Rosberg scores third win on the trot

Chinese Nightmare ends with 7th place for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton had a nightmarish Chinese Grand Prix 2016. First he had a gearbox change and 5 place penalty added to his qualifying position. Then he had an ERS failure during qualifying and had to start at 22nd position. Though he drove through the field, Felipe Nasr of Sauber hit him and due to the heavy damage he had to be content with the 7 th place finish. Hamilton needed a humongous 5 pitstops to complete his race.

Rosberg continued his winning streak by adding the third race in this years calendar to his kitty. His job was made easier when Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari hit his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel came second with a massive 37 seconds behind Rosberg. Daniil Kvyat of Redbull scored a podium finish. He was followed by his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in 4th. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was 5th.

Felipe Massa of Williams was 6th and finished 3 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.

The Toro Rosso duo of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz finished in 8th and 9th positions. The final points paying position was taken by Valtteri Bottas of Williams.

After scoring points in the first two races, the Haas team didn't score a single point in this race. Esteban Gutierrez finished in 14th and Romain Grosjean on 19th position for the Haas team.

The defending champion Lewis Hamilton is now on the backfoot. His teammate Nico Rosberg has won all the three races this season and has 75 points. Hamilton now has 39 points due to two second place positions and the 7th place in China. Daniel Ricciardo is on 36 points and is followed by Sebastian Vettel in 33 and Kimi Raikkonen in 28. These initial points are pretty valuable and it will now put Hamilton under severe pressure to up his game.

Hamilton wins in Russia for second time

Lewis Hamilton wins in Russia F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes won in Russia for the second year running while his teammate Nico Rosberg retired.

It was an exciting race at Sochi with accident and deployment of safety car in the first lap. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India and Marcus Ericsson of Sauber collided in turn 2 in the first lap. Romain Grosjean of Lotus and Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso were also in the pits. The safety car period was over in lap 4 and racing restarted with Nico Rosberg in the lead. However his lead lasted till lap 7 when his teammate Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes overtook him. Nico Rosberg had problems with his car and crawled back to pits to retire from the race. Mercedes confirmed that the throttle damper of Nico Rosberg’s car had failed.

Lewis Hamilton made no mistake and won the race for his 42nd victory. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari finished in second position. Sergio Perez of Force India was third.

It was a very brave as well as fortunate drive by Sergio Perez to stick to one stop strategy. In the last lap Valtteri Bottas tried to overtake Sergio Perez and Kimi Raikkonen who was battling Bottas, also tried to sneak in. As a result there was contact and Bottas stopped. Sergio Perez regained his third position. Kimi Raikkonen limps home to fifth as Felipe Massa of Williams overtook Raikkonen to take the 4th spot. The collision between Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas is being investigated and if replays prove to be conclusive the Kimi may be penalised.

After the first lap Safety car, it was again deployed in lap 12 when Romain Grosjean hit the walls hard causing another safety car period.

Danill Kvyat of Red Bull finished in sixth. He was followed by Felipe Nasr of Sauber in seventh. Pastor Maldonado of Lotus was 8th and former world champion Jenson Button of McLaren finished in 9th. Fernando Alonso who had no hopes of finishing in points grabbed the last points paying position and finished in 10th due to Valtteri Bottas retiring in the last lap.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull who was running in 4th position retired in lap 48. Carlos Sainz retired in Lap 49.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari had the fastest lap of the race. Though that doesn't get you any more points, however, drivers try to get that statistic.

Results of Russian F1 Grand Prix 2015

EDIT: Raikkonen penalised

Kimi Raikkonen was penalised for the incident with Valtteri Bottas. Raikkonen was handed down a 30 seconds penalty and hence he dropped down from 5th to 8th. So Kvyat became 5th, Felipe Nasr became 6th and Pastor Maldonado 7th.

Fernando Alonso was also handed a penalty for not respecting the track limits and hence he dropped down to 11th. Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso is now classified as 10th.

Reclassified Russian F1 Grand Prix Results

Sl.        Driver                         Team

1.         Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes

2.         Sebastian Vettel        Ferrari

3.         Sergio Perez               Force India

4.         Felipe Massa              Williams

5.         Daniil Kvyat               Red Bull

6.         Felipe Nasr                 Sauber

7.         Pastor Maldonado     Lotus

8.         Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari

9.         Jenson Button            McLaren

10.       Max Verstappen        Toro Rosso

11.       Fernando Alonso       McLaren

12.       Valtteri Bottas            Williams

13.       Roberto Merhi           Marussia

14.       Will Stevens               Marussia

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:

Finally Rosberg beats Hamilton to Pole in Spain

Nico Rosberg finally managed to beat Lewis Hamilton and score the first pole in this season in the Spanish Grand Prix 2015. Nico Rosberg scored a time of 1m 24.681 to Hamilton’s 1m 24.948 seconds. It was a convincing gap between the two. They ran on medium tyres.

