F1 - 2015 - Round 1 - Australia

This new season started, quite frankly, in a sadly, desolating way. Too much drama is still monopolizing the attention around the circus, leaving little if no space to the passion and the entertainment that the top racing league in the world should be able to provide.
The head shaking starts on Friday when the Manor team realizes, after having shipped the whole team to Australia, not exactly around the corner from their headquarter, that all the data they were supposed to carry on their computer are gone, cleared after the team was ready for bankruptcy only a month ago. Hard to believe but hey, at least this is looking like is going to be a really funny season, at least. Yes cause the prank goes on with Sauber, with a plot that can be movie material: "two cars for three drivers". Van der Garde drives, Van der Garde doesn't drive, yes, no, yes....no.  
Your getting ready for the race, expecting to see a very short grid with the  Manors gone and Bottas out for injury, just to realize that we're missing some more people! How do you feel as a Team Manager when one of your cars can't even make it to the starting line? Well , ask Horner and Boullier, whose drivers Kvyat and Magnussen leave the garage in a F1 car and they return back a couple minutes later on their feet.
Sure these are just coincidences and obviously everybody worked really hard during the off-season. Proof of this is the improvement on the lap time with the fastest lap faster by 1.5 seconds from last year's and a race time shorter by a minute overall. Problem is that nobody really got closer to Mercedes and now, thanks to the newly restricted updating opportunities given to the teams from the 2015 rules, it will be a miracle if we won't follow a double race within the next 19 races.


Since everybody knows the obvious result of the race, it's time to evaluate teams and drivers on their first appearance in this season. Let's proceed rigorously by the standings:

Lewis Hamilton: 6. Let's be clear here: it will be an 8 based on the race performance: 6 tenths of a second on his teammate in qualifying, always first during the race, pushing when (rarely) needed and controlling when everything was going the right way (pretty much all the time)....but that bad joke on Schwarzenegger? (vote 10 to him for the counter-joke about the high heels!). But we said it before, funny season ahead.

Nico Rosberg: 7. It should be his year for redemption after that second place in last year season that only tastes like defeat. But he leaves Melbourne with 32 point less than last year on his teammate. The frustration is palpable on the podium, since he looks the same as he looked on the podium when he just lost his Championship last year. To cheer up invites his fella Vettel to visit the garage in Malaysia cause he thinks: lesser gap between teams, more spectacle on the track...and maybe more cars stealing points from his British teammate....

Mercedes: 9. No matter how the rules change or how well the other teams are working on their cars, it really seems that they jumped in this new era of F1 in the best way. Not only they lead but they keep doing it better and better.

Sebastian Vettel: 8. Third place in the first race with a car that last year even the mighty Alonso couldn't push that far? What better way to shake off the reputation that he was only fast with a fast car? He smiles and the team smiles back, he speaks Italian to them even though he probably spent the last couple months in the car 24/7 trying to get something out of it. There's to wonder if he's running a Rosetta Stone's program in the cockpit.

Ferrari: 8. There's light at the end of the tunnel. Finally a power unit worthy the Maranello's logo, finally the right strategy to move ahead of Massa through the pit stops. There's a different vibe in the paddock and everybody in benefiting from it, even the cold Raikkonen (7) who shows signs of the glorious days drive, even if he can't finish the race.

Felipe Massa: 6. He's the only Williams on track today and he has a chance to focus the team's attention on him to lead the team during the season. He tries to keep our hopes for somebody to be able to catch at least Rosberg high for a little bit but then he just can't.. He runs some fast laps and some slower one, almost to confuse the opponents on the strategy that his team is following but the latter ends up messing up on the strategy himself, losing the chances to grab the first podium of the season.

Williams: 6. They proof to be still the best of the rest even if Ferrari got very close, but they also proof to carry the same strategy black out that they were showing last year. There is definitely room for improvement.

Felipe Nasr: 8. First of the rookies. The youngster shows sign of pure talent, in a car that jumped ahead in performance just by sticking to the Ferrari engine. Aggressive when the fight requires it and relaxed when it's time to think clear. Right, not easy when the topic in the paddock is "who's not gonna race to leave a seat available for Van der Garde? Oh, ok, never mind."

