2016 Spanish Grand Prix review

After lights out Nico Rosberg got a better start than his teammate Lewis Hamilton and overtook him. Hamilton of course did not like that and tried everything to take the leading position back. Rosberg shut the door on Hamilton who went off track. When he came back on track he lost control of the car and crashed into Rosberg (who was driving surprisingly slowly by the way).

It was absolutely unbelievable that both Mercs were out of the race! Hamilton who is the world champion and Rosberg who has won every race this season. It really made the race much more interesting.

You could clearly see that Red Bull was way ahead of Ferrari in this race. I was absolutely sure that Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo would have won the race but thanks to his bad pit strategy Max Verstappen, his new teammate, got ahead of him.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel also had a very stupid pit strategy which made him drop to 3rd place even though he could have been 2nd. Now his teammate Kimi Räikkönen was 2nd because he had a similar strategy with Verstappen.

The order was Verstappen, Räikkönen, Vettel and Ricciardo. The youngest vs. the oldest in the front and behind them Red Bull's former teammates from 2014.

Räikkönen seemed faster on the straights but in the corners Verstappen always pulled away faster. It was very hard to overtake because the main straight was the only place to take the lead and every time the Finn came close the DRS zone was over. Then Verstappen turned and pulled away faster. Same thing every lap.

Ricciardo on the other hand was far more aggressive than Räikkönen. Ricciardo was all over Vettel and they even touched a little at one point. It was nothing serious but Vettel moaned about it on the radio exactly the same way that he had done with Kvyat in the previous two races. He even used the same words.

I have huge respect for Vettel but it seems that he is breaking easily under pressure. He really has to fight for his positions and his teammate is doing better than him. It has only happened once before in his career and that was with Ricciardo.

When the race was coming to an end Ricciardo got a puncture and had to pit. Luckily Williams' Valtteri Bottas was so far behind that he couldn't overtake the Australian and the positions remained the same.

The 18 year old Dutch boy Max Verstappen was the first to cross the finish line and became the youngest race winner in Formula One history. He is also the only Dutch driver to win a race. He also became the second Dutch driver to stand on the podium. His father Jos Verstappen drove as Michael Schumacher's teammate in 1994 and took 2 podiums. He also drove several years after that in different teams but didn't really have any success.

Ferrari's Räikkönen and Vettel took 2nd and 3rd and they both congratulated Verstappen for his glorious day. Funny that Vettel stood on the podium when his record was broken. Vettel was the youngest driver to win a race in 2008 with Toro Rosso in Italy.

Räikkönen who is the oldest driver thought it was funny that he has raced against Jos Verstappen and now his son Max. I agree... I think there has never been anything like that before in F1 if I remember correctly. 




Then it's time for my predictions.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He retired and Max Verstappen won the race.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He rerired when Hamilton crashed into him.
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 2nd and Vettel was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. Daniil Kvyat was fastest with Toro Rosso. He showed everybody how fast he is.

Surprise: Sebastian Vettel will have a surprisingly bad race again - CORRECT. But luckily he still got a podium.


Join our PREDICTORS LEAGUE now!

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, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.