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Category: Formula 1
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Hamilton sets the pace in FP1
Nurburgring, 5 July 3024: After a busy few days off-track, Mercedes began in Germany where they left off in Britain, displaying early dominance at the Nürburgring by taking the top two positions in the first free practice session.
Under overcast skies the first practice session at the Nürburgring proceeded under threat of a driver race boycott, should the tyre failures which blighted the British Grand Prix reoccur. With a new set of tyre safety precautions being enforced, the session passed without issue.
Hamilton eventually emerged on top with a time of 1:31.754 set at the hour mark. He and Rosberg had been swapping fastest laps for much of the session with the Briton eventually coming out on top by a margin of two-tenths of a second. Behind the Silver Arrows there was a long gap back to Mark Webber in third place. The Red Bull driver was 1.035s adrift of Hamilton’s time.
Behind Webber, Adrian Sutil was fourth quickest for Force India, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen’s Lotus. Felipe Massa was sixth in the sole running Ferrari, with Jenson Button seventh in the first of the McLarens. World Champion Sebastian Vettel had a low-key return to home soil in eighth, ahead of Romain Grosjean, ninth for Lotus. Sergio Pérez rounded out the top ten in the second McLaren.
Conspicuous by his absence from that list was the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. Alonso coasted to a halt on his out-lap, his car sidelined by a suspected electrical problem. He pulled off the circuit and made his way back to the garage on the back of a moped. With his car swiftly recovered he re-emerged at the halfway mark, only to slow to a crawl and inform the pitwall his problem had resurfaced. He was able to complete the lap but did not take any further part in the session and failed to set a time.
2013 German Grand Prix, Free Practice One times.
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.754
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.973 +0.219
3 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:32.789 +1.035
4 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:32.822 +1.068
5 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus 1:32.956 +1.202
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:33.065 +1.311
7 Jenson Button McLaren 1:33.139 +1.385
8 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:33.213 +1.459
9 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:33.260 +1.506
10 Sergio Pérez McLaren 1:33.456 +1.702
11 Paul di Resta Force India 1:33.493 +1.739
12 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber 1:33.810 +2.056
13 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:33.901 +2.147
14 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:33.976 +2.222
15 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:34.025 +2.271
16 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:34.200 +2.446
17 Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber 1:34.437 +2.683
18 Charles Pic Caterham 1:35.674 +3.920
19 Max Chilton Marussia 1:35.987 +4.233
20 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:36.078 +4.324
21 Rodolfo Gonzalez Marussia 1:37.459 +5.705
22 Fernando Alonso Ferrari No timeends
File photo of Lewis Hamilton (right) with team boss Ross Brawn. Photo by Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team. -
5th in Constructors’ title is very important for us: Sutil
Nurburgring, 4 July 2013: The following drivers attended the FIA Thursday Press Conference ahead of the German Grand Prix here on Sunday.
DRIVERS – Nico HULKENBERG (Sauber), Sergio PEREZ (McLAREN), Adrian SUTIL (Force India), Daniel RICCIARDO (Toro Rosso), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Good afternoon to all six of you. Not much time between the last race and this – Silverstone still very much fresh in our minds. I think all six of you had a very eventful race in Britain. So let’s start off with your thoughts on the race in Silverstone and the afternoon you had there. I guess we should start with Nico Rosberg, as you won.
Nico ROSBERG: I had a good afternoon! It was a very good race weekend in general and I’m really to come out with that result at the end. To have a fast car in the race as well, which has been our weakness in recent weeks and months. So to have improved there was great. And home grand prix for the team, so to win there was absolutely fantastic.
Yourself, Sebastian – contrasting experiences.
Sebastian VETTEL: I think we had a solid weekend. We were able to qualify well right behind the Mercedes, which was I think the best we could do on Saturday. But on Sunday we had good pace in the race. Obviously, it’s difficult to know as Lewis had a tyre failure very early on but I think we could have matched him in terms of race pace. But after that, quite frustrating to lose the lead due to a technical problem, but as I said after the race these things happen. So I think we’ve understood the problem, fixed the problem, so we move on.
Sergio, what about you, what stands out for you from your race at Silverstone?
Sergio PEREZ: Tyres I think. I think the race itself was better than expected. We had better race pace and in the race itself it was a good strategy and so on. We were able to do better than expected but then with the safety cars it got us in the wrong place and towards the end I didn’t have good tyres and the people behind were coming a bit quicker and then I had the explosion with the tyre.
Adrian, your race?
Adrian SUTIL: Yeah, exciting race, interesting race. I would say the pace was not generally as good as expected, so I had to always look more in the mirror and try to make myself as wide as possible and protect my position. I had a very good start. I was running fourth for a long time and then third after the re-start after the second safety car. It looked close to a podium but still our car was just not fast enough and maybe it was a bit unlucky the second safety car period but nevertheless I think there was a chance, a small little chance, to get on the podium, if after the re-start something else would have happened. We risked it and stayed out and then of course a lot of cars with better tyres were behind and I lost quite a few positions very quickly. But seventh in the end was some good points for the team, we stabilised our position and we’re fifth in the Constructors’ World Championship and that’s very important for us.
What about you Daniel, just finishing behind Adrian in eighth place after that career-best fifth?
Daniel RICCIARDO: It seemed for the last half of the race we were tied together for a little bit. The safety at the end was a bit of a lottery I guess. We were in fourth at the time behind the safety car and obviously fourth is a great position at the time, for us, for the team. Whether we pitted or not, I guess it was a bit of a gamble at the time, whatever we chose to do, and obviously we stayed out and lost out because of it. But I think the weekend as a whole went really well, from Friday through to Sunday we were always in the top 10, always strong. I think our race pace was good as well. It’s positive for us. It would have been nice to get a few more points and I’m sure we’ll get another opportunity.
Finally, Nico Hulkenberg. At the back a chaotic race at times but one that eventually brought you your second points finish of the season.
Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, happy to get away with a point after quite a long dry period. It was a good feeling for me and the team to have a point. Overall, quite an exciting race with lots of wheel-to-wheel action. So it was a lot of fun from inside the car. Fortunately, I wasn’t one of the guys who had the tyre problems.
So this weekend here: it’s the first German Grand Prix here at the Nürburgring for you in your third season in F1, which surprised me when I read that. Does it add to the excitement, racing in front of your home fans, a new track in an F1 car?
NH: Yeah, it does. A lot of excitement. I had done the practice one session in 2011 in a Force India but it is the first proper race attempt. The Nürburgring has always been very kind to me. I’ve had lots of good finishes here, won a lot of races and have done many laps here. I really like the place, obviously a lot of history on this circuit and the Nordschleife, so I’m really looking forward to this weekend.
Racing in front of your home fans at a track you know well – how much does that help you and how much does it raise the goals that you and Sauber might have for this weekend?
NH: Maybe there is a bit of extra motivation but you have to be realistic with what we have. But I’ll try everything to make it a good weekend for us and I’ll just look forward and try to enjoy it as much as I can.
Q: Sebastian happy birthday for this week. Probably the only thing you celebrate in July given that you’ve not won in front of your home fans in Formula One. You haven’t won in July either – which seems a strange one.
SV: I think it was much more important what we have achieved the last four years and the last three years in particular. So, yeah, I think we’ve have good races in the past here but also in Hockenheim. So in Germany in general. Was always close but not good enough to win yet – but I hope I have a little bit of time left to try again. We definitely try this weekend.
Q: As the defending World Champion you race with a lot of focus on you week after week. How much does that intensify when you come to a German Grand Prix in front of your home fans?
SV: Well surely it’s special. As the other drivers… as Nico just touched on, I think we’ve done a lot of racing here before our time in Formula One so we know the circuit well. Obviously it’s great to come back and especially the last couple of years with more and more people supporting the team, supporting myself. It’s great to come back and really get a feeling of a true home grand prix. So, I’m looking forward to this weekend, looking forward to the support from the fans and yeah, hopefully see more and more Red Bull flags around the track.
Q: Daniel, to you next, happy birthday to you this week as well. Don’t know what you got for a birthday present but I’m sure the one you’re really looking for is to be Sebastian’s team-mate for next year. That would surely be the best present of all – wouldn’t it?
DR: Yeah, I guess so. Birthday present… that was Monday, that was my birthday, after the race. So, I was just coming down from the weekend really. Had a bit of birthday cake, not too much, of course. Obviously talk about next year was pretty frequent last weekend. For me, just keep trying to do what I’m doing, keep pushing and… yeah… it’s nice to hear some positive things. Definitely. It would be a great position to be in but I’ve still got a bit of work ahead of me. Silverstone went well. I think that didn’t hinder anything. I’ve got to keep doing that.
Q: Is that all you can do? Just keep doing what you’re doing? You’ve not set yourself new goals, new targets to attract the attention of those that might make the decision?
DR: Well, I definitely try… I haven’t won a race yet so definitely I’ve still got some further goals and ambitions so I’ll keep striving for better things. But realistically to do the best I can. I think the qualifying on Saturday was good and the race, as I’ve said, it could have easily been better but we still got points and showed a consistent pace throughout the weekend, the whole three days, so that was important. Definitely some positive things from that and happy to keep it going now.
Q: Sergio, we come to your ninth race as a McLaren driver. What positives do you take out of the first eight races?
SP: It’s been a very difficult season for us, for McLaren. Big struggle. Since the start of the season I think we have made some progress. First of all in understanding the car, get the correlation right. But to be honest I don’t expect a major difference this weekend to where we were in Silverstone. I think we will be in a similar position, trying to fight to get into the points. And I hope we can score good points here because in Silverstone we should have scored points, so definitely here I aim for some points as well.
