Hamilton supreme in Singapore to take title lead

Lewis Hamilton took a superbly dominant victory under the lights of the Marina Bay circuit in Singapore which looked closer than it ever really was. He got a perfect start from pole position and took a comfortable lead for the early part of the race.

The tyre degradation all the teams faced amid the humid temperatures meant most went for a three stop strategy which was thrown out of the window when the safety car came out on lap 31 for debris strewn across the track after Sergio Perez’s Force India lost its front wing underneath the car following contact with the Sauber of Adrian Sutil.

Hamilton had only stopped for the second time for his third set of super softs five laps previously and stayed out on track. All his immediate competitors had pitted either just before or during the safety car period for the more durable soft tyres and were now trying to make it to the end without a third stop.

Even if Hamilton could have made the super softs last he would have had to stop again to take on the soft tyres as he hadn’t used them yet. After a race in which the action had been relatively sedate compared to recent Grand Prix, the chase was now on. When the safety car came in at the start of lap 38 of 61 Lewis had to make a gap of 28 seconds to come out still in the lead.

Behind him Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso circled closely together on the slower soft tyre but could, just perhaps, be in front of the Mercedes driver once he pitted. As is so often said on the team radio, it was ‘Hammertime’ and the #44 Merc flawed it while at the same time trying to stretch his super-softs as far as they could go.

Despite several reassurances from his team Lewis kept on doubting he’d be able to make it as far as they wanted him to go, but keep on going he did and at such a pace he was often over three seconds a lap faster than his pursuers. By lap 52 with his tyres near to breaking point he was still going faster than his rivals but no longer by enough. He pitted for the final time and exited behind Vettel but crucially ahead of Ricciardo and Alonso.

In truth even if he had come out behind them he was on such fresher rubber that he’d have cruised ahead with not much trouble but it would have eked out the tension just that little bit more. As it was he was nearing two seconds behind Vettel when he came out of the pits but by turn 6 on the very next lap he shot through a tightening gap in the DRS zone and from there the race was his.

He maximised his opportunity today and was never really troubled at all. Significantly Lewis also for just the second time of the year headed the championship table with a three point gap to his team mate Nico Rosberg. The race could have been so much different if it hadn’t been for a technical problem that robbed Rosberg of the ability to even pull away from the line on the formation lap.

He did manage to get going from the pit lane but despite having had a steering wheel change, could not engage first gear at the start, the gear changes would go up two at a time, his DRS couldn’t be enabled and it hurt his energy recovery systems. He failed to make much progress, stuck behind Marcus Ericsson for some time before pitting. His problem meant he had no pit lane speed limiter so practically crept into his pit box, but could not re-engage first gear and that was that for the day.

After such a close qualifying when he’d failed to get pole by just 0.007 this was expected to be quite the showdown, but if anyone believes in karma then Nico is certainly getting his back on him since Spa. A 29 point lead after Belgium is now a three point deficit. There are still 150 points left to play for including the stupid double points race in Abu Dhabi, but the momentum is with Lewis now and after the race Nico certainly looked crestfallen as he faces the prospect of having to chase down the fastest man in the sport.

Has the tide now swung definitively in Lewis’ favour? That can’t be judged yet but despite the mental strength that Nico has shown this year, he now trails Lewis in points and by four wins to seven. Another defeat in Japan and could it all be game over? Not mathematically, the Mercedes performance advantage is still strong over the rest of the field, this will go to the last but mentally it could be the finishing move. The only thing both have to worry about is reliability and that could still be a crucial deciding factor.

As for Lewis he looked supremely confident after the race, he looked like a man who knew he’d made a statement of intent. Presuming no mechanical issues then it’s going to be very tough for him to get knocked off the points lead for a second time.

Vettel suffered a troubled weekend again but still came away with second. He lost a lot of time in practice, had issues in qualifying that left him over driving the car and throwing away a possible tilt at pole position. He lined up fourth behind Ricciardo but after Rosberg’s issue he had an open gap to attack down to the first corner.

He made sure he was the first Red Bull there and once Alonso gave up his second place after over shooting the first turn from fifth on the grid he managed to maintain a strong second place right through to the second stops.

Alonso undercut Vettel at the second time of asking resulting in Vettel being the first to put on the soft tyres on lap 25 with the aim of a long stint followed by the super softs to potentially attack Hamilton who appeared to still be in range. However, when the safety car came out the Ferrari came back in to put softs on as well, exiting behind Vettel and Ricciardo who was suffering some sort of intermittent problem.

They ran second, third and fourth to the flag with Vettel only moving into the lead for a single lap, amazingly the first time he's been out in front all year. They held their tyres together, but none more impressive than Vettel who made them last for 35 laps. One more lap and he may have been in trouble but luckily the last lap was dropped as the race timed out at two hours thanks to the safety car problem.

Everyone in qualifying looked closer to the Mercedes cars, especially the Ferrari’s and particularly Kimi Raikkonen who looked like he could have had an attack at a top three spot if it hadn’t been for an engine problem in Q3. Kimi has no luck other than bad in 2014 and while he sometimes looked fast during the race, lucked out in the pit stops to end up only eighth.

