INDIA in F1

Tag: Red Bull

  • Vettel, youngest triple champ; Alonso shattered

    Sao Paulo, 25 Nov 2012: Jenson Button stood between Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and the World Championship as Alonso lost the battle finishing second to watch Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull become the youngest triple world champions as he finished sixth at the Interlagos circuit here. Jenson Button emerged from the gloom to take a shining victory at Interlagos while behind him raged a battle royal for the F1 Drivers’ World Championship.

    In a dramatic race, the Red Bull driver went back of the grid and appeared to have lost the battle but he  emerged from calamity to win his third consecutive Formula One Drivers’ World Championship.

    In a dramatic, rain-affected Brazilian Grand Prix, Button took the lead from McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton on lap six after both made a clean start – but Button’s route to victory was far from straightforward, though the trial-by-water of the leaders was not the main attraction.

    Vettel finished sixth, more than sufficient to maintain his lead over Fernando Alonso in the title race. Alonso didn’t give up but in the end could only finish second to Button – with a little help from Felipe Massa, who took third in the other Ferrari. If he had managed to win the race here, he would have won the World championship provided Vettel is not in the first four.

    Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull (centre) with Adrain Newey (left) and Christian Horner after winning the third World Championship in Sao Paulo on Sunday 25 Nov 2012. A Red Bull Content pool photo.

    Going into the race, Vettel’s numerical advantage was 13 points. He also had a positional advantage, starting from fourth alongside team-mate Mark Webber, behind the front-row McLaren pair. Alonso, by contrast was starting from seventh. Those positions did not last as far as the first corner.

    The start took place in light drizzle: not enough to call for intermediate tyres but sufficient to make Interlagos incredibly difficult. It didn’t seem to hamper Alonso who surged forward at the start to challenge the McLarens. Vettel lost out initially and by Turn Four was back in the pack, where he was hit hard by Bruno Senna’s Williams. Vettel was pitched into a spin and ended up facing the wrong way as the field went around him. He spun back and resumed his race dead last and with heavy damage to his left-hand sidepod. The slippery conditions worked in his favour, however. With cars lapping around seven seconds slower than would be expected on a fully dry long stint, the championship leader cut through the field and was up to sixth by lap eight, back in touch with Alonso who was running fourth.

    To have any chance to taking his third title the Spaniard needed to finish on the podium. Having taken third at the start he was muscled out by Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg, who seemed to have the car and the talent for the tricky conditions. As the weather worsened and everyone else dived for the pits and intermediates, he and Button elected to press on with the dry tyres. As a dry line began to appear their advantage stretched to over 40 seconds as they had their own private race at the front. On lap 18 Hülkenberg pounced, taking the lead.

    Their advantage was to be cut dramatically, however. An accumulation of shattered carbon-fibre on the circuit saw the safety car deployed, though not before Nico Rosberg had picked up a puncture. The leaders took the opportunity to pit for fresh tyres but their advantage was gone. Once racing resumed on lap 30 the order was Hülkenberg, Button, Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Kobayashi, Vettel.

    Button lost second place to Hamilton, and Vettel was passed by Kobayashi for sixth. Hülkenberg was able to pull out a small gap but was then remorselessly hunted down by Hamilton. The departing McLaren driver took the lead on lap 48 when Hülkenberg slid wide in conditions that were becoming slippery again as more rain fell.

    The German did not lose touch and stayed on Hamilton’s tail. He attempted to take the position back at the start of lap 55, but in between backmarkers he ran out of space, braked too late and slammed into the side of Hamilton. The 2008 Champion’s final race for McLaren would end there. Hülkenberg was passed by Button but continued. He would, however, receive a drive-through penalty for causing the accident and emerged in fifth where he stayed until the end.

    The crash was concurrent with a slew of pitstops, with the field going back onto Inters for the final stint as the rain became heavier. Once the stops shook out, the impact of Hamilton’s exit and Hülkenberg’s demotion changed the complexion of both the title fight and the Brazilian Grand Prix.

    Button led but was now trailed by an early-stopping Felipe Massa. Alonso was third, followed by Webber, Hülkenberg, Michael Schumacher and Vettel. When Alonso was promoted to second through the acquiescence of Massa, Vettel’s position was precarious: on the road he was now leading the championship by a single point.

    That wasn’t enough of a cushion for the Red Bull driver and he pushed on to pass Schumacher and take a more comfortable margin. As the rain increased the positions were static but the tension was palpable. It was the unlikely figure of Paul di Resta who broke it. Running ninth with two laps remaining, the Scot slid wide while climbing the hill and came to rest on the track at Arquibancadas. The race finished under the safety car.

    Button was victorious with Alonso second and Massa third. Webber finished an eventful race in fourth, Hülkenberg was a disconsolate fifth, Vettel ecstatic in sixth. Schumacher finished his career with seventh, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Kobayashi. Kimi Räikkönen took the final point of 2012 – he is the only driver to finish every race this year, and finishes third in the Drivers’ Championship courtesy of scoring in every race but one.

    “It’s difficult to imagine what goes through my head now, I am so full of adrenalin,” said a drained Vettel, now a three times World Champion. “I was crying in the car but my radio wasn’t working, so I’m maybe happy for that! Tomorrow I can probably say more, but now I just don’t have the right words.”

    A philosophical Alonso meanwhile admitted his hunt for a third title had not been lost on a wet Interlagos afternoon but in other incidents. “I feel very proud of my team, very proud of the season we did,” he said on the podium. “Obviously we lost the championship now, but I don’t think that we lost here in Brazil: we lost in some races where we were a little bit unlucky. But this is a sport, but when you do something with your heart, when you do something with 100 per cent, you have to be proud of your team, happy for them, and we will try next year.”

    Button was fulsome in his praise to the title challengers and his team, both on the podium and in the subsequent press conference – but he’d said the most pertinent thing over the radio on his victory lap. ““It was a great way to finish the year.” He was speaking to his pitwall, but the sentiment was shared by most here at Interlagos.

    ends

  • Red Bull bags 3rd straight Constructors’ title

    Austin, 18 Nov 2012: Sebastian Vettel’s 18 points were more than sufficient to secure for Red Bull Racing the 2012 Formula One World Championship for Constructors.

    Red Bull went into the race needing a maximum of four points to secure their third Constructors’ Championship in three years. And while the result did not look entirely secure when Mark Webber retired and both Ferraris advanced to the front, at the end ultimate victory was comfortable for the team from Milton Keynes, said a release.

    “It’s incredible for the whole team to have won a third consecutive World Championship,” said team principal Christian Horner. “The Constructors’ is what we use to measure ourselves against our competitors and, for every member of the team, it’s how we gauge our performance. The Drivers’ obviously has the prestige and public following but within the team they carry equal importance. So, to have achieved a consecutive third World Championship, which only three other teams in the history of the sport have achieved, puts us into a very elite group and having done it in such a short space of time is testimony to all the members of the team. That’s all the hard work, the long hours and dedication from every department. It’s a very proud moment for every single member of the team and Red Bull.”

    The elite group to which Horner refers numbers Ferrari, who won the title 1975-77 and 2000-04, McLaren 1988-90 and Williams 1992-94, the latter including the design talents of Red Bull’s current chief technical officer Adrian Newey.

    “It’s been an amazing year,” said Newey. “To achieve the hat-trick is a tremendous tribute to the whole team. It shows we’ve managed to keep our standards up and keep consistency. The hard work, the dedication, the talent of the people back in Milton Keynes – that’s what this is all about. I hope they are celebrating and having a drink tonight. We are always thinking how we can improve the car and what we can do in the coming races.”

    Red Bull Racing won their first Championship at the penultimate race of 2010 but accelerated away from the competition in 2011, winning the title with three races to spare. Though they have again won the Constructors’ Championship with a comfortable margin, undoubtedly this season has been a sterner challenge.

    “It’s been a difficult year and unfortunately my pre-season concerns proved to be right,” adds Newey. “Having developed the car around side exhaust technology for the last two years, losing that was a bigger step back for us than our competitors and it’s been quite a difficult evolution to get the car back to where we wanted. Getting a third title shows we’re not a flash in the pan; we’ve managed to stay at the top, to understand the car and maintain consistency, which is not easy at all.

