Junglebiscuit

Hamilton Flies in front of his home crowd, Rosberg and Verstappen battle it out and the Ferrari’s struggle.

After an exciting qualifying session we started the race with Hamilton P1, Rosberg P2. Verstappen P3. 5 minutes before the end of qualifying Hamilton’s pole lap was cancelled as he drove wide on a forbidden corner! With the minutes counting down he still managed to pull it out the bag. The crowds at Silverstone went mad with excitement and relief!

Vettel faced a grid penalty and started in P11, Button has never had a good result at his home GP started in P17. After a bad crash during practice Ericsson started his race in the pit lane.

Unfortunately shortly before the race the heavens opened over Silverstone, the race was starting in the wet. Even more unfortunate due to the wetness of the track the race started under the safety car for the first five laps. For the fans at Silverstone this was more like an F1 fashion show but did give fans a good opportunity to get some good photos.

Finally the safety car is in, we see the race begin. Quite dramatically nearly half the grid all pit including Vettel. Neither the Red Bulls or Mercedes pit.

By Lap 6 we see Verstappen on Rosbergs tail, hounding him down like a Lion hunting his prey. Ricciardo in P4 Pits.

We see the lead building by Lap 7 with Hamilton already 3.7secs in front of Rosberg who has the constant pressure of Verstappen. Its busy again in the pit lane the track is drying out intermediates are the best choice. Wehrlein is out the young driver aquaplaned straight into the gravel which causes a virtual safety car this is a good opportunity for the Mercedes to pit. First in Hamilton closely (very closely) followed by Rosberg then Verstappen. Hamilton still in P1 returning to the track.

Lap 11 and we see Verstappen with the fastest lap, we see an unusual error for Bottas who skids off track to make it calmly back on to track in P13.

You can still see there are areas of the track that are still wet although on Lap 15 Vettel pits for Slicks! Poor Rosberg is getting a mental pounding from Verstappen who will not stop attacking, finally we see an epic overtake by Verstappen on Becketts.

Lap 17 Palmer retires, in the pits he attempts to drive away without a tyre which is investigated, Palmer receives a 10 second penalty. Was this a pit crew error or was Palmer too eager to drive off? Not a good ending to your first home GP.

Both Mercedes pit on Lap 18, along with Ricciardo and Perez who sneaked up to P4. Verstappen leads for a short moment, we see a spin from Vettel who is back in P12 but manages to control the car and stay on track.

Lap 19 its Hamilton in P1, Verstappen in P2. Sainz looses the back of his car manages to keep it on track unfortunately Kvyat doesn’t and ends up in the gravel. The track is still clearly quite wet even though it hasn’t rained now for a while.

We see some amazing action from Alonso in P10 trying everything to pass Bottas in P9. Alonso is so determined he tries to overtake on the grass!

Lap 26 Haryanto in the Manor is out of the race.

Its still quite wet out there and on Lap 28 even Hamilton spins off on turn 1 skilfully manages to get back on track like many others. Turn 1 is a tricky one where a lot of drivers have spun. Verstappen follows Hamilton and makes the same turn 1 error!

Rosberg is catching up with Verstappen, it has been a constant battle between these two all day. Rosberg at Lap 35 complains over team radio that Verstappen is blocking him to overtake it’s a close call as Rosberg nearly takes Verstappen.

There is a 6 second lead for Hamilton by Lap 36 he is flying, Rosberg tries to take Verstappen again by Lap 38 Rosberg has finally got past! While this is happening Vettel in P9 and Massa in P10 are having an epic battle, Vettel even complaining that Massa is trying to take him off the track.

The drama then begins, gearbox problem for Rosberg on Lap 47 and he is losing time with all that constant pushing to overtake it is now possible Verstappen will overtake him again! With only a 1.6sec gap the Mercedes team clearly tell Rosberg to leave 7th gear alone an obvious rule break http://www.fia.com/regulation/category/110. This will be investigated after the race, potential bad news for Rosberg.

Lap 52 and we have hit the final lap clearly Hamilton has this in the bag with now a 10sec lead – Easy! Silverstone erupts this is what the fans came to see!

