PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog

Schumacher to race for Mercedes in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:33:00 +0000

German firm welcome back their former 'apprentice'

After weeks of speculation Mercedes confirmed on Wednesday that Michael Schumacher will make a comeback to race for the team next season alongside fellow German Nico Rosberg.

Schumacher, who retired at the end of 2006, has signed a deal that will see him return to the Formula One grid at the age of 41, bidding to add to his record tally of 91 wins and seven world titles.

It follows a planned comeback earlier this year for Ferrari - the team with which he won his last five drivers’ championships - to replace the injured Felipe Massa. Those plans had to be abandoned because of a neck injury from a motorbike accident.

Now fully fit, Schumacher will revive his relationship with Mercedes, a company with whom he had close ties earlier in his career. The German carmaker recently purchased the 2009 title-winning Brawn GP team, retaining team principal Ross Brawn, who previously helped lead Schumacher to title glory at Benetton and Ferrari.

"Mercedes GP Petronas represents a new challenge for me both in a sporting and a personal context,” said Schumacher. “It is a new chapter in my racing career and I am really looking forward to working with my old friend Ross Brawn and my companions from my days with the Mercedes Junior Programme.

“I am convinced that together we will be involved in the fight for the Formula One World Championship next year and I am already looking forward to getting back onto the race track. For me, this partnership closes the circle. Mercedes supported me for so many years when I began my Formula One career and now I can hopefully give something back to the brand with the star."

Ross Brawn commented: "I am delighted that we can confirm today that Michael will make his much-anticipated return to Formula One next year and drive for our Mercedes GP Petronas team. As seven-time world champion, Michael's outstanding record in Formula One speaks for itself and I am looking forward to working with him again.

“With the completion of our driver line-up, I believe that we now have the most exciting partnership in Formula One with Michael and Nico, who provide the perfect mix of talent, experience, speed and youth. We can now turn our full attention to the preparations for the new season and everyone at Mercedes GP Petronas is extremely excited about the challenge ahead.”

Explaining Schumacher’s previous Mercedes relationship, Norbert Haug, Vice-President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsports, added: "In April 1991, when I had been in charge of the Mercedes-Benz Motorsport programme for just six months, Michael was standing beside me on the balcony one evening. Without the slightest doubt, he said in a low voice: ‘It's about time that I got into Formula One’. Michael had just turned 22 years of age and four months later, he made his debut at Spa in a Jordan. Mercedes-Benz helped him to this point and the rest is history: seven world championship titles, more than any racing driver, 91 Grand Prix wins, more than any racing driver. Michael has more of everything than every other driver.

“As part of the Mercedes Junior Programme, Michael had raced in Group C sports cars and competed in a few DTM races. Ross Brawn, then our opponent at Jaguar, quickly realised Michael's talent and they went on to win all seven of his drivers' world championship titles together at Benetton and Ferrari. Our sporting ambition has always been that Michael should drive again where his professional career had started and Michael knew that. We often joked about it after the races and discussed the prospect seriously several times during the last 14 years in Formula One. It didn't happen in 1995, it didn't happen in 1998 and it didn't happen in 2005. I am delighted that it will now happen in 2010. I am very much looking forward to working with Michael and everybody at Mercedes-Benz and Daimler extends a very warm welcome to our 'apprentice' of 19 years ago. That apprentice is now the most successful racing driver of all time."

source: www.formula1.com

Stoner continues home dominance

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:42:00 +0000

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Casey Stoner won for the third successive year at Phillip Island, with championship leader Valentino Rossi finishing second as Jorge Lorenzo crashed out on turn one at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix.

Phillip Island 2009 - MotoGP Race Highlights

Casey Stoner’s dominance of his home circuit continued on Sunday as the Australian won at Phillip Island for the third year in a row, leading Valentino Rossi over the finish line by a margin of 1.935s.

In his second Grand Prix back after a three-race absence, the 24 year-old celebrated his birthday weekend with an impressive win from pole position, his third race victory of the season, which took him to third in the championship standings.

A frustrating weekend for Jorge Lorenzo was compounded when the Spaniard crashed out at turn one of the first lap after touching bikes with Stoner’s Ducati Marlboro team-mate Nicky Hayden. Having struggled through the practice sessions and qualifying with both rear-grip issues and illness, Lorenzo was unable to continue after sliding off, although Hayden climbed back aboard his Desmosedici GP9 to finish 15th.

Rossi’s second place opened his lead at the top of the championship to 38 points over Fiat Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo with two races remaining, after it had been cut down to 18 following the latter’s win last time out at Estoril.

Dani Pedrosa secured his first podium at the circuit in the MotoGP class but came in 22.618s adrift of Rossi, while Alex de Angelis’ fine weekend was completed with a fourth-placed classification.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) took fifth spot from fifth on the grid, and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) overcame his worst qualifying position since Germany – tenth – to take sixth place.

Marco Melandri (Hayate), Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) and Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini) all also finished inside the top ten.

Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) came in twelfth after being demoted to the back of the grid after his team was penalised for using an extra engine outside its allocation.

source: www.motogp.com

FIA post-race press conference - Brazil

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:38:00 +0000

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

1st Mark Webber (Red Bull), 1h32m23.081s; 2nd Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), 1h32m30.707s; 3rd Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1h32m42.025s.

Q: Mark, you took the lead after that first pit stop, set fastest lap, it looked like a walk in the park for you.
Mark Webber: You never know in the first stint. I knew Rubens (Barrichello) was a bit shorter, I knew Robert was a bit shorter. I was impressed with Robert’s pace to start with and then when they pitted, I knew I had a nice clear run to get a good gap starting the second stint. I just cleared JB on the out lap which is always nice as well. And then also just making sure the tyres were nice and comfortable for the whole stint, doing enough. A little bit panicky with Robert in the second stint because he started closing and I thought my pace is not too bad, but he’s closing but the guys said he was quite short in that middle stint, so that sort of confirmed that for me. And then I was just asking a few questions: who was option, if anyone was on the option in the middle stint, how did it look, what do I need to do maybe for the first part of the last stint, because the option wasn’t too great for us on Friday, to be honest. And then starting the last start it was nice to have a bit of a buffer, so just controlled that to start with. Obviously the tyres are very good straightaway but you can’t go bananas on them. And just control the gap to Robert at about five-odd seconds and then it looks like it was going to be a stalemate and then backed off a bit earlier towards the end. So that gave me a nice run home. It’s been a fantastic day for the team, to win again. We’ve had quite a few victories this year off the back of some tough seasons at Red Bull, totally confirming second for us in the Constructors. Obviously we weren’t good enough over the whole season to win any championships but we’ve done ourselves very proud as a team, as a unit. I would like to thank Renault as well, the engines have been very good. It’s not an easy environment for them, so yeah, very, very good. It’s a special weekend for Australians because Jason Crump won the World Speedway Championship last night, a very close friend of mine, under very difficult conditions, very badly injured, and Casey (Stoner) won the motorbikes yesterday, so it’s a good weekend for the Australians.

Q: Mark, a tumultuous first lap, a lot going on. Can you talk about the conditions there? Obviously it was wet yesterday going onto a dry track surface, and what the debris was like later on. We saw a lot of debris on the back straight.
MW: Yeah, always coming off the back of a green track overnight you had to get a bit of a feel for it early on. Fuel is back in the car and last time I drove like that was obviously Friday. The track wasn’t too bad, to be honest. It could have been a lot worse, the balance was not too bad as well, but as you say, a bit of debris, safety car early on, making sure we weren’t picking up any punctures or anything stupid like that, because there was some carbon around, and then also towards the end of the race it looked like maybe Heidfeld had a moment down to turn four and put a lot of mud on the track. I was happy they didn’t put the safety car out because it would have undone all my hard work and I don’t think it needed a safety car for a bit of dirt anyway. Yeah, the track cleaned up and then I was just hoping it didn’t rain, which it didn’t, so He looked after me upstairs again today.

Q: And what was the run like on the back straight on the opening lap? It was pretty crowded, a lot of people going for that first corner.
MW: The thing that really surprised me… it’s always the same with the KERS cars, the speed difference is absolutely enormous. Come out of three, to start with, and then I saw Kimi (Räikkönen) massively late. He had a massive speed advantage. I was firm, Kimi would have done the same to me, so it had to be done.

Q: Robert, what a day for you too: first podium for the team since Malaysia, way back at the start of the season. It’s been a difficult year for the team, but for you personally a great drive from eighth place.
Robert Kubica: Difficult season, as you say, for our team, but I think yesterday we did a big part of the job. We knew it might be a dry race today so we decided to keep our low downforce configuration car like we were running on Friday. It was extremely difficult when there was a lot of water. Nick was out in Q1, I managed to put in a good lap in difficult conditions, it wasn’t an easy car to drive in the wet. I managed to qualify eighth. I think some people were disappointed in this qualifying, I don’t know why because maybe they wondered if miracles could happen every session, like in Q1, but when the track was drying, I had no chance against the quicker cars. And then today I had good pace, consistent. I think I was a bit surprised about the slow pace from Rubens and Mark initially. I was able to keep up with them. We had a problem with the water temperature straightaway. I already had to reduce rpm on lap ten of the race, so for most of the race I drove with lower rpm because our engine was overheating. Yeah, I had to pull out of slipstream every time on the straight. I was just trying to cool down the temperature and bring the car home.

Q: Mark just mentioned the second stint of the race when he was a bit worried about you. How did you feel at that point in terms of what you could do?
RK: I was very unlucky after the first pit stop. I just got behind four cars which I think were Kobayashi, Nakajima, Jenson and Sebastian. They were overtaking, I was heavy, they were light and I had no chance to overtake them. I had to take care about the temperature, about the engine, so I was not pulling and Mark pulled out a nice gap there. I was assuming I was shorter but not as short… We discussed our strategy but not as short as we were, so I had to pit with 28 laps to go and put on option tyres, I was a bit worried because after five laps on Friday, the tyres were finished. I just tried not to over-drive them, to keep them nice and steady but also to look at the gap to Rubens and it paid off. I had some problems with tyre degradation in the last ten laps, but the gaps were quite easy and I brought the car home.

Q: Lewis, on the day that you passed the title of World Champion to your compatriot, Jenson Button, you were on the podium in the Brazilian Grand Prix: a heavy fuel load, a very early stop to get the soft option tyre out of the way and a great run to third place.
Lewis Hamilton: Yeah, today’s been an extremely tough day, tough weekend, and today was a huge surprise to me. I had no idea that we would even be able to get into the points. The team did a great job with the strategy but I was on a knife edge the whole way. I feel great, the car felt great. I think there are still some improvements we need to make but to fight all the way up to third from 18th I think is a great job from all the team, so hugely thankful to them for the hard work, the good job they did. I had an incredible battle with Rubens. I must say congratulations to Jenson: a great job from him, a great season.

Q: In the early pit stop there was a drama in your pit crew with Heikki Kovalainen, your team-mate. I guess you were not aware of that and it didn’t play any part in your race?
LH: No, I thought I saw a Ferrari behind me as I was pulling out and I thought it would be close but I didn’t really see that Heikki was actually behind. I didn’t see any dramas that he had but I hope everyone in the pit crew is OK and we will probably have to work on that to find out what went wrong.

Q: And third place in the Constructors’ Championship is still very much alive for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
LH: Yeah, I’ve got the bosses breathing down my neck to get the job done, so today would have definitely made them happy and we really needed it, considering we were both right at the back and weren’t really looking to get points, so this would go very well. I’m sure the lads in the team are very happy and bosses are too.

Q: Mark, returning to you for some closing thoughts: it’s been a year of domination by one team and then another, Brawn Mercedes and Red Bull particularly. Your second win now, Jenson is the World Champion though. Your thoughts on how the season’s gone and some comments about Jenson.
MW: Well, it’s been a very interesting season in many ways. We started off with double diffusers, some teams with KERS. Then we, as Red Bull, were phenomenal in the middle of the year, the first part of the European races. Then off to the street circuits, back in July and early August and we had a bit of a tough time. The McLaren came back, especially Lewis, and Kimi also had a good run. So there have been many, many teams… six different winners this year, I think, and quite a few different people on the podium. So it’s been a mixed season in terms of performance for people. Jenson, I think, deserves the championship, no question about it. He drove very, very well in the early part. It’s not easy to have error-free weekends, with the exception of Spa, when he had problems at the top of Les Combes when it’s easy to happen when you start in the middle of the pack. He’s driven pretty well, particularly in first stints, when he’s been on the back foot and coming through, doing a pretty good job here and there. Every car has its strengths and weaknesses and Brawn, obviously, have some strengths and a few weaknesses here and there. JB’s done a good job, so I’d like to congratulate him and Brawn as well. I think he will sleep better now, because he’s been incredibly nervous, there’s no question about that. He’s been absolutely bricking himself the last few weeks, so he can sleep better now, and all of us can go to Abu Dhabi and just enjoy the new race there. I don’t think it’s going to be like Suzuka but anyway, it’s another street track.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Mark, you probably don’t want to be reminded of this, but your two previous best results here were two ninth places.
MW: I didn’t know it was that, but I had a reasonable idea that I’ve had a pretty rough run here. There have been lots of firsts this year and this is another one, in terms of getting a good result. It was an interesting first lap as usual. There was quite a bit at stake, all the guys know that. KERS cars always liven it up and once we got through all that, we then settled down, and I knew that Rubens and Robert were quite a bit shorter than me in the first stint, so I just managed all that as best as I could. They pitted and then I got a big gap after that first stop. The stop went well, the guys did a good job there. Then I had a long stint on the prime, same for everyone because we knew everyone was probably going to do a little bit of protection against the option. So we just controlled that second stint to a limit. It wasn’t absolutely bananas but it was pushing reasonably hard. Robert was obviously a bit quicker because he was pretty short and then in the last stint I looked after the tyres, got it home and it’s nice when it’s like that. I hoped that it was going to be very boring and it was. It’s good.

Q: How unexpected was the win?
MW: After Friday, I was quite confident that we could go for a victory. Our pace was pretty good, I was a little bit worried about this guy here (Hamilton) because the McLaren, we knew, would do pretty well here with the KERS and he’s also a pretty good driver. We knew he would be a force. Fortunately it was mixed up yesterday and that’s where the foundations were laid, particularly for me and Robert, delivering in those difficult conditions. Again, some cars were different to others, it was not easy to get through, but that’s where the foundations were laid for that type of day today. It didn’t come as a surprise that I had a chance to go for the victory, but it’s always nice with five laps to go that you realise it.

Q: How dry was your car in terms of settings?
MW: Hundred percent. We struggled in Q1, I think, because we all knew that we shouldn’t have run in those conditions. I was lucky to get a lap in which put me through. That was one of the toughest qualifying laps for a long time to get through that session, because I couldn’t believe the pace on my pit board that other people were doing. I thought I’m risking so much here to get through. Thankfully I did, but then when the aquaplaning got lower in Q2, it was a different ballgame and then the car came alive on intermediates in Q3.

Q: Robert, same question: how dry was your car?
RK: Well, we kept 99 percent of Friday’s set-up. Actually we were not really running proper downforce. We were lacking downforce, we didn’t have the proper wings here, so we were already lacking downforce in the dry and especially when it rained, we took a gamble. We hoped for a dry race, we hoped some people would adjust their set-up to the wet conditions, so yesterday I think it was a very good job, especially when Q1 was full of water, I was extremely quick, surprisingly quick. Unfortunately, when the track dried, our pace was not as good. Some people in our team were disappointed about row four, because they thought miracles might happen in every qualifying, like in Q1 when I was third and running very quickly but in changing conditions drivers adapt their driving, the tyres, the pressures, so all in all fourth row was good for me. Today I had a good race.

Q: I understand this result was pretty unexpected, so what will it mean for the team?
RK: I don’t know. I hope they will be on the grid next year. Of course it’s a good result after such a difficult season, which is still not finished. Here we were surprised about which downforce level we should use. We didn’t have it. We had a mixed car: Singapore upgrade with an old front wing. It was very, very tricky and we were just really covering the problems, so I’m very surprised with second place. I was very surprised by the quite slow pace of the top guys in the first stint and yeah, additionally we had water temperature problems after lap eight of the race, so we had to reduce engine revs and it was not easy. I ran most of the race with low revs and tried to keep the car as cool as possible, pulling out of the tow, so all in all I was surprised to be able to keep to Mark and Rubens’s pace.

