Round 8 - Austria 2015 - Race

Greetings Internet, 

So the annual visit to the Austrian mountains has come to it's conclusion and for some people that conclusion came about several laps earlier than they intended. Because there was no real competition for the lead of the race beyond the first two corners - the world once more is weighing in on the sport claiming it to be boring and predictable. To some extent I can see that perspective, but there are more cars in the race than the two silver ones at the front - in the middle of the field there were some interesting battles that put this race on par with Canada last time out and considerably better than Monaco before that. The problem we had this time was that one of the cars we were looking at to carve through the field only made it as far as the wall on the outside of turn two. That and we had several cars out on the back of the grid due to those engine penalties so the middle of the pack was thinned out slightly. 

Despite all of this and the complaints that are pouring into SKY's post race fan Q&A session on twitter - there have been far worse races. I think that after some of the exceptional races we were treated to in recent seasons everyone has come to expect that level of entertainment on a race by race basis which isn't a realistic expectation. Since Mercedes became the dominant force, those incredibly dynamic races had become the exception rather than the rule. We just have to take each little battle as it comes and relish that something is still happening - it wasn't that many years ago that a race like we had today would have been considered a magnificent day.

The Race

A series of penalties following qualifying the lower end of the grid was formed on the basis of a series complex equations and a studious review of the sporting regulations. In the end Manor ended up with their highest starting positions of the season as McLaren and Red Bull occupied the final four places - and as penalties are likely to become a recurring threat, future grids will be even more interesting.

Back to today and the start was the only chance Rosberg had to overthrow Hamilton - a chance he took with both hands. A slightly slower launch from Hamilton allowed Nico to get alongside by turn one to take the lead - Lewis attempted to retake the place in turn two but the attack was suitably fended off. As the cameras tracked the lead battle down to turn three, the TV footage cut to a shot of Raikkonen's car. Where it appeared the Finn was testing a new aerodynamic device - one that took the shape of Fernando Alonso's McLaren - mounted on the top of his Ferrari. So the hopes of a second Ferrari recovery in so many races ended when Kimi decided to wear the McLaren as a hat. Replays

appeared to indicate that Raikkonen span the rear wheels on the exit of turn two after already seeming to gain traction. As the Ferrari struggled to accelerate cars passed it on either side - Fernando decided to pass Kimi on the left just as the Ferrari speared towards the barrier. Alonso was then pinned between the armco fence and Raikkonen's car - ultimately resulting in the McLaren getting on top of the Ferrari. Fernando's sidepod came really close to Raikkonen's head as the two cars slid down the wall - stopping just short of a Cameraman who wasn't facing in the right direction at the time. Another victim of the collision was Will Stevens' who picked up some debris which caused an oil leak on his Manor. To clean up the debris and to pry the two cars apart and off the top of the barrier, a safety car was deployed. 

During the safety car period Kvyat pitted for a new front wing as a result of contact with Perez somewhere round the opening lap. Ericsson was also handed a 5 second pit-time penalty for jumping the start. Eventually the safety car was recalled and racing could recommence, Rosberg got a decent jump on his team-mate and the pair of them vanished off into the distance. The only positional change on the restart saw Ricciardo overtake Roberto Mehri towards the back of the field - nice to see Red Bull have found something they can overtake in Austria. At the front the lead pairing didn't look as if they were to come under the threat of the remaining Ferrari as they feared in the race build-up. Vettel had nothing for the pace of the Mercedes team and was on course for a very lonely race in third place. Felipe Massa was able to stay within visual range of the Ferrari but nowhere near close enough to put the German under any real pressure. 

If things weren't bad enough for McLaren when Alonso parked on top of a Ferrari, the second car was also called into the pits to retire. Jenson had only just pitted to serve his stop-go penalty carried over for all the places he didn't drop in qualifying - but when he returned to the track the car wouldn't get up to speed and trundled around park the car and call it a day. So while it was dull at the front and full of retirements at the back - it was good that the cars in the middle were making up for it. Carlos Sainz Jnr was under pressure from both of the Lotus cars. Grosjean almost made the pass round the outside of turn three, but the Spaniard decided against it and eased Romain out wide. Grosjean found himself out even further wide in the penultimate corner but didn't lose a place to Maldonado behind. The other Toro Rosso was also under pressure and in this particular occasion Mad Max Verstappen was unable to defend against the attentions of Valtteri Bottas who used the superior power of the Williams to out-drag Verstappen down to turn three. 

Grosjean and Bottas remained the only cars making an impact on the race in this early phase - both of them trapped behind Force India's. Because all of the cars involved were Mercedes powered there were little gains to be had - especially in the case of Grosjean vs Perez. The Lotus driver appeared to have the pace advantage but Sergio was able to pull out enough of a safety gap in the DRS zone to prevent an attack. So in a sense, the battle was at a stalemate. On the other hand, Bottas was having more luck - likely because the Williams is a stronger car. Valtteri was able to pass Hulkenberg - again using turn three as the chosen overtaking place, this time opting for the outside line. But with that pass completed the action came to a bit of a stand still in the run up to the opening and only pitstops of the race. Marcus Ericsson was taking his initial stop on the side of the main straight for some reason, after exiting the final corner the Swede brought the Sauber to a standstill alongside the pitwall. At this point another safety car might have been good fun - something to bunch the cars up again - but Marcus got the car going again, no doubt helped by the downhill gradient on that part of the straight to get moving again. So we stayed under green flag conditions.

With only a single stop on the cards for most cars the pressure on the teams to get it right inevitably increased, and in the Toro Rosso garage that pressure resulted in a long stop for Carlos Sainz. This dropped him out of the points and no longer in contention to fight with the two Lotus', to make matters worse he was later adjudged to have sped in the pit-lane earning him a 5 second time penalty to be added to his final race time. Not that it would make too much difference because within a couple of laps the Toro Rosso returned to the pits to pull into retirement. Another unfortunate stop befell Valtteri Bottas, having just made the pass on Hulkenberg the Williams driver pitted one lap later than the Force India to try and cover off the undercut. However a slight delay on Bottas' stop combined with a very strong outlap by Hulkenberg meant that the German ended up back in front. Earlier in the race we pointed out that Grosjean was having fun in his battles with Perez and Sainz rounded off by a brilliant two wide duel through the middle sector with Fred Nasr, well the fun was also going to come to an end for the Frenchman. As his Lotus too would falter due to mechanical difficulties. Romain's car was stuck in 3rd gear and also had to retire. But fear not - Pastor Maldonado would take over where Grosjean left off in providing the entertainment in the latter stages of the race. 

It might be worth mentioning that the two lead cars were still comfortably ahead of Vettel and Massa, and while the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg fluctuated it was clear that Nico had Lewis covered this time. But there was that slight hope that something might happen, that the gap would close and a

Bahrain 2014 style battle would manifest itself. Alas it was not to be, not because of reliability, not because of team orders - but because Hamilton got things a little wrong. As Lewis exited the pits following his one and only stop of the afternoon, he crossed the while pit-exit line, which you are not supposed to do. A simple but costly error that earned him a 5 second time penalty. Of course

in the great scheme of things such a small penalty would put him in no danger of losing second place, but it put pay to any fight for the lead. Hamilton would have to pass Nico and then create a lead of over five seconds to win the race. Because that was not realistically going to happen, the two lead cars effectively settled into formation flying for the remainder of the race. The rest of the podium however wasn't quite as guaranteed, because the original holder of the coveted 3rd place ran into a spot of bother. Or rather his pit crew did, during his routine stop, the team cross threaded a rear wheel nut and cost Sebastian many seconds as they finally secured the wheel. This promoted Massa up into third place and meant Vettel had to play catch-up to try and regain the lost position.

