Sebastian Vettel: “We Have One Of The Most Consistent Cars”
After finishing Sunday’s British Grand Prix 3rd, Sebastian Vettel believes Red Bull have one of the most consistent cars on the 2012 grid. Admittedly the reigning World Champion retired with a mechanical issue in Valencia, but that has so far been the Milton Keynes-based outfit’s only retirement of the season.
Looking back on Red Bull’s previous results, and the consistency of the reigning Champions is abundantly clear. Since the start of the 2010 season, Red Bull have only suffered eight retirements, with only three of those being down to issues on the car. Red Bull have taken 24 race victories since 2010, including the three so far taken in 2012. This has enabled them to be crowned Constructors’ Champions for the last two years.
Although the 2012 season has so far not been dominated by Red Bull, or any one particular team for that matter, Sebastian Vettel remains confident that his team have one of the most consistent cars on the grid. They are so far the only team to have taken three victories in 2012, however it is Mark Webber who is currently the leading Red Bull driver in this highly unpredictable season. When asked for his judgement on the RB8, the reigning World Champion had this to say:
“We had a good car right from the beginning – a car that at least brought us into the top five at every race. And we have seen how fast it can happen that instead of P1 you end in P5, so we have to be satisfied. I would even go so far as to say that we have one of the most consistent cars as we’ve only had one retirement. So yes, I would say that the package is good – and for sure good enough to attack at the next races.”
Sebastian Vettel has yet to win at the either of the next two races on the 2012 calendar, in Germany and Hungary. The German hasn’t ever won a race in July come to that, and will undeniably be striving to correct that fact with a victory in front of his adoring home fans in two weeks time around the Hockenheimring.
Giedo van der Garde Wins Spanish GP2 Feature Race
Dutchman Giedo van der Garde has won the main feature race for this weekends GP2 Series, after an excellent strategy in the pits which enabled him to leap-frog Fabio Leimer and pole man James Calado. The British driver came home 2nd after fighting to not only try and pass van der Garde, but to also defend from Coletti in a strong 3rd.
As the cars peeled away to begin their warm-up lap, GP2 rookie Victor Guerin unfortunately stalled his Ocean Racing Technology car, thus forcing the Brazilian to start from the pits. At the start, James Calado defended vigorously from Fabio Leimer, as the two kicked up dust and marbles on the already dirty track from the F1. As they battled on through turns one and two, van der Garde had a stab at taking 2nd away from Leimer, however the Swiss driver was able to remain in 2nd.
With Leimer defending against the Caterham of van der Garde, this enabled the Lotus of Calado to break out a gap at the front. Further behind, the usual melee of cars miraculously found their way around the opening two laps without any major incidents.
The first driver to enter the pits for his mandatory pit-stop was the Rapax of Ricardo Teixeira, who started the race on the softer Pirelli tyres. Only several corners after exiting the pits, and the Portuguese-Angolan driver was out of the race with suspected issues with his tyres. With the yellow flags out in force as the marshals retrieved the car, Giancarlo Serenelli was caught ignoring the yellow flags and was subsequently issued a drive-through penalty.
From lap 11 onwards, the field began making their mandatory pits-stops, with leader James Calado opting to change all four of his tyres. Fabio Leimer also pitted at the same time as the British driver, with the two exiting the pit-lane side-by-side. Calado led away as they both left the confines of the pits, with Leimer being issued a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release by his Racing Engineering team.
As the two leaders squabbled together in the pits, Giedo van der Garde remained out on track, and when pitted only opted to change the two rear tyres. This strategy enabled the Dutchman to leap-frog the leading pair, as Nigel Melker was issued a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.
With half of the race remaining, a battle was brewing for lead as the gap between Calado and van der Garde ebbed and flowed. As Leimer took his penalty, this enabled Stefano Coletti in the Coloni to close the gap and make it and potential three-way battle for the lead.
However, as the laps wore on, it became apparent that passing is still difficult around the Circuit de Catalunya, as the leading trio remained cemented in their respective positions. Giedo van der Garden eventually crossed the line to pick up his fourth career victory in GP2, whereas further back carnage ensued as Tom Dillmann, Julian Leal and Johnny Cecotto jr. came together battling for position. Dillmann spun off on the exit of turn 11, whereas Leal proceeded to spin at turn 12.
In traditional GP2 style, the top eight will be reversed ahead of tomorrow morning’s sprint race, which will see previous race winner Luiz Razia start from pole alongside British driver Max Chilton.