    “The first title was amazing because when I left McLaren for Red Bull, it was a bit of a career gamble, I was joining with a dream of perhaps trying to win races in the future with the team that I’d been involved with more or less from the start. To actually fulfil that dream and to achieve three titles has been amazing. We can all have dreams, but to do it is something special. It’s not just me personally but it’s the whole team and this is a tribute to everyone within it.”

    While Sebastian Vettel leads the Drivers’ Championship, Mark Webber outscored the German in the first half of the year and was ahead of his team-mate going into the summer break. “A third Constructors’ for the team is an incredible achievement,” said Webber, who retired from today’s US Grand Prix with an alternator failure. “Three years in a row is something that I think all of us would never have envisaged when we first started to be successful, so the results that we’ve had over the years is really astonishing. This Championship was probably the toughest one so far, for lots of different reasons and – it’s a cliché – but it’s been a real team effort.”

    ends

    Red Bull Racing team which won the Contrcutors' title at Austin on Sunday 18 Nov 2012. Red Bull photo

  • Vettel takes US GP pole

    Austin, 17 Nov 2012: Sebastian Vettel scored a comfortable pole position for the US GP in Austin ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber.

    Vettel’s sole remaining title rival F

    Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing waves to the crowd at Austin on Saturday (Sunday morn IST). A Red Bull Content pool photo.

    ernando Alonso could only manage ninth place in qualifying but the Ferrari driver will start at least one place further up the grid after fourth-placed qualifier Romain Grosjean was hit with a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change, according to an FIA press release.

    Vettel had dominated on Friday despite a water leak that sidelined him for much of the afternoon running and he continued to set the pace on Saturday with another potent display in the final practice hour, finishing three tenths clear of Hamilton.

    Hamilton edged closer in qualifying, narrowing the gap to a tenth, but it was still Vettel’s name at the top of the timesheet when the timer hit zero at the end of the hour-long session and so the German will line up at the front of a grand prix for the 36th time in his career.

    “I’m very pleased with the result obviously,” said the championship leader afterwards. “Through qualifying I think we were very happy. In the last section I would have loved to go a little bit quicker but I think I lost a little bit in the first and the last sector. It was a little bit closer than I wanted with Lewis, but overall, fantastic. Obviously, it’s very important here to start from the front. We start on the clean side, so it should be a good race tomorrow.”

    However, asked to comment on Alonso’s lowly grid slot, Vettel wouldn’t be drawn on what it meant for the Drivers’ title battle.

    “There’s not much to feel about it,” he said of the Spaniard’s starting position. “We have to look after ourselves. As I said, I’m very happy with the result, but so far nobody has scored any points.

    “I think we saw at the last race how quickly things can change and even starting at the back gives you opportunities, so we need to wait and see. For us, we focus on our race and tomorrow we have the chance to seal the Constructors’ Championship for the team so that’s what Mark and I will probably be looking out for.”

    Alonso, meanwhile, said that despite his poor showing in qualifying he has “a strange feeling” he will still be able to take the fight to Vettel in the race.

    “We expected that,” he said of his worst qualifying result since a rear anti-roll bar failure left him 10th on the grid in Italy in September. “We started seventh in Abu Dhabi and we knew it would still be complicated here but, as always, the race is tomorrow and I still think we’re going to reduce the gap to Sebastian. I just have a strange feeling.”

    The strange feeling was proved right when Grosjean was hit with a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. The penalty means Alonso will start eighth. There was a brief possibility that he would start even higher when Webber was summoned by the race stewards to answer for a missed call to the weigh bridge but the Australian emerged with just a reprimand.

    Hamilton, meanwhile, admitted that he is concerned about his chances at the start despite his position beside Vettel on the front-row.

    “I’m not really concerned about the first corner, I’m more concerned about the dirty side of the grid,” he said. “I did a launch from it earlier on in P3 and it was quite slippery. Hopefully tomorrow is just about getting a good start. It’s so wide in Turn One, I don’t think really much can go wrong there. Obviously I don’t want to get in the way of Sebastian’s race. However, I do want to win, so I’ll try my best to get through cleanly.”

    With Grosjean fourth in the session, fifth was left to team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Michael Schumacher finished in sixth position, while seventh was taken by Felipe Massa. Nico Hulkenberg ended the session in eighth place with Alonso ninth and Pastor Maldonado tenth.

    Further back, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne scored his best grid position since the Spanish Grand Prix, with 14th position. Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, however, failed to make it out Q1 for only the third time this season.

  • Vettel at FIA press meet after pole

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren)

    3 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Congratulations Sebastian, brand new circuit, you lost 55 minutes yesterday, and yet you absolutely nailed it today.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, I’m very, very pleased with the result obviously. We started off on the right foot I think yesterday. The first practice was very good for us. It was extremely slippery to be honest to start with. Obviously the circuit is brand new, the asphalt is brand new and it takes a while for the track to come in but it’s also quite a lot fun to slide around a couple of corners and it just got better throughout. I think you can see the lap times just got quicker. Through qualifying I think we were very happy. In the last section I would have loved to go a little bit quicker. I think I lost a little bit in the first and the last sector. It was a little bit closer than I wanted with Lewis. But overall, fantastic. Obviously, it’s very important here to start from the front. We start on the clean side, both of us, so yeah, should be a good race tomorrow.

    And your championship rival, down in the ninth place, will probably start eighth. What are your feelings about that?

    SV: Yeah, I mean, not much to feel. Obviously we have to look after ourselves and as I said I’m very happy. We had a smooth session, no issues. As you touched on, yesterday afternoon was not ideal, we lost a little bit of time. These things can happen and they might happen again. So you never know and therefore it’s the best strategy to keep your down and try to get the best, which I think was the target in qualifying. As I said I’m very happy with the result but so far nobody has scored any points. I think we have seen at the last race how quickly things can change and even starting at the back does give you opportunities, so we need to wait and see. But for us we focus on our race and tomorrow we have the chance to seal the Constructors’ Championship for the team so that’s what Mark and I will probably be looking out for.

    Lewis, a tremendous lap – so, so close. But what about this first corner tomorrow? You’re going to be starting alongside Sebastian, going up the hill into that first corner.

    Lewis HAMILTON: I’m not really concerned about the first corner, I’m more concerned about the dirty side of the grid. I did a launch from it earlier on in P3 and it was quite slippery. No, hopefully tomorrow is just about getting a good start. It’s so wide in Turn One, I don’t think really much can go wrong there generally… I might be wrong. But obviously I don’t want to get in the way of Sebastian’s race. However, I do want to win, so I’ll try my best to get through cleanly.

    Third on the grid for you Mark Webber. At least you’ll start on the clean side behind your team-mate. What are your hopes for tomorrow?

    Mark WEBBER: I’m pretty happy with qualifying actually. It’s a very tricky venue in terms of tyres, circuit conditions, all those type of things together Seb touched on. It’s easy to be out of the window here and not be super competitive if you don’t get everything together. I was pretty happy with the last part of Q3. We had to manage a little problem in the car, which in the end I don’t think would have costs us a position because the guys obviously were pretty quick and both did very strong lap times. But I’d have liked to have had a little bit more pace but overall I’m happy to the third on the grid. As you say it’s certainly up there towards the front and we can have a very, very strong grand prix from there. So, it’s a great job from the team. I think Constructors’-wise we’ve got our eye firmly on that tomorrow, to try and put that to bed and that’ll be a huge result for everyone at Milton Keynes and at Renault.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian, we haven’t really seen you going off at Turn 19. Have you been off there?

    SV: Yesterday!

    How have you been treating it? What is it about Turn 19 that’s so difficult and how have you been treating it?

    SV: Obviously I tried to stay on the track – it’s faster – but it’s extremely difficult because obviously you want to carry as much speed as possible into the corner and ideally be as early and aggressive on power as you can. The difficultly, first of all, is that the apex is quite difficult to see, so it’s rather easy to overshoot, and then if you are not on the perfect line, there’s less grip, you lose the car or if you’re a little bit too keen, a little bit too quick on the way in, you tend to lose the rear quite aggressively, and then you have to catch the car in order not to spin. But staying on the track then is quite difficult. I think there are a couple of corners like that on the track. Obviously I think for all of us it was quite a surprise yesterday to start on this track, and it was very, very slippery. It was like driving on ice – and I think the first run would have been quicker on Intermediate tyres, so obviously the asphalt was pretty fresh for all of us. It took a while to come in but I think you see the lap times now just getting quicker and quicker, so the circuit is ramping-up massively.

