Sunday, 2 November 2014

Hamilton leads home Rosberg to take a 24 point advantage in the championship following victory in Austin

(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)

Lewis Hamilton lead home Mercedes team mate and title rival Nico Rosberg for another 1-2 finish and has extended his championship lead to 24 points with just two Grand Prix to go in 2014 following an extremely exciting United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas.

Speaking following the race, Sheriff Lewis Hamilton commented:

'What an incredible place this is to go racing. We have such great support here and I have to say a massive thanks to the fans who have been awesome all weekend. I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to be out front here. It’s a very special feeling to have such an amazing car, an amazing team and to be on this incredible run. It’s been an unbelievable job from the team all year so a big thanks to everyone here at the track and at the factories back home. We managed to correct the problems from qualifying today which was great and I pushed as hard as I could. 

For the overtake, I just stayed as close as possible to Nico and waited for the moment to be just close enough to throw it up the inside. This is a good circuit to be able to follow another car but it’s still not easy. 

You have to judge the risk‎ in these situations but I felt confident I could pull it off. Once I got past Nico, it was just about controlling the race. I’m very, very proud to now hold the record for the most Formula One wins for a British driver. I have to say, though, it’s all thanks to the team and the car we have this year that I’ve been able to reach that landmark so quickly. Ten wins in a season is just… well, wow!'

Nico Rosberg commented on the race saying:

'It was a tough day for me and it feels horrible to finish second after starting from pole. The conditions were very different compared to yesterday and it took me too long to find my rhythm at the beginning. In Formula One it is all about adapting quickly, but it just took me too long. Only 10 laps after Lewis passed me, I got it right and was able to push much more. 

Lewis just did a better job today, so congratulations to him. It’s getting tougher but there is still a chance for the title and everything can happen. I’m still going to be pushing flat out just as I always have. I never give up.'

Mercedes scored their tenth 1-2 finish of the season. Mercedes Executive Director (Business) Toto Wolf stated:

'Today, we ensured that only a Mercedes-Benz driver can win the 2014 Drivers’ title, and that is an incredible achievement for the whole team – regardless of whether Lewis or Nico comes out on top in Abu Dhabi. It was a very strong race from both of them: each had the pace to win and the decisive laps came at the start of the second stint, when Nico was suffering of too much understeer on the prime tyre and Lewis was able to catch and then overtake him on lap 24. 

After that, both cars were very evenly matched and it was fantastic to see the tenth one-two finish for the team; that is record-equalling and shows the amazing job everybody in this team has done this year. Now we need to get our heads down and work to ensure two clean races on the sporting and reliability front in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.'

Mercedes Executive Director (Technical) Paddy Lowe commented on the result saying:

'The decisive moments in this afternoon’s race came in the laps after the first pit stop, when Nico was suffering from understeer on the prime tyre and there was a pace difference between the two cars. This allowed Lewis to close the gap on Nico, take advantage of the DRS and make a clean overtake into Turn 12. 

Both drivers had to manage the challenge of making the tyres last long enough in each stint and they did a great job with this, running at a strong pace all the way to the flag. There were some alarming moments in the final laps as we saw our pair closing on a gaggle of cars absorbed in their own battle. 

But they were able to negotiate these backmarkers safely to bring home our tenth one-two finish of the season – which is a real tribute to what this team has achieved in 2014. As we have seen throughout the season, tiny margins are making the difference between first and second place finishes, and it’s fantastic to see such Nico and Lewis battling neck and neck in such a sporting way. 

We reached a number of milestones today but, on a personal level, the most significant is to see Lewis break the all-time record for race wins by a British driver. I worked closely with Nigel Mansell, the previous record holder, during his most successful years in the early 1990s, and he was another great, lionhearted racing driver; to see Lewis set a new record this afternoon is very special.'


Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo is now out of the championship running despite taking his eighth podium finish of the season with a third place finish for the Milton Keynes based outfit. Speaking following the race the Australian said:

'I’m happy with that. I could see the Mercedes for the first part of the race which was really cool, I don’t know if they were just chilling, but we seemed to have good pace. It was great to get ahead of the Williams and to get onto the podium. 

The start wasn’t very good, I have to put my hand up to that one, but the recovery was good so we didn’t really lose out. The pit stops were really good, Red Bull is known for being awesome in the pits and they showed it today.'

It was a fantastic race for the Williams Martini Racing Racing Martini Racing team as Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished the race in 4th and 5th place respectively to extend their lead in the Constructors championship over Ferrari to 42 points to consolidate their position in third place with two race's to go this season.

Speaking following the race, Felipe Masa who heads to his home race Brazil on Sunday stated:

'I had a very good start to get up to third place and we showed strong pace throughout the race, but unfortunately a slower than normal pitstop allowed Ricciardo to jump me and this could have cost us a podium which was possible. 

These things happen though and the team have been operating at a very high level with pitstops this season so we need to quickly move on from this one. 

On the whole we need to see this as a positive weekend as we have scored more points than our rivals in the Constructors’ Championship and we have good momentum for the final two races of the season.'

Valtteri Bottas commented following the race saying:

'Overall we have managed to secure some good points and increased our lead over Ferrari for third in the Constructors’ Championship, but there are a number of things we can learn from today. I had a bit of clutch slip at the beginning which allowed Ricciardo to jump me in the first corner. 

The Red Bull’s also had better tyre management and could run at a better pace for longer, so that made it difficult to catch Ricciardo after he jumped me at the pitstops. At this point in the season we’re trying to maximise our points haul and this has been a solid result that puts us in a good position headed into Brazil.'

Williams Martini Racing Team's Head of Performance Engineering Rob Smedley commented on the race saying:

'We are slightly disappointed to have lost places to where we started, but at the end of the day Ricciardo was quicker than us and drove a very good race. We need to analyse our strategy as our pitstop choice allowed Red Bull to jump us for the podium, so we will go away and assess what we could have done differently and rectify that for next time. 

We are focused on consolidating third place in the Constructors’ Championship and we need to be satisfied with the fact that we have extended our position over Ferrari so well done to all of the team for another strong performance. '

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished the race in 6th place following a great battle with McLaren Mercedes Jenson Button. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel finished the race in seventh place for the Infiniti Red Bull Racing after starting the race from the pit-lane. Commenting following the race the German said:

'The first half of the race wasn’t so good. The second half it came more alive and we were able to make up some ground with a pit-stop near the end of the race. We decided to go for fresh tyres with only a few laps to go, so we were in a stronger position at that point compared to others who were struggling on older tyres and the pace was better. The low downforce set up was good for passing, but it made it difficult to stay close to people.'

Infiniti Red Bull Racing Team principal Christian Horner commented saying:

'After a poor start, it was a fantastic recovery from Daniel. Some of his overtaking manoeuvres, along with the today’s pit work, got us back ahead of Fernando and the two Williams to take a place on the podium, so an incredible drive by Daniel. 

For Sebastian, after starting from the pit lane, he had a difficult first stint struggling with the wind; his race really started to come alive on his second set of tyres. Then, with a final stop going onto the soft tyres for the last eight laps, he drove incredibly well to finish seventh place from the pit lane – so a good team performance today.'

Kevin Magnussen did a good job to finish in 8th place for McLaren while Jean Eric Vergne finished the race in ninth place for Toro Rosso.

It was an impressive race for the Lotus F1 Team's Pastor Maldonado because despite being handed a five second time penalty to his result the Venezuelan collected his first championship point for the Enstone team finishing the race in 10th place just ahead of Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean who was struggling with his car.

McLaren's Jenson Button was left frustrated as the 2008 world champion finished the race in 12th place where he started from. 

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen had a nightmare race, having made a good start to the event he was hit hard from behind by Sahara Force India's Sergio Perez. Raikkonen struggled from then on and ended the race in 13th place one lap down on Lewis Hamilton. 

