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  • Button wins the Hungarian GP, Vettel second, Alonso third

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 6 comments

    Not many would have bet on him at the start, but Jenson Button has won the Hungarian GP in unpredictable weather conditions. Reigning world champ Sebastian Vettel couldn’t catch the Brit, and had to settle for second. Back to becoming a podium regular, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished third. The team mates of the podium trio filled places 4 to 6 in the same order, starting from Hamilton, Webber and Massa.

    Jenson must love Hungary, as it was the venue of his first ever Formula 1 victory back in 2006 with Honda. This is his second win of the season after that super dramatic race in Canada.

    The race started on damp tarmac, and all cars started on intermediate tyres. Pole man Vettel made a great start, pulling ahead of the McLarens, who were side by side in the first set of corners. Hamilton made it stick and was second.

    In the meantime, the Silver Arrows of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher made brilliant starts to occupy 4th and 5th, having started in 7th and 9th respectively. In contrast, Adrian Sutil (8th on grid) and Sergio Perez (10th on grid) made bad starts.

    Double world champ Alonso, who got Ferrari back to winning ways in the British GP, was on a charge, and overtook both Mercedes cars by the third lap, the same lap where DRS was enabled despite plenty of sideways action. By now, there was a good battle for the lead with Lewis challenging Vettel; the Brit finally taking over when Seb went wide on lap 5.

    Speaking of getting wide, Alonso was clearly pushing very hard and visited the runoff areas more than once.

    The second and third sectors were getting dry, and everyone was waiting to see who would blink first and dive in for slicks. It was Red Bull for Mark Webber on lap 11. He came out blazing, and the subsequent two laps saw all the front runners pit, starting with Button. The earlier the better, and Button came out to harass Vettel, succeeding on lap 13. Webber passes Alonso for fourth. Hamilton widens his lead.

    Meanwhile, Team Lotus’ Jarno Trulli retired on lap 19, joined later by teammate Kovalainen on lap 60. Lotus Renault GP’s Nick Heidfeld provided some drama on lap 25, when his car seemed to explode and catch fire when exiting the pitlane. Another man out is Schumi on lap 29 when he fought with Massa.

    The list now reads Hamilton, Button, Vettel, Webber and Alonso. The Ferrari man pitted earlier for fresh rubber and took Webber’s place. The next piece of drama was on lap 46, when leader Hamilton spun at the chicane, letting pass Button for the lead. The rain came into play again at about lap 49, and Button concedes the lead to Lewis, while Vettel spun more than once. Hamilton pitted for inters on lap 50, but Button, now the leader again, stayed out on slicks. Alonso did the same.

    This proved to be the right move, as the track dried up. Hamilton is then passed by Alonso, and after a drive through penalty, he is out of contention, yet another frustrating afternoon for the ex-champ. The positions now read Button, Vettel and Alonso, which remained till the end. Ever the fighter, Hamilton didn’t give up after all that’s happened to him, and overtook Webber for fourth. This happened in the midst of a packed midfield scrap.

    McLaren is on form, and Vettel doesn’t look invincible anymore, but he still leads the championship by a big margin – Button is fifth and 100 points behind the German’s 234. In the constructors list, Red Bull leads McLaren 383 to 280 points.

    The Formula 1 circus will now have a summer break, returning to Spa in Belgium from 26-28 August.

     

  • 2011 German GP: Lewis Hamilton wins it for McLaren

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 19 comments

    Lewis Hamilton has won the 2011 German Grand Prix. The McLaren driver took the gong at Nurburgring ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Mark Webber. It was Hamilton’s second win this season after China, and his 16th career victory.

    Current world champion Sebastian Vettel had a quiet race by his standards – enduring a big spin on lap 10 after an uncharacteristic mistake of putting his wheels on the grass while at that – and finished fourth, ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferrari, though there was a final flourish from both at the very end of the race.

    The two drivers pitted at the same time a lap from the end for hard tyres, and while Massa led Vettel in, the Red Bull crew managed to get the German out ahead of the Brazilian. Still, it was Vettel’s first no-podium finish this season.

