Rosberg scores RussianGP Pole as Hamilton Suffers

Rosberg scores Russian Pole as Hamilton suffers

Nico Rosberg easily raced to the pole in the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi as luckless Lewis Hamilton couldn’t race in Q3 due to power unit problem.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished second and 0.706s slower than Rosberg. However, he has changed a gear box unit and it means 5 slot penalty. So Sebastian Vettel drops down to 7th.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams came third. Now he will be promoted to 2nd in the starting line up for tomorrow’s race.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari finished in fourth and now will start in third place. Along side Kimi Raikkonen will be his former teammate Felipe Massa of Williams.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull and Sergio Perez of Force India will start in 5th and 6th places respectively.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull, the local lad and favourite of the Russians will start in 8th place after Sebastian Vettel.

Max Verstappen will start in 9th. Lewis Hamilton had qualified for Q3 based on his Q2 timings but couldn’t race in Q3. So he finished 10th. We will wait to see if he drops down further in the starting grid due to any changes to his power unit. In the last race in China, Lewis started from the pit stop and finished in 7th position. However, he was hit by one of the cars. He would be hoping that he doesn’t get involved in any accident which further mars his race.

Hamilton said it is the “same failure as I had last race. I went back out in Q2 at the end to get a better lap and lost the same power as I lost in China. Nothing I can do”.

Lewis Hamilton is 39 points behind Nico Rosberg. So today's car problems adds to his challenges and his hopes of winning this years title may be vanishing.

#RussianGP Qualifying 2016

Rosberg scores third win on the trot

Chinese Nightmare ends with 7th place for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton had a nightmarish Chinese Grand Prix 2016. First he had a gearbox change and 5 place penalty added to his qualifying position. Then he had an ERS failure during qualifying and had to start at 22nd position. Though he drove through the field, Felipe Nasr of Sauber hit him and due to the heavy damage he had to be content with the 7 th place finish. Hamilton needed a humongous 5 pitstops to complete his race.

Rosberg continued his winning streak by adding the third race in this years calendar to his kitty. His job was made easier when Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari hit his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel came second with a massive 37 seconds behind Rosberg. Daniil Kvyat of Redbull scored a podium finish. He was followed by his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in 4th. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was 5th.

Felipe Massa of Williams was 6th and finished 3 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.

The Toro Rosso duo of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz finished in 8th and 9th positions. The final points paying position was taken by Valtteri Bottas of Williams.

After scoring points in the first two races, the Haas team didn't score a single point in this race. Esteban Gutierrez finished in 14th and Romain Grosjean on 19th position for the Haas team.

The defending champion Lewis Hamilton is now on the backfoot. His teammate Nico Rosberg has won all the three races this season and has 75 points. Hamilton now has 39 points due to two second place positions and the 7th place in China. Daniel Ricciardo is on 36 points and is followed by Sebastian Vettel in 33 and Kimi Raikkonen in 28. These initial points are pretty valuable and it will now put Hamilton under severe pressure to up his game.

Nico Rosberg scores Surpirse win at Australia

Nico Rosberg scores surprise win at Australia

It was a poor start from Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the Australian Grand Prix. Ferrari cars of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were leading the race with 1-2 positions however, Mercedes could stage a comeback following a accident between Fernando Alonso of McLaren and Esteban Gutierrez of Haas. The race was red flagged to a stop.

The Mercedes duo recovered with Lewis Hamilton finishing second to Nico Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was third. Unfortunately his teammate Kimi Raikkonen didn’t finish the race.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo was the crowd favourite being the son of the soil and gave his fans some joy as hi finished in 4^th place driving a Red Bull racing car. Felipe Massa of Williams was fifth.

However the most interesting was Romain Grosjean’s 6^th place finish for debutant Haas team. It may be pertinent to mention that Haas had got the go ahead to debut in Formula 1 in 2015. However, they decided to prepare for one more year and race in 2016. Their strategy seems to have paid off. Unlike Manor racing, Haas also had a good outing during the testing.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India finished in seventh followed by Valtteri Bottas of Williams in 8^th. Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen were 9^th and 10^th respectively.

Results of Australian Grand Prix 2016

Rank	Name	Team
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Ferrari
5	Felipe Massa	Williams
6	Romain Grosjean	Haas
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India
8	Valtteri Bottas	Williams
9	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso
10	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso
11	Jolyon Palmer	Renault
12	Kevin Magnussen	Renault
13	Sergio Perez	Force India
14	Jenson Button	McLaren
14	Felipe Nasr	Sauber
15	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor
	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber
	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari
	Rio Haryanto	Manor
	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas
	Fernando Alonso	McLaren
	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull

Hamilton's 50th Pole in anti-climax qualifying

Hamilton Scores 50th Pole in Anti-climax Qualifying

The Australian F1 Grand Prix is the first race of the season. Today it was perhaps the most anti-climax start to a season as the Qualifying was bizarre.

