The start of the Austrian GP was absolutely thrilling. Surprisingly Massa in his Williams was able to maintain his lead. His team-mate Bottas lost his 2nd place for Rosberg but only for a moment as by turn 2 the Finn had snatched his position back from the Mercedes driver. Hamilton took a splendid start from P9 jumping four positions up to P5! At the start of the race it really seemed that Williams could finally match Mercedes´ race pace. Sebastian at the wheel of his RB10 on the other hand had a catastrophic start to the race. On lap 2 the German reported on the team radio that he had no drive so his race was ruined! All of a sudden he got the drive back but at that point it was too late: the quadruple world champion was already one lap down!
Luckily Kimi had gained a position at the start and the Iceman was driving in P7. The battle for victory looked extremely intense: the top 4 drivers Massa, Bottas, Rosberg and Hamilton were all within DRS distance with each other. Rosberg was the first one of them to pit for a fresh set of soft tyres on lap 12. After the first pit stop Bottas rejoined the track right behind Rosberg but ahead of Hamilton. Massa was the one who lost most during his pit stop as he dropped back to P5. Force India´s Perez was leading the race at this point as the Mexican had a different tyre strategy and hadn´t pitted yet.
Perez pitted not until on lap 30 and the battle for victory intensified between Rosberg, Bottas and Hamilton. Massa wasn´t able to quite match the pace of those three. At this point it seemed that Bottas could really challenge the Mercedes drivers as his pace looked so promising. And Mercedes didn´t seem to have a problem-free race this time, either but again they faced some brake issues. At the halfway point of the race Sebastian´s race turned pitch-black: at the back of the field he tried to overtake Sauber´s Gutierrez and ended up damaging his front wing. A moment later Sebastian was told to come to the pits as there was no sense continueing the race. Considering the fact that Sebastian won´t probably get through the season with only 5 power units anyway this was the only right call to be made. I felt so gutted for Sebastian! Won´t these problems ever end? To be honest, Red Bull was lacking performance so badly at Red Bull Ring! I wanted to see Sebastian fighting for points today but all those hopes vanished already at the beginning of the race.
The second pit stop was a turning point for Bottas. It didn´t go perfectly in terms of timing and the Finn rejoined the track behind Rosberg and Hamilton. At this point it became obvious that the fight for the victory was going to be between the Mercedes team-mates as Bottas had already a several-second gap to the Mercedes duo. Kimi on the other hand faced another difficult race. The Iceman was driving in P11 and we got to hear some team radio communication in traditional Kimi style ;) Kimi was told on the team radio that he was racing Button and he should improve his lap times by two tenths. Kimi told the team to give him more power!
Rosberg´s gap to his team-mate stayed around one second and Hamilton had no real chance to challenge Nico for victory today. Bottas took his first ever podium finish, which was a staggering achievement from the young and fast Finn! Bottas´ performance gave me some joy although I was so disappointed due to Sebastian´s DNF and Kimi´s lame performance. Bottas´ team-mate Massa finished 4th and Alonso 5th, Perez 6th, Magnussen 7th, Ricciardo 8th, Hulkenberg 9th and Kimi 10th. But I´m sincerely happy for Bottas, who looked absolutely delighted when spraying champagne on the podium!
Rosberg has an upper hand now in the championship battle as the German now leads the standings with a 29-point gap over his team-mate. On the other hand, it´s not that huge a lead yet. It only takes one retirement for Nico and one win for Lewis and suddenly the lead has shrunk to 4 points only. I have a couple of wishes considering the British GP in a fortnight: I do hope Williams will be able to keep up the momentum and still challenge Mercedes on the British soil. And I do hope from the bottom of my heart that Red Bull Ring was the worst track of the season for Red Bull and they will be back on the very top when going to Silverstone! No wonder there were some Finnish swear words coming from Sebastian´s mouth this weekend... Though the Finnish F1 commentator Oskari Saari still hasn´t revealed what the German Red Bull ace actually said! ;D
Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel
sunnuntai 22. kesäkuuta 2014
lauantai 21. kesäkuuta 2014
Austrian GP / Qualifying: A sensational front row lock-out for Williams!
It was absolutely fantastic to see the Formula 1 circus come back to Austria after an 11-year break. The scenery at Red Bull Ring (former A1 Ring) is very eye-catching: the perfect venue for Formula 1 racing! The track is only 4,3 km long but the altitude variations make it stand out from all the other tracks on the calendar.
Most drivers made their first run in Q1 on Pirelli´s soft-compound tyres and then switched to supersofts at the end of the session to improve their lap time. That wasn´t, however, the case in terms of the Williams drivers, Mercedes duo or Red Bull drivers. Also Alonso at the wheel of his Ferrari set his fastest lap time on the yellow-marked soft tyres. Still Hamilton topped the timesheets with his team-mate Rosberg in P3. The Russian Toro Rosso driver Kvyat made an impressive work and was 2nd fastest in the first session (on supersofts naturally). Red Bull had seemed to be struggling with their pace already in the free practice sessions but still it was pretty worrying to see Sebastian being only 15th fastest in spite of the tyre choice. Both Sauber drivers were out of Q2 as well as the Marussia and Caterham drivers.
Q2 held some nasty surprises. As expected, Rosberg and Hamilton were the fastest men on track but this time they didn´t have the huge margin over their rivals like in previous races. The Williams duo Bottas and Massa were right on Mercedes´ tail! Perez in his Force India was the first to be knocked out of the final session whilst his team-mate Hulkenberg progressed into Q3. Button in his McLaren was out of Q3 as well but his team-mate Magnussen managed to make it into Q3. And what broke my heart was to see Sebastian at the wheel of his RB10 not to make his way into the decisive final session! Sebastian was only 13th fastest today whilst his team-mate Ricciardo also made it among the top ten. Ricciardo has beaten Sebastian already 6 times in qualifying this year! It was such a disappointment to see that on Red Bull´s home soil Sebastian couldn´t do better today. Kimi at the wheel of his Ferrari also had difficulties to pull out a decent lap but the Iceman just barely made it into Q3 by being 10th fastest.
