Nico Rosberg on Pole in Brazil F1 Qualifying

Nico Rosberg beat Hamilton to pole in Brazilian Grand Prix

It was an incredibly tightly contested qualifying in Brazil as Williams gave a scare to the Mercedes cars. However at the end in Q3, Felipe Massa of Williams in his home Grand Prix made a mistake and aborted the lap. Else it appeared that the Brazillian could have started the race tomorrow in pole position.

Nico Rosberg on the other hand was the fastest driver in all the three practice sessions and maintained his form in the Qualifying to score the pole position. The difference between him and his teammate-cum-rival Lewis Hamilton's time was minimal (1m 10.023seconds vs 1m 10.056 seconds of Hamilton).

Lewis Hamilton will once again try to overtake Nico Rosberg to win the race and extend his lead in the championship. It would be an interesting race tomorrow.

Final Qualifying Positions in Brazilian F1 Grand Prix

01. Nico Rosber                Mercedes
02. Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes
03. Felipe Massa               Williams
04. Valtteri Bottas             Williams
05. Jenson Button              McLaren
06. Sebastian Vettel           Red Bull
07. Kevin Magnussen        McLaren
08. Fernando Alonso          Ferrari
09. Daniel Ricciardo          Red Bull
10. Kimi Raikkonen           Ferrari
11. Esteban Gutierrez         Sauber
12. Nico Hulkenberg          Force India
13. Adrian Sutil                  Sauber
14. D. Kvyat                       Toro Rosso
15. Romain Grosjean         Lotus
16. Jean-Eric Vergne         Toro Rosso
17. Sergio Perez                 Force India
18. Pastor Maldonado        Lotus

Hamilton coasts to inaugural Russian Grand Prix win

Lewis Hamilton started on pole however his teammate Nico Rosberg who started second did his best to overtake Lewis. Rosberg ran wide and took lot of speed to turn 2 to overtake Lewis Hamilton. However, he also flat spotted his tyres and had to pit for changing his tyres.

The Sochi International Street circuit hosting the Russian F1 Grand Prix had a clean and smooth surface so tyre degradation was less. The cold climate also helped in lowering the tyre degradation. However expecting one set of tyres to last 51 laps was ambitious to say the least. Nevertheless the Mercedes team kept of telling Rosberg that he can get the third and final podium position by beating Jenson Button. It initially seemed that it was more to do to keep Rosberg's motivation up. When Rosberg started complaining that he is having tyre degradation by lap 22, it appeared that he has to pit again. However there was a bit of racing as Rosberg upped his pace and even overtook Valtteri Bottas for the second position on lap 31 and he confirmed that his tyres have become better. However, Williams team told Bottas that they were confident that Rosberg can't make the tyres last for such a long time. Rosberg continued to lap faster than every other driver till lap 39 and had opened a gap of about 5 seconds. Valtteri Bottas did a late charge but couldn't overtake Nico Rosberg. After the silly move in the opening lap which resulted in the flat spotting of tyres, Rosberg used his head and drove a great race to secure the second position.

The overall race was a bit dull, except for the superior pace of the Mercedes which helped in Rosberg come back from the grid to P2. Otherwise it was mostly a procession as the tyre degradation was minimal and didn't act as a variable.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams came third. Jenson Button of McLaren did a good race to finish 4th. He is at the moment not sure if he can find a race seat next year in a good car. His teammate Kevin Magnusses came in 5th followed by Fernando Alonso of Ferrari in 5th. Then came the Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel in 7th and 8th positions. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari scored 9th and was followed by Sergio Perez in 10th and last points paying position.

The Caterham team confirmed that Kamui Kobayashi's brakes were overheating so he had to retire after 22 laps in Russian F1 Grand Prix. The lone Marussia of Max Chilton had earlier retired after 10 laps.

