Rosberg Pips Hamilton To Japanese Pole

Nico Rosberg cemented Mercedes’ return to dominance when he grabbed pole at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday. The German had to fight off the challenge of his team-mate who edged closer every session, but an error on his timed lap in Q3 cost Hamilton and he settled for the second slot on the grid. Valtteri Bottas proved best-of-the-rest while Daniil Kvyat emerged unscathed from a mammoth crash.

In an effort to make up for the lack of dry running, most of the drivers took to the track as the green light flashed at the beginning of Q1. Max Verstappen was the first driver to clock a lap, although his fast first and second sectors were somewhat tarnished when he slipped wide at the final chicane. The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Rosberg jumped then to the top of the timesheets while the Williams cars and Daniel Ricciardo were some of the men separating the Silver Arrows from Verstappen’s Toro Rosso. Marcus Ericsson came close to clouting the barriers when he touched the astroturf on the lead into Spoon curve, with his C34 snapping and spinning into the gravel, leaving a startled Ericsson asking what had happened.

His spin affected Marussia driver Alexander Rossi who couldn’t set a competitive lap with the yellow flags flying and so ducked into the pits. When he returned to the track at the end of the session to finally set a lap, Max Verstappen’s Toro Rosso ground to a halt just after the hairpin with what looked like a mechanical gremlin, which again impeded Rossi and left him without a lap time. It also affected Button who didn’t have the chance to improve on his time and got stuck in 16th – meaning he’d drop out of Quali at Q1. He blamed the team for not telling him which way to set his engine and subsequently setting the wrong engine map himself. It’s the first time in his career the Briton hasn’t qualified in the top ten at Suzuka. This benefitted team-mate Alonso, though, who narrowly scraped through to Q2.

Q2 got underway and, although fast enough to progress into Q2, Verstappen was obviously out of contention and watched from the pitlane. Almost immediately, Rosberg dived to the top of the timesheets and was soon followed by Hamilton who went second fastest. The Williams men flanked the Silver Arrows but Kimi Raikkonen edged himself two-hundreths ahead of Massa, while Vettel occupied the other side of the Williams. The top six felt confident enough to sit out the rest of the session, leaving the remaining eight to battle it out for the last four places in Q3. Perez split the Red Bulls with the three men in the top ten, while a late lap from Alonso was not strong enough to make the top ten. Hulkenberg opted not to put in one last lap and was demoted to eleventh – and out of qualifying – when Grosjean took the last Q3 spot. The Force India driver has a three-place grid penalty from his crash with Massa last weekend and so will drop to fourteenth as a result. Carlos Sainz clocked twelfth ahead of Maldonado, with Alonso in fourteenth but only 0.5s off the cut-off mark.

Although ten drivers were left to battle for pole position, realistically only two were in the fight. Rosberg was the first to set a timed lap in the session and clocked a 1.32.584 while Hamilton set a lap 0.076s behind the other Mercedes, although this was on a lap where he locked his brakes at the hairpin, suggesting he could overthrow Rosberg for pole. Behind them, Bottas provisionally clasped third ahead of Vettel, Massa, Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Grosjean.

But as the drivers returned to the track for the final laps, Kvyat touched the grass on the entrance to the chicane and lost control of the car, spinning into the barrier which sent him sideways across the gravel and rolling the car. The Russian’s RB11 was utterly destroyed in the impact which will neccesitate a full rebuild, and as a result he will start the race from the pitlane. The red flag spurred by the crash came with only 36 seconds on the clock meaning there would not be enough time to set another lap and so qualifying was ended. Rosberg took pole as a result, with Hamilton rueing his lock-up which potentially cost him pole and Bottas taking third for Williams. Vettel took fourth for Ferrari, with former Ferrari man Massa ahead of the other Scuderia car, piloted by Raikkonen. Ricciardo took seventh ahead of eighth-placed Grosjean, while neither Sergio Perez nor Daniil Kvyat could set a time before the red flag, leaving them ninth and tenth.

Provisional Starting Grid:

1. Nico Rosberg
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Valtteri Bottas
4. Sebastian Vettel
5. Felipe Massa
6. Kimi Raikkonen
7. Daniel Ricciardo
8. Romain Grosjean
9. Sergio Perez
10. Daniil Kvyat
11. Carlos Sainz
12. Pastor Maldonado
13. Fernando Alonso
14. Nico Hulkenberg
15. Max Verstappen
16. Jenson Button
17. Marcus Ericsson
18. Felipe Nasr
19. Will Stevens
20. Alexander Rossi (No Time)

Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team. 

