Hamilton surprises with German F1 victory

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton hit back emphatically at his critics with a beautifully judged drive to victory at a mostly dry Nurburgring on Sunday afternoon, in a race which he described to his crew as ‘easy’ during his slowing down lap.

Hamilton grabbed the lead from Red Bull’s Mark Webber at the start as Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel scrapped over third place on a track that was slightly slippery in places from a very light shower just as the grid formed. Vettel took third when Alonso made a mistake, but the Spaniard later repassed him and Vettel lost time first with a half spin in Turn 10 on the ninth lap, then with a rear brake problem.

Hamilton momentarily lost the lead to Webber on the 12th lap after a slow exit from the chicane, but immediately overtook him going into Turn One. Later, however, the Australian took the lead after an early pit stop on Lap 14. The reshuffled order saw Webber ahead of Hamilton, with Alonso very much in play.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Jenson Button had meanwhile lost time at the start and had ground to make up.

Webber was again the first to make his second stop, again for soft Pirellis, on Lap 30. Hamilton and Alonso stopped on Laps 31 and 32 respectively, and this time McLaren got their man out ahead again to set the pattern for the race. All three ran as fast and as long as they could on their second sets of soft tyres, which were faster than the harder compounds. Behind them, Massa fought a great battle to keep a recovering Vettel at bay for fourth.

Hamilton clearly had the pace to keep Alonso behind, as Webber appeared to fade for a while. As the countdown began to the final stops, McLaren turned Hamilton round quickly again, as he was the first to stop on Lap 51, and though Alonso went two laps later and Webber another three beyond that, there was never any doubt about the outcome as the 2008 world champion won by 3.9s. Alonso crossed the line 5.8s ahead of Webber, but hitched a ride home on the Red Bull’s sidepod after running out of fuel on the slowdown lap.

The Massa/Vettel duel was settled by Ferrari’s crew on the penultimate lap as both dived into the pits together but Red Bull got their man out quicker, handing him fourth place. Massa was a hugely disappointed fifth.

Behind them, Adrian Sutil made tremendous use of a two-stop strategy to take an excellent sixth place for Force India after a measured drive, beating the three-stopping Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher who, like Vettel, spun in Turn 10. The two silver cars were hounded throughout by Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber after the Japanese driver made a superb start, and he took ninth place just ahead of Vitaly Petrov who had tough battles with Button, Schumacher and Kobayashi on his way to 10th and the final point.

Sergio Perez was 11th in the other Sauber after an off-course moment, while Jaime Alguersuari was Toro Rosso’s top finisher in 12th ahead of Force India’s Paul di Resta who had to fight back from a spin in the third corner after the start. Pastor Maldonado was Williams’ sole finisher in 14th after Rubens Barrichello hit mechanical trouble early on, the Venezuelan heading home Sebastien Buemi who survived a clash at the chicane which put out first-lap spinner Nick Heidfeld. After a post-race investigation by the stewards, Buemi was handed a five-place grid penalty for the next round in Hungary.

Heikki Kovalainen had an uneventful run to 16th for Team Lotus, ahead of the battling Virgins of Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio. Tonio Liuzzi chased them hard, having overcome a challenge from HRT team mate Daniel Ricciardo, but the Italian retired with electrical problems, leaving the improving Australian rookie to finish 19th ahead of Lotus debutant Karun Chandhok who had a few off-course adventures.

The highest profile non-finisher was Button, who got stuck behind Petrov early on and lost a lot of ground before finally finding a way by. He was running sixth on the road when he was called in to retire on Lap 35, due to hydraulic problems.

Hamilton’s win moves him to third in the title chase on 134 points to Vettel’s 216 and Webber’s 139, with Alonso on 130 and Button grounded on 109. Red Bull extended their constructors’ points score to 355, with McLaren on 243 to Ferrari’s 192. Mercedes pulled further ahead of Renault, with 78 to 66.

 

German F1 Qualifying – Webber slams Vettel to take pole

Mark Webber upstaged his Red Bull cock sucker team mate at the Nurburgring on Saturday afternoon to take pole position for the German Grand Prix, as Sebastian Vettel failed to qualify for the front row of a starting grid for the first time in 15 races.

Webber redefined things on his second Q3 run to lap in 1m 30.079s, and it was Lewis Hamilton who gave McLaren a major fillip by snatching second place with 1m 30.134s. Vettel’s attempt to beat that fell short with 1m 30.216s, leaving him third ahead of Fernando Alonso, whose Ferrari could not quite recapture its Silverstone form as the Spaniard recorded 1m 30.442s for fourth.

