INDIA in F1

Tag: Hamilton

  • Hamilton equals Senna’s 65 poles

    Hamilton equals Senna’s 65 poles

    Hamilton poseis after taking his career 65th pole at the Canadian GP on Saturday. An FIA image

    Montreal, 10 June 2017: Lewis Hamilton set a blistering pace in hto take here to take the 65th pole position of his career and equalled the marker set by his childhood hero Ayrton Senna. Hamilton’s lap of 1:11.459 was the fastest ever lap of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and was good enough to beat Ferraris Sebastian Vettel by 0.330s. Hamilton’s achievement was reward with the gift from the Senna family of a helmet worn in races by the legendary Brazilian driver.

    In Q1 both Vettel and Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen were on track early and both chose to do so on the supersoft Pirellis. Vettel quickly rose to the top of the order and with his second lap on the tyre set a time of 1:13.046 that was eventually good enough to secure passage to Q2 in P3. Raikkonen, too, set an early banker, though his time of 1:13.548 saw him drift out to P9 by the time the flag fell.

    It was ultrasofts all round for their rivals and the session was topped by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas with a lap of 1:12.685. Hamilton was second, just three thousdanths of a second behind.

    At the other end of the order, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz was hovering just above the drop zone with a minute remaining but the Spaniard’s blushes were spared when Pascal Wehrlein made a mistake in Turn 1 of his final flyer.

    The Sauber driver took too much of the track on the right hand side of the exit and got on the dirt. He immediately spun and slid backwards into the barriers, bringing out the yello flags. The flags ended any hope of improvement for those behind and the session ended with McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne eliminated in 16th place ahead of Williams’ Lance Stroll, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein.

    As with Q1 the second session was again a by-the-numbers exercise for the front-runners. Hamilton topped the order with a lap of 1:12.496, six hundredths of a second clear of Bottas. The Ferraris slotted into third and fourth, with Raikkonen ahead of Vettel after the latter’s lap was compromised by a loss of control in Turn 3. The Red Bulls of Verstappen and Ricciardo were fifth and sixth ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa, the Force Indias of Sergipo Perz and Esteban Ocon and the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg.

    Eliminated in 11th place was Daniil Kvyat, who suffered a right-rear puncture on his final lap and was forced to return to the pits. It was a tricky session for team-mate Sainz too. The Spaniard spun early in the session at Turn 1 and was quickly on the radio to tell his team that the car was “a nightmare’ and that he could “do nothing’. His later laps were an improvement but Sainz was eventually ruled out in P13, just behind the McLaren of Fernando Alonso. The final men eliminated in Q2 were Haas’ Romain Grosjean in 14th place and Renault’s Jolyon Palmer in P15.

    At the start of the Q3 Hamilton laid down the early mark with a superb lap of 1:11.791 to set the fastest ever lap of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 0.484s up on Ralf Schumacher’s 2004 time.

    Vettel was operating at a similar level though and with his run the German posted a time just four thousandths of a second slower than his rivals.

    Hamilton was in inspired form, however, and is final run utterly ruled out any comeback from the German, with the Mercedes man sliced 0.332 off his first run to set Vettel the huge task of bypassing a time of 1:11.459. Vettel tried a third run, but pushing too hard the lap slipped away. Hamilton claimed the 65th podium of his career to equal his great hero Senna.

    With Vettel second, third place went to Bottas with Raikkonen fourth. Row three went to Red Bull Racing, with Verstappen ahead of Ricciardo. Massa was seventh for Williams, while the Force Indias of Perez and Ocon were seventh and eight respectively. Hulkenberg will start tenth.

    2017 Canadian Grand Prix – Qualifying
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.459s –
    2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:11.789s 0.330s
    3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:12.177s 0.718s
    4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:12.252s 0.793s
    5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:12.403s 0.944s
    6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:12.557s 1.098s
    7 Felipe Massa Williams 1:12.858s 1.399s
    8 Sergio Perez Force India 1:13.018s 1.559s
    9 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:13.135s 1.676s
    10 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:13.271s 1.812s
    11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:13.690s –
    12 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:13.693s –
    13 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:13.756s –
    14 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:13.839s –
    15 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:14.293s –
    16 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:14.182s –
    17 Lance Stroll Williams 1:14.209s –
    18 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:14.318s –
    19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:14.495s –
    20 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:14.810s –

    eom/FIA press release

  • Hamilton sets the quickest time in FP1

    Hamilton sets the quickest time in FP1

    Monte Carlo, 25 May 2017: Hamilton set the quickest time of opening practice in Monaco, beating Ferrar

    Hamilton top timecharts in FP1. An FIA image

    i’s Sebastian Vettel by almost two tenths of a second. The Mercedes driver also eclipsed last year’s pole position time by a similar margin and beat his own lap record in the principality by 4.5s.

    Hamilton recorded a time of 1:13.425 on Pirelli’s ultrasoft tyres to finish 0.196 seconds clear of Vettel, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen third, 0.15s adrift of the Drivers’ Championship-leading German.

    The opening 90-minute session saw a number of drivers quickly try out the weekend’s softest available compound, the Pirelli ultrasoft, and Vettel set the early pace. However, the Ferrari man, who has a six-point title lead over Hamilton going into this weekend, was edged out of top spot when Mercedes swapped from supersoft tyre work to ultrasofts soon after the hour mark had passed.

    Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas then traded fastest times before Hamilton set his best time of the session.

    After slipping back as Red Bull, which was debuting a new T-wing, found pace and Daniel Ricciardo moved up the order but Vettel then jumped back to P2 with good lap that saw him finish 0.196 behind Hamilton.

    Verstappen, meanwhile, stole into third place late in the session after he had spent a long time in the Red Bull garage after the team had detected a possible right rear puncture. Returning to the action late on Verstappen quickly found a groove and after initially slotting in behind tea-mate Ricciardo he chipped away at his lap time to eventually take third place with just over 10 minutes left in the session.

    The Dutchman also set the quickest first sector of the session, but lost time in the following two to miss out on an even closer challenge to the top two drivers.

    With Bottas fourth and Ricciardo fifth, sixth place in the session went to Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, the Russian being the quickest man on supersoft tyres with the lap of 1:14.111, just under seven tenths of a second off Hamilton’s pace.

    Kimi Räikkönen was seventh in the second Ferrari, though the Finn was more than half a second slower than Vettel over the 3.337km circuit. Force India’s Sergio Perez was eighth, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr, who like Toro Rosso team-mate Kvyat was on the super-softs. Perez’s team-mate Esteban Ocon was 10th quickest.

    Elsewhere, Jenson Button was 14th on his return to McLaren as stand-in for Fernando Alonso who is this weekend competing in the Indianapolis 500. Despite only having driven McLaren’s car on the team’s simulator, Button was soon finding a comfort zone with the car and completed 35 laps for a best time of 1:14.954, just 0.141 behind team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne.

    There was trouble though for Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and for Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. Hulkenberg failed to complete a flying lap after a problem was discovered with his car’s energy store, while a geabox issue sidelined Ericcson.

     

    2017 Monaco Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:13.425s – 40
    2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:13.621s 0.196s 34
    3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:13.771s 0.346s 32
    4 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:13.791s 0.366s 40
    5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:13.854s 0.429s 45
    6 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:14.111s 0.686s 42
    7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:14.164s 0.739s 37
    8 Sergio Perez Force India 1:14.201s 0.776s 32
    9 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:14.333s 0.908s 39
    10 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:14.425s 1.000s 39
    11 Felipe Massa Williams 1:14.617s 1.192s 37
    12 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:14.813s 1.388s 38
    13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:14.870s 1.445s 34
    14 Jenson Button McLaren 1:14.954s 1.529s 35
    15 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:15.321s 1.896s 33
    16 Lance Stroll Williams 1:15.595s 2.170s 44
    17 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:15.949s 2.524s 42
    18 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:16.258s 2.833s 33
    19 Nico Hulkenberg Renault – – 3
    20 Marcus Ericsson Sauber – – 3.

    eom/FIA press release

  • It’s one of the hardest races: Hamilton

    DRIVERS: 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari); 3 – Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS (Conducted by Pedro de la Rosa)

    Q: Lewis, tell us about the race? First of all, bad things, what happened at the start?

    Lewis HAMILTON: First of all, I just want to say a big thank you to the crowd that came today, for the warm welcome and for the support. It’s been a long, long time coming to Barcelona [for me] and I can say it didn’t start out the greatest when I first came but it has grown so much and my love and appreciation for the country has grown so much as well, so thank you. The team did an incredible job today… what an amazing… that’s how racing should be. That’s as close as it could be. Sebastian was incredibly close, incredibly fast. The team did a great job with the strategy. The start – I don’t really know what’s gone wrong. I have to see with my guys…

    Don’t worry about that…

    LH: But it wasn’t good enough, I know! Trust me, I thought I did everything I was supposed to do but I got a bit of wheelspin.

    Q: Tell me about the squeeze, let’s call it the squeeze into Turn One? Seb was coming out the pits with the medium tyres. How did you handle that?

    LH: I think in the heat of the moment it’s difficult to know from the outside view what it’s like. I felt like I ran out road but I was alongside. It was definitely close but again, as I said, that’s how racing should be and I loved it and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

    Q: Well done man, your 55th grand prix victory in my home town. Seb, do you think you should have pushed a little bit further? Was it enough? 

    Sebastian VETTEL: I was pushing! I had a really good start, best start maybe at the beginning. I think Lewis and myself we both picked up wheelspin straight away, then I pulled the clutch in again and then I could gain on him so I was really happy with that. Then again the run to Turn One was quite long, but I managed to stay ahead. Then I settled into a nice rhythm, everything was fine. Obviously Lewis stayed out longer, did the opposite, mirrored the strategy so I knew in the end it would be crucial. Then he came out, I was a bit surprised when he came out and it was already so close. I tried to brake as late as possible into Turn One, locked up. I don’t know if we touched but I managed to stay ahead so it was really close. The laps after I was doing everything I can to stay in front and I was a bit luck because there was always a car in front giving me a tow, but as soon as I was alone, he just flew past down the straight, which was a shame. We tried to stay in the race but well done to him, he drove a good race and we did everything we could.

    Hey man, you’re still leading the championship, so don’t worry, six points in front.

    SV: It was a nice race and a great crowd, so it would have been great to win but…

    Q: Tell us about the Plan C. Was that a real option towards the end – change your strategy and try to attack?

    SV: Yeah, we had a huge gap to Daniel behind, so we could have done anything really. We weren’t sure. Obviously there was a big conversation, trying to do something. We were hoping Lewis would maybe struggle with his tyres at the end but normally in the end of the race the track picks up a lot of rubber and the tyres last long so he didn’t have any problems. We tried to keep pushing, stay close, but it was never close enough.

    Q: A fantastic drive my friend. Hey, last but not least, come on man, no shoey, just behave yourself, I’m very elegant today. Your favourite podium of the year, first since Mexico 2016, how does it feel?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Feels good. We had a little bit of fortune today with Valtteri stopping. We were fourth and then he had his… I’m not sure of what his problem was in the end, but for now we take what we can and it’s nice to be up on the podium. Really happy to spray some champagne again. The weather is good. They said maybe a chance of rain. It’s cool, we got some sunshine, so gracias a todos.

