Rosberg beats Vettel to inaugural Baku win

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg dominated Sunday’s 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe, beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Force India’s Sergio Perez to victory at the new Baku City Circuit. With Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth, Rosberg extended his championship lead over his team mate to 24 points.

Rosberg led into Turn 1 and was never challenged as a tactical battle unfolded behind him to see who would finish ‘best of the rest’. Starting 10th on the grid, Hamilton rose as high as fourth before his charge was halted by ERS problems on his F1 W07. After several laps down on power, the world champion eventually found the right settings on his steering wheel to resolve the issue, but by then it was too late to improve his position.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen took fourth, while Valtteri Bottas was the lead Williams in sixth, ahead of the two-stopping Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Williams’ Felipe Massa completed the top ten.

Rosberg’s was a superb redemptive victory - his fifth of the season - and the German never put a wheel wrong on a day when Mercedes crushed Ferrari. Against all expectations after two carnage-ridden GP2 races with multiple safety car deployments, there were no major incidents - but lots of passing.

Rosberg was in charge from the start and was completely unchallenged. Ricciardo gave chase initially until Vettel powered his Ferrari past the Red Bull on the main straight on the sixth lap as the Australian pitted early to switch from supersoft Pirelli tyres to softs. A handful of others did likewise on two-stop strategies, but when he was instructed to pit on the eighth lap, Vettel overrode Ferrari and would stay out until lap 20, a lap before Rosberg pitted.

Instead, Raikkonen took that stop, and as Vettel finished second, 16.6s behind Rosberg - it had been as much as 19.8s on the 44th lap - the Finn seemed set to finish third after a lengthy second stint. But he had incurred a five-second penalty for crossing the pit entry line without entering the pits, and with Perez thundering along in fourth within that window in the final laps, the Mexican was clearly going to be the final podium finisher.

The Mexican rammed the point home however - as Raikkonen suffered late ERS problems (as he had in Canada), Perez jumped him going into Turn 1 on the final lap to put the gloss on an excellent drive for Force India that made up for his shunt in FP3 which cost him his rightful second place on the grid thanks to a gearbox-change penalty.

Hamilton had quickly moved up from 10th, avoiding putting himself at risk in the opening laps, but when he failed to pass Perez it became clear that he had trouble. He struggled with a persistent de-rating problem with his ERS - when he had lower than maximum electrical deployment in his powertrain - and became increasingly frustrated as his engineers were not permitted by the radio rules to advise him on the exact nature of it. For a while he got his power back after endless fiddling with controls on the steering wheel, and set the race’s fastest lap on the 42nd, but then he began going slower again and was 56.3s behind his team mate at the finish.

Interestingly, Rosberg said he had a similar issue but got out of it by altering the “right controls”.

Bottas could do no better than sixth for Williams, as team mate Massa slumped from running ahead of him prior to the pit stops to finish 10th. Neither the Brazilian nor Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg had any answer to Red Bull’s late pace as Ricciardo and Max Verstappen - both on more durable medium tyres - took seventh and eighth places in the closing stages.

Button just missed a point in a tough race for McLaren in which Fernando Alonso ran just ahead of him before joining the retirements list with downshift problems. Already on that list were Pascal Wehrlein, who had a feisty single-stop race for Manor before running out of brakes, and the Toro Rosso duo Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat who had mechanical problems.

Felipe Nasr survived a brush with a wall for 12th for Sauber, leading home Romain Grosjean’s Haas, Kevin Magnussen’s single-stopping Renault and the Dane's team mate Jolyon Palmer, Esteban Gutierrez in the second Haas, Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber and Rio Haryanto’s Manor.

Rosberg’s lead in the world championship jumps up from nine points after Canada to 24, with 141 to Hamilton’s 117, and Vettel is closing on the reigning champion with 96. Raikkonen reclaims fourth from Ricciardo, with 81 to 78, as Verstappen overtakes Bottas, 54 to 52, and Perez passes Massa, 39 to 38.

In the constructors’ stakes, Mercedes have 258 to Ferrari’s 177, Red Bull’s 140, Williams’ 90 and Force India’s 59.

F1 Race Recap.