Sauber: 7. As mentioned, the Ferrari power unit is a big upgrade this year, but you can't just drive an engine. The car seemed very well balanced and this first 14 points collected on Sunday can actually be the first of many. A little odd was the three stops strategy followed by Ericsson's (7) team but still, it will be an exciting season for the Suisse team.

Daniel Ricciardo: 6. Compared to last year he, at least, got some point out of the home Gran Prix. But be the first of the lapped cars can't be enough for a fast driver who's driving a car dominant just a couple years ago. He's surely blaming himself for some extent but it's really hard for now to know how bad this Red Bull looks like.

Red Bull: 5. If last year was a wet blanket for the Austrian team, this year looks even more concerning. If, then, the complaining against the regulament starts already just after the first Gran Prix it's not just sad but also a little embarrassing. They have the team, the resources and the drivers to be competitive. Just shake off the bad experience of last year and start fresh! Also getting two cars on the starting grid will also help.

Nico Hulkenberg: 6. It's not that bad of a race after all. On normal condition he will be fighting in the middle of the pack. Today, the middle of the pack is the bottom of the pack but seventh, after all, it's all right.

Force India: 6. Not a remarkable start of the season. The situation after the first race shows that no big improvements have been achieved. It will be hard to keep up with Sauber and with the company of good new drivers fighting for position. The new generation is approaching and the formerly new drivers risk to be engulfed and pushed back (see Perez: 5).

Carlos Sainz Jr.: 7. It's better to highlight that JR at the end of his name cause it's still kind of weird for whoever was following racing in the '80s and '90s to see that name during a F1 race. But the little Carlos is focused, he knows his business and he's all in. Even when he has to throw away 30 second during the pit stop he doesn't blink and he gets the ninth place and two points which are not a bad start.

Toro Rosso: 7. It could have been even a better start of the season if only Verstappen Jr (7) was able to finish the race. However the future looks bright for the Italian team who secured two of the fastest young drivers around and it's getting closer to the big Austrian brother.

Jenson Button: 6. Giving him less than 6 will be just disrespectful. Finishing out of the ten with only eleven cars to the finish it's pretty depressing but it doesn't look like you can blame him too much for it. He knows this will be a dirty job since the beginning and he actually has no problem to show some muscle when he's still fighting for position but this Mclaren just doesn't go and he, gloomily, like the captain of a sinking ship, gets his job done and saves his face and the face of the team.

Mclaren: 4. There's only to hope that this was a bad nightmare, that Magnussen's engine was the only flawed one they will receive from Honda this year, that Button and Alonso, with their experience and drive, will be able to change the course. If not, this can be the saddest year for the glorious team.

    
Appointment in two weeks in the usually pouring Malaysian track of Kuala Lumpur. Fingers crossed.



Picture from bleacherreport.com

F1 - 2015

If you pay close attention you can hear it. It’s the sound of the V6 turbocharged engines that for the second season this year are powering the Formula One cars. Many critics have been directed to the lack of noise that those power units are carrying, lowering the entertainment for the supporters all over the world, but at the end of the season everybody forgot about that, while focusing on the head to head between the two Mercedes drivers in the chase for the title.

The Anglo-German team was definitely the quickest one to align to the new rules introduced for the 2014 season. It was the first team to combine successfully a completely new engine, a heavily renewed Energy Recovery System, a car completely redesigned to fit the different new components, including the bigger tank. Mercedes combined all the new elements together like no one else.

Now it’s time to challenge them. Every team had finally the chance to look for redemption, to work on the cars, which won’t sustain any critical change for this season, in order to shrink the gap from the Silver Arrows.

It looks like some team worked particularly well, at least based on the pre-season tests, with Ferrari above the others. However the first real, true test is now. Starting today and ending on Sunday, the streets of Melbourne will be the judge on the work dispensed by each team during the winter.

