INDIA in F1

Tag: Red Bull

  • Red Bulls rue strategy

    Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber admitted that strategic choices hampered their chances in a Hungarian Grand prix in which the champion finished fourth and his team-mate came home eighth.

    Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull gains after his 2nd pit stop in Hungary on Sunday – 29July2012 Red Bull photo

    Starting third, Vettel made an attempt to go round the outside of second-placed Romain Grosjean at the start but, forced wide, he allowed Jenson Button to sneak through on the inside and dropped to fourth.

    Vettel then spent the first two stints bottled up behind the McLaren and only managed to get free when the McLaren driver made his second stop. Then Button emerged behind the slower Bruno Senna. That gave Vettel the chance to maximise his pace and when he too took on fresh tyres he emerged ahead of Button.

    Later in the race, Vettel pitted for a new set of soft tyres in a bid to catch Romain Grosjean. After the stop he lapped more than two seconds quicker than the third-placed Lotus driver but couldn’t make up the 13.5-second gap before the chequered flag.

    “I think fourth is probably not the result we could have had today,” Vettel said. “The speed was a little bit better than that, but I was stuck behind Jenson, who was quite slow. There we lost quite a lot of time, but you can’t just pit and come out in clean air. Other people weren’t that much slower either, so not much we could have done.

    “My tyres were not too bad at the end but we thought we’d try something,” he added. “It could have been the case that the tyres would fall off the cliff but they didn’t.”

    Webber, meanwhile, climbed as high as fifth after an 11th-place start and he too stopped for more tyres at the end, fearing that the set he had on might degrade too badly in the final laps.

    “Fifth place was there. I was thinking of staying out, obviously we had a nice cushion, my times were going pretty well,” he said. “But it’s hard to know, we’ve had plenty of incidents this year where people have dropped off the cliff.

    “The strategy didn’t work out,” he added. “We lost three places through trying something different. Overtaking’s very difficult, so you need bad tyres for the other guys and also in the last sector so you can line them up. I was quicker by I couldn’t get the job done.”

    Fernando Alonso’s fifth-place finish means the Ferrari driver extends his lead over Webber to 40 points, with the Spaniard sitting on 164 points. Vettel lies third on 122 points and Hamilton moves to fourth on 117 points. Kimi Raikkonen is fifth with 116 points.

    Despite the gap to Alonso widening, Webber believes the title race is still wide open.

    “We’ve got work to do. We’ve had a little bit of friendly fire with ourselves and qualifying here was down to me,” he said. “But we still have good points and it’s still open for the rest of the year. Obviously Fernando grabbed a few more today but that’s the way it goes.”

  • Mark Webber wins strategic race for Red Bull

    Silverstone, 8 July 2012: Mark Webber won a strategic British Grand Prix with a finely judged race that saw him take the lead in the last five laps.

    Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was second, ahead of Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Behind the top three Felipe Massa drove a strong race to fourth. The two Lotuses were fifth and sixth with Räikkönen outgunning Grosjean after the Frenchman ran a compromised race having pitted in the early exchanges. Michael Schumacher took seventh for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton was eighth for McLaren after failing to make an impression on the race despite leading out-of-sequence for a short while. Bruno Senna was ninth for Williams and Jenson Button took the final point in the second McLaren, according to an FIA press release.

    Alonso had converted his pole position into a good lead at the start but Webber stalked him all the way. And with the Ferrari and Red Bulls running different strategies, Webber had the speed advantage when he needed it. He made his move on lap 48 of the 52. Alonso did what he could to defend but didn’t take any heroic measures – Webber was going through and both drivers knew it.

    Alonso started the race on the hard tyre, as did McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, the rest of the top ten opted for the soft tyre. Alonso made a good start and retained the lead while Webber hung on to second and Michael Schumacher kept third. Felipe Massa slipped past Sebastian Vettel into fourth. Alonso and Webber pulled away while Schumacher held up the field. The hard tyre was plainly the better rubber today, and Alonso used it to good effect, sprinting away to establish a lead of several seconds in the first stint.

    Being delayed but unable to make an impression on Massa, Vettel pitted early, taking on the hard tyre on lap 11. On the fresh, hard rubber he put in a brace of quick laps and managed to steal two places when everything played out. “I used the momentum and got past Felipe and Michael at the same time,” said the German. “We brought the right strategy which brought us back – but you always have a little more on the tyres at the end. I was a little bit too far away to get Fernando at the end – but I’m very happy with third today.”

    The real interest was ahead of him as Alonso was reeled in by Webber. Running two hard tyre stints, Alonso had pulled out a lead of six seconds over Webber – but the Australian started to come back late in the race. He took his second stop before Alonso and, with fresh hard tyres versus old hard tyres began to close the gap. Alonso pitted for his mandatory set of soft tyres perhaps earlier than he would have liked. It maintained his lead but Webber ate up the four-second gap as the Ferrari struggled on the softs. Webber made a textbook pass with the DRS down the Wellington straight, emerging in front out of the Brooklands corner.

    “It’s still sinking in,” said the Red Bull Racing driver afterwards. “It’s a very special victory for the team, being from just down the road. Thanks to the team for doing a great job – and thanks to all the fans for sticking with us over the last few days…”

    Alonso didn’t seem too upset, he emerges from Silverstone still leading the Championship, albeit by a reduced margin. “We lost seven points to Mark but we gained on the rest of the field, so a pretty good Sunday for us,” he said. He now has 129 points to Webber’s 116, with Vettel third on 100. In the Constructors’ Championship Red Bull moved onto 216 points with Ferrari moving into second on 152.

    ends

  • Mark was much quicker in the last stint: Alonso

    Silverstone, 8 July 2012: Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing team, who overtook Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, towards the close and Sebastian Vettel, who finished third attended the fourth and final FIA press conference at the Santander British Grand Prix, the ninth leg of the F1 World Championship on Sunday. However, Alonso retains his top spot in the drivers’ championship.

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS (by Sir Jackie Stewart) 

    Mark you must be a very happy boy?

    Mark WEBBER: Yeah, thanks Jackie. I think it was a very interesting race. I thought at the start Fernando had very good pace. A bit of strategy here and there. Obviously, Fernando started on different tyres. But never gave up, kept pushing and it didn’t really work out for Fernando at the end. It was very, very close for him so we were there to capitalise. It’s a very, very special victory for the team, just down the road, a local team, so thanks to all the guys, It’s incredible for them. And for Renault another victory for them in the UK. So I’m very proud today. Thanks to all the fans for sticking with us for the past few days, it’s been incredible.

    Fernando I thought you were going to win the race. I won two British Grands Prix, you’ve won two British Grands Prix. It was pretty hot for a while.

    Fernando ALONSO: Yeah it was quite close today the victory. At the end in the last stint Mark was much quicker than us, and he deserved the win, so I congratulate him and congratulate the Red Bull team. But I’m very proud of the Ferrari recovery in the last few weeks and now we are fighting for the victory in the last three or four grands prix. So we’re heading in the right direction. As Mark said, thanks to all the fans. We had not so good weather during the weekend and they were cheering all the time for us. I hope they enjoyed the show today and see you all next year.

    And what about the championship? You’re still leading.

    FA: Yeah, still there. It’s the main target obviously for us. Today I think we lost seven points with Mark but we gained some extra points on the rest of the field. So I think it was a good Sunday in terms of championship points for us.

    Well done, Sebastian, a good race for you.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it was an interesting one. The start was not so good, I lost a little bit and lost a position to Felipe. I had a tough fight with him in the beginning. I nearly got past but it was really, really close. It was fun but I didn’t get past. Then we brought the right strategy to come back, which turned to be the right thing but obviously later on you always have a little bit of extra on your tyres. All in all, very happy. Mark obviously deserved to win today. Very happy with the result for the team. Thanks to all the fans out there because I think it was quite horrible the last two days not just for us but especially for them but obviously the sun came out today and the British summer showed its best. So looking forward to coming back next year.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Mark, well done. Just how much satisfaction did that win give you?

