Chilling on board camera footage of Nico Rosberg’s tyre failure during Free Practice 2.
The tyre gave out just before the very fast, flat out left handed Blanchimont corner.
Tag: nico rosberg
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F1 2015: Belgium GP Preview – Spa Set To Resurrect Formula 1
In several aspects there is much turmoil that surrounds Formula 1. There is no argument though that the sport returns, after its month-long hiatus, to the greatest circuit in the world, Spa-francorchamps.
The glorious Belgian circuit situated in the heart of the Ardennes forest encompasses everything that is great about Formula 1. Its spectacular corners like Pouhon are real testers of skill and courage and its dizzying rise up to the crest of Eau Rouge is one of the most famous sites in all of motorsport. The 7,004 kilometre layout is a blend that demands both downforce and straight-line speed with several dramatic elevation changes.
There is something about the legendary Spa circuit which has lent itself to the creation of many memorable moments. It was here 1991 that a young Michael Schumacher made his Formula 1 debut and where, in 1992, he would take the first of his ninety-one career victories. Schumacher remains the most prolific winner around the famous circuit with six victories while Kimi Raikkonen, of the active drivers, has won the race on four occasions.
Last year’s race was remarkable for Daniel Ricciardo’s popular victory considering his team’s lack of performance up to that point. It was memorable too for Nico Rosberg’s exasperated attempt at overtaking teammate Lewis Hamilton into Les combes, the upshot of which was a collision between the two and a boatload of tension for the team.As the season approaches the halfway mark frustration has clouded many a team’s and driver’s campaign in 2015. After a stellar first year with Red Bull Racing which included three victories and several podium finishes Daniel Ricciardo had expected to have a go at winning the title this season. However, the engine produced by Renault and what Red Bull has offered the Aussie hasn’t been enough. “I came into this season on a high from last year and I was really ready to fight for the title. Mentally I was prepared for doing that.” Ricciardo told Autosport. “It’s not been easy to be honest.”
The Williams team has experienced their own form of frustration having lost ground, and pace, to Ferrari. Despite the team staging a fight back by beating Ferrari in Austria and Silverstone there have been some bizarrely poor weekends, performance wise, such as in Monaco and Hungary. The Belgian track should allow the team to produce a decent result given their low drag aero package and the handy Mercedes power unit at their disposal.
For Mercedes things may not be a given this weekend as the new rule around the starting procedure comes into action. The new regulation will mean that the assistance from the pitwall is restricted and will put the driver in control of the start. In both of the last two grand prix starts Mercedes has been swamped off the line and there is a feeling that this regulation could create further problems for the Silver Arrows. Hamilton has suggested that the starts could even be “disastrous.”Ferrari went into the summer break with an incredible victory at the Hungarian grand prix in the bank. At Spa Ferrari probably shouldn’t be in the reckoning for victory if you consider that the circuit has a tremendous emphasis on engine power. Yet, there is something about Spa-Francorchamps and Kimi Raikkonen that makes for an extraordinary combination. The Finn won here in 2009 with a dreadfully underperforming Ferrari and last year finished fourth in a significantly underpowered car. So, it may not be too incredible to propose victory number five around the famed circuit for the Iceman.
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WATCH: A day in the life of F1 driver Nico Rosberg
We follow Mercedes F1 driver Nico Rosberg for the day to see what he gets up to in between races. In the week leading up to the British Grand Prix Rosberg spends the day travelling around the country for events with the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team’s Partners Blackberry and TUMI. A helicopter is required to keep up!
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F1 2015: Hungarian GP Review – “This victory is for Jules” – Vettel
Formula 1 headed to the Hungarian grand prix with a heavy heart after the passing of Jules Bianchi. The hope was that it could put on a show that the young Frenchman would have revelled in. As fate would have it the Hungaroring saw the best and most dramatic race of the season.
It wasn’t a surprise to see Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg lock out the front row of the grid. But the ultra-quick starting Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen turned the race on its head from the second the lights extinguished. The two scarlet Ferrari’s exploded off the line and swept into first and second halfway through the first lap.
Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton lost three positions off the line but it was only the start of a dramatic afternoon of racing. The defending champion would first run wide at the chicane and later incur a drive-through penalty and lose his front-wing in a clash with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
By the mid-way point of the race Vettel and Raikkonen had built a nearly fifteen second lead over Nico Rosberg which left the Mercedes driver in a fairly distant third place. Ferrari looked set for a one-two finish but a MGU-K (kers) failure of Raikkonen’s car meant an eventual retirement for the Finn. A cruel end to a very good race.Ferrari would have to face more pressure as Vettel had to cope with a safety-car completely eradicating his healthy lead after Nico Hulkenberg’s front-wing failed spectacularly littering turn one with shards of carbon fibre. It didn’t take long for Rosberg to take second-place off a wounded Raikkonen but again the German was unable to make an impression on Vettel’s number five Ferrari. By now Daniel Ricciardo, on the quicker option, tyre was catching second-placed Rosberg and with a handful of laps to go lunged for the inside line into turn one. It appeared to be a clean move on the Aussie’s side but Rosberg’s cut back on the exit of the corner ensured a damaged front-wing for the Red Bull and a punctured right-rear for himself.
This incident promoted Daniil Kvyat into second and with the nifty reward of his first ever F1 podium. Ricciardo recovered to third with Max Verstappen scoring an impressive fourth place finish. This marks the first race since the 2013 Brazilian grand prix which did not feature a Mercedes driver on the podium. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso boosted the team’s morale with a fighting fifth place finish.
It is on such dramatic days and moments that world championships turn. Hamilton was given a helping-hand with the safety car but needed a new nose after sliding into the side of Ricciardo at turn one. He was also given a drive-through penalty and emerged from the pitlane in twelfth. It looked for the majority of the race as if the lead of the drivers’ championship would go to Rosberg. Miraculously, after several incidents and a penalty Hamilton fought his way to sixth and extended his championship lead.Romain Grosjean finished seventh for Lotus ahead of a recovering Rosberg who finished eighth ahead of Jenson Button in ninth. Marcus Ericsson took the final point in tenth for Sauber.
Up front Sebastian Vettel serenely led the way from lights to flag. The four-time German champion is now equal with Ayrton Senna on 41 victories. He capped the impressive win by dedicating it to the memory of Jules Bianchi.
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2015 Formula 1 Pirelli Hungarian Grand Prix: Saturday Press Conference
DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)
TV UNILATERAL
So Lewis, your fifth pole here in Budapest, quite a big margin over your team-mate, you must be very happy with the way today has turned out – you’ve been fastest in every track session this weekend?
Lewis HAMILTON: It’s been a good weekend so far, yes. I think coming here I’ve always had, generally, good experiences here, but loving the weather, loving the city. But also… I love the track. It feels a bit like an old go-karting circuit that we used to race on many years ago when we had super special soft tyres and super grippy, you know, and I think with the temperatures it gives us a lot of grip here. But me and Nico wouldn’t be up here if it wasn’t really for this team. They’ve done an exceptional job all year long but just to improve coming into this weekend, you can definitely feel it, so big thanks to them.
Well done. Nico, talking about the margin, it was close early on through the weekend, it was pretty close between you but in the later stages of qualifying it just seemed to grow. What was the story from your side?
Nico ROSBERG: I don’t have an explanation. Qualifying went pretty much to plan, everything, but just didn’t find the pace and it’s been a bit up and down all weekend for some unexplained reasons, so just need to look into it tonight. Definitely not happy with the way it went today.
Ok thank you. Coming to you Sebastian, obviously not the best practice sessions for either you or the whole Ferrari team but it looks like you managed to turn it round when it really mattered for qualifying. How did you do it?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it’s true, we had a difficult day yesterday, let’s say, with something stopping us, slowing us down and it was difficult to get a feel for the car. So, for today, I’m glad that we found direction, we went and took it a little bit easier, trying to build it up in FP3, which worked, and then throughout qualifying the car kept coming to us, kept improving. I think third is the maximum we could do today, so we can very, very happy, especially with the rough start to the weekend and now obviously hoping for a good race. Who knows, on this track usually there are a lot of things happening on Sunday, so maybe we can do something against these guys, but I expect a tight race also to people behind – to the Williams and the Red Bull in particular.
Thank you and coming back to you Lewis, perhaps surprisingly on a track on which it’s quite difficult to overtake, the race isn’t always won from pole position. In fact, in the last ten years you’re the only person who has managed to do it, so being on pole at this stage is not necessarily a slam dunk; plenty of work still to do tomorrow.
LH: Absolutely. The work’s not always done on a Saturday, I’ve got lots of work to do tomorrow but in terms of how the weekend has gone I’m incredibly happy with that. I think it’s so far been one of the best… I can’t remember having the performance I’ve had this weekend on any weekend, so I’m really happy with that. There’s a long way down into Turn One and the race is incredibly tough physically but also technically for the car, but I feel confident in my team and my car and hopefully we can convert it tomorrow.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, you’re obviously feeling on top form this weekend, so you’re obviously happy about that. How important is it to go into the summer break as the guy who won the most recent grand prix, to have that period of reflection knowing that you ended that first part of the season on a high?