So with that all over and done with, time to see what the rest of the field were getting up to - and there was a change in position for the final world championship in 10th as Sergio Perez made a move on Felipe Nasr. The Sauber driver appeared to offer little to no resistance to the Force India, but post race discussions revealed that Nasr was nursing a brake issue on his car and was almost defenseless. Slightly further forward Daniel Ricciardo was making a brief appearance in the TV coverage, in a battle with Maldonado. Ricciardo had opted for an alternate strategy - given where the engine penalties placed him on the grid that made sense - and was running a very long opening stint. At this point

the race he had completed 50 laps on the current set of tyres, far more than Maldonado in the Lotus immediately behind him. Despite holding the Lotus off through the middle sector - Pastor was able to used the power advantage of the Mercedes engine and the fresher tyres to ease past the Red Bull on the straight before turn two. It was at this point Ricciardo decided that it might be a good time to pit for new tyres. Pastor's next target was Mad Max Verstappen - an erratic Venezuelan vs a slightly unpredictable teenager... what could possibly go wrong...

Elsewhere, Felipe Massa was noticing a red shape growing larger in his mirrors - that shape belonged to Sebastian Vettel looking to recover the place he lost due to the dodgy pitstop. Over the past few laps the German had been gaining on the Williams and the final podium spot, both cars are on similar performance terms with Vettel having the slight advantage. But in this modern age it is generally necessary to have a far greater advantage over the car in front to be able to be certain of making the overtake. Vettel didn't have that and therefore stealing third place was going to be very difficult. So instead it was better to look at the positions that were actually going to change, and that takes us to the bottom end of the points scoring positions. That last points position belonged to Fred Nasr - and his grasp on that final point was slowly slipping away as Daniel Ricciardo on new, fresh tyres was closing rapidly on the Sauber. It was only a matter of time before the Australian was up into 10th place, salvaging single point for the home team.

At least the sister team was doing a little better - with Mad Max Verstappen currently holding into 7th place. The problem Max had was the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado closing rapidly on the Toro Rosso. Pastor was easily the faster car but was struggling to get close enough out of the important corners to make a pass. Coming through turn one Maldonado got onto the raised curbing on the exit pitching the car towards the inside barrier somehow Pastor managed to save the car and was able to resume the battle with the Dutchman. It took a couple of laps to make-up the time lost in the slide, but he was ready for a second attack. On this second attempt Pastor executed an even more impressive save - pulling out of the DRS assisted slipstream behind the Toro Rosso, Maldonado got very sideways on the middle of the main straight. In a recovery feat that appeared to defy the laws of physics Pastor straightened the car up kept it out of the wall and passed Verstappen all at the same time. Max threw the car back down the inside of turn one but slide wide and finally surrendered the place. Nine times out of ten, that Lotus would have been in the wall but today it was a spectacular save.

All this was going on as the leaders were lapping their way through the pack - Hamilton had closed in on Rosberg as Nico backed off as a result of a vibration due to tyre graining. Due to Hamilton's penalty any closure of the gap made no real difference with so few laps remaining. So in the end Rosberg took home his third victory of the season, closing the championship deficit to Hamilton who finished second. Felipe Massa was able to hold off the attentions of Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari lose out on an almost guaranteed podium for the second race in a row. Valtteri Bottas brought the second Williams home in 5th place, so all cars still running at the end of the race belonging to the top three teams locked out the top spots. Behind the top five cars was Nico Hulkenberg, still riding the wave of success from that Le Mans victory. After two magnificent saves, Pastor Maldonado made it two points scoring races in a row. Verstappen ended up as Red Bull's highest place driver - despite driving for the junior team finishing in 8th. Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo rounded off the points scoring positions.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

It might not have been a day for epic recovery drives or huge quantities of overtaking but there was certainly some quality on display, and deserving of some bonus points.

• 25pts - Pastor Maldonado - Those saves were brilliant, and that final one while passing Verstappen was epic
• 18pts - Nico Rosberg - Finally Nico gained a place off the start and beat Hamilton on pace triggering the Lewis grumpy face once again
• 15pts - Daniel Ricciardo - From the back of the grid, in a weaker car to finish inside the points deserves some recognition
• 12pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Best of the rest in a car which is a long way behind in development terms 
• 10pts - Valtteri Bottas - Some good early moves on Verstappen and Hulkenberg before the round of stops
• 8pts - Felipe Massa - Resisted the pressure applied by Vettel through the final third of the race without making any errors to take third place
• 6pts - Romain Grosjean - Provided some great racing - especially that race with Nasr as they went two wide through several corners
• 4pts - Felipe Nasr - Had to surrender the final point due to brake issues but put up a good fight against Grosjean before the issues set in
• 2pts - Kimi Raikkonen - For trying some more unconventional aerodynamic adjustments by sticking a McLaren to the nose of the car
• 1pt - Fernando Alonso - Gets the final point for stopping just short of a cameraman as he slid along the top of the barrier and Raikkonen's car

• -1pt - Lewis Hamilton - Yes, you came second that is no real excuse for a sulk, you can't win everything....
• -1pt - 

Looking to Britain

After touring the world, the championship arrives back on this little island for the home GP - although it doesn't really feel like a home race considering it is a long way south of here. While it may seem like just another marker on the calendar, it is a reasonably important one because Silverstone is one of the iconic races, one with huge historical significance. But as recent announcements have proved - historical significance means nothing in terms of retaining a space on the season schedule as Monza is finding at the moment. 

For the most part Silverstone is a remarkable circuit, full of iconic corners - corners that have spawned copies and clones the world over, forming the base of the opening sector of the Circuit of the Americas. But while it is a brilliant venue - the racing doesn't necessarily live up to the grandeur of the venue. Unless it rains, and this is Britain after all, it does rain reasonably often here... Wet or dry it should be another walk in the park for Mercedes. 

Round 8 - Austria 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

That was far more dynamic than many of the qualifying sessions we have witnessed this season - some of that was down to a slight rain shower that took place in the region of FP3. If only that rainfall had carried forward into qualifying itself. Despite the drying conditions, we were left with what is considered to be a 'green' track, one that was continually improving throughout the session, especially in Q1. Yet somehow, despite all the changes in position and a low grip surface catching a few people out... it is business at usual at the front. It seems as if it pre-ordained that the Mercedes' cars will continually line up in the same position. Even if it looks as if there might be a positional change - circumstances will somehow manifest themselves to prevent that from happening. When the world is complaining that the sport has become broken and boring, it is days like today that make you think that no quantity of spectacle can re-arrange the front row.

