F1 Madness

Tag: nico rosberg

  • Mercedes escapes penalty for tyre pressure infringements

    Mercedes escapes penalty for tyre pressure infringements

    The Italian Grand Prix stewards have decided to take no further action against the Mercedes team or drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg following the investigation into their lower than minimum tyre pressures.

    The Mercedes drivers had been found to have pressures lower than allowed but the investigation has found them to be innocent of any wrongdoing.

    Here is the full text of the statement issued by the stewards:

    pirelli-tyres“Having heard from the Technical Delegate, the Team Representatives and the Pirelli Team Tyre Engineer, the Stewards have determined that the pressure in the tyres concerned were at the minimum start pressure recommended by Pirelli when they were fitted to the car. In making this determination regarding the pressures. the Stewards noted that the tyre warming blankets had been disconnected from their power source, as is normal procedure, and the tyres were significantly below the maximum permitted tyre blanket temperature at the time of the FIA’s measurement on the grid, and at significantly different temperatures from other cars measured on the grid. Further, the Stewards are satisfied that the team followed the current specified procedure, supervised by the Tyre Manufacturer, for the safe operation of the tyres.

    Therefore the Stewards decide to take no further action.

    Nevertheless, the Stewards recommend that the Tyre Manufacturer and the FIA hold further meetings to provide clear guidance to the teams on measurement procedures.”

     

  • F1 2015: Italian GP – Hamilton On Pole, Ferrari Shines

    F1 2015: Italian GP – Hamilton On Pole, Ferrari Shines

    Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton secured his seventh consecutive pole position for Sunday’s Italian grand prix.

    Bright sunshine bathed the famous Monza circuit as the one hour qualifying session got underway.

    Both McLaren’s failed to get out of the first part of qualifying as Jenson Button lapped a fraction faster than teammate Fernando Alonso to set the sixteenth fastest time.

    monza-verstappen-engine-coverToro Rosso driver Max Verstappen, who will serve a grid penalty, did not set a time and lost some bodywork in his short qualifying session.

    The second part of qualifying saw Lotus driver Romain Grosjean advance into to the top ten shoot-out for the first time at the Italian circuit. Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson too made into the top ten battle but is under investigation for impeding Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg earlier in the session.

    The final part of qualifying commenced with the expectation of a showdown between Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg. However, Rosberg’s subsequent change to the older spec engine, after a reliability issues in FP3, compromised his run. According to Rosberg the team had to revert to an engine that has completed six races. It showed in the laptimes too as the German was only able to set the fourth fastest time.

    Lewis Hamilton secured his seventh consecutive pole of the season but it was Ferrari who gave the Tifosi reason to cheer. Kimi Raikkonen will line up his Ferrari in second place after setting a time a mere two tenths off Hamilton’s pole lap. Sebastian Vettel will start third in the sister Ferrari and share the second row with Nico Rosberg. Williams drivers’ Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas will start fifth and sixth respectively.

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  • F1 2015: Free Practice Three – Hamilton Heads Vettel

    F1 2015: Free Practice Three – Hamilton Heads Vettel

    Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in his Mercedes for the final free practice session ahead of Sunday’s Italian grand prix.

    The Mercedes driver set a time of 1:24:554 two and a half tenths clear of Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel. Nico Rosberg in the sister Mercedes was third quickest ahead of the two Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

    The session got off to a quiet start as the teams opted to stay in their respective garages while the circuit dries. Overnight and early morning rain had cleared up by the start of the session by the famous Monza circuit was still sporting some wet patches in the early part of the session. After roughly half an hour drivers took the track to set for a final check before the qualifying session.

    As the circuit and lap times improved lap by lap it was ultimately Lewis Hamilton who set the quickest time of the day. There was more woes for the Red Bull team as Daniel Ricciardo was ordered to stop and not shift gear at the exit of the Roggia chicane. Manor F1 driver Will Stevens set the fifteenth fastest time overall ahead of both the Red Bull and Toro Rosso teams.

    The qualifying session is expected to be run in dry and sunny conditions. Lewis Hamilton’s seventh consecutive pole position looks to be under threat only from teammate Nico Rosberg at this stage.

     

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  • 2015 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

    DRIVERS:

    Marcus ERICSSON (Sauber)

    Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    Carlos SAINZ (Toro Rosso)

    Felipe MASSA (Williams)

    Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

     

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Nico maybe we could begin with you, congratulations, I understand you became a father. How will it change you and have you decided on a name yet?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, for sure it’s been very exciting, very intense of course. Big respect for all the mothers of this world – unbelievable. No, very emotional and super happy. Very excited.

    You’ll obviously be losing a little bit of sleep then in the coming weeks but you’ve also been losing a few places off the start line lately, with both the old and the new rules on starts, so it’s now three races in a row, making race day a bit more complicated for you. What thoughts have you and the team had on that and how you are going to address it, as particularly here in Monza it’s a long run to turn one so any loss off the line would be amplified by turn one?

    NR: Yeah, it’s true that starts have not been our strength lately, so we’ve been working on it a lot, making progress and then of course the rule change also came in right in the middle of, or off the back of two starts that hadn’t been fantastic. So it’s a work in progress and we need to improve for sure, we know that, and we’re all getting into it.

    Thank you. Sebastian, when you started with Ferrari you said you were living the dream and here you are, at Monza, a Ferrari driver, in front of the tifosi. Can you put into words the sense of pride, responsibility, expectation, dare we say even emotion that comes with the job?

    Sebastian VETTEL: No! Well, I’m about to find out. Obviously I’ve heard lots of good things. I’ve been here before so obviously [I have seen] the passion for Ferrari, so obviously very much looking forward to becoming part of that. If we do well, which is our target, and we manage to be on the podium on Sunday I’m looking forward to not receiving booing for a long time. So, yeah, plenty of stuff to look forward to. So far we have had a great season. This is our home grand prix as a team and since I didn’t have a home grand prix this year I adopt this one as well and hopefully we can make it a good one.

    Now, you made you feelings very clear to the media in Spa about Pirelli and the tyre failure. Having now seen the results of the investigation, what are your considered thoughts on the matter?

    SV: Well, first of all I think there was a lot of stuff explained or written that I think was not correct, the way it was expressed. I think it was very clear what I said. I think the most important point is that obviously we have been looking into the issue we had very clearly and Pirelli has been supportive and very open in the discussions, so I think that’s the most important thing and we need to make sure that we learn from that. Other than that we are in Monza now and, as I said, there is plenty of other stuff to look forward to.

