Following hot on the heels of the previous race, the man responsible for the largest number of crimes against shirt decency, Eddie Jordan, plopped the concept of Lewis Hamilton heading to Mercedes in our collective heads.
Tied in to this was the idea of Michael Schumacher retiring (again) and maybe Paul di Resta going to McLaren.
An interesting idea, and one that all parties mentioned were busy avoiding answering as the Italian GP weekend got underway. The next few weeks should be entertaining, if you like seeing people squirming after having been put on the spot.
On Saturday, Hulky Wulky’s car decided it didn’t want to play in Q1, eliciting a collective sigh of relief from the rest of the pitlane, as that sorted out the on-going “who will go out in Q1(other than Marussias, Caterhams and Hispanias, obviously)?”question. It also afforded de la Rosa the opportunity to not be second from last on the grid for his 100th GP. Unfortunately, he was out-qualified by his team-mate Karthinkeyan, so normal grid slot service prevailed.
Q2 contained some moderate shocks, as Webber dropped out, along with Perez.
The final session delivered the biggest shock though – after giving Massa a tow into 3rd on the grid, Alonso had car problems and couldn’t have the favour returned, winding up a lowly 10th, whilst di Resta’s 4th became 9th after 5 place penalty was applied for a gearbox change.
Hamilton and Button locked out the front row, with Lewis the one having a dominant weekend this time around.
Race day was set to bung a few surprises in to the mix, and the first one was Massa nailing Button at the start, before having a good look at Hamilton going into the first corner.
Alonso made short work of moving forwards, and was up to 6th on the 2nd lap, whilst Rosberg had a rubbish first tour, dropping 6 places.
Senna and di Resta banged wheels aggressively on lap 7, but more dramatic was Vergne’s airborne exit two laps later, seemingly with suspension failure.
Rosberg was the first of the main contenders to pit on lap 15, with Schumi doing the same a lap later, clearly indicating a two stop strategy, or a car that was eating tyres. Apparently, it was both.
Hamilton was unbothered by any of this though – he was 4 seconds ahead of Button in a role reversal of the previous race, and managing things nicely.
Kimi headed pitwards after succumbing to a fired-up Perez overtaking him around the outside in a cheeky, but perfectly executed, move. Just the sort of thing you’d expect Kimi to do, really.
Meanwhile, Massa discovered his team had absolutely no idea what he was doing, but for once they meant he had no telemetry, and not the usual display of ineptitude.
Seb and Fernando revived their spat from last year on lap 19, as they both pitted, and exited side by side in the pits. Was this too early for them to be on a one stop strategy?
Button’s slow stop on lap 23 saw him re-join in 3rd place, and Hamilton had an uneventful pit visit a lap later.
Das Sebulator and Eyebrow Boy turned up the heat in their scrap on lap 26, as Fernando tried to pass Seb, only to find himself squeezed off the track and into the gravel at high speed. His radio message to the team seemed very high pitched...
Perez was once again doing a stunning job of managing his tyres, and led the race until Hamilton nailed him on lap 29. Sergio pitted shortly afterwards, rejoining in 8th. It was reasonable to assume his afternoon was over, but nobody told him that.
Button’s luck was once again off having a pint somewhere, and a fuel pick-up problem saw last week’s winner retire on lap 34, before generously waving to the crowd, even though he probably felt more like punching something.
Seb paid the price for his Alonso antagonising, taking his drive-through penalty and rejoining in 8th, before making it 7th at the expense of his team-mate. Neither he, nor Webber, need have bothered, as fate was doing some warm-up exercises in the wings, and eyeing up the Red Bulls.
Kimi was heading in the wrong direction, losing a place to Perez, in another great move from the Mexican, before also falling victim to Rosberg.
As the lap counter reached 40, the inevitable happened, and Massa handed his place to Alonso, but it was all looking too late, as Hamilton was now 13 seconds ahead.
Perez, on fresher tyres, had made steady progress, and with 10 laps left managed to pass Massa, whilst Seb got the additional bad news that his car was poorly, and he may need to stop.
Sergio hadn’t settled for 3rd, and on lap 46 passed Alonso, before setting off after Hamilton at a blistering pace.
With 5 laps to go, Vettel got the unwelcome call, and parked his car, whilst Perez closed to within 10 seconds of Lewis.
Webber sealed Red Bull’s bad day with a lurid spin that looked on perfect trajectory to result in a nasty car/wall interface, but somehow Mark steered it away. If his tyres hadn’t been worn before, they certainly were now, with bits of canvas on display. Unable to see because of the vibration, Mark crawled back to the pits to retire.
As the final lap started, Perez had got the gap down to 5 seconds, but Hamilton comfortably won, with home hero Alonso coming home 3rd.
Lewis was oddly subdued post-race... unless you take into account that the team he may be about to leave just gave him a car to win, moving him up to 2nd in the championship. Awkward...
(Discovered the musical genre of Nerdcore recently. So I'm listening to MC Frontalot's "Favoritism". Go me.)
Comments
Post a Comment