LH: It’s not really what you think about, to be honest. There’s been times when I’ve not won, gone into that break and you manage to switch off and enjoy it just as much. So, of course, when you leave, having done what you planned to do, it makes a next few days following – but other than that, you get over it and you move on and do whatever you have to do, and train – but I’m taking all the steps possible to make sure it’s a nice summer break.
Q: Question for you Nico on the strategy. We mentioned earlier on that it’s not always won from pole, this race. In fact the top three is normally where the winner comes from, so still plenty of chances for you in the race and clearly strategy is going to be part of that. It looks to me as though you both saved a set of new soft tyres – you reused a set for your first run in Q3, is that correct? What advantage does that give you?
NR: I don’t think I saved a set, no. Not this time no. But I’m not 100 per cent sure! It was a bit all over the place, the qualifying. But strategy, yeah, there’s going to be some opportunities, definitely, also in terms of strategy. Let’s see. Going to go into that tomorrow morning. Strategy is discussed tomorrow morning. But anyway, car-wise, if anything, my balance is for the race – which is not what I wanted but it’s the way it’s gone.
Q: Sebastian, I think it’s the seventh time you’ve qualified in the top three in the first part of the season but, as you mentioned earlier on in your previous answer, it’s not been a weekend without problems for Ferrari – so maybe you could tell us a little bit about what you were dealing with as a team – and also, how come, despite so many strong qualifying performances, you’ve never managed to win this race.
SV: Yeah – because I never managed to cross line first on Sunday! Yeah, it’s a great race and a definitely want to win it – hopefully tomorrow– we’ll see with a bit of luck. Obviously in normal conditions it’s difficult to beat these guys. But as you touched on, I think it was a great recovery from a very, very bad day yesterday where we had issues with the car. Obviously Kimi had the wing failure in FP1 which caught us out also a little bit in FP2 and then, yeah, just things slowing us down. And on top of that the balance and the rhythm wasn’t there. So, not a great day and not that easy to recover but spent a lot of time last night trying to clear up the situation and fortunately it worked. We started off on a much better foot this morning and obviously were able to carry that into qualifying. We knew it will be tight, especially with Red Bulls as they showed very, very strong pace yesterday but we managed to stay ahead – so that’s good for today but for tomorrow obviously there’s a big job to be done. We focus on the race, trying to defend that third place and, as I said, I wouldn’t mind if I could turn your question around and answer in a different way tomorrow.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Sebastian, I think it’s predicted that tomorrow it will be about eight to nine degrees cooler than it is now. How do you think that will affect your performance, keeping in mind that Ferrari usually goes well in the hot weather, and also how confident are you that you will be able to stay ahead of the Red Bulls in those conditions?
SV: Well, I considered it hot today – 37 or 36 degrees – so I still consider 28 degrees to be fairly hot. I think in England they would call it a heatwave. (It’s not that bad, it’s bit better in the summer). Overall, I think it’s still hot tomorrow. We’ll obviously see what the weather does but I think it should be fine.
Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) To all of you, the strange thing here in Hungaroring is if Lewis Hamilton wins, Kimi Raikkonen is always second. What do you think about that?
LH: I don’t know what to say to that.
SV: I don’t think Lewis cares.
LH: It’s good for Kimi.
Q: How about you, Nico? You’ve tended to finish exactly where you started all season, with a couple of exceptions. You wouldn’t want that.
NR: No, I hope none of those things apply.
Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, yesterday you said that you started to think that this might be your favourite track. After your fifth pole position here, do you state that this is your favourite track now?
LH: You know it’s really hard to pinpoint your favourite track in your career really because there are so many different ones. They all have such different characteristics but I honestly just really enjoy driving this track. I think it’s the combination – as I said earlier – with the tyres and the surface. It’s quite bumpy, the way the corners are, on camber, off camber and the way that the track just flows. It’s so much fun. Monaco’s fun but I don’t know, I think that including the city with all the great architecture and that, I think it might be potentially just edging out Monaco. Maybe.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport Magazines) Seb, how worried are you about the Red Bulls and do you think that it’s just this track or have they actually made a step closer to you?
SV: Well, I think they have made a step closer to – ultimately – Mercedes, if you consider them being at the front so if you look at the gap they had, I think some races ago, and the gap they have now, they are a lot closer. I think it was fairly evident at Silverstone already so it was expected that they have a strong weekend here as well. So I expect them to be strong tomorrow, but we managed to outqualify them which means that we are quicker. Obviously yesterday we cannot really compare because for us it was not a good day. Hopefully we can get a good comparison in tomorrow’s race and come out on top.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto Motor) Nico, I think we have heard you talking on the radio about something going wrong with the aero balance and you had so much understeer and maybe the tyre pressures were wrong. Did your car behave differently than in P3? So what might have been the problem?
