Round 6: Monaco 2014 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Once again Monaco has thrown yet another curve ball into the championship mix - we have at least two very displeased champions sulking in the uninhabited corners of their respective garages. Vettel for one might do well to stay away from a Renault dealership for a fear of him unleashing his German wrath upon the French manufacturer after today. Meanwhile everyone might do well giving Hamilton a wide berth, especially if you happen to be the angry Briton's team-mate. You could say he has to keep one eye open for Nico this season because that battle has just got a lot more intense, and the post race interviews were full of venom and less than subtle criticism. The off track anxiety is almost as edgy and threatening than the racing, even in a race which saw accidents, safety cars, imploding engines and a race long battles throughout the field, some ending some seemingly impossible physics defying overtakes. It wasn't the demolition derby of 2013 but what we were handed today was so much better - and when the chequered flag fell we were treated to one of the most popular results in years. The first big race of the day delivered, the only thing we didn't get was a wheel to wheel push and shove match between the two Mercedes drivers, but I can't say it is all quite so calm in the garage now.

The Race

Before the start the discussions were were focussed on trying to second guess which of the two silver cars would make it through St Devote with all four wheels attached - Niki Lauda himself said that the atmosphere in the team was... difficult. So those folk hiding out further back were hoping for a little bit of contact in the first corner to finally seize an opportunity to beat a Mercedes for once. There was also the remote threat of rain, but as we all know - as soon as the rain is mentioned it is almost guaranteed not to arrive... as it turned out we didn't need it...

When the lights went out at the end of a tentative formation lap Hamilton saw his only real chance of stealing the lead vanish as Rosberg drove effortlessly away from the line. The big gain was made by Raikkonen who beat Alonso and Ricciardo at the start round the outside of St Devote, slotting in behind Vettel on the run up Beau Rivage. It seemed like we had gotten away without any contact, but that only lasted until Mirabeau when Jenson Button got into the back of Sergio Perez. The Force India was nerfed round into the barrier and one sector into the race, the safety car was thrown.

On the restart we saw Raikkonen sweep past Vettel before St Devote, it turned out that Sebastian was having more mechanical dramas, it appears the curse of Mark Webber still haunts the Red Bull garage and his former rival's car. Vettel brought the car into the pit lane, and despite trying to rejoin the race, it was game over within a couple of laps. The star from qualifying Daniil Kvyat was also suffering from mechanical dramas in the engine department and had to retire... another Renault failure - might be an idea to lock the doors at Renualt HQ as there'll be an angry German and a Russian with a powerful death stare lining up outside. Add to that list Pastor Maldonado whose car broke down before the start there are many displeased customers.

While Rosberg and Hamilton built a gap to Raikkonen in third, we were made aware of a series of grid position violations at the back of the grid. Because Maldonado didn't make the start, Gutierrez, Chilton and Bianchi ended up starting in the wrong position, all three were handed one of the new fancy 5 second pit stop extension penalties. Elsewhere Adrian Sutil was delivering one of his Monaco specials, overtaking where it shouldn't be possible - and like last year the loews hairpin remained his hunting ground. Sutil threw the Sauber across the kerb on the inside to make it past Grosjean's Lotus. A few laps later Sutil was at it again down at the hairpin, his next target was Marcus Eriksson to take 17th place, Max Chilton was Adrian's next target. Unsurprisingly Sutil didn't take too long to dispatch the Marussia, but this time he decided to make the pass into Nouvelle Chicane... it was a little straight forward.

Inside the top ten - everyone had started to space themselves out - except the top two... Hamilton was not letting Rosberg get out of his sight... an idea which is will be much funnier later... constantly staying about 0.8s behind the other Mercedes. Raikkonen and Ricciardo were circulating anonymously several seconds behind them while Alonso appeared to have no friends miles away from anyone else as Magnussen and Vergne were keeping everyone else at bay. It could be said that the race was at risk of getting a little stagnant, because it was almost time for the one and only round of pit-stops... wouldn't it be a shame if someone threw a spanner in the works of their strategies. Then there was Adrian Sutil - the Nouvelle Chicane was littered with shards of carbon fibre, at first we all assumed that he'd tried one to many mental overtaking efforts and it had finally gone wrong. But the replay showed he had an identical moment to Kvyat and fired it into the opposite wall. Cue safety car number two and decided everyone's strategies for them.

While the SLS was going round we heard Hamilton complaining relentlessly over the radio, which seems to be a regular occurrence these days. Lewis wanted the team to bring him in before the safety car was announced as it looked inevitable based on Sutil's accident. Elsewhere in the queue of cars Max Chilton somehow managed to crash into the back of Kimi Raikkonen - forcing the Ferrari team into another stop to replace a punctured tyre pushing Kimi well down the order.

At the restart Magnussen seemed to forget that overtaking before the safety car line was illegal and passed Vergne into Rascasse. Keven redressed the position but didn't account for Hulkenberg in the remaining Force India, Nico somehow executed a sublime overtaking manoeuvre into the second part of Portier without any contact. Magnussen did a good job to spot Hulkenberg's move and allowed just enough space to avoid an accident. Further back an outstanding battle was developing between Kamui Kobayashi and Kimi Raikkonen - the Finn recovering from the additional pit stop. Kamui's car looked completely out of control at all times. At the point when Kimi finally took the place we saw Kobayashi sliding almost pointing straight at the wall, how on earth neither car made contact with each other or the wall is a complete mystery. Jules Bianchi wasn't quite as subtle when taking the position from the Caterham driver after Raikkonen had done so. In Rascasse Jules just defiantly biffed Kamui out of the way with  precision - if giving someone a good shoving can be precise. Little did we know how important that pass would be

The story at the front of the race was developing further, Rosberg was informed that his fuel consumption was too high and needed to conserve in order to bring it back in line - if there was any chance for Hamilton to take the win this was it. Nico couldn't run at full capacity because of the fuel issue and therefore was potentially vulnerable, but Lewis couldn't do anything about it. The gap remained between 0.8 and 1.1s, while messages went backwards and forwards between the Mercedes team and the two drivers - Rosberg trying to balance speed and fuel conservation and Lewis demanding information and trying keep up with Nico.

