Grand Prix 2015 Austrian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

F1 is back in Austria for 71 laps of the 2.688 mile track. 9 corners, a giant metal bull and enough sugary caffeine drink to give you heart palpitations. This is the Red Bull Ring.

At this point in the championship last year Nico arrived here 22 points ahead of Lewis, and was hoping to increase that gap.

What happened next nobody expected. Williams secured a front row lock out in Qualifying giving Massa the teams first pole position since 2003. Nico could only manage 3rd and Lewis had a shocker down in 9th.

Qualifying pace and race pace are however different things, and the Williams couldn’t live with the Mercedes despite the Mercs nursing brake issues for most of the race. Nico secured the win doing enough to stay ahead of a chasing Hamilton in 2nd, a position helped by an amazing first lap from Lewis where he made up 5 places. Bottas fought valiantly for 3rd and his first ever podium. Massa came home in 4th.

Despite this being the home of Redbull, the team had a bit of a nightmare. With a Retirement for Sebastian (thank you boys) Vettel, and just an 8th for Dan. This home advantage thing isn’t as important as it would appear. With the year they are having (yeh no it’s Renaults fault I tells yah) its hard to see Dan and Dan doing much better this time round either.

So here we are 8 races into the season, just shy of half distance, and the Merecedes boys have, pending any cataclysms, got both championships sown up. Its hard to see anyone catching them at this point barring miracles.

Lewis has a 17 point lead and is back on top after Canada with Nico looking like he is running out of answers. If Nico is to stay in the fight he needs to win here. Otherwise the points gap and his mental doubt could build into an avalanche.

Ferrari upgrades bring them in closer to the Mercs but they still need to find at least half a second. Good result for Kimi last time out baring the spin (not my fault guv).

The thing I am most looking forward to is seeing if Williams can do the same as they did last year. I always enjoy seeing a smiley Claire Williams. Everything crossed for them to at least beat the Ferraris.

Hopefully McLaren can avoid another double DNF, but even if they do I'm sure they will say they are still improving. Alonso will be hoping to just finish after 3 DNF’s in a row.

Most people in the CTA pole scored this 7 out of ten last year. Lets hope it’s as good this year.

Highlights from last year.


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It doesn't matter due to the fact some dolt crossed the pit lane exit line. It meant Rosberg was not pressured for the win, just as Hamilton got a free ride at Singapore 2009.
 
Hamilton was annoyed at the extra lap, which could explain why he lost focus exiting the pits.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that the two are connected.
 
Hamilton was annoyed at the extra lap, which could explain why he lost focus exiting the pits.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that the two are connected.
Yep the sight of the back of Rosbergs car at twice the distance from when he last saw it would have had him gaping. Hamilton had a kind of resignation about him when interviewed after the race - and after Monaco it won't take much to break his faith in the teams so called impartiality and Sunday certainly didn't help.
 
I think its more likely down to him being uncomfy with the old style clutch when he's got used to the new one.

Has anyone heard them explain why they've switched back?
 
They said the clutch they were using previously was inconsistent, whatever that means.

I'm not sure whether that applies to one or both drivers.
 
Yeah thats just jargon talk for we're not telling you isn't it?

I wonder if it was linked to something they were worried would break!
 
Brogan - They may be connected, but I scarcely think Mercedes' strategists are thinking, "we better pit him this lap, because if we leave him one lap longer, there's a risk he'll be too annoyed to keep within track limits."

In fact, I scarcely think Mercedes' strategists are thinking.

Nonetheless, Hamilton loses any right to complain about the result when he doesn't get his the easy part of his bit right. No-one else crossed that line.
 
Mercedes said they left Hamilton out a lap longer as they expected Rosberg to be held up by Massa
That's strange why would a team deliberately try and get one of their drivers held up by another car to benefit the other driver? A very odd strategy call if you ask me...
 
You said they thought he was going to be held up by Massa if that were the case why didn't they wait until Rosberg would not be held up by Massa before they pitted him I thought teams employed hundred of strategist to avoid this sort of thing so just like assuming if Lewis had pitted a lap earlier he would not have crossed the white line then we can assume the team wanted Rosberg to be held up by Massa because they pitted him when they did but it didn't work out for them due to Massa pitting at the wrong time to make it work..

But that is the problem with making assumptions isn't it, usually they are wrong...
 
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Anyway regardless of all that it seemed to me at this track for whatever reason Nico had the legs on Lewis, this is not unheard of Lewis will beat Rosberg at just about any track just like Schumacher would beat Barachelo at any track but for some reason when it came to Austria Reubens had the beating of Michael even though he was not actually allowed to win there..
 
I agree.

I said that even without the delayed pit stop and white line transgression, Rosberg would still have won.

I even think that if Hamilton had got to the first corner in front, Rosberg would have been past sooner or later. Perhaps.
 
I quite enjoyed the race. There were some good battles. Great drive from Rosberg. He showed some real mental toughness and showed everyone he can beat Hamilton.

Let's acknowledge a victory for Rosberg when he achieves it. These consiracy theories are a bit much sometimes. We don't seem to pick Nico's races apart when he loses to Hamilton. Nico is a good driver and doesn't need the team's help to win.

I hope we get a quality race at Silverstone.
 
Testing times from Austria, courtesy of www.crash.net

1. Pascal Wehrlein GER Mercedes-Mercedes 67 laps 1m 11.005s
2. Esteban Ocon FRA Force India-Mercedes 76 laps 1m 11.192s
3. Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 97 laps 1m 11.328s
4. Antonio Fuoco ITA Ferrari-Ferrari 71 laps 1m 11.331s
5. Romain Grosjean FRA Lotus-Mercedes 45 laps 1m 11.509s
6. Pierre Gasly FRA Red Bull-Renault 80 laps 1m 11.757s
7. Raffaele Marciello ITA Sauber-Ferrari 53 laps 1m 11.826s
8. Stoffel Vandoorne NED McLaren-Honda 76 laps 1m 12.530s
9. Susie Wolff GBR Williams-Mercedes 39 laps 1m 13.248s
 
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