Category: Motor Racing

Championship contender Lewis Hamilton achieved his 36th career pole position at Marina Bay, Singapore by beating his Mercedes team-mate by seven thousandths of a second.

Hamilton was only sixth quickest on his first run in the Q3 top ten shootout but despite a lock-up at Turn 1 on his final lap, a particularly strong run through the middle part of the lap allowed him to beat Rosberg by a tiny margin.

Red Bull Racing locked out the second row, with Daniel Ricciardo again out-qualifying his world champion colleague of Sebastian Vettel. The difference was only half-a-tenth.

Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest, only a tenth behind the leading Red Bull, although Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was not able to do better than seventh after suffering a power problem on his second run.

In between the Scuderia is Felipe Massa. The Williams driver putting in an impressive lap to go provisional pole on the first-run times, but was only able to make a tiny improvement on his second lap.

Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas was eighth and was unable to improve on his second run.

Kevin Magnussen was ninth for McLaren, only 0.569 seconds off Hamilton’s pole position time, while Daniil Kvyat was slowest in Q3 after having only one set on super-soft rubber available for the final qualifying session.

Jenson Button and Jean-Eric Vergne were in the top ten in Q2 on their first runs, but with both Williams drivers setting slow times after choosing to run used super-softs for their first run, were always in danger of missing the cut.

They were bumped down to P11 and P12 when Massa and Bottas improved on a fresh set of Pirellis.

Button was able to improve on his second run, but a lock-up at the hairpin cost him time and he missed the cut by 23 thousandths of a second, ending up P11.

Vergne was unable to improve on his second run, complaining about front-end grip and suffering a costly lock-up, meaning he qualified P12.

The Force India pairing of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez also both failed to improve on their second runs, ending up P13 and P15 respectively.

They were split by Esteban Gutierrez, showing a strong turn of pace in the upgraded Sauber.

Romain Grosjean was slowest of those who made it to Q2 and was very vocal on the team radio about an engine problem that cost him time.

Adrian Sutil came close to escaping Q1, but failed to relegate Perez into the dropzone with his final lap in Q1 and ended up P17.

Pastor Maldonado blamed a power unit problem on his final run for failing to reach Q2.

He was unable to fully recharge the battery, meaning he was lacking full power on his final lap, ending up P18, behind Jules Bianchi.

The Marussia driver put in a superb lap on his final effort to jump ahead of his team-mate Max Chilton, who ended up P21, with Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi doing a good job to separate the pair.

Marcus Ericsson joined the session late after the Caterham team had to work flat out to solve an electrical problem that had struck in free practice, ending up last.

So an extremely close qualifying session with the top seven covered by less than half-a-second. It was another Mercedes front-row but Red Bull and Ferrari are not far behind.

Qualifying positions, Singapore Grand Prix:

1 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes    1m45.681s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m45.688s
3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m45.854s
4 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    1m45.902s
5 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    1m45.907s
6 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m46.000s
7 Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari    1m46.170s
8 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m46.187s
9 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m46.250s
10 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m47.362s
11 Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes    1m46.943s
12 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m46.989s
13 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m47.308s
14 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1m47.333s
15 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m47.575s
16 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1m47.812s
17 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1m48.324s
18 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1m49.063s
19 Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Ferrari    1m49.440s
20 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1m50.405s
21 Max Chilton      Marussia-Ferrari    1m50.473s
22 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    1m52.287s

Championship contender Lewis Hamilton overcame a poor start to win the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

This was Hamilton’s sixth win this season and his 28th in Formula 1.

Just twenty-two points separate the Mercedes drivers and it shows how fortunes can ebb and flow between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Starting on pole position, Lewis Hamilton was slow away from the grid.

This removed any chance of a repeat of the collision between the Silver Arrows, which handed Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo victory in the previous Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps.

Rosberg streaked away at the front as Hamilton fell behind the Williams of Felipe Massa and the fast-starting McLaren of Kevin Magnussen, who launched his way up from fifth on the grid to second place.

Hamilton struggled initially with his car becoming stuck in ‘RS mode’, but he soon got back to full speed and began to charge.

