Tag: mercedes

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.”

Rosberg 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

April 14, 2015
Wolff: “He Didn’t Do It On Purpose”

After the race debrief Mercedes Director Toto Wolff has confirmed that Hamilton did not back Rosberg up on purpose and that it was all a consequence of preserving the tyres.

Wolff called it a positive debrief adding that there was no animosity between the drivers.

“I think he didn’t do it on purpose, and we’ve cleared that now,” he insisted. “There wasn’t any intention from Lewis to slow Nico down in order to make him finish third or worse, one hundred per cent.

Wolff put it down to the fact that Hamilton had to save his tyres as they were not sure how long the option tyre would last as they changed their strategy during the race to go from option-prime-prime to option-option-prime.

“He didn’t know the gaps behind Nico. What he knew was that he needed to take the tyre longer than we’ve ever run it the whole weekend, and this is why he decided to slow down in the way he did.

“Lewis was the car in the lead, he was controlling the pace. We were putting the option tyre on, although we were actually expecting to put the prime on, so our expected race would have been option-prime-prime.

“Also because we learned the lesson from Malaysia, we thought we might run into trouble with the option. And then we found out that our option was actually holding on much better than we expected, and much better than Ferrari.

“We tried to make sure that we could cover Ferrari with the option. We put the option on, the driver realises he has the option in, doesn’t know what’s going on behind him, and controls his pace, because he needs to take the option longer than expected.

“And he was controlling that pace. From his point of view, completely understandable.”

He explained Rosberg’s situation and said that it was completely understandable that Rosberg was getting a big edgy.

“Nico on the other side was really running into trouble, because he was bunched up behind Lewis, he couldn’t go any more near, so he asked for a 2secs gap to Lewis so he could at least protect the tyres a little bit, which he did”, said Wolff.

“And on the same time Sebastian was increasing the pace behind him. So understandable from both of them.”

April 13, 2015
Video: Rosberg Angry at Hamilton for “Compromising” His Race

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg lashes out at team mate Lewis Hamilton for driving too slow and compromising his own race. Rosberg was very vocal post race about his race being compromised and made no attempt to hide his dissatisfaction in the post race press conference. The full transcript of it here.

April 12, 2015
2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3rd Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Edwin Moses)

Lewis, the gap was relatively small in the first part of the race. What happened in the second part of the race?

Lewis HAMILTON: First of all, a fantastic job by the team. It was great to have a smooth weekend, getting the sessions and really dialling in the car and today was kind of that effect of really putting the car in the place I wanted it and it was really just controlling the gap between myself and Nico and saving the tyres for when I needed to use them. I had lots left in my tyres at the end there [and] I was looking forward to eking out a gap but the safety car came out. But we’ve had such great fans here this weekend, thank you so much for the support everyone with all the big banners.

Second question would be: when the safety car came out was the comforting to you, because I know you had a significant gap at the end of the race, which was comforting?

LH: The safety car at the end wasn’t helpful, I guess for anyone, because it’s kind of an anti-climax when you have a good race like that. But naturally, as long as no-one was injured and all the cars got back safely that’s what matters.

Alright Nico, another one-two for Mercedes-Benz. As a competitor I know it’s tough being a member of a team and an individual as well. How was your race today?

Nico ROSBERG: Well, you wouldn’t know how it feels to finish second; you never did, did you! Well, that’s the way it is. I gave it everything in the end on the prime tyre to try to close the gap to Lewis and just took some risks. But it didn’t pay off because my tyres just died off in the end, so there we go, I wouldn’t have managed to get any closer.

But your tyres were good enough to keep the gap between you and Vettel that’s for sure?

NR: Yeah, definitely. We’re happy with the gap to Ferrari, having beaten them here after they beat us in Malaysia. It was very important for us as a team, a good, important comeback, so more of that for sure.

Sebastian congratulations, good to see you again. It was a tough day for you. The prediction was that Ferrari’s tyres would be perhaps superior and close in on the gap after the second pit stop?

