Tag: nico rosberg

Rosberg edges ahead in second US Grand Prix practice

Nico Rosberg edged ahead of the pack in the second practice session ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix. And as much as the fight will probably be between the two Mercedes drivers for pole, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo managed to resist Lewis Hamilton and prevent the team from getting away with a 1-2.

Rosberg clocked the fastest time of the session posting a 1:37.358 on Pirelli’s super soft tyre. Daniel Ricciardo split the Mercedes drivers, giving us a little teaser of the possibilty that Red Bull are bringing the fight to Ferrari this weekend.

Hamilton, who had topped the timesheets for the first practice session, had to settle for third fastest- almost 3 tenths adrift of rival team mate Rosberg.

Sebastian Vettel completed the session fourth fastest ahead of Max Verstappen and the Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. McLaren clocked in behind them with Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso finishing ahead of Kimi Raikkonen who rounds out the top 10 albeit 1.5s off the pace.

Carlos Sainz Jr finished 11th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Nasr. The Williams pair, who are known for not showing good pace on a Friday, were split by Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso and only finished 14th and 16th fastest today.

Jolyon Palmer finished 17th with Romain Grosjean behind him for the Haas team who will be worried about all the debris falling off the rear of his car during the course of the session.

Esteban Ocon finished 19th fastest for the Manor Racing team ahead of Esteban Gutierrez, Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein.

October 22, 2016
F1 2016: United States Gp Preview – Rosberg v Hamilton In Texas

The F1 paddock travels halfway around the world from Japan to the lone star state of Texas and the Circuit of the Americas for the 16th round of the season.

The Circuit of the Americas (COTA), designed by F1 architect Herman Tilke, hosted its first race in 2012. As one of the newest circuits on the calendar it doesn’t quite fit into the mold of a modern circuit. While it does have acres of run-off areas like its modern counterparts its in the layout where you can see a real throwback to old school circuit. The Esses section in Sector 1 is especially reminiscent of the Maggots-Becketts section at Silverstone with a hint of Suzuka bleeding into the combination.

“The track in Austin is sick, I love it. It has a lot of unique features like the wide apex at turn one, you could fit about four cars side by side through there. There are loads of opportunities to overtake and have fun throughout the whole track. It has fast flowing sections and hairpins, pretty much everything I like in a track,” says Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

In 2015 a colossal level or rain mired the Texas grand prix weekend and severely impacted the level of spectators in the stands. However, the weather forecast for the 2016 race weekend is lot sunnier, literally and figuratively. Twelve months ago Lewis Hamilton arrived in Texas with one hand on the driver’s title but one year later it’s a much different story for the Mercedes driver. He trails teammate Nico Rosberg by 33 points with a maximum of 100 points still available.

This means that even if Hamilton wins all four of the remaining races it does not ensure that he will win the title. Even if this situation eventuates Rosberg would still need to finish third in at least one of the races for Hamilton to be champion.

But in the dominant era of Mercedes there has never been a better chance for Lewis Hamilton to show a real champion’s courage. Not ever has any driver or champion been revered for winning from the front but rather for how they respond when the odds are against them. Grand prix in the United States have been an enormously rewarding for Hamilton. As a rookie he won in North America at Indianapolis in 2007 and has won three of the four races held in Texas. It stands to reason, barring unreliability, that the reigning world champion will be difficult to beat in Texas.

Let’s not diminish the performance of Nico Rosberg in 2016. The metronomic way he has been inching his way to the title has been extraordinary. Few could argue that he wouldn’t deserve the title at the end of it. And he’s, mostly, aced it off the start line this season. The beauty of the fight between Hamilton and Rosberg, despite the latter’s points lead, is that it is impossible to predict. There still hasn’t been a true wheel-to-wheel race between the two either. Perhaps Texas is primed for just such a battle.

October 19, 2016
F1 2016: Japanese Gp Review – First Japanese Victory For Rosberg

Nico Rosberg continues to achieve firsts in this 2016 and has now added a first-time victory in Japan. The Mercedes driver, never troubled, strolled towards the chequered flag while teammate Lewis Hamilton dropped further behind in the race for the championship.

While Nico Rosberg charged off his pole starting position Lewis Hamilton was swamped by several cars off the line. The Brit ended up eighth after the first lap after he bogged down on the start with wheelspin. Through consistent driver, and a particularly strong second stint on the hard tyre, Hamilton was able to recover to third.

