Sunday, November 18, 2012

Hamilton wins Inaugural US GP

Hamilton wins Inaugural US GP as Vettel posts fastest lap



In a thrilling Formula One  US Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton snatched the win from pole sitter Sebastian Vettel. Title contender Fernando Alonso came third as Mark Webber retired.

In a controversy before the start of the race, Ferrari changed the gear box of Felipe Massa so that he got a five place grid slot penalty. Massa was to start at 5th and Fernando Alonso at 8th. Fernando Alonso would have started on the dirty side of the grid which would is estimated to yield two places during the race start. By exploiting the loop hole in the laws, Ferrari changed the Gear box of Massa so after the penalty Fernando Alonso started at 7th and Massa dropped down to 11th. Alonso immediately took benefit of the decision as he quickly moved to fourth and then after Mark Webber retired was on third. Though Alonso traded a few places up and down during the pitstops, he ended in the podium in third place behind championship leader Vettel.

Felipe Massa finished a creditable 4th behind Fernando Alonso.

Michael Schumacher who started at 5th went slower every lap and kept on sliding back till he made an early pit stop to change into hard tires. However, he could not make the hard tires last and then had to make another pit stop and ended a lap down and in 16th position.

Jenson Button had a strong race despite his poor starting position and finished at 5th ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus. Romain Grosjean had a spin and appeared to damage his tires and went back to the grid. He then changed to hard tires and set fastest lap times after about 10 laps in the hard tires. This made other drives rush to change to hard tires.  Grosjean finished at 7th place. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India who is off to Sauber after this season held off the charging Willams drivers Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna and they finished in 8th, 9th and 10th positions respectively.

Sergio Perez of Sauber finished outside the points at 11th, followed by Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso at 12th, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes at 13th. Kamui Kobayashi finished at 14th followed by Paul di Resta of Force India at 15th ahead of Schumacher at 16th.

Schumacher became the Formula One driver to have driven the maximum miles in races. Schumacher after driving two laps in the Formula One US GP broke the record of Brazilian Rubens Barrichelo.

Vitaly Petrov held off his team mate Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham to finish 17th and 18th respectively. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia finished 19th and 20th respectively followed by Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT at 21st and 22nd positions.

Mark Webber and Jean-Eric Vergne retired in the Formula One US Grand Prix.

After the Formula One US Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull leads the drivers championship with 13 points more than Fernando Alonso of Ferrari. The season ending Brazilian Grand Prix will be a thrilling affair. At the Formula One US Grand Prix Red Bull won the constructors championship. It is to be seen if Sebastian Vettel can hold back Fernando Alonso to win the Formula One drivers championship.





Saturday, November 17, 2012

Inaugural US GP pole for Sebastian Vettel

Inaugural United States GP pole for Sebastian Vettel


Sebastian Vettel managed to score the pole in the inaugural Grand Prix in Austin by using parts that were specially flown in the night before. Red Bull has been relentlessly developing the car to ensure Sebastian Vettel to win the drivers championship. In comparision his competitor for this years driver's championship title Fernando Alonso has been forced to depend on his individual brilliance as his Ferrari team has been lagging behind in this development race. Ferrari being a marque team with a huge motor racing history as well as sports car business is lagging behind Red Bull which is a soft drinks company. The humiliation for Ferrari can't be more. Considering the fact that in 2010, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel stole the title from Fernando Alonso in the last race.

Lewis Hamilton, driving his penultimate race for McLaren gave a big fight to Sebastian Vettel but had to settle for second position scoring 1:35.766 s to Vettel's 1m 35. 657seconds.

Mark Webber of Red Bull came third and was allowed to retain his place though he missed a mandatory post qualifying weigh in.

Romain Grosjean outqualified his fancied team mate Kimi Raikkonen to score a 4th postion. However, he picks up a five place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. So Kimi Raikkonen will now start at 4th position.

Michael Schumacher - the God of Formula One - driving the penultimate race before his retirement, scored a strong sixth position. Due to Grosjean's penalty, he will now start at fifth position. His much younger teammate Nico Rosberg starts at a poor 17th position. As usual, Nico Rosberg was quick to jump to his defence and talked about using a different exhaust system than Michael. Nico Rosberg was faster than Michael in FP1 and FP3 and had never talked about using a different exhaust system than Michael Schumacher. However, he choose to give an excuse when he was 11 places lower than Michael Schumacher in Qualifying. This has been the story in every race when Micahel Schumacher is faster. On the other hand, Michael Schumacher being a self assured person doesn't even talk about equipment deficiency when his car breaks down or when that leads to his slower times.

