Wow, what a weekend in Cataluyna!
After Hamilton had asserted his power over Rosberg in qualifying, those two continue to add more and more spice to the Championship. This is exactly what we want and I do not think that Rosberg always gets the credit he deserves due to Hamilton’s skill and achievements. Rosberg has pushed Lewis all the way and this season is making a real challenge. It is clear without such a strong teammate that Lewis would run away with the championship and most probably be bored doing so. We want to see these two guys butting up against each other and on Sunday they certainly did not disappoint!
After a good start from both of the Mercedes, Rosberg got a good drag from Hamilton and over took him on the outside of the first corner. Coming out of the 3rd corner Rosberg had the wrong setting and was down on power, Hamilton traveling much faster saw the gap and went for it. Rosberg allowed one movement of defence took that opportunity and shut the door. Lewis had nowhere to go other than the grass and stood little chance of controlling the car, he lost control and skidded into the back of Rosberg pushing them both into the gravel and out of the race.
The cardinal sin of an F1 team your two drivers taking each other out of the race, but lets face it, it has happened many times over the years and will continue to do so. If you have two exceptional racers in your team and you allow them to race then it will happen as neither will want to yield. Nor do we want them to. F1 has often been called boring in recent years with Red Bull and now Mercedes dominating. Hamilton and Rosberg trading punches is exactly what the sport needs and if we can add a few others what a season it will be!
Many continue to ask who’s fault the crash was, in truth both of their egos and desire to win were, Nico made a mistake with his settings, Hamilton made a dive for a gap that realistically you should expect to be defended and then had nowhere to go. Don’t get me wrong here though, Lewis was right to try and take advantage of Nico’s slower pace, but Nico is equally allowed to defend it. By the time Lewis had part of his car alongside, Nico’s car was already moving across and at that time contact was inevitable. I think it says a lot about Rosberg’s mentality this season, previous years he has been pressured by Hamilton to back off, but this year he seems to be stronger mentally, doesn’t see himself as a number two and is being stronger.
Lets embrace the battle and praise Mercedes for letting them race!
With both Mercedes out of the race on the first lap we were in for an interesting if unknown weekend where someone else could take advantage. Daniel Ricciardo led the restart and took a commanding lead with Max Verstappen in 2nd place followed by Carlos Sainz and the Ferrari’s
On a weekend where Verstappen’s first race for Red Bull at just 18 years old has taken all the limelight, I would like to mention Carlos Sainz another young driver with racing pedigree and Verstappen’s former teammate at Toro Rosso. Sainz after qualifying in 8th place was up to 3rd and out in front of the fancied Ferrari’s. It was only matter of time, but again he showed that the young drivers have qualms in going toe to toe with the more experienced counterparts. Sainz was coming under increasing pressure from Raikkonen and strongly defended his place retaking the position coming out of the corner, the following lap Raikkonen made it stick. It shows these young kids are the real deal and given the right car they can really challenge.
Despite Verstappen being in 2nd place nobody believed he could actually go on and win it. The commentators were all talking about Ricciardo or Vettel as winners, as were both Red Bull and Ferrari. Yet Ferrari inadvertently pushed Red Bull’s main focus onto Verstappen with their 1st pit undercutting Ricciardo. They changed Vertsappen from a 3 stop to a 2 stop in order to offer greater tactical maneuverability. Ferarri did the same believing that Verstappen’s tyres would start to fade; yet also putting Raikkonen on a two stop to cover him.
Ricciardo needed to pass 2 Ferrari’s and his teammate for the win. Thinking this would be possible with new tyres. He certainly had a good go at it, on lap 59 he over took Vettel on late breaking into the turn, but couldn’t make it stick on the way out and Vettel took the place back. This rattled Vettel complaining on the radio “”If I don’t avoid him he goes straight into my car, what are we doing, racing or ping-pong?”General consensus from everyone else was “that’s Racing” Has Vettel maybe lost some of the fight having had it so easy at the front year after year for Red Bull?
Ricciardo, kept trying to find a way past, but unfortunately a puncture a lap before the end of the race he had a rear puncture and had to settle for 4th place.
Ricciardo was less than impressed after the race saying:
“Apparently he said I was a bit aggressive on the radio. Typical,”
“Unlike 99 per cent of the drivers on the grid I actually tried to make an overtake.
“A lot of them are content sitting behind and not actually having a crack.
“I tried a few times but it didn’t work. But I wasn’t content sitting in fourth.
“Knowing we were catching the cars in front and Seb was in our way for a podium and a potential win of course I was going to try – I gave it a go.”
Ricciardo was a little bitter with the strategy of 3 stops:
“We were leading and then it was there for us. The race was in our hands,”
“We went to a three-stop strategy, and we did it too late as well. Seb had already jumped us.
“We know we’re down on speed and it’s a hard track to pass on. It just didn’t make sense.
“I thought at the time when we did it it’s because everybody else was going to, but they didn’t.”
Once in front Verstappen controlled the race and controlled his tyre wear. Utilising the clean air in front he could control his speed and tyre wear according to the challenge from Raikkonen. Verstappen saw that Raikkonen would attack into turn 1 utilising the slipstream, DRS and full power. Verstappen defended this corner then was able to save his tyres during the following lap as the Ferrari would use a whole lap to recharge its batteries.
Quite incredible race strategy and calm thinking from an 18 year old in his first race for Red Bull. Particularly as he has made a name for himself with edge of the seat overtaking, looking more like a charging speedster than a professor. There is no doubt this will not be the last time Max Verstappen is on the top step of the podium.
On Sunday he became the youngest F1 winner in history. “To win in the first race is such an amazing feeling,” Verstappen said. “My dad helped me a lot to achieve this, this is amazing.”
It was of course his first race for Red Ball having been promoted from Toro Rosso to replace Daniel Kvyat just last Wednesday. His first drive in the car was on Friday. Many thought the change was due to Kvyat having a number of crashes and people questioning his decision making in races, yet this really made the perfect excuse for Red Bull to promote the hottest talent in F1 arguably since Michael Schumacher. Many teams have been sniffing around Verstappen and without a higher profile drive it would have been plausible they would have lost him to another team at the end of the season. Now with Red Bull’s engine upgrades to come, we could see a real battle upfront to give the Mercedes boys even more to think about.
Looking past the brilliant Verstappen, my driver of the day would go To Carlos Sainz another son of a famous driver and former teammate of Verstappen at Toro Rosso, Martin Brundle feels his speed and performances were similar to Verstappen when they were together. A fantastic 6th place finish on Sunday in his home Grand Prix, will Red Bull be able to keep hold of yet another protégé of their young driver programme next year?
