Category: Formula 1

Monaco, 28 May 2012: 

From pole position Webber got a good start on Sunday, got to the first corner ahead of Nico Rosberg and never looked troubled. 78 laps later the first six crossed the line nose to tail, but this was rather more exciting than that suggests. Behind him Romain Grosjean spun after contact with Michael Schumacher. Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber hit the spinning Lotus and both were out. The sixth race of the season also threw up a new winner in Webber to make it six different winners in six races at the principality of Monaco. Thus Webber became a double winner at the street circuit and joined the exclusive club

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The safety car was deployed, the order behind it was Webber leading from Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Alonso, Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Schumacher, Nico Hulkenberg and Bruno Senna. The variable in play was that Vettel, like Button and di Resta further down the order, was on the soft tyre, the other leaders were using the supersoft. Rosberg was the first man in for tyres, stopping on lap 27. Webber followed two laps later and got out comfortably in front of Rosberg. Hamilton, Räikkönen and Hulkenberg stopped at the same time.

One lap later Alonso came in and picked Hamilton’s pocket. Schumacher stayed out until lap 34 and jumped Räikkönen. The Finn had emerged behind the Marussia of Charles Pic and, with no way through, was forced to lap three seconds slower than Schumacher for several tours. Vettel led the race and began to put in a series of fast laps. His hope would have been to build up a cushion of over 20 seconds to be able to stop and retain his lead, but Webber began to pace himself against his team-mate and Vettel’s lead never got above 18 seconds. Finally it began to decrease as his tyres went away: he pitted on lap 46 and emerged in fourth, having jumped Hamilton and Massa.

“I was a little surprised that [Rosberg] went then because the tyres were still going not too bad – but it was worth a go,” said Webber in the FIA press conference after the race. “The prime tyre was a very tricky tyre to get started. Obviously Seb was in the groove and underway and he was doing some very quick lap times in that part of the grand prix. And it was hard for us to get going, so I had to keep an eye on the Sebastian gap but also manage the tyres. So when Seb pitted, then I could revert my concentration back to Nico. It was pretty good after that.”

Schumacher was forced to retire from seventh with a fuel pressure problem and then rain began to threaten but only a few drops fell on the circuit. It was enough to make Webber drop his pace by a few seconds and the leaders bunched behind him.

“It’s always tricky when you’re the first guy arriving into corners when it’s sprinkling,” said Webber. “On other tracks, a little bit of rain like that, you wouldn’t really have to back off so much but all of a sudden the car is wheel-spinning, the front’s not biting, and around this place that’s not very encouraging. Particularly when you’re in the lead with only ten minutes to go in the race. So it required me then to really, really control the race and get the car home.”

Despite the first six being covered by two seconds, no-one attempted anything desperate in the damp laps. “I was hoping I might get a chance or something but my tyres were really struggling too,” said Rosberg. “Also, I had Fernando behind me and at times it was very difficult, just front and rear warm up, tyres lost temperature and then they picked up again towards the end.”

Alonso, whose third place lifts him into the championship lead, agreed. “Five or six laps to the end with the drops of rain that we had, I think we were all praying ‘no more rain’ because it was so difficult.”

What rain there was soon abated and the track dried, allowing the front runners to resume lapping at their previous pace. Webber took victory, pushed across the line by Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and Massa. Further back Force India had a good day with di Resta and Hulkenberg seventh and eighth. Kimi Räikkönen was ninth for a disappointed Lotus and Bruno Senna took a consolation point for Williams.

Alonso leads the Drivers’ Championship on 76 points, closely followed by Vettel and Webber on 73 each. Red Bull Racing had a fine day and extended their lead in that competition to 38 points, with 146 to McLaren’s 108.

“It was a very, very special victory today, and hopefully there’s more to come,” said a jubilant Webber. “The start was key, the pitstop was key, both of them went well. I did a little bit of work in between and we got an incredible victory that I’m very, very happy with. It’s great memories for me to win here twice, fair and square off the pole positions. Nico kept me honest. I had him under control but he drove well. It was good grand prix.”

ends

Monaco, 26 May 2012: Post qualification press conference by FIA saw the following drivers interact with the media: 1 – Michael SCHUMACHER (Mercedes), 2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing) and 3 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes).

TV UNILATERAL to begin with:

Michael, many congratulations, a great lap. I guess the only shame is that you have to move five places back on the grid, so a bittersweet feeling is it?

Michael SCHUMACHER: First of all, I am more than thrilled and excited about making a pole here in Monaco. Monaco to all of us is the track of the year, which has a very prestigious position, and to manage pole position here after what I have gone through in the past two-and-a-half years is just fabulous. That’s what sticks in my mind. I told you guys already in the press conference, my situation is going to be pole, start the race in sixth and I’m going to win it. That’s what I’m here for and what I’m going to aim for. That’s all I gave in min mind and the past doesn’t matter at all.

Mark, you were on pole here in 2010 and you’re going to inherit it tomorrow from Michael, what do you think about that?