Behind them there was a big gap to Ferrari’s Felipe Massa on 1m 30.910s, while Nico Rosberg was sixth for Mercedes on 1m 31.263s. Jenson Button lines up seventh after just one troubled run for McLaren yielded only 1m 31.288s.

Adrian Sutil maintained his strong form for Force India with 1m 32.010s, to head Vitaly Petrov’s Renault on 1m 32.187s, as Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes completed the top 10 with 1m 32.482s.

As Hamilton headed Q2 with 1m 30.998s from Vettel and Alonso, a late jump to fifth by Rosberg pushed Nick Heidfeld out of Q3, leaving the Renault driver 11th on 1m 32.215s. Paul di Resta didn’t make it either, lapping his Force India in 1m 32.560s to head the Williamses of Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello on 1m 32.635s and 1m 33.043s respectively. Sergio Perez couldn’t better 1m 33.176s in his Sauber, and Sebastien Buemi just shaded Toro Rosso team mate Jaime Alguersuari, 1m 33.546s to 1m 33.698s.

Massa took advantage of improving track conditions to set the fastest time of 1m 31.826s in Q1. The session weeded out Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi, who didn’t run for the first 10 minutes, vaulted to eighth with his first run as the track got better, but failed to improve again on 1m 33.786s when it mattered. Behind him, Lotus’s Heikki Kovalainen survived an off in Turn One to set 1m 35.599s for 19th, with Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio each improving right at the end to 1m 36.400s and 1m 36.641s in their Virgins to sandwich Karun Chandhok’s Lotus on 1m 36.422s as they filled 20th to 22nd places.

At the back, Tonio Liuzzi just aced HRT team mate Daniel Ricciardo, 1m 37.011s to 1m 37.036s. But the Italian loses a place after a Friday gearbox change.

Later on Saturday, Buemi had his times from qualifying disallowed after the FIA discovered the fuel in his Toro Rosso did not conform to the regulations. The grid from P16 backwards thus reads: Alguersuari, Kobayashi, Kovalainen, Glock, Chandhok, D’Ambrosio, Ricciardo, Liuzzi and Buemi.

 

Germany F1 preview – home heroes out to halt Ferrari

A whole slew of intermixing factors will ensure that this weekend’s German round, the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland 2011, will be a gripping affair as the race returns to the Nurburgring.

It’s Sebastian Vettel’s home race. And Michael Schumacher’s. And Mercedes’. And Nico Rosberg’s, Nick Heidfeld’s, Adrian Sutil’s and Timo Glock’s, so 25 per cent of the drivers will be desperate to please their home fans…

“One of the objectives a Formula One driver sets himself, is to win his ‘home race’,” Vettel says. “Of course, you always give 100 percent, but at a home race you’re always more motivated, simply because you feel at home.

“The Nurburgring is one of the better and more modern tracks; I particularly like the stretch from the Ford corner to the 180-degree long right corner in the valley. The Warsteiner corner is tricky, as is the sharp left before that. The best place to overtake is before the NGK chicane – which is a challenging left-right bend.

“It’s possible to overtake on the brakes there, because you come out of the previous corner and have to brake down to 100 km/h. Hitting the brakes later means you can take the bend first; it sounds easy but it’s not because you have to keep away from the kerbs or the car lifts off and you get overtaken again. The Eifel hills are special because the weather can change there as quick as lightning.”

Nurburgring is also special for Vettel’s Red Bull team mate Mark Webber, of course. “I love racing at the Nurburgring,” says the Australian, who has been finding better qualifying form on the Pirellis of late, “and of course it’s where I won my first race in 2009 so it already has a special place in my heart – I’m looking forward to getting back there.”

Ferrari were stoked by Fernando Alonso’s excellent win at Silverstone, for a whole number of reasons. Perhaps the most significant was that aerodynamic changes to the 150° Italia were clearly of benefit, and the performance on Pirelli’s hard rubber was way better than it had been in Barcelona. Notwithstanding that, however, Pirelli are bringing their medium and soft rubber (plus a new soft compound for evaluation only on Friday), which may please Ferrari even more.

Cynics have suggested that Ferrari’s British triumph owed much to Red Bull’s blown diffuser being temporarily reined in, but with the FIA having now abandoned restrictions on off-throttle blowing, the Nurburgring should reveal the truth of the matter.

