Hoovey689

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http://www.autoblog.com/2015/02/11/f...hakeup-report/

nick01

I really miss the scream of the v8s

Motor

Meet Ferrari’s F1 car of the future
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/f...car-2015-02-17

Hoovey689

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Hoovey689

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http://www.autoblog.com/2015/02/20/f...jected-report/

Hoovey689

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http://www.autoblog.com/2015/02/22/f...-crash-report/

Hoovey689

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Gallery:
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/race-...-prix/#image-1

We can't remember the last time 90 percent of the action in Formula One had nothing to do with cars setting timed laps. Yet that's was the situation at the Australian Grand Prix, continuing the antics from a scarcely believable off-season with blow-ups, driver and team absences, a lawsuit, and a clear need for some teams to get down and give us 50 pit stops.

Nothing much has changed from a regulation standpoint, and at the front of the field nothing has changed at all. Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas claimed the first position on the grid like someone put a sign on it that read, "Reserved for Mr. Hamilton;" teammate Nico Rosberg was 0.6 behind in second, Felipe Massa in the Williams was 1.4 seconds back in third. Sebastian Vettel proved that Ferrari didn't do another Groundhog Day routine this off-season, slotting into fourth. His teammate Kimi Räikkönen was not even four-hundredths of a second behind, ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams, Daniel Ricciardo in the first Infiniti Red Bull Racing, and rookie Carlos Sainz, Jr. in the first Toro Rosso. Lotus, now powered by Mercedes, got both cars into the top ten with Romain Grosjean in ninth, Pastor Maldonado in the final spot.

However, even though the regulations are almost all carryover, in actual fact, everything has changed this year. Mercedes is even faster. Renault is even worse. Ferrari and Lotus are a lot better. Toro Rosso is looking like anything but a junior team. And McLaren is – well, let's not even get into that yet. Furthermore, this weekend was shambles: 15 cars started the race, the smallest naturally-occurring grid since 1963. Manor couldn't get its cars ready before qualifying. Bottas had to pull out after qualifying when he tore a disc in his back and couldn't pass the medical clearance tests. The gearbox in Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull gave out on the lap from the pit to the grid, and to give misery some company, the Honda in Kevin Magnussen's McLaren blew up on the same lap.


When the lights went out, Hamilton ran away and was more than a second ahead of his teammate at the end of Lap 1. The advantage disappeared, though, because behind him, at the first corner, we got our first pile-up. As Räikkönen drove around the outside of Vettel at the right-hand Turn 1 it looked like Vettel, going over the kerbing, hopped to his left and bounced into Räikkönen. The Finn crossed over to the runoff inside the left-hand Turn 2, as Sauber driver Felipe Nasr behind him tried to pass to Räikkönen's right. But the Finn came back on the track and tapped Nasr, who lurched to the right and tapped Maldonado and sent the Lotus into the right-hand wall. The twisted-up Lotus was done, and the Safety Car was out immediately so the Lotus could be recovered.

Three laps later when racing resumed, Hamilton ran away and was more than a second ahead of his teammate at the end of Lap 4. That's the way it would go for the rest of the race – Hamilton lost the lead in the pits, otherwise Rosberg never got closer than 1.3 seconds, and would cross the line in second, 1.3 seconds behind.


Vettel, who'd said he could have qualified third, proved it by finishing the race in that position. Trailing Massa in the Williams in the opening stages, he took third when Massa pitted on Lap 22 and he stayed out to lay down some fast laps. While Vettel was in, Massa was stuck behind Ricciardo, so Vettel stayed in third place and held it to the end. Late in the race it looked like Massa might at least make a fight of it, but no – the Ferrari was simply quicker. Vettel got on the podium for the first time since 2013 and showed that the best-of-the-rest fight will be between Ferrari and Williams at least for the first few races. For both he and Ferrari, who separately suffered nothing but misery last year, it will feel like victory. Remember when Hamilton left McLaren, a team in turmoil, to jump to Mercedes, a team in turmoil that had just been through a complete overhaul? Looks like Vettel did the same thing.