Elsewhere the list of penalties has increased as both McLarens are now on 25 place grid drops, both Red Bull cars are on 10 place grid penalties... so across two teams there is a total of 70 dropped places, more than three times the population of the grid... So because of the severity of the number of penalties Alonso, Button and Ricciardo can't fulfil the number of dropped places they have been allocated and thus will be handed additional penalties in the race itself. It is starting to get a little farcical, and we are not even half way through the season to make things worse the really big engine tracks of Spa and Monza are still a few races away, so things are not going to get any better for Honda or Renault. To think that there were calls to increase the engine allocation from four to five power unit components... even that wouldn't help them at this point.

Q1

On to qualifying and as the coverage opened, the scene looked rather wet and enticing - but despite a grey overcast sky and reasonably low air temperature the track had almost completely dry by the time Q1 started. For the first phase of the session drivers took the conservative option of starting on the intermediate tyres as the occasional puddle and damp patch remained making slicks too risky. On the damp surface the grid looked very mixed, and completely against the run of forms - Toro Rosso held an early 1-2, while Mercedes were in the middle of the pack. Then things took another surprising turn when Jenson Button took a stint at the head of the pack... so Renault and Honda powered cars were leading. Alas the early times didn't really matter too much because the track was ready for slicks.

Williams and Fred Nasr were the first ones to move onto the dry tyres - Nasr appeared to be having a tougher time of it as his Sauber was breaking loose at every opportunity. Through the middle sector Fred executed a magnificent save as he hit a damp patch in turn seven. That

same patch caused Will Stevens in the Manor to spin off the circuit into the gravel - there is a certain nostalgic feeling seeing a car having to negotiate a good old fashioned gravel trap... Stevens was able to drag the car back onto the circuit and continue. 

It wasn't long before everyone had made the transition onto the dry tyres as the dry line was wide enough and dry enough to be faster than the intermediates. Which did put an end to the unlikely drivers at the top of the timesheets. as Hamilton made his way to the front, for a while the other Mercedes was in the relegation zone, with Vettel only one place further forward. However they effortlessly moved up to the effective front row. Did this mean that normality had resumed... well almost - barring Kimi Raikkonen who was still in the relegation zone. As time ticked away Raikkonen's prospects became ever bleaker and inexplicably in the end found him self relegated from qualifying. Kimi and Ferrari had no answer to why he was over ten places behind his team-mate and unable to make it into Q2 without any diagnosed technical faults on the car. Joining Raikkonen was Perez, Button and the two Manor cars.

Q2

The track was completely dry by this point, with the exception of the occasional patch offline but the astroturf and run-off areas remained damp, so it was certainly advisable to remain on track. In the second part of qualifying is was recent Le Mans winner Hulkenberg who set the early pace (at least Sky recognised that Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy were also in the Le Mans 919 that took the victory - especially Tandy who's nighttime stint was incredibly quick). It was Rosberg who once more seemed to have the upper hand at Mercedes and took a provisional Q2 pole... not that pole is up for grabs in Q2. Hamilton remained a few tenths slower and at risk from an attack from Vettel if this form continued into the final phase of qualifying. 

Things were looking reasonably difficult for Renault powered cars, but with only

a few minutes remaining three of the four cars were inside the top ten - Mad Max Verstappen the best placed. Ricciardo on the other hand was struggling and was the worst placed of the home branded teams. Carlos Sainz Jnr was the next of the Red Bull coloured machines to find himself inside the relegation zone as Fred Nasr promoted his Sauber well into the top ten as the times started to tumble in the final minutes of the session. Kvyat came close to joining the relegation party as Marcus Ericsson almost demoted the Russian and his omnipresent death stare into 11th place. Also in relegation was Sebastian Vettel, were we to see two Ferraris starting out of position as the German was yet to set a time. But Vettel came out of the garage and immediately went fastest... just making it look rather easy. The hope of a inter-team pole battle remained... but with the last laps of the session Mercedes reclaimed that Q2 front row, putting some distance between themselves and everyone else in the process...

Q3 

At this point in the day the track was almost back up to full speed, with rubber laid down after is was washed way by the rains earlier in the day. There was only a 30% chance of more rain which inevitably never materialised, and still hasn't through the GP2 race - which was magnificent even in the dry. With Ricciardo relegated only Hamilton and Rosberg have managed to reach Q3 in each of the races this season. Of the pairing Nico Rosberg was the first to set a lap time, one that was comfortably faster than anyone else - Hamilton tried his best to wrestle provisional pole from his team-mate but fell almost half a second short. This left him vulnerable to the threat of Vettel and both Williams, Massa, Bottas and Vettel came close to splitting the Mercedes 1-2 but could only get within a tenth of Hamilton. A gap formed between the top five and everyone else led by Hulkenberg in 6th - but the Force India was running used tyres and had more pace left in the car for the second run. Only nine cars were to take part in the final part of Q3 as Romain Grosjean encountered mechanical difficulties for Lotus... whether this will result in yet another penalty remains to be seen.

Time for the second run and it became clear that it was the middle sector that was costing Hamilton time in relation to Rosberg's current pole time. In the minute or so between the runs Lewis had been able to figure out how to solve whatever issues that were costing him time in the middle sector. The result was a much faster lap time - while Rosberg had moved the goal post a further two tenths further up the road, Lewis found two tenths on top of this to take the provisional pole position away. Both drivers had one more lap to defend or steal the top spot. For some reason that final lap went a bit wrong. From Hamilton's perspective it never really got going because he put a tyre on the while line under braking for turn one and span the car across the painted run-off area. 

Advantage Rosberg in that case, with Lewis out of the picture, the German only had to find a couple of tenths and pole position was his. The deficit was precisely 0.2s and at the conclusion of the middle sector Rosberg had reeled those two tenths in only one sector left, only two corners left. If Nico repeated his sector time from earlier in the session pole was his. But somehow that result wouldn't appease the racing gods - if such a thing did exist - and Rosberg put a wheel on the new Astroturf carpet on the exit of turn 8 and because that carpet was still wet he found himself sliding off in turn 9 ending up in the gravel... So despite everything that took place in qualifying, the same old order remains on the front row. 

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Even if the same names take over the top two places, there were plenty of drivers deserving points following today's session:

• 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Just after helping Porsche topple the might of Audi at Le Mans, Nico scores a miraculous 5th place in an undeveloped car
• 8pts - Felipe 'Fred' Nasr - Sauber back in the top ten and for an epic save on the damp track with slicks through turn seven 
• 6pts - Mad Max Verstappen - Easily the fastest of the Red Bull powered cars putting the main team to shame ever so slightly 
• 5pts - Daniil Kvyat - Being one more the lead main Red Bull driver ahead of Ricciardo
• 4pts - Jenson Button - For a brief time the McLaren was the fastest car in qualifying... before being relegated and then handed a 25 place penalty...
• 3pts - Nico Rosberg - Up until those final corner was actually on route to defeat Hamilton in qualifying which used to be the theme of 2014
• 2pts - Will Stevens - Gets a couple of points for being able to extract himself from the gravel, these days you don't get to practice that skill
• 1pt - Felipe Massa - Gets the final point for the delightful interaction he had with Massa Jnr as his son pointed out that he wouldn't get pole... how right he was

• -1pt Kimi Raikkonen - That was a bit of a crap effort to be honest
• -1pt Engine Penalty System - At the moment there are 70 total dropped places before we find out if Grosjean has to change his gearbox it does look very messy. Because those penalties are so big they will be carried forward into the race itself - still no sign of my concept of just adding eight meters be unused grid drop. But then again if that was applied Jenson Button would be 176 metres behind Stevens...

