F1 - Hungarian Grand Prix - Sunday, July 27th 2014

Daniel Ricciardo wins thrilling F1 race

By Ben Anderson

Daniel Ricciardo made two late overtaking moves on Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to claim the second victory of his Formula 1 career in a dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso looked set to end a 15-month victory drought for Ferrari, but ultimately found a mammoth 32-lap final stint on a set of soft Pirelli tyres too much and thus had to settle for second.

Hamilton reduced the points gap to title rival Nico Rosberg by taking an unlikely podium finish after a pitlane start, just fending off his Mercedes team-mate over the final lap as he battled to the finish on a well-worn set of medium tyres.

Hamilton survived a brush with the barrier after spinning at Turn 2 on the first lap, and also courted intra-team controversy by holding up team-mate Rosberg during his final stint despite radio requests to let him through.

Rosberg dropped to seventh after his third and final stop with 14 laps to go, but charged back to fourth to minimise the damage inflicted by two-stopper Hamilton to his championship lead to just three points.

Poleman Rosberg had dominated the wet early stages, leading Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel and the fast-starting Ferrari of Alonso, but this quartet had to wait an extra lap before pitting for dry tyres when Marcus Ericsson crashed heavily exiting Turn 3 on lap nine, bringing out the safety car.

This dropped them into the pack behind Ricciardo's Red Bull and the McLarens of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, and not far ahead of Hamilton, who had made rapid progress through the midfield.
McLaren gambled on more rain, so fitted Button with new intermediate tyres and left Magnussen out on his original set. This gambled failed and the McLarens were forced to pit for dry tyres in racing conditions.

A huge crash for Sergio Perez (who had earlier collided with Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg) exiting the final corner on lap 23 brought the safety car back out, and Ricciardo and the Williamses of Bottas and Felipe Massa dived for the pits.

This left Alonso in the lead, but the Spaniard's gamble on a two-stop strategy failed as Ricciardo charged back to the head of the field over the final few laps.

Massa ran as high as second, but switched to a three-stop strategy and made it home fifth, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who scored his best result since returning to Ferrari this season by rising from 16th on the grid to sixth.

Vettel ran in the top order early on, but spoiled his race with a frightening 360-degree spin after catching the wet kerb exiting the final corner on lap 32.

The reigning world champion ultimately brought his Red Bull home seventh, ahead of Bottas (who lost out badly in the pits) and the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne (who also ran at the front early on).
Button recovered from McLaren's early strategic blunder to claim the final point for 10th.

Results - 70 laps:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car                     Time/Gap
 1.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault         1h53m05.058s
 2.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari                       +5.225s
 3.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes                      +5.857s
 4.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes                      +6.361s
 5.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes            +29.841s
 6.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari                      +31.491s
 7.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault             +40.964s
 8.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes            +41.344s
 9.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault           +58.527s
10.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes           +1m07.280s
11.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari             +1m08.169s
12.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes           +1m18.465s
13.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault              +1m24.024s
14.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault             -1 lap
15.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari               -1 lap
16.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari               -1 lap
                                                             
Retirements:                                          
                                                             
     Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari                33 laps
     Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault              25 laps
     Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes          23 laps
     Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes          15 laps
     Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault                 11 laps
     Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault               8 laps

Drivers' championship:
 1.  Nico Rosberg       202
 2.  Lewis Hamilton     191
 3.  Daniel Ricciardo   131
 4.  Fernando Alonso    115
 5.  Valtteri Bottas    95
 6.  Sebastian Vettel   88
 7.  Nico Hulkenberg    69
 8.  Jenson Button      60
 9.  Felipe Massa       40
10.  Kevin Magnussen    37
11.  Sergio Perez       29
12.  Kimi Raikkonen     27
13.  Jean-Eric Vergne   11
14.  Romain Grosjean    8
15.  Daniil Kvyat       6
16.  Jules Bianchi      2
17.  Adrian Sutil       0
18.  Marcus Ericsson    0
19.  Pastor Maldonado   0
20.  Esteban Gutierrez  0
21.  Max Chilton        0
22.  Kamui Kobayashi    0

Constructors' championship:
 1.  Mercedes              393
 2.  Red Bull-Renault      219
 3.  Ferrari               142
 4.  Williams-Mercedes     135
 5.  Force India-Mercedes  98
 6.  McLaren-Mercedes      97
 7.  Toro Rosso-Renault    17
 8.  Lotus-Renault         8
 9.  Marussia-Ferrari      2
10.  Sauber-Ferrari        0
11.  Caterham-Renault      0

F1 - German GP - Sunday, July 20th 2014

Rosberg cruises to victory, Hamilton recovers to third

By Ben Anderson
http://www.autosport.com

Nico Rosberg extended his lead in the Formula 1 world championship with a comfortable victory in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

The Mercedes driver converted pole position into his fourth win of the season, while the Williams of Valtteri Bottas fended off the second Mercedes of Rosberg's title rival Lewis Hamilton to finish second.

