After Race 6: Monaco

     Monaco weekend: Glitz, glamour, rain-affected sessions, tyre controversy, crashes, safety cars, a red flag, a 14-car crash in the first corner of the GP2 race and so on... We have a new leader atop F1 Power Rankings after a chaotic weekend that again saw the criticisms of the Pirelli tyres take centre stage.

The incredible Maldonado/Chilton/Bianchi crash brought out the red flags
Source: PlanetF1

1.   Sebastian Vettel (last week: 3^rd, up two spots) (Season high: 1^st, low: 4^th)

For the first time this season, the triple-reigning champion rises to top of F1 Power Rankings. Although we still won’t let him forget his Malaysian antics, the plain fact is that Sebastian Vettel has finished in the top four in every race this season, and his consistency has seen him open up a 21 point lead in the standings.

2.   Nico Rosberg (last week: 6^th, up four spots) (Season high: 2^nd, low: 12^th)

It was a case of third time lucky for Nico Rosberg, who finally converted a pole position into a race victory. A flawless weekend from Rosberg but the proverbial storm clouds gathered over Mercedes-Benz as news came to light over their tyre test with Pirelli. Whether the team have simply found a loophole or whether they will in fact face sanctions, Rosberg did what he needed to do and handed Mercedes their second victory since returning to F1. Perhaps more importantly for Nico, he beat Lewis Hamilton to their first win as team-mates.

Nico Rosberg took his second career victory
Source: AFP

3.   Kimi Räikkönen (last week: 2^nd, down one spot) (Season high: 2^nd, low: 12^th)

A disappointing end to a solid, if unspectacular, weekend from the Flying Finn; having qualified fifth and circulated in that position for the majority of the first seventy laps, he found himself 16^th with only a handful of laps to go after the hugely opportunistic Sergio Pérez collided into the back of him. Having pitted for a new set of boots, a simply mesmeric final few laps saw Räikkönen educate the second half of the field on ‘how to overtake’ in Monaco, including a superb last lap pass on Nico Hülkenberg. (We’ll just gloss over the fact Valtteri Bottas inexplicably let his countryman through into the hairpin on the penultimate lap thinking he was being lapped.)

4.   Fernando Alonso (last week: 1^st, down three spots) (Season high: 1^st, low: 13^th)

A strange weekend for Fernando Alonso, who sees his three-week stay atop the F1 Power Rankings come to an end. Normally always in contention around Monaco regardless of what car he drives, the Spaniard only managed to qualify sixth and found himself going backwards in the second half of the race, losing out to Pérez, Adrian Sutil and Jenson Button. Although he was affected by debris, the telling comment from Alonso post-race was how he was unsurprised by Pérez’ ‘nothing-to-lose’ attitude – so perhaps Fernando was a tad more cautious around the Monegasque streets in a rather underwhelming Ferrari.

5.   Mark Webber (last week: 8^th, up three spots) (Season high: 1^st, low: 15^th)

A quiet weekend for Mark Webber who, like his fellow podium finishers, had a distinctly uneventful 78 laps around the Principality. However, he was again outqualified by Vettel and finds himself trailing his team-mate by 50 points. Nevertheless, Webber rises up the rankings after his solid outing.

6.   Lewis Hamilton (last week: 9^th, up three spots) (Season high: 3^rd, low: 9^th)

In a similar way to Webber, Hamilton’s fate was virtually sealed in qualifying. Outqualified for the third race running by Rosberg, he then found himself strangely losing his runner-up position during the Safety Car period after he apparently slowed down too much. It was more annoying than anything else for Lewis, who remains 4^th in the championship standings thanks to a very consistent start to the season (Spain aside).

7.   Paul di Resta (last week: 5^th, down two spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 17^th)

A frustrating weekend for PDR after his team failed to react to the Q1 weather conditions, leaving him eliminated early on. An aggressive, but clean, Sunday performance saw di Resta recover brilliantly to pick up a couple of points, and he has now scored at all but one race this season. While the team accepted responsibility for the Q1 gaffe, I still feel PDR could have brought his car into the pits by his own accord – he is not a rookie, and surely he realized he was never going to improve his time with such little traction?