When the final session got underway it became obvious that the Williams drivers could really challenge the Mercedes duo for pole in Spielberg! After the first runs Bottas was topping the timesheets with Rosberg 2nd and Massa 3rd. Q3 involved some dramatic turns as well as Hamilton´s first lap time was disallowed due to track limit violation at turn 8. The stewards had informed the drivers already beforehand that failing to respect track limits between turn 8 and 9 would lead to disallowing the lap time. Kimi and Hulkenberg made only one attempt in Q3 but Hulkenberg shared Hamilton´s fate as the German´s lap time was disallowed as well due to a similar violation. More drama was to follow: Hamilton locked up and spun on his second run and was therefore unable to set a lap time! I couldn´t help wondering if the huge amount of pressure was starting to show... Rosberg had to abort his flying lap due to yellow flags caused by his team-mate so he had to settle for 3rd place. Massa at the wheel of his FW36 sensationally made it on pole being 87 thousandths of a second faster than his team-mate Bottas, who completed the front row lock-out for Williams! Wow, who could have predicted that one coming?! This was the first 1-2 for Williams since the German GP in 2003! So the grid for tomorrow´s race looks like this: 1.Massa, 2. Bottas, 3. Rosberg, 4. Alonso, 5.Ricciardo, 6. Magnussen, 7. Kvyat, 8. Räikkönen, 9. Hamilton, 10. Hulkenberg.
So what are my expectations for tomorrow´s race? I´m sure the Williams drivers will have a hard time with Rosberg especially. Mercedes´ race pace on the long runs has been very impressive but let´s see what Massa and Bottas will be capable of. Mercedes cars have already turned out to be vulnerable and not immune to technical worries so I believe both Massa and Bottas have a real chance to fight for victory tomorrow. Hamilton needs a miracle to be able to win tomorrow as he starts from P9. Kimi also has a challenging race awaiting... Not to mention Sebastian, who will start from P13!
P.S. Unfortunately I missed a huge part of the Canadian GP, which took place a fortnight ago as I was travelling on a camper with my family. So for the first time in 4 years I also didn´t write a blog post although there was a race! And what a race it was: both Mercedes cars were hit with overheating problems and in Hamilton´s case it lead to DNF. Ricciardo took his maiden win in F1, Rosberg finished 2nd in spite of lacking the extra 150 HP due to a failure of his MGU-K and Vettel finished 3rd. Perez and Massa collided on the final lap and Perez was handed a 5-place grid penalty for Austrian GP due to causing the collision.
Most drivers made their first run in Q1 on Pirelli´s soft-compound tyres and then switched to supersofts at the end of the session to improve their lap time. That wasn´t, however, the case in terms of the Williams drivers, Mercedes duo or Red Bull drivers. Also Alonso at the wheel of his Ferrari set his fastest lap time on the yellow-marked soft tyres. Still Hamilton topped the timesheets with his team-mate Rosberg in P3. The Russian Toro Rosso driver Kvyat made an impressive work and was 2nd fastest in the first session (on supersofts naturally). Red Bull had seemed to be struggling with their pace already in the free practice sessions but still it was pretty worrying to see Sebastian being only 15th fastest in spite of the tyre choice. Both Sauber drivers were out of Q2 as well as the Marussia and Caterham drivers.
Q2 held some nasty surprises. As expected, Rosberg and Hamilton were the fastest men on track but this time they didn´t have the huge margin over their rivals like in previous races. The Williams duo Bottas and Massa were right on Mercedes´ tail! Perez in his Force India was the first to be knocked out of the final session whilst his team-mate Hulkenberg progressed into Q3. Button in his McLaren was out of Q3 as well but his team-mate Magnussen managed to make it into Q3. And what broke my heart was to see Sebastian at the wheel of his RB10 not to make his way into the decisive final session! Sebastian was only 13th fastest today whilst his team-mate Ricciardo also made it among the top ten. Ricciardo has beaten Sebastian already 6 times in qualifying this year! It was such a disappointment to see that on Red Bull´s home soil Sebastian couldn´t do better today. Kimi at the wheel of his Ferrari also had difficulties to pull out a decent lap but the Iceman just barely made it into Q3 by being 10th fastest.
When the final session got underway it became obvious that the Williams drivers could really challenge the Mercedes duo for pole in Spielberg! After the first runs Bottas was topping the timesheets with Rosberg 2nd and Massa 3rd. Q3 involved some dramatic turns as well as Hamilton´s first lap time was disallowed due to track limit violation at turn 8. The stewards had informed the drivers already beforehand that failing to respect track limits between turn 8 and 9 would lead to disallowing the lap time. Kimi and Hulkenberg made only one attempt in Q3 but Hulkenberg shared Hamilton´s fate as the German´s lap time was disallowed as well due to a similar violation. More drama was to follow: Hamilton locked up and spun on his second run and was therefore unable to set a lap time! I couldn´t help wondering if the huge amount of pressure was starting to show... Rosberg had to abort his flying lap due to yellow flags caused by his team-mate so he had to settle for 3rd place. Massa at the wheel of his FW36 sensationally made it on pole being 87 thousandths of a second faster than his team-mate Bottas, who completed the front row lock-out for Williams! Wow, who could have predicted that one coming?! This was the first 1-2 for Williams since the German GP in 2003! So the grid for tomorrow´s race looks like this: 1.Massa, 2. Bottas, 3. Rosberg, 4. Alonso, 5.Ricciardo, 6. Magnussen, 7. Kvyat, 8. Räikkönen, 9. Hamilton, 10. Hulkenberg.
So what are my expectations for tomorrow´s race? I´m sure the Williams drivers will have a hard time with Rosberg especially. Mercedes´ race pace on the long runs has been very impressive but let´s see what Massa and Bottas will be capable of. Mercedes cars have already turned out to be vulnerable and not immune to technical worries so I believe both Massa and Bottas have a real chance to fight for victory tomorrow. Hamilton needs a miracle to be able to win tomorrow as he starts from P9. Kimi also has a challenging race awaiting... Not to mention Sebastian, who will start from P13!
P.S. Unfortunately I missed a huge part of the Canadian GP, which took place a fortnight ago as I was travelling on a camper with my family. So for the first time in 4 years I also didn´t write a blog post although there was a race! And what a race it was: both Mercedes cars were hit with overheating problems and in Hamilton´s case it lead to DNF. Ricciardo took his maiden win in F1, Rosberg finished 2nd in spite of lacking the extra 150 HP due to a failure of his MGU-K and Vettel finished 3rd. Perez and Massa collided on the final lap and Perez was handed a 5-place grid penalty for Austrian GP due to causing the collision.
sunnuntai 25. toukokuuta 2014
Monaco GP: A race like a horror film!
My hopes weren´t too high before the race but I really wanted to believe that the race would bring something positive. Well, I was very very wrong! The Monaco grand prix turned out to be like a horror film!
Everything looked so promising yet at the start. When the lights went out, Sebastian in P4 took a staggering start and made his way past Ricciardo to 3rd. Kimi starting from P6 also took a fantastic start and made his way up to P4 past Alonso and Ricciardo, who dropped back to 5th place. Rosberg maintained his lead and Hamilton was right behind him. Safety car was deployed already on the opening lap when Force India´s Perez and McLaren´s Button collided. The incident will be investigated after the race so there might be some penalty coming presumably for Button.
