The Fast Lane – A comedy of tyre errors helps Button to the win

We come to the Hungaroring, notoriously one of the dullest Grand Prix’s of the year. As far as overtaking is concerned, Murray Walker always described it as Monaco but without the scenery. With Vettel restoring his pole position on Saturday, it was looking like another possible procession. But the McLaren’s, along with a bit of help from the weather, had different ideas.

From the start we saw Vettel under pressure, a sight which has become so rare in this 2011 season. Hamilton was all over the back of the Red Bull driver and often alongside – great wheel-to-wheel racing.

But the most noticeable thing off the start was how difficult the track conditions were. The track was slightly damp due to some earlier rain, but I was surprised to see everyone struggling on the intermediate tyres and really fighting the cars not to slide off. The Ferrari’s seemed to have the worst problems, a wide first corner had allowed both Mercedes drivers through. Despite getting past both Rosberg and Schumacher in subsequent laps, Alonso found himself back behind Rosberg soon after when he slid off the circuit entirely. It seems we’ve learnt another thing about those Pirelli’s today, they don’t get up to temperature in the rain very well at all!

This (along with pressure from Hamilton) eventually led to Vettel sliding wide and losing the lead to the Brit. From this point, Vettel did not look very strong at all, it was hard to see this as the same man who has been bullet-proof in the first half of the championship. He continued to slide back from Hamilton into the clutches of Button who also overtook the German just before the first pit-stops.

By the first stops, the track had dried out causing everyone to switch to the dry super-soft tyres. Webber and Button were first and looked pretty cautious on their outlaps, but this soon turned in their favour when they got up to speed, helping Webber to jump Alonso. The tyres would continue to play a big part throughout this race.

Hamilton continued to lead out front, but when he stopped for the third time, he made a fatal error which likely cost him the race. Lewis opted to stay on the super-soft dry tyres. It seemed the sensible decision, they had proven faster over the weekend and seemed the safe choice. Alonso also made this call, but the other front runners opted for the soft prime tyre, which had seemed slower in practice, but could go a much longer distance.

It didn’t take long to see which tyre was best. The track was clearly coming into the territory of the prime tyre (due to the lower temperatures) as Sebastien Vettel caught and passed Fernando Alonso (who had managed to jump him in an earlier stop). He then proceeded to pull away from Alonso at an astonishing rate, proving the speed of the primes at this stage of the race.

Realising the mistake, Hamilton pushed hard for fast laps, he needed to make a gap to pit again. But there was another curveball to come. The rain started coming

down, not very intense, but enough. Hamilton hit a curb and spun his McLaren. In a bid to keep the lead, he quickly spun around – not noticing oncoming cars and forced Paul Di Resta to drive off the track to avoid him. This later earned Lewis a drive-throgh penalty, destroying his race – and I’m sorry to say it was the right decision, it was a dangerous move (although not as dangerous as the Heidfeld incident which I’ll come onto later).

This allowed Button through, but also produced some of the most thrilling racing seen all season as the two team-mates diced for the lead, swapping position every few corners. The racing was ferocious but fair and kudos has to go to both of the McLaren boys for making such a great spectacle. The lead was important to both as with rain coming down, they needed to make the decision about tyres. And this is where Lewis got it wrong again, opting for intermediates. Both he and Webber made this choice and felt the consequences. The rain was not heavy enough and it seemed the prime was still the tyre to be on. Both switched to this a few laps later.

All of this allowed Button to stay comfortably out in front. Both he and Vettel already had the prime tyres and had managed to live through the short shower. With

Vettel still looking like a weaker force (and more than happy in second), this was Button’s race to lose. His team-mate Hamilton, now down in fifth and almost a minute behind the lead, still had some fight in him and took Webber for fourth position with six laps to go.

But no-one could stop Button now and he drove magnificently to his 11th career win on his 200th Grand Prix start!

Further down the field there was a mixed day for all. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa must be disappointed with sixth after fighting higher up early on and setting several fastest laps, but then both Ferrari’s under performed their cars today with errors galore (I think Alonso was off the track more than anyone else).

Another under performing team was Mercedes. The fantastic start for Schumacher and Rosberg was the only highlight as both cars slipped down the field, Rosberg finishing 9th and Schumacher retiring with a gearbox failure.

The less said about Renault the better. The only notable part of their Grand Prix was when Heidfeld’s car exploded on the pit exit. I was not comfortable with the handling of this. In tricky conditions for the drivers, the car was left in a prominent position, smoke billowing everywhere at a point where the drivers sharply accelerate. Things got scary when the stricken Renault was towed back into the pit-lane as Vettel exited. After a slide, the German missed the marshals by centimetres. I think when the Stewards criticised Hamilton for his move, they should seriously look at the danger of this incident – a safety car was needed.

Final thoughts go to Paul Di Resta who drove fantastically (if a bit under the radar) to secure seventh position – the best of the rest(a!). Paul is really starting to show a lot of promise with his speed in a Force India, surely a star of the future.

And that was the Hungarian Grand Prix… really? But it was interesting!

I Know! We’ve gone three races since Vettel last won, yet due to the victories being shared by Alonso, Hamilton and Button, he has still extended his lead today.

But do you know what? I don’t care. So long as the on track racing remains exciting (which it certainly is) I will continue to  enjoy watching it… well for this year at least…

 

 

The Fast Lane – Fernando’s Ferrari Flies to the Front

We came to Silverstone on the back of the years dullest weekend in Valencia, hoping for just one thing – that maybe, just maybe someone would dethrone Vettel and take the victory. And luckily for us, they did indeed.

