Hamilton wins in Russia for second time

Lewis Hamilton wins in Russia F1 Grand Prix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Results of Russian F1 Grand Prix 2015

EDIT: Raikkonen penalised

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

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

Reclassified Russian F1 Grand Prix Results

Sl.        Driver                         Team

1.         Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes

2.         Sebastian Vettel        Ferrari

3.         Sergio Perez               Force India

4.         Felipe Massa              Williams

5.         Daniil Kvyat               Red Bull

6.         Felipe Nasr                 Sauber

7.         Pastor Maldonado     Lotus

8.         Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari

9.         Jenson Button            McLaren

10.       Max Verstappen        Toro Rosso

11.       Fernando Alonso       McLaren

12.       Valtteri Bottas            Williams

13.       Roberto Merhi           Marussia

14.       Will Stevens               Marussia

Rosberg on Pole in Russian F1 Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg on Pole in Russian F1 Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes led in all the three sections and won the pole position in the Russian F1 Grand Prix qualifying at Sochi. World Champion Lewis Hamilton qualified in second with 0.320 seconds separating the two.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams qualified in third position for tomorrow's race.

It was a wet friday practice and teams tried to fit in their programs for the single practice on saturday. However, Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso had a heavy accident and couldn't take part in the qualifying later in the day.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari qualified ahead of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen to qualify in P4 and P5 respectively.

They were followed by Force India cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez on P6 and P7 respectively.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus who will drive next year for the new Haas team qualified in P8. Verstappen of Toro Rosso was 9th and Daniel Ricciardo of REd Bull who didn't set a time will start on 10th in tomorrow's race.

Lewis Hamilton on pole for the sixth consecutive race

Lewis Hamilton scores pole at Belgium F1 Grand Prix and led a 1-2 for Mercedes. This was the sixth consecutive pole position and matches the record of Michael Schumacher from 2000/2001.

Lewis Hamilton scored a 1 m 47.197 seconds run to the pole. His teammate Nico Rosberg scored a 1m 47.665 seconds which was a massive 0.468 seconds slower. In F1 half a second difference is huge.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams was third with a time of 1m 48.537 and was closely followed by Romain Grosjean of Lotus with a time of 1m 48. 561 for P4 and Sergio Perez of Force India with a time of 1m 48.599 for P5.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull came up with a time of 1m 48.639 and will start on 6th. He was followed by Felipe Massa with 1m 48.685.

Pastor Maldonado of Lotus followed with a time of 1m 48.754 and will start 8th. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was P9 with a time of 1m 48. 825

Carlos Sainz was P10 with 1m 49.771

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was P11. He is followed by Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull. Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was P13. Kimi Raikkonen who was recently confirmed to be retained by Ferrari for next year was P14. Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso is going to serve a 10 place penalty and score a P15.

Felipe Nasr of Sauber was P17. Jenson Button and Fernando will start from the back of the grid due to engine penalties but they score P17 and P18. Will Stevens of Marussia and his team-mate Roberto Merhi came in at 19 and 20.

Lewis Hamilton wins Pole by half a second at Hungary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hungary 2015 F1 Qualifying Positions:

Lewis Hamilton wins Canadian F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton nicely started the race and eased into the lead whereas Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen battled behind for the second spot. After a few laps, Raikkonen had a spin and was overtaken by Valtteri Bottas and Nico Rosberg concentrated on fighting with Lewis Hamilton. Though there was an interesting battle between the two Mercedes cars, Lewis Hamilton did just enough to keep ahead of Nico Rosberg and win the Canadian F1 Grand Prix 2015 by 2.2 seconds.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams came in third despite a late surge my Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari and was 40.6 seconds behind Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen was 4th and 45.6 seconds behind the race winner. Sebastian Vettel came in 5th and 4.2 seconds behind Kimi.

Felipe Massa of Williams was 6th. He was followed by Pastor Maldonado of Lotus in 7th.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was a lap down and finished in 8th position. Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull was 9th and Romain Grosjean of Lotus was 10th.

Sergio Perez of Force India was 11th and outside the points paying positions. Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso was 12th. He was followed by Daniel Ricciardo of his sister team Red Bull.

Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was 14th. Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso was 15th.

Felipe Nasr was 16th and two laps down. Will Stevens of Marusia Manor Racing was 17th. Will Stevens was 4 laps down.

Roberto Merhi of Manor Racing retired along with the two McLarens.

Fernando Alonso was not in a happy mood during the Canadian Grand Prix. His radio message “we are looking like amateurs” shows that he has finally lost patience with the tortoise like car that McLaren has produced along with Honda engine. Later like him, his team-mate Jenson Button too retired from the race.

