Lewis Hamilton wins F1 Hungarian Grand Prix

Hamilton registers his first win with Mercedes team as he wins the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix 2013.

Lewis Hamilton started on pole and managed to retain the lead in the rush to the turn 1 where as his team mate Nico Rosberg hurtled back and was one lap down when he retired in lap 66. Hamilton did the first stop for tyre change in lap 10th. He made two further stops to win the Hungarian Grand Prix 2013.

The race was more or less decided when after the first pit stop Hamilton rejoined behind Jenson Button who was on medium tyres and could immediately overtake him. However, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull similarly joined behind Button after the first pit stop but couldn’t pass him. At one stage the pack of three cars of Button followed by Vettel and Grosjean were trying to fight each other and lost a lot of time. In the end that proved to be crucial.

The race had its moments when different players set the fastest lap times at different times based on the time they changed to new tires. Vettel made a stop in lap 56 and immediately after in lap 60 set a fastest lap time which was nearly a second faster than that of Hamilton in that lap. However, Hamilton continued his composure and won the race easily.

Mark Webber shifted to soft tyres in lap 60 and then set a fastest lap time 1:24.069 in lap 61. However he was more than 20 seconds behind Hamilton and hence didn’t pose any challenge. Soon the challengers realised the inevitability and settled into a rhythm. So Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus finished in 2nd position as he could make his two stop strategy work to perfection. Kimi Raikkonen was followed by Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull in 3rd.

Jenson Button of McLaren was the other driver in two stop strategy and finished in 7th.

Final Standings in F1 Hungarian Grand Prix

1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull
4. Mark Webber Red Bull
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari
6. Romain Grosjean Lotus
7. Jenson Button McLaren
8. Felipe Massa Ferrari
9. Sergio Perez McLaren
10. Pastor Maldonado Williams
11. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
14. G. Van der Garde Caterham
15. Charles Pic Marussia
16. Jules Bianchi Marussia
17. Max Chilton Caterham

Retirements in F1 Hungarian Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg Mercedes
Valteri Bottas Willams
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber
Adrian Sutil Force India


Lewis Hamilton was incredibly happy to win the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix as his first victory with Mercedes team.

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

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

Rosberg wins as Hamilton's Pirelli tyre blows out

Hamilton had started in Pole position and was leading the race, however a rear left tyre blow out ruined his race. He however managed to finish in fourth position. Hamilton staged an impressive recovery after the early tyre blow out, however, he couldn't overtake Fernando Alonso of Ferrari for the third position. Alonso was particularly happy to cut down the lead of Vettel, as this was the first DNF of Vettel in this season.

Sebastian Vettel who had inherited the lead was forced to retire due to a gearbox failure. Before this failure, a precautionary check of his tyre had revealed cuts. Else, he would have been the fifth driver to suffer a rear left tyre blow out.

Nico Rosberg who had dropped down to third from the second position in which he started, won the race albeit by a narrow margin of 0.7 seconds and Mark Webber finished who normally enjoys this circuit finished second. A couple of laps would have ensured that Webber beat Rosberg. This became the second race win for Rosberg this year, who had his first race win last year.

After Sebastian Vettel's gearbox gave up, a safety car was deployed. Kimi Raikkonen however decided not to pit for fresh tyres as he thought of overtaking Nico Rosberg. However, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber pitted for fresh tyres and could easily overtake Kimi Raikkonen later. Kimi finished in 5th position.

Felipe Massa was another victim of Pirelli tyre blow out. However, he still managed to finish in 6th position. Sergio Perez was not so lucky with his tyres and retired. Jean Eric Vergne too retired due to the tyre issue.

Adrian Sutil of Force India finished 7th, while his teammate Paul di Resta who was penalised for underweight and sent to back of the grid finished in 9th position. Daniel Ricciardo finished 8th for Toro Rosso.

Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber had the 10th position and one point. He might be happy given the current state of affairs at Sauber.

Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas of Williams finished 11th and 12th respectively.

Jenson Button of McLaren finished 13th, two places down from his starting position. Esteban Gutierrez was 14th, Charles Pic of Caterham 15th, Jules Bianchi of Marussia 16th, Max Chilton of Marussia 17th, Giedo van der Garde of Caterham 18th and Romain Grosjean of Lotus 19th.

