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

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.

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

Rosberg grabs pole in Inaugural Mexican Grand Prix

It was an competitive qualifying in the first ever Mexican F1 Grand Prix as the cars were all very close to each other in pace.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes set a time of 1m 19.480 seconds. He beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton to second place by 0.188 seconds. Lewis Hamilton was the first one to set a time below 1m 20 seconds but when it mattered most in the Q3, he locked up in his qualifying run and was slower than Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari qualified in third.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull qualified in P4 with a time of 1m 20.398. Interestingly his teammate Daniel Ricciardo set a time of 1m 20.399 seconds for P5 which was o.oo1 seconds slower.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams was P6 with time of 1m 20.448 and he was followed by Felipe Massa who scored a time of 1m 20. 567 seconds for P7.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso was P8 with a time of 1m 20.710. Sergio Perez of Mexico brought in cheer for the home crowd as he qualified in 1m 20.716 seconds for P9. His teammate Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was P10.


The F1 qualifying has three parts. The Q1 is of 18 minutes duration and 5 slowest cars are excluded from the second part of qualifying. So in the Q2 15 cars participate and in Q1 the top 10 cars participate.

Jenson Button couldn’t participate in the qualifying as McLaren couldn’t solve his engine signal problem. He will race at the discretion of the stewards.

Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso have been slapped 30 and 15 place penalties for engine changes. To the spectators it may sound comic as there are only a total of 20 cars in the grid and the combined penalties for engine and gearbox change etc quickly adds up to more than the number of cars.

In the Q1, the following drivers were eliminated:
Fernando Alonso
Felipe Nasr
Alexander Rossi
Will Stevens
Jenson Button

Romain Grosjean of Lotus could just scrape through to the Q2. His luck however deserted him in Q2 and he couldn’t qualify to the Q1 Top Ten shootout. Kimi Raikkonen was eliminated in the Q2 as he experienced brake problems. He had a spin as well. Raikkonen finished in 15th spot and was down by nearly a second to the 14th placed Marcus Ericsson of Sauber. It would be painful for him because his teammate Sebastian Vettel was around 2.4 seconds faster than him. In the Q2 the following drivers were eliminated:
11. Carlos Sainz
12. Romain Grosjean
13. Pastor Maldonado
14. Marcus Ericsson
15. Kimi Raikkonen

Carlos Sainz was eliminated by just 0.007 seconds as Nico Hulkenberg of Force India beat him for the 10th spot in Q2.

Qualifying results of Mexican F1 Grand Prix

Vettel wins Pole at Singapore F1 Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel wins Pole at Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Singapore F1 Qualifying 2015

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

Vettel wins dramatic race - no Mercedes in podium at Hungary

Sebastian Vettel wins dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix with Mercedes cars not in podium

The Hungarian F1 Grand Prix 2015 had plenty of drama.

Sebastian Vettel won a dramatic, accident ridden race with Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull coming second and third. Max Verstappen came 4th. Fernando Alonso of McLaren was 5th. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton came in sixth. Romain Grojsean of Lotus was 7th. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes was 8th and was followed by Jenson Button of McLaren in 9th. Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was 10th.

In an emotionally surcharged moment, all drivers observed silence and stood around the helmet of Jules Bianchi to mourn his death.

After that the drivers gathered to start the race but there was an aborted start as Felipe Massa was found to be too short of this starting grid.

After that there was still lot of drama when the race started. At the starting of the race Sebastian Vettel had a clean getaway from the starting blocks and lead the race and was followed by his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Nico Rosberg was third followed by Pole sitter Hamilton in 4th. Hamilton complained that “Nico crossed over my line there, pushed me wide”. Hamilton put a wheel on the gravel and was down to 10th. After this it appeared that Hamilton’s hope of winning the Hungarian Grand Prix for the 5th time was up in smoke. Especially since he was stuck behind the Williams of Felipe Massa for a long time. Then finally Lewis Hamilton overtook Felipe Massa and was quickly behind the tail of 8th placed Sergio Perez of Force India. In Lap 12 he could finally overtake Sergio Perez for 8th. By then Hamilton was already 30 seconds down on Sebastian Vettel.

