Big scare for Marquez at Mugello

MotoGP News

Date: 31/May/2013

One place a MotoGP rider doesn’t want to fall is flat out along the 210mph home straight at the Mugello circuit in Italy.

But that’s exactly what happened to rookie star Marc Marquez during Friday free practice.

Marquez, 20, lost control of his Repsol Honda just as he touched the brakes for turn one, sending him off the circuit and towards the concrete trackside wall.

"Just after the hill on the straight I grabbed for the brakes but I lost the front,” said Marquez. “I tried to save it but the bike was pulling me towards the wall so I jumped from the bike to avoid hitting it.”

It was a huge accident, but could have been much worse.

Marquez avoided becoming tangled with his bike, or hitting the wall, but the sheer speed of the accident left him with numerous relatively minor injuries. The hard riding Spaniard was taken to a waiting ambulance on a stretcher before being transferred to the medical centre.

“I hit my chin hard and strained my neck quite badly, I also have some contusions to my right shoulder, arm and leg but other than that I'm ok,” said the Spaniard. “Thanks to all the medical team that were quickly on the scene to assist me. Now I need to rest and see how I feel later tonight and in the morning."

Marquez starts round five a close second in the World Championship behind team-mate Dani Pedrosa and having finished on the podium in all the races so far this year, including victory in Austin.

With Marquez sidelined and Pedrosa struggling for grip, Yamaha riders Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow filled the top three places in Friday practice.

Rosberg wins but Mercedes under protest for ‘secret’ test

F1 News

Date: 26/May/2013

Nico Rosberg took his and Mercedes first victory of the F1 season at Monaco on Sunday, repeating his qualifying form despite two safety car periods and a restart.

Rosberg, whose previous F1 win came in China last year, won by 3.8s from reigning Champion Sebastian Vettel, whose Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber took third.

“Unbelievable!” beamed Rosberg, who grew up in Monaco and whose father Keke won the 1983 race. “When I was quite young, my first memories were of Ayrton Senna with his yellow helmet, red and white car winning.

“It was a childhood dream to one day win the Grand Prix of Monaco, because it is my home and that’s the most special race for me to win, so the feeling was just incredible, it was unreal.

“That’s what’s so special about the sport: these great emotions of joy and winning that make up for all the difficult moments that have gone before. Amazing.”

But even as Rosberg spoke more ‘difficult moments’ were brewing, with Mercedes facing an official protest for a ‘secret’ tyre test following the previous Spanish round, at which Mercedes had struggled badly for tyre performance.

Mercedes insisted they had not broken the strict testing rules since the outing had been arranged by Pirelli and apparently cleared by the FIA. They also claimed to have no knowledge of which tyres were being used.

However rivals teams - especially Red Bull and Ferrari - were furious that a current 2013 car had been chosen and deeply suspicious that no mention of the (1000km) test was made by Mercedes, Pirelli, Rosberg or Lewis Hamilton until the news broke on Sunday morning in Monaco.

Adding to the pressure on Mercedes, it later emerged that the FIA ‘clearance’ for the test was far from clear cut.

“Pirelli and Mercedes-AMG were advised by the FIA that such a development test [with a current car] could be possible if carried out by Pirelli, as opposed to the team that would provide the car and driver, and that such tests would be conditional upon every team being given the same opportunity to test in order to ensure full sporting equity,” said an FIA statement.

“Following this communication, the FIA received no further information about a possible test from Pirelli or from Mercedes-AMG. Furthermore, the FIA received no confirmation that all teams had been given an opportunity to take part in this test.”

The matter has now been referred to an FIA tribunal. It remains to be seen what action, if any, will be taken, although Rosberg’s victory does not appear to be in jeopardy.

“You have to ask Pirelli about this issue. I’m not going to comment,” said Rosberg.

But Webber was prepared to comment.

“We were a little bit surprised that it happened,” said the Australian.  “I don’t think it had a huge bearing on today’s result. I think their car was always going to perform pretty well round here, to be fair, but yeah, you can’t unlearn what went on at the test obviously.

“So we need to see how the test came about and whether it’s within the rules or not. I’m sure Mercedes thought it was OK, so that’s why they did it, so time will tell. But I don’t think it affected today’s result.”

Hamilton had been running second in the early part of the race, but lost out to the Red Bulls during a safety car period and dropped to fourth.