    Thank you for that. Felipe, coming to you, obviously confirmed for 2016 [at Williams]. On the podium here last year, third for Williams and you’re always popular here with the fans thanks to your years with Ferrari. Given Williams’ chassis and engine characteristics can you dream of maybe moving to a higher step on the podium on Sunday of this weekend?

    Felipe MASSA: Yes, for sure. Dreaming is for free. You always dream about the best, about winning the race. Here is one of the best places to be on the podium, to see the whole people, the whole straight [full] of people, especially. Last year that everybody was also happy that I was there on the podium, screaming my name, I think it was so nice, so I’m really looking forward for another one and definitely we dream even to get a better position than third. When you go to the grid you’re thinking about doing the best and thinking about the victory. That’s what I’m doing every race and it’s another one where I will try everything I can to be there.

    If we you look at your recent record, you out-qualified Bottas six-five this season, finished ahead of him in the last four races and moved ahead of him in the championship. What’s driven this strong run of form for you?

    FM: I think last year I was very competitive as well with my team-mate. We were fighting the whole season I would say. The only thing is that the results of the race are a lot more consistent this year. Last year I had a lot of problems, many races where so many things happened and I couldn’t finish in the position I was supposed to. I think this year the situation is a lot more consistent and I managed to score points and finish more or less where I was supposed to in most of the races. I think that’s really good, but we have many races to go and you always want more.

    OK, thank you for that. Daniel, coming to you, you obviously come from an Italian family that emigrated to Australia. When you come here how Italian do you feel and how have the Italians welcomed you in the last few days during all the various promotional activities you’ve been doing?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: I start talking with my hands a bit more! It’s automatic: you arrive in Italy and you start using your hands. What was the question?

    Apart from how Italian you feel, how have the Italians welcomed you in the past few days in the various different things you’ve been up to?

    DR: It’s always a warm welcome here, for sure. The fans are… I’ve always said it, they’re passionate; they’re full on but they’re great. They love the sport, they love getting close and having their moment and stuff. It’s pretty cool walking into the paddock. It creates a bit of a road block but… I think it’s the craziest paddock entrance we go to all year in terms of the fans spreading their love, but it’s nice. I remember the warm-up lap here last year, I think I crossed the second Lesmo and there was a flare blowing across the track… it’s unique, so it’s cool.

    Red Bull has yet to lead a lap in 2015 and you’ve spent a fair chunk of the races somewhere between P5 and P7. Tell us about how you’ve set targets for the remainder of the season and also about the decision on power units for you and your team-mate this weekend?

    DR: Looking now towards the last part of the season, the last couple of races have been our strongest, as of late, Budapest and Spa have gone well for us. I think in terms of understanding the car we’re much more on top of it now than we were earlier in the season. I think the chassis is back to a really strong level. Monza’s not obviously a circuit that suits us particularly. We’ve got the penalties as well, so you know that’s obviously a strategic things as well – take the penalty here rather than in Singapore where we expect to be very competitive. Then, yeah, have some fun here on Sunday, come through the field as far forward as we can and then Singapore, we can really fight for a podium there.

    Coming to you Marcus, 25th birthday celebrated yesterday, happy birthday. Scored points in the last two races consecutively and beaten your team-mate in the last four, do you feel it’s all starting to come together?

    Marcus ERICSSON: Yeah, I think my form, like you say, has been strong now lately and it’s nice to see. I’ve been working a lot with myself, trying to change my approach during a race weekend, focusing more on myself and not other people, what they are doing. It’s nice to see that it’s giving results on the track. I just need to continue that form, not relax but continue to work really hard to continue that way.

    New start regulations in Spa; it wasn’t the smoothest start for you. What happened there and what do you generally think of the new rules?

    ME: I think I did quite a good start. I gained a position, so for me it was pretty good. For me, it doesn’t make a big difference. It’s a bit more feeling for us drivers than there has been before. It’s very similar to how it was in GP2 and I was always a strong starter in GP2, so for me it’s not a problem.

    Thank you. Coming to you Carlos, another birthday celebrated, 21 years old now. If we look at your performances, you’ve reached Q3 six times and out-qualified Verstappen 7-4, yet the results show four consecutive retirements from the races and a best result of eighth. Are you getting concerned that the performances are being overshadowed by the results and the retirements?

    Carlos SAINZ: No, not really. It’s not my main concern at the moment, because at the end, what is under my control everything is going so far quite well. The retirements are obviously totally out of my control, but four consecutive ones is a tiny bit too much. But I’m confident that this well end soon and I’m confident that it will start playing a bit to my side now and we can have a smooth second half of the season and start finishing races and going back to where we were at the beginning of the year in terms of points and position.

    We mentioned that you’ve out-qualified Verstappen to this point, have you been surprised by the speed you’ve been able to find in qualifying?

    CS: Well, you never know what to expect when you come to Formula One. I just know that last year in World Series I made a very big step forward with myself in qualifying and in the race and I just brought it to Formula One this year. You never know how you are going to be, you never know how you’re speed is going to be in Formula One. What I am quite sure is that Saturdays this year have gone very well for me and I am performing at a very decent level. I just need to make sure now on Sundays I perform at the same level and we finish races and I’m sure we’ll be in a good position.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Agris Lauznieks – Kapitals Lativia) This is last race in Europe this season. What are your thoughts about the opportunity to add extra races in Europe, especially northern Europe – to do Riga Grand Prix in Latvia. How would you feel about it?

    NR: I’ve heard great things about Riga, I’ve got a good friend from there also so that would be fantastic but I don’t know. Races in Europe are great, wherever they are to be honest, so it’s always good to have more of those.

    Sebastian, anything to add?

    SV: Not many things I know about Latvia. But yeah, would be, I think, a nice place to go to. I think in general it’s a bit of a shame that we don’t have a grand prix in northern Europe, also Scandinavia because people are quite passionate and crazy about racing. I’ve been to Rally Finland some years ago and I was wondering why we don’t have a Formula One grand prix but I guess that, especially next year, we have quite a lot on the calendar so it looks sort-of busy now – but maybe in the future.

    Marcus, maybe you can tell us why we don’t…

    ME: I think we should have a snow race in Sweden – that would be something! I don’t know. Like Sebastian was saying, we have a lot of passionate fans in all of Scandinavia and northern Europe so it would be very nice to have a race somewhere in these countries, for sure.

    Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus) My question is to Felipe Massa. Today here you are between the very young drivers and in the race you are very quick and very competitive. My question, where is your personal secret to be very young and very quick?

    FM: I still feel young, honestly. Definitely when you here with 21 years old, 17… it’s really young, definitely. I think you just need to… I always do my best. I feel quick, I feel competitive and definitely the experience helps in so many areas. I’m happy for what I’ve learned with these days and, definitely also when I see you are competing with young drivers and you show good speed in the qualifying, in the race good performance is always nice – nice feeling, so we always compete for the best result you can. That is what gives you pleasure. I can say I have many pleasures in racing and by the result I finish in races – sometimes not, something yes, this is part of our feeling. I still feel good motivation and I’m not finishing the race tired or whatever, so I think that’s what counts at the end.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi, La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Nico Rosberg. Nico, before you talked about the birth of your daughter. I would like to know if you can compare the happiness of that to some other things in our job, like victory and nervousness. If you can compared nervousness in that moment? And a technical question about the gap with Lewis. The gap has increased a lot in the last two races, do you think this is one of the last chances to recover? To change the direction of the championship?

    NR: Emotions extremely intense, more intense than any racing success or anything like that. And also, yeah, because there’s factors… love and health and all these things playing a part. That’s definitely more than a race victory. Then the gap to Lewis, yeah, points of course it’s gone in the wrong direction but it’s just over one race difference so I’m very optimistic and pushing and definitely want to try and close that  back down now.

    Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC) To Sebastian, Felipe, Daniel and Nico. Are you satisfied with Pirelli’s explanation for the tyre failures in Belgium – especially as a couple of you described them as unacceptable over that weekend? And to Sebastian personally and additionally, have you raised your concerns, as expressed after Spa, with Bernie, who’s deciding the new tyre supplier?

    SV: I think in all honestly I had a bit more insight because I was obviously one of the two cars that had a failure during the weekend in Belgium – a bit more insight on what was going on after the race in terms of the analysis and so on, than probably Felipe and Daniel. I’m not sure about Nico. But yeah, from what I mentioned also before, it has been very professional, the way it was handled. It was taken very seriously. And obviously our target is to improve the situation. I think it’s natural that you always try to improve your product. I think if you look at the cars, if you talk about the cars today, the cars are quick and so on, and the cars are safe. They’re surely safer than they have been 30 years ago but there is still room for making them safer: we still have accidents and so on and still some things can happen. It’s a one-way street: you want to make progress and keep making progress. So I think that’s more important than any sort of press release, the feeling that I got when I spoke to the engineers and spoke to Pirelli.

    Nico?

    NR: It’s being handled with extreme precision and a lot of energy is going into it, which I’m happy to see, of course. It requires that also. I’m confident that we’ll be here and driving safely.

    Felipe, what were your reflections on Spa?

    FM: I think maybe they know better than me. They were there, they were inside. All these problems the two cars had in Spa with the tyres. For me it’s a little bit more difficult to explain. We want to be safe. What we want is to not have this problem happen – or maybe to understand 100 per cent why it happens and change whatever needs to be changed to give us the most safe tyres and the most safe opportunities to race and to risk ourselves in a safe way – which is what we want. Don’t know what they changed from there to here, but for sure if they change somethings from Spa to Monza, maybe with the tyre pressure and everything. So we need to understand if really they understand what’s happened or not – which is the most important thing. We always want the most safe car or tyres to race.

    Daniel?

    DR: That’s right. It’s all been covered.

    Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports) With all due respect, Daniel, I don’t think it has all been covered. I’m still at a loss, guys; are you satisfied with Pirelli’s explanation? They say as well, in the press release, there were 63 cuts to tyres over the course of the weekend. We know two of them, for Sebastian and Nico, did any of you other guys experience cuts on your tyres? Did your teammates experience cuts? Is this statement right? Were there that many cuts? Was the track that dirty because of all the debris?

    DR: There was blistering. I don’t really know the difference in a way, the details: what’s a blister, what’s a cut? Yeah, we experienced some blistering. Certainly not the first time we’ve had it in Spa. It’s pretty common around there. Yeah, so we did see some activity, I guess but there again, not the first time. It’s probably hard to be as attached to it as Nico or Seb. Obviously I wasn’t in the car but I still saw it and I feel their concerns or their disappointment with the situation. I think what Pirelli’s put out has been as much as they can for now. That’s all they can say really is that we’re working on it. Obviously they’ve given us some answers so, yeah, that’s just where it is for now. It’s hard to predict what will happen now in the future.

    Q: Carlos, any cuts in your team?

    CS: No, not really. I think they’ve given us an explanation, the reasons. I hope they’ve done their job properly. I’m convinced they have because they are the first ones that don’t want to put us drivers at risk so they are giving us those explanations and I’m convinced that at least it will not happen again and we can race safely here in Monza. And if it does happen again, then maybe we need some more investigation.

    Q: Marcus, did you have any cuts in the Sauber team?

    ME: Yes, we had some issues with some cuts on some tyres but I think they came from debris on the track. That was the explanation that we got. I didn’t experience anything else, not any problems with my driving.

    Q: Felipe, Daniel just said it’s quite a common problem at Spa. Could you explain to us why Spa, why it’s particularly common that you pick up debris there?

    FM: No, I don’t believe it should be common. Debris we have every race. Some races we have more debris than others. For sure, the tyres should be strong enough to accept the debris or what we have beside the track. I don’t think it’s common. We had cuts as well during the weekend.

    Q: (Kate Walker – motorsport.com) More about the tyres, I’m afraid. We know that you guys all have Pirelli engineers embedded in your garage, giving you advice on cambers and pressures and whatever else. To what extent, in each of your teams, is that advice listened to? Do they have real input in the strategy? How can things go wrong when you’re supposed to have an expert with you, telling you what to do safely?

    NR: Well, sometimes there are strict things that you must follow and other times there are just suggestions on everything. I’m not sure… we handled everything accordingly in Spa and made modifications also throughout the weekend to make sure we were running the tyres as safely as possible, according to guidelines given by Pirelli. I don’t know about them, what their situation was. I can just say that we did manage things, yeah.

    SV: I think it’s fairly simple. There’s a lot of things that you have to stick to because it’s part of the rules. Also the FIA is checking so you can decide not to listen but then obviously you risk to be disqualified, so I don’t think there’s any team taking that risk. And then there’s other things that you talk about and use the expertise of the Pirelli engineer inside your garage and I think it would be stupid not to listen to him, for all of us, for all the teams, because obviously they have knowledge that we can’t get about their tyres etc, so of course we take it very very seriously.