Alonso kept the good pace up during the race so there were things to be happy about at last but still no match for the Mercedes. Behind this trio, Felipe Massa ran the same strategy but didn’t have the pace in fifth while his Williams team mate Valtteri Bottas was running sixth but just ran out of grip on the last lap when everyone came by. He came home only 11^th. The Force India’s came charging through with Perez having had a nose change coming back to finish seventh, once again ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in ninth.

Kevin Magnussen produced a heroic drive while being cooked in the cockpit of his McLaren. While Jenson Button retired towards the end with a technical problem after a solid opening lap charge, Magnussen suffered burns which he had to have checked out after the race. So hot was it in the cockpit he even claimed his drinks bottle was burning his mouth. A point was the least he deserved.

Esteban Gutierrez retired for Sauber but felt he could have had a point and Marcus Ericsson had his best race of the year as he beat the Marussia’s for the first time. The Lotuses also looked potential point scorers but ran out of grip while Daniil Kvyat had probably his least convincing performance to date as he suffered dehydration due to his drinks bottle packing up on the formation lap. A skinny lad, it showed just how on the edge a lot of drivers are on weight due to the heavier energy recovery technology requiring drivers to have the minimum of fat on them. Thankfully the weight limit of the cars is to rise next year.

The last five laps were the boiling point of the race and Jean-Eric Vergne was the hero as he fought his way into the points. After suffering a five second penalty for exceeding track limits he received another to be added to his race time. He took full advantage of his fresher rubber, one of the few to remain on a three stopper.

With the Bottas train circulating slowly, he cruised up to the back of them before taking in quick succession Hulkenberg, Perez, and then an absolutely beautiful opportunistic move on Kimi into the first turn and then in a rush, he easily got ahead of Bottas. He pushed on so his five second penalty wouldn’t drop him back and pulled out the gap within two laps to secure his best finish of the year and remind people what a racer he can be. It was a result he needed and for once firmly put Kvyat in the shade at Toro Rosso.

So onwards to Japan and the wonderful Suzuka track in two weeks time. The title battle has swung in Lewis’ favour but he and Rosberg know it can swing back just as easily.

The Singapore Grand Prix Forecast

Singapore holds the original night race and the longest race of the year at a time of nearly two hours. As the teams and drivers try to stay on European time its energy sapping track and temperature makes this an event when the drivers know they’ve had to work hard all afternoon, well night.

It’s a long circuit with 23 corners and not much time to take a breather. It has several big stops and in general a lot of them so it means brakes take a pounding. Mercedes have had several issues with brakes this year so watch out for them.

There are two DRS zones, one on the start finish straight and one between turns 5 and 7 which includes the anonymous turn 6. Pirelli are bringing their soft and super soft tyres although the forecast is high temperatures approaching 30C and rain is in the air. Rain is often predicted for this event but never seems to materialise during the race, could this be the year? It would certainly throw up an interesting variable under the lights.

It would also increase the likelihood of a safety car at a track which generally has a high probability of one, a track surrounded by concrete walls is always going to attract incidents, just ask Daniel Ricciardo who offended the walls last year when he drove for Toro Rosso. One more thing to add about this race is the banning of team radio regarding messages that help the drivers drive. All assistance about brake bias, where a rival is quicker (particularly your team mate) what sector or corner you could be doing better at is banned while driving the car. It’s going to be interesting to see how this is policed, if and when the teams get round it and will it affect any of the drivers?

So we’re on to round 14, five to go after this one and the Mercedes battle for the title continues as tensions continue to rise inside the team. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg can often be heard asking for advice from the team. Will the radio ban hurt one of them more than the other?

I read something interesting on autosport.com where their technical writer and former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson said that Rosberg would likely have done his homework whereas Lewis might be a bit lost despite his natural talent being the greater and so able to drive round problems. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

As for the track I think Rosberg could well have the edge this weekend. He’s always been fast around Singapore and potentially should have won the race for Williams several years ago. Hamilton has won before but was slower than Rosberg last year, so it could be advantage Nico? That of course doesn’t take into account the psychological blow Lewis dealt out in Italy?

He controlled that weekend, getting a brilliant pole position and pressuring Rosberg into a mistake as he recovered from a software afflicted start to challenge his team mate for the lead. It was one of his most accomplished performances of the year and Nico looked a little bit rattled by it. But he can recover. There’s a lot of things to hit around the Marina Bay street circuit, not a lot of run off, I’m sure their Mercedes team are going to be on edge throughout, especially when the lights go out.

I think we could be seeing a challenge though which might not have the Silver Arrow squad getting everything their own way. I think Williams will have to concede their main challenger position to Red Bull this race. They always go well here and Sebastian Vettel utterly dominated last year. He’s got a brand new chassis this weekend as the team try to get him the improved race pace that he’s found in qualifying.