F1 Canadian Grand Prix 2015 Driver Standings

Vettel surprises Mercedes to score first victory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The cars from 8th onwards were lapped.

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

Did Not Finish in Malaysian F1 Grand Prix

Pastor Maldonado
Jenson Button
Fernando Alonso
Marcus Ericsson

Did Not Start:

Will Stevens - due to fuel pump issue

Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi & F1 World Championship

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Results of F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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

Retirements in Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix

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

Nico Rosberg on Pole in Brazil F1 Qualifying

Nico Rosberg beat Hamilton to pole in Brazilian Grand Prix

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

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

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

Final Qualifying Positions in Brazilian F1 Grand Prix

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

Hamilton coasts to inaugural Russian Grand Prix win

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

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

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

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

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

Results in Russian F1 Grand Prix 2014

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

Retirements in Russian F1 Grand Prix 2014

Kamui Kobayashi              Caterham        Lap 22
Max Chilton                       Marussia         Lap 10

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

Lewis Hamilton grabs Singapore Pole

Lewis Hamilton grabs pole in Singapore F1 Qualifying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sebastian Vettel win Brazilian Grand Prix to make it 9 in a row

Brazilian Grand Prix marks 9 in a row for Vettel

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull won the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix to score 9 race wins in row and equal the world record of Alberto Ascari. It was widely expected that Red Bull was the car to beat and out of the two Red Bull cars, Sebastian Vettel has got preference over his team mate Mark Webber in number of occasions this year.

He also equalled the record held by Michael Schumacher of 13 race wins in a season. So it became 13 wins in 2013 for Sebastian Vettel.

Sebastian Vettel could comfortably hold off his teammate Mark Webber who retired from the sport with this race. There was no drama in the race due to weather as it only drizzled intermittently, unlike the pouring that everybody expected. Vettel was 10.4 seconds ahead of his team mate. There was a bit of drama when the Red Bull team fumbled with his stop and Mark Webber had to patiently wait behind him for his turn to change tyres.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari came third. Jenson Button who had qualified in 15th position drove a good race and finished on 4th. Nico Rosberg had raced ahead of Vettel during the start couldn’t hold on to the lead position and had to drop down due to his car eating up his tyres. Rosberg had to be content with a 5th position finish. Sergio Perez who had smashed against a wall in the qualifying and started the race in 14th position finished the race in 6th. This happened as Felipe Massa was slapped with a drive through penalty for crossing the pit lane entry white line marker. Massa was originally running just behind his team mate Fernando Alonso in 4th position. This helped Sergio Perez finish just ahead of Massa. Massa’s 7th position finish also resulted in Ferrari losing the second place in constructors championship to Mercedes. That would be worth several million dollars.

Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber finished in 8th position ahead of Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. Hamilton had started in 4th but didn’t notice Valtteri Bottas of Williams was trying to unlap himself in the lap 47. So they touched and Hamilton got a rear right tyre puncture. To top it, Hamilton was also given a drive through penalty. Hamilton finished on 9th position.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso finished in 10th and the last points paying position but had the ignominy of being 1 lap down.

Paul di Resta who is expected to be kicked out of Force India, finished just outside the points at 11th position. His team-mate Adrian Sutil, who is favourite to retain his position, finished in 13th. Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber separated the two scoring a 12th position finish.

Heikki Kovalainen finished a disappointing 14th position whereas his team-mate Romain Grosjean retired in lap 2 with engine trouble.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso came in 15th just ahead of Pastor Maldonado of Williams in 16th. The drivers from the 10th to 16th positions were one lap down.

Jules Bianchi of Marussia, Giedo van der Garde of Caterham and Max Chilton of Marussia finished 2 laps down at 17th, 18th and 19th positions respectively.

Final Positions in Brazilian Grand Prix 2013

1.   Sebastian Vettel              Red Bull

2.   Mark Webber                  Red Bull

3.   Fernando Alonso             Ferrari

4.   Jenson Button                  McLaren

5.   Nico Rosberg                    Mercedes

6.   Sergio Perez                     McLaren

7.   Felipe Massa                    Ferrari

8.   Nico Hulkenberg             Sauber

9.   Lewis Hamilton                Mercedes

10. Daniel Ricciardo              Toro Rosso

11. Paul di Resta                   Force India

12. Esteban Gutierrez           Sauber

13. Adrian Sutil                     Force India

14. Heikki Kovalainen           Lotus

15. Jean-Eric Vergne             Toro Rosso

16. Pastor Maldonado          Williams

17. Jules Bianchi                    Marussia

18. Giedo van der Garde      Caterham

19. Max Chilton                     Marussia

Retirements in the Brazilian Grand Prix 2013

Charles Pic Caterham
Valtteri Bottas Williams
Romain Grosjean Lotus