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2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Another Formula 1 season has come and gone and, as usual, it’s been a hell of a ride. Lews Hamilton’s win in Abu Dhabi secured his second world crown and put the perfect exclamation mark on a season of dominance for Mercedes AMG.

It’s a big job for a sole contributor compiling a season’s worth of F1 images too. Apologies for the delay in getting these images to you, but I’m not scared to admit there’s a sense of relief in posting the last gallery of photos for the year.

Never fear, the lure of F1 is great and I’ll be back again in 2015, hope to see you here.

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F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

2014 Brazilian Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Brazilian Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg’s win at the 2014 Brazilian Grand Prix will give his confidence a nice boost going into the title deciding double points bonanza in Abu Dhabi.

Wouldn’t it be the ultimate troll on British F1 fans if Nico could beat Lewis Hamilton to the title with four fewer race wins!

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F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

2014 United States Grand Prix in pictures

2014 United States Grand Prix

Before you wake up at ungodly hour to follow the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend here’s your pictorial reminder of what went down in Austin last weekend.

With his tenth win of 2014 Lewis Hamilton became the winningest British driver in Formula 1 (to use the bastardised US vernacular). The 2008 world champ now has 32 career wins, one more than Nigel Mansell.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 United States GP: Post-race press conference

2014 United States Grand Prix

Here’s what the first three drivers in the United States Grand Prix had to say after this morning’s race. Not surprisingly there were a few questions about the double points coming up in Abu Dhabi. We can expect those questions to increase until the season climax in the middle east.

In some ways the best result in Brazil this weekend would be to see Nico win and Lewis have a retirement. That way the two drivers would go into the final race separated by a single point and the double points novelty is just that, a novelty and not the determining factor in who wins the championship.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 United States GP

Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 United States Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has extended his championship lead by winning the United States Grand Prix. With two races left he now enjoys a 24 point lead over his teammate, Nico Rosberg, who finished second in Austin.

Rosberg made a clean getaway from pole and held Hamilton at bay until around one third race distance. Once Hamilton took the lead he had Rosberg’s measure.

Finishing third was Daniel Ricciardo who dropped places after a poor start from P5. He fought his way back up the field through a combination of great on track driving and clean pit stops.

The Williams pairing of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished fourth and fifth. Ricciardo overtook Massa in the last round of tyre changes and opened up a small but comfortable gap. Massa came back late in the race but couldn’t get past the likeabkle Australian.

Fernando Alonso finished sixth ahead of a fast charging Sebastian Vettel who made a late change for fresh tyres and spiced up the latter part of the race with his charge through the pack. Kevin Magnussen, Jean-Eric Vergne and Pastor Maldonado rounded out the top 10.

Maldonado finished P9 on track but was given a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He still finished in the points, the first time for him in 2014.

The F1 circus backs up next weekend in Sao Paulo before the double points novelty of Abu Dhabi closes out the season. Of course, that means Rosberg can easily close up that 24 point gap to Hamilton with a good drive or a stroke of luck.

However, Hamilton has won five races in a row now and has 10 wins for the year, compared with Rosberg’s four victories. It would be unjust if Hamilton didn’t win his second world title. And if that proves to be the case won’t the British F1 media mafia let it be known!

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Sebastian Vettel to sit out USGP qualifying

2014 Japanese Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel expects to miss qualifying for the United States Grand Prix in Austin this weekend due to an enforced penalty for exceeding his allocation of five power units for the year.

“As far as I know, the plan is to use the opportunity to change, to have a sixth component of all the various components,” Vettel said. “Obviously for that as far as the regulations are concerned we have to start from the pitlane.”

As you can see the regulations make the prospect of participating in a pointless qualifying session pretty unattractive.

“For the weekend, our plan could be a little bit different in terms of how we approach practice and qualifying in particular,” Vettel explained. “Once you have to start from the pitlane your focus is not on qualifying because no matter what you do in qualifying it doesn’t matter because you still have to start from the pitlane.

“So that’s why in practice, largely, we will try to focus on the race.”

The grid is already down four cars thanks to the absence for Caterham and Marussia and the prospect of last year’s winner in Austin sitting out quali is not ideal. But as Vettel says, he doesn’t make the rules.

“I didn’t make the rules,” he said. “It’s a rule that is the same for everyone. But for the people come to watch the cars, to watch qualifying, it’s a very bad rule.”

[Source: Autosport | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Red Bull Racing’s 10 times table

2014 Hungarian Grand Prix

Red Bull Racing is celebrating its 10 anniversary in Formula 1. To do that, in a rather subtle way for F1’s brashest team, a simple blog post has been published on the team website. A bunch of facts relating to time and 10 are given:

In 10 Seconds…
Our F1 car can travel 494m from a standing start. Given another 10 seconds (and four pit crews!) we could also do four pit stops, changing 16 tyres.