    FM: Yeah, I think the same, not really more to add.

    ME: Same, same stuff, yeah.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Seb, sorry to labour the point slightly. After the race in Spa, among many other things you said was that the current situation was unacceptable. If I can put it this way, is the situation now acceptable to you and any of the drivers who want to chip in?

    SV: Well, I think it is not acceptable to have a blow-out at that sort of speed, out of the blue and I think that’s what I said also after the race, so there’s nothing really to add. But, as I said before, I think the investigations that have been going on, the stuff that obviously has been analysed and talked about, explains some of it, maybe not all of it yet but it’s still ongoing and obviously, as I said, the most important thing is that we make sure that we make progress. At the moment, from Pirelli’s side, it looks very very professional, they handle it with extreme care, and I think things are going the right way.

    Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) So has enough changed from Spa to here? Is the situation more acceptable?

    SV: Well, I think there are some short term changes, as I learned, if we talk about tyre pressures, for example. We obviously see how it feels but if that’s a short term reaction within those couple of days or weeks that we’ve had, that’s one thing. Then obviously long term I think we need to understand properly what happened. I think it’s very clear that everybody is trying to do their best. I think we had a situation a couple of years ago which wasn’t acceptable and there was immediate change and we didn’t have problems afterwards so you can see that the professional approach does work and usually leads to the right result.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Felipe, I would like to know if something has changed in the team after the mistake they made with Bottas’s car when they put on the wrong compound, please?

    FM: Well, it should, definitely. We always work for trying to do everything in the correct way, in the best way we can. Sometimes mistakes can happen in our working but for sure mistakes happen which we cannot repeat, so definitely we are always trying to improve things when we see they are not working in the way we want, so we want to be perfect, we want to do everything correctly. This is part of the working we are doing from race to race, the changes we are doing from race to race and whichever mistakes or things that can happen we are always working not to repeat and that’s what we’re doing as a team.

    Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Daniel, you’ve mentioned that you are starting to understand the car better, and it was obviously in Spa, the efficiency is there, you were very quick in the second sector in spite of running a very skinny rear wing but the top speed was not there. Do you think that Red Bull again has one of the best cars on the grid and again, is it obvious that now the engine is the biggest hindrance for you?

    DR: I think we’re now back at a level we were at last year. We knew the chassis was strong, we felt most of our deficit was the power and then yeah, I think earlier this season it looked like we obviously had issues on both sides, the chassis… obviously I had experience from last year and I didn’t feel like it was where it was last year so I thought we had similar deficiencies on both sides but yeah, we’ve had quite a few updates since. All year we have updates but I’d say since Silverstone it’s really come on strong and we seem to be in the window a lot easier now with getting the car there so I’m definitely a lot happier with where the chassis is now. I feel it’s like we were last year and then yeah, the power we know, we’re trying to make up what we can but we know we started too far back and it’s… I don’t like the word impossible but it nearly is impossible to make all that gap back in one season so I think that’s what it is for now. We’re always going to be somewhat down for the rest of the season, that’s why we look at Singapore and some of these circuits which are obviously a lot less power-dependent, a lot more chassis and we look at those as potential podiums for us.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.NL) Sebastian, can you take us back to a couple of years ago, your first victory here and also explain why it is harder this year to win here for Ferrari than back then for Toro Rosso?

    SV: I don’t know yet. I don’t know if it’s harder yet. Obviously it was a miracle that was happening in 2008 so only positive memories of the whole weekend really. But yeah, some years later, obviously another highlight and I’m looking forward to it and obviously can’t promise anything but for sure I can promise that we will give our maximum, trying to have a very very successful home race. I think that I know a lot more than I knew in 2008 so in this regard it should be easier but obviously it’s never easier. If you look on paper, it looks like a simple track with low downforce but still it’s also very technical so for us drivers it feels that the car is moving a lot, it feels very light under braking so it’s still a big challenge around here. You need to get the braking points right etc so it’s not that straightforward and obviously I’m sure that people expect a lot from us, but I think the one thing that we can promise now is that we will give everything we have.

  • F1 2015: Italian GP Preview – The Monza Saga Continues

    F1 2015: Italian GP Preview – The Monza Saga Continues

    As the powers that be consider a plethora of changes to the sport it appears as if the traditionally passionate Monza circuit will not form part of it.

    No one will ever mistake F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone as soft touch. Then again, you don’t take a racing series and turn it into the pinnacle of motorsport by being sentimental. When asked about the future of the Italian grand prix he frankly answered “what goes, goes.”

    For now though the circuit which ran its first race in 1950 is still on the F1 calendar and the next stop for the 2015 season. The famed Monza circuit isn’t revered for its technical difficulty or for its delivery of explosive races, at least not lately. It is loved for its history and for the cherished part it has in the history of Formula 1 racing.

    The devoted and fanatical Tifosi may be dreaming of a red car winning the race but the demands of this classic power circuit makes that doubtful. Step number one for the engineers will be efficient aerodynamics. To reduce the maximum amount of drag the smallest rear-wing will be fitted, along with the slickest bodywork, in order to increase top-speed down the circuit three long straights.  A towering straight line speed however isn’t the be all and end all as braking for the circuit’s few corners is as significant. “Braking has become the biggest thing at Monza. It’s very tricky to get that right,” says Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

    GP SPAGNA F1/2015Ferrari team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene has cautioned fans not to expect too much this weekend and likened their chances of victory to “pulling a rabbit out of a hat.” However, Arrivabene has confirmed that there will be no “super engine” for Monza but that the team may spend “some tokens” to close the gap to Merc. Ferrari’s last engine upgrade was made at the Canadian grand prix with a fairly lacklustre improvement being the result.

    The start of Sunday’s race could play a big part. In Belgium, under the new start procedure, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg dropped to fifth from second on the grid and Hamilton’s start wasn’t perfect either. This, combined with the long run to turn one, could put the Silver Arrows under pressure early on. If truth be told the only chance for an exciting Italian grand prix depends on the kind of start those in the second row can muster. If not, this will be another Mercedes victory bar any sort of unreliability.

    Nico RosbergTwelve months ago Nico Rosberg’s quest to win the world championship was on even keel with teammate Lewis Hamilton. Yet, despite a handful of wins and pole positions, in 2015 his chances appear to be shaky at best. This year the German’s confidence has taken a knock under the onslaught of the Hamilton juggernaut. Consequently, there aren’t many who would legitimately give Rosberg a genuine shot at taking the title off Hamilton.

