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Tag: Hamilton
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Hamilton dominates day one at COTA
Mercedes driver continues to set the pace in practice ahead of US Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton edged team-mate Nico Rosberg by the slenderest of margins to remain at the top of the timesheets at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas.
Hamilton had eclipsed his title rival team-mate by almost three tenths of a second in the opening practice session but in the afternoon Rosberg managed to close the gap to just three thousandths of a second. Third place in the session went to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
It was Rosberg who went quickest in the opening part of the session on the medium tyre before the teams switched to the soft compound tyres with about 50 minutes to go. Rosberg again initially had the upper hand with Hamilton slotting into second place but with his second lap Hamilton stole into P1 by a tiny but significant margin.
With third-placed Fernando Alonso over a second down on Hamilton’s best lap, the Mercedes duo were in a class of their own in the session. They didn’t have it all their own way, however, though their chief adversaries were technical gremlins. Both complained of gear shift issues before Hamilton was told to make his way to the pits with a hydraulics problem.
After a tough morning session in which he was sidelined by an ERS issue after just five laps, Daniel Ricciardo bounced back in the afternoon to finish in fourth place with a lap of 1:40.390, some 1.3s down on Hamilton’s benchmark.
The Red Bull Racing driver’s team-mate, Sebastian Vettel meanwhile, was in trouble. With his team having already announced that he will start Sunday’s race from the pit lane due to a power unit change, Vettel encountered more problems with his team needing to change his car’s gearbox during FP2. He later took to the track for high fuel runs, which left him 18th at the end of the session.
Behind Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen was sixth in the second Ferrari, with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat seventh and Kevin Magnussen eighth for McLaren.
The Dane’s team-mate Jenson Button, who had been third in the opening session, dropped to eighth place in the afternoon. In FP1 he had finished nine tenths adrift of P1 but in the afternoon the gap to Hamilton drifted out to 1.6s. The top ten order was completed by Nico Hulkenberg for Force India.
2014 United States Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Result
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:39.085 18
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:39.088 0.003 34
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:40.189 1.104 29
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:40.390 1.305 30
5 Felipe Massa Williams 1:40.457 1.372 36
6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.543 1.458 32
7 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:40.631 1.546 34
8 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:40.641 1.556 38
9 Jenson Button McLaren 1:40.698 1.613 36
10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:40.800 1.715 25
11 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:40.828 1.743 37
12 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:41.054 1.969 31
13 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:41.110 2.025 36
14 Sergio Perez Force India 1:41.123 2.038 35
15 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:41.158 2.073 37
16 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:41.332 2.247 33
17 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:41.420 2.335 34
18 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:43.980 4.895 -
Hamilton wins in Sochi to hand Mercedes Constructors’ title
Hamilton celebrates: first winner in Russia. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural Russian Grand Prix with a dominant lights to flag drive at the Sochi Autodrom as Nico Rosberg was forced to fight his way back to second from the rear of the field when a first-lap overtaking move on the Briton went wrong. Valtteri Bottas took the final podium place for Williams.
Hamilton’s ninth win of the season leaves him 17 points ahead of Rosberg in the battle for the Drivers’ Championship. The one-two finish of Hamilton and Rosberg handed the Constructors’ Championship title to Mercedes with three races in hand.
When the lights went out at the start, Rosberg attempted to overtake pole position man Hamilton into Turn Two. However, the German carried too much speed into the corner, locked up badly and went wide. It meant he had to hand the lead back to his team-mate. He quickly informed the team that the error had led to him flat-spotting his tyres and he would need a change.
He pitted at the end of lap one, took on medium tyres and asked what his strategy would be. He was told that he would need to do the remaining 52 laps on his new set. At the back Felipe Massa, who had started on new medium tyres, also pitted, taking on a set of soft tyres.
Behind Hamilton, Bottas now slotted into second, with Jenson Button third. Home hero Daniil Kvyat made a poor getaway from fifth on the grid, however, and fell back to ninth. Fernando Alonso made a good start and was fourth at the end of lap one after starting seventh. Kvyat’s team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne also got a decent getaway and he was soon up to fifth place behind the Ferrari driver.
The Frenchman quickly came under pressure from McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen, who had risen from P11 on the grid, as well as the chasing Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel, who had climbed from 10th at the start, and Daniel Ricciardo, who had dropped back when the lights went out but who had made his way back towards his starting position of sixth.
At the front, Hamilton was pulling away. By lap eight he was 2.9s ahead of Bottas, with Button a further 9.2s back. The big battle at this point was between the two Red Bulls. Magnussen passed Vergne for P5 on lap four and the Toro Rosso driver was quickly passed by both Red Bulls. The battle for P6 was on and Ricciardo told his engineers he was losing time behind team-mate Vettel. The team didn’t ask Vettel to move across, however, and Ricciardo, beginning to struggle on worn soft tyres, started to fall back into the clutches of Vergne who was now eighth. Red Bull chose to pit Ricciardo and he took on new mediums, which he would race to the flag. The strategy choice didn’t initially seem to help as he became lodged in 16th place.
Rosberg, meanwhile, was up to 12th place by lap 14, with Felipe Massa 13th. The German then passed Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez and set his sights on a points finish, if he could nurse his medium tyres to the end.
At the front, Hamilton was cruising and by lap 24 he had built up a 14-second advantage over Bottas, who was losing large chunks of time on his starting used soft tyres, which now had 30 laps on them.
Alonso, on similarly aged rubber, pitted on lap 25 but a messy stop involving a front jack problem cost the Spaniard time and and he emereged in ninth place.
Bottas came in on lap 26 for mediums, as did Magnussen. Hamilton then pitted from the lead on lap 27 and resumed in the lead. That left Vettel, in P2, as the last of the front runners out on starting tyres. Bottas was now third ahead of Rosberg, who had moved through the field as the pit stops occurred. The German had reported degradation on his rear tyres, however, and the question mark over his ability to nurse his medium tyres to the finish remained.
The immediate answer was that he seemed to be suffering few issues. On lap 31 he closed on Bottas and muscled his way past the Finn through turn two, though Bottas’ engineer quickly informed the Williams driver that Rosberg would surely get degradation later in the race and that the Finn would get a chance to retake the position.
While Rosberg was claiming P2, Vettel finally pitted and when he emerged the saw Hamilton in the lead, 19 seconds ahead of Rosberg, with Bottas 2.5s adrift of the German. Button was now fourth ahead of team-mate Magnussen, while Alonso’s slow stop had dropped him back to sixth. Ricciardo was now seventh ahead of Vettel, with Esteban Gutierrez in ninth for Sauber, though the Mexican had yet to make a pit stop. Kimi Raikkonen was in the final points-scoring position ahead of Vergne and Kvyat.
With 20 laps to go Rosberg began to suddenly up his pace. He set a fastest race lap of 1:42.551 and then improved again on the next lap by just over a tenth. Bottas’ engineer reacted by informing his driver that the team believed Rosberg was preparing for a second stop.
