Formula One plays the blame game after Vettel smash

LONDON - Sebastian Vettel's temperament is under the spotlight again after the Ferrari driver's hopes of seizing back the Formula One lead disappeared in a few seconds of mayhem at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.

The German, his fast-starting team mate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull's Max Verstappen crashed out as they raced to the first corner.

Stewards summoned all three drivers after the race but decided none was wholly or predominantly to blame.

The view was not shared by others who either pointed the finger at Verstappen, in his last race as a teenager, or accused Vettel of needless aggression at a key point in the championship.

Long before Hamilton had stretched his lead to 28 points with six races remaining, Ferrari's official Twitter feed stated that "VER (Verstappen) took #Kimi7 out and then he went to #Seb5."

"What we tweeted was a factual description of events. No need to speculate on this," it added later as reaction on social media flared.

Television footage and in-car cameras showed Raikkonen making a storming getaway from fourth on the grid and around Verstappen on the outside.

Vettel, on pole, was slower off the line and steered left to squeeze Verstappen, who kept his car straight and was pincered by the Ferraris.

The Dutch teenager and Raikkonen tangled wheels, with the Finn's car slewing sideways and into Vettel's before again careering into the Red Bull and also collecting Fernando Alonso's McLaren.

"I think initially Sebastian saw I was a little bit better off the line than him so he wanted to close me. So he drove to the left," said Verstappen.

"Maybe he didn't see Kimi on the left but what do you expect, I cannot just move out of the way... I think it was just not very clever."

Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, was disappointed to see Vettel "pretty much blow his and Ferrari's championships into smithereens."

"Nice one Seb. You're better than that. Need to watch that short fuse," said the Briton in a blog post.

Vettel made a public apology in July after he banged into Hamilton's Mercedes in a moment of 'road rage' at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix while both were following the safety car.

Former Williams, McLaren and Red Bull racer David Coulthard told Britain's Channel 4 viewers that the crash was "instigated by Seb."

Retired Australian driver turned pundit Mark Webber, who had a few clashes with Vettel as Red Bull team mates, defended Verstappen.

"If you were pushed for someone to blame then it looks like Seb because he's the one doing the biggest movement," he said in the Times newspaper.

"But in the end he wasn't the one who crashed into Max. It was Kimi who crashed into Max. Max was innocent in this."

Retired triple world champion Niki Lauda, now the Mercedes team's non-executive chairman, said it was an incident Vettel could have avoided.

"If he (Vettel) would not have moved (across) he could have won the race, there's no question about it. They were unlucky really, in a big way," said the Austrian. — Reuters

Hamilton wins dramatic Russian Grand Prix

SOCHI, Russia - Lewis Hamilton won a dramatic Russian Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday to take a huge step towards his third world championship after Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg retired early on with throttle failure.

The win was Hamilton's ninth of the season, and the 42nd of his career, and the Briton's untroubled afternoon was a stark contrast to his German team mate's woes.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished runner-up at the Olympic Park circuit to overtake Rosberg as Hamilton's closest rival, 66 points adrift of the Briton with four races and a maximum 100 points remaining.

If results go Hamilton's way, he can secure his second successive title in Austin, Texas, in two weeks' time.

Hamilton, who also won the inaugural Russian Grand Prix last year and has now surpassed the tally of victories racked up by the late triple champion Ayrton Senna, now has 302 points to Vettel's 236 and Rosberg on 229.

"It looked like we were going to have a race and I was thinking this is great and we were going to put on a good show," said Hamilton, after collecting the winners' trophy from Russian president Vladimir Putin.

"Nico made a mistake at turn one and went wide. I overtook him and after that, or maybe even before, he started to have some problems. It is very unfortunate for the team."

"Those last five laps I was just taking it in. I don't know how many times I'll be in this position again," added the champion.

Mexican Sergio Perez finished third for Force India, in a race with two safety car interludes following crashes, after Finnish drivers Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen collided while battling for the final podium place.

Raikkonen finished fifth for Ferrari, a result that kept Mercedes waiting for their second successive constructors' championship.

However, the Finn faced a stewards enquiry into the collision, with the possibility of a penalty for ramming the rear of Bottas's Williams.

Opening lap

The safety car was deployed after Perez's team mate Nico Hulkenberg spun on the opening lap and was hit by the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson with Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso also caught up in the action.

Rosberg had led from pole, holding off Hamilton through the opening corners, but was forced to retire in the pits on the seventh of 53 laps.

"F1 is pretty incredible sometimes how tough it is," the German told the BBC.