FP1 - Hamilton top as Ricciardo shunts in Baku

The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg led the way from Williams’ Valtteri Bottas in Friday’s opening practice session for the 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe in Azerbaijan. However, it was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who showed just how punishing the walls of the new Baku City Circuit could be this weekend.

As Hamilton bested Rosberg by three-tenths of a second, with Bottas another three-tenths back, Ricciardo ended up 13th after losing control at Turn 15 with just over 20 minutes to go, ripping the right-rear off his RB12 and leaving his Red Bull mechanics with a lot of work to do ahead of FP2.

After all their talk of struggling on Baku’s long straight, McLaren finished the session fourth courtesy of Fernando Alonso, albeit over 1.5s off Hamilton’s pace, with the Spaniard separated from team mate Jenson Button in the times by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Force India’s Sergio Perez.

Felipe Massa was eighth for Williams, with the top ten completed by Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz and Force India's Nico Hulkenberg.

Esteban Gutierrez took the accolade of being the first man to drive an F1 car here in the Haas, but it was Rosberg who recorded the first timed lap, a tentative 1m 57.306s on the soft-compound Pirelli tyres. He improved that to 1m 53.481s next time around.

The German then worked down to 1m 50.100s before Hamilton redefined the ante with 1m 49.174s. Subsequently, the world champion reduced his time to 1m 48.214s to Rosberg’s 1m 48.473s after their first round of runs, with Bottas a promising third for Williams on 1m 49.923s.

Just on the hour mark, when the Mercedes were in the pits, the Finn went fastest, half a second quicker, with 1m 47.707s on the softs. Soon afterwards, he complained of wisps of smoke in the cockpit.

At the halfway point Mercedes switched to supersoft tyres, with Toro Rosso the only other team to do so.

Rosberg went fastest with 1m 46.812s before complaining of something in the back of the seat digging into him, then Hamilton beat his time with 1m 46.489s. He then improved that to 1m 46.435s, before running off slightly at Turn 3 after kissing the wall on entry. Next time around he did the same at Turn 1, and then again at Turn 3. He pitted, and his session was over.

Soon after Bottas had improved his soft-tyre time to 1m 47.096s, the session was red flagged when Ricciardo made a rare mistake at Turn 15. The Australian became the first man seriously to damage a car here when he smashed his Red Bull’s right-rear suspension into the wall. With Max Verstappen troubled by an oil leak, it was a trying first session for the team.

When the track went green again Carlos Sainz also got into trouble approaching 15, but after electing not to use the escape road he just got his Toro Rosso stopped and nudged his front wing against the outer wall, causing some damage.

On a good morning for McLaren, Alonso was fourth on 1m 47.989s as Vettel posted 1m 48.627s literally as the flag fell. Perez was sixth on 1m 48.922s for Force India, ahead of Button on 1m 49.019s. Massa with 1m 49.125s, Sainz on 1m 49.267s and Hulkenberg on 1m 49.30s completed the top 10.

Naturally such a new track surface was slippery and ‘green’, and Vettel was the first man to go off, spinning at Turn 16 early on, while Gutierrez went off at Turn 15 and had to do a multi-point turn to get out, and later at Turn 4. Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson went off at Turn 1, while Renault’s Kevin Magnussen and Button both joined Hamilton in trying out the run-off at Turn 3, which had been increased.

The award for best recovery went to Daniil Kvyat, who went off there and executed a perfect spin-turn in his Toro Rosso to get back out very quickly and efficiently.

From the F1 website.

Hamilton holds off Vettel for fifth Canada win

He led into Turn 1, but strategy proved Sebastian Vettel’s undoing in Sunday’s Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2016, as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton fought back to defeat the Ferrari driver and win for the fifth time in Montreal. Valtteri Bottas took an impressive third place to give Williams their first podium of 2016.