Hamilton fought his way through the field to finish third from 20th on the grid, following his brake-failure-induced crash in qualifying.

Hamilton's journey to the podium was fraught with peril, as the 2008 world champion survived repeated contact at the Turn 4 hairpin as he raced his way through the pack.

Hamilton got away with hitting Adrian Sutil's Sauber and Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, but slightly damaged his front wing after a late dive up the inside of Jenson Button's McLaren.

This compromised his second stint on Pirelli's soft tyre and meant Mercedes had to bring its charger in earlier than planned for his second of three pitstops.

Hamilton made up the time lost in the pits but took too much out of his final set of tyres and fell short of claiming second spot from Bottas by just 1.7 seconds.


Bottas executed a two-stop strategy to claim his third consecutive podium finish for Williams after starting second, but team-mate Felipe Massa only made it to the first corner before contact with Kevin Magnussen's fast-starting McLaren tipped the Williams into a race-ending roll, and meant the first lap finished behind the safety car.

Magnussen, who started fourth and was trying to pass Massa for third when they came together, fell to the back of the field, while the incident also delayed Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull, which had to take avoiding action across the Turn 1 run-off.

This incident promoted world champion Sebastian Vettel to third on the road, and the Red Bull racer converted that into a fourth placed finish after another battle with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

Alonso was another driver who tried to make a two-stop strategy work, but the Spaniard could not manage it and a late third stop dropped him out of the top six.

He passed Jenson Button's McLaren for sixth with relative ease, but found the recovering Red Bull of Ricciardo a more obstinate obstacle.

The Australian defended hard, but Alonso - running on the faster super-soft tyre - eventually fought his way past four laps from the finish.

Ricciardo came back at the Ferrari on the final lap, though, and fell just eight hundredths of a second shy of stealing fifth back on the run to the finish line.

Button lost seventh to Nico Hulkenberg's Force India after being forced to make a very late third tyre stop, while McLaren team-mate Magnussen salvaged ninth after his first-lap incident.

Sergio Perez claimed the final point for 10th place in the second Force India, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, who twice survived contact while being passed into the Turn 4 hairpin - once with Hamilton and also with Vettel.

Results - 67 laps 

Pos Driver                Team                   Time/Gap
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1h33m42.914s
 2. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes      +20.789s  
 3. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes               +22.530s  
 4. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       +44.014s  
 5. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                +52.467s  
 6. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault       +52.549s  
 7. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   +1m04.178s
 8. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       +1m24.711s
 9. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes       -1 lap
10. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes   -1 lap
11. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                -1 lap
12. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault          -1 lap
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault     -1 lap
14. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari         -1 lap
15. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari       -1 lap
16. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault       -2 laps
17. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari       -2 laps
18. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault       -2 laps


Retirements

    Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari         47 laps
    Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault     44 laps
    Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          26 laps
    Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes       0 laps

Drivers' championship             Constructors' championship
 1. Nico Rosberg        190       1. Mercedes              366
 2. Lewis Hamilton      176       2. Red Bull-Renault      188
 3. Daniel Ricciardo    106       3. Williams-Mercedes     121
 4. Fernando Alonso     97        4. Ferrari               116
 5. Valtteri Bottas     91        5. Force India-Mercedes  98 
 6. Sebastian Vettel    82        6. McLaren-Mercedes      96 
 7. Nico Hülkenberg     69        7. Toro Rosso-Renault    15 
 8. Jenson Button       59        8. Lotus-Renault         8  
 9. Kevin Magnussen     37        9. Marussia-Ferrari      2  
10. Felipe Massa        30       10. Sauber-Ferrari        0  
11. Sergio Pérez        29       11. Caterham-Renault      0  
12. Kimi Räikkönen      19 
13. Jean-Éric Vergne    9  
14. Romain Grosjean     8  
15. Daniil Kvyat        6  
16. Jules Bianchi       2
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F1 - British GP - Sunday, July 6th 2014

Hamilton takes commanding win as Rosberg retires

By Ben Anderson
http://www.autosport.com

Lewis Hamilton slashed the points gap to Nico Rosberg in the Formula 1 world championship by winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Rosberg led for half the race until a gearbox problem forced him to retire his Mercedes from a race for the first time this season.

Hamilton capitalised fully to snatch victory in his home grand prix, making up for mistakenly aborting his final flying lap in qualifying and cutting his Mercedes team-mate's lead in the title race to just four points.

