Round 14: South Korea 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well we have learned many things today - one: any forecast of rain is definitely lies, two: everyone hates right front tyres and three sometimes jeeps get lonely and spontaneously need some friends. But in the end we found out that we can frankly ignore Vettel now because everyone else can have plenty of fun without him while he is busy vanishing off into the distance - it was a race of close calls and some lucky escapes - Fernando notably being narrowly missed by Massa. We also learned that what this season needs with the performance distribution being the way that it is that a conveniently placed mid-race safety car is needed to made the second half of a race brilliant. Korea out-performed it's traditional dullness and inactivity. And with November not too far away now - Rosberg is now taking bookings for fireworks parties, with bonfire services provided by Webber.

Perhaps this is the final visit to Korea, but like Valencia last season this could have been the grand finale for the track - putting in a race like that might be a sign that it is on the way out - even though a representative for the track before the race claimed that everything was ok for a continued position on the calendar.

The Race

Surprise, Surprise it was very dry - and I can predict that there will be a threat of rain in Japan before it magically disappears over the course of the weekend, because that seems to be pattern of the recent races. Anyway rant aside the start was fairly uniform - except for Vettel who just drove away from Hamilton off the line, Gutierrez made a dive down the inside of Massa at turn one, at the time it didn't seem that significant... But as the field entered the massive back straight, the bunching caused by Gutierrez's pass resulted in drivers trying to go five wide - deciding that wasn't going to work Perez dropped back in line and they settled for four wide. This was never going to work and Massa tried to pass everyone at once and span across the apex, mere centimetres from the side of Alonso's car - that'd make the people at Ferrari very happy. As the field dove around the Ferrari, Button hit Gutierrez and Sutil hit Raikkonen - and Maldondo gained 10 places... without hitting anyone...

Both Sutil and Button had to pit to replace their front wings because the damage was causing tyre overheating... somehow... probably due to not redirecting air properly. A couple of drivers were working their way forward including Raikkonen passing Raikkonen and more interestingly Nico Hulkenberg passing Alonso - the Sauber was going quickly once again. Raikkonen found himself catching up to the Ferrari who was going through the 'graining' phase on the tyres and as a result was losing pace to the Lotus. Kimi didn't have too much trouble in passing Fernando because the Spaniard didn't have the grip to defend the position. It was because of this early tyre degradation phase that people became very interested in what Button was doing. After his early stop for wing damage and a change onto the medium tyres - he went and set fastest lap, sparking a hive of activity as everyone filtered through the pits in the coming laps. We were also informed that Van Der Garde pushed Bianchi off the track but the TV folk have no idea anyone exists outside the top ten so we saw no evidence of the incident. Either way it was a penalty for Giedo for this alleged infringement.

During this pit stop sequence Webber lead the race... but it wasn't to last as the German Bloke cycled to the front very shortly afterwards. But unlike Singapore Grosjean in second and Hamilton in 3rd could still see Vettel once they retook the front positions - so maybe, just maybe there was hope... then Vettel improved the lead to over four seconds again... Further back Di Resta was making friends with Perez as the pair battled into turn four - and Sergio rather forcefully made sure that the Force India wasn't going to take the position pushing Paul off the track. Speaking of making friends Hulkenberg was collecting a train of his own, as Alonso, Raikkonen and Webber had all started to queue up behind the Sauber. However just like Toro Rosso in Monza - the straight line speed of the Sauber and good traction made the car damn near unpassable. Fernando tried several times to take the position away from Hulkenberg but to no effect and had to defend from Raikkonen at the same time.

Then the oddities of the race began - not that Sky picked it up, hell I only found out on the BBC race report - was that Daniel Ricciardo came for his first stop on the alternate strategy earlier than anticipated. It appeared as a strategy call, but BBC reveal that Ricciardo had a pigeon lodged in the sidepod which needed to be removed... Which is a first for me... Turn out that the whole Red Bull giving of wings has gone one step too far. While Daniel was fleeing from the RSPB, Hamilton was complaining massively about tyres as he was losing close to three seconds a lap to those cars around him. Speaking of those who like to do a bit of complaining - Di Resta completed a quartet of crashes by putting it into the barrier. However for once he actually admitted responsibility for the accident which is one for the notebook there.

More oddities were abound as Hamilton's team radio was being censored as he insulted the tyres with some form of profanity because Rosberg closed in rapidly to take the final podium position. But as Nico made the DRS assisted pass, his nose section fell off - resulting an a huge explosion of sparks as it dragged along the ground, it looked brilliant even if it was a tad dangerous. Because Rosberg was now en-route the pits it meant Hamilton had to stay out even longer on his finished tyres. It was around this time that we were due our second round of stops, skewed slightly by the early first stops. Most of the drivers did cycle through the pits - and just as Webber came out from his second stop he found himself behind Hamilton and Perez, as Raikkonen had just passed the McLaren. But that was all too normal so Sergio's front right tyre exploded taking his front wing within it down the main straight showering the track with debris and brining out a very helpful mid-race safety car.

Under the safety car those at the tail of the field were being told off once more - because apparetly they were going too fast when catching up to the train of cars, it's rulings like this which make safety car interventions miles too long. Webber also had to pit again due to picking up a puncture from Perez's tyre failure and dropped into the mid-field. This made things considerably worse for the Australian on the restart because this placed his Red Bull in the way of Sutil's Force India as it span under breaking of turn 3. The crash ruptured the sidepod and instantly Webber's car burst into flames. Oddly it took a long time for the fire marshals to get to the car - which suggests Red Bull could do with hiring Kovalainen as this is his kind of speciality as it was at Caterham. There was now quite a lot of smoke from the car it burned to the ground blowing across the track.

Meanwhile Raikkonen pounced on a mistake by Grosjean to take second place into turn one - and Grosjean did not appreciate it at all - asking for team orders to swap the places back around - but all of that was forgotten when the field turned onto the back straight. In addition to a column of smoke arising from the bottom of the straight there was a massive jeep in the middle of the track - what in the almighty hell was that doing there - not only was it driving around in the race was going on. But instead of sticking to the side of the track under double waved yellows it was driving down the centre of the track - nothing about this was right at all - naturally the Safety car was scrambled... So we had a jeep leading Vettel with the SLS Mercedes running behind Chilton at the end of the queue - what the hell is going on... It turned out to be a fire containment truck which was released by the local fire chief to attend to Webber's charred carcass of a Red Bull. I think if things were not looking good for a return to Korea in the future - monumental cockups like this will not help.

At the second restart the top three pulled away, of course Vettel pulled away more so than the two Lotus' behind him - everyone else was trapped behind Hulkenberg in his Sauber. As once more the German proved to be impossible to pass, which just added to make Hamilton more displeased with his day - complaining that the amount of traction the Sauber had was unreal - which also had a lot to do with strategic deployment of KERs... another thing Sky managed to miss... Hamilton even asked his team if they had any suggestions as to how to deal with Nico because he was gaining attention from the cars growing behind him. Lewis finally managed to drive down the inside of the German into turn one, but the Sauber merely drove back past the Mercedes even before deploying the DRS. This brought Alonso into play trying to go round the outside of each of the corners in the 4-6 complex, constantly trying cut back ahead of Hamilton but didn't make the pass.

Further back there was another group of drivers trying to put each other into the wall - Maldonado was ahead of Gutierrez, Perez, Massa and Bottas in a fight over 10th place and one point. Things started in turn three when Pastor held off Esteban and Massa nearly pushed Perez into the barrier while Bottas watched over the whole battle. Contact continued into turn four when Massa and Perez came together nudging the McLaren out wide as he tried to follow Maldonado past Gutierrez. You'd think with the conventional passing places done for the lap, the battle would settle down - but nope - Gutierrez launched the car down the inside of Maldonado in the middle of the twisty middle sector. This pushed both cars wide gifting Massa two free places. Pastor also lost places to Perez and Bottas - dropping four places in the space of two corners.

Somewhere in the middle of all this both of the Toro Rosso's retired, Ricciardo was stopped on the outside of the track and Vergne pitted into retirement - we can assume that the RSPB got to Ricciardo for revenge for trying to store a pigeon in the sidepod because that doesn't meet welfare standards. But despite all these two battles - mainly the one behind Hulkenberg the positions remained the same for the rest of the race. Vettel took yet another victory and now has the opportunity to take the inevitable title in Suzuka. Raikkonen was not instructed to hand the position back to a displeased Grosjean - who hilariously was instructed to smile on the podium by the team, I thought anyone other than Raikkonen would be pleased to be be there anyway... Hulkenberg held off immense pressure throughout the race to score Sauber's highest position this season. A frustrated Hamilton ended up fifth ahead of Alonso and Rosberg - who was no longer showering everyone with sparks. Jenson dropped down to 8th at the end of the race with tyre wear, Massa recovered from the lap one spin to 9th and Perez scores a single point.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Well today will be remembered for and odd series of events in the middle of the race, but there were some very strong performances resisting pressure and staking a claim for a 2014 drive:

• 25pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Now he has a car that can make progress Hulkenberg is doing a remarkable job with it under attack from world champions all race 
• 18pts - Romain Grosjean - Defeating Hamilton on the opening lap and staying with Vettel roughly during the race
• 15pts - Kimi Raikkonen - 9th to 3rd demonstrating that Kimi like most things doesn't really care about qualifying
• 12pts - Nico Rosberg - Because that spark display was very cool
• 10pts - Esteban Gutierrez - For passing someone without using the three main straights
• 8pts - Alonso/Hamilton - Some brilliant contact free racing over several corners
• 6pts - Sergio Perez - Well causing that safety car caused some fun afterwards so have points
• 4pts - Dario Franchitti - For still being alive after that shunt in Houston
• 2pts - South Koreans - The only country in a while not to boo Vettel
• 1pt - Di Resta - For admitting he'd made an error for once
• 1 extra point - Chip Ganassi - seeing him on a little scooter to see Dario was hilarious

The Penalties Series

The stewards had quite a busy day in Korea following the race with reprimands left right and centre, and like Webber found out in Singapore - reprimands lead to actual penalties.

