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Tag: Formula 1

  • Bottas takes points lead with win in Azerbaijan

    Bottas takes points lead with win in Azerbaijan

    Ferrari paced the field all weekend in practice, but then qualifying came and Charles Leclerc, who led the Ferrari charge, crashed in the second round of qualifying. Instead, Mercedes locked out the front row and it was Valtteri Bottas’ day on the streets of Baku.

    Bottas held off Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap score his fifth career Formula 1 victory. He even passed Charles Leclerc for the lead on the pit straight on Lap 32.

    The always humble Finnish driver wouldn’t say it was an easy race, even though “not that much (was) happening up front.”

    “I did not do any mistakes, but everything was under control,” Bottas said. “I’m happy to see the checkered flag and get this first place.”

    “It’s incredible as a team on which kind of level we’re performing now. I would say to the guys I’m so proud to be part of that, and we’re all performing really, really well.”

    While he missed out on the bonus point for the fastest lap, Bottas overtook Hamilton for the championship lead.

    Hamilton made a run at Bottas in the closing laps, getting into DRS range, but couldn’t catch him.

    After he congratulated Bottas, he said that his chance at victory “was all lost in qualifying.”

    Sebastian Vettel rounded out the podium.

    Max Verstappen and Leclerc, who earned the bonus point for posting the fastest lap at 1:43.009 (a new track record), rounded out the top five.

    Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Lance Stroll and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10.

    Race summary

    After locking out the front row, Mercedes led the field on the start, with Bottas taking charge for virtually the whole race.

    He surrendered the lead on Lap 12 to pit, and Leclerc, who started the race on medium tires, took the lead.

    His tires started to wear as he neared his stop, and Bottas ran him down and passed him on the pit straight on Lap 32.

    Hamilton pulled within DRS range in the last three laps, but couldn’t make a pass on his teammate. He ran wide in Turn 16 on the penultimate lap and couldn’t take the fight to Bottas for the final lap.

    What else happened

    Alexander Albon clipped the outside Turn 1 wall on the opening lap, and a second time halfway through the race.

    Robert Kubica, who started the race from pit road, was handed a drive through penalty for “car being driven to pit exit too early.”

    Romain Grosjean locked up and ran off track in Turn 15 on Lap 25, and later retired from the race for unrelated reasons.

    Daniel Ricciardo locked up and slid off into the runoff area in Turn 3. He was to the inside of Daniil Kvyat and collected him. While neither car was damaged by the slide, Ricciardo reversed into Kvyat. Both retired from the race, as a result.

    Pierre Gasly brought out a virtual safety car, when his car suffered a power failure and pulled into a runoff area on Lap 40.

    Nuts and bolts

    The race lasted one hour, 31 minutes and 52 seconds, at an average speed of 124.200 mph.

    There were two lead changes among two different drivers and one virtual safety car period for two laps.

    Bottas leaves Baku with a one point lead over Hamilton in the drivers championship.

    Mercedes leaves with a 74-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors championship.

    Formula 1 returns to action in two weeks, when it heads to Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona to start the European stretch of the schedule.

  • Hamilton steals victory in Bahrain

    Hamilton steals victory in Bahrain

    Lewis Hamilton wasn’t the dominant driver, Sunday, and he probably wouldn’t have won without misfortune befalling Charles Leclerc. But as the old saying goes, “It doesn’t matter how you won. It just matters that you did.”

    Leclerc was well on his way to his first career Formula 1 victory, until the energy recovery system failed on his No. 16 Scuderia Ferrari SF90 with 11 laps to go. At that point, he was chum in the water.

    Hamilton ran down and passed him going into Turn 14, with 10 to go, and cruised to his 75th career victory.

    “We were definitely lucky today, but you have to take it as it comes,” Hamilton said. “Ultimately, I still gave it everything in the race, and I pushed as hard as I could.”

    Valtteri Bottas finished runner-up.

    Like Hamilton, he didn’t dance around the luck aspect of their finish, especially when he noted that the balance of his car was “beat everywhere.”

    “We did no mistake, as a team, and the car was very reliable,” Bottas said. “And that’s the win today. So all the hard work at the factories is paying off, like this.”

    A timely safety car saved a podium finish for Leclerc, who was quickly losing time to fourth-place Max Verstappen.

