Italian GP Preview: Every corner just gives you the feeling that you are doing something special - Kvyat

Its only 5 days to the Italian Grand Prix at the famous Speed Temple of Monza. A 5.79km track which it made up mainly of straights split by tight chicanes it will provide an advantage for the Mercedes powered teams.

The weekend will mark the last race of the European season and the 12th of 19th rounds of the Formula 1 season.

As the home race of Ferrari, many fans turn up and huge pressure is on the team to perform. It will be Sebastian Vettel's first race at Monza whilst racing under the prancing horse and we expect a direct fight with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton (Left) and Nico Rosberg (Right)

Teams to watch are again the Mercedes powered, so Lotus and Force India will be a very strong prospect for points in Monza as the Renault powered Red Bulls and Toro Rosso's will be fighting an uphill battle.

Lotus are coming off a strong Belgium Grand Prix as they scored there first podium of the season with Romain Grosjean finishing 3rd. It was Lotus's first podium since USA in 2013. Theoretically Monza should suit the E23 chassis more than what Spa did, so Lotus are definitely the team to watch. With reliability issues plaguing Maldonado again in Spa, Lotus will know the first key to a successful weekend is a trouble free weekend. In an interview Formula1.com Lotus's deputy team principal Fredrico Gastaldi stated “Monza is a fantastic race track. As in Spa, we have good chances to perform well in Italy with the E23 and bring back home a haul of points".

Lotus deputy Team Principal Fredrico Gastaldi.

Force India were a few steps behind Lotus in Spa in terms of experience and race craft. After a good start to the race which saw Sergio Perez into 2nd, Red Bull and Daniel Ricciardo managed to pressure Perez to the point where Force India weren't aggressive enough with strategy compared to Lotus. The team would probably have been disappointed to only finish Perez in 5th after starting 4th. Monza should hopefully give them another shot at strong points, and Team Principal Vijay Mallya Force India will definately be looking for strong points and Vijay Mallya has stated on Force India's official Facebook: “Monza is a track where we expect to be competitive. We go there aiming to get both our cars in Q3 on Saturday and in the points on Sunday – that must be our target for all the races to come.”.

Force India race driver Sergio Perez

As usual Mercedes will be strong in Monza but don't fully discount Ferrari. Even though they were off the pace in Spa, this is Monza, this is the home of Ferrari. If theres any a time that Ferrari can pull something out of the bag, its Monza.

The Italian Grand Prix begins tommorow with FP1 starting at usual European times.

Belgium Grand Prix - Race Review

The 11th round of the Formula One World Championship has finished and what a race it proved be. Lewis Hamilton came through as the winner ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg whilst Romain Grosjean was welcomed back onto the podium for the 10th time in his career.

Romain Grosjean who finished an incredible 3rd place for Lotus.

The race was conducted over 43 laps after the first race start was aborted due to Force India's Nico Hulkenberg loosing power on the grid after concerns over his ERS system. On the second formation lap Carlos Sainz had a problem and had to pull into the pits before restarting the race 2 laps down.

As the race started no one really had amazing starts but people did have poor starts, Nico Rosberg in particular. Out of turn 1 Hamilton lead Perez from Ricciardo from Bottas from Rosberg. Rosberg however quickly dispatched of Bottas in the first few laps promoting him to 4th. This was the start of Valtteri Bottas very unfortunate and difficult afternoon.

The first pit stop of the day was made by Ricciardo as he was pressuring Sergio Perez for second place. Force India responded by pitting Perez the next lap and the strategies were split as Ricciardo went for mediums and Perez onto the softs. Perez rejoined behind Ricciardo but passed him two laps later on the Kemmel straight.

This battle was beneficial for Nico Rosberg who managed to jump both Ricciardo and Perez in his first pit stop and come out just 3 seconds behind leader Lewis Hamilton.

Things got worse for Valtteri Bottas as during his first pit stop soft tires were put on the car, except for the right rear tire which had a medium tire fitted. This was considered a breach of the rules for mixing tires and Bottas was hit with a drive through penalty thus demoting him to 10th place.

Max Verstappen (STR) leads Jenson Button (McLaren)

As the Ricciardo/Perez battle continued to brew it was abruptly finished as Ricciardo's Red Bull experienced a hydraulic problem which bought him to halt on the start/finish straight. This lead to the deployment of the virtual safety car. Perez, Grosjean and Massa pitted for new tires whilst the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel stayed out on mediums after a quiet race so far. Vettel found himself in 3rd place but was attempting the unthinkable 1 stop strategy.

