McLaren told Lewis Hamilton to charge and charge he did. At
the start of lap 51 he pitted from the lead for his second pit stop. He’d
wanted clarification that Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel would also pit,
he was assured they would; but as the laps ticked by it became clearer that
they were trying to make it on just one stop.
Lewis wasn’t going to give this one up though, he went on
full attack mode and the race for victory came alive. In truth, it was more a
matter of when he caught and passed them rather than if. The Ferrari and Red
Bull tyres were waning and on fresh rubber he was catching them at well over a
second per lap.
Exiting the pits he was around 14 seconds back, but fastest
lap after fastest lap, bouncing off the kerbs going flat out brought him on to the tail of Vettel in just 11 laps. He
waited for the DRS zone on the back straight and activated. He swept pass,
Vettel not even offering a defence. The Red Bull pitted a lap later.
Within a lap Hamilton had caught Alonso, on lap 64 he
challenged him all the way round the circuit, dancing in the Ferrari’s mirrors,
and into the hairpin looked for the lead. He was aware though that the DRS zone
was just round the corner and backed out of it.
Onto the straight Alonso defended but it was no use, the
McLaren was way past before the final chicane, and McLaren breathed a sigh of relief
as there’d be little doubt Hamilton would have been pretty annoyed if victory
didn’t come his way this time.
In the end it was a good thing he had stopped a second time
as Alonso and Vettel dropped out of podium contention. It was a great drive by
Hamilton, he shadowed Vettel in the early stages, those two and Alonso often
covered by under three seconds, before passing him during the first round of
pit stops by staying out a lap longer.
Alonso went two laps further, pitting on lap 18 for the soft
tyres and exited ahead of both Hamilton and Vettel, but Hamilton was too strong
passing the Ferrari in the DRS zone before pulling out a fairly comfortable
gap.
Then came the charge back to the front to secure his first
victory of the year and become the seventh different winner in seven races.
His early race rivals couldn’t even stay on the podium,
Alonso persevered on a one stop but fell back to fifth as his tyres died, while
Vettel eventually resorted to a second pit stop and gained on Alonso at up to
four seconds per lap to take fourth but couldn’t quite get back on the podium. Vettel’s pole lap had been truly brilliant,
but didn’t quite have the pace to win today even if he’d pitted earlier.
This was Hamilton’s day and it was about time too, he
probably could and should have won earlier in the season, but his consistency
has deserved a victory and it’s taken him back to the top of the championship
standings.
One stop strategies
executed well
Romain Grosjean for Lotus and the Sauber of Sergio Perez
showed a one stop strategy could actually work, but both strategies were quite
different.
Grosjean stopped only two laps after Alonso, switching from
the super-softs to the softs. He’d been stuck behind Nico Rosberg for a long
time in 7th, but exited ahead and just let the race come to him from there.
Despite having run 50 laps on this set of tyres by the end
he was actually not that far away from the winner. His pace was astonishing
given how early he stopped, and once Lewis had taken the lead it didn’t take
long for Grosjean to take Alonso for second place just a lap later.
The way he kept his tyres together shows both his and the
Lotus’ qualities in conservation, and he exploited this brilliantly. He’s
really taking his second chance at Formula 1 well, despite the number of
collisions he’s had. If he survives the first few laps he’s proving he can
deliver great results.
Perez differed slightly with his strategy. He’d started on
the soft tyres from 15th and didn’t stop until lap 41 to switch to the super-softs. He’d
been stuck behind Kimi Raikkonen but one lap extra before pitting brought him
out ahead, but he just lost out to Rosberg.
However all was not lost as the two stoppers got out of his way. Lap 57 Felipe Massa was losing all
his grip in fifth, entering the final chicane Rosberg tried to go round the
outside, but was too fast and cut the final chicane. He had to give the place
back, Massa retook as Perez latched himself onto the back of the Ferrari on the
start finish straight. Rosberg couldn’t close the door and around the outside
into turn 1 went Perez.
A good opportunistic move that allowed him to pass Massa as well
at the end of the lap, he banged in a few fastest laps while he was at it and
started to catch Vettel and Alonso. After Vettel pitted he began the charge on
Alonso and made the move he wished he could have done in Malaysia to secure his
second podium in third.