As the race crossed two thirds distance the field had once more spread out quite a lot - no-one was more alone than Alonso who was now 30s clear of Hulkenberg and 10s behind Ricciardo. all by his self. Vergne was also about to be all by himself as another Renault mechanical drama made the Toro Rosso emit lots of smoke and making it all smell rather terribly. So Jean-Eric joins the queue of people lining up outside of Renault HQ demanding retribution. Speaking of elongated queues Bottas was accumulating one of his own with Gutierrez, Raikkonen and Massa . Valtteri was struggling for pace and was losing seconds per lap to the line of cars behind him, the source of his lack of speed suddenly became abundantly clear as the engine in the back of the Williams erupted as well. It isn't that often that we see a Mercedes engine malfunction, so the line of angry drivers outside the Mercedes factory will be much smaller than the one outside Renault

Bottas' demise put Gutierrez at the front of the queue, and remained under pressure from Raikkonen and Felipe Massa - he didn't hold onto that position for too long as the Mexican clipped the wall on the inside of the Rascasse and ruined the rear suspension. It was close to being another late safety car intervention, which would have been interesting, but the talented Monaco marshals wheeled the Sauber off into the pits very quickly. As a result Raikkonen no longer had anyone immediately in front of him, and could pick up the pace and catch up to the next queue of cars. That particular queue was headed by Nico Hulkenberg and contained both McLarens - Hulkenberg's tyres had reached the end of their usable lifespan and Magnussen was virtually pushing the Force India round the race track.

Back at the front, we had another interesting development in the ongoing saga between Rosberg and Hamilton - Lewis suddenly lost four seconds to his team-mate. Another irate message from Hamilton pointed out that there was something in his left eye and he couldn't see out of it - in essence Lewis Hamilton had become the worlds first gangster pirate. But Capt'n Hamilton's new piratical status caused an interesting problem because it allowed Ricciardo to erase the 15s gap he had over the Australian. This eventuality once more lead to another less than pleased Hamilton being less than complimentary over the radio - Lewis asked about his lap times and the gaps, to which the team informed him how close Ricciardo was. Hamilton then told the team that he didn't care about Ricciardo... which I'm sure hurt Daniel's feelings... and was far more concerned about the time he was losing to Rosberg.

Yet there was an even more impressive story developing, after Gutierrez bounced off the wall, Jules Bianchi moved into 10th place... the Marussia was in the points. But Bianchi had that 5 second penalty he incurred for incorrectly parking at the start, a penalty that was to be added post race as pitting under the safety car didn't count. Grosjean was 7 seconds behind the Frenchman and closing, as soon as the Lotus came within the five second margin it would mean Romain would take tenth from Jules due to the penalty. However there was a storm brewing further up the road - Raikkonen had now caught Button, Magnussen and Hulkenberg. This was the one remaining really close battle and if anything was to go wrong, Bianchi would be safe for the first ever points. A battle that got infinitely more complex as Rosberg, Hamilton and Ricciardo had to try and lap the group while having their own issue.

Once the leaders had carved their way through, it appeared that Magnussen missed a gear or something out of the final corner allowing Button to sweep round the outside down the main straight - so Jenson was now the lead McLaren trying to pass Hulkenberg. As soon as the group bunched up once more it was Raikkonen's turn to have a lunge at the Dane - Kimi attempted to replicate Adrian Sutil's unique skill, overtaking at the Loews Hairpin. Raikkonen was not blessed with the same level of precision at this particular corner and pushed himself and Magnussen out to the wall. Two more cars dropped down the field. Bianchi was now in 8th position, absolutely outstanding.

For the final few laps of the race Hamilton the gangster pirate had regained his vision and was more equipped to defend from Ricciardo, while Rosberg was clean gone up the road to score his second win in Monaco. Lewis begrudgingly took second and refused to talk to Nico - apparently he is not friends anymore. Which is starting to sound like Hamilton is being quite the sore loser over the whole weekend. Ricciardo scores another podium as one of the few people not wanting to lynch everyone at Renault. Despite have the ultimate anonymous race Alonso did finish in 4th place and the last car on the lead lap. Hulkenberg resisted the late charge by Jenson Button to hold 5th postion. Felipe Massa brought the sole remaining Williams home in 7th, and in 8th place on the road was Jules Bianchi for Marussia, scoring his and the teams first points ever. The five second penalty did drop him behind Grosjean in the final results, but 9th still is two points. After having his run-in with Raikkonen Magnussen recovered for the final point in 10th.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

After an eventful race like that there are definitely opportunities to score some bonus points and score big, so the winners from today are as follows:

• 25pts - Jules Bianchi - Scores points for Marussia, which in itself is amazing but they are now ahead of Sauber in the championship which is outstanding
• 18pts - Nico Rosberg - In the face of a very oppressive atmosphere Nico overcame major pressure to take another Monaco victory
• 15pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Another brilliant race, and an exceptional pass on Kevin Magnussen into Portier 
• 12pts - Daniel Ricciardo - The first time this season when another car has been in sight of the Mercedes team at the end of the race
• 10pts - Adrian Sutil - Has to have some points for the string of passes he pulled out in the Loews hairpin before ending his race in the wall
• 8pts - Capt'n Hamilton - Driving around Monaco with no vision in one eye without putting it in the wall deserves some points
• 6pts - Kimi Raikkonen - An epic start and was on for a podium had it not been for Chilton causing a puncture under the safety car
• 4pts - Kamui Kobayshi - Performed the mother of all saves when under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen before the Nouvelle Chicane
• 2pts - Max Chilton - Scores points for keeping the car out of the wall after a mega powerslide through the entrance to the swimming pool section, so close to ending the run of finishes
• 1pt - Ryan Hunter Reay - For winning the Indy 500 this evening