But before I get onto dissecting the race, it’s worth noting the changes at Silverstone. The brand new ‘Wing’ is undoubtedly a striking and impressive building with facilities rivalling the other key tracks on the calendar. The new technical section of track with the loop also threw up some interesting moments for the drivers, giving them a change of pace compared to the mostly high speed track.

But I do feel the track is missing something without the full complex and the legendary Bridge corner. It also feels odd that the pit-straight has very few grandstands, making both paddock areas looking a bit dull and quiet.

But these are things I’m sure we’ll get used to and will be sorted out in the future to ensure an improved overall experience. Right, on with the racing.

Conditions for the British Grand Prix were, as always, interesting. At the start of the race, one half of the track was bone dry whilst the other had an awful lot of standing water. Despite this, the opening laps of the race proved a little disappointing. After Vettel took an early lead from his team-mate and Hamilton drove around several cars to make it up to fourth place on early on(which was admittedly a sterling performance from the Brit), things calmed down all too quickly. The Red Bulls were dominant out front – in spite of their claims that the ‘new regulations’ would damage their performance – with the following Ferrari of Alonso, McLaren of Hamilton and sister Ferrari of Massa all spaced out by quite some distance.

Things were looking a bit bleak for a while as far as a race was concerned with the only action on track being a few tussles near the bottom of the pack. Of these the most notable was between Schumacher and Kobayashi – the former champion losing control and hitting the Japanese driver, losing his front wing and then being penalised with a stop/go penalty (a little unfair in my opinion). It wasn’t looking like a good day for Schumi down in 18th.

But this incident had an effect further up the field. When Schumacher pitted, he changed to slick tyres and was setting blitzing lap times. Instantly the top runners reacted, coming in and changing their tyres to the new slick rubber. This closed the pack up a bit and most notably put the Ferrari’s under pressure. Too much in fact as Hamilton made his way by Alonso in a powerful move down the new pit straight. In fact Hamilton was flying, catching the Red Bull’s up front who weren’t too far apart themselves.

But Alonso wasn’t finished yet, he continued pushing and was frequently matching and beating Hamilton’s times, all the time catching Webber and Vettel up front. Things were starting to play out interestingly for a close second-half of the race.

It was in the pit-stops that everything changed again. Hamilton had to pit early after damaging his tyres, along with Webber. This proved costly for both as Alonso, staying out longer, was able to make the undercut work and come out in front. But it wasn’t just Webber and Hamilton he beat in the pit-lane. It’s never nice to cheer at other people’s mishaps, but I couldn’t help myself when I saw Vettel’s pitstop going wrong. For the first time this season, the Red Bull pit team made a mistake – and it didn’t play into their hands.

Vettel come out behind both Alonso and Hamilton who he then engaged in a straight battle. This lasted several laps and it was interesting to see how the Red Bull of Vettel was able to catch Hamilton’s McLaren in the slower corners, yet was unable to capitalise in the slipstream on the straights – possibly the first sign of a weakness to the Red Bull 2011 car?

But Christian Horner is no fool, by pitting Vettel early, he was able to get ahead of Lewis and easily maintain second position from the McLaren. But one person who Vettel was no match for was the Ferrari of Alonso. Fernando continued to stream ahead, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. For one, the Red Bull wasn’t the top car on the day – be that due to a regulation change or not – and it meant that we finally saw Vettel properly outclassed on track in 2011.

The race wasn’t quite over yet. Hamilton was low on fuel after pressing hard in the early stages and had to drive conservatively letting a fiery Webber back through. This wasn’t enough for Mark who pressed on and found himself actually challenging Vettel for the final few laps. It was great to see these two battle it out on track once again, but in fear of a repeat of their collision last year, team boss Horner called off the fight – not that Webber was having any of it. And good on Webber. I understand Christian’s reason as team boss, but Mark has something to prove this year against Vettel and it’s great to see a proper racer who won’t give up until the chequered flag.

Perhaps Mark feels a bit undervalued at the team, as no doubt Ferrari’s Felipe Massa also does. He was mostly ignored by his team today, risking wrecking his race to ensure that Alonso had a successful day. Not the best way to run a team in my opinion.

Despite this, Felipe found himself battling Hamilton to the line in a thrilling race round the final section. It ended in contact, which could be seen as slightly dubious in the yes of some stewards, but was luckily ignored giving a fantastic drag race which Massa just lost out on. And to think, if Ferrari had bothered with Massa’s strategy a bit more he could have claimed another position…

But overall, a great day for Ferrari, brilliant to see them back at the top for the first time since Korea last year. Not so good a day for the Brits though. Hamilton was the highest British finisher in fourth place, with his teammate Button losing out due to an astonishing error by the McLaren team – they sent him out with a loose wheel! You could understand Jenson’s frustration, another British Grand Prix without a podium.

Thoughts also to Paul Di Resta. After a fantastic qualifying session, the Scot was denied any up-front action by a lousy pit-stop from the Force India team, leaving him finishing in 15th position after 52 laps. So all in all, a disappointing day to be British.

Except it wasn’t. This years British Grand Prix was a roaring success. The new pits and podium were fantastic, the new track layout is still in keeping with the old and we had an enjoyable race. The only problem is, as Alonso was the furthest behind Vettel (of the main contenders), Sebastien has actually extended his lead today. Still half the season to go, but it surely won’t be long before we can declare it his…

 

 

The Fast Lane – Vettel Victorious in Valencia

This years Formula One season has been edge of the seat stuff (well if you ignore the guy out in front which has hardly changed!). Tracks which have traditionally served up little overtaking have given us amazing on track action and a record number of overtakes thanks to the new Pirelli tyres and DRS addition. But some things never change. The European Grand Prix in Valencia has seen very few overtakes since it’s introduction in 2009 and today was no exception.