Rosberg, though, had other ideas and on lap 40, when asked by his team if he could get to the end on his mediums tyres he replied: “Easy. Well, not easy, but they feel good at the moment.”
And as the laps counted down they continued to work well. As Hamilton managed the race at the front, Rosberg’s pace remained consistent. Bottas pushed hard and a fastest lap of the race on lap 50 narrowed the gap to 4.3s. However, Rosberg had enough in the tank to respond and on the following tour the German responded by clawing back five tenths to ensure that Mercedes’ one-two finish was secure.
The result handed Mercedes the Constructors’ Championship title with three races left in the season. The team now has 565 points and with just 172 points available from the final three events, second-placed Red Bull Racing, on 342 points, cannot overhaul the Brackley-based squad.
“Unbelievable! I’m really happy for the team,” said Mercedes director Niki Lauda of the achievement. “Can I call myself a four-time champion now? Lewis is kind of looking unstoppable for the championship now. Kind of.”
With Bottas third, fourth place went to Button, with Magnussen fifth. Alonso finished sixth for Ferrari, with the Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Vettel seventh and eighth respectively. Raikkonen finished ninth in the second Ferrari and the final point went to Force India’s Sergio Perez.
2014 Russian Grand Prix – Race Result
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 53 1:31:50.744 1 25
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 53 +13.6 secs 2 18
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 53 +17.4 secs 3 15
4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 53 +30.2 secs 4 12
5 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 53 +53.6 secs 11 10
6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 53 +60.0 secs 7 8
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 53 +61.8 secs 6 6
8 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 53 +66.1 secs 10 4
9 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 53 +78.8 secs 8 2
10 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 53 +80.0 secs 12 1
11 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 53 +80.8 secs 18
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 53 +81.3 secs 17
13 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 53 +97.2 secs 9
14 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 52 +1 Lap 5
15 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 52 +1 Lap 13
16 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 52 +1 Lap 14
17 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 52 +1 Lap 15
18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 52 +1 Lap 21
19 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 51 +2 Laps 16
Ret Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 21 +32 Laps 19
Ret Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 9 +44 Laps 20eom
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To get first Constructors’ title for Mercedes Benz is amazing, so it a wonderful day!: Hamilton
Sochi Stadium through a fish eye. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image 1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Alex Popov)
What a wonderful race guys. Thank you very much? I know Lewis you are a real fan of Russia, Russian racing. You were back in Moscow sometime and now you’ve won first ever Russian Grand Prix since 100 years exactly. How do you feel?
Lewis HAMILTON: So happy to be here. We’ve had an amazing week. The fans and really the organisers… Russia’s been so good to me and to the team. I’m so grateful for all the support and I’m really looking forward to coming here many, many more times. It’s not very far from where I live so I’m going to be hopping over for some holidays for sure.
I know you’re impressed by the ski resorts here. Look, 17 points now, you have. Seventeen points in front of Nico. You think it’s enough or not?
LH: Obviously Nico did a great job to recover from his mistake earlier on today but the car was performing really well. We did a great job as a team. It’s history for us, so I feel very proud to be a part of it – me and Nico and all the team members. To get the first Constructors’ Championship for Mercedes Benz is amazing, so it’s a beautiful day.
Nico, it was a really wonderful fight with Valtteri and you won it. Do you really think the tyres were gone or was it a bluff, like in poker?
Nico ROSBERG: No, it was a great strategy from the team. The thing is that our car is unbelievable. It’s so good; everybody has done such a great job building this car. That’s why half of me of course is extremely disappointed that I messed up today but the other half, I’m really, really happy, because everybody in the team deserves it so much. For them the most important title of the year is the Constructors’ Championship, that’s why I can even smile a bit, because I’m happy for everybody to have achieved that.
Ladies and gentlemen, 52 laps on the same set of tyres, what a great race.
Valtteri, on the last lap of the race, this man set the first ever in the history of Formula One fastest lap of the Russian Grand Prix. But you lost the fight with Nico, so are you happy or not?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, I need to be happy for us as a team. You know, what we have been doing since last year is amazing. Again on the podium, so a good amount of points. We were today ‘best of the rest’. Unfortunately, Mercedes is still quite a bit ahead but, you know, we did the best we could from where we started, so we need to be happy as a team.
This man is still in the fight for third [in the Drivers’ Championship] with Daniel Ricciardo. But we are back for one quick question [with Lewis] because we all know the Russian story: the evening after the race, we must celebrate. And you have three weeks…
LH: Is there vodka?
It’s OK for you?
LH: Yeah, I don’t mind. Thank you.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, congratulations, tremendous win there. We could see you were pushing very hard by the number of fastest laps you did – but you seemed to have virtually no problems. Any problems with fuel consumption? Any problems with tyres? Just one little lock-up we saw from you.
LH: Yeah, it was a good, good day and an amazing weekend. Firstly, I’m just so proud to have contributed to have worked with this great team, to get the first Constructors’ Championship for Mercedes-Benz. I could have only dreamed of that when I joined this team. So, a great day for that. Huge congratulations to all the guys that are here and back home in the UK and also in Germany. But yeah, today, once I was out in the lead I was really just having to control, just looking after the tyres, managing the fuel was quite straightforward. And then, towards the end of the race the car felt great so I could push or not push. I wasn’t really having to push much and even when I was having to pick up the pace a little bit when I eventually found Nico was behind, it was easy to match the times. And the car’s been amazing this weekend and I really, really enjoyed the track. I tell you, Russia’s been one of my favourite places so far this year, so it’s very cool to have won the first race here.
Q: Nico, a fantastic drive through the field really – but what happened on the first lap? We heard you say you had a vibration. Did that go with the change of tyres? Tell us about that because that really governed your whole race.
NR: Yeah, of course. It was just a mistake on my side, braked too late and that’s it. Very unnecessary because it was my corner and should have been in the lead after that. So, obviously very disappointed with that. After that my tyres were just square. They were vibrating so much I couldn’t see where I was going so I knew that I had to pit. For me, I thought that was it. I thought that was the end of the day – but then of course, partly happy to get back all the way to second, passing Valtteri along the way and then… yeah, it’s just thanks to my car. My car was just unbelievable today and that’s what allowed me to come back through the field. That’s the main thing really. In hindsight really, even if it was a bit… I could have pushed more during the race, y’know? But it’s always easy to know afterwards but even at the end my tyres were fine. So, yeah, that’s a pity but anyway, it’s difficult to know that during the race.
Q: Valtteri, at one point the pace seemed to be really close to Mercedes, perhaps closer than we’ve seen in any race so far this year.
VB: Yeah, the beginning seemed to be very good and I was not far off from Lewis and everything was going into the plan. The tyres were feeling good and suddenly the rear tyres started to go, started to lose pace and was struggling more and more and Lewis was getting far a way. Then we stopped for the Prime and it took just a really long time to get the Prime tyre to work. It was just getting better towards the end. I did my best lap in the last lap of the race. It was really weird. And as it took so long to get the tyres to work, Nico got me in Turn One. It was a bit of a surprise for me, didn’t expect him to come inside. Luckily I saw him in time so there was no contact. Yeah, as a team I think we again did a good job. We’ve come so much forward from last season so it’s again, really good to be on the podium.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, when you tried to overtake Lewis at the first corner, you were on the inside line; is it because it’s not the racing line, is that line, let’s say, that you normally have to brake a little bit earlier to compensate?