• Jules Bianchi - 10 place grid penalty for getting a third reprimand for not slowing under yellows
• Charles Pic - 10 place grid penalty for getting a third reprimand for not slowing under yellows
• Adrian Sutil - Drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane
• Giedo Van Der Garde - Drive through penalty for pushing Bianchi off somewhere

The investigations into Massa vs Perez, Perez vs Di Resta and Sutil vs Webber resulted in no action

The Penalty Points Series

Where do I begin:

• The Fire truck - That was horrifically orchestrated 
• Korean Fire marshals - Where were you
• Sky Commentary team - Massively off form, constantly stating there was a tyre difference between the two Lotus' when they pitted on the same lap
• TV coverage - No coverage of the Bianchi/Van Der Garde incident that resulted in a penalty
• Rain - for being so constantly absent
• Safety Car rules - If parts of the track are clear why not allow the lapped cars to catch up
• Daniel Ricciardo  - Stealing pigeons is not permitted 

Looking Forward to Suzuka

The Japanese GP is home to one of the greatest circuits on the calendar, Suzuka is a brilliant track having everything you could wan't from a venue - ranking up there with the likes of Spa for the most challenging races of the season. Unfortunately because it is such a downforce based circuit it will likely play directly into the hands of Vettel again - it is the sort of track where he'd just drive away from the field. A little shame that this also represents the first race of the season where Vettel could actually claim this title which he is inevitably going to win anyway. This requires Alonso to finish lower than 9th at the race he crashed out of last season following contact with Raikkonen on the first lap. If a similar set of circumstances unfold... otherwise it is merely delaying the inevitable.

But Suzuka is immensely popular with the drivers and fans alike, so whatever happens in terms of the championship we should be on for a good race next weekend, so until then this is farewell from blog HQ.

Round 13: Singapore - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well we now ease ourselves away from the bright lights of Singapore, as the race came to a conclusion many, many hours ago now. As it has been for a while another show of unstoppable domination was on the cards for all of the 61 laps on the street circuit - it is starting to look despondently ominous for the remainder of the season. Singapore wasn't even considered to be the strongest of tracks for the Red Bull car to start off with, but neither was Monza or Spa... frighteningly both Korea and Japan in the coming races have been. If the pace is this unbeatable on weaker tracks then there is no hope when we go to a venue which is typically dominated by a German bloke in an excessively fast blue car. A car which has become so fast in relation to the rest of the field that the entire trackside population seem to be very resentful of our repeat winner. It does seem rather odd, it wasn't all that long ago when Schumacher could win races in reverse such was that phase of dominance and in that era we didn't have this level of animosity for the German. There are far bigger problems with the sport worth complaining about than the fact that one chap is doing a fairly decent job, unopposed on a regular basis.

As for the race itself it was an improvement on the previous two races - both of which also featured an unchallenged race for the lead - because the mid-field battle proved to be interesting in the second half of the race. After Singapore continued it's 100% record of providing safety car interruptions something that's hasn't really happened this season, with the exception of Monaco, people have been far too well behaved. Likely spending too much time complaining to spend knocking each other into the barriers. Once upon a time as soon as cars went two wide on a street track, at least one of them was going to come out of the equation missing a wheel or two. Today there was none of that sort of business, the race even concluded with an act of friendliness and comradery between rivals, but the stewards being the way they are cracked down on that sort of thing.

The Race

The day started with a flotilla of racing drivers fleeing from Martin Brundle on the grid - can't say I blame them all - and SKY were bordering on obsessive as soon as David Beckham wandered anywhere near a camera... This is not football, no-one cares about those overpaid fools, the 'value' of the players on a major team would fund the entire expenses of a top F1 team. Hell, a single player can cover the costs of Force India or Sauber including employing the staff. If Vettel's new 'fan' club want to boo something - go and boo that.

At the very start of the race the hopes of the entire world were raised when Rosberg beat Vettel down to turn one... Unfortunately the Mercedes went ever so slightly wide on the exit opening the door once more for Vettel to retake the lead - and once more, he was never seen of again. While everyone was watching all hope sink away in the face of yet more dominance Alonso was left alone on the outside line and went from 7th to 3rd in one corner. The other Ferrari of the now fired Massa was racing Hamilton, a battle that concluded down at the end of the back straight into turn 7, the pair have made contact here before - in 2011 when they stopped being friends. This time around Hamilton made the pass... but he was over the other side of the white line, an offence which has become a major crime at the moment and he was ordered to give the place back. At least this time the officials were giving fair warning before throwing the book at someone.

For a while it became a game of patience Vettel had vanished off to the count of over 6 seconds... by lap three and it wasn't getting any better for the rest of the field. So we had to wait for the DRS to be activated before anything happened, with the exception of Raikkonen passing Di Resta on the exit of the final corner. Turns out that back pain seems to have magically disappeared - and Kimi followed that up with a pass on Esteban Gutierrez on the outside of turn seven, without running off track and being shouted at by the powers that be. In this early phase of the race it was only Raikkonen who was making progress as he came up to the back of Perez - the only car he has made contact with all season, in Monaco, China and Monza. But everyone else was happy to stay put - Webber was told to drop back from Alonso and Rosberg rather than attack. Perhaps that plan made sense because all of the charging Raikkonen had been doing had ruined his tyres forcing him into an early tyre stop.

A couple of laps later more drivers started to filter through the pit lane which as per usual leads to a lot of cars being out of position - Webber found himself behind Ricciardo... and you can imagine that the Toro Rosso virtually jumped out of the way. Alonso however was not so fortunate, re-joining behind Paul Di Resta who has no obligations to let the car behind through and thus clung onto the position. This built a queue behind him containing Webber, Hamilton and Grosjean, a queue that remained until the Force India pulled in for his stop - by this time Vettel was so far ahead the distance could be measured using satellites and lasers. So we had to look elsewhere for some entertainment, and we found Maldonado who was still resisting the temptation to build a fort out of the plastic barriers. Instead he was trying to hold off Perez and Hulkenberg on his severely worn tyres. But this is when things got really odd, because Perez was half-way past Nico in turn seven, Hulkenberg left the track to avoid contact - leaving room for the McLaren, but was instructed to let Sergio have the position. So apparently not getting passed is now an offence too...

Now all the stops had been completed and everyone was back in position and Vettel was in another dimension, we needed something to closed things up a bit. Red Bull also needed something to at least give the rest of the field a faint sense of hope - so I can only imagine a subtle communication was sent down to Toro Rosso - introducing Ricciardo to the world of team orders and helping the German Bloke out. As a response said Toro Rosso was next seen planted in the wall under the grandstand tunnel. Of course making the suggestion that a team would as a driver to crash in Singapore would be silly, that sort of thing never happens... and as a result the safety car was released. So a brief period of time we actually saw Vettel near another car. But during this safety car session interesting strategy decisions were made - while lots of driver pitted, both Red Bulls and Mercedes' elected to stay out, because no-one could make it to the end from here...could they?

At the restart Vettel vanished off into the distance again and his race engineer phone the German up and told him to go really quickly... that's all we need, encouragement for him to destroy the field even more running at two seconds a lap faster than the entire field... The pace was so quick that even Grosjean's car was left breathless with an air compression problem of some sort - which according to the BBC transcript  Romain replied "Nooooooooooooooo". With exactly that many 'o's suffice to say Grosjean was not pleased as the Lotus was forced into retirement. Within 5 laps of the restart Vettel was 12s ahead of Rosberg... oh dear. 
The race was about to get more interesting as Webber initiated the process of the top four cars taking the stop they didn't make under the safety car - rejoining in 13th position. Rosberg and Hamilton were the next two to pit, but found themselves behind Webber's Red Bull and this is where the fun begins - because these three expected the train of cars in front of them to stop again...but they didn't. Vettel however was so far ahead he was able to stop and come out in the lead of the race now ahead of Alonso in second and of all people Jenson Button in a McLaren in 3rd. While Alonso had lots of clean space in front and behind him, Jenson did not have that luxury - instead his mirrors were filled with Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus - of these three only the Ferrari and the Lotus have a record of strong tyre management this season. 

Webber, Rosberg and Hamilton were on a crusade now that it had become apparent that in order to regain the positions lost by stopping, they were going to have to fight for them - although Rosberg was having a rather confusing conversation over the radio with his engineer. Apparently having no idea whether he should conserve tyres or give it full beans and attack the cars around him, kind of sums up the tyre era we live in - even the drivers have no idea how to drive the cars any more. Their first victim was Gutierrez, and the swarm momentarily had difficulty dealing with the straight line speed of the Sauber. A swarm that now had gained the attentions of Massa and Di Resta on the end of the queue. But as soon as Webber had made it through the floodgates opened and Esteban lost five places in the space of half a lap. Like a pack of angry increasingly angry bees the fleet lined up again and made haste towards Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, the next two cars in line. Hulkenberg decided he was having none of this - his tyres were ruined enough as it was to try and risk putting it in the wall to hold off the oncoming armada. So he didn't put up too much of a fight. 

While that onslaught carried forward towards Perez, the other Mexican had found a new queue of cars, narrowly avoiding being wiped out in the tunnel by Jean-Eric Vergne and Maldonado battling for the prize of being 11th. A fight to be in the prime position in case things kicked off inside the points. Word of those drivers scything their way to the front reached Raikkonen which meant he needed to dispatch Button and quickly before Webber and friends caught up. A task he took to with swift efficiency disregarding the DRS zones and went round the outside at the end of Esplanade Drive - the same move he pulled on Bottas earlier in the race. Raikkonen escaped just as the flotilla carved their way past Perez, although at the end of the charging pack Di Resta missed the braking point in turn seven and went into the barrier. Promoting Sutil into 10th to duel with Hulkenberg at the bottom of the points. It was Jenson who now had the attentions of Webber and co but there was a slight problem - and there will be no points for guessing that those problems happened to be on Webber's car. Mark was instructed to severely reduce engine revs and short shift.