Having said that, the beginning of the race did see some great opportunistic moves, mostly from the Ferrari’s. Massa continued his current run of good starts by powering past his team-mate and the slow starting Hamilton. Heading towards the second corner, Felipe moved to the inside of Webber and looked certain to take second place from the Aussie, but was forced to yield. This allowed Alonso back through (after he too had passed Hamilton) into third place.

Further down the field, the second McLaren had made an equally poor start with Button losing out to Nico Rosberg, but just keeping in front of Michael Schumacher. Vitaly Petrov also had a poor start losing five places by the second corner, a bad weekend for Russian who also fell out of quali early on Saturday.

With so many moves at the start, it was looking like a good race was in prospect, but sadly it never materialised. After Button had dispatched of Rosberg, there was very little action on track. The top three of Vettel, Webber and Alonso stayed close for several laps, but there was no sign of an overtake early on, each having a comfortable margin over each other. Massa and Hamilton were close on track for fourth place, but again, despite DRS, Hamilton was unable to capitalise and take the position.

Eventually on lap 20, there was a bit of interest once more as Alonso made the move on Webber to take second place. It was a well executed move from the Spaniard, but it lacked any real excitement as it was completed with DRS (although one has to wonder if we’d have had any overtaking if it wasn’t for this system).

The Webber/Alonso battle did admittedly continue throughout the race, but the rest of it was to be played out in the pits. The positions were revered on lap 29 when Webber retook the place by undercutting Alonso. But a combination of traffic and some poor outlaps from Webber on the hard tyres gave the position back to Alonso after the final round of pit stops.

Further down the field, there were a variety of small battles, Paul Di Resta stands out as one of the drivers who made an impact, taking several opportunities and making them work without losing his front wing this week. That’s more than can be said for Michael Schumacher, who after a brilliant showing in Canada, faded into the background this weekend after losing his wing in a clumsyaccident coming out of the pits.

Kobayashi had his fair share of tussles, but none of them really paid off except passing his team-mate! Jaime Alguesuari is perhaps the man to mention from the rest of the field. By gambling on a two-stop strategy instead of three he was able to move up to eighth and battled hard to keep it to the flag.

One man I’ve hardly mentioned is Vettel. It’s perhaps unfair that I don’t say much about Sebastien, he drove impeccably as always. But the problem is, when he makes no mistakes and is involved in no incidents/fights there’s not a lot to say. The reigning champion stayed a few seconds in front of the field for the entire race and made it obvious that he had plenty in reserve, pulling out an 11 second lead by the finish line. A pure class drive as always, just a shame it makes it a bit dull.

So the story from Valencia has two clear conclusions. Firstly, not even the new tyre strategies and DRS can liven up this street-circuit. It’s never been entertaining, has never captured the magic of Monaco and Singapore and I quite frankly wouldn’t miss it if it was cancelled from next year onwards.

The second is that there’s still a lot of catching up needed for anyone else to even be competitive with Vettel, let alone beat him. Ferrari were strong today (for the first time this season really), but McLaren failed and were no real match at all.

Vettel remains way out in front, in fact he could miss the next three races and still be leading the championship! I’m starting to think it’s more likely he’ll quit out of boredom rather than someone will actually overtake him in the championship!

Next time out we’re at Britain, the new Silverstone. Hopefully the speedy straights and tight corners can reignite the F1 flame!

The Fast Lane – Canadian Grand Prix Part Two: Masterclass from Button!

Wow, where on earth do I begin with my review of the Canadian Grand Prix 2011. How about a quick summary.

We endured a grand prix yesterday on 12th June 2011 in length of 4 hours, 4 minutes and 39 seconds, there were five safety car periods leading to several shots of a bored looking Bert Mylander, Jenson Button was in every position at some point in the race, The track went from wet to moist to monsoon to wet to moist to dry to whoa, don’t drive on that bit!, Lewis Hamilton was blamed for everything including no doubt the two marshall slip ups during the event, Schumacher Webber and Button drove around everyone, seven drivers didn’t finish – six of those were weather related crashes, Kobayashi made both brilliant and terrible decisions and everyone got very wet (well except Mercedes,they had tents!)

Phew, I think that covers it, if you want more about the first part of the race, I wrote all about it during the break yesterday, if not read on for part two!

Now that’s out of the way, lets have a look at some specific detail. Jenson Button is undoubtedly the talk of the sport right now and rightly so. he produced a belter of a drive to come from the very back of the race to the very front by the end of the final lap. Lets not forget Jenson was hit by his team-mate, was haemorrhaging time using intermediates too early, lost even more time hitting into Alonso and found himself stuck behind several slower (and faster) cars.

This would on any other day be game over, but not yesterday as Button drove magnificently around his opponents and kept up consistently impressive lap times in the second half of the race. But Jenson did this rather quietly. We were all focusing on the battles at the front between Schumacher, Webber and Vettel. Most people no doubt had forgotten Button was even in the Grand Prix. But due to a combination of great driving, handling the conditions superbly (in the latter stages of the race admittedly) and a little bit of luck, the Brit closed in on the top three. With the help of DRS he was able to dispatch both Webber and Schumacher with ease and then it was on to Vettel.

