Rosberg wins RussianGP from Pole

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes led from the Pole to win the Russian GP 2016 as his main competitors were battling troubles.

Rosberg’s team-mate and luckless Lewis Hamilton drove a great race from the 10th position and challenged him for a race win. Hamilton had reduced the gap to Rosberg to 7.5 seconds by the 36th lap but then the water pressure in his car started falling. So he somehow nursed his car back to the finish line and he would be happy to salvage 2nd place in this race. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari finished in third place.

Lewis Hamilton later said that he was absolutely in no doubt that victory was within his grasp till the water pressure problem derailed him from his quest. He said “I had the pace but I had a problem with the engine again, so I had to back off”. However he also praised the team for the effort they put in solving the problem after qualifying. "Firstly I'd like to thank the guys who flew over from the factory last night, and my mechanics who worked from 2am to get my car ready, because without them I wouldn't even have got to this point. It happened, I just had to try and nurse it home and I'm grateful I finished. We just need to do a better job. It seems to be my side of the garage having a hard time, but I have absolutely every confidence and faith in them”.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was hit by Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull and had to retire from the race. Given his teammate Kimi scoring a podium finish Vettel would be ruing his luck.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa of Williams scored 4th and 5th positions. This ensures that Williams is poised for a strong finish in the Constructors championship.

Fernando Alonso of McLaren made a superb start and scored his first points of the season when he finished in 6th position. However, he was down by a lap. Kevin Magnussen who was the reserve driver for McLaren last year and was unceremoniously released by them is driving for Renault this year and scored his first points this year as he finished in 7th position.

Romain Grosjean of Haas, the team that has made its debut this year in F1, scored 4 points as he finished in 8th position. This is the third time in four races that he has scored points for Haas. Sergio Perez of Force India was 9th and scored 2 points. Jenson Button of McLaren scored the last available point by finishing in 10th position.

Nico Rosberg leads the 2016 championship with 100 points. He is followed by the defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton at 57 points. Rosberg has now seven race wins in a row and is tied with Michael Schumacher. In the Championship race, Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari is third with 36 points and his teammate Sebastian Vettel is fourth with 33 points.

There are 17 more races to go and we expect a spirited fightback by Lewis Hamilton. May the better driver win.

#RussianGP 2016 Results

Nico Rosberg leads Mercedes 1-2 in Mexican Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes started from the pole and led the race. There was a chance for Hamilton when there was a safety car deployment due to Vettel being on the wall. However, Rosberg moved away cleanly during the restart. However, Nico Rosberg continued to lead and win the inaugural Mexican F1 Grand Prix race. Lewis Hamilton simply couldn’t overtake his teammate.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams finished third.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull was fourth. Ricciardo clashed with Sebastian Vettel at the start but didn’t face any problems to finish in fifth. Felipe Massa of Williams was sixth.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was seventh. Sergio Perez of Force India drove a great race with worn out tyres. His tyres lasted 51laps and he finished in 8th position.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso was 9th and was followed by Romain Grosjean of Lotus in the 10th and final points paying position.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari started on 19th place as he incurred a 35 place grid penalty due to change of engine, gearbox and other components of the engine train. Fernando Alonso of McLaren started on 18th and Jenson Button of McLaren started last on 20th position. Who would have imagined that three world champions having a total of 5 world championships between them would start at the very back of the F1 Grid.

This shows the asymmetry in the engine development. With two time world champion Fernando Alonso losing power in the opening lap itself and retiring his Honda powered McLaren car, the engine again came into focus.


Kimi Raikkonen who had a clash with Valtteri Bottas two races ago had another in lap 22. Valtteri Bottas of Williams tried to go on the outside of Raikkonen in turn 4 and couldn’t find any space to complete the move and the accident was inevitable ending Kimi’s race. Raikkonen’s rear part of the car was damaged and his great drive from the back of the grid was over. Raikkonen had his sights on podium but there is as they say many a slip between the cup and the lip. The stewards decided that it was a racing incident and didn’t give any penalty.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari started in third position but suffered a puncture due to accident with his previous team-mate Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull. Though he came up through the field but soon he spun and went back. His tyres were damaged and he couldn’t do much. Later he picked up his pace after a pit stop but his race came to an end in Lap 52 when he crashed into the wall. With it ended a miserable weekend for Ferrari. They had expected a lot but ended up with a double DNF.

