Tag: mercedes

Hamilton Finishes Top of Final Practice in Hungary

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished on top of the times sheets at the final free practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished the session in P1 with a time of 1:24.048. His team mate Nico Rosberg finished the session in P2 with a 1:24.095, 0.047s slower than Hamilton’s time. This was after two tries at a timed lap on the options for Rosberg.

The Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo finished in P3 and P4 respectively. Vettel’s time of 1:24.455 was 0.407s slower than Hamilton’s P1 time. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas finished P5 with a 1:24.685.

A few drivers were complaining about brake warm up at the start of the session. This could be an issue in qualifying before the timed laps. The drivers will have to do a really good job of heating up the brakes. Track temperatures at the circuit stayed much cooler than yesterdays sessions. Although this was a morning session, we can expect temperatures to climb later this afternoon for qualifying.

As things stand Mercedes look to take pole position. Its a question of which Mercedes driver will be in pole position. Red Bull and Williams are very close behind. Ferrari are looking more comfortable at this track that they ever had at any other track. It will be a rather interesting qualifying session.

July 26, 2014
Hamilton stays on top in second practice at the Hungaroring

Lewis Hamilton picked up where he left off in FP1 by finishing fastest again at the second practice session around the Hungaroring this afternoon. Hamilton posted a time of 1:24.482 finishing two-tenths of a second clear of Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg as the Mercedes duo continued to dominate the rest of the field at the Hungaroring.

Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who complained of a lack of power on the straights, was third quickest for Red Bull, 0.629s down on Hamilton’s time. Fernando Alonso set the fourth fastest time, ahead of McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Daniel Ricciardo powered his RB10 around the Hungaroring to set the seventh fastest time and Williams improved on their poor FP1 result, getting both cars inside the top ten. Valtteri Bottas finished eighth followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button and team mate Felipe Massa.

Mercedes remains the team to beat and although both Hamilton and Rosberg were reporting problems towards the end of the session, they are looking dominant around the Hungaroring.

The third practice session takes place tomorrow morning at 11am GMT +2.

Your full timesheet for FP2 at the Hungaroring, is below.

July 25, 2014
Hamilton sets the pace in first practice

Lewis Hamilton topped the first practice session ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, one tenth quicker than team mate Nico Rosberg and eight tenths faster than Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton, a four time winner in Budapest, exchanged places at the top of the time sheets with Rosberg but set the fastest time at the end of the session with a 1:25.814.

The Ferraris once again came closest to the Mercedes duo continuing their run of being the best of the rest in the first practice session of a grand prix weekend. Raikkonen took the third spot and Fernando Alonso finished his practice session a further four tenths back in fourth.

Sebastian Vettel was fifth quickest for Red Bull after struggling initially with the telemetry on his RB10. McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen ended the session in sixth, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo.

Jenson Button and Felipe Massa rounded out the top 10.

Several drivers struggled with low grip across the session. The Hungaroring is nutoriously green on a Friday. Only Adrian Sutil and Marcus Ericsson suffered spins though.

Max Chilton could only manage five laps for the session after oil leaking onto the exhaust of his Marussia caused a fire which saw him sitting in the pit garage for most of his practice session.

Hamilton will no doubt be hoping to add another win at the Hungaroring to his championship bid. The second practice session commences at 14:00 pm (GMT +2).

Full timesheet for the session is below.

July 25, 2014
Broadcast Times for the Formula 1 Pirelli Magyar Nagydij 2014 (Hungarian Grand Prix)

The grand prix before Formula 1 takes a break always draws plenty of excitement. The Hungarian Grand Prix always manages to throw in a twist in the tail for the Formula 1 season. It’s not the most exciting of races as the nature of the track makes overtaking quite a challenge. Most of the overtakes are done during the pit stops and if a driver happens to get stuck in traffic, it ends up ruining a good finishing position.

The Hungaroring circuit has many medium speed corners with a few very slow corners thrown in for good measure. There are a few overtaking spots that can make things exciting. The run to turn 1 will be the most popular. But the other opportunities are T2, T3, and if your brave enough T4. There may also be a chance into T12.

