<![CDATA[Rach F1 - News]]>Fri, 24 May 2013 20:53:19 +0500Weebly<![CDATA[How Force India's Best Ever Start to a Season Could Have Been Better]]>Sun, 19 May 2013 15:01:10 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/05/how-force-indias-best-ever-start-to-the-season-could-have-been-better.html
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Image Courtesy: Getty Images
Force India marked their best ever start to a season this year with the Indian team scoring 32 points in the first 5 races of 2013. But if you go inside the season, you'll find that the team could have had an even better start had it not been for some mistakes, bad luck and mechanical failures. Without these, Force India could have scored as many as 50 points by now. We pin point where exactly the team lost. 
Malaysia - Double point finish turned into a double DNF

After a double point finish in Australia, Force India arrived happily in Malaysia hoping for a similar result in the Asian country. Both the drivers were comfortably in the top 10 during the three practice sessions and were hoping to make into Q3 in qualifying. But the rain arrived at the wrong time in qualifying exposing team's weakness in the wet. Sutil and Di Resta could thus only qualify in 9th and 15th place. Their performance was also average when the race began in wet conditions, but as the track dried out, the team started looking strong again with Sutil in points and Di Resta running just outside of top 10. However, trouble struck the team again, this time during the pit stops when Force India endured a captive failure of their new wheel guns. Their pit stop time went passed 30 seconds and Force India eventually retired both the cars from the race.

Estimated points loss - 6+
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Image Courtesy: Sky Sports
China - Teammates clash on the opening lap; Sutil unlucky to be hit by Gutierrez

Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta made contact on the opening lap of the Chinese Grand Prix when Adrian Sutil pushed his Scottish teammate Paul Di Resta off the track at the hairpin with the latter loosing 3-4 places in the process. A few laps later, Sutil's race came to a halt when Esteban Gutierrez ran into the back of the German. Sutil crawled back to the pits but damage to his rear wing was way too much and he had to retire for a second consecutive race.

Estimated points loss - 1+
Bahrain - Sutil unlucky in the desert

Adrian Sutil's streak of bad luck continued in Bahrain when Felipe Massa made contact with the German on lap 1. The collision resulted in a puncture for the German driver who then had to play catch up for rest of the race. Force India had looked very strong in Bahrain that weekend with their drivers qualifying in 5th and 6th place. In the race too, Force India looked strong and that was evident from Di Resta's performance who finished just outside the podium in 4th place. Without the first lap collision, Sutil could have finished in at least 5th place.

Estimated points loss - 10
Spain - Sutil unlucky again, this time in the pits 

While Di Resta had a decent result in Spain in form of a seventh place finish, Sutil failed to join his teammate during the first European season of the season after a big delay in his pit stops. The delay was caused when his right rear wheel crossed threaded during his pit stop. It was another big blow for the German who had jumped from 13th to 8th in the first few laps of the race.

Estimated points loss - 4+
]]><![CDATA[[Analysis] How Alonso Beat Raikkonen on a Four Stop Strategy to win the Spanish GP]]>Tue, 14 May 2013 15:35:27 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/05/analysis-how-alonso-beat-raikkonen-on-a-four-stop-strategy-to-win-the-spanish-gp.html
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Image Courtesy: Getty Images
The 2013 Spanish Grand Prix was all about saving tyres. Pirelli have been asked to make tyres which degrade quickly to make races more entertaining. But in Spain, even Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery admitted that tyre degradation was way too much as drivers had to make up to four stops to finish the race. One of the drivers who maximised on a four stop strategy was Fernando Alonso who took a comprehensive victory in front of his home crowd. While many others shifted to a four stop strategy, Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus decided to stay on a three stop strategy and ultimately finished second. So could Raikkonen have beaten Alonso to victory on a four stop strategy? We analyse that and more in our Spanish GP strategy analysis.
How Alonso and Ferrari tought others a strategic lesson

When all teams were trying to save tyres so that they can complete the race on a three stop strategy, Ferrari allowed drivers to push longer in the race as they completed the race on a four stop strategy. Before the race, computer models showed that a three stop strategy was 6 seconds faster than a four stop strategy, but in the race with degradation higher than expected, a four stop strategy turned out to be a faster way to complete thee 66 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya. Ferrari instead of spending much of the race saving tyres, decided to let their drivers push and do an extra stop. The plan worked well and Alonso took his 3rd win in front of his home crowd. Here's how he executed the strategy.

Fernando Alonso started the race from 5th place, a grid slot he is very familiar with after the 2012 season. While Alonso didn't make any places on the run down to turn 1, he did make two by the end of 1st lap. Into turn 2, Alonso squeezed past the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and then almost instinctively made a move around the outside of turn 3 over Lewis Hamilton and made it stick to move into 3rd place.

He then undercut Vettel and Rosberg by pitting on lap 9. While Alonso was able to leapfrog the triple world champion by pitting earlier, he had to overtake the pole sitter on track and by overtaking the German he took the lead of the race and put the Spanish crowd on their feet. 

He then made three more stops on lap 21, 26 and 49 respectively with no stint extending for more than 17 laps. And once some of his rivals switched to a four stop strategy, he didn't had to waste time overtaking drivers who would have otherwise stretched their stints and came in his way.
Was there a chance of Kimi Raikkonen beating Alonso had he switched to a four stop strategy?

So the question is whether Kimi Raikkonen could have beaten Fernando Alonso for the top stop on the podium had he completed the race on a four stop strategy. Well, first of all Lotus have been very easy on their tyres since last year and have always tried to maximise this advantage as they did in Australia this year, with Kimi Raikkonen winning the race from 7th on the grid. Further, computer simulations showed that a three stop strategy was 6 seconds faster than a four stop strategy. With these circumstances, Lotus saw no point in starting the race with a four stop strategy in mind or switching to that midway during the race. 

