Well before we discuss the events of the day I want to ask, where on earth was this rain we were promised. Every time the thought of precipitation is remotely considered it is a virtual guarantee that the race is going to be drier than the Atacama desert... For the first half of the race we didn't really need it but as the battles calmed down a little downpour would't have gone amiss. But rain or no rain, one thing became frighteningly clear today, Mercedes have a lot more pace in the car, and when it is unleashed it is an unstoppable force... which doesn't bode too well for anyone else in the second half of 2014.
There was no real coverage post qualifying yesterday because I was elsewhere and returning to HQ in the smaller hours of the morning kind of negates the time required to write these things up. But qualifying points will be added to the bottom of today's contribution.
The Race
After yesterday's visit to the barrier Hamilton also opted for a gearbox change and thus was demoted to 20th on the grid. Several teams complained that the Mercedes should have started from the pit lane on the argument that a change of brake material constitutes breaking parc ferme regulations. It was a violation of these rules that forced Marcus Ericsson to start from the pitlane, meaning only Chilton was behind Lewis on the grid... Even after a crash and a penalty for Hamilton, Max was still last.
So we had the two Williams heading the charge against Rosberg at the start of the race, although that didn't last too long as the field approached turn one. Massa attempted tuck in behind Bottas through the first corner at the same time Magnussen attempted to fill the space. Ultimately the two cars ended up sharing the same bit of tarmac and for the second time this season we saw a car flipping up and over sliding upside down across the run-off area. Daniel Ricciardo was forced wide of Magnussen's spinning McLaren and Massa's upside down Williams losing many, many positions. Felipe's car righted itself before reaching the gravel, but the safety car was inevitably deployed.
On the restart Rosberg started the process of driving an uncontested race away from Bottas in second place. As for the other Mercedes, it was time to truly see how one-sided any contest involving Hamilton would turn out to be. Once upon a time the idea of making it from the back of the grid to the front was considered a miraculous performance. Not so much today - Hamilton drove past cars as if they weren't there: Maldonado, Gutierrez and Chilton were all overtaken on the first lap after the restart. so by lap three Lewis had gained three positions without any opposition. The Mercedes driver's charge through the field was assisted by battles between cars further up the road. A duel between Grosjean and Sutil made the French driver even easier pickings for Lewis.
In the opening ten laps there was a lot of focus on Hamilton's progress, but there were battles elsewhere to pay some attention to. For example it appeared that Perez and Kvyat were in for an interesting fight, lap after lap of pass and counter pass. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way because the Russian made a move on the outside of the Mercedes arena and tried to pinch Perez down to the inside. Of course there was nowhere for Sergio to go and Danill was pitched into a spin. So that battle didn't last as long as we hoped, that meant we had to see what Hamilton was up to again - which was easily breezing past more cars - this time it was Adrian Sutil in the Sauber who'd just been defeated by Ricciardo.
The Australian having spied that Lewis was coming realised he had to get a move on and after getting past Vergne made tracks towards Raikkonen. But the Mercedes remained right behind the Red Bull having also made rather short work of the Toro Rosso. Both Daniel and Lewis in their own individual recovery drives arrived on the back of Raikkonen at the same time at the Spitzkurve haripin. Hamilton made a move on Ricciardo but had to back off to avoid hitting Kimi's Ferrari and lost the position again. This attack spurned Ricciardo on to get away from Hamilton - diving down the inside of Raikkonen coming into the Mercedes Arena section and buying himself some time away from his pursuers. Lewis tried to pouch on the Ferrari and drove through the high speed mobil kurve two wide inches apart without making contact... That move didn't work out in GP2 less experienced pilots.
On lap 13 the pit stops have begun for the lead contenders - initiated by Fernando Alonso and then Sebastian Vettel which inevitably promoted Hamilton closer to the front of the grid. All of which would be of little comfort to Daniel Ricciardo whose escape plan was starting to come undone when he arrived at the back of Sergio Perez's Force India. As he got backed up Raikkonen and Hamilton joined the battle - you'd think with such a car advantage Lewis might plan his overtakes with a little more caution... Apparently not as he threw the Mercedes at Raikkonen, all locked up and trimming Kimi's front wing endplate - almost wiping out Perez in the process. At the same time both Lewis and Kimi went down the inside of Ricciardo at the hairpin.
