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| Couch vs Yacht : "I can't believe I might lose to this guy" |
Whichever way the fight between the two Mercedes drivers will end two weeks from nowin Abu Dhabi, one thing is for certain, Nico Rosberg proved all the doubters and haters wrong.
Here he is, one race to go and he's outscored Lewis, the man conventional wisdom has as the fastest driver over a single lap, in pole positions this year. Somehow he still has a chance if he wins the final race in Abu Dhabi. Of course he will have won five races, half as many as Hamilton, a statistic that will drive Lewis and his fans insane with rage if the Briton manages to lose the championship.
Because it is Hamilton's championship to lose at this point. Mathematics say that if Rosberg wins the final, double point race, Hamilton has to finish no worse than second. Given Mercedes' record of 1-2 finishes this year, this should be an easy ask for Lewis. In Brazil the Mercs finished 41 seconds ahead of third place Felipe Massa... 41 seconds!
But it's not a done deal, Hamilton has shown he too can make mistakes at crucial moments, he was extremely lucky to get away with his spin at Interlagos without any damage to his car and with very minor damage to his championship hunt.
In a way, it's too bad he did get away with it, the ideal championship finale would have the two both needing a win to be crowned champion, with no possibility of winning from P2. But it didn't work out that way.
Hamilton now has 334 points vs Rosberg's 317. Should Hamilton come second in the final race he would finish the season with 370 points vs Rosberg's 367. But he has to finish second if Nico wins, third would not cut it (334 + (15x2)= 364).
If something happened to Hamilton and he dropped out, Rosberg will have to score at least a 6th place to win the Championship.
I would guess Hamilton will not play it safe.
Being the Mercedes', it was Mercedes power: Massa managed a podium despite a 5 sec penalty and pulling into the Mclaren pit for service. Button must have made quite a few wonder why he does not have a seat in F1 yet for next year.
Raikkonen was the liveliest he has been all season, better late than never. His fight with Alonso was exciting and his not moving over is probably all the proof you need Fernando is leaving.
Not much else to say really except bring on Abu Dhabi and the 2015 season.
FORMULA 1 GRANDE PRÊMIO PETROBRAS DO BRASIL 2014
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 71 | 1:30:02.555 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 71 | +1.4 secs | 2 | 18 |
| 3 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 71 | +41.0 secs | 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 71 | +48.6 secs | 5 | 12 |
| 5 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 71 | +51.4 secs | 6 | 10 |
| 6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 71 | +61.9 secs | 8 | 8 |
| 7 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 71 | +63.7 secs | 10 | 6 |
| 8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 71 | +63.9 secs | 12 | 4 |
| 9 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 71 | +70.0 secs | 7 | 2 |
| 10 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 70 | +1 Lap | 4 | 1 |
| 11 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | STR-Renault | 70 | +1 Lap | 17 | |
| 12 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 70 | +1 Lap | 16 | |
| 13 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Renault | 70 | +1 Lap | 15 | |
| 14 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 70 | +1 Lap | 11 | |
| 15 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 70 | +1 Lap | 18 | |
| 16 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 70 | +1 Lap | 13 | |
| 17 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 63 | Power unit | 14 | |
| Ret | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 39 | Suspension | 9 |
I think trying to do 2 "hammer time" laps in a row - the second one being the one with the spin - is what might have cost him the race. He radioed in later on to say that the tyres would only do a single "push" lap, so I think his mistake might have come from just over working the rubber. I think if he'd pitted after the first push lap it would have been a mighty close run down the straight with the pit exit. Good battle at the end though, kept Nico honest for the race win.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if your anti British , just compensating for pro British media, anti Hamilton or maybe pro Rosberg...but I don't think you need to smash Hamilton or pump up Rosberg. Rosberg is fast, there is no question. He destroyed Schumacher v2. And was equal or better to Hamilton right away in Malaysia 2013....add the pole domination this year, and those are proof he is as fast.
ReplyDeleteBut sorry, If I am a betting man, and both are given reliable cars (and this is where I think you are neglecting to give Hamilton credit...way more reliability issues)....I am picking Hamilton, not by a wide margin, but clearly he is the faster, and better racer IMO..... Even the Spa whining I disagree with , no question Rosberg could have avoided contact..... But Hamilton would have wiped out Rosberg if he held his line in Hungary... So I think it was payback...as Rosberg may have won there, or beaten Hamilton
Anyway , maybe these double points are a good thing, as Hamilton would have it locked up otherwise.... One more chance for another DNF for Hamilton
PS ..... I'm Canadian.... So could be tainted being a former colony !
So much for "sticking a fork in Rosberg" because he's "done."
ReplyDeleteHowever, as Steve said, if reliability isn't a concern at Abu Dhabi, then Hamilton is your man. Has Rosberg ever passed Hamilton this year? I mean, other than jumping him during pitstops, has Rosberg actually executed a pass on him? I am sure there has to be at least one, but I can only recall several moves Hamilton put on Rosberg. And the Rosberg tire-slice-pass in Spa doesn't count.
The other factor is race pace. Sure, Rosberg has out qualified Hamilton, but Hamilton definitely has the measure of him over a race distance - see what he did in Brazil for example.