As in qualifying Romain Grosjean was a flying Frenchman and was the fastest man on track behind the two Mercedes who were running there own race at the front. Grosjean got past 4th place Perez and began to pull away whilst Kvyat also passed Perez before pitting for new soft tires making him an interesting prospect for the end.

The biggest battle of the race began between Romain Grosjean and Sebastian Vettel for the final spot on the podium. In the last 6-7 laps Romain Grosjean found himself 3 seconds behind Sebastian Vettel and catching him with much newer tires. The battle was fought all the way onto the penultimate lap and Sebastian Vettel was holding onto third when he had a right rear tire failure on the start of the Kemmel Straight thus promoting Grosjean into third with Vettel a DNF and classified 12th. Vettel was very angry and frustrated after the race as he felt if the tire had blown 200m earlier (through Eau Rouge) he could have been seriously injured.

Whilst the battle for third was settled the same couldn't be said for 4th through to 8th. Firstly Daniil Kvyat's strategy worked as he managed to get past Sergio Perez and grab 4th place just a couple of laps from the end. On the final lap Felipe Massa was under a lot pressure from Kimi Raikkonen as they fought for 6th place. DRS from Perez kept Massa alive in his battle. Max Verstappen had a chance to get ahead of Raikkonen heading in to Les Combes but his inexperience definitely showed as he overshot the corner in a dive bomb move and he lost too much time to try another move.

Felipe Massa of Williams was disappointed with his 6th place finish.

It was an exciting race and was definitely enjoyed by most. With Monza just 2 weeks away teams like Lotus and Force India will take a lot confidence heading to the power dependent circuit. Teams like Williams will be left wondering and out of confidence. The drive of the day definitely went to Romain Grosjean, but money concerns are hindering the team and people are wondering if they will make it to Monza. The final classification was:

1st) Lewis Hamilton
2nd) Nico Rosberg
3rd) Romain Grosjean
4th) Daniil Kvyat
5th) Sergio Perez
6th) Felipe Massa
7th) Kimi Raikkonen
8th) Max Verstappen
9th) Valtteri Bottas
10th) Marcus Ericsson
11th) Felipe Nasr
12th) Sebastian Vettel (DNF)
13th) Fernando Alonso
14th) Jenson Button
15th) Roberto Merhi
16th) Will Stevens
17th) Carlos Sainz (DNF)
18th) Daniel Ricciardo (DNF)
19th) Pastor Maldonado (DNF)
20th) Nico Hulkenberg (DNF)

Monza will take place from the 2nd-6th of September.

All images courtesy of www.Formula1.com

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Belgium Grand Prix - Qualifying Analysis

It appears once again that when Lewis Hamilton needs to turn up his game he simply can. The Brit stole the show and recorded his 6th straight pole position of the season yesterday in Spa.

Pole Sitter Lewis Hamilton

It was again a second fiddle for Nico Rosberg as he couldn't find an answer to Hamilton and finished almost 5 tenths down to his team mate.

One of the best chances for a win other than Mercedes is Valterri Bottas. In the last 2 races, the car in the P3 grid slot has found themselves leading out of turn 1. If Mercedes can continue to have problems with the starts, especially with the new rules applied here, Bottas could be a chance to secure his first race win. The numbers are also good for him considering the Brackley team haven't yet experienced the winners champagne in Spa.

P4 was taken by the flying Frenchman of Romain Grosjean in his Lotus but due to a gearbox change has a 5 place grid drop. This will promote Force India to the best grid spot of the season with Sergio Perez qualifying in 5th after flying lap time in Q3. The odds are with him as well as the Silverstone based team tend to do well here with a 1, 2 finish in 1998 (As Jordan Grand Prix) and Giancarlo Fisichella scoring Force India's maiden pole position and podium here in 2009. Perez will hope to repeat the scenes of Bahrain 2014 where he drove his Force India to 3rd place behind the Mercedes.

Force India consider themselves a chance for serious points with P5 and P11 on the grid.