It’s incredible to think that after all this time with Vettel strongly leading from pole and Button having been in every position thinkable, that the two were seconds apart in the final laps. Button was closing, but not quite fast enough – it was all going to come down to the final corner of the race, surely!

But it happened a few corners earlier when we saw the truth that Vettel is human. I don’t know if it was the pressure or just a wheel offline in the wet, but Vettel slid giving Button the lead. I did feel sorry for Vettel at this moment, he’s a great driver and doesn’t really deserve the wave of cheers that no doubt happened across the UK (and possibly a few other countries) when he made his error. But it was an amazing moment, high power sporting action at it’s best. Jenson Button won what was one of the most enthralling races I have ever watched.

But it wasn’t just Button who shone. I couldn’t be happier to see Michael Schumacher back up there in the mix. It was the first time since his comeback last year that Schumacher has actually driven like the Schumacher of old. A combination of good decisions and great handling of the wet weather (was always his strongpoint), Michael battled through the field and made it up to second (after a great bit of opportunistic driving against Massa and Kobayashi). This really is where he deserved to stay in my opinion. He lost the position due to DRS as both Button and Webber (eventually) streamed past him with the new system.

It’s a great shame because although DRS helped set up the Webber/Button battle, it also denied us of a proper fight between Schumacher and Button. Jenson was two car-lengths ahead of the German by the corner after the DRS zone. It was just a bit too easy. And who on earth decided that Canada should have two DRS zones, one was more than enough – that system still needs refining.

But despite losing out on a podium, Schumacher drove excellently yesterday, well above the capabilities of a still disappointing Mercedes racecar. It will be interesting to see if this was a one-off or whether Michael can keep this momentum and continue challenging for the bigger points in 2011.

Despite the success, a few teams had a torrid day in the rain. Ferrari were looking very strong before Sunday, but it all fell to pieces in the race. Alonso never really looked comfortable in the wet weather and ended up a victim of it when Button slid into him. Massa was driving impressively, fa better than his team-mate, until he also made a mistake tagging the back of Kartikeyan and losing his front wing. He recovered to sixth, but it was still a bad day in the office for all involved at the prancing horse.

Renault Lotus (or whatever they’re now called) must also be feeling quite disappointed thinking at what could have been. Nick Heidfeld was running high throughout the entire race until he had a frightening incident with Kobayashi in which the German drive over his own front wing and lost control. Despite fifth place from Vitaly Petrov, it was very disheartening for a team that need to be getting better results now.

Kobayashi ended up having a much more enjoyable day, running as high as second for the majority of the race before falling to seventh by the chequered flag.

Just a quick mention to Emerson Fittipaldi who I don’t suppose had any idea how busy a day it was likely to be in the Stewards room. It seemed every five minutes there was another stewards inquiry announced, but luckily they decided against giving Jenson Button any penalties for his questionable antics with Hamilton and Alonso.

But wow, what a Grand Prix. You can’t call formula one boring after that. It was a long old wait leading to a five-and-a-half-hour long broadcast from the BBC, but it was more than worth it, sport at it’s absolute best. And the winner wasn’t a certain man called Vettel… normal service will be resumed in Valencia!

The Fast Lane – Canadian GP Part One: Lewis Storms Out!

Thought I’d write an impromtu blog post in this period of race stoppage. So we’ve had 25 laps of the Candian Grand Prix and we’ve had enough incidents to pack an entire race in previous years – love the 2011 season!

But one man who probably isn’t enjoying it so far is Lewis Hamilton. The man has had his fair share of incidents this year, in fact hasn’t he been involved in all of them? Today has of course been no different after Lewis became involved in 3 investigations after 10 minutes of racing.

The first of these was his attack up the inside of Mark Webber at the start of the race. This was a great piece of opportunistic racing from Hamilton, but it sadly went slightly wrong. Due, no doubt, to the poor weather conditions, Lewis lost grip and crashed into the side of Mark Webber. I do think in this instance, Lewis was more to blame than Mark. There’s no doubt that Webber gave the McLaren driver room, admittedly not much, but it was Lewis that slid and hit the side of Webber – a victim of the conditions.

Unlike Webber, Lewis recovered quickly from this and it wasn’t long before he was back in the thick of the race, taking the Renault’s and his team mate back. He was then challenging Schumacher (who like everyone was sliding everywhere) and ended up sliding so far that he pushed Hamilton I think unfairly wide.

This eventually led to the next and final incident for Hamilton. Stuck behind his slower team-mate, it was clear that Lewis needed to get back through if he was to have any chance in this race. Hamilton saw his moment and pulled to the inside of Button on the start/finish straight. Jenson clearly didn’t see him and pulled across the track, causing the two to make contact ending in Lewis’ retirement from the Grand Prix. This is a tough one to call. Button did pull across on Hamilton, but I don’t believe he could possibly have seen Lewis’ hot-headed attack on the inside. I don’t think either are to blame at all, it was a very unfortunate racing incident.

This of course ended Lewis’ race. I don’t believe he was really in the wrong today, more a victim of the conditions. But he does seem to get that title quite often!

As for the other contenders, Vettel is looking very strong here (apart from a trip over the grass at the start) whereas everyone else seems to be struggling. Interestingly, I’d say Vettel’s main competitor at the moment is Massa who is coping very well in the conditions, outperforming Alonso and possibly giving Vettel something to think about.

