Three weeks since the last race - the gap caused by the missing race in New Jersey - and plenty has happened in the Motor Racing world. Audi won another 24 Heures du Mans (Tom Kristensen now with nine!), Sebastién Loeb obliterated the Pikes Peak record and Valentino Rossi returned to the top of the podium in MotoGP. Anyway, without further ado, here are this week's F1 Power Rankings.
1. Sebastian
Vettel (last week: 1st,
no change) (Season high: 1st, low: 4th)
It’s the hat-trick for Sebastian Vettel
(although maybe not the pole-win-FL combo he’d like) – as he retains his place
atop the F1 Power Rankings for the third consecutive week in spite of
suffering his first DNF of the season. Vettel has had his World Championship
lead trimmed after his gearbox failure but it could have been so much worse as
closest challengers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen could only manage third
and fifth respectively. We’ll never know whether either Mercedes had the pace
to beat Vettel over the full race distance but such has been his pace and
consistency this season that he remains #1.
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| Vettel stumbles over his front wing after his first retirement of the season Source: Crash.net |
2. Lewis
Hamilton (last week: 4th,
up two spots) (Season high: 2nd, low: 9th)
It was a brilliant weekend for Lewis Hamilton
in every sense except his final result – although considering he was dead last
ten laps into the race, you understand why he moves up to second place in the F1
Power Rankings. A superb pole position saw him thrash his opposition by
almost half a second and he calmly led the opening laps of the race until he
became the first of several drivers to suffer a spectacular puncture. His
recovery thereafter was brilliant. Yes, he was aided by safety cars, but –
rather ironically – Hamilton only made one further pit-stop during the race,
showing excellent pace and commitment on worn tyres to fall agonizingly short
of a podium finish in front of his home crowd.
 |
| Hamilton's puncture was the first of many on Sunday afternoon Source: The Telegraph |
3. Fernando
Alonso (last week: 2nd,
down one spot) (Season high: 1st, low: 13th)
It’s a one place drop for the double World
Champion as he experienced the exact opposite to Hamilton in that his weekend
was somewhat mediocre but he claimed a fine third-place finish. Just like in
Montreal, Alonso earned his rostrum finish thanks to some fine overtaking
through the race but he will be worried at just how far off the pace the
Ferrari seemed to be – especially in qualifying.
 |
| Another podium for Alonso but he knows Ferrari have lots of work to do Source: Indystar.com/AFP/Getty |
4. Paul
di Resta (last week: 3rd,
down one spot) (Season high: 5th, low: 17th)
PDR also drops a place although this is mainly
due to Hamilton’s outstanding weekend than anything wrong that Paul did. For
the third race running, he had to battle his way through the field and for the third
race running he recovered beautifully to score points. A stunning 5th
place effort in qualifying was wiped away as his car was found to be
underweight and it is these niggling issues that continually befall di Resta.
His resiliency and racecraft – like his wonderful battle with Hamilton – have shown
that he is ready to make the jump to a top team should the opportunity arise.
5. Mark Webber (last week: =7th, up two
spots) (Season high: 1st, low: 15th)
They were tied last week but, despite Nico
Rosberg fending off Mark Webber for the victory this week, it’s the latter who edges
ahead in the F1 Power Rankings. With his heavily-rumoured switch to the
Porsche programme confirmed, Webber drove through the field like a man
possessed after his woeful start and with another lap he might well have stood
atop the Silverstone podium for the third time in four years. His presence in
the F1 paddock will be missed as will drives like the one we witnessed on
Sunday.
6. Nico Rosberg (last week: =7th,
up one spot) (Season high: 2nd, low: 12th)
It was simply a case of “right place, right
time” for Nico Rosberg as he inherited his third career victory from Hamilton
and Vettel’s problems. Although the two Mercedes drivers seemed evenly matched
for most of the weekend, Hamilton crushed his team-mate in Q3 and then seemed
to be opening up the gap in the opening stint. Nonetheless, credit Rosberg who
appeared to be hustling Vettel in the middle part of the race, and showed the
speed necessary in the closing stages to fend off the charging Webber.
 |
| It's all smiles for Nico! Source: The Sun |
7. Kimi Räikkönen (last
week: 6th, down one spot) (Season high: 2nd, low: 12th)
The 2007 World Champion turned up to
Silverstone sporting an ‘interesting’ new haircut that would only be revealed
to the general public if he stood on the podium. Unfortunately for the flying
Finn, the second safety car scuppered any chances of a top-three finish he had
as Lotus failed to react and pit him for fresh tyres – an error they seemingly
regretted almost instantly. After a disappointing qualifying session, Räikkönen
had fought his way up to second, but was powerless to prevent those who had the
fresher rubber in the closing stages. The team have slightly lost their way and
the loss of James Allison is surely one of the main reasons.
8. Daniel Ricciardo (last week: 14th, up six
spots) (Season high: 5th, low: 18th)
Toro Rosso just cannot get both cars home in
the points! This weekend, it was the turn of Daniel Ricciardo – who consolidated
his career-best fifth on the grid with an eighth place finish. It could have
been even better for the young Aussie if not for some overly-aggressive
blocking by Adrian Sutil; while the second SC also left him exposed to the
recovering Hamilton and Felipe Massa. Never have the STR boys been more in the
spotlight as right now, with Webber’s departure from F1 now confirmed. After
JEV taking the limelight in Monaco and Montreal, Ricciardo recovers all the six
spots he dropped in the F1 Power Rankings last week and vaults ahead of
his team-mate.