    “I’m extremely disappointed, like the whole team, but it happens in the seasons,” he said. “I think we made the best out of it.”

    In the moment, he found it difficult to look on the bright side.

    “…as I said a lot in the past, I’m never really looking at the result, and I’m more looking at the (indiscernible) of what to do better. Today, third was not our place, but yeah, very happy anyway.”

    Sebastian Vettel, after a spin just past halfway and losing his front wing, rallied to a fifth-place finish.

    Lando Norris, Kimi Raikkonen, Pierre Gasley, Alexander Albon and Sergio Perez rounded out the Top-10.

    Race summary

    Vettel took the lead from Leclerc going into Turn 1, on the first lap. On the fifth lap, Leclerc used a run down the pit straight to overtake Vettel going into Turn 1.

    After ceding the lead for one lap, Leclerc cycled back to the front on Lap 16.

    Hamilton pitted from second on Lap 36. Vettel followed suit on Lap 37. Leclerc and Bottas pitted the next two laps.

    For two laps, Hamilton and Vettel battled for third, in Turns 5, 6 and 7. On Lap 38, Hamilton used DRS (drag reduction system) and a massive head wind to overtake Vettel, going into Turn 4.

    “I just gave it everything and braked later than usual and dived down on the outside,” Hamilton said.

    On exit, Vettel got loose and spun out. He recovered and drove on. A few moments later, however, Vettel’s front wing fell off and he was forced to pit (rejoined the race in eighth).

    This set up the aforementioned finish, in which Leclerc’s power unit had a component failure and Hamilton passed him to win.

    “It happens. It’s part of motorsports,” Leclerc said. “Unfortunately, today was not our day, but I’m confident that our team has done an amazing job to recover the lack of pace in Australia.”

    “I’m sure it was a devastating result for (Leclerc), obviously, because had done the job to win the race,” Hamilton said.

    What else happened

    Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo both suffered power failures in Turn 1, with four laps to go. This necessitated a safety car period, and the race ended behind the safety car (the eighth time in Formula 1 history).

    Nuts and bolts

    The race lasted one hour, 34 minutes and 21 seconds, at an average speed of 122.047 mph.

    There was one safety car period for four laps and four lead changes among three different drivers.

    Bottas leaves Bahrain with a one-point lead over Hamilton in the drivers championship.

    Mercedes leaves with a 39-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors championship.

    The next race is in China on April 14.

  • Verstappen wins in Austria

    Verstappen wins in Austria

    Max Verstappen put his car in parc-ferme, climbed out of the car and hopped over the barrier to celebrate with his Red Bull Racing team, at the team’s home track. While not a flashy, dominant victory, he conserved his tires to mitigate Kimi Raikkonen cutting his seven-second lead to a second and a half.

    “It was amazing, very hard to manage the tyres, lot of blistering, but we manged to hand on. It was amazing to win at the Red Bull Ring with so many Dutch fans here.

    “I needed to catch up with the points, today was a very good day for me and I hope we can continue like this.”

    Raikkonen briefly succeeded in splitting the Mercedes duo going into Turn 1 on the initial start, but ran wide rounding the turn and fell back to fourth. Waved yellows from retirements by Brendon Hartley and Daniel Ricciardo in the span of three laps allowed him to significantly reel in Verstappen, but he only cut it down to a second and a half in the remaining laps and finished second.

    “I had to back off at turn one because the cars were squeezed together,” Raikkonen said. “After that, the car came good, but we just ran out of laps, and we took it easily too long. We had the right car, today, some points were a little bit difficult, but it was a good day for the team.”

    Sebastian Vettel rounded out the podium and took over the championship lead, after Hamilton’s retirement in the closing laps.

    “I told Max (Verstappen) he had a very good race, very consistent, no mistakes.

    “Obviously it would’ve been nice to start further up, I was left with no place to go at turn one and lost the momentum.

    “It was damage limitation but the pace was very good and the tyre management was very good,” Vettel said. “A positive day but it could’ve been better.”

    Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the Top-five.

    Estaben Ocon, Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the Top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Pole sitter Valtteri Bottas suffered an engine failure on the 14th lap of the race and put the circuit under virtual safety car conditions the following lap. Most of the field took advantage of it to pit onto soft tires and run the remainder of the event without a second stop. Race leader Lewis Hamilton wasn’t one of them. He pitted from the lead on Lap 26, handing it to Max Verstappen.