Mercedes are going into the race as favorites. The track should suit the Silver Arrows in a high downforce setup. Nico Rosberg will want to extend his championship lead and will try to make it two victories in a row. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand, feels that he has only one objective for this race, and that is to beat his team mate.

The Williams drivers will want to put in a strong performance and are hoping that they can claim a victory. Felipe Massa, after crashing out at the German Grand Prix, will be looking to finish on the podium after watching the previous two races from the pits. After seeing just how strong the Williams cars are in race trim, he will no doubt want to show what he can do. Valtteri Bottas on the other hand wants the victory. He was happy about beating a Mercedes at Hockenheim and he will want to finish ahead of the pack.

Red Bull and Ferrari seem to be there about, with Red Bull pulling ahead of the Maranello based team. Ferrari did say that the Hungary circuit will suit the F14T. Only time will tell if they got that one right. Red Bull have shown that they have a very good car which was only hamstrung by the fact that its very slow on the straights. The tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring circuit will play into the hands of the RB10.

It’s going to be exciting who will get the victory and the much needed boost before the summer break.

Below are the broadcast times for the 2014 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix

Free Practice 1: Friday 10:00

Free Practice 2: Friday 14:00

Free Practice 3: Saturday 11:00

Qualifying: 14:00

Race: Sunday 14:00

All times are GMT+2.

You can catch our live updates during FP3, Qualifying and the Race with updates throughout FP1 and FP2.

July 24, 2014
F1 2014: Hungarian GP Preview – Tricky Hungarian Test Awaits

Less than seven days later the Formula 1 paddock descends on the city of Budapest for the Hungarian GP. Technical in nature the 4.381 km circuit will require high downforce, efficient cooling and most importantly a good qualifying performance.

The Hungaroring is often referred to as Monaco without the barriers because of its tricky layout which for the most part has only one racing line. Consequently, there won’t be much opportunity for overtaking nor will all mistakes go unpunished. The Hungaroring retains some of the old-school Formula 1 characteristics which means that gravel traps and barriers loom in close proximity. Contrastingly, there are several tarmac run-off areas which offer some reprieve for error-stricken drivers.

Given the lack of proper overtaking opportunities strategy will be particularly important. The extremely high track temperatures seen at Hockenheim has given the teams vital information as to how to Pirelli rubber will react when exposed to similar conditions in Hungary. The tyres we are bringing to Hungary are a step harder, to deal with the increased demands, so we would expect the usual two pit stops,” predicted Pirelli’s Paul Hembery.

The circuit’s layout is dominated by medium to high-speed corners with little time spent at full throttle. However, the average speed of the lap remains fairly high. “The Hungaroring is a great track,” says McLaren’s Jenson Button. “Everybody thinks of it as a slow circuit, but, out the back, it’s got some pretty decent corners – Turn Four requires some serious commitment, and it’s made harder because it has a blind apex. Equally, the sequence of S-bends that make up Turns Eight to 11 are really satisfying to drive.”

Lewis Hamilton has been dogged by issues in qualifying for the last several races as he trails fourteen points behind teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg. However, Hamilton is prepared to come out fighting once more and resolutely said that enjoys having to fight for victories and the title.

The 2008 champion may have more to fight against this weekend than just his teammate. The Williams team has been on the cusp several times of mounting a serious battle for victory and if they can continue their stunning momentum Hungary may be their best chance yet.

Williams’ chance to win the Hungarian GP will come on Saturday. The Hungaroring, much like Monte Carlo, is notoriously difficult to overtake on. Despite the fact that race pace is always priority for Bottas, Massa and their engineers they may devote a bit more time and effort than usual to enhancing their one lap pace. But locking out the front row or securing pole position won’t be all that is required. The team will have to take an aggressive approach on strategy as they still lack on overall race pace when compared to the Silver Arrows.

By this stage of the season the duel between the Mercedes drivers is as intense as at any other point.

