After Race 10: Germany

Hockenheim – whether the old or the new configuration – just provides great racing. Sunday’s race was terrific, and not just because of Hamilton, Ricciardo and Magnussen charging through the field. There was another super battle between Alonso and Vettel, with the latter once again coming out on top.

Susie Wolff got another run out and it looked like she would be cruelly jinxed again but luckily a reset was done and she performed admirably in FP1. Elsewhere, Juan Pablo Montoya won his first single-seater race since the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix as he won at Pocono in the IndyCars.

The removal of FRIC suspension didn’t shake the field up as some people predicted but it did force the teams and drivers to work harder on set-up and car control – which is always a good thing!

Makes a change from the standard Merc team celebratory photo!
Source: Nico Rosberg (Twitter)

1. Nico Rosberg (no change)

How did Nico Rosberg recover from his Silverstone DNF? Well… he got married, Germany won the World Cup, he signed a contract extension with Mercedes and he took a wire-to-wire win at his home race.

=2. Daniel Ricciardo & Lewis Hamilton (no change)

Juan Montoya gets a second mention in this week’s F1 Power Rankings; the Colombian spun off during qualifying in the 2005 Hockenheim event and stormed his way through the field to finish P2. Hamilton started in that same 20^th position but could only reach the bottom step of the rostrum as Valtteri Bottas held him off (Lewis was also hindered by an early final pit-stop as they reacted to the Sutil spin). Hamilton did provide us with the best radio of the race: “I’ve never heard of that switch,” when instructed to select Menu Magic Position One.

Ricciardo once again outqualified Vettel but he was caught up in the first corner mêlée and plummeted down the field. Like Hamilton, he methodically made his way through the field and finished a solid P6 – less than 0.1secs behind Fernando Alonso after a superb battle.

Hamilton survived a clumsy move on JB
Source: McLaren (Facebook)

4. Daniil Kvyat (no change)

Danii K has had a fantastic rookie season but he made a glaring mistake in the early stages on Sunday. Having once again made it into Q3, an over-opportunistic half-move on Pérez saw him spin off and fall out of points contention. He went on to challenge Massa for ‘most spectacular retirement’ award with his fiery exit. One added note – a word for the marshals who put the fire out – especially the man who ran across the run-off area at the hairpin, in the firing line, to assist his colleagues.

And this wasn't even the scariest DNF in the race
Source: Getty Images

5. Valtteri Bottas (no change)

Another outstanding performance from Bottas: Q2 and P2 for his third consecutive podium and a job well done in holding off Hamilton in the final stint.

 

Bottas took his first podium in Austria. He's now 3-for-3.
Source: Williams F1 Team (Facebook)

6. Jules Bianchi (no change)

Fresh from his Silverstone Ferrari test, Bianchi was once again class of the backmarker quartet. His sluggish getaway was negated by the first lap safety car and he went on to have a rather lonely race in a no-man’s land between the midfield and the Marussia/Caterham battle.

7. Nico Hülkenberg (up one spot)

A solid home weekend for The Hulk as he continued his 100% points-scoring record this season.

8. Jenson Button (up one spot) & 9. Kevin Magnussen (up four spots)

K-Mag is this week’s big winner in the F1 Power Rankings. A superb P4 on the grid evaporated in the first corner shunt with Massa before he rallied from a ten-second deficit as the SC went in to rocket up the field to an eventual P9.

Button failed to make Q3 but took advantage of the first corner mêlée to run sixth in the early stages before slowly sliding backwards. A dubious move at the hairpin under yellow flags went unpunished but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on this occasion. The clumsy incident with Hamilton was somewhat bizarre but the FIA called it right not to penalize either driver and Hamilton apologized anyway (although JB’s positioning was very odd).

Magnussen's great weekend could have been even better
Source: McLaren (Facebook)

10. Sebastian Vettel (up one spot) & 11. Fernando Alonso (no change)

Vettel was best of the rest as Red Bull managed to out-strategize Ferrari to take fourth spot in the closing stages. It was a joy to watch the battling between the two multiple champions. The inclusion of another world champion, Räikkönen, into the battle after the first round of stops proved to help his rival and hinder his team-mate. Alonso’s late battle with Ricciardo was equally fantastic to watch.