Either way, President Luca di Montezemolo has predictably urged the Scuderia to keep their feet on the ground after their first win since Korea, and though team principal Stefano Domenicali agreed, he told the team: “We have got back on our feet thanks to you. Let’s continue like this: we are a long way off the leaders, but who knows, if things go in a certain way, the air could begin to get more rarefied…”

Alonso and Felipe Massa are straining at the leash now and there is a spring back in their step. The Brazilian says he feels far more confident, and they’ll be gunning for victory again.

“In the last few races our pace in the race was better than in qualifying, while in Silverstone we were quick in both situations. In qualifying, I finished third in Q1 with the hard tyres, and that shows that the car is very competitive. I am sure this improvement will stand us in good stead for the second half of the season.”

Over at McLaren, redemption is the name of the game after the disaster of Silverstone.

“Both my previous races at this circuit have been eventful ones,” Lewis Hamilton notes. “The last time we were here, in 2009, it was such a mixed weekend. We’d been struggling with the car in the early races of the season and the guys back at the factory had been working around the clock to find a solution. From my very first lap, I could feel the difference in the car – it had been transformed. I qualified well, got a really good start thanks to KERS, and I was just about in front at the first corner when I was hit from behind and picked up a puncture, which damaged the car.

“In 2007 we had that crazy race with a huge downpour after just a few laps. I’d pitted for rain tyres after getting a puncture, but even with those it was too slippery. I just hit some standing water and went straight off, along with several other drivers in the same place.

“The lesson to draw from all this experience is never to make predictions when you come to the Nurburgring. The weather can turn in a matter of moments – you can have all the seasons in one afternoon.”

Team mate Jenson Button has never won here either, and admits: “This is a race I’d really like to win. In my championship year I finished fifth and my best position before then was third, back in 2004.

“There are a lot of heavy braking areas and if conditions are tricky, which they often are, you really have to get it right at every corner. The weather can change from moment to moment so you’re always on your toes.

“Perhaps we’ve lost a bit of the momentum we’d built up in previous races, but not much. Although Silverstone was disappointing, our pace has been good this year.”

Ross Brawn believes that Mercedes took a step forward at Silverstone, and is keen to maintain the momentum here. “Our car showed positive signs of improvement with the new upgrade package and exhaust system in Silverstone, and we have been working hard since then to further enhance our understanding of its performance capabilities,” he says.

Schumacher is also optimistic after scoring points despite his travails in England, and says: “We saw some improvements over the Silverstone weekend with our new exhaust system, along with improvements to how we work with the tyres, so we go to the next race weekend with a good feeling added to our fighting spirit.”

Rosberg echoes those sentiments: “I hope that we can take another step forward with our new package and close the gap to the top a little. It’ll be exciting to drive in front of a big German crowd in the Mercedes-Benz grandstand.”

Mercedes need to keep moving forwards, because they are locked in battle with Renault, for whom Nick Heidfeld is feeling equally bullish about new developments, which include rearward-facing exhausts.

“There has been a tremendous amount of work going on in the wind tunnel so I am very hopeful that we will take a significant step forward. I hope that the car is strong, so that we can go back to qualifying in the top 10, which is exactly where we should be, and then get even stronger in the constructors’ championship.”

Further down the grid there will be a change of line-up at Lotus for the German race, with third driver Karun Chandhok replacing Jarno Trulli for the Grand Prix.

“Ever since I first joined the team I have been looking forward to this opportunity and I am determined to do my best to repay their faith in me and help the team progress, this season and for many years to come,” said the Indian. “I am approaching the weekend in a very realistic frame of mind. I will be doing my best to push and to make sure I learn as much as possible all weekend, take each session as it comes and work as closely as I can with the engineers and the whole team to do the best job I can.”

The Nurburgring is a tricky circuit with two key characteristics: it’s relatively slow, with plenty of medium-speed corners, and it demands some of the heaviest braking. Some 60 percent of the track is run under full throttle, placing heavy demands on the engine, and it also requires excellent aerodynamic efficiency. The surface is quite grippy, but promotes understeer so it’s a struggle to achieve the right aerodynamic balance between the sections where maximum speeds reach 300 km/h and the slow- and medium-speed parts which require high downforce.

There will again be one DRS zone, with the detection point at the entry to Turn 10 and the activation point on the exit of 11.

