Greetings Internet
Well from one extreme to another, the Singapore GP was a two-hour epic withe safety cars, overtaking, and a end to the Mercedes domination. Japan had none of that - ok well there was some overtaking most of it happening on the main straight under DRS, and those were on McLarens... much to Alonso's amusement. The weekend started with a slightly chaotic qualifying session yesterday which wasn't covered by Blog HQ due to not being in the house, which I have noticed does seem to be happening with increasing regularity these days... how things change. Anyway back to qualifying and of course even though it wasn't covered on this part of the internet, I suppose that I have to take a little time to examine the minor incident where in everyone's favourite death stare wearing Russian decided to experiment on how that death stare works when wearing it upside down. Daniil destroyed his Red Bull by throwing it at the scenery with great force removing one side of the chassis and as his wheels rained down from the sky, Kvyat performed the piece de resistance. The shredded side of the car dug into the gravel and was launched into the air and into a acrobatic roll. The resulting damage meant that Daniil had to start from the pit-lane.
The race this morning wasn't quite so dramatic, nobody barrel rolled their cars into oblivion - only Alonso came close, but he only succeeded in rolling his friendship with Honda into oblivion instead... which is close enough. Singapore was a temporary blip on the landscape of form across this season, and the visit to the grand curves of Suzuka was very much business as usual. Mercedes went to the front and vanished from the camera feed, but I've hear rumors that they were in fact in the race. But I've also heard complaints that they weren't constantly on the TV, there were edited out because they were boring, running away miles in the lead isn't fun. Seeing a bunch of Saubers, Toro Rossos fight with the McLarens and Force Indias was much better - even if nothing too much was going on there either. Those battles had the potential to become something and therefore should have been on TV rather than rather dull footage of a Mercedes driving around all by itself out front...
The Race
Having not seen much news post-qualifying so returned home to find the grid had been slightly reshuffled following the events of Saturday morning. First of all Kvyat had been moved to the pit-lane because of the amount of damage his car suffered in qualifying, as almost everything had to be replaced - it was virtually a whole new car. So that car wasn't the one that set the time and therefore is relegated to the pit-lane. Another penalty was handed to Mad Max Verstappen for his inexplicable decision to park the car across the track at the opposite side to where the car broke down. So he was demoted by three places from his original qualifying position.
But the race was poised for a long awaited fight between the two Mercedes drivers, something we haven't really seen since Bahrain 2014 - and one we've been waiting for every time the two silver cars occupy the front row. Off the line those hopes were once again dashed as Hamilton made a better start and approached turn one on the inside. Nico attempted to hold onto the place, but was escorted out wide on the exit of turn two and lost places to Vettel and Bottas. Disorder was the order of the day as several drivers decided to rebel against the new tyre pressure regulations - by letting a lot of air out of the tyres. First off Massa and Ricciardo gently brushed past each other on off the line puncturing one tyre on each car. As Perez avoided the two stricken cars, he ended up on the outside of a three wide tussell in turn one with Sainz in the middle and Hulkenberg on the inside. Those cars didn't quite fit and Sergio was bumped into the gravel - suffering a puncture in the process - all three cars limped back to the pits, Massa taking the longest time and dropped to the back of the pack. Felipe also had to change his front wing as well.
With Hamilton out front the race had may as well be over - and he was never seen on TV form the majority of the race. For the next few laps the attention turned to Rosberg and his quest to recover the places he lost on the opening lap. His first challenge was the Williams of Valtteri Bottas - the Finn who has weathered the attacks of Vettel and Raikkonen at other races this season without as much as a flinch. So this didn't bode to well for the German, but that attack was even more thwarted when the team in formed Rosberg that he was encountering an overheating problem from staying in the slipstream of the Williams. While Nico was having difficulties, others were making progress - mostly due to the three opening lap punctures. Verstappen, Hulkenberg and the Lotus drivers all making progress. All that progress was without Maldonado crashing into anyone along the way.
