INDIA in F1

Category: Formula 1

  • Hamilton outpaces Rosberg in FP 2: German Grand Prix

    Lewis Hamilton narrowly outpaced Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to take top spot in the second free practice for the German Grand Prix as track temperatures soared as high as 58 degrees Celsius at sweltering Hockenheim. Hamilton ended the session just two hundredths of a second ahead of Rosberg.

    Daniel Ricciardo was third, just a tenth of a second behind Hamilton’s best time of 1:18.341, set on supersoft tyres. The Red Bull Racing driver set competitive times against the Mercedes drivers on both tyres and also on both short and long runs suggesting that here in Hockenheim, where the cars are for the first time running without the front-to-rear interconnected suspension systems, the agile RB10 might be a step closer to the dominant Mercedes W05 Hybrid.

    Rosberg had run fastest in the morning session, beating Hamilton to top spot by just six hundredths of a second. It was a similar story in the afternoon on the supersoft tyres, but on the soft compound Rosberg was marginally faster, eclipsing Hamilton by three tenths of a second. Hamilton’s best time in the afternoon came on the option supersoft tyre.

    In the morning session Ricciardo had finished fourth behind Fernando Alonso and half a second off Rosberg, but the Australian closed the gap in the afternoon.

    Behind him, Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth for Ferrari, improving on his eighth place in the morning. Team-mate Alonso, though, went backwards in the afternoon.

    In FP1 the Spaniard was just three tenths off the pace of Rosberg but in the second session his best lap saw him finish almost a full second adrift of Hamilton and down in ninth place.

    After finishing fifth and seventh respectively in the morning session, McLaren’s Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen swapped places in the afternoon. Magnussen continued to make progress and claimed P5 by the end of running but Button failed to find the looked for improvement on the supersoft and finished seventh, behind Williams Felipe Massa. The Brazilian’s team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, took the final top-10 place.

    It was a difficult afternoon for Caterham as both cars stopped on track. Kamui Kobayashi stopped after just 12 laps with flames pouring from the back of his car, while Marcus Ericsson stopped with an oil pressure problem after just three laps. The team managed to eventually get Ericsson going again in the final half hour of the session.

    2014 German Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Times

    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m18.341s 38
    2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m18.365s +0.024s 39
    3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m18.443s +0.102s 35
    4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m18.887s +0.546s 38
    5 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1m18.960s +0.619s 40
    6 Felipe Massa Williams 1m19.024s +0.683s 36
    7 Jenson Button McLaren 1m19.221s +0.880s 40
    8 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1m19.248s +0.907s 35
    9 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m19.329s +0.988s 32
    10 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m19.385s +1.044s 34
    11 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1m19.417s +1.076s 41
    12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m19.452s +1.111s 27
    13 Sergio Perez Force India 1m19.581s +1.240s 28
    14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m19.593s +1.252s 32
    15 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1m19.760s +1.419s 32
    16 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m20.158s +1.817s 35
    17 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m20.358s +2.017s 35
    18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1m20.504s +2.163s 40
    19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1m21.328s +2.987s 31
    20 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1m21.870s +3.529s 21
    21 Max Chilton Marussia 1m21.898s +3.557s 28
    22 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1m23.728s +5.387s 12

    eom

    Hamilton after setting the pace in FP2 on Friday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton after setting the pace in FP2 on Friday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

  • We are working hard to improve mechanical reliability: Toto Wolff

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – John BOOTH (Marussia), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), Federico GASTALDI (Lotus), Christijan ALBERS (Caterham), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Cyril, if we could start with you. Perhaps you could tell us why the job change to Renault, was this unexpected and what have you seen so far?

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Well, what can I say about this to answer your question. Obviously there is an element of confidentiality, so I will not disclose everything. Let’s put it this way: I have been doing 10 years with Renault before joining Caterham. Before joining Caterham I left on very good terms with Renault, we are, I hope, long-time friends and I hope this will remain the case. Obviously the situation with Caterham was not working – the whole structure, from shareholder to the structure in place was just not delivering, so something had to change. Lots of things are changing. I think that’s good. From my perspective also I had to change. There was some appetite at Renault to turn around what is happening on the track, not just the engine situation, it’s wider than that, so there was an opportunity there and that’s it.

    Tell me, how much of the effort that’s going on is around trying to fix the problems that you’ve got in 2014 and how much is looking forward, because obviously 2015 offers you an opportunity to try to get a bit closer to the Mercedes engine for example with the new homologation that comes in in February.

    CAb: Anyway the engine world is not exactly the same as the chassis world, in the sense that with the homologation you are not free to develop the engine and therefore what we can do this year is fairly limited. What we need to focus on right now is to get reliability sorted out, because clearly what we are delivering on track is not acceptable for some of our customers. We need to fix that, clearly; this is for this season and see what can be done from a performance perspective. Next year, we are quite well advanced actually, there was already the first fire up of next year’s engine on the dyno this week, so there is a programme, it’s going well, we need to improve performance but it’s already interesting to see this weekend with all the changes chassis-wise and engine-wise that there is some progress so hopefully it will be confirmed tomorrow.

    Replacing Cyril as team principal at Caterham and joining us for his first press conference since 2007 when he was a grand prix driver is Christijan Albers. Christijan, you’re now in your second race in charge, what’s your verdict so far of the set-up, what’s been going and what are the first areas on your priority list?

    Christijan ALBERS: First I would to start [by saying] that the thoughts of myself and the team are with the tragedy of the Malaysian Airlines. I feel sorry for their loss. I think that’s the most important thing today. Team-wise… yeah, it’s not easy. You see people in a team fighting for four years to get a good car that delivers performance and it did not work so it’s very important to motivate the people again and to get the right structure in place. I think we are a little bit in that direction. I have a lot of faith in the new technical director John Iley, also the chief designer Keith Barclay and also the new team manager Miodrag Kotur. So, you know, we are pushing. The only thing I can say about the team is that we need progress and stability.

    Can you tell us anything about your drive line-up? Do you plan on retaining the same two drivers for the remainder of the season?

    CAl: I want to see results; that’s very important for every Formula One team. To be honest today I think they did a good job. We had some bad luck in the second practice, but they are sharp and we know we need performance and also of course with a team as Caterham F1 we also always need a little bit of budget.

    John coming to you, on the face of it you’re in quite a strong position. You’ve got two points on the board; you’re ahead of Sauber and Caterham of course. How does it feel inside the team and what’s the short and medium term plan?

    John BOOTH: Well, we’re obviously very comfortable with where we are at the moment. We were very happy to get the two points in Monaco but there are nine races still to go and obviously anything can happen. We’ve got to keep pushing and keep focused and try to defend as hard as we can from Caterham and Sauber.

    After the Barcelona you took a noticeable step forward in performance. Was the Silverstone test equally positive and do you feel you’re closing in on Sauber now? How far behind do you think you are?

    JB: One of our test days in Silverstone was a Pirelli test day which was very helpful for 2015 and the second day we spent a lot of time thinking about running without any sort of linked suspension, so we got a useful work done on the second day.

    Q: Toto, obviously 326 points on the board in the Constructors’ Championship with your nearest rivals on 168 but still a few alarm bells – Nico Rosberg’s gearbox problem in Silverstone wasn’t the first time you’ve had a problem with a gearbox. How’s that being tackled?

    TW: First of all it must be tackled. We are looking very solid in terms of pace. The guys are quick and the car was very reliable at the beginning of the season, if you look besides Melbourne. And since then we had a couple of issues and we must get on top of it. We are working hard and trying to understand how to improve mechanical reliability. This is one of our most important topics, obviously, because in order to win you need to finish first.

    Q: Obviously we’re at the halfway stage in this championship and Lewis Hamilton is just four points away from Nico Rosberg. He calls this a reset moment. How do you see the battle between the two of them and how has your management of that evolved over the half-season so far?

    TW: You see how quick it can go. The discussions we had before Silverstone were ‘will it ever be possible for Lewis to catch up 29 points’ and here we go, you have a DNF and your team-mate wins the race and it’s all on reset. It doesn’t need a lot of management actually. I think it’s about clarity and transparency between the drivers and within the company. It needs communication. This is what we do and until now, knock on wood, we haven’t had any issues. Also, both of the guys are so professional and on top of their game and know it’s important to finish the races. So, until now, I’m really happy with how it goes.

    Q: Federico, Lotus has been a little up and down on performance: strong in places like China and Austria but then fell back a little bit perhaps at Silverstone. What’s behind that? Is it power-unit related or chassis related…?

    FG: Well, I think we’re still having problems understanding the engine – but we’re also having problems in Enstone, matching chassis, aerodynamics and the engine so we’re now trying new setups and also today we’re testing a new front wing. So, we’re trying to improve but it is a very, very slow process this year.

    Q: You carried out the tyre test in Silverstone with Pirelli on the 18-inch rims. What did you think of that exercise?

    FG: Paul? What do you think?

    We’ll ask Paul in a minute!

    FG: Obviously for us it was a good experience. We’re very proud to be doing this work with Pirelli so it was positive.

    Q: Paul, let’s throw it to you. What was the verdict after that test at Silverstone? When do you think you could introduce that tyre technology if it was requested – and what are the technical limitations?

    PH: Yeah, I spent a week talking about 18-inches and it’s been quite an interesting time. It was an exercise that was born out of a discussion we had in the F1 Commission meetings when there was a discussion of, particularly in this case, tyres and what should happen with them in the future. We felt rather than discuss it, we ought to put some on a current car and people can actually decide and the F1 Commission can see real images of the car with that sort of tyre on them. These are 18, maybe 19 is probably more interesting going forward. Have to say that the feedback we’ve had generally has been very good. People have been forwarding us all sorts of surveys and fan surveys that they’ve had on their individual websites. Between 70 and 80 per cent, depending on the survey, have been very favourable. On a personal level, it looked quite good. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like it, if I’m honest, but I thought it looked very good and quite natural. If it’s a route the sport wants to follow, we’d be keen to do. We, technically, could probably be ready in 2016 but the sport is talking about 2017 at the moment.

