quoteKimi, Seb gearing up for “specific layout” track
Baku – A different track and a different challenge await the Scuderia Ferrari drivers in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. That’s how Kimi Raikkonen describes the newest circuit in the F1 calendar: “The Baku track is a unique place. It’s a street circuit, but nothing like Monaco and more similar to Singapore, with long straights and very narrow sections. Last year it was the first time we were racing here and it was difficult. It was very hot and quite tricky on the tire side, not very easy to manage. This year being the second time here, it should be easier for everybody, even though the cars are different and we have slightly different tires. Today it’s a bit cooler, but it is supposed to heat up over the weekend; let’s see how the weather will turn out. Last year there were many teams that proved to be fast and you would not expect that; maybe it will be the same thing this year, maybe not. As for us, we have been quite good everywhere this season; obviously there are stronger and weaker places, but our base level is quite strong and we expect to be in the fight. Then it’s a question of putting all the things together and try to be the fastest team”.
Sebastian Vettel is also looking forward to the weekend: “In Canada we didn’t have an ideal race. But I think we had a good recovery from there. Now, we’ll see what happens during this weekend. This is a different track with a specific layout. Last year we did a god job here in Baku. We finished second, struggled a little bit on Friday, but managed to recover well on Saturday. Now we are working real well in the team and I think things are coming together”.
quoteKimi Raikkonen prepared to assist Sebastian Vettel's title challenge
Kimi Raikkonen says he is prepared to help Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel to this year's Formula One drivers' title once he is no longer in contention of winning it himself.
After seven rounds, Raikkonen trails Vettel by a sizeable 68 points and realistically is not in contention for this year's championship. Speaking in Thursday's drivers' press conference in Baku, Raikkonen confirmed he would have no issues in aiding Vettel's attempts to win a fifth drivers' crown and Ferrari's first since 2007.
"Nothing has changed and we know exactly when things goes either way," Raikkonen explained. "That's how it has always been and will be in the future. When it's clear I don't have the chance to fight for the championship I'll help Seb and I have no issues with that, as I did in the past. I think it's a very easy decision for everyone in the team.
"The first thing is to try to make sure we can be at the top with Ferrari, that's the most important thing and then if Seb can win and I cannot. The first thing is to work for Ferrari and try to get the best possible position all the time."
The Finn acknowledges Vettel has been driving well but believes a slow start to the season with "little problems" is the reason why he trails his teammate by such a big margin.
"I've had some bad races so far and obviously Seb has had good races so far and has been driving very well this year,'' Raikkonen added. "I didn't start the season too well, especially in the first few races. It wasn't bad races but not too good or where I wanted to be. Here and there I had some little problems, I have one DNF, and the last race was not ideal, but that's how it goes sometimes. And my team mate has had a very good start of the season, that's all."
Lewis Hamilton recovered from free practice troubles to claim a commanding pole position in qualifying for Formula 1's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, beating Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes one-two.
The fight at the front looked close with Ferrari and Red Bull in practice, but Mercedes enjoyed a large advantage over its F1 competition when it came to qualifying.
Hamilton struggled particularly on Friday and was only third fastest in final practice earlier on Saturday, but turned it on when it really mattered at the Baku city circuit.
He was the only driver to lap under 1m42s in Q1 and was comfortably fastest with a single run in Q2 as well.
He let Bottas get briefly ahead during the initial runs in Q3, after locking up and running wide at Turn 16 near the end of his quickest lap, before Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull hit the wall at the Turn 6 right-hander, bringing out the red flags and spoiling a potentially faster lap for Hamilton.
That incident turned the session into a one flying lap dash once the wreckage was cleared, and Hamilton pulled out a stunning effort on his final run to claim pole by almost half a second from Bottas.
Both Ferraris struggled in qualifying, with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel taking to the escape road at Turn 3 during their first runs.
Raikkonen recovered best to claim third on the grid, but over six tenths of a second down on the second Mercedes.
Vettel was fourth in the sister Ferrari, fractionally ahead of the surviving Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Sergio Perez pipped Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon by less than a tenth of a second to complete the top six, while Lance Stroll narrowly outqualified Williams team-mate Felipe Massa for the first time to claim a career-best eighth on the grid.
Ricciardo ended up slowest in Q3 following his crash.
The pace of the top five teams ensured there wasn't much of a fight to make it through to Q3.
The Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr weren't fast enough to challenge the Williams and Force Indias, but were comfortably quick enough to outpace Kevin Magnussen's Haas (even with the benefit of an aerodynamic tow from Sainz), Nico Hulkenberg's Renault - which lost power after only one run in Q2 - and Pascal Wehrlein's Sauber, which the Mercedes junior driver heroically dragged into the top 15.
A last-ditch effort from Magnussen ensured a Haas made it through to Q2 at the expense of Fernando Alonso's McLaren-Honda, which ended up 16th quickest, retrofitted with a 'spec 2' engine, and just 0.017s shy of beating Wehrlein's Sauber into Q2.
Alonso is set to drop to the rear of the grid thanks to his 40-place grid penalty for various engine component changes, which will elevate Romain Grosjean's Haas and the second Sauber of Marcus Ericsson.
The other McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne was slowest of those that ran in qualifying, 0.235s adrift of Ericsson, and will also cop a hefty grid penalty - including five places for an unscheduled gearbox change after final practice.
Jolyon Palmer was classified last in the session, without a lap time to his name. He sat out qualifying after a high-pressure fuel leak caused his Renault to cook itself during the early stages of practice three.
PROVISIONAL STARTING GRID:
POS DRIVER CAR TIME GAP 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m40.593s - 2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m41.027s 0.434s 3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m41.693s 1.100s 4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m41.841s 1.248s 5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m41.879s 1.286s 6 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m42.111s 1.518s 7 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 1m42.186s 1.593s 8 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m42.753s 2.160s 9 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1m42.798s 2.205s 10 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m43.414s 2.821s 11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Renault 1m43.186s - 12 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m43.796s - 13 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m44.267s - 14 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber/Ferrari 1m44.603s - 15 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Renault 1m43.347s - 16 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m44.468s - 17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1m44.795s - 18 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 1m44.334s - 19 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Honda 1m45.030s - 20 Jolyon Palmer Renault - -
What a race! I saw a lot of F1 races in my life. But never such a strange one. You don´t know if you shall or ..... for sure for Kimis bad luck- again! He retired twice in one race I´m sure not many can say this....
quoteAzerbaijan Grand Prix - Kimi comments about the race
Today many things happened that were out of our hands and unfortunately we paid a big price. After the start, at the second corner, I got hit by Bottas; I don’t know what he was doing, he braked very early but probably he noticed that and let the brakes off, went too fast and hit me. Because of that the rear end of my car hit the wall and I had a massive damage. We were able to keep going but then I was unlucky. The two Force Indias collided, some debris flew off and destroyed my rear tire. As a consequence my whole floor and the rear wing were damaged and we decided to retire. When the red flag stopped the race we thought that we might try and go back on track. The mechanics did and amazing job, managed to change the floor and the endplate in a very short time. But obviously my car was still not perfect and we decided to stop. It’s not a good day when your car retires twice in a race. I’m disappointed because, without all these things happening, my car would have been good. There’s nothing else we could have done, we tried our best.
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Thu Jun 22, 2017 7:36 pm (Last edited: Thu Jun 22, 2017 7:37 pm)
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I´m sure not many can say this.... 
Grow up Seb!
