Search the Community

We have seen F1 drivers in action in their single-pilot, open wheel race cars. But what happens when you put two of them in one supercar?

30 years after his father claimed victory, Nico Rosberg took the highest step of the podium at the Monaco Grand Prix - fighting off stiff competition from title defender Sebastian Vettel. Rosberg - a resident of Monaco - managed to fend off Vettel till the end while Webber completed the podium despite sustained pressure from Hamilton. A pit stop strategy worked well for the Red Bull team to leap ahead of Hamilton, during the first safety car period - trigged by Massa at lap 30 who managed to replicate a crash similar to Saturday

The Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix in Shanghai on April 15 was an interesting race and one that Nico Rosberg won after taking part in 111 F1 races. And now that little jinx has been settled, we may see an increase in confidence in the German driver (He is half Finnish and half German) much like how Jenson Button winning his first race and then go on to winning a world championship. Of course, the win was in a way handed to him by the fact that his Mercedes Petronas F1 team mate Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button in the McLaren suffered similar misfortunes. Schumacher, who started off second suffered as team mechanics failed to properly tighten his car tyres at his first pitstop causing, no, forcing the on-form seven time world champion to retire very early on. Jenson Button who was behind the suddenly very competitive Mercedes F1 cars had also suffered from a tyre change bungle as the McLaren pitcrew struggled to change the rear wheel on Button's car. This allowed Rosberg to scoot ahead comfortably and he wasn't seriously challenged at all right to the finish line. The Shanghai grand prix also showed to us F1 fans that Ross Brawn, who runs the Mercedes Petronas team which was born out of the championship winning Brawn GP squad in 2010, is back in the business of winning. These new Mercedes F1 cars seem to be even better than the Red Bull Racing cars that reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel drives. This also marks the first F1 win for the modern Mercedes F1 team and the first win as a constructor since 1955. It also allowed us to watch a mega scrap between those placed 2nd to 8th position. Which is usually what viewers want. One other notable fact that I happened to notice is that Ferrari, which won the previous race over at Sepang suffers from a lack of pace. It must have been down to the weather (the rain) and the fact that Fernando Alonso is indeed an exceptional driver. RESULTS 1. Rosberg (Mercedes) 1h36:26.929 2. Button (McLaren-Mercedes) +20.626 3. Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) +26.012 4. Webber (Red Bull-Renault) +27.924 5. Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) +30.483 6. Grosjean (Lotus-Renault) +31.491 7. Senna (Williams-Renault) +34.597 8. Maldonado (Williams-Renault) +35.643 9. Alonso (Ferrari) +37.256 10. Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) +38.720 11. Perez (Sauber-Ferrari) +41.066 12. Di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) + 42.273 13. Massa (Ferrari) +42.700 14. Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault) +50.500 15. Hulkenberg (Force India-Mercedes) +51.200 16. Vergne (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) +51.700 17. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) +1:03.100 18. Petrov (Caterham-Renault) +1 lap 19. Glock (Marussia-Cosworth) +1 lap 20. Pic (Marussia-Cosworth) +1 lap 21. De la Rosa (HRT-Cosworth) +1 lap 22. Karthikeyan (HRT-Cosworth) +2 laps 23. Kovalainen (Caterham-Renault) +3 laps DNF Schumacher (Mercedes) - Boo Hoo Hoo! I was rooting for the chap!

Mercedes drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg have praised the team's new F1 W03's handling in comparison to its predecessor. Both drivers were in the hunt for pole position in Australia on Saturday, with Rosberg leading the way in Q2 before making a mistake on his hotlap in Q3. That left him seventh on the grid, while Schumacher will start fourth. "Since day one in this car, it was very obvious that it is much more to my liking [than the 2011 car]," said Schumacher. "If you look at the steering movements you have to do to get into the corners, they are probably half of what I had to do last year. "It's definitely much more a racing car, that I can just feel and drive and do what I want to do [with it]. That was clear since the beginning of the winter tests, and all weekend here." Rosberg added that the 2012 machine had the feel of a frontrunning car. "You can definitely feel that this car is faster or more competitive," he said. "Even though it's difficult to compare to other cars and things like that, it's just more together. You can attack more. It feels faster, definitely. "We are moving forward, much closer to the front. That's great news. It's so important that we progress towards the front, and we're doing that. And I also feel there is more to come." Schumacher added some caution, pointing out that Mercedes had come from a long way adrift with its 2011 car. "We look particularly good because we looked not so good last year," he said. "So in that respect, we moved up a big step, and this is what we are all very happy with - to have a stable base, a car without any particular problems that we can from here on focus forward on the development. "But don't forget Australia is not always a straightforward hint for the season. It's a bit particular, so although we are happy, we want to see reality in the future at different tracks and see what it all means." http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98139