Pirelli Tyre Drama

When Pirelli came to F1, they were asked to create tyres with higher degradation which will spice up the race. However, no one had expected that Pirelli will go to another extreme and endanger safety of drivers. Pirelli in a statement said that they had used a bonding process to stop delamination of tyres and the blowouts were not due that change in process. They are examining the cause and will rectify it before the German Grand Prix next weekend. In an emergency meeting FIA has asked Pirelli to come out with a solution by wednesday.

Final Standing in British F1 Grand Prix 2013

1. Nico Rosberg           Mercedes
2. Mark Webber           Redbull
3. Fernando Alonso      Ferrari
4. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes
5. Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus
6. Felipe Massa            Ferrari
7. Adrian Sutil              Force India
8. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso
9. Paul di Resta             Force India
10. Nico Hulkenberg     Sauber
11. Pastor Maldonado   Williams
12. Valtteri Bottas         Williams
13. Jenson Button          McLaren
14. Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber
15. Charles Pic              Caterham
16. Jules Bianchi           Marussia
17. Max Chilton            Marussia
18. G. van der Garde     Caterham
19. Romain Grosjean    Lotus

Retirements in British F1 Grand Prix 2013

Sergio Perez                 McLaren
Sebastian Vettel           Redbull
Jean Eric Vergne          Toro Rosso

Silverstone Pole for Hamilton in F1 Qualifying

Lewis Hamilton scored pole position for Mercedes in his home grand prix of Silverstone amidst loud cheering and wave formations. Lewis Hamilton scored pole with a 1:29.607 and was the only driver below the 1m 30 sec time.

Hamilton’s team mate Nico Rosberg came second 0.452 seconds adrift at 1:30.059.

Sebastian Vettel of Redbull who is leading the championship till now was third at 1:30.211. His team mate and bitter rival Mark Webber, who is retiring from F1 at the end of this season, will start his last Silverstone F1 grand prix in the fourth position along side Vettel in the second row. Mark Webber was 0.009 seconds slower than Vettel.

Paul di Resta of Force India, who have their base nearby, will start in row three in as he qualified in fifth position with a time of 1:30.736. Paul di Resta, being Scottish, will find many supporters in the crowd, although winning for him is unthinkable.

Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso, who is touted to be graduate to the sister team of Red Bull and take up Mark Webber’s seat next year, will line up alongside di Resta in sixth position. Ricciardo scored 1:30.757s.

Paul di Resta’s team mate Adrian Sutil came seventh with a time of 1:30.908. Lining up alongside him in grid will be Romain Grosjean of Lotus. Romain outscored his more famous team mate Kimi Raikkonen by 0.007 seconds ie. Seven hundredths of a second. Romain scored 1:30.955 vis a vis 1:30.962 of Kimi Raikkonen. Lotus is increasingly falling behind in the development battle and Kimi’s hopes of winning the championship is fast dwindling unless he can score a couple of consecutive wins. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari scored a P10 with a 1:30.979. Wily competitor that he is, he would hope for some intelligent racing tomorrow.

Jenson Button of McLaren couldn’t qualify for the Q3 shootout and scored a P11. He was followed by Felipe Massa of Ferrari at 12th position.

Jean Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso must be disappointed starting at 13th position when his teammate Ricciardo will start at sixth. Sergio Perez had another ordinary session and will start at 14th. Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber came 15th what is appearing as a wash out season for Sauber. Williams, who will be celebrating their 600 grand prix starts in Silverstone had a forgettable qualify as Pastor Maldonado qualified at 16th and Bottas came 17th. Esteban Gutierrez of sauber came 18th. Charles Pic of Caterham bit Jules Bianchi of Marussia scoring 19th and 20th positions respectively. Giedo van der Garde of Caterham scored 21st ahead of Max Chilton of Marussia in the 22nd and last position. However, Giedo van der Garde will start last as he has got a 10 place grid penalty due to the crash in Canada.