    Finishing in sixth was Adrian Sutil of Force India, followed by the two Mercedes GP Petronas cars of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. In ninth was Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber, while 10th place went to Vitaly Petrov of Lotus Renault.

    Meanwhile, it was another day to forget for the other man at McLaren, Jenson Button. Things may not have been as dramatically painful as that in the British GP a fortnight ago, but a retirement is a retirement, however it comes – the end for the 2009 world champion came on lap 36 when a hydraulics problem put him out.

    Pole-sitter Webber had a poor start to the race, allowing Hamilton to get the jump on him at the first turn, and he was almost taken too – on either side – by the two Ferraris, though that moment came to pass and it eventually settled into the usual strategy game and seeing if staying out longer – or coming in early – on a particular compound could prove an inspired choice.

    While that dictated things, the race itself was far from dull – there were certainly enough moments of bravado, first from Webber on lap 32 in attempting to overtake Hamilton as the Englishman came out from the pits after a tyre change, though that maneouvre, which almost came to the point of contact, didn’t come off for the Australian.

    Then it was Hamilton’s turn to do the same to Alonso a lap later as the Ferrari came out of the pits, and through sheer muscle, the 2008 champion darted past the Spaniard. Once in the lead, Hamilton edged away from the two-time champion.

    Towards the end, the leading pack attempted to stretch their softs for as long as they could – Hamilton traded to the hards on lap 51, Alonso two laps later, and Webber holding out until only four laps from the end, a gamble which didn’t pay off. In the end, Hamilton cruised to a comfortable victory, and set the fastest lap of the race two laps before the chequered flag.

    Beyond the racing, what is perhaps more telling is the fact that the previously all-conquering Red Bulls are starting to look quite mortal after all. Vettel still holds a commanding lead in the drivers championship, 77 points ahead of second-placed Webber, but if the last two races are anything to go by, it’s going to be a very interesting run to the end of the season. Has the RBR juggernaut finally been derailed? Next weekend’s race in Hungary should provide more clues.

    You can check out the full results here.

     

  • Mark Webber takes pole position for the 2011 German GP

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 3 comments

    Red Bull’s Mark Webber has clinched his second consecutive pole position, this time at the Nurburgring for the 2011 German GP. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton surprised everyone and managed to secure himself a front row start with his second place. He was just 0.055 seconds slower than Webber’s pole time.

    Championship leader Sebastian Vettel only managed third in his Renault-powered Red Bull which interestingly makes this his worst qualifying result through out the 2011 season. Winner of the previous race Fernando Alonso settled with fourth place in his scarlet Ferrari, just ahead of Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa. Nico Rosberg out-qualified his more experienced team mate yet again with his sixth place for the Mercedes GP Petronas outfit.

    Jenson Button in the other McLaren only managed seventh ahead of Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Lotus Renault’s Vitaly Petrov. Michael Schumacher will start tomorrow’s race from tenth on the grid.

    Team Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen has to make do with 19th, behind Sauber’s Japanese ace Kamui Kobayashi. Team mate Karun Chandhok who takes over the wheel from Jarno Trulli for this race secured 21st, ahead of the Virgin of Jerome d’Ambrosio and the two HRT drivers. It would be an interesting race tomorrow as Alonso is expected to shake up the front row.

    You can view the full qualifying results here.

     

  • Karun Chandhok replaces Team Lotus’ Trulli at German GP

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 2 comments

    Team Lotus is giving Karun Chandhok his first F1 start since last year’s British GP. The Indian driver will take Jarno Trulli’s place alongside Heikki Kovalainen at the Nurburgring. Chandhok is Team Lotus’ reserve driver, and has been behind the wheel of the T128 in practice sessions at Australia, Turkey, Valencia and Silverstone this year. This arrangement is a one-race affair.

    Team boss Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said: “I want to take this chance to thank Jarno for helping make Karun’s opportunity this weekend possible. He has been extremely accommodating in stepping to the side for this race and our commitment to him is unwavering.”

    The AirAsia chief brushed off talks that Trulli will be permanently replaced. “I am delighted to confirm that we are in the process of negotiating an extension to his contract with us and we are all looking forward to unveiling the details of that very soon. He is a key member of our team and I hope that we can give him a car as soon as possible that allows him to utilise his considerable talent to the full.

