Wiman impresses in only his second outing in World RX

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX Media. 

Former GRC champion Joni Wiman in only his second outing in the FIA World Rallycross Championship claimed a podium finish at Spa-Francorchamps. 

His only previous World Championship outing came in 2014 when he took part in the Canadian round of the season for Olsbergs MSE.

Wiman joined the World RX of Benelux entry list as a wildcard entrant but was drafted in as a late replacement to score teams’ points for GRX Taneco after Niclas Gronholm underwent an appendicitis operation. 

The Finn was the revelation of the weekend in only his second World RX event. He claimed qualifying heat wins and ended the first day of racing in third overall.

On Sunday, he continued his charge and finished the qualifying heats in second overall booking a place in the semi-finals. He claimed victory in the semi-finals and would start on the front row of the grid in the final alongside Andreas Bakkerud (pole position).

In the final, the Finn was caught up in the first-corner melee and dropped to the tail of the field but recovered with a clever tactical drive to finish in third place.

“I’m really grateful to the team and sponsors that made my return to the World RX possible," said Wiman. "And I am happy that it was here - in the venue with so much racing history.” 

“After the Semifinal I felt that I could have a shot at the very top. In the Final, though, I had a little incident in the first corner and after had to drive like mad to climb back to the third place," he said. 

"Being on a podium after this long break is more than I expected before the race and I really hope I could come back for more events this year.”

TEXT - Junaid Samodien

Luckless streak continues for Chicherit at Spa-Francorchamps

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition.

Guerlain Chicherit's luckless streak continued at the World RX of Benelux at Spa-Francorchamps.

The first two rounds of the World RX championship has been a real challenge for the GCK team owner. In Abu Dhabi, he had turbo failure in the qualifying heats and the turbocharger needed to be replaced. Heading into the semi-final he had engine issues that slowed him down, he was ranked 10th overall after round one. 

At the second round of the World RX championship at Circuit de Catalunya, Chicherit suffered from a loss of power in Qualifying 2 and required a full engine change overnight. He went on to finish the race weekend in ninth place overall.

Surely, the Frenchmen was due better luck at Spa-Francorchamps...

But it was not to be... On Saturday, Baumanis could not avoid Chicherit and pushed the Frenchman into a spin. He eventually finished in 5th place in Q1. 

Sandwiched between Pal Try, Gregoire Demoustier, Hervé Knapick, and Enzo Ide, Chicherit had a good start in Q1, but contact between Try and Demoustier pushed Guerlain to the outside and he dropped to second. The Frenchman capitalized on clean air when Try jokered on lap 1 and managed to hold the lead through his joker on the last lap to finish Q2 in 1st.

On Sunday, Chicherit jumped the start in Q3 and was forced joker twice. The second bite of the cherry, he had a good start, heading into turn 1 in 5th place behind Kevin Hansen. Both jokered on lap 1 while Guerlain opted to take his second joker behind Timerzyanov on lap 2. At the joker lap merge, Timmy Hansen and Chicherit collided, but he managed to hold off the Swede to finish in 4th place.

Race 3 of Q4 saw Chicherit sandwiched between Liam Doran, Krisztián Szabó, Janis Baumanis, and Timmy Hansen. Following a great start, Chicherit got stuck in traffic with a little contact with Szabó, demoting him into 5th. As Szabó merged from the joker lap, the two collided. Szabó and Chicherit would both collide with the outside wall. The Frenchman managed to continue but lost a lot of time and qualified in 13th overall, just missing out on a spot in the semi-final.

“It was not an easy weekend for us, especially for me, as I was extremely unlucky from race 1, which followed me through the weekend," he said.

"It’s motorsport, of course, we have to focus on the positives - the competitive pace and ability we’ve shown this weekend as a team really gives us a good feeling for Silverstone. We can be in the top 5 in terms of pace, so we need to put it all together now to make that podium happen." 

The Frenchman heads to round four of the championship in the UK with some optimism.
"We’ve shown the potential of the car, now it’s time to push for the top in Silverstone,” he said.

TEXT - Junaid Samodien

ROKiT Williams Racing and Prodrive to take fans down memory lane at SpeedMachine Festival.

PHOTO CREDIT: Goodwood Festival of Speed

The 2019 SpeedMachine Festival will pay tribute to one of Formula One’s most prestigious teams, ROKiT Williams Racing, with an off-track display at Silverstone from May 25-26.

In a homage to the iconic British team, founded by Sir Frank Williams, and a nod to the present, the Williams FW14B made famous by Nigel Mansell, will share the spotlight with an FW42 show car similar to that campaigned by George Russell and Robert Kubica in the 2019 Formula 1 season.

The two cars will be on display in the Formula One international pit straight complex and housed in a re-creation of a contemporary and historic pit garage.

Adding a further dash of British flavor to the event, Prodrive will bring a collection of 10 cars from their racing stable.

Among them will be the 1984 Rothmans Porsche Rally Team 911 SC RS and the Subaru Impreza which took Colin McRae and Richards Burns to FIA World Rally Championships.

Representing touring cars is a 2000 Ford Mondeo Super Touring car and the Ford Performance Racing Falcon BA from Australian V8 Supercars.

In addition, there is the stunning 2018 Aston Martin Vantage GTE which currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

“We are delighted that the ROKiT Williams Racing Formula One team will have a presence at SpeedMachine and provide a trip down memory lane for motorsport fans,” said Torben Olsen, the Managing Director of World RX for IMG, the series promoter.

“Together with the Prodrive exhibition, we will have the very best of world-renowned British motorsport heritage on display along with plenty of other activities for SpeedMachine fans.”

The World RX of Great Britain, round four of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, is the racing centerpiece of the SpeedMachine Festival. 

For more about SpeedMachine, please visit https://speedmachine.com/

The FIA World Rallycross Championship returns to the Mother City in 2019!