In second place Red Bull’s Max Verstappen faced significant pressure from Hamilton for the second step on the podium. Nevertheless, the 19 year old did not succumb and more than held his own against the superior Mercedes. The Mercedes team later lodged a protest against Verstappen’s defence into the final chicance on the penultimate lap but has subsequently withdrawn it, seemingly, at the request of Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen delivered solid drives for Ferrari despite several issues plaguing the team throughout the weekend. For more than three quarters of the race Vettel was well in contention for the podium but yet another strategic error from Ferrari made sure he didn’t get there. As he battled against Hamilton for the position the call to make his final stop of the race came too late and the position was surrendered to Hamilton. Although Raikkonen qualified third on the grid he was forced to drop to eighth due a gearbox box. The Finn ultimately recovered to fifth place.

Earlier in the weekend Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene made a point to sit down with a media outlet for an interview. He made very specific comments in this interview that include the statement that Vettel must earn his seat at Ferrari. There is nothing inherently wrong with this comment. No driver in Formula 1 is absolved from needing to earn their place in the sport. However, this comment and argument isn’t a one way street. For this reason the question must be asked: What is Ferrari doing to earn Vettel and Raikkonen?

The pendulum swung dramatically for last weeks race winner Daniel Ricciardo who could only manage a sixth place finish seven days later in Japan. The Force India pairing of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg came home in a solid seventh and eighth place respectively. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, in ninth and tenth, took the final points on offer for Williams. This result strengthens Force India’s fourth place in the constructor’s standings to ten points over Williams.

Mercedes secured the overall title of constructor’s champions with their Japanese Gp result. The German mark remains the only team and manufacturer to be champions in the hybrid era of the sport.

Effectively Mercedes has also won the driver’s title, as no other driver is mathematically possible of taking the crown. However, the question remains will be Rosberg or Hamilton who takes the ultimate prize. Rosberg’s win in the land of the rising sun gives him a 33-point gap over Hamilton whose title chances have dimmed slightly. However, with 100 points still up for grabs it’s far too soon to call this race.

October 10, 2016
2016 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

DRIVERS

1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

2 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Kai Ebel)

Q: Congratulations Nico, a fantastic win.

Nico ROSBERG: It’s been an awesome weekend for sure, the whole weekend had gone great from the word go, so it’s been very, very special, especially on this legendary track, beautiful to win here. And of course congrats to everybody, to all my colleagues in the team, for clinching a third Constructors’ World title. So absolutely deserved, definitely it’s been an unbelievable effort all these years, so let’s celebrate hard. And thank you very much to all of you, a very, very special weekend this weekend, you put on such a great show out in the grandstands, it’s amazing. Arigato.

Q: Turning over, Nico, to the important things. How important is it today not to have Daniel Ricciardo up here to have a shoey again, to drink out of his show?

NR: I’m going to make sure that he never wins again this year because I don’t want to drink any more out if his shoe.

Q: That’s a good one. So, going from Germany over the Dutch border to Max Verstappen. Congratulations, man of the race, fantastic. You had the hot breeze of Lewis on your neck, maybe you two had more traffic on track than on the Dutch motorway?

Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, there was a lot of traffic but we saved the tyres a bit in the last stint. I think in general we had a great strategy. Just to race against the Mercedes cars, I think that’s always positive. To come home in second, a big thanks to the team for that.

Q: How hot was the breath of Lewis on your neck at the end?

MV: It was not as hot as in Malaysia. The temperature here helped, but of course Lewis was pushing hard and we had a little moment in the chicane, but of course very happy to stay in second.

Q: Coming to you Lewis, not an easy day for you. The start: what happened there, was it just due to the slippery surface?

Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly, a big thank you to everyone that came out today. A big congratulations to this team. I’m very, very proud to be a part of it. I’m glad I got some points for the team today. Congratulations to everyone back at the factory at Brixworth and the whole of Mercedes. We couldn’t have done it without all the support we’ve had. I did the best I could from where I was in the race but I’m happy with getting the points.

Q: Now Lewis, the next races, the world championship, Nico leading now – now will we see the best Lewis Hamilton to fight for the championship?

LH: Of course. I’ll give it everything I’ve got, as I did in the race and we’ll see what happens.

Q: Thank you so much, Lewis. Coming back to you Nico, I know tonight you’re flying home but will you rock the plane again or do some karaoke in between in the land of karaoke?

NR: Maybe a little bit, but not too much. The season is still long, many races to go around the world, so I need to keep my energies.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, let’s pick it up with you first. At the start obviously you lost ground. What part did the dampness on that side of the race track play, do you think, in your getaway? Perhaps a little detail about your fight back and then the championship position as it stands, trailing Nico by 33 points with four races to go.