    “For this weekend he will be on hand to lend his huge experience and support to Karun and I am sure Jarno, Heikki and Karun will do me, the whole team and all our fans very proud indeed,” Fernandes added.

    Chandhok was 1.5 seconds off Heikki’s pace in Friday practice.

     

  • Team Lotus’ Kovalainen: Our expectations were too high

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 38 comments

    After launching the T128 back in January this year, Team Lotus COO Keith Saunt said: “A lot of people might say I’m too optimistic, but I’d like to think we’ll get between 40 and 50 points this year. I think we’re targeting eighth strategically, but I doubt there’ll be a lot between sixth, seventh and eighth. Depending on how the other guys are doing, seventh could be achievable.”

    It must pain Mr Saunt every time he’s reminded of that statement, as we’re now at the half way point of the season, and Team Lotus still has not scored its first point in F1. Their best placing was 13th in Australia and Monaco, both courtesy of Jarno Trulli. Teammate Heikki Kovalainen now admits that they’ve aimed too high.

    “I would say that our expectations were too high. Though we have closed the gap compared to last year, where we were five seconds behind, now we are 2.5-3s behind, so we have taken a lot of steps forward,” he told Autosport

    “But now, looking into year two and into the midfield if you like, many teams are stuck there. The reason for this is because it is very, very tough – and at the moment we are still missing the facilities. We don’t have a good enough factory. I don’t think our wind tunnel is good enough.

    “We have a lot of good people in the team but, at the moment, I don’t think you can judge them, because the tools that they have are not good enough yet.

    “So we need to give the people better tools to actually show what everyone can do – including myself. I have no single doubts about my own ability and, at the moment, I am very happy about the situation and my position in Team Lotus,” the Finn added.

    What’s your view on this?

     

  • Rosberg to drive Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes at Nurburgring

    In Formula 1, Mercedes Benz, Motorsports / By / / 3 comments


    Fangio en route to victory at the Argentinean GP in January 1955. Click to enlarge

    Mercedes GP Petronas driver Nico Rosberg will have the honour of driving Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes on the Nurburging’s old Nordschleife layout this weekend at the German GP.

    It will be a great moment for the crowd and the young driver. 57 years ago, Fangio won the German GP at the wheel of his Mercedes W196 race car, the second of his four triumphs that year for Mercedes, en route to the title.

    Back in 1954, the Argentinean won the race in a time of just over 3 hours 45 minutes around the famous 22.8 km track. Throughout his racing career, Fangio won five F1 world titles in cars from four different manufacturers, and is one of the sport’s greats. He passed away in 1995, and would have turned 100 this year.

    “Coming to the Nurburgring for the German Grand Prix always feels very special to me. There is so much history around this amazing track, especially for Mercedes-Benz with great drivers from the past having had such successful times on the Nurburgring and the legendary Nordschleife,” Rosberg said.

    Will stepping into the legend’s car around the legendary track give Nico a boost in the race? The magic worked at the previous race for Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who got to sample the 375 F1 which Jose Froilan Gonzalez drove to the Scuderia’s first championship victory in the 1951 British GP. He then went on to win at Silverstone. Rosberg’s best showing so far at his home race was a fourth place for Williams in 2009.

     

  • Flip flop FIA makes U-turn, off-throttle diffuser now allowed

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 12 comments

    The flip flop bug has hit the FIA, which has now made a U-turn on its decision to ban blown diffusers in Formula 1. This means that the off-throttle blown diffuser is now legal again, after all parties unanimously agreed that the ban should be rescinded.

    The issue reached boiling point at the British GP, where concessions (first to Mercedes engines) and counter concessions (Renault engines) caused anger in the paddock. FIA then realised what they’ve gotten themselves into, and rolled back the whole thing “to be fair”. Sounds avoidable if there was proper consultation. Here’s the official explanation:

    “The matter was still being discussed because one engine manufacturer (Renault Sport) was reluctant to run with the settings we had imposed and continued to try and convince us that they would require alternative settings in order to maintain their perfect reliability record. At the last minute additional information was provided to us which we felt would be hard to refuse having already made a small concession to another manufacturer (Mercedes Benz).