Further back more interesting things were happening, although those interesting things were happening to McLaren - and they were not too pleased about them. Especially Fernando Alonso who after being easily passed by Marcus Ericsson's Sauber. As the blue and yellow machine vanished up the road - Fernando got on the radio and stated that he was embarrassed at the performance of his car, stating his engine was GP2 standard. Complaining very publically about the Honda power unit in front of the Honda personnel at their home race... Some
one was not a very happy Spaniard. Jenson Button on the other hand was experiencing issues of his own of a performance nature as he too was easily overtaken - he had cars passing him on either side at the end of the main straight. Yes that was the DRS zone but it was looking effortless both Nasr and Verstappen who breezed past the McLaren. Ericsson celebrated his overtake on Fernando with a slide and half spin at Spoon corner, visiting the run-off area and losing a place to his team-mate in the process.
Rosberg was making no real impact on Bottas, Raikkonen was closing in on the pair of them. So Williams did something odd, and unusual - they started the pitstop ball rolling by making the first call. Which was a problem for Rosberg, as he wanted to use the undercut to make his was past the Williams in the same way he did at Monza and Spa when he lost places on the opening lap. This time he'd have to make the pass on track - which had proved to be an insurmountable task. This time though Nico was instructed by the team to take on the Williams, and on the approach to the final chicane - Rosberg threw the Mercedes down the inside and caught Bottas napping. This promoted the German to 3rd, and started hunting down Vettel in second place... makes you wonder why he couldn't do that in the opening stage of the race but it was nice to see a non DRS overtake. This meant that Raikkonen was the next driver to close in on Bottas in an all Finnish battle royale - or at least that was the idea, but these ideas never go to plan.
Back with McLaren, and it seemed as if their initial straight line speed problems had lessened slightly, as they were able to resist the attacks of those cars behind them more easily. Marcus Ericsson was stuck behind Jenson Button and Mad Max Verstappen was having the same difficulty with Fernando in his GP2 powered McLaren. Despite being within DRS range the Toro Rosso was unable to make any impact - because the Dutchman was constantly sideways coming out the final chicane and lost ground to the Spaniard. After several laps of attempting to make progress, Max finally got a decent exit from the chicane and
with apparent ease he made the McLaren look quite slow as the DRS carried the Toro Rosso in front of Alonso round the outside of turn one. Cue another rather displeased Alonso rant - once more comparing his Honda power unit to a GP2 car signing off the radio communication with an agonised "ARGHHH" which I've no doubt that will make the folk in the Honda booth very pleased, in a sort of totally displeased sort of way. Ericsson made the same sort of pass on Jenson in what would later prove to be a key move in shaping the rest of Jenson's afternoon in Japan.
When the race seemed be sagging a little bit, it would have been a good time to introduce some more pit-stops to shake things up a bit. It would have been even more entertaining to have safety car intervention but alas, we can't have everything that we want these days. Carlos Sainz however did try to create the latter with the former as he visited the pitlane and knocked over the pit entry bollard with his front wing. Shattering the endplate and wiping out the bollard, parts of the wing did end up on the track but off the racing line. There was the faint hope that a safety car would be called to clear the debris but no such luck. The Toro Rosso driver arrived in his pit-box minus a significant portion of wing but neglected to inform the team because he was rather embarrassed that he had crashed into a bright orange bollard. That makes two embarrassed spaniards having less than optimal days. Further forward a pair of Germans were swapping places as Sebastian Vettel exited the pits after his final stop to see Rosberg use the undercut and coast effortlessly into second places. The intra-national battling didn't end there as Raikkonen also used pit strategy to make the same move on Bottas to take 4th place. Thus locking in the top positions for the remainder of the race.