In the top ten shootout in Q3 of the qualifying, the drivers generally go for two runs. Hamilton as well as Nico Rosberg set their top times in the first run. In the second run Hamilton couldn’t try and beat the provisional pole set by Rosberg and had to settle for second. Sebastian Vettel of Ferarri came in third behind the two Mercedes cars after he set a time of 1m 25.458. His teammate Kimi Raikkonen could only score a P7.


Valtteri Bottas of Williams came in P4 with a time of 1m 25.694. He was followed by Carlos Sainz Jr of Toro Rosso with a time of 1m 26.136. As a rookie and that too a Spanish, it must be a great feeling for Sainz beating the favourite Spaniard Fernando Alonso in Spain.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso came in P6 with a time of 1m 26. 249 seconds. Kimi Raikkonen whose contract with Ferrari expires end of this season is expected to do well and beat his teammate. However, he could only set a time of 1m 26.414 for P7.

Danil Kvyat of Red Bull was P8 as he came in at 1m 26.629. He was followed by Felipe Massa of Williams at 1m 26.757 and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull with a time of 1m 26. 770.

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado of Lotus will start tomorrow at 11th and 12th positions respectively in the race tomorrow. The Lotus duo were followed by the McLaren drivers who were lead by Fernando Alonso in 13th and Jenson Button in 14th.

Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson of Sauber will start in 15th and 16th positions. The Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez will start in 17th and 18th positions. Their times are about 3.5 seconds behind the pole timing and it shows how low they have fallen primarily due to the lack of funds. It would be pertinent to mention that one of the promoters of Force India, Subroto Roy is in jail for nearly a year as his company has not been able to furnish a bail bond of 1 billion dollars. The other promoter of Force India and its principal Dr. Vijay Mallya is also in deep financial trouble. Mallya’s Kingfisher airlines went bankrupt and Mallya is also been hounded by banks to recover the money. So it shows that even a midfield team in F1 can’t sustain just based on their performance.

The last placed drivers are as expectedly from Manor racing. Will Stevens again out qualified his teammate Roberto Merhi. Will Stevens scored 1m 31.200 vs 1m 32.038 of his teammate. Both of them will start in 19th and 20th position.

Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Results:

Vettel surprises Mercedes to score first victory

Vettel surprises Mercedes to score first victory in Malaysian F1 Grand Prix

In a major upset, Sebastian Vettel who started second on the grid, took the benefit of safety car and score his first win for Mercedes. It was also the first win for Ferrari in the new engine era since 2013.

Lewis Hamilton, the pole sitter finished in second followed by Nico Rosberg in third. Though Lewis Hamilton started on pole, Marcus Ericsson caused the Safety car deployment as early as the 4th lap and the Mercedes cars choose to get into the pits but Vettel continued to race. After the pitstop, the Mercedes cars joined in the middle of the car packs following the safety car. So it took a lot of time for Lewis Hamilton to overtake the other cars and by that time Vettel had built a lead of over 9 seconds and the tyres of Mercedes had worn out. So Sebastian Vettel's two stop strategy won over the three stopping Mercedes cars.

To prove that Ferrari's resurgence is not a fluke, Kimi Raikkonen who had to contend with the P11 in qualifying due to rain, drove a good race to finish fourth. This result is really good because he even had a puncture due to coming in contact with Felipe Nasr.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa of Williams finished in 5th an 6th.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso wrote his name in the record books as the youngest points scorer in Formula 1 history. He is only 17 years of age and many people had expressed grave concerns for allowing him to race. His teammate Carlos Sainz came in 8th.

Interestingly, the two Red Bull cars of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat rounded up the points scoring positions.

The cars from 8th onwards were lapped.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus came in 11th. Felipe Nasr of Sauber was 12th. They were followed by the Force India cars of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg. Roberto Merhi of Manor came in 15th and last position, three laps behind the race leader. Manor racing was allowed to race by the Stewards, however, Will Stevens couldn't participate due to a fuel pump problem.

