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Tag: Mercedes
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There’s not enough for me to win, I need to rely on something happening: Nico Rosberg with two races left
File photo of Hamilton left, and Nico Rosberg at Hockenheim on Friday. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image DRIVERS – Kevin MAGNUSSEN (McLaren), Adrian SUTIL (Sauber), Pastor MALDONADO (Lotus), Jean-Eric VERGNE (Toro Rosso), Felipe MASSA (Williams), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
PRESS CONFERENCE
Nico, if we could start with you? It’s the first time this year, in this championship, that the championship itself is out of your hands, in the sense that two wins, here and in Abu Dhabi, won’t be enough. Do you feel you need to rely on a little bit of luck then and this venue might provide it?
Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, it’s clear that I need to rely on something happening. Yeah, for sure there’s not enough for me to win, unfortunately, but that’s the way it is. Anyways, in sport so much can happen, so I’m still very optimistic.
You had a rich run of form from Monaco through to Hockenheim. How would characterise the period since then?
NR: A less rich run of form! What is it? Lewis has done a little bit of a better job since then. That’s it, pretty simple, but as I say, still two races.
OK, thank you. Felipe, coming to you: obviously, you’re a two-time winner of the Brazilian Grand Prix. Do you feel that with this car this year is your best shot of getting back on the podium, since that great win in ’08.
Felipe MASSA: Yeah, I think so. Anyway, I was on the podium in 2012. It’s a fantastic track for me. A track that I had great results. As you said, two victories, almost three I would say. Three pole positions. I always love this track. I won many races [here] even before Formula One. So I started my career here, on the other side of the wall, which is a go-kart track, at the top. I love this place. I love the energy that I feel here and I’m really looking forward to having a fantastic weekend. I hope our car can be as competitive as shown in the other tracks here as well. We’ll see how far we can be, or maybe even in the middle of these guys here on the left [Mercedes]. Trying to get all the opportunities to have a great race here.
You’ve obviously been a key part of Williams’ renaissance this year. With all the experience you have, tell us how you feel this team can become more competitive in 2015?
FM: Well, first of all you cannot forget how much we grow from the first race until now. I think maybe… I would say it was the team that grows more during the championship. It was a team that gets better, that improved the car in the top level, from the first race to the last race, looking at where we started and where we are now. So, I think definitely the team… when we started at the first test and where we are now, the team changed completely the organisation, the mentality. We are still changing, there are still some improvements we are working to be there before the first race of next year. But I really believe in this team. I think this team has everything to be even more competitive, it has everything to be fighting for victories and I really, really hope for championships as well.
Kevin, coming to you, obviously clear progress for McLaren on the car side in the last few grands prix, that’s clear to see. But the car still seem to have a narrow sweet spot in terms of getting the most out of it during a race weekend. What’s going on there?
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: A lot of it is down to the tyres, making the tyres work. It’s seems that sometimes we get it better than others. Sochi was an example of where we got the tyres working very well and I think Austin was an example of where we didn’t. It’s a little bit hard to understand but we’re trying out best.
Since the summer break you’ve had pretty strong form yourself personally, especially in qualifying. Do you think you’ve done enough to book your seat for 2015?
KM: I can only say I hope so. I think I’ve learned a lot. I’ve improved a lot in many areas and yeah, I’m sure I have a lot more potential even from where I am now. So, I hope so.
Thank you very much. Pastor, coming to you, first points in Austin, a very strong performance. Tell us about your and Lotus’ fight back?
Pastor MALDONADO: It was a very tough season, especially at the beginning, even not able to run the car as we wanted. It was not maybe the best way to start to work with a team. But we did a great job to try to put everything together, to get better and better and at some point we decided to be focused on next year’s car. But the team seems to be quite good, very competitive in terms of spirit. They are used to being in the front. They know how to do a good car, so let’s hope the best for next year.
How do you feel about opportunities for this weekend? This track is always very unpredictable and the weather forecast looks like it’s going to be pretty wet throughout the weekend. A lot of variables there. Opportunities?
PM: Yeah, the main objective is to maintain the performance we had last week in Austin, so we think, as a team, we can continue to fight for the points. That is the main focus at the moment.
Q: Adrian, coming to you, obviously Sauber have announced both their 2015 drivers, so in what direction does your future lie, do you feel?
Adrian SUTIL: I don’t know, so I will see what is possible, what I want and also… yeah, it’s quite a few things to think about and I can’t really say more at the moment.
