SEBASTIAN VETTEL- FOUR TIME WORLD CHAMPION The Michael Report- 2013 AIRTEL INDIAN GRAND PRIX

INDIA may not have the Raj anymore, or have Queen Elizabeth II as its Empress, but today, at the Buddh International Circuit, it had the honour of crowning a new Formula One champion, and it was bestowed upon Sebastian Vettel. He has become only the fourth man in the history of the sport to have claimed four titles, joining an élite consisting of Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Juan Manuel Fangio. The fact that he is only 26, and that this is the fourth consecutive year in which he has won the title, goes to show that he is capable of much more. Some criticise the young German for not being able to race, but Abu Dhabi last year disproved this, and some criticise him because he is merely the person steering a successful four wheeled machine around a race track. This is also not true. He is a key figure of the triad of motor sporting brilliance, consisting of himself, the driver, Adrian Newey- master engineer and technical officer- and Christian Horner- the Team Principal. Together, they dominate the Red Bull Racing team, and this combination has now managed to win both Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships for the past four years, and today’s Grand Prix was a testing one in which to accomplish these feats.

It was predicted that the race would be dominated by tyres, since Pirelli had chosen the speedy soft compound, which degrades after about 10 laps, and the slower medium compound, which was more durable. Teams debated strategy over Qualifying, and it was decided that Mark Webber would begin on the medium tyres and Vettel on the softs. It was looking as if Mark Webber could take the chequered flag- he looked after his tyres, and was building a good lead, until his alternator broke down and the Australian was forced to retire from the race, leaving his team-mate the opportunity to take the lead and the chequered flag, meaning he would secure the Championship. Indeed, Vettel himself drove carefully, especially when manoeuvring his way through traffic following an early pit-stop.

The Mercedes team were also strong- Nico Rosberg managed to negotiate around the New Delhi circuit and finished second, with eighteen points, and team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished in an average sixth place, earning himself eight points. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean suffered badly in Qualifying (he had to start seventeenth), but managed to look after his medium tyres to make his way through the field, and despite nearly colliding with his team-mate Kimi Raikkönen, he finished on the podium, earning himself another fifteen points.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso suffered contact and never featured heavily in the race, so it was up to Felipe Massa to earn vital points in order to aim for second place in the Constructors’ Championships. He finished fourth, earning twelve points. McLaren’s Sergio Perez proved that he was a capable driver when it comes to tyre strategy, and he finished a respectable fifth, and earned ten points. Raikkönen eventually finished seventh and earned six points; Force India were eighth and ninth, with Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil picking up four and two points respectively; Daniel Ricciardo finished tenth, securing one point for Toro Rosso.

OFFICIAL STANDINGS UPDATE Doughnuts on the track were Vettel’s way of celebrating his historic accomplishment, followed by a moving podium interview. He has dominated the 2013 season, and wrapped up both titles with three more races still to go, but it is still all to play for, since the higher positions will bring more revenue for teams and drivers.

Sebastian Vettel is first with 322 points in the Drivers’ Championships, and Fernando Alonso is currently second, with 207 points to his name. However, Kimi Raikkönen is close behind with 183 points, as is Lewis Hamilton, with 169 points. All three will be vying for second place in the coming Grands Prix. Mark Webber is fifth with 148 points, but Nico Rosberg is only 4 points behind in sixth.

Romain Grosjean and Felipe Massa both own 102 points, with Grosjean in seventh place due to his better race results. Jenson Button is ninth with 60 points, and fellow Brit Paul Di Resta is tenth with 40 points, with Nico Hulkenberg breathing down his neck with 39 points in eleventh. Twelfth place sees Sergio Perez with 33 points; Adrian Sutil is thirteenth with 28 points. Daniel Ricciardo is fourteenth with 19 points and Jean-Eric Vergne is fifteenth with 13 points. Esteban Gutierrez is sixteenth with 6 points, with Pastor Maldonado seventeenth with 1 point to his name.

In the Constructors’ Championships, Red Bull is the winner with an impressive haul of 470 points. But, the competition for second place is a very tight contest indeed. Currently, Mercedes are in the silver position with 313 points, but Ferrari has 309 points, and Lotus isn’t that far behind, with 285 points to their name. McLaren have all but secured fifth place with 93 points; Force India is sixth with 68. Sauber, with 45 points, are battling eighth place Toro Rosso who have 32 points. Williams are ninth with 1 point, and Marussia are still in tenth, ahead of Caterham, despite not scoring any points.

The next Grand Prix will be held in a week’s time at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, where the day turns into night during the race. The sun may be setting on the 2013 Formula One season, but don’t write off the sport yet, for the final three races of the year may yet surprise us as the teams and drivers battle it out for position and funding.