“The Nurburgring is always a challenge, usually because of the weather, which is often threatening, whatever time year a Grand Prix is held here,” says FIA race director Charlie Whiting. “The DRS zone has been set for the straight before the tight chicane, so we should see some good overtaking.”

Initial forecasts suggest rain on Friday, with a reduced chance of showers for the remainder of the weekend, with peak temperatures of between 17 and 21 Celsius.

The race will run over 60 laps of the 5.148 kilometre (3.198 mile) circuit, or 308.863 kilometres (191.921 miles). It starts at 1400 hours local time, which is two hours ahead of GMT.

 

Mystery over Lewis Hamilton’s meeting with Red Bull chief

Lewis Hamilton has sparked a new wave of rumours about a potential move to Red Bull after it was revealed he was seen in discussion with their team principal Christian Horner in the latter’s paddock home in Montreal on Saturday.

The two spent about 15 minutes chatting and even though it was described as “a social visit” Hamilton’s unusual presence will inevitably lead to speculation as to what prompted his visit.

It is understood that Hamilton arrived unannounced and asked one of the catering staff to fetch Horner. Had he wanted to talk to Horner he could quite easily have rung him in private. It is therefore safe to assume that Hamilton wanted the world, and specifically his McLaren team, to know about his visit.

So what prompted it? Hamilton, whose contract expires at the end of 2012, may have been trying to exert pressure on McLaren, using Red Bull as leverage in forthcoming contract negotiations.

It is understood that Simon Fuller, whose XIX Entertainment company was taken on by Hamilton prior to the start of the season, will be in the UK over the summer and that negotiations will begin then. Up for negotiation will be his basic salary, which is expected to rise sharply from the current estimated pounds 15 million a year, but an even bigger bone of contention will be his PR and sponsorship rights.

At the moment McLaren largely control these, which means Hamilton is unable to maximise other revenue streams as he is kept busy with team sponsors such as Vodafone, Johnnie Walker and Hugo Boss.

The 26 year-old’s presence at Red Bull may also have been an attempt to express his frustration at the fact that McLaren’s car has not been a pacesetter since his championship-winning season in 2008.

Red Bull, who Hamilton was linked with before the start of the season, have been the class act of the field for the last two years and, although 23-year-old Sebastian Vettel is tied up until 2015, Mark Webber is on a rolling one-year contract and is not yet signed up for 2012. It is thought extremely unlikely that he would make the switch for next year, however, with a fresh McLaren contract – equipped with a break clause in case of poor car performance – the most likely option.

Although Horner has in the past said that he could “never rule out” a move for a driver as talented as Hamilton, Red Bull might also wonder legitimately why they should break the bank and risk upsetting Vettel to bring in Hamilton.

A spokesman for Hamilton’s management denied that his client was angling for any move. “Neither Lewis nor his management team are in discussions with Red Bull,” he told London’s, The Daily Telegraph. “Lewis is happy at McLaren and feels positive that he can have a say in winning championships there.”

Hamilton has seemed far from positive these last few weeks. After two collisions in Monaco last month he lashed out at the stewards and two of his fellow drivers, while a clash with his own team-mate, Jenson Button, forced him to retire from Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

The fact that Button went on to win the race will only have added to Hamilton’s frustrations, since it proved he had a car capable of victory.

Hamilton’s recent actions have attracted widespread criticism with Sir Stirling Moss becoming the latest to question Hamilton’s mind set.

“He is a terrific driver, there’s no two ways about it,” Moss said. “He has great aggression. But I think his handling of himself is not that good now. His father is no longer his manager, which is a problem. He brought Lewis up from winning in karts at the age of five or something. Maybe if they could get together again it would be a good thing.”

That was nothing compared with the view of three-time world champion Niki Lauda, who told German television viewers on Sunday night that “someone is going to get killed” if Hamilton carried on driving the way he is.

“While we respect Niki’s views, he is plain wrong in this instance,” a spokesman for Hamilton said. “Lewis was cleared by the stewards of causing any accidents on Sunday and has never come close to injuring or purposefully taking out another driver.”

A McLaren spokesman added: “It’s a bit like Geoff Boycott criticising Kevin Pietersen for scoring a century too fast.”

Hamilton will attempt to erase the memories of a disastrous fortnight on Tuesday when he swaps his McLaren for a stock car at a promotional event at Watkins Glen, NY.

But as he gets down to some legitimate wheel-banging in two-time Nascar champion Tony Stewart’s Chevrolet, it is a very different kind of swap which will be exercising the minds of his fans back home.

