In my opinion this was the best race yet in 2015 and I hope we shall see more of races like this! Let's begin talking about the race starting from the beginning.
Then the actual start was great for the Ferraris. They jumped forward much faster than the Mercs and Kimi Räikkönen even overtook Nico Rosberg.
Pastor Maldonado looked like he was drunk driving because he was all over the place. On track off track and even hit Max Verstappen. I think one reason might be that he was the only one who started the race with medium tyres but it's Maldonado so the problem might be inside the cockpit as well.
The Mercedes is still the better car so Nico had no problem overtaking Kimi and Sebastian Vettel later on. After the first pitstops Vettel had managed to pass Rosberg but made a mistake later on breaking his front wing and letting Nico pass him again. Vettel said that he didn't know what happened to the wing but I thought it was pretty obvious if you drive over some high kerbs.
Kimi changed his softs to mediums in his first pitstop which seemed a bit strange. For some reason he managed to do even faster laps with them and was catching Rosberg. Then for his 2nd pitstop he agreed with the team that he would take softer tyres even though he was skeptical at first. After this he set even faster times than before and was catching Rosberg a second per lap.
Sebastian Vettel was struggling with Valtteri Bottas because he couldn't get pass him even though he was behind him for 15 laps or so. Great work from Valtteri!
On the last few laps Kimi finally overtook Rosberg and took 2nd place. Nico Rosberg said that his brakes broke at the same time as Kimi was overtaking him. Sounds a bit strange if you ask me...
Lewis Hamilton took the checkered flag followed by Kimi Räikkönen, Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel and the smoking Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.
Then it's time for my predictions and how well I did:
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
The race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 3rd.
- Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 5th and his teammate Kimi was 2nd.
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Kimi Räikkönen was fastest for the 41st time of his career. He equaled Alain Prosts record and only Michael Schumacher has more fastest lap than them. I guess Kimi will get even more fastest laps in 2015 so keep an eye on him.
Surprise: Romain Grosjean will have a great race - He did actually have an pretty ok race but who notices when you are being compared to Maldonado in every Grand Prix.
This weeks bonus for the predictors league: The first DNF of the race. My pick is going to be Pastor Maldonado. - WRONG. Carlos Sainz was the first DNF.
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!
THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.