Picture Copyright © Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service
Will Power Wins Incident Filled Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Will Power has won a highly eventful and incident filled Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the 38th running of the event, even though Power suffered a grid penalty for an engine change after qualifying and started 12th.
With the Target Chip Ganassi of Dario Franchitti starting from pole alongside rookie Josef Newgarden, the start was an eventful one as the rookie tried to go around the outside of the reigning Champion. This unfortunately ended in tears as Newgarden got tagged by Franchitti and found himself embedded in the tyre barriers after only the first turn. This subsequently brought out a full course caution, with the cars barely getting up to racing speeds.
As the race returned to green flag conditions, Franchitti once again found himself under pressure as former F1 driver Justin Wilson overtook him heading into turn 1. Unlike Newgarden, Wilson was able to make the pass stick and streaked off into the distance opening up a considerable lead. As if Franchitti’s race hadn’t already got off to a miserable start, the Scot was then passed by the rookie of Simon Pagenaud, before both Takuma Sato and team-mate Scott Dixon got around the 4-time IndyCar Champion.
On lap 20 the second full course caution was caused as former ChampCar Champion Sebastien Bourdais lost control of his Lotus powered IndyCar and ended up in the wall. As soon as the caution came out, the majority of the field dived into the pits almost immediately.
On the restart, Dario Franchitti suffered a torrid getaway and lost several places heading into turn 1. Before any of the drivers’ could return to full racing speeds, Alex Tagliani was seen limping down an escape road with right rear tyre damage after a collision with E.J. Viso. All attention was then diverted elsewhere as Marco Andretti suffered a violent incident flying into the tyre barriers at high speeds. As Andretti’s crash was shown again, it became apparent the American driver was very lucky to come out of the incident unscathed after making contact with Graham Rahal and getting launched into the air, narrowly missing collecting Scott Dixon in mid air. Graham Rahal was also forced to retire, after loosing the majority of his rear-wing during the collision with Andretti.
With the Safety Car out on track for the third time in 24 laps, Katherine Legge was also seen in the wall, whereas Mike Conway was seen slowing down on track after getting a tap from behind from Rubens Barrichello. Upon making it back to the pits, Conway had the rear of his car dismantled as his mechanics set to fixing the issue.
As the field prepared to go racing once again, they were forced to wait an extra couple of laps after Scott Dixon came to a sudden halt in the middle of the track, and subsequently retired from the race. This added delay forced Sato to pit from the lead, and therefore handed the lead to Ryan Hunter-Reay. However, before green flag racing was resumed, both Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe also decided to pit, with Ryan Briscoe assuming the lead with Franchitti 2nd.
On the restart, Franchitti suffered yet another blow as he made contact with Briscoe, slightly damaging his nose. Four laps later, Dario finally pitted for a new nose, as both Castroneves and Briscoe pitted as well. After rejoining the race, Mike Conway’s Honda powered car finally gave up on lap 48, with a mechanical issue prematurely ending the Brits race.
With rookie Simon Pagenaud leading the race, the Frenchman was forced to pit on lap 48, thus handing the lead to Takuma Sato as Will Power began a charge as he passed Justin Wilson for 2nd. On lap 55, Power pitted for the alternate red sticker tyres, and a lap later Takuma Sato pitted. With the majority of the front running drivers’ all pitting within close proximity of each other, Ryan Hunter-Reay returned to the lead. However his lead was short lived as on lap 59 both he and Hinchcliffe pitted, therefore returning rookie Pagenaud to the lead.
Will Power continued his surge to the top as he scythed passed Takuma Sato for 2nd and turned his attention to catching Simon Pagenaud for the lead. With Rubens Barrichello making up ground going from 6th to 4th, Simon Pagenaud eventually pitted once again. This handed Will Power the lead and left Pagenaud in 4th behind Barrichello. The Frenchman made light work of Rubens, and eventually caught and passed Sato for 2nd much to the adoration of the crowd.
As the 38th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach came to a close, Simon Pagenaud closed the gap to Power from nearly six seconds to just under a second but to no avail, as the Australian took his second consecutive win of the season.
Further behind there was carnage on the final lap as Hunter-Reay and Sato came together and Castroneves and Barrichello also came together at the final corner, blocking the entire track! With Hunter-Reay being issued a time penalty for the collision with Sato, James Hinchcliffe came home 3rd in an unbelievably hectic final lap.
