Sebastian vettel website

Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix after team mate Sebastian Vettel went off on the first lap. Lewis Hamilton capitalised on Vettel’s problems to take second place and hold on to the lead of the championship. And Nico Rosberg held off Jenson Button to claim the final podium place for Mercedes. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free Vettel’s race was ruined within a few metres of the race starting. Webber dived past his team mate and Hamilton followed him through to take second. The McLaren driver made contact with Vettel’s car, which seemed to cause a right-rear puncture on the RB6 – though it could have been a consequence of Vettel’s trip across the run-off on the outside of Copse. Vettel limped into the pits at the end of lap one, not long after Felipe Massa who’d suffered a puncture of his own having made contact with his team mate. Webber and Hamilton ended lap one first and second and would ultimately finish in those positions, Hamilton … [Read more...] about Webber storms to win as it all goes wrong for Vettel · RaceFans

Sebastian Vettel says he was unable to get close enough to pressure Daniel Ricciardo for the lead at the Monaco Grand Prix despite the Red Bull’s power issues. An MGU-K failure for Ricciardo early in the second stint of the race appeared to leave the Red Bull driver vulnerable, but Vettel says he was unable to get close enough to mount a serious challenge. “I could see the light flashing which means that he is clipping, so he’s running out of kinetic energy,” explains Vettel. “Obviously I was told then that he had a problem. I tried to get close. Obviously if you get too close it doesn’t help for tyres as they start to slide. On the corners where it’s leading onto the straight through the tunnel and on the start-finish straight, there you don’t really need power and he was quicker than us. So he was always able to open a gap and I was never really there.” Vettel believes that he would have been powerless to keep up with the Red Bull driver without the issue. “Ultimately I … [Read more...] about Vettel laments inability to challenge Ricciardo · RaceFans

Mercedes have claimed the front row of the grid for the second race in a row and this is surely their best chance yet of winning a race. The W04’s deficiency in tyre degradation is well known by now. But the sheer difficulty of overtaking at Monaco will make it difficult for their rivals to jump ahead of one of their cars, never mind both of them. In the past 20 years the Monaco Grand Prix has only been won by a driver who didn’t start on the front row on five occasions. Four times the winner came from third – which is good news for Sebastian Vettel – and Olivier Panis won from 14th in the topsy-turvy 1996 race. That shows why Mercedes, despite their tyre struggles, have such a strong chance in the race. Pole sitter Nico Rosberg has a chance to emulate his father’s Monaco Grand Prix win 30 years ago with a victory of his own. The start Conventionally, if you’ve got pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix you should win the race. In the past nine F1 races at Monaco the … [Read more...] about 2013 Monaco GP pre-race analysis: Big chance for Mercedes – F1 Fanatic

How quick the new generation of F1 cars will be compared to last year has been a major talking point of the off-season. Last year there were claims the new cars could be as much as three seconds per lap slower than the old ones. Until today the clearest indicator of the new cars’ performance came during test in Bahrain. The fastest time of that test – Felipe Massa’s 1’33.258 – was within a second of last year’s pole position time by Nico Rosberg . Today’s first official practice sessions of 2014 provided a new opportunity for comparison. Here’s how this year’s fastest time compared with last: Year Best Friday lap Driver Difference 2013 1’25.908 Sebastian Vettel 2014 1’29.625 Lewis Hamilton +3.717s That may be the most useful comparison we get in terms of single lap time performance this weekend, as Saturday’s running was disrupted by rain last year. Although the gap between the two is wide – much wider than the Bahrain lap times … [Read more...] about 2014 Australian GP practice analysis: New cars 3s slower – F1 Fanatic

Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend? Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend. Spanish Grand Prix driver-by-driver Mercedes Lewis Hamilton – Spun in final practice after touching the artificial grass in turn three, and from then on seemed to lose the initiative to his team mate, who beat him to pole position. A poor start cost him one place to Vettel and almost another to Bottas. Unable to pass Vettel on the track, he tried to undercut the Ferrari at the first pit stop but was thwarted by a slow left-rear tyre change. A switch to a three-stop strategy got him ahead, but by the time he’d made his extra pit stop Rosberg was too far ahead to be caught. Nico Rosberg – Collected a reprimand early in the weekend for entering the pit lane on the wrong side of the marker bollard, but other than that rarely put a wheel wrong. He beat Hamilton to pole position for the first … [Read more...] about Vote for your 2015 Spanish GP Driver of the Weekend · RaceFans

Daniel Ricciardo set a new track record for the Singapore Grand Prix circuit as he headed the first practice session of the weekend. The Red Bull driver set a best lap time of 1’42.489 which was just under a tenth of a second quicker than last year’s record-setting pole position time by Nico Rosberg . Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari and the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen were just a tenth of a second slower. The quickest Mercedes was that of championship leader Lewis Hamilton who was four-tenths of a second behind in fourth place. Hamilton briefly ran into an escape road at turn 14 near the end of the session. Team mate Valtteri Bottas complained on the radio that his car’s rear was “un-driveable” and ended up with the sixth fastest time. The two W08s were separated by Sergio Perez , who edged Bottas by a hundredth of a second in his Force India. Fernando Alonso set the eighth-fastest time for McLaren but again experienced a problem with power delivered from his … [Read more...] about Ricciardo breaks track record in first practice · RaceFans

At the end of the 2009 season Toyota announced its withdrawal from F1, ending an eight-year adventure that saw a huge amount of money spent, and no wins achieved. Would even one triumph have encouraged the company’s top bosses to stick with the programme through the global financial crisis that also claimed Honda and BMW? We’ll never know, but on April 26 that year the team came close to getting it right in Bahrain, only to drop the ball, as it seemed to do so often. Trulli started that race from pole position, and come the race, he also set fastest lap. And yet he ended up crossing the line in third, some way down the road from winner Jenson Button . How could it go so wrong? The 2009 season began in unusual fashion, thanks in large part to Brawn GP ’s successful use of the double diffuser concept. Toyota had also pursued the idea, and from the start of the season the white and red cars were competitive. Despite not having the trick aero configuration, Red Bull Racing … [Read more...] about The F1 grand prix that big-budget Toyota should have won

Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend? Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend. Monaco Grand Prix driver-by-driver Red Bull Sebastian Vettel – A typically quiet Monaco Thursday for Red Bull was more subdued for Vettel who had a KERS problem. Was a tenth of a second away from taking pole position and believed he could have done it . He started well but didn’t have space to get past either of the Mercedes. Hamilton’s dawdling when the Safety Car came out allowed him to take second, but after that his team warned him Rosberg was getting much better tyre life and trying to attack would be futile. He reeled off the fastest lap in the closing stages anyway, making a point about his frustration at having to run so slowly . Mark Webber – Remains yet to out-qualify his team mate this year but came closer than he had previously on a track where he’s won twice before. … [Read more...] about Vote for your 2013 Monaco GP driver of the weekend · RaceFans

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest lap of the race despite bring urged not to by his race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin. Rocquelin told Vettel, “You know the score, don’t take any risks” as they headed into the final laps of the race. But Vettel produced a 1’16.577 which was easiest the fastest lap of the race. He told Rocquelin it gave him “satisfaction instead of going slow for 77 laps”. Rocquelin warned him against taking the risk, saying it gave “no satisfaction for us though”. “Let’s discuss this after the race,” Vettel replied. Vettel’s lap was one-and-a-half seconds fastest than anyone else’s bar that or Kimi Raikkonen , who made a late pit stop and had fresh tyres on in the closing stages. Monaco Grand Prix lap times All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded): Monaco Grand Prix fastest laps Each driver’s fastest lap: Rank Driver Car Fastest lap Gap On lap 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1’16.577 77 … [Read more...] about 2013 Monaco Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps · RaceFans