Grand Prix 2014 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The "European" Season continues in Canada at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Last year Vettel took pole and the win, somehow this season it doesn't look likely that there will be a repeat, rather we will see the two Mercedes drivers battling things out for win seven out of seven as Hamilton and Rosberg share the races out between them.

After Monaco Rosberg has returned to the top the drivers championship but is 4-2 down to Hamilton in race wins. Lewis likes Canada so perhaps this race will see things tip back in his favour. The big question will be the inter-team dynamic after Monaco. Rosberg's pole appears to have rankled Hamilton and he questioned the team tactics regarding the safety car. Perhaps a pole to flag win for the Englishman will put these things to the back of his mind.

Red Bull and Ferrari will battle to be the best of the rest, with Daniel Ricciardo proving that the decision to give him the "second" Red Bull seat has been more than justified. Force India, Toro Ross and McLaren will, almost certainly, be battling for the final places in the top 10 in both qualie and race with Hulkenberg and Perez likely to come out on top but pushed hard, especailly by Danial Kvyat who is looking to be a genuine talent. Quite how Lotus will perform remains to be seen with both cars and drivers blowing hot and cold in the first races of the season.

Marussia are unlikely to repeat their points scoring antics in Montreal but the lift the result in Monaco will have given them will hopefully propel them forward and bring interest from new sponsors. Sauber and Caterham will be at the back, or perhaps they will create a shock and suddenly find some pace.

So another Mercedes win, almost certainly. Which of the Mercedes drivers takes the win could have a huge effect on the rest of the season. Let's hope the for a good race. As well as your top 3 predictions I'd welcome your suggestions for victims of the Wall of Champions 2014.

 

[P1]

I think I was the only one in the chat room who thought it was clearly Perez fault. Guess the Stewards agreed with that too.

 

[KekeTheKing]

This is absolutely bizarre. I cant see any way that Perez should receive a penalty and not Massa. Incredible.

 

[RasputinLives]

Great race and congrats to Danny Ric on his maiden win! Great to see.

Have to say if those Red Bulls had anything but Renault power in their car I think they would have both been past Perez (and Rosberg) quick sharp. You saw it when Seb was behind Hulk too. The Red Bull was so much faster throught the corners but the grunt of the Merc gave them nowhere to pass until Perez brakes went.

Still think Massa should have stayed out on a one stop.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Seriously? But Perez was In front of Massa wasn't he?

Putting the blame on the person behind is not a valid argument even when it is on a normal road situation, assume you are driving on a motorway leaving the required amount of gap to the car in front and then suddenly a car swerves in front of you from another lane then brakes hard because he is out of control and you hit him, is that then your fault? I think not..

 

[Slyboogy]

Great race! Best of the season so far!

Got a good fight between the Mercedes drivers from the start and until Hamilton had to retire. Find it odd how both cars got the same problem on the same lap though.

Different strategies mixed up the race and that's what we like to see.

Perez may have cost us a battle for the win between both Red Bull drivers due to his awesome drive and Mercedes engine, but it was still a good race nevertheless.

Not sure why Williams didn't leave Massa out on the one stop like they were planning too, they had enough of a lead to Rosberg, and Perez was holding up the pack, there was no way he would have passed 5 cars with 10 laps to go once he pitted. Don't know why he didn't go to the inside line when overtaking Vettel. Gutted he didn't win, another missed podium opportunity for Williams.

Button in fourth out of nowhere surprised, not sure where that came from!

Poor race from Ferrari, their upgrade package looked to have elevated them up a little, but seems as if they failed to impress, team blaming it on the high temperatures. Whatever the issue, still an abysmal race.

As for the Perez and Massa incident, it looked as if Perez braked earlier than normal and Massa changing line a little, but the stewards say Perez was moving around. My friends and I knew a collision at some point between the top 6 was going to happen, but not Massa harpooning Perez like that!

Ah, Max Chilton...he's that majorly disappointed that his string of finished comes to an end that he goes on to blame his team mate Jules Bianchi for ruining it, despite being the one who tokyo drifted into him.

