Not as dull as expected shocker.

Well I'll be, that wasn't too bad in the end. Well okay I did fall asleep for a lap or two in the middle. But I've been up since midnight watching the WEC race from Japan which was, by the way an absolute belter.

Okay, well this is going to be a bit short I'm afraid as the France v Ireland game kicks off in a bit so I have to be ready for that.

Firstly congratulation to Mercedes for securing the Constructors world title today, they needed Kimi to t bone Bottas and get a time penalty to achieve it, but let's be honest it was pretty much a forgone conclusion from about Australia wasn't it. Ferrari had a go at making a fight of it, but the only thing that was going to beat them was reliability, certainly not a Renault or Ferrari engine.

Almost but not quite there, Lewis has one hand on the big silver trophy tonight. He needs to beat Nico by 10 points and Sebastian by 2 in the next race in America and he's home free, given how well he's driving at the moment,  I can't see there being much problem for him .. Once again the only thing that could stop him is reliability.  

And that's the tricky one it's the little things inside the cars that's causing problems for Mercedes at the moment, Lewis failed to finish in Singapore for want a 3 penny spring in the engine.  Now Nico fails to finish because of a washer in the throttle control.  Small stuff that ruins the race and can rob a driver of the title, so it's not all cut and dried just yet!

So Lewis inherited his win, but would probably have passed Nico at some point, or not, who knows. He failed to get pole as like everyone else he couldn't dial the car into the circuit. The limited running they all had meant they had to make a few guesses along the way and Lewis operates best when the car is right underneath him. Nico is the one that can take a loose car and adapt his driving style, it's probably the only thing he's better than Lewis at.   But it was all mote when the throttle stopped working on Hamilton's only real opposition, the Williams didn't have the Legs and Vettel was too far back to push the Merc. So it was a relatively easy win in the end, although there was a slight question about the rear win in the closing laps as Lewis reported it might be loose.  See Lady Luck is a cheeky Minx.

Vettel was second and had to remind Kimi just who was in charge. He got the fastest lap at the end chasing Hamilton.

Perez was third and looked like he'd just won the world championship. Okay he had to rely on Kimi taking out Bottas (lots of people will be buying Kimi a beer on the plan home tonight I suspect) but he put himself there with a trade mark "looking after the tyres on a long run" race. Something he's had a lot of practice at over the years and no, it's not pretty but it gets the results and Force India deserves a break.

Massa was largely anonymous driving from the back of the field to fourth, a poor  qualifying  making life difficult for the Williams driver.

Home boy Kvyat was fifth on a bad day for Renault engine drivers.

Nasr has a good run to sixth to remind everyone that Sauber are still there.

Maldonado wasn't the one to smear a Lotus down the wall this week. Hurrah, he was seventh at the end and the team felt he could have tried just a little bit harder.  

Kimi is eventually classified eighth, the stewards gave him a stiff talking too about driving standards and handed him a 30 second "stop, hold and go" penalty. I think he also gets a grid penalty for a third stiff talking too and points on his licence or something. But I'll check that before we get to America.

Button was ninth with a rubbish underpowered dog of a car and engine. The McLaren headquarters has this big atrium area with all the cars they are most proud of, Le Mans winners and the cars Bruce McLaren designed, stuff like that. The 2015 F1 McLaren Honda should be front and centre, the very first car all the employees should see first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Just to remind them how badly they all got it wrong and how it feels to fail so abjectly. No one ever improved looking at the things that went right, you learn from the things that humiliate you in front of the world.

And finally tenth goes to Verstappen because even though Alonso finished tenth on the road, he didn't feel the need to respect the track limits repeatedly even after the stewards told him to stop being so naughty.   So he got a post race five second penalty and Verstappen beat him to the points by 2.786 seconds.  Tough, tough but fair.

Okay last man standing was Will Stevens who is rapidly becoming Max like in his ability to be rubbish.

Right the rugby is about to start so I'll end it there. See you in two weeks for the crowning of a new champion in Texas.  

Back to the grind I'm affraid.

Right. Okay, I'm afraid these are going to have to get a bit more focused and shorter now. It's one month till my wife is due to give birth, so I have a huge long list of stuff which I'm supposed to be sorting out. Rather than wasting my time away writing silly Formula one stuff.  

But I've sneaked a beer into the den and closed the door. I think I've got enough time to give you a preview of the weekends Austrian GP.

So then Mercedes will win .... Or will they ? Austria is very much like Canada, long fast bits with a couple of tight chicanes. It flows up and down the side of a mountain and fast times come from fast powerful engines; Mechanical grip is required as the teams trim the cars out to make them as slippery as possible.

Ferrari was right up Mercedes chuff in Canada, or they would have been if Vettels power unit had held together. Kimi normally qualifies a few tenths off Vettel and in Canada he was only half a second or so behind Nico's rear wing. If Vettel hadn't had his problems he would have been right up there making Mercedes work for their points. So Ferrari should be just as fast this time and a punt on some Vettel top step action isn't such a long shot. You certainly want at least one Ferrari on the podium.

But what about a Williams up there, I hear you cry. Well last year they should have sneaked a victory, but pragmatic point scoring trumped spirited racing. This year the car is just as fast and now more reliable, but the Mercs have pulled further ahead and Ferrari have got their engine working so the best they can reasonably hope for is a fourth but it'll probably be a fifth. Really they're waiting for last year's prize money to clear Bernie's "resting account" around the last third of the season. Next year it's going to be all about the Williams boys, trust me ;)

Lotus looked to have got their act together in Canada; Grosjean was beaten fair and square by Maldonado who managed to avoid hitting anything for a change. Austria being a power circuit I think a top ten is more than likely, and there's plenty of space for Pastor to charge around in.

Out of the points will be all the Renault drivers again. The Redbull A1 ring that Redbull pay to maintain, goes up the side of a mountain so if your engine runs out of puff on anything longer than 100 yards of straight road, you're in trouble. I've lost count of how many engines the various Redbull and Torro Rosso drivers are on but I expect someone will get a penalty for changing something this weekend. A Renault engine car in the top ten is a very long shot this weekend.

And finally Nico Hulkenberg, He's had a bit of a quite season thus far. So he went off and with the help of Porsche, British driver Nick Tandy and New Zealander Earl Bamber, only went and won Le Mans. It was mostly due to Nick Tandy who drove it like he stole it though the night. But this wasn't some seat of the pants, wing and a prayer, last man standing win. This was a gutsy, hard fought and well deserved win, beating the normally ruthless Audi winning machine. We all knew the Hulk was a top class driver and I hope he gets a bit more respect now, If he isn't in a factory LMP1 program next year, there's no justice in this world.

Right that's enough. Flip a coin to chose who follows Lewis home, Mercs and Ferraris up front, Williams best of the rest, throw in a Lotus and a Force India and then chose between the remaining Merc engine cars for the rest of the top ten.    

Oh one last thing ... McLaren Honda. The tension ramped up several notches in Canada. Alonso openly saying "Look the car is dog slow, unreliable and handles like a fat kid in a chocolate shop..... Now you're telling me its thirsty too.  Oh for f.... "

Alonso is not a happy camper. This is not the McLaren he signed up for and he can see no end to the pain he's having to endure at each round this year. There seems to be an awful lot of head scratching around the car and yet another bit melts, or falls off, or grenades itself, of just stops working.  Sure the other teams had these teething problems last year! But Honda had a year off testing whatever they wanted to for however long they wanted, they had no testing restrictions at all to sort these problems out.

The car is fundamentally wrong, the engine is going to take years to sort, meanwhile the Merc and Renault squads are getting further up the road. 

The Hulk goes off and wins Le Mans in the car Alonso was expected to be in, but was banned from racing by Big Ron. I wouldn't be surprised if Fernando burst into Ron's office and demonstrated his frustration to Ron using the medium of a clenched fist. Repeatedly.

Right no, that is it. Update your prediction before Friday please and good luck.

Sir, sir, it's all so unfair sir ....

Okay, we’re all back on track now. 

Bahrain then this weekend. Another straight fight between Lewis, Vettel and the increasingly petulant Nico. You know you can always tell the good from the merely right place, right time drivers. The good ones say things like, “Well I didn’t really get the car going the way I wanted it, but we learnt stuff today so, we’ll do better next time”. The not so good say, “ Sir, sir … he was backing me up and going too slow and I couldn’t over take because  the tyres sir, yes the tyres were round and black sir, I didn’t want to wear them out sir and he made me go too slow sir”.

