Round 8: Austria 2014 - Review

Greetings Internet,

The return of the race in the mountains of Austria ended up being considerably flatter than the terrain upon which it is located. The problem today was simply that the race for the most part was won, and positions decided by a row of clever people sitting on the pit-wall. While we did see that in race trim one team did have more pace than anyone else, this was an event dominated by strategic calls and time lost and gained in the pit lane. Many people could see it as a disappointment, in the fact that we saw drivers backing off from the car in front just to wait for pit-stops to roll round. This did mean mean that we were faced with a moderate drought in on-track action and high-intensity wheel to wheel battling. In some respects a cagey race was fairly inevitable as it was the first time in over a decade that the track has been used for F1 and all of the data from 2003 would have been invalid. Information on race fuel consumption and brake wear was discerned ad-hoc as the race developed. In the end did this help Williams hang on to a temporary advantage over the Mercedes team...

The Race

To throw another new variable into the mix this afternoon, the track temperature shot up under the alpine sunshine... which meant we were treated to many shots of Austrian fans in odd traditional shorts. That said there were other traditional garments which were far more appealing... and those certainly didn't include Ricciardo's shorts as he entered the track pre-race. Hopes were high for 71 interesting laps because of the mixed up grid - Hamilton and Vettel considerably further back and the two Williams at the very front.

It appeared that we would be deprived of seeing Hamilton spend laps fighting and duelling with the cars in front of him an some form of epic recovery drive when the lights went out to start the race. Lewis passed four cars before reaching the apex of turn one just behind Alonso in 5th place, Rosberg also made ground off the line taking second from Valtteri Bottas. There was one thing Nico didn't account for, the straight line speed of the Williams allowing Bottas to take second place back. Hamilton almost took 4th from Fernando in turn but realised that such a move would only result in shattered suspension. Alonso only held onto his lofty 4th place for five more corners before Hamilton dove down the inside of turn 8 to form a Mercedes powered quartet which powered off into the distance.  

If we looked back to see how the second world champion starting out of out position was doing... well not grand, not grand at all really. Sebastian Vettel was going far slower than he should be, complaining once again of having no drive. It seems as if yet more mechanical difficulties were striking a Red Bull car that didn't contain an Australian... how times have changed. The thought from Red Bull was that deploying the 'overtake' button caused the problem and therefore told Ricciardo not to press his 'overtake' button either. After being lapped by the field on the back straight and pulling over to a marshal's post Vettel's car reactivated. To add insult to injury as the German rejoined in turn three Ricciardo drifted wide in avoidance handing his position to Daniil Kvyat. Here on home turf the Red Bull sponsored cars were not doing so well, and a B-team driver was their highest placed contender... I daresay Dietrich would have something to say about that...

The top four had started to make ground over the Alonso's Ferrari in fifth place, who for the second race in a row was starting to find himself driving a very isolated race. Everyone else was trapped in a train of cars following behind Kevin Magnussen's McLaren - this queue included the pairing of Sergio Perez and Jenson Button who were running an alternate strategy having started outside the top ten. Perez in particular had made good initial gains after the grid penalty from Canada forced him to start 16th and was running in 11th place. 

On lap 10, those runners on the softer of the two tyre compounds started to pay their first visit to the pits - the majority of the earliest stops were for those caught up in the Magnussen queue in an effort to get into freer, cooler air. It didn't work out so well for Gutierrez when the Sauber team appeared to forget that a car really needs to have the four wheels attached. Esteban was forced to stop the car when it turned out the right rear wasn't properly affixed to the car. When this sort of thing happens the FIA throw every volume of the rulebook at you - Gutierrez was handed a 10 second drive through penalty, and a 10 place grid penalty for the next race at Silverstone. It took a little longer for the top runners to start their pit-stop cycle, initiated by Nico Rosberg on lap 12. Hamilton immediately responded on the following lap to negate any advantage Nico would have gained. Unfortunately for Lewis his stop was slightly slower and all the time gained on a strong in-lap was wiped out. 

We'd have expected Williams to pull their cars in at the earliest opportunity to prevent Mercedes benefiting from more track time on new faster tyres. But they allowed Nico Rosberg three laps worth of undercut, and granted Rosberg a free pass into the lead... well not quite the lead. Sergio Perez assumed that position by virtue of staying out on the harder of the two tyre compounds. Having initially held the lead Felipe Massa had dropped to fifth place, the rear of the quartet of cars waiting behind Perez. We'd also have expected that the cluster of Williams and Mercedes cars would be lining up right behind the Force India looking for a way past - but everyone was all to happy to wait. In fact as they played follow-the-leader, the Mercedes cars would pull out of line to get out of the stream of hot air from the car in front. Both Rosberg and Hamilton were informed over the radio to 'manage' the brakes - although they were a long way short of the problems faced in Canada.

Esteban Gutierrez pitted to take his stop-go penalty and rejoined one lap down in 21st - normally this wouldn't be a momentous development - but it meant Vettel in last place had a friend to race with. The difficulties facing Red Bull at their home venue meant that we still had a Toro Rosso as the highest placed car from the home brand. It could be considered strangely mysterious that Daniil Kvyat's car experienced a catastrophic rear suspension failure under breaking for turn three. The Russian pulled the car off in turn five with a shredded rear corner to be the first retirement of the race, and promoting Ricciardo into the lead Red Bull sponsored position... in 9th. 

Perez finally pitted from the lead, restoring the quartet of Mercedes powered cars to the top four positions - the pace immediately picked up, but not by as much as we expected. Rosberg wasn't able to drive away from Bottas in second - exploiting the 8 tenths a lap they appeared to have over Williams on these tyres earlier in the weekend. In fact Valtteri was able to close the gap on the lead Mercedes after Nico ran wide in turn one, Hamilton closing behind Bottas in third place. Massa however appeared to drop further back from the lead trio, too much more of that and Felipe might find himself dealing with his former team-mate Fernando Alonso. One of the grand ironies in sport as Massa, dumped by Ferrari only to find himself in a much faster car running ahead of Alonso. 