The Penalty points championship

There is not too much officiating that needs to be done following this weekend considering most people were well behaved and those who weren't generally put themselves in the wall, 

• Lewis Hamilton - Stop whining dammit, you've got the fastest car and have won two thirds of everything this season, Rosberg is allowed to do a better job now and again
• Jenson Button - Has to have a point for punting Perez into the fence no-one else has got on that one

Looking ahead to Canada

From one great race to another, the Canadian GP is another favourite with the drivers and fans alike, where the steel barriers are replaced by concrete walls with only a fraction more room to spare before you collide with them. However it is a track which should favour Mercedes a lot more than Monaco did, and potentially promote Williams and McLaren a lot further forward due to the straight line speed advantage they have. I wonder how quickly Hamilton's demeanour will change if he finds himself as the fastest of the two cars, I suspect it will be very quick indeed. However if we turn up to Montreal - a track that favours Hamilton - and Rosberg wins again all hell may break loose. There is a part of me which hopes that amount of insanity takes place, and who knows more points for Marussia and maybe for Caterham it is going to be awesome. 

Round 6: Monaco 2014 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

Well, if things in the Mercedes garage were not tense enough eh, nothing like a little side serving of controversy to round off what was an unusually well behaved session in Monaco. Perhaps if Hamilton hadn't overslept on Thursday he wouldn't be wearing such a grumpy face this afternoon, he ended the session with a stare even more deathly than the one Daniil has been wearing all season. However after the Russian had an almighty moment coming out of the tunnel I daresay that Mr Kvyat will be wearing a 'new pants please' stare for a while. 

Monaco always manages to throw up something different, and today was certainly no different - conspiracy theories are once more being chanted from sofas and grandstands up and down the country. Flashbacks to Schumacher's infamous parking manoeuvre at Rascasse in 2006 and the allegations of cheating that followed. Yes Michael was renowned for bending and occasionally breaking the rules for personal gain, but would Nico be quite so devious. The stewards have made their call, but the rest of the world isn't quite so sure. 

Q1

With track position so important on a track where it is so easy to get held up it was the Mercedes team who decided that it wasn't enough to be winning everything they had to be first to take to the track. Within moments the rest of the field joined in and things ultimately got very busy. For some reason in the initial top time was set by Pastor Maldonado - but the Venezuelan has always done well on the streets of Monaco, in fact those drivers who are occasionally considered a liability tend to be very quick in Monaco. Checcoto in GP2 is another prime example. It wasn't long before the yellow flags came out, as we heard a radio message from Kvyat where the Russian pointed out he'd damaged the front wing. Yet the replays showed that Daniil had a monumental sideways moment coming on the run down the chicane, and somehow managed to avoid shattering the Toro Rosso into thousands of pieces - only knocking the front wing off. Many drivers have had much larger accidents in exactly the same place. 

Normal service resumed when it was a Mercedes at the front of the field - this time in the hands of Nico Rosberg, slightly ahead of Hamilton - who had managed to wake up for this session, just not enough to beat the German. Then there was a slight turn in events when several drivers decided to switch onto the softer tyres to escape the relegation zone - a change that worked well for Toro Rosso, Vergne was able to go fastest and Kvyat after sliding down the wall also made it into the top ten. At the very end of the session there was a little skirmish between Marcus Eriksson and Massa. Felipe on an outlap left room for the Caterham in Mirabeau but the Swede got several kinds of sideways and bounced into the side of the Williams knocking the Brazilian out of qualifying.

Q2 

After the excitement of Q1 it could be said that the second phase of qualifying was a lot more routine and once again Rosberg was able to get out of the garage ahead of Lewis - Hamilton slightly asleep again perhaps. Just like in the first session the Mercedes cars took two laps to get the most out of tyres whereas others were straight on the pace - Hulkenberg immediately into the 1:17's while the silver cars were a second or so slower. Naturally that order was corrected on the following lap, Rosberg going fastest 0.035 only ahead of Hamilton. 

Behind the Mercedes team everyone else was very quietly going about their business, except Vettel - who found something else to complain about on the radio. This time it was the electronic gubbins in the car not giving him enough power - yet the German still was the closest driver to the Mercedes pair, so I doubt that was quite as much wrong with the car as he suggested. It was turning into quite the day for Toro Rosso as both cars had made it into the top ten. While Jenson Button was having a less successful afternoon, in comparison to his rookie team-mate, despite some severe lock-ups into St Devote Magnussen made it through into the final part of qualifying. But in reality it was up to the Red Bull team to take on the Mercedes pairing as we moved into Q3.

Q3

Ten drivers remaining, only two of which had any realistic chance of taking pole position, I'd like to say that we were in for a titanic struggle down to the final few seconds of the session... but no. In the first round Nico Rosberg delivered the first strike, setting what turned out to be the pole time 0.059 seconds ahead of Hamilton. There was a certain symmetry to the opening runs as the second row was a whole Red Bull affair and Ferrari had control of row three - it sort of points out that there is a disparity between the performances across the top three teams. Previously it was just a muddle over everyone else behind the silver arrows but it has spread out since then.

After a quick set of pit-stops it was time for the all important second runs the only point in the whole weekend when the drivers are able to give it full beans... and it all fell apart miserably. Rosberg once again went out first and was pushing hard through the first sector - until he reached Mirabeau. And this is where the controversy begins - Nico went in too deep and had to take the narrow escape road to keep out of the barrier. This brought out the yellow flags, naturally, but the Mercedes was sufficiently down the escape road for it not to be too much of a problem for following cars. Until he reversed back out on to the track, which is the de-facto approach to an off at Mirabeau - the problem was that Nico emerged from the escape road into a position of more danger as Hamilton was approaching the corner... Consequently Lewis had to abandon his lap - which was going to be faster - and allow Rosberg to take pole position.

