TF109B

Its come out as fact that Nico Rosberg purposely kept at his pass attempt and didnt give way to the lead car of Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes are none too pleased with his actions. Theres possible team repercussions to Nico in light of this.

Hoovey689

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In the two weeks it's taken Formula One to move from Belgium to Italy, fleet-footed rumor has outrun the driver transfer market – Fernando Alonso can't issue enough denials of a departure from Ferrari, McLaren isn't sure what it wants to do with its drivers, Lotus has found out why it stinks this year and that the problem can't be fixed this year, and Nico Rosberg is said to have donated a team-ordered six-figure fine to charity to atone for his Belgian waffling. Oh, and Lewis Hamilton regained his pole-grabbing form.

That's how the Mercedes AMG Petronas man found himself at the head of the grid for the Italian Grand Prix, ahead of his teammate Rosberg by a quarter of a second. And because the high-po Monza circuit loves a high-po Mercedes engine, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa lined up in third and fourth for Williams, followed by Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button in their McLarens. Alonso flattered the Ferrari again, lining up seventh, followed by the Infiniti Red Bull Racing duo of Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, but Sergio Perez in the Sahara Force India would make it seven out of ten for the Mercedes HPP engine program.

When the lights went out to start the race, Hamilton – and a few other top drivers – discovered that the work of recovery wasn't finished.


Hamilton's Merc suffered a glitch in its race start software, robbing power and throwing his engine rpms all over the place. Immediately swamped, he managed to fall only to fourth place while he got the software reset over the opening few laps. Rosberg was the beneficiary, taking the lead into the first turn, followed by Magnussen – who'd jumped up to second from fifth – and Felipe Massa. Magnussen's Mercedes-engined McLaren doesn't have Silver Arrows or Williams pace, though, so he held up the drivers behind while Rosberg took off up the road.

Both Massa and Hamilton got past Magnussen on Lap 5 and took off after Rosberg; by Lap 10, when Hamilton got past Massa, the gap to Rosberg was around 2.2 seconds. It should have been more, but a lap earlier Rosberg out-braked himself into Turn 1 and had to take the escape road, losing time while he weaved through the polystyrene obstacles.


Rosberg held the lead through the first and only round of pit stops. Hamilton couldn't close on Rosberg, though, seemingly unable to get closer than 1.3 seconds behind. On Lap 27 of 53, Hamilton's race engineer told him that the race would be at the end, when tires would go off, and that Hamilton should drop back to a 2.5-second gap to get the tow and maintain downforce. The Brit ignored him, finding some extra juice to press the attack and narrow the gap to less than a second. At the beginning of Lap 29, Rosberg outbraked himself again into Turn 1 and had to weave through the escape road, losing so much time that Hamilton passed him. One lap later, Hamilton had put Rosberg 2.6 seconds behind him. Over the remainder of the race he got that out to more than four seconds, but crossed the line in first, ahead of his teammate, 3.2 seconds ahead. Conspiracy theorists immediately wondered if Rosberg hadn't let Hamilton through, another repayment for Belgium. Hamilton suggested it happened just because Rosberg "doesn't seem to like" pressure.

Felipe Massa took an untroubled third place, returning to the Monza podium for the first time since 2010, also the first time not in a Ferrari uniform.


The second recovery drive came from Valtteri Bottas, who finished in fourth. The Finn fell from third to tenth at the start and worked some tremendous passes, usually into Turn 1, to make his way up the order. It took him 12 laps, from passing Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen to move up to ninth, to Lap 21 when he passed Magnussen to take fourth. Then he had to do it again after his pit stop on Lap 25 when he re-emerged in ninth place. That déjà vu recovery drive took him 14 laps, passing Sergio Perez to take eighth on Lap 26, and finally getting past Vettel on Lap 40 to re-secure fourth.