    “However, further discussions on Friday evening and Saturday morning resulted in us deciding that we had conceded too much and, to be fair to the manufacturers who had presented cars in what we considered the correct configuration, we should revert to the specification we had specified in our note to the teams on 20 June. This is how all teams then ran on Saturday and Sunday in Silverstone,” FIA said.

    This would not be an issue next season, as teams have agreed to a new exhaust tailpipe position that exits the bodywork much higher up, and no longer in the vicinity of the diffuser. Any aerodynamic benefit will be kept to an absolute minimum as a result.

    However, I have a feeling that some clever team will find a loophole and derive some benefit out of the new layout. The others will protest, and we go back to square one :)

     

  • Mercedes GP Petronas happy with new exhaust system

    In Formula 1, Mercedes Benz, Motorsports / By / / 6 comments

    Mercedes GP Petronas gave its new exhaust system a debut at last weekend’s British GP, and not only is the team happy with the better performance it brings, they’re expecting a stronger showing for the remaining half of the season. The MGP W02s of Rosberg and Schumacher ran a longer exhaust design to improve the efficiency of the blown diffuser, something the top three teams also use.

    “We are on a new path with the exhaust system. With the system we had before we had explored most of the potential of it, and we were finding it very difficult to make progress. The new exhaust system is quite encouraging because we are seeing greater levels of potential with the new system than we saw with the old system,” team principal Ross Brawn explained.

    “Our challenge – and we haven’t proven it yet – is to get over the reliability issues, and the installation issues. It wasn’t helped with the changes in engine mapping which have come along right in the middle of our project, but if is generally positive,” he added.

    There are more updates on the way. “We can see potential in the system, but more important we have things coming which will take more and more advantage of this technology and this approach. We are reasonably optimistic. I am optimistic we will find some good advances with the system,” an upbeat Brawn said.

    Rosberg was sixth and Schumacher ninth in Silverstone despite his misadventures, pushing Mercedes up to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

     

  • Webber ignored team orders, in for “private talk” with boss

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 12 comments

    In yesterday’s British GP, the two Red Bulls were beaten by Fernando Alonso, with championship leader Seb Vettel in second and Mark Webber in third. The Aussie tried challenging his teammate for position right till the end, when we heard a team order calling for restraint.

    But the team radio snippets that we hear on TV are delayed; “Mark, you need to maintain the gap,” was actually spoken around four laps from the end of the race. This means that Webber ignored the order and went for it. He has confessed so, and unhappy team boss Christian Horner will hold a “private talk” with the Aussie.

    “I can understand Mark’s frustration in that, but had it been the other way around it would have been exactly the same. It happened a couple of years ago in Turkey when exactly the same thing happened with Sebastian, so it makes no sense from a team point of view to risk both of your cars. It was obvious that neither was going to concede,” he told Autosport

    “And, as we saw with [Felipe] Massa and [Lewis] Hamilton at the last corner, who very nearly made contact, it made no sense from a team point of view to allow them to continue to fight over those last couple of laps. Mark obviously chose to ignore that and didn’t make the pass in any event, but that is the team’s position,” Horner added.

    This effectively means that Webber will be just a supporter from now on then? “He is free to fight for race wins. He qualified on pole position here. He had the ability, the opportunity to win this race. It didn’t pan out for him today but we will continue to give him every chance to do so.

    “From a team perspective, I made it quite clear in the drivers’ briefing this morning in front of the engineers, that the biggest thing today was about getting a team result in front of all of the staff who put in so much effort into both of those cars, for the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ championship.

    “At the end of the day, the team championship is every bit as important as the drivers’ championship to us. And we risked giving away 33 points today in the last three laps by allowing our drivers to fight it out. As we have seen previously, that can have dire consequences,” Horner explained.

     

  • British GP: Alonso wins for Ferrari ahead of the Red Bulls

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 18 comments

    Fernando Alonso has won the British GP. The double world champ got Ferrari on the top step of the podium for the first time this season after a great drive, finishing ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in their Red Bulls. Lewis Hamilton finished fourth for McLaren, but not after a final corner scramble with Felipe Massa. The finishing order of the Red Bulls could have been different as well, if not for a last lap team order on pole sitter Webber.

    Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP Petronas), Sergio Perez (Sauber) and Nick Heidfeld (Lotus Renault GP) finished in the next three spots, respectively. The trio made a two-stop strategy work, as opposed to the three-stop race of the front runners. A former winner here, Michael Schumacher managed to get some points today.

    He had good pace throughout, but a collision with Kobayashi on lap 9, and the subsequent stop-go penalty he received, spoiled his day. By the way, stop-go penalties replaced drive throughs for this race, as the latter is too light of a penalty on this track. Alguersuari was 10th for Toro Rosso.

    Not the craziest race we’ve seen this season, but it’s in the upper half of the exciting scale. All cars started the race on intermediate tyres, thanks to rain throughout the weekend. Webber isn’t the best starter around, and he maintained form by being passed by fellow front row occupant Vettel at the start. He started 10th on the grid, but Hamilton was flying at the start, jumping to 6th within the first few laps. He then went wide on lap 5, but thankfully the runoff was tarmac.

    On the same lap, DRS was enabled, and part of Silverstone was already dry. Team Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen, who managed to enter Q2 yesterday, was the first car to retire after a gearbox problem. After a decent start, the Finn lost fourth gear. He was joined by teammate Trulli later for a double DNF in Team Lotus’ “other home race”.

    After the above mentioned lap 9 collision between Schumi and Kobayashi, the German pitted for a new nose and slicks. He came out with blazing laps, and that was the cue for the rest of the field to replace their inters around lap 12. There was plenty of action thereafter, when Button took Massa and Lewis passed Alonso for third.

    Hamilton was really flying at this moment and the move on his former “best friend” took plenty of guts and faith that the car will stick off the dry line.

    The home boy couldn’t sustain the pace, and Alonso retook his place on lap 24 under DRS. Lewis pitted right after. Meanwhile Kobayashi was penalised with a stop-go for unsafe release in the pitlane. Force India’s Paul di Resta, who is British, saw his promising race (he qualified 6th) crushed with a pit stop disaster – they took out Sutil’s tyres for him, resulting in wasted time.

    On lap 27, Webber, Button and Massa pitted and Alonso was showing serious pace at this point behind race leader Vettel. The following lap, both men came in the pits for the defining moment of the race. Red Bull, normally unflappable in pit stops, got stuck with Seb’s left rear, as the championship leader watched Alonso pass by helplessly. Even worst, he came out behind Hamilton, who pitted earlier.

    Vettel was all over the McLaren’s gearbox, and it was a cat and mouse game while Alonso pulled away from the duo. Lewis defended very well, and seeing few attempts to get pass fail, Red Bull called in Vettel for his last set of softs. This was on lap 37. Lewis pitted a lap later, but lost his place to the undercutting Vettel easily.

    There was drama on lap 41 when Button, who was in 6th, pitted for the final time. He then stopped on the grass just before rejoining the track thanks to a loose front right wheel. Out of the race, and it looks like Button’s bad luck in his home race continues.

    Entering the final stage of the race, Alonso held a good lead over Vettel and Hamilton. But on lap 43, McLaren radioed Lewis to tell him to save fuel. This was the cue Mark Webber needed, and the Aussie seized the the chance to take the final podium spot from a helpless Lewis.

    He wasn’t contented, racing on to catch, then challenge Vettel, before team orders broke his challenge. “Mark, you need to maintain the gap,” the order went. Webber, we feel for you.

    Meanwhile, Massa had a go at Hamilton for fourth, but the tame, tiny Brazilian was never going to pull it off against the aggressive Lewis, and sure enough, he failed. Cutting in from outside, Massa was poked by Lewis but both went on side by side. The final corner saw the Ferrari went wide, to the cheers of the locals.

    He didn’t win, but Vettel is still very comfortable in the standings with an 80-point lead over Webber. Alonso is now third with 112 points. The next race is the German GP at the Nurburgring two weeks from now.

     
 
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