Time for the last review before the summer break! F1 continues in one month at Spa (Belgium).
After lights out Mercedes' Nico Rosberg had a very bad start and his teammate Lewis Hamilton overtook him once more like he did in the previous race. It seemed that Rosberg had a little wheel spin or problems with shifting because he had to take his foot of the throttle for a little while. This also gave a chance for the Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen to overtake him and of course they did. Rosberg was now 4th.
Behind the top4 we had the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel. They stayed 5th and 6th but swapped positions.
Valtteri Bottas was behind the three top teams in 7th which made him best of the rest as he usually is. Bottas' teammate Felipe Massa got hit from behind by Jolyon Palmer and got some issues with his car. It was almost impossible for Massa to continue normally. Eventually he had to retire from the race.
I really enjoyed Ricciardo's and Rosberg's fight for 3rd. Rosberg was pushing really hard on Ricciardo but the Aussie stayed cool and chose the best possible racing line for every corner. Rosberg could not pass him.
After the pit stops Ricciardo got in front of his teammate Verstappen. The even younger Red Bull driver had to fight with Rosberg now and on lap 29 we saw some drama - Rosberg pushed Verstappen off track and overtook him for 3rd place.
Rosberg got a 5 second stop and go penalty for it and complained on the radio that he couldn't turn the wheel more to the right. This was actually true but he could have turned the wheel earlier and that's why he got a penalty. It was the right thing to do. It was exactly the same way as he pushed Hamilton out a few races ago.
They also predicted some rain for the last laps in the race. I was very excited and was hoping for a dramatic finish but the rain was so unnoticeable that it had no effect on the race. We only saw Bottas struggle with his tyres but that had nothing to do with the weather.
Here are my predictions and the results:
Pole position: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT
The race:
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 4th.
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He won the race and Daniel Ricciardo was 2nd.
- Sebastian Vettel, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 5th and Max Verstappen was 3rd.
Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. Daniel Ricciardo was fastest.
Surprise: Valtteri Bottas, Williams - He actually had a very good race until his tyres failed him. Williams still has a lot to learn about race strategies even though their pit stops are now superb.
Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE.
POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10
+ possible bonus points
HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!
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