    MW: Oh, a lot. I’ve had a few now which is nice but this one is taking a little while to sink in. It didn’t look like a spectacular race maybe between Fernando and I initially, but it was one. A little strategy involved as well, particularly with ourselves, pacing the stints on the tyres, working out if it’s going to be two or three stops and how the tyres would behave in the race. Fernando starting on a different tyre and I knew he would have to run a different compound towards the end of the race as we had got the harder [more difficult] tyre out of the way at the start. I thought in the first stint that Fernando had he was in very, very good shape to probably close the win out, but it came our way in the last stint and I am absolutely over the moon, absolutely rapt. For the team, it’s local here, Wings for Life, all the photos on the car, great initiative, all that stuff, it’s a real good story. The fans here this weekend have put up with some horrendous weather but we’ve had a beautiful dry British Grand Prix. There’ll be some long trips home tonight but overall I’m very proud today. It was a very special victory as I say. I managed to get Fernando in the last few laps which was very nice and we got the win from there.

    And the timing is right as well, with three races in four weekend before the break. That’s important?

    MW: Ah look, we have a lot of races this year as you know. Melbourne was important, as will Brazil be. I’ve got a couple of wins now and also some consistent results as well. But we know how tight it is. I see Kimi finished ten seconds behind with fourth or fifth place or whatever, so it’s tight. As we saw with Seb, he lost a little but of time in the first stint and that can be your undoing. Sometimes I’ve had some of that medicine and it makes it hard to come back from there. So in the end you’ve got to grab these ones with both hands and I was very keen to grab with both hands today. I had a single opportunity to pounce and I wasn’t going to let that slip.

    It seemed to be in the middle sector that you were particularly gaining on Fernando in those closing stages.

    MW: I think Fernando, with the front left tyre, if you lose balance around this place, that sector the speed is very, very high, it’s very hard for the driver to do something. I could see that when I arrived on Fernando, reasonably close I got to see where he was struggling with his car. It was obvious that he was pushing as hard as possible but the balance wasn’t with him. That’s when you’ve got to smell the blood and you’ve got to go for it.

    Fernando so close but so far. When you first saw everybody else’s tyres and you were pretty much on your own [on the soft] was that a worry?

    FA: Not really. As Mark said before or later he cars will mix again. You have to put for the first 14 or 15 laps the soft tyres or in the last 14 or 15, so it was a similar timed race at the end over 52 laps. So I was not worried. Probably the start was the biggest worry because with the hard compound you know the start is a little bit worse. We tried to defend the position there. After that we were controlling the race more or less OK until the last stint, we were now quick enough and when Mark arrived I think he overtook very easy and there was nothing we can do. I’m happy with the second place. Now obviously, ten minutes after the race there is a strange feeling of losing victory. But it’s the same 18 points you get if you are third and you overtake the guy in second on the last lap and you are so happy, so it’s the same second place but different feelings in this ten minutes but I’m sure in one hour’s time I will appreciate it much more.

    And in particular having the pace you had in Valencia as well. That’s two races in a row you’ve been leading the race.

    FA: Yeah it was good in Valencia the car and here on a completely different track with a lot of high-speed corners the car seemed to perform very well. Also a fantastic race from Felipe, finishing fourth, so happy with the improvements in the car. I think still there is a last step to close with these guys, maybe they are a little bit quicker in some conditions on some circuits, so we need to improve those.

    And an interesting battle with Lewis. It wasn’t actually for position but on the road.

    FA: Yeah, it was close. I was with new tyres so I had a pace advantage but you know the McLaren is quite quick on the straights, so I overtook him on the exit of the corner thanks to the tyres and then he overtook me again on the straight and it was a difficult moment of the race because if you have a little contact or something you can lose your front wing or whatever and your race is over. You need to be aggressive, you need to try to no lose too much time in those overtakings but at the same time being a little bit careful.

    Sebastian, obviously for a Red Bull a great day with you first and third and also confirmation again of the pace you had in Valencia.

    SV: Yeah, I think all in all it was a good day. Obviously happy for the team, the factory is just down the road. It’s more or less our home grand prix and therefore definitely special and I’m sure we’ll have some drinks tomorrow.

    And an interesting battle with a group of four of you in the early stages.

    SV: Yeah, the start was not too good to be honest, I lost a little bit too much. I had too much wheel slip and I could see the first row disappearing. It was quite tight and with Felipe he had a better start and I lost the position to him. And then I think it was down to turn four it was extremely tight. I tried to defend the position to Kimi who was right behind. I think I damaged the front wing a little bit. Not sure how bad it was. But it didn’t turn out to be a massive disadvantage. So from there I got stuck a little bit. Once I got close to get past Felipe but he did a very good job, he very hard but very fair, so I enjoyed that a lot and then we did the right thing coming in a little bit earlier and used to the momentum and got past both Michael and Felipe at the same time, which was good. I was just a little bit too far away to get Fernando at the end so just a little bit off that feeling he described – you’re close and you get that second place in the end. I’m sure if the race had been a little bit longer then it would have been different but that’s how it is, so I’m very happy with third today.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Congratulations Mark. As you say this season will be nip and tuck but you have points every race but one, you’re the second guy to win twice – it must give you confidence that you’re going to be in the thick of this championship fight.

    MW: Absolutely, I’m not low on confidence at the moment. It’s going well. I think in Barcelona we didn’t help ourselves with the strategy in qualifying to put ourselves outside the Q3 by being too optimistic about the pace of the car for that Sunday afternoon. So, overall, so far so good. We will enjoy today’s result, really soak it up. That’s what’s important. You have to remember how hard we work for these results and tomorrow morning, it’s Hockenheim. That’s what it has to be about. I think it’s a long, long season. I’m not getting too fired up about any particular championship positions at the moment. But what is for sure is that I have a nice haul of points to keep going with. I’m not sitting on 20 points trying to start my campaign from here. So it’s going well so far.

    Q: (Leonid Novozhilov – F1 Life) Mark, you are in second place in the championship. Now you’re ahead of Sebastian Vettel by 16 points. Will  you continue to attack, or let Sebastian Vettel overtake you?

    MW: Yeah. I think at Hockenheim we will let Seb through! No, honestly, I will try to give your question some decent respect. Look, it’s a championship for all of us. I’ve had a good run in the last few races. Obviously Seb had a retirement when leading Valencia so that’s the way it’s been. I’ve been there to have two very special victories so far this year, albeit in different circumstances. As I say, I would rather have the points that I have than those that some other people have. I’m not looking at who is third, fourth, fifth. I am looking at the little guy next to me and he’s going well as well, so we need to keep pushing hard.

    Q: (Peter Windsor – ClarkSport)Fernando, a couple of questions: how much did being on pole influence your decision on tyre choice? I wondered whether there was an element of being conservative at the start because you were on pole.

    And secondly, your second stint, was the length of that defined by covering Mark? Could you have gone longer in a perfect world in that second stint and perhaps made more use of the tyre at that point?

    FA: I think tyre choice was a little bit determined by the pace we saw in FP3, the little dry running that we had. We felt more confident on the hards so it was our preferred choice today. And then, if at any point of the race it had rained and we put on intermediates you didn’t have to use the softs any more so it was a better combination of possibilities that the hard gave us today.

    And then the length of the stint? I think the second was quite close to the limit of the number of laps. Maybe we could have lasted a couple of extra laps in the first one.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Fernando, this is more or less a similar question: when you stopped on the 37th lap, you had 15 laps ahead of you on the softer tyre. You did only 12 on the harder tyre at the beginning. Did you think you could finish the race in good conditions with the tyres.

    FA: No, I was confident in the tyres, to be honest, because Felipe used the soft tyre in the first stint and I think he did 14 laps, so 14 laps with maybe a heavy car in the first stint and we were 15 laps to the end with a light car. So we were quite convinced the softs were OK but they were a little bit slower, obviously a little bit too much understeer, so the balanced changed and killed the performance of the car a little bit and we were a bit too slow. We knew, more or less, that the soft was a little bit slower, so we needed to open up a gap in the first two stints when we were on different tyres to Mark and we knew that that gap was for sure getting closer and closer at the end when we put on the softs, and what we opened up at the beginning was not enough

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) And for both Red Bull drivers, after the astonishing performance in Valencia, if it hadn’t have rained here, did you expect more from the car during the race?