    While second through fourth ran within two seconds of each other, Verstappen was cruising to victory, unchallenged. But after multiple laps under waved yellows conditions, due to engine failures by Daniel Ricciardo and Brendon Hartley in the waning laps, Raikkonen ate into his seven-second lead. He ran out of time, however, and Verstappen drove his way to victory.

    TIDBITS

    Nico Hulkenberg retired from the race with an engine failure early in the race.

    Vettel leaves Austria with a one-point lead in the drivers championship, over Hamilton.

  • Are Grid Girls the Next Casualties in the War for Political Correctness?

    Are Grid Girls the Next Casualties in the War for Political Correctness?

    Stephen Cox Blog Presented by McGunegill Engine Performance

    Auto racing’s long-standing tradition of grid girls seems to be in trouble.

    It was early 2015 when the World Endurance Championships (WEC) got rid of them, and Formula 1 may be next. Director Ross Brawn of Liberty Media, the new controlling group of Formula 1, recently said that the tradition of grid girls is being reconsidered.

    For the uninitiated, “grid girls” are the pretty women who stand beside the race cars prior to many events to hold grid markers and sponsor signs, and, well… look pretty.

    Traditionally, grid girls have dressed to look attractive and feminine. That’s all well and good. Recent years have seen (some of) them dressing more and more scantily. In my opinion that’s not so good. But if I don’t like it, I’m still free to stay home. And that’s good.

    This is precisely why I don’t attend boxing matches and MMA fights, by the way. The ring girls aren’t just dressed attractively. Some of them are downright indecent. So I stay home, shut up and mind my own business. The girls can keep their jobs, the fight promoters can put on the show they like and everyone is happy.

    What, exactly, is being accomplished if Formula 1 decides to defend women around the world by firing hundreds of women around the world? The girls that needed these jobs will no longer have them. The girls who aspire to be models, spokeswomen, media personalities or actresses will have one less avenue available to enter their chosen field.

    The grid girls are not being well served by getting fired. The only people satisfied by their unemployment are people who demand that their agenda be enacted no matter what the cost may be to anyone else.

    Did you see auto racing enthusiasts protesting and rioting against grid girls at the last race you attended? Me neither. Motorsports series are not firing grid girls in response to an overwhelming mandate from fans.

    They’re doing this to please people who have little or no interest in motor racing, who may never attend an auto race, and who, in some cases, oppose the very existence of the sport. By definition, these are not people who are willing to live and let live. If they were, they would refuse to have grid girls at their book burnings and witch hunts but leave you free to have them at your auto races.

    Racing officials need to understand one point very clearly – these people will not become fans once you fire the grid girls. Auto racing is a loud, dangerous, fatality causing, fossil fuel burning, cut throat competition that does not award trophies for participation. These people hate you. They are not suddenly going to embrace you as a forward thinking intellectual simply because you caved in to their demands and kicked a few recently unemployed women to the curb.

    If this artificially manufactured non-issue needs to be revisited at all, it should be revisited solely on the basis of what the the teams, their fans and the grid girls want rather than on political pressure to conform to the demands of outside groups who don’t care one whit about the sport. Make your own decision and listen to your own fans and we’ll be happy no matter what the outcome may be.

    If I don’t like it, I’m free to stay home.

    Stephen Cox
    Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions
    Driver, Super Cup Stock Car Series & EGT Championship

  • The White Zone: Let’s adopt F1’s constructors’ championship model for the owners championship

    The White Zone: Let’s adopt F1’s constructors’ championship model for the owners championship

    If I may ask, why do we have an owners championship in NASCAR?

    No really, what purpose does maintaining a separate championship for drivers and a separate championship for the owners of cars serve? The main prize at the end of the day is the drivers title. The owners title almost always goes to the owner of the car driven by the driver who won the drivers title. The only place it ever gets any real mention is in the XFINITY Series, and that’s because the races in the series are won by Cup drivers in Cup-affiliated rides more often than not.

    Aside from bragging rights that carry less weight than the drivers title, owner points are used to set the lineup whenever qualifying is rained out. Why we can’t just use driver points or practice times to do this is beyond me, especially when NASCAR has shown a propensity to bypass qualifying in favor of practice time when the weather looks iffy.

