Lewis wins again! Seb's best of the year! - 2014 Sinagpore Grand Prix

Incredible sights from Marina Bay

It's not even an hour after the race has finished and I've already seen many comments saying that we had a great race, something I can't agree with. Personally, my expectations for this race got turned down after Rosberg's struggles began, before the warm-up lap.

Mechanics helping Rosberg's car to the pit lane.

The first half of the race was really far from exciting, Hamilton on a comfortable lead, the Red Bulls as the best of the rest and with position changes only happening due to pit stops.

The start of the race.

But this certainly stopped after the safety car period, there was many speculations about team's strategies and how those would affect the outcome of the race.

Ferrari gambling to make it to end on on a set of soft tyres and possibly snatch the race from Lewis' hands 

This didn't happen as Hamilton was able to get covered from Alonso's attack before his pitstop.

That left Ferrari's gain from the gamble at nothing, at least on Alonso's side, with the Spaniard staying in fourth place behind the two  Red Bulls despite a late run from him to try and slip into the podium.

On Räikkönen's side, the gamble somewhat worked as Kimi was able to return to P8 after being in P9 during the safety car period. A good race from the Iceman seemed difficult after an electronic problem ruined his last lap in Q3, the Finn had to settle down for only 4 points.

Kimi, on track during Qualy.

Another strategy after the safety car period, was the Red Bulls', boxing in the same lap as Alonso (both Vettel and Ricciardo) and hoping on Hamilton to lose time at his pit stop.

However, despite Hamilton's desperate work before boxing to try to get covered from the Red Bulls, Lewis did lose time in his pit stop. Vettel was able to climb into the lead and Ricciardo got really close to the Briton.

Anyways, Vettel on older tyres than Lewis and Lewis in a faster Mercedes, the outcome was as expected. Sebastian's lead lasted a lap and half and Hamilton once again climbed into the lead, a lead that he wouldn't drop in the remaining laps.

Vettel and Ricciardo held on to the end and claimed a 2-3 podium finish, with Vettel's best result of the year in second.

It was good for Seb to beat his teammate but the matchup is still 10-4 in favor of the Aussie.

Two great drivers.

Well deserved podium for Seb.

Ricciardo, on track during Friday practice.

Mercedes faced the last part of the race (post-safety car) with the most normal and efficient strategy: do an extra stop. Lewis stopped in the closing stages of the race and came out two seconds behind Vettel and a few tenths ahead of Ricciardo. It was no challenge for Lewis to take the lead from Vettel as the German was struggling with his tyres.

A dominant win for Hamilton and a big one for the championship with Rosberg's early retirement.

"He is worth his money."

—Niki Lauda about Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis claimed pole by only 0.007 seconds of advantage.

Lewis cruised to an easy win.

Lewis' celebration.

Scenes from the podium.

Regarding Nico Rosberg's situation, it was a tragedy for the German and for us, the fans. Nico might have only lost three points to Hamilton in the standings but he could've gotten as much as 18 if not 25 points from this race, if it hadn't been for his car's electronic failure. I expect him to come back stronger than before in Suzuka and willing to give Hamilton a run for his life there. 

I'm positive on this, Nico won't go down without putting a big fight.

Nico communicating his mechanics that his race was over.

A disappointed Rosberg walking out of the paddock.

Just outside the top four, arrived Felipe Massa, beating once again his teammate Valtteri Bottas. The Brazilian started the race in P6, with Rosberg's retirement, he advanced to P5 but later on, he would lose the position with Kimi. However he would get the position back after his and Kimi's pit stop and he wouldn't drop it.

On the other side of the Grove squad's garage Valtteri Bottas emerged as the biggest loser of a 5-way fight for the last points that happened after Vergne climbed to P6.

The Finn just, unexplainably lost the pace in the last lap, falling behind Perez, Räikkönen, Hulkenberg, Kvyät and Magnussen and finishing in P11, outside of points positions. We are still yet to find out what was the cause of the Finn's drop of the pace in the last corners of the race.

Behind Felipe in P6, arrived Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne, an undeserved result in my opinion, because even though the French did a great late run in the last laps to earn his position, he should've served his 5-second stop/go penalty for track limits, instead, he will only be charged those 5 seconds to his final time, which won't change his final result, just as the FIA did with Magnussen in Monza. I think FIA should get rid of that rule and force the drivers to take the drive-through or the stop/go because like it happened today, it can harm other drivers' final results, as Sergio Perez, who did a great rally in the end to finish P7, would've deserved more but didn't because of JEV not obeying the penalty.