Felipe Nasr was the other driver who retired. He had a fire in his brakes.

Results of Mexican F1 Grand Prix 2015

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

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 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

Hamilton wins 2015 F1 British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton wins 2015 F1 British Grand Prix

It was a dramatic F1 race in 2015 British Grand Prix at Silverstone with lot of fireworks in the opening lap. Felipe Massa of Williams had an amazing start and jumped ahead of pole sitter Lewis Hamilton. And he was not the only Williams driver as his teammate Valtteri Bottas too overtook Hamilton. Though, soon Hamilton overtook him and then again lost his position. However later Hamilton overtook both the Williams drivers to lead the race. Behind them both the Lotus drivers collided with each other. In order to avoid the Lotus drivers, Fernando Alonso of McLaren hit his team-mate Jenson Button.

Rain came in hard in the lap 44. At that time Nico Rosberg was charging hard and faster than his teammate. However, due to rain, immediately Hamilton changed to intermediate tyres and could increase the lead. He then safely won his third British Grand Prix race. His team mate Nico Rosberg finished in second place.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari scored another podium finish. Felipe Massa of Williams came in fourth. Valtteri Bottas was fifth.

Kvyat of Red Bull finished in sixth. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished in seventh position.

Though he had qualified ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was 8th. This will again result in many tongues wagging about the future of Kimi Raikkonen.

Sergio Perez of Force India too finished in points when he came in ninth and got two points.

Fernando Alonso of McLaren, despite the early pitstop for the accident finished in 10th position and scored his first points.

Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was 11th and just outside points.

Roberto Merhi of Marussia beat his team-mate Will Stevens to 12th position. Will Stevens finished 13th and last.

Retirements in F1 British Grand Prix 2015

Carlos Sainz              Lap 31
Daniel Ricciardo       Lap 20
Max Verstappen        Lap 3
Romain Grosjean      Lap 1
Pastor Maldonado     Lap 1
Jenson Button           Lap 1
Felipe Nasr               Lap 0

Final Results in F1 British Grand Prix

Rosberg leads from turn 1 to victory at Austria

Rosberg leads from turn 1 to victory at Austrian F1 Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg stated from second to overtake polesitter Lewis Hamilton at turn 1 and never looked back to win the Austrian F1 Grand Prix at Spielberg.

Except for one lap during pitstops, Nico Rosberg lead and won the race. Lewis Hamilton later said that he had a clutch problem which resulted in his slow start. He said "I let the clutch out and it just underperformed. Its something that I have been having since Barcelona and  before that I was having better starts."

It was the third victory of the season for Nico Rosberg after the previous victory at Monaco, where Mercedes decided to keep Nico Rosberg on the track during safety car period and brought back Lewis Hamilton for a pitstop to give victory to Rosberg. Now Nico Rosberg is only 10 points behind Lewis Hamilton and the championship doesn't look secure for Hamilton.

Felipe Massa of Williams finished third behind the two Mercedes cars.

Sebastian Vettel had a problem during the pitstop with his right rear wheel taking time to change and finished fourth. So this was the first podium finish for Felipe Massa this year. Valtteri Bottas of Williams finished fifth and was followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India in sixth.

Pastor Maldonado of Lotus was seventh and was followed by Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso in eighth. It was a big fight between these two drivers and Maldonado was able to overtake Verstappen just two laps before the finish and was just ahead by hardly a second at the finish line.

Sergio Perez of Force India was 9th and was followed by Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull in 10th. It was great for Ricciardo as he had to serve grid and stop go penalty.

It was an eminently forgettable race for Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari. He qualified at 18th and then had a first lap massive crash with Fernando Alonso of McLaren, his former teammate.

Felipe Nasr of Toro Rosso was 11th and was followed by sister team Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat at 12th.

Marcus Ericsson jump started ie started before the starters gun and hence was given a drive through penalty and he had car problems as well. He finished 13th ahead of Roberto Merhi of Manor Marussia Racing at 14th.

Austrian Grand Prix 2015 race results

Retirements in Austrian Grand Prix

Romain Grosjean
Carlos Sainz
Jenson Button
Will Stevens
Kimi Raikkonen
Fernando Alonso

Lewis Hamilton snatches pole in Austrian F1 Grand Prix

Hamilton snatches Pole in Austrian F1 Grand Prix

In an eventful qualifying in Austrian F1 Grand Prix qualifying, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes snatched the Pole position from his teammate Nico Rosberg with a time of 1m 08.455 seconds.