EDIT: Paul di Resta Penalty

Paul di Resta's car found 1.5 kg below minimum weight

During the post qualifying mandatory inspection, when all the fuel was drained out and car weighed, Paul di Resta's car was found to be 1.5kg below the minimum weight of 642 kg. So Paul di Resta's qualifying results were scrapped and he sent to the back of the grid.

Force India has the option of making changes to Paul di Resta's car, change his strategy and make him drive a long first stop and make him start from the pit lane. We will know that closer to the start of the race.

Starting Grid for the Race after Penalties

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Nico Rosberg
3. Sebastian Vettel
4. Mark Webber
5. Daniel Ricciardo
6. Adrian Sutil
7. Romain Grosjean
8. Kimi Raikkonen
9. Fernando Alonso
10. Jenson Button
11. Felipe Massa
12. Jean Eric Vergne
13. Sergio Perez
14. Nico Hulkenberg
15. Pastor Maldonado
16. Valtteri Bottas
17. Esteban Gutierrez
18. Charles Pic
19. Jules Bianchi
20. Max Chilton
21. Giedo van der Garde
22. Paul di Resta

Vettel wins from pole in Monaco as a marshal dies

Vettel celebrates in Monaco as a Marshal dies

Sebastian Vettel of Redbull continued his race towards grabbing the 2013 F1 championship by winning from the Pole position. Unfortunately, we are all reminded how dangerous this sport is when a marshall who was helping assist the retrieval of Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber car tripped and fell infront of the crane and was runover. He was initially treated in Giles Villenueve centre - incidentally Giles Villenueve, despite being a champion and head and shoulders better in technique than the current crop of drivers like Esteban Gutierrez had himself lost his life in a racing incident.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who had started in the third row, beat Lewis Hamilton to the second position and Alonso promptly declared that this second position is like a win for him. Lewis Hamilton was in second position till the last six laps when Alonso overtook him.

Mark Webber, Vettel's teammate at Redbull, suffered damage to the nose of his car when Giedo van der Garde of Caterham turned into him while being lapped ruining Webber's race. Mark Webber had to settle in the 4th position.

Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg complained of brake problems and finished in fifth position. One cannot be sure when Rosberg complains, as he is known to complain when he is beaten by his teammate. We had seen that in many occassions when Schumacher beat him in the race or in qualifying.

Jean-Eric Vergne drove a great race and finished in sixth position with his Toro Rosso car. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was however down in 15th position.

Paul di Resta of Force India brought some cheer by finishing in 7th position. He was gentle on his tyres as he ran the medium spec pirelli tires for about 56 laps.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari who had earlier crashed during testing managed to stay clear of the barriers and finished the race in 8th position. Kimi Raikkonen finished in a poor ninth position reflecting the downward move of his Lotus team. Raikkonen an early winner in the season and close contender for championship has now dropped down to third position behind Alonso. Raikkonen had technical problems with the brake pedal and also had a pitstop problem with the right rear wheel. It appears that Raikkonen is going to fade out if his Lotus team doesn't do some significant upgrades. Mercedes just overtook lotus for third position. The temperamental finn may also choose to not renew his contract with Lotus if the going doesn't improve.

Adrian Sutil had an incident packed race with a spin, damaged wings. However he appeared to have not lost his animosity for Hamilton. He blocked Hamilton and later Alonso could overtake Hamilton. Sutil was later penalised with a drive through penalty for blocking Hamilton and that dropped Sutil to 10th position. Force India is happy with the twin point scoring positions of their drivers.

Raikkonen's teammate Romain Grosjean came in a poor 13th and without points.

Sergio Perez and Jenson Button scored 11th and 12th positions while employing different strategies. It was a pointless weekend for McLaren.

Williams drivers Valeri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado finished in 14th and 16th positions. Maldonado's collision with Sutil earned him a drive through penalty. However, Williams didn't have the overall pace to make into the points paying positions.

Jules Bianchi of Marussia finished in 17th position ahead of Charles Pic of Caterham at 18th and Max Chilton of Marussia at 19th.

Nico Hulkenberg had a contact with Giedo van der Garde of Caterham and that resulted in Hulkenberg retiring with a puncture. Soon afterwards Giedo van der Garde crashed while exiting the pits, without any assistance from any fellow driver. It was a significant event, as the marshal died while clearing Gutierrez's car.