However, as explained above, four stops turned out to be the better of the two strategies in Spain and Lotus didn't complete the race on that strategy. But even if Lotus had switched to a four stop strategy, Raikkonen wouldn't have been able to beat Alonso. The reason is that the team didn't had enough set of fresh tyres for the race. To improve their qualifying performance, the team used way too many tyres during qualifying and were left with just two set of fresh medium tyres and just one set of hard tyres for the race. A driver requires a total of five sets of tyres to do a four stop strategy. Alonso in contrast had more sets of fresh rubber. So on account of lesser new tyres for Raikkonen and similar pace between the Ferrari and Lotus, Raikkonen would have still finished behind Alonso had he gone for a four stop strategy.
Alonso's Strategy

Stint 1 - Medium Tyres(9 laps)
Stint 2 - Hard Tyres(12 laps)
Stint 3 - Hard Tyres(15 laps)
Stint 4 - Medium Tyres(13 laps)
Stint 5 - Hard Tyres(17 laps)
Raikkonen's Strategy

Stint 1 - Medium Tyres(10 laps)
Stint 2 - Medium Tyres(16 laps)
Stint 3 - Medium Tyres(19 laps)
Stint 4 - Hard Tyres(21 laps)
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]]><![CDATA[Spanish Grand Prix - Who was YOUR Driver of the Day with Fans' Views]]>Mon, 13 May 2013 16:21:11 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/05/spanish-grand-prix-who-was-your-driver-of-the-day.html
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The 2013 Spanish Grand Prix was all about saving tyres, meaning drivers had to work extra hard to secure a good result at Barcelona. While some drivers struggled on their tyres, some managed Pirelli tyres and other things well to give a head start to their European campaign. One of them was Fernando Alonso, who secured his 3rd victory in front of his home crowd having started the race from 5th place. His teammate Felipe Massa was equally impressive as he occupied the final spot on the podium having started down in 9th place after his penalty. Kimi Raikkonen, Paul di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo also impressed at Circuit de Catalunya. We give our ratings to the drivers who impressed us most during the Spanish Grand Prix and publish the views of fans who voted across on our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ page. If you haven't casted your vote yet, you can do so from the poll below.
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Fernando Alonso - 10/10

Fernando Alonso proved why most F1 enthusiasts, journalists and others consider him the best driver on the grid after the Spaniard took a comprehensive victory on a four stop strategy in Spain. At the start of the race, Alonso jumped Kimi Raikkonen and slow starter Lewis Hamilton to move into 3rd position. He then undercut Sebastian Vettel during the first round of pit stops to move into 2nd place and in touching distance of pole sitter Nico Rosberg whom he eventually overtook on the following lap. From there, he continued on his strategy to take his 32nd career victory and 3rd in his home country Spain. After the race he was taken to the Stewards for waving his national flag on his in-lap but the Spaniard escaped without any trouble.
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Felipe Massa - 8/10

Felipe Massa continued with his renaissance in 2013 after taking the final spot on the podium in Barcelona. The Brazilian driver qualified in 6th place on Saturday, just one-thousandth of a second shy of his teammate Fernando Alonso. However, he was forced to start from 9th on the grid after he incurred a 3 place grid penalty for impending Mark Webber in qualifying. In the race however, he only moved forward, overtaking Perez, Grosjean and Webber to move into 6th place by end of lap 2. He then chased Lewis Hamilton who was struggling with his tyres and brake balance to move into 5th place. He continued to move up the field and passed Raikkonen but eventually fell behind the Finnish driver. Nevertheless, Massa would be more than happy with his first podium of the season.
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Kimi Raikkonen - 8/10

Mr consistent Kimi Raikkonen made four podiums out of five races with an impressive show at Barcelona. Raikkonen improved from his poor qualifying in Bahrain after starting the Spanish Grand Prix from fourth place. At the start of the race, he did lose a place to Alonso but overtook Lewis Hamilton in next few laps. He then lost a place to the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa, but eventually passed the Brazilian driver. During the second round of pit 0stops, Raikkonen jumped championship leader Sebastian Vettel who was on a four stop strategy to move into second place and just four points behind the German in the drivers standings. After the race, the Finn described his result as disappointing as he could only finish second. Respect.
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Paul Di Resta - 7/10

While Di Resta wasn't as impressive as he was three weeks ago in Bahrain where he narrowly missed out on a podium finish, the Scottish driver put on a spectacular show to finish in 7th place, just a few car lengths behind Nico Rosberg. Di Resta, who started the race from 10th on the grid, moved into 8th after his first stop but then lost ground to Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo who emerged as a strong rival to Force India in the midfield battle for 5th at Barcelona. But he fought his way back to 7th place to bring home 6 championship points for the Anglo-Indian team. He is now level with Romain Grosjean in drivers championship with 26 points.
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Esteban Gutierrez - 7/10 

Esteban Gutierrez put on a great drive from 19th on the grid to 11th after switching late to a four stop strategy in Spain. During this course he led a Grand Prix for the first time and finished just 0.3 seconds behind Daniel Ricciardo and 10th place. Had he passed the Australian driver, he would have become the first rookie of the season to score a championship point. Still, he managed to silence his critics as his countrymen Sergio Perez did in Bahrain last month.
YOUR Views
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 Daniela Botezatu: Kimi Raikkonen was my driver of the day he drove a calculated race and stayed in the hunt until the end and i respect him because he is always dissapointed if he doesn't win, and he manage to outscore Vettel his main rival which was his purpose after all.
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 Simona Pasquino: Having started as fifth on the grid, Alonso is certainly driver of the day.Massa did a good job as well. Kimi: good tyre management
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Michelle Christie: For me it has to be Mark Webber he's just the most down to earth driver there is and even when he's having a bad day he always still makes time for the people that matter “his fans” 
]]><![CDATA[Spanish GP 2013: A Different sort of excitement!]]>Mon, 13 May 2013 13:12:50 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/05/spanish-gp-2013-a-different-sort-of-excitement.html The 2013 Spanish Grand Prix gave the excitement that the home viewers, what they wanted to see, and to the people who thronged the Grandstands, what they came to see. Let’s find out how it all happened. But, this is a different sort of excitement though...
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“Even if this is the third time I’ve won a home race, the emotion is still very strong, as if it had never happened before. It’s nice to be able to give the whole of Spain this win, especially at a time when the country is in crisis and for many people, it’s not possible to come here to bring their support. I thank everyone for that support and the team for doing a fantastic job"  - Fernando Alonso
“I am very happy with this podium. It was a really nice race and a fantastic result for the whole team. When you start from far back everything’s more complicated, but I managed to get away well and I immediately had a fantastic pace. On the first lap I pulled off a few overtaking moves thanks to the car being very competitive, which meant I could be aggressive, while at the same time looking after the tyres. Right to the very end, I thought it might be possible to fight with Kimi, but when I fitted my last set of Hard tyres, the ones we thought would be best as they were new, I had oversteer and began to lose the rear much earlier than I had expected. All the same, I am very pleased with our performance at this track. - Felipe Massa
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On Saturday’s qualifying, Mercedes continued their strong qualifying form by taking the whole front row with Nico Rosberg on pole and Lewis Hamilton on the 2nd place. Sebastian Vettel was 3rd, Kimi Räikkönen 4th and Fernando Alonso 5th. Felipe Massa finished the qualifying on 6th place, but later was punished with a grid penalty of 3 positions for blocking Mark Webber on his flying qualifying lap. Mercedes’ qualifying speed was once again really impressive, but nobody in the team knew before the race, if it will be more difficult for the team on the race once again. The team had focused on long runs during practice sessions, hoping to gain additional data and boost their race pace.