    It’s up to the driver of the number 6 Mercedes then to mount a serious challenge against Hamilton. And not just a challenge that is going to beat him this weekend but one that will force the reigning champion to seriously consider the possibility of a real threat from the other side of the garage.

  • F1 2015: Belgian Grand Prix Review – Hamilton Wins, Vettel Fumes

    F1 2015: Belgian Grand Prix Review – Hamilton Wins, Vettel Fumes

    There was a bit of commotion even before the Belgian grand prix officially got underway. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg waved desperately from the cockpit of his car on the starting grid moments before the red lights were extinguished. It turns out that the German had a mechanical issue that would end his race before it even started.

    But this was nothing in the face of the drama that would develop towards the end of the race and subsequent fall-out of it all.

    By all accounts Ferrari’s Spa weekend was dismal when measured against the high of the Hungarian grand prix. The woes started in Saturday qualifying as Kimi Raikkonen grinded to a halt in the second part of qualifying with an oil pressure problem. The misery didn’t end here though the Finn was further hampered by having to drop five places on the grid for a gearbox change. Raikkonen eventually finished seventh in the race after a difficult time of trying to look after his tyres. Perhaps the Iceman can console himself with his freshly signed 2016 contract.

    Vettel Typre Blow Out_Belgium 2015For Sebastian Vettel, in his 150th grand prix start, it looked to be going slightly better. The German scrapped his way into third by daring to run a one-stop strategy. But a spectacular failure of his right-rear tyre two laps from the end of the grand prix dropped him out of the running. The four time world champion was fuming in the post race interviews during which he lambasted Pirelli and its tyres. The Italian tyre manufacturer released its own statement in which the blame tyre wear as the reason for the failure.

    This conclusion would be acceptable if it were true. If we are to accept Pirelli’s version of events, and the tyre was worn down to the point where it could explode, his laptimes would’ve been significantly impacted before the tyre exploded. The truth is that while Vettel was lapping slower than the charging Romain Grosjean he was only seven tenths of a second off the Frenchman’s pace.

    Valtteri Bottas_Belgium 2015Further, Ferrari was informed that the medium compound tyre would be able to endure forty laps around the Spa circuit. Vettel’s tyre blew up after only twenty-seven laps on the car. What we have learnt is that Pirelli is awfully good at shifting blame away from themselves.

    Two years ago, at the British grand prix, they blamed a slew of tyre blowouts on aggressive tyre pressures by teams and sharp kerb edges. After Saturday practice they attributed Nico Rosberg’s spectacular blowout in Blanchemont to an “external cut” as the reason for the tyre failure. Yet, Rosberg denied going off track or running over debris and confirmed that they “didn’t understand” the failure within the team despite Pirelli’s conclusion.

    Tyres seemed to be at the forefront in Spa as the Williams pit crew fitted three medium and one soft compound tyre to Valtteri Bottas’ car. It was insult to a lack of pace for Williams who didn’t perform at all well around the famous circuit. Rob Smedley confirmed the team’s disappointment at finishing sixth and ninth with Massa and Bottas respectively.

    spa-grosjeanRomain Grosjean was a surprise but welcome third place finisher in his black and gold Lotus. The Frenchman maintained impressive pace throughout the weekend and topped it off with a third place finish in which was arguably the best drive of the day. Grosjean admitted to “crying on the last lap” such was elation at the result. Respect to the smiling Frenchman who’s kept his head up through some incredibly difficult times with this team.

    And amidst the drama and tyre sagas was a serene and very smiley Lewis Hamilton with a second Spa victory in his pocket. Never apparently under pressure the Brit led and controlled all 43 Belgian grand prix laps with consummate ease. Teammate Rosberg finished in an ever-present second place but is now twenty-eight points adrift of Hamilton. At this stage it doesn’t seem as if the multi-lingual Rosberg has any sort of answer to his teammate’s pace. It’s looking all the more as if Hamilton is transforming himself from the reigning champion to the champion-elect.

  • 2015 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3 – Romain GROSJEAN (Lotus)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

    Lewis, your 39th grand prix victory, your 80th time on the podium – equalling your great hero Ayrton Senna – a pretty good day at the office?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Wow. How you guys doing, you good? We’ve had such a great crowd here this weekend. It’s been incredible, the whole circuit just packed out with all you fans, so thank you all for coming. And for me, just an amazing weekend again. Incredible job done by the team throughout the pit stops, throughout the whole weekend, the guys back at the factory… You know, today was a dream. The whole weekend the car was fantastic, so thank you guys.

    It seemed to me that the only real concern you had after the start was after the Virtual Safety Car and Nico was able to get that gap down to just a few seconds. Any other concerns during the race?

    LH: No. Nico had obviously good pace but I was able to answer most of the time, so I was fairly relaxed at the front. The car was feeling great and it was really about looking after the tyres, particularly at the end when I saw that one of the tyres had blown on another cars I was being very cautious, so in the last two laps Nico was allowed to close the gap. No, I felt in control all the way and as I said a lot of good assistance from the team, so I felt like 100 per cent all weekend.

    OK, Lewis, congratulations, your summer holiday obviously treated you well. Just come to our second-placed finisher here.

    Nico, congratulations. It seemed it all went away from you at the start. You were able to come back at Lewis later in the race, but just talk us through what went wrong there?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, I just completely messed up the start, so that was very annoying. I fought my way through. I gave it absolutely everything, I mean we were both on the edge all the way through. The car has been amazing, so I’m really thankful to the team again for giving us such a car. It’s awesome to drive it. And Lewis did a great job, so deserved to win. I tried to give it everything but not enough.

    Well, you certainly kept him honest. We know that you have a big event coming up in the coming few days, so you’ll not be wanting to spend too much time on the interviews. Your lovely wife is expecting your first child, so you’re rushing off after this?

    NR: Yeah, I’m rushing off very, very quickly yes, because we’re expecting our first child any moment, so a very exciting time, looking forward to that, probably next week, let’s see.

    We’ll, good luck and congratulations for that. Now, Romain, welcome back, your 10th podium. This circuit saw one of the low points in your career I guess when you got a one-race ban, but focusing on this high today: fantastic and very timely for the Lotus team.