Cue the raft of conspiracy theories, the video of Rosberg's mistake has been analysed to death by world champions, engineers, journalists and everyone else and no-one can conclusively decide that it wasn't an intentional act. You could say that is merely cynicism coming through, trying to rile up the intensity of the relationship in the team - not being a driver myself it just looked like a simple outbreaking incident. The actual reversal onto the track wasn't captured on camera, we only saw Hamilton's on-board where Nico was much closer to the edge of the track. Either way Hamilton was very displeased, in the press conference and interviews he had a stare Kvyat would have been proud of. The incident was investigated and no wrong doing was discovered.

The Bonus Points Championship

Monaco still offers a unique challenge, especially considering the difficulties these new cars pose and it means that a driver can really make a difference - well at least a bit of one. But bonus points will be scored as follows:

• 10pts - Daniil Kvyat: After avoiding a monumental accident in Q1 puts the car in the top ten on a track he had never visited before - gets the full points
• 8pts - Jean-Eric Vergne: More points for Toro Rosso, even though he was on the super-softs setting the fastest time in Q1
• 6pts - Kevin Magnussen: Another rookie making into the top ten while his world champion team-mate is trapped down in 12th
• 5pts - Pastor Maldonado: Has to have some points for an epic slide coming down the hill, the closest you could get to a shunt without actually hitting the barrier.
• 4pts - Nico Rosberg: Despite ruining the final part of qualifying, pole position does deserve some points considering Hamilton's run of form
• 3pts - Daniel Ricciardo: Again the Australian beats the German Bloke... even if there were more technical difficulties with Vettel's car
• 2pts - Kimi Raikkonen: Gets a couple of points for coming ever so close to the wall in Tabac 
• 1pt - Max Chilton: For not being last

Looking to Tomorrow

It's going to be fun isn't it, the events of today make the battle between the Mercedes drivers that bit more interesting - Hamilton is not best pleased and the target of his displeasure is positioned right alongside him. Further back we have lots of cars of a similar pace all fighting for what remains of the points, and if the GP2 races are anything to go by, there will be safety car interruptions. That'll severely re-arrange the strategies and to make things potentially worse, there is a 30% chance of Thursday's rain showers returning.  Jenson Button said that no-one wants rain, but I can say Jenson from my sofa and I think rain would be a brilliant idea because the outcome would be complete insanity. So sorry Jenson, I believe there are millions of people around the world really prefer a decent downpour. 

If the Monaco GP wasn't enough there is also the Indy 500, let the greatest race weekend of the year commence...

Round 6: Monaco 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

The most important weekend in motorsport has all but arrived, two thirds of the 'triple-crown' takes place on Sunday starting with the Monaco GP and ending with the Indy 500 utterly wonderful. But as always the Monaco weekend is a bit of a double edged sword in many respects, because although we are treated to the drivers struggling around one of the most difficult tracks for the new turbo engines... they bring along a very crowded bandwagon. Monte-Carlo is constantly drowning in hangers-on and various 'famous' folk who turn up just so that they score some more TV time rather than for the actual sport itself. The sort of people who turn up in multi-million pound boats and swan around the paddock as if they own the place, all because they've conveniently got a film, CD or book coming out...

I could rant for a while, generally with great disstain for the overtly rich cretins that milk the cameras for all their worth, but it doesn't detract from what a special weekend this promises to be. A Monaco GP can go one of two ways - either complete inactivity because no-one can pass and no-one has enough tyre grip to give it a go. The other option is total lunacy, cars bouncing off the walls, off each other - and occasionally building forts out of the barriers. Sadly that particular barrier has been modified, so Maldonado will have to find somewhere else to hide this year. Hopefully, with the new regulations making traction so much more difficult and the reduction of rear downforce the infamous streets will be that bit more difficult to master. Does that mean Mercedes may be vulnerable to anything... well based on the only dry practice thus far... No...

The Venue

The Monaco GP has been on the calendar for many, many decades and since it's very inception has seen very few changes - and all of those have been added to the second half of the lap. I suppose it is a lot harder to alter a track which winds through a very compact Mediterranean  principality - demolishing some casino or hotel crammed full of rich people isn't going to be popular. Even if you get a better corner out of it, so that's why it is the marina-side section which gets upgraded because all that requires is reclaiming land from the sea. Reclaimed land upon which the new-ish Rascasse section sits after it was built several years ago now.

Given how narrow the streets are and how compact the track is, St Devote is a pleasantly fast corner to open the lap - one that taunts drivers to go that little bit faster and repays them with an unforgiving armco barrier. If they stay out of the wall they are treated to a steep climb up to the highest point of the track, Massonet. This is another challenging corner with no room for error, arching past a bunch of shops full of needlessly expensive crap. Massonet feeds directly into Casino Square - named imaginatively after the fact there is a casino in the vicinity - concluding the fist sector of the lap. In contrast to many US and Australian street circuits this track has a magnificent flow to it - something the grotesque budgets these Tilke tracks have at their disposal can't manufacture.

After a short straight with a viscious bump half way down, we arrive at Mirabeau - a corner which has been the most problematic in the practice sessions thus far, a difficult breaking zone as the track falls and turns back on itself. Dropping down to the famous Loews Hairpin, the tightest corner all season, one that requires a special steering configuration lurking in the shadow of another hugely expensive hotel. The technical section continues with the double right hander of Portier - the scene of one of the most epic battles on the streets between Schumacher and Alex Wurtz. In which the latter ended up with no front wheels in the darkness of the tunnel... it still remains very suspicious to this day.

Portier leads to the infamous tunnel, plunging the drivers into darkness before launching them out into the steep descent towards the Nouvelle Chicane - one of the few remote overtaking spots on the track. One that knocked Perez off Raikkonen's Christmas card list... a role that Magnussen is trying to fill this season. In a former life this chicane just to be much faster, and without any barriers lining the harbour wall. After Nouvelle Chicane we come to Maldonado's favourite fort building corner, Tabac which just like St Devote is a magnificent corner. Tabac flows into the even faster entry to the swimming pool section which has no padded fort building materials on the exit.

