Round 12: Belgium 2014 - Delayed Review

Greetings Internet, 

I know the race took place yesterday and all the things that happened, did happen a long time ago now - but other commitments meant that it wasn't practical to start making a post after midnight. So as a result this series of characters, words and I am lucky, complete legible sentences, is no longer timely or relevant. There is a valid argument that says that noting posted in this corner of the internet has ever being relevant, and thus probably shouldn't even be here - but on we go. To give a hope of getting this completed this side of midnight, you will be glad to know that I intend it to be a more concise recollection of a race that might prove pivotal in terms of the remainder of the season. Of course no matter what happened across the 44 lap event, the whole world will be all up in arms about the tiniest bit of contact that took place on lap 2. 

The Race

There were some vague concerns about rain at the start of the race, but that merely amassed to a couple of rogue drops rather than anything worthwhile. Maybe if there had have been a little bit of moisture things might have turned out very differently and all those angry faces at the end of the race. It appeared that the Ferrari team forgot when the race was starting and had people working on Alonso's car as the formation lap got underway. Fernando was to be handed a 5s pit-lane penalty which for a clear-cut rule violation seemed to take an age to decide and was a tad lenient. 

Hamilton made the best of the start and moved himself and Vettel ahead of Rosberg through La Source. Towards the back of the grid, Bianchi ran into difficulties, or more accurately difficulties ran into the back of him - due to the lack of any relevant replays I've no idea who did the hitting, but as a result Bianchi suffered a rear puncture. Up at the top of the hill, Vettel attempted to go round the outside of Hamilton at Les Combes - but had to run across the chicane. This promoted Rosberg back up to second - behind his team-mate.

Lap two at Spa will forever be known as "The Incident" at Les Combes. Rosberg had a run on Hamilton up the kemmel straight and went to the outside on turn in to Les Combes. Nico stayed on the outside, with only the tiniest fraction of an overlap - and instead of backing out of the move he argued the point. This became a problem when Hamilton wanted to take the racing line for the second apex and... the incident happened. Rosberg's front wing clipped Hamilton's rear tyre which was immediately punctured. On the way back to the pits Lewis' deflating tyre shredded the undertray of the car. This collision was an inevitable event in team where the only immediate threat comes from the other side of the garage, after a post race 'special meeting' at Mercedes. It was claimed that Rosberg suggested he could avoid the collision if he wanted to, and stayed alongside to prove a point. That point being that he'd refuse to back down...ever, which is all well and good demonstrating a strong stance and a refusal to be pushed around, but this wasn't the way of doing it. Sure Hamilton forced Rosberg off in Hungary in those final laps, and a refusal to let that happen again hurt both cars. Someone should forward Rosberg some footage of Alonso's on board footage - because Fernando knows when to back out of a move - and no-one maintains the opinion that the Ferrari driver is a push over. I understand what Nico was up to, but he wasn't far enough alongside for it pay off.

With Nico now struggling with a car with a damaged front wing he found himself under pressure from a group of pursuing cars. Namely from the two Red Bull drivers, Alonso having lost ground to Ricciardo. In a bizarre case of role reversal it was the Ferraris that were sitting ducks in a straight line while a low downforce setting for Red Bull made them faster... Ricciardo continued he charge forward when he picked off his team-mate after Vettel got sideways in the middle of Pouhon - that lower downforce setup biting the German. In a continuation of the broadcast crew being slightly ignorant of the lower end competitors both Lotterer and Maldonado had retired without the smallest amount of TV coverage. The top four cars all had sight of one another coming into the first round of pit-stops, which in this era is a bit of an oddity. 

After the stops, it appeared that re-occurring debris was to be the story of the middle part of the race. Firstly it was Felipe Massa who got some of Hamilton's shredded tyre caught on the car, and hamper his progress and speed starting off with a position dropped to Sergio Perez's Force India. The Williams team calculated that the time spent with the debis caught on the car cost the Brazilian a total time loss of 40s. Then the debris struck again - almost as if the ghost of Hamilton's dreams were haunting the rest of the field. This time a section of the carcass got caught on Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber which in itself is an unremarkable affair. But after Rosberg pitted for a new front wing he rejoined behind the Mexican - and as he pulled out to make a pass the tyre material dislodged and flew onto Nico's car. Wrapping itself round the aerial such that is was tickling the German's visor - which can't be distracting at all...

As the stops cycled, Jenson Button occupied the lead position, something that McLaren haven't been accustomed to in a while - but it was only temporary as he too had to pit. Promoting Ricciardo up into the top spot after Rosberg lost track position through replacing the nosecone. If one McLaren dropped back, another was make steps further up the grid - Magnussen overtaking Vergne and being another car to effortless breeze past a Ferrari in a straight line. In Bahrain when they were defenceless on the straights Dominicali was encouraged to remove himself. This time they still had one car left in the hunt, after an early stop and some impressive lap times brought Raikkonen onto the back of the leading drivers in second place. Sebastian Vettel was under threat from Nico Rosberg in a recovering Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas' Williams. The slimmest wing settings on that Red Bull and Sebastian's 'Defence Mode' was actually working out against the raw pace of the Mercedes. Nico tried to make it work on the outside of the Bus Stop chicane and ultimately surrendered the place to Bottas as a result. 

At the half-way point life was getting difficult for Mercedes - Rosberg had to pit again to cure a vibration caused by a significant lock-up when fighting Vettel. Hamilton was still in the race, and was complaining regularly on the team-radio asking to give up, asking to pull the car into retirement. Mercedes urged him to continue in the hope that a potential safety car intervention would bring him onto the back of the field. It took until a few laps from the end of the race, before Lewis' wishes were heeded and the damaged car and his ruined afternoon were officially brought to a close. But when Rosberg rejoined the track, on new un-damaged tyres he was very quick - making light work of Jenson Button and then breezing past Fernando Alonso on the Kemmel straight... That higher downforce configuration wasn't giving anyone in a Ferrari too much to defend with. Raikkonen had the same problem when he found himself dealing with Rosberg's Mercedes - utterly powerless to prevent the German coming through.

Alonso found himself in the midst of another battle when he came across the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen on older worn tyres and what ensued was a display of substantial defensive driving. Kevin refused to give in and unlike Rosberg, Alonso decided not to force the issue backing out in Malmedy to avoid contact. This particular duel was only silenced when Magnussen pitted to remove those older tyres and give Alonso a break. But up front there was the thought of a gargantuan tussle for the lead - because Rosberg was homing in on Ricciardo at a vast rate of knots. Even after a final stop for fresh soft tyres and carving past Bottas the Mercedes was powering towards Daniel at over two seconds a lap... unfortunately Nico required to be travelling about half a second faster to have a change of rescuing a win from a challenging day for the team as a whole.

So as that battle seemed like it was going nowhere, it was fortunate that there was another far more intense one brewing further back. Somehow Magnussen found himself at war with Alonso again, and this time he brought Button and Vettel along for the ride. With laps remaining being in short supply the Dane was getting increasingly desperate - combined with the fact that the Ferrari was having difficulty overtaking anything in a straight line. As soon as Alonso came close to making a pass Magnussen would close the door - even on the middle of the Kemmel straight pushing Fernando onto the grass. This allowed Jenson to pounce on the Ferrari round the outside of Malmedy, Button tried to follow that up with an outside pass of Rivage. True to form Magnussen slammed the door shut pushing Jenson off the track and allowing Alonso back through. Vettel was also able to pass Button into Fagnes. On the next lap Alonso tried to pass Magnussen again - to the outside of Rivage, and once again was nerfed off on the exit - allowing Vettel to steal another position. This duel intensified as the collection of drivers had to negotiate an intense battle between Ericsson and Chilton at the back of the field.

At the very front, Ricciardo was too far ahead to be caught by Nico, and took a third victory for Red Bull in front of the German. Bottas took the third place from Raikkonen after merely blasting past the Ferrari, like so many others have done before. Vettel made sure he passed Magnussen - swerving towards the Dane in the braking zone to La Source and surviving contact with Alonso who couldn't avoid the two cars slowing on the apex. Button remained behind his team-mate as McLarens finished 6th and 7th, and Alonso limped home with a damaged wing in 8th. The points were finished by Perez in 9th and Kvyat in 10th. Magnussen was later penalised for pushing Alonso off track and dropped down to 12th in the results.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

After a day and many hours after the flag brought the event to a close it is time to update the points scorers from the Belgian GP - note that the overall points are being maintained in a spreadsheet which writes out the relevant HTML, just to prevent any hint of points equalisation as the season progresses.