Rosberg Leads Mercedes Front-Row Lockout

Nico Rosberg took his eighth pole of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix today, qualifying two tenths ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The two had swapped fastest times in the first two sessions, but when it came to the all important Q3, it was Rosberg who came out on top. Although making a mistake at the hairpin, he outperformed Hamilton who had to fight to keep his car under control in the final sector.

Williams had looked promising in the practice sessions, and they followed this up with a second row lockout; Bottas qualifying ahead of Massa. Fernando Alonso, who insists he has not made a decision about 2015, qualified an impressive fifth compared to Kimi Raikkonen’s tenth in the sister car. Ironically, Sebastian Vettel, who announced this morning that he would be leaving Red Bull at the end of the season, qualified in ninth, just ahead of who is expected to be his team-mate in 2015. Ricciardo qualified in sixth, but Red Bull say that both of their cars are set up to optimise performance in the wet conditions tomorrow, so a strong showing from both Vettel and Ricciardo should be expected.

The McLaren men lined up in formation, with Kevin Magnussen ahead of Jenson Button, the latter now eager to impress in order to secure a seat next season. Jean-Eric Vergne was the first man to miss the Q3 session and qualified eleventh, but due to his sixth ICE change this season, he was handed a ten-place grid penalty and will subsequently start from twentieth. Therefore, Perez, who qualified twelfth, will start from eleventh. Daniil Kvyat could breathe a sigh of relief today with a seat in Red Bull confirmed for next season, and qualified thirteenth, ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber’s Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez.

Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean were both eliminated during the first Qualifying session, an embarrassing situation for Lotus. Maldonado will not start from seventeenth, however, due to a ten-place engine change penalty he will take, meaning he will start from the very back of the grid. Ahead of him will be Max Chilton and local hero Kamui Kobayashi, in twenty-first and twentieth respectively. Jules Bianchi qualified behind Marcus Ericsson, but explained that a call to the FIA weigh-bridge meant he could not set another flying lap, possibly costing him a higher grid spot.

The FIA has locked in tomorrow at 3pm local time as the race start time, despite the certainty of heavy rain at Suzuka thanks to Typhoon Phanfone. The race is not expected to be called off, however, as the brunt of the storm shouldn’t hit the area until after the race. Nonetheless, tomorrow promises to be a tough race. Jenson Button  and Valtteri Bottas are two men to pay particular attention to, as they tend to excel in wet conditions. Tomorrow also offers the opportunity for a back-marker team to score a few points, as wet races often have chaotic results.

Japanese Grand Prix Qualifying Results:

1. Nico Rosberg
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Valtteri Bottas
4. Felipe Massa
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Daniel Ricciardo
7. Kevin Magnussen
8. Jenson Button
9. Sebastian Vettel
10. Kimi Raikkonen
11. Jean-Eric Vergne
12. Sergio Perez
13. Daniil Kvyat
14. Nico Hulkenberg
15. Adrian Sutil
16. Esteban Gutierrez
17. Pastor Maldonado
18. Romain Grosjean
19. Marcus Ericsson
20. Jules Bianchi
21. Kamui Kobayashi
22. Max Chilton

Image courtesy of Mercedes F1 Team. 

Rosberg Beats Hamilton In Mixed Conditions Qualifying

Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton to pole at the Belgian Grand Prix this afternoon, marking his fourth consecutive pole position. This time around Hamilton had no mechanical failures to blame or excuses to make as to why he couldn’t beat his team-mate, giving Rosberg fodder in the series of mind-games that Hamilton started in May. Sebastian Vettel was the best of the rest behind the Mercedes front-row, with Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo flanking him.

The Marussia men were the first to brave the track this afternoon and were followed out by the Caterham and Toro Rosso drivers. Following a heavy hail storm fourty minutes before Qualifying the track was wet and the drivers fitted the Intermediate compound to their cars. The surface water proved too much for the lighter wet weather tyres and drivers struggled for the first few laps as Hamilton, Magnussen, Bottas and Vettel all went off track at the bus stop chicane, while Felipe Massa skipped over the kerbs following a lock up at turn 7. Impressively, Hamilton went off track at the last corner but still managed to set the fastest lap. Esteban Gutierrez had no issues in the wet but he was helpless as his car gave up and forced him to pull over at turn 15 halfway through Q1. The track was relatively dry by the time the first part of Qualifying drew to an end, but Maldonado was still caught out by the conditions and spun under breaking at the bus stop chicane, forcing Vettel to take evasive action. Maldonado recovered under yellow flags but his second attempt was not enough to clear him from the drop-out zone and he qualified seventeenth. Nico Hulkenberg was a surprising drop-out in eighteenth, ahead of Max Chilton and Esteban Gutierrez. Kobayashi stand-in Andre Lotterer outqualified full-time driver Marcus Ericsson by a full second on his F1 debut.

