Well, a fascinating race with some great battles. Pirelli pretty much got this one right by managing to stay out of the limelight â at last! Great performance from Lotus. Also, I'd like to applaud Grosjean. We've always known he's quick but this was one of his best ever drives, especially since it comes straight after another 'question of spacial awareness moment'. He is one of the nicest, most unassuming guys in F1, and I really hope he continues to work to his strengths. In terms of addressing weaknesses, his simplest tactic is to select one side or the other into the first turn â and stick to it! This should reduce the chance of compromising himself somewhere down the middle⦠Whilst I believe Red Bull have, in my view, got the best car all round, the margins over others are relatively small. Either way, this takes nothing away from Vettel who did a great job to win his home Grand Prix at last. He kept out of trouble and is The Master when it comes to Safety Car restarts, as well as the more ordinary versions from the line. He didn't put a foot wrong. Ultimately, he's my 'driver of the day'. Webber also did a super job, with a start every bit as good as Vettel's; but of course his race will be remembered for the horrifying pit-lane incident which could so easily have been the only thing we are talking about. If that wheel had hit the camera-man just a tiny bit higher, he'd probably have been killed instantly. Hopefully the poor chap â injured through no fault of his own â makes a quick and full recovery; but it does bring up the question of helmets for every person with a role on that side of the pit-lane, although how a camera might be adapted to cope with this idea is beyond me⦠Rosberg's side of the garage made a big error in believing his first run in the second part of qualifying was good enough for Q3. Bad move. It's easy to say in hindsight but I really believed at the time that with temperature's going up on an evolving track, it was a dangerous game to play. I must stop myself now before trying to sum up every detail. There is one other point to make though, which I believe is why people enjoy the spectacle of F1⦠Despite changes forcing all teams to run higher tyre pressures, sensible camber-angles, and all the controversy in the aftermath of Pirelli's test, Mercedes were once again 'tyre hungry' â especially in the hands of Hamilton. But oddly enough, this produced some very high quality racing. His tyres were well past their sell-by date when Alonso closed up, and one sensed an easy overtake for the Ferrari*. Instead, we were treated to an immense display from Hamilton, which illustrated the full defensive skill-set, as if from a text book. It was a superb bit of driving from them both; but how Hamilton managed to keep Alonso behind for so long was little short of amazing. It was, without doubt in my mind, the best bit of defending for years.- - -o0o- - - *Is anyone criticising DRS this weekend? No? I didn't think so. The Alonso/Hamilton battle (and latterly, what I believe was the best overtake amongst many good examples: Hamilton/Button) suggests they got it absolutely right!
Loved the Alonso-Hamilton battle and Kimi's overtake at the chicane. Really enjoyed the race I think that it was the right mix between tyre strategy and hard racing.
didn't realise this but on a day safety went wrong it also went right. check this out! http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-ne...=feeds&utm_source=feed-all&utm_campaign=feeds
More stories like this should be published to show how lives have been saved and injuries reduced THANKS to all the safety measures in place.
Interesting story, although Gary Hartstein on twitter seems to suggest that the Zylon strip was largely irrelevant in this and the standard helmet would have been up to the job. He's more of the opinion that the strip was added as somewhere else to put a sponsor, even if it does bring marginal safety gains. He's also been putting the boot in to the medical team leader who he seems to have a vendetta against, saying that the pitlane ban for media is reactionist, and not a data-driven step, which is the way the medical team used to (and should) be run.
I'm inclined to say Gary Hartstein is rather partial, given the circumstances of his departure from FOM.
True, although he's not the only one to pick up on the reactionist response from the FIA, Will Buxton points out that the FIA have really only brought forward regulations that were meant for 2014, and re-emphasised pre-existing rules (nobody is supposed to be allowed in the pitlane anyway). They've also completely failed to deal with the issue of the tyre getting loose. He also concludes by pointing out that the FIA have issued two recent press released, both safety related, and both lauding the contribution of a usually quiet president who happens to be seeking re-election. Hmmm. The comments also highlight how stupid this is, surely with the traffic lights used in place of a lollypop man, it should be possible to wire sensors into that system that don't release the driver unless all 4 wheels are detected as being attached correctly. That would be a far more meaningful rule change, rather than the route taken which seems to just make a show or acting, when not changing anything.