After many, many laps of running in a very isolated last place, Sebastian Vettel caught up with Gutierrez for the highly important 21st position. Vettel failed to account for the slower pace of the Sauber and instead of passing the Mexican, he crashed into the back of the car in front... Completely summing up Red Bull's day. Sebastian was asked to retire the car and frankly give up, making it two Red Bull sponsored cars out of the race. 

More pit stops were in the offing as both Mercedes drivers were instructed to pick up the pace for their in-laps with Hamilton instructed that it was indeed 'Hammer time'. I often wondered when hammer time was exactly, turns out it is lap 40... Just like in the first round of stops Lewis' pit time was around a second slower than Nico's. If Williams wanted to take the race to Mercedes they needed to pit soon, again to counter the 'undercut' affect - but again they waited until both Mercedes cars had completed their stops. This dropped Bottas down a net third place behind the two Mercedes cars once more found themselves in another commanding 1-2 position. Massa lost even more time to the three cars he was leading in the first phase of the race as the Brazilian rejoined behind Sergio Perez's Force India. Fortunately for Massa Perez wasn't on another one-stop campaign and would have to stop again before the end while Massa didn't.

With no interlopers Mercedes were able to pull away from Bottas in third as Massa Struggled to pass Perez for fourth. At the opposite end of the points it was time for our long overdue 'Kimi radio conversation of the week'. Raikkonen was informed that he was racing Button for the lower end points and that he needed to find 0.2s per lap to jump the McLaren. Kimi merely responded with 'Well give me more power then' - which is a fair point, it is difficult to suddenly find more pace when you're driving on a limited engine and fuel map setting. Further back, there were even more difficulties for the host company, as Jean-Eric Vergne was having terminal brake issues. Vergne was coming through turn 7 when a huge cloud of brake dust erupted from the front wheels forcing another retirement. All of the cars out of the race were Red Bull sponsored machines, including both Toro Rossos. 

At the front Hamilton started to close in on Rosberg for the lead, but he couldn't quite break into the DRS range. The majority of the positions seemed to be very cemented towards the end of the race, perhaps hoping to conserve brakes and fuel in the remaining laps. Perez after stopping for the softer tyres was one of the few to make up a position late in the going - taking 6th from Magnussen before turn two after the Dane got a poor exit from the first corner. While one Force India was moving up, another was going backwards as the sole remaining Red Bull went round the outside of Hulkenberg in turn five. Ricciardo initiated the pass by a late dive in turn three, holding the line through four and out-braking Hulkenberg in the faster turn five. Overtaking move of the race... shame we had to wait until the final lap for it to take place.

Lewis needed several more laps to be able to do anything with Rosberg taking his third victory of the season and extending his championship lead over Hamilton. Bottas takes his first ever podium and the first for Williams in a long while, with Massa a few seconds further back in 4th. Fernando is once more the highest placed non-Mercedes powered car in the absence of any threat from Red Bull. Perez made up 10 places from 16th to well inside the points for Force India after taking 6th place from Kevin Magnussen - demoting the McLaren driver to 7th. Ricciardo brought the sole remaining Red Bull home in 8th place, ahead of Hulkenberg in 9th. The final point was claimed by Raikkonen in the Ferrari - who must have found enough power to stay ahead of Button.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

This might not be the most be the most enthralling of events, but it was more of a strategic struggle than anything else. But points will be on offer as follows:

• 25pts - Valtteri Bottas - A fist podium always deserves some points
• 18pts - Sergio Perez - Gaining 10 places in a static race also gets some points for the Mexican.
• 15pts - Lewis Hamilton - A very impressive opening lap, passing five cars, four of those in the first corner of the race.
• 12pts - Nico Rosberg - Another win under more pressure from Hamilton in the latter phase of the race
• 10pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Congratulations on being the only Red Bull car running at the end - and for making that pass on Hulkenberg
• 8pts - Felipe Massa - Actually brought Williams home in a strong position without being involved in an accident - well done.
• 6pts - Fernando Alonso - Comfortably beating Raikkonen again, almost embarrassingly so for the Finn
• 4pts - Kevin Magnussen - Another rookie doing better than an experienced champion team-mate.
• 3pts - Daniil Kvyat - The Russian spent the entirety of the race, for the bit he was still running anyway, as the highest placed Red Bull car ahead of the main team
• 2pts - Jules Bianchi - Another lower division win for the Marussia driver after the accident that took both team drivers out in Canada
• 1pt - Sebestian Vettel - Deserves a consolation point for driving into the only car he raced with today....

There is another announcement that needs to be made at this point, a long time ago, before the 2011 Singaporean GP blog HQ gained a mascot - a fish. This fish was a result an epic quest to deposit a small plastic sphere into a glass jar at range. Blog fish was then adopted an unofficial mascot here at Blog HQ... In the week running up to the Austrian GP, blog fish died only a few races short of the third anniversary of the adoption. As a result 10 posthumous points will be awarded, as this was the maximum score possible for a qualifying session - which was the post blog fish was originally announced.

Looking ahead to Britain

Ah jolly good, the teams and drivers are coming here... well admittedly a long way south of here... for the 50th race at Silverstone. A true high speed traditional circuit steeped in history and of great importance to so many of the teams based in Britain. This upcoming race is home to some of the most famous corners the world over for their speed and the bravery needed to extract those final few tenths... if only the new section built in 2012 wasn't so much of detraction from the purity of the previous incarnation. 

Will Mercedes dominate again.... very likely.