Okay. The results for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, Singapore. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari wins. Sebastian Vettel comes in second and his team mate in the other Red Bull, Mark Webber was third. The Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix started off nicely without a pile up. This is good as we all know the fact that this race is run like Monaco, a street circuit and the starting grid was led by Fernando Alonso, Seb Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Mark Webber. However, this changed when Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi suffered a broken suspension from a knock on lap 4. This first major incident caused that beautiful Mercedes-AMG SLS Safety Car to be deployed and some of the teams decided to make their tire changes then. Mark Webber was thhe first among the front runners mentioned and because of this, he rejoined in 11th but as we know, he made it to 3rd in the end. The thing about this race was that as it was a street circuit, the surfaces aren't paper smooth and the crash barriers are close. Overtaking isn't something easy to do and this enabled front runners Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel to actually pull away from everyone including Lewis Hamilton of McLaren. This and the fact that if the car you were running was on the harder compound that Bridgestone brought to Singapore could not match the pace of those shod with the softer compound tires. Hamilton and even Mark Webber found this out the hard way. Ferrari's choice to keep with their strategy meant that Alonso made a stop around lap 29 and so did Vettel of Red Bull. This round of pit lane drama ensured that Vettel closed up on Alonso but his efforts were thwarted by Kobayashi of Sauber-Ferrari crashing in lap 32, then his stricken car getting hit by Bruno Senna driving for HRT-Cosworth. This meant a Safety Car situation and a procession of Formula 1 race cars following it until the debris of the crash was cleared. In fact, right before this, Kobayashi caused Michael Schumacher to hit a barrier due to his aggressive overtaking move. Schumacher was lucky that he didn't suffer any suspension damage. Lap 36 was a sad lap for Lewis Hamilton. Fighting for position with Mark Webber basically caused him to try a move on Mark Webber but he lost out when they touched, causing Hamilton's McLaren to suffer from a broken suspension. This is the second retirement in two races for Hamilton. His championship title race by now is severly compromised. Prior to this in lap 35, Nick Heidfield in the other Sauber-Ferrari had tangled with Michael Schumacher and had to retire. Schumacher pitted for a new nose cone and finished the race in 13th , out of the points of course. Yes, a lot of tangling and crashing. I suppose this was due to the tight track and their willingness to actually go for it or actually racing. Right up to the end of this night race, Alonso had to fend off the charging Red Bull of Vettel and I thought this charge was almost saved by the burning Lotus of Heiki Kovalainen if not for the race stewards decision to carry on while the track marshalls move the stricken Lotus to safety. You also get to see Kovalainen asking for a fire extinguisher to put out the fire himself. A Formula 1 driver putting out their own car's fire. Quite unusual indeed. Alonso basically worked hard to win this time in Singapore, making this a consecutive win since his victory at Monza a few weeks ago. And the Lion City looks spectacular with all those lights and the good weather.

