United States Qualifying: So many let downs...

Formula One shot itself in the foot, once again, before the weekend even got underway. The first big news was that the underdogs, albeit very popular teams, Marussia and Caterham would not be taking part in Texas. Very simply put, the inequality in Formula One has pushed two of the teams out of the Championship, leaving only eighteen cars on the grid. Also, it's difficult to take a sport seriously, that, through regulations and imposed penalties, allows its reigning World Champion to be forced to start the race from the pit lane, before the qualifying session has even got underway. The mind boggles!

The biggest news of the session, in my opinion, was Sutil's fantastic performance for the struggling Sauber team. The team have had an absolutely dire season, but this was a small piece of success, which was received with clear enthusiasm and elation. It was only tenth place, but the achievement of actually making it in to the top ten shootout will be a great boost for the team.

The rest of the session was just as tedious as most of the other qualifying sessions. Pole and second place were taken by the usual suspects, although interestingly Nico Rosberg is taking the fight to Lewis Hamilton, by bagging the top spot. The promising thing about the race is that the gloves are off again, at Mercedes. The team have taken the Constructor's Championship, so all that is left is for Lewis and Nico to smash in to each other, block each other and hinder each other. I really don't know who I want to win the Driver's Championship. Hamilton is a Brit, is fair and honest, but he regularly comes across as quite soft and a moaner, which is irritating. Rosberg, on the other hand, is cerebral and smart, with an infectious personality, but he is undoubtedly a cheat. It's a difficult choice, but maybe after this weekend I can make a decision.

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:38.303	1:36.290	1:36.067	20
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:37.196	1:37.287	1:36.443	16
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:38.249	1:37.499	1:36.906	19
4	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:37.877	1:37.347	1:37.205	20
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:38.814	1:37.873	1:37.244	17
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:38.349	1:38.010	1:37.610	16
7	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:38.574	1:38.024	1:37.655	17
8	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:38.557	1:38.047	1:37.706	16
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:38.669	1:38.263	1:37.804	22
10	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:38.855	1:38.378	1:38.810	15
11	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:38.608	1:38.467		16
12	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:39.200	1:38.554		16
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.931	1:38.598		16
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:38.936	1:38.699		17
15	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:39.250			10
16	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:39.555			10
17	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:39.621			3
18	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:39.679			8

Japanese Grand Prix: A real wet weekend!

At the time of writing this post, I'm sat here waiting for news on Jules Bianchi's condition, after he was involved in a incident at the site of Sutil's crash. In circumstances such as these, issues of safety and risk are always raised, and understandably, however I think that in this case everything was done to make the race as safe as possible. The rain became torrential, through the closing few laps of the race, and, after a spin from Sutil, the safety car was deployed. In my view, all appropriate action was taken and all we can do now is pray for Jules' speedy recovery.

Overall, it was a very exciting race, with the rain throwing up all sorts of drama and unpredictability. Despite the fact that the drivers started behind the safety car, the racing was on fire, and especially from the two Red Bull boys. This week Driver of The Day is actually Team of The Day and it goes to Red Bull Racing, for turning their weekend around. During qualifying, both Vettel and Ricciardo were struggling to get any kind of competitive pace out of their cars, whereas, through the midway period of the race, they were on fire. Vettel reeled in the Williams of Felipe Massa and dispatched him with relative ease. He then moved on to Bottas and dispatched the second Mercedes-powered Williams with just as much haste. Ricciardo acted similarly, with a couple of amazing manoeuvres, through the Dunlop curves. It was a great performance from the two Red Bull drivers and made it
impossible to choose between them, for Driver of The Day.

Jenson Button, in the McLaren, should also be commended for a great effort. His McLaren has been under performing all season, but he and his engineers managed to get him in to second place for a short period of the race. Ultimately, he just couldn't compete with the might of Red Bull Racing, but did manage to finish ahead of both Williams drivers. Ferrari, on the other hand, were back to their form of this season, Raikonnen struggling down the order and Alonso retiring during the two laps behind the safety car, at the very start.