Everyone who heard or read those words from Nico must have reached pretty much the same conclusion as me … “Well why didn’t you overtake Lewis then, if he was going too slow ?”

And I can’t really think of a reason as to why he didn’t, can you? Someone pointed out to me that Lewis spent last year tucked up behind Nico waiting for that mistake, the split second when he could make the move and take the win.  He’d rag the tyres till they bled, push the car till the brakes cried enough. But he’d get the points and Nico would stand on the lower step, bottom lip trembling slightly as the champagne hit him in the face.  

Lewis didn’t complain that Nico was too slow! No, he berated himself for not qualifying better and allowing Nico to dominate on Saturday. Then he’d win and  make it look easy, Nico became increasingly desperate with the last lap crash in qualifying in Monaco and the elbows out crash at Spa. The crowds responded to this petulance by casting him as the panto villain and booing him on the podium. It wasn’t until Abu Dhabi, when Nico asked to be allowed to keep going till the end in his sick car, that the crowds forgave him for the tantrums and unsporting behaviour.

Nico is no fool, he is a pretty good driver, but he doesn’t seem to have that thing, that edge, that ability to win races when he doesn’t have the best hand of cards to play.  Where Lewis or Alonso will just keep going, dragging whatever car they have under them to victory, Nico like Vettel needs a winning car before he can win. The two of them can get the best out of the car, but nothing more.

And Vettel has a very good car, Kimi is showing us that. For too long Kimi has been bored and dismissive during interviews. Mono syllabic answers, hiding behind big dark sunglasses and batting inane questions away with a lazy flap on his hand. Last year you could be forgiving for wondering if he actually turned up for the races he was so under the radar. Now though, robbed of a result in Australia, a drive back through the field to fourth in Malaysia and what I assume was another easy fourth in China and Kimi has his mojo back. Not enough to beat Vettel  yet, but then he isn’t as lucky as the German.

So then last of the season opener fly away races, Bahrain was fantastic last year. It was Merc letting rip and showing just how fast they were. Nico and Lewis put on a show as Lewis stamped his authority all over Nico and showed him what was really required to win a championship. Going on past form, I can’t see there being much difference this year. Vettel … well Bahrain isn’t normally a high tyre wear circuit, so I think third again here unless Lewis does a better job of backing up Nico this time ;)

Williams next again .. Massa, what the Sally Hill has happened to Felipe Baby then? He’s got his act together and is showing Bottas the way home. Not the story I was expecting!

Then you get to choose from Nasr in a resurgent Sauber, Danny in a woefully poor Redbull and Grosjean in an unlucky Lotus. Although the championship points don’t really reflect it, the one to take a punt on would be Verstappen, who is raising plenty of eyebrows with feisty and controlled drives. I still think he’s a bit young, he doesn’t look like he even shaves at all, but he’s go the talent to get noticed, now he needs the talent to bring it home consistently.

Worth a punt too would be Perez, who’s looking pretty handy in a the Force India. I think the Hulk is looking at his exit strategy to Porsche and Le Mans now, so he’s taken his eye off the F1 ball for now. Perez has been almost exciting at times this year, jus the car letting him down a bit.

Further back and  McLaren are sort of moving forward. But every time they tell us they’ll turn the engine up and start winning, I look at the car and think, “That car looks a bit of a handful”.

I don’t think turning the wick up is going to deal with the snap over steer or random handling quirks, she’s a bit of a handful and mistake. I think if they can get in to the bottom of the top ten before  Italy in September, they’ll have done well.

And then we have Manor Marussia and they are still there, still plugging away. They’ve lasted longer than I expected and go on them for that. I ‘m not sure who’s going to be driving for them this weekend., I thought Merhi was only on a 3 race contract. Let’s see if he came up with anymore cash shall we.

Right that’s your lot.

You can update your predictions here if you so desire.  

Shut up and develop the car, you irritating little man!

So then, have you been watching the F1 circus this past week ?

If you have, then you won’t have failed to see one team making all the headlines after its poor showing in Australia. A once great team now fallen on hard times in the engine department, is not firing on all cylinders and the team isn’t happy about it. They’ve blustered up and down the pit lane demanding that they be given special dispensation to sort out their engine and how it just isn’t fair that one team is winning everything.

No, not McLaren, who had probably the worst start to a season in the team’s long and illustrious history. One car grenaded its engine on the way to the grid and the other car trundled around at the back of the field limping along without even a Marussia to keep it company. It was a spectacularly poor showing for a team used to winning multiple championships.

And yet there hasn’t been a peep from Ron complaining about how they can’t update the engine, how it’s all so unfair they can’t win. He’s not been shouting and pouting to all the media demanding attention and threatening to sell the team and flounce off with all his fizzy drink money. No, McLaren have said “Yupe, that was a bit of a mess … we’ll do better next time” and then got on with sorting their cars out.

Not so Redbull I’m afraid, who were pretty smug winners when they won four titles back to back and are now showing themselves to be appallingly bad losers.

We’re used to them playing fast and loose with the rule book and throwing their toys out of the pram when others show better technical innovation. But now they have gone fully tantrum and threatened to pack up their toys and flounce off unless the rules are changed to allow them to win again. As you should with difficult and petulant children, the rest of the paddock has resolutely ignored their shouting and attention seeking. The sole voice to agree with them was that of Bernie, a long time friend of the winners with money. Who mumbled something about “the show” and “the fans” and “how much can we charge them for this” then asked what an app was and how much they could charge the fans for that.

The highlight was Horner pouting at the media and claiming that “Sir, sir ... Redbull never dominated like Mercedes are now sir! Its soooooo unfair sir” Clearly forgetting the time Pirelli changed the tyre constructions and Vettel won every race by a country mile for the rest of the year.    

So Redbulls furious proclamations that they are “This close to selling it all to Audi and good riddance to the whole thing”, should be treated with the contempt it deserves. F1 has always been a cyclical sport, teams rise and fall all the time. Some rise and float for a time, some rise and flounder just under the surface for a time before being eaten by their creditors. Whinging that the life raft doesn’t have the right kind of seats and the champagne is too warm wins you no friends with the other passengers. As McLaren are demonstrating, the best thing is to get on with building a new raft and keep your mouth shut, for that I think I shall cheer on their efforts this year.

So then, this weekend.

Well Alonso was seen getting aboard a plane bound for Malaysia with a race suit and helmet. The word from the team is he will be in the car for first practice on Friday, it remains to be seen if he’s in the car on Sunday afternoon though. He’s been in the simulator catching up with all the updates since his accident or which he claims the steering went heavy before he lost control. The inference being then that the car was at fault and a mechanical system failed, not the sparky blue bits.

I think Alonso is too much of born racer to walk away from this car, but a couple of races tooling around at the back of the grid might weaken that resolve. But if you want a single team to develop the nuts off a car, then McLaren are your boys and girls. Sure it’s bad now, but eventually it’ll be at least alright. I don’t think a McLaren in the top ten would be a good idea just yet.

Also unlikely to trouble the top ten will be Manor (Marussia) who got slapped with having to pay their air freight costs after the non running in Australia. Whilst the FIA was perfectly happy that the team had a car and at least made it to the first race, Bernie threw a wobbler and told everyone they had no intention of running and where “Just ’avin a laugh” at F1’s expense.

Manor pointed out that Ferrari who make their engine had handed over a couple of spare 2014 unit for them to use at a just about affordable rate. But as there had been no plans to use 2014 engines because they were so rubbish, there was no software to make them start. The 2015 code wasn’t backwards compatible despite assurances it would be, a problem software companies keep seeming to have! Ferrari shrugged and said “it’sa too tight’a deadline sinore”. Then shrugged again and walked off so compare sunglasses.

Manor claim they will be up and running in Malaysia, but the pesky 107%, “your too slow” rule is going to be their biggest challenge.

Up the front.

Mercedes will win it .. and that means Lewis, unless Nico gets his act together.  Mercedes have been smiling slyly and hinting that have an even better update coming, just you wait and see. So anything other than a silver car on pole and the top step of the podium is a foolish notion. Even in the rain that car is so much faster than the rest. Pick your favourite driver for the win.