Round 8: Austria 2014 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

Well if Canada was a shock to the system, one that we never saw coming this just blew all of that out of the water. We may have another Mercedes one-two at the front of the grid - but this time it isn't the factory team... The last time the all conquering silver cars were beaten it was as result mechanical difficulties surrounding the MGU-K gizmos, but this time it appeared that Mercedes shockingly didn't have the pace when using the softer compound tyres. Put them on the primes and they had over 8 tenths in hand over the rest of the field, it doesn't make too much sense, but it does make for plenty of intrigue tomorrow afternoon. A second comment lies in the lack of performance delivered by Red Bull - on their home track - I'd have thought that Helmut Marko and his associates would have made subtle changes to the design of the track to favour his team. The rest of us however are glad that the integrity of the A1 ring has been maintained.

There is one minor criticism, and one which has given the stewards and officials a lot of work just in qualifying alone. That being the ongoing saga over track limits, because of tarmac run-off areas. It is a problem that continually plagues any track that has been upgraded from it's more traditional past. Instead of fixing the problem by placing grass at the track boundary - we have the situation where drivers are having lap times cancelled. Just like double points, standing start restarts they are obsessed with trying to solve problems that don't even exist... 

Qualifying 

After the 11 year absence the track did look remarkably familiar as qualifying began today, all the corners in the right places, and all elevation changes and remarkable scenery were as they were all those years ago. Of course some of the gravel had been needlessly replaced resulting in the situation we find ourselves in in turn eight. The home B-team Toro Rosso set the early pace with Daniil leading Jean-Eric, but it wasn't long before it was Mercedes power that dominated the timesheets. Neither Williams nor Mercedes themselves needed to bother using the faster tyres to secure qualification into Q2.

With the complete grid of cars competing it started to get rather complicated, because so many drivers had their times deleted due to running wide in turn 8. This in itself isn't a problem but the on-screen graphics refused to update so they were completely non-representative of what was actually going on. In the end we came close to losing Vettel in the first part of qualifying, as the Red Bull car dropped down the field when several teams swapped onto the softer compound. In the relegation zone it was a battle between Lotus and Sauber as to who was going to join Caterham and Marussia. In the end that honour fell to Sauber after Sutil had his strongest lap deleted handing the final qualification spot to Maldonado.

Q2

The second part of qualifying was far more interesting as the softer tyres came into play. This time it was Mercedes power leading right from the off in the back of Hulkenberg's Force India. It appeared that these softer tyres were not working quite so well, as there was a lot of sideways action in the final sector - especially when tucked up behind a car in front. Fernando Alonso did what so many have done in practice and ran wide on out of the final turn and bounced down the grass... Why can't we have astro-turf just behind the curb and then grass everywhere else, as it forces drivers to keep things on track and punishes mistakes. 

Red Bull were in strife trying to make it into the top ten, once again Vettel being the slower of the two cars - there was no home town advantage for the outgoing champions. To add insult to injury Kvyat, in the B-team car was beating the pair of them... I assume Helmut will be down to Toro Rosso to make sure it didn't happen again. Another interesting intra-team battle was forming at McLaren where Magnussen was miles ahead of Button in terms of time. Kevin had the benefit of being able to run in FP3 and competing at the circuit in FR3.5 last season, this meant that Jenson was out and Magnussen was through. In the day of the younger team-mates we also say Kvyat, and Ricciardo making it into Q3 while Vettel and Vergne didn't quite make it...

We did however a small hint of things to come when the session ended with Massa and Bottas considerably closer to the times set by Hamilton and Rosberg.

Q3

It was suggested that Mercedes were merely conserving their softer-tyres for the race which allowed Williams to get so close in Q2, and by the time the final runs came round, the dominance would return. The first run seemed to disagree with that theory... Rosberg could only manage second place behind Valtteri Bottas for Williams. Hamilton looked set to restore order going fastest in the first two sectors, but when it came to turn 8 the Briton got sideways like so many have done and ran wide. Of course this meant despite the fact that he gained no advantage, the time was disallowed and Valtteri Bottas held onto provisional pole position.

Could Mercedes redeem themselves, and retain the 100% record of scoring pole positions in 2014. But in a an unfortunate reversal of the Monaco situation caused problems for the favourites. This time it was Hamilton with the leading on-track position, but as he hit the brakes for turn two the car looped around and span off. This compromised Rosberg's lap who was following his team-mate and was unable to set a better time. So did this mean Valtteri Bottas was going to take his first ever pole... well no. Because ahead of the Mercedes incident on track was Felipe Massa in the second Williams. The Brazilian sneaked the top spot out from under Valtteri's nose giving us our first Williams 1-2 in a very long time.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

With a change in form at the front of the field, and less-experienced team-mates coming out on top, there were plenty of chances for bonus points today.

• 10pts - Felipe Massa - Pole for Williams in the face of Mercedes dominance, and his first pole position after that accident in 2009
• 8pts - Valtteri Bottas - Making it a 1-2 for his team and Valtteri's highest qualifying result
• 6pts - Daniil Kvyat - A brilliant job for the Russian, more often than not beating the main Red Bull team on home turf too
• 5pts - Kevin Magnussen - Another rookie doing very well against one of the few people to race an F1 car in Austria before.
• 4pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Beating Helmut's golden boy in front of the Austrian on home turf
• 3pts - Fernando Alonso - Kept the Ferrari out of the wall when running wide in Q2, and was the fastest non-Mercedes powered qualifier
• 2pts - Sergio Perez - Not for qualifying but had two successive moments on the exit of the final corner, including a spectacular wheelie.
• 1pt - Pastor Maldonado - Not only managed to make it into Q2 but managed to out qualify Grosjean in the process.

The Penalty Points Championship

It has been a while since there has been a need for these penalty points to be introduced - and if I considered giving football people these points the list would be infinitely long. But today the farce created by the omission of grass at the penultimate corner is a blatant clue that something needs to be done. Yet instead of fixing the obvious the FIA brought extra skid blocks to be affixed to the cars to create artificial sparks... to make it look nice. Only to be followed up by the idea of standing starts after a safety car. This on the back of testing done with megaphones attached to the exhausts to 'improve' the sound. It can only be described as utter lunacy and therefore the FIA themselves take two penalty points. One for not fixing glaring errors, and the second for this growing list of stupid ideas. Even the Indycar series, a championship based on entertainment, stopped double file restarts due to the number of accidents it caused.

