INDIA in F1

Tag: Mercedes

  • Hamilton outpaces Rosberg in FP 2: German Grand Prix

    Lewis Hamilton narrowly outpaced Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to take top spot in the second free practice for the German Grand Prix as track temperatures soared as high as 58 degrees Celsius at sweltering Hockenheim. Hamilton ended the session just two hundredths of a second ahead of Rosberg.

    Daniel Ricciardo was third, just a tenth of a second behind Hamilton’s best time of 1:18.341, set on supersoft tyres. The Red Bull Racing driver set competitive times against the Mercedes drivers on both tyres and also on both short and long runs suggesting that here in Hockenheim, where the cars are for the first time running without the front-to-rear interconnected suspension systems, the agile RB10 might be a step closer to the dominant Mercedes W05 Hybrid.

    Rosberg had run fastest in the morning session, beating Hamilton to top spot by just six hundredths of a second. It was a similar story in the afternoon on the supersoft tyres, but on the soft compound Rosberg was marginally faster, eclipsing Hamilton by three tenths of a second. Hamilton’s best time in the afternoon came on the option supersoft tyre.

    In the morning session Ricciardo had finished fourth behind Fernando Alonso and half a second off Rosberg, but the Australian closed the gap in the afternoon.

    Behind him, Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth for Ferrari, improving on his eighth place in the morning. Team-mate Alonso, though, went backwards in the afternoon.

    In FP1 the Spaniard was just three tenths off the pace of Rosberg but in the second session his best lap saw him finish almost a full second adrift of Hamilton and down in ninth place.

    After finishing fifth and seventh respectively in the morning session, McLaren’s Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen swapped places in the afternoon. Magnussen continued to make progress and claimed P5 by the end of running but Button failed to find the looked for improvement on the supersoft and finished seventh, behind Williams Felipe Massa. The Brazilian’s team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, took the final top-10 place.

    It was a difficult afternoon for Caterham as both cars stopped on track. Kamui Kobayashi stopped after just 12 laps with flames pouring from the back of his car, while Marcus Ericsson stopped with an oil pressure problem after just three laps. The team managed to eventually get Ericsson going again in the final half hour of the session.

    2014 German Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Times

    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m18.341s 38
    2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m18.365s +0.024s 39
    3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m18.443s +0.102s 35
    4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m18.887s +0.546s 38
    5 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1m18.960s +0.619s 40
    6 Felipe Massa Williams 1m19.024s +0.683s 36
    7 Jenson Button McLaren 1m19.221s +0.880s 40
    8 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1m19.248s +0.907s 35
    9 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m19.329s +0.988s 32
    10 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m19.385s +1.044s 34
    11 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1m19.417s +1.076s 41
    12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m19.452s +1.111s 27
    13 Sergio Perez Force India 1m19.581s +1.240s 28
    14 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m19.593s +1.252s 32
    15 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1m19.760s +1.419s 32
    16 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m20.158s +1.817s 35
    17 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m20.358s +2.017s 35
    18 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1m20.504s +2.163s 40
    19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1m21.328s +2.987s 31
    20 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1m21.870s +3.529s 21
    21 Max Chilton Marussia 1m21.898s +3.557s 28
    22 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1m23.728s +5.387s 12

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    Hamilton after setting the pace in FP2 on Friday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton after setting the pace in FP2 on Friday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

  • We are working hard to improve mechanical reliability: Toto Wolff

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – John BOOTH (Marussia), Paul HEMBERY (Pirelli), Federico GASTALDI (Lotus), Christijan ALBERS (Caterham), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault)

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Cyril, if we could start with you. Perhaps you could tell us why the job change to Renault, was this unexpected and what have you seen so far?

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: Well, what can I say about this to answer your question. Obviously there is an element of confidentiality, so I will not disclose everything. Let’s put it this way: I have been doing 10 years with Renault before joining Caterham. Before joining Caterham I left on very good terms with Renault, we are, I hope, long-time friends and I hope this will remain the case. Obviously the situation with Caterham was not working – the whole structure, from shareholder to the structure in place was just not delivering, so something had to change. Lots of things are changing. I think that’s good. From my perspective also I had to change. There was some appetite at Renault to turn around what is happening on the track, not just the engine situation, it’s wider than that, so there was an opportunity there and that’s it.

    Tell me, how much of the effort that’s going on is around trying to fix the problems that you’ve got in 2014 and how much is looking forward, because obviously 2015 offers you an opportunity to try to get a bit closer to the Mercedes engine for example with the new homologation that comes in in February.

    CAb: Anyway the engine world is not exactly the same as the chassis world, in the sense that with the homologation you are not free to develop the engine and therefore what we can do this year is fairly limited. What we need to focus on right now is to get reliability sorted out, because clearly what we are delivering on track is not acceptable for some of our customers. We need to fix that, clearly; this is for this season and see what can be done from a performance perspective. Next year, we are quite well advanced actually, there was already the first fire up of next year’s engine on the dyno this week, so there is a programme, it’s going well, we need to improve performance but it’s already interesting to see this weekend with all the changes chassis-wise and engine-wise that there is some progress so hopefully it will be confirmed tomorrow.

    Replacing Cyril as team principal at Caterham and joining us for his first press conference since 2007 when he was a grand prix driver is Christijan Albers. Christijan, you’re now in your second race in charge, what’s your verdict so far of the set-up, what’s been going and what are the first areas on your priority list?

    Christijan ALBERS: First I would to start [by saying] that the thoughts of myself and the team are with the tragedy of the Malaysian Airlines. I feel sorry for their loss. I think that’s the most important thing today. Team-wise… yeah, it’s not easy. You see people in a team fighting for four years to get a good car that delivers performance and it did not work so it’s very important to motivate the people again and to get the right structure in place. I think we are a little bit in that direction. I have a lot of faith in the new technical director John Iley, also the chief designer Keith Barclay and also the new team manager Miodrag Kotur. So, you know, we are pushing. The only thing I can say about the team is that we need progress and stability.

    Can you tell us anything about your drive line-up? Do you plan on retaining the same two drivers for the remainder of the season?

    CAl: I want to see results; that’s very important for every Formula One team. To be honest today I think they did a good job. We had some bad luck in the second practice, but they are sharp and we know we need performance and also of course with a team as Caterham F1 we also always need a little bit of budget.

    John coming to you, on the face of it you’re in quite a strong position. You’ve got two points on the board; you’re ahead of Sauber and Caterham of course. How does it feel inside the team and what’s the short and medium term plan?

    John BOOTH: Well, we’re obviously very comfortable with where we are at the moment. We were very happy to get the two points in Monaco but there are nine races still to go and obviously anything can happen. We’ve got to keep pushing and keep focused and try to defend as hard as we can from Caterham and Sauber.

    After the Barcelona you took a noticeable step forward in performance. Was the Silverstone test equally positive and do you feel you’re closing in on Sauber now? How far behind do you think you are?

    JB: One of our test days in Silverstone was a Pirelli test day which was very helpful for 2015 and the second day we spent a lot of time thinking about running without any sort of linked suspension, so we got a useful work done on the second day.

    Q: Toto, obviously 326 points on the board in the Constructors’ Championship with your nearest rivals on 168 but still a few alarm bells – Nico Rosberg’s gearbox problem in Silverstone wasn’t the first time you’ve had a problem with a gearbox. How’s that being tackled?

    TW: First of all it must be tackled. We are looking very solid in terms of pace. The guys are quick and the car was very reliable at the beginning of the season, if you look besides Melbourne. And since then we had a couple of issues and we must get on top of it. We are working hard and trying to understand how to improve mechanical reliability. This is one of our most important topics, obviously, because in order to win you need to finish first.

    Q: Obviously we’re at the halfway stage in this championship and Lewis Hamilton is just four points away from Nico Rosberg. He calls this a reset moment. How do you see the battle between the two of them and how has your management of that evolved over the half-season so far?

    TW: You see how quick it can go. The discussions we had before Silverstone were ‘will it ever be possible for Lewis to catch up 29 points’ and here we go, you have a DNF and your team-mate wins the race and it’s all on reset. It doesn’t need a lot of management actually. I think it’s about clarity and transparency between the drivers and within the company. It needs communication. This is what we do and until now, knock on wood, we haven’t had any issues. Also, both of the guys are so professional and on top of their game and know it’s important to finish the races. So, until now, I’m really happy with how it goes.

    Q: Federico, Lotus has been a little up and down on performance: strong in places like China and Austria but then fell back a little bit perhaps at Silverstone. What’s behind that? Is it power-unit related or chassis related…?

    FG: Well, I think we’re still having problems understanding the engine – but we’re also having problems in Enstone, matching chassis, aerodynamics and the engine so we’re now trying new setups and also today we’re testing a new front wing. So, we’re trying to improve but it is a very, very slow process this year.

    Q: You carried out the tyre test in Silverstone with Pirelli on the 18-inch rims. What did you think of that exercise?

    FG: Paul? What do you think?

    We’ll ask Paul in a minute!

    FG: Obviously for us it was a good experience. We’re very proud to be doing this work with Pirelli so it was positive.

    Q: Paul, let’s throw it to you. What was the verdict after that test at Silverstone? When do you think you could introduce that tyre technology if it was requested – and what are the technical limitations?

    PH: Yeah, I spent a week talking about 18-inches and it’s been quite an interesting time. It was an exercise that was born out of a discussion we had in the F1 Commission meetings when there was a discussion of, particularly in this case, tyres and what should happen with them in the future. We felt rather than discuss it, we ought to put some on a current car and people can actually decide and the F1 Commission can see real images of the car with that sort of tyre on them. These are 18, maybe 19 is probably more interesting going forward. Have to say that the feedback we’ve had generally has been very good. People have been forwarding us all sorts of surveys and fan surveys that they’ve had on their individual websites. Between 70 and 80 per cent, depending on the survey, have been very favourable. On a personal level, it looked quite good. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like it, if I’m honest, but I thought it looked very good and quite natural. If it’s a route the sport wants to follow, we’d be keen to do. We, technically, could probably be ready in 2016 but the sport is talking about 2017 at the moment.

    Q: Obviously this weekend you’ve come with the soft and supersoft tyres – some interesting results from FP2 here this afternoon – there’s been a feeling perhaps sometimes at a few races, you’ve been a little bit conservative with the tyre choice. Are you becoming more aggressive again now?

    PH: Well, it’s one of those things. Today, we’ve got over 50°C on the track which you wouldn’t normally expect here. I’m quite sure that that the local population will tell you that. That means something like the supersoft tyre in these conditions is pushing a bit. Equally if we’d come here with the other choice, which would have been a medium tyre and it had been 20°C, we’d have been talking about a one-stop race and your question would be conservative again. So, it’s always a balance and I think you’ll see that we’ll still be looking – if we have a dry race – at a two- to three-stop race. Which is what we’re asked to deliver for the sport. The supersoft being used primarily in qualifying and the soft tyre – which is the main race tyre – looks like it’s working well, even in these conditions. So, overall, a good balance.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Luke Smith – NBC Sport) Paul, with these new tyres, if they do come in, it could obviously make the sport far more road relevant. If that opened up the possibility of another tyre supplier coming into the sport, is a tyre war something Pirelli would be interested in or up for doing or is it purely ‘we’re the only supplier or we’re out.’