I'm surprised you didn't suggest racism.
ReplyDeleteI guess I will never understand why people see ANY criticism of Hamilton a HATE. He did mess up in the race, yes? He did blame the team for it afterwards, yes? (They left me out there one lap too long). As for Rosberg, if you read British media, Lewis "clawed back 7 seconds in the race" not "Nico administered his tires cleverly so he would have better traction off the final corner to keep Lewis, who had 2 lap never tires, under control". As for the rest of the season, Hamilton started bellyaching when things were not going his way, He used the threat of leaving to strengthen his position in the team (the post Spa dressing down of Nico was a consequence), he was fairly despicable when he stated he deserved to win more because Nico " was born rich in Monaco" while he was poor and had to sleep on couches. Before the end of the season, I would not be surprised to hear him claim god himself anointed him as the one true successor to Ayrton Senna. It's happened before in F1 of course but if Hamilton wins the 2014 title he will have been better than only 1 other driver. Those are just facts.
ReplyDeleteFirst , I'm not suggesting the word Hate needs to be used in anybody this . And my comments above for sure were referring to on track performance vs off.
ReplyDeleteYep , Nico has it together off track , and Hamilton has some maturing and I think confidence building to do. I think Hamiltons self confidence is very fragile. If Nico loses he owned his mistakes , and you mention a few good points where Hamilton has to point fingers, and is a totally ungracious loser.
Of the two, Hamilton has had a tougher year , which is even more difficult to cope with when you have a car that has you destined for Championship winner
But yep , Nico is the PR dream , yep you have made me more aware of the UK media slant.... But Hamilton is faster and a better racer maybe because he needs to win more than Nico
Steve, don't try to be reasonable with guys like AC, its rather pointless. AC is no different from most Hamilton haters. His favorite drivers are Kimi and Alonso. But when it comes to Hamilton, he will support anyone. And I mean ANYONE! He's not even a fan of Rosberg, but he will jump on that bandwagon if it means Rosberg beats Hamilton. Look how quickly he deserted Rosberg after Austin("stick a fork in him" article) and after Brazil, he does a complete 180. Its rather pointless to try to be conciliatory and rational with guys like AC. Don't be the nice liberal. Call him out for what he is and most importantly make no apologies about it!
ReplyDeleteDon't even entertain his BS arguments trying to justify why he thinks Hamilton is an ungrateful driver or a horrible human being off the track. Just look at how he is twisting and spinning the "I'm hungrier" comment Hamilton made early this year. I can see why F1 media/journalists wouldn't mind putting a spin on it even though its quite clear what Hamilton said and meant. But I also understand why AC, a "blogger" would apply that spin for his personal reasons, not because he was he wants to increase traffic on his site. This site will never be that big. I'm willing to bet AC thinks Hamilton has it way too easy because he started with McLaren. Starting with a competitive team is actually a harder challenge than starting with a midfield or back marker team. What Hamilton has done is actually quite remarkable because it wasn't suppose to workout so well. No driver has since been able to replicate it. I thought Magnussen was about to pull it off but that didn't work out. Even if McLaren delivered a good car, chances are Button would have moped the floor with him.
I've got some bad news for you bud, you'll be rooting for losers all your life if you're searching for that "boy scout" champion. BTW, Rosberg isn't the angel you think he is and you know that. We are very much aware of your selective criticism/amnesia...so please spare us the BS argument that you don't like Hamilton because of his "attitude." We know what that means.
ReplyDeleteAgain a hilarious example of HAM Hysteria: like an offended Justin Beiber fan this guy wrote the above under one name and the long diatribe below under another, both from the same ip address of course... Reminds me of the army of russian YouTube commenters who assault anyone daring to make fun of their drunk driving videos :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr."in Search of a Nice Winner" for that. Why so defensive?
ReplyDeleteThe fact that your blog posts have readers like this foaming at the mouth is the same reason I keep coming back. You can't make everybody happy, but good god these Hamilton sack riders are such sensitive pansies.
ReplyDeleteSo what's the probs with the Biebs now?? First my Hammy, now Canada's best export!! Trashing all my guys ! :)
ReplyDeleteJust reviewing 2014, and some of the tough luck Ham had to cope with ... DNF's in Aus, Canada , and of course Spa, brakes exploded in Qualy in Germany , started 20th, next race Hungary, car caught fire , started pit lane.... Ros had to cope with DNF's on two instances , Britain and Singapore
ReplyDeleteIf you knock out the races with DNF's , that leaves 13 clean races.... Of those Hamilton finished ahead of Rosberg 10 times ...and I am including Germany and Hungary where Ham started p20 and pit lane
Rosberg could not pass Ham in Bahrain and Hungary... Ham managed to pass Ros in Italy, Japan and USA ....
In fairness Ros was positively kind in Japan and US, and Italy a gift.... Ham was schumacheresque in running Ros off track in Bahrain and Hungary......
Which leads us to Abu Dabi ....if no DNF 's odds are good Ham will prevail ..... But will see ...
More fuel for the fire
I never dare criticize the Hams. Rap fans are very loyal ;) One more race ! Riots coming soon...
ReplyDelete