Niclas Gronholm on the joker lap in Cape Town.
PHOTO CREDIT: Junaid Samodien

It’s back. It’s bad. It’s the best battling it out for glory. It’s the FIA World Rallycross Championship, and when it hits Cape Town again this summer, it’s going to turn the place on its head. The mother city is still buzzing from the excitement and adrenalin that transformed the Killarney Raceway late last year, and now the same venue hosts this fuel-frenzied fest on the 9th and 10th of November.

World Rallycross, or World RX for those who like to speed things up, is all about that: the quickest machines on four wheels. And commanding these motoring monster are the world’s top drivers. A total of sixteen permanent drivers – six teams and four individual entries – represent the eight automotive brands that are competing for top spot in this year’s championship. These drivers are from eleven different countries, making World RX a truly multinational event with rich, diverse styles and unique flair.

With a mixture of old hands and young guns, the line-up is looking ferocious. Briton Liam Doran and World RX front-runner Andreas Bakkerud of Norway have joined forces and are looking formidable in Audi S1 supercar, in the newly-formed Monster Energy RX Cartel team. The Hansen brothers, Timmy and Kevin, return after making a huge impact in the 2018 world championship. Also competing is highly experienced Russian Timur Timerzyanov and teammate, 22-year-old Niclas Gronholm at GRX Taneco, whilst the French outfit GC Kompetition builds on last year’s successes with permanent drivers Guerlain Chicherit and Anton Marklund.

Frenchman Cyril Raymond and Belgian Guillaume De Ridder will race Renault Clio Supercars in the newly formed GCK junior team 'GCK Academy', Latvia’s Janis Baumanis will represent Austrian team STARD in a new Ford Fiesta, and Latvian Reinis Nitišs will appear in selected rounds with SET Promotion under the GRX Taneco banner.

The four individual entries are Britain’s Oliver Bennett, former DTM champion Timo Scheider and Hungarian Krisztian Szabo along with a number of wild card entries.

Additionally, the 2019 RX2 International Series, will also feature this year. South Africa is one of only seven countries globally to be hosting these races, ensuring even more thrills and spills in Cape Town.

The City of Cape Town's Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith says: “As the City of Cape Town we are really excited that the FIA World Rallycross Championship is returning to our beautiful city for a third straight year. In the first two years, the event was a wonderful experience for spectators who were kept on the edge by the exhilarating action on the circuit. For us as Cape Town, events such as Rallycross are not only prestigious but they are also critical to promoting job opportunities and developing the South African economy to support our local communities. We are again looking forward to welcoming the drivers, organisers and the internationals fans to the World’s Leading Festival and Event Destination in 2019. We look forward to creating a great experience for petrol heads and new fans who absolutely should not miss one of the world’s most exciting motorsport events,”

Torben Olsen, the Managing Director of World RX for IMG Motorsports, the series promoter, is more than a little excited. “The FIA World Rallycross Championship is going from strength to strength,” he enthuses. “Last year we built on our global fan base and in 2019 we have attracted a broader audience to World RX with the intensity of the racing. It’s all down to the quality of our drivers – and closely-fought competition, and in that regard 2019 is reaching new levels. When you've got highly talented racers battling it out for glory, you can expect plenty of high-octane, frenetic action. Cape Town is in for a treat.”

So, you really don’t need any more reasons to block out the second weekend of November in your diaries. But just in case your mind’s not 100% made up, the early bird special is launching on the 16th of May with a 20% discount. It’s best to get your seats soon, so visit Quicket.co.za. And then, once they’re in hand, start counting the days for the 2019 World Rallycross of South Africa Championship. Last year was big…this year will be even bigger!

World Rallycross of South Africa

Killarney International Raceway

Saturday, 8th November 2019 – Sunday 9th November 2019

Tickets: From R200

Kids under 12 are free

Hospitality tickets from R2000-00

Tickets: www.quicket.co.za

For more information go to:
www.WorldRXSA.co.za
#WorldRXSA
Facebook: WorldRXSA
Instagram: WorldRXSA

Ekström enjoyed World RX one-off return at Spa-Franchorchamps.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX Media

2016 World Champion Mattias Ekström made a one-off return to World RX with JC Raceteknik at Spa-Francorchamps.

The 40-year old Swede called time on his full-time World RX career in November last year. But, he did not discount the possibility of a privateer entry in the future. 

Having watched the opening round of the championship in Abu Dhabi, Ekström started to imagine racing again and was tempted at the prospects of racing up Eau Rouge. He called up Joel Christoffersson, JC Raceteknik owner to inquire if he could use the 2016 title-winning car that he had sold to the team. A deal was reached and Ekström would return in his tile winning Audi S1 Supercar. 

The Swede's return was not the easiest despite showing good speed. He needed to battle with traffic throughout the weekend.

“We had a lot of fun this weekend," he said. "It felt like a reunion with the car and the guys. For sure you want to have a good result in the end, but I think this track is very different so it’s not so easy, but we still had lots of fun."

The Swede claimed his best result of the weekend winning Q3 race 2. He progressed to the semi-finals but was pushed wide in the first corner and would not progress any further after finishing the race in fifth place. 

"I had a lot of fun, we did some good starts and I made some mistakes," said Ekström. 

Languishing the middle of the pack in most races, he needed to get his elbows out but enjoyed the experience.

"I was in the middle of the pack battling, which was quite nice because you learn things that you don’t when you’re up front," he adds. "When you’re in the middle of the pack, everybody races like there’s no tomorrow, which is pretty cool.”

TEXT - Junaid Samodien

Spectacular Timerzyanov claims maiden World RX win at Spa-Franchorchamps.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX Media.

Timur Timerzyanov has claimed his maiden world championship victory at Spa-Francorchamps.

The three-time European Rallycross Champion's maiden victory in the World RX championship only came after 64 race starts. 

“I still can’t believe that I have practised for this moment 64 times, it feels unbelievable,” he said. “This is my life. Every day I wake up in the morning and I only think about rallycross. It’s in my blood."