Q: Are you optimistic that you’ll be in Formula One next year?
AS: At the moment, I don’t know. Maybe. F1 is unpredictable – but as I said, there are a few things to think about first and then the team has to comment the rest.
Q: Obviously great performance in qualifying in Austin, you must have been so disappointed the way that first lap turned out. Have you spoken to Sergio [Pérez] afterwards? Have you been back through it?
AS: No, we didn’t speak. He didn’t apologise, to be honest. But anyway, that’s how it is. Shame, it was for sure a good chance for points. It was a very nice qualifying, it was good to be in Q3 finally with this car. It has been quite a challenge this year, to be honest, so we didn’t expect it – but for some reason it got better and better through the qualifying session and especially on Saturday, the car was better than ever before, so, many things to analyse. We try it of course again here. I look forward to the race weekend. Big chances with weather looking very wet and I think everyone knows how the weather can turn out here in Brazil. We have seen many exciting races.
Q: Jean-Eric, coming to you, some encouraging noises that you may get a chance to retain your Toro Rosso seat for next year. Can you tell us about progress on that and progress on any other options you might have in Formula One?
Jean-Eric VERGNE: Well yeah, there were some good words from many people, especially from Franz [Tost]. Well, you know, it would be a good thing to stay with this team, I really believe in it and I think this year we did get a lot stronger and next year we’ll be again on this up-trend, so I believe we can be again in a better position next year so hopefully we can continue. But you never know. And I don’t know much more about the situation than this.
Q: It’s clear from watching you race in the last period of time, just more recently, that there’s a lot of passion in your driving. Is that coming from the adversity that you’ve been through, the setbacks, or is it anger? What’s driving it?
JEV: Definitely not anger. I believe that I’ve done many races in the past like this but unfortunately the beginning of the year I had a lot of DNF and obviously, when you don’t finish the race, people don’t remember what you’ve been up to in the race. That was a little bit of a shame. I haven’t changed anything. I drive with a lot of passion, I love racing, that’s what I do best and it doesn’t matter what I do next year, I continue, I don’t continue, I’ll always give my best to a hundred percent and try to have the most fun possible. This is when you perform well.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Elmar Dreher – German Press Agency) Adrian, I can imagine that you are very frustrated. Can you describe a little bit your feelings about this bad situation for you?
AS: Well, I’m not frustrated but that’s just how it is in F1 since many years. It’s a little bit a different business. That’s all I can say right now. I look forward to the race and that’s it.
Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriera della Sera) Nico, we know the championship will not finish here in Brazil. Is it an add-point from a psychological point of view that you can have a last chance in Abu Dhabi?
NR: It’s… for sure it’s great. Great news that for sure this year I have a chance to win the championship the way it is now. That’s a good thing. I’m also happy because it’s good for the fans that it’s going to be exciting until the very end. And, yeah, for sure it keeps me very, very optimistic.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, Lewis said that what happened in Spa was kind of a war for him and since then he changes his attitude and everything. What has it changed for you since then and what do you think you have to do now to change the results of the last five races?
NR: Did he say we’re at war? I don’t think anything has changed. It was an intense battle before and it still is an intense battle now. So, I don’t know his exact opinion on things but for me nothing has changed since then.
Q: (Claudio Nogueira – O Gobo) Felipe, can you make an overall evaluation of your first season with the Williams team?
FM: Starting with the team, the team did a fantastic season, looking at how they were last year and looking at how they are now. I think the team did a fantastic season in terms of what I was saying before: improving the car and working in the good areas. We lost some opportunities, I lost many opportunities during the season, so many races that I couldn’t finish for different reasons. Some unlucky races as well, I would say. But I think now, I would say maybe from the middle of the season, things were a lot more consistent for myself, for the races, and I really believe that we can still do a great two races for the end of the championship. I’m really working and looking forward to having a very consistent and good season in 2015.
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Kevin, two part question: first of all, I take it you still don’t know exactly what your future is for next year, and secondly, then, if you don’t know what your future is, do you feel a bit let down by the team, that in your rookie year, after you’ve done your best to try and perform on the track, you’ve got two races to go and they still haven’t told you whether you’ve got a drive next year or not?
KM: They’re not doing that to annoy me. They have a reason for it.
Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Do you feel let down?