It’s time now to take a look at what changed from last year so that we can understand better what we’ll see on the track:

Let’s take a quick look at the TEAMS and DRIVERS: The first thing we’ll notice is that the grid will be shorter. In fact only ten team will take part in the season. Caterham is the team leaving, unable to find a buyer in time to sign for the 2015 season, with Kobayashi going back to Japan in the Super Formula and Marcus Ericsson switching to Sauber. Almost same situation, but with much better ending, was reserved to the Marussia team, looking for investment that came through just a month ago, allowing the team to show up in Australia under the name Manor. With Max Chilton moving to the FIA WEC and the tragic accident involving Jules Bianchi in Japan last year, one driver will be Will Stevens, who debuted in the top series at the end of last year, while the other car will be assigned to the DTM driver Roberto Mehri for at least the first race of the season.

A couple teams changed their engine suppliers with Lotus leaving Renault for a potentially more competitive Mercedes engine, and McLaren who is ending the glorious duet with Mercedes to join a returning name that is still associated with the team of Woking, at least in the memory of the oldest of us. Honda. Another return in the McLaren family is Fernando Alonso, who is leaving Ferrari to take the seat occupied by Kevin Magnussen last year. But not just yet. The concerns regarding Alonso’s health conditions after the crash during the last tests in Spain suggested to delay the start of the season for the Asturian driver, meaning that the young Danish driver will be on the grid on this week end in Melbourne.

Consequently to Alonso’s move, the most attended team change of the season sees Vettel leaving the Red Bull family, which is sharing with the German four titles, to seat into a Ferrari. Certainly a challenge for Sebastian, given the struggle that Ferrari found itself in for the last several seasons but the same could have been said when the previous German driver showed up at Maranello. The same driver who ended up winning 5 titles with the Cavallino.

Drivers comes, drivers, goes. So the vacant seat for Red Bull had been quickly filled by the young and fast Daniil Kvyat who stepped up from Toro Rosso. The Italian team was looking for replacement for Kvyat but also for Jean Eric Vergne, whos 2015 will be pretty busy, divided between test driving for Ferrari and competing in the Formula E with team Andretti. The decision went toward a couple of promising young drivers with a particularly fine pedigree: Carlos Sainz jr., son of the WRC idol from the ’90, and Max Verstappen, son of Jos, Formula One driver himself until the early 2000.

Joining the club of who’s leaving F1 for this year, are the two now former Sauber drivers Gutierrez and Sutil, replaced by Ericsson, as said before, and the fast Felipe Nasr, moving up from GP2. There’s actually a third driver who should take part in the Australian Gran Prix. Giedo Van Der Garde signed a contract last year to take part into the 2015 season driving a Sauber and the Swiss team has now and order from Court to provide a car for Van Der Garde this week end. Three drivers for two cars, that’s probably not the best way to start a season, since as we write, there’s no certainty on who expect on the grid on Sunday!

Taking a look at the calendar we notice that we have one more race for a total of 20. The new entry is actually not new but is a big come back. The Mexican Gran Prix will be held at the same location that saw the F1 circus and supporters gather the last time on 1992.

Beside that not much has changed since the races ready to enter or re-enter the calendar weren’t meeting the requirements. That means no New Jersey, no India, no Korea.

The only other situation to be solved concerns the German Gran Prix. This should be the year, according to the agreement, to see F1 at the Nurburgring but nothing has been officialised so it will be either that or Hockenheim.

Now, for the most nerd of us, let’s take a look at the main changes in terms of SPECIFICATIONS and REGULATIONS: The number of power units available per car during the season has dropped from 5 to 4. Following such restriction there won’t be any penalty for the replacement of the whole power unit while penalties remain in effect for the substitution on parts of it.

The development of the engines has been cut by half for this season, leaving even less room for improvement for whoever is struggling….

The Front-and-Rear Interconnected suspensions have been banned.

On the safety side, following the brutal accident occurred to Bianchi in Japan, the cockpits have to be reinforced to give more protection around the head area, the starting time for several races has been anticipated in order to avoid racing close to dusk and a new procedure called Virtual Safety Car has been introduced to be used in sudden risky situation not manageable by the actual safety car.