Q: Lewis, how important was KERS here, particularly for overtaking?
LH: That was probably one of the toughest races I’ve had, not as tough as last year, clearly, but it was good. I think we qualified 18th. We were quite unlucky in qualifying and very fortunate with it being dry today. We had a very good pace, we just stayed out of trouble. KERS definitely helped at the start. If we had the fastest car or as fast a car as maybe Mark here and we had KERS on top we would be light years ahead but KERS, for us, just recovers what we lose in a straight-line because the efficiency of our car is not good at all. But generally today we did a great job, we’ve done a tremendous job to catch up throughout the year and we’re stuck with the car we have. We know it wasn’t the best car, we stuck with it and just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, and we’re doing the best we can and I tell you, there’s not much more if any more we can get out of this car. It’s been a really good learning experience and today was great. I just have to say a big congratulations to Jenson and the Brawn team, great job by them for the whole season. I definitely look forward to having a better car to challenge them next year.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Tom Clarkson – Tom Clarkson & Associates) Mark, how does this win compare to the Nürburgring?
MW: I think the first one was pretty nice, there’s no question about it. It’s nice to get another one, but probably Nürburgring was a little bit better, because it was a big relief more than anything. This one was more of a controlled fashion, I suppose, and although not too dissimilar to the Nürburgring, but I suppose I could only lose this one. I put myself in a very, very good position after yesterday in the first stint to win the race and then I had about 45 laps of getting it home. I went a little bit on the kerbs in a few places here and there and just had to give myself a bit of an uppercut and say ‘mate, just bring it together’ and remind myself that I’m not in tenth, I’m in the lead, so you just control it. It was a pretty good day. Also I just want to add to all the press guys who haven’t come in here but it was a good weekend for a good friend of mine, Jason Crump who won the World Speedway Championship. He’s very, very injured and I’m very happy for him that he’s won the World title and Casey (Stoner) won the motorbikes, so it was a good day for us guys.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, it’s the first time in 40 years that Britain has had back-to-back World Champions. I wonder if you could offer your thoughts on what this means over the past two years for British motor sport.
LH: I don’t think I have a clue if I’m honest. I think it’s fantastic for our country to have – I think in the last couple of years – such great athletes coming through. It’s been a good couple of years for us, with the Olympics and some seriously good talent coming through. It’s been great for the sport, great for all the fans. I’m sure the fans back home are extremely happy to have two World Champions two years in a row. I can only assume that they are very, very proud, that’s all I can say.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Lewis, would it be fair to suggest to Jenson that he’s only got it on loan for a year?
LH: I don’t know. That’s the plan, for sure. I’m not going to take anything away from his championship. He did an incredible job this year. He kept up the pressure, the pressure was extremely immense for him these last few races and I saw him today and whilst he was trying to keep a cool exterior, I know exactly what he’s going through. I just said to him ‘you don’t have to do it in this race but just keep your cool’ and clearly he did, so I’m very, very happy for him and his family. But I definitely plan on taking it back from him at some stage.

source: www.formula1.com

Brawn GP complete fast track to championship triumph

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:33:00 +0000

Twelve months ago, as Ferrari secured the 2008 constructors’ crown, talk turned to who would triumph in ’09. Would it be the Italian team again? Would arch rivals McLaren fight back? Or would new powerhouse BMW Sauber steal their thunder? One team not mentioned was Brawn. Then still Honda and languishing ninth in the standings with just 14 points, only a brave soul would have bet on the Brackley squad.

But at Interlagos on Sunday - with one race in hand - Brawn defied the odds, rounding off their fairytale debut season with their very first drivers’ and constructors’ title. Formed at the last minute from the remnants of the Honda team after the Japanese manufacturer’s shock withdrawal last December, it’s been an incredible story.

“It’s still got to sink in,” a tearful Ross Brawn told British Formula One broadcasters the BBC after the chequered flag fell in Sao Paulo. “It will take a while (to sink in). It’s special - very special.”

Of course, with Ross Brawn as team principal and two experienced drivers in Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, the long-term prospects for the newly rechristened team always looked good. However, nobody - at least outside the team - thought they’d be in the running for the 2009 championship.

The early acceptance that Honda’s 2008 car, the RA109, would never be up to scratch played a key part in their success. Before any of their rivals, McLaren and Ferrari included, Honda had refocused on the development of its 2009 successor. After a last-minute engine deal with Mercedes, the BGP001 arrived relatively late for the pre-season tests but instantly looked far and away the most complete car. And as the season got underway the dark horse didn’t disappoint.

Over the first eight races Brawn took four poles and six victories in the best-ever start to a season for a ‘new’ constructor. Despite a mid-season lull (by those early high standards), they have since gone on to take a further two wins as the ’09 campaign has moved into its closing stages. Never far from the front of the pack, Brawn have gone from gloom to glory in just a few short months.

That’s not to say there haven’t been moments of unease. At the Melbourne season opener several rivals queried the legality of the BGP001’s innovative double diffuser. And so while they racked up points, for several weeks Brawn didn’t know whether they would be able to keep them. Although not the whole reason for their pace (Toyota and Williams were running similar concepts), the diffuser clearly gave them an advantage. It was a worrying time, but eventually the FIA’s Court of Appeal found in Brawn’s favour and the team were clear to dominate with impunity.

By this point, however, Brawn already had other challenges to face. The first inkling of a problem had come at April’s wet Chinese Grand Prix. Whilst rivals Red Bull took a forceful one-two, Button and Barrichello both struggled to get enough heat into their tyres and limped home in third and fourth.

Although the team hoped it was a blip, the problem persisted. Indeed, whenever track temperatures verged on chilly, the Brawns tended to lose the edge off their pace and Red Bull were able to seize the advantage. The effect was arguably most obvious during the team’s home race in Britain, where Red Bull scored another imperious one-two.

As the technical might at Brawn fought to find a solution, the team’s closest competition was gaining fast in a championship fight that had previously looked a foregone conclusion. But Red Bull’s challenge didn’t prove so clear-cut either. And while Brawn -and especially Button - never really regained the level of dominance they enjoyed at the start of the year, they did at least come up with an adequate solution to the tyre temperature issues and continued to score points consistently. Mistakes and poor fortune for Red Bull, meanwhile, meant they were always one step behind.

Arriving in Brazil with an almost insurmountable 35.5 point advantage, celebrations come Sunday afternoon were all but inevitable at Interlagos - though that didn’t make them any less sweet!

source: www.formula1.com

Dominant Japanese win keeps Vettel in the title hunt

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:56:00 +0000

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel brought his world championship hopes alive again with a superb victory in Japan on Sunday afternoon, winning as he pleased and leading Jarno Trulli’s Toyota home by 4.8s despite a late safety car intervention. Lewis Hamilton was third for McLaren, another 1.5s adrift, after losing out to Trulli in the second pit stops.

Seventh place for Rubens Barrichello, just ahead of Brawn team mate Jenson Button, leaves the championship points table as Button 85, Barrichello 71, Vettel 69 with two races remaining.

Ahead of the duelling Brazilian and the Englishman, Kimi Raikkonen brought his Ferrari home fourth after a fighting drive, while Nico Rosberg made some amends for his Singapore error by taking fifth for Williams. Nick Heidfeld was sixth for BMW Sauber.

It was not a classic race by any means, as Vettel went straight into the lead from Hamilton and Trulli. Heidfeld and Raikkonen soon settled into a fight which saw the Ferrari driver move ahead after the second stops, while Button benefited from a clash between Force India’s Adrian Sutil and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen at the chicane on the 13th lap to move to 10th after a slow start. That put him into contention for points.

It all seemed a foregone conclusion until Jaime Alguersuari spun his Toro Rosso exiting 130R on the 44th lap. That brought out the safety car from Lap 45 until Lap 49, closing the field and apparently giving Trulli and Hamilton a another shot at Vettel. However, Romain Grosjean’s lapped Renault lay between the Red Bull and the Toyota, so that fight never materialised. Raikkonen had a brief look at Hamilton but soon dropped back to keep just ahead of Rosberg and Heidfeld. Further back, however, Button had a brief look at Barrichello at the chicane before having to defend his solitary point from hard-charging Robert Kubica in the second BMW Sauber.

Fernando Alonso’s single-stop strategy for Renault earned him 10th place ahead of Kovalainen, who lost a place to Giancarlo Fisichella in their second pit stop but regained it by diving down the inside of the startled Italian as they left the pits. By the flag Fisichella had his former Force India team mates Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi right on his gearbox. Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima was 15th ahead of Grosjean, while Mark Webber’s sole consolation from a day on which he started from the pits and went back there five times with various problems was fastest lap, set on the penultimate tour.

As if Toro Rosso’s day wasn’t bad enough with Alguersuari’s crash, Sebastian Buemi almost stalled on the grid and later retired with mechanical problems.

As the drivers’ world championship heats up, Brawn have all but settled the constructors’ with 156 points to Red Bull’s 120.5, placing the latter within half a point of clinching that crown.

source: www.formula1.com

FIA post-race press conference - Japan

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:54:00 +0000

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

1st Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 1h28m20.443s; 2nd. Jarno Trulli (Toyota), 1h28m25.320s; 3rd Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1h28m26.915s.

Q: Sebastian, an utterly dominant weekend for you. Fastest in qualifying. You totally controlled the race. You must feel great.
Sebastian Vettel: I do. What a race. Obviously yesterday with pole position and I think strategy-wise we were the favourites but first of all you have to do the start. We were pretty confident and had good starts in the past. Not that that was always the case at the beginning of the season, but we were confident of defending the position. But it was closer than I thought it was going to be. Going into turn one all of a sudden I saw a silver arrow on the left hand side and obviously I had the inside and it was my advantage but it was closer than I thought it would be. After that it was head down and try to push every single lap. The car was fantastic. I was able to pull a gap quite quickly, a big one, enough. Obviously with the strategy we were two laps longer than Lewis and a lap longer than Jarno in the first stint, so it all worked out. Until the end I was pretty much in control. I fitted soft tyres for the last stint and second and wanted to have a little bit of fun. I did one very quick lap, I think 32.5, then my engineer came on the radio and said ‘ok, be aware of your tyres. There might be a safety car or something’. Two laps later there was the safety car. Obviously, it is not what you are hoping for when you are in the lead by roughly 10 seconds. But, nevertheless, I was still taking care of my tyres and at the restart I was able to use it. I had a bit of a cushion with Romain (Grosjean) behind me. A very good restart and then three to four phenomenal laps again to build a gap that was safe enough to win the race in the end, so fantastic. As you said, finally we made it. I was screaming on the radio. I think in the last couple of races it was a little bit up and down. Sometimes we had the pace, sometimes we didn’t and yeah, finally we made it, so it is good to be back in first position also on Sunday.

Q: What a day for you. You lost a place at the start and then you fought the whole race to get it back again. You and Lewis were really at each other weren’t you?
Jarno Trulli: Well. I knew that the start would be the hot spot and the most difficult as I had this guy very strong at the start. Generally, we don’t get very good starts and Lewis had KERS as well, so it was pretty easy to imagine what would happen at that first corner. This time the car pulled away pretty well, so I was able to nearly keep the position, but Lewis came by and I was obliged to follow him. From then on it was a fantastic race for me as I really enjoyed qualifying laps, lap by lap, with Lewis, closing the gap and then coming closer. I was pushing again and it was not easy at all. After the first pit stop I was chasing him again. It was really hard but I really enjoyed it as the car was really strong and everything was fine. It was just a matter of pushing as hard as possible and putting pressure on Lewis. Then eventually thanks to the team and the strategy we got him at the last pit stop. From then on I think it was easy for me. But with the safety car I thought again that it was going to be a difficult restart as I thought that Lewis was coming close to me with the KERS car, but I was pulling away again, so I am really happy and I have to thank everybody in the team and Japan. It is a fantastic result. I must admit I really wanted to win but it was impossible today as he was untouchable.

Q: Lewis, what is your response to that? Did you enjoy it as much as Jarno did?
Lewis Hamilton: I did. We had a great race. I tried to get both of them at the start but they both got a really good start which is not always the case. We had quite a good battle, especially for me and Jarno. Sebastian drove fantastic, so he pulled away into the distance. Jarno and I were battling. I knew I could not match these two in the first sector and that it is purely down to downforce but in the middle sector I was quite quick and in the last sector with KERS we were very quick. But I think it was just before or just after the last stop I lost KERS, so that automatically losing us a good few tenths per lap. When that happens the brake balance changes, all these different things, so it was very hard. I had to have a three second gap before the last stop. I think I had a 3.1 and then the last couple of laps I think I lost half a second or something like that. We came out very close but once he was in front of me it was impossible to keep up with him. Well done to these two, they did a fantastic job today. We will battle them into the next race.

Q: You took a very assertive line down in the middle at the start. Tell us about your tactic there to keep Lewis out.
SV: First of all the tactic was to get a good start, so I focussed on myself. The pull-away was good and after that basically looking left and right. On the right hand side Jarno, to see if he has a better start than I have and on the left hand side Lewis. Then quickly I noticed I have a decent start, it seems to be good, so I stayed in the middle, where I am. I was ready to go to the inside in case Lewis had a really good start and then try to get to the inside of turn one and two. It wasn’t the case, so I stayed in the middle and all of a sudden he came on the left hand side alongside me nearly. But then I had the advantage going into turn one. Fortunately, apart from that, I didn’t have wheel-to-wheel racing this race. I was hoping for a clean race. Obviously when the safety car came out it is not what you are hoping for but nevertheless the speed of the car was fantastic. The circuit is unbelievable. When I was crossing the line for the last lap I really enjoyed the first sector again. It was similar to those two, like qualifying, every single lap pushing to the limit of the car. In the esses, going uphill, it is fantastic, especially when the car works that well around here. It is great, so I really enjoyed myself today.

Q: Jarno, what does this result mean for Toyota?
JT: First of all, it is a double result as we are coming from a fantastic podium for Timo (Glock) with a fantastic drive in Singapore. From there we came here and again the car looked straight away competitive, so I think the team has just showed that it is in Formula One and is proving to everyone that they can do the job. Obviously, there are still some areas where we have to improve. But being on the podium in front of your home fans is fantastic. This is down to the entire team, from the engineers to the mechanics, and as well I have to say to my team-mate who is a great person. It is a shame that he could not race today. I wish him all the best. But I must admit we are having quite a lot of fun and we are having a very productive work inside this team. The atmosphere is very nice and it is great to be, for me now, on the podium here.

Q: Lewis, you lost a place to Jarno at the second stop. You had another chance to get it back at the restart. Tell us about that from your point of view.
LH: I was on the radio for the last couple of safety car laps to ask the team if they could get the KERS working again. I really needed that to have any chance to shoot past Jarno at the start. But that wasn’t the case. They weren’t able to do that. I was generally just looking out to see if you could get as close as possible. I didn’t particularly exit the last corner close enough to him either way. He did a great job again there and that is always the case. You have to be very close to them but I wasn’t able to do so but, nevertheless, it was good points for our team.

Q: Sebastian, you’ve taken the championship on to the last two races. Sixteen points behind the leader but as Lewis knows to his cost from two years ago when Kimi Räikkönen closed that margin down, it can still be done. What are your thoughts on the last two races?
SV: You said it all. It can still be done. It is looking much better now. It would be nice to have a couple more races left, but two races to go. We are here to fight and the best thing we can do is win like we did today. I think we have a great car, still improving, the boys back in the factory are pushing very hard. We will see what we can do. We will focus on us, on ourselves, and simply try to win. Whatever Rubens and Jenson are doing it is in their hands, so I will keep on pushing.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Sebastian. A fantastic win for you. The car seemed to be tremendous. The best car you have driven yet.
SV: It is the same I had all season. Obviously, as we expected, the corners here, especially the first sector, suit our car. It will produce a lot of downforce but it is still more than just quick corners. You have also got some medium and low speed, so overall our car seemed to work very well. Looking back to Singapore we had the pace. It is a totally different circuit. A street circuit, very, very low sped, so overall it is a very good car.

Q: All the drivers have said this weekend ‘what a great circuit.’ What does it mean for you to win on a circuit that all drivers respect so much?
SV: To be honest I came into the last lap and I was regretting a bit that it was over. I was enjoying the first sector for the last time. Fantastic. Obviously I had clean air the whole race, so I was able to push at my own pace just be aware of the tyres all the time. I didn’t want to run into something funny, so I was listening to the tyres, to the car, but simply fantastic. This circuit is amazing. If you get 53 laps in a row you appreciate it even more. It is made by God’s hands, I would say. It is fantastic, especially when you have a car that works so well especially in all the high speed corners, so fantastic. I am very, very happy. Good points today for the championship. I think it looks a bit better now, so a shame only two races to go. But that’s life. We are here to fight, so let’s see. Anything is still possible as you can see. It can change quickly.