After the race start, Rosberg was able to maintain his position. Vettel moved into 2nd place and Hamilton lost a bit, as Alonso made a beautiful start. He started well and took an advantage to both Hamilton and Räikkönen on the second corner, and passed them brilliantly on the outside. Webber meanwhile had a bad start and lost positions. It was a good start for another Ferrari as Massa was able to pull himself up to 7th on the start and later passed Sergio Perez for 6th, and soon was right behind Räikkönen and Hamilton.

The same trend continued with Mercedes as it did at Bahrain and China: Rosberg and Hamilton started to face problems with pace. Rosberg was staying on the lead though. After couple of laps Hamilton lost positions to both Räikkönen and Massa. Meanwhile, Räikkönen’s team mate Romain Grosjean was out of the race thanks to a suspension failure. The Frenchman was able to bring his car back to the pits, but there was nothing the team could do for the failure
“Unfortunately it’s second place again so it’s not time to celebrate too much. The car felt good and we did pretty much all we could today, but we didn’t have the pace to challenge Fernando [Alonso]. I drove to the maximum and it’s good for the championship that Sebastian finished behind us. It’s nice to be on the podium for me and the team; let’s see what we can do in Monaco.” - Kimi Raikkonen
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During the first pitstops, all the drivers at the top changed to the prime tyre, but Räikkönen had a different strategy and took another set of option. Alonso gained an advantage by a  well worked pit strategy and got past Vettel who was rejoining the track from his routine stop. Rosberg was able to stay in front of Alonso and Vettel, but not for long though, as Alonso made the move on Rosberg two laps later. Things really started to turn difficult for Rosberg as Vettel, Massa, Räikkönen and even Daniel Ricciardo passed him later on. Again it was a disaster for the Germans after starting from pole position.

On lap 20, Felipe Massa came for his second pitstop and it started to be clear that Ferrari was going to do 4 stops strategy for both the drivers. Tyres weren’t lasting well, and the other top drivers came to the pits too for new rubber. Räikkönen though was able to stay out longer than others, even though he was with the option tyre. Meanwhile Caterham’s Giedo Van Der Garde reported on the radio that his wheel wasn’t attached and soon the Caterham driver lost the wheel, but made it back to the pitlane by using only 3 wheels. He couldn’t continue the race though. The team got a fine, after the race for an unsafe release. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton was struggling and had dropped to 14th position after his second pitstop. It didn’t help that Williams’ Pastor Maldonado overtook him, and Hamilton afterwards was looking frustrated on the team radio.

Räikkönen finally came to the pits, he took a set of options once again, while his rivals took another set of prime earlier. The Finn clearly was with different strategy and was able to make the option tyre last well. When he came back to the track, he lost some time behind Sebastian Vettel, but later got past the triple champion and went to the 3rd place behind both Ferraris. Alonso started to make a gap on the lead and the big question was if Räikkönen’s 3 stop strategy was enough to beat the Spaniard.
“A difficult afternoon today and going backwards is never fun. We switched to a four-stop strategy during the race but I suffered with a lack of grip and balance throughout and we were never really able to get the tyres working. I know that everyone at the team is working so hard and we need to keep positive. I'm sure we will figure the problem out and we've got to keep pushing together to close the gap. I will be doing my best to help and encourage the guys.” - Lewis Hamilton
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“We said before the race that seventh would be a good result and towards the end I was even fighting for sixth. So we can take a lot of positives from the weekend because this is a track that has traditionally not suited our car. It was a great effort by the team to get through to Q3 yesterday and come away with a seventh place today. The result shows the consistency that we have had since the start of the year and that we can perform each weekend." - Paul di Resta
When Nico Hülkenberg came to the pits for his third pitstop of the day, it didn’t go as planned: the team let him leave dangerously as he was right next to Daniel Ricciardo who was coming in for his stop. Ricciardo had to move to the left to get into his tyre change and Hülkenberg hit the Toro Rosso’s rear and caused a front wing damage to his own car. He came back to the pits on the next lap to change his nose. Hülkenberg received a Stop-and-go penalty from the stewards, and a good day so far turned upside down for Sauber.

Alonso came in for his third stop and took the option tyre. At the same time on the track, Räikkönen was chasing Felipe Massa but didn’t need to do that for long as the Brazilian came in from the same lap as Alonso. Räikkönen went to the lead, but. Alonso was fast with his much newer set of tyres than Räikkönen so the Finn couldn’t make a big gap to the Spaniard and took the lead from the Finn who was still out with his options and was yet to make his third and last stop.