    Q: Well done amigo. Lewis, was it that hard, because obviously this is possibly the most demanding phsyically?

    LH: Yeah, this is one of the hardest races.

    Q: How’s your neck after it?

    LH: My neck is fine, but physically, yeah, I probably lost two kilos just in that race. It’s draining, the car is fast, to keep up with him… he drove fantastically well and it’s a re4al privilege to race against such an awesome driver so…

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, many congratulations, win number 55 of your career and your second here in Barcelona and I have the feeling from your celebrations that it meant a lot to you. It was one of those races that was getting away from you but you and the team made it happen your way and from your side making the softs work first and final stints critical to turning it round.

    LH: Yeah, I really just have to congratulate my team and thank my team for doing such a great job with the strategy and the pit stops and everyone back at the factory with the upgrades enabling us to be as close as we are to Ferrari. It has been a really good weekend, being able to bounce back from Russia is a great thing. But I obviously lost out on the start. I’m not quite sure exactly what it was. The initial phase was good, just got wheelspin later on and saw Sebastian fly by. Then seeing him after that, he was so fast up ahead, it was such a push to try to keep close to him and not let him pull away. I don’t know, I think it was the rawest fight I can remember having for some real time, which I loved. This is what the sport needs to be every single race for sure. This is why I race and this is what got me into racing in the beginning. To have that close battle with him, with a four-time champ, is awesome. The first stint I was able to manage the tyres and stay relatively close. The second stint was a little bit difficult to keep up the pace with him with the medium tyre. At the end came out so close together, very, very close into Turn One. I gave you space, otherwise we would have touched…

    SV: I thought I gave you space too…

    LH: Not really! Definitely didn’t give me much space! It was close; it was cool…

    SV: We’re still here so…

    LH: Yeah, just! And then after that was just biding my time, trying to find the right opportunity. There were backmarkers we were coming up against, which made it fun. Trying to get past backmarkers is very, very tough and so clocking the DRS with the use of the battery pack and everything… But as I said, these guys have done a phenomenal job, their car is awesome and the pace that he had… it’s very close between us both. But at the end I was able to manage the soft… wow, I’m talking as long as you normally do when you win!

    SV: Go on.

    LH: But the last stint: when they told me I had 25 laps I didn’t think… at the end of the stint he would come back, being on the harder tyre, but I was able to manage it.

    Q: Well done, it was a fantastic race. Sebastian, I guess you file this one down as the one that got away. You had the lead, you made that early stop when they looked like they were going to make that early stop but they didn’t it. Then they played a tactic where they left Bottas out for an extra eight laps to hold you, you lost four seconds behind him…

    SV: Nice, huh!

    Q: …It was just one of those days that you were trying to catch something that was like a bar of soap, always getting away from you.

    SV: That’s a good way to put it. Well done to him. He won it fair and square, so I can’t take it away from him. Obviously I’m not happy because as you said it was there and… yeah, the start was good. I saw Lewis struggling with wheelspin and so did I, but then I pulled the clutch in immediately and reacted and tried to set off a second launch phase, which worked excellent. Looking in the mirror straight away to see if any of the guys behind got a better start, but I think we probably all overestimated the grip, which wasn’t that good. First stint, I was really in control. Happy with the car, but it wasn’t easy. Just trying to control the gap, the pace was similar. Then we had to obviously go, because otherwise they might go and then you get jumped. I wasn’t sure. I came out right behind Daniel I believe. The second stint I thought was pretty good and then Lewis has the luxury to stay out and then think about what to do, and not being in a rush, gap behind, choosing a different tyre, which might allow him to come back in the end, which unfortunately was the case. Second stint, which you touched on, with Valtteri was… yeah, I was catching him but I knew they wouldn’t pit him. He was all over the place with his tyres so they used him a bit to block me. He still managed to somehow get a decent exit so I didn’t quite make it the first time round so the second time round down the straights I thought “now, I have to find some way, even if it’s over the grass”. He used a bit more of the track. It was really close. I don’t know what is the word, I faked it on the inside, went back on the outside and then on the inside to surprise him, which worked, but I nearly lost the car doing that because I had the DRS open and it was a quite aggressive move on the steering wheel. So I was really happy but then equally I looked down and I’d lost an awful lot of time so I wasn’t that happy becau8se the real fight was with Lewis. Then I don’t know what happened in the last stint because I came out of the pits and I was surprised to see him that close because I thought I had eight seconds in hand. It must have been because you stopped a lap sooner or something. So yeah, obviously that could have bought us a bit of a cushion. Then it was nice he stayed behind and I just managed always the end of the straight, end of the straight, and I thought it would be more difficult for him the longer her tries. But then I had no tow from any car in front and he sailed past. He managed a good exit and he was very quick in the last sector and he went on to win the race. We did everything we could, we tried everything. I think the car was good, nothing to blame there. I think our weekend was a bit scrappy overall. So I think it’s still a very, very good result.

    Q: Well, you’re still leading the world championship?

    SV: I think I was more focused on the race today. It was very close when we came out. You come out on fresh tyres – I was just guessing. I wanted to stay ahead but I was just guessing on the brake point. It worked, but there was no room for him. He reacted well, because he avoided the contact. I don’t know if we touched? I think we just missed. It was good, because I stayed ahead, so you always take it, but it was really close.

    Q: Daniel, welcome back. Podium, nice to have you here but 75s behind despite massive upgrades all around is, I guess, a little bit of a cold shower after the champagne-shower.

    DR: Yeah, I’ve definitely got a less exciting story that these two guys. I’m pretty envious sitting here listening to the battle they had. But look, firstly, it’s nice to be back up here. Absolutely. But it’s nice to see that at the front there are some battles and they’re enjoying it. As Lewis touched on, that’s a big part of why we race: we want to have these battles and fights. I’m enviously not to be part of that but we’re going to try to work on it. I think today certainly we just have to be grateful that, y’know, first podium of the year, it’s nice. We got, I guess a bit lucky, not sure what the problem was with Valtteri, looked like he just stopped on the side of the track, I guess something with engine failure or whatever but yeah, it’s nice to be up here nonetheless. As for my race, yeah, not any exciting stories besides watching a bit happen in front of me at the start. Otherwise, just trying to manage it. At the end, I felt I was trying to get the most out of it, pushing but yeah, I heard the lap times they were doing at the end, and yeah, we’ve still got a bit to go but we’ll keep working at it, try and stay positive and keep everyone motivated.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Roksana Cwik – Swiatwyscigow.pl) Sebastian, another situation with Felipe Massa. What can you say about it?

    SV: No, I like Felipe. He was given me space so nothing to blame on his side. It’s really slippery and then when you get close to the other car, the car in front, I just locked up both wheels. At some point I wish I had a handbrake to get the rear turned. It was really close; I was lucky to not bump into him and damage my front wing. But it’s difficult for him because he gives the space and he just waits for me to go through. I should look at the lines in Turn Ten. Sometimes you are really at the kerb but most of the time you are 1.5/2 metres off the apex kerb there. It was quite slippery and I obviously underestimated that so if anything it was me to blame – but it a bit of a pity because again it was Felipe. Last race we had a bit of a misunderstanding, this one again but he’s very experienced and he knows how to move in these situations, so nothing to blame for him.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – GP+) This is for Lewis. Thank you very much for turning what looked like being a bit of a monotonous parade into a really exciting race – particularly for the incident with Seb. I can see it’s all peace and love between the two of you as usual right now – but I’m pretty sure I heard the word “dangerous” from you over the radio. Would you like to go into a bit more detail about that?

    LH: Not really. In the heat of the moment it feels… when I run out of road and particularly where we went off at the exit of Turn One, so it meant by the time I had… I tried to stay straight but I came over the kerb so I lost all steering and he was just ahead of me. Could have been close, could have been some real good contact but fortunately I avoided it. I didn’t say anything bad, just ‘be careful, that was very, very, very close,’ but I enjoyed it and I’m glad that afterwards I was able to have a battle and didn’t damage anything and there’s nothing lost between us. The respect stays the same. I think he was tough and hard just to the edge and no more. I think if he’d hit me that would have been a bit different.

    Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – Autodigest) Lewis, congratulations, what were your thoughts when you saw this red guy in front of you at the start and were those thoughts the same after you saw him again after his pitstop?

    LH: No, definitely not. At the beginning, you’re on the back foot, thinking ‘damn it, we worked so hard, we got a great pole position’. The starts are just so unpredictable. I prepared, I did everything I needed to do for the start and just got a bit of wheel-spin and he got a better start. Naturally, when you go into Turn One and you’ve lost position, you just know here in Barcelona it’s so hard to follow. As you come out of Turn One into Turn Two, Three it’s often kind of like… the chances of winning this race from now, this position, behind such a fast car is… the percentages are very, very small. I just stayed on it, I tried to keep them… y’know he was so fast in that first stint so I just tried to keep on his tail and I think to the end of the stint I was able to start closing the gap to him, and I’m like ‘Oh my God, we’ve got a real race on now’. But what I don’t know is what the overall picture is looking like, so what the engineers see of what our strategy is going to be, and so I have absolutely no idea, apart for our strategy stops, and what they tell me, I don’t know how it’s going to pan out – so all I can do is give it everything I’ve got. It was amazing when I saw at the end that we were coming out close. I was a bit worried that, by going long in the first stint, everything I’d worked for in the first part of the first stint, I would have lost because I think he was pulling me back in at a huge step. But anyway, I trust my engineers and my strategist and they did an incredible job. And y’know, it was great that we were able to have that battle at the end, and again the tyres stayed… the reason we were able to stay so close is that we were offset on tyres. If I had the same tyre as him, it probably wouldn’t have been that exciting.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) To Sebastian. First of all I would like to know if it was an option to make the second stint not on the soft but on the medium like Lewis, and after the race, how is the situation between you and Mercedes? Do you believe that the situation is like in the first part of that they’ve got an advantage on Ferrari?

    SV: There’s always the option, obviously, to go on the medium tyre rather than the soft. We had a new soft and a new medium but yeah, looking back, I was just thinking about it, we obviously lost… I don’t think the decision is to blame. We lost a lot of time fighting Valtteri, we lost four seconds. Then, I don’t know why, we made eight seconds disappear for the second stop. If you add those two things it’s 12 seconds and it would have been a bit better but that’s how it goes. Yeah. I think it could have been the same if we go on the medium tyre. Then obviously they are the second in the row at that point and easy to react, so they could have gone on the other tyre to put pressure and maybe pass us there – so at that point I think there’s nothing to blame. Later on, obviously he had the tyre advantage and he did a good job. It’s not easy to pass but he still made it, so he got close. You saw the race, that’s what happened. So I think for us, to answer your second question, very happy when we have the chance to race Mercedes. They have been proving over and over in the last few years that they are the team to beat. We are given them, so far, a good run for their money. I think we can be very happy – but today we’re not entirely happy because the win was there, the car was quick enough but the way the race happened, it wasn’t meant to be. But the most important thing is that we were there: once again fighting; hanging in there; not much missing at the end. The car is good, the team is in great form and we know that we need to improve. We don’t want to battle with them close, we want to be ahead of them. The idea obviously is nice, to have close battles – but you want to have them in your favour at the end of the race, which today wasn’t the case but that’s, as I said, how it goes sometimes.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To Lewis, and also if Sebastian can comment, what is your understanding what we saw this weekend. In the race you have a car completely different than you have been using until now and we have a battle with Sebastian as in the four races before. As exactly the same yesterday. Did the Mercedes change the car in the correct way, or was the step forwards not what you expected, or even Ferrari also developed their car in a way that the difference became more or less similar.