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Vettel makes it a hat-trick in the night of Singapore

Welcome to the new look race review, I hope you like it!

So who won the 2013 Singapore GP?

Sebastian Vettel won his 7th race of the season and his third Singapore GP win in three years. It was a dominant victory for Vettel taking pole, fastest lap and leading every lap of the race.

Was there much competition?

Not really, after 3 laps Vettel was well ahead and despite a safety car on lap 25 which let the rest catch up he went on to win the race by 32.6 seconds. On the first lap Rosberg came close to stealing the lead and led through the first corner but he ran slightly wide at the second and that was it Vettel went on to win.

How did Rosberg do after that?

Rosberg ended up finishing 4th, being overtaken by Alonso before being undercut by Mark Webber during their second stops. Rosberg was then overtaken by Raikkonen before Webber’s engine problems let Rosberg back up to 4th.

So Alonso and Raikkonen completed the podium? I thought they started way down the grid.

Yes and yes, Alonso started 7th before finishing second whilst Raikkonen started 13th and finished 3rd, showing that it is possible to gain places on a street circuit. Alonso had a blistering start overtaking 4 drivers before the first corner before eventually overtaking Rosberg, but his best moment came when he managed to finish the race on 36 lap old tyres. Whilst Raikkonen showed his strength by racing with an injured back – which destroyed his qualifying – and still finished 3rd.

You mentioned a safety car earlier, what was that for?

Soon to be Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo crashed at turn 18 leading to a safety car which ensured Singapore’s 100% safety car rate. Turn 18 was always me undoing when I raced Singapore on F1 2009 so I can sympathise with Daniel for crashing there, what I can’t sympathise with is the FIA’s rule for letting lapped cars unlap themselves in a safety car, it wastes time and means the safety car has to be out for a couple more laps. If you end up behind a lapped car during a safety car period, bad luck hopefully it will be someone else next time.

So how did the Brits do?

Hamilton finished 5th after a dubious strategy, whilst Button looked like a good bet for a podium before his tyres became destroyed and ending up 7th. Paul di Resta had a very strong race and looked set for a very strong points finish before an accident on lap 54 ended his race. Rookie, Max Chilton finished ahead of team mate Bianchi and Pic but he’ll be lucky to race in F1 next year.

Any post race steward decisions?

Yes, lots. As previously mentioned Webber had a engine problem that meant he had to retire from 4th place on the final lap when his car set on fire, but luckily he got a lift back to the pits with Alonso who was on his slowing down lap at the time, in doing so both drivers broke article 30.9 (b) of the regulations and were both issued with reprimands and since this was Webber’s third reprimand he’s been given a 10 place grid penalty for the next race. Lotus were also issued a reprimand after a mechanic wasn’t wearing a helmet during a pit stop.

So who was the best driver and how good was the race?

Personally my driver of the day was Alonso for his fantastic start and his tyre management in the later stages of the race, but Vettel and Raikkonen are up there. Sadly the race was pretty dull and so I’ll rate it a 3/10, if you want to watch the best bits I recommend the first lap and the last 10 laps , the others aren’t worth watching.

So how does the championship stand now?

Ferrari gained 1 point in the constructors championship over Red Bull, but they’re still 103 points behind. Ferrari also extended their small lead over Mercedes by 4 points to take their lead to 7 points. In the driver’s championship Vettel added an additional 7 points to his now 60 point lead over Alonso. Alonso now has 187 points with Hamilton third on 151 points and Raikkonen 4th on 149 points. Which means that all the top 4 drivers drive for different teams.

Korea is the next race on the calendar and it’s a Red Bull stronghold so expect to see them on the podium again in two weeks time.

For full race results go here.

Back at Last

I haven’t blogged in a while, mainly due to exams, holiday and now UCAS applications but exams and holidays have happened and the UCAS form will be finished (at last) shortly. 

Despite this it’s likely that there will be times when I don’t post as often as you and I would want me to and I will apologise now for when this happens and try and catch up whenever possible.

Almost finally you will notice that the style of my posts will change to a more question and answer style, I got this idea from the i newspaper’s page 3 profile and tried it out last winter. I prefer this way of writing and I hope you’ll prefer reading it.

And so with nothing else to procrastinate about here is Michael’s review of the Italian GP (it’s very late but that’s my fault not his)

ALONSO RELIES ON LADY LUCK FOLLOWING SIXTH VETTEL VICTORY

AS Sebastian Vettel took his sixth chequered flag of the 2013 season yesterday, a dejected Tifosi were left wondering what their hero Fernando Alonso could do to achieve a World Championship title for Ferrari. He admitted after the race that he will need luck on his side if he is to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, as although he was strong, he couldn’t come near the reigning World Champion at Monza.

