Expectations
After Ferrari’s lightning starts at the past two Grands Prix, Mercedes’ Niki Lauda was expecting front row sitter Kimi Raikkonen to muscle Lewis Hamilton for the lead at the first turn, perhaps not caring if he came out “unscathed”.
McLaren, Red Bull and Toro Rosso again collected grid penalties for engine, and safety infractions. Honda stated they were superior to the Renaults, but where 23kph slower on the straights than the French manufacturer. watching the McLaren’s unable to challenge anyone despite employing DRS was painful.
Additionally, much talk ensued as to the effect of Lewis Hamilton’s change of hair colour. Such are the salient points in Formula 1 these days…
Overview
Lewis Hamilton won his 40th Grand Prix from a completely dominant performance, having again never faced any serious challenge. Any pressure from second place qualifier Raikkonen evaporated as the start lights went out and the Finn’s Ferrari sat motionless for two seconds; the entire pack swarming around his car. He recovered to finished 5th, while teammate Vettel captured second after a developing late race duel with Rosberg ended with the German’s Mercedes grinding to a smoking halt two laps from the finish. Massa inherited third, with Bottas just yards behind in fourth place.
The dominance of Hamilton was put into question late in the race, when his Mercedes team instructed him to significantly increase his gap between Vettel, but refused to give him the reason until after the race ended. It turned out that both Mercedes were being investigated for starting the race with tire pressures lower than the FIA-mandated figure. It was claimed that Hamilton was 0.03psi low, with Rosberg lower at 1.3. Once Mercedes were made aware of the investigation, they ordered Hamilton to speed up to offset any possible time penalty imposed by the stewards.
After a brief collection of the data, there was a more lengthy explanation given by the stewards concerning Mercedes tyre warmers and length of time they were on and off compared to other cars. Further, they also mentioned that the pressures were correct when the wheels were fitted to the vehicles.
End result – no infraction to answer: Hamilton kept his trophy.
Back in the field, the remaining points scorers were: (Raikkonen / Ferrari); (Perez, Hulkenburg – both Force India); (Riccardo / Red Bull); (Ericsson / Sauber); and (Kvyat / Red Bull).