    You lost that 55 minutes yesterday, has that affected more your race preparations than your qualifying preparations?

    SV: No, not really, because we were still able to get a decent run on lower fuel and one on high fuelling yesterday afternoon. The boys did a good job to get the car ready in time, just to have enough for two runs, as I said, a short run and a long run, so that was very important, otherwise you are a little bit… not in the dark because Mark had a solid P2, free practice two, but obviously you don’t, you can’t tick all the boxes you would like for Sunday. But that wasn’t the case: if anything I think we missed a little bit out on the short runs where we would have loved to try a couple of things in order to make the car go quicker in qualifying – but I think we can say we were quite competitive and very happy with the result today.

    Lewis, tell us about the lap, because it was so close, it was getting very close to Sebastian’s.

    LH: It was. I was very, very happy with my lap. I saw in Q2 that they were obviously massively quick, I think it was a second or something like that, nine-tenths. I didn’t know where I was going to find that, so I thought that the Red Bulls would be in the lead – but I just went into Q3 and pushed as hard as I could, went in really hard and just gave absolutely everything. I seemed to find a little bit more time at the last sector, on the actual lap that I did, it was two laps consecutive. Surprisingly, the second lap was even quicker, even though I’d already just done a fast lap. And on that lap, just I think way on the limit everywhere. A couple of oversteer moments; I think I lost about a tenth at the last corner. The thing is I gained it on the way in and lost it on the exit. That’s how racing is – but still really happy to be where…

    What about the race tomorrow? You were very competitive obviously in qualifying but what about in the race itself?

    LH: That side I don’t really know. We did a couple of laps on the longer run. Looking after tyres is going to be quite difficult tomorrow. Obviously it’s quite a demanding circuit for tyres with the overheating of the surface of the tyres so I don’t know. I hope I can get away well. I hope… going to ask Charlie to clean that side of the grid so the people on that side get an equal start and hope that I can fight Sebastian down to Turn One. After that it’s a difficult circuit to follow, I think, because it’s so fast. Position will be everything.

    Mark, obviously, as you say, your thoughts are on Red Bull Racing’s Constructors’ Championship but would you be happy with third?

    MW: In the race tomorrow? No. I think we for sure want to move forward. You never know how tomorrow will unfold. Clearly we’ve put ourselves in a good position to capitalise on a very, strong clean grand prix from myself. If there’s any issues in front at any stage, you’re there to grab that. I had a pretty good feeling with the car on the long run on Friday actually, so that’s good for us. We’ll just have a good sleep tonight and have our head down for tomorrow.

    And is the strategy, the tyre strategy fairly straightforward?

    MW: Reasonably, yes, I would say. But there’s a few things that we need to understand during the race tomorrow to see if it is as straightforward as we think.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Thomas Richtr – Nova TV) One is the easiest for overtaking, ten is the most difficult: how do you rate your chances on this track for tomorrow?

    SV: I think we will find out tomorrow! It’s always difficult because we haven’t been here before. If you remember, we went to Abu Dhabi and we thought it was going to be quite easy the first time and it proved wrong. Obviously the last couple of years it has got more exciting, more overtaking. I think it’s possible here. Probably the best place is where the DRS zone is, down to turn 12 but there’s a couple of other places as well.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, the team of your main competitor started the whole qualifying on scrubbed tyres. Did you ever think about it? It seems to be a mistake if you look at the result.

    SV: I don’t know. I haven’t obviously seen… yeah I have seen the rough result. I know that we are here, so I know the top three but obviously I don’t know what was going on for the people behind and what they were doing in terms of tyre strategy. I think the fact that here warm-up is not as straightforward as it usually is made it a bit more difficult for us in terms of first of all getting the lap, finding the lap, the peak performance of the tyre and also it’s the same for everyone and then it’s usually a bit busy around the track, so I think in terms of traffic it was a bit worse in Q3 than it usually is but I think for us it was pretty straightforward what we wanted to do and what we did, I think you can see.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Question for Seb and Mark: I understand that this is the first weekend or the first race where you are using the new alternators in the race. Do either of you have any reliability concerns?

    MW: Good journalism. It’s good that you know more than me. I trust the guys, they do whatever they can to make sure that we have the best possibility to have the smoothest Sunday afternoon, irrespective of what parts are on the car, in what area of the car. So I have one hundred per cent trust in them that they’re going to do what they can to get us home and they’ve obviously selected those alternators for a reason and put their best foot forward.

    Ends

    Hamilton after taking P2 at the US GP on Saturday in Austin. McLaren photo

  • Vettel tops FP2 despite a water leak

    Austin, 16 Nov 2012: Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel finished another session on top, despite having his running restricted by car problems.

    The reigning World Champion spent the first hour of FP2 in the garage as Red Bull fixed a water leak that manifested when he left the garage at the start of his first run. He came out in the last half hour of the session and instantly showed his pace with a run that took him to the top of the timesheet, setting a fastest lap of 1:37.718. When the session finished he was eight-tenths up on team-mate Mark Webber, with championship rival Fernando Alonso third for Ferrari. Behind them came the McLaren pair of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. The second Ferrari of Felipe Massa was sixth, ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes, the Williams of Bruno Senna, Kamui Kobayashi for Sauber and the second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher.

    The session began without much preamble, drivers getting straight down to business. Rosberg set the standard with 1:39.842. Having spend the morning on general familiarisation and setup, session two saw longer runs. At the halfway point Massa lead with 1:39.061, though that was soon eclipsed by Webber who went sub-1m39s. Many of the messages from the drivers complained of absent grip, particularly at the rear.

    The combination of low grip, unfamiliarly and a configuration developed specifically to allow a multitude of lines into several corners, led to the rare sight of a practice collision. Shortly after Caterham’s Vitaly Petrov narrowly avoided colliding with Webber, his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen clashed with Jean-Eric Vergne. The Toro Rosso destroyed a front wing while Kovalainen limped back to the pits with a left-rear puncture.

    Meanwhile Vettel finally emerged from his garage, got into a rhythm on the Medium tyre and set a time of 1:37.718, eight-tenths faster than any of his rivals and four-tenths quicker than his best time of the morning. Nobody else looked like matching that.

    “We had a bit of a problem this afternoon and so couldn’t run as much as we wanted, but we got two good runs which is important for tomorrow and Sunday,” said Vettel. “I think there were a couple of surprises today in terms of pace, so we’ll see tomorrow. The track will constantly improve – it’s good that we are amongst the guys at the top, now we’ll try to improve the car to make sure we stay there.”

    Further back Kimi Räikkönen improved on his morning’s work with 11th quickest for Lotus, followed by Pastor Maldonado for Williams and Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean. Sergio Pérez was next for Sauber, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, again inseparable at Toro Rosso. Behind them Nico Hülkenberg was narrowly ahead of team-mate Paul di Resta as Force India didn’t enjoy a great session, finishing 17th and 18th. Kovalainen, despite his puncture was the fastest of the backmarkers in 19th, ahead of Timo Glock’s Marussia. Then came Petrov in 21st, ahead of Charles Pic in the second Marussia, with Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan 23rd and 24th respectively for HRT.

    end

    Vettel tops FP2 on Friday at Austin. Red Bull photo

  • Vettel tops Free Practice 1

    Austin, 16 Nov 2012: The inaugural United States Grand Prix kicked off  at the brand new Circuit of Americas with the first free practice sessions. On Friday morning, HRT’s test driver Ma Qing Hua stepped into the F112 once again and accompanied Pedro de la Rosa for the fourth time this season in FP1 and Narain Karthikeyan once again missed a chance to test the new circuit. Caution was advised, as conditions were quite tricky on the early stages due to a dusty and cold track, and both drivers conducted an impeccable session improving considerably throughout the session.
    However, Narain Karthikeyan returned for the afternoon session and had a hard task ahead to both learn the track and evaluate both tyres’ options over the 20 laps the Indian did around the 5.516 km circuit.
    Narain Karthikeyan: “The circuit is quite nice. It has a lot of fast corners, like the first S’s, and it is very technical and demanding. It is not easy to learn but I did my best with the limited number of laps we had. Grip level was quite low over the first laps and I couldn’t manage to keep the tyres’ temperature high enough, which made driving quite challenging. But, as laps went by, it got better and going out with options also helped. We still have a lot to improve but I’m confident for tomorrow”.
    Overall, after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton led for most of FP1, Sebastian Vettel arrived late with a time that blew everything else away.