Nico Rosberg in the initial moments of the race, despite not winning, would have been happy as Hamilton went down to 10th. In a circuit notorious for the difficulty in overtaking, Lewis Hamilton came back from 10th in the grid to 5th by Lap 15. Ofcourse, he was also helped by Valttteri Bottas and Kvyat making their first pitstop. Lewis Hamilton might be feeling tensed as he asked “You are very quiet Bono”. He was then asked to push and immediately Hamilton upped his pace.

In lap 19 Pastor Maldonado of Lotus and Sergio Perez of Force India collided. This incident was investigated and Maldonado was handed a drive through penalty for causing the accident.


In lap 20 Hamilton pit and took soft tyres. In lap 21 Rosberg pit and took medium tyres. So Mercedes changed the strategy for both the drivers.

However, for Hamilton it was a bit unfortunate that he was again stuck behind Daniel Ricciardo who just emerged ahead of him after the pit stop. Ricciardo had taken medium tyres and had kept the soft tyres to charge during the last stages of the race. Hamilton overtook Ricciardo in Lap 29. He actually told Mercedes that “I’am so close. Can I have one more lap or not”? Mercedes agreed and Hamilton overtook Ricciardo for 4th. Interestingly Hamilton, despite having the same soft tyres as Vettel and having changed tyres one lap earlier was driving nearly a second faster than Vettel. However, Vettel then upped his pace and Hamilton started managing his tyres and he was told to make the maximum of his current stint so that he can only have a short stint with the medium tyres which is slower.

In Lap 43 Nico Hulkenberg of Force India has a big shunt and hit the walls to bring the safety car. Hulkenberg’s wing seemed to break off and then he had a big lock-up and hit the walls. It is a big failure that Force India has to analyse.

Both Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dived into the pits along with many other drivers. Both Hamilton and Rosberg chose medium tyres and get ready to race with the Ferraris as in one stroke all the lead of the Ferraris vanished. Unfortunately for Kimi Raikkonen he had a MGU-K power failure just before the safety car and had to deal with that loss for the rest of the race. Unfortunately, Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo made contact after the restart and Hamilton started dropping back fast. He had to make a pit stop to change the nose and put on soft tyres hoping that he will again manage to overtake a few cars to limit the damage to his World Championship race. However Hamilton was handed a drive through penalty for the incident with Daniel Ricciardo.

Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo sped past Kimi Raikkonen as without MGU-K power, Raikkonen was a sitting duck and soon Raikkonen retired.

It was soon upto Nico Rosberg to overtake Sebastian Vettel for the first place. However, with 5 laps left in the race Daniel Ricciardo hit Nico Rosberg and caused a puncture just when Rosberg was barely a second behind Vettel. This ensured that Nico Rosberg fell behind Hamilton. Ricciardo also came to the pits for a new nose. This ensured that for the first time in the last two years, neither of the Mercedes cars were in the podium in a race.

The Nico Rosberg-Daniel Ricciardo incident was investigated by the stewards.

Results of 2015 Hungarian F1 Grand Prix

Mercedes robs Hamilton, gifts Monaco victory to Rosberg

Mercedes robs Hamilton, gifts victory to Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton’s sure shot victory chance at Monaco vanished during the safety car period because of a decision by Mercedes, which can politely be called a blunder. Lewis Hamilton was on the lead for 63 laps and had built up a lead of about 17.7 seconds. Then suddenly Max Verstappen had perhaps a brain failure as he has been driving well till that point and rammed behind the Lotus car of Romain Grosjean and then ploughs into the barrier. This brought the safety car. Mercedes then told Lewis Hamilton that both the two cars behind him have pitted whereas his teammate Nico Rosberg (of Mercedes) and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari did not pit. So Hamilton agreed to get into the pits and changed his tyres. However, he lost the lead as after the pitstop, despite the lead he had built in, Lewis Hamilton joined the track behind Rosberg and Vettel. It was a sure shot win gifted to Nico Rosberg.

For some reason, someone in Mercedes wanted to perhaps keep Nico Rosberg in good humour after signing Lewis Hamilton for the next three years with a reported millions of dollars in salary. This is not an error. Despite the Mercedes boss Toto Wolf apologising, this is simply not possible. Someone somewhere decided to gift the win to Nico Rosberg to help him create the record of three wins in a row at Monaco. More importantly, now we know that this years drivers championship is far from over and Nico Rosberg does have a chance of winning it despite the brilliance of Lewis Hamilton.