Despite the problems Webber was able to pass Button - closely followed by the two Mercedes' coming into the stadium section - but he was unable to catch Raikkonen for 3rd. As the difficulties increased in the cursed Red Bull Webber was powerless to resist the Mercedes team and had nothing to defend with, the car was making all kinds of noises that is shouldn't make - the problem then became very apparent when the car caught fire. Still very odd that none of this happens to Vettel... hmm.... Speaking of the German bloke crossed the line to win by half a minute, and that was build over only half the race due to the safety car. Alonso scored another second place, drove very well yet still loses points in the championship, and Raikkonen bad back or not came from 13th to 3rd proving that both Ferrari and Lotus are still good on tyres - it just doesn't help like it did before the compound change. 4th and 5th for Mercedes Rosberg beating Hamilton to the line with Massa finishing 6th. Despite spending time in a podium place Button fell back to 7th just ahead of Perez in 8th. The points were rounded off by Hulkenberg and Sutil - Maldonado won the battle for 11th but couldn't add to Williams massive points total of 1pt...

On the slowdown lap, Alonso stopped to pick up Webber performing a taxi service back to the pits, however Fernando parked in the middle of the track to collect the Australian forcing Hamilton into evasive action. A brilliant gesture, just not executed particularly well - both drivers were reprimanded, but it was Webber's third reprimand so he earns a ten place grid penalty for Korea.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

The more observant among you may have noticed that I forgot to announce points from qualifying because I was a little short of time so will have to amalgamate both result sets today

Qualifying:

• 10pts - Esteban Gutierrez - A surprise performance in Q2
• 8pts - Nico Rosberg - for almost punishing Vettel and Red Bull's overconfidence
• 6pts - Mark Webber - the same as Rosberg but not quite as close
• 5pts - Felipe Massa - Some brilliant powerslides coming out of the tunnel
• 4pts - Romain Grosjean - Almost on the front row, breaking up the Red Bull/Mercedes' group
• 3pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - bounces of the wall and still temporarily claimed bottom division pole in the Caterham
• 2pts - Sebastian Vettel - oh go on have some points
• 1pt -Pastor Maldonado - Resisting the temptation to build a fort with all those barriers.

Race:

• 25pts - Sebastian Vettel - As much as dominance is boring, that was very impressive 32s in half a race...
• 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - 13th to 3rd on a street track with a theoretical back problem 
• 15pts - Fernando Alonso - Keeps throwing everything at Vettel, and another brilliant start
• 12pts - Jenson Button - Almost had a podium, oh so close for McLaren
• 10pts - Mark Webber - Strong recovery drive, and for hailing Alonso as a taxi at the end
• 8pts - Hamilton/Rosberg - A unified attack force carving through the field 
• 6pts - Paul Di Resta - For holding off Alonso while being out of position
• 4pts - Hulkberg/Grosjean - Best radio communication responses in a long while
• 2pts - Gutierrez/Perez - Proving that two cars can fit through the new turn 10 alongside 
• 1pt - Felipe Massa - For not crashing the thermal imaging camera like Di Resta did within one sector of starting the race..

The Penalties Championship

Only one official penalty was divvied out this weekend and that was to Mark Webber, for picking up three reprimands and getting a 10 place grid penalty.

The Penalty Points Championship

• The Stewards - In what universe should Hulkenberg given that place back, could set a really unfortunate precedent - just force someone off without even passing them and get the officials to give you the place...
• Esteban Gutierrez - For not setting a lap in Q3... you thought I'd forget about that Mr Gutierrez
• Turn 10 - I'm not convinced 
• Fabio Leimer - For T-Boning Alex Rossi as the American tried to drive into the support paddock after the GP2 race finished.

Onwards to Korea

The days at the Yeongnam circuit may well be numbered as it might be forced off the calendar to make room for the likes of Mexico, Russia, Austria and New Jersey in the same manner that India is due to go missing in 2014; but it is the next venue on our journey towards Brazil. It is circuit Red Bull have been known to do well... better than Singapore so that sounds very ominous. The track itself is a tale of two completely different halves, an opening sector defined by some excessive straights leading into hairpins. While the rest of the lap feels like it belongs in Europe with several flowing corners albeit completely flattened out. The major bone to contend with the circuit is the sequence involving turns four to six - it is horrific, I mean even the original turn 10 chicane which has just been replaced had some redeeming qualities. If any part of the calendar needed sorting out, this would be it - that and the hopeless chicane at Calalunya. 

In it's opening visit to the season the Korean GP was complete madness, drowned in monsoon conditions and populated with safety car interventions, a race that ended Webber's best chance of winning the drivers title spinning into the wall and collecting Rosberg. So we might finally get some rain and hilarity on a Sunday, anything to put the brakes on Vettel's reign of supremacy and possibly inject some life into the championship. Because at this rate it will all be over by India...So until then, this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.

Round 12: Italy 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

I am starting to think that rain is forbidden on a Sunday afternoon, on each occasion it has been threatened the skies remain clear and the track remains dry. If we were to stage a race at the bottom of the pacific ocean, the seas would part to leave a track as parched as the surface of the Attacama. Much like the situation was in Spa events managed to unfold such that the majority of the race became a foregone conclusion - the two participants mostly out of position encountered early difficulties removing them from the equation and stifling the prospect of a race long charge through the field. Furthermore this race saw some glaring disparity in the effectiveness of DRS from car to car, it was either completely useless or monstrously overpowered. We also learned that you need the straight line speed of a scalded cheetah to get anywhere close to passing a Toro Rosso around Monza, yet they themselves don't have the pace to catch the cars in front of them. I've no idea what on earth has been going on at the famous autodromo but all of the series have been a little...off. GP3 driving has been a little silly, and it flows from one extreme to the other in GP2 - four corners of intense racing followed by several laps of roughly sod all going on. At least the F1 race was a little more consistent, and ramped up towards the end - but once more that top step of the podium may as well have been booked and set in advance. Maybe next time things will be different, room for madness on those streets.

The Race

Hopes were momentarily raised when the pit-lane seemed a little damp in the build up to the race, and rain was present in the air, still falling albeit lightly - helped a little with the fact that cars were heading to the grid on intermediate tyres. A hope that as per usual faded into the familiar sense of disappointment, because the rain came to an abrupt end, the clouds rolled away, and the track was completely dry with plenty of time before the start of the race.

Off the line it was unsurprisingly the two Ferraris that made the most ground, sweeping past Hulkenberg like he didn't exist. Massa also managed to slip past Webber, and it almost seemed like he defended from Alonso - if that was the case he'd probably be shown the door for not jumping out of the way. Despite being all alone in the lead on the really long run down to the first corner, Vettel locked up and flat-spotted his front tyre. Although the entire wheel could have fallen off and the car would still be the fastest thing around. Further back Kimi Raikkonen found himself behind Perez, and given the amount of altercations they've had this season Kimi thought it best to nudge the Mexican down the escape road - unfortunately it ruined the Lotus front wing in the process dropping him to the back of the grid. But on the whole it was a unusually damage free run through the first chicane. So that was made up for in the braking zone of the Della Roggia chicane, as Di Resta clobbered into the back of Grosjean. Romain could continue, but Paul was missing a front wheel and was forced to retire.

Vettel was clear off in the lead, and as per usual was never seen again, Massa was second while Webber held of Alonso for third. Hulkenberg still existed but had Rosberg for company in summary of how this race was to play out through the remainder of the race, only one position changed in the top six from now until the end of the race...But if we just looked at that then the race would seem dull, uneventful perhaps - yet everyone else seemed to be having fun. A train of cars behind Vergne including a recovering Hamilton was initially quite excitable, Lewis passing Gutierrez in the second chicane. That backed the Sauber up into the Williams team who in turn were almost passed by Pic in the Caterham. Perez was having the same trouble trying to pass the other Toro Rosso of Ricciardo - whilst being caught be Grosjean. Both these groups were able to duel amongst themselves but had nothing for the Toro Rosso roadblocks.

As soon as the DRS window opened Hamilton breezed past Jenson as if he didn't exist before the Ascari chicane - because the McLaren team had got the gear ratios wrong and were defenceless. Further forward Alonso made a move round the outside of Webber in the second chicane easing across on the racing line on the exit of the corner. Once again Mark found himself without a front wing endplate - this time didn't lead to a subsequent barrage of fastest laps, only Van Der Garde has the ability to improve Adrian Newey's handiwork. Hamilton's charge was about to encounter a bit of a problem, starting with a complete failure of his in-car communication system which meant he couldn't hear the team inform him of a slow puncture developing on that Mercedes. This allowed Button to recover the gap and then retake the place on the outside of the Roggia chicane - interesting to see more passing away from the DRS zone. Except for Massa moving out of the the way for Fernando - but that was an inevitable team manoeuvre - there was no way at all Massa would have been allowed to keep that place...Now would Kimi be so co-operative.

Vergne may have lost Hamilton after the Mercedes finally recognised the problem via the almost archaic system of using a pit-board and pitted - only to rejoin behind Raikkonen - but the Frenchman gained Jenson Button staring at his gearbox. However there was nothing Jenson could do the Toro Rosso was far too fast in a straight line - until it broke down before the first of the Lesmos, narrowly missed by the McLaren as Vergne pulled it out of the way.  Grosjean and Perez on the other hand, were still struggling to make any ground on Ricciardo allowing Button to work his way up to the back of that particular train of cars.

While nothing else was going on, it was time for the pit-stops - and this being a one stop race the strategy was slightly less relevant making it less of a tactical event - just a case of running the tyres until they were done, swap the other set on and then go to the end. Of course that process changed for Raikkonen and Hamilton who were forced into an early stop. Red Bull once more illustrated their dominance by stopping both their cars on the same lap, with immaculate consistency 2.6 and 2.7s for Vettel and Webber respectively - servicing both cars within 10 seconds... This turn around was enough to move Webber in front of Massa and much closer to Alonso in the other Ferrari. Everyone else retained position, in relative terms as late stopping cars were temporarily out of position - Raikkonen was back up to 5th after being last on the opening lap. The two McLarens found themselves back behind Ricciardo after the stops but Jenson had made it through past Perez, without the need to knock carbon fibre off each other.