Nico Rosberg had topped the qualifying in Q1 and Q2 and also during the first run in Q3. However, Lewis Hamilton drove fast to overtake the time of Nico Rosberg by 200th of a second. In the last lap Lewis Hamilton while being in the provisional pole again made a mistake in the second sector where as his teammate had done well in the second sector. However, soon Nico Rosberg drove into the gravel trap. Nico's earlier time of 1m 08.655 was good for P2.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari scored P3 with a time of 1m 08.810 seconds.

Felipe Massa of Williams will lineup alongside Vettel in the second row with a time of 1m 09.192

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India will start in 5th position as he was timed 1m 09.278seconds. Valtteri Bottas of Williams will start alongside him in P6 with a time of 1m 09.319 seconds.

Max Verstappen with time of 1m 09.612 seconds was P7 and Daniil Kvyat of the sister Red Bull car was behind him in P8 with a time of 1m 09.694 seconds.

Felipe Nasr of Toro Rosso with a time of 1m 09.713 came in P9. Romain Grosjean didn't do a qualifying run in the Q3 and will start 10th in tomorrows race.


It was a big surprise in the Austrian F1 Grand Prix qualifying as Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was expected to be among the frontrunners for pole position but he could only score 18th position in the qualifying.

Positions 11th to 15th:
Pastor Maldonado of Lotus, Marcus Ericsson of Sauber, Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, Fernando Alonso of McLaren were the drivers who came in positions 11th to 15th respectively.

Lewis Hamilton was 13th in the Q1 leg of qualifying whereas his teammate Nico Rosberg was on top. Such was the situation at the Austrian F1 Grand Prix as drivers battled mixed conditions. The track was drying up and the times were continually improving all the time. So it was no surprise that some of the well known names fared badly in the Q1 in qualifying. However Kimi Raikkonen was genuinely surprised as he shouted into the radio "How the **** is that possible?"

After the 18 minutes long Q1 leg of the qualifying, the five Serzio Perez, Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen, Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens failed to qualify to the Q2. They scored the positions P16 to P20 respectively.

One should remember that Fernando Alonso has been penalised 20 places and Daniel Ricciardo 10 places respectively, so the final grid places will be different.

Daniel Ricciardo was penalised 10 places but since he qualified in 14th position, despited going to the back of the grid he will be charged with a 5 seconds stop-go penalty during the first pit stop.

Fernando Alonso has been penalised 20 grid places. So from 15th he will go to the back of the grid and then get stop go penalty.

Final Qualifying Positions in Austrian F1 Grand Prix

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.

Hamilton scores first Monaco Pole

Hamilton scores his first Pole in Monaco

Lewis Hamilton scored the crucial pole position in the F1 Grand Prix at Monaco

The qualifying in the F1 race at Monaco is very important given the twisting nature of the street circuit which makes overtaking difficult. The pole sitter generally wins the race. In the last 10 races, 9 times the driver has won from the pole.

There were spots of rain at the start of Q3. So Lewis Hamilton immediately started on his first qualifying lap in the Q3 and set a time of 1m 15. 304 for the provisional P1 slot. His teammate Nico Rosberg was further 0.136 seconds down. Sebastian Vettel was the only other driver to be in the 1m 15s. However, in the final run in Q3, Lewis Hamilton bettered his own lap time and scored a 1m 15.098 seconds. His teammate Nico Rosberg could not better his initial time and came in second and was 0.342 seconds behind him after setting a time of 1m 15.440s.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was 0.751 seconds behind with a time of 1m 15.849s. Surprisingly Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull came in 4th with 1m 16.041s. Daniil Kyvat was 5th with 1m 16.182s.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was 6th and more than half a second behind his teammate. Raikkonen scored a 1m 16.427s. He was followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in 7th with a time of 1m 16.808. Perez had done only one run where he was provisional P6 which was subsequently pushed down to P7 during the second run by other drivers.

Carlos Sainz was 8th with a time of 1m 16.931 seconds. Pastor Maldonado of Force India was 9th after he set a time of 1m 16.946s. Max Verstappen, the youngest driver in the F1 history came in at P10 with a time of 1m 16.957s.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus was 11th with a time of 1m 17.007 seconds. He was followed by Jenso Button of McLaren with 1m 17.093 seconds. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was 13th as he was a further .1 seconds down on Jenson Button. Felipe Massa of Williams qualified on 14th with a time of 1m 17.278 seconds.

