The inevitable finally
happened. The two Mercedes finally collided with one another in
Spa-Francorchamps as Nico Rosberg ran into the back of Lewis Hamilton at Les
Combes. What happened next was rather extraordinary as allegations of Rosberg
purposely hitting Hamilton ‘to prove a point’ came to light. Toto Wolff could
barely speak after the race, such was his fury, while Niki Lauda was scathing
towards Rosberg.
The cardinal sin in
Formula 1: DO NOT CRASH INTO YOUR TEAM-MATE.
 |
| Source: Getty Images |
How Mercedes approach
the final seven races will be fascinating. Next up will be the first lap at
Monza – with its two chicanes to start the lap – and with the strong
possibility of another Merc front-row lockout, things could spill over once
again…
Moving on, there were 20
other drivers in action on Sunday (and a couple more over the weekend), so
let’s get cracking.
 |
| Renault winning at Spa in 2014?! Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook) |
1.
Daniel Ricciardo (no change)
Three wins in six races!
When Ricciardo signed for the senior team last year, such a possibility might
not have been out of the question. But such was the dominance of Mercedes
coupled with Renault’s underpowered and unreliable unit, that prospect seemed
almost impossible in Melbourne. Yet, here we are, Red Bull somehow won at Monza
and Ricciardo is thrashing his quadruple-champion team-mate.
 |
| Ricciardo and Bottas prove they can handle the champers Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook) |
=2.
Valtteri Bottas, Daniil Kvyat (both up
three spots) & Jules Bianchi (up
two spots)
Despite trying all sorts
of combinations to separate this trio, it proved to be too unfair to split
them. Bottas must be questioning his team’s strategy approach. Quickest man in
FP3, he could only muster P6 in the wet quali session. Things looked promising
in the early stages on Sunday as the Mercs ruined their own race and Bottas
stormed past Alonso. A Mercedes-powered car against the two Red Bull Renaults,
how did Williams not convert that into a win? Nonetheless, it was another
impressive performance from F1’s latest Flying Finn – and he’ll be optimistic
of topping the podium in Monza.
Kvyat, fresh off the
news that he’ll be Toro Rosso team leader next year as 17-year-old Max
Verstappen joins the party, managed to both out-qualify and out-race Jean-Éric
Vergne en route to a couple of points on his first visit to Spa in an F1 car. Bianchi
once again made it into Q2 before a first-corner puncture relegated him to a practice
session.
=5.
Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg (down
three spots)
As with the above trio,
it’s proved difficult splitting the Merc team-mates – but for different
reasons. Rosberg ultimately has a healthy championship lead of 29 points but at
what cost did it come? He faced the wrath of both his team and the fans, and
will likely continue to get booed through the remaining races. Hamilton originally
made the mistake in quali. He lost out on pole position but made up for it in
the very short run down to turn 1. Sebastian Vettel almost pulled the same move
on Hamilton as he did last year but correctly chose to cut across Les Combes
when it was clear the move wasn’t on… why didn’t Rosberg do the same? The
two drivers remain free to race but this is now a full-on ugly battle. And
that’s not necessarily a bad thing for Formula 1.
On a side note, Rosberg
showed exceptional car control not to crash his Mercedes when he picked up some
of Hamilton’s tyre carcass in a spectacularly ironic occurrence.
 |
| Hamilton was one of several members in the F1 paddock to take the ALS ice bucket challenge Source: F1 Fanatic |
7.
Sebastian Vettel & 8. Fernando Alonso (swapped
places)
Both world champions put
in stunning performances on Saturday to lock out the second row of the grid (Vettel
especially after missing FP2) before it unravelled somewhat on raceday.
Alonso’s mechanics saved him from starting at the back of the grid and accepted
what was a rather generous five-second penalty while Vettel lost his chance of
victory after running wide at Pouhon. That said, he was soundly beaten by his
Aussie team-mate although his last couple of laps were like those of Nick
Heidfeld in 2008 as he stormed through the Alonso/McLarens mess to take P5.
Alonso ran into the back of Vettel to finish off his underwhelming afternoon.
 |
| Vettel showing Rosberg how to bail out of a move into Les Combes... Source: F1 Fanatic |
=9.