Q: You were on pole position, but after qualifying when you saw the weights did you think ‘I can do this.’
SV: Yes. Obviously, the biggest threat was lap one, the start. We knew that we had good starts in the last couple of races, except Singapore where we were on the dirty side. At the beginning of the season it was a little bit of our weakness but again we made huge progress. We had a very, very good start today. I kind of stayed in the middle observing Jarno on the right and Lewis on the left and I was ready to react. Then when I saw that they are about the same I simply stayed in the middle on the run down to turn one. Lewis came surprisingly in the last bit into turn one. I saw a silver arrow on my left. I had the inside of the corner, so that was very import and after that clean air. The car was fantastic, so I was able to push lap by lap and increase the gap bit by bit. A bit special also was, I think, towards the end of the race. On the soft tyres I had a very good feeling. I was pushing for one lap really hard to make sure I have got the fastest lap and my engineer came on radio and said ‘don’t do anything stupid with the tyres. Don’t destroy your tyres yet in case of a safety car or whatever.’ Two laps later the safety car was out. But it was still fine and I got a very good restart and was able to pull away again. From start to finish a very good race for us.

Q: Jarno, your best ever placing here in twelve races, especially as it follows up on Timo’s second place last weekend as well.
JT: I think that, first of all, it’s a good result for the team, because in two races we’ve got two podiums, two second positions and this just shows how well the team is doing. It’s still pushing hard and still trying to improve the car before the end of the season, so I’m really pleased for them: for the engineers, the mechanics, everyone. The car was purely quick from the beginning here, but obviously I couldn’t feel that we were as quick as Vettel. He was untouchable during qualifying and also during the race. Actually I thought I did an extremely good job in qualifying to put the car on the front row and it was also good not to lose too many positions at the start, because this has always been our weakest point so far this season. I knew that I could keep up a good pace and actually I really enjoyed the fight with Lewis. It was basically a qualifying race, lap after lap, trying to close the gap, trying to stay close, trying to get him at the pit stop. I nearly made it at the first one, and then at the second stop the guys in the pits did a very good job and then I got him. Once I got him, I knew that I was quicker, so I could pull away. I’m happy, even though, to be honest, second is fantastic but I still wanted to win for Toyota.

Q: Was it a surprise to come out ahead of Lewis after the pit stop? Did the engineers predict that?
JT: They kept me aware of the situation and I was closing the gap, trying to close the gap, trying to push harder and harder, and I think Lewis was doing the same, so the lap times were within a tenth of a second. We were both really trying hard but it wasn’t easy. But nevertheless, that was my only chance to try to gain a position and eventually I did it. This was all I had to do. And at the last moment, after the safety car, I was very concerned, because I thought that Lewis could get me at the restart but I managed to get a bit of a gap at the restart, so it was enough to pull one lap and then I was fine.

Q: Was there much difference in the tyres?
JT: Fortunately, we made the right choice, starting with the hard, then continuing with the hard and then putting on soft tyres at the end because the soft tyres changed the balance completely and they were not as quick as the hard ones. I think this time we got it right, so we’re happy, but in general the car has been competitive on both compounds.

Q: Lewis, it didn’t look as if Sebastian left you much room at the start…
LH: I had enough room there. I think it was fair. It wasn’t our best start, but to be honest this year we haven’t really had great starts except for when we get on the KERS button. We probably had our best start of the year at the last race. We tried to repeat it again this weekend but these two guys also got quite a good start. There’s not actually such a long straight to turn one, to actually drag past one of them was not easy. But I tried, but unfortunately the outside was not the place to be, he did a perfect job to get in the middle.

Q: A surprise to be jumped at the second pit stop?
LH: No, not really. Inevitably, we needed every tenth that we could get. I pulled the gap up to three seconds, I think, which was roughly what I needed, and then on the last couple of laps just before my pit stop we had a KERS problem and we were also just generally struggling with the car a little bit, I wasn’t able to pull decent times out of the car with a lighter car on a lighter fuel load. As Jarno was saying, we pretty much had a qualifying battle, a tenth here, a tenth there, we kept shaving tenths off each other. At the exit of my second pit stop also, I had a problem with my gearbox and the thing went into neutral, so instead of switching off the pit speed limiter and pulling away, I was in neutral for a hundred metres or something like that, so I maybe lost a second or so there. Unfortunately the time just slipped away from us, but they both did a great job here. We had a great race. Congratulations to Sebastian and I look forward to the next race; I think we should have a good one.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Jarno, as your future seems uncertain, does it give you extra motivation, especially for these three races?
JT: No, my future is not uncertain.

Q: (Takaharu Kusuda – Book People Atlas) Sebastian, perfect victory, you had a safe gap but then the safety car came out. What were you thinking, what were you feeling when you were following the safety car, and when you passed the finish line, what was your feeling as you gained the victory?
SV: Obviously, before the safety car phase, when you’re in the lead by roughly ten seconds, it’s the last thing you hope for, because with ten laps to go, anything can still happen but you kind of take it easy and bring the car home. Obviously, when the safety car came out the gap was gone, and during the safety car phase, it was all about – especially when you pass the accident – not to pick up any debris and destroy your car or damage your car, damage the tyres, make sure you don’t get a puncture. Other than that, just try to cool the car, cool the engine, cool the brakes and make sure you warm it up before you start going again, so before the restart, and make sure your tyres are hot enough to start again, to be able to push right away. Obviously, that’s crucial here. When you’ve got cold tyres, less tyre pressure, then the car is bottoming more which can make it quite tricky but I think we did a very good job, speaking to my engineer on the radio all the time. Then a couple of laps more and I crossed the line, obviously looked to the right to see the team and celebrate with them and looked to the left and saw the grandstand, all the people going crazy, and to be honest, maybe I was a little bit too slow for TV coverage on the way back to the pits, but I didn’t care. There were people all around the circuit, it’s fantastic, you know. You come here in the morning and people are already queuing on the way to the paddock, just to say hi and to wave and wish you all the best. It’s great. So I was enjoying the lap back to the pits and obviously screaming over the radio and all that stuff, so very, very happy. When you cross the line you start to realise what has happened and it’s fantastic, so very pleased.

Q: (Marco Degli’Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Sebastian, at this stage of the championship, looking back at past races, which are the points that you are most missing now?
SV: Looking back I think we have had a great season. Obviously, we should have been more consistent in order to fight for the championship right now, it was a little bit too much up and down. Sometimes things didn’t go our way. That’s part of racing, I guess, it happens. We made some mistakes, we’ve had some trouble during the season, it can happen, but obviously when you want to fight properly for the championship, then they shouldn’t happen. But nevertheless, I think it was a very good season so far. The car is fantastic. We had three one-twos, there’s not much more to say. Looking at the championship positions, we could have collected more points, as I said, been more consistent, less up and down. In more than three or four places we had the pace to win and we didn’t, so… Sometimes it goes in your favour, other times it doesn’t.

Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) Sebastian, how do you believe the next two race tracks may suit your car compared to the Brawns?
SV: Well, to be honest I was a little surprised to see the Brawns struggling here. Generally, a good car is a good car, and as they have proven, especially at the beginning of the season, their car is very competitive. I think we were all a little bit surprised. Looking at us, looking at our car, I think we should be in good shape for the next two races. Brazil is a track we know, Abu Dhabi is unknown for everyone, so we don’t know, but I think independent from the circuit type, we have always been competitive. Just looking at the last two races, we’ve been on totally different circuits: Singapore was rough, bumpy, a street circuit and very low speed and here, high speed. I think especially the parts we got for Singapore and a little bit here again, we made another step forward with our car, so it should be good. I can tell you afterwards.

Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Sebastian, ten points for you today, one for Jenson (Button); it was like a tailor-made result for you. You haven’t given up the fight even though it was really, really tough after the last race, so what kind of feeling does it give you? How much more confidence do you have regarding the championship now?
SV: First of all, I’m very happy to be in Formula One. The cars are fantastic, but more so, I’m here to challenge and in the end we want to find out who is the best, the best in one race and the best over the whole season. That’s why I am here, and ultimately that’s my target. As I’ve said many times already, I will fight until the end, until the last breath. It was obviously a good day for us, two more races like this and it’s looking better, but we will see. I think our task from now on is pretty straightforward: we have to push ourselves to the maximum and try to win, get as many points as we can and everything else is not in our hands. You can ask the man sitting next to me (Lewis Hamilton) thinking two years back. I think Kimi had quite a big gap (to Lewis) with two races to go. Everyone said to Lewis it will not be a problem, sitting in one of the most competitive cars, just get a couple of points, but you can see sometimes, as I said before, things just don’t work your way. Anything is possible. The bottom line is that we’re here to fight.

Q: (Joris Fioriti – AFP) Sebastian, what else can you do to win the championship? What is the next step you can take to win it?
SV: As I said before, it’s straightforward: win the next two races and then see what the others are doing. We just have to look at ourselves, trying to increase our own performance, get our maximum together, and if that’s good enough to win, that’s very good, if it’s good enough for second we have to finish second and not third, fourth, fifth or not at all. So we will see. The next circuit we know, we were good there last year, this year we go there with a stronger car, so it should be better and the last race in Abu Dhabi is a bit unknown. I’ve driven it on the simulator a bit but it’s difficult to know what to expect.

Q: (Nobuo Nakajima – Sankei Sports) Jarno, just after the race you were enjoying it but seemed a little bit reluctant. If so, what is the reason: the illness at the beginning of the week or because you couldn’t win in front of the Japanese fans or you couldn’t before Mr Toyoda?
JT: I think my aim, when it comes to the season, was to win a race and so far I didn’t manage it. I’m obviously happy to be on the podium, but I’ve had many podiums but what I’m really missing at the moment is a win, a win for my team and for Toyota. It’s obviously great to give them a fantastic result in front of their home crowd, but I’m the kind of person who wants more. I fixed my target and I’m extremely determined to get my target and obviously I’m a little bit – I wouldn’t say disappointed – but I wish I could fight for a win, but honestly, talking today, Sebastian was untouchable. I realised that in qualifying but even though I didn’t give up and I really tried to push for pole position at least but today there was nothing I could do. Anyway, I should be happy, I’m not saying that (I’m unhappy) but I’m missing a win.

source: www.fomula1.com

Lorenzo cuts Rossi’s title advantage with Estoril triumph

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:47:00 +0000

Sunday, 04 October 2009

A great win for Jorge Lorenzo at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal saw him reduce the gap to Valentino Rossi in the standings to 18 points.

Estoril 2009 - MotoGP Race Highlights

Jorge Lorenzo repeated his 2008 Estoril victory from pole on Sunday to significantly boost his title chances as Valentino Rossi could only manage fourth place at the challenging Portuguese circuit.

The Fiat Yamaha pair got away in first and second places on the grid but Rossi was unable to match the pace of Lorenzo as he pulled away quickly at the front. On his return to action Ducati’s Casey Stoner rode brilliantly to follow Lorenzo across the line in second place, whilst Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was third.

Lorenzo will now feel that with three races to go and an 18 point deficit to Rossi the championship is far more achievable than before the visit to Portugal. The Spaniard was in unstoppable form in the Atlantic Coast sunshine and his fourth win of the year was eventually secured by a 6.3s margin.

Stoner performed admirably on his return to action after two months away due to illness, achieving his first podium since Assen in June – and he now has his home race at Phillip Island to look forward to in a fortnight’s time.

Pedrosa rode smoothly from fourth on the grid, taking the holeshot with one of his traditionally rapid starts onboard the factory RC212V and briefly holding the lead before Lorenzo slipped through. Pedrosa’s third place was his eighth podium of 2009.

World Champion Rossi appeared to be off-colour throughout the race, finishing off the podium for the first time at Estoril in the premier class. The championship leader will undertake a comprehensive inquest into his lack of competitiveness with his Fiat Yamaha crew after finishing 23 seconds behind Lorenzo.

Behind the MotoGP big guns at the front, Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was 10 seconds back on Rossi in fifth place, whilst Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini) held off Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) for sixth on the line.

The top ten also featured Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro), James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki), with Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) crashing out early on and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) retiring due to technical problems.

source: www.motogp.com

Alonso to replace Raikkonen at Ferrari in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:54:00 +0000

Ferrari finally confirmed on Wednesday that Fernando Alonso will race for the team next season, replacing Kimi Raikkonen as Felipe Massa’s team mate. Giancarlo Fischella will continue in the role of reserve driver.

Alonso, who has spent the bulk of his Formula One career with Renault, has signed a three-year agreement with Ferrari, starting in 2010.

“I’m very happy and very proud to become a Ferrari driver,” said the Spaniard. “Driving a single-seater from the Prancing Horse is everybody’s dream in this sport and today I have the opportunity to make this dream come true. Above all I want to thank Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo, who really wanted this three-year contract.

“We already had an agreement this summer starting in 2011, but then, the last days, the picture changed and we decided to anticipate my arrival in Maranello by one year. The years at Renault were fantastic: together we won four world titles (two drivers’ and as many constructors’ championships), and until this day, 21 Grands Prix.

"I wish the team all the best and let’s hope we gain some good results in the last races this year. After this season I will put all my effort in the next season: I’m sure that, together with Felipe, we’ll offer Ferrari and the fans from all over the world some great satisfaction. I can’t wait to start working with my new team.”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali added: “We are very proud to welcome to our team another winning driver, who has demonstrated his amazing talent by winning two world championships in his career to date.”

Alonso made his Formula One debut in 2001 with Minardi, before becoming Renault’s official test driver the following season. In 2003 he was promoted to a race seat and became F1 racing’s youngest Grand Prix winner with victory. By the end of 2005 he was also its youngest champion.

He successfully defended his title in 2006, fending off a resurgent Michael Schumacher in the latter half of the season, before taking his number one with him to McLaren for 2007, where he endured a tempestuous year alongside Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso returned to Renault for 2008, scoring two race wins, despite a less than competitive car. This season the team have been off the pace once more, with Alonso taking just one podium to date, at the last round in Singapore.

He will become only the second Spanish driver to compete for Ferrari, following in the footsteps of Alfonso de Portago, who raced for the team in 1956 and 1957.

Raikkonen has yet to confirm his plans for 2010.

source: www.formula1.com

FIA post-race press conference - Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:50:00 +0000

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

1st Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), 1h56m06.337s; 2nd Timo Glock (Toyota), 1h56m15.971s; 3rd Fernando Alonso (Renault), 1h56m22.961s.

Q: Lewis, winning from pole. What an evening for you.
Lewis Hamilton: It was a very, very tough race. I think I can speak for all of us. The conditions made it very tough, but generally the race was pretty straightforward for me. I got a good start and I just managed to bridge a big enough gap. I knew I was longer than the guys behind me, so I was never really under serious pressure. When (Sebastian) Vettel was behind me I knew that I was five laps longer than him, so all I had to do was keep him behind. I was looking after the tyres. I felt myself that I nicely controlled the race and have to say a big thank to all my team for as always doing a fantastic job and to my family for supporting me. I want to say hi to my brother and everyone back home. It was a great weekend.

Q: We heard on the radio early on that perhaps you had a bit of trouble with the KERS unit. Talk about that and that early phase of the race and Nico Rosberg putting a bit of pressure on you in that early phase.
LH: Yeah, well I don’t know what lap it was. I had no problems in the car with the KERS but the team came across the radio and said there was possibly a fault. It was still working at that point and I had to disable it and re-engage it and it worked after that. There were quite a few switch changes. I did have a little bit of pressure from Nico and the cars behind at the beginning. They just seemed to be very quick through the first sector but I was just looking after my tyres and I think it paid dividends in the end.

Q: As you said, a very demanding circuit. Did it feel like a long, physically exhausting race and talk about racing at night.
LH: It is a tough race. It is not easy, that’s for sure. It is just the temperatures. But also it is corner after corner after corner. There is never a real break and it is very bumpy. The focus you probably need here is as much as you can possibly get. But the track is fantastic. The fans here are amazing. There was a huge crowd here and they put on a great show here in Singapore again. I came here hoping to have a good result, hoping to kind of redeem myself after the last race and we did it and we are very, very happy.