Did Not Finish in Malaysian F1 Grand Prix

Pastor Maldonado
Jenson Button
Fernando Alonso
Marcus Ericsson

Did Not Start:

Will Stevens - due to fuel pump issue

Hamilton wins F1 Melbourne season opener

Lewis Hamilton wins F1 Melbourne Season Opener

As expected Mercedes dominated in the 2015 season opener at Melbourne and defending champion Lewis Hamilton lead his teammate Nico Rosberg into a 1-2 finish in the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel marked his Ferrari stint with a podium finish whereas teammate Kimi Raikkonen was done with due to a tyre not fit properly.

The 2015 F1 Grand Prix season opener had a lot of drama even before the engines were revved. Giedo van der Garde had filed a case against Sauber claiming that he had a contract with Sauber for racing in the 2015 season. Sauber denied that. However, in the court Sauber couldn't defend it. However, not to be undone, Sauber did not sign on the papers for the dutchman Garde to get the FIA Super license to be eligible to drive in the race. Finally they decided to continue discussing for an out of court settlement and Sauber raced with its nominated 2015 drivers, and out of those two drivers Felipe Nasr finished in 5th position. It finished the points drought of Sauber as it had gone blank in 2014.

Felipe Massa of Williams finished in 4th position. He had voiced his opinion about Ferrari being strong this year and he was proved right. His teammate Valtteri Bottas couldn't race due to a back injury during qualifying.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull was 6th followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India in 7th. It was a very credible finish for Hulkenberg as Force India had hardly three days of testing due to funds constraints. Sahara group, one of the co-owners of Force India is in dire financial conditions. The owner of the Sahara group Subrata Roy is in jail since last year and has been unable to furnish the record bail amount of 10,000 crores of rupees which is slightly more than one and half billion dollars. Vijay Mallya, the other co-owner and face of Force India, himself is being hounded by the various banks as his Kingfisher airlines have sunk reportedly due to financial mis-management and the banks have lost around billion dollars lent to Kingfisher Airlines.

Marcus Ericsson of Sauber came in 8th to score 4 points. Carl Sainz of Toro Rosso was 9th with 2 points followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in the 10th and last points paying position.

Jenson Button of McLaren was finished 11th and out of points paying position. It was atleast good for the McLaren using the Honda engine that Button could atleast drive an entire race distance and the resulting feedback can help improve the team. The other McLaren was driven by Kevin Magnussen who failed to put in a lap. McLaren's high profile signing of Fernando Alonso had made an even bigger controversy when Alonso hit the wall during testing and appeared to have passed out. There were rumours that Alonso got an electrical shock and hit the wall at a medium speed. Later Alonso was advised to sit out the Australian Grand Prix. Unfortunately, his replacement the reserve driver Kevin Magnussen's car along with Daniil Kvyat's car couldn't start and only 15 cars started the race.

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado were involved in accidents and couldn't last long. Verstappen, the 17 year old driver of Toro Rosso also retired.

Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi & F1 World Championship

Lewis Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi for his 2nd F1 World Championship

Lewis Hamilton made a superb start to snatch the lead from Rosberg in the first lap itself and win the race and Championship. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas of Williams finished in 2nd and 3rd positions. Nico Rosberg finished in 14th.

Hamilton had raced to 1.2 seconds lead by the second lap. He knew he had to put a big distance between him and the following pack before the pitstops and he really sped away. Nico Rosberg's slim hopes for a championship win vanished into thin air as his poor start resulted in all strategies being ruined. Rosberg had tyres that were one lap older than Hamilton as Rosberg had done one more lap in the qualifying due to a mistake. It is the prerogative of the race leader to decide when to pit. His teammate can only follow in the next lap. So Rosberg had to wait for Hamilton to pit first.

The first pit stop was interesting, as Fernando Alonso dived in into the pits in lap 6. However, he got stuck in traffic as were other drivers. So Mercedes told its drivers to delay the pit stop a bit. So Lewis Hamilton came into the pits in lap 11 followed by Nico Rosberg in the next lap.

Both the Red Bull cars had to start from the pitlane as Red Bull was penalised for using a front wing that flexed beyond the limits. So they had to change it. And since the rules state that you can't change the car between the qualifying and the start, so the Red Bull cars had to start from the pitlane.