LH: Firstly, big congratulations to the team, incredible success for the last three years, very proud to be a part of it and to help contribute to it – so a big thank you to everyone for all of their hard work. This is a great result. Yeah, I don’t think the damp patch had really anything to do with it. I just had… I made a mistake and then just working my way up from there was tricky but, y’know, I did the best I could.

And the 33 points, four races to go, feelings on that.

LH: That’s a healthy margin for Nico, he did a great job, so congrats to him.

Q: Let’s return to our race winner, Nico Rosberg, ninth win of this 2016 season, 23^rd of your career and your first, as we were hearing on the podium, here in Japan after three pole positions. Clearly the start was decisive today. Your thoughts on that and how your race rolled out. And then, also your thoughts on having that margin. 33 points with four races to go. Niki Lauda has just said on TV it’s a “comfortable” position. Your thoughts.

NR: Yeah, for sure. Just the whole weekend went really well from the word go. Just felt good in the car, found the right balance and all the way through to qualifying. Got that lap done and then the start went well… just everything went well. Just controlling the pace and the gap to Max in the race. Perfect weekend really. Really happy with that. To win on this legendary track as well. Points, yeah, I’m well aware of the 33 points of course but it’s not something I’m focussed on, as you know. Just want to take it race by race. That’s what I did this weekend. So focussed on trying to win the race and very happy it worked out. Still many races to go, so just keeping my head down.

Q: Coming to you Max, your sixth podium in Formula One. One of the best I’m sure, great measured drive – but tell us more about the move to block Lewis at the end. Before his actual move was there a little bit of memories of holding off Räikkönen in Spain earlier this season, and then when he actually made the move, was it going through your mind that he had more to lose than you did?

MV: To be honest, I never really thought about it, both of those things. I was just doing my race. I think the car was feeling quite good. I was trying to follow Nico a bit and I think in general we did a great strategy, so the car was working well and, of course, Lewis was closing up a lot. At the end of the race he was pushing really hard and I knew he’s fighting for the World Championship, so you’re not going to do crazy things, of course. But I think in the end it was all good. I managed to keep my tyres alive and to come home in second. That’s of course a great result for myself and I think also one of my best races so far but also for the team I think. For the Constructors’ it’s a very good result.

Q: Lewis, your 100^th podium in Formula One today. If you could just tell us a little bit about, particularly when you went onto the hard tyre you were extremely fast straight away, I think you passed four cars in one lap at that phase of the grand prix, so maybe a word about that. And then about the move at the end. You came over the radio and said Max moved under braking, as if to suggest you weren’t particularly happy about that. Maybe you could clarify what you were saying.

LH: Yeah, the middle stint, the car felt good. Generally the car felt great throughout the race, so it wasn’t really a problem and I’m not really quite sure if I was overtaking backmarkers or not but I was just overtaking whoever I could. Had a good run there. Fought hard at the end but just didn’t make it.

But you were happy with his move to defend?

LH: Well… it doesn’t really matter now. It’s done and we move forwards.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Nico, of course there are four races to go, you said you are thinking race by race but you have two match points as we might say in tennis because you have more than one victory advantage. Do you have a different approach to the next races or are you just doing race to race?

NR: There’s still a long way to go, hunh? There’s no point in changing my approach now so I’m sticking with what I’m doing because it’s working well.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, after the first lap where did you think you were going to end up, being in P8, I think?

LH: Honestly I don’t really remember. I can’t remember, I was just far back and I was just looking to go forwards.

Q: (Lennart Wermke – Bild) Lewis, you said you made a mistake at the start. Can you give us a little more detail, what exactly happened there?

LH: Not really, I just got wheelspin.

Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Max, when you were fighting with Lewis, did you imagine that he would attack in the chicane? Is that why you made a move to defend, you were expecting him to go there?

MV: Yeah, it was just for fun! No, of course you see him coming in the mirrors so… Already the laps before he was closing quite a bit but I saw already out of T14 that he had a good exit so yeah, I was using a bit of energy and I defended into the last chicane. All good.

October 9, 2016
FIA post-qualifying press conference – Japanese Grand Prix

Drivers: 1 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 2 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 3 – Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari).

TV UNILATERAL

Q: Nico, the pressure was really on for that final run but you did it, pole by 13 thousandths of a second which I think your team calculates to be 82 centimetres around this Suzuka circuit.