Behind JEV, arrived someone who many consider the driver of the race, Force India's Sergio Perez. The Mexican had a tough day in qualifying, just as his teammate Nico Hulkenberg did, getting a starting position of 15th and 13th, respectively.

The Mexican struggled midways through the race, stuck outside of point positions, and then losing his front wing due to contact with Sauber's Adrian Sutil after the German tried to aggressively protect his position, pushing Perez to the wall. No penalty would be handed to Sutil in an unfair and bad decision by the stewards.

The debris from Checo's wing laying in the track was the cause of the safety car.

However, Sergio was able to turn the situation around in his favor, doing a late run to earn his 6 points, although he certainly deserved more.

For the third consecutive time, Perez beat his teammate Hulkenberg, tying the matchup 7-7.

Perez reminded us why some call him the Wunderkind.

Nico Hulkenberg also helped the team to pass McLaren in the constructors' championship, finishing in P9 and earning two points.

Sergio, just moments after losing his front wing.

A string performance from Checo.

The two sensation rookies of the season, Magnussen and Kvyät, suffered rookie-problems in one of the most physically demanding races of the season.

Both of them claimed to have problems with the heat. "The seat is burning hot, is burning ." Magnussen said to his team about the high temperatures in his cockpit, we even saw him putting his hands out of the car to cool them down during the safety car period.

"It's too hot, I can't drink it, it burns my mouth." Said the Dane about his cockpit's water.

While Daniil Kvyät said: "Oh my god, without the drink! I'm dying in here!" After he ran out of water to drink in his cockpit.

The McLaren driver was able to slip into P10 after overtaking Lotus' Pastor Maldonado and after Bottas' late struggles, a great job considering the problems that Magnussen was suffering. The Danish reportedly required medical attention due to burns caused by his cockpit's temperature.

On the other side, the Russian wasn't able to recover from his issues and finished in P14.

About the rest of the drivers, despite Kobayashi's early retirement, Caterham managed to beat both Marussia and Sauber in the race with the Swede Marcus Ericsson finishing in P15, ahead of Bianchi and Chilton and with both Saubers retiring from the race. We could see an angry Esteban Gutierrez after his retirement, understandable as the Mexican had a good shot at a points finish with a good Qualy, starting in P14.

An angry and frustrated Gutierrez, throwing his gloves away.

Fireworks in Singapore after the race.

I'll see you in two weeks, when Formula 1 is back in another emblematic track, Suzuka.

Thanks for the reads and the support, you're amazing!

Hamilton wins in Italy! Felipe claims first podium with Williams! - 2014 Italian Grand Prix

The historical old track.

The Cathedral of Speed, The Temple of Racing... Formula One is back in one of the most historical and emblematic tracks in the calendar, Autodromo Internazionale Di Monza.

We came into this race weekend with the controversy and 'drama' of the last race in Spa where Mercedes teammates and championship rivals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided in the second lap, ruining Hamilton's race.

It was an average race, not to call it bad, it had some battles in the midfield that spiced things a little bit but no fights for the victory, which was what we all were waiting to see, a fight like the one we got in Bahrain.

In a low-overtaking circuit like Monza, Lewis Hamilton took a step closer to the win on Sunday by claiming pole position just ahead of Hamilton.

For me, the situation, two drivers willing to do everything to get ahead in the first corner and a narrow first turn like the first chicane could have been the ingredients in the recipe of something catastrophic for Mercedes but exciting for the fans. However, the race didn't go that way and at the end of the day, the tension between Nico and Lewis calmed down and the team claimed another 1-2 finish, this time, with the British anthem sounding in the podium.

The start of the race.

The moment when Nico missed the braking point.

If they didn't crash in the first corner like I thought they would possibly do, I had almost no doubts Hamilton would hold off Nico to keep the lead but a problem for him at the start pushed him back to P4 behind Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa and sending Nico towards the lead. Kevin and Felipe meant no challenge for Hamilton to overtake but when he had overtaken them, Rosberg already had some seconds of advantage, which Lewis wouldn't be able to gain before the first and only pit stop even though Rosberg had to take the escape route after missing the braking point once.

Later in the race, after the pit stops, Hamilton closed the gap with Rosberg to 1.2 and even less than that and by the time that he had reached DRS range, Rosberg, who was struggling with his brakes, missed the breaking point and had to take the escape route, allowing Hamilton to get through and even gain 2 seconds of lead in that same lap.

Lewis was able to stretch this gap to 4 seconds helped by his good pace and Nico's brake struggles.

At this point, the ending was sealed, there would be no lead changes but only a small gap change with Nico finishing 3.1 seconds behind.

It was a win for Hamilton, Nico getting the most points he could out of the race and Mercedes' Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe sighing for relief that this race didn't end in a ugly way for the two drivers and for the team.