He was followed him by yet another outstanding recovery drive turned in by Daniel Ricciardo. The Belgian Grand Prix winner had been off the pace all weekend, qualified outside the top ten and then languished there in the race until after his only pit stop on Lap 27. Then he turned on his end-of-race pace – we don't know where he gets it – and started clawing his way forward starting with a pass on Räikkönen on Lap 34 to take ninth place. He put some terrific moves on both Perez on Lap 41 and his teammate Vettel on Lap 47 at the second chicane, and that last one secured a well deserved placing that probably no one thought he would pull off. He was followed to the flag by teammate Vettel, who gambled on an early pit stop on Lap 19 for hard tires, then couldn't defend his position when Ricciardo came blasting through on fresher rubber.


Magnussen crossed the line in seventh but got relegated to tenth. For the second race in a row the stewards punished the Dane for the same infraction from Belgium, forcing a driver off the track. In Belgium it was Alonso, in Italy it was Bottas through the first chicane. Hit with a five-second penalty, he slid to tenth in the classification.


Perez took eighth, followed by Button in ninth after a battle between the Force India and the McLaren that went at least three rounds and lasted numerous laps. The former teammates would pass and repass, and get side-by-side and two-up into corners, keeping it clean the whole time – possibly aided by Perez's race engineer repeatedly telling him to "Keep it clean." Perez somehow pulled it off on delicate rubber and while having to save fuel.

Räikkönen closed out the top ten on track, but got moved up to ninth after Magnussen's penalty. Ferrari put on a show for home fans on Friday, its drivers getting up to third and fourth in Free Practice 3. Come qualifying, that mojo had gone into hiding, and come the race the scarlet team was nowhere: Alonso retired on Lap 29 because of an Energy Recovery System issue, Räikkönen labored around the circuit exposing the underpowered engine behind him. Alono's exit, his first since Malaysia last year, means he didn't bring home and points for the first time in 2014.


Hamilton's win shrinks the Driver's Championship gap to his teammate to 22 points, Rosberg on 238, Hamilton on 216. Ricciardo in third place slid back to a 72-point deficit to the leader with 166 points. Mercedes AMG Petronas recovering its one-two finish technique puts more daylight between it and Infiniti Red Bull Racing, 454 points to 272 points. Williams did a number on Ferrari, jumping out to 177 points against 162, while Force India with 109 points closed in on McLaren with 110.

Formula One returns to its globe-trotting ways at the Singapore's street circuit of in two weeks.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/09/08/r...lian-grand-f1/

Hoovey689

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To paraphrase Guy Fawkes V for Vendetta, 'Remember, remember the twenty-first of September.' That's the day the 2014 Formula One Championship took another big turn – and at one of the year's least interesting races, traditionally – putting Lewis Hamilton back at the top of the standings. Not only that, it did so by borrowing the template from the British Grand Prix this year: put Hamilton in front, retire Nico Rosberg.

It was close until then, though, Hamilton lining up on pole for Mercedes AMG Petronas just seven thousandths of a second ahead of Rosberg. Daniel Ricciardo, the year's greatest opportunist, took third ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel in the Infiniti Red Bull Racing, followed by Fernando Alonso in fifth for Ferrari. The Williams' looked like they'd be in trouble on Friday, but as usual they dredged up some pace on Saturday, Felipe Massa taking sixth ahead of Kimi Räikkönen in the second Ferrari, the second Williams of Valtteri Bottas in eighth. Kevin Magnussen saved a little bit of face for McLaren in ninth, and Daniil Kvyat did another solid job to line up tenth in his Toro Rosso.

Before it even started, the race wouldn't look the same.


That's because the steering column wiring loom on Rosberg's car decided to quit in the Singapore heat just before the race. The team worked on it before lining up on the grid, changing his steering wheel, then kept at it while Rosberg sat on the grid, but the German couldn't make it off the line for the formation lap. They wheeled his car into pit lane so he could start from there, but it was futile – when the lights went out, he started, but all he could do was watch everyone else drive off into the distance while he loped around at the back of the field until he retired on Lap 14.


At go-time, Hamilton dashed off the line into the lead and never looked back, already 1.6 seconds ahead of the field on lap 2 and laying in more time at will, whenever he wanted. His only dicey moment came when, at the halfway mark, Adrian Sutil in the Sauber cut across on Sergio Perez in the Force India, destroying Perez's front wing and bringing out the Safety Car for seven laps; Hamilton drove over the debris, but on the first lap after racing resumed got 3.2 seconds ahead. That was it for trouble. When he needed to build a gap to make a third stop, he put more than two seconds a lap into Vettel behind and said, "If I need to pick up the pace, I can."