Speaking of intra-team battles Mercedes ran two wide through the opening chicane with Hamilton taking the position. Lewis then caught up immediately to Hulkenberg and almost performed an identical pass on the Sauber, but not being team-mates he was able to defend more robustly but Hamilton used all his KERs to go round the outside through Curva Grande. Nico and Nico then resumed the battle they'd been in since the start of the race, but lost a lot of ground by missing the first chicane and having to meander through the maze of polystyrene marker boards. Hamilton was told to pit - but proceeded to set the fastest lap instead, some more communication issues going on there, eventually Mercedes were able to apprehend Lewis to give him some new tyres.

In the final phase of the race we were set for another battle towards the front as Webber was right behind Alonso and was clearly in a much faster car - considering the Red Bull is realistically faster than everything. But the team came on the radio once more to the Australian to say something was wrong with the car, this time it was the gearbox. In order to get the car home he had to short shift in the traction zones - losing ground out of the chicanes on the Ferrari and ending that battle. Instead we turned to Raikkonen and Hamilton on a two stop strategy and much fresher tyres fighting back from outside the points. Kimi was making considerable progress - first picking off Gutierrez and then Sutil in very quick succession closing rapidly on the McLaren pairing of Perez and Button. But once again just as things were going to get interesting Lotus informed Raikkonen that his KERs was malfunctioning ending that battle. This allowed Hamilton to use his KERs once more in Curva Grande to take the place. Further forward the potential for Massa to come after an ailing Webber for 3rd came to nothing as Felipe was struck down with KERs problems of his own. Was anyone allowed to to battle today.

Vettel won the race a country mile ahead of every one else, even he had slowed down through his own gearbox issues, Alonso scored another podium for Ferrari at their home race, which the tifosi were quite pleased about. Webber was locked into third by his technical difficulties and safe from Massa and his technical difficulties - Mark parked the car at the end of the pit-lane. Not sure if that was wise with the post-race track invasion, Fisichella parked a Benetton on the the front straight several years ago and the fans stripped it like a crowd of angry vultures. Aside from the Ferrari/Red Bull contingent - the two Nicos finished in the same places they ended the first lap in, Hulkenberg doing well to score a top five place ahead of Rosberg. Ricciardo proved to be completely unpassable, and so did the other Toro Rosso for the brief time it was running. Grosjean was the only Lotus to score points in 8th position and one of the few drivers to make up a few places today despite barely been spotted on Camera. Hamilton was able to use the DRS advantage to defeat both McLarens in the dying laps to score a couple of points while Jenson held onto the final point ahead of Raikkonen in 11th. Kimi incidently went from being the closest rival to Vettel, to being out of the hunt in two races losing 50 points to the German Bloke...2013 does look even more inevitable as it progresses.

The Bonus Points Championship points winners

There are some races where it is difficult to decide where to assign the bonus points with so many different stories developing throughout the field - this is not one of those races, the majority of the grid circulated in roughly the same positions they started in. So many battles were taken away through excessive DRS or ineffective gear ratios making overtaking impossible, others were ruined through technical dramas. Of all the races of the season this one promised so much, so often and then each time crushed that potential out of existence. But points must be assigned to someone, 10 someones in fact, so here goes.

• 25pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Had to take the top score, beating Mercedes, McLaren and Lotus in this years Sauber which is a shadow of it's former self
• 18pts - Lewis Hamilton - Despite being massively grumpy, that was strong damage limitation driving today
• 15pts - Fernando Alonso - Still the only car able to come within a million miles of Vettel
• 12pts - Mark Webber - A broken front wing, a ruined gearbox and still gave Alonso a run for his money
• 10pts - Felipe Massa - Driving well to try and retain that drive for the coming season
• 8pts - Red Bull - Two completed pit stops within around 10s seconds... needs points
• 6pts - Toro Rosso - For creating a car that cannot be passed, endorsed by Gandalf I'd imagine
• 4pts - Sebastien Vettel - Fine the German Bloke can have some points
• 2pts - Charles Pic - Wins the lower division
• 1pt - Adderly Fong - Wins the high jump award for Monza for a massive wheelie in turn one during the GP3 race

Looking forward to Singapore

If there is one track of the season that doesn't need any rain to make things interesting it is the twilight streets of Singapore lots of inviting walls and movable barriers to for Maldonado make a fort out of. Pastor managed to fail to notice the same barriers between the Lesmos and no forts were built. The Marina Bay circuit has been a polarising venue among fans and supporters of the track, because it is seen as novelty addition which doesn't really add anything to the season. But here at Blog HQ it is met with great approval, it is a different type of street circuit to Monaco, almost making the comparison very limited, the roads are wider, the straights are actually straight and overtaking is possible. There are no health and safety run-off areas, and the slightest error leads to a concrete wall and some missing wheels.

Leaving the fastest circuit and the shortest race of the season and heading to the longest most draining event always pushing the two hour limit and frequently attracts the presence of the Safety car. However this time Schumacher isn't on the grid, and he was responsible for some of those safety cars for assaulting Saubers, and then Vergne's Toro Rosso because it was in the vicinity of a Sauber. So potentially this time things might be a little less destructive, either way we might go to Singapore and something might happen, and Vettel might not be impossibly fast...well we can dream.

Round 11: Belgium 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

First off, before we cover the events of the day I have to ask where on earth was all this rain that was predicted for the race - after all the fun it caused yesterday everyone here... well me, as blog HQ is merely a corner of the sofa, was really looking forward to the prospect of a wet race. Other than the first three corners in Malaysia we've had dry conditions on race day for the entire season, despite the amount of practice and qualifying events that have been interrupted by some precipitation. Spa as always promised so much and has often delivered on that promise, but today not too much - at the front of the field the race was virtually a complete formality outside the first four corners of the race. It was a race where the DRS on the Kemmel straight was all too often far too powerful and cars would just ease past one another, but some drivers were a little more adventurous - and Eau Rouge didn't claim any victims this weekend, in F1 anyway.

It is always a shame that the series moves away from Spa as it signifies that the traditional European season is drawing to a close, with only Monza left next time out - after that lies a range of new and typically over-engineered tracks. Of course there is still Suzuka and Interlagos in there which echo to the adoration of fans across the planet, something that Abu Dhabi and Korea struggle to attain. But this time around the Belgian GP will not be etched into the annuls of history of being a hive of activity and an enthralling challenge for victory, but I've seen considerably worse races.

The Race

I hoped to turn on the coverage to find the BBC crew holding umbrellas and standing in a puddle in the pit lane as rain descended on the circuit - yet there was sunshine and blue skies... at Spa, what madness was this. Twitter indicated that several showers had hit the circuit overnight but as day erupted it was bright with no threat of rain until well after the race was finished. So we started the formation lap in the dry making the strategists days considerably easier, and a little more uneventful.

Off the line the front row mad an even start but the main losers were Di Resta and Webber who lost ground which slowed the inside line down a little bit. So when the Lotus' and Webber went three wide through La Source a gap opened up for Alonso. Raikkonen and Grosjean went wide and Fernando used KERs to pass Webber into Eau Rouge - 10th to 5th by turn two isn't too bad. On the other side of Eau Rouge on the exit of Radillon Vettel seemed to have so much more speed than Hamilton and just eased past the Mercedes a long way before Les Combes. As it has been seen on so many occasions before the German Bloke was never seen of again. Somehow the first lap was completely contact free, only Massa asked his team about his front wing after getting close to the back of Raikkonen as the Lotus came back on after running wide in La Source.

For a while nothing too much took place, everyone just waiting for the DRS to be activated, Alonso had a go at passing Jenson on the Kemmel straight before the device was activated and the Ferrari simply couldn't out-drag the McLaren ahead of him. Out of those cars that broke into Q2 yesterday on the slicks both the Marussias had fallen to the back of the field - Chilton naturally taking up last place, while Van Der Garde was still in the place he qualified in, despite being under pressure from Maldonado and the Torro Rossos. But as soon as the DRS was activated the positions started to change, which didn't work out too well at all for Jenson Button - first he was passed by Alonso in the Ferrari, and one lap later it was Webber repeating the process shuffling the McLaren down to 6th place. One lap after that Alonso performed the same pass on Rosberg for 3rd.

While things were settling down at the front of the pack, attention turned to the mid-field where Di Resta found a line of cars growing behind him, headed by Hulkenberg and Raikkonen. Kimi was finding if difficult to pass the Sauber even with the DRS because the Lotus isn't the fastest car in the straight line. Behind them Grosjean and Perez were involved in a similar battle, except this time the Lotus was defending - Sergio used the DRS to get alongside and eased himself back onto the racing line before Les Combes. The problem being that Grosjean was still there and Perez squeezed the Frenchman off the side of the circuit and was promptly issued with a drive through penalty. Further up the train Kimi managed to gain a much better run through Eau Rouge then Hulkenberg to counter the lack of top speed to pass Hulkenberg into Les Combes without pushing anyone off. Because it is possible.

Slightly earlier than expected, the pit window opened and we entered the phase of the race where cars were in all kinds of positions through the field and generally being out of position - for example we had Hamilton doing battle with Grosjean as Lewis had stopped and Romain hadn't. Hamilton took the place initially, but refusing to be defeated Romain repassed the Mercedes in Les Combes, Hamilton tried again into the Bus Stop but Grosjean defended that attack effectively. As Vettel pitted from the lead, just to prove he still exists he found himself not leading the race because Jenson was staying out hoping for a one stop strategy to work out. Back in the middle of the field, Raikkonen was making his way forward after a stop and found himself behind Perez - the only car he keeps making contact with this season. This time things were more sensible, but due to a lack of straight line speed Kimi had to think outside the box a little - and made the pass stick round the outside of Bruxelles, which does not happen too often. The Finn wasn't done, following that pass up with one down the inside of Gutierrez into Rivage and the grand finale to his charge was a brilliant pass round the outside of Di Resta in the final chicane.