Ferrari team mates Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were 7th and 9th and will now start at 6th and 8th due to Romain Grosjean's grid penalty.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India, brought some good news for his team at a time when both the majority owners of Force India are having financial troubles, by qualifying in 8th place. His team mate Paul di Resta will start at 13th.

Pastor Maldonado of Williams will start at 10th position whereas his team mate Bruno Senna will start at 11th. Jenson Button of McLaren will start at a poor 12th position, separated by a massive ten positions from his teammate Lewis Hamilton who will start second. Since Hamilton is leaving McLaren after this season to join Mercedes, the McLaren team will be ruing the mistake they did by not giving in to the demands of Lewis Hamilton. Some of those sore points which led to Lewis Hamilton's moving away to Mercedes was the right to retain the winner's trophy. McLaren wanted to take away the trophy won by its drivers.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso gave a good account of himself by scoring the 14th position. He was followed by the Sauber's of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi at 15th and 16th.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso was 18th. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia scored 19th and 20th positions ahead of the two Caterham cars of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov. With Marussia now being ahead of Caterham in the driver's championship due to Timo Glock's 12th place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix, and the Marussia showing more pace than the Caterham cars, it appears that Marussia will score the 10th place in the team championship. That should be worth about 20 million pounds and will come as a severe blow to the Caterham team.

The rear was brought up by Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT. Narain Karthikeyan's car stopped with a problem. The HRT team is financially very weak and its management is hoping to sell the team outright. It is not sure if the HRT team can do a good job in the race, as there are some doubts about the parts being used. They have stopped development long time ago due to paucity of funds.

It would be good if an Indian company like Tata's can buy this F1 team outright and invest resources and turn it into a winning team. Narain and the Indian fans deserve it. 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Kimi wins first race for Lotus in Abu Dhabi

Kimi wins Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, first after comeback


Accidents galore in the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012 as Kimi Raikkonen wins for Lotus.

Pole setter Lewis Hamilton had a engine failure and had to stop. This handed over the race lead to Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus and despite some challenges and safety cars, Kimi held on to the lead for his first win of his comeback.

There were some first lap incidents. Nico Rosberg had to pit following a first lap incident. However, later Nico Rosberg ploughed into Narain Karthikeyan in a scary accident and flew over his car into the barriers. Fortunately, neither of the drivers were hurt. This incident will be investigated after the race.

Romain Grosjean who had to drop down following an incident later on again got caught in another incident triggered by Sergio Perez. This resulted in Mark Webber getting hit by Romain Grosjean there by ending Webber’s race. Sergio Perez was given a stop go penalty for this incident.

Michael Schumacher who had started the race in medium tyres had climbed upto 10th and then 8th position. However, the second safety car resulted in a left rear puncture and he had to pit again thereby ruining his race.

Sebastian Vettel who was disqualified from qualifying started in the pits. However, his team could change his gear ratio and he had a very fast car. He moved up by passing the slower cars and benefitted from the safety car triggered by Nico Rosberg. So Sebastian Vettel took advantage of the safety car and then pitted to take the soft tyres and scythed through the field. In the lap 52 Sebastian Vettel could finally overtook Jenson Button in the second DRS zone and moved into third position.

Fernando Alonso the wily competitor held off Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel and finished second. Alonso then did fastest laps to close the gap between him and Kimi Raikkonen.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012 Final Results:


1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
3. Sebastian Vettel Redbull
4. Jenson Button McLaren
5. Pastor Maldonado Williams
6. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari
8. Bruno Senna Williams
9. Paul di Resta Force India
10. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
13. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham
14. Timo Glock Marussia
15. Sergio Perez Sauber
16. Vitaly Petrov Caterham
17. Pedro de la Rosa HRT


Retirements in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012

Charles Pic
Romain Grosjean
Mark Webber
Lewis Hamilton
Narain Karthikeyan
Nico Rosberg
Nico Hulkenberg

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Vettel's gamble fails, to start from back of the grid


Sebastian Vettel disqualified from Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying


Sebastian Vettel had stopped his car on the track after qualifying without bringing it back for inspection. It was said that he stopped it due to some undisclosed problem with the fuel pump. As we had mentioned http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/11/hamilton-storms-to-pole-in-abu-dhabi.html that this will invite an investigation, Sebastian Vettel was investigated and it was found that his Red bull car didn't have the mandatory 1 litre fuel. He was disqualified from the qualifying results and will start from the pitlane for the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

A FIA statement said that "The stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the Qualifying Session. The competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid."


