INDIA in F1

Tag: Vettel

  • 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

  • Title contenders keep calm

    Austin (Texas, US), 15 Nov 2012: Drivers’ World Championship contenders Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso agree the big prize will not detract from their focus on this weekend’s US Grand Prix.

    Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso go into the race in Austin, both knowing the Championship is in their own hands. Both argued that their best approach this weekend is to treat it like they would any other race.

    “Nothing changes in terms of preparation and approach for the weekend: maximum concentration, maximum effort from everybody in the team,” said Alonso in the FIA press conference on Thursday. “[on] Sunday try to score as many points as possible. Exactly the same as every other weekend.”

    “It’s not the first time we’ve raced on a completely new circuit, obviously we had this kind of challenge previous years as well,” added Vettel. “I think we do what we can. The most important is to get into the rhythm tomorrow and have a good start [to the weekend] and go from there.”

    Alongside his two victorious years, Fernando Alonso was also in contention at this stage of the season in 2007 and 2010. Today the Spaniard claimed to be much more calm in 2012 than he was as a younger driver. “I’m more relaxed, much more focused,” said the 2005 and 2006 World Champion. “In these last two races, I feel completely normal. It’s good experience. It’s the fourth time we have been fighting for the World Championship up to the last race – hopefully – and you really feel the difference, being much more focused, concentrated, trying to do the job and understanding that if you do everything perfectly, you have a chance.”

    ends

    Fernando Alonso at the US GP on Thursday. Photo by Ferrari F1 team

  • 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.

  • 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.

    ends

    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.

    Ends

  • Hamilton takes pole, ahead of Webber: Abu Dhabi GP

    Abu Dhabi, 3 Nov 2012: Mark Webber was edged out to second place and Sebastian Vettel third as Lewis Hamilton dominated the battle for pole position at Yas Marina here on Saturday. However, Vettel was excluded from qualification later by stewards for not having enough fuel in his car and he will start at the back of the grid.

    Lewis Hamilton has been the pace-setter through most of the weekend, running quickest in the first and last free practice sessions, and the McLaren driver confirmed his pole position credentials in the opening segments of the qualifying hour by claiming top spot in both Q1 and Q2. He then took provisional pole early in Q3 with a lap of 1:40.630, four-tenths clear of his closest competitor. And as his rivals failed to significantly dent the gap, Hamilton has the luxury of backed-out of his final run.

    “It’s the first time for a long time we’ve been ahead of the Red Bulls rather than seeing the tail of them at the start of the race. However, I know it’s going to be very tough in the race because they’ve got great race pace,” said Hamilton. “We are strong enough to fight them: 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.”

    Mark Webber came the closest to upsetting the Briton, for whom it is a sixth pole position of the season. After comfortably making his way through the opening segments, the Red Bull Racing driver found himself six-tenths adrift of Hamilton after his first run. Webber dug deep and found more pace on his final run, halving the deficit but unable to do any more.

    “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,” said Webber. “It was a pretty smooth qualifying session for both Seb and I, and we did what we could.”

    Despite settling for second-best in qualifying, Webber expressed hope of beating Hamilton off the line tomorrow. “You never know. Lewis’ starts lately haven’t been phenomenal, so let’s see if he has a good one tomorrow,” he said. “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.”

    Having won the last four races, Sebastian Vettel struggled on Saturday when a brake problem heavily compromising his running in the final free practice session. His travails of the afternoon continued into the evening. He clipped a wall on his first run in Q1, and was fortunate to suffer no damage. Then, at the end of the session, after securing third spot on the grid, the German was told by his team to stop the car on track. “I don’t know why I had to stop,” he said afterwards. “I was asked to stop, I guess there was some problem. It should not be something major.”

    “It’s difficult to pass here, even though you’ve got long straights,” he added. “We’ve got the double DRS, so we’ll see if that helps. I’m sure it’s not impossible.

    If Vettel had a mechanically-troubled day, title rival Fernando Alonso was simply troubled by rivals. The Ferrari driver looked strong in the early part of Q3 and slotted into fourth. However, he was eclipsed by William’s Pastor Maldonado (fourth), Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen (fifth) and McLaren’s Jenson Button (sixth) in the final runs. The flurry of quick laps dropped him to seventh, his worst starting position since the Italian Grand Prix, when a broken anti-roll bar saw him trail around at the back of the Q3 order.

    “I did almost the same time on three occasions between Q2 and Q3, which means there was nothing more to come,” said Alonso of his performance. “The updates we brought here have improved our performance but the others have not been relaxing on the sofa watching television while twiddling their thumbs…

    “Usually, Saturday is the day we suffer the most, while on Sunday things always go better: let’s hope that will also be the case this time. It’s also true that with so little tyre degradation, the strategic choices are much more limited and so too the opportunities to make up places.”

    Behind Alonso the top ten was completed by Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes in eighth, ahead of Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean for Ferrari and Lotus respectively.

    ends

    From left: Vettel (3rd), Hamilton (1st) and Webber (2nd) after qualification on Saturday. Vettel was later penalised to the back of the grid. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes photo.

  • Abu Dhabi preview: Can Vettel make it 5 in a row?

    Abu Dhabi, 31 Oct 2012: Abu Dhabi hosts the 18th round of the 2012 Formula One World Championship with teams making the short trip from India to the Yas Marina Circuit. F1’s only day/night race has been a great success in its three previous runnings, with the organisers entertaining the crowd with a good selection of support races and other attractions. Inside the F1 paddock, the Yas Marina Circuit has developed a  good reputation – both for its compact arrangement and convivial atmosphere but also with the quality of its garage and circuit facilities, which have been instrumental in it becoming a venue for the young drivers’ test which will take place in the days following the Grand Prix.

    YMC has three very different sectors. High-speed turns dominate the start of the lap, down to the chicane and hairpin at Turn Seven. After that, the middle part of the lap has two very long stra

    Abu Dhabi circuit. Courtesy FIA

    ights separated by a heavy braking zone into a slow-speed chicane. The end of the lap around the harbour has been deliberately designed to mimic Monaco, and like that circuit is mostly slow speed and highly technical.

    YMC demands a little bit of everything in terms of set-up. It has the second-longest straight in F1 so demands good top speed; it features heavy braking and a varied selection of cornering speeds requiring good traction and high downforce. It suggests a wider array of set-up options, though compared to the last three races it does not place such a premium on high-speed cornering ability.

    Famously the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw Sebastian Vettel crowned after a tense season finale into which he went lying third in a championship, 15 points behind Fernando Alonso and seven behind Mark Webber. The finishing order in India last week ensured the Drivers’ Championship cannot be claimed at Yas this year – but Red Bull go into the race with a good chance of taking the Constructors’ Championship.

    CIRCUIT DATA

    YAS MARINA CIRCUIT

    Length of lap:  5.554km

    Lap record: 1:40.279

    (Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing, 2009)

    Start line/finish line offset: 0.115km
    Total number of race laps: 55
    Total race distance: 305.355km

    Pitlane speed limits: 60km/h during practice and qualifying, 100km/h during the race

    Changes to the circuit since 2011: Higher kerbs, similar to those on the apex of turns eight and nine, have been installed on the apexes of turns five, six, 12, 13, 14, 18 and 19..

    ends