Jules Bianchi made it through to Q2 but was in no rush to get out on track, while Romain Grosjean lead Adrian Sutil out. Perez came out and was warned that, as rain was expected, his first lap could be his quickest. As such, all the opening laps were important, but both Romain Grosjean and Jules Bianchi spun at turn 1 on their first attempts. Nico Rosberg headed Fernando Alonso and FP3 leader Valtteri Bottas after their respective first laps, but when Hamilton came around on his second attempt, he was quicker by a full second. The Toro Rosso drivers gambled by delaying going out but this proved fruitless as both drivers failed to make it through to Q3, Kvyat qualifying eleventh ahead of Vergne in second. Jenson Button narrowly slipped into the top ten in the final seconds, and Perez’s quest to promote himself and knock Button out failed as the Mexican couldn’t better thirteenth. Adrian Sutil made it out of Q1 and qualified fourteenth while Romain Grosjean finished just ahead of Jules Bianchi who will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix in sixteenth.

Q3 begun and brought the fight for pole. Hamilton was the first driver to start a flying lap but immediately went wide at Saint Devote and caused a loss of 1.6s over team-mate Nico Rosberg who was behind him. Rosberg crossed the line three seconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who took provisional second, while Hamilton backed off to save his tyres and recorded a lap six seconds slower than Rosberg. Alonso’s first lap brought him to third, Bottas’ gave him fourth and Massa went fifth after his first effort, although Ricciardo, Button and Magnussen all jumped him in the following minute. Raikkonen was the last man to record a lap and went fifth, behind Alonso. Hamilton came around for his second attempt at securing provisional pole but could only go second, 0.7s behind Rosberg.

Vettel was the first man to set a lap on a second set of tyres and improved slightly but stayed third. The track was now drying, suggesting that the last man across the line could have an advantage. Hamilton was one of the last to start his lap but lost temperature in his brakes in his efforts to give himself some free space and subsequently went slightly wide at turn 1. Hamilton improved his time by four tenths but couldn’t get near to Rosberg who also improved him time, qualifying three tenths ahead of his team-mate. Daniel Ricciardo had a very close call after going wide at turn 19 and saving himself from a huge accident while flying over the kerbs, but his commitment was only rewarded with fifth. His team-mate Vettel was the best-of-the-rest behind the Mercedes men while Fernando Alonso finished fourth. Valtteri Bottas was sixth, a disappointing result from the Finn who tends to shine in wet conditions, while Magnussen fended off Raikkonen for seventh. Felipe Massa qualified ninth while Jenson Button rounded out the top ten – another disappointing result for a driver who excels in mixed conditions.

Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying results:

1. Nico Rosberg
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Sebastian Vettel
4. Fernando Alonso
5. Daniel Ricciardo
6. Valtteri Bottas
7. Kevin Magnussen
8. Kimi Raikkonen
9. Felipe Massa
10. Jenson Button
11. Daniil Kvyat
12. Jean-Eric Vergne
13. Sergio Perez
14. Adrian Sutil
15. Romain Grosjean
16. Jules Bianchi
17. Pastor Maldonado
18. Nico Hulkenberg
19. Max Chilton
20. Esteban Gutierrez
21. Andre Lotterer
22. Marcus Ericsson

Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team. 

Rosberg Eases To Pole As Hamilton Crashes

Nico Rosberg took an unchallenged pole position at his home Grand Prix today following a brakes failure on the other Mercedes car which sent his only realistic competitor into the barriers at turn 13. With no one within range of the superior Mercedes, the Williams men slotted in to second and third ahead of McLaren’s Magnussen and the Red Bull duo.

Rosberg had made a series of mistakes on his opening laps in Q1 and was pushing hard to make sure he’d progress to the next session when a Mercedes was seen hitting the barriers at turn 13. Due to the dust thrown up by the accident it was hard to identify the driver and it looked to have been Rosberg crashing out of his home Qualifying session. But as the dust settled it became apparent that it was his team-mate who had hit the barriers. Mercedes soon confirmed that Hamilton’s crash had been caused by a brake disc failure. His front brake disc broke, locking his front right tyre and causing his car to spin. The momentum carried him across the gravel and he hit the barrier violently.

