Nico took his 19th career victory today - his fifth of 2016 - to become the first Grand Prix winner at the Baku City Circuit. A difficult afternoon for Lewis saw him recover from a P10 grid slot to eventually finish fifth.
Nico (141) leads the Drivers' Championship by 24 points from Lewis (117) in P2. Mercedes AMG Petronas (258) lead Ferrari (177) by 81 points in the Constructors' Championship
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: We all went into the race expecting lots of action - and while maybe the 51 laps didn't deliver as many fireworks as we saw in other races this weekend, there was plenty going on in our garage! First of all, let's talk about Nico. He did a fantastic job this entire weekend - a great pole position yesterday then a dominant race performance today. He got a good start, pulled away and just controlled everything from there; it wasn't a problem-free afternoon for him but it was pretty close to being so. For Lewis, the first target was to survive lap one; he kept his nose clean and then started picking off the cars in front of him. He reported some electrical de-rates quite early on but it only became clear around his pit-stop that he was suffering from quite a big performance deficit with the car. Once we had identified the problem, it could have been changed with a single radio message - but the rules, which are of course the same for everybody, prevented us from doing so, and we were only authorised by the FIA to use very specific phrasing. It was an unusual and counter-intuitive problem with an engine mode so there was no way Lewis could know what to change to solve it. Eventually, he managed to find the right solution - as Nico had done several laps earlier, having switched into the mode causing the problem part way through the race - and then he set the fastest lap of the race at that point. However, it was too late to recover any position, so he took the smart decision to save the engine and bring the car home. We have had a warm welcome here in Baku and the organisers have delivered a fantastic and exciting new street circuit. But from the team's point of view, although we extended our points lead, we should have come away with more - and correcting those problems will be our focus in the coming days.
Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): Starting at the very beginning, we were relieved to see both cars make it cleanly round the first lap after the chaos of the GP2 races earlier in the weekend. From there, Nico did a fantastic job. After a great pole position yesterday, he capitalised on that with a superbly controlled drive from start to finish - managing his tyres, engine and brakes perfectly. For Lewis, it was never going to be easy from P10. Unfortunately, this turned out to be even more difficult than we had predicted. The pace of the car was not as strong as it had seemed on our long runs during Friday's practice sessions, with some of our rivals proving impossible to overtake. This is something we need to look into and understand, as he wasn't able to extract the pace he'd shown throughout the weekend to that point. We did see a problem with Hybrid energy management on both cars. There was a configuration related to the management of Hybrid energy which unfortunately was not correctly tuned during our race preparations. What this caused was premature de-rates down the straight, costing the driver around three to four tenths of a second per lap. It was only present when the driver selected a specific strategy mode on the steering wheel, with the other modes unaffected. Unfortunately, under the new radio restrictions introduced for this year, the team is unable to tell the driver which mode to use - or not to use, in this case. Having sought permission to do so from the FIA, we were able to give the drivers an indication - but nothing more. It was a bit like asking them to solve a crossword puzzle with minimal clues while driving at in excess of 200mph, which is no mean feat! Unfortunately for Lewis, it took around 15 laps to rectify the problem. This lost him a lot of time before eventually he was back to full speed - by which time it was too late to make a charge for the podium, which was a definite possibility for him today. The bigger problem we need to understand is why his car was not as quick as it should have been overall.
Maurizio Arrivabene: If we look at where we were on Friday, we can be happy with the step forward that has been made during the weekend. Today our race pace was good, albeit not quite as good as it should be. We saw a very good performance by both our drivers, so as our President says, we must work hard to provide them with a better car. As we had seen already in Canada, the engine seems to be our strength, while we still need to work on the other areas, because this car has proven to be very sensitive to set-up changes. I have no complaints for Kimi's penalty: he was racing hard and overtook a lot of cars. When he realized he was being penalized, he then proved to be a very good team-mate to Seb. The gap to our main competitors is still there so we have to work hard to improve in the areas where we are still weak and keep focusing on this year, because there's still a long way to go to the end of the season. Congratulations to Seb for a second place which, once again, shows what a talented driver he is.
Valtteri Bottas finished sixth and Felipe Massa 10th in the European Grand Prix. Valtteri made a one-stop strategy work and ran as high as third before making his stop on lap 19. He was able to manage his tyres and strategy well to stay ahead of the two-stoppers and finish sixth.