However Raikkonen's day was about to implode as he caught Massa, the Lotus had been releasing clouds of brake dust from the left front for quite a while, and as Kimi went down the inside of the Ferrari into the Bus Stop the brakes finally died. The Lotus ran off wide, and returned to the pits for retirement, ending a monumental streak of race and points finishes. Elsewhere the Force India team were having fun with Perez, as Di Resta was attacking the McLaren Sutil passed the pair of them almost running three wide on the straight down to Eau Rouge until Adrian took the place. As Perez pitted the Force India squadron caught up to the back of the battle between Maldonado and Gutierrez. It had been a while since Maldonado had run into anyone so today he was about to make up for that. Firstly he tried to round the outside of Gutierrez in the Bus Stop after running side by side through blanchimont and then tried to make the pit-lane. The problem was the Force Indias were in the way - firstly he hit Sutil losing half his front wing, Pastor then tried to turn again towards the pit lane and wiped out Paul Di Resta. The second Force India was completely ruined and Maldonado ended up with a 10 second drive through penalty but was able to continue.

After escaping the melee Sutil found himself side by side with Gutierrez approaching Eau Rouge, the Mexican pushed Adrian to the edge of the track but left just enough room, but Adrian kept the boot in and passed his second car turning into Eau Rouge. But with this battle pack broken up the order had roughly sorted itself out with sensible gaps through the field. Vettel was in a different universe in the lead, Alonso in second also had no-one near him - Hamilton was the only car in the top three that could see anyone else as his mirrors had Rosberg and Webber in them albeit with three seconds between each car. Button had a lot of track space to his self in 6th, 11 seconds behind Webber. A couple of positional changes were left, as Massa took Grosjean for 7th demoting the Lotus to 8th. Down outside the points Gutierrez and Vergne were duelling, the Mexican went down the inside of the Torro Rosso in Les Combes, but Vergne held position easing Esteban off the road on the exit of the corner. But Gutierrez refused to be defeated and made the move stick - however the car was off the track and the stewards issued another daft penalty. Meanwhile Chilton also received a penalty for ignoring blue flags.

Our hopes were raised momentarily before the race drew to a close as Vettel's engineer informed him that there might be some rain on the way... but he inevitably lied because the race stayed completely dry to the end. Vettel crossed the line in a different time zone to everyone else... again. Alonso recovered from a poor qualifying with a strong race up into 2nd place, while Hamilton fell back to 3rd. Rosberg was able to hold of a brief charge from Webber to take fourth place not too far behind his team-mate. Despite having to give up on a single stop strategy Jenson brought the McLaren home in a respectable 6th place, scoring enough points to take the team ahead of Force India in the constructors. Massa finished 7th after passing Grosjean a few laps from the end, Sutil survived the mid-field contact to score some points in 9th, while Ricciardo - Webber's potential replacement - stole a final point from Sergio Perez at the end of the race.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

This most recent visit to the Belgian GP circuit was not the most memorable of visits to the grandest of circuits on the current calendar, the rain never arrived and as predicted Vettel was able to vanish off into the distance.

• 25pts - Fernando Alonso  -10th to 5th in three corners, and then up into 3rd within 6 laps ultimately finishing best of everyone who isn't Vettel
• 18pts - Adrian Sutil - Two passes into Eau Rouge both on unpredictable Mexicans
• 15pts - Sebastian Vettel - For being dominant once more
• 12pts - Daniel Riccardo - 19th to 10th deserves a mention  
• 10pts - Kimi Raikkonen  - Some of the best overtaking manoeuvres of the day
• 8pts - Jenson Button - A decent day for the McLaren, beating a Ferrari and a Lotus on pace
• 6pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - For retaining his position longer than the other lower teams
• 4pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Did a good job today, and didn't deserve that late penalty
• 2pts - Pastor Madonado - Managed to hit two cars from the same team in one corner
• 1pt - Lewis Hamilton - For conspiring with Vettel to douse Coulthard in champagne on the podium

The Penalties Championship

The stewards have been a little weird over recent races and another brace of penalties have been unleashed again this weekend:

• Lotus Team - 5,000 EUR fine for an unsafe release of Grosjean's car in Q3
• Sergio Perez - Drive through penalty for forcing Grosjean off
• Max Chilton - Drive through penalty For ignoring blue flags
• Esteban Gutierrez - Drive through penalty For passing Vergne because that is apparently illegal now
• Maldonado - 10s stop and go penalty, for leading a one man assault on the entire Force India team

The Penalty Points Championship

Other than the official penalties because they are getting a little mental of late here are the in-house penalty points

• Rain - Where were you?
• The Stewards - Sometimes I wonder
• Jack Harvey - Caused a significant accident in the first GP3 race, but the chap oddly actually admitted to causing it

Looking ahead to Monza

From one massively fast high speed circuit to another, Monza has the highest average speed of any lap on the calendar and marks the conclusion of the European season before everyone packs their bags and flies out to the night race at Singapore. Monza is characterised by really long straights leading into several chicanes which on the basis of other races this season will be overly exploited by the powers that decide where the DRS zones are placed. Much in the same way as Spa in the sense that there is a chance of being taken out by an errant car in a chicane especially at the first corner. A situation demonstrated by Liuzzi in an HRT taking wild evasive action alongside Heikki and speared across the grass wiping out Rosberg and Petrov in the first corner. 

The season at this point is starting to look like a Vettel walkover again, that championship lead is constantly increasing, and is going to take some beating, especially if Vettel doesn't come across any problems. It was calculated that for Hamilton to beat the German Bloke he'd have to take - on average 5.5pts per race from the Red Driver, a little less for Alonso or Raikkonen. But Kimi's retirement plays into Sebastien's hands to make Alonso the new closest challenger. But things could be worse, for example in Formula Ford UK - Dan Cammish has won all 21 races of the season, which is taking dominance way too far. Perhaps Monza will be different, technically not a Red Bull circuit, but neither was Spa, so until then this is farewell from blog HQ.

Round 10: Hungary 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well, we always come to this race and expect the worst, to find 70 laps of everyone holding position and following each other in one long processional line. Fortunately that was not the case, we saw cars going past other cars, something that is often so rare at the Hungaroring that the Stewards got all confused by it... but that is a rant for later on. The other thing that we learned from today is that everything we thought we had learned can be completely disproved in an instant, at the end of qualifying and looking at the weather we expected complaints of tyre melting into oblivion with a matter of laps and cars losing pace left right and centre. Yet very little of what happened today made a heap of sense - yes Lotus were as strong as we expected, and Red Bull remain the fastest car on the grid. But a no point in the race did anyone from Mercedes come on the radio explaining that they had no grip and things were falling apart, for some reason on the first race since the test they were not allowed to go to, Mercedes didn't lose pace. However the Hungaroring is a bit of an anomaly, when we move on to the next race, we expect things to be very different indeed.

I have seen better Hungarian GPs than this - mostly because of rain - but things have also been a lot less interesting especially in those years when a different German Bloke was winning all time... Today we saw a decent race, and most interestingly a lot of the overtaking didn't happen in the DRS zones, which in contrast to venues where every pass has been artificially introduced it was a nice touch. Agreeably for the vast majority of those it was tyre condition and strategy that gave the process a little helping hand - even if a few endplates were removed along the way. Turns out this trend that Giedo Van Der Garde started with Webber in Canada is catching on, lots of drivers have been wanting to shed wing endplates and elements now. But that was only a small part of todays Hungarian GP, of which the results are still under investigation on the basis of a potential Alonso penalty for incorrect DRS usage.

The Race

We had forecasts of temperatures reaching into the low 40's, yet that didn't really materialise, there was a slight increase from qualifying but nothing too significant, it was enough to cause cooling concerns up and down the grid however. The advice being to avoid spending too much time too close behind another car... right... on one of the tracks where being trapped behind another car is virtually a defining characteristic. So the only work-around there was to get out of the slipstream on the straights to cool things down... the irony of the solution to the temperatures is to lower the chances of getting past into clean air.

At start oddly it was Vettel who didn't quite get away quickly squeezing Grosjean into the grandstands while Rosberg was having a look to the other side. Hamilton was clear out front. At turn two Alonso tried to capitalise on Grosjean being held up by Vettel to pass the Frenchman round the outside, but Romain eased the Ferrari out wide. This meant that Rosberg tried to round the outside of Fernando in turn three - but he got eased out wide powersliding through the dust in the tarmac run-off space. To make things even more entertaining Raikkonen, Massa and the recovering Rosberg all seemed to be attempting to go round the outside of each other in turn four - resulting in Kimi going off in rally cross style through the dust. Rosberg was now on the outside of another Ferrari in turn five and got biffed out wide by Massa, costing Felipe and endplate and Nico was knocked down to 15th.

As is always the way in Hungary, the opening lap is the immediate highlight before everyone gets locked into their positions - Hamilton, Vettel and Grosjean lead a three car breakaway group while Alonso dropped back and Massa struggled with a damaged wing. Raikkonen was stuck behind the ailing Ferrari and would have plenty of time to memorise the rear wing of that Ferrari. A second group was forming featuring those cars starting on the medium tyre, lead by Webber from Button and Perez. So for the opening stint nothing much took place, everyone just waiting around for the first round of stops, and as Red Bull started positioning the team for a tyre change there seemed to be fewer photographers hanging around after Germany.

Hamilton pitted first and rejoined behind Jenson but was able to use a combination of fresh tyres, DRS and strong straight line speed to get past the McLaren on the next lap. A pass that seemed fairly easy and unspectacular turned out later on to be very, very important indeed. Vettel and Grosjean also pitted, rejoining behind Jenson- and there they stayed unable to pass the McLaren. It was a very similar story with Raikkonen, pitting seconds after Grosjean in a synchronised double stop for Lotus... only to find himself staring at the back of Felipe Massa's Ferrari.