The session was red flagged as the debris was cleared up and Hamilton was whisked away by the medical car, while the other cars returned to the pits. While Rosberg still hadn’t a clear lap set, he would only need to get a relatively fast lap done when the session restarted in order to progress. It was a different story in the Caterham garage though, where Marcus Ericsson’s car was still on stilts and undergoing surgery. By the time the session was restarted and the clock resumed ticking down, Caterham were no nearer getting the car ready and Ericsson resigned himself to the back of the grid.

The usual suspects moved safely through to Q2, although many of them had to burn a set of the quicker super-soft tyres to make sure they got through. Adrian Sutil, despite his seemingly improved performance this season, amid rumours of his imminent replacement, qualified down the order in a disappointing seventeenth for Sauber. Jules Bianchi out-qualified Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus by half-a-second, while Max Chilton and Kamui Kobayashi took twentieth and twenty-first – leaving twenty-second for Ericsson who failed to set a time.

Hamilton moved through to Q2 but obviously couldn’t set a lap, and so sixteenth on the grid was reserved for him. Q2 was a far more straightforward affair and resulted in Button, Raikkonen, Vergne, Gutierrez and Grosjean being knocked out, in that order. Button was quick on the radio to express his anger at a Lotus which, he said, had held him up, but replays showed that the Lotus was several seconds ahead of Button, and so the stewards ignored the complaint. Gutierrez qualified fourteenth, but his grid penalty for his clash with Maldonado in Silverstone will be carried forward, and so he will start seventeenth – promoting Hamilton to fifteenth.

While pole position for Rosberg was almost guaranteed, the grid between second and tenth was still to be decided. The Force India duo came out early but neither lap was impressive and put Hulkenberg and Perez down the bottom of the order.Bottas and Massa crossed the line next for Williams, and secured provisional second and third respectively. Kevin Magnussen pushed ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, whose team-mate then slotted ahead of the McLaren. Alonso was surprisingly off the pace and could only manage sixth for the Scuderia, while Kvyat took eighth on his first effort. For their second laps, Magnussen improved to fourth and Ricciardo to fifth, while Alonso was bumped down to ninth. Excluding Bottas’ lap, which moved him to two-tenths shy of Rosberg, no one else improved, and no one could challenge Rosberg at the front.

1. Nico Rosberg
2. Valtteri Bottas
3. Felipe Massa
4. Kevin Magnussen
5. Daniel Ricciardo
6. Sebastian Vettel
7. Fernando Alonso
8. Daniil Kvyat
9. Nico Hulkenberg
10. Sergio Perez
11. Jenson Button
12. Kimi Raikkonen
13. Jean-Eric Vergne
14. Romain Grosjean
15. Lewis Hamilton
16. Adrian Sutil
17. Esteban Gutierrez*
18. Jules Bianchi
19. Pastor Maldonado
20. Max Chilton
21. Kamui Kobayashi
22. Marcus Ericsson (no time)

*including a three place grid penalty

Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team. 

Rosberg Steals British GP Pole From Hamilton

Nico Rosberg took pole from under Lewis Hamilton’s nose at the British Grand Prix, after Hamilton abandoned his last lap, believing that a wet track would stop everyone from improving, and would secure his provisional pole position.

A dark cloud lingered over Silverstone as Q1 got underway, which brought a serious threat of rain and led the drivers to rush out onto the circuit to try to get some banker laps down while the track was still relatively dry.

The backmarkers were the first ones to set a lap, and were six seconds faster than the fastest time in the wet morning practice session. After all had drivers set a lap, it was Hamilton leading from Ricciardo and Rosberg.

The clock ticked down and, with three minutes left, Jenson Button, the Saubers and the backmarkers went out on the dry compound tyres, which would then prompt everyone to come back out. Gutierrez went top and was followed by Chilton then Button, who went nearly three seconds quicker, but had his time deleted as he exceeded track limits at the final corner.

Drivers were given the hurry up and needed to get the perfect lap to ensure that they made it through to the next stage of Qualifying – but a perfectly timed yellow flag caused by Adrian Sutil’s spinning Sauber ruined the final chance for Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen to make it through, while Fernando Alonso went wide at Brooklands and lost his chance – meaning both Williams drivers and both Ferrari drivers joined the Caterham duo in the drop-zone.

With the Ferrari and Williams story fresh in their minds, the teams were eager to get straight out on track when Q2 began. Hamilton went quickest ahead of Rosberg, while Grosjean, Gutierrez, Bianchi, Vettel, Chilton and Sutil were stranded in the drop-zone. Those in the bottom six were given the hurry-up and Vettel jumped from fourteenth to first, five-tenths clear of Hamilton’s – but this was lap time subsequently deleted after it was found that Vettel has exceeded track limits at turn 9, putting him back in the drop-zone. In the meantime, Ricciardo got within two tenths of Hamilton’s fastest time as he took the top time.