Coming close to the end of the tyre stint Raikkonen was starting to lose pace and dropped back into the clutches of Alonso, who in turn was trying to fend off Sebastian Vettel. In a continuation as of the duel that took place in Silverstone Alonso didn't intend on giving the German too much room on the run down to hairpin. Both Fernando and Sebastian went either side of a slow Kimi Raikkonen sandwiching the Finn. Kimi did well to avoid greater contact with either Fernando or Vettel only losing more of the endplate damaged by Hamilton in the first altercation. Further ahead Hamilton's charge through the field came to an abrupt end... not because he'd bounced off something or put it in the fence, but because there were no more cars he could realistically catch. Here on lap 19 Lewis had made it from 20th to 2nd to form the omnipresent 1-2 we've seen far too often this season.
With that all done and dusted it was time to look for another battle - and we found Romain Grosjean waging war with Sergio Perez. The Lotus driver - like Hamilton - hadn't stopped yet and was relatively out of position when fighting with the Force India. Perez had a go round the outside of the Mercedes Arena but Grosjean held on through the second part of the sequence to deny Sergio the position but ran wide on the exit opening the door for the Mexican. But as he pulled away from the Lotus his team got on the radio warning Sergio about his fuel consumption, making sure that he wasn't gambling on some rain later on to save fuel then. Because in the end we all know rain is banned for the duration of a F1 race these past two seasons. However things were worse for Grosjean as his Lotus broke down once again, much to the Frenchmans displeasure.
While Raikkonen was demonstrating how to recover positions correctly, Hamilton after his stop was, once again being a little clumsy. This time sticking the nose of the car down the inside of Jenson Button as the McLaren went a little wide. The two cars seemed to converge on the inside of the corner and contact was made. Lewis lost his front wing end-plate and one upper wing element after collecting Button's sidepod. Did the damage stop the charging briton - not really as he went on to set the fastest lap of the race at the time. It wasn't without consequence however as his front left tyre wear increased. On the second attempt Lewis drove effortlessly past Jenson in a straight line, waving an apology on the way past.
At this middle section of the race there were passes going on all over the place, because cars were pitting often and rejoining out of position - the most of which were fuelled by DRS. Some of them might have even been magic - well they would have been if Lewis new where on his steering wheel that particular switch was, perhaps that's why he'd been driving into people all day. Vettel and Alonso were in a stand-off despite negotiating their way past Hulkenberg in the process. Sebastian was getting rather irritable on the radio, as the team asked him to save fuel, to which the German responded with "Do you want me to pass or do you want me to save fuel like a duck?". I've yet to figure out how much fuel a duck can save, but I guess that Vettel thinks it is quite a lot.
The camera then cut to Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso - which was more than a little on fire - in fact it was a lot on fire. Daniil bailed out of his flaming race car and made a bid for freedom. The fire marshals were quickly on the scene to put the blaze out and recover the car without the need for a second safety car intervention. Once the charred mess was cleared away, it got very quite on track, if ever there was an optimum time for a rain shower to keep up the momentum. Either that or it would be a perfect time for a random safety car such that I could go and make a toastie - as I was quite hungry at the time. For a second I thought I'd get that time when Adrian Sutil was having engine problems pitching the Sauber into a spin in the final corner. Like Kvyat he got out of the car and buggered off, leaving it in the middle of the pit straight. Mercedes thought there was going to be a safety car and brought Hamilton in to set him up for a potential restart. But it wasn't to be, a cohort of very brave marshals ran across the track to push the Sauber out of the way.