The Russian was nothing short of spectacular at the World RX of Benelux pulling off stunning airborne passes over the jump and daring overtakes in the qualifying sessions.

Timerzyanov was strong all weekend and progressed to the final, and began to set his plan in place. 

“In the final, I was planning to just hold the guys behind and then at the first corner everything opened up for me," said Timerzyanov. "I saw a gap and I thought ‘this is my chance’ and I took it."

“I really didn’t know what to do when I was leading. It’s the first time I have been there in a final. I just tried to concentrate on my race and control my driving.

Timerzyanov would start the final on the second row of the grid behind Andreas Bakkerud and GRX Taneco teammate Joni Wiman. The Russian had a good start, while Bakkerud and Wiman lead into turn one, they ran wide opening the door to Timerzyanov who slipped through on the inside took the lead of the race. 

Heading up Eau Rouge, behind Bakkerud and Wiman, Doran drove into the back of Baumanis and clipping the rear of his Monster Energy RX Cartel teammate pushing him wide at the Radillon hairpin.

Timmy Hansen took a early joker lap strategy, and Wiman was able to increase his pace in clean air emerging ahead of the Swede. He quickly caught Baumanis and cleared him after the Latvian driver took the joker two laps later. 

Baumanis and Hansen were left to scrap it out and the Swede eventually coming out on top to finish fourth.

Timerzyanov began to up his pace and started to streak away from the field. Bakkerud tried an alternative strategy by taking an earlier joker lap in hope of closing the gap to the Russian, but the strategy did not pay off. There was a slight glimmer of hope for Bakkerud when Timur ran wide and lost momentum, but he was able to hang on and cross the line first.

Wiman on the other hand had the same strategy as Timerzyanov and jokered on the last lap coming within meters of claiming second place. But it was not to be for the Finn, he finished in third place. 

Timmy Hansen finished fourth ahead of Baumanis, while Doran was also able to finish the race, despite an incident on the opening lap at the Radillon hairpin and finished sixth.

Missing out on his first win of the season Bakkerud followed up his third place in Barcelona with another strong weekend in Belgium. 

“Argentina 2016 was my last win and I had one little finger on the trophy but if there was one guy who I would want to win this weekend if it wasn’t me, it’s my good friend Timur,” he said. “Of course I would have loved the win but he really deserved it. He is a true character of the sport."

The action into Turn 1 in the final.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIA World RX Media. 

Bakkerud explains the start of the final: “My race was OK but I overshot the first turn with Joni (Wiman) and went wide, then I saw Timur’s yellow rocket coming through and that was the end of the story."

“After a bad start in Abu Dhabi, two podiums in a row feels good. We are finally winning some qualifying heats. We need to take it step by step. We started late getting the RX Cartel together but now we’ve found a much more organised way of working and I’m sure things will continue to improve for us.”

Third place finisher Joni Wiman was drafted in as a late replacement to score teams’ points for GRX in the third Hyundai i20 in place of Niclas Gronholm, who was recovering from appendicitis. 

Wiman was a revelation of the weekend in only his second World RX event, his last being four years ago. The Finn put in strong performance winning qualifying races and the semi-finals to book a place on the front row of the grid.

“This is my second ever world championship event and to get to the podium is a great feeling,” he said. “I started the weekend quite slowly but went flat out today."

"After the semi-final win I was quite confident that I could be competitive in the final. I tried to go for the win in the first corner but I got stuck in the wall for a while and I was lucky to recover. A first and third for the team is really nice.”

On his World RX return, Mattias Ekstrom battled his way to the semi-final. However, a coming together with Timmy Hansen at turn one in the second semi-final dropped him to the rear of the field.  

Despite missing the final, Kevin Hansen maintains his championship lead. He is on 69 points with a nine-point buffer to his brother Timmy. While Timerzyanov’s win moves him to third place on 53 points in the drivers' standings.

World RX of Benelux - RESULTS

TEXT - Junaid Samodien

2019 Spanish GP: FIA Post-Race Press Conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

DRIVERS
1 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
2 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
3 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

TRACK INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by David Coulthard)

Q: Lewis Hamilton, you’re the winner. It didn’t look so good yesterday; it looked amazing today.

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, firstly I just have to put it down to this incredible team. This is history in the making to have five one-twos, so I’m very, very proud to be a part of that and very proud of everyone’s hard work here at the track and back at the factory. It’s definitely been a bit of a hard first four races. Naturally this is a great car but we don’t always get along. So I’m grateful that in the race we managed to settle our differences and get away well. Long, long run down to Turn 1 and I’m grateful for it, really happy for the whole.

Q: Put us in the cockpit. We heard you in Baku say maybe you gave a little bit more space than you would normally do for a competitor out of respect for Valtteri. You really went for it there. He was the meat in a sandwich at one point. He had Vettel on the other side and you really managed to force yourself to take the lead.

LH: Yeah, it was obviously an interesting start. It was obviously very, very close. I saw the red car go round the back of both of us and so I had no idea whether they were further ahead – I assumed they might be. And I knew that Valtteri would be braking super deep, but it wasn’t a replay of Baku at least.

Q: Just finally, you get that extra point for fastest lap. Your re-start after the Safety Car, it was a quali lap. You were almost two seconds quicker than anyone. That was in your mind to set the fastest lap at that point or was it just to break the DRS?

LH: Yeah, it was. We had obviously just done the pit stop, so I was just trying to keep the tyres warm and I knew those first couple of laps on these new tyres or fresher tyres would be the moment that we had the chance to get that, and I’ve not had a fastest lap all season, so it was about time.

Q: Congratulations, great victory. Valtteri, it got oh, so close into the first corner and we saw you have a little correction on your steering to avoid contact with Lewis, to avoid contact with Sebastian. They really squeezed you into that first turn?

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, it was pretty tight, but I lost it at the start. There was some strange behaviour on the clutch. It was biting, releasing, biting, releasing, which I never felt before, so I lost it there.

