We have waited a month, Formula 1 is back today, in the most beautiful, fast and challenging track of them all. The Spa-Francorchamps.
Wet weather during Qualy on Saturday wasn't a challenge for the Silver Arrows to take the first row of the grid, this time, being Nico on pole ahead of Lewis.
Sebastian Vettel qualified as the best of the rest and with a possibility of fighting for the win in case the Mercs suffered with the engine or other things.
Behind the German, came Fernando Alonso who could challenge for a consecutive podium for Ferrari.
On the fifth starting position, there was the Hungarian GP winner, Daniel Ricciardo.
Now, on to the team by team analysis...
Mercedes
The race was highly determined by the first laps, Lewis made a great start and took the lead in the first corner, however, Nico wouldn't let him go and kept trying to overtake him. There, Nico and Lewis made contact, Nico collected Lewis' rear left wheel trying to overtake him at the Les Combes curves, losing part of his front wing and causing Hamilton a puncture.
Following his pit stop, Lewis came out in 19th (after Lotterer's and Maldonado's retirements), he claimed to be lacking downforce and around lap 14, he suggested the team to retire the car, which happened later in the race while he was racing in 16th place.
We were all ready to see Hamilton doing an amazing comeback as he had done in the last two races but, Hamilton's W05's struggles and Hamilton lacking motivation and determination to fight his way through, is what denied the possibility of that comeback.
I'm not criticizing the fact that Lewis wanted to retire due to the car's issues because those issues that didn't let him race properly could've been really bad, I don't know, but the lack of motivation he showed is what I don't agree with. Instead of fighting through the field despite the car's pace he asked his team to retire. In my opinion, that isn't a champions attitude.
Right now, if we look forward to the end of the Abu Dhabi GP and the conclusion of the championship and Rosberg wins eventually, I and I'm sure many others (journalists, team bosses, etc.) shall look back to this day, when Hamilton backed off from the race where he could've possibly done a comeback to collect one point, two, four, six, etc. because those points could've meant the difference between winning or losing the championship.
Regarding the incident, I say it was a mere racing incident, Rosberg tried to overtake cleanly. Nico claims he didn't see Lewis and Lewis was too aggressive defending the position.
It could seem water-clear that it is Lewis the biggest loser on this accident but no, it is the Mercedes team itself, they could've been winning 43 points in a 1-2 finish but in the end only got 18 points and that, because of a late strategy change, stopping Nico one more time to put his car in softs.
In the end, this didn't only keep him safe from Bottas and Kimi but also gave him a shot at the victory with newer tyres but he came up short just a few secs behind the winner.
Crisis in Mercedes.
Red Bull
Vettel was benefited early in the race by Lewis' pit stop and Nico's drop of the pace due to his damaged front wing. After Nico's slow stop, Vettel inherited the lead. He spent most of the race on 4th/5th position either battling with or behind Räikkönen after being outpaced by Valtteri Bottas.
However, in the closing stages of the race, he would e forced to box and came out in 8th. A great 4-way battle featuring him, Alonso and the two McLarens had Seb as the winner, claiming the fifth place ahead of Magnussen, Button and Alonso, the Spaniard being the biggest loser of the battle.
On the other side of the garage, it was the Aussie Daniel Ricciardo that surprised us all, cruising from fifth place in the grid to his second consecutive win and third in the year.
The Aussie made an excellent job managing the tyres, only having to stop twice, which gave him the edge over Nico Rosberg after inheriting the lead from teammate Vettel early in the race. Rosberg's late rally wasn't enough to threat the Aussie significantly and he took the win for the Austrian squad.
Champagne time!
Williams
Wunderkind Valtteri Bottas climbed from his 6th place grid spot to third to claim his career's fourth podium (four in the last 5 races) after outpacing Fernando Alonso early in the race and beating his countryman Kimi Räikkönen for the last podium spot in the closing stages of the race with Kimi losing the pace due to his worn out tyres.
But it wasn't all brightness for Claire Williams' team with Felipe Massa not being able to battle for points after qualifying in 9th and being beat by the two Force India's and the two Toro Rosso's, finishing 13th.