Räikkönen came in for his last pitstop on the lap 45 and took the prime tyre and was all set to finish the race with that set. Alonso came in 4 laps later and also took the prime tyre. Räikkönen’s strategy in the end wasn’t enough to beat the Spaniard, but it was enough to bring home the second place, which was the Iceman’s third second position in the row.
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“I had a really poor start off the line, with a lot of wheelspin and, to be honest, the first few laps of the race I really struggled with front grip and locking the front brakes. I tried to be patient and eventually it improved and I could see the cars ahead of me were not pulling away so much. It was disappointing to lose ground like that, but the pace itself was not too bad. At the first stop, we made quite a few changes in terms of wing settings and tyre pressures and that helped, so the next two stints were quite good and I made a few passing moves, so it was certainly not a boring race. But then, towards the end of the race, our pace began to fade again. It wasn’t easy to get tenth, even if we looked on course to get more than the one point earlier in the race, so it’s better than nothing.” - Daniel Ricciardo
Alonso won the race in front of his home crowd and picked up a Spanish flag to celebrate the home victory. The act didn’t please FIA though and the Spanish driver was called to the stewards after the race. He didn’t receive a penalty, though. It was a good race for Ferrari as Massa took the 3rd place. Vettel finished 4th and Webber 5th. Rosberg survived well in the end with his Mercedes and grabbed some points on 6th place. Di Resta continued Force India’s positive start of the season and took 7th place, while the McLaren double Jenson Button and Sergio Perez were 8th and 9th. Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo took the last point even though he had the unwanted collision with Hülkenberg on the pitlane.
“Strategy was again at the forefront of the Spanish Grand Prix, which as usual was very demanding on the tyres because of the unique characteristics of this circuit. This is why we saw high levels of degradation, which should not be seen again to this extent for the rest of the year. Our aim is to have between two and three stops at every race, so it’s clear that four is too many: in fact, it’s only happened once before, in Turkey during our first year in the sport. We’ll be looking to make some changes, in time for Silverstone, to make sure that we maintain our target and solve any issues rapidly. - Paul Hembery
By Sini Salminen
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Top 10 Tweets from the Spanish Grand Prix
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Analysis: What we Saw During the First Four Races of the Season
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2013: Positive surprises of the early season
]]><![CDATA[Top 10 Tweets from the Spanish Grand Prix]]>Sun, 12 May 2013 15:49:40 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/05/top-10-tweets-from-the-spanish-grand-prix.html
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Spanish Grand Prix was hell of a race with many drivers including race winner Fernando Alonso doing four stops on their way to chequered flag. The home hero put on a brilliant race from 5th on the grid, overtaking Raikkonen and Hamilton in the opening lap and Vettel and Rosberg after the first round of pitstops to win 32th Grand Prix of his career. Kimi Raikkonen managed his tyres well on a three stop strategy to finish 2nd while Massa took his first podium finish of the season having started the race down in 9th place. The two Mercedes struggled to maintain their tyres and finished 6th and 12th after starting the race from the front row. We review the 'Tyre Grand Prix' in 10 Tweets. 
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Analysis - What we saw during the First Four Races of the Season
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2013: Positive surprises of the early season
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[Comparison] Ferrari's Poor 2012 Start with McLaren's 2013 Start
]]><![CDATA[Analysis: What we Saw During the First Four Races of 2013]]>Tue, 07 May 2013 16:56:00 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/05/analysis-what-we-saw-during-the-first-four-races-of-2013.html 2013 season is off to a flying start with three different drivers winning the first four races of the season. The new generation of Pirelli tyres are one of the talking point of the season, as they were in 2012. Lotus and Force India are the two teams who are able to maximise from the new tyres, while Mercedes are struggling to manage them. Apart from tyres, use of two DRS zones in first four races of the season have grabbed attention. The rule has made overtaking way too easy and the car in front finds it hard to defend its position. Meanwhile, Jules Bianchi has proved himself to be the most impressive rookie of the year with some amazing drives during the first four races of the season. So we analyse in details the key talking points of the season and performance of the top 5 teams.
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Image Courtesy: Getty Images
Tyres do the Talking 

Tyres continued to play an important role during the first four races of 2013 as they did during the first half of the 2012 season. F1's official supplier Pirelli softened their 2012 tyres and teams are finiding it hard to understand them. Many teams were forced to make extra pit stops during the race as they took too much life out of their tyres. One team which is finding it particularly hard to manage its tyres is Mercedes. The Brackley based squad has a serious problem of overheating its rear tyres and it is hurting them severely during the race. On the other hand, teams like Force India and Lotus are rather easy on their tyres and the former took an emphatic victory using a two-stop strategy during the opening round of the season - the Australian Grand Prix. 

DRS and Entertainment 

DRS or the drag reduction system is a device introduced in the 2011 Formula 1 season to aid overtaking. However, in the 2013 season, DRS has made overtaking way too easy and almost impossible for the car in front to hold its position. And with FIA using two DRS zones at each of the four flyaway races, some people are even questioning the existence of DRS and that it should be banned from the sport.

Another place where DRS came into limelight was in Bahrain where Fernando Alonso's DRS got struck in open position. Alonso was forced to pit early to get his DRS wing closed and when he re tried the DRS system, it got struck in open position again. The Spaniard then had to make another stop losing crucial time in the process. 
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Image Courtesy: Getty Images
Red Bull - Fastest but in 'War' 

Red Bull look strong again in 2013 with Sebastian Vettel taking a 10 points lead in the Drivers Championship and the team 16 points clear off 2nd placed Lotus in the Constructors Championship after 4 races of the season. During the three pre-season tests in Spain, Red Bull were seen hiding the rear of their cars. They also avoided any low fuel runs. The reason for this behaviour became clear in Australia when Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber locked the front row of the grid. However, in the race, due to certain reasons, Red Bull's performance was average and Vettel finished in a disappointing 3rd place.

Race pace was't a problem for the Austrian team in the next three race with Vettel winning two of them. And at the other remaining race, i.e. China, he just missed out on a podium finish.

But what might be Red Bull's biggest hindrance in their way to a fourth consecutive title is the intra-team battle between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. The two teammate have had some moments in the past, the most infamous one happening at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix where Vettel in an unsuccessful attempt to overtake Webber crashed himself into retirement. Webber meanwhile was able to continue the race after pitting for a new front wing.

Those sparks were reignited at this year's Malaysian Grand Prix where Sebastian Vettel against team's instructions to hold station(in form of the infamous code 'multi 21'), fought wheel to wheel with his teammate Mark Webber for over a lap before overtaking him for lead of the race. Vettel was also heard being rude on the radio and in an interview he said that he would do the same in the future.
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Image Courtesy: Lotus F1 Team
Consistent and now Fast - Lotus F1 team

Lotus F1 team was probably the most consistent team of the 2012 season. This year, not only they are consistent but also fast. In fact, they are the closest rival to Red Bull in both the constructors and the drivers championship. 

Kimi Raikkonen started the season with a bang with an emphatic victory at the Australian Grand Prix. After a less impressive outing at Malaysia, the Finn scored his second podium of the season in form of a 2nd place finish in China. A week later in Bahrain, he qualified in a poor 8th place. But his race pace was good and on a two stop strategy, Kimi Raikkonen finished the race in 2nd place. An important thing to note here is that Raikkonen's win at Australia also came on a two stop strategy making it clear that Lotus are very easy on tyres, just as they were in 2012.