• 25pts - Daniel Ricciardo - As soon as Mercedes mess up Ricciardo is able to capitalise and consistently making Vettel look rather average
• 18pts - Kimi Raikkonen - After a relatively poor season, only a weak top speed kept the Finn off the podium at Spa
• 15pts - Fernando Alonso - A brilliant display of skill in both battles with Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button - and a spectacular save at the top of Eau Rouge, and a less experienced set of hands that car was going in the wall.
• 12pts - Valtteri Bottas - Another podium finish for the Williams driver, considerably beating Massa - although Felipe had issues in the race
• 10pts - Kevin Magnussen - In the first battle he was defending brilliantly, but doesn't score as well due to the actions towards the end even if he was fending off a trio of drivers with seven world titles between them.
• 8pts - Max Chilton/Marcus Ericsson - Even through they are the slower pay drivers of the bottom teams their little scrap almost had the Magnussen fight running four wide as they lapped them. And for virtually high-fiving each other on twitter afterwards.
• 6pts - Jenson Button - Has to have some points for that pass on Fernando at Malmedy and for keeping out of the way of Magnussen
• 4pts - Daniil Kvyat - Despite being absent from all TV coverage throughout the race but still comes home with some more points
• 2pts - Nico Rosberg - Despite making a pigs ear out of that move on Hamilton it was a solid recovery drive with some incisive passes
• 1pt - Artem Markelov - Gets the remaining point for his outstanding pass on Tom Dillman in GP2 when the track was wet on the outside curbs of Malmedy

The Penalty Points Championship

It is not often these days that the penalty points series makes an appearance but after Spa there will be some additions.

• Nico Rosberg - Yes you were trying to make a point, but that was a little silly of you now wasn't it
• Lewis Hamilton - Stop whining, so what if you're last miles off the pace - so are Chilton and Ericsson, but they don't throw in the towel because points are impossible. Sure they don't have a championship to fight and engine components worth conserving - but their race isn't less important than yours
• Camera Director - There are cars outside the top eight - just wanted to remind you
• GP2 Stewards - There was nothing wrong with what Cecotto did (for once) so there was no need to ask him to move over
• The Stewards - Their F1 counterparts get penalty points too, it took an age to penalise Ferrari for a blatant breech of the regulations and even then delivered a weak penalty. Having a loose wheel in the pits beings on all hell fury from the administrators, but a team calling personnel onto a live grid as cars are powering up for a formation lap gets a slap on the wrist...is this the FIA delivering a lesser penalty to Ferrari because they are friends... who knows.

Looking ahead to Monza

From one extreme speed circuit to another, replacing the high speed corners and elevation changes with pure power. A race which should be Mercedes' to lose, but then again so should have been this one and look what happened, but I daresay that the two Mercedes team-mates may be travelling in separate coaches down to Monza with not a word spoken between them - especially if Toto Wolf's face was anything to go by. His post race interview would certainly give Kvyat's death stare a run for it's money when the cameras picked him up yesterday. As it was reported across the internet, following the events of Spa and "The Incident" - it is most certainly on...

 

Round 12: Belgium 2014 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

That has to be a first, hail stones falling the moments before the session got underway and some of the most intense rainfall that the paddock has seen in a long time. A similarly big storm arrived a couple of hours later and drowned the GP2 race for a lap or so. The unpredictability of the weather across the Ardenne region struck once more today, from monsoon rains, hail and then bright sunshine. So a typical day in Spa then, not that it did to much to uproot Mercedes campaign of domination that resumed faultlessly after the summer break. 

In all honesty although I did sit and watch qualifying today, as I do regularly during a season - I can't remember any of it. Because there was various things that needed painting - there is a giant false beak for a tropical bird which doesn't exist and an articulating tortoise... I may as well point out what they are now because as I survey the fruits of my labours I can only glad that the audience are a considerable distance from the stage when these creations are unveiled at the end of the week. This is why I was never too good at art. But on with the show, and I shall now google what did happened in the rain and damp of Belgium and do my level best write something meaningful about today.

Qualifying

The last of the gigantic storms had rolled away before Q1 was due to start and most of the larger puddles had drained from the track surface, leaving the circuit on the cusp of selecting intermediates over the full wet compound. The majority of the field did vote for the intermediate tyre, while Williams stuck with the wet option. It appeared neither had the advantage over the other, the intermediates were faster but were at a higher risk of aquaplaning - Daniil Kvyat hitting a puddle on the way down to Eau Rouge. Fortunately the Russian saved the little slide and didn't end up in the wall. Braking was also proving very difficult - those on the full wet tyres have a smaller contact patch with the tarmac and both Massa and Bottas were experiencing lock-ups under braking. Even the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton ran wide at the Bus Stop after running out of grip on entry. But save of the session belonged to Kimi Raikkonen who got a little sideways in Radillon - which could easily have been an enormous shunt.

On the time sheets the Mercedes team locked out the provisional front row with Hamilton in front, meanwhile Gutierrez pulled his Sauber into retirement on the exit of Stavelot. This meant, in theory that only one car from a team other than Caterham or Marussia would be up for relegation. Neither Lotterer in his Caterham debut or Ericsson looked like they were going to turn their fortunes around like Van Der Garde did for the team in 2013. Marussia however were fairing much better Bianchi and even Chilton, having taken his drive back from Rossi, were out of the relegation zone. In the dying minutes of the session Romain Grosjean was able to bump Chilton down into relegation. Hulkenberg had a chance to do the same to the Lotus driver, but a lock-up in the Bus Stop chicane thwarted his chances. Bianchi however remained safe and paid another visit to Q2.

Q2

More rain was threatened as Q2 began so there was an immediate stream of cars too to the circuit, and because of the length of the track and the time it takes to complete an inlap/outlap sequence the drivers were left to circulate for a while. Perez and Grosjean in the lone contenders for their respective teams were the first drivers to set a time - despite Romain getting very sideways through the first corner at La Source. Grosjean went one step further on his next lap spinning after changing some settings on the steering wheel.
A hint of some additional precipitation started to show as more cars were getting sideways - Kvyat once more having to stop the car spinning into the fence. Daniil always seeming to test the limits of adhesion - in those moments when he is not delivering that infamous death stare. Hamilton had a little wobble in Eau Rouge, and Rosberg benefitted from the extended tarmac on the outside of Beau Rivage. Had the gravel still been there, it'd be curtains for the German. 

In the final few moments of the session it appeared to be a battle between McLaren and the two Red Bull teams to avoid relegation. Initially Magnussen and the Toro Rosso drivers that had the advantage, how Vergne has the motivation to keep going after being dropped by the team. In challenging conditions you can never rule out Jenson Button, and the Briton delivered once again - relegating Vergne as he jumped into the top ten. The second Toro Rosso fell to after a final charge from Sebastian Vettel - and on the drive back to the garage after the session concluded Daniil was noticeably livid. The Russian was shaking his fist and was very unhappy about something - made so much worse when he span the car while trying to drive it with one hand. If there is anything worse than that death stare, it is a very angry death stare...

Q3

To avoid further conflict it is time to move on to Q3 the final session, and it was all set up for another titanic battle between Hamlton and Rosberg for pole position. Mercedes had over a second in hand over the rest of the field - no-one could get anywhere near them on pace. The weather prevented a strike from Williams and everyone else further behind them. Hamilton went first and immediately dropped the ball in turn one, just running wide and losing time before the lap had really begun. Rosberg immediately capitalised on Lewis' error to take the initial pole position, to make matters worse for Hamilton the timing of his mistake prevented a double run at the end of the session. 

Behind the Mercedes pairing Red Bull were running mere centimetres from disaster through Blancimont - Vettel running along the damp curbing on his way to third place. Ricciardo went one better and was sliding across the tarmac run-off through the puddles without lifting - he did lose the chance of beating Vettel in the process. Back to the lead battle and Hamilton was driving inordinately slowly through the final chicane, setting up for a final charge. But once again he almost threw the whole thing away in La Source, but this time kept up the momentum, his challenge did come apart in Stavelot where he just drifted offline and to the grass verge. Lewis managed to improve his time compared to the first lap but was still slower than Nico. To add insult to injury Rosberg went and improved his time and claim a fourth consecutive pole position - this time against a team-mate that was still in contention. 

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

It is these conditions that can often exemplify some of the strongest performances and make others look very embarrassed. 