    Hamilton held top spot until Vettel emerged for his final run of the session. The reigning World Champion was the first man under 1m39s and eventually set a time of 1:38.215 for Red Bull Racing, an enormous 1.4s ahead of the Englishman, crossing the line as the chequered flag flew. Behind them Fernando Alonso was third for Ferrari and Jenson Button fourth in the second McLaren. Mark Webber took fifth in the second Red Bull ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Nico Hülkenberg was seventh for Force India, Saubers Kamui Kobayashi was eighth, Nico Rosberg finished ninth for Mercedes and Sergio Pérez was tenth in the second Sauber.

    The first practice session began with cars sliding and slithering on their out-laps – it was a theme that would continue throughout the session, cold temperatures and a green track contributing to a number of spins and off-track excursions. The unknowns of the new circuit prompted most teams to put both race drivers into the car straight away, rather than running FP1 with a reserve. The exception was HRT, where Ma Qing Hua stood in for Narain Karthikeyan.

    Kobayashi and Williams’ Bruno Senna were the first men to venture out for proper running. They set cautious times while reconnoitring. Of the front-runners, Webber set the early benchmark with 1:45.918. From that chunks of time were hewn as drivers grew more confident. Alonso reset the standard at 1:42.538 and the Hamilton with 1:40.175.

    Into the final 15 minutes Hamilton was the first man under the 1m40s barrier with 1:39.687. He took another tenth off that and looked like holding P1 until Vettel swept around, first taking a full second off the McLaren man and then underlining his pace by finding another half-second on his final lap.

    Outside of the top ten, Paul di Resta’s Force India was 11th followed by the Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne. Abu Dhabi winner Kimi Räikkönen was 14th, ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean as Lotus struggled for grip. Pastor Maldonado was 16th for Williams, Michael Schumacher seventeenth for Mercedes and Charles Pic the best of the backmarkers in 18th for Marussia.

    Behind Pic came Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov, 19th and 20th respectively for Caterham. Timo Glock was 21st for Caterham. Bruno Senna could do no better than 22nd in the second Williams, and HRT brought up the rear with Pedro de la Rosa ahead of Ma.

    ends

    Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing in Free Practice 1 on Friday at Austin. Red Bull Racing photo

  • Ice man wins; Vettel stuns from pits to third

    Abu Dhabi, 4 Nov 2012: Kimi Räikkönen took his first Formula One victory of the season with a controlled drive for Lotus in a thrilling Abu Dhabi Grand Prix here on Sunday.

    Behind him Fernando Alonso pushed all the way in his Ferrari to finish second but perhaps the happier – or most relieved – driver on the podium was Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel who emerged from a torrid 24 hours with his title aspirations not seriously diminished.

    Vettel’s race had been badly compromised before it began: demoted to the rear of the grid on Saturday evening for a breach of the technical regulations during qualifying. The championship leader opted to start the race from pitlane, thus allowing Red Bull mechanics to set up his car specifically for a hard-charging attack from the rear of the field and start him on the medium compound tyre.

    He wasted no time: up to 18th by the end of lap two, and to 12th by the close of lap nine. His advancement did not come without a price: He clashed with Bruno Senna at the start, resulting in damage to his front wing. The damage would get worse when the safety car made it’s first appearance, following an incident involved Nico Rosberg and Narain Karthikeyan. Karthikeyan slowed dramatically after a mechanical failure and Rosberg ran into the back of him at high speed. Both drivers walked away unscathed from the crash.

    Following Daniel Ricciardo in the safety car train, Vettel had to swerve to the right to avoid the Toro Rosso as Ricciardo aggressively maintained the temperature in his brakes. Vettel collided with a polystyrene barrier, damaging his nose further. Red Bull opted to pit the German for a new nose and a set of soft Pirellis.

    Dropped down the field again, Vettel faced another battle through the order but by lap 38 he had risen to fourth, despite another stop for a second set of soft tyres. The gap to the top three of Jenson Button, Alonso and Räikkönen was great, however, and it looked as if Vettel would have to settle for fourth.

    Then came a second safety car period, which again closed up the field. Trying to take advantage of a tussle between Romain Grosjean and Paul Di Resta for fifth place, Sergio Pérez attempted to around both. He went off track but carried on a hyperbolic path, rejoining at racing speed, straight into the path of Grosjean. The Lotus driver had few options and strayed inadvertently into the path of Mark Webber’s Red Bull. The clash dumped out both Grosjean and Webber. Pérez received a stop-go penalty.

    When racing resumed, Vettel began to pressure Button for third. Initially, the tactic failed as Button defended stoutly, but on lap 52 Vettel shouldered his way past around the outside of Turn 11 and claimed the final podium spot.

    “Usually it’s hard enough to fight your way once through the field but we did it twice today,” said Vettel speaking later in the FIA post-race press conference. “I think it was a fantastic race. I had a great fight with Jenson at the end. It was very close with him but I enjoyed the fight a lot, tried a couple of times and finally made it. He was very fair. You can’t do that kind of move with all the drivers on the grid.

    “After that there were not enough laps left to catch up with Kimi and Fernando but it was still a great result in the end. It was a big chance to lose out a lot today, but we didn’t lose anything, so I’m very happy.”

    It was the last real action of the race. With only a few laps remaining, Vettel was unable to set about Alonso or Räikkönen who were having their own duel several seconds ahead. Alonso refused to concede defeat but the Finn had enough pace in his Lotus to maintain a gap of over a second, crucially keeping outside the DRS envelope.

    Räikkönen’s race had been made at the start, when a superb getaway saw him jump from fourth to second, passing Pastor Maldonado and Webber. He slotted in behind pole position man Lewis Hamilton, briefly challenged for the lead on lap two and then consolidated his position in second when Hamilton proved too strong.

    Hamilton was the fastest man on track throughout the first stint. He set his latest in a string of fastest laps on lap 20 – but then coasted to a halt on lap 21 as his McLaren lost all power. Räikkönen swept through to take the lead and thereafter began to forge his own gap to the chasing pack. His advantage was erased by the safety car period in the aftermath of the Pérez-Grosjean clash but Räikkönen held on for his 19th F1 victory and his first since the Belgian Grand Prix of 2009.

    “I’m very happy for the team,” said Räikkönen. “At least we’ve got one win now, so we’ll keep trying to push still and see what we can do in the next race.”

    Alonso was also a climber at the start, moving up from sixth to fifth off the line, passing Webber for fourth with straight line pace and then making a brave move on Maldonado to take third. He advanced into second following Hamilton’s retirement. “I’m very happy, I think we were not super competitive this weekend,” said the Ferrari driver. “We started seventh, sixth with Sebastian’s penalty, so we had to fight all the way through the race.

    “A very good strategy gave us the ability to fight at the end for the victory,” he added. “In the last couple of laps Kimi was a little bit slower, so we attacked. But second, I think, was the maximum today, so a perfect Sunday again for us and we kept fighting until the end.”

    The result means that Vettel keeps control in the championship battle but now with a slimmer advantage over Alonso. He leads 255-245 going to the penultimate round.

    Button finished fourth and fifth went to Maldonado. Kamui Kobayashi took sixth, ahead of Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna. The final points positions went to Paul Di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo. Massa’s six points were crucial to deny Red Bull the Constructors’ Championship: they now lead Ferrari 422-340, and need a maximum of four points in Austin to secure a third consecutive constructors’ title.

    ends

    Kimi Raikkonen on podium in Abu Dhabi on Sunday 4 Nov 2012. A Lotus F1 team photo.

  • Abu Dhabi GP: Final FIA Press Conference

    Abu Dhabi, 4 Nov 2012: The following top three drivers attended the final FIA press conference here on Sunday: 1. Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Lotus); 2. Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari) and 3. Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing).

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

    Kimi – your first victory since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. Tell us about your emotions at this time.

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: Not much really.

    People want to know how amazing it is to win a grand prix. Tell us.

    KR: Last time you guys was giving me shit because I didn’t really smile enough, so maybe this time again but I mean I’m very happy for the team – and myself – but mainly for the team. It’s really a hard season for the team and not an easy time. Hopefully this gives them more belief, not just for the guys making all the work but also for the guys who run the team. I hope this can turn around the tables and give us many more good races and wins. If not this year then next year.