Normally there is a mad race to start your last lap before the chequered flag is waved. Today there was no activity at all. Most of the drivers were eliminated. Ferrari decided that they can't better the timings and didn't come out again. There was no action. We had time to take a few winks, so to speak. Fans are asking what happened.

F1 was too complicated to understand with the frequent rule changes. The qualifying was one of the most followed aspects of the race. It used to be good to watch. Now, instead of fixing F1, they messed up with the one part of F1 which was ironically working and didn't need fixing.

They tried to create more action but forgot that these are real cars and not robots or puppet dancing. It is just terrible to watch. F1 authorities (Bernie are you listening? ) seem to be in a race to increase their stupidity quotient.

Rio Haryanto is penalised 3 grid slots for pit lane collision with Romain Grosjean in the Final Practice 3 today morning.

For the records, the following is the Qualifying results in Australian F1 Grand Prix 2016:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
5. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso
6. Felipe Massa, Williams
7. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso
8. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
9. Sergio Perez, Force India
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India
11. Valtteri Bottas, Williams
12. Fernando Alonso, McLaren
13. Jenson Button, McLaren
14. Jolyon Palmer, Renault
15. Kevin Magnussen, Renault
16. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber
17. Felipe Nasr, Sauber
18. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull
19. Romain Grosjean, Haas
20. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas
21. Rio Haryanto, Manor
22. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor

Nico Rosberg leads Mercedes 1-2 in Mexican Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes started from the pole and led the race. There was a chance for Hamilton when there was a safety car deployment due to Vettel being on the wall. However, Rosberg moved away cleanly during the restart. However, Nico Rosberg continued to lead and win the inaugural Mexican F1 Grand Prix race. Lewis Hamilton simply couldn’t overtake his teammate.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams finished third.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull was fourth. Ricciardo clashed with Sebastian Vettel at the start but didn’t face any problems to finish in fifth. Felipe Massa of Williams was sixth.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was seventh. Sergio Perez of Force India drove a great race with worn out tyres. His tyres lasted 51laps and he finished in 8th position.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso was 9th and was followed by Romain Grosjean of Lotus in the 10th and final points paying position.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari started on 19th place as he incurred a 35 place grid penalty due to change of engine, gearbox and other components of the engine train. Fernando Alonso of McLaren started on 18th and Jenson Button of McLaren started last on 20th position. Who would have imagined that three world champions having a total of 5 world championships between them would start at the very back of the F1 Grid.

This shows the asymmetry in the engine development. With two time world champion Fernando Alonso losing power in the opening lap itself and retiring his Honda powered McLaren car, the engine again came into focus.


Kimi Raikkonen who had a clash with Valtteri Bottas two races ago had another in lap 22. Valtteri Bottas of Williams tried to go on the outside of Raikkonen in turn 4 and couldn’t find any space to complete the move and the accident was inevitable ending Kimi’s race. Raikkonen’s rear part of the car was damaged and his great drive from the back of the grid was over. Raikkonen had his sights on podium but there is as they say many a slip between the cup and the lip. The stewards decided that it was a racing incident and didn’t give any penalty.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari started in third position but suffered a puncture due to accident with his previous team-mate Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull. Though he came up through the field but soon he spun and went back. His tyres were damaged and he couldn’t do much. Later he picked up his pace after a pit stop but his race came to an end in Lap 52 when he crashed into the wall. With it ended a miserable weekend for Ferrari. They had expected a lot but ended up with a double DNF.

Felipe Nasr was the other driver who retired. He had a fire in his brakes.

Results of Mexican F1 Grand Prix 2015

Rosberg grabs pole in Inaugural Mexican Grand Prix

It was an competitive qualifying in the first ever Mexican F1 Grand Prix as the cars were all very close to each other in pace.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes set a time of 1m 19.480 seconds. He beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton to second place by 0.188 seconds. Lewis Hamilton was the first one to set a time below 1m 20 seconds but when it mattered most in the Q3, he locked up in his qualifying run and was slower than Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari qualified in third.

Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull qualified in P4 with a time of 1m 20.398. Interestingly his teammate Daniel Ricciardo set a time of 1m 20.399 seconds for P5 which was o.oo1 seconds slower.