Results - 85 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Will Power Penske DW12-Chevy
2. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt DW12-Honda + 0.8675s
3. James Hinchcliffe Andretti DW12-Chevy + 13.2719s
4. Tony Kanaan KV DW12-Chevy + 18.1951s
5. JR Hildebrand Panther DW12-Chevy + 22.9947s
6. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti DW12-Chevy + 42.5631
7. Ryan Briscoe Penske DW12-Chevy + 1m40.1271s
8. Takuma Sato Rahal DW12-Honda + 1 lap
9. Rubens Barrichello KV DW12-Chevy + 1 lap
10. Justin Wilson Coyne DW12-Honda + 1 lap
11. James Jakes Coyne DW12-Honda + 1 lap
12. EJ Viso KV DW12-Chevy + 1 lap
13. Helio Castroneves Penske DW12-Chevy + 1 lap
14. Ed Carpenter Carpenter DW12-Chevy + 2 laps
15. Dario Franchitti Ganassi DW12-Honda + 3 laps
16. Oriol Servia Dreyer & Reinbold DW12-Lotus + 3 laps
17. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon DW12-Lotus + 3 laps
18. Charlie Kimball Ganassi DW12-Honda + 5 laps
19. Katherine Legge Dragon DW12-Lotus + 5 laps
Retirements:
Simona de Silvestro HVM DW12-Lotus 74 laps
Alex Tagliani BHA DW12-Lotus 46 laps
Mike Conway Foyt DW12-Honda 41 laps
Scott Dixon Ganassi DW12-Honda 27 laps
Graham Rahal Ganassi DW12-Honda 23 laps
Marco Andretti Andretti DW12-Chevy 22 laps
Josef Newgarden Fisher DW12-Honda 0 laps
Picture Copyright © Getty Images
Sergio Perez: “My First Win Will Come Sooner Or Later.”
Sergio Perez has admitted in an interview that he believes his first race win in Formula 1 will come sooner or later, after a stunningly mature drive in last weekends Malaysian Grand Prix. The Mexican got as high as 2nd largely thanks to the rain, and then began reeling in race leader Fernando Alonso at a phenomenal rate.
Unfortunately for Sauber and young Perez, he was unable to take the lead and win what would have been a monumental victory for the Swiss outfit. However, taking 2nd place ahead of the likes of Lewis Hamilton who was unable to catch the Mexican is an achievement in itself.
With Perez being strongly linked to move with Ferrari in place of the ailing Felipe Massa, this type of drive and strong result is more than enough to show Stefano Domenicali what to expect if Perez was ever to become a full-time Ferrari driver. He is currently a member of their Young Drivers’ Programme, and has tested for Ferrari in the past.
Felipe Massa finished the Malaysian Grand Prix 15th, only just on the lead lap. After Ferrari issued the Brazilian driver with a new chassis for the race, frustration amongst the team could well begin to materialize unless Massa can begin scoring consistent points finishes.
Sergio Perez could well be approached by Ferrari sooner rather than later, but would it be the right decision for him to move to the team mid-season if the chance arose? Giancarlo Fisichella was in the same position in 2009, and once he moved from Force India after a great 2nd place in Belgium, the Italian driver struggled to make the Ferrari finish any higher than 9th.
Eventually Fisichella was replaced by Massa once he returned from his horrific accident, a move which Ferrari may well be looking back on in hindsight and maybe wishing they’d either have kept Fisichella or signed a completely new driver.
Either way, Sergio Perez looks set on remaining at Sauber, and is focused on staying realistic after a fairytale race last weekend.
“The target is to keep improving our overall performance and the car.” Said Sergio Perez, after being asked what his next target would be, “We have to push hard and, of course, we have to stay realistic. Although the pace in the race was good we should not forget that this result came after a very special race in extraordinary conditions. Ultimately I always wanted to win races and I strongly believe my first win in Formula One will come sooner or later – in an ideal world it will happen this year.”
The 2012 Sauber C31 has shown it’s ability to conserve tyre wear, something which was always going to be a leading factor during the Malaysian Grand Prix along with the threat of rain. With this the case, could Sauber spark further surprises during what has already been an unpredictable season in F1?
