2014 Austrian Grand Prix - Red Bull Ring

[henra]

Alonso is the only driver out of the big 3 who is doing himself justice this year. Today was yet another strong drive that left Kimi in the dust.

In the past I have been sometimes critical with Alonso when he was moaning and bitching too much and was openly favoured by his Team over his Team mates and when rules only applied to the 21 other guys on the grid.
This year, however, he is handed another mediocre ride but instead of complaining he is simply delivering, out- driving his ride and his Team mate fair and square and not losing the morale after the n-th season without a really competitive car.
Hats off to that guy.

[PlatinumZealot]

Embarrassment for Raikkonen?

Shame for Vettel?

What's going on?!!

[Waywardism]

Lewis stopped too long on his first stop so engineers had to shuffle along, according to Mercedes via Ted Kravitz. Second stop there was some damage that the engineer was wary of aggravating, so he was a bit more careful and slow changing the front left tyre.

[Steven]

The damage spoken about was on the brake cake tin (the cover over the calipers and brake discs) damage the crew needed to avoid.

[henra]

Embarrassment for Raikkonen?

Shame for Vettel?

What's going on?!!

Good question.
Raikkonen is an original for sure. You have to love this guy for his straightforwardness. (Give me more power.... classic) I'm not sure about his ultimate commitment, though.

Vettel looks resigned.
He struggled/s with the driving properties of his ride. It doesn't seem to suit his preferences. And the multitude of technical gremlins on top of that seems to have finished him off. I think he is mostly done for the season.

Edit: I'm not sure if the fact that he has a child now also took away a bit of his motivation/dedication. Outside of his race car he never seemed to be quite as ultimately dedicated/commited as a Michael Schumacher or Ayrton Senna. With those guys you knew without a doubt that a child wouldn't make them slower.

[f1universe]

Very good race by Rosberg, Bottas and Perez, but Alonso was for me the driver of the day, still don't get what he did to end so close to Williams, if ony his car had a little more pace..... just a little, podium after podium.

Lewis did great but screw big time on saturday.

[Harsha]

3 Years in a Row Sebastian retired from a race in round 8
2012 - Valencia , 2013 - Silverstone , 2014 - Austria

[Pilatus]

29 points is probably too much for Lewis to overcome without a DNF going Nico's way. Nico is now firm favorite to become Champion.

Way too early. There is still plenty of opportunities for Hamilton to grab that back (not even considering the double points @final race). Chances increased that the season will remain open until the last races.

That said, looking at the Ferrari and Renault powered cars makes me profoundly worried. Without Alonso who pulled again points out of thin air it would have looked really really grim. They both still seem to be massively lacking power, probably Renault even worse than Ferrari. All Renault powered cars were just easy prey on the long up- hill straight.
Let's hope that at least Williams can slose the gap further and start to challenge the Mercs.

Agreed on the part bolded

Alonso is the only driver out of the big 3 who is doing himself justice this year. Today was yet another strong drive that left Kimi in the dust.

Yes... Alonso is performing masterly.
His performance today was stunning.
And not just today.

Like henra said - he's pulling points just from thin air.

And he was doing that last season, he was doing that season before.... and he was doing that every season in F1 that he had competed.

But without competitive car, that means nothing, just personal satisfaction for him.
And his fans.

[SectorOne]

Lewis stopped too long on his first stop so engineers had to shuffle along, according to Mercedes via Ted Kravitz. Second stop there was some damage that the engineer was wary of aggravating, so he was a bit more careful and slow changing the front left tyre.

There´s always something innit..

He would have jumped the whole lot with an identical stop to Nico.

[f1316]

At the risk of wishful thinking, Ferrari's pace relative to the best on a track with so many straights is encouraging.

Alonso said after Canada that changes to maps hadn't really added much, so my inference is that the chassis has improved to the extent that they could be reasonably competitive at a less power dependent track (possibly Silverstone).

[basti313]

Yes... Alonso is performing masterly.
His performance today was stunning.
And not just today.

Like henra said - he's pulling points just from thin air.

Yes, like always when the spot is not on him. He only loses points when it counts...like cruising behind Rai in 2012 or crashing or messing up the Q...

Very good race by Rosberg, Bottas and Perez, but Alonso was for me the driver of the day, still don't get what he did to end so close to Williams, if ony his car had a little more pace..... just a little, podium after podium.

Well...traditionally the Ferrari is the worst car on the grid when Alonso is driving it. As he was the fastest one in the middle stint, the car actually does not need more pace. Only the Samurai has to work on him self to be superior for the whole race.

[henra]

Well...traditionally the Ferrari is the worst car on the grid when Alonso is driving it. As he was the fastest one in the middle stint, the car actually does not need more pace. Only the Samurai has to work on him self to be superior for the whole race.

Although I know it was a bit tongue un cheek, he was fastest because he pitted much later and had fresher tyres on at that point in time and they did not hae to last for 30 laps, so he could use them more aggressively.
Still, when looking where the next Ferrari or Renault powered car ended up you have to leave it to Alonso that he grabbed the most points of any non- Merc powered car by far.
That said, on the straights the Ferrari didn't look quite as hopeless as the Renault (un-)powered ( ) ones.

[Shrieker]

One thing no one has mentioned so far (as far as I've seen) is Rosberg again making a mistake in the race, which could've been very crucial. When Bottas was on his tail in the second stint, Nico overcooked the first turn and went wide over the sausage kerb. Thankfully for him, Bottas was sleeping on the job and couldn't really capitalize on that mistake apart from harassing him a bit.

Imho this shows that when pushed, Nico makes the odd mistake. It was the same in Canada when Hamilton was chasing him (if there wasn't anything wrong with Nico's brakes, that is).

[aral]

One thing no one has mentioned so far (as far as I've seen) is Rosberg again making a mistake in the race, which could've been very crucial. When Bottas was on his tail in the second stint, Nico overcooked the first turn and went wide over the sausage kerb. Thankfully for him, Bottas was sleeping on the job and couldn't really capitalize on that mistake apart from harassing him a bit.

Imho this shows that when pushed, Nico makes the odd mistake. It was the same in Canada when Hamilton was chasing him (if there wasn't anything wrong with Nico's brakes, that is).

So Hamiltons little mistakes are inconsequential??? And dont forget, even with the use of DRS, Hamilton could still not get past Nico.

[f1316]

To me this was a lot like Bahrain or Canada but in reverse, with the guy in 2nd arguably quicker but - for whatever reason - just not able to get past.

Completely off topic, but when I see how closely matched Rosberg is with Hamilton i still can't help thinking how fast a 43 year old Michael must have been in 2012. Puts the whole comeback in a different light, for me.