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

Hamilton wins Belgian Grand Prix from Pole

Lewis Hamilton started from pole to win the Belgian Grand Prix 2015 at spa.

This was the first race where the new driver assistance rules came into force and drivers had to decide their own clutch settings. So it was expected that a few drivers will face issues during start. If the clutch setting is not right, then there will be more revs and wheel spin and others will pull away. The predictions came true and it was Nico Rosberg who messed up his start. He was P2 in the starting grid and immediately fell down to P5. Lewis Hamilton however led from the start to win the race. Later on Nico Rosberg sped through and beat other cars by virtue of the superior pace of his Mercedes car and finished in 2nd position in the race. Romain Grosjean of Lotus finished in the podium after a torrid two years for Lotus.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was on a one stop race as Ferrari decided to take the gamble of one stop where the tyre supplier Pirelli had advised two stop race. It appeared that Vettel would score a podium but on the penultimate lap, his right rear tyre blew up ending his podium hopes. He was however classified to have finished in 12th.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull came in 4th. Sergio Perez of Force India finished in 5th. Felipe Massa of Williams was 6th. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari came in 7th. Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso finished in eighth. Valtteri Bottas of Williams was 9th. Marcus Ericsson of Sauber finished in 10th and last points paying position.

Felipe Nasr of Toro Rosso was 11th. He was followed by Vettel who got this position by virtue of retiring in the penultimate lap till then he was scheduled for a podium position.

Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button of McLaren finished in 13th and 14th position. They were both down by 1 lap. Roberto Merhi won the inter-Marussia battle to beat his teammate Will Stevens to finish in 15th and 16th positions respectively.

Belgian F1 Grand Prix 2015 Results

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

Hamilton beats Vettel to Pole in Wet Malaysia

Lewis Hamilton beats Vettel to Pole in wet Malaysia

The Qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix in Malaysia started on a wet note and as a result the cars were more closer to each other. Ferrari surprised others by its pace and Sebastian Vettel pushed Nico Rosberg to third place as Lewis Hamilton took the pole for the second time this season.

Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes scored a 1m:49.834 seconds to secure the pole position and beat Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari by 0.074 seconds. Vettel scored 1m 49.908. Nico Rosberg's Mercedes came third with a time of 1m 50.299 seconds. After the previous race Nico Rosberg had joked that he wants Ferrari to be closer, as he wanted someone to take away points from Lewis Hamilton. However, it appears that Sebastian Vettel may take away points from Nico Rosberg in the race tomorrow.

The Rain Gods came down at full force at the middle of the Q2 completely spoiling the plans of various teams. It all boiled down to whether the cars were able to get clear path infront of them to score a good time or not. Unfortunately, Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari didn't not get it and was stuck behind a Sauber and hence could only score P11 and not qualify for the top ten shoot out.

The Red Bull cars of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat qualified at 4th and 5th with times of 1m: 51.541s and 1m: 51.951 seconds.

They were followed by the youngest driver on the grid Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso at 6th. Felipe Massa of Williams was 7th at 1m: 52.473 seconds. Romain Grosjean of Lotus was 8th.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams was declared fit to race in this race and he clocked a qualifying time of 1m: 53.179 to qualify at 9th position. Marcus Ericsson of Sauber was 10th at 153.261 seconds.

Kimi Raikkonen will start tomorrow at 11th, followed by Pastor Maldonado of Lotus at 12. The 13th and 14th positions were taken by the two Force India cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez.

Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso and Felipe Nasr of Sauber were 15th and 16th. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso of McLaren qualified last at 17th and 18th positions.

The Two Manor Racing cars of finished outside the 107% qualifying time of 1:46.217 and can race if they are allowed by the Stewards. One of them, Will Stevens had set a time in the FP2 on friday which was better than the 107% time. Stevens didn't race today due to a fuel pressure problem. We will soon know the verdict of the stewards.