The exit of the swimming pool is where the majority of the newer modifications took hold when they were introduced, taking away the inside barrier to allow the chicane to be slightly more forgiving. Towards the end of the lap more land was reclaimed to straighten out the approach to the Rascasse which is no longer the chicane it once was, but the exceedingly narrow hairpin around the cafe reamins. Alongside the pub on the Mulsanne straight potentially the coolest place to have lunch. The lap ends with the technical Virage Antony Noges bringing the cars onto the curved front 'straight', all completed in under 80 seconds...

The Form Guide

There have been theories that this race would be the best chance anyone had to beat Mercedes, because it isn't a power track or one dependant on aerodynamic grip. However that Mercedes also has superior traction and mechanical grip from the power delivery system. Which is why in FP1 which is on Thursday in Monaco - the same two cars were sitting on the effective front row. FP2 saw Alonso go fastest, but that was in a rain affected session with limited running, and doesn't count for much. What it does show however is that Red Bull will have to deal with Ferrari in the grand battle for third place. Outside the front row the battle is going to be titanic and when drivers are pushed as hard as they will be this weekend with no room for error and difficult cars to drive the chance of a mistake is magnified. 

If anyone towards the front pays a visit to the barrier there will be no shortage of teams lurking to pick up the pieces... or shed some of their own. Although I might suggest that it will be those teams with smaller budgets and less well engineered cars who will be at even more of a disadvantage, and the ones most likely packing up their car in bin bags. Such is the beauty of Monaco - anything can happen, and the most unlikely scenarios may not be as far away as it seems. After all, like Massa found out last season, lightning can strike twice in exactly the same place throwing a major spanner in the works.

There isn't much of a form guide to work off for this weekend, even though FP1 and FP2 have already taken place, the whole weekend is a lottery - an accident in FP3 can put you out of qualifying on the most difficult track to overtake. The battle from 3rd to about 14th or so could go anywhere - it is going to be brilliant... one hopes.

Round 5: Spain 2014 - Review

Greetings Internet, 

Well... what realistically can be said about the events of this afternoon, not that we really had any events to mention. In a way it was only be expected, the race could only have gone one of two ways and neither of those would be in sight of anyone else. Remember when we all thought that winning by 25 seconds or so  was the very definition of extreme dominance - what do we call the situation when that advantage is double that in an uninterrupted fight with all the contenders still running. In some respects you have to be impressed with what Mercedes have done and continue to do every race, but the rest of the field, some with huge budgets need to do something to be able to compete with the top team. 

The problem today was that the rest of the field were also fairly inactive, spending a lot of time running in team formation - all held back by team communications to drop off and save tyres. We all thought Pirelli were being conservative on the tyre selection, and we didn't see huge performance degradation yet the messages went out. But in the end it probably wouldn't have mattered.

The Race

For some reason even the start seemed laboured, probably because I was a little tired at the time and the fact that the front row eased away in unison gave no impression of a speed differential. As the camera panned out for the long run down to turn on we saw that Bottas had passed Ricciardo for 3rd and Grosjean almost followed him through. Unlike any of the support races the opening lap was contact free - despite it getting very close in the middle of the pack - Vettel's on-board looked very busy. The consequences of a grid penalty brought the Red Bull so close to retirement as he duelled wheel to wheel with the Saubers, it got even closer for Sebastian taking minimal contact from Magnussen after the Dane recovered from an off track excursion. 

Of course there was one driver who failed to avoid contact in this opening phase, and that was unsurprisingly Pastor Maldonado - while Grosjean was in the points in 5th place - Pastor was battling with Marcus Ericsson in the Caterham. The Venezuelan barged the Swede out of the way on the exit of the La Caixa hairpin and was handed one of these new pit-stop extension penalties. Despite the shunt, both cars were able to keep going without any incapacitating damage. Maldonado then went on to overtake the next Caterham without causing any more damage in the process.

Within the first 6 laps Mercedes were already ten seconds down the road - Bottas was causing a bit of a bottleneck in third place with some immediate attention from Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo's engineer informed his driver to drop back to a two second gap if he couldn't pass the Williams soon. There was one small problem with that theory... there wasn't two seconds of space for Ricciardo to drop back into because Grosjean was one and half seconds behind the Red Bull. Therefore Ricciardo decided to push and attack Bottas - but the straight line speed advantage anything with a Mercedes engine made it very difficult. After a failed lunge at turn one Ricciardo accepted defeat and conserved tyre instead. The second Red Bull of Vettel back in the pack was starting to make progress once the field had sorted itself out, starting with an impressive pass round the outside of Esteban Gutierrez in turn 10. We also saw Jules Bianchi in the Marussia try an outside pass on Adrian Sutil but ran out of room on the exit.

Just as Vettel approached Jenson Button as the next car in his march forwards he brought the Red Bull into the pits to get out of the traffic - it may be a sensible decision but ultimately a boring one. With that over and done with for now, it was time to look for some action elsewhere... anywhere... well we had the two Ferraris running in formation, and behind them were the two Force India drivers also maintaining position, because in fighting costs tyre performance for little real gain. However all four of these cars were gradually closing in on the Lotus of Romain Grosjean in front, along with Felipe Massa splitting the two pairings. Eventually Raikkonen was able to line up behind the Lotus and it appeared that the Ferrari had such a huge straight line speed advantage and came from nowhere to appear alongside in turn one. But Kimi went in too deep and Romain re-took the place. On the next lap Raikkonen eased past well before turn one, just to make sure. Alonso behind made it look even easier blasting past half way down the main straight,

I suppose it might be worth noting that Hamilton was still out front, and both he and Rosberg were trading messages with the team discussing the gap between the cars. Despite the fact that they are running away with this championship both sides of the garage are trying to beat each other - even if they are not wheel to wheel on track. Trading a tenth or two on one lap and sharing it back on the next maintaining a gap of around four seconds. Hamilton was running the softer compound tyres, while Nico had the harder, slower option - but saved the faster set for when Lewis was forced to run on the harder compound. In theory Hamilton should have more speed having the better tyres, but he was making a lot of complaints about handling to the team. The most revealing being the statement that his 'rear end was all over the place', the less we know about that the better frankly.