    PH: It’s obviously a question for the sport. Ultimately the sport should primarily be about drivers and then you have engines. If you throw in tyres as well, you can tend to lose your way. We’d be interested if the rules were in the right direction but there hasn’t seemed to be much of an appetite for doing that. It’s another element that’s out of the control of the teams. We have enough controversy even when we’re the sole supplier, so if you add in another supplier you could have another question mark. I don’t know. It’s one that you can only really answer when you know the context of what would be the conditions of competition.

    Q: (Silvia Renee Arias – Parabrisas) Mr Albers, I would love to know if you can tell us if Carlos Sainz Jnr has any possibility this year to race for you?

    CAl: I have seen a lot of rumours in the press as usual in Formula One. At this moment, of course, we have seen Carlos Junior and we have spoken to him also but at this moment there is nothing done.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Toto, when we drive in here, we can’t miss the massive Mercedes grandstand. We are approximately 100 kilometers from Stuttgart, your team is leading the championship, your drivers are first and second yet on Sunday there are probably going to be less than 50,000 spectators, which is half of what they had in the Schumacher heydays. Is Germany switching off from Formula One, or what is this situation?

    TW: Let’s start with a positive question. It’s not satisfying. If you compare Hockenheim Friday to Friday at Silverstone and Friday in Austria it’s a different world and we have to understand why that is. I’m not sure whether we have an exact number for Sunday already – you know, there are lots of people probably deciding at short notice, depending on the weekend – and we have to analyse the phenomenon. If the weekend continues like it does now, we need to think about it.

    Q: (Dominic Sharaf – motorsport-total.com) Christijan, you said you’ve spoken to Carlos Sainz Jnr for a race seat; what about other drivers? Did you talk to any other drivers?

    CAl:  I did not say that I spoke with him about a race seat. I said we spoke with each other, yes. But the drivers are performing now, I was happy today, that’s the situation.

    Q: (Craig Scarborough – ScarbsF1) Question to the technical directors: Lotus, Mercedes and Marussia are probably the first of the teams to adopt interconnected suspension in the sport. How have you found the first free practice sessions without the set-up and do you think it’s going to have any impact on your pace over the rest of the season?

    FG: We haven’t used it today, so we cannot say anything about it.

    TW: It’s a decision of the FIA, no need to moan about it. You need to get on top of things and run the car quicker than before. We’ve run the car at Silverstone without the linked suspension and it ran pretty well today so I don’t think it’s going to make any difference in competitivity.

    JB: We developed – over the last two years – a very simple but very effective pitch control system and it took us a few sessions at Silverstone to start getting our heads round living without it but I think we’re pretty much there in replacing the system performance.

    Q: Paul, have you noticed any difference today?

    PH: Yeah, the server went  down so we don’t have all the data. We’ve had problems all day! We’ll be working very late tonight to try and analyse all the information so as yet we haven’t got all the info and I can’t really comment but I don’t foresee… You saw the running order today, it didn’t seem too different from previous races so I guess from that point of view, absolute performance isn’t likely to be changed. Maybe over the duration of a long run there might be some impact.

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines) Christijan, I read that Colin Kolles had made the approach to you suggesting that you became a team principal. As a former Formula One driver, what do you think… what qualities do you believe that you have as an individual, as a person, to lead a team from the very bottom of the championship forward? What made you accept the challenge?

    CAl:  First of all, a lot of people don’t know that I was always a little bit of an entrepreneur and so beside racing, I was also starting businesses and it went very well to the moment it turned around in 2007 that I was making more money with my normal business than as a racing driver. So I hope I can combine both of them, you know, the technical side and also the business side and combine them and be successful to bring this team forward. It’s all about performance. We’re working very hard to get an upgrade for Spa-Francorchamps which of course is a race against the clock because we have a two week shut-down in the factory and we’re looking for more steps. We’re also working for the 2015 car which I started last week immediately and we are running now in the wind tunnel. So we are very much pushing forward and what I’ve said already is that the most important thing is to get the team to be a team again and that’s not so easy. A lot of people are very motivated, but also some people of course, after four years with no performance, they were a little bit disappointed so we need to get everybody in the game again.

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  • Rosberg tops timesheet in the opening Practice Session: German Grand Prix

    Nico Rosberg topped the timesheet in the opening practice session of the German Grand Prix weekend, the German beating Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.065s.

    Rosberg’s time of 1:19.131 beat his title rival team-mate’s best lap by six hundredths of a second as Hamilton frequently aborted quick laps as he worked through his morning programme, according to FIA.

    Hamilton left, Nico Rosberg at Hockenheim on Friday. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton left, Nico Rosberg at Hockenheim on Friday. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image

    Behind the Mercedes pair, Fernando Alonso was third-fastest for Ferrari, the Spaniard finishing just under three tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton.

    Fourth place went to Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo who was over half a second down on Rosberg’s time. Jenson Button was fifth, with team-mate Kevin Magnussen seventh as McLaren continued the good form they showed in Silverstone a fortnight ago.

    Splitting the McLarens was Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull. The 2013 German Grand Prix winner finished the opening session four tenths of a second behind his team-mate and almost a full second behind compatriot Rosberg.

    With Magnussen in seventh, eighth place went to Kimi Raikkonen, back at the wheel of his Ferrari after he was forced to sit out last week’s Silverstone test in the wake of a heavy accident at the British Grand Prix. The final two top-10 places went to Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Sauber’s Adrian Sutil.

    Elsewhere, Williams development driver Susie Wolff made a second and far more successful FP1 appearance for the Grove team.

    At Silverstone the Scot’s grand prix weekend debut lasted just four laps before an oil pressure problem sidelined her and early on at Hockenheim it seemed as if she was destined for more heartbreak as an issue on her installation lap forced her back to the pits.

    The problem was rectified, however, and she was able to complete a total of 22 laps, with a best time of 1:20.76. That left her in P15, just 0.227s off the best time set by team-mate Felipe Massa.

    2014 German Grand Prix – Free Practice One
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:19.131 29
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.196 0.065 25
    3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:19.423 0.292 21
    4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:19.697 0.566 27
    5 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:19.833 0.702 24
    6 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:20.097 0.966 28
    7 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.105 0.974 32
    8 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.210 1.079 21
    9 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:20.337 1.206 28
    10 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:20.505 1.374 18
    11 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:20.542 1.411 19
    12 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:20.586 1.455 23
    13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:20.592 1.461 22
    14 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:20.598 1.467 24
    15 Susie Wolff Williams-Mercedes 1:20.769 1.638 22
    16 Giedo van der Garde Sauber-Ferrari 1:20.782 1.651 23
    17 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:21.603 2.472 20
    18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:21.854 2.723 30
    19 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:22.572 3.441 31
    20 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1:22.982 3.851 24
    21 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:23.256 4.125 35
    22 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:23.299 4.168 22

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  • We’ve got the greatest fans here; It’s you guys that spurred me on: Hami

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)

    3 – Daniel RICCIARDO (Red Bull Racing)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

    Lewis, congratulations. Your adoring fans. Your emotions must be running high right now. Your fifth win of the season. That equals your 2008 World Championship year. Now 27 grand prix victories, equalling Jackie Stewart. There’s only other Englishman in front of you with more wins – Nigel Mansell. So tell us about the emotions of today?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It’s very mixed at the moment, but just to see the support we have here… I could see everyone cheering us on through the whole race. We’ve got the greatest fans here. And today, just arriving today, it’s you guys that really spurred me on so thanks very much.

    Well it was a fantastic drive. You never want a competitor to drop out, but of course the battle is very hot between you and your team-mate Nico, so what was the emotion when you saw him have the issue?

    LH: At the beginning… he got quite a good gap at the beginning and I really just tried to look after the tyres. After that I utilised the tyres, was catching and we came out on the harder tyres and I was catching him at a second a lap at the time. I couldn’t believe I had that kind of pace. You never want to see a team-mate fall behind, we wanted to really work and get those one-twos, but at the end of the day I really needed this result so I’m very grateful for it.

    It was a great result. If I can move along to another man who has had a fantastic result. Third in Austria, second here at the British Grand Prix – you must be looking forward to Germany?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, we are on the right way. Like I said on the team radio: one step more to go. The team has done such a good job. You see how quick the car is. It was behaving really well, it was really a pleasure to drive it. Still Mercedes is in front, but we are on the right way.

    Any scares out there this afternoon or was it running like clockwork? You did some great passes.

    VB: Yeah, there was some good stuff going on. I really enjoyed it. The plan was to come as high as possible, as high as the pace of the car is giving the possibility. I think as a team we made the most out of it. I have to say I feel sorry for Felipe, his 200th grand prix, a shame it ended like this.

    If I can just come across to Daniel Ricciardo. Congratulations on your third place. Australians have a good record around here?

    Daniel RICCIARDO: Yeah, they do! Obviously Mark enjoyed this track a lot, so it’s nice to be up here on the podium. It’s been a good circuit to me in the past, so really, really happy. We just held on at the end. I think one more lap would have been tough, Jenson was coming, but really happy with the podium.

    If I can just come back across to Lewis…

    LH: Where’s the gold trophy, man? This thing’s falling to pieces, look!

    You might want to speak to the sponsor. Lewis, do you know the points situation now at the end of race nine?

    LH: I assume we’re four points behind now. I think this weekend really just showed that, for one, you never give up. Yesterday wasn’t a case of giving up, I didn’t think I could do the lap, I was really shocked that the last sector was so fast. But coming here today I had my family with, just focused, the support from the fans, as I said, just spurred me on, and I really couldn’t have done it without them.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, many, many congratulations. Over the radio at the end of the race you said to the crew “I’m sorry about yesterday”. I guess your spirits were so down yesterday; they must be soaring now. But the race really was about the offset you had to Nico Rosberg and you were catching him in the middle stint of the race. Do you believe that without his problem you would have been able to pass him and how do you feel right now?

    LH: Yesterday was a really difficult day. Obviously you never think situations like that would come up the way they did and I really felt… I went away feeling terrible for the fans. They all turned up and there’s so much support here, I felt that I had let them down, not only them but the team and myself. Coming back today, trying to turn that serious emptiness and negativity into a positive today was really my priority. The support has been incredible this weekend. Just thinking of the history of this circuit, the great drivers that have won in the past… leading last year and not being able to see it through. It’s been since… 2008 since I had the win and I just feel very, very grateful for the opportunity. I honestly feel that I had the pace today. I was catching Nico in the first stint. I was able to extend my first stint longer than ever before. I was feeling pretty comfortable. Of course, you never want a team-mate to fall away, to win like that. I was looking forward to a wheel-to-wheel battle but I’m sure we’ll get many in the future.

