Vettel Strikes Back
As I mentioned before, this was a performance befitting
Vettel’s 2011 season. He controlled the race perfectly from the outset. There
was only a couple of laps he wasn’t in front and that is impressive,
considering the complaints Red bull have been lobbying all season so far about
tyres. To add to the dominance, Mark Webber, Vettel’s teammate took the fastest
lap with a damaged front wing.
It has to be said, Vettel would have had it if he hadn’t
been told to calm down. We know that the German likes his stats and at the end
he was going purple but was told over the radio to let it go. This time, he
listened to the team.
Back to ‘Real Racing’
So, there were much fewer complaints overall about the tyres
this race. There were fewer pit stops and much less in the way of close racing.
We still had some, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso’s battle being one
example, but there was a lot more procession to this race than others so far –
with the exception of Monaco. Is this the type of racing we want every time? For
me, I’d like a bit more mixing up of the field and more battles but the drivers
were flat out racing this time and that’s good for them too.
Force India Continue
Good Form
My stand out team of the season so far has to be Force
India. They have done a great job so far, achieving some good results – even on
top of some poor decisions and qualifying results. I was surprised at the
decision to bring back Adrian Sutil but he has done remarkably well – where was
this Sutil last time? – And Paul Di Resta is going from strength to strength. I
wouldn’t put it past a top team to pick this driver very soon. At 26 years old,
he still has plenty more to show and I can see a world champion in him (Honest,
I’m not biased about him being a Scot…much!).
At the same time, Toro Rosso are also doing well! Hopefully
in another year or two, these teams will close the gap even further to the big
four and be competing for the race wins!
The Mercedes Hearing
We have a date for this hearing – 20th June. We
can hope to have a result before the following weekend for the British grand
Prix but I’m not sure we will. Since this is the first hearing with this body,
they will want to get everything right first time and that takes time. It would
be nice to get a verdict and put this behind us as soon as possible, regardless
of where you stand on the situation.
Sombre News
I think it’s really important to mention this. A crash or
accident at any time is worrying, and in a sport where there are so many
dangers, you always hope that drivers and support staff are alright. Safety has
come a long way over the last 20 or so years but this weekend we had an
accident that few people could have predicted.
A marshal was run over by a crane lifting Gutierrez’s car.
Reports have said that the man stopped to pick up his radio and the crane
driver couldn’t see him and ran him over. Support staff did their best and
quickly transported the man to hospital where he later died. It’s a tragic
accident and it takes a lot of the shine off the whole weekend.
Drivers and teams have paid tributes to the man and I would
hope anyone reading this does the same for the man’s friends and family.
Without marshal’s at every event, most sporting events couldn’t take place and
it is a dangerous job at the best of times that many people seem to forget
about. Rest in Peace.
Summary
I haven’t mentioned Ferrari or Mercedes much today. They
didn’t stand out much to me, other than Hamilton and Alonso’s battle for
second. Ferrari really need to sort their qualifying pace out if they want to
challenge Vettel for the championship, and Mercedes still need to work on rear
tyre usage. It seems their tyre test didn’t help much.
Jean Eric Vergne had a fantastic qualifying and race result
and force India’s Di Rest managed over 55 laps on one set of tyres, with
competitive lap times for most of that stint which is very impressive. These
two have been my stand out drivers of the race – and probably the season so far.
Onwards, to Silverstone!
Results
1 – S. Vettel (Red Bull)
2 – F. Alonso (Ferrari)
3 – L. Hamilton (Mercedes)
4 – M. Webber (Red Bull)
5 – N. Rosberg (Mercedes)
6 – J. E. Vergne (Toro Rosso)
7 – P. Di Resta (Force India)
8 – F. Massa (Ferrari)
9 – K. Raikkonen (Lotus)
10 – A. Sutil (Force India)
11 – S. Perez (McLaren)
12 – J. Benson (McLaren)
13 – R. Grosjean (Lotus)
14 – V. Bottas (Williams)
15 – D. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
16 – P. Maldonado (Williams)
17 – J. Bianchi (Marussia)
18 – C. Pic (Caterham)
19 – M. Chilton (Marussia)
20 – E. Gutierrez (Sauber)
21 – N. Hulkenberg (Sauber)
22 – G. van der Garde (Caterham)