Mark WEBBER: Pretty amazing session wasn’t it. It was very, very close. Q3 was tight between the first few rows. Obviously there were some different tyre strategies going on with different people getting through different parts of qualifying with different sets of tyres and in the end it was a good little battle. Michael did a good lap, fair play to him, but it’s nice to move up a position. Of all places, it’s good to start definitely towards the front here. The guys have done a good job, they worked hard on the rest day, they pushed very, very hard. We weren’t too strong on Thursday and obviously didn’t get much running, though everyone’s the same. But the car on Sunday is generally pretty good, so looking forward to tomorrow.

Nico, you’re only a tenth off pole position. You had provisional pole for quite a long time. I guess you thought you’d done enough. Nevertheless, a chance to win the race tomorrow from where you start.

Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, I wasn’t too aware of the situation. I knew I had done a pretty good lap time but at the same time I knew that I would have to improve on that time to be able to get pole. But in general it was a good qualifying for me too. Everything went to plan. I didn’t optimise my car perfectly in the end, bit too much understeer, but as such, front row is a great place to start tomorrow.

Back to you Michael. Obviously it’s been a tough couple of years since you decided to make your Formula One comeback. What does this pole say about you and how do you feel?

MS: Well, I’ll leave it up to the others to say what it means or doesn’t mean. For me, I’m obviously excited, very happy. It confirms what I have felt for a long time. It’s just sometimes you have put everything at the right moment together. Here it worked out. I have to say a great thanks to all the team, in particular to some of the guys who work very close to me. We had a special session earlier this week that, yeah, it sort of uniforms and unites us even further and those are the result that come together with it. I’m grateful for all the trust that Mercedes, the team had in me and [they]  supported me. I’m able to give back a little and I hope I give even further and more back tomorrow.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Michael, your feelings about this pole position? Admittedly, it will be sixth on the grid.

MS: Obviously I saw my time on the dashboard and thought, ‘well, it shouldn’t be too bad’. But then you don’t know – as I was one of the earlier ones on track for the lap – what is going to come behind. So I was watching all of these monitors around the track and at one point I saw with a little sign, number one. And that was the moment I started slowly to believe and got confirmation on the radio. Yeah, just beautiful.

Is this a good Mercedes track? Obviously you’re first and third in qualifying.

MS: I mentioned before the weekend that here and probably Canada are tracks that are probably going to suit us. We shouldn’t look too bad. I told in the round of media after this one down at the TV stations, I said the plan is to be pole here, start the race from sixth and do whatever is possible – may even win – and here we are. It is not a complete surprise that we are able to fight for the front position. But after Thursday free practice and even this morning I wasn’t at all confident to be able to fight for pole position. Then everything seemed to work together. We just dialled the car in to perfection and it’s… yeah… it’s just a result. It’s a result of team effort and team work and getting everything sorted and being ready for it.

The statistics say that the highest winning grid position is third on the grid here. What can you do from sixth?

MS: Well, what can I say? I’ve finished fifth from being last; I won from I don’t know what positions. I will do as good as I can. It’s most likely to be a one-stop strategy here, that’s what you have to live with so in terms of strategy there’s only a very small window to play with. Overtaking we know is tough but we have DRS and KERS so you might as well try – and be sure I will.

Mark, as we mentioned the other day, you had your first podium here, you won from pole in 2010, you’ll be starting on pole tomorrow, you’ve been in the top five for the last four years. It all looks good, doesn’t it?

MW: First of all, I think it’s Michael’s day. It’s a good lap for him so obviously it was a tight session for us. Lots of different people arrived in the back part of the important session in quali with different situations with tyres. Quali went quite smooth for me. It’s the first time of the weekend where you put everything on the line – within reason – so it started to feel pretty good for me and I knew it was aiming for the first few rows for sure. And then it became very, very tight between us and I thought, OK, well, after the first run in Q3, it wasn’t too bad a lap, I thought, we can still go for pole for sure on the last run. And yeah, it was a pretty good lap, I’m pretty happy with it. Very, very good position to be starting tomorrow and we have a very, very good car, the guys have done a good job and I’m very happy with today’s effort.

How well prepared are all the teams, would you say, after losing most of Thursday?

MW: Everyone’s in the same boat. I think that we don’t have a huge amount of experience with the supersoft around here on long runs, but everyone’s going to be in the ballpark I would imagine.

Michael says he feels it’s a one-stop race. Is that pretty much the strategy?

MW: 24 hours mate, we’ll see!

Nico, obviously you’re starting on the front row. What does it mean here at what is your home circuit?

NR: I can also be pleased with today. Generally it’s all gone well, the whole weekend until now. It’s especially great to see how we, as a team, have managed to turn things around from a difficult time the last two races and now be right at the front again. It’s just nice to follow all the progress we’re making, moving forward and really fighting hard to improve the car and get the best of the situation – and that’s why today to really be on top as a team in qualifying is great and I’m very pleased, obviously, to start on the front row in Monaco. That is a great place to start to have a good race.

You needed two laps on the first set of tyres in Q3. We didn’t see what happened at the end of the lap.

NR: Two things: mainly the front warm-up on the tyres was an issue but also I did some setup changes from Q2 to Q3 and I had to find my way around those first, because it was quite a different strategy so that’s why it took me two laps.

And, as was the question to Mark, is the team perfectly happy with the preparation, given that you lost most of Thursday afternoon?