    Well done. Coming to you Valtteri. From 14th on the grid to second at the finish, which is your best ever result in Formula One and your second consecutive podium, so brilliant effort. You did a one-stop strategy, which is a talking point, but surely the overtakes in the opening stint, there were so many of them – around the outside, around the inside – just tell us about your race?

    VB: Yeah we knew that this race could be good fun. We knew that we had a quick car. Maybe it was a bit surprisingly quick today, but since the first stint the pace was good, since the first lap. I was able to go through the field quite well. Of course, sometimes it needed a bit of risk, because it’s really important to get through quickly and not get stuck behind people, but I really managed to get well in position, where the pace of the car was. I’m just really, really happy with what we’ve been doing as a team. Again, the race pace shows we are really doing the right things and I’m very happy to be part of this.

    Well done. Completing a very happy podium is Daniel Ricciardo, in third place. For you strategy was the key as well. Like Valtteri you did one stop, you did something different, both you and your team-mate taking the hard tyre early on. Was the tyre deg much lighter than you expected today, was it a race where expectations were changing as the race went on?

    DR: Pretty much. We chose to restart on the prime. It didn’t seem like the best thing to do at first because we were really slow at the restart. Valtteri and Fernando got past me pretty easily and pulled away and I was coming on the radio basically saying “let’s see if we can try something a little bit different” as we didn’t really have the pace as we hoped, as we expected today. Once we came in for the option, we just ran and pushed pretty much for the whole stint. I didn’t intend on doing a one-stop when I started on that tyre but laps ticked off and we were still able to keep the pace. The team said “do you think you could do another 15-20 laps” and I was like “at the moment, yeah, I think we can”, so we stayed out and just held on at the end. It was awesome. I think all three of us had a bit of redemption on our plate today. It was a pretty dismal Saturday for us. I think we’re all pretty happy. This is definitely one of my best podiums this year.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Lewis, not very often this season you’ve had family with you: you’ve pretty much kept yourself to yourself at various races but this weekend you’ve had your brother, your Dad, they were here today supporting you. They’ve said on TV how down in the dumps you were last night. How much help did they give you last night after what happened yesterday?

    LH: My family have been incredible. Last night, my Mum, my Dad, spent a lot of time with my Dad last night just talking it out. And my brother. And today I just said I needed them here today. Y’know? I just really wanted that support. I do come to the races on my own and I do generally do it on my own. I have my trainer with me. But I thought this weekend it would be nice to have them. At least today, as yesterday was such a difficult day.

    Q: (Sean McGreevy – CSMA magazine) Lewis, would you consider this one of your great, greatest, great wins and how does it compare to 2008?)

    LH: It doesn’t compare to 2008. It’s a different time, it’s a different experience. It’s still as special. Obviously 2008 was a much trickier race in a sense of being a completely wet track, everyone aquaplaning. Everyone being in the rain, everyone being soaking wet, it’s a different kind of experience that one. Today, I felt I earned it today. From the start some good manoeuvres and I really felt that I had the pace on Nico, I really was hunting him down like never before. I really was happy with the balance that I managed to get, even though I didn’t do the long run in P2. To say this is up there with all the greats… it’s my home grand prix, it’s my second win here and I’m very privileged to have even just had one, so I feel very humble to be up here today.

    Q: (Julian Harris – City AM) Lewis, do you think this can be a turning point for you? Nico was up here yesterday saying that he thought he had the momentum at the moment – but he also said momentum comes and goes. Can this give you the confidence and maybe even the peace of mind to push on and get the momentum back in your favour.

    LH: I came into this weekend saying it would great to really have that. I thought maybe the fans could be the wind in my sails to really change the direction and get the momentum. Obviously I’ve got the win today. I’ve got the points back. I’ve been chasing all year really, since I lost the points at the first race, and then I was chasing again after the previous DNF. It’s been very, very difficult. I was speaking last night, just comparing it to how difficult it is psychologically, it’s got to be something similar to the tennis players when they’re two sets down. It’s so hard to get your mind in gear, to get yourself back and not lose points from then on. And so the pressure is high but I really feel that now we’re back, kind of close and with the pace that I had today, I really feel that I can… just got to refocus for the next part of the season.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / National Speedsport News) Daniel, what was your mindset last night and this morning, knowing that you’re so far back and, often in races, when you start that that far back, like these two guys, you’re not going to finish in the top three?

    DR: Mindset was just… yeah… like it always is I guess when you’re out of position, just go for it, try and do something a bit different. Not much to lose. I knew we were a better car than eighth on the grid, so… yeah… I was a bit surprised during the first stint, even though we were on a different tyre, I was surprised not to be as quick.  We didn’t have much pace, so then it was ‘let’s try something different and make something work.’ Yeah, I was very hungry today. I like to think I always am but today I was pretty jacked up. So it’s nice to be up here.

    Q: (Nick Skeens – The Independent) Lewis, today Niki Lauda said he thought in some ways yesterday was a good thing because it gave you a motivation and a hunger that perhaps you would not have had. Would you agree with that?

    LH: No. I feel like I like I’ve… we’ve had four wins, now five wins, but I’ve had the four wins and I think my hunger is on a par with any other year that I’ve ever raced in – but yesterday was a real kick in the balls. I really had to pick up, pull up my socks and get on it if I want to win this world championship, and I can’t have situations like yesterday. The last two races I’ve easily had the pace to be pole position and I’ve not put it there. I’ve put it much further back, made it much harder for myself but now I’m going to try to rectify that for the future.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – GPweek) Lewis, you’re obviously very happy with the gold trophy [present on the platform]– but you seem to have been a bit unhappy with the sponsor’s trophy. Did I hear you say it fell to bits on the podium? And how did you come to get this one between the podium and here?

    LH: Well, yeah! This one’s a lot nicer. I mean, growing up watching Formula One, you see trophies like this. Real trophies, y’know? And the trophies that we have nowadays, whilst it’s a real privilege being on top of the podium, my one fell to pieces! The bottom fell off the one we just had. It’s plastic, it must cost ten pounds! It’s so bad. I might just get the plaque, which is probably the most expensive part of the trophy I think. Back in the day they really, really made the trophies. And this is the special thing about being on the podium and winning. These trophies mean – for me, I don’t know how it is for the other drivers – but this is what we have to show for our lifetime achievements. I hope we can get some better ones moving forwards.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo Online) Valtteri, Friday morning you didn’t went to the track. Saturday morning also, only qualifying. You didn’t have miles in the track. Where you surprised at the beginning of the race when you started overtaking everyone with the performance of the car?

    VB: Yeah, definitely. Our prediction was Mercedes is going to be strong and also Red Bull, we thought, would be here a bit quicker than us in the race and Ferrari to be really close to our pace. So, we definitely knew that the position we were starting wasn’t going to be that easy to get into good points and we were not really thinking about the podium, we were just thinking about getting in the points and, yeah, definitely it was a positive surprise in the beginning of the race. The tyre life wasn’t really a limitation so we could do the strategy. Well, I have to say the strategy guys did a really good job today. We actually switched the strategy during the running as we saw the tyre wear was so low. Positive surprise. Really happy.

    Q: (Jussi Jäkälä – YLE) Valtteri, two podiums in a row. Does this show you and the team have learnt your lesson, how to score podiums. And is this maybe the start of a catch-up battle?

    VB: Well, we are definitely a stronger team than we were in, let’s say Melbourne, or the first few races. Difficult to compare even to last year or two years before. I think we are really getting stronger all the time. It’s not going to be easy to be on the podium in every race as I think this season is going to be quite a bit race-by-race but we are definitely on the right way and really happy to be part of this. Myself, I have been improving also all the time. Every race I aim to be a better driver and as a team we aim to be a stronger team every single race – and that’s what we’ve been doing.

    Q: (Haoran Zhou – F1 Express) Lewis, obviously the celebration after the race has been extraordinary. You managed to do a doughnut despite the strict restrictions on the engine and gearbox and you were singing – I’m not sure if you were singing or not but you obviously were feeling on top of the world. Can you share your emotions on the slowing down lap with us?

    LH: Yeah, it’s so difficult to really explain the feelings. When you feel like the world is crumbling beneath you, somehow with your family and friends, they help pull you through and also the fans. Yesterday, after qualifying, it looked so hard to… I really was almost speechless when I spoke to them, and it was no one else’s fault but mine. I was just so disappointed in myself. And then to get that result today, to really climb through… the team have just done an incredible job. Even coming into this weekend, the developments and improvements to our car, the balance. My engineers, who work so close to me, regardless of how well we do, they’re so supportive and having that good team of people round you really makes a difference. I did the doughnuts… yeah, I hope it doesn’t do anything to our gearbox but I know how much the fans love it here and so it was really important to try and do at least one but fingers crossed, it should be OK.

    Q: (Rosanna Tennant – Pole Position) Lewis, as media, we like to speculate on upcoming races as to who might win and who won’t win. Are you looking ahead, thinking next race Nico is going to have the home advantage, obviously Hungary was good for you last year? Do you look ahead through the season like that, blocking it out and perhaps where you might be stronger and work out the points?

    LH: I don’t. You look at the schedule and you see what tracks you know that suit you. Just going into Germany, to Hockenheim, I know whilst it’s Nico’s home Grand Prix, he doesn’t have even one eighth of the support us Brits get here. The fans are unlike anywhere else so I’m not worried in that sense. It’s a track where I won before, in 2008 I think it was. It’s a good track for me, so I think… I’m gonna use the pace that I have, because I have the pace. I’ve just got to put the damn laps together and when I do, then I think the opportunities will come in front of me.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) Daniel, you’ve obviously become one of the most likeable guys in F1 I think it’s fair to say, but in denying – there’s that big beaming smile, thank you – but in denying JB’s (Button’s) long overdue podium here, do you perhaps feel like a bit of a villain for once?

    DR: It did cross my mind a little bit. I was thinking… especially in the last few laps, he was catching me pretty quickly at the end. I had sort of stabilised the gap a bit and then with four laps to go, I think my options were really suffering and he was coming, so I was thinking, yeah, probably for once I’ve got a lot of people booing me  and cheering on the local lad but obviously for me it was good. I think for him as well; they haven’t had a great season so a fourth is – yeah, it’s not a podium, but he’d still be fairly pleased with that result so hopefully we’re all happy.

    Q: (Kate Walker – crash.net) For all three of you, and it goes along the lines of momentum but not championship momentum. Obviously we had a fairly long delay after all you guys all made mega starts on the first lap. When you’ve got that one hour delay, what are you thinking? Are you worried that you’re going to lose the momentum that you picked up? What’s going on in your heads?

    LH: Yeah, I think it’s… We work very hard, I’m sure everyone is working so hard in preparation. You get in the car, do the start, you really gain the momentum and then the race stops and we had quite a long break. I went back to my room just relaxing, drinking, making sure I was having plenty of fluids and trying not to think of anything else. Yeah, it wasn’t alcohol. It isn’t easy but I managed to get back and start where I finished.