Vettel’s race began perfectly for him- he led from the front and raced off into the distance in classic Vettel form. He managed to create a large enough gap so he could pit and re-take the lead of the Grand Prix. The German driver won very comfortably and faced little difficulty in cruising around the Monza circuit. With seven races left this season, another twenty-five points to his tally will mean that it would take complete and utter disaster in several of the upcoming races to steal the 2013 crown.

Alonso and Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber accompanied Sebastian atop the podium, amidst the roars and boos, and earned eighteen and fifteen points respectively. Felipe Massa finished in an impressive fourth place and earned himself twelve points. Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg finished in fifth place which was his best finish so far this year. Although he was unable to prevent being overtook twice during the race, Hulkenberg has proved himself a capable driver, and one that would be worthy of a place next year in a better car. The F1 world is awash with rumours about driver transfers, and Nico has been tipped for a place in Ferrari or possibly Lotus. It would certainly be a shame if he was to lose a drive prior to next year’s season.

Nico Rosberg finished sixth for Mercedes and earned himself eight points, and Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh, with six points. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean earned four points in eighth and Lewis Hamilton overcame a slow puncture to finish ninth and earned himself two points. Jenson Button finished tenth and gained a point for McLaren in its 50th year in Formula One.

OFFICIAL STANDINGS UPDATE

Vettel currently leads the Drivers’ Championships, with 222 points. Alonso is in second place, 53 points adrift with 169. Lewis Hamilton, who wrote in his BBC column that his Championship contention is over, is third with 141. He is 7 points ahead of Kimi Raikkönen, who has 134, who is 4 points ahead of Mark Webber’s total of 130.

Nico Rosberg is sixth with 104 points and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa has 79 points and lies in seventh. Romain Grosjean is eighth with 57 points, 9 points ahead of Jenson Button in ninth. Paul Di Resta is tenth with 36 points, and his team-mate Adrian Sutil is eleventh with 25. Sergio Perez is twelfth and Nico Hulkenberg is thirteenth, each with 18 points. Daniel Ricciardo is in fourteenth place with 17 points. Team-mate Jean Eric Vergne is fifteenth with 13, and Williams’ Pastor Maldonado is sixteenth with 1 point. Valtteri Bottas has no points, but due to previous results, is ahead of Esteban Guttierez, Jules Bianchi, Charles Pic, Giedo Van Der Garde and Max Chilton.

For the Constructors, Red Bull are first with 352 points, nearly 100 ahead of their nearest rivals, Ferrari, who have 248. Mercedes are third with 245, and Lotus are fourth with 191 points. McLaren are fifth with 66 points, 5 ahead of Force India with 61. Toro Rosso lie seventh with 31 points and Sauber are eighth with 17. Williams are ninth with a solitary point, and Marussia lead Caterham, despite not scoring yet.

The European Grands Prix are over for another year, and the final fly-away phase of the season will begin in a fortnight. It looks as if Sebastian Vettel is increasing his tightening grip around a fourth World Championship title, and it will be indeed Lady Luck who will have her say, should he be unfortunate enough to loosen his grip.

Michael

Sorry it’s so late.

SEBASTIAN VETTEL WINS THE CANADIAN PROCESSION

The Michael Report- FORMULA ONE GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2013

TWO YEARS ago, Jenson Button, driving for McLaren, endured six pit stops, numerous safety cars, horrendous weather and still managed to overtake the entire field to take the lead from Sebastian Vettel on the last lap of an enthralling Canadian Grand Prix. Sadly on sunday, we witnessed a rather mundane sporting spectacle which saw Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull steal the show with a runaway maiden victory on the Île De Notre-Dame today.

Sebastian led the race from lights out to chequered flag- he made it look effortless, lapping all but four cars in an easy cruise around 70 laps of the Circuit Gilles Vileneuve. No opponent came close to preventing the young German take twenty-five points, which are arguably the easiest points for Vettel this year. It was slightly more exciting with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. The former had managed to hold onto second place for over sixty laps, pit stops excluded, but the latter overtook Lewis on the home straight, just a few laps before the end; it was a close call, and they clipped briefly, but fifteen points for Mercedes will be some consolation- they failed to end their rubber degradation woes, but it didn’t affect the team as much as it did in Barcelona two races ago. Alonso picks up eighteen points for second.