Looking to Tomorrow

I think the return of the Austrian GP could be the first time we see Mercedes challenged for actual raw pace at the front without the need for them to be hobbled by mechanical dramas. We'll see if Williams can hold off Rosberg for their first win since 2012, and whether Hamilton can claw his way back through the field from 9th on the grid after not completing a lap. We also have Button and Vettel out of position in cars that are obviously much faster. I think it could be very close tomorrow because Ferrari, Red bull, McLaren and I assume Force India through strategy will all be fighting over the points positions with Toro Rosso looking to spoil the party. 

It is a track where passing is possible, but the aerodynamic wake can be problematic in the final sector in the slightly faster corners. In the end there is a chance it could be a little static but here's hoping for something a little more dramatic... bring it on.

Round 8: Austria 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

After finally recovering from the sleep annual event high speed sleep deprivation that is the 24 hours of Le Mans last weekend, it is time to prepare for the next date on the motorsport calendar. It also makes for a nice distraction from all this football that appears to be going on for some reason - admittedly I've seen a grand majority of the matches thus far, simply because it is a rather large international event, just like the Olympics. Yet nine times out of ten the players constantly find ways of being less endearing to the casual observer. It does seem that football is about deceiving the officials and cheating more than it is about scoring goals, but never mind. However as the US appear to be strongest followers of this corners of the internet kudos to them on winning at football without trying to pick up the ball and run off the edge of the field. 

Before I risk isolating the only audience I have left (which may only be made up of search engine crawling tools), it is time to move on. This weekend marks the return of the Austrian GP at the A1 ring (...I know it is now the 'Red Bull' ring, but old habits die hard). It may seem odd with the rumours of curtailing the European season to make room for tracks in Mexico and New Jersey in the future we find ourselves in Austria. Well there is one reason for that... money! just like the inclusion of two races in Germany to ride the commercial wave of the Schumacher era, and the same with Spain when Alonso was in form. Now we have investment from a quadruple constructors champion team effectively buying a home GP and a space on the calendar.

The Venue

There are mixed feelings about the return of the A1 Ring, mostly positive because it is a track which strength lies in its simplicity and effectiveness. But online forums and comments are a wash with people having no knowledge of the Austrian GP due to the time they've been following the sport...does make me seem even older. Then these new teams post their previews of a 'new and unexplored race track'... sigh... The track configuration remains the same as it was back then, which in turn is a shortened version of a track which pre-dates me by a fair few seasons. But the most frightening part of it is that the shortened lap was performed by a certain Mr Herman Tilke, the same man that neutered the Hokkenheimring and has committed a raft of crimes against circuit design since. Given his current design record it does make you wonder why this one turned out so well, without the unnatural amount of corners and excessively long straights. 

In total there are only 9 corners in a lap which should only take around 66 seconds to complete - it will be interesting to see the time differences across that 11 year void. The first of these corners is very nice, a steep climb into a blind medium speed right hander... where I suspect the fight over track limits will take place. After a reasonably long straight there is turn two, a sharp hairpin at the highest point of the track, which will be the primary overtaking spot. It is a corner where racing legend Gaston Mazzacane parked his F3000 car on top of another in the braking zone, from that moment he was definitely marked for greatness.

A difficult downhill braking zone tries to drag you wide of the apex of turn three - expect many lock-ups and cars running wide here, turn four isn't really a corner and merely directs the cars into the infield section. This is a sequence of three of the higher speed corners the track has to offer and it the flattest part of the lap. Back on the old F1 video games it was these corners and turn three that proved to be the most bother. To think how far my sim setup has advanced since then, I do hope the gravel traps remain on the outside of turns 5-7, as they were those years ago.

Turn 8 was another corner that was a real pain on the old consoles but in a more adept model is brilliant. It is like the polar opposite of turn one as the track vanishes down the other side of a crest right in the braking zone. Just like turn three the road plummets downhill as you attempt to find the apex. Finally turn nine arrives mere moments after getting it all sorted out on the exit of turn 8. It is another medium speed corner which despite having the pit-entry wall on the inside and a narrow section of road (at least it was then) is quite open with lots of room on the exit. Some of the photos from today suggest there is considerably less gravel in the final sector than there used to be... it wasn't broken, why fix it... but the undulating topography and interesting corner variety should be as good as it was... ah the nostalgia.

The Form Guide

Less than half of the grid has competed on the track, both in it's previous incarnation as the A1 Ring and under the current branding in lower formulae. But it is short and simple enough for those drivers who are new to the track to get up to speed fairly quickly, so the three drivers who competed in the final race here in 2003 won't have a particular advantage. In fact Alonso himself said he doesn't remember too much from that race - probably because the Renault he was driving broke down. Raikkonen was the highest placed of the finishers on the Austrian GP's former running for McLaren finishing second behind Schumacher.

This time around it should be another walkover for Mercedes - barring and more failures like they encountered in Canada. It is a track characterised by straights and traction zones - perfect Mercedes territory - the three corners in the middle of the lap will be where Red Bull can make up some time, but I doubt it will be enough. Just like in Canada, Williams and Force India will be involved alongside Ferrari and right behind Red Bull in chasing the two Mercedes cars out front. Somewhere towards the back of this scrum for third place we'll find the McLaren drivers fighting off the attentions of the Toro Rosso squad on the outer fringe of the points paying positions.

If Lotus can bring a car capable of completing enough laps, then there may be an outside chance of a point for Grosjean and possibly Malonado as this might be the sort of track he can match Romain on. If they do keep running then they should in all reality be ahead of Sauber who are having major difficulties at the moment with performance in the battle to see who can finish ahead of the bottom two teams.