Looking ahead to Tomorrow

The GP2 race was very entertaining and exemplified that overtaking is possible at various places around the Red Bull ring - how many of those will be exploited by the F1 grid is a different matter. At the front of the field I imagine roughly sod all to happen between the two Mercedes - they can't race each other because running close to the car in front will destroy the tyres. In the grand scheme of things risking tyre issues is not usually worth the risk just to put the other silver car under pressure for any extended period of time. The only hope is that Vettel and Williams can stay close enough to Mercedes to force them to press on and make a race of it - but that is more like wishful thinking than anything else.

But just like in Canada there is a selection of cars out of position - none more so than Raikkonen in the Ferrari. Annoyingly, four of the places he needs to gain will be gifted to him through others being handed technical penalties. Even before we go to the grid Kimi will be promoted from 18th to 14th - F1 is always finding new and innovative ways of minimising competition. The issue - well one of them - is that all four of the penalised cars will struggle to feature in the race, only Kvyat will be able to complete all of his grid penalties, while the others will be faced with further race penalties. We can only hope that somewhere in the melee and mess that something turns out to be worth watching tomorrow afternoon...

Round 8 - Austria 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

Once more this post has descended further away from the intended schedule but better late than never... Nevertheless it is time for another round of the calendar and now we head to Austria for the second part of the European season following a slightly uninspiring trip across the Atlantic to Montreal. So has everyone arrived back in Europe in a cheery state of relaxation. Frankly no, as this is the Red Bull ring - it is the home team making yet another attack on their berated engine supplier. This time local overlord - Dietrich - has claimed that the team will not fulfill their contract to stay in the sport until at least 2020 if the situation doesn't improve. Complaints that will ultimately be exacerbated by a predictably difficult home race on a track which plays to their weaknesses rather than strengths. However, they are not the only ones in a bit of distress - McLaren have used up all their available engine components on Alonso's car. Components that needed changing again this weekend, and therefore that half of the McLaren Empire garage will be hit with a 20 place grid penalty. Under my distance based application of the rules - Alonso would be starting the race in Salzburg instead. McLaren are still running with the 'it'll get better... eventually' motto rather than firing shots at their engine partners. Ricciardo and Kvyat also have 10 place grid penalties - so even before qualifying we are up to a total of 40 places dropped...things are going so well.

Other news that has been circulated in the past fortnight concerns the fate of the Italian GP. At the moment the continuation of Monza as the home of the race is looking increasingly shaky - generally due to financial difficulties and Bernie's race fees. After the loss of the German GP this season and so many years without a French GP - Italy looks to be next on the list to be replaced by a desert carpak... especially with Qatar looking to host a race. One solution that has been proposed in the interim, if anything to buy Monza time to come up with a permanent plan, is to alternate the Italian GP between Monza and Imola. Now both tracks are tremendous for different reasons - Monza is one of the few truly unique tracks left with a wealth of history and tradition behind it. Of the two venues it generally creates the better races with far more opportunities for overtaking. Imola on the other hadn't - the former home of the San Marino GP, has a history all of it's own and a somewhat darker one after the events of 1994. Imola is a far more fun track to drive in the simulator and is very picturesque - Aqua Minerale is a wonderful corner, but the racing is often dull because the track is narrow with one racing line. Personally I wouldn't mind having either on the calendar... or both... 

The Track Formerly Known as the A1 Ring

In a season full of overly complex Tilke designs - the Red Bull ring is refreshingly simple and effective. Why use 25 corners when 9 will do, and it is always a surprise to remember that the same German architect is responsible for this venue as the cacophony of over-used corners that is the Yas Marina circuit. Last year's resurrection of the Austrian GP was a success - even though certain 'upgrades' have taken away some of elements of the circuit that have changed the course of many a race under it's previous guise. Gravel paved over by acres of tarmac - so much so that half the field had lap-times deleted for track limit violations. The final corner has been tweaked slightly since then - but everything else has remained just as we left it all those years ago.

The lap begins with a climb, not quite as significant as the mountainous ascent before turn one in Austin. But one that leads into a far more interesting corner than the American equivalent, it is faster for one and is ever so slightly positively cambered. On the exit of turn one the driver points the car at the mountains and floors it up the hill to the hairpin of turn two. This is the primary overtaking opportunity, and the scene of a few unfortunate collisions - including when Takuma Sato was T-Boned by an out of control Sauber in 2002. A short straight takes the cars into sector two.

Sector two contains over half the corners, while the other two only have two corners each. The first of these is turn three, which features a difficult downhill braking zone hidden on the other side of a crest. The corner itself opens up on the exit before heading into the arena section - well it would have been if there were any grandstands in the area... But I can appreciate the open plan nature of it through turns 4-7. I also like the fact that the track hasn't been widened and the gravel remains - if only they'd left a little bit more of it in turn one. 

The final sector is made up of the final two corners, the braking zone hidden once more behind a crest in the road - which is why we saw so many cars running wide... that and the tarmac run-off making it so much easier. This season the organisers have noted that the abuse of track limits was becoming a little farcical - so they placed some astroturf on the other side of the curbing in turn 8. With the proper precautions in place, these final corners are marvellous and conclude one of Herman Tilke's rare successes.

The Form Guide

Because this is once more a Friday, all the practice session results are in, and the scores look very promising. The Austrian GP of 2014 became anomalous as it was the only race where something other than a Mercedes car took pole position as Felipe Massa lead an all Williams front row. In the run up to this weekend, Williams had high hopes of being in the fight with the factory team this year. However, a reincarnation of that success is looking very unlikely - because the Ferrari resurgence is aiming to replace Williams as Mercedes main competition at the front. In FP2, Vettel took the top spot by 0.01s ahead of Nico Rosberg - so a Ferrari pole is possible, if still a little unlikely. On the whole anyone who has a Mercedes or Ferrari engine is looking good for a points scoring weekend.

This means things look bleak for Red Bull, Toro Rosso and McLaren who are not looking forward to a promising Austrian adventure - the Renault powered teams probably won't be scoring many points if any at all. Verstappen creeped into the top ten in second practice - little awkward to see the junior team show the main squad up on home turf... McLaren however are in a more precarious position - Alonso has acquired an entire grid worth of penalties, and Jenson has struggled to achieve any form of continuous running in practice. Will either car reach the finish - it could be seen as doubtful - they didn't in Canada and Austria has several similar characteristics, long straights, heavy braking, less aero dependency etc.

I am going to resist the temptation to over-hype the upcoming race, because that fell flat in both Monaco and Canada. But Austria has the potential to be exciting because the cars are a lot closer on pace than other venues, so we shall have to see, and hope...

Round 7 - Canada 2015 - Race

Greetings Internet, 

There are times when the term 'disappointment' is bandied about, often unfairly and I foresee precisely that description being applied to the Canadian GP that has just unfolded. In some respects it probably can be justified, because it became much of a conservation exercise - cars on similar performance levels cannot be anywhere near each other without destroying their tyres. Something that was mentioned a lot in the 2013 season - teams calling for a two second gap between cars. Today it was fuel as a limiting factor - ironically at the meeting where the plans for refuelling in the future was cancelled. But while those complaints are inevitable, it is worth noting that everyone was in roughly the same boat with fuel today. Perhaps some of those complaints are down to a general lack of competition for anywhere in the top four - if we didn't have Vettel and Massa making recovery drives this would have fully justified the term: disappointment. 

