Singaporean Grand Prix: Slipping and sliding in the streets!

It's fair to say that we were robbed of a battle between Hamilton and Rosberg today, because Nico was plagued, from the very start, with car problems. As the drivers streamed away from the start line, to begin their parade lap, Rosberg's Mercedes sat prone on the front row, his hands turning the wheel to full lock left and right and pressing the buttons and gear paddles. He eventually managed a pit lane start, but even then was struggling for pace and it quickly became evident that his car was automatically doing double upshifts and so not gaining enough traction out of the turns. He made a valiant effort to keep his race going, without any moaning or complaining (unlike a certain other driver we know) but in the end was forced to retire. Despite a change of steering wheel, during his pitstop, it simply wasn't enough to heal the cars hurts, as Nico continually flapped the gear paddles with no response from the gearbox. Some would claim that, in the luck stakes, this race has evened things up between the Mercedes teammates, but I don't think anybody wants to see an easy race for an unchallenged Mercedes man this season.


Okay, so it wasn't the easiest of races for Lewis Hamilton, but it threatened to be more difficult than it actually turned out to be. He left the Red Bull's for dead, straight out of the blocks, and then comfortably lead the race, right up until the one safety car period of the race. Sergio Perez had a coming together with Adrian Sutil, on lap thirty, and the resulting obliterated front wing prompted the characteristic appearance of a Singaporean GP safety car. It meant that during the second half of the race, it gradually became apparent that almost everybody had made their final pitstops of the race, all except for Hamilton. Because of this he was forced to drive his socks off, in order to make a gap large enough to allow him to pit and get out in front again. He had to build a twenty-seven second gap, within around only ten laps. It was an almost impossible task. Not, it seems, for a Mercedes F1 car and Lewis Hamilton. He managed a twenty-five second gap and came out just behind Sebastien Vettel and only had to make that one pass to take the lead again. With Seb on very old tyres, the job was done within two laps. However, Lewis Hamilton only just loses out on the Driver of The Day accolade.

Driver of The Day, instead, goes to Jean-Eric Vergne for his fearless racing, during the final couple of laps. Because of an earlier misdemeanour, Vergne had been slapped with a five second stop and go penalty. As the closing laps of the race approached and it was obvious that the five seconds were going to be added to his finishing time, he became wild. He caught and took both Force India cars, the Ferrari of Kimi Raikonnen and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. He did this by virtually sliding around the four cars, racing right up to and almost over the ragged edge, on tyres with about as little grip as anyone else. He then proceeded to pull out a gap that was more than five seconds, meaning that, even with the penalty, he had secured sixth place.

The good thing about Nico's bad luck today, is that the fight for the World Championship is very much alive, with the two Mercedes drivers separated by only three points. The really great thing about this season is that it isn't only about the two horse race for the Driver's Championship, the passion and hunger is evident throughout the whole field.


Check out The Singaporean GP podcast and listen to The F1 Spectator himself.
The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	60	2:00:04.795	1	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	60	+13.5 secs	4	18
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	60	+14.2 secs	3	15
4	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	60	+15.3 secs	5	12
5	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	60	+42.1 secs	6	10
6	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	60	+56.8 secs	12	8
7	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	60	+59.0 secs	15	6
8	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	60	+60.6 secs	7	4
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	60	+61.6 secs	13	2
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	60	+62.2 secs	9	1
11	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	60	+65.0 secs	8
12	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	60	+66.9 secs	18
13	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	60	+68.0 secs	16
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	60	+72.0 secs	10
15	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	60	+94.1 secs	22
16	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	60	+94.5 secs	19
17	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	59	+1 Lap	21
Ret	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+8 Laps	11
Ret	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	40	+20 Laps	17
Ret	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	17	+43 Laps	14
Ret	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	13	+47 Laps	2
DNS	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	0	DNS	20

Hungarian Grand Prix: Mercedes rivalry simmers again.

There were fireworks in the final dozen laps, rather than at the start, in Hungary. There was plenty to consider, but one gripe I have is with Lewis Hamilton's antics. Yes, he had a fantastic race, to start from the pit lane and finish third, but it was at the expense of the team and his teammate. The problem, once again, is Lewis Hamilton's sense of entitlement. He has had a very unlucky few weeks and managed to salvage very reasonable results, but to have the attitude that he is entitled to take the result, at the expense of his team and his team mate, is undisciplined.

Don't get me wrong, Lewis was right to stay ahead of Nico, in the middle of the Grand Prix, because Rosberg simply wasn't close enough. Hamilton couldn't have been expected to virtually stop, just to let a slow Rosberg cruise through, on well-worn tyres. However, on the final lap, when Nico had hurtled up behind a Lewis Hamilton who was now struggling on used up tyres, Hamilton was far too aggressive. His defensive move, pushing Nico on to the grass, was ludicrous. It could be argued that he cost Mercedes the second place, since Rosberg might have been able to take Alonso. However, he also put both of their races at risk, by being so aggressive. But hey! Lewis has had a lot of bad luck lately, so surely he's entitled to a decent result?!

We really should talk about Daniel Ricciardo, who had a fantastic finish to the race. Granted he had much fresher tyres, and was racing Alonso and Hamilton, who were both on very old rubber. But his moves on those two former world champions were still colossal and in a car that has struggled to keep pace with the Mercedes powered cars, all season. That's why Daniel Ricciardo receives my Driver of The Day accolade. Sebastian Vettel will be disappointed not to have matched his team mate's performance, but he was very lucky indeed not wreck his car, just like Perez had a little earlier, against the pit wall.

The Hungarian Grand Prix was unusual in that it felt like two separate races, mainly due to the two safety cars. Those safety car periods created chaos, in terms of the race order, with pit stops throwing things in to further disarray and making it impossible to work out each driver's strategy, or whether they had made good decisions or bad ones. Fortunately things unfolded in a way which gave us a massively intense end to the race, timed perfectly, so that all of the big hitters found themselves on the same bit of track, at the same time. The result was highly unexpected, but it was refreshing not to see a Mercedes driver, on the top step of the podium again.

Somebody who shone for me was Jean-Eric Vergne. He had a short period in the lead and also took the fight to Alonso, after the second safety car period. It was pretty impressive when they showed the onboard of JEV, as he weaved behind Fernando, got very very close, and looked like he was trying to intimidate the Spanish World Champion. Williams were quiet again today, which poses the question, are they consistent enough to realistically challenge the Mercedes team. I guess, we'll find out after the three week break.


Check out The F1 Spectator's Hungarian GP podcast and listen to The F1 Spectator himself.
The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	70	1:53:05.058	4	25
2	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	70	+5.2 secs	5	18
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	70	+5.8 secs	22	15
4	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	70	+6.3 secs	1	12
5	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	70	+29.8 secs	6	10
6	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	70	+31.4 secs	16	8
7	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	70	+40.9 secs	2	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	70	+41.3 secs	3	4
9	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	70	+58.5 secs	8	2
10	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+67.2 secs	7	1
11	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	70	+68.1 secs	11
12	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	70	+78.4 secs	21
13	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	70	+84.0 secs	20
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	69	+1 Lap	10
15	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	15
16	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	69	+1 Lap	18
Ret	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	32	+38 Laps	13
Ret	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	24	+46 Laps	17
Ret	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	22	Accident	12
Ret	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	14	Accident	9
Ret	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	10	Accident	14
Ret	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	7	Accident	19