There'll be a few alarm bells at Ferrari, too, over two terrible pit stops for Räikkönen. The crew had trouble with is left rear tire both times, and the jackman didn't hold him back either time. After the second stop, Räikkönen got released but pulled the car over at Turn 2, the wheel having not been fastened properly. They escaped a penalty for unsafe release this time, but they'll want to do a lot better next time.


Man of the day was Sauber driver Nasr, who got his blue and yellow steed home in fifth. The Brazilian was unflappable – and the Ferrari engine behind him is quite good – holding off Ricciardo in the late stages. Even better, teammate Marcus Ericsson came home in eighth to earn Sauber a total of 14 points this year, which is 14 more than it scored all of last year. Now Sauber has to figure out what to do about former reserve driver Giedo van der Garde, who sued the Swiss outfit after it took his sponsor money last year and promised him a race seat this year, then booted him for better financial offers. Van der Garde has won judgments in three countries over breach of contract, and having seen how good the car is he'll be desperate to get in it. They have until Malaysia in two weeks to figure it out.

Ricciardo took sixth in the Red Bull, a lap down. The driver known for awesome overtaking and opportunistic victories last year had no hope of either in this race. Renault said they'd worked on reliability and had closed the gap to Mercedes, but this year's power unit has proved itself so fragile, weak, and difficult to drive that Red Bull is publicly pleading for more and better cooperation. There's gonna be a lot of fizz at the fizzy drinks team this year, and things will probably get a little quiet at Infiniti for a while.


Force India pilot Nico Hülkenberg did his usual, pulling up to seventh at the finish from 14th on the grid. The car got just 1.5 days of testing in during the pre-season so we'll undoubtedly see better performance from it, but it's run absolutely trouble-free. Teammate Sergio Perez finished tenth, giving the team a good start on points this year, which it will need – the midfield competition is a lot better everywhere. If they pull another one of their end-of-season fades, they'll be shaking hands with Manor at the bottom of the charts.

Ninth place went to rookie Carlos Sainz, Jr. in the Toro Rosso, who would have done better but for a troublesome wheel change during his pit stop. Still, for the first-timer to qualify and finish in the top ten on his first F1 foray is a good start to the team's youth brigade. His teammate, 17-year-old Max Verstappen, was in the top ten when he pitted on Lap 33, but had to pull the car over with a blown engine on the next lap – sure to be another note on the post-race debrief agenda with Renault.


Fifteen cars started, eleven finished, and the last one to cross the line was Button in the McLaren, the only driver who'd been lapped twice. After doing just 12 laps in all of pre-season testing, Honda said it turned down the output of its power unit to focus on reliability, but Magnussen still blew an engine and Button said just getting to the end of the race was "a big deal and a massive step forward." Or put another way, last place – in a race with 11 finishers – was "a good starting point." McLaren are the masters of the in-season turnaround; this is the year they'll put all of that wisdom to use.

Hamilton's victory, his seventh pole-to-flag victory in a row and 34th career win, gives him 25 points in the Driver's Championship, ahead of Rosberg with 18, and Vettel with 15. Mercedes-AMG Petronas collects the full haul of 50 in the Constructor's Championship, with Ferrari on 15 points, Sauber on 14, and Williams on 12. But get this: Vettel came in third 36 seconds behind Hamilton, Nasr in fifth was 95 seconds behind, Ricciardo in sixth had been lapped, and Hamilton could have gone faster – he was only worried about keeping Rosberg behind, and he drove just fast enough to do that. If the other three engine manufacturers agreed to pool their development tokens and use them all on the Ferrari power unit, they'd have almost no chance of making up the more than half-second-per-lap Mercedes has right now... and Mercedes still has tokens of its own. They're in the groove.


http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/15/2...ix-race-recap/

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

So many retirements in the race today, crazy number of dropouts.

jwong77

Loved the interviews on the podium, pretty funny to see Lewis's reaction to Arnold.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

In the two weeks since Australia both Mercedes and Ferrari spoke of the improved performance from their respective cars. In Malaysia, Ferrari showed it. Lewis Hamilton still put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas on pole position, but Sebastian Vettel got within two whiskers of the Brit, lining up second just 0.074 behind. Afterward, Vettel said Ferrari could win the race if everything went well. But in qualifying we didn't know how much of Ferrari's performance was truly down to the car and how much was down to the wet weather that struck near the beginning of Q2.