Lewis rejoined behind Alonso, but was three seconds per lap faster and caught and passed the Ferrari effortlessly and started after Bottas in the hope of another 1-2. That was Fernando's cue to pit as his tyres were clearly ruined, rejoining behind Daniel Ricciardo - and thus began a second race weekend of Red Bull vs Ferrari epic battle. Ricciardo was on older tyres and of course Fernando had just pitted - Daniel had also used some of his grip in the process of throwing the car down the inside of Jenson Button in the Mercedes arena. Alonso blatantly had more speed, weaving back and forth behind the Red Bull - capitilasing on the straight line speed advantage the Ferrari had coming into the hairpin. But Ricciardo was able to re-take the place on the entry to the Mercedes Arena. After laps of duelling Alonso countered Ricciardos re-pass and held out on the outside to take the spot.
With only a few laps to go it seemed as if Hamilton had nothing to offer in the battle with Bottas for second place. The Williams was too quick in a straight line - it is nice to see someone have an advantage over a Mercedes for once. But just like Force India last season, Williams have built a car which is notoriously difficult to overtake - Hamilton was also hampered with tyre wear from the damage to the front wing. Rosberg had already finished the race such was his advantage - and that was at a very conservative pace based on the speed Lewis showed during the race. Bottas held onto a third successive podium position - and becomes the only driver this season so finish ahead of a healthy Mercedes - if a car with a damaged wing could be classed as healthy. Vettel finished 4th, ahead of Alonso who was under-pressure from Ricciardo again at the end of the race. Hulkenberg, Button, Magnussen and Perez rounded out the points scoring positions.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Qualifying
Because there was no real report from yesterday here are the points:
- 10pts - Kevin Magnussen - After a trying season for McLaren 4th is a good job
- 8pts - Jules Bianchi - Out-qualified a Lotus on pace in the dry
- 6pts - Valtteri Bottas - Front row again, nice job there
- 5pts - Felipe Massa - Two Williams up at the front
- 4pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Beating Vettel on home turf...
- 3pts - Nico Rosberg - Another pole position gets some points
- 2pts - Daniil Kvyat - Has to have some points for the best save of the session
- 1pt - Lewis Hamilton - Gets a point for creating an interesting grid
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Race
Here are winners from the race part of the weekend
- 25pts - Lewis Hamilton - The car might be brutally dominant but 20th to 3rd is a remarkable acheivement - and for Lewis to only hit two cars on the way
- 18pts - Valtteri Bottas - A hat-trick of podiums and the only car to beat a Mercedes on full power all season... it only took ten races.
- 15pts - Daniel Ricciardo - A strong recovery after avoiding the upside down Williams and a brilliant battle with Alonso
- 12pts - Kevin Magnussen - Yes he did flip over Massa, but it was the recovery drive from him too that deserves some points
- 10pts - Nico Rosberg - That was overly easy wasn't it...
- 8pts - Fernando Alonso - Scores some points for his part in the battle with Ricciardo
- 6pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Some decent avoiding action, and running two wide through mobil kurve with Hamilton
- 4pts - Felipe Massa - Not as artistic roll as the one preformed by Gutierrez but ended up on his wheels
- 2pts - Those Three Marshals - Sprinting across the track to remove Sutil's car took some serious balls
- 1pt - Daniil Kvyat - Has to have a point for the pyrotechnics
The Penalty Points Championship
There are some penalty points to be added to the table following this weekend
- Charlie Whiting - For denying my opportunity for a mid-race toastie by not calling the safety car for Sutil's spin
- Lewis Hamilton - With all that dominance - was it really necessary to hit anyone along the way.
- Rain - You disappoint me...
Looking to Hungary
The Hungarian GP is often listed as the most boring race of the season, because more often than not... it is. Before the changes to the track over a decade ago it was very rare to see any form of overtaking throughout the whole race - and even in the immediate years after the modifications things were not much better. A wet race in 2006 delivered something that was a million times better than we were used to - in which Jenson Button took his maiden victory for Honda from well outside the top ten.
This season though it could be a very good day for Red Bull, as it not a track dependant on top speed or power, but more on downforce and aerodynamic grip. Something which the Red Bull has in spades - but is it enough to better the Mercedes pairing, who knows. Will we see less grumpy forms of Hamilton and Vettel in Hungary... probably not but they are far funnier as miserable buggers.
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