Rosberg praises Räikkönen's raise

Nico Rosberg will start from strong positions in Melbourne this week when the F1-serie starts.

– I have waited a long time for this. I had a perfect winter break, rested well and trained even better. Then it was the very successful test period with our new W03-car. We are ready for the first GP.

– The atmosphere in Melbourne is completely fantastic. It's a great place and the fans are fantastic. It's interesting to see where we are in qualification after all the hard work and speculations.

Rosberg also noted Kimi Räikkönen's strong comeback to F1 with pleasure.

– It's a totally brilliant thing for F1. Kimi is one of the best drivers from the 10 last years and certainly one of the best who have ever driven a F1-car. It's great to get him back to the races. It lifts up the sport's class, Rosberg smiled to Turun Sanomat.

Then what is best in the new Mercedes, which is expected to be one more possible winner based upon winter tests?

– That everything works like planned. The car is well built and it works on the track just as expected - unlike what happened during the last two years, Rosberg praises.

Turun Sanomat

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole

Hamilton makes Monaco a home race

Lewis Hamilton has made his move before the start of the Formula One season and can now call Monaco a home race as well as his favourite grand prix

McLaren's 2008 world champion has left Switzerland, his home for the past few years, for a new base in the Mediterranean principality where he will have several F1 drivers as neighbours.

"I just fancied a change," the 27-year-old told reporters, adding that he had moved in "a week or so ago".

"It was a bit boring where I was living before, not many people around, so it was good to move," added the Briton, who had lived most recently in Zurich after a spell in Geneva.

"Where I've moved to there are quite a lot of people that I know there, quite a lot of the drivers are there. So there's a bit more of a social life, there's better weather, it's by the sea, overall just a bit better.

"It's kind of cool that you get to be at home whilst a grand prix is going on. I think it will be pretty neat," said the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix winner and 2007 runner-up.

"I can meet up with quite a few of the drivers if I want to do training, and my trainer is also just up the road. I've settled down quite well there.

"I still have loads of boxes to unpack, but I'm sure I can get someone to do that for me."

HOT LAPS

Hamilton limbered up for the season, which starts in Melbourne next week, by driving reporters around a track in southern England in McLaren's fearsome MP4-12C GT3 race-spec sportscar.

He looked sharp, hungry to be back behind the wheel and determined to focus on the future.

The championship opens with four long-haul races but the Briton, who had a nightmare season last year while trying to keep alive a transatlantic relationship with American singer Nicole Scherzinger, intends to be more settled in 2012.

He said he now planned to spend much more of his time at home when in Europe.

Hamilton won three races last year but ended up beaten overall by team mate Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, in a championship dominated by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

Testing times can be misleading but the title battle already looks like being much tighter with McLaren, who were playing catch-up this time last year, looking quick and tipped to take the battle to Red Bull right from the start.

Hamilton was clearly pleased with how the winter tests in Spain had gone.

"I kept a nice amount of fuel in the car for all of my tests. I wasn't really bothered with positioning. What matters is when we get to the first race," he smiled.

"It looks like it could be a bit different to the past couple of years where we've had the Red Bull just much quicker than everyone else.

"The Lotus looks like it can be really quick, a couple of the teams have different exhaust solutions. Us, Ferrari and Red Bull generally have a similar exhaust solution. The others, like the Lotus have a different solution, so do Mercedes and they still seem to be quick," he added.

"So it will be a battle as to which of those designs has the longest road of development, and how far ours can go."

Source: Reuaters Sports

Webber bemoans shocking start

Mark Webber admits his pedestrian start put him on the back foot during the early stages of the Belgian Grand Prix

The Australian produced another battling display at Spa on Sunday to finish second behind team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

He started third on the grid, but was down in eighth place by the end of lap three and made a pit stop on lap four for a new set of tyres. He fought back and eventually caught up with the front-runners.

The Red Bull veteran says his start wasn't up to standard.

"My start was shocking - I dropped lever and the car stalled, so that was disappointing," he said.

"It put me on the back foot knowing we would stop early to get rid of the set of tyres. The team handled things really well. It was not an easy grand prix for the crew on the pit wall. But it was a good result and I enjoyed the race."

Webber had a couple of close shaves when he was battling Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

"Most of the race was charged with frustration from the start," he said. "We were obviously very, very close through Eau Rouge, I used some KERS, got a tow and thought I might have a chance.

"We didn't give much easy, it was a good battle. It was rewarding that it worked okay, but it takes two guys to get it right. You can do it with Fernando - he is a world class guy and knows when enough is enough."