Fernando Alonso of McLaren had bad luck as his car stopped with a potential engine problem. His time was good enough for 15th position and qualify for the Q2. However, since he couldn’t participate in Q2.

Fernando Alonso was followed by Felipe Nasr in 16th. Valtteri Bottas of Williams was 17th and was followed by Marcus Ericsson in 18th.

As expected the two Marusia cars of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi came in at 19th and 20th out of 20 cars in the Monaco F1 Grand Prix qualifying. They were the only two cars who were in the 1m 20s.

Anything is possible in Monaco as a number of cars hit the barriers and retire from the race. Last year, Marussia's driver Jules Bianchi had finished in 8th position and had earned their only points till date. Because of that points finish, they got an estimated 20 million pounds which helped them find a buyer and stay in this business. It is sad that Jules Bianchi had an accident at Japan in F1 race in 2014 and is fighting for his survival. His parents are now prepared to give up as the cost of medication is simply way too much for anyone to bear. Also Bianchi is not showing much improvement. It is time to remember him, so the Manor Marussia team has distributed a wrist band in Bianchi's name.

Lets hope tomorrow's race is entertaining without any injury to anyone.

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:

Lewis Hamilton scores second Sakhir Win amid drama

Lewis Hamilton sped from pole without any incident but was fortunate to win the race as Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari was only 3.3 seconds behind him with faster soft tyres and Hamilton was facing problems with his brake. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes came third and was followed by Valtteri Bottas of Williams in fourth and Sebastian Vettel of Ferarri in fifth.

Ferrari made an interesting call to put Raikkonen on medium tyres after the first stint whereas Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari chose to shod soft tyres again during the first pit stop. So this leading trio had medium tyres at the end and Raikkonen had the faster soft tyres in the last stint. Sebastian Vettel unfortunately ran wide in lap 35 and had to change the nose of his car. This pushed him down the order.

It was not all happy speeding away from pole for Hamilton. The Mercedes team did a tardy pit stop and this resulted in Lewis Hamilton just emerging ahead of his team-mate Nico Rosberg’s car and the distance separating the two would not be more than even a feet. At that time Rosberg was in battle with Sebastian Vettel.

Fortunately there were not incidents and Lewis Hamilton could resume his race lead and then soon create a gap between him and others. However, on the penultimate lap both the Mercedes cars faced brake problems. So Kimi Raikkonen could overtake Nico Rosberg and finish second. He was barely 3.3 seconds behind Hamilton and if there was perhaps even one more lap to go then Kimi would have overtaken Lewis Hamilton. So Mercedes needs to remain on their toes, else suddenly Ferrari can just snatch away wins like they did in Malaysia.

There are some people who felt that Mercedes purposefully slowed their cars down during the second stint, so that the gap between Mercedes and others doesn’t appear very big. There have been calls from other teams, especially by Red Bull to bring in a regulation and take away the advantage of Mercedes. In the strictest sense, F1 is not a sport as the drivers within a team can only race each other if they are allowed to by their teams. Now the call to penalise the leading team because others are not competitive is clearly against free competition. However, F1 is also not an equal opportunity sport for all teams. The top teams negotiate with CVC the rights holder and Bernie Ecclestone and get a major portion of the revenues. The lower ranked teams get less. Add to that the money power of the top teams like Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes and one can easily know that the independent teams find it very difficult to spend money and compete. Red Bull had dominated F1 for four consecutive years and for the first time last year they lost the title to Mercedes. And since this year they are not in the pace, immediately they are calling to change the rules and throttle Mercedes. Such is the politics in F1. If this results in fans moving away from the sport, then it won’t come as a surprise.

Vettel’s former team-mate Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull finished sixth. This is a better than expected result for the Red Bull team especially since they finished higher then their sister team Toro Rosso which has way less resources than Red Bull. Both the Toro Rosso’s didn’t finish. However, Ricciardo’s Renault engine died while he crossed the finish line and won’t be usable later. Romain Grosjean of Lotus is having a much better luck than last year and he finished in seventh and was followed by Sergio Perez’s Force India.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull came in ninth with two points. Felipe Massa of Williams was 10th. Massa had to start from the pitlane as his car stalled. He however could muscle his way through and atleast salvage one point.

The drivers from 8th onwards were lapped.