It’s an interesting competition between Vettel and Ricciardo. Ricciardo has pretty much got best of the rest position sewn up but Vettel will be desperate to at least get a win. He’s been out-qualifying Ricciardo more often than not in recent races but still getting beaten when it matters. It’s obvious the car is not suiting Vettel at all, but he is making progress and he’ll be determined to finally beat Ricciardo.

With engine power not being a main feature, Red Bull’s deficit suddenly becomes a lot less. Their chassis is at least second best if not the best so will work well around here. I think they can be challengers and possibly get in the way of the Mercedes title battle. If Vettel can’t be the lead Red Bull though, then I’m not sure he’ll ever be, at least for this year.

Williams and Ferrari are locked in battle for third in the constructors. I think they’ll both be fighting for a high of fifth this weekend. After the dismal Italian Grand Prix suffered by Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo resigned as chairman of Ferrari. He is to be replaced by Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s CEO. Ferrari are in a crisis, after their super team of the Schumacher era was broken up he promoted from within and the Italian blame culture arose once more to such an extent that it really has only been Fernando Alonso who has made them look even vaguely respectable.

Even he has been at pains to deliver podiums this year. Team Boss Marco Mattiacci has recognised this and is making changes, but it can’t help them this year and might not be much help for next either which might lose them their most prized asset, Alonso. Anyway, Singapore might be better for Ferrari as power isn’t everything here. With the stop start nature of the track fuel consumption might be an issue, which means Ferrari will be in trouble. If it’s not one thing it’s another for the Scuderia.

Despite Williams not having the best downforce they’ve made a lot of progress over the year and are still bringing updates. Valtteri Bottas is a driver that will get you the maximum result while Felipe Massa should have been a winner here in 2008 and will be buoyed by his Italian podium, so look out for the Williams cars, they could spring a surprise.

McLaren will hope that Kevin Magnussen keeps up his recent good performances, but this time not attract a penalty. It’s a bit tight around here to be squeezing too many drivers off the track. Jenson Button will be looking to beat Magnussen on the road this time rather than relying on a penalty to get ahead.

Force India have looked off the pace recently, bizarrely this has let Sergio Perez rise up to prominence in the team while Nico Hulkenberg, the once superstar of the future has looked strangely off the pace. Hulkenberg needs to rectify this if his start is not to wane.

Daniil Kvyat was brilliant in Italy and I’m sure he’ll hustle the car this weekend to get near the top 10 and maybe sneak a point if his rookie status doesn’t let the walls take a bite out of him. Jean-Eric Vergne needs to start lighting up the time sheets soon if he’s to maintain his Formula 1 career.

Sauber and Lotus, well I can’t see them progressing much here. Even when other teams power advantage may be negated, when you’re missing huge chunks of downforce you’re not going to do much in Singapore. They’ll be hoping for a safety car to mix things up. Caterham have kept on Kamui Kobayashi once again as they battle with the Marussia’s.

So if I were to predict a winner? For the championship, you have to hope it’s a Hamilton win but I’ve got a feeling Rosberg may have the edge this weekend. As an outside bet, go with Vettel. It’s going to be a hot, long race under the lights of Singapore. Who does win could be crucial to this year’s title battle.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Three degrees of rookie success

There are three rookies in this season’s Formula 1 and each of them have so far had varying degrees of success. It’s a tough world at the top of motor sport. You can be a hero one race and a nobody the next race.

You can pull off a fantastic move which delights the fans, a few laps later you can outrage the fans as you push that little too far and take out a title contender. Ask Romain Grosjean about that.

Of the three that we’ve got this year I’m quite sad to say that Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson just doesn’t seem to have got a handle on the sport at all this year. He didn’t win the GP2 title but he was a race winner and it seems a shame that his first year in the sport could also be his last.

The Caterham is a no hoper, he was never going to set the world alight but he’s not shone against his team mate Kamui Kobayashi all year and couldn’t even beat Andre Lotterer who stepped into the car in Belgium and was almost immediately quicker. A man who hadn’t stepped into an F1 car since 2002.

He has the backing so maybe he’ll get another chance but although he hasn’t disgraced himself he hasn’t impressed anybody either. Of course with a hard luck story there is also someone else who has set the world alight.

Maybe it’s just me but I was expecting an awful lot from Kevin Magnussen. I wrote earlier in the year, admittedly a bit facetiously that he could well be the next Lewis Hamilton. Well there was a certain amount of truth in that, he was part of the McLaren young driver program, impressed in the junior formulae, was brought into the race team alongside a world champion and scored a podium on his debut in Australia.

It looked like he was about to set the world alight. But the McLaren is nowhere near as good as the one Lewis had. He also hasn’t had even half the testing miles Lewis prepared with. So the comparison was basically completely unfair, Kevin had a lot of learning to do.

It’s been a bit of an up and down season for Magnussen. Over the following races from his debut he was sometimes barely worthy of a mention. He was out-qualified and out raced a lot by Jenson Button, a driver who everyone knows on his day is unbeatable, but also that those days are few and far between at the moment.