The rain didn't hamper Nico Rosberg's run – the German said "I just didn't drive good enough" – and he took third spot in the second Mercedes-AMG Petronas. Showing what the Infiniti Red Bull Racing chassis can do when the power unit is working properly, teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat grabbed fourth and fifth. Whippersnapper Max Verstappen, in his second race, qualified in sixth with an excellent drive through the rain; just 0.030 behind Kvyat, he said he could have got fifth if he hadn't had a running problem with his brakes.

Williams head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley said he wouldn't complain about Mercedes' advantage, but Felipe Massa has spent the whole season so far banging the alarm about Ferrari's pace. He says Williams has lost its straight-line advantage, part of the reason the first Grove car is back in seventh, while Valtteri Bottas is in eighth. Between them was Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, but he got dropped two positions for a pit-lane infraction in Q2, so he'll be tenth. Ahead of him is Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber, who would lead the charge to turn in another surprise for the Swiss team.


But the real surprise came from the Scuderia Ferrari, who, on a bright, sunny day proved that they don't need to add water for race-winning pace. While Hamilton got made usual awesome start at the lights, Vettel channeled that other famous German Ferrari driver and immediately cut across the track to intimidate Rosberg, maintaining his second place position into the first turn.

Arguably the race-winning move came three laps later at that same turn, when Ericsson plunged in too fast and swapped ends, beaching the rear of his Sauber in the gravel trap. The safety car came out when the recovery truck emerged to retrieve the Sauber, and nearly all of the front-runners took to the pits to swap out of the medium tires. Vettel, however, didn't. When racing resumed on Lap 7, not only did Vettel – on the medium tire – began pulling away from the driver behind him, Nico Hülkenberg in the Force India, and Hülkenberg in turn clogged up the other runners behind. Hamilton was back in sixth trying to make his way through the field, Rosberg another two positions back, while Vettel streaked away.


Tire degradation was key, and not only was the Ferrari able to maintain its lead or pull away from the Mercedes' when needed, it managed it Pirelli's on an blisteringly hot Kuala Lumpur day better than the Mercedes. So after Vettel pitted the first time and gave up the lead to Hamilton, the Brit was soon on the radio complaining about the state of his rubber, meanwhile Vettel had carved through the field and passed the Mercedes on track on Lap 24. We haven't seen that happen since 2013. The German convincingly held onto the advantage for the rest of the race, finishing ahead of a sullen Hamilton and a pragmatic-as-ever Rosberg.

The second Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen backed up the assessment of the team's performance. Having started from 11th, his left rear tire got tagged by Ericsson's front wing at the end of Lap 1 – his second first-lap incident in as many races – and he limped back to the pits with a flat. Coming out in dead last and with a damaged car, he drove a quiet, solid race to fourth place. He was so much stronger than the Williams duo behind that there was no thought of him being caught.


Until the very last lap it looked like Felipe Massa would finish in front of Valtteri Bottas, the two having scrapped for the last four circuits with Bottas unable to get a good move in. Williams let them both race for it, and Bottas pulled off a high-speed pass on the outside of Turn 4, nabbing fifth position in the process and forcing Massa to settle for sixth at the flag.

Red Bull "junior" team Toro Rosso proved it's having better luck with its chassis and the Renault power unit than its parent. After taking the fight to Red Bull in Australia the Toro Rosso youngsters put in the one-two punch, Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, Jr. finishing in seventh and eighth, ahead of Red Bull drivers Ricciardo and Kvyat in ninth and tenth. Sainz had started in 15th, ten places behind the second Red Bull, but neither Red Bull driver could hold the Spaniard back. And both Red Bull drivers were lapped by Vettel.

Elsewhere in the pack, both McLarens had to retire from the race but they actually put in a good showing when compared to Australia, fighting at the bottom of the top ten. Button actually got on the radio to express surprise at catching up to and passing other cars. However, they'll be worrying about how many engines they're going to go through this season while Honda gets its groove on. Lotus looks a lot better, too, but they also endured a double retirement. Manor-Marussia got both of its cars running, but just one of them on track for the race. It's a start. As for Force India... well, they need to do something, quickly – both of their cars were just too slow.