Mark Webber finished fourth, with twelve points, despite losing some of his front wing in a collision with a snail’s pace Caterham (Giedo Van Der Garde) which failed to obey the blue flags. As a result, he was penalised with a stop/go penalty. Nico Rosberg fought hard, and managed to hold on to fifth place, only just avoiding the embarrassment of being lapped by Vettel. He receives ten points. Toro Rosso’s Jean Eric-Vergne will be elated with his best ever finish- sixth place- today. Vergne demonstrated progress in Red Bull’s younger sister team to qualify in yesterday’s changing conditions, and finished satisfactorily, winning eight points.

Many teams complain about the tyres, but Paul Di Resta will be smug after an astonishing seventh place, after qualifying seventeenth. The young Scot nursed his harder tyres for a whole fifty-four laps, amend managed to overtake cars and leave enough of a gap to pit only once and hold on to his treasured six points. Felipe Massa finished eighth place, which is an achievement following yesterday’s hefty crash during qualifying. He overtook eight cars and brought home four points for Ferrari.

Ice Man Kimi Raikkönen survived a clip with Adrian Sutil and a poor pit stop to finish ninth with two points, and despite driving in a spin, at one point, and undergoing a drive-through penalty for his collision, Force India’s Adrian Sutil brought the car home to finish tenth and pick up the final Championship point. Alas, McLaren finished eleventh and twelfth (Perez and Button respectively) and did not score. They qualified poorly and their lacklustre performance was heightened by the fact that this is the first time in sixty-four races that they didn’t score. Can they improve their cars and overcome technical and performance gremlins to make a second half of the season comeback? McLaren fans will hope so.

It was a sad end for Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. The Finn qualified in an amazing third place, proving that there is pace in their cars, but that pace did not transfer over to today’s dry conditions, and he finished fourteenth. Today’s retirements were Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Guttierez, who lost control into the first corner towards the end of the race and Giedo Van Der Garde, who lost his front wing in a collision with Hulkenberg.

OFFICIAL STANDINGS UPDATE

Sebastian Vettel has increased his lead to 36, and now holds 132 Drivers’ Championship points. This is more than a race victory, and he can afford to take a holiday next race and still hold onto the lead. He leads the Championship, ahead of Fernando Alonso with 96 points. Fernando has overtaken Kimi Raikkönen, who is now third with 88 points. Lotus need to find some more form if they wish to compete once more with Vettel for the title. 11 points behind lies Lewis Hamilton, currently fourth with 77 points. In fifth place, we have Mark Webber with 69 points, and Nico Rosberg is sixth with 57 points. Felipe Massa remains in seventh with 49 points.

Paul Di Resta is eighth with 34 points, and Romain Grosjean is ninth with 26, one point ahead of Jenson Button with 25 points.

In the Constructors’ Championships, Red Bull have extended their lead even further, with 201 points. Their lead has been extended from 41 to 56 points. Ferrari are second with 145 points. Mercedes have stolen third place from Lotus, with 134 points, 20 points ahead of their British rival with 114 points. Force India are fifth, a huge 63 points adrift with 51 points; McLaren are sixth with 37 points. Toro Rosso have increased their points tally to 20 points in seventh, and Sauber remain eighth with 5. Williams lead Marussia who lead Caterham and are still yet to score.

I will be back in three week’s time, when Formula One heads to the home of British motorsport, Silverstone. Mark Webber won an incredible race last year, with a wash out qualifying session and an exciting Grand Prix

Michael

Since this report was written we have found out that a marshall died whilst rescuing Esteban Gutierrez’s car. Marshalling is a job full of hazards and the men and women who do it show a lot of bravery and our thoughts are with the marshall’s family and friends at this difficult time.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON- NICO ROSBERG WINS AN ACTION PACKED MONACO GRAND PRIX

The Michael Report- FORMULA ONE GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2013

IT HAS been thirty years to the very day that Nico Rosberg’s father, Keke, won his only Monaco Grand Prix, and today his son delivered a well deserved victory, manoeuvring the tight and twisting streets of the tiny Principality for seventy eight laps to win in spectacular style.

The narrow roads of Monaco are a definite challenge for any driver, let alone for the drivers of ultra- fast Formula One cars, and if a driver makes one mistake, then they are duly punished with a trip into the barriers- to win in Monaco requires a sublime balance between speed, skill and a little dose of luck on your side, and the historic street circuit claimed six cars in the two hours that ensured once the five red lights went out.

The day started rather ominously for the Mercedes team, since both Red Bull and Ferrari  have lodged an official complaint against Rosberg’s team, since they admitted that Pirelli- the tyre manufacturers- had asked them to conduct a 1,000 km tyre test with the Mercedes cars, which they feel breached the FIA regulations. Hopefully, this incident will not detract from the excellent driving we witnessed from Nico, who has taken his second Grand Prix victory in style.

