Sunday, September 20, 2015

Sebastian Vettel wins Singapore for 4th time

Sebastian Vettel wins Singapore for 4th time

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari deservedly won the F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2015 as he led from the Pole for his race win. It was his third race win in 2015 season and his 4th at Singapore. No other driver has won as many races in Singapore. It was also his 42nd race win, which is one more than Aryton Senna. Michael Schumacher is the man with the maximum number of race wins.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull gave him stiff competition and finished in second position. He was just 1.4 seconds behind Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari came in third with a massive 17 seconds behind.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes came in 4th to reduce the lead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton in the championship race. Valtteri Bottas of Williams was 5th. He could safely finish his race, though his team found that he had a problem in downshifting his gears. Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull finished in 6th position.

Sergio Perez of Force India was 7th. Verstappen of Toro Rosso finished 8th. He was followed by Carlos Sainz in 9th and Felipe Nasr in 10th.

It was a disastrous outing for the reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton as he lost power in the 26th lap and then after slowly circling around the circuit, he had to quit in Lap 34.

Former World Champion Fernando Alonso too retired from the race in Lap 34 when he was running in 9th position.

Pastor Maldonado had a crash with Jenson Button of McLaren and for that Button had to come to the pits to change the front wing and lose valuable time. Button made his disgust apparent when he uttered into the radio “I should have known really, that he is mental”. However, there was no penalty by the stewards. Later in Lap 53, McLaren told Jenson Button that they have to retire his car as his gear box is at risk. With that both the McLaren cars retired in the race. This was not the first time this year but the fourth time when both the McLaren-Honda cars have retired.

In the Lap 37 there was a man on the circuit who was spotted by Sebastian Vettel. The man appeared to quickly jump back over the barriers. Yellow flags were waved. However, it is not a great sight for safety of the race.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India caused an accident with Felipe Massa of Williams. Both were exiting the pit lane and in the incident Nico Hulkenberg hit the wall and retired from the race. The stewards handed him a 3 place grid penalty for the next race.

Later Massa too retired his car.

Final Results at Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2015

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Vettel wins Pole at Singapore F1 Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel wins Pole at Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix 2015


The Singapore F1 Grand Prix was a very interesting qualifying event as for the first time this season, the Mercedes cars were not dominating. Sebastian Vettel won the pole position with a stunning time of 1m 43.885 seconds. His former teammate Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull qualified on second with a time of 1m 44.428seconds. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferarri came third with a time of 1m 44.667 seconds.

Daniel Kvyat of Red Bull was 4th with a time of 1m 44.745seconds. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes could only score 1m 45.300 seconds in his second run in Q3 as he ran wide during his first run and aborted the first run. His teammate Nico Rosberg of Mercedes came in 6th with a time of 1m 45. 415seconds. Valtteri Bottas of Williams will start on the 4th row tomorrow as he qualified at P7 with a time of 1m 45.676. He was followed by Verstappen of Toro Rosso with a time of 1m 45.798seconds.

Felipe Massa of Williams and Romain Grosjean of Lotus came in 9th and 10th respectively.

The Ferrari and the Red Bull cars and Verstappen were on the new supersoft tyres for the final run in Q3. All others were on used super soft tyres.

Did any one think that a McLaren can be ahead of a Mercedes. Precisely that had happened in the Q1 of the Formula One qualifying at Singapore Grand Prix.

During the Q1 where the drivers scramble to set their times in a 18 minute long session and the best 13 qualify for the second stage, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso were ahead of Lewis Hamilton at one stage.

This forced Hamilton, who was in 14th, to go for another run with supersoft tyres to score a 1m 45.765 seconds and that lifted him to provisional P2 and helped qualify for Q2. Ofcourse when the drivers went for their second laps in the Q1, Jenson Button had gone down and could barely manage getting relegated as he scored a P15 in the Q1 and the difference between him and 16th placed Felipe Nasr with 1m 46.965 was a measly 0.074 seconds.

In the Q2 of the Qualifying, every driver choose supersoft tyres. Carlos Sainz hit the wall and brought out a Yellow flag when the drivers were trying to scramble through in the dying seconds of Q2. So the drivers who were in the 11th to 15th in the previous run just couldn't complete their laps. So Nico Hulkenberg was 11th. Fernando Alonso of McLaren will start alongside him in the sixth row tomorrow as he qualified in 12th position. Sergio Perez of Force India was 13th, Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso was 14th and Jenson Button of McLaren will start on 15th.