Vettel's win was his fourth in Malaysia – nobody's won more there. It's his first victory since Brazil in 2013, Ferrari's first since Spain of that same year, and to hear him after the race you'd have thought he had won the World Championship. We hope this race wasn't an aberration, because there was a lot of on-track action throughout most of it, all up and down the order.

Even better: everyone who complains about Mercedes' domination and the lack of development options can now shut up – and that includes this writer. It's just one race, but Ferrari eliminated the 34.5-second gap to the leaders from just two weeks ago. It really looks like if the team and engine supplier get the job done properly, anything can happen. After saying his cars would be even faster at this track, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said after the race, "Maybe this was the wake-up call we needed."

Lewis Hamilton still leads the Driver's Championship with 43 points, Vettel just behind with 40 points, and Rosberg at 33 points. On the Constructor's side, Mercedes has 76 points, Ferrari has 52, Williams has 30. We'll be looking to China in two weeks to know if this was a one-off or a sign of the season to come.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/03/29/2...ilers/#image-1

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Yes, we tuned into the Formula One Grand Prix in Shanghai China to see a race. But we all know we really tuned in to see if Ferrari, or any other team, could make it a competitive race with Mercedes-AMG Petronas. Based on qualifying, things didn't get off the best of starts: Lewis Hamilton made it four-out-of-four at the front, leading all three Free Practice sessions and then taking pole position in his Mercedes. Nico Rosberg is making the most of his time in the simulator, getting closer to Hamilton as the months go by. This time he lined up in second, just 0.042 in arrears.

Ferrari did its best to temper expectations after Malaysia. Even though Sebastian Vettel qualified in third, almost a second behind Hamilton, the Scuderia's race pace is still considered a danger. Kimi Räikkönen's final hot lap went sour in Turn 3 and dropped the Finn to sixth place on the grid. In between the Ferraris, Williams is another team desperately working to maintain its advantage, and both of its drivers capitalized on Räikkönen's misfortune. Felipe Massa took fourth, Valtteri Bottas was in fifth.

Daniel Ricciardo led the Infiniti Red Bull Racing charge in seventh, ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Lotus earning a spirits-lifting eighth. The two Saubers continue to show how good the Ferrari engine is, with Felipe Nasr taking ninth position and teammate Marcus Ericsson in tenth.


Yet when the lights went out, so did the racing, for the most part. At the end of the first lap, because of some excellent moves by Räikkönen on both Williams' and a terrible start by Ricciardo that dropped him to seventeenth, the order was Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Räikkönen, Massa, Bottas, Grosjean, Nasr, Ericsson, and Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus rounding out the top ten. At the end of the race, the only positions that had changed were the final two: Ricciardo had a laps-long battle with Ericsson, passing, getting repassed, then passing again to take ninth for good, with Ericsson finishing tenth. Maldonado suffered the worst in a battle with Jenson Button in the McLaren, when Button misjudged the entry into Turn 1 for a pass and clouted the back of the Lotus. Button was able to finish but Maldonado had to retire.

Yes, there were some decent moments in between, like Bottas getting by Massa at the start, then Räikkönen getting past Massa in the first few corners and the Finn's move on Bottas also letting Massa through. Räikkönen would make a charge to try to catch up to teammate Vettel 's near the end of the 56-lap race, but that came to naught because of the safety car coming out on Lap 54.

That happened because of the poor Renault luck that befell rookie wunderkind Max Verstappen again – he retired in Australia with a blown engine after some impressive on-track passing, and did the same in China, coming to a halt on the pit straight. That called for the safety car while the marshals played bumper car with the Toro Rosso and the pit wall, and the race finished – only for the fifth time in history – with a bunched-up parade down the front straight. Renault told Red Bull not to expect any race wins this year, but with Ricciardo having to change his engine the morning of the race and Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat blowing an engine early in the race, Renault should have told both Red Bull teams not to expect anything this year except engine penalties. Red Bull alone has been through a total of six power units so far this year, and we've only finished the third race. The limit before penalties is eight power units.