After a mid-season break, the Formula 1 Grand Prix is back again with the Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit de Spa-Francochamps, a circuit both spectacular and emotive. The La Source hairpin, the downhill plunge to Eau Rouge, the forest setting and the longest lap distance in the Formula 1 World Championship which according to the Formula 1 drivers, a fabulous track to race on and a fantastic race for us to watch. This time, Lewis Hamilton driving the McLaren wins the pretty damp and wet race. The start was good for Hamilton, passing pole position Mark Webber of Red Bull. Then sometime on lap 2 it started raining causing havoc and cars were everywhere, on and off the track causing a Safety Car to be called out. Rubens Barrichello (his 300th F1 race by the way) driving for Williams retired due to a crash. The incredible thing was that it only rained for a short period causing those who changed tires to the intermediate compound during the Safety Car period to suffer as the track started drying soon enough. One driver who suffered badly was Fernando Alonso, who suffered from the Barrichello crash and two tire changes in a short period caused any chances of a podium for him to disappear. Hamilton slowly but surely pulling away from second placed Jenson Button (Petronas Mercedes) and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull). Vettel on lap 17 was caught out by some water on the track at the final chicane, lost control, zig zagged and drove right smack into the Mercedes of Button. The Red Bull really speared its way into the Mercedes destroying the car's radiator, Button could therefore not continue. Vettel pitted for a new front wing and was later handed a drive-through penalty. Tough luck as both as championship contenders. Hamilton sometime after lap 36 nearly hit the barriers as it started getting wet again and nearly everyone had to pit for wet tires. By then, Hamilton was still in the lead, Mark Webber second, Kubica of Renault third with Filipe Massa of Ferrari in fourth. In fact the rain made proper havoc after that. In lap 39, Alonso spun and the Ferrari stalled right smack in the middle of the track. This prompted another safety car as Alonso could not get it moving again (Formula 1 cars do not have a starter and has to be started by a race engineer). Three championship contenders were now out at this time. Alonso with his spin, Button after being taken out by Vettel and Vettel himself out of the points due to his crash and drive through penalty mentioned above. By then, even after the restart of the race Hamilton had managed to pull away from Webber all the way to the finish. This has enabled him to garner the first place's 25 points, making him the current leader in the Drivers' Championship. This isn't a comfortable lead as Mark Webber trails by a mere 3 points. This is Lewis Hamilton's first victory at Spa, a milestone for him of sorts. The drive and driver of the day has to go to Michael Schumacher. He started in 21st place due to a penalty. He made it all the way to 6th position before being pipped by his team mate Nico Rosberg (who also started quite far back in 14th) in the final laps of the race. Amazing drive from Schummi anyway. Hats off to the man. The Results 01 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1hr29.04.268 02 Mark Webber RBR-Renault +1.5 secs 03 Robert Kubica Renault +3.4 secs 04 Felipe Massa Ferrari +8.2 secs 05 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +9.0 secs 06 Nico Rosberg Petronas Mercedes GP +12.3 secs 07 Michael Schumacher Petronas Mercedes GP +15.5 secs 08 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari +16.6 secs 09 Vitaly Petrov Renault +23.8 secs 10 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari +29.4 secs 11 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes +34.8 secs 12 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari +36.0 secs 13 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari +39.8 secs 14 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth +1 Lap 15 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault +1 Lap 16 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth +1 Lap 17 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth +1 Lap 18 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth +1 Lap 19 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth +1 Lap 20 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth +2 Lap Did Not Finish Fernando Alonso Ferrari +7 Lap Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +29 Laps Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth +39 Laps Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 43 laps -Barrichello DNF photos:planetf1

Time flies when you're having fun and befor you know it, another Grand Prix race has come and gone. This time, Lewis Hamilton driving for McLaren-Mercedes claimed victory at the Turkish Formula 1 Grand Prix held at Istanbul last weekend. It was Mr Hamilton's first victory in a while (ten races). It was also a nightmare for Red Bull even though their drivers started in pole and in third position too. Hamilton started the race in second position. The nightmare was basically due to an overly enthusiastic Sebastian Vettel trying to overtake his teammate and pole sitter Mark Webber resulting in a crash. Now before we get to that let's start with a bit of trivia. Istanbul F1 Grand Prix of 2010 was Ferrari's 800th race in Formula 1 by the way and they started it badly by qualifying in 8th and 12th place. So critiques and fans are thinking about what is wrong with both Alonso and Massa before the race started. it was a good race for Lewis Hamilton as from the start he kept up the pressure on pole sitter Mark Webber only losing out to third position holder, Webber's Red Bull teammate, Sebastian Vettel moving into second when the McLaren pitstop crew had a small problem during the tire change. Now being someone who's young, fired up and already a world champion, Hamilton continued the chase and kept up the pressure on Vettel. I suppose it was this relentless pressure and also the fact that Webber won the last two F1 Grand Prix races prior to this made Vettel try something drastic, like try fit his Red Bull into Webber's Red Bull. This impulsive action basically caused him to crash out of the race and made Webber limp his way into the pits for repair work. This unfortunate turn of events (if you looked at it from Red Bull's camp) was capitalized by both Hamilton and his team mate Jenson Button which took over first and second positions respectively. Now these two world champions somehow nearly did some similar damage themselves by actually racing each other instead of pacing themselves to the end. Button actually too the lead on one occasion and they did rub into each other. But in the end, Hamilton pulled through and stayed in top position till the very end. Amazing. If both drivers of McLaren did the same mistake as the Red Bull ones then it would have been a real tale of not learning from other people's mistakes. Actually I do not think they learnt from other people's mistakes (in this case Red Bull's blunder) as they still fought for the lead. McLaren was just plain lucky in my opinion. Anyway, Lewis Hamilton claims his first victory of the 2010 season. Mark Webber somehow manages to still make third, looking a little depressed ahead of Michael Schumacher (it seems that the new modifications on the Mercedes-Brawn-Petronas made recently paid off), Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. Not a bad 800th outing for Ferrari considering they started in 8th and 12th as stated above. Next race: Canada 13th June 2010 Results 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1h28:47.620 2. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 2.645 3. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 24.285 4. Schumacher Mercedes + 31.110 5. Rosberg Mercedes + 32.266 6. Kubica Renault + 32.824 7. Massa Ferrari + 36.635 8. Alonso Ferrari + 46.544 9. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 49.029 10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:05.650 11. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari + 1:05.944 12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:07.800 13. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap 14. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap 15. Petrov Renault + 1 lap 16. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 17. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap 18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps 19. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps Did not finish Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 53