KM: No, because I understand why I’ve not been told yet. Some things are still not sorted out from their side and if they could let me know, they would. Yeah, I can only just wait and see what happens. I’m not planning anything else, I’m not looking for anything else. I’m planning as if I’m here next year, so that’s what I’m working for and doing my best to get to.
Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Adrian, I understood you had a two year contract and it seems that it’s only one year. Is this something you have to talk to Sauber about resolving? You alluded to some issues to sort out still.
AS: Yes, there are certain things to talk about, definitely, yes. They’ve confirmed two drivers but that doesn’t mean the drivers can drive and it doesn’t mean that the team’s going to drive. So there’s no real change from last weekend to this weekend. It’s just an announcement and now, of course, my situation, I think I have to do some talking, to sort out the things.
Q: (Luiz Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) I don’t know which drivers have done a track walk or saw the new pit entry and pit exit but if somebody can comment on what they saw? Maybe Felipe?
FM: Yeah, I saw it. The pit exit is more or less similar, a little bit more inside and I would say corner two is more safe, because the wall is a bit further away, so we won’t see some crashes which we saw many times. I think that corner will be a lot safer now. And the pit entry, I would say, was a good job. You still have the wall there, in a similar place – this is the only thing that we need to be careful of, but the pit entrance is better so I would say it’s more safe, it’s better and I really hope we will see no accidents or less accidents than we saw in the past there. Anyway, we need to drive to see exactly but it looks OK by looking but we just need to drive to be sure about it.
Q: (Andy Benson – BBC) At the beginning of the year, Nico, you were quite outspoken against double points, you didn’t like it.
NR: I do now! It’s really a fantastic idea.
Q: (Andy Benson – BBC) I’m coming to that, yeah, and last weekend you were also saying you didn’t like it but you could see the positives. If you end up winning the championship because of double points now, the way the season’s gone, some people will say that it was a hollow victory or it shouldn’t have happened or whatever. How would you respond to that?
NR: I wouldn’t respond. Everybody can have their opinion and in sport it’s the points that count in the end and of course, then you can debate who deserved it more or less. That’s always going to be the case.
Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, we heard that Felipe Nasr is going to race for Sauber next year. You know him pretty well, he’s been the third driver for your team. What do you think he can bring to Sauber and what do you say about him as a driver?
FM: Well, I’m happy for him. I think for Brazil it’s great to have another Brazilian driver racing. I’m quite close to him, we’ve worked together the whole season inside the team. He’s in GP2, maybe his third season in GP2 so it’s his time, his opportunity to go to Formula One, otherwise it starts to be a little bit more difficult after that so I’m happy that he had his opportunity, his chance and I hope the best for him. I hope the best for him and I hope that we can bring our Brazilian flag on the top now with two drivers, not just one, and I hope the best for him. Definitely, it’s not a great moment for Sauber. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to be next year, his team, I don’t know which car and how competitive they can be, seeing that they are suffering a little bit of crisis and crisis is not good for everything you’re doing but anyway, I hope the best for him and I hope he can have a good start and a good experience and being in Formula One for a long time, not just for a few years.
eom/FIA press release of the transcript
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Hamilton extends title lead with third career US GP win
The Victor and the Vanquished: Hamilton celebrated after extending the championship lead while Nico Rosberg (background) ponders in Austin on Sunday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas team image Briton now 24 points clear of Mercedes team-mate Rosberg with three races to go. Ricciardo third in Austin.
Austin, 2 Nov 2014 (IST Monday morning): Lewis Hamilton extended his title lead over team-mate Nico Rosberg to 24 points, as he took a comfortable third career US Grand Prix win after passing the German for the lead as the race approached its midpoint. Daniel Ricciardo finished third for Red Bull Racing.
Having claimed his ninth pole position of the season on Saturday, Rosberg led the race through the opening stint, but when the Mercedes duo made their first visit to the pit lane for medium tyres, Hamilton found more pace than his team-mate on the prime rubber and on lap 24 completed a bold move on the German into Turn 12 to steal the lead. Rosberg fought back but Hamilton always had a reserve of pace in hand to eventually take a comfortable 10th win of the season.
At the race start, behind the Mercedes pair, Felipe Massa passed team-mate Valtteri Bottas to claim third position. the Finn was then forced to defend hard as Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso attempted to pass but managed to kept hold of fourth.
Ricciardo, meanwhile, had made a poor getaway. He dropped to seventh behind McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen but soon claimed a place back, easing past Magnussen as the Dane was too cautious into Turn 12.