Results in Russian F1 Grand Prix 2014

1. Lewis Hamilton         Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg            Williams
3. Valtteri Bottas            McLaren
4. Jenson Button            Mercedes
5. Kevin Magnussen      McLaren
6. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari
7. Daniel Ricciardo        RedBull
8. Sebastian Vettel         RedBull
9. Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari
10. Sergio Perez             Force India
11. Felipe Massa            Williams
12. Nico Hulkenberg      Force India
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso
14. Danil Kvyat              Toro Rosso
15. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber
16. Adrian Sutil              Sauber
17. Romain Grosjean      Lotus
18. Pastor Maldonado     Lotus
19. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham

Retirements in Russian F1 Grand Prix 2014

Kamui Kobayashi              Caterham        Lap 22
Max Chilton                       Marussia         Lap 10

Hamilton loses pole to Rosberg at Suzuka

Lewis Hamilton who is now leading the F1 World Championship by 3 points, lost the pole to his teammate Nico Rosberg in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Though it was a keenly contested qualifying, Hamilton had crashed in the final practice. In the Final top ten shootout, he locked up and Rosberg beat him to the pole by 0.2 seconds. Nico Rosberg set a time of 1m 32.506 seconds to Hamilton's 1m 32.703 seconds.

The Mercedes duo were followed by the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas in 3rd and Felipe Massa in 4th. Bottas had a time of 1m 33.128 seconds vis-a-vis his teammate Massa's time of 1m 33.527 seconds.

Fernando Alonso who is rumoured to be departing Ferrari at the end of the season for McLaren will start tomorrows race in 5th position with a time of 1m 33.740 seconds. Daniel Ricciardo of RedBull came 6th with a time of 1m 34.075 seconds.

Next came the McLaren duo of Kevin Magnussen at 7th with time of 1m34.242 followed by his teammate and former world champion Jenson Button at 1m 34.317seconds.

Sebastian Vettel of RedBull who has announced that this season will be his last with Red Bull and supposed to be heading towards Ferrari came in 9th by timing 1m 34.432 seconds. He was followed by his next years likely teammate Kimi Raikkonen in 10th. Kimi was timed at 1m 34.548seconds.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso who is looking for a drive next year, will start 11th. He is followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in 12th.

Daniel Kvyat of Toro Rosso will start at 13th. RedBull has just announced that Kvyat will take Vettel's place in Red Bull next year. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India came in 14th. He was followed by the Sauber duo of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez in 15th and 16th positions.

Lotus drivers Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean occupy the by now familiar 17th and 18th positions.

Marcus Ericsson of Caterham came in 19th ahead of Jules Bianchi of Marussia on 20th, Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham in 21st and Max Chilton of Marussia in 22nd.

There is likely to be rain and safety car periods in tomorrow race. Hamilton does well in wet races. So it would be interesting to see if Lewis Hamilton can overtake Nico Rosberg during the start and win the race.

Hamilton Wins Italian Grand Prix in Monza

Hamilton wins Italian Grand Prix in Monza 2014

If one is told that there is a problem with the Mercedes car, then invariably one would guess that it is Hamilton's car. If there is a slow pitstop then it would be Hamilton's. So many people gave up when Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes had a problem during the start and his second placed team-mate-cum-competitor Nico Rosberg took the lead.

It was said that there was a glitch in the race start software. Hamilton dropped down to fourth but patiently waited for his time. After 6 laps his problem was resolved. He then took his time and overtook Massa on lap 10.

Hamilton then put lot of pressure on Rosberg. Nico Rosberg was the first to pit. Hamilton followed one lap later. Hamilton did a good lap when in lead, however it was not sufficient to overtake Rosberg during the pitstop. Nevertheless, Hamilton kept on the pressure and Rosberg cracked. He ran wide in the chicane and Lewis Hamilton took the race lead in lap 29.

To make matters worse for Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton had consumed one kg less fuel. So it was a forgone conclusion that Lewis will win the race. And he won with more than 3 seconds lead over Nico Rosberg.

Felipe Massa of Williams got his first podium of the year when he finished in third place.

In the meanwhile, there was superb driving by Daniel Ricciardo who overtook number of cars and his team-mate and defending champion Sebastian Vettel to finish 5th behind Valtteri Bottas of Williams.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull finished in 6th. He was followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in 7th. Perez finished before his former teammate Jenson Button of McLaren.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari finished 9th behind Button. Button's team-mate Kevin Magnussen finished in 10th in the last points earning position.

Kvyat of Toro Rosso finished in 11th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Force India. Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso finished in 13th ahead of Pastor Maldonado of Lotus. Sutil of Sauber came 15th ahead of Romain Grosjean of Lotus in 16th. Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham returned to race after staying out for one race and finished in 17th and was followed by Jules Bianchi of Marussia. Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber was 19th ahead of the last finisher of Ericsson of Caterham.