The 2008 world champion took advantage of Massa passing Magnussen at the second chicane on lap five to take third on the following run to the first Lesmo, before driving around the outside of Massa at the first chicane on lap ten.

By then Rosberg had already straight-lined the first chicane and Hamilton set about closing down his title rival further.

The Mercedes duo traded fastest laps initially, as Massa tried in vain to go with the leaders, but Hamilton then began to assert his speed advantage over Rosberg as the first half of the race wore on.

He closed to within 1.5 seconds of his Mercedes team-mate but could not leapfrog Rosberg in the pits as the leaders stopped on consecutive laps.

Hamilton was much quicker than Rosberg in the following laps on Pirelli’s harder tyre, and Rosberg gave the victory away to his team-mate by locking up his brakes and again straight-lining the first chicane on lap 29.

From that moment, Hamilton eased away to record his sixth victory of the season by just over three seconds.

Massa completed a lonely run to third place, thus recording his first podium finish since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas was the pre-race favourite to take that final podium spot, having qualified third, but a terrible start dropped him outside the top ten on the opening lap.

The Finn spent most of the rest of the race slipstreaming his way back through the field, usually passing rivals before the entry to the first chicane, and eventually made his way back to fourth place.

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel lost fifth in the closing stages to Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Vettel gambled on making an earlier pitstop than anyone else to gain track position, but could not make his hard tyres last well enough to hang on to the chequered flag.

Ricciardo benefitted the alternative strategy – running long in the first stint and stopping late – and made some impressively decisive passing moves as he recovered well from a poor start.

Vettel defended hard into the first chicane with five laps left to run, but was passed easily down the inside into the second chicane on tyres eight laps older than Ricciardo’s.

Magnussen finished seventh on track, but was penalised five seconds for forcing Bottas off the track at the first chicane during the Finn’s earlier slipstreaming charge, dropping McLaren’s rookie to tenth place.

Sergio Perez thus inherited seventh for Force India, after a close battle with the McLaren of Jenson Button, who ran sixth early on but lost track position to Perez at the stops.

The pair ran side-by-side through the Lesmos at one point, but Button could not force his way decisively back ahead of the Force India.

Kimi Raikkonen finished in ninth on a disappointing day for Ferrari at the Scuderia’s home race.

Team-mate Fernando Alonso started seventh, but recorded his first mechanical non-finish for five years after his F14 T suffered an ERS failure.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat should have inherited the final point for tenth when Magnussen’s penalty was applied, but the Russian frighteningly straight-lined the first chicane at high speed on the penultimate lap and trailed home P11, complaining of a brake problem.

So a great result for Team Brackley. Their seventh one-two finish this season. Just twenty-two points the difference between the Mercedes drivers.

It’s going to be an interesting fight for title honours with six races remaining.

Italian Grand Prix race results, after 53 laps:

1 Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1h19m10.236s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    3.175s
3 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    25.026s
4 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    40.786s
5 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    50.309s
6 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    59.965s
7 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m02.518s
8 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m03.063s
9 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m03.535s
10 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m06.171s
11 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m11.184s
12 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m12.606s
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m13.093s
14 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1 Lap
15 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1 Lap
16 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1 Lap
17 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1 Lap
18 Jules Bianchi    Marussia-Ferrari    1 Lap
19 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    2 Laps
20 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    2 Laps

Retirements:

Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    ERS issue
Max Chilton      Marussia-Ferrari    Spun off

Drivers’ championship:

1 Nico Rosberg    238
2 Lewis Hamilton    216
3 Daniel Ricciardo    166
4 Valtteri Bottas    122
5 Fernando Alonso    121
6 Sebastian Vettel    106
7 Jenson Button    72
8 Nico Hulkenberg    70
9 Felipe Massa    55
10 Kimi Raikkonen    41
11 Sergio Perez    39
12 Kevin Magnussen    38
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    11
14 Romain Grosjean    8
15 Daniil Kvyat    8
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    454
2 Red Bull-Renault    272
3 Williams-Mercedes    177
4 Ferrari    162
5 McLaren-Mercedes    110
6 Force India-Mercedes    109
7 Toro Rosso-Renault    19
8 Lotus-Renault    8
9 Marussia-Ferrari    2
10 Sauber-Ferrari    0
11 Caterham-Renault    0

Next race: Singapore Grand Prix, Marina Bay. September 19-21.