The star which shone with such promise in March looked to be gradually fading, so much so that it has been rumoured that McLaren could replace him for 2015 along with Jenson Button. In truth it’s unlikely either of them will go as the driver market is fairly locked off this year, well so it seems.

But it would have been extremely unfair on Magnussen who has been more than competent and done well on a number of occasions through the year. He also had been used to winning in the junior formulae and was certainly not used to having to race mid pack. It was obviously a steep learning curve. But it’s in the most recent races he’s really reminded people of his presence out on the track, and in my opinion for all good reasons.

Ok, it was rude when he ran Fernando Alonso onto the grass in Belgium at 200mph but his defensive driving was hugely impressive during that Grand Prix. He out drove his team mate fairly comprehensively, only to suffer a penalty which dropped him out the points.

He suffered a similar fate when an incident which definitely shouldn’t have been penalised against Valtteri Bottas at the first chicane in Italy dropped him from seventh to tenth. It was a case of the stewards having an over reaction to a driver who might be being too aggressive, maybe it was to teach him a lesson. He does move the car a lot when defending which can be dangerous, but it’s also exciting.

Formula 1 needs drivers who excite and Magnussen is definitely one. After a fast start but then a slow middle he’s beginning to show the potential he looked like he had and that’s going to be great for the sport.

However the man who just seemed to be on it straight away and hasn’t been off it since is Russia's Daniil Kvyat driving for Toro Rosso. There were many who wondered why Red Bull had promoted him in front of some other juniors on their young driver program such as Antonio Felix da Costa or Carlos Sainz Jnr but lets remember he is the 2013 GP3 champion and has a lot of car racing experience behind him as well as having been a successful karter.

As soon as he came into Formula 1 he has been by far the most impressive. Just look at the Italian Grand prix as the perfect example. The team had to give him a 6th engine, breaking the maximum of five rule over a season at Monza thereby incurring a 10 place grid penalty. This season if you don't take all your penalty, for instance if you qualify 15th you're only dropping back seven places, then you are obliged to complete the penalty at the next race. God help the Caterham's and Marussia's!

Kvyat knew this and despite the circuit not exactly being a Toro Rosso friendly track as the Renault unit is significantly down on power compared to Mercedes he still managed to only just miss out on getting into the top 10. From 11th therefore he dropped to 21st. What followed is probably one of the drives of his season so far, he fought hard, unfortunately barely witnessed by the TV camera's to challenge Kimi Raikkonen for a point by the end.

In a Toro Rosso on a power track that is highly impressive. Unfortunately his brakes failed just as it looked he might sneak a point a few laps from home, but he still dragged it home in 11th and the save he made when his brakes did go was amazing. If only Formula 1 allowed you to stick a few videos up without hunting you down I'd show you.

Kvyat has also seen off Jean-Eric Vergne, the man who mostly matched the out standing driver of the year so far during their time at Toro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo. It's not just perception though, it's borne out by results too. Even though Vergne leads Kvyat in qualifying 7-6 and in points by 11 - 8, it's not quite a true reflection. 

One thing that should be noted is that Kvyat is a rookie so these current results would be pretty impressive anyway, Vergne is still well rated. But actually if you disregard his Monza engine penalty then Kvyat would be leading Vergne 7-6, couple that with often getting into the top 10 and his qualifying speed shouldn't be too much in doubt. Vergne also may have got the better results with two eighth place finishes, but he has scored in just four races compared to Kvyat's five including his first two races. When both cars have finished it is Kvyat who has more often than not been ahead.

If Vergne could match Ricciardo, and Ricciardo can beat Vettel, then Kvyat must be awesome. Of course it is far too early to make judgements like that and circumstances change but Red Bull have to be commended for finding some truly exceptional talent. Kvyat made his debut at just 19 years old. Now only 20 he looks like he's being set up as team leader for next year for the precocious talent of Max Verstappen. Red Bull's newest kid is being promoted to Toro Rosso at just 17 years old after only one years worth of car experience since he left karting.

Compared to Verstappen, Kvyat is positively a veteran with several years of car racing experience behind him as well as his current year in Formula 1, not to mention he's actually allowed to drive on public roads. Have no doubt Verstappen will be a formidable rookie if he's prepared enough, but Kvyat has impressed greatly this year with only one minor misdemeanour when he tried to go round the outside of Sergio Perez but then spun rather clumsily in Germany.

That doesn't take anything away though, he has been impressive and continues to cement a growing reputation of someone who's going to be around the grid for quite some time. With this years inaugural Russian Grand Prix it couldn't come at a better time. It'll be interesting to see how his progress has been received in Russia and how much of a crowd they get at the Sochi circuit, built around the winter Olympics venue. One thing is sure though, he's been by far the most consistently impressive rookie of 2014 so far.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Radio silence for helping drivers

"The driver must drive the car alone and unaided." So says Article 20.1 of F1's sporting regulations as the FIA clamp down on radio communication between team and driver that help's with the performance of the car and driver.