The conditions improved and the drivers swapped over to the dry tyres. Jules Bianchi was the first to improve and he went to the top of the times, although Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel weren’t long getting back to the top spots.

Gutierrez was pushing to make it into Q3 – but pushed too hard and spun backwards into the barriers at Luffield, ending his session prematurely and resigning himself to fourteenth. Meanwhile, the Marussia duo recorded an impressive twelfth and thirteenth, although Chilton will be five places down due to a grid penalty, while Pastor Maldonado was told to pull over with a loss of oil pressure and subsequently finished fifteenth.

The fastest ten drivers progressed to Q3 and, again, there was no hesitation on getting out on track. The rain had cleared but it could not be guaranteed that it would stay away, and it was important that everyone got a good first lap in – both Q1 and Q2 had ended under yellow flags. A similar end to Q3 could throw up a surprise pole position.

The Toro Rosso duo tip-toed around and put down their banker laps, while Perez beat Ricciardo to third – behind Hamilton and Rosberg respectively. The McLaren duo filled out the bottom two places with their first laps, but was then split by Hulkenberg. Rain was still falling lightly, with Hamilton on provisional pole.

Sebastian Vettel abandoned his first attempt in the hopes of saving tyres and reaping the rewards of going out after the track had had the chance to dry. The gamble surprisingly worked, and the final sector proved to be the driest section of the track. Hamilton, originally trying to slow his team-mate, safe in the knowledge that he had pole, came into the pits, and watched, helplessly, as Hulkenberg took the top time, followed by Vettel, then Button and finally, Rosberg – who took pole. As a result of the surprise dry sector, Hamilton was bumped down to sixth.

Qualifying results:

1. Nico Rosberg
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Jenson Button
4. Nico Hulkenberg
5. Kevin Magnussen
6. Lewis Hamilton
7. Sergio Perez
8. Daniel Ricciardo
9. Daniil Kvyat
10. Jean-Eric Vergne
11. Romain Grosjean
12. Jules Bianchi
13. Max Chilton
14. Esteban Gutierrez
15. Pastor Maldonado
16. Adrian Sutil
17. Valtteri Bottas
18. Felipe Massa
19. Fernando Alonso
20. Kimi Raikkonen
21. Marcus Ericsson
22. Kamui Kobayashi

Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team. 

Rosberg Keeps Pole After Stewards’ Investigation

Nico Rosberg will start tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix on pole position after the stewards cleared him of purposefully parking his car during Qualifying.

The German took pole position when he went off track at Mirabeau, causing yellow flags which subsequently slowed Lewis Hamilton and prevented anyone from beating Rosberg’s fast first lap. The incident split opinions and some suggested that Rosberg, like Schumacher in 2006, had parked to secure pole. However, stewards finally announced that after reviewing video, telemetry and talking to Rosberg and Mercedes, they could find no evidence which would suggest that Rosberg purposefully went off track.

As a result of the decision, Rosberg keeps his pole position and will start from the front for the second consecutive time in Monte Carlo. He won last year’s Grand Prix from pole position.

Rosberg took victory in the season opening Australian Grand Prix when Hamilton retired from pole, but has failed to repeat the feat as Hamilton has taken victory in the last four races. Starting from pole in the tight, windy streets of Monaco would certainly give him the odds of ending Hamilton’s winning streak.

Stewards were also investigating a crash between Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Massa which occurred in the closing stages of Q1. They found Ericsson to be at fault and ordered him to start from the pitlane.

Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team.

Rosberg Takes Pole From Hamilton

Nico Rosberg will start the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position after narrowly edging out team-mate and Championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Both men set banker laps in the opening minutes of Q3 but as Rosberg began his second flying lap, he locked-up and took to the escape road at Mirabeau, prompting yellow flags. As Hamilton was behind him on track, he was forced to slow down and abandon his lap, giving pole to Rosberg. Although there have been suspicious circumstances regarding pole position in the past, Schumacher in 2006 for example, Rosberg seems to have been the victim of a lucky mistake.

Mistake or not, it will nonetheless cause tension between the two Mercedes men as Hamilton could not put in a second attempt for pole. Daniel Ricciardo was third for Red Bull and admitted that he made a mistake in turn 8 which cost him the chance to challenge for the front row, while Vettel finished fourth in the other Red Bull. The Ferrari duo locked out the third row of the grid, Alonso fifth and Raikkonen sixth, but they look no closer to challenging the top four drivers. Jean-Eric Vergne and Marcus Ericsson filled out the fourth row on the grid while Daniil Kvyat and Sergio Perez filled out the top ten.