Vettel has now increased his title lead to 21-points over Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) who crossed the line in tenth after a late puncture due to contact with Sergio Perez.

Despite his victory, Rosberg is only sixth in the standings having suffered two non-scores from the six races so far. Monaco was also his first podium finish of the season.

Mercedes rules the road in Monaco qualifying

F1 News

Date: 25/May/2013

Nico Rosberg made it four poles in a row for Mercedes, leading the second successive ‘Silver Arrows’ one-two during a damp qualifying session at Monaco on Saturday.

“It’s very special. I’ve lived here all my life,” said Rosberg. “The way through the tunnel is my way to school and now I’m driving through there with a Silver Arrow.”

The result had been widely predicted, given the proven one-lap speed of the Mercedes, but major questions remain over their potential in the race.

Rosberg’s previous poles have resulted in just ninth and sixth places and the team’s best pole conversion of the year is a third for Lewis Hamilton in China.

Rosberg, who edged out Hamilton by less than a tenth of a second in Monaco qualified, admitted:

“It’s only two weeks since Barcelona when we finished 70 seconds from victory, so for sure we still have large problems in the race. This track is an advantage for us because you can’t overtake so easily. It also eats the tyres less, so there are some advantages.

“We made a few changes to improve things so we are progressing and hopefully looking better than Barcelona, but it’s still our weakness. But it can also be a bit better than expected tomorrow. We just have to wait and see.”

Hamilton doesn’t expect any race day miracles.

“There isn’t a fix,” he said. “As Nico said it’s difficult to overtake here but it has only been two weeks so we haven’t made a huge step forward, but hopefully with less high-speed corners here we might stand a better chance.”

Most believe the best chance of a Mercedes victory is if the second Mercedes blocks the road once they hit tyre issues, allowing the faster car to escape. They would also need to respond when rivals try to break out of the ‘train’ with an early pit stop.

But before any of that, Rosberg and Hamilton need to successfully negotiate the notorious Monaco first turn.

“The start is going to be important for sure,” said Rosberg. “We’ll see who gets to the first corner first. I have the advantage that I’m ahead and on the clean side of the grid so that will definitely be good and then from there we have to see how it goes - who’s quicker in the race and strategy and things like that.

“I think tonight we’ll speak about it,” revealed Hamilton. “It’s obviously important that we position ourselves in a smart way that we can keep Sebastian behind and then focus on trying to grab that one-two.”

Red Bull’s reigning champion and 2013 title leader Sebastian Vettel will be ready to pounce on any problems.

“If all goes well hopefully the Mercedes will struggle and we’ll sail past in the pit stop. But I don’t think we can rely on that,” he said. “Tyre wear will for sure play a role tomorrow but I think we need to look after ourselves first and then see what happens.”

Vettel will be joined on row two by team-mate Mark Webber, with 2013 race winners Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) forming row three.

Pirelli losing patience?

F1 News

Date: 24/May/2013

Pirelli has hit back at criticism from some quarters over its F1 tyres and appears to be growing impatient at the lack of a 2014 contract.

Pirelli took over from Bridgestone as F1’s exclusive tyre supplier for the 2011 season, with a brief to brighten up the races with a high rate of tyre wear.

Many believe the approach has succeeded, with the sudden drop off in tyre life keeping the outcome unpredictable until the closing stages.

But as the teams understand the tyres, the unpredictability fades and Pirelli says it was asked to shake up the tyre allocation for 2013.

Some - notably Lotus and Ferrari - seem to have got it right, while the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes have struggled to maintain grip at some events.

“The tyres, on occasion, have been a bit too marginal this year,” said Red Bull’s Christian Horner. “That includes races we've won at in Malaysia and Bahrain.”

A four-stop race last time at Barcelona prompted furthers grumbles and Pirelli subsequently announced that its tyres will be revised from the Canadian round, which follows this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

“We set out this year for two to three pit stops over the season, we probably will average that still, we will get some races like Barcelona which was won this time with four stops,” said Pirelli’s Paul Hembery.

The Englishman then responded directly to the complaints of Horner and some in the media:

“Barcelona was won two years ago by Red Bull with four stops so it's not exceptional. But I guess as commentators it's harder to follow, it keeps you awake, you don't have your afternoon snooze anymore.”