NR: Yes. It’s not going to be easy, the race, definitely, you know a long race and tyre degradation is going to definitely be an issue but I think we’ve prepared well and done the best we can to make sure we have a strong race car.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Vincent Marre – Sports Zeitung) Michael, you set a fantastic pole position; I would like to know how you rate this one among all the others?

MS: May I just say that you have to see two different chapters of life and this is the second one, which stands by itself, because in this Silver Arrow time, in terms of qualifying is the best position I have been in and luckily I’m able to give back, in that way, all the trust that has been shown in me over the last two and a half years.

Q: (Leonid Novozhilov– F1 Life) Michael, is this pole position the best of your life and secondly, how many poles do you think you can set for the team this season?

MS: Similar answer to what I just said before, because how I rate this pole to others… it’s the first one of the second part of my career and naturally that’s the better one, because it’s the first one. It’s just sweet and a good feeling after you have come back and have hoped for better results in all circumstances at the end of the day, after why and what has happened, but to finally get it together and being able to prove it – that’s much more important and therefore I’m certainly delighted.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Mark, on Thursday you were not very optimistic about getting on the front row. What did the team change to make the car so much better today?

MW: We certainly pulled the balance together a lot more. Obviously there are no real fast corners here but there are a few where you need to be able to keep the car in the line, especially into Casino but also through the Swimming Pool. You need to have a very good rhythm and pace through there, which we didn’t really have on Thursday, so the car, between low and high speed wasn’t great. We really really pulled that together. Also I think the track helped as well, the rubber on the circuit helped pull it together. The driver always brakes a little bit later on Saturday, so that helps a bit as well. Altogether the guys have done a great job and I think we got the maximum, actually, from what we could do today.

Q: (Andrew Frankel – Forza) Mark, with all the hoopla, all the sponsors, everybody here, do you sleep just as well, starting tomorrow from pole position? Are you a bit twitchy, nervous or whatever?

MW: That’s Formula One around here. It is unique, it is a special event. In some cases I used to like Magny Cours because we could go there and just drive the cars and leave, but here, getting around and the people… always being close and demanding things and all that sort of stuff is not always ideal, but that’s the way it is. Sponsors, they come to a lot of different races. They are great for our programme but they are not in the cockpit with me and that’s why they trust in us to get the job done.

Q: (Marco Giachi– Paddock) Michael and Nico, do you think the special device that you have in the front wing helped you get this very very good performance, to keep the car more balanced?

MS: First of all, it is obviously only available in qualifying and only if we can overtake in the race, otherwise it’s not available. Monte Carlo… you almost get no effect from it. There’s a very small advantage because of the nature of the track, so I don’t think you see any particular advantage in this one. For sure there is some advantage – that’s why we have it, otherwise we wouldn’t have built it, but certainly not enough to discuss it.

Q: (Cedric Voisard – Le Figaro) Question regarding penalties : would you say that it would be better and clearer for the public to apply penalties on site instead of at the next race ?

MW: After qualifying, I thought I had the penalty because my engineer said ‘well done, great lap, de-de-de, penalty’ and I thought ‘shit, what for? I’ve done nothing.’ Yeah, then I was slightly relieved to hear it wasn’t me who had got the penalty. When you have an incident in a Grand Prix, that’s obviously the tricky thing, because it’s people’s decisions after the previous race… When incidents happen I suppose that apart from fines, what else can you do? Sunday’s indiscretions. How do you enforce any regulation on driver behaviour or team behaviour or whatever after that? Do you have any ideas? I don’t know.

Q: (Malcolm Folley – Mail on Sunday)  Michael, with your rich history round here, can you tell us what it was like to put that lap together today. The world watches this qualifying session perhaps more so than anywhere else; it was the ideal time to remind everybody that you still do have it.

MS: You have probably already put my answer into your question. Monaco, being so special… we call it a bit more of a driver track than some other tracks we run on through the year, but particularly because of the prestigious atmosphere and what it all means to us, it is super-fantastic if you manage to do such a lap. I knew that I was on a lap but then you can never be sure because we have seen how close and how tight today qualifying has been and I just managed to get it together perfectly, because everything was prepared and that is the nature of Formula One. It is very tricky these days and it’s not always possible to have everything together at all times but here and now we did, and we hopefully learn more and more in order to do that more often. But reminding people that I’m still around, yup, that’s a good point.

Q: (Frank Schneider – Bild) Michael, how come that you were able to predict this pole position last week when you were in Le Mans?

MS: Yip, not only did I say it on Wednesday here but I did so at Le Mans as well, that’s true. I sort of felt that our car could be strong here, so it wasn’t out of the blue, and it wasn’t just a funny comment. There was quite a bit of optimism in there but I guess that’s my nature.

Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) We’ve had some particularly variable weather over the last three days and we were expecting a wet qualifying session; are you expecting or afraid of a wet race or do you think it’s going to stay dry?

MS: I’m expecting, at my pit stop, that it will start raining.

NR: Local knowledge hasn’t really helped the last few days. It’s been very unusual, that’s not the normal weather here, that in the morning we have sunshine and then in the afternoon everything goes dark. It’s very strange.

MW: I just do whatever Jenson does!

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paul) Michael, does a result like this – the maximum, pole position – have weight in your decision whether to continue or not in Formula One?