Jenson spent a lot of time with the German Bloke filling his mirrors, with Grosjean right on the back of the queue - to sum up the time that they were all losing Fernando had managed to come from being 8 seconds down to join the line. Allowing Hamilton to vanish up the road, never to be seen again. Naturally this made Vettel rather displeased and tried to encourage Button out of the way, but because this is not touring car racing bumping the car infront mid-corner to forge a gap doesn't quite work so well. Jenson held position and all Sebastien gained for his efforts was a damaged front wing endplate. However he was doing it all wrong, as Webber proved all those weeks ago, the whole endplate has to come off before making the car faster... unless of course you're in a Ferrari. Massa wasn't able to catch the Jenson Button train in the same manner that Alonso had, and thus maintained holding Raikkonen up. Help was at hand however in the form of Adrian Sutil on an alternate strategy infront of Felipe, as Massa tried to pass the Force India and made some slight contact, a gap opened up for Raikkonen and was immediately through, and immediately faster.

Back with Jenson's friends, the McLaren was running out of tyres and was even more vulnerable - and after getting a better run through the first two corners Vettel took the place into turn four.  Being out of position on old fading tyres allowed Grosjean up the inside before the chicane... but Grosjean being Grosjean eased himself wide under braking forgetting that Jenson still existed. They bumped wheels and Romain cut across the chicane, fortunately without damage to either car - contact that would earn the Lotus driver a 20s post race time penalty. It was an incident similar to the one that span Hamilton into the wall in Spa after forgetting to account for Kobayashi's car. The contact also slowed Jenson enough to allow Alonso to make a pass on the exit of the chicane.

The next round of stops mixed up the different strategies all over the place, Hamilton ended up behind Webber and Alonso, while Grojean found himself racing with Massa's damaged Ferrari on older tyres. Staying with the Grosjean battle the Lotus driver had a clear pace advantage, but Felipe was able to defend in where you'd expect to be passed, so Romain tried something a little different. With the inside line up the hill out of turn three covered, Grosjean went to the outside of the corner and crafted a brilliant overtaking manoeuvre in turn four. But there was a problem, in order to leave each other room Grosjean left the track by a matter of centimetres, and was out of bounds for a fraction of a tenth of a second. The pass was deemed illegal and Grosjean was handed a drive-through penalty. Here lies the problem, there is a constant problem of drivers not leaving enough racing room, or passing - but as soon as someone does both things, they get a penalty for it...

Alonso towards the end of his stint was also causing a bit of a problem for those behind holding up Webber and then Hamilton added himself to the train after his stop. Then it appeared someone had been watching the GP2 series - learning that if a car is held up in turn two by a slower one ahead of it, it is possible to pass round the outside. So that's what Hamilton did to Webber, and before he got stuck behind Alonso the Ferrari pitted, everything was just falling into place, and those Mercedes tyres had still not disintegrated. In comparison, his formerly closest challenger, Vettel, pitted and rejoined behind Jenson Button again... this time however it was only two laps the German bloke spent examining the diffuser of the McLaren instead of 12. An application of DRS, and a little bit of KERs and Vettel was down the inside of turn two - this time without bumping the McLaren out of the way.

While no-one was really paying to much attention Raikkonen and Lotus were plotting, and after escaping the rear wing of Felipe Massa, had been marching forward exploiting the pace of the car and how easy it is on tyres. After pitting on lap 42, it was decided that they weren't coming in anymore - which made Red Bull a little concerned and hampered their hopes of a double podium. Speaking roughly of Finnish contenders, their 100% finishing rate was dashed as mechanical problems brought Bottas to a halt on the exit of the final corner. There was a mild threat of an enticing safety car but the Marshals were able to move the car safely out of the way. So as the lead cars were making their final series of stops Raikkonen edged sightly further forward.

Hamilton's final stop brought him out beside Webber in turn one - the Australian held off the initial attack but in turn two it was a case of de-ja vu as Hamilton went round the outside - as both cars went round the outside of Hulkenberg being lapped at the time. It was momentarily three wide before turn three, until Hamilton ran Webber out wide into the dusty run-off area, while Webber had yet to make his final stop to finally used the softer tyres. Grosjean and Button found themselves on the same piece of track again, this time the race was problem free and Romain took the spot safely in turn two - and was not penalised for the pleasure.

When the Red Bull team pitted their drivers they found that Raikkonen was not ahead and up into second place, while Grosjean's comeback charge was brought to a halt as the Lotus became trapped behind Alonso's Ferrari. So with Hamilton vanishing off into the distance it was only the battle for second that remained alive as Vettel trying to wrestle it from Kimi Raikkonen stretching out his tyre life aiming for a 28 lap stint. Although further back Button was running his car even longer, but wasn't battling anyone at the time. Making the Raikkonen, Vettel battle the only position looking likely to change, but Kimi resisted everything the German Bloke could throw at him. Vettel tried round the outside of turn four, but again Raikkonen fended it off, if he had made the pass it probably would have been declared illegal anyway.

Due avoiding the Button train, Hamilton went on to claim an uncontested victory, without any tyre disintegration or failures - despite the final five laps being very worrying following an engine failure for Nico Rosberg. Interestingly Nico's retirement moved Maldonado into 10th scoring the first point for the Williams team in 2013 - so Williams may owe Rosberg a beer tonight. Kimi held off Vettel to secure his position on the podium while Webber recovered from a poor grid position to finish in 4th. Alonso and Grosjean followed each other across the line in 5th and 6th. Jenson survived been biffed and pushed by several people during the race, to score more points for McLaren in 7th, ahead of what remained of Massa's damaged Ferrari in 8th. The points scoring positions were rounded off by Perez in 9th and a first point this season for Williams and Pastor Maldonado.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a race where the majority of the field were deemed insignificant by the TV footage, as far as they were concerned the mid-field could have fallen into a sink hole in the middle of the main straight and no one would ever know, keeping track of everyone had been difficult. For example Di Resta retired with hydraulic issues and we never found out until the race was over and the standings published... but here are the points for todays race.

• 25pts - Kimi Raikkonen - For being subtly brilliant without biffing anyone, and powersliding through turn the exit of turn three
• 18pts - Romain Grosjean - For being brilliant, especially that pass on Massa
• 15pts - Mark Webber - For almost making the podium from 10th on the grid
• 12pts - Lewis Hamilton - For winning without destroying tyres in the process
• 10pts - Pastor Maldonado - For getting Williams first point
• 8pts - Nico Rosberg - For giving Williams team its first point
• 6pts - Van Der Garde - For winning the lowest division in the Caterham
• 4pts - Adrian Sutil - For helping Raikkonen escape from behind Massa
• 2pts - Jenson Button - Survived a bit of a beating today
• 1pt - Felipe Massa - Proving that front wing endplates are a little more necessary than Red Bull think

The Penalties Championship

Over the last break the stewards must have been a little bored, and came back and issued some penalties:

• Romain Grosjean - Drive through penalty - For passing Massa
• Romain Grosjean - 20s time penalty - For biffing Button
• Nico Hulkenberg - Drive through penalty - For speeding in the pitlane
• Ferrari - 15,000EUR fine for having a dodgy DRS system on Alonso's car

The Penalty points series

Time for some of those other things that need penalising

• The Stewards - For being a little bit silly
• Sebastien Vettel - For immediately complaining about the first defence Raikkonen made
• Fernando Alonso - For complaining about Grosjean then doing the same thing to Rosberg a corner later

Looking forward to Belgium

Lots of tracks are classified as dull, some as only making sense in some dark design office in the middle of some city miles away from where they are going to be built, but there are others that are a little bit different those like Hungary or Interlagos which are genuine and fun. But then there is a whole different league of race track, and very close to the top of that exclusive club is the Belgian GP of Spa Francorchamps the greatest circuit on the calendar in the middle of the Ardennes where rain, mayhem and grandeur are in abundance. When racing drivers go to their happy places, Spa is where that is because it is brilliant, if there is a track there worth waiting for across this summer break - this is one of the few worth waiting for as we plunge headlong in the second half of the season. Featuring the final two races of the European season, started with the one of the greatest of all - Spa Francorchamps.

Round 9: Germany 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Sometimes you have mad dynamic races, and sometimes you have dull processional races... but then there are the odd ones, and Germany has been odd this time around. The relative tyre performance bore no relationship to anything we've seen so far in the weekend due to a second sharp increase in tyres for raceday in as many race events. At Silverstone this caused things to explode, whereas this time round it granted Lotus super-powers and gave Mercedes a beating - while all this was going on we had possessed Marussias making a bid for freedom (I'm sure Alonso and his magician's beard may have had something to do with that) and we also had strange spins, questionable rules and possessed tyres - the second consecutive year at the Nurburgring that we've seen a loose wheel run down the pit lane. Last time it was tackled by a Williams Mechanic... this time it sent a bystander to hospital - and after the events of Canada and soon after that Le Mans, the dangerous nature of the sport was all too clear. We got luck this time and the guy involved has not been seriously injured and escaped with only a few broken bones from the impact.

Despite all the oddities that took place the result up at the sharpest end of the field was a rather familiar face and stretches the championship out a little further, because no matter how well the main rivals do in the race, a certain German bloke always ends up a little ahead. It all seems odd that despite having the last two races where the margin between the top two at the line is around a second (1.008 this afternoon 0.7s in Britain) and 0.4s separating 10 cars in Q2 - that we've had one bloke constantly edging further out front. But it has been an interesting season before we head off towards the half-way point next time in Hungary.

The Race

Before things kicked off today, we say several drivers practising their starts at the end of the pit-lane - because the change in surface temperatures altered the optimum traction values and clutch bite points. A process that Webber was going through more than others, likely on the back of the dodgy start last weekend which lead to being clipped by Grosjean in turn one.