Behind them, Sergio Perez overcooked his entry into the corner and hit Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari. He then cannoned into the Sauber of Adrian Sutil, ending the German’s race. It was bitterly disappointing for Sauber, who had yesterday seen Sutil claim their first top 10 qualifying position of the season and put the team in a good position to claim its first points of the year.
The safety car came out and many cars pitted to change tyres. Sebastian Vettel was one of those, pitting twice and eventually emerging on medium tyres.
When the safety car peeled off track at the end of lap four, Rosberg kept his lead ahead of Hamilton and the Williams duo of Massa and Bottas. Ricciardo, meanwhile, muscled his way past Alonso on the outside of Turn Two to steal back fifth place. Behind Alonso, team-mate Raikkonen was seventh ahead of Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus in 10th place.
Maldonado, though, was in trouble. Placed under investigation by the stewards for speeding under the safety car – along with a clutch of other drivers – the Venezuelan was handed a five-second stop and go penalty, as were Vergne and Gutierrez.
The first round of planned pit stops began on lap 15 as Massa and Ricciardo dived toward the pit lane. Massa took on more softs, while Ricciardo opted for mediums. Rosberg made his stop on the next lap, taking on medium tyres. He was followed by Valtteri Bottas.
The single lap extra that Bottas had to put in over Ricciardo cost him, however, as the Red Bull driver used the undercut to sneak ahead as Bottas rejoined. Hamilton, meanwhile, pitted on lap 16 and like his team-mate took on medium tyres. Elsewhere, Maldonado and Vergne took their penalties during their pit stops and that allowed Grosjean to move ahead of the pair.
At the front, on lap 21, Rosberg was just 1.4 seconds ahead of Hamilton and by the time the pair crossed the line at the end of the tour, the championship leader had narrowed the gap to one second and was inside DRS range. Seven seconds further back, Massa continued in third, two seconds ahead of Ricciardo who had now built a three-second lead over Bottas.
Magnussen was now fifth for McLaren, ahead of team-mate Button who was being heavily pressured by a hard-charging Alonso. The Spaniard probed and pressed and eventually found a way through at Turn One on lap 24 to steal eighth.
A bigger change of position was taking place at further up the track, however. As Rosberg and Hamilton headed for Turn 12, the Briton spotted a gap and dived down the inside. He made the move stick and took the race lead.
At the edge of the top 10 Vettel was struggling badly. The champion, who was running considerably slower than his team-mate, had already complained about the mysteriously poor pace of his car and now was suffering with bad understeer. On lap 25 he was brushed aside through Turn One by Grosjean and then, almost immediately by Vergne, who was now 10th.
As the front-runners’ second stops began, Ricciardo, in fourth, visited the pits for more medium tyres on lap 32. Massa, in third, came in a lap later but a slow halt as his team fitted medium tyres allowed the Red Bull driver to steal third as Massa exited the pits and the pair ran up to Turn One.
Hamilton and Rosberg, meanwhile, made their final stops, with both taking on medium tyres. Rosberg had been told to push hard while Hamilton pitted ahead of him, but he could find no gain and a slightly slower stop than Hamilton’s left him in second place, 3.6s down on his team-mate.
Rosberg wasn’t defeated, however. On lap 36 he put in a race fastest lap, a 1:42.381 to run almost a second quicker than his title rival and the gap dropped to 2.7s. Hamilton was immediately informed of the fact by his race engineer and upped his pace, setting a personal best for the race of 1:42.618. Rosberg was pushing too, however, and maintained his assault by logging a 1:42.718. The duo continued to trade fastest laps, but with Hamilton seemingly able to respond at will the gap eventually began to stabilise at 2.5s.
Alonso, in sixth, was the last man to make a scheduled stop, on lap 44 but when he emerged he was beaten into Turn One by Vettel. The German, on older medium tyres, couldn’t hold out for long against the soft tyre-shot Ferrari driver and Alonso soon stole back the position on lap 46.
With 10 laps left Hamilton led Rosberg by 2.4s, with Ricciardo third. Massa was now fourth in front of team-mate Bottas, with Alonso sixth ahead of Vettel. Then came the McLarens of Magnussen and Button, while the final points position was occupied by Grosjean, who had Vergne in close attendance.
That order wouldn’t hold, however. Vettel briefly dropped out of the top 10 on lap 49 to make a fourth pit stop, during which he took on soft tyres. He was soon scything through the pack as further ahead Vergne also attempted to climb the order.