Hamilton loses pole to Rosberg at Suzuka

Lewis Hamilton who is now leading the F1 World Championship by 3 points, lost the pole to his teammate Nico Rosberg in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Though it was a keenly contested qualifying, Hamilton had crashed in the final practice. In the Final top ten shootout, he locked up and Rosberg beat him to the pole by 0.2 seconds. Nico Rosberg set a time of 1m 32.506 seconds to Hamilton's 1m 32.703 seconds.

The Mercedes duo were followed by the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas in 3rd and Felipe Massa in 4th. Bottas had a time of 1m 33.128 seconds vis-a-vis his teammate Massa's time of 1m 33.527 seconds.

Fernando Alonso who is rumoured to be departing Ferrari at the end of the season for McLaren will start tomorrows race in 5th position with a time of 1m 33.740 seconds. Daniel Ricciardo of RedBull came 6th with a time of 1m 34.075 seconds.

Next came the McLaren duo of Kevin Magnussen at 7th with time of 1m34.242 followed by his teammate and former world champion Jenson Button at 1m 34.317seconds.

Sebastian Vettel of RedBull who has announced that this season will be his last with Red Bull and supposed to be heading towards Ferrari came in 9th by timing 1m 34.432 seconds. He was followed by his next years likely teammate Kimi Raikkonen in 10th. Kimi was timed at 1m 34.548seconds.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso who is looking for a drive next year, will start 11th. He is followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in 12th.

Daniel Kvyat of Toro Rosso will start at 13th. RedBull has just announced that Kvyat will take Vettel's place in Red Bull next year. Nico Hulkenberg of Force India came in 14th. He was followed by the Sauber duo of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez in 15th and 16th positions.

Lotus drivers Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean occupy the by now familiar 17th and 18th positions.

Marcus Ericsson of Caterham came in 19th ahead of Jules Bianchi of Marussia on 20th, Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham in 21st and Max Chilton of Marussia in 22nd.

There is likely to be rain and safety car periods in tomorrow race. Hamilton does well in wet races. So it would be interesting to see if Lewis Hamilton can overtake Nico Rosberg during the start and win the race.

Hamilton Wins Italian Grand Prix in Monza

Hamilton wins Italian Grand Prix in Monza 2014

If one is told that there is a problem with the Mercedes car, then invariably one would guess that it is Hamilton's car. If there is a slow pitstop then it would be Hamilton's. So many people gave up when Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes had a problem during the start and his second placed team-mate-cum-competitor Nico Rosberg took the lead.

It was said that there was a glitch in the race start software. Hamilton dropped down to fourth but patiently waited for his time. After 6 laps his problem was resolved. He then took his time and overtook Massa on lap 10.

Hamilton then put lot of pressure on Rosberg. Nico Rosberg was the first to pit. Hamilton followed one lap later. Hamilton did a good lap when in lead, however it was not sufficient to overtake Rosberg during the pitstop. Nevertheless, Hamilton kept on the pressure and Rosberg cracked. He ran wide in the chicane and Lewis Hamilton took the race lead in lap 29.

To make matters worse for Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton had consumed one kg less fuel. So it was a forgone conclusion that Lewis will win the race. And he won with more than 3 seconds lead over Nico Rosberg.

Felipe Massa of Williams got his first podium of the year when he finished in third place.

In the meanwhile, there was superb driving by Daniel Ricciardo who overtook number of cars and his team-mate and defending champion Sebastian Vettel to finish 5th behind Valtteri Bottas of Williams.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull finished in 6th. He was followed by Sergio Perez of Force India in 7th. Perez finished before his former teammate Jenson Button of McLaren.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari finished 9th behind Button. Button's team-mate Kevin Magnussen finished in 10th in the last points earning position.

Kvyat of Toro Rosso finished in 11th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Force India. Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso finished in 13th ahead of Pastor Maldonado of Lotus. Sutil of Sauber came 15th ahead of Romain Grosjean of Lotus in 16th. Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham returned to race after staying out for one race and finished in 17th and was followed by Jules Bianchi of Marussia. Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber was 19th ahead of the last finisher of Ericsson of Caterham.