The Sauber F1 Team's Esteban Gutierrez finished the race in 14th place while Daniil Kvyat was the last of the runners in 15th place.

It was an extremely disappointing race for the Sahara Force India F1 Team duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg who both retired from the race. Perez brought out the safety car early in the race after colliding with the Sauber F1 Team's Adrian Sutil who was left disappointed as the German was forced to retire from the race following the collision after his best qualifying performance of the season while Hulkenberg retired with a suspected power unit failure.

Speaking following the race the German commented saying:

'Unfortunately an early end to my race. I lost drive and had no more power so the team told me over the radio to stop the car. 

Even before that it had not been an easy race with a very difficult first lap. I was right behind Sergio and Adrian when they crashed, and Sergio’s front wing just happened to fall right in front of my car. I ran over it, which caused damage to my car and the tyres. 

I dived into the pits and lost quite a lot of track position. After that I was running behind the McLarens on a similar strategy with the plan to run the softs at the end of the race. It’s always disappointing to end a race with retirement but fortunately we have the next race in seven days so I will soon be back in the car. Sao Paulo is one of my favourite races and hopefully we can have a better weekend there.'

Sergio Perez stated:

'What happened today is really unfortunate. I made a move on Adrian [Sutil] at turn 15 when he left the door open, so I went up the inside. Then Adrian started to close the door and I had to try and brake later than him. 

By doing so I was unable to avoid contact with Kimi [Raikkonen], which caused me to make contact with Adrian also. I just didn’t expect Kimi to be in that position. It’s a big shame because I had a great chance to keep up my run of points finishes and I was determined to do well in such an important race. 

I feel very sorry for all my fans who came to support me this weekend and I’m disappointed I could not give them a race to remember.'

Sahara Force India F1 Team principal and managing director Dr Vijay Mallya stated:

'It was obviously a very disappointing day for Sahara Force India. We have had a pretty good level of reliability and consistency so far in the season, so when a day like this happens and two cars fail to finish the race it comes as a bit of a surprise. 

Checo's race was very short and it was a real shame as he was already up inside the points before his retirement. He had the pace to bring home a good result and perhaps it was just a case of being too eager to make up the positions. Nico had to pit as he couldn’t avoid the debris from the crash, but we are confident he would have been battling for the points. 

Unfortunately, he was sidelined by an engine failure that will be investigated once the power unit is back in the UK. Today's result complicates our battle for fifth in the Championship, but we will keep fighting until the very end. There are still two races, one with double points, and today has shown a bad weekend can happen to anyone.'

We don't have long to wait for our next fix of Formula One as the Brazilian Grand Prix takes place at the Interlagos circuit next Sunday.

Drivers Championship Standings

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team 316 Points

2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team 292

3 Daniel Ricciardo Infiniti Red Bull Racing 214

4 Valtteri Bottas Williams Martini Racing 155

5 Sebastian Vettel Infiniti Red Bull Racing 149

6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari  149

7 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 94

8 Felipe Massa Williams Martini Racing 83

9 Nico Hulkenberg Sahara Force India F1 Team 76

10 Kevin Magnussen McLaren Mercedes 53

11 Sergio Perez Sahara Force India F1 Team 47

12 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 47

13 Jean Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 22

14 Roman Grosjea Lotus F1 Team 8

15 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 8

16 Jules Bianchi Marussia F1 Team 2

= Pastor Maldonado Lotus F1 Team 2

Constructors Championship Standings

1 Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team 608 2014 CONSTRUCTORS CHAMPIONS

2 Infiniti Red Bull Racing 363

3 Williams Martini Racing Team 238

4 Ferrari 196

5 McLaren Mercedes 147

6 Sahara Force India Formula One Team 123

7 Scuderia Toro Rosso 31

8 Lotus F1 Team 10

9 Marussia F1 Team 2

© Ben Johnston 2014

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