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MAJORPR3D4TOR

MAJOR PR3D4TOR
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Rosberg Avenges Austin Loss With Victory in São Paulo:

With less than a week’s turnaround from the grand prix in Austin last week, Formula One travelled down south the friendly and ever passionate nation of Brazil and the city of São Paulo for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG) after having won the race in Austin, Texas found himself with a 24 point lead over his championship rival and teammate Nico Rosberg. For Rosberg, a victory was now vital here at the Interlagos circuit in order to keep some realistic hope for the championship.

And Rosberg responded to this call of duty, as he dominated the entire weekend from Friday to Sunday. However it was not all that easy, as Hamilton did take the fight to him during the 71 lap race.

The Interlagos circuit had recently undergone a resurfacing of the track, which meant the new tarmac would provide more grip. Pirelli were forced to revise their initial tyre choices of the hard and medium compounds to the medium and soft sets after there were calls over the safety of having harder tyres.

What that gave the drivers instead was a group of tyres which did not last very long. The medium tyre was the preferred race tyre, but as seen during the race, as many as three stops were taken by the drivers to ensure a competitive strategy.

As mentioned earlier, Rosberg started his weekend long domination from the practice sessions, where he was fastest all the way through. During qualifying, only a margin of 0.033 seconds separated Hamilton from Rosberg who picked up his tenth pole position of the season.

Behind the Silver Arrows typically were the Williams cars led by local hero Felipe Massa. Jenson Button (McLaren) turned things around for qualifying after his team were nowhere during the early stages of the weekend to start fifth on the grid, whilst Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull could only manage a ninth fastest time.

From pole position, Rosberg led Hamilton right through the first two rounds of pit stops. In behind them, Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) out of sixth position suffered a poor start which saw him concede a spot to Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) who started behind him.

Come the time of the first round of stops, it was Massa who started the concertina of the front runners to get their service done. At this time both the Williams’ were competing with Button on track for that third spot on the podium. Unfortunately for Massa, he was found to be speeding in the pit-lane and had to serve a 5 second stop/go penalty during his next stop.

During Massa’s next stop in which he had to serve the penalty, the stop went for longer than usual which meant he lost more time than was expected. However this didn’t mean that Button was able to pass. Meanwhile Valtteri Bottas in the other Williams was having his own pit stop dramas with the team having to readjust his seatbelt during his second stop. Unlike Massa, this was a huge disadvantage to the Finn who dropped back and was put almost out of touch with the top ten.

Massa’s third pit-lane faux pas came when arrived into the McLaren pit box rather than the Williams one. Still this didn’t mean he lost time to exit behind the McLaren of Button.

After the second round of stops, Hamilton started to close in at front to Rosberg. However he was limited in using his ‘hammer time’ for only one lap as the tyres would drop away very quickly. Hamilton also suffered a spin going into Turn 4 which undid the work he had done in that stint. Once both leaders had pitted for a third time, the 2008 world champion had a deficit of 7.4 seconds to chew away at.

Ricciardo on lap 39 had to retire his car for only the second time this after the suspension failed on his Red Bull. This ended a streak of fifteen straight points finishes for the Australian driver in 2014, but despite scoring no points on this occasion he sealed out third position in the drivers’ world championship.

Towards the latter part of the race, Alonso set about dueling with Button as they did in Austin a week earlier. The current McLaren driver had the pace over the two-time world champion on this occasion and that would seal the Briton fourth place in the race behind the Williams of Massa. After the battle with Button, Alonso fell into an intense encounter with his teammate Kimi Räikkönen, which is something no one’s seen all year.  

Whilst both drivers were on alternate strategies and Alonso had the younger tyres, the Finn would not yield sixth to his teammate that easily. It was expected (as per tradition) that Ferrari would order Räikkönen to move aside for Alonso to pass, however no such call was made and the Spaniard had to make the move on his own, which he eventually did.

Rosberg cruised home to win his fifth race of the season and described how this makes for the race lost in Austin, in which he also started from pole position. With Hamilton finishing second, it meant that distance between the pair points wise is only 17 now. Massa rounded out the podium places with his third place finish, despite the pit stop calamities throughout the race. The Brazilian in front of his home crowd notched his second podium of the season, with the first coming at Monza earlier on.

Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), Magnussen and Bottas rounded out the top ten, whilst Romain Grosjean (Lotus) had to retire from the race due to a power-unit related issue. There were only two retirements from this race, including Ricciardo.