 

An amazing rainy day at Canadian Grand Prix

Formula One races are not always the most exciting forms of racing to watch. Generally, whoever gets out front, usually wins the race and essentially it’s follow the leader for the most part. Because of this, I am not the best fan of F1 although I still try to watch the races. And I’m glad I caught this one. It was amazing.

The Canadian Grand Prix was just run and on a very wet day in Montreal, an actual race broke out – with thrilling racing, especially at the end. The race started in the rain and because of the wetness, there was not the usual standing start, which can be one of the only exciting parts of a F1 contest.

In fact, the first several laps were led by the pace car or safety car as they call them in F1. The safety car would lead many laps during the soggy day. But what an exhibition to come.

Red Bull’s German not invincible
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was the pole-sitter and the young German led almost the entire race, which is not unusual – meaning pole-sitters usually lead the races and this year, Vettel has lead almost all the races (about 80% of the laps and five wins in seven events).

The rain wasn’t heavy enough for full-wet tires (these F1 rain tires would put your Potenzas to shame), so teams were changing to intermediates but then came a downpour – what a mess. The race was stopped with a red flag while they waited for the rains to let up. Now, the race was getting more interesting.

Through all these changes, one driver, Englishman Jenson Button of McLaren, was making pit road a second home. It seemed the pit crew was working overtime – they were, as Button was in the pits at least seven times that I could count. He would later be right smack in the front of this damp controversial production.

Longest race ever
The downpour and red flag lasted about two hours and when everyone got back onto the track, with new tires for all, more exploits were on the way. First, it looked like Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher might get on the podium for the first time since his ‘un-retirement’ last year. But as the track started to dry, hard chargers Button and Australian Mark Webber of Red Bull got around Schumacher in the closing laps. Yes, there was passing. That’s why I said it was amazing.

The rain delay and caution laps made for a very long race and in actual fact 2011′s Canadian Grand Prix was the longest race in the history of F1. The waterlogged race would have a climatic finish with, of all drivers, Button on the back of Vettel with less than a lap left. Vettel made a mistake with only a handful of turns left, giving Button just enough room to make the pass and take the checkered flag. The passing wasn’t over with as a battle for sixth came down to a pass at the finish line when Ferrari’s Felipe Massa shot by Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi (and no, this isn’t the hotdog eater).

There were many more stories as it was an atypical day in Canada and one not soon to be forgotten. The rain added a wild quirkiness to the mix and maybe caused an outcome that wouldn’t have occurred if not for the soaking the track took. But a determined and ambitious driver from England showed what a resolute never-say-die approach can do even in the drenched conditions of Montreal. The Canadian Grand Prix was an amazing race indeed.

 

Canada preview – now or never to halt Red Bull rampage?

The Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2011 is the race in which McLaren and Ferrari must stake strong claim to Red Bull’s dominant position. Sebastian Vettel has won eight of the last nine races, and if the two legendary teams are to get back into the world championship fight they must beat the machines from Milton Keynes this weekend.

Last year Lewis Hamilton turned the tables for McLaren with a very strong triumph, and he’ll be going all-out for a repeat after his reversals in Monaco.

“Our car should be well suited to this track,” he says. “We have a great engine, the best KERS Hybrid system in the sport and excellent traction out of slow corners. All in all, it’s set to be another good weekend for us – I’ll be looking for a strong result on Sunday.”

Team mate Jenson Button is also fired up after the intervention of the first safety car in Monte Carlo frustrated his run to victory, and finished a good second here after passing Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

“There’s a real momentum within our team at the moment,” he says. “I think we had a race car good enough to win in both Spain and Monaco; with a little improvement to our qualifying, I think we can start to dictate race pace, which was something we were briefly able to show at both of the last two races.

“I’m still very pleased with my performance in Monte-Carlo. It wasn’t a win, but it was nice to lead the race and to be able to pull away comfortably. Even if the result didn’t match it, that sort of thing is always nice to keep at the back of your mind.

“I had a good race in Montreal last year – the car was great in the race and I was able to pull off some nice moves to score our third one-two of the year for the team. I’ve never won in North America and I think we have the pace, the development and the momentum to have a good shot at changing that. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Alonso and team mate Felipe Massa, meanwhile, have been cautiously optimistic after Ferrari’s strong form in Monaco.