We see a frosty atmosphere between Rosberg and Hamilton prior to them receiving their trophies on the podium. A great post podium interview by Mark Webber who tries his best to shake off the unfair boo’s Rosberg receives.

Approximately 4 hours after the race it is decided that Rosberg will receive a 10 second penalty for the advice the Mercedes team gave him during the race shifting the race results P1 Hamilton, P2 Verstappen and P3 Rosberg. This now leaves Rosberg with a 1 point lead in the championship after such a great start to the year is this slipping through his fingers? With 11 races left anything could happen!

Next stop Hungary!

Austria, the Spielberg ring with beautiful mountainous and wooded surroundings. Last year this track brought victory to Rosberg who was behind Hamilton in the Championship. This year it’s the complete opposite!

Qualifying brought us a strange grid, Rosberg P6 and Vettel P9 with grid place penalties our top 3 consisted of Lewis in pole, Hulkenburg P2 and Button P3. Prior to the race Button showed his sheer delight with the P3 start but didn’t hold back in the fact they wouldn’t finish the race there. We also had Massa and Kvyat starting in the pits, Kvyat who had an awful crash in qualifying while Massa had an issue with his wing.

Warm up lap commences and all drivers take their starting place unless you are Wehrlein in the Manor who accidentally takes the wrong box. A bit of a panic among spectators as he reverses back to his place literally seconds before the race starts!

Race is on! Hamilton gets away quickly while Hulkenburg has a slow start leaving Button to take P2 and Raikkonen in P3. It already clear the Mclaren of Button is holding up the pace for the cars behind allowing Hamilton to gain time on his lead.

Lap 3 Poor Kvyat retires in the pits. Bad weekend for the Russian.

Lap 6 Hulkenburg is under attack by Verstappen and Rosberg who both overtake him with ease. Rosberg now P4 and Verstappen P5.

Finally on Lap 7 Raikkonen in P3 takes over Button now its time for the Ferrari of Raikkonen to hunt down Lewis.

By Lap 9 Rosberg is now P3 as Button starts dropping back through the grid. The Mclaren just can’t take the pace.

Mclaren are the team to pit both drivers first, Mercedes pit Rosberg on Lap 11 leaving Hamilton out.

It seems by this point of the race the ultra soft tyres are not working well and are deteriorating fast. Although Hamilton is still keeping a four second lead on these tyres.

Lap 13 we see a tyre kiss of Perez and Sainz,sparks flying. Hamilton’s tyres are now starting to give up but he is still going for it.

Lap 20 Ferrari and Hamilton are yet to pit, can these tyres hold it a bit longer? Rosberg is making up for lost time on his new tyres watch out Ferrari he is coming to get you both!

Then finally Hamilton pits on Lap 20 and manages to get out back in just behind Rosberg now in P3, ready to attack the men in red.

Raikkonen then pits unfortunately coming back out stuck behind two Red Bulls in P6, this is going to be his biggest challenge of the afternoon.

Vettel now leads but he needs to pit, those tyres must be exhausted by now!

Lap 27 and bang goes Vettel’s rear tyre he is out of the race leaving debris all over the track, Safety car is out.

Lap 31 – LET’S RACE!

Grosjean and Hulkenburg receive a 5 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

A 5 Second penalty is handed to Magnusson for swerving to avoid being over taken.

At this point its P1 Rosberg, P2 Hamilton, P3 Verstappen.

By Lap 40 we still have a tight grid with small drops of rain. Nasr is yet to pit for the whole race, how is he doing this?

Rosberg loses a little time on turn 1 in Lap 44 giving Hamilton to advantage to catch up, Hamilton is then warned to leave the kerbs alone his suspension is critical!

Sad day for Hulkenburg who did so well in qualifying now has bad vibration and may need to stop he pits and takes his 5 second penalty at the same time on Lap 50. At this point Button is in P6!

This is where it went from a good race to a shocking race!

Lap 54 its Hammertime! Hamilton pits for the second time and manages to get back out in P3 missing the scrap between Raikkonen P5 and Riccardo P4.