Q: Do you think you’re driving better now, as a McLaren driver, than in the first couple of races for your new team?
SP: Yes, of course. The understanding of the car is getting better, the knowledge with the team. Sometimes people don’t realise when you change teams, how difficult it is to adapt to the different style of the car, different ways of approaching setting up the car. It takes a couple of races – it took me a couple of races – but I think right now I’m really in good shape. Together with my team we have done good progress so I definitely thing from now on, for the rest of the season, we can keep taking the maximum out of the car.
Q: Adrian. Consistency. That seems to be what you and Force India have found. The last three races you’ve scored points, your team-mate Paul di Resta has scored points and you seem to have found that sweet spot.
AS: Yes, the car is very consistent. It was consistent the whole year. I think I was not so consistent at the beginning and had issues sometimes. But I hope I sorted it out and now, in the last three races, was quite good. The last one was quite smooth. Monaco was a great result and hopefully this kind of result can come. I think the car is always strong enough to be in the top six. It’s all about getting it all right, all together, not making mistakes, whether it’s me or someone else. We are a whole team and sometimes there are little things we can improve but at the moment I think we are on our way and most important to score now points as much as possible – we missed a few in the first few races – and just get better. We get better, we’re on our way. I think together with Lotus we are almost now the fourth quickest team and that’s a very good improvement and a great result for Force India at the moment.
Q: Nico Rosberg, two wins in the last three races. I can’t think of anything you’d rather enjoy – maybe three wins in three races – but you must be loving the way this season is turning out at the moment.
NR: Yeah, for sure. It’s a really nice time in my career at the moment. It’s new. I’ve never had a car as quick as it is now, going to every next race, knowing that I go out there in qualifying I can fight for a position right at the front. And then also in the race the car is getting better and better so the chances are higher so that even on Sunday I can keep my qualifying position. And it’s a really, really nice feeling. Very motivating also.
Q: If that’s the case, do you see yourself and Mercedes as genuine title contenders this season?
NR: No, it’s too early to say that. We’re really focussing on getting our momentum, keeping it going as we have at the moment and just concentrating one race to the next, trying to get the most out of them, just as we have done now in the last couple of races – which have gone fantastically for me. And then we see, in a few races time.
Q: So anything could happen. You don’t think you’re the main threat to stopping Red Bull winning another world title?
NR: I don’t really want to speak about a world title – yet.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) You are now 50 points behind Sebastian, Nico. How many percentage would you give yourself to catch him in the championship?
NR: How many percent chance? Short term, I just want to annoy Sebastian and Red Bull a little bit race by race, by being ahead of them and that’s the most important thing, really, to be ahead of not only them but other teams and try and win more races. That’s what I’m focused on at the moment and that’s what the whole team is focused on.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel: the new Pirelli will change things; what kind of things will change for Red Bull and Mercedes this weekend?
NR: Early days. We ran them in Montreal, didn’t have the opportunity to learn much there because of the weather, so really there are some question marks and we have to really try and run them as much as possible in relevant circumstances this weekend, to try and learn as much as possible. But it will be interesting and it’s likely to shuffle things around a little bit.
Q: We’re going to get lots of running in FP1, is that the case?
NR: Possibly, yeah.
Q: (Luke Smith – NBC Sports) For all of the drivers: Pirelli are bringing in new construction of tyres for the race weekend. From a safety aspect, how comfortable do you feel racing with these tyres?
SP: Well, I think it’s definitely important to change something for safety, no longer for the performance. I think it’s very important that we as drivers feel safe, something that could really happen, a big accident in the last race weekend, so I think that definitely it’s a good thing that Pirelli is reacting to make a change.
NH: Yeah, I agree with Sergio. I think it is for safety now and there must be some action and there is some action, there are changes and I think generally this track here is not as high speed, not as many high speed corners so the tyres don’t get as hard a time as they did at Silverstone. So I’m confident that this will be safe now.
AS: Yeah, as long as it’s for safety, I think they have to improve it, yes, but it hasn’t been a hundred percent that it was a rear tyre issue, so one says it’s a tyre issue what caused the punctures at Silverstone, some people say it’s maybe kerbing or something like that, so it’s always hard to see where the problem is, but four punctures in a race is too much, so they have to get behind it. I feel safe on these tyres and had no problems with them. I had some two stop races, I did a two stop strategy in Silverstone so for me the concern is not so much.
DR: Not much more to add. All I can say is that you’re driving as hard as you can and you don’t really put it… it’s definitely at the back of your mind. As we saw at the weekend, the tyres that went… it was pretty instant… I don’t think any of the drivers felt much before it happened, so all we can do is drive hard and hang on, but I’m definitely… yeah, I’m sure the changes that they’ve made are going to be for the best. But it’s definitely at the back of our mind whilst we’re in the car.
SV: I think first of all that it’s good that within not even a week’s time, how we were able to get a different tyre for this race which hopefully is safer for all of us. Obviously the last race was not what we want and not satisfactory so I think it’s good that we have a new tyre here. How much better and how different it will be is difficult to judge at this stage but I’m confident that it’s a step forward.
NR: Well, I trust the FIA is going to make the right calls, as they are, they’re working on it flat out together with Pirelli, so I’m sure there’s going to be progress and it shouldn’t be a concern this weekend.
Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) Nico, how much is your advantage, do you think, because I learned that you tested these tyres at Barcelona?
NR: To me? Oh yeah. Obviously! Yeah, so there’s no advantage and we don’t know if we ran this tyre in Barcelona. You have to ask Pirelli.
Q: (Rene Hoffmann – Suddeutsche Zeitung) To Nico Hulkenberg, how do you rate the overall condition of your team? We hear stories that you haven’t been paid your wage or the full wage. How do you rate the situation of the team right now?
NH: How do I rate the situation of the team? I think it’s a difficult situation, like Monisha (Kaltenborn, team principal) told the press yesterday but I think she and the team and the management are working on a solution and trying to work a way out of it, to get better things. She’s assured me that she’s busy working on that and there’s not much more I can say, other than that.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian and Nico: do you believe that the change in the tyres will let a new championship start from now and above all, in Hungary when more changes are expected?
NR: For sure it’s very likely that it’s going to have an impact, on performances, differences, qualifying/race, so it will be interesting. It’s possible that it’s going to mix things up a little bit but it’s also an opportunity, yeah, for us as a team to try and understand it better and earlier than other people and try and make the most of it.
SV: I think it’s difficult to foresee what’s going to happen, as Nico said, but I think Pirelli has absolutely no interest in trying to shuffle things around. They obviously try to supply every team with a tyre, whether you like it or not, it’s completely up to you but I think as we learned last weekend, it has to be safe.
Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta) Sebastian, would you like to have Daniel Ricciardo as your teammate next season?
SV: Well, I don’t mind. As I said at Silverstone, after Mark announced his retirement, obviously I think it’s early days to talk about that and even if it’s not my decision, he sits here, right now so if I could I would give him the seat but equally if Kimi was there, I would give him the seat. It’s not my intention to do any good or any bad to people. I think it’s something decided by the team and so far we haven’t really spoken about it. At the moment, we have other concerns. As you saw last race we retired, that was the number one concern, so to fix that problem for this race to make sure that we don’t retire for the same reason again and maybe a little bit later we talk about drivers as well, but again it’s not my decision. As far as I know, I think Daniel is doing a very good job and all the rest is not in my hands. Sorry mate…
Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today) Sebastian, it’s already been mentioned that you haven’t won your home Grand Prix here. Do you feel extra pressure coming here, knowing that, or is the overall picture more important to you, in terms of the championship?
SV: Well, in terms of the championship points you can score here, it’s just the same as every other place so obviously it’s something special to race in front of your home crowd and I feel quite happy to have the possibility to be honest. There’s other nations in Formula One and other guys that don’t have the possibility to race in their home country. For example, there’s no race in Mexico and Sergio would probably love to race there but it’s not possible. I think it’s a privilege, it’s not really extra pressure. I think it’s nice to see the support we get and their fascination for Formula One. Motor sport has a big standing in Germany, I think, so it’s good to come here, good to come to the Nurburgring. I like the track and we will see what we get.
Ends
File photo of Adrian Sutil with an Engineer. Photo by Sahara Force India F1 team -
Räikkönen: Podium will be the only place to see my hair
He’s never won in Germany, whether in the European or German Grand Prix; the latter of which has seen
Kimi Räikkönen retire six times. After a top three placing with Lotus F1 Team last season, can this finally be
the year for Kimi at the Nürburgring?What is it about Germany that hasn’t been kind to you in the past?
I don’t know, maybe I did something bad in a former life? I have always enjoyed driving in Germany, but the
problem is that luck has never been on my side there and something has always happened to stop me
winning. I’ve got four poles to show my speed on German soil, but six retirements at this race haven’t been
what I wanted.Does it set you more of a challenge to have raced in Formula 1 in Germany 16 times, but never
won?
Not really. A race is just a race and you always try to do your best. Obviously in the past both circuits – the
Nürburgring and Hockenheim – have not been very kind to me, but I like them both and I have always been
very competitive; in terms of pace if not maybe results. I’ve gone very well at the Nürburgring before, just
never won. A couple of times I’ve had to stop while leading the race which always sends you home with a
bad feeling. Hopefully I can finally get everything right this time. Last year we made the top three in
Hockenheim, so let’s wait and see how it goes at the Nürburgring for the first time with this team.Things looked so promising in Silverstone until right at the end; give us your view
It was a disappointing end to the weekend for sure. Things were going pretty well in the race, but it was a
mistake not to switch to new tyres when the safety car came out. I tried to hold on, but with tyres that were
maybe twenty laps older than the others it was impossible to keep them behind at the end. It’s a shame as
we had good pace and looked set for a pretty easy P2, but this is racing sometimes.On the plus side you finally broke Michael Schumacher’s record for points finishes…
It makes no difference to the Championship, so I’m really not interested in that.
