hydraulic issue lef the Spaniard with only six laps on the board and unable to complete a run on the medium compound tyre in the final part of the session.

July 4, 2015
F1 2015: British GP – Rosberg Sets The Pace In FP2

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time in the second free practice session ahead of Sunday’s British grand prix.

The second one-and-a-half hour session is usually reserved to evaluate how the various cars will perform in race trim but it also allows for a quali sim. Pirelli have made the medium and hard compound tyre available to drivers this weekend and it already looks as if a one-stop strategy will be the order of the day. However, with weather conditions predicted to be cooler for Sunday’s race the issue of graining could come into play.

The session was red flagged early on as Romain Grosjean beached his Lotus in the gravel on the exit of Luffield. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) and Roberto Merhi (Manor) had similar incidents at the same corner but managed to recover their cars from the gravel trap. Toro Rosso underlined their morning pace with Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. ending the session seventh and ninth quickest.

Lewis Hamilton wouldve have been slightly annoyed at his afternoon as the reigning champion never quite seemed to have the Mercedes under him as he would like. His qualifying simulation lap left fourth overall nearly half a second adrift of teammate Nico Rosberg. Kimi Raikkonen’s first quick run on the medium tyres left him somewhat off the pace but the Finn was one of very few drivers to improve his time on a second flying lap. Raikkonen set a 1:34:502 some three and a half tenths of Rosberg’s time.

The long runs weren’t going much better for Hamilton who bailed out after running only five laps in the stint. Rosberg set a competitive and importantly consistent pace on the medium tyre. Sebastian Vettel was able to run close to the Mercedes pace as was Raikkonen on the hard compound tyre. The relative fuel loads at this stage of the weekend is unknown but Ferrari principal Maurizio Arrivabene said after the Austrian GP that he was “tired” of the false Friday pace Ferrari produced on race weekends.

July 3, 2015