Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

Kimi Räikkönen & Sebastian Vettel

sunnuntai 6. heinäkuuta 2014

British GP: Hamilton reduced Rosberg´s lead to just four points!

Usually it´s the weather that makes the British grand prix entertaining and eventful. This time weather conditions stayed dry the whole race but in spite of that the race turned out to be a very dramatic one! When the lights went out Rosberg stormed to the first corner in the lead. Vettel at the wheel of his RB10 on the other hand had a poor start and the German lost three positions right away. My heart jumped into my mouth the first time when Vettel banged wheels with Alonso but luckily there was no damage to either one of the cars. Already on the opening lap the race took a dramatic turn, which made my heart jump into my mouth again: Kimi in his Ferrari went off track and when the Iceman tried to rejoin the track he hit a bump, lost control of his F14T and struck the inside barrier. Kimi´s car was then thrown back across the track causing him to crash Felipe Massa´s FW36. Kimi´s crash looked really nasty as the F14T was wrecked badly. Kimi was able to get out of his car on his own force but limped away from his car. Luckily Massa reacted so rapidly to the incident , otherwise the damage to both cars could have been even worse. However, Massa´s car was too badly damaged and the Brasilian´s race was over. The safety car was deployed immediately but on lap 2 the race was red flagged due to the damage to the guardrails.

The delay took as long as an hour before the guardrail was finally repaired and the re-start could take place behind the safety car. Hamilton had made his way up to P4 on the opening laps and the Finnish Williams driver Valtteri Bottas had also made his way from P14 up to P9. At this point it was difficult for me to concentrate on the re-start as there had been no announcement if Kimi had been hurt in the incident. I was so worried about him. A crash like that was the thing that I least wanted to see in the race! Luckily it was soon announced that Kimi had a bruised ankle but otherwise he was reported to be ok! This piece of news helped me to focus on the race again. It was also touching to hear that Kimi´s first message on the team radio after his crash had been: "Is Massa okay?" The Iceman doesn´t talk much but when he speaks, he says the things that matter the most.

When the safety car came in we got to see an awesome overtaking show by Williams´ Bottas! His pace turned out to be lightning-fast and by lap 5 the Finn had made his way up to P6 by passing both Red Bull´s Ricciardo and Force India´s Hulkenberg. Hamilton also stormed towards the lead by easily overtaking both McLaren drivers. On lap 10 there was another crash: this time involving the Sauber driver Gutierrez and Lotus´ Maldonado. Gutierrez crashed to Maldonado´s E22 which caused the Venezuelan´s car spectacularly flip in the air. After the race Gutierrez was considered to be at fault and the Mexican was handed a 3-place grid penalty for the German GP. Alonso was handed a 5-second penalty due to overshooting his grid slot at the first start.

Bottas was able to make his way past both Magnussen and Button and the Finn was already in P3! Who could have thought that was possible after such a devastating qualifying yesterday... On lap 20 we heard Rosberg telling on the team radio that he had difficulties in down-shifting. In spite of that the German managed to set the fastest lap time! However, Rosberg´s gear box problem turned out to get worse lap by lap and on lap 29 the German had to stop the car on track and his race was over! His team-mate Hamilton immediately snatched the lead and there was no one who could threaten the Briton´s victory in front of his home crowd!

Pit stop strategy was a key factor today. Hamilton in the lead could easily afford pitting twice and still maintain his lead. But Bottas in P2 pitted only once and so did Ricciardo, Button and Alonso as well whilst Vettel in his Red Bull had a two-stop strategy! When Vettel rejoined the track after his second pit stop Alonso managed to overtake him on the out-lap. This turned out to be a nerve-wrecking battle between the two world champions! Sebastian was clearly determined to get past Alonso and take his position back. In addition to the battle on track it also turned out to be a battle on the team radio: both drivers were complaining about the other one not respecting the track limits. After the race Sebastian admitted that it got a bit silly because they were both childishly complaining about each other. The battle was entertaining for sure and several laps later Sebastian was finally able to overtake Alonso! Wow, that was real racing!

Hamilton drove to the chequered flag as the winner and at the same time reduced his team-mate´s lead in the championship to just four points. Bottas at the wheel of his FW36 finished in P2 for the very first time in his career, which was a fabulous achievement indeed! Ricciardo in his Red Bull was barely able to finish 3rd on his dying tyres and Button in his McLaren was only 8 tenths of a second behind the Australian at the chequered flag. Only a lap more and Button could possibly have overtaken Ricciardo... Sebastian finished 5th and Alonso 6th (Magnussen 7th, Hulkenberg 8th, Kvyat 9th and Vergne 10th). I have to admit that I was disappointed to see Sebastian finishing 5th. Starting from P2 I expected something more. But 2-stop strategy was clearly the wrong call today so once again Ricciardo managed to finish ahead of his team-mate... But I truly enjoyed watching Sebastian racing today, it was real racing with passion but with respect towards his rival!

So now the battle for the championship gets really interesting as there´re only 4 points separating the Mercedes team-mates in the standings. Ricciardo is now 3rd in the standings and Bottas has already made his way up to P5. Bottas´ performance made me happy today, he´s certainly a driver who we´ll hear a lot from in the near future! I hope the talented Finn is having a cracker of a party at the moment, he and his team totally deserve it! And like I said, I enjoyed watching Sebastian´s wheel-banging racing and listening to the childish team radio messages, which make him so human. But still, I keep wondering how Kimi is doing at the moment. I hope his ankle is fine and the Iceman can take part in the German GP in a fortnight. These accidents are so scary. They keep reminding me that there´s only a narrow line between life and a serious injury, even death.





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