Lewis took his sixth win of the year.

Even though Ferrari didn't make it to the podium, the ceremony was a party, as usual, with the main straight turned into a sea of red and white.

More scenes from the podium.

Williams

On third place, just 21.8 seconds behind the Silver Arrows, arrived Williams' Felipe Massa. The Brazilian qualified as expected on Saturday, on fourth just behind teammate Valtteri Bottas. 

In the start, he did what he had to do, he overtook Bottas in the start and managed to get into P2 after outpacing Kevin Magnussen but fell to P3 with Hamilton getting past him, a position he would keep after his pit stop.

The rest of the race was just easy for him, he was really far away from the Mercedes' to even think about going for second place but at the same time he was very ahead of the rest of the field, with his first podium since Spain 2013 most likely secured.

With Felipe closing the top three, it was the first time since 2005 that there's not an Italian team in the podium, but still, I'd say it was a nice experience for the Tifosi in Monza to see an ex-Ferrari like Massa in the podium.

Meanwhile, Felipe's teammate Valtteri made a brilliant Qualy, putting himself in the first spot of the second row and with a good shot at another podium this season.

However, his podium chances were gone with his bad start, falling to P11 in the first lap. The Flying Finn tried to do a comeback, overtaking Räikkönen, Perez, Button and Alonso in the first half of the race.

Following his pit stop, he found himself again behind Button's McLaren, which he would overtake easily to take P6. 

Magnussen was a little harder for Bottas, at one time, the Danish forced Valtteri out of the track, costing him a 5 second stop/go penalty, just 2 laps later, Valtteri made his move and climbed to P5. But it wasn't just all that the Finn's pace could give as he overtook Sebastian Vettel later in the race to claim P4 and seal a 3-4 finish for Williams.

Red Bull

The Milton Keynes based squad turned around a bad day in qualifying with Vettel starting in 8th and Ricciardo 9th.

In the first half of the race it was Vettel who was fighting to get into the top three while Ricciardo lost two positions in the start and fell to P11. The Red Bull duo managed to climb up to P4 (Vettel) and P8 before the pit stops.

Vettel eventually went back to P4 and managed to stay there for the rest of the race before a better paced Valtteri Bottas arrived and got past him, shortly after, Ricciardo, who had climbed up the field from P10 after his pit stop, also overtook him to claim P5.

McLaren

The Woking squad drivers qualified well as Magnussen started in P5 and Jenson in P6. Magnussen made an espectacular start that put him in P2 after the first corner, however he would lose three positions to Hamilton, Massa and Vettel a few laps later. He would hold that P5 until his stop.

In the second part of the race is where he messed the good performance he was doing, running in fifth, he tried so hard to hold his position that he forced Bottas out, costing him a 5 second stop/go penalty that turned into a 5 seconds penalty added to his final time, which dropped him to tenth.

Meanwhile, Jenson Button couldn't do anything against the pace of the Red Bulls and Bottas' Williams and could only do enough to protect himself from Alonso's attack. When the Spaniard retired, his only threat was Sergio Perez, who shortly after got in a battle with Jenson for P8, a battle that was kind of a flashback of the fights those two had in 2013 in Bahrain and in Monaco. Without a doubt, the highlight of the race.

Checo showed great perseverance and persistency as he fought back right after Button overtook him, he chased him and got the position back in the Variante Ascari with a great move after a wheel-to-wheel racing in the two previous corners.

In the end, Checo finished ahead of Jenson in P7 and with his teammate Hulkenberg's struggles, managed to beat the German once again.

Checo Perez during Qualy.

At the beginning stage of the race, ahead of Hulkenberg and Kimi.

Kimi Räikkönen during Qualy.

Moments after Alonso's retirement.

It was Fernando's first retirement since Malaysia 2013.

The Iceman during the race.

For Ferrari, Kimi Räikkönen turned around his 'ungrateful surprise' in Qualy into an 'unexpected surprise' after he was able to beat his teammate Fernando Alonso once again after the Spaniard retired due to ERS problems. The Finn also collected two points for the Prancing Horse team. Momentum will probably keep going Räikkönen's way.

Certainly getting two points in their home GP wasn't what Ferrari wanted but probably Singapore will be better for them.

And just as an extra, I'd like to mention Daniil Kvyät's incredible job today, after starting 21st due to his 10-place grid penalty caused by his engine change the Toro Russian managed to climb through the field to finish 11th, no points as a reward for his work but surely a great performance.

In two weeks, Formula 1 will visit Asia once again in the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore, we'll have all the details! 

See you in two weeks and thanks for the amazing support!