Q: Obviously you’re not in the happy place you were yesterday after that stunning pole position, but you’re still in the hunt for the championship, you’re going to some tracks that you enjoy, what do you take away from this weekend apart from that second-place result?

VB: Well, as a team it’s incredible. A fifth one-two in a run is really good. I got some good points. Every single point is going to count this year so that’s good for sure but I’m just keen to find out why the start was so bad and why the issue happened.

Q: Max, admiring the competition. You were given Driver of the Day, you’re up to third place in the championship. Pretty good. You’re a bit of a fly in the ointment to the Ferrari team though.

Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, it was a hectic first corner, so I just backed out of it, and actually it gave me a good position out of the first three corners and then from there on, of course the Mercedes cars were too quick today but I could do my pace and we were competitive, so happy to be on the podium.

Q: Just tell us what you were looking at here? What can you learn when you look at your competition this close

MV: I don’t know, just looking around to see what’s different to mine.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Congratulations Lewis, another wonderful race from you. Job done at the start. You didn’t seem to suffer from being on the dirty side of the race track.

LH: No, I had looked at the support races and it appeared that both sides were quite equal. So when the lights went out, the initial start was good and then after that we were quite close all the way down to Turn 1 and the Ferrari might have even been alongside us again. It was a great battle and naturally a decisive moment. This is such a great circuit but it’s very, very hard to follow once you get through Turn 1. I’m not really sure if they’ll ever make amendments to make it a race where we would be closer. But nonetheless once we got around Turn 1 I just had to get my head down and focus on just trying to deliver each lap. But just an incredible day for the team. We brought an upgrade here obviously and everyone worked so hard to make sure they brought a decent upgrade, something that delivered on every aspect and very, very proud of everyone back at the factory for their hard work. And the guys here at the track? They’re just always faultless. But still a huge thank you to them for their continued efforts. Also, we’ve got Dr Zetsche here. It’s ‘Zetsche’ not ‘Zeetsche’, as they said on the podium, twice. He’s been a massive supporter of mine since I was 13. Ultimately, he was there in the decision-making process of whether they would take me on as a kid. When I went to McLaren he was part of the decision-making process of whether I got the Formula 1 driver in 2007, and joining this team again. And every year on from then when we had to re-sign. This is his last race with us and I just want to say a big thank you to him.

Q: You seemed much happier with your car today than you were yesterday?

LH: Yeah, the balance yesterday was a bit of a nightmare. But race pace has generally been quite good for me, I’ve been really happy and comfortable generally in the races. When we went out to do the laps to grid I wasn’t very happy with the balance still, so I had to make some changes. I had a to alter my driving style a little bit. But it worked well in the race scenario. Going to look into detail why it doesn’t work well on a single lap. That may take some time. Normally with tyres I’m pretty good but I think that’s the weak area. It’s not that I can’t do it, I just need to discover it and that’s what I’ll put some effort towards.

Q: OK, well good luck with that. Well done, Lewis. Valtteri, it was won and lost at the start. You’ve spoken already about some problems with the clutch, was there any warning or any problem on the formation lap?

VB: No, absolutely, no. It was the first time I’ve felt anything like that, like a vibration in the clutch and that’s why the initial getaway was very poor. It was kind of biting and releasing in a very quick frequency. So it’s really annoying. All the hard work this weekend for me went down the depths but obviously I’m not blaming any individual in the team, and as we are a strong team, we are going to investigate how it happened and how we can avoid it ever happening again in the future. That’s the strength of the team. But obviously for me as a person, it is annoying to have it this way but that’s how it goes. But I also want to say, there could be worse days in the office and as a team we are performing at an incredible level, and also from my side hats off to every single member at the both factories and here at the race team to be performing like we are now, and also congrats to Lewis for the win here, he had good race pace and a good result for us.

Q: It wasn’t your day today but the slow-corner performance of the W10 has been so impressive here in Barcelona, does that give you a lot of confidence going to Monaco in a couple of weeks’ time?

VB: It is nice to see the strength we have, especially with the new bits in the car we had for this weekend. But Monaco is such a unique track. A big part of it is getting the tyres to work and it’s extremely difficult. There are a lot of new parts with completely new asphalt and it’s a difficult track to put a lot of energy through the tyres. It’s a special track in terms of mechanical set-up – there are a lot of bumps and warps and off-cambers in the track, so for me it’s completely unknown how we are going to perform there but obviously I hope very well because I myself have been living there for five years now. I live just next to the start-finish line, so it would be nice to have a good car there.

Q: Well done Valtteri. Max, second podium on the year. How confident were you of finishing on the podium today?

MV: Well, you’re never sure, but I knew that we could take the fight to Ferrari. In qualifying we were already very close. I think my race was also decided in lap one, to overtake Seb around the outside in Turn 3. Yeah, that was good and from there onwards I could just do my own pace. Well, I was trying to follow the Mercedes cars but they were clearly a bit too quick. Very happy to be on the podium and also back in third in the championship, so that’s pretty positive.

Q: As you say we’ve seen some tremendous pace from Mercedes this weekend. What can you tell us about the progress being made by Red Bull?

MV: Well, it’s good, but not as good as Mercedes did. We clearly still need to work harder and bring better things to the car. But it’s good to see that I think we closed the gap to Ferrari and I’m happy about that.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Max, the performance here and also in Baku as well, I think both you and Pierre had very good race pace there. Two things for you: do you think Ferrari is now vulnerable to you guys on most tracks, and going to Monaco, where Red Bull is usual strong, do you think you’re going to be quick enough thee to catch these guys?

MV: Yeah, race pace in Baku I think was pretty strong, but of course here people come here with upgrades and clearly we lost out a bit to Mercedes, but it seems that we did catch up to Ferrari. For Monaco, I think at the moment, looking at the low-speed performance in the last sector, we are clearly not the favourite and I also don’t expect it to be like last year when we were super strong in Monaco.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) Lewis, do yiou think you won the race at the start and Valtteri do you think you lost the race at the start?