In 10 Hours…
Based on his average speed at the Italian Grand Prix of 235.413 km/h at the Russian Grand Prix, Daniel could travel 2354.13km. That’s approximately from our HQ in Milton Keynes to central Ukraine. Monza also saw Daniel clock the fastest speed through the timing traps of the season at 362.1 km/h. This incidentally, was the highest top-speed through the speed traps during the grand prix and therefore the fastest speed achieved by any of the new V6 turbos in race conditions.

In 10 weeks…
We can design a completely new car. By contrast a major motor manufacturer will typically need three years to bring a new model from design to manufacture.

In 10 seasons…
We’ve so far had seven race drivers (David Coulthard, Christian Klien, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Robert Doornbos, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo) – with Daniil Kvyat waiting in the wings for 2015 of course. We’ve started 181 races and won 50 of them for a win rate of 27.6%. We’ve had 57 poles, 42 fastest laps and 115 podiums and scored a total of 2,802.5 points. We’ve raced 19,095 race laps and a whopping 96,3852Km and we’ve loved every single one of them (well almost!).

[Source: Red Bull | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Caterham F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

2014 Russian Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Russian Grand Prix

The fun has come and gone from the Sochi sun and the Russian Grand Prix passed by without any idiot from the Formula 1 world threatening to “shirtfront” Putin. Which, in some ways, in just as bad as it would have been if some idiot did engage his mouth before his brain.

Anyway, enough of that, let’s just try and enjoy the images from the race. Hopefully, they’re not quite as dull as the on track action ended up.

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Red Bull Racing Video

Shopping mall donuts F1 style

Carlos Sainz Jr drives a Red Bull RB7 inside Yas Mall, Abu Dhabi

Ever since I saw this as an eight-year-old kid I’ve wanted to drive a car inside a shopping mall. Any car would do, just the fun that wanton destruction would be still brings a smile to my face. But that dream has now been topped.

Sure, it’s little more than a cynical PR piece for a new blinged up shopping mall in the middle of a desert. But, a Formula 1 car through a shopping mall, give me some of that please!

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Caterham F1 in pictures Ferrari Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Toro Rosso

2014 Japanese Grand Prix in pictures

2014 Japanese Grand Prix

Usually we like it when it rains at a grand prix because the images are pretty cool. But the end of this year’s Japanese Grand Prix was not very cool at all.

Forza Jules.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2014 Japanese GP: Post-race press conference

2014 Japanese Grand Prix

Here’s your chance to see what the first three drivers had to say after the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. While F1 is often a world of massive egos and petty bitching it is comforting to see the sport rally behind Jules Bianchi and show universal support and concern for his well being.

Like everyone else, we wish a full and speedy recovery for Jules.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Lewis Hamilton wins 2014 Japanese GP

2014 Japanese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton won a rain-affected Japanese Grand Prix yesterday, his third win on end and eighth for the year. But the day will be remembered more for its wet weather and the race-ending crash involving Jules Bianchi.

With heavy rain falling at the scheduled start time the race began behind the Safety Car. With no immediate sign of relief the cars were brought into pit lane on Lap 2 and the race was red flagged. Following a 25 minute delay the race restarted behind the Safety Car, which stayed out until Lap 9. Conditions had improved quite a lot and Rosberg was finally able to lead the field under green flag conditions from pole.

Jenson Button followed the Safety Car into the pits to take a risk by being the first driver to switch from full wets to intermediate tyres. That move paid immediate dividends as the inters proved to be the quicker tyre and all drivers came in for new rubber. This allowed Button to elevate himself up the field to P3 after starting eighth.

The race settled into a rhythm and the Mercedes AMG pair set off building a gap on the rest of the field. Hamilton had better race pace than Rosberg and after almost 20 laps behind his championship rival he was able to maintain grip on his tyres for longer and find his way into the lead.

Red Bull’s decision to sacrifice straight line pace during the sunny qualifying conditions was paying off as both Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were able to use their increased downforce and subsequent grip to manufacture some entertaining overtaking moves.

As the race passed Lap 40, the mark needed to be considered for full championship points, rain had been falling for a few minutes and Kevin Magnussen came in for extreme wet tyres. Although, most drivers who did come in for new tyres remained on inters.

Adrian Sutil crashed out at turn 7, which became the precursor for Bianchi’s incident. The race finished four laps later behind the Safety Car with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg heading the field. Ricciardo had moved into P3 ahead of Vettel on track by choosing not to pit for new tyres, but once the race was stopped and positions were taken from the previous full lap Vettel reinherited the final podium position.

Celebrations were understandably subdued on the podium as word of Bianchi’s injury filtered through the paddock. Our thoughts remain with the young Frenchman and the Marussia team. It’s the worst possible build up they could have imagined as F1 prepares for the inaugural Russian Grand Prix in Sochi next weekend.