Nico Hulkenberg finished eleventh for Force India, narrowly missing out on Q3, but being the first man who has a free choice of tyres for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Jenson Button bizarrely slowed in the final sector of his last flying lap and continued to cruise down the start/finish straight, leaving him down the order in twelfth. Valtteri Bottas finished 13th for Williams while Felipe Massa was taken out by a sliding Marcus Ericsson into Mirabeau at the end of Q1 and failed to run in the second session, causing him to start sixteenth. The Lotus drivers finished fourteenth and fifteenth.

Esteban Gutierrez was the first man to drop out of Qualifying, going seventeenth for Sauber, while Adrian Sutil qualified eighteenth in the sister car. Jules Bianchi was put under investigation for impeding during the opening session and could lose his nineteenth, but provisionally qualified ahead of Max Chilton. The Caterham duo were twenty-first and twenty-second, with Ericsson qualifying last after the aforementioned crash with Massa.

Daniil Kvyat also made contact with the barriers when he got out of shape coming out of the tunnel and spun across the chicane, in an almost exact copy of Sergio Perez’s 2012 shunt. Luckily for the Russian, who went on to qualify ninth, he kept out of the TecPro barriers and managed to return to the pitlane. Maldonado also got out of shape but wonderfully controlled the car and stayed on track.

As there are several investigations underway, primarily for impeding other drivers, the provisional results could be completely changed.

Provisional Qualifying results:

1. Nico Rosberg
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Daniel Ricciardo
4. Sebastian Vettel
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Kimi Raikkonen
7. Jean-Eric Vergne
8. Kevin Magnussen
9. Daniil Kvyat
10. Sergio Perez
11. Nico Hulkenberg
12. Jenson Button
13. Valtteri Bottas
14. Romain Grosjean
15. Pastor Maldonado
16. Felipe Massa
17. Esteban Gutierrez
18. Adrian Sutil
19. Jules Bianchi
20. Max Chilton
21. Kamui Kobayashi
22. Marcus Ericsson

Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team.

Hamilton Leads Rosberg In Mercedes 1-2 In Catalunya

Lewis Hamilton regained control at the Spanish Grand Prix, fending off a challenge from team-mate Nico Rosberg who topped the morning practice session by 0.8s. Rosberg had taken provisional pole until Hamilton put in a late lap and took his fourth pole position this season by 0.16s. Daniel Ricciardo was the best of the rest while there were more problems for Vettel who was forced to pull over in Q3.

Esteban Gutierrez was the first man to take to the track during the first Qualifying session and was naturally the first to set a lap. As drivers began to set their first laps, Maldonado spun out of turn 3 and hit the wall, destroying the front right of his car and prompting the red flags to be shown. It was a rookie mistake, and had the Venezuelan let the car spin instead of trying to save the already ruined lap, he would have escaped unscathed. Nonetheless, Lotus face a long night of rebuilding his car.

As the session continued, the back-marker teams were the first to venture into Medium compound territory. As they fought amongst themselves, Mercedes’ two drivers battled each other for the top time. Hamilton was four-tenths behind Rosberg as the session came to an end, but as the times for the top 16 drivers were wiped, it won’t count in the fight for pole. At the very back, Maldonado was 22nd as he failed to set a lap before his lap. He will start 21st, however, as Jean-Eric Vergne qualified 16th but incurred a ten-place grid penalty for a loose wheel on Friday. Kamui Kobayashi was uncharacteristically far down the order in 21st, behind team-mate Marcus Ericsson and the Marussia duo of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton. Adrian Sutil was the last man to miss the second session, four tenths shy of Vergne in sixteenth.

Q2 saw two drivers failing to set a lap: Kevin Magnussen suffered from a power unit failure which blighted him in Q1 and he qualified fifteenth, while Vergne opted not to waste a set of tyres as his penalty would move him back to the back regardless. Back up the front, Massa led Bottas in the timesheets briefly before Raikkonen came round and bumped them down the order. Both drivers survived the cut-off point, while Fernando Alonso came very close to dropping out in Q2, his fate hanging in the balance as Perez looked to set a faster lap. Eventually Perez pitted and Alonso lived to fight another session. Hulkenberg was the first man to miss the drop out zone ahead of the aforementioned Perez and Daniil Kvyat in thirteenth. Esteban Gutierrez was fourteenth for Sauber ahead of Magnussen and Vergne.

