The 11th round of the Formula One World Championship has finished and what a race it proved be. Lewis Hamilton came through as the winner ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg whilst Romain Grosjean was welcomed back onto the podium for the 10th time in his career.
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| Romain Grosjean who finished an incredible 3rd place for Lotus. |
The race was conducted over 43 laps after the first race start was aborted due to Force India's Nico Hulkenberg loosing power on the grid after concerns over his ERS system. On the second formation lap Carlos Sainz had a problem and had to pull into the pits before restarting the race 2 laps down.
As the race started no one really had amazing starts but people did have poor starts, Nico Rosberg in particular. Out of turn 1 Hamilton lead Perez from Ricciardo from Bottas from Rosberg. Rosberg however quickly dispatched of Bottas in the first few laps promoting him to 4th. This was the start of Valtteri Bottas very unfortunate and difficult afternoon.
The first pit stop of the day was made by Ricciardo as he was pressuring Sergio Perez for second place. Force India responded by pitting Perez the next lap and the strategies were split as Ricciardo went for mediums and Perez onto the softs. Perez rejoined behind Ricciardo but passed him two laps later on the Kemmel straight.
This battle was beneficial for Nico Rosberg who managed to jump both Ricciardo and Perez in his first pit stop and come out just 3 seconds behind leader Lewis Hamilton.
Things got worse for Valtteri Bottas as during his first pit stop soft tires were put on the car, except for the right rear tire which had a medium tire fitted. This was considered a breach of the rules for mixing tires and Bottas was hit with a drive through penalty thus demoting him to 10th place.
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| Max Verstappen (STR) leads Jenson Button (McLaren) |
As the Ricciardo/Perez battle continued to brew it was abruptly finished as Ricciardo's Red Bull experienced a hydraulic problem which bought him to halt on the start/finish straight. This lead to the deployment of the virtual safety car. Perez, Grosjean and Massa pitted for new tires whilst the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel stayed out on mediums after a quiet race so far. Vettel found himself in 3rd place but was attempting the unthinkable 1 stop strategy.
As in qualifying Romain Grosjean was a flying Frenchman and was the fastest man on track behind the two Mercedes who were running there own race at the front. Grosjean got past 4th place Perez and began to pull away whilst Kvyat also passed Perez before pitting for new soft tires making him an interesting prospect for the end.
The biggest battle of the race began between Romain Grosjean and Sebastian Vettel for the final spot on the podium. In the last 6-7 laps Romain Grosjean found himself 3 seconds behind Sebastian Vettel and catching him with much newer tires. The battle was fought all the way onto the penultimate lap and Sebastian Vettel was holding onto third when he had a right rear tire failure on the start of the Kemmel Straight thus promoting Grosjean into third with Vettel a DNF and classified 12th. Vettel was very angry and frustrated after the race as he felt if the tire had blown 200m earlier (through Eau Rouge) he could have been seriously injured.
Whilst the battle for third was settled the same couldn't be said for 4th through to 8th. Firstly Daniil Kvyat's strategy worked as he managed to get past Sergio Perez and grab 4th place just a couple of laps from the end. On the final lap Felipe Massa was under a lot pressure from Kimi Raikkonen as they fought for 6th place. DRS from Perez kept Massa alive in his battle. Max Verstappen had a chance to get ahead of Raikkonen heading in to Les Combes but his inexperience definitely showed as he overshot the corner in a dive bomb move and he lost too much time to try another move.
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| Felipe Massa of Williams was disappointed with his 6th place finish. |
It was an exciting race and was definitely enjoyed by most. With Monza just 2 weeks away teams like Lotus and Force India will take a lot confidence heading to the power dependent circuit. Teams like Williams will be left wondering and out of confidence. The drive of the day definitely went to Romain Grosjean, but money concerns are hindering the team and people are wondering if they will make it to Monza. The final classification was:
1st) Lewis Hamilton
2nd) Nico Rosberg
3rd) Romain Grosjean
4th) Daniil Kvyat
5th) Sergio Perez
6th) Felipe Massa
7th) Kimi Raikkonen
8th) Max Verstappen
9th) Valtteri Bottas
10th) Marcus Ericsson
11th) Felipe Nasr
12th) Sebastian Vettel (DNF)
13th) Fernando Alonso
14th) Jenson Button
15th) Roberto Merhi
16th) Will Stevens
17th) Carlos Sainz (DNF)
18th) Daniel Ricciardo (DNF)
19th) Pastor Maldonado (DNF)
20th) Nico Hulkenberg (DNF)
Monza will take place from the 2nd-6th of September.
All images courtesy of
www.Formula1.com
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