That's seven world championships making contact...
Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook)

12. Romain Grosjean (down five spots)

RoGro is the big loser in this week’s F1 Power Rankings, having spent several races sitting comfortably inside the top eight. Lotus struggled without the FRIC suspension – as did Red Bull – and they just haven’t progressed after their back-to-back points-finishes in Spain and Monaco.

13. Sergio Pérez (down three spots)

Checo was fifth in the F1 Power Rankings just two races ago but a pair of underwhelming weekends has seen him slide. He was also strongly warned by his engineer to lift-and-coast during the race, suggesting he was ignoring instructions earlier. With Mexico now confirmed for 2015, he’ll hope for an instant boost from the news.

14. Felipe Massa (down one spot)

For the second race running, Massa saw his race end of the first lap. Another spectacular crash for the Brazilian saw him emerge unscathed but it was his own fault. The FIA were 100% correct in their decision not to penalize him as it was the first lap, but it is quite clear that Felipe completely cut off K-Mag into T1.

Wow
Source: Williams F1 Team (Facebook)

15. Jean-Éric Vergne (no change)

Rather anonymous weekend for JEV. The Frenchman started and finished thirteenth and flirted with a point before he was penalized for exceeding track limits, compounding his rather mediocre performing.

16. Kamui Kobayashi (no change)

KK’s car caught fire in free practice but he rebounded well to both outqualify and outrace Max Chilton. As mentioned last week, these are very tough times for Caterham.

17. Pastor Maldonado (no change)

Just like Grosjean, Maldonado threatened to score points but ultimately the Lotus just wasn’t good enough. Both drivers are doing solid jobs but they just cannot build any momentum. He’ll hope the 2015 car is an improvement having signed a contract extension.

18. Kimi Räikkönen (down one spot)

It’s difficult to know what to write for Kimi. Q12, P11… yes, the Ferrari is not a great car in 2014 but he’s just consistently being blown away by Alonso. A bit of a clumsy weekend for Räikkönen.

19. Max Chilton (no change) & 20. Marcus Ericsson (no change)

Quiet weekend for both drivers as they brought up the rear; both drivers were comfortably beaten by their team-mates. Chilton just couldn’t get the better of Kobayashi while Ericsson will be relieved to have seen the chequered flag after missing quali and picking up penalties.

=21. Adrian Sutil (no change) & Esteban Gutiérrez (up one spot)

“Another miserable weekend for the Swiss team,” – I could copy and paste that quote every week, unfortunately. Sauber are just plain awful at the moment. Sutil’s bizarre spin just another tale of woe to add to their dreadful season.

All views expressed in this blog are my own and no copyright infringement is intended.

After Race 9: Great Britain

So… Mercedes are sabotaging Rosberg? No, of course not, and all those suspicions were quashed after the German’s gearbox failure on Sunday. Having discussed last week how it was not impossible that Rosberg could continue his good reliability record, it seems we put the kiss of death on him. Silverstone also saw a chaotic practice session, one of the craziest qualifying sessions in the sport’s history, the first red flagged race in over a decade (gone are the days of full restarts) and Susie Wolff making her Friday debut. There was also the test of 18-inch wheels in the post-race test and a big crash for Giedo van der Garde.

Although she briefly topped the timesheets, Wolff's test ended early
Source: F1 Fanatic

Wolff’s drive is clearly an important moment in this era of F1 but it’s difficult to view it as anything other than a token gesture, given her connections in the sport (for which I don’t blame her – after all, F1 is all about connections). I still feel Simona de Silvestro is more F1 race-ready and deserves an official Friday run sooner rather than later.

The annual timing of the British/German consecutive-races provides us with an intriguing dynamic at the ultimate Anglo-German team. Expect the heat to be cranked up further as Europe hits the heart of summer…

UPDATE: FRIC Suspension removed from all cars from the German Grand Prix onwards. 