Q: Timo, a great result for the team. The best result of the year so far. This time you could do it from the right end of the grid after a very strong qualifying performance.
Timo Glock: It was a really good race for me. The start was a bit of a mess up in the first corner. I had to attack quite a lot but then I had a good first stint. But I knew I could not go the pace of the first two or three guys, so I just settled down for me and concentrated on it and saw what I can do with my car, keep it on 100 per cent. Before I came to Singapore I knew that last year we were good here. The driver can make a difference here and I just pushed as hard as possible. I had a lot of ups and downs over the weekend. Friday’s first free practice I said ‘ok, we are not looking really strong’ and then suddenly we just picked up and really concentrated with my car crew and did everything right. In qualifying again I thought we would get easily into Q3 and then struggled in Q1, but suddenly we just got better and better in qualifying. A bit of a shame to not use the last set of tyres. But during the race it was really good. I lost a bit with the view where the other guys were, so after that I changed to the option tyres and I pushed quite a lot. My team did not say where I am and then suddenly they said you are safe for P2 and I was really surprised and just brought it home at the weekend.

Q: On that first lap Mark Webber ran wide, there was a bit of an incident with Fernando, but you managed to get inside him. Talk us through that and you should know that Mark was surprised that he had to let you pass again.
TG: Definitely. I saw that they were battling quite a lot and the chance could be there if they did a mistake. I just took it and I knew from the free practice than Fernando and Renault struggle a bit over the race distance and we were quite okay. I just saw that I have to get in front of him to make the strategy work. That worked out really well and at the end with the safety car coming out I just crossed the safety car line in front of Fernando and that was important. Just a perfect weekend and a podium at the right moment for us.

Q: Fernando, what a fantastic result for Renault after all that has happened in the build-up to this race. That first lap for you was an interesting one, for you with Mark. But let’s get your take on Timo coming down inside you. Was that related to the previous corner?
Fernando Alonso: Yeah, it was fantastic obviously and the result is great for us to be in the first podium of the season. The first lap was a little bit stressful arriving to turn seven side-by-side with Mark. We both ran wide and over the kerb and then Timo took the benefit there and overtook me into turn eight. Because of the battle with Webber I think I lost the position with Timo and I think we finished the race behind him, but no real complaints. To be fair it is fantastic for us. We did not have the pace all weekend to be on the podium and we have the podium, so much better than we expected.

Q: There was a lot of mechanical attrition but for Renault another aspect of this great weekend.
FA: The team have been fantastic. All season I think we have had a fantastic team. The mechanics, engineers, everybody in the factory, did their maximum. Sometimes we did get some good results, sometimes we have been a little bit unlucky. But finally this podium in this particular moment after what happened from Monza to here with the team. It has been a difficult time for the team. Now we put that behind us and we concentrate on the remaining races. I dedicate this podium to Flavio (Briatore) at home as he is part of the success we had today.

Q: Lewis, going to Suzuka now for the Japanese Grand Prix which a lot of the drivers say is their favourite circuit. You have never raced there but you do so with the team within three points of Ferrari for third place in the Constructors’ Championship. It is a weekend no doubt that you are very much looking forward to.
LH: Yeah, I am sure Martin (Whitmarsh) and the rest of the team will be happy to hear that. I am not sure where Heikki (Kovalainen) came but clearly he did a good job today, possibly. I have never been to Suzuka but I have heard that it is, apart from Monaco, the best circuit. Just growing up watching television with Ayrton (Senna) and Alain (Prost) and Fernando and Kimi (Räikkönen) racing there. I always wanted to go there. I am very excited to go. I am sure it will be a very tough weekend and undoubtedly it will be very tough to learn that circuit and master it in one weekend but I will do all I can. Going with the momentum we have from this race hopefully we will have a competitive car there.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, you said you wanted to win this but what a weekend it has been for you.
LH: It has been an incredible weekend in terms of the whole show, the build-up. It has been the busiest weekend probably of my life. I have had more appearances this week than I can remember. Obviously not a perfect Friday but Saturday was great. I have my Dad and my step-mum, Linda, here. I have my girlfriend here and I have got a friend of mine here. I got to meet Beyonce here, so it has been overall an incredible weekend. A great experience. I am very, very happy and I look forward to the celebration tonight.

Q: You never had a huge gap. Was that because you were managing tyres?
LH: Yeah, through our practice sessions our tyres never really lasted very long. I had to try and do all I could to look after them today. I also knew that the strategy I was on was very strong and I didn’t particularly need a huge gap to the people behind me. I kept a two-to-three second gap over Nico and it was good enough. Then with Vettel he was very competitive but he was again five laps shorter than me, so it had to be accepted that he was going to be on my tail, but it was never really a problem, so I just kept cruising and at the end there was a decent gap to Timo. He was putting in some good times but I was able to answer back, so I was able to keep the gap. I was very happy with it.

Q: There were quite a few drivers with brake problems here. How much attention did you pay to the brakes?
LH: I try to treat my car as good as I can. We don’t have any problems with the brakes. It has never been a problem for us, so fortunately we did a great job with the cooling and everything, so it was never an issue here.

Q: Timo, what made the difference in qualifying, because that’s been important in the races we’ve had so far?
TG: I think that for the first time since, I would say, Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, I could just set the car up more for my driving. The car has slightly changed a bit over the year, it’s a bit more aggressive and it didn’t suit my driving style a lot for one lap, especially in qualifying. I knew from last year that you can make a difference here as a driver and you can just fight a bit more with the car. We could set the car up much, much better and we did a really good job over the weekend, we just never lost the way. We struggled in first free practice and just made our way up and just went better and better. In Q2 I just got in a really good lap and got through to Q3 and the top ten. When you see the last races when we’ve had to start out of the top ten and we made it into the top ten, I was really looking forward to the race. I just knew that we couldn’t go at the same pace as the top two or three guys, so I just said ‘OK, just find your own way, just push as hard as possible with what you have and just get the best out of it’, and at the end, we pushed at the right moment, we got into P2. The first lap was really important, when I overtook Fernando as well as under the safety car when he came out of the pits and I just stayed in front of him. That was really important for our strategy and at the end, I lost where I was really and then suddenly my engineer said ‘you are safe in P2’ and that was really surprising. I was happy with that. I think it’s been a perfect weekend for me and for the team, really important for us, a really important podium at just the right moment for us.

Q: What is the significance of this podium; why is it just at the right moment?
TG: We had goals from the beginning of the year. We started really well and got two or three podiums into the season and just had the pace at the beginning and then we had a couple of difficult weekends where we struggled and the team came down a bit. We pushed as hard as possible and then recovered over the weekend quite quickly, because we knew we had the chance to be in the top five. When you start a season as we did this year and you fall down and you fight back again, it’s just really important for the team and for us.

Q: And what are your thoughts about next weekend in Japan?
TG: It’s good to go to Japan with a podium and P2. I don’t know how our car will be in Suzuka but I think the high speed corners suit our car, so I’m looking forward to it and hopefully we can be on the podium again in Suzuka. That would be great.

Q: Fernando, I’m sure it’s also important timing for you and your team.
FA: Yeah, no doubt. It was a very important podium for Renault and they deserve this podium after all the difficulties the team had over the last two weeks, plus they have had some unlucky moments in some races when we’ve lost the possibility of podiums. I think this weekend everything came to us and we took the benefit of some circumstances like yesterday in qualifying when I think the lap was good and fifth position was better than expected. Today, running fifth, with the two penalties for Rosberg and Vettel we recovered these two positions. We made no mistakes, we kept the concentration to one hundred per cent all through the race and we knew that we were not super fast here in Singapore this weekend but if we didn’t make any mistakes we could be on the podium and we did it.

Q: All three of you were in the top four last year here; how important is it to have that experience here?
FA: It’s very important. I think it’s one of those circuits which you either like or don’t like. There’s no halfway. The people who don’t like it never find the right way, they lack confidence in some corners, it’s difficult to attack in qualifying and we know how important qualifying is on a street circuit where it’s difficult to overtake. I didn’t know that all of us were in the top four last year but I’m happy to repeat those positions.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Fernando, the hard times that you’ve had these last few weeks, did they give you extra motivation for this race and this weekend?
FA: Not really. I think we arrive very motivated to every race, so it was no different this time. Obviously now that we have this podium, I would like to dedicate it to Flavio, who watched the race at home, for sure. Part of the success this season is due to him, to the great job that the team did. I think the whole team deserved this podium because it has a been difficult for everybody, for the mechanics, the engineers, stressful weeks for them and now everything is clear, everything is behind us and we look forward with this initial podium.

Q: (Sudhir Chandran – Chequered Flag) Lewis, when my mother was in hospital some years ago, I spoke to the doctor and he said that you get just three chances to revive. This is 61 laps here, demanding clinical precision and you still come out strong, so whom do you give the credit to: your father for keeping a stoic face but then smiling at the end of it? To Nicole (Scherzinger) for being very subdued this year but smiling big time at the end? Or to the team for sweating it out and saying ‘hey man, we did this?’
LH: I always think it’s a job done by a lot of people. We wouldn’t have had the pace here if it wasn’t for the guys back at the factory who don’t always get the acknowledgement but they’re always there for me. But they are the guys that are working non-stop, really trying to get these components out, making sure that we compete for wins. But for me, the one person for me is God. He’s the one who has given me the opportunity to be here, he’s the one that keeps me healthy, has blessed me with a great family and great people around me. I think that answers it.

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, is third place in the Constructors’ Championship your goal at the moment?
LH: Definitely, definitely. I think the team would be very happy with that. It doesn’t really have too much importance exactly where I finish in the championship. If you’re not first, then it doesn’t matter where you are really. First is where you want to be, but for the team, after the hard work they’ve put in, they’ve had a couple of tough years but they’ve done a great job this year and they deserve to first make a step forward and hopefully at least get third, that would be great for them.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Fernando, how do you rate this third place? Is it the maximum opportunity that you took? Or do you think you can get on the podium again before the end of the year?
FA: Obviously you never know, but I think here was the best chance for us to get a podium. Knowing that there are some very demanding circuits to come in terms of aerodynamics like Suzuka and we would not have improvements on the car and there are some other teams that keep producing new pieces, so we know that every race is going to be more and more difficult for us. So I think we were quite confident here in Singapore and we take this podium back home to all the guys back at the factory and from now on we will obviously try, starting from Suzuka next weekend but I think it will be more difficult, for sure, than it has been here.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Lewis, according to people who listen to television, you had some conversation with your team in the early stages of the race about KERS. Did you have to switch it off?
LH: No, no. It was working the whole time, as far as I was concerned, but they came across on the radio saying that there was possibly a problem with it, but I wasn’t seeing that. I just had to make some switch changes. I believe I had to disengage it and re-engage it or something like that, restart it, reboot it. Like I don’t have enough things to think about in the car, pressing all these buttons, but it was good fun!

Q: (Paolo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, looking at the championship today, Jenson (Button) got the most out of it, even if he started in the worst position. Do you think that at this point it’s almost finished for him? I mean, he has 17 points over Rubens with three races to go.
LH: I don’t know where he finished today, but if he’s done a good job, that’s good for him and his team. But let’s not forget, I was leading by 17 points with two races to go and I lost it. It’s very, very, very tough, right up until the last moment, so I just suggest that they all keep pushing and we will see over the next few races but he’s done a fantastic job up until now, so I wish him all the best.

Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Fernando, given that you seem to be the key to the drivers’ market for 2010, does this podium help you make the decision as to which team you might drive for next year, including it could possibly be Ferrari?
FA: No, this podium doesn’t change anything. I took the decision already, so soon we will know.

Q: (Don Kennedy – Hawke’s Bay Today) Are you going to tell us?
FA: If you pay a good amount.
LH: I’ll give you a tenner, ten euros.
FA: Not enough. At least twenty!

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Timo, you said you now have the car you had at the beginning of the season. Do you think you could win a race before the end of the year?
TG: It’s difficult to say. Singapore is a completely different race track. As I said, a driver can make a difference here. I think that as the teams are really, really close together, it becomes more and more difficult for us to win a race, but I would say that I will fight as long as possible and I will never give up. There will be a time when we have the chance to win a race and it will come and if we work as we have this weekend and really concentrate with little steps, little improvements on the car, then I think something is possible. When conditions are changing, maybe a wet race or whatever, there is another chance again, but at the moment I think we have to be realistic. The top two teams are still a step ahead of us, so it will be difficult.

source: www.formula1.com

Hamilton wins in Singapore, Button edges closer to title

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:43:00 +0000

Lewis Hamilton sorely wanted to win in Singapore after his slip up recently at Monza, and on Sunday evening he drove a pluperfect race for McLaren to deliver a richly deserved triumph.

The world champion took the lead at the start, and led throughout apart from a four lap period from 47 to 50 when Renault’s Fernando Alonso went ahead before making his own final pit stop.

After a safety car period between the 21st and 25th laps had reduced his advantage after Force India’s Adrian Sutil collided with Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari and then collected BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld after spinning, Hamilton coped with massive pressure from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, but it was an illusion.

The German refuelled for the second time on the 39th lap, whereas Hamilton had sufficient fuel to run through to the 46th, and thereafter all he had to do was conserve his brakes in a race that finished just before the two-hour time limit.

Behind him Jenson Button increased his world championship points lead by one point over Brawn team mate Rubens Barrichello as they finished fifth and sixth, but the final podium places were far beyond them. They fell to Timo Glock, who drove superbly on a great pit stop strategy from Toyota, and Alonso, who was in feisty form all weekend for the beleaguered Renault squad.

Vettel should have beaten both, but had to take a drive through penalty after speeding in the pit lane during his second refuelling call.

The man who was kicking himself most afterwards was Williams’ Nico Rosberg, a lowly 11th in a race in which he shouldered up to second ahead of Vettel at the start, and might just have challenged Hamilton later on. The German was a comfortable second when he pitted on Lap 18, but unaccountably he crossed the white line exiting the pits and plummeted after the safety car period when he too had to serve a drive-through penalty.

Heikki Kovalainen drove an undistinguished race for seventh in the second McLaren, and Robert Kubica kept his BMW Sauber ahead of a duelling Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the closing laps to grab the final point.

Behind Rosberg, Jarno Trulli was an overshadowed 12th in the second Toyota ahead of a lacklustre Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Ferrari, and Vitantonio Liuzzi who gathered more experience of the only Force India to finish.

Both Toro Rossos retired in the pits after fuel rig problems, caused when Alguesuari ‘did a Massa’ and dragged his rig with him during his second stop after taking off before instructed by the team’s lollipop man. The Spaniard was classified 15th, after ultimately succumbing to brake problems, ahead of team mate Sebastien Buemi, who went out with transmission woes.

Mark Webber’s race was ruined when, having taken fourth place on the opening lap after a bold skirmish with Alonso and Glock, he was ordered to hand it back by the race stewards for running wide during the move. Later, after losing out in the pit stops, he crashed out after brake problems affected his Red Bull.

Sutil’s incident with Heidfeld came in Turn 14 on the 20th lap when he tagged the back of Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso, which had been holding up a train of cars since the start. As the Force India spun it hit an innocent Heidfeld and both retired. Romain Grosjean was the other retirement, stopping early with suspected brake problems on his Renault.

The result leaves Button on 84 points to Barrichello’s 69 with three races to go, while Vettel remains third with 59 and Webber fourth on 51.5. In the constructors’ stakes, Brawn have 153 points to Red Bull’s 110.5, but McLaren are closing fast on Ferrari with 59 to 62.

source: www.formula1.com

Brawn GP bounce back with one-two at Monza

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:42:00 +0000

Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button took Brawn GP a significant step closer to both world championship titles at Monza on Sunday afternoon, in a race rendered dramatic by a last lap shunt for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, as he was pushing hard in third place after Button.

As expected, it was Hamilton who led from the start, using KERS in his lightly-fuelled McLaren to sprint ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Force India’s Adrian Sutil. Barrichello and Button crucially slipped into fourth and fifth places, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen’s fuel-heavy McLaren, which an aggressive Vitantonio Liuzzi also overtook for sixth place in the second Force India.

Hamilton stretched his lead after setting a series of fastest laps, until his first refuelling stop on the 15th lap. Sutil stopped on the 17th, Raikkonen the 19th, those three the only men on one-stop strategies. That left the Brawns one-two from Lap 20 until their much later pit stops, on the 28th lap for Button and the 29th for Barrichello.

That was where the race was won for the Brazilian and lost for the Englishman. Button was 2.1s adrift before his stop, 4.2s after it, and Barrichello proceeded to pull away as they set after Hamilton, Raikkonen and Sutil, who had repassed them while they refuelled. Each had another stop to make, however.

When Hamilton made his on Lap 34 and emerged behind the Brawns, the writing was on the wall, but the champion refused to give in. As Button responded they ate into Barrichello’s 5.4s lead, which dwindled steadily. Barrichello had things under full control, however, and so did Button.