    Romain GROSJEAN: Hello, everyone. It has been an incredible weekend for us. A great qualifying yesterday, unfortunately we had the grid penalty, and a good race. I still can’t believe that we are on the podium. Those guys have been working hard to give us that car to be able to be here today. Of course going into turn one, every time I take a start in Spa, I will remember 2012 but I think it made me stronger and indeed allowed me to be 10 times on the podium. Being here today is kind of special I think, it has the feel of a race win.

    Well congratulations, fantastic to see you back up here and you’ve never stopped smiling through the difficult times? Lewis, as you recognise the fans down there, just a closing question from us. As you look into the second half of the season, it’s still very close with your team-mate, but do you start to feel now that you’re getting your hands closer to another world title?

    LH: It definitely way too early for that. But as I said coming into this weekend, you want to get those pole positions and translate them into wins and hopefully today is the beginning of that, so I’m looking forward to the next races, I hope to see many of these fans at some of the other races coming up.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, Mercedes’ seventh one-two finish of the season, 2015, you just said on the podium there you were under control. Obviously a great start but obviously Nico was closing at various phases before the virtual safety car. I just wonder if the virtual safety car, also the cloud cover coming over, just helped you to bed in those medium tyres because after that initial spurt from Nico in the first lap or two after the virtual safety car, you were able to just stretch away from him. Maybe you could just tell us about that phase of the grand prix and his challenge at that point?

    LH: It was really just about utilising the tyres, not having to push. I didn’t really push very hard on the out-laps, took it quite easy for the first three or four laps in which there was areas where Nico would be closing. And then I started to push after that – but I was really never in a position where I was nervous or anything. I had great pace in the car, the balance felt fantastic. It actually was getting better throughout the race. There was no real need to push any more than I was already. I had a comfortable gap and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if it’s won by a tenth or won by ten seconds. So, at the end I saw that there was a blow-up so I was being very cautious with my tyres. I’d done pretty well up until then so I was just going to make sure I bought it home.

    Q: You said on Thursday this wasn’t one of your favourites. Is it moving into becoming one of them again now?

    LH: I didn’t mean that it wasn’t one of my favourites. Monaco of course is definitely a favourite but this is a great circuit. It’s incredibly challenging. The weather’s been great this weekend so for sure when the weather’s as good as it is today it really does make it a great weekend. Incredible turnout from all the fans, which is really good to see. A lot of British flags, which I really appreciate but the track is really fun to drive. It’s a historic circuit. Eau Rouge. You can never get tired of driving through Eau Rouge. So it’ll always be a special circuit, for sure.

    Q: Coming to you Nico. Obviously a terrific recovery after a poor getaway. Some good strategy as well that got you up into second place around the first pitstops – but tell us, from your perspective, about the way that gap seemed to come down and then just rose again.

    NR: Yeah, the start was really bad so I need to practice that a bit more I think, and then after that I just benefited from the fact they weren’t racing me, in front of me. They were just racing all the people behind, so they just pitted, I suppose, because I wasn’t their opponent. They assumed I was too quick anyway – rightly so – and then, yeah, I had a clear path in front, chased down Lewis. I was always coming closer except for this one phase in the second stint, towards the end where Lewis pulled away. So that definitely cost me a bit. Then on the Option felt great again. I was qualifying lap every lap trying to hunt Lewis down but he did a great job and it wasn’t enough.

    Q: Romain, welcome back. 31 races since we last had you here, Austin 2013 when you had that big Stetson on as I recall. Lots of great overtakes today, I want you to pick out a few of your favourites. I know you were building to a pass on Vettel at the end when he had the tyre go. Obviously he changed his strategy. What were your thoughts around that final period of the grand prix? What was going through your head?

    RG: I was really closing the gap on Seb. It’s very unfortunate he had that puncture and it was a bit of a scary moment just being behind. I think we got everything we could get today, starting from P4 on the grid I’m sure we would have had a much easier race but it was really good fun. All the overtaking into Turn Five, I was really taking it as hard as I could on brake. Probably one of my best races ever. I remember Austin, a long time ago, but I still remember I was a bit drunk at the press conference! A little bit too much champagne on the podium with Seb. It has been up and down here for me. Of course Spa 2012 with Lewis was a bit of a tough time but on the other side it’s helped me because who I am today and being able to be on the podium with how we are during the weekend shows how strong our guys, and how strong we’re capable of building a car and be there. It was a great race, I enjoyed every minute and if we can do it again, let’s go.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speedsport magazines) Nico, talk us through that start. Was that a direct consequence of the new clutch rules?

    NR: It was more a consequence of… well, yes, for sure but mostly also because we did another formation lap and that always puts more temperature in everything and then things change. But eventually it’s my job to do it well and I didn’t’ do a good job.

    Q: (Frédéric Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Romain Grosjean. Was it your call to pit during the virtual safety car and can you explain how do you gain the speed this weekend with your car?

    RG: I unfortunately cannot explain the gain of speed – but the call on the safety car, I went through Eau Rouge on that lap and they just told me on the radio “safety car window is open” and I did finish the lap and ‘safety car’ came up on the steering wheel and we pitted as planned. We needed to fit the prime tyre for the end of the race. I think then I lost a positon to Seb, they stayed on the one-stop strategy which was quite aggressive and we didn’t think we’d be able to do it. I knew the safety car window was open, and if the safety car, the virtual safety car, was lasting long enough for me to rejoin the pit or get in the pit before it ended, it was the strategy for me to stop, yeah.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Romain, we know there are some issues in the team in this period. I would like to know how tough is it to deal with this situation and try to be focused only on the race.

    RG: I think engineers, driver, mechanics, we are focusing more on the racing side and I’m probably not aware of everything going around but I didn’t want to neither, I think. I’m here to race as hard as I can, to give it 100 per cent all of the time. I think driving around Spa, every time you go through Eau Rouge and Pouhon, Turn 10-11, it’s a special feeling and I think you just enjoy it. I don’t really care about what’s going around. The only thing I want is to do my best to give the guys who are really working hard a good reward.

    Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – Auto Digest) My question is for you Romain. Since a moment the future of Lotus was unknown and last days we’ve heard a lot about the potential comeback of Renault. So, did it give you motivation to step up on the podium?