Next is interesting, Ferrari or Williams.

Williams had the measure of the Ferrari in Australia, although it is clearly faster than last year donkey, the front wing loses its entire front end grip when following another car. Massa was called in far too early, allowing Vettel to nail a couple of fast laps in clear air sail past the Brazilian. A sign to me, that Williams were still looking at a conservative and safe points claiming finish than a, “roll the dice and see what happens” strategy.  They need to hang it out there and have the courage to make thing happen for them, they’re Williams F1 damn it! They’re better than that.

Bottas is talking up his chances of returning, but anyone who’s had a back injury will tell you it doesn’t take much of a knock to set it off again. If the Williams driver is back, there are a few hefty bumps in Malaysia so I think he might be a bit tentative about pushing too hard.  Massa is paid to be safe and steady, so i think Vettel will be ahead of the plucky British cars again. Kimi, well your guess is as good as mine where he is.

Then you have the Sauber and Redbull fight. The Swiss team were more than a bit surprised just how much better the 2015 Ferrari engine is. They were expecting to just collect the odd point and try not to embarrass themselves this year, and here they are third in the championship only one point behind Ferrari! If Redbull are going to continue to have Renault issues than we might very well see Sauber in fifth place for the next race or three. And Nasr appeared to have at least some talent, keeping a number of more qualified drivers behind him all race long. Melbourne is a tricky little track that requires a certain amount of respect. He did alright did Nasr but Ericsson is still just their because he paid the winter fuel allowance at team HQ.

So then Lewis or Nico for the win, give Vettel another shot at Italian glory in third, Massa and Nasr to round out the top five if Kimi doesn’t keep his hands off the ice-creams.

Lotus will be better this weekend after promising so much and delivering so little in Australia and should be ahead of the Torro Rosso boys. Force India will be keeping McLaren company for the last point.

Okay.

Please feel free to update your predictions before the Friday if you want to, any changes after midnight on Thursday will only affect the next race in China.

Malaysia always throws up rain at some point remember. A wet track will level the playing field for the mid table boys considerably. Mercedes will still walk it ;)

Good luck everyone.

What a race that was !!!!

What a race!

Alright, maybe not such a great race if you’re a Rosberg fan, but for the neutrals and the Hamilton fans that was a belter. For Formula one it was a great result too, it means the last five races are going to mean something, neither of the Merc boys has their hands on that trophy yet. It’s all going to come down to that double pointer in Abu Dhabi isn’t it? And you never know, Danny is still here, stranger things have happened before.   

So Lewis got pole by the slimmest of margins from Nico; 0.007 seconds at 200 mph is about the width of Bernie wallet after he’s been to visit his mate in Germany. But that wasn’t the whole story of qualifying, Ferrari had rolled up to Singapore with one less El Presidente and a new found purpose. Kimi especially looked like a new man with a very real danger of actually starting the race on the front row until an engine glitch robbed him of a second run.

Alonso took a swing at it but just wasn’t as fast as his team mate and ended up behind the two Redbulls. Riccy just edging a rejuvenated Vettel to third and fourth, the German looked disappointed but had the good grace to say he was impressed with Ricciardo.  In fact Vettel looked a lot more chipper all weekend long, seeming to suit the track, he was up around the sharp end all weekend.

Come race day and suddenly as the Merc boys fired up Nico’s car, there was a lot of worried looks and then panicking.  As Rosberg pulled the clutch lever in and make his way to the start line, nothing happened. Ctrl Alt-Del .... pull the lever again, nothing, just a bit fat N on the LCD display. Okay try a new steering wheel and reset the system again.  Success, with minutes to spare he’s out the pits and through the pit lane before it closes. He makes it to the grid where the engineers pounce on it and try to figure out the problem. Queue much frantic gesticulating and bodies diving head first into the cockpit to tweak connectors, check fuses and flip switches. There was much shaking of heads and worried looks.

As the other teams engineers cleared the grid for the parade lap, over the radio Nico is told it’s an intermittent problem and importantly they don’t have a handle on what the route cause is.  As Charlie waves Lewis off to start the parade lap, Nico is stuck on the grid cars streaming past him as he tries in vain to find a gear.  As the last car heads off to warm its tyres and brakes up, the Merc boys push the stricken car into the pit lane to reset the system yet again and try a third steering wheel.

Meanwhile Lewis pulls up to the line for the start of the race, his run to the first corner unchallenged. The lights go out and off he goes, never to be seen by the chasing pack again he hopes.  Vettel jumps Riccy off the line and whilst they’re squabble over the same piece of tarmac, Alonso jumps them both, but misses the brake point for the first corner and takes to the run off. He just about avoids the Armco and gives back second to Vettel a few corners later.  And then we settle down to wait for things to happen.

At the back of the field, Nico has left the pits to join the race but is stuck behind Max of all people. This is a Merc remember, the cream of 2014 there is no better car in the race. Surely it’s just going to be a matter of corners before he’s past, but no, for lap after lap he was stuck behind a car that looked as though it was just faith keeping it on the road. You don’t often get to see Max at work all the way back there, slogging around for nothing week after week. And now you could see just what he had to work with. I’ve seen a half set wet jelly stick to a plate better than that car to the road, some of it may have been Max just being inept, but really, that car looks like a real handful even in the slow stuff. I have a new found respect for Max now, that car is awful.

Anyway. From the onboard, you could see Rosberg fighting a car that didn’t want to change gear when he wanted it too, kept going from third to fifth by itself. The DRS wasn’t opening on request and the Lights to tell him when to change up and down didn’t appear to bear any resemblance to the engine note I could hear. In short, it was like a Scottish ‘yes’ vote, all inevitably in vain. By the time he got to the pits stops, he couldn’t get the thing into neutral, so had to stall it coming in to the box. They gave him yet another steering wheel, but he still couldn’t find a gearbox to control and they called it a day. Having apologised to the team for being a cock in Spa, this time it was Toto’s turn to apologise to Nico for not being able to fix his car.

Meanwhile Lewis kept on going and kept on leading, Vettel had given us the impression that he was racing for the lead, but Hamilton was never in any real trouble. That is, until Sutil forgot to look in his mirrors and ran over Perez’s front wing. Normally a marshal would run on at this point, grab the bit left on the road and start checking ebay for prices as he ran back. But this wing broke free of the Force India’s nose before exploding in a shower of carbon fibre under the car.  Out came the safety car and suddenly Lewis had a problem.

He still needed to change to the harder compound tyre, but the safety car was too early to comfortable finish the race on one more set of tyres. And as others had already changed to the hard set, he would end up down in 10^th places with little hope of getting past cars on similar rubber.  So he had to stay out on super soft rubber and rebuild his lead.

He had 20 odd laps, half a tank of gas, 0.8 seconds head start and he needed to be 30 seconds up the road to keep his lead when he stopped next. As the rest of the teams told their drivers they were going to stay out and not stop again, Lewis was told to spank it like it had been caught stealing from matrons handbag yet again. “Open her up lad and demonstrate just how much of an advantage this 2014 Mercedes Benz Formula one car has over the rest of the field”.  14 laps he went, 14 laps of pure Lewis magic, three and half seconds a lap faster than Vettel, Ricciardo and Alonso, on tyres that were already 10 laps old. The team kept telling him to stop worrying about everyone else and just get on with it as the lead grew by three seconds, then six and nine, lap after lap he absolutely ragged that car. Feeling every bump and slide, every wheel spin and missed apex. Desperately trying to build enough of a lead to stay in front of Vettel after the inevitable pit stop.

On lap 53, with a lead of only 23 seconds he came in, the crowd rose as one and stared back down the start finish straight. Vettel pulled round the last turn onto the straight, the mechanics dropped Lewis and he gunned it out of the pit box. Vettel was over the line ticking over another lap. The crowd held its breath as Hamilton crawled up the pit lane limited to 50 mph, Vettel at full chat down the straight to the first corner, Lewis could see the pit exit and freedom, Vettel swept into the first corner and past Lewis who shot out of the pit lane exit the rear dancing around scrabbling for grip as he just managed to stay ahead of Ricciardo and Alonso. The crowd let out an enormous cheer, what a race.  Ricky tried to hustle Lewis for a corner or two, but his tyres were over 20 laps old now and didn’t stand a chance against Hamilton’s brand spanking new rubber.