The only other interesting facets of the race happened over the radio. Hamilton, leading the race and on the soft tire, was trying to make his Pirellis last longer than they'd gone all weekend. He slowed down to manage his rubber, and that slowed Rosberg down as the German was also managing his rubber and didn't want to push to pass Hamilton. Rosberg told the team Hamilton was going too slow, the team told him to speed up, which he did, but not quickly enough or fast enough to please Rosberg, who complained afterward that Hamilton compromised his race. Hamilton replied that it wasn't his job to watch out for Nico's race.

That incident also showed that although Ferrari kept Mercedes honest, Vettel never falling more than seven seconds behind, Mercedes rediscovered its whopping advantage on a hot track. When Hamilton sped up before his pit in-laps, his lap time fell by more than a second. Vettel, meanwhile, told his team that he was on the limit.


The result gives Hamilton his second Chinese Grand Prix win in a row; he's converted his last nine pole positions into eight wins, this is the 35th win of his career, and he's been on the podium for ten straight races. He leads the Driver's Championship with 68 points, ahead of Vettel with 55 and Rosberg with 51. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas one-two means it has 119 points in the Constructor's Championship, followed by Ferrari with 79, Williams with 48, and Sauber the best of the rest with 19.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/12/2...f1-race-recap/

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen had said after Malaysia that Ferrari can challenge Mercedes-AMG Petronas purely on pace, beyond the scope of tire wear, in the dry. We didn't see that in China, where Lewis Hamilton easily kept everyone behind and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel only got close to Mercedes' Nico Rosberg when Rosberg slowed down to conserve his tires. But the Iceman's words seemed prescient during qualifying for the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix.

At the front, nothing has changed so far this year: four races, four pole positions for Lewis Hamilton. Instead of teammate Rosberg next to him, though, he'll look over to see the scarlet Ferrari of Vettel, who took advantage of Rosberg's cautiousness to ****** second place on the grid. In Q2, Rosberg tried to conserve the tires he'd start the race on and said he couldn't get into a groove in Q3, putting in a time 0.147 seconds slower than Vettel. The second Silver Arrows will share his row with the second Ferrari, Räikkönen – yet again – saying he might have left some time on the table during his hot lap but getting around just one tenth off Rosberg's time.

Williams is established as the best of the rest behind two teams this year instead of just one last year, Valtteri Bottas claiming fifth ahead of Felipe Massa. Daniel Ricciardo of Infiniti Red Bull Racing said he wants to fight with the Williams', he'll be helped with a good start off the line for the first time this year. Nico Hülkenberg got Force India into Q3 for the first time since the Italian Grand Prix last year and into eighth on the grid, ahead of Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso and Romain Grosjean putting in another excellent day's work for Lotus. Come race time, it turned into Mercedes power against Ferrari strategy.

When Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle talks about the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team he often mentions how their engine advantage leads to other advantages throughout the car. Not having to use aerodynamic changes to make up for power unit deficiencies, for instance, means they can run the aero setup they want, which optimizes speed and tire wear throughout a lap. It equates to advantage on top of advantage on top of advantage.


That's where Lewis Hamilton is right now, so fundamentally dialed in to his car and his racing that he run the races he wants to run. From the front spot, the Brit ripped off another perfect start and led the field into Turn 1, relinquishing the lead only during pit stops. His pace was so strong that when he emerged from his second pit stop in second place, he caught leader Räikkönen – who was on old tires – on track, before Räikkönen pitted. His only real incident came on the last lap of the race when his brake-by-wire system malfunctioned, but it wasn't enough to keep him from crossing the line in first place at the end of 57 laps, a little more than three seconds ahead of Räikkönen.