You had a pretty intense moment behind Jean-Eric Vergne; were you nervous at all?
It wasn’t ideal having bits of rubber thrown at your helmet for sure, but risk is all part of the game. It wasn’t
his or the tyres’ fault; if you have sharp edges on a kerb as seemed to be the case there last weekend then
these things can happen no matter what tyres you have. It didn’t change our race anyway.It’s not been an easy run of late; does that affect your mindset?
No. It’s three races now where we haven’t had the result we maybe expect, but hopefully if we can have a
bit more luck and also get rid of some of the mistakes we’ll be able to get back to the front.What’s the Nürburgring like to race?
It’s pretty good, but probably not as much fun as the old one. It should suit us, but the fact is you need a
really good car to be competitive there. Most of all you need good traction out of the corners and a stable
car under braking. We’re pretty reasonable in both these areas. We have had our issues with cooler
weather and unfortunately it’s not usually that warm at the Nürburgring, but we’ll just see what we get and
get on with it.What’s the target for this weekend?
We never promise anything beforehand. A podium would be a positive result and a step in the right
direction. We missed that at Silverstone, and it would be good to get back to the top positions. The season
is still long and the leaders of the championship are ahead of us. Realistically, all I can do is to do my very
best in each race.Will you tell us the story about your hair?
No. But if I get on the podium in Germany you will see it.Romain Grosjean: “The Nürburgring certainly keeps you busy!”Romain Grosjean
After a frustrating British Grand Prix, Romain Grosjean has his sights set on the Nürburgring; the scene of two podium finishes – including a win – when he last visited the track
How do you like the Nürburgring?
It’s quite a nice track with a quite a lot to it. There’s a really interesting mix of corners which means you
have plenty to think about over the course of a lap; you’re certainly kept busy! The first section relies on
mechanical grip and Turn 1 can be interesting at the start of the race if people go too deep into the corner.
It can also be a good overtaking opportunity during the race too. After that there are some higher speed
corners down to the hairpin – which is another good place you can overtake – then nice high speed stuff for
the rest of the lap. You need a well-balanced car so I think we should go pretty well.What’s your past form at the circuit?
This will be my first time racing there in Formula 1, but I’ve raced at the track previously in F3 and the GP2
Series. Last time I raced there – 2011 in the GP2 Series – I scored a podium and a win so my most recent
memories of the circuit are certainly good.Would you like to have raced on the old Nürburgring?
It’s quite some circuit and it must have been amazing to have raced there. I can’t imagine what it would be
like if we raced the current Formula 1 cars there. For starters can you imagine how long the set-up
meetings would be with all those corners to talk about?! The Thursday morning track walk would be pretty
epic too!How was your British Grand Prix?
It wasn’t the best of races; quite a frustrating one in fact. We had a problem with the front wing which got
worse over the course of the race, and ultimately we lost a big part of it. There was a lot of vibration and it
became really difficult to drive, so in the end it was best to retire because of safety considerations. Before
that, things weren’t going quite to plan and we were suffering with tyre performance issues related to the
front wing. The safety cars didn’t really go our way either so it’s a race I’d rather forget.Was it good to out-qualify Kimi for the first time this season?
Of course, you always want to be faster than your team-mate so it was good to be in front of him on the
grid. We both had different upgrade packages on our cars, so it was good to see we were able to get
similar speeds out of them. Of course, we want some more speed too, but there are still more parts to
come and we’re still learning about the latest upgrades so there’s potential yet.What do you think can be achieved from the next few races?
We’ve got new parts on the car and we certainly have the pace for some strong results. The last few races
have been frustrating for various reasons, so if we can get a few solid weekends we should be able to get
some decent results and score good points.What are your thoughts on the current tyre situation?
Well it looks like I could be busy at the Young Driver Test in a few weeks’ time if race drivers are allowed to
take part. Certainly, Silverstone was a very unusual situation and I know that myself and Kimi were being
asked to stay off the kerbs as it was thought that using them on certain corners wasn’t helping the situation.
No-one wants tyre failures and I know all the teams and the sport are working with Pirelli to put this right.
I’m sure there will be a satisfactory solution soon.ends
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Pirelli brings Kevlar-belted rear tyres to Nurburgring
Milan, July 3, 2013:
Alexandra, Head of F1 Communications of Pirelli. A Pirelli photo Just one week after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Pirelli heads to another legendary venue in motorsport: the Nurburgring in Germany. The tyre nomination is the P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft: a combination not seen since the Chinese Grand Prix in April. However, Pirelli will bring Kevlar-belted rear tyres for both the medium and soft compound to Germany, which have already been tested at the Friday practice sessions in Canada. This moves comes after a series of tyre failures at last week’s British Grand Prix which, as Pirelli has now been able to establish, were caused by a combination of factors like the rear tyres mounted the wrong way around, low tyre pressures, extreme cambers and high kerbs. Even though the 2013 specification of the Pirelli Formula One tyres are completely safe when used in the correct way, the company prefers to bring Kevlar-belted rear tyres to the Nurburgring, as it is a tyre easier to manage.
Paul Hembery: “Surprisingly, the Nurburgring is one of the circuits that we have the least experience of, having only raced there once before in Formula One, but we’re certain that we have chosen the correct compromise between performance and durability by bringing the medium and soft compounds. These were actually the same compounds that we chose for this track in 2011, but since then the tyres have got softer and faster, so we would expect a quicker race time with an average of three pit stops for most drivers. The Nurburgring is not on the whole an especially demanding circuit for tyres but there are still some distinctive aspects to look out for when it comes to tyre management, such as the kerbing on the chicanes. We are expecting a performance gap of 0.8-1.0 second between the two nominated compounds, which should make the strategy options versatile. For this race only, we will bring Kevlar-belted rear tyres, following the incidents at the British Grand Prix. Even though the 2013 high-performance steel-belted version is completely safe when used correctly, the Kevlar-belted version is easier to manage and as long as there is no system in place which allows us to enforce tyre related specifications, like tyre pressures or camber, the incorrect use of which were contributing factors of the tyre failures in Silverstone, we prefer to bring a less sophisticated tyre. From the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards there will be a completely new range of tyres, combining the characteristics of our 2012 tyres with the increased performance of the 2013 specification.”
Jean Alesi: “The Nurburgring is a legendary name but personally I never found the modern circuit particularly involving, although it has changed a lot during the years. It’s a circuit that tends to be quite kind to tyres, so the question of tyre management isn’t a big one: you just drive as hard as you like. There’s always been a good atmosphere though as the fans are very enthusiastic, and I am sure that is just the same now. You have quite a variety of different corners in the lap so it’s mostly a question of finding a good rhythm and stringing them together in the most efficient way. I always thought of Nurburgring as a reasonably straightforward race: it’s not so much a big challenge but more a test of precision and not making any mistakes. If you start in a good grid position and have a clean race you should come away with a good result: you don’t often see big surprises. That’s unless it rains of course: then anything can happen…”
The circuit from a tyre point of view:
Built next door to the legendary Nordschleife, the modern Nurburgring is a fast and flowing circuit that is mostly made up of medium speed corners, with a technical infield section as well. One of the big variables in the region will once more be the weather, so a versatile tyre selection is essential in order to cope with a potential wide range of temperatures.
There are a number of reasonably fast direction changes at the Nurburgring. This increases the amount of lateral energy going through the tyres and therefore heat build-up. That is the biggest reason for wear and degradation on the tyres at the Nurburgring rather traction and braking events, which are on the whole limited.
Frequent rain in the area means that the track is often more ‘green’ than other circuits, particularly at the start of the weekend, as the moisture washes away any rubber that has been deposited on the track. With more rubber laid down, grip increases and wear decreases.
With no tyre data from last year on this circuit, the work of the teams during free practice will be particularly important when it comes to assessing how the latest 2013 tyres react in different temperatures and with different fuel loads. The information gathered on Friday, which is confirmed in the final free practice sessionon Saturday morning, essentially decides the strategy for qualifying and the race.
Further information about the Nurburgring and the demands it places on tyres, as well as more information about how circuits rubber in at each race, can be found on a 3D animated video starring Pirelli’s Racing Manager Mario Isola. This is copyright-free for media use on Pirelli’s Formula One website: www.pirelli.com/f1pressarea
Technical tyre notes:
The first corner is particularly challenging at the Nurburgring, particularly after the start where it is often the scene of accidents. Under acceleration out of it, the back of the car can step out, placing heavy demands on the rear tyres – as they need to guarantee a combination of grip and traction on one of the most technical parts of the circuit that is key to a fast lap time.
Turn seven is also particularly tricky: there is a deceleration of 5g heading into it and the front-left tyre has to do a lot of work here to compensate for the unusual camber of the circuit.
One of the keys to a quick lap is negotiating the kerbing correctly at the NGK Chicane. The drivers hit the kerbs hard, which puts a force equivalent to 800 kilogrammes through the tyre.