Meanwhile, Romain Grosjean had a quite start to his 2013 campaign. While the Frenchman was not involved in any first lap crashes, he was neither able to score some good points. However, fortunes turned his way when he was given a new chassis at the fourth race of the season in Bahrain and Grosjean maximised out of this chassis by taking the final spot on the podium having started the race outside of top 10.

But whether Lotus can fight till the end of the champion is still a doubt. The Enstone based team doesn't have the financial resources of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes and once teams have an understanding of the tyres, one of their major advantage will be reduced.
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Image Courtesy: Getty Images
Ferrari - The unlucky Alonso and back to form Massa

2013 has been a topsy turvy season for Ferrari. Unlike last year, Ferrari were able to manufacture a car which could fight for the championship straight away. Also, Massa has been in top form.
 
But their so called No 1 driver has been unlucky on two occasions. At Malaysia, after starting from 3rd, Alonso clipped the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, damaging his front wing in the process. He and his team decided not to pit and at the start of next lap, his front wing failed, forcing Alonso into the gravel trap and his first retirement of the season. The next blow came at Bahrain where Alonso's DRS got struck in open position. He was forced to make his first stop on lap 8 where mechanics were successfully able to close their DRS. But the team decided to try the DRS again, and it responded with the same result. He was forced to make another pit stop losing crucial time in the process.

So as Ferrari heads towards the European season, they'll be at least happy that they've got a strong car at the season which they can develop on to win their first title since 2008.
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Image Courtesy: Mercedes
Mercedes - No 'Sundae' Celebrations

Mercedes had a bizarre end to their 2012 season campaign, scoring only 6 points in last 6 races. But in the first four races of 2013, they exceeded expectations according to Lewis Hamilton, who joined the team earlier this year. As of now, the Brackley based squad has scored two pole positions, two podiums and is currently fourth in the drivers championship with 64 points.

But one thing which everyone back at Brackley is concerned about is the direct contrast between their qualifying pace on Saturday and race pace on Sunday. While Mercedes have been extremely quick in qualifying, scoring two pole positions in first four outings, their pace during the race is dismal. For example at the last race in Bahrain, Nico Rosberg who qualified on pole only went backwards in the race and ultimately finished in a disappointing 9th place after being forced to make four stops.

So why is Mercedes so slow on Sunday? The answer lies in how the Mercedes W04 treats its tyres. The W04 is particularly hard on its tyres, especially the rear tyres. It heats its tyres very quickly and soon the tyres are out of their working range. Once the new generation of Pirelli tyres are out of their working temperature, they start wearing quickly and there is a significant drop in performance. The team is trying hard to fix this issue but don't expect an overnight solution to a problem that has hurt the team for so many years.
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Image Courtesy: Getty Images
McLaren - Poor car and a budding rivalry

McLaren had one of their worse starts to their season in Formula 1 this year after they took a major decision to revolutionise their 2012 car instead of simply updating it. So instead of starting the season from first first row on the grid, as they did in 2012, they barely made into the top 10 in qualifying, that too with only one driver. 

They brought some updates to their car over the next few races and Jenson Button on a two stop strategy was able to finish in 5th in China. After four races, the team is 5th if the drivers championship with 26 points, 38 points off their nearest rival Mercedes. 

Another major change which came at McLaren was the departure of their star driver Lewis Hamilton in favour of Sergio Perez. Perez, who had a poor end to his 2012 campaign had an equally bad start in 2013. However, he showed his sparks in Bahrain with a strong 6th place finish. But what got the attention was his wheel to wheel battle with teammate Jenson Button, which the latter wasn't particularly happy with.
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2013: Positive surprises of the early season
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[Comparison] Ferrari's Poor 2012 Start with McLaren's 2013 Start
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Top 25 Tweets from the Bahrain Grand Prix
]]><![CDATA[2013: Positive surprises of the early season]]>Sun, 05 May 2013 16:48:29 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/05/2013-positive-surprises-of-the-early-season.html First four races of the Formula 1 season are now behind and we have already seen good racing, drama and team politics. The season is still young, but we already had some positive surprises by teams and drivers as compared to the 2012 season. Next up is the Spanish Grand Prix which has been the race over the years where the teams bring their first big updates to their cars. Let’s find out who have impressed us the most so far, and what updates we can expect the teams to make...
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Mercedes GP:

Mercedes GP has been strong since the start of the season, and the team getting 3rd and 4th positions from Malaysia shows that the team and the car have potential. After Malaysia, Lewis Hamilton got the pole position in China, but finished 3rd. Equally, his team mate Rosberg got the pole position at Bahrain, but ended up finishing the race in 9th position. The biggest problem for Mercedes has been the new Pirelli tyres and the race speed. The car seems to destroy the tyres quite rapidly. In China, Hamilton was already struggling with his tyres only after couple of laps. Still, with two pole positions this season so far, Mercedes have proved the car is very fast on one lap, but in the race both drivers are struggling. This is something Mercedes needs to work with, and I think we can expect Mercedes to make steps forward on their race pace when going to Barcelona. The car is a potential winner if they can reach a similar race pace as their main rivals. Both drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have been consistently in a good speed and are able to grab good positions for the team. If only their problems are fixed soon...

Force India:

Force India has been a consistent middle field team for a long time. This year in the first two races it seems they have made bigger steps forward. The team contracted Adrian Sutil back to the team, after he was spending a year off from the category. The decision seems to be right, as the German driver is possibly in his best at the moment. Sutil led some laps in Australia, and together with Di Resta, the Force India double finished with very good points on 7th and 8th positions. At Malaysia it didn’t go as planned for the team: Force India had serious problems with wheel nuts and they lost way too much on the pits with both Di Resta and Sutil, which in the end forced both drivers to retire from the race. Without problems, the team could have finished some good points again as they did in Australia. In China it continued a little bit unlucky for the Indian team as Sutil was taken out of the race by Gutierrez, but Di Resta was able to collect some good points with his 7th place. In Bahrain Di Resta continued with a positive form as he finished in 4th place. In terms of pace, Force India has been very consistent and is possibly the best midfield team right now. The team needs to keep up with their updates compared to their rivals when going to Barcelona.