The Singapore circuit flatters Red Bull's aero efficiency and doesn't goad the team into a top-speed battle, and they made the most of it. Vettel got around his teammate at the start and claimed second place, then drove a quiet race to finish in the same spot - it's the current World Champion's best finish all year. His teammate Ricciardo took the third spot on the podium, having had technical problems throughout the race and under some late pressure from Alonso but able to hold the Ferrari off in the narrow confines of Singapore.


Alonso split the Red Bulls at the start and kept up with Vettel, then took second place after the second round of pit stops and managed to put distance on the Red Bull through the middle of the race. He fell back to fourth after his third stop, though, at the beginning of the first Safety Car period, when Ricciardo got ahead. The Spaniard stayed close to the Aussie but couldn't get around him, with Vettel, Alonso and Ricciardo "slithering around pretty desperately" on ancient tires.

Massa had run as high as fourth in the opening stages, after the first round of pit stops, then fell back to fifth. Williams' strategy of doing two stops instead of three put the kibosh on a better placing, Massa saying he was "driving like a grandma" to keep his tires in shape to the end. His teammate didn't fare so well, losing his eighth-place position on the very last lap because he was driving on threads, finishing eleventh.


If Jean-Eric Vergne had driven throughout his entire F1 career like he did this race, he might not be trying to continue his F1 career. The Frenchman, out of a contract at Toro Rosso at the end of the season, qualified 12th, was on his teammate's gearbox and requesting team orders to get Kvyat to move over. That didn't happen, but he got up to ninth place after the first round of pit stops, stayed in the top ten and began storming through the positions in front with just nine laps to go. Don't be surprised to see his diving pass inside of Räikkönen in season recaps for a while, Vergne keeping sixth place even after two five-second penalties for driving infractions.


Sergio Perez recovered from that broken wing to take seventh, followed by Räikkönen in eighth – who said his car and his pace was better than it looked, and the second Force India of Nico Hülkenberg in ninth. Magnussen again saved a tinier bit of face for McLaren in spite of a burning water supply and a, literally, burning hot seat, to finish tenth.

Hamilton's win and Rosberg's retirement puts the Brit back in charge of the Driver's Championship by three points, 241 to Rosberg's 238 with five races to go. Ricciardo still sits in a comfortable third with 181 points.


In the Constructor's Championship Red Bull took some points back from Mercedes, but it's still 479 points for the leaders compared to 305 for second place. Williams also gave up some of its lead to Ferrari, the English outfit with 187 points, the Italians with 178. Force India, on the other hand, ran ahead of McLaren, going from a one-point gap to six points, 117 to 111.

The next race is in Japan on October 5.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/09/22/r...grand-prix-f1/

Hoovey689

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Typhoon Phanfone made landfall in Japan on Sunday, causing a slow start to a very wet and strategy-heavy race, all of it overshadowed by the race-ending injury to Marussia driver Jules Bianchi.

Before that, Nico Rosberg made the most of two days of dry running, leading two of the three Free Practice sessions and getting his Mercedes AMG Petronas onto pole. Teammate Lewis Hamilton had been faster around the circuit in FP2, but a crash in FP2 and mistakes at the hairpin in qualifying seemed to remove him from his groove, leaving him in second place. The two Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were next but couldn't get within 0.6 seconds of Rosberg's time. Fernando Alonso put the first Ferrari in fifth, followed by Daniel Ricciardo in the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing and Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button in the two McLarens. Sebastian Vettel took ninth for Infiniti Red Bull Racing, while Kimi Räikkönen nabbed the last top ten spot for Ferrari.

For the first time all weekend, the clouds rolled in on Sunday morning, and they still haven't lifted.