    LH: I think we delivered what we thought we were bringing in – it just looks fancy. It does the job, it works well with our car, it’s just that we have… while the rules are the same the cars are fundamentally a lot different and they’ve been bringing upgrades to the last two races whereas we’ve just bought one here. So, if the brought five piece in the previous race and five here, we’ve brought ten here – but yeah, I think we just made a similar step together. We were slightly quicker this weekend, I think, slightly had the edge. And even if it’s only half a tenth, it’s brought us a little bit… particularly in the race pace. Before I don’t think I’ve really had the pace in the race to keep up with Sebastian. I think today is a bit different – so there is an improvement.

    Q: (Iolande Skinner – Motosport Monday) For all three of you: what was going through your head as you stood on the podium today?

    DR: Relief. And happiness. It’s been a little while. It’s nice, weather was good, the fans were good. So it’s good. Actually I noticed on the in lap, I think it was turn 12, it looked like a dedicated Max sort of fan club, all in orange, and maybe they were doing it for everyone but they seemed to actually give me a lot of love so… they seemed pretty cool so obviously they were still hanging around and showing support. I’m sure they support Max but maybe, as a team, they love Red Bull so that was nice to see.

    LH: Just grateful, grateful for… it’s difficult for you all and people watching to comprehend what goes on in the background to enable days like this to happen. Every week, I go back to the factory, I get an opportunity to go and see different departments and catch up with people that I’ve obviously known for the five years now and just see how… there’ s people who have been there for 25 years, 29 years and it’s just remarkable to see what goes on in the background and then we turn up at a Grand Prix and it looks all glitz and glamorous but so much work goes on behind… this is just the tip of the iceberg here, so I think on the podium I was just grateful and I just got to race an incredible race today and I’m very proud of my team and grateful I was able to deliver what I know was in my ability in my heart as well. It was just a combination of all that plus just massive excitement, kind of on the rev limiter.

    SV: Well, honest answer, I was a bit disappointed. I didn’t want him to win, I wanted to win myself so it was great, beautiful weather, beautiful crowd but…

    LH: I’m glad you didn’t want me to win!

    SV: I don’t know. With the start that I had, the view into turn one was pretty nice. No one ahead, so it was great. There was a clear track and the car felt good but yeah, it was just… just couldn’t grip it, you know? Here and there, always a lost a bit. I knew it would be tight at the end, I thought I would still have a chance to hold him off and during the race I thought this was like 2011. I think I had a long stint at the very end of the race, Lewis was quicker but I managed to keep him behind and I thought yes, it will be the same you know, but unfortunately he turned it around so this year wasn’t so happy. Then there was another incident in turn 12 that is like an area with a lot of fans, orange, Dutch, they’re all barefoot to support Max but when I came round they…

    DR: Also for you…

    SV: They did to me! They gave me a good wave.

    LH: On the last lap, coming round, they didn’t move. The crowd next door were moving but they were sat, like this, I thought oh my God, there’s no love there. But then when I came back round, i thought OK, they were cheering so when…

    DR: They had these things, sticks. It’s not love for me then, it’s love for everyone. I can spread it.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action, Speedsport) Daniel, talk us through your start and the first couple of corners. There was quite a bit happening right in front of you there.

    DR: To be honest, my start sounded similar to Lewis’s. It felt like the first part of the launch was OK. The guy closest to me was Max. That first part looked competitive, relative to him and probably Kimi in front and then that second phase, picked up some wheelspin and we all kind… it felt like we all slipped behind each other and then tried to get a tow down to turn one. I remember kind of looking at the inside and let’s say committed to that line but then there was I think three abreast in front of me so there wasn’t really much I could do and from memory, I think Max kind of went from inside-ish to the near outside and I think tried to go around them and I think just three into there… they all tried to outbrake each other from what I could see so then there was that contact. I guess Kimi and Max made more contact and then they went off then I slipped into fourth. From that point on, I could see, I think, Kimi… I realised Kimi was out of the race quite early. I wasn’t sure where Max was but obviously I realised my position there was probably going to be a lonely one for the next 66 laps and the fourth turned into third with Valtteri’s –  I guess – mechanical. As I said on the in lap, obviously we’ll take what we can for now and that was pretty much it.

    Q: (Jacqueline Magnay – The Australian) Lewis and Daniel, the race seemed incredibly physically demanding and Lewis, halfway through the race you sounded exhausted –  I don’t know whether you were. I’m just wondering if both of you can comment on the physical demands of this particular track?

    DR: Seb doesn’t look tired!? No, the pace was a bit quicker than previous years so you know, you feel a little bit more but I think we’re going to come to races, Singapore, Malaysia, it’s more the hot ones, I would say, the more physical so today was yeah, not too demanding, let’s say. I feel pretty good right now.

    LH: I think it’s dependent on what kind of race you have. A lot of the races that we do with the type of racing that we sometimes have to do, where you’re saving fuel, like in the last race for example. I couldn’t push, the car was overheating, whereas today it was.. from turn one to the end it was flat chat and so those races are the most… you’re just using everything you’ve got so for sure, in that first stint, for instance, to keep… to stay on Sebastian was a killer. Also I don’t carry drinks in my car either to save weight so I’m not having a drink through the race. And then at the end, I used everything I had left when I jumped into my team and my heart rate hit the ceiling. I was good when I got out of the car but jumping into… I don’t know if I will do that again. I was a little bit tired after that one.

    SV: If I may add, thank you very much for not asking me the question. I take it as a compliment. Maybe we can exchange phone numbers after the press conference and maybe it’s a good match to the car, it doesn’t look so flashy on the outside but it’s really good on the inside. I take it as a compliment, thank you.

    Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) I just want to get an assessment from you guys, all three of you, of the weekend because there are some new additions to the fan area to enhance the F1 experience for fans. I just wanted to get you guys’ thoughts on these new additions? Do you look forward to more opportunities for fans to engage with you guys? Obviously what we saw after qualifying was something different. I just wanted to get your thoughts on it.

    LH: I think this weekend was… what did we do different? We just did the one thing at the end of qualifying, I think it was. What was the other one?

    SV: But no alcohol.

    LH: I think the interaction with the fans was definitely better. I think there were less fans then I remember being here. I think maybe when Fernando was battling at the front, the place was packed. There was still a lot of seats… I would imagine it was 65-70% full, I would imagine, something like that. So we’ve got to encourage more to come and I’m not quite sure why more don’t come but the ones that were here… when you come through turn seven, it’s completely packed up there. We’ve just got to continue to engage… like what they’ve done with the entry to the paddock, some fans could come and be close in. We’ve just got to keep coming up with ideas to try and bring people in and not seclude them. This is a sport where you just can’t really get very close and the pit lane walkabout was really great but we somehow need to do more.

    DR: I think in the paddock, at least they’ve started with the idea of having a bit of a bar area. I thought that was a new addition. I think that’s cool because we all have guests coming to races and whether it’s friends of ours or there are celebrities or whatever they always hang out with the team they’re invited by but if there’s a more social area then you’ll get everyone hanging out in the same place, so I think that’s cool, so it’s a bit more laidback environment which is cool. I question: is it still called a bar if it sells non-alcoholic beer? Does it turn into a cafe?

    LH: Is it non-alcoholic?

    DR: Yeah, zero percent.

    SV: Don’t you ever read the signs on the track? Never alcohol behind the wheel.

    LH: Really? I don’t see it.

    DR: But they’re heading in the right direction. I definitely feel that, there’s some positives.

    SV: Did you see that? There is that Heineken.

    LH: I didn’t know that.

    SV: Did you notice that they painted the kerbs blue in sector one?

    LH: Yes, I noticed that. At turn three.

    DR: Only because you were on them when you pushed him there.

    SV: And four.

     

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

  • Hami pips Vettel in a thrilling battle: Spanish GP

    Hami pips Vettel in a thrilling battle: Spanish GP

    Hami celebrates after winning the Spanish GP on Sunday. An FIA image

    Barcelona, 14 May 2017: Mercedes Lewis Hamilton took his second career Spanish Grand Prix victory after winning a thrilling, tight strategic battle with Sebastian Vettel after the Ferrari driver led for the first half of the race. Third place went to Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian inheriting the podium spot after an engine failure ruled Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas out midway through the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the Formula One World Championship here on Sunday.

    When the lights went out, it was Vettel who made the best start. The German powered away from P2 on the grid and grabbed the lead as he and Hamilton went through Turn One.

    Behind, Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari was making a move around the outside of Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes. With Red Bull’s Max Verstappen further outside it was a tight squeeze into the first corner and Raikkonen’s rear right got inside of his countryman’s front left. There was contact and the impact bounced Raikkonen into Verstappen. The result was suspension damage and early retirement for both.

    There was contact, too, between seventh-placed starter Fernando Alonso and ninth on the grid Felipe Massa. Local Hero Alonso had worked miracles to haul his underperforming McLaren to P7 on the grid on Saturday but it was undone when he was hit in Turn 2 by the Williams man. Alonso dropped to P11 and eventually drifted out to P13 by the end of the race.

    By lap 14 Vettel had pulled out an almost three-second gap to Hamilton. The German then pitted for soft tyres, leaving Hamilton in clean air. His engineer was quickly on the radio telling the Briton it was “his opportunity, give it everything you’ve got”. Hamilton responded with a race fastest lap, but Vettel was alive to the threat and fought back with a purple time of his own.

    Hamilton made his first stop on lap 22, taking on the medium tyres. He rejoined in third, 7.3s behind Vettel, who was right on the tail of leader Bottas who needed to pit.

    Vettel’s frustrations grew as the Finn thwarted his efforts to pass. Vettel eventually got past but Bottas’ baulking lost him more than three seconds to Hamilton. When Bottas, who needed to pit, allowed Hamilton past, Vettel found himself with just three seconds in hand over the Briton, relatively matched on lap time but on different strategies.

    Bottas then made his first stop and resumed in third place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian was a lonely fourth for Red Bull Racing, almost nine second behind the Mercedes and almost 14 ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez. The Mexican’s team-mate Esteban Ocon was sixth ahead of Sauber’s Pascal Wehrelin, who had yet to pit, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz.

    At the halfway point there was a collision between Massa and Vandoorne as the Brazlian was hit when he tried to pass into Turn One.

    The VSC was deployed as Vandoorne ended up beached in the gavel with broken front suspension and while there was a flurry of pit stops in the midfield, Hamilton waited until the VSC was ending to make his stop for soft tyres on lap 36. Vettel immediately responded and took on mediums at the end of the following lap.

    He emerged almost alongside the Mercedes man and the pair banged wheels in Turn One. Vettel emerged in the lead but Hamilton had the quicker tyres and pressed for a way past. Vettel made his car as wide as possible and a tit-for-tat battle ensued.

    Behind them Bottas’ race came to an end on lap 39 when his power unit failed on the run through Turn 3. The Finn had been forced to revert to an older engine on Friday night after a water leak was detected on his new unit.