In another development Sergio Perez was warned for blocking Bruno Senna, however, no penalty was given.

The F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be exciting as Sebastian Vettel will try and hope to salvage some points after starting from the back of the grid and Alonso will try to maximise this opportunity to wipe out the 13 point deficit to Sebastian Vettel in the championship race. Since Sebastian Vettel will not start at third position, Mark Webber who starts at second position will not has to let Sebastian Vettel past him. However Mark Webber will try and fight for the race lead and when Fernando Alonso will overtake the other cars and move to the front, Webber will try to hold him up as much as possible. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand, aggressive driver that he is, will try to win this race from pole. This may be one of the last few opportunities when he starts from the pole as in the next season he will be driving Mercedes, which has failed in the last three years to create a good car.

The 2012 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be interesting.

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Revised Starting Grid 2012


Grid Driver Team
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren
2 Mark Webber Red Bull
3 Pastor Maldonado Williams
4 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
5 Jenson Button McLaren
6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
8 Felipe Massa Ferrari
9 Romain Grosjean Lotus
10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India
11 Sergio Perez Sauber
12 Paul di Resta Force India
13 Michael Schumacher Mercedes
14 Bruno Senna Williams
15 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber
16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
17 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
18 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham
19 Charles Pic Marussia
20 Vitaly Petrov Caterham
21 Timo Glock Marussia
22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT
23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT
24 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull



Hamilton storms to Pole in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012

Hamilton storms to Pole in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012


Lewis Hamilton who was competitive all weekend in his McLaren, stormed to the pole in F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012. His time of 1.40.630 was set earlier and others could not better it in their final runs. Mark Webber of Red Bull scored the P2 with a 1:40.978 followed by his teammate and Championship leader Sebastian Vettel at 1:41.073. Sebastian Vettel stopped his car in the track. It is to be seen if he is going to be penalised for that as by rule the cars should have enough fuel to come back for inspection.

Pastor Maldonado who was also competitive in his Williams was P4 with a time of 1:41.226. He was followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus at 1:41.260. Jenson Button of McLaren was P6 with a time of 1:41.290.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who is 13 points behind the championship leader Sebastian Vettel, will start at 7th position with a time of 1:41.582. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes complete the 4th row with Alonso.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari will start in the 5th row. He was 9th with a time of 1:41.723. Romain Grosjean of Lotus will give him company in the 5th row as he came 10th with a time of 1:41.778.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was 11th, Sergio Perez of Sauber 12th and Paul di Resta of Force India was on 13th.

Michael Schumacher surprisingly failed to qualify for Q2 and came 14th. He admitted that he made an error and wanted to go for another run, but his team engineer told him that the checkered flag has already been waved and he could not go for another round. Michael Schumacher has to now depend on his fast starts during tomorrows race and beat some of the cars in the opening lap to have a good race.

Bruno Senna came in 15th. He was on the verge of being relegated in Q1 as he had Sergio Perez blocking him. This incident will be investigated. However, Bruno Senna simply could not match the pace of his team mate Pastor Maldonado who scored a brilliant P4.

Kobayashi who had scored a brilliant 4th position in the Japanese Grand Prix, is on the verge of losing his drive for next year as his performances are woeful to say the least. Today he qualified at P16. Daniel Ricciardo who hopes to retain his place in Toro Rosso next year scored P17.

The drivers who were knocked out in the Q1 were the usual suspects: Jean Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso, Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham, Charles Pic of Marussia, Vitaly Petrov of Caterham, Timo Glock of Marussia, Pedro de la Rosa of HRT and Narain Karthikeyan of HRT. Narain Karthikeyan of HRT is driving in this circuit for the first time. It didn't help that HRT again made the decision to sit out Narain Karthikeyan in the first practice P1 on friday. Interestingly, HRT being a spanish team has never taken a third driver to drive the P1 in Pedro de la Rosa's place.

More information awaited regarding the Stewards verdict on the pending investigations about Romain Grosjean's unsafe release infront of Fernando Alonso and also Sergio Perez blocking Bruno Senna.