    MW: Obviously we got some confidence with our car in Valencia. I think that before then, we’d been finding our way with the new regulations, but I think we understood a little bit more about the RB8 in Valencia, and that has been an on-going process here. Potential is an over-used word but we’ve got to try and get the most out of the car in all conditions. I think we’ve definitely improved the car from Barcelona, this is an even quicker circuit, and also what you have to keep in mind is if you’re a little bit out of the balance window here – not with the tyres but I mean balance chassis-wise –  aerodynamically around here you are in big big trouble, so we had to tune the car as everyone did, as the weekend went on. We learned a lot in P3, the only dry running we had, so I think we’re very happy with the car around here. Probably not had the advantage that we had in… obviously Seb had a clean Grand Prix. I was in a bit of traffic but Valencia was probably a bit stronger, but here we won the race. So it turned out OK. Fernando wasn’t slow, but I think the team’s done a great performance with the car here.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Mark, this morning you told me that wet conditions would be better for you, given the temperature. Do you think that the temperature increase at the end affected your performance a little bit?

    MW: When I saw you this morning, we only had the (dry) running from P3, which, to be honest, wasn’t particularly smooth sailing for us. We had a look at what Fernando had done in that session and he looked very good on balance and his sectors were pretty strong, taking into account fuel loads or whatever, we thought Fernando looked pretty good, so we had that in mind, going into the race, obviously, how we would go. Don’t forget last year as well; he gave us a hiding during the Grand Prix as well through balance and overall high speed performance and grip, if you like, so Ferrari has always been pretty strong here, and Fernando as well. So in the end, a little bit surprised  that we were maybe as competitive as we were in the dry, but hey, it’s a great problem to have and we put together a great Grand Prix today.

    Q: (Sean McGreevy – CSMA Club Magazine) Mark, you’re consistently successful at Silverstone. What do you enjoy, what do you like about racing here?

    MW: Well, this morning I took the dogs for a run. The good thing about going home to them is that they don’t know if I’ve had a shit day or a good day, they’re always happy to see me. It’s good to be staying at home. All of us know how much we love hotels so it’s just good to be at home and even though it’s my job and it’s all sportsmen and women’s jobs to enjoy – whether you’re a golfer, tennis player, racing driver – you have to enjoy or get the most out of every venue that you race at but it’s only natural that there is… like Fernando in Barcelona, there is that extra little bit that makes you a little bit more relaxed and a bit more comfortable, which you try and replicate at every single Grand Prix, but with all due respect, it’s not the same at Hockenheim. I love racing everywhere but here it’s extra special. As I say, I won my first race here in ’96 in a Formula Ford so the love affair continues.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, when you look at your lap times, you were OK in sector one and three, maybe even the fastest, but you were consistently lost out in sector two. What was the problem there?

    SV: I don’t know. I got told we lose a little bit too much in the second sector. We probably had a little bit of trouble in the fast stuff at the end of the race, so I think all in all we were quite competitive, but yes, we lost out in the second sector so we need to see why that was. Generally I felt pretty happy. In the last stint, to be honest, I wasn’t so happy with the car, I picked up a lot of vibrations. I don’t know why as I didn’t have a lock-up or anything. We need to have a look why that was. I have one question: does anybody have a clue about the tennis? What’s the score? Three all in the first set.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Mark, you said that from the outside the race was not spectacular; what is the main difficulty for you during that race? Managing the tyres, the start, overtaking Fernando?

    MW: Yes, understanding the pace to do and to have the range to split the race evenly, for a two stop Grand Prix. That was the main focus, to make sure that I could get to the stop lap which the guys were trying to predict me to hit, which pit stop lap they wanted me to hit, and get there with the best combination of pace and tyre life. Ultimately that is the best way to get to the chequered flag. Obviously you put a lot of faith in the pit wall. The guys are helping you to work out what level of pace you run at, and also balancing the car at the pit stops was important, working with the guys on the front wing. We made quite a big adjustment at the first stop after my first stint and then I was much happy with the car in the second and third stints.

    Q: (Manuel Franco – AS) Fernando and Sebastian, is the second victory for Mark and second in the championship a surprise for you?

    FA: No, not really. I think Mark had a difficult season last year with a little bit too big a difference than normal with Sebastian, but in 2010 he was leading the championship until Korea so he’s not new in this position of fighting for the World Championships. This year, with all the tricky conditions and all the different winners we saw in this strange championship so far, I think Mark is good with those difficulties.

    SV: Not much to add. Obviously I have the advantage in that he’s in the same team so I can see what he’s doing but I don’t think it’s a surprise.

    Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere Della Sera) Fernando, you told us about your mixed feelings: are you more worried to have lost seven points to Mark or you will maybe be more happy to have gained on Sebastian?

    FA: I think at the moment, as far as I’m leading, I’m more happy than worried. If Mark was leading the championship, I would be worried about losing another seven points, but at the moment, the weekend in general has been fantastic for us, because we left Valencia with maybe an emotional win, a lot of points in our pocket, compared to our rivals in the championship and we arrived at Silverstone, a completely different circuit, we didn’t know how the car was performing here. We had a very difficult qualifying for everybody yesterday and we survived that qualifying with pole position and today we also had a tricky race. We didn’t know what the weather was doing and I think the car performed well, we avoided any contact, any accidents that might happen at the start or in some battles. We are again bringing home more points than we probably expected, because when we arrived on Thursday, if someone had told us that we would leave on Sunday with 18 points again, I think we would have been very happy.

    Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky) Is it Federer you’re going for Sebastian?

    SV: Yes.

    Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky) There was a message on the radio that you should use Torque Five or something like that. Was there a technical reason why you didn’t have Mark’s pace today, and looking to your home race in Germany, what are your thoughts on that, a race that I don’t think you’ve won?

    SV: No, we didn’t have any problems. When you face your stint, you know roughly how many laps you want to do etc.d and you try to manage the tyres at their best and you try to use the tools that you have in the car. Obviously you can change your front wing settings at the pit stop, but other than that, once you are out on the circuit, you haven’t got that much to play with. You can play a little bit with the diff, obviously adjust your driving and adjust the mapping from the engine point of view. It’s hard to bring it down to lap time, but it’s just more driver comfort, what you prefer at the time.

    And yeah, obviously I’m looking forward to the next race, looking forward to Germany. It should be a very good one for us. I feel the car is picking up speed, so I definitely feel happier since the last race. This one… I think we struggled last year here, in particular. Ferrari had the upper hand so I think this year we had a much better balanced car in that regard. So it seems we are on the right track so let’s see if I succeed this year. It’s a race like every other. Sure it would be very special to win, but I don’t score more points just by winning my home race.

    Q: (Mark Fogarty – Auto Action ) Fernando, if there is a change in your team next year, would you like to have Mark as your teammate?

    FA: I don’t know. I think it’s just imaginary pictures. I need to put something on my shoes to be a little bit taller. That would be the only thing if I changed teammates. For the rest, it doesn’t matter. I would be happy with any teammate. I say again, I’m extremely happy with Felipe. Today, again, he showed the performance that he can do, with a normal race, trouble free etc. We will see what the team decides.

    Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawkes Bay Today) Mark, does today’s result make a difference to where you might drive next year, given that you’ve got number two on your cap and that seemed like a number one drive?

    MW: It helps my situation to stay in Formula One. At the start of the year I didn’t have a contract, I’m pushing to get a contract for next year. Going reasonably well, got a few points, a couple of wins and I will work very hard to try and stay in Formula One next year. So, the answer is no.

    Ends

  • Red Bull pace not guaranteed: Vettel

    Silverstone (UK)

    Sebastian Vettel after Thursday practice in Silverstone. FIA photo

    , 5 July 2012: Sebastian Vettel has said that there is no guarantee that the superior pace Red Bull Racing showed at the European Grand Prix in Valencia will translate to Silverstone.

    In Valencia a fortnight ago, Vettel landed pole position with a lap almost half a second quicker than anyone else, and in the race was quick enough to open a 10-second gap over the chasing pack in the first stint of the grand prix.

    Vettel’s dominance ended with an alternator failure after 33 laps, but the fear for Red Bull Racing’s rivals is that the team will be even quicker at high-speed Silverstone, especially in light of the fact that it is expected to bring more updates this weekend. Vettel, though, warned against such an expectation.

    “I would be very careful with that [thinking],” he said today. “We had a good race in Valencia and we seemed to be able to make a difference straight away. This is a new track, a different track and has different characteristics. We will have to confirm the feeling we had in Valencia, the pace. Also rain is on the way. It should be a challenging weekend for everybody.

    “I think we did a step forward [in Valencia], we were very competitive,” he admitted. “Everything just seemed to work. We felt comfortable form the first session onwards, up to the point where we had the failure and had to stop. That can make a big difference to the whole weekend if you find an extra tenth or two. If you take those tenths away then it might look completely different again. We had a very strong weekend but we need to confirm it here.”