We were spared the post-race theatrics, between Nico and Lewis. Everybody was much too concerned with Bianchi's condition. However, the result puts Hamilton in the driving seat, so to speak, with a ten point lead over his teammate. Once again, Lewis appeared to show his superiority over Nico, as he caught, passed and then left Rosberg behind. Rosberg complained of massive oversteer, but it's worth pointing out that, first of all it's normally Hamilton who moans, secondly they were both driving the exact same car, so there was no reason for them to be handling any differently, irrespective of the track conditions, and thirdly drivers often come up with excuses when they are under pressure. With only four races remaining, will Rosberg crumble or will he turn things around?

The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	44	1:51:43.021	2	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	44	+9.1 secs	1	18
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	44	+29.1 secs	9	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	44	+38.8 secs	6	12
5	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	44	+67.5 secs	8	10
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	44	+113.7 secs	3	8
7	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	44	+115.1 secs	4	6
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	44	+115.9 secs	13	4
9	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	44	+127.6 secs	20	2
10	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	43	+1 Lap	11	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	43	+1 Lap	12
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	10
13	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	15
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	43	+1 Lap	7
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	16
16	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	43	+1 Lap	22
17	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	17
18	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	43	+1 Lap	21
19	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 Lap	19
20	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	41	Accident	18
21	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	40	Accident	14
Ret	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	2	Electronics	5

Hungarian Qualifying: Hamilton in mourning, again!

The story of qualifying, revolved around Lewis Hamilton, once again. Question is, does it really matter? He sounded pretty dejected in the press pen, but somebody should fish out a videotape of last weekend, to remind Lewis that all is never lost. Of course, it's still hard work, but it's far from impossible, to achieve something, not only respectable, but downright great, from the back of the grid. Then again, it wouldn't be Lewis Hamilton, without the characteristic sorrowful failure interview; cue the violins.

It wasn't only Hamilton who suffered in Q1. Raikonnen and Ferrari made a big mistake, which resulted in one of the weakest teams in the paddock knocking them out of the session. Bianchi and Marussia will be over the moon at outperforming the legendary Italian outfit. Ferrari simply misjudged the pace out on track and counted their chickens before they'd hatched. There appeared to be in a mad panic in their garage with seconds of the session remaining, but it was far too late to do anything about the situation.

In Q3 all hell broke loose, when the rain destroyed everyone's first flying lap. All the talk was that Nico Rosberg had to get around the track, being the first one out, and put in a clean lap before the rain got too heavy. Instead, he overran the first corner, whilst Magnussen smashed in to the tyre barrier, resulting in a red flag. When the cars reemerged, once the track had dried out, things were exciting, but nothing like what they would have been, had they been able to qualify in the wet. The positions, up the front, were chopping and changing, but Rosberg was on pole again, with the Red Bull's taking up the second two places. Fingers crossed for somebody to challenge Nico, away from the lights, this weekend.

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:25.227	1:23.310	1:22.715	20
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:25.662	1:23.606	1:23.201	16
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:25.690	1:23.776	1:23.354	19
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:25.495	1:23.676	1:23.391	18
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:26.087	1:24.249	1:23.909	17
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:26.592	1:24.030	1:24.223	19
7	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:26.612	1:24.502	1:24.294	21
8	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:24.941	1:24.637	1:24.720	19
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:26.149	1:24.647	1:24.775	22
10	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:26.578	1:24.585		13
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:25.361	1:24.706		14
12	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:26.027	1:25.136		12
13	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:25.910	1:25.211		11
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:25.709	1:25.260		10
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:26.136	1:25.337		16
16	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:26.728	1:27.419		14
17	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:26.792			5
18	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:27.139			10
19	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:27.819			7
20	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:28.643			10
21	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	No time			2
22	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	No time			1