NR: No, I don’t think so. It was definitely do-able and I just messed up, very simple, no explanation. Just braked too late and too hard.
Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, last year you had your best result in Austin. Is it going to happen this year also?
VB: I really hope so. I got my first points in Formula One in Austin last year so it would be nice to have a good weekend there. I think the track should be OK for us so let’s aim for that.
Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Nico and Lewis: now that the Constructors’ title has been won, will you change your way of racing together or will it be the same?
LH: Same.
NR: It’s the same, you know. Up until now, it’s always been we can fight and it continues to be like that. We can fight, it doesn’t change.
Q: (Haoran Zhou – F1 Express) Lewis, can you describe your experience on the podium and especially when you were handed the trophy? Be as specific as possible.
LH: Well, it was kind of normal really. Kind of surreal for the president to be presenting the award. That was a great experience. The crowd have been amazing this weekend. I don’t know, I just never… I didn’t know that Formula One was something that people followed here in Russia. I didn’t know that there was actually a real love for it. To see the people turn out in their thousands yesterday and the grandstands full and then again today… They’re really enthusiastic, it looks like they’re really excited that we’re here and on top of that they did an amazing job with the track, the layout, with the surface, with the actual event. You would have thought they’d had this event many many times. I take my hat off to them.
Q: (Leonid Khayremdinov – Red Star) Lewis, you had a wonderful season with this ninth victory and your lead is now 17 points, but I remember this in 2007 and you had the same 17 points behind Kimi Raikkonen. Are you not afraid of repeating the situation as in 2007?
LH: I remember 2007 very well. I wasn’t afraid then either but I guess I was perhaps less experienced so I’m a completely different man today so I’m looking forward to the races coming up.
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Hamilton takes pole position for the inaugural Russian GP
Mercedes driver claims seventh pole of the season ahead of Rosberg and Bottas.
Sochi, 11 October 2014: Lewis Hamilton will start the inaugural Russian Grand Prix from the front of the grid after claiming his seventh pole position of the season at the Sochi Autodrom.
The Briton always seemed to have pace in hand over title rival Nico Rosberg and in the end he finished two tenths of a second up on his Mercedes team-mate.
However, Hamilton’s place in P1 was almost taken
Hamilton races with the Sochi stadium in the background on way to pole position on Saturday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image away from him in the final moments of the session as Williams Valtteri Bottas threatened to crash the party. The Finn recorded the fastest first and sector of the session to find himself in with a chance of a career first pole position but a scruffy final sector, in which he slid well wide in the final corner, meant the Williams man stayed in third place.
Jenson Button proved that the pace McLaren had shown on Friday was no fluke with the Briton claiming fourth spot on the grid six tenths down on Hamilton’s P1 time of 1:38.513.
Daniil Kvyat gave his home fans something to cheer about with an outstanding drive to fifth on the grid, the Toro Rosso driver delivering a sparkling final lap to claim a career-best starting position.
Kevin Magnussen was sixth for McLaren, although the Dane was set to be hit with a five-place grid penalty for the start owing to a gearbox change after final practice.
Daniel Ricciardo was seventh for Red Bull Racing, while a poor day for Ferrari saw Fernando Alonso qualify eighth just ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Jean-Eric Vergne was tenth for Toro Rosso.
In Q1 the bulk of drivers opted for the quicker soft compound Pirellis to get them through to the second segment, with only McLaren sending their drivers out on medium tyres for their first runs. Eventually they too swapped to the soft tyre and the battle began in earnest with, predictably, the Mercedes drivers setting the pace.
While Hamilton and Rosberg were comfortable in P1 and P2 respectively, one big name was struggling in the drop zone. With three minutes left in the session Felipe Massa was desperately trying to drag himself up from the back of the pack but his car was plagued with a fuel pressure issue. With no time to pit and fix the issue all the Brazilian could do was try to beat the backmarkers.
He managed to drag himself up to 17th but as the final times came in he was bounced down to 18th by a good lap from Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson.
Behind Massa, Kamui Kobayashi, Pastor Maldonado and Max Chilton were also eliminated.
At the front it was Hamilton from Rosberg, with Bottas third ahead of Button and Magnussen. Kvyat took sixth ahead of Raikkonen and Alonso.
The second segment again saw Hamilton set the pace. After Rosberg and Bottas had traded P1 laps early on, with Bottas in the ascendant, the championship leader emerged and blew the battle apart by registering a lap over half a second quicker than the Williams man. Rosberg soon bypassed the Finn too, closing to within three tenths of the dominant Hamilton.
Further back there was, again, a problem for one of the regular frontrunners. With two minutes left on the clock Sebastian Vettel was lodged in 15th place, 1.5s off the best time set by team-mate Ricciardo. In the end the champion’s final lap wasn’t quite good and despite finding a second over his previous run, his time of 1:40.052 was only good enough for P11.
Also eliminated behind the Red Bull Racing driver were, in P12 and P13, the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, the Saubers of Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean. Hulkenberg though is set to take a gearbox penalty so will drop back five places on the grid.
At the front, Hamilton again topped the timesheet, ahead of Rosberg, Bottas and Magnussen. Kvyat continued to put in impressive laps, easing through to the top-10 shoot-out in fifth place. Ricciardo was seventh for Red Bull Racing ahead of the Ferraris of Alonso and Raikkonen, with Vergne the last man through to Q3 in tenth for Toro Rosso.
The final session saw Rosberg draw first blood, the German lapping in 1:38.946. Hamilton’s opening run was poor with five minutes to go the title leader was a second adrift of his team-mate.
Rosberg’s supremacy didn’t last long. With the first lap of his final run Hamilton bypassed his team-mate with a time of 1:38.647 and then despite his engineer informing him that the track was worsening the Briton improved by another tenth. Rosberg had no response and his best lap of 1:38.713 was only good enough for P2.
As Hamilton guided his Mercedes back to pit lane on his cool down laps, Bottas was winding up. For two whole sectors it looked like Bottas might upset the form guide but in the end he pushed too hard through the final sector, ran wide through the final corner and settled for third.
2014 Russian Grand Prix – Qualifying Result
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:38.759 1:38.338 1:38.513 18
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:39.076 1:38.606 1:38.713 18
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:39.125 1:38.971 1:38.920 23
4 Jenson Button McLaren 1:39.560 1:39.381 1:39.121 22
5 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:40.074 1:39.296 1:39.277 27
6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:39.735 1:39.022 1:39.629 21
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:40.519 1:39.666 1:39.635 21
8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:40.255 1:39.786 1:39.709 25
9 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:40.098 1:39.838 1:39.771 26
10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:40.354 1:39.929 1:40.020 27
11 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:40.382 1:40.052 13
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:40.273 1:40.058 16
13 Sergio Perez Force India 1:40.723 1:40.163 13
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:41.159 1:40.536 18
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:40.766 1:40.984 18
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:42.526 1:41.397 18
17 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:42.648 9
18 Felipe Massa Williams 1:43.064 8
19 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:43.166 9
20 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:43.205 5
21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:43.649 10
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Hamilton wins in Japan. Bianchi suffers serious crash
Hamilton leads Rosberg before winning the shortened Japanese GP on Sunday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image Briton wins shortened race at Suzuka ahead of Rosberg and Vettel. Bianchi hospitalised after late-race crash.