A new 10 seconds penalty in the pit has been introduced to sanction unsafe releases and the double points assigned in the last race have been abandoned (TG!)

In case of race suspension, the cars will line up in the pit lane instead of the starting grid.

….And now the best of all! The drivers are banned from changing their helmets design!!!! The council of F1, after a long and solemn evaluation, declared that changing helmet design may cause trouble for the fans to recognize the drivers….Thanks chiefs, always thinking about us! Just in case the cars and numbers they are driving wasn’t enough to identify them…Now we’ll actually know who’s behind the wheel, just in case they switch cars right before the start. AMAZING

F1 - 2014 - ABU DHABI

The curtain closes down on the 2014 season here in Abu Dhabi in the way that pretty much everybody expected to be.
The few hopes for a thrilling race, kept alive by an outstanding pole position performance from the German Nico Rosberg on Saturday, faded away at the first corner of the race.
No one could have taken away this Championship from Lewis Hamilton's pocket, no driver, no team, no "double points in the final race" rule.

The combination Hamilton-Mercedes this year was just simply the best. The car that translated into racing performance the big technical changes introduced this year better than anyone else. The driver that improved the most since last year.

It has been an astonishing season for the British driver that today sits on top of the racing world. The inconsistency and the temper that produced much trouble for him in the past seasons seems well back in the past. Today's Lewis is a solid, concentrated, calculating driver that fits well in the team mechanisms, even when he has to share the box with his direct competitor for the title. He comes out as a much more humble and personable character, definitely much more diplomatic when needed and his maturity translate in more confidence and more coolness behind the wheel.

It's the evolution that impresses more than the result. Being F1 Champion again, for the second time, it's definitely an achievement but it's probably even better knowing that the driver is fully developed and at his best. Mercedes fully gets it and they will put all the effort needed to keep the gap from the other teams, to make this the first of a long strike of successes.


On the other hand, Rosberg proved to be a very respectable individual. Inside the car he showed an incredible consistency that only cracked a couple times when the pressure for results was getting heavier. The determination the pushed him to never give up is remarkable and it's all summarized in his willing to finish this Sunday Gran Prix under the checkered flag even though it was clear that the title slipped away form him way back in the race and the team suggested an anticipated retirement.
He finishes this season with his head up, showing pride, respect for the opponent and knowledge that this year there was really nothing more to do.

The frictions and tensions showed sometimes on track and in the paddock between the two drivers proved to be part of the competition that we often experienced in the past and that contributed to build up legendary sort of halos around some of the best drivers ever. If we kept watching race after race, lap after lap, it's because these two gave everything they had and the team took the only role of supervising them without giving orders that could have killed the show.

Much more can be said about this season, and it will be, but there is one particular little good news that is good to share today. Jules Bianchi, still in the fight for his life after the horrible accident of Suzuka, was able to be moved back to France, in a medical facility closer to his place, to his family and to his friends and fans. The road for him is still long and steep but hopefully the comfort of being back home will play in his favor.

F1 - Brasil - 2014

Two weeks, two races, same situation in the run for the World Championship title.
The victory of Hamilton in Austin could have curbed the expectation of many but not for Rosberg, who lands in San Paolo with only one thought: win and keep the math away from the paddock.
The best way to achieve that is to start fast from the beginning, faster than everybody else if possible, teammate included, and positioning yourself on the first seat on grid.
That's exactly what happened on the newly resurfaced Jose' Carlos Pace the days before Sunday.
Then there's the race. 71 laps to run all in one breathe, with an eye on the mirrors and one one the tires, that could let you drive on chewing gum at any moment.
The result is a chasing game that sees the two Mercedes run in another league, no surprise about that, with Hamilton putting all the pressure he could on the German driver ahead but also leaving room for errors. and in this game of milliseconds, going out of track sideways and trowing away about six seconds can make a difference between 31 or 17 points of advantage on your teammate.