9.
Felipe Massa (last week: 9th,
no change) (Season high: 3rd, low: 14th)
No change for Massa this week. After crashing
in practice for the third race running and then missing out on Q3, he made an
absolutely cracking start to his race and was running strongly before his
spectacular puncture. A fine recovery drive saw him finish sixth and Ferrari
will look for him to build on his race performance as they battle for the
Constructors’ Title.
 |
| Massa recovered well from his puncture Source: Reuters |
10.
Adrian Sutil (last week: 11th,
up one spot) (Season high: 5th, low: 20th)
Not much to say about Sutil. He moves back
into the top ten after a solid weekend but was once again overshadowed by Paul
di Resta. His block into Copse on Daniel Ricciardo was a low point but he wasn’t
penalized by the stewards so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt this time.
11.
Charles Pic (last week: 13th,
up two spots) (Season high: 7th, low: 19th) & 12. Jules Bianchi (last week: 12th, no
change) (Season high: 6th, low: 13th)
It was business as usual for our backmarker
heroes as they once again outqualified and out-raced their respective
team-mates, with Charles Pic edging out Jules Bianchi – which sees the Caterham
driver leapfrog his Marussia rival in the rankings. One blot on Pic’s weekend
copybook was his practice crash as he aquaplaned off in the typical British
Summertime conditions.
13.
Jean-Eric Vergne (last week: 5th,
down eight spots) (Season high: 5th, low: 19th)
A hugely frustrating weekend for JEV. After
two excellent performances on the notoriously difficult Monte Carlo and
Montreal circuits, it all fell apart for him in Silverstone Q2 as he ran wide
in Becketts/Chapel on his main hot lap which left outside the top ten –
allowing Ricciardo to gain the upper hand in this, the first race since Webber’s
exit announcement. Of course, he was another victim with the Pirelli tyres
exploding which eventually led to his retirement but the pendulum has swung in
the STR garage once again.
 |
| JEV's puncture Source: Formula1.com |
14.
Sergio Pérez (last week: 15th,
up one spot) (Season high: 8th, low: 17th)
Another miserable weekend for McLaren but
Checo actually manages to move up one place thanks to his Sunday performance.
Outqualified by JB, he overtook him in the early stages of the race and
retained his place in front of the Englishman throughout the race until his tyre
failed down the Hangar straight. Given the team’s struggles, and Sergio’s early
woes this season, the intra-team battle has quietly been in Checo’s favour for
a good few races now.
15. Nico Hülkenberg (last
week: 19th, up four spots) (Season high: 9th, low: 19th)
What to say about The Hulk this week? He moves
up four spots thanks to winning the battle with both Williams and stealing a
point on the last lap as Romain Grosjean and the two McLarens fell away. In
truth, it will be of little consolation to him as he watched di Resta again
come from the back of the field in his Force India and comfortably beat him. It
is hugely frustrating to watch Nico Hülkenberg struggle with a car that does
not let him show off his talent.
=16. Romain Grosjean (last
week: 18th, up two spots) (Season high: 6th, low: 22nd)
& Jenson Button (last
week: 16th, no change) (Season high: 5th, low: 16th)
Similar story for both drivers as both managed
to outqualify their team-mates but fell behind them early on and couldn’t
recover the deficit. Grosjean edged Räikkönen by 0.007secs in quali – an achievement
that seemingly went unnoticed by almost everyone. His race came to a slightly
premature end as his front wing failed but it was clean for the most part (the
first corner contact was just a racing incident). Most worrying for Romain was
the “Kimi is faster than you” message during the race. Button’s plight was
discussed earlier and there’s no change for him this week.
18. Valtteri Bottas (last
week: 18th, up seven spots) (Season high: 10th, low: 20th)
& 19. Pastor Maldonado (last week: 21st, up two
spots) (Season high: 17th, low: 22nd)
Valtteri Bottas’ stay inside the F1 Power
Rankings top ten comes to an end after just one week as he loses the eight
places he gained last week. Silverstone was another hugely disappointing weekend
for Williams although they did end up finishing the race 11th and 12th
(that said, it is probably just as agonizing to miss out on the points by such
a small margin). Pastor Maldonado squeaked into Q2 but both Williams ran
together for most of the race and it’s the rookie who retains his position
ahead of the Venezuelan in the rankings based on his season so far.
20.
Esteban Gutiérrez (last week: 20th,
no change) (Season high: 15th, low: 22nd)
Hugely anonymous weekend for the Mexican: he
only managed to beat the Caterhams and Marussias in both qualifying and the
race and was again comfortably outshone by Hülkenberg.
21. Max
Chilton (last week: 17th,
down four spots) (Season high: 17th, low: 22nd)
& 22. Giedo van der Garde (last week: 22nd, no
change) (Season high: 17th, low: 22nd)
Killing lots of ‘two birds with one stone’ in
these rankings this week… Max Chilton slips to second from bottom after he was
once again thrashed by Bianchi – although this one hurts more given it was
Silverstone – while it was much of the same at Caterham as Giedo van der Garde
was nowhere near Charles Pic. Chilton beat VDG in the race and so it’s Giedo who
props up the rankings for the second consecutive week.
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