Lewis Hamilton took his first pole position since May’s Spanish Grand Prix by setting the pace in qualifying at Monza.

The Mercedes driver dominated all three segments for qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix. His team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg had to settle with second place.

Hamilton set his provisional pole lap of one minute, 24.109 seconds on his first run in Q3. This was four tenths clear over Rosberg and it was good enough to score his 36th career pole in Formula 1.

Rosberg did improved his lap time thanks to a second Q3 attempt, but it was not enough to knock his team-mate off top spot.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa locked out the second row for Williams, both drivers unable to improve on their second runs.

But behind them was the big winner of the final seconds of qualifying, Kevin Magnussen, who leaped from eighth to fifth with his final attempt.

His McLaren team-mate Jenson Button was sixth after failing to improve on his final run, just ahead of Fernando Alonso.

The Ferrari driver had made a slight improvement on his final attempt to relegate Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel to eighth position.

Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez in the Force India completed the top ten at Monza.

Daniil Kvyat was the quickest of those eliminated in Q2 despite a valiant attempt to snatch a place in the pole position shootout on the last lap.

However, the Toro Rosso driver will be given a ten-place grid penalty for using his sixth engine of the season.

Raikkonen ended up P12 ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, with Nico Hulkenberg unable to match his Force India team-mate Perez and down in P14.

Adrian Sutil prevailed in the intra-Sauber battle with Esteban Gutierrez by improving on his final run.

This was a difficult qualifying session for Lotus. Pastor Maldonado edged out his team-mate Romain Grosjean, but both will start right at the back.

Grosjean was only able to complete five laps thanks to the team having to fix a fluid leak detected in the build-up to the session.

Kamui Kobayashi, reinstated in the lead Caterham after sitting out the Belgian Grand Prix, was a superb P19 ahead of Jules Bianchi thanks to a combination of an excellent lap and a tow from team-mate Marcus Ericsson.

Ericsson ended up in P22, three tenths behind the Marussia of Max Chilton.

So it’s another Silver Arrows front row with the top six cars powered by the Mercedes-Benz power unit.

Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix is going to be fascinating and the race to the first chicane on the opening lap between the Mercedes drivers is going be frantic following what happened at Spa…

Qualifying positions, Italian Grand Prix:

1 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes    1m24.109s
2 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m24.383s
3 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m24.697s
4 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m24.865s
5 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m25.314s
6 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m25.379s
7 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    1m25.430s
8 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault    1m25.436s
9 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m25.709s
10 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m25.944s
11 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m26.110s
12 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m26.157s
13 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m26.279s
14 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1m26.588s
15 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1m26.692s
16 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus-Renault    1m27.520s
17 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1m27.632s
18 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1m27.671s
19 Jules Bianchi    Marussia-Ferrari     1m27.738s
20 Max Chilton    Marussia-Ferrari     1m28.247s
21 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m26.070s*
22 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    1m28.562s

*Ten-place grid penalty for a power unit change

Daniel Ricciardo achieved his third career victory at Spa-Francorchamps, as the Formula 1 championship protagonists Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided.

The Red Bull Racing driver made a habit of picking up the pieces when the Silver Arrows trips up, and the Australian produced another flawless race to fend off the recovering Rosberg by just 3.3 seconds to score his second consecutive win.

Rosberg extended his championship lead after a recovery drive to second, while Mercedes team-mate Hamilton posted his third retirement of the season.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen looked set to score his first podium of the season, but ultimately lost out to the Williams of Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages of the Belgian Grand Prix.

As for the defending Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull driver won a thrilling late battle for fifth from the McLarens of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button, and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

The Mercedes drivers locked out the front row by some distance in wet qualifying, but collided on lap two, as slow-starting poleman Rosberg attempted to re-pass Hamilton for the lead on the run to Les Combes.