The race started off with the retirement of Caterham’s Charles Pic, who suffered a gearbox seizure which then caused the engine to set alight; thankfully a safety car was not needed. Meanwhile, many predicted that the race would be dominated once again by tyre degradation, but a red flag and two safety car periods wreaked havoc with the tyre strategists. Firstly, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was cruising along the home straight, but locked up and tapped the barrier, before sliding into another barrier at Sainte-Devote with significant force; Felipe was taken to hospital for a check up, and wasn’t badly injured, thankfully.

After the deployment of the safety car, Nico and Lewis Hamilton were first and second respectively, but although Nico pitted for fresh rubber and got away with his lead in tact, his team-mate fell back two places, and re-emerged from the pits behind Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in fourth. This was the final formation of the top four; Hamilton finished fourth and gets twelve points, Webber third with fifteen and Vettel second with eighteen points. However, the action did not stop there.

In French, the name for a Formula One driver is a “pilote”, and Pastor Maldonado took to the air literally in an incident with Marussia’s Max Chilton; after contact, part of the Williams driver’s front wing was sucked underneath the car, causing the vehicle to take flight and collide into the barriers at Tabac corner. The impact was sufficient enough to distort the barriers and a red flag was waved. This played beautifully into the hands of Paul Di Resta. The Force India driver qualifying in a terrible seventeenth place yesterday, but after pitting really early (probably anticipating a safety car after Pic’s retirement), the Scot was suffering with badly worn tyres. Red flag regulations decree that drivers may replace tyres before the restart, and Di Resta eventually finished ninth, and received two points. Who said you couldn’t make up positions in Monaco?

After restarting under the safety car, Lotus’ Romain Grosjean was involved in yet another collision with a car upon exiting the tunnel, and careered into the back of Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, damaging the cars considerably, and causing debris to be strewn across the track, and this led to the third deployment of the safety car, which has made up for five grands prix without its invaluable service.

The final retirement was Sergio Perez. He had risked, and pulled off, some impressive overtaking manoeuvres in his McLaren car; he overtook Fernando Alonso at La Nouvelle Chicane, and because Alonso defended by cutting the corner, he decided to allow Perez to overtake him after the restart to avoid a penalty from the stewards. However, Perez’s glory was short lived, because he lost most of his front wing after colliding with Kimi Raikkönen, again at the end of the tunnel at La Nouvelle Chicane. Kimi pitted for fresh tyres, but Sergio managed to limp on, but unfortunately began losing control and had to crawl down the escape road at La Rascasse, just a couple of laps before the chequered flag. But, McLaren should be pleased with a competitive performance from both of their drivers- maybe this is a turning point? Monaco, though, does require completely different set-ups than the over Grands Prix on the calendar.

Adrian Sutil was propelled into fifth place after Perez retired, and earned a well deserved, and badly needed ten points after suffering some misfortunes and errors over the first few races this season. Jenson Button finished in a strong sixth place, and picks up eight points; Fernando Alonso finished seventh and receives six points. Toro Rosso’s Jean Eric- Vergne will be more than pleased with four points after finishing eighth, as will Kimi Raikkönen, who managed to make his way through the pack in the dying moments of the race to pick up a point in tenth. This is Kimi’s twenty-third consecutive point scoring finish, nearly beating the world record set by Michael Schumacher.

Nico Rosberg becomes the first son of a winning driver to achieve victory amidst the glitz, glamour, prestige and heritage associated with the world’s most  prestigious and most famous motor race, a feat that he should duly celebrate, and hopefully the threat of protest (which, at the time of writing, has yet to be resolved) will not detract from a truly amazing performance.

OFFICIAL STANDINGS UPDATE

In the Drivers’ Championships, Sebastian Vettel maintains his lead, and now has 107 points to his name, and he has increased his lead to 21 points, ahead of Kimi Raikkönen, who is second with 86 points. Alas, Fernando Alonso would have been hoping for a better result today, and he now lies third with 78 points, 16 ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who is fourth with 62 points. Mark Webber has now reclaimed fifth place, and holds 57 points. Felipe Massa’s trip to the hospital has meant that he has fallen from fifth to seventh- Nico Rosberg has climbed three to sixth place with 47 points. Massa has 45.

Paul Di Resta is eighth with 28 points, 2 ahead of Romain Grosjean in ninth, who is one point ahead of Jeson Button in tenth place with 25 points.

In the Constructors’ Championships, Red Bull have raced further ahead into the lead, and now have 164 points. Their nearest contenders are Ferrari, who have 123 points in second. Just 11 behind lie Lotus with 112 points, and Mercedes are in a comfortable fourth place with 109 points. A huge chasm has been forged between the teams now, since 65 points separate Mercedes and Force India, who are fifth with 44 points. McLaren are now chasing Force India more carefully now, with 37 points in sixth. Toro Rosso have entered double digits, with 12 points in seventh, ahead of Sauber in ninth with just 5 points to their name. Williams lead Marussia who lead Caterham, but are yet to score.