Things had been looking good for Rosberg, who converted pole position into the lead as fellow front-row starter Sebastian Vettel made a slow getaway and slipped to fourth, behind the quick-starting McLarens of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen.

Hamilton also made a decent start from row three, jumping Nico Hulkenberg's Force India and driving around the outside of Vettel through Village to snatch fourth, briefly banging wheels with the reigning world champion on his way past.

The grand prix was only five corners old when Kimi Raikkonen crashed his Ferrari heavily on the Wellington Straight and stopped the race.

The Finn lost control of his F14 T over a bump as he rejoined the circuit after running wide at Aintree, striking the barrier on the right-hand side and spinning back across the track.

Felipe Massa's Williams was also damaged heavily when it clipped the Ferrari as Massa tried to take avoiding action.

Raikkonen reported ankle pain as he climbed from his car, while Massa retired his Williams back to the pits with suspension damage.

Raikkonen's errant Ferrari also eliminated Kamui Kobayshi's Caterham, which ran just ahead of Massa after the Brazilian bogged down at the start.

The race resumed behind the safety car after a lengthy delay to repair damaged barrier, and Rosberg sprinted away at the restart as Hamilton worked to get past the two McLarens.

The 2008 world champion made short work of the task, passing Magnussen when the Dane ran wide at Copse on lap three and driving past Button into Brooklands next time around, to cheers from the partisan crowd.

By then Rosberg had opened out a four-second lead and he looked comfortable until the closing stages of the first stint, when Hamilton began to attack.

The Briton was attempting to beat his team-mate with an alternative strategy, running longer than Rosberg on the medium tyre and switching to the hard compound for his second stint, but strategy became a moot point when a gradually worsening gearbox problem forced Rosberg out shortly after his first pitstop.

Hamilton was thus left clear to cruise to a comfortable 28.9-second victory over the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, who charged superbly from 14th on the grid to finish second.


Daniel Ricciardo - who started eighth in his Red Bull - and Button successfully executed one-stop strategies to finish third and fourth, clear of a feisty late battle between Vettel and Fernando Alonso - who received a five-second stop-go penalty for starting out of position - for fifth.

Both champions complained of the other exceeding track limits and driving unfairly, but Vettel - on fresher tyres after two-stopping to Alonso's one - eventually prevailed by diving up the inside of his rival on the exit of Luffield and completing the pass at Copse in the closing stages.

Magnussen was out-foxed by both Alonso and Vettel in on-track battles, and trailed them home seventh in his one-stopping McLaren.

Hulkenberg salvaged four points for eighth place in a Force India that looked short on grip throughout the race, while Toro Rosso made up for its recent run of chronic unreliability by rounding out the points scorers in ninth and 10th.

Daniil Kvyat fell just 0.6s short of beating Hulkenberg, but headed home team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne, who was delayed by tagging the 11th placed Force India of Sergio Perez on the first run through Abbey after the start.

Results - 52 laps:

Pos Driver                Team/Car                 Time/Gap
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                 2h26m52.094s
 2. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes        +30.135s
 3. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault         +46.495s
 4. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes         +47.390s
 5. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault         +53.864s
 6. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                  +59.946s
 7. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes         +1m02.563s
 8. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes     +1m28.692s
 9. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault       +1m29.340s
10. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault       -1 lap
11. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes     -1 lap
12. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault            -1 lap
13. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari           -1 lap
14. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari         -1 lap
15. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault         -2 laps
16. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari         -2 laps
17. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault            -3 laps

Retirements:

    Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                 28 laps
    Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault         11 laps
    Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari            9 laps
    Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes         1  laps
    Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                   0  laps


Drivers' championship          Constructors' championship
 1. Nico Rosberg      165      1. Mercedes             326   
 2. Lewis Hamilton    161      2. Red Bull-Renault     168   
 3. Daniel Ricciardo  98       3. Ferrari              106
 4. Fernando Alonso   87       4. Williams-Mercedes    103
 5. Valtteri Bottas   73       5. Force India-Mercedes 91 
 6. Sebastian Vettel  70       6. McLaren-Mercedes     90 
 7. Nico Hulkenberg   63       7. Toro Rosso-Renault   15 
 8. Jenson Button     55       8. Lotus-Renault        8  
 9. Kevin Magnussen   35       9. Marussia-Ferrari     2  
10. Felipe Massa      30      10. Sauber-Ferrari       0  
11. Sergio Perez      28      11. Caterham-Renault     0  
12. Kimi Raikkonen    19                                    
13. Jean-Eric Vergne  9                                     
14. Romain Grosjean   8    
15. Daniil Kvyat      6    
16. Jules Bianchi     2
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