    But if we must continue with an owners championship, let’s adopt a different model to decide the champion. And you need to look no further than Formula 1 for the answer.

    For those who don’t follow F1, their version of an owners championship, or “constructors’ championship,” involves the organization as a whole accumulating points towards a championship. So rather than the No. 44 (driven by Lewis Hamilton) and the No. 77 (driven by Valtteri Bottas) scoring points as individual car entries towards a championship, as is the case in NASCAR, they both score points combined for Mercedes.

    So let’s scrap the current owners championship model in NASCAR and replace it with the one used in Formula 1, or one similar to that used in Formula 1.

    And I know not every team runs a multi-car operation in NASCAR. So to keep the playing field level, points will only be accumulated by the highest finishing car from each organization.

    My reasoning behind pushing this is that making the owners title a more organization-centered points battle would add relevance to it as it does with the constructors’ title in Formula 1.

    Of course if NASCAR chooses not to, nothing is really lost. The focus will still be on the drivers championship as it should be. I just personally think it would be fun to see what lengths teams would go to win a more organization-based owners championship.

    Now this is a chance I overlooked something. So if you find any oversights in this, please hit me up on Twitter or in the comments below.

    That’s my view for what it’s worth.

  • Vettel wins chaotic race in Bahrain

    Vettel wins chaotic race in Bahrain

    Sebastian Vettel outdrove Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps to score the victory in the desert kingdom of Bahrain.

    Hamilton pitted from the lead on lap 42, ate a five-second time penalty and exited pit lane behind Vettel. He closed the gap in the closing laps, but a local yellow on lap 52 — stemming from Marcus Ericsson’s car coming to a halt off the track near Turn 4 — sealed the deal for Vettel to win his 44th career Formula 1 race.

    “Yeah, really a great day. I don’t know what to day (sic),” Vettel said on the podium after the race. “The last half of the in-lap when all the fireworks were there and track was lit up, it was. I just love what I do. I didn’t find any words. It was a really great team effort today.”

    Hamilton finished second, earning his 107th career podium finish.

    “Obviously a very difficult race, it didn’t start out the best, but the pit lane was my fault, so apologies to the team for losing the time there,” Hamilton said. “I tried my hardest to catch up but it was a long old way to go, it was 19 seconds. But I gave it everything I could but Ferrari did a great job today. So we’re going to push hard together, re-gather as a team and come back fighting.”

    Pole sitter Valtteri Bottas rounded out the podium.

    “Yeah, it was really a tricky race for me; struggling with the pace all through the race,” Bottas said. “I think in the first stint we found a bit of an issue with the tyre pressures and that explained the rear end struggle. But ever since that I was just rear limited and I was out of the tools on the steering wheel, so it was just oversteering all through the race, which is why the pace was slow, which is a real shame because for sure the target for today was a lot, lot higher.”

    Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo round out the top-five.

    Bottas led the field off the start and held the lead exiting Turn 1. But Vettel, starting third, powered past Hamilton to take second and challenge for the lead. The top-five kept kept within sight of the leader, rather than the leader pull away as is typical in a F1 race.

    Vettel pitted from second on lap 11. Moments later, Max Verstappen suffered brake failure and his car slid into the outside wall in Turn 1.

    “I hit the brake pedal. Suddenly, I lost all the rear brake pressure,” Verstappen said. “So I only had the front’s left and you can’t stop the car.”

    On lap 12, Carlos Sainz, who was exiting pit road, made hard contact with Lance Stroll in Turn 1. Stroll’s car stalled past the exit of Turn 1 and brought out the safety car.

    While that was happening, Bottas and Hamilton pitted on lap 12. Hamilton was held up because the Mercedes crew wasn’t ready for him to pit yet. Adding to that, he was handed a five-second penalty for “driving too slow on pit entry” (for impeding Riccardio).

    Vettel cycled to the lead under the safety car period and held off Bottas on the ensuing lap 17 restart. He pitted from the lead on lap 33 and Hamilton, whom Bottas let by for second on lap 28 after reporting his rear tyres were “overheating,” assumed the lead.

    Prior to his final pit stop, the talk was Hamilton was going to one-stop his race with his five-second penalty. But he put that to rest when he pitted on lap 41, served the five-second penalty and left pit lane in third, setting up the run to the finish.