    VB: Yeah, it’s not easy, you know. There’s a break and you need to keep your focus in the race. You can’t really start to think about other things than the race so you just need to keep thinking about… forward: the restart, how to get your tyres warm, brakes warm, everything. You can always speak with the engineer. You just really wait, let the time go and all the time keep focused for the next moment.

    DR: It’s tricky when you don’t know how long the break’s going to be. The race was at one today, so you do all your preparation to sort of peak at one o’clock in terms of your energy and your focus so you get the race started and you feel your adrenalin and everything is where it needs to be and then it comes back down and I think the limbo of not really knowing when we were going to start again, it’s like do I still keep a high level of intensity or do I go and relax? When do I start to then warm up again? It’s a little bit tricky but at the same time it’s the same for everyone. It does break a little bit of momentum, I guess, but then it’s up to us and our trainers how we get it back and make sure we’re switched on for the restart.

    Q: (Paul Turner – South Wales Evening Post) Lewis, this victory, is this going to help you mentally for the next race or is it back to square one at the next race, you have to start again and plan all over again?

    LH: I think this is now, kind of… we’ll draw a line under that last nine races and now it’s attack mode, start again and now, utilising that pace and utilising the car’s pace. There are still some things we need to improve on. I wasn’t too worried about the time lost in the pit stop today as I knew the next one would be better. I’d been working on my position so I didn’t lose time in that but qualifying really – just getting myself back to my normal qualifying mode and that, I think, will be good.

    Q: (Rosanna Tennant – Pole Position) Daniel, we were talking about what you do before the restart; can you explain what you do with your trainer and the tennis balls?

    DR: We sort of change it a lot but it’s more to get the hand-eye co-ordination going. I guess everyone does something a bit different. Sometimes we use tennis balls just to get my hand-eye co-ordination switched on and make sure my reactions are there. We do some different drills with that. It depends as well on what… I don’t have a ritual routine as such but it depends on what I feel like doing before the race, but that’s something.

    Mercedes AMG Petronas team for Hamilton that is dishing out winners this season. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Mercedes AMG Petronas team for Hamilton that is dishing out winners this season. An Mercedes AMG Petronas image

  • Hamilton wins to close gap with Rosberg; Great drive gets Bottas second consecutive podium

    Britain’s Lewis Hamilton won his home grand prix for the second time in his career as team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg exited the race with gearbox trouble. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas took his second podium finish in a row with second place.

    Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo finished third after switching to a one-stop strategy late in a race that was red-flagged for an hour due to an accident involving Kimi Raikkonen just after the start.

    Fourth place went to McLaren’s Jenson Button, the McLaren driver finishing ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando who provided thrilling entertainment in the final third of the race as they battled tooth and nail for position.

    When the lights went out for the start, pole position man Rosberg held his lead but second-placed Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing got away poorly. He dropped back to fifth place as McLaren’s Jenson Button moved to second and Kevin Magnussen, in the second McLaren charged through from fifth to third. Hamilton was on the move as well. He made a good start from sixth place on the grid and passed Vettel, the pair banging wheels as the Mercedes driver claimed fourth spot.

    Behind the leaders, though, the collisions were more serious. Kimi Raikkonen was forced wide at the start of the Wellington Straight and went off track. The Ferrari driver attempted to rejoin but hit a bump on the edge of the circuit. That sent him into a violent spin and he hit the barriers hard before being flung back on track. Felipe Massa tried to take avoiding action but he collided with the spinning Ferrari.

    Massa was able to crawl back to the pits but the damage was too severe for the Brazilian to continue – a disappointing end to the Brazilian’s 200th grand prix.

    Raikkonen, meanwhile, was helped from his car but limped away to the medical car. It was later reported by Ferrari that the Finn had suffered some bruising to his an ankle and knee but was otherwise unhurt.

    The incident naturally brought out the red flags and there was a one-hour delay until the action resumed again, behind the safety car.

    On the new grid, which mirrored the order at the last point available, Rosberg line up ahead of Button, Magnussen and Hamilton. Vettel was now fifth, ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg. Ricciardo would restart seventh, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. Bottas, in the second Williams, had climbed from 14th on the grid to ninth.

    When the safety car left the circuit at the restart, Rosberg made the perfect getaway, building a large gap to Button behind as the safety car headed for the pit lane. Hamilton, though, was determined not to be left behind and on lap three he forced an error from Magnussen at Copse and stole third place. He soon went one step further, muscling past Button at Brooklands on the following lap to take second place, five seconds behind his team-mate.

    Alonso was also on the move. Having switched to the medium tyre from his starting set of hard compound Pirellis during the red flag period, he was soon making his way through the pack from 13th place. In a startling spell of action he dismissed Esteban Gutierrez, Adrian Sutil, Jules Bianchi, Daniil Kvyat, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg to climb to seventh.

    However, his race was somewhat compromised soon after when he received a five-second penalty for being out of position on the grid at the original start, the Ferrari driver having overshot his grid slot.

    Bottas was also on an incredible charge. The sole Williams took the restart in 14th place but by lap 17 he’d scythed his way through the pack to reach third position, powering past Button around the outside of high-speed Stowe corner.

    At the front Hamilton closed to within three seconds of leader Rosberg before the German made his first stop on lap 19, taking on used medium tyres. That let Hamilton through to the lead. Rosberg rejoined in second place, ahead of Bottas, Button, Alonso, Magnussen and Vettel.

    Hamilton chose to stay out, too, waiting until lap 25 to make his stop. He took on hard tyres but it was a slow stop and he lost time to his team-mate. Rosberg swept back into the lead, with the gap again up to five seconds.

    The gap was erased a few laps later, however. Just after his pit stop Rosberg complained of a problem downshifting. The issues seemed to subside but on lap 29 he was back on the radio, reporting a problem with upshifting. He slowed gradually and Hamilton flashed past into the lead. Rosberg attempted a reset but he ground to a halt at turn 13.

    Elsewhere, Alonso, made his first pit stop, taking on more medium tyres and serving his five-second penalty. He rejoined in ninth place.

    The top-five order, on lap 31 was Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Ricciardo and Button. Bottas made his sole pit stop on lap 32, and rejoined in third behind Vettel, who needed another stop.

    Vettel made that pit stop at the end of lap 34, rejoining behind Button in fifth place, ahead of Alonso. The Ferrari driver piled on the pressure and stole the position through Copse on lap 35.

    The pair would spend the rest of the race in a thrilling dogfight, Alonso defending with everything at his disposal as Vettel pushed hard to force an error. Much of the battle was fought on the radio, with both drivers complaining vociferously that the other had exceeded the track limits on numerous occasions. Vettel, though eventually won out, passing Alonso in a heart-in-the-mouth move along the pit straight and through Copse, just inches separating the combatants. Once past Vettel stretched away, taking fifth place ahead of the furious Spaniard.

    At the front Hamilton continued to open the gap to second-placed Bottas. Prior to his final stop on lap 41 the gap stood at 41 seconds, comfortable enough for the Mercedes driver to make his stop, take on a final set of hard tyres and rejoin in the lead, ahead of one-stopping Bottas.

    Third was Ricciardo. The Red Bull Racing driver was on a set of ageing medium tyres but in a good position and with 15 laps to go and 18 seconds in hand over Jenson Button, who was one fresher tyres, he opted to try to make it to the chequered flag.

    Inevitably, the gap began to come down as Button closed in. By lap 47 it was down to seven seconds and by the final lap it was down to 1.8s as Ricciardo struggled to keep his 36-lap old tyres alive. The Australian managed it, finishing just eight tenths ahead of the hard-charging Button.

    At the front though, Hamilton’s win was comfortable, the Briton taking the chequered flag for his second British Grand Prix win ahead of Bottas, who took his second podium finish in a row.

    With Button fourth and Vettel in fifth ahead of Alonso, the remaining points positions went to Magnussen in seventh, Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Vergne.

    eom

  • Hamilton pushed to 6th in dramatic qualifying session; Rosberg takes pole

    DRIVERS

    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    2 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    3 – Jenson BUTTON (McLaren)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Nico, a very dramatic conclusion to that qualifying session. Right at the end you took pole position. Were you surprised by how much the track improved, particularly in the final sector, right at the end, after we’d had that rain?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, I mean, a quite crazy qualifying, just changing all the time and that makes it very, very difficult. In the end last qualifying also. On t

    Nico Rosberg takes pole and is flanked by Jenson Button on his right and Sebastian Vettel at Silverstone on Saturday. An FIA image
    Nico Rosberg takes pole and is flanked by Jenson Button on his right and Sebastian Vettel at Silverstone on Saturday. An FIA image

    he first lap with the soft tyres it started to rain quite a lot, just in the last three corners, so lost a lot of time there and then everywhere else it was quite wet also on the in-lap, so I was sure, I told the guys already “that’s it”. And then we were sitting in the box and we just came to a general conclusion: “might as well go out and have a look at the track”. At least… because if you don’t have a look, there’s no chance but if you have a look there’s a tiny chance, so at least go out and have a look. It seemed like we should give it a go but even then I still didn’t believe that the track would be better. But what made it was the last sector, because everywhere on the track was just a little bit slower, because it was just damp here and there and a little bit wet. But I knew that I had lost four seconds on the previous lap, so even if I was slower than that lap, I still had the chance of going a lot quicker in those last three corners if it was halfways dry and that’s the way it turned out: I made the time in those last corners because it a lot drier and it just worked out perfectly. Even across the line, in Lewis’ gearbox – because I had to be there because otherwise it went red. I had to be as fast as possible in order to be able to do that last lap. So as I crossed the line it went red, like instantly, it was a very, very close call. I think all in all it was a very good team-mate effort; everybody working together, my engineers, together with me just made all the right calls and it worked out. It’s fantastic to have such a qualifying, where everything goes well in the end and a comfortable pole in the end. It’s awesome.

    Very well done. Well, if it was a bonus for Nico, you actually had to do a lap didn’t you Sebastian, because you didn’t have a time on the board when you went out at the end there, so you were down in 10th place. What was going through your mind as you were going round the circuit? Did you think your goose was cooked?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Well, to be honest at the start of Q3 we went out, I think one of the last cars. And on my out lap, just preparing the flying lap, it started to rain, so I got that wet last sector to start the lap and obviously then there was no point, we aborted the lap, because at that time it was impossible to set a decent time on slick tyres. Then we were back in the garage waiting and we said “OK, we might as well go out. If we go out on inters it will be difficult to beat the lap times that were set, so we go out on dry tyres.” We were one of the first to go out for one flying lap in the end. It was quite difficult to believe on the out lap that it would be dry enough but it’s a funny place. It was a very weird session. A lot of rain, no rain, drizzling, very fine rain, nearly like spray: I think England is the only country where you can get this sort of rain and conditions and changing so quickly. Incredibly difficult to know what was coming so on the flying lap you approach turn one and turn on is a pretty big balls corner, so it’s difficult to know how much risk you can take. Eventually you have to take some risk because, especially in my case, I wanted to set a lap. So obviously very happy that it turned out. Yeah, very positive and starting from the front row tomorrow.