Vettel got his head down and tried to drive away from the Merc, but Lewis was like an unstoppable force of nature.  Reeling the Redbull in hand over first, it was like shooting fish in a barrel, before the end of the second lap he was back past the current world champion and off once more into the distance, leaving Vettel, Danny and Alonso to watch helplessly as he kept the championship alive.

What a race!

Lewis wins and takes the lead in the championship at last. Finally lady luck escapes the Bratwurst and sauerkraut party on the second floor of the Mercedes hospitality suit and comes looking for a pie and pint dinner. He wasn’t gifted this win with Rosberg hitting trouble. The safety car could well have scuppered the quiet afternoon drive through the city plans. But if Lewis can do only one thing, its drive the balls off a car when ordered to do so. Three and half seconds faster than anyone one else, a hatful of fastest laps and a pit stop to not mess up. At any point he could have tagged a wall or snatched a brake and smeared it Maldonardo style down the Rolex branded wall. But he didn’t, he drove it beautifully and showed everyone why he’s brilliant.

Vettel was second and didn't have to make too many passes to get there. As ever put him at the front and he’ll finish at the front. There was a moment there, when having predicted he would never win another race I thought I was going to have to eat humble pie, my least favour desert, even with a glass of full bodied desert wine. But Lewis was there to save my blushes and saves us from that finger being waved around.

Ricciardo, fluffed the start and lost out to Alonso and Vettel, managed to sneak past Alonso but couldn’t quite reach Vettel with no pit radio to tell him to not overtake his team mate what so ever laddie.

Alonso, looked at one stage like he might go for pole or a win or a podium or something, but like Ferrari this season failed to deliver on the promise.

Massa, had a quiet race with not too much drama. Looked after his tyres and avoided any wall action. Williams said this was unlikely to be a track that suited them, but Massa looked like he might have sneaked the pole, if everyone else hadn’t bothered to come out for their second runs. Still lots of points, keeps that ‘beating Ferrari’ dream alive.

Vergne, having been told his services are no longer required for next year, JEV has suddenly realised he has to start knocking his CV into shape. With little to show for his career so far he’s remembered what the words “RACING driver” means on his contract and started to drive with some spunk. A liberal interpretation of the term ‘track limits’ led to a 5 second penalty to be applied to his time post race. So he drove like a man with something to prove and passed car after car and built a nice big gap to keep his top ten finish, it was almost inspiring. But as other drivers have learnt to their cost over the years, driving with some vim and vigour after being told you’re fired rather than before, is not a very good calling card.  This will be the highlight of his F1 career I'm afraid.

Perez, was minding his own business until Sutil bumbled past him and drove over his wing. In the end it sort of saved his race as it meant he had to change tyres too early to make it through to the end. So he had to change again and was able to pick up places as those ahead ran out of grip. Not very moral boosting I know but points mean prizes, however you come by them.

Kimi was eighth in the end and must be disappointed with that. He was all over qualifying until the engine glitch and on a track that is difficult to overtake on, he was mired back in the pack. In clear air the car was fast, but behind other runners the lack of top speed grunt left the red car wheezing around for a chance opening.

Hulkenberg was ninth and ran out of grip at the end. But yet another race behind his team mate, bad vibes for his future continue to grow.

Finally Magnussen who I though drove pretty well all race is promoted to the top ten within sight of the line as Bottas runs out of sticky rubber before it doesn’t matter. Kev is starting to get his act together and I think has done enough to keep his seat if Alonso or Vettel decided to just ship to Woking next year. He certainly deserves to continue, he could do with dialling the aggression down a notch or two, but he’s got the skillz to pay the bills kidz.

Sorry ....  I went a bit street there. No idea why!

Aaaah, okay, yes, Hamilton got pole and the fastest lap and our ever faithful points machine Max ‘ the grin’ Chilton was last man rolling across the line keeping the timing and scoring people awake. Good for him.

It’s Japan in two weeks time as this fascinating championship year rolls on. See you there.

This weeks gallery picture is of the High Society heiress Lady Luck and her old school friend, the Goddess of checking the wiring loom Kevin. Help the Mercedes team boys prepare the cars for the forthcoming race. 

Miss Luck and friend working on a sticky shaft 

Nico saves,but Lewis scores on the rebound.

Right this is defiantly going to be a quick one because it was my birthday yesterday and I'm still partying. !! The roast lamb and new potatoes will be done in an hour and i’ve already cracked the Red open.

Normally Monza is just about the spirit of racing, the history and passion of the fans. Usually there isn’t much in the way of entertainment once the red light goes out at the start of the race.

But it turned into yet another fantastic race! 2014 really is turning into a classic season. There was actual real over taking and racing and stuff. Button, Perez, Kev, Bottas and yet again Danny Boy put on an excellent show for the minor places, but it looked like they wanted those places, they didn’t follow each other and hope an opening would appear, they muscled their way past, pressured the guy in front and put on a show.

Up front the Mercedes infighting was absent but what we did see was the stark difference in driving style of Lewis and Nico. Off the line Lewis, who had got pole with a stunning lap on Saturday, suddenly found a launch system refusing to launch. He mashed the loud pedal and smoked the rear tyres up the start finish straight to turn one to find himself now behind Nico, in the lead and Magnussen in front of Massa. There followed lots of urgent calls back the pit wall telling them exactly what he thought of the Mercedes software and then on with the business of being phenomenal.

Massa, showing the sort of form only glimpsed in the “Alonso is faster than you days” dispatched Kev pretty soon as Lewis chased them down. Nico was four seconds up the road by the time Lewis passed Massa to take second. He was soon up behind his team mate as the single pit stops started for the best of the rest. Vettel hoping to make a move pitted early, very, very early to try to jump the bunch ahead of him. That triggered everyone else who wasn’t expecting to catch the Mrec to call in too.

As Nico was leading the race he got to pit first, Lewis got the “hammer time now” pit call but only closed the gap by half a second once they were back on track together.

“Right Lewis”, came the pit call” the best thing to do here is sit behind Nico for the rest of the race and not get too close to him and maybe ... errr yeah maybe have a pop at him with a couple of laps left to race when the tyres a re a bit subpar and its all sort of over with ... okay lad”

But Lewis didn’t sit back and wait, no. Lewis spanked his car and caught Nico who was being all smooth and boring and technical. Hand over fist he was catching the leading Merc, until suddenly into the first chicane, Nico locks up the brakes and slithers up the escape road slalom course. Hamilton took the conventional route round the chicane and into the lead. Game set and job done.

Nico then got the “no racing now lad” message and the TV people looked for something else to follow. What we got was 30 odd laps of Button trying to pass Perez who was continuing to demonstrate he does know how to drive a car fast if he gets some love. Bottas recovering from dropping to eleventh at the start from third, with an absolutely belting drive. That Williams is like a missile in a straight line, easily the fastest thing through the speed trap. Ricciardo also recovering from a poor qualifying result with yet another “stamping on Vettels reputation” drive.

Kev got pinged again for poor sportsmanship, when the FIA decided he didn't give Bottas enough room as he tried to overtake. It looked pretty harsh to me; Kev was racing and tried to avoid crashing into Bottas as they entered the first chicane together. He was defending his line and to be fair he did all he could to avoid Bottas. I thought the Williams driver bailed early from the move and did the sensible thing. Maybe if Kev hadn’t been pinged weaving around at Spa he’s have been alright here. As it was the FIA got bored of not cocking things up for the views and gave him a five second penalty. As I say, i think it was harsh.

Okay, the new potatoes have been blanched and are now in for roasting. The water is ready for the broccoli and worryingly, half the red wine has gone! I suspect evaporation! Lets rattle off the top ten.

First Lewis with a another stellar “the bloody car has let me down” seat of the pants, balls to the wall, ace drive. If he wins all the other races and Nico come second every time, he might still win the title. But he needs, as John Virgo would say “Snookers now, Steve”. If you want a feisty driver that will spank a car and race till the last corner of the last race, 

Hamilton is your man. But Nico has lady luck riding shot gun and she can be a bugger to shift.

Nico lost this, all he had to do was brake at the same point on the circuit for lap after lap and the big silver cup was his for the taking. But as we saw in Monaco, sometimes it doesn’t quite work out like that for Rosberg, a momentary slip in concentration and suddenly he’s off down the slip road. This time he could carry on but only finish second, what a shame.