When the lights went it out it was clear that this recalibration worked out rather well, as both Red Bulls swarmed past Hamilton off the line pushing the Mercedes down to 3rd, that almost became 4th as Raikkonen came close to making it down the inside of turn 3. Considering that all of yesterday's support races ended up in a lap one safety car, this was comparatively rather clean, it got a little close in the back of the field - some cars running three wide at the apex of turn one but there was no contact. Saving all the oddities for later on. A series of alternate strategies saw some early place shuffling, as Rosberg dropped a couple of places, and Perez made it down the inside of his team-mate in turn one, making sure to edge Jenson off wide on the exit... making friends once more inside the McLaren garage.

Then the first of the oddities began and Massa somehow managed to spin the car in the opposite direction to the turn in to the first corner, stopped the car and buggered off... turns out the anti-stall may have kicked in and stalled the car, which from an outside perspective seems counter productive. Anyway the Ferrari was towed away and Felipe's German GP lasted a grand total of three complete laps and the 600 odd metres down to the first corner. It might be worth noting that at the time he was ahead of Alonso - some magical superpowers later and the situation had been resolved, could be considered as a little suspicious. These powers didn't seem to affect Ricciardo who managed to stay ahead of the remaining Ferrari.

With a large amount of drivers starting on the softer compound the first round of stops came early into the race with Di Resta coming in first on lap five, the Force India team then released the car back into the path of Jean-Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso. The only two cars in the pit lane and they almost hit each other - the unsafe release despite happening at the start of the race was to be investigated afterwards. At the time this seemed like lunacy, plenty of time to issue a penalty - but a fine was eventually imposed of 5,000 EUR which makes more sense as it was a team balls up not Di Restas. It that wasn't bad enough the Red Bull team released Webber without putting the rear wheel on properly, it promptly detached and sped down the pit-lane. Like the 2011 incident it went straight through the Mercedes garage before bouncing and hitting a cameraman in the shoulder knocking him severely to the floor. The cameraman was airlifted to hospital and has a broken collar bone and several broken ribs, as of this point there is no news on what penalty Red Bull are facing for the incident, but i'd imagine it will be a severe one.

Webber was pulled back to the garage and given a new tyre and released - albeit one lap and 67s behind Vettel out front. But the German bloke himself surrendered the lead as it was his turn for some new tyres, and rather helpfully Red Bull decided that the German Bloke deserved four tyres, I'm not sure if that counts as favouritism or not but it meant that Grosjean inherited the lead of the race still driving around on the softer tyres. What was most interesting is that Romain was still setting fast times on the supposedly less durable tyres while Alonso on the harder compound had to stop for a newer set - Lotus exploiting their conservation superpowers to double the expected life of the softer tyres. The other side of the Lotus garage was a more frustrated affair as Raikkonen had came out from his stop behind Hamilton and Rosberg who were in the middle of a little intra-team tiff. Rosberg was informed that Lewis was faster on newer tyres and instructed not to hold him up... which is not so secret code for 'get out of the way'. Naturally Nico disagreed and wanted to stay in front. In the process costing both Lewis and Raikkonen time in their respective races allowing Vettel and Grosjean to have their own race at the front.

Eventually Hamilton was released from behind his team-mate and disappeared off into the middle distance before he found himself behind Hulkenberg running long in the Sauber. Without Hamilton in the way Raikkonen made short work of Rosberg round the outside into the final corner - and in a matter of a few laps was on the back of Hamilton and Hulkenberg. It was the same problem for Raikkonen his DRS was cancelled out because Hamilton also had DRS on the car in front and was unable to make any progress. Once Hulkenberg pitted Lewis had to defend from the Finn and the Mercedes was eating it's tyres making that defence ever harder - Kimi was able to repeat the move he made on the other silver car round the outside and off into the distance.

More oddities now as Jules Bianchi's car imploded in a massive plume of smoke and then some fire for good measure, but the fire extinguisher worked and Jules fled the car with plenty of time. All seemed normal a generic abandoned car recovery job for the marshals... except the Marissia was not co-operating and had a sudden phobia of green tractors. So it ran away, all by itself reversing down the hill - we had a tractor on the edge of the track and a fleeing race car rolling back into oncoming traffic, inevitably the safety car had to be called even though the Marussia had parked itself in a much safer place of it's own volition, after reversing through an advertising board. The safety car brought about a very interesting situation with Mr Webber, through some odd loophole in the regulations he was allowed to pass the safety car and rejoin the back of the queue. Traditionally this rule is to get lapped cars to get out of the flow of traffic for the restarts - but Webber was already at the back of the train and thus was in no-one's way and effectively got his lap back for free. Very like the free-pass given to the first car one lap down in NASCAR races.

The restart was also good for Raikkonen who recouped the damage caused by being trapped with Hamilton behind Rosberg and brought him back up to Grosjean and Vettel at the front. The safety car however was bad for Hamilton because he'd stopped before it came out and as a result was trapped in the mid-field back behind Hulkenberg again. Now on the back of the field Webber was now able to pass people for position being on the same lap again, scything past the Caterhams, Chilton and Bottas - Williams dropping down the grid due to wheel-gun issues in the pits. But Webber's charge was halted when he encountered the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez, because the Sauber refused to surrender to the charging Australian. Several times Webber was able to get alongside only to find the door firmly shut eased wide on the exits of turns one and three on different laps.

It was getting close up at the front as Vettel was not able to lose Grosjean and Raikkonen as the two Lotus cars were ganging up on the German... which mysteriously in the background Alonso was sneaking gently closer to the top three. Hamilton was also getting close - this time with Di Resta as the two were almost three wide with Maldonado's Williams which was in the points for the first time all season. But Pastor had to pit again, and there was a faulty wheelgun waiting there for when he did, which inevitably cost the Venezuelan a lot of time and any hope of the first points for the team. But at least Williams ensured that all four wheels were attached to the car before sending it back out onto the track... This signalled the phase of the race where drivers needed to come in for their final stops of the day, except for Raikkonen who decided not to come in. This inspired the thought that the car was going to the end of the race, which would involve a really long final stint. Raikkonen may not be the most conversational driver on team radio, but communications were hampered by radio problems - as discussions intensified on intended tyre life.

Raikkonen's stampede out front depended on how quickly Vettel and Grosjean who had pitted, made it through other cars staying out and struggling on older worn tyres, the first of these was the Mercedes of Hamilton in fourth place. That battle bought Raikkonen some time but not enough to stop and rejoin in the lead, neither did the next car of Jenson Button as the McLaren pitted just as Vettel caught up. Realising that making to the end may not be plausible, and considering the amount of time Kimi was losing to the other podium contenders justified making a final stop, followed in by Alonso from second. Both drivers played a final trump card and placed Raikkonen and Alonso onto the softer compound for a final charge to the flag. With ten laps to go the top four had formed a breakaway pack, where Vettel had the very close attentions of both Lotus drivers, all three exchanging fastest laps at will - only to have their pace annihilated by Alonso closing from fourth.

Grosjean's side of the garage demonstrated that his radio was working as he was asked to move over for Raikkonen on the softer tyres to allow him to attack Vettel. Once Kimi was released the difference in pace was evident and started stripping tenths per sector from The German Bloke's lead. But the gap was just a little too big - Raikkonen managed to eke his way into the DRS zone at which point the chequered flag was thrown declaring Vettel the victor on home turf from Raikkonen, and Grosjean held off Alonso for the final step on the podium. Hamilton fell from pole to fifth, illustrating that the tyre wear issues at Mercedes are not quite resolved and won't be on account of being banned from the next test. Jenson Button scored some valuable points for McLaren by bringing the car home in 6th despite being considerably less than complimentary about the Caterham drivers late in the race. Blaming them for allowing Hamilton to catch and pass him in the final few laps. Somehow, flukey rules and all Webber went from being a lap and a minute down to taking points in 7th place for Red Bull. More points for McLaren with Perez in 8th, while Rosberg and Hulkenberg made it three Germans inside the points at the Nurburgring.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a race containing all kinds of oddities and strangeness there has to be some points awarded for the performances today and are awarded as follows:

• 25pts - Mark Webber - From 1 lap and 67s down to scoring points by the end of the race deserves some mega points
• 18pts - Romain Grosjean - Some major pace today, and found some impressive tyre life on those softer compound tyres in the first stint
• 15pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Should have won the race today if he wasn't impeded behind Rosberg
• 12pts - Jenson Button - Finally a decent race for a McLaren
• 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Spent most of the day in the points for Sauber but was caught out by the safety car
• 8pts - Bianchi's Marussia - A car that tows itself way and runs from recovery tractors definately deserves some points
• 6pts - Sebastien Vettel - Survived some intense Lotus based pressure today and still won on home turf
• 4pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Gets points for resisting the challenges of a charging Webber
• 2pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - Gets points for the evasive action performed in the pits when avoiding Di Resta's unsafe release
• 1pt - Ted Kravitz - Somebody on the SKY team that actually knows what is going on in the pit lane

The Penalties Championship

The pit lane was the source of our penalty problems today and here are the penalties following the German GP:

• Force India - 5,000 EUR for releasing Paul Di Resta into the path of Vergne at the first stops
• Red Bull - 30,000 EUR for not putting a wheel on properly and wiping out the cameraman

The Penalty Points Championship

While the official powers that be have doled out their penalties time for the blog to finish things off:

• Red Bull - for their pit lane indiscretion causing injury
• Safety Car Procedure - Was out way too long considering Bianchi's car cleared itself away

Looking forward to Hungary

Well the Hungarian GP is traditionally only ever famous for being dull and uneventful, often compared to Monaco in terms of how difficult it is to overtake. Due to lack of seasonal use the track is often dusty  as well as it being narrow, twisty and with very few opportunities for conventional overtaking. That bad press is a bit of a shame because the track itself is very good - the middle sector flows very nicely from one corner to the next - but that is the very characteristic that makes the racing a little lacklustre at times because there is one useful racing line. Preventing drivers from venturing offline to try something a little different.