The agony was evident in Hamilton’s face. He obviously didn’t celebrate by spraying the champagne. However, he said that he trusts the team.

Max Verstappen was penalised five places on the starting grid for causing the accident. He will start five places lower than his qualifying position in the next F1 Grand Prix at Canada.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull came in fourth. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was fifth. Initially the Red Bull team allowed Ricciardo to overtake Kvyat as they felt that Ricciardo might challenge the other front runners and score a podium. When they realised that it is not going to happen, they allowed Kvyat to overtake Ricciardo and take his rightful position.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was sixth. It is surprising that consistently Kimi has qualified behind Vettel and as a result has finished behind Vettel in most of the races. Kimi is a fast driver but his reputation as a fast and ice cool driver is taking a beating. In 2014, he was comprehensively beaten by Fernando Alonso. However, it was known that Kimi had walked into the team and was driving a car which was designed as per the preferences of Alonso. So there was some consolation. However, Sebastian Vettel routinely being in the podium and Kimi finishing in fifth or sixth is becoming difficult to digest.

Kimi was followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in seventh. It was a big surprise as Jenson Button of McLaren finished in 8th position. Earlier, Jenson Button had predicted that his McLaren team is not going to be in points in 2015. Hopefully this is the start of a good patch for the McLaren team.

Felipe Nasr and Carlos Sainz finished in 9th and 10th positions.

Nico Hulkenberg finished in 11th position. Romain Grosjean who was on the path of a points finish was crudely hit by Verstappen and finished in 12th position.

Marcus Ericsson was 13th followed by Valtteri Bottas of Williams in 14th. His teammate Felipe Massa was 15th.

Roberto Merhi for the first time finished ahead of his Marussia teammate. Merhi finished in 16th ahead of Will Stevens in 17th.

Results of Monaco F1 2015 Grand Prix

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.

Hamilton beats Rosberg for Mercedes 1-2 in Shanghai

Mercedes came back to familiar race results with Lewis Hamilton winning the Chinese Grand Prix at Shangai and Nico Rosberg finishing in 2nd position. Sebastian Vettel of Redbull came in third behind the two Mercedes drivers.

Sebastian Vettel’s Malaysia win had shocked the F1 world, and Mercedes would be breathing easy now after this win in China. However, the victory by Mercedes was not one-sided as it was in Australia. Sebastian Vettel was not far behind and there was danger of Nico Rosberg losing the second place to him. The Mercedes team even urged Lewis Hamilton to quicken his pace, as he was cruising at a steady pace instead of the full pace that his machine was capable off. Mercedes even told Lewis Hamilton that if he did not increase his pace then may be forced to allow Nico Rosberg to the pits before Lewis Hamilton. It is an accepted fact that the leading driver of the team gets the first chance to pit before his team-mate. Infact Rosberg’s tyres were bad so he finally got a chance to pit before Hamilton, but Lewis Hamilton took the chance to quicken his pace and score a fastest lap.

Ferrari’s pace was not good in the medium tyres which they took in the last stint. They were a match to the Mercedes in the soft tyres. The race finished with the safety car as the youngest driver on the grid, Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso had to stop his smoking car on the pit straight and surprisingly it couldn’t be removed in time. This definitely impacted the race results as the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen was charging fast and could have snatched the third spot from team-mate Sebastian Vettel, as Kimi had fresh tyres on his car and the gap between the cars had dropped to only 1.3 seconds. When a car is within one second of the preceding car, it can deploy the DRS in the designated DRS zone and overtake. Kimi, a good friend of Vettel might be cursing his luck.

The Williams cars of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas came in fifth and sixth confirming that they have fallen behind Ferrari as well. Last year Williams were just behind Mercedes and were dreaming of a race victory, especially in Brazil where Felipe Massa was leading.

Romain Grosjean, the original bad boy of 2013, finished in seventh and got the first points for Lotus. 2014 was a forgettable year for Lotus with their team principal moving to McLaren and Kimi moving to Ferrari. They had financial trouble as well. This year after moving to Mercedes engines from Renault engines, they are having a better time.