• 10pts - Jules Bianchi - When the conditions get tricky at Spa, Jules manages to shine - making it into Q2
• 8pts - Nico Rosberg - In a straight fight in difficult conditions, and the German comes out on top when Lewis was tipped to dominate
• 6pts - Sebastian Vettel - Best of those drivers who don't have the good fortune of the Mercedes car
• 5pts -  Lewis Hamilton - Gets the car back onto the front row, but still continues to make mistakes.
• 4pts - Andre Lotterer - His first qualifying session in very difficult conditions and the Le Mans champion defeats Ericsson by over a second... why wasn't he replaced this weekend instead
• 3pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Gets some points for the greatest save of the session
• 2pts - Daniil Kvyat - Gets some points for lots of sideways moments and an entertaining mental breakdown on the drive back to the pits.
• 1pt -Konstantin Tereshchenko - A name you might not have heard of, me neither frankly, but this Russian in GP3 practice was thrown several metres into the air after hitting one of those giant curbs. The ones put in place to stop corner cutting, caused an enormous accident - if Red Bull gives you wings than this could be a new way of joining their development program. Here's a link to his incredible flight, which he did walk harmlessly away from. Here

Looking to Tomorrow

Well, the forecasts suggest that tomorrow will be a completely dry race, but given the variability of the Belgian weather don't necessarily mean that is a certainty. Either way for the first time in a few races we are scheduled for a duel for the victory between both of the Mercedes drivers sitting on the front row. A battle hopefully on the same level that we saw all the way back in Bahrain because that was majestic. In fact we have all the main protagonists at the front of the grid on a track which deserves and demands a lot of respect. It should be a brilliant afternoon.

Round 12: Belgium 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

After a month of digital silence this corner of the internet has returned, no doubt to the sound of international disappointment and a chorus of general indifference. But even if - as per usual - I am indeed merely spouting words out into the most uninhabited reaches of cyberspace, where no-one can hear you type, life and unintelligible writing shall go on.  This time we start off by asking the question - "What on earth is going on?" - because in the past four weeks it appears that the entire paddock has lost the plot. To begin with we had Bernie, F1's deranged overlord and supreme ruler, meandering his way out of a bribery trial.... with a bribe. Normally something like this is followed by the mad troll unveiling an insane change in the regulations, for example when the trial commenced there was a sudden announcement regarding standing restarts in 2015 and an Azerbaijan Grand Prix. This time the old man has been suspiciously quiet... and I'm not sure which response is scarier.

In other news F1 is about to turn into a crèche, after rumours that Sauber would sign Russian teenager Sergey Sirotkin faded away - the sport has acquired it's first child. Enter Max Verstappen, son of former competitor Jos, who has been handed a place at Toro Rosso alongside Kvyat - instead Vergne. This caps off a torrid year Vergne has had with Red Bull's driver program, ignored by the main team in favour of Ricciardo, and now thrown out altogether to make way for Verstappen Jnr. But the influence of young Max's promotion cuts deeper than just alienating Vergne, Antonio Felix Da Costa was the original favourite for Daniil's seat - and he lost out there too. Then there is Carlos Sainz Jnr and Alex Lynn, both doing very well in FR3.5 and GP3 respectively - each with countless more race experience under their collective belts than Verstappen, but they were ignored as well. In the face of a very strong pool of driver talent why Max, admittedly he is doing a remarkable job in Euro F3... not that I've actually seen any of it. But does one season automatically make you F1 material, I doubt it especially as the chap is only 16 at the moment... which is the most depressing fact about the whole thing. 

With one rookie toddler on the way, the grid gains another new face this weekend. Caterham for some bemusing reason have asked Andre Lotterer to drive in the Begian GP - from what I can gather it is a single race deal as a random punt at scoring some points if it rains at Spa. Lotterer is part of the Audi Le Mans squadron and has won the epic 24hr race on three occasions. Unlike Max, Andre is a proven driver with a very successful history in sports cars and endurance racing, including proficiency in changeable conditions. Sounds like a very interesting prospect, and it is, but there are one or two problems with the plan. Problem 1: The team are giving him Kobayashi's car... if the team are looking for points in a crazy race, why take out your current fastest driver... of course the answer is that Ericsson has more money. Problem 2: The Caterham is monumentally different to Lotterer's Audi R18, so in order for this to work Andre has to turn up and be immediately faster than Ericsson. Remember in 2009 when Fisichella went to Ferrari when Massa was recovering - he was miles off the pace because he didn't know the car. How is a complete rookie to this category going to miraculously solve Caterhams problems, Lotterer is a magnificent driver - but I can't see this working out.

The Venue

After that slightly oversized introduction and update, it is about time I moved on to discuss the track for this weekend's action. Spa-Francorchamps is nothing short of wonderful, a graceful relic of how things should be. It has everything, immensely daunting and infamous corners, overtaking opportunities, elevation changes and a rhythm and a flow that Herman Tilke could never find at the bottom of track architecture manual. Even in this modern age of high downforce and driver safety, Spa remains a fearsome prospect. The annual 24hr GT race took place before the summer break, and delivered one of the most violent and destructive races the track has seen - each accident was larger and more vicious than the last, fire and devastation everywhere. Marcus Mahy had to undergo neck surgery after being placed in an induced coma such was the extent of the impact he suffered. So Spa cannot be taken lightly.

The lap begins at the aptly named 'La Source' hairpin, the slowest corner on the track and only a short distance away from the start line. It is one of the primary overtaking spots, but on occasion can put many an errant front wing in danger. La Source exits onto the GT straight, used for fields too large to fit on the start straight - it is a steep descent, straight to the foot of Spa's most formidable landmark. Carved into the side of a mountain is the infamous Eau Rouge, a corner that may be far more challenging this season with lower downforce levels, especially for the lower teams. I'd be surprised if over the course of the weekend, the corner doesn't consume at least one unsuspecting victim - be it through the heart of Eau Rouge or across the top of the hill at Radillon, Spa can be merciless.

If you survive Eau Rouge with all four wheels still attached, there a brief respite in the form of the Kemmel straight - home of the longest of the DRS zones. Kemmel is interrupted by a break in the tree line hiding a clearing, and the Les Combes chicane. Les Comes is a sequence which introduces the magical middle sector of the lap, each corner seems to appear precisely where it feels it should be. On the exit of Les Combes pull the car back over to the left, just in time for Malmedy, followed by a short straight feeding into the challenging downhill and off camber braking zone for Beau Rivage. Rivage on the surface seems to be a generic 180 degree corner, but the radius, duration and elevation change all come together to make it stand out. On the exit the car almost instictively floats to the right as the road naturally sweeps downhill through Bruxelles - the corner which for so many years appeared to have no name. Each organic contour of the land fitting together seamlessly.

Down another steep incline the road plummets towards Pouhon, while downforce and car performance have nullified the challenge of many a corner, Pouhon comfortably holds onto its reputation. The double apex descending left hander is narrow and tantalisingly close to being flat out, but leave the boot in and a potential trip to the scenery is on the cards. Even on the exit you're not safe, drift a little too far over the wrong side of the curb and the car will be fired back across into the inside wall...the track limits will bite. Pouhon gives way to the final part of the middle sector of this monolithic layout, a gentle right-left sequence at Fagnes pinches the cars ever so slightly on the exit - to make you're still concentrating. At the lowest point of the circuit, the final sector begins with Stavelot, a corner which may seem deceptively simple but has seen many visting the tyre barrier after underestimating it. 

The long climb back up to the pit straight is an expression of unrelenting power and top speed, another example things you just don't see anymore in modern circuit design - unless it is an obligatory >1km straight.... This final section first turns gently through Curve Paul Frere before building up even more speed for the fastest corner on the entire calendar. Blancimont, it may be stripped of it's gravel after it put Luciano Burti in an overnight coma, but it is no less ominous. Admittedly these days it is easy flat for most if not all of the grid... but add a sprinkle of rain and the result is terrifying. 

This only leaves one corner left - well one chicane - and after almost 6km of tarmac brilliance it always makes you wonder what on earth was going on in the minds of the people who redesigned the bus stop. Back in the late 90's and early 2000's the Bus Stop chicane was a cheeky combination of corners that weren't too slow and required precision to avoid putting it in the wall. A revision in the mid 2000's was a severe downgrade but still followed some of the ethos of the original. The latest update as part of Spa's regeneration program a few years ago is an utter travesty and an abomination of a corner. Yes overtaking is easier there now, which was the design buzzword at the time, but at what cost... I understand why it happened, in much the same way I understand why the Hockenheimring was shortened... But I don't have to like it. The newer Bus Stop is the equivalent of stapling a giant spoiler on the back of an E-Type, just because it improves downforce... It's just not the done thing. At least they didn't get their hands on the rest of the place.