The safety car came in on lap 3 and it was time for re-start! Then the first horror film scene happened: once again Vettel was hit with technical problems as he told on the team radio that he was lacking power! Right away Kimi was able to overtake Sebastian and soon there were many others to follow... On lap 8 the German was asked to bring the car to the pits and his race was over! What an absolutely depressing and devastating moment! Sebastian´s RB10 seems to be haunted by all sorts of technical issues! I couldn´t believe my eyes... :(
After Sebastian´s retirement Kimi was driving in P3 and it gave me a lot of comfort to see the Iceman fighting for a podium finish. On lap 25 safety car was deployed again. Sutil at the wheel of his Force India lost the control of his car at the swimming pool chicane and crashed to the barrier, which left a lot of debris on the track. Immediately all the top drivers pitted for a new set of tyres. A dangerous incident occurred in the pits as Toro Rosso´s Vergne was released unsafely and he almost hit McLaren´s Magnussen. It was obvious Vergne was going to be penalised for the unsafe release.
Only a few laps after the first pit stop the second horror film scene hit when Kimi had to pit again for the second time! It was never shown on TV what actually had happened but after the race Kimi told the media that either one of the Marussias had hit his rear tyre behind the safety car causing the Finn a puncture. This meant only one thing: Kimi´s race was ruined! He dropped back to P13! What a moment of despair. There´re no words that can describe the amount of disappointment that hit me at this stage.
Vergne was handed a drive through penalty due to the unsafe release from the pits as expected. Such a shame, Vergne was driving an impressive race after starting from P7. So Rosberg was leading the race with his team-mate right behind him. Ricciardo was driving a strong race in P4 and Alonso was 5th. Rosberg was told on the team radio to save fuel as his fuel consumption was critical. On lap 52 Vergne´s race was over as the Frenchman faced an engine failure. By this point also Maldonado, Perez and Kvyat had also retired in addition to Sutil and Vettel. On lap 57 Williams´s Bottas got to experience his share of misfortune: the Finn was also hit with an engine failure and his race was over.
When there were 10 more laps to go Hamilton told on the team radio that he couldn´t see with his left eye and it also affected his pace significantly so the Briton couldn´t challenge his team-mate for victory. Also Ricciardo in P3 was able to close the gap to Hamilton but there wasn´t any chance to overtake. On lap 74 Kimi´s race got another very unfortunate turn when the Iceman tried to overtake Magnussen at the hair pin which caused them both to get stuck to the barrier. Kimi had to pit for a new front wing and the Finn was out of points! The incident between Kimi and Magnussen will be investigated after the race so there might be some penalties coming... At the end of the race Kimi bounced back and set the fastest lap time of the race.
So actually nothing new under the Monte Carlo sun: 5th consecutive 1-2 for Mercedes AMG with Ricciardo completing the podium. Alonso finished 4th, Hulkenberg 5th with a different tyre strategy, Button 6th and Massa 7th. What was very impressive was the fact that Marussia´s Jules Bianchi made it up to P8 and scored the first-ever points for Marussia! Grosjean in his Lotus finished 9th and Magnussen 10th. Nico´s win today meant that the German snatched the championship lead from his team-mate and they now have a 4-point gap in the championship standings. Alonso in 3rd place is already 61 points off Rosberg... So the only excitement seems to be, which one of the Mercedes drivers will clinch the title this year.
This was certainly a race I want to forget as soon as possible and move on to Canada! The misfortune of Kimi and Sebastian CAN´T go on forever, right? There´ve been so bitter disappointments this year. But I know the good is definitely worth waiting for :)
Everything looked so promising yet at the start. When the lights went out, Sebastian in P4 took a staggering start and made his way past Ricciardo to 3rd. Kimi starting from P6 also took a fantastic start and made his way up to P4 past Alonso and Ricciardo, who dropped back to 5th place. Rosberg maintained his lead and Hamilton was right behind him. Safety car was deployed already on the opening lap when Force India´s Perez and McLaren´s Button collided. The incident will be investigated after the race so there might be some penalty coming presumably for Button.
The safety car came in on lap 3 and it was time for re-start! Then the first horror film scene happened: once again Vettel was hit with technical problems as he told on the team radio that he was lacking power! Right away Kimi was able to overtake Sebastian and soon there were many others to follow... On lap 8 the German was asked to bring the car to the pits and his race was over! What an absolutely depressing and devastating moment! Sebastian´s RB10 seems to be haunted by all sorts of technical issues! I couldn´t believe my eyes... :(
After Sebastian´s retirement Kimi was driving in P3 and it gave me a lot of comfort to see the Iceman fighting for a podium finish. On lap 25 safety car was deployed again. Sutil at the wheel of his Force India lost the control of his car at the swimming pool chicane and crashed to the barrier, which left a lot of debris on the track. Immediately all the top drivers pitted for a new set of tyres. A dangerous incident occurred in the pits as Toro Rosso´s Vergne was released unsafely and he almost hit McLaren´s Magnussen. It was obvious Vergne was going to be penalised for the unsafe release.
Only a few laps after the first pit stop the second horror film scene hit when Kimi had to pit again for the second time! It was never shown on TV what actually had happened but after the race Kimi told the media that either one of the Marussias had hit his rear tyre behind the safety car causing the Finn a puncture. This meant only one thing: Kimi´s race was ruined! He dropped back to P13! What a moment of despair. There´re no words that can describe the amount of disappointment that hit me at this stage.
Vergne was handed a drive through penalty due to the unsafe release from the pits as expected. Such a shame, Vergne was driving an impressive race after starting from P7. So Rosberg was leading the race with his team-mate right behind him. Ricciardo was driving a strong race in P4 and Alonso was 5th. Rosberg was told on the team radio to save fuel as his fuel consumption was critical. On lap 52 Vergne´s race was over as the Frenchman faced an engine failure. By this point also Maldonado, Perez and Kvyat had also retired in addition to Sutil and Vettel. On lap 57 Williams´s Bottas got to experience his share of misfortune: the Finn was also hit with an engine failure and his race was over.
When there were 10 more laps to go Hamilton told on the team radio that he couldn´t see with his left eye and it also affected his pace significantly so the Briton couldn´t challenge his team-mate for victory. Also Ricciardo in P3 was able to close the gap to Hamilton but there wasn´t any chance to overtake. On lap 74 Kimi´s race got another very unfortunate turn when the Iceman tried to overtake Magnussen at the hair pin which caused them both to get stuck to the barrier. Kimi had to pit for a new front wing and the Finn was out of points! The incident between Kimi and Magnussen will be investigated after the race so there might be some penalties coming... At the end of the race Kimi bounced back and set the fastest lap time of the race.