Felipe Nasr of Sauber finished in eighth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull. Ricciardo had a dreadful start to the Chinese F1 Grand Prix as he accidentally hit the auto stall during the start. He somehow held his nerves and showed a gritty performance to finish in points in 9th place. He must be happy that Verstappen of sister car Toro Rosso, who was scheduled to finish in eighth had to retire with a smoking Renault engine. Despite the much higher budget of Red bull, the sister cars of Toro Rosso are doing better.

Marcus Ericsson must be very happy moving to Sauber as he finished in points by claiming the 10th and last points paying position. He was one lap down. Sergio Perez of Force India came in 11th.

Jenson Button made a mistake and hit Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus car from behind. Button accepted his fault and was penalised with 5 seconds. So he finished in 14th and his team-mate Fernando Alonso finished in 12th. Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso was 13th.

It must be a very sad day for Fernando Alonso, who left Ferrari to join McLaren, as Ferrari is doing well this year and the Ferrari cars lapped the McLaren of Alonso.

Both the Marussia cars managed to finish the race and would be very happy with the reliability. They couldn’t race in the season opener at Melbourne. In Malaysia they only ran one car. At Shanghai in the Chinese F1 Grand Prix, Will Stevens lead his team-mate Roberto Merhi for a 15th and 16th position finish.

Retirements in Chinese F1 Grand Prix

Max Verstappen                Toro Rosso
Pastor Maldonado             Lotus
Daniil Kvyat                     Red Bull
Nico Hulkenberg              Force India

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

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 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

Lewis Hamilton wins F1 Hungarian Grand Prix

Hamilton registers his first win with Mercedes team as he wins the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix 2013.

Lewis Hamilton started on pole and managed to retain the lead in the rush to the turn 1 where as his team mate Nico Rosberg hurtled back and was one lap down when he retired in lap 66. Hamilton did the first stop for tyre change in lap 10th. He made two further stops to win the Hungarian Grand Prix 2013.

The race was more or less decided when after the first pit stop Hamilton rejoined behind Jenson Button who was on medium tyres and could immediately overtake him. However, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull similarly joined behind Button after the first pit stop but couldn’t pass him. At one stage the pack of three cars of Button followed by Vettel and Grosjean were trying to fight each other and lost a lot of time. In the end that proved to be crucial.

The race had its moments when different players set the fastest lap times at different times based on the time they changed to new tires. Vettel made a stop in lap 56 and immediately after in lap 60 set a fastest lap time which was nearly a second faster than that of Hamilton in that lap. However, Hamilton continued his composure and won the race easily.

Mark Webber shifted to soft tyres in lap 60 and then set a fastest lap time 1:24.069 in lap 61. However he was more than 20 seconds behind Hamilton and hence didn’t pose any challenge. Soon the challengers realised the inevitability and settled into a rhythm. So Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus finished in 2nd position as he could make his two stop strategy work to perfection. Kimi Raikkonen was followed by Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull in 3rd.

Jenson Button of McLaren was the other driver in two stop strategy and finished in 7th.

Final Standings in F1 Hungarian Grand Prix

1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull
4. Mark Webber Red Bull
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
6. Romain Grosjean Lotus
7. Jenson Button McLaren
8. Felipe Massa Ferrari
9. Sergio Perez McLaren
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams
11. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
14. G. Van der Garde Caterham
15. Charles Pic Marussia
16. Jules Bianchi Marussia
17. Max Chilton Caterham

Retirements in F1 Hungarian Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg Mercedes
Valteri Bottas Willams
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber
Adrian Sutil Force India


Lewis Hamilton was incredibly happy to win the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix as his first victory with Mercedes team.

Vettel beats Kimi Raikkonen to win German GP

Vettel beats Raikkonen to win German Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel bounced back from retirement in Silverstone to score a win in Germany to further extend his lead in the Formula 1 championship.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were in touching distance of each other. However, Vettel could manage to keep Kimi behind and won the race by just a second. This was the first time Sebastian Vettel won his home race.