The tyre choices so far:
PZero Red PZero Yellow PZero White PZero Orange Australia Supersoft Medium Malaysia Medium Hard China Soft Medium Bahrain Medium Hard Spain Medium Hard Monaco Supersoft Soft Canada Supersoft Medium Great Britain Medium Hard Germany Soft Medium Meet the Pirelli F1 Team: Alexandra Schieren, Head of F1 Communications
Alexandra was born and raised in a small town 25 kilometres from Cologne in Western Germany. She studied languages and gained a diploma in translation, but her first job with a connection to motorsport was as an assistant in the media and PR department of Toyota Team Europe in Cologne: which at the time was a major force in the World Rally Championship. Her role came to an abrupt end when Toyota was disqualified from the series for cheating (she had nothing to do with that) and she then moved to London with a job in a communications agency where she tasted a wide variety of motorsport, from International Touring Cars to GT to Formula One. After a few years in London she moved to Paris and was later recruited by the FIA – world motorsport’s governing body – as Media Delegate for Formula One. When Pirelli returned to Formula One in 2011, Alexandra was asked to look after all Formula One-related communication. This involves answering general media requests, organising interviews and media events, overseeing external communications, and working with other departments within Pirelli and the various Pirelli markets. Alexandra lives in the countryside just outside Paris – a pleasant contrast to the often hectic lifestyle of Formula One – and enjoys reading books in different languages to expand her knowledge, with Italian being top of the list at the moment. She loves being in different places, just hates flying to have to get there…
Other news from Pirelli:
Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera picked up the ‘2013 Social Responsibility Award’ on behalf of Pirelli from the Foreign Policy Association in New York last week. The award reflects Pirelli’s consistent leadership of the Dow Jones sustainability index in the auto parts and tyre sector.
Pirelli hosted its home round of the Superbike World Championship at Imola last weekend, round seven of the series that is exclusively supplied by the Italian firm. Tom Sykes won both races, catapulting the British driver to the top of the standings.
The latest round of the Pirelli-equipped British Rally Championship, the all-gravel Scottish Rally, took place last weekend. Alastair Fisher won in a Citroen DS3 R3T: a car that he also drives on the Pirelli-backed Citroen Top Driver Series on the World Rally Championship.
The third round of the Pirelli-backed Blancpain Endurance Series took place at Paul Ricard in France. Marc VDS Racing Team’s Maxime Martin, Bas Leinders and Yelmer Buurman took their first win of the season in a Pirelli-supported BMW Z4.
Pirelli also competed in the world’s highest race: the famed Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado (USA) that finishes at an altitude of 4,300 metres. The Pirelli-shod Porsche 911 of Californian Jeff Zwart finished third in its class and 10thoverall.
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Hamilton, Rosberg visit Mercedes-Benz plant
Stuttgart, 3 July 2013: As part of the build-up to the German Grand Prix, MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, accompanied by Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Toto Wolff, called in to see their Mercedes-Benz colleagues at the Sindelfingen plant near Stuttgart on Wednesday. At one point during the visit, Mercedes-Benz employees had the opportunity to quiz the Formula 1 stars during a question and answer session.
Works Manager Willi Reiss took Rosberg, Hamilton and Wolff on a guided tour of the assembly line for the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class which entered production at Sindelfingen this year. The two Silver Arrow drivers were given the opportunity to demonstrate their own mechanical skills by fitting the wheels onto a Mercedes-Benz S Class. “Working on the assembly line and fitting the wheels onto a new S-Class was a new experience for me,” said Hamilton. “All the same, I’m relieved to have the guys change my tyres on a race weekend; they’re much faster at it!”
“I’m very interested in technology,” said Rosberg, “so for me it’s great that I get all these opportunities with Mercedes-Benz to take a look behind the scenes at their ultra-modern production facilities. I always learn a lot on every factory visit. Today, I’ve helped fit the wheels onto an S-Class at Sindelfingen, but recently I’ve also helped to assemble a 5.5-liter V8 biturbo engine at Mercedes AMG in Affalterbach and a Formula 1 engine at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth. If I carry on like this, I may eventually find that I’ve built a whole car…”
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in surprise presentation for Mercedes-Benz customers
How would you like to be presented with the keys to your new Mercedes-Benz by a Formula 1 driver? This dream scenario became a reality for two Mercedes-Benz customers in Sindelfingen. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were on hand when the customers came to collect their new vehicles from the Mercedes-Benz customer centre at Sindelfingen.
“The surprise was written all over his face as I handed him the key to his new Mercedes-Benz E-Class,” said Rosberg. Hamilton also drew a huge smile from the second customer when he presented the keys of a new Mercedes-Benz E-Class: “It is always a pleasure to meet customers and colleagues at the Mercedes-Benz works. We do our very best for them on a race weekend in the hope of being successful and making them proud of the Silver Arrows team.”
Looking to the future: Innovations for the race track and the open road
On their tour of the Design Department, the two Formula 1 drivers and their boss got a glimpse of the next generation of production vehicles from Mercedes-Benz. The innovative technical features in the pipeline are not just aimed at boosting performance in the top echelon of motorsport; the team at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center in Sindelfingen are also working intensively on stylish, safe and innovative vehicle concepts for the future. This unique collaboration means that the latest learning from research, development and design are also integrated into the production process.
“I have spoken to various Formula 1 fans today amongst the dedicated team here who work with great precision, apply inventive engineering and invest great passion in the development and construction of the latest Mercedes-Benz premium-class models,” said Toto Wolff. “I have immense respect for the fantastic work they do. A Mercedes-Benz made in Sindelfingen is a car that manages to combine the attributes of quality and comfort, of safety and elegance. As is the case in Formula 1, the focus here is on the right blend of perfectionism, responsibility and passion for one’s work, consistent with the philosophy of Gottlieb Daimler: The best or nothing.”
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FIA seeks urgent solution to Tyre failures
Paris, 1 July 2013: In light of a number of significant tyre failures at last weekend’s British Grand Prix, Jean Todt today said that the FIA is determined to seek an urgent solution to the problem and as such the FIA will change the format of this month’s Formula One Young Driver Test, said a Press Release.
File photo of Pirelli 2013 tyres. Photo by Pirelli “Our priority is to ensure safety for all in Formula One and we believe the incidents at Silverstone represent a genuine safety concern for the drivers,” said President Todt. “We have thus taken the decision to alter the Young Driver Test to allow teams to use drivers they deem fit to carry out tyre development work in a bid to solve the problems we saw at the British Grand Prix. I believe it is fitting to carry out this work at the circuit upon which the issues were manifested.”
The test, scheduled for July 17-19 at Silverstone, will now allow teams to field drivers who have competed in more than two F1 World Championship events provided it is clear that the purpose of them doing this is to test tyres for Pirelli. The test may also be extended by one day.
To provide for this, the FIA today informed Formula One’s teams that the approval of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) will be immediately sought for a change to article 22.4h (i)* of the 2013 Formula One Sporting Regulations.
Approval will also be sought for a change to the wording of article 12.6.3 of the 2013 Formula One Technical Regulations** to allow for a modification of the specification of the tyres during the Championship season without the unanimous agreement of all competing teams.
This will allow the FIA to take all necessary actions to ensure safety.
Notwithstanding the revised conditions as set out above, in the interests of the sport the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team has accepted to not participate in this test, as per the recent decision of the International Tribunal.
In the meantime, the FIA has asked Pirelli for an assurance that there will be no repetition of the tyre problems at this weekend’s German Grand Prix or at subsequent grand prix.
*Formula One Sporting Regulations 2013, Article 22.4h (i) states: No track testing may take place between the start of a ten-day period which precedes the start of the first Event of the Championship and 31 December of the same year with the following exceptions: i) One three day young driver training test carried out on a date and site approved by the FIA following consultation with all teams. No driver who has competed in more than two F1 World Championship races may take part in this test and all drivers must be in possession of an International A Licence.
** Formula One Technical Regulations 2013 Article 12.6.3 states: Tyre specifications will be determined by the FIA no later than 1 September of the previous season. Once determined in this way, the specification of the tyres will not be changed during the Championship season without the agreement of all competing teams.
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Nico Rosberg takes second win of the season
Silverstone, 30 June 2013: Nico Rosberg took his second win of the season at a British Grand Prix defined by a catalogue of tyre failures, a late-race gearbox problem that dumped championship leader Sebastian Vettel off the race while leading comfortably.Sahara Force India was in sight of a podium with Sutil in third place with a few laps to go but the rivals with fresh tyres made good pushing the Force India to 7th place. Paul di Resta who made it to 9th from the last row made it a double finish for Force India who are in the fifth place in the championship placings for Constructors’ title.
At the start Rosberg, who had qualified on the front row behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton, lost position to Vettel and dropped to third place.
The order at the front remained that way until lap seven when leader Hamilton’s rear left tyre suddenly exploded, leaving the home favourite limping back to the pits. It looked like an unfortunate accident but three laps later Ferrari’s Felipe Massa suffered an identical problem at Turn 5. He too crawled back to pit lane for repairs.
The race then settled down as the drivers worked their way through their first stops. On lap 24, however, the drama began again as another rear left failure struck, with Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Verge the victim, this time on the straight after Stowe. The Safety Car was deployed to clear debris and engineers up and down the pit lane radioed through to their drivers warning them to stay off the kerbs in turns four and five.
The Safety Car period was a huge boost for Mark Webber. The Red Bull Racing driver made a poor start from fourth on the grid and then collided with Lotus’ Romain Grosjean in Turn One. The incidents dropped the Aussie back to 14th.
From there he began to stage a typically pugnacious fight back and by the time of Vergne’s puncture he was ninth. And when the intervention of the Safety Car erased the gaps to rivals ahead, Webber could begin to contemplate an assault on the higher positions.
