Monday 26 October 2015

Hamilton wins to take third world title


It was always inevitable wasn't it? From the season start all the way back in March when Lewis Hamilton cruised home to victory in Australia, it has never been in doubt. It's true Lewis has been in the best car, one with a very significant advantage, but it's also true he has stepped up a gear this year.

Hamilton's Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg was a worthy contender in 2014, but this time around he has been nowhere. Every step he's taken, Hamilton has taken two. He has been out-performed in almost every area and it showed in his disappointment after the race.

Beaten again, despite actually making an overtake stick against Lewis, but a later mistake less than 10 laps from the end cost him his lead and Hamilton was through and away. Once in front there was no way Hamilton was going to give it back.

Lewis has trounced his team mate and driven better than ever this year. There have been minimal mistakes, his 12 pole positions testify that he got on top of his qualifying issues of last year, he is still utterly committed in wheel to wheel racing and just blindingly fast. He has become a superstar this year, on the race track and away from it. He is a sporting hero and a very deserving world champion for a third time.


His third title equals his hero Ayrton Senna, the emotional obvious after the race as he quietly shed a few tears and composed himself before being jubilant on the podium.
In the actual race, Hamilton's drive was a bit mixed up, there were a few mistakes, a loss of pace at various points as the Mercedes failed to make its tyres work in the slippery conditions of the early laps. Hamilton was straight on it as the two Mercedes raced down to the first corner from the start.

Rosberg had been on pole but Hamilton drew alongside and then aggressively ran Nico out of road, forcing him off the track and also allowing the two Red Bull's ahead. A few virtual safety cars (VSC) and actual safety cars mixed things up but as the final restart came, it was Nico ahead of Lewis with 10 laps left. Hamilton set a fastest lap, Rosberg made a mistake, ran wide and Lewis was through. 

It wasn't his best drive, but it clinched him the world championship, and overall he has been supreme all year. 

Star of the race

Lewis Hamilton took his inevitable third championship with a win, Vettel charged up through the field to get onto the podium, Daniel Ricciardo was superb in the tricky conditions but it was Max Verstappen's drive to fourth that makes him my driver of the race.

Verstappen made barely any mistakes while everyone else slid off or clattered into others in the mixed conditions early in the race. Max kept his head though, raced hard and aggressively and eventually made his tyre strategy work. This guy is going to be a world champion sooner rather than later.

The Battles

There were so many incidents in the American Grand Prix over the whole weekend. Texas was feeling some of the effects from Hurricane Patricia resulting in second practice being washed out, qualifying delayed until Sunday morning and then that abandoned early. Still, a grid did line up for the race in still slippery conditions, but on a drying track when it would be crucial to change to slick tyres at the right moment.


As you would expect there were some fantastic battles in such inclement weather. The Ferrari's made some great charges after having taken 10 place grid penalties. Both Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were soon battling in the top 10 with the Toro Rosso's and Force India's, of those Carlos Sainz was driving brilliantly as he stormed up the field after starting 20th and last. He ended up in 7th after a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pitlane dropped him a place.

Raikkonen crashed and eventually retired while Vettel looked at one point he might end up winning but finished in third. Sergio Perez took another impressive result with 5th while his team mate Nico Hulkenberg made a clumsy move on Ricciardo which took him out of the race.

There were battles all over the place, as the McLaren's enjoyed a more competitive showing with Jenson Button being able to race and fight, ending up a fine 6th. When the track was still wet the Red Bull's came on strong and Daniel Ricciardo stormed past Hamilton actually leading the race by more than six seconds at one point, so to later slip down the field as the track dried and ending up with a disappointing 10th is little reward for such a hard charging drive. His team mate Daniil Kvyat crashed after he too had been challenging for the lead early in the race.

The Williams cars suffered a terrible race with both Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa retiring. Pastor Maldonado drove a solid race to take 8th after his Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean suffered problems and retired. Felipe Nasr in the Sauber took 9th. 

Things of note

Red Bull are still searching for an engine, with rumours of a Honda deal reportedly being blocked by McLaren. I still expect them to be on the grid next year.