Felipe had to run a two-stop strategy due to tyre graining. He was fifth before his first stop on lap 7, and sixth before his final stop on lap 28, but he continued to struggle with his tyres and finished 10th. The team collected nine points in the Constructors' Championship, while Valtteri retains seventh in the Driver's Championship and Felipe drops to ninth behind Perez.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: That was nowhere near what we expected from this race. Valtteri being ninth in that first stint didn't help us, but he was able to make a one-stop strategy work, as were all the top six. Felipe was struggling with rear graining in the first stint. Valtteri had a little bit of the same, to a lesser extent, and then his tyres came back and he was quite strong towards the end of that stint. He was going quicker and quicker so we could leave him out and he was able to get up to sixth, but it's still a disappointing result. The team did a fantastic job with the pitstops, the strategy worked out and gained some positions for Valtteri but unfortunately we couldn't do it for Felipe as well because of tyre degradation. The team is working really well, it's the car's pace that's let us down. The main thing we need to take away from this race is that we were out of position, in terms of pace, compared to Force India. We've got to go away and understand why we weren't quick enough, so that's what we'll concentrate on. We've got Austria coming up so we need to look forward.
Christian Horner, Team Principal: "Ultimately a disappointing result after having started on the front row of the grid but on the supersoft and the soft tyre for both drivers today we appeared to get into quite a lot of degradation as early as laps four and five. That situation didn't change after the first stop on to the soft tyre, where again both cars reported high degradation very early, on a tyre that was supposed to go to the end of the race. It was only when we made an unplanned stop to go on to the medium tyre that the car was in a much better working range. Both drivers were competitive thereafter, ultimately coming through to finish seventh and eighth, with Max setting the third fastest lap of the race. Getting an understanding of how the tyres were operating in this grand prix is an imperative. A frustrating race but at least we got both cars to finish and we extended our lead over Williams in the Constructor Standings."
Sahara Force India and Sergio Perez picked a second podium finish of the season today after a strong performance at the European Grand Prix in Baku. Nico Hulkenberg battled to ninth place to ensure a double points finish for the team.
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: "What a fantastic result from a weekend where we looked strong from the start. It is a success for the whole team: from the crew that repaired Checo's damaged car after FP3 and produced two brilliant stops at a crucial time, to the guys on the pit wall who made the right calls, and of course everyone back at base. We knew we had the pace to fight at the front, even if we were starting further back than we wanted, but we delivered the result in the end. Checo drove well and a second podium in three races shows that he is getting the potential out of the car. Nico was unlucky to be hit at the start by Gutierrez, which ultimately compromised his race. He lost a few positions, but was able to keep the car facing the right way. Starting in P12, he had a different strategy and he was only a couple of laps away from finishing seventh, but he still claimed some important points. Today's result strengthens our fifth position in the championship and moves us closer to fourth . I have no doubt there will be celebrations tonight!"
Renault Sport Formula One Team pushed all the way in the first-ever European Grand Prix on the Baku City Circuit. Different tyre strategies yielded similar results with Kevin Magnussen starting from the pit lane and stopping once to finish fourteenth whilst Jolyon Palmer finished one place behind after making two pit stops.
Kevin started the race from the pit lane following a set-up and gearbox change to his car. He started on a new set of Pirelli's red supersoft tyres. He changed to the yellow soft compound on lap six, and remained on that set until the end of the 51 lap race. Jolyon started the race in P21 on new supersoft tyres. He changed to new softs on lap eleven then new supersofts on lap 31.
Fred Vasseur, Racing Director: "Given where we started it was a good result today. Both drivers stayed focused and kept their heads down to achieve the best they could. After yesterday we changed Kevin's set-up and gearbox which meant he started from the pit lane. We put him on a one-stop strategy and he drove intelligently with this. Jolyon also started with a one-stop strategy in mind but we switched him to a two-stop as a result of a flat spot and to try to make progress later in the race. Today's result shows the never-give-up spirit of the team; no matter what the odds we will keep pushing all the way."
Franz Tost, Team Principal: "First of all, I'd like to congratulate Baku for this fantastic race venue - it was a really positive surprise to come here and see how everything has been built up. It's a beautiful city and the people have been very friendly, supporting us in every way. Therefore, I'd like to thank the organizers and people responsible for this, as well as Bernie, who decided to have this event on the calendar. From our side, unfortunately we did not show a good performance today. We didn't finish with any of our two cars because of rear suspension problems. We will now have to wait to disassemble the cars to find out what the exact reason is, but it seems like the dampers got stuck, impeding the normal movement of the suspension. After performing well in qualifying yesterday, it's a shame that Daniil's race ended so early, as he could've put on a good show starting from sixth. Carlos showed a very good performance during the laps he was in the race and I think that he would've been able to score some points today. We now look forward to the next Grand Prix in Austria, a weekend which is always special for us as it's Red Bull's home."