RACE RESULTS (TOP-10)
POS. DRIVER          TEAM         TIME
1 LEWIS HAMILTON MERCEDES 1:31:05.296
2 SEBASTIAN VETTEL FERRARI +5.011s
3 VALTTERI BOTTAS WILLIAMS +46.422s
4       MAX VERSTAPPEN RED BULL RACING +53.020s
5 NICO ROSBERG MERCEDES +62.093s
6 KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN FERRARI         +63.017s
7 DANIEL RICCIARDO RED BULL RACING +63.634s
8 NICO HULKENBERG FORCE INDIA +1 lap
9 CARLOS SAINZ TORO ROSSO +1 lap
10 SERGIO PEREZ FORCE INDIA +1 lap

With championship leader Nico Rosberg only able to manage fifth after first-corner contact with team mate Hamilton and a late-race puncture, the gap between the Mercedes men at the top of the table is now down to just nine points.

Max Verstappen was a fighting fourth for Red Bull, resisting intense pressure from Rosberg in the closing laps and forcing the Mercedes driver into a mistake and a spin on the final tour.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was sixth, while seventh went to Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull, with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez completing the top ten, split by the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz, who came from 20th in the grid to secure ninth place.

It was Vettel who made the best start, vaulting from third on the grid to lead from Hamilton into Turn 1, as a minor coming-together between the battling Silver Arrows saw Rosberg running off track and dropping to ninth.

But Vettel’s two-stop race plan was ultimately slower than Hamilton’s one, and though the German pushed the world champion all the way, he was five seconds adrift at the chequered flag.

Jenson Button was the first retirement, pulling over on lap 11 after his McLaren’s Honda engine let go. Fellow Briton Jolyon Palmer was next up, pulling his Renault into the garage with a water leak on lap 19. And Felipe Massa made a terminal visit to the Williams pit on lap 38.

F1 Race Recap.

Qualifying - Hamilton edges Rosberg, Vettel for Canada pole

Little over a tenth of a second separated the top three cars in Saturday’s qualifying session for the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2016, with pole going to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton from team mate Nico Rosberg and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Daniel Ricciardo beat Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen to fourth place, with Kimi Raikkonen sixth in the second Ferrari. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.

Q2 was punctuated by a red-flag period five minutes in after Carlos Sainz clouted the right side of his Toro Rosso against the infamous Wall of Champions, eliminating the Spaniard on the spot.

The second phase also accounted for Force India’s Sergio Perez, pipped at the death by his team mate, McLaren’s Jenson Button, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, and Haas’s Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean.

Q1 saw light rain in the closing minutes, and effectively ended with a late crash for Manor’s Rio Haryanto, who hit the wall with his right-rear wheel in Turn 4, picking up a puncture and spinning across the track before also brushing the left of the car against the barriers.

Joining the Indonesian rookie on the Q1 elimination list were Renault’s Jolyon Palmer, Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

Kevin Magnussen did not participate after Renault were unable to get his car repaired in time following his FP3 crash. With his R.S.16 requiring a new gearbox, the Dane is set to start from the back of the grid or - more likely - the pit lane.

Mercedes and Ferrari began slugging it out the moment Q1 began, and it was Rosberg who narrowly beat Vettel to the fastest time, with Ricciardo jumping up late to third for Red Bull ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and Raikkonen.

At the other end of the grid Haas duo Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean just made it through, surviving a late onslaught from Renault's Jolyon Palmer who - despite a brush with the wall of champions - improved at the death, but fell 0.015s shy of demoting Grosjean.

Once the red flags came in following Sainz's crash, the two Mercedes quickly jumped to the top of the times, with Hamilton's 1m 13.076s shading Rosberg's 1m 13.094s by just 0.018s. Bottas split the third- and fifth-placed Red Bulls, as Ferrari were a disappointing sixth and seventh with Raikkonen and Vettel eight-tenths off.

The Force Indias and McLarens, meanwhile, were locked in a fight to progress into Q3. Jenson Button looked set to secure his place, but dropped away in the final sector - unlike team mate Alonso, who jumped up to ninth with his final effort.

That left Perez in 10th, but in danger given Hulkenberg - on the brink of elimination in 11th - was on track and going quickly. The German made his last effort count to secure ninth, which meant Perez got bumped to 11th on 1m 14.317s ahead of Button on 1m 14.437s, Kvyat on 1m 14.457s, and the Haas pair of Gutierrez on 1m 14.571s and Grosjean on 1m 14.803s. Sainz's 1m 21.956s left him 16th.