The Form Guide

I expect to see some updates and upgrades making into circulation after the summer break - Caterham decided to update a driver... and then put him in the wrong car. But will that change the order of things, well probably not, aside from the middle sector Spa is mainly about power - the blast from La Souce to Les Combes through Eau Rouge, and then from Stavelot to the corner that is a shadow of the Bus Stop are both high speed sections. Therefore this should be Mercedes territory as far as the engines go, so look for strong results from Williams, McLaren and Force India. While the factory team, barring any mechanical difficulties vanish off into the distance. But Spa used to be notoriously difficult on the mechanical components, so in this age of increased reliability challenges, that isn't all done and dusted either. 

Away from the Mercedes powered onslaught, Red Bull could be on for a respectable weekend, because the flowing middle sector should play nicely into their hands. It does however remain a case of damage limitation on the faster sections where the opposition have a clear advantage. Of the main teams it could be Ferrari that lose out here, with a car which is neither fastest in a straight line or round corners, but more of a general purpose creation may lack the specialities of those around them to keep up. I sense points but not those towards the very front of the field, but I think the in-house battle could be very interesting given how much Raikkonen enjoy's Spa and his gradual improvement in acclimatising to the car. 

The lower mid-field may belong to Toro Rosso this weekend, with Lotus struggling for both speed and downforce and Sauber much the same, just with better reliability. Depending on race conditions this fight could be for the final championship point on Sunday. Further back, the lower teams really need the traditional rains of the Ardennes to improve their chances of success. Caterham obviously banking on some changeable conditions in their appointment of Lotterer for the weekend. Of all the places to come and learn how to drive one of the most difficult cars on the grid... potentially in the rain as well. 

The Belgian GP is a rare beacon of how things used to be, set on a twisting ribbon of wonder plotted along the sculpted topography of the land. It is a marvellous venue which can deliver magnificent races wet or dry... and occasionally both. But there is always the chance that on a flowing rhythmic circuit such as this that the drivers fall into the trap of a high speed procession. Hopefully the chances of that are relatively slim, bring it on. 

Round 11: Hungary 2014 - Review

Greetings Internet,

See, that's why we need rain every now and again - even if it had stopped before the start of the race. The powers that be could have been left looking rather silly had they opted to start under the safety car - we know in the past that safety cars have been called as soon as the level of precipitation exceeds the level required for intermediate tyres. For once it seems - contrary to popular opinion the stewards made the right call.

What we were left with was 1hr 53 minutes of entertainment, defying the reputation that Hungarian GP has accumulated over the years. Of course the only times that reputation has been disobeyed had been when the weather has played a considerably part in the race. It was a race of two halves really, one based filled with a little bit of madness and unpredictability, and this half defined the strategies and track position of the second phase once the racing surface had dried up. If I hadn't seen some of the highlights of the Spa 24hr GT race i'd say that the Hungarian GP was a destructive affair - but the GT event looks like it was directed by Michael Bay with all fire and destruction all over the place... Guess where the field is heading next...

The Race

An hour before the start a large thunderstorm hit the track leaving it very wet indeed, but as per normal most of if had dried out before the actual start. We saw a couple of drivers running off the track on their laps to the grid - Maldonado visiting the grass in the middle sector on the far side of the track. On the whole the drivers and teams elected to start the race on the intermediate tyres. According to Kvyat, Toro Rosso attempted to start the race without an engine and failed to pull away on the formation lap. The Russian would rejoin the race, but one lap down.

Sensibly it was an ordinary standing start and the front row eased away in unison along with Bottas in third. The Finn showed bravery under braking for diving into turn one to sneak around the outside of Sebastian Vettel to steal second. Another driver to make progress was Jenson Button - the driver to have won 100% of the rain affected races at the Hungaroring taking 5th from Ricciardo before turn two. As for Hamilton, he found his pit lane starting position rather cramped with Magnussen heading the queue following the damage he suffered in Q3. Lewis passed Kevin almost before leaving the pits, but on cold brakes span the car in turn two gently brushing the barriers with the left front tyre. Normally you'd consider this to be the narrowest crash escape - but we'd see an even more dramatic display later on. 

In the initial phase of the race the front half of the grid were playing it rather cautiously - Rosberg had vanished off into the distance while Bottas had Vettel for company in second. The radio traffic was concerned about track conditions and the threat of further rainfall spotted on the radar... we got one shower, hoping for a second was just greedy. Just like in Germany all of the attention was put on Hamilton and his recovery drive through the field - the conditions negating the single line effect of the race track. However unlike Germany the camera direction wasn't quite as good - we have no idea how the Briton made it from 21st up to 13th... I'm guessing that's what the magic switch does. The first real coverage of this charge showed Lewis duelling with Kimi Raikkonen in the final two corners, Kimi defended the position using the outside line. But alas the Mercedes engine proved to be the decisive factor and Hamilton left the Ferrari for dead on the main straight. 

The race was put on hold for a little while when the camera panned to the decimated wreckage of Marcus Eriksson's Caterham. The Swede had got all kinds of sideways on the exit of turn three, initially he saved the drift but the car swapped back in the other direction and was wiped across the barrier on the outside. The safety car was deployed to clean up the incident and the field streamed into the pits - unfortunately Rosberg, Bottas and Vettel had passed the pits when the incident happened. As a result they were mired back in the pack. Jenson Button and Vergne came close to contact when the McLaren was released. We also had a Mexican stand-off between Perez and Gutierrez as the pair drove down the pit-lane two wide and continued all the way to turn one. Just as we were all set to go back to green the safety car period was extended - Romain Grosjean span his Lotus under the yellow flag conditions and bounced off the tyre wall in turn three, opposite the site of Eriksson's accident.

Finally things did get under way again with Ricciardo leading from Jenson Button who restarted on a new set of Intermediate tyres - hoping for more rain. As Jenson took the lead from the Australian on the restart the strategy decision seemed like an inspired call - a hat trick of wins in the wet for Button... Well that all centred on the hope that this second bout of rain was going to arrive... and it didn't. Rosberg seemed to be struggling in the few laps following the restart with wisps of smoke coming out of his left rear brake duct. The German didn't have the pace that the Mercedes has been known for, and demonstrated before the safety car interruption. This started backing up the cars behind him bunching Vergne, Alonso, Vettel and the two Force India drivers all up together. Both Perez and Hulkenberg slid wide almost into each other in turn five gifting two places to Hamilton and to Vettel. This bunching got worse as Rosberg caught up to back of Kevin Magnussen on worn intermediates. Nico attempted to take the place from the McLaren but managed to lose a place to Jean-Eric Vergne instead, to which Alonso followed suit to take another place from Rosberg... Here on lap 15 only the car of Sebastian Vettel separated Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

At the back of the queue headed now by Magnussen and Vergne - the two Force India drivers had a bit of a falling out - Hulkenberg attempted a pass on Perez. Unfortunately Nico collected his team-mate, somehow Sergio kept it pointing in the right direction but Hulkenberg ended up in the barrier in the final corner. Rosberg attempted to make a move on Vergne again in turn one - almost going into the back of Magnussen in the process. But the Frenchman resisted, cutting back to the inside and reclaiming the position. Magnussen pitted from the front of the group which once was a seething squabbling mass and was now a more concise four car train. Vergne doing a valiant job of holding off two Mercedes cars and a quadruple world champion in his Toro Rosso. With all this chaos going on it was a massive surprise that we hadn't heard from Pastor Maldonado, well the Venezuelan refused to be left out as he attempted a pass on Jules Bianchi. Pastor locked up and slid into the side of the Marussia and span himself round in the process only be narrowly avoided by Kobayashi in the sole remaining Caterham. Despite all this Chilton was still last...

As the rain failed to arrive Button too had to abandon his intermediate tyres and hand the lead back to Ricciardo with Massa and Alonso following behind him. The camera panned back to the Vergne train only to see the shape of a Force India slide across from the outside of the track in the background and smash itself to pieces against the pitwall. Sergio Perez had put a wheel on the astro-turf beyond the final corner and fire into the concrete wall. In this one incident we saw the importance of respecting track limits, and an irefutable case for a safety car intervention due to a stationary vehicle on the front straight. There were also a lot of bits of said stationary vehicle scattered about as well - which may have swayed the decision. So the safety car was deployed again. In the 2015 theory of standing restarts, races like this could easily erupt into a ridiculous cycle of restart followed by collision and another restart.