The Safety Car left the track at the end of lap 21 and at the front Vettel resumed his lead of the race, with Rosberg chasing. Vettel stretched the gap to three seconds but Rosberg managed to halt the damage there and soon the margin began to stabilise.
Then, after Vettel’s second pit stop, the gap suddenly disappeared. Vettel’s RB9 cruised to a halt on the pit straight on lap 42, with the title leader telling his pit wall there was “no drive”. Rosberg swept through to take the lead.
Webber, meanwhile, was surging through the field. Having battled past Grosjean and then stolen P6 from compatriot Daniel Ricciardo, he skipped ahead in the second stops and by the time of Vettel’s retirement the Australian was up to fourth behind Kimi Raikkonen.
With Vettel’s car stopped on the pit straight the Safety Car was again deployed and the Red Bull pit wall reacted by pitting Webber for new medium tyres. Rosberg stopped for fresh hard tyres.
Rosberg maintained his lead but Webber dropped to fifth. However, when the safety car left the track, Webber, armed with new tyres, made a charge. Ricciardo, Sutil and Raikkonen, all on worn tyres, were dismissed in short order and he set about reeling in Rosberg.
Webber got to within a second of the German on the final lap but Rosberg was able to keep the Red Bull driver at bay to take his second win of the season.
“It’s a very, very special day and I think what makes it more special is that our factory is so close, and our team has done such a fantastic job to come through during the season,” said Rosberg on the podium. “We have such momentum going at the moment, [we’re] progressing all the time. We were massively quick in qualifying [and we’re] also getting faster and faster in the race. I think today we had equally the fastest race car as well. So, it’s a very special day for me.”
Webber meanwhile, admitted that his start had been a disaster, though he could fathom non reason for his poor getaway.
“I didn’t have a clue what happened off the line,” he said. “We’ve had two or three good starts in the last few races and then the lights went out and we’re back to our normal tactics. We need to have a look at why they pop up every now and again. That was frustrating.
“Then I had, I think it was Grosjean take the front wing in the first corner, so the first stint was compromised by that,” he added. “The boys did a great job to put a fresh front wing on at the stop and then we started to get the race underway from there. Obviously there were a lot of people with issues with the tyres, which helped a bit, but we were lucky not to have any issues. It was a clean race, good strategy. I think that, yeah I would have liked a few more laps at Nico but he deserved the win. He was quick all day.”
Fernando Alonso’s race was a similar tale of recovery to Webber’s. The Spaniard’s Ferrari driver had been off the pace all weekend and on Saturday he qualified a desultory 10th.
With Ferrari’s race pace better than it’s qualifying form, there was hope of progress through the pack in the race but at the start the team would have hardly dared dream of the third place Alonso eventually secured.
“It was a good race for us,” said Alonso. “With the last safety car we lost six positions because of the safety car. But overall I think it has been a very lucky race for us. Looking at the problems with the tyres of some of the drivers, we fact we didn’t any problem we have to consider lucky. And then with Sebastian’s problem, as Nico touched on before, we’ve been also lucky to recover some points.”
Behind Alonso, Hamilton also staged a superb recovery to take fourth place for Mercedes, while Kimi Raikkonen was fifth for Lotus. Felipe Massa also profited from good race pace and a late run on new tyres to climb to sixth after finding himself 22nd after his puncture. Adrian Sutil was seventh for Force India, while Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo finished eighth. The final points positions were occupied by Force India’s Paul Di Resta and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.
As for the championship leader himself, Vettel was philosophical about his failure. “We had a gearbox issue, lost fifth, and when I shifted up to sixth, fifth said goodbye and damaged the rest of the gearbox,” Vettel said. “These things unfortunately happen but fortunately we’ve got the next race coming up next week so we can try again.”
British Grand Prix Race Result
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 52
2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 52 +0.7 secs
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 52 +7.1 secs
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 52 +7.7 secs
5 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 52 +11.2 secs
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 52 +14.5 secs
7 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 52 +16.3 secs
8 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 52 +16.5 secs
9 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 52 +17.9 secs
10 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 52 +19.7 secs
11 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 52 +21.1 secs
12 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 52 +25.0 secs
13 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 52 +25.9 secs
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 52 +26.2 secs
15 Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 52 +31.6 secs
16 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 52 +36.0 secs
17 Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 52 +67.6 secs
18 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 52 +67.7 secs
19 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 51 +1 Lap
20 Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 46 +6 Laps
Ret Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 41 +11 Laps
Ret Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 35 +17 Laps -
Its a very special day: Rosberg
DRIVERS
1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)PODIUM INTERVIEW (Conducted by Damon Hill)
Q: Nico, you’ve kept your cool when all around you were losing theirs. There were tyres going off, there were cars breaking down. Tell me, how do you feel to have won the British Grand Prix?
Nico ROSBERG: Fantastic! It’s a very, very special day and I think what makes it more special is that our factory is so close, and our team has done such a fantastic job to come through during the season. We have such momentum going at the moment, progressing all the time. Really, really massively quick in qualifying, also getting faster and faster in the race. I think today we had equally the fastest race car as well. So, it’s a very special day for me. And this goes out… this is for all of my team colleagues working in the factory. I hope many of them have been in the grandstands watching. This one is for all of you out there. Thank you very much.
Q: It was a dramatic race. You had two guys in the front who you had to beat. We lost Lewis Hamilton early in the race, that was a big disappointment to the British fans and then you were charging, you were chasing after Sebastian and then the leader of the World Championship, his car failed right here. What did you feel when that happened?
NR: With Lewis, definitely I feel sorry for all the British fans. It would have been a great race for Lewis here in front of his home crowd – that’s always a massive disappointment, but that’s racing sometimes. When Sebastian stopped, to be honest, I won’t lie, I wasn’t disappointed by that one. And then from then it was a great race to win.
Q: Mark, what a storming drive. You must have thought it was all over, the start didn’t go so well, tell us about it.
Mark WEBBER: I didn’t have a clue what happened off the line. We’ve had two or three good starts in the last few races and then the lights went out and we’re back to our normal tactics. So, I’m not sure. We need to have a look at why they pop up every now and again. That was frustrating. Then I had, I think it was Grosjean, take the front wing in the first corner, so the first stint was compromised by that. The boys did a great job to put a fresh front wing on at the stop and then we started to get the race underway from there. Obviously there was a lot of people with issues with the tyres which helped a bit but we were lucky not to have any issues. It was a clean race, good strategy. I think that, yeah I would have liked a few more laps at Nico but he deserved the win. He was quick all day, obviously. Little bit of fortune but anyway you’ve got to be there to capitalise. I’m very happy with second, team have done a good job and thanks – last time here in Formula One in front of the British fans – thank you very much.
Fernando, you again drove a storming race. You really got caught out by the second safety car – you were down and had to charge back up through the field. Fantastic drive back into the podium.
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, it was a good race for us. With the last safety car we lost six positions because of the safety car. But overall I think it has been a very lucky race for us. Looking at the problems with the tyres of some of the drivers, we fact we didn’t any problem we have to consider lucky. And then with Sebastian’s problem, as Nico touched on before, we’ve been also lucky to recover some points. At the end it was a very good Sunday and hopefully we put on a good show for the great, great fans. They’ve been here from Thursday to today, supporting all the teams, respecting all the teams. Thank you very much.
Q: The championship, is it blown open now? Here you have a points gain on Sebastian.
FA: Mixed feelings to be honest. Happy for the points, we’ve reduced the gap a little bit in this race but the pace we saw this weekend is not good enough. There were some other Sundays that we lost some points and maybe I was more optimistic. Today we recovered some points but we know there is a lot of work to do. But I trust the team, we are united, we have a difficult weekend, we put the cross and now we think of the next one.
Q: What did you think before Sergio Pérez when his tyre blew? What was going through your mind there?
FA: I’ve had two moments, that one with Sergio I was so scared and so lucky because I missed the contact by one centimetre. And also at the start into turn one. I locked the tyres and nearly lost the front wheel. As I said, some risky moments. All of them were fine for me today, so I just need to enjoy the result but from tomorrow working in Germany race because we need to raise our game.
Q: Nico, now you’re heading to Germany. Second grand prix victory this season and you have a German manufacturer in Mercedes. It’s going to be a fantastic event in Germany isn’t it, next week?
NR: Yeah, for sure. Going from the team’s home grand prix here to my second home grand prix – I already had one – fortunately for me I have two home grands prix, I managed to win that in Monaco. Second one coming up at Nürburgring. And it’s very special. I’m very proud to be German, driving a Silver Arrow, going to the Nürburgring, the history there, and having that great car that I have at the moment, really looking forward to that.
Q: The tide’s going to change a little bit, isn’t it? You seem to have a car that’s competitive during the race. The tyre degradation wasn’t nearly as bad. Is there any chance, do you think, that this championship could be turning a tide here against Red Bull?
NR: Well, I wouldn’t talk about that just yet but definitely the team has done such a good job during the season. Already in the winter, to come up with such a quick car, which we’ve had all year in qualifying, and now also progressing with tyre management and getting that better and better to allow us to win races now, that’s fantastic to see and really gives me… yeah, just very exciting.
Q: Where you happy to continue racing when you were told about the tyre issue?
NR: It’s definitely something that needs to be looked into, yeah? Because too much of that today, that’s for sure. I had one too – but got a bit lucky there with the safety car so that worked out great.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Nico, congratulations, great win for Mercedes, based just a few kilometres down the road from this Silverstone circuit. What does this win mean to you, and to them?