=8. Jean-Eric Vergne (last week: 16^th, up eight spots) (Season high: 7^th, low: 19^th) & Daniel Ricciardo (last week: 10^th, up two spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 18^th)

Quite simply, I find it impossible to separate the STR drivers! JEV finished a career-best 8^th for the fifth time in his career after having made Q3 for the first time ever. He had a ‘boring’ race, spending the day constantly in traffic, but a fine result after two DNFs. Daniel Ricciardo found himself rear-ended by Romain Grosjean while running solidly in the midfield. The Aussie qualified 12^th and ran 13^th for almost the entire race until his demise. Ricciardo rises up the F1 Power Rankings almost by default, as other drivers around him had poor performances and because over the course of the season, he has done well. JEV is this week’s biggest mover and both drivers seem well matched at the moment.

Grosjean driving into the back of Ricciardo
Source: F1.com (TV image)

10. Adrian Sutil (last week: 14^th, up four spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 20^th)

Sutil started the season off with a bang in Melbourne before going AWOL until the Spanish Grand Prix. Having shown impressive speed in Catalunya, he maintained that form into Monaco, qualifying eighth and finishing an impressive fifth after some superb overtaking manoeuvres. The only blemish of his 2013 Monaco weekend was a crash in Massanet in practice but, luckily for Sutil and Force India, it had no impact on the rest of his weekend.

11. Sergio Pérez (last week: 12^th, up one spot) (Season high: 8^th, low: 17^th)

Checo stays ahead of Button in the rankings after a highly entertaining drive from the young Mexican. Even if Räikkönen says that Pérez deserves “a punch in the face”, it cannot be ignored that Checo has simply outperformed Button in the last few races; much to the latter’s frustration as shown by his team radio. Like Sutil, Pérez made some impressive overtakes but he also made an arguably reckless attempt at passing Räikkönen that went wrong. Brake failure ended his charge to fifth place in closing stages, which was a great shame.

12. Jenson Button (last week: 13^th, up one spot) (Season high: 5^th, low: 13^th)

The sole highlight of JB’s race was his late move on Alonso into the final corner as Pérez caused chaos with his brake failure. A decent sixth-place finish for Button but, as mentioned above, he has become a tad agitated by his team-mate.

The McLaren boys were wheel-to-wheel once again
Source: Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes via speedhunters.com

13. Jules Bianchi (last week: 11^th, down two spots) (Season high: 6^th, low: 13^th)

A highly eventful weekend for Jules Bianchi in his home race. He saw his Marussia fail to set a lap in quali as smoke billowed out of his airbox, his car failed to get away at the start of the formation lap with electrical issues, he then found himself getting caught up in the big crash between his team-mate and Pastor Maldonado and then eventually retiring with brake failure. It is fair to say none of this was his fault so he avoids a steep drop down the rankings.

14. Felipe Massa (last week: 4^th, down ten spots) (Season high: 3^rd, low: 14^th)

Felipe Massa suffers a steep drop down the rankings after twice crashing at Ste Devote in two eerily similar incidents considering one was driver error and one was suspension failure. The driver error proved especially costly in FP3 (Free Practice 3) as it ruled him out of qualifying. On second thoughts, I might be being a tad harsh on Massa this week but I shall keep him at #14 for now (mainly given none of the drivers above him made such a costly error). In truth, from the Toro Rosso drivers downwards, it is very, very, close in the F1 Power Rankings.

 

Massa's race-ending shunt
Source: Sky Sports F1

15. Charles Pic (last week: 7^th, down eight spots) (Season high: 7^th, low: 19^th)

After spending a couple of weeks at the dizzying heights of P7 in the F1 Power Rankings, Charles Pic slips back after being outperformed by Giedo van der Garde in qualifying before an early gearbox failure ended his race. The latter was unlucky but Pic will be gutted to have made the headlines for being the Caterham driver into Q2. Nonetheless, he remains above his rookie team-mate in the rankings thanks to comprehensively beating him before Monaco.