Hamilton, however, did not. Going into the last lap Button was 3.3s behind Barrichello, with Hamilton a second further back. But going through the second Lesmo Hamilton lost control of his McLaren, spun and thumped the inner wall before spinning again and strewing the track with debris. Out went the safety car, as Barrichello crossed the line to score his second victory of the year and to reduce Button’s championship points advantage to 14 points, 80 to 66.

It was an emphatic victory for Ross Brawn’s team, on a day when Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull took a mere point, and one that was gifted to them courtesy of Hamilton’s shunt. To make matters worse for Red Bull, Mark Webber had been shunted out of the race by BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica at the second chicane, on the opening lap.

Brawn thus have 146 points to Red Bull’s 105.5.

Raikkonen hung on to the final podium place, but Sutil was only four-tenths adrift at the finish as he scored his first points of the season. Liuzzi might have had a shot at the podium with his single-stop strategy, but retired after 22 laps with mechanical problems.

Fernando Alonso thus brought his Renault home fifth ahead of Kovalainen, while BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld held off Vettel for seventh.

Giancarlo Fisichella had a quiet race to ninth for Ferrari, ahead of Williams' Kazuki Nakajima who held off the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock and, close to the end, triggered an incident in which Trulli nearly collected Glock after having to avoid Nakajima in the middle of the road going into the first chicane. The German chased the Japanese driver home, but the Italian fell back to 14th behind Hamilton and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi.

Romain Grosjean was an undistinguished 15th in the second Renault ahead of Williams’ Nico Rosberg, whose chances were ruined by an early pit stop. Liuzzi was classified 17th ahead of Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, who both retired with technical problems, and an angry Webber was 20th.

While Red Bull will bounce back, the title chase is now beginning to look more and more like an in-house Brawn duel, with Button 27 points ahead of Vettel, and Barrichello 13.

source: www.formula1.com

FIA post-race press conference - Italy

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

1st Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP), 1h16m21.706s; 2nd Jenson Button (Brawn GP), 1h16m24.572s; 3rd Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), 1h16m52.370s.

Q: Rubens, you have won here for Ferrari and now you have won here for Brawn. What a feeling for you.
Rubens Barrichello: It feels great. Like I said on the lap after I got the chequered flag I have no words. I mean I had a tough night. We did not know the gearbox. This or that. We did have an overtorque in Spa and there are some concerns but the gearbox is great. I think it is going to do the whole four races. I really hope. It was great to have a great start. Obviously (Heikki) Kovalainen was coming quite fast with that power button and I had to defend myself and I went wide, so it was a bit tough. But it was a great first lap and it made my race. My pace was there. My brakes were. It was pretty much like Valencia. The car was there all the time. It felt great and I have no big words for that. I just feel really good to see all this public. Obviously they are more in red than white but it still feels great.

Q: Jock Clear, your race engineer, was saying on your in-lap that great decisions were taken this weekend. Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen were on the two-stop strategy, but you two Brawn drivers were on the one-stop strategy.
RB: Yeah, it was a great decision yesterday. The guys with the KERS they had 20 metres on us at the start and we had to have that in mind. There will be times when we don’t have to think that, but the straight line after the start here was so big that we had to think of that. Luckily we had a good start and I could run my pace. The pace was good enough to be in front of them by the last pit stop.

Q: Jenson, leading the championship by 14 points. But a hectic first lap as it always is. Talk us through that.
Jenson Button: It was a messy lap but I made up a position which was fantastic. You are always wary at the start here because of the KERS cars. (Fernando) Alonso didn’t get the jump which was quite good. Rubens and myself were pretty good down into turn one and Kovalainen was struggling a little bit. He braked late. Then I was sat behind Kovalainen through the second chicane and then through Lesmo One I just put a nose up the inside and he ran a touch wide. I was able to get him through Lesmo Two. It was a much needed move. If I hadn’t made that move I probably would have finished third or fourth. I had to make it stick and I did and it is nice to be back up here back in second position. Obviously I would rather be where Rubens is sat but he did a better job this weekend, so congratulations to you, man. But second is good. I lost two points to Rubens, but gained seven points on (Sebastian) Vettel. This guy here is my closest rival. And it is good. I think we have got a good relationship. But we are very competitive people, so I am sure we are going to take down to the wire.

Q: It was a close race with Lewis Hamilton towards the end as well. He started to put some pressure on you. What was going through your mind?
JB: My lap times were reasonably good. I was doing 25‘s and I was happy with the pace. Towards the end of the stint I had better pace compared to Rubens but Lewis started pushing on the last three laps. My team was getting a bit excited, saying ‘you have got to use mix two, you need the extra boost.’ But I think I had him pretty much covered anyway. I think it is difficult to pass here even with KERS. I don't know what happened, if he made a mistake or ran a bit wide or if he had a failure or something, but obviously a big shunt for him. But for me a great result.

Q: Kimi, it was a bit of a repeat for you of the Belgian Grand Prix in many ways with the Force India in your mirrors just about throughout the whole race.
Kimi Raikkonen: I got a very good start but them something happened with Lewis. He slowed down but I had nowhere to go and I had to go around the left half on the grass, but I needed to back off before then. If I had had some space to go around him I would have got him at the start. Anyhow, it didn't really change the end of the race. In the end he went off. We got third place a little bit on a gift but it doesn’t matter. It all counts. Good points for us. It is a bit disappointing to drive as well as you can every lap, not really making any mistakes, and still finish quite far away from the first two. It is not the perfect position for me or for the team, but at least we scored some points which we needed. I think we got the most out of the car this weekend. It is good for the fans to be on the podium. It is much better than finishing fourth. We are going to keep pushing as hard as we can. We know that there are cars quicker than us, but maybe some races we can still challenge them for the win and that is what we try to do. It was a great thing for the team and everything worked well for us and the guys put in good hard work.

Q: It looked like a small glitch at the second pit stop and you just caught the leg of the refuelling guy. Then you had to brake before you left the pit lane.
KR: I was in a hurry to get out as I knew it was going to be very close. The lollipop guy just moved a little bit and I was ready to go and he put it back down and I stopped. But luckily enough the fuel rig was out and I could go. We lost a little bit of time but not too much. It would not have been enough anyhow for beating McLaren at the pit stops, but we could keep the Force India behind and in the end it did not make much difference.

Q: Rubens, you are the oldest man in Formula One, 37 years of age. What a rebirth of your career. What an amazing achievement.
RB: It feels great. I think it is a winning year whatever happens. We have got to remember that it is not long ago we had no jobs. We did not know what is going to happen, so we are finally driving a fantastic car with a fantastic engine. The team are doing a fantastic job. I must thank them for all of their efforts. The strategy was great. It was really good. The work that we put in on Friday was fantastic to achieve this car. You can see that we both had different tyres, different strategies on tyres. But at the end of the day the car was good on both of them. So it just feels great, I am going to give my very best. It is going to be a good and a healthy fight and I am looking forward to that.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Rubens, two wins in three races. That is pretty good going, isn’t it?
RB: It is very good going. It is not as good as the six races that Jenson had, but it is good enough. I am really happy with all the achievement since the beginning of the year. I struggled a little bit at the beginning with the brakes but since we have changed it at Silverstone I am a lot happier with it. We had developments on the car since then and the car has become better and better. I need to put it down to the braking that my performance has become a little bit better. I am feeling good. Monza is a great track for me. We knew since before coming here that I had a good chance. It feels great. I finish the race and I have now words as I had a tough night. You are thinking all through. I didn’t know about the gearbox and this and that. I am not even thinking we are going to have to change it for the future. It is doing very well. I had no troubles whatsoever and it is just a great feeling.

Q: What was the worry about the gearbox?
RB: In Spa. It has nothing to do with the fire. It is the fact that I hit anti-stall the next time when it got going and it had a little bit of an overtorque. An overtorque might mean something for the long term but I think the will to win was bigger than the problem really. It felt good all the way through. I had a great first lap. That’s what made my day and my weekend.

Q: Looking at the races coming up, do you think the Brawns are going to be competitive at those as well?
RB: I think so. I think Singapore can be quite good. It is warm weather and part of the race is at eight o’clock. It was eight pm last year, I think. It was still quite hot. The sun is not there, I think we can expect to perform quite well there. We have Suzuka that might be cold and Abu Dhabi, strangely enough, they told us it could be cold. I cannot imagine going to Abu Dhabi with the cold weather but it might happen. I think Brazil can be quite good for us as well. I think the package is good. We have been the team winning the most, but the most consistent team as well. Where we didn’t do very well we still did okay, so thanks to everyone at the factory and everyone here that we have a great car.

Q: Looking back when you saw the weights, was the feeling then that we are looking good?
RB: I think I can say for myself and for Jenson that we both did a very good lap yesterday. With the amount of fuel that we had in the car I think it was a great achievement. When you talk about the hundredths or thousands it is down to a little bit of luck. There is nothing between us. I was just lucky that I had a touch more and I could stop a lap later. Even Friday, some people come and say they have problems and this and that but Friday was different to the beginning of the year. Some people are taking some fuel out and putting some good laps in while we have been conservative and good and looking after everything as we have to. Saturday we were fast and I think we could have achieved pole position if we had the same load as the other people but we had the best strategy and the 10 points is at the end of the race. That is when it counts.

Q: Jenson, is it a bit of a relief to be on the podium again?
JB: All weekend the car has been working well for me. It is a competitive car around here with this downforce level. It is good to know that the car works on all sorts of different downforce levels which bodes well for the next four races. But as Rubens said, you get asked lots of questions on a Friday, where is the performance. I was 19th on Friday because we were doing work. We did race work. As you can see from our race performance we did it very well. Every stage of the weekend we have planned very well. I am happy with my performance. I am happy with the team’s performance and this guy just went one better, so well done to Rubens. But all weekend, as I said, we have been very close together and it is great to get eight points on the board. Rubens has closed me down by two, but I have pulled my lead on the Red Bulls which is positive.

Q: You were on soft tyres in the first stint; was there much difference between the two types of tyre?
JB: Well, I didn’t have any new primes, so I basically had to go for the option, because off the startline I was worried that I would get jumped by Alonso if I was on a four- or five- lap old prime. So we went for the option and on Friday the balance felt pretty good on the option. So for me, it was neither here nor there. It’s difficult to know which was the better tyre, but the balance of the car was good throughout the race, a little bit snappy towards the end when I had Lewis behind me, but around here, it sounds silly but it is very difficult to overtake, even though they’ve got KERS. If I didn’t make a mistake, I don’t think he was going to get past me, but my engineer was getting quite excited on the radio, but I was pretty much in control. He obviously ended his race half a lap early.

Q: Well, the gap came down to about 1.6s and then it went up again and then down again right at the end.
JB: Well, 1.2s/1.5s is the gap. You get to that point and it’s very difficult to get any closer and I don’t think their KERS is that good, and we’ve obviously got the same motor in the back. As a team, we’ve done a great job this weekend and the strategy that we chose for the race was a perfect strategy for us. If we had KERS maybe we would go for another strategy, but knowing that the KERS runners were going to go light, or thinking they were going to go light for a two-stop, a one-stop was the best option for us. Our main competitor, we felt, was Kovalainen but he had a very tough first lap and we both got past him which was very, very important.

Q: Kimi, how much pressure was Adrian (Sutil) putting on you, or were you just able to push the button and get yourself a safety margin?
KR: I think it was very similar to the last race with (Giancarlo) Fisichella. OK, sometimes it looks as if it gets very close in the middle of a chicane, but then once you get to the corner exit and you start accelerating and he’s still in the chicane it opens up again, so it never really got very close, so that I would need to defend or anything like that. They seem to be fast in a straight line, fast through the corners, so for sure I needed to make sure that I didn’t make a mistake and I got a good run in the few places on the circuit where I knew that his only chance was going to be. So as long as I didn’t make a mistake in those two places it was OK.

Q: Do you regret the strategy that you chose, the two-stop?
KR: No. I think we still did the right thing. We got the best out of the car. We know that we’re where the top cars are, we’re not as fast. The car feels more or less OK, we’re just missing grip, we’re sliding more than the others and that’s the penalty that we have to pay. We’re not going to have any more new parts for the car, so it is what it is right now. Third place for us is very good, we’re still keeping position in the championship which is what we’re aiming for. I think we got the maximum out of the car.

Q: Much difference between the tyres?
KR: I think the soft one was easier for us. It is normally. It’s hard to get the hard one working. Probably we don’t have as much downforce as the others, so you cannot put load on the tyres, you cannot get them working. In the end they started to work a little bit better again and it helped but for sure, the soft one is the better one.

Q: Will Singapore suit you better?
KR: It should be a bit more than Valencia, Monaco. Hopefully there we will have a bit more of a chance to challenge for first place but I don’t know. We will wait and see. Hopefully we can be stronger there.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Jenson and Rubens, it looks like it’s between you two now, the Red Bulls are so far back. Is it possible to continue to be friends and close team-mates, exchanging information when you’ve got four races to go and you need every point possible?
JB: I don’t know. I’ve put on a brave face lately but I absolutely hate this guy! He doesn’t know his a*** from his elbow when it comes to racing cars! Is this more fun or…? No, we’ve got a good relationship and we’ve been team-mates for many years now. We’re working together, we’ve had to pull our car to the front, we will see how it goes from here, but I think we’re still going to be sharing information because there’s always the possibility that the Red Bulls will be strong, you never know, and we might have some bad luck. But when we go on the circuit we’re obviously fierce rivals. We’re not going to give up until the end. I’ve obviously got the advantage of 14 points; it’s got smaller at the last couple of races but Rubens is going to be a very tough rival for sure. He’s skilled behind the wheel, as we’ve seen for many years and he’s been able to show his talent. Yeah, it’s going to be a tough few races, but it’s an exciting challenge and as I said, it’s nice to get this result today. I think we’ve shown that the Brawn car is good. A few people were questioning us a couple of races ago, but we’ve put a lot of effort into improving this car and it works at this downforce level which is great and I think when we go to Singapore we should have a strong car there as well. I would say that it’s more than likely between us two but you can never count the Red Bulls out.
RB: If it is between us two, there’s that old saying that you can only win in Formula One if you’re tough. We’re both nice guys, so this is the end of it! I think the best thing in life is respect. Obviously, when we’re finding that the softer spring or the harder spring is the better thing for the car, you go to the other side of the garage and tell them that’s what you have found. But it’s an open book there. We have our meetings and we both go through the check list at the same time, live, so we both can hear. At the end of the day, the cars get very similar but that’s fine, that’s how it is.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) Jenson, Rubens, you’ve both been on the one-stop strategy today; can we put that down to the tactical genius that is Ross Brawn?
JB: You can’t put a race win down to one individual, I don’t think. It’s down to a group of individuals. We’ve got a lot of very talented people within our team that come up with the strategies. Ross Brawn is not the strategist in our team. We have certain people within the team that go through all the different scenarios throughout a race. They came up with the idea. A two-stop was still a possibility but we went for a one-stop because we just thought we had to get off the line first and lead into turn one otherwise it wouldn’t have worked. The strategists talk to the engineers and talk to Ross and talk to the drivers and we decide whatever strategy to go for. Some of us disagree sometimes but we normally come up with the right option. Ross is a great individual, but he would say it’s not down to one person, any race victory and one-two.

Q: (Ed Gorman – The Times) Rubens, after all the frustrating years at Ferrari when you couldn’t race your team-mate and we know what happened to you there, how much do you relish this opportunity to go head-to-head with your team-mate with the championship fully within your grasp and four races to go? What does that mean to you?
RB: It means a lot. It means that I can show my true me. For many years people may ask why didn’t he leave Ferrari before, because the car was the best available and I had to overcome all the problems and I had to overcome some World Champion called Michael (Schumacher) and he was great, he was great behind the wheel. Like I said before, I think that Michael might have had more skill than I had, but if you threw both of us into a goal with a tiger I might get out alive and I’m not so sure about him. That’s life. You learn, you learn by your mistakes, you learn by everything. I didn’t say this to criticise because I had fun, I really had fun at Ferrari. It made me a better driver as well, so everything that’s happening now is because of all the times that I had in Formula One. The only thing that is more important than anything else is that you have to believe in yourself and that’s the main thing, the whole thing in life itself. It’s you waking up, thanking for the chance that you have and going for it. It’s as good as that and as I said before, for me it’s already a winning year. I went through the first of January, I went through the first of February, not knowing if I was going to be racing. I remember like it was yesterday. Jenson did the first four laps in the car and I went to ask him (about the car) and he said ‘it’s a great car.’ And I will never forget that. And I said ‘get the hell out of there, I want to drive!’ It was a great feeling and it’s a winning year already. It feels good to be challenging and fighting your team-mate.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Rubens, what do you have to do to try to catch him: it’s four races, fourteen points which is quite a lot? What do you have to do and what kind of pressure do you think you can put on him?
RB: Nothing more than I’m doing right now: pushing to the limit, taking everything you can, feeling good, feeling happy with the challenge and just going for it. Experience does help with all those years but as I’ve already said, if you have experience and no speed it means nothing. If you have speed, experience comes and it feels good. I don’t think I have to do anything else. We are very competitive, both of us, and we just have to go for it.