Nico Rosberg: Yeah, of course, happy with the result in the end. I was going well the whole weekend, I had a good balance in the car, feeling good, feeling comfortable so that’s what allows me then to put in a lap like that in the end. Yeah, pleased with that.

Q: And Lewis, not the end of the world from your point of view because as we look back over the last couple of seasons you’ve won here from second place on the grid, so is that very much what’s on your mind as you sit here this afternoon?

Lewis Hamilton: Well, I’m happy with qualifying. It’s been a weekend of a lot of work that’s gone on, getting the car set-up right and some big changes went into qualifying. Considering that, to be that close I was really happy with it. I got everything I could… I did as well as I could, I think. Naturally, if you have more laps, I guess you could always find more time but yeah, generally very happy with that and history has shown that you don’t have to be on pole to get the win. But Nico did a great job and has done all weekend.

Q: Kimi, great lap for third place; for the fourth time this season you’ve qualified in this position. Do we infer from this that Ferrari has made a bit of a step compared to Red Bull in the last few races?

Kimi Raikkonen: I don’t know. Honestly, it’s pretty much the same car that we raced a week ago. I don’t think many people have had a lot of difference but it’s very… positively surprised how well the car’s been behaving and how quick it’s been. Obviously it’s been a bit tricky to get the right balance but it’s been pretty good and so far so good but obviously third is not exactly what we’re looking for but I think we’re pretty close. It was not too bad.

Q: Coming back to our pole-sitter, Nico Rosberg, you’ve been fastest in every single track session so far this weekend – obviously Lewis got the quicker first run in Q3 – but you’ve topped every single track session so far this weekend, but as Lewis was saying, the last two years he’s won the race from P2; how do you make it go your way tomorrow?

NR: It’s just putting everything together, you know. For sure the start is going to be an important one, definitely tomorrow and we’ve seen this weekend that it’s not been too easy, because it’s downhill and the grip somehow has been a bit lower than usual so it’s going to be an interesting challenge. And from then on, then just need to get the tyre life to be able to do long enough stints and everything to get the strategy to work so it’s putting everything together.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Back to our pole-sitter, Nico Rosberg, third year in a row here in Suzuka, thirtieth of his Formula One career. Nico the last sector on that final run was what made the difference for you versus Lewis, I think it’s fair to say. Tell us about the pressure you were feeling after that first run in Q1 and what it was about that final sector that eventually nailed it for you?

NR: It was just a good lap, just got it all done properly, that’s it. I knew I could do it, I knew I could do a good lap and just the first one in Q3 wasn’t perfect so I just had to get my head down and nail it.

Q: Why was it not perfect?

NR: I’m not really sure. I just felt a bit less grip somehow and it just didn’t come together so I don’t really have an explanation.

Q: OK, moving to Lewis, Lewis bouncing back strongly from obviously the disappointment of last weekend, you were referring there in your first answer to the fact that you’ve been working very hard on the set-up of the car, particularly presumably with an eye on the race but you were in the groove as far as race pace is concerned?

LH: Well, we just kind of veered off on a different tangent in terms of set-up this weekend and it wasn’t until qualifying that I veered back so some big changes. It’s not that easy to go straight into qualifying with a completely different car so that’s why I’m relatively happy with considering what I did. I think we’re in a good position for tomorrow.

Q: Kimi, obviously balance is a big thing around here. You were complaining a few times on the radio of understeer throughout the last couple of days and again this afternoon. Tell us a little bit about that and also you did a soft tyre run in Q1 which Red Bull did not do, not a quick one. They only went on to it in Q2 and Q3. Do you think that helped you to find the balance that ultimately gave you this third place today?

KR: Well, I think it doesn’t harm, that’s for sure. I mean it’s always more easy when you have more sets of the same compound so you can fine-tune a little bit but obviously in qualifying there’s not an awful lot that you can do that is correct or not. We been suffering a bit of understeer all weekend and even in qualifying just slowing us down a little bit in the first sector but it got a bit better in the end. Obviously it got faster then but it’s the very small details that have to come together and we managed to put all these together more or less and the car’s been behaving quite good. It’s shame that Seb has a penalty but we will try to do the same if not better tomorrow.

October 8, 2016
Japanese Grand Prix qualifying : Rosberg beats Hamilton to Suzuka pole

Formula One World Championship leader Nico Rosberg snuck in to steal the Japanese Grand Prix pole from Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.013s. Rosberg claimed his third consecutive Suzuka pole position with a time of 1:30.647.