    Vettel said, however, that he is looking forward to the British Grand Prix and said it is a circuit he enjoys.

    “I won in 2009 and it was very emotional,” he said. “So hopefully we can get back to that level. The crowd here is extremely fair. Obviously they’re cheering for the British drivers, which everyone can understand, but they are very fair and they respect and appreciate if someone else has a good race. So, all in all, I’m looking forward to the weekend despite the weather forecast.”

  • Vettel takes Valencia pole

    Valencia (Spain), 23 June 2012: Sebastian Vettel scored his third consecutive European Grand Prix pole position with a superb last-ditch lap at the Valencia street circuit. Lewis Hamilton will line up alongside the champion on the front row, with Pastor Maldonado third for Williams.
    Narain Karthikeyan of HRT will be ahead this on 22nd position behind teammate Pedro de la Rosa whil both the Sahara Force India teams have made it inside the top 10 with Hulkenberg looking good for more points this time around.

    Vettel made his way through the first two segments of the hour-long session in safe but unspectacularly fashion, finishing Q1 in 14th position and in fourth place in the second section. In the final top-10 shoot-out, the champion stayed in the garage until the very end of the session to conserve a set of option tyres. But when he did emerge for his single run it was with intent. He set best times for the first two sectors and crossed the line just over three tenths ahead of Hamilton.

    Afterwards, Red Bull driver admitted that he had struggled early on.

    “We had one shot there at the end which turned out to be a very good lap,” he said. “Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking. We were struggling to find the balance we did have in practice. It was a good recovery. We had to put a second set of options in Q2. It was the right call because I don’t think my first lap was good enough.”

    But as the track improved, the defending champion felt that an opportunity existed to battle for the front of the grid.

    “In final qualifying, I knew going at the end [of the session], if the track comes in a little more, it should be good enough to have a look at pole,” he said. “I had a good feeling in the last lap and managed to put everything together and I was very happy it was enough for pole. In the end it was a surprising gap. The boys have been working hard in the garage and at the factory to bring new parts. They seem to work. I’m looking forward to race tomorrow.”

    For Hamilton it was a similarly difficult session.

    “I expected to be lot further back because we struggled all weekend with the set-up,” said the Briton. “Going from P3 into qualifying, we had to make a guess with the set-up. It seemed to work OK. I was able to get out the lap when I needed it – but obviously not quite as good as Sebastian did. However, the guys did a great job to get me a gap, and the car felt pretty good but I think the gap is quite big here.”

    The big news before Q1 was that Marussia’s Timo Glock would not be taking part in the session, Marussia revealing that the German had been “fighting a bug” since Thursday and had felt so unwell after FP3 that he would not be able to compete in qualifying. His fitness to race will be assessed tomorrow morning.

    The big news by the end of the session was that Mark Webber was the major front-running loser. The Australian had turned just four laps in the morning session, with work on the front end of his car eating up all but the first few minutes of the final free practice hour.

    Disadvantaged by that, he did a run on the prime tyres in Q1 but quickly returned to the garage. Then he opted to switch to the soft tyres in a bid to ensure passage through to the second segment. However, a hydraulic problem hampered his progress and Webber was eventually dropped to a 19th place start.

    “We had no DRS, and that’s about 1.3 seconds. It makes it very difficult when you have no DRS,” he said. “The car’s put up a good fight today. We only ran a few laps all day and three of those were in qualifying. One lap on the prime at the start and then we had to box, because it was playing up with the gearbox, the hydraulics. And then the guys did the right thing to put on the option as we were in a desperate situation then, to get through. It was very tight obviously. The lap time wasn’t too bad with the DRS out but it doesn’t help with the situation.”

    The second segment would see more front runners struggle – most particularly Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and also Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher.

    Both Ferrari drivers opted to do an opening run on medium tyres as their rivals mostly went for the soft option and when Ferrai also switched to the soft option both failed to make the most of a single run on the compound. With the times incredibly tight, Alonso’s lap, three tenths off top man Romain Grosjean’s 1:38.489, was only good enough for 11th place. Schumacher finished the session 12th with Massa one place behind.

    “I’m not particularly happy about not making it through Q2 but that was clearly down to me – I didn’t get my lap together,” said Schumacher. “On my first run, I was too aggressive in turn 12 on my first timed lap, then had to abort the second lap and pit because the tyres were no longer in good enough condition to improve. After that, I was a bit too conservative on the second run and that cost us, because the times were so close today.”

    That left the final word to Vettel, whose blistering Q3 lap was enough to hand him a second pole in a row, following his front-of-grid start in Canada. Looking ahead to the race the Red Bull Racing driver admitted that in a season as unpredictable as this, pole was no guarantee of anything.

    “I think it’s going to be a difficult race. Difficult to predict,” he said. “We have seen too much this year to be honest to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what’s going to happen. I think it’s probably easier to guess the result tonight in football than [the race result] tomorrow. I think this year obviously grid position is important but maybe not as important.”

    ends

  • Nurturing tyres is the key: Hamilton

    DRIVERS

    1 – Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren)

    3 – Pastor MALDONADO (Williams )

    TV UNILATERAL

    Congratulations Sebastian, a third pole in a row at this race and only one flying lap in Q3 to try to do it.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, one shot there in the end, which turned out to turned out to be a very good lap. Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking. We were struggling to find the balance we did have early on this weekend, yesterday and this morning during practice. Yeah, good recovery throughout qualifying. Unfortunately, we had to put a second set of options in Q2. It was the right call because it was very tight. I think my time would not have been good enough, I set with the first set. So it was good to go again. But then in the last qualifying I knew that going at the end if the track comes in a little bit more and tying the lap together it should be good enough maybe to look at pole. In the end it was a surprising gap but all in all I felt very well this weekend. The boys have been working incredibly hard in the garage, all the people in the factory as well to make sure that we bring a couple of new parts to the car. They seem to work and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.

    Lewis, a front row for you. Sebastian says it was a surprising gap at the end. Did you expect it to be much closer in Q3?

    Lewis HAMILTON: To be honest, I expected to be a lot further back. We’ve struggled all weekend, just with set-up and you know going from P3 to qualifying we had to make some guesses as to what kind of set-up we wanted to change. It seemed to work OK and I’m really, really surprised. The guys obviously did a great job, as always, to get me a good gap and while the car still felt pretty good, I think the gap is still pretty big here and it will be a tough race tomorrow for sure, as always.

    Is that just the way it is in 2012 then? You go from winning one race weekend and on the next one you struggle and you’re not quite sure where you are?

    LH: I think so. At least it appeared so when we first started practicing here yesterday. But generally, I think, you look at the grid, because it’s so hot, the Lotus cars look massively competitive. I think they’re going to be the ones to watch out for tomorrow. I’m sure the Ferraris will be very quick on their long runs as well. Who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, we just have to look after our tyres in these tricky conditions.

    Yes, 2012 is unpredictable, but Pastor, one is for certain, you quite like Spain don’t you?

    Pastor MALDONADO: I think we’ve been working so hard. The car has been quite quick from yesterday. We were struggling a bit with the option tyres. We were confused because I didn’t feel the same feeling with the prime tyres but then we’ve working so hard trying to understand what was happening with the car this morning, still struggling, especially with the option tyres. But for quali we understand a little bit the way, and here we are. I think we did a pretty good job. Williams is getting better and better every time. I’m pretty happy for the team, pretty happy for my country and it’s going to be a great opportunity to get on the podium and fight for a good result.

    You did, though, use seven sets of tyres during the course of that qualifying hour. How much of a disadvantage does that put you at for tomorrow’s race?

    PM: I think for the long run, for us, the prime tyres were a bit better. We had more range and they were even quicker after a couple of laps. We have tyres enough to race and get very competitive. I’m not worried about that. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll see from the start what happens with the strategy, that will be very important, essential for tomorrow. These conditions are very hot and very difficult for everybody. So looking forward, let’s see.

    Finally, back to you Sebastian. Lewis has outlined some of the potential battles for tomorrow’s race. Where do you see the big threat coming from, or have you, by saving a set of tyres, ensured that you’ll make it a hat-trick of victories as well?