After the highs of Monaco and the lows of Canada - Marussia may find themselves back on neutral ground this weekend. Loitering around the back marginally in front of Caterham who are in similar performance strife to Sauber, struggling to get on terms with their immediate rivals. While the Austrian GP has the potential for a bit of contact and incident up and down the grid, I doubt there will be enough attrition to ease anyone from the lower reaches up into the points. 

It is nice to see the A1 Ring back on the calendar when other older venues have slipped away in recent years - the likes of Magny Cours and Imola being two prime examples. In the past it has produced some entertaining racing, as well as some events of a poorer quality - even if this rejuvenation is only on the cards due to a big pile of money from a certain Austrian drinks manufacturer to be used as a big marketing sign. For the home team it is a shame that the likelihood of a second win for their very cheery Australian is very unlikely. 

Round 7: Canada 2014 - Review

Greetings Internet, 

Well done Canada, once again delivering a deeply interesting race bookended by two sizeable accidents causing an immense amount of damage to those vehicles involved. But the events of this evening's race in Montreal has delivered a series of firsts, some positive, and some less so. It is the first race which can't be summarised as "...and Mercedes drove away never to be seen again..." but the reign of domination isn't over because before it started to fall apart the pace was as irresistible as always. Today was also the first race when we can say that one pair of team-mates will be less friendly to one another than the Mercedes pair after a considerable coming together on the opening lap. Given what we saw through the practice sessions when anything without a Mercedes engine was being crucified in a straight line who'd have thought that this of all races would be the race where a Renault powered car stole the first non-Mercedes victory of the season. It is also one of the very rare Canadian GP weekend when no-one paid a visit to the wall of Champions. 

The Race

After watching the nostalgic Super Touring car race rained off at Oulton Park I was hoping for the GP to pick things up and cancel out the disappointment, and while Montreal was bathed in the bright sunshine that was missing in Cheshire, I felt that even a dry race could provide a strong end to the evening. 

At the start the immediate rivalry between the two Mercedes team-mates came very close to ending in more anger and bad feeling from one side of the garage to the other. Hamilton made a better launch off the line and was side-by-side with Nico at the apex of turn one. Rosberg just opened out the steering and closed the door on Lewis forcing the Briton wide - also allowing Vettel to steal second place. Somehow everyone managed to avoid each other through the first two corners given the tendency for first corner collisions. We didn't have to wait too long before the madness began as serial finisher Max Chilton got every shade of sideways in turn three. The wayward Marussia managed to collect Jules Bianchi the Monaco points scorer, and fired the Frenchman heavily into the outside wall. Ironically the weaker structural design of the rear suspension on Bianchi's car may have prevented it from being flipped over into the concrete wall. But as the entire rear section of the car was severed on impact rupturing oil-lines and causing a lot of damage the safety car was deployed to clean up the devastation. 

The clean up took a long time but after 8 laps of safety car the race was back on again, and as soon as the DRS was reactivated Hamilton was able to use the superior power of the Mercedes to power ahead of Vettel's Red Bull on the back straight before the chicane. For this early phase of the race normal service resumed as the Mercedes drivers vanished off into the distance as we've seen many, many times before this season. Despite only running a handful of laps under green flag conditions there were a lot of drivers heading in for an early set of stops. Unfortunately for Marcus Eriksson his first stop was permanent as mechanical dramas forced the Caterham to retire. Things went from bad to worse for Caterham as we saw Kobayashi spinning in turn two with one rear wheel pointing in a direction it really shouldn't be. So after the race in which we saw one of the newer teams score their first ever points, all four cars from the bottom teams had been eliminated. 

Even in the higher track temperatures it seemed like the tyres were taking a long time to come up to temperature once a car had been released from a pit-stop. Rosberg for example came perilously close to smashing the Mercedes against the turn four wall after getting very sideways. Alonso was struggling to retain track position ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso continually locking up the inside front under breaking. Raikkonen in the other Ferrari was also racing with a Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat - Kimi was inside the Russian with only the tiniest margin of overlap in the breaking zone for the chicane. Fortunately Daniil spotted the Ferrari and didn't turn in as that would have only ended in contact. There was one team who were not exposed to all this shuffling through the pit-stops and that was Force India. Both Nico and Sergio were planning a single stop strategy... after so many years One-Stop Perez was one-stopping again, which normally ends well. The pair were running third and fourth behind the Mercedes drivers out front. Vettel tried to take the position away from Hulkenberg at the hairpin, but ran wide and was immediately re-passed. 

Right at the front of the field Nico Rosberg was coming under yet more pressure from Hamilton for the second race in succession, Lewis drifting in and of DRS range of the sister car. Just as Hamilton geared up for another attack on his team-mate, Nico locked up coming into the final chicane and short-cut the corner. The entire world seemed to be up in arms about this mistake, virtually calling for Rosberg's head on a platter. Yes he'd cut the corner after making an error, but it wasn't as if Nico's incident decided the whole race and ruined Hamilton's day, nor was it a repeat event. Yet under pressure from Hamilton (probably) the incident was investigated by the stewards which returned a 'don't do that again' verdict. To make matters worse for Nico, he was informed over the radio to improve fuel saving, after the team told him he was good to go to the end on fuel earlier in the race. One can only assume the consumption went up as the German had to push harder to keep enough of a distance between himself and Hamilton. Further back we see the straight line speed advantage of the Williams being used to great effect to drive round the outside of Fernando Alonso on the approach to turn one, taking the place before the corner. 

Meanwhile one-stop Perez stopped once... ah just like the good old days. This left Hulkenberg with a queue of cars lining up behind him as Nico's tyres were starting to show their age. In an attempt to break free of the traffic Bottas pitted for a second time, only to rejoin in a second queue involving Vergne, Raikkonen and Jenson Button at the tail end of the points. 