“I guess we need to wait for the couple of normal circuits that are coming now,” the Spaniard said after his drive in the Principality. “Even Canada is not a very normal one, with long straights and big stops for the slow corners. So Canada and Valencia will tell us something more but I don’t think that here is a good reference in terms of performance from the cars, because our car is identical to Barcelona and we were two minutes behind there and we were two seconds behind here, so it’s just Monaco, a unique circuit. But we’ll see.”

It goes without saying that Red Bull remain quietly confident, and as usual refuse to make fuss about developments to the hyper-successful Adrian Newey-created RB7.

“The track should provide all the teams with a fresh challenge this year, as it will be the first time we run the cars with a completely different aerodynamic set-up to deal with the long straights, but the RB7 should be pretty tidy,” Vettel suggests. “I qualified on the front row there last year, but it’s a track that Red Bull Racing has yet to crack on Sunday afternoon.”

Historically, the long straights demand the sort of power that Mercedes and Ferrari V8s can muster, rather than Renault, and the track places slightly less emphasis on aerodynamic excellence.

There will be two DRS zones for the first time this season, on the final straight and the front straight with a single detection point exiting the hairpin, though opinion among the teams is divided as to whether the device will be as beneficial on this track as it was in Malaysia and China.

It could be a wet race weekend, with thunderstorms forecast for Thursday, partial cloud with an ambient temperature high of around 20 degrees Celsius on Friday, and showers on Saturday and Sunday, when the temperature will be around 22 and 17 degrees respectively.

On the tyre front, Pirelli will be bringing the same soft and super-soft compound tyres that they took to Monaco, though the likelihood of showers on Saturday and Sunday could add another dramatic twist to the story.

Elsewhere, Sergio Perez, injured in Monaco, is confident that he will be able to resume his Sauber race seat alongside Kamui Kobayashi, as the team shoots to maintain their enviable 2011 points-scoring record, while Vitaly Petrov is fit again at Renault after his knockout in Monaco.

There are a few minor track changes to mention – additional guardrail posts; all tyre barriers that exceed a depth of 2.5 metres have been fitted with an additional conveyor belt across its centre; and the debris fences from Turn Two to Turn Three have been replaced.

 

Hamilton handed 20-second time penalty

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton has had 20 seconds added to his race time by the Monaco race stewards. Hamilton was handed the penalty for causing a collision with the Williams of Pastor Maldonado during the closing stages of the Monte Carlo race.

Even with the additional seconds added to his race time, Hamilton will keep his sixth-place finishing position as he was the last driver on the lead lap. His team mate Jenson Button, meanwhile, finished the race in third.

Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi was also investigated by the stewards after the race for a passing move on Force India’s Adrian Sutil. Kobayashi was handed a reprimand and keeps his fifth place.

 

Monaco Race – Vettel victorious in red-flagged thriller

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel rode his luck for all it was worth in Monaco this weekend. He got the pole, then had it inadvertently safeguarded after Sergio Perez’s accident. Then on Sunday, just as he was under massive pressure on worn tyres from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and McLaren’s Jenson Button, a nail-biting race was brought to a temporary halt when Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari crashed in heavy traffic in the Swimming Pool, taking out Renault’s Vitaly Petrov in the process.

The incident happened as the leaders were threading their way through the backmarkers, but the race was soon suspended as it became apparent that the Russian had momentarily been knocked unconscious and needed medical assistance. He complained of pain in his left ankle at the accident scene, but further examination and a full body scan in the Princess Grace Hospital confirmed that there was no swelling or broken bones and he is expected back in the paddock within a few hours.

When the race resumed for its final six laps, at 16.04, everyone had fitted the freshest tyres they could muster and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton’s rear wing had been repaired after it had been savaged in the Alguersuari incident. Vettel, back on much-needed fresh rubber, won easily from Alonso and Button.

A frustrating event had started well, with Vettel leading confidently from Button and Alonso. Then Button pitted on lap 15, Vettel on 16 and Alonso on 17. All three were able to resume long before Ferrari’s Felipe Massa led the pursuit, because for a long time he’d been held up by Nico Rosberg’s fast-starting Mercedes.

Now Button was the leader – adding McLaren’s 10,000th Formula One race leadership lap to the team’s tally – after a snafu in the Red Bull pits when Vettel’s front right tyre wasn’t ready.