With that sorted we then had to look further back for something interesting, and that something interesting was driving a blue and yellow car with a lot of friends in pursuit. Marcus Ericsson was collecting a train of cars behind his Sauber after his pit strategy jumped him ahead of Sergio Perez's Force India. Despite Ericsson sliding through the corners and generally experiencing a lack of grip the Force India could do nothing about the Sauber - which is something we've seen in the past when Hulkenberg drove for Sauber in 2013, his car was notoriously difficult to overtake in a straight line even with DRS. So while Perez was spending a lot of time staring at the back of the car in front, further drivers
were joining the queue. There was Daniil Kvyat - deciding to be the right way up this time, Mad Max Verstappen, Sainz, and at the tail end of the queue Button and Nasr. A queue that was going to get more interesting when the leaders had to negotiate their way through the melee in a few laps time. But for now the interaction within the train was more interesting. One of the first drivers to try a move was inevitably Mad Max Verstappen... and of course it was going to be mad, rather too optimistic effort. The Dutchman thought for some reason, that it was possible to go round the outside of Daniil Kvyat in 130R of all places - no surprises for guessing it didn't work out. Fortunately for Verstappen, the curbing on the exit of 130R isn't too rough and didn't fire the car at the scenery... or we might be seeing another upside down Red Bull liveried machine.
130R was also proving to be rather challenging for Will Stevens, who after being lapped found that as the car cut back in front of him, he lost all downforce at the fastest point of the track. Somehow Will only pitched the car into a half spin and slid down the race track sideways. Although the last place you'd want to be is broadside to oncoming traffic on the exit of 130R, the Manor was very narrowly missed by the sister car driven by Alex Rossi. But with the dexterity of a stunt driving team the two Manors avoided contact and continued in their own personal battle over who gets to finish last. Back with the Ericsson train and
after lap upon lap of pressure, Perez finally got past, after Marcus got a little out of shape midway through Spoon curve and surrendered the position. This left Kvyat as the new main challenger to the Sauber. Once again because Ericsson was defending well and had plenty of straight line speed, it was difficult to create an overtaking opportunity without some help. However help was on hand, in the form of Kimi Raikkonen who was lapping his way through the convoy. As the Finn reached Ericsson, the Sauber driver duly left the door open at the final chicane to allow the Ferrari past. However Kvyat spotted an opportunity and followed Raikkonen through and stole place.
The race concluded with another dominant and unopposed victory for Lewis Hamilton, and another 1-2 for Mercedes, a return to form after the anomalous race in Singapore. The Ferraris were third and fourth with Vettel leading Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas completed the top five. A completely anonymous but impressive day for Hulkenberg saw him undercut both Lotus cars and earn a 6th place finish. He was followed home by Grosjean and Maldonado picking up a double points finish for Lotus as they continue their progress towards selling the team back Renault for 2016. The final point were held by the two Toro Rossos as Verstappen with a late pass on his team-mate lead Sainz at the end of the race.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Qualifying
In light of the fact that qualifying wasn't covered at Blog HQ, here are the points from Saturday's session
10pts - Daniil Kvyat - Anyone who does a complete barrel roll gets points and here is some for the Russian and his death stare
8pts - Nico Rosberg - Claimed pole on the opening lap of the session.
6pts - Romain Grosjean - Again the star performer for Lotus making it into Q3
5pts - Fernando Alonso - Dragging an embarrassing McLaren out of Q1
4pts - Sergio Perez - Another driver out-qualifying a supposedly highly rated team-mate
3pts - Valtteri Bottas - Again getting involved with the Ferraris by out-qualifying them all
2pts - Anthony Davidson - Gets points for actually recognising that some corners at Suzuka have names unlike he did at Spa
1pt -
-1pt - Mad Max Verstappen - Ruined the end of Q1, which could have made life easier for Jenson if he got his lap in
-1pt - Daniil Kvyat - Despite claiming maximum points for his vehicular gymnastics, his accident did ruin the end of Q3 and the ultimate battle for pole position...