NR: I generally just wasn’t happy and I don’t understand it so we need to look into it. It was a bit just inconsistent so difficult to explain. I don’t know. But I wasn’t happy with the general way qualifying went.
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Hamilton storms to Hungarian GP pole
Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton stormed his way to securing the pole postion for the Hungarian GP. This is Hamilton’s ninth pole position of the season for his Mercedes team.
Hamilton posted a lap time of 1:22.020 to end the session half a second quicker than his title rival and team mate Nico Rosberg.
ebastian Vettel beat his former Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo to third place by only a hundredths of a second, setting up a nice enough battle for the podium position for the Hungarian GP.
Kimi Räikkönen recovered from a water leak during final practice ahead of the Hungarian GP to line up in fifth place on the grid, ahead of fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas.
Red Bull’s Dabiel Ricciardo will start in 6th place with team mate Daniil Kvyat behind him in 7th. The Williams team disappointed with their highest position from Felipe Massa in eighth place.
Max Verstappen progressed through to Q3 and went ninth, with Romain Grosjean rounding out the top 10.
Neither of the Force India drivers made it through to Q3 as Nico Hülkenberg placed 11th, with Sergio Pérez in 13th. The duo were split by Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz Jr., with Pastor Maldonado in 14th position.
Fernando Alonso made it through to Q2 but his car came to a standstill on the approach to the final corner, bringing out the red flags. Alonso tried pushing his car to the pits so that he could get back out in time but alas, remains in 15th place.
McLaren team mate Jenson Button finished the session in only 16th place, complaining about ERS deployment issues on the straight on his hot lap.
Sauber continued to struggle, finishing with Marcus Ericsson in 17th and Felipe Nasr 18th.
Manor Marussia once again occupied the final two slots as Roberto Merhi beat Will Stevens by half a second.
Pos Driver Car Gap 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.020 2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +0.575s 3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +0.719s 4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault +0.754s 5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +1.000s 6 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes +1.202s 7 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull/Renault +1.312s 8 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes +1.517s 9 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso/Renault +1.659s 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus/Mercedes +2.161s 11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes +1.806s 12 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Renault +1.849s 13 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes +2.441s 14 Pastor Maldonado Lotus/Mercedes +2.589s 15 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda No Q2 time set 16 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda +2.719s 17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari +2.823s 18 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari +2.977s 19 Roberto Merhi Marussia/Ferrari +5.396s 20 Will Stevens Marussia/Ferrari +5.929s -
Lewis Hamilton makes it a clean sweep for final Hungarian GP practice
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton again posted the fastest time during the final practice session ahead of the Hungarian GP making it a clean sweep for the practice sessions.
Hamilton, who was also fastest in the first and second practice sessions, was the only driver to get below the 1m23s mark, posting a time of 1:22.997 on the option tyres. His time was 0.098s clear of his team mate Nico Rosberg.
Rosberg found himself walking back to his garage two minutes before the session ended after stopping at the end of the pit lane while attempting a practice start. He’ll be thanking his lucky stars that this was a practice session and not the actual start of the Hungarian GP.
Mercedes continued to dominate though, comfortably clear of the rest of the pack. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel posted the third fastest time, a full 8 tenths of a second behind the Mercedes drivers.
Daniil Kvyat finished in the fourth spot for Red Bull, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr and Nico Hulkenberg. Young Max Verstappen came home with the seventh fastest time and Fernando Alonso was eighth. The McLarens are looking good on the soft tyres and stand a good change of getting one of their cars through to Q2 during qualifying for the Hungarian GP later today.
Daniel Ricciardo managed ninth place after going wide at Turn 5. The Red Bull drivers definitely dealing with a lot of frustration following news that they will need to wait for the Russian Grand Prix before any upgrades are made – a long wait considering the fact that Renault of not yet spent any of their development tokens this season.
Romain Grosjean beat team mate Pastor Maldonado to round out the Hungarian GP final practice.
Williams, despite their recent good form, only came in at 12th and 14th positions, with Jenson Button splitting Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.
Sergio Perez – who suffered a massive accident during Friday practice, posted the 15th fastest time, while Kimi Raikkonen finished in only 16th place after a water leak prevented him from completing a proper qualifying simulation about 15 minutes before the end of the session.
Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson brought their Sauber’s back in only 17th and 18th places, ahead of of the Manor Marussia boys who were almost three seconds behind the Sauber team with Will Stevens putting team mate Roberto Merhi in the final placed position.
Mercedes certainly remain dominant ahead of the Hungarian GP qualifying and look on track to lock out the front row of the grid. With Williams a little further down the rankings, the Ferraris could lock up the second row with Red Bull possibly getting their heads in somewhere.
Please join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for live Hungarian GP qualifying commentary and chat at 2pm GMT+2.
Here is the full Hungarian GP final practice timesheet:
Pos Driver Car Gap Laps 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.997 12 2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +0.098s 20 3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +0.889s 19 4 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull/Renault +1.218s 17 5 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Renault +1.329s 22 6 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes +1.486s 30 7 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso/Renault +1.681s 22 8 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda +1.849s 16 9 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault +1.932s 12 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus/Mercedes +1.944s 22 11 Pastor Maldonado Lotus/Mercedes +1.956s 16 12 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes +2.097s 13 13 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda +2.232s 16 14 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes +2.348s 17 15 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes +2.396s 25 16 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +2.664s 12 17 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari +3.063s 20 18 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari +3.098s 20 19 Will Stevens Marussia/Ferrari +5.760s 19 20 Roberto Merhi Marussia/Ferrari +5.911s 20 -
F1 2015: Hungarian GP Preview – Racing At The ‘Ring
Formula 1 returns after a three week break to the Hungarian grand prix. However, the excitement has been significantly dulled. The passing of Jules Bianchi has been a surreal and deeply unfortunate reality.
While the mood is solemn the best way to honour the life of Jules Bianchi is by putting on a great show around Hungary’s Hungaroring circuit.
It’s a special place for both McLaren drivers as it is the venue of their first wins in the sport. In 2003 a fresh faced Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag in his blue and yellow liveried Renault and in 2006 Jenson Button turned on the magic on a damp circuit in his BAR Honda to take the top step of the podium.
Times have changed since then for these two who now find themselves teammates at a struggling McLaren Honda team. The 2015 season has been arduous for all involved but Fernando Alonso believes that the Hungaroring and the second half of the season will hold some opportunities for McLaren to show the gains it has made. “I think the second part of the year will show a completely different McLaren, much more competitive,” says the Spaniard. “The steps that are coming are quite big. This is not too difficult when you are at the back of the grid and two seconds off the pace – every step then is half a second or eight-tenths. When you are fighting for a podium you [only] gain 0.1s every two weeks. I think we will get much closer to the top guys in the second part of the championship.”
The Hungaroring’s layout is a flowing mixture of low to medium speed corners with a few elevation changes. This coupled with the lack of any significant straights decreases the demand on the power unit. Due to its flowing nature the circuit offers, in most areas, offers only one ideal line which will limit the chances for overtaking. Consequently, a good qualifying position becomes a major strategic advantage.Pirelli have selected the medium and soft compounds for the weekend and expect the combination should provide a good balance between performance and reliability. “This selection is soft enough to provide the mechanical grip needed to negotiate all the corners, yet hard enough to withstand the punishing weather conditions and track layout of the Hungaroring. This is not always the easiest circuit to overtake on, so tyre strategy can make a real difference,” says Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.
Ferrari experienced a difficult British grand prix but Kimi Raikkonen thinks that this was a once-off. “We’ve seen at other circuits it depends a lot on the layout of the circuit and what tyres we run,” said the Finn.”I expect it to be a different story in the next race and at different circuits again. Hungary I’m sure it will [be better]. Silverstone was not the ideal weekend. The others were a bit faster. I’m sure it will be a bit more easy there but we will see.”
Williams delivered a considerably better performance at Silverstone which led Rob Smedley to believe that the team is capable of beating Ferrari to second place in the constructor’s championship. The team believes that a steady stream of small upgrades at every race will make the difference but remain realistic about their potential this weekend. “We know we are still missing a bit in the low speed and we are big enough to hold hands up and say that is the case,” says Smedley.”We’re looking at all sorts of ways of recuperating that.”For nine months all motorsport fans had hoped to receive the news that Jules Bianchi had woken up and was well on his way to recovery. Sadly, this news will never come and his enormous potential will remain unfulfilled. It is the worst possible outcome but it is not the end of Jules’ legacy. It has reaffirmed the commitment to safety above all else and that is a gift of which the impact and importance cannot be measured. Ciao Jules and thank you.
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F1 2015: British GP Review – Hamilton Shines At Silverstone
One-hundred and forty thousand fans were treated to quite a race around the famed Silverstone circuit.