But of course all of this can change in a heartbeat, let alone a long rain delay. As I type this, the Montreal track is looking more like a river (a bit worried the island the track is on could sink) so it’s not looking like a restart any time soon – but hopefully we’ll be racing again later today… sorry Antiques Roadshow fans!

The Fast Lane – Glitz, Glamour and overtaking in Monaco

I remember saying earlier this week that the real test for F1 2011 would be at Monaco this weekend. This season has produced an immense amount of action and tension (all be it with the same person winning most races), but is it really possible to keep that excitement up around the tight, twisty and notoriously overtaking-lite Monte Carlo streets. Turns out it is.

This has to be one of the best Monaco Grand Prix I have witnessed with battles throughout the field and what was looking at times like a very tight ending.

But for such an amazing race, the start was a little quiet with the only action being provided by Michael Schumacher – first bogging down on the grid and the pulling a brave and perhaps risky move around the inside of Lewis Hamilton at the hairpin. A great piece of opportunist racing from Schumi, but sadly it was the be the only one in what was another disappointing weekend for the 7-time world champion.

With the first few laps over and Vettel already seconds ahead of his competitors, it was looking like another dull Monaco Grand Prix. But that wasn’t to be the case.

One of the reasons for this was actually a comedy of errors in the pit lane. Unbelievably, this started with the normally bulletproof combination of Red Bull and Vettel. The mechanics were waiting, with the prime compound tyres – the wrong ones for Vettel’s strategy. This caused a very important delay allowing Jenson Button to take the lead of the race. The errors kept coming for Red Bull as Webber came in immediately afterwards and was delayed even further due to the errors in Vettel’s stop. Not a good day for the Red Bull mechanics, but at least it was better than Hamilton’s mechanics who couldn’t even be bothered to come out for their car!

Getting Jenson in front of Vettel led to a very interesting situation as finally someone was beating Vettel on track and the German was powerless to prevent it. As the top two remained tied in a lap-ime battle, slowly Fernando Alonso crept up on both.

But as mentioned there were many overtakes and incidents up and down the field. Massa made a phenomenal overtake on Nico Rosberg, Rosberg then get stuck behind Glock for a bit (whilst Schumacher beared down on him) and perhaps the man with the most going on was Lewis Hamilton.

It was never going to be easy for Lewis starting ninth on the grid, but wow did he have a frustrating afternoon. This all grew to one moment of recklessness against Felipe Massa halfway through the race. Hamilton went up the inside at the hairpin, but was too far back to make the pass and inevitably hit the Ferrari. This of course was penalised – rightly so – by the stewards. I know Lewis himself feels quite differently about this issue, but there was no doubt in my mind that he was too far back and should have backed out.

That incident more than likely led to Massa hitting the wall in the tunnel and bringing out the safety car, another important turning point. Vettel had re-taken the lead after Button pitted for a second time, but now was in a situation whereby he had both Button and Alonso right behind him on track. Button had to pit once more, putting him behind Alonso, but with the fresher tyres he soon caught up. This left us with something I don’t think I have ever seen at Monaco, a three-way battle for the lead with 14 laps to go.

And it was a battle, this wasn’t a procession, Alonso was all over Vettel and really looked like taking the lead a couple of times. Vettel was at a massive disadvantage, his tyres had lasted since lap 19 and were now massively degrading. Alonso was on fresher tyres, but still nowhere near as new as Button’s. Vettel couldn’t pit, that would lose him everything, he had to fight on track. This was a fantastic battle.

And then something quite unexpected happened. Focusing on the battle between the top three, the cameras had missed the fact that a group of eight cars were also very bunched together and about to be lapped by the leaders. These cars were a combination of lapped cars and drivers competing for positions, they weren’t all going to yield instantly. This was going to be dynamite!

Unfortunately, the formula was a bit too explosive and just as the top three hit the traffic, Algesuari hit Hamilton and Petrov hit both in a pretty big smash. This brought out the safety car and eventually the race was stopped with 6 laps to run.

Luckily for the all, all drivers were OK from the crash and it was decided to restart the race and run the final few laps. It was to be a show-stopping finale, but sadly it was ruined by an FIA regulation. For some reason, unknown to myself or any fan, teams are allowed to change tyres during a race stoppage period. This of course killed the challenge. Vettel was supreme on fresh tyres earlier in the race and would easily be able to hold the two behind. He was effectively given a free pit-stop and saved from losing the race to Alonso and Hamilton.

It’s a shame for the sport and a big insult to it’s fans as we could have been treated to the best battle of the season so far, but instead we were denied the spectacle for a ridiculous regulation. This is one I hope will be looked at by the FIA and changed, not that I expect it to ever be an issue again anyway…

The race was restarted and as predicted, Vettel led easily from the front and won his first Monaco Grand Prix and well done to him, he’s a deserving winner, but I can’t help thinking that he wouldn’t have won if it wasn’t for the quirk of fate that led to the race-stoppage and the chance to change tyres.

Despite the disappointing ending, I was thrilled by the rest of the race. Great to see Alonso actually on pace for the first time this season, hopefully turning it into a three team battle. It was also great to see Button as the lead McLaren after Mr Hamilton had mouthed off earlier in the week that only he was capable of beating Vettel.

Lewis has of course had a dreadful afternoon. As well as his penalty for Massa, he has also been penalised post race for a risky move on Maldonado that knocked the Williams driver out of the race. Admittedly, this 20 second penalty hasn’t effected his final position, but it won’t help confidence. This much was obvious from his outburst after the race. I do like Lewis, but I do think he can complain a bit too much sometimes – put it this way – according to Lewis, it’s never his fault.