Retirements in Italian Grand Prix 2014

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari in lap 28
Max Chilton of Marussia in lap 5

Hamilton's mistake hands pole to Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton had been fastest this year with two pole positions and one win. The other race ie. the opening Australian Grand Prix was an aberration as Hamilton had a failure. However, in Bahrain, at a crucial moment Lewis Hamilton made a mistake as a result his teammate Nico Rosberg grabbed the pole.

Hamilton will start besides his teammate in P2.

In what was seen as the signs to come, in Q1 everyone except the two Mercedes cars and Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull were in softer tyres as these three knew their pace. In the Q3, it was proved right with Daniel Ricciardo scoring a P3. However, he will be demoted 10 places due to the grid penalty he earned during Malaysian Grand Prix.

In Q1 apart from the regular backbenchers Caterham and Marussia, Adrian Sutil of Sauber scored a P18. There was stiff competition between the two Lotus cars to move into Q2 and Romain Grosjean could pip his team mate Pastor Maldonado by a slender margin to move into Q2. Grosjean scored 1m 36.654’ vs Maldonado’s 1m 36.663s.

One big casualty of Q2 was reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who failed to qualify to Q1. He could only manage P11. Vettel scored 1m 34.985s and Kimi Raikkonen just beat him to the P10 position in Q2 with a time of 1m 34.925s. Daniel Ricciardo has twice beaten Sebastian Vettel in the last three qualifyings and Vettel must be hurting a lot.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams was a surprise as he qualified in P4 where as his teammate Felipe Massa was P8. Both of them will start at P3 and P7 respectively following Ricciardo’s grid penalty.

Another surprise was Sergio Perez of Force India who qualified in P5. He will start at P4 along side Bottas in the second row.

Kimi Raikkonen outqualified his teammate for the first time in three qualifyings. Kimi scored P6 and will start at P5. Jenson Button of McLaren was behind Kimi at P7. He will start at P6. Button’s teammate Magnussen scored P9 and will start at P8. Fernando Alonso was the 10th among the Q3 participants. He will start the race at 9th position. Vettel will be along side him.

Bahrain F1 Qualifying standings

Sl. No.             Driver             Team

1.         Nico Rosberg              Mercedes

2.         Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes

3.         Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull

4.         Valtteri Bottas            Williams

5.         Sergio Perez               Force India

6.         Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari

7.         Jenson Button            McLaren

8.         Felipe Massa              Williams

9.         Kevin Magnussen     McLaren

10.       Fernando Alonso       Ferrari

11.       Sebastian Vettel        Red Bull

12.       Nico Hulkenberg       Force India

13.       D Kvyat                      Toro Rosso

14.       Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso

15.       Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber

16.       Romain Grosjean       Lotus

17.       Pastor Maldonado     Lotus

18.       Adrian Sutil                Sauber

19.       Kamui Kobayashi      Caterham

20.       Jules Bianchi              Marussia

21.       M. Ericsson                 Caterham

22.       Max Chilton               Marussia

Lewis Hamilton scores Pole in Malaysia

Hamilton scores pole in a wet Malaysian grand Prix

As was expected, it rained in Sepang during the Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying. And that helped in reducing the times and brining the competitors much closer to each other. Despite that, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes scored the pole with a time of 1’59.431. This was his second pole in as many races in the 2014 formula 1 season. However, unlike the previous race where he had to retire, he would be hoping to win.

However, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull came second. He was 0.055 seconds off Hamilton’s time.

Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg came third with a time of 2’00.050 seconds. So Hamilton and Vettel were the only two drivers who were below the 2 mins barrier.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari came in 4th and will start along side Rosberg in the second row. Alonso scored 2’00.175

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull who was disqualified in the previous race due to a fuel flow issue, qualified in P5 with a time of 2’00.541. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari qualified P6 with a time of 2’01.218.

Nico Hulkenberb of Force India qualified at P7 with a time of 2’01.712. However, his teammate Sergio Perez could only qualify at P14.

