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 

Hungarian F1 weekend gallery.

Lady Luck and her friend the Goddess of tightened fuel lines, help the Countess of not driving on the wet white lines you idiots, home after a short weekend break in Budapest.

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.

 

Its Lady Luck, that's what you need

What a race that was, It had everything, inter team rivalry, one stoppers getting in the way, Power failures and a brand new winner of a Formula one Grand Prix.  What’s not to like about that?

But I’ve said it before and I'm going to say it again, World championships are won on pure luck and consistency.  Right now Rosberg is cruising along with Lady Luck riding on his shoulder, waving to the crowds and sipping champagne with a starry smile, occasionally she’ll nudge Nico away from the wall or wrinkle her nose up and Hamilton’s’ brakes will explode. Its simple things like that, nothing more.

Lady luck and her friend the Goddess of rear wheel brake hubs earlier today!

Right, qualifying wasn’t all that exciting, everyone thought Lewis was going to walk Q3 and start at the front. But as I predicted, Nico turned up with a new found confidence and self belief and pinched the spoils from under the plucky Brits nose with the last role of the dice.  Hamilton made light of the matter in the post qualifying interviews, “oh it doesn’t mean so much here”, “I think I can sort this out pretty easily”, etc.  The most interesting thing about Saturday was Vettel sneaking into third with a car that isn’t supposed to have the grunt to stay with the Merc. Yeah he was a second or two behind, but he was ahead of the other Merc engine cars. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Also slightly odd was the appearance of the Williams at the front of the grid.  Both cars were going really well, something I wasn’t expecting at all. The Force India’s, my tip for the top, had a torrid time as both cars failed to make Q3, which wasn’t in my script!

So to the race on Sunday and off the line, Lewis was away just a tad faster, but Nico held his line and pushed Hamilton wide, allowing Vettel to sneak through to second. As the cars streamed up the track into the first chicane, it looked like Lewis would have the position back within a matter of metres. But the Marussia’s collided as Max got it all crossed up into the braking zone and collected his team mate into the wall and the first safety car came out to clean up the mess.   Max later claimed it wasn’t his fault, but only a big paycheck is going to save his sorry ass this time, he was sideways way before the apex, even the turn in point. So it was well and truly his fault whatever he says.

Once all the bits of carbon fibre had been cleared away the safety car peeled off and Lewis breezed pasted Vettel after a few laps and got on with the business of passing Nico, except he didn't. He was almost there, but the his team mate was always just a little bit quicker out of the corners or later on the brakes and try as he might he couldn’t quite get that break to make the pass.

Behind them, the Force India’s were holding various people up as they tried to one stop the race and leap frog the faster cars. Vettel, Ricciardo, Bottas and Alonso all took turns being stuck behind Perez and Hulkenberg in the race to be the best of the rest.

Lewis and Nico were giving it the full beans, miles ahead of everyone else. Then suddenly ... Lewis was dropping back, the car sounded as rough as a bag of spanners on the fast bits. Then Nico started to slow. Where was that script, we were all expecting Mercedes to win every race this year. Suddenly Massa in third looks like he could be on for a nose bleed up the top step. Both Merc drivers are complaining that the powers gone from the cars.   Apexes are being missed and the cars sound awful on the straight bits. The technicians are running diagnostics and trying to figure out what’s gone wrong. It looks like the energy recovery systems have been fried on exactly the same lap for each car.

Well this is interesting. Massa has 20 odd laps to catch the two hobbled Merc 10 seconds up the road, who else can catch them? Perez has Danny boy and Vettel up his chuff. Rosberg dips into the pits for new boots and rejoins behind Massa, and then Hamilton is in the pits for his last stop, he rejoins behind Massa but ahead of Nico. Even under powered they could still get points.

The order is Massa, Hamilton, Rosberg, Perez, Ricciardo and Vettel.  Then Massa has to make a stop and he drops back behind Vettel, a final run in to the line of super soft rubber, it could be close!