Valtteri Bottas of Williams was P6 with time of 1m 20.448 and he was followed by Felipe Massa who scored a time of 1m 20. 567 seconds for P7.

Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso was P8 with a time of 1m 20.710. Sergio Perez of Mexico brought in cheer for the home crowd as he qualified in 1m 20.716 seconds for P9. His teammate Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was P10.


The F1 qualifying has three parts. The Q1 is of 18 minutes duration and 5 slowest cars are excluded from the second part of qualifying. So in the Q2 15 cars participate and in Q1 the top 10 cars participate.

Jenson Button couldn’t participate in the qualifying as McLaren couldn’t solve his engine signal problem. He will race at the discretion of the stewards.

Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso have been slapped 30 and 15 place penalties for engine changes. To the spectators it may sound comic as there are only a total of 20 cars in the grid and the combined penalties for engine and gearbox change etc quickly adds up to more than the number of cars.

In the Q1, the following drivers were eliminated:
Fernando Alonso
Felipe Nasr
Alexander Rossi
Will Stevens
Jenson Button

Romain Grosjean of Lotus could just scrape through to the Q2. His luck however deserted him in Q2 and he couldn’t qualify to the Q1 Top Ten shootout. Kimi Raikkonen was eliminated in the Q2 as he experienced brake problems. He had a spin as well. Raikkonen finished in 15th spot and was down by nearly a second to the 14th placed Marcus Ericsson of Sauber. It would be painful for him because his teammate Sebastian Vettel was around 2.4 seconds faster than him. In the Q2 the following drivers were eliminated:
11. Carlos Sainz
12. Romain Grosjean
13. Pastor Maldonado
14. Marcus Ericsson
15. Kimi Raikkonen

Carlos Sainz was eliminated by just 0.007 seconds as Nico Hulkenberg of Force India beat him for the 10th spot in Q2.

Qualifying results of Mexican F1 Grand Prix

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.

Sebastian Vettel wins Singapore for 4th time

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari deservedly won the F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2015 as he led from the Pole for his race win. It was his third race win in 2015 season and his 4th at Singapore. No other driver has won as many races in Singapore. It was also his 42nd race win, which is one more than Aryton Senna. Michael Schumacher is the man with the maximum number of race wins.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull gave him stiff competition and finished in second position. He was just 1.4 seconds behind Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari came in third with a massive 17 seconds behind.

Nico Rosberg of Mercedes came in 4th to reduce the lead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton in the championship race. Valtteri Bottas of Williams was 5th. He could safely finish his race, though his team found that he had a problem in downshifting his gears. Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull finished in 6th position.

Sergio Perez of Force India was 7th. Verstappen of Toro Rosso finished 8th. He was followed by Carlos Sainz in 9th and Felipe Nasr in 10th.

It was a disastrous outing for the reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton as he lost power in the 26th lap and then after slowly circling around the circuit, he had to quit in Lap 34.

Former World Champion Fernando Alonso too retired from the race in Lap 34 when he was running in 9th position.

Pastor Maldonado had a crash with Jenson Button of McLaren and for that Button had to come to the pits to change the front wing and lose valuable time. Button made his disgust apparent when he uttered into the radio “I should have known really, that he is mental”. However, there was no penalty by the stewards. Later in Lap 53, McLaren told Jenson Button that they have to retire his car as his gear box is at risk. With that both the McLaren cars retired in the race. This was not the first time this year but the fourth time when both the McLaren-Honda cars have retired.

In the Lap 37 there was a man on the circuit who was spotted by Sebastian Vettel. The man appeared to quickly jump back over the barriers. Yellow flags were waved. However, it is not a great sight for safety of the race.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India caused an accident with Felipe Massa of Williams. Both were exiting the pit lane and in the incident Nico Hulkenberg hit the wall and retired from the race. The stewards handed him a 3 place grid penalty for the next race.

Later Massa too retired his car.

Final Results at Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2015

Vettel wins Pole at Singapore F1 Qualifying

Sebastian Vettel wins Pole at Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix 2015

The Singapore F1 Grand Prix was a very interesting qualifying event as for the first time this season, the Mercedes cars were not dominating. Sebastian Vettel won the pole position with a stunning time of 1m 43.885 seconds. His former teammate Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull qualified on second with a time of 1m 44.428seconds. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferarri came third with a time of 1m 44.667 seconds.