So actually nothing new under the Monte Carlo sun: 5th consecutive 1-2 for Mercedes AMG with Ricciardo completing the podium. Alonso finished 4th, Hulkenberg 5th with a different tyre strategy, Button 6th and Massa 7th. What was very impressive was the fact that Marussia´s Jules Bianchi made it up to P8 and scored the first-ever points for Marussia! Grosjean in his Lotus finished 9th and Magnussen 10th. Nico´s win today meant that the German snatched the championship lead from his team-mate and they now have a 4-point gap in the championship standings. Alonso in 3rd place is already 61 points off Rosberg... So the only excitement seems to be, which one of the Mercedes drivers will clinch the title this year.
This was certainly a race I want to forget as soon as possible and move on to Canada! The misfortune of Kimi and Sebastian CAN´T go on forever, right? There´ve been so bitter disappointments this year. But I know the good is definitely worth waiting for :)
lauantai 24. toukokuuta 2014
Monaco GP / Qualifying: Rosberg beat his team-mate to pole!
This has been an exceptional qualifying Saturday for me. Me and my family had been invited to a birthday party and the party had been scheduled to start at 3 pm -exactly the same time as the qualifying was going to be underway! But luckily there was a way to solve this problem: I sat in the car with a tablet on my lap and watched both the pre-race broadcast and the start of the qualifying on the way. When we got there at the party I couldn´t even get me a cup of coffee before the qualifying was over... I guess I´m not a dream guest at parties on a GP weekend, hahaha ;)
In the last free practice session Red Bull´s Ricciardo had been able to split the Mercedes duo and the fact that he had been only 5 hundredths of a second slower than Hamilton gave me hope of one of the Red Bulls making it on the front row. All teams except Caterham, Marussia, Lotus and Sauber started to Q1 with the prime tyres. Right away Monaco proved its tricky nature as Toro Rosso´s Vergne spun and hit the barrier which caused the Frenchman a front wing damage. All teams in spite of Mercedes AMG and Red Bull switched to option tyres for their second run. Massa really seemed to be one of the unluckiest drivers on the grid as he got involved in a collision with no fault of his own. Caterham´s Ericsson locked up his rears and slid to the barrier taking Massa with him. Despite recording the tenth-best time in Q1 Massa was unable to return to the pits and was thus out of Q2! The Sauber duo Gutierrez and Sutil were the first drivers to be knocked out of the second session.
Everyone started to Q2 with the supersofts including the dominant Mercedes duo. Once again the Mercs topped the timesheets, this time Hamilton being the faster one of the team-mates. I was very delighted to see Vettel being 3rd fastest and finally out-performing his competitive team-mate! Both Toro Rossos made it among the top ten. Williams seemed to face a difficult qualifying: Massa was out because of the unlucky incident with Ericsson and Bottas couldn´t make it any higher than P13 today. After the qualifying Bottas told that they had struggled with getting the tyres warmed up. Straight line speed is one of the strenghts of the Williams team but Monaco is famous for lacking the long straights so no wonder their result was quite unassuming. Both Lotuses were also out of Q3.
Q3 was all about the battle between the Mercedes team-mates. Which one of them was going to conquer pole in the streets of the principality? Rosberg took the provisional pole but the German was only 59 thousandths of a second faster than his team-mate. At the end of the final session Rosberg made an error at the braking after his flying lap and slid down the escape road at turn 5, which brought out yellow flags. The incident prevented his rivals from improving their lap times and Rosberg clinched pole. The stewards took this into investigation after the qualifying because there was speculation that Rosberg might have done that deliberately but no evidence of any offence was found so Rosberg will retain his pole. However, this incident reminded of the qualifying at Monaco back in 2006 when Schumacher at the wheel of his Ferrari deliberately stopped his car on track to ensure his pole position.
Ricciardo, however, was the faster one of the Red Bull duo and took P3. Ricciardo was only 3 tenths off Rosberg, which was quite promising. After the qualifying Sebastian told that he had had problems with his ERS during the qualifying and due to those problems he didn´t have full power. So once again technical problems for Sebastian, who once again got out-qualified by his team-mate (P4 for Seb). At first a Finnish website reported that the German would have been handed a five-place grid penalty due to a gear box change but luckily that turned out to be false information. A gear box change yes but no penalty! That obviously made my night!! I was also disappointed to see that Alonso was 7 tenths faster than Kimi in Q3! It seems to be irrelevant what changes the Ferrari crew makes in terms of the set-up of Kimi´s car. Kimi´s F14T still seems to be all over the place! Alonso will start to the race from P5 Kimi from P6, Vergne from P7, Magnussen from P78 Kvyat from P9 and Perez from P10.
Monaco GP is all about the best possible grid slot as overtaking is nearly impossible so I won´t expect any miracles from my favourite drivers. But Monaco is also known of the zero tolerance for mistakes: if you lose your concentration for only a second you might end up into the barrier and your race is over. And I always keep my thumbs up for those I passionately support, no matter what the results will finally be so go Kimi and go Sebastian! I hope one day I can witness the glory of the Monaco GP myself as there certainly is something extraordinary and magical about the venue.
In the last free practice session Red Bull´s Ricciardo had been able to split the Mercedes duo and the fact that he had been only 5 hundredths of a second slower than Hamilton gave me hope of one of the Red Bulls making it on the front row. All teams except Caterham, Marussia, Lotus and Sauber started to Q1 with the prime tyres. Right away Monaco proved its tricky nature as Toro Rosso´s Vergne spun and hit the barrier which caused the Frenchman a front wing damage. All teams in spite of Mercedes AMG and Red Bull switched to option tyres for their second run. Massa really seemed to be one of the unluckiest drivers on the grid as he got involved in a collision with no fault of his own. Caterham´s Ericsson locked up his rears and slid to the barrier taking Massa with him. Despite recording the tenth-best time in Q1 Massa was unable to return to the pits and was thus out of Q2! The Sauber duo Gutierrez and Sutil were the first drivers to be knocked out of the second session.
Everyone started to Q2 with the supersofts including the dominant Mercedes duo. Once again the Mercs topped the timesheets, this time Hamilton being the faster one of the team-mates. I was very delighted to see Vettel being 3rd fastest and finally out-performing his competitive team-mate! Both Toro Rossos made it among the top ten. Williams seemed to face a difficult qualifying: Massa was out because of the unlucky incident with Ericsson and Bottas couldn´t make it any higher than P13 today. After the qualifying Bottas told that they had struggled with getting the tyres warmed up. Straight line speed is one of the strenghts of the Williams team but Monaco is famous for lacking the long straights so no wonder their result was quite unassuming. Both Lotuses were also out of Q3.