    Very well done. And you Jenson? Changeable conditions as Sebastian was saying and you were there or thereabouts throughout the qualifying session as the lap times went up and down. How happy are you with the result you’ve achieved today?

    Jenson BUTTON: Like you cannot believe. I know it’s only a third in qualifying but for us at the moment, and for the last 18 months, this is… well, we had no chance of getting this result. Yeah, it’s nice in front of the home crowd to qualifying well and all the way through qualifying, as you said, the pace was there. No compared to the Mercedes, but with everyone else the pace was there. When I did my lap in Q1 on the option tyre in the dry I was about two seconds quicker than anyone when I did it. Made the mistake of losing the rear in the last corner, so it was disallowed. I thought I was going to be out, so to come through and be third in Q3 is a good result for today and I’m really happy that I could do it here in front of the home crowd.

    Coming back to you Nico, obviously you’re on pole with your team-mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton down in sixth place going into the British Grand Prix tomorrow. Your thoughts on the race?

    NR: Yeah, of course, with regards to the championship, it’s good for me that Lewis is down in sixth. It will take him some time I think to fight through, though I expect him to come through quite quickly. And then I think very like we’ll be racing each other again. We seem to very quick here. This track really suits the car, more so than Austria, so I think it’s going to be a good battle again. Of course starting from pole is the best possible place and I’m very confident for the race.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Nico, clearly a day like today it’s very easy to get it wrong and there are plenty of examples of that up and down the field. The track was fluctuating by as much as eight seconds a lap with rain and drying out. What are the most important things to take care of on a day like today?

    NR: The way to go about it is to try to minimize the rise, especially with the car that we have y’know? We have such a fast package so really we just need to try to make sure we don’t have any big risks, even if then it doesn’t turn out to be the perfect qualifying and the perfect day. And that, I think, we did very well. Definitely tried to eliminate all the big downfalls and it all worked out well. It wasn’t perfect but it worked out really, really well. Everything came together so it was great to be on pole.

    Q: Sebastian, you’ve been on the wrong end of this once or twice in the past so you know how it works but how much does the driver contribute to the decision-making process and how much of it is the strategists, your engineers and even people back at the factory?

    SV: You would love that the pitwall was in a better place today, trying to predict the rain. I think it was impossible because it was very local. It could have rained every minute and could have stopped raining as we’ve seen. Difficult to predict and therefore it’s you inside the car obviously trying to get the best out of the tyres and the conditions when you’re on track and obviously together with your team trying to be calm on the radio and going for the right decisions. In the end there’s also the element of looking what the others are doing and trying to make sense of whether or not it makes sense to do the same. But it’s very tricky because, as I said, if you take our Q3, the first run, we went out just probably a minute later than everyone else and we didn’t get a lap at all. That’s how close the lap can be sometimes. You try obviously to go for a clear track but then you get caught out by rain. It’s tricky in these conditions to get everything right – so you need also to be a bit lucky.

    Q: Jenson, it’s also a question of risk versus reward isn’t it? You mentioned that you were one of the first to go onto the slick tyres earlier on in the qualifying. It was the right time for that. We saw Ferrari and Williams at the wrong time and they’re starting from the back of the grid but did today, the track limits ruling, make things a little bit more complicated given how slippery it was out there.

    JB: It did, yeah, because you could make a massive mistake and lose a second by going off the circuit and still put in a really good lap time to get through Q1, Q2. So, it made it really difficult. And obviously my Q1 lap quick enough by quite a long way but it was disallowed because I drove off the circuit in the last corner – but the whole of the qualifying session I felt that I could read the conditions pretty well. And then it came to Q3 and the last timed lap, which obviously meant everything. I said to the guys on the radio, “I’ve got wheelspin in fifth gear in a straight line.” I said: “this isn’t gonna happen,” and they said: “Just push, we’ve got nothing to lose.” We’re in a very different position to Nico. We have to take the risks to gain the positions at the moment. So, I pushed. Very aggressive lap but it worked. Big thanks to the team for their call. And being third here in front of the home crowd, on this weekend, this year, really means a lot. I’ll go to bed very happy tonight and look forward to the race tomorrow.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Alex Goldschmidt – Richland F1) Jenson, coming back to the discussion between yourself and Lewis on Thursday, you seemed to be the best hope for the British fans but obviously Lewis is going to come charging through the field. Depending on weather conditions, how do you see the outlook for tomorrow?

    JB: I’ve made the race easier than previously thought but still we have to be realistic. I want to be upbeat, I want to be positive about fighting for a podium. If it’s like today that’s obviously a possibility with mixed conditions. As long as we make the right calls and the right strategy it’s possible. But in a dry race. A standard dry race, it’s going to be very, very tricky but, believe this, we will give one hundred per cent and get the maximum out of what we have this weekend and hopefully have a great result in front of the British fans.

    Q: (Chris Medland – crash.net) Nico, you talk about the psychological edge you’re looking to get over Lewis and he’s starting to make quite a few errors in qualifying sessions which has always been a strong point for him. Do you feel that that’s part of the psychological edge you’re getting now?

    NR: I’ve never talked about trying to get a psychological edge over anything, not at all. What I’ve been saying is that at the moment the momentum seems to be on my side and I just need to make the most of it because it comes and goes and I have a period now when it’s going my way and I just need to make sure I get as many points as possible on Lewis and it’s working out at the moment. But anyway, today’s just qualifying, there’s no points for qualifying and with the car that we have, even from sixth place, everything’s still possible, but of course it’s a big advantage to start first.

    Q: (Haoran Zhou – Formula One Express) Nico and Sebastian, obviously 26.5s in the last sector for both of you, there’s only four corners in the last sector. When did you realise that there’s a lot of grip there?

    NR: Well, it was very wet on the previous run in Q3, where we lost like four seconds in the last sector so as long as it’s a little bit dry patches and a little bit drier already you can gain a lot of time and on the out lap there was a chance, and then once I got round to the fast timed lap, I could brake quite late into there and it was quite dry so it was quite quick through there and that made a massive difference.

    SV: Yeah, on the out lap it was quite slippery but then when I started the timed lap I could feel that most of the track was nearly completely dry, so arriving in the last sector after the long straight I just said, yeah, all or nothing and treated it as if it was dry. It wasn’t entirely (dry) in turn 15, I went a little bit wider than I thought but for the rest… for the last three corners it was quite completely fine.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, you said you had to start the lap directly behind Lewis. First, how much time did it cost you in the first two sectors, where did you pass him and what did you think when you saw Lewis pulling into the pits?

    NR: Well of course I was disappointed, starting the lap behind Lewis because if I’m in his gearbox, that doesn’t allow me to do my pace so I was disappointed with that, but I didn’t have a choice with the situation, with the way it was and just managed to get over the line before the red light came. I actually saw the red light but it worked out. I wasn’t sure but then it worked out and then Lewis made a mistake in turn four and after that he then pulled over so as not to block me and I just kept on pushing.

    Q: (Chris Medland – crash.net) Jenson, you were asked about Ron’s comments on Thursday, asking for a bit more from you. Does that make this perfect timing in response, this  sort of result?

    JB: He’s watching this, I’m sure! One result doesn’t mean anything. We’ve obviously talked since and yeah, I think there’s mutual respect there but when we all want things to improve quicker than what they are, we maybe say things in the press that maybe we shouldn’t. We have a really good working relationship and I hope that that continues into the future.

    Q: (Silvia Arias – Parabrisas) You just said that this result doesn’t mean anything, but anyway, thinking about your father, so far it’s a nice position, and talking about fathers, Nico, your father got pole position in ’85 in similar conditions here in Silverstone, so what are your feelings about that?

    JB: For me it was obviously quite an emotional slowing down lap. As I’ve said before – as we always say – qualifying’s qualifying and the race is tomorrow, but when you do a lap that you’re happy with and it’s in front of your home crowd and I knew the Old Boy would have been very happy, it would have meant a lot. I’ve had so much support from the fans, it’s been overwhelming, a lot of guys wearing pink out there in respect to my Old Boy. Yeah, a good day today and he’s definitely smiling down today.

    NR: Yeah, of course I’ve also been watching how many supporters, how many people have  been wearing pink. Even in my camper van, my driver, he came with a pink shirt and I was like ‘what are you doing?’ He never wears pink and then he explained to me that everybody’s supporting John… in memory of John so that’s how I came across it this weekend. With respect to my Dad, yes, there was one of his great days here in qualifying in Silverstone, something that I’m proud of also. I like to look back at the history and what was happening back then but there’s not really too much to compare to nowadays.

  • Hamilton takes over at the top at Silverstonee

    Lewis Hamilton replaced team-mate Nico Rosberg at the top of the Silverstone time sheets before being sidelined by mechanical issues.

    Hamilton’s best time of 1:34.508 came early in the session while the teams were testing out Pirelli’s medium compound tyre. His time

    Hamilton after topping the time sheets at Silverstone on Friday. An FIA image
    Hamilton after topping the time sheets at Silverstone on Friday. An FIA image

    was 0.228 ahead of Rosberg’s best. The Briton’s session came to an end with 30 minutes left on the clock, however, when his Mercedes engine shut down, forcing him to pull over.

    Fernando Alonso was third fastest, just under three quarters of a second down on Hamilton’s best, with Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo fourth. The Australian’s best time was set on the hard compound, however, with the driver telling his team that he could not make any improvement on the medium tyre as he could not get the front tyres up to the right temperature.

    Sebastian Vettel was fifth quickest, just a tenth behind his Red Bull Bull team-mate, though the champion’s time was set on medium rubber.

    Valtteri Bottas was sixth for Williams, the Finn claiming his car back from Susie Wolff who made a brief appearance in the morning session before being sidelined by an oil pressure problem. Bottas’s session wasn’t without its problems, however, and he was forced to return to pits at one stage when his engine cover began to detach from his car.

    Jenson Button took seventh place, just seven hundredths of a second clear of team-mate Kevin Magnussen, while Kimi Raikkonen was ninth for Ferrari.

    The final top-10 place was taken by Jean-Eric Vergne, though the Toro Rosso did suffer a mid-session incident in which his left front wheel became loose and he had to stop in an escape road just before the wheel detached.