Q: (Paulo Ianieri – La Gazzetta dello Sport) And you Jenson, looking at the results from today, is it a big relief for you, just that you have to concentrate more on Rubens?
JB: For sure – I don’t know if easier is the right word, but concentrating on one person is… it has to be a little bit easier than three. You never know where the Red Bulls are going to be quick and where they are going to be uncompetitive. I thought they would be a lot more competitive here. But with Rubens we’re driving the same car and today he was a little bit quicker, he won the race by about three seconds. I’ve got to stay as close to Rubens as possible, that’s the way you should look at it but also I want to win races. I don’t want to come here and just try and finish behind Rubens. So I will go to the next race hoping for a great result. I think that we have got some more improvements with the car and it should help us in Singapore. It’s a circuit that I really enjoy driving. I had a good race there last year and I look for the same result as Rubens had this race.

Q: (Heikki Kulta –Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have had four successive podiums. Are you surprised by this consistent record?
KR: A little bit, yes. But we’ve been chasing the car a bit since the last five races and it’s been working well for us, we’ve been getting the best out of it and other people have got the most out of their cars and their package, so it has worked out very well for us. It’s a big surprise to finish on the podium, but OK, here we were a bit lucky to finish on the podium. No matter how it comes you need to finish the race, so we will try again in the next races and try to keep third place in the Constructors’ championship.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Rubens, I guess you started the race on the harder tyre. Normally the Brawn was not the best car warming up the tyres, but you were the only one on the first lap who really did a good lap on the hard, all the others really suffered, so what is different now?
RB: Well, I think the team made a great effort on the set-up to find where the problem was in that couple of races including Hungary where we struggled. It was a great effort from the mechanical and aerodynamic side and the car is better. Secondly, it was a good (tyre) choice because I had a great feeling with the tyres yesterday. I was surprised that we could qualify so well on the harder tyre. We were quite heavy at the start and I wanted the more consistent tyre. Having said that, I opened up a gap… it looked like I had the soft and Jenson had the hard because I opened up a gap and then he started to catch me up slightly. I lost a little bit of rear stability on the harder tyre towards the end of the run which was not something I was expecting. When I put on the softer tyre, the car felt good, felt really good, a bit of movement into Parabolica but the tyre felt very good, so I was keeping good pace and the car felt good.

Q: (Tom Cary – The Daily Telegraph) Jenson, you came into the weekend bombarded with questions about your mental strength and under a lot of pressure. Do you feel that your performance here shows that you can cope with it and you’ve put those stories to bed now?
JB: That’s between you guys. The talk of pressure never came out of my mouth. I know I’m in a very good situation, I’ve driving the best car on the grid at the moment, and I’ve probably got one of the most competitive team-mates on the grid at the moment. So there are lots of positives and a couple of negatives there but why shouldn’t I be positive? I’ve got a fourteen-point lead with four races to go. That’s it really. I’m sure you’re right that I have controlled the pressure that I’ve had for the last two or three races but those are your words, not mine.

Q: (Adam Hay-Nicholls – Metro) Rubens, when you were up on the podium, it looked like you were firing arrows into the crowd. What was that about?
RB: I invent all the time.
JB: He’s got two kids and watches a lot of weird films.
RB: That’s very much like it. Fernando was four yesterday, so that was for him.

source: www.formula1.com

Ferrari evaluating Badoer’s future

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Ferrari are expected to wait until later this week before announcing any decision on whether Luca Badoer will race again for the world champions at next month’s Italian Grand Prix.

Test driver Badoer stood in for the injured Felipe Massa at the last two rounds at Valencia and Spa, but failed to shine at either venue, finishing 17th and 14th, prompting speculation that he will be replaced for the team’s home race at Monza.

Massa, whose skull was fractured in a qualifying accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix, is currently in the United States where he will undergo more medical tests on Monday. According to team principal Stefano Domenicali, who saw Kimi Raikkonen score Ferrari’s first 2009 victory on Sunday, the results of those tests could have a bearing on their line-up for Italy.

“Luca did the best he could and this win also reflects his contribution within the team,” said Domenicali at Spa. “Now we will take a few days to evaluate his immediate future, also based on what Felipe’s recovery time might be.”

After qualifying 20th in Belgium, Badoer came home last on Sunday, over a minute and a half behind victor Raikkonen, and the 38-year-old Italian’s best race lap was over two seconds slower than the Finn’s.

source: www.formula1.com

Victory for Raikkonen, glory for Fisichella at Spa-Francorchamps

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Kimi Raikkonen became the sixth different victor in six races after putting Ferrari back in the winners’ circle for the first time in 2009, with a finely judged success in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, in which his KERS system played a crucial role in the opening stages.

But he was dogged all the way to the flag by a gallant Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India, who kept him honest throughout on the first medium downforce circuit of the season. Behind them, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel drove strongly for third, closing on them both by the finish. Raikkonen crossed the finish line 0.9s ahead, with Vettel 2.9s behind Fisichella.

Jenson Button’s hopes of adding to his points tally in the Brawn GP ended at Les Combes on the first lap when he was spun out by Romain Grosjean’s Renault, while in a separate incident Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren tagged Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso while trying to avoid the melee. Stewards looked at both collisions, but deemed no action necessary.

After a safety car intervention, Raikkonen, who had sped up to second behind Fisichella on the opening lap, lost no time using his KERS to slingshot by the Italian on the run up Raidillon to Les Combes on the fifth lap, but Fisichella pushed him all the way.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber looked strong initially until an unsafe release from his first pit stop nearly put rival BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld in the pit-lane wall. A drive-through penalty subsequently dropped him to ninth.

Renault’s Fernando Alonso also seemed on course for a healthy helping of points after running the longest opening stint, but a brush with Force India’s Adrian Sutil in La Source on the opening lap had damaged the left front wheel, and after a disastrously long pit stop on Lap 24 he had to come in again to retire a lap later when the left front wheel could not be secured satisfactorily.

Vettel was able to vault past a fast-starting Robert Kubica after his second stop on the 35th lap and said his Red Bull was perfect thereafter, but the Pole brought his BMW Sauber home fourth ahead of closing team mate Heidfeld. The German has passed Toyota’s Jarno Trulli for second at the start but ran wide and lost ground, allowing Kubica to nip down the inside to run third initially.

Heikki Kovalainen did a one-stop strategy in his McLaren to stay ahead of Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello for sixth place. The Brazilian, who bogged down off the grid, was saved to an extent by the intervention of the safety car which enabled Brawn to refuel him for a longer opening stint in a fast first-lap pit stop, but had to back off at the end when his Mercedes engine showed signs of failing. He just made it to the flag ahead of a closing Nico Rosberg, who drove yet another strong race for Williams to score the final point, while Webber just missed out with ninth after a frustrating race.

Toyota’s Timo Glock had a fuel rig problem in his first stop which delayed him, and could not better 10th, under pressure at the end from Force India’s Sutil. Behind them Sebastien Buemi brought his Toro Rosso home 12th ahead of Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and an unimpressive Luca Badoer, who was the last finisher for Ferrari.

Besides Alonso and the first lap crashers, the other retirement was Trulli, whose front wing was damaged when he made contact with Heidfeld's BMW Sauber on the opening lap. That ruined the Italian’s race, as did a later refuelling problem, similar to Glock’s. He ultimately retired with a brake problem.

In the title stakes, Barrichello took two more points off Button, who still has 74 to the Brazilian’s 56. Vettel moves back ahead of Webber with 53 to the Australian’s 51.5.In the constructors’ championship Brawn have 128 points, Red Bull 104.5, Ferrari 56 and McLaren 44.

source: www.formula.com

Lorenzo takes win as rivals suffer costly crashes

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:08:00 +0000

Sunday, 30 August 2009

Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo got his third victory of 2009 at Indianapolis, as his team-mate Valentino Rossi and Spanish rival Dani Pedrosa both crashed in the 28 lap Brickyard contest.

Indianapolis 2009 - MotoGP Race Highlights

The battle for the 2009 World Championship was blown wide open on Sunday at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix as Jorge Lorenzo scored a great win and his Fiat Yamaha colleague Valentino Rossi suffered his first DNF of the year.

Lorenzo eventually crossed the line with a 9.5s winning margin to cut Rossi’s championship lead in half, as the deficit dropped from 50 to 25 points, with five races remaining.

Behind Lorenzo there was a great ride from San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis who did his quest to remain in MotoGP no harm at all in second place, gaining his first ever premier class podium from fourth on the grid.

Nicky Hayden also rode brilliantly after qualifying sixth, repeating his 2008 Indianapolis podium, this time in third position – his best result to date with Ducati. Hayden got the better of Andrea Dovizioso, despite a stiff challenge from the man who replaced him in the Repsol Honda team, the Italian yet again having to settle for fourth on the last lap.

World Champion Valentino Rossi hit the ground on lap nine when battling for the race lead with Lorenzo, the Italian able to remount and try to continue only to have to retire a couple of laps later due to the damage his M1 machine sustained. It was the first time Rossi has failed to finish a race since Valencia in 2007.

Earlier in the race there was also a crash for Dani Pedrosa on the fourth lap when the pole man was leading the race. He bravely picked up his RC212V and rejoined in last place, doing well to finally finish in 10th position.

Adding to the American representation towards the front Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) finished in fifth place, whilst there was a late crash from Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing) when battling with James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) for sixth. Melandri’s mishap left the Englishman to again equal his best ever MotoGP result.

The top ten also featured Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Mika Kallio (Ducati) and Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini). A special mention must go to Pramac Racing’s temporary replacement rider Aleix Espargaró who earned three points in 13th place on his MotoGP debut.

source: www.motogp.com

Lorenzo to remain with Fiat Yamaha in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:56:00 +0000

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo will continue his career in MotoGP as a Fiat Yamaha rider alongside Valentino Rossi.

Jorge Lorenzo and Yamaha Motor Company have signed a one year extension to the current rider agreement that will see Lorenzo, presently second in the 2009 MotoGP World Championship standings, as team mate of reigning MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi for another year.

Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, said "We are obviously delighted that Jorge has decided to stay at Yamaha for the next season and we hope that he will remain at Yamaha for many years to come. Jorge has shown his talent, his ability to learn and to compete at the highest level with many excellent performances in 2008 and 2009. We have no doubt that he has the ability and drive to become MotoGP World Champion and we are proud that he has decided to remain with Yamaha, despite having received some very serious approaches from some of our competitors. This timely decision now allows us to focus on the present championship, where our riders are currently first and second, and to make definitive plans for our 2010 MotoGP program."

"I am very happy!" said Jorge Lorenzo. "Today is a good day because I have decided to remain with the Yamaha Factory Team in 2010. It was a very important decision and that's why I have had to take the last few weeks to make it, but I think that this is the best decision for me in this moment. I want to thank Yamaha because they have always done everything that they have promised, and I especially would like to say thank you to Lin Jarvis and Masao Furusawa."

Press release courtesy of Fiat Yamaha

source: www.motogp.com

Barrichello returns Brawn to winning ways in Spain

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:53:00 +0000

Rubens Barrichello had said all year that he will win for Brawn GP, and he finally came good in Valencia with a controlled performance that brought him home just over two seconds ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

The world champion led at the start as expected, from McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen, both using their KERS to keep Barrichello in third place. Behind them, Kimi Raikkonen thrust up to fourth, also using the Ferrari's KERS button. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel went with them after seeing off Brawn GP’s Jenson Button, whose race soon collapsed with tyre graining issues which sent him backwards early on.

Hamilton led until his first pit stop on Lap 16, leaving Kovalainen to take over on the 17th, when he too stopped. Thereafter Barrichello ran another three laps before refuelling. That put his Brawn ahead of Kovalainen for the middle stint. Behind them, Raikkonen had no trouble keeping fourth ahead of Williams’ Nico Rosberg and Renault’s Fernando Alonso, leaving Mark Webber to fight with Button.

Hamilton had a lead of 3.6s over Barrichello by Lap 36, but when he pitted again a lap later McLaren did not have his front tyres ready after a late request to him to do one more lap came just as he was about to enter the pits. That delay proved costly - though the team insisted it didn't cost them the win - and when Barrichello pitted from the lead on Lap 40 he was able to resume ahead of Hamilton.

The Briton kept the pressure on Barrichello all the way, but could not close the gap by more than a couple of tenths each lap until the Brazilian backed off right at the end, and it came down from 3.9s to 2.3s. Raikkonen jumped Kovalainen on the second stop, and the ‘other’ Finn had his hands full holding off an aggressive Rosberg in the final laps.

Webber also lost out on the second stop, crucially dropping behind both Button and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica. Thus seventh place behind Alonso was enough for Button to increase his championship lead by two points to 72. He was the fastest man on the track for a long time in the closing laps on Bridgestone’s super-soft tyres, until they went off and he had to abandon his pursuit of the Renault. Kubica hung on ahead of Webber to score the final point.

It was a tough day for Red Bull, with Vettel retiring with his second engine failure of the weekend on Lap 24, having already made one refuelling stop and one unscheduled stop after a problem with the fuel rig.

Further back, Adrian Sutil claimed 10th for Force India ahead of Nick Heidfeld in the second BMW Sauber and Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Force India. The Toyotas were 13th and 14th, with Timo Glock bettering Button’s fastest lap right at the end. Romain Grosjean’s debut for Renault yielded only 15th place, not helped by damaging his nose on the opening lap and needing an unscheduled stop as a result, and later a half spin.

Jaime Alguersuari looked less convincing than he had in Hungary on his way to 16th for Toro Rosso, while team mate Sebastien Buemi ran into trouble after he damaged his front wing in a brush with Glock on the opening lap and had to stop for a replacement. Later he spun in Turn 12 on Lap 43 and could not continue.

Luca Badoer’s return to Formula One racing was unimpressive. He ran down the back all day, let Grosjean overtake him as they left the pits, and then got a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line on the exit. He might have achieved his ambition of a finish, but he did so in 17th place. The only other classified car behind him was Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams, who was delayed by a left rear tyre failure and then pitted for good just before the flag.

So Brawn increased their constructors’ championship lead over Red Bull, 126 points to 98.5, and Barrichello vaulted back to second place in the drivers' with 54 points to Webber’s 51.5.

Barrichello's win marked the 100th by a Brazilian driver, and fittingly he dedicated it to Felipe Massa, who had advised him on racing lines only last week. It was also the 250th race for the McLaren Mercedes partnership, and Bridgestone’s 150th victory. And it left the title fight wide open as the paddock heads to Belgium next week.

source: www.formula1.com

Rossi reviews another successful weekend

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Sunday, 16 August 2009

After another Grand Prix which decidedly swung things in his favour Valentino Rossi was in a typically upbeat mood at the conclusion of the Brno race.

Taking a 50-point lead into the final phase of the season, with six races to go at some of his favourite tracks, MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi is on course for yet another World title courtesy of his Czech Republic success.

Although Rossi started on pole the practice performances of his team-mate and closest championship rival Jorge Lorenzo suggested the pair would be set for another head-to-head duel at the front of the race. That proved to be the case but Rossi got the better of the young Spaniard again in front of the huge Czech crowd as Lorenzo overtook him towards the end of the race only to hit the ground with five laps to run.

Afterwards Rossi stated humbly, “First of all I have to say thanks to all my team because this weekend we did a great job from Friday. During the practice we were struggling a little bit with front feeling and we were quite fast but not enough. After today’s warm up we made another small modification which gave me a better feeling with the front tyre.”

The Italian star continued, “I knew that today would be tough because Jorge had gone with a fantastic pace in the practices. So I tried to make the perfect race, great start, stay at the front and push like a devil! I was making it hard work for him and then when he overtook me with six laps to go I was ready for battle and to put on a good show.”

