Category: Motor Racing

Championship contender Nico Rosberg beat his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position at the Suzuka International Circuit.

Rosberg had set the pace in Q2 and on the first runs in the top ten shootout. The Silver Arrows driver then secured his place in top spot by shaving just over a tenth off his time on his second run.

After Rosberg crossed the line for the final time, Hamilton completed his lap but a lock-up at the hairpin cost him and he ended up two tenths slower.

This mean that both of Rosberg’s flying laps in Q3 were good enough for what could prove to be an important pole position in the world championship battle.

The Williams pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa lock out the second row, with Fernando Alonso taking his usual slot of fifth for Ferrari.

As for Red Bull, this was a difficult session. Daniel Ricciardo ended up sixth despite on the edge of elimination in Q1, while Sebastian Vettel was only ninth. Both drivers carrying wet set-ups in anticipation of a rain-hit Japanese Grand Prix.

Kevin Magnussen won the intra-McLaren duel by beating Jenson Button to seventh position, with Kimi Raikkonen rounding up the top ten.

Jean-Eric Vergne was the fastest of those to be eliminated in Q2 in P11, falling two tenths short of relegating Vettel with his final lap.

Despite this, Vergne is still ahead of Force India driver Sergio Perez, who complained of a power problem during Q2. Vergne’s Toro Rosso team-mate Daniil Kvyat will start in P13 after failing to improve on his second run.

Because of breaking into his sixth power unit, Vergne is set to be hit with a ten-place grid penalty for the race.

Nico Hulkenberg will start in P14 and edged out both Saubers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez.

Pastor Maldonado was bumped out of Q2 contention in the final seconds of the first part of qualifying by Sutil.

The Lotus driver, will drop back ever further on the grid thanks to using his sixth V6 engine of the season. He was less than a tenth second off his team-mate Romain Grosjean.

Because Maldonado is only able to serve five of his ten-place grid drop, the remaining positions will be rolled over to next weekend’s Russian Grand Prix.

Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson’s strong weekend continued, as he ended qualifying P19 ahead of Marussia’s Jules Bianchi.

As for home hero Kamui Kobayashi, whose Friday afternoon session was ruined by a crash, the Japanese ended up in P21 ahead of Max Chilton.

So another Silver Arrows one-two with Nico Rosberg achieving his twelfth career pole position. He now equals his pole position record with Gerhard Berger and David Coulthard.

Qualifying positions, Japanese Grand Prix:

1 Nico Rosberg    Mercedes    1m32.506s
2 Lewis Hamilton    Mercedes    1m32.703s
3 Valtteri Bottas    Williams-Mercedes    1m33.128s
4 Felipe Massa    Williams-Mercedes    1m33.527s
5 Fernando Alonso    Ferrari    1m33.740s
6 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull-Renault    1m34.075s
7 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren-Mercedes    1m34.242s
8 Jenson Button    McLaren-Mercedes    1m34.317s
9 Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull/-Renault    1m34.432s
10 Kimi Raikkonen    Ferrari    1m34.542s    2.036s
11 Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m34.984s
12 Sergio Perez    Force India-Mercedes    1m35.089s
13 Daniil Kvyat    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m35.092s
14 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes    1m35.099s
15 Adrian Sutil    Sauber-Ferrari    1m35.364s
16 Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari    1m35.681s
17 Romain Grosjean    Lotus-Renault    1m35.984s
18 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham-Renault    1m36.813s
19 Jules Bianchi    Marussia-Ferrari    1m36.943s
20 Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham-Renault    1m37.015s
21 Max Chilton    Marussia-Ferrari    1m37.481s
22 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus/Renault    1m35.917s

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will leave Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 Formula 1 season and his seat will be taken by Daniil Kvyat.

This big news announcement has certainly shake up the form order for next season. After so many years of success with the Milton Keynes-based team, scoring the outfit’s first win at China 2009 and winning the championship four times during 2010 to 2013, Sebastian Vettel is heading off.

Rumours are saying that Vettel will go to Ferrari to take Fernando Alonso’s place at the team. And yet, the first official move in the driver market has been taken by the reigning world champion.

“Sebastian Vettel has advised us that he will be leaving Infiniti Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season,” said Red Bull in a statement.

“We’re pleased to announce that Daniel [Ricciardo] will be joined in the team for 2015 by another rising star from the Junior Programme, Daniil Kvyat.”

Red Bull guided Vettel’s progress towards Formula 1 which led to him joining the main team in 2009 from Toro Rosso. He won his first of four consecutive drivers’ championship titles with the outfit in 2010.

The decision marks a surprise promotion for Kvyat, who made his debut for Scuderia Toro Rosso at the beginning of the season.

Initially, Kvyat would remain with Toro Rosso for a second season, alongside newcomer Max Verstappen, but his impending switch to the main Red Bull team leaves a vacancy in their line-up.

So a big shock at Suzuka in the lead up to the big event. Which team will Sebastian drive for? Ferrari seems the most likely destination with Kimi Raikkonen as his new team-mate.

As for Fernando Alonso, the question is what’s next for the double world champion? Taking a sabbatical from the sport or a move to McLaren, which will use the Honda power unit next season. Interesting times in the world of Formula 1.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his 29th career victory in Formula 1 and has now taken the lead of the world championship, as his Mercedes team-mate and rival Nico Rosberg retired with technical issues.

Rosberg led Hamilton by 22 points coming into the Singapore Grand Prix, but now trails his rival by three after a disastrous race.

Having narrowly missed out on pole position to Hamilton by a tiny margin of 0.007 seconds in qualifying, the expectation was for another close contest between the Silver Arrows duo.

But Rosberg’s problems began before the start, when his team discovered a glitch on the W05 and was forced to swap its steering wheel.