MS: You imagine that just because of one result I’ve done at this moment I’m suddenly restarting or opening a different subject. No, that’s not the case. I’m focused on what I’m doing right now. There will come a time when I will make summary of everything and then I will sit down with the team to see what we’re going to do.

Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Michael, in the first chapter of your life, when you were on pole, you had two or three cars trying to win, like Ferrari or McLaren, and now we have 10 or 12 cars potential winners here. How do you see the race tomorrow from pole position?

MS: Naturally there are more contenders for winning this race than maybe there used to be in the past, that’s true and that is why it’s also so tight. I don’t know what the time gap is between positions one and ten today but I guess it’s much less than it used to be in the past. But that’s how Formula One has evolved and there are particular reasons for this. Being up front, I like it but being on the other side you may disagree.

Q: (Olivier de Wilde – Le Derniere Heure) Michael, it’s a pity you have this penalty, especially here. Do you think it was justified?

MS: I’m not thinking about two weeks ago. I’m just thinking about the now and what will happen. That’s it. I’m focused forward.

Ends

Monaco, 26 May 2012: Mark Webber reckons he has a “very good car” with which to aim for his second Monaco win from pole position after he inherited the front-of-grid slot thanks to pole winner Michael Schumacher’s five-place penalty, says an FIA press release.

Webber, who won here in 2010, was in provisional pole position today as the clock ran out in the Q3 top-ten shoot-out in Monaco, but Michael Schumacher was still on track and the German quickly notched his first pole position since the French Grand Prix of 2006. However, the seven-time champion’s joy was tempered by the knowledge that he will start from sixth tomorrow, having been hit with a grid penalty after the Spanish Grand Prix where he crashed into Bruno Senna.

The German’s misfortune was a bonus for Webber though as he now moves up to the front of the grid for the first time since he took pole position in Germany last year. “Pretty amazing session wasn’t it,” he smiled afterwards. “It was very close. Q3 was tight between the first few rows. Michael did a good lap, fair play to him, but it’s nice to move up a position. Of all places, it’s good to start definitely towards the front here.

“We weren’t too strong on Thursday and obviously didn’t get much running, though everyone’s the same, but the car on Sunday is generally pretty good, so looking forward to tomorrow. [It’s] a very good position to be starting tomorrow and we have a very, very good car. The guys have done a good job and I’m very happy with today’s effort.”

Webber added that the team had worked hard to recover from Thursday’s poor showing and admitted that he too had played his part it he improved performance. “We certainly pulled the balance together a lot more,” he said. “Obviously, there are no real fast corners here but there are a few where you need to be able to keep the car in the line, especially into Casino but also through the Swimming Pool. You need to have a very good rhythm and pace through there, which we didn’t really have on Thursday, so the car, between low and high speed wasn’t great. We really really pulled that together.

“Also I think the track helped as well, the rubber on the circuit helped pull it together,” he said. “The driver always brakes a little bit later on Saturday, so that helps a bit as well. Altogether the guys have done a great job and I think we got the maximum, actually, from what we could do today.”

Team-mate Sebastian Vettel was less pleased with his Saturday afternoon efforts, the defending champion admitting he had taken a wrong turn on set-up. “It was looking very good this morning, but then I think we took a step in the wrong direction and ended up with a difficult car for qualifying,” he said after qualifying 10th. “It’s a bit of a disappointment, as Mark showed what the car can do around here, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.” Vettel will start ninth tomorrow thanks to Maldonado’s penalty.

ends

DRIVERS

1 – Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren)

2 – Pastor MALDONADO (Williams)

3 – Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari)

TV UNILATERAL

Lewis, McLaren’s 150^th Formula One pole position today. You really had to manage to the process though, particularly with the tyres. You were in the groove from the start, but what happened at the end when you stopped out on the track?

Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly it was a fantastic qualifying session for me. Really, I’m very happy with the way… I think it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever had. Amazing job by the guys in the garage. Huge thanks to the guys in the factory for bringing us the upgrades, which have worked fantastically. I stopped on the track. I was told to stop. I don’t really have any idea why. But the car was feeling great today. It’s a great day for the team, I think. I don’t know what happened with Jenson, but he’s got great strength and pace throughout the race, so I have no doubt that he will make his way up through the grid.

Pastor, a sensational session for you and Williams. Where did you find the speed from?

Pastor MALDONADO: I think we’ve been working so hard from the beginning of the year trying to understand these tyres and to develop our car around the tyres and I think we actually did a really good step forward for this race. We need to continue to like that, keep pushing. I think at the moment there is a great atmosphere in the factory, a great atmosphere here in the team, the car looks pretty consistent and fantastic, especially in the race pace, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It’s a great feeling to be here, it’s my first time in the top three, so I’m really happy and hopefully we will continue like that and I would like to say thanks to the whole team.

Fernando, a lot of updates also on the Ferrari. Are you heading in the right direction now?

Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, I think so. Obviously for us it was impossible to even dream about being in the top three in the four races, we just had eyes on Q3 with no new set [of tyres] left or anything like that, so definitely it’s a step forward. The grid is so compact now that if you improve two or three tenths it makes a huge difference in terms of positions: five or six positions. So we did a step forward. I still doubt how much we did, because I think maybe P3 is a little bit over-performing what we can do at the moment. But I’m extremely happy with the lap; it was perfect. I don’t think there is much more to come. I think I could put 100 more sets of tyres on and I could only repeat the lap time probably. It is the way it is. I’m extremely happy for today and hopefully we maximise or capitalise on this good starting position tomorrow with a good result.