Massa, given a new contract by Williams and didn’t he look happy about it with a top draw result. He didn't exactly make it easy for Lewis to pass, but there’s no point farting against thunder. He was looking to get the maximum points he could for the team and you don’t do that tripping up the championship contenders. Williams want contractors points not bit of broken carbon fibre.  

Ricciardo had a bit of an off day on Saturday with a rubbish qualifying result, but made up for it on Sunday when it actually matters. I not sure he could have taken the fight to the Williams boys if he’d been better on Saturday, so this is about the best they were expecting 

I think. And he got to stick it to Vettel yet again.

Talking of whom, I now more convinced than ever that Vettel will never win another race. The car is good enough if the driver wants to win. I rest my case.

Perez showed some real balls today. That was about the best I’ve seen from him. It’s like all of a sudden he’s got belief or something. Hulkenberg was no where all weekend and Perez was up there hunting for points. Great stuff.

Button got shown the way home by the man McLaren fired for being a bit rubbish last year. Not a good race for Jenson really.

Kimi was ninth after yet another piss poor qualifying performance. Paging Doctor Lovegood, emergency career recus’ required in the red car !

Finally Kev was demoted back to tenth by the old farts in the FIA suits, even old Eddie Jordan though he was hard done by.

Lewis was the fastest man of the day and Gutierrez was given a 20 second penalty for being an idiot and is thusly last this week.

Right time to go and carve, see you next time in Singapore.

Spa .. It's handbags at twenty paces !!

Right I've had a very busy weekend riding around a forest and stuff, so this is going to be short as I need a shower.

Hamilton beat Rosberg off the line, Rosberg thought he had enough room and it turned out he didn't. Though when I watched it back he jinxed back in to swipe Hamilton's rear wheel ... in my opinion.

 Whatever the truth of what happened, and Nico is the only one who really knows if he meant to hit Lewis, the pit wall was in no doubt that Rosberg had fumbled the ball spectacularly and cost the team the win. And for a very good reason, Ricky boy has now got three wins and could, if the two boys keep driving into each other, cock up the plan and win the championship. Unlikely I know, but Kimi sneaked the silverware from under the McLaren boys in 2007 because they couldn't control Hamilton and Alonso.

The end result is probably going to be a flat "No more racing now, you idiots" rule, something along the lines of Senna and Prost, the first one into the first corner is allowed to win scenario. It sucks, but there is a lot of money at stake here. After that I was kind of fast forwarding, the end looked fun, and Rosberg's move on Bottas round Blanchemont was pretty awesome.


Right so Ricciardo wins by nipping past Vettel when he made a mistake on lap three, after that I don't think we saw him again until the flag dropped. If the Mercs screw it up Danny boy will be there to collect the prize money. It all you want from your driver.

Rosberg got second and the crowds jeers. To be expected really he ruined what should have been a good race. Made up for it with the move on Bottas though, He's been around long enough in this game to know you don't need to be going wheel to wheel on the first lap, especially not your team mate. He got off lightly and put daylight between himself and Lewis in the title race, so all in all i don't think a bunch of Belgians booing him is going to upset him too much.

Bottas, Mr Number Three delivers again. I don't don't think a win was on the cards, Williams are still reacting to the cars around them, they're not forcing others to follow what they do. The cars is fast in a straight line, so Monza could be theirs for the taking.

Kimi has a whole bunch of fastest laps and looked at one stage like he was going for the win. But the engine and car just doesn't have the sustained grunt for a circuit like Spa, I guess they hoped burning a load of fuel early he'd build a big enough lead to eak out the rest of the race in front.

Vettel, continues to be out driven by Danny.

Button got beaten on the road by Kev, but the FIA stung by criticism that they had been too lenient on Ferrari for having mechanics on the grid at the cars went off, threw the book at Kev for defending a bit to vigorously. It all looked okay to me, no one got hurt and no one lost a championship after all. But yeah, Button did all right for a change, he even looked a bit feisty at the end there!

Alonso had a day to forget.

Perez was on form again, looked handy and didn't hit anything.

Kvyat does what the car is capable of on the weekend he learns he's going to be team leader next year.

Hulkenberg was tenth and looked a bit out of sorts all weekend long. I think the sheen has clearly come off him now, what a difference six months can make.

Rosberg got the fastest lap chasing down points after the nose change.

And whilst Alonso, Button Kev and Vettel where scraping it out for the minor places you might have noticed Chilton and Ericsson  tripping over each other for last place. And blow me down if Max didn't pull a blinder and sneak past Ericsson. Probably, I don;t know we didn't see it on the TV replay because nobody but us cares. Well raise a toast to Max tonight, he wasn't last and he didn't need other people to crash to achieve it.

Okay, that's your lot I'm off to have a beer and soak the dust off. 45th out of 49 teams doesn't just achieve itself you know.

Hamilton saves but Danny wins the day ...

It’s not often in a year I get to say this twice, but my God .. What a race that was ! I though Bahrain was going to be the highlight of the year.  But throw in a bit of moisture and stick some drivers out of position and Hungary delivers a belter of a race.

It all looked like it was going to be another dull-a-thon on Saturday when Lewis managed two thirds of a lap before his car burst into flame. He was be all over this track on Friday and Saturday morning, it looked like all he had to do was get out of bed on Sunday and he was going to walk away from Hungary with a comfortable win. But the damn thing sprung a fuel leak as he open his qualifying campaign and then rolled to a fiery stop just inside of the pit entry road.

And it just looked like “Yet more Hamilton bad luck”, as though the fickle patron saint of gamblers and daredevils had deserted him once more, Lady Luck was in the garage next door sipping champers and feasting on bratwurst. This did give a chance for the Red face loons to work up another froth of conspiracy paranoia, however. Apparently having paid enough money to bank roll a small third world dictatorship to get Lewis to come to Mercedes, they were now sabotaging their English driver in favour of the German driver!

I mean how stupid do you have to be to believe that sort of tin foil hatted nonsense? Time and again Mercedes have said the drivers are free to race and it’s all open and honest. No one is being favoured unless there is a damn good reason for it.  Mercedes aren’t stupid; they watched as Redbull and Ferrari got all that bad PR for those “Vettel/Alonso/Schumacher – is faster than you” calls.  They know the value we, the fans, place on letting the boys ‘have at it’.  So no, there was no special secret button that Toto pushed to grenade Hamilton’s engine. It was just a simple error by a mechanic who missed tightening a fuel line.

But, having to rebuild the car meant he was going to start from the pit lane, there was no car to put into park ferme, the boys were in for a long night. Joining them were the McLaren boys after Magnussen discovered the track was just that bit too wet for slicks on the final qualifying run. Rain had been threatening and only decided to turn up as the last ten drivers took to the track for the final time. Rosberg crossed the line to start his of three runs and when he got to the first corner discovered there was no grip at all. He narrowly avoided a trip to the tyre wall, as Kev turned up seconds later and wasn’t so lucky. He mashed the front of the car as it ploughed straight into the first solid object in his path.

Once that was all cleared away, Rosberg made the Mercedes pit wall sweat a bit and gave the Redbull boys three minutes of hope. Before cruising to an easy pole and what looked like an easy win on Sunday.

Except on Sunday it didn't work out quite like that. A massive rain storm dumped a swimming pool load of water on the track before the start. Cars were doing multiple pre grid laps to see where the grip was or wasn’t. Full wets or inters which way to go ? There didn’t appear to be much standing water, but the forecast was for more rain after half an hour of racing. It looked like the pit wall was going to win this race. A driver can only tell you what the track is doing under his backside at that very point in time, he has no idea if the corner he went through 1.24 minutes ago in the damp is going to have the same grip the second, third or fourth time round. His pit wall has to tell him when and if the rain is starting or stronger or if it’s clear now. A pit wall gives the driver confidence and a good call can make all the difference, as McLaren and Mercedes found out.

So it’s a wet start and the teams are expecting more rain. The red lights go out and they all get off the line cleanly, Rosberg is a bit tentative, but is soon off into the distance. Vettel doesn’t quite have the grip or the faith in the front end and is jumped by Bottas. Alonso makes his usual lightening start and is soon past Danny and Vettel.