The Sauber F1 Team saw the chequered flag at the first European Grand Prix on the Baku City Circuit in P12 (Felipe Nasr) and P17 (Marcus Ericsson). On the fast street circuit, both drivers were able to gain positions with their Sauber C35-Ferraris compared to their starting positions (15/20), which was also the case due to retirements.
As the fourth oldest Formula One team, the Sauber F1 Team reached another outstanding milestone in its 24th Grand Prix season: Since 1993, the Swiss team has covered more than 200.000 race kilometres in the 411 Grands Prix it has participated in.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "A new Grand Prix is always a huge challenge for teams as well as for the organiser – the Formula 1 debut in Baku was a success. Also our team did a good job during the weekend. Felipe put in a satisfying performance using his opportunities from the beginning until the finish-line. Marcus had a more difficult starting position in P20. He improved his lap times after his second pit stop, but he generally struggled more with the tyres due to the high temperatures. We can build on these positions."
Despite the whole team's best efforts, the inaugural race around the demanding Baku City Circuit was a disappointing one for McLaren-Honda.
Jenson drove a customarily disciplined race to move from an unrepresentative 19th on the grid to finish 11th, making solid progress through the field - particularly during the final stint. While he raced nose-to-tail with Fernando for much of the race, the Spaniard lost ground with a gearbox issue, that caused him to retire on lap 42.
Despite the lack of points, today's was a commendable team effort: the strategists weaved both cars through the field on a useful two-stop strategy, while our mechanics completed all four pit-stops in under three seconds.
Eric Boullier, Racing Director: "After a second successive grand prix finishing just one position outside the points, there's little to sweeten the pill after this disappointing pair of flyaway races.
"However, let's be pragmatic about the positives: from 19th on the grid, Jenson drove with his customary blend of calm control and gritty resolution to carve measuredly through the field to finish 11th. He managed to cut the gap to Felipe Massa by five seconds in the last dozen laps, but wasn't close enough to challenge for that last, solitary point by flag-fall.
"In addition, our strategists devised strong race-plans for both drivers, which, allied to four supremely efficient pit-stops from our boys, enabled both drivers to run strongly in the midfield for the entire race. While our travails went unrewarded with world championship points, we can be satisfied with the job we did out there.
"Finally, Fernando had little good fortune today. He was increasingly hamstrung by a gearbox problem, prompting the team to retire the car.
"It's clear that we need just a little more inherent pace to become consistent top 10 runners, so we'll be aiming to narrow that gap when we return to Europe, for the Austrian Grand Prix, at the start of next month."
Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda R&D Co Ltd Head of F1 Project & Executive Chief Engineer: "We had good race pace today, and I think we did the best we could to pull the potential out of the car. However, it's difficult to be happy when you just miss out on points for two races in a row, finishing P11 on each occasion.
"The race itself was less chaotic than expected, with all of the cars starting from the front of the grid finishing the race unscathed. That meant we were unable to capitalise on any incidents, and our position remained again within the mid-field.
"Though we were fearful of the long straights pre-race, we remained in the hunt thanks to the low downforce rear wing setting we adopted for this weekend.
"Unfortunately, Fernando had a developing gearbox problem, and could not maintain his pace in the latter part of the race, so we had to retire the car to prevent any further issues."
Dave Ryan, Racing Director: After the great qualifying performance yesterday and after witnessing both GP2 races heavily compromised by safety car interruptions, we opted to split strategies between the two cars to better cover for any eventuality. Rio's race was ruined in the first few hundred meters when a Haas car ran him wide into the wall, which forced him to make a lengthy pit stop for a new front wing and nose assembly. With Pascal we started on the soft compound tyre, keeping our options open. Unfortunately, with around 10 laps remaining, we had a braking issue and this led to his retirement from the race. Today was not our day but we leave here undeterred and looking forward to the next race in two weeks' time at the Red Bull Ring in Austria."
After a three-year absence, the European Grand Prix returned to the FIA Formula One World Championship via the 6.003-kilometer (3.730-mile), 20-turn Baku City Circuit in the capital of Azerbaijan. Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez finished 13th and 16th, respectively, on a hot and humid day.