Lap 55 and Rosberg pits and gets back out in front of Hamilton.

Raikkonen overtakes Ricciardo finally to get P4 Ricciardo constantly fighting for his place back.

Lap 60 the top three can all be seen close together, Rosberg P1, Verstappen P2, Hamilton P3. Verstappen can’t hold it much longer and on Lap 63 Hamilton takes him.

A few retirements take place, Massa on Lap 65 followed by Alonso and Hulkenburg on Lap 66 have these guys just given up?

3 laps to go and its Mercedes Vs Mercedes – who let this happen!!

LAST LAP! And Hamilton is ready to take Rosberg, Rosberg having none of it tries to block him unfortunately at the same time hitting Hamilton’s car. Hamilton dives off track but manages to get back on and holds it. Rosberg has wing damage it’s actually under his car now and drags his car to the finish in P4. At the same time Perez seems to lose his steering and collides into a barrier. A nasty move by Rosberg cost him points and the podium, Hamilton wins.

Click here for a video showing Rosberg’s mistake

Hamilton P1, Verstappen P2, Raikkonen P3.

There was a strange feeling as the race finished and the drivers parked up. It took a few retakes of the incident to see which Mercedes was to blame for this contact. The fans in Austria obviously haven’t seen the crash to analyse and boo Hamilton on the podium. Toto Wolff obviously furious over the incident calls it brainless as we could have easily seen a DNF for both Mercedes on the last lap.

We have seen this before its very much a Prost VS Senna moment.

Who seriously let this happen?! Keep Rosberg and Hamilton apart if it wasn’t for Vettel’s tyre he would have been sitting there in P2 breaking up this cat fight. Rosberg received a 10 second penalty which didn’t affect his P4 and 2 points on his driving licence; maybe he could take the speed awareness test instead?

Rosberg now only 11 points in front of Hamilton in the Championship. Both Ferraris of Raikkonen and Vettel on 96 points 46 points behind Hamilton.

Next race Silverstone, can Hamilton please his home crowd and take the Championship lead? Can Rosberg learn to play nicely and pipe it down? Only a 1 week gap this could get really interesting!!!!

 

Azerbaijan, Baku host of the European Grand Prix 2016, we haven’t had a European Grand Prix since Valencia, Spain in 2012. A brand new street circuit produced which at first glance looks similar to Monaco tight corners, extremely fast straight with a touch of class. Due to the structure of this circuit it was assumed that a safety car would be used at some point. We were wrong.

With Nico Rosberg still leading the championship by 9 points this was a golden opportunity for Lewis to take the lead. Unfortunately a mistake by Lewis in qualifying forced him to start the race in P10 next to an unforgiving Max Verstappen who throughout the weekend attracted unwanted attention from Bottas. Max being naturally an aggressive driver already had aggro from the pesky Williams of Bottas annoying him throughout the weekend already a seeing red– a Red Bull you may say!

Race commences, and a surprisingly good start for most except a few back markers who had a little bit of contact but nothing bad enough to bring out the safety car. The first corner was a squeeze for all but the drivers impressively got round it with caution and of course speed! Lewis kept it clean even with Max next to him and Perez in the Force India having a great start from P7 to P5.

All cars are close together and it’s tight.

Lap 3 we saw a move by Bottas in P9 taking over Kvyat closely followed by Lewis who overtook the Toro Rosso with ease. Could Kvyat have an issue? Or maybe it’s just the Ferrari of Vettel he likes to do the dirty on?

By Lap 5 we have a 3 car battle! Bottas, Max and Lewis both Lewis and Bottas manage to get passed young Max without any drama – Phew! Bottas now in P7 with Lewis in P8. At this point our leader Rosberg is flying ahead. Vettel in P3 overtakes the Red Bull of Ricciardo in P2 with a strange looking Ferrari it seems a large blue plastic bag has gripped to the front of Vettel’s car, lucky for him this doesn’t cause an issue.

The pit stops then start very early; starting with Max and Alonso in the Mclaren, could these drivers be looking for a 1 stop strategy?

