Sebastian Vettel on pole in US Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel on Pole in US F1 Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel ran a brilliant third sector to beat his team mate Mark Webber of Red Bull by 0.1 seconds and grab the pole position in the US Grand Prix. It appears that Vettel will again score a win, since this year we have seen his teammate Webber faces numerous equipment problems as well as unfavourable strategies adopted by his team to ensure that Vettel wins the championship.

Behind the Red Bull cars, it was expected that Mercedes will line up. However, it was Romain Grosjean who scored the P3. In this race Heikki Kovalainen is racing for the Lotus team in place of Kimi Raikkonen, who opted to sit out the two races and have back surgery. Heiki Kovalainen who has earlier raced for Lotus's previous avatar as Renault and then with McLaren and have won race as well, was the surprise choice. He had been earlier dumped by Caterham who went in search of pay drivers to fill their coffers. Heikki Kovalainen came 0.6 seconds behind his team mate and it translated to P8 position.

Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber who is in contention for the vacant Lotus seat next year was earlier invited by Lotus to drive for them for these last two races. However, he wisely decided to say no, as the deal for next year with Lotus is not yet done. So he didn't want to antagonise Sauber either. He was 0.141 seconds behind Romain Grosjean with a time of 1:37.296

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes scored a P5 position with a time of 1:37.345. He was followed by Fernando Alonso of Ferrari at 1:37.376. Interestingly both their teammates Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and Felipe Massa of Ferrari could score 14th and 15th positions with time of 1:38.364 and 1:38.592

Sergio Perez who has been having his first and last season with McLaren scored a P7 with a time of 1:37.452 where as his experienced team mate and former world champion Jenson Button could score only a P13 with 1:38.217. Sergio Perez has been unexpectedly dropped from McLaren after only a season and he is now struggling to find a drive next year.

Valtteri Bottas got some cheer for the Williams team when he finished at P9 with a time of 1:37:836. Unfortunately his experienced teammate Pastor Maldonado could only finish in P18. Bottas was followed by Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber with a time of 1:38.034. Gutierrez was later handed a 10 spot grid penalty for having impeded Pastor Maldonado. Gutierrez was weaving on the track to warm up his tyres when Maldonado was on a flying lap. He will accordingly start at the back of the grid.

Pastor Maldonado has said that he suspects someone from the Williams team has tried to tamper with the car to scuttle his chances. He said that since he is leaving the team at the end of the season, the Williams team wanted to show that he is worse than his teammate. He said "..I think in my car somebody is playing with the pressures and temperatures - its not that clear. One more race to go...so great." Later he added "it was not just the typical problems we have had all through the season, today we have something more". Williams though denied that they will do such a thing. "Never in Williams' history would we ever do that" was the comment by Williams Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams.
Max Chilton will serve a drive through penalty within the first five laps of the race because he impeded Pastor Maldonado and Adrian Sutil during qualifying.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso was 11th with a time of 1:38.131 and was followed by Paul di Resta of Force India with 1:38.139

US F1 Grand Prix Qualifying

1. Sebastian Vettel                Red Bull

2. Mark Webber                   Red Bull

3. Romain Grosjean             Lotus

4. Nico Hulkenberg             Sauber

5. Lewis Hamilton                Mercedes

6. Fernando Alonso             Ferrari

7. Sergio Perez                      McLaren

8. Heikki Kovalainen           Lotus

9. Valteri Bottas                    Williams

10. Esteban Gutierrez          Sauber

11. Daniel Ricciardo            Toro Rosso

12. Paul di Resta                   Force India

13. Jenson Button                McLaren

14. Nico Rosberg                 Mercedes

15. Felipe Massa                   Ferrari

16. Jean-Eric Vergne            Torro Rosso

17. Adrian Sutil                     Force India

18. Pastor Maldonado         Williams

19. Giedo van der Garde     Caterham

20. Jules Bianchi                  Marussia

21. Charles Pic                      Caterham

22. Max Chilton                   Marussia

Hamilton snatches Pole in Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying

Hamilton snatches Pole in Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Qualifying

In the Final leg of the Qualifying, Lewis Hamilton drove at a scorching pace to snatch the pole position from Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton scored 1:19.388 vs 1:19.426 of Sebastian Vettel.

Romain Grosjean of Lotus came third in 1:19.595. He was followed by Nico Rosberg in 4th with a time of 1:19.720.
Fernando Alonso of Ferrari came 5th and will start in the 3rd row with Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus on 6th. They were timed at 1:19.791 and 1:19.851.
Felipe Massa of Ferrari scored 1:19.929 to come at P7th and was followed by Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso at 8th with a time of 1:20.641.