It ends like this, the same way it started. This time we don't see the overtake that could have given the final push in the run for title. This time the smile on the first step of the podium is blonde, and in two weeks we'll all stare at the stunning landscape of Abu Dhabi anxious to unfold the last chapter of this German Tale.

Only a couple more considerations:

Thumbs up for Massa who scores one of the few podiums of the season at the hometown race despite entertaining the audience with first speeding in the pit lane and second stopping at the wrong box. Good result for the confidence and good celebration for the memories;

Thumbs down for the circus that devotes good words about keeping the cost of F1 at an accessible level for all the teams but then keeps adding races every year in preposterous places and the calendar looks like the dream of an Aeroplan Miles carholder.
Result? Two teams missing, one in bankrupcy and a sad short grid;

Thumbs up for the Brasilian supporters. They show up on a Sunday finally sunny for the first time in years and they push Massa to the third place under the flag. Goosebumps when, after celebrating Felipe, they let go a joyous "ole ole ole ole Senna Senna" that bring us back to 1993;

Thumbs down for the double point system in the last race of the year. Sure Bernie was afraid that closing the race for the title before the end of the season could translate in less money but go tell this to Hamilton...;

Thumbs up for Mercedes that, with a Constructor Championship in the pocket, lets the drivers fight each other until the end, even if sometimes it translates in delicate post race debriefings, and to the two drivers who may be livid when the teammate stands on their left on the podium, but they always show up with a big smile and some gesture of congratulation.

Thumbs down for Nelson Piquet who starts off with a question for Hamilton about his girlfriend and walks away from him without giving time for an answer. Lewis leaves the podium disappointed to come back just one minute after to give Nelsinho the chance to make up for it. Hilarious;

Thumbs down for NBC. This is Formula 1, not NASCAR, we don't care about statistics or recaps while the race is on!!! We don't care about 5 minutes commercial brakes with no background screen on the race!!! If this is the way you'll keep doing it, please give up on the rights.

F1 - Japan -2014 - Jules Bianchi

It would be nice to talk about the race, about one of the classic F1 appointments on the calendar. Certainly it will be better to report about the head to head going on in the Mercedes team that even this Sunday made us pay close attention at the lap times.
Instead, we have to face reality, we have to deal with something that puts everything else in perspective: a driver, a new member of the paddock, a young person is fighting right now for his life after something that it shouldn't have happened, unfortunately, happened.

Jules Bianchi, a very talented racer driving for the Marussia Team but already in the circle of the young Ferrari drivers, has seen his race ending in a crash into a recovery vehicle that was operating beside the barrier to clear the field from another car, the Sauber of Sutil, who crashed in the same spot a lap earlier.

Bad race management, yellow flags, red flags, to race or not to race, Charlie Whiting, Bernie Ecclestone...As often happens in these situations, the public opinion starts to play the games "Let's find who to blame" and "They should have done this or that". It's a pretty rational reaction since everyone wants to be clear from any responsibility but unfortunately no one can come out of this completely clean.
Yes, because if the race took place anyway although it was known that Japan was under a particularly critical weather situation, if the money making machine of TV rights and advertising has so much weight in the process of decision making, then we all are somehow responsible for pushing the boundaries  a little too close to the edge.

Formula One has always been the pioneer and outpost for safety in motor racing and, by default, in day by day driving, we all know that. What is harder to digest is that, no matter what, motor racing is still, and will always be, a dangerous sport. The improving of safety will always be a work in progress and sometimes, unfortunately, accidents forestall actions.
Also, the fact that bad accidents are more and more infrequently these days,  contributes to lower the guard against danger. But the risk is still there, hiding at every corner, waiting for a bad combination of event to show up.

We will never have a completely safe motor race. Danger is in the nature of it, danger is what elevates racing drivers to idols to the eyes of the fans, danger is what keeps us hypnotized from the green light to the checkered flag, danger is what makes us look at the champions of the past in an almost mythological way.

Let's just hope that the effort of everyone will be spent now in the direction of avoiding similar situations in the future.

