Tag: Hamilton

Hamilton wins dramatic Austrian GP; Rosberg 4th

Spielberg, 3 July 2016: Lewis Hamilton grabbed a dramatic Austrian Grand Prix victory after colliding with Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg on the final lap.

Rosberg was leading the race but after the German made a small mistake at Turn One on the final tour, Hamilton was able to close on his team-mate and attempt an overtaking move in Turn Two. Later Rosberg was penalised with a 10-second penalty by the stewards and was reprimanded for not stopping over…

Rosberg cover the middle of the circuit, forcing Hamilton to make a move around the outside. With Rosberg’s car wide across the track the Briton ran wide and as he returned to the track, Rosberg left little room and he ran into the side of Hamilton’s car. The collision severely damaged Rosberg’s front wing and that allowed Hamilton to easily pass the German on the run to Turn Three.

With Rosberg slowing as his front wing disintegrated, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen flew past to claim second place, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen also passing the stricken Mercedes to take the final spot on the podium. Rosberg crossed the line in fourth place, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.

Starting from pole, Hamilton led in the early stage of the race as Rosberg made his way up from sixth on the grid.

Then German climbed to third behind Raikkonen before his first pit stop on lap 10, when he changed from opening used ultrasoft tyres to soft tyres. Behind him at that stage were Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel in the second Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull.

Hamilton, though, stayed out, trying to eke a long stint out of his starting ultrasofts and the Briton continued in the lead until lap 21 when he too pitted for softs. It was a poor stop, however, and problems with the rear left wheel saw him emerge behind Rosberg.

Vettel now led and he too was trying to get the most out of his starting supersoft tyres. It wasn’t to be, however, and after 26 laps his rear-left tyre exploded on the pit straight. He careened into the wall and the safety car was deployed.

When the action resumed Rosberg now led ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo and Raikkonen.

A long second stint followed for the Mercedes driving during which Rosberg and Hamilton traded blows, one lapping fastest followed by an immediate response from the other.

The pace-setting led to the duo pulling away from the Red Bulls who were in turn slowly being reeled in by Raikkonen who had been disadvantaged by the stops and the safety car.

Raikkonen eventually passed Ricciardo on lap 57 and set off in pursuit of Verstappen. That was Ricciardo’s cue to make a final stop to take on ultrasofts for a final charge. He rejoined behind McLaren’s Jenson Button but soon passed the Briton to reclaim P5. With 24 seconds between him and Raikkonen, though, there was no hope of further progress and he settled for fifth and 10 points.

Ahead, Hamilton was closing on Rosberg and eventually the German erred. Hamilton, seeing his chance pushed hard and attempted a move around the outside into Turn Two. As Hamilton was forced wide and Rosberg took a hard line, collision and controversy were inevitable.

Hamilton powered on to take his third win of the season and the 46^th of his career while Rosberg was left to finish fourth and to face a post-race stewards’ investigation for ‘causing a collision and failing to stop with a seriously damaged car’.

Verstappen took the second podium finish of his young career, while Raikkonen salvaged Ferrari pride with third.

With Rosberg fourth and Ricciardo fifth, sixth place went to Button, McLaren’s best result since the US GP of last year. Romain Grosjean took Haas back into the points with seventh place, while Carlos Sainz was eighth for Toro Rosso. Ninth place went to Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Pascal Wehrlein scored Manor’s first point of the season with 10^th place.

2016 Austrian Grand Prix – Race
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 laps – 1h27m38.107s 4
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +5.719 3
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +6.024 3
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +16.710 4
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing +30.981 4
6 Jenson Button McLaren +37.706 4
7 Romain Grosjean Haas +44.668 3
8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso +47.400 3
9 Valtteri Bottas Williams +1 lap 4
10 Pascal Wehrlein Manor +1 lap 4
11 Esteban Gutierrez Haas +1 lap 4
12 Jolyon Palmer Renault +1 lap 4
13 Felipe Nasr Sauber +1 lap 3
14 Kevin Magnussen Renault +1 lap 4
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber +1 lap 4
16 Rio Haryanto Manor +1 lap 4
17 Sergio Perez Force India +1 lap 4
18 Fernando Alonso McLaren DNF 5
19 Nico Hulkenberg Force India DNF 6
20 Felipe Massa Williams DNF 5
21 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari DNF 0
22 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso DNF 0

eom/FIA press release

July 3, 2016
I took a risk and fortunately it paid off: Hamilton

DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Nico HULKENBERG (Force India)

TV UNILATERAL

Lewis, it was one of those days when I guess it was all about the timing of the switch onto the slick tyre and then actually coming across the line it must have been extremely exciting, the final few minutes of that session?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it was a really fun session. It was one of those sessions that it starts off dry, goes wet, and quite incredibly here it dries up so quickly, it’s like driving through fog at some stages. I think it just added to the excitement of the while thing. I’d never driven here in the rain before and being a new surface as well it was very, very slippery. It was drying up corner by corner and at the end it was about getting that last lap. The previous lap was a good lap as well but if I had finished that lap I would have been right behind Daniel Ricciardo, so I backed off, which was a big risk really. If I didn’t finish my lap or there had been a yellow flag I wouldn’t have been able to get pole, but it was the risk I took and fortunately it paid off, so very happy with it.

Well done. Turning to you, Nico, you’re second but it’s a bittersweet feeling I imagine, knowing that you’ve got to go back five places on the grid after the accident this morning and the subsequent gearbox penalty. A shame really, because your preparations for the race up to that point had been pretty ideal. Tell us about your day and your prospects from here?
Nico ROSBERG: First of all, a really unbelievable job from everybody, even Lewis’ mechanics came on to my car to try to get it out in time, so that was a huge team effort. We got it out 11 minutes to go in Q1, so it was really tight and awesome, so that was great. And then a very exciting qualifying, going dry-wet-dry and it was unbelievable how quickly it dried in the end then to get back on to slick tyres. I think Lewis just did a good job there in the very end, so that’s it. Second not first, but it’s OK. The five places will be quite costly… well, very costly of course for tomorrow, unfortunately. I’ll make the best of it anyways and try to get a good race from there.

OK, thank you for that. Nico Hulkenberg, welcome back. Reminiscent, conditions-wise and the way you drove, of Brazil a few years ago, in the Williams days. You must be absolutely ecstatic and set yourself up now, moving up to the front row of the grid with Nico Rosberg’s penalty, for a great day?
Nico HULKENBERG: Yeah, no, absolutely, it reminded me a lot about Brazil and I was feeling really good in the car and it was just a flashback to back then. I was feeling really good and to be honest, I was expecting a little bit better, so when he said third… I wasn’t disappointed. A great effort from the team. Not an easy session to be out there at the right time, it’s all about timings. The car performed well, we put it together, so a very solid job and a very good starting position for tomorrow.

Very well done. Lewis, coming back to you, on a serious note we saw a couple more suspension failures during that qualifying session with Kvyat and Pérez. What’s the feeling among the drivers, what’s the conversation going to be this evening and what’s the concern there?
LH: I can’t speak on behalf of all the drivers, but for me those yellow kerbs are quite dangerous. We’ve now seen a couple of incidents already. I don’t know how many more of those it’s going to take before a car ends up in the wall and perhaps someone gets hurt. I’m sure Charlie and the FIA are looking at it but that’s definitely an area we can improve. The idea is good, because they definitely don’t want us running wide and using the outside of the circuit but perhaps another solution is going to be needed.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, one of the interesting talking points arising out of the second part of qualifying was the decision by Ferrari and Red Bull to go out and set their time on the supersoft tyre. You and Nico had both used the ultrasoft but then right at the end you went out and had a bit of a look on the supersoft just as some rain began to fall. So, your thoughts on why you went the way that you did in the first instance and what happened at the end there.
LH: I just did what I was told! I think our strategists understand that that ultrasoft was the better tyre. We had the supersoft available I think they perhaps saw – I’m guessing – I’m assuming they saw that the Ferraris had gone out and they thought we might try to go out and see if we could do a time on it, even though we think there is a time delta between the two. Naturally a hard tyre often goes further so that doesn’t seem like such a bad option. They have qualified on supersofts?

Yes – they’ll start on the supersofts and so will Red Bull
LH: OK, that’s not a bad thing. I think the ultrasoft is not a good tyre for the race. It’s going to be a struggle to get a lot of laps out of it so the strategy will be interesting tomorrow. Obviously those guys are starting behind me so I’m hoping I have a bit of an advantage at the start just from being on the softer tyre but… yeah, in practice my tyre lasted for four laps, so I think for Nico it lasted maybe eight? He says five. So it’ll definitely be tricky but we’ll do the best we can with it.

Q: OK, the same question to you Nico. Your race, the first stint is going to be much more complicated because of where you’re starting. So your thoughts on this situation going into the race tomorrow. And also, picking up on what I was asking Lewis before about the kerbs, is it just a case now of, for the rest of the weekend, staying off them – or is there more to it than that?
NR: For sure yeah, need to stay off them. I even stayed off them in qualifying now most of the time, except for when it really counted. Tyres is going to be tough tomorrow but the thing is we don’t really know because the temperature is going to drop so much so who knows how the tyres are going to be? For sure in the hot it was really tough but maybe in the cold it’s going to be better.