Sebastian Vettel was second behind Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes in the starting grid, but made a strong start and grabbed the lead in the first corner. Romain Grosjean of Lotus made some good attempts to grab the lead from Vettel, but couldn’t succeed. However, the tyre explosion saga in Silverstone and the subsequent tyre changes for the German GP had ensured that Red Bull had a good pace here. Vettel managed to hold off both the Lotus cars and Grosjean later finished in the podium in the third place by just managing to hold off Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

Mark Webber’s luck was not on his side as the Red Bull team made an egregious pitstop error and failed to tighten his right rear wheel when he pitted in lap 9. As a result the right rear wheel came out and hit a cameraman in the pits. The cameraman had bruises and laceartions in the body and is in hospital under observation. This blunder by the Red Bull team ensured that Webber was down by a lap when he again joined the race. However, a safety car caused by the retirement of Marussia car of Jules Bianchi resulted in Mark Webber able to catch up with others. Mark Webber finished in seventh. However, he is being investigated for unsafe release. It is to be seen if Webber will be penalised and demoted or only the team will be penalised.

Lewis Hamilton who was on pole sadly finished on 5th. Luck is not in his side as despite being on pole he has not been able to record race wins. He was also slowed down as his team mate Nico Rosberg held him up despite being on a different strategy. At times your teammate is your worst enemy, especially if he is Nico Rosberg. Lewis Hamilton also couldn’t take the advantage of Safety car like his rivals. In Lap 23 Jules Bianchi retired just after Lewis Hamilton had made his pitstop. Fate can be cruel.

Jenson Button of McLaren who started on 9th position finished on 6th position.
Button’s teammate Sergio Perez finished on 8th position followed by Nico Rosberg of Mercedes in 9th and Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber in 10th.

Unsafe release:
Paul di Resta finished in 11th. Di Resta’s unsafe release in lap 5 will be investigated after the race. He was released when Vergne was there and they managed to avoid each other.

Daniel Ricciardo who had shown much promise in the qualifying finished in 12th. Adrian Sutil of Force India finished in 13th. Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber finished in 14th followed by Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas of Williams in 15th and 16th position. They were followed by perennial backbenchers Charels Pic, Giedo van der Garde and Max Chilton

Retirements in German Grand Prix

Jean Eric Vergne
Jules Bianchi
Felipe Massa

Fastest lap in German Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari had the honour of scoring the fastest lap in the race in lap 51 with a time of 1:33.468

Lewis Hamilton scores Pole for Mercedes in Germany

Lewis Hamilton snatches the pole position in Germany for the German team.

It was an interesting formula one qualifying in Germany. In the Q1, only Redbull and Mercedes used medium tyres, and all the other teams had to resort to soft tyres to qualify. The soft tyre is about 1.5 seconds faster than the medium tyres. This shows that Mercedes and Redbull have an edge over others in this circuit.

Eliminations in Q1 in German Grand Prix

The usual suspects were eliminated in the Q1, namely:
Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado, Charles Pic, Jules Bianchi, Geido Van der Garde, Max Chilton. There was slightly nearly four and half seconds difference between the fastest and the slowest car in Q1.

Sergio Perez was in danger of not qualifying for Q2 as he was down at 18th position before he put together a lap in the dying seconds of Q1 to move into Q2.

Intense drama in Q2 in German Grand Prix 2013

There was lot of drama in the Q2
In the Q2, the Red Bull team kept their drivers in their garage and released them with about five and half minutes remaining what appeared to be for a single run. They appeared to be saving their soft tyres. Vettel and Webber posted identical sector times in S1 and S2 but webber scored a slower S3 and as a result Vettel took P1 position in Q2 ahead of Hamilton and Webber.

Mercedes decided not to run their drivers again as they were initially 1-2. However, in the dying seconds of Q2, Grosjean came ahead of Hamilton and then Alonso scored a provisional P1 to be just inched by his team mate Felipe Massa. Then Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Jenson Button all pushed through to push out Nico Rosberg out of Q3. Kimi Raikkonen did a flyer to score P2 in Q2 in the last few seconds. The difference between Hamilton was 1:30.152 and Rosberg 1:30.326

Drivers eliminated in Q2 in F1 German Grand Prix 2013

11. Nico Rosberg Mercedes
12. Paul di Resta Force India
13. Sergio Perez McLaren
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber
15. Adrian Sutil Force India
16. Jean Eric Vergne Toro Rosso

In Q3, both the Ferrari drivers and Jenson Button of McLaren came out on medium tyres. Perhaps they expect the soft tyre not to last only for a short time so that they will get advantage if they use a medium tyre.