LH: I don’t even know what to say to that. I mean, you watchjed the race, right? You watched the race? I wouldn’t say it was lost anywhere else or won anywhere else particularly. But I had good pace today. Obviously I had a 12-second gap at one point, so I had natural pace today, but I think overtaking would have been… even if Valtteri was behind me, he would struggled to have overtaken me, and vice versa, so the start was the key.

VB: Obviously the race is 66 laps and we need to focus on every single corner and with the cars nowadays, pushing to the limit, it is easy to make a mistake. It’s never lost or won in the first corner, there will be always opportunities, possibly, and you have to believe in it. Today, there wasn’t, really. Lewis was faultless after the start. There was safety car but there was no opportunity for me. When you look at it back, yes, I lost it at the start, but you never think that in the car.

Q: Valtteri, just talk us through the re-start after the safety car, because that might have been another opportunity?

VB: Yeah, I tried to get close to Lewis at the re-start. I think I was maybe a bit less than 50m by Turn 1 behind him, so no possibly to overtake him. Then Turn 1, 2, 3, they’re extremely quick corners, it’s impossible to follow that close, so you create a gap. Then I went into charging mode with the engine. I tried to charge my battery and I tried the quickest lap a couple of laps later. I maybe should have tried it one lap earlier. I think Lewis got it. But anyways, that was it.

Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, congratulations on your victory. I think after Baku you said you were a bit too generous perhaps on the first lap. So that did you extra determination today going tinto Turn 1 that you were going to be the first man through that corner?

LH: Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about the last race. It is a new race. I think today was really trying to redeem myself after a poor performance yesterday. Just back into a strong battle that we’ve had for years now. It was respectful and balanced – as we always are. The team has spoken of it, and Valtteri and I have spoken of it, and I think we have the best pairing that any team has, especially with the balance that we have in terms of how respectful we are. A lot of the drivers don’t do that, they don’t have that respect between themselves. I think today I was obviously well and truly on the inside. Today, I was more just super-inspired by this young kid who sent me a message, Harry. He was kind of my spirit angel today.

Q: (Jonathan McEvoy – Daily Mail) Lewis, forgive me if you’ve explained this before. Harry – what was the background to that and the inspiration it gave you?

LH: Well, I posted it, I don’t know if you’ve seen it? You’ve got to stay up to date with social media, man. I just had a really nice message from a young kid who is suffering with an illness. We had sent him a card and a cap and I saw that today before going into the race. I was chilled but I was looking for something for inspiration, something to grab onto, so I dedicated today’s race to him. You try to go out there and do something for someone and it doesn’t always turn out as well as it has, but nonetheless it has, so I hope he’s watching and I’ll be sending him a message shortly after this, that he’ll get, and we’re going to try to do something special for him.            

Q: (Luke Smith – Crash.net) Lewis, you mentioned the gap that you were able to build-up but then was then wiped away during the Safety Car period. Were there any concerns or frustrations when you saw the Safety Car come out? And could you talk us through your restart as well – because you built quite a big gap to Valtteri very quickly.

LH: Naturally, when you when you work upon building a nice cushion, a nice buffer… we had that quite long stint to do, I think it was… I can’t remember how big it was but it was obviously nice enough, and obviously after we did the stop, it was still quite good, and then I’d realised we were going to a two-stop rather than a one-stop, which meant you could then utilise the tyres. And then the Safety Car came out. And naturally you prefer a VSC. It was pretty drastic how slow the Safety Car was going so it was hard for all of us to keep the temperature in the tyres – but yeah, you just stay cool and focus on the restart. It’s pretty straightforward here, generally, the restart, so that wasn't’ an issue. I think after one or two laps I was already up at five seconds, and then I backed off to cool the tyres down a little bit, then to give myself an opportunity to fight for the fastest lap. I still had time left but was grateful I had the fastest lap at the time and didn’t need to push again. The team told me to turn the engine down and that both cars would do it, so it was good after that.

Q: (Giles Richards – The Guardian) Congratulations Lewis. Yesterday Toto mentioned that you and he had discussed you potentially going to Ferrari at some point in your career. After the start you’ve had to this season, and the start Mercedes have had, is there any reason… do you foresee ever leaving Mercedes, given how strong they are now and how dominant they are over Ferrari?

LH: I don’t really remember what he’s referring to. I think when you’re in negotiations you always have to drop in the Ferrari name.

MV: You come out better!

LH: You come out better. No, naturally in negotiations… Toto’s a very intelligent man so we have great negotiations and great conversations and naturally I’ve been with Mercedes since I was 13, so it’s very difficult to see myself anywhere else. I have never made it a secret that I’ve been a Ferrari fan, particularly Ferrari cars, and that’s no secret. Do I plan on going elsewhere? I haven’t made any plans for my future. At the moment I’m just enjoying driving with this team. I’m enjoying continuous growing with this team and, I mean, it’s incredible what we’re achieving together, what we have achieved in these six years, seven years or whatever it is, and I plan on working with this team to help it become the most successful team of all time. That’s my current goal and my sole focus.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, you have now 35 podiums, as many as Juan Manuel Fangio, how does that feel?

VB: Not much feelings, honestly, from that. 35? Hopefully 36 in two weeks and one more win.

Q: (Joe van Burik – racingnews365.nl) Question to all drivers. On which tracks coming up this season do you expect Red Bull to be strong?

MV: Monaco, Singapore, Mexico… yep. They should normally be a little bit better for us.

Max, before we put that question to Lewis and Valtteri, what are the strengths of your car, do you feel?

MV: Compared to?

What are the strengths? What are the good characteristics?