Retirements in Italian Grand Prix 2014

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari in lap 28
Max Chilton of Marussia in lap 5

Lewis Hamilton makes it three in a row in China

Lewis Hamilton raced away from pole position at Sanghai in the Chinese F1 Grand Prix 2014 and comfortably opened up a huge lead. He stamped his class all over the race and won it comfortably.


Nico Rosberg who started the race from 4th position breathed down the neck of Fernando Alonso, who had a great start, and could overtake him in Lap 42, the long straights in China favouring the powerful Mercedes engine more than the Ferrari. Rosberg finished second with a massive gap of 18.6 seconds.

Fernando Alonso finished in third position and this would come as a morale booster for the struggling Ferrari team.

Sebastian Vettel had a good start and had passed his teammate Daniel Ricciardo who had started ahead of him in 2nd place. However, he was tricked into believing that Ricciardo was in a different strategy than him and hence he allowed Ricciardo to pass. Later on Vettel was told that they were on the same strategy. Wish we can see some of the behind the scenes antics of Vettel after the race. Looks like Daniel Ricciardo is the new boy favoured by the Red Bull team after his good performance of beating Vettel in the first three races of the season. Daniel Ricciardo finished in fourth position followed by Sebastian Vettel in 5th.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished 6th. He could barely manage to hold off Valtteri Bottas of Williams by half a second. The other Williams car driver by Felipe Massa was not so fortunate as despite having a good start he had hit the sides of Alonso’s car. Perhaps that was the cause of the pitstop problem where the mechanics struggled to replace the tyres and hence Massa was forced to drop down the order and never recovered from that.

Kimi Raikkonen had an uneventful race. He finished in 8th position. Sergio Perez would be happy to take 2 points from the race as he finished in 9th position followed by Danil Kvyat of Toro Rosso in 10th.

Chinese F1 Grand Prix 2014 Results:

1.         Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes

2.         Nico Rosberg              Mercedes

3.         Fernando Alonso       Ferrari

4.         Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull

5.         Sebastian Vettel        Red Bull

6.         Nico Hulkenberg       Force India

7.         Valtteri Bottas            Williams

8.         Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari

9.         Sergio Perez               Force India

10.       Danil Kvyat                Toro Rosso

11.       Jenson Button            McLaren

12.       Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso

13.       Kevin Magnussen     McLaren

14.       Pastor Maldonado     Lotus

15.       Felipe Massa              Williams

16.       Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber

17.       Kamui Kobayashi      Caterham

18.       Jules Bianchi              Marussia

19.       Max Chilton               Marussia

20.       Marcus Ericsson        Caterham

Retirements in Chinese F1 Grand Prix

Romain Grosjean       Lotus

Adrian Sutil               Sauber

Lewis Hamilton scores brilliant win in Bahrain

Lewis Hamilton scores brilliant win in Bahrain Grand Prix

Hamilton overtakes Rosberg in the first lap and despite massive challenge from his teammate takes a brilliant win in Bahrain.

Lewis Hamilton, who had made a mistake during qualifying to hand over the pole position to his teammate, had a flying start and overtook Rosberg. Hamilton and Rosberg traded fastest laps and others were left far behind.

Sergio Perez of Force India brought in cheers as he finished in the podium. It was the first podium for Force India after 2009. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull beat Perez’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg to the 4th position and was breathing down the neck of Sergio Perez. If there were one more lap, then Ricciardo may have had a chance to get the podium.

Ricciardo’s teammate Sebastian Vettel finished in 6th positions. The drivers from 1st to 6th used a two stop strategy. The only other two driver to employ stop strategy was Kobayashi who finished in 15th.

Felipe Massa of Williams too had a great start as he sliced through his teammate Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez of Force India to jump to 3rd position. Massa and Bottas were on a three stop strategy and finished behind the leading 2 stoppers. Massa and Bottas finished in 7th and 8th positions.

Alonso had a great opening lap as he jumped to 7th where as his teammate Kimi Raikkonen was 9th in the opening lap. However, they finished in 9th and 10th positions respectively.

In lap 41 Pastor Maldonado came out of the pits to hit Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber who went flying. Fortunately Gutierrez landed safely, but that was the end of his race and brought in the safety car. Maldonado was handed a 10 second stop-go penalty. The safety car negated Hamilton’s earlier advantage with the faster softer tyres. He had to run the rest of the laps with medium tyres where as Nico Rosberg was on softer tyres. So it was a tough battle between the two with Hamilton having the disadvantage of the slower tyres.