After the first round of pitstops, Nico Rosberg kept on pushing the gap was around 2.5 seconds. However, Rosberg couldn't perhaps handle the pressure and made a mistake in lap 24 and locked up in turn 17. In the next lap he reported loss of engine power and Mercedes told him that his Energy Recovery System (ERS) failed. So not only his championship dreams but also scoring a podium finish vanished. Soon after in lap 27 Felipe Massa overtook Rosberg for second position. Pastor Maldonado's wretched year continued as his Lotus car was engulfed by flames.

There was more drama, as suddenly Lewis Hamilton's car slowed down bring fears that his car is also having technical problems. However, it appeared that it was purposefully slowed down to avoid problems. Lewis soon changed tyres in lap 32 and came behind Rosberg but quickly overtook him. This resulted in Massa leading the race. Lewis Hamilton even told his Mercedes team over radio "I am not racing Massa anymore" as perhaps he was worried that his car might have some problems. Clearly he wanted to trade a race win for a Championship win. However Massa still had to pit for tyres and stopped in lap 44 handing over the lead back to Lewis Hamilton. Felipe Massa though changed over to Super Soft tyres and wanted to chase down Lewis Hamilton as the Williams team knew that Mercedes is conservative and afraid of technical problems.  By lap 53 Massa had narrowed the gap to 3.5 seconds to Hamilton. On lap 55 Lewis Hamilton lapped Nico Rosberg and continued his lead over Felipe Massa to win the race as well as the 2014 drivers F1 chamipionship.

This was the 11th race win of Lewis Hamilton in this season. He had more engine problems this year. Despite that he has shown tremendous maturity, grit and pace to win races and his 2nd World Championship.

Final Results of F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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

Retirements in Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix

Kamui Kobayashi  Caterham            Lap 42
Pastor Maldonado  Lotus                  Lap 27
Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso         Lap 15

Nico Wins and Hamilton spins to settle for Second in Brazil

Nico Rosberg comfortably wins in Brazil as Hamilton spins

Nico Rosberg comfortably won the race in Brazil starting from the pole position. He was helped by a error from Lewis Hamilton before the second pit stop.

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton started on soft tyres which quickly became worn out on the newly laid racetrack. They had to strop soon for tyre change. Nico being the driver leading the race had the first option to stop and he stopped first on lap 7 followed by Hamilton in lap 8. During the second round of pit stops, Hamilton had the best chance to overtake.

Nico Rosberg came to the pits in lap 27 and Hamilton took the advantage of clean air to run fast. Unfortunately he spun 180 degree and rejoined the track. He lost lot of time and since then it was difficult to catch up and overtake. All Hamilton could do was finish second.

Before this race, Lewis Hamilton had a lead of 24 points. Now that lead has been reduced to 17. To win the championship, Lewis Hamilton has to finish atleast 2nd in the season ending Abu Dhabi race where the points awarded is double that of other races.

Felipe Massa finished a distant 3rd in his home race. He had a botched pit stop. His teammate Valtteri Bottas too had problems with pitstops and finished in 10th.

Jenson Button of McLaren who is bound to lose his drive with McLaren next year, drove a good race and finished in P4. His teammate Kevin Magnussen who will be driving alongside Fernando Alonso for McLaren next year finished in 9th.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull came in 5th. The Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen had a fight for the 6th position and finally Alonso could overtake Kimi with 3 laps to go as Kimi had old tyres. Alonso and Kim finished 6th and 7th.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was 8th.

Results of Brazilian F1 Grand Prix 2014

1. Nico Rosberg                Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton            Mercedes
3. Felipe Massa                 Williams
4. Jenson Button               McLaren
5. Sebastian Vettel            Red Bull
6. Fernando Alonso          Ferrari
7. Kimi Raikkonen           Ferrari
8. Nico Hulkenberg          Force India
9. Kevin Magnussen         McLaren
10. Valtteri Bottas            Williams
11. Daniil Kvyat               Toro Rosso
12. Pastor Maldonado       Lotus
13. Jean-Eric Vergne        Toro Rosso
14. Esteban Gutierrez        Sauber
15. Sergio Perez                Force India
16. Adrian Sutil                 Sauber

Retirements in Brazilian F1 Grand Prix 2014

Romain Grosjean       Lotus
Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull

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 on pole in inaugural Russian Grand Prix

Hamilton on inaugural Russian Grand Prix pole

Lewis Hamilton scored the pole position in the inaugural Russian Grand Prix at Sochi ahead of his teammate and world championship rival Nico Rosberg of Mercedes. Hamilton was 200th of a second faster than his teammate. Hamilton set a time of 1m 38.513 seconds. Rosberg set a time of 1m 38.713 seconds.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams came in third with a time of 1m 38.920 seconds. No one else could come within the 1m 39 seconds mark. Bottas did a mistake and had to settle for third else he could have easily beaten Nico Rosberg. His teammate Felipe Massa was not so fortunate as he faced some engine issues and had clearly less power. Massa was eliminated in the Q1 of the Russian F1 Grand Prix qualifying and came in 18th. It would be an uphill battle for him as the overtaking chances in this circuit is expected to be less.