Back to you Lewis. Obviously a lot of tyre tactics going on in qualifying today. What about the race tomorrow? What’s your read on how things are going to shape up and what kind of shape do you feel you’re in to become the fifth different race winner in five races?

LH: Well, we’ve looked after our prime tyres, which is generally the better tyre for the race, or so it seems at the moment – the longer lasting tyre. Also the option tyres are all in good condition so… I think it’s going to be a massively tough race tomorrow. Of course, I’ve got these two great drivers next to me. I’m really happy to see this guy [Pastor Maldonado] up here and to see Williams up here and also Fernando. It’s really great to see my old team-mate up here as well and I’m going to have a great battle with these guys and I really hope we’re going to put on a great show for all the fans.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lewis, congratulations. That was a great lap at the end. You must be so satisfied with it?

LH: I really am. I think every time you go out, every time you qualify you’re searching for that perfect lap. You’re searching to put the car in just the right sweet spot, where you’re gaining all the time you could possibly gain and you’re not losing anywhere and I really felt that throughout Q1, Q2 and Q3… after Q1 I was like ‘damn, that should have been my Q3 lap’ but I was really grateful that I was able to continue that throughout the session and yeah, fantastic feeling really – overwhelmed.

Lewis, you’ve started third on the grid here for the last three years and you haven’t yet won this grand prix, you’ve been twice second. Do you really want to tick this box, win this grand prix, one of the ones you haven’t yet won?

LH: Well I’m very much aware that I have an incredibly tough race tomorrow with these guys who are massively quick – also on their long runs – and just how tricky it is in general. But it would mean a huge amount for me to win here in Spain. It’s always been a great place for me, it’s beautiful weather all the time and the people are just incredible and the support that I’ve had continues to grow year by year. And it’s become such a pleasure for me to come here. So, to win at one of the circuits where they have one of the biggest fan bases for Formula One in general, would be fantastic.

Can you explain why there should be such changing fortune, even between team-mates? For example, your team-mate didn’t get through to Q3, his [Maldonado’s] team-mate didn’t get through into Q2 even and his [Alonso’s] team-mate starts 17^th. It seems extraordinary the changing fortunes even for team-mates.

LH: I think it’s surprising all of us. We are all very surprised. Obviously we are very happy that we’re up here! It just fantastic to see how close it is. You lose a tenth or two, that means you have to use your next set of tyres which then has a knock-on effect for the next session if you do or don’t get through. And so it’s massively competitive and it’s great for… I’m sure the fans are loving it – maybe not enjoying Q3 so much, but we definitely did.

Pastor, where did it come from? How much did you get sorted out in Mugello? Do you think it’s a knock-on effect after Mugello?

PM: I think all the guys in the factory did a wonderful job because the upgrades we have for this race, everything is working on the car. I was pretty happy yesterday in the free practice and the balance is there. Even though our strongest point has always been in the race, so I’m looking forward for tomorrow. Actually we improved – our worst thing was the qualifying pace so pretty happy for that, pretty happy for the team, for my country, for myself. It’s a great job today.

Is this a favourite circuit, one of your best? I know Bruno [Senna] said it was one of his favourite circuits…

PM: I think all of us, we know very well this circuit, we enjoy this circuit because of the combination of corners we find here, even the teams know very well. I think we have been working so hard in the winter tests here and so we find a good balance in the car and a good compromise for quali and race.

Did you feel yesterday ‘hey, we can really do something here’? Did you already feel that yesterday?

PM: Yes. I think yesterday we were thinking about top ten, it was possible. This morning I was quite surprised about our performance because the car was so quick with lower fuel. This morning it was possible.

Fernando, I don’t think anyone was ever going to discount you here. I don’t know what it was, maybe the crowd, or Ferrari etc, etc, How much satisfaction, third on the grid?

FA: Really happy. No doubt that this is a special weekend for me. And as I said on Thursday, there is always some extra motivation, some over-performing a little bit of what you have on hand, and yeah, thanks to the updates we had here, definitely we did a step forward, in the right direction because we hardly get into Q3 in the first four races and now we arrive with a little bit more comfortable way and then in Q3 the lap was good. I said before in the other conference with another hundred new tyres I would repeat the same time – I don’t think there is any time left. But the points are given tomorrow, not today. We did as much as we could today and we are happy to start in a much better position that what we did in the previous grands prix. But we need the points tomorrow. Especially… the grid positions are mixed a little bit as you said, with some of the people that are in front of us in the championship, they start at the back tomorrow – so we need to take benefit of this good position today and score more points than them.

We remember in particular your start last year. Are we going to see a repeat of that?

FA: I’ll tell you tomorrow. Definitely, a little bit like Pastor and Williams, our race pace is much better than qualifying pace – that is normally our weakest point and we suffer on Saturday some bad positions and then compromise a little bit our race pace. So tomorrow we have a privileged position to start, so the first corner will be important if we can gain some positions, but it’s important also not to lose. The race tomorrow is very long with the tyre degradation and, as I said, we must score points tomorrow, good points, with this position we have. So, aggressive start yes, crazy start not.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, will you be happy tomorrow repeating this position or will you be looking for something more?