So to conclude then, in terms of the championship; if Rosberg wins the race in Abu Dhabi then Hamilton only needs to finish in second to clinch his second title. The double points being used as a one-off for the season finale will be applied to all the points paying positions, which could still impact a few constructors’ championship battles too.

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'Jedi-like' Hamilton Wins in Austin: 

After a short hiatus, the 2014 Formula One season will enter its final phase, first with a back-to-back trip across the Americas. This weekend will see the third running of the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas; a venue highly popular amongst fans and drivers.

Whilst in the build up to the race, the headlines were dominated by news of the exodus of the Caterham and Marussia F1 Teams temporarily, there was still a drivers’ world championship that is being contested.

For the first time since 2005, there were only 18 cars on the grid for the 56 lap race. In 2005 of course, the grid was brought down to 18 for two races as the BAR Honda squad were banned for over a fuel tank irregularity.

As expected, the weekend was readily dominated by the Mercedes AMG cars and in particular Lewis Hamilton who looked untouchable during the practice sessions. Nico Rosberg turned up his performance metre during qualifying, where a series of lock ups saw Hamilton concede pole position to his teammate.

One of the big surprises in qualifying was Adrian Sutil (Sauber) who got into the top ten for the first time this season for his team. The German qualified tenth overall, however was promoted to ninth on the starting grid after Jenson Button (McLaren) received a five place grid penalty which put him back into twelfth.

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) was forced to start from the pit lane after his team had to take on a sixth power-unit which enforces an automatic grid penalty. However because the four-time world champion also changed his gearbox, the team ended up having him start from the pit lane.

Rosberg made a clean start as did Hamilton who intended to cover off the Williams of Valtteri Bottas who started from third on the grid. Bottas instead went backwards and was behind his teammate Felipe Massa who was on the second row next to him. Daniel Ricciardo out of grid slot five also had a tardy start, allowing Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) through.

It was not long before a safety car was deployed, on the first lap. Sergio Perez (Force India) looked to make a move on Sutil however rather than progress, the Mexican ended up running into the Sauber which took Sutil out of the race and eventually a lap later put Perez out too.

During the early safety car period, a few driving including the McLarens and Vettel had opted to pit and put on the medium compound tyres hoping to run quite deep into the race. Vettel after starting from the pit lane had not made a great deal of progress and after this first stop he was back at the rear of the field.

Ricciardo reacted to the re-start better than he had the initial start and this time had made his way back past Alonso and Magnussen, and begun his pursuit of the Williams cars. Meanwhile on lap 16, Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India had to pull over and retire with a suspected power-unit failure.

After the first round of stops for the leaders, Hamilton made the crucial overtaking manoeuvre on Rosberg for the lead. Since then, Rosberg was unable to retake the lead for the rest of the race. Behind them, Ricciardo had pitted a lap early to gain the undercut on Bottas, which worked out for the Aussie but as a bonus a botched stop for Massa meant he could take third position.

Towards the bottom end of the top ten, there were some interesting battles going on. Both Lotus cars were looking strong for points paying finishes, but they were not the only ones who were staking a claim. Both McLarens, Ferraris, Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso and Vettel were all in this battle for effectively seventh to tenth. Before that there was a very heated but respectful exchange between Button and Alonso, which eventually the latter prevailed.

Romain Grosjean in his Lotus was though caught in a few close encounters, including a ‘French kiss’ from his compatriot Vergne going into Turn 1. Grosjean was forced way wide and had a piece of his front nose taken off as a result. Vergne was after the race penalised five seconds off his time and ended up in tenth, behind Pastor Maldonado was also penalised five seconds for speeding in the pit lane.

Grosjean unluckily missed out on a berth inside the top ten as did Button and Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) who had another lacklustre performance.  Magnussen got his tyres to last in the final stint, gifting him eighth in the end and some handy points to continue his team’s lead over the double-retired Force India team in the constructors’ championship.

Vettel made the best of what he had to finish seventh after his pit lane start. In the end the outgoing Red Bull driver finished half a second behind the driver he potentially may replace at Ferrari; Alonso.

Williams too missed out on the day, with that pit stop problem for Massa in the first stop being the end of the beginning for his race and then for Bottas it was the undercut that Ricciardo got that saw him lose out. However the fourth and fifth positions did give them more handy points to extend their gap from Ferrari as being third in the constructors’ championship.