Daniel Kvyat of Red Bull was 4th with a time of 1m 44.745seconds. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes could only score 1m 45.300 seconds in his second run in Q3 as he ran wide during his first run and aborted the first run. His teammate Nico Rosberg of Mercedes came in 6th with a time of 1m 45. 415seconds. Valtteri Bottas of Williams will start on the 4th row tomorrow as he qualified at P7 with a time of 1m 45.676. He was followed by Verstappen of Toro Rosso with a time of 1m 45.798seconds.

Felipe Massa of Williams and Romain Grosjean of Lotus came in 9th and 10th respectively.

The Ferrari and the Red Bull cars and Verstappen were on the new supersoft tyres for the final run in Q3. All others were on used super soft tyres.

Did any one think that a McLaren can be ahead of a Mercedes. Precisely that had happened in the Q1 of the Formula One qualifying at Singapore Grand Prix.

During the Q1 where the drivers scramble to set their times in a 18 minute long session and the best 13 qualify for the second stage, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso were ahead of Lewis Hamilton at one stage.

This forced Hamilton, who was in 14th, to go for another run with supersoft tyres to score a 1m 45.765 seconds and that lifted him to provisional P2 and helped qualify for Q2. Ofcourse when the drivers went for their second laps in the Q1, Jenson Button had gone down and could barely manage getting relegated as he scored a P15 in the Q1 and the difference between him and 16th placed Felipe Nasr with 1m 46.965 was a measly 0.074 seconds.

In the Q2 of the Qualifying, every driver choose supersoft tyres. Carlos Sainz hit the wall and brought out a Yellow flag when the drivers were trying to scramble through in the dying seconds of Q2. So the drivers who were in the 11th to 15th in the previous run just couldn't complete their laps. So Nico Hulkenberg was 11th. Fernando Alonso of McLaren will start alongside him in the sixth row tomorrow as he qualified in 12th position. Sergio Perez of Force India was 13th, Carlos Sainz of Toro Rosso was 14th and Jenson Button of McLaren will start on 15th.

Before this qualifying it was expected that Lewis Hamilton will match the record of most consecutive pole positions of Aryton Senna and also will win the race and match Senna's record of 41 race victories. However, Hamilton coming 5th in the qualifying resulted in that dream going sour.

Singapore F1 Qualifying 2015

Lewis Hamilton Leads championship by 53 points

Lewis Hamilton leads the 2015 F1 drivers championship by 53 points

After his win at Monza in the Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has 252 points vis-a-vis 199 points of his nearest competitor Nico Rosberg.

Rosberg was running in third position in the race at Monza when his car went up in flames.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari is at 178 points following his second place finish in the Italian Grand Prix. The way the Ferrari has upped its pace, especially its pace over one lap Vettel may overtake Nico Rosberg in a few races. Kimi Raikkonen seems to have upped his pace as can be seen in his P2 in the Qualifying at Italian Grand Prix. So if both the Ferrari cars qualify infront of Rosberg's car, then it is sure that Nico Rosberg will soon move down from his second position in the drivers championship.

Felipe Massa of Williams is currently fourth in the drivers championship with 97 points. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari is at 92 points and fifth in the race.

Nico Hulkenberg of Force India has won the Le Mans endurance race and has made a name for himself. He was supposed to be considered by Ferrari as well. However, now his teammate Sergio Perez has moved ahead of him with 33 points to be in the 10th spot vs 30 points and 11th spot for Hulkenberg.

With Renault considering taking over the Lotus team and bring in considerable financial muscle, Sergio Perez may have a chance to go there as well.

Drivers standings after Italian Grand Prix 2015

Sl.        Name                          Team              Points

1.   Lewis Hamilton                Mercedes       252

2.   Nico Rosberg                    Mercedes       199

3.   Sebastian Vettel              Ferrari            178

4.   Felipe Massa                    Williams         97

5.   Kimi Raikkonen               Ferrari            92

6.   Valtteri Bottas                  Williams         91

7.   Daniil Kvyat                     Red Bull          58

8.   Daniel Ricciardo              Red Bull          55

9.   Romain Grosjean             Lotus               38

10. Sergio Perez                    Force India     33

11. Nico Hulkenberg             Force India     30

12. Max Verstappen             Toro Rosso     26

13. Felipe Nasr                      Sauber           16

14. Pastor Maldonado          Lotus               12

15. Fernando Alonso             McLaren         11

16. Carlos Sainz                     Toro Rosso     9

17. Marcus Ericsson              Sauber           9

18. Jenson Button                 McLaren         6

19. Roberto Merhi                 Marussia        0

20. Will Stevens                     Marussia        0