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah. First of all, a huge honour to have you up here. I feel a bit small. OK, I mean racing drivers are small. I think it was a good race all in all. I think we were a bit closer probably on the softer compound of tyres and we were able to put some pressure on them. We tried to put more pressure by stopping fairly early for the last set of tyres, but I think on the harder tyres they were just that bit too quick, so they were able to pull away. From there onwards we tried to control the race and bring the podium back home, which is a great success for us, very happy. Thanks to the team. Thanks back to the factory, to Maranello, and obviously to all the support here from the fans.

At the beginning of the season people were questioning whether Ferrari was going to get back on the podium. How do you feel today?

SV: Yeah, good. It’s been three out of three so far, so it feels pretty good. Obviously a big change over winter. A lot of things have changed. It’s nice. I feel really happy in the team. The guys are great, so I’m really enjoying the work and hopefully we can get a little bit closer to challenge these guys.

Thank you. One more question for you Lewis. Off to Bahrain next week. We wish we could see you at the Laureus World Sports awards, as well as Nico and of course Sebastian, as you all have been there. It started off good this year. I know you’ll be hoping that you remain… it’s better to be good then lucky! But you need luck in this event.

LH: No, of course, but as I said the team have been doing a fantastic job. We did a great job to come back from the last race where we kind of struggled a little bit. And to come here and kind of up our pace and improve, it’s all down to the guys that are here building my car and the guys back at the factory, so massively proud and happy that we could get the job done today.

Q: Lewis, many congratulations. Was the race as expected in terms of the challenge from Ferrari and, also, can you talk us through that radio message you got from the team about speeding up? Were you aware that Nico was getting so backed-up towards Sebastian Vettel?

LH: I wasn’t controlling his race, I was controlling my own race but, great race, I’m really happy. Definitely going into the race we thought it would be a lot closer and we knew the Ferraris were very, very good with their long run pace and also looking after their tyres. So, today the real goal was to manage the tyres. And, as I said, my goal was to look after my car. I had no real threat from Nico through the whole race. So, I just managed it and got to really enjoy it, to be honest. A few of the real good fun laps were the laps before the pitstop, which I really enjoyed. Ultimately it was a much smoother weekend than we had in the last race where we got the whole, full practice sessions, on my side of the garage at least. And it made a real big difference to the balance of the car for the race. So really happy, and yeah, kinda excited.

Q: Nico, can you talk us through your view of the race today. Started second, finished second but you sounded at times as though you felt at timed under a little bit of unnecessary pressure maybe?

NR: No. It’s just now interesting to hear from you, Lewis, that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace in front, and necessarily that was compromising my race. Driving slower than was maybe necessary at the beginning of stints meant that Sebastian was very close to me and that opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pitstop to try and jump me. And then I had to cover him. So, first of all it was unnecessarily close with Sebastian as a result, and also it cost me a lot of race time as a result because I had to cover him and then my tyres died at the end of the race because my stint was just so much longer. So I’m unhappy about that, of course, today. Other than that, not much to say.

Q: Lewis, would you like to respond?

LH: Not really! My job is not to… it’s not my job to look after Nico’s race. My job’s to manage the car and bring the car home as healthy and as fast as possible – and that’s what I did. I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow any of the cars up. I just was focussing on myself. If Nico wanted to get by he could have tried but he didn’t.

Q: Sebastian. You tried everything today. The undercut, everything really strategy-wise that you could. Mercedes just had a little bit too much for you today but also at the end there, Kimi was catching you. Were you worried about him catching up to you towards the end of the race as well?