    Fernando, you never gave up, you were chasing Kimi down in the closing stages of the Grand Prix. You must be surprised to see your world title… well all three of you were technically in the world championship battle until this moment. Tell us about your race and how you felt it was going.

    Fernando ALONSO: I’m very happy, I think we were not super competitive this weekend. We started seventh, sixth at the end with Sebastian’s penalty so we have to fight all through the race, the first laps to do some good overtakings and then a very good strategy that gave us the ability to fight at the end for the victory. In the last couple of laps Kimi was a little bit slower, so we attack. But second, I think, was the maximum today, starting sixth, so a perfect Sunday again for us and we kept fighting until the end.

    Sebastian, did you honestly believe you could be standing here today, starting from the end of the pitlane?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yes, I did, to be honest with you. After the first couple of laps obviously that target was drifting a little bit away. I had a messy start to the race, which is quite difficult at the back, to get through the cars as quickly as I could, damaged my front wing. And then to the safety car, yeah I had a little bit of a big mistake with Daniel [Ricciardo] I think, who was stopping his car on the straights and I was very surprised. Turned to the right and… if it would have been 50m earlier, 50m later I wouldn’t have done damage to my front wing further but after that, I said to myself ‘yeah, either we go full attack or nothing’. So that’s what we did and I had a fantastic race. I enjoyed it a lot. Obviously the safety cars here and there was helping, the second one, and after that, at the end it was a nice fight with Jenson. He was difficult to pass. I expected to have a little bit easier time because obviously I was passing the slower cars before and with him I was a bit struggling. Then I just squeezed my way past into Turn 11 which was nice, it was very fair but for sure, it was a thrilling grand prix, up and down all the time. Yeah. Obviously it’s very nice to stand here now, pick up a trophy and drink some champagne. It’s not actually champagne, I don’t know what it is but it tastes good.

    Your name is up there as a double world champion. Do you now feel that you’ve got your hands on one side of the cup for a third world title?

    SV: I think it’s still two races to go so obviously we see how quickly things can change. Yesterday was a surprise for us, I think would we have started from third it would have been a different race. But yeah, it was obviously a chance to fuck it up and we didn’t do that. So I think we can be very proud today: we got the maximum. We lost only a very little bit, I think we have the momentum still, the car is bloody quick, so looking forward to the next two races. We are definitely believing in it and that’s the target.

    Kimi, you’ve won before, you’ve won the title before and standing here you sent a message to the team about how you hope this will motivate future success, but when it is moment going to sink in? That you’ve won a grand prix in your comeback year.

    KR: I mean like I said, I’m happy, but there’s nothing to jump around about. Really we still have a few races to go, I’ll try to do the same again, and for sure we’re going to have a good party today and hopefully tomorrow, when we are feeling bad after a long night, we will remember how we feel so… I’m just happy for everybody in the team.

    PRESS CONFERENCE.

    Kimi, well done, congratulations. Fantastic win for you, you’ve really been waiting for this win, I think, all season and now it’s happened. What are your feelings?

    KR: Like I said before, I’m very happy for the team. We have had hard times lately and hopefully it gives some belief for the people, even more that… I mean they’ve been working very hard the whole year but with the hard times there’s a bit unknown in the whole situation and hopefully for the people who runs the team, who owns the team, the people who works for… for everybody, hopefully it gives a bit more support and hope that things will turn around and be even better than it’s been this year. So, great thing for the team itself, for the guys and, I mean of course I’m happy myself, but if I win it’s great, if I don’t I will try again and it’s not the end of the life. We’ve been close few times but now I said that even the last race I think we had the speed to even win the race but if you don’t start in the front we see what can happen. We knew the start would be a really big key and I got a really good start so I think with the McLaren we didn’t have the speed, at least in the beginning of the race – but then we have to finish the race to win so… I mean after that we were pretty good. Just the safety cars made us a little bit more tricky today.

    The start really was… gave you the second place straight away, it was a really excellent start.

    KR: Like I said yesterday, this going to be key, to get behind the faster car and not start behind the cars that cannot go as fast as us. And I mean we have a fast car for lap time in the race but if we stuck behind there’s no way we’re going to get past so, that’s what we could do this weekend: put yesterday in a good position and then made a good start and then just go from there.

    And how much is the development that has been taking place on the car with the exhaust etc, how much has that been bringing pace to the car?

    KR: It brings some pace, helps our straight line speed. So in average we gain some advantage but it’s exactly the same car we have in Korea. So we see how much even this year in all the races some circuits suits better for one team and the next one is not so good for you. We had good speed last race as I’ve already said. We made some mistakes in qualifying and paid the price in the race. So now we put all together like we should have done quite a few times this year but for one reason or another we haven’t. But at least we’ve got one win so we’ll keep try to push still and see what we can do in the next race.

    Fernando, tremendous pace at the end there, where did that come from and was it just a little bit too late?

    FA: Well, I think we just saw on the board eight laps to go, there was no more concerns about the tyres because obviously doing one stop you never know how the tyres will finish the race, and also after the last safety car we saw Sebastian with the soft and the first three of us, we were with the prime, so we didn’t know how much a threat was Sebastian for fight until the last lap. So after they lost a little bit of time, Jenson and Sebastian, and we didn’t care any more about the tyres, I push 150 per cent for eight laps and I tried to catch Kimi but it was never enough to be within one second for the DRS to be even closer. So at the end we didn’t have the pace to win but fantastic race anyway. We didn’t have the pace this weekend in any practice, in qualifying seventh and ninth and then today we were fighting for a victory – surprising again. This is thanks to a perfect car for the race, a perfect start, perfect strategy, perfect pitstops so everything perfect Sunday for us, maximising what we have in hands.

    Do you think the modifications brought to the Ferrari helped during the race today?

    FA: I think it helped for sure because when we tested it on Friday, they gave us some performance but we are talking very few hundredths of advantage that for sure when you have a gap to close that is a couple of tenths, when you bring hundredths and your opponents bring also some new parts, I think more or less you are in the same position. So, we need to keep working and in Maranello they work day and night very hard to bring new parts. Here in the track, mechanics work 24 hours and we are doing our maximum and we sure that hopefully it will be enough.

    Are you a bit disappointed that you didn’t have more of an advantage over Sebastian, you only pulled out three points?

    FA: To be honest we were concentrating on our race. Our simulations we had gave us the possibility to finish fifth or sixth, so we were not very optimistic with today’s race and despite what Sebastian was doing in the race we were taking eight, ten points maximum in our simulations. So we concentrated on our race. He did a very good race and he was able to use the performance in some of the parts of the race when he was in clean air plus the safety cars that I think put the group all together. So at the end I think this is nothing we can do, we just need to concentrate on our race and if we finish in front of Sebastian in the next two races then maybe we have a chance. So that’s our concentration now.

    Sebastian a pretty lively race for you one way or another. It’s quite lively back there isn’t it – there’s a lot going on?

    SV: Yeah, usually it’s hard enough to fight your way once through the field but we did it twice today so… Yeah, obviously not the first couple of laps we were hoping for. We damaged the front wing early, which didn’t seem to be a big problem but it was probably the worst possible time with the safety car. I think we were already quite high up, close to the top 10, around 13, 14, 15 or something like that. And then I had a moment with the Toro Rosso. I don’t know what he did. He was braking his car down and I was surprised, caught out. Maybe I should have paid more attention, but yeah, I went to the right and I wasn’t very lucky, there was the DRS board, which I took head on and then I thought ‘well, now the front is fucked at least, so we’ve got to change it,’… (sorry). We did it in the worst possible moment, during the safety car, when all the cars were already queued up and yeah we lost everything. We were dead last. At least we had a fresh wing and from then went through the field. It was a lot of fun. Quite difficult with some guys, a little bit easier with other guys, but the most important thing was that the pace was there and we were in a very strong position – already halfway through the race, 20 laps to the end and also on the soft tyres in the last stint. Obviously the safety car helped a little bit. Nevertheless, I think it was a fantastic race: a great fight with Jenson in the end, who was the most difficult to pass, obviously he was the quickest I passed in the whole race. We know that… I think it’s quite difficult for us to get past a Mercedes-engined car. It was very, very close with him. I enjoyed the fight a lot, tried a couple of times and finally made it. He was very, very fair. You can’t do that kind of move with all the drivers on the grid. And after that not enough laps left to catch up with Kimi and Fernando but the pace was there. Obviously we had an interesting race, up and down all the time and a great result in the end. It was a big chance to lose out a lot today, but we didn’t lose anything, so I’m very happy. The guys are pushing 100 per cent. I feel very happy they’re all behind me and I try to do my best for them. I think we have two more races ahead of us, we’re in the best possible position so I think we’re looking forward to the next race – a new grand prix, a new challenge. It’s difficult to know who is going to be quick but I think it was another race today where we see that it’s over as soon as we see the chequered flag and not before.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, was that your best start in a Lotus and after that, which one was the hardest competitor, the second safety car or Fernando?