Q: Nico, coming to you, obviously your team is going through a bit of a purple patch at the moment with podiums in Monaco and Baku recently. You’re still looking for your first Formula One podium personally. You must be feeling that tomorrow may well just be your day. Are you very optimistic and excited going into tomorrow’s grand prix?
NH: Yes. First of all I’m happy and excited about today. Special circumstances obviously with the rain in Q3 and then the drying-up track but for sure starting second is a very good starting position. Tomorrow we’ll do what we can. I’m not thinking too hard about that now. We’ll do that in the next couple of hours and tonight and tomorrow but our car has made huge steps forwards since Barcelona really and ever-since we’ve scored a lot of points and a few podiums so yeah, we’re on a good slope, we have good momentum and just try to carry it into tomorrow and make it into another good Sunday.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Angélique Belokopytov – AutoDigest) Lewis, yesterday you considered that you were not at your top level. So what did change? Did you improve since yesterday? Was it work more on your mental, or the car or maybe both?
LH: A little bit the car but mostly I just had to find time today. Nico had been performing well all weekend and it was just chipping away at improvements, constantly looking at my data, trying to figure out where I was losing the time and how I could improve. Bit by bit, corner by corner… at one point there’s five corners where I’m down, then it’s four corners I was down, then two, then just one corner where I was down. That’s something that… then it rained and I was thinking ‘Jeez, I’ve finally got into this position where I can perhaps battle for pole with Nico’ and then it rained – but fortunately those are conditions I like as well, so it made it a little bit easier, I have to say, when it got into those conditions ‘cos it’s then a bit more about who takes the most risk, I guess.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Hulkenberg, we received indication on the screens that you were under investigation because of the yellow flags in Q2. Are you aware of this?
NH: No, I wasn’t aware that I’m under investigation. I think it was the incident where Sainz’s car’s engine blew up and he was parked on the right on the main straight. I did lift, I did lose time there but still with new tyres, track improvement I might have gone faster, I don’t know but we will see. I’m not too concerned.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, when you came in here, you stopped to watch your lap – all the lap – what was your view of it, what was your analysis of your own lap?
LH: I could have been faster! I was looking at some places where… you know, when you do a lap like that it’s really difficult to… you know, the previous lap maybe I had an oversteer moment in one corner, you don’t know if it’s dried up and what… it probably has dried up on that next lap so you don’t know just how much you can push on each corner. In hindsight… hindsight’s always a great thing – there were drier patch and more grip and more potential in some corners that I did, but it doesn’t matter because I’m where I need to be. That’s what happens when I watch it. I’m just thinking could be a little bit more there, a little bit more there.

Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Nico, I would like to know – maybe you said it before but I don’t know – but when this accident happened, was it because you touched the kerb or is it because there was a mechanical problem in the car and the suspension was broken?
NR: The suspension broke. On the kerb, on the normal exit kerb, the first one, the thin one.

Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe) To all of you: there’s a possibility that next year maybe we will have a bigger version of the Austrian Grand Prix, a new track layout but of course the old one, the Osterreichring. Are you satisfied with this information? Would you like to compete with Formula One cars on this or is it OK now?
LH: Me personally? That’s the best news I’ve probably heard in Formula One for a long time. They’re going to take a track back to what it should be or what it was previously. The track is nice as it is now but I’ve not seen the old track but I can imagine going up into the mountains and into the woods it’s going to be epic so I really hope they do that personally.
Q: Nico, your Dad raced here on the old one, any thoughts on that?
NR: I just watched the video from 1982, one of the closest finishes with my Dad finishing second and definitely it looks very exciting so yeah, if they do that, cool.
NH: I wasn’t even aware. Don’t know what the layout was but yeah, whatever. fine.

eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

July 2, 2016

Hamilton takes pole: Mercedes view

Lewis Hamilton today took his 54th career pole position – his 2nd in Spielberg and 5th of the 2016 season so far.
Despite qualifying in P2, Nico Rosberg will start tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix from P7 after incurring a gearbox penalty.
Both drivers completed one run in Q1 and two runs in Q2 and Q3.

Driver	P3	Q1			Q2			Q3
Lewis Hamilton	1:07.308	P3	1:06:947	6 Laps	P1	1:06.228	5 Laps	P1	1:07.922	10Laps
Nico Rosberg	1:10.959	P1	1:06:516	6 Laps	P2	1:06.403	4 Laps	P2	1:08.465	10Laps

Weather	Dry, Wet, Warm
Temperatures	Air: Air: 26.3 – 28.0°C °C	Track: 35.3 – 54.0°C °C

Lewis Hamilton
This is definitely one of those tracks that I have to keep working at and I’ve been building up to today’s qualifying session. It’s not an easy track to execute the perfect lap and admittedly it’s not my best circuit. As a driver I’m someone who brakes nice and deep and here you have to lift off the accelerator early, keeping your minimum speed high, which is not something I’m used to doing. The track dries up so quickly here – it’s a great feature of this circuit and made qualifying really interesting. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit cooler which will help me in managing my tyres and I can get off to a good start. The race will be interesting and I’m hoping it will be a good day.

Nico Rosberg
It was a huge team effort today, with both sides of the garage working together to get my damaged car ready for qualifying. It was a tricky session with the rain and the perfect lap didn’t quite come together which meant Lewis was quicker. The five place grid penalty will be costly as Lewis will start from the front tomorrow and it will be tough to fight through the other cars with the ultra-soft. It will definitely be an exciting race, though, and there’s still a lot to play for.

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
First of all, I want to take a moment to recognise the awesome job by our mechanics today. As qualifying started, Nico’s car was still being put back together after the suspension failure this morning; 15 minutes later, he was top of the timesheets. That was teamwork of the very highest quality and another confirmation of what a great group of people we have. Overall, it has been a pretty intense day, with a lot of unexpected challenges, so it’s fantastic to end up P1 and P2 in qualifying – even though Nico will take a gearbox penalty tomorrow after it was changed following the accident this morning. Qualifying was one of those sessions where it’s much easier to make mistakes than get everything right – and it was all about hitting that perfect window for the final lap on dry tyres, because the conditions were changing so fast. We managed to get both cars onto the right tyres, then the drivers didn’t put a foot wrong to take the top two positions; both of them put in great laps right at the end. Looking at tomorrow, we have some different approaches at the front of the grid in terms of tyre choice, plus Nico will be on a recovery strategy to make up ground after his penalty, so I think there’s still plenty of action to come…

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)
It was a more eventful day then perhaps we expected. It started with a suspension failure on Nico’s car during P3 which was due to an unexpected load in one of the rear suspension members over the exit kerb at Turn 2. This left us with a lot of work to do between sessions, to turn Nico’s car around, to understand the failure and to make suitable alterations to both cars. Working with the team back at the factory as well as at the circuit we made some modifications to the suspension on both cars in time for qualifying. Unfortunately, we are now subject to a five-place grid penalty for Nico because the gearbox was damaged during the accident. It was a monumental team effort from the mechanics and engineers in the garage to get the car out on time, with both sides of the garage working together to get the job done. These are the moments when you see real teamwork come together, where we work as a single entity for the good of the team. But that wasn’t the end of the excitement as the threat of rain lingered over the entire qualifying session. The most impressive thing for me was to see Nico go straight out of the garage in his completely rebuilt car and set three purple sectors in Q1 on his first flying lap. We took the ultra-soft for Q2 very early – committing because of the incoming threat of rain. Q3 was incredibly tense starting with the intermediate tyre on a track that was drying rapidly and we swapped for the dry tyres at just the right time – Lewis and Nico contributing with fantastic laps to secure the front row. It will be an interesting top ten tomorrow with penalties and a range of different tyres. It looks like it will be another exciting afternoon.
eom

July 2, 2016

Hamilton takes fifth Canadian GP win; moves 9 points from championship lead

Hamilton celebrates after winning the Canadian GP for the fifth time in Montreal on Sunday. An FIA image

Montreal, 12 June 2016: Lewis Hamilton took his fifth career Canadian Grand Prix win to close the gap to championship-leading Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to just nine points as the German finished fifth.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel managed to take the lead at the start but could not make a two-stop strategy work and he finished second ahead of a hard-charging Valtteri Bottas who scored Williams’ first podium finish of the season.

Hamilton began the race from pole position but when the lights went out he bogged down slightly, as did fellow front-row starter Rosberg, and Vettel shot past around the outside to take the lead into Turn One.

The Mercedes drivers then tussled on the way into Turn One as they attempted to recover and as they banged wheels Rosberg was forced to cut the corner and he dropped to tenth.

Rosberg’s return to track forced Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo to brake and that allowed his team-mate Max Verstappen to sneak through to grab third.

In P1, Vettel controlled the race until lap 11 when McLaren’s Jenson Button pulled over at the side of the track with a blown power unit. That brought out the Virtual Safety Car and Ferrari took the opportunity to pit Vettel for a set of supersoft tyres.

Hamilton, though, stayed out on his starting ultrasofts and the battle between his one-stop gambit and Vettel’s two-stop plan began.

The German had the pace to close Hamilton down but the Mercedes driver’s final stint on the soft tyres was such that there was no drop off in his pace and Vettel could not find the extra performance to beat the Mercedes’ man power and the low tyre wear he was encountering.

Hamilton eventually took his fifth Canadian Grand Prix win and his second race win in a row with five seconds in hand over the Ferrari driver.

“I had another really bad start, I’m not quite sure why, I think probably I overheated my clutch,” said Hamilton. “Sebastian and Nico got quite a good run down to Turn One, tyres are cold, big understeer, and I feel very grateful that me and Nico didn’t damage anything on our cars. And otherwise it was just trying to chase this guy down. He was so quick out there. The car felt fantastic and it was set up just right with great work from the engineers and mechanics.”

