There was much optimism that the likes of Mercedes, Lotus
and Ferrari were about to launch a challenge to Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel as
Formula 1 returned from its summer break to the legendary Spa-Francorchamps
circuit in Belgium.
That hope was crushed, at least today, as Sebastian Vettel
flew past Lewis Hamilton down the Kemmel straight on the opening lap and from
then on was never headed. Fernando Alonso rose up from ninth on the grid to
take second and it looked like perhaps a scarlet attack was about to form, but
alas for the race and perhaps for the season that didn’t happen.
Vettel was supreme winning by 16 seconds from Alonso, and in
truth it could have been a lot more. The Red Bull driver was toying with the
rest of the field and his team as once again he was told to back off after
setting fastest laps whenever he felt like it.
It is entirely misplaced negativity to say the championship
is over, there are after all still eight races to go, but for the title fight
to be really ignited you needed one of Hamilton, Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen to at
least finish ahead of Vettel. Kimi retired with brake problems but was never in
the race, while Fernando and Lewis made up the rest of the podium, but they
were just also-rans in a Vettel demonstration.
Red Bull had said that this track and the next race at
Monza, Italy, would be their most difficult races. Well they’ve won one of
them, and they showed today at least on Vettel’s car that their straight line
speed was not lacking. Perhaps the long straights of Monza should hold no fear
for them.
Having said all that, it would be unwise to write off
everyone else. Ferrari have rekindled some of their early season speed,
Mercedes via Hamilton took another pole position, albeit in the wet and didn’t
fall through the field, while Lotus didn’t get a chance to really show their
performance. It’s not all over, and Monza could be very different.
But today, Vettel was in a race of his own. Off the front
row he slotted in behind Hamilton into La Source then deployed all his KERS on
the way down to Eau Rouge, sucked along by the Mercedes’ slipstream. He simply
shot through. Even when he exited behind Jenson Button after his first pit stop
he was ahead by the end of the lap to make sure he led every single circuit.
Even when the others are ahead, Vettel is always there on
the podium, and when they have the speed to win, he crushes them and now lies
46 points ahead of Alonso. No wonder he looked so overjoyed. If the challenges
were about to come, Red Bull stopped them emphatically.
Ferrari still down,
but not yet out
And now for a little hope. Ferrari looked like they were
falling back in terms of pace and even team harmony over the last few weeks and
races. At least today despite only qualifying both cars ninth and tenth they
were able to get back on the podium rather convincingly.
Again though, they have a lot to thank Alonso for; while
Felipe Massa struggled with contact and KERS issues to finish seventh, the
Spaniard made a fantastic start. Down to Eau Rouge for the first time, Alonso
was already fighting Mark Webber for fifth place and hung on the inside to
pass. Lap 4 and he was up to fourth, a DRS pass on the Kemmel straight
promoting him ahead of Button.
A couple of laps later he did the same to the Mercedes of
Nico Rosberg and after the first round of pit stops dived down the inside of
Lewis Hamilton to take second into La Source. Demonstrating the amazing
straight line speed of the Ferrari he then managed to hold off Hamilton as he
attacked the Ferrari back into the DRS zone. That speed will hopefully stand
the Italian team in good stead when we arrive in Italy.
Any hope of a Ferrari challenge faded away like the chances
of rain spicing up the race. Practice and qualifying had precipitation interruptions
but nothing was about to upset the progress of Vettel, so Alonso’s charge came
to an end with second place.
It was still a good result, and Fernando was happy with the
improvements the team had made, finally translating well from the design office
onto the track. However, he won’t be happy about the gap Red Bull had, but it’s
a start and now it’s crucial they use this new momentum to springboard not just
above Mercedes and Lotus, but ahead of Red Bull too.
Mercedes Belgian
attack fades
Mercedes came to Belgium as the form team, having taken the
last three pole positions and victory at the last race in Hungary in convincing
style. However, the team never looked like they had the speed this weekend, and
if it wasn’t for the mixed conditions in qualifying, another pole position was
unlikely.
Hamilton couldn’t hold back Vettel or Alonso but I think he
can still be happy with another podium finish. He wasn’t comfortable in the car
at Spa, but he still managed to finish ahead of his team mate Rosberg who ran
close to him all through the race.
They would have hoped for more though, they expected this
track to lend itself to them, just as they do with Monza in a couple of weeks,
so they’ll be disappointed they weren’t able to give Red Bull more of a race. The
team complained of not being able to get the front and rear tyres to heat up at
the same time, so upsetting the balance. Still third and fourth isn’t a bad
result, but perhaps when thoughts of a championship challenge were beginning to
surface then this result isn’t going to induce the widest of smiles.
Mark Webber in poor
start surprise
Why does it always happen to his car? Ok Webber has made a
number of decent starts over the last few races but too many times problems
seem to afflict his start procedure causing him to fall back and fight his way
up again rather than racing at the front where he should be.