At this point you will notice the amount of plastic on the track? Did somebody unload their Sainsbury’s shopping bags somewhere? Kimi on team radio expressed his dissatisfaction with this.

Kvyat who was losing places retires in the pit with suspension issues this answers our question to whether its just Ferrari’s he likes to fight obviously this issue was affecting him.

Lap 10 shows us some surprises! Pascal Wehrlein in the Manor is P8 and holding it although he hasn’t yet pitted he is showing a strong performance. Perez in the Force India is P3 and Max has dropped to P14.

Kimi unfortunately crosses the line to the pit lane from what we can see it looks like he was following the car in front or maybe it was another plastic bag and lost concentration. This was investigated with an outcome of a 5 second penalty which he can choose to take during a pit stop or be added to his time at the end of the race. Bad day for Kimi.

By Lap 15 the top 5 are yet to pit, Lewis in P5 breaks this by pitting complaining about a vibration, this is not a problem and rectifies itself by Lap 21. Perez and Ricciardo pit shortly afterwards, Perez making a good move by coming out in front of Lewis. Perez now P8. We are still waiting for the top 3 to pit.

Lap 18 brings in Ricciardo stalking Kimi in P4. Ricciardo one of the drivers you wouldn’t want to see in your mirrors! Lewis is the fastest man on track stuck in P9 with potential of being held up.

This track has tight corners similar to the wall of champions in Canada, a small glitch and you are in the wall. We saw Nasr in the Sauber clipping the wall sparks flying luckily with no problem.

Lap 21 and we finally see one of the top 3 Vettel who comes back out in P3, while Max pits for the second time maybe this early pit strategy was a bad idea with the tyres lasting longer than predicted.

Rosberg pits the following lap to come out still in P1 there is no competition out there this weekend for him. At this point Lewis is in P5.

Lap 23 and Pascal Wehrlein has a last warning for cutting the corner on turn 8.

Lap 24 Ricciardo finally pits only to come out in P12 he has a big fight ahead, nothing comes easy for Ricciardo.

Lap 27 and Lewis has a problem, he is in the wrong mode. By Lap 31 he is asking the team to give him some suggestions to what to do unfortunately rules state the team cannot do this.  An angry Lewis states he may just change everything but the team strongly advise against this. What is wrong with his car? Was it set up wrong? Lewis is now robbed of being able to improve on his race.

While Lewis is having a nightmare Kimi is told not to hold up Vettel as he is faster. Kimi then stating he better be faster as he doesn’t want to see him right in front of him.

Lap 32 Sainz in the Toro Rosso retires.

By Lap 36 Rosberg is too far ahead that the only way anybody will catch up with him is by either a jet engine, safety car or if Rosberg makes an error.

A few laps later Kimi is going mad “where the f**k are the blue flags?” being held up back markers something he doesn’t need with a 5 second penalty hanging over him.

Lap 41 we saw Pascal Werlain retire, he has no brakes left but a good performance today from the Manor team.

No idea what happened but Lap 43 Lewis is now the fastest on track. Whatever that issue was seems to have shifted, did he turn it off and on again?

Alonso in Mclaren sadly retires at Lap 44 stuck in 4^th gear.

Lewis starts dropping back again at Lap 46 what is going on!

With 5 laps remaining we have had no safety car, Rosberg is in a league of his own and Force India are showing a strong performance.

Final lap brings Perez to take over Kimi in P3. Perez will be on the podium either way with Kimi’s penalty but this moves makes it solid!

Race winner Rosberg who we have barely seen throughout the race he was untouchable his 5^th win in 2016. As always a gracious winner and with a drive like that well deserved.

Azerbaijan was predicted to give us safety car action and a fight through the field from Lewis but due to car issues this was not possible. The championship now stands with Rosberg 24 points in front of Lewis with Vettel quietly sneaking up 21 points behind Lewis.

Austria next Rosberg won here last year, could we see another epic win from the Mercedes driver? We still have plenty of races left this year Mercedes still as dominant as ever but the Ferrari’s are showing improvement.

 

 

 

A review of the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix.

Canada considered possibly one of the best tracks out there, with a surprisingly long history, the wall of champions and the unpredictable weather (who can forget 2011*)!