    Vettel leaves Bahrain with a seven-point lead over Hamilton in the drivers’ championship.

    Ferrari leaves with a three-point lead over Mercedes in the constructors’ championship.

  • Hamilton wants to try his hand at Daytona

    Hamilton wants to try his hand at Daytona

    Fernando Alonso took the motorsports world by storm yesterday when he announced that he was bypassing the Grand Prix of Monaco to enter the 101st Indianapolis 500 on the same day. So naturally, other Formula 1 drivers were asked if they would do so as well down the road.

    Among them was three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who’s no stranger to the NASCAR world. He was a guest of Jeff Gordon’s at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 in 2015.

    He was asked, based on Alonso’s decision, would he run an “iconic race” such as Indy or Le Mans if given the chance.

    “Probably a NASCAR race, like the Daytona 500 maybe,” he said.

    Hamilton would be only the second Formula 1 world champion to compete in the Daytona 500 and first after winning a title (Mario Andretti won the Daytona 500 prior to his 1978 title).

    For Hamilton to run the Daytona 500, if he ever does attempt it, he’d likely run an ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway or Talladega Superspeedway as other drivers with no prior restrictor plate racing experience have done. But NASCAR has the discretion to allow a driver with no prior experience racing at Daytona or Talladega to race at Daytona and/or Talladega regardless. Their résumé committee looks over all drivers based on different factors, such as experience, speed of tracks, etc.*

    He also said he’d like to do MotoGP.

    “I’d like to ride a MotoGP,” he said.

    But Hamilton added that unlike Alonso, he wasn’t going to “miss out any of the races in Formula 1.” He also didn’t answer whether or not he would run the Indianapolis 500 or the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as was asked in the original question.

    The two other drivers part of the media availability, Stoffel Vandoorne and Sergio Perez chimed in on the question.

    “Yeah, I think I’ve decided to do the Spa 24 Hours instead of Hungary this year,” Vandoorne exclaimed.

    “I certainly wouldn’t miss Monaco because for me Monaco is my favorite weekend in the whole calendar. So I wouldn’t miss Monaco and normally you have that clash,” Perez said. “But I’d like to do some other racing. I certainly have some interest in IndyCar. The Indy 500 is certainly one of the best races in the world, so I’d definitely to do some.”

    *This article has been corrected to show that a driver with no prior restrictor plate racing experience may compete at Daytona and/or Talladega at NASCAR’s discretion. It incorrectly stated previously that NASCAR requires prior experience for restrictor plate races.

  • Rosberg Retires from Formula 1

    Rosberg Retires from Formula 1

    Nico Rosberg is hanging up his helmet for good right after achieving ultimate glory in Formula 1.

    Only five days removed from winning the Formula 1 championship for the first time in his career, he released a statement on his Facebook page stating he was retiring from the sport.

    “Since 25 years in racing, it has been my dream, my ‘one thing’ to become Formula One World Champion. Through the hard work, the pain, the sacrifices, this has been my target,” Rosberg said. “And now I’ve made it. I have climbed my mountain, I am on the peak, so this feels right. My strongest emotion right now is deep gratitude to everybody who supported me to make that dream happen.

    He went on to say he started contemplating retirement after his victory in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka which put the course of the championship in his control.

    “On Sunday morning in Abu Dhabi, I knew that it could be my last race and that feeling cleared my head before the start,” he said. “I wanted to enjoy every part of the experience, knowing it might be the last time… and then the lights went out and I had the most intense 55 laps of my life.”

    Rosberg sat on the idea of retirement for a day before telling Vivian (his wife), Georg (Nolte, from Nico’s management team) and Mercedes AMG Petronas Executive Director Toto Wolff in that order, according to his Facebook statement.

    “The only thing that makes this decision in any way difficult for me is because I am putting my racing family into a tough situation,” he added. “But Toto understood. He knew straight away that I was completely convinced and that reassured me. My proudest achievement in racing will always be to have won the world championship with this incredible team of people, the Silver Arrows.”

    He concluded his post saying he’s “just here to enjoy the moment. There is time to savour the next weeks, to reflect on the season and to enjoy every experience that comes my way. After that, I will turn the next corner in my life and see what it has in store for me…”

    He made the retirement official in a press conference in Vienna.

    He began his career at Bahrain in 2006 driving for Williams. It was during his time with Mercedes that his career took off and he shed the status of journeyman.