Lewis Hamilton thrilled the home crowd with pole position on Saturday ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg while Williams locked out the second row of the grid. At this point you would’ve been forgiven if you’d assumed that it was going to be another Mercedes dominated afternoon. Felipe Massa rocketed off the starting line and straight into the lead of the race followed by teammate Valtteri Bottas.
The Finnish Williams driver soon fell prey to a determined Lewis Hamilton but held of Nico Rosberg to settle in third. An accident involving both Lotus and both McLaren’s brought out the safety car and saw the end of the race for Romain Grosjean and Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso clunked into the side of his teammate but was able to continue after a stop for a new nose.
The restart of the race saw Hamilton launch an attack on race leader Felipe Massa but the canny Brazilian held his line and the position. The move sent Hamilton off the circuit at Club corner and into third as Valtteri Bottas seized second place. The fight for the lead of the race was a welcome sight and more so was Hamilton’s doggedness. In truth Hamilton’s championship fight is not with Massa and he couldn’t have been faulted for choosing the cautious route, but he didn’t. At the heart of Lewis Hamilton is still an out-and-out racing driver whose sole ambition is to win and that is what he put on display in that move.
The Williams driver couldn’t manage to run away from Mercedes but they were holding their own. As if to underline the difficulty of overtaking in Formula 1 Felipe Massa was able to resist a visibly quicker Bottas during the phase of the race. The Williams pitwall initially called off the fight between their drivers but quickly changed course and gave their drivers the freedom to fight. Despite this Bottas was unable to overtake his teammate.Lewis Hamilton was the first of the frontrunners into the pitlane and used the undercut to perfection as he took the lead of the race as the two Williams made their respective stops. The front running back had now reshuffled with Hamilton in the lead from Massa, Rosberg and Bottas.
It wouldn’t be Silverstone if the weather didn’t have some sort of impact on proceedings. At first the rain was steadily falling on one side of the circuit while the other remained bone dry. As drivers were slipping and sliding their way around several drivers including Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso gambled with a switch to intermediate tyres. It proved a touch too early for Raikkonen who shredded his intermediates on the drying surface.
Lewis Hamilton timed his tyre switch to perfection as the rain started falling once more as he exited the pits on the green-walled intermediate tyre and retook the lead of the race. Rosberg made his stop a lap later and emerged in second place where he would remain until the chequered flag. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas chances of the podium evaporated as the pair struggled for pace in the wet conditions. The duo eventually finished fourth and fifth as a slightly later call for intermediates from Vettel meant that the Ferrari jumped both Williams’ into third place.Red Bull Racing’s Daniil Kvyat finished sixth while Nico Hulkenberg brought home his heavily revised Force India in seventh ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. The sister Force India of Sergio Perez finished ninth ahead of Fernando Alonso who ended a miserable non-point scoring run with tenth place.
To win on home ground is something special and Hamilton has now done it three times. This win is an invaluable boost of confidence that could carry him all the way to that coveted third world championship title.
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2015 Formula 1 British Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference
DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Frankie Dettori)
Well done, Lewis, what a race. How important is it to win in front of your home crowd?
Lewis HAMILTON: Firstly, just thank you to everyone for coming out today and making my weekend. I was gunning the whole way and I really just wanted to do it for you guys… we did it. I’m so thankful for all the support. I couldn’t have done without you guys. Every lap I could see you out of the corner of my eye and I just felt you spurring me along, so thank you so much.
I need to ask you: what happened at the start, a bit of a hairy moment there?
LH: To be honest my clutch was good; it’s just that we had really quite poor grip I think at the start. I think it was particularly the same for Nico. It made the race even more exciting to be honest. We just kept pushing and if I’m honest that probably made it more exciting for the fans.
Do you think the pit stop was the winning move?
LH: I think for the first time probably in my career I made the perfect choice tyre wise and so I’m really, really happy with that. I just managed to keep the car going. I think I lost a lot of temperature in my slicks, so no…. you guys are the best. I love you guys.
Well done Lewis, let me grab a word with Nico. Nico, a good second, how hard was it driving the last few laps in the rain?
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah it was a good race. I was pushing hard to try and catch Lewis under the difficult conditions but then he just made the better call with the pit stop, so that’s where I lost it. Fair play to him, he did a great job all weekend. You’ve been amazing, really absolutely unbelievable, a great atmosphere here, really a pleasure to drive in front of all of you and that’s it.
Well done. I’ll go over to Sebastian. I’m a bit of a Ferrari fanatic, so I have to give you a hug. Do you think the rain made a big difference in the end of grab third place?
Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, without the rain we would not be on the podium. I think we kept our head down and were patient enough to wait until the rain properly started to pour down. In the end, that’s England for you – a couple of minutes later you have sunshine, so obviously it helped us today, we did the right choice, we came in on the perfect lap and the team did a great job on the radio as well. So thank you very much and thanks to everyone, it’s a great atmosphere today.
Well done Sebastian and one last word with Lewis: any message to the fans, they’re all here to see you
LH: My mum’s down here! As I said, I’m so elated; you can’t imagine how happy I am. I started to tear up on that last lap, just really hoping I could hold onto it for you guys and man, I felt you all way. I hope we can come back next year… I’m going to keep pushing for this championship. Thank you so much for all the support. Now, let’s party.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, maybe one of the key talking points was the pace on slick tyres on a damp track: over a second a lap faster than your competitors.
LH: Firstly, just a very, very special weekend for me. To see so many fans out this weekend, I thought that I’d seen it all here last year but I’m really just… I love those guys – thank you so much for coming. An amazing job done by the team back at the factory, such a large group of people, to make the car that me and Nico have to race as we have. The race was very, very tough. Very slippery off the start, I think for both of us – but it made it more exciting. I was chasing down the Williams. Very, very hard to get close and overtake but yes, very good. I got close enough on the first pitstop. Came out ahead after a really good out-lap. And then the rain came and I think I just lost temperature in my front tyres. It’s always trickier for the guy who’s out in the lead because you’re the first one to get to it and it’s questionable how much risk you take. But yeah, for the first time actually, I think the first time in my whole Formula One career, I made the perfectly right choice in coming in now. I could see the rain coming more and I’ve never had that before, so I feel extremely happy about that. And after that was just… I kept seeing as I was going around, Turn Seven, the last corner I could see in the crowd just cheering me on every time I came by and just spurring me along. I just didn’t want to drop it for them. And really I’m also very honoured just to be here representing the Brits, to have the British flag up there.
Q: Nico, not perhaps the start that anybody expected. It was a Williams 1-2 for the first 20 laps of this grand prix. You, obviously, weren’t able to get ahead of them – because you had second choice of strategy I guess at the first stop – so you found yourself behind them and you were then told, “right, we go Plan B, be aggressive”. Tell us a little bit about that phase of your grand prix.
NR: Yeah, that was not such a great phase because I had these two Williams in front and was completely blocked and couldn’t get close. So that was a bit annoying. And then I was very thankful when the rain came. I felt great when it started raining. I really was able to attack and pass both Williams and close in on Lewis a lot. I was hoping it would stay more or less like that, and I thought I could attack Lewis at some point – and then Lewis boxed. I was pretty sure it was the wrong call because it was still touch-and-go at that time. So I was actually quite happy that he boxed. But then it was the right call in the end. It started raining more on that lap. So, that was it. Anyways, I had to take that chance because just following Lewis into the box is definite lose for me, so I might as well take the chance, stay out and do one lap more at least. It didn’t work out. So that’s it. Gave it everything and didn’t work out.
Q: Sebastian, it’s fair to say it wasn’t looking too rosy up until the point at which it rained. You did the same timing as Lewis. Did you feel the same way as Lewis? Was it something that you motivated yourself? Were you slightly surprised by what was going on around you with the other cars? Did you think it was your birthday when you realised where you were?
SV: I don’t know. I had a bad start but then we obviously, more or less, came back to fifth and sixth – so where we started – but obviously the gap was too big to the cars in front. Then there was some rain around six-seven – so around Luffield. And, yeah, it was only there so it was quicker to stay out on dries. But then I noted… it’s a tough call to make. If it rains, yes, some cars are already pitting, you obviously think about it but if the majority of the circuit is dry, there’s no point. Then I came out of Chapel and down the Hangar straight, noticed a lot more rain. I was trying to look at the clouds, all the laps before and though, ‘well, that’s the lap to go’. Because it was significantly more intense, the rain. It wasn’t just drizzle, it was proper rain and I decided to box. Once I was in the box I was told that Lewis decided to – the leader – decided to pit as well so I thought, yeah, should have been a good call. And then it was a surprise because I had Kvyat behind me when I boxed, and I came out behind him – like I saw him when I came out of the box. I don’t know what happened to him in between. But I guess at that point already the track was quite poor.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Thomas Maher – formulaspy.com) Question for Lewis. Lewis, when you were following the two Williams drivers in front of you, do you think they might have compromised the their own strategy slightly by leaving Massa in front of Valtteri.