    KR: I think we’ve had some very good starts before, but compared to the others, today was a pretty normal start on our scale. I managed to pass Mark and Maldonado before I changed into second gear. I’d had a very good start on the warm-up lap so I knew this was going to be good. That was our aim, to try to make a good start and we managed to do it, so it was key for our win today.

    For sure, the safety car hurt us much more than the others. We had a good lead and then nothing, and then twice. The first time was when Hamilton was in front of us but it definitely didn’t help us today.

    Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Live) Kimi Raikkonen, how and with whom and how many days will you celebrate this win?

    KR: I have almost two weeks. As long as I manage to get myself to the next race I think the team is happy. I try to get home at some point.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Kimi, one of the highlights of the race was your radio messages, the ones that you were giving to the team. How distracting is it when you’re fighting behind the safety car or whatever, to have them reminding you to warm-up your wheels?

    KR: It’s a normal thing. It’s the same with all the teams. For sure, they are just trying to help but if you keep saying the same things two times a minute, I’m not so stupid that I cannot remember what I’m doing. It’s a normal thing, they are just trying to help. I know what I’m doing. I will ask for help if I need it. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time. It’s been many times with other teams also but they are all there to help you and try to put you in the best position. Different people like different things.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, was it a bit of racing into the unknown at the beginning; you changed the gearbox, the ratios? Were you pretty sure you could do this kind of race or were there some obscure points that you had to sort out during the first laps, to find out what you could do?

    SV: No, I don’t think it was racing into the unknown. Obviously what we didn’t know was how quickly we would get through the field. We knew that we were quite a lot quicker than the first couple of cars that we were approaching; obviously we have a different pace to Marussia, HRT, Caterham, so it was important to get through those. We took the chance to take ratios which helped down the straights, made life a little bit easier but obviously when you’re not in the pack, you pay the price as well, so I think it did help us for overtaking but when we were in clean air, it was surely not optimum but it’s always a trade. I think from Friday to Saturday we changed the car, not necessarily made a step forwards. We were changing quite a few things and getting closer to what we had on Friday which I think was a faster car so it was as simple as that.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Fernando and Sebastian, Michael has had 56 races without a win after his comeback; are you surprised that Kimi won his 18th after his comeback?

    SV: No, I think it doesn’t matter how many races it takes you. The most important thing is that you get the results you can achieve. I think Kimi drove a fantastic race today. For the first time the car was probably able to win and he did it. I don’t know how their race was at the front, I was busy myself but I think we’ve seen this year that generally if you compare this year, the Mercedes was not as competitive as the Lotus, so it’s as simple as that, not in every race but in the majority of races. I think Michael showed his talent more than once in the last three years, even though he probably wasn’t as successful as he was before, I don’t think it makes him any worse.

    FA: I agree.

    Q: (Khodr Rawi – F1 Arab) Kimi, how special is it to be the first driver to win for Lotus since Ayrton Senna in 1987

    KR: It’s a long time for them, I guess. I don’t think there are any (of the same) people in the team any more. It’s a name. It’s the same team and it has been since Fernando was there, just a different name. It’s a great name for us, good past but you know I race for the team whatever the name is, I don’t really care so it’s just for the guys who do all the work. Maybe it looks good in somebody’s eyes but for me it really makes no difference.

    Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) To each of you: who is going to win the World Championship?

    KR: I wouldn’t put money on me! They are quite close; I don’t know what the points difference is. Ten? One bad race could decide the championship if they keep doing what they’ve been doing. It’s hard for Fernando but we saw yesterday and in races before that anything can happen. If it’s a normal situation I don’t think much can happen but one small mistake can decide everything.

    FA: Yes, I’m confident. We will fight until the end. We are not fast enough, this is true and we are honest with ourselves, we know this. We need to accept this. It’s a weak point, the performance that we have at the moment in our package, and we have some strong points which we will try to use.

    SV: I think we were not always fast enough this year but for the last couple of races we were, so looking forward to the next two races.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, this has been a pretty troubled weekend for the team. On Friday Mark had the issue with the KERS, you yesterday in the morning, then the problem with the fuel. How much of a relief is it for you to come out of such a weekend and be on the podium losing only three points to Fernando?

    SV: Honestly, I would have loved to have got past Jenson quicker and past Fernando as well. I think the speed was there but it turned out to be quite tricky to pass Jenson, and took a lot of time. But yeah, I think we can be very happy with today. I think it’s one of those races where it’s difficult to predict the outcome. We have simulation tools etc telling you one thing but I was convinced that you have plenty of chances and I said yesterday, obviously it was a big hit for us because if you can chose between starting third and last you don’t need to be a genius to make that one out. It was a big hit but I said yesterday that every chance is an opportunity and there were lots of chances today for us. I think we had a very good race, I enjoyed it a lot and I’m very happy with today’s result.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, you said before that yesterday was a mistake. How angry are you that this mistake happened? You don’t have to be Einstein to calculate how much fuel has to go in for three laps, especially after it had already happened to Hamilton in Barcelona. Do you think the team should have been more careful?

    SV: There are so many things that could have worked differently. I made a mistake on the last run, I aborted the lap, nobody ever finds out, nobody realises there was a problem. As I said earlier, it was a mistake, there was no intention to go stupidly close to the limit for a gain of nearly nothing. I think it’s different to what happened to Lewis in Barcelona at the beginning of the season, obviously they deliberately put less fuel in the car and stopped on the in lap, but for us, we had enough fuel but somehow we had enough fuel on paper but not in the car. Obviously we stopped the car for emergency reasons, not to damage anything and then obviously it was quite a long procedure yesterday and unfortunately we couldn’t drain the fuel that we wanted and it was not enough to provide the sample so it was as simple as that. Rules are clear. I think the penalty was very harsh but we had to take it. Rules are clear. If it happens to you in race three and you are in a similar position at the end of the year, nobody is asking and it’s not a big fuss but if it happens to you three races from the end, obviously there’s more attention etc. We had to live with that.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, your last win was at Hockenheim in July, more than three months ago. Do you think you absolutely need to win one or both of the last two races to gain the title and do you think it’s possible to do it?

    FA: That will help, for sure, but I don’t think so.

    Q: (Vanessa Ruiz – ESPN Radio) Sebastian, so in the end, after all the difficulties, do you guys consider your result a surprise or not?

    SV: I don’t think you can talk of a surprise. I think we knew we were quick. I think if you look at the race, there were a lot of things that happened that you couldn’t foresee. I don’t know what happened to the HRT which caused the first safety car and I don’t know what happened to Romain who caused the second safety car, but obviously these things are difficult to predict. I think we knew that we had a chance to get into the top five, even with a normal race. Given the pace was there, as I said earlier, what we did from Friday to Saturday, obviously we tried to improve the car, not necessarily achieved that but we are hungry, we want to try things to make the car faster. I don’t blame anyone for that. I was one of the biggest drivers to make the changes, behind that on Friday, and they didn’t work, but yeah, obviously we’re not talking seconds per lap but small things and today we lost a position on the grid but we got the chance to change the car which we did and we knew that it will be a very competitive car. The speed was there, as I said, and obviously here and there we were a little bit lucky, but I think we created our own luck in that regard.

    Q: (Shubha Chandran – Chequered Flag, India) Sebastian, what kind of focus, commitment and mental strength does it really take to start from where you did, and eventually end up where you have, from a purely individual perspective?