16. Nico Hülkenberg (last week: 19^th, up three spots) (Season high: 9^th, low: 19^th)

The Hulk’s miserable 2013 continues. Having just missed out on Q3, he then had a point-scoring finish mugged from him by a resurgent Räikkönen on the last lap. It is clear that Hülkenberg made the wrong decision in leaving Force India for Sauber but he must hope that it is not the decision that sees his F1 career stagnate in the midfield. He is doing the best he can do with the machinery he has and he must be devastated at its capabilities.

17. Giedo van der Garde (last week: 21^st, up four spots) (Season high: 17^th, low: 21^st)

Having only ranked either 20^th or 21^st so far, VDG shoots up the F1 Power Rankings to 17^th after brilliantly making Q2 in the inclement weather conditions. It is on days like that when the smaller teams have to seize the opportunity to steal some limelight and it was Giedo who took full advantage. His race was as mixed as Saturday’s weather conditions – contact with Maldonado saw him need a new front wing after the opening lap which stranded him at the back of the field before he was able to make a charge after the Safety Car period. He ultimately fell behind Max Chilton towards the end of the race as Caterham failed to manage his tyres correctly.

18. Valtteri Bottas (last week: 20^th, up two spots) (Season high: 11^th, low: 20^th)

Bottas rises two spots to 18^th amidst the chaos at the bottom of the F1 Power Rankings. A trouble-free race from the young Finn is about the best he could have hoped for – as mentioned repeatedly throughout this blog, Williams and Sauber are having disastrous seasons. Strange end to his race saw him inexplicably allow Räikkönen past, thinking he was being lapped.

19. Esteban Gutiérrez (last week: 17^th, down two spots) (Season high: 15^th, low: 22^nd)

Not much to say about Guti’s race, really… Much like his team-mate and Bottas, he brought the car home without a scratch but in a rather uninspiring fashion.

20. Max Chilton (last week: 22^nd, up two spots) (Season high: 18^th, low: 22^nd)

Chilton moves off the bottom of F1 Power Rankings after propping them up for one week. He accepted responsibility for the huge crash with Maldonado, and rightly so, although one has to wonder what Pastor was doing and where exactly he thought he was going by positioning his car on the outside of Tabac. Rookie mistakes will happen, they will just be accentuated in Monaco. A bright note was the late overtake on van der Garde, which made Chilton the highest-finishing Caterham-Marussia driver.

21. Pastor Maldonado (last week: 18^th, down three spots) (Season high: 17^th, low: 22^nd)

For a while during qualifying, it looked as if Maldonado was going to rocket up the rankings. A traditional Monaco-specialist from his days in junior formulae and into his rookie F1 season, he topped Q1 in fine fashion before ending up bottom of the pile in Q2, which left him exposed to the inevitable first-lap contact. The crash with Chilton was discussed above – you have to question Maldonado’s positioning… He is not a rookie.

22. Romain Grosjean (last week: 14^th, down eight spots) (Season high: 6^th, low: 22^nd)

Truly one of the worst weekends a driver has ever experienced in F1 history, and the worst part is, Romain Grosjean looked seriously fast around the streets of Monte Carlo. He twice wrecked the car in Ste Devote, the second incident resulting in the team frantically completing an impressive rebuild before qualifying. Grosjean again demonstrated his pace in Q1 before exiting in Q2, and he then decided to run into the back of Ricciardo midway through the race; for which he has been given a ten-place grid drop (which will likely leave him in the danger-zone in the notoriously crash-enticing opening corners in Montreal). It truly was all-or-nothing for Grosjean this weekend, he hopefully won’t stay bottom for long…

The most common sight of the weekend
Source: Octane Photographic

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

After Race 5: Spain

A slight delay in the turnaround of the F1 Power Rankings this week due to being on the other side of the world at the moment. No function to record and re-watch the race meant it was slightly trickier than usual! Nonetheless, there's no change at the top as the F1 circus now prepares to tackle the tricky streets of Monte Carlo...

