Stupid mistake at the start again by Rosberg, then an excellent drive to second but so lucky his primes lasted so unbelievably well. I was hoping he'd make 4th to get Jenson on the podium. Otherwise, not very exciting.
Disappointing the tyres were so bulletproof really, Button (and Mclaren) deserved a podium this weekend for the step they've made in the right direction. If Rosberg had made that mistake at any other race this season he'd never have gotten away with it as he did.
He deserves 1 last podium this season after not stepping on it in Australia and for the memory of his dad.
It was alright at the start, but became absolutely abysmal very quickly. Have yet to see the fuel thing really kick-in... I'm starting to suspect the FIA force the teams to say stuff like that over the radio to liven up proceedings. Has anybody actually ever come close to running out?!
Rosberg can count himself very lucky there was no tyre deg on this circuit.. Still a good recovery drive using the advantage the Merc has.
Good recovery drive from Rosberg but he deserved to be punished a hell of a lot more for that mistake, that was unbelievably stupid. Race was tedious, livened up mainly by the "apolitical" FOM race director showing no less than three shots of Ecclestone and Putin all chummy together.
I'm sure there was someone a while back who had to dramatically slow down on the last lap to make sure they made the line, but no retirements. I'm not going to pass judgement on the circuit until it's been ran with the same tyre degradation we'd expect at any other race this season. The long run to the first braking zone was good, and there was some decent racing early on before everyone got spaced out. The tyres meant there was very little bunching though, which stopped any later excitement. I think Pirelli need to bring the softs and super softs next year, being able to do half the race or more on the options is daft.
Pirelli are damned if they do and damned if they don't. I don't think anybody would have been able to calculate the tyre behaviour on a new track, but with hindsight they were obviously too conservative.
As DHC suggested, they'll probably bring softer compounds next year to make sure drivers can't do an entire race on one set.
Rosberg does seem to get a good start on cold tyres and maybe that's his only hope ih getting past Hamilton, but he's now made a hash of it twice and is beginning to look desperate. I agree he should have lost more in the process. I fully expected him to finish below 5th but he was saved by the smooth tarmac and a fast car. I'm sure Toto will be having words with him right now.
Another point of discussing...how did they give Grosjean a penalty and taken points off his license and they didn't penalise Rosberg when he deliberately had the collision with Hamilton to make a point. I think Rosberg's was more straightforward for a penalty than Grosjean. Grosjean's was a racing incident at the most. I don't think they are even handed with these penalties. They said that Grosjean didn't give the other driver enough room...that was bull.rosberg's infraction was much more clear than that of Grosjean. What was amazing though there was no real accidents and no safety car as most of the commentators were predicting before the race.
Yes..seriously. The penalties on Grosjean was totally stupid...it was nowhere near as bag as Rosberg on hamilton a few races ago that ended Hamilton's race... Grosjean also didn't ruin any race for anybody. To make it worse Rosberg said he chose to cause the collision to prove a point. Is that allowed in racing? If Rosberg's was a racing incident then surely Grosjean's must be also. You can't have one set of rules for one driver and another set for others. But to give penalty points on his license is a bit ridiculous.
Do you read yours? Almost every forum I went to says the same about the Grosjean racing incident. So what... I can't comment on that too? Sorry if you are offended by my comments.
Bizarrely this has almost worked as positive PR for them. It kinda shows that Pirelli designed-tyres are a significant contribution to the current quality of racing we're seeing. Think how dull this season would have been with Bridgestones!