One interesting statistic was brought up at the midpoint of the race, when it was noted that it was the farthest into a race we've achieved since the introduction of the hybrid engines that we've completed without a retirement. Conventionally we'd expect to see something like that at somewhere like Barcelona or China - not a venue traditionally reserved for mayhem and carnage. It was also a rare non-safety car race, which for Montreal is certainly an oddity, I think that team performances have certainly started to drift farther apart - some of that is down to the engine disparities but even customer teams with the same engine are poles apart. 

The Race

While race preparations were going on the enigma of driver penalties were calculated as Jenson Button also collected a 15 place grid drop penalty. Add that to the totals accumulated by Verstappen and Vettel a total of 35 grid positions were added to qualifying positions - that has to be a record of some sort. Yet as the season continues I reckon that there will be many more races with this level of grid penalties. What this did mean was that both Merhi and Stevens were off the back row of the grid... not that it mattered to much to their overall race effort.

At the start it was almost a uniform launch by the two Mercedes, which left Raikkonen nowhere to go through the first corner - consigning him to third place. The only real progress was made by Vettel who cleared three cars before turn one, and so the comeback began. At the end of the opening lap, Button completed his drive-through penalty, the one allocated for all those component changes made before the race. For the most part the top ten had remained almost in situ - Hulkenberg found his way past Maldonado, but that was about it. In fact there was a distinct lack of contact all throughout the field in this opening phase of the race - they are all far to well behaved.

At least we had Massa and Vettel to spice things things up - the first target for their resurgent drive was the McLaren of Fernando Alonso. Massa made good use of the DRS to pass round the outside of turn one after the Spaniard had defended to the inside. This time Fernando - Felipe is faster than you, confirm you understand that message... but as the race processed Alonso was to have bigger struggles to deal with. This left Vettel to deal with the McLaren, his first effort was down the inside of the hairpin, but Sebastian locked up and overshot the apex handing Fernando the place back. But the Honda engine is no match for the upgraded Ferrari power unit - and on the back straight Vettel easily breezed past. Further ahead Ericsson was trying to defend against Massa, because the Sauber has a notably stronger engine than the Mclaren, it wasn't going to be quite as easy. Once again Massa was forced to the outside and therefore had to complete the pass in turn two - both Ericsson and Massa were side by side and wheel to wheel through the second corner. Marcus' rear wheel just brushing Massa's sidepod as the Williams took the position.

Because nothing else was happening we continue to track the actions of Vettel and Massa. Felipe was closing in on the points positions, the last of which belonged to Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull - the Renault engine was completely decimated in a straight line by the Williams. It wasn't going to be an enjoyable day for Ricciardo. As for Vettel's recovery drive he was making light work of the traffic as he effortlessly used the DRS to coast past the Sauber of Ericsson. Highlighting the difference between the upgraded engine in the Ferrari versus the older specification Ferrari engine that Sauber have to struggle on with until someone from Marenello ships them out a newer version of the power unit. Massa on the other hand was continuing his charge through the field - this time overtaking a similarly powered car in the form of Perez's Force India. Unlike Felipe's attempt last season - neither car ended up in the barrier and Massa marched ever forwards. Red Bull should have started playing the jaws theme tune to Daniil Kvyat's radio - because Massa was coming for the Russian. .Unfortunately we were prevented from seeing some more Vettel based overtaking as Ferrari pulled his car in for a stop - to get it out of traffic. A reasonable plan, or it would have been if Ferrari hadn't made a bit of a mess of the stop costing over three seconds. 

It might be worth pointing out that Hamilton was still leading the race with a comfortable distance back to Rosberg in second, Raikkonen was not letting Nico pull away and Bottas was living a lonely life in fourth. Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Maldonado were also running equidistantly apart. With that summary over and done with - time for a Vettel update. Following the botched pit-stop the German bloke had rejoined behind Fernando Alonso again - how fortunes change. Both drivers jumped ship during the winter and have ended up encountering very different levels of performance. This time Fernando was not going to give up without a fight, even if the car is not on the same level as the one he was fighting with. Alonso would always defend to the inside on the back straight - and Vettel attempted to hold on round the outside of the first part of the chicane but was forced out across the curbing. Alonso repeated the defence on the following lap, this time Vettel thought twice about pressing the issue. In this battle Sebastian came close to wiping the side of his Ferrari against the wall on the exit of turn seven. A frantic couple of laps for Vettel, but he eventually completed the pass on the main straight before turn one. 

The front runners were just holding station as they waited for their first stops, so instead we were treated to a montage of easy DRS passes mostly being completed on Renault powered cars, and mostly completed by a certain German in a red car. Vettel did mix things up a bit by passing Ericsson - although it was still a blue car. So we looked across at the other side of the Ferrari garage who were preparing for the first pit-stop for the leading competitors, as Raikkonen pitted. This time the team didn't mess things up and put all four wheels on the Finn's car, but that didn't mean all was well - on Kimi's outlap he had an odd innocuous spin at the hairpin. An identical spin to the one he made in last year's race - but a spin that cost him third place to Valtteri Bottas. This also made life a lot easier for Rosberg removing the threat - however remote - from the Ferrari. Thus allowing him to be a lot more focussed on chasing down Hamilton - after both Mercedes drivers made their round of stops Rosberg had taken a second off Lewis' lead. Over the next sequence of laps, Nico brought the gap down further to clost to a second, not quite within DRS range however. Just when there was the faintest hint of a battle for the lead... remember what one of those is... no me neither, both Mercedes drivers received calls to back off. Lewis had to conserve fuel and Nico had to conserve brakes... spoilsports.

At the halfway point, the top four places were now set... Oh Canada you can do so much better. 

So it was a relief that we still had Massa and Vettel in the race, Felipe who executed deft piece of avoidant driving to avoid a Gopher crossing the track between turns seven and eight. The local wildlife generally make an appearance during the weekend, and this one lived to tell the tale of it's moment of TV coverage. In fact at this point in the race the Gopher received more screen time then any of the Manor cars. So while Massa was dodging the local fuzzy residents, Vettel was on the hunt once more - this time it was Nico Hulkenberg who should have been receiving the iconic jaws theme tune to warn him of the impending attack from the Ferrari. Force India did inform Nico that Vettel didn't have to stop again, and was coming. Sebastian found that he didn't quite have the same speed advantage over a Mercedes powered car than he had over the other cars he'd passed today. Hulkenberg defended to the inside in the final chicane and Vettel opted for the outside line. As the Ferrari turned in, Nico had to take to the curbs to avoid contact and span the car, but kept it out of the wall. The incident was investigated but declared a racing incident. As a result of the spin, Massa was able to move further into the points. 