Q3 began badly for Hamilton when he ran over the same Turn 14 yellow kerb on which he had damaged his car in FP3. This time it appeared to have had no ill effect, however, as his first run yielded a mighty 1m 12.812s. Rosberg was matching the Briton blow for blow, however, and crossed the line just 0.062s down.

Behind them, Verstappen provisionally took third with 1m 13.430s from Vettel on 1m 13.479s and Ricciardo on 1m 13.521s.

Vettel had a scare when he brushed the wall of champions, but he avoided damage and found massive gains on his second run to move into third. Hamilton had also improved on the first sector, but lost time over the remainder of the lap - a fact that went unpunished when Rosberg locked up at Turn 1 and abandoned his own effort.

Pole therefore was Hamilton's - his fourth of the season, fifth in Canada, and by the closest margin so far in 2016.

Thus the provisional grid will line up: Hamilton, Rosberg; Vettel, Ricciardo; Verstappen, Raikkonen; Bottas, Massa; Hulkenberg, Alonso; Perez, Button; Gutierrez, Grosjean; Sainz, Kvyat; Palmer, Wehrlein; Nasr, Haryanto; Ericsson, Magnussen.

Kvyat and Ericsson have three-place grid penalties for causing collisions at the previous round in Monaco, while Magnussen takes a five-place drop after being forced to change gearbox as a result of his crash in FP3.

F1 Qualifying Recap.

FP2 - Hamilton top as Vettel splits Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton was again quickest in Friday afternoon’s second practice for the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2016 in Montreal. However, Mercedes didn’t have things all their own way, with Sebastian Vettel splitting the Silver Arrows to take second place for Ferrari.

Max Verstappen again got the better of team mate Daniel Ricciardo, as the Red Bull men finished fourth and fifth, while in sixth and seventh, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and McLaren’s Jenson Button set lap times identical to the nearest thousandth of a second.

It was a strong recovery from Button, who spent much of the session in the garage as McLaren worked to remedy technical maladies from FP1.

Completing the top ten were Kimi Raikkonen, on a very different programme to his team mate in the second Ferrari, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz.

It had been a frantic start to the session, with the lead changing hands countless times as the track improved and drivers bolted on the supersoft and then ultrasoft tyres.

Vettel set the initial pace, but Hamilton, Hulkenberg and then Perez popped up at the front - often multiple times. Verstappen then took over, trading times with Vettel before Hamilton registered an imperious benchmark, dipping under the 1m 15s barrier while still on softs.

At around the hour mark Rosberg edged ahead of his team mate, but only after bolting on the ultrasofts. Hamilton followed suit and was once again demonstrably quicker, a full half second ahead of his team mate. Rosberg improved, but not enough to stay ahead of Vettel, who took his Ferrari round in 1m 14.469s - a promising 0.257s off the reigning world champion.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso spent much of the session in the top 10, but found himself bumped down to 11th following improvements from team mate Button and Ferrari's Raikkonen. He finished the session ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez and Williams' Felipe Massa, who was able to get out immediately despite his DRS-related crash in FP1.

There was no such drama in the afternoon, although Hamilton, Verstappen, Sainz, Jolyon Palmer, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Pascal Wehrlein all had minor offs, and Button actually kissed the wall, as drivers explored the limits.

Hamilton leads opening practice in Canada

"Formula UNB!" Staff Report

Felipe Massa's wrecked Mercedes gets towed off the
Canada race course after a wreck in a Formula 1
practice session on Friday.

Lewis Hamilton led the way in Friday morning’s first practice for the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2016 with a lap time of 1:14.755 minutes.

Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg came in second, 0.331 seconds behind Hamilton, followed by Sebastian Vettel in third, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen to round out the Top-5.

Felipe Massa crashed out just 25 minutes in after losing the back end of his Williams under braking into Turn 1. He  was unhurt, but his Mercedes had plenty of damage.

Massa finished 14th in the session with a personal best lap time of 1:17.065 minutes.

Full schedule for Canada

Here is the full event schedule for Formula 1 at Canada this weekend:

FRIDAY, JUNE 10:
10-11: Practice 1
14-15:30: Practice 2

SATURDAY, JUNE 11:
10-11: Practice 3
13-14: Qualifying

SUNDAY, JUNE 12:
14: Race