Hamilton on pole in inaugural Russian Grand Prix

Hamilton on inaugural Russian Grand Prix pole

Lewis Hamilton scored the pole position in the inaugural Russian Grand Prix at Sochi ahead of his teammate and world championship rival Nico Rosberg of Mercedes. Hamilton was 200th of a second faster than his teammate. Hamilton set a time of 1m 38.513 seconds. Rosberg set a time of 1m 38.713 seconds.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams came in third with a time of 1m 38.920 seconds. No one else could come within the 1m 39 seconds mark. Bottas did a mistake and had to settle for third else he could have easily beaten Nico Rosberg. His teammate Felipe Massa was not so fortunate as he faced some engine issues and had clearly less power. Massa was eliminated in the Q1 of the Russian F1 Grand Prix qualifying and came in 18th. It would be an uphill battle for him as the overtaking chances in this circuit is expected to be less.

As expected McLaren was closer in pace and Jenson Button came in P4 with a time of 1m 39.121 seconds. Button who is widely expected to be dropped from McLaren next season is showing his class and should do well in the race tomorrow.

Kvyat of Toro Rosso finally strung a good lap to came in 5th with a time of 1m 39.277. Being a Russian driver he would have warmed many a hearts in this Russian F1 Grand Prix. Kvyat who is going to Red Bull next year, came ahead of both the Red Bull drivers as well. His teammate Jean-Eric Vergne came will start in 10th.

Kvyat was followed by Kevin Magnussen of McLaren in 6th with a time of 1m 39.629 seconds. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull came in at P7 with a time of 1m 39.635 seconds. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was P8 with a time of 1m 39.709seconds followed by his teammate Kimi Raikkonen in P9 who set a time of 1m 39.771seconds. Jean Eric-Vergne of Toro Rosso was P10 at 1m 40.052. He was ahead of Sebastian Vettel of RedBull who will start in P11 tomorrow.

Vettel was followed by the Force India duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez in 12th and 13th positions respectively. The Force India duo were followed by the Sauber drivers Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil in 14th and 15th positions. Romain Grosjean of Lotus was P16 followed by Marcus Ericsson of Caterham in P17.

Felipe Massa was P18 followed by Kamui Kobayashi of Caterham in P19, Pastor Maldonado of Lotus in P20 and Max Chilton of Marussia in P21.

Marussia is only running one car in this race as a mark of respect for Jules Bianchi who is battling for survival due to a severe head injury incurred in the race in the Japanese Grand Prix last sunday.

Vettel wins Singapore Grand Prix as Lewis retires

Sebastian Vettel wins as Lewis retires in Singapore Grand Prix

The Formula One Singapore Grand Prix saw many crashes and accidents, but the race started without mayhem as Grosjean kept his cool after coming back from a one race ban. Lewis Hamilton started from pole and retained his position. Pastor Maldonado who started in second position was passed by Sebastian Vettel as well as Jenson Button, still he retained his cool and didn’t press the destruction button.

Still there was an incident at the back of the grid where the two Caterham driver’s collided.

There was no surprise element, as both the Mercedes cars which didn’t run on the Q3 in the qualifying also choose the Super soft tyres. Michael Schumacher was told to cool his car while his teammate overtook him.

Lewis Hamilton was unfortunate that his gearbox broke down and he had to retire.  Narain Karthikeyan who was the last person to go for his pitstop amazingly running 20 laps in his supersoft tyres, hit the barriers on lap 33 and his front right wheel came off forcing a safety car to be deployed. Immediately all the drivers who hadn’t done their pitstops choose to do so. Alonso had earlier taken his pit stop, so was Raikkonen. So they choose to stay out during the safety car period. Niko Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez didn’t choose to make their pit stops and they were the only ones to have done one stop after the safety car was taken out.

It was sad for Narain as Tata Tea had just choosen to sponsor HRT car for the Singapore as well as the Indian Grand Prix.

During the safety car period, in lap 37, Pastor Maldonado was told by his Williams team that his car had a problem and he needs to stop the car. This resulted in the both the front runners retiring from the race.

Disaster stuck again for Michael Schumacher as in lap 41 he ran into the back of Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso. So interestingly Michael Schumacher has never got any points in Singapore. The safety car was redeployed. Did Schumacher get his braking wrong like last year or was it a problem with his brakes as he locked up. Fortunately, there was no animosity displayed between Schumacher and Jean-Eric Vergne as they both patted each others back. This looks like Schumacher’s fault and this incident will be investigated after the race by stewards. It is surprising that the God of Formula One, Michael Schumacher has ran into the back of another driver twice in Singapore Grand Prix.

Towards the end there were some competitive times posted by Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button as they knew that the race will not run its full 61 laps as according to rules the race can run only for a maximum of two hours. However, Button couldn't sustain the pace and Vettel won a comfortably.

Bruno Senna who was running in at 10^th position told his team that he has a loss of power and stopped his car barely a minute before the finish.

Final Result of F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2012

1.     Sebastian Vettel

2.     Jenson Button

3.     Fernando Alonso

4.     Paul di Resta

5.     Nico Rosberg

6.     Kimi Raikkonen

7.     Romain Grosjean

8.     Felipe Massa

9.     Daniel Ricciardo

10. Mark Webber

11. Serzio Perez

12. Timo Glock

13. Kamui Kobayashi

14. Niko Hulkenberg

15. Heikki Kovalainen

16. Charles Pic

17. Pedro de la Rosa

18. Bruno Senna

19. Vitaly Petrov

Retirements in Singapore Grand Prix 2012

Michael Schumacher – Lap 41

Jean-Eric Vergne – Lap 41

Pastor Maldonado – Lap 37

Narain Karthikeyan – Lap 33

Lewis Hamilton – Lap 23