Hamilton and Kev leave the pits after everyone has gone past and we sit back to watch Hamilton fight his way back to the top ten. Given how far ahead Rosberg is after three corners it looks like the Plucky Brits fight back is going to be the only thing worth watching.

But then the TV cuts back to the on board camera above Hamilton’s head and we have a view of the car facing the wrong way and bouncing along a guard rail .... now that’s not supposed to happen. And here we have our first “pit wall moment”. You still have to remind world champions that a car that hasn’t done its warm up lap is going to have cold brakes and tyres, it seems. So you’ve just rebuilt the car that tried to torch itself and given it to a man that has had nothing but bad luck this year. Understandably, he is going to be a bit nervous of the car don’t you think?.  Once Lewis has the thing pointing in the right direction the lads on the pit wall spent a lot of time trying to calm their driver down and reassure him that his car was fine. It looked like it was going to be a long afternoon.

Not having a long afternoon was Ericsson. Who managed to avoid hitting Maldonardo by spearing off the road and testing the battering ram on the front of his car. The tyre wall won that little encounter and the first safety car of the day was despatched to allow the marshals to clean the mess away. Unfortunately for Rosberg, Vettel and Bottas the safety car was called for just as they went past the pit entry line, as everyone else dived into the pits for new tyres, the leaders had to do one more lap before they could come in.

Just as it was all going to get started again, Grosjean forgot the golden rule. “Don’t touch the white lines when it’s been raining, you idiot” and left the queue of cars following the safety car to test how strong the front of his car was against a tyre wall, once again the tyre wall won. So we had another couple of laps behind the safety car to clear up that mess.

Which all left Button behind Danny by some strange quirk of fate, which leads to out next “pit wall moment”, as Jenson called to his pits and asked “Lads, why did you put me on inters again when the rest of them are on slicks?” the pit wall called back to say, “There’s more rain coming son, now off you go”.

Hamilton was now behind Vettel, who was following Rosberg who had a smoky rear brake as he sat behind the Torro Rosso of Vergne. “Right” we thought, “just a matter of time before the Merc’s are passed this lot and fighting for the lead”. Maybe Lady Luck was eschewing bratwurst for fish and chips for a change! Starting from the pits then an accident at the second corner and now just two places behind his pole starting team mate, aye aye, fireworks ahoy.

Except the Mercs didn't seem to be able catch or let alone pass the cars in front of them. Try as he might, Lewis was stuck behind Vettel and Rosberg just wasn’t close enough to Vergne. Lap after lap saw them concertina up and then drift apart on the start finish line.

Up the front Jensen’s “inters experiment” lasted one lap before the rest of the field streamed past him as the pit wall was forced to concede that, “no, no there’s no more rain coming today Jenson ... sorry”.

Things looked static for a bit with Danny leading Massa, then the wily old fox Alonso, Vergne doing a great job, Rosberg not doing any sort of job, Vettel throwing it around like it was his first 1.2 ltr low insurance hot hatch and Hamilton worrying about how hot his arse was getting.

Time for Perez to step up to the mark and test his car against a wall, yes he too forgot the golden “Wet white lines, you idiot” rule and smeared the front of his car down the pit wall this time. Time for more safety car fun and yet another important “pit wall moment”. With more than half the race to go, do you call the boys in for hard tyres and get them to the end ? or go softs and make it two stops to the flag ?

Danny came in for softs and two stops, Massa went for the hard tyres and one stop the others stayed out and held their cards close to their chests. Alonso now led from Vergne who must have got a nose bleed that high up the pack.  Hamilton sensing something could be on here and damn it wasn’t it his turn for some luck was on a roll. Rosberg sick of being “stuck” behind Vergne, pitted and was followed in by Vettel who didn't have much rubber left. Lewis caught Vergne and in the biggest ballsiest move of the championship so far, went past him exactly the way Nico hadn’t done. The win could definitely be on here, come on Lady Luck.

Alonso pitted, followed by Hamilton a lap later and Ricciardo was back in the lead. When it all shock out Hamilton on the hard tyres was looking to go to the end and Rosberg was behind him on soft rubber and needed to get past. And here is our last “pit wall moment” of the day. Nico needed to get past to gain enough time for his last pit stop. Lewis didn't have the time to slow down to let him past. Nico, suddenly learnt that “fumbling a corner in Monaco” can actually have repercussions, it is remembered and good mates can bare a grudge.

Nico: “Why isn’t he letting me past?”

Pit Wall: “Lewis, get out of his way”

Lewis: “Sorry, you’re break kkereppppaaaoowowowow ing up there, what?”

N: “He’s in my way still, what gives?”

PW: “Lewis, Nico is on a different strategy, let him past on the straight.. okay?.”

L: “Sorry, did you say two Bombay duck curries and a pint of carling?!?!?!?!!11?!”!!!”

N: “SIR .....wwwwwwhy is hheeeeee stilllll in myyyyy wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!”

L: “well alright, if he gets closer I’ll let him past”

 N: “Sssiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr waaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

PW: “Well we told him and he said you’re not close enough and you shouldn’t have been mean to him in Monaco and you didn't invite him to your wedding and he’s pretty pissed off about that”

N: “I told him, there weren’t enough chairs at the registry office to invite him and Nicole”

PW: ” Well we told you to in invite him and now this has happened, so it’s your own fault really. Look hang back a bit, and wait till you get the next set of tyres, you can over take him at the end .. okay”

N: “Well okay .. But I'm going to be slightly grumpy about this and look a bit perplexed when I explain it all to the BBC later, during which I shall make passive aggressive comments about being fair and playing for the team etc etc etc etc”

hmmm maybe I should have found more seats .....

So Nico dropped back and left Alonso, Hamilton and a fast approaching Ricciardo to duke it out. And what a finale it was! I think races should be won with overtaking moves, chess games of who’s going to pit last are fine, but there’s is just nothing like three cars actually fighting for the win. This being Hungary it looked like Alonso in the lead would be able to hold off Lewis and Danny, he’s got the smarts, knows how to win a race and isn’t going to get flustered by cars weaving around behind him. But Danny is a force of nature right now and now is a good time to put his season into some sort of context.

He has never driven a good car, okay, the Torro Rosso was always a bit of a second hand parts bin special which had some good days but mostly was there to make up the numbers. Danny did alright but didn’t really impress me that much.  So this car, this 2014 Redbull is the best car he has ever driven. And on the flip side and very importantly it’s the worst car Vettel has driven in four years.  So whilst Vettel is struggling to get comfortable in the car, to find a rhythm or feel the car alive under him, Danny is amazed at how much better this car is in his experience.

So Danny is on fire (not in a Hamilton way), he’s got a car under him that responds to his inputs, is being improved race after race and he’s loving it. No one was going to stop the grinning fool today, he was unstoppable, and he was unbeatable. Straight past Hamilton, whose tyres suddenly didn't look quite so resilient, up to Alonso and bang, up the inside, turn one thank you and goodbye. Job done.

Hamilton found himself for a second week following a car that wasn’t going to let him past for a better podium spot. Except this time Nico was behind him and on a charge. The German caught his team mate with a handful of laps to go and it looked like only a matter of time before he stole the podium off the plucky Brit. Lady luck was back on the German sausage it seemed. But Lewis has been robbed of points too often this year and this time he wasn’t giving up. As they began the last lap Lewis got a tank slapper out of turn one and it looked all over, Nico went to the outside to get track position through turn two for the pass into three, Lewis brakes as late as he dared and ran Nico to the outside of the track and for a split second it looked like we were going to end up with two silver cars smeared down the Armco and a proper handbags on the apex fight !!!!! But Nico, thinking of the points lead no doubt, backed out at the very last second and left Lewis to take the final podium spot.

Hamilton did have the good grace to look like he hadn't enjoyed beating his team mate as he sprayed the champagne around at the end. Whilst Nico got to look wistfully at the cameras and be slightly perplex at the various post race interviews. Win win really for those two. Nico is still in the lead of the championship and Lewis has Lady Luck back on side.

Gosh that was long wasn’t it ... right I have a bag to pack for my holiday so the next bit is quick.

Ricciardo won and that was probably the best drive I’ve seen from him. He had a plan, stuck to the plan and it paid off. He didn’t try and second guess what everyone else was doing, he just drove what he had to the best of his abilities and he won. Well done him.

Alonso was second and again thoroughly deserved that result. He doesn’t have the best car but he knows how to bring sub standard machinery home when the opportunity presents itself.