However, their attention may be required elsewhere this weekend. Can Williams steal the all mighty Mercedes’ thunder?

July 23, 2014
F1 2014: German GP – Relentless Rosberg Scores Home Victory

Life happens to be pretty good if you’re name is Nico Rosberg. Not only has he extended his Mercedes contract but he’s gotten married in-between races, secured a comfortable pole position on Saturday and wrapped up a dominant home grand prix victory to boot.

The battle for supremacy between the Mercedes teammates was dealt a severe blow as Hamilton was exiled to 20^th place on the grid following a brake disc failure in qualifying and a subsequent gearbox change.

Nico Rosberg was completely in control of the 67 lap German GP as he led fellow front-row starter, Valtteri Bottas, to the chequered flag for his first victory on home soil. The Finn delivered yet another stunning drive to hold off a recovering Lewis Hamilton for his third consecutive podium. Even though Williams’ biggest target is to finish ahead of Ferrari in the constructor’s championship their ability to keep one Mercedes at bay is, on merit, is a tremendous result.

McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen’s inexperience was telling as he collided with the Williams of Felipe Massa into turn one. Massa’s car was flipped onto its roll-bar before coming to rest on the tarmac run-off area of turn one. The Brazilian was uninjured but suffered his second retirement in three races.

In fairness, Magnussen should have yielded the corner to Massa as he was out of the Williams driver’s sight. The incident was mopped after a short safety car period and the race re-started with Rosberg in the lead.

Lewis Hamilton unleashed a determined drive from the back of the field but it wasn’t without a few risky moments. There was slight contact with Kimi Raikkonen at the hairpin as he passed both the Ferrari driver and Daniel Ricciardo. Later on a rather dicey attempt at overtaking Jenson Button into the same hairpin resulted in a damaged front-wing endplate. A three-stop strategy meant that Hamilton ran the last two stints of the race on the quicker supersoft tyre. However, despite his clear pace advantage he was unable to overtake Bottas for second place. Hamilton’s rather glum face after the race showed his disappointment with the third step of the podium. Some may take exception to Hamilton’s body language but it tells of a driver for whom winning is the only acceptable result.

A spin by Sauber’s Adrian Sutil on the main straight gave rise to a contentious moment in the race. The stricken Sauber was parked horizontally on the straight which would ordinarily prompt an appearance from the safety car. Surprisingly, the race director chose to forego the safety car and opted for marshals to recover the car under double-waved yellow flags. Any situation in which marshals are required to venture onto the circuit is a safety risk which makes this decision controversial.

Behind the podium finishers the rest of the field put on an exhilarating show of wheel-to-wheel racing at its finest. Sebastian Vettel got the better of Fernando Alonso in a fabulous fight for fourth before Daniel Ricciardo continued a thrilling battle with the Spaniard. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button. Kevin Magnussen recovered to ninth after his collision with Felipe Massa while Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten positions.

While all twenty-two Formula 1 drivers have by and large respected the rules and each other there have been too many instances in the past where the fear of a penalty curbed their eagerness to take the fight to each other. As a result the exhilarating fights throughout the field at Silverstone and in Germany are a direct result of the steward’s announcement that they would take a more lenient stance on dishing out penalties.

Daniil Kvyat’s race came to a fiery end as the rear-end of his Toro Rosso was engulfed by flames. Lotus Romain Grosjean’s difficult season continued as the Frenchman was forced into retirement with a suspected power unit issue.

If Lewis Hamilton was unsure about the prowess of his teammate before it is definitely not in doubt any longer. An unrelenting Nico Rosberg has extended his championship lead to fourteen points and what is particularly threatening is that he appears to have done it with disturbing ease.

July 22, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Santander German Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

2nd Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)

3rd Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Kai Ebel)

Nico, how sweet is the taste of the home victory champagne?

Nico ROSBERG: It’s fantastic. It’s an amazing feeling for me to win here at home. A very, special day for me. Thank you for all your support here this weekend.