I will be back in a fortnight when Formula One flies off to Montreal and the Canadian Grand Prix. Last year saw Lewis Hamilton take his first victory for McLaren last year, and he will be hoping to take his first Mercedes chequered flag, especially since his team-mate has had his first victory of the year in Monaco, but can he pull it off? Or, will the car succumb to that annoying gremlin that is the tyres? Find out in two weeks’ time.

Michael

Rosberg leads from start to finish as carnage rules in Monaco

Tweet review, Monaco 13

• The grid is: 1.ROS HAM VET WEB 5.RAI ALO PER SUT BUT 10.VER HUL RIC GRO BOT 15.VDG MAL DIR PIC GUT 20.CHI BIA MAS – @formula1formula 12:38
• Bianchi got left on the grid at the start of the formation lap abut may be able to start from the pits – @espnf1 13:03
• Pastor Maldonado & Giedo VDG are back in the pits after contact coming into the Loews hairpin. Sutil also made contact in the same place. – @sarahholtf1 13:06
• Into lap 3 – top 10: ROS, HAM, VET, WEB, RAI, ALO, PER, BUT, SUT, VER – @ByTheMinF1 13:08
• Jenson grasses up his team mate for cutting the chicane. Share the love guys…. – @grandprixdiary 13:09
• a caterham on fire – @easonf1 13:15
• Charles Pic has stopped on pit entry with a car fire, this may be a safety car – @f1onnbcsports 13:16
• Pic suffers a engine fire at the pit lane entrance. The car is removed without the need for a safety car. – @jamesallenonf1 13:18
• So Van De Gar in a Caterham (last place) is doing 1:21.7. Rosberg leading is doing 1:22.5. – @literalf1 13:19
• The Mercedes train has pulled away and now Alonso is the train leader. He is over 3 seconds behind Raikkonen now – @formula1_com
• With Alonso going so much slower than the rest I wouldn’t be surprised if Ferrari were trying to 1 stop him – @formula1formula 13:26
• L18 Alonso picks up his pace, last lap was 0.9s faster than Rosberg’s. – @f1fanaticlive 13:28
• The only person happy with this pace is Grosjean, no risk of making a mistake and planting it in a barrier. – @fakewhitmarsh 13:30
• Brave stuff from Bianchi on Maldonado – @rookief1 13:38
• GET IN! @pauldirestaf1 passes Massa on the outside of Ste Devote. Amazing move – who says you can’t overtake in Monaco? – @clubforce 13:40
• Massa crashes at St Devote, the place where he crashed yesterday, debris all over the track, expecting the safety car to come out – @formula1formula 13:44
• Safety car – the first this season. – @f1times 13:45
• Mercedes queue their drivers in the pits from P1 and P2. Hamilton has lost out to Vettel and Webber under the safety car – @f1onnbcsports 13:47
• SC: ROS, VET, WEB, HAM, RAI, ALO, BUT, PER, SUT, VER, DIR, HUL, RIC, GRO, BOT, CHI, GUT, MAL, BIA, VDG, [MAS, PIC out] @formula1_com
• Massa’s crumpled Ferrari has now been removed. Rosberg has to get ready to defend his lead from Vettel, who made a quick start earlier. – @sarahholtf1 13:54
• Rosberg told: “We expect it to go green this lap so really try to get temperature in.” Safety car coming in. – @f1fanaticlive 13:59
• HAM SO nearly gets past WEB! But WEB JUST stays ahead! – @f1_fans_updates 14:03
• Button taps Alonso going through the Loews hairpin, no damage done to either driver. Perez makes a great overtake on Button for P7 – @f1onnbssports 14:06
• Red Flag: Maldonado has had a biggie and took out the barriers at Tabac – @formula1formula 14:11
• Presumably cars will change tyres at red flag, and there’ll be a safety car restart. So, any position changes will have to be on track. F1 – @talkingaboutf1 14:14
• Red Flag: ROS, VET, WEB, HAM, RAI, ALO, PER, BUT, SUT, VER, DIR, HUL, RIC, GRO, BOT, GUT, CHI, VDG, BIA, [MAL, MAS, PIC out] – @formula1_com 14:17
• The race will be resumed at 15:35 local time. – @autosportlive 14:26
• Hmmmm. Really interesting replay of Alonso going to shake Perez’s hand when the cars go back to the grid. Respect.. maybe some gamesmanship? – @sarahholtf1 14:28
• Race restarts behind the safety car – @mercedesamgf1 14:36
• Everyone in top 10 on supersoft for the restart, except Kimi who’s on softs. Alonso gives place to Perez. – @bytheminf1 14:37
• Max Chilton has been issued with a drive-thru penalty for causing the collision with Pastor Maldonado. – @richlandf1 14:38
• Sutil ambushes Button at Station Hairpin (nearly tags Alonso as he does so). – @talkingaboutf1 14:44
• L56 Sutil gets Alonso at the hairpin! – @f1fanaticlive 14:51
• Bianchi is in the barrier… – @irvinef1 14:55
• Grosjean and Ricciardo have collided at Turn 10. Safety Car deployed. The Frenchman just slammed into the rear of Ricciardo. – @richlandf1 14:59
• Potential problems for Raikkonen as the team tell him the engine is overheating… – @irvinef1 15:05
• Hamilton complains of graining, so will be happy that Raikkonen is under pressure from behind. – @autosportlive 15:08
• Lotus decide to end Grosjeans race on safety grounds. The car is fine, it’s the other drivers they’re worried about. – @notposhpete 15:09
• Raikkonen and Perez seemed to make contact, Raikkonen caught and saved the car and retained the position – @formula1_com 15:10
• Perez clashes with Raikkonen while trying to pass at the chicane. Loses his front wing endplate and Raikkonen is looking slow too – @espnf1 15:11
• Button has also taken Alonso. The Ferrari’s having a dreadful day! – @formula1_com 15:12
• L74 Perez outbrakes himself at Rascasse, then pulls off at Anthony Noghes – @f1fanatic_co_uk 15:16
• Perez gambled one too many times at Monaco. The house always wins. – @f1grid 15:17
• Rosberg wins after leading from start to finish, fantastic achievement in his home GP – @formula1formula 15:21
• Points Scorers: 1.ROS 2.VET 3.WEB 4.HAM 5.SUT 6.BUT 7.ALO 8.VER 9.DIR 10.RAI – @formula1formula 15:24