Fernando Alonso stayed out under the safety car and assumed the lead on the restart with Jean-Eric Vergne in second place as Ricciardo and Massa pitted. When the safety car returned to the pits the race seemed to be falling into Alonso's hands as Vergne couldn't keep up with the Ferrari and started to hold up the cars behind him. In the first few laps following the restart things calmed down again, after all if they got any more manic there would be no more cars left in the race by the time we reached the chequered flag. The retirement tally increased even further as Kamui Kobayashi and Esteban Gutierrez were forced to retire as a result of technical difficulties. We had to wait around until the next round of pit-stops before things got interesting again. Lewis Hamilton was informed that overtaking Vettel and Vergne were mission critical objectives. Unlike yesterday it appeared Lewis had some more luck on his side as both those objectives cleared themselves in the space of one corner. Vergne pitted, and Vettel put a wheel on the outside of the final corner - like Perez - and headed to the pit wall. Somehow, and it still beggars belief how the German kept the car out of the concrete only brushing a rear tyre against the paintwork. The car didn't even come to a stop, executing a complete 360 spin without damage and carried on - he did lose a few places in the process however. 

Hamilton was now running in second position... after starting from the pit land and hitting the fence on lap one... how fortunes change. As Fernando pitted from the lead - the top spot was passed to Lewis... winning from last place, that can't be possible right, especially at Hungary. Even after the Briton made his stop he rejoined in front of Rosberg... that'll go down well. As we'll find out later it didn't. But first we caught up with Vettel, who after stealing the accolade of closest crash escape from Lewis now had Kimi Raikkonen to deal with. The Ferrari had rejoined on fresh tyres directly in front of the Red Bull driver and positioned the car perfectly to prevent Sebastian stealing the position. Raikkonen then caught up with Maldonado, scything down the inside of the Lotus as it circulated on an alternate strategy following the contact with Bianchi. 

Back to the Hamilton/Rosberg struggle and an interesting situation had developed. Nico on older but faster tyres had caught Hamilton and requested that he should be allowed past due to his alternate strategy. Hamilton was then instructed 'Not to hold Nico up' which generally means let the other car through. Would Hamilton play ball, would he hell - instead he started edge away from an increasingly frustrated German. Rosberg in an agitated state asked the team why he wasn't been allowed through. To which Hamilton replied 'I'm not slowing down for Nico, if he gets close enough he can overtake'. In fairness Nico wasn't exactly sitting on Lewis' gearbox, but that is a factor of the aerodynamic wake of an identical car preventing him getting close. These ten laps of follow-the-leader was blatantly costing Nico time - but considering he was racing Lewis for position indirectly via strategy you could understand Lewis' reluctance to comply with the team wishes. But I can expect some fallout from this sequence of events - good thing there is some time off to calm down afterwards.

Rosberg pitted to get out of the turbulent air of his team mate and rejoined behind the other Mercedes and rejoined behind the Bottas, Raikkonen battle. Ricciardo also pitted from the lead - handing the reigns to Fernando Alonso, who was planning to go to the end on his current set of tyres. It was a gamble that depended on Fernando being able to hold off anyone on fresher tyres making a charge at the end of the race. As the gaps sorted themselves out, two distinct battle groups emerged - the main one being a three way tussle for the lead of the race. Fernando Alonso had been caught by Lewis Hamilton who in turn had Ricciardo on much fresher tyres clawing back time on the Mercedes at a rapid pace. The second battle focussed on Rosberg dealing with Raikkonen and Massa. First he dispatched the Ferrari after Raikkonen got caught up behind Massa through turn one. This was followed up with a DRS assisted pass on Felipe Massa - Rosberg should email this video to Hamilton later as an demonstration that a Mercedes can pass a Williams after Lewis's struggles against Bottas in Germany. What this did mean was that Nico had clear track ahead of him and an abundance of pace as he hunted down Lewis Hamilton for round two.

At the front the top three were very close together, Ricciardo having caught up with Hamilton and Alonso. Daniel's strategy seemed to be working out, in the end all he had to do was pass the fastest car on the grid and a double world champion... how hard could it be. As it so happened it proved to be quite challenging, and Hamilton was having the same struggle attempting to take the position from Alonso. It was a very tense, close quarters battle with little room for error, and the pressure was building as Rosberg was catching all three cars at over three seconds per lap. With three cars separated by 0.3s it was wonderfully poised with six laps remaining - that poise momently evaded Alonso as he ran across the inside of the top chicane. Which in the childish spirit of driving these days resulted in a complaint from Hamilton claiming Fernando gained an advantage and should be penalised. Considering Lewis had come from the pit lane things had gone all right thus far he didn't need to start being all petty again - besides Ricciardo was his main threat. 

The Australian attempted to capitalise on another failed Hamilton attack on Alonso to go round the outside of the second corner. Hamilton gently closed the door leaving Daniel nowhere to go. One lap later Ricciardo tried again, getting further alongside such that Lewis couldn't force him out wide, Ricciardo held his ground and claimed the position on the inside of turn three. This was bad news for Alonso as he now had a car on fresher tyres right behind him, one that would be much harder to defend against. Sure enough on the main straight Daniel Ricciardo used the DRS to close on Fernando - but dove down the inside from a long way back, leaning on the fresher grip of the softer tyres to get the car stopped. Like in Canada when things go wrong with the Mercedes Daniel Ricciardo picks up the pieces and takes the lead with three laps to go. Does that mean the battles were over... not quite yet.

On the final lap Hamilton had Rosberg right behind him - and with Alonso ahead he couldn't really escape. Nico in a much faster car got up alongside his team-mate through turn two. Just like in the duel with Ricciardo, Hamilton slammed the door - this time he was a lot more forceful almost putting Nico out onto the grass. This was the last real opportunity for Nico to make it onto the podium. Daniel Ricciardo claimed his second win of the season - the only driver to beat the Mercedes strikes again. The longer strategy of Fernando Alonso allowed him to be the second car to be only the second driver to complete a race ahead of all of the Mercedes drivers in a race in taking second place. In a second successive remarkable comeback Hamilton goes from the pit-lane to podium, via the barrier. Rosberg had to settle for fourth place behind his team-mate. Massa and Raikkonen came home in 5th and 6th ahead of Vettel after his very near visit to the concrete wall. The timing of the safety car prevented Bottas from continuing his run of podium finishes, demoting him to 8th. Vergne finished in the points for Toro Rosso after restarting in second place. The final point went to Jenson Button - on the cusp of an inspired strategy call which ultimately made his afternoon very difficult.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners 

When conditions throw up something unusual it can force some notable performances throughout the field, performances that deserve points. 

• 25pts - Lewis Hamilton - Pits to podium via the barrier, and executing an immense pass on Vergne on the outside of turn four in the process
• 18pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Selecting a strategy that involves overtaking at Hungary is a tough call, making it work is brilliant
• 15pts - Fernando Alonso - Hanging onto ruined tyres for so long under pressure extreme pressure deserves many points
• 12pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Not as impressive as Hamilton's drive, but 16th-6th in a Ferrari which isn't the fastest car is a strong day's work
• 10pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - Utter defiance under attack from Rosberg, and held onto second place well, strong awareness as Lewis came past
• 8pts - Sebastian Vettel - Simply for keeping that car out of the wall, stunt driving at it's finest
• 6pts - Jenson Button - Turned a risky strategy decision into a recovery drive for the final championship point... curse the lack of more rain
• 4pts - Nico Rosberg - The strongest recovery of the three drivers caught out by the first safety car timing
• 2pts - Adrian Sutil - Came so close to scoring Sauber's first points of the season in 11th place, clearly today wasn't quite crazy enough for them 
• 1pt - Esteban/Gutierrez - A pit lane mexican stand-off duel deserves a point apiece.

Looking Forward to Belgium

Here it comes, the big one, after the long summer break one of the most exhilerating venues of the season looms large on the horizon. If the Spa 24hr race is anything to go by there will be very few cars left standing come the end of the race. That is even before the threat of rain, and in the Belgian forests there is always the threat of rain. Although I get the ominous feeling that after the shower before the race today we've used up our allocation of precipitation for 2014 - we have yet to see any rainfall during a race since Brazil 2012... and that was a magnificent race. 

The month long break allows Hamilton and Rosberg to stew in their collective disagreements following today - in the event of a championship battle it is every man for himself. Even if they operate from the same team garage. Nico may have hoped for a team decision to over-ride Hamilton's personal championship charge, but I'm not sure he'll make that call again... and if the racing-boot is on the other foot, well, we'll just have to wait and see. 