Mercedes are a fine example of this, often you can hear them talking to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg telling them where they could be braking later, where the advantage of their team mate is coming from on track. The perception is that the wider public are now viewing these once great gladiators in control of viciously fast machinery as mere puppets under the pit walls control.

In a way I guess that might not be too far from the truth, although not one I fully agree with. The full message sent to the teams on Wednesday night from FIA reported in autosport reads like this: "In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 20.1 of the F1 sporting regulations are respected at all times FIA intends to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore, no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver."

I think the intent of what the FIA are trying to do makes sense. They want the driver to be the star and for the public to see that he is the one in control and not attached to strings from the garage. I'm all in favour of the driver being given more control and can understand a sense of frustration when you hear a communication which helps a driver out and therefore erodes an advantage of another not through that drivers talent but from an engineer sitting by telemetry traces on a computer.

To my mind though it's just another case of Formula 1's current obsession with self improvement where it's not needed. As I've written before there is nothing wrong with the product, what’s wrong is the division of money to teams, about teams struggling for survival when there's no need for that to be the case, the fact that Formula 1 hasn't embraced social media and has no idea how to promote itself even with the major opportunity of a brave new world of regulations this year which no one knows about other than it's not as noisy. 

I'm sure there are some drivers who appreciate the radio help from the team, but equally I'm sure there's some drivers who just wish to be left alone. Perhaps it is a bit unfair when you're a driver who can cope with the complexities of the sport on your own and are able to manage all aspects but then that advantage is cancelled out because you're team mate or main rival has an engineer who is guiding them along.

To me it more emphasises the team element of the sport which unfortunately is so often overlooked. The radio transmissions add to the television coverage, and with this ban I'm sure we'll hear a lot less of the goings on of the drivers and the insight that brings. For instance you're able to learn how some teams operate, or which drivers request more information. How often do you hear Fernando Alonso looking for advice for instance compared to the Mercedes pair? It lets you realise sometimes who are the ones that need help, who want it, who don’t and who will get it anyway.

When does a communication become help anyway? How will that be defined? Thankfully the team will still be able to advise on pit strategy so we shouldn't lose classics like Hamilton's engineer Pete Bonnington saying it's 'hammer time' when it's time to push. Rob Smedley on the radio to Felipe Massa was always fun in the Ferrari days, but was often helping him and that kind of thing might be lost.

Still after all that, it's not going to effect anything radically and I hope in general there's still plenty of chatter broadcast, probably involving a lot of code words from teams that mean what they now cannot say. I do think it is just another case of F1 getting a thought in it's head and running with it for better or worse. We'll lose an aspect of team and driver and how they operate but maybe we'll gain from drivers being thought of as the real stars and in control of their machines again.

However as they’re the ones sitting in the car I always thought they were the ones in control and just utilising everything they could to drive them quicker. I think most people thought that anyway as at the end of the day when you're in a wheel to wheel fight no amount of advice is going to help a driver then and there. The new regulation comes into force at the next race in Singapore.

Hamilton wins after Rosberg cracks

Lewis Hamilton put all the drama of the last few weeks behind him to record his sixth victory of the year and close the gap to his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg down to 22 points. If he wins the next four races with Rosberg second he’ll retake the championship lead by the end of the USA Grand Prix. If only life was that simple.

The way this season is going we can expect plenty more ups and downs before the end, today Lewis’ race encapsulated just how tough it’s going to be but also gave a marker of just how much recent events has altered the mind sets of Mercedes two drivers; Hamilton has renewed confidence and feels the team is behind him while Rosberg appeared defensive all weekend and made another critical error which might have cost him the win.

First of all though Hamilton had awesome speed all weekend finally getting back to pole position, his first since the Spanish Grand Prix all the way back in May. It was a fantastic lap that really demonstrated to Rosberg just what he has to contend with in the final six races. Despite all the mind games and the dramas going on behind the scenes and often in front of the cameras Rosberg is up against the fastest driver in Formula 1, and it’s going to take all his tactical nous to hold him off.

Lewis may have got the top grid slot but as seems to be the way for him, he rarely gets a straight forward win. His launch system wasn’t working properly and he got bogged down at the start allowing not only Rosberg to charge ahead but Kevin Magnussen who got a great start from fifth was second while Felipe Massa jumped into third.

It didn’t look comfortable at first for the 44 Mercedes, he wasn’t immediately on to the pack of Massa nor did it look like it was going to be an easy pass on the Brazilian, the Williams is extremely quick on the straight. But whatever problems he had were cured and within a few laps both Massa and Hamilton got ahead of the over performing Magnussen.

There was a lot of hype before the start of the weekend that Williams might well have the pace to compete for the win but a terrible start from Valtteri Bottas in third dropped him down the field, and despite only lapping a few tenths away from Silver Arrow pace Massa was never really in contention.