MV: I think at the moment we’re not really better in any corner than Mercedes, so… I don’t know. It’s good! It’s not that it’s a bad car – but at the moment Mercedes is just a bit quicker than us everywhere. Medium speed, high speed is pretty similar I would say, but again, that depends on downforce levels you’re running every single weekend so it’s a bit difficult to say, but clearly on this track, they were very strong in the low-speed corners and that it normally pretty good for Monaco as well.

Lewis, when do you expect him to challenge you for a victory?

LH: Honestly, I don’t know. I think this year they’ve made a big leap with Honda doing a great job with the engine. If you look at their laps, their speed on the straights are much, much closer to ours, if not sometimes a little bit quicker than ours at the end. It’s probably the first year their focus has to be on the car. It’s quite interesting in Formula One where engineers are so intelligent but they often stay with one philosophy and never want to shift the way they design a car. Even when others have shown a different direction works. I’m sure the car’s going to continue to improve. As he mentioned, places like Monaco, they’re always quick in Monaco, they’re always quick on those street circuits particularly. The races he mentioned, I’m sure it’s going to be very strong. Let’s hope that there’s more than they’re closer because we welcome more battles throughout the year. It would be great to have a Ferrari and a Red Bull there, fighting with us in a natural race.

Anything to add Valtteri?

VB: No.

Q: A question for Lewis. Firstly congratulations for your win. In the moment that the Safety Car came to the track, we have seen problems for the drivers in general to keep the tyres on temperature. Now we are heading to Monaco, do you think the middle period of this year, are getting difficult to get it on the window to work properly. Do you think Monaco will be challenging for the temperatures of the tyres?

LH: Something I haven’t thought of but, I mean, the tyres are very hard this year. Harder than it was last year. Probably a smaller working window so I do anticipate it’s probably going to be… I think it was already hard last year to get the temperature in the tyres. I think it was something that Red Bull were really good at last year, so that probably be the same this year going to Monaco. It’ll be really interesting to see. We don’t have the hyper this year, I don’t think, do we? It’s like the supersoft but harder again. So in my opinion we need to have more pitstops; we need a tyre that doesn’t overheat. That’s a complaint that we’ve had for many, many years. We had a meeting in Brazil last year and we weren’t aware of that – do you remember – and everyone had been saying it for years and years and years. Hopefully that should be the target for the future. We want a tyre that we can really push to the limit and stay up with someone without it overcooking itself and you having to back-off, because that enables racing. Monaco should be interesting – but again, it’s not a race where you can particularly follow. You can’t follow that well, and it’s not a race you can particularly overtake in. Particularly with the cars being bigger: now it’s even harder. But the tyre restart would be interesting on Safety Cars and those kind of things.

Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Two questions for Valtteri. Up to Lap 15 you were sort-of within striking distance of Lewis, through a maximum of 3-3.5 seconds. Then you lost a lot of time over the next ten laps. Was that some tyre issue or had you accepted that you were not going to get him? And, did you have any concerns with your power unit after the oil leak you had on Friday.

VB: Yeah, in the beginning of the stint I was pretty close to Lewis all the time. Obviously just waiting if there would be an opportunity. On this type of track you only need to be within four seconds and you’re sliding quite a bit around. So, I’ve been ahead and I know the difference, how much it makes when you can really focus on saving the tyres where you want to and, in the free air, it’s quite a bit better. So why the gap became bigger? I had to go through some of the slower cars and, at the same time, my tyres started to drop off. With less surface on the tyre I lost a bit of temperature. So yeah, my tyres were finished much earlier than Lewis’. That's why the gap became better. So, probably I was sliding the car more during the first stint and he made a gap there. From my side, from the team’s side, there was no concerns after the oil leak. It was nothing to do with the engine itself. It was just a simple thing like a pipe and one bolt came loose, or something like this. So, no concerns.

Q: (Gunnar Leheste – Eesti Päevaleht) Question to Max. There were three Red Bull Juniors driving this weekend in Formula Three. Did you get the chance to see the races and what are your impressions of the guys?

MV: I did see a bit of the racing, it was pretty good but it can be better – but they just start, so I think Helmut with have a call with them after ever race weekend, so yeah, they will work hard for it. It’s good.

Q: (Arjan Schouten – AD Sportswereld) Question for Max, some more about the race, what was key in the first part, in the first corner, stay out of chaos and profit in the corners after that? And what were your thoughts about the Safety Car?

MV: They were going three wide into the corner and I don’t think four cars fit! Yeah, just taking it easy and that was good, because in the end I was in the right position for Turn Three. So, that definitely gave me a better opportunity, of course, to be on the podium. And with the Safety Car, I think it was right to call out the Safety Car because there were a lot of stones on the track and two cars, but I think we could have raced one or two laps earlier. That would have helped with tyre temperatures as well.

Q: (Pilar Celebrovsky – Paddock Magazine) Question for Lewis and Valtteri. Lewis, you have mentioned that it is good to have Red Bull also in the fight – but is it a relief for you to not have Ferrari right behind you, breathing down your neck? Does that make you guys feels a little bit more relaxed, thinking about the Championship, of course?

LH: Honestly it doesn’t, you know? We’re still very, very focussed on trying to make sure we deliver each weekend. We don’t come to the race knowing that we’re going to have a gap, like today. And also, we’re aware of… we only have a small amount of engines through the year, reliability could be an issue, anything could happen at any point, so you’re super-focussed on trying to make sure you deliver. My personal feeling is that I prefer it when they are in the mix with us. I prefer the races, where, for example Bahrain where they were on the front row. I love that. That’s… especially when we’re intertwined, where there’s a Ferrari and a Mercedes, or a Mercedes and a Ferrari, The last couple of years, that’s what we’ve had, and from a drivers’ point of view and a team’s point of view, it’s much better when you’re competing with another team. When it becomes more internal, it’s less exciting, I would say – but it’s still massively challenging for the drivers. We still have to deliver. It’s not a case of just rocking up and going out. We still have to work very, very hard to extract everything from the car, just as every other driver is extracting everything from their car.

