Hamilton on Pole in Wet Sanghai F1 Qualifying

Hamilton blitzes the opposition in a wet Sanghai F1 Grand Prix qualifying

Lewis Hamilton had enough pace to be half a second ahead of second placed Daniel Ricciardo of Redbull and was 1.2s faster than his own teammate Nico Rosberg of Mercedes who qualified in P4.

Lewis Hamilton later said that his Pole position time of 01m:53.860s could have been even lower had he not made a mistake in Turn 10. With the race day on Sunday likely to be a dry race, Lewis Hamilton could have much more pace than the second and third placed RedBulls and definitely open up a huge gap with others.

Nico Rosberg - who is currently leading the drivers championship due to winning the opening race while Hamilton had an engine problem – made a mistake in Turn 14 and then a spin in the final corner and will now start behind the RedBulls of Ricciardo and Vettel. Unless he overtakes these two cars soon, challenging Lewis Hamilton would remain a pipe dream.

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, the reigning World Champion, again qualified behind his team mate Daniel Ricciardo. The gap of half a second between them shows that this year, Ricciardo may have the better of Vettel. It is not everyday that a four time world champion gets beaten by his teammate every race. However, that is what is happening this year so far.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari after his impressive P1 position in the first practice on Friday, qualified in P5 here. However, his teammate Kimi Raikkonen could only qualify at 11th position. The new Ferrari chief would like both these drivers further ahead in the field. Unless Ferrari goes for a drastic change in their approach, this years championship may be over for them.

The Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas scored P6 and P7. It appears that Williams car is not good in rain. However, tomorrow being a dry race, the Williams drivers may do better.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India qualified in P8 followed by Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso.

In a major surprise, Romain Grosjean of Lotus could move into the top ten shoot out. Though it may be due to rain, however, given the perilous situation of Lotus in the previous races where it struggled to complete a race, this is indeed good news.

Jenson Button of McLaren could only come in at P12 with his teammate Kevin Magnussen at P15.

Danil Kvyat of Toro Rosso scored P13. Adrian Sutil of Sauber was P14.

Sergio Perez coming from the high of being in the podium in the previous race, could only qualify at P16. Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber was at P17.

Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham could score the 18th position followed by Jules Bianchi of Marussia in 19th, Marcus Ericsson of Caterham in 20th and Max Chilton of Marussia in 21st. Pastor Maldonado has a sensor problem from the funny crash he had during practice and couldn’t take part in the qualifying. He may race at the discretion of the Stewards.

Sanghai F1 Grand Prix Qualifying Positions

1.         Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes

2.         Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull

3.         Sebastian Vettel        Red Bull

4.         Nico Rosberg              Mercedes

5.         Fernando Alonso       Ferrari

6.         Felipe Massa              Williams

7.         Valtteri Bottas            Williams

8.         Nico Hulkenberg       Force India

9.         Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso

10.       Romain Grosjean       Lotus

11.       Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari

12.       Jenson Button            McLaren

13.       Danil Kvyat                Toro Rosso

14.       Adrian Sutil                Sauber

15.       Kevin Magnussen     McLaren

16.       Sergio Perez               Force India

17.       Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber

18.       Kamui Kobayashi      Caterham

19.       Jules Bianchi              Marussia

20.       Marcus Ericsson        Caterham

21.       Max Chilton               Marussia

22.       Pastor Maldonado     Lotus

Lewis Hamilton scores brilliant win in Bahrain

Lewis Hamilton scores brilliant win in Bahrain Grand Prix

Hamilton overtakes Rosberg in the first lap and despite massive challenge from his teammate takes a brilliant win in Bahrain.

Lewis Hamilton, who had made a mistake during qualifying to hand over the pole position to his teammate, had a flying start and overtook Rosberg. Hamilton and Rosberg traded fastest laps and others were left far behind.

Sergio Perez of Force India brought in cheers as he finished in the podium. It was the first podium for Force India after 2009. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull beat Perez’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg to the 4th position and was breathing down the neck of Sergio Perez. If there were one more lap, then Ricciardo may have had a chance to get the podium.

Ricciardo’s teammate Sebastian Vettel finished in 6th positions. The drivers from 1st to 6th used a two stop strategy. The only other two driver to employ stop strategy was Kobayashi who finished in 15th.

Felipe Massa of Williams too had a great start as he sliced through his teammate Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez of Force India to jump to 3rd position. Massa and Bottas were on a three stop strategy and finished behind the leading 2 stoppers. Massa and Bottas finished in 7th and 8th positions.