    SV: Well, it would be nice, no doubt. I think it’s going to be a difficult race. Difficult to predict. We have seen too much this year to be honest to sit here on Saturday afternoon and predict what’s going to happen. I think it’s probably easier to guess the result tonight in football than tomorrow. It’s less hard than predicting the ranking tomorrow. I think it’s going to be tough, as Pastor touched on. It’s going to be hot tomorrow – a bit hotter than today even. So yeah, there will be obviously a lot of cars to look out for tomorrow. I think Ferrari has been very competitive. Williams have been quick yesterday on their long runs. Lotus, I think they’ve proven in Bahrain, the first time we had hot conditions, that they’re up there. So, I think this year obviously grid position is important but maybe not a

    Sebastian, well done, your third consecutive pole, does that mean it’s going to be followed by your third consecutive win? Or does that not mean anything any longer in 2012?

    SV: Well it does, so it would be nice, I think… I’m very happy to be here now because, to be honest, we had a very good weekend. Yesterday was very good, I felt comfortable in the car, this morning I felt very good, even though we didn’t get to finish the run on the soft tyre but this afternoon we started and I think we were a little bit off, compared to where we were the whole weekend. And we played a little bit of catch-up through Q1 and Q2: you don’t have that many runs. And we had to go out again in Q2. It was very tight. We saw I think Fernando was just not quick enough for Q3 and I think I was a little bit slower than that, so if we could have stayed in the garage then, yeah, we would not be here now – so it was a good call from the guys on the pitwall, and yeah, obviously we knew then we only had one set of options left, and tried to give it the best shot in the end. I knew that if I get the lap together, plus whatever we tried in qualifying with the car… I mean you can’t really do much, you can’t really change the setup but you can play a little bit with the settings you have inside the car: differential, front wing, and yeah, I think we caught up. And I had a good feeling in the last lap and managed to put everything together in the three sectors – which was good enough for pole. So, I’m very happy, especially after the effort that has gone in, as I touched on, from the guys here but also from the guys in the factory. We’ve got a couple of new bits here, they seem to be a step forward, which is very good.

    I’m told it’s more than a couple of new bits. I’m told it’s quite a large number of bit…

    SV: Well it depends. We’ve tried a lot, we’ve been pushing very hard, to be honest. I think it’s difficult this year. I think we see everyone is very close to each other and everyone is pushing. If you at McLaren, if you look at Ferrari, if you look at Mercedes. The big teams have more resources, probably, to bring new parts than other teams and they have been bringing more than a couple. A couple is two, so maybe we have also bought more than two – but nevertheless, other teams are up there. Force India was incredibly quick all weekend: yesterday I thought it was just a surprise but even on very low fuel it would have been a very competitive lap time and they confirmed it today. I think in the end they ran out of tyres but in terms of lap times, they weren’t far off in Q2. It’s tight, it’s difficult to make the right step and that’s why I’m quite happy to be honest.

    I’m not sure what your team-mate’s problems were but presumably you had no similar problems.

    SV: It’s a bit of a shame, because the potential is there. I think Mark would have had a solid qualifying, no doubt and we would have qualified in the same area with a normal qualifying for him. But he had a problem, with the brakes I think this morning and I’m not sure what happened this afternoon – so it’s really a shame because you always hope for the team as well to get the best possible result – but nevertheless, yeah, I think the race is long tomorrow, the pace was there on Friday for him as well, so confident he will come back.

    But you’ve had no similar problems.

    SV: No, as I said, the only problem he had was the brakes this morning and this afternoon I don’t know. But I didn’t have any problems fortunately.

    Lewis, on pole here in 2009 and three second places over the years. Given the problems you had yesterday, you sound as though you’re pretty happy about today’s performance.

    LH: Yeah. As I was saying, I’ve really struggled all weekend with setup. During the year I’ve not really struggled too much to get the right balance but particularly today, and yesterday was a real struggle. But you have those weekends sometimes. You can’t always get it perfect. Made some changes going into qualifying that I was just praying would work. And they seemed to have worked, so I was quite happy with the balance that I had. And I was able to… and to be able to get out the lap when you need it, just like Sebastian did. But obviously not as quick as his. But to be able to go out and do those single laps and make sure you maximise the potential of what you have – that really does satisfy me, so I’m happy with where we are.

    It’s just been so close at this circuit. Even though it’s a long lap it’s been so close and literally thousandths of a second have made a big difference.

    LH: Absolutely. It’s very, very surprising. Well, not surprising but it’s very interesting to see so many of the teams improving and continuing to bring updates and to see the pack close up. I think it’s great to see all the teams so competitive. It makes it even more challenging for us as individuals and also for the teams to up their game. And also for us drivers to make sure we’re on top of our game when we’re out there.

    How much of a different is it going to be with one DRS zone here? I think there were two last year and this year one.

    LH: To be honest I have no recollection of what happened last year. But, I don’t know, Overtaking here is always difficult. It’s always difficult to follow as it is in Monaco. Particularly going through Turn 10 maybe, is it? Going onto the back straight. It’s not that easy to follow through out there. But the DRS, I guess, will definitely come into play throughout the race. Hopefully I’ll have some chance. Who knows, we’ll see what.

    We’ve seen a number of drivers going off at the end of the straight Pastor, and today we saw you go off as well. Is this going to be a major problem during the race, do you think?

    PM: I don’t’ think so. I was just not ready for the lap. It was so difficult. As you saw, many drivers were struggling on braking, especially with the front. But I think today was a really good day for the team. We did pretty good, especially because this morning it was very difficult for us – but we understand a bit the way how to make quite well the tyres. And here we are.

    Was it a little bit of guesswork, do you think? Lewis touched on guesswork. Normally it’s pure theory.

    PM: Right now, everything is too tight. Everything is too tight and it’s very difficult to make the difference. I saw Q2, and just off one-tenth I was in P7. You can imagine everything counts now. It’s very difficult. Even for tomorrow, it’s going to be a difficult race. We need to be… we need to stay on the safe side, trying to stay competitive and to stay with the same pace we saw yesterday. We need to stay with the same pace we saw yesterday and then we’ll see.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Pastor, would you be happy to finish on the podium tomorrow, or are you hoping for more?

    PM: For sure, the points are very important for the team. It will be good to be on the podium but for sure if we can go for more, I will try my best like always, then we will see. Tomorrow the strategy is going to be very important. The team is ready, so looking forward to that.

    Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Lewis and Sebastian: you are the best of those going for pole. Is there any secret to the last lap that you do, and what are your thoughts before going out for that final lap?

    LH to SV: What is your secret?

    SV: Can’t tell you. I’m not sure whether there is a secret. Qualifying, we know, is all about one lap and to be honest, today it was very difficult, very tricky because the wind plays a  huge role here, sometimes blowing more than at other times, with gusts and generally it seems to be very slippery. Obviously the grip is lower than last year because the cars have less downforce and it makes it quite tricky, as we touched on. A lot of drivers lock up easily under braking, especially in qualifying when you want to brake as late as you can, but knowing that if you lock up you miss the apex and then you lose time. It’s quite difficult but ideally you just try to go through the lap before it happens – at least I had a little bit of time in Q3 – and try to focus on the key points, go through what I have to do and what I have to look out for and then it seems that I did so in the last run. So happy that I got everything together, just on the limit, and got the best out of the car, so I was very happy with the last run.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado deSao Paulo) Sebastian, you have a lot of new parts on your car and the first time you’re going to use them in race conditions will be tomorrow, in these very hard conditions. Are you worried about the reliability of your car, considering there are so many new things?

    SV: No. You’re right, obviously it’s the first time because the first time they were on the car was on Friday and since Friday there was no Grand Prix. It makes it difficult but there’s always a first time for everything. Obviously we try to build the parts so that they are reliable so as I said, I’m not worried. I think it will be tough, it will be hot but it’s not the worst race of the year for the car in terms of the ambient conditions, so I’m quite confident.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian and Lewis: do you realise that you have a big opportunity tomorrow to keep a huge advantage to the third guy who we suppose is a contender in the championship, Fernando Alonso. Are you working on a strategy to save points?

    LH: No. I anticipate that they will come through very strongly throughout the race, so whilst qualifying for some cars is not important, you look at the Lotuses and you look at… even Mark will be very competitive tomorrow. They have great long run pace and they can look after the tyres better than others, due to low speed downforce. I also know that Ferrari had upgrades this week – at least so Fernando told me – so I anticipate that they are going to be very competitive. Again, as I said, I’m very surprised for us because we didn’t have any upgrades this weekend and so to be where we are is a big bonus for us.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) From what you have learned about the tyres here, can it be another race like Montreal where people in the race come out of nowhere with different strategies or different tyre management?