Lotus:

Lotus seems to be a really good car this year. Kimi Räikkönen’s win at Australia and 2nd place at Bahrain and making one pitstop less than his main rivals shows that Lotus has an advantage, or, Räikkönen understands the behavior of tyres very well and drives intelligently. Romain Grosjean was struggling in the start of the season, but in Bahrain he also had a strong race and was able to finish 3rd behind his team mate and two Lotus drivers on the podium was a really positive result. Even though the latest race was positive, Räikkönen has admitted that the team needs to work really hard to keep up with other teams.
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The Drivers:

Although there are many contenders, these two drivers have really stood out from the competition, and they were least expected to make an impact. They raised up to the challenge, and have provided some impressive performances at this stage of the season..

Felipe Massa:

The Brazilian driver Felipe Massa continues with his good shape which he was on in the last part of the 2012 season. Massa has been able to challenge Fernando Alonso in all sessions consistently and it seems that those difficulties the Brazilian driver faced in the last couple of seasons are now behind finally. The Ferrari car has been good since the start of the season, which is also a different position to start the season than last year. If Massa can keep with his good pace, he will be able to bring home some good positions. Podium positions are very realistic, and for sure the Brazilian wants to get a victory after many years without one. Alonso is the clear number one in the team, but this year Massa will definitely make a big part on the team work and collect some important points for his Italian team to help them on the constructor’s championship. It’s very important for him to keep this pace up until the end of the season.

Jules Bianchi:

The French rookie has done incredibly good job with the Marussia car since the beginning and it has been really impressive. He has been much faster than his teammate Max Chilton, and his speed in some sessions haven’t been many tenths away from the midfield teams such as Toro Rosso or Williams. The French driver has proved that he is really worth of his seat. Even though he is a rookie, he really puts the Marussia car to the limit. It would be great to see him starting to challenge the middle field when he gets even more experience and if Marussia can keep up with updates, but on the start of the season it’s looking really positive.
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The Wrap UP:

In Barcelona, we can expect the situations changing a little bit. At the top, it might not be anything too radical, but what I expect the most is that Mercedes will solve their race pace problems and they will seriously challenge Red Bull, Lotus and Ferrari. Another team that needs to make steps forward is McLaren. The team has been struggling in the start of the season and Jenson Button celebrating getting into Q3 at Bahrain really shows that it hasn’t been easy for McLaren. The race in Bahrain though was already a bit more positive for the English team with both drivers on points. McLaren is a top team and have faced problems in the past too, but many times those problems have been solved during the season and the team has been able to win again, so I expect them to take steps forward and get closer to the top level. Williams and Sauber have also been the disappointments this year as compared to their last year’s pace. Last year Pastor Maldonado was able to win with Williams. This year it doesn’t seem to be very likely to happen.

In general it will be interesting to see what the teams have will bring to Barcelona and who will be on the top.

Which Team and Driver have impressed you the most this season?
Written By: Sini Salminen 
]]><![CDATA[[Comparison] Ferrari's Poor 2012 Start with McLaren's 2013 Start]]>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:51:08 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/04/comparison-ferraris-poor-2012-start-with-mclarens-2013-start.html
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Ferrari and McLaren are two of the most successful teams in the history of Formula 1, sharing a total of 27 Driver Championships and 24 Constructers World Championships between them. But if you look at the history of these two manufacturer teams, there have been multiple periods in the past where they failed to compete at the top and were relegated to the midfield. Same thing happened in these two years with Ferrari enduring a poor start in 2012 and McLaren starting off their 2013 campaign with a dismal car. We compare these poor starts and tell you how McLaren can fight their way back to top of the field.
Similar causes for poor starts - Revolutionary car

Ferrari hasn't won a drivers title since 2007 and a constructors title since 2008. Over the last few years, they've been easily beaten by Red Bull and McLaren in terms of sheer pace. In order to overtake their rivals, Ferrari tried to bring a revolutionised design of their car in 2012. The biggest change came in form of a radical exhaust which tried to produce a similar effect to blown diffusers, a system banned at the start of the 2012 season. However, the new exhaust didn't work as planned and overheated their tyres. Ferrari eventually had to make major changes to the exhaust of their car. The time lost in developing this radical exhuast and making changes to this came at the expense of development of general aerodynamics of the car.

McLaren's poor start to their 2013 car was also because of a similar reason. They had the fastest car at the end of the 2012 season, and with minor rule changes between 2012 and 2013, they could have easily been ahead of the grid with an 'evolutionary' car. But instead, Martin Whitmarsh and other team memebers argued that with an evolutionary car they might reach a point in the season where no further development is possible. So instead McLaren brought out a 'revolutionary' MP4-28 with pull rod front suspension and increased ride height. However, they encountered fundamental problems with their car particularly those relating with ride height. McLaren found themselves a second off the pace when the F1 season began in Australia. The start of the European season will surely help the Woking team but the damage has already been done. McLaren have only managed to score 23 points in first four races this season as compared to 92 in 2012.
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Ferrari's Poor Start 

Ferrari were a second off the pace of the leaders at the start of the 2012 season. That was clear in Australia where their drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa qualified in 12th and 15th place respectively. In the race, however, Alonso put on a spectacular show to finish in 5th place. Damage limitation at its best!

At the following race in Malaysia, Alonso made most of the changing conditions and McLaren's errors to take a surprise victory from 8th place on the grid. These 25 points were going to prove crucial as it was expected that the Prancing Horse will eventually fight their way back to top of the grid. 

However, In the next two races, there was nothing spectacular from Alonso as he failed to finish in the top 5. 

Another major problem for Ferrari at the start of the 2012 season was Felipe Massa's poor form.The Brazilian who almost won his maiden title in 2008, has been out of form since his near-fatal crash in Hungary 2009. In the first four races of 2012, he only managed to score 2 points. 
The Recovery 

Ferrari brought made major updates during the European leg of the season that helped them move closer to the top of the field. In fact, at Britain and Germany, they had the fastest car on the grid! So, in 9 races or about three-and-a-half months, they were able to transform a car which was only fifth fastest and a second off the pace to one which can win races on merit!
In 9 races or about three-and-a-half months, Ferrari were able to transform a car which was only fifth fastest and a second off the pace to one which can win races on merit!
Fernando Alonso, who also admitted that he was driving better than he ever did in his career took a massive 40 point lead in the drivers championship before the F1 fraternity headed towards the August break. That massive lead in points was because of two further victories and three podium finishes.