    SV: The race is long. I said to the guys before the race that I trust them 100 percent and they can trust me. I will try everything. There’s no reason to give up. Of course, if you look where we started, it was the worst possible spot but we gave everything we had and I think when you do that, you cannot fail so it was a perfect example of that today. Everyone was focused on the moment and enjoying it as well. Don’t forget that, I think we are here, obviously, to fight for wins and stuff like that but we are also here to have a good time, enjoy and have fun and I think all the guys in the team at the moment, they don’t want to be anywhere else. Obviously it’s tough on Sundays. The tension is there, obviously you’re nervous, excited, any race such as this one, especially with the difficulty of starting last but it’s also the challenge that you like, to race every single lap. Obviously it’s nice to sit here and look back. Some days it will be difficult again, when we sit – not here – and look back and look at the mistakes that we’ve made, but hopefully we will learn from those as we did in the past to maximise the times that we sit here.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta -Turun Sanomat) Kimi, does it take anything from your joy that when you win you kill your last hope of the championship?

    KR: No, I think we knew already, a few races ago, that we didn’t have the speed to challenge at the front. We always said that we would keep fighting and trying to do the best that we can. We got the win, we might have lost the championship on the same day but I don’t really care. We didn’t really expect to be fighting with them anyhow. We’ve always been a bit behind and not really had the speed to challenge them in normal races and now in the last few races we’ve had very good speed and finally we put all the things together and won. We will try again next year.

    Q: (Anne Giuntini – L’Equipe) Sebastian, sorry to come back to yesterday’s incident but we didn’t really understand why you stopped the car, because a loss of fuel doesn’t really damage the engine, normally?

    SV: Obviously it was a precaution. We saw some numbers going down and in order to save the engine at last, save the pumps in between etc, we decided to stop the car, convinced that we had enough fuel in the car to provide a sample but, as I said, for some reason we didn’t have enough fuel so I don’t know what happened. There must have been a mistake somewhere which was a big hit, like I said, but I’m sure we will learn from that and it won’t happen again. I think we have done the exercise a lot of times, we know the rules. As I said, we are talking two hundred millilitres that were missing. If you go to the loo before qualifying or something like that it can make the same kind of difference. I think it’s very difficult to measure. It was a mistake for which we had to pay a very hard price but c’est la vie.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, in two weeks we’re going to Austin, you have the first chance to win the third title and it’s going to be your 100th Grand Prix.

    SV: Yeah, it sounds a lot. Obviously time goes by quickly. I’m sure when you ask Fernando and Kimi they remember their first couple of races and probably don’t feel that it’s so long ago. I think that more than anything, if you do something that you love, that you enjoy the time goes by quickly. Now, when I’m talking about 2006, 2007, when I started to drive a Formula One car for the first time, I still know most of the guys and can recall the places I’ve been. If you then tell me it’s six years ago, it sounds like a big number. I’m sure, when someone tells you the first time that you came into a Formula One paddock, it’s however many years ago, it might be shocking as well. Time goes by and obviously with age, you get a little bit smarter – hopefully. You learn certain things and you get a little more relaxed probably but also it’s important to stay childish, stay hungry and do mistakes, otherwise how can you go forward. All in all, looking forward to going home, get some rest, charge some energy to be full charged in America to attack and obviously try to win.

    Abu Dhabi podium on Sunday 4 Nov 2012. Lotus F1 team Photo

    Ends

  • Stewards force Vettel to start at the back of the grid

    Abu Dhabi, 3 Nov 2012: Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing who is cruising towards his probable third World title with four straight wins till India, suffered a severe blow here after qualifying in P2 as he was sent back to the grid with a Stewards’ penalty.

    Sebastian Vettel has been sent to the back of the grid after stewards excluded him from the results of qualifying. Vettel had stopped on track at the end of the session, having qualified in a provisional third place. However, the Red Bull team has confirmed that Vettel would start from the pit lane which gives the team a chance to work on the car set-up.

    The stewards agreed that his actions were acceptable under the rules of force majeure, however the post-session scrutineering report stated that an insufficient amount of fuel remained in the car for sampling.

    After an afternoon practice session disrupted by brake problems, Vettel had rallied strongly during qualifying and was consistently near the top of the order during the session. However, as the chequered flag came out, under instruction from his team the World Champion pulled over to the side of the track and got out of his Red Bull RB8.

    After several hours of deliberation during which telemetry was studied and Red Bull Racing stated their case, the official decision was handed down. Vettel was deemed to have infringed article 6.6.2 of the 2012 technical regulations which states: Competitors must ensure that a one litre sample of fuel may be taken from the car at any time during the event. Except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the stewards of the meeting), if a sample of fuel is required after a practice session the car concerned must have first been driven back to the pits under its own power.

    Vettel will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from 24th and last on the grid.

    The decision echoes the punishment handed to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona. Hamilton had taken provisional pole, though a fuelling mistake saw the Briton not complete his in-lap, instead pulling to the side of the Circuit de Catalunya. Starting last, Hamilton battled back to finish the race in eighth position.

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    Vettel at Abu Dhabi on Saturday. A Red Bull Racing photo

  • Abu Dhabi GP: FIA Saturday Press Meet

    DRIVERS

    1 – Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren)

    2 – Mark WEBBER (Red Bull Racing)

    3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    TV UNILATERAL

    What are your feelings for tomorrow?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Very excited, very excited. It’s the first time for a long time to be ahead of the Red Bulls, and not to be seeing the tail of them at the start of the race but I know it’s going to be, as always, very, very tough in the race because they’ve got great race pace. But we are strong enough to fight them, the team’s done a fantastic job all weekend. The car’s felt beautiful all weekend. I don’t know why the car works so well here. We’ve not really made any improvements to the car since the last race, so I guess it just suits. The guys are still massively focused so I hope that tomorrow’s a good day for us.

    How have the long runs been looking?

    LH: We did a couple of long runs and they seemed to be OK. On one of my long runs I had a lot of traffic, but Jenson had a fairly decent long run, which shows… a bit like last race, we should be quite competitive. But for me it’s trying to improve the start of the race because these guys are so quick over the first couple of laps.

    Mark, well done, second fastest in qualifying. You’ve out-qualified your team-mate as well. But there have been some worrying moments, for example last week you had the loss of KERS and you had the problem yesterday. Are you slightly on the back foot?

    Mark WEBBER: Well, first of all credit to Lewis, he’s obviously got a quick car this weekend and he bumped us off the front row, that’s the first time in a while, maybe since six or eight weeks ago when we had a good run, so now they’ve done a good job today. Credit where it’s due and we did the best we could. I think it was a pretty smooth qualifying session for both Seb and I and we did what we could. I think it went well but as you say we’ve got a little bit of a fire going which we need to tidy up and the quality of the team is exceptional, we know what we need to improve on, to help our championships along. Obviously Seb’s still involved in the Drivers’ [title] and the Constructors’ is still important to us, so we’ll focus on tomorrow’s race. The car generally works pretty well on Sundays but Lewis and JB did some pretty strong long runs as well, so yeah, a little trouble this weekend but overall we’re positive and looking for a good strong run.

    Sebastian, obviously you had a problem with the brakes this morning and we’ve just seen you stop on circuit this afternoon, but you’re third on the grid, at least you salvaged that. What are your feelings about that?

    Sebastian VETTEL: I don’t why I was asked to stop. I think probably some problem. It shouldn’t be something major. Obviously this morning wasn’t ideal, not being able to run. So we didn’t get probably the answers that we were hoping for. Nevertheless, this afternoon we were settling in quite well and the pace was there, but I think as Mark touched on, McLaren, in particular Lewis, are pretty quick. So they were out of reach today. I’m not entirely happy with my qualifying, the last part of qualifying was quite tricky for me. I think I should have been a little bit quicker, whether it would have been enough to beat Mark… obviously he’s on a different sheet of paper, but all in all I think we can be quite happy. Race pace should be good tomorrow. As we know it’s a long race here and there’s a lot of things that can happen, so looking forward to tomorrow.

    But there must be a certain relief in being three places ahead of your main championship rival?

    SV: Is he sixth or…?

    Seventh.

    SV: Ah, so… yeah, I think we’ve seen so many races this year that have been up and down, so from where we start it’s obviously quite good, close to the front, so we go from there. As I said, it’s going to be a long race; a lot of things to look out for. I think strategy-wise it’s probably not 100 per cent clear yet, a similar position to last race in India, so yea, I think we have to look after ourselves, try to race this guy and then we should be in quite a good place tomorrow.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    So Lewis, you can’t really explain why you’re so quick here this weekend?