In Q3, Rosberg and Hamilton were on their flying laps when a second red flag interrupted their fastest laps. The cause of the stoppage was Sebastian Vettel who had pulled over at turn 2 with a myriad of lights highlighting an issue on his dashboard. Crucially the Mercedes drivers had taken some life out of their tyres ahead of the race tomorrow.

With the Red Bull cleanly out of the way and Vettel back in the garage, Qualifying resumed. Hamilton was the first to set a lap and set a lap which was not beaten by Nico Rosberg the following lap. Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line in third with Alonso taking provisional fourth in front of his home crowd. Kimi Raikkonen threw his unstable car around the track and beat Alonso to fourth. Rosberg took provisional pole for a split second before Hamilton crossed the line to take pole by .15s. Valtteri Bottas incredibly took fourth, ahead of an equally impressive performance from Grosjean who stuck his car on fifth in the grid. Raikkonen and Alonso settled for sixth and seventh with Jenson Button eighth, Felipe Massa ninth and Vettel in tenth without a lap time.

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Nico Rosberg
3. Daniel Ricciardo
4. Valtteri Bottas
5. Romain Grosjean
6. Kimi Raikkonen
7. Fernando Alonso
8. Jenson Button
9. Felipe Massa
10. Sebastian Vettel
11. Nico Hulkenberg
12. Sergio Perez
13. Daniil Kvyat
14. Esteban Gutierrez
15. Kevin Magnussen
16. Adrian Sutil
17. Max Chilton
18. Jules Bianchi
19. Marcus Ericsson
20. Kamui Kobayashi
21. Pastor Maldonado (NT)
22. Jean-Eric Vergne*
    *including a ten place penalty.

Image courtesy Mercedes AMG F1 Team.

Hamilton Storms To Shanghai Pole

Lewis Hamilton stormed to a dominant pole position at the Shanghai International Circuit today, beating closest rival Daniel Ricciardo by a full second in wet conditions. While Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg spun on his final flying lap, Hamilton was flawless as he romped to his third pole of the season – the fourth of four for the Mercedes team. Daniel Ricciardo in second beat his team-mate who lines up third, this race being the third race where he has out-qualified his World Champion team-mate. Rosberg took fourth but could have improved if not for the last-minute spin, while Fernando Alonso took fifth for Ferrari. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas both made it through to Q3 and lined up in order, taking sixth and seventh for Williams respectively, while Nico Hulkenberg narrowly made it through to Q3 and then qualified eighth. Jean-Eric Vergne took his STR9 to ninth on the grid while Romain Grosjean rounded out the top ten, a particularly impressive feat by the Frenchman whose team-mate failed to qualify.

Kimi Raikkonen improved in all sectors on his final attempt to get through to Q3, but he missed the cut by a mere 0.013 and resigned himself to a Q2 drop-out. Jenson Button, who usually excels in wet conditions, couldn’t improve on twelfth, with the other McLaren, the one piloted by Kevin Magnussen, qualifying fifteenth. Daniil Kvyat was thirteenth for Toro Rosso ahead of Sauber’s Sutil in fourteenth. Sergio Perez, coming from Bahrain where he took Force India’s second ever podium, will face an uphill battle if he hopes to repeat that feat from sixteenth on the grid.

Gutierrez pushed hard, too hard perhaps, on his final lap in Q1 which sent him wide at the final corner and this narrowly saved Lotus’ Romain Grosjean who hung dangerously in sixteenth. Kobayashi crossed the line and took eighteenth for Caterham, while Jules Bianchi’s efforts to make it out of the bottom six were ruined when he went incredibly wide at the final corner. He subsequently qualified nineteenth ahead of the Caterham of Marcus Ericsson who himself out-qualified Max Chilton. Pastor Maldonado failed to take part in Qualifying following an engine problem which was discovered late in this morning’s practice session and which the team were unable to fix before Quali. As a result he lines up twenty-second, and his five place grid penalty for making contact with Gutierrez in Bahrain carries over to the Spanish Grand Prix.

Provisional Grid:

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Daniel Ricciardo
3. Sebastian Vettel
4. Nico Rosberg
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Felipe Massa
7. Valtteri Bottas
8. Nico Hulkenberg
9. Jean-Eric Vergne
10. Romain Grosjean
11. Kimi Raikkonen
12. Jenson Button
13. Daniil Kvyat
14. Adrian Sutil
15. Kevin Magnussen
16. Sergio Perez
17. Esteban Gutierrez
18. Kamui Kobayashi
19. Jules Bianchi
20. Marcus Ericsson
21. Max Chilton
22. Pastor Maldonado (did not take part).

