Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado has been named as Lotus' driver for the 2014 season alongside France's Romain Grosjean, the team officially confirmed on Friday. Maldonado has spent three seasons with Williams, winning the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012, but only notched up one point this season with his 10th place in Hungary. The 28-year-old, supported by state-owned Venezuelan oil and gas giant PDVSA, announced at the start of the month he was quitting the team, leading to talks with Lotus and Sauber. "It is a fantastic […]

Heikki Kovalainen has targeted a strong race day in Brazil after finishing only 14th at the United States Grand Prix. Kovalainen, filling in for injured compatriot Kimi Raikkonen, qualified in the top 10 but lost front downforce during the race, forcing him to make an unscheduled pit stop. "The race didn’t go the way we wanted and I’m not sure if it was the car or if the driver was just a little rusty! We had a problem with the front wing losing downforce which […]

Pastor Maldonado has said that stress contributed to his emotional outbursts across the weekend at the United States Grand Prix. Maldonado said prior to the event that he was 'very happy' to be leaving Williams and inferred that a team member had sabotaged his car after he could manage only 18th place on the grid in qualifying. "Sometimes you get too stressed and you get stuck in the moment," he said. "But maybe there is something behind that after three years, and sometimes you can […]

Force India team principal Vijay Mallya has urged his squad not to get complacent despite a 24 point buffer to Sauber in the fight for sixth place in the championship. Mallya is hoping that wet weather this weekend in Brazil could aid his team in pulling off a strong result. Last season, Nico Hulkenberg led the Brazilian Grand Prix and finished the race in fifth place for the team. "It was important that we secured such strong results in India and Abu Dhabi," he said. […]

World champion Sebastian Vettel continued his supremacy of the second half of the season as he scored his eighth successive victory, ahead of Lotus's Romain Grosjean and Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber. “This year I feel I have a car that can win 10 races... up front and have the tyres working as they did [on Sunday] we can fight with them,” said Lewis Hamilton, having just won the Hungarian Grand Prix in July. The Brit had put in a commanding performance and proposed the […]

Rating the 22 drivers for their performance during penultimate race of 2013, the United States Grand Prix, which was won by reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, ahead of Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber. Sebastian Vettel | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1st | 10/10 Vettel was comfortably quickest in second and third practice but qualifying was a different proposition as he faced a serious threat from team-mate Mark Webber. Vettel pulled a lap out of the hat to claim his 44th career pole and his […]

Adrian Sutil hit out at rival Pastor Maldonado after the duo collided on the opening lap of the United States Grand Prix. Sutil and Maldonado were battling for the position on the back straight when they touched, with Sutil being speared into the barriers and retirement from the race. Sutil joked that an 'emergency area' needs to be set-up around the Williams driver. "We have many incidents with this driver and for sure maybe you have to have an emergency area around him to avoid […]

Lewis Hamilton expressed his happiness after finishing the United States Grand Prix and vowed to retain second place in the constructors' championship for Mercedes. Hamilton's fourth place means that Mercedes has a 15 point buffer over Ferrari with just a single race remaining in Brazil. "That felt good out there this afternoon and I'm really happy with fourth place," he said. "It was so nice to have a race where I could fight for position and make progress. The car felt much better today than […]

McLaren driver Sergio Perez admitted he was slightly disappointed to finish the United States Grand Prix in seventh place. Perez overtook Fernando Alonso on the first lap of the race but lost out to the Spaniard during the pits and settled for seventh. "To be honest, I was expecting to achieve a little bit more than seventh today," he said. "On the opening lap, I managed to push past Fernando, and the car initially felt pretty strong. After that, however, between about lap 10 and […]

Sebastian Vettel secured his record breaking eighth successive victory after strolling to the win at the United States Grand Prix. Vettel led from start to finish to beat Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber, claiming his 12th victory of the season. Grosjean got ahead of Webber at the start and was able to defend against the Australian for the rest of the race, equalling the best result of his Formula 1 career. Lewis Hamilton jumped up to third place at the start but was quickly usurped […]

Esteban Gutierrez and Max Chilton have been penalised after impeding rivals during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix. Gutierrez, who qualified in 10th place, will drop to 20th on the grid after impeding Pastor Maldonado during the first segment of qualifying. 'Car #12 unnecessarily impeded car #16 between Turns 19 and 20 whilst performing manoeuvres that the stewards consider dangerous', read the stewards report. Chilton impeded Maldonado, as well as Force India's Adrian Sutil, during Q1. The Brit qualified in last place and will […]

Fernando Alonso says that Ferrari must beat Mercedes during the United States Grand Prix in order to retain their hopes of finishing second in the constructors' championship. Ferrari is currently 11 points behind Mercedes in the battle for second, with Lotus also in the mix. Alonso will start the United States Grand Prix from sixth place on the grid. "I feel reasonably satisfied with the result of today’s qualifying, because after the problems we have had almost all weekend long and even in Q1, we […]