Suzuka was so wet at 3:00 PM on Sunday that the lights starting the race were mounted on the Safety Car, which paced the pack around the track for the first two of 53 laps. In just those two circuits, Marcus Ericsson spun his Caterham into the gravel coming out of the chicane - he doesn't like the rain - swapping his 19th position for a spot at the back. The FIA red-flagged the race at the end of the second lap and held the cars in pit lane for ten minutes, waiting for the weather to break.

At 3:25 racing resumed under a kinder rainfall, and by racing we mean more laps behind the Safety Car. On the very first one of those, Lap 3, Ferrari lost Alonso for the second time in three races. The electrics on the Spaniard's car retired at the end of Turn 5, leaving him nothing to do but park it on the side of the road and take a moto back to the pits. Now that it's almost just about nearly official that Alonso is leaving the Scuderia at the end of the year, the rumor being that he's going to McLaren, he'll be hoping for a better way to say goodbye than he's had of late.


With more than a few drivers saying the track was ready to go, the Safety Car exited at the end of Lap 9, Rosberg finally leading the field at speed across the Start/Finish line as Button and Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus hit the pits to exchange their full wet tires for a set of intermediates. Up front, Rosberg got 1.3 seconds ahead of Hamilton on just Lap 11 and 6.7 seconds ahead of Bottas in third.


But in back, Button was soon doing better lap times than the leaders – unlike his fate in Hungary, this time he jumped the field with the right tire choice – so the front of the field ducked in for intermediates over the next few laps. On Lap 9, Button had got into third position.

Observers had questioned Williams' performance in the wet and the team said they had got control of it, but the team was a bit premature with that answer, Bottas and Massa slithering out of corners and being hunted down by the Red Bulls. Ricciardo did his usual fearless thing, making a couple of passes at the end of the S Curves to get past Williams-Martini drivers. On Lap 18, almost halfway through the race, the order was Rosberg, Hamilton, Button, Vettel, Ricciardo, Bottas, Massa, Nico Hülkenberg and Sergio Perez in their Force Indias and Esteban Gutiérrez in the Sauber. Räikkönen, the last Ferrari running, was booted from the top ten when a wheel nut issue forced a long pit stop.


Right around this time, Hamilton started closing on Rosberg. With Rosberg complaining about "so much oversteer," the Brit took tenths out of the leader through individual sectors, and by Lap 29 was on Rosberg's gearbox coming out of the final chicane. At the start of Lap 29, Hamilton swung around the outside of his teammate into Turn 1 – the same turn where Hamilton had crashed in FP3 – and took over the lead before getting to Turn 2. By Lap 31, Hamilton had a four-second gap over the sister Silver Arrows. He'd lose the lead for a few laps after the last round of pit stops, but regain it before the race was red flagged and called off, finishing one spot ahead of Rosberg.


As to that crimson ending, the early sunset meant it was getting dark and the weather turned foul again as the race got close to Lap 40. The officials decided it was bad enough on Lap 41 that they disabled the use of DRS, and on the very next lap Adrian Sutil in the Sauber slid off the track at Dunlop Curve, his car swapping ends midway through corner and smashing into the tire barriers. The marshals brought out the recovery tractor to get the Sauber, and on the next lap, Bianchi slid out of Dunlop just like Sutil, and collided with the tractor. The Ferrari junior driver sustained a severe head injury, was taken to hospital and immediately operated on. At the time of writing he remains in intensive care.

That brought out the Safety Car and the Medical Car on Lap 44. The Safety Car paced the field for two more laps, then the officials red-flagged the race again, then they called it off.


Vettel took third, thanks to a quick Red Bull and misfortune for Button. Both McLaren drivers had to change their steering wheels during pit stops, Button's change taking longer than usual and letting Vettel get by, setting him up to be hunted down by Ricciardo. There was a bit of confusion at the end when Vettel went into the pits during the final Safety Car period for a new set of intermediates, coming out in fourth. When the race got red-flagged two laps later, however, Vettel was credited for third place, the spot he occupied before the Safety Car period. Continuing the two-up theme, teammate Ricciardo followed him in fourth place in the final classification, Button taking fifth after his inspired early tire choice.