Picture Copyright © Sauber Motorsport AG
Alonso Holds Off Heroic Perez To Win Rain Struck Race In Malaysia
Fernando Alonso has won an exciting and rain affected Malaysian Grand Prix, only just finishing ahead of the flying Sauber of Sergio Perez. Lewis Hamilton came home 3rd after a relatively successful race after starting from pole-position.
The race started with rain falling on the circuit, with the track wetter in various parts than others. All cars started the race on intermediates, with Pedro de la Rosa stalling as the cars began the formation lap. This therefore forced HRT to start him from the pit-lane.
As the lights went out, Lewis Hamilton got a fantastic start as Michael Schumacher lost many places heading into turn 1. The German’s race then went from bad to worse after he got hit from behind by Romain Grosjean through turn 4, which tipped the Mercedes into a spin. Grosjean then spun after only completing three laps in his Lotus, embedding the car in the gravel.
Bruno Senna had another eventful opening lap, damaging his front wing and being forced into the pits. As the rain began to fall even heavier on the track, many drivers’ began piling into the pits for the Cinturato full wets including Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Eventually the majority of the field were running full wets, as the rain began intensifying and aquaplaning became an issue.
Eventually the Safety Car was deployed to slow the field down as the rain attacked the Sepang circuit, with confusion from the race director as they accidentally red flagged the race prematurely. They did, however, finally red flag and suspend the race as the rain became too heavy to race in.
The cars lined up on the grid as torrential rain struck the circuit, with many teams even constructing gazebos’ on the grid to keep their cars and mechanics dry. The grid spent nearly half-an-hour on the start-finish line waiting for the rain to subside and the race director to finally restart the race.
At 17:15 local time the race was restarted as the safety car led the field away, with Lewis Hamilton leading the pack which were all on the full wet tyres. Pedro de la Rosa was struck with a drive-through penalty, as members’ of the team were still present on the grid with three minutes until the race restarted.
Eventually the race was back under green flag conditions, with many drivers’ peeling off into the pits to switch to the intermediate tyres. Lewis Hamilton suffered a disastrous pit-stop as the rear-jack failed to raise the car in unison with the front-jack. This move lost Hamilton several seconds as he rejoined behind Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso.
Jenson Button suffered a disastrous blow to his race as he collided with the rear of Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT, this incident left Button with a damaged front wing which forced the British driver to pit once again for a new front wing.
Nico Rosberg suffered another difficult race, as the German began to loose places to Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber. The Mercedes driver eventually pitted on lap 26, with Felipe Massa doing likewise two laps later. The Ferrari driver then came under immense pressure from Jenson Button, as well as the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo.
With the track drying out, many teams’ began looking at changing to dry tyres. Daniel Ricciardo was the guinea-pig of the pack and opted to switch to dry tyres first, with the Australian driver then setting quick sector times. This decision was then copied by the rest of the field, with Massa, Webber, Hamilton and Alonso all pitting. Sergio Perez had begun to put huge amounts of pressure on Fernando Alonso, reeling the Spaniard in with superlative lap times. However as Alonso pitted, Perez stayed out for another lap on the worn-out intermediate tyres. When Perez did finally pit, the team opted for the harder compound contrary to the majority of the field who had opted for mediums.
As the order sorted itself out after the many pit-stops up and down the field, Alonso was in the lead ahead of Sergio Perez. However, that didn’t deter Perez who began reeling in Alonso once again with blistering sector times in the Sauber.
Sebastian Vettel had an unusually uncompetitive end to the race, after making contact with Karthikeyan the German picked up a left-rear puncture as the Pirelli disintegrated along the back straight.
With Sauber’s Sergio Perez beginning to battle for the lead with Fernando Alonso, the other Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi was forced to retire on lap 47. All attention now turned to the battle for the lead as Sergio Perez entered the DRS zone and began battling for the lead. However, the young Mexican’s fight for the lead was ruined as he ran wide on the kerbs and lost several seconds running off the track.
Further down the field Pastor Maldonado retired after an engine issue for the Williams driver, dropping oil on the track throughout sector 3. Sebastian Vettel was then issued a mixture of orders from his race engineer, initially being told to pit and retire the car, then being told to continue before eventually being told to pull off the track and retire due to an emergency on the car. Vettel, however, continued and finished 11th, a whole minute behind the leaders’
With Sergio Perez driving a heroic race behind Alonso, the laps ran out for him as Fernando Alonso crossed the line to score Ferrari’s first victory of 2012, in a car which is still lagging behind the true pace of the likes of McLaren and Red Bull.