Now this is when things got a little confusing, just as pizzas arrived at blog HQ, because an awesome race needs pizza, the whole world seemed to fall out of the bottom of the race. I left the room for literally three minutes to acquire food and Mercedes race had turned upside down (not literally because Maldonado had retired by this point). Both cars were hit by some strange mysterious simultaneous problem which crippled the ERS recovery systems. They started to lose huge lumps of time, so much for Mercedes being immune to reliability issues. The drivers were instructed to reset the system as they were driving - the good old "turn it off and on again" routine. While both drivers continued to lose time and struggle with the problems, Massa now in third was closing in on the two leaders. At the opposite end of the points we see Raikkonen spinning the Ferrari on the exit of the hairpin all by himself. 

After both Mercedes cars cycled through their stops we found ourselves in an unprecedented situation - a different team was leading. Felipe Massa became the first non-Mercedes driver to lead a lap this season.  But that paled into insignificance with what was unfolding behind the Brazilian. Hamilton had jumped Rosberg in the stops but lost that position when the car ran out brakes at the hairpin. Lewis had DRS on Nico and drew back up alongside into the final chicane, but suffered a terminal rear brake failure and was lucky to avoid the wall. This did mean that Hamilton was out. Nico was instructed to be very careful on the brakes as his were in a similarly critical condition. All influenced by the fact that the ERS had failed which in turn affects rear braking where the energy is recovered. 

Felipe Massa was unable to hang onto the lead as the Williams driver had to make a second stop promoting Rosberg to the front. One-stop Perez had one-stopped himself up into second place, but was also informed to be careful on his degrading brakes. This made Sergio vulnerable to the challenges of the Red Bull team sitting virtually on top of the Mexican for the final third of the race. A few seconds further down the road, Hulkenberg was holding back another pair of team-mates from the Williams squad. Massa having just pitted was faster than Bottas and asked the team if he could be allowed past. Within seconds of a message being played over the TV instructing Bottas to move over, the Finn threw one down the inside of Hulkenberg's Force India. I suppose he can't relinquish the position if he puts a car between himself and Massa. But Valtteri's pass didn't pay off and he ran wide, slowing Hulkenberg in the process allowing Felipe to pass the pair of them.

One-stop Perez had now caught Rosberg for the lead, and brought Ricciardo and Vettel with him to launch a titanic four way fight for the lead... in theory. Somehow despite being massively down on power, Perez started to lose ground to to the Mercedes. The Mexican's brake problems prevented him from launching an attack for the lead, while keeping an Australian in a Red Bull from taking his second place. Daniel Ricciardo kept up the pressure and was able to pass Perez round the outside of turn one because the Force India couldn't break late enough to defend the position. But this was now a far bigger problem for Rosberg, as he now had a fully healthy car hunting him down. Vettel also had Massa now putting him under severe pressure at the tail end of the leading train of cars, Felipe drew the Williams alongside from time to time but couldn't make it through. 

Out front there was a change for the lead of the race - Daniel Ricciardo simply drove past Nico Rosberg, the Mercedes without ERS and brakes on the edge of failure had no defence against the Red Bull. For the first time in 2014 a Mercedes nor a Mercedes powered car was looking at a victory. With only two laps left on the clock Jenson Button made an impressive double pass on Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg at the hairpin to take 6th place. Also we saw Sebastian Vettel steal the final place on the podium from One-Stop Perez in the final chicane as his brakes allowed the German to take the place. It also gave Massa a run coming out of the chicane on Perez, but Felipe (it appears) didn't account for the lack of braking capacity Sergio had at his disposal. Massa therefore was caught out by Perez braking earlier into turn one and slammed into the back of the Force India. Perez torpedoed into the tyre wall at an immense speed, while Massa missing a front wheel slid across the inside of turn one. The careering Williams missed Vettel by mere inches as it rejoined and smashed head first into the tyre wall protecting the big tree in the run off. Both cars were severely damaged and both drivers were taken to hospital for precautionary checks after recording impact forces of over 25G. Fortunately the are reportedly ok, and Massa posted a thumbs up photograph of himself from the hospital bed.

Inevitably the race finished under the safety car, cementing Ricciardo as the winner, his first win and the first driver to beat Mercedes this year. Rosberg dragged the terminally ill Mercedes home in second place, equalling his worst finish of the season. Sebastian Vettel narrowly avoided being wiped out of the race to take the final podium position. Jenson Button benefited from the final lap crash to move up into 4th place ahead of Hulkenberg and Alonso. Bottas dropped down to 7th with more brake difficulties on his car, followed by Vergne, Magnussen and Raikkonen.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Today has been a day of firsts, first DNF for Chilton... after hitting Bianchi, first Non-Mercedes to lead a race and then the first win for a driver. Here are the points from today.

• 25pts - Daniel Ricciardo - His first win and the first driver this season to finish ahead of a Mercedes that has completed the race
• 18pts - Sergio Perez - Executing an almost perfect one-stop race being close to victory before brake problems took over and then Massa took him out
• 15pts - Felipe Massa - For being the first driver to lead the race other than a Mercedes this season
• 12pts - Nico Rosberg - Has to have some points for dragging that car home which was over 60hp down on power with ruined brakes
• 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Another one stop strategy that almost paid off but fell back towards the end of the race
• 8pts - Jenson Button - An awesome final move to be in position to capitalise on the final crash to take 4th position
• 6pts - Sebastian Vettel - Deserves some points for showing brilliant awareness to steer out of the way of Massa's out of control Williams
• 4pts - Valtteri Bottas - Up until his problems the Finn was having another strong performance.
• 3pts - Daniil Kvyat - Scores some points for his spacial awareness when under pressure from Raikkonen in the final chicane
• 2pts - Adrian Sutil - Has a pair of consolation points for being the only driver who effectively finished the race without scoring a point.
• 1pt - Max Chilton - Takes the final point for the being the only driver to end his streak of finishing races by taking out his own team-mate....