    RG: No. I think, as a racing driver in general, every time we start a race the idea is to try to win it. You know what you have in your hands and you know that sometimes it is not possible but as long as you do everything with 100 per cent of your performance you can fly home in the evening being proud of what you did. That’s what I want to achieve. Sometimes there’s been times in the past year where you score one point or two points and it has been an incredible performance, probably you can’t see it on TV because it’s hidden by the fact that the car is not as good – but every time I just in the car it’s to give my best. It’s cost me a little bit in the past but putting things in the right order makes it good today.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Lewis, Nico just mentioned that he might have been caught out by the second formation lap. I think you had a similar drama in Budapest. Did the experience from Budapest help you to overcome that?

    LH: I don’t think so. I think, of course we were wary of it but going into the weekend we knew that that may be a scenario and we prepared for it. So, when it came to doing the start, I was very much prepared for it. The engineers prepared me for that potential restart, so, yeah, maybe it was a small benefit. I’m happy. My start was really good.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – GP Plus) A question for Romain. You’re a father. My question is – and try to be honest – does becoming a father have an effect on your performance and what advice would you like to offer to Nico and his wife?

    RG: Sleep as much as you can while the baby’s not here! It’s going to get bad! I think it helps your life in general. You don’t do things for yourself anymore, you do them for them. They are everything for you. And it’s your blood that goes through their body. When you have a tough weekend – or a tough day – you call then, you Skype then in the evening, you see the face of your son, or your sons, and you just laugh. It probably helps to relax your mind in the evening, to think about something else and come fresh in the morning. Once the helmet is on, visor closed, going flat out through Eau Rouge. If you think about your family, you’re not going to stay flat out. We’re racing drivers, we love doing what we do. We know it’s dangerous – we had a good example recently. But, it certainly changes your life. And, to be fair, I’ve never been a world champion, never won a grand prix but the feeling and the emotion I had on the birth of my two sons, has been far better than everything else I’ve known in the world. I wish Nico the same thing. He’ll probably tell us in Monza how it is.

    Q:  (Sarah Holt – CNN) Romain, you said that the big crash you had here in 2012 made you stronger. Can you explain in what ways: racecraft, mentally, other things?

    RG: Well, I think it’s no secret that since that day I’ve been working with a psychologist specialising in sport and top athletes. There’s a lot of people in the sporting world, especially in the Olympic Games or in professional rugby or football teams, that are working with psychologists and they succeed in overcoming their problems, to understand. Being a father is not always easy either, so sometimes we can speak about fatherhood, about being an husband, being a racing driver, having problems at the start, what was the key, what was the problem? Was I focusing on the right way, the wrong way? All of that work, which has not always been nice and easy – you know, you can have a bad night after a good session – but help you to understand things and to be able to pull out some performances as we did today.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport Magazines) Lewis, yesterday you said one of your concerns about starting first was that someone might get by you going up the hill and Perez actually got ahead of you; the timing screens showed that at the end of sector one. How did you get back in there and take the lead again?

    LH: It was very similar to last year, actually. I think Sebastian had slipstreamed me and was pretty much past but by having the inside line and braking later, I was able to hold the position and that’s really what I did with Perez. He braked earlier than me and I outbraked him and managed to get back in the lead after he just took it for a second but he was very fair which was good of him.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, you said that it’s too early to speak about clinching the World Championship trophy, but yesterday, with your pole position, you already secured the pole trophy. Does that mean anything to you?

    LH: The pole trophy is not particularly exciting but getting poles is definitely a great thing. Naturally winning the World Championship is the goal. I would give up everything else, all the poles, the pole position trophy for the –  yeah, you can have it, no problem – for the World Championship so that’s really the goal but I’m really happy with how the qualifying has gone this year. It’s been a huge step for me and today the plan was to try and convert that pole position and the speed that I had in qualifying into the race. I feel like I did that and I’m sure that there will be areas to improve on  which I will continue to try and work on.

    NR: I never got my trophy for last year, so don’t expect a trophy coming your way for that. Ask  whoever is responsible.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Romain, as Monza is similar to Spa, can you expect the same result in two weeks?

    RG: I think Monza is a big difference in a way that there are special aero packages for Monza and it’s one race out of 19 where it’s always difficult to know exactly what’s going to be there. I’m sure in term of pole everything is going to be under control.  Hopefully is working as well as it is today but I think right now I’m just thinking about having a good drink tonight!

    Q: (Giusto Ferronato – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, we remember that in the final part of the last year, I mean from Monza, you started to win a lot of races. Do you feel the same sensations as last year?

    LH: At the moment, it’s a lot different to last year, obviously at this point. Last year I came away from here… it was a very difficult time but after that, no great pace and great results, so for sure that’s the  goal, to continue that from here so this has already been a much much better year than last year and the plan is to try and continue with that. I still feel there’s improvements to be made, particularly in the race so that’s what I will continue to do but I’ll definitely take today’s result.

  • 2015 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)

    TV UNILATERAL

    So Lewis, your sixth consecutive pole. You must be pleased, particularly with the way you achieved it, but I guess also, after Hungary, a little cautious about its significance, with the race coming up tomorrow?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, really happy today with the performance of the car and so far this weekend the performance of this team, they’ve been doing a fantastic job and the car’s been feeling great on the circuit. This is a circuit where if you can get the right balance it’s definitely one of the most fun to drive. Of course, very conscious that pole position is a great thing to have but it’s a long race and it’s a long, long stretch down to turn five. But I’m just happy with today. My goal today was to get pole position and in qualifying Nico was very close and my last two laps were the two best laps I had all weekend, so I’m very, very happy with them. Again just really grateful for the big effort, the big push the team continue to put in to give us the car that we have.

    What was very noticeable in the final part of qualifying was your performance in sector two. That’s what really made the difference today over Nico – you nailed it.

    LH: Sector two, I would say probably in the past it’s always been a weak point. I know all the lines but could never really put the corners together. Definitely, particularly on those two laps, that was a very, very strong area for me.

    Well done. Nico, on top on Friday and going into qualifying, Lewis on top at the end of qualifying. Are you disappointed with that and the margin, and the same point really about sector two, where was it getting away from you there?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, for sure disappointed. I lost it a bit this morning in free practice; we went the wrong way. Then it came back really nicely though and I had a good balance in qualifying, so I was happy with that, a good team effort, so thanks for that to get my balance back so I could push well. Yeah, just Lewis too quick in the end. Just found that little bit, or quite a lot extra, which I didn’t have in my pocket. That’s it, so of course disappointing. But then again, with the new starts situation, where we’re having to do everything ourselves now, there’s a lot more opportunity tomorrow, even at the start. And the run down to turn five: you know here it’s possible to overtake, we’ve seen that many, many times, so my hopes are for sure still high.