    2014 British Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Times
    1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:34.508 14
    2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.736 0.228 35
    3 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.244 0.736 32
    4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:35.511 1.003 11
    5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:35.627 1.119 27
    6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:36.016 1.508 33
    7 Jenson Button McLaren 1:36.228 1.720 34
    8 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:36.299 1.791 35
    9 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:36.554 2.046 29
    10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:36.583 2.075 26
    11 Felipe Massa Williams 1:36.671 2.163 29
    12 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:36.778 2.270 31
    13 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:36.951 2.443 35
    14 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:37.064 2.556 35
    15 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:37.097 2.589 33
    16 Sergio Perez Force India 1:37.236 2.728 37
    17 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:37.449 2.941 27
    18 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:37.520 3.012 25
    19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:38.658 4.150 11
    20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:39.068 4.560 31
    21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:39.224 4.716 28
    22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:39.762 5.254 21

  • With all the fans, I am excited to race again at my home GP: Hamilton

    DRIVERS – 

    Clockwise: Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), Max CHILTON (Marussia), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Felipe MASSA (Williams), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren) at the Press Conference ahead of British GP at Silverstone on Thursday. Image credit: FIA
    Clockwise: Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), Max CHILTON (Marussia), Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams), Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes), Felipe MASSA (Williams), Jenson BUTTON (McLaren) at the Press Conference ahead of British GP at Silverstone on Thursday. Image credit: FIA

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Lewis, if I could start with you: obviously you were on pole here last year, a former winner of the event, I see you’ve got the Union flag on the underside of the peak on your cap. Your feelings on racing at home and coming home?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It’s always a special weekend or week for us British drivers. Coming here, seeing the fans, already having been at Goodwood and seeing how many people were there and the support that’s coming into this weekend. It’s very exciting for us and the feeling of being at home is really a great feeling. And the support, as I said, for me and Jenson and the guys here, it’s unlike any other place we experience. I’m really excited to see everyone and I hope that we can put on a good show and that the weather stays good.

    You spoke after the race in Austria about damage limitation, particularly after what happened in qualifying. Clearly, I guess this weekend you want to start on the front foot and stay there. So I wonder what lessons you’ve taken away from the setbacks lately?

    LH: There’s not really many lessons. There’s been these two races where we had a technical problem in Montreal and then in the last race I faced some difficulties on the driver side. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t, but you’re always going from strength to strength, so we’ve learned some things but nothing we can particularly point out.

    OK, thank you for that. Jenson coming to you. Similar question really to the first one to Lewis: the feelings on coming back to the British Grand Prix and racing in front of your home crowd. It’s a race you’ve not won, but you’ve always enjoyed being here.

    Jenson BUTTON: Yeah, it’s always very special coming home for this grand prix. I think for every driver Silverstone is a special race. It’s a great layout; always a full house, whether it’s sunny, hot, raining, windy. But it’s especially special for a British driver racing at home. Whether you’re doing well or not you get the support. It’s been very overwhelming actually the last few days since Goodwood leading into this home grand prix, I think for all of us. So I’m very much looking forward to driving on the circuit tomorrow and seeing the fans.

    It’s your fifth season with McLaren this year. How do you see things developing from here?

    JB: We will see. For me, right now, it’s about doing the best job I can. The whole team, us as a team are working every day to do a better job. We’re not where we want to be, we’re not where McLaren is used to being, and we know that, so we’re working very hard. In terms of the future that’s something I can’t discuss right now.

    OK, we’ll move on to Felipe: congratulations, I believe it’s your 200th grand prix this weekend you will be celebrating. So your thoughts on that and also on his rich run of form at the moment for you and the Williams team?

    Felipe MASSA: Yeah, I think it’s a fantastic race to celebrate [at]. I think it’s an important achievement. It’s already a long time, when I started in 2002. It’s really a great feeling to have 200 races, in a great team, Williams-Martini home grand prix as well, at a great track, fantastic fans. So I hope we can have a very strong race, like we had in Austria, so I hope we carry on fighting [and we are] competitive. So I’m realty happy and I’m really happy with the team I’m celebrating 200 grands prix [with] as well, so I hope we have many races in front. It’s a great placed as well. Everybody knows everything about Formula One, everything about racing cars here. Sometimes you just see pictures and you have no idea how fans have amazing pictures like that to sign, that are very close to us. It is a great feeling.

    You’re kind of unusual I guess to have got to 200 grands prix and it’s the first time you’ve come here racing for a British-base team – that doesn’t happen very often. Your thoughts on that, the Britishness of the team and what that represents to the country.

    FM: Yeah it’s a great team. It’s a very important race for me; it’s a very important race for Williams as well. For us, me and Valtteri, as well, for the championship. We are working very hard to improve and be better and better race by race and I think that’s what we are managing to do and it’s really a great feeling and I hope we have a good one.

    Valtteri, coming to you. As Felipe was saying obviously it’s a good run of form for the Williams team at the moment. You got your first podium a couple of weeks ago in Austria. Do you feel you can take on the Mercedes again this weekend.

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Well, I think overall Mercedes has been performing really, really strongly. It’s been difficult to keep up with them in most of the races – I think Austria was maybe a one-off, we will see. We know that we have been improving but you expect everyone else to do as well. It’s difficult to say. I think this season, we are going to see, the rest of the season, it’s going to vary quite a bit the performance between us and them, so we will see. We will do our best.

    After the race in Austria, you always have a debrief, all drivers do with the team, when you went through and looked at everything did you learn anything, were there any mistakes there or were you happy with the way it worked out.

    VB: Well, we’re definitely happy with the result we got – third and fourth, a lot of points for the team, that’s the main thing. I think it’s like every race, always if you look into the fine details you can always something, maybe, you could have done better. But the main feeling is very positive. It’s really good to continue from here. There have been many opportunities we could have done a lot better in previous races and now we’ve done a solid job, so that’s good to see. We know we can do it, so it’s good to continue from here.

    Max, coming to you, home race for you as well, of course. What experience did you have last year when it was your first time and what are you looking forward to this weekend?

    Max CHILTON: I’m just obviously looking forward to another home grand prix. Last year was pretty special. Your first ever home grand prix is something you won’t ever forget. I’m probably a little bit biased, but I’d like to think that it is, if not the biggest grand prix of the year, then certainly one of them. It’s just awesome to have so many spectators, a lot of them are camping, and waving the Union Jacks. I remember last year, free practice one was typical English, with lot of rain, but they were still there doing the Mexican waves and having amazing spirit, so I just hope we can put on a good show for them this year.

    You’ve out-qualified your team-mate for three of the last four grands prix. What’s been making the difference for you lately?

    MC: Just experience. Qualifying’s always been one my strong points but when I came to F1 I struggled initially. But with experience I’m working that out and I’m developing as a driver. There are techniques you can use as well. I find visualisation really helps. It’s a weird sport we’re in. You very rarely get to practice what we preach. Golfers, tennis players are out six hours a day; with us, yeah we have simulators but apart from that we’re not doing the sport that often. So the more you can practice, in any way possible, helps.

    Daniil, last three grands prix, you’ve qualified twice in the top 10, but you’ve had three straight retirements, so I guess the feeling at the moment is one of frustration, right.

    Daniil KVYAT: Well, yes, it’s true. We had quite good speed, which we couldn’t consolidate into some good result unfortunately. But last three races we couldn’t come to the end, but I think it’s been a good sign that we do have speed, we do have something to fight for and we’ll just keep on fighting.

    So overall then, half way through you first grand prix season, are you happy with the impression you’ve made in Formula One?

    DK: Yeah, looking back on it, I think we’ve been achieving maximum from ourselves, we’ve been taking maximum out from our package. I was always learning some new things, it’s been always a good improvement through the season. It’s been good but it doesn’t feel like half a season anyway. We’ll see what the next half of the season will bring us.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Huansho Zhao – Formula One Express) A question to Jenson and Lewis. Murray Walker asked you two this question back in 2010 when you were still team-mates, that we had a colossal fortnight of sport, England’s out of the World Cup, Andy Murray’s out of Wimbledon, Britain is looking at you two, perhaps three of you, how do you feel about Sunday, are you afraid of history repeating itself. Would you like to give your 2014 answer to this question?

    JB: I personally feel all the pressure is on Lewis!

    LH: I think it’s the other way around!

    JB: He’s in the best car, c’mon, make it happen! For us, for Max and I suppose a little bit for myself it’s going to be tricky to get on the top step of the podium and, yeah, it would be amazing to have a British victory. The crowd would go absolutely wild. So, I’d love to see that. For us, as I said, it will be difficult but Lewis has got a shot so hopefully that will be the case.

    Lewis, you feel a sense of responsibility?

    LH: I was going to say exactly the same thing about Jenson, I think we should hand the baton over. No, at the end of the day we’re both, all of us, are going to do our utmost to try to represent and perform for the country. You never know how the weekend’s going to go, you never know how people have developed, improved – but of course, us as a leading team, hopefully we’ll have a good shot this weekend and I’ll do everything I can to bring at least a little bit of joy and add to the great success that some of the top athletes have.

    Q: (Abhishek Takle – Midday) Questions to Felipe. Firstly, congratulations on 200 races but, if you look back to around 2012, you had I suppose a lowest point of your career in terms of competitiveness. Looking back at that time, with all the pressure and some people saying you shouldn’t be in Formula One, did you at that time think you would make it to 200 races?

    FM: Well, for sure, yes. I was thinking that everything is possible. Things change very quick in Formula One. All of us, we have good times and difficult time. You always need to pass through a difficult moment. You always learn, and definitely I learned. And I still believe I have many races in front and I still believe I can be competitive and I think when you don’t believe anymore, it’s the time to stop. But you need to feel, not what other people say. I really feel competitive and there’s still a lot more that I can do.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Question for Jenson. Ron Dennis came out with some rather intriguing comments recently urging you to ‘try harder’. Just wonder what your thoughts are on that: whether you agree with him even, or whether you are in fact giving your all in what is a relatively uncompetitive car again this season.

    JB: I think Ron’s practicing to be a motivational speaker maybe. I think when we’re in the position that we have been in for 18 months, it’s not easy. For anyone within the team. It’s very, very difficult. So, no, I think we all need to work harder as a team. I don’t think we should be pointing a finger at any individual within the team. I think we’ve got ourselves into this situation and we’ve got to fight our way out. I don’t do things in half-measures. I have the experience in Formula One to know that you need to give 100 per cent and I always do every time I’m in the paddock, at the factory, on the phone to my engineers. Everything is 100 per cent.

    Q: (Luke Murphy – Formula Spy): Question for all drivers. There’s been some minor criticism of Pirelli lately that their tyre choices have been too conservative. I just wanted to know what your opinions were on that.

    VB: I think the compound choices for the last two or three races haven’t been too bad. Obviously the compounds are a bit harder than last year. Those are the compounds and they choose the tyres we need to use in the race weekend and it’s our job to make the most out of them. So, that’s it.

    Max, anything to add?

    MC: No, not really, I’ll just copy what Valtteri said. The tyres are pretty conservative, they haven’t been too bad.

    Felipe?

    FM: Yeah, sometimes a little bit conservative. So, I like… I think in the last two races it was fine. When it’s one stop it’s a little bit boring, I prefer maybe two or three. Two is fine. I think, y’know, using the very hard tyres is not really great, I prefer it to be a little bit better than how it is.

    Lewis, I guess in a tight battle like yours, the strategy is an important part of the game – you want more options rather than less?

    LH: erm… no, I was just thinking this isn’t a bad thing. Pirelli have done quite a good job this year. We haven’t had any tyre blow-outs, which is a real positive for us, it’s what we wanted. You can’t always get it perfect, so whether or not they’ve gone a little bit too far in that direction, we can decide perhaps at the end of the year. I’m sure they’ll alter it again for next year. Of course we always want more grip, so every time they get softer, that’s a good thing for us.