Bottas, meanwhile, enjoyed a superb run to third, with the Williams driver also making a one-stop strategy work. The Finn made the most of a difficult race for Red Bull and early in the race he passed Daniel Ricciardo to rise up the order and then cleared Max Verstappen to seize third. Bottas then sat in clear air for the remainder of the race to finish some 46 seconds behind Hamilton.

“As a team, it was really a strong one for us, really good strategy, really good pit stop; the time was perfect, the car felt really good today. I felt I was pretty on it today. So it’s great to be here,” he said.

Verstappen managed to hold onto fourth and late in the race the teenager showed great determination and skill in fending off sustained attacks from a hard-charging Nico Rosberg, who was recovering for a mid-race puncture.

After expertly placing his car in just the right spot to frustrate Rosberg’s assaults, the Mercedes man looked to have found a way past ujnder DRS on the run to the final chicane a few laps from home.

But Rosberg’s brakes let him down and he spun, leaving Verstappen to sail past and take fourth place. Rosberg managed to keep going and took fifth place.

Ricciardo was seventh having been held up by team-mate Verstappen early on and then he dropped back during the pit stops.

Eighth place went to Nico Hulkenberg, while Carlos Sainz took an excellent ninth place from 20^th on the grid and Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten.

2016 Canadian Grand Prix – Race
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 70 laps – 1h31m05.296s 1
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari +5.011 2
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams +46.422 1
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull +53.020 2
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +62.093 2
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +63.017 2
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull +63.634 2
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India +1 lap 2
9 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso +1 lap 2
10 Sergio Perez Force India +1 lap 2
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso +1 lap 2
12 Fernando Alonso McLaren +1 lap 1
13 Esteban Gutierrez Haas +2 laps 2
14 Romain Grosjean Haas +2 laps 3
15 Marcus Ericsson Sauber +2 laps 2
16 Kevin Magnussen Renault +2 laps 1
17 Pascal Wehrlein Manor +2 laps 2
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber +2 laps 2
19 Rio Haryanto Manor +2 laps 2
20 Felipe Massa Williams DNF 2
21 Jolyon Palmer Renault DNF 1
22 Jenson Button McLaren DNF O

eom/FIA press release

June 13, 2016
Hamilton dedicates win to Muhammad Ali

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

PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Michael Douglas)

Bonjour Montreal. It’s a pleasure for me to be here and an honour to be able to introduce our podium winners. Lewis, incredible. We have to talk about the first turn. You had Sebastian coming in on your left, you had Nico touching wheels on the right. Tell us about that.
Lewis HAMILTON: It was horrible. Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to everybody who came out here today and made the atmosphere the way it is. Thank you everyone here. We come here every year and we have the best week. The city, they just put on such a great event. The ambiance, the atmosphere is better than ever. Today, I had another really bad start, I’m not quite sure why, I think probably I overheated my clutch. Sebastian and Nico got quite a good run down to Turn One, tyres are cold, big understeer, and I feel very grateful that me and Nico didn’t damage anything on our cars. And otherwise it was just trying to chase this guy down. He was so quick out there. The car felt fantastic and it was set up just right with great work from the engineers and mechanic. Hey man, I won my first grand prix here in 2007, so this just feels like such a blessing.

Congratulations Lewis, well done, fourth time?
LH: I think fifth time!

Yes, fifth time! Sebastian, nice to see you, wonderful, wonderful race. You had a phenomenal run earlier in the race, what were the issues later on?
Sebastian VETTEL: Lewis was a bit too quick! That was the issue. No, I think we had a great weekend. Obviously a fantastic start and then, yeah, lap one was a bit hairy, I just struggled to stop the car in the last corner. It was very windy today and maybe I struggled a bit with the wind from behind but I was pushing all race. I think we committed fairly early to a different strategy, which we were planning to come back. Obviously then Lewis had the chance to stay out and see what the tyres were doing and I think probably the tyres lasted a bit better than what we expected, so that made it quite tricky to refresh the tyres and close the gap but overall a great weekend for us. We struggled a little bit in the last couple of races and the beginning of the season and now to see that the car has performance and to unleash it, it was a really fun race, I really enjoyed it. I can only add on what Lewis said: thanks to the crowd, it’s great to come here. Friday, free practice, to have you guys here at the hairpin, all around the track, waving at us is making our job just much more pleasant, so this is a place we’ll have to come to forever I guess, so thank you very much.

Fantastic, a really, really wonderful run, congratulations. Mr Bottas, really nice to see you up here on the podium again. I think it was Mexico last see [the last time]. The season started a little slow but you’re coming on strong. How was the race for you today?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, I’m really pleased with today. As a team, it was really a strong one for us, really good strategy, really good pit stop; the time was perfect, the car felt really good today. I felt I was pretty on it today. So it’s great to be here. I really want to thank Williams, thank you guys; everybody made an amazing job. Thank you Montreal, you’ve been really good to me.

Congratulations. Lewis, that’s two wins in a row, so how does the rest of the year look to you, what do you think?
LH: We’re going to just take it one race at a time. There’s still work to do. We’re going to continue to improve this car. There’s a lot of race so we’re really just trying to stay… we need to try to keep on a roll if possible. There’s a long, long way to go. These guys are getting faster and faster at Ferrari and Red Bull, so collectively as a team we’re just going to keep our heads down and keep pushing. Honestly I’m just overwhelmed with today. I remember, what was it, ten years, nine years ago here, and it feels just as great [as it did] back then.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lewis, 45th career victory and your fifth in Canada, as you were quick to point out on the podium. You obviously lost the start to Sebastian, but you got this win I guess, in a way again, because for the second race in a row you were able to do a very, very long final stint on the tyres. How much of that was data about what the tyres would do and how much was pure feel?
LH: Well, firstly, if I may, I want to… I never really dedicate wins to anyone but someone who really inspired me so much throughout my life, Muhammad Ali, and obviously he passed just recently, so I’d love to be able to dedicate this to him and his family. The last 15 laps, for some reason all I could think of was him and Rumble in the Jungle, it was really, really weird. I was driving and I was just thinking of him, and thinking maybe he would be watching the race, I don’t know. So, that’s to him and his family. Rest in peace.
In terms of the tyres: It was really feel. The team obviously told us what the tyres could do, how far they would go. I wasn’t really sure how far the ultrasoft would go. I had already seen graining earlier when I was behind Sebastian. So I was a little bit nervous about it, but it seemed to last, which was great. I could have kept going on the ultrasoft, which was interesting; I had a good pace. Then we swapped. It was a long stint on the information we got before that that tyre could last quite a long time and it was just a beauty. I didn’t have to push too much on the tyre at the beginning, just looking after them, but very conscious that this guy behind was pushing. I was really enjoying the race with him, you know, just battling times here and there. He was so quick and it’s great to see how quick they are and they are really giving us a run for our money, and I just happened to be on a one stop. But fantastic job by the team. I’m really overwhelmed to think just how difficult this season was before these last two races and I feel incredibly grateful and very blessed to have had these two great weekends. I’m just going to keep working hard, as you can see I’m super-focused. For me I felt that today was one of my best races for a while, maybe not as good as the last one, but still really happy with it. Onwards and upwards hopefully.

Very well done. Turning to you Sebastian, got the feeling before the race that Ferrari might be able to win this, had that amazing start, and then obviously you committed to that two-stopper with the pit stop on lap 17 under the VSC. Was that because the team thought you wouldn’t be able to do what Lewis did and do that one-stopper and in the final part of the race did you think that a 13-lap tyre offset to Lewis would be enough to challenge?
SV: Yeah, I think that was the plan, so obviously we committed fairly early. We were in the lead. As the second car in the row, which was Lewis in that case, obviously you have the chance to choose – if the car in front pits you might pit, if the car front stays out you might pit. We committed fairly early to that strategy and I think I was probably the right thing to do in terms of getting to the chequered flag the quickest way. But obviously we lost track position and we didn’t expect that the soft tyre that Lewis put on… first of all the ultrasoft and then the soft would last as long. Myself, I was also surprised to see how long the supersoft lasted and then the soft tyre lasted until the end. As Lewis said, we could have kept going. The degradation wasn’t maybe as high as we expected. That’s maybe where we lost the race. But I want to make one thing clear: I’m not a big fan of blaming anyone or anything. I think it was a great weekend for Ferrari. We’ve had a difficult start to the season because we were never really able to show the true performance of the car and this was maybe the first clean weekend if you look at Saturday and Sunday. And actually I enjoyed the race a lot. Didn’t get the result I was hoping for, especially after the start, but I was enjoying it a lot. The last 30 laps I was just flat out – maybe pushing a little bit too hard at times. It just felt great. That’s what racing should be about. The tyres were fairly consistent. I really enjoyed chasing him down but a couple of laps to go I realised that he was just a bit too quick or the tyres didn’t drop enough.

Q: Valterri,, podium here for the second year in a row in Montreal. Same strategy as Lewis that got you ahead of the two–stopping Red Bulls and Kimi Raikkonen; tell us about your drive today and also those strategy calls?
VB: Thank-you, yes. It feels really good to be here again. Montreal has been pretty to me and pretty good to us as a team. For sure it was always going to be one of the good tracks for our car but really pleased with what we have done. Of course, today didn’t come easily. I really needed to thank the team for the decisions they made to commit to the one stop and also the stop lap, it was perfect. This stop was again, massively quick as we’ve seen all season so really thankful for Williams, for today and for the whole weekend. We need more of these kind of results. We just need to keep trying but just very happy at the moment.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Lewis, what happened at the start, more of the same?
LH: Yeah, the start was… I don’t understand it. This time I really don’t understand because practices have been good, the formation lap was amazing, dropped the clutch and the thing pulled away perfectly. Yeah, I stopped, did the normal procedure, let the clutch out and it just didn’t go anywhere. I’m really lost as to know what… Obviously I had really good pace today and that really got in the way. Had it been a longer straight, I would have been a sitting duck. I don’t really know what to say about it. And into turn one, these tyres, these ultrasofts, he(Sebastian) was lightning on the first lap but me, I had no grip. I got to turn one and I had this understeer and I thought that it was going to continue for the rest of the lap. I think the guys behind me were also tiptoeing but very close, obviously, between me and Nico which wasn’t intentional. But fortunately none of our cars were damaged.

Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) And second question is – as Sebastian has said, the cars are pretty good as you’ve said as well, you had a good view of them in the early laps. What’s the power like on the straight, how quick were they on the straight compared with you now?
SV: Quite quick. I think we’re quite quick.
LH: These guys were pretty quick on the straight. I didn’t get quite close enough to really gauge just how quick they are but I think it looked pretty close, I have to say. I was so excited with wheel-to-wheel racing but then he pitted after the VSC and I’m like shoot, I was a bit annoyed. Still it was a good battle at the time.

Q: (Dan Knutson – Speedsport Magazine) Valterri, as you say, a good track for you and the team. However does it give you confidence that you can now start to challenge Red Bull or was it just track and strategy specific today?
VB: It definitely keeps confidence for us that we can do good things. For sure, it is one of the good ones, as a track for us but I think as a team we did such a good job with the strategy but the car was also good today at the beginning and end of the race when everyone was on the same tyres, I did feel that I could put pressure on Kimi in front and even the Red Bulls, so that was a good feeling and even though some of them were on two stop and we were still on one stop and we put pressure, so that was good. I think the next few races should be good. Lot of confidence now and this really makes a lot of good for the team, a result like this, a motivation boost for the next ones.

Q: (Ralf Bach – AutoBild Motorsport) Seb, my impression is that we already saw the race from today in Melbourne, didn’t we?
SV: I don’t think that’s true. I think Australia, you can argue with hindsight, we would do a different strategy. If it’s that straightforward and easy to know what it’s like, then everyone is doing the right thing. As it turned out, we committed fairly early, maybe we were also hoping that the virtual safety car gives us a bit of an advantage and makes the two stop favourable but I will always defend our strategies, what we committed to as a team. I think there were other people as well, favouring the two stop. With hindsight maybe they would do a different job but as I said, that’s a decision we take as a team. Kept in hindsight it’s always easy. Put yourselves in the shoes of those on the pit wall, to make that call is quite tricky and you have to be really quick. Strategy-wise I think we have a very very strong team. I wouldn’t favour anywhere near to criticise them because the guys are really on the money and very strong, reacting very well and if here and there we maybe don’t do the optimum, that’s part of the job but overall I think we end up doing better choices than other people.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Lewis, was the tyre management here more difficult than in Monte Carlo because at a certain stage we saw one big, black stripe on one of your front tyres. Was that graining?
LH: Honestly, as Sebastian said, the tyres were really good today, I have to say. I guess with the cooler temperatures graining wasn’t really an issue. I think if it was hot like it was in P2, I think, maybe a one-stop wouldn’t have been possible but yeah, there was a small bit of… on the Ultrasoft there was a little bit more graining but on the soft there was hardly any graining at all. It was like a small band on the front left tyre but otherwise they stayed very, very consistent. Being so cool I think you just had to try to keep the temperature in them more than anything. I was really actually, for once, happy with the performance of the tyre, to be honest. They did a good job.

Q: (Jimmy Gordon – AP) Lewis, we heard you talk about Ali. Can you tell us what it was about his life or his career that made such an impact on you?
LH: I think it’s the same for everyone really. I think he was just a unique, iconic individual who had a character unlike anyone else’s and everyone aspired to be like him. I wish I could have spoken with the charisma that he would have, or the comedic side that he would have, that confidence that he could carry into a fight and outwit and outsmart his opponents. And then for the things that he stood for. Even more importantly politically, I think believing in who you are and not letting anyone dictate who you have to be. I think as a kid, when I saw that, I think I was like: ‘this is the guy I want to be like’. In terms of an athlete I hope one day I can be like him. Coming from a family of similar background in a sense of ethnicity, it was someone to look up to. Obviously in Formula One there was no one of the same colour as us as a family, so it was another athlete for me to look up.

Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) A question for Seb. Seb, during this weekend we’ve seen one of the closest gaps between Ferrari and Mercedes. Are you confident you feel you can be even closer to a win in the next race?
SV: First of all, I hope that you write exactly that tomorrow: that we were closer than ever. So, I think sometimes it’s a bit surreal. We are an Italian team. I think Ferrari stands for great passion and a lot of values in Italy and sometimes it seems like the Italian press is our biggest opponent. So, maybe you can write something nice, which would be a nice message for all the people in Maranello that are really working their arse off day in, day out to make a strong Ferrari car. I’ve never had a doubt. I know this car is a big step up and I think we had a mixed-up start to the season which was difficult because we were never really in the position to show what the car can deliver. Especially because Saturdays here and there weren’t great. So, I think this weekend was just normal. We had a great Saturday and great pace today. Just look at the opening laps of the race. I was pulling away, pulling a gap to… maybe not so much to Lewis but to all the cars behind. So, it felt great and the car felt great all weekend. So, really happy and happy with the progress the team is making. Again, I ask you to be a bit patient, a bit more patient. The team is on a great path, things are improving and I think we’re seeing results quicker than anyone else so far in the history of F1. So, I think we’re on the right track, it’s a great team and I’m enjoying it a lot.

Q: (Bill Beacon – The Canadian Press) For Sebastian. Can you go over for us what you did off the start? Where you planning that ahead of time? And what exactly did you do to slip by everybody and get first place?
SV: I know it sounds silly saying it now but I sort-of had the gut feel that I will have a good start. Obviously it depends on what the other people are doing but I had the feel that, when the lights went on… [to Lewis] I didn’t know what you were doing but I knew there would be a good start. I had a good feeling the formation lap and I think I reacted well, as well – without giving myself too much credit. I just… I don’t know… I felt it would be a good start. It was, so I was very happy with that and just went for it. Had a big lead in the first lap which, nearly all of it I gave away in the last corner and then it was obviously it was a bit more tricky to keep Lewis out of the DRS until a couple of laps in – until just before the Virtual Safety Car actually. I was a bit distracted, we chatted about it, I have to mention it, I don’t know why but I have to, there were two seagulls. I think it was a couple that wanted to commit suicide. They were at the apex of Turn One. Lewis obviously didn’t care, so he made up quite a bit of time, about half a second, but I didn’t do that couple that favour to say goodbye for good, so by the time Lewis came around they just flew off. Wasn’t fair! I brake for animals, Lewis doesn’t but… yeah. Then the Virtual Safety Car came and freezes the gap at that point.

Q: (Peter Windsor – F1 Racing) Following on from that Sebastian, I wonder what you felt about the grip level on the in-field of the chicane there? You went through it three or four times just to get it right. What was the racing line like through there? You were very quick the first time you went straight on.
SV: Very quick on the first lap. Braking very late. I think I was a bit caught out by the wind, to be honest. I shouldn’t have – I had all the information but I was struggling a bit. It was very gusty and, here and there, got caught out. So, I was trying everything all around the whole lap. I was getting close to the wall: exit of Four; exit of the last corner, exit of Nine as well. So really trying everything. Eventually in there too much, which obviously loses you more than a second. And then yeah, I think I was around four and a half seconds to Lewis and then back to five and a half. Didn’t do myself a favour but I had to try. For some reason yesterday I was very good friends with the last corner and today not so much. So, yeah, not great from my side obviously to miss the braking. Quite tricky with a bit of bottoming. Just locked it three times in total and didn’t make it.

eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

June 13, 2016
Hamilton sets fastest time in FP1; Massa crashes

Montreal, 10 June 2016: Lewis Hamilton set the quickest time of the first practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix as running got underway at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Felipe Massa’s session ended early, however, after the Brazilian crashed heavily at the first corner, destroying the rear end of his Williams car.

Massa’s crash came just before the half hour mark in the session, when on the approach to Turn One the back end of his car snapped out under braking and he spun and slid backwards into the barriers, sustaining a heavy impact on the rear right corner of his car. “I think I had a problem, I closed the DRS and lost the rear completely,” he told the Williams pit wall.

The session was red flagged for a period and when running got underway again it was Hamilton was set the pace. The defending champion’s best time of 1:14.755 was set on the supersoft Pirelli tyre, while team-mate Nico Rosberg took second place with a time of 1:15.086 set on the purple-banded ultrasoft tyre.

Third in the session was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. The four-time champion set his best time on the supersoft tyre to finish 0.157 behind Rosberg.

Fourth place went to Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver was 0.8s adrift of Hamilton’s time but his best time was set on the soft tyre, a step up the Pirelli’s from the Mercedes driver’s supersoft time. The Dutch teenager’s time was also good enough to put him seven hundredths of a second ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who finished the session in fifth place.

With Massa out of the running, all of Williams’ work was left to Valtteri Bottas and the Finn logged 30 laps, the most of the session on his way to sixth place, ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and the second Force India of Sergio Perez.

Tenth place in the session went to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, who completed 18 laps on his way to a best time of 1:16.663. It was a less profitable session for his team-mate Jenson Button, however.

The Briton completed just eight laps and then, when he was sent back out again late in the session, he emerged from the McLaren garage with smoke pouring from the rear of his car. The McLaren pitwall immediately informed him to return to the garage, though his engineer informed him that “Honda know what the problem is”.