Lewis Hamilton extended his championship lead over Nico Rosberg to 10 points with victory in a rain-lashed, shortened Japanese Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg finished second, with Sebastian Vettel third. The race was marred by a heavy accident involving Marussia’s Jules Bianchi.
With heavy rain falling before the start, the race began under the safety car but was quickly halted as conditions became undriveable. The cars were guided to pit lane where the field awaited a restart.
That came after a 20-minute delay, with the cars again taking to the track behind the safety car. It was during this period that fifth-on-the-grid Fernando Alonso’s race came to an end. The Ferrari driver had a sudden power loss due to electrical problems and he was forced to pull over and quit the race.
With the rain abating, drivers began to radio through that the track was almost good enough to swap from the starting wet tyres mandated by officials because of the conditions to intermediate rubber.
The safety car left the circuit after nine laps and by lap 11 the field began to dive towards pit lane for intermediate tyres. First in was McLaren’s Jenson Button and his quick thinking allowed him to leap up the order. After the stops had played out, Rosberg led with a two-second advantage over Hamilton, with Button now third, having started from eighth on the grid.
Behind him were the Williams pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa but with the FW36 looking ungainly in the wet, they were being quickly chased down by the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo in sixth and seventh respectively.
Vettel passed Massa for fifth on lap 16 with a deft move at the hairpin and then repeated the move on Bottas two laps later. Ricciardo wasn’t about to be left out and made his own perhaps bolder move, passing the Williams with moves around the outside through the ‘esses’ on laps 17 and 19.
Ahead, Rosberg was complaining of severe issues with oversteer and when DRS was enabled in the improving conditions on lap 25 it was the cue for Hamilton to make a sustained assault on Rosberg’s lead. The championship leader eventually swept past his team-mate into Turn One on lap 29 under DRS. He immediately began to pull out a gap and it was clear that the battle for the lead was over.
Behind them Vettel made an early second stop, looking to undercut third-placed Button. McLaren responded and brought the Briton in. However a a change of steering wheel saw Button stationary for too long and Vettel and Ricciardo swept by to relegate the McLaren man to fifth.
Ricciardo ran a longer second stint, but it seemed to provide little advantage and when he eventually made his second stop he was passed by Button. However, he quickly used his pace advantage to close on the Englishman.
The McLaren driver defended bravely for several laps and that allowed Vettel ahead to pull out a decent gap, which surely frustrated Riccirado.
The Australian eventually moved past Button on lap 44 but by that time Vettel was five seconds up the road and it seemed the four-time Japanese Grand Prix winner had done enough to take third place.
On the previous lap, Adrian Sutil had gone off track at Turn Seven and a recovery vehicle went to the scene to remove his stranded Sauber. A lap later, however, Bianchi went off at the same location and appeared to collide with the recovery vehicle. The safety car was dispatched, along with the medical car.
Vettel pitted under the safety car for new intermediate tyres and rejoined behind Ricciardo. However with an ambulance also now on track the race was red-flagged on lap 47 of the allotted 53 and the cars guided back to pit lane. It was soon announced that there would be no resumption.
With the result counted back to the end of the penultimate lap before the red flag was shown (thus, to lap 44) the order saw Hamilton take his eighth win of the season ahead of Rosberg, with Vettel third. Fourth place went to Ricciardo, with Button fifth ahead of Bottas, Massa, Hulkenberg and Jean-Eric Vergne, who put in an excellent drive to rise from 20th to ninth. The final point was taken by Force India’s Sergio Perez.
Bianchi was quickly taken to hospital by ambulance. An update on his condition is expected shortly.
2014 Japanese Grand Prix – Race Result
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 44 1:51:43.021 2 25
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 44 +9.1 secs 1 18
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 44 +29.1 secs 9 15
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 44 +38.8 secs 6 12
5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 44 +67.5 secs 8 10
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 44 +113.7 secs 3 8
7 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 44 +115.1 secs 4 6
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 44 +115.9 secs 13 4
9 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 44 +127.6 secs 20 2
10 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 43 +1 Lap 11 1
11 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 43 +1 Lap 12
12 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 10
13 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 15
14 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 43 +1 Lap 7
15 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 43 +1 Laps 16
16 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 43 +1 Lap 22
17 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 43 +1 Lap 17
18 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 43 +1 Lap 21
19 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 43 +1 Lap 19
20 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 41 Accident 18
21 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 40 Accident 14
Ret 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2 Electronics 5eom
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Hamilton tops incident-packed FP2 in Suzuka
Championship leader takes over from Rosberg at top of timesheets as Ricciardo, Kobayashi and Gutierrez crash out
Suzuka, 3 Oct 2014: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton recorded the fastest time in second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, taking over from team-mate Nico Rosberg at the top of the timesheets after the German had set the pace in the morning
Hamilton fastest in FP2 at Japan on Friday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas team image session.
Hamilton’s best time, a lap of 1:35.078, came just after the halfway mark of the 90-minute afternoon session at the Suzuka circuit and left him 0.240 seconds clear of Rosberg.
Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was third fastest, though the Williams driver was more than a second adrift of Hamilton’s time. Jenson Button was fourth fastest for McLaren.
Sebastian Vettel set the afternoon’s fifth fastest time with a lap 1.3s down on Hamilton’s benchmark. He was followed the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrnando Alonso and then by the second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen and the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat.
Tenth place in the session went to Daniel Ricciardo, though the Red Bull Racing brought out the red flags when he crashed as he prepared to start a quick lap.
“I made a mistake,” Ricciardo said of the crash that ripped the left-front tyre off his RB10. “I did my first quick lap and everyone is cooling after that, producing fast lap, slow lap and then fast again. On the slow lap there was a yellow flag, so I went extra slow, so that once I started my quick lap the yellow flag would have cleared and I would have been able to push. The tyres probably cooled too much – out of the last chicane I got on the power, had a few moments and just couldn’t catch it.”
His wasn’t the only crash of the afternoon. Local favourite Kamui Kobayashi was the first out, the Caterham driver losing control of his CT05 out of the Esses after just four laps. He spun backwards into the barriers, causing damage to the rear suspension and front wing.
Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez was the next to get caught out. The Mexican switched to the medium tyres but lost control and went into the barriers on the outside of the Spoon Curve.