Rosberg had a look around the outside of his team-mate but clipped Hamilton’s left-rear tyre as he backed out of the move and tried to tuck back in.

Hamilton limped back to the pits with a puncture and floor damage from a brief excursion, and spent the rest of his race battling a lack of pace in his W05.

Lewis pleaded with his team to retire his car to save engine mileage. He eventually retired to the pits with five laps to the flag.

Rosberg was told to stay out with a damaged front wing endplate after the incident.

That made the championship leader vulnerable, but he retained the lead as the top six ran in close formation early on, before the German dived into the pits to begin the first round of stops on lap eight of 44 and took a new front wing.

That dropped him behind Raikkonen’s Ferrari, which stopped on the same lap as Rosberg and leapt up from sixth to second as the first round of pit stops played out.

The pit delay ultimately left Rosberg fourth, behind Vettel’s Red Bull, while new leader Ricciardo (who crucially passed his Red Bull team-mate when the reigning Vettel saved a wild moment on the exit of Pouhon on lap five) eased away from Raikkonen at the front.

Rosberg switched to an alternative three-stop strategy over the conventional two, and dived into the pits for an early second stop on lap 17, having failed to pass Vettel and fallen behind the Williams of Bottas.

The Mercedes driver used his second set of medium Pirelli tyres to good effect, despite concerns over a front vibration, and rose back up to second when the other frontrunners made their final stops.

Rosberg had to pit for a third time with ten laps to go, which relieved the pressure on Ricciardo and dropped the Mercedes back to fourth, behind Raikkonen and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, which slipstreamed past on the run to Les Combes.

Rosberg was quickly back through to third on his fresh set of tyres, passing Bottas at Blanchimont and then nailing Raikkonen easily on the Kemmel straight on the following lap.

The championship leader trailed Ricciardo by just under twenty seconds with eight laps to run and needed to be around 2.5 seconds per lap faster than the Australian to overhaul him, but he ultimately fell short by 3.3 seconds at the finish.

Bottas claimed his fourth podium of the season in third, while Raikkonen recorded the best result for Ferrari in fourth.

Vettel had been in podium contention, but had to come back through the pack after switching to a three-stop strategy.

He took advantage of the battling between Magnussen, Alonso and Button to claim fifth, while Magnussen just held off McLaren team-mate Button for sixth.

But after the Belgian Grand Prix, race stewards have decided the Kevin Magnussen was to aggressive in fending off Fernando Alonso and decided to penalise the McLaren driver with a twenty-second penalty.

Alonso – who incurred a five-second penalty for his Ferrari mechanics being late away from the grid – damaged his Ferrari in the late battling, which included a three-abreast moment at Les Combes, and trailed home eighth after starting fourth.

Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat rounded out the points scorers in ninth and tenth, with Kvyat just holding off Perez’s Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg by 0.3 second.

The second Williams of Felipe Massa finished a disappointing P13, behind the second Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne.

So a dramatic race at Spa-Francorchamps with the main talking point over that racing incident between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The fault lies in the championship leader as he mis-judged the move on his team-mate.

It’s going to be fascinating what Mercedes will do to prevent this incident occurring again. Team orders could come into play but the drivers are still fighting for the title.

Belgian Grand Prix race results, after 44 laps:

1. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault        1h24m36.556s
2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                +3.383s
3. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes       +28.032s
4. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                 +36.815s
5. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        +52.196s
6. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        +54.580s
7. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 +1m01.162s
8. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes    +1m04.293s
9. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault      +1m05.347s
10. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes    +1m05.697s
11. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault      +1m11.920s
12. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes        +1m14.262s*
13. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes       +1m15.975s
14. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari          +1m22.447s
15. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          +1m30.825s
16. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari        -1 lap
17. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault        -1 lap
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari        -5 laps

*Twenty-second penalty for forcing a driver off track

Retirements:

Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                 38 laps
Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault            332 lap
Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault            1 lap
Andre Lotterer        Caterham-Renault         1 lap

Drivers’ championship:

1. Nico Rosberg         220
2. Lewis Hamilton       191
3. Daniel Ricciardo     156
4. Fernando Alonso      121
5. Valtteri Bottas      110
6. Sebastian Vettel     98
7. Nico Hülkenberg      70
8. Jenson Button        68
9. Felipe Massa         40
10. Kimi Räikkönen       39
11. Kevin Magnussen      37
12. Sergio Pérez         33
13. Jean-Éric Vergne     11
14. Romain Grosjean      8
15. Daniil Kvyat         8
16. Jules Bianchi        2

Constructors’ champiuonship:

1. Mercedes               411
2. Red Bull-Renault       254
3. Ferrari                160
4. Williams-Mercedes      150
5. McLaren-Mercedes       105
6. Force India-Mercedes   103
7. Toro Rosso-Renault     19
8. Lotus-Renault          8
9. Marussia-Ferrari       2
10. Sauber-Ferrari         0
11. Caterham-Renault       0

Next race: Italian Grand Prix, Monza. September 5-7.

Championship leader Nico Rosberg achieved his fourth consecutive Formula 1 pole position in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton had to settle with second position after suffering braking problmes in Q3. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was the best of ‘division two’ in third, but was over two seconds adrift of the Silver Arrows.

Rain meant that the majority of qualifying was run using intermediate tyres and Rosberg’s first flying lap at the start of Q3, a time of two minute, 05.591 seconds, proved to be good enough for pole.

Although Rosberg did switch to a fresh set of intermediates and made a small improvement, he had already done enough to be secure the top spot. Nico ended up just over two tenths clear of his championship rival and Mercedes team-mate.

Hamilton set a slow time on his first flying lap, which was compromised by sliding wide at the La Source hairpin, leading him to ease off, but Lewis improved on his second attempt.

He then pitted for fresh intermediates and got down to a two minute, 05.819 seconds on his final Q3 lap, but this was only for second position.

Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel was third quickest, over two seconds slower than Rosberg, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in fourth.

The champion duo had held third and fourth after the first runs, but improvements later on served only to defend their positions with the Mercedes drivers out of reach.

Hungarian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo, who had an off-track moment on his final attempt, was fifth fastest ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the Williams.

Kevin Magnussen outqualified McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, the duo ending up seventh and tenth.

In between the McLarens were Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, with The Iceman losing out big time following his first run which meant he was bumped down from fifth to eighth place.

The Scuderia Toro Rosso pairing of Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne were the fastest of those eliminated in Q2.

Kvyat put in a lap that provisionally put him eighth in the closing stages of the session, but he was shuffled down the order by improvements by Magnussen, Button and Vettel, all of which were in the drop zone at times late on.

Sergio Perez was P13 ahead of Sauber driver Adrian Sutil, with Romain Grosjean P15.

Although Jules Bianchi was slowest in the middle part of qualifying, the Marussia driver was one of the stars in the wet qualifying session at Spa, reaching Q2 for the second consecutive year.

Pastor Maldonado appeared to have made it through to Q2 by improving his time on his final flying lap in a Q1 session that started off wet but improved throughout.

But the Lotus driver was bumped back down to P17 when Sutil also improved in the dying moments, with all the runners by then using intermediate rubber.

This also led to Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg being eliminated as he slipped down to P18 ahead of Marussia’s Max Chilton having been ahead of both Maldonado and Sutil as they started their final laps.

Hulkenberg admitted post-qualifying that he made a mistake at the end of his final lap, which cost him a couple of tenths. In addition, the ‘Hulk’ complained of a lack of braking feel.

Esteban Gutierrez did not have the opportunity to do a proper qualifying run as his Sauber stopped on his fifth lap while he was still on wet tyres.

This meant that the Mexican did not get to run in the best of the conditions, ending up ahead of the Caterhams.

Remarkably, Andre Lotterer outpaced his Caterham team-mate Marcus Ericsson to avoid starting his debut Grand Prix last, with the gap between the two almost one second.