    Jenson, anything to add?

    JB: Yeah, I think the last three races it’s been the right choice to have the supersoft and the soft. Barcelona  felt a bit too hard but I mean it’s pretty difficult being limited to only four compounds throughout the season. Here it’s the hard and the medium but you need a bit of stability for the high-speed corners, so, if the temperature’s alright, it should be fine.

    Final thought Daniil?

    DK: I have no problem with Pirelli, it’s all good for me.

    Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN) Tomorrow we’re due to see the first female on track for 22 years when Susie Wolff takes part in first practice for Williams. That’s got to be a good thing for the sport, especially in terms of being an inspiration for future females who want to take part in motor racing. I wonder if Valtteri could comment first as Susie’s teammate, and also if we could hear from Lewis and Jenson as well?

    VB: I think it’s great from Williams that they give the opportunity and she’s already been with Williams quite a bit doing development work in the simulator and did a test after Barcelona. I think it’s really nice to see her getting the opportunity to drive in the race weekend in FP1.

    Q: Lewis, I guess you raced against quite a lot of girls lower down in karts but they’re no longer competing when you get to this level. Your thoughts on whether this will be inspirational?

    LH: I didn’t race against many girls. Susie was one of the very few if not the only one that I raced against. I saw her in karting but she was always in the class above me and then we raced Formula Renault together. She was great. We shared a podium together a couple of times. I think she’s done remarkably well in her career. She’s very very talented, so happy. It’s going to be really cool, I think, to see her in a Formula One car tomorrow.

    JB: Yeah. First of all it’s good that it’s Silverstone as well. From what I’ve heard, she knows this circuit as well which is a positive thing. Jumping into a Formula One car, I’m sure she’ll feel a little bit of the pressure in front of the home crowd, but she’s been working with Williams for quite a while so I’m guessing she knows the ins and outs of the car and the team. She’s also driven already – hasn’t she? – in a test and went very well. So it will be good to see her on track tomorrow.

    Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) This is for Max: I was very interested in you talking about visualisation. I think other drivers have done the same in the past. I wonder what is the procedure you take to sit down quietly and particularly have you ever timed your visualised lap and how close did it come to the real one?

    MC: Yeah, it’s something I’ve heard about a lot in the past. It’s all trial and error. You have to try things to work out if you like them or not. It’s just worked with me recently. I tend to start it the week before a Grand Prix and yeah, you just do it in some quiet space. As you know, it’s not deadly serious, you just kind of practise a lap and obviously the first few laps you’re miles out and then you just gradually get into it and you build from previous memories and you slowly get down to a time where everything is just there and ready to kind of be extracted into the car, so when you’re actually doing your first flying laps on a Friday, it’s kind of there ready to be used. It’s a simple technique which helps and – as I said earlier – our sport is very weird, we’re very rarely actually doing what we preach so the more practice we can get the better.

    Q: Is visualisation something you all do? Yes. No. No. No.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, how important is it for you to win here and turn the championship back to your momentum, because it seems – looking from the side – that until Monaco, your season was quite smooth and then it seems that you were a little bit surprised  about how hard is the fight. Is this the wrong impression?

    LH: I’m not surprised. I’ve known how close it’s been since the beginning of the year. Nico won the first race. As every race, it’s important to be out ahead. I had the advantage for a few races and Nico’s had that for at least the last couple. But now this is the British Grand Prix, I’m going to do everything that I can to be out in front and as I said, try and represent… when it’s your home Grand Prix, it’s one of the greatest experiences you can ever have as a sportsman and as a driver, so that’s what I’m working towards this weekend.

    Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Three guys in the front, there were some comments this week from Bernie about Monza, suggesting that it might not be on the calendar much longer. I wonder if you could just comment, as the guys who had been there the most of the six here, as to whether we should take that seriously and how much of a loss for Formula One if it were to go?

    FM: Yeah, I think we’re still carrying on racing in Monza. It’s a fantastic place, great fans, so for sure, if we are not racing in Monza any more it would not be good for Formula One. We need to go to places that people really love – Formula One racing, like Silverstone. If we lost Silverstone it would not be positive, it would be a negative for all of us so I hope we can keep going to Monza for many many years.

    JB: It’s an iconic racetrack, one of the old school tracks. There’s so much history. The fans absolutely love this sport, they will do anything for this sport and they’re not going to be there to support us, they’re there to support a certain team, but that’s great to see. It’s nice to see their passion, they’re very patriotic and the circuit’s fun to drive. It’s a very unique circuit, very different to any other circuit, very low downforce circuit, always throws up a good race so it would be a shame not to see it on the calendar.

    LH: Yeah, I agree with both what Felipe and Jenson said. I think it’s important not to forget that this sport would not exist if it wasn’t for the fans. Obviously there are certain business decisions people make but there’s tracks we’ve been to where there’s been no one in the grandstands and there’s a few, particularly, which are very very special like Monza where you have a full.. you know, the circuit’s just full of fans and it really does make the event. I think it’s important that we try and keep that in the sport.

    ends/FIA release of the transcript

  • Rosberg pips Hamilton to extend championship lead; Maiden podium for Bottas

    Spielberg, 22 June 2014: Mercedes AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg took his third win of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton despite a determind charge by the Briton to second from ninth on the grid.

    The German’s win extends his World Drivers’ Championship leade over Hamilton to 29 points. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas claimed his first podium finish with third place ahead of pole winner Felipe Massa. Sahara Force India was once again in double points as Sergio Perez, who disappointed with an controversial last-lap clash in the last race, did a wonderful job finishing 6th after starting 16th while Nico Hulkenberg, lost a place to Daniel Ricciardo during the fag end, but managed to finish ninth.

    Hamilton *lef) had to be content with a second place as Rosberg extended his championship lead. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image
    Hamilton *lef) had to be content with a second place as Rosberg extended his championship lead. A Mercedes AMG Petronas image

    At the start, pole position man Felipe Massa made a solid getaway to hold the lead. Behind him Bottas lost P2 to Rosberg into Turn One but managed to wrestle back the advantage at the following corner. Behind them Hamilton made a storming start, climbing to fifth from ninth on the grid. He went one better in the final turn of lap one to pass Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and he then settled in behind team-mate Rosberg as the field crossed the line to begin lap two.

    Sebastian Vettel though was in trouble. At the start of lap two he slowed dramatically and reported that he had lost power. He pulled over and seemed set to stop but then mysteriously his RB10 seemed to right itself. He was told to ‘go racing’ by race engineer. The champion though was a lap down on the field and a significant recovery looked impossible. The Red Bull driver soldiered on at the back of the field, surviving a collision with Esteban Gutierrez along the way, until he was eventually told to retire his car midway through the race.

    Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo also had a rocky start. Pushed wide in turn two on the first lap he dropped from fifth on the grid to eighth. He was soon after informed that he should not use his overtake button for the whole race and hampered by power problems he was soon down to tenth.

    With the opening supersoft tyres being used by the bulk of the field graining badly, the first round of pit stops wasn’t long in coming. The main body of stops was triggered by Jean-Eric Vergne on lap eight, the Toro Rosso swapping the option tyres for prime softs. He was followed a lap later by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and on the following lap by Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat and Ricciardo.

    Rosberg pitted from third place on lap 11, allowing Hamilton to fly past. Hamilton couldn’t find the pace necessaryon his own in-laps and stop, however, and when he emerged after his own stop on lap 13 he found himself just behind Rosberg.

    Leader Massa, meanwhile, was readying himself for his tyre change on lap 14. His stop was far from perfect however and when the Brazilian emerged he found himself behind Rosberg and was then quickly passed by Hamilton.

    Bottas’s stop on lap 15 was much quicker, however, and the Finn was able to split the leading Mercedes after taking on soft tyres. The order on lap 16, then, was Sergio Perez, who had started on softs and had yet to pit, followed by Rosberg, Bottas, Hamilton, Massa and McLaren’s Jenson Button, who had also started on the soft tyre from 11th on the grid.

    On lap 27 Rosberg passed Perez for the lead, the Mexican ceding the position without much of a fight having been told by his pit wall that the race would come back him as his strategy played out later on. Bottas too sneaked through but Hamilton had to wait until the next tour before he could pass the Force India. The delay allowed Rosberg to pop in a fastest lap. Hamilton responded with his own but the gap had by now drifted to 2.4 seconds.

    Perez eventually made his first stop on lap 29, tajking on a second set of softs before rejoining in seventh position.

    At the front the battle was hotting up again as Bottas and Hamilton closed in on Rosberg, who made a small mistake. The Williams driver got to within a second of the leading Mercedes, with Hamilton in close attendance, but Rosberg soon responded and the gap widened to 1.1s.

    Hamilton made his second stop in lap 39, taking on a final set of softs and rejoining in fifth. Rosberg though kept going for another lap and following a three-second stop he retained his advantage over Bottas and Hamilton. When Bottas pitted on lap 41 his relatively tardy 3.4s stop allowed Hamilton to move ahead and claim second.

    Massa made his final stop on lap 43, switching to soft tyres in 3.4s. The Brazilian then unfortunately found himself behind Sergio Perez, who was set for a longer stint on his second set of soft tyres.

    On the road the leader was Alonso and the Ferrari driver continued until lap 47 when he took on his final set of soft tyres. He emerged in sixth place behind Massa. At the front, Rosberg led by 1.6s from Hamilton, with Bottas a further 5.7s behind.

    The question now was whether Perez in P4 and Button in P7 behind Alonso could make any impact once they made their final stop for supersoft tyres?

    Unfortunately for Force India, the answer was not much. Perez took on the option tyre on lap 55 and rejoined in eighth position, five seconds behind McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen. The Mexican had enough pace in hand to pass Magnussen for sixth place on lap 66 but with a 13-second deficit to Alonso and just laps left sixth was the best Perez could do. Button, meanwhile made his stop on lap 58 but lodged behind tenth-placed Raikkonen in the closing stages the McLaren driver failed to make a significant move.

    At the front the battle for the lead finally flared in the final three laps, with Hamilton attempting to get inside DRS range of his team-mate. With a lap left and with Hamilton just 1.1s behind his team-mate both drivers were told they could use all the tools at their disposal. As the pair went through turn three Rosberg lit up his brakes. Hamilton saw an opportunity but he too erred in the corner and the chance was gone. Rosberg hung on to claim his third win of the season. The win means he stretches his championship lead over Hamilton to 29 points.

    With Hamilton second, Bottas took his first podium finish with third ahead of Massa and Alonso. Perez held onto sixth ahead of Magnussen but Ricciardo made and exdellent last-lap pass on Hulkenberg to steal eighth. The final points position went to Raikkonen who easily kept Button at bay.