Well done Ricciardo, but I feel that it was quite a lucky win, but very well done nevertheless!

 

[Dario Resta]

Didn't Bruno Senna change his line in the braking zone at Barcelona when Schumacher ran into the back of him? Nearly everyone - including the stewards, blamed Schumacher for that one.

 

[RasputinLives]

Schumacher used to get blamed for everything though.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Dario Resta I assume that's because Senna was already effectively in front of Schumacher, having moved left onto the normal line for the right-hander ahead, when Schumacher just ploughed into the back of him. Whereas Perez was already on the correct line for the approaching left-hander, then jinked left just enough to clip Massa who was steaming down his inside. Whether Massa would have made the corner anyway at the speed he was doing, we'll never know.

 

[RasputinLives]

Question:

If Merc were aware their ERS system was malfunctioning in a way that would wear the brakes down why didn't they shift their brake balance to the front on both cars straight away? They changed it with Rosberg after Lewis had his problem and Rosberg had been running more front balance anyway so was in better shape (we heard that on the radio) but, as Ted said in the pitlane, the teams fitted the cars with smaller brakes this season because the ERS system gave them additional braking power so they must have been aware it would be an issue.

I'm not technical so excuse the laymans terms but it appeared Merc were closing the stable door after the horse bolted.

 

[Dizzi]

I think that's a very valid point RasputinLives if Merc knew braking was going to be an issue surely they would want both cars to be best set up to handle it.
At the time I thoguht it strange they were both having the same problem but the brake bias was different, of course I'm no engineer so don't understand the issues, I suppose the difference between running in clear air and running behind a car is massive which was unfortunate for Lewis.
Nico is definitely showing he's no pushover & he's now showing signs of his time spent as Michael's team-mate.
Hamilton either finishes on the podium or not at all in Canada, personally I'd have prefered the podium to be Dan, Sergio & Felipe to keep the mercedes drivers closer.
Huge congratulations to Dan Ricciardo, I'm very happy for him and it was well deserved. It may be touted as being a 'lucky' win but he had to have his car in the right place at the right time....no luckier than making sure you get pole at Monaco <ducks!>
Seb impressed me greatly with his congratulations for his team-mate - there's some sulky drivers out there that could learn from him!
Felipe & Checo drove better than I thought they would until the accident (any news on them??)
Canada always delivers....let's see what the Red Bull Ring can follow with....

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Hamilton touched on this after the race. His car was originally set up with more rear bias but the key factor was running behind nico meant his brakes weren't getting the same level of cooling.

 

[FB]

If this point has been made before I apologise but how lucky was Vettel during the Perez/Massa incident? Either car could have taken him out but they went either side.

 

[Hamberg]

Putting the blame on the person behind is not a valid argument even when it is on a normal road situation, assume you are driving on a motorway leaving the required amount of gap to the car in front and then suddenly a car swerves in front of you from another lane then brakes hard because he is out of control and you hit him, is that then your fault? I think not..

But this is racing. And one change of racing line used to be permitted. Was that thing you used to be able to do... what was it...
... defending?

 

[Brogan]

The stewards are never wrong though so it was obviously Perez at fault.

 

[RasputinLives]

I always thought the golden rule of single seater racing was no moving around in the braking zone.

You can defend without doing that.

 

[Monkeyhead]

This really was an unpredictable race! I'm really impressed by the performance of the Red Bulls, as they managed to beat the Mercedes engines on a track where engine performance really counts. Even though they were a little lucky, the result was fully deserved in this Monza 1988-style race. I'm really happy for Ricciardo.

It's a shame that Williams and Force India couldn't convert their potential into results. I didn't understand why Massa pitted while leading the race. His complete lack of overtaking skills cost him dearly, while Bottas dropped back because he couldn't make his 1-stop strategy work. The Force Indias also dropped back because of their 1-stop strategy, although without braking problems Pérez would probably have won the race.

It was a race full of drama and missed opportunities. The Red Bull Ring is quite similar to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, so it must be a cracker of a race!

 

[Slyboogy]

If this point has been made before I apologise but how lucky was Vettel during the Perez/Massa incident? Either car could