Sergio Perez of McLaren came 9th with a time of 1:22.398. He was followed by Mark Webber of Red Bull - who had limped into the Q3 ie. Final leg of qualifying – choosing not to set a time.

We were surprised when Mercedes took P1-2 positions in the first segment of the qualifying Q1 in the F1 Hungary Grand Prix. With Romain Grosjean topping the timesheets in the Practice 3, it was expected that the lotus will give a fight to the Red Bulls. However, Mercedes decided to show its hand in the Q1 in qualifying with Nico Rosberg leading his teammate Lewis Hamilton 1:20.350 to 1:20.363 for P1 and P2 positions.

Mark Webber of Red Bull had an electrical problem and finished at 13th position in the Q1. Paul di Resta of Force India was a surprise dropout in the Q1.

Drivers eliminated in Q1 in Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Qualifying

17. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:21.724
18. Paul di Resta Force India 1:22.043
19. Charles Pic Caterham 1:23.007
20. G. van der Garde Caterham 1:23.333
21. Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:23.787
22. Max Chilton Marussia 1:23.997

In the Q2 it was again P1 and P2 for the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton with times of 1:19.778 vs 1:19.862. Whereas Sergio Perez could squeeze in to 10th position his team mate Jenson Button was only 13th. Daniel Ricciardo was 7th in Q2, but his teammate Jules Eric Vergne couldn’t make the top ten shoot out as he finished in 14th with times of 1:20.527 vs 1:21.029. Clearly Daniel Ricciardo is making his case stronger for getting the Red Bull seat next year, atleast above Vergne.

Drivers eliminated in Q2 in Hungarian F1 Grand Prix Qualifying

11. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:20.569
12. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:20.580
13. Jenson Button McLaren 1:20.777
14. Jules Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:21.029
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:21.133
16. Valteri Bottas Williams 1:21.219

Vettel beats Kimi Raikkonen to win German GP

Vettel beats Raikkonen to win German Grand Prix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Retirements in German Grand Prix

Jean Eric Vergne
Jules Bianchi
Felipe Massa

Fastest lap in German Grand Prix

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

Raikkonen wins Australian Grand Prix 2013

Raikkonen wins Australian Grand Prix

Raikkonen wins first race of 2013. in a topsy turvy race, where fortunes constantly fluctuated with changing weather conditions.

There were many drivers who led the race from time to time, however, it was Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus who go the first race win of the year under his belt with a two stop strategy. The Redbulls at the end didn't have the race pace to win despite showing impressive pace in the F1 Australian Grand Prix qualifying.

There were four retirements in the race. Rosberg who had led the race for sometime was one of them when his car failed in 26 laps. Maldonado of Williams too retired in lap no. 24. Ricciardo of Toro Rosso retired in lap 40. Nico Hulkenberg, the new Sauber recruit failed to start the race due to a fuel pump problem. He must be feeling bad as his replacement in Force India, Adrian Sutil led the race for sometime when other cars had pitted.

The Final standings in Australian Grand Prix are as follows:

1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull
4. Felipe Masa Ferrari
5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
6. Mark Webber Red Bull
7. Adrian Sutil Force India
8. Paul di Resta Force India
9. Jenson Button McLaren
10. Romain Grosjean Lotus
11. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
12. Sergio Perez McLaren
13. Gutierrez Sauber
14. Valeri Bottas Williams
15. Bianchi Marussia
16. Charles Pic Caterham
17. Max Chilton Marussia
18. van der Garde Caterham

Retirements in Australian Grand Prix

Daniel Ricciardo
Nico Rosberg
Pastor Maldonado
Nico Hulkenberg

Kimi wins first race for Lotus in Abu Dhabi

Kimi wins Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, first after comeback

Accidents galore in the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012 as Kimi Raikkonen wins for Lotus.

Pole setter Lewis Hamilton had a engine failure and had to stop. This handed over the race lead to Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus and despite some challenges and safety cars, Kimi held on to the lead for his first win of his comeback.

There were some first lap incidents. Nico Rosberg had to pit following a first lap incident. However, later Nico Rosberg ploughed into Narain Karthikeyan in a scary accident and flew over his car into the barriers. Fortunately, neither of the drivers were hurt. This incident will be investigated after the race.

Romain Grosjean who had to drop down following an incident later on again got caught in another incident triggered by Sergio Perez. This resulted in Mark Webber getting hit by Romain Grosjean there by ending Webber’s race. Sergio Perez was given a stop go penalty for this incident.