The Frenchman put a late, strong-arm move on Grosjean to claim ninth, which drew the attention of the stewards for investigation after the race, and then overtook Button for eighth.
Vettel though was marching on and soon brushed passed Grosjean, Maldonado, Vergne, and Magnussen to rise back to seventh place. Maldonado passed Vergne for in the final corners but the Venezuelan had to take a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane during an earlier stop.
The flurry of action meant that Hamilton won, 4.3s ahead of Rosberg, with Ricciardo taking his eighth podium finish of the season.
Massa finished fourth ahead of team-mate Bottas, while Alonso was sixth, just half a second ahead of Vettel who spent the final lap desperately trying to pass the Ferrari. Magnussen was eighth with Vergne ninth when Maldonado’s penalty was applied as he crossed the line. The Lotus man still held on to a point, however.
2014 United States Grand Prix – Race
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 56 Winner 2 25
2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 56 +4.3 secs 1 18
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 56 +25.5 secs 5 15
4 19 Felipe Massa Williams 56 +26.9 secs 4 12
5 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams 56 +30.9 secs 3 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 56 +95.2 secs 6 8
7 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 56 +95.7 secs 18 6
8 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 56 + secs 7 4
9 25 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 56 + secs 14 2
10 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 56 + secs 10 1
11 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus +1 Lap 16
12 22 Jenson Button McLaren +1 Lap 12
13 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari +1 Lap 8
14 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber +1 Lap 15
15 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso +1 Lap 17
Ret 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India +40 Laps 13
Ret 11 Sergio Perez Force India +55 Laps 11
Ret 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber + secs 9
eom/FIA transcript -
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
ends -
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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Rosberg takes eighth pole of season at Suzuka beating Hamilton; Bottas P3
Nico Roseberg, cente, takes pole in Suzuka on Saturday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image Mercedes lock out front row as Hamilton takes second. Bottas and Massa third and fourth for Williams
Suzuka, 4 Oct 2014: Nico Rosberg bounced back from the disappointment of losing his championship lead to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in Singapore by comfortably claiming his eighth pole position of the season in Suzuka, his first at the circuit, beating Hamilton to the front of the Japanese Grand Prix grid by two tenths of a second.
Williams locked out the second row of the grid with Valtteri Bottas third ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was fifth, for the sixth time this season.
In the first session Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne was the early pacesetter, before Rosberg got things properly started with a lap of 1:37.671 five minutes into the session. That was soon eclipsed by Hamilton, who went six hundredths of a second quicker than his team-mate. Bottas slotted into third place ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa, with Alonso sixth.
That order remained intact until the end of the 18-minute segment. Further back the drop zone was shaping up in largely predictable fashion, and before the final runs the final six places were occupied by Caterhams, Marussias, but also the Force India of Sergio Perez and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.
In the final-run shake-up Perez comfortably moved up to P13. Grosjean, though, was not so fortunate. The Lotus driver, complaining of “no traction, no grip on the option tyre”, was eliminated in 18th place. Also out were team-mate Pastor Maldonado (P17), Marcus Ericsson, Jules Bianchi, Kamui Kobayashi and Max Chilton.
It was a close-run thing for the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel in the opening segment. Vettel claimed his Q2 berth with a time of 1:35.517 that was good enough for P14, while Ricciardo went through a place behind.
In the second session, the first series of runs saw Rosberg claim top spot ahead of Hamilton, with Bottas once again third ahead of Alonso and Massa.
In the drop zone at this point were Ricciardo and Vettel, the Red Bulls again appearing to struggle. Ricciardo eventually eased into the top-10 shoot-out in P7 with a lap of 1:34.466. Vettel, though, scraped through in 10th place, just two tenths of second clear of 11th-placed Jean-Eric Vergne, who outqualified 13th-placed team-mate Daniil Kvyat by a tenth of a second.
Out went 12th-placed Perez, Nico Hulkenberg in P14 and then the Saubers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez.
In the final session, it was Rosberg who drew first blood, the German ending the opening runs in provisional pole position, with a lap of 1:32.629, just under three tenths of a second clear of Hamilton. Bottas was again third – just under four tenths down on Hamilton – with Massa fourth ahead of Alonso, Magnussen and seventh-placed Ricciardo. Button was eighth ahead of Vettel, while Kimi Raikkonen did not emerge from the Ferrari garage during the first part of the final 12-minute session.