    At the front Hamilton was still putting pressure on Vettel and eventually, on lap 44, it told. The Briton got a good run out of the final corner and passed the German under DRS into Turn One.

    Within a few laps though Hamilton was on the radio complaining that the rear of his set of soft tyres were already overheating. With Vettel on the more durable mediums, the race was not yet over as a contest.

    As the laps wound down, it became clear it was a case of whether either of the top two would blink. With lap times similar, would Vettel, who had almost a minute in hand over Ricciardo, attempt a three-stop and take on soft tyres for a late attack on Hamilton as his soft tyres faded? If he pitted would Mercedes respond?

    The answer came on lap 58 when Hamilton was told the gap was sufficient to prevent Vettel from trying a strategic gamble and that he should nurse his Mercedes to the flag.

    And that was how it remained until the flag. As the front pair threaded their way through traffic the gap widened to over four seconds and after 66 laps Hamilton crossed the line to take a narrow 55th career win. Vettel was forced to settle for second ahead of Ricciardo who had a lonely run to his first podium finish since the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix.

    Force India enjoyed an excellent race, with Perez fourth ahead of team-mate Ocon. Nico Hulkenberg gave Renault something to celebrate by rising from 13th on the grid to sixth. Carlos Sainz was seventh for Toro Rosso ahead of Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein with Daniil Kvyat ninth in the second Toro. The final points position went to Haas’ Romain Grosjean.

    eom/FIA press release

  • Valtteri had great starts, I will try to follow in his footsteps: Hami

    DRIVERS: 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes); 2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari); 3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes).

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis the 64th pole of your career and your third of this year. Sixty-fourth pole puts you one behind Ayrton Senna, I’m sure you’re well aware of that, but did you feel you had control throughout today or did the red cars give you a bit of a scare?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It started out that we were potentially a tenth ahead of the Ferraris, but in P3 it seemed that we were lot closer, so, quite level. So it was really intense for us, making sure we pulled out every millisecond we can. We made some changes as we got into qualifying and the car felt great, so I was very happy with it. The Q1 lap was very, very good. The Q2 lap was so-so, but good enough. Then the first lap of Q3 was very good and the second lap was up, I think almost two tenths. I didn’t finish it that way but still it was good enough to keep me ahead.

    Q: That’s interesting. Was that conditions or was that you, because Sebastian also had an issue in the final sector? 

    LH: It’s difficult to know. I didn’t make a mistake. I didn’t lock up or go wide or anything like that. I did the corner perfectly, but it’s very gusty out there, so from corner to corner… sometimes you arrive in the corner and you brake in the same spot and understeer off because you have a tail wind or a head wind and you stop quicker. Particularly for me, I feel for that moment maybe I didn’t have a tail wind, because the car stopped really well, as opposed to the previous lap where it was more on the limit. I don’t know if that was the same for Sebastian but it was tricky for us all.

    Q: A quick final thought on the race pace. It looked very strong yesterday and particularly the degradation on the soft looked really good, so you must be feeling pretty strong going into the race tomorrow?

    LH: Yeah, I mean firstly, I have to say the team have done an incredible job; the guys back at the factory, as always really… I don’t know if they get tired of hearing it, but they really have done an incredible job to make small increments, steps forward and bring a great package for this track to keep us in the fight with the Ferraris. Very grateful for everyone’s hard efforts and we want to work as hard as we can to make sure that doesn’t go to waste.

    Q: Sebastian, I’ll bet you’re glad when they told you to switch the engine off in Q1, you questioned it for a minute or two and didn’t switch the engine off? Otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting here and you’d be looking at losing your championship lead tomorrow afternoon wouldn’t you.

    SV: I don’t know. You never know. Obviously much better that way. But I have to say the team did a phenomenal job. By surprise we had an issue this morning and had to change the engine. Normally that’s close to a three-hour job, if you’re rushing. I don’t know how they managed. They did it in sub-two hours. I was basically, at 10-to-2 or five-to-2, I was ready and we were ready to fire up and go out in Q1. So really a big thank you to them. Kimi’s crew helped out too. It was quite funny at one point: one side of the garage there was one or two mechanics and the other one was completely crowded, like bees hovering around the car. A great effort, so big thanks. I think we could have had pole today, so not the ideal end, but when I consider where we were this morning, then obviously with the change we made it out, as you talked about in Q1, a small issue there, so I think it’s a really good recovery. Yesterday I wasn’t happy with the car balance at all and today it was phenomenal. I felt yesterday that it was in the car but I just couldn’t get to it. And today, as I say, was really a pleasure, especially the first two sectors. Conditions were very tricky, with the wind, never easy, never knowing what to expect. And I think I got caught out a bit in the last sector – my favourite place – which Mark Webber teached me many lessons over the years and I still haven’t got it. I don’t know, I need to go back to school maybe and sit down and have a proper look. I have done so many laps but still the last chicane is a bit tricky so I’m sure with the race and with the rhythm tomorrow it will be fine, but for quali today it could be a bit better.

    Q: There was a lot of talk about the upgrades everybody was going to have coming here this weekend. Are you very encouraged to be sitting here now after they turned up with all these Starship Enterprise bits on their car and all the rumours and you’re actually so close and, as you say yourself, you could have been on pole in terms of ho the season goes from here?

    SV: Yeah, I think from the outside at least it looks like they had a smooth weekend, at least Lewis, I think Valtteri had a surprise engine change as well this morning. Overall, I think they looked a bit more in the rhythm. As I said yesterday, for us it was a bit more up and down. Then I did a long run on the medium compound, which was quite slippery. So, as I said, today I was a lot happier. The car is good. You mentioned Starship Enterprise: I’m not a Starship Enterprise fan, but I guess you can look at it from the outside and from the inside. I’m happy with the bits we brought here. Maybe they’re not as flashy and bling, but they’re working, so our guys back in the factory are pushing really hard. We brought some stuff in Russia, we brought again a lot of stuff here, so yeah, I’m really happy with how it’s going.

    Q: Valtteri, we heard you say on the radio “not good enough.” Were you talking about yourself or the general picture? Just that middle sector on your final run that caught you out?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, just myself. I think the team has done an amazing job with the car, managing to still battle so close with Ferrari and for most of the weekend we’ve been quicker, so it’s only really Q3 where they raised-up their game and we were slightly, nearly, trouble with them, especially me. For me, starting the day with the engine change, going back to the old engine, I was always going to be slightly on the back foot, and just really struggled through the qualifying with the rear stability – that was the main issue. It was difficult to find a good rhythm from one quali to another, like I normally do. Just every lap, the car felt a little bit different. It wasn’t one of my best quali but very happy for the job the team has done and Lewis was very strong today, very quick, so yeah, as always the race is tomorrow and I’ve done some good things from P3 before.

    Q: As we were saying earlier, the Mercedes race pace is strong, the deg was low – but it’s always about fine margins, isn’t it: you had an extra lap on your start set of tyres and you had a couple of lock-ups, so a couple of flat-spots there – or are you not too worried?

    VB: No, the tyres had felt good and the extra lap was just a second out-lap so it was a good feeling with that set, so no issues.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Lewis, it looks like The Force has been strong with you all weekend, everything looked good for you. This guy [Vettel] is going to be right next to you tomorrow: do you expect a tight run off to the first corner – and is the Jedi Knight ready for a battle tomorrow?

    LH: You’re obviously a big fan of the movie, right? Thank you for always being such a positive person – you’re always positive when you come into this press conference, so thank you for that. Yeah, I think it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, for sure. You see how close it is between us and it’s all milliseconds between us. It’s a long run down to… I think it’s the third longest run down to Turn One so of course it’s going to be important to get a good start but we’ve worked hard on them so I’m going to try to do the best job I can. Valtteri’s had some great starts so I’m going to try and follow in his footsteps there and then yeah, positioning can help a lot here and being on the clean side of the grid is an advantage generally. Usually it’s a little bit of an advantage and hopefully I’ll be able to utilise that – particularly compared to Sebastian – and then in the race it’s just about looking after those tyres. It’s a very, very long, hard race, both physically and mentally and for the car and the tyres – but we’ve prepared in the best way we can and I think hopefully got the car in a much better position than I did in the last race.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, how much more difficult is it here to make the same kind of striking start like you did in Sochi?

    VB: For sure it’s a much shorter run into Turn One than to Turn Two in Sochi. So, it’s always more tricky – but it’s still, if you have a good start you can gain places. We’ve seen in the past many times here people starting from the second, even the third row, have made many positions so anything is always possible –– but I can’t always rely on a good start, y’know? For sure the other guys are going to have good ones as well at some point. But yeah, good starting point, everything is still wide open and we feel our race pace is good and still upbeat for tomorrow.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Still on this question of the start tomorrow, this circuit is very difficult to overtake historically, even now more here this year. And Sebastian, you are in the dirty part of the track – and you have a long straight into the first bend and, in this case it’s normally a small advantage to who’s behind, in this case Valtteri. Is there anything that you can defend yourself against the possible attack from your opponent?

    SV: Yeah, there’s a lot of things. I need a perfect start, simple as that. There’s a long way but I think the grip will be the same. I don’t think it will be much different. There’s a lot of racing series this weekend: you have the Porsche Cup, GP3, F2. Usually they put a lot of rubber down everywhere so I don’t think that’s a real disadvantage – and then as I said, I just need to do everything right and that’s the best way to attack and defend.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, are you happy to see that despite all the new stuff that Mercedes put on the car that Ferrari was able to reply with other stuff and you are at the same level of performance like some races before?

    SV: Well, we will see tomorrow but I think so far for us this weekend has been a bit more up and down. Yesterday was a bit wobbly, I wasn’t really feeling the rhythm yet. Today was a lot better. I think in terms of performance it’s really close. We will see in the race. I think looking after the tyres with the conditions will be key. Strategy, there should be some options so we will see. The plan for now it to go back and say thanks to all the guys because thanks to them I made it to qualifying and then we focus on the start, the beginning of the race and I think then we will see. I think it will be close. As I said, maybe they brought more visual stuff but I’m happy with what we brought and it seemed to work well and bring us very close. We could have been ahead today, that’s down to me, but I had lost enough to miss pole, like a tenth or something. But that didn’t happen, now we start P2 and take it from there but I’m confident for tomorrow.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Sebastian, when you were asked to stop the car on the track, was it always clear for you to carry on? These engines are so complicated, you never know, you could have risked the engine as well by continuing.

    SV: We had an issue, it turned out to be a programming issue but for sure I’m blind in that moment, I don’t know what to do. I was quite far away from the garage and I was sort of cruising down already so I just wanted to double check that I got the message right. I think I got it but that’s the last thing you want to do. Still, if I had the confirmation I would have stopped in the next convenient place. I just missed the opening on the track so that’s why I also had time to ask are we sure because I had time to go round turn four and then look for another opening.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldis – Nemzeti Sport) I think you’re all aware of the difficult situation of McLaren-Honda, but still Fernando managed to get seventh position, beating his teammate by 1.5s. I’m just wondering how you rate his performance?

    LH: Yeah, looks fantastic. I think that’s amazing for McLaren and Honda to get in the top ten. Shows progress.

    You (Sebastian) were with him in the press conference on Thursday and joked about seeing him in the final corner – you might!