Cheesy smiles and tacky trophies!
Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook)

1. Nico Rosberg (up one spot)

Rosberg retains top spot in the F1 Power Rankings by virtue of his Saturday performance. Driving purely on instinct, Rosberg dealt a seemingly crushing blow to his team-mate before his race unravelled with gearbox failure. The tyre situation was shaping up to provide us with a fascinating race but, alas, we’ll never know what would have happened. He’ll look to rebuild his championship lead at home. 

Hamilton was reunited with the traditional winner's trophy
Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas (Facebook)

=2. Daniel Ricciardo (no change) & Lewis Hamilton (up one spot)

Saturday was a bleak day for British sport. Mark Cavendish crashed out spectacularly on day one of Le Tour de France – as the race made its first voyage to his mother’s home town of Harrogate – while Hamilton committed a rookie error in qualifying, losing out to Mother Nature. His recovery on Sunday was excellent – albeit expected – with the clear bonus being Rosberg’s DNF (as mentioned earlier, we’ll never know what happened had both cars finished, although you’d think Hamilton may have had the tyre edge).

Ricciardo had a similar weekend; he sat in the garage late in Q3 as S3 dried up and saw himself tumble down the timesheets before a masterclass in tyre preservation saw him complete one very happy podium.

4. Daniil Kvyat (no change)

Toro Rosso finally found some reliability and secured their first double-points finish since Melbourne. Like Ricciardo, both STRs sat in the garage late in Q3 (imagine just how bad it could have been for Hamilton) and ended up at the foot of the top ten, where both cars also finished. Kvyat just couldn’t get by The Hulk in the closing stages but at least picked up his first points as a 20-year-old. He was one of several drivers to show magnificent car control during free practice – he’s come a long way since the YDT at Silverstone last year! 

Kvyat's impressive rookie campaign goes from strength to strength
Source: Scuderia Toro Rosso (Facebook)

5. Valtteri Bottas (up three spots)

Driver of the day by a million miles, Bottas made it look it easy as he recovered from a Q1 exit to finish second. His series of superb overtakes in the early stages were a joy to watch. 

Bottas mechanic-surfs after a stunning drive
Source: Williams F1 Team (Facebook)

6. Jules Bianchi (no change)

After a brush with the wall in the wet practice, JB recovered brilliantly to steal the show in qualifying with a superb P12 for Marussia. He briefly ran in the top ten in the chaotic opening laps before the car’s lack of downforce eventually showed. His highlight of the week came a couple of days later as he tested the Ferrari.

7. Romain Grosjean (up one spot)

It was rather difficult ranking the midfield in this week’s F1 Power Rankings. Grosjean edges it by virtue of having the weakest machinery amongst the contenders for P7. He missed out on Q3 by less than a tenth before he almost failed to getaway at the start of the race. He wound up a credible, if anonymous, twelfth. 

Lotus tested out 18-inch wheels during the post-race test
Source: F1 Fanatic

8. Nico Hülkenberg (down one spot)

A brilliant P4 on the grid for The Hulk promised so much for raceday. Alas, Force India had absolutely no pace on Sunday and Hülkenberg plummeted down the field, only just fending off Kvyat for an eventual P8. Rather disappointing home race for the team.

Force India had an awful Sunday
Source: Sahara Force India (Facebook)

9. Jenson Button (up four spots)

One of the weekend’s most heart-warming stories was JB’s superb display in front of his home crowd, the first since the death of his father. The Pink for Papa campaign was embraced by the paddock and crowd and JB and McLaren made the most of the wet qualifying and red flag to qualify third (with a wet set-up) and finish fourth (having then altered their settings under the red flag as parc-fermé is lifted). A couple more laps and he might have stood on the podium but, for now, McLaren must try and build on this momentum.

 

What better way to remember his old man than with a superb weekend?
Source: McLaren (Facebook)

10. Sergio Pérez (down five spots)

Button was the big winner this week while Pérez was the big loser after an underwhelming weekend. Checo randomly decided to let the two Mercs past him late in Q3 and missed the chequered flag (and a certain top five start) before, like Hülkenberg, his race pace was non-existent. The momentum he built over the last few races has evaporated.