“On turn three he lost the front and it is very bad for Jorge, it is a pity, but it is good for us as we now have a 50-point lead. There is still a long way to the end of the season but we have a good advantage, so we have to keep pushing and stay focused.”

source: www.motogp.com

Ferrari planning to substitute Schumacher for Massa

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:50:00 +0000

Ferrari announced on Wednesday that they plan to draft in Michael Schumacher to replace the injured Felipe Massa at forthcoming Grands Prix, until the Brazilian is able to race again.

The seven-times world champion, who retired from Formula One racing at the end of 2006, will undergo a special training programme over the next few days to confirm he is fit enough to compete in next month’s European Grand Prix.

"The most important thing first: thank God, all news concerning Felipe is positive,” said Schumacher. “I wish him all the best again. I was meeting this afternoon with (Ferrari team principal) Stefano Domenicali and (chairman) Luca di Montezemolo and together we decided that I will prepare myself to take the place of Felipe.

“Though it is true that the Formula One chapter has been completely closed for me for a long time, it is also true that for reasons of loyalty to the team I cannot ignore this unfortunate situation. But as the competitor I am I also very much look forward to facing this.”

Schumacher has not driven Ferrari’s current F60 in anger and last tested for the Italian team, with whom he won five world titles, back in April 2008.

source: www.formula1.com

Doctors hopeful Massa could leave hospital next week

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:22:00 +0000

With news from Hungary about Felipe Massa’s recovery looking increasingly positive, the Brazilian’s doctor has revealed to reporters that he could be well enough to walk out of hospital within the next ten days.

Massa suffered a fractured skull after being hit by a spring from another car during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. He underwent emergency surgery and was taken out of an artificially-induced coma on Monday. He has since been awake, chatting to close friends and family members, who have gathered at his bedside.

"My expectation is that he would walk out of the hospital on his own,” Peter Bazso, the medical director of Budapest’s AEK Hospital told Hungarian television channel M1. “If his recovery continues at this pace, I would not rule out that he could leave within ten days. He's spending more and more time awake, talking to family and friends."

Despite the Brazilian’s encouraging progress, Bazso has urged caution, revealing that Massa would continue to be monitored closely in intensive care. "I would like to point out that although he's recovering, this is not the end of the story, he is still in a life-threatening condition," he said. "Of course, the danger is decreasing by the day."

Massa’s wife, his parents, his brother and his friend and manager Nicolas Todt all spent Monday night at the hospital. Former Ferrari boss Jean Todt paid a visit during the course of Tuesday, as did Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali.

"It's good to have comforting news,” said Domenicali on Ferrari’s official website. “I spoke to Felipe and it was very emotional for me: he recognised me and I brought him a message from everybody at Ferrari and from the fans all over the world. I told him that his red car will wait for him until he's ready to race again. Now we've got to take it step by step and remain cautious, but it's really incredible to see all of this progress only three days after the accident."

Massa’s personal doctor, Dino Altman, added: "His condition is improving quickly and constantly. He is more and more awake and reactive. He spoke to several people today, using three different languages, replying always in a coherent way. He's also progressing with his physiotherapy very well. He opened his left eye and confirmed that he can see with it. As far as the near future is concerned we have to be cautious, but I have to say that also today there are very positive signs."

source: www.formula1.com

Hamilton and McLaren take shock win in Hungary

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:21:00 +0000

Lewis Hamilton brought McLaren their first victory of the season after a surprise result in Hungary on Sunday afternoon, his dominant success also marking Martin Whitmarsh’s first as team principal and the first for a KERS-equipped car. Kimi Raikkonen was second for Ferrari, containing a challenge from Mark Webber’s Red Bull.

Hamilton’s hopes of snatching P1 at the start were thwarted as lightweight Fernando Alonso blasted off the line from pole and quickly opened a lead in his Renault, and Mark Webber slotted his Red Bull back inside the McLaren in Turn One to regain second.

Hamilton stayed close to Webber, however, and slipped ahead around the outside of Turn Two on the fourth lap. After the first round of pits stops he really got the hammer down to build a seven-second lead over similarly fast-starting Raikkonen, the pair benefiting from their KERS systems.

The Finn was put under investigation for first corner brushes with Hamilton and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, but was cleared by the race stewards and secured a strong second place ahead of Webber. Raikkonen overtook Webber in their first stops on the 19th lap after what the Australian described as a moment of confusion as his car was refuelled. Red Bull were later reprimanded for releasing the Australian unsafely, which almost led to a collision with the Ferrari.

It was a bad day for the other title contenders. Vettel went from second to seventh by the end of the first lap, lost time in traffic, and then slid a lap down after an unscheduled stop for a new nose proved the prelude to retirement with a suspected suspension problem.

Jenson Button was unable to make real use of a long-run opening stint strategy in his Brawn but seventh place earned him two crucial points. He now leads with 70 from Webber on 51.5, Vettel on 47 and Rubens Barrichello on 44. Brawn continue to lead the constructors’ championship on 114, with Red Bull closer still on 98.5s.

There was a strong fourth place finish for Nico Rosberg and Williams, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen whose points brought further joy to McLaren. Timo Glock was sixth for Toyota after a very long opening stint, then came Button and a long gap before Toyota’s Jarno Trulli took the final point after holding off strong challenges from Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima and Barrichello to the flag.

Alonso’s opening dash came to nought after he lost the right front wheel following his early pit stop on Lap 12 and then had to retire because of associated damage. Besides Vettel, the other non-finisher was Force India's Adrian Sutil, the victim of a first-lap brush.

The BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kucica were 11th and 12th, sandwiching Nelson Piquet’s Renault, while Giancarlo Fisichella brought his Force India home a lapped 14th. Far from proving ‘dangerous’, as some had suggested, rookie Jaime Alguersuari did a great job to match lap times with Toro Rosso team mate Sebastian Buemi, and to lead him home after the Swiss twice spun. The Spaniard never put a wheel wrong.

source: www.formula1.com

Downbeat Pedrosa congratulates Dovizioso

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:19:00 +0000

Monday, 27 July 2009

Spaniard praises Repsol Honda colleague on first MotoGP victory

Relations between Dani Pedrosa and his MotoGP teammates are never the closest in MotoGP, with the single-minded Spaniard intensely focused on his own work. Such was the case with Nicky Hayden alongside him in the Repsol Honda outfit, and continues with a wall still in place to separate him and Andrea Dovizioso in 2009.

Unhappy with ninth place in the British Grand Prix, Pedrosa saw a MotoGP teammate win a race for the first time in three seasons when Dovizioso crossed the line at Donington Park, subsequently praising his Italian colleague’s performance.

”First I have to congratulate Andrea on his win because he rode a great race from beginning to end in very difficult conditions,” Pedrosa said after the race, which was an altogether tougher ride for him onboard the RC212V.

“For me, the result today is obviously disappointing and the team because I have been fast all weekend and I couldn’t keep that up during the race,” added the rider fastest in both Free Practice sessions in the Midlands.

“At the beginning I was feeling good on the Bridgestone slicks and was able to judge my pace well according to the conditions. As the rain came however, I couldn’t maintain the temperature in the tyres and when this happens the grip really goes away and I wasn’t able to control the bike as I wanted. On the grid I was sure my tyre choice was correct, but with 10 laps to go I thought that maybe I should go into the pits and change to wets, but it wasn’t worth losing 20 seconds for the bike change because the lap times of the riders on the wet tyres were the same as the times on slicks.”

The Repsol Honda rider had run a medium front tyre on the slippery asphalt, eager to avoid the rubber problems that plagued him in Sachsenring and with one eye on an advantage should the rain have got heavier. The gamble did not pay off, but he continues to be motivated for the remainder of the season after some top results.

“It was a frustrating race in strange conditions, but we’ll still have confidence going into the next race in Brno because we’ve been making progress recently and I’m feeling strong on the bike,” concluded the fourth-placed rider in the overall standings.

source: www.motogp.com

Aussie rules! Webber romps to victory in Germany

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:59:00 +0000

"Mark Webber you are a Grand Prix winner. Well done! Brilliant drive!" Those words, from Red Bull's engineers, told you all you needed to know about Sunday's German Grand Prix. No matter what they threw at the Australian, including a drive-through penalty for a brush off the startline with Brawn's Rubens Barrichello, Webber came through and delivered in devastating style.

After that brush he shadowed Barrichello as they stormed away while fast-starting Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren held up Brawn's Jenson Button, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. And even with his penalty stop on Lap 14, when Barrichello refuelled, Webber kept the lead.

His second stop, five laps later, dropped him down to eighth, but he was back in the lead by Lap 33 when all of the main first pit stops had been made, and he controlled it easily from there. Barrichello lost time in his second stop with a refuelling rig problem, and later, like Button, struggled to warm his tyres. Both were on three-stop strategies, which dropped them from second and third places with 10 laps left.

Thus it was Sebastian Vettel who came through to grab second, in Red Bull's third one-two of the season, after a weekend in which his team mate completely eclipsed him. Massa was strong all day for Ferrari and took third ahead of Nico Rosberg, who drove superbly early on with a high fuel load and thoroughly deserved fourth for Williams.

The Brawns switched places in their final stops, as Button made his a lap later, and they finished fifth and sixth, hounded to the finish by Fernando Alonso's Renault, which set fastest lap. Behind them, Kovalainen clung on for the final point for McLaren, with Toyota's Timo Glock, BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella and Williams' Kazuki Nakajima in his wheeltracks.

It was, after all, a terrible day for Force India's Adrian Sutil, who ran as high as second before his first refuelling stop, but then lost it all through a clash with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen as he exited the pits. He needed another stop for a new front wing and finished a tearful 15th, behind Renault's Nelson Piquet and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica. Stewards looked into the Raikkonen incident, but decided no action was necessary.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli was delayed after a brush in traffic on the opening lap and finished 17th, behind Sebastien Buemi in the sole Toro Rosso to finish. And right at the back, the only lapped runner was McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. The world champion made a brilliant start, led fractionally on the outside at Turn One, but then got his right-rear tyre clipped by Webber and had to pit at the end of the lap with a puncture. That was all she wrote.

The day, however, belonged to Webber as Advance Australia Fair played at the end of a Grand Prix for the first time since Alan Jones won in Las Vegas back in 1981. It was superb victory in the most trying circumstances, and Webber thoroughly deserved his maiden success.

Button still leads the championship, with 68 points, but now Vettel is second with 47, Webber third with 45.5 and Barrichello drops to fourth on 44.

source: www.formula1.com

FIA post-race press conference - Germany

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:57:00 +0000

Reproduced with kind permission of the FIA

1st Mark Webber (Red Bull), 1h36m43.310s; 2nd Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), 1h36m52.562s; 3rd Felipe Massa (Ferrari), 1h36m59.216s.

Q: Mark, take you back to November. You are lying on the road in Australia with a broken leg and maybe thinking your career is now over. Here you are today a grand prix winner. Tell us your emotions.
Mark Webber: It is an incredible day for me. I wanted to win so badly after Silverstone. I thought I had a good chance there. But after yesterday’s pole position I knew I was in a good position to try and win the race today. The only thing in the end that I thought was going to beat me or test me even more was the rain but even that held off. To get the victory today was a little bit testing. Obviously I lost Rubens (Barrichello) completely off the start. I thought he had gone to the left and I went to the right and I banged into him. That is not normally my style, so I got a drive through for that and had to recover. My engineer kept me calm and I pushed as hard as I could when I needed to. It is a great day for me, like you say. It was a difficult winter. Sebastian showed in winter testing what the car could do, that kept my motivation very high when I was hurting a lot with all my rehab. I have had great people around me to recover from the injuries that I had. The team had been incredibly patient with me as well and I want to thank Dietrich (Mateschitz) and Red Bull for what they did for me over the winter as well. Everyone in Australia that has supported me on the way through and of course there are a few people who doubted me too as well, so hello to them as well. It is just an incredible day for all the people who have helped me get to where I am.

Q: Sebastian, you had to work very hard today. Your thoughts on that and also on Mark’s first grand prix victory.
Sebastian Vettel: First of all congratulations to him, today he was unbeatable. He was quicker than all of us, so he totally deserved to win. I am very happy with the result. In the end it was a good recovery. It was quite a bad start and then all the KERS cars around me. I got passed by both McLarens and then even Felipe, so it was quite difficult. You start fourth and then go into the first corner maybe eighth or something. And then basically I struggled a lot in the first stint. I was in traffic and you know altogether we are four or five cars. Obviously I could have gone quite a bit quicker but there was no way to pass Felipe. He always used his special button when I was quite close, therefore I was lucky to have the right strategy and in the end that brought us back to second position but Felipe didn’t stop pushing, so it was quite hard until the end of the race, so we had to fight but obviously another one-two finish for the team. I am very, very happy. Good points today. Obviously I would lie to you if I would say I am very, very pleased with second. Of course I wanted to win but yesterday Mark did a better job and that is why he totally deserved to win. He was quicker. It is a good fight among us, so I am very happy and looking forward to the next races. I think our car is competitive, so looking forward.

Q: Felipe, special button or not, it was a fighting drive for you today with lots of wheel to wheel action to bring you your first podium of the season.
Felipe Massa: To be honest, I missed to be here, to be in top three but it was a fantastic race. I did a fantastic start, passed many cars. I was struggling a lot with the soft tyres at the beginning like most of the people but fortunately I could manage to stay in front of Sebastian and managed to put out a good pace after a while. When we put on a second set of tyres I think that was very important for the race, to have a good pace at that stage. I am very happy. I am very happy that everyone in the team did a great job on the strategy, on the pit stops, so I think having a good result like this, a podium will definitely motivate the people to keep working, to keep pushing hard and preparing a good car for the end of the championship and especially another great car for next year.

Q: Mark, you mentioned the incident at the start with Rubens. A lot of people have described it as very aggressive. It was a very aggressive drive generally but some wheel banging from you on the run down to turn one. Take us through it.
MW: I knew my start wasn’t absolutely fantastic and I just moved across a little bit and as soon as I hit him I said ‘there he is.’ It was a bit of a surprise. I think I clipped the back of Lewis (Hamilton) if that was Lewis. I am not sure which McLaren it was. I lost a little bit of the front wing endplate I think but with these KERS cars and the way the mirrors are set up on these cars now, all the aerodynamic stuff, everyone is in similar situation. It was a difficult first run to the first corner but we got away okay.

Q: Sebastian, you had a fair bit of wheel banging today not least with Felipe as you were mentioning. You could clearly see how much it meant for both of you to keep the place.
SV: Yeah, it was quite tough to get past him. I didn’t succeed and he was defending well with his button, especially downhill. I thought now I am in the tow but couldn’t get close and then unfortunately at the end of the straight I was at the limit, so couldn’t make the big difference in the braking then but he was on the inside, so it was tight and he did a good job. Sometimes it was very close. I was thinking if he wants to get my front wing off the car. I had to be very cautious as obviously it is very difficult with these wide front wings. You have to be extremely careful.

Q: What do you think, Felipe? Hard but fair?
FM: We are racing. Anyway we have the KERS, so it is a help to keep the position or maybe try to overtake. But you want to exchange the KERS for a bit of downforce. I change very quickly.

Q: Mark, you had a big pace advantage over the Brawns today. We have got a whole second half of the championship opening up in front of you. Do you think you can win both championships?
MW: Well, they are both still up for grabs, there is no question about it. The work that has gone on at Milton Keynes underneath Adrian Newey and all the guys there. They have produced a special car, no doubt about it. Brawn are leading the constructors because they deserve to be, they have got a lot of points but we are not giving up. Sebastian and I are on the top of our game and pushing as best as we can to be as consistent as possible at all venues. Renault are giving us fantastic engines. The team are gelling incredibly well. The big problem at our factory at the moment is building a trophy cabinet, so it is a very good problem for us to have. It is hard work they we are putting in but it is paying off. It is very good for us. We love fighting against teams like Ferrari and McLaren as this is what Formula One is all about. For Red Bull to take the fight to these big guys is a real credit to us. They will be back for sure but it is a special time for our team.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Mark, what is it like? Will you have a few more of those, do you think?
MW: I hope so. I hope they are like muscles, obviously. When you get one you get a few more. I have done a few grands prix now. I think this is the first year I have really had a chance to win grands prix. I have had a few second places but today pulled the win off. But what is really important to me is that it wasn’t handed to me. I had to work for it. I started on pole and it would have been a lot more comfortable obviously without the little penalty but apart from that it was still reasonably straight forward. There was still a lot of traffic and some other people like Sebastian were going to be quick but that’s the way it goes sometimes and I have been in that situation, so it was nice to be able to have a very straightforward and easy first victory. I want to thank all the team for the effort they have put into me and the patience they have shown with me over the winter to get back to full fitness and just the job they have done to produce this fantastic car.