In the second half of the season, while Ferrari had at least the third fastest car on the grid and Alonso managed to finish on the podium in all but two races where he retired from, the Spaniard lost the championship by 3 points. That was bound to happen as it is not always easy to win a title in an inferior car. Further, Red Bull brought major updates in the second half of the season and Vettel took four consecutive victories between Singapore and India.
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McLaren's poor Start

McLaren, like Ferrari were a second off the pace of the top runners at the start of the season. However, a good show from Jenson Button saw him take McLaren to final round of qualifying as he lined up for the grid in 10th place. He finished a place higher during the race on Sunday.

Despite bringing some decent updates over the next three races, McLaren's best result was a fifth place finish in China where Jenson Button managed his tyre beautifully to finish just behind the other 4 world champions on the grid.

Like, Ferrari, one McLaren driver failed to meet the expectations - Sergio Perez. People have been questioning McLaren's decision to choose Mexican as their main driver alongside Jenson Button since the deal was finalised. The prime reason for this  was the decline in his performance in the latter half of 2012. In fact, Perez failed to score a single point in last 6 races of the 2012 season. Luckily for McLaren, he bounced back in fashion, banging wheels with his veteran teammate(albeit not in best fashion) and finishing in a strong 6th place in Bahrain.

Spain and thereafter - How start of the European season can help McLaren to keep their Title hopes alive

Can McLaren fight their way back to top of the field and win the championship? In one word the answer is 'yes'. McLaren posses huge financial and technical resources which can help the team to significantly decrease the performance deficit they currently have to the top field. For instance in 2009, they were relegated to the midfield after they developed their car till the very end of previous season in a bid to stay ahead of Ferrari in the drivers championship. McLaren came out successfully on top of this situation by mid season with Lewis Hamilton winning the Hungarian Grand Prix, the 10th race of the season. Ferrari's ladder to top of the field in 2012 will give them further hope.

They won't be able to fix the car overnight, but the start of the European leg and thus decreased gap between Grand Prix venues and factories will certainly help. 
Ferrari's poor start in 2012(first 4 races)

Australia - 5th and DNF
Malaysia - 1st and 16th
China - 9th and 13th
Bahrain - 7th and 9th
Total Points - 45
McLaren's poor start in 2013(first 4 races)

Australia - 9th and 11th
Malaysia - 9th and 17th
China - 5th and 11th
Bahrain - 6th and 10th
Total points - 23
]]><![CDATA[How Raikkonen and Grosjean beat Di Resta for the Podium [Strategy Analysis]]]>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:49:23 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/04/how-raikkonen-and-grosjean-beat-di-resta-for-the-podium-strategy-analysis.html
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Image Courtesy: Force India
Strategy played an important role in deciding the outcome of the Bahrain Grand Prix, not as much as it did a week ago in China, but it certainly played an important role. 3 stops were preferred by the most in conditions where thermal tyre degradation was a major problem. 

Sebastian Vettel dominated the proceedings on a three stop strategy, however the fight for the next three spots between Raikkonen, Grosjean and Di Resta was quite close. In the end, the Lotus pair denied Di Resta his maiden podium finish. In this article, we analyse how Raikkonen and Grosjean, who started down the field made their way up the grid on different strategies and beat Force India's Paul di Resta for final two spots on the podium. 
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Image Courtesy: Lotus F1 team
Raikkonen and Di Resta - The two stoppers 

Kimi Raikkonen started the race from 8th place after a dismal qualifying session on Saturday. Paul di Resta on the other hand was able to qualify in 5th place in what was the best grid slot of his career. The start of his race was equally good as he overtook Massa on the first lap and was ahead of Alonso(whose DRS struck in open position) and Rosberg(who was struggling with tyres) by end of lap 6. Raikkonen in contrast lost positions and time behind the two McLarens during first few laps of the race.

As Raikkonen and Di Resta were both on a two stop strategy, they waited till lap 16 and 14 respectively to make their first stop and switch for harder tyres. Di Resta and Raikkonen then made their way from traffic and they were up in 2nd and 3rd place by lap 28. In clean air, Raikkonen closed Di Resta by a significant margin and went past the Scott in next 5 laps.

Raikkonen then made his final stop on lap 34 for his final set of medium tyres, something the Finn was not particularly happy about as he thought the team had decided to make the stop a little too early - he was still lapping in 1min40s. Di Resta waited for two more laps to make his pit stop and came out around 7 seconds behind Raikkonen. Did pitting late cost Di Resta a spot on the podium? We'll explain this in the next section after we've explained Grosjean's strategy
Grosjean's three stop strategy and how he beat Di Resta for final spot on the podium

Like his teammate, Romain Grosjean had a poor qualifying and was forced to start from 11th on the grid. He chose hard tyres for his stint, and it was expected that he would do two stops on a reverse strategy. During the race. the Frenchman made one place from his grid position in first few laps but a piece of McLaren frontwing endplate sticked to his car's sidepod and he was forced to pit on lap 8. 

When he came out of the pits, he fell to 17th place. Despite that he showed good pace and made his way up the field and into 3rd place before making his second stop on lap 27. He switched to the silver medium compound against the odds. There was just one step between option and prime tyres in this race and on account of Lotus' superior ability to manage tyres, Grosjean was able to complete 15 laps on the same.

Grosjean, who scored his first podium at this race last year, then chased Di Resta by 1 second per lap for final spot on the podium. He finally passed the Scottish driver on lap 52 to occupy the final step on the podium.