It was time for another installment of grumpy driver radio messages. This time is wasn't a complaint from Raikkonen about lapped cars, or a rant from Hamilton dictating to the engineers when they are allowed to talk to him. This time it was from the traditionally calm cockpit of Fernando Alonso's McLaren. Like Mercedes and Red Bull - McLaren were also struggling with fuel consumption. It does make me wonder how anyone is going to cope with the Singapore GP later in the season, which is the longest in terms of time, and much closer in terms of fuel consumption to the 100kg limit. Anyway Alonso's response to the latest message was less than complimentary: pointing out that the car has no power, no speed, no reliability and now no fuel economy. Claiming that it made McLaren look like a bunch of amateurs. Within a few laps of the update Alonso had to retire from the race - it wasn't long before Jenson Button also had to retire his car. In a race with almost exemplary reliability - only McLaren had fallen foul of mechanical difficulties... It does, on the surface seem a little amateurish.

Speaking of being amateurish, we find Grosjean having a lapse of judgement

when lapping the Manor of Will Stevens. As we have seen several times before Romain demonstrated a lack of spacial awareness as he cut back in front of Will before making sure he had cleared the Manor. As a result the Frenchman clipped Stevens' front wing which cut the rear tyre on the Lotus. The only saving grace was that all this took place in the final chicane, so it was a short trip to the pits to replace the damaged tyre. Too short for the Lotus team to be ready to complete a tyre change, by the time the crew found some tyres and put them on the car - Romain had fallen out of the points. Will Stevens in a rare radio broadcast was none to complimentary about Grosjean's driving and claimed that Romain had been cutting across the front of his car when lapping him on each occasion. The stewards also declared it was in fact Grosjean's fault and handed the Lotus driver a 5-second time penalty. As the Frenchman wasn't going to be pitting again the penalty would be added to his overall race time.

Grosjeans incident meant one less car for Vettel to pass, in fact he was running out of cars to pass - his next target was Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior in the other Lotus. Pastor has been running the current set of tyres for a considerable number of laps, and was virtually defenceless against the might of Vettel and the Ferrari on fresher tyres. On the back straight Vettel opened the DRS and powered past the Lotus, Maldonado could have forced the issue but unlike several of the other drivers Vettel had raced today... well yesterday as it has now passed midnight. The only way that Vettel was going to make any more progress would be if reliability struck the leading cars. There was a faint hint that something might be some questions as to Mercedes' ability to complete the race as Hamilton was instructed to increase the amount of fuel saving. It might be worth noting that Vettel was within 20s of Raikkonen in the other Ferrari despite starting 18th and suffering a botched pitstop. Some of that could be attributed to the volume of new tyres Vettel had at his disposal but it does make you wonder why Raikkonen couldn't get the same performance out of the same machinery.

So with Vettel's progress stifled by a lack of cars to pass, we turn to Massa who was also running out of cars to overtake - his last reasonably accessible target was Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior. It was a miracle that Maldonado was still running never mind running in the points, given the flood of reliability difficulties and collisions he has been involved in. As the Venezuelan was now 50 laps into his current tyre stint, grip was running quite low, so he was unable to put up any real defence against Massa, much in the same way he couldn't against Vettel. With that the top 9 positions were all set, the only remaining battle was that of Grosjean and Perez - having made an additional stop Romain was on fresher tyres and was quite fast, faster than the Force India. After making the pass, the Frenchman had to build a five second gap to the Mexican to prevent the time penalty reversing the position post race. For a moment it seemed as if Kvyat was also in range of a late charge, but the camera directors failed to take any notice of it. I had to follow the battle by looking at the gaps on the rolling ticker-tape of positions. Romain got within 0.6s of the Red Bull but for some reason he was unable to make any kind of impression on the Russian - probably scared off by that infamous death stare. After spending several laps in the turbulent air I assume Grosjean's tyres were ruined thus curtailing the battle.

The final phase of the race just trickled away without any further positional changes, and without any real hint of a fight up front. The only development was the retirement of Roberto Mehri's Manor - their first retirement of the season, which in itself is reasonably impressive given how difficult their season has been.

So the race ended with another victory for Lewis Hamilton, comfortably ahead of Rosberg. Many, many seconds later Bottas crossed the line for his first podium in 2015 having capitalised on Raikkonen dropping the position through his spin. Vettel in an inspired drive finished 5th, only a handful of seconds behind Raikkonen at the end of the race, Sebastian was followed home by the other star of a mostly eventless GP - Felipe Massa. So despite being separated by so many places, the top three teams locked out the top six finishing places. Maldonado scored his first points of the year in 7th, ahead of Hulkenberg - as he prepares to do Le Mans next week. The points were rounded off by Kvyat - the only Renault powered car to score and a recovering Romain Grosjean for Lotus.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Well, for the majority of the grid nothing really happened today - a Canadian GP without a safety car is virtually unheard of - but for some people there were bonus points on offer.

• 25pts - Sebastian Vettel - The obvious choice without his recovery drive the race would have been quite lifeless 
• 18pts - Felipe Massa - Along with Vettel, Massa made this race worth watching, especially his pass on Ericsson's Sauber
• 15pts - Pastor Maldonado - First points of the season, and the best of the non Mercedes/Ferrari/Williams runners
• 12pts - Valtteri Bottas - An anonymous race, but was close enough to Kimi to capitalise on the Finn's spin
• 10pts - Fernando Alonso - In a car that can't compete with most of the others - he certainly made Vettel work for the overtake
• 8pts - Daniil Kvyat - The only Renault powered car to take home any points from the Canadian GP, holding off Romain at the end 
• 6pts - Marcus Ericsson - Brilliant racing with Massa, but it was his only real contribution to the race.
• 4pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Gets some points for keeping the car out of the wall following his incident with Vettel
• 2pts -Hamilton/Rosberg - Dull formation flying out front, but managed issues of fuel consumption and brake wear while dominating 
• 1pt - That Gopher - Obeyed blue flags and kept off the racing line, well played

• -1pt - Canada - I expected better from you
• -1pt - Raikkonen - That was a fairly pants race really wasn't it
• -1pt - McLaren - Poor show really.

Looking Forward to Austria

Back in Europe for the next round to another track based on high power and heavy breaking zones - so another venue that should play right into the hands of Mercedes once more. Williams might be able to close the gap slightly, after all it was the only track in the 2014 calendar where Mercedes were beaten to pole position, by Felipe Massa. Will that feat be repeated, I doubt it but would gladly be proven wrong. This time Ferrari are involved in that particular equation, and if Vettel can repeat a performance like he produced today, but without the mechanical dramas in qualifying, it might get busy up front. Even though the Austrian GP is Red Bull's home venue, it might not be a happy hunting ground for the home teams. Only one finished in 2014, and while the reliability might be stronger in 2015, the hope of points might not be. All we can hope for is that after two universally static races - something might happen near the front of the field... yeah that might be asking too much...

Round 7 - Canada 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

Today's qualifying has left us with a rather interesting grid form tomorrow, while it may be business as usual at the very front of the field, there some very quick cars very out of position. Then there is Mad Max Verstappen who, after an engine change, in conjunction with is penalty for that incident with Grosjean last race meant he ended up with a 15 place grid-drop. Because it was to be unlikely that Verstappen would be able to actually take all of those place drops - the remaining places would be converted into a pit-stop time penalty. I think they should convert the remaining places into distance, for example if Max could only drop 5 places before being in last place - the remaining 10 places should result in being 80m behind the Manor (since grid slots are 8 metres apart). But I don't make the rules.