1. Fernando Alonso (last week: 1st, no change) (Season high: 1st, low: 13th)
Fernando Alonso makes it a hat-trick of weeks atop the F1 Power Rankings after another imperious and flawless performance at the Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday, sending the home fans delirious. Ferrari read the tyre situation perfectly but Alonso himself made the difference in the opening stages with some simply outrageous overtaking, passing both Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton around the outside of Turn 3 on the first lap, before dispatching Nico Rosberg shortly after the opening pitstop. His 32nd career win sees him take sole possession of 4th on the all-time win list.

Alonso celebrates with the Spanish flag in front of his adoring fans

Source: Sutton Images

2. Kimi Räikkönen (last week: 3rd, up one spot) (Season high: 2nd, low: 12th)
Räikkönen continued his solid and successful start to 2013 with an assured drive to second place. Just like Alonso, the Malaysian race remains the only anomaly to an otherwise outstanding start performance-wise from the Finn, who now has more podiums this season than any other driver. The Lotus, as in 2012, appears to be kinder on its tyres than the other cars and Räikkönen used this to good effect, making one stop less than his rivals. The main concern would be the departure of technical director James Allison: although that did not seem to affect Räikkönen in Barcelona, it will mainly be over the second half of the season where his absence could be felt as Lotus look to keep up in the development race and keep themselves in the mix at the front of the field.

3. Sebastian Vettel (last week: 2nd, down one spot) (Season high: 2nd, low: 4th)
The top three drivers in the championship have distanced themselves from the rest of the field and they retain the top three spots in the F1 Power Rankings, albeit in reverse order. Sebastian Vettel retains his championship lead although he was powerless in the battle against the Ferraris and Räikkönen in Spain. It has been a quiet three races for the triple-reigning champion after the Malaysian fireworks - exactly what Seb needed. RBR, however, seem more sensitive to the tyres than their rival teams - or, at the very least, they seem to lose out considerably more from the degradation levels relative to car performance.

4. Felipe Massa (last week: 11th, up seven spots) (Season high: 3rd, low: 11th)
After his horrific Bahrain race, Felipe Massa brilliantly bounced back to claim his first podium of the season and his fourth top six finish. Having been penalized three grid positions in qualifying for blocking, Massa recovered the lost ground in the opening two laps with an aggressive start. The steady rise up to the podium spots was earned through strategy although credit Massa for his performance, comfortably the best ‘#2’ team driver at the moment.

Spanish GP Podium
Source: Getty Images

5. Paul di Resta (last week: 5th, no change) (Season high: 5th, low: 17th)
No change for Paul di Resta after another fine display in the Force India. A steady start saw him retain his tail-end Q3 position but he had consistent pace throughout the race to finish just fractions behind Nico Rosberg in the battle for the highest Mercedes-powered finisher - a great position for FI to find themselves in. PDR is getting the job done.

6. Nico Rosberg (last week: 9th, up three spots) (Season high: 2nd, low: 12th)
A second successive pole for Rosberg which would normally almost guarantee you a victory around the Circuit de Catalunya but it wasn’t to be... For the second straight race, Rosberg saw himself falling down the order although he managed to limit his losses to a sixth-place finish, fending off a spirited charge from di Resta. On the bright side, he finally beat Hamilton on raceday which will give him massive relief more than anything else.

7. Charles Pic (last week: 7th, no change) (Season high: 7th, low: 19th)
I was so close to moving Charles Pic up one spot to P6 but felt Rosberg had done enough to leapfrog the Caterham driver. Pic was once again class of the Caterham/Marussia battle in the race, although he did find himself plum last on the grid. The young Frenchman finished within sight of Valtteri Bottas having completed an impressive final stint of twenty-five laps on these notorious Pirelli tyres.