So a one stop was the way to go if your car allowed it,
McLaren knew they couldn’t do it, Ferrari and Red Bull were optimistic, but
Lotus and Sauber with star drives from Grosjean and Perez made it work.
Struggling World
Champions
What’s going on with Jenson Button? He has only scored two
points in four races now; he just can’t make the tyres work for him. While
others were working a one stop, Button’s McLaren pitted three times, and each
time the situation failed to improve.
Being lapped by your winning team mate will be hard to take,
but what’s worse is that he has no idea why he can’t get the same performance?
Meanwhile at Mercedes, the other struggling world champion
had been confident of a good weekend. It all fell apart as bad luck struck
again for Michael Schumacher. His qualifying had been compromised by not quite
starting his final lap in time leaving him ninth. He ran close in the pack, but
pitted too early and got stuck in traffic unable to pass.
He certainly wasn’t going to lose a good result this time,
but it would have been galling none the less to have his DRS stick open
resulting in retirement while his team mate Rosberg ran relatively trouble free
to finish sixth. Two points from seven races is certainly not a fair
reflection, Mercedes have apologised to him but must offer him a reliable car
sooner rather than later.
Rest of the top 10
Rosberg had quite the train behind him at the start but once
he switched to softs his pace came, but he couldn’t quite keep it up, and
whereas Perez passed him only 12 laps from the end and ended up on the podium,
Rosberg could not take advantage of the flailing front runners.
Seventh was Mark Webber in the second Red Bull, he ran
fourth early on but got stuck behind one stoppers after his first pit stop.
From there he was never really a factor especially after his second stop, but did well to hold off Kimi
Raikkonen in the Lotus who finished eighth.
Kimi looked to be strong, but he certainly didn’t have the
pace of his team mate today. He ran the same strategy as podium finisher Perez
but just couldn’t keep up. He’s only two points ahead of his team mate now. I
wonder if the steering he’s complained about before is still bothering him as
after a positive start to the season he’s waned a bit the last two races.
Kamui Kobayashi started four places ahead of his team mate
Perez and ended up six behind. Another to never really have clear air and be
stuck behind Paul di Resta’s Force India like Schumacher, didn’t get the
breaks, but still two points isn’t so bad.
Felipe Massa’s point for 10th will be classed as
bad. He made easy work of Rosberg on lap two to be fifth, but spun it away at
turn one a few laps later. From then on he was stuck in traffic for a long
time, but was running fifth again when attempting to get to the end on just the
one pit appearance.
His tyres screamed enough and after losing places he pitted
to at least get something from the race.
Paul di Resta looked good up until his first pit stop. He
passed Rosberg and after Massa’s spin was lying fifth, but once new tyres were
fitted he was another to run in traffic and his pace faltered and he ended up
11th, still ahead of his Force India team mate Nico Hulkenberg
though.
It was a day to forget for Williams even though Pastor Maldonado
gained nine positions to finish 13th after a gearbox change forced
him to start from 22nd. Toro Rosso again didn’t show good pace,
while Caterham managed to bring both cars home, Marussia got one back while HRT
failed with both.
Brief reflections and
looking ahead
Canada certainly came alive towards the end of the race as
the tyres and differing strategies collided to spark it into life. Perhaps if
the DRS zone had been less easy to pass on, it might have made Hamilton’s
charge back a bit more difficult and track position might well have been king.
Unfortunately for Alonso and Vettel though their tyres were
just not capable of withstanding any attack anyway. No, today McLaren finally
got it right again and Hamilton was there for the win to now lead the title
race by two points from Alonso, and three from Vettel, with Webber only a
further six behind.
It has again sparked questions about whether the tyres have
too much influence over the racing, Sky guest pundit Jacques Villeneuve was
quite forthright that the tyres give up too quickly and don’t offer the driver
enough warning to perhaps alter strategy in time.
However, we’re back to Europe now and the European Grand
Prix in Valencia and if any race needs unpredictability it’s this one. Still
the tyres will continue to throw up random results, but it’s the guys you’d
expect at the top of the points table. Surely by now we’re running out of new
2012 winners, it’s time for someone to double up and steal a march on this year’s
championship hunt.
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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