2016 Canadian Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:14.755
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.086
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:15.243
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:15.553
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:15.618
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:16.301
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:16.464
8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:16.543
9 Sergio Perez Force India 1:16.577
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:16.663
11 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:16.734
12 Jenson Button McLaren 1:16.788
13 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:17.008
14 Felipe Massa Williams 1:17.065
15 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:17.310
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:17.319
17 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:17.855
18 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:18.103
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:18.129
20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:18.409
21 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:18.453
22 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:18.583

eom/FIA press release

June 10, 2016
Hamilton on pole ahead of Rosberg; Red Bulls beat Ferrari to take 2nd row

Hamilton after taking Spanish pole ahead of Rosberg on Saturday. An AMG Mercedes image

Barcelona, 14 May 2016: Lewis Hamilton claimed his third pole position of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, finishing three tenths of a second ahead of championship leader Nico Rosberg as Red Bull Racing claimed row two on the grid ahead of Ferrari.

Hamilton’s first flying lap of the final Q3 segment was marred by a big lock up into Turn 10 and the mistake left Hamilton with a time of 1:23. 277. Rosberg easily eclipsed that with his first lap, setting a clean-lap benchmark of 1:22.475.

Hamilton’s early Q3 error also led to the Mercedes being split as new Red Bull Racing recruit, impressive all weekend, put in an excellent opening lap of 1:23.203.

Behind Hamilton after the first runs were Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in P4 and P5 respectively. However, Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull had yet to show his hand.

Australian had been forced to make take to the track late in Q2 for a cautionary tour in case his lap time was in danger of not getting him through and that left him with just single set of new soft tyres for the final segment.

However, when the opportunity presented itself, Ricciardo delivered a superb lap of 1:22.680 to claim P3 behind the Mercedes. The Australian was the only non-work Mercedes to dip below the 1m23s barrier.

Verstappen tried to react and the 18-year-old did make a small improvement but it wasn’t enough to beat his team-mate and Ricciardo’s lap was good enough to beat out his new team-mate by four tenths of a second. A strong message to the youngster at the start of what is sure to be a fascinating intra-team battle for the rest of this season.

The good news for Red Bull is that neither Ferrari driver could dent the Milton Keynes team’s advantage. Raikkonen delivered the best lap for the Italian squad, but it was two hundredths of a second shy of Verstappen’s best and so the Finn is set to line up at the front of row three as he two tenths clear of team-mate Vettel.

Behind them, Valtteri Bottas was seventh for Williams, while Carlos Sainz took eighth spot for Toro Rosso. It was a solid result for the Spaniard in front of his home crowd and on a weekend where he faced a new team-mate in the shape of former Red Bull Racing man Daniil Kvyat. The Russian has had a tricky weekend so far and he was elimimated in Q2 in P13.

It was a much better day for Fernando Alonso. The two-time champion delivered an excellent Q2 lap in front of his home fans to claim P10 and take McLaren into the top-10 shootout for the first time this season.

Alonso finished in P10 in the final segment behind Force India’s Sergio Perez, but the result will be huge result for McLaren and Honda.

Behind Alonso, and eliminated at the end of Q2 were Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India, P12 man Jenson Button in the second McLaren, Kvyat, Haas’ Romain Grosjean, Renault’s Kevin Magnussen and the second Haas of Esteban Gutierrez.

The big casualty of the opening Q1 segment was Williams’ Felipe Massa. The Brazilian completed a single run but the time was not good enough and he was forced to watch from the garage as he was pushed down the order. He finished in P18 behind Renault’s Jolyon Palmer. Also eliminated in the opening segment were the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr and the Manors or Pascal Wehrlein and P22 man Rio Haryanto.

2016 Spanish Grand Prix
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:23.214 1:22.159 1:22.000
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:23.002 1:22.759 1:22.280
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:23.749 1:23.585 1:22.680
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:23.578 1:23.178 1:23.087
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:23.796 1:23.504 1:23.113
6 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:24.124 1:23.688 1:23.334
7 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:24.251 1:24.023 1:23.522
8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:24.496 1:24.077 1:23.643
9 Sergio Perez Force India 1:24.698 1:24.003 1:23.782
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:24.578 1:24.192 1:23.981
11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:24.463 1:24.203
12 Jenson Button McLaren 1:24.583 1:24.348
13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:24.696 1:24.445
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:24.716 1:24.480
15 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:24.669 1:24.625
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:24.406 1:24.778
17 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:24.903
18 Felipe Massa Williams 1:24.941
19 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:25.202
20 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:25.579
21 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:25.745
22 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:25.939

eom/FIA press release

May 14, 2016
Ferrari are improving fast: Hamilton at Thursday’s Press Meet

DRIVERS – Fernando ALONSO (McLaren), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Kevin Magnussen (Renault), Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso), Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Fernando, a good result last time out in Russia with sixth place. Do you believe you’re closing in on the Williams-Red Bull battle? What development steps can we expect from McLaren-Honda here this weekend?
Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, I think the car is improving and we are getting more and more competitive in the races. I think the next grand prix will be a good one for us, so here in Barcelona, Monaco, even Canada should be a little bit better than what we did in China and in Russia in terms of layout. Yeah, we have some high hopes for us at the moment to keep this momentum and keep growing together to more competitive positions and yeah, I think we have some updates for this race in terms of aerodynamics, most of them. We’ll see how the weekend goes but we are probably much more optimistic than one month ago.

Q: How is the enthusiasm for Formula One here in Spain at the moment – with you and all that you’ve done and obviously now Carlos coming through?
FA: I think it’s still OK. Definitely it’s a little bit lower than 2005-6-7 when we had a 45 minutes queue to come into the circuit. It’s still quite high and I think the people are still loving the sport – but definitely there is a little bit less enthusiasm about the races because with the television not being available for everyone, just with a pay channel etcetera, probably is a little bit less viewers, a little bit less media attention. But I think we have good days and it’s still quite popular.

Q: Lewis, second at the moment in the Drivers’ Championship but in four starts in 2016 you’re yet to finish the opening lap in a front-running position. It’s hard to believe – so is this the weekend when we hit the reset button?
Lewis HAMILTON: That’s the hope, of course! Who knows? We’ll wait and see.

Q: There’s still a long way to go, obviously, in terms of your challenge for a fourth drivers’ title – but in the battle with Ferrari do you feel that, despite whatever upgrades they bring, you’re able to keep them at arms’ length. Is that the way it feels to you?
LH: No, I think Ferrari are constantly improving their car. I think this weekend they’re obviously going to have some upgrades, as you would expect for Barcelona. I think they’ve been very, very close up until now. They’re going to continue to strive. They want to win; they’ve very, very hungry – as are we. I think we do have the power as a team to continue to develop, hopefully at a similar, if not the same rate as they are. So, of course we can always try to keep them at arms’ length but who knows how it’s going to go.

Q: Kevin, breakthrough result in Sochi, 17th to seventh. What’s that done for morale – yours and the team’s?
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Yeah, for sure it’s made everyone happy to finally get some points on the scoreboard but we’re not fooling ourselves to think that’s our level. It was a little bit lucky with a lot of people having problems on the first laps and one of the Toro Rossos not finishing the race towards the end. So, as I said, we’re not fooling ourselves to think that’s our level. We need to improve quite a bit before that will be our level – but, as I said, it’s nice to get points on the board.

Q: It’s clear to see where your challenge lies. Both Renault’s have been knocked out in Q1 at the last three races in a row. What have you got in the pipeline to address that?
KM: It seems qualifying is our weak point. It looks like people can turn things up for qualifying that we can’t. So that’s one thing to work on. It’s not the only thing. We are behind on a lot of different areas and we just need to improve overall – because the situation we’re in at the moment is that we have a car that hasn’t been developed continuously all last year and we’re picking up on everything now. We need to be patient but at the same time need to work extremely hard because we need to catch up on people who are also improving. I think this last result shows that it is possible to score points and if anything happens like a first-lap incident, we need to be there and ready to take advantage.

Q: Carlos, coming to you. Obviously, despite optimism that you’d have a reliable package this season with which to get consistent finishes and points, you’ve yet to really have a properly clean weekend. Tell us about the start to your season.
Carlos SAINZ: Yeah, it’s been definitely a very tricky start where we definitely had the pace, we definitely had the speed but just because of one thing or another the final result hasn’t come together yet – but I am optimistic that, from now on, from Barcelona we can press also a bit the reset button and start getting the results we deserve because definitely the pace, the speed is there.

Q: There have been some significant changes of personnel obviously on the driving and the engineering side at Toro Rosso. Can you give us your perspective on that?
CS: Yeah, I think there have been many changes in the team but I don’t get to analyse them much because it’s not my job change engineers or to change drivers. I fully trust on what Toro Rosso and Red Bull have decided to do and I think it’s for the best of the team, for the best of the engineers, the personnel in there and already you can see some refreshment in the faces. I’m convinced it will just go on better. To have Daniil we can probably fight now for the P5 in the championship that was the main target since the beginning of the season.

Q: Let’s get into that then. Daniil Kvyat, one of those changes obviously involves your return to Toro Rosso, moving from Red Bull. Daniil, we’ve all seen the statement from Red Bull about why this move was made – but what are you telling yourself about it and where you go from here?
Daniil KVYAT: Well, I think obviously the decision in a way was a bit of a shock also for myself. It is what it is at the moment and I think I’ve always been giving my answers on the track and I think nothing will change. I will try to give as loud an answer as possible on the track. There are 17 races remaining, I’ve come back to Toro Rosso, the team for which I raced in 2104, a team I really like a lot, the team that I’ve felt over the last few days is giving me a very warm welcome, which I’m very grateful for already, now I can feel the atmosphere is very positive in the team. The goals are clear – for the team and for myself – and I’ll be pushing absolute limits on the track and I will be giving my answers there.

