2014 Italian Grand Prix review

Hello hello! The weekend is over and now it's time for my GP review. Let's get right to it!

The start was pretty interesting. Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had bad starts which made everybody wait behind them for a while when Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa got away. Kevin Magnussen was the first one to get through and was second for a while. 

Hamilton dropped a few positions but Bottas was 11th after the start! What happened there?

According to Williams they checked his data after the race and there was no signs of a start taking place. This means that his car was not on the starting grid setup at all. Williams made a mistake and screwed up Valtteri's race. They also messed up my predictions because he was supposed to be 3rd in the final standings and was now 4th.

Daniel Ricciardo who has been phenomenal in the past few races was not that impressive here, just as I thought. The reason is that this track wasn't that good for Red Bull. At least he got pass Sebastian Vettel which looked very easy by the way. Did Vettel have some problems or did the team tell him to let Daniel through?

Valtteri Bottas made the most overtakings in the whole race. Car after car after car! He got up to 4th and then to 3rd because of pitstops. His position should have been 4th but Williams had some more screw ups in the pits and Bottas dropped back again. The only thing he knew was to overtake everybody again! In the final standings he was 4th.

The most difficult drivers to overtake were Kimi Räikkönen and Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen just because he pushed Bottas of the track but got a penalty for it. Some said that they don't understand why he got a penalty.

My friends, if you change your racing line twice and don't leave enough room for another car it's breaking the rules. It's very simple. Magnussen himself also said that he respects Bottas very much as does everybody else and he (Bottas) doesn't usually go off. Bottas didn't get an advantage from the penalty because he had already overtaken Magnussen when he got it. 

At least one of the Williams drivers had a good weekend. Felipe Massa took his first podium for Williams and looked very happy with the result. His last podium was in Barcelona 2013 with Ferrari. Maybe Massa got a boost from this and will fight for podiums more often?

What about Ferrari? Fernando Alonso retired and Kimi Räikkönen was 9th. Is this the best they can do? The fans came up with the name F14-T and it seems that they probably designed the car as well because it's a laughingstock. 

Did you hear about the rumors that the reason Kimi has been so slow this year is that the car is over 30 pounds heavier than Alonso's? That's just crazy! this means that Kimi's car is about half a second slower per lap. Let's wait and see what Ferrari will say about this.

Rosberg had terrible mistakes in the race which cost him the win. Some even speculated that he let Hamilton through because of what happened in Belgium but I don't believe that.

Now it's time for my predictions and how right I was with them:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams - WRONG. The other Williams was 3rd and Bottas was 4th.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: Daniel Ricciardo will have a bad race for a change. I don't think this track is for him - CORRECT

The bonus for the PREDICTORS LEAGUE: Who will be the last one to retire? My answer is Romain Grosjean, Lotus - WRONG. The last one to retire was Fernando Alonso.

Post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE!

The rules:

POINTS:  1st - 3  2nd - 5  3rd - 10 

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. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun. 

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! like the Mercedes. 

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side JT, AE, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps. 

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com