Ferrari
Following his first trouble-free race in the season (I could name all the troubles he had in the other races but, no) in Hungary, Kimi Räikkönen arrived to his favorite circuit with a better understanding of the car than in the whole season. This time, the "King of Spa" delivered his best result wearing the Scuderia's colors this year finishing in 4th in what could've been a podium finish had it not been for Valtteri's incredible pace.
He was benefited by Lewis' pit stop and Alonso's 5-second stop and go penalty and climbed from 8th to 5th where he raced with the leaders (Nico, Seb and Daniel) and with Bottas behind.
He boxed on lap 9, same as Rosberg, for softs. He came out before the German did because Nico had to change his front wing.
He came out on seventh just ahead his teammate Alonso who couldn't match the Finn's pace before pitting.
With the rest of the field stopping, he went up again to the top 3, he boxed again later in the race for medium tyres that guaranteed that he'd make it to the end, he fell to fifth position but recovered as the others boxed and was a candidate for a podium finish which he was accomplishing before Bottas came through.
First time the Finn beats his teammate Alonso in the race. Very well deserved result.
On the other side, Alonso could've secured a fifth place finish behind Kimi but he lost a big battle late in the race falling to eight. Regardless of the 5 second stop and go penalty (that some might call unfair) that spoiled his race the Spaniard could've still earned 10 points had it not been for his bad pace (caused by worn out tyres) and his mistakes on the late 4-way battle.
McLaren
Kevin Magnussen gained one position in the race, starting in 7th and finishing in 6th this was mostly caused by the Dane's amazing drive midway through the race denying Fernando Alonso to get through and late in the race, giving everything he got to keep his fifth place safe from Alonso even though he couldn't do the same with Vettel as the 4-time champion had newer tyres.
Still, a good race for the rookie.
Behind him, arrived Jenson Button who was also able to beat Alonso in the exciting late battle but as well was easily overtaken by Sebastian.
BREAKING NEWS: Kevin Magnussen has been handed a 20-second penalty because of the incident with Alonso. I think it's unfair and if possible I hope McLaren appeals.
This promotes Button to P6, Alonso to P7, Perez to P8, Kvyät to P9, Hulkenberg to P10 and Vergne to P11.
Force India
Sergio Perez recovered from a bad Qualy that had him starting 13th, finishing 9th and also beating his teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who had an even worse Qualy, starting in P18. For moments, the German was in P8 and it seemed that a points finish could be possible but it was just a fake vision caused by the rest of the field stopping.
The fifth time Perez beats Hulk with the matchup being 7-5 favoring the German.
Toro Rosso
Rookie sensation Daniil Kvyät completed the top 10 earning another point to his tally, now with 7.
During the week, the Faenza based team announced that they would be keeping Kvyät in 2015 and that Max Verstappen (Jos Verstappen's son) would be joining the team, leaving Jean-Eric Vergne without team for 2015.
An interesting decision, having a young talented driver with not much experience (Kvyät) and pairing him up with who will be the youngest ever driver to start a Grand Prix with 17 years (Verstappen)
I hope it works as it'd be a shame to see either Daniil or Max not succeeding.
Regarding Vergne, I doubt that he will be racing in 2015, but I'm confident that he will come back in 2016 probably with Haas as they'll be looking for someone with experience in the category. But who knows, Honda will join the sport next year and that could give JEV a chance. I predict that they could team him up with Jolyon Palmer.
It was a bitter debut for Caterham's 32 year old Andre Lotterer, the 3-time Le Mans winner was handed this weekend's seat, replacing Kamui Kobayashi.
I had big expectations from him as he must know well the circuit racing in endurance races but he retired early.
Caterham's rival Marussia's Jules Bianchi retired later in the race, leaving the Caterham-Marussia deciding battle to the Swede Marcus Ericsson and the Briton Max Chilton being the latter the one finishing higher.
Well, that was an incredibly exciting race, I hope we can see more of those!
See you all in Monza and thanks for the support! +1.400 visits, wow!
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