German Qualifying: "Look!...No brakes!"

Lady Luck is certainly giving Lewis Hamilton a run for his money and making him work hard for his success this season. Lewis regularly has a whine and a moan, but to be fair to him he's driving the same car as his team mate, but getting the unequal share of poor luck and unreliability. On the plus side, for Lewis, he almost screwed up his team mates chances in Q1, since at the time of Hamilton's big smash and the subsequent red flag, Rosberg hadn't posted a representative time. There was the very real threat that Nico would leave it too late, however, once the green flag flew to restart the session, he was the first driver out on track and easily slammed in a first place time.

The rest of qualifying in Germany was a bit of a foregone conclusion, apart of course from the exception of Lewis Hamilton not being in the top ten. The Williams team are agonisingly close to putting up a real challenge against Mercedes, but they fell just short again today, only managing second and third on the grid. Obviously, that result is more than Williams would have hoped for or expected, coming in to the 2014 season, but if there was a chance that they could actually win the Championship, over the Mercedes team, then that would be the ultimate success. In all honesty, I don't think there is a chance that any team will worry Mercedes, in the second half of the season.

Apart from Hamilton's excursion to the barrier on the outside of the Sachs corner, qualifying in Germany was a pretty eventless affair. The final result was extremely predictable, although with the weather conditions the way they were, there wasn't much to shake things up. On a positive note, Hamilton's incident resulted in my highlight of the session, when Ben Edwards made a faux pas as he discussed Nico Rosberg's approach to the remainder of qualifying. He asked David Coulthard if Rosberg would, "put in a banker lap, or go for a balls out lap". It was almost as bad as Adrian Chiles stating that he and the rest of the ITV punditry panel were "trying to keep our peckers up", as they filled time during England's pre World Cup friendly against Ecuador. It's as if they don't like their jobs.

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:17.631	1:17.109	1:16.540	17
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:18.215	1:17.353	1:16.759	15
3	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:18.381	1:17.370	1:17.078	21
4	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:18.260	1:17.788	1:17.214	17
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:18.117	1:17.855	1:17.273	19
6	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:18.194	1:17.646	1:17.577	16
7	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:18.389	1:17.866	1:17.649	19
8	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:18.530	1:18.103	1:17.965	22
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:18.927	1:18.017	1:18.014	21
10	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:18.916	1:18.161	1:18.035	21
11	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:18.425	1:18.193		15
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:18.534	1:18.273		13
13	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:18.496	1:18.285		14
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:18.739	1:18.787		14
15	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:18.894	1:18.983		14
16	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:18.683			5
17	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:19.142			8
18	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:19.676			8
19	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:20.195			7
20	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:20.408			7
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:20.489			9
DNS	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault

British Grand Prix: pushing it to the 'track' limit...

We had a bit of a false start to the British Grand Prix this year and it was all as a result of a scary moment for Kimi Raikonnen. As the cars came through Aintree corner, on the first lap, Raikonnen was seen flying wide and then cutting back on to the track. As he did so, he hit a bump in the grass and dramatically lost the back end of the car. He hit the Armco very hard, so hard in fact that the steel barrier was damaged and so badly that its subsequent repair was the reason the race was red flagged and delayed for over an hour. Kimi's Ferrari was thrown back across the circuit, with almost everyone, unbelievably, managing to avoid him.

One driver who didn't manage to avoid him, but did take evasive action, which may well have saved Kimi's life, was Filipe Massa. This is a bold statement, but I believe Massa's actions were heroic, as he spotted Raikonnen's wreck shooting across the circuit, and put his own car in to a spin. It meant that the impact was greatly reduced and Kimi was able to limp away, instead of the unthinkable alternative. David Coulthard summed up Filipe's actions perfectly, when he said "A lesser driver may have barrelled in to that incident". T-boning Raikonnen's Ferrari may have had fatal consequences and for that reason Massa's actions are to be commended. Similarly, it is interesting to note that the first thing Kimi said, as the marshals reached his stricken car, was "Is Filipe okay?"

Once again, Silverstone race organisers showed their utter inability to deal with an unforeseen incident, in an efficient and timely manner. Every year there seems to be drama at Silverstone, in regards to the running of the event. This is a circuit that is massively overrated, poorly designed and badly organised, and yet, somehow, it manages to survive the annual F1 calendar decision making process. Niki Lauda was interviewed by the BBC and asked about the delay in the restart of the race. He was adamant in his claim that the organisers had wasted their time attempting to repair the barrier, because there was almost zero chance that an incident would occur against that very section, during the remainder of the race. I, for one, wouldn't argue with Niki Lauda on the grounds of F1 safety.

The main body of the race was fairly tedious, although it was interesting to see Nico Rosberg suffer a gearbox failure, gifting the race win to Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton, once again, raced impeccably and obviously pleased the British fans. However, it would have been nicer to see Jenson Button up on the podium and he came so close, displaying surprising race pace, in a characteristically slow McLaren. Two drivers who gave us a real show, despite both cheating and repeatedly driving over the track limitations, were Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. It was amusing to listen to the tit-for-tat over the team radios, as first Fernando complained about Sebastian's excursions, closely followed by Sebastian arguing the same point regarding Fernando's little indiscretions.