With some teams openly challenging any tyre changes, Pirelli faces an almost impossible task. With no unanimous agreement likely, the only changes Pirelli can make are for safety purposes.

Hembery appeared to confirm that Pirelli’s main aim for Canada is to halt the dramatic tyre ‘delaminations’ suffered by some drivers.

“We're still finalising the ultimate details for Canada. We're trying to minimise the changes, for sporting equity reasons of course.

“We want to resolve the tyre delaminations that have occurred when [drivers] picked up debris. The tyres have stayed inflated but it still doesn't look good from an image point of view. So that's where we're at.

“I think a good step forward to avoid problems in future would be winter testing in hot conditions. If we were able to get to Abu Dhabi or Bahrain before we get to Australia, at least you'd have an advanced indication [of any tyre issues].”

Looking further ahead, when asked about the main challenge Pirelli faces in terms of the new 2014 engine regulations, Hembery quipped: “A contract is probably the first one.

“If you follow the regulations, on the first of September we're meant to define the specification for next year, but as yet we don't really have a full picture of what the cars are going to be like.

“Next season - assuming we have a contract, which we don't have at the moment - you could get a situation where the new powertrain, which from the indications of the teams will have a lot of torque and will increase wheelspin, tyre wear, overheating, you could end up in a situation with a [tyre] surprise again.”

Hembery concluded with another jab at Pirelli’s detractors: “So I think next year we'll probably step back and be cautious: zero tyre degradation, no pit stops and they can do all the talking.”

Pirelli received support from F1 legend Alain Prost, present at Monaco this weekend as an ambassador for Renault

“In the past F1 was heavily criticised for not having a show or any uncertainty in the races,” said the four time World Champion. “We should [feel] very lucky that we have these kind of races now. I wouldn't criticise what we have today.”

On track, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in Thursday practice, followed by the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa.

Can Mercedes hang on in Monaco?

F1 News

Date: 22/May/2013

On pole for the past three grands prix, Mercedes currently has the fastest car on the F1 grid.

But they can’t make the tyres perform in the race.

The problems were perfectly illustrated last time in Catalunya, where a one-two in qualifying turned into a demoralising sixth (Nico Rosberg) and twelfth (Lewis Hamilton) in the race.

“It’s definitely not easily solved,” said Hamilton. “We’re working as hard as we can to assess and understand where we went wrong: tyre pressures, temperatures and all of those kind of things.

“I don’t think it’s going to be as bad - hopefully - moving forward. It’s definitely something we’re trying to improve on. Hopefully we won’t have as many bad races as we did the last one.”

This weekend at the glamorous Monaco Grand Prix could play into their hands.

As well as its strong run of 2013 qualifying form, Mercedes would have started last year’s Monaco race from pole had Michael Schumacher not been penalised.

Assuming their one-lap pace continues, the Silver Arrows should start at or near the front.

And, unlike previous events, the tight confines of the legendary street circuit mean even if Mercedes suffer in the race they have a fighting chance of hanging on until the next pit stop.

“We have a good opportunity this weekend but you never know what the others are capable of,” said Hamilton, winner at Monaco for McLaren in 2008.

“Last year Mercedes was quite competitive here. Obviously our car is better this year so we should still be competitive this year.

“But the Ferraris and the Lotuses and the Red Bulls are massively competitive as well. So, we just have to wait and see.

“Overtaking is very, very difficult here as I proved a couple of years ago. So if you’re able to get out in front, it’s more than likely if you’re able to manage your tyres that you can stay there. Definitely.”

They won’t happen in time for Monaco, but two very different changes should also boost Mercedes in future events.

The first will be a controversial change to the specification of the Pirelli tyres for the following Canadian round.

“It can’t be any worse for us, that’s for sure,” said Hamilton. “I think that if they do make some changes they will help everyone really and will definitely change the way the races will go, compared to how they have gone.”

The second is the imminent arrival of Paddy Lowe, released early by McLaren to start his new role as executive technical director at Mercedes F1.

“I’ve had great experience of Paddy over the last five or six years. He’s obviously a great person and massively intelligent and will be a great asset for the team, so I’m really looking forward to working with him,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton, who took back-to-back podiums in Malaysia and China, is fourth in the World Championship, 39 points from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

Team-mate Rosberg is just ninth in the standings after two non-scores from the opening five rounds.