Round 11: Hungary 2014 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

Once again the conspiracy theorist floodgates are flung wide open and the interesting interpretations of today's developments come pouring through. Exactly the same sort of theories and stories that started to be suggested when everyone assumed that Webber was being specifically hampered at Red Bull so that Vettel could be the dominant force within the team. Whoever or whatever is at fault here, all that really matters is that the events of this afternoon has left us with another promising grid on a track that is exceptionally difficult to make progress on. To add to that a side serving of complacency has doubled up the intensity of comeback driving we've been been treated to in the past couple of races. 

Qualifying also contained what I assume will be the sum total of rainfall we'll experience all weekend. One damp corner equalled one car buried in the fence - so by that logic a single track-wide sprinkle of rain would take out 14 cars and maybe, just maybe Caterham might score their first point. But as per usual the entire of Eastern Europe could be under the grasp of monsoons and the tiny patch of land on which the track is held will be bathed in resplendent sunshine. Even though some rain would make things very interesting.

Qualifying

Normally we'd spend a couple of paragraphs discussing lap times and relative pace, because in the end that is what qualifying is all about - but it appeared that technical gremlins would be the order of the day. All started off with Pastor Maldonado pulling the Lotus off to the side of the track - of course given how poorly things have gone for them it wasn't too much of a surprise. As Pastor's car was wheeled away, we cut immediately to the second retirement of the session - this one belonging to a far bigger scalp in more dramatic fashion. Lewis Hamilton - fresh from setting fastest times in the practice sessions was dragging a flaming Mercedes back into the pit lane in search of a fire marshal. The blaze was quickly contained but for the second time in two races Lewis was out of Q1 through mechanical difficulties and will start from the back row of the grid - or the pit-lane depending on the damage.

With two cars out already it seem that the battle for relegation was a moot point after Grosjean demoted Kobayashi into the bottom six places. With the huge difference in tyre performance between the prime and option compounds mid-field teams were able to compete at the top of the time-sheets. Jean-Eric Vergne for Toro Rosso went fastest ahead of Rosberg - the Mercedes driver on the slower compound. Red Bull and Williams were also counting on the prime tyres being quick enough to avoid relegation without using up any of the softer sets available. For the the most part this seemed like a safe plan, after all it required a Caterham or Marussia to beat one of the bigger teams. Even Ferrari thought they were safe with Raikkonen sitting in the final qualification spot. Surely Kimi would be safe... right. Not if Jules Bianchi had anything to do with it the Frenchman somehow found enough speed in the Marussia to be faster than a Ferrari - albeit on slower tyres - and moving through into Q2.

Q2

The second part of qualifying got underway with an average lap by the Force India of Sergio Perez as Mercedes powered cars took to the track first. Williams assumed control firstly with Massa and defiantly by Valterri Bottas knocking tenths off Felipe's time. But as per usual it was the factory team that asserted their dominance - even if there was only one car remaining from that garage.  As Rosberg took the lead, Red Bull proved that they were much closer then they have been in recent races. We also saw Vettel being able to compete on similar terms with his team-mate, after all this is going to be one of the few tracks where power can be caught by cornering prowess. 

A small lull in activity as the grid regrouped after their opening runs, but with four minutes remaining the entire field - well those who hadn't been relegated already - took to the track. Apparently Hamilton had left the circuit and we can only assume Raikkonen would have been frequenting Ferrari's ice cream fridge. Felipe Massa was able to pull away from the relegation zone and more into line with the times Bottas was managing. This final run also saw Jenson Button jump up into 8th place. Daniil Kvyat was on course to knock Hulkenberg out of Q2 but three corners from home the Russian put a wheel on the grass and span the car. The remainder of the session was covered by waved yellows, although Kvyat's death stare would have been enough to prevent drivers speeding past while marshals moved his car. 

Q3

The final phase of qualifying was greeted by footage of spectators putting on waterproof macs and putting up umbrellas - even if it didn't appear to be raining. To make matters worse for the teams, atmospheric radar telemetry had failed - so we saw teams on the pit-lane sticking the hands out from under roof of the gantry. Amusingly on the Red Bull bay all of the senior staff were waving their arms about - weather detection by committee. But everyone had to stream out onto the track in case the the rain swept in and ruined the session. As it turned out it was only raining, ever so slightly in turn one - if the track was in the pre-2003 configuration it probably would have stayed dry. No-one anticipated the contrast of the dry and damper road over the distance of one straight, Rosberg hit the wet first and ran wide and off the track. As the cameras panned to track Nico rejoining the track there was the sound of a dull thud in the background... see what you get to hear with these quieter engines. It was Kevin Magnussen who followed suit and wasn't as fortunate, locking up on the wet surface and ending up on the grass. You don't slow down particularly well on the grass and he piled into the tyre wall bringing out the Red Flag.

During the interruption in which the McLaren was removed and the tyre bundles replaced the track had dried again. So record that one lap for posterity as it will probably be the last rain we'll see despite the number of threats of storms tomorrow. Even here at blog HQ rain seems to be borderline extinct in the face of relentless heat. Back to the action and people were tentative on their opening laps - Rosberg set a relatively slow time for the Mercedes driver. His time was promptly beaten by a whole raft of contenders including Bottas, Ricciardo and Alonso. Then Vettel emerged from a season of obscurity and delivered a massive lap - 0.8s faster than anyone else. Does this mean a non-Mercedes powered car could steal a pole position... Well no... once again Mercedes proved there was even more pace in the car that they hadn't shown thus far when Nico Rosberg dissected Vettel's time to the tune of almost half a second. So once more Mercedes were on pole - but Vettel appeared to be back on form on the front row. 

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Like so many times this season a likely suspect on pole belies an interesting session with many strong performance languishing under the radar. So here are the points from qualifying today.

• 10pts - Jules Bianchi - Kimi Raikkonen defeated by a Marussia piloted by the very driver tipped to replace him in time.
• 8pts - Sebastian Vettel - Some of that past form appears to have returned once again... but the domination is a distant memory
• 6pts - Valtteri Bottas - Once again the Finn defies expectation, the Willams shouldn't be this quick here, but somehow it is
• 5pts - Fernando Alonso - When Ferrari dropped the ball with Kimi, Fernando is left carrying the baton again all the way to fifth place
• 4pts - Nico Rosberg - Couldn't afford to relax today and did well to overcome the resurgent form of the other German Bloke - and kept it out of the wall in the damp turn one.
• 3pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Made it through into Q1 despite technical problems in FP3 and the Force India not being as strong in Hungary 
• 2pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - Topped Q1 and made it through to Q3 completely under the radar and anonymously. Much in the same way that Jaime Alguersuari used to be... and look what happened there....
• 1pts - Adrian Sutil - Has to have a point simply as a result of being used as a derogatory yardstick by Grosjean as the Frenchman despondently called out 'So we didn't even beat Sutil' on the radio

Looking Forward to Tomorrow

Well as had been said before, and will be said again if this corner of the internet is still around next season, the Hungarian GP is perennially one of the dullest and uneventful events all season long. In the past only a wave of rainfall has prevented that fateful prediction - and on both occasions granted Jenson Button the victory. So if that logic carries forward in the event of any degree of precipitation then Jenson would need to claim McLaren's first victory in quite a long time... Sounds unlikely in this day and age with at least one of the Mercedes cars up the front end.

However even if it stays dry, which it probably will, there are some points to look out for tomorrow afternoon - firstly Lewis Hamilton starting from the back is a fascinating prospect. In Germany that was an easier task on a track based on overtaking, here (or there I being here and not there) in Hungary overtaking is exceptionally difficult - even in the fastest car on the grid. How the Mercedes carves through the field on this track could reverse the thought of another uninspiring race. On top of that we have Raikkonen back there as well, so Rosberg might run away with this but just like in Hockenheim the attention will be drawn further back. Hungary has a reputation to disobey tomorrow.

Round 11: Hungary 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet, 

Only one week after the turbulent and busy events in Germany, it is time to do the whole thing all over again. This time in Hungary instead - one of the few races all season which is known unilaterally as being the most boring and uneventful venue of the year. Fortunately things are no as bad as they once were in the height of the Schumacher and Ferrari domination... I mean it's not as if we have one all powerful team these days... There have been many a race on the Hungaroring in which nothing happening would be an improvement in the action. On the other hand there are exceptions to that rule - 2006 immediately springs to mind in which damp and drying conditions threw a spanner into the works. Conveniently the rumours of rain at some point this weekend - but if Germany and the second half of 2013 are anything to go by it will be a very dry Sunday afternoon. 