Lotus have signed 2014 GP2 champion and their current reserve driver to partner Maldonado at what will hopefully be the Renault works team next season, once that deal is signed, which is taking its time.

The Title chase

Let's face it, I've been saying it all year, there never really has been a title fight. It's been Hamilton all the way, in control, devastatingly fast, no one has been able to live with his Mercedes partnership, least of all his team mate.

Hamilton has dominated Rosberg, so much so it's not even his team mate who lies second in the standings. Lewis gained so much confidence from his second title, what will a third title do to him? The other drivers have a lot to fear.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Sunday 11 October 2015

Hamilton moves closer to the title as Perez stars


Star of the race

Sergio Perez deserved a little luck as he claimed his and Force India's first podium at the Russian Grand Prix since Bahrain last year. It was a fantastic drive of which Perez has become quite renowned, converting an unconventional strategy into a brilliant result.

The Mexican was one of the drivers to pit under the second safety car which had come out to remove the wreckage of Romain Grosjean's Lotus following a rather dramatic accident. The top eight or so cars stayed out while Perez dived in for fresh rubber after running as high as sixth.

With well over half the race to go he settled down to make his tyres last the distance. As the front runners pitted, Perez moved up the order. Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull was on a similar strategy but neither could hold off a charging Sebastian Vettel.

However, the battling Finn's of Williams' Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen proved easier to keep behind as they squabbled for position. Eventually they found their way past Ricciardo and started to harry Perez, but this was a podium position, Perez wasn't just going to move over. Ricciardo retired later with a suspension issue.

Perez kept them behind but a lap from the end Williams told Bottas to turn everything up on the engine, he went for a gap and pushed Perez wide, Kimi immediately followed through and was on the Williams' tail. There was nothing he could do, the tyres were finished.

Into the last lap Perez watched as the Williams and Ferrari pulled away, but Kimi was challenging. An improbable closing gap became so tempting, the Ferrari went for it, and smashed into the side of Bottas, pushing the Williams out and damaging the red car. Kimi would limp home 5th but was later penalised with a 30 second penalty dropping him to eighth.

Perez was back into third place, disappointment turned to joy once more, Force India were delighted. It was another demonstration of Perez maximising an unexpected opportunity. He's really shone this year, despite the continual hype around his team mate Nico Hulkenberg who spun out at the first corner and collected Marcus Ericsson's Sauber to force both into retirement bringing out the first safety car.

As I've written before Perez's performances have made people question just how good Hulkenberg is, but I find that unfair, Perez is a very good driver in his own right and both deserve a crack at a winning car one day.

The winner


Lewis Hamilton lost out to pole position to his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg who was on it all weekend in Sochi. At the start, Lewis got alongside Nico but had to settle for second before the first corner accident brought out the first safety car. 

It looked like finally we were going to have a great tussle for victory between the Mercedes drivers, but sadly for the race Rosberg retired shortly after the restart due to a throttle problem. It left Hamilton away and clear never to be troubled again as he put on a demonstration run to the chequered flag.

His win and Kimi's demotion meant Mercedes clinched their second consecutive constructors championship with four races still to run. 

The battles


The Ferrari's battling was quite nice but Vettel managed to get by Kimi fairly easily in the end. Bottas started well but was taken over by Vettel during the pit stops. While the lead Ferrari took second to keep his title hopes dimly lit, Bottas was embroiled in a great fight with Kimi which as I've said, ended in Bottas exclaiming 'What the **** was he doing?'

The Toro Rosso's were once again a source of entertainment as they came back from various problems. Max Verstappen suffered a puncture after getting caught up in the Hulkenberg incident and fought back but could only manage 11th which became 10th after a penalty to Fernando Alonso for exceeding track limits. His team mate Carlos Sainz put in a heroic drive despite failing to finish because of brake problems.

He started last on the grid after a huge 46g impact in third practice sent him to hospital resulting in him missing qualifying. He was ok to race though and stormed through to be running as high as seventh before his brakes hurt enough.