As we step away from Lewis and his out of control rear, it was time to see how Vettel was doing in his recovery drive - and it was made marginally easier by Massa pulling into the pits and getting out of the way, just as Button had early in the race. Further back we see Maldonado close on Gutierrez... we all had flashbacks to Bahrain where Pastor flipped the Mexican - this time it was a safe, contact free overtaking manoeuvre... a rarity for Maldonado. Some more pit-stop position shuffling dropped Vettel behind Massa once more, who in turn was behind Alonso, and the whole lot of them were behind Magnussen on older tyres. The McLaren didn't have enough pace to retain the position and was systematically passed by those immediately behind him. Vettel on the freshest of tyres of the group was then able to get past Massa with a stern dive to the inside in turn 4. 

Then nothing happened for a while, although in fairness noting had really happened for most of the day, then again even if it did I might have missed it due to being partially asleep at the time - an afternoon up in Northumberland takes it out of you on a Sunday. 

At the very front, a threat of a battle was emerging, Hamilton and his uncontrollable rear was being closed down by Rosberg - best to keep that sort of thing in-house really. As Nico was now on the faster compound, slowly trimming the deficit down lap by lap, the commentators and everyone was getting very excited about this. But the thing is that making a pass between identical cars is far easier said than done, especially since Lewis fended off Nico in their last fight in Bahrain where overtaking is far easier. Yet still we hoped, while everyone else was now 45 seconds further back to Ricciardo. Hamilton was getting very animated on the radio as he saw the other silver car growing fractionally larger in his mirrors - he questioned time lost in the pits, tyre condition, lap times, and overall race strategy... someone needs to calm down, you're still winning, what more do you want...

While others were just struggling to make it home on worn tyres, Vettel was reaping the benefits of his far fresher set, first picking off Raikkonen in the Ferrari and then hunting down and passing Valtteri Bottas for 4th place. Raikkonen was encountering a lack of pace in his car as he attempted to run to the end of the race on his set of harder tyres, dropping back into the hands of Alonso after the Spaniard made a third stop for medium tyres. It was nice to see two Ferrari's being allowed to fight for position - if one of those contained Felipe Massa, the Brazilian would have been forced to jump out of the way. Kimi tried to hold on to the place, but Fernando had far superior grip and held a tighter line through turn three giving him the inside into turn four. 

Despite a late charge by Nico, Hamilton claimed another victory - leading another dominant 1-2 for Mercedes and they remain completely unbeaten in 2014 - no Mercedes that has completed the race has been behind anything else. Some considerable time later we saw Daniel Ricciardo claim his first legitimate podium with the second Red Bull in 4th after starting 15th on the grid - followed home by Bottas equalling his best result of the season. Finishing in formation were the two Ferrari's - Alonso leading Raikkonen home in 6th and 7th place. In 8th place Grosjean scores Lotus' first points this season, while Perez and Hulkenberg round out the top ten after a late reversal of position within that team battle.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Well it wasn't the most enthralling race in existence, but it didn't promise to be - either way it is time for reveal the bonus points winners

• 25pts - Sebastian Vettel - Has been criticised for not being able to race in the pack, but from 15th to fourth deserves some points
• 18pts - Romain Grosjean - Points for Lotus, when Pastor is being little more than a calamity in the same machinery
• 15pts - Nico Rosberg - Cut an initial deficit to only six tenths by the end of the race
• 12pts -  Valtteri Bottas - Another strong run for the Williams, and was on for a podium before Red Bull turned up and took it away
• 10pts - Lewis Hamilton - Another day, another win
• 8pts - Daniel Ricciardo - His first legitimate podium - even if it was miles behind the lead pair
• 6pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Was able to run with Alonso today instead of being much further back
• 4pts - Jules Bianchi - For having a go round the outside of the Sauber of Adrian Sutil
• 2pts - Mercedes - Just have some points
• 1pt - Max Chilton - For not being last

Looking Ahead to Monaco

If there is one race this year where this streak of unstoppable form can be cancelled out, it is this one coming. Anything can happen on the streets of Monte Carlo with walls and barriers never too far away. It is also a track where the superior power that Mercedes have won't be as prominent, because the track is so tight and complex. Therefore Red Bull and Ferrari stand there best chance of beating the silver cars out front. On the other hand, overtaking is so difficult, and therefore the qualifying pace Mercedes have could keep them out of trouble. Spain might not have provided a spectacular race, but Monaco more than likely will - especially with Maldonado in his current destructive form... until then it is farewell from blog HQ

Round 5 - Spain 2014: Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

On the basis of today I think we should forbid Mercedes from making any more updates until at least 2020, being consistently a second clear of whoever dares to challenge them. It is the crushing domination that we saw from Red Bull and Vettel for the past four years turned up to 11. However this particular battle does bring with it a very interesting team dynamic, one which has lead to some questionable gazes on the podium and some very tense post-session press conferences. All starting with the gargantuan battle the pair had in Bahrain, neither driver likes to finish behind the other - because in all essence they both know that whichever one comes out on top will likely walk home with the title. You didn't get this level intensity simmering below the surface when Vettel and Webber were the lead contenders - their conflicts were well and truly out in the open.

There was a hope, a vague desire to see the field close up when the European season began this weekend, and in some respects it did - if we exclude the Mercedes team - a little over six tenths covered 10 cars in the middle part of qualifying. Which does prove that it is the mid-field teams with the bigger financial restrictions and fewer resources that this race means a lot more to. Because they can't develop parts as fast and then afford to ship them to the other side of the world to keep up the development race in Australasia and the Middle East. To summarise the level of monetary strife, we learned this weekend that Renault haven't been paid by at least one of their customer teams for their engine supply... in the paddock the waving finger of accusation seems to be pointing at Lotus. They should ask Pastor to check down the back of his sponsorship sofa and see if he has any spare change to help the team out, although he might have some other repair bills to pay today. On a different note, I'd noticed that viewer figures have gone up in Spain for the preview post so the blog welcomes the Spanish audience on board for as long as you are around for.