But then suddenly Hamilton’s rear brakes start smoking horribly and he can’t get the car stopped for love nor money.  Rosberg is back in the lead with Perez and co right behind him, he’s a sitting duck his brakes are kyboshed and it’s just a matter of time before he’s out. But with the brake bias rammed hard into front only he’s just about making things work for him a he’s staying ahead of Perez.

For lap after lap, Perez holds up Danny and Vettel with Massa closing fast. With seven laps to go the Brazilian has caught up to the Redbulls and you thinks it’s just a matter of cruising past with his fresh tyres. But Massa ... well he’s just Massa and doesn’t seem to have the race craft to pick the slower cars off.

With a handful of laps left Danny dives past Perez into turn one and it looks like he’s just shed 20lbs, he’s off up the road catching Rosberg in a flash, Vettel still can’t quite pass Perez and Massa is sort of climbing all over the back of the Redbull like he’s got 20 laps left or something. Ricciardo reels in the Merc like its standing still and just blows past Rosberg with chequered flag in sight. Vettel finally jinx’s past Perez for third as the Mexican drivers brakes begin to fail which, I think, catches Massa out and he ploughs into the back of the Force India at full tilt into turn one. Both cars end up in the wall and a trip to the medical facility for both drivers. The safety car is called out again and Danny finally get’s the win he has so richly deserved all year.

What a race !

Ricciardo wins and he absolutely deserves the victory, he kept his cool, passed Perez when the opportunity presented itself and then caught Rosberg. He’s been knocking on the door marked win since the start of the season and as soon as the Mrec have a problem he’s right there to collect the reward. Well done to him. I, along with pretty much everyone, said he was going to get blown away by Vettel this year and it was just a matter of time before he got fired. Well I was wrong, he’s showing Vettel the way home and doing it with a bloody great big smile. Good on him, he’s the Redbull driver it’s okay to like.

Rosberg was second eventually and that it one hell of a save, By rights he should have been parted up with Lewis with 10 laps to go, but he drove around the problem and picked up vital points. It is possible to look at this result and claim he has the championship in the bag now. He’s got the luck, he’s two races up on his team mate who now needs Nico to DNF if he wants to take the title. I can’t imagine they’ll have the same problem with the brakes again, so I think this is now Nico championship to lose. Even this far out, even with the double points at the final race, Rosberg is firmly in the box seat.

Vettel was third and quite magnanimous about his team mate at the end.

Button, unseen by the camera had a bit of a stormer in the last 10 laps with passes on Hulkenberg and Alonso for fourth place, given how bad the weekend had been up to that point this is a cracking result for McLaren and its driver. A season that promised so much is slowly falling apart and i suspect they’ve started work full time on next year’s Honda now, so result like today give the boys and girls a bit of a lift as the go to work on Monday morning.

Hulkenberg, got shown up by his less fancied team mate again. Even though Perez didn’t finish he was almost on for the win there, whilst the Hulk scrapped around for pride. Picking up point’s race after race is one thing, but a team in financial trouble needs headlines for sponsors to see.

Alonso with another race to forget, even the team massaging his ego in the press didn’t help make the car any faster.  He still talking up his chances, but it’s just for pride and column inches now.

Bottas ... well he didn't crash into Perez i suppose, but the promise was just not delivered today for Williams. Okay it’s not as bad as last year, but it should be so much better.

Vergne, eighth, errrrrr I’ve got nothing.

Magnussen ninth, see Button above.

Kimi was tenth and still doesn’t look like he’s mastered KERS braking.

Right last place this week it Sutil who was still behind the crashed cars of Massa and Perez, but he has all four wheels still attached to the car and was moving as fasted as that Sauber can go. Which is quite slowly.

Massa on fresh rubber and with a dim memory of past glories burning through the fog of a blunt head trauma got the fastest lap on lap 58. So that’s something I suppose.

Okay, its Le Mans next weekend. So be prepared to be amazed by that .. details to follow soon.