In Lap 46 Paddy Lowe of Mercedes came on radio to give a message “just make sure we bring the cars home”. This was a clear indication for Hamilton not to race against Rosberg and give up the race win. However, Lewis Hamilton has the instincts of a blood hound. He is a born racer. He was not ready to give it up to Rosberg on a platter. And a battle royale was played out.

Right after the safety car, Rosberg tried to overtake Hamilton, but Lewis Hamilton didn’t give him space. In Lap 52, Nico Rosberg overtook Hamilton in the turn 1 but Lewis regained the lead as Hamilton forces Rosberg off track at Turn 4. It was incredibly tense moments being played out. Then Hamilton left slight gap and Rosberg tried to overtake Hamilton taking the inside line, but was forced to outbrake himself so that Hamilton safely moving ahead. It showed that Lewis Hamilton was using his brains and not just foot to pedal.

Lewis Hamilton finally opened up a second gap to Rosberg and maintains it to win the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2014.

Jenson Button retired with a car problem but he has been classified as 17th with 2 laps down the leader.

Bahrain F1 Grand Prix Final Standings

Sl. No.  Driver                         Team

1.         Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes

2.         Nico Rosberg              Mercedes

3.         Sergio Perez               Force India

4.         Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull

5.         Nico Hulkenberg       Force India

6.         Sebastian Vettel        Red Bull

7.         Felipe Massa              Williams

8.         Valtteri Bottas            Williams

9.         Fernando Alonso       Ferrari

10.       Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari

11.       Daniil Kvyat               Toro Rosso

12.       Romain Grosjean       Lotus

13.       Max Chilton               Marussia

14.       Pastor Maldonado     Lotus

15.       Kamui Kobayashi      Caterham

16.       Jules Bianchi              Marussia

17.       Jenson Button            McLaren

Retirements in Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

Driver                         Team           Lap

Kevin Magnussen     McLaren         40

Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber             39

Marcus Ericsson        Caterham       33

Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso    18

Adrian Sutil                Sauber          17

Lewis Hamilton wins Malaysian Grand Prix

Hamilton wins Malaysian Grand Prix

It was a dominant display from Lewis Hamilton in the Malaysian Grand prix. He started from Pole and won without any hiccups. Unlike the season opening race in Australia, Hamilton didn’t suffer any problems and finished the race in style. Hamilton needed 3 pit stops to complete the 56 lap race.

Lewis Hamilton’s teammate Nico Rosberg finished second. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull to a third place finish. Though Vettel was P2 in qualifying, he was overtaken at the start by Rosberg as well as Ricciardo. In the first couple of corners. At one point it appeared that Vettel was about to catch Rosberg, but soon Vettel fell behind.

Vettel’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo had to retire in the 49th lap. Before that he was handed a 5 second stop/go penalty. His front hit the kerbs and dragged for a while, infact for three races it scraped the track before he was brought in to pit.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari benefitted from Ricciardo’s misfortune and finished in 4th position. In the 54th lap he took the benefit of fresh tyres to overtake Nico Hulkenberg of Force India who finished in 5th position. Hulkenberg was the only top ten finisher to use a 2 stop strategy as opposed to the 3 stop strategy employed by others. The other 2 stopper was Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham who finished a creditable 13th. However, Alonso’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen was not so fortunate as he got a puncture after getting hit by Magnussen of McLaren in the 2nd lap. Kimi finished in 12th position.

Jenson Button of McLaren finished in sixth position. He was followed by the Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valteri Bottas in 7th and 8th positions respectively.

Magnussen of McLaren finished a lap down in 9th . Kvyat of Toro Rosso took the 10th and final points paying position.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus would be a relieved man as this is the first time a Lotus car in this season could finish a race. He did well by holding off Kimi Raikkonen. Romain finished in 11th position. His teammate Pastor Maldonado was however done in by Jules Bianchi in the 1st lap and had to retire in lap 7. Bianchi retired in lap 8.

The Caterhams of Kobayashi and Ericsson finished in 13th and 14th positions. These positions may become critical later in the season and may decide the 10th placed team.

Max Chilton of Marussia finished in 15th position.

Retirements in Malaysian Grand Prix

Driver             Team              Lap

Ricciardo         Red Bull          49

Gutierrez         Sauber             35

Sutil                Sauber             32

Vergne            Toro Rosso     18

Bianch            Marussia           8

Maldonado      Lotus                7

Perez               Force India       0