Hamilton was third with a drive from the pit lane and an accident on the first lap. Just think what he could do if he didn't have a problem in qualifying or a car that broke down. He deserved this as it was yet another example of how you should win championships, never give up, never settle for the points and never wait for the pit stops to pass the other cars, get out there and drive it like you stole it! By God I love him

Nico was fourth and pretty much got owned today, he should have tried harder to pass Vergne, yes okay he was unlucky with first safety car, but Lewis showed the car could overtake anywhere, why couldn’t Nico do it ?

Massa was fifth and another victim of a poor pit call, they out him on hard tyres to get to the end but far too early, he had to make a late call to the pits for fresh rubber and didn't have the fight to make it work. Still he’s finished a race at last so that’ll give him some confidence.

Kimi had a nightmare qualifying run, failing to make it out of Q1 through idiocy rather anything he did. His pit wall team didn’t think they had anything to worry about when Maldonardo and Hamilton stopped before the action had started, so Kimi did one run and waited for the next session. Except Bianci of all people suddenly remembered what the loud pedal was for and out qualified the stationary Ferrari to move into Q2. There were a few vague shrugs and Kimi’s engineer picked up the phone to offer Luca his bollocks on a plate.

So after all that to make it into the top ten and sixth place is something of a save. Mostly because of the safety cars and a bit of luck, but he didn't mess it up and gets a good result in the end. I don’t think it’s going to do him much good in the end though, the word is Bianci is a nailed on certainty for 2015 and Kimi is going to be selling ice cream on Monaco harbour next summer.  

Vettel was seventh in the end and I'm not sure why. I think it was because of the first safety car or because he doesn’t actually have any talent. He certainly didn’t look like he was enjoying the ride when Hamilton was behind him, and seem mighty relieved to get out of the car at the end. My personal highlight was seeing his face when they came to do the team photo call at the end for Danny’s victory. No finger waving to be seen for a thousand miles and a “no, I'm going to sit way back over here behind my engineers and not next to the new golden boy thank you matey” attitude. 

Humility seems to just about suit him. Okay, to be fair there were no toys out of the pram tantruming this week and he’s not flouncing around as much as he could do. And you don’t win four championships with no talent. But Ricky boy has got two wins now and Vettel hasn’t looked close to that this year so far. Maybe he praying Pirelli will change their tyres again and he can win all the remaining races like normal.

Have we got time to sign Kimi ?

Bottas was definably a victim of the first safety car in eighth. The car looked okay with the new updates, but seemed to struggle on the tight stuff. They’ll have better luck in Spa and Monza.

Vergne was ninth and on merit I think. He drove away from Rosberg who might have had a brake calliper issue, but the Torro Rosso driver didn’t balls it up and delivered about what the car is capable of. He and Kvyat can usually be found back here so it’s a result really.

And Tenth was Button, who was a victim of the pit wall spending too much time looking at the weather channel and not enough looking at the sky or the people around them. I'm pretty sure he wasn’t going to win anything, but a top five was on the cards with a bit more actual thought. He did what he could with the cards dealt to him, the strategy team messed this one up for him.    

Okay.

Rosberg got the fastest lap chasing down the proper racing drivers and still failed to get a podium.

Hey hey hey ... look who it is .. Yup it’s that puppy dog grin and the happy go lucky attitude. Ruffle his hair and give him a treat, Max is dead last yet again! He’s like a five point machine for us. We should send him a thank you card at the end of the year.

What's the right pedal for again ?

Okay, I'm off on holiday and I might write a midterm report whilst I'm sipping red win and floating down the Canal Du Midi ... or not.

Part two of this fascinating 2014 championship starts at the end of August with the Belgian GP at Spa. Until then, go out and get some sun, its lovely out there people.

What ... Massa crashed again you say !!!!

Well that was a pretty good race, lots of stuff to keep you entertained. But really, you were watching Hamilton weren’t you. Firstly just how fast is that Merc when it’s being driven on the ragged edge? And secondly, if you want a driver to show you what the best car in the field can really do, you’d choose Lewis every time.

Rosberg didn’t really have much to do, and the midfield had its usual battle. Lewis whipped on through like a hot knife through butter. I'm not even sure how he did it, one minute they were clearing Massa away as usual and the next he was behind Rosberg. Brilliant stuff.

And the removal of the FRIC suspension systems didn't appear to make much difference. After the blisteringly hot Friday and Saturdays, the team had set the cars up for a wet race but when that didn't materialise; they were left with over steery cars which no amount of clever suspension would sort out.

Although the word is that Lotus was the big loser in all the hoo harr. Not that you would have noticed, Grosjean trundled to a stop at about half distance and Maldonardo got as high as 10^th at one point. So the loss didn’t seem to make all that much difference in the end.

Anyway the result.

1. Rosberg: You can’t really complain about Nico here, he did what Vettel did last year. Put it on pole and cruise to the line, job done. Yet another win and takes him further away from Lewis again. He’s going to be tough to stop isn’t he ?

2. Bottas: Well looky here! It’s young Valtteri on the podium again, whilst his more experienced team mate is left to catch the early flight home. Not that Massa really had any say in his retirement yet again. But Bottas is really turning into a proper little racer here, the last 10 laps odd with Hamilton storming up behind him, were great to watch. He knew it was going to come down to who had looked after his tyres the best. He could have burnt out the grip trying to stay ahead as Lewis chased him down but he kept his head and let the Merc driver get close.  Then he just defended his line and didn’t do anything stupid. This is pretty much the first rule of being a good driver.

3. Hamilton: third is a real save here. He hit that wall hard on Saturday, he knew as it locked up it was only going into the tyre wall, he had the presence of mind take his hands off the wheel and brace for the impact. But even so he was winded when the dust settled and looked pretty shaken. Then the car needed a new gearbox and so he started way back in 20^th place.  Getting back to the front of the race took balls and skill. Don’t think that just because he has one of the two best cars that he could breeze up to the podium. He had to make proper racing moves to deliver the result, the passes on Kimi, and Alonso top draw stuff, the fight with Danny boy and the midfield was enthralling. The fumbled move past Jenson, well, was not so top draw. Then he had to change strategy half way through the race from a two stopper to a four stint race after the tangle with Button increased the tyre wear rate.

So that was a full on, committed points saving afternoons drive. And the reason I think he’s one of the greats. The clash with Button only underlines how good he is because he apologised to button and still banged in the fastest laps of the race. He never gave up, but knew Bottas was going to be a pass too far. Take as many points as you can get and don’t risk it all passing a driver committed to getting more points than you. Bottas isn’t fighting for a world championship, so there was no point fighting with tyres well past their best.

4. Vettel: Hey, Vettel is still driving an F1 car, who knew !! He didn’t whinge too much this week and showed his team mate the way home for once. Maybe this will be the turnaround in form he’s looking for, or more probably a blip in an unremarkable year.

5. Alonso: Still brilliant, in an underachieving outclassed car, he’s delivering the points and keeping the name of Ferrari at the front (ish) of the field. He’s wasting his talents in Italy, he just has to go to another team next year.  

6. Ricciardo: Got caught up in the first lap melee and had to join Hamilton driving back through the field, which he did with almost as much style as the Merc driver. I have to admit here that I have really changed my opinion of the happy Ozzy driver. He really is the real deal and is not, as I predicted, going to get fired before the end of the season. No at this rate he’s going to the team leader pretty soon. It’s almost a shame he’s in the Redbull actually, because he’s not going to be allowed to be the team leader is he. Old grumpy chops is always going to get the nod round these parts.  But he’s done enough to justified his elevation to the big team.

7. Hulkenberg: Back on track with a ....... hey look, a seventh just like I predicted last week. See I don’t just make this rubbish up on the spear of the moment as the red wine takes me you know. No,  there is some, well very little to be honest, but some thought that goes into this. Anyway, the banning of FRIC didn’t appear to hurt them too much, no more than anyone else it would seem.

8. Button: Week after week he gets the car to the sharp end, than the tyres go off and he gets passed by car after car. It must be soul destroying for the old boy.