Qualifying times from Spa-Francorchamps:

1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              2m05.591s
2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              2m05.819s
3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      2m07.717s
4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               2m07.786s
5. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault      2m07.911s
6. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes     2m08.049s
7. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes      2m08.679s
8. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari               2m08.780s
9. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes     2m09.178s
10. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      2m09.776s
11. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault    2m09.377s
12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault    2m09.805s
13. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes  2m10.084s
14. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari        2m10.238s
15. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         2m11.087s
16. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari      2m12.470s
17. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault         2m11.261s
18. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  2m11.267s
19. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari      2m12.566s
20. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        2m13.414s
21. Andre Lotterer        Caterham-Renault      2m13.469s
22. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault      2m14.438s

107 per cent time: 2m16.029s

Daniel Ricciardo achieved his second Formula 1 victory after making two bold overtaking moves on Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the final three laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso looked set to end a long victory drought for Ferrari, but in the end, the double world champion found the 32-lap final stint on a set of soft Pirelli tyres just too much and thus had to settle for second position.

Hamilton reduced the points gap to championship rival Nico Rosberg by taking an 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 also survived a brush with the barrier after spinning at Turn 2 on the first lap, not forgetting the latest 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 the flag, but charged back to fourth to minimise the damage inflicted by two-stopper Hamilton to his championship lead to just three points.

Pole sitter Rosberg had dominated the wet early stages, leading Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel and the fast-starting Fernando 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 a new set of intermediate tyres and left Magnussen out on his original set. This gambled didn’t work out and the McLarens were forced to pit for dry tyres in racing conditions.

A huge crash for Sergio Perez – who had earlier collided with his Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg – exiting the final corner on lap 23 brought the safety car back out, and Ricciardo and the Williams pair 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 didn’t work out 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 P16 on the grid to sixth.

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

The reigning world champion narrowly avoided hit the pit wall and in the end, brought his Red Bull home in seventh position, 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 mistake to claim the final point for tenth.

So an exciting first half of Formula 1 2014. Three different winners achieved by just two teams. The racing resumes in a month’s time at the spectacular Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Can Nico Rosberg maintain his lead for the championship or will Lewis Hamilton come back and snatch it? We will find out after the summer break.

Hungarian Grand Prix, race results after 70 laps:

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

Next race: Belgium Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps. August 22-24.

Nico Rosberg recorded his third successive pole position at the Hungaroring after his Mercedes team-mate caught fire with a suspected fuel leak.

Lewis Hamilton was the favourite for pole position after setting the quickest time in all three practice sessions, but he was eliminated just five minutes into Q1 when he stopped in the pit entry with the rear of his Mercedes ablaze.

It was a terrible sight for the 2008 world champion as he faces another fight from the back of the grid. Unlike Hockenheim, this twisty and dusty circuit is going to more challenging for Hamilton to charge through…

Even without the presence of his main title rival, Rosberg faced a tricky moment in Q3 when rain started to fall.

The championship leader was the first on to the track on slick tyres with conditions worsening, but with the first corner particularly wet he slid off into the runoff area on his first flier, ruining his lap.

But Kevin Magnussen, who was directly behind, also outbraked himself, hitting the tyre barrier on the outside of the corner and bringing out the red flag.

When qualifying resumed after an eight-minute delay, the rain had eased and while the track was slippery, everyone opted to continue on slicks.

With the track drying up, Rosberg set the initial pace until the Williams of Valtteri Bottas went even quicker to grab provisional pole.

But unlike Rosberg, who stayed out and used only one set of softs in Q3, Sebastian Vettel pitted for a new set of Pirellis and took top spot from the Mercedes driver on his final lap.

Moments later Rosberg improved, taking that all-important pole position by almost half-a-second with a time of one minute, 22.715 seconds.

Vettel held onto second position ahead of Bottas, the latter also opting to pit for new tyres, with Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were fifth and sixth, both also having two runs in the restarted Q3 segment, with Jenson Button eighth ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne.

Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg was the slowest of those to set a time in Q3 in ninth, with Kevin Magnussen classified tenth having not set a time before his Turn 1 crash.

Daniil Kvyat was in contention for a top ten slot, but he locked the rears at Turn 12 on his final lap in Q2 and spun, ending up P11.