LH: I don’t know really. I think it’s too early on to say whether it compromised their strategy but obviously it’s a race. It was a race for them – but Valtteri was quicker, if that was him in second, but I don’t think… say it was me and Nico. It’s not for the team to tell you to let the dude past, because you’re racing. So, but I think Williams were doing a great job up until then.
Q: (Sean McGreevy – CSMA Magazine) Lewis, after a really action-packed exciting British Grand Prix, what’s your response to people and critics claiming that F1 is boring?
LH: Firstly, thank you. It was exciting for me. I think the start really made it exciting, obviously. I don’t know how the rest of the race went but you say it was very exciting. I think the English weather helped with that. I think there’s still some things… their views are probably still valid in many ways but also sometimes I guess it’s a bit of an indication for us not to throw our toys out of the pram and say everything’s wrong, that we’re not too far off the mark, hopefully and hope that we have more races like this.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Serra) Sebastian, can you make a final balance of this weekend, because we saw Ferrari struggling and now you’ve got a podium? Is it just like a Christmas gift or there’s something coming also from the team, your talent of course, from the situation? Can you make a summary, please?
SV: It’s not easy. It’s not a Christmas gift. Santa Claus wasn’t there waving me into the pits so he didn’t tell me which lap to dive into the pits. It was our own decision and obviously not a lot of people got it right but we did so that’s our choice and that’s what we achieved today. Other than that, obviously it was not a very good weekend for us. We expected to be stronger. I think we were surprised by the pace of Williams on Saturday in qualifying and also on Sunday. I think you could also see it was not a good weekend from ourselves because the gap simply to the top was larger than at previous events I don’t think that we did a step back but I think we just couldn’t find the right direction this weekend and obviously if you’re not P1, P2 it’s quite tight between us, Williams, the Red Bulls were very quick this weekend. I think they’d taken a step forward and that’s what happens.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, I know the trophy is about ten years old – or out of date, I should say…
LH: It’s not out of date. I’m pretty sure they have an extra slab underneath because they’ve run out of space so I think underneath – no it’s not there but like it goes here but it continues to go here, another pillar.
SV: Why did they give you the wrong one?
LH: It’s not attached though, it sits on top of it. I think so.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) But how good is it that rather than a cheap plastic one, compared to last year?
LH: It makes a big difference.
SV: But you need the bottom part.
LH: Last year obviously I didn’t get to have that necessarily on the podium but it’s a very proud moment to be out there and to receive it again. I remember the first time I had the privilege of having that experience in 2008 and the response from the crowd then, but just to see a sea of British fans out there today with the British flag and all the caps and stuff is just a huge day for me, really really special day. I can’t really find the words to explain how happy I am. Hopefully you see it in my smile.
Q: (Simon Cass – The Daily Star) Lewis, about the second stop, that was your call. The first one looked like a great call from your team. After Monaco, I suppose they owed you one with that one and it got you back into the lead. Is that right?
LH: Well, I think overall globally it was just great teamwork. I think the team were continuously speaking to me, the tyres were feeling good so I could have kept going for longer, but it was getting closer to the point that Williams hadn’t stopped and I was close enough… I was actually close enough on the previous lap but close enough finally… literally as I came round that last corner to say ‘guys, you know the tyres are perhaps going to go off quite shortly’ and so they said then ‘box, box, box’ and I came in that lap. It was a real quick decision after that. Then I pushed like crazy on the out lap and it really hooked up a real nice lap and to come back out in front was a great feeling. And after that was really trying to balance the… I know I had a long long way to go. Twenty or thirty laps here is a long way. You do ten and you think you’ve already done thirty. Then I could see the weather getting worse and worse and you’re thinking ‘please hold off’ because if it doesn’t rain, we’re good.. If it rains it makes it a lot harder and I tell you it was one of the trickiest races I’ve had here. Obviously 2008 was very very hard but still, very very tricky.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) To the Mercedes drivers: did the Williams have a particularly good start and or did you have a particularly bad start? If it was bad, what happened?
NR: Bad start, no explanation. We need to look into it afterwards.
Q: Lewis, you mentioned on the radio on the parade lap that you had poor traction off your burn-out.
LH: Yeah, just the grip is different from track to track but particularly on my side. As I did the burn-outs to the grid, the wheels were just spinning easily and in some places you try to do the burn-outs and there’s so much grip that you can’t actually get the wheels to light up. This one it was like so easy. As I dropped the clutch, just wheel spinning, I’m looking in my mirrors to see what’s going on but it just keeps on wheel spinning, so I’m thinking jeez, I’m going to lose my position to at least someone and obviously the Williams came past. I fought back and got second back but then I tried to challenge Massa on the restart and just went a bit too risky too early maybe. But anyways, you could see I was trying.