    SV: I think Montreal was different; the tyre choice was different in Montreal. We had the supersoft and soft and I think we already saw on Friday in Montreal that the tyres last pretty well. On Sunday then, some people were able to prove that doing a one stop and obviously when it’s close between one and two stops then there can be a difference and people come out of nowhere. Lewis did the right thing, two weeks ago, by going with two stops. We did the wrong thing but I think it should be different here. The race is not so many laps and the tyres are a little bit different. It’s going to be hot again but I think it’s a different race, different track, different conditions.

    Q: (Panayiotis Seitandis – Alpha TV) I would like to ask all three drivers: given the fact that this is a street circuit, next year we have New Jersey, we now have an effort in Greece to have a similar race in Athens. What do you think is the perfect mixture between street circuits and proper (permanent) circuits and of course what’s your opinion about coming to race in Formula One in Greece?

    LH:I don’t know how many street circuits compared to other circuits we should have, but I love street circuits. They always provide entertaining races, perhaps not always the tracks that enable you to overtake as often as other places like Spa but still, as a driver, they are the most fun because on street circuits you have less room for error. I’ve only ever been to Greece once. I went years and year and years ago with Nico Rosberg. We went on holiday there, when I was about 13 and I’ve been dying to go back ever since. I was going to go earlier on this year but the weather wasn’t as good as I had hoped. I imagine at some stage  in the future, once the world and Greece is past the stage they’re in now, I think we would welcome a race – at least I would.

    SV: As Lewis touched on, I think street circuits are always good fun. It’s a different challenge because you haven’t got room for error, but one thing you can’t have on a street circuit is fast corners, really, because there’s no run-off and no space. I think the street circuits that we have are pretty quick but it’s maybe the exception. If you would build a new track again or look for a new layout you probably wouldn’t go that close to the limit, knowing what could happen, so therefore we need to make sure it’s not going to be all street circuits in the future but surely, it’s very good fun, a lot of bumps and that makes it very technical, very difficult,  challenging for us and if we could have a race in Athens it would be great. It’s a beautiful country, I was there last year so yeah, obviously there’s a lot going on right now and it’s not looking too good but being German, we are doing our best to help – not yesterday, that’s sport! As I say, it would be great and a great opportunity for Formula One as well, but I don’t know if there are any plans so we’ll have to wait.

    PM: I agree with Lewis and Seb. I think it’s not only fun for us as drivers, I think it’s fun for the fans and I think we need both conditions just to try to put Formula One in the top position. Spain, here, is a great one, especially because of the city and a lot of facilities but the future is like that. We follow the future and for sure we enjoy these kind of tracks.

    Q: (Sylvia Renée Arias – Revista Parabrisas Argentina) Pastor, I would like to know if there is extra power for you to have all these people coming from Venezuela, more than 100 people? Do you feel it’s nearly like a home Grand Prix?

    PM: It’s not a proper  home race but here in Spain we have a big community of Venezuelans and as well, it’s quite easy (to get here) from Venezuela, we have many flights. It’s a really good feeling to see them, especially in the stands, full of flags. It’s good. I hope to give them back some good news tomorrow, so we will see.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) We had 0.291 from Grosjean first to Massa in Q2. Does this tiny difference make you drive accurately; does it change your approach with the team’s set-up? What does it change in your regular work?

    SV: I think it makes it extremely difficult. I know exactly what happened to Fernando because I had the same in China. There were three tenths; Mark was first in Q2 and I was eleventh. It’s not nice, because you probably always know that if you’re looking for five hundredths which would be enough, a little bit here and there, but that’s the risk you have to take to set the time in the first place, but it’s tight and there’s very little room for error, especially like here where it’s very slippery, very easy to lose a little bit, lock up the wheel towards the apex, don’t get it perfectly right, maybe the exit is not 100 percent either, so it’s tricky but you have to attack otherwise you’re not there in the first place.

    LH: No, it doesn’t really change the approach in qualifying, you’re always attacking and if anything it just means you need to be more precise.

    PM: I think now, with these gaps, you just need to put everything together just to be there. It’s difficult for everybody, especially for the tyres, to get the maximum out of the tyres is not easy and when you get it, you are here.

    Ends

  • Red Bull’s Vettel fastest in FP2

    Valencia: Vettel managed a time of 1: 39.334 with half an hour of the session remaining, having just switched to running on the softer of the two available tyre compounds. Vettel’s fastest lap came shortly after the debris of an earlier crash had been cleared: Pedro de la Rosa ended up in the barriers at Turn 14 – his HRT appeared to understeer on the exit and drive straight into the wall.

    Behind Vettel, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was a tenth off the pace, followed by Kamui Kobayashi, Michael Schumacher, Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta, Fernando Alonso, Romain Grosjean, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg completing the top ten. In a busy session with most drivers doing long runs on both tyre compounds, Heikki Kovalainen completed the most mileage with 38 laps, and de la Rosa aside, Kobayashi the least with 20 laps.

    Earlier in the session Jenson Button had been the first man to set a time below 1m40s this weekend. Putting on a set of soft tyres early in proceedings, his lap of 1:39.990 briefly held top spot before being beaten by Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes. Significantly, Rosberg was able to do his time on the harder compound. After Rosberg, Alonso led briefly before Vettel set his quick lap.

    Several drivers had spins or off-track moments, most notably Sergio Pérez who finished up facing the wrong way in his Sauber at Turn 17.
    ends

    Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel sets the fastest time in Free Practice 2 on Friday. FIA photo

  • We learnt a couple of lessons: Pole sitter Vettel

    Montreal, 9 June 2012: As Sebastian Vettel overcomes the FIA jury decision to let go the “hole” in their car talks about now-legal, now-illegal ways of the international federation and says that his motivation is not affected. One has to wait and see as the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship enters the third continent and 8th Grand Prix, will Canada throw up an eighth different winner this season.

    The mandatory FIA Saturday Press Conference was attended by the top three qualifiers Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull Racing), Lewis HAMILTON (McLaren) and Fernando ALONSO (Ferrari) in that order.

    First the TV UNILATERAL as usual!

    Sebastian, we’ve seen pole decided all year being decided by mere hundredths of a second, but today it was almost a quarter of a second. What made the difference?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Well, it’s difficult to say. I think we’ve had a fantastic weekend so far to be honest. Yesterday was very smooth, we didn’t have any problems with the car. I think we have learned a couple of lessons, especially in the last two races where arguably we were quick on Sunday in the race but we didn’t get [the best] out of the car on Saturday in qualifying. So, we learned quite a bit and, as I said, it was important to have a clean run, yesterday was a good day and this morning. We trusted the car that we had, we were able to go with the circuit and tried to read the conditions, so I was very happy in qualifying – throughout qualifying really, Q1, Q2 and Q3 – so yeah I was able to always get a little bit quicker. It looked very tight in the beginning to be honest. I knew it would be within a tenth, but in the end it seemed that we could make a bit more of a difference, which obviously is good. But still the advantage we have over Lewis is eight metres on the grid. Looking forward to the race, I think we have a great car. This time we got it right in qualifying and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. It should be an interesting one I guess.

    Lewis, moving to you, so fast all day yesterday, how much has the change in climactic conditions affected car balance for you today?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It was definitely a bit harder for us today. We definitely struggled with working with the tyres in FP3 and in qualifying, having to push extremely hard to try to get the temperature, to get the tyres to switch on, but very, very fortunately we had still a new set in Q3 and just managed to get through. I’m very, very happy with the performance. I’m very surprised to see us on the front row but nonetheless we’ll definitely take it and work as hard as we can tomorrow.

    Fernando, some big upgrades this weekend, paying dividends almost immediately.

    Fernando ALONSO: Yeah, the car felt quite good yesterday when we tested some new parts and we feel much more happy with the balance of the car and the grip of the car, Felipe and me, straight away. It’s a first step. Obviously, the world will never stop, for us or for the competitors, but at the moment we are extremely happy and thankful to the guys in the factory.

    Sebastian, in recent weeks they’ve banned your floor, they banned your wheels this weekend and you guys are still on top, in pole position. How do you keep doing it?