Finally, the red flag again appeared with three minutes left in the session when Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso was forced to stop his car at the exit of Spoon Curve. It was his second problem during the session after an early fuel pump issue. Vergne had sat out the morning session in favour of Max Verstappen but the Dutch teenager suffered an engine failure later in the session, leading to a rapid swap to ready the car for Vergne in the afternoon.
With the Frenchman’s car stranded on the track, race officials elected to end the session one minute early.
2014 Japanese Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:35.078 28
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.318 0.240 27
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:36.279 1.201 24
4 Jenson Button McLaren 1:36.409 1.331 28
5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:36.436 1.358 24
6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.529 1.451 19
7 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:36.637 1.559 26
8 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:36.714 1.636 31
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:36.943 1.865 27
10 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:37.186 2.108
11 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:37.219 2.141 19
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:37.504 2.426 16
13 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:37.563 2.485 31
14 Felipe Massa Williams 1:37.700 2.622 18
15 Sergio Perez Force India 1:37.786 2.708 8
16 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:37.798 2.720 27
17 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:38.010 2.932 25
18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:38.365 3.287 9
19 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:39.069 3.991 22
20 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:39.306 4.228 20
21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:39.333 4.255 24
22 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:42.760 7.682 3eom
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Rosberg quickest in Suzuka as Verstappen makes debut
German edges Mercedes team-mate Hamilton as Dutch teenager becomes youngest ever F1 driver at 17 years of age.
Suzuka, 2 Oct 2014: Nico Rosberg went quickest in opening practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, the 15th round of the 19-round Formula One World Championship, but while the Mercedes driver narrowly outpaced championship-leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second all eyes were on 17-year-old Max Verstappen, who was making his grand prix weekend with Toro Rosso.
When the Dutchman drove out of the Italian squad’s garage became Formula One’s youngest ever driver, at 17 years of age, more two years younger than previous record-holder Sebastian Vettel, who made his debut at the 2006 German Grand Prix.
The son of former Benetton and Arrows driver Jos had an early problem with third gear that required him to return to the garage but once back on track he rose to 12th place in the standings, two behind future team-mate Daniil Kvyat and just over four tenths behind the Russian.
However, with six minutes left on the clock in 90-minute session his session ended abruptly as an engine failure cut his running short and he was forced to pull over at the side of the track.
Toro Rosso release adds: Max Verstappen (STR-01)
First Practice Session – Best lap: 1:38.157, pos. 12th, 22 lapsVerstappen said: “Today for me it was all about getting experience in the car, especially on a difficult track like Suzuka. I was impressed with the engine power. The car is bigger compared to the one I’m used to in Formula 3 and there are a lot more things to think about while you’re driving, so I had to use some laps to get confident with such a different car. I was not taking any risks and I drove within my limits for all the session, doing as much mileage as possible. I have to thank Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso for giving me the possibility to be in the car already this year on Fridays and get well prepared for next year. I find myself very comfortable in this team and I like my working group. I hope to drive also in Austin, Sao Paolo and Abu Dhabi. Now that I know what it means to drive a Formula 1 car, I’m looking forward to it even more.”Meanwhile, at the top of the timesheet, with Rosberg shading Mercedes team-mate Hamilton for P1, best of the rest status went to Fernando Alonso, who finished half a second down on Rosberg’s best time of 1:35.461, according to an FIA release.
In recent races Williams have made a low-key start to weekends but today Valtteri Bottas set the morning’s fourth-fastest time, though a second down on Rosberg’s lap. Team-mate Felipe Massa finished the opening session in 11th place.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest for Ferrari, with McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen in sixth place. Behind them came Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo with Jenson Button, who had issues with a loose seat, in eighth place. The top 10 was rounded out by four-time Japanese Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel in ninth, with Kvyat tenth.
2014 Japanese Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.461 27
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:35.612 0.151 26
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:36.037 0.576 19
4 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:36.576 1.115 25
5 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:37.187 1.726 19
6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:37.327 1.866 24
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:37.466 2.005 27
8 Jenson Button McLaren 1:37.649 2.188 24
9 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:37.686 2.225 26
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:37.714 2.253 26
11 Felipe Massa Williams 1:38.012 2.551 22
12 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:38.157 2.696 22
13 Sergio Perez Force India 1:38.324 2.863 10
14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:38.582 3.121 9
15 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:38.851 3.390 21
16 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:39.046 3.585 19
17 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:39.097 3.636 26
18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:39.318 3.857 18
19 Marcus Ericsson CaterhamVerstappen debut as the youngest ever to drive in F1. A Toro Rosso image 1:40.031 4.570 18
20 Roberto Merhi Caterham 1:41.472 6.011 24
21 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:41.580 6.119 10
22 Max Chilton Marussia 1:41.757 6.296 15eom/FIA release with Verstappen quotes from Toro Rosso release
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I dreamt, but you never really think it is going to happen: Hamilton
DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)
3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)
PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Eddie Jordan)
Lewis, did or dream or think this would be the result today?
Lewis HAMILTON: Of course, I was dreaming it last night but you never really think it’s going to happen. I just want to say a huge thanks to my team. What they’ve done this year is absolutely incredible and to be able to arrive here knowing that we have a car we can fight with, and just the feeling I had through the race, it’s… I couldn’t do it without them. Thank you guys.
We know you’ve won seven races this year but the talking point is how big a pressure was on you in that last pit stop? That’s what we wanted to know.
LH: Ah, it wasn’t that bad.
Well you sounded totally paranoid up there I have to tell you!
LH: No, I think at the time it was just not really knowing what the situation was. I knew I had a big gap but if a safety car comes out, what does that mean, but then when I came in and knew that I had to fight the guys on a long, long, run-down tyre, I knew that we would have chance to get by, so I felt kind of comfortable.
Well, we’ll come back to you because we have lots more questions but ladies and gentlemen, Sebastian Vettel, four times world champion, his best result of the year! Sebastian, what is it with Singapore and you? You seem to be a night raider or something like that. Every time there’s a night race you do remarkably well. Obviously on the podium again this year.
Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, kid did well! It’s a circuit that I really enjoy, I really like. The atmosphere is great. You know, on the drivers’ parade there are already so many people in for the race. It’s great. It’s a tough one, it’s two hours and again we went to the full two hours. I had a good start, got past Daniel and then I think we had a decent race. We played a little bit with strategy and then the safety car came in the worst possible moment for us. So we tried to obviously stay out with the last set of tyres and make them work, which was very, very much borderline. I had a lot of pressure from Daniel and also from Fernando behind, but very happy obviously to make it P2.
A lot of red faces up here – the dehydration, the heat, the temperature. A huge race here is it? Is it very, very difficult?
SV: Yeah, it’s quite hot. The cars are sliding a lot, so you have to focus quite hard. It’s definitely a race we all enjoy as drivers because it’s such a big challenge and to stand up here and get a cool glass or bottle of champagne is quite nice.
Well, your best race of the season, your best result and we know what you’ve done here before. Now, ladies and gentlemen, the pride of Australia, Daniel Ricciardo! Almost like a home race really?
Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, feels like a home race. Singapore to Perth is pretty much as close as Melbourne to Perth, so for West Australia it’s like another home race.