Qualifying 

On the basis of the free practice times it once more looked like it was going to be another afternoon where the front row was off limits - booked in advance by the same paring leading the championship. The interest would be how everyone else waged their own personal battles and which teams had made the biggest improvements. Sauber had brought a new lighter car, which Sutil is still too heavy for as he is too tall - and Lotus also planning to make up some lost ground. It was Sauber who took to the track first along with Force India - initially locking out the top four positions. We then saw Pastor Maldondo emerge for Lotus, as the commentators announced the improvements the team have made for this weekend... and Pastor promptly planted the car in the wall on his first lap. Touched the astro-turf on the outside of turn three and span back into the barrier on the other side of the track which naturally brought the session to a temporary stop with a red flag interruption.

When the session restarted we had a Caterham leading a Mercedes in the queue at the bottom of the pit-lane - Tony Fernandes needs to print that image out and pin it to the garage wall - alongside the image of Kobayashi passing Vettel in China. Alas it wasn't to last as Rosberg comfortably destroyed Hulkenberg's time, Hamilton however came very close to bouncing his Mercedes off the fence after running wide on the exit of turn five. Still he recovered to go second, easily. With Maldonado out, there was only room for one more car in the relegation zone alongside the two bottom teams, and that honour fell to Adrian Sutil - struggling with the weight issue means his car is 12kg too heavy and off the pace. Inevitably Sutil was relegated.

Q2

Hulkenberg went out first this time and for a while he was all by himself - until Raikkonen turned up and set the initial pace... only because Mercedes were still in the garage.. for now. When they did emerge a few minutes later they immediately dominated - Rosberg once again took the lead away from Hamilton... let battle commence. A second inter-team battle continuing to play out was the one at Red Bull, where once again Vettel was seeing his Australian team-mate in front once again in the mass of cars staring hopelessly at that deficit to the Mercedes team.

As always it is the race to make it into the top ten that dominates Q2, and that race was a couple of competitors down - firstly Kevin Magnussen had to abandon his McLaren without even leaving the garage due to a mechanical difficulty. Then there was Vergne - who just decided not to run because of a grid penalty he picked up in FP2 due to a wheel falling off the car. So I foresee a penalty point heading in his direction. Aside from the top two things were getting very close including those people on the wrong side of the relegation zone. Towards the end of the session Button and Bottas sneaked into Q3, pushing Alonso dangerously close to relegation in 9th place. He was then demoted further - to tenth when Grosjean moved up. Luckily for Fernando neither of the Force India drivers could find the half a tenth they needed to displace the Ferrari driver as the session came to a close.

Q3

Only ten cars remained in the final session, and this time - very ominously Mercedes headed out first with intent. However as Hamilton powered up for his first qualifying lap he encountered a wayward Red Bull in the middle of the first chicane. That Red Bull belonged to Sebastian Vettel who was having more technical difficulties and was forced to park the car on the entrance to turn three. I can imagine that excessive smile on Riccardo's face grew even wider as his position in the team continually gets better at the German Blokes misfortune. What the resulting Red flag did was cancel out Mercedes first lap and effectively reset the session with seven minute remaining.

On the restart Mercedes decided they didn't need to refit the tyre and ran using the ones that had complete half a racing lap already. Not that it mattered too much they were still fastest, although for the first time today Hamilton was first. Even more surprising was that Ricciardo was only a tenth slower than Rosberg - didn't expect anyone to be that close to a Mercedes... but they had more in store.

In the second runs Raikkonen scored a little victory in out-qualifying Alonso who said to the media earlier in the week that he was used to racing with slower team-mates. But there was a bigger surprise as Valtteri Bottas put the Williams into fourth place - another impressive run. Yet the main interest was on the battle for the lead - Rosberg was now on new tyres and pulled almost a second over the rest over the field... so much for anyone being within a tenth or so. Then Hamilton arrived and against the run of form that he'd been having today stole pole position away from Rosberg and cue another awkward press conference....

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Here are the winners from todays qualifying session

• 10pts - Valtteri Bottas  - In a weekend where the teams with stronger downforce packages have a pace advantage putting the Williams 4th is impressive
• 8pts - Romain Grosjean - 5th place in a car which didn't even make it to Jerez and for a team with huge financial problems is a very good job
• 6pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Out qualifying Alonso on home turf deserves some points
• 5pts - Nico Rosberg - So close to spoiling Hamilton's run of constant domination
• 4pts - Max Chilton - Qualifies as the fastest of all the bottom teams which is very impressive
• 3pts - Lewis Hamilton - Did get pole, but gets points for keeping it out of the wall at the start of Q1
• 2pts - Johnny Checotto - Did a whole GP2 race without hitting anyone and took victory
• 1pt - Simon Belcher - A retrospective bonus point scored for barrel rolling through a forest at Thruxton and simply walking away like a hero

The Penalty Points Championship

Only one penalty point to be issued, and that goes to Jean-Eric Vergne for not taking part in Q2 when it would be entirely possible for Vergne to start higher than last place by trying to set a time.

Looking to Tomorrow

Well the Spanish GP isn't known for being a relentless action packed sprint - it does tend to be more strategic than anything else. But this time around Pirelli have gone conservative on the tyre selection for this weekend because it is traditionally a race for high tyre wear. But who knows, we might be in for a surprise - where the battle for the lead might be another in house conflict in the Mercedes team, one worth looking forward too.