    His tenure with the team was also notable for his at times rocky relationship with teammate Lewis Hamilton. The two drivers in four seasons together had many run-ins with each other that turned their relationship into a rivalry.

    Following the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it appears their relationship is one of mutual respect. As of the publishing of this piece, Hamilton has not released a statement in regards to his teammate retiring.

    Rosberg retires with 23 wins, 57 podium finishes, 1594.5 career points, 30 pole starts, 20 fastest laps and one title in 206 starts.

     

  • Massa and Button have opposite race in final race

    Massa and Button have opposite race in final race

    Felipe Massa and Jenson Button had completely different outcomes in the final race for both Formula 1 veterans.

    Massa battled in the opening laps with teammate Valtteri Bottas, swapping ninth and 10th a few times. Bottas, however, retired from the race on the 11th lap with rear suspension issues and Massa was left to carry the banner for Williams.

    He didn’t make much noise in the race hanging out the back half of the top-10 all day. He brought his car home to a ninth-place finish in his final Formula 1 start.

    “To be honest, I feel really happy. I feel proud that I was fighting to the last lap in the same way I was fighting my first lap in my career. I’m really happy for the result for my race today and I am definitely emotional for this moment, but proud for everything I did.

    “I’m really happy and I thank all of you guys that was supporting me.”

    He also took time to congratulate Nico Rosberg on winning the championship.

    “I cannot forget Nico and that he won the championship. He’s a nice story. Looking at his father (Keke Rosberg), was a champion. He’s a champion now. He really deserves the championship.

    “I’m really happy for him.”

    The 15-year journeyman veteran retires with 11 wins, 41 podiums and 250 career starts.

    He reflected on his career and what he was proudest of achieving.

    “Well I’m proud of my career. I’m proud of everything I managed to achieve. Manage to get a lot of dreams, a lot of results, a lot of incredible things….But I am also proud that I always respected people and I feel a lot of respect, and I think that’s a really amazing feeling.”

    The team gave Massa the car he drove at Brazil, which was the same car he drove in today’s race, as a parting gift.

    It was the polar opposite race for one half of the McLaren-Honda stable.

    Driving over the curb at turn 9, the right-front tire of Button’s car caved in, damaging the steering and forcing an early retirement on the 13th lap in what was possibly his final race.

    In his post-race interview, Will Buxton of NBC said to him “it wasn’t supposed to end like this.”

    “Well it’s tricky [about how it’s supposed to end (a bit indiscernible)]. I should’ve won, but I don’t think that was in the cards so I thought I’d retire early,” Button said tongue in cheek and everyone laughed.

    “It doesn’t matter. I said before on social media that this result means nothing. It’s about having fun. It’s about enjoying all the emotions with friends and family and the team and Formula 1 as a whole and fans. I’ve done that. It’s just finished a little bit early, but I can celebrate with the fans when I get out of the car, which is awesome.

    “McLaren’s don’t fail. We don’t have failures. It’s the weirdest thing, but maybe it happened for a reason. I’m going to go enjoy the rest of this day, my last day as an F1 driver. Well, I’m not anymore actually (takes off McLaren hat), and have a jolly good time this evening with friends and family who I love very much.”

    The 2009 world champion, while still under contract with McLaren, steps away from active competition with 15 wins and 50 podiums to his credit.

    He was asked if he reflected on what he’s done in his career.

    “Yeah, last night was amazing with and the friends and family. I had a long day reminiscing and filmed it with a camera, which is a bit dangerous. I hope they lose that camera.

    “But yeah, lot’s of reminiscing and so many special moments, tough moments as well. But also great ones. Finishing early today is not a negative. I just take it for what it is. I get to see these guys sooner rather than later and I’m just celebrating what’s been a very long career.”

  • Hamilton wins the battle, but Rosberg wins the war

    Hamilton wins the battle, but Rosberg wins the war

    Lewis Hamilton did everything in his power he could to be champion with a win in Abu Dhabi, but it wasn’t meant to be as teammate Nico Rosberg finished right behind him to claim the bigger prize.

    Hamilton got a great start off the line and beat Rosberg going into turn 1. The race win was pretty much his from that point on. The Mercedes play their strategy very conservative with their drivers for most of the race to minimize the chances of a penalty and/or race incident, which included pitting their drivers much earlier than other teams.

