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Round 2: Malaysian GP: FP,QWF,RACE thread


By De Jokke
March 18 2014

With a dominant display, the AMG Mercedes F1 team is heading towards Sepang for the second round of the 2014 F1 championship. Can Rosberg repeat his succes of Melbourne, does Lewis Hamilton bounce back from a dreadful season opener. Can the Williams or Red Bull mix it with the merc or has Ferrari found something extra?

As the australian GP proved to be yet again a nice season opener, the question remains: can F1 2014 conquer the hearts of the F1 fans. Lots of complaints came about the silent engines of 2014. Probably too silent for Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. The two champions had to abandon the race very early due to reliability issues. For Lewis, the damage might be not so big as it is for Sebastian. The current reigning world champion has a RBR not yet up to speed and still has to score a single point. Vettel himself is staying calm and is confident of his team fixing the issues. The only question is when?. Hamilton meanwhile has to catch up asap with his teammate as Rosberg posseses over the same car as he does and catching up 25 points when the rest of the field isn't up to speed yet could prove to be hard work, given that Rosberg finishes always 2nd behind him.

merc engine coverCan Mercedes make it two in a row?    

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Many things can happen: Reliability issues as we're in a hot climate!, driver errors, crashes, strategic cock-ups, faulty pitstops and last but not least: the weather. Sepang is fameus for its thunderstorms (just ask Jenson Button in 2009 when he won the GP with his dominant Brawn car, although the race was stopped halfway). So anything can happen.

What we know so far is that Mercedes is out in front, with Williams a clear second. Than it's close between RBR, Mclaren and Force India / Ferrari, all fighting for the remaining points. Lotus yet has to prove it can finish a race and Sauber will probably leave no stone unturned in the queste of finding more pace.

 

Round 2, bring it on!

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Round 2: Malaysian GP: FP,QWF,RACE thread
Discussion started by TotalMercedesGP.com - Mercedes GP New (IP Logged), 21/03/2014 09:20
TotalMercedesGP.com - Mercedes GP New
TotalMercedesGP.com - Mercedes GP New
21/03/2014 09:20
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:03:31:12:01:00 by De_JOKKE.

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
24/03/2014 11:16
Lewis Hamilton‏@LewisHamilton·43m
Hi guys! Currently in Malaysia preparing for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to bouncing back after a tough weekend in Australia!

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"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
24/03/2014 11:35
Hamilton confident of keeping engine:
[www1.skysports.com]

Still not ironed out what it was exactly...(Sm17)

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merc preview: [www.gptoday.com]

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"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
25/03/2014 12:55
[www.gptoday.com]

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"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
27/03/2014 13:11
Canoncooling for the merc:

[img4.auto-motor-und-sport.de]

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"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
28/03/2014 11:06
It seems like the merc is struggling with the heat compared to rivals. We've got zero advantage.

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The first practice sessions for the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix took place today in the heat of the Sepang circuit.

Nico and Lewis completed a total of precisely 100 laps during today's two practice sessions, just short of the 105 laps completed last year on Friday. Lewis ran his Melbourne Power Unit all day, following the resolution of the problem with the ignition system that caused his misfire in Australia. The top six cars in the second session were covered by just 0.203s - equivalent to just 12 metres or two and a half car lengths.

Nico Rosberg: It was crazy conditions out there. In the very, very warm temperatures, it's a huge challenge to get everything right. The cars are on the edge and the tyre degradation was higher than expected today - we are sliding a bit more this year, perhaps because of the reduced downforce levels. We are still having some small issues and therefore we were not able to maximize everything today. The quickest teams seem to be closer together than in Australia, so we still have work to do overnight to improve our level of performance.

Lewis Hamilton: I'm happy with our progress over the two sessions today and we were able to complete our programme. The car feels good and our focus was on trying to understand the tyres and make sure the balance is right for the weekend. There are areas where we can improve so we're keeping focused on our own work, rather than being distracted by what the others are doing. It was pretty tough with the temperature and humidity and it's so important to keep hydrated here. We would love a good result this weekend, particularly as it is the home race for Petronas, but it's impossible to predict what will happen at this stage. It's one of the trickiest races of the year so we just have to make sure we tick all the boxes and that it all comes together for us.


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Toto Wolff: We had an incident-free day but not an easy one, as we worked hard to adapt to the challenging conditions here in Sepang. The high temperatures mean we have to adapt both the cooling package and the set-up of the car to cope and we worked through that programme diligently today. It's not easy to draw any firm conclusions yet about performance; we will keep working hard overnight and see how we compare tomorrow when it counts.

Paddy Lowe: In first practice, we ran a programme with two different fuel loads while tuning the car to the conditions. Malaysia is one of the hottest races on the calendar and it's important to do our homework to make sure we are in the right shape for the race. The drivers were reasonably happy with the balance and reported no major issues. This afternoon, we ran both tyres on low fuel, before conducting long runs - first on the option tyre, then changing to the prime, and gathering important information for the race. We didn't encounter any significant problems today, which allowed us to concentrate fully on the performance and endurance tuning of the car.

+ [www.formula1.com]

+ [www.gptoday.com]

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"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
28/03/2014 11:12
Lewis is positive:

Lewis on Facebook.



Quote





Hi guys, I'm happy with our progress over the two sessions today and we were able to complete our programme. The car feels good and our focus was on trying to understand the tyres and make sure the balance is right for the weekend. There are areas where we can improve so we're keeping focused on our own work, rather than being distracted by what the others are doing. It was pretty tough with the temperature and humidity and it's so important to keep hydrated here. We would love a good result this weekend, particularly as it is the home race for PETRONAS, but it's impossible to predict what will happen at this stage. It's one of the trickiest races of the year so we just have to make sure we tick all the boxes and that it all comes together for us.

http://images.planetf1.com/14/02/496x259/mercedes-crew-259_3090475.jpg
"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
29/03/2014 10:35
Hamilton on pole, nico 3rd. RBR in between.

Mclaren continues being the laughing stock in strategy. Glad Hamilton has left that sinking ship!

http://images.planetf1.com/14/02/496x259/mercedes-crew-259_3090475.jpg
"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
29/03/2014 11:17
merc finds hamilton Oz'dnf cause:

[www.autosport.com]

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"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
Parminio_USA
30/03/2014 11:00
Congratulations on the 1-2. Well done. Excellent race by both drivers.

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New McLaren Fans Forum: McLaren Fans

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
31/03/2014 08:42
Thank you,

a shame that magnussen hit kimi but always nice to see a ferrari on the back foot.

Button got 6th, maximum achievement with the mac which didn't like the heat. Bahrain will be another tough one then for you guys, I'm afraid? Let's hope they can get back upto speed at China.

http://images.planetf1.com/14/02/496x259/mercedes-crew-259_3090475.jpg
"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
31/03/2014 08:49
http://i.imgur.com/eduLAws.jpg

http://images.planetf1.com/14/02/496x259/mercedes-crew-259_3090475.jpg
"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2014:03:31:12:44:14 by De_JOKKE.

MESSAGES->author
De_JOKKE
31/03/2014 18:13
[www.formula1.com]

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"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Red Bull's day" - Martin Brundle

In memoriam: Sessions

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