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS The Malaysian Grand Prix Sepang, Malaysia; 56 laps; 310.408km; Weather: Mixed conditions. Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Alonso Ferrari 2h44:51.812 2. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 2.263 3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 14.591 4. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 17.688 5. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 29.456 6. Senna Williams-Renault + 37.667 7. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 44.412 8. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 46.985 9. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes + 47.892 10. Schumacher Mercedes + 49.996 11. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 1:15.527 12. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:16.800 13. Rosberg Mercedes + 1:18.500 14. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1:19.700 15. Massa Ferrari + 1:39.300 16. Petrov Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 17. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 18. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 19. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 2 laps 20. Pic Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps 21. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps 22. De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:40.722 Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 47 Grosjean Lotus-Renault 4
Picture Copyright © Getty Images
James Calado Wins Action-Packed Race 2 in Malaysia
British GP3 graduate James Calado has won race 2 at Malaysia in the opening race weekend of the 2012 GP2 Championship, coming home two seconds ahead of his team-mate Esteban Gutierrez in a Lotus GP 1-2 finish. Brazilian rookie Felipe Nasr came home 3rd, meaning two drivers’ on the podium were rookies.
The race got off to a usual dramatic start, as Johnny Cecotto jr. stalled on the grid and had to restart from the pits on lap 1. Further up the field a battle between race 1 winner Luiz Razia and Davide Valsecchi was unfolding, with Fabrizio Crestani close behind the pair. The Italian driver went a little over the top, however, and surged up the inside of Valsecchi into turn 1, loosing a piece of his front wing. This move earned him a drive-through penalty, which demoted the Venezuela GP Lazarus driver to the back of the pack.
Ricardo Teixeira was lucky not to receive a drive-through penalty as well, as the Angolan driver spun at turn 15 and rejoined the track by running in the opposite direction down one of the tracks escape roads. Luckily no cars were coming towards the Rapax car as he rejoined.
After a strong showing in practice on Friday, Jolyon Palmer’s weekend failed to improve as the iSport International driver ran straight on a turn 4 whilst trying to pass Nigel Melker. The British driver was able to rejoin the track, albeit a few places lower down the order.
As the race progressed, the cars became evenly spread out on the track, with not many battles for position ensuing towards the sharp end of the pack. However, that all changed as the battle between Luiz Razia and Davide Valsecchi continued, with the DAMS driver sticking his car up the inside heading into turn 4. Unfortunately, Valsecchi out-braked himself and ran wide, gifting the position back to Razia as the Italian bumped back on the track.
Davide Valsecchi’s race then ended in spectacular fashion as the Italian driver was tipped into a barrel-roll by the iSport International of Marcus Ericsson. Luckily for both drivers, they emerged from their cars unscathed as the marshals completed an excellent job of clearing both cars quickly without the need for a Safety Car.
As the stricken cars of Valsecchi and Ericsson were cleared, Rodolfo Gonzalez spun his Caterham at turn 15 as the Venezuelan driver continued a miserable weekend. Further up the field, a battle between Berthon and Chilton was starting to emerge for 8th, with both quickly catching the Scuderia Coloni of Stefano Coletti. As the three took turn 4, Berthon took Chilton and Coletti, only for Berthon and Coletti to run wide, gifting the positions’ to Chilton. After a frenetic couple of seconds, Chilton had moved up to 7th with Berthon 8th and Coletti struggling back in 9th.
As the race entered the closing laps, Stefano Coletti retired after entering the pits, the Monegasque driver loosing several more places beforehand. Luiz Razia continued a strong weekend for Arden as he passed Fabio Leimer for 5th in the closing stages.
However, as the dark clouds loomed overheard, the top 3 remained unchanged as James Calado took a stunning debut victory in GP2 ahead of his team-mate Esteban Gutierrez and Felipe Nasr.
Picture Copyright © Andrew Ferraro/GP2 Series Media Service
Jenson Button Wins Lights To Finish Australian Grand Prix
The season-opening Australian Grand Prix has been won by Jenson Button after a stunning lights to finish drive, followed home by reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The race saw several incidents, including Felipe Massa who’s race weekend went from bad to worse.
As the lights went out, Jenson Button was able to get a fantastic getaway and beat his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton into turn 1. Behind the British pairing, the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg slotted neatly into 3rd and 4th place as Romain Grosjean fell behind.