The 35-year-old added that the result was one of the best for Red Bull following some pre-race concerns. Several teams wanted to use fresh rubbers during the first stint due to blistering problems in qualifying, but the request was denied.

Red Bull were forced to pit both Webber and Vettel very early due to the problems, but still managed to claim a 1-2.

"The team result today was probably one of our best results ever as a team," he said. "It was stressful last night, and a stressful morning, handled very well - putting drivers right in the discussions to understand how we can get through the grand prix as safely as possible, us giving them feedback on how tyres looked."

Source: Planet-F1

Lewis Hamilton: Start will be crucial

With overtaking opportunities at the Hungaroring limited, Lewis Hamilton knows a good start will be vital to his chances of claiming a race win

Hamilton is on a high having won last time out in Germany, and having qualified second in Hungary is in with a shout of claiming back-to-back wins for the first time in 13 months.

However, the Briton is well aware of the importance of being in front at the first corner.

"It's going to be important to start like a rocket man because you can't overtake here, apart from in the pit stops, so it's vital to have an even better start if I'm to win," said Hamilton.

"But I'm not thinking I should have been on pole, although it was a possibility because we've been quick this weekend.

"I knew it was going to be very close, and if I'm honest I knew it was going to be difficult to be ahead of Sebastian.

"But I'm positive ahead of tomorrow. Jenson (Button) qualified third, and he is in a nice sweet spot ready for tomorrow for the start down to turn one.

"I'm just massively happy we're in the fight because not so long ago we were behind the Red Bulls and Ferraris, and now we're splitting them.

"We have both been saying how nice it is to drive the car, and we hope it will continue to be like this for the rest of the season."

Button too heads into Sunday's race feeling positive having secured his best grid position since May.

"Qualifying has been my issue of late, which has made it difficult for the race, so it's nice to be positioned well," said Button.

"When you are that close to the front you have to go for the win," he added.

Source: Planet-F1

Video: BBC F1 2011 - 7 Canadian GP - Ferrari's Fernando Alonso 'surprised' with front row start

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso says it is 'a nice surprise' to be starting on the front row of the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix



Source: YouTube

Video: Start to blame for fourth in Turkey - Lewis Hamilton

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton says too much front wing at the start of the race was the reason he could only finish fourth at the Turkish Grand Prix



Source: FiftyBuckss

Lewis Hamilton: Start cost me second place

Lewis Hamilton believes he would have been in the fight for second place at the Turkish Grand Prix had he not lost out at the start to Mark Webber in turn three.

Hamilton made a reasonable start from the dirty side of the grid and attempted to pass Webber ahead of him out of the first sequence of corners. However, he got stuck on the outside of the Red Bull and lost traction, putting him behind Fernando Alonso and team-mate Jenson Button.

"I had a good start and probably should have been up to third at the start of the race," he told the BBC. "I could have been battling for second in this race but we came out in fourth in the end."

His tyres then started to degrade more quickly than the cars around him as he tried to fight back past his team-mate Jenson Button, setting up one of the closest battles of the race.

"I had such great pace and in actual fact I had too much front wing on the car to start off with and that was one of the reasons I struggled to look after the rear tyres, because it's better to drive a car with a bit of understeer and I had too much front end," he said. "Obviously when I was trying to get past Jenson I had so much pace, but by the time I did get past I had nothing left in my tyres and that pushed me into a four stopper. But considering we had a bad pit stop as well we did well to get back up to fourth place. But the battle was good and Jenson was fair all the way through it - we look forward to the next race."

Source: ESPNF1

Video: Lewis Hamilton says start was key to victory in China

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton hails his race strategy after claiming his first victory of the 2011 season in a thrilling Chinese Grand Prix



Source: FiftyBuckss

Alonso: “A good start for the F150”

To finish first, first you have to finish. It’s a rule of sport, in particular motor sport where mechanical reliability is behind every result. So if a new car takes its first steps on the track without encountering problems it’s already a good start. Certainly you need performance but before looking for that it’s important to begin to understand the car’s behaviour – all the more so if the new creation is wearing new boots. This was the main objective of the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro technicians who today began development work on the F150: to go through lots of miles and to begin to understand the behaviour of the new Pirelli tyres.

There was satisfaction both for the engineers and the driver: “After so many weeks of waiting I had a great desire to return to the car,” said Fernando Alonso at the end of the day. “It’s always a great feeling to be the first to drive a new car and I’m honoured that this was my job. I’m satisfied with how this first day has gone, in particular regarding reliability. We haven’t had any kind of problem – just as we haven’t had any in the factory before arriving here.”