    LH: No, I don’t know. The car’s been feeling fantastic all weekend, like I said we haven’t come with upgrade packages, we haven’t got any… y’know we’re always modifying small, little wings but it does very, very little – but the car’s felt great from the get-go this weekend and done some fine tuning and every now and then you’re fortunate enough to make the right change and it feels even better, which it did. So, I didn’t really have to change too much going into qualifying. Actually I didn’t change anything going into qualifying from P3. That lap felt fantastic. The next lap I was up a little bit, I think I was up a tenth or so, and then I lost it. I had no idea I’d done a good lap, so it was just about going completely over the line and seeing if you can get something – but it didn’t work.

    We have seen a lot of drivers doing that this weekend and I guess it’s just exploring the limit.

    LH: Yeah. Well, I know what the limit is because I was on it when I did my first lap but I was trying to go way past the limit and see if it was possible. It worked for half the lap but then it didn’t work the rest of it.

    Mark, the reliability thing, has that set you back a little bit in terms of race preparation, yesterday for example.

    MW: Yeah, you would like to do that work for sure but obviously we have a huge amount of historical data, this year and also at this venue and Seb did some work. I did one lap, so I’ve got a little bit to look at. But it should be OK, the Friday’s running is never a bible anyway, it’s just a good reference. So we’re in pretty good shape in terms of data going into the race. So obviously we’ll have a bit of a look through in the morning to see how we’re going to prepare. But yeah, we realised we’ve got to work on our reliability. We’ve had a few issues of late and that’s something the group is on. There’s nothing Sebastian and I can do about it. It’s not our job, it’s their job and they know they’ve got to improve.

    And you’ll be starting ahead of Sebastian, so what chances in the first corner?

    MW: Well, good. You never know. Lewis’ starts lately haven’t been phenomenal so let’s see if he has a good one tomorrow. Generally it’s down to how the clutch is and things like that – it’s not really down to Lewis. We’ll see how they go off the line but I’m looking to go forward, for sure. Then we’ll get settled into the race and see where everyone is after that.

    Sebastian, the brake problem today, is that something that has been cured and you’re confident you won’t see again?

    SV: Yes, I think so. Obviously it wasn’t expected, it wasn’t the plan because the plan is to run in free practice – but I think we fixed the problem, I had a fantastic brake in qualifying, so I think we got on top of the problem at the end. I had a little bit of a run, two laps in the practice this afternoon, so should be fine.

    Overtaking has been difficult here in the past. Admittedly you haven’t had to do very much but it’s been difficult, there’s a double DRS, how vital is pole position and a good qualifying position?

    SV: Well, I think Lewis is pretty happy where he’s going to start tomorrow. Obviously we are not on pole but yeah, I think, y’know, third is not far off and it should be a good race. Obviously, as you touched on, it’s difficult to pass here, even though you’ve got long straights, we’ve got the double DRS so we’ll see if that helps. I’m sure it’s not impossible. It’s definitely possible to pass people, even though it’s not easy but, y’know, race pace should be good. Should be in a good position.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, yesterday you said after second practice that you didn’t believe you could get pole, it would be extremely hard. What changed? Was it you and your car that did more or was it perhaps Red Bull which haven’t performed as you expected?

    LH: They were slower than I expected but we were faster than I expected as well. Mark did a great lap as well – what’s the margin, it is three tenths? I knew that they were very very quick but I would never have imagined being this far ahead of them. But I did do a really really good lap, very happy with the lap. I thought that we would be a match or slightly slower than them this weekend and it’s a blessing in disguise to be ahead of them.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Sebastian, on a different subject, Michael Schumacher has just three races left in his F1 career. How do you view his last three years in Formula One?

    SV: We have commented on this a couple of times. I think Mark summed it up pretty well a couple of races ago, that obviously those three years are very different to the years he had before that, but it doesn’t make him a worse driver. I think the last three years he was hoping to have a better car than he probably had. When the car was there, I think he was able to use the potential so I think we’ve seen that he’s still very quick, for example in Monaco, when the car was there. Obviously very different to the years with Ferrari when they were dominating a lot, but it also shows that you need to have the right car beneath you, and the right team in order to fight for wins and championships.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, in Q1 you touched the wall a little bit, did that have any effect on your mind during the rest of qualifying?

    SV: It was the first lap, I was a little bit greedy on the exit of turn 19 and I just brushed the wall a little bit so not really hard contact. There was no problem for the car.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Sebastian, you were hardly able to run in the morning; had you been able to do that, would you have found out something which would have helped you in qualifying?

    SV: I think so. Obviously Saturday morning – or Saturday afternoon in this case – is the last chance before qualifying and also the first chance after practice on Friday to have a read on the car and I think we tried a couple of things. Obviously I would have loved to get a proper answer so I think that what we had in qualifying was still pretty good and very competitive but obviously some boxes will never be ticked so we won’t get an answer on the things that we wanted to but I’m quite confident we found a good compromise, nevertheless.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, is it a kind of relief having Fernando seventh, given that it’s not so easy to overtake here. Will that change something in your strategy going into the race, or are you going to race, attack and try to win?

    SV: I think we have to try to race. I don’t think you can go round looking at one guy in particular, so, as I said, you don’t have to be Einstein to make out that it’s good if you’re ahead and bad if you’re behind but today there’s no points, it’s a long race tomorrow. I think some of the guys were very quick in qualifying, arguably they are slower in the race so we are going to find out tomorrow. I think if you are quicker, then it’s also possible to overtake. Obviously it might be tricky, we’ve seen that in previous years but as I touched on earlier, it’s not impossible and for us, also in terms of strategy, we go for the fastest race, that’s what we have to focus on and at the moment, Lewis is ahead of us so we are trying to hunt him down.

    Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Live) Lewis Hamilton, do you give a chance to the Red Bull drivers at the start tomorrow?

    LH: Do I give them a chance? Definitely not, de-finitely not. As Mark was saying, I’ve had some very very bad starts but that’s down to clutch performance but I will be onto my guys tonight to make sure that that doesn’t happen tomorrow.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Mark, when we talked to Christian Horner on Thursday, he never used the word team orders. He did say you’re a strong team player, an important part of the team, and you would know what to do. Are you comfortable with that for tomorrow?

    MW:  Drive flat out.

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, yesterday you were struggling more with the option tyres and this is why you were also explaining your difficult session. Do you think you have solved the problem?

    LH: Yeah, I just changed my technique a bit, in terms of warming them up and then from the previous race when we struggled in Q3 on the option tyres particularly in P3 in India, I think it was, we used the method that we improved there, which seemed to have helped this weekend, which I am sure other people are doing. It’s nothing special, it’s just with tyre temperatures and pressures and other things, but it worked, they worked really well.

    Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) You have pretty broad sporting interests, Mark. the Melbourne Cup is coming up on Tuesday, the (horse) race that stops the nation (Australia), they say. Are you interested? Will you watch it, do you have a tip?

    MW: I love sport but horse racing is not far off the bottom of my list. Gambling, in my house, my father didn’t tolerate it. Actually, I’m not a big fan of how much it’s rammed down your throat in Australia, in terms of how you can bet on who farts at what stage in a football match. It’s incredible how obsessed we’ve become with gambling and betting but each to their own. If you love gambling it’s a good buzz but it does nothing for me. I would rather ride my mountain bike.

    Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) That’ll be No then.

    MW: That’s a No. I got busted once. I was in the principal’s office at school for playing up and the race was on, so she couldn’t see me so she had to wait until the race was over. I did, when I was very very very young, my grandparents let us put a little sneaky fiver on sometimes, which wasn’t always allowed and the horse was called Tawrrific and it actually won the race, so I told her that I was very happy and she wasn’t very impressed, because her horse didn’t win.

    Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) Did you watch the Aussie V8s today?

    MW: Not enough, the time schedule is not very helpful and they’re parked down the other side of the track. I want to go and see some of the guys for sure. It was just great that they managed to drive on the same track as us, a slick operation as usual, it’s a good category. No, I haven’t got to see any of the action yet but I’ve seen the results, but I haven’t seen a single lap.

    Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action) You could take Lewis and Sebastian with you. You guys would go and see the V8s, wouldn’t you?

    LH: Sure. When we have time.

    Lewis Hamilton poses with Road Safety backdrop after gaining pole at Abu Dhabi on Saturday 4 Nov 2012. Photo by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 team.

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