2019 Spanish GP: Post-Qualifying Press Conference.

PHOTO CREDIT: FIA.com

DRIVERS
1 – Valtteri BOTTAS (Mercedes)
2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)
3 – Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jenson Button)

Q: Valtteri, that was a fantastic qualifying effort, outstanding. And to beat this guy around here. I know how difficult that is. The car is obviously feeling pretty awesome underneath you? 

Valtteri BOTTAS: Yeah, by the time of Quali 3 it was just really getting better and better. Really enjoyed that and enjoyed the adrenaline rush we get from those laps. I’m very pleased. Practice 3 was difficult obviously with the spin, but I just forgot that and moved on.

Q: But it wasn’t just that, it was a massive margin. And now that makes it three in a row. That must give you a massive boost for the race tomorrow and for the rest of the season?

VB: It does, yeah. It’s started well, the season, and the way I’d hoped for. I feel better and better in the car, so I look forward to tomorrow.

Q: Good man. Lewis, watching that it looked like you really needed to get the lap in the first run in Q3. The second run, I don’t know if it was the temperature or what, but you needed to get it done then, and it seemed like the last sector was a bit loose? 

Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, I mean, firstly Valtteri did a fantastic job, he’s been quick all weekend. I think on my side I just didn’t put the laps together. The last couple of laps in Q3 particularly just weren’t strong. I had to go out early, because I had come in too early and I had a low battery pack and so I had to go out first, ahead of everyone and ultimately it just wasn’t a good enough job.

Q: But the thing here, starting P2, you get that massive tow down the straight, so looking forward to a great race tomorrow? 

LH: Yeah, I’ll be giving it everything. We’ve always got great weather here. It’s great for the team to have this one-two. We’ll try to convert that into a one-two and if I can reverse it I’ll be happy.

Q: Sebastian, I think that’s probably as good as you could have expected. Looking at the last sector that seems to be a massive deficit for you guys here. 

Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, it seems to be more than an Achilles’ heel at the moment. I just spoke to Valtteri and they were both very happy with the car, especially last sector. For us it was a bit more tricky. I think we got everything out of the car in the first run. In the second run I had to try something different and it didn’t work, but yeah, happy but not happy, if you know what I mean.

Q: I totally know what you mean. But it’s weird in the last sector, because it looks like the car is planted. It looks like the rear end is planted and you just have understeer. But maybe that’s an aerodynamic deficit, so you balance the car like that. Is that the case?

SV: The car doesn’t feel bad, but obviously we are not quick enough. In terms of balance we got it more or less right. I had a bit more understeer; what you saw is right. Probably more than they have but I think overall in those sort of corners, you know yourself, you just need the grip and I think we might be down on that.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Valtteri, congratulations, it was a stunning lap from you there in Q3. The only man to break into the 1 minute 15s all afternoon, just talk us through that final segment of qualifying in particular.

VB: Yeah, thanks, it was really enjoyable and to get a nice lap like that is a nice feeling and a nice adrenaline rush. What makes it enjoyable is when the car is behaving, when the car is doing what you want it to do and what you ask it to do. I think as a team we have done an incredible job with the upgrades we brought here and with the set-up direction we’ve taken. But I was really building up to the qualifying after a difficult Practice 3 with the spin and each run I always knew ‘OK, here I can improve’ and so on and I managed to put it together for Q3.

Q: How good was that lap in Q3 and are you surprised by the gap to Lewis? 
VB: For sure the gap is big. I never would expect that but I don’t know how Lewis’ lap was but this time I got everything pretty well right in the lap.

Q: Mika Häkkinen has the Finnish record of six consecutive pole positions, just something for you to think about?
VB: I’m not really a big fan of numbers. Obviously I respect Mika a lot, but at this point of the season there’s no point counting numbers, the point is focusing on the moment.

Q: Congratulations. Well, Lewis, coming to you, Valtteri made the point ‘how was Lewis’ lap’, well how was Lewis’ lap?  
LH: It was OK; it could have been better for sure. Valtteri did a fantastic job particularly once he got to Q3. It was a bit of a tacky Q3 for me, which is kind of rare for me, but it happens. Otherwise, I’m just really happy and proud of the team for the upgrades we were able to bring this weekend to eke the gap to the Ferraris. It is an amazing track to drive, especially as we come from Barcelona testing, it’s transformed so much since then, so really proud of everyone.

Q: Surprising gap between you and Valtteri. What do you put that down to? It looked like a very aggressive lap from you that first lap in Q3.
LH: They just weren’t very good laps. Simple as that, and Valtteri was just quicker today and rightly deserved the pole.

Q: Sebastian, coming on to you, looks like it was quite a tough afternoon for you – but it’s been a hard weekend for Ferrari, as well, relative to the performance of the Mercedes. Just talk us through the handling of your car.'

SV: Well, it’s been a busy weekend, obviously. Happy to be in P3. I think it gives us a good chance for tomorrow and we look forward to the race. I think we brought some new bits, a new engine, everything seems to work but clearly we are not yet where we want to be but I think in terms of team effort, everybody was doing their utmost. We tried a lot of stuff yesterday, and again today. Different directions. I think we ended up getting the best out of the car for today, which, as I say, wasn’t enough and we’re certainly not satisfied – but I’m very happy with the approach, with the chance that we took, in terms of trying something daring, something I think ultimately will pay off. Not yet – not today at least! But hopefully it helps us in terms of pace tomorrow. Hopefully sets of the right direction for the next couple of weeks.

Q: Happy with the approach of the team – but were you surprised by the gap to Mercedes?

SV: I think yes. Of course. Coming here we did not expect… but also we seemed to lose a quite big amount of time in the last sector. I think it’s quite clear we seem to be faster down the straights, so probably carrying a little bit less wing than them, but then obviously in the last sector there are no straights and yeah, struggling a little bit to bring it together, so it’s not a very long sector but they’re quite some corners, and mostly lower speed, and that’s where we seem to be losing the most time. So, definitely some homework. We know this track very well, everybody does, but the conditions today, etcetera, we were not able to match them.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, your first-ever hat-trick of poles. Is the speed in qualifying your strongest weapon in this World Championship fight right now?