"After a great start, leading the race and feeling confident. Straight after the safety car the pedal broke. It was quite dangerous. Definitely not a nice way to end the day."

Hamilton had already taken over the lead as Rosberg wrestled with the problem but his advantage was whittled away when Frenchman Romain Grosjean crashed heavily on lap 12 and brought out the safety car again.

Perez had thought his podium hopes had gone when Bottas and Raikkonen, on fresher tires, passed him in the closing laps but the collision put him right back for his first top three finish of the season.

"One lap before the end it seemed like everything went away from us. I was very unhappy with myself but in the end I thought ''I gave it all"," said the Mexican.

"I did plenty of laps with my tires and had massive degradation. On the last lap when it came it was just amazing."

Brazilian Felipe Massa finished fourth for Williams while Russian Daniil Kvyat was sixth for Red Bull, ahead of Sauber's Brazilian Felipe Nasr and Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado in a Lotus.

In a boost for struggling McLaren, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso finished ninth and 10th respectively.

Spanish rookie Carlos Sainz, who was in hospital only a day earlier after crashing his Toro Rosso in practice, had been heading for his best result after running as high as sixth but retired eight laps from the end. — Reuters

Hamilton wins Malaysian Grand Prix in Mercedes one-two

SEPANG - Briton's Lewis Hamilton won the Malaysian Grand Prix with a pole-to-flag victory ahead of Nico Rosberg on Sunday in a first Mercedes one-two since they returned to Formula One as a works team in 2010.

The 2008 Formula One world champion easily pulled away from his rivals on a dry track with a three-stop strategy to win the race by 17.3 seconds, his 23rd career victory and first in Malaysia at the eighth attempt.

"Incredibly happy, it's my eighth year here [at Sepang] and finally I got that win," the Briton told reporters after taking the checkered flag for his second win for Mercedes since he joined them last year and first points of the season.

"Its quite special to get a one-two, I haven't had many in my career, so that makes it even more special. A great day," added the former McLaren driver.

Rosberg, who won the season opener in Australia two weeks ago, started in third place but squeezed past quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel into the first corner and was able to keep the Red Bull at bay and stay top of the driver standings.

It was Mercedes' first one-two since 1955, their last year as a works team before 2010.

Rosberg almost touched the wall as he took Vettel at the start and struggled to manage his rear tires in the early stages as the two Germans remained close before the Mercedes driver pulled away over the closing laps.

The second place finish moved him on to 43 points in the standings, 18 clear of Hamilton with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso third on 24 points after his second fourth of the season.

Mercedes took the lead from McLaren in the constructors' standings.

"I had a really good start.. got away well and I thought Sebastian was going to put me into the wall but he stopped just before so thank-you for that," Rosberg said.

"My heart skipped a beat a little bit but it was OK. I was trying to chase Lewis but he was a bit too quick today."

Vettel third

Vettel finished third, 7.2 seconds behind Rosberg, for his first points of the season following an early retirement in Australia as he struggled to make an impact on the Mercedes pair without the rain that helped his qualifying bid on Saturday.

Having endured a tricky time during offseason testing, Vettel was delighted to make the podium.

"Congratulations to them, they are bloody quick, the package they have is very, very strong," Vettel told reporters.

"For us there is mostly positives. It's much better than what we expected during the winter."

Alonso was involved in a tight battle with Force India's Nico Hulkenberg in the closing stages before finally overtaking the German, although he will be disappointed that once again the Ferrari looked well short of challenging the Mercedes duo.

McLaren's Jenson Button was sixth with Felipe Massa of Williams seventh just ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas after the Brazilian refused to yield to his Finnish teammate despite team orders to do so.

The row, at a circuit where team orders blew up into a major controversy last season at both Red Bull and Mercedes, threatened to cause friction for the coming races between the new teammates.

McLaren's Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen and Toro Rosso's Russian newcomer Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top 10 of a race that suffered just a couple of light drops of rain despite concerns about possible thunderstorms.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, who was disqualified in Australia pending an appeal, missed out on points for the second race in a row after a disastrous third pit stop when he was in fourth.

The Australian pulled away before his front left wheel was fully attached with engineers sprinting down the pitlane to push him back and fix the issue.

Ricciardo was then given a 10 second penalty for the unsafe release but his chances of points were already over after he shredded a tire and damaged a wing shortly before the stewards' decision and he retired before the end.

"Deep down I'm really disappointed but at the same time there's a little bit in me which is happy because I think I've come out how I wanted to," the Australian said of his start to the season.