Q: Looking back, do you feel you moved to Red Bull too soon?
DK: I don’t think so, I really don’t think so. Like I said, if we look at what happened three weeks ago, or whatever, I was standing on the podium and then suddenly there were a few decisions made around – but like I said, the bosses make them and I have nothing else but to accept them and do my best job possible now in the team I am with – and it is Toro Rosso. It should be OK – but I think I have done everything correctly until now. And nothing will change from my side.

Q: Let’s have the other side of the story. Max Verstappen, obviously you’re replacing Daniil at Red Bull. A racing driver is always going to accept a chance to race closer to the front – but how to you evaluate both the opportunity and the risks involved in this move so early in your career?
Max VERSTAPPEN: To be honest I’m very happy with the chance they have given me. I’m racing for a top team now, so that was always the plan what I wanted to do. And yeah, with the risk, to be honest I think it was a bigger risk to be so young in Formula One but I’ve handled it pretty well. From now on it’s just getting used to a new car, which is not easy in the season, but already with the things I’ve done in the factory, already they’ve given me a lot of confidence. Of course, a lot of procedures to learn again but it will come race-by-race and I’m definitely going to enjoy it.

Q: You now have your new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo as a benchmark – but you can also learn from him. How do you see that relationship evolving?
MV: For sure he’s a great guy. He’s very fast on track and has a lot of experience in the team. I will try to learn a lot from him.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) Max has been quoted as saying he couldn’t sleep for three nights after he got the news of his promotion. My questions for the two world champions here, can they remember races in their career about which they were particularly apprehensive in the days leading up to them?
LH: It’s hard to remember back, it’s been a long time now, I’m a veteran. For sure the first race, the first race in a new team. Honestly, every season you’re a bit apprehensive: you’re a bit… you have that nervous buzz of a new car, a new beginning, a new opportunity, so for sure I can imagine how the feeling is for him.

Fernando?
FA: Not really. I don’t think that I ever had that kind of stress. Obviously there are some more or less important races and you feel the moment – but normally in my case it would be on Sunday when you do the drivers’ parade, when you jump in the car for the practice start – you know it’s an important race to deliver. But the week before… no big issues.

Q: (Simon Lazenby – Sky Sports) Question for Max and for Dany. We’ve heard the statements as James is saying but what reasons were you given by management for the swap and did you both have prior indication that this might have been an option for 2016?
MV: I think it was pretty clear in the comments they have given to you. From now on, I’m just very happy with the chance they have given to me and I’m going to enjoy this season and from there on we’ll see for the future.

Dany?
DK: There was no real explanation to be honest. I think if the bosses want something to happen, they just make it happen. Simple as that.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – globoesporte.com) Daniil, if you carry out very good work now in Toro Rosso, do you think it’s realistic to believe that Marko and Horner could take you back to Red Bull? And also, if you are putting your focus on developing very good work and thinking in other teams?
DK: Well, obviously first things first. I think now it will be important to first make a good work. These remaining 17 races will be very important and I believe then, let’s just wait and see. To be honest there would be anyway a lot of thinking I think from anyone. First good work and then we see.

Q: (Sacha Roos – Sky Deutschland) Question for Dany. How difficult is it for you now to look in the eyes of Dr Helmut Marko and Christian Horner – because they’re blocking your career.
DK: You know, obviously, first hours after that of course you have been thinking a lot, and then the work started and then I fly to the factory, I see Toro Rosso people, which are very motivated and very hungry. And I’m now extremely hungry, and to be honest I don’t see it as blocking. You have to take the most positive moments now because actually there are a lot more positive moments now than anyone can imagine I think. I take it as a golden opportunity with Toro Rosso. And, like I said, I really like the team, I really enjoyed working with them, most of the people are still the same and I believe we can do a really good job. And then once the good job is done, there are more good opportunities to come. I think you always have an opportunity. I think you always have something to fight for.

Q: (Cristobal Rosaleny – Car & Driver) Carlos, after one year and almost a half with Max with more or less the same performance level, although points have not shown the same, what do you that they have put Max and not you in Red Bull?
CS: I don’t get to evaluate the performance of each driver so easily. That is done by my bosses at Red Bull. Now my time… I appreciate what Red Bull is going quite a lot, that is to put young talent into a Formula One team. As soon as you do a good job they show you the confidence, they give you the chance and now it’s my time to fight more than ever for that. I have, as Dany said, 17 races ahead to give the maximum out of myself, to fight for my chance as much as I can. I’m sure that if I show the same speed I have now with a bit better results my chance can come.

Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Daniil, I was wondering what you believe is the real reason why you were dropped? Do you feel they looked for an excuse to drop you or do you feel that there was genuine reason enough to do it? What is your understanding and what explanation was given to you as to the reasons why you were dropped?
DK: First of all, I think the word ‘dropped’ still a bit heavy because I still get quite a good chance from Red Bull with Toro Rosso. So, I think it’s a positive thing. Secondly, like I said, I feel like I’ve done everything for the team. I feel like I’ve been bringing the points, I’ve been bringing all the development work. We’ve been working well together. So, to be honest, I don’t really think so. It’s a question for other people who made the decision. I think they can give a better answer to that. I really don’t see any reason. It’s for them. A question for them.

Q: (Daniel Johnson – Daily Telegraph) Questions to Daniil and Max. Daniil, given what’s happened to you, do you think that Max deserves your old seat and Max, do you think Daniil deserved to lose his seat?
MV: I think that’s not up to me to say who deserved it or not. I’m happy with the chance they’ve given to me and I will try to make the best of it. We’ll see where it ends up.

DK: Well, there’s no point discussing this, especially from my side. I think now what’s ahead, in front of both of us, is a lot of hard work because we’ve both changed the team and I think the people around us will also be able to evaluate how good a job we are both capable of doing in these circumstances. It will be interesting to see who will be able to work better and harder to bring in the results to both teams we are now with. Let’s just wait and see. The season is very long.

Q: (Giorgio Terruzzi – Il Corriere della Sera) Question for Lewis and Fernando. What do you think about the Red Bull decision to change the drivers?
FA: They changed the drivers? [to Lewis] You knew it?
LH: No!
FA: I guess it’s up to them. It’s definitely a surprise after Race Four. They’ve been doing very good job promoting drivers and discovering new talents and giving the opportunity. So, it’s the way they do it, and they’ve been doing a very good job in the past, so we’ll see.

LH: erm… yeah… I think obviously ultimately it’s a good opportunity for one and for the other very unfortunate. Red Bull has done well in bringing young talent forwards but I think they need to be aware that young drivers need time to progress. Mistakes do happen, there’s so much pressure on drivers, particularly at a young age. Especially when you’ve not done a lot of years in the lower classes, you’ve come quite early in, there’s so much to learn. A lot of pressure on the shoulders I think to take a driver out of a role with a team where he’s comfortable and move into another one. It’s a difficult position to be in. Do I agree with it? It doesn’t really matter – but it’s definitely not something I would particularly do.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Carlos, one of the reasons Dr Marko gave for the switch between Max and Daniil was that it also sorted out the relationship in Toro Rosso between you and Max. Could you perhaps give us more details about why that relationship between you and Max wasn’t working?
CS: I think the personal relationship Max and I have is not a big issue honestly. I think we both always maintain the respect off the track and I think we showed it at every moment. I think it’s more a matter of a team perspective of how the team was working and that’s where Franz Tost and Helmut Marko take the decision. But from Max and myself there was always respect, there was always good vibes with each other. Obviously we were fighting a lot on track, we were always very very close to each other and there were always some battles going on but they stayed at the track and out there it was just a matter of engineering, of just not being a comfortable team and that’s why they decided to take this decision internally.
MV: I think we still need to plan when we’re going go-karting together.
CS: We were just talking – before coming in here – about that we were going to go go-karting in one week together so that shows that it really stays on track.

Q: (Sergio Alvarez – One Magazine) Next year’s rules will bring an extra bit of downforce, if it is to be believed. From a physical point of view, have you talked to your trainers about any changes in your respective regimes?
KM: I haven’t spoken to my trainer about it. I don’t think it’s going to change a huge amount – I mean the training bit. I hope the cars will be faster. From my point of view, it will be great to drive a Formula One car three seconds faster so we will see what it does to overtaking and stuff but I’m looking forward to it.
Q: Fernando, obviously you drove the cars plenty in the days when there was much more downforce and faster, so how do you feel this is going to equate next year compared to what you had in the past, physically?
FA: I don’t think it’s going to change too much, probably a little bit more physical to drive the cars but nowhere near what it was in the past, probably, eight or ten seconds faster. I remember we could not even go onto the podium after some races and it was tough for everyone. Now I was ready to race with two broken ribs. You can even race… whatever. Even after winter testing, preparation is not needed normally.
LH: It’s just interesting, listening to… It’s going to be more physical so you just have to train a little bit more. We’re all in the same boat and unfortunately it’s probably not going to make a big difference to the racing but hopefully it will, probably won’t.
MV: I’ve never driven faster cars than I’ve driven now but for sure you always do a lot of work-outs. You just have to adapt to it but I don’t see big issues with that.