    A late wrench was thrown into the mix when Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari pitted off cycle of the Mercedes drivers. This put him in the lead coming to the last 20 laps of the race before he pitted onto faster super-soft tires.

    Vettel was posting the fastest laps of the race in the closing laps and it started to cause angst in the Mercedes garage. Hamilton used it to his advantage by backing his pace and forcing Rosberg to fight with Max Verstappen and Vettel for second and possibly lose the title.

    Vettel made the pass on Verstappen for third with five laps to go. This prompted Paddy Lowe, technical director at Mercedes, to tell Hamilton to pick up his pace and he responded as follows, “I’m actually in the lead and quite comfortable.”

    He also said he was “losing the world championship so right now I don’t really care whether I win or lose this race.”

    It made no difference in the end as Hamilton crossed the line first to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Rosberg crossed runner-up to secure the championship by a five-point margin.

    “Honestly, I feel great,” Hamilton said on the podium. “First off, I’d like to say a big thanks to everyone who came out to support us. I want to say thanks to my family for all their support and thanks to the team and especially to the team for doing such a great job. It’s been a real privilege being part of this team and achieving the success we had this year. I never would’ve thought when I joined this team that I’d have that many wins.

    “And a big congratulations to Nico (Rosberg) of course on his first world championship. Good job man.”

    It’s his 53rd career victory and 104th career podium finish.

    “I did everything I could these last four races and that’s all I could really ask of ourselves,” he said when asked his emotional state following losing the title. “So I leave here and have a lot of fun tonight celebrating with the team and everyone.

    “You can’t win them all. Obviously, we had a lot of problems this year. So that’s why I’m in this position. But I’m still grateful for all the success up and down we had as a team.”

    Rosberg’s 57th career podium finish was enough to win him the 2016 championship.

    “That was definitely not the most enjoyable race I’ve ever had, with Max (Verstappen) in the beginning and then with those guys coming up in the end,” Rosberg said when asked if this was “just another day in the office” on the podium. “Really not very enjoyable those last laps. Very very glad it’s over and unbelievably ecstatic. (Indiscernibly gives thanks to wife Vivian and daughter Alaia for their support)…and I’ll thank everybody else afterwards.”

    He and his father Keke Rosberg join Graham and Damon Hill as the only father/son pairs to have won drivers titles in Formula 1.

    “Very proud of course to have done the same feat as my dad achieved,” he added. “He’s going to be coming in half an hour I think. It’s going to be exciting to see him.”

    Vettel’s third place finish was his 86th career podium finish and only his second in 13 races.

    He started off by congratulating Rosberg on his championship victory before answering the question of why it took him so long to get back to a podium finish.

    “Well it’s tough all day,” Vettel said. “The last couple of laps, I didn’t want to be in his (Nico Rosberg) shoes. I was trying to get close and have another go. I was thinking ‘Why not pass both of them’ if Lewis (Hamilton) is going that slow in front. But yeah, it was difficult because my tires were dropping more towards the end.

    “A bit stuck at the beginning of the race, couldn’t really unfold my pace. I was starting to get a bit frustrated. But once I had clean air, I could really unleash the pace that we had today.”

    Verstappen finished fourth gambling on a one-stop strategy because of his lap 1 spin in the first turn following contact with Nico Hulkenburg.

    In his post-race interview, he said the race “was very enjoyable. Of course after the start, I was a bit like ‘Well, let’s see where we end up now after the spin.’ Good pace and managed to hold onto the super-softs for quite a long time. Basically just recused my race a little bit. Of course, it’s still not an ideal strategy to do with one stop because you’re always protecting the tires. But yeah, I enjoyed it a lot overtaking that many cars and finishing fourth in the end was a great result.”

    He was asked if one stopping was the plan the whole time.

    “It was not Plan A,” he added. “So yeah we had to change it, but it worked.”

    Teammate Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top-five.

    Kimi Raikkonen finished sixth, Hulkenburg finished seventh, Sergio Perez finished eighth, Felipe Massa finished ninth in his final F1 race and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top-10.

    The Haas F1 drivers finished 11th (Romain Grosjean) and 12th (Esteban Gutierrez).

    Jolyon Palmer was handed a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz on lap 42.

    Five cars retired from the race, including Jenson Button who was making his final F1 start.