FA: You never know in Formula One. I think a podium position, we tend to agree in the team, if someone tells us two or three days ago, before coming to Barcelona, or after the Mugello test, that in Barcelona you will be on the podium, I think we all agree, we all be happy with that position. Today, obviously with this position, that dream or that target is closer. But I think the race is very long tomorrow and we saw even in Bahrain, Kimi started ninth, (11^th), he was P10 or P11 in lap one and he nearly won the race in the end, so the positions are not crucial anymore as previous years. I think it will be an extremely tough race tomorrow to take care of the tyres again. Degradation, DRS, KERS to overtake. Pitstop strategy, we will see probably a lot of pitstops for everybody. The more pitstops you have, the more risk you have to have a problem in the pits. There are a lot of factors tomorrow that we need to take account. It will be a difficult race. A podium, I think, will be a good result for us and happy.

Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Lewis, are you happy? What are you feeling now? What do you think about tomorrow, this position?

LH: I really feel fantastic. I’m very, very happy. Normally you can always be happy with a pole position of course, but for some reason even more so this time than maybe any other qualifying that I’ve had, except for the first pole position I have had in Formula One. Just because, as I was just saying, you’re always looking for that perfect lap, and I really, really felt that I got everything just, just sweet there and got absolutely everything out of my car. I didn’t miss apexes or anything like that. It’s an incredibly feeling when you have that. It’s really just a very unique experience. But tomorrow’s going to be a tough race. As you were just saying, Fernando had a great start here last year and it’s such a long drive down to turn one – but he was also saying people are coming to win from quite far back, or to compete for wins from quite far back, so tomorrow’s just going to be about looking after your tyres, getting the right pitstops at the right times and really being patient, I think, at the most important times during the race.

Q: (Fulvio Solms – Corriere Dello Sport) To all three drivers; they have chosen new rules and tyres to have an unpredictable Formula One. Do you think this championship is just unpredictable, or technically less logical as well?

FA: I don’t think they choose the tyres for the championship to be unpredictable. We have the tyres that we have.

LH: I’m not sure that they were expecting it to be as it is, but I definitely think that it is a bit unpredictable at the moment, massively close. There have been several different winners in the races and you can make such a big difference, if you don’t finish one race but then you win the next race, it can still keep you in contention so it feels for me – out of all the championships that I’ve been in – it feels to me to be one of the most exciting ones. Regardless if I haven’t won yet, it just feels like one of the best, I imagine, for people to watch.

PM: I think that the tyres are the same for everybody so all the teams and all the drivers are working hard to adapt ourselves, even the cars to these tyres and to get the best performance we can.

Q: (Marco degli Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Pastor when you reached Williams, there were a lot of people, among journalists too, who expressed doubts about you and they said that you have got the seat because of your rich sponsors and so on. Now, are you convinced that you have proved that you are one of the top drivers, thanks to your qualities?

PM: I’m think that I’m lucky, I’m lucky to have not only a sponsor behind me but also a country behind me, pushing me so hard. Here I am, doing my job, doing my best, trying to improve every time. I have a mission, which is to be back with Williams to the top, so here we are. We still need to keep pushing, to keep improving and I think that is possible.

Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Pastor, congratulations, I want to know about the start tomorrow. What do you think? Is it going to be easier to attack Lewis at the first corner, or defend from Fernando?

PM: I think it’s going to be a very tough race, because not only us three but even the other drivers have a very close pace. Our strongest point was always race pace so hopefully our car will be very consistent and pretty good in the race. I hope to continue like that, I hope to stay in the position, the podium is very important for us, the points, so it’s very important to keep calm and to do good race.

Q: (Laurentzi Garmendia – Berria) Lewis, we have such a close championship in terms of times in qualifying, but I think your gap was over half a second to Pastor. Does it surprise you? It looks like a dominant car.

LH: Yes, I’m definitely surprised to have such a big gap. I wasn’t surprised that it was a good lap because it felt that I switched the tyres on the right way and I feel that I extracted everything but yeah, considering that all the sessions are so close, all the teams are so close, I definitely wasn’t expecting to have such a big gap. That’s quite a big gap for us but we definitely can’t take it for granted. I think we’ll go to other races and it will be slower and in some races we will be faster but we really, really hope that with the continuous upgrades that we get we can try to maintain the pace that we have, especially through qualifying but most importantly to try and improve through the race.

Q: (Mike Doodson – Honorary) Fernando and Lewis: I think we all agree that it’s a good thing when Williams is doing well in Formula One and both of you have had moments this year when you’ve been racing with Pastor or the other Williams driver. I wonder if either of you or both of you could tell me where the car has strong points that you’ve noticed while racing with it on the circuit.

LH: I can’t remember exactly what your strong points are but for me it’s fantastic to see Williams up here, really, really very happy for them. I know Sir Frank quite well since I’ve been here and I’m a huge admirer of him and his team and to see them up here again, I think Formula One’s just not been the same without Williams being at the front, competing. So it’s good, it’s great for them and for the whole team. I’ve always thought they had quite a good car, it always looked quite beautiful but I think this year it’s performing as well as looking good, so we’ll definitely be on our toes to try and make sure we’re ahead of them.