Round 5: Spain 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

It has been a while now hasn't it, three weeks in fact since we had that momentously enthralling race in China... which wasn't too memorable, or entertaining... or much of anything really. But this is the beginning of a new chapter in the story of F1 2014, as the Spanish GP marks the start of the European season, which formerly marked the start of the relentless development race. These days that race started as soon as the green light signified the start of winter testing, and it is another race at which Mercedes are comfortably crushing the opposition. It is this next series of races in Europe, from Spain this weekend all the way to the Russian GP in October... if in fact that race goes ahead due to the growing instability in that particular corner of the world. 

In the three weeks we've had off, it has been a testing time in and around the motorsport community, first we had the 20th anniversary of that infamous weekend in Imola that claimed the lives of both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna. A weekend that pre-dated my introduction to the sport in 1997, and one that ultimate shaped the landscape of what we see on television today - since then we have been fortunate not to have lost another driver at this level. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for trackside workers and marshals and drivers in other categories worldwide for whom protection and safety hasn't achieved the same track record. Merely days after that weekend was remembered, we were then informed of the death of Nigel Stepney - who will be remembered for his part in the 2007 'Spygate' case where he leaked Ferrari information to McLaren. So in the end it hasn't been a particularly jovial run up to this weekend, and maybe, just maybe we'll be treated to a strong entertaining weekend to raise spirits... but somehow I doubt it...

The Venue

Catalunya has been the host venue of the Spanish GP for quite some time now, since long before I can remember... which isn't a really long time at the moment. As a track it can take pride in being distinctly mediocre, the sort of track that you'd wouldn't use a lot in the simulator set-list, but one you wouldn't delete either. There is the advantage that it isn't some generic, repetitive mass produced Tilke based track dumped in the middle of nowhere for the sake of some 'commercial opportunities'. But somehow, the powers that be managed to step in and leave their irreparable mark on the track configuration, disfiguring the final sector with some puny chicane. Before that adjustment the track felt more complete, consistent and traditional, fortunately there are still plenty of things worth keeping this venue on the calendar.

At the start you could be fooled that this was another of those dreary Tilke inventions because the main straight goes on forever - and before Tilke contributed so much to the calendar - it was the longest straight...ah the days... This straight ends in a chicane - but unlike the monstrosity at the other side of the the lap - this is a chicane done properly... even if it is surrounded by more of that ghastly trackside tarmac run-off. That's the benefit of these older tracks, the apexes are where you'd naturally feel they should be, each one blending into the next - you certainly don't get any of that in Abu-Dhabi. You don't get the likes of turn three there either, 180 degrees of full speed mediocrity - enough tyre torturing to make everyone at Pirelli have nightmares. 

Turns 4 and 5 are nothing to write home about, but somehow they are far more fun than most of the track they all escaped three weeks ago in China, the whole place is an enigma. Anyway moving along, a little while later we come to another chicane, another one which climbs up the side of a mild hill, and another one done really well in a section which is ultimately the highlight of the lap. The exit curb of the first part of the sequence appears almost exactly where you'd want it to, almost with German precision. At the top of the hill is Campsa corner, Catalunya's best feature - a blind entry to a corner which is going to be far more interesting with these reduced levels of rear downforce and no special EBD devices and whatnots. I foresee the scenery getting some visitors over the course of the weekend.

After Campsa the track manages to return to it's level of mediocrity for the final sector, starting off with La Caixa - a re-profiled hairpin which is one of the few circuit modifications that seemed to make an improvement... well the only one really. It has provided an overtaking opportunity on a track which didn't really produce any, which is all to often the case with a track that has a flow to it. This hairpin leads into a very generic nondescript corner at the top of another hill, a corner which seems to go on forever without really going anywhere. Now in years gone by the track would finish with a pair of high speed downhill kinks on the way back to the main straight, but things are different these days... Instead we have this novelty chicane that someone seems to have forgotten to take away, it ruins what used to be a high speed challenge to introduce an 'overtaking aid' which failed in its single objective. But in the end at least the damage was confined to one side of the track.

The Form Guide

I doubt whether this part of the post needs to written any more - barring the entire of Spain falling into a gaping chasm in the space-time continuum we are going to be treated to another weekend of Mercedes turning up - taking all the prizes and striding unopposed off to the next one. However, we get the hint that all is not quite well within the all dominant garage - Rosberg doesn't take too kindly to finishing second and we have had a few very tense podium ceremonies of late. On top of that Hamilton has stated he doesn't want to see a repeat of Bahrain... spoilsport... the only race where the German had the upper hand and almost took the win. Scared of a little competition are we Lewis?

The battle behind the two leading silver cars appears to be very track dependant, a higher power to downforce requirement ratio favours the Mercedes powered cars who lack overall downforce but have a power advantage. If downforce is the key variable then Red Bull and Ferrari become the nearest challengers to the the two folks out front, as we saw in China and Malaysia. But Spain poses an interesting balance, as it requires a little of both worlds, slightly more so towards aerodynamic efficiency possibly, but I know nothing about car setup. Of course there is the small matter of the update packages which are going to be arriving in their droves this weekend, ones that might help claw back some time on the factory Mercedes team. So the eventual order behind them could throw up a few surprises.

One of the teams that would gladly like to benefit from some overdue performance upgrades is Lotus, struggling to make up for lost ground from missing the Jerez test, and suffering a raft of mechanical difficulties. Sauber could also be said to be in a similar situation, further off the pace than they've been in recent seasons and have often been the last cars running bar the bottom two teams.

Speaking of those teams, I doubt there will be an update big enough to allow them to catch up with the mid-field, or anyone for that matter. I might suggest that Marussia will make the initial gains as they don't have the disadvantage of the notably weaker Renault engine, which would give Bianchi the tools to retake the effective lead of the division from Kamui. 


We don't expect big things from the Spanish GP, but we expect interesting things - an extension of the intra-team friction we are staring to see evolve at both Mercedes and Red Bull. We should also get to see what the new pecking order will be as the season develops during the European phase as updates arrive and drivers adapt to this new form of racing.