Before the session begun there were some concerns about who was going to be able to compete in qualifying given the events of FP3 earlier in the day. First there was Felipe 'Fred' Nasr who was involved in somewhat of an embarrassing incident in the final practice session. The Brazilian was attempting to weave on the back straight to warm his cold tyres... with the DRS open. Obviously this was a terrible idea and as a result he lost control of the Sauber and firmly stuffed it in the concrete wall. A substantial amount of damage was done, which meant the team had a lot of work to do in order to get the car ready for Q1. The other issue was Darth Button who encountered another mechanical difficulty with his McLaren. Emperor Dennis remained unamused, he remained unamused as Jenson's car couldn't be repaired and would miss qualifying.

Q1

The first part of qualifying started with only 18 cars running, Jenson Button wasn't going to make it out at all and final repairs were being made to Nasr's Sauber. That number dropped even further when Vettel complained of a loss of power from his upgraded Ferrari engine - and immediately returned to the pits after one outlap. Felipe Massa was also experiencing a power loss issue, but the Williams problem was a lot more mysterious - in all of the post session discussions with Massa and Smedley they couldn't identify which part of the power unit had gone wrong. Ferrari on the other hand remarked that it was Vettel's MGU-K that had failed. Both cars could still compete, but were disadvantaged. 

As for the cars who actually took to the track, it was unsurprisingly the Mercedes team who were making a mockery of the opposition in the early stages. Rosberg was the faster of the two - but only by 0.002s - and we have come to expect that sort of thing. As usual things are generally more interesting wherever the Mercedes cars aren't at - and today it was Lotus who were making surprise appearances at the sharper end of the timesheets - Grosjean and Maldonado getting the most out their cars, and taking over the role of leading Mercedes customer team from Williams. Pastor was so excited about setting a time quicker than Raikkonen for 3rd place, he forgot about turn one and span his car. A team of marshals were able to push the Lotus off the grass and back into the action. 

With a few minutes remaining on the clock, Sauber released Nasr's repaired car and Ferrari had another go at trying to limp Vettel's car out of Q1. Fred's return to the track meant that the results of the first part of qualifying was settled because Stevens and Merhi don't have a quick car, Jenson wasn't starting and Massa and Vettel were nursing slow cars. That accounted for all five relegation places. While we were watching Vettel's futile attempts at compensating for loss of battery power, Romain Grosjean bolted on a set of super-soft tyres and ended the session with the fastest time.

Q2

After Q1 turned into a bit of a formality, this second phase looked to be more exciting, and it was Grosjean and Lotus who seemed to be leading the challenge against Mercedes. Romain's opening lap only a couple of tenths off the fastest lap of the weekend - but with track evolution that benchmark was going to

move. Cue a response from Mercedes and Hamilton delivered with a time over a second faster than Romain's effort... It could be said that the sheer advantage of having a Mercedes engine was evident, because even Force India who have been notably behind in the development race were inside the top ten. Hulkenberg especially was on pace with the two Lotus cars. Only Massa due to his technical difficulties and elimination in Q1 was the only Mercedes powered car outside the top ten. Sergio Perez came close to eliminating himself from proceedings on a late run as the Mexican got very friendly with the wall on the exit of turn four. After the session Force India reported that Sergio had in fact made contact but didn't sustain any damage.

It was evident that although Ferrari have made steps on the engine, it wasn't a strong enough power plant to elevate their customer teams. Sauber were not able to extract the same gains that Mercedes customers were experiencing. The high power nature of the track was also making life difficult for anything with a Renault or Honda engine. Only the main Red Bull team were able to get something out of the engine - but in relative terms that was only because the other teams were having a worse time. Sauber, Toro Rosso and the remaining McLaren were anchored in relegation. Carlos Sainz briefly made it into the top ten, at the expense of Red Bull's Daniil Kyvat - but the Russian redressed the situation by promoting himself into 7th place and eliminating the Toro Rosso. None of the others were able to improve and the top ten was set.

Q3

At the front of the field it had been incredibly close between the two Mercedes drivers - Rosberg headed the pair in Q1 but Hamilton claimed the lead in Q2.

So it was all to play for in the final session - it was also reasonably close in the battle for third place between the two Finns, and the Lotus drivers. It was Raikkonen who set the early pace, but with a time that was half a second slower than what Hamilton achieved in Q2. Mercedes on the other hand were biding their time - opting for two warm-up laps while Ferrari were only taking one. The system was working when Hamilton laid down a significant opening marker eight tenths quicker than Raikkonen. Rosberg tried to get on terms with his team-mate but fell several tenths short - which was followed up by an odd radio message from the team. Nico was informed that his tyres were less uniform than his other sets... whatever that means...

Time for the second runs and it was Lotus making things a little interesting as they attempted to recreate the good ol' days of Renault Squadron by sending both cars side by side down the pit lane. On the exit of turn two Grosjean allowed Maldonado to build a gap - despite the formation flying antics it did ever so slightly compromise their preparations for the final effort. The ultimate battle for pole position turned into a bit of an anti-climax because neither Hamilton or Rosberg improved on their first lap-times, thus barring a miracle from Raikkonen or Bottas pole was confirmed. Kimi and Valtteri locked out an all Finnish second row, while Lotus Squadron claimed row three with the new Squadron Leader Grosjean ahead of Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior. Nico Hulkenberg made it six Mercedes powered cars in the top seven ahead of the two Red Bulls and Perez rounding out the top ten.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

With so many of the more experienced drivers eliminated early on and Mercedes engines proving to be a dominant force - there was plenty of opportunity for bonus points to be won:

• 10pts - Romain Grosjean - Lead the Lotus Squadron revival and finished Q1 with the fastest time, something they haven't done in a long time
• 8pts - Nico Hulkenberg - The Force India is notably under-developed car and Nico was up there with the Lotus drivers
• 6pts - Pastor Maldonado - Gets points for his contribution to the strong weekend... thus far... for the Lotus team.
• 5pts - Kimi Raikkonen - His best qualifying of the season, holding off Bottas in an all Finland second row
• 4pts - Sauber - After Fred demolished the car two thirds of the way through final practice the team did well to put it back together again.
• 3pts - Roberto Merhi - After being comprehensively beaten by Stevens most of the season, Merhi out-qualifies Will for the second race in a row
• 2pts - Sergio Perez - Got closest to the wall in qualifying, brushing the concrete on the exit of turn four in Q2
• 1pt - Lewis Hamilton - Got pole position, so I suppose there should be a point for that.

• -1pt - Felipe 'Fred' Nasr - Weaving with the DRS open... that was daft 
• -1pt - The Stewards - Although a 15 place penalty for Mad Max seems mental, the idea of adding on a pit-stop penalty is confusing. Why can't we go with my plan of starting the Toro Rosso 80 metres behind Button. As Max qualified 15th - and can only drop 5 places, so adding the effective distance for the remaining places. 

Looking Forward to Tomorrow

Well, things are set up wonderfully, there is a chance for a battle at the very front of the field - although we made that claim so many times last season and it only materialised in Bahrain... There is also plenty of interest at the opposite end of the grid - two very quick cars are outside the top 15 - Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel have a lot of cars in front of them following their technical difficulties in Q1. So it will be very interesting to see them carving their way back through the field, more so for Vettel - who was handed a five place penalty for overtaking a Manor under red flags in FP3. The red flags were to cover the recovery of Jenson Button's McLaren. Also at the back of the field will be Mad Max Verstappen who as Monaco proved, is not afraid to make a pass or two oblivious of the consequences. 