The McLaren's of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso finished 9th and 10th (which became 11th) after the high number of retirements, they were still lacking top end speed and it was painfully noticeable. When the recovering Felipe Massa in the Williams came up to the back of Alonso, the team radioed to tell him he was racing Massa to which he replied 'you have a good sense of humour'. After the season he's had, to lose a point sums his season up as he celebrated his 250th Grand Prix.


Felipe Massa had a terrible qualifying to only line up 15th while Bottas was third. Massa mounted a comeback, going for a long first stint on soft tyres before switching to the super soft rubber and charging through, taking advantage of his team mates demise to end up a fine fourth. Behind him Russian home hero Daniil Kvyat was involved in some good dicing, Felipe Nasr rose up from 13th on the grid to a great 6th place and Pastor Maldonado had an uncharacteristically quiet drive to 7th, all finishing positions one up thanks to Kimi's penalty.

Things of note

The European Union Competitions commission has been notified of two complaints from Sauber and Force India regarding Formula 1's governance and inequitable distribution of funds to the teams. I truly hope something comes of this as the way money is distributed and the way the sport is run in general is completely unfair to the small teams in particular, not to mention the circuits as well.

Formula 1 and the teams need to think of the greater good now, the sport, and not just themselves. It needs someone to step in with a clean sheet of paper and start again with a new model and get rid of this money grabbing attitude from CVC, the private equity firm that owns the sports commercial rights.

CVC need to go, they have sucked everything they can from the sport and have left it hanging on the edge with viewing figures down, therefore sponsors payments are decreasing and teams are struggling and traditional circuits are being squeezed out for government backed new ones which have no tradition and no audience just for an extra dollar. 

Of course the TV figures lead people to believe the sport is struggling as a product, but when you sell the rights to pay TV broadcasters, what do you expect? It's short term monetary gain but the actual viewer base is diminished and therefore sponsors get less exposure. 

The product is fine, and nothing too bad that a few small tweaks wouldn't cure. An overhaul of the weekend format is pointless, there's nothing wrong with it. Having qualifying races or reverse grids sound exciting, but it's then less of a sport and more of an entertainment product, it loses it's worth as a sport.

You can't always have last race title deciders, sometimes a team and driver will just be a step ahead and there's nothing wrong with that, it's sport, it's up to the other teams to do better and try and beat the best. What would help with that of course is a more even distribution of funds that would allow 11 teams to compete on a more even keel. With $1.8billion income you'd think that would be easy wouldn't you? Hopefully the EU Competition commission will act, but even if they do it could be years before anything comes of it.

In other news, Button has agreed to race on for McLaren, citing miscommunication with the team for why he was contemplating retirement. It's good for Button but it does leave McLaren juniors Kevin Magnussen and new GP2 champion Stoffel Vandoorne with nowhere to go. Both are exciting talents and deserve a seat somewhere. Hopefully something will be found, maybe even at McLaren as you get the sense that Alonso is getting increasingly fed up, although he probably will stay.


Red Bull look like they are going to have to beg Renault's forgiveness as Ferrari look to have rejected a deal to supply them with power units for 2016. After all the acrimony between Red Bull and Renault it's going to be a hard sell, but the sport can't afford to just let two teams disappear. I'm sure something will happen. Meanwhile Renault have still yet to seal the deal on taking over Lotus. And Finally, Pirelli will remain as the sports sole tyre supplier as they fend off Michelin to win the next three year contract starting in 2017.


The title chase

Hamilton needs to score 11 points more than Vettel and 2 more than Rosberg at the next race in the USA to wrap up his third world championship. He's taken two wins there in the past three years so odds are on the pretence of a title fight will finally be over. Hamilton has dominated pretty much from the first race and this title will be nothing more than he deserves. 

Rosberg has fallen short all year, yes his retirement in Russia has hurt him, but even then he hasn't been in the hunt for some time. The fact Vettel is now ahead of him in a car which although much improved over 2014 is not a match for a Mercedes shows he hasn't been able match Hamilton at all this year. It also demonstrates just how well Vettel has returned to form after his struggles last season.

It's too early to declare it completely over, but I'm pretty sure the championship trophy is sitting there waiting for the engraver to start cutting Hamilton's name once again.

all photos taken from auto-motor-und-sport.de