Out the front then, it was Hamilton who achieved a fifth consecutive race victory. The 32st win of his career meant that he is now the most successful British driver in Formula One in terms of race wins. His lead in the championship has also increased to 24 points over Rosberg who again finished second after starting on the pole.

Ricciardo’s recovered well after his start to finish third however that result means that he is now mathematically out of the championship running. Nevertheless the Aussie’s tenth podium of the season only further consolidated the breakout debut year he’s had with Red Bull.

With two races remaining in the championship with a maximum of 75 points on offer, Hamilton supposedly has one hand already on the crown. However Interlagos has always thrown out many-a-surprise including that race which won Hamilton his maiden championship in 2008. Could Rosberg claw back those points in Brazil? Or will Hamilton continue his ‘Jedi-like’ performances through to the conclusion in Abu Dhabi.    

#ForzaJules

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Hamilton Hits Cloud Nine as Mercedes AMG Clinch Constructors' Title:

After the horrific events that took place at the Japanese Grand Prix a week earlier, there was still a sombre mood over the Formula One community as they entered Russia for the first time to inaugurate the Sochi Aerodrom and the Russian Grand Prix.

Whilst Marussia driver Jules Bianchi remains in a ‘critical but stable’ condition in a Japanese hospital, the thoughts of all the drivers and teams were with the Frenchman. As a sign of respect, his Marussia team elected to only run one car for the weekend which belonged to their full-time driver Max Chilton.

In terms of the championship, Lewis Hamilton came into the Russian Grand Prix with a lead of 10 points over his Mercedes AMG teammate Nico Rosberg. The Briton would in pursuit of a fourth consecutive victory whilst Rosberg would look to taking points back.

The prospect of a new circuit is one that pleases all drivers and with the ‘green’ nature of the circuit, there was far more grip than expected. Pirelli had opted to bring the soft and medium compound tyres to the first ever Formula One event at this circuit, which by the end of the first day of running was agreed was too conservative.

Nevertheless, the two Silver Arrows opened their account in Russia by being fastest on the first day of practice. Rosberg was initially faster in the morning session, but by the afternoon his teammate was clearly ahead. McLaren too were very quick on the first day, with both Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen initially matching the race pace of the Williams and Mercedes AMGs.

The strugglers throughout the weekend were Red Bull Racing, who ominously are headed towards penalties in the last three races for using extra power-unit elements. Daniel Ricciardo on Friday had to stop his car on track with power-unit related issues. On the other side of the garage, Sebastian Vettel also seemed to struggle.

Come qualifying time and the two Mercedes AMGs exercised their great speed as they were in pursuit of clinching their first constructors’ championship as a team. Hamilton was easily faster than Rosberg on the day and claimed his seventh pole of the season. It was a bittersweet affair at Williams however, with Felipe Massa being knocked out in Q1 and Valtteri Bottas on a lap for pole in the dying stages of Q3, but only just losing the rear of the car at the final corner. The Finn qualified third.

Daniil Kvyat at his first home grand prix too was on song during qualifying, by qualifying a career best fifth fastest in the session. Both McLarens too were inside the top six, with Button in fourth and Magnussen sixth. However the Dane along with Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Max Chilton (Marussia) would take five place grid penalties for unscheduled gearbox changes.

The Ferrari’s qualified eighth and ninth with Fernando Alonso ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, whilst Vettel failed to make it into the top ten and was only eleventh fastest.

A minute’s silence on the grid was held by all the drivers and dignitaries in respect of the injured Bianchi before the race got underway. FOM also superimposed a touching message to the Frenchman onto the track in their television feed being broadcast worldwide.

The 53 lap race began with Rosberg immediately trying to make a move on Hamilton. They were wheel to wheel around the flowing bend that is Turn 1, until Rosberg carried too much speed into Turn 2 and ended up locking his brakes and flat-spotting his tyres. The German reported heavy vibrations to the car as a result and therefore at the end of the lap had to pit for fresh rubber.

With his chief rival now at the back of the field, the 2008 world champion could cruise away into the distance, with Bottas and Button behind not having the same race pace as the W05 Hybrid. Both Toro Rosso’s found themselves in a squabble with the two Red Bull cars too, with the junior team conceding positions to Ricciardo and Vettel as they encountered problems with fuel saving.