Ferrari made him earn it, though. Räikkönen overtook Rosberg at the start, stealing third place by the end of the Turn 2. He lost it on Lap 4 when Rosberg slid underneath into Turn 1 and pushed him wide to retake the spot, and it looked like he'd drive to another lonely fourth place. But the Ferrari did much better on the medium tire than everyone expected, so in the middle stint – while his teammate Vettel was on the soft, option tire – Räikkönen began taking time out of the three men ahead of him. Doing a long run cost him time when his tires went off, but switching to the option tire for his last spurt put him on the hunt. On Lap 41, when he came out of the pits the final time, he was 16 seconds behind Rosberg. Ten laps later he was three seconds behind Rosberg. When Rosberg's car suffered the same brake-by-wire fault as Hamilton, but 1.5 laps earlier, the German ran wide into Turn 1 and Räikkönen got by for second place.

Rosberg – no, make that "The new improved ultra-aggressive Nico Rosberg," as Martin Brundle put it – came third. After playing nice-nice for the first couple of races this year, the team told him to stop it and be himself. The German watched video of last year's Bahrain GP to figure out where he could make up time this year, and combined with an upgrade to his intensity package, he laid into this race for a fight. He passed Vettel on Lap 9 just as he did Räikkönen earlier, going underneath into Turn 1 quite hot and pushing the Ferrari well to the outside, then claiming the position. Falling a few seconds behind Hamilton, he never challenged for the lead but he kept it game until a few laps from the end of the race. That's despite his fuel- and tire-saving measures, and having to pass Vettel's Ferrari three times. If Rosberg hadn't had the brake problem, we'd have seen quite the scrap between the half-Finn and the full-Finn.


Valtteri Bottas came home fifth after showing his steel yet again, holding off Vettel's Ferrari for nearly 16 laps to the checkered flag. Vettel, who made three unforced errors in running wide during the race, damaged his wing on Lap 36 and had to pit, emerging behind Bottas. The Ferrari probably would have walked away from the Williams if Vettel could have got by, but the Williams pulls so strongly of corners that the German couldn't ever get around. Over that final spell Bottas locked up his brakes once, otherwise not putting a wheel wrong to get some good points for the Grove team, Vettel just behind.

Daniel Ricciardo finished sixth with a finish more spectacular than his race, when his Renault engine blew a nasty white cloud just ahead of the line. It was a good finishing spot, but it won't be much longer before that team has a harder time getting so close to the front because of engine penalties.

Romain Grosjean secured another haul of points for Lotus, the team slowly emerging from the wilderness of last year. They would have had two points-taking cars, but Pastor Maldonado retired from seventh place on Lap 43 while in the pits having his tires changed with the message, "The engine's done."

Sergio Perez put Force India back in the points for the first time since Australia with an eighth-place finish, ahead of Daniil Kvyat in ninth. Felipe Massa, who started from the pit lane after an electrical gremlin attacked his car before the parade lap, took tenth. Just behind him came Fernando Alonso in the sole McLaren to start the race, after Jenson Button's car gave into the electrical recovery system problems it had been suffering all weekend. The Woking team has improved enormously in every race and isn't far away from the points now.


Hamilton's third win out of four races this year gives him 93 points in the Driver's Championship, ahead of Rosberg with 66 and Vettel with 65. Mercedes has stretched its lead in the Constructor's Championship, going to 159 points, ahead of Ferrari with 107 and Williams with 61. The next race in May 8 in Spain, meaning a long break and a return to Europe that will bring major upgrades for every team, and perhaps an even better battles between The Three-Pointed Star and The Prancing Horse. We'll see you then.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/2...e-desert-spoi/

Hoovey689

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Hoovey689

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http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2015-spanish-grand-prix/

The first race of the European Formula One season inaugurates the second phase of the Championship. Teams overhaul their cars with the big updates they've been working on since Australia, and at the end of The Battle of Spain we find out how the positions on the field have changed.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg brought a big update to his psychology, straight-up beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to take his first pole position of the season. Mercedes owns the front row and Ferrari maintains its status as primary challenger, Sebastian Vettel lining up in third. Williams proved it's been hitting the books to do better in class, though, Valtteri Bottas slotting into fourth. And Toro Rosso's visit to a track that rewards strong aero rewarded them with the best team grid position since the Italian Grand Prix in 2008: Carlos Sainz secured fifth, ahead of Max Verstappen in sixth.