Looking Ahead to Austria

The Austrian GP is tipped as the first of the two new circuits  to join the calendar for 2014, but the A1 Ring (now entitled the Red Bull ring) is merely returning after a sabbatical. But as it has been away for so long it is somewhat of an unknown quantity, the layout is the same as it was back in the day, but Red Bull millions have been used to bring it back after years of neglect. That means new and improved pit facilities and places to store all the rich folk who come to watch because their companies are plastered all over the place, not because they like the sport. 

While the world isn't really prepared to hazard a guess as to who is going to take top honours in Austria, but there are a lot of straights, especially in the first sector for those Mercedes powered cars to do well. While it was nice to see a new face on the top step of the podium today, I fear normal service will resume in a fortnight's time.

 

Round 7: Canada 2014 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

I know this post has been slightly delayed, so I apologise to the small number of valiant readers who pay attention to the crazed ramblings, but I was fulfilling my annual role of 'stage manager'. Which in reality is a fancy way of saying that I moved some chairs about and had dominion over a set of curtains - the event deservedly belonged to the cast. So this means that I recorded qualifying and I am presently watching it as I write this introductory paragraph - pushing the very boundaries of male multi-tasking. 

But in the end it was the same story at the front of the grid, boasting yet another safe margin to the rest of the field. Surely on a track which is served Hamilton so well in the past, we'll see a less grumpy Briton with fewer complaints and unfriendliness. Of course that'd mean he'd have to take pole. Right...

Q1

The first session started without Gutierrez who planted his Sauber in the barrier half way through FP3, the impact while seemingly minimal punctured the chassis and wasn't going to be ready for qualifying. The track also seemed quite messy considering that Canada has a strong support race package, leaves, dust and general debris made for poor grip levels throughout the session. We saw Hamilton running straight across the first sequence of corners and Kimi Raikkonen powersliding through the exit of the final chicane coming very close to smashing into the wall of champions. 

As the session approached the conclusion it seemed that the Mercedes power plant was definitely better suited to the track as the top six cars filled by Mercedes, Williams, McLaren drivers. Daniil Kvyat was the the best placed non-Mercedes runners in 8th place. Perez was the only Mercedes powered car not in the lead pack after spinning the car coming into turn 8. On the other hand Lotus were having even more difficulties as Maldonado had more mechanical dramas pulling off in turn three. Q1 was brought to an end when Marcus Eriksson span the Caterham into the wall on the exit of turn 9 with 18s left on the clock bringing out the red flag.

But there was one thing that we learned was that the lower mid-field are getting increasingly wary of Marussia as Chilton was only 0.107s away from knocking out Perez. If only anyone could get that close to the two factory Mercedes cars at the very front. 

Q2

Even before the factory Mercedes cars took to the track it was still Mercedes engined teams locking out the provisional front row, this time it was Williams confirming they're in for a strong weekend. Not even the improved Ferrari could knock Massa and Bottas off the provisional top times. Alonso couldn't use up any more road as he brushed his rear tyre along the wall in turn three. When the factory team finally made it onto the track something interesting happened: neither Hamilton nor Rosberg couldn't complete a time faster than Felipe Massa's Williams. Probably the first time anyone has been able to hold any competition to the championship leading team.

After a slight lull in the action when the teams prepared for a second set of runs, Perez aimed to avoid being the only Mercedes car to be relegated from qualifying. Sergio's first lap wasn't strong enough, while Bottas made it two Williams' ahead of the factory Mercedes team, but in a session where only half of a second covered the top 12 cars positions shuffled on the very last lap. Hamilton and Rosberg restored the natural order of things by overtaking Williams at the very end of the session, Red bull powered out of relegation knocking Force India out in the process. But still, 50% of the cars through into the final session were Mercedes powered cars. 

Q3

Despite Williams leading almost all of Q2, the whole world (probably) assumed it was still going to be another Mercedes 1-2 (and 3-4 as well perhaps). But 3rd on backwards remained exceptionally close and we were in for a titanic battle. You'd think given the intensity and importance of this final session someone would bother going out when the green light came on at the end of the pit lane... well apparently not... Three minutes later Bottas left the garage... alone.

When everyone else decided to take part, it was another crushing performance from Mercedes - but it was Rosberg who took top honours on the first run on a track which has traditionally favoured the Brit. So without any questionable yellow flag issues the German was still faster, in the Red Bull camp Ricciardo was continuing to defeat the odds by keeping ahead of Vettel - intra team battles everywhere. 

Raikkonen joined the pack as the field regrouped for one final run for pole position. Just like in Monaco Rosberg was the leading Mercedes on track with Hamilton several seconds further down the road. Each sector was swapping the balance of power by thousandths of a second, but without any conspiracy theories or suspicion Nico Rosberg stole pole position away from Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel managed to sneak into 3rd place in group of four cars consisting of both Red Bull and Williams cars covered by only 0.04s - behind Mercedes it is exceptionally close.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

It is unusual to come to a race in which the front row was an inevitability and still be surprised at the final result, but the times and performances were impossibly close behind the top two. So here are the points winners from this evening.