There was a fight for the pole as Vettel went fractionally ahead of Hamilton with a great third sector. However, Hamilton hit back by knocking off 0.2 seconds in the first sector, matching Vettel in the second sector and again besting him in the third sector. So Lewis Hamilton scored 1:29.398 seconds to Sebastian Vettel’s time of 1:29.501 seconds. It was a happy moment for Mercedes as they got the Pole in Germany, their home country. The German fans roared when Lewis Hamilton scored the pole. The blow of Nico Rosberg, a german driver of Mercedes not qualifying for the Q3 was forgotten.

Mark Webber or Red Bull scored P3 with a time of 1:29.608 followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus who scored 1:29.892. Both of them will start in the second row.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus scored P5 with time of 1:29.959 and Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso scored P6 with 1:30.528.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari came ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso for the 7th and 8th positions with times of 1:31.126 and 1:31.209 respectively.

Jenson Button of McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber didn’t register a time. This allows them to choose a tyre ie. both of them can either start with soft tyre or medium tyres.

It is a proud moment for Nico Hulkenberg, another German, to be on P10 as his previous races this year are forgettable.

It would be a very interesting race tomorrow in the F1 German Grand Prix 2013

Alonso wins Chinese Grand Prix 2013

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari overtook pole sitter Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes in the 5th lap and registered the first win for himself in the 2013 season.

Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus nursed a damaged front wing to come second. Hamilton took the third position by barely managing to thwart a charging Sebastian Vettel of Redbull. The difference between Hamilton and Vettel was only 0.2 seconds. Kimi Rakkonen was a further 2.1 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

Jenson Button of McLaren would have considered himself to be fortunate as he scored a fifth position ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferarri. The retirements of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes in 21st lap and Mark Webber of RedBull in 15th lap obviously helping the struggling Mclaren. Jenson Button would obviously having more prayers in his lips for some of his competitors not to finish the next race, as it is not known as to how much time McLaren will take to improve their car.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso finished a creditable seventh. Paul di Resta of Force India was done in by his own team mate Sutil. However, he managed to recover and finish 8th. His team mate Sutil perhaps had to face his own karma as Esteban Gutierrez of Sabuer ran into the back of Sutil and both of them retired. Gutierrez earned a five places grid penalty for the next race at Baharin.

It is to be seen if Force India can manage their warring drivers and ensure that there is no repeat collision between the two.


Romain Grosjean of Lotus finished at 9th. Last year he was at his erratic best, served a one race ban, however he was fast as well. This year, he has not collided with anyone in the first three races, but there has been a huge gap between Kimi and Romain. If this continues, it will be seen whether Eric Boulier will still retain him next year.

I wish Michael Schumacher were driving in place of Romain Grosjean and Lotus would have been steadily beating the other top teams.

Nico Hulkenberg who moved from Force India to Sauber finished at 10th place. Wonder if he is happy as the Sauber this year has been a far cry from the previous years car.

Sergio Perez who moved from Sauber to McLaren finished at 11th. Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso finished in 12th ahead of the two Williams cars of Valeri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado.

Jules Bianchi of Marussia was ahead of the Caterham of Charles Pic for 15th and 16th positions and Max Chilton of Marussia finished at 17th ahead of Giedo Van der Garde of Caterham.

Worried by the poor showing of his drivers Tony Fernandes of Caterham brought back Heikki Kovalainen as a reserve driver and he will drive in the FP1 in the next two races to give his feedback. Qing Hua Ma who is the reserve driver with Caterham drove in the First Practice. It is not known how many millions he has brought to the Caterham team to allow him some track time in the car. Last year he was with the HRT team as reserve driver and had driven in the First Practice in several races including the Chinese Grand Prix. Caterham seems to be in deep trouble financially and unless they beat Marussia, they will also lose millions that comes as a bonus for the 10th position.