Q3 was all about the battle between the Mercedes team-mates. Which one of them was going to conquer pole in the streets of the principality? Rosberg took the provisional pole but the German was only 59 thousandths of a second faster than his team-mate. At the end of the final session Rosberg made an error at the braking after his flying lap and slid down the escape road at turn 5, which brought out yellow flags. The incident prevented his rivals from improving their lap times and Rosberg clinched pole. The stewards took this into investigation after the qualifying because there was speculation that Rosberg might have done that deliberately but no evidence of any offence was found so Rosberg will retain his pole. However, this incident reminded of the qualifying at Monaco back in 2006 when Schumacher at the wheel of his Ferrari deliberately stopped his car on track to ensure his pole position.
Ricciardo, however, was the faster one of the Red Bull duo and took P3. Ricciardo was only 3 tenths off Rosberg, which was quite promising. After the qualifying Sebastian told that he had had problems with his ERS during the qualifying and due to those problems he didn´t have full power. So once again technical problems for Sebastian, who once again got out-qualified by his team-mate (P4 for Seb). At first a Finnish website reported that the German would have been handed a five-place grid penalty due to a gear box change but luckily that turned out to be false information. A gear box change yes but no penalty! That obviously made my night!! I was also disappointed to see that Alonso was 7 tenths faster than Kimi in Q3! It seems to be irrelevant what changes the Ferrari crew makes in terms of the set-up of Kimi´s car. Kimi´s F14T still seems to be all over the place! Alonso will start to the race from P5 Kimi from P6, Vergne from P7, Magnussen from P78 Kvyat from P9 and Perez from P10.
Monaco GP is all about the best possible grid slot as overtaking is nearly impossible so I won´t expect any miracles from my favourite drivers. But Monaco is also known of the zero tolerance for mistakes: if you lose your concentration for only a second you might end up into the barrier and your race is over. And I always keep my thumbs up for those I passionately support, no matter what the results will finally be so go Kimi and go Sebastian! I hope one day I can witness the glory of the Monaco GP myself as there certainly is something extraordinary and magical about the venue.
sunnuntai 11. toukokuuta 2014
Spanish GP: 4th consecutive win for Hamilton!
It´s Mother´s Day in Finland today and there isn´t a better way to spend it than watch intense Formula 1 action! At first the Spanish GP seemed to be a boring race but towards the end the battle for positions intensified and we saw some proper wheel-to-wheel racing.
Bottas in P4 took a stunning start and the Finn jumped 3rd right away. Hamilton maintained his lead but Rosberg was right at the Briton´s tail. Ricciardo lost the position to Bottas but it was obvious that the Australian was going to do anything to overtake the Finnish Williams driver. I was utterly happy that Kimi was able to keep Alonso behind him. Button in his McLaren starting from P8 had a poor start and he dropped down to P13.
Maldonado at the wheel of his E22 seemed to be completely unable to stay out of trouble. As if it hadn´t been enough that the Venezuelan crashed to the wall in qualifying, on lap 3 he was back in the lime light in a very questionable way. He collided with Caterham´s Ericsson which made Ericsson drop at the very back of the field. A moment later Maldonado was handed a 5-second stop and go penalty due to his foolish action.
The Mercedes duo rapidly pulled away from their rivals and disappeared to the horizon. In the first stint it really seemed that Bottas could actually fight for a podium place. Vettel was the first driver to pit and his tyre choice was the harder compound. Kimi chose the mediums and I was glad to see him exit the pits right in front of his team-mate Alonso, who had also chosen the mediums for the second stint. Bottas pitted not until on lap 20 and the Finn had absolutely no chance to keep Ricciardo behind. Unfortunately the Finn couldn´t match the Red Bull driver´s pace.
The Mercedes drivers had a different tyre strategy. Hamilton put the mediums for the second stint whilst his team-mate Rosberg chose the hard tyres. On lap 24 we saw an impressive overtaking move by Kimi Räikkönen as he overtook Lotus´s Grosjean and moved up to the 5th place. After the first half of the race Sebastian had managed to make his way higher up in the pack and his pace seemed excellent.
Towards the closing stages of the race the battle for positions seemed to come alive. Both Mercedes and Ferrari team-mates had different pit stop strategies. At the end of the race Hamilton in the lead had old hard tyres whilst Rosberg had fresher mediums. Alonso on the other hand had stopped three times and also had fresh medium tyres at the end whilst Kimi had stopped only twice and had dying hard tyres at the end. It became obvious that Rosberg was going to do everything he could to pass his team-mate!
By the time there were still 10 laps to go Vettel with a 3-stop strategy had closed the gap to Kimi and was right at the Finn´s tail. Kimi was told on the team radio not to waste time with racing Sebastian because the German was so much quicker so Kimi let Sebastian easily past him. Kimi was in serious trouble with his old tyres and only three laps before the chequered flag also Alonso managed to pass Kimi in the DRS zone. That was a depressing incident to see! After passing Kimi Sebastian started chasing Bottas in P4 and in no time he was close enough to make his move and Bottas had no chance to defend his position. At the same time Kimi was lapped by the Mercedes duo which was a very crushing moment indeed and told all about the superiority of Mercedes AMG.
Rosberg managed to get within DRS distance in the battle with Hamilton but the German simply run out of laps to make an overtaking move. So a very dominant 1-2 for Mercedes AMG for the 4th time in a row this season and the first ever win for Hamilton on the Spanish soil. The Mercedes seem to drive in a whole different series compared to their rivals as they won the race with a 50-second margin over Ricciardo, who finished 3rd! Sebastian finished stunningly 4th, which was an awesome job in terms of the fact that he started from P15! Sebastian even set the fastest lap time in the race! It was a huge pleasure to watch Sebastian make his way through the field. It kind of gave a glimpse of last year's Sebastian and reminded that his skills haven't disappeared anywhere. Bottas came 5th, Alonso 6th, Kimi 7th, Grosjean finally 8th, Perez 9th and Hulkenberg 10th.
Hamilton grabbed the lead in the championship standings from his team-mate. Mercedes´s lead in the constructors´ standings is absolutely crushing: they have 197 points whilst Red Bull in the 2nd place have only 84 points! And only 5 races have been driven so far... Red Bull clearly seem to have improved their performance but an awful lot of work still needs to be done if they intend to catch up Mercedes! Monaco in a fortnight will, however, be a totally unique venue and I can´t wait to see Sebastian and Kimi back in action in the streets of Monaco.
Bottas in P4 took a stunning start and the Finn jumped 3rd right away. Hamilton maintained his lead but Rosberg was right at the Briton´s tail. Ricciardo lost the position to Bottas but it was obvious that the Australian was going to do anything to overtake the Finnish Williams driver. I was utterly happy that Kimi was able to keep Alonso behind him. Button in his McLaren starting from P8 had a poor start and he dropped down to P13.