Valtteri, three time on the podium now but how hot was the breath of this guy [Hamilton] on your neck?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, I feel really happy again being third time in a row on the podium. These guys were too quick today but really happy that we at least managed to keep one of them behind. It was not easy, it required all the info from the engineers, what to do with the engine modes, and from my side pushing hard but I really want to say thanks to all the say thanks to all the fans. I also see many Finnish flags here so, thanks Finland.

Lewis, lots of fans in for you here. King of overtaking, 17 places, fastest lap, damaged front wing, so how much racing fun was that for you as a racer?

Lewis HAMILTON: I had great fun. It was great to see how many fans we had here today, thank you so much for the support. I did as good as I could today. It was very hard to get through the pack safely. I had a little bit of a collision with Jenson. I honestly thought he was opening the door to let me past, he’s been a bit like that in the past race for example, so my bad on judgment there. It’s very hard to overtake at the end, they were so fast on the straights but I’m very happy I got some points today.

Thanks Lewis. Coming back to you Nico. Lots of points for you but not much time to celebrate as the next race is coming up next week already.

NR: Yeah, well definitely we’ll be celebrating a little bit tonight, I hope you [the fans] will as well, it would be great to continue the soccer world championship spirit today a little bit. I look forward to the next race in Hungary. With the car that we have at the moment… I’m very, very thankful to Mercedes for the car that they’ve built us, it’s really a pleasure at the moment. Hungary will be good.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: So Nico, your fourth win this year, I think your first on home soil – and which of the great things that have happened to you this week has given you the best feeling?

NR: That’s getting married. That’s definitely the case. That was the best feeling. But of course everything has been special. Really fortunate, just had a great… many positive things happening in the two weeks, or week and a half. Been really enjoyable, and also this weekend with pole and the win. Just awesome. Very, very special day today.

Q: Valtteri, something of a defensive master class at the end, defending from Lewis in the final laps. Tell us a little bit about what was going through your mind, the way you positioned the car in those final laps, particularly given the state of the tyres after a very long stint.

VB: Yes, big enough the last stint. I was already close with Lewis but he stopped and at that point there was still twenty or so laps to go. I knew it was going to be really close in the end. With a new set of tyres, 20 laps to go, he can make up the pit loss, and he did and he was riding my tail the last few laps. For me it was just really, really important to always get a good exit for the DRS straights, so out of Turn One and out of Turns Two-Three, to get as good an exit as possible and brake always as late as possible for the hairpin at the end. Also from the team, we were communicating and I got all the support from the engineers to get the right engine modes for defending – so thanks for that.

Q: Lewis, from 20^th on the grid to third at the end and so much to deal with, so many changes as well, you were on a change of strategy at the end there where you were going to do two very attacking stints on the super-soft of 13 laps. They obviously changed that after the Sutil spin, brought you in a bit earlier, so you had to do a bit longer final stint. I wonder though how much the damage of the front wing in the Jenson Button incident hurt your chances of doing more than third today.

LH: I couldn’t tell you. The car was a little bit different but nonetheless to still get some points today, I’m grateful and very happy with the car today that Mercedes provided us with and congratulations to Nico. It’s fantastic for him on his home soil and also for Mercedes-Benz. So I’m glad I could add some points today.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Valtteri, is second place today the maximum for you, is second place the maximum for your team or can you do more?

VB: We always aim for more but for now we need to be happy with these points. Of course we were unlucky with Felipe again, we didn’t get both cars in a good position but I think today was the maximum result. We did everything perfectly and managed to keep Lewis behind in the end which got us an extra few points but in the future, we are definitely aiming for more and this is not the maximum.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, your target for this year was a podium; now you’ve got a hat-trick of them. How surprised are you with this success, because it’s not so usual for Finnish drivers to get three podiums in a row?

VB: OK…

NR: I got three in a row.

VB: Yeah, of course I feel really lucky also to be part of this. Last year we could not have expected to be three times in a row on the podium but we now… This is the package we have and it’s all down to hard work and we need to always keep aiming for more, like I said before. Of course, it feels really good to be (on the podium) for a third time in a row but I think we’re aiming for more than that now. We know Budapest might be a bit difficult for us but hopefully we get some updates.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, do you see the glass of your race more half full or half empty?