Q: (Ralf Bach – Auto Bild Motorsport) Max is it right and the truth to say that after you moved to Red Bull now, you’re safe in the Red Bull family and other teams have to stop talking to you?
MV: Well, I’ve always been very happy with Red Bull and now of course they’ve given me the chance to be in their top team. There is also no reason to change, is there? I’m very happy with them, I think they are very happy with me and we just try to continue like that.

Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Daniil, one of the reasons Helmut Marko gave was that you were not handling the pressure from Ricciardo well enough. Do you think that’s fair?
DK: Well, the pressure, talking about pressure. I think I’ve been part of the Red Bull family for seven years and I don’t see it as a big problem of course. I think other people around me also had pressure and I think, talking about myself, no, not really. I don’t think it can be the biggest explanation to be honest.

Q: (Andrew Benson – BBC Sport) Lewis, would it be fair to say you’re worried about the gap to Nico at the moment? And if not, what’s your mindset going forward?
LH: It is what it is, so there’s no point in being concerned, I’ve just got to work hard to move forward. I have less engines than Nico, less than probably a few of the drivers, so I’ve just got to do what I can with what I have and for sure, it’s a steep mountain to climb but I love a challenge, so I’m kind of excited about it.

Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) To Max and Daniil: have you spoken much about the switch and if so, what sort of things did you say to each other?
DK: Well, no, we’ve been… obviously we saw each other, I think that’s enough and I think… what can we say? We both have to work hard now, as I said before. I think there’s no point in wishing luck, luck never brought anything, only hard work and that’s all, I think.
MV: Yeah, I think there is not much to say about that to be honest. Now it’s just up to us, we have to work hard, we have to deliver on the track. Not much more to add, to be honest. It’s all pretty clear.
Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) Did you speak to each other?
MV: I saw him at lunch, yeah.
DK: And I saw him now.
MV: Sitting next to each other.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Daniil, who told you about the demotion, if you like? Who was it who actually broke the news and where were you when you found out?
DK: I was in Moscow, I was lying on the sofa, I was watching a TV series and then the phone call comes. It was “hallo, well, we have some news for you” and I think there was a 20 minute talk about… I wanted and I think I deserved an explanation. I got to know many interesting details, I must say, which I think I will keep to myself for now.
Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) Who made the phone call?
DK: Dr Marko called, he made the phone call. We finished the talk and I went back to finish my TV series, that’s all.
Q: (Jon McEvoy – Daily Mail) What was it?
DK: TV series? Game of Thrones.

Q: (Ben Hunt – The Sun) And Lewis, just to ask you about your engineers, new mechanics. Have you spoke to the team about getting the ones that worked on your car last year back on your car for this year?
LH: No, I have no intention or any wish to move around, there’s nothing to do… the issues we’ve had have had nothing to do with the mechanics. They’ve been doing a fantastic job both for Nico and I over the last three and a half years. That is not a concern and that’s not something… I’ve got a hundred percent belief in this team and in those guys. This is really just hoping that I’ve had a bad share of luck, I guess, with the failures, but hoping that will move forward and you will get to see the results of their hard work, because they have worked so hard to integrate with me and vice versa on my side of the garage and we have a huge amount of respect for each other. I’m looking forward to trying to deliver something spectacular for them.

Q: (Li Chun – LeTV) To the three gentlemen in the front row, if the three of you were to fight it out for the World Championship tomorrow, who do you think would have the better chance to come out on top?
CS: Well, it’s a bit of a… It doesn’t make much sense. I think if you ask every driver on the Formula One grid or every professional sportsman, they think they are the best. I think I am the best and I’m sure if you ask these two gentlemen or these three behind me, they will say the same.
DK: Well, I think tomorrow is a good day to start of course, but yeah, let’s see. It’s not going to happen this year, I think, so we will have to wait and see. Driver development is something that happens all the time and there are so many circumstances, so many details that first of all have to happen, that you get to Formula One and then to win the championship is another thing of course. Every person, like Carlos said, every driver is a very confident personality usually and has a strong self-belief and of course I know that to get everything right and the best out of it, I don’t have any doubts really.
MV: One thing, we are not fighting for the World Championship now but the positive thing is that I’m still very young so I have a lot of years ahead of me.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Coming back to the subject that Lewis mentioned, that drivers need time to develop themselves, so many things to learn in a top team, do you think you will have time or will it be like Daniil that you don’t have this time properly?
MV: Well, to be honest, I think so far that Red Bull has guided me in a very good way and I’ve felt very comfortable and I think that if you are very comfortable you can perform and if you are very happy you perform even better so a happy person and a comfortable person is always performing better and at the moment I’m like that and I hope to keep it that way. I think at the end, it’s not up to raw speed, it’s more the experience around it, but that’s just by doing every Grand Prix, step by step and that’s getting better all the time.

Q: (Daniel Johnson – The Telegraph) Daniil, you suggested earlier that you didn’t really feel that you got much of an explanation for why the swap had been made with Max. I wonder what you inside think the real reasons are for why you and Max were swapped round?
DK: Obviously, you know, it’s really hard to say, exactly. Like I said, it’s not really a question for me because it wasn’t my decision, first of all. To me I was working, I was giving my best ever race. Yeah, we had another very difficult start of the season. I didn’t even manage to start the Australian race again, two years in a row. There were strange things going on in Bahrain. Well, I believe that since China, really, I picked up a good pace, that it was coming, that it was a little bit similar to last year but it was getting better and better, race to race and qualifying in Sochi was already very competitive and the race pace was also getting better, so to be honest, we know that Formula One is a very general sport, sometimes hard work, sometimes what you do on track is also not enough, so let’s wait and see. Like I said, I learned quite a lot in the last few days, last few weeks and it’s made me very strong and I feel very strong now and I’m looking forward to showing with Toro Rosso now, with a team that supports me and with a team that I feel that we have a lot of unfinished business together and I think we should finish it together.

Q: (Angelique Belokopytov – Autodigest) So Lewis, you were saying a few minutes ago that young drivers have to take time to have some practice. But you started in a big team, a few others started their careers in smaller teams. So I’m asking for your opinion, for a young driver, which is the best way to start? Small or big?
LH: I don’t think there’s a clear answer to that. For me it worked perfectly to go into a big team but I did a lot more years in lower categories than some of the others have, I probably have a few more years than the two ahead of me have but I’m just meaning that it’s really important not to hold a young driver back. They’re going to grow in their own time and some take longer than others. Some are really quick at learning and some take longer, they need to make more mistakes. I remember my first days in the car and I crashed my first day of driving. It was really really difficult, those first processes but of course the team can make a big difference in how they help but I do really just hope for Daniil. We’ve got two fantastic drivers here, I just hope that in this manoeuvre it doesn’t hinder either of their… I hope it doesn’t hinder either of their careers because they’ve got bright futures ahead of them and too much pressure, too much stress, too much expectation too early on can lead the wrong way and that’s what I want to say.
Q: It might be interesting to get a perspective from Fernando on this because obviously you did have that time, didn’t you, you started with a smaller team and then you had a development year with Renault before racing? What’s your thoughts on that?
FA: I didn’t expect any questions. I probably agree with Lewis’s comments. It’s difficult, I don’t think there is a mathematical formula to know exactly what is the best way. You need to benefit from both scenarios. I think if you start in a small team, you can grow up a little bit in a more relaxed environment and try to learn a little bit with less stress and less pressure. If you start with a big opportunity, it’s also good for yourself because you can show your talent immediately and you can make a big impact on the sport and have a better future after that so… the important thing for both of them is today’s topic that both of them race many many years in Formula One because they have the potential talent to be Formula One World Champions one day and I really hope the best for both of them.

Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Daniil, in Sochi, in the middle of the race, Sebastian went to Christian Horner complaining about you in front of all the TV cameras. What do you think about this spectacular gesture? Do you take it personally and would you act the same, vice versa?
DK: What happened in Sochi has already happened. Of course it was a messy lap one. I spoke with all the people involved and we’ve all had our points of view on that. It’s left behind, between me and Sebastian, there are no problems at all, after that. To be honest, I don’t know how is their relationship so if he went to complain or whatever, I don’t know and to be honest, I’m not too interested in what he said and I think everyone has the right to go and say what he thinks, especially if you know someone quite well enough to talk about it, so I don’t have any strong opinions on that episode really.

Q: (Valenti Fradera – El 9 Esportiu de Catalunya) Having seen the performance of the medium tyre at this track during private testing, do you think we will get to see the hard tyre at all on Sunday?
KM: Don’t now, we will see. I don’t think it’s the most likely tyre to be raced on but we will see in P2 most likely.
LH: As far as I know… I mean I don’t even know what tyres I have to be honest. I doubt it, it’s not the best tyre here, it’s going to be the mediums…
Q: You’ve got one set of hards.
LH: Yeah, it’s not the best tyre for this race. I don’t think anyone’s going to use it.
MV: It’s a very nice colour, isn’t it, the orange, so probably maybe we will have a run on them. I like the colour.
Q: Incidentally, you inherit each other’s tyres, right? That’s the way it works. So you (Max) inherit the tyres that he (Daniil) selected.
MV: But that’s fine.
DK: I think it’s the team’s choice, no? So the team is chosing the tyres, so I get now what he had and I have what he had, but I get to keep the points. I like to keep my points. And the podium.

eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference

May 12, 2016
Rosberg makes it 4 wins out of 4 in 2016 season; Hamilton powers to 2nd from P10

Rosberg on way to fourth straight win of the season at Sochi on Sunday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

Sochi, 1 May 2016: Nico Rosberg scored a controlled fourth victory from four races at the Russian Grand Prix in front of a crowd of 60,000 at the Sochi Autodrom, as Sebastian Vettel was dumped out of the race at the start following a collision with local hero Daniil Kvyat.