Vettel was now on Pirelli’s soft compound, not the super soft, and Button opened a commanding lead that at times was as much as 14s. But then the flow of the race was interrupted for the first time when Massa, having just been passed by Hamilton for 10th place, crashed in the tunnel after getting off line. At the same time Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes had ground to a halt at Rascasse.

The safety car was deployed for the first time as the resultant debris was cleared up. Button still led Vettel and Alonso when the racing resumed on Lap 39, but even on super-soft rubber the McLaren driver could not pass the Red Bull and on Lap 48 Button dived in for a third stop, switching to softs. He dropped to third but stayed ahead of a gaggle of cars at that stage led by Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi who had both done very long opening stints and then been cleverly pitted by their teams as the safety car had come out.

Now it was Vettel leading again, chased by Alonso, whose Ferrari was now also on soft tyres. Could they both possibly go the distance without a further stop?

As the race progressed, Alonso decimated Vettel’s one-time five-second lead, as Button came storming in on them. It was building up to a fascinating climax, with Alonso admitting later that he was prepared to try a do-or-die effort when the time came, when the incident happened on Lap 68 that blew the race.

Under pressure from an overtaking Pastor Maldonado in the Williams, Sutil went wide at Tabac and hit the wall in the Swimming Pool with his right rear wheel. As the Force India then ran wide in the second section of the Pool, a lapped Alguersuari ran over the kerbs and launched himself into the back of Hamilton, who’d just passed Maldonado, smashing the McLaren’s rear wing and inadvertently then forcing an innocent Petrov into the wall with a heavy impact.

As the decision was taken to suspend the race, everyone stopped on, but didn’t cross, the start/finish line at the end of the 72nd lap. It’s permissible to work on the cars, so everyone went for the freshest tyres they had. After the restart behind the safety car at 16.04, Vettel was able to open the gap he needed over Alonso as Button fell back, so the top three was all sealed long before the 78th and final lap.

Behind them, it was a different story, as Kobayashi squeezed past Sutil, who had been lucky and stopped under the safety car for a fresh right-rear wheel. The Sauber driver couldn’t contain Webber, however, who slid by at the chicane, so Red Bull took fourth as well as first, and Sauber fifth.

Hamilton had an awful afternoon. He dropped to 10th at the start, using soft tyres, pulled a brilliant pass on Schumacher at Ste Devote on the 10th lap, then passed Felipe Massa for 10th at the hairpin on Lap 34, though they touched. That earned him, as earlier it had Force India’s Paul di Resta when he brushed Alguersuari during a similar move, a drive-through penalty.

That dropped the 2008 winner back again, but he fought through yet again and was always in the upper midfield fight. He finally got lucky with the safety-car intervention after Alguersuari had damaged his rear wing as it was repaired during the race’s suspension, but then he collided with Maldonado at the restart at Ste Devote on Lap 74. After a post-race investigation by the stewards, Hamilton had 20 seconds added to his race time for causing the collision. As he was the last car on the lead lap, he keeps his sixth place.

Kobayashi’s pass on Sutil was also investigated. The Japanese driver eventually received a reprimand and stays fifth. Jerome D’Ambrosio, who finished 15th for Virgin, is also being investigated.

Sutil brought his Force India home seventh after a smart race, with Nick Heidfeld eighth for Renault ahead of Rubens Barrichello, who earned Williams their first points of the year. Sebastien Buemi completed the point scorers in his Toro Rosso.

Rosberg had a terrible race for Mercedes, pitting on Lap 15 and falling way off the pace as a result. He led Di Resta home, the Scot’s race ruined by his drive-through when points were a possibility, and again when he tagged the rear of D’Ambrosio in the hairpin.

Thirteenth and 14th positions were a fillip for Team Lotus, ahead of D’Ambrosio’s Virgin, while Tonio Liuzzi’s weekend finally came good as he brought his HRT home 16th ahead of team mate Narain Karthikeyan.

Besides Schumacher and Massa, and Alguersuari and Petrov, Virgin’s Timo Glock retired after swiping a wall and Maldonado did likewise after his late brush with Hamilton.

Vettel’s fifth victory from six races takes him to 143 points, as Hamilton hangs on to second place with 85 from Webber on 79, Button on 76 and Alonso on 69. Red Bull’s first and fourth places take them to 222 points in the constructors’ stakes, with McLaren on 161 and Ferrari on 93.