Grosjean started 11th and Gutiérrez started 15th on the first-time Formula One venue, with an air temperature of 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) augmented by a track temperature that reached 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) – the highest temperatures experienced since practice for the European Grand Prix began on Friday. Both drivers started the 51-lap race on the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tire, with the plan to make only one pit stop.
This plan quickly changed for Gutiérrez, however, when contact with the Force India of Nico Hülkenberg on the opening lap sent Gutiérrez to the pits on lap eight with a damaged front wing. Along with a new nose, a set of Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft tires were bolted onto the VF-16, dropping Gutiérrez to 21st. A second pit stop at the end of lap 29 for a used set of Red supersofts carried Gutiérrez to the end of the race, but he was lapped by eventual race winner Nico Rosberg on lap 32. Gutiérrez finished the European Grand Prix in 16th position.
Grosjean enjoyed a better start, climbing to as high as eighth by lap 10 before pitting for a new set of Yellow softs. As pit stops cycled through, Grosjean rose from 17th to 12th by lap 25. Unfortunately, Grosjean had to make a second pit stop due to a build-up of debris picked up in the car's radiator intake ducts. With the risk of engine overheating prevalent, Grosjean had no choice but to stop, thwarting any shot at a point-paying finish. Haas F1 Team made the best of the situation, sending Grosjean back onto the track on a used set of Pirelli P Zero White medium tires that would take him to the finish. Lapped by Rosberg on the 43rd circuit, Grosjean never lost his tenacity, battling back to finish 13th.
Eight rounds into the 21-race Formula One schedule, Haas F1 Team remains eighth in the constructor standings with 22 points. There was no change on either side of the American team, as seventh-place McLaren and ninth-place Renault both failed to score points. Haas F1 Team maintained its two-point margin behind McLaren and its 16-point buffer over Renault.
Rosberg dominated the European Grand Prix, leading from the pole to take his 19th career Formula One victory and his series-leading fifth of the season. The Mercedes driver used a one-stop strategy to earn a 16.696 second margin of victory over runner-up Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari. Rosberg is the first winner of the European Grand Prix since Fernando Alonso won the 2012 edition at the Valencia Street Circuit in Spain. The win also extended Rosberg's lead in the championship standings to 24 points over his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton.
Guenther Steiner: "A challenging race. At the start, Esteban had contact with (Nico) Hülkenberg and lost part of the front wing and a piece of the floor. This resulted in us having to call him in to change the wing and that ruined his race. Romain was going well. We would've liked to have him stay out longer on the first set of tires, but once we changed them it was looking good until he had to come in again, this time for the radiators to be cleaned out as we collected some debris. His race pace was good, but we couldn't risk having the engine overheating. We're still aiming for points. We had very good pit stops and we're making progress, so now we look ahead to the next race."
The very first Grand Prix in Azerbaijan was won by Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, who started from pole and stopped just once, passing from supersoft to soft tyres, without ever losing the lead.
The top six started on the supersoft and stopped only once for the soft tyre, between laps 8 and 21. This meant that their soft tyre stints lasted up to 43 laps, in the case of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. The result was achieved despite a higher wear rate than expected owing to warmer temperatures than those seen in practice and qualifying.
The highest placed of the three drivers to have instead started on the soft was Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, who finished ninth from 12th on the grid. Hulkenberg stopped just once, while the best of the two-stoppers was Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, who used all three compounds nominated for Azerbaijan: supersoft, soft and medium, which was the case also for his team mate Max Verstappen.
Another alternative strategy was adopted by Manor's Pascal Wehrlein, who completed a very long 29-lap opening stint on the soft, then reverted to the medium before his retirement. Renault's Kevin Magnussen, by contrast, had a very long closing stint on the soft tyre that even lasted for 46 laps. Manor's Rio Haryanto went even longer: 48 laps.
Paul Hembery: "The Baku grand prix contained a number of surprises; firstly with track temperatures still in excess of 50 degrees after one third of the race, and with very little drop in temperature throughout. And secondly because the much-anticipated safety cars never materialised. As expected, it was a one-stop race for the winner, with quite high wear and low degradation despite the long lap length and very high top speeds. We saw a number of different strategies being tried, including some very long stints even on the supersoft, which was key to Nico Rosberg's victory on this spectacular track."
Truthometer
We predicted a winning strategy of just one-stop, starting on supersoft and moving to soft on lap 22. Rosberg actually stopped one lap earlier than we thought.