Back to pairings, the Williams duo finished in the order in which they started albeit in different positions, Bottas claiming sixth ahead of Massa in seventh. Hülkenberg, who had stopped at the end of the pit lane on Lap 45, was classified in eighth. Jean-Eric Vergne put in another impressive-but-too-late drives to secure ninth for Toro Rosso, the second Force India of Sergio Perez taking tenth.


Hamilton's victory gives him a 10-point cushion over teammate Rosberg in the Driver's Championship, 266 to 256, the biggest lead the Brit has had all year. It's Hamilton's first win at Suzuka, his eighth win of the season and his ninth win with Mercedes. Ricciardo still owns third position with 193 points.

Mercedes AMG Petronas' eighth one-two of the season gives them 522 points to Red Bull's 322, meaning Mercedes can claim the Constructor's Championship at the next race in Russia. Williams put even more distance into Ferrari, the Grove team now on 201 points compared to Ferrari's 178, the Scuderia failing to earn a single point for the first time in 82 races – Räikkönen finished in eleventh in Japan. Force India gave up a handful of points to McLaren but stays just in front of the Woking team, with 122 points to 121.


The next race is next week, the inaugural Russian Grand Prix at the track in Sochi. Everyone will be hoping for the best for Bianchi, a promising pilot who's turned in some excellent performances for Marussia this year.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/06/r...se-grand-prix/

jwong77

Holy crap I just watched the videos of the crash, it's pretty bad. The impact was enough to move the tractor he hit several feet back. Hope Jules pulses through.

Hoovey689

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The Sochi International Street Circuit used to host the Russian Formula One Grand Prix has a few things in common with the Valencia Street Circuit that was used to host the European Grand Prix. Both are built among existing infrastructure used for other events, both contain long, narrow stretches run between concrete walls and chain link fencing, and both are, shall we say, not exactly exciting.

We wouldn't know that after qualifying, though, when Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes AMG Petronas finally put in a mistake-free Saturday to line up first on the grid, ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg in second. Valtteri Bottas got his Williams closer than anyone expected, blistering the first two sectors but falling apart in the third and ending up third on the grid. Behind him, Jenson Button impressed in the McLaren in fourth, Daniil Kvyat even more impressive in the Toro Rosso, taking fifth in front of his home crowd. Kevin Magnussen put the second McLaren in sixth, Daniel Ricciardo was the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing in seventh ahead of a Ferrari duo who knew they'd have a hard time, Fernando Alonso in eighth and Kimi Räikkönen in ninth. Jean-Eric Vergne made sure to keep himself in the news with tenth position.

When the lights went out, the most exciting events of the entire race happened in just sixty meters of the braking zone going into Turn 2.


That's when Rosberg, who'd got ahead of Hamilton after the Turn 1 kink down the long drag to Turn 2, locked up his wheels like he was mad at them, overshot the exit of the turn and blasted through the runoff area to stay ahead of his teammate. Rosberg's engineer soon told him to give the position back, having gained an unfair advantage, Rosberg replying that he had to come in and pit anyway since the flat-spotted tire was causing vibrations.

That set Hamilton free to win the race. Although he only put a few tenths into Bottas every lap, he didn't ever struggle, and he put at least a second per lap on everyone behind Bottas. Until the last lap, the only time we saw Hamilton was when we got a replay of him locking up slightly into the technical Turn 13. The only time we heard him was when he'd tell his engineer, "Everything's fine here." And that was your race. It's possible the most exciting part of his day was having Vladimir Putin hand him his trophy.


Almost. At any other track on the calendar, Bottas would have come in second and Button in third, but the grippy Sochi surface and conservative Pirelli tire choice meant that tires didn't wear out. So Rosberg, who pitted at the end of the first lap and grabbed a set of medium compounds, the harder of the two on offer, drove the remaining 52 laps on that set. And because he was in a Mercedes, the Bayern Munich of F1 teams sent to compete with lesser squads, he simply weaved his way through the field from 21st after his pit stop to second on Lap 31. No one expected it, not even Rosberg, who said after the race he was sure he'd have to pit again. When Bottas dropped to third after his pit stop, his engineer told him he'd get Rosberg when the German pitted, but that never happened. When Button's engineer told Button he thought Rosberg would go the whole distance, Button replied, "From when he pitted on the first lap?!" Yes.