Maldonado at the wheel of his E22 seemed to be completely unable to stay out of trouble. As if it hadn´t been enough that the Venezuelan crashed to the wall in qualifying, on lap 3 he was back in the lime light in a very questionable way. He collided with Caterham´s Ericsson which made Ericsson drop at the very back of the field. A moment later Maldonado was handed a 5-second stop and go penalty due to his foolish action.
The Mercedes duo rapidly pulled away from their rivals and disappeared to the horizon. In the first stint it really seemed that Bottas could actually fight for a podium place. Vettel was the first driver to pit and his tyre choice was the harder compound. Kimi chose the mediums and I was glad to see him exit the pits right in front of his team-mate Alonso, who had also chosen the mediums for the second stint. Bottas pitted not until on lap 20 and the Finn had absolutely no chance to keep Ricciardo behind. Unfortunately the Finn couldn´t match the Red Bull driver´s pace.
The Mercedes drivers had a different tyre strategy. Hamilton put the mediums for the second stint whilst his team-mate Rosberg chose the hard tyres. On lap 24 we saw an impressive overtaking move by Kimi Räikkönen as he overtook Lotus´s Grosjean and moved up to the 5th place. After the first half of the race Sebastian had managed to make his way higher up in the pack and his pace seemed excellent.
Towards the closing stages of the race the battle for positions seemed to come alive. Both Mercedes and Ferrari team-mates had different pit stop strategies. At the end of the race Hamilton in the lead had old hard tyres whilst Rosberg had fresher mediums. Alonso on the other hand had stopped three times and also had fresh medium tyres at the end whilst Kimi had stopped only twice and had dying hard tyres at the end. It became obvious that Rosberg was going to do everything he could to pass his team-mate!
By the time there were still 10 laps to go Vettel with a 3-stop strategy had closed the gap to Kimi and was right at the Finn´s tail. Kimi was told on the team radio not to waste time with racing Sebastian because the German was so much quicker so Kimi let Sebastian easily past him. Kimi was in serious trouble with his old tyres and only three laps before the chequered flag also Alonso managed to pass Kimi in the DRS zone. That was a depressing incident to see! After passing Kimi Sebastian started chasing Bottas in P4 and in no time he was close enough to make his move and Bottas had no chance to defend his position. At the same time Kimi was lapped by the Mercedes duo which was a very crushing moment indeed and told all about the superiority of Mercedes AMG.
Rosberg managed to get within DRS distance in the battle with Hamilton but the German simply run out of laps to make an overtaking move. So a very dominant 1-2 for Mercedes AMG for the 4th time in a row this season and the first ever win for Hamilton on the Spanish soil. The Mercedes seem to drive in a whole different series compared to their rivals as they won the race with a 50-second margin over Ricciardo, who finished 3rd! Sebastian finished stunningly 4th, which was an awesome job in terms of the fact that he started from P15! Sebastian even set the fastest lap time in the race! It was a huge pleasure to watch Sebastian make his way through the field. It kind of gave a glimpse of last year's Sebastian and reminded that his skills haven't disappeared anywhere. Bottas came 5th, Alonso 6th, Kimi 7th, Grosjean finally 8th, Perez 9th and Hulkenberg 10th.
Hamilton grabbed the lead in the championship standings from his team-mate. Mercedes´s lead in the constructors´ standings is absolutely crushing: they have 197 points whilst Red Bull in the 2nd place have only 84 points! And only 5 races have been driven so far... Red Bull clearly seem to have improved their performance but an awful lot of work still needs to be done if they intend to catch up Mercedes! Monaco in a fortnight will, however, be a totally unique venue and I can´t wait to see Sebastian and Kimi back in action in the streets of Monaco.
lauantai 10. toukokuuta 2014
Spanish GP / Qualifying: Mercedes domination continues!
The 3-week break is finally over and the F1 circus has moved to Europe. Blue sky and sunny weather meant that finally there were stable conditions for qualifying without any chances of pouring rain or overwhelming heat. All teams had brought major upgrades for this GP weekend hoping they could have closed the gap to Mercedes AMG.
Almost right away in Q1 Lotus´s Maldonado lost the control of his E22 at the exit of turn 3 and crashed to the wall causing red flags. Different teams had different tyre tactics. Both Mercedes drivers and the Red Bull duo set their fastest lap times with the prime tyres whilst majority of the drivers used option tyres already in the first session. In spite of the tyre choice the Mercedes drivers topped the time sheets Nico being the fastest of those two. My hopes were high in terms of Sebastian´s performance. The German had had a catastrophic Friday as Sebastian´s RB10 was hit by a technical failure (an ERS overheating issue) already in the first free practice session and the problem was so severe that Sebastian missed the entire second free practice in the afternoon. But in Q1 it seemed that Sebastian was right on form and ready to fight for the top grid slots. Sauber´s Adrian Sutil was the first man not to make it into Q2.
Everyone started to Q2 with the softer compound of the Pirelli tyres. In Q2 it seemed that Lotus had actually managed to make a significant leap forward in terms of their performance as Grosjean was 6th fastest in the session! The fastest men were the same as in Q1: Nico topped the timesheets with Lewis 2nd. I was delighted to see Kimi as high as 7th because it seemed obvious that his F14T wasn´t an easy one to drive. Alonso also struggled with his pace and just barely made it in to the final session being 10th fastest! Both Force Indias were out of the final session. Magnussen at the wheel of his McLaren faced a power unit related problem and was unable to set a lap time. Toro Rosso´s Vergne didn´t start to the session, either.
My hopes dashed completely in the final session. The session had barely got underway as Sebastian had to stop his car on the track due to a gearbox problem! Already when the Red Bull ace left the pits he lost the second gear but he thought he could manage the lap without the second gear. But by reaching the first turn he had lost all the gears so his qualifying was over. So another red flag delay today. So disappointing! Why does it always have to be Sebastian´s car with all the problems this season?? Though I know this question and moaning isn´t fully justified as last season it always seemed to be Mark Webber´s car suffering from all the technical issues. Most of the drivers made only one run in Q3. As if by magic Hamilton found some extra pace and conquered the pole and left his team-mate Rosberg 2nd. Ricciardo made it in P3 but was already a second down on Hamilton! Bottas at the wheel of his FW36 took a surprising 4th place whilst his team-mate Massa made a mistake on his last run which kept the Brazilian down to P9. The Finn seems to enjoy it at Circuit de Catalunya and the track seems to bring the best out in him. Grosjean continued the excellent form and qualified 5th right in front of Kimi in P6 and Alonso in P7. Button in his McLaren was 8th fastest.