SV: Not really. I think I was in control. Obviously would have liked to have kept on racing, would have been close but in the end I still had a decent gap, obviously. I guess it’s a bit similar with Kimi and myself and Nico and Lewis. Obviously I try to be very aggressive. I think it was lap 29. That meant 27 laps on the Prime and I wasn’t sure if we really should try it – but then, I guess, we wanted to put pressure on Nico, which obviously makes the last stint very long, so at the end naturally you struggle with the tyres. I think Kimi was able to stay out a bit longer and therefore was a bit quicker at the end of the stint. But we tried everything we could today. I think it was very close, especially the first pitstop. I didn’t expect it to maybe be that close, so maybe I should have pushed a bit harder on the out-lap. Obviously it’s tricky here because you always try to look after the tyres but all-in-all I think it was a very good race for us. We were really able to put again some pressure on them, especially in the beginning of the race. Towards the end I think they were just too quick. They were pulling away. Nico had a sequence of really, really quick lap times – so we couldn’t do that – but all-in-all, as I said, closer here, which is great for us, and in front of the other teams. If we keep doing that, and keep getting closer, obviously there’s a point where we are some real challenge for these guys, which I’m looking forward to.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Niu Hong Lin – China Radio International) To both Lewis and Sebastian, question about the Laureus award. Since Sebastian has won the prize last year and you’ve been nominated this year and there are a lot of histories from 2004 and 2010, so do you think all those nominations, all these years, do you think there’s a special bond between this kind of award and F1?

SV: Well, I think it doesn’t matter which sport you do, the special thing about the Laureus award is that you get judged by professionals, by sportsmen, by athletes, male and female. It’s a very unique award and it has been an incredible honour to be nominated. Obviously last year I didn’t really deserve the nomination or anything, so Lewis deserves to be nominated this year but to win the prize last year was fantastic and really something that stays with you for good, I guess. Also to have Mr Moses on the podium today – he’s really one of the top athletes in the world, ever, that the sport has seen so it was great to see him. It’s a great event, it means a lot, just the nomination already and obviously to win it, I don’t really need to comment. I guess Lewis is in that seat this year so I’m sure he’s very excited.

LH: Not really, unfortunately I’m not too excited because I know that I haven’t won it. I think it’s a great award and very very prestigious and I’m proud to just be amongst the people that have been… the great athletes that have been nominated. I’ll keep pushing so that at some stage I do get it.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Sebastian, did you expect more performance with the new soft compound in the stint or was it the maximum you could achieve?

SV: You mean with the new tyre? Well, I think Nico was on new softs as well. I’m not sure about Lewis but I guess as well so yeah. We tried to save a set yesterday but unfortunately they did as well so I think it helped but we did all we could. Obviously it’s incredibly difficult. The closer you get, I was all the time something like 1.5s and then just before the pit stop, falling away a bit, around 1.8s-2.0s. To really get close, I tried desperately to get into the DRS (zone) but I couldn’t. Obviously it gets more and more difficult, especially with the type of corner you get here, opening onto the long straight, makes it quite tricky.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis, did you think that this weekend you could be beaten fair and square by Ferrari or did they need something to happen to Mercedes to be beaten? And Sebastian, did you have to try something different to beat them?

LH: Well, evidently, I guess I probably did.

SV: If we could have beaten them, I wouldn’t be sitting to the left of Lewis, he would sit to the left of me so the answer is probably no and the answer to could we have done something different, I think we tried all we could. I don’t think it was in range to do a one stop or a three stop. I think both were slower. So the two stop was fairly straightforward for everyone and I think we tried to be as aggressive as we could be. Yeah, so the answer is still no, unfortunately, but as I said, very happy that we were significantly closer than four weeks ago.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speed Sport magazines) Lewis, we only hear some of the radio transmissions on the TV. We heard the team asking you to speed up a bit and nothing more. Were there further discussions and did you speed up a bit?

LH: Well, there wasn’t really a time when I wasn’t… I mean I’m out there driving as hard as I can but within the constraints of the tyres. They kept coming on the radio and asking me to pick up the pace and I’m kind of ‘well, I’m trying to manage these tyres, I’ve basically got…’It’s like you have £100 and you have to spend it wisely over your stint and I was trying to make my stint go as long as possible and whilst keeping…

SV: … how many pounds you had left at the end?