    SV: I think it’s not just a hole in the floor that makes all the difference. Obviously reading the papers you get that impression. It was a bit of a shame that it went one way and then the other, being declared illegal, then legal and then illegal, but in the end we never feared a big impact on the performance of the car. I think generally, the car works as a whole – not the hole in the floor but a combination of all the parts together! We were not afraid that it would have a big impact on performance. This track is very special. As Lewis said it’s very tricky to switch the tyres on, there arte not so many corners, as in there are no long duration tyres so it’s difficult to work the tyres properly. But as I said, I think for us it was crucial that we learned from the experience especially of the last two grands prix. It was good fun today and even without the hole I enjoyed qualifying a lot.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Sebastian after the win in Monaco for the team was there a certain amount of confidence coming here. Was this, if nor expected, did you feel you’d taken a step forward?

    SV: Well, we changed the car. We had to close the hole or slot or whatever you call it. It seemed to work pretty well without the hole. No, I think there wasn’t a lot of time to react. It depends on what kind of schedule you follow. We’ve seen some teams bringing a big step here, Ferrari did. For us it was nothing big. We are always pushing very hard to improve the car but I think, as I mentioned in the [unilateral] press conference earlier, it was important that we really had a clean preparation, a clean Friday. We were focusing on ourselves, so that was important. Then in qualifying, we just tried to get the maximum out of every run, and we seemed to improve on every run and even we seemed to chip away a little bit from the guys behind, which was a bit of a surprise because I thought going into qualifying that it would be extremely tight. On this track it’s very difficult to make a difference, so I’m very happy.

    The first nine on the grid are going to be on the supersoft tyres tomorrow. One guy, last year’s winner, will be on the soft tyres. How crucial is that going to be, on the supersoft?

    SV: I think we’ve seen in Monaco that the tyre works pretty well. I think we’ve seen that yesterday. I don’t know where Jenson is… tenth, so it depends. It can work, but it depends also on how the race unfolds, where the other guys are, what other guys do with their strategy and when they pit etc. We started in a very good position here two years ago on the harder compound and it didn’t work. It can work both ways. In qualifying what you try to do is get on pole, which we did today, so I’m very happy with that. Looking forward to the race tomorrow, it’s going to be interesting. Making the tyres last around here is going to be tricky. We’ve seen it, not so much last year because it was, but especially the year before, so it should be a good race and I’m looking forward to it.

    Is there a little bit of unfinished business about getting on pole tomorrow?

    SV: Not really. Obviously you’re talking about last year’s race and last year’s last lap of the race. Obviously in that moment it hurt a little bit because the victory was so close, but in the end it was a tough race, easy to do mistakes. We didn’t except for me in the last half a lap, which cost us the victory. But it’s 2012 now and I think we had a quite decent 2011, so it’s not too bad. Of course, it would be nice. It’s a nice track, a nice atmosphere, always a lot of people here. It would be a great place to win for sure.

    Lewis, you have an extraordinary record at this circuit and again on the front row. Interesting that there are two different tyre choices, two different strategies at McLaren. We saw you go out on the supersoft as well in Q1 which is rare as well. Is there a big question mark over the tyre wear for you tomorrow?

    LH: No, we don’t have a different strategy, we were struggling throughout qualifying. Yesterday we had very good pace in the cooler conditions but as it got hotter today we really, really struggled. So, I for one didn’t expect to be so far up. For Jenson, he just didn’t have more tyres in Q3. I was fortunate enough just to make sure I got a good lap in Q2, which meant I still had one set [of supersofts] left. Otherwise, I probably would be a little bit further back as well.

    So how do you approach tomorrow if you feel you have been struggling today?

    LH: I don’t know. I’ve fortunately got myself into a reasonably decent position and I think yesterday when we did the long runs they seemed to be OK, but now that it has got hotter it’s going to change things and it’s going to be tough. But we just have to do the best job we can and try to maximise on everything we do. We can still have a really good race and get some really good points from where we are and I’m looking forward to it.

    Obviously you’re one of the very few driver who hasn’t yet won but are you just happy to stack up the points?

    LH: I am for now, yeah. Of course I want to win, but these guys are phenomenally quick at the moment and I’m not sure whether we have exact pace but we’ll wait and see tomorrow.

    Fernando, your equal best qualifying position so far this year, with Spain, and a lot of new parts on the car. Looking so good but you didn’t improve on the final run, what happened on that final run?

    FA: Nothing special. It’s not easy here to improve laps. There are only five or six corners on the circuits so you are gaining or losing milliseconds corner by corner. We repeat more or less the same timed lap, in the second I gained a little bit from the first sector and I lost a little bit in the last. But overall the limit was more or less there – the 14.1. So, happy with the performance of the car, it has been a very smooth weekend for us. All the new parts work as expected. Felipe and me felt straightaway a good grid and a step in performance in the car, so a very good weekend so far. As you said, best position so far. We repeat what we did in Barcelona. In Barcelona we got one important podium. In Monaco on a completely different circuit we had a competitive car again and a good podium once more. And here on completely different circuit, with long straights and chicanes, we are also competitive, so this is a very good sign for us. Very good teamwork, because all the improvements we have been making on the car are really paying off now.

    So, potential winners tomorrow?

    FA: You never know. Races this year are very difficult to predict. What we think on Saturday is normally not anywhere near what happens on Sunday. So we’ll see. A similar comment to Lewis: it would be nice to win here, it’s a good circuit for Ferrari historically, a lot of fans here. Also, it’s Gilles Villeneuve’s anniversary, 30 years. So, it would be nice to offer all the Ferrari tifosi here in Canada a good result. But we know there are, at the moment, two guys quicker than us, as they proved today, doing a very good job and tomorrow we need to do better if we want to win.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, you said that now you are understanding the car better, you are putting everything together and you are surprised by the advantage. Does that mean that now you’re feeling more confident, that you’re reaching the level that you were at last year or is it still unpredictable?

    SV: It’s not as if we have major changes and it’s not as if we’ve had a completely different approach. I think we’re able to learn from the mistakes we made in the past, we did it in the last two races, where qualifying was arguably not fantastic for us and I think – just looking at the whole grid – I think this year is very different. It seems that a little bit of a mistake here or there, maybe not getting the tyres to work 100 percent, you are quite far away. That’s because 1), it makes a big difference to yourself, so you lose a lot of time and 2), there’s not one car that might fill the gap, there are ten, so then you end up… instead of third you are not fourth but 13th, and then the race weekend is completely different. I think that’s the reason for that.

    Q: (Adrian Huber – Agencia EFE) Fernando, how happy are you with Felipe Massa’s sixth place? And secondly, you three guys are in the top three, does that mean that the championship is becoming a little bit more normal?

    FA: For Felipe, of course, I’m very happy. I think he has all the support from the team, all the support from me, he’s had some difficult races at the beginning of the year, the car was not the easiest car to drive and he hasn’t been so lucky in some of the races at the beginning of the season, as I said, so now, from Barcelona, he’s done quite a good job. In Monaco he was very quick all weekend and here as well so I expect this is the normality and it will be like this from now until the rest of the championship. The first four races were a strange case, not normal races. We will see.

    As we said on Thursday, the championship looks a little bit crazy, a little bit unpredictable, some different winners and some different car performances every Grand Prix, but when you look at the championship table, it’s Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus. One thing is one single race, and then overall for the six races that we’ve done, the order is more or less not very different compared with what we saw in the last two or three years.

    Q: (Jeff Pappone – The Globe and Mail) Lewis mentioned earlier that as it’s getting warmer, he’s having a little bit more trouble and struggling. It’s going to be warmer tomorrow and obviously you’re learning a lot from Friday and today, but how much of that gets thrown out of the window for raceday and how much do you have to readjust your strategy and what you’re doing in the car in order to remain quick?

    SV: As I said, it will be difficult for the tyres to survive a certain amount of laps, but I think from yesterday to today, for us it was a bit easier, a step forward. Tomorrow is going to be a little bit hotter… it seems so far this year, for us at least, the cooler it is, the more we were in trouble; the warmer it is, the better it is. I hope if it’s warmer tomorrow, we can keep continuing that trend. We have seen that on Sundays a lot of things can happen so we have to be aware of whatever comes up and that explains the strategy and so on. Of course, if you have a plan in your head… but as we’ve seen many times this year, it can change quickly, so you have to react on the fly.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, you are starting on pole position, you said that the gap has surprised you a little and yesterday you did 18 laps as far as I remember on the supersoft tyres on ‘green’ asphalt. It seems to be a very good package to start on pole position, a fast car, and even knowing that you have a very good car for the supersoft tyres.