"I still want to improve but we've started off on the right foot. So for that I'm pleased. I know a little bit of luck will turn around soon and I'll get my revenge and get some points."  - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Red Bull still not in best shape, says Vettel

MELBOURNE - Red Bull will put a "very different" car on the track for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from the model which disappointed during the last test in Bahrain, reigning champion Sebastian Vettel said on Thursday.

Vettel, bidding for a fifth consecutive title, comes into Sunday's race at Albert Park with his team scrambling to come to grips with the new hybrid turbo era in Formula One.

Red Bull, one of four teams using the troubled Renault power unit, was unable to finish a race simulation for either Vettel or his new Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo, and badly lagged rivals Mercedes and Ferrari in terms of mileage.

"It will be a very different car," the 26-year-old told reporters at Albert Park.


"Obviously, we had a lot of problems during the tests, we didn't get to test a lot of stuff and we hope to do some more running here."

Red Bull's struggles to adapt to the new V6 engine have given rival teams hope of ending their four-year stranglehold on the constructors' and drivers' championships, or at a minimum end the German's run of nine consecutive race victories.

Vettel, who has not lost a race since July, said little to lift the gloom hanging over his team's garage, but was adamant that just finishing the race was not the limit of Red Bull's ambitions in Melbourne.

"We know that we are not in the best shape yet. There are a lot of things we need to sort," said Vettel, a 2011 winner at Albert Park and third last year.

"Unfortunately, you can't solve all of them overnight. We'd love to but we cant. We really have to go step-by-step together with Daniel.

"It's no secret you need very, very strong reliability to be a title contender.

"I'm going out of here not trying to just make it round, I'm going round here to push to the maximum and do the best I can, and then we'll see where we are and how far we get.

"The target, for sure, is to finish, and the target for sure is to finish in the best possible position. That's the mindset, it's fairly straightforward.

"We have a strong team, good people on board ... I'm confident we should progress as the season goes on."

After an occasionally tempestuous five years with the plain-spoken Mark Webber, Vettel has a younger Australian teammate in the garage in Ricciardo, who graduated from sister team Toro Rosso.

Vettel joked that he had little advice to give the 24-year-old after preseason testing.

"Not much, we didn't drive that much this year, so there's not much I could talk about," he said.

"Obviously you do your own thing once you're in the car."

Having battled manfully through countless media appearances in the leadup to his home grand prix, Ricciardo will face a huge task holding his own against his more senior teammate out on the track.

"For now, [I’ll] just focus on what I've done for the last few years," he said. "Just keep doing what I've been doing to get to this point and then see how it's feeling.

"Obviously I get a good view behind the scenes with the engineers, and also with how Seb works with his guys and understand a bit more through that but for now it's just do my thing and see where I stand." - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Red Bull dismisses Vettel tantrum report

Formula One champions Red Bull recognized on Saturday they were well behind rivals in preseason testing but dismissed reports that Sebastian Vettel had "thrown a hissy fit" about the situation.

Four-time champion Vettel and his team have suffered a string of setbacks due to the new Renault power unit and the problems continued in Bahrain on Saturday with the German breaking down on his first lap of the day.

Vettel helped marshals push the stricken RB10 back to the garage.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports News that speculation Vettel had thrown a tantrum when he first tested the car back in January was "complete and utter rubbish."

"I don't know where that came from about Sebastian," he added. "He is fine, he understands that there are issues and he is trying to help the team where he can.

"There has not been one raised voice, one bit of discontent. He has just got his head down and he has a huge amount of trust in the team."

The Red Bull website also carried a highly sarcastic report from their "F1 Spy" about the rumor mill.

Vettel, it joked, had sent the team a postcard to say sorry and decided to spend a couple of weeks chilling out watching daytime soaps and eating chips at former teammate Mark Webber's house.

While Red Bull and some of the other Renault-engined teams have been struggling to string a significant number of laps together, Mercedes and Ferrari-powered rivals have been doing race simulations.

Vettel's new Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo, preparing for a home season-opener in Melbourne on March 16, said on Thursday the team was still "not up to scratch" with time running out.

Ricciardo had a more positive day on Friday but Saturday brought more gloom and Horner said the team was "still definitely on the back foot.

"This is the 10th day of testing and we are about 10 days behind I reckon," he added.

Horner said cooling issues that had sidelined the team during the first team in Jerez, Spain, had been addressed and Red Bull were working hard with Renault to fix other problems that had emerged.

"We still have another two weeks before Melbourne, for sure we will be bringing more parts to Melbourne. It would just be great if we could have another couple of days like we had yesterday." - Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com