How timing of Di Resta's 2nd stop probably costed him his maiden podium

Di Resta lost over 6 seconds to Raikkonen when he pitted two laps later than the Finn. Considering the fact that Di Resta only finished 2.5 seconds behind Grosjean(who finished in 3rd place), was this mistake by Force India's strategy department that costed Di Resta a podium? Well if Force India had decided to cover Raikkonen and pit one lap later(on lap 35) than Raikkonen, Di Resta would have had to do 22 laps on a single set of hard tyres. He did 21 laps instead and his pace was consistent throughout and in fact, hewas faster than Grosjean on last couple of laps. Grosjean did 15 laps on medium tyres in his final stint and on those tyres his pace dropped off in last two laps. So there was a chance that Di Resta could have just held off Grosjean for final spot on the podium like Hamilton did a week ago in Shanghai. 
Kimi Raikkonen(Two Stops)

1st Stint - Medium(16 laps)
2nd Stint - Hard(18 laps)
3rd Stint - Hard(23 laps)
Romain Grosjean(Three Stops)

1st Stint - Hard(8 laps)
2nd Stint - Hard(19 laps)
3rd Stint - Medium(15 laps)
4th Stint - Medium(15 laps)
Paul di Resta(Two Stops)

1st Stint - Medium(14 laps)
2nd Stint - Hard(22)
3rd Stint - Hard(21)
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Courtesy: FIA
]]><![CDATA[Bahrain GP - Complete Race Report]]>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:10:00 GMThttp://www.rachf1.com/4/post/2013/04/bahrain-gp-complete-race-report.html
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The Grand Prix of Bahrain was a great race with full of action and battles on the track. Nico Rosberg started from the pole position with Sebastian Vettel with him on the front row. Fernando Alonso started 3rd and his team mate Felipe Massa started 4th after grid penalties were handed for Mark Webber after a collision at China and for Lewis Hamilton because of a gearbox change for the qualifying session. Also, Massa was the one who teams were looking at as he went through the Q3 with hard tyres, which meant he was going to start the race with hards and trying to find advantage from that.
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Rosberg was able to keep his lead after the start, and Fernando Alonso got past Sebastian Vettel, but later lost the position back to the German. It wasn’t easy for Massa as he had a contact with Adrian Sutil which damaged his front wing, but a wing change wasn’t needed. In the front it seemed that Rosberg really couldn’t pull away from this rivals and Vettel was soon right behind him and took the lead. Soon Rosberg started to lose places as Alonso got past him too, followed by Di Resta and Massa in the next couple of laps. Soon Rosberg found himself from the 5th place. The Mercedes was really lacking some race pace despite a great pole position in qualifying.

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso had an unusual problem as his DRS seemed to be stuck open. The Spaniard had to visit pits and the pit crew was able to close the DRS. The tyres were changed to the prime compound and the Ferrari driver went back to the track. The problem continued though - Alonso opened his DRS on the DRS zone and it was stuck open again. There was a problem with mechanism that prevents the wing from opening too much. He had to pit again and once again and the pit crew closed the wing. From then, he had to race without the DRS thanks to the problem.
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After falling down many positions, Rosberg came to the pits to change for the hard compound. Most of the pit stops were made by others in the next couple of laps. Paul Di Resta and Kimi Räikkönen stayed out for longer than others and they were leading the race. It seemed like the duo were going to make a two stop strategy. Felipe Massa also pitted early even though he started with the harder tyre, it seemed like the planned strategy didn’t pay out very well in the end.

Later on Di Resta pitted from the read and Räikkönen took the 1st place. He didn’t stay there for long though - Vettel who had already pitted and who had fresh tyres took the lead from Räikkönen who came for his pit stop much later. Meanwhile Massa faced a problem and had to come to the pits. It seemed that he had a slight puncture and he changed to medium tyres during the pitstop. Soon afterwards, Jean Eric Vergne drove to the pits and retired from the race.

Vettel was leading with a big gap to his rivals, but it was close fighting behind him. 3rd placed Rosberg was again making a train behind him, as both McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Sergio Perez and also Romain Grosjean were struggling behind him. Rosberg defended hard and Button wasn’t impressed about it on the team radio. Later Button was able to get past and so did Grosjean. Rosberg and Perez later pitted at the same time for their second pitstop. Again this started the pit stop trend as many drivers pitted in for new rubber. The positions changed very quickly on the field, but it started to seem like the Lotus boys Räikkönen and Grosjean were very likely to join Sebastian Vettel on the podium.
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McLaren boys were fighting head to head on the track and Perez clearly did what the team boss Martin Whitmarsh asked and wished from him to do in the future races, to be ‘more aggressive’. Perez was challenging his team mate really hard and they even had a small contact. Perez lost a small piece of his front wing, but it was nothing too serious. Once again Button wasn’t happy in his radio, asking Perez to calm down. Rosberg and Grosjean started to catch the McLaren double during their fight. Grosjean got past Rosberg and the fight between McLaren drivers continued: Perez had to go wide and Button continued telling on the radio that the team should sort it out, but there was never a team order made. Grosjean then got past both Perez and Button.

It was Räikkönen’s turn to come for his second pitstop, which was also his last. He asked on the radio though why did they pit so early. Kimi clearly thought that it was possible to run with his old tyres for longer. He changed for hard tyres, and Button also pitted in from the same lap.

Felipe Massa was with problems again - he had a puncture on his rear right tyre. It was a really unlucky day for Ferrari who could’ve had very good points with both drivers, but both faced untypical problems. Alonso though was able to fight himself back to the points even if he had one more stop behind than others thanks to the DRS issue.
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Fights continued on the field until the end. In the last lap, Lewis Hamilton pushed himself past Mark Webber to 5th. Sergio Perez later did the same move, and the Australian suddenly dropped to the 7th place.

Sebastian Vettel won the race after a great performance, having Lotus boys Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean with him on the podium. Di Resta continued Force India’s positive early season by taking the 4th place in front of Hamilton, Perez and Webber. Alonso managed to put himself up to points and to 8th place after problems with DRS. The pole starter Rosberg was 9th and Jenson Button on the last point position, 10th.

Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg were under investigation by the stewards after a collision between these two. It was investigated after the race and there was no penalties given, but the Red Bull driver received a reprimand for the situation.
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“It was good fun at the beginning with some very tight wheel to wheel racing. At the start you don’t know if you will be quick or not, as everyone is a bit all over the place, including yourself! It’s important to get to the front; we saw at the last race that if you get stuck behind someone then it does have an impact on tyre wear and today it was important to make use of the tyres we had saved from qualifying yesterday. I love to be in clean air, so I was pushing hard to get into the lead and, with the speed we had mid-race, it was quite comfortable today. Well done to the whole team, to everyone here, to the factory in the background and especially to those who were working on the strategy today; it worked just as we expected, so we obviously got the numbers right.” - Sebastian Vettel
Written By: Sini Salminen 
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