Rosberg complete hat-trick on streets of Monaco

3 winners and losers of qualifying, Monaco 13.

Winners:

• Nico Rosberg – Q1 – Three poles in a row for Rosberg. So far he’s dominated this weekend, going fastest in all of the practice sessions as well as qualifying, if it weren’t for his car’s poor race performances he’d look by far the favourite to win the race.
• Giedo van der Garde – Q15 – After a slow start for VDG he really put in a strong performance yesterday to make it through to Q2. This is Caterham’s best ever qualifying position (not including grid penalties for other drivers), of course, if this is a high attrition race he could potentially pick up Caterham’s first ever points.
• Sergio Perez – Q7 – Two races in a row now he’s out-qualified his more experienced team mate. Perez has struggled this season in a dreadful McLaren but he now appears to have found his form and is taking the inter-team battle to Button.

Losers:

• Felipe Massa – Q22 – Massa suffered a huge crash in FP3 which meant that he couldn’t take part in qualifying, and with grid position so vital in Monaco this could cost him. Despite this it could also have it’s advantages, he should be able to overtake the slower drivers early on and will miss any turn 1 crashes that could occur. Also Massa will have extra tyres available which could potentially help him receive points.
• Jules Bianchi – Q21 – Bianchi suffered a mechanical failure on his first lap of qualifying meaning that he, along with Massa props up the grid. But since Bianchi is with one of the newer teams he’s easily within reach of beating team mate and Caterhams.
• Pastor Maldonado – Q16 – Monaco specialist, fastest in Q1 and then slowest in Q2, it was a tale of ups and downs for Pastor in qualifying. After setting the fastest time in Q1 he was ill advised in Q2 and couldn’t make the most of the drying conditions. Despite that don’t rule him out for points, this is the track that he’s best at and anything can happen in Monaco.

Prediction:

It will all come down to how the tyres are, if they are degrading quickly then Mercedes can kiss their chances of victory goodbye and I’d expect a Red Bull 1-2, with Raikkonen completing the podium. But if the tyres last a long time then Mercedes are the likely victors, if this is the case I’d predict Rosberg 1st, Vettel 2nd, and Webber 3rd.

Yesterday we saw rain, and if this occurs again then it’s anyone’s guess as to who will win. If it does rain then my top 3 would be Webber 1st, Vettel 2nd and Alonso 3rd.

Mercedes Tyre Troubles

We’re 5 races into F1 2013 and so far Mercedes have really struggled, despite qualifying on pole 3 many times they have struggled in the races, only finishing twice on the podium, and recently had a dreadful Spanish GP where after qualifying 1st and 2nd they could only finish 6th and 12th.

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK’S THE PROBLEM?