Before this qualifying it was expected that Lewis Hamilton will match the record of most consecutive pole positions of Aryton Senna and also will win the race and match Senna's record of 41 race victories. However, Hamilton coming 5th in the qualifying resulted in that dream going sour.

Singapore F1 Qualifying 2015


Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Lewis Hamilton Leads championship by 53 points

Lewis Hamilton leads the 2015 F1 drivers championship by 53 points


After his win at Monza in the Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has 252 points vis-a-vis 199 points of his nearest competitor Nico Rosberg.

Rosberg was running in third position in the race at Monza when his car went up in flames.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari is at 178 points following his second place finish in the Italian Grand Prix. The way the Ferrari has upped its pace, especially its pace over one lap Vettel may overtake Nico Rosberg in a few races. Kimi Raikkonen seems to have upped his pace as can be seen in his P2 in the Qualifying at Italian Grand Prix. So if both the Ferrari cars qualify infront of Rosberg's car, then it is sure that Nico Rosberg will soon move down from his second position in the drivers championship.

Felipe Massa of Williams is currently fourth in the drivers championship with 97 points. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari is at 92 points and fifth in the race.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India has won the Le Mans endurance race and has made a name for himself. He was supposed to be considered by Ferrari as well. However, now his teammate Sergio Perez has moved ahead of him with 33 points to be in the 10th spot vs 30 points and 11th spot for Hulkenberg.

With Renault considering taking over the Lotus team and bring in considerable financial muscle, Sergio Perez may have a chance to go there as well.

Drivers standings after Italian Grand Prix 2015


Sl.        Name                          Team              Points
1.   Lewis Hamilton                Mercedes       252
2.   Nico Rosberg                    Mercedes       199
3.   Sebastian Vettel              Ferrari            178
4.   Felipe Massa                    Williams         97
5.   Kimi Raikkonen               Ferrari            92
6.   Valtteri Bottas                  Williams         91
7.   Daniil Kvyat                     Red Bull          58
8.   Daniel Ricciardo              Red Bull          55
9.   Romain Grosjean             Lotus               38
10. Sergio Perez                    Force India     33
11. Nico Hulkenberg             Force India     30
12. Max Verstappen             Toro Rosso     26
13. Felipe Nasr                      Sauber           16
14. Pastor Maldonado          Lotus               12
15. Fernando Alonso             McLaren         11
16. Carlos Sainz                     Toro Rosso     9
17. Marcus Ericsson              Sauber           9
18. Jenson Button                 McLaren         6
19. Roberto Merhi                 Marussia        0

20. Will Stevens                     Marussia        0

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Hamilton wins as Rosberg's dream up in flames

Hamilton wins as Nico’s dream in smoke


Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes wont the Italian F1 Grand Prix 2015 race from pole while his teammate Nico Rosberg’s car went up in smoke.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari who started third finished in second position and Felipe Massa of Williams came third. Valtteri Bottas of Williams was 4th.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari started second on the grid and it was expected that he may snatch the race lead from Hamilton. However, fortune doesn’t seem to favour Kimi. His car stalled when the race started and he dropped to 18th position. He then had to fight through the field and finished in 5th position.

Vettel was 25 seconds behind Hamilton. And that may play a role as the Mercedes cars of Hamilton and Rosberg are being investigated for alleged tyre pressure problem. However, Mercedes has said that the tyre pressure was verified by the Pirelli engineer. The guidelines by the tyre supplier Pirelli states that teams must race with tyre pressures of 19.5psi or above. Lewis Hamilton’s left rear tyre was 0.3 psi lower than the suggested 19.5psi and Nico Rosberg’s left rear tyre was 1.1 psi lower. Normally in F1, the measurements are pretty accurate unlike the tyre pressure instruments that we use for our consumer cars. So it is indeed a surprise.