It didn’t stop Lewis having to make quite the move on his 2008 title rival. On lap nine Rosberg had failed to make too much of an advantage while Lewis was stuck and even went off at the first chicane. Perhaps this encouraged Lewis, the very next lap he had his DRS open, Massa defended the inside line into the first chicane but always last of the late brakers the Mercedes swept around the outside into turn one and held the inside for turn two, he was through and now the charge began.

He slowly but surely trimmed down Rosberg’s advantage, lap after lap with barely an intermission the gap was cut. Rosberg hadn’t looked on Hamilton’s pace all weekend and now it was being firmly shown. Being the lead driver Rosberg had first call on pit strategy. This race is a one stop most of the time and so it proved for almost all the runners today. Lewis pitted a lap after Rosberg on lap 25 with just 28 to run, he exited the pit lane not far behind.

His engineer came on the radio advising to hang back around two seconds and save the tyres for an attack at the end of the race. Lewis doesn’t do hanging back if he can avoid it so it wasn’t so much of a surprise to see him immediately set the fastest lap of the race. From nearing two seconds after the stops, in less than two laps it was under a second. It was ‘hammertime’ for Hamilton and he was closing and in DRS range, the move was surely about to be made.

But then was this the moment Rosberg cracked? The pressure must have told a little bit, Hamilton was catching him relentlessly, was Rosberg ready after all the outrage of a fortnight ago to go wheel to wheel with his championship rival once more? Approaching the first chicane on lap 29 he made the same mistake he had earlier in the race, briefly locking up before taking to the escape road. It was enough to allow Hamilton into the lead and from then on he wasn’t challenged.

Lewis rolled off the laps to take a resounding win and lay down a marker to Rosberg that he’s coming for him. Rosberg finished three seconds down and although annoyed with himself for the mistake didn’t look too down with the end result. He knows there will still be weekends when he’s quicker and he also knows how unlikely it is Mercedes will finish 1-2 for the next four races, especially when you factor in engine penalties that many teams are bound to need to take.

But this race victory was something both would have desperately wanted after the Spa antics to show the other just who is in control. Well Lewis certainly showed who was in command this weekend but for the championship Nico remains the man with the best cards. After the disciplinary action Mercedes took against him after Spa, the mistake this weekend and Lewis looking mentally stronger than he’s ever been, could it be Rosberg’s about to cave?

The battles for points in another action filled race

Behind the Mercedes duo Massa maintained his third place to the finish completely untroubled. In many ways he was the star of the race but apart from the early laps wasn’t really involved in much of the action. He calmly ran his race and for once this year managed to stay out of trouble and finally claim the podium he deserved with a brilliant performance in front of the Ferrari public who still have a lot of affection for their former driver. A nice way to celebrate being re-signed.

His Williams team mate Bottas finished fourth with a far more eventful race. Starting third he briefly dropped out of the top 10 and a bit like Hamilton in the opening couple of laps looked like he was a bit stuck. But soon the beautiful Martini liveried Williams was going wheel to wheel with half the field to fight his way up the order.

He used the DRS on the start finish straight to his advantage, utilising his straight line speed but he was braking brilliantly into the first chicane and took many drivers including Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, Kevin Magnussen and Sebastian Vettel with sublime moves which were made to look deftly simple.

He made a lot of progress in his first stint but after his pit stop he dropped back behind many of them and had to fight to get back ahead. This time his move against Magnussen was not as simple, they both braked late into the first chicane, Bottas alongside the McLaren driver but Magnussen was on the inside line. It’s such a tight corner and very narrow Bottas was always going to back out or crash. He backed out and went over the kerbs.

The stewards thought Magnussen should have left more room and subsequently added five seconds to his finishing time. It was a harsh penalty and to my mind unjustified. What happened to the leniency that the stewards were showing? Derrick Warwick was the driver steward and he does seem to come down hard a lot of the time, but I don’t think Magnussen could have done anything different, he was defending his position, even Bottas said after the race it shouldn’t have been a penalty.

But there you go, another lesson for Magnussen on the fickleness of steward decisions and his second consecutive penalty, both arguably a bit harsh although the incident in Spa was deserved. Whatever though, he's getting more impressive as the season goes on.

Bottas got the job done later and finished fourth while Magnussen held on for seventh which became tenth. Sergio Perez and Jenson Button had some of the best side by side action of the season as they exchanged places back and forth finishing seventh and eighth after Magnussen’s penalty.

Perez in particular overshadowed his Force India team mate Nico Hulkenberg again. Hulkenberg was anonymous all weekend and is in great danger of his career being kept in the midfield which would be sad indeed. Kimi was ninth after a fairly solitary race in which he just seemed to be passed. 

Meanwhile his Ferrari team mate Alonso had been mixing it with these guys before retiring on lap 28 with an energy recovery issue. It was his first retirement of the year and coming at Monza, Ferrari’s home race, it was at the worst moment possible. It had been another fine performance from the Spaniard but the car, as always when it’s Alonso, was the problem.