Jenson Button (up one spot) &
Kevin Magnussen (up two spots)
Up until lap 42, it was
a super weekend for Kevin Magnussen. He outqualified his team-mate and ran
ahead of him for the majority of the race before losing his sixth-place finish
after the race for blocking Alonso. The penalty was correctly awarded, he drove
across the Spaniard on the Kemmel straight which is unacceptable but, until
then, he had shown excellent defensive skills to keep a trio of world champions
of bay. He certainly ruffled JB’s feathers and the Englishman will be slyly
happy at K-Mag’s penalty as it widens the gap between them in the championship
to a rather flattening degree.
11.
Nico Hülkenberg (down two spots)
The Hulk made a shock
exit in Q1 but rebounded magnificently in the opening couple of laps to make
his way to P12. Unfortunately for him, the rate of progress pretty much ended
there as he stagnated in the midfield. Lucked into a point thanks to Magnussen’s
penalty, having been unable to get past Kvyat.
12.
Kimi Räikkönen (up three spots)
Could this be the
‘eureka’ moment for Kimi? The Spa specialist finally beat Alonso on Sunday
afternoon and ran strongly throughout the race.
 |
| Kimi enjoyed his best race of 2014 Source: Scuderia Ferrari (Facebook) |
13.
Sergio Pérez (up three spots)
A rather quiet weekend
for Checo but he managed to out-qualify and out-race The Hulk. The gap between
them after 44 laps probably flatters the German but a solid weekend
nonetheless. FI will have expected more with their Mercedes power unit.
14.
Jean-Éric Vergne (down two spots)
Bad weekend for JEV. An
exhaust problem put him on the back foot in Q2 and he was edged out by Kvyat on
row six but a poor first lap saw him mired back in traffic and he wasn’t able
to recover. Couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Vergne, following the
announcement he will be dropped for Verstappen next season. It’s not a surprise
that he’s been let go by STR – he’s had three full seasons already and is
almost a victim of the programme’s success (as with Jaime Alguersuari and
Sébastien Buemi). He’s not ‘damaged goods’ and will hopefully be on the grid
next year… but it seems somewhat unlikely, unfortunately.
15.
André Lotterer (new entry)
It was almost the dream
weekend for the three-time (and current) Le Mans winner. He rocked up to Spa
and promptly thrashed his team-mate in quali before having what could be one of
the shortest careers in F1 history (amongst those drivers who actually
qualified for a race). A rather heartbreaking end to the fairytale, although he
might be back for Japan.
 |
| Lotterer led the backmarker battle before his early DNF Source: Caterham |
16.
Felipe Massa (down three spots)
Massa’s race was
dictated by picking up the debris from Hamilton’s tyre which cost him about 40
seconds in the first half of the race. He was very quick after the team removed
the debris after his second stop but
the damage was done. Again outshone by Bottas.
17.
Romain Grosjean (down three spots)
Another weekend to
forget for Lotus. Grosjean dropped out in Q2 and then needed a front wing
change after contact with Bianchi on the opening lap. He ran anonymously near
the tail of the field before an early DNF.
18.
Kamui Kobayashi (no change)
No change for KK this
week despite not racing. Speaks volumes about those below him…
=19.
Esteban Gutiérrez & Adrian Sutil (in
the bottom four last week)
As you were, nothing to
see here…
=21.
Pastor Maldonado (down four spots), Marcus Ericsson & Max Chilton (in the
bottom four last week)
It’s as if these guys
were desperately trying to be bottom of this week’s F1 Power Rankings… Chilton started the weekend by voluntarily
giving up his seat to Alexander Rossi. However, during FP1, his loan from Wonga
evidently came through and he was back in the car for FP2 – all very awkward.
Interestingly, Chilton did say, “all will be revealed at some point” – which is
unerringly similar to what Vincent Tan said in the recent Cardiff/Premier
League scandal.
Ericsson was
outqualified by a man who hadn’t turned a wheel in an F1 car in over a decade
by over a second. His F1 career is toast.
Maldonado drove off the
track in free practice. He just wasn’t paying attention. It was every bit as
stupid as it sounds.
All views expressed in this
blog are my own and no copyright infringement is intended.