In the end Rosberg landed his eighth pole position of the season comfortably. The German set a personal best in the tricky first sector and then lit up the timing screens with session-best times in S2 and S3 to secure a lap time of 1:32.506. Hamilton had no response and the title leader finished two tenths down on his team-mate.
Williams locked out row two, with Bottas ahead of Massa, while Alonso was fifth. Ricciardo will line up sixth for Red Bull Racing ahead of the McLarens of Magnussen and Button, while row five will see Vettel start ahead of Raikkonen whose sole lap, a 1:34.548, was only good enough for 10th.
2014 Japanese Grand Prix – Qualifying Result
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:33.671 1:32.950 1:32.506 13
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.611 1:32.982 1:32.703 13
3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:34.301 1:33.443 1:33.128 16
4 Felipe Massa Williams 1:34.483 1:33.551 1:33.527 16
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:34.497 1:33.675 1:33.740 16
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:35.593 1:34.466 1:34.075 17
7 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:34.930 1:34.229 1:34.242 16
8 Jenson Button McLaren 1:35.150 1:34.648 1:34.317 17
9 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:35.517 1:34.784 1:34.432 17
10 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:34.984 1:34.771 1:34.548 16
11 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:35.155 1:34.984 14
12 Sergio Perez Force India 1:35.439 1:35.089 13
13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:35.210 1:35.092 13
14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:35.000 1:35.099 13
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:35.736 1:35.364 14
16 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:35.308 1:35.681 14
17 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:35.917 9
18 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:35.984 10
19 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:36.813 6
20 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:36.943 8
21 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:37.015 9
22 Max Chilton Marussia 1:37.481 8eom
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Rosberg tops FP3 in Japan as Hamilton crashes
Hamilton crashes as Rosberg fastest in FP3 on Saturday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image Hamilton still fast enough for P2 ahead of Alonso, while Vettel and Raikkonen also hit trouble
Suzuka, 4 Oct 2014: Nico Rosberg went quickest in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, while championship leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton crashed out.
After being second best to Hamilton in the first part of the hour-long session, run on hard compound Pirelli tyres, Rosberg jumped to the top of the timeseheet with his first run on the option medium tyres.
Hamilton left the Mercedes garage for his run, but as he wound up for a flying lap the Briton went wide in Turn One, ran over a kerb and ended up going straight on across the gravel trap into the barriers. The impact was not heavy but the front-left wheel of his car was torn off, leaving his team with much work to get through before qualifying.
Rosberg ended the session in P1. Hamilton’s best hard-tyre time, just under a second down on his team-mate’s soft-tyre best, was still good enough for second place. Fernando Alonso was third with a lap 1.2s down on Rosberg’s.
Fourth place went to Williams’ Felipe Massa, with team-mate Valtteri Bottas rounding out the top five.
Hamilton wasn’t the only driver to miss out on the option tyre runs at the end of the session. Midway through Sebastian Vettel, fresh from announcing that he will leave Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season, reported that he was having problems with his RB10. He was told to box and then race engineer Guillaume ‘Rocky’ Rocquelin informed the driver that the problem was worse than first suspected and that it would need a “deeper look”. Vettel completed just six laps in the session and finished 15th.
Kimi Raikkonen, too, was in trouble. Just before the switch to the option tyres the Finn was on the radio saying he was down on power. He was told to return to the pits where Ferrari later reported they would be doing a precautionary engine change.
2014 Japanese Grand Prix – Free Practice 3 Times
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:33.228 14
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:34.210 0.982 10
3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:34.439 1.211 12
4 Felipe Massa Williams 1:34.564 1.336 12
5 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:35.061 1.833 16
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:35.086 1.858 13
7 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:35.251 2.023 16
8 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:35.494 2.266 8
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:35.538 2.310 17
10 Jenson Button McLaren 1:35.549 2.321 16
11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:35.732 2.504 15
12 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:35.995 2.767 5
13 Sergio Perez Force India 1:36.365 3.137 8
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:36.407 3.179 22
15 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:36.460 3.232 6
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:36.558 3.330 19
17 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:36.617 3.389 12
18 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:36.626 3.398 20
19 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:37.367 4.139 12
20 Max Chilton Marussia 1:37.883 4.655 17
21 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:38.102 4.874 15
22 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:38.784 5.556 12eom
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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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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