Sauber’s Adrian Sutil was P12 ahead of Sergio Perez, who suffered a hydraulic leak during Q2 and could only attempt one run.

Esteban Gutierrez took P14 ahead of Romain Grosjean, with Jules Bianchi ending up P16 following his excellent performance to make the second stage of qualifying.

Kimi Raikkonen made a shock exit from Q1, ending the session P17 fastest. Not an ideal result for Ferrari or the 2007 world champion.

With Hamilton and Pastor Maldonado, whose Lotus had stopped early in Q1, not running, most teams opted not to send their cars out for a second run on the basis that they only needed to finish ahead of the Caterhams and the Marussias to make the next phase.

But Raikkonen was the slowest of those who did not attempt a run on soft rubber and when Bianchi put in his final lap, the Finn was relegated to the dropzone while sat in the garage.

Caterham driver Kamui Kobayashi was P18 ahead of Max Chilton, who suffered a fuel pressure problem on his final run, with Marcus Ericsson slowest of those who set a lap.

Hamilton will start from P21 on the grid and ahead of Maldonado thanks to starting a flying lap. But overtaking around the Hungaroring is going to be a challenge.

Qualifying positions, Hungarian Grand Prix:

1.  Nico Rosberg       Mercedes              1m22.715s
2.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull-Renault      1m23.201s
3.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes     1m23.354s
4.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m23.391s
5.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari               1m23.909s
6.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m24.223s
7.  Jenson Button      McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.294s
8.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Toro Rosso-Renault    1m24.720s
9.  Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes  1m24.775s
10.  Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes     No time
11.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m24.706s
12.  Adrian Sutil       Sauber-Ferrari        1m25.136s
13.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m25.211s
14.  Esteban Gutierrez  Sauber-Ferrari        1m25.260s
15.  Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault         1m25.337s
16.  Jules Bianchi      Marussia-Ferrari      1m27.419s
17.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m26.792s
18.  Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault      1m27.139s
19.  Max Chilton        Marussia-Ferrari      1m27.819s
20.  Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault      1m28.643s
21.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              No time
22.  Pastor Maldonado   Lotus-Renault         No time

107 per cent time: 1m30.886s

Nico Rosberg drove a perfect lights to flag win at the German Grand Prix in the Silver Arrows.

The championship leader extends his points lead with a home victory at Hockenheim, scoring his fourth win of the season in a thrilling race full of action and overtaking.

Valtteri Bottas continued to impressed with a second place finish, achieving the Williams team’s 300th podium.

Bottas was able to resist the pressure from Lewis Hamilton, who was charging from P20 following a qualifying crash.

Hamilton’s journey to the podium was risky, 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 damaged his front wing after a late dive up the inside on Jenson Button’s McLaren.

This compromised his second stint on Pirelli’s soft tyre and the Mercedes had to switch Hamilton’s strategy onto a three-stop.

The Mercedes driver 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 position 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.

The same cannot be said to team-mate Felipe Massa, who 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 defending world champion Sebastian Vettel to third and the Red Bull racer converted that into a fourth placed finish after another duel 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 real challenge.

The Australian defended hard, but Alonso – running on the faster super-soft tyre – eventually found his way by just 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 position 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 scored the final championship point for tenth place, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who twice survived contact while being passed into the Turn 4 hairpin – once with Hamilton and also with Vettel.

So an action-packed German Grand Prix with a win for a German driver and team.

It has been an incredible week for Nico Rosberg. Got married, watched Germany win the World Cup, signs a new Formula 1 contract, pole position and now race victory. Let see if he achieve that championship title as the season moves into the second half.