=11. Fernando Alonso & Sebastian Vettel (down one spot)

A bizarre weekend from the double world champion. One of several to be caught radar-watching during qualifying, he then completely missed his grid slot as he found himself mired in an unaccustomed position. A magnificent overtake around the outside of Seb Vettel at Copse will go down as one of the greatest ever before payback was given a dozen laps later. Both drivers complained plenty on the radio but it seems like Alonso missed the one clincher: Vettel exceeded track limits when completing the move at Copse. The Spaniard might have been correct in his DRS protestations but the track limits seemed more clear cut. Having said that, both drivers were continuously taking liberties with them and at least the stewards were fair to both parties.

Vettel almost lucked into a front-row grid spot after being forced to complete a final flying lap having made a mistake on his first Q3 lap. A poor start and an early first pit-stop (which proved a mistake) left him out of podium contention. Seems fitting the two drivers are tied, especially after their superb overtakes.

The battle between Alonso and Vettel was one of the highlights of the season so far
Source: Autosport

 =13. Felipe Massa (down three spots) & Kevin Magnussen (no change)

If you take out Massa’s terrific pole position in Austria, the last two-and-a-bit race weekends have been horrific! His spectacular last lap Canada crash was followed up with a podium-less Austrian race and now a double-crash Silverstone weekend, featuring an early FP1 crash and then the Räikkönen incident.

K-Mag was one of the stars of qualifying but came up short in the race after a promising start. P13 is probably harsh for him in these rankings, especially as he finished a fine seventh, but he was also comfortably shaded by Button (although the team’s tactic of asking him to not to join the Alonso/Vettel battle seems strange).

15. Jean-Éric Vergne (down one spot)

Incredibly, despite having a near trouble-free weekend, JEV can’t improve on his 15^th position in this week’s F1 Power Rankings. Why? Well, in both quali and the race, he was bested by his rookie team-mate. Vergne was another driver to demonstrate superb car control during free practice although he did also have a curious wheel failure.

16. Kamui Kobayashi (no change)

It’s been a turbulent week for Caterham. With the long-awaited sale of the team confirmed, both cars immediately failed to qualify within 107% of the Q1 time. KK did very well to avoid the first lap crash as he rally-crossed his way through the grass before he settled down into a quiet race.

17. Pastor Maldonado (up one spot)

Other than the Gutiérrez clash, it was a quiet weekend for Pastor. He was excluded from quali before a late exhaust failure saw him exit early.

 

Not quite Bahrain...
Source: Formula1.com

18. Kimi Räikkönen (down one spot)

I quote from last week: “just a miserable weekend for Kimi.” After Ferrari messed up qualifying, Räikkönen made a decent start before he inexplicably kept his foot floored on the throttle as he attempted to rejoin the track, causing him to lose control and bring out the red flag.

19. Max Chilton (no change)

The luckiest man of the whole weekend was Max Chilton. A rogue flying tyre flew just inches away from his helmet in the first lap mêlée (remember the late Henry Surtees was tragically killed by a stray wheel in an F2 race). Chilton ended up rather frighteningly driving down the pit lane against a flood of mechanics and picked up a deserved penalty. It’s surprising he didn’t have the common sense to stop, to be honest.

Remarkable footage from the crowd shows Chilton's incredible escape
Source: via the BBC

20. Marcus Ericsson (down one spot)

It was close as to whether Ericsson would stay at 19^th or slip one spot. The young Swede drops due to the complete and utter lack of momentum shown carried by either himself or the team – now under new ownership. Tough times ahead.

21. Adrian Sutil (up one spot) & 22. Esteban Gutiérrez (down one spot)

Another miserable weekend for the Swiss team. Both cars ended up in the gravel in quali before Stevie G failed miserably at extracting revenge on Maldonado for Bahrain in one of the race’s more comical incidents.

All views expressed in this blog are my own and no copyright infringement is intended.