Fuel saving was a problem that hit Vettel too, with his engineer Rocky telling him to ‘respect the beeps’ and shift gear when he is prescribed too.

Rather strangely, Caterham had retired Kamui Kobayashi’s car on lap 21. The Japanese driver was not given any specific reason for the retirement, however after the race the team stated that it was due to the brakes overheating. That was after Kobayashi met with the press following his retirement.

Max Chilton was the only other retiree of the race, with the sole running Marussia forced to park up in the garage on lap 9.

Tyre strategy was fairly basic this weekend, with a simple one stop being laid out for everyone. With the medium tyres having such a long life on this circuit, it was clear that the entire race distance could be done on a singular set of medium tyres. This was what essentially Rosberg proved going from lap 2 to 53 on one set of tyres.

After losing all those places with that very early stop, Rosberg weaved his way through the field to eventually slot back into second place. By that time Hamilton had enough of a margin to sustain the race lead without threat. Towards the last few laps of the race, Bottas began to increase his pace and set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap, but didn’t make it further than third.

Hamilton cruised home for his ninth victory of the season and that in turn extended his championship lead to 17 points and sealed the constructors’ championship for Mercedes AMG. Rosberg recovered in the end to finish where he started and apologised to the team for his rash overtaking manoeuvre whilst Bottas finished where he started in third.

It was a good day for Mercedes-Benz all round, with the top five finishers all running the Silver Arrows power-plants in their cars. Button and Magnussen in the McLarens had rounded out the top five, with a team best result since the first race of the season in Australia.

Alonso beat both Red Bulls to the finish in sixth and Räikkönen was ninth. Sergio Perez’s solitary point meant that Force India had now lost fifth in the constructors’ standings to McLaren again. Kvyat was unfortunate to finish fourteenth in his home race, behind Jean-Eric Vergne his teammate.

17 points is now the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg. There are three races to go now, with a maximum of 100 points on the table. With the constructors’ championship now done and dusted for Mercedes AMG, will there be more attrition from both drivers? The answer will be clear next time in Austin, Texas.          

 

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Chaotic Grand Prix Sees Hamilton Win Three in Row:

The legendary Suzuka circuit played host to the fifteenth round of the 2014 Formula One world championship. The Japanese Grand Prix at this particular venue has seen some spectacular races over the years and some that have indeed been championship defining races.

The two incidents involving arch rivals Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in 1989 and 1990 immediately spring to mind. Kimi Räikkönen’s epic drive from seventeenth on the grid to a race victory in 2005 is another example of how rich Suzuka’s history is in Formula One.

Even before the race weekend begun, a severe typhoon warning was issued by the local weather bureau which was set to hit on Sunday. Up until the race, the weather was dry and there were clear blue skies for the drivers to familiarise themselves with the circuit in their new cars.

As expected, Mercedes AMG were the team to beat. In qualifying they both locked out the front-row with Nico Rosberg claiming pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton. In the third and final practice session, Hamilton crashed his Mercedes whilst going into the first corner; however the team miraculously turned the car around and got it ready for qualifying. A lock up on his final flying lap meant that the Briton’s lap was compromised, allowing his teammate to take pole.

Behind them both the Williams cars lead by Valtteri Bottas lined up on the second row of the grid. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) were on the third row, whilst Ricciardo’s teammate Sebastian Vettel for the first time in his career started outside the top two positions at Suzuka.

Whilst the typhoon wasn’t set to directly hit the race on Sunday, its presence in the vicinity had caused a downpour of torrential rain. There were calls from the FIA to the race event promoters to push the start of the race back to 11am local; however the original time of 3pm local was to be the start of the race.

The race was initially started under the safety car and for two full laps the grid followed the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT around the drenched Suzuka circuit. After the completion of the second lap, the red flag was brought out and all the cars returned to the pit-lane where they all lined up at the end of the lane. During the safety car start, there were a couple cars that had problems with aquaplaning; Sergio Perez (Force India) firstly went off and then Marcus Ericsson (Caterham) on the final corner went into the gravel.

Almost 20 minutes later the race resumed under the safety car once again. During this safety car period, Alonso’s Ferrari shut itself off and he had to retire from the race without even having raced anyone at this point. This was the Spaniard’s second retirement in two races.

Once the racing begun for the first time on the day, Rosberg led his teammate into the distance, whilst the pack struggled to displace the rather slow Williams cars in third and fourth. It was apparent that both the Red Bulls were set up for the wet conditions in qualifying, which explained their lack of pace on Saturday.