In fifth and sixth were the two Red Bull’s. Just when you think Vettel is getting the edge on Daniel Ricciardo, up pops the Australian at the end of the race just to remind you he is the man at Red Bull. Vettel out qualified him for the fourth time in five races but yet again was behind at the finish. Vettel had been quicker all weekend but he was the first driver to stop for tyres on lap 18, Ricciardo stopped eight laps later. His fresher rubber catapulted him up the order and he put some slick moves on the lower top 10 finishers to rise up the order to put him in the top half.

Once he was ahead of Magnussen he went after Vettel who defended fairly aggressively but was in no shape to hold him back. Ricciardo got through and shot off into the distance. It says something brilliant about a driver who seems off the pace all weekend that he can make it work when it counts.

Daniil Kvyat survived a scare when challenging Kimi as his brakes went two laps from home. He managed to make the flag in 11^th after starting 21^st because of an engine penalty. His Toro Rosso team mate Jean-Eric Vergne finished two places behind him after starting nine places in front. When you’ve lost your drive and you want to show yourself off that’s not the best way to do it.

Kamui Kobayashi finished ahead of Jules Bianchi for Caterham. After messing Kamui around he rewards them with a top drive but don’t be surprised if he’s not there in Singapore, especially as team politics and undelivered money seems to be throwing this team into turmoil.

Disturbing rumours from Monza

Other financially struggling teams Sauber and Lotus both had miserable weekends which will only compound their current problems. The latest rumours emerging from the paddock suggest that there will only be eight teams in 2015 each with three cars as Formula 1’s unfair dividing of the money continues to cause problems.

Unfortunately the TV money is locked in until 2020 and F1 teams generally only think of themselves so any who receive more money won’t want to give up that advantage. For once though I’d like the teams to think of the sport first rather than themselves because as will have been mentioned before if there are only eight teams how long till one or two of them go bust because they’re not performing. Then how many cars will you get each team to run? 

Two car teams is Formula 1, a fair division of monies making teams sustainable should be the desired aim. Bernie Ecclestone should be thinking of distributing the money much more fairly rather than giving him and FOM the vast majority of it as there is enough money in F1 whereby each team could survive easily.

Anyway onto Singapore where I expect all 11 teams to be running, Rosberg is traditionally pretty good under the city lights, he nearly won for Williams a few years ago. He doesn’t have to as he’s plenty in hand but he’d like to beat Hamilton there, if anything just to stop the momentum building against him. As for Lewis, well he proved today he knows how to tackle his championship deficit and that is to attack. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Italian Grand Prix Forecast

The Italian Grand Prix is the fastest race of the year, and I’ve a feeling not many Formula 1 fans can wait to see Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton charging towards the first corner at over 220mph to see what happens next in this thrilling title battle.

Monza is also the shortest race of the year because having the foot hard on the throttle for most of it speeds things up. It has no real corners apart from the two Lesmo's and the Parabolica, this year gravelless with tarmac replacing the run-off area which has made some drivers mourn the loss of what is a challenging corner. Now, as with so many other tracks the punishment for making a mistake is sadly lacking.

So with long straights and other than the aforementioned corners, slow corners this is really a track about power, with the drivers having to hustle the cars through the chicanes and the kerbs which can make a difference, but generally it's a track where a driver can't steal too much of an advantage.

There’s the usual two DRS zones, one on the start finish straight and one between turns 7 and 8. Pirelli are bringing their medium and hard compound rubber, I would have thought a one or two stop strategy would be the way forward, but tyre wear can be quite high, although a lot of the time manageable for just the one pit visit.

Of course those compounds won’t be used if it’s raining which looks a distinct possibility at the moment for at least one of the three days. Friday looks cloudy, Saturday could see rain for qualifying, while race day appears sunny for now. Mercedes would probably like it to be dry just to make it more likely there won’t be any unfortunate incidents.

There’s been huge amounts written on the rights and wrongs of what happened at the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago when Rosberg made an attempt to pass Hamilton at Les Combes that was never going to come off. The resultant damage of one puncture for Hamilton (and later retirement) and damaged front wing for Rosberg cost the team an almost certain 1-2 and left the Mercedes bosses full of anger and Rosberg with an enhanced championship advantage.

In no uncertain terms they blamed Rosberg for the collision, Hamilton then claimed to the press that Rosberg had said he'd not avoided the collision deliberately to 'prove a point' after a team briefing immediately after the race something which Rosberg denied at the time. Of course the press exploded with Rosberg being rather unfairly labelled a great many things.

Last Friday the Mercedes drivers were summoned to the factory where statements were hurriedly issued confirming that Rosberg regretted his actions and had apologised to Lewis and the team. Lewis on his side said that mistakes had been made on both sides and they would be able to work together in the future. The team said Rosberg had been sanctioned (rumoured to be a six figure sum of money) and that they would now move on with the drivers still free to race.

I do feel that Rosberg has been slightly hard done by. It was a clumsy move but I still think that Lewis could have left slightly more room. There's been a few times this season when the silver cars have been fighting where Lewis has rather robustly shut the door, only avoiding contact because Rosberg backed out. In a way it's understandable that Rosberg left the nose in to show he won't be shoved out of the way all the time. It could have been done better, like when there might have been a bigger chance for the move to have come off, but what's done is done.