Michael Schumacher who had started the race in medium tyres had climbed upto 10th and then 8th position. However, the second safety car resulted in a left rear puncture and he had to pit again thereby ruining his race.

Sebastian Vettel who was disqualified from qualifying started in the pits. However, his team could change his gear ratio and he had a very fast car. He moved up by passing the slower cars and benefitted from the safety car triggered by Nico Rosberg. So Sebastian Vettel took advantage of the safety car and then pitted to take the soft tyres and scythed through the field. In the lap 52 Sebastian Vettel could finally overtook Jenson Button in the second DRS zone and moved into third position.

Fernando Alonso the wily competitor held off Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel and finished second. Alonso then did fastest laps to close the gap between him and Kimi Raikkonen.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012 Final Results:

1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
3. Sebastian Vettel Redbull
4. Jenson Button McLaren
5. Pastor Maldonado Williams
6. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari
8. Bruno Senna Williams
9. Paul di Resta Force India
10. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
13. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham
14. Timo Glock Marussia
15. Sergio Perez Sauber
16. Vitaly Petrov Caterham
17. Pedro de la Rosa HRT

Retirements in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2012

Charles Pic
Romain Grosjean
Mark Webber
Lewis Hamilton
Narain Karthikeyan
Nico Rosberg
Nico Hulkenberg

Grosjean banned for 1 race and fined 50k Euros

Grosjean Banned for One race and Fined 50k Euros

As we had hoped, FIA took notice of the egregious blunder by Romain Grosjean of Lotus during the Belgian Grand Prix (http://www.arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/09/button-wins-from-pole-in-belgian-grand.html ) and handed him a one race ban and fined him 50,000 euros. Ideally he should have been banned for the remainder of the season, however, FIA decided to hand him only a one race ban. We hope that this will instill some sense in the minds of the young Romain Grosjean and he will introspect enough and come back as a better driver.

The FIA statement said "The stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations which had the potential to cause injury to others. The stewards note the team conceded the action of the driver was an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement. Neither the team nor the driver made any submission in mitigation of penalty."

Romain Grosjean was the chief culprit in triggering the accident and it led to removal of championship leader Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton. Sergio Perez's race was taken out. Kamui Kobayashi suffered a lot of damages and could race without points and finished in the 13th place in the F1 Belgian Grand Prix.

FIA has allowed Lotus to use another F1 driver in place of Romain Grosjean. It is to be seen if they allow their reserve driver Jerome D'Ambrosio to race or get someone else from outside. Though Jerome D'Ambrosio is the reserve driver, he never impressed during his stint with Marussia racing. Lotus is yet to announce who will replace Romain Grosjean.

Grosjean will miss the F1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Motor racing fans should thank FIA for their tough action in banning Grosjean for causing serious crash in the Belgian Grand Prix 2012.

Lewis Hamilton wins Hungary Grand Prix 2012

Lewis Hamilton wins Hungarian Grand Prix 2012

Kimi Raikkonen exerted tremendous pressure on Lewis Hamilton. However, Lewis Hamilton battled to keep back Kimi Raikkonen and won the Formula One Hungary Grand Prix 2012. It was indeed justice for him as all through the weekend including the practice and qualifying, Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver on the grid. A very calm and controlled race under tremendous pressure ensured that Lewis Hamilton won the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix 2012.

Romain Grosjean was P2 during the initial laps and was never very far behind Lewis Hamilton. However, he had to settle for the third place. Sebastian Vettel was P4. Fernando Alonso finished at 5th position, followed by Jenson Button at 6th, Bruono Senna at 7th, Mark Webber at 8th, Felipe Massa at 9th.

Disaster stuck Michael Schumacher as his car stalled and other cars were asked to do another formation lap. Two formation laps had not happened for a long long time. As the other cars went on for the second formation lap, Michael Schumacher's Mercedes car was pushed to the pit lane and it was started. The second disaster for Michael Schumacher stuck immediately when they changed the strategy and after the first lap he came to the pits to change his tyres for a long run. Unfortunately, he was found to be speeding during the pitlane and handed over a drive-through penalty. Though he later overtook the backmarkers and was running at 18th position, he retired from the race in lap 60 finishing a miserable race.

His teammate Nico Rosberg finished 10th.