    SV: Yeah, you never know, so that’s why we’re here, we’re here to race. Looks like he had a good session. I think Stoffel went out in Q1 so obviously the track improves a lot. If you look at our times between Q1 and Q3 it’s not fair but it looks like he had a good session. I think the car’s really good. This track’s not so sensitive on power so see what happens tomorrow.

    VB: I think he had a good session personally and the team is making progress.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To all drivers, we saw massive changes in the cars for this race but the picture of qualifying didn’t change much, even the gap is more or less the same. In race conditions, do you think we can see these changes or are you predicting that we will see more or less what has been seen yesterday and today?

    LH: I’ve not really looked at the long run pace but I would imagine so, yeah. It is crazy that we keep… Sebastian said that they’d brought an upgrade to Sochi and we’ve only brought an upgrade here so… I think it’s going to remain a close battle of development through the whole of the rest of the season. Clearly Ferrari are pushing very very hard as are we. I think for us it’s more about quality rather than quantity or upgrades so we’re just working hard to make sure that the ones we do stick on the car… but it is strange when you bolt all this stuff on and you remain within half a tenth of each other. I think that’s great for racing.

    VB: I think maybe our upgrades were a bit more visible. You know we make progress all the time, we had a more visible package but it seems like it’s been a similar improvement with both teams so I think tomorrow’s going to be close.

    eom/FIA press conference

  • Hamilton takes pole; Vettel on P2 ahead of Bottas

    Barcelona, 13 May 2017: Lewis Hamilton edged Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by just five hundredths of a second to claim the 64th pole position of his career at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari.

    Q1 saw Hamilton go quickest with a lap of 1:20.511, two tenths of a second ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel. There was a scare for Vettel, however.

    After detecting a potential problem during FP3, Ferrari opted to change the German’s power unit ahead of the session. Taking to the track in Q1, Vettel thanked his team for the quick turnaround but after setting an opening time good enough to secure passage through to Q2, his race engineer quickly radioed through to tell him to “stop the car”. That was then revised to Vettel being asked to nurse the car to the pit lane, which he managed to do. The German was eventually able to rejoin the session.

    Behind Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, who also had an engine change, though his was done overnight, was fourth ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.

    At the back it was a dismal outing for Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. While team-mate Carlos Sainz managed to end the session in the top 10, Kvyat remained rooted to the foot of the order and was ruled out of further competition in P20. Also eliminated at this stage were Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, Williams’ Lance Stroll and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.

    Hamilton was again to the fore after the first runs in Q2, leading on a time of 1:20.210 ahead of Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen. As the teams prepped for their final runs, the man occupying the final Q3 berth was Fernando Alonso. The McLaren driver was sitting on a time of 1:21.510, but that was just 0.007 ahead of Haas’s Romain Grosjean.

    Local hero Alonso put in a superb final flyer to find three tenths of a second and as his rivals’ final times came in those fractions became crucial as he rose to P8 and then slid back to P10. In the end, though, he held the place, with just under eight hundredths of a second in hand over Haas’ Kevin Magnussen. Eliminated behind the Dane were Sainz, Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein.

    And Hamilton maintained his grip on P1 after the first runs of Q3. Bottas was first across the line but a big slide through the final corner left the Finn with a P1 time of 1:19.390. That was swiftly bypassed by Hamilton with a lap of 1:19.149.

    Behind the Mercedes pair Raikkonen was third, five hundredths behind Bottas, with Vettel fourth a tenth further back. The third row of the grid was provisionally made up of the two Red Bulls, with Verstappen to the fore, almost half a second clear of team-mate Ricciardo.

    With three tenths in hand over his team-mate it looked like Hamilton was in the clear. Vettel, though, was determined to have his say and the Ferrari driver was the only one of the top four to find significant time on the final run.

    It wasn’t enough, however. While he improved to 1:19.200 and Hamilton failed to gain time, the Mercedes driver still managed to cling on for his 64th career pole, finishing just 0.051s ahead of the title leader.

    Bottas took third ahead of Raikkonen who made a mistake in the final sector after setting the fastest first sector of the session. Fifth place went to Verstappen, while team-mate Ricciardo had a strangely muted Q3, finishing half a second behind the Dutchman in P6. Alonso put in a huge performance to qualify his McLaren in seventh place ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez, Massa, and the second Force India of Esteban Ocon.

    eom/FIA press release

  • Just a bunch of small things, all added up: Hamilton on what went wrong at Sochi

    PART TWO: DRIVERS – Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Marcus, Sauber’s announced an engine partnership with Honda, are you pleased with the Honda deal and does it push you towards a long-term commitment with the team?

    Marcus ERICSSON: I think looking at it right now, it’s obviously not maybe the best decision because Honda is struggling quite a lot at the moment but I think in the longer term for the team, I think it can be a very clever decision because I’m sure Honda sooner or later will get it together – but yeah, let’s wait and see. At the moment, it’s maybe not the best one.

    Q: And what impact does it have on this season in terms of preparation for next year. Does it impact the way you approach things? Does it impact you as drivers?

    ME: No, not really, I wouldn’t say. We have the engine we have at the moment and we need to maximise our season and focus on that. And then, as every team, at some point you need to start looking at the next season and focus the development for next year but at the moment all our focus is on this season and trying to catch up that midfield group.

    Q: Lewis, you’ve been very consistent for so long, it seemed odd that Sochi went the way it did – have you figured out what happened?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it was just a bunch of small things all added up in one pot. Nothing in particular, no single one thing that was bigger than another, that just led us in slightly the wrong direction. Should be better this weekend.

    Q: The team was talking about the difficulty of getting these tyres into a particular window. Is that a contributing factor? Is it less likely to be a factor this weekend, for example?

    LH: It’s a tyre issue in the sense that the tyre’s working range is quite small, so yeah, the whole weekend I generally wasn’t in the right window with it.

    Q: Obviously if you couldn’t win, it was a good job that your team-mate Valtteri Bottas managed to finish ahead of Vettel. How pleased were you personally for Valtteri and what do you expect from him now that he’s got that first win under his belt?

    LH: Well, I’ve said from the beginning of the season that he was in competition, so it’s no surprise that he would eventually get a win. But I was actually very happy. You saw at the end of the race I could at least be happy and share in the glory of the team beating the Ferraris still and keeping us in the lead of the Constructors’ Championship. I was proud of what we had achieved – I just wish that I could have backed him up, in the sense of getting a 1-2, but we can work on that maybe this weekend.

    Q: Max, it’s 12 months since you sat in this room, having just made the switch to the Red Bull team and what a weekend that turned out to be for you. Your learning curve has been more or less vertical since then, but I wonder in what areas do you feel that you’ve made real improvement, from 12 months ago to now?

    Max VERSTAPPEN: Difficult to say…

    LH: You’ve got your driving licence now!

    MV: I already had that back then.

    LH: No you didn’t!

    MV: Five months already.

    LH: I was saying he’s got his driving licence now. It’s a big step.

    MV: Yeah, I think it’s just general experience, both in life and in racing but nothing major, I would say, in terms of driving the car faster or anything. It all adds up to little things and if you feel better in the car, you understand the car better.

    Q: What about the way you deal with these guys and particularly the ones at the front?

    MV: Well yeah, you’re driving more amongst them compared to what I was doing before but that was always the aim and the target once I moved into Formula One. Natural process, I guess.

    Q: So we know you have a heavily updated car here. Can you put in context for us just how different it is and what were the key areas for you that needed to be addressed in how it handles?

    MV: I think, first of all, everybody is bringing quite a few updates. Hopefully our updates will bring us a little bit more to the front but I think in every area we can always improve so I think that’s what we are aiming to do with the car. Yeah, you see a few differences on the car and hopefully we can close the gap a little bit here already and then go on from there.

    Q: And in terms of what you wanted to fix and how it handles?

    MV: Every area, it needs to be faster everywhere.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Lewis, you’ve often been referred to as the Jedi Knight of F1 and it is Star Wars – I refer to you as the Jedi Knight of F1 – and this is the month that we celebrate Star Wars so the question to you is what colour Lifesaver would you chose? This is a very important question because it’s going to go on social media because it determines what side of the force you are on?

    LH: Well, firstly it’s kind of exciting to have a lot of different questions, much nicer different questions! I want to be purple but I’m a huge fan of Star Wars, obviously good friends with George [Lucas] and a huge admirer or what he created, Star Wars. I think it’s frigging amazing, excited for the… seen every one. I’m excited to see what comes next.

    Q: (Oana Popoiu – F1Zone.net) To all of you: Kimi Raikkonen drove half of the Russian Grand Prix knowing he had Valtteri Bottas behind and not Lewis Hamilton. How important is it for you to know what driver is behind you? Do you drive differently, knowing it’s one or another?

    ME: No. Usually you know who is behind you if you’re in a close fight with them. If there’s someone who is not that close then it doesn’t really matter but I would say there are some drivers  who are maybe more aggressive than others but then in the end we all respect each other and race in a good way.

    LH: I always know who’s behind me but it doesn’t really make any difference.

    MV: Yeah, I think it shouldn’t make a difference and if you don’t know, look at your pit board. It’s standing on the pit board.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, this is obviously the first year you’ve come back to Spain since your crash last year with Nico. I was just wondering firstly what you drew from that experience as a driver and as a person and secondly of the subsequent reports that you threatened to… or you offered to quit Mercedes after the crash? So did you offer to quit Mercedes after the crash with Nico last year in Spain?

    LH: I did not.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) And secondly what did you learn as a person and as a driver from that experience?

    LH: Not much really, it was a racing incident. I’ve had lots of crashes during my career and that was just another one. We got through it pretty smoothly or as smooth as it could be, I would say, and yeah, went on and won many more races after that.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) To all drivers, starting with you Lewis, you said that the main problem you had in the last race was to take the tyre in the window temperature and here you have the hardest tyres that Pirelli supplies in Formula One. Do you think it can be an issue here?

    LH: The tyres are definitely… there seems to be quite a small working window and it’s a new tyre for us also. I think we are all learning as we go from race to race and I think for some cars perhaps it works immediately than for others. There’s different preparations. If you look at Bahrain, for example, the Red Bulls drove as slow as they could on the laps to prepare for qualifying but still had the tyres ready whereas the Ferraris were flat out through the warm-up laps so there’s a different approach for everyone. It’s a new tyre which is exciting. They are very very hard tyres so a hard, safe tyre basically. It’s going to be interesting this weekend to see how they work.

    MV: I think in general in Sochi it’s not a lot of grip and then combined with a tricky warm-up, it just makes it a bit more difficult. It was quite difficult to get the tyres in the window and you could see a lot of build laps or second timed laps which were faster so I think that will be a little bit different here where the tarmac is a bit more rough so harder on the tyres. But yeah, we have quite hard compounds so we’ll see. I think in general you always try to go for the softer compounds, also here but yeah, I think the warm-up is still critical.

    ME: I agree with the guys but the only thing really apart from that I could say is that I think this weekend we could probably live with another step softer. I think the hard tyre is not really useable. I think a supersoft for qualifying would be quite nice.

    Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Max, there was a question about there was some disappointment in Sochi about the race and there wasn’t much overtaking. Do you disagree with that, do you feel that there is better racing, at least in the last four races, that there has been a better show for everyone to watch now?

    MV: Compared to…?

    Q: (Sef Harding – Xiro Xone News) Compared to Sochi.