VB: Well, for sure, in terms of qualifying performance, it has been so far my best start of the year in Formula One – but it’s not only about Saturdays. For sure, it’s super-important and, depending on the track, but also the race performance, start performance. I think it’s going to be key – one of the key things for sure.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globoesporte.com) To Sebastian. You said the last sector was very slow. 1500m – eight-tenths. Can you describe for us if you lose when you brake, the speed in the middle of the corner, the traction? Because it’s really a lot in a very short space.

SV: Yes, it’s a lot of time – but as I said, obviously we gain down the straights and we lose in the corners. Obviously the first in the first two sectors we have straights to compensate, so maybe you don’t see the loses in the corners but, I think it’s pretty transparent: I think you have access as much as we have to the GPS data. We lose time in the last sector in the corners in pretty much every corner. So, from 10 to 15 there’s not one corner that stands out. Obviously eight-tenths sounds a lot but if you then divide it by the amount of corners, it’s a bit less – but it’s still a lot. In the end of the day, it doesn’t change anything. For us, it’s a lot of homework. The car, I think, certainly didn’t feel perfect, so there’s something we can improve but overall, obviously, yeah, overall we seem to be a bit down in terms of grip and not being able to carry as much speed through the corner, not go on throttle as easy as them, so it’s a loss not necessarily in braking, I think it’s more the speed carried around the corner. It’s not the first time. Obviously here it bites you in the last sector because there are many corners and no straights – but that’s what it is. For tomorrow, we’ll see what we can do. Certainly the straight-line speed will help us to put pressure on the first straight and then go from there.

Q: (Christian Menath – Motorsportmagazin.com) Two questions for Seb: did you feel that problem during the winter tests as well, the problem in the slow corners and secondly, you always said the potential is there;  did you have this feeling this weekend as well? 

SV: Well, I think, starting with the second question, I think we didn’t start off well in Australia, we certainly weren’t extracting the maximum from the car. I think we probably, with hindsight, didn’t carry the best set-up but from then onwards we gradually improved, we certainly were not where we wanted to be. To return to your first question, I think winter testing is now quite a while ago and I think the cars have progressed quite a lot – our car as much as other cars. Obviously conditions were different and so on. We had a very good feeling the first week. The second week things were a lot closer but obviously there was a lot of – how can I say? – positivity after the first week which we carried over and we sort of wanted to carry into the season but so far we haven’t managed to extract that. I think overall the car is good, we have the performance, we need to put it together, we know we can do better so we need to dig deep. Obviously now is not the first time we’re losing out and not the second time and not the third time, so there’s a consistent trend that we seem to lose in some places, independent of conditions: sunshine, clouds, tyres, compounds and so on. Yeah, a bit more fast to understand but if we had the solution surely it would be on the car already.

Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) To the two Mercedes drivers: are you surprised by the gap? I know you’ve brought upgrades this weekend but are you surprised by the gap that you’ve got over Ferrari? I know the cars have changed from last year, the aero rules are different but how much better does this car feel to 2018? 

LH: Well, we didn’t expect to have the gap, for sure and in terms of whether it’s better than last year, for sure it’s better. I don’t really know what else to say.

VB: I have to say that when I saw the times, definitely we expected Ferrari to be closer. Everything based on winter testing, this seemed to be a track that really suits them and since the practice, we saw yesterday that we were in good form. Obviously we have been doing a good job as a team with the direction we’ve been taking the car in, in terms of where to find the performance and how and so on, so we’ve done a really good job on that and I think we’re all impressed. Obviously race pace is going to be important tomorrow and for sure the car feels better. With the new aero regs, everyone thought it’s going to be a bit slower but with the technology nowadays that the team has it’s incredible how (inaudible) can still improve. The amount of downforce the amount of stability the cars have now is enjoyable.

Q: (Luis Vasconcelos – Formula Press) Also for Valtteri and Lewis: you had a very clean and exciting fight in the first few corners in Baku but there you can overtake later in the race. Here, given how difficult it is to pass, how crucial are those first six, seven hundred meters going to be and how are you planning to play it? 

VB: For sure it’s going to be important. It’s one of the longer runs into turn one from the start so definitely the start performance is important and there’s also a bit of a tow effect for the cars behind so on track, it’s difficult to overtake, for sure the start is going to be important and turn one but yeah, it’s pretty normal and (I shall) look forward to the fight.

LH: Yeah, pretty much the same. Just approach it as we always do.

Q: (Laurence Edmonson – ESPN) To both Mercedes drivers: there’s obviously a few changes to the car this weekend. Valtteri, do you feel that’s brought it a little more closer to what you were looking for and has that helped you? And Lewis, has it upset your balance and where you have the car? 

VB: I think we’ve just been able to improve the general stability and provide a bit more grip from the aero of the car. There’s no different kind of behaviour from the car than any races before, I feel. It does feel a bit different from winter testing though, in a big way, but if it really suits me or not – I really can’t say but definitely the car feels better and that’s always – when you have the grip – it’s always a good feeling.

LH: The upgrades always feel good so sometimes they’re transparent – this one’s quite transparent for me and obviously I was not able to utilise the performance of the car or extract the performance of the car so I will just continue to work on that.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – GloboEsporte.com) Lewis, we always used to see you in the middle (in the press conference) with the phenomenal numbers you have but now for the third time in a row you are on the left side. Is this a sign of something? Do you start to re-think your approach to Q3, to analyse more, because you have lost out to your teammate with the same car for the last three times? 

LH: I don’t think it’s about Q3, I think it’s about the whole weekend and it’s the feel that I have in the car, I just need to work on it so I don’t think it’s really about my approach in qualifying particularly. But of course I’m looking at all solutions and I’ll get there eventually.