FA: Yeah, I don’t know. Obviously I fight a little bit more with them than Lewis probably in these four races. The car looks strong in race pace as Pastor said and basically taking care of the tyres. I remember in China they did like 32 laps with the same set of tyres that no one could adapt to. Apart from the car, they are doing a very good job, setting up the car with the engineers – I know some of them, very talented and a fantastic job from the drivers as well. Pastor has this year proved, not only today, but many times this year that he’s doing a fantastic job, also with Bruno but less lucky sometimes. In Australia, on the last lap, Pastor crashed behind me but I was already fighting in the top five so it’s not new that he’s fighting in these top positions so well done to all of them.

Q: (Jaime Rogriguez – El Mundo) Fernando, after the last free practice this morning, did you imagine that after qualifying could be fighting for pole? When did you feel the real change in the car?

FA: No, obviously this morning’s practice we didn’t think we could be in the top five or top six. I think P8 to P12 was more or less our position after practice, same as after yesterday’s practice as well, that we were fastest in the morning and P14 in the afternoon, so we were something in between those positions in practice as well. Yeah, I’m happy and a little bit surprised to be in front of one McLaren, both Red Bulls, both Lotuses, so definitely this is not what we were expecting but qualifying went like this, it went our way this time and as I said, today means nothing if we don’t finish the job tomorrow.

Q: (Carlos Miguel – La Gaceta ) Fernando, are you worried that you might not to be able to finish the race in the same position you are in now, or are you worried the rhythm of the Renault – because they were very strong on Friday – and maybe some of the guys behind. I ask about Kimi because I think he could be a contender for the race.

FA: Yeah, yeah, definitely, the Lotus will be a threat tomorrow, starting fourth and fifth. They’ve been quick all weekend so tomorrow no surprises if they are fighting for the podium or even for a race win. Sebastian is P8 so he will be fighting for a top position later in the race. With Jenson and Mark having the possibility to chose which tyres to start on, I’m sure that they will prepare something good to recover position because they have the pace. They had the pace yesterday in FP2 and I’m sure that tomorrow they will be quick. The race will be tough to maintain positions because we believe that there are quicker cars behind us but let’s see what we can do. On the other hand, this is not an easy track to overtake on,

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) The forecast for tomorrow is significantly cooler, can that change the picture that some cars which hadn’t been up to speed today might fall into the operating window of the tyres tomorrow?

LH: I think it could be the opposite. If people are struggling today to switch their tyres on then potentially they would struggle even more if it was cooler but that is a real tricky situation to be in, that sometimes three tyres come in and one, your left front doesn’t work and then you just have understeer and you don’t get the time. If it is the case and it’s cooler tomorrow it will be tough for everyone, even the guys who did switch their tyres on today.

FA: Maybe rain.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) To all drivers: you approach the times that you registered in winter testing today, with the same tyres but 20 degrees hotter asphalt. Can you make an analysis about this?

LH: Did we do these times in the winter?

FA: Yes, 21.6s for Grosjean in winter I think. We did 22.2s, we did 22.5s today, something like that. I think the cars improved a lot between February and now but the temperature… we know that the hotter it is the slower you are. It happens in the winter as well. If you do your best time at 9 ‘o clock in the morning, then you cannot repeat those times in the afternoon. In a way that shows how much the cars improved for everybody from February to here. It’s good.

PM: I agree. I think today was a bit more windy, which is a penalty for everybody.

Ends

Day Three of F1 testing at Mugello went the same way as Day Two with Romain Grosjean’s Lotus on top, narrowly ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Mugello, 3 May 2012: Another full day saw the F1 teams take their last opportunities of the 2012 season to test with their regular drivers. Yesterday’s sunshine was replaced by cloud and so with slightly cooler track temperatures, many teams took the opportunity to run harder tyres – though the performance of most seemed unaffected by the change, according to an FIA press release.

For the second day in a row Romain Grosjean’s Lotus was the fastest car at Mugello, two-tenths quicker than Sebastian Vettel. “We were conducting a specific programme of evaluating components, so to be quick relative to our opposition even when we were not looking specifically to try to top the times is satisfying,” reflected Grosjean. “I’m happy at the progress we’ve made here in Italy and looking forward to seeing how well this translates into lap time when we get to Barcelona.”

Vettel and Red Bull were happy with their efforts, having gone past the 100-lap mark again and suffered no mechanical problems: “It’s been a useful couple of days and I’ve enjoyed the track a lot,” reflected Vettel. “As usual we now have a lot of data to get through and that will take some time. We tried a few things and the results look encouraging; it’s always difficult to tell whether we improved and by how much, but we got some good laps and some good information.”

Third quickest was Fernando Alonso who took to the track with a Ferrari F2012 featuring a heavily revised rear end. Alonso was the fastest man on track early in proceedings but his progress came to a halt when he hit the barriers. The damaged car came back to the garage on a low-loader and spent two and a half hours in the garage for repairs before Alonso could get underway again. “The feeling I have after the test is a positive one,” said Fernando in the evening. “We have introduced a few small – and I stress that word – aerodynamic updates, that have produced the response we were expecting and that is the most positive news, which means I am confident for the future, in the short and the long term. It means that what we see in the factory in Maranello has now also been confirmed on track.”