So Rosberg claimed the runner-up spot, followed by Bottas, followed by Button.


Magnussen came in fifth, moving up one spot from his grid position when Kvyat's Toro Rosso started going backwards as soon as the race began. Alonso took sixth, after having run as high as fourth for much of the race due to some leap-frogging at the start, but a botched pit stop meant he got released after Magnussen buzzed past the pits and he couldn't get around him again.

Ricciardo came seventh ahead of teammate Vettel, passing his teammate during the pit stops when he couldn't do it on track, Räikkönen and Sergio Perez in the Force India – who'd qualified 13th – rounded out the top ten.

For a better measure of how 'stable' the race was, on Lap 32 of 53, the race order was Hamilton, Rosberg, Bottas, Button, Magnussen, Alonso, Ricciardo, Vettel, Esteban Gutiérrez in the Sauber and Räikkönen, and the only reason Gutiérrez was in there was because he hadn't pitted yet. Once he did, on Lap 39, Perez moved up and that was your race finish.


The win throws another 25 points on Hamilton's Driver's Championship lead, putting him 17 points ahead of Rosberg, 291 to 274. He's also won nine races this year, including two stretches of four-in-a-row, and with 31 wins in his career ties the number of wins earned by British legend Nigel Mansell. The only other two drivers to win four-in-a-row twice in a season, Michael Schumacher in 2004 and Sebastian Vettel in 2013, both won the championship - but they didn't have double points at the last race to contend with. Ricciardo, with 199 points, is now eliminated from mathematical contention of winning the title.


Mercedes' ninth one-two of the season gives it 565 points and the trophy for the Constructor's Championship, the first in its history. Red Bull sits a comfortable second with 342 points, and even though Williams only got one car in the points to get to 216 points, it put more distance between it and Ferrari with 188 points. Before Japan Alonso said that Ferrari would pass Williams in the constructor's battle, but with two of the three races left giving the benefit to power, we wonder about that prediction. Finally, McLaren did a number on Force India; the two teams were just a point apart not so long ago, but after Russia McLaren has 143 points and Force India has 123. Regrettably, it seems Vijay Mallya's squad is doing its end-of-season fade again.

The next race comes to you from Circuit of the Americas in three weeks.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/13/r...an-grand-prix/

Hoovey689

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http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/22/c...bankruptcy-f1/

Motor

"Can the Mercedes SLS AMG Black Edition beat Michael Schumacher's 2012 Formula 1 car?"

Hoovey689

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SLS BS only 06:54 slower than the F1 Benz, not bad. I noted 2 people in the SLS too, added weight

Hoovey689

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http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/24/c...ispute-report/

Hoovey689

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http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/27/m...am-bankruptcy/

Hoovey689

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Thankfully, the weekend's Formula One dramas all concerned events that happened off the track, with both Caterham and Marussia going into administration, after which a rumored boycott by the small teams was avoided. That gave the 18 drivers left on the grid freedom to focus on making the most of the Texas sunshine for Sunday's US Grand Prix.

Having finished two Free Practices behind teammate Mercedes AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton, the second one just .003 behind, Nico Rosberg said he had speed in hand and proved it during qualifying, beating Hamilton to the top spot by four-tenths of a second. Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa came behind, followed by Daniel Ricciardo in the Infiniti Red Bull Racing, Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari, the McLaren duo of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, Kimi Räikkönen in the second Ferrari, and little-team Sauber bursting out of the storm clouds into tenth, Adrian Sutil making the team's first-time Q3 appearance all year.

When it came time to race, the carbon-fiber fisticuffs began on the first lap.


That's when Sergio Perez in the Sahara Force India tried to leapfrog up the pack from 12th position, but slid into the back of Räikkönen heading into Turn 14, then clobbered Sutil. The Sauber was out immediately, stuck on the kerb, pieces of it littering the tarmac. As Perez limped around to the pits, the Safety Car came out for three laps while recovery vehicles removed the Sauber. The Mexican, who retired in the pits, had two penalty points added to his license and will take a seven-place grid penalty in Brazil.