So F1 leaves Monaco again and is still producing amazing action on track. But there’s still that niggling problem, no-one can beat Mr Vettel, even it seems if his team makes a bit of a pit-lane cockup!

The Fast Lane – Vettel still in front in Spain… by a whisker

F1 2011 is turning out to be a fantastic year for on track action (admittedly a lot of that is down to Pirelli). But despite the hundreds of pitstops and countless overtakes, one man is still dominating and Sebastien Vettel remained number one in today’s Spanish Grand Prix, but only just. 

For only the second time this season, Vettel was out under real pressure throughout the race and had to prove his credentials as a world champion to remain in front. Strange as it may seem for 2011, Vettel didn’t even take the lead until lap 19 of the race, it was a quite unexpected protagonist who had led up until then.

I was more than pleased to see Fernando Alonso find form again in front of his home crowd. More than just form, his first lap was incredible. I sat in awe as Alonso shot past Hamilton and then took advantage of the quarrelling Red Bull’s to sneak up the inside of turn one in what was one of the best starts I have ever seen in Formula One.

Sadly though for Alonso and Ferrari fans everywhere, the start was not truly indicative of the prancing horse’s overall pace. After holding up the top four drivers for 19 laps, (giving us a very bunched up lead pack, which was nice!) Alonso pitted and promptly lost both first and second place to Vettel and Hamlton. As his pace continued to slow through the hard tyre phases, Alonso fell further still to finish in fifth.

The Ferrari is clearly still not up to the pace of the top two and is struggling to remain ‘the best of the rest’ – Alonso is driving the car way beyond it’s ability, but still at least he’s not having the woes of his teammate Massa. A lot of head scratching needs to go on in Maranello.

But unlike most expected, Vettel wasn’t able to dominate from the front, he had a worthy opponent. Lewis Hamilton is quickly emerging as the only likely candidate to steal 2011 from Vettel and he today showed that the same will and determination he possessed when he entered the sport in 2007, still burns strongly.

There seems to be a somewhat peculiar opinion in F1, that it’s not worth pushing a car to the end of the race. Many teams like to conserve their engines and concentrate on holding position up until the line. Not Lewis Hamilton. We watched on the edge of our seats as Lewis closed lap-on-lap on Vettel. Sebastien had the measure of the Brit in the end, but it gave us something F1 has been lacking for a few years, a proper race to the line – great stuff.

The team-mates of both Vettel and Hamilton had very middling days. Button could have no doubt pipped his team-mate for second (or at least helped in the Vettel assault) if it wasn’t for his truly shocking start. But with his smooth driving style, he was able to make the Pirelli’s last (the only competitor who realistically could) and it meant his three-stop strategy worked a treat for a podium position.

The very opposite happened for Mark Webber, who as always got stuck behind the wrong traffic at the wrong time. Still, he didn’t pull out the amazing moves that both Vettel and Hamilton did to keep them in contention through the traffic. Hate to say it, but Mark’s not quite on it anymore.

A quick mention for the Mercedes. It was a solid, but once again disappointing weekend for this team. It was great to see both finish in the points, most notably Michael ahead of Nico after another cracking start. But I’m sure Ross would like to be challenging the front runners and after finishing over 30 seconds behind a struggling Alonso, they’re just not there.

Another team who seem to be on a downward spiral is Renault. They were no-where to be found today despite a decent qually from Petrov on Saturday. Heidfeld did make it through the field to finish eighth, but that was mostly due to clever tyre management. Renault seem to be another team with great promise who aren’t quite hitting the mark.

Tyres were of course the subject of the day again. The new primes turned out not be as much of an issue as originally claimed, but the degradation of the soft tyres is shockingly quick. That’s fine by me, keeps us with some very close racing, unlike this weeks DRS showing which failed to have any significant impact. I’m confident DRS will eventua

lly get ironed out though and maybe next week at Monaco it could be just perfect… or more likely an accident waiting to happen.

Sebastien Vettel is still the man at the front, he deserves to be, but Mr Hamilton is closing in for what is shaping up to be one of the most action packed seasons so far. Let us not forget, we’ve just watched the Spanish Grand Prix, traditionally boring and won from pole-position – not today!

The Fast Lane – Overtakes galore, but Red Bull still take the crown

The last three weeks since China have been rather long. Perhaps it was the great nature of the race with all it’s countless overtakes, or maybe the hope that McLaren could genuinely take the battle to Red Bull this year.

All hopes that seemed to have died by 1 o clock yesterday after Sebastien Vettel scorched his way to pole position, leaving all others standing. With Mark Webber a string 2nd place on the grid and the McLaren’s down in 4th and 6th, The Red Bull’s were back to their dominant form. But it would be a lie to say they fully kept this in the race. A challenger emerged and not one that most were expecting!

Fernando Alonso was probably the best driver today as he and his Ferrari team finally fought back after a lacklustre start to the year. Alonso started 5th on the grid (for the fourth time this season), but was clearly very racey throughout, battling his way up to second place towards the end. Deteriorating tyres and a car which is clearly still better than the rest, ensured that Webber then caught and with DRS managed to overtake Alonso back, but it was great to see Ferrari finally joining this fight to make it a three-horse race again.

Sadly the second Ferrari of Massa faired less well. I’m unsure as to entirely why he finished so low down in 11th place (with so much going on, it was easy to miss events), but I feel it was undeserved. Massa was in a very fiesty mood and pulled some of the best moves I have seen from him since his horrific crash in 2009. Yet with a couple of dodgy pitstops and a few mistakes, he was unable to convert this skill to anything significant. As always, Massa remains the unlucky Ferrari driver.

