It's race review time!! No gibberish so let's start right away.
It was a relatively clean start in the front. Only the Red Bulls switched positions. Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg messed up their cars on the first lap but they were closer to the back. Massa and Hulkenberg pitted and Alonso got a 5 second stop and go penalty. All of them were able to continue the race.
Nice moves from Max Verstappen on lap 6 when he overtook Pastor Maldonado after the main staright. Maldonado retired from the race on the next lap.
The first pitstops were pretty ok for the top teams. Daniel Ricciardo lost his position to Kimi Räikkönen though but otherwise no problems. The junior Red Bull team, Toro Rosso, had problems with Verstappen's pitstop so he lost a couple of positions because of that.
On lap 43 it was Alonso's turn to retire from the race. I actually thought that Alonso would get McLaren's first points of the season but no, no, no... Lucky for them Jenson Button still managed to score points.
Kimi was absolutely furious on lap 56 because he had been stuck behind back markers for 3 laps and there were no blue flags what so ever. How did this happen? Very bad thing for Kimi.
Later on Verstappen made his last pitstop and this time it worked perfectly. Then he had to let Vettel pass because the German was one lap ahead. Verstappen realized that if he stays close to Vettel he could take advantage of the situation and overtake the same cars as Vettel is passing. I mean they were forced to let Vettel pass and Verstappen was so close to him that they had no chance of keeping him behind. It worked on everybody except Romain Grosjean. He had been warned on the radio and made sure that he would let Vettel pass in a corner so that he could close the door on Verstappen. Great plan!
After a couple of laps Verstappen crashed with Grosjean after the main straight. He got a penalty because of that (for the next race in Canada).
The safety car was deployed and Mercedes asked Lewis Hamilton to pit. They thought that he was so much ahead that it would be enough for him but they were wrong. His teammate Nico Rosberg got ahead and Vettel overtook Hamilton in the pits. He was not happy at all and Mercedes admitted that they made a mistake.
After the safety car episode Hamilton and Vettel battled for 2nd. It reminded me of Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna in 1992. Senna managed to keep Mansell behind and Vettel did the same with Hamilton in 2015. Great racing!
In my opinion Lewis deserved the win the most but if you do not finish 1st there's nothing you can do but to move on.
Then it's time for my predictions and the results.
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
The race:
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
The race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was third but lead most of the race.
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He won the race after Mercedes made a mistake with Hamilton's pitstop.
- Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. His teammate Vettel was 2nd
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Daniel Ricciardo was fastest in Monaco.
Surprise: Sergio Perez has pushed hard in Monaco but failed almost every time. Maybe he will succeed this year? - CORRECT! It was his best result of the season.
Remember to 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. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points. A standings table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will probably 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!
THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MH & MW. 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
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. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points. A standings table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will probably 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!
THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MH & MW. 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
