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.