I need to ask you the question: do you think that when Fernando gave up the place to Sebastian, do you think he should have given up the place to you?
DR: To be honest, I’ll have to have a look. Obviously he went off, that was clear. I knew he would give it back to Seb [but] whether he had to give it back to me, I’ll have a look at that. I was just sort of focused on regrouping from the start really. To get on the podium I guess is not a bad result, good for the team and at least we’ve got some Aussie flags.
We see a lot of Aussie flag, you’re the pride of Australia. Lewis, things have changed, really, haven’t they, for you?
LH: Absolutely.
Big smile on your face.
LH: Yeah, I was so excited to have… I was looking for that clean weekend and this has been it. It’s been fantastic. It’s not perfect for the team because Nico didn’t finish and we’re always striving to get both cars finishing 1-2. I don’t think anyone has finished one-two before and that was our goal. So there are things we can still work on. I also want to say a big thanks to all the fans. Incredible support today, so thank you guys.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, your second victory in Singapore, your seventh of the season and a very popular win, it would seem, with the crowd – but there was clearly a tense moment for you after the safety car when you knew you had to stop again and it was clear the four or five cars behind you didn’t – but the strategy team stayed calm, you stayed calm and you’re now leading the Drivers’ Championship. Just tell us about the rollercoaster of emotions and the way you feel leaving Singapore tonight.
LH: Coming here and to the last six races with a great race in Monza, knowing that we had a car to compete here, obviously yesterday in qualifying it was very close between everyone so I didn’t really know what to expect today – but got off cleanly. Of course it would have been a hardcore race if Nico was in the race with me as the car was feeling very good and we would have been very strong. But, yeah, later on in the race, I think for me I was a bit unaware of what I needed to do. That second-to-last stint, I extended it as long as I could and then they said “we need 27s.” And that was still six seconds I needed more, and my tyres were dropping off, so I didn’t really understand why. And I was also nervous that, if the Safety Car came out, would that cause me big problems? So anyway, fortunately we got to where I needed to go and we pitted. I came out, and I saw Sebastian going past but straight away I knew they would be on… they were obviously doing a two-stop, I would have good pace. So, took it easy the first lap. It was actually a bit of a tight gap, maybe I should have overtaken him somewhere else but fortunately Sebastian was very fair and I got by. After that it was quite straightforward. Amazing job from the team and the guys back at the factory. The car was really spectacular in the race.
Q: Sebastian, clearly the start was decisive for you. A fantastic initial getaway up into second place, you got the place back from Fernando. You were also a little bit sceptical when it came to the strategy, saying “that’s not my plan,” to go to the finish. So, tell us about the thinking at that point and how the race played out from your mind.
SV: As you mentioned, the start obviously was good for me. Quite weird to stop with no car ahead but not being on the first row. But it helped, obviously, because I had no car in front and I could get side by side and get straight into second place. After that I think we had a good race. Not ideal, in terms of timing with the safety car. Obviously, before that we lost a position to Fernando because we stopped too late – but we decided to go on the primes and we were hoping for no safety car to come out, which came out, so not ideal! But yeah, after that, obviously after the restart, we knew it was difficult with 27 seconds to make up on older tyres than everyone behind – it’s probably impossible. So, obviously to get the best result we knew we have to get to the end. I wasn’t very confident that we can do it, simply because of the wear we had the sets before. Obviously for one lap I was in the lead. As Lewis touched on, the overtaking manoeuvre, I wasn’t quite sure what he was doing. I thought that I give him all the space to pass me on the inside for the next corner but it seemed like he couldn’t wait to get back in the lead. It was quite tight but I saw him, obviously, so I had to back-off and let him through. There was no point fighting him at that stage because I didn’t have the tyres to match him. Nevertheless, to finish P2 obviously was the best we could do. We had the oldest set of tyres in the last stint, so it was quite tricky managing those to the finish line with not much tread left. Obviously very good result for the team.
Q: Daniel, I guess the opposite for you. Not a great initial getaway, you lost the initiative to Sebastian there, which is why you finished behind him in the end. Tell us whether you expected the attack from Alonso at the end because obviously he had pitted under the safety car, was on much fresher tyres than you . Were you surprised the attack didn’t come? What was going through your mind?
DR: Yeah, I think the closing stages, I could see after the restart for the safety car, he wasn’t attacking as much as I thought with a new set of primes, so I thought he was holding back and was going to make a late charge at the end. I think we all just piled up. I caught the back of Sebastian, he caught the back of me and we were all in a train and not really any real opportunities arose for any of us. So, it was what it was. I probably did expect him to come on a get stronger at the end but I think once you start following and trying to get the pedal down a bit harder to set up a pass, then you start hurting the rears and you all fall into each others’ pace. The start initially wasn’t too bad but just before Turn One we had a bit of an issue and I think we lost a bit of power. Whether we could have held on or not… who knows? But then yeah, Fernando went wide and then gave the place back to Seb and the race from there was fairly straightforward. Encountered a few other issues and bits and pieces here and there – so we’ll have to look into that. See how much it cost us in the end. But obviously it was nice to get on the back of Seb and try to put him under a bit of pressure but I think for all of us here it was follow-the-leader a bit and not much else to do.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Lennart Wermke – Bild) Lewis, is there anyone you dedicate your victory to?
LH: I’ve not really thought of it. There are only a few of the race wins which I’ve really dedicated to anyone. Maybe to my fans, I think. I met a couple of really special people last week – they’ll know who they are – and just generally to all the fans. They’re sending me messages and all that, really just saying that we win or we lose together and also being here with all the British flags, it lifts you up so much that probably they don’t even realise, so this is for them.
Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and National Speedsport News) Daniel, you were on the radio during the race saying that you were losing power and I believe gears. What was happening and was the team able to help you correct those matters?
DR: Yeah, we had quite a bit going on during the race so yeah, power was coming and going and from the safety car onwards it was pretty consistently down on power and basically, coming up through gears, I would get a bit of power and then it would drop and then it would come again. So we definitely had a few issues and we tried fixing them but to be honest we didn’t quite clear it all up. I guess it did cost us a bit today but obviously we still got it to the end but obviously we will definitely look at what the cause was and if we can fix it. Normally, if we have those glitches after a couple of laps we clear it but this one pretty much carried through all race. I guess I was a bit frustrated, bit concerned as well that we wouldn’t get it to the flag but luckily it held on and as I said, we’ll just look at it and I’m sure we’ll fix it for Japan.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) To Seb and Daniel, what was the plan to have the harder tyre, the prime tyre, in the third stint rather than at the end, because at that moment, I don’t think you could know that the safety car would come out?
SB: I guess in my case Fernando undercut us, it was quite obvious, and then I think it was pretty pointless to do the same as him so we tried to do opposite and then get him back obviously, in the last stint of the race, I think that was the plan. With hindsight, we should have obviously stopped earlier, tyres were at the end of their wear life anyway so I think that was the plan. It was obviously high risk because of the safety car. In the end, we got lucky because the tyres held up but at that stage it didn’t look like it.
Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Lewis, you said on the podium that Mercedes were hoping for a one-two finish but in terms of the championship, can you say, in all honesty, that you’re sorry that Nico didn’t finish?
LH: Well, of course the points are something… I came here hoping to really gain those seven points and anything more than that was just a bonus, so today, of course, those extra points are a huge help. That’s several DNFs we’ve had now on either car and we want to continue getting those one-twos still. I know that the team will not be 100 percent happy today because we want to win collectively, we want to get those one-twos, we want to be the dominant team all together, so by not getting that result, they’ll be going back to the drawing board trying to figure out what happened. They’re constantly coming up to things and perhaps other people are starting to be a bit more reliable than us so that’s an area that we can still definitely improve on.
eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference
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Hamilton beats Rosberg to Singapore pole by tiny margin
Hamilton (centre) takes pole position from teammate Nico Rosberg in Singapore. Daniel Ricciardo in a Red Bull (left) took P3. An AMG Mercedes Petronas image Mercedes drivers separated by seven thousandths of a second at Marina Bay Street Circuit. Ricciardo third ahead of Vettel.
Lewis Hamilton claimed his sixth pole position of the season by the tiniest of margins today, beating team-mate Nico Rosberg to the top spot on the grid for the Singapore Grand Prix by seven thousandths of a second.
It was the tightest margin for pole position since Sebastian Vettel beat Fernando Alonso to the front of the grid for the 2010 German Grand Prix in Hockenheim by just 0.002s.
Third on the grid will be Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo who finished just under two tenths adrift of Hamilton’s pole time and five hundredths of a second clear of team-mate Sebastian Vettel in fourth place. Fernando Alonso will start from fifth for the fifth time in 14 races.
In the opening Q1 segment, Ferrari set the early pace, with Alonso (1:48.203) topping the times, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who posted a lap of 1:48.583.
Rosberg had a nervous moment when he outbraked himself and was forced to take an escape road. His first clean lap of the session put him fourth, as Hamilton jumped to the top of the time sheet.
It had been predicted that Mercedes might attempt to make it through to Q2 on the prime tyre, but with the performance gap between the soft and the option supersoft at over two seconds, even they switched to the supersoft as the session wore on
The Red Bulls only emerged after 10 minutes, straightaway choosing the option tyres. Vettel’s first run wasn’t plain sailing, however, with the German coming across the slow Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat, which prompted the Red Bull man to gesticulate furiously at the Russian youngster.
At the end of the opening 18-minute session it was Kimi Raikkonen who emerged with the fastest lap, a time of 1:46.685. That was two tenths better than team-mate Alonso, and 0.136s clear of third-placed Hamilton.
Jenson Button was fourth for McLaren, with Valtteri Bottas fifth for Williams with a lap of 1:47.196. The Red Bulls eased through to Q2 with Vettel in ninth and Ricciardo in 10th.
There were few surprises in the knockout zone. Eliminated, in order, were Sauber’s Adrian Sutil, Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado, Marussia’s Jules, Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi, the second Marussia of Max Chilton andthe second Caterham of Marcus Ericsson. Of some note, however, was the lap of Bianchi. The Marussia driver might not have made it through to Q2, but his lap of 1:49.440 was a full second quicker than that of his team-mate and those of his Caterham rivals.
When Q2 got underway, Raikkonen again jumped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:46.359. That was soon eclipsed by Alonso, who went 0.031s than his team-mate.
Rosberg’s first lap left him third, two tenths down on the Ferraris, but then Hamilton pushed Mercedes to the top of the pile with a lap four hundredths of a second clear of Alonso’s. With the final runs in the offing, the order at the top was Hamilton followed by Alonso, Raikkonen and Ricciardo.
Those three didn’t change order but Rosberg’s final lap of the session saw him steal P1. Fifth place went to Massa, followed by the twin Red Bulls. Bottas finished eighth, with Kevin Magnussen putting in an excellent final lap to claim ninth.
Daniil Kvyat took the last place in Q3, beating Jenson Button to the place in the final shootout but just under two hundredths of a second.
Also eliminated was Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne who finished in 11th place, just six hundredths of a second off team-mate Kvyat’s time. Vergne was followed by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez, the second Force India of Sergio Perez and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean.
After the first runs in Q3 it was Massa who sat at the top of the list, with a time of 1:46.007. The Williams driver was followed by Ricciardo, six hundredths back, and Alonso, who was a tenth down on his former team-mate. Raikkonen was fourth ahead of Bottas, while Hamilton was the fastest of the Mercedes, with a time of 1:46.230. Rosberg was seventh, five hundredths down on his team-mate.
Midway through his final run, disaster struck for Raikkonen. The Finn reported that he had no power and was forced to return to the pits where he abandoned the session.
Ricciardo was the first to make his move on pole and he immediately ousted Massa with a lap of 1:45.854. Rosberg was the next up, the German knocking Ricciardo off with his fastest lap of 1:45.688.
Hamilton, though, had still to cross the line and despite a lock-up in turn one at the start of his lap, he continued to improve throughout and when he crossed the line he was ahead by an incredibly fine margin. Rosberg’s response? A barked “damn it” down the radio to his pit wall.
Afterwards, the title leader said that he was still happy with second place and that it was a good platform, the fact is that four from six races here have been won from pole and Hamilton will very much go into tomorrow’s battle with the upper hand.
2014 Singapore Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:46.921 1:46.287 1:45.681 17
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:47.244 1:45.825 1:45.688 19
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:47.488 1:46.493 1:45.854 12
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:47.476 1:46.586 1:45.902 15
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:46.889 1:46.328 1:45.907 16
6 Felipe Massa Williams 1:47.615 1:46.472 1:46.000 20
7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.685 1:46.359 1:46.170 14
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:47.196 1:46.622 1:46.187 18
9 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:47.976 1:46.700 1:46.250 18
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:47.656 1:46.926 1:47.362 21
11 Jenson Button McLaren 1:47.161 1:46.943 12
12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:47.407 1:46.989 14
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:47.370 1:47.308 13
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:47.970 1:47.333 9
15 Sergio Perez Force India 1:48.143 1:47.575 13
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:47.862 1:47.812 14
17 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:48.324 6
18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:49.063 8
19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:49.440 7
20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:50.405 8
21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:50.473 7
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:52.287 5eom
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It was quite an exciting qualifying session and great effort by team: Hamilton
DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)
TV UNILATERAL
Lewis, pole position once again for Singapore and you saved the best until last it seems?
Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, that’s always the plan. It doesn’t always go to plan but yeah, quite an exciting qualifying session. I wasn’t expecting… I guess no one was really expecting to see so much difference and how close everyone was. I did some good laps in the first and second qualifying sessions and saw the Ferraris were very, very close and then obviously for it to end up the way it did is good obviously for our team. My last lap, I locked up into turn one and lost a bit of time but still managed to pull it back later on in the lap. So, at that point I honestly thought that perhaps it was… I lost over a tenth and a half or was two tenths down but I just kept going and it just got better and better throughout the lap.