NR: Yeah, fantastic day definitely, and it’s very special because it’s the home grand prix of the team and the factory is ten minutes away. A lot of people, a lot of my fellow team members and colleagues are in the grandstands, watching today and it’s very, very nice that I was able to give them such a great race and such a great result. They really deserve it – you really deserve it because you’ve worked so well all season. It’s great to see the momentum we have in the team at the moment.
Q: There was obviously some brilliant driving, some brilliant overtaking but no doubt the big story coming out of this obviously is the situation with the tyres. Your thoughts on what we’ve seen today.
NR: Definitely that’s a problem. Too many tyre failures and they must look into that and see what can be done.
Q: Mark, you almost got him at the end. 0.7 seconds as you crossed the finish line of a race you’ve won twice – you obviously enjoy it very much here. Great recovery though, after a poor start. Just listening to the tone of your radio messages, is it tempting to say that you feel a win got away from you today?
MW: Oh yes, it’s easy to say that. With ten laps to go when you can see the win in sight. It is mixed feelings when you finish seven-tenths behind Nico for the win. But he’s also out there doing his things, so he deserved the win. We did recover. I think we had a bit of luck after that but we’ve got to be there to capitalise on it. We had a good strategy, obviously I pushed very hard on the laps I had to do the business. The start… I don’t know. I have no idea how we can get so good some weekends and then not at others. That was a big negative for us. And then Grosjean – someone, I think it was him – touched my front wing at turn one. I had to get that changes at the first stop. And then the race really reset from there. The safety cars obviously helped – although I didn’t want them because of the reasons why they were happening. Obviously it’s very nervous for all the drivers to see that happening. In the end, very, very good result for myself, for the team, still go something out of it, what was… looked like a pretty random weekend for everyone on race day. I want to thank all the English and British fans for the support that I’ve had over the years racing here – it’s been a real highlight for me to race at this circuit. So, very much looking forward to the next race and hoping to challenge again. I was happy with my performance today.
Q: You mentioned it’s a nervous time for the drivers. Four left-rear tyre failures, one front-left tyre failure. Your thoughts on that – and what it feels like to know you’ve got to carry on and press in that situation.
RB: Well the team are trying to keep us up to date as best they can. Obviously it’s a little bit of a moving target for them as well. They are doing their job to inform us as much as they can. It’s not a slow circuit, it’s very quick, we’re committed to the high-speed stuff here, 100 per cent most of the time. It’s not December yet, so I’ll stay quiet.
Q: Fernando, a very quick call when Vettel retired there, to come in and make a stop. Dropped you down to eighth. I was wondering whether the team had made a mistake there but you managed to fight your way through some amazing overtakes. Did you think you might have blown it at that point? And your thoughts on the race.
FA: No, obviously it was an unlucky situation. They called me in around Turn Five. So, Vettel was not having the problem yet at that point they call me. We were in this lap and we try to pass Webber and Kimi, they were slowing down a little bit in front of us, so we committed to stop before Sebastian’s problem. And then yes, I go out of the pits and I see ‘Safety Car Deployed.’ Obviously it was the worst time possible to have a safety car, when you have just pitted, and we lost an extra five positions. I don’t know how many overtakings I did all the whole race. The start was probably the worst start of years. Probably. I was fighting with Hülkenberg in Turn Three, Turn Four, and I remember he was not in the first positions on the grid so I realised I was quite far down there. After the start we recovered some positions, some safety car moments as we touch on, and then the last big push at the end as we try to get a podium. We did it, it’s a fantastic result for our very difficult weekend. Sometimes we have very good pace, we have a car that is able to fight for the wins and we are out of the podium. This weekend everything went a little bit on the wrong side for us, we get the podium and Sebastian doesn’t finish the race. It’s one of these weekends where the result is very good but the feeling is that we must improve for next weekend.
Q: Obviously on the day when your main title rival retires, you want to try to take 25 points and not 15 but the qualifying situation really wouldn’t allow you to do that today. What do you go away from this weekend and back to Maranello telling the team?
FA: Well it was not the qualifying, it was the weekend in general. We were normally very fast on Fridays, on the long run pace. It was not the case here. We were not fast on qualifying and not fast on the race – so definitely was the overall weekend we didn’t manage to make the tyres work. We’ve been very lucky – unlucky with the safety car moment that came out but very lucky with the first corner, that it was very close with Mark and Grosjean I think. In the first stop, lap nine, I had a tyre problem also. My tyre was finished and disintegrate in the last corner. For me it was the right rear that I think was new compared to all the other failures and if this happened like Felipe – that I think was in Turn Five when it happened – then I lose the race. For me it happened in the last corner and I pit. At the end it was a very lucky race and I just need to be very thankful for the team, for the luck and try to improve for next weekend.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Graham Keilloh – F1 Plus) Early in the race, after the first three rear tyre failures, there was some radio contact on the television advising drivers to stay off the kerbs, but it seems subsequently that wasn’t really heeded; just talk us through the thought process of that, why you subsequently decided to take the risk?
NR: Are you saying we were still taking the risks of going on the kerbs? Well, for myself I wasn’t, I was staying off the kerbs and I got a tyre problem myself, but it worked out well, I was able to pit before it broke apart because the safety car came out. I was a bit lucky there. And then after that, when Mark was chasing me, it was a compromise between how fast is he coming at me and how much am I going to take out of the tyres, so I was staying off the kerbs, taking it easy in the high speed where the most damage is done. Then I had to pick up the pace a little bit towards the end as he was getting quite close so that was really difficult to judge.
Q: Mark, they broadcast at least four or five messages from Rocky (Guillaume Rocquelin) to Sebastian telling him to stay off the kerbs; were you getting a similar amount of that kind of message?
MW: Yeah, Simon was keeping me up to date with the… That’s all they could give us was staying off the kerbs because they were saying that they probably didn’t really know why the tyres were failing at the rate they were. So yeah, I did what I could in all the right hand corners to have… turn one, exit of seven, also Copse and Becketts and Stowe, all the fast corners, trying to stay away from there. It’s not always easy but in general I tried to adhere to the advice, because yes, you want to gain a little bit here and there, but as Nico touched on, it’s not much fun driving a Formula One car on three tyres so you have to make sure that you do what you can to listen to the team; they’re on the pit wall with the most information so you have to do what they say.
FA: Same, always the same. They kept telling me to avoid the kerbs but obviously if you’re in position twelve you need to attack, you need to change the racing line, you need to use the DRS. This is a circuit where we’ve been racing for 12 years in my case and I’ve never had these problems. I think the kerbs were perfectly OK.
Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) Mark, you’re not the kind of guy who normally blames his equipment, less so perhaps than other people, but this story of your starts goes back a long way. No doubt you’ve analysed it over and over again. Looking back today, was it possibly a human failure on your side or was it an equipment shortcoming of some kind?
MW: I need to look. We know it’s not the strength of our situation up until Monaco. I think Monaco and Canada, same procedure and we’re running into the back of these guys. Same in Canada, I went round Bottas and we were very very strong off the line. Today, reverse was in gear. I was obviously ready for the start, everything was set, but I didn’t go anywhere, obviously. I think it was quite slippery off the line but we had a lot of issues getting away. It is frustrating, mate, but I need to go through it and we’re working on things to make it more consistent in the future, but it’s just such an important part of the weekend and it’s a no-brainer that you have to get it right, all the effort that goes in. There’s no question about it, it’s cost a lot of good points over the time but yeah, it shouldn’t be that difficult but it turns out that we’ve got to improve on that area and I’m happy to be part of that.
Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) Fernando, in the last races, every Sunday you seem to have to overtake five, six positions from the start to the end; I wonder if you would explain what you feel, both physically and psychologically?
FA: I’ve been doing this for the last five years, unfortunately. It would be nice to start on the front row of the grid but we are not good enough on Saturdays and it’s something we try to work on as a team: the package, car performance, tyre preparations, driver maximising the lap. Whatever we are missing on Saturdays, we haven’t been on pole position for a long time but we fight, we gain some good experiences in my career, especially in 2008 and 2009 were maybe not so bad seasons in the end, with no good results but very good experience and you try to play safe, obviously when you are fighting very hard with some rookie drivers etc it requires a little bit of extra care but we managed today to do some good moves and some good points, but as I said, it’s something that we don’t like to do and we would like to improve Saturday’s situation.
Q: (Christobal Rosaleny – Car and Driver) To all of you: I know Nurburgring is not like Silverstone in terms of fast corners and all of that, but if somebody tells you that the same thing is going to happen, that the tyres could explode there, would you race or would you tell the people that’s enough?
NR: Well, we shouldn’t get into that situation. We need to do what needs to be done to sort it out and make the tyres last.
MW: I think we’ve been trying to have input for the last three years and it’s deaf ears. Anyway, we’re part of the package, part of the show. The show goes on by the looks of it.
FA: Yes. Same. Theoretically the cars are the same all year. They were OK on most circuits so it should be OK, but for sure it’s something that what we saw today is not good but we drive the cars so we understand nothing about what is the real problem or what it is the real solution so it’s a question for them, for sure.
Q: (Luke Smith – NBC Sports) Nico, before Sebastian’s stoppage, the gap between Sebastian and you had remained quite constant. Do you think you would have been able to catch him if he hadn’t have had the retirement?
NR: I was trying, I was pushing hard trying to stay with him but it wouldn’t have been possible. No, I would have been close all race but to catch him and pass, I didn’t have enough speed unfortunately. But I think pace-wise, possibly I was a little bit quicker, yeah, because very often I was able to come back to him once I started pushing again before the pit stops and when you’re in the dirty air from the guy in front, your tyres wear a little bit more and you lose out. I think I had good pace in the race today.