8. Mark Webber (last week: 13th, up five spots) (Season high: 1st, low: 15th)
After floundering outside the top ten in the last two editions of F1 Power Rankings, Mark Webber is up to eighth after a fine drive to fifth place, having tumbled down the order on the opening lap, to record his best finish since the controversial Sepang race. However, the Aussie is already 47 points behind Vettel in the championship so he really needs to find the top step of the podium soon in order to maintain any hopes of winning the title.

9. Lewis Hamilton (last week: 4th, down one spot) (Season high: 3rd, low: 9th)
Hamilton slips to his lowest position in the F1 Power Rankings after a disastrous Sunday afternoon. His fall from a front row start was significantly worse than Rosberg, not even managing to maintain the position into turn 1, which set the tone for his afternoon. He found himself battling the horrendous 2013 Williams halfway through the race and eventually ended up twelfth after a miserable race in which he simply could not get a hold of the tyres. Perhaps worse for Hamilton is the fact Rosberg genuinely outpaced him when it mattered - in Q3 and in the race.

It's a stark contrast post-quali to post-race for Merc at the moment
Source: AFP

10. Daniel Ricciardo (last week: 14th, up four spots) (Season high: 5th, low: 18th)
After a brilliant performance in Shanghai, Daniel Ricciardo slumped back down the standings last week, but he bounced back into the top ten with a superb performance to take the final championship point, just managing to hold off Esteban Gutiérrez. The Toro Rosso appears to have taken a step forward in pace, demonstrated by the team locking out row six on the grid. Ricciardo took full advantage, running inside the top ten for most of the afternoon, despite a poor start.


Note: The top ten was fairly easy to select this week, with drivers putting in performances that were a) significantly better than the rest of the field and/or b) a fair reflection of their season-to-date. From here on, it was a little more difficult to rank the drivers with several teams (McLaren, Williams, Sauber) all having closely matched drivers, the usual situation where retiring drivers were not able to display their ultimate pace (Romain Grosjean, Jean-Eric Vergne) and then Adrian Sutil, who finally had a strong performance but an early technical problem dropped him down the field. I could easily have ranked a fair few of them as equals but that would be too easy...


11. Jules Bianchi (last week: 12th, up one spot) (Season high: 6th, low: 12th)
It figures that having written the above paragraph it would be Jules Bianchi, of all the drivers, who wins ‘best of the rest’ this week. Bianchi’s solid start to his rookie campaign continued as he rebounded from a broken front wing on the opening lap to once again beat Max Chilton. Taking that into account, Bianchi finished a more than respectable distance behind both Bottas and Pic and the Nice-native will look to work his way back into the top ten in his home race next time out.

12. Sergio Pérez (last week: 8th, down four spots) (Season high: 8th, low: 17th)
Checo beats JB to P12 in the rankings thanks to team orders working against him in the race. I understand F1 is a team sport and accept team orders as part of it - the Mercedes tactics in Malaysia were a case point where Rosberg had nothing more realistically to achieve if he were to overtake Hamilton. In Barcelona, however, Sergio Pérez was on significantly fresher tyres than Jenson Button, Rosberg and di Resta, and there was a distinct possibility of him catching the sixth-place battle. A good weekend for Checo, making it into Q3 and scoring a couple of points.

13. Jenson Button (last week: 10th, down three spots) (Season high: 5th, low: 13th)
Button slips to his lowest position in the F1 Power Rankings this season after once again being outperformed by Pérez. Credit Button for his excellent recovery after a lousy qualifying and opening lap saw him slip to 17th and then for being able to make his Pirellis last. The team orders were not his fault but he should have been beaten by his team-mate.