Going into turn 1, there was contact towards the rear of the field as Bruno Senna and Daniel Ricciardo came together. Both were lucky to continue, albeit with an excursion into the pits for various checks. F1 returnee Nico Hulkenberg retired early on, after being involved in a collision with the Red Bull of Mark Webber. The local hero was lucky to escape turn 1 unscathed without serious damage after getting hit by two cars through the first turn.
As the first lap drew to a close, Pastor Maldonado muscled his way passed Romain Grosjean, the two unfortunately coming together. The result was a premature end to Romain Grosjean’s race as the Frenchman’s front right tyre received damage from the Williams driver.
Sebastian Vettel found himself in 4th place as the early stages of the race wore on, as Nico Rosberg fell behind. The reigning World Champion ran wide at turn 1 as he hunted down the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher. The Red Bull got passed the Mercedes as Michael Schumacher ran wide at turn 1 and slowed down dramatically, the German suffering from a gearbox failure and subsequently retiring.
With the degradation levels of the Pirelli’s set to dominate the teams’ strategies, Felipe Massa was the first driver from the front running teams’ to pit on lap 12. He was followed by Rosberg (lap 13), Alonso (lap 14), Webber (lap 15), Button (lap 16) and Hamilton (lap 17).
Kimi Raikkonen had a strong opening stint in his return to the sport, after starting 17th the Finn found himself towards the sharp end of the field as the opening pit-stops began. The ‘Iceman’ held out to lap 20 before finally pitting for his first stop of the day.
Last year Sergio Perez raised a few eyebrows after completing a 1-stop race strategy. And history repeated itself as the Mexican completed another 1-stop strategy, holding up many front runners’ as they completed their first stops. Lewis Hamilton spent the most amount of time behind the Sauber, as Sebastian Vettel closed the gap. Perez finally made his one and only stop on lap 25.
Felipe Massa suffered a disastrous opening race of the season, falling down the order as he lost out to the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Kamui Kobayashi during the middle of the race. His day went from bad to worse as Paul Di Resta and rookie Jean-Eric Vergne shot through, the Brazilian being off the pace all weekend.
Towards lap 30, many of the teams began to switch their attention to their second stops of the day. Rosberg pitted on lap 32, and was followed by Alonso on lap 35 and the two McLaren’s on lap 36. The McLaren team opted to double stop their cars’, as Hamilton began to complain of his rear tyres ‘going off’.
As the rest of the field began to pit, the Caterham of Vitaly Petrov pulled to the side of the track down the start-finish straight. This was due to a steering issue, and caused the one and only Safety Car period of the race. As soon as the Safety Car emerged, Vettel shot into the pits on lap 36 and leapfrogged the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton.
Caterham’s woes intensified as Heikki Kovalainen also retired due to steering issues, bringing an end the teams weekend. After looking good in winter testing, Caterham have undeniably suffered a less than successful weekend in Australia.
On lap 42, the Safety Car peeled into the pits and Jenson Button shot away from Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. On lap 47, Felipe Massa’s misfortunate weekend continued as he collided with the Williams of Bruno Senna. This resulted in both Brazilian’s eventually retiring from the race.
As the Australian Grand Prix entered its final stages, three battles on track emerged for 3rd place, 5th place and 10th place. The battle for 5th place between Fernando Alonso and Pastor Maldonado ended in tears as the Venezuelan driver lost the car on the kerb and smashed head-on into the concrete wall on the final lap.
On the final lap, there was melee through the final corners as Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Paul Di Resta, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Rosberg all battled for the final few points paying positions. In the end, Rosberg slowed with an issue as Ricciardo, Di Resta and Vergne were only covered by 0.1 seconds across the line.
With such an exciting start to the 2012 season, all eyes now turn to next weekend as the Formula 1 circus moves on to Kuala Lumpur’s Sepang circuit at Malaysia.
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS The Australian Grand Prix Albert Park, Australia; 58 laps; 307.574km; Weather: Sunny. Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1h34:09.565 2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 2.100 3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 4.000 4. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 4.500 5. Alonso Ferrari + 21.500 6. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 36.700 7. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 38.000 8. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 39.400 9. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 39.500 10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 39.700 11. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 39.800 12. Rosberg Mercedes + 57.600 13. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1 lap 14. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 15. Pic Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps 16. Senna Williams-Renault + 4 laps Fastest lap: Button, 1:29.187 Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap Massa Ferrari 47 Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 42 Petrov Caterham-Renault 37 Schumacher Mercedes 11 Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2 Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1 Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth DNQ De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth DNQ
Picture Copyright © Getty Images
Mercedes Set To Offer Schumacher Contract Extension
After unveiling their 2012 challenger at the Circuit de Catalunya yesterday, Mercedes seem eager to offer 7-time World Champion, Michael Schumacher, a contract extension that would see the German remain at the team until 2014.