Kevin Magnussen of McLaren came in 8th with a time of 2’02.213. Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso scored the P9 position with a time of 2’03.078.

Jenson Button of McLaren who had gambled on intermediate tyres, couldn’t cope up when the rain increased and came up 10th in the top ten shoot out in Q3 with a time of 2’04.053.

Torro Rosso’s new hire Kvyat came in 11th, followed by Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber at 12th. Felipe Massa of Williams qualified at 13th followed by Sergio Perez of Force India at P14. Valtteri Bottas of Williams came in at P15.

The lotus duo of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado qualified at P16 and P17 showing how far the Lotus has fallen this season. Adrian Sutil of Sauber was P18, followed by the regular backbenchers Jules Bianchi of Marussia at P19, Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham at P20, Max Chilton of Marussia at P21 and Marcus Ericsson of Caterham at P22.

Maldonado and Sutil might be feeling bad for being caught out in Q1 as Ericsson of Caterham crashed and created a red flag bring down their chances of going through to Q2.

We will have to see how the weather holds up tomorrow. Given Lewis Hamilton’s bad luck in the previous race, he would be desperetly hoping that the race goes well.

Sebastian Vettel wins Indian GP and 4th crown

Sebastian Vettel wins the Indian Grand Prix and his 4th World Championship on the trot

Sebastian Vettel started from the pole on soft tyres. It was predicted that his teammate Mark Webber who had qualified 4th in the medium tyres may have a better strategy as the soft tyres were supposed to barely last for a lap or two in this circuit. Pirelli had advised that their soft tyres will last a maximum of 15 laps and the medium tyres 35 laps.

Sebastian Vettel started from the pole and moved into the lead. Felipe Massa squeezed through to the second position ahead of the two Mercedes cars of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

However, Vettel surprised everybody and pit on lap 2 to change to medium tyres. He then drove through the field overtaking other cars. Meanwhile, Mark Webber had taken the lead and was setting fastest laps with the medium tyres. However, Vettel soon caught up with Mark Webber and even took over the lead from him. Mark Webber's race came to an abrupt end when he was asked by his engineer to park his car due to an alternate failure. Webber has been facing this problem in virtually every race this year whereas Vettel doesn't have this. We will never know the actual reason, however many believe that Red Bull doesn't want Webber to win.

Fernando Alonso appeared to hit Webber from behind in the first lap and had to pit for a new nose. He couldn't overtake other cars like Vettel did suggesting that his car probably didn't have the pace. He finished out of points in 11th position.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes was pretty happy to score a podium position as he came 2nd. His team mate Lewis Hamilton, who started in third position struggled and finished in 6th position.

Romain Grosjean had missed the cut and qualified in 17th position. He however did well to finish in the podium position. Infact his team mate Kimi Raikkonen who was in the contention for a podium position pitted on the penultimate lap (lap 59) and hence dropped down and finished in 7th position. Kimi however had the satisfaction of scoring the fastest lap of the race with a 1:27.679 in the last lap (lap 60).

Felipe Massa of Ferrari would be a happy man as he came in 4th. This performance of his may get him a drive next year with either Lotus or Williams. His performances in the second half of this year suggests that he merits to stay in a good time next year.

Sergio Perez who started just ahead of his teammate in 9th position at one time was running in second position and finished in 5th. He could overtake Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton who were struggling with their tyres. Perez's team mate Jenson Button had to make 4 pitstops and was classified as 14th.

Force India scored points with both their cars as Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil finished in 8th and 9th positions. Daniel Ricciardo who will replace Webber in the Red Bull car scored the final point as he finished in 10th position. He was two seconds ahead of Alonso.

Pastor Maldonado was 0.6 second behind Alonso and finished in 12th position. Jean-Eric Vergne was a lap down and finished in 13th ahead of Jenson Button, Valtteri Bottas, Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi.

Sebastian Vettel was crowned the 2013 drivers World Champion with his win at the Indian Grand Prix. He did some elaborate dougnuts with his car after winning the race. This resulted in his team being penalised 25,000 euros, a small sum to pay for the celebrations.