Well for a team to have such a contrast between qualifying and the races it indicated that there is a problem with the way that they use their tyres, and with thus year’s Pirelli tyres degrading very quickly Mercedes are being left for dead by the rest of the top teams.

WHAT COULD THIS PROBLEM WITH THE TYRES BE?

Well all F1 teams have to do a compromise with the design of the cars when it comes to tyre degradation.

Qualifying is a vital part of a race weekend, if you can qualify high up you have a much better chance of winning the race and winning points, and for qualifying you want a car that can heat up it’s tyres quickly so that it can have the tyres at the optimum temperature for a qualifying run, but this erodes the tyres quickly.

Whilst in the races you want a car that is light on it’s tyres so they can last longer and you don’t have to do as many pit stops.

As you can see this means team’s have to compromise when designing the car, but almost every team will make a 70-30 split towards race pace since championship points are only available in the race.

SO MERCEDES HAVE FAVOURED THEIR DESIGN TO QUALIFYING?

It appears that way and this is giving the team nightmares in the race where they simply don’t have the tyres to race and compete.

IF THIS COMPROMISE IS THE CASE, THEN HOW COME THE TEAMS WHO WIN RACES ALSO GO FASTEST IN QUALIFYING?

I understand where you’re coming from, but since every team favours the compromise towards race pace then it evens out and so generally the teams fastest in qualifying are also fastest in the race.

Of course teams change the balance around occasionally and that is well shown by Ferrari this season, at Spain they were the fastest on race pace, but were off the pace in qualifying indicating that their compromise is even more set on race pace than other teams. This could potentially be a good decision for the team since points are only available in the race, but on the other hand they could struggle to pick up points at tracks where it’s hard to overtake e.g. Monaco.

CAN MERCEDES SORT THEIR PROBLEM OUT?

They of course can, but the time put in to sort out this problem is time which isn’t being spent on other important parts of this year’s car and also time being lost on next year’s car.

SO SHOULD MERCEDES PACK IT IN FOR 2013 AND CONCENTRATE ON 2014 WHEN THE RULES CHANGE?

That is of course an option for Mercedes and could be a great decision for the team as it will give them a big head start on the competition, and of course Brawn has taken this strategy before in 2008 when he quickly gave in on the 2008 Honda to concentrate on the 2009 car which was eventually branded as Brawn GP and dominated the 2009 season.

One problem with this though is that sponsor’s only want immediate success, they want the team winning now not in 12 months time, so by cutting their losses on this season they could lose sponsorship and funding which could leave them without enough to be as competitive next season.

How’s he doing? Jules Bianchi

We’re four races in to F1 2013 so lets see how the new drivers have been getting on.

Remind me, how did you rate him before the start of the season?

I rated Bianchi as the best of the new drivers, I touted him to be France’s next world champion and thought he would be all to good for his Marussia team mate (Max Chilton).

And has he fulfilled this potential?

Bianchi has more than exceeded my expectations, of his 4 races so far he’s been a star in three of them and has more than outperformed Chilton. He’s constantly been the best qualified and finished of the newer teams and has spent times racing against midfield cars. If this season continues like it has been so far Marussia could qualify for Q2 and if a high attrition race come along they could pick up points.

How have Marussia done so far?

Marussia have been one of the best teams so far, they’ve started the season strongly and are easily quicker than Caterham. It looks like it would take a miracle for Marussia not to finish 10th in the constructors standings.

So how do you rate his season so far?

9/10 easily the best rookie so far and it looks like he’ll just get better and better.

How’s he doing? Esteban Gutierrez

We’re four races in to F1 2013 so lets see how the new drivers have been getting on.

Remind me how did you rate him before the start of the season?

I rated Esteban highly (7.5/10) despite the large amount of money that he brings to Sauber. This high rating was given because of his strong performances at every level he’d driven in pre F1.

And how’s he got on so far?

Dismally, he’s been well and truly out performed by team mate Hulkenburg and has been knocked out of qualifying in Q1 three times out of four, and at the Chinese GP he ran heavily into the back of Adrian Sutil which saw Esteban receive a 5 place grid penalty.

How does that compare to his team mate?

Whilst Esteban has struggled to make it out of Q1 team mate Hulkenburg has comfortably made it to Q2 every week and in China made it through to Q3. Hulkenburg has also picked up points (unlike Gutierrez) and has performed well, at times competing with those drivers at the front.

Sauber’s car for this season does not appear to be as good as last year’s car, this one is already losing out to Force India, but it may be that Sauber have already started work on the 2014 car which would explain why they haven’t performed so strongly this season.

How would you rate his performances so far?

3/10 So far the least impressive of the rookies.