    2014 Austrian Grand Prix – Race Result
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 71 1:27:54.976 3 25
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 71 +1.9 secs 9 18
    3 Valtteri Bottas Williams 71 +8.1 secs 2 15
    4 Felipe Massa Williams 71 +17.3 secs 1 12
    5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 71 +18.5 secs 4 10
    6 Sergio Perez Force India 71 +28.5 secs 15 8
    7 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 71 +32.0 secs 6 6
    8 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 71 +43.5 secs 5 4
    9 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 71 +44.1 secs 10 2
    10 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 71 +47.7 secs 8 1
    11 Jenson Button McLaren 71 +50.9 secs 11
    12 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 70 +1 Lap 13
    13 Adrian Sutil Sauber 70 +1 Lap 16
    14 Romain Grosjean Lotus 70 +1 Lap 22
    15 Jules Bianchi Marussia 69 +2 Laps 18
    16 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 69 +2 Laps 19
    17 Max Chilton Marussia 69 +2 Laps 21
    18 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 69 +2 Laps 20
    19 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 69 +2 Laps 17
    Ret Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 59 +12 Laps 14
    Ret 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 34 +37 Laps 12
    Ret 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 24 +47 Laps 7
    eom/FIA press release

  • Its great to get one more one-two result for Mercedes: Nico Rosberg

    Mercedes team members pat Nico rosber after he won the Austrian GP on Sunday. A Mercedes AMG Petronas team image
    Mercedes team members pat Nico rosber after he won the Austrian GP on Sunday. A Mercedes
    AMG Petronas team image

    DRIVERS

    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Williams)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Mark Webber)

    Another dominant one-two victory for Mercedes, so Nico what a very, very special for you again. Three now in the season. You capitalised on a very, very good qualifying and now another victory. Run us through it. Lot of control on the brakes by the sound of it, managing issues at the end there?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, it wasn’t the easiest of races – trying to manage certain things that were a bit on the limit on the car. But in the end I had a very, very fast car again, so it was fantastic to win today. It’s great also to get a one-two here in Austria and it’s great to come back here to Austria. I mean Austria for sure deserves a race. The fans have been amazing, the atmosphere has been spectacular this weekend, so thank you very much for that and yeah it’s been awesome.

    Lewis, over to you mate. Well done. A good recovery after a tough qualifying. In terms of… mega first lap, right on Nico at the start there after the first lap. In terms of pit stops, are you happy with your positioning because I’m a bit worried about how much time you’re losing in the pits. The guys… good stops for Nico but are you happy with the positioning on that? Also at the end of the race did you have to manage any issues and could you fight Nico?

    Lewis HAMILTON: I don’t know. I have to have a look at the feedback and just see what the team say about the stops. Maybe my positioning is not right, you know obviously in those situations you’re just pushing. But the guys have done a fantastic job. As Nico said, to get another one-two here is just incredible. This track has been fantastic and the fans have been insane this weekend, so thank you all for the support.

    Congratulations Valtteri – first podium. It’s an incredible feeling up here isn’t it? Run us through the race. Obviously starting on the front row. Obviously these guys have a lot of big experience on the big occasions to close a race out but you really drove a clean race. Run us through it, are you happy with it?

    Valtteri BOTTAS: Thanks Mark. Really, really happy. Difficult to put into words really. Just really thankful to the team for giving me this car. It’s been a long way for us since last year, I mean, and many, many years at Williams and now it’s so much better. The race was exactly what we needed at this point – clean, nice, everything went like planned really. The car was good for the podium this time and I’m just so happy.

    Well done, and big points for Williams, which is fantastic. Final one for you Nico. A 29-point lead, off to Silverstone, a track that you know well; a track that I tried to catch you on in the last few laps last year but you’ve had a couple of good wins there and you’re very strong at Silverstone, Lewis’ home track, so the battle continues. Looking forward to that race; home race obviously for Mercedes as well. So how’s the feeling for that one?

    NR: Yeah, for sure, looking forward to the next one; home race, so it would be awesome to do another one-two there, that would be great to give something back to all of our colleagues back in the factory. So I’m looking forward to that.

    Q: Nico, congratulations, Mercedes sixth one-two finish of this season, your third victory and you’ve now extended your championship lead, as we’ve heard, to 29 points. Clearly strategy was an important part of the story today – but did the race turn out as you had expected it to when you were sitting on the grid?

    NR: To be honest yes it did. Pretty much exactly like we were trying to make it work. OK, I thought I would get Valtteri at the start and I did – but then they’re quick on the straights and he just went flying straight by me again, which was not good. But I knew pre-race that even if I am third after the start, the chances are still very good to make it and win the race because we have just a little bit more pace and less tyre degradation than the Williams – we expected to have less at least – so we could go aggressive on the stops and that’s what we did and it really worked out well and so I’m, yeah, extremely happy with that result. Also, great to extend the championship lead, which was really my goal coming into Austria.

    Q: Lewis, obviously the platform for your result today was that stunning start, off the grid from ninth into fifth on that opening lap. Tell us about that and then also about how you made your way through the field. Clearly that second round of stops was important for getting in front of Valtteri.

    LH: Yep, it was a good start. We’ve been working very hard on our starts throughout the year and the team have done a great job to help out with that, and yeah, so I got one of the best starts I’ve ever had really and positioned the car in the correct places. It would have been great if I’d started where perhaps I should have started this weekend – but damage limitation. To get from ninth to second and be pressuring Nico at the end of the race really shows the pace that I had this weekend.

    Q: Valtteri, your best-ever grand prix finish to follow up your best-ever qualifying performance yesterday – you’re starting to really make your mark on the sport. I guess the decisive moment for you was the first round of stops with Felipe and getting ahead.

    VB: Yeah, I think overall the best-ever weekend. So, really happy. Really happy for us as a team. We were really strong the whole weekend and that’s down to all the hard work. Of course it was a good track for us. You never know what’s going to happen in the next race but overall we are making progress. Step-by-step we are getting there, getting closer to the positions where we belong. I’m really happy. The race today: it was really nice to have a really nice, clean race. Good points for the team. We’ve had some issues lately, been a lot of talk, not maximising car we had but I think today we showed what we can do.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Nico and Lewis: can you tell us more about the final five laps, about the chance to overtake Nico for Lewis and the chance to finish first for Nico?

    NR: Well, I generally felt comfortable in the last few laps. I thought that I could keep a nice gap and just on the last lap my tyres dropped away a little bit but as soon as they got past the first couple of hairpins, I knew that I was going to be fine so it wasn’t as close as maybe some other races have been recently.

    LH: There wasn’t an opportunity to overtake.

    Q: (Livio Oricchi – Universo On-line) For Nico and Lewis: 29 points difference between both of you. It means that in one race, it is not possible to change the lead. It means that Nico would be the leader of the championship. What’s your analysis of this Nico and you also Lewis?

    NR: Well 29 points, yeah, for sure it’s a nice gap but it’s still so early in the season. I really like to concentrate on each weekend and keep on trying to make the most of them and enjoying the moment, also with the car that we have. It’s so great to come to the next race at Silverstone, our home race, with the best, knowing that if I do a good job I can do pole and win the race. So I’m more taking it step-by-step and every weekend my aim is to extend the championship lead which I managed to do this weekend.

    LH: Well, Nico’s done a great job. He’s finished every race and fortunately hasn’t had any car problems so it’s inevitable.

    Q: (Kate Walker – crash.net) Lewis, after one your stops – and I can’t remember which one – we actually saw some flames coming out of your front right. To what extent was the braking problems that you suffered hampering your ability to really take the fight to Nico in the final laps? I know he had issues too.

    LH: Yeah, I think it was probably the same for both of us, maybe, I don’t know. I need to check later but it was constantly an issue during the race. Obviously I was following people all the time so that’s not always the best but I was being told to back off quite a lot, unfortunately. The last couple of laps I tried to eke it up a little bit more but still I had to be cautious, but I’m just grateful I finished. I didn’t finish the last race, that’s really got to be goal for the next few races, trying to actually finish.

    Q: (Chris Medland – crash.net) Question for you, too, Lewis, about the pit stops. You lost 1.9s across the two stops to Nico, very evenly split in each stop. Is that frustrating, because for a long time you were running about 1.9s behind Nico at the end and did the team tell you the reasons for it?

    LH: They haven’t yet. I didn’t even know I lost that much time, they didn’t feel that fast. Could be my positioning. I don’t know. I’ll obviously investigate… obviously it is frustrating when you lose time because you’re constantly doing everything you can to gain a tenth here, a tenth there, so when you lose quite a chunk… two seconds over two pit stops it’s tough but the guys… at least we haven’t really made any mistakes. If we step back a little bit and look, we’ve had so many one-twos this is just incredible this year so I’m hoping in the future we won’t have those problems.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Valtteri, do you think with a slightly different strategy the win could have been possible today because your pace was quite strong and you were simply undercut by first Nico and then Lewis at both pit stops?

    VB: Yeah, it’s a difficult one. We need to always – like we always do – we need to analyse if there’s anything we could have done better. It’s difficult to say. Today it was difficult to know the real difference between the option and prime because the prime tyre has been taking quite a long time to warm up so we really thought it would be really difficult to undercut because it takes many laps to warm up and get a good pace after the supersoft tyre. Yeah, we need to analyse, it’s difficult to say. Yeah, too early to say. For the moment, I’m really happy with what we’ve done as a team, third and fourth. Obviously we always aim for better.

    Q: (Peter Vamosi – Vas Nepe Kiadoi) Nico, if you will win the championship this year, will you let grow a moustache like your father?

    NR: Maybe. Yup.

    Q: (Istvan Janos Simon – Auto Magazine Hungary) Lewis, you seem to have a brake problem; this problem is coming back since Montreal or maybe even before. You’ve had this problem during this race. What can you do against these troubles, to get over it finally? What can you do together with the team?

    LH: I don’t know. Going into the race I wasn’t aware that we had a brake problem, so it was news to me when we started to… when they started to speak to me about it. We had the problem in the last race but the last race was the rears and in this race it was the fronts, a little bit different perhaps. I’ll be guessing what’s gone wrong but it didn’t look like it was the same as Nico; maybe it was, I don’t know. I think they said maybe it was. We just need to make improvements.

    Q: (Eli Shaouly – Automagazin Israel) Question to Valtteri and Nico: yesterday at Williams you looked in a way pretty sure you wouldn’t win the race and Nico, you were pretty sure that you would win the race in yesterday’s conference. What made you so confident in the result?

    NR: Because generally I still believe that we have the fastest car and we had very good long run pace on Friday, that’s the race practice. We were quick there and I didn’t get the best out of it in qualifying, so I was pretty confident that the chance would be very good. Of course, you never know how to overtake and things like that, but it all worked out well.

    VB: Yeah, I agree really. I think that from all the data that we had from practice we knew that in the race it’s going to be difficult and overall Mercedes have still got the quickest car but we really nailed it yesterday so we knew that maybe Sunday could be difficult but actually it was a bit better than I expected. We were really close to them on pace.

    Q: Was that because it was 14 degrees warmer today than it was on Friday, do you think?

    VB: Difficult to say that was the factor or not, I don’t know what Mercedes did just before qualifying with the car set-up. I don’t know. It’s difficult to say; we need to analyse.

    eom