LH: I was hopefully still wealthy at the end of it.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Why is this circuit particularly difficult to follow another car? Why are the tyres, here, in the wake of another car, more destroyed than on other circuits?

SV: Naturally, I think always with quick corners we struggle to stay close. The corners we have leading onto the straight, the most obviously straight, the long back straight, is initially quite slow but then it gets quicker and quicker, so that makes it quite tricky to really stay close and in general, the thing is if you try to overtake someone who is just as quick as you, maybe slightly quicker or a little bit less quick, you don’t really have that much of an advantage to really stay close. You lose downforce, the tyres start to slide, which means that they start to overheat and you struggle more and more, the closer you get. That’s what makes it tricky. There’s really no difference here to other circuits, I guess.

April 12, 2015
Rosberg Lashes Out at Hamilton for Compromising His Race

After Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton took victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, team mate Nico Rosberg lashed out at the Briton in the post race press conference claiming that Hamilton compromised his race by backing him into 3rd placed Sebastian Vettel.

At a point in the race Rosberg came onto the radio and told his engineer that Hamilton should pick up the pace. This was a rather curious message from Rosberg. Hamilton’s engineer then instructed Hamilton to pick up the pace which he eventually did. But this still left a bitter taste in Rosberg’s mouth.

At the press conference Rosberg responded to Hamilton’s comments about the race.

“It’s now interesting to hear from you Lewis that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace at the front,” he said,

“Unnecessarily, that was compromising my race, because driving slower than was maybe necessary at the beginning of stints meant Sebastian was very close to me.

“That opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pitstop to try and jump me, and then I had to cover him.

“First of all it was unnecessarily close with Sebastian and also it cost me a lot of race time as a result, as I had to cover him.

“And my tyres died at the end of the race because my stint was so much longer.

“So I’m unhappy about that.”

Hamilton seemed unfazed by this and calmly responded to Rosberg.

“It’s not my job to look after Nico’s race,” he hit back.

“My job is to manage the car and bring the car home as healthy and fast as possible.

“That is what I did.

“I didn’t do anything intentionally to slow any of the cars up. I just focused on myself.

“If Nico wanted to get by he could try, but he didn’t.”

Executive Director for Business at Mercedes Toto Wolff said that Hamilton’s first responsibility is to ensure a good result for the team. Hamilton needs to balance whats best for him and whats best for the team. They will discuss this internally and look at the factors around the situation before making a call.

The full transcript of the conversation is available here.

April 12, 2015
2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3rd Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

TV UNILATERAL

Lewis, quickest in both sessions yesterday, quickest again today in all sessions, it’s looking pretty good for you this weekend?

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, I think China’s continuing to be generally a good circuit for me, and a very, very positive vibe here. The car’s handling fantastically well this weekend, a lot better, in terms of the whole weekend, compared to how it was in Malaysia. At the end of the day this team continues to do an amazing job. The guys back at the factory did a great job to kind of regroup after the last race and bring some improvements for this weekend and I feel very grateful for that.

Nico, we heard you on the radio at the end there sounding frustrated. Did you think pole was there for you today?

Nico ROSBERG: Definitely, yeah. When it’s four hundredths, it’s nothing, you know. So I was frustrated, I am frustrated, yeah, because it’s so close and of course I would have wanted to have pole today.

Thank you. Sebastian, what are your hopes for taking Mercedes in the race, after what you did in Malaysia, what are your hopes for taking them in the race again tomorrow?

Sebastian VETTEL: Well, first of all, happy with today I guess. I thin it was a, yeah, different strategy we had in Q3, going only once, on a new set. Obviously these guys were a bit quicker than we expected to be honest, but yeah I think P3 was our maximum today. For tomorrow I think we should be a bit closer. How close we will find out. Definitely looking forward to going racing, and hopefully go race them tomorrow. It’s not very far to turn one, so I guess that’s fairly straightforward, but it’s a long race and tyres are very important here. Obviously we try to do well and get a lot of points.