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Race
Well even though it wasn't the most enthralling race of the season, below what we'd conventionally expect from a Japanese GP - points still have to be awarded and they are as follows.
25pts - Nico Hulkenberg - After a grid penalty from Singapore and a low starting position, Nico still ended up being the first car behind the top three teams
18pts - Sergio Perez - After ending up with a puncture on the opening lap the Mexican was the highest finisher of those involved in the lap one dramas
15pts - Pastor Maldonado - Scored points, drove well, and didn't hit anyone
12pts - Valtteri Bottas - Flew the flag for Williams and held off Rosberg in the opening stint with ease before losing out later in the race.
10pts - Marcus Ericsson - Provided plenty of entertainment in creating battles around him
8pts - Felipe Nasr/Verstappen - Both get points for going either side of Button's McLaren on the run through turn one.
6pts - Will Stevens - Spinning in 130R and not losing wheels is impressive
4pts - Daniil Kvyat - Suffered brake problems in a completely rebuilt car but still ended up as the lead Red Bull across the line
2pts - Alex Rossi - Good avoidance action to miss his sideways team-mate
1pt - Fernando Alonso - Well you have to laugh don't you
Looking Forward to Russia
According to the internet, the 2014 Russian GP was the least exciting race of the whole season - so our next visit and final trip to Europe has a lot to build on as we approach this season's venture to the Sochi circuit. It's many fast straights and short duration corners should make it another Mercedes walkover, but hopefully it might also offer Ferrari a chance of striking back and making the silver cars have to work a little harder for their inevitable victory. Perhaps Kvyat can return to his homeland the right way up and I imagine the series of stories surrrounding McLaren and that suspected Renault take-over of Lotus will become clear. We are also expecting Haas racing to announce their 2016 driver line up and see what impact that has on the rest of the grid as rumors are circuilating that Grosjean might be moving to the American team alongside Esteban Gutierrez. A Ferrai test driver who's only real claim to fame is that he was on the receiving end of rather dramatic Maldonado moment in Bahrain last season. But only time will tell.
When the race seemed be sagging a little bit, it would have been a good time to introduce some more pit-stops to shake things up a bit. It would have been even more entertaining to have safety car intervention but alas, we can't have everything that we want these days. Carlos Sainz however did try to create the latter with the former as he visited the pitlane and knocked over the pit entry bollard with his front wing. Shattering the endplate and wiping out the bollard, parts of the wing did end up on the track but off the racing line. There was the faint hope that a safety car would be called to clear the debris but no such luck. The Toro Rosso driver arrived in his pit-box minus a significant portion of wing but neglected to inform the team because he was rather embarrassed that he had crashed into a bright orange bollard. That makes two embarrassed spaniards having less than optimal days. Further forward a pair of Germans were swapping places as Sebastian Vettel exited the pits after his final stop to see Rosberg use the undercut and coast effortlessly into second places. The intra-national battling didn't end there as Raikkonen also used pit strategy to make the same move on Bottas to take 4th place. Thus locking in the top positions for the remainder of the race.
