Sebastian Vettel wins Belgian Grand Prix 2013

Sebastian Vettel overtook pole sitter Lewis Hamilton in the Kemmel straight and there after comfortably maintained his lead to win the Belgian Grand Prix at spa. Fernando Alonso made a good start from his P9 starting position and came second. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes finished on third position.

Rain evaded the Belgian Grand Prix and hence the results were not as interesting as yesterday’s qualifying. Predictably Sebastian Vettel comfortably maintained his lead after overtaking in the first lap.

Mark Webber didn’t have a good start and finished at 5th position. His season seems to be finishing in a whimper. Too often this year we have seen either the Red Bull messing up pit stops of Mark Webber or some problem cropping up in his car. So he must be having some relief at getting a few points in this race.

Jenson Button finished at sixth. Felipe Massa finished at 7th. Romain Grosjean finished on 8th. He must have been surprised to be pushed off the track by Sergio Perez as Grosjean in 2012 was known for his rash driving and was even banned for a race. Perez was duly handed a penalty which pushed him down and he eventually finished out of points at 11. Adrian Sutil finished at 9th. Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso who is in the running to get the Red Bull seat vacated by Mark Webber next year, had a terrible qualifying yesterday. However, he managed to get the 10th place and importantly finish ahead of his team mate Jean-Eric Vergne who finished at 12th.

This race also saw Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus retiring from the race. Earlier his car was seen throwing black dust from the front brake. This ended his record breaking run of 27 straight points finishes.

Race Results in Belgian Grand Prix 2013

1. Sebastian Vettel                Red Bull

2. Fernando Alonso               Ferrari

3. Lewis Hamilton                  Mercedes

4. Nico Rosberg                      Mercedes

5. Mark Webber                    Red Bull

6. Jenson Button                    McLaren

7. Felipe Massa                      Ferrari

8. Romain Grosjean               Lotus

9. Adrian Sutil                        Force India

10. Daniel Ricciardo              Toro Rosso

11. Sergio Perez                    Mclaren

12. Jean-Eric Vergne             Toro Rosso

13. Nico Hulkenberg                         Sauber

14. Esteban Gutierrez           Sauber

15. Valteri Bottas                   Williams

16. Giedo van der Garde      Caterham

17. Pastor Maldonado          Williams

18. Jules Bianchi                    Marussia

19. Max Chilton                     Caterham

Retirements in Belgian Grand Prix

Paul di Resta                          Force India

Kimi Raikkonen                     Lotus

Charles Pic                             Marussia

Lewis Hamilton on Pole in Belgian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton on Pole in Belgian Grand Prix 2013

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes scores Pole in rain in F1 Belgian Grand Prix qualifying.

In the Q3, rain was predicted, so all the cars started immediately as soon as the session was flagged on. However, rain immediately started and it came to notice that Force India had put their driver Di Resta on intermediate tyres. So he set the first bench mark time and it was very late when drivers could beat it. Paul di Resta scored P5.

Lewis Hamilton in the dying moments snatched the P1 slot from Sebastian Vettel with a time of 2:01.012. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull came second with a time of 2:01.200

Vettel’s teammate in Red Bull, Mark Webber scored P3 with a time of 2:01.325 seconds. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes will line up by his side in the second row after he scored 2:02.251

Jenson Button of McLaren scored P6. Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus will line up in the 4th row as they qualified P7 and P8.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa of Ferrari will start in fifth row. Unless there is rain tomorrow, the championship hopes of Fernando Alonso seems to be fading away.

Drama in Q1 in Belgian Grand Prix F1 Qualifying

In the First part of the qualifying in Belgian Grand Prix 2013, rain brought a few surprises. Towards the end of the Q1 the track was drying up and hence times were tumbling faster. Giedo van der Garde a backmarker, shot into limelight when he posted the third fastest time P3 of 2:00.564. The Fastest time was of Fernando Alonso at 2:00.190 followed by Lewis Hamilton at 2:00.368

During Q1 the six drivers who were relegated were:

17. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
18. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso
19. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso
20. Valteri Bottas, Williams
21. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber
22. Charles Pic, Marussia

So out of the four perennial backmarkers belonging to Caterham and Marussia, only Charles Pic of Marussia finished in his familiar 22nd spot. The other three escaped relegation, which is nothing sort of historical.

In the Q2, Giedo van der Garde scored his career best 14th at the F1 Belgian Grand Prix came 2013 and stayed ahead of Jules Bianchi of Marussia 15th and Max Chilton of Caterham at 16th.

Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber scored P11 followed by Adrian Sutil of Force India at P12 and Sergio Perez of McLaren at P13.

Final Qualifying Results in Belgian Grand Prix

1. Lewis Hamilton                  Mercedes

2. Sebastian Vettel                Red Bull

3. Mark Webber                    Red Bull

4. Nico Rosberg                      Mercedes

5. Paul di Resta                      Force India

6. Jenson Button                    McLaren

7. Romain Grosjean               Lotus

8. Kimi Raikkonen                 Lotus

9. Fernando Alonso               Ferrari

10. Felipe Massa                    Ferrari

11. Nico Hulkenberg              Sauber

12. Adrian Sutil                     Force India

13. Sergio Perez                    Mclaren

14. Giedo van der Garde      Caterham

15. Jules Bianchi                    Marussia

16. Max Chilton                     Caterham

17. Pastor Maldonado          Williams

18. Jean-Eric Vergne             Toro Rosso

19. Daniel Ricciardo              Toro Rosso

20. Valteri Bottas                   Williams

21. Esteban Gutierrez           Sauber

22. Charles Pic                       Marussia

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