Final Standings in India Grand Prix 2013

1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull
2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes
3. R. Grosjean             Lotus
4. Felipe Massa           Ferrari
5. Sergio Perez            McLaren
6. Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes
7. Kimi Raikkonen     Lotus
8. P. di Resta               Force India
9. Adrian Sutil            Force India
10. D. Ricciardo         Toro Rosso
11. Fernando Alonso  Ferrari
12. P. Maldonado       Williams
13. J. Vergne              Toro Rosso
14. Jenson Button      McLaren
15. E. Gutierrez         Sauber
16. Valtteri Bottas     Williams
17. M. Chilton            Marussia
18. J. Bianchi             Marussia

Retirements in Indian Grand Prix 2013

Nico Hulkenberg
Mark Webber
Charles Pic
Giedo van der Garde

Lewis Hamilton on Pole in Belgian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton on Pole in Belgian Grand Prix 2013

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes scores Pole in rain in F1 Belgian Grand Prix qualifying.

In the Q3, rain was predicted, so all the cars started immediately as soon as the session was flagged on. However, rain immediately started and it came to notice that Force India had put their driver Di Resta on intermediate tyres. So he set the first bench mark time and it was very late when drivers could beat it. Paul di Resta scored P5.

Lewis Hamilton in the dying moments snatched the P1 slot from Sebastian Vettel with a time of 2:01.012. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull came second with a time of 2:01.200

Vettel’s teammate in Red Bull, Mark Webber scored P3 with a time of 2:01.325 seconds. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes will line up by his side in the second row after he scored 2:02.251

Jenson Button of McLaren scored P6. Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus will line up in the 4th row as they qualified P7 and P8.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa of Ferrari will start in fifth row. Unless there is rain tomorrow, the championship hopes of Fernando Alonso seems to be fading away.

Drama in Q1 in Belgian Grand Prix F1 Qualifying

In the First part of the qualifying in Belgian Grand Prix 2013, rain brought a few surprises. Towards the end of the Q1 the track was drying up and hence times were tumbling faster. Giedo van der Garde a backmarker, shot into limelight when he posted the third fastest time P3 of 2:00.564. The Fastest time was of Fernando Alonso at 2:00.190 followed by Lewis Hamilton at 2:00.368

During Q1 the six drivers who were relegated were:

17. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
18. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso
19. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso
20. Valteri Bottas, Williams
21. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber
22. Charles Pic, Marussia

So out of the four perennial backmarkers belonging to Caterham and Marussia, only Charles Pic of Marussia finished in his familiar 22nd spot. The other three escaped relegation, which is nothing sort of historical.

In the Q2, Giedo van der Garde scored his career best 14th at the F1 Belgian Grand Prix came 2013 and stayed ahead of Jules Bianchi of Marussia 15th and Max Chilton of Caterham at 16th.

Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber scored P11 followed by Adrian Sutil of Force India at P12 and Sergio Perez of McLaren at P13.

Final Qualifying Results in Belgian Grand Prix

1. Lewis Hamilton                  Mercedes

2. Sebastian Vettel                Red Bull

3. Mark Webber                    Red Bull

4. Nico Rosberg                      Mercedes

5. Paul di Resta                      Force India

6. Jenson Button                    McLaren

7. Romain Grosjean               Lotus

8. Kimi Raikkonen                 Lotus

9. Fernando Alonso               Ferrari

10. Felipe Massa                    Ferrari

11. Nico Hulkenberg              Sauber

12. Adrian Sutil                     Force India

13. Sergio Perez                    Mclaren

14. Giedo van der Garde      Caterham

15. Jules Bianchi                    Marussia

16. Max Chilton                     Caterham

17. Pastor Maldonado          Williams

18. Jean-Eric Vergne             Toro Rosso

19. Daniel Ricciardo              Toro Rosso

20. Valteri Bottas                   Williams

21. Esteban Gutierrez           Sauber

22. Charles Pic                       Marussia

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