Starting from pole the championship leader led into Turn 2 but behind him there was drama as Vettel, who had started seventh, was hit from behind by Kvyat who had been eighth on the grid. The collision bounced Vettel sideways where he collided with the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, who had started from P5.

All three managed to continue but within moments Kvyat again ran into the back of Vettel as the pair went into Turn 3. This time Vettel was pitched into the barrier and Kvyat lost his front wing.

The Safety Car was deployed and while a furious Vettel was left to make his way back to the paddock at the controls of scooter, Red Bull pitted both its drivers, with Kvyat taking a new nose cone and with both being put on medium tyres.

The strategic gambit was in vain, however. Kvyat was handed a 10-second stop/go penalty for causing a collision and failed to recover. Ricciardo, meanwhile, struggled for pace and battled a damaged. He would eventually shed his medium tyres on lap 29, though the improved pace would only take him to P11 at the flag.

Afterwards Vettel was critical of the young Russian’s start.

“Today it’s fairly obvious, he did a mistake again. It doesn’t help me now because I’m not in the car,” Vettel said. “In the end we’re here to race. Massively pumped up. Had a super start, made progress into the second corner and got hit, then a second hit, which destroyed our race.”

The early chaos did benefit some, however. Lewis Hamilton, 10^th on the grid after power unit trouble in qualifying, made a good start and avoided the incident to climb to fifth place behind by the time the Safety Car was deployed.

When racing resumed Hamilton went on a charge and passed Williams’ Felipe Massa and third-placed Kimi Raikkonen to take P3 behind Valtteri Bottas in the other Williams.

The Finn defended bravely, however, and as Hamilton and Raikkonen remained bottled up behind the Williams, Rosberg established a solid gap at the front and by lap 15 the German was 9.2 seconds ahead of Bottas.

Bittas pitted on the next lap, freeing up Hamilton and Raikkonen. Hamilton made his own stop for soft tyres on the next lap and though Bottas was able to keep the champion at bay when the Mercedes man emerged from pit lane alongside him, he could do nothing on lap 19 when Hamilton used his greater pace and DRS to muscle past down the inside of Turn 2.

Controlling matters at the front, Rosberg eked out a long stint of 21 laps on his starting supersofts before pitting for softs on lap 21.

He emerged with a healthy gap of 12 seconds back to second-placed Hamilton, but midway through the final stint Hamilton began to push, eventually narrowing the gap to 7.7s.

Any hopes Hamilton had of a late assault were undone, however, when his pit wall informed him that his car had a water pressure issue. The champion back off and from running up to six tenths of a second quicker than Rosberg, Hamilton suddenly dropped to a second off the German’s pace.

The race was over as a contest. Rosberg controlled matters as Hamilton nursed his Mercedes to the flag and Raikkonen cruised to a lonely third.

“I knew the gap to Lewis and it was just through the traffic,” said Rosberg afterwards. “I was feeling really comfortable today, especially at the end of the race, in the last 15 [laps] I opened the gas and pushed a little bit more because I knew it was safe to push and definitely get to the end of the race with that set of tyres. It was working really well. The whole weekend. Even in qualifying. Seldom had such an awesome car. So, special weekend.”

Behind the podium positions, Bottas finished fourth for Williams ahead of team-mate Massa, while Fernando Alonso took an excellent sixth place and eight points for McLaren.

Kevin Magnussen took Renault’s first points of the season with seventh place, ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjena and Force India’s Sergio Perez. McLaren’s positive day was enhanced by Jenson Button taking the final point in tenth place.

2016 Russian Grand Prix – Race
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 53 laps – 1h32m41.997s 1
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +25.022 1
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +31.998 1
4 Valtteri Bottas Williams +50.217 1
5 Felipe Massa Williams +74.427 2
6 Fernando Alonso McLaren +1 lap 1
7 Kevin Magnussen Renault +1 lap 1
8 Romain Grosjean Haas +1 lap 1
9 Sergio Perez Force India +1 lap 2
10 Jenson Button McLaren +1 lap 1
11 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing +1 lap 2
12 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso +1 lap 1
13 Jolyon Palmer Renault +1 lap 1
14 Marcus Ericsson Sauber +1 lap 2
15 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing +1 lap 2
16 Felipe Nasr Sauber +1 lap 1
17 Esteban Gutierrez Haas +1 lap 2
18 Pascal Wehrlein Manor +2 laps 2
19 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso DNF 1
20 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari DNF 0
21 Nico Hulkenberg Force India DNF 0
22 Rio Haryanto Manor DNF 0

eom/FIA press release

May 1, 2016
Rosberg takes pole in Sochi; Hamilton suffers power-unit issues, starts P10

Nico Rosberg took his second pole position of the 2016 Formula One season as Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton suffered power unit problems for the second consecutive weekend.

Two weeks ago in China Hamilton was hit with an Energy Recovery System issue and exited qualifying without setting a time. This time out the champion was at least able to make it though the opening two sessions of the qualifying hour, but as the rest of the Q3 qualifier prepared to begin the top 10 shootout, Hamilton was out of his car and the final session. Mercedes soon revealed that the Briton had been struck by the same issue that hamstrung him in China. He is set to start 10^th depending on whether additional penalties are accrued if his car requires components to be changed.

Having opened a significant 1.3s gap to Sebastian Vettel in Q2, with the Ferrari driver third behind Hamilton in the segment, the Q3 field was left open to Rosberg and the German seized the opportunity with both hands.

Vettel managed to close the gap to seven tenths of a second but Rosberg’s Q3 lap of 1:35.417 was good enough to secure a second consecutive pole position and to leave him perfectly positioned to tomorrow claim a fourth successive win this season.

“I was quite confident that the lap was good enough out there, because in quali two Ferrari was quite far away and I knew that Lewis was not able to participate in the last part of qualifying, so I was very sure that it was going to be enough,” said Rosberg afterwards. “But you never know, your know, so there’s always still a remaining uncertainty and so I was glad eventually when Sebastian finally crossed the line that it was good enough.

Starting from pole position will be great,” he added. “It’s never easy but the way the grid is it does help me out a lot for sure to try and get that win tomorrow.”

Although Vettel qualified in second position the Ferrari driver will start from P7 on the grid, having incurred a five-place penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change on Friday.

The four-time champion remains optimistic of a good result, however, especially in the light of Hamilton’s difficulties.

“Obviously we benefit from what happened to Lewis, which I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it allowed us to go P2, which helps for tomorrow with the penalty,” he said. “We are a bit closer, starting on the clean side of the track. I think we can have a good race from there. It should be quite exciting. The car feels good and I think all weekend it has been quite strong.

“Obviously we know that on Saturdays we are probably a little bit still further back than we want and a bit further back than on Sundays, so high hopes for tomorrow.”

Third place in the session went to Williams Valtteri Bottas, with the Finn repeating his qualifying efforts of last year and at the inaugural event in Russia. Due to Vettel’s penalty he will, however, start from the front row.

“I’m really pleased with how it all went. This weekend has been very positive,” he said. “We have some new bits on the car and the car has been feeling better. It’s also a good track for us. I’m glad we could maximise the qualifying today. Pleased with that but it’s tomorrow that counts. So far my Sundays haven’t been so great but I’m sure tomorrow we have a good chance to have a good one.”

Behind them Kimi Raikkonen qualified in fourth for Ferrari ahead of Felipe Massa in the second Williams. Daniel Ricciardo was sixth for Red Bull Racing ahead of Sergio Perez of Force India. Daniil Kvyat was eighth in the second Red Bull Racing and the final top 10 spots were taken by Toro Rosso’s and the unfortunate Hamilton, who was also summoned to the stewards office for “failing to follow the race director’s Turn 2 instructions”.

Kvyat’s eighth place was notable as the local hero narrowly escaped elimination after Q2.

The Russian was in P11 as the chequered flag was waved at the end of Q2 but he had just begun a final flying lap. To the delight of his home crowd the Red Bull driver was able to find enough pace to climb to P10, at the expense of Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz.

Behind the Spaniard, Jenson Button came close to taking McLaren into Q3 for the first time this season but ended up just under 0.1s shy in P12. Nico Hulkenberg was 12^th to split the two McLarens, with Fernando Alonso in P14. Romain Grosjean was 15^th for Haas ahead of team-mate Esteban Gutierrez.

Q1 saw the elimination of Renault’s Kevin Magnussen in P17, followed by team-mate Jolyon Palmer, Sauber’s Felipe Nasr, Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, team-mate Rio Haryanto and the second Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.

2016 Russian Grand Prix – Qualifying

1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:36.119 1:35.337 1:35.417
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:36.555 1:36.623 1:36.123
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:37.746 1:37.140 1:36.536
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.976 1:36.741 1:36.663
5 Felipe Massa Williams 1:37.753 1:37.230 1:37.016
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:38.091 1:37.569 1:37.125
7 Sergio Perez Force India 1:38.006 1:37.282 1:37.212
8 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:38.265 1:37.606 1:37.459
9 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:38.123 1:37.510 1:37.583
10 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.006 1:35.820
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:37.784 1:37.652
12 Jenson Button McLaren 1:38.332 1:37.701
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:38.562 1:37.771
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:37.971 1:37.807
15 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:38.383 1:38.055
16 Esteban Gutierrez Haas 1:38.678 1:38.115
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:38.914
18 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:39.009
19 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:39.018
20 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:39.399
21 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:39.463 |
22 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:39.519

eom/FIA press release

April 30, 2016