    MV: You mean last year? This year’s better racing compared to… Yeah, I was a bit surprised that there was only one overtaking (manoeuvre) in Sochi. Yeah, it’s just harder to follow with the cars. And then with tyres which have a long life, only one pit stop and I think you could have done no pit stops actually in Sochi. It makes it all a bit harder. I think in Bahrain where you’re struggling a bit more with the tyres you could see there were five cars behind each other, challenging a bit more so yeah, I think we need to be at least a bit softer on the tyres or something to get a bit more exciting racing again but then on the other hand the cars are wider so they create a bigger wake around them, once you are behind one another you lose a lot of downforce especially with the higher cornering speeds we had. It all makes it a bit more tricky.

    Q: (Mark Tisshaw – Autocar) Lewis, what do you think of the progress Max has made over the past 12 months?

    LH: Pretty bad, to be honest! He burst into Formula One, obviously did an amazing job and I remember last year the great race that he had when he moved to Red Bull and he’s remained a strong component.  He’s obviously grown, he’s got a long way to go, still 18 still?

    MV: 19

    LH: So he’s got an incredible career up ahead of him.

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Lewis, last year (here) obviously was a massive talking point. Have you spoken to Nico since he’s retired? I know that you share the same Monaco apartment (block) but I just wondered if you’ve bumped into each other just to have a chat or anything like that?

    LH: We have not. I think that’s the… actually the one time I’ve seen him I was running through the streets in London. It’s kind of a strange… running from Covent Garden all the way down to the Thames and the Thames down to Battersea kind of area and back up near Parliament and I was just running on a random street and someone started running behind me and then there was a crowded sidewalk but someone started running behind me and I looked back and it’s… Nico’s obviously seen me on the road as he’s going through somewhere in London and he’s jumped out (of the car) and run alongside me so we stopped and had a chat for a bit there. That’s the first time that I’ve seen him since…

    Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Who was quicker?

    LH: Well, he was trying to catch up so…

    Q: (Pilar Celebrovsky – The Paddock Magazine) Max, Lewis said in China that he and other drivers still learn from you and the way you drive in wet conditions, but what can you learn from Lewis in normal conditions?

    MV: I think it’s a bit tricky when you’re not in the exact same team because then you have a lot more information, but still if you see some races, some overtakes, some starts, some shit races, what happened during the race, whatever, tyre management, you always look to your competitors as well, what they are doing, what they are doing differently in terms of lines throughout the whole weekend. You always try to learn something, every single weekend.

    Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportwerld) Max, could you tell me something about your feelings, coming to this Grand Prix after a year? There’s a lot of Dutch people at the side of the track, thousands I think. Does that affect you in any way, tensionwise, that sort of thing?

    MV: I don’t think it did last year. I think last year was more intense. It’s always good to come back here but it’s 2017 now, 2016 has gone. Of course it was a very positive weekend but now I just want to look ahead and do my race.

    Q: (Lennart Bloemhof – Volkskrant) Max, last year you earned the title of race winner in F1, that’s a title for life. Can you say something about that and did it change your status in F1?

    MV: It was nice but I want to win more races than just that one. It’s nice but that’s not what I’m here for, for one single victory. I want more.

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) Lewis you said in Russia that it was a few things that came together, nothing in particular. Do you have confidence this weekend that you won’t have those same problems and just secondly, is it nice having Roscoe here and is Coco here as well and does it kind of keep you grounded and do you enjoy having them around during race weekends?

    LH: I think coming in to this weekend I think we definitely have a better understanding… a good understanding of what went wrong on our side of the garage and there’s been a huge amount of analysis as there always is from race to race. I think we’ve definitely grown from the experience, both having a win, having a fast car and obviously having a car that struggled in so many areas. I definitely think we are better equipped now but I can’t really say it’s going to be better this weekend. I assume it will be but there are lots of different challenges this weekend with new upgrades for everyone. But we’ll be doing a lot of work tomorrow to get the car in the right place. I’m always on the move so it’s great to be able to have your animal, pet with you and I’m sure… this one here is stressing a little bit about the fact that I’ve got the dog in here but…

    MV: He’s sleeping.

    LH: Yes, he’s sleeping but I thought that… I don’t think anyone in the whole of history has probably brought their dog to the press conference so I thought I’d try and do something new.

    Q: (Giles Richards – Guardian) Lewis, can you tell us whether you think Valtteri is a credible threat to you in the battle for the World Championship this year and secondly, whether you’ve had any discussion with the team about when they might back one or the other of you to go for the Drivers’ championship?

    LH: I’ve not had a chat about the backing off because there’s no need to. And of course he’s a credible competitor, he was when he joined. I think it was many of you and perhaps people who are fans, whatever, came with preconceived ideas of how he was going to perform and he’s proved everyone wrong so fair play to him and he’s going to remain a competitor through the rest of the year so the fight will go on and we’ve stated our relationship with a really great foundation I think, a respectful foundation and I think that will continue.

    Q: (Iolande Skinner – Motorsport Monday) Marcus has the change to the Honda engine for next year… how’s that affected you mentally? Are you feeling more motivated or less motivated? What effect has that had on you?

    ME: First of all, I only have a contract for this year so I have to wait and see for that but like I said before, for the team, I think in the longer term it’s a good decision. Shorter term, I think we have to wait and see how Honda performs for the rest of the year, to be certain what Sauber gets for the beginning of next year.  But yeah, for me, all my focus now is on this season. We have the Ferrari power unit that we need to make the most of and yeah, develop our car as good as we can and try and make as good results as possible.

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

  • It would be great to have Jenson back: Hamilton

    PART ONE: DRIVERS – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Sergio PÉREZ (Force India), Stoffel VANDOORNE (McLaren)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, great win last time out in China, current joint leader of the FIA Formula One World Championship – so far so good?

    Lewis HAMILTON: So far, so good, yeah. Happy to be back in Bahrain; always amazing weather. Yeah, it’s been an awesome season so far. We’re working very hard collectively as a team to try and continue at that level.

    Q: Just following up on some comments after the last race, obviously you are a two-time winner here in Bahrain but given the circuit layout here, and particularly the higher temperatures, which could possible play to Ferrari’s strengths are your expecting an even tougher battle to keep them behind you this weekend?

    LH: I definitely do. I think Ferrari have shown tremendous pace and I think obviously in the first race, particularly in race trim, they’re very, very quick, particularly on the hotter circuit. So, being that it is a hotter race here I think the gap is going to be even closer, if not different that to perhaps it was before, but we shall see.

    Q: Obviously, yesterday Fernando Alonso announced he’s going to race at Indy next month, in the Indianapolis 500. As a motor sport fan yourself, as well as an old rival of Fernando’s, what do you think of him skipping Monaco for Indy?

    LH: I think, firstly, it’s great that a driver is able to do that. I think us drivers should be able to do more than one series. Obviously there was a period of time in the past when there were drivers doing multiples series, so I think it’s pretty cool that he’s doing it. And I hope that Jenson comes back, I think it would be great for the sport to have Jenson back in.

    Q: Thanks for that. Stoffel, coming to you, you obviously made your Formula One race debut here 12 months ago with a points-scoring finish. It’s been a pretty tough first couple of races for you, but what have you taken from them to make you stronger going forward?

    Stoffel VANDOORNE: Yeah, it’s great to be back in Bahrain. I obviously had a good race here last year, which was nice to get that opportunity. A year on, I think it’s a lot different; I’ve now got two races under my belt and a bit more experience. It’s not been an easy situation for us at the moment but I feel in a good position and hopefully this weekend we can prove again that we made a step forward.

    Q: Clearly very tough for you to have that lack of performance from the McLaren-Honda package at the moment. When do you expect a step change and how have you revised your expectations for the season?

    SV: It’s difficult really to put any timeframe on it, when it will get better. Obviously we are all hoping it’s gets better sooner rather than later, I don’t know exactly when we will see a step in performance.

    Q: Thanks for that. Sergio, you finished on the podium here in 2014 and you have a 100 per cent finishing record at this track, so is it one of your favourites?

    Sergio PÉREZ: Yeah, I think it’s one of my favourites. I’ve had good races here in the past, certainly the podium the year before. This track suits my style quite well, so hopefully we can have a good finish, close the gap to the cars ahead, especially now that the midfield is so packed and we are probably a little bit behind in that group but hopefully we can keep scoring good points on Sundays.

    Q: Let’s drill down into that a little bit, about the midfield. The team has bagged two double points finishes in a row, but give us an insight into just how tight that midfield battle is and what kind of things make a difference to getting a good result in that battle?

    SP: Basically the whole difference is getting a perfect qualifying because if you don’t get a perfect qualifying it’s the difference between getting P8 and P14 or P15. So having a great qualifying makes a huge difference to your weekend. The first lap counts a lot as well and yeah, just have good strategy calls, executing a perfect weekend. Otherwise, that’s the difference between scoring points and not scoring any points.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frédéric Ferret – L’Equipe) A question for Lewis. You said you love the weather. How have you been working to deal with the heat for Sunday’s race?

    LH: Just running in this heat. I was in Dubai from Tuesday onwards. I was in Dubai for a couple of days and got here this morning. A couple of good runs in this heat always help. It’s hard work, but that’s really all you can do.

    Q: (Graham Harris – Motorsport Monday/Motorsportweek.com) A question for all three drivers: with Fernando announcing that he is doing the Indy 500, would any of you like to do the Indy 500 or possibly another iconic race like Le Mans if you were offered?

    SV: Yeah, I think I’ve decided to do the Spa 24 Hours instead of Hungary this year!

    LH: I wouldn’t miss out any of the races in Formula One. I’d definitely continue to do all the races, but I’d like to do MotoGP. I’d like to ride a MotoGP. Is there another race? Probably a NASCAR race, like the Daytona 500 maybe.

    SP: I certainly wouldn’t miss Monaco because for me Monaco is my favourite weekend in the whole calendar, so I wouldn’t miss Monaco and normally you have that clash. But I’d like to do some other racing. I certainly have some interest in IndyCar. The Indy 500 is certainly one of the best races in the world, so I’d definitely to do some.

    Q: (Simon Lazenby – Sky Sports) A question for Lewis. I know it’s early days but how does it compare, fighting a four-time world champion at another team as opposed to fighting your own team-mate in the same car? Does it excite you more this year if you were to take it a relative stage as last year say?

    LH: I’ve commented on that same question a couple of times in the last two races but yeah, it is more exciting racing another team, very much like I experience in 2007 and 2008. Also, growing up seeing races with McLaren and Ferrari, the great teams that were at the top competing with each other was always exciting. So to be in amongst the fight with the Silver Arrows and Ferrari, which is also a very historic, great team, I think it’s more exciting than just silver at the front.

    Q: (Louis Dekker – NOS.nl) A question for all three drivers. This is a back-to-back race. Can you explain a little bit not how heavy it is for you as drivers but for the team, logistically, physically, mentally?

    SP: Yeah, it’s very hard for our guys. They have such a hard time, the mechanics, they come here very early in the morning and they leave very late at night, pretty much every day, they are coming here since Tuesday, so it’s very hard for the mechanics. I think for us as drivers, it’s not that hard. It’s another race and we have plenty of time to rest. But especially everyone who is involved in the team they have a very hard time. Having two races back-to-back is pretty much the limit, if week have a third one it would be very hard for all the boys in the team.