With Hamilton still recovering from a poor start to the season and his first win only in Monaco two weeks before it was tough to judge who would actually win. It seems in this day and age pole position means very little especially when you have the likes of Risky Rosberg who like Hamilton is a true racer who would take any chance to win; Hamilton’s 2015 dominance has not been seen this year so far.

Let’s not forget Hamilton has won here 4 times already.

The front of the starting Grid consisted of Hamilton in pole, followed closely by Rosberg third held by Vettel and Ricciardo in 4th. You could see the sheer determination of Hamilton on the grid who had already slightly pointed his car towards Rosberg looking to immediately alpha him out. Lights out and a shocker of a start Vettel faster than the speed of light over took both Mercedes leaving them to fight for 2nd leading to Rosberg being forced off the track and fall back down to 8th. Deemed as a racing incident no action by the stewards was taken but I would have loved to see Toto’s initial response.

The race was on Vettel looking to create a huge gap between Hamilton and himself until a little mishap between Vettel and couple of Seagulls and yes this is true it was then Hamilton who had the opportunity to make the time up.

Sad times for Alonso a previous world champion and one of the best drivers out there was caught holding up a pack of angry drivers at lap 9 and button retiring on lap 11. Alonso near completion of the race then querying why they were even pushing at P11 just for one point!! It’s a sad state of affairs for Mclaren these days who have brilliant drivers but just can’t sort out their speed and reliability. No doubt they will rise again someday – I hope.

Prior to race start words of wisdom arose from David Coulthard who stated there will be a safety car in this race, well he was right due to buttons car stranded on the side of the track VSC came out. Ferrari perceived this as a good time for Vettel to take a pit stop could this strategic move be the winning one?

It is possible for a one stop or two stop strategy on this track the Ultra Soft tyres were working a dream for majority of drivers at the start bear in mind that all drivers must use Soft tyres at some point in this race.
This Pit stop lead Vettel to having an attack of the red bulls it was game one, fresh tyres gave him that extra speed and grip.

Lap 21 we sadly saw a retirement from Jolyon Palmer no drama involved.

Lap 25 commenced with the only pit stop to be taken by Hamilton, bringing him back out to 2nd behind Vettel. With Vettel taking an early pit stop could he hold out for the whole race?

At this part of the race you could clearly see Rosberg putting pressure on everybody in front of him, he shouldn’t have been amidst middle markers it looked like this was not to be Rosberg’s day.

Lap 34 involved the 2nd pit stop for Kimi’s Ferrari being rather quiet this race and not making a huge impact pitted first. Vettel in Lap 37 obviously losing time and coming out behind Hamilton. This 2 stop strategy was not going to work for them. Only a Safety car would have brought them back together to fight it out with the speed of Ferrari’s it would have hard to determine who would have won on a head to head battle, unfortunately we were not treated to this in Canada.

Sad times for Williams when Massa retired for the first time this year on lap 52, first retirement this year. Lets not forget this man nearly became World Champion in 2008 he should not be underestimated.

Rosberg’s day became worse when he had a slow puncture running up to lap 51 managing to getting to 4th unfortunately this dropped him back to 7th although this was not stopping him and you would clearly see he fought all the way through the race. Personally I would give him driver of the day. By lap 64 he was giving Mad Max in 4th a run for his money pushing constant pressure on the teenager but unfortunately Rosberg made an error with a only a couple of laps to go losing time and leaving Max to drive without a Mercedes constantly in his mirror. Poor Rosberg, lucky Max.

Hamilton floated to the finish line, quoting the late Muhammed Ali “float like a butterfly, sting like bee” a thoughtful and considerate dedication.

Now 9 points behind Championship leader Rosberg can Hamilton take the lead in Baku! Lets not forget Vettel and Ricciardo are still able to grab the title too. The Ferrari’s and Red Bulls are getting stronger. With 13 races to go anything could happen!

*I would not encourage anybody to try and watch the full coverage of the 2011 Canadian GP, maybe catch the highlights on YouTube if possible – let’s just say I ate all the contents of my fridge waiting for the race to get going.