Nico Rosberg has played down boss Ross Brawn's claim that he is close to winning his first grand prix. The 24-year-old German has outpaced teammate Michael Schumacher at every race in 2010 so far, finished the last two grands prix on the podium, and is second in the drivers' championship. "Nico is very close to winning a race," Brawn said, ahead of a substantial car upgrade for the weekend's Spanish grand prix. But Rosberg told the German news agency DPA: "It would be nice, but we must be realistic. "At Mercedes we are not yet in a position to win, but in the coming weeks we should make some big steps and I'm hoping to make good progress." As for the W01 winning in Barcelona this weekend, he insisted: "That would be expecting too much. But I do hope we can narrow the gap to Red Bull." Rosberg said earlier this season that, with F1's most famous driver occupying the other side of the garage, he is being very careful with his words in 2010. When asked on Monday if he is surprised to find himself as Mercedes' number one, he answered: "So far I'm very pleased with how my season has gone. "I am especially happy to be second in the championship. I'm happy to have been ahead of Michael so far, but it is still too early to make comparisons." Asked if he knows why he is faster than Schumacher, Rosberg said: "No. I only know that I have a good feeling with the car and am able to get a lot out of it." Source: GMM

Nico Rosberg will soon notch up the first victory of his formula one career, team boss Ross Brawn predicts. The 24-year-old German finished on the podium just twice during his four-year tenure with Williams, but within four races has already finished in the top-3 twice at the wheel of a Mercedes. "Nico is very close to winning a race," Brawn told the Daily Star newspaper. "Things just need to fall into place -- but that will come. I am sure he'll do it. Definitely," he added. Rosberg, whose Finnish father Keke won the world championship in 1982, finished third in both Malaysia and China, while his famous teammate Michael Schumacher's last two finishes have been in tenth place. "Nico has raised his game," said former triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart, who while a sponsor representative at Williams worked close up with Rosberg. "The boy has extraordinary skills. I think Michael has been taken aback by that. It must be affecting him," added the Scot. Rosberg's former boss Sir Frank Williams told the Daily Mail: "Nico is a very self-confident young man with a reasonable amount of justification for being so. "He won't be overawed in Michael's presence." But a report in the Telegraph newspaper expressed concern that Mercedes' decision to alter the wheelbase length of the W01 car could affect Rosberg's momentum. "Instead of helping Schumacher get back up to speed, could it just upset Rosberg, costing him the chance to compete for the world title?" wondered writer Tom Cary. Source: GMM

Jenson Button wins the 2010 Shanghai F1 Grand Prix. The 2009 World Champion started fifth on the grid and his decision to stay on slicks when everyone else pitted for intermediates as well as Nico Rosberg spinning saw him move to P1 on lap 20. He maintained in that position till the end and insisted after the race that his victory was down to the team's ability to make the correct decisions when it mattered. The Shanghai race ended with Button 1st, his teammate Lewis Hamilton in 2nd and Nico Rosberg of Brawn Mercedes Petronas in 3rd. The bad news of the day was that Red Bull may have started the race in P1 and P2 on the grid but that's not where they finished after falling foul of the changing (quite wet) conditions. The other Brawn Mercedes Petronas driver, a certain Michael Schumacher finished 10th, behind Ferrari's Massa who somehow managed to slip pass Schumacher somewhere at the end of the race. After starting ninth on the grid, Schumacher nearly had a top-five finish following a row of pit stops due to the changing weather weather. However, aside from a small battle with Lewis Hamilton, he quickly slipped back to the middle of the pack and was even grappling for grip at times. Schumacher admits it wasn't a good weekend for him all-round, but says he enjoyed his battle with Lewis Hamilton. It was a pretty interesting race with the safety car coming out twice. The weather playing an important part in making things interesting and nearly everyone, with the exception of Jenson Button went in and out of the pits. Good decision making from the team and from him. Mclaren were really good in that the fastest lap of the race was also snapped up by Lewis Hamilton. Things should get even better as the teams now head to Europe