Mostly, let's hope that Bianchi will be able to walk away from this and, as usually happens to these fighters on four wheels, that we will see him again with his helmet on.

F1 - Singapore - 2014

The last part of the season starts here, in Singapore. The circus won't land in Europe again before the end of November, when we will have a 2014 Champion. Not much time for the teams to apply any upgrade to their cars, not much time for the drivers to book a seat for the next season. The music will stop soon and the chairs available are only a few.
Everybody is projecting himself into 2015. Well... everybody except who is fighting for the championship. Inside the Mercedes team, very few people will divert their attention from the head to head between the two silver drivers.

Let's step back for a second and let's take a look at the actual race that took place in the astonishing scenery of Singapore.
On the grid we have the by now usual duo Mercedes in front, followed by the two Red Bull in particular good shape on the city track and the positively performing Ferrari of Alonso, first of the two pairs Ferrari-Williams starting in Row 3 and 4.

The first and biggest turn of event takes place even before the first lap. The warm up lap begins with the cars leaving their position on the grid to slowly get ready for the start but Rosberg Mercedes' doesn't move an inch. Some problem in the electrical system between wheel and gear box doesn't work and he has to give up his second position on the grid and start from the pit.
The car will never get back to work properly, it will take laps before Rosberg will attempt, with much struggle, to overtake Marussias and Caterhams. His forth gear won't work and this is not the best track to lose traction at medium speed.
He will come into the pit for the tires change, they will try to use a second steering wheel but that won't solve the problem. He'll watch the rest of the race from the pit, staring at his teammate flying away from the group, finishing in first position, pushing him down from the top of the season standing, feeling sorry for the team because one of them scored no points.

With Rosberg out of the game, everybody in the top positions moves ahead, the two Red Bull fill up the podium behind Hamilton, this time with Vettel in front of the local idol Ricciardo. Alonso, who was dying to get to the podium for once in a while, has to please himself with a forth place. Massa sits in fifth.

With five races to go we have the two contending for the title within 3 points. A family feud that will keep the whole Mercedes team on their toes and will divide even more the supporters in "Team Hamilton" vs. "Team Rosberg".

Who are you gonna go for?

F1 - Italian Gran Prix 2014

After the F1 circus leaves the Monza Race Track for the 64th time since 1950, it really seems a joke that somebody is even thinking about kicking the Autodromo out of the calendar.
The spotless venue, the gathering of Very Important People and, off course, the river of fans that embraces the temple of Formula One until overflowing on the Rettifilo as soon as the cars fly under the checkered flag are simply incomparable.
Not to mention the emotion that this scenario arouse in the three lucky people that get to see this from the best spot: the podium. Nobody can be indifferent to the excitement that spread from that mainly red multitude, not even if that same crowd booed you a couple years ago, not even if you see your first opponent climbing the tallest step of the podium due to a couple of mistakes of your own, not even if you are coming back to this venue for the first in a color that is not red anymore and at least half of the people down there treated you like a bus driver for the last four years.
Everything goes away in the blink of an eye....at least during those 10 minutes of glory.

Going back to the race summary, the story unfolded pretty much following the script: the two Mercedes on a pace that puts them in another category, the rest of Mercedes engines performing incredibly good, behind....the rest of all, with a sad note for the performance of the Ferrari Team, disappointing, again, in the race that, by itself, could have saved the mediocre season.

The start of the race goes smoothly, only a little too smoothly for Hamilton and Ricciardo who both loose several positions before the first chicane.
Just the time to understand that the warnings on the silver car number 44 were unfounded and it's Hamilton's show. It will take a while to mend the gap from the teammate Rosberg but he finalize the chase also thanks to a double - photocopy mistake from the German driver who misses the first chicane twice. Many people will argue that those weren't mistakes but that Mercedes, wearing the suit of "KARMA POLICE" "invited" Rosberg to do so to make up after the incident in the last race that compromised Hamilton's race.
Lots of dramas and conspiracy theories that will fill up webpages and blogs at least until the next appointment.