Alonso had a great opening lap as he jumped to 7th where as his teammate Kimi Raikkonen was 9th in the opening lap. However, they finished in 9th and 10th positions respectively.

In lap 41 Pastor Maldonado came out of the pits to hit Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber who went flying. Fortunately Gutierrez landed safely, but that was the end of his race and brought in the safety car. Maldonado was handed a 10 second stop-go penalty. The safety car negated Hamilton’s earlier advantage with the faster softer tyres. He had to run the rest of the laps with medium tyres where as Nico Rosberg was on softer tyres. So it was a tough battle between the two with Hamilton having the disadvantage of the slower tyres.

In Lap 46 Paddy Lowe of Mercedes came on radio to give a message “just make sure we bring the cars home”. This was a clear indication for Hamilton not to race against Rosberg and give up the race win. However, Lewis Hamilton has the instincts of a blood hound. He is a born racer. He was not ready to give it up to Rosberg on a platter. And a battle royale was played out.

Right after the safety car, Rosberg tried to overtake Hamilton, but Lewis Hamilton didn’t give him space. In Lap 52, Nico Rosberg overtook Hamilton in the turn 1 but Lewis regained the lead as Hamilton forces Rosberg off track at Turn 4. It was incredibly tense moments being played out. Then Hamilton left slight gap and Rosberg tried to overtake Hamilton taking the inside line, but was forced to outbrake himself so that Hamilton safely moving ahead. It showed that Lewis Hamilton was using his brains and not just foot to pedal.

Lewis Hamilton finally opened up a second gap to Rosberg and maintains it to win the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2014.

Jenson Button retired with a car problem but he has been classified as 17th with 2 laps down the leader.

Bahrain F1 Grand Prix Final Standings

Sl. No.  Driver                         Team

1.         Lewis Hamilton          Mercedes

2.         Nico Rosberg              Mercedes

3.         Sergio Perez               Force India

4.         Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull

5.         Nico Hulkenberg       Force India

6.         Sebastian Vettel        Red Bull

7.         Felipe Massa              Williams

8.         Valtteri Bottas            Williams

9.         Fernando Alonso       Ferrari

10.       Kimi Raikkonen         Ferrari

11.       Daniil Kvyat               Toro Rosso

12.       Romain Grosjean       Lotus

13.       Max Chilton               Marussia

14.       Pastor Maldonado     Lotus

15.       Kamui Kobayashi      Caterham

16.       Jules Bianchi              Marussia

17.       Jenson Button            McLaren

Retirements in Bahrain F1 Grand Prix

Driver                         Team           Lap

Kevin Magnussen     McLaren         40

Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber             39

Marcus Ericsson        Caterham       33

Jean-Eric Vergne       Toro Rosso    18

Adrian Sutil                Sauber          17

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 wins Malaysian Grand Prix

Hamilton wins Malaysian Grand Prix

It was a dominant display from Lewis Hamilton in the Malaysian Grand prix. He started from Pole and won without any hiccups. Unlike the season opening race in Australia, Hamilton didn’t suffer any problems and finished the race in style. Hamilton needed 3 pit stops to complete the 56 lap race.

Lewis Hamilton’s teammate Nico Rosberg finished second. He was followed by Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull to a third place finish. Though Vettel was P2 in qualifying, he was overtaken at the start by Rosberg as well as Ricciardo. In the first couple of corners. At one point it appeared that Vettel was about to catch Rosberg, but soon Vettel fell behind.

Vettel’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo had to retire in the 49th lap. Before that he was handed a 5 second stop/go penalty. His front hit the kerbs and dragged for a while, infact for three races it scraped the track before he was brought in to pit.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari benefitted from Ricciardo’s misfortune and finished in 4th position. In the 54th lap he took the benefit of fresh tyres to overtake Nico Hulkenberg of Force India who finished in 5th position. Hulkenberg was the only top ten finisher to use a 2 stop strategy as opposed to the 3 stop strategy employed by others. The other 2 stopper was Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham who finished a creditable 13th. However, Alonso’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen was not so fortunate as he got a puncture after getting hit by Magnussen of McLaren in the 2nd lap. Kimi finished in 12th position.

Jenson Button of McLaren finished in sixth position. He was followed by the Williams duo of Felipe Massa and Valteri Bottas in 7th and 8th positions respectively.

Magnussen of McLaren finished a lap down in 9th . Kvyat of Toro Rosso took the 10th and final points paying position.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus would be a relieved man as this is the first time a Lotus car in this season could finish a race. He did well by holding off Kimi Raikkonen. Romain finished in 11th position. His teammate Pastor Maldonado was however done in by Jules Bianchi in the 1st lap and had to retire in lap 7. Bianchi retired in lap 8.