Final Standings in the drivers championship after Chinese Grand Prix 2013

1. Sebastian Vettel Redbull 52 points
2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus  49 points
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 43 points
4. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 40 points
5. Felipe Massa Ferrari 30 points
6. Mark Webber Redbull 26 points
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 12 points
8. Jenson Button McLaren 12 points
9. Romain Grosjean Lotus 11 points
10. Paul di Resta Force India 8 points
11. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 6 points
12. Adrian Sutil Force India 6 points
13. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 5 points
14. Sergio Perez McLaren 2 points
15. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1 point
16. Valeri Bottas Williams 0 points (Best place finish 11th)
17. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 0 points (Best place finish 12th)
18. Jules Bianchi Marussia 0 points
19. Charles Pic Caterham 0 points
20. Pastor Maldonado Williams 0 points
21. Giedo Van der Garde Caterham 0 points
22. Max Chilton Marussia 0 points

Michael Schumacher retires from Formula One

Michael Schumacher retires from Formula One racing

Michael schumacher - The God of Formula One - has announced his retirement.  In a shocking move earlier his Mercedes team had announced Lewis Hamilton in his place. http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/09/mercedes-shows-door-to-michael.html

Now Michael Schumacher has decided not to drive for any other team and retire from the sport for the second and final time. In 2006 Michael Schumacher had retired when he was driving for Ferrari. Ferrari had announced signing of Kimi Raikkonen as his replacement. It was widely believed that instead of forcing Felipe Massa out of the team, Michael Schumacher gracefully retired. However, his ambitions were burning and when Felipe Massa suffered the accident and Ferrari approached Michael Schumacher, the racing fires within him was stoked. He then came and drove for Mercedes team. With the Mercedes team now showing him the door, he had options of going to Sauber. However, he declined to drive for them and has retired.

Michael Schumacher was very competitive and from his demeanor one could see the fires burning. However, without a drive in Mercedes, he has now decided to call it quits from F1.

Though Michael Schumacher said that I still feel that I am capable of competing against the best but the time sometimes comes to say goodbye and this time it might be forever. And he added for good measure "During the past month I was not sure if I still had the motivation and energy which is necessary to go on. It is not my style to go on if I am not 100 percent with it but with today's decision I feel relieved."

7 Word Titles, 91 Race Victories and 155 podiums. Michael Schumacher still remains the most successful driver ever. At 43 years of age, he still burns bright, as a testament to his super human abilities. However, at 43 years, even The God of Formula One is mortal and has decided to bow away. While appreciating all he has done, Michael Schumacher's retirement from Formula One has broken our heart that we will not see him driving any more after this year.

Mercedes shows the door to Michael Schumacher

Mercedes shows the door to Michael Schuamacher

Mercedes didn't choose to renew Michael Schumacher's contract. Instead it announced signing up Lewis Hamilton for a three year duration.

Mercedes also announce that Triple World Champion Nikki Lauda will join the team as non-executive chairman.

The Mercedes team is largely struggling under the leadership of Ross Brawn and has notched up a single race win in three years. Michael Schumacher has managed to win his first podium finish this year where as his team mate Nico Rosberg has won one race.

Michael Schumacher in a statement said "I have had three nice years with the team which unfortunately did not go as well as we would have wanted on the sporting side. I wish Lewis well and for the team to achieve success we worked so hard for in the build-up. I would like to thank the team for their trust and all the guys for their unconditional commitment. I will now concentrate on the next races."

Ross Brawn of Mercedes said "On behalf of Mercedes, I would first of all like to thank Michael Schumacher for the important contribution he has made to the growth of our team over the past three seasons. His energy and commitment has never wavered, even when results have not matched our own expectations, and we are determined to finish the 2012 season together on a high. As always, it has been a pleasure to work with Michael."

McLaren team has immediately announced that they have signed Sergio Perez of Sauber who has shined this year with three podium finishes.

It would be interesting to see what Michael Schumacher does. From his spirited driving it doesn't appear that he is considering retirement. However, his options for driving a top team are on finger tips.

One likely possibility of a drive for Michael Schumacher could be Ferrari. Felipe Massa is under fire in Ferrari and has failed to impress. His contract will be over this year. It would be a dream come true to get Michael Schumacher partner with Fernando Alonso. If the pairing of Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso happens, then it would be a dream team. Will Luca Montzemelo agree to that prospect?

Michael Schumacher can also go to the smaller Sauber team as a replacement of Sergio Perez. The Sauber team has been punching above its weight and have been pretty fast.

The last word on Michael Schumacher's future is yet to be heard on this subject. One thing is for certain, there would be hordes of people who will stop buying Mercedes cars.