Were you surprised when you saw Felipe Massa on provisional pole after the first runs?
LH: I wasn’t really trying to look at it too much because there was so much happening. I don’t know what it ended up as but obviously it was very close. But a great effort by the team. To come here at very much a downforce and engine dependent circuit to have the performance we have I think it’s a fantastic performance by them.
Very well done. Nico you missed out by the smallest of margins, I think seven one thousandths of a second. Your radio message at the end on the cool down lap there said it all: “Damn it!”
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, because seven thousandths, you know, when I think back at the lap, seven thousandths it’s nothing, a little bit here or there, you know, like “come on!” I could have done it. But OK, that’s the way it is. Lewis did a good job to get pole, fair play. And second place is OK, obviously first would be better but it’s a long race ahead and, yeah, it’s fine.
Tell us about the Q2 session? You were in sixth place in the closing stages there and you obviously felt you needed to run again so you did an extra lap?
NR: Yeah, because we changed brakes going into qualifying and I got into a rhythm with the other brakes and so that was a challenge. I mean we expected it to be, but it always is a bit of a challenge. So it took me some time to get into qualifying. And the balance was also very different because the track had cooled down relative to the session before qualifying, which was hotter. There was a lot more understeer now, in the rear we had a lot more grip, so had to complete adapt settings and it just took us some time to get into the qualifying. That’s why I’m pleased that in the end I was able to push flat out and put in a good lap time.
Daniel, a tenth-and-a-half behind the Mercedes; can you race them from here?
Daniel RICCIARDO: It’s definitely encouraging. Coming into the weekend I thought if we could be within two or three tenths it should give us a bit more optimistic chance in the race to stay with them, so, yeah, I think we ended up a bit closer than we thought we would, particularly after yesterday. So I think it was a good day. Yeah, it was good fun out there. The track was really improving so you had to adapt a lot during the session. Street circuits normally tend to be like that, so it keeps you on your toes. Yeah, good fun.
There was a big roar from the grandstands when you took provisional pole. Have you brought a few thousand of your closest friends from Perth?
DR: I’ve got a few mates here this weekend and there’s probably a few more here that I don’t know about. Yeah, it’s close to home and it’s nice to see a few Aussie flags. Yeah, hopefully keep it up there tomorrow and try and see a better view from the podium.
Q: Lewis, tyres have obviously been a big part of the story throughout this weekend, particularly today and it’s obviously going to have an impact on tomorrow’s race. What kind of race can we expect tomorrow?
LH: I think coming into the weekend we had a certain opinion about how the tyres would behave, and obviously when we got into the long runs yesterday we saw quite a big difference from what we had though was going to happen. So, I think tomorrow’s going to be a really interesting race. Looking after these tyres is not easy but I think it will be a great race to watch for the fans. I think there’s going to be a lot going on.
PRESS CONFERENCE
Q: Lewis, one of the things I think is interesting about how today has evolved, that might surprise a few people, is that Mercedes hasn’t really shown too much. FP3, then you weren’t really at the top of the timesheets throughout qualifying. You mentioned “that’s the plan”, about saving the best to last. So, what was the strategy today?
LH: I just mean that, as a driver through the weekend you plan to have the last lap as your fastest lap because that’s when the track is at its best. That’s when you’ve got the configurations as close to perfect. That’s really the lap you want to do it on. The others have just obviously taken a step. It’s a real, real surprise. I’m sure the team are surprised, I’m sure we are just as surprised to see Ferrari really competing on a lap, which is great to see. Also with Williams, also with Red Bull. I think for racing it’s great. It makes it… that’s probably the most exciting qualifying session I’ve had for a long time, where there’s a lot of people really in the mix and you have to be spot on. I was almost there with that.
Q: Nico, there was a radio message for you: “look after these, these are the race tyres.” Obviously there is a consideration there: you have to take some performance out of them because you need the lap time but you’ve also got to use them tomorrow. How do you see the use of them tomorrow playing out?
NR: Tomorrow is going to be a tough race in terms of tyres. They have a lot of degradation but I’m confident because I had some really good long runs on Friday, so I’m well prepared for the race and feeling good about it.
Q: Daniel, are you fully able to recharge the energy system around this lap? One or two drivers are saying it’s been a bit of a struggle. Are you completely on top of that side of things with Red Bull?
DR: Yeah. Yes we are. We’re not having any issues there. I think for such a long lap, a little bit on what Lewis touched on, it’s amazing how close we are, y’know. Monaco is a street circuit but it’s a lot shorter lap so you can expect us to be closer but this one, yeah, it’s pretty cool how many cars are within half a second or a second. So, it’s going to be a fun race tomorrow definitely. I think tyres will be key, as always, but particularly here. It’s not going to be as straightforward as Monza with a one-stop. So, it should be fun.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) Daniel, we saw you doing a wonderful lap, it was unbelievable watching it on TV. Do you have the same feeling when you’re going to the limit? Your feelings about this lap please?
DR: Yeah, street circuits are fun. I think all us drivers enjoy them. You jump across kerbs, you brush near the wall, it’s a little bit like the closer you get the more you want to risk and I guess that’s why we race, we love that rush, that adrenalin. It’s like speed, we wish we could go faster. It’s a bit like that when you come to a street circuit, you just really enjoy handling the car, playing with fire, so to speak. It’s not always the quickest way when it’s sliding around but I think you’ve got to take hold on a street circuit so that’s where I get the enjoyment.
Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, Nico just explained why, on the last lap, he was quick enough to be on the front row. How was it with you because you also did your fast lap only on the last lap? I guess you didn’t go slowly beforehand intentionally. Did you have any problems before?
LH: I just didn’t really have a clean lap through the whole of qualifying. The last one was the cleanest. When you do the first lap, you get your lap time. The next time you go out you have a delta so you know whether you’re up or down on that lap. I locked up into turn one and missed the apex and so I was down 0.18/two tenths by the time I got to turn five. At that point, I was thinking this is going to be almost impossible to regain that but the previous lap there were a couple of corners where I lost out as well so I fixed those and got back the time. It’s great that there’s still potential there and with a perfect lap it’s a good place to be.
Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Lewis and Nico, if I understand the restrictions on radio use, how important is that going to be in terms of this race and information about how each other is doing in terms of your position on the track and what tyres you’re on and so on? Do you think it’s going to affect your battle for the championship?
NR: I don’t think it’s actually going to make too much of a difference tomorrow. There’s just a few bits and pieces… you know they can’t tell me ‘OK, work on turn seven because that’s where you’re losing some time’ or something like that or ‘turn twenty is good, keep doing what you’re doing.’ That’s the main difference, so actually for tomorrow’s race really, I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a thing.
Q: Lewis, anything to add? The starts, obviously, you’re going to be able to be talked through all the things you need to do still, that’s still permitted.
LH: Yeah, obviously coming into the weekend there was a plan of zero being able to say to us but I think there’s a just a few things (that are banned). We’re all in the same boat so I’m quite excited about that.
eom/FIA transcript of the Press Conference