This has certainly been made easier for him with a disappointing session from Ferrari. With Kimi Raikkonen in 14th place after his engine gave up down at turn 15 on his out lap. Sebastian Vettel was the last man to cross the line in Q3 and could only manage a very mediocre 9th. It's definately advanatge Williams in the constructors battle for 2nd.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari will start in P14.

Red Bull weren't much better with Ricciardo managing 6th and Kvyat only 12th. This probably points to a low fuel load being used in practice where the team appeared to be quite strong and now we are just seeing there true pace.

It was no better day for McLaren as Jenson Button managed to outqualify Fernando Alonso in 17th and 18th places. Both cars will drop to the back due to there engine penalties.

The Belgium Grand Prix will commence in just under 5 hours. The grid order looks like this:

1st) Lewis Hamilton

2nd) Nico Rosberg

3rd) Valtteri Bottas

4th) Romain Grosjean (5 Place Grid Penalty)

5th) Sergio Perez

6th) Daniel Ricciardo
7th) Felipe Massa
8th) Pastor Maldonado
9th) Sebastian Vettel
10th) Carlos Sainz
11th) Nico Hulkenberg
12th) Daniil Kvyat
13th) Marcus Ericsson
14th) Kimi Raikkonen
15th) Max Verstappen (10 Place Grid Penalty)
16th) Felipe Nasr
17th) Jenson Button (50 Place Grid Penalty)
18th) Fernando Alonso (55 Place Grid Penalty)
19th) Will Stevens
20th) Roberto Merhi

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Spain Previews - Grosjean and Maldonado on Catalunya, are they the next best?

Less than a week now till the 5th round of the Formula One season. We head to the Circuit De Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. The question on everyones mind is Ferrari or Mercedes, and Spain is all about the car because the drivers all know the circuit from its use in pre-season testing. Teams know how to set up for it, so on the day it really comes down to things like, tire wear, strategy and driver skill.

However in this post we aren't focusing on the front of the field, rather the middle of the pack, the Lotus F1 Team to be precise. After a tough 2014, with 10 points and 8th in the constructors. 2015 was the start to a new time for Lotus with a change to Mercedes power, as they kept the same driver line up of the erratic Pastor Maldonado and the ever improving Romain Grosjean. They managed to sign the 2014 GP2 champion, Jolyon Palmer on as the test and reserve driver, and have used him in Friday practice sessions. However the first race didn't go well for Lotus with a double DNF (Did not finish) on the first lap. The next 3 races were not to good for Pastor Maldonado, with a DNF in Malaysia and China, and only 15th in Japan, after problems with the car. But on the other hand for Romain Grosjean, he was 11th in Malaysia, unlucky after Sergio Perez hit him off the track. China and Bahrain were better for him with back to back 7th places. This leaves Lotus in 6th place in the constructors standings with 12 points, 2 more than what they scored over the whole of the 2014 season.

Maldonado leads Grosjean at the 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix

Now there focus moves to Spain, where they plan to get more points with new upgrades to the Lotus E23. Grosjean said in an interview with the Formula One website: "It was our best circuit last year, and I also finished fourth back in 2012 as well as setting the fastest lap. It is a circuit everyone knows backwards, so as a team we go to Barcelona intent on getting much more performance from the car". Pastor Maldonado has extremely good memories of Spain, where he scored his only win and podium of his career there in 2012 with the relatively uncompetitive WilliamsF1 Team. Maldonado said in an interview with the Formula One website: "Hopefully we’ll see a good result there for the team and some points for me! A top ten in qualifying will be our first focus and then it’ll be a very tough race in terms of tire management, with a lot of pit stops and strategy". Overall Lotus hope to keep improving into a front runner in 2015.

Lotus drivers, Romain Grosjean (left) and Pastor Maldonado (right).

My opinion is good with Lotus, and throughly like them as a team and I believe that Romain Grosjean is the next best driver on the grid, after you take out the Williams, Mercedes and Ferrari's. He finished 7th behind those 6 cars in China and proved this theory, and was 7th in Bahrain, with 1 Red Bull (Ricciardo) replacing 1 Williams (Massa) in front of him. Maldonado however, I really think that Lotus need to replace him next year, he just doesn't seem to be able last a full race. I hope to see Romain Grosjean back on the podium some time soon as the team leader, with Jolyon Palmer moving up into the 2nd driver role.

Below is an interview with Pastor Maldonado with his thoughts an opinions before the 2015 Formula One season