Kimi Räikkönen's bout of Saturday woes – it seems the Finn is always handicapped by lots of tiny issues – continued in Barcelona with one of his sets of prime tires getting cooked by malfunctioning tire warmers. He recovered well enough to take seventh on the grid, but he's got some strong competition ahead of him. He led three other drivers in the Continuous Issues department, Daniil Kvyat unable to wrestle his Infiniti Red Bull Racing higher than eighth, Williams driver Felipe Massa getting it wrong in Turn 3 to fall five places behind his teammate Bottas, and Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull enduring another engine change and sloppy car behavior to get tenth.

And while it turned out to be a steady race a little rough around the edges, the positions on the battlefield just might have changed. A little.


Of the 66 laps in the race we might have seen Rosberg for three of them – maybe. The German got a smashing start, had a clear lead into Turn 1, and after that we checked in occasionally during his two pit stops and again at the checkered flag. He owned the entire weekend the way we're used to seeing his teammate do, and the cameras left him alone to run his race. No one got within seven seconds of him during the first third, and as the pit stop strategies played out that cushion grew. He finished seventeen seconds ahead of Hamilton, and 45 seconds ahead of third-placed Vettel.

Hamilton, on the back foot all three days, stumbled out of the gate. His rear wheels spun when taking off on the formation lap, then did so again at the start, and he got swamped in the dash to Turn 1 but limited the damage to getting passed by Vettel. Unable to get around the Ferrari because his car wouldn't behave when he closed the gap, then suffering a botched wheel change during his first pit stop on Lap 14, he nevertheless switched to a three-stop strategy to get around the Ferrari toward the end of the middle stint. He then rang off a bunch of fast laps on the hard compound tire. Hamilton fought to nearly the end, until he realized there was no way he was going to catch Rosberg, then settled for second place. Not the result he wanted, but considering his start and the difficulty in overtaking in Jerez, second place wasn't a bad recovery.


There's a good chance commentators will continue to dissect Ferrari's tactics for Vettel in this race. When Hamilton switched to a three-stopper, Ferrari stuck with two stops and didn't bring Vettel in to cover Hamilton's move. When the Brit reeled off blistering laps, there was nothing the German could do to recover the time, third place his best fate after completing his second stop on Lap 41. Vettel said the Mercedes was too much for the Ferrari anyway, but in that case it seemed even stranger not to play the daring hand.

Valtteri Bottas tried to keep his Williams in the game up front and switched to a two-stop strategy, but after a mostly quiet race he then spent the last six laps fighting off Kimi Räikkönen. Both Finns have proved they won't crack when they have the right tools: Bottas using his power unit's extra boost to keep Räikkönen from getting close enough to pass on the front and back straights. It was a replay of Bahrain, in fact, when he worked the same playbook to keep Vettel behind him. Bottas and Räikkönen crossed the line less than a second apart in fourth and fifth places. Felipe Massa in the second Williams came home sixth, barely seen for the entire grand prix and the last man not to be lapped.

The final four top-ten finishers, Daniel Ricciardo, Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, Carlos Sainz, and Daniil Kvyat, seemed to be constantly mixing it up until their order settled down on Lap 30. Ricciardo duked it out a couple of times with the Toro Rosso drivers, who went backward once the race began. Grosjean came together with his teammate Pastor Maldonado on Lap 9, leading to Maldonado running his race until retiring on Lap 43 with a rear wing missing a right endplate. Sainz and Kvyat, in another bout of sister-team rivalry, fought for a few laps at the end of the race and their cars touched, Sainz coming out on top and avoiding a penalty from the stewards, but it's likely that Red Bull won't want to see that kind of bumping and grinding again.


Hamilton still leads the Driver's Championship with 111 points, but Rosberg's win gets him to 91 points, just a win and a Hamilton retirement from the top of the chart. Vettel lurks in third with 80 points. Mercedes' third one-two of the season gets them to 202 points in the Constructor's Championship, ahead of Ferrari with 132 and Williams with 81. The next race is in Monaco in two weeks, a race Rosberg has won the last two years and that Hamilton hasn't won since 2008.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/05/11/2...recap/#image-1

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http://www.autoblog.com/2015/05/17/f...eling-2017-f1/