First of all I loved the ceremony they had for Jules Bianchi before the race. Nice way of showing respect for him and his family.
The race started with an extra formation lap because Felipe Massa stopped too far away from the yellow line on his grid spot. The computers can't detect a jump start if the driver isn't on the right spot. He got a penalty for that incident too.
Ferrari got a super start just like Williams did in Silverstone in the previous race. The Ferraris passed both Mercs and Nico Rosberg managed also to pass his teammate Lewis Hamilton when he was defending agains the Ferraris. So after the first few corners the classification was Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo. Bottas and Ricciardo almost took each other out of the track but luckily they didn't.
Hamilton tried a very stupid move again just like in Silverstone and it didn't do him any good this time either. He went off track and got passed by Bottas, Ricciardo and a few others which made Hamilton 10th. What was the point? He braked too late, had too much speed and no room. He blamed Rosberg because in Hamilton's opinion his teammate should have moved to the side and given him more room. What a joke... Rosberg clearly had his own racing line and Hamilton tried to go in a space that wasn't there.
Hamilton did a great job rising from 10th to 4th.
On lap 19 Kimi got a bit scared when his front wing's right camera fell off. He thought it was a more important part and was very nervous after this. His pace was still good so no harm there. On the same lap Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez crashed into each other. If you ask me it was more Maldonado's fault and he got a penalty for it later.
On lap 20 Hamilton came out of the pits and almost pushed Bottas off track. Remember that earlier he blamed his teammate for doing the same thing. Didn't seem to bother him when he was doing it to somebody else. But we have to remember that these men become very different when they are racing. It's always their own benefit they are thinking about in every situation. No driver is nice behind the wheel! Well maybe Heikki Kovalainen but he's not driving in F1 anymore.
Over 20 laps before the finish Kimi got a problem with his MGU-K. This means that he can't store the energy coming from his rear brakes and is slower for that reason. It also means that his rear brakes will overheat and eventually fail. Ferrari's pit crew tried to "boot" the car after two pitstops but it was no use. Kimi had to retire later on.
Force India also had technical problems the whole weekend. In the race Nico Hulkenberg's front wing went under his car and made him slide into the barriers. The safety car was deployed.
In the restart Hamilton tried a very desperate move again on Rosberg and lost his position to Ricciardo. Hamilton tried to overtake Ricciardo but crashed into his rear tyre. Hamilton got a penalty for it. Again a very odd move from Hamilton. He has been very nervous lately in the races. Why is that?! But anyways, let's move on...
Bottas and Daniil Kvyat overtook Hamilton but then later on Verstappen crashed into Bottas' rear wheel. Bottas had to go to the pits and his race was ruined.
On lap 64 it was Ricciardo's turn to crash into somebody. Rosberg was the unlucky one and had to go to the pits. Ricciardo didn't get a penalty but had to pit anyway.
The race ended 5 laps later with Vettel first at the finish line followed by Kvyat and Ricciardo.
Kvyat was the second Russian to ever stand on podium and the second youngest driver with a podium finish. He also made the best result for Russia because Vitaly Petrov only got a 3rd place in 2011 for Renault (Lotus).
Vettel on the other hand matched Ayrton Senna's victory record of 41 wins! Very nice work. Everybody were focusing on Hamilton to match that record but they didn't see the younger four time world champion coming.
All of the drivers on podium dedicated their finishes to Jules Bianchi which was the right thing to do. I wrote in my preview that I would like the winner to dedicate the win to him so I was glad.
All in all it was one of the best races in a long time!
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| The boys looking up to the heavens were Bianchi is. |
Here are my predictions. Only two in the predictors league got points! It was quite a different race than usual.
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
The race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Sebastian Vettel won.
- Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. Could have been but the car didn't last. Daniil Kvyat was 2nd.
- Valtteri Bottas, Williams - WRONG. Daniel Ricciardo was 3rd.
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Daniel Ricciardo had the fastest lap.
Surprise: Mercedes will start having some technical problems. They can't be that good in every race! - CORRECT. Nico had technical problems and Lewis had problems of his won. Don't know what he was doing! Very surprised how he raced but we can't always have a good day or preform perfectly.
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.
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