The team many expected to be Red Bull’s challengers – McLaren – had a decidedly average day results wise. But on-track, both Hamilton and Button were incredible to watch. The battle between the two teammates was some of the most compelling racing I have seen in the sport in ages, with both overtaking one another at almost every turn during one lap. It’s a shame that like Massa, the team were unable to manage anything better than the positions they started – but they gave us a great deal of edge-of-the-seat entertainment throughout. F1 racing at it’s best.

But the racing today is something we need to look at. The ongoing Drag Reduction System saga continues as today it seemed almost too easy to overtake. We saw the likes of Hamilton, Webber, Alonso and Button all overtaking cars on the final straight before they reached the corner thanks to DRS. It was like watching (excuse the cliche) a video game and in a way it took the drama and action out of the racing as it was obvious who was going be ahead after the DRS zone.

Despite this, I am not against DRS. It was only in a handful of occasions that we saw the system actually give someone an easy ride to a position. In most situations it did what it was supposed to do, close the cars up and make them almost side-by-side by the following corner. It helped provide us with some great tight racing over the following chicane and the pit straight, which is what we want in F1. There’s no doubt it was far too easy for some to overtake without skill – but the FIA are still trialling this and I think with a few tweaks, DRS will become an exciting new aspect to the sport.

Once again, Pirelli helped us along to a great race. I love seeing four-stop strategies and the new tyres are certainly giving us that. It’s helped to bring pit-stops back into the equation without the danger of re-fuelling. Absolutely love it!

One more mention on the teams, Mercedes have really had a weekend of two halves. Qualifying was the teams first bit of good news for 2011, both cars through to Q3 and a top 3 position for Rosberg. But the race was where it all came undone. Rosberg managed to fight back to a ‘best of the rest’ position in 5th, but his pace was very disappointing throughout. And where do we start with Mr. Schumacher? For every moment of brilliance he has shown since his comeback, he’s made three amateur mistakes. He’s still not the racer he once was and although he can still duel well at points, there’s too much incident and error creeping in. I do wonder if he’ll still be around in 2012.

Kudos to Vettel and Webber, it was a class performance today and under a bit of pressure as well. They’re still the dominant force in the sport right now, but with Ferrari now on the chase along with McLaren, the season is starting to heat up. I do think that 2011 could turn out to be a vintage year.

The Fast Lane – Hamilton outclasses Red Bull in Shanghai

Wow! It’s hard to find a better word to describe this years Chinese Grand Prix. I don’t think I stand alone by saying that this was the best Formula One race in a long long time. I defy anyone to claim F1 is boring after that!

But amongst the incredible action from the entire pack, there were two drivers who stood head-over-heels above the rest – Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber. Both have had a bit of a hard time of late – but today saw those fortunes turned around in spectacular fashion.

Hamilton has clearly learnt a lot about these Pirelli tyres since last week – keeping them sweet right up until the end of the race. He notoriously pushes his car too hard and loses grip by the end, but it was his careful driving (and admittedly three-stop strategy) which helped him pass both his team-mate and of course that stunning move (without DRS or KERS) on Vettel for the lead. A great return to form for Lewis.

But a more impressive drive came from Webber. After 20 laps, Mark was still stuck in 15th position. Both myself and several others were commenting on Twitter about just how dreadful Mark Webber’s season seemed to be and how a championship was fading away already.

Things changed completely after Mark’s second pit stop. He was finally put in some clear air and wow did it make some difference. Purple sector after purple sector, Mark worked his way up the grid and into contention for the end of the race. A few great moves on Schumacher, Massa and Button and Webber was up into a podium position. For me this (at least the second half) was the drive of the day.

Webber’s team-mate Vettel had a much busier day than he perhaps expected. After being swamped at the start by both McLaren’s and almost Rosberg, he found himself on the backfoot throughout. If it wasn’t for Button’s mistake in the first pit stop, I think Vettel could have had an even harder time of it.

But as it was, he got himself into a leading position – however Red Bull elected for a two-stop strategy, a mistake they will probably rue. Vettel’s tyres were clearly well past their sell-by by the end of the race, making it easy for Hamilton to find a way through. Of course, if there had been a few more laps, I reckon he’d have had both Webber and Button past him too. All things considered, a successful weekend for Vettel.

Button I feel had a little bit of a disappointing weekend. It’s strange to say that about someone who finished a string fourth, but I feel it could have been a lot more. Jenson made a few too many silly mistakes, the most obvious being mistaking the blue overalls of the Red Bull team for his own McLaren’s, costing him vital time in the pits. Maybe blue is the next colour McLaren will be trying out after the garish red number used yesterday!

But it wasn’t just this error, Jenson also seemed a little weak on track. Both Hamilton and Webber got past easily thanks to Button leaving them more than enough room. There seemed to be little fight whenever someone came up behind him and Jenson virtually let both through. Caught asleep methinks!

Ferrari continued their relatively disappointing season. Massa looked to have a real chance today, but the two-stop strategy just didn’t work with the fast degrading Pirelli’s. A shame, as it was great to see Massa on form and overtaking again. Alonso on the other hand was ‘all at sea’ for the whole day, spending most of the race duelling Schumacher. Even a malfunctioning DRS system couldn’t help him, which I hasten to add I do believe to be an error not anything more (cynical twitterati – I’m looking at you!).