 

Monaco Qualifying – Vettel on pole in Monaco after Perez shunt

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was in the right place at the right time in a dramatic final qualifying session in Monaco on Saturday afternoon, to take his fifth pole of the season. Just after the world champion had gone fastest, the session was red flagged with 2m 26s remaining when Sergio Perez, who had done a great job to run ninth in Q2, lost his Sauber over the bumps exiting the tunnel.

Perez was wider off line than Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg had been in the morning, but thereafter his accident followed the trend of the German’s as he crashed first into the right-hand barriers. That crushed the right-hand side of the C30, which then ran down the road and broadsided, on the right-hand side again, into the same chicane wall that Sauber driver Karl Wendlinger had struck back in 1994.

Medical services were on the scene quickly, and the young Mexican was gently removed from the cockpit and placed in the ambulance, conscious and responding to questions from Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn, at 15.08 local time.

At the time of the accident Vettel led McLaren’s Jenson Button, 1m 13.556s to 1m 13.997s, with Red Bull’s Mark Webber next on 1m 14.019s from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso on 1m 14.483s and Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher on 1m 14.682s. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was next on 1m 14.877s.

Perez’s crash was a disaster for Rosberg, who had only done 1m 17.104s after spoiling the first sector, and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who had been fastest in Q1 and Q2 and had deliberately held back in search of a clear run. He was on his first fast lap when Perez crashed and thus saw it lost. As the session restart approached, he faced starting from eighth place.

All chance of pole for the Englishman had disappeared, and as eight rivals prepared to do one last banzai lap, McLaren moved into damage limitation mode. Hamilton had to grasp any improvement he could. He got out first when the session resumed at 15.35, but when he ran across the chicane it was all over and qualifying petered out to its unsatisfactory conclusion. The only consolation was that his 1m 15.280s moved him ahead of Rosberg (1m 15.766s) into seventh. After qualifying, however, the stewards decided to delete his best time for the jump over the chicane and he is expected to drop down to ninth on the Monaco grid. Williams’ Pastor Maldonado, meanwhile, who set the ninth-fastest time with a lap of 1m 16.528s is thus expected to start from eighth.

Hamilton had led the way in Q2 with 1m 14.275s, but Vettel was only two-hundredths slower. Further back, Renault’s miserable weekend continued. Vitaly Petrov was the first to be knocked out, taking 11th place with 1m 15.815s. Rubens Barrichello was 12th in the second Williams on 1m 15.826s and Kamui Kobayashi was the last man below 1m 16s with 1m 15.973s for Sauber.

The Force €ndia boys had an excellent set-to, which was eventually resolved right at the end in Paul di Resta’s favour, but only just. He lapped in 1m 16.118s to Adrian Sutil’s 1m 16.121s. Behind them, Nick Heidfeld struggled for grip in his Renault R31 and only managed 1m 16.214s for 16th, with Sebastien Buemi 17th for Toro Rosso on 1m 16.300s.

Earlier, Hamilton had headed the Q1 times with 1m 15.207s from Button on 1m 15.397s, as Mercedes did a great job to get Rosberg running. Rosberg did an even better job to put his rebuilt car in fifth place. The session weeded out both Lotuses as Heikki Kovalainen improved 1m 17.343s in the closing moments to push Jarno Trulli down to 19th on 1m 17.381s.

Jaime Alguersuari didn’t get out at the end to try to improve on his 1m 17.820s (sharp contrast to Toro Rosso team mate Buemi’s 11th on 1m 16.358s), and the Virgins of Timo Glock and Jerome D’Ambrosio (1m 17.914s and 1m 18.736s respectively) rounded out the field as neither of the HRTs appeared and thus failed to qualify. They will be allowed to race, however, based on their practice times.

The stewards are also looking at a Q1 incident in which Kobayashi appeared to block Alguersuari at Rascasse as the Sauber driver slowed to pit, prompting minor contact between the two cars.

 

Perez stable after high-speed crash halts Monaco qualifying

Qualifying in Monaco was suspended on Saturday with a little over two minutes of Q3 remaining after a heavy shunt for Sauber’s Sergio Perez who lost control at speed exiting the tunnel and impacted side-on with the barrier at the Turn 10.

It took several minutes for medics to extract the Mexican from his car, after which he was transferred to an ambulance and taken to the nearby Princess Grace Hospital for precautionary examinations.

Perez has sustained a concussion and a bruised thigh, but no fractures, and following a scan doctors could find no further injuries. He will stay in hospital overnight for routine observation and is not expected to race on Sunday.

Perez’s team mate Kamui Kobayashi qualified 13th.