In lap 49, Mercedes gave a coded message to Hamilton “Start mode three, we need to pull the gap. Don’t ask questions, just pull the gap”. So Lewis Hamilton immediately upped his pace. At the end Lewis Hamilton has 25.042 seconds lead over Sebastian Vettel. Even if the stewards slap a 25 seconds time penalty on Hamilton, still he will win the race. Edit: The stewards decided that there would not be any penalty due to the lower tyre pressure on Lewis Hamilton's car.

Sergio Perez of Force India finished in sixth. His teammate Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was hit in the opening lap and somehow managed to survive and finish in 7th. However, he was lapped once. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull was 8th. He was followed by Marcus Ericsson of Sauber in 9th. Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull was 10th to grab the last point.


There were a few retirements in the race.
Pastor Maldonado of Lotus hit the kerbs hard in the first lap and retired his car. His teammate Romain Grosjean was hit from the back and had to also retire the car. Fernando Alonso of McLaren too had a DNF due to an unknown technical issue in lap 50. Nico Rosberg’s car was up in flames a lap later when he was running in third position.



Lewis Hamilton’s championship lead over his teammate Nico Rosberg is now 53 points and it seems Hamilton will easily cruise to the title.

Results of Italian F1 Grand Prix 2015

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Lewis Hamilton grabs pole at Monza

Lewis Hamilton grabs pole at Monza


Lewis Hamilton had dominated the practice sessions yesterday and today and also maintained his form to grab the pole in Monza in the F1 Italian Grand Prix. History shows that the pole sitter mostly wins the race in Italy.

This is the home ground of Ferrari and the two Ferrari drivers didn’t disappoint the crowd. Kimi Raikkonen scored P2 followed by Sebastian Vettel in P3. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari came in 1m 23.631 seconds to score the P2. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari will start the race tomorrow in P3. He had a time of 1m 23. 685s.

Nico Rosberg had to revert back to his older engine and couldn’t beat the two Ferrari drivers. He had to be satisfied with 4th. He had a time of 1m 23. 703s

In the Q3, most of the drivers except Sergion Perez and Marcus Ericsson choose to set to do two laps one at the beginning and the other at the end. In the first such lap, Hamilton scored 1m23.397 for the provisional pole. He was 0.3 seconds faster than Vettel. In the last lap, Lewis Hamilton couldn’t better his own time.

Felipe Massa of Williams and Valtteri Bottas of Williams came in at P5 and P6. Felipe Massa’s time was 1m 23. 940s. Valtteri Bottas was 1m 24. 127 seconds.
Sergio Perez of Force India came in 7th with a time of 1m 24. 626s. He will start in the 4th row. Romain Grosjean of Lotus will start alongside Perez in the 4th row, as he was 8th with a time of 1m 25.054s.

Nico Hulkenberg had a power failure after the first lap and couldn’t take part in the second run. His time of 1m 25.317 was sufficient for P9. Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was 1m 26.214s and was P10. He is however being investigated for impeding Pastor Maldonado during Q1.

In the Q2, Pastor Maldonado of Lotus, Felipe Nasr and Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull were eliminated from the top ten shoot out as the 11th to 15th placed drivers.

The past results in Monza showed that amazing speed to clinch
The F1 Qualifying is a three stage affair with the first session or Q1 run for 18 minutes where the bottom most 5 drivers are eliminated. In Q2 the rest ie 15 cars run where the top ten qualify for the Q3.

Drivers eliminated in the Q1

Jenson Button
Fernando Alonso
Will Stevens
Roberto Merhi
Max Verstappen

Jenson Button of McLaren had a time of 1m 26.058 and his teammate Fernando Alonso was 1m 26.154 seconds. Will Stevens of Marussia clocked a time of 1m 27.731 and his teammate Roberto Merhi had a time of 1m 27.912. Verstappen of Toro Rosso had an unfortunate incident where his engine cover blew off and he couldn’t do a timed lap.

This year has been unbelievably bad for McLaren who are down with the Marussia cars at the bottom. Though McLaren team has an excuse that they are using Honda engines and Honda has just returned to F1 meaning they are behind, it is not know if all the problems are due to the engine. According to Honda, they are better than the Renault engine and about 30-40 hp slower than the Mercedes and about 25 hp slower than the Ferrari. From that one can guess that atleast McLaren should have been faster than the Toro Rosso and Red Bulls. It appears that McLaren with two world champions are driving trucks while others are racing.

Italian Grand Prix Qualifying Results 2015