Up front, Rosberg and Hamilton were, as usual, getting away from the field. Massa had got around his teammate Bottas and tried to keep it game, but he was already two seconds behind Hamilton two laps after racing resumed, and six seconds behind eight laps later.


Hamilton shadowed Rosberg, staying around a second behind the German until after the first round of pit stops, when Rosberg's lead increased to 2.5 seconds on Lap 19. Over the next five laps, Hamilton hunted Rosberg down, taking chunks out of the lead, and on Lap 25 – after juking around in Rosberg's mirrors through a number of corners – Hamilton zoomed up the inside from a long way back into Turn 12, the two fought through the corner together, then Hamilton squeezed his teammate to the edge and claimed first place. Rosberg said he didn't defend as decisively as he could have, and he didn't get his ERS boost because he pressed the wrong button. But one lap later, Hamilton had got a 1.3-second gap on Rosberg, and that was the race - Rosberg never truly threatened him. Hamilton crossed the line first, 31 laps, later, Rosberg a touch more than four seconds back.

Mr. Revelation, Daniel Ricciardo did it again to finish in third, beating both Williams entries with brilliant passing and strategy. He got another one of his lackluster starts and slipped to ninth, but began retaking positions on Lap 1, slotting into his original grid position of fifth by Lap 5. He got past Bottas with an undercut during the first round of pit stops, taking fourth position, then did the same thing to Massa during the second round of stops, to take third. Even with the long straights at Circuit of the Americas, neither of the Martini boys could catch him and they finished in fourth and fifth, Massa preceding Bottas.


Alonso finished where he started, in sixth, after a mainly quiet race punctuated by passing binges after pit stops, fighting Magnussen, Button and Sebastian Vettel for numerous laps.

Vettel was bittersweet about his seventh-place finish. Starting from the pit lane due to a ten-place grid penalty over a power unit change, Vettel had shown pre-race pace that probably could have got him fighting in the top five. Yet after a strategy call that had him pit twice in two laps, his tires didn't want to work for him during the opening stint, and he was two seconds off his best. After his third pit stop he came alive, using another pit stop for new tires to work some tidy and sloppy on a train of cars on old tires in positions seven to 14. Magnussen crossed the line behind, the Dane, like Alonso, finishing where he started.


Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne, who has said he thinks he should stay with the team, and who incoming driver Max Verstappen wants to stay with the team, keeps making his case with drives instead of words. Vergne crossed the line in ninth, but he made contact during a wild pass on Romain Grosjean in the Lotus into Turn 1 on Lap 51, kicking Grosjean off track and back two places. The stewards added five seconds to his time, dropping him to tenth in the classification. Even so, if he had driven like this for the past couple of years, there's a chance he'd be at Red Bull instead of on the way out.

Pastor Maldonado, a name we haven't read in a while when it didn't have to do with crashes, crossed the line in tenth. He got moved up to ninth in spite of a five-second penalty of his own for speeding in the pit lane, but that got Lotus a welcome single point especially after Grosjean's incident. The penalty does, however, keep Maldonado at the top of the penalties-per-season table, a spot he's occupied three of the past four years.


Lewis Hamilton's win gives him ten this season, makes him the winningest British driver in the sport, and puts him at 316 points in the Driver's Championship. Nico Rosberg falls a bit further behind, to 292 points, but he can't fall any further than that even if he sits out the last two races, with Daniel Ricciardo in third on 214 points.

The Constructor's Championship is wrapped up, and assuming Ricciardo keeps up his driving, Infiniti Red Bull Racing should be locked into second with 363 points at the moment, followed by Williams with 238. Ferrari fell further behind Williams, to 196 points, but put a little distance into McLaren, with 147 points, and Force India's double retirement means their seasonal second-half charge sputters once again, stuck on 123 points.


The next race is in Brazil on November 9. If there is such a thing as momentum, everyone will be expecting Lewis Hamilton to have plenty of it with him at Interlagos.

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/11/03/2...ix-race-recap/