Just back to you Lewis, what lessons were learned from Malaysia that the team has brought into this weekend?

LH: I think there are too many to mention but obviously it wasn’t the tidiest weekend for us. But more so, for me and my guys on our side of the garage, we just tried to get our full programme and fortunately we didn’t have any problems so far this weekend and that’s a big step for us. But obviously we’ve got a tough race ahead of us tomorrow. Nico’s very quick and also the Ferrari’s are very good still, with their long-run pace, so it’s not over by all means.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, this has always been a great track for you, you’ve got a good record around here – what is it about this track, do you think, that suits you so well.

LH: People keep asking me that. I don’t really know. Have you seen the banners that I have here? The support I have here’s pretty unreal. Otherwise… I don’t know. I just like the track. I guess it just naturally suits – a little bit – my driving style as opposed to other circuits for me. And one that I generally just really enjoy driving. It’s a tough circuit, it’s got a great combination of corners and the race is a good challenge.

Q: Nico, four one-hundredths of a second the difference today. You’ve had success around here as well. Where did it get away from you today, do you think?

NR: There’s not one specific place. It’s just four hundredths and that makes it even more annoying because it’s just very, very close. A lap is never 100 per cent perfect and four hundredths is really the blink of an eye nearly y’know? That makes it even more disappointing.

Q: Sebastian. Mercedes have saved a set of tyres for the race tomorrow, obviously their concern after what happened in Malaysia. How do you win this race tomorrow?

SV: I think so have we. We’ll see. I think we knew that it will be tough today in qualifying to be really, really close. I think Q1 but then especially Q2 looked quite promising. In Q3 I think it was a bit what we saw in practice, so quite a large gap. For us we’re fairly happy to make sure we are right behind them. Obviously we want to close the gap. Maybe tomorrow we are a bit closer, but for now I think we can be reasonably happy. Bit of a shame not to get both cars in the second row. As I was told, Kimi was a bit unlucky on the warm-up lap. Yeah, tomorrow’s race though, we should have good pace, so we’ll see what we can do.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Niu Hong Lin – China Radio International) Lewis, you’ve been nominated by the Laureus award and the ceremony would be on Wednesday so we do not really expect you to show up as you have a race soon after. So do you have anything to say about that, and maybe especially to Chinese fans?

LH: Definitely. I feel very proud and kind of honoured to be one of the nominees. That’s very cool. I don’t think I’ve been nominated many times if any. I think perhaps maybe one year, many many years ago, so… It’s a very prestigious event and I’ve got to witness many other great athletes win it, so I’m just grateful to be in amongst a great group and regardless of if I do or don’t win.

To the fans, they’ve been amazing. Every single year I come here… I couldn’t imagine it growing but there’s more and more people I get to see and the flags, the support is just… it’s almost like it’s my home Grand Prix, so I really do appreciate it.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Seb, did you chose this tyre strategy because it looked like you could have gone through on a hard set of tyres through Q1?

SV: I disagree. I think it was probably possible but very very close. If you don’t make it, you start the race tomorrow from P16 or P17, so I think that’s why we decided to do that and if I’m right, I think everybody put on the options in the first part of qualifying. I’m not sure about those two. They didn’t? Then they were just quick. Obviously we tried to save a set for tomorrow and hopefully we can be a bit closer in the race.

April 11, 2015
F1 2015: Chinese GP Qualifying Report – Hamilton Secures Pole

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg locked out the front row of the grid ahead of the 2015 Chinese grand prix.

The first part of the qualifying session was highlighted by neither McLaren being able to advance to Q2. Jenson Button out-qualified Fernando Alonso who suffered with severe oversteer after having missed the morning’s free practice session.

The second part of qualifying saw Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat fail to advance along with the Toro Rosso duo of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. Pastor Maldonado also failed to advance to the final shoot-out and will provisionally start the Chinese grand prix in eleventh place.

Lewis Hamilton layed down an early marker in the top ten shoot-out as the double world champion dipped into the 1:35s for the first time this weekend. Nico Rosberg’s second attempt at a flying lap got him agonizingly close to the coveted pole position but the German ultimately missed out be less than half a tenth.