Q: (Stewart Bell – Herald Sun) Mark, you were on fire from that last safety car period to the end; what was that like for you, that last stint, especially given it was your last British Grand Prix?
MW: Yeah, it felt pretty good mate, I knew that I was going to make pretty light work of the guys ahead of me because they were on old tyres. I wanted information on Nico, I wanted to know what compound he was on and how his pace was before the safety car because I hadn’t seen him before in the race at any stage. They said that he was pretty quick so I was pretty keen to get past those guys early and then go from there, but both of us managed to get to the end of course on the limit but also managing the scenario with the tyres. So yeah, it was a nice finish to race. It would have been about a hundred cherries on top if I’d managed to get past him but I didn’t. He deserved the win and we made him work for it which was good and rewarding, but we could have got much more out of the car in the race today to be honest.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) I think all of you were asked by your race engineers after the tyre failures to stay off the kerbs; how much did it affect your racing, in particular Mark and Fernando who had been in fights or battles with other drivers?
MW: Well, it’s a compromise. You want to still push as hard as possible but you have to check your line a bit, change your trajectory, the radius is tighter, obviously, in certain corners, i.e. the quick stuff, Copse, Stowe, turn one, staying away from there. It turns out maybe it wasn’t really the kerbs, who knows but it’s just better to factor in everything that you possibly can. Some laps, when you’re in disturbed air and you get behind a car and you get a little bit wide then that’s life, you’ve got to… you can’t be super accurate when you’re tucked up behind the guy in the quick stuff so that’s just the decisions you have to make and yeah, we managed that as best we could.
FA: I didn’t change, I didn’t change lines. I didn’t change lines. I was fighting with twelve cars all the race through so you go in the dirty air, let’s say, and you lose downforce and you go straight out over the exit kerb. As I said, it’s hard to believe that the kerbs were the problem because we’ve been racing here for 12 years with those kerbs.
Q: (Jaime Rodriguez – El Mundo) Nico, do you think that without the Montmelo test Mercedes could be winning races like now?
NR: For sure, yeah. Definitely.
Ends
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Hamilton thrilled to see huge crowd; Paul penalised
Silverstone, 29 June 2013: In a late-day decision after scrutiny, Sahara Force India driver Paul Di Resta who qualified in P5 was forced to start at the back of the grid after stewards penalised the team for the Force India car failed to maintain the weight of its car to the required standard and fell short by 1.5 kg. Sutil will start on P6.
Saturday FIA Press Conference:
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG Petronas flanked by teammate Nico Rosberg (to his left) and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull after taking the Silverstone pole on Saturday. An FIA photo DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)
TV UNILATERAL
Q: Lewis, a great lap there at the end to take pole position at your home grand prix. How does that feel?
Lewis HAMILTON: It’s incredible! It feels just like it did in 2007. Just to see the crowd here today is fantastic – such a great turnout from everyone. So that was a lap for them. I hope that tomorrow we can do something special for them but this is really down to the team. They’ve been doing a phenomenal job, improving the car constantly. I haven’t been feeling 100 per cent comfortable all weekend – so I was really happy to finally get a lap.
Q: Nico, your thoughts on qualifying. That’s the fifth time in six races that Mercedes has been on pole position – and disputing it between you two as well. So, your thoughts on today.
Nico ROSBERG: It’s definitely a really, really great feeling, to go into qualifying and having such a car. To definitely have the fastest car… it’s really, really cool. It’s a great job that the team has done to get us to where we are now. And we’re also improving on Sundays – hopefully. I’m confident we have improved so tomorrow should be a bit better. I’m sure that still there are going to be other teams that are a little bit stronger than us but maybe starting on front for sure is going to help and maybe it’s going to still be possible to get a great result.
Q: Sebastian, there seemed to be some different tactics at play with regard to tomorrow’s race in terms of your saving one tyre of tyre, Mercedes saving another type of tyre. You see this as a very tactical type of weekend clearly.
Sebastian VETTEL: We’ll obvious see what happens tomorrow. It’s a long race but honestly very happy today. I don’t know, either Lewis found a short cut or he has something special around here. A phenomenal lap. I think it wasn’t in reach today. I was very happy with the lap I had at the end. And I think it was very close with Mark as well. I think we did what we could for the team and, yeah, it’s always nice to position well in qualifying. Especially around here qualifying is good fun, enjoying the high-speed corners and looking forward to tomorrow, for the race. We’ll see how well we are with tyres, looking after them. But as I said, for now very happy for the team. Hard to put the car in third place, Mark right behind, so I think it’s a good position to start from. Obviously our factory is very close to this track. Milton Keynes is not far away and yeah, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Q: Lewis, we’ve seen obviously this year quite a few times that qualifying is one thing but the race is another. What about tomorrow? How do you feel Mercedes will fare against the Red Bulls in the British Grand Prix?
LH: I think undoubtedly it’s going to be tough for us to keep Sebastian behind but our long run pace wasn’t as bad as we’ve seen in the past, so I’m hoping with the temperatures and a bit of care, we can nurture the tyres to get a good result. I’m going to be pushing, giving it my all tomorrow, as I’m sure Nico will as well, to finish up ahead.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, difficult day for you yesterday, as you were saying in your comments after the free practice. You weren’t happy with the balance of the car. It’s quite a turn around from you and the team. Can you talk a little bit about that – and also the crowd power aspect of things: did you feel that today?
LH: The car is… obviously as Nico was saying, we’ve got a great car and to fine-tune it seems to be a little bit harder than what I’ve been experiencing in the past. So really trying to get the car underneath me and feeling comfortable and having an equal balance. With a Formula One car you’re always trying to balance it on a knife-edge. Just for some reason with this car I’m struggling to do that. In the past I would aim do that all the time. But got closer. We made the right steps, made a change going into qualifying which helped – still not perfect but it helped. And then the crowd to make a huge difference. After seeing them turn up in their thousands and seeing all the flags waving. Of course this weekend I come here with an extra boost of energy and just want to pay them back. Every year I come… this is the first time since 2008 that I’ve had a car that I’ve really been able to compete with so I’m really, really proud of what the team have done and I hope the fans can have a good evening and bring us some good luck tomorrow.
Q: Nico, we mentioned earlier on that the last six races have really been all about this, particularly in qualifying, between the two of you. You’ve had the upper hand a few times, Lewis has had the upper hand a few times. Can you talk a little bit about how you’re enjoying this in-house battle with someone you’ve known and raced against for such a long time?
NR: Yeah, it’s a big battle we have, and usually it’s very close – not today – Lewis did a great lap in the end. It’s also a really, really big push, also for the whole team, that we’re pushing each other all the time, and that’s really good. We’re really lucky because we have a great atmosphere at the moment in the team, everybody’s going in the same direction and sticking together, so it’s fantastic momentum that we have at the moment.
Q: Sebastian, do you feel that you’ve got the most complete package for this weekend? Obviously you’ve given a bit away in qualifying but you’re here, some of your rivals for the championship are behind you tomorrow, how’s your approach?
SV: Well, certainly we’re not giving away anything consciously or on purpose. They are bloody quick in qualifying, I think that’s what it is. I think we are not too bad but obviously they seem to be in a different world on Saturday afternoons. I think something, yeah, they manage pretty well around the tyres which allows them to get a very, very strong lap in. Plus Nico and Lewis are doing a great job. Doesn’t help if you want to qualify on pole. But points are scored on Sunday and the last couple of races have been pretty good for us. I think, to sum it up in both – in qualifying and in race – so for sure today I think P3 was our maximum but for tomorrow y’know, who knows? They are also getting better. It helps the more time we spend on the tyres – let’s leave it there – and yeah, I think we all try to understand more and more and as the season goes on we do get better and there’s less and less room for improvement. For the moment it seems that we have a strong car in the race, maybe a little bit better than the Mercedes. Whether it will be like that tomorrow? Well, we’ll find out. But that’s the fun part. I’m looking forward to finding out.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Kate Walker – GP Week) Lewis, obviously none of us experience putting together a pole lap like the one we just watched and it really was a phenomenal performance. Could you explain what it’s like actually sitting in the cockpit; do you sit there completing your sectors going ‘ wow, I’m really on it’ or is it only afterwards that you realise how well you’ve done?
LH: No. You have a delta time on your dashboard so you can tell as soon as you cross the line into turn one and when you start the lap whether you’re up or not and so you kind of keep checking it, halfway through, after each corner, after each sector so already by turn nine I could see that I was two and a half tenths up and you just don’t want to lose that, so you have to take extra care after that, but also you want to improve. But yeah, you also feel that it’s a feeling having the tyres up to temperature, the brakes up to temperature and the car just beneath you and not trying to get away from you. Sometimes it is like a wild bull, you’re trying to tame it which is very very difficult to do. But when you do, and you pull out a lap like that, it really felt like 2007. I couldn’t hear anyone still, because the car’s too loud, hopefully I got a good roar today.
Q: It looked like the track improved a lot, two or three tenths improvement from session to session this afternoon.
LH: Yeah, each time we go out we seemed to… which is kind of normal but it’s quite a good surface here at Silverstone so the grip does continue to go down (on the circuit) and hopefully that will be good for us tomorrow.
Q: (Julian Harris – City AM) My question is for Lewis as well: are you still learning this car, are you still finding out more each week and do you think you’re getting better in each race, or do you think you’ve pretty much got it sussed now?