Still if Rosberg wanted to prove a point it's not worked out too badly. Hamilton has said, admittedly before last Friday's statements, that he wasn't sure if he could trust racing alongside Rosberg anymore. Not what you want to hear as a racing driver as I'm sure you want to be respected for your skills but Nico might enjoy the thought that Lewis might hesitate when fighting him thereby making life a little easier. Having said that, I don't think that thought will last long, Lewis won't give up the fight so easily and when it comes down to it they both know that Hamilton has the edge in wheel to wheel combat and he always will.

He'll be on a  mission to finally put one over on Nico this weekend. A clean weekend where he can let his driving do the talking and get his title mission back on track. It'll start in qualifying where he'll be desperate to be back on pole position for the first time since Spain, six races ago. Then in the race he'll blast off into the distance leaving Nico trailing as Lewis thinks he should. It's just unfortunate that Nico seems to have been underestimated for such a long time, even now when he leads the world championship, I think it'll be a close one between these two.

Whether it's a fight for victory is very much open to debate in my opinion. In the last forecast I wrote that many others had written that Belgium would be a major chance for the Williams team to battle for the top spot. I always thought that was slightly optimistic, but on this one I think not. Powered by Mercedes, Williams often have the highest straight line speeds of anyone, as I've said there's a lack of any real corners to challenge the teams aerodynamic deficiency, so I would be surprised to not see at least one of them on the front row. Actually no, let's predict a Williams front row lock out providing it doesn't rain as H2O is not their friend.

Who'll be on top? On current form you'd have to say Valtteri Bottas, but remember it was Felipe Massa who scored their pole position earlier in the season in Austria. Massa particularly will really want to get on the podium this weekend after seeing his team mate on the rostrum four times out of the last five races. But if I was going for a winner I'd have to say Bottas. But wouldn't it be brilliant to see Massa score a win in Italy after his eight years of Ferrari service. I'm sure the crowd would appreciate that, especially as the likelihood is that Ferrari will be nowhere this weekend.

The Scuderia Team Principal Marco Mattiacci has made no secret that their home race is going to be a difficult weekend. This can be attributed to the power deficit Ferrari have to Mercedes. Still, they were expecting to struggle at Spa too but got a relatively competitive fourth and seventh out of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.

Obviously it isn’t the results Ferrari would usually like but it gives a little optimism for the weekend ahead. Having said that I think fourth at Monza would be very impressive, in general I think if they can get some decent points from the lower half of the top 10, they should be happy. It was nice to see Kimi finally shine a bit brighter last time out, hopefully he can continue that form, while Alonso had some tremendous battles, once again he’s always a driver to look out for.

I would think Red Bull will be the best non-Mercedes powered team this weekend. Running with the down on power Renault, they showed surprising speed on a power track like Spa. They did run with a miniscule rear wing but still were just about holding their own through the corners thanks to possibly the best chassis on the grid.

Daniel Ricciardo won his third Grand Prix of the year last time out adding yet more superlatives to what has been a brilliant year of racing for the Australian. He proved the better driver on race day over his four time champion team mate Sebastian Vettel despite being out qualified. 

Vettel seems to be able to extract his qualifying pace again in this car but too often his race day speed has not materialised. So far off the pace of Ricciardo and also damaging the tyres more was Vettel that he’s been given another new chassis this weekend in the hope of improved form. However, I don’t expect either Red Bull driver to feature on the podium this weekend no matter how small the rear wing, but if one were to appear I think we know who that would be.

Of course we’d like to see this race be more than just a Mercedes power unit fest, but Force India and McLaren could find themselves a bit further up the grid. Jenson Button would dearly love to have the car to show what he can do as he fights to stay on the grid. I think it’s a bit unfair of McLaren to be so publicly courting other drivers. Button is a good driver, if you build the car around him and give him exactly what he needs then he'll get you wins even if a title would be slightly optimistic.

Unfortunately for him it looks like they want a driver who’ll be able to be flat out whatever the cars circumstance. Kevin Magnussen was impressive at Spa but got handed a rather harsh penalty for being too aggressive. I'm sure he'll go all out to make up for it this weekend.

Toro Rosso grabbed a couple of points in Belgium curtesy of Daniil Kvyat. I’m sure he’s capable of doing that again but Jean-Eric Vergne needs to start beating him more regularly if he wants to stay on the grid next year. Sauber have been looking a bit more hopeful recently but it’s unlikely they’ll be points scoring. Kamui Kobayashi looks set to return to Caterham after the team failed to sell his seat to the highest bidder.

So, drivers fighting to stay on the grid, now and for next year, battles in the midfield, battles to take an opportunistic victory and the continuing and increasingly bitter inter team fight for championship glory. The Italian Grand Prix looks set to be unmissable.

all photo's taken from autosport.com