It was another bad day for McLaren team as Jenson Button couldn’t even drive the race as there was an electrical problem with his engine recovery system. Fortunately the other car driven by Alonso could run the full race distance and finished in 11th. However, they are still slow and need much more development to be competitive.

Rookie Felipe Nasr of Sauber came in 12th followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India. Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was 14th and was followed by Pastor Maldonado of Lotus in 15th.

Will Stevens of Manor racing came in 16th and was lapped twice. His team-mate Roberto Merhi was three laps down.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari had the distinction of scoring the fastest lap of the race with a 1m 36.311s in the lap 42 denying Lewis Hamilton having the distinction of Pole, win and fastest lap.

Learing Negotiation from McLaren

Learning Negotiation from McLaren

It was very interesting to watch the moves of McLaren team this year. They had two drivers in the form of former world champion Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen who was having his first year.

McLaren had already announced that from next year ie. 2015 they are going to use Honda engines. Honda engine is supposed to be on par with the Mercedes engine or even better, if grapevine is to be believed. Honda also wanted to have two good drivers.

So McLaren went on targeting good drivers and finally netted Fernando Alonso who broke off his Ferrari contract two years earlier than expected and signed on the dotted line for McLaren.

When Alonso informed Ferrari that he would like to move away, they immediately approached Sebastian Vettel and he took advantage of his mid year points clause to get out of Red Bull.

Red Bull immediately signed on Daniil Kvyat of their sister team Toro Rosso and announced to the world that Sebastian Vettel is going to Ferrari. This put Alonso under pressure as Ferrari hadn't announced the signing of Vettel or departure of Alonso.

McLaren too remained tight lipped on their driver lineup. When questions were asked to Eric Boullier, team principal of McLaren that by it may be difficult for Jenson Button to find a competitive drive so late in the season if they don't re-sign him, he said that he is not concerned with it as that is the problem of Jenson Button's management team. All in all it appeared that Eric Boullier as well as Ron Dennis didn't want Jenson Button.

Without having any competitive drives around, Button even contemplated leaving F1 altogether for a drive in a sports car category.

McLaren knew that with a new engine, they will find a lot of challenges integrating it with their car and hence experienced drivers were necessary. Also, Jenson Button was known to give excellent feedback to the engineers. His knack of reading tricky situations like partially drying wet surfaces and making tyre calls are legendary. So McLaren obviously knew that it would be better to have Jenson Button along with Alonso. However, Jenson Button was hired at a huge salary because he was the 2009 World Champion. Clearly McLaren didn't want to pay him that much.

At a time when two teams had folded up from F1, everybody was aware of the financial challenge the companies were facing. The McLaren team also sent out information that they were delaying the news of their driver lineup because they are waiting for some sponsors. If they find enough sponsors then they may hire Button along with Alonso, else they will hire Kevin Magnussen. This also put pressure on Jenson Button and he also made statements that he is not much worried about salary but wants a competitive drive.

After pushing him to the wall, the McLaren team then sat with Button and told them clearly that if only Button would take a massive pay cut, then they will hire him. Else they won't be able to. In the negotiation when you keep the other party hanging and when their options diminish, they are likely to succumb. So same thing happened here and Jenson Button agreed to McLaren to sign on the contract at 8 million salary.

If Jenson would not have signed, then McLaren would have said that they offered Button a contract but he declined. So they would have put the blame on him. McLaren though are paying about three times more to Fernando Alonso. Though one knows that McLaren is greedy. However, in tough financial environment they don't care about ethics and just want to get the contract at their own terms.

Normally if you hire an employee in such situations, he/she is going to be demotivated. However, McLaren know that Jenson Button would love to beat Fernando Alonso to prove himself. So motivation will not be a problem even though Button would be angry. Also at the age of 35, Button doesn't have many more years left. It is a cruel world indeed. However, for all practical purposes one can learn negotiation from McLaren team.

Rosberg beat Hamilton to Pole in Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton, the World Championship leader complained of vibration in his tyres in the Q3 of the Qualifying of the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Whereas his competitor and team-mate Nico Rosberg had no such problems and got the pole position by close to half a second quicker than Hamilton’s time. Nico Rosberg scored a 1m 40.480 seconds time vis-à-vis 1m40. 866 by Lewis Hamilton. It was a tense situation, as Rosberg has to win tomorrow’s race to have any chance of winning the championship, which till now is being led by Lewis Hamilton.