Jenson Button (McLaren) who started from eighth made a radical call upon the restart to pit for the intermediate tyres, whilst everyone else was still on the wet compound. The result was that his pace matched that of the leading Mercedes AMG cars and was poised to gain a few positions when the rest of the grid went in to pit for the intermediates. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) out of P20 due to an engine penalty also pitted at the same time as Button, which would set him up for a substantial gaining of positions.

And indeed Button did benefit from the early switch, as after the rest of the leaders had put on their intermediate tyres for the first time, he was in third with a comfortable margin to the two Red Bulls. Vettel and Ricciardo both fought wheel-to-wheel with Bottas and Felipe Massa in the Williams, with eventually the Red Bulls prevailing.

At the front, Hamilton was charging at his teammate and continued to put pressure on Rosberg despite going off at turn one at one point in his pursuit. Once he was able to get the DRS active, Hamilton spectacularly swept to the outside of his teammate and overtook him going into the first corner.

Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) had his race spoilt after the team had to change his steering wheel during his last pit stop. This had put the Dane who started inside the top ten, out of the ten where he eventually finished in fourteenth place. A similar problem hit his teammate Button who still running in third but because an extended final pit stop, his podium was compromised. The Briton finished fifth overall.

Ferrari’s Räikkönen was also out of the points down in twelfth which meant that the Scuderia would not score any point in this race.

A crash from Adrian Sutil (Sauber) on lap 40 brought out the yellow flags as he had gone into the wall at turn 15. A group of marshals and a JCB were dispatched to recover his stricken Sauber, however during that period both the safety car and medical car were released whilst there was no clarity as to what had happened. Eventually on lap 44 the red flag was brought out and race control indicated that this was the end of the race.

There was growing concern over the medical car’s presence at the Sutil wreck and even an ambulance was there then too. It was indeed Jules Bianchi the medical crews were attending too, who not on camera had careered sideways into that JCB which was assisting in the Sutil crash. Still with no clarity, Hamilton was declared the winner of the race ahead of Rosberg and Vettel who as a result of the final position being backdated took third from Ricciardo.

The mood was very sombre across the circuit. On the podium, the drivers as a gesture of respect did not spray any champagne and after that all the drivers in their interviews expressed their concern for Bianchi who at this point was being rushed off to hospital.

With the race running past 41 laps, in accordance with the regulations there would be full points awarded to the top ten finishers which meant Hamilton now has a ten point in the championship over Rosberg. Both Force Indias ended up in the points in eighth and tenth, whilst Vergne benefited from the early tyre stop to finish ninth.

Post-race the focus of the paddock was entirely on Bianchi who was taken to the Mie University Hospital. The Frenchman underwent emergency surgery for severe head trauma and is still currently in an Intensive Care Unit. The entirety of the Formula One fraternity’s thoughts and prayers are indeed with the Marussia driver, hoping for good news to emerge.  

#ForzaJules  

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Singapore Swing - Hamilton Takes the Championship Lead:

The Monaco of the East is what Singapore is known and the fourteenth round of the championship made its annual return to the streets of the Marina Bay for what is one of the toughest and physically demanding races on the Formula One calendar.

In the championship race, Lewis Hamilton trailed his Mercedes AMG teammate Nico Rosberg by 22 points coming into the Singapore round and a race victory would seem the only way for the 2008 world champion to continue shaving away at Rosberg’s lead.

There was a big change in terms of FIA regulations just before the race weekend started, with the banning of radio messages between drivers and their engineers on the subject of driver coaching. No longer would an engineer be allowed to tell their driver what gear they must use in a particular corner for example, or how they should apply the brakes in a corner etc…

The change did mean that some teams had to get used to less communication during the first practice sessions on the Friday. There were moments where viewers and commentators thought there was a slip of a tongue but there was justification in the end to the relaying of information that’s banned under this new directive.

During the practice sessions there were positives to be taken from Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso topping the first and the final sessions before qualifying. His teammate Kimi Räikkönen also had a relatively positive build up to Saturday qualifying. However over at Red Bull there was a huge threat to Sebastian Vettel who despite showing good pace during the practice sessions, lost a lot of time with mechanical problems.

