Round 8 of the 2014 F1 calendar concluded in Spielberg Circuit in Austria after 11 years of absence. Starting from Friday’s practice sessions, it was clear that the 4.3km circuit was going to create a close field with lap times between cars being quite close. However, the wondering factor was the race pace.
During the race we saw Fernando Alonso lapping almost similar times to the front runners. Meaning, they have kind of caught up on the race pace with the front runners. However, the overall pace is still quite not there as we saw Massa managing to pull off from the Ferrari and the two Mercs managing their pace. However, it was another brilliant and lonely drive from Alonso to get his car in to P5.
We also were able to see one of the best starts of the season from Lewis Hamilton. Doing justice to the fastest car on track, Lewis managed to get from P9 to P4 in the first lap itself. Other highlighting factor was Massa losing it out to the two Mercs and his own team mate. After a good start, Massa lead the race till Nico went for the undercut followed by Lewis Hamilton and Velatri Bottas who all managed to get ahead of Massa when Williams finally decided to bring Massa in for his first Pit Stop. What we gathered from the post-race press conferences was the Williams had already conceded the win and P2 to Mercedes and was happy to take P3 and P4. As F1 fans, we at least expect to see a fight and this decision in my mind is nonsense. With the straight line speeds Williams showed (was faster than Mercs) they could have at least taken the fight to the Mercs which they utterly failed to do.
The other commendable drive was from Sergio Perez of Force India. Starting p13, he ended P6, where we also saw him lead the race for several laps after starting the race on the soft tires and making them last for many laps than others. After observing several races, one conclusion we can easily derive at is how good the Force India’s are on tires. They make tires last longer than any other team.
For a full race review click below.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/6/15991.html
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