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.
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