But that all goes out of the window if it rains, damp Hungarian GPs have been brilliant competitions - 2006 instantly springs to mind where Jenson Button claimed victory from 14th on the grid weathering safety cars and very changeable conditions. I am more than willing to be proven wrong, and with new experimental tyres it is entirely plausible, but the Hungarian GP is traditionally one of the weakest races of the season with very little going on. So until next time this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.

Round 8: Great Britain 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well, if Pirelli were not making too many friends in the build-up to today's race - they are certainly off the Christmas card list for several drivers at the end of the race. This time round I can agree with most of the things that have been said throughout the events of the race and discussions afterwards, because things have transgressed beyond mere performance issues to clear safety issues - something that has come to the fore more so in reflection of the tragic accident at Le Mans. Right now fingers are being pointed at the curbing, but here's the thing, the curbs have been there for a long time and are not a new thing to account for. So they may have been the cause of the failures, but realistically tyres should be able to resist the conditions that have been around for many many seasons.

However underneath all the issues with tyres the British GP has been an impressive spectacle with a lot close racing and overtaking - not all of which were constricted to the DRS zones as we have seen in other events this year. Several cars were out of position at the start and others placed there through circumstances through the race, therefore producing mismatches of relative pace opened those doors for overtaking. But despite this race being one of the more notable events on the calender, and being a genuinely decent race, something seemed missing - perhaps a lack of complimentary muffins, or not being stalked by potentially villainous sheep, but I assume normal service will resume next weekend when I've re-integrated into the traditional pattern of sleep and activity. There is the small matter of this event to take care of first.

The Race

Small climatic changes had taken place before the start as it had warmed up a fair bit, which for this little island is always a rarity, especially considering I spent a lot of time in the rain in Wales - but the heat could easily be another ingredient in the recipe for tyre destruction.

The actual start was a picture of contrasting fortunes and performances at the bottom end of the scale was Red Bull's Mark Webber who vanished down the middle of the pack and was four wide at the apex of turn one. A situation that was exacerbated by the fact that one of the four cars was Romain Grosjean and as a result contact was made and Webber lost an endplate again - hoping it would make the car faster as it did in Canada... instead he ended up 15th. On the outside of the same quarrel was Massa barrelling down the side of the track making up 6 places from his lowly grid position in one of the better starts of the season. Other notable starts included Raikkonen up to 5th, and Di Resta who was relegated to the back of the grid, and Sutil stealing 4th place.

Opening laps were cautionary as the top three edged away while Sutil had Raikkonen and Massa to deal with behind. Also worth knowing that for a grand total of 7 laps no-one had wanted to hunt down Pirelli and steal their supply of special muffins - so it was time for a monumental display to re-ignite the anger. What could be so damming on British soil... ah here's an idea, how about detonating the tyre on national hero and race leader Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. And so it was done, the left rear disintegrated showering the track in fragments of rubber - Hamilton was able to pit the car eventually but had dropped into last position. Passing the baton of leadership onto that German Bloke again. In an attempt to convey some degree of impartiality between nationalities, it was the turn of Felipe Massa's Ferrari to suffer an exploding rear tyre as the car turned into Aintree corner. So he went to the back of the field instead.

In response to the sudden spate of tyre explosions the pits saw an increased level of activity with people getting rid of the starting tyres in favour of the harder compound - which gave Webber a chance to replace his damaged front wing. Turns out this latest aerodynamic redesign was not as effective as the one Van Der Garde initiated in Montreal, where Mark went and set fastest lap after that damage. Through these stops the Lotus cars found themselves on a similar piece of track behind Jean-Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso - which lead to a brilliant duel as Raikkonen initially lost a place to Grosjean but was able to make the ground back as the two Frenchmen closed in on each other re-igniting a three way battle. As the the Lotus' they ended up racing each other allowing Vergne to eke out a small gap - and as Raikkonen was running side by side with his team-mate on the Hangar straight there was another tyre explosion. This one belonged to Vergne, the left rear erupting into a cloud of debris with fragments bouncing of Raikkonen's helmet. Unsurprisingly the Finn didn't care and focused on completing the pass on Grosjean.

The field of shrapnel from the Torro-Rosso forced the deployment of the safety car to allow the marshals to sweep the track clear and remove the carcass of the detonated tyre. Vernge was able to save the car from spinning out and doing more damage, but was forced retire due to a damaged floor from the explosion. More cars pitted for checks after the third explosion of the race - Webber was informed that Vettel had cuts on his tyres and were close to bursting at his last stop, other calls went out to try and keep drivers off the curbs, in case that was causing the tyres to fail. But using the curbs is faster than not doing so, on that note the chance of people willingly losing time is a little minimal at best.

At the restart it was in the middle of the train where position changes were taking place, as Hamilton was attempting to make a comeback by finding some space on the inside of Gutierrez through the exit of Vale. His next target other than the people at Pirelli was the second Sauber of Hulkenberg a little further down the road who in turn had just had contact with Di Resta's front wing causing the Force India to lose an endplate. Hulkenberg then pitted with more tyre issues before it had a chance to explode therefore Hamilton moved and he too had to deal with the Scotsman in an all Britain duel.

Back at the front Rosberg was starting to catch up to Vettel in this new phase of the race while Sutil was busy holding off Alonso for the final podium place with Raikkonen a little further back. The second Lotus was wrestling with another Red Bull sponsored machine - this time from the main team piloted by a recovering Webber, temporarily losing the place to the Australian before immediately taking it back. Battles that were interrupted by the presence of a lot more debris at the end of Hangar straight, and the replay showed that it belonged to Gutierrez - as the car slipped out of shot a cloud of debris erupted from the front of the car and it can only be assumed to be another tyre explosion. Perhaps when some fan video comes to light we can see whether the wing failed first or another problem for Pirelli. This time the debris was cleared without the need of a safety car and the race continued.

While some cars were pitting for their third set of tyres there was another major development as that German bloke's car keeled over and died on the front straight - as the gearbox ground itself into oblivion. At least it wasn't the tyres for once. Because the car had seized up in an inaccessible place the safety car had to come out again - the British GP isn't known for it's safety cars in the dry but here was our second. Also it set up an interesting final phase of the race, where those who stayed out beforehand had track position but much older tyres and thus less grip - placing the power with Webber and Alonso on the freshest rubber.

On restart number two there was a lot of spacing between the top cars with more bunching further behind - Alonso was the first to make progress past the McLarens, first darting out from behind Button on the run down to Copse and latching onto the back of Perez. That pass was made a little more interesting as Sergio's tyre also exploded as the Ferrari closed up once more sending bits of car and rubber bouncing down the road and off Alonso's car. Fernando was also able to follow Webber through as the Australian made it past fellow countryman and potential replacement - Daniel Ricciardo.  As the laps ran out the cars on older tyres continued to struggle falling victim to Webber, Alonso and Hamilton in turn the best of these battles was Webber taking second from Raikkonen as both cars went two wide through Copse without touching or forcing each other off the track. Brilliant overtaking.

Webber pushed hard in the remaining laps, cancelling out the lead Rosberg had and was unable to catch the German in time finishing seven tenths down at the line. Alonso scored important points in third especially considering Vettel didn't make it to the end to close up the championship a little more. Hamilton despite being last by lap nine was able to make a recovery drive to 4th position, ahead of Raikkonen in 5th on the older tyres. Massa also recovering from a tyre explosion that threw him off the track brought the car home in 6th. Sutil fell from a podium spot on the restart down to 7th, a similar fate to Ricciardo who dropped to 8th by the end of the race. From the final row of the grid Di Resta scored a couple of points in 9th and the final point goes to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg in 10th.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a race where all the attention was directed at the tyres and their tendency to explode, which wasn't part of the original product description, it was about recovery drives and making up for lost ground, and of course the bonus points.

• 25pts - Mark Webber - A slow start, contact and damage on the first lap yet still only 0.7s away from claiming what would have been a popular win
• 18pts  - Lewis Hamilton - Dropped to last place with an exploding tyre and still managed 4th
• 15pts  Felipe Massa - A brilliant start and a recovery drive from another exploding tyre
• 12pts - Paul Di-Resta - From the back of the field and into the points, decent job
• 10pts - Adrian Sutil - Ran the car in a podium place for so long before losing out at the end
• 8pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - For hanging onto the car at the fastest point when the tyre exploded
• 6pts - Fernando Alonso - For missing all of the debris from Perez's exploding tyre
• 4pts - Top Gun Rosberg - Well done for not retiring and surviving Webber in the final laps
• 2pts - Raikkonen/Grosjean - For still duelling through the cloud of peices from Vergne's car
• 1pt - Nico Hulkenberg - Gets a point for Sauber, well done there

The Penalty Points Championship

There is really one one penalty that can be dished out from that race and that obviously goes to Pirelli - yes the curbs may have caused the failures, but those have been there for years and are not a new and sudden problem. Therefore it is not illogical and unreasonable that a tyre company should be able to develop a product that can cope with one of the intrinsic parts of motor-racing and the circuits the drivers compete on. But who am I to judge - instead I'll just throw penalty points around and today one goes to Pirelli

Looking Forward To Germany

In the height of the traditional European season we travel onto the continent for the next race at the Nurburgring, it may be a fraction of the grandeur of the mind-blowingly epic Nordschelife but the modern version is more fitting for the current breed of car. I would not want to consider the consequences of the sort of tyre failures we've seen today out on the ring through the Eiffel Mountains for the outcome would be more severe. This part of Germany often brings with it it's own micro-climate full of intermittent rain, clouds and wind, all of which can turn an uneventful procession into a maelstrom of mayhem and hilarity - without explosions hopefully. There has been a lot of immediate complaints about what needs to be done in time for the next race, and I can't foresee any of the events of today repeating themselves. The curbs are completely different, the temperature will be much cooler and potentially as wet as a damp Thursday in Wales, in reality this business with explosions needs sorting before Spa where the greatest cornering speeds are faced in the upcoming races. So until next race Au Revoir internet.