As for the tyres, it’s clear that there is still a lot of work to do. “We don’t have a huge amount of sets of tyres available and there is significant tyre wear,” added the Spanish driver. “That probably also stems from the track conditions that were not at their best after the rain of recent days. But we are all in the same situation and we just have to work to adapt in the best way.”

Fernando continued: “It’s impossible to have an idea of how the different teams line up after just a few hundred kilometres and I don’t think that we will have a clear picture before the Bahrain Grand Prix. I remember that last year at the last test in Barcelona we were sixth fastest with Sauber and Force India ahead of us. At Sakhir we lapped them. I think that this question mark will remain right up to the first race.”

Source: Ferrari.com

Petrov penalised after taking out Hulkenberg

Vitaly Petrov will lose five-places on the grid at the next event in Korea.

Renault's Vitaly Petrov has been punished by the stewards following the F1 2010 Japanese Grand Prix today.

The stewards ruled post-race that he had breach the regulations by causing a collision with the Williams of Nico Hulkenberg at the start of the race. As a result he picks up a five-place grid penalty for the next event in Korea.

Speaking after the race, Petrov maintained that he had to move over because of Nick Heidfeld.

“I made a good start and managed to overtake [Felipe] Massa,” Petrov explained. “I was then going passed Hulkenberg with [Nick] Heidfeld on my right when he started to move left and so I also had to move left to avoid him. Unfortunately I hit the side of Hulkenberg's car and this is why I crashed.”

Hulkenberg, who was the innocent victim, added: “I had a bad start and I didn't get off the line at all. I then saw Petrov coming up behind me. He touched my front right wheel and that was it.

"You never want to finish a race that early, but today it happened and it was unfortunate for us both. The team are doing a really good job developing the car and that showed in our qualifying performance so it was a shame to finish that early.”

Source: Crash

[Video] Massa overshoots grid position at Belgian GP start

Source: YouTube @irmaoanderson1

Kimi Räikkönen Before the Start in Rally of Turkey 2010

Source: Citroën WRC - YouTube

A good start for Ogier and Räikkönen in Jordan

The Citroën Junior Team is second at the end of the opening day of the Jordan Rally, thanks to the C4 WRC of Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. Kimi Räikkönen and Kaj Lindström also overcame the first day’s challenges to end up in the top 10 overall.

The opening day’s action was the shortest of the entire rally with 95.70 competitive kilometres, and it provided competitors on the Jordan Rally with a good taste of what was to follow. But no driver was aiming to open up a gap, and neither did anybody want to inherit first place overnight because of the ‘road sweeper’ role that it would entail for day two.

From the first few kilometres, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia adopted a careful pace. “Maybe I was a bit too careful on the second stage,” said Ogier, who is currently third overall in the World Rally Championship standings. “Nobody is going at their hardest. There’s nothing to win today; it’s just a question of avoiding all the various traps and finding a good position for the rest of the rally.”

Kimi Räikkönen and Kaj Lindström continued their learning curve on roads that were particularly challenging, aiming to accumulate more experience in the car. “The start of the day was quite interesting but we are still here,” said Kimi. “We hit a rock and had a half spin. On a rally that is so specialised, it’s really important to cover all the stages.”

During midday service, the Citroën Junior Team changed the settings on the C4 WRC driven by the Finnish crew to make it easier to drive on the rock-strewn surface. “We saw how important it was to have experience on these roads” added Kimi. “ It was better in the afternoon and our times improved. Now we have to carry on like this over the next couple of days.”

Sébastien Ogier was fourth after the opening special stage and he held onto the place right up to the start of the final stage. The Frenchman finished the test without slowing down – unlike several other drivers – and inherited second place overall. “Our aim was to stay in front of Sebastien Loeb this evening,” he said. “We didn’t take many risks and everybody was just watching everyone else. Tomorrow, we’re going to do everything we can to stay at the front.”

Citroën Junior Team manager Benoit Nogier concluded : “Our goal was to maintain the form we showed in Mexico. Sébastien is continuing at his pace while keeping a comfortable safety margin. Tonight he’s second, not so far behind Latvala and just in front of Loeb. We didn’t operate any particular strategy. Kimi’s objective is to finish the rally without making mistakes. It’s important for him to gain experience. The Jordan Rally is a tricky event and our feeling for it is just beginning to come now. We simply need time. At the end of the first day, I’m very happy.”

Souce: RallyBuzz

[Video] Kimi Raikkonen Arctic Rally Start Rovaniemi

Source: YouTube @mogyi61