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

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

Lewis Hamilton wins Pole by half a second at Hungary

Lewis Hamilton beats Rosberg to pole by over half a second at Hungary

In the F1 Grand Prix qualifying at Hungaroring today, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes beat his teammate Nico Rosberg by over half a second to score the pole position. Hamilton scored 1m 22.020 seconds. Rosberg was 0.575 seconds behind. This was Lewis Hamilton's 9th pole position out of 10 F1 qualifying races this year.

Hamilton said "I love the track. It feels a bit like an old karting circuit."Naturally he is elated and loves this circuit as this was his 5th pole position in Hungary. Given his dominance in this track and the massive gap to second placed Rosberg, it is expected that Lewis Hamilton will win tomorrows race easily.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari qualified in third position. He was 0.719 seconds behind.

Redbull racing showed good speed in the twisting and turning circuit and Daniel Ricciardo qualified in fourth position with a time of 1m 22.774. He was just 0.035 seconds behind Vettel.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari qualified in 5th and qualified with a time of 1m 23.020 which is a full 1 second slower than pole sitter Hamilton's time.

Vallteri Bottas of Williams qalified in 6th with a time of 1m 23. 222 seconds. So the third row will be a all Finnish driver row.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull scored 1m 23.332 seconds and qualified in P7. He was followed by Felipe Massa of Williams in 8th. Massa's time of 1m 23.537 was more than one and half mins slower than the time of Hamilton.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso came in P9 and was the last of the drivers to remain below 1m 24 second. He scored 1m 23.679 seconds. Romain Grosjean of Lotus was P10 with a time of 1m 24. 181 seconds.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India missed qualifying for the top ten shoot out ie Q3 of the qualifying section by a mere 0.021 second. Hulkenberg qualified in P11. He was followed by Sainz of Toro Rosso at P12. Sergio Perez of Force India will start in the 7th row as he came in at P13. Pastor Maldonado of Lotus will start along his side as he qualified in P14.

Fernando Alonso of McLaren had a problem with his car and he along with the Marshals pushed it back to the garage. However, there was no time to look into the problem and he qualified in P15. His teammate Jenson Button will start alongside him in P16.

Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr of Sauber will start in P17 and P18. They are followed by Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens of Manor Racing.

Hungary 2015 F1 Qualifying Positions:

Grid Penalties for Fernando & Ricciardo

Fernando Alonso of McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull have been slapped with massive grid penalties for the Austrian F1 Grand Prix on 21st June, 2015.

Fernando Alonso has gone beyond the permitted 4 engines and is now using the 5th engine. That automatically gets 10 place starting grid penalty. However, Alonso apart from using his 5th Honda engine is now on the 5th turbocharger and 5th MGU-H. The later two attracts 5 place grid penalty each totaling upto 20 grid point penalties for Fernando Alonso. Since his McLaren is too slow and is most likely to qualify barely before the two Manor Marussia racing cars and if luck permits then before his teammate Jenson Button and any other unfortunate racer to have a qualifying problem, he cannot consume all his grid penalties. So he is likely to be slapped with time penalties in the race by giving 10 second stop go penalty. Given that McLaren with its Honda engine is in such bad shape, does it actually matter where Alonso starts?

However, Daniel Ricciardo will obviously be in a worse position with that 10 place grid penalty as he is mostly a top ten qualifier with his Red Bull car and Renault engine and is currently in the 7th position in the drivers championship with 35 points. This hits Red Bull hard as they now can look at Daniil Kvyat to challenge the front runners. Daniil Kvyat is 8th in the drivers championship with 19 points.

F1 drivers championship standings after Montreal 2015

F1 Drivers standings after Montreal 2015

Lewis Hamilton is leading the F1 drivers championship by 17 points. His lead was reduced in Monaco to 10 points when Mercedes decided to bring Lewis Hamilton for a pitstop and kept Rosberg on track to inherit the lead and win. After the win in the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, Lewis Hamilton has increased his lead to 17 points. Given the form Lewis Hamilton is in, it will take a sabotage from Mercedes or extreme bad luck to lose the championship this year. We predict that Lewis Hamilton will win his third F1 drivers championship this year.

1.         Lewis Hamilton                      Mercedes       151

2.         Nico Rosberg                          Mercedes       134

3.         Sebastian Vettel                      Ferrari            108

4.         Kimi Raikkonen                      Ferrari            72

5.         Valtteri Bottas                        Williams         57

6.         Felipe Massa                          Williams         47

7.         Daniel Ricciardo                    Red Bull          35

8.         Daniil Kvyat                           Red Bull          19

9.         Romain Grosjean                   Lotus               17

10.       Felipe Nasr                             Sauber             16

11.       Sergio Perez                           Force India     11

12.       Nico Hulkenberg                   Force India     10

13.       Carlos Sainz                           Toro Rosso     9

14.       Max Verstappen                    Toro Rosso     6

15.       Pastor Maldonado                 Lotus               6

16.       Marcus Ericsson                    Sauber             5

17.       Jenson Button                        McLaren         4

18.       Fernando Alonso                   McLaren         0

19.       Roberto Merhi                       Marussia        0

20.       Will Stevens                           Marussia        0