Sebastian Vettel confirmed Ferrari’s best-of-the-rest status be securing third while teammate Kimi Raikkonen endured a scruffy qualifying session to end sixth quickest. Williams’ Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas lined up the fourth and fifth quickest times.

April 11, 2015
F1 2015: FP3 Report – Hamilton Quickest In China

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg set the first and second fastest time for Mercedes in the final free practice session for the Chinese grand prix.

The Mercedes drivers were separated by roughly two tenths of a second while the Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were comfortably the second quickest pairing in the quali sim runs. Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat ended the session fifth and sixth quickest respectively.

McLaren’s difficult start to the season continued as Fernando Alonso grinded to a halt early on in the hour long session with a suspected engine problem. However, teammate Jenson Button seemed to fair quite a bit better and finished the session only three tenths off 1oth place. Team boss Paddy Lowe said that they are hoping to advance to the second part of qualifying using only the prime (medium) compound tyre.Valtteri Bottas was the quickest of the Williams drivers but was only 8th on the timing sheets; teammate Felipe Massa was 11th.

The uncommonly bright blue sky over the Shanghai International circuit has been one the biggest surprises of the weekend. This region, some forty minutes from downtown Shanghai, is usually bathed in overcast and cool conditions. However, temperatures are expected to rise into Sunday’s race and Pirelli predicts that it could mean that some teams will have to opt for a three-stop strategy.

April 11, 2015
Hamilton holds the lead in second practice

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace during Friday’s practice sessions for the Chinese Grand Prix as he ended the second practice session almost half a second faster than Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton posted a time of 1:37.219 during the low-fuel runs on Option tyres finishing 0.443s ahead of Raikkonen. The Finn’s performance on the soft tyres was very impressive and long run pace on the Prime tyres was also right up there with Mercedes. The stage certainly seems set for an epic battle this weekend.

Red Bull’s struggles continued with Daniel Ricciardo only making it out of the garage at the 45 minute mark, but the Australian driver managed to post the third fastest time of the session – just over a second down on Hamilton’s time.

His team mate, Daniil Kvyat posted the sixth fastest time but his session came to an early end in the barriers after he suffered a brake failure. He had left the pits with a brake problem and Red Bull called him back to the garage informing him to slowly make his way back, but he headed into the gravel at the hairpin, into the barrier and damaged his front wing.

Sebastian Vettel spun off early in on in the session but recovered to finish fourth fastest, with Nico Rosberg managing fifth after running wide at the final corner on his hot lap.

Valtteri Bottas finished seventh for Williams and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr was eighth.

After sitting out the first practice session, Romain Grosjean headed out to finish ninth and Jenson Button rounded out the Top 10 in his McLaren. The McLaren team have made some definite improvements with Button only about 0.4 seconds off Grosjean’s pace on the soft tyres.

Pastor Maldonado was fastest through the speed trap but finished only 11th fastest, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Marcus Ericsson and the Toro Rosso youngsters Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr.

Nico Hulkenberg placed his Force India in 16th, ahead of Felipe Massa.

The Brazilian driver’s session also ended early when he locked his rear tyres under braking at the hairpin and spinning off into the barriers – also damaging his front wing. His spin brought out a brief red flag while his Williams was recovered from the track.

Sergio Perez was 18th quickest, ahead of Robert Merhi and Will Stevens for the Manor Marussia team.

Stevens spent most of the session in the garage with a power unit problem but was able to head out onto track in the final few minutes of the session.

The session was punctuated by a spectator who ran across the pit straight between the flying cars of Ericsson and Hulkenberg.

The idiotic fan was arrested and taken into police custody.

You can watch the madness here.

And is if that didn’t make the session interesting enough, a couple was spotted in the stands having their wedding photos taken.

Talk about a High Speed Wedding and all. Let’s hope their marriage is a little slower paced and longer lasting.

