Russian Grand Prix: Lewis Putin it to the rest!

Due to travelling commitments I, The F1 Spectator, have been unable to see the race or write my usual blog. As a result I have asked a guest blogger, the aptly named F1 Watcher, to fill in for me. So here goes...

Being asked to be The F1 Spectator's guest blogger, I knew was never going to be an easy job. The first race since Jules Bianchi's accident was always going to be especially tough, his car still sat in the garage waiting for his return. I think I agree with Martin Brundle that the photo call with Bianchi's name in front of the drivers should have been done earlier and not five minutes before the start. This would have allowed the drivers to focus on the driving, to ensure their safety. That said, I respect the tribute to their colleague.


So the cars set up, ready to go, and what a start we were treated to! Cars were everywhere. At times they were three abreast in only a small space of track. Many cars left the track, overrunning corners and generally running out of space. It was such a shame to see Rosberg go too fast too soon, locking up heavily and wrecking his tyres. It would have been nice to see more of a fight between the two Mercedes drivers. Another exciting moment, through the opening laps, was when the two Red Bulls and the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat had a brief fight, almost touching each other.


As the Grand Prix unfolded there were a few more bits of good racing, but to be fair this was not turning out to be the most exciting of races. Rosberg did well to move right up through the pack, only having to overtake a few cars, most of the overtaking being done through the pit stops. Massa appeared to be making progress through the field, however, like Ricciardo, he fell back down the order. The Mercedes radio transmissions were nice and calm, which makes a change from Hamilton moaning. There was a transmission from Rosberg saying his tyres were graining and Hamilton jumped in, just after, saying how good his tyres were. When asked if Rosberg could go to the end of the race with only one stop, he replied "yes all good", and proceeded to contradict the question by adding "well they are good at the moment". Sutil had a spin after touching Grosjean and only just managed to miss the wall. After the incidents of last weekend, I did wonder what was going through his mind?

The new track had very much an Indy car feel, maybe because it was quite narrow and enclosed. Interestingly, the track surface stayed very clean, with hardly any marbles to make the drive difficult. Congratulations must go to Mercedes on winning the Constructor's Championship. Despite their dominance being a little boring, at times, they have fully deserved their success this season. We just have to hope it stays close now, for the Driver's Championship.

Thank you to The F1 Spectator, for selecting me to write the blog this week. I look forward to reading the blog after the next race.

The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	53	1:31:50.744	1	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	53	+13.6 secs	2	18
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	53	+17.4 secs	3	15
4	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+30.2 secs	4	12
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	+53.6 secs	11	10
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	53	+60.0 secs	7	8
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	53	+61.8 secs	6	6
8	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	53	+66.1 secs	10	4
9	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	53	+78.8 secs	8	2
10	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	53	+80.0 secs	12	1
11	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	53	+80.8 secs	18
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	53	+81.3 secs	17
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	53	+97.2 secs	9
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	52	+1 Lap	5
15	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	13
16	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	52	+1 Lap	14
17	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	15
18	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	52	+1 Lap	21
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	51	+2 Laps	16
Ret	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	21	Brakes	19
Ret	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	9	Retired	20

Chinese Grand Prix: a tyreing day in Shanghai

Pirelli tyres played a massive part once again, but excitement is what F1 is all about and Pirelli bring that. If the tyres were predictable, then the teams would all choose the same tyres, at the same time, and we would be left with a relative procession, complete with scheduled pit stops. Approaching the closing stages of the race it became apparent that Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button, each had to make one more stop, to use the soft tyre. Soon after that realisation it became apparent that on fresh tyres their pace would be greatly increased. What transpired was a a nail biting finish, in which Button passed Massa and then found that he had to defend against the Brazilian, whilst Vettel proceeded to hunt Lewis Hamilton down and unbelievably made up around thirteen seconds in two laps. He actually finished just two hundredths of a second behind the Brit, with Lewis only just holding on to the well deserved third podium place.

Sebastian managed to salvage fourth place from the difficult ninth that he qualified in. Webber was less fortunate in his attempt at salvaging something from his torrid qualifying result. As a consequence of running out of fuel in the qualies, Mark was forced to start from the pit lane. He began on the soft tyre, which gave him the opportunity to pit after the first lap and go on to the harder tyre for the remainder of the race. However, he ruined the race for himself when he took a wild dive up the inside of Vergne, where there was a limited passing opportunity, and damaged his front wing forcing him to pit again. His luck worsened fatally when, in his pit stop, his right rear tyre was not attached properly and the Aussie had to retire from the race.

It was a race packed with incident, with a number of drivers making contact with each other. Sutil had a bump with his team mate, Di Resta, on the first lap, which almost ended both their races. A few laps later Sutil then became involved in an incident that was completely out of his control, when Gutierrez came careening down to the final hairpin. Gutierrez took off his own front right wheel and, in the process, caused terminal damage to the rear wing and rear suspension of Sutil's car. Some have called it Karma, I think that's a little harsh.

The race win went to Alonso, who was clearly over the moon about the result. It's rare to see such a reaction from the Spaniard, but with Ferrari's preseason pace being below par, the whole team will be relieved to find that they are still one of the strong title contenders. Kimi Raikonnen had another solid performance in his competitive Lotus, finishing in second. Mercedes looked strong as well, despite Hamilton being unable to hold his lead against the Ferrari's, in the opening laps, and Rosberg having to retire mid race. Their pace looked good and it will be interesting to watch them peg back the front runners in future races. The big success story for me was Ricciardo, in the Toro Rosso, who carried his qualifying performance in to the race to achieve his best finish in Formula One, so far. He finished in a respectable seventh position after qualifying seventh. It seems that it might be shaping up to be the season of the underdog.