With that sorted we then had to look further back for something interesting, and that something interesting was driving a blue and yellow car with a lot of friends in pursuit. Marcus Ericsson was collecting a train of cars behind his Sauber after his pit strategy jumped him ahead of Sergio Perez's Force India. Despite Ericsson sliding through the corners and generally experiencing a lack of grip the Force India could do nothing about the Sauber - which is something we've seen in the past when Hulkenberg drove for Sauber in 2013, his car was notoriously difficult to overtake in a straight line even with DRS. So while Perez was spending a lot of time staring at the back of the car in front, further drivers
130R was also proving to be rather challenging for Will Stevens, who after being lapped found that as the car cut back in front of him, he lost all downforce at the fastest point of the track. Somehow Will only pitched the car into a half spin and slid down the race track sideways. Although the last place you'd want to be is broadside to oncoming traffic on the exit of 130R, the Manor was very narrowly missed by the sister car driven by Alex Rossi. But with the dexterity of a stunt driving team the two Manors avoided contact and continued in their own personal battle over who gets to finish last. Back with the Ericsson train and
The race concluded with another dominant and unopposed victory for Lewis Hamilton, and another 1-2 for Mercedes, a return to form after the anomalous race in Singapore. The Ferraris were third and fourth with Vettel leading Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas completed the top five. A completely anonymous but impressive day for Hulkenberg saw him undercut both Lotus cars and earn a 6th place finish. He was followed home by Grosjean and Maldonado picking up a double points finish for Lotus as they continue their progress towards selling the team back Renault for 2016. The final point were held by the two Toro Rossos as Verstappen with a late pass on his team-mate lead Sainz at the end of the race.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Qualifying
In light of the fact that qualifying wasn't covered at Blog HQ, here are the points from Saturday's session
10pts - Daniil Kvyat - Anyone who does a complete barrel roll gets points and here is some for the Russian and his death stare
8pts - Nico Rosberg - Claimed pole on the opening lap of the session.
6pts - Romain Grosjean - Again the star performer for Lotus making it into Q3
5pts - Fernando Alonso - Dragging an embarrassing McLaren out of Q1
4pts - Sergio Perez - Another driver out-qualifying a supposedly highly rated team-mate
3pts - Valtteri Bottas - Again getting involved with the Ferraris by out-qualifying them all
2pts - Anthony Davidson - Gets points for actually recognising that some corners at Suzuka have names unlike he did at Spa
1pt -
-1pt - Mad Max Verstappen - Ruined the end of Q1, which could have made life easier for Jenson if he got his lap in
-1pt - Daniil Kvyat - Despite claiming maximum points for his vehicular gymnastics, his accident did ruin the end of Q3 and the ultimate battle for pole position...
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Race
Well even though it wasn't the most enthralling race of the season, below what we'd conventionally expect from a Japanese GP - points still have to be awarded and they are as follows.
25pts - Nico Hulkenberg - After a grid penalty from Singapore and a low starting position, Nico still ended up being the first car behind the top three teams
18pts - Sergio Perez - After ending up with a puncture on the opening lap the Mexican was the highest finisher of those involved in the lap one dramas
15pts - Pastor Maldonado - Scored points, drove well, and didn't hit anyone
12pts - Valtteri Bottas - Flew the flag for Williams and held off Rosberg in the opening stint with ease before losing out later in the race.
10pts - Marcus Ericsson - Provided plenty of entertainment in creating battles around him
8pts - Felipe Nasr/Verstappen - Both get points for going either side of Button's McLaren on the run through turn one.
6pts - Will Stevens - Spinning in 130R and not losing wheels is impressive
4pts - Daniil Kvyat - Suffered brake problems in a completely rebuilt car but still ended up as the lead Red Bull across the line
2pts - Alex Rossi - Good avoidance action to miss his sideways team-mate
1pt - Fernando Alonso - Well you have to laugh don't you
Looking Forward to Russia
According to the internet, the 2014 Russian GP was the least exciting race of the whole season - so our next visit and final trip to Europe has a lot to build on as we approach this season's venture to the Sochi circuit. It's many fast straights and short duration corners should make it another Mercedes walkover, but hopefully it might also offer Ferrari a chance of striking back and making the silver cars have to work a little harder for their inevitable victory. Perhaps Kvyat can return to his homeland the right way up and I imagine the series of stories surrrounding McLaren and that suspected Renault take-over of Lotus will become clear. We are also expecting Haas racing to announce their 2016 driver line up and see what impact that has on the rest of the grid as rumors are circuilating that Grosjean might be moving to the American team alongside Esteban Gutierrez. A Ferrai test driver who's only real claim to fame is that he was on the receiving end of rather dramatic Maldonado moment in Bahrain last season. But only time will tell.
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