Ferrari outperformed their Red Bull championship rivals to claim the third and fourth spots on the grid. Kimi Raikkonen finished ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel. The German will start from P7 following the 3 place grid penalty he received for causing a collision with Rosberg at Turn 1 of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Verstappen finished fifth fastest for Red Bull but makes his way up to P4 with thanks to Vettel. Team mate and Malaysian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo will start the race behind him.

Sergio Perez will start sixth for Force India with Romain Grosjean putting in his best qualifying performance of the season to start 8th. For the first time both Haas F1 cars made it through to the Top 10 with Esteban Gutierrez lining up 10th behind Nico Hulkenberg.

The Williams F1 team sent both of their drivers out for just a single run in Q2 and saw neither Valtteri Bottas nor Felipe Massa make it through to Q3. They will start 11th and 12th respectively.

Daniil Kvyat managed to take P13 ahead of his Toro Rosso team mate Carlos Sainz. Fernando Alonso will line up in 15th following a torrid qualifying session for the McLaren Honda team. Jenson Button could not even make it out of Q1.

Jolyon Palmer pushed his Renault through to Q2 and will start from 16th on the grid. Kevin Magnussen, Marcos Ericsson, Felipe Nasr start ahead of Esteban Ocon and Pascal Wehrlein who will take up the back row of the grid for the Manor Racing team.

Join us on Twitter @F1_Madness for live commentary and some chit chat throughout tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix. It’s a very close race between the Ferrari and Red Bull teams setting the scene for what should be a smashing race at Suzuka.

Japanese Grand Prix qualifying classification

October 8, 2016
F1 2016: Japanese Gp Free Practice 3 Report – Rosberg Leads The Way

Nico Rosberg set the quickest time in the third free practice session for the Japanese grand prix.

The one hour session was slow to get underway as the Suzuka circuit remained damp from an earlier rain shower. However, under overcast skies drivers began to venture out on intermediate tyres before soon switching to slicks.

Mercedes’ Rosberg set the quickest time of 1:32:092 ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo on a 1:32:394. Sebastian Vettel was third quickest for Ferrari but some 6 tenths adrift. Max Verstappen was fourth quickest despite hitting traffic on his quail simulation run. Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen made a mistake on his first flying lap on the soft tyre and then encountered some traffic on his second go while Lewis Hamilton did not set a representative lap on the yellow-walled soft tyre.

Final Free Practice Three Standings:

October 8, 2016

Japanese GP: Rosberg Ahead in Free Practice 2

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was fastest by just 0.072 in the 2nd free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Rosberg set a best time of 1:32.250 on his first run on the soft tyre for the qualifying simulation. Lewis Hamilton was just a whisker off with a 1:32.322 after dropping some time in the middle sector on his flying lap.

Rosberg had a bit of a scare at the start of the session when venturing out on track. While he was preparing for a practice start at the end of the pit lane smoke could be seen pouring out the back of his car. But as we’ve seen with Mercedes this is a usual event. What made this a bit worrying was that it was quite a bit of smoke.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was 3rd fastest 0.323s off the pace with a 1:32.573. Sebastian Vettel who was one of the first drivers to venture out on the soft tyres set a time of 1:33.103 to place him 5th fastest. While it looked like a quick lap the sector timed showed that Vettel lost time in the final sector.

Max Verstappen was 4th fastest for Red Bull ahead of Vettel and the Force India pair of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg in in 6th and 7th respectively.

Fernando Alonso showed some good pace finishing 8th fastest with a best time of 1:33.895 ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in 9th and Carlos Sainz

There were a few spins and offs during the session. Kevin Magnussen had a little lock up early in the session into the hair pin sending his Renault into the gravel and just narrowly missing the barrier. He was able to get the car rotated and pointing towards the track and managed to escape the barriers.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat had a moment out of the final corner loosing the rear of car and pirouetted down the pit straight. He was able to avoid the barriers and completed the session without any further issues.

Esteban Gutierrez’s session was shortened after stopping his Haas just before the Degners. Romain Grosjean was quite unimpressed with his car with brake issues throughout the session. After being told to keep the radio chatter to a minimum regarding the shortfalls of the car Grosjean had to make his frustration heard once again. “I’ve got some news. The brakes are still shit,” he said on one of his runs.

Mercedes seem to have the upper hand in the long runs and it seems that they may have a some pace stored away in case of an emergency. Red Bull are not that far off the pace with Ferrari trailing.