For the first time it seemed then that the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull would be running close to the Mercedes AMG cars in terms of qualifying pace. When it came to Q3 though, Räikkönen had issues with reliability which put him out of contention to set another flying lap. Alonso then was only good enough for fifth, whilst the Red Bulls locked out the second row of the grid.

Both Mercedes AMGs started once again from the front row of the grid with Hamilton on pole. However only one of the two cars would start from their grid position as Rosberg was unable to use his clutch and had to be wheeled into the pit-lane from where he’d start the gruelling race.   

Hamilton lead the field when the lights went out, knowing that the sister Mercedes AMG of his teammate was not running side by side. Alonso out of fifth position made an incredible start in his usual fashion, however made no effort to slow down for turn 1, where he ended up going straight on across the run off. Rosberg had made his way out of the pit-lane to start the race but was in plum last at the time.

Kamui Kobayashi didn’t make it as far as the formation lap as a power unit failure meant that he had to park his Caterham on the side of the circuit. With only 21 runners left then in the race, the attention turned towards what they would do in terms of strategy. With the softer compound of tyres available and the high track temperatures, managing the tyres would be a difficult task.

The race was still being led by Hamilton, with the two Red Bulls in hot pursuit. Vettel most certainly had the pace, as Alonso in the Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo in the sister Red Bull however was complaining about a problem with his battery which affected the way his car behaved during the race.

On lap 13 when Rosberg came in to pit for his first stop, because he had no clutch it would be a very slow stop. However even after changing the steering wheel the problem with his clutch and gearbox did not fix. So it was decided then that Mercedes AMG would retire the car meaning that Rosberg wouldn’t score any points.

Inevitably the safety car was drawn out to oversee the track marshals retrieved bits of Sergio Perez’s (Force India) front wing which came undone after a run in with Sauber’s Adrian Sutil. No penalty was applied in that encounter; however the safety car did remain in control of the race for an extended period of time, creating a strategy headache for the likes of Ferrari who expected a podium finish with Alonso.

Once the safety car was brought in, Hamilton resumed the lead of the race. But the Briton was left with an interesting predicament as he had not made his third stop whilst his Red Bull rivals already had. The plan was to leave Hamilton out on track to build up a gap that would be enough to limitate the time lost to the Red Bulls during the stop. On lap 52, Hamilton pitted for a final time and came out behind Vettel.

Behind them, there was an interesting battle going for sixth position involving Jenson Button (McLaren), Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Perez and Räikkönen. On the same lap that Hamilton made his final pit stop, Button retired from the race with a power box related issue. Bottas was the one leading this pack but he was also the one on the oldest tyres meaning on in the last few laps he was vulnerable to the pack behind.

Despite having to deal with a time penalty for gaining an advantage by exceeding track limits, Vergne was driving the wheels off his Toro Rosso. With Bottas having lost his grip, Vergne capitalised and made his way through the field spectacularly to seal sixth position.

Hamilton won the race from Vettel and Ricciardo who sealed off a double Red Bull podium result. Alonso having lost out during the safety car period was content with fourth, whilst Massa drove like a ‘grandma’ to hold on to sixth with his degrading tyres. With Rosberg having not finished the race, Hamilton moved into the lead of the championship by three points.

Vergne’s sixth place finish, equalled his best career performance despite the hiccups of the penalties he was given. Kevin Magnussen in the McLaren and Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso both complained about being burnt by their drinks bottle, with Magnussen actually being taken to the medical centre after the race to be treated for minor burns. The Dane salvaged a single championship point for McLaren in the end, as Force India retook fifth position in the constructors’ standings.

Sauber had another double retirement with both Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez missing out on their best opportunity this season so far to score the team’s first points. And towards the rear of the field, Marcus Ericsson was impressive to finish ahead of both the Marussias down in fifteenth place. The Swede concluded after the race that this was easily his best race of the season so far.    

Reliability continues to creep its way into the championship battle with only five races remaining in the season. A small issue with a wiring loom lost Rosberg his championship lead on this occasion, but what will happen next time out in Japan at the fabled Suzuka circuit? We look forward to you joining us for round fifteen of the Formula One championship.  

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Featured

Brazilian Grand Prix 2014 by MAJORPR3D4TOR, journal

United States Grand Prix 2014 by MAJORPR3D4TOR, journal

Russian Grand Prix 2014 by MAJORPR3D4TOR, journal

Japanese Grand Prix 2014 by MAJORPR3D4TOR, journal

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