The Caterhams of Kobayashi and Ericsson finished in 13th and 14th positions. These positions may become critical later in the season and may decide the 10th placed team.

Max Chilton of Marussia finished in 15th position.

Retirements in Malaysian Grand Prix

Driver             Team              Lap

Ricciardo         Red Bull          49

Gutierrez         Sauber             35

Sutil                Sauber             32

Vergne            Toro Rosso     18

Bianch            Marussia           8

Maldonado      Lotus                7

Perez               Force India       0         

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.

Rosberg wins as Hamilton retires in Australian GP

Nico Rosberg wins Australian GP as Hamilton retires

The Australian GP 2014 had lots of drama and an aborted start. So there was another formation lap. And finally when the race started (which was reduced to 57 laps), the Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton was told to retire to "save his engine".

The opening was chaotic and two drivers retired in the opening lap itself as Kamui Kobayashi making his return to F1 after a year using the funds donated by his fans to buy a seat in Caterham, ploughed into the back of Felipe Massa of Williams.

Third placed Nico Rosberg took the lead in the first corner itself by jumping ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and comfortably won the race. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull finished second. However, he was later disqualified by the stewards as his car was found to have more than 100 kg/hr fuel flow to the engine. The Red Bull team had protested that the sensor technology for limiting the fuel flow is not reliable. However, FIA rejected their contention and Ricciardo was disqualified.

Rookie Kevin Magnussen of McLaren who was originally third, inherited the second place. His teammate Jenson Button of McLaren is now classified third.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari admitted after the race that they are slower than the Mercedes. He had originally finished in 5th, but is now classified as 4th due to the disqualification of the Red Bull car.

Valteri Bottas of Williams now has a lifetime high position of 5th. His teammate Felipe Massa would be ruing his luck. An aggrieved Felipe Massa has called for a ban on Kamui Kobayashi for plunging into his back in kamikaze style.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India is now 6th followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari in 7th. Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat of Toro Rosso are now 8th and 9th. The 10th and final points paying position now goes to Sergio Perez of Force India.

The Sauber duo of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez are 11th and 12 respectively. They are followed by the Marussia duo of Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi at 13th and 14th positions. These positions are now critical because when the competitiveness of the teams increases these positions will be difficult to beat for the other teams like Caterham. Only the top 10 teams get paid and the 11th team doesn't get any prize money. That is equivalent to several million dollars hit if the team doesn't finish in 10th position.

The lotus duo of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado drove their cars for sometime before retiring. Given the state of their problems, covering 49 and 23 laps is considered a big thing for them.

Marcus Ericsson of Caterham retired after 27 laps.

Last years world champion Sebastian Vettel retired in the 3rd lap and Renault is looking into the engine problems that he faced.

Hamilton starts Formula 1 2014 season with Pole

Lewis Hamilton starts the Forumla 1 2014 season with pole at Melbourne

The formula One 2014 season has seen a raft of rule changes including shift to smaller V6 engines. The preseason testing was a nightmare for RED Bull and other Renault powered cars. It was expected that the pecking order will be changed in 2014. And so it seems with Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes scoring the pole position at Melbourne, Australia on a rainy saturday.

However, Daniel Ricciardo who shifted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull kept the hopes of Red Bull fans by scoring his first front line qualifying position of his career when he scored P2. His illustrious teammate Sebastian Vettel could only score P13.

It was expected that Mercedes and Williams will be strong. However, Hamilton's team-mate Nico Rosberg could only score P3 with 0.364 seconds slower than the pole winning time.

Kevin Magnussen, a rookie in the first F1 qualifying race of his career, outpaced his team-mate and former world champion Jenson Button of McLaren to score P4 vs P11. McLaren must be happy with their choice.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was P5 whereas his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen crashed and finished at P12.

Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso was P6 followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India in P7. D Kvyat of Russia, another rookie, scored the P8 position for Toro Rosso.

Felipe Massa and Valeri Bottas scored P9 and P10. However, Valeri Bottas will serve a penalty for gear box change.

Adrian Sutil of Sauber was P14 followed by Kamui Kobayashi who was making his return to F1 with Caterham.

Sergio Perez of Force India would not be a happy man as he could only score a P16 vs his team-mate's P7.

Max Chilton of Marussia came ahead of his team-mate Jules Bianchi at P17 and P18 respectively.

Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber qualified at a lowly P19 ahead of M Ericsson of Caterham at P20. Lotus found itself in an unfamiliar position of coming last with Romain and Maldonado at P21 and P22 and desperately hoping that Lotus corrects their cars.