9. Magnussen: seems to have got his shit together at last and remembered what his actual job title is. There was some proper racing driver stuff this weekend and he took Massa out for good measure. I'm not sure, but I think punting Massa off a circuit around the world is some sort of ‘Racing driver’s rites of passage thing’? Alonso’s had a pop, Hamilton spent a year doing it, Schumacher must have knocked him off. I'm sure if I could be bothered to go and look it up, every world champion of the last ten years must have knocked Massa of the track at some point, and then been blamed for the accident by the Brazilian.  He’s like a magnet for good drivers to test their metal against. Undoubtedly it was “yet another” racing incident involving Massa and there wasn’t really any blame to be apportioned, but it’s another achievement unlocked by Kev to add to the CV

10. Perez: yeah, yeah well done I suppose.

Ericsson is this week’s hopeless arse in last place, he started in the pit lane for some reason or other I couldn’t be bothered to look up and pretty much stayed there all race. He couldn’t even beat Max, how rubbish is that. I suppose ... no actually, well done to the Caterham for getting the cars and team there this weekend. From what I’ve read the new owners have gone in and decimated the work force and told them to pull their socks up. Which I think is pretty heartless, moral is going to be at rock bottom for a team that has disappointed and failed at pretty much every turn this year. So the simple act of turning up for a cause they must know is hopeless should, I think, be applauded. Whilst flicking the v’s at the evil new management, give them the money and tools to do the job, don’t just halve the work force and tell them how shit they are.  

Right Hungary next week and i might to a mid season report, if i can find the time.

Germany, for FRIC sake, now what?

Hello all how are you?

Right, sorry I didn’t write up the British GP, there were a couple of points to talk about weren’t there. Chief of which was the social media world going off in a collective bloat of self-righteous indignation over Kimi’s “accident”. Great were the number of tea cups that must have trembled as ‘AngryLad343 of Whitstable’ took to the internet and twitter to rant at anyone that happened to be passing by. “Kimi was a disgrace to the profession of driving and ought to be made to sit on the naughty step for at least the next six months” they all raged.

 

Right, so Kimi leaves the circuit to avoid hitting the other back markers, perfectly acceptable. Big crash or a bit of off roading, easy choice really. Then he re-joined the circuit and carried on, except he didn’t see the rain gully which pitched the car 3 foot in the air and delivered him to the nearest wall. The red faced loons would have it that Kimi failed to re-join the track in a safe manner. He should have slowed down (which, the FIA pointed out, he did do) and he should have avoided the gully!

 

Taking an unconventional racing line there lad

 

Now I don’t know how many replays you watched in the hour it took to fix the barrier the Ferrari had bounced off. But from the TV camera vantage point two foot above Kimi’s head, I failed to spot the gully in the slow mo replay. Run it at full speed and the car is in the air before you realise he’s off the track. Added to the fact he was looking to his left to see if was safe to get back on track and he didn’t stand a chance.

 

The FIA said, “Well, he was just doing what all the drivers would have done. Re-join the race and get on with things. So … we don’t see any problem there”. Then I suspect they went to the circuit owners and had a word about tyre walls in front of exposed barriers and maybe covering up some of those rain gullies. “No harm, no foul and all that” they said, “Yes it was a shame that Massa had been taken out and Max was lucky to be alive. But really… it was just a first lap racing accident, caused by no one expecting a car to go off there”. Trotted out the old favourite “lessons will be learned”, and headed back inside for another round of pink gins.

 

But these days, the keyboard warriors are never happy with a shrug and a logical conclusion. So spent several days dissecting the FIA’s words and reaching the conclusion that Kimi was in fact a monster, a danger to everyone including himself and they could do a better job anyway.  But by then, everyone who hadn’t built themselves into a towering rage of self-importance had wondered off to discuss the FRIC problem.

 

A red faced loon recently.

 

  

FRIC or Front Rear InterConnected suspension, is the new mass damper system to be banned. Back in 2006 Renault had the best car by a country mile and Alonso was walking away with the title. So Ferrari, in a very public hissy fit, threw all its toys out of the pram and complained about this new-fangled mass damper system the Renault had been using for a number of years. The FIA shrugged, rolled its eyes to heaven, picked up the toys and told Renault that its clever little system was a moving aero dynamic device and thus now all of a sudden, illegal.  No amount of pointing out that it had been fine for the last year or so made any difference. Ferrari were suddenly a lot closer to the Renaults and only narrowly missed stealing the title that year.

Jump forward to 2014 and Mercedes have the best car by a country mile, Ferrari are being beaten and Luca is throwing toys, blankets, milk bottles, dummy and FIA rule book out of the pram … do you see a pattern here ? This time it’s interconnected suspension. Which allows the car to control the ride height in and out of corners and improves the stability of the car when its braking, it’s been a staple part of F1 cars for at least three years. Redbull perfected it a few years back and with the blown diffuser delivered four world championships. Pretty much every team has some sort or FRIC system which was why there were so many raised eyebrows when the FIA said it was banning the system. Once again under the catch all “It’s a moving aero device” rule. It’s believed that the Mercedes and Force India systems were the best, worth half a second or so per lap.

 At first there was much throwing up of hands and “Mon due” comments. So the FIA said .. “oh alright, from NEXT year it’s banned, BUT only if you can all agree on the plan”.  But then McLaren of all people said, “Well, if it’s illegal we’ll turn ours off and protest any team that runs a system in Germany ….”. Which caught everyone on the hop. Mercedes, just to prove how cool they were said, “Ya, vee vill do ze same ya. Bring it on svinehonts”. And Redbull figured that nothing else was working for Vettel so they might as well give it a go. With those three playing brinkmanship the rest of the teams had to follow suit.

 

Will it make a difference ? Well to Mercedes probably not, they’ve got a good two second advantage despite the suspension, so I think baring accidents they’re nailed on for the win this weekend. As for the rest of them, it’s hard to tell. McLaren obviously had no faith in their system so they’ll be much the same as before. Redbull were happy to turn theirs off so still best of the rest. Williams and Force India will probably be the big losers this weekend, they had a package that was delivering consistent result and when you mess with a successful package it can take time to get it all back on song.

 

But what about Ferrari ? … well who knows. They continue to implode as the silly season for drivers starts in earnest. Rosberg has just signed on the dotted with Mercedes for another three years and Lewis isn’t going to leave a winning team anytime soon. Danny boy has impressed everyone at Redbull so he’s safe and Vettel, knows no one else would put up with is questionable attitude to team orders. Which leaves Ferrari the last of the big boys right now with two drivers that don’t appear to want to get in the car, let alone race till the end of the season.

 There are so many rumours flying around Alonso at the moment. A seat at McLaren is his for the taking, lead driver in a new Ferrari Le Mans LMP1 squad, Williams to fire Massa and replace him with the Spaniard. He was very vocal about the short comings of the red car at the start of the season, for which he got a very public slap from Luca, since then he’s kept it pretty quiet. But the body language speaks volumes.  Luca Di Montezemolo is kicking up a fuss about how F1 is rubbish now and the cars sound rubbish and the points are rubbish and the FIA are rubbish and is going to left to him to sort it all out. No mention of sorting his own team out you’ll notice, its everyone else’s fault. Domenicalli was the glue that was holding it all together for the last few years and now he’s gone, it is all just falling apart.

 Personally I think Alonso will hang on at Ferrari for another year and then go the LMP1 to Le Mans route. Any driver worth his salt knows the greats have to have that on their CV, Webbers shown him the exit strategy and its now just a question of whether Ferrari  builds him a car or he joins Porsche. Though Nissan are coming to the party next year and they need a whole bunch of hot shoes with nothing to really prove. How about a development year with Nissan in the WEC, sound plausible ? Its sounds more plausible than Ferrari building a winning F1 car next year.

  

So this weekend then … Mercedes yes, Redbull with Danny, Bottas is on a roll so top five at least. McLaren might surprise. Hulkenbuerg is pretty much nailed to fifth and sixth, is Button is on form the Hulk will be seventh. Alonso will haul the dying beast into the top ten and Torro Rosso will make the numbers up.

 

Down the back, Caterham will be last, the carcass has been reanimated and a new troop of idiots parachuted onto the pit wall. Only Sauber will keep them company with lots of rumours from the foreign press that Sutil has been fired. There’s been no official statement about this as yet so it’ll be interesting to see who turns up in grey on Friday.  Max continues to be rubbish but Bianchi is being linked with Kimi’s seat for next year, so he’s doing everything he can to look cool and Italian.