    Q: Obviously this weekend you’ve come with the soft and supersoft tyres – some interesting results from FP2 here this afternoon – there’s been a feeling perhaps sometimes at a few races, you’ve been a little bit conservative with the tyre choice. Are you becoming more aggressive again now?

    PH: Well, it’s one of those things. Today, we’ve got over 50°C on the track which you wouldn’t normally expect here. I’m quite sure that that the local population will tell you that. That means something like the supersoft tyre in these conditions is pushing a bit. Equally if we’d come here with the other choice, which would have been a medium tyre and it had been 20°C, we’d have been talking about a one-stop race and your question would be conservative again. So, it’s always a balance and I think you’ll see that we’ll still be looking – if we have a dry race – at a two- to three-stop race. Which is what we’re asked to deliver for the sport. The supersoft being used primarily in qualifying and the soft tyre – which is the main race tyre – looks like it’s working well, even in these conditions. So, overall, a good balance.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Luke Smith – NBC Sport) Paul, with these new tyres, if they do come in, it could obviously make the sport far more road relevant. If that opened up the possibility of another tyre supplier coming into the sport, is a tyre war something Pirelli would be interested in or up for doing or is it purely ‘we’re the only supplier or we’re out.’

    PH: It’s obviously a question for the sport. Ultimately the sport should primarily be about drivers and then you have engines. If you throw in tyres as well, you can tend to lose your way. We’d be interested if the rules were in the right direction but there hasn’t seemed to be much of an appetite for doing that. It’s another element that’s out of the control of the teams. We have enough controversy even when we’re the sole supplier, so if you add in another supplier you could have another question mark. I don’t know. It’s one that you can only really answer when you know the context of what would be the conditions of competition.

    Q: (Silvia Renee Arias – Parabrisas) Mr Albers, I would love to know if you can tell us if Carlos Sainz Jnr has any possibility this year to race for you?

    CAl: I have seen a lot of rumours in the press as usual in Formula One. At this moment, of course, we have seen Carlos Junior and we have spoken to him also but at this moment there is nothing done.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Toto, when we drive in here, we can’t miss the massive Mercedes grandstand. We are approximately 100 kilometers from Stuttgart, your team is leading the championship, your drivers are first and second yet on Sunday there are probably going to be less than 50,000 spectators, which is half of what they had in the Schumacher heydays. Is Germany switching off from Formula One, or what is this situation?

    TW: Let’s start with a positive question. It’s not satisfying. If you compare Hockenheim Friday to Friday at Silverstone and Friday in Austria it’s a different world and we have to understand why that is. I’m not sure whether we have an exact number for Sunday already – you know, there are lots of people probably deciding at short notice, depending on the weekend – and we have to analyse the phenomenon. If the weekend continues like it does now, we need to think about it.

    Q: (Dominic Sharaf – motorsport-total.com) Christijan, you said you’ve spoken to Carlos Sainz Jnr for a race seat; what about other drivers? Did you talk to any other drivers?

    CAl:  I did not say that I spoke with him about a race seat. I said we spoke with each other, yes. But the drivers are performing now, I was happy today, that’s the situation.

    Q: (Craig Scarborough – ScarbsF1) Question to the technical directors: Lotus, Mercedes and Marussia are probably the first of the teams to adopt interconnected suspension in the sport. How have you found the first free practice sessions without the set-up and do you think it’s going to have any impact on your pace over the rest of the season?

    FG: We haven’t used it today, so we cannot say anything about it.

    TW: It’s a decision of the FIA, no need to moan about it. You need to get on top of things and run the car quicker than before. We’ve run the car at Silverstone without the linked suspension and it ran pretty well today so I don’t think it’s going to make any difference in competitivity.

    JB: We developed – over the last two years – a very simple but very effective pitch control system and it took us a few sessions at Silverstone to start getting our heads round living without it but I think we’re pretty much there in replacing the system performance.

    Q: Paul, have you noticed any difference today?

    PH: Yeah, the server went  down so we don’t have all the data. We’ve had problems all day! We’ll be working very late tonight to try and analyse all the information so as yet we haven’t got all the info and I can’t really comment but I don’t foresee… You saw the running order today, it didn’t seem too different from previous races so I guess from that point of view, absolute performance isn’t likely to be changed. Maybe over the duration of a long run there might be some impact.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Christijan, I read that Colin Kolles had made the approach to you suggesting that you became a team principal. As a former Formula One driver, what do you think… what qualities do you believe that you have as an individual, as a person, to lead a team from the very bottom of the championship forward? What made you accept the challenge?

    CAl:  First of all, a lot of people don’t know that I was always a little bit of an entrepreneur and so beside racing, I was also starting businesses and it went very well to the moment it turned around in 2007 that I was making more money with my normal business than as a racing driver. So I hope I can combine both of them, you know, the technical side and also the business side and combine them and be successful to bring this team forward. It’s all about performance. We’re working very hard to get an upgrade for Spa-Francorchamps which of course is a race against the clock because we have a two week shut-down in the factory and we’re looking for more steps. We’re also working for the 2015 car which I started last week immediately and we are running now in the wind tunnel. So we are very much pushing forward and what I’ve said already is that the most important thing is to get the team to be a team again and that’s not so easy. A lot of people are very motivated, but also some people of course, after four years with no performance, they were a little bit disappointed so we need to get everybody in the game again.

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  • Rosberg tops timesheet in the opening Practice Session: German Grand Prix

    Nico Rosberg topped the timesheet in the opening practice session of the German Grand Prix weekend, the German beating Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.065s.

    Rosberg’s time of 1:19.131 beat his title rival team-mate’s best lap by six hundredths of a second as Hamilton frequently aborted quick laps as he worked through his morning programme, according to FIA.

    Hamilton left, Nico Rosberg at Hockenheim on Friday. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton left, Nico Rosberg at Hockenheim on Friday. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image

    Behind the Mercedes pair, Fernando Alonso was third-fastest for Ferrari, the Spaniard finishing just under three tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton.

    Fourth place went to Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo who was over half a second down on Rosberg’s time. Jenson Button was fifth, with team-mate Kevin Magnussen seventh as McLaren continued the good form they showed in Silverstone a fortnight ago.

    Splitting the McLarens was Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull. The 2013 German Grand Prix winner finished the opening session four tenths of a second behind his team-mate and almost a full second behind compatriot Rosberg.

    With Magnussen in seventh, eighth place went to Kimi Raikkonen, back at the wheel of his Ferrari after he was forced to sit out last week’s Silverstone test in the wake of a heavy accident at the British Grand Prix. The final two top-10 places went to Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Sauber’s Adrian Sutil.

    Elsewhere, Williams development driver Susie Wolff made a second and far more successful FP1 appearance for the Grove team.

    At Silverstone the Scot’s grand prix weekend debut lasted just four laps before an oil pressure problem sidelined her and early on at Hockenheim it seemed as if she was destined for more heartbreak as an issue on her installation lap forced her back to the pits.

    The problem was rectified, however, and she was able to complete a total of 22 laps, with a best time of 1:20.76. That left her in P15, just 0.227s off the best time set by team-mate Felipe Massa.

    2014 German Grand Prix – Free Practice One
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:19.131 29
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.196 0.065 25
    3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:19.423 0.292 21
    4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:19.697 0.566 27
    5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.833 0.702 24
    6 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:20.097 0.966 28
    7 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.105 0.974 32
    8 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.210 1.079 21
    9 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:20.337 1.206 28
    10 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:20.505 1.374 18
    11 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:20.542 1.411 19
    12 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:20.586 1.455 23
    13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:20.592 1.461 22
    14 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:20.598 1.467 24
    15 Susie Wolff Williams-Mercedes 1:20.769 1.638 22
    16 Giedo van der Garde Sauber-Ferrari 1:20.782 1.651 23
    17 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:21.603 2.472 20
    18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:21.854 2.723 30
    19 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:22.572 3.441 31
    20 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1:22.982 3.851 24
    21 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:23.256 4.125 35
    22 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:23.299 4.168 22

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  • Midway through, Force India’s aim is to get 4th place: Hulkenberg

    DRIVERS – Nico HULKENBERG (Force India), Kevin MAGNUSSEN (McLaren), Adrian SUTIL (Sauber), Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Nico Hulkenberg, if we could start with you. Points in every race so far this season, only you and [Fernando] Alonso have managed that so far and you’re seven to two against your team-mate in qualifying. How positive is that for you and how do you think that is perceived within the Formula One paddock?

    Nico HULKENBERG: I think it’s very positive in general. I think it’s a very good achievement to have scored points in every race – probably Nico and Lewis would have been the same without the technical failures. I think it has been a very positive start to the season, first half, many, many points, much better than we expected going into the season and I think that is also the perception of the paddock. However, we’re only in the middle of the season and there’s still a long way to go before the end and our aim is to get the fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship. We have a big challenge on our hands there against Williams, McLaren and many others. I look forward to that.

    You’ve largely been fighting for fifth and sixth places in races this season but just recently, the last couple of races, it was more like eight and ninth. What brought about that change and where do you think you’ll be fighting this weekend?

    NH: I think Silverstone was overall a bit difficult for us. The track didn’t suit us so well, plus the conditions made it even more difficult. Therefore, it was still a very good achievement to get points on the board there. In Austria we were a bit compromised by a few issues, which we found out after the race, otherwise that could have been better. So hopefully here we’ll be back to bigger points but it’s difficult to know. Obviously it’s very hot this weekend, so it will be interesting to see how the tyres behave and who will manage it the best.

    Kevin, coming to you, points in the last four grands prix for you, six points finishes in total this season with one podium but McLaren still seem to be quite up and down dependent on circuit, why is that?