After the qualifying it´s more and more obvious that Mercedes´s mammoth advantage over their rivals hasn´t disappeared anywhere. I guess we can´t expect anything but overwhelming dominance by Mercedes AMG in tomorrow´s race. Without any technical woes there´s no doubt about the winner: it´s going to be either one of the Mercedes drivers and if I have to pick either one I´d pick Hamilton. He is living such an unbelievable momentum now.
I was utterly excited about Kimi beating his team-mate today! Though it seems that Kimi´s F14T is "all over the place" but I´m sure if anyone can tame the Prancing Horse it´s definitely Kimi so I´m expecting a strong race from the Iceman. In terms of Sebastian I´m more worried. He was handed a 5-place grid penalty due to the gearbox change so he´ll start to the race from P15. I just hope there won´t be any more technical issues facing him in the race! If the previous season was all about glory, this one seems to be all about setbacks. But they are meant to be overcome, right? :) I always believe in him no matter how high the mountain of difficulties will be!
Almost right away in Q1 Lotus´s Maldonado lost the control of his E22 at the exit of turn 3 and crashed to the wall causing red flags. Different teams had different tyre tactics. Both Mercedes drivers and the Red Bull duo set their fastest lap times with the prime tyres whilst majority of the drivers used option tyres already in the first session. In spite of the tyre choice the Mercedes drivers topped the time sheets Nico being the fastest of those two. My hopes were high in terms of Sebastian´s performance. The German had had a catastrophic Friday as Sebastian´s RB10 was hit by a technical failure (an ERS overheating issue) already in the first free practice session and the problem was so severe that Sebastian missed the entire second free practice in the afternoon. But in Q1 it seemed that Sebastian was right on form and ready to fight for the top grid slots. Sauber´s Adrian Sutil was the first man not to make it into Q2.
Everyone started to Q2 with the softer compound of the Pirelli tyres. In Q2 it seemed that Lotus had actually managed to make a significant leap forward in terms of their performance as Grosjean was 6th fastest in the session! The fastest men were the same as in Q1: Nico topped the timesheets with Lewis 2nd. I was delighted to see Kimi as high as 7th because it seemed obvious that his F14T wasn´t an easy one to drive. Alonso also struggled with his pace and just barely made it in to the final session being 10th fastest! Both Force Indias were out of the final session. Magnussen at the wheel of his McLaren faced a power unit related problem and was unable to set a lap time. Toro Rosso´s Vergne didn´t start to the session, either.
My hopes dashed completely in the final session. The session had barely got underway as Sebastian had to stop his car on the track due to a gearbox problem! Already when the Red Bull ace left the pits he lost the second gear but he thought he could manage the lap without the second gear. But by reaching the first turn he had lost all the gears so his qualifying was over. So another red flag delay today. So disappointing! Why does it always have to be Sebastian´s car with all the problems this season?? Though I know this question and moaning isn´t fully justified as last season it always seemed to be Mark Webber´s car suffering from all the technical issues. Most of the drivers made only one run in Q3. As if by magic Hamilton found some extra pace and conquered the pole and left his team-mate Rosberg 2nd. Ricciardo made it in P3 but was already a second down on Hamilton! Bottas at the wheel of his FW36 took a surprising 4th place whilst his team-mate Massa made a mistake on his last run which kept the Brazilian down to P9. The Finn seems to enjoy it at Circuit de Catalunya and the track seems to bring the best out in him. Grosjean continued the excellent form and qualified 5th right in front of Kimi in P6 and Alonso in P7. Button in his McLaren was 8th fastest.
After the qualifying it´s more and more obvious that Mercedes´s mammoth advantage over their rivals hasn´t disappeared anywhere. I guess we can´t expect anything but overwhelming dominance by Mercedes AMG in tomorrow´s race. Without any technical woes there´s no doubt about the winner: it´s going to be either one of the Mercedes drivers and if I have to pick either one I´d pick Hamilton. He is living such an unbelievable momentum now.
I was utterly excited about Kimi beating his team-mate today! Though it seems that Kimi´s F14T is "all over the place" but I´m sure if anyone can tame the Prancing Horse it´s definitely Kimi so I´m expecting a strong race from the Iceman. In terms of Sebastian I´m more worried. He was handed a 5-place grid penalty due to the gearbox change so he´ll start to the race from P15. I just hope there won´t be any more technical issues facing him in the race! If the previous season was all about glory, this one seems to be all about setbacks. But they are meant to be overcome, right? :) I always believe in him no matter how high the mountain of difficulties will be!
sunnuntai 20. huhtikuuta 2014
Chinese GP: Another very predicted 1-2 for Mercedes GP!
At the start of the Chinese GP my hopes were very high. As the lights went out Hamilton was able to maintain his lead but Sebastian from P3 stormed to second. Alonso took another stunning start and made his way right up to third. Rosberg starting from P4 had a lousy start due to a telemetry issue in the car. All telemetry was lacking so it was impossible for the team to get Rosberg´s clutch set up correctly so the German lost many positions at the start. Both Williams drivers had a collision in the first corner: Massa had contact with Alonso in his Ferrari and Bottas collided with Rosberg. Luckily there was no damage in any of the cars involved but the collision cost Bottas many positions on the opening lap. However, I was so glad to see that Sebastian took a superb start and I was sure the German was finally going to keep his team-mate behind him!
My joy was so premature! Later on in the race things certainly didn´t go to my plan! But before my day turned upside down, that happened to Felipe Massa at the wheel of his FW36 at his first pits top on lap 11. There was a costly mistake at the Brasilian´s pit stop in terms of tyres and it took over a minute which meant that Massa´s race was ruined as he joined track behind everyone else.
Right from the very first laps Kimi seemed to be struggling with his car. There was a massive difference in the lap times between the Ferrari team-mates. I couldn´t help thinking that there must have been something utterly wrong with Kimi´s car once again as I wasn´t used to see such poor performance from the Iceman! It seemed that Kimi had simply no chance to match Alonso´s lap times :(
The lack of telemetry didn´t stop Rosberg from making his way up position by position. After the first pit stops the German Mercedes driver was already right at Vettel´s tail and Sebastian had no chance to hold Nico back. The Mercedes is frighteningly fast on the straights, which Red Bull certainly isn´t. Sebastian seemed to be struggling with the white-marked medium tyres as his team-mate Ricciardo was suddenly also able to close the gap to him. On lap 25 the team told Sebastian on the team radio to let Ricciardo through. Sebastian replied in memorable words: "Tough luck" and didn´t intend to let his team-mate overtake him. A bit later Sebastian was told that he was on a different strategy compared to his team-mate and after that Ricciardo passed Sebastian. I just couldn´t help wondering, where Sebastian´s pace had suddenly vanished! The start had been so promising but suddenly Ricciardo was a second faster than Sebastian! That seemed so unbelievable.