Image courtesy Mercedes AMG F1 Team.

Rosberg Leads Mercedes Front Row Lockout In Bahrain

Nico Rosberg stormed to pole position at the Bahrain International Circuit, denying Lewis Hamilton the chance to take his third consecutive pole position. While Rosberg’s first Q3 lap was initially intended to be a banker lap, he was able to abandon his second lap after Hamilton, his only challenger to pole, locked up his tyres and went off the track at turn 1.

Daniel Ricciardo put in a fantastic lap to take third place, just six tenths back from Hamilton and eight tenths shy of pole. However, his hard work will go unrewarded as he gets bumped back ten grid places due to a penalty he incurred in Malaysia after a team mistake saw him leave his pit box without a wheel properly attached. This means he’ll start thirteenth, while his team-mate moves into the top ten due to the subsequent reshuffle. Vettel couldn’t make the top ten under his own steam and he qualified eleventh. After his exit from Quali, he immediately came onto the radio to blast downshift issues for his lack of pace, but after he also suffered an uncharacteristic spin in FP3, Ricciardo seems to have the upper hand on his World Champion team-mate.

Valtteri Bottas will line up third on the grid for the race, equalling his best race start from the Canadian Grand Prix last year. The Finn was 1.1s behind Rosberg, but essentially the best of the rest which, it seems, is what the other teams are striving to be. Sergio Perez had the upper hand on Nico Hulkenberg all weekend, at the circuit where he also recovered the gap to his new team-mate Jenson Button after a slow start to his McLaren career last year. This year it was fifth for Perez and twelfth for Hulkenberg, the German blaming a mistake at turn 11 for his Q2 exit.

Kimi Raikkonen was sixth for Ferrari which was an underperformance on the Scuderia’s Friday pace. Alonso was even further down the grid as he qualified tenth, which he admitted was a disappointing drop of performance when it was most needed. Jenson Button qualified seventh, starting sixth, at his 250th Grand Prix. While he looked on the bright side and stated that there would be a “fighting chance” of making it to the podium in the race, Kevin Magnussen was less enthusiastic as he revealed that the team had hoped for more out of Qualifying, but took solace at the thought that their race pace seems to be better than their qualifying pace.

The Toro Rosso duo of Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne seemed to have a stronger pace than their 13th and 14th in Qualifying would suggest. Indeed Kvyat admitted that he was “a little disappointed and also surprised with only making it to Q2”. Esteban Gutierrez was “satisfied” with his fifteenth place, while Adrian Sutil took eighteenth and once again pointed towards the car’s weight. The German has vowed not to carry a water bottle on his car in a bid to take some weight from the car – a very dangerous risk to take given the temperatures. To add to his troubles, he was subsequently given a five-place grid penalty when the stewards deemed him to have impeded Lotus’ Romain Grosjean in an “unsafe manner”, meaning Sutil will start from the back of the grid.

Grosjean cannot blame Sutil for his sixteenth in Qualifying, not that he’d want to,  given the fact that he managed to make it out of Q1. Maldonado was not as lucky and missed out on the second qualifying, simply admitting that they didn’t have the pace in the cars. Lotus’ trackside operations director, Alan Permane, defended the drivers and congratulated them on their “superb pace”, but explaining that the car lacked a competitive single lap pace.

Kamui Kobayashi out-drove the Marussias, a particularly impressive feat given Caterham’s slow start to the weekend. Kobayashi believes that his result is a realistic view of where they are with performance. Ericsson was equally happy with his Qualifying and said that his Qualifying lap was the best lap he had done all weekend. Bianchi finished twentieth for Marussia, behind Kobayashi but ahead of Ericsson, and blamed a lack of straight line speed for the loss to Caterham. Chilton, who qualified dead last, admitted that he was disappointed as he felt that they could edge closer to Q2.

Bahrain Grand Prix Starting Grid, Including Penalties

1. Nico Rosberg
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Valtteri Bottas
4. Sergio Perez
5. Kimi Raikkonen
6. Jenson Button
7. Felipe Massa
8. Kevin Magnussen
9. Fernando Alonso
10. Sebastian Vettel
11. Nico Hulkenberg
12. Daniil Kvyat
13. Daniel Ricciardo
14. Jean-Eric Vergne
15. Esteban Gutierrez
16. Romain Grosjean
17. Pastor Maldonado
18. Kamui Kobayashi
19. Jules Bianchi
20. Marcus Ericsson
21. Max Chilton
22. Adrian Sutil