After returning to the sport in 2010, Schumacher has been highly uncompetitive in comparison to his former self when he dominated the sport with Ferrari. However, Schumacher still believes he has what it takes to win an eighth World Championship, and is confident Mercedes can build a competitive enough car in the future.
The 43-year-old is without a doubt the most successful driver ever to race in Formula 1, utterly dominating the sport between 2000-2004 with Ferrari. However, upon returning to the sport, he has yet to win a race yet alone finish on the podium. With this in mind, many believe Mercedes should look elsewhere once his contract with the team ends, however Mercedes seem to have other ideas.
“Before we talk to any other candidate, our first contact will definitely be Michael,” said team principal, Ross Brawn, who has worked alongside Schumacher during all seven of his World Championship titles as both Benetton’s and Ferrari’s technical director. This alone fuels speculation that the Brawn/Schumacher partnership is set to continue beyond 2012.
With testing currently underway at the Circuit de Catalunya, Michael Schumacher seems pleased the progress of the Mercedes AMG F1 W03, and has commented: “I’ll decide when the time is right,” regarding his future in Formula 1.
Picture Copyright © Reuters
Jarno Trulli Surprised By Number Of Job Offers
After being replaced at Caterham by Russian Vitaly Petrov, Jarno Trulli has announced how he is surprised by the number of job offers he has received since he was replaced at Caterham. The Italian has raced in Formula 1 since 1997, and is regarded by some as a veteran of the sport.
These job offers are apparently outside Formula 1, which could see Jarno Trulli join the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya, Takuma Sato and most recently Rubens Barrichello in racing in another form of motor sport, most likely in America.
With the 37-year-old open to opportunities in both Nascar and IndyCar, he admits he needs sponsors to make these job offers come to life.
“I’m open to any possibilities as far as top level and professional racing is concerned.” Explained the Italian in an interview with AutoSport, “I’m happy to work hard, to go testing, to develop a project but I want something with a structure that at least gives me the potential for performance. Nascar and IndyCar could be a possibility, but obviously I don’t have sponsors. I’ve never had that in my career so I’ve had to deal with my talent and nothing else.”
Jarno Trulli’s Formula 1 career spanned 256 races, which included 246.5 career points, 11 podiums and only 1 win at the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix for Renault.
Picture Copyright © Caterham F1
Mercedes Unveil New W03 Car At Barcelona
Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg have unveiled the new Mercedes AMG F1 W03 in the pit-lane of the Circuit de Catalunya, ahead of the second pre-season test which gets underway today. The Mercedes becomes the 10th car to be launched, leaving Marussia and HRT the only remaining teams to launch their 2012 cars.
The new Mercedes features an aggressive front nose design, which includes the popular step-nose design. This still leaves McLaren as the only team who have designed a car without the step-nose design, raising questions as to whether it’ll benefit the team or not.
Mercedes opted for a later launch date of their 2012 challenger, with the aim to have more time designing the car. This decision was met with skepticism by many teams’ up and down the grid, with many eager to see if the new Mercedes featured a new design concept for 2012.
However Mercedes motor sport Chief, Norbert Haug, announced prior to the launch that the new Mercedes W03 would not feature any innovative designs. This was contrary to many who believed Mercedes were hiding a new design concept which could be easily copied by the opposition.
Since Mercedes took over from Brawn GP after the 2009 season, the team have have failed to win a race, even though they have a strong driver line-up in Nico Rosberg and 7-time World Champion, Michael Schumacher. With Schumacher unable to even step on the podium since his return to the sport, he will be hoping the Mercedes W03 allows him to be more competitive in 2012.
Nico Rosberg has yet to win a race in Formula 1, and will be hoping that the Mercedes W03 gives him an opportunity to clench that all allusive maiden Grand Prix victory in 2012.
Mercedes will be hoping that the extra design time pays off for them, and that they can win races and finish consistently on the podium in 2012.
Picture Copyright © Mercedes AMG F1
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