    Q: I have to ask you, obviously yesterday a very frightening moment with the tyre issue – have you fully understood it? Did it have any effect on today?

    NR: Well, yeah, the problem is that we don’t really understand it. There are theories but there’s no real evidence so that’s a bit worrying for sure. But we’re keeping a very close eye on it and we’ve done some measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again. So we’ve done the best we can and just hope it all works out and stays together.

    Q: Coming to you Valtteri. First time in the top three for qualifying in 2015 this season. Great response from you and the team.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Thank you, yeah, good to be back in the top three in qualifying. It was a good session for us. We knew after the practice when we look at the time sheets that there’s so much more we can do when we put everything together in the car. So we managed to get the balance fine-tuned really well for the qualifying and the car felt good through the whole session. Didn’t need to really adjust the front flap or anything a lot so it was pretty well balanced. Then in Q3 it was up to me to try and put the lap together, try and put every corner together – which is not easy in this kind of track but yeah, had two good runs in Q3 and luckily that was enough for P3.

    Q: Obviously Mercedes have a good margin ahead but it’s been close throughout behind the Mercedes. Are you a little bit surprised with the performance, relative to yourselves, of Red Bull and Ferrari in particular this afternoon?

    VB: Analysing everything after the practice we knew it was going to be really close after these guys. So, we knew P3 could be possible if we get everything perfectly and it was close and we managed to get everything right and this was the result.

    Q: Coming back to you Lewis, Nico referred to it a moment ago, new start procedures for the grand prix, it’s much more down to you. The last two races at Silverstone and Hungary have seen you guys not making the best of starts with the old system. Have you had a chance to prepare to the level of satisfaction you wanted and how do you feel about the starts tomorrow? Is it going to help you or hinder you?

    LH: Well, the team have done a lot of analysis and I’ve been in factory, the same for Nico, practicing and getting ready on the simulator, and then all this weekend we’ve been working on it – so we are as prepared as we could possibly be. And… yeah, I think we feel relatively good about it. It should be the same for everyone and I hope that… it’s good for us but I hope it provides an exciting start for the fans to watch.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, is this the greatest jump you have done from practice to qualifying performance?

    VB: Could be the biggest, possibly, but it’s also the longest track so relatively so. We were quite far away but we knew all the time how much we could improve and so we were not too worried at any point. We knew this kind of result could be possible if we got everything perfect.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport magazines) Valtteri, just following on from that, you improved the car to be third fastest in qualifying but overall, what’s your feeling of the race pace of the car?

    VB: Well, we didn’t get that long runs yesterday because of the red flags and everything but what we saw yesterday was that Nico and Lewis… they will be a bit out of reach if the race is a normal one, but after that it’s going to be really close between us, Red Bull, even Force India looks quick, today even Lotus but it’s difficult to predict in detail but it’s going to be close.

  • Lewis Hamilton takes dominant Belgian Grand Prix pole

    Lewis Hamilton takes dominant Belgian Grand Prix pole

    Lewis Hamilton easily claimed his 10th pole position from 11 races topping qualifying ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.

    Hamilton set not one, but two, laps fast enough to take the top position during Q3 and finished the session almost half a second ahead of his team mate with a time of 1:47.197.

    Team mate Nico Rosberg, who made a mistake at Stavelot on his first lap did manage to improve on his second run but finished 0.458s down on Hamilton nonetheless.

    Raikkonen retires from Belgian Grand Prix qualifyingWhile Mercedes locked out the first row of the Belgian Grand Prix grid as expected, Ferrari had a difficult day on their hands. Kimi Raikkonen was knocked out in Q2 after having to retire his car due to a power unit problem. The Finn himself was unsure whether he would need to replace the power unit but the team will obviously be working feverishly to solve the problem before tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel managed only ninth place for no apparent reason at all.

    Valtteri Bottas took the third position – 1.3s behind Hamilton with Romain Grosjean qualifying in fourth place. He will be dropping to ninth though due to a gearbox penalty which means that Sergio Perez who finished in fifth place, will start fourth on the Belgian Grand Prix grid.

    Daniel Ricciardo will start his Belgian Grand Prix from fifth place, ahead of Felipe Massa, Pastor Maldonado and Sebastian Vettel.

    Carlos Sainz Jr. made it to Q3 but could not set any sectors alight on his only flying lap for the session.

    Nico Hulkenberg was eliminated in Q2 after locking up at La Source, while Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat was also unable to convert Friday practice pace and finished in 12th position.

    Marcus Ericsson claimed the 13th spot for Sauber, with Raikkonen behind him in 14th. According to the team he suffered a drop in oil pressure at Stavelot which saw his Ferrari slowly crawling to a halt.The session was briefly Red Flag to allow Raikkonen’s car to be safely removed from the circuit.

    Young Max Verstappen chose to not set a Q2 time in order to save tyres on account of the grid penalty he will need to take.

    Felipe Nasr failed to make it out of Q1 for the third race in a row after placing 16th, missing the cut-off point by a tenth of a second.

    Both McLaren drivers failed to make it through to Q2 in what is really just a torrid time for the team, and both drivers. Jenson Button finished half a second ahead of Fernando Alonso in the intra-team battle at McLaren, but that was still a full second off Felipe Nasr’s time.

    Both Button and Alonso will drop to the back row of the Belgian Grand Prix grid due to engine penalaties, behind the Manor Marussia duo Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi.

    With rain on the cards for the Belgian Grand Prix tomorrow, we are all set for a spectacular race! Follow us for live updates and race banter on Twitter @F1_Madness .

  • Pirelli: External cut caused Rosberg tyre issue

    Pirelli: External cut caused Rosberg tyre issue

    Pirelli has issued a press release saying that an external cut into the tyre structure is most likely the cause for the tyre failure which sent Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg into a high speed spin during the second practice session ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.

    Rosberg’s tyre failed on the approach to Blanchimont and he spun aross the track before coming to a stop in the run-off.

    Pirelli has stated that thorough overnight investigations into the cause of the tyre failure, Pirelli is confident that the failure was not caused by any structural integrity issues.

    “We have conducted a thorough investigation to find out exactly what happened with Nico’s tyre,” said Pirelli’s Paul Hembery.

    “This investigation now excludes any structural integrity issues. Based on the information and data available an external source of damage is the conclusion made.”

    Quality data checks on other tyres has also shown no anomalies.