Q: How tough was it coming back from that cycling accident? Were you up to full race fitness right at the start of the season?
MW: Well, I think I was kidding myself a little bit. I thought I was ready to go for winter testing but I wasn’t. It is absolutely clear that the leg was a long way from healed and it was still broken. It was just the metal holding it in place, so it has come a long way since then. Time has been a little bit on my side. I was lucky that Melbourne was put back a little bit in the calendar and a few things have gone my way, so along with having fantastic people around me, like Roger (Cleary), my physio. We spent a lot of time together getting back and even things like walking in the swimming pool and things like that in the first part of January was very tough for me. But there is always someone worse off and I always stayed positive and I knew that looking at the times Sebastian was doing in testing the car was going to be quick. That gave me incredible motivation to be ready.

Q: Do you see the irony of the margin you had over Sebastian today in comparison to three weeks ago?
MW: Yeah, I did. I did think that in the race. I thought now I know how Sebastian felt and it is a nice way to be able to control a grand prix. The first stint I got held up a lot by Rubens at Silverstone and that makes it difficult. But all of us know that. All of us know that it is very difficult to overtake. These cars, you know, the braking is so late and they are so even, in so many areas on the track it is difficult to stay close. Maybe in Malaysia, in Bahrain there are a few tracks where you have a chance but when you have slightly quicker corners it is very difficult and then you throw the KERS in as well. It is a challenge for us to jump people even when they are in trouble. You need free air, good quali, and that is when you can get the job done.

Q: Do you think the penalty was merited? And did you think it was all gone when you had to serve it?
MW: I thought it was a little bit harsh but maybe they wanted to spice things up a little bit. It is not really my style. I think I did definitely lose Rubens 100 per cent for a while. I moved across and then what made it worse was that I shitted myself and came back across again and I thought ‘My God, there he is.’ That’s what made it look maybe a little bit worse than it was. I had a fair idea what it was for but also I thought that when I touched one of the McLarens in turn one I lost a little bit of the front wing, so I couldn’t believe it was for that. But you know of course I was shattered when I was told I have got a drive-through. I thought ‘My God, I am absolutely cruising here behind Rubens. I know he is short. I know everything is under control.’ And a drive-through is very harsh for anyone in any grand prix, so I had to recover. Also I thought I was pretty close to getting done for speeding in the pit lane as well as I was quite frustrated. In the end it turned out okay but it could have been a different story as you say.

Q: And you were easing up at the end. Was that because you knew you had the time?
MW: Yeah, it was just staying away from the kerbs. Sebastian had a problem on Friday with the car in turn one with some issues we had there, so there were a few things I had to be aware of and make sure I kept the car in the middle of the track and brought it home. There was no reason to finish 20 seconds in front instead of 10. As Jack Brabham used to say ‘win at the slowest possible speed,’ so I was thinking of Jack today.

Q: It is interesting you mention two issues caused at turn one. Was that caused by that bump?
MW: Well, there is an elevation change for sure. But it is not just there. You have got the chicane, you have got quite a few areas where we run the kerbs on the exits and if you narrow the track a lot like I was in the last stint then for sure you drop the lap time. It is circuit specific here.

Q: Sebastian, you seemed to be involved in battles throughout.
SV: But I didn’t succeed, so… It was difficult. At the start, I thought the start was alright because none of the guys in front of me had KERS and all of a sudden the cars just kept flying past me: both McLarens and then I saw Felipe approaching me. I tried to block him but obviously he was already side-by-side, so I opened up. Approaching turn one I was feeling that I was starting from midfield and not P4. Then it was quite difficult, I lost quite some positions. Then, basically, it was the old story: you are in the pack and you try to race. I had Felipe in front of me, I was quite a bit quicker than all the pack but couldn’t get past. He used his KERS system very well to defend. All the time when I was close I could feel him pressing the button and opening up the gap which gave him enough cushion for the rest of the straight, so it was impossible for me to start a manoeuvre. I think the whole pack, led by Heikki (Kovalainen) and then Jenson (Button), who managed to get past Felipe in the beginning, Felipe and me, we were all losing a lot of time, every single lap to the two guys in front, to Rubens and Mark. I was already feeling a bit bad. Obviously I knew I had a very good strategy but still the first stint wasn’t easy because the tyres were not in the best shape at the end. I even had to defend from Kimi (Räikkönen) a couple of times. But then in the second stint we went onto the hard tyres and everything was fine – struggling with warm-up, I think, like everyone was during the whole weekend, but able to recover and come back to second position, still with Felipe behind me, so I had to keep pushing until the end. But of course it’s nice taking a lot of points. I would have loved to win this race for sure. It’s my home Grand Prix but especially because there were so many people around the track supporting me. But I’m not the oldest person on the grid, so I might have a couple of years left and some more attempts. I’m definitely looking forward to the next races and we will see what we can do. The car is working well, the team is working fantastically both here at the track and back in England. We keep pushing, so we will see.

Q: Felipe, you were obviously overtaken by Jenson early on. What happened?
FM: Well, he passed me! I had my KERS but he had good speed on the straight, plus he was light. At that stage of the race the tyres were still in good shape, so he managed to pass me.

Q: Then you were pushed by both Sebastian and Rubens as well.
FM: Yeah, during the first stint I was in the pack behind Heikki, Jenson, myself and Sebastian followed by Kimi. Sebastian was very close, he tried to attack me sometimes. Fortunately this time I could manage to stay in front and then I think everybody was struggling massively in the first stint with soft tyres, massive rear degradation. During the first 15 laps, Sebastian was very, very close to myself but then after a while, I felt that he started to struggle as well with the rear tyres, so things were a little bit quiet, so it was easier to control the situation. After a while he stopped before me, he managed to change the tyres and his pace was much better than mine because I was struggling with the tyres. I even asked the team what the situation was because maybe it would have been better to anticipate. If we did, maybe it would have been possible to stay in front of Sebastian but we didn’t anticipate the pit stop and then I think we lost the position to him because of that.

Q: Is this the return of Ferrari?
FM: A podium is always important. Third place is a good result for us but we cannot say it’s really our return. I think we are improving the car step-by-step a little bit, so I think that’s good motivation for the people. So we know if we work we can manage to have a good car, a competitive car, so I push my team very hard because as soon as possible I want a car that gives us a chance to fight for victory and for the championship. It’s what Ferrari is able to do and we have done for so many years. But nothing is coming for free, so we need to work and push very hard to steer things in the right direction, so that we can have a car that will bring us into this place (indicates the first place position), not on the left (in third position), in the middle. I think that’s our aim and that’s what we’re working for.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) On the podium we saw you watching the flag. How important is it for you to win as an Australian?
MW: Very, very important for me to win because not many Australian drivers have reached Formula One and there are even fewer that are successful. So for me to win a grand prix and have the career that I’ve had – a long career – but for sure I wanted better results but this year has been very, very special and now we are able to say that we’ve won a grand prix, fair and square, which is nice. It’s a real message to the Australian people. I’ve always tried to represent my country as best as I can. We’re a very proud sporting nation, we have done well on two wheels, on motorbikes with Mick (Doohan) and with Casey (Stoner) but the motorbikes aren’t motor sport in general at world level, where we haven’t been amazing. It’s a great day for me and Australia and that’s why it was a special one.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Mark, how long and tense were those final laps, thinking that maybe it might rain, something might go wrong with the car or the track or anything?
MW: On lap 40, when I knew everything was pretty much in the bag, then it got a bit darker, I could feel it got a little bit colder in the car and I thought ‘hmm, we’re going to be tested once more again.’ But from lap 52 or 53 onwards I knew it probably wasn’t going to rain again and actually I was pretty relaxed. I was enjoying driving the car, it’s always nice when you have a buffer but for sure I wanted the chequered flag to come, and yes, I was thinking about the car a lot. There was a little bit of debris in the first sector, so I was making sure not to pick up any punctures and also some stones in turn nine, so lots of things like that which you start to really keep an eye on which normally you don’t care when you’re twelfth but when you’re leading it’s a different ball game.

Q: (Ian Parkes – The Press Association) To Mark and Sebastian: do you guys realise that in taking points off one another as you are doing these past two races that you may be playing into Jenson’s hands a little bit? You’re not making the big leaps forward that perhaps one of you might perhaps expect to if there was just one driver going for the title?
MW: It’s a good problem for us to have at Red Bull. We probably never envisaged the season that we’re having. We knew the car was going to be good but it’s in some cases quite rare that two drivers are performing quite closely and getting very similar points. It could have been different for Sebastian today. It’s very difficult to call how the races are going to be. Strategy is always playing a little bit of a role here and there, so if you put all your eggs in one basket I think it might help but you can do that for two or three races and then that guy might have two DNFs and the guy that you took points off before is in a slightly worse position, so we’re taking the fight as hard as we can to Brawn. Either of us can have DNFs from mechanical problems or anything, so at the end of the day we’ve got a lot of points to go and that will be a decision for the team later on. We’re getting on well, we drive the car on the limit, we love getting the most out of it, our team is brilliantly strong inside and we love fighting at the front. It’s a team championship, a team sport at the moment. Maybe in the end, the last three or four or five races it will turn to one of us if we have a chance to fight Jenson but… The last two races have been interesting for them. Let’s see how we go in the hot races and maybe it’s a bit more difficult for us.

Q: (Alan Baldwin – Reuters) Mark, at the end when you crossed the line, we haven’t heard you shout like that for ever, I don’t think. Was that years of pent-up emotion coming out and was there ever a time in your mind when maybe you thought you were more of a Chris Amon than a Jack Brabham?
MW: I thought that but you know I think during my time at Williams it was very tough for the motivation, that’s the hardest part of it. No one likes turning up and getting your arse kicked every weekend. That would test anyone’s patience and that’s why I suppose you’ve got to take your hat off to someone like Jenson and maybe myself a little bit, where you’re still trying to stay involved and keep your motivation high to focus on other goals to keep your drive high and now it’s obviously different. We can turn up at race weekends and get very, very good results. I’ve certainly had testing times in my career with unreliable cars and being in a position to get results hasn’t happened for whatever reason. It’s happening at the moment and as you say there was a lot of emotion. What happened today is not going to change my life massively but it’s a very, very important thing. I will sleep well tonight, everything’s fine but I’m not a different person because I’ve won one race. I’m just very, very happy that I’ve won it fair and square, that I’ve beaten everyone else today, so that’s the most important thing to me.

Q: (Flavio Vanetti – Corriere della Sera) Felipe, you told us that we couldn’t consider Ferrari back completely yet. So can we consider this podium as a victory in some way?
FM: First of all, I would like to take this chance to congratulate Mark because I know how he’s feeling. It must be a great feeling. I cannot say this is like a victory. I think this is like good work. Victory is victory. We finished on the podium, we finished in third position starting from eighth, so it’s definitely a great result but victory is always first place. I think this huge motivation, it’s a huge result for us to keep pushing, to keep working and just show the people that we can do it.

Q: (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Mark, it’s a pretty good day for Australia. You will be happy to know that England are six wickets down against Australia. It’s like it’s going to be over by teatime. Have you had any contact with Ricky (Ponting, Australia’s cricket captain) this weekend at all?
MW: No, not this weekend. Obviously, we spoke before I came away here and you know the baggy green, it’s a very famous thing in Australia. They are fighting again in a very special series and that’s their war. They’re enjoying it, they love beating the Poms in that special series, so I’m very, very happy that they’re doing well. They batted phenomenally and I’m going to a dinner tomorrow night with Ricky Ponting and I’m looking forward to seeing some of the Australian players and hopefully we can have a double victory. Hopefully they can get a few more wickets and knock Monty (Panesar) and a few of the tail-enders over quickly and they can go one-nil up in the series which would be very good.

Q: (Alessia Cruciani – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Felipe, yesterday you said ‘I have to be honest, a podium is impossible.’
FM: Well, to be honest, I didn’t expect that.

Q: (Alessia Cruciani – La Gazzetta dello Sport ) What’s the reason for this good result, and how was the behaviour of the car?
FM: The reason was that I was wrong, so a podium was possible. We are here but always when you see these guys very quick in qualifying, the whole weekend these guys were very, very strong and Brawn as well, they were pretty good. I started eighth with a lot of fuel, maybe some degradation of the tyres, so I thought a podium would not be realistic. We fought so hard during the whole race, the start was also very important to manage to get the podium at the end, so it was possible.
The car was good, the pace was reasonable. When I was on soft tyres at the beginning I was not as quick as Sebastian and Rubens and Mark but that was with a lot of fuel in the car. The second stint was pretty good. I was following Sebastian, even catching him. Sometimes at the end of the stint he started pulling away slightly but in the last stint the car was good on the hard tyres as well, so the car was pretty reasonable.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Felipe, again as at Silverstone, your performance in the race was much better than in qualifying. Is qualifying the discipline you’ve got to work on?
FM: Yeah, maybe. Maybe qualifying is something that we still need to improve a bit. Also the strategy. Starting with a lot of fuel at some tracks is maybe something that pays quite a lot. At Silverstone my pace was very good but the strategy helps a lot, to pass all the cars in front. Here, as well, we had a race where many people were struggling on the tyres at the beginning, so we passed some cars at the beginning and we were heavy on fuel, so the strategy pays a lot. It’s difficult to say that we are much better in the race than in qualifying. I think in the race, together with the strategy, we manage to do a good job.

Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) Sebastian, you were expecting a lot from this Grand Prix and your public was expecting a lot. You look a little disappointed. I don’t know if you are but can you just describe your feelings? Do you think it was not such a successful weekend for you and how do you cope with the fact that your team-mate is now a title contender with you as well?
MW: I don’t think it’s just from this race onwards. As someone said before, we are very close if you look at the points. Of course I would be lying to you if I said that second is very, very good. Of course I wanted to win but I think today after starting fourth and losing a lot of positions on the first lap, I think second was all we could do. I was basically in the group led by Heikki which I described earlier, then together with Felipe, Jenson and me, there was no way through and I lost a lot of time which allowed Rubens and Mark to disappear in front and after that I think it was more or less decided already. If there’s anything or anyone to blame it’s maybe myself in yesterday’s qualifying. In the last run I was thinking I had two laps, it turned out to be only one but in the end on the lap I had I possibly had the car to put on pole but I didn’t get the lap as perfect as usual and lost two tenths which made a big difference. The threat was there from the start, with the KERS cars behind and I was the first one to be in the shit. What are you supposed to do? I turned into the first corner, I’m P7 or P8 and I started fourth. It’s a strange feeling and after that, having quite a lot of fuel on board and the strategy brought us back to where we finished.

source: www.formula1.com

Rossi reflects on reaching century of Grand Prix wins

noreply@blogger.com (PaddockSpy-Grand Prix Blog) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:07:00 +0000

Saturday, 27 June 2009

Italian thanks teams and family after riding ‘perfect race’ in Assen.

Valentino Rossi appears to reach a Grand Prix milestone with every victory added to his legacy, and the Italian reached a century of World Championship wins with his latest triumph on Saturday in Assen. The Fiat Yamaha rider had less of a battle on his hands than two weeks prior in Barcelona, and was in better condition to give an animated celebration –this time an unraveling of a celebratory banner and a photo with an ‘old school’ camera.

“It’s a fantastic achievement. 100 victories is a great number. Thanks to all the guys who have helped me to reach this number –my teams over the past ten years, Jeremy Burgess and especially all my close friends and family for giving me motivation. We hope to win some other races though!” said Rossi after stepping onto the podium with a custom made ‘100’ flag.

On the race itself, which he led for almost the entirety after starting from pole, the reigning World Champion commented that: “I had a good feeling and knew that I was very fast on two or three points in the track, so I tried to get out to the front as soon as possible and impose my rhythm. It was a perfect race because any mistakes would have a high cost. I knew that Lorenzo was very strong, so I tried to take an advantage.

“It’s been two races that the bike has had a good setting. This year the bike is fantastic, and we hope to continue in this way.”

Rossi will have little time to savour the win, as the MotoGP World Championship takes a swift transatlantic flight to Laguna Seca, California for next weekend’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The 30-year old was a winner there in 2008, but knows that things won’t be easy stateside.

“Last year was great, but it will be hard with just 3-4 days of rest. We are in a good moment, and I hope to have a good race like last year.”

source: www.motogp.com