After their Bahrain squabble, team orders were clearly enforced by McLaren even if denied by the team
Source: RTE

=14th. Romain Grosjean (last week: 6th, down eight spots) (Season high: 6th, low: 14th) & Adrian Sutil (last week: 20th, up six spots) (Season high: 5th, low: 20th)
They were fourteen places apart last week in the rankings but it’s fourteenth position where they both find themselves in this week. Both drivers can consider themselves unlucky as they suffered technical problems at the exact same time early on during the race. Grosjean’s suspension damage proved fatal to his race and his very steady start to 2013 came to an unfortunate end. Sutil, meanwhile, encountered a pit-stop problem which dropped him to a distant last, having made a brilliant start, and he showed impressive speed to rebound to 13th. Both drivers, however, are being comprehensively outperformed by their respective team-mates.

16. Jean-Eric Vergne (last week: 19th, up three spots) (Season high: 7th, low: 19th)
JEV finds himself moving up the F1 Power Rankings despite his DNF. He was narrowly beaten by Ricciardo in qualifying and the gap actually widened between the two STR drivers in the race before Vergne found himself being driven into by Nico Hülkenberg in the pit lane. The incident eventually led to his retirement and JEV will be gutted not to have made the most of an improved-looking car.

17. Esteban Gutiérrez (last week: 22nd, up five spots) (Season high: 15th, low: 22nd)
And so we reach the ultra-hard Williams vs. Sauber battle to rank the drivers near the foot of the table... Let’s give Gutiérrez some credit for his performance on Sunday in Barcelona. Initially, he made it into Q2 but a penalty saw him drop to 19th on the grid but he managed to recover those lost places on the opening lap. Incredibly, he found himself leading the race during the opening round of pitstops for a couple of laps. Yes, the lack of field spread and the Pirelli tyres helped his cause but it was still by far and away his most composed performance and he was desperately unlucky not to end up with a championship point as he could not find a way past Ricciardo at the end of the race. Still, Esteban says 11th felt like a victory.

18. Pastor Maldonado (last week: 17th, down one spot) (Season high: 17th, low: 22nd)
What a difference a year makes. On the anniversary of driving his Williams to his maiden victory, Pastor Maldonado found himself languishing well outside the top ten for the whole weekend, as he has done all year long. Furthermore, he also appeared to nearly drive into the wrong pit box during the race and was penalized for speeding in the process of doing so. However, despite all this, he still managed to beat Valtteri Bottas and he finally moves above his team-mate in the rankings

Remember this? What a difference a year makes...
Source: AP

19. Nico Hülkenberg (last week: 15th, down four spots) (Season high:9th, low: 19th)
A horrible weekend for The Hulk. The car was slow and then, to compound things, he was released far too early from his pitstop and crashed into Vergne. Hülkenberg is obviously not to blame for the release but surely he could have braked in time to avoid the STR? The inevitable penalty that followed finished off any hope of scoring a point and, for the first time this season, was outshone by Gutiérrez. 19th might be harsh but his season really is that bad.

20. Valtteri Bottas (last week: 16th, down four spots) (Season high: 11th, low: 20th)
Bottas finds himself slipping down to his lowest ranking of the season and mainly down to the reasons expressed in the Maldonado entry. By the end of the race, he was coming under pressure from Pic, and that says it all about the 2013 Williams.

21. Giedo van der Garde (last week: 21st, no change) (Season high: 20th, low: 21st)
VDG ran into trouble for the second race running as his wheel fell of the car shortly after his pitstop. However, up until that point, he was having an impressive weekend; he won the Caterham-Marussia qualifying battle and found himself racing with Button and the Williams until his untimely demise. Pic drove superbly to maximize tyre performance so it would have been interesting to see whether Giedo could have done the same. Alas, it’s no change this week, unfortunately.

22. Max Chilton (last week: 18th, down four spots) (Season high: 18th, low: 22nd)
Another clean weekend for Chilton but he slips from his best ever ranking to his worst as he now props up the rankings. He falls below fellow rookie backmarker van der Garde as the latter finally showed some sparkle in his debut campaign. Chilton will hope the run of European tracks will give him the chance to show his pace on familiar territories. He can feel slightly hard done by in this 22nd position, but the same can be said of so many other drivers who have fallen into the bottom third of the rankings.

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