German Grand Prix, race results after 67 laps:

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

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

Drivers’ championship

1. Nico Rosberg        190
2. Lewis Hamilton      176
3. Daniel Ricciardo    106
4. Fernando Alonso     97
5. Valtteri Bottas     91
6. Sebastian Vettel    82
7. Nico Hülkenberg     69
8. Jenson Button       59
9. Kevin Magnussen     37
10. Felipe Massa        30
11. Sergio Pérez        29
12. Kimi Räikkönen      19
13. Jean-Éric Vergne    9
14. Romain Grosjean     8
15. Daniil Kvyat        6
16. Jules Bianchi       2

Constructors’ championship

1. Mercedes              366
2. Red Bull-Renault      188
3. Williams-Mercedes     121
4. Ferrari               116
5. Force India-Mercedes  98
6. McLaren-Mercedes      96
7. Toro Rosso-Renault    15
8. Lotus-Renault         8
9. Marussia-Ferrari      2
10. Sauber-Ferrari        0
11. Caterham-Renault      0

Next race: Hungarian Grand Prix, Hungaroring. July 25-27.

Championship leader Nico Rosberg claimed his ninth career pole position at Hockenheim while his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton suffered a right-front brake failure, resulting in an early exit in qualifying.

With Hamilton out, Rosberg’s main threat for pole position honours came from Valtteri Bottas in the Williams.

After setting the pace on the first runs in Q3, Rosberg was unable to improve his time on his second run thanks to a slow first sector.

Despite Bottas going quickest in the middle sector, the Williams driver ended up 0.219 seconds slower.

As for Hamilton, the crash happened during Q1 when he locked up and went off at the Sachskurve after suffering what Mercedes confirmed was a right-front brake disc failure, forcing the session to be red-flagged.

The British Grand Prix winner was transferred to the medical centre complaining of pain in his knees, with the team subsequently reporting that he was “Okay, but sore after the crash”.

Although he had already set a lap time to make into Q2, Hamilton was unable to take any further part in the session so was classified P16.

Felipe Massa was third quickest for Williams, three tenths slower than team-mate Bottas, with Kevin Magnussen a superb fourth for McLaren.

Daniel Ricciardo again outqualified Sebastian Vettel, putting in a strong lap on his one remaining set of super-soft Pirellis in Q3 to beat his four-time world champion by three tenths.

Fernando Alonso was seventh, ahead of another star rookie, Daniil Kvyat, with Force India pairing Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez ninth and tenth.

Jenson Button failed to make Q3 after being relegated to P11 by Perez in the final seconds of Q2.

The 2009 world champion will join his fellow title winner Kimi Raikkonen, who was four tenths off Ferrari team-mate Alonso.

Jean-Eric Vergne was P13 after a late effort in Q2, which included a wild oversteer moment at the exit of the final corner, ahead of Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

But Gutierrez must serve a three-place grid penalty for his clash with Pastor Maldonado at Silverstone, meaning he will start in P18, meaning Hamilton’s P16 will put him one position higher on the German Grand Prix grid.

Adrian Sutil was the fastest of the six who failed to reach Q2 after being bumped down to P17 by Grosjean late in the first segment of qualifying, with his run on super-soft Pirelli interrupted by the red flag thrown for Hamilton’s accident.

Jules Bianchi was the faster of the Marussias, around half-a-second slower than the Sauber, with Pastor Maldonado P19 for Lotus.

Kamui Kobayashi pipped Max Chilton to P20, but his Caterham team-mate Marcus Ericsson was unable to take part at all thanks to a hydraulic leak.

So a great week for Nico Rosberg. Got married, witness Germany winning the World Cup, signing a new Formula 1 contract with Mercedes and now pole position at Hockenheim.

As for Lewis Hamilton, he will be charging through the field on race day to make up lost ground on his team-mate and title rival.

Qualifying positions, Hockenheim:

1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m16.540s
2. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes    1m16.759s
3. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes    1m17.078s
4. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes     1m17.214s
5. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault     1m17.273s
6. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m17.577s
7. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m17.649s
8. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault   1m17.965s
9. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m18.014s
10. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes 1m18.035s
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m18.193s
12. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari              1m18.273s
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault   1m18.285s
14. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m18.983s
15. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             no time
16. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari       1m19.142s
17. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       1m18.787s*
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari     1m19.676s
19. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault        1m20.195s
20. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault     1m20.408s
21. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari     1m20.489s
22. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault     no time**

107% time: 1m23.065s

*Three-place penalty for causing a collision
**Did not set a time within 107% of the fastest in Q1, requires a dispensation to start the race