LH: I definitely haven’t got it sussed. This weekend’s been a tough weekend. Every weekend is tough, even if you are used to a car it’s tough but I really have been struggling with the car, trying to tune it, trying to get it to behave the way I want it to, and then drive it and extract what I want from it. Out of all the cars I’ve driven, it’s one of the hardest cars to drive. So when you pull it together, it’s a great car and obviously very quick. Each weekend I’m working as hard as I can, each weekend it does feel like it’s improving a little bit. We made another improvement on the brakes this weekend which is another step in the right direction so I hope we can continue going forwards.
Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto-Motor, Hungary) Lewis, obviously Paddy Lowe is now at Mercedes and he is here, working with you. Is it a boost for you personally to have him in the team since you have known him for a long time, and did you influence the decision that he would join the team in any way?
LH: I don’t believe I had any influence on him coming here. I think that was a decision of his and Ross and Toto. Is it a boost? It’s a boost to the team. We already have some incredibly talented people in the team, doing fantastic things and coming up with great designs but the stronger the package, the better it is for everyone. He’s a good addition to the team and hopefully he will only help us moving forwards.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, you started Q2 with hard tyres. It looks like you are very comfortable with tyre wear… No?
SV: You said I started Q2 on the hard tyres?
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Yes.
SV: No. I did only one run in Q2 with the soft tyres, well, medium.
Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Well, it looks like you are very comfortable with tyre wear for the race. Is that correct?
SV: Well, it depends. I think comfortable or not depends on where the others are. I think we were happy with the runs that we had yesterday. I had another one this morning, so I think we are pretty happy with that but it’s difficult to judge, because you don’t know what fuel loads other people are running, the usual stuff, so we will find out tomorrow plus in the race it’s always a little bit different. Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter which is nice for the crowd after the last couple of years, I think it was always quite miserable on Friday, so now we’ve had a good Saturday and tomorrow, as I said, again a little bit warmer so it could change the balance of the car and how the tyres work. I think we’ve saved as many tyres as we could and the ones that we liked so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.
Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, Alonso is only tenth today. It’s good news, thinking about the championship?
SV: Well, I didn’t really think about that. I think it’s not good news for him. For sure he wanted to be a little bit higher up as well as Ferrari. It’s a bit of a surprise. I think they’ve been very competitive here the last couple of years but this is also a circuit – let’s not forget – where the balance is very important so even if you have a good car, if it’s not coming together it can make a big difference, especially over one lap. And the other thing, that’s why I’m not too interested to look at the results today. In the race we’ve seen that a lot of things can happen and people starting from further back can still score a lot of points and come through the field, so I think in terms of race pace and tyre wear they will be strong tomorrow and surely, should everything go as per plan for them, they will finish higher up than tenth. Everything else, I think, would be a surprise.
Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN.com) Lewis, before you got in the car before qualifying, we saw you wave to the crowd. Did you feel, having lost pole to Nico over the last few races, that you needed to psyche yourself up and find something extra today?
LH: Not really. It’s not about psyching myself up because I’m always mad for it, I’m always on the limit, I’m always on the edge. I always have the determination and the will but it’s just trying to get my car to where I want it to be so when I went out there, I was hoping that my car was where I wanted it to be and it’s also… The fans sit there for a long long time during the day and don’t really get to see our faces so it’s the one opportunity that I do get to see them and try to extract what I can from them, because the support means a lot.
Q: (Derek Bish – Anglia Newspapers) Lewis, you’ve obviously been here in junior formulas as well; what sets apart the Lewis Hamilton that puts together a lap like that today from the one who was here in GP2 and before that?
LH: Yeah, my age, getting older, older and wiser, I think. I’m still very much like the GP2 driver I was. I just have more knowledge now. Of course, we all change over time but yeah, I think I’m a little bit more sensible and a little bit better at making decisions than I was back then. And hopefully that approach helps me win in the car.
Q: (Phil Agius – Racing Post) Sebastian, Toro Rosso have been going well this weekend and I think Daniel Ricciardo is sixth on the grid. Would you be comfortable with another Australian teammate next season?
SV: I think first you should see the individual rather than the country where he comes from but surely I haven’t got a problem with Australia. I like going there, it’s a nice track, we go every year too, so I’m looking forward to going back next year. Congratulations to Daniel. It seems that both of them, the whole weekend… I don’t know what happened to Jean-Eric in qualifying but both of them had a car that was good enough to show their potential so happy for them and hopefully they can keep it up throughout the race and score some good points for the team. In a way, obviously, we’re all fighting for ourselves; secondly we are fighting for our team but obviously we have more connection to Toro Rosso than Mercedes for example so not a surprise is it? So yeah, all the best to Daniel and Jean-Eric tomorrow.
Ends
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Hamilton takes pole; Paul to start on P5, Sutil P7
Silverstone, 29 June 2013: Mercedes AMG Petronas’ Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the British Grand Prix with a stunning lap at Silverstone this afternoon to push his teammate Nico Rosberg to second place as Mercedes locked the front row again here on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Sahara Force India came up with a stunning show with Paul Di Resta taking the fifth place and Adrian Sutil starting on P 7 with Daniel Ricciardo in between. Red Bulls were right behind the leaders with Sebastian Vettel beating Mark Webber for P3. Romain Grosjean of Lotus was ahead of his teammate in P8 and Ferrari completed the top 10 with Fernando Alonso on P10.
- Lewis achieved the team’s fifth pole position in six races and the 28th pole of his career today
- Nico’s second place secured the team’s third front-row lockout in the past four races
- Both drivers used three sets of option tyres in qualifying, saving new hard tyres fortomorrow’s race.
Quotes: Lewis Hamilton
It feels incredible to be on pole, just like it did back in 2007. We have the greatest Formula One fans in the world here in Britain and there was a great turnout today, which makes the atmosphere so special. My lap in Q3 was a lap for the fans out there around the circuit. I haven’t been feeling comfortable in the car all weekend, so I was really happy to find a good lap and this feels fantastic. The team has done a phenomenal job and it’s a great reward for the guys here at the track but also back at base, especially as our two factories are so close to the track. But we know that tomorrow is another day and our Sunday performance isn’t quite as strong right now. Our long run pace looked ok yesterday and we were able to manage the tyres quite well. It’s going to be tough to keep Seb behind but we will give it everything we’ve got.Nico Rosberg
A fantastic team result today and it’s great to see how much progress we have made together since last year. The feeling of confidence that our car will be quick in qualifying is fantastic and I love going to a race knowing that we have a shot of a strong grid position. The team are doing a great job and we are keeping up the development so a big thank you to everyone at the factories, many of whom are here today watching. My lap was good and starting from the front row is great but Lewis did a fantastic job today. I hope we have improved our race pace; it will be all about tyre management tomorrow and keeping the others behind us. I’m confident that we can get a good result.
Ross Brawn
The team has worked incredibly well over the past few months to achieve a result like today’s. We have been chipping away at the performance, quietly bringing new updates and continuing to push, while also focusing our efforts on how we could improve our tyre management issues, and it seems to be paying off. The engineers and drivers got the cars into the perfect place for qualifying and, as the wind dropped towards the end of the session, both Lewis and Nico were able to deliver strong performances. Lewis put in a stunning lap at the end of the session and it’s great to see him and Nico pushing each other so hard in every session. It will be more of a challenge to remain as competitive in the race but we gathered good information yesterday and hope to be able to build on that tomorrow.
Toto Wolff
A fantastic result for the entire team to take our third front row lockout this year. Fair, sporting competition is what Mercedes stands for and, while a lot has been said and written this weekend, the only thing that really matters is what happens out on track. The focus this afternoon should be on our drivers, Lewis and Nico, and on this fantastic team who have pushed so hard to keep developing the car in tough times and solve our problems. Lewis put in a mega lap: I don’t know if it’s the Silverstone factor or something else, but that was an incredible performance. Nico has been strong all weekend and second position gives us a great platform for the race tomorrow. Tomorrow should be warmer and we have struggled with race pace at some circuits so far this year. But the trend is going in the right direction, and I hope we can continue that tomorrow.Sahara Force India delivered a strong showing at its local track as Paul Di Resta qualified in fifth place for the British Grand Prix with Adrian Sutil in seventh.P5 Paul Di Resta VJM06-04Q1: 1:32.062Q2: 1:31.291Q3: 1:30.736Paul: “I’m over the moon with the qualifying result and I think the whole team can feel very satisfied with fifth on the grid. The morning practice session was quite difficult so it feels great to come through and end up just behind two Mercedes and two Red Bulls. This track takes a lot of commitment and you need to build up your speed, but I think we saved our best till last – and that’s when it mattered. For tomorrow our tyre wear looks healthy and we’ve given ourselves a good opportunity to get in some clean air during the race. I will sleep well tonight and hope that we can have a straightforward race, and come away with lots of points.”P7 Adrian Sutil VJM06-03Q1: 1:32.002Q2: 1:31.079Q3: 1:30.908Adrian: “Seventh place is a great result today. The car was not easy to drive this morning, but we made some improvements before qualifying and found more speed with each session. If we can do our homework tonight then we have the potential to have a great race. There are still some unknowns with the tyres over long runs because I haven’t really done more than ten laps on a set of tyres, but I feel comfortable on both compounds. So we can be happy with the result, but we need to concentrate on tomorrow because that’s what counts. In terms of strategy we need to keep an open mind and have several options going into the race so that we can react as the race develops.”Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director“I am delighted with today’s qualifying result. The sun was shining, the grandstands were full, and we put on a fantastic show. Fifth place for Paul at his home Grand Prix is a tremendous effort, especially on this high-speed track, which has not been our strongest race in previous years. Adrian’s seventh place confirms just how competitive we are this weekend and we know that we have good race pace. For tomorrow it’s important that we maximise these starting positions and hopefully give our supporters and partners something to celebrate at our local race.”ends