Driver Of The Day is an easy decision this weekend. Bottas, the only remaining Williams driver after Massa's collision with Raikonnen, had an unbelievable race. He started from sixteenth on the grid and achieved a podium finish, standing on the second step. I had genuinely written off Williams this weekend, but Bottas was fantastic and showed just how much the team has grown and improved this season.

I was slightly taken aback when Lewis Hamilton criticised his Santander winner's trophy. Then I remembered that he doesn't have to suck up to that particular sponsor anymore. I'm sure that if Petronas ever sponsor a race and provide a trophy based on their logo, then Mr Hamilton will be full of praise for its unique design.


Check out The F1 Spectator's podcast and listen to The F1 Spectator himself.

The Result:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	52	2:26:52.094	6	25
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	52	+30.1 secs	14	18
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	52	+46.4 secs	8	15
4	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+47.3 secs	3	12
5	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	52	+53.8 secs	2	10
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	52	+59.9 secs	16	8
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	52	+62.5 secs	5	6
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	52	+88.6 secs	4	4
9	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	52	+89.3 secs	9	2
10	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	51	+1 Lap	10	1
11	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	51	+1 Lap	7
12	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	51	+1 Lap	11
13	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	51	+1 Lap	13
14	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	51	+1 Lap	12
15	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	50	+2 Laps	22
16	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	50	+2 Laps	17
17	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	49	Exhaust	20
Ret	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	28	Gearbox	1
Ret	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	11	Suspension damage	21
Ret	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	9	Accident	19
Ret	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	0	Accident	15
Ret	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	0	Accident	18

British Qualifying: Bad decisions all round.

The biggest mistake in qualifying, punctuated by the typically petulant post-session interview, came from Lewis Hamilton. He certainly had every reason to be sulky, having just thrown away, not only pole but the second, third, fourth and fifth places on the grid. Most drivers would display a facade of professional diplomacy, but not Hamilton. Hamilton, once again, discarded all notions of professionalism and turned in to a diva. He's obviously been spending too much time with his popstar girlfriend. However, he wasn't the only person to make a mistake and the other massive mistakes came at the very start of the session.

Qualifying was difficult for everyone, since the track was continuously changing, from wet to dry and from quick to slow. Each of the three sessions appeared to be a carbon copy of the last, at least regarding track conditions. As the cars went out on to the circuit, at the start of each session, the track was relatively dry, providing quick lap times. Towards the middle of each session, the rain started to fall and drivers dove in to the pits, to sit and wait. The pressure was on in the final minutes of all three sessions, as the track dried out and adrenaline-fuelled drivers piled out of the pits to secure their places.

With such complex conditions, it was inevitable that somebody was going to get caught out. It was just a bit of a surprise to find that four of the six drivers that went out in Q1 were both of the Ferrari drivers and both of the Williams drivers. So much for my praise for Williams. They literally couldn't have made a bigger mistake, with timing being so crucial. Achieving anything from the back of the grid will be virtually impossible and, as for Ferrari? To be honest, these days they struggle to achieve much from within the top ten qualifying positions.

It was a bit like role reversal to see Button's McLaren, right up at the front, whilst Alonso, Raikonnen, Bottas and Massa, languish at the back. And where do we start with Marussia? The minnows are celebrating again, as both Bianchi and Chilton qualified well above their usual positions. Purists will argue that the only reason they qualified up in twelfth and thirteenth was because of the conditions, however, the decision making part of Formula One is a skill in itself, and for that reason Marussia deserved their relative success today.

Rosberg continues to prove he's the number one Mercedes driver, since Lewis Hamilton seems unable to scupper his team mate's final fast lap, as efficiently as Nico can. Slowing down and backing up Rosberg and Perez, through the final corners of the penultimate lap of Q3, he only succeeded in ruining Sergio Perez's chance of bettering his time. He was heard complaining that the surface was "very slippery", before slowing down like he was driving on ice. Did karma ruin Hamilton's final lap? Maybe, but then, I guess you could argue, where was karma when Rosberg was employing his dirty tricks, in China and Monaco?

The Grid:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:40.380	1:35.179	1:35.766	21
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:45.086	1:36.410	1:37.386	19
3	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:44.425	1:36.579	1:38.200	24
4	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:41.271	1:37.112	1:38.329	19
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:42.507	1:37.370	1:38.417	23
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:41.058	1:34.870	1:39.232	19
7	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:42.146	1:37.350	1:40.457	20
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:44.710	1:38.166	1:40.606	18
9	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:41.032	1:36.813	1:40.707	21
10	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:43.040	1:37.800	1:40.855	21
11	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:43.121	1:38.496		17
12	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:41.169	1:38.709		17
13	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:42.082	1:39.800		14
14	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:43.285	1:40.912		16
DSQ	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:43.892	1:44.018		15
16	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:42.603	No time		8
17	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:45.318			5
18	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:45.695			5
19	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:45.935			6
20	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:46.684			7
21	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:49.421			7
22	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:49.625			8