adminWHILE this was almost a recovery drive worthy of Michael Schumacher, the man they worship in these parts, ultimately it was 10 more points lost in the championship for Lewis Hamilton. Nico Rosberg, the runaway winner, was barely seen for most of the afternoon which promised a climax which never came. Valtteri Bottas, who drove to another superb second, for his third podium in a row, only appeared on our screens when he was defending from Hamilton at the death.
The Briton will be delighted with the quality of some of his overtakes, but frustrated that a brake failure in qualifying proved so costly here. The rain that was forecast never came, leaving Hamilton little chance of making it beyond third given his lowly grid slot.
Behind Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel came home fourth at his home race, with Fernando Alonso sixth. Jenson Button was eighth.
Starting all the way down in 20th, Hamilton did well to avoid the chaos in front. Felipe Massa, constantly in the wars on the opening lap of late, collided with Kevin Magnussen with spectacular consequences.
The young Dane made a stunning start, positioning himself on the inside for the Nord curve. Massa, caught unawares, turned in only to connect with the McLaren’s right front wheel. The Brazilian was sent careering into the run-off area, upside down, sparks flying from his Williams. Mercifully, he was unhurt.
The stewards said no-one was to blame, while Massa took umbrage at Magnussen. It looked like a true racing incident. Magnussen had nowhere to go, and if anything, it was Massa who turned in without proper caution. Daniel Ricciardo was the unfortunate victim, doing well to take avoiding action.
Within 30 seconds then, the safety car was out, but only for the solitary lap. Hamilton was 17th at stage, keeping his nose clean. After 10 laps, he had made swift progress to 10th, but more spectacular moves were to come.
Not once but twice, on this muggy afternoon, the finest drivers in the world went three abreast into the turn six hairpin. First, it was Kimi Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Hamilton. Was the Mercedes man going to play it safe? Not a chance. The Ferrari driver was happily making progress, only for the Briton to duck down the inside of the pair of them and pull of the much-heralded ‘double overtake’. It was a stunning piece of race craft.
More was to come. A few minutes later, on lap 15, it was both Ferraris and Sebastian Vettel in formation. The reigning champion made his move, via the grass, while Fernando Alonso snuck around the outside. There was the odd bit of debris, but not enough to cause concern. Raikkonen was the eventual loser in another titanic duel.
Not all the drivers out there were making their teams as happy. Sergio Perez, told repeatedly to save fuel, questioned his engineer one time too many. “I’m not going to ask you again Sergio,” came the stern reply.
After 16 laps, Rosberg and the rest of the leaders were in, with the German already amassing a comfortable advantage. At the end of lap 27, Hamilton finally gave up on his soft tyres (for the conspiracy theorists so prevalent on Twitter, his stops this afternoon were for once quicker than Rosberg’s).
If Hamilton had diced with danger with his double move earlier, then his reunion with former team-mate Jenson Button was even more hairy. On lap 30, Hamilton thought the McLaren was waving him through at the hairpin. He was wrong.
Hamilton made a late lunge and Button, not knowing he was there, turned in. “I thought he was letting me through,” he said. A small portion of his front wing was damaged, but it was not enough to deter this race’s star performer. A lap later, the move was much more comfortable. He even put out an apologetic hand to his older compatriot for his previous error.
For the second half of the race, Hamilton was simply praying for rain if he was to have any chance of catching Rosberg. It never came. Mercedes saw his best chance was to three-stop where others did only two, and hope Hamilton’s famous banzai laps would be enough to reel in the opposition.
On lap 49, Mercedes saw a possible opening. Adrian Sutil span coming out of the last corner, leaving his Sauber spectacularly stricken in the middle of the circuit. A safety car perhaps? Hamilton drove into the pits just in case. After a few laps of deliberations, some brave marshals scurried across the start-finish straight, precariously pushing the car out of the way.
Hamilton’s opportunity never came, but his pace was good enough to soon be on the tail of Bottas for second with seven laps to go.
Behind, Alonso was dicing with the Red Bulls in the closing stages for the second race in succession. For nearly three laps he and Ricciardo fought fairly but firmly. Eventually, the Spaniard prevailed.
Three laps from the end, with Rosberg 20 seconds clear, Hamilton had still not found his way past Bottas. The move many had predicted never came, and 10 more points were lost in this fierce championship duel.
Rosberg now leads the championship by 14 points, winning his “second home race” after Monaco for the first time. —The Telegraph
Online Reporter