In the intervening days between the two races, announcements were made in respect of the upcoming calendar for 2015 (because many have written off 2014 already). The announcement centred on the increasing chance of a Mexican GP next season at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. This should be brilliant news - another historic track making a comeback... but not so much because the FIA and probably Bernie have sent Tilke over to make some 'adjustments'. The concept drawings of these 'adjustments' are a disappointment to say the least - it appears that Herman, under whose orders it's not clear has been commissioned to sharpen corners that didn't need sharpening. It was fine as is - minus upgrades - with brilliant corners and a nice overall circuit rhythm. I understand the issue with the final corner, the peraltada - a high speed entry with only an old concrete wall as run-off. A wall which can't be moved due to the major public road on the other side. The alternative solution is terrible but the only part of the 'redevelopment' program that makes sense... the rest of it has all the hallmarks or a Tilke-fied botch job to force an old traditional style track fit the new homogeneous design characteristics. 

The Venue

Back to Hungary now and this circuit is one of the most polarising venues on the calendar - because the racing is infamously dull, but the track itself is very good. It is the ultimate example of how a nice, flowing and enjoyable circuit can produce some terrible racing. Before the arena section Silverstone had a similar problem - a magnificent circuit with processional racing. Spa and Suzuka have also been guilty in the past of the same thing. This comes down to one factor - a track where one corner feeds the next in a flowing sequence traces a very narrow optimum racing line. Put a car on that racing line and finding a way past becomes very difficult and requires a large performance advantage to offset the damage done by deviating from that core line. There is also a small matter of aerodynamic wake preventing cars on this one line from being close enough to one another to capitalise on any errors.

Around the time that Hockenheim and the Nurburgring were adjusted to compensate for these effects the Hungaroring did the same. Turn one was converted from a smooth 180 downhill curve into a sharper hairpin bend designed for overtaking. Two years after the re-profiling Jacques Villenueve flipped Christian Klien over - so there is room for a hat-trick of rollovers this season in turn one. Turn remains largely intact, and was once a mirrored image of turn two, a second gradual downhill 180 bend. Turn three used to be full speed, but I suspect these days it will be more of a corner turning through the basin at the lowest point on the circuit. The exit of T3 determines how much speed can be carried up the hill to turn four. 

Turn four is brilliant - and the site of one of the passes of the season in 2013... until the FIA penalised Grosjean for executing it a few centimetres the wrong side of the white line. It has also been the site of some enormous accidents - Ralf Firman in 2003 was knocked unconscious after a wing failure, and then in 2009 it was the corner where Massa's car came to rest after his near-fatal encounter with a errant spring. Turn five is the third of five longer 180 corners that manage to feel just long enough without being tiresome or pointless. After all that excitement the narrow chicane flanked by mountainous curbs calms everything down a little and takes the pace out of the lap. It has also been know to take chunks out of unsuspecting front wings too.

The middle sector is the highlight of the lap, playing host to a sequence of slightly slower s-bends each one edged with grass and gravel - none of that low risk tarmac run-off here. Well until you reach the final part of the sequence which has 'track limits violations' written all over it and it is a bit of a lottery to decide whether the stewards play hard-ball as in Austria or ignore them completely as in Germany. Remember that concept of consistency, what ever happened to that - I wonder. After the joys of having each entry and exit point being precisely where it feels they should naturally be the modifications take over again. The entry to the final sector was sharpened to improve overtaking... has it worked...no, maybe that knowledge should be taken to Mexico and leave the corners well alone. Since 2003 we have a 90 degree right hander at the bottom of a hill instead of the smoother predecessor and not too much to gain from it.  The remainder of the lap is composed of two 180 corners set far enough apart and with a gradual enough corner radius so that you don't get too impatient or lose too much speed. 

The Form Guide

Well it may seem like a repetitive statement but another Mercedes 1-2 might be on the cards this time out. Williams might not have quite the same pace as they demonstrated to great effect with Bottas in Germany due to their weaker high downforce package. It also means that other Mercedes powered teams relying on the power of the engine to get them through might find themselves at the lower end of the points this time. Replacing them behind the factory team would be Red Bull and possibly Ferrari - because straight line speed doesn't have such an influence on lap time at the Hungaroring. However getting past people will be just as difficult.

On the other side of the points positions, this could be a decent weekend for Toro Rosso if Force India and McLaren struggle to pull away. There is also some potential for Lotus to wrestle their way back onto to the score sheet - if the car manages to last till the end in the continuing European heat wave. Sauber however might struggle again to get within a few places of an elusive first point of 2014 - Marussia might even give them a run for their money on a track, like Monaco could benefit the smaller teams. Of course in order for that to happen a little bit of lunacy needs to take place. 

The only hope for lunacy during a weekend which usually is awarded the uncontested accolade of being the dullest sequence of laps we'll see during the course of the season is rain. Lots and lots of rain - but in this day and age the FIA and the stewards have gotten very soft when it comes to rain - throwing the red flag and the safety car at the first sight of conditions being damper than an intermediate tyre can accommodate. It was odd to see Indycar at Houston - a glorified car park street circuit with limited run-off, concrete walls and painted surfaces - competing in worse conditions that the FIA would declare 'unsafe'. But of course that is a debate for the unlikely scenario that these 'storms' actually show their face for once... So we shall have to wait and see. 

Round 10: Germany 2014 - Review

Greetings Internet, 

Well before we discuss the events of the day I want to ask, where on earth was this rain we were promised. Every time the thought of precipitation is remotely considered it is a virtual guarantee that the race is going to be drier than the Atacama desert... For the first half of the race we didn't really need it but as the battles calmed down a little downpour would't have gone amiss. But rain or no rain, one thing became frighteningly clear today, Mercedes have a lot more pace in the car, and when it is unleashed it is an unstoppable force... which doesn't bode too well for anyone else in the second half of 2014. 

There was no real coverage post qualifying yesterday because I was elsewhere and returning to HQ in the smaller hours of the morning kind of negates the time required to write these things up. But qualifying points will be added to the bottom of today's contribution. 

The Race

After yesterday's visit to the barrier Hamilton also opted for a gearbox change and thus was demoted to 20th on the grid. Several teams complained that the Mercedes should have started from the pit lane on the argument that a change of brake material constitutes breaking parc ferme regulations. It was a violation of these rules that forced Marcus Ericsson to start from the pitlane, meaning only Chilton was behind Lewis on the grid... Even after a crash and a penalty for Hamilton, Max was still last.

So we had the two Williams heading the charge against Rosberg at the start of the race, although that didn't last too long as the field approached turn one. Massa attempted tuck in behind Bottas through the first corner at the same time Magnussen attempted to fill the space. Ultimately the two cars ended up sharing the same bit of tarmac and for the second time this season we saw a car flipping up and over sliding upside down across the run-off area. Daniel Ricciardo was forced wide of Magnussen's spinning McLaren and Massa's upside down Williams losing many, many positions. Felipe's car righted itself before reaching the gravel, but the safety car was inevitably deployed. 

On the restart Rosberg started the process of driving an uncontested race away from Bottas in second place. As for the other Mercedes, it was time to truly see how one-sided any contest involving Hamilton would turn out to be. Once upon a time the idea of making it from the back of the grid to the front was considered a miraculous performance. Not so much today - Hamilton drove past cars as if they weren't there: Maldonado, Gutierrez and Chilton were all overtaken on the first lap after the restart. so by lap three Lewis had gained three positions without any opposition. The Mercedes driver's charge through the field was assisted by battles between cars further up the road. A duel between Grosjean and Sutil made the French driver even easier pickings for Lewis. 

In the opening ten laps there was a lot of focus on Hamilton's progress, but there were battles elsewhere to pay some attention to. For example it appeared that Perez and Kvyat were in for an interesting fight, lap after lap of pass and counter pass. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way because the Russian made a move on the outside of the Mercedes arena and tried to pinch Perez down to the inside. Of course there was nowhere for Sergio to go and Danill was pitched into a spin. So that battle didn't last as long as we hoped, that meant we had to see what Hamilton was up to again - which was easily breezing past more cars - this time it was Adrian Sutil in the Sauber who'd just been defeated by Ricciardo.

The Australian having spied that Lewis was coming realised he had to get a move on and after getting past Vergne made tracks towards Raikkonen. But the Mercedes remained right behind the Red Bull having also made rather short work of the Toro Rosso. Both Daniel and Lewis in their own individual recovery drives arrived on the back of Raikkonen at the same time at the Spitzkurve haripin. Hamilton made a move on Ricciardo but had to back off to avoid hitting Kimi's Ferrari and lost the position again. This attack spurned Ricciardo on to get away from Hamilton - diving down the inside of Raikkonen coming into the Mercedes Arena section and buying himself some time away from his pursuers. Lewis tried to pouch on the Ferrari and drove through the high speed mobil kurve two wide inches apart without making contact... That move didn't work out in GP2 less experienced pilots.