Times for Free Practice 2

Pos.	Driver	Team	Best Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:32.250	–	35
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:32.322	+0.072	35
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:32.573	+0.323	26
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:33.061	+0.811	29
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:33.103	+0.853	34
6	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:33.570	+1.320	37
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:33.873	+1.623	35
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:33.985	+1.735	37
9	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:34.028	+1.778	33
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:34.086	+1.836	33
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:34.127	+1.877	33
12	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:34.150	+1.900	29
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:34.241	+1.991	33
14	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:34.305	+2.055	27
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:34.339	+2.089	36
16	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:34.398	+2.148	29
17	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:34.643	+2.393	11
18	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:34.760	+2.510	40
19	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:34.824	+2.574	26
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:35.292	+3.042	30
21	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:35.400	+3.150	37
22	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:36.318	+4.068	26

Photo Credit Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team

October 7, 2016

F1 2016: Japanese Gp Free Practice 1 Report – Rosberg On Top

Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheets at the end of the first free practice session for the Japanese grand prix.

The 90 minute session got underway in brilliant sunshine with a track temperature hovering in the low 30 degrees Celsius range. Championship leader Rosberg set a quickest time of 1:32:431 on the yellow-walled soft tyres as teammate Lewis Hamilton set a 1:32:646 some .292 off first place.

The two Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen completed the top four but a scruffy lap from Vettel left him one second off the front-running Mercedes pace. Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were fifth and sixth quickest while the Force India pairing of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez ended in the session in seventh and eighth respectively. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top then.

Spaniard Alonso had an off early in the session when he lost the rear-end of his McLaren in the Spoon Curve. The former champion clouted the barrier on the outside of the corner quite hard with the rear of the car and required a rear-wing and floor change. The only other incident came in the form of Romain Grosjean who veered off the circuit at Degner two. The Haas F1 driver complained of brakes over the radio.

Final Free Practice 1 Standings:

October 7, 2016
F1 2016: Japanese Gp Preview – Dazzling Suzuka Awaits

At the 2015 Japanese grand prix the stories were all about Lewis Hamilton. In 2016 the headlines are still about the Mercedes driver but now has a far different context to them.

The triple world champion arrives in Japan 23 points adrift and a little sheepish after some emotionally charged comments after his retirement from the Malaysian grand prix one week ago. It’s an interesting place that Hamilton finds himself occupying. Bar his first championship win in 2008 he hasn’t found himself so far adrift of the championship in the last few seasons. Some will say that his comments suggest that he’s feeling the pressure and they may be right. But it’s only showing out of the car and not on track where it counts most.

Make no mistake despite Hamilton’s off track woe-is-me speech after his engine blow-up it wont have any affect on his driving in Japan or for the rest of the season. He’ll strap into the cockpit of that number 44 Mercedes and drive it fast as it will go. This is precisely the reason why the 2016 driver’s title is far from over. Of course unreliability or a clout from Sebastian Vettel could have an impact on proceedings but, as the illustrious ‘they’ like to say, that’s racing. The thrill for race fans is that we’ll now get to see how Hamilton responds and what Rosberg still has in the bank.

They get put on a show on one of the most challenging and inspiring circuits in the world. Japan’s Suzuka circuit commands respect and the utmost precision from the driver while throwing a technically challenging layout at the car. A firm crowd favourite in Japan Jenson Button explains his love for the famous circuit. “The Suzuka circuit is incredible – almost in a class of its own on the calendar. It’s as close to a ‘perfect’ track as you can get in terms of having all of the different elements you would want as a driver. It’s fast, technical, difficult, rewarding, and really fun to drive, so it’s up there among the best.

It’s not all about the Merc boys this weekend either. Red Bull’s one-two victory in Malaysia landed a big blow in the battle for second place in the constructor’s standings. Ferrari arrive in Japan far less competitive than they were in 2015 and with the layout of Suzuka will have a tough time beating the Red Bull around here. In fact, given their brilliantly performing chassis it’s not unlikely that Red Bull could push or even challenge Mercedes for the top step of the podium if they have track position. The run down the ultra quick first corner in Japan has often been quite spicy and both Mercs will surely approach it with a bit of caution, which could open the door for Red Bull to take advantage. The weather too looks set to play its part with rain forecast during qualifying and the race.

It is impossible to return to Japan without memories of Jules Bianchi drifting into the consciousness. Two years ago the young Frenchman crashed and sustained injuries that would later claim his life. However impossibly painful the lost must be to Jules’ family, friends, and fans at the very least his death was not in vain as Formula 1 and all motorsport continue to make strides in driver safety because of him.RIP Jules.

October 5, 2016