I knew those three guys would be on the podium! That is always a sign of a boring race. There was some interesting things yes but all in all it seemed a bit boring to me.
At the start it did look very interesting when Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton had a really bad start. The man who started from pole was overtaken by Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo.
Vettel was fighting for the lead with Rosberg and the two Finns were fighting for third place. They all stayed on the positions they had after passing Hamilton. No changes what so ever.
On the second lap Hamilton managed to take fifth place from Ricciardo and it looked almost too easy. It was then when I knew that this was going to get boring.
Thanks to Bottas Hamilton stayed 5th for over 10 laps. He was really making it difficult for Hamilton but after a while Bottas had to give his place to Hamilton who was just too fast for him.
Earlier Ferrari told Räikkönen to slow down because his engine was overheating. Räikkönen said that he can't just give up on his fight with Vettel but eventually did what Ferrari said. A pity because I would really like to see more fighting for positions between the Ferraris.
When Bottas pitted he dropped to 12th but it didn't take him long to overtake McLaren's Jenson Button and Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz. After a few laps he was already 5th where he was before the pitstop. Great driving from him!
On lap 25 we saw some drama when Rosberg pitted and Mercedes almost messed up his race. The pit crew bumped into each other when changing tires and it cost them a couple of seconds. Luckily Rosberg didn't loose his position because Hamilton pitted on the next lap and joined behind him.
The Mercs were now in the lead even though Hamilton was 6th after the start. No surprise if you ask me. I really miss the times when it wasn't this obvious who will be 1st and 2nd.
On the last few laps Ricciardo was caching Bottas and managed to overtake the Finn after the main straight in the first corner. Red Bull seems to be much faster in corners than Williams. I really thought that the overtaking maneuver was a good example how it should be done. Ricciardo left space for Bottas and didn't push him outside of the track as many other drivers would have done. Great work!
The last thing I must mention is Fernando Alonso's radio communication with his team (McLaren). Even though it was funny when he laughed when he was told to catch Romain Grosjean I thought he showed disrespect towards McLaren. His teammate Button still tried to do so without complaining and almost overtook him. Alonso was behind Button and even set the fastest lap so why was he laughing? It was possible to overtake Grosjean so why laugh? With Alonso's big salary he should just do what he was meant to do and not just go out for a joyride. If it seems difficult then at least try or quit all together.
And now it's time for my predictions and here they are:
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
Race:
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Alonso was fastest.
Surprise: Valtteri Bottas, Williams - He had a pretty good race.
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
Race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd.
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He won the race.
- Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - CORRECT
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Alonso was fastest.
Surprise: Valtteri Bottas, Williams - He had a pretty good race.
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. A table will be posted up every race weekend.
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 JT, AE, MW, MH, JI and PM. 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