Rosberg then had to start the race from the pitlane when he found he could not pull away from the grid for the formation lap.

As the five red lights went out, Hamilton sprinted into the immediate lead chased by the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.

Into Turn 1, Fernando Alonso outbraked himself and was forced to hand the position back to Vettel. As for Rosberg, his technical troubles continued.

Rosberg made little progress during the first stint, failing even to pass Marcus Ericsson’s Caterham as he battled problems that were affecting his DRS, energy recovery systems and his gearbox.

He eventually retired at on lap 13 during the first pitstop, after yet another steering wheel change. But the car refused to re-engage first gear.

With his main championship rival removed from the race, Hamilton looked set for a comfortable win, but his superiority came under threat when the Safety Car made an appearance following the collapse of the front wing on Sergio Perez’s Force India at half distance.

Mercedes decided not to pit Hamilton (yet to run the soft compound Pirelli) under the Safety Car, requiring him to stop again under racing conditions.

So the 2008 world champion began pushing with fastest laps following the race restart, in order to open a big enough gap to the chasing pack to get in and out of the pits with his lead intact.

However, the chasing Red Bulls of Vettel and Ricciardo were attempting to make their first set of soft tyres last to the end of the Singapore Grand Prix, easing the pressure on the leader.

Hamilton stretched out more than 25 seconds over Vettel before making his final pitstop with nine of the scheduled laps to run, but this wasn’t enough to keep him ahead.

Hamilton just fended off Ricciardo into Turn 3 as Vettel claimed the lead, but with fresher set of tyres Hamilton easily retook the position and drove on to win by a comfortable 13.5 seconds margin as the race ran past the two-hour limit with a lap of the scheduled 61 to run.

Having jumped Vettel at the first round of pitstops, Alonso conceded track position to both Red Bulls by pitting under the Safety Car.

The 2005/06 world champion sat behind Ricciardo waiting for his rivals’ tyres to fall apart, but the Red Bulls held on to score their first double podium finish of the season, with Vettel bagging his best result of a difficult year in second position.

Felipe Massa’s Williams re-passed the fast-starting Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen for fifth at the first round of pitstops and raced on to a lonely finish.

While Jean-Eric Vergne (twice penalised five seconds for exceeding track limits) scored a season’s best sixth after gambling on a third pitstop after the Safety Car and using his fresher soft tyres to pass a train of cars in the closing stages with some bold late-braking moves.

Perez recovered from his wing failure following contact with Adrian Sutil’s Sauber, to execute a similar strategy to Vergne and finish seventh as the tyres on the cars around him gave up towards the end.

Raikkonen paid dearly for his earlier loss of track position, and trailed home eighth despite pitting for fresh tyres under the Safety Car.

Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top ten, as the tyres on Valtteri Bottas’ Williams – which ran as high as sixth at one point – gave up on him. Eventually finished in a pointless P11.

McLaren’s Jenson Button also looked on course to score points, after a fine start and good strategy carried him from P11 on the grid to seventh, but the 2009 world champion’s car broke down seven laps from the finish.

So a fantastic result for Lewis Hamilton. Leading the championship by three points with five races left in a exciting season. It still all to play for Nico Rosberg especially the double points in the season finale, but the winning form is with Hamilton.

Singapore Grand Prix, race result after 60 laps:

1 Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team    2h00m04.795s
2 Sebastian Vettel    Infiniti Red Bull Racing    2h00m18.329s
3 Daniel Ricciardo    Infiniti Red Bull Racing    2h00m19.068s
4 Fernando Alonso    Scuderia Ferrari    2h00m20.184s
5 Felipe Massa    Williams Martini Racing    2h00m46.956s
6 Jean-Eric Vergne    Scuderia Toro Rosso    2h01m01.596s
7 Sergio Perez    Sahara Force India F1 Team    2h01m03.833s
8 Kimi Raikkonen    Scuderia Ferrari    2h01m05.436s
9 Nico Hulkenberg    Sahara Force India F1 Team    2h01m06.456s
10 Kevin Magnussen    McLaren Mercedes    2h01m07.025s
11 Valtteri Bottas    Williams Martini Racing    2h01m09.860s
12 Pastor Maldonado    Lotus F1 Team    2h01m11.710s
13 Romain Grosjean    Lotus F1 Team    2h01m12.824s
14 Daniil Kvyat    Scuderia Toro Rosso    2h01m16.803s
15 Marcus Ericsson    Caterham F1 Team    2h01m38.983s
16 Jules Bianchi    Marussia F1 Team    2h01m39.338s
17 Max Chilton    Marussia F1 Team    –

Retirements/non-finish:

Jenson Button    McLaren Mercedes    –
Adrian Sutil    Sauber F1 Team    –
Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber F1 Team    –
Nico Rosberg    Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team    –
Kamui Kobayashi    Caterham F1 Team    –

Drivers’ championship

1 Lewis Hamilton    241
2 Nico Rosberg    238
3 Daniel Ricciardo    181
4 Fernando Alonso    133
5 Sebastian Vettel    124
6 Valtteri Bottas    122
7 Jenson Button    72
8 Nico Hulkenberg    72
9 Felipe Massa    65
10 Sergio Perez    45
11 Kimi Raikkonen    45
12 Kevin Magnussen    39
13 Jean-Eric Vergne    19
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    479
2 Red Bull/Renault    305
3 Williams/Mercedes    187
4 Ferrari    178
5 Force India/Mercedes    117
6 McLaren/Mercedes    111
7 Toro Rosso/Renault    27
8 Lotus/Renault    8
9 Marussia/Ferrari    2
10 Sauber/Ferrari    0
11 Caterham/Renault    0

Next race: Japanese Grand Prix, Suzuka. October 4-6.

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.