    SV: We will see. Obviously it will be very important to have a good start. I think life is always a little bit easier when you are at the front so it will be crucial to defend that position and then we will see what happens. As I said, it’s a long race, the track will be more or less green when we start. It has always been difficult here at the beginning of the race. This place is a crazy place, it has delivered some crazy races in the past and safety cars are likely etc, so you have to be aware of all that and take it into account for your strategy. Sometimes it can help you, sometimes it may work against you. You don’t know these things. As I said, we have to look after ourselves and try to do the best we can, have clean pit stops and have the fastest race that we can.

    Q: (Randy Phillips – Montreal Gazette) Lewis, I believe that when you won here in 2010 you were on a two stop strategy. Given the conditions and the tyres and all the other factors, do you see tomorrow’s race being a multiple stop – three or four stops – during the course of the race?

    LH: I think it’s definitely possible we will have slightly more stops than we did in the last race so maybe a two or three stop, but we did see long runs yesterday that could lead into a one stop but here the likelihood of a safety car is usually quite high so with that in mind, people might prefer to do a one or two stopper, who knows? But it is dependent on the temperatures and how long the tyres will last. Yesterday they lasted quite long but today may be different and tomorrow may be different. I hope we don’t have any problems with it, but we will wait and see tomorrow.

    Q: (Mineoki Yoneya – La Vie Creative) Question for all three: can I ask about your helmet? How did you decide on the colour scheme of your helmet and what does it mean to you?

    SV: I’ve changed the design many times. It might take too long… there’s a football match starting in 15 minutes, German is playing, so if I answer that question now full length we will still be sitting here tonight. I’ve had so many helmets so far. I like to swap the design. The one I have currently I like, that’s why I wear it.

    LH: I think that’s the best and shortest answer I’ve ever heard him give! I’m going to say the same. I’ve commented loads of times on my helmet and try to keep it the same. It’s who I am, that’s how I use it.

    FA: As Seb, I think, wants to go, I will give you a very long answer now, starting from go-kart helmet… no, I’m… I change my helmet every year, little differences but always remaining with the blue from my region’s flag, Asturias, and then the Spanish flag always somewhere on the helmet and then all the rest of the details, because he’s on pole, we will save.

    Q: (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Sebastian, you have shown us, very effectively, that whatever the FIA might say about the technical regulations concerning your car, it doesn’t affect you performance-wise. But psychologically, does it motivate you to prove that you can do it whatever the FIA says, or do you find it frustrating?

    SV: First of all, you have to understand that we have the hole because we were believing in a combination with all the other parts we have on the car and how the car looks it makes sense. Now it was declared illegal, then it was declared legal and now declared illegal again, so maybe next week it’s legal again. We have the parts in the garage! There’s no real extra motivation. I think we still have to make sure we get the best out of the car that we can. We see that this year is very tight so it’s up to us to make sure we use our package as well as we can and sometimes it might be good enough for the front row like here, sometimes maybe not good enough, but then we still have to make sure that we are very close.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Fernando, I would just like to know if some jokes have already started between you and the mechanics in the team about tomorrow’s match?

    FA: No, not yet but if Spain wins, I think there may not be many people at the pit stop!

    Vettel at the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday. FIA photo.

    Ends

  • Vettel lucky to escape with a warning! Sets pole

    Montreal: 8 June 2012: Senna was seen to wave a fist at Vettel after the world champion brushed past him in turn 13 in the morning session. In the incident, the Red Bull Racing driver lightly touched Senna’s Williams, leading to the stewards calling both drivers and their team representatives to explain themselves.

    However, despite the investigation, Vettel escaped without major sanction, the Red Bull Racing driver being handed a simple reprimand by stewards, Martin Donnelly, Jose Abed and Gerd Ennser.

    Vettel finished the opening in second place behind Lewis Hamilton and in the afternoon settled for fourth, behind the twin Ferraris of Felipe Massa and second-placed Fernando Alonso, and Hamilton, who held on to the top spot. Finally, he ended on pole in the qualifying session and anything other than a reprimand would have been a big loss.

    Afterwards, Vettel professed himself happy with his day’s efforts.

    “We were thinking to put on our supersoft tyres in the first practice being a bit afraid of the rain coming in the afternoon but it didn’t come. However you never know in advance. So, all in all, a good day, with decent laps and even with a little bit of a different approach in terms of when we put on which tyres, I think we can be fairly happy and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow,” added the Red Bull driver.

    Along with the German and Hungarian grands prix, the Canadian event is just one of three he’s raced at and not won. However, the champion insisted that his failure to win at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was not preying on his mind.

    “There’s no pressure at not having won here, I just hope I can change it on Sunday. It’s a normal race. It’s a great track, with a lot of start and stop, some chicanes, quick changes of direction – it’s good fun.”

    ends

    Vettel at the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday. FIA photo.

  • Superb Vettel makes his point

    It has become his trademark – a raised forefinger to signify he is number one following another clinching of pole position or after a grand prix victory.

    Now, Sebastian Vettel has every justification to stick up two fingers, and not only to mark the achievement of becoming the youngest back-to-back and double world champion in Formula One history.

    But two fingers also to the sport’s establishment who last season questioned his arguably fortuitous title triumph, his temperament at times, and even his on-track ability.

    Yes, Vettel has the car beneath him, a beast of a Red Bull that in its design infancy is crafted not by fancy computer gizmos, but by the fine hand of Adrian Newey.

    The most successful engineer F1 has seen relies on paper and pencil to initially weave his magic that ultimately translates into one of the sport’s most “phenomenal” machines, an over-used word employed by team principal Christian Horner, but apt nonetheless.

    Still, it requires a driver with incredible ability to produce the kind of mesmerising performances we have witnessed this season from Vettel.

    In 2010 the 24-year-old came of age, the campaign a learning curve with such an acute incline that this season there can be no doubt he took everything on board last year and moved up another gear.

    Last season was proof, if it were needed, of a title race being a marathon and not a sprint, with Vettel making a dash for the line over the closing stages, outpacing Fernando Alonso and Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber.

    On pole 10 times, he only won five races, a poor statistic that undermined his championship ambitions, and underlined why he failed to win his debut crown far earlier in the season.

    The most crucial of those victories, of course, was in the final race in Abu Dhabi, giving him the lead in the championship for the first time, and when it mattered the most, at the death.

    The build-up to his moment of glory, though, was marred by talks of favouritism over Webber, the Australian pulling no punches at times that he felt he was a number two driver.

    And then there was their bust-up in Turkey, the on-track collision that sparked a feud that in turn prompted suggestions Red Bull had a pecking order within their team.

    Later in the season, when Vettel rammed into Jenson Button in the Belgian Grand Prix, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh cruelly labelled the German the “crash kid”.

    Come the denouement, Vettel deserved his accolade as the youngest world champion in F1 history – just, but you can see why question marks lingered coming into this season.

    So in becoming a two-time champion, Vettel has achieved the feat a year younger than Fernando Alonso managed in 2006, and pertinently, coming as close to perfection as can possibly be achieved in F1.

    From 15 races this season he has been on pole 12 times, moving to within two of Nigel Mansell’s 1992 record, the Briton achieving his feat in just 16 races, but in a Williams that carried so much technical wizardry the FIA outlawed it the following year.

    And with nine wins to his name, only one driver has managed more – the seemingly incomparable Michael Schumacher, whose 2004 tally of 13 could yet be equalled.

    No-one has come close to holding a candle to Vettel, certainly not team-mate Webber who has yet to take the chequered flag this year, and certainly neither Button nor Lewis Hamilton as the former has rightly stated McLaren have made too many mistakes this year.

    As for Alonso, he has shown flashes of genius, but in fairness he had no chance due to being handicapped at the start of the year by a Ferrari many claimed was too conservative.

    So Vettel again stands looking down on his adversaries, and as a backdrop to his triumph, one of the finest tracks in F1 in Suzuka in Japan where some of the greats of the sport have also been crowned – Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher.

    So what next for Vettel? Ahead of him are Schumacher’s records of seven world championships, 91 grands prix victories and 68 poles to conquer, milestones that will undoubtedly seem light years away right now.

    But he is young, has time on his side, and given the right car in the years to come – and remember he signed with Red Bull through to 2014 earlier this season – who is to say the seemingly unbeatable cannot be beaten?