If that wasn't enough there is an almighty battle brewing for the final podium place between the two Finns - just ahead of the Lotus cars. Set all of this on a tight circuit bounded by concrete walls and no room for error and everything is set up for a highly anticipated race.

Round 7 - Canada 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

Two weeks have passed since the events in the final 15 laps of the Monaco GP, I seem to remember that there were other laps, but those weren't really worth mentioning. To my surprise there hasn't been a mass culling of the strategic boffins on the Mercedes pit-wall - for some reason I had expected public hangings and maybe the odd head on a spike. Instead there were some less than murderous meetings - some immediately after the race and I guess the others would have taken place back at HQ. Hamilton himself has now stated that he "couldn't care less about Monaco" - which is rather anti-climactic. After the now infamous incident at Spa last season, all hell broke loose and we were treated to the scary sight of Toto Wolff's "Angry Face", still not on par with Kvyat's death stare but at least he tried. I suppose in the long run, Hamilton looks reasonable strong for taking the championship even with the strategic error so it doesn't really matter.

So while sequence of events that lead up to the unfortunate pit-stop were analysed - rumblings of a different nature were unfurling a little further down the grid. Only two things happened in the Monaco GP, Mercedes have discussed their error - and the world has been discussing Verstappen's. Massa pitched in to say it was dangerous... a little captain obvious there - crashing into a wall generally isn't recommended practice. But the Brazilian was very critical of Mad Max's attempt at a pass in St Devote. Yes it was a little optimistic, with a side serving of misjudgment and little experience - but Massa's comments were a little unwarranted. What we can be critical of is Max's immediate conclusion that is wasn't his fault... when it so obviously was... it was almost an reflex action to claim that Grosjean braked too early and thus it was the Frenchman's fault. Telemetry proved that Romain actually braked later... but probably doesn't tell the whole story. In the end Mad Max went for a gap he thought was going to be there and it never materialised, thus he ended up in the fence. Despite the arguments that continued to ensue in today's drivers press conference - it certainly livened up what was turning out to be a forgetful race last time out.

Montreal

After Monaco, it is time to depart from Europe and head out to Canada, where somebody thought it was a great idea to put a race track on a tiny island in the middle of a river. After witnessing many Canadian GP's I can conclude that it was a magnificent idea. Detroit has a similar concept at Belle Isle but Montreal does it so much better. Despite being touted as a permanent circuit, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve may as well be a street track - because while there is a decent quantity of greenery, the concrete barriers are very close to the side of the track. Unlike in Australia, the barriers are not painted green, just to make sure you know that they are there and that you fear their presence. Which means there is always a chance of the odd safety car or two - and we all know how much strategic fun that can cause.

The lap begins with a slight curve off to the right at the end of the main

Thats how you overtake

straight, a curve which makes the braking area for turn one rather difficult... Difficult enough for our new aficionado on driving standards Felipe Massa to avoid slamming into the back of Perez last year, in a similar incident to the one in which he criticised Mad Max for in Monaco. Turn one is there to direct the cars away from a large tree which I wouldn't recommend colliding with, Simon Belcher is probably still picking leaves out of his Toyota after rolling it through a forest at Thruxton last year. The exit of turn one becomes the entry to turn two, a slightly annoying and ponderous 180 degree corner around a lake of tarmac run-off. It wasn't tarmac back when Wurtz rolled the Benetton after contact with Fisichella in '98... ah the good old days.

Turns three and four start Montreal's obsession with chicanes, and is the first of many. But when space is rather limited on a tiny island in the middle of a river - chicanes have their purpose. At least they do them properly in Canada, nothing like the abhorrent monstrosity that was bolted on to the end of the Barcelona circuit. The 3/4 chicane is a particularly good example, the road descends - as much as it can on a tiny island in th.. never mind. It almost forms a mini-corkscrew esque corner, which is quite lovely - with the exit of the chicane solely comprising of a concrete wall... A slight curve at turn five feeds into the second, and least enjoyable of chicanes at 6 and 7. A chicane that will remain famous for Vettel's last lap powerslide and handing Jenson Button the victory in that epic 2011 race. Just for consistency there is also a concrete wall on the outside - which Jacques Villeneuve collided with in his last season for BMW.

There are no real points for guessing what comes next, for it would in fact be another chicane, and in the grand ranking system of Canadian chicanes on a tiny island - it would just make the top three. It is the largest of the chicanes across the lap, in the sense that the distance between the two apexes is greater

than in any of the other examples. It too has a ominous concrete wall on the exit which has seen many victims over the years - including Takuma Sato back when he drove for BAR Honda. Those who avoid the wall continue on towards the 'L'epingle' hairpin which is one of the primary overtaking opportunities. But this edge of the track will forever remain famous for the enormous accident that befell Robert Kubica, wherein his BMW was decimated by a head on collision with the dividing wall between two parts of the track. Despite one of the highest impact forces recorded reducing the car to the monocoque exposing his feet - Robert was completely unharmed only sitting out the following race at Indianapolis as a precaution. As a replacement some German Bloke took over the car, no idea what happened to him...

After the hairpin a long back straight returns drivers to the start line, but there is of course room for one more chicane - a chicane that is probably more famous than any other part of the track. Not because it is an especially challenging chicane in comparison to the others, but because people do tend to crash there a lot. It has the same immovable wall on the exit than others and is not really any tighter, but it is approached at over 200mph and is almost invisible until you're right on top of it. That and it is at the end of the lap and represents the last opportunity to make time, therefore several people end up in what is know as the wall of champions. Named because many world champions have planted their race winning machinery firmly in that particular barrier, so have a few other people as well - including everyone's best friend Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior...

The Form Guide

Because this is going out on a Friday once more, generally because I forgot that Thursday was in fact Thursday and not some other sort of day, FP1 has already been completed and FP2 is currently taking place. So I have a slightly better insight into how things might play out - I say slightly because FP1 is never the most accurate indicator as drivers are still ironing out setups and things. The consensus is that Mercedes are very comfortably in the lead of this one at this stage - 1.5s clear of the nearest car. However Ferrari haven't really shown their pace yet, as Grosjean and Hulkenberg filled out the effective second row. Williams are also lagging a little further behind then one might expect - so when qualifying and the race roll round, I would expect those two to be closer to the front. 

Because Canada is more of an engine and traction track rather than aero, Mercedes powered cars are doing quite well in the one session we've had. Lotus and Force India showing potential, while Red Bull and Toro Rosso are not looking likely to replicate the form they had in Monaco - Carlos Sainz Jnr in 18th in the first session. But the Spaniard did encounter technical difficulties curtailing his running. Not much was learned in FP2 - as rain fell after the half-way stage which reduced the track action only Mercedes really bothered to potter about in the wet and Hamilton went and put it gently into the barrier at the hairpin.

The rain probably won't hang on for the rest of the weekend and therefore a replica of the mad race of 2011, probably won't be on the cards. But even on a bad day the Canadian GP generally brings something to a season...