Right after the second pit stops Rosberg had caught up Alonso and the overtaking move looked so easy! The Mercedes GP are so overwhelmingly dominant at the moment that it´s even ridiculously easy to overtake others with that car! Alonso had no chance to hold Nico back. But Hamilton´s driving was absolutely crushing today: the Briton cruised to victory with almost a 20-second gap over his team-mate Rosberg. So once again a dominant 1-2 for Mercedes GP, which seem to be utterly unstoppable at the moment. Alonso´s podium place was warmly welcomed at Ferrari and it gave the Italian-based team hope that there´s still a distant chance to catch their rivals during this season. Ricciardo finished 4th ahead of his team-mate Sebastian. Hulkenberg in his Force India drove an impressive race and finished 6th only a few tenths of a second ahead of Bottas at the wheel of his FW36. Kimi finished 8th after a troubled race, Perez in his Force India in P9 and Kvyat in Toro Rosso scored the last point.
To be honest, I was sooo disappointed after the race. I had to go to gym to calm down before writing my blog, hahahaha! The result would have been easier to except if there had been some technical issue in both Sebastian´s and Kimi´s car. But Sebastian admitted after the race that he simply couldn´t get as much out of the prime tyres as his team-mate did. So Sebastian is facing whole new difficulties in his career. His former team-mate Webber never managed to beat him like this. The question is: how is Sebastian going to handle this? He has such a killer-instict for winning so I´m confident that he´ll turn this around at some point of the season. I just hope Sebastian´s current performance coach Antti Kontsas has similar skills to Tommi Pärmäkoski, who successfully helped Sebastian through all the difficulties back in 2010 when there were sparks flying between the team-mates.
In terms of Kimi´s performance the situation was quite much the same. There wasn´t a technical problem in Kimi´s car today but it just seems that it´s extremely challenging for Ferrari to improve the car the way Kimi wants. Kimi´s driving style doesn´t suit to the current car and Kimi has problems with the tyres when it´s cold or wet. It must be so frustrating for Kimi as the reporters have already started asking the old questions about the Finn´s motivation. At Barcelona I really really hope to see an F14T, which suits Kimi in a much better way!
Rosberg and Hamilton have a double-lead in the championship standings, only 4 points separating the team-mates in favor of the German. Alonso is 3rd 34 points off Hamilton. Even Hulkenberg with 36 points is ahead of Vettel, who has only 33 points so far. And now we´ll have to wait long three weeks until the F1 circus moves to Europe and Barcelona!
My joy was so premature! Later on in the race things certainly didn´t go to my plan! But before my day turned upside down, that happened to Felipe Massa at the wheel of his FW36 at his first pits top on lap 11. There was a costly mistake at the Brasilian´s pit stop in terms of tyres and it took over a minute which meant that Massa´s race was ruined as he joined track behind everyone else.
Right from the very first laps Kimi seemed to be struggling with his car. There was a massive difference in the lap times between the Ferrari team-mates. I couldn´t help thinking that there must have been something utterly wrong with Kimi´s car once again as I wasn´t used to see such poor performance from the Iceman! It seemed that Kimi had simply no chance to match Alonso´s lap times :(
The lack of telemetry didn´t stop Rosberg from making his way up position by position. After the first pit stops the German Mercedes driver was already right at Vettel´s tail and Sebastian had no chance to hold Nico back. The Mercedes is frighteningly fast on the straights, which Red Bull certainly isn´t. Sebastian seemed to be struggling with the white-marked medium tyres as his team-mate Ricciardo was suddenly also able to close the gap to him. On lap 25 the team told Sebastian on the team radio to let Ricciardo through. Sebastian replied in memorable words: "Tough luck" and didn´t intend to let his team-mate overtake him. A bit later Sebastian was told that he was on a different strategy compared to his team-mate and after that Ricciardo passed Sebastian. I just couldn´t help wondering, where Sebastian´s pace had suddenly vanished! The start had been so promising but suddenly Ricciardo was a second faster than Sebastian! That seemed so unbelievable.
Right after the second pit stops Rosberg had caught up Alonso and the overtaking move looked so easy! The Mercedes GP are so overwhelmingly dominant at the moment that it´s even ridiculously easy to overtake others with that car! Alonso had no chance to hold Nico back. But Hamilton´s driving was absolutely crushing today: the Briton cruised to victory with almost a 20-second gap over his team-mate Rosberg. So once again a dominant 1-2 for Mercedes GP, which seem to be utterly unstoppable at the moment. Alonso´s podium place was warmly welcomed at Ferrari and it gave the Italian-based team hope that there´s still a distant chance to catch their rivals during this season. Ricciardo finished 4th ahead of his team-mate Sebastian. Hulkenberg in his Force India drove an impressive race and finished 6th only a few tenths of a second ahead of Bottas at the wheel of his FW36. Kimi finished 8th after a troubled race, Perez in his Force India in P9 and Kvyat in Toro Rosso scored the last point.
To be honest, I was sooo disappointed after the race. I had to go to gym to calm down before writing my blog, hahahaha! The result would have been easier to except if there had been some technical issue in both Sebastian´s and Kimi´s car. But Sebastian admitted after the race that he simply couldn´t get as much out of the prime tyres as his team-mate did. So Sebastian is facing whole new difficulties in his career. His former team-mate Webber never managed to beat him like this. The question is: how is Sebastian going to handle this? He has such a killer-instict for winning so I´m confident that he´ll turn this around at some point of the season. I just hope Sebastian´s current performance coach Antti Kontsas has similar skills to Tommi Pärmäkoski, who successfully helped Sebastian through all the difficulties back in 2010 when there were sparks flying between the team-mates.
In terms of Kimi´s performance the situation was quite much the same. There wasn´t a technical problem in Kimi´s car today but it just seems that it´s extremely challenging for Ferrari to improve the car the way Kimi wants. Kimi´s driving style doesn´t suit to the current car and Kimi has problems with the tyres when it´s cold or wet. It must be so frustrating for Kimi as the reporters have already started asking the old questions about the Finn´s motivation. At Barcelona I really really hope to see an F14T, which suits Kimi in a much better way!
Rosberg and Hamilton have a double-lead in the championship standings, only 4 points separating the team-mates in favor of the German. Alonso is 3rd 34 points off Hamilton. Even Hulkenberg with 36 points is ahead of Vettel, who has only 33 points so far. And now we´ll have to wait long three weeks until the F1 circus moves to Europe and Barcelona!
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