    Lewis?

    LH: Yeah, I think for the drivers it’s easier doing back-to-backs. Could be back, weekend on, weekend off. Just keeping weekend in, weekend in, I think would be easier for us because staying in the zone between races, it’s just easier that way. When you have the gap you have to switch back into it, so it’s a little bit trickier. But for the team it definitely is very, very tough. It’s time away from the family; they’re on their feet for long, long hours during the day. But in all honesty, a lot of the guys, particularly my guys, they love it. There’s nowhere in the world they’d rather be. So whilst it is very tough for them, for sure, and they definitely feel it, it’s great to see that enthusiasm, and that sheer drive to just keep doing something you love. So, I never, ever see them complain, ever.

    Stoffel?

    SV: I think they pretty much covered everything.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Lewis, when you are racing your team-mate, regardless of who it is, you both have very similar characteristics, similar strengths, weaknesses, you have data. When you are racing someone in a different car, the Ferrari for example, that car has different characteristics, you don’t have data. Which is more difficult to do?

    LH: Ah, I think it’s more difficult for sure racing up against… I wouldn’t say there’s one more difficult than the other, they’re just different. When you’re racing up against another team there are strengths and weaknesses. You know last week when we were qualifying against the Ferrari they looked like they were going to get pole but we were finding a bit more time on the track, in the blind really, because at the time I was the quickest of the two guys in our garage, so I was having to base myself on myself, I couldn’t base myself on Sebastian. Definitely having to push the boundaries on your own is more of a challenge, which I love. When you are comparing data and you are constantly pushing each other, it’s OK, but it’s not as much fun as competing against an unknown.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globosport.com) I’m sorry to come back to the same subject. If you were going to race in the Indy 500, what would be the biggest challenge, considering the average speed you have, the cars are most of the time very close, you have a wall at your side? What would be the main lesson should be important to race there?

    LH: It’s a completely different category; it’s a lot, lot different. I’ve never driven one of those tracks, but it would so much different for us to go and do that – how a car’s set up, because it’s asymmetric I think, I believe the set-ups are asymmetric. The banking, how much you lift, how you use the tyres. It takes us guys forever through these test days to learn how to operate these tyres in the right window, so I would imaging it’s not an easy thing to do in one go, so it’s definitely a tall order in a short space of time, but Jeez, you’ve got one of the best drivers in the world going there, For sure, he will be the best driver in the paddock, but he won’t have the experience any of them have. So I think it will be a very exciting challenge for him, to see how strong he can fare against those who have all that experience.

    Q: What do you think Stoffel? You’ve obviously watched a few of these races. What’s the biggest thing you would be wanting to understand straight away?

    SV: I think it’s a very strategic race. We’ve seen last year Alex Rossi winning the race and doing huge amounts of fuel saving. I think anything is possible. Fernando is a clever guy. He knows what he is doing. Hopefully he comes back with a trophy. I’ll give him a bottle of milk as well.

    Q: Have you spoken to him about it?

    SV: Only a little bit at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll catch up with him over the weekend.

    Q: And what about you Sergio? What would you be thinking about on your first runs around the Speedway?

    SP: Yes, as these guys say, there’s so much to learn from a completely new series. I mean we have been doing this for many years and through the lower series as well, which is something more similar to what we do now, so going to a completely new tyre, new characteristics, new ways of setting up the car, circuits, driving in the traffic. But I think with Fernando that’s probably one of his strengths, how he can manage the race situations, so he’ll be really good on that. Indy really depends on the last 10 laps, so I think he wqill be really good at it.

    Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, you said you’d like to see JB back in the car for Monaco. Can you just elaborate on why you’d want to see him there? And Stoffel, is JB the man you’d like to see back at McLaren replacing Fernando in Monte Carlo?

    SV: It’s not in my hands in the end. I’m sure the team has got everything under control. I don’t know yet who it will be. I’m sure the team will pick the right driver.

    LH: Because I like Jenson and I think he’s still one of the best drivers and his calibre is still higher than any other driver that’s going to be able to take that spot for sure.

    Q: And experience is important in Monaco?

    LH: Yeah, his calibre and his experience for sure.

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference

  • Hamilton claims fifth Chinese GP win; Verstappen 3rd from 16th

    Shanghai, 9 April 2017: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton held off the challenge of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to take his fifth Chinese Grand Prix victory as Max Verstappen claimed his eighth career podium finish after a sensational drive that saw the Red Bull Racing driver rise to third from 16th place in the FIA Formula One (F1) World Championship on the Shanghai grid on Sunday.

    Hamilton, starting from pole, held his advantage when the lights went out and took the lead ahead of Vettel and Bottas. Daniel Ricciardo passed Kimi Raikkonen for fourth place.

    The order swiftly changed, however as first Williams’ Lance Stroll spun off and the Virtual Safety Car was deployed and, soon after, when Antonio Giovinazzi crashed heavily as he crossed the finish line. With his Sauber stranded on the main straight the Safety Car proper was sent on track.

    Vettel chose to discard his intermediates under the VSC but that move was penalised when Giovinazzi crashed and the German dropped back. Ricciardo, now on supersofts, rose to second behind Hamilton who had taken on soft tyres during the cautionary periods.

    The Australian wasn’t the Red Bull on the biggest charge, however. Max Verstappen lined up 16th on the grid but the Dutchman mad a sensational start and by the end of lap one he was up to seventh.

    As the stops played out he rose further and then when the SC retreated he passed Raikkonen and then to cap a remarkable opening spell he passed team-mate Ricciardo to claim second place.

    Ricciardo soon came under pressure from fourth-placed Raikkonen and fifth-placed Vettel as Ferrari came back but neither could find a way past the Red Bull across the opening stint, a situation that allowed the front pair of Hamilton and Verstappen to pull away. By the start of lap 20 Hamilton was 3.6s clear of Verstappen, while the Dutchman was 5.1s ahead of Ricciardo.

    The pressure on Ricciardo intensified when Vettel got past Raikkonen with a well-executed move at the hairpin. The German closed in on the Red Bull driver and then tried the same move on lap 22.

    Ricciardo resisted and they ran side by side through the exit, banging wheels as they attempted to get the upper hand. It was Vettel, though who emerged ahead the Ferrari driver then set off in pursuit of Verstappen.

    The Dutchman was 4.9s up the road at that point in the race and within four laps the German had reduced that deficit to 1.8s. Vettel’s pace was irresistible and on lap 29, as Verstappen locked up on the approach to the hairpin, Vettel eased past to claim second place. He was now just under 12s adrift of leader Hamilton.

    Further back Alonso’s excellent race, in which he rose as high seventh came to an end soon after he ceded the place to Sainz. The Spaniard slowed soon afterwards and was quickly on the radio reporting a driveshaft problem, which forced him to stop at Turn 9.

    Further ahead Vettel stopped for soft tyres on lap 34 in a bid to pressure Mercedes and Hamilton responded, stopping for softs two laps later.

    When the order resolved after the stops, Hamilton led from Raikkonen, but the Finn was reporting handling issues with his car saying “there are 20 laps left and I have no front end”. He pitted for new tyres on lap 40 and Vettel once again moved to second place, this time 9.5s adrift of Hamilton. Raikkonen, meanwhile, dropped to sixth behind Sainz.

    Vettel was pushing hard to reel in Hamilton but the Briton always had pace in reserve and with eight laps remaining the Mercedes driver was a comfortable eight seconds ahead of his rival.

    Behind them Ricciardo began to put pressure on Verstappen and in the closing stages a knife-edge battle developed between the team-mates, with the Australian using DRS to close in hard on the Dutchman and Verstappen not having the benefit of clear air to pull away as Haas’ Romain Grosjean was just over a second further up the track.

    A rattled Verstappen complained long and loud about not being able to get past the Haas but in the end he was able to hold off his team-mate’s challenger and soon after Hamilton claimed his 54thcareer victory ahead of Vettel, Verstappen crossed the line to take his eighth career podium finish in 42 grand prix starts.

    Ricciardo was forced to settle for fourth place ahead of Raikkonen and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz. Kevin Magnussen took Haas’ first points of the season with eighth place, while Force India enjoyed a double points finish for the second race in a row, with Sergio Perez ninth ahead of Esteban Ocon.

    eom/FIA press release

  • Ferraris looked so fast and we knew it would be close: Hamilton

    Ferraris looked so fast and we knew it would be close: Hamilton

    Hamilton celebrates after taking Chinese GP pole on Saturday. An FIA image

    Shanghai, 8 April 2017:

    DRIVERS – 1. Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), 2. Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari), 3. Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Lewis, many congratulations on what looked like a great lap at the end of Q3 there. Talk us through the lap and your session.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Thank you. Yeah, it’s been an interesting weekend so far, obviously without testing yesterday. Today was a real challenge for all of us in the sense that we had to compile a lot of yesterday’s testing into this morning and hope we’d hit the nail on the head with the balance of the car. But the Ferraris have looked so fast, through practice this morning and then through each qualifying session. We knew it was going to be close, and it was going to mean we would have to pull out all the stops and really have a very, very perfect lap, you know, a solid lap. I managed to just chip away at it from session to session. No major issues. But the last lap was my best lap, which is always the plan – sometimes it’s in another session. The lap started off not as good as perhaps the Q1 first lap but then the rest of the lap got better and better – I think it may have been tyre temperatures or something, who knows. It felt strong and then obviously coming into the last corner knowing I was up a couple of tenths… it’s always nervous going into Turn 14 because you want to break late and gain some but you don’t want to throw away everything you’ve gained. And through the last corner and coming across the line, and then just waiting after that to see what everyone else had done. These guys behind were still finishing off their laps. So, very, very happy, super grateful for the huge efforts that the team have put in to keep us in the fight. It’s more exciting than ever for me, because we’re really fighting these guys, you know. It’s amazing, and I think that’s what racing’s all about. It really pushes you to raise the bar every time you go out, which I love. Lastly, just a big thank you to all the fans. We’ve got a lot of British flags here in China, which is amazing.

    And Lewis what does it mean to you to take the 75th pole in the history of Mercedes?

    LH: Well, I’ve been with Mercedes for a long, long time, since I started when I was 13 actually. Since I’ve been in Formula One, all my wins, all my poles have been with Mercedes, so very grateful and thankful to be in the family, and to be a part of this amazing journey that the whole team is on, that this whole brand is on. I’d like to go along and keep stamping something in the history books so someday I can look back on it.

    Q: Sebastian, a great session from you and Ferrari as well. How important was it for you to get on the front row today?

    Sebastian VETTEL: We’ll see tomorrow how important it was. It was a nice session; I enjoyed it a lot. I think if we could have been a bit quicker at the end I would have enjoyed it a bit more. I think I was very happy with the lap I had. Last corner maybe I lost a little bit – maybe I ‘chickened’ onto the brakes a bit too soon. Obviously it was very close with Valtteri, good job we got just enough margin to make it to the front row.

    Q: Do you think you have a better race car than qualifying car at the moment?

    SV: I think our car is strong no matter what. It obviously depends what these guys are doing. Certainly we’ve seen also in the previous years that in quali they seem to be able to really get on top of what they have. I think we can still improve. Let’s see what the race looks like tomorrow. The conditions will be quite different. Maybe we should put fuel in the car and race now. I don’t know what happens tomorrow.