Mercedes had a good day, finally! Rosberg was very impressive throughout both with speed and attempts to overtake. I think the team will be pleased with 5th, but again slightly disappointed he couldn’t keep Button and Webber behind. Schumacher had his best race for a long time. The final result of 8th may not be that impressive, but he was very racy throughout and provided some great on track action. Good stuff!

Paul di Resta deserves a mention. He was unlucky at the end, finishing 11th and just outside the points. But throughout the weekend he drove well and looked to be on for a much higher position earlier in the race. I was particularly impressed to see him holding his own against such experts as Schumacher and Alonso. He’s also outshining the often-praised Sutil this season.

The Renaults, who were so strong in Malaysia, seemed to disappear this week. The best position for them was 9th with Petrov. The team seems to be very up and down this year with the tracks massively effecting their performance. Last weeks hero Heidfeld (or fIeld if you’re David Coulthard) only managed 12th.

There was so much action in today’s 56 laps that I’m bound to have missed out some of it, but that’s great news. This is the sort of race F1 needed. There was a quiet expectation that after last weeks cracker in Malaysia that things would quiet down again this week. But processional this was not, easily one of the best Grand Prix’s I have ever enjoyed.

It’s early days still, but today proved that the Red Bull’s can be beaten (just!) and that could mean we have a championship on our hands. Three long weeks until Istanbull!

The Fast Lane – F1 gets spicy in the Sepang heat

2 weeks ago I found myself quite disappointed after an Australian Grand Prix that (predictably) didn’t live up to the pre-season hype. It was almost a little dull. The action earlier today in Malaysia couldn’t have been further from that, what a cracker!

From the very off it was obvious that we were in for a good race. It was one of the most explosive starts I’ve seen in ages, the big winners of course being the Renault’s. Heidfeld’s launch off the line was incredible and showed the real speed of this years Renault (or is it Lotus?!) package. Kubica must be unbelievably annoyed to be missing out on this season – that is a championship winning car.

The big loser from the start was Mark Webber, who due a KERS problem (the one thing Red Bull haven’t got right!) hasa hideous start, falling back to 10th. Of course Red Bull were clever and due to good strategy and the demise of a couple of other competitors, Webber made it up to finish fourth, just outside the podium. Webber is a tough one to rate for me. He’s clearly a good driver, but I don’t think he’s quite championship material anymore and now that Vettel has fully taken over Red Bull, I do wonder what hope Mark has for the future.

Another great start was made by Michael Schumacher, who seems to have finally perfected his launch since his return last year – strange as it was the one weakness he had in his 1st F1 career. It was impressive to see the Mercedes make it around the outside of several competitors and even give the Ferrari’s a run for their money (well for about 5 seconds). But as always seems to happen with Schumi these days, he can’t keep that pace up for the entire race.

A lot of this is – I’m sure – down to the performance of the Mercedes which once again seems quite poor. Schu

mi also seems to have quite a large tyre degradation problem compared to his competitors, but I feel that as a race driver, he’s still not quite up to speed. He makes half-hearted moves and seems to fall back into the clutches of others easily. Schumacher’s still not quite back.

The tyres turned out to be a big part of the story for todays race, with most cars making three stops and some making four! The Pirelli’s really don’t hold out well – and that for a spectator is BRILLIANT! Watching the drivers have to try and maintain their tyres whilst going flat out was a joy and created overtaking moves. That’s genuine, entertaining moves without the hep of KERS or DRS or any other flippin’ anagram. We don’t need them, we need Pirelli.

Another thing we didn’t need was rain. The race was competitive and thrilling without any (well not much) water having fallen. I just wish it wasn’t always the subject of the sport. All anyone cared about in the lead up was whether it would rain, yet today it was proved that F1 can be terrific without rain. So Bernie, if you’re reading, can the sprinklers!

Throughout the race there were several great overtaking moves, around 65 percent of these coming from Kamui Kobayashi. He tussled with Schumacher, Webber and Petrov among others and really gave them a run for their money. I would love to see Kamui in a better car as he is already a remarkably entertaining driver and with a bit more speed, he could win a race or two. Great entertainment as always!

But one attempted move will overshadow all others. I am of course referring to Alonso and Hamilton. Fernando made a dramatic mistake and clipped his front wing on Hamilton’s rear wheel causing him to have to pit and fall to 6th place. It was a racing incident, but what annoyed me is the amount of abuse for Alonso I then witnessed on Twitter. People saying he was a dangerous driver who should be banned. Some even suggested it was deliberate to sabotage Hamilton’s race. Of course it wasn’t – what good would that have done?!

Regardless of what the truth of the situation was, the FIA have decided to put a dampener on proceedings as for as this move was concerned. The stewards issued a 20 second penalty to both Alonso (for contact) and Hamilton (for chaning position on track too much). I find this appalling. All both drivers were doing was racing. I know with DRS, KERS and other tacked on technology it’s easy to forget, but racing is actually the point of this sport. The FIA can’t keep doing this every time there is a slight bump on track, otherwise they may as well ban all racing on track!

Mind you, at least neither of them went flying like Petrov, that was an incredible shot! I feel sorry for Vitaly, but he has already far surpassed everyone’s expectations this year and is likely to be causing a lot of trouble for the top two teams throughout the season.

Sepang has always given us an entertaining weekend and this was no different. The only thing which stayed the same was Sebastien Vettel’s stunning victory (he is in a league of his own). But I remain hopeful that he can be caught, probably later rather than sooner, but hopefully in time for a close season finale.

F1 (without steward interventions) was back on form today.