If today’s practice sessions are anything to go by, Sunday’s race is going to be very interesting! A lot will depend on who can make their soft tyres last longest – with Ferrari already proving at the Malaysian Grand Prix that their cars are very easy on the rubber. Today too, the Ferraris showed their ability to make their tyres last. Lewis Hamilton completed 11 laps on the soft tyre before seeing a significant drop-off. Sebastian Vettel on the other hand, was still setting decent times after 14 laps on the softer rubber.

There’s still plenty to play for though – Hamilton’s pace advantage is a lot bigger than in Malaysia so Ferrari will need to work hard to catch him if he races off into a lead.

Please join us on Twitter @F1_Madness tomorrow for live coverage and chat throughout the third practice and qualifying sessions.

Here is your timesheet for the second practice session:

April 10, 2015
F1 2015: Chinese GP Preview – Advantage Mercedes in Shanghai

If you’re not mulling several burning questions and theories at the same time then you’re more than likely not thinking about Formula 1 and the upcoming Chinese grand prix.

The biggest of these burning questions is whether Ferrari’s stunning Malaysian grand prix victory was indicative of something or just a flash in the Mercedes dominated pan. But things are rarely ever as simple as either answering yes or no either way. This is after all Formula 1 and there are a plethora of variables and circumstances that have to enter into providing a carefully thought out response to this poser.

The biggest determining factor will be the temperature. In Malaysia the scorching track temperature played to Ferrari’s strength but it wasn’t the only advantage they put on the table. In comparison to Mercedes the Ferrari driver’s did a much better job at managing their tyre degradation.

The Pirelli tyres are far less temperamental than when they were first introduced to Formula 1 but the benefit of eeking a bit more performance out of them than the competition is a big advantage. The temperatures in China won’t be anything like that of Sepang but the track surface is quite an abrasive one. Add to this that Pirelli have selected the medium and soft compounds for the weekend and Ferrari is still in with a shout.

Sebastian Vettel’s win in Malaysia doesn’t mean that he or Ferrari will be able to consistently beat Mercedes. But it’s given Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his team something to think about. “In two weeks you are caught up and you lose the race fair and square on track which is a bit of a wake-up call, which is good for us.”

The pace of development in Formula 1 has always been staggering but never quite something you can get used to. In 2014 Williams were, by far, the second quickest team on the grid and even locked out the front row for the Austrian grand prix. Several months later the Grove based team has, so far, fallen short of the frontrunners. We are missing race pace – and quite a big amount,” said Valtteri Bottas. “With the ideal race, starting at the front, the gap wouldn’t be that big but it is too big, much bigger than we expected.

The FW34 Williams shouldn’t have too bad a time of it this weekend because China’s Shanghai circuit is a marvellous mixture of intricate, technical corners and wide-open straights prepared to test the limits of the modern F1 hybrid technology. Turn one is a test in patience as it makes a 180 degree turn before accelerating into a slightly off-camber turn two. “The circuit has a very long straight, where a good top speed is important, and an interesting mix of low, medium and high speed corners. In addition, it has several technical sections where unique corners, such as turns one and 13, lead straight into further corners requiring a good car balance and precise driving,” says Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering at Sauber.

All the teams like coming to these parts too. It’s bustling juggernaut economy and bustling automotive industry is a big target for the manufacturer’s involved in the sport. Achieve commercial success in the densely populated Chinese region and you’ll be smiling at the way to the bank.

There will be more than just the battle up front to whet the appetite this weekend. The Lotus F1 team maintain that they have made big gains from last year but have not yet been able to show this on track. If they are able the fight in the mid-field, with Toro Rosso and Sauber, may yield quite a battle.

The saying goes that you’re only as good as your last race. In this case it means a dazzling Ferrari victory and Mercedes being, slightly, found out. But the pragmatic part of the brain will remind you that though Ferrari’s victory was stunning it is still up against the juggernaut of Mercedes. Then again, pragmatism is terribly over-rated.

April 9, 2015