Webber should have been on the podium today, he had the
speed. Maybe if unleashed he could have had a crack at Vettel, he was on the
only other person able to have that speed at his disposal. However, a poor
start dropped him down and he found himself stuck behind Rosberg for the majority
of the race to end up in fifth position at the finish.
It does seem odd how many problems Webber is experiencing
this year. Yes Vettel has out qualified the Aussie at every race but when
Webber is matching Vettel, then something happens to affect his race, strange.
Of course any thought process about this which leads to conspiracy theories of
favouritism are not to be taken seriously.
Game over for Kimi?
After a double podium in Germany, another second place in
Hungary, Lotus looked like they were on the attack. Then the midseason break
happened and they come back to one of their worst weekends.
Kimi Raikkonen’s record points scoring streak ended at 27
consecutive races as he suffered brake failure caused by a helmet visor rip off
being stuck in the brake duct which meant it overheated.
Romain Grosjean’s
attempt at a one stop only yielded an eighth place. Not the result the Enstone
team wanted. It puts Kimi down from second to fourth in the title battle, now
63 points behind Vettel, that’s the equivalent of over two race wins and a
fourth place.
So is it all over for Kimi’s title aspirations? Well they
were built on consistency and maybe bagging the odd win. Now they’re utterly
reliant on a few Red Bull failures. It’s happened once this year, I’m not sure
anyone expects it to happen again, but I suppose stranger things have happened.
Esteban Gutierrez
shines and other little notes
Gutierrez may have only finished 14th and behind
his team mate Nico Hulkenberg, but I thought it was his best drive of the year.
I think he’s been a lot closer to the highly touted Hulk than many have given
him credit for.
This weekend he showed great pace but unfortunately it was
never allowed to show itself when it mattered with an end result. Fast in
practice three, he ended up in 21st after qualifying when wet
conditions scuppered a lot of team’s grand plans.
In the race he made an amazing move around the outside of
Pastor Maldonado at Blanchimont, although he was off the track, but it was
gutsy and definitely a wow moment. He was given a drive through penalty, but
without it he might have been on for a point and well ahead of his team mate.
This caused Maldonado to be off line in to the Bus Stop
chicane, first the Force India of Sutil clipped his front wing off, so Pastor
dived for the pits not realising Paul di Resta was coming round too. The
Williams took the Force India’s left rear off causing di Resta’s retirement.
Di Resta could have had pole if the rain had kept coming,
but Sunday turned into a nightmare. He had started 5th but ended up
falling through the pack, the Force India’s just don’t have pace since the tyre
design change. Sutil still managed to grab two points for ninth.
That wasn’t enough to keep McLaren behind in the constructor’s
championship. McLaren hoped for a podium and looked like they might make a one
stop work with Button before pitting a second time to end up sixth and move up
to fifth place in the teams battle. It was their most competitive showing and
Button suggested afterwards that if McLaren had been bolder on strategy they
might have ended higher up.
Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo charged through the field from
19th to 10th to give the media a chance to ask him
questions which didn’t concern his unconfirmed promotion to Red Bull. It was a
good eye catching drive.
Stewarding
I think there needs to be more consistency in the stewarding
process, and perhaps actually a bit more leeway given to some of the moves
which are marginal, we don’t want to actively discourage over taking do we?
Firstly, I don’t think Sergio Perez’s move on Romain
Grosjean should have resulted in a penalty. The Mexican squeezed the Lotus at
the end of the Kemmel straight into Les Combes but it wasn’t too much and I
think he gave him just enough room. Grosjean could have backed off earlier as
he’d already lost the place, but he was trying to keep it but ended up out
braking himself.
If you look at a similar incident with Hulkenberg and
Jean-Eric Vergne, then Hulkenberg squeezed Vergne at the same place but this
time Vergne did was Grosjean wanted to do and hung on round the outside and
actually ended up forcing Hulkenberg off the track. It was impressive racing and a great move by Vergne, but if
Perez got a penalty for probably not forcing someone off the track, the surely
Vergne should have had one too?
Gutierrez suffered his penalty for running beyond the track
limits and gaining an advantage. Yes, he deserved it by the letter of the
rules, but it looked amazing, and it was such a brief moment you wish it had
been allowed like Grosjean’s move on Massa in Hungary. But if you’re sticking
to the letter, then it had to be a penalty. It’s just it doesn’t seem to be
applied every time, and sometimes for something completely innocuous.
The title fight
So, do we knock Kimi off from our title challenger list?
Probably. How about everyone else? It’s tempting. After this performance from
Vettel, it’s hard not to think about it, but there are still many races to go
and performance can swing to one team or the other. It just so happens that Red
Bull is the most consistent this year, oh and they’re also either the fastest
or one of the fastest.
But there was that impression that if title challenges were
to be mounted, it had to happen from here, and it kind of feels almost a sense
of desperation in the media that that deadline is now extended to Italy. If
Vettel wins there, he’d be over two race wins in front of his nearest rival.
That’s a lead Vettel would never give up.
all photo's from autosport.com
No comments:
Post a Comment