Fourth quickest was Daniel Ricciardo for Toro Rosso who also managed heavily mileage and pronounced himself pleased with the day. “With new parts you always hope they will deliver a big improvement, but the reality is that we must now look at the data to see where we really are,” said the Australian. Fifth was Sergio Pérez for Sauber ahead of Nico Hülkenberg for Force India. Having got very little running over the first two days the Silverstone-based outfit decided to continue with Paul di Resta (tenth fastest) in the morning before handing over to Hülkenberg in the afternoon.

Following Hülkenberg was the Williams with Pastor Maldonado taking over today. He spent much of the morning in the garage as technical problems grounded the car. “We had a disappointing start to this morning’s session with an electrical problem that necessitated stripping the car, thus incurring a large loss in track time,” confirmed chief operations engineer Dr Mark Gillan. When the problem was fixed Maldonado was able to get out and run a modified programme of 63laps.

Chinese Grand Prix winner Nico Rosberg had a busy day for Mercedes. While only eighth quickest he racked up 129 laps for the Silver Arrows, equivalent to just over 670km and behind him McLaren had a productive run with Oliver Turvey in the car, concentrating on testing various front wing and exhaust iterations. Di Resta followed Turvey on the time sheet, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen, whose 139 laps was comfortably the most mileage of the day.

“I enjoyed myself out there – even though a lot of what we were doing was pretty repetitive, it’s still a good place to drive an F1 car around and having got through everything we’d planned it’s good to leave this test on a positive note,” said Kovalainen. “We tried a variety of new parts and it felt like we may have found a couple of things that we can take to the next race. You can never tell just how much of an improvement something has been until you go through all the data, but the fact we’ve brought new parts that feel like a step forward is good.”

Bringing up the rear of the field was Timo Glock who managed 110 laps for Marussia, putting behind them the steering issues which blighted their running on Wednesday.

ends

By our Special Correspondent

Bahrain, 22 April 2012: Starting from pole, double world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing team stormed to victory to win his 22nd GP title at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the fourth round of the Formula One World Championship at the Sakhir International Circuit here on Sunday. Sebastian Vettel who dominated the season last year won his last race at the Budh International Circuit, near Delhi in October last year. He made a stunning start and showed glimpses of his last year’s dominance take over-2-second lead by the end of the first lap. Lewis Hamilton, the current leader before going into the race finished 8th.

The win threw this year’s world championship open, as four different drivers from four different teams won the first four races this season. But the significance of Bahrain is the strong return by former world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who came seond for Team Lotus with compatriot Grosjean making it a double finish for the team which used to be called as Williams, till last year. Jenson Button of McLaren won the first race at Melbourne, Fernando Alonso was a surprise winner at the rain-hit Malysian GP on March 25 while Nico Roseberg notched his first Formula 1 title at China’s Shanghai circuit last Sunday.

Mark Webber earned his fourth consecutive fourth place to keep him in the hunt for an attack on the title. Nico Roseberg of Mercedes finishd 5th while Fernando Alonso of Ferrari took the seventh place while his teammate Felipe Massa was 9th. Force India’s second driver  Nico Hulkenberg finished in 12th position.

Sahara Force India’s Paul di Resta, withstood a late challenge from Fernando Alonso seconds before the finish, to take a well deserved 6th place which prompted Star Sports commentator and former Indian F1 driver Karun Chandhok to say that the Force have underperformed this season in the first three races after a strong showing in the season early testing. Narain Karthikeyan, the only Indian on the grid, was content to successfully finish the race with the HRT team, whose target is to see that both the cars finish the race until new updates for the car. Narain finished in 21nd place while his teammater Pedro de la Rosa was ahead at 20th place. The back-end team is struggling with cooling systems but saw great performance by Narain in rain during the third race at Sepang in Malaysia last month. Narain Karthikeyan: “The start today was good, but then the first few laps were quite tough because there was dust everywhere. I settled behind Pedro but I think I pushed too hard in the first stint because my tyres were dead very quickly. After my first pitstop, I improved a lot and from there my lap times were consistent. We did a four-stop strategy, which I think went very well, and in the end we were only half a second behind Pedro at the checkered flag. My race performan

The victory takes, Vettel to the top of the leader board in the Drivers’ championship with 53 points, four points aheadd of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull Racing team also takes the top spot in the Constructors’ championship with 101 points ahead of McLaren, who has 92 points. Lotus, with a double finish today, have 57 points for a third spot. Force India is in the eight place in the Constructors’ championship while Paul di Resta is in the 10th place in the Drivers’ list with 15 points.

In the 48th lap, Nico Roseberg overtook Paul di Resta for a 5th place and four laps later Jenson Button, mounting a challenge on Paul was forced to pit for a puncture which effectively put him out of points giving Michael Schumacher a last-ditch points place in tenth position.

The controversial race finally ended without any security issues. The only glitch, a minor one, was when Force India was forced to quit a session on Friday to make sure that team members reach their hotels safely before dark after they were caught up in an incident earlier when they were travelling in a private taxi. The next race will be in Spain on May 13 after a long break which teams are expected to use for testing and updates.

ends