    Kevin MAGNUSSEN: It’s difficult… it’s a good question. It’s something we don’t really quite understand 100 per cent, but surely it has a lot to do with tyres, they behave quite differently race to race. I think we are improving, the car is improving, we’re putting downforce on the car at nearly every race so I think we’re moving in a positive direction.

    We’re coming up to the summer break and there’s a lot of talk about the driver market – as there always is at this point. Where do you think you stand with regard to staying at McLaren next season.

    KM: I can only do my best and hope that is good enough. Anyone at McLaren should feel that you have to deliver to your best to deserve to be there and that goes for me and Jenson as well.

    Kimi, the first question has to be how are you feeling after your accident at Silverstone, any after-effects and what happened?

    Kimi RAIKKONEN: Well, I crashed, I guess you saw it. No, I had some pain but it’s all fine.

    Just in your leg?

    KR: No actually it was in my ribs the most, that’s why I didn’t do the test, but it’s all gone away now.

    You’re 100 per cent now?

    KR: Yeah.

    Many things have not gone the way you expected them to this season in your rejoining Ferrari, but can you tell us what has gone the way you’ve expected it and what positives you’ve drawn so far?

    KR: We’ve been in every race at least. That’s what you expect at least. It’s been a difficult year, hopefully it will turn around at some point – it must, it cannot go much longer like this, it’s not fun. But this kind of thing has happened to me before and we always managed to turn it around, so I have a strong belief it will turn around. We have to just fix issues and get things as I want and I’m sure we can be back where we should be.

    Nico, coming to you: a new contract extension with Mercedes, congratulations on that, you also got married since we last saw you, but you’ve never been on the podium in Germany, I see from your record, so I guess that’s this weekend’s first objective. You’re still on top of the championship, just four points clear, but your team-mate Lewis Hamilton said that this is a ‘reset moment’ in the title race and that he’s been on the back foot all season. How do you see it?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, it’s been a very exciting week for sure. We also became world champions, which was awesome. In terms of the championship, how do I see it? I just see it as the next race, which is Hockenheim. It’s our home race. I really look forward to driving here. I’m here to win, of course. I’m here to try to extend the championship leads. That’s where it ends for me. I’m really just looking at the moment, taking it race by race.

    As you say it’s been a great week for Germany on the sporting front. As a keen follower and friend of the national team is there a way you can harness some of that positivity into your challenge this weekend?

    NR: The effort of the team as a whole, how they all played together and everything was really great to see and that’s what won them the tournament I think, not any individual strength or anything. That’s what we’re trying to do as well, to really work well, everybody together, to really make the most of it. I think we’re also on the right track with that, in that respect, because to dominate the sport as we are doing at the moment, I think that indicates we work pretty well together as a team and of course there’s room for improvement but we’re going in the right direction.

    Adrian, you qualified 13th at the first race in Australia at the start of the year and 13that Silverstone. There seems to be some continuity there. If you look at the ultimate pace of all the cars, Sauber doesn’t seem to be progressing. Is that the way it’s seen internally and what’s the plan?

    Adrian SUTIL: Yes, more or less a consistent season but also a few changes and progress of course. I think the car is a better car compared to the first races but you can’t really see it in results. Nevertheless Silverstone was a bit better. You could see already in the free practice the car was a bit more competitive and also I think in qualifying in the rain we were closer to the top 10, which was good. We are still struggling sometimes with the tyres, especially with the hard compound, in the race, which slowed us down a lot. I can’t really say more. Of course we want to try to improve the situation. It’s not where we want to be but everyone in the factory is trying the maximum to improve that. It’s not an easy situation but we’re going to get out of it pretty soon.

    You’ve said several times that stability is the problem, that the car lacks stability. Can you elaborate on that and what plans are in place to fix that?

    AS: Well, the window is very small where the car operates and also the window when you are close to the limit, whether it stays on the line or is completely off – it’s easy to make a mistake with this car. So you need to have a lot of confidence in the car, you need to drive and learn as much as possible about the car behaviour to feel well. It’s getting better very race. But yeah, it’s a little diva to control. It’s just a situation like that so we try to make it more easy to drive. The stability is sometimes there, [then] you have a bit too much understeer in the other areas, so you are shifting the problem from one end to the other but it’s very difficult to get rid of the problem completely so this is where we are struggling most at the moment.

    Sebastian, obviously winner of the German Grand Prix last year, your first F1 win on home soil. Tell us about the feeling of racing here at home, especially with the country on such a sporting high at the moment?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, obviously last year was very special – I had been trying many times before, so it was definitely a good feeling to succeed. I think this year should be a very good weekend. Mostly good weather forecast and obviously the whole of Germany still has the German flags from the World Cup around, so it would be nice to see a lot of those on the track and get a little bit of that support as well here on the circuit.

    Obviously the battle with Fernando Alonso in Silverstone was one of the highlights of this season so far. There were quite a lot of radio messages from the pair of you at the time but looking back and thinking about it now, how much did you enjoy it?

    SV: Yeah, I probably enjoyed it more than I probably said after the race. I still think it took a little bit too long because obviously I lost quite a lot of time fighting him and couldn’t progress to probably finish higher up. But it was definitely very tight, it’s always very tight when you fight with Fernando, he’s very tough to overtake, he doesn’t give you a lot of room, but eventually I squeezed past, so for sure I was happy to finally overtake him on the track.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Question to Nico. First of all, congratulations on becoming a married man. Secondly, you’ve obviously had to change your helmet design this week. You showed it off on Twitter with the World Cup on top of the helmet. I’ve spoken to FIFA and they’ve expressed their reason why you’re not allowed to have the World Cup: intellectual commercial property rights and all that. You’re obviously disappointed I guess, but can you understand their reasoning behind it?

    NR: All the things you have to think about, it’s amazing that even a trophy has its trademark or whatever, just sticking it on a helmet you know. That was a surprise but of course I fully understand. It was a pity as it looked really cool, with the trophy on top. Anyways, replaced it now with a big star and no-one can take that away. The star is ours.

    Q: (Graham Keilloh – F1Plus.com) A question for all the drivers. We all recall the incident at last year’s German Grand Prix with Mark Webber where a wheel fell off after a pit stop. In recent days there have been moves afoot for there to be a little bit of rowing back on the tough sanctions that were put in place following the Webber incident. I just want to know what each driver feels about more leniency for unsafe releases that may be coming in?

    NH: To be honest I didn’t really understand the question. I’ll pass it on to Kevin.

    KM: It’s good if us drivers don’t get points or penalties [that are] that harsh , as it’s not really our fault. Of course we are a team and we should be penalised somehow together but I think it’s good if it doesn’t just go to the drivers.

    Adrian, anything to add?

    AS: No.

    Kimi?

    KR: No.

    Sebastian, do you have a view?

    SV: I think it’s like going to prison for stealing a chocolate bar. I think it’s too harsh for the drivers, it’s more for the team. There’s not much you can do as a driver, but it is what it is.

    Nico?

    NR: Obviously it is one of the most dangerous situations for all of the people working in the pitlane you know. So definitely it should be harsh to try to avoid people doing that or things like that happening. We need to find the best way, what sort of penalties to do.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Kimi there has been a lot of criticism around you in the past few months. Do you feel that your position in Ferrari could be threatened next year or do you feel confident that you will sort your problems and that everything is going to be OK for the future?

    KR: Like I said, I’m sure we can fix them. How fast? I hope quickly but it depends on many things. I have a contract so I’m not worried about that for the future.

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday) A question for Sebastian. Hockenheim obviously hold some special memories for you because this is where you watched your first Friday practice session. You won the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. What would it mean for you to win here at Hockenheim, at some point in your career?

    SV: Well, I hope I can turn things around and that we can have a good race on Sunday and a good weekend in general. But of course we are not the favourites going into the weekend but there’s always a chance of winning. For sure, this circuit is very special to me because my home town is only 30 minutes from here, it’s where I grew up. I also started go-karting not far from here, just around the corner, so a lot of memories. I know a lot of people that work here, so it always feels like a second home. In that regard it would be nice. So definitely a very special place for me, special memories. The first car race I did was here in 2003, so yeah, it’s definitely one of the tracks I want to win at.

    Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) A question for all drivers. Many teams will race without the FRIC system. Is there a feeling that this might change the gap between the teams significantly or not; that it will stay more or less the same, like it was before?

    NR: Everybody has it to some extent. It’s impossible to predict. For sure it can have some influence but we just need to wait and see what happens.

    Sebastian?

    SV: Well I said it is one of the things that obviously got banned now. I hope it brings the field closer to Mercedes but it’s difficult to say. All of the teams have been playing with it to some extent. How much it has an impact? I think it has to be seen this weekend and also probably next week in Hungary. After those two races I think you can have another judgement.

    Kimi, your thoughts on the FRIC suspension?

    KR: Yeah, I mean it’s the rule and obviously that decides if we can use it or not. It’s not in our car, I don’t expect it’s going to be a completely different world but until we run it, the cars, and see what the other teams do, it’s hard to say. I guess we’ll know a bit more after this weekend.

    Adrian?

    AS: I think… we hope… it will be better for us, that we are closer – but very hard to say, for sure. Some, they rely more on it, some less. Let’s see. After the weekend we’ll be wiser.

    Kevin, your thoughts.

    KM: Not much to say really. We ‘ll try to get the best out of the car without it.

    Nico?

    NH: It’s pretty much how Nico said, it’s really hard to predict if and how much people will lose due to it. It’s just a case of wait and see how much it impacts on different cars.

    Q: (Koen Verhelst – Media Group Limburg) A question for all the German drivers: where did you watch the World Cup soccer finals last Sunday and, in relation to that, how to you explain the success of Germany  both in Formula One at the moment and football and perhaps also in the economy?