Behind the Mercedes pair of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton came the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. During practice Bottas was appearing strong. Nico Rosberg hopes that Bottas can beat Lewis Hamilton tomorrow, so that Rosberg can then win the Championship. For the Record, if Rosberg wins tomorrow’s race and Hamilton finishes in Second place, then Lewis Hamilton still finishes second. Lewis Hamilton is known to be a pure racer whereas Nico Rosberg can play dirty as was seen in Spa where he hit Hamilton from behind to ruin Hamilton’s race.

Tomorrow’s race appears to be the last race of Jenson Button. McLaren is believed to have signed up Fernando Alonso and is weighing up their options of whether to take Jenson Button or Kevin Magnussen in the other seat. At the fag end of the season, when there are no good race seats available, Jenson Button may have to quit F1. It is sad that Jenson Button cannot have a farewell race because McLaren decides to keep on the decision hanging till December 1st.

Ferrari would be happy as Kimi Raikkonen qualified ahead of Fernando Alonso who is leaving Ferrari after this race.

Final Qualifying positions in Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

01. Nico Rosberg                        Mercedes

02. Lewis Hamilton                    Mercedes

03. Valtteri Bottas                      Williams

04. Felipe Massa                        Williams

05. Daniel Ricciardo                  Red Bull

06. Sebastian Vettel                   Red Bull

07. Daniil Kvyat                        Toro Rosso

08. Jenson Button                      McLaren                    

09. Kimi Raikkonen                  Ferrari

10. Fernando Alonso                 Ferrari

11. Kevin Magnussen                McLaren

12. Jean-Eric Vergne                 Toro Rosso

13. Sergio Perez                         Force India

14. Nico Hulkenberg                 Force India

15. Adrian Sutil                         Sauber

16. Romain Grosjean                Lotus

17. Esteban Gutierrez               Sauber

18. Pastor Maldonado               Lotus

19. Kamui Kobayashi               Caterham

20. Will Stevens                       Caterham

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 gets his 10th win at Austin

Hamilton gets his 10th F1 race win at Austin

Hamilton started P2 to his nearest rival and teammate Nico Rosberg who started in pole in Austin in US Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg took off cleanly preventing Hamilton from overtaking him during the race to the turn 1.

Hamilton drove a patient race showing that he has matured immensely. After the first pit stop in lap 16, Hamilton upped the pace to close the gap between him and Rosberg. Then in lap 23 he squeezed past Rosberg using DRS in the long straight before turn 12. He then controlled the race and finished 4.3 seconds ahead of Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton thus extended his lead from 17 to 24 points over Nico Rosberg.

Daniel Ricciardo finished third by beating both the Williams drivers Felipe Massa (4th) and Vatteri Bottas (5th). Felipe Massa would be sad as he had a slow pit stop and for much of the race he was expected to be third.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari finished 6th and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen a distant 13th with a lap down.

Sebastian Vettel who started from the pitlane due to change of engine, charged up the field and finished in 7th position. He could have done better if he would have avoided a bit of sloppy driving in lap 26 where he lost places to Romain Grosjean of Lotus and Jean-Eric Vergne of sister team Toro Rosso.

Kevin Magnussen of McLaren finished 8th. His teammate Jenson Button lost places and finished in 12th. Jenson Button was supposed to come in for tyre change in lap 27 as his tyres were degrading. McLaren had confirmed that but then suddenly they asked him not to come into pits and changed the tyres of his teammate Kevin Magnussen instead. Button became a sitting duck and three cars passed him before the next lap when he was called in for a tyre change. It seems that next year Jenson Button is not going to drive for McLaren. McLaren has not confirmed its driver lineup for next year. According to grapevine Fernando Alonso is to drive for McLaren next year. He is still negotiating his terms. Next year Honda is going to partner McLaren and supply engine to the team. Though Jenson Button has earlier driven for BAR-Honda team and has a high profile Japanese model girlfriend and is highly popular in Japan, he seems to be out of favour with the team. It seems McLaren will have Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen next year.

Jean-Eric Vergne was penalised for a contact with Romain Grosjean of Lotus and hence instead of 9th position his final classification was 10th as 5 seconds penalty was added to his tally. He got 1 point for the 10th position. Romain Grosjean's teammate Pastor Maldonado of Lotus benefitted and became 9th and got 2 points.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus finished in 11th. Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber finished in 14th followed by Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India had an engine problem in lap 16 and retired. The other Force India car of Sergio Perez was embroiled in an accident with Adrian Sutil of Sauber in the first lap and both retired.