Positions P11-P22 are as follows:
Nico Hulkenberg
Paul Di Resta
Pastor Maldonado
Sergio Perez
Daniel Ricciardo
Jules Vergne
Heiki Kovalainen
Kamui Kobayashi
Vitaly Petrov
Charles Pic
Timo Glock
Pedro de la Rosa

Narain Karthikeyan retired from the race in lap 60 out of the 69 lap race after sustaining left suspension damage breaking the reliability record of the poorly funded HRT team.

Position

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired
1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	69	Winner
2	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	69	+1.0 secs
3	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	69	+10.5 secs
4	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	69	+11.6 secs
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	69	+26.6 secs
6	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	69	+30.2 secs
7	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	69	+33.8 secs
8	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	69	+34.4 secs
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	69	+38.3 secs
10	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	69	+51.2 secs
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	69	+57.2 secs
12	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	69	+62.8 secs
13	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	69	+63.6 secs
14	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	69	+64.4 secs
15	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	68	+1 Lap
16	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	68	+1 Lap
17	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	68	+1 Lap
18	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	67	+2 Laps
19	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	67	+2 Laps
20	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	67	+2 Laps
21	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	66	+3 Laps
22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	66	+3 Laps
Retired	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	60	+9 Laps
Retired	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	58	+11 Laps

Lewis Hamilton won the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix 2012 and brought an end to a series of DNFs, to make the championship interesting.
Race Summary: 69 laps
Winner: Lewis Hamilton

Webber 6th winner in Six races

Mark Webber wins Monaco Grand Prix 2012. Mark Webber who had inherited the Pole after Michael Schumacher dropped down five places due to the penalty for colliding with Bruno Senna in Spanish Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg came in second and Alonso was third.

Michael Schumacher was again distinctly unlucky. He chose to take the outside route and had climbed to 3rd position when he was hit by Romain Grosjean and he dropped back to 8th. After that he was stuck behind the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen for half of the race till Kimi went for a change of tyres. Later Michael complained of some issue and retired leaving millions of his fans disappointed.

Sebastian Vettel lead the race when the race leaders went for tyre change. Vettel was on a different strategy. However, he finished 4th with 1.3 seconds behind Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton finished 5th. Felipe Massa of Ferrari who is rumoured to be on the verge of being dropped by his team was the race leader for a few laps when others went for tire change. He finished at 6th position. Narain Karthikeyan finished the race at 15th position.

Grid Position	Driver	Team	Points	Gap
1	Mark Webber	Redbull	25
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	18	0.6
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	15	0.9
4	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	12	1.3
5	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	10	4.1
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	8	6.1
7	Paul de Resta	Force India	6	41.5
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	4	42.5
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	2	44.0
10	Bruno Senna	Williams	1	44.5
11	Sergio Perez	Sauber	0	1Lap
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	0	1Lap
13	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0	1Lap
14	Timo Glock	Marussia	0	1Lap
15	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0	2Lap
16	Jenson Button	McLaren	Retired	8Lap
	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	Retired	13Lap
	Charles Pic	Marussia	Retired	14Lap
	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	Retired	15Lap
	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	Retired	63Lap
	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	Retired	73Lap
	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	Retired
	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	Retired
	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	Retired

F1 Drivers Championship 2012 after Bahrain

Sebastian Vettel is now leading the F1 2012 Championship after Bahrain Grand Prix.

There is not much difference between the top 5 drivers, so that championship is wide open.
Michael Schumacher who has been in the first two rows in qualifying in Australia, Malaysia and China has only 2 points to his name after Bahrain. It again reinforces the fact that the proof of the pudding is in eating ie. finishing the race in points scoring positions in F1.

The interesting thing is at the bottom of the table. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia are 19th and 20th at the moment due to their higher finish. Marussia finished in 14th and 15th position in Australia where as the best place finish of Caterham was 16th and 18th in Malaysia. So Marussia is now in the 10th position. If non of them last three teams ie. Marussia, Caterham or HRT finish in the points and if Caterham and HRT doesn't finish above 14th position, then Marussia will get the 10th position. That is vital because only the top 10 teams get money for the championship. That is many millions of dollars for the 10th placed team and it makes a huge difference to them.

Position	Driver	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	Redbull	53
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	49
3	Mark Webber	Redbull	43
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	43
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	43
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	35
7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	34
8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	23
9	Sergio Perez	Sauber	22
10	Paul di Resta	Force India	15
11	Bruno Senna	Williams	14
12	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	9
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR	4
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	4
15	Daniel Ricciardo	STR	2
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	2
17	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	2
18	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	2
19	Timo Glock	Marussia	0
20	Charles Pic	Marussia	0
21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	0
22	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	0
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	0
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	0