    SV: I watched in on TV at home. I wasn’t there! Thank God they showed it. At home, with a couple of friends. I think the reason, it has been 24 years since we last won the World Cup. I hope that the next one doesn’t take 24 years again. I think we had a very strong team for the last World Cups as well and were very close to win. It’s good that we succeeded now. For the Formula One drivers, I don’t think there’s a particular reason. Obviously, for us, to some extent we’re the generation after Michael and Michael was a big inspiration, so for sure, when Michael made Formula One really a sport in Germany and made it big a lot of fathers with their sons went to the go-kart tracks and wanted to do like him. I think it’s chances, in the end, if you have a thousand kids trying rather than ten, the chances that one or two end up in Formula One are obviously a lot greater. The economy… I’m not a specialist – but I think we like to work.

    Adrian?

    AS: The same, I watched on TV at home. Very quiet. It was a great game, I think. Very exciting and both played very well. One minute the Germans were a bit better than the other ones and scored a goal. I think something to be very proud of. It’s great to see Germany being very happy about it. So many festivals and parties after it, so really, really good. Good mood in the air, so, great also for this weekend here, for the German Grand Prix. The drivers? I think it all started back in the 90s, probably. When Michael went into Formula One there was a big boom of racing in Germany – but also  a lot of car manufacturers are based in Germany, it’s a very strong country for cars, for technology in general – and they’re supporting young drivers from the early ages, especially BMW was involved for many years with the Formula BMW. That’s where I started the racing, I think also Sebastian as well and Nico. Most of the drivers took the step and went into Formula 3. So there are clear categories where you can go. Still, I think it’s very hard to say it’s a really good support because it’s so expensive. When I see the number for young kids coming up into racing, in go-karts you have to spend so much money, not having a real… let’s say you can’t be sure that you’re going to make it. So, even there. Football has a better structure behind. We could still improve it but Germany, for sure, it one of the leading countries and that’s great. They’re pushing it really hard.

    Nico Hülkenberg, anything to add.

    NH: I also watched it at home with some friends. I think we won because we had the strongest team and a great team spirit, a very clever coach. I think I agree with what Sebastian says about the drivers and why we have it strong now and the economy, I think is just German mentality and appetite to be strong in the economy.

    Nico Rosberg, your thoughts.

    NR: I watched it at my parents place, as is tradition in our family because my Mum is the biggest soccer fanatic in our family, so I watched it there with friends and went absolutely crazy when they scored. It was a great time. I agree with the others on the other parts.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, last week Lewis was putting in doubt your true nationality about being German, real German supporter – and your helmet problem proves the opposite. How big is this… the pressure that Lewis is putting on you? Are you feeling it? Is it also big the pressure to have a championship that is open now completely, and to race at home and try to win this race?

    NR: On the media, I generally don’t read the media, so most of the time I don’t know what’s going on – but this I did know about it. I really don’t get into such things. Everybody’s free to have his opinions, and I was there anyway and it was more or less a joke discussion, so for me it’s not really relevant to discuss it in any way. Other than that, yeah, it’s a great battle between us. Every race it’s been us two fighting it out for the win. It’s fantastic – a tough battle also – but good. I’m sure it’s going to continue for a long time and it will be very close – and I look forward to the race here now in front of… it’s my second home race, I have Monaco and here. I’m very fortunate in that sense, I have two home races, and look forward to all the support and I really hope to do a fantastic job. It would be a great end to already the great times I’ve been having recently if I could win here at the German Grand Prix.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, do you remember having any heavier shunt than you had in Silverstone?

    KR: Yeah, probably I have had. Hopefully not too many more but it’s just part of the thing. It hurt a little bit but quite often you can have a quite slow accident and get badly hurt, so it’s not about that really, it was just an unfortunate thing. Nothing serious happened. It’s part of the sport.

    ends

  • Battle for driver’s championship delicately balanced as the season reached mid-way mark

    Hockenheim, (Germany), 16 July 2014: Following an enthralling Grand Prix at Silverstone, the 2014 Formula One Championship reaches its midpoint this weekend, with round 10 of the championship, the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim on Sunday.

    The Hockenheimring presents teams with a number of tricky challenges, especially in terms of this year’s new technology. While the long, power hungry, forest straights of the old circuit were consigned to history in 2002, the current layout, which see the cars reach over 280kph on three occasions in the opening section alone, continues to provide a stern test for powerplants. In F1’s last outing here in 2012 drivers were at full throttle for two-thirds of every lap, meaning that power units are likely to be severely tested here.

    Fuel consumption could also be a concern this year. Not only are cars at full throttle for long periods but the heavy braking needed for the hairpin and the twisty nature of the infield section mean that the circuit is a thirsty one. With drivers limited to 100kg of fuel for the race and a flow limit of 100kg/hour, clever race management could be crucial this weekend.

    That shouldn’t mean a lack of excitement, however. The track has two inviting overtaking points at the hairpin (Turn Six) and Turn Eight and with two DRS zones in place at the circuit for the first time, this year’s grand prix could prove to be action-packed.

    As the season reaches the halfway mark, the battle for the drivers’ title is delicately balanced. Lewis Hamilton’s win on home soil in Britain drew him to within four points of team-mate and championship leader Nico Rosberg. The German will be hoping to emulate his team-mate’s Silverstone feat and re-establish a gap at the top of the standings with a home win for himself and Mercedes. Hamilton, buoyed by his fifth victory of the season will be doing everything in his power to claim that home Silver Arrows’ win for himself.

    ends

  • We’ve got the greatest fans here; It’s you guys that spurred me on: Hami

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

    Lewis, congratulations. Your adoring fans. Your emotions must be running high right now. Your fifth win of the season. That equals your 2008 World Championship year. Now 27 grand prix victories, equalling Jackie Stewart. There’s only other Englishman in front of you with more wins – Nigel Mansell. So tell us about the emotions of today?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It’s very mixed at the moment, but just to see the support we have here… I could see everyone cheering us on through the whole race. We’ve got the greatest fans here. And today, just arriving today, it’s you guys that really spurred me on so thanks very much.

    Well it was a fantastic drive. You never want a competitor to drop out, but of course the battle is very hot between you and your team-mate Nico, so what was the emotion when you saw him have the issue?

    LH: At the beginning… he got quite a good gap at the beginning and I really just tried to look after the tyres. After that I utilised the tyres, was catching and we came out on the harder tyres and I was catching him at a second a lap at the time. I couldn’t believe I had that kind of pace. You never want to see a team-mate fall behind, we wanted to really work and get those one-twos, but at the end of the day I really needed this result so I’m very grateful for it.

    It was a great result. If I can move along to another man who has had a fantastic result. Third in Austria, second here at the British Grand Prix – you must be looking forward to Germany?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, we are on the right way. Like I said on the team radio: one step more to go. The team has done such a good job. You see how quick the car is. It was behaving really well, it was really a pleasure to drive it. Still Mercedes is in front, but we are on the right way.

    Any scares out there this afternoon or was it running like clockwork? You did some great passes.

    VB: Yeah, there was some good stuff going on. I really enjoyed it. The plan was to come as high as possible, as high as the pace of the car is giving the possibility. I think as a team we made the most out of it. I have to say I feel sorry for Felipe, his 200th grand prix, a shame it ended like this.

    If I can just come across to Daniel Ricciardo. Congratulations on your third place. Australians have a good record around here?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, they do! Obviously Mark enjoyed this track a lot, so it’s nice to be up here on the podium. It’s been a good circuit to me in the past, so really, really happy. We just held on at the end. I think one more lap would have been tough, Jenson was coming, but really happy with the podium.

    If I can just come back across to Lewis…

    LH: Where’s the gold trophy, man? This thing’s falling to pieces, look!

    You might want to speak to the sponsor. Lewis, do you know the points situation now at the end of race nine?

    LH: I assume we’re four points behind now. I think this weekend really just showed that, for one, you never give up. Yesterday wasn’t a case of giving up, I didn’t think I could do the lap, I was really shocked that the last sector was so fast. But coming here today I had my family with, just focused, the support from the fans, as I said, just spurred me on, and I really couldn’t have done it without them.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, many, many congratulations. Over the radio at the end of the race you said to the crew “I’m sorry about yesterday”. I guess your spirits were so down yesterday; they must be soaring now. But the race really was about the offset you had to Nico Rosberg and you were catching him in the middle stint of the race. Do you believe that without his problem you would have been able to pass him and how do you feel right now?

    LH: Yesterday was a really difficult day. Obviously you never think situations like that would come up the way they did and I really felt… I went away feeling terrible for the fans. They all turned up and there’s so much support here, I felt that I had let them down, not only them but the team and myself. Coming back today, trying to turn that serious emptiness and negativity into a positive today was really my priority. The support has been incredible this weekend. Just thinking of the history of this circuit, the great drivers that have won in the past… leading last year and not being able to see it through. It’s been since… 2008 since I had the win and I just feel very, very grateful for the opportunity. I honestly feel that I had the pace today. I was catching Nico in the first stint. I was able to extend my first stint longer than ever before. I was feeling pretty comfortable. Of course, you never want a team-mate to fall away, to win like that. I was looking forward to a wheel-to-wheel battle but I’m sure we’ll get many in the future.

    Well done. Coming to you Valtteri. From 14th on the grid to second at the finish, which is your best ever result in Formula One and your second consecutive podium, so brilliant effort. You did a one-stop strategy, which is a talking point, but surely the overtakes in the opening stint, there were so many of them – around the outside, around the inside – just tell us about your race?

    VB: Yeah we knew that this race could be good fun. We knew that we had a quick car. Maybe it was a bit surprisingly quick today, but since the first stint the pace was good, since the first lap. I was able to go through the field quite well. Of course, sometimes it needed a bit of risk, because it’s really important to get through quickly and not get stuck behind people, but I really managed to get well in position, where the pace of the car was. I’m just really, really happy with what we’ve been doing as a team. Again, the race pace shows we are really doing the right things and I’m very happy to be part of this.