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.

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.

Lewis Hamilton wins Singapore F1 race to lead Championship

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes did some superb driving to win the Singapore F1 race. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull finished in 2nd followed by his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in 3rd. Fernando Alonso finished a close 4th.

It was double luck for Lewis Hamilton as he not only won the Singapore F1 race but also now leads the championship by 3 points as Nico Rosberg retired from the race due to car issues. Readers may remember that Nico Rosberg had purposefully hit Hamilton from behind at Spa forcing Hamilton to retire. Before this race Hamilton was behind Rosberg by 22 points. After all what goes around comes around.

Sebastian Vettel seemed to take benefit of an apparent starting weakness of Daniel Ricciardo as he overtook Ricciardo before going into turn 1. Fernando Alonso had a great start and took the 2nd position but he appeared to handle back the 2nd position to Vettel because Alonso perhaps feared the wrath of the stewards as he had cut a corner and seemingly gained an advantage. Since then it was a good race between Vettel and Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo.

However, it was not easy for Lewis Hamilton to just race away from the pole to victory as Singapore F1 race has got the record of having a Safety Car deployment in every race as inevitably one or the other car gets damaged and brings out the safety car. The safety car moves ahead of the F1 cars at a much slower pace than F1 cars are used to, so that stewards can clean the track during that time. In the 31st lap the safety car was out as Sergio Perez had his front wing get under his car after a wheel to wheel in turn 8 with former Force India driver Adrian Sutil, who is now driving a Sauber. Force India would be worried as they are on a tight constructors championship battle.

Lewis Hamilton informed Mercedes over the radio that he might have picked up some debris strewn on the track. His rivals Alonso, Ricciardo, Raikkonen quickly went to the pits to change tyres while Hamilton stayed ahead. The safety car cut down Hamilton’s lead. Fortunately for Hamilton, he had used 4 kgs less fuel than his immediate rival Vettel. So immediately after the Safety Car period was over in Lap 38, Hamilton started at a fast pace. In Lap 39 he had opened a gap of 3.2 seconds over Vettel. In Lap 41 he had increased the gap to 7.6 seconds. The gap kept on increasing every lap to 9.7s, 11.5s, 13.5s, 15.6s, 17.3s by lap 46.. Mercedes wanted to pit him around lap 50, however that was perhaps ambitious as the speed of Hamilton started coming down. Considering that the time to change for tyres in a pit stop is around 29 seconds in Singapore, Mercedes wanted Hamilton to have alteast 26 seconds lead over Vettel before coming to pits. Despite Hamilton saying that his tyres are worn out, Mercedes coaxed him to continue till Hamilton said that his tyres could explode at any moment. So Hamilton finally pit in lap 52 and it was a good decision as Hamilton emerged behind Vettel in second position and overtook him for the race lead in Lap 54. Through this race, Lewis Hamilton showed that he is not a world champion by just sitting and driving a fast car but also by showing tremendous ability to master adverse situations.

Felipe Massa of Williams finished in 5th position.

There was some good overtaking by Jean-Eric Vergne in the penultimate lap as he drove past Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas. However, he had a 5 second penalty slapped on him which was added to his race timing and still he finished in 6th position. Sergio Perez overtook Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari and finished in 7th which was not expected as he had that problem of front nose going under the body and starting the safety car period. Kimi Raikkonen finished in 8th followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India in 9th and Magnussen of McLaren got the last points paying position of 10th.

Valtteri Bottas who so bravely was driving in 6th position till very close to the end, completely lost his tyres as he had his last pit stop in 23rd lap. If the safety car would have lasted a couple of more laps and he should have been fine.

Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean of Lotus finished in 12th and 13th. Kvyat of Toro Rosso finished 8 places down on his teammate in 14th. Ericsson of Caterham beat the two Marussias to finish in 15th. Jules Bianchi lead his teammate Max Chilton to 16th and 17th place finishes.

Due to the Safety Car this race could not finish it’s normal race duration as the two hour time limit was just reached.

Retirements in Singapore F1 Grand Prix

Jenson Button           McLaren          52^nd lap

Adrian Sutil                Sauber            40^th lap

Esteban Gutierrez      Sauber            17^th lap

Nico Rosberg               Mercedes       13^th lap

Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham        0