    Q: Valtteri, have you worked out where you lost that one thousandth of a second to Sebastian?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: I think on one lap around here there are quite a few places. One thousandth, like you mentioned, it like this maybe? It’s not so much. It is a real shame he managed to get between us. I think last time it was two thousandths and now it’s one thousandth, so…

    SV: I think it was two hundredths, I don’t know.

    VB: It’s getting closer! So yeah it’s a shame but the race is tomorrow. We are starting as a team first and third. It’s a good place to start. The weather can be anything really tomorrow. Lewis was strong today, Ferrari was strong and we were always expecting a close fight today on track. I think it will be the same case tomorrow. Thanks to the team again. We did a good job in the short amount of time in the practice today to get the car set up well and it was enjoyable to drive, but let’s see what tomorrow brings.

    Q: Thank you Valtteri. Coming back to you Lewis, well, it looks like you’ve got a real fight on your hands tomorrow. How much are you relishing this battle with Ferrari?

    LH: Particularly for tomorrow, it’s going to be an unusual day. I heard it’s going to be wet potentially, to start off the race. I’ve not driven the wet tyre this season, so that’s going to be fun, to experience the bigger car, wider tyres for the first time. I mean I did an out lap yesterday on the extreme, but it was a very slow lap, so I’ve not actually experienced it. So tomorrow will be a new lesson for me to learn if it is wet and it will be interesting to see… I think the Ferraris have a very, very strong car, particularly a step-up more so in the race pace and how they treat their tyres, particularly when it’s warm, so it will be interesting to see what the weather brings us tomorrow. But I think we have worked hard to understand our car a little bit better and I think whatever the case it’s going to be close between us and that bodes well for one of the most exciting days to come for a long time.

    Q: Lewis, how much do you feel that you are on the back foot after the lack of running yesterday? How much has it set everybody’s programmes back?

    LH: I don’t know. I think the thing is we’ve all been here for so long and the more you drive the more you learn to minimise the loss of a day like yesterday. So, y’know, as a team we’ve learnt so much over the years, and as a driver as well. You learn, even while you’re not driving, you’re thinking about the steps that you need to take. So we try go into a day like today as if there hasn’t been a loss. But as I said, this morning we had to do long run, short run, and a qualifying run in one short session, as opposed to doing it in three sessions – but I think we got as much as we could done and if we had had yesterday, I don’t think we’d have been much further up the road, if any at all, to be honest. Don’t know how these guys feel but we’ve got great engineers who analyse and analyse and analyse and did a fantastic job and, I’m assuming, for Sebastian.

    Q: The weather forecast looks indifferent for tomorrow at best… it could rain. You’ve touched on it already that you haven’t used the new full wet tyre from Pirelli. Does that make you nervous?

    LH: No, I’m excited about it, to be honest, because it’s a new experience. I’m sure it’s not a huge, huge difference to what we’ve had in the past. Perhaps a little bit. I’m kind of excited about. It makes it more… it’s great to have some excitement. To be faced with a new challenge. You just have to be the most proactive, most reactive tomorrow. If it is wet. If it is raining I just hope that the clouds stay high so that the helicopter can stay take off so that we can actually do a race. We’ve got an amazing turnout here so we want to make sure we can put on a good race for them.

    Q: Sebastian, it’s 380m from the grid to Turn One tomorrow. How significant is that going to be – or do you think you are going to be able to overtake tomorrow?

    SV: For me it’s 388m, I guess. Hopefully I can make up those eight metres. Which side are we starting on. Where’s pole? [on the outside] OK, so if I make up 8m then it looks pretty good. I don’t know. There’s a lot of things that can turn out in many ways tomorrow. That’s one option that I mentioned but we don’t know what the conditions are going to be like. We’ll see. I think it should be an exciting race nevertheless. Obviously very limited running yesterday, hardly any for me. I think I did two laps but nobody really did a lot of laps, so we’ll see. The car is good, the car is fine, so I’m confident, no matter the conditions that the car is working, and then we try to do the fastest race.

    Q: Lewis has already said that racing against someone like yourself is what racing is all about. Just how much are you relishing the battle with him?

    SV: Well, it’s been a while so yeah, I think we’re on a good way. Obviously it’s a lot of fun when you fight for poles and wins. Certainly enjoyed Australia a lot, despite the outcome on Sunday which obviously was fantastic – but in general, to be able to fight at the front for the podium, and really fight for it is a great feeling. Same here. You go into the weekend and… we didn’t really have much expectation because it’s a completely different track but on the hand we did know that our car is working well. So, just need to keep it up. Need to try to improve it whenever we can. So overall, I can only give it back, and hopefully there’s a lot more for the rest of the season. But this is only race two. A lot of things can happen but we need to obviously give everything we have to stay there.

    Q: Valtteri, as Sebastian says, this is only race two, it’s your second race with Mercedes. How comfortable are you feeling in the team? Are you settling in? Are there still a few things you need to learn?

    VB: Definitely. Approaching this weekend, compared to Melbourne, the first one of the year, it was a different feeling. Being true, that one full race weekend with the team, doing the qualifying session and the race, with a podium finish, it was a nice start, so definitely feeling more and more comfortable. I think still, as I’ve been mentioning, there is a big learning curve for me with everything and I feel more better and better still, every single day with the team and every single lap with the car. So, yeah…

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Maybe a question to all of you. Different circuit, same result as in Melbourne. The advantage a little bit smaller than in Melbourne. Where does Ferrari stand against Mercedes? What do you think Lewis, Sebastian and Valtteri?

    LH: I’m not really sure how to explain that. Close. The times show it as close as it’s been. It’s within a tenth, I think, the distance between us.

    SV: Being pragmatic, I think if you take the average of what we’ve had so far, then you can say that in qualifying we’re still lacking a bit and in the race I think we are a good match. I think Lewis was struggling a bit in Australia with his tyres. We weren’t as much. I don’t know what happens tomorrow. It will be a lot cooler. Certainly after tomorrow you can draw another average – but what matters most is that after 20 races you draw the average and we come out on top. That would be great! But it’s a long way, as I said. So, for now we’re very happy being able to challenge Mercedes and hopefully we can do that more and more.

    Q: And Valtteri? What did you expect the gap between yourselves and Mercedes to do here in China?

    SV: A thousandth!

    VB: Yeah! I was hoping for one thousandth at least. We were always expecting it would be really, really close. Everything between the two teams is between one or two tenths, depending on conditions for the sessions, race or qualifying. That’s why it’s going to be interesting tomorrow.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, the distance between you and Lewis, Ferrari and Mercedes in general, seems to be even closer than last year and the past years in general. This difference in qualifying, compared to last year and previous seasons; do you think it can be a trend throughout the season?

    SV: Well, I think we’ve made a big step as a team so I think it’s really thanks to the team that simply supplied me with a better car. I think in general I like this formula  a lot where you can push on the limit. Probably the last couple of years it was creeping away from all of us, step by step, and with this year’s cars it’s back to how it was a long time ago and back to how it should be. I don’t know if it’s a combination of things; as a driver you jump into the car and you always try to do your best but as I said, big thank you to the team to supply me with a great car this year, right from the first outing and I have  high hopes that we can still improve it from where we are. I know the team is still growing together, there is still a lot of progress that we can make but the way I feel and the way the team feels and the way the team shows it to me directly and indirectly, there’s no rush. We are here to do our job and we know that we can be strong. I think we’ve laid a good foundation and now it’s up to us to build onto it. Now it’s April, we still have a lot of time. The most important thing, I think, is that we enjoy it.

    Q: (Keren Wang – Top Driver) Lewis, we’ve seen a bit of happy tail from your car today on your flying laps. Could you tell us a little bit about your car set-up; is it compromised for a wet race tomorrow or is it somewhere between wet or dry, either condition?

    LH: What was the first part? Happy tail, ah oversteer. It’s actually a little bit understeery I would say.

    SV: Where was the happy tail? One corner to another?

    LH: It was pretty good. It’s like a see-saw, you know? You can decide to have it more understeery or oversteery. This is a track where you need to have a very good front end. I think generally in Formula One it’s not too often where we have to set the car up for a wet race, particularly when you don’t know if it’s definitely going to be wet so you set it up for what you’re faced with that day and tomorrow you can make changes to the wing; tomorrow, for example, if it is wet, that’s the only real difference you need to make. It’s not like go-karting where you loosen everything off, you slacken the car off. You don’t really need to do that necessarily for… If we know it’s a completely wet weekend and maybe we can do some small things but it’s quite similar. We’ve got to make sure we’ve put ourselves at the front.

    Q: (Jens Nagler – Bild) To all three of you: what do you think will be the key tomorrow: the start, the strategy or perhaps even some overtaking which would be exciting?

    LH: I think probably in that order: start, strategy and then, depending on what the conditions are on the track… if it’s wet of course there are opportunities to overtake, if it’s dry it’s very hard to follow as has been the rule now, particularly when there’s thousandths between us. You lose a lot of thousandths behind each other with the loss of downforce. Yeah, I think it would be great if we get some… a wet race would be exciting.

    SV: I think… mostly conditions. If it’s dry we know what to do, everybody knows what to do. It’s fairly easy knowing what to expect. If there’s an element of wet then it can mix things up so we will see. I think we wake up tomorrow, look outside and see what to do. We have enough wet tyres so it should be fine if it’s wet.

    VB: Seeing the forecast, I think really making the most of the conditions throughout the race, being on it with the strategy. I think that’s going to be one of the key points.

    Q: (Fu Yu – China International Radio) Valtteri, you’re only a thousandth of a second slower than Sebastian on the front row. Do you think you could have done a little bit better and how confident do you feel about making up that gap tomorrow?

    VB: Always if you could do the lap again, especially when it’s one thousandth, you can find it somewhere, especially with the short amount of running throughout practice. We only really had practice three. Yes, definitely, I could have done better but I think every driver on this grid, having got a second qualifying, would improve and then it becomes more and more tricky to improve.

    Q: (Fu Yu – China International Radio) How confident do you feel about making up that thousandth of a second tomorrow?

    VB: When we’re on the grid tomorrow then it doesn’t matter. I always tend to get all the points from the qualifying that I need to improve and what we need to improve as a team. We move on for tomorrow and tomorrow I’m not going to think about the one thousandth; it’s a new day and a completely new opportunity and we are going to do everything we can to be one and two and for me still chasing my career-best result.

    Q: (Marius Salvini – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, pole position number 65 is even closer. What do you think about it, is it something of a magic number for you?

    LH: It really is, I think. Every pole has been – it might be hard for you to believe – but every pole position has been so unique in its own way. There’s always been a different journey to gain that pole, there are different things that have happened on that lap. It’s still today – and I’m sure it will never change – it’s still so real that I have that amount of poles and to think you can have a pole in Formula One…. because the dream was to get to Formula One. And now, it’s perhaps even more exciting, I’m nearing Ayrton, he had a lot of pole positions with less races. We know what he did back then was just phenomenal, the same with Michael but just grateful to be up there up amongst them. I definitely feel that what I love even more now is that I feel like more than at any other time, I feel like I’m really having to earn those pole positions being that it’s so close, so again, on top of that the feeling is even better.

    eom/FIA transcript of the press conference