On lap 13 the pit stops have begun for the lead contenders - initiated by Fernando Alonso and then Sebastian Vettel which inevitably promoted Hamilton closer to the front of the grid. All of which would be of little comfort to Daniel Ricciardo whose escape plan was starting to come undone when he arrived at the back of Sergio Perez's Force India. As he got backed up Raikkonen and Hamilton joined the battle - you'd think with such a car advantage Lewis might plan his overtakes with a little more caution... Apparently not as he threw the Mercedes at Raikkonen, all locked up and trimming Kimi's front wing endplate - almost wiping out Perez in the process. At the same time both Lewis and Kimi went down the inside of Ricciardo at the hairpin.

Coming close to the end of the tyre stint Raikkonen was starting to lose pace and dropped back into the clutches of Alonso, who in turn was trying to fend off Sebastian Vettel. In a continuation as of the duel that took place in Silverstone Alonso didn't intend on giving the German too much room on the run down to hairpin. Both Fernando and Sebastian went either side of a slow Kimi Raikkonen sandwiching the Finn. Kimi did well to avoid greater contact with either Fernando or Vettel only losing more of the endplate damaged by Hamilton in the first altercation. Further ahead Hamilton's charge through the field came to an abrupt end... not because he'd bounced off something or put it in the fence, but because there were no more cars he could realistically catch. Here on lap 19 Lewis had made it from 20th to 2nd to form the omnipresent 1-2 we've seen far too often this season. 

With that all done and dusted it was time to look for another battle - and we found Romain Grosjean waging war with Sergio Perez. The Lotus driver - like Hamilton - hadn't stopped yet and was relatively out of position when fighting with the Force India. Perez had a go round the outside of the Mercedes Arena but Grosjean held on through the second part of the sequence to deny Sergio the position but ran wide on the exit opening the door for the Mexican. But as he pulled away from the Lotus his team got on the radio warning Sergio about his fuel consumption, making sure that he wasn't gambling on some rain later on to save fuel then. Because in the end we all know rain is banned for the duration of a F1 race these past two seasons. However things were worse for Grosjean as his Lotus broke down once again, much to the Frenchmans displeasure.

While Raikkonen was demonstrating how to recover positions correctly, Hamilton after his stop was, once again being a little clumsy. This time sticking the nose of the car down the inside of Jenson Button as the McLaren went a little wide. The two cars seemed to converge on the inside of the corner and contact was made. Lewis lost his front wing end-plate and one upper wing element after collecting Button's sidepod. Did the damage stop the charging briton - not really as he went on to set the fastest lap of the race at the time. It wasn't without consequence however as his front left tyre wear increased. On the second attempt Lewis drove effortlessly past Jenson in a straight line, waving an apology on the way past.

At this middle section of the race there were passes going on all over the place, because cars were pitting often and rejoining out of position - the most of which were fuelled by DRS. Some of them might have even been magic - well they would have been if Lewis new where on his steering wheel that particular switch was, perhaps that's why he'd been driving into people all day. Vettel and Alonso were in a stand-off despite negotiating their way past Hulkenberg in the process. Sebastian was getting rather irritable on the radio, as the team asked him to save fuel, to which the German responded with "Do you want me to pass or do you want me to save fuel like a duck?". I've yet to figure out how much fuel a duck can save, but I guess that Vettel thinks it is quite a lot.

The camera then cut to Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso - which was more than a little on fire - in fact it was a lot on fire. Daniil bailed out of his flaming race car and made a bid for freedom. The fire marshals were quickly on the scene to put the blaze out and recover the car without the need for a second safety car intervention. Once the charred mess was cleared away, it got very quite on track, if ever there was an optimum time for a rain shower to keep up the momentum. Either that or it would be a perfect time for a random safety car such that I could go and make a toastie - as I was quite hungry at the time. For a second I thought I'd get that time when Adrian Sutil was having engine problems pitching the Sauber into a spin in the final corner. Like Kvyat he got out of the car and buggered off, leaving it in the middle of the pit straight. Mercedes thought there was going to be a safety car and brought Hamilton in to set him up for a potential restart. But it wasn't to be, a cohort of very brave marshals ran across the track to push the Sauber out of the way. 

Lewis rejoined behind Alonso, but was three seconds per lap faster and caught and passed the Ferrari effortlessly and started after Bottas in the hope of another 1-2. That was Fernando's cue to pit as his tyres were clearly ruined, rejoining behind Daniel Ricciardo - and thus began a second race weekend of Red Bull vs Ferrari epic battle. Ricciardo was on older tyres and of course Fernando had just pitted - Daniel had also used some of his grip in the process of throwing the car down the inside of Jenson Button in the Mercedes arena. Alonso blatantly had more speed, weaving back and forth behind the Red Bull - capitilasing on the straight line speed advantage the Ferrari had coming into the hairpin. But Ricciardo was able to re-take the place on the entry to the Mercedes Arena. After laps of duelling Alonso countered Ricciardos re-pass and held out on the outside to take the spot. 

With only a few laps to go it seemed as if Hamilton had nothing to offer in the battle with Bottas for second place. The Williams was too quick in a straight line - it is nice to see someone have an advantage over a Mercedes for once. But just like Force India last season, Williams have built a car which is notoriously difficult to overtake - Hamilton was also hampered with tyre wear from the damage to the front wing. Rosberg had already finished the race such was his advantage - and that was at a very conservative pace based on the speed Lewis showed during the race. Bottas held onto a third successive podium position - and becomes the only driver this season so finish ahead of a healthy Mercedes - if a car with a damaged wing could be classed as healthy. Vettel finished 4th, ahead of Alonso who was under-pressure from Ricciardo again at the end of the race. Hulkenberg, Button, Magnussen and Perez rounded out the points scoring positions. 

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Qualifying 

Because there was no real report from yesterday here are the points:

• 10pts - Kevin Magnussen - After a trying season for McLaren 4th is a good job
• 8pts - Jules Bianchi - Out-qualified a Lotus on pace in the dry
• 6pts - Valtteri Bottas - Front row again, nice job there
• 5pts - Felipe Massa - Two Williams up at the front
• 4pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Beating Vettel on home turf...
• 3pts - Nico Rosberg - Another pole position gets some points
• 2pts - Daniil Kvyat - Has to have some points for the best save of the session
• 1pt - Lewis Hamilton - Gets a point for creating an interesting grid

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners - Race

Here are winners from the race part of the weekend 

• 25pts - Lewis Hamilton - The car might be brutally dominant but 20th to 3rd is a remarkable acheivement - and for Lewis to only hit two cars on the way
• 18pts - Valtteri Bottas  - A hat-trick of podiums and the only car to beat a Mercedes on full power all season... it only took ten races.
• 15pts - Daniel Ricciardo - A strong recovery after avoiding the upside down Williams and a brilliant battle with Alonso
• 12pts - Kevin Magnussen - Yes he did flip over Massa, but it was the recovery drive from him too that deserves some points
• 10pts - Nico Rosberg - That was overly easy wasn't it...
• 8pts - Fernando Alonso - Scores some points for his part in the battle with Ricciardo
• 6pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Some decent avoiding action, and running two wide through mobil kurve with Hamilton
• 4pts - Felipe Massa - Not as artistic roll as the one preformed by Gutierrez but ended up on his wheels 
• 2pts - Those Three Marshals - Sprinting across the track to remove Sutil's car took some serious balls
• 1pt - Daniil Kvyat - Has to have a point for the pyrotechnics 

The Penalty Points Championship

There are some penalty points to be added to the table following this weekend

• Charlie Whiting - For denying my opportunity for a mid-race toastie by not calling the safety car for Sutil's spin
• Lewis Hamilton - With all that dominance - was it really necessary to hit anyone along the way.
• Rain - You disappoint me...

Looking to Hungary

The Hungarian GP is often listed as the most boring race of the season, because more often than not... it is. Before the changes to the track over a decade ago it was very rare to see any form of overtaking throughout the whole race - and even in the immediate years after the modifications things were not much better. A wet race in 2006 delivered something that was a million times better than we were used to - in which Jenson Button took his maiden victory for Honda from well outside the top ten. 

This season though it could be a very good day for Red Bull, as it not a track dependant on top speed or power, but more on downforce and aerodynamic grip. Something which the Red Bull has in spades - but is it enough to better the Mercedes pairing, who knows. Will we see less grumpy forms of Hamilton and Vettel in Hungary... probably not but they are far funnier as miserable buggers.