As expected McLaren was closer in pace and Jenson Button came in P4 with a time of 1m 39.121 seconds. Button who is widely expected to be dropped from McLaren next season is showing his class and should do well in the race tomorrow.

Kvyat of Toro Rosso finally strung a good lap to came in 5th with a time of 1m 39.277. Being a Russian driver he would have warmed many a hearts in this Russian F1 Grand Prix. Kvyat who is going to Red Bull next year, came ahead of both the Red Bull drivers as well. His teammate Jean-Eric Vergne came will start in 10th.

Kvyat was followed by Kevin Magnussen of McLaren in 6th with a time of 1m 39.629 seconds. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull came in at P7 with a time of 1m 39.635 seconds. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was P8 with a time of 1m 39.709seconds followed by his teammate Kimi Raikkonen in P9 who set a time of 1m 39.771seconds. Jean Eric-Vergne of Toro Rosso was P10 at 1m 40.052. He was ahead of Sebastian Vettel of RedBull who will start in P11 tomorrow.

Vettel was followed by the Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez in 12th and 13th positions respectively. The Force India duo were followed by the Sauber drivers Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil in 14th and 15th positions. Romain Grosjean of Lotus was P16 followed by Marcus Ericsson of Caterham in P17.

Felipe Massa was P18 followed by Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham in P19, Pastor Maldonado of Lotus in P20 and Max Chilton of Marussia in P21.

Marussia is only running one car in this race as a mark of respect for Jules Bianchi who is battling for survival due to a severe head injury incurred in the race in the Japanese Grand Prix last sunday.

Lewis Hamilton grabs Singapore Pole

Lewis Hamilton grabs pole in Singapore F1 Qualifying

It was an interesting battle in Singapore. For the first time the dominance of Mercedes was challenged in Singapore. And Lewis Hamilton showed lot of character to grab the pole by 0.007s off Nico Rosberg, despite driving a mishandling car and suffering a big lockup during his run. Mercedes was no where in the competition till the last run in Q3.

During Q3, that is the top-ten shoot out, it was not a great beginning for the Mercedes drivers as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished 6th and 7th during their first runs. However, fortunately Hamilton could do a brilliant second run and grab the pole.

Daniel Ricciardo finished in third position just ahead of his team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Ferrari was appearing to be doing well. Unfortunately Kimi Raikkonen faced a problem as his engine appeared to die on him during his outlap but was still classified at 7th. His team-mate Fernando Alonso finished in 5th followed by Felipe Massa of Williams in 6th.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams scored P8. He was followed by Magnussen of Mclaren and Kvyat of Toro Rosso qualified in 10th position.

In the Q1, it was Raikkonen of Ferrari who topped the time sheets. At the bottom of the grid, there was a huge difference between the Caterham drivers as Marcus Ericsson came last and was nearly 2 seconds slower than his 20th placed team mate Kamui Kobayashi. They were separated by Max Chilton on Marussia in 21st position. Jules Bianchi of Marussia came 19th. Pastor Maldonado of Lotus joined them in 18th position and Adrian Sutil of Sauber in 17th to get relegated.

Maldonado’s teammate Romain Grosjean didn’t fare much better as he finished in 16th position despite qualifying for the Q2. Sergio Perez of Force India could only finish in 15th. His teammate Nico Hulkenberg finished in 13th. The duo being separated by Esteban Gutierrez in 14th position. Jean-Eric Vergne who has been dropped by Toro Rosso team for the 2015 season claimed the 12th spot. Former world Champion Jenson Button failed to qualify for the Q1 top ten shootout as he finished in 11th position. It would be pretty painful for Jenson Button as his younger teammate out-qualified him. Jenson Button doesn’t have a contract for the next year. And if McLaren thinks that Button is slowing down, then they may get someone in his place next year. This should be clear later during the year.

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