LH: Well, I don’t really know how to answer that really. I came from last, so to get on the podium is quite an achievement, so perhaps half full.

Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, you’ve got an incredible record in Hungary – seven races, four wins. What is your secret there and what are your feelings in general about next week’s race?

LH: I don’t really have any secrets there, just been very… If I’ve ever had any… Just been fortunate in that race, great support there as usual with the fans and a circuit I really enjoy. It’s a circuit where you can really attack, it works for an attacking driver like myself so perhaps it suits my driving style a little bit more than some others, maybe.

Q: (Udo Doering – Darmstaedter Echo) Nico, are you a little bit surprised to win so clearly and when you saw the car of Sutil standing on the track, did you fear another safety car?

NR: Yeah, definitely I’m a bit surprised because in qualifying the Williams were quite close so didn’t really expect to have such a big advantage in the race. And yes, I definitely got a bit worried when I saw Sutil’s car out there because I was sure there was going to be a safety car and that would have obviously made it a lot more difficult

July 20, 2014
Hamilton Takes 5-Place Grid Drop Ahead of German Grand Prix

The Mercedes Formula 1 Team confirmed early on Sunday morning that they have changed Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox ahead of today’s German Grand Prix

This comes after Hamilton crashed in qualifying at the Sachs hairpin after front brake disk failure on his car. The team was not sure of the extent of the damage to Hamilton’s car and no doubt made the discovery this morning.

The gearbox change will result in Hamilton dropping 5 places on the grid to start in P20. There is still no word from Mercedes as to whether Hamilton will start from the pitlane as they’ve decided to change Hamilton’s brake discs as well. It looks very likely that he will start from the pitlane.

July 20, 2014
Rosberg leads the pack in final practice

Nico Rosberg topped the time sheets during the final practice ahead of qualifying for the German Grand Prix with a time of 1:17.779.

Rosberg’s time is a surprising 0.601 clear of his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Despite a spin in at turn eight halfway through the session, Fernando Alonso recovered to set the third quickest time of the practice session, a mere 0.004 down on Hamilton.

The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas led much of the practice session on prime tyres, but ended up fourth and fifth respectively after the supersoft runs.

Kevin Magnussen finished sixth after setting the pace during the opening stages of final practice, with Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen behind him.

Raikkonen switched to options very early on, but was unable to continue in the final stages of practice due to a problem with his fuel pump. The Ferrari team are working ferverishly to change the fuel pump before qualifying gets underway.

Red Bull’s performance was either lacklustre, or one big sandbag as reigning world champ Sebastian Vettel parked his car in ninth place.

Nico Hulkenberg took the last spot in the top ten for Force India.

Jenson Button had much complaining about understeer and problems with his braking during practice, most likely a result of no longer having FRIC suspension. None of the teams will be running FRIC this weekend after it was deemed illegal by the FIA earlier this week.

Full timesheet for the session is below. Please join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for qualifying later this afternoon at 14h00 GMT +2.

Photo credit: Mercedes

July 19, 2014
F1 2014: German GP Free Practice 1 Report – Rosberg Tops

The first free practice session for the German grand prix got underway under glorious blue skies.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheets ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Williams development driver Susie Wolff completed her second outing for the British based team. However, the first lap out of the pits revealed an issue which required the Scottish driver to limp back to the pitlane in 1st gear. Thanfully, the engineers were able to sort out the issue and sent Wolff back out. Wolff completed a total of 22 laps and set a fastest time of 1:20:769, roughly two tenths slower than teammate Felipe Massa.

The session progressed without incident although Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was forced back into the pitlane early on with a water pump problem. The Finn, fully recovered from his heavy Silverstone crash, clocked the 8th fastest time overall.

Albeit the early stages of the weekend, the Red Bull pairing of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were able to set a relatively similar long run pace to that of Mercedes. The second free practice session will reveal a clearer picture of the pecking order for Sunday’s German GP.

July 18, 2014