• 10pts - Nico Rosberg - If anything can silence the complaints of cheating in Monaco, this should deal with it. Beating Hamilton on raw pace on a track the Briton has dominated at times.
• 8pts - Felipe Massa - Spent virtually all of Q2 ahead of the all conquering Mercedes team which in this day and age is miraculous
• 6pts - Sebastian Vettel - In a car which is very underpowered, and under increasing pressure from Ricciardo putting the Red Bull in 3rd place is impressive
• 5pts - Valtteri Bottas -Was only 0.002s away from equalling his astounding qualifying in the damp this time last season.
• 4pts - Kimi Raikkonen/Fernando Alonso - Both drivers coming so close to the walls without knocking wheels off in the process
• 3pts - Max Chilton - Yes Perez had a spin, but being 0.1s away from progressing into Q2 for Max is miraculous
• 2pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - Got the Toro Rosso into the top ten and then beating two world champions in Q3
• 1pt - Jenson Button - For being mildly amusing in the track walk with DC

Looking Forward to Tomorrow

It is set up wonderfully isn't it, to highly charged team-mates on the front row determined to beat each other, because it is an exclusive two horse race for the title between Hamilton and Rosberg. I haven't heard Lewis say that he is once again friends with Nico, but the press conference seemed slightly less cold and oppressive than normal. If that particular rivalry wasn't enough Williams and Red Bull are extremely close on pace, Williams have much better straight line speed but Red Bull have a downforce advantage. McLaren, Ferrari and Force India are in another closely fought battle at the other side of the points positions.

The threat of rain on Sunday has diminished since the start of the weekend, but in theory I don't think we'd need it to make for a brilliant race, bring it on.

Round 7: Canada 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

Ohhhhhh Caaaaanaaaaaadaaaaaa! Ah yes, it is out first trip across the Atlantic for the Canadian GP. Montreal will be the host of the next round in the ongoing saga of soap opera style drama brewing in the Mercedes camp. I can roughly estimate that this weekend Hamilton will put all his toys back in the pram and decide milk the victory for all it worth on Sunday with all the subtlety of a flaming brick thrown at a petrol station. Because while Monaco was a track which favoured Rosberg, we suspect that Montreal will play more into Lewis' hands - given it was the track he scored his first win on in 2007... while he was falling out with another team-mate. But we can hope that the Canadian GP will not just be another parade of self-importance and snide remarks passed back and forth across the paddock - it is a special track that has seen some monumental races. Some of which have seen a grumpy Mr Hamilton failing to make the chequered flag, the outstanding race of 2011... oddly Lewis also managed to have a team-mate related incident then too, with Jenson Button. Jenson went on to claim victory in an event which was so long it forced new regulations to limit red flag delayed races. Who needs any of these new fangled Tilke-dromes when there are venues like this. 

The Venue

The rest of the world could learn a lot from the design of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, because it is wonderful in it's effortless simplicity - Abu Dhabi is the ultimate example of trying to do everything and making a mess of the important bit. When you examine the individual corners, there isn't really a single curve which stands out on a global level - the way that Eau Rouge, 130R or St Devote do. The track isn't overly imaginative either, with a lot of chicanes bolted together with a long straight and a slow hairpin tying them all together. But when these seemingly simple and basic elements are knitted together, the result is truly magnificent, in the same way that Monaco defies expectation and flows from one bend to the other almost seamlessly. To make things more interesting the track is bounded by concrete walls with only the tiniest of margins between ultimate lap time and a shattered race car. 

The opening sequence of corners do seem a little dull in comparison to the remainder of the lap, probably because it is one of few sections of the track where running wide won't cost you a wheel or two. Turn one appears to be a fairly innocuous left hander but positing the car on the exit directly impacts the line you can take through turn two. A tighter exit allows for a smoother wider approach to the everlasting second corner. It starts to get a little more claustrophobic as the walls start to close in on the approach to turn three. Now this chicane is masterful, a blind first apex hidden behind the inside wall while the road itself drops out of sight. Sort of like a toned down version of Laguna Seca's corkscrew - and on the exit there is only a solid wall of concrete for comfort.

Following a slight curve in the road the track arrives at our second chicane, which isn't as fun as the first, but nonetheless challenging. Each phase of the 6/7 chicane is slightly elongated, with a narrow groove of repaved tarmac on the inside where the grip is, step outside of that - especially in the wet. Exactly what caught out the all dominant Vettel in that spectacular race in 2011. In the dry, tyre marbles on the exit of the second phase of the chicane have seen cars understeer powerlessly into the wall - Jaques Villeneuve manage to crash his BMW Sauber just by being marginally offline. The second chicane is succeeded by the third chicane - it is odd how this lack of variation can produce such brilliance. Turn nine also beings the cars very close to another concrete barrier, against which many wheels have been shed.

Another long curve brings the cars round to the hairpin at the bottom the island, where Kubica suffered one of the most severe accidents in recent memory - after which the inside wall has been redesigned. On the exit we have a very rare occurrence, a long straight that had nothing to do with Herman Tilke, and one that has over the years managed to generate overtaking into the final corner. This final corner is of course another chicane, and another wonderful one at that - unlike the abminations that have tainted Barcelona and Spa, this one is taken at good speed with no room for error. The closest comparison would be Variante Alta at Imola which also requires some liberal curb usage, however take too much and you may find yourself bouncing off the the most famous stretch of wall on the F1 calendar. The wall of champions, which has been visited by several champions... hence the name, along with many other victims. 

The Form Guide

In a season where Mercedes have an all dominant car, there are going to be tracks where the opposition will have the chance to claw back some of that deficit... Canada is not going to be one of those places. It is one venue where they should have even more of an advantage... because the long back straight and a greater dependence on mechanical grip rather than aerodynamics favours the Mercedes team. To make matters worse for their closest - a term used very loosely - competitors Red Bull and Ferrari, the rest of the Mercedes powered teams will be getting in the way of their damage limitation exercise. McLaren have historically done well here, as have Force India, while Bottas qualified a truly horrible Williams in 3rd in difficult conditions. 

Further back there are rumours that Lotus expect to have a very difficult weekend, and Sauber have struggled to make any real progress further forward and remain on zero points for the season thus far. So there is another outside chance for Marussia so sneak back into the points for the second successive race after the outstanding performance in Monaco. Caterham on the other hand have lost ground to Marussia and with the Renault power plant and aerodynamic weaknesses might find scoring points a lot more difficult. 

Canada always promises to deliver one of the highlights of the season, and with the added intra team issues at the sharp end of the field, the off track action might be just as destructive...