The nicest surprise comes from the third place. He started this season with the expectation of finally getting back the confidence of years ago and, why not, to get his revenge after being relegated in the dark corner of the Ferrari's box for way too long. The history went, again, a little different from what planned, between failures, accidents and wrong set-ups. But the now infamous dose of bad luck who was surrounding him couldn't find any better moment to end up this curse. Right there, right in front of many people that betrayed him overnight but also right in front of those people who still love him for how they had to know him during more than a decade, Massa is torn in a fight of emotions. And is the joy that wins, is the positivity that always  distinguished him to overcome any other bad thought. And it's nice to see him smiling again from up there.

The fight for the Championship is now, most likely, a head to head within the Mercedes Team but the thirst for glory and the pursuit of a seat for the next season will keep the tension up to the top for the next and last six races.
With the number of good young drivers (see Magnussen this last week end) that we have to witness this year and many more knocking at the door from factories series, nothing will be left to chance.

F1 SPA - Recap

Is anyone out there still complaining about Formula One being boring?!?!?
Put together a Real race track, a bunch of  F1 turbo cars close to each other in performance and a handful of good drivers. Add a wet practice that further mixes the cards and an internal battle between the two drivers of the same team, that are also leading the Championship.....If this doesn't look yet like a race from the nostalgic '90s,  include also a touch between those two drivers that basically sends one of them out of the race and the recipe for a great Gran Prix is served.

At the end, is the Australian Ricciardo to jump on the highest step of the podium after 44 laps rich of battles on track as well as at the pits.
Is the most concentrated car-driver duo, combined with the best strategy, that goes home with 25 points in its pocket. Not the result that most of the experts were going to bet on, considering that the first two cars in grid were, as usual this year, the two Mercedes of Rosberg and Hamilton and third and fourth in line we had two sharks like Vettel and Alonso.

The focal moment of the race unfolded itself already in the second lap of the race. Rosberg sees an opportunity to put himself in an overtake position beside Hamilton and goes. Hamilton follows the regular racing line maybe unaware that behind, the other Mercedes was already on his rear tire. They touch, Rosberg loses the right side of his front wing and has to stop and replace it, Hamilton ends up with a flat tire in the first session of the longest Gran Prix track of the season and he need his time to come back to the pits to get assistance. He will never be able to come back in the fight for points and he will retire his car for better days.

The other Mercedes driver, Rosberg, gets back in the crowd, chasing and being chased until he ends up in second place that means 18 points that weight like gold, an hurricane of boos from the Hamilton's fans, copiously poured in the stands around the finish line, and one of the most critical debriefing in his racing career.

Williams's Bottas complete the podium with another brilliant performance that is becoming more of a constant than a news.
News is, instead, the P4 for the red dressed Raikkonen that gets the best finish of this season and puts his car ahead of his teammate, again for the first time in this season.

Here's the classification for the point at the end of the race:

1. Ricciardo  Red Bull  25pts
2. Rosberg  Mercedes  18pts
3. Bottas  Williams  15pts
4. Raikkonen  Ferrari  12pts
5. Vettel  Red Bull  10pts
6. Button  McLaren  8pts
7. Alonso  Ferrari  6pts
8. Perez  ForceIndia  4pts
9. Kvyat  ToroRosso  2pts
10. Hulkenberg  ForceIndia  1pt

The Championship standings after Spa:

1. Rosberg  220pts
2. Hamilton  191pts
3. Ricciardo  156pts
4. Alonso  121pts
5. Bottas  110pts

Busy Weekend Ahead!

Right, this week we have enough material to close ourselves in the living room for the next four days!!

It all starts today with the youngsters of  the Indy Lights tasting the ground in Sonoma for a very busy four day schedule, and with the World Rally Championship stopping in Germany for one of the most iconic appointments of the season.
Then tomorrow the mayhem begins, with the next categories (rigidly listed in alfabetical order) going down on track for their practice sessions: Blancpain GT Series, F1, GP2, GP3, IRL, Tudor United Sportscar Championship and V8 Supercars.

Enjoy the races and keep an eye on our session On track this Week to keep up to date on the upcoming events!

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