    Well done. Completing a very happy podium is Daniel Ricciardo, in third place. For you strategy was the key as well. Like Valtteri you did one stop, you did something different, both you and your team-mate taking the hard tyre early on. Was the tyre deg much lighter than you expected today, was it a race where expectations were changing as the race went on?

    DR: Pretty much. We chose to restart on the prime. It didn’t seem like the best thing to do at first because we were really slow at the restart. Valtteri and Fernando got past me pretty easily and pulled away and I was coming on the radio basically saying “let’s see if we can try something a little bit different” as we didn’t really have the pace as we hoped, as we expected today. Once we came in for the option, we just ran and pushed pretty much for the whole stint. I didn’t intend on doing a one-stop when I started on that tyre but laps ticked off and we were still able to keep the pace. The team said “do you think you could do another 15-20 laps” and I was like “at the moment, yeah, I think we can”, so we stayed out and just held on at the end. It was awesome. I think all three of us had a bit of redemption on our plate today. It was a pretty dismal Saturday for us. I think we’re all pretty happy. This is definitely one of my best podiums this year.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Lewis, not very often this season you’ve had family with you: you’ve pretty much kept yourself to yourself at various races but this weekend you’ve had your brother, your Dad, they were here today supporting you. They’ve said on TV how down in the dumps you were last night. How much help did they give you last night after what happened yesterday?

    LH: My family have been incredible. Last night, my Mum, my Dad, spent a lot of time with my Dad last night just talking it out. And my brother. And today I just said I needed them here today. Y’know? I just really wanted that support. I do come to the races on my own and I do generally do it on my own. I have my trainer with me. But I thought this weekend it would be nice to have them. At least today, as yesterday was such a difficult day.

    Q: (Sean McGreevy – CSMA magazine) Lewis, would you consider this one of your great, greatest, great wins and how does it compare to 2008?)

    LH: It doesn’t compare to 2008. It’s a different time, it’s a different experience. It’s still as special. Obviously 2008 was a much trickier race in a sense of being a completely wet track, everyone aquaplaning. Everyone being in the rain, everyone being soaking wet, it’s a different kind of experience that one. Today, I felt I earned it today. From the start some good manoeuvres and I really felt that I had the pace on Nico, I really was hunting him down like never before. I really was happy with the balance that I managed to get, even though I didn’t do the long run in P2. To say this is up there with all the greats… it’s my home grand prix, it’s my second win here and I’m very privileged to have even just had one, so I feel very humble to be up here today.

    Q: (Julian Harris – City AM) Lewis, do you think this can be a turning point for you? Nico was up here yesterday saying that he thought he had the momentum at the moment – but he also said momentum comes and goes. Can this give you the confidence and maybe even the peace of mind to push on and get the momentum back in your favour.

    LH: I came into this weekend saying it would great to really have that. I thought maybe the fans could be the wind in my sails to really change the direction and get the momentum. Obviously I’ve got the win today. I’ve got the points back. I’ve been chasing all year really, since I lost the points at the first race, and then I was chasing again after the previous DNF. It’s been very, very difficult. I was speaking last night, just comparing it to how difficult it is psychologically, it’s got to be something similar to the tennis players when they’re two sets down. It’s so hard to get your mind in gear, to get yourself back and not lose points from then on. And so the pressure is high but I really feel that now we’re back, kind of close and with the pace that I had today, I really feel that I can… just got to refocus for the next part of the season.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / National Speedsport News) Daniel, what was your mindset last night and this morning, knowing that you’re so far back and, often in races, when you start that that far back, like these two guys, you’re not going to finish in the top three?

    DR: Mindset was just… yeah… like it always is I guess when you’re out of position, just go for it, try and do something a bit different. Not much to lose. I knew we were a better car than eighth on the grid, so… yeah… I was a bit surprised during the first stint, even though we were on a different tyre, I was surprised not to be as quick.  We didn’t have much pace, so then it was ‘let’s try something different and make something work.’ Yeah, I was very hungry today. I like to think I always am but today I was pretty jacked up. So it’s nice to be up here.

    Q: (Nick Skeens – The Independent) Lewis, today Niki Lauda said he thought in some ways yesterday was a good thing because it gave you a motivation and a hunger that perhaps you would not have had. Would you agree with that?

    LH: No. I feel like I like I’ve… we’ve had four wins, now five wins, but I’ve had the four wins and I think my hunger is on a par with any other year that I’ve ever raced in – but yesterday was a real kick in the balls. I really had to pick up, pull up my socks and get on it if I want to win this world championship, and I can’t have situations like yesterday. The last two races I’ve easily had the pace to be pole position and I’ve not put it there. I’ve put it much further back, made it much harder for myself but now I’m going to try to rectify that for the future.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – GPweek) Lewis, you’re obviously very happy with the gold trophy [present on the platform]– but you seem to have been a bit unhappy with the sponsor’s trophy. Did I hear you say it fell to bits on the podium? And how did you come to get this one between the podium and here?

    LH: Well, yeah! This one’s a lot nicer. I mean, growing up watching Formula One, you see trophies like this. Real trophies, y’know? And the trophies that we have nowadays, whilst it’s a real privilege being on top of the podium, my one fell to pieces! The bottom fell off the one we just had. It’s plastic, it must cost ten pounds! It’s so bad. I might just get the plaque, which is probably the most expensive part of the trophy I think. Back in the day they really, really made the trophies. And this is the special thing about being on the podium and winning. These trophies mean – for me, I don’t know how it is for the other drivers – but this is what we have to show for our lifetime achievements. I hope we can get some better ones moving forwards.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo Online) Valtteri, Friday morning you didn’t went to the track. Saturday morning also, only qualifying. You didn’t have miles in the track. Where you surprised at the beginning of the race when you started overtaking everyone with the performance of the car?

    VB: Yeah, definitely. Our prediction was Mercedes is going to be strong and also Red Bull, we thought, would be here a bit quicker than us in the race and Ferrari to be really close to our pace. So, we definitely knew that the position we were starting wasn’t going to be that easy to get into good points and we were not really thinking about the podium, we were just thinking about getting in the points and, yeah, definitely it was a positive surprise in the beginning of the race. The tyre life wasn’t really a limitation so we could do the strategy. Well, I have to say the strategy guys did a really good job today. We actually switched the strategy during the running as we saw the tyre wear was so low. Positive surprise. Really happy.

    Q: (Jussi Jäkälä – YLE) Valtteri, two podiums in a row. Does this show you and the team have learnt your lesson, how to score podiums. And is this maybe the start of a catch-up battle?

    VB: Well, we are definitely a stronger team than we were in, let’s say Melbourne, or the first few races. Difficult to compare even to last year or two years before. I think we are really getting stronger all the time. It’s not going to be easy to be on the podium in every race as I think this season is going to be quite a bit race-by-race but we are definitely on the right way and really happy to be part of this. Myself, I have been improving also all the time. Every race I aim to be a better driver and as a team we aim to be a stronger team every single race – and that’s what we’ve been doing.

    Q: (Haoran Zhou – F1 Express) Lewis, obviously the celebration after the race has been extraordinary. You managed to do a doughnut despite the strict restrictions on the engine and gearbox and you were singing – I’m not sure if you were singing or not but you obviously were feeling on top of the world. Can you share your emotions on the slowing down lap with us?

    LH: Yeah, it’s so difficult to really explain the feelings. When you feel like the world is crumbling beneath you, somehow with your family and friends, they help pull you through and also the fans. Yesterday, after qualifying, it looked so hard to… I really was almost speechless when I spoke to them, and it was no one else’s fault but mine. I was just so disappointed in myself. And then to get that result today, to really climb through… the team have just done an incredible job. Even coming into this weekend, the developments and improvements to our car, the balance. My engineers, who work so close to me, regardless of how well we do, they’re so supportive and having that good team of people round you really makes a difference. I did the doughnuts… yeah, I hope it doesn’t do anything to our gearbox but I know how much the fans love it here and so it was really important to try and do at least one but fingers crossed, it should be OK.

    Q: (Rosanna Tennant – Pole Position) Lewis, as media, we like to speculate on upcoming races as to who might win and who won’t win. Are you looking ahead, thinking next race Nico is going to have the home advantage, obviously Hungary was good for you last year? Do you look ahead through the season like that, blocking it out and perhaps where you might be stronger and work out the points?

    LH: I don’t. You look at the schedule and you see what tracks you know that suit you. Just going into Germany, to Hockenheim, I know whilst it’s Nico’s home Grand Prix, he doesn’t have even one eighth of the support us Brits get here. The fans are unlike anywhere else so I’m not worried in that sense. It’s a track where I won before, in 2008 I think it was. It’s a good track for me, so I think… I’m gonna use the pace that I have, because I have the pace. I’ve just got to put the damn laps together and when I do, then I think the opportunities will come in front of me.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Daniel, you’ve obviously become one of the most likeable guys in F1 I think it’s fair to say, but in denying – there’s that big beaming smile, thank you – but in denying JB’s (Button’s) long overdue podium here, do you perhaps feel like a bit of a villain for once?

    DR: It did cross my mind a little bit. I was thinking… especially in the last few laps, he was catching me pretty quickly at the end. I had sort of stabilised the gap a bit and then with four laps to go, I think my options were really suffering and he was coming, so I was thinking, yeah, probably for once I’ve got a lot of people booing me  and cheering on the local lad but obviously for me it was good. I think for him as well; they haven’t had a great season so a fourth is – yeah, it’s not a podium, but he’d still be fairly pleased with that result so hopefully we’re all happy.

    Q: (Kate Walker – crash.net) For all three of you, and it goes along the lines of momentum but not championship momentum. Obviously we had a fairly long delay after all you guys all made mega starts on the first lap. When you’ve got that one hour delay, what are you thinking? Are you worried that you’re going to lose the momentum that you picked up? What’s going on in your heads?

    LH: Yeah, I think it’s… We work very hard, I’m sure everyone is working so hard in preparation. You get in the car, do the start, you really gain the momentum and then the race stops and we had quite a long break. I went back to my room just relaxing, drinking, making sure I was having plenty of fluids and trying not to think of anything else. Yeah, it wasn’t alcohol. It isn’t easy but I managed to get back and start where I finished.

    VB: Yeah, it’s not easy, you know. There’s a break and you need to keep your focus in the race. You can’t really start to think about other things than the race so you just need to keep thinking about… forward: the restart, how to get your tyres warm, brakes warm, everything. You can always speak with the engineer. You just really wait, let the time go and all the time keep focused for the next moment.

    DR: It’s tricky when you don’t know how long the break’s going to be. The race was at one today, so you do all your preparation to sort of peak at one o’clock in terms of your energy and your focus so you get the race started and you feel your adrenalin and everything is where it needs to be and then it comes back down and I think the limbo of not really knowing when we were going to start again, it’s like do I still keep a high level of intensity or do I go and relax? When do I start to then warm up again? It’s a little bit tricky but at the same time it’s the same for everyone. It does break a little bit of momentum, I guess, but then it’s up to us and our trainers how we get it back and make sure we’re switched on for the restart.

    Q: (Paul Turner – South Wales Evening Post) Lewis, this victory, is this going to help you mentally for the next race or is it back to square one at the next race, you have to start again and plan all over again?

    LH: I think this is now, kind of… we’ll draw a line under that last nine races and now it’s attack mode, start again and now, utilising that pace and utilising the car’s pace. There are still some things we need to improve on. I wasn’t too worried about the time lost in the pit stop today as I knew the next one would be better. I’d been working on my position so I didn’t lose time in that but qualifying really – just getting myself back to my normal qualifying mode and that, I think, will be good.

    Q: (Rosanna Tennant – Pole Position) Daniel, we were talking about what you do before the restart; can you explain what you do with your trainer and the tennis balls?

    DR: We sort of change it a lot but it’s more to get the hand-eye co-ordination going. I guess everyone does something a bit different. Sometimes we use tennis balls just to get my hand-eye co-ordination switched on and make sure my reactions are there. We do some different drills with that. It depends as well on what… I don’t have a ritual routine as such but it depends on what I feel like doing before the race, but that’s something.

    Mercedes AMG Petronas team for Hamilton that is dishing out winners this season. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Mercedes AMG Petronas team for Hamilton that is dishing out winners this season. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image

  • Hamilton wins to close gap with Rosberg; Great drive gets Bottas second consecutive podium

    Britain’s Lewis Hamilton won his home grand prix for the second time in his career as team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg exited the race with gearbox trouble. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas took his second podium finish in a row with second place.

    Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo finished third after switching to a one-stop strategy late in a race that was red-flagged for an hour due to an accident involving Kimi Raikkonen just after the start.

    Fourth place went to McLaren’s Jenson Button, the McLaren driver finishing ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando who provided thrilling entertainment in the final third of the race as they battled tooth and nail for position.

    When the lights went out for the start, pole position man Rosberg held his lead but second-placed Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing got away poorly. He dropped back to fifth place as McLaren’s Jenson Button moved to second and Kevin Magnussen, in the second McLaren charged through from fifth to third. Hamilton was on the move as well. He made a good start from sixth place on the grid and passed Vettel, the pair banging wheels as the Mercedes driver claimed fourth spot.

    Behind the leaders, though, the collisions were more serious. Kimi Raikkonen was forced wide at the start of the Wellington Straight and went off track. The Ferrari driver attempted to rejoin but hit a bump on the edge of the circuit. That sent him into a violent spin and he hit the barriers hard before being flung back on track. Felipe Massa tried to take avoiding action but he collided with the spinning Ferrari.

    Massa was able to crawl back to the pits but the damage was too severe for the Brazilian to continue – a disappointing end to the Brazilian’s 200th grand prix.

    Raikkonen, meanwhile, was helped from his car but limped away to the medical car. It was later reported by Ferrari that the Finn had suffered some bruising to his an ankle and knee but was otherwise unhurt.

    The incident naturally brought out the red flags and there was a one-hour delay until the action resumed again, behind the safety car.

    On the new grid, which mirrored the order at the last point available, Rosberg line up ahead of Button, Magnussen and Hamilton. Vettel was now fifth, ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg. Ricciardo would restart seventh, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. Bottas, in the second Williams, had climbed from 14th on the grid to ninth.

    When the safety car left the circuit at the restart, Rosberg made the perfect getaway, building a large gap to Button behind as the safety car headed for the pit lane. Hamilton, though, was determined not to be left behind and on lap three he forced an error from Magnussen at Copse and stole third place. He soon went one step further, muscling past Button at Brooklands on the following lap to take second place, five seconds behind his team-mate.

    Alonso was also on the move. Having switched to the medium tyre from his starting set of hard compound Pirellis during the red flag period, he was soon making his way through the pack from 13th place. In a startling spell of action he dismissed Esteban Gutierrez, Adrian Sutil, Jules Bianchi, Daniil Kvyat, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg to climb to seventh.

    However, his race was somewhat compromised soon after when he received a five-second penalty for being out of position on the grid at the original start, the Ferrari driver having overshot his grid slot.

    Bottas was also on an incredible charge. The sole Williams took the restart in 14th place but by lap 17 he’d scythed his way through the pack to reach third position, powering past Button around the outside of high-speed Stowe corner.

    At the front Hamilton closed to within three seconds of leader Rosberg before the German made his first stop on lap 19, taking on used medium tyres. That let Hamilton through to the lead. Rosberg rejoined in second place, ahead of Bottas, Button, Alonso, Magnussen and Vettel.

    Hamilton chose to stay out, too, waiting until lap 25 to make his stop. He took on hard tyres but it was a slow stop and he lost time to his team-mate. Rosberg swept back into the lead, with the gap again up to five seconds.

    The gap was erased a few laps later, however. Just after his pit stop Rosberg complained of a problem downshifting. The issues seemed to subside but on lap 29 he was back on the radio, reporting a problem with upshifting. He slowed gradually and Hamilton flashed past into the lead. Rosberg attempted a reset but he ground to a halt at turn 13.

    Elsewhere, Alonso, made his first pit stop, taking on more medium tyres and serving his five-second penalty. He rejoined in ninth place.

    The top-five order, on lap 31 was Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Ricciardo and Button. Bottas made his sole pit stop on lap 32, and rejoined in third behind Vettel, who needed another stop.

    Vettel made that pit stop at the end of lap 34, rejoining behind Button in fifth place, ahead of Alonso. The Ferrari driver piled on the pressure and stole the position through Copse on lap 35.

    The pair would spend the rest of the race in a thrilling dogfight, Alonso defending with everything at his disposal as Vettel pushed hard to force an error. Much of the battle was fought on the radio, with both drivers complaining vociferously that the other had exceeded the track limits on numerous occasions. Vettel, though eventually won out, passing Alonso in a heart-in-the-mouth move along the pit straight and through Copse, just inches separating the combatants. Once past Vettel stretched away, taking fifth place ahead of the furious Spaniard.

    At the front Hamilton continued to open the gap to second-placed Bottas. Prior to his final stop on lap 41 the gap stood at 41 seconds, comfortable enough for the Mercedes driver to make his stop, take on a final set of hard tyres and rejoin in the lead, ahead of one-stopping Bottas.

    Third was Ricciardo. The Red Bull Racing driver was on a set of ageing medium tyres but in a good position and with 15 laps to go and 18 seconds in hand over Jenson Button, who was one fresher tyres, he opted to try to make it to the chequered flag.

    Inevitably, the gap began to come down as Button closed in. By lap 47 it was down to seven seconds and by the final lap it was down to 1.8s as Ricciardo struggled to keep his 36-lap old tyres alive. The Australian managed it, finishing just eight tenths ahead of the hard-charging Button.

    At the front though, Hamilton’s win was comfortable, the Briton taking the chequered flag for his second British Grand Prix win ahead of Bottas, who took his second podium finish in a row.

    With Button fourth and Vettel in fifth ahead of Alonso, the remaining points positions went to Magnussen in seventh, Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Vergne.

    eom

  • Nico Hulkenberg lines up on the 2nd row at Silverstone; Perez on P7

    Nico Hulkenberg will line up on the second row of the grid for the team’s local race at Silverstone with teammate Sergio Perez qualifying in seventh place.
     
    P4     Nico Hulkenberg        VJM07-04
    Q1: 1:41.271                 Q2: 1:37.112                 Q3: 1:38.329
     
    Nico: “That worked out really well for us and I’m very happy to come away with fourth place on the grid. On days like this you just need to be in the right place, with good timing and a little bit of luck. The track conditions were changing so much and at the end of Q3 I’ve never seen a track dry so quickly. There were a few spots of rain in the middle of the session, but on my final lap it was completely dry. Fourth place sets us up nicely for tomorrow, but it’s hard to know exactly where we stand in terms of race pace. We definitely made some progress with the car balance overnight with some tweaks and it was a lot less windy today, which worked in our favour. There is an interesting grid, which will hopefully make for an exciting race for the fans.”
    P7      Sergio Perez               VJM07-02
    Q1: 1:42.146                 Q2: 1:37.350                 Q3: 1:40.457
     
    Sergio: “Today leaves us with mixed feelings. It was very good to get both cars in Q3 and ahead of some of our most direct competitors. Had they offered us this result before the session, we would have been satisfied; however, it is also disappointing as we know we could have had an even better result. We were in P3 up to the last lap, but when the track improved and I went out for a last run I ran a bit wide in turn 12 and lost all the temperature from my tyres. I also had to let some cars through and that made it a big problem for me. Otherwise I am confident we would have improved enough to stay in the front two rows. It’s a shame because we were making the tyres work really well until that moment and we were making the most of the conditions. Still, it is a very positive result and we should have a good opportunity to convert it into a good race and a lot of points. Silverstone is a very difficult place to overtake and track position is very important, so I am confident in that respect.”
     
    Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director
    “Today we had a very good result, which is always very nice in our home race. We have placed both cars in Q3 in very difficult conditions, which is a great credit to both the team and our drivers: we were on the right tyre at the right time and we reaped the rewards of some good strategy calls. It is a shame Checo was not able to finish his second lap as we thought we could retain his good position, but fourth row is still a very positive place to start and he has shown us before that he can make up positions come race day. Nico was impressive as he pulled a great lap when it mattered on a drying track. Starting fourth and seventh gives us a very good chance to score points and continue our battle in the constructors’ championship. Race pace is one of our strongest assets so we can look forward totomorrow with confidence.”
    FIA release adds:

    Nico Rosberg took his fourth pole position of the season in dramatic style at Silverstone, the German snatching top spot in the session in the final corners of his final lap in a rain-hit session that saw championship rival Lewis Hamilton finish sixth after abandoning his final run.

    Behind Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel claimed his first front-row start since the Malaysian Grand Prix and Jenson Button grabbed a surprise third spot for McLaren at his and his team’s home race.

    The session opened in relatively dry conditions and after banker laps on intermediate tyres, which left Hamilton in charge, ahead of Ricciardo. Throughout the opening laps, however, drivers were reporting that the track was dry enough for slick tyres.

    Kobayashi was the first take on mediums but was soon back in the pits with a technical problem. The Japanese driver finished outside the 107 per cent cut-off, as did team-mate Marcus Ericsson.

    The switch to slick rubber sparked a chaotic final few minutes as the field desperately tried to exploit the improved conditions. In the scramble for lap tyime it was perhaps inevitable that some would be caught out, either by traffic or by the conditions, as rain began to fall again in the closing moments.

    The surprise was that it was Ferrari and Williams in trouble. Fernando Alonso spun on his final flyer and missed the cut, finish in 19th place, one ahead of Raikkonen, who had to abandon his runa due to yellow flags brought out by spins elsewhere. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was 17th, ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa, both drivers having wild slides during their final laps.

    Elsewhere FP3’s quickest man, Sebastian Vettel scraped through in 16th, behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Jenson Button was fortunate, too, making it through to Q2 in 14th place despite having his best lap deleted for exceeding track limits.

    Q2 offered more uncertainty. The start of the segment was run on intermediate tyres following the shower at the end of Q1 but halfway through the track dried sufficiently for slicks to be used and again there was a scramble to put in a good lap. This time though, no front-runners were caught out and eliminated were Romain Grosjean, Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton (who delivered an excellent performance for Marussia), Esteban Gutierrez, Pastor Maldonado and Adrian Sutil. It was a rough session for Sauber. Sutil did not take part in Q2 having spun out in Q1 and late in Q2 Gutierrez also spun off, the rear of his Sauber hitting the barriers hard.

    Top spot in Q2 was occupied by Hamilton, the Briton recording a lap of 1:34.870, three tenths clear of team-mate Rosberg but a huge 1.4s ahead of third-placed Vettel.

    The final session was as thrilling and surprising as the first. The timesheet after the first runs had a predictable look to it, with Hamilton on top ahead of Rosberg. But with five minutes to go the track conditions again became marginal. Button was told to pit and adopt a wait and see attitude.

    When the time came to gamble or stay put however, some were once again caught out. Lewis Hamilton was one of them. The Briton went out but seemed to decide there was no time to be gained so abandoned his lap. Rosberg, by contrast,  along with several others, felt differently.

    Sebastian Vettel claimed provisional pole but Rosberg had yet to cross the line. When he did so the gap was huge, with the German having almost 1.4s over Vettel. Button was a surprise third for McLaren, with Nico Hulkenberg fourth for Force India. Kevin Magnussen completed a good day for McLaren by taking fifth place and Hamilton qualified sixth. Seventh place went to Sergio Perez in the second Force India, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull. The final top 10 positions were filled by the Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne respectively.
    2014 British Grand Prix – Qaulifying Result
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:40.380  1:35.179  1:35.766 21
    2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:45.086  1:36.410  1:37.386 19
    3 Jenson Button McLaren 1:44.425  1:36.579  1:38.200 24
    4 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:41.271  1:37.112  1:38.329 19
    5 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:42.507  1:37.370  1:38.417 23
    6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:41.058  1:34.870  1:39.232 19
    7 Sergio Perez Force India 1:42.146  1:37.350  1:40.457 20
    8 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:44.710  1:38.166  1:40.606 18
    9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:41.032  1:36.813  1:40.707 21
    10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:43.040  1:37.800  1:40.855 21
    11 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:43.121  1:38.496  17
    12 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:41.169  1:38.709  17
    13 Max Chilton Marussia 1:42.082  1:39.800  14
    14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:43.285  1:40.912  16
    15 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:43.892  1:44.018  15
    16 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:42.603  No time  8
    17 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:45.318   5
    18 Felipe Massa Williams 1:45.695   5
    19 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:45.935   6
    20 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.684   7
    21 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:49.421   7
    22 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:49.625   8

    Hulkenberg who willstart on P4 with fans at a Silverstone autograph session. A Sahara Force India image
    Hulkenberg who willstart on P4 with fans at a Silverstone autograph session. A Sahara Force India image

    eom/Sahara Force India press release

  • Hamilton pushed to 6th in dramatic qualifying session; Rosberg takes pole

    DRIVERS

    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    3 – Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Nico, a very dramatic conclusion to that qualifying session. Right at the end you took pole position. Were you surprised by how much the track improved, particularly in the final sector, right at the end, after we’d had that rain?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, I mean, a quite crazy qualifying, just changing all the time and that makes it very, very difficult. In the end last qualifying also. On t

    Nico Rosberg takes pole and is flanked by Jenson Button on his right and Sebastian Vettel at Silverstone on Saturday. An FIA image
    Nico Rosberg takes pole and is flanked by Jenson Button on his right and Sebastian Vettel at Silverstone on Saturday. An FIA image

    he first lap with the soft tyres it started to rain quite a lot, just in the last three corners, so lost a lot of time there and then everywhere else it was quite wet also on the in-lap, so I was sure, I told the guys already “that’s it”. And then we were sitting in the box and we just came to a general conclusion: “might as well go out and have a look at the track”. At least… because if you don’t have a look, there’s no chance but if you have a look there’s a tiny chance, so at least go out and have a look. It seemed like we should give it a go but even then I still didn’t believe that the track would be better. But what made it was the last sector, because everywhere on the track was just a little bit slower, because it was just damp here and there and a little bit wet. But I knew that I had lost four seconds on the previous lap, so even if I was slower than that lap, I still had the chance of going a lot quicker in those last three corners if it was halfways dry and that’s the way it turned out: I made the time in those last corners because it a lot drier and it just worked out perfectly. Even across the line, in Lewis’ gearbox – because I had to be there because otherwise it went red. I had to be as fast as possible in order to be able to do that last lap. So as I crossed the line it went red, like instantly, it was a very, very close call. I think all in all it was a very good team-mate effort; everybody working together, my engineers, together with me just made all the right calls and it worked out. It’s fantastic to have such a qualifying, where everything goes well in the end and a comfortable pole in the end. It’s awesome.

    Very well done. Well, if it was a bonus for Nico, you actually had to do a lap didn’t you Sebastian, because you didn’t have a time on the board when you went out at the end there, so you were down in 10th place. What was going through your mind as you were going round the circuit? Did you think your goose was cooked?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Well, to be honest at the start of Q3 we went out, I think one of the last cars. And on my out lap, just preparing the flying lap, it started to rain, so I got that wet last sector to start the lap and obviously then there was no point, we aborted the lap, because at that time it was impossible to set a decent time on slick tyres. Then we were back in the garage waiting and we said “OK, we might as well go out. If we go out on inters it will be difficult to beat the lap times that were set, so we go out on dry tyres.” We were one of the first to go out for one flying lap in the end. It was quite difficult to believe on the out lap that it would be dry enough but it’s a funny place. It was a very weird session. A lot of rain, no rain, drizzling, very fine rain, nearly like spray: I think England is the only country where you can get this sort of rain and conditions and changing so quickly. Incredibly difficult to know what was coming so on the flying lap you approach turn one and turn on is a pretty big balls corner, so it’s difficult to know how much risk you can take. Eventually you have to take some risk because, especially in my case, I wanted to set a lap. So obviously very happy that it turned out. Yeah, very positive and starting from the front row tomorrow.

    Very well done. And you Jenson? Changeable conditions as Sebastian was saying and you were there or thereabouts throughout the qualifying session as the lap times went up and down. How happy are you with the result you’ve achieved today?

    Jenson BUTTON: Like you cannot believe. I know it’s only a third in qualifying but for us at the moment, and for the last 18 months, this is… well, we had no chance of getting this result. Yeah, it’s nice in front of the home crowd to qualifying well and all the way through qualifying, as you said, the pace was there. No compared to the Mercedes, but with everyone else the pace was there. When I did my lap in Q1 on the option tyre in the dry I was about two seconds quicker than anyone when I did it. Made the mistake of losing the rear in the last corner, so it was disallowed. I thought I was going to be out, so to come through and be third in Q3 is a good result for today and I’m really happy that I could do it here in front of the home crowd.

    Coming back to you Nico, obviously you’re on pole with your team-mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton down in sixth place going into the British Grand Prix tomorrow. Your thoughts on the race?

    NR: Yeah, of course, with regards to the championship, it’s good for me that Lewis is down in sixth. It will take him some time I think to fight through, though I expect him to come through quite quickly. And then I think very like we’ll be racing each other again. We seem to very quick here. This track really suits the car, more so than Austria, so I think it’s going to be a good battle again. Of course starting from pole is the best possible place and I’m very confident for the race.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Nico, clearly a day like today it’s very easy to get it wrong and there are plenty of examples of that up and down the field. The track was fluctuating by as much as eight seconds a lap with rain and drying out. What are the most important things to take care of on a day like today?

    NR: The way to go about it is to try to minimize the rise, especially with the car that we have y’know? We have such a fast package so really we just need to try to make sure we don’t have any big risks, even if then it doesn’t turn out to be the perfect qualifying and the perfect day. And that, I think, we did very well. Definitely tried to eliminate all the big downfalls and it all worked out well. It wasn’t perfect but it worked out really, really well. Everything came together so it was great to be on pole.

    Q: Sebastian, you’ve been on the wrong end of this once or twice in the past so you know how it works but how much does the driver contribute to the decision-making process and how much of it is the strategists, your engineers and even people back at the factory?

    SV: You would love that the pitwall was in a better place today, trying to predict the rain. I think it was impossible because it was very local. It could have rained every minute and could have stopped raining as we’ve seen. Difficult to predict and therefore it’s you inside the car obviously trying to get the best out of the tyres and the conditions when you’re on track and obviously together with your team trying to be calm on the radio and going for the right decisions. In the end there’s also the element of looking what the others are doing and trying to make sense of whether or not it makes sense to do the same. But it’s very tricky because, as I said, if you take our Q3, the first run, we went out just probably a minute later than everyone else and we didn’t get a lap at all. That’s how close the lap can be sometimes. You try obviously to go for a clear track but then you get caught out by rain. It’s tricky in these conditions to get everything right – so you need also to be a bit lucky.

    Q: Jenson, it’s also a question of risk versus reward isn’t it? You mentioned that you were one of the first to go onto the slick tyres earlier on in the qualifying. It was the right time for that. We saw Ferrari and Williams at the wrong time and they’re starting from the back of the grid but did today, the track limits ruling, make things a little bit more complicated given how slippery it was out there.

    JB: It did, yeah, because you could make a massive mistake and lose a second by going off the circuit and still put in a really good lap time to get through Q1, Q2. So, it made it really difficult. And obviously my Q1 lap quick enough by quite a long way but it was disallowed because I drove off the circuit in the last corner – but the whole of the qualifying session I felt that I could read the conditions pretty well. And then it came to Q3 and the last timed lap, which obviously meant everything. I said to the guys on the radio, “I’ve got wheelspin in fifth gear in a straight line.” I said: “this isn’t gonna happen,” and they said: “Just push, we’ve got nothing to lose.” We’re in a very different position to Nico. We have to take the risks to gain the positions at the moment. So, I pushed. Very aggressive lap but it worked. Big thanks to the team for their call. And being third here in front of the home crowd, on this weekend, this year, really means a lot. I’ll go to bed very happy tonight and look forward to the race tomorrow.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Alex Goldschmidt – Richland F1) Jenson, coming back to the discussion between yourself and Lewis on Thursday, you seemed to be the best hope for the British fans but obviously Lewis is going to come charging through the field. Depending on weather conditions, how do you see the outlook for tomorrow?

    JB: I’ve made the race easier than previously thought but still we have to be realistic. I want to be upbeat, I want to be positive about fighting for a podium. If it’s like today that’s obviously a possibility with mixed conditions. As long as we make the right calls and the right strategy it’s possible. But in a dry race. A standard dry race, it’s going to be very, very tricky but, believe this, we will give one hundred per cent and get the maximum out of what we have this weekend and hopefully have a great result in front of the British fans.

    Q: (Chris Medland – crash.net) Nico, you talk about the psychological edge you’re looking to get over Lewis and he’s starting to make quite a few errors in qualifying sessions which has always been a strong point for him. Do you feel that that’s part of the psychological edge you’re getting now?

    NR: I’ve never talked about trying to get a psychological edge over anything, not at all. What I’ve been saying is that at the moment the momentum seems to be on my side and I just need to make the most of it because it comes and goes and I have a period now when it’s going my way and I just need to make sure I get as many points as possible on Lewis and it’s working out at the moment. But anyway, today’s just qualifying, there’s no points for qualifying and with the car that we have, even from sixth place, everything’s still possible, but of course it’s a big advantage to start first.

    Q: (Haoran Zhou – Formula One Express) Nico and Sebastian, obviously 26.5s in the last sector for both of you, there’s only four corners in the last sector. When did you realise that there’s a lot of grip there?

    NR: Well, it was very wet on the previous run in Q3, where we lost like four seconds in the last sector so as long as it’s a little bit dry patches and a little bit drier already you can gain a lot of time and on the out lap there was a chance, and then once I got round to the fast timed lap, I could brake quite late into there and it was quite dry so it was quite quick through there and that made a massive difference.

    SV: Yeah, on the out lap it was quite slippery but then when I started the timed lap I could feel that most of the track was nearly completely dry, so arriving in the last sector after the long straight I just said, yeah, all or nothing and treated it as if it was dry. It wasn’t entirely (dry) in turn 15, I went a little bit wider than I thought but for the rest… for the last three corners it was quite completely fine.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, you said you had to start the lap directly behind Lewis. First, how much time did it cost you in the first two sectors, where did you pass him and what did you think when you saw Lewis pulling into the pits?

    NR: Well of course I was disappointed, starting the lap behind Lewis because if I’m in his gearbox, that doesn’t allow me to do my pace so I was disappointed with that, but I didn’t have a choice with the situation, with the way it was and just managed to get over the line before the red light came. I actually saw the red light but it worked out. I wasn’t sure but then it worked out and then Lewis made a mistake in turn four and after that he then pulled over so as not to block me and I just kept on pushing.

    Q: (Chris Medland – crash.net) Jenson, you were asked about Ron’s comments on Thursday, asking for a bit more from you. Does that make this perfect timing in response, this  sort of result?

    JB: He’s watching this, I’m sure! One result doesn’t mean anything. We’ve obviously talked since and yeah, I think there’s mutual respect there but when we all want things to improve quicker than what they are, we maybe say things in the press that maybe we shouldn’t. We have a really good working relationship and I hope that that continues into the future.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) You just said that this result doesn’t mean anything, but anyway, thinking about your father, so far it’s a nice position, and talking about fathers, Nico, your father got pole position in ’85 in similar conditions here in Silverstone, so what are your feelings about that?

    JB: For me it was obviously quite an emotional slowing down lap. As I’ve said before – as we always say – qualifying’s qualifying and the race is tomorrow, but when you do a lap that you’re happy with and it’s in front of your home crowd and I knew the Old Boy would have been very happy, it would have meant a lot. I’ve had so much support from the fans, it’s been overwhelming, a lot of guys wearing pink out there in respect to my Old Boy. Yeah, a good day today and he’s definitely smiling down today.

    NR: Yeah, of course I’ve also been watching how many supporters, how many people have  been wearing pink. Even in my camper van, my driver, he came with a pink shirt and I was like ‘what are you doing?’ He never wears pink and then he explained to me that everybody’s supporting John… in memory of John so that’s how I came across it this weekend. With respect to my Dad, yes, there was one of his great days here in qualifying in Silverstone, something that I’m proud of also. I like to look back at the history and what was happening back then but there’s not really too much to compare to nowadays.

  • Hamilton takes over at the top at Silverstonee

    Lewis Hamilton replaced team-mate Nico Rosberg at the top of the Silverstone time sheets before being sidelined by mechanical issues.

    Hamilton’s best time of 1:34.508 came early in the session while the teams were testing out Pirelli’s medium compound tyre. His time

    Hamilton after topping the time sheets at Silverstone on Friday. An FIA image
    Hamilton after topping the time sheets at Silverstone on Friday. An FIA image

    was 0.228 ahead of Rosberg’s best. The Briton’s session came to an end with 30 minutes left on the clock, however, when his Mercedes engine shut down, forcing him to pull over.

    Fernando Alonso was third fastest, just under three quarters of a second down on Hamilton’s best, with Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo fourth. The Australian’s best time was set on the hard compound, however, with the driver telling his team that he could not make any improvement on the medium tyre as he could not get the front tyres up to the right temperature.

    Sebastian Vettel was fifth quickest, just a tenth behind his Red Bull Bull team-mate, though the champion’s time was set on medium rubber.

    Valtteri Bottas was sixth for Williams, the Finn claiming his car back from Susie Wolff who made a brief appearance in the morning session before being sidelined by an oil pressure problem. Bottas’s session wasn’t without its problems, however, and he was forced to return to pits at one stage when his engine cover began to detach from his car.

    Jenson Button took seventh place, just seven hundredths of a second clear of team-mate Kevin Magnussen, while Kimi Raikkonen was ninth for Ferrari.

    The final top-10 place was taken by Jean-Eric Vergne, though the Toro Rosso did suffer a mid-session incident in which his left front wheel became loose and he had to stop in an escape road just before the wheel detached.

    2014 British Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Times
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:34.508 14
    2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.736 0.228 35
    3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.244 0.736 32
    4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:35.511 1.003 11
    5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:35.627 1.119 27
    6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:36.016 1.508 33
    7 Jenson Button McLaren 1:36.228 1.720 34
    8 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:36.299 1.791 35
    9 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.554 2.046 29
    10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:36.583 2.075 26
    11 Felipe Massa Williams 1:36.671 2.163 29
    12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:36.778 2.270 31
    13 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:36.951 2.443 35
    14 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:37.064 2.556 35
    15 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:37.097 2.589 33
    16 Sergio Perez Force India 1:37.236 2.728 37
    17 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:37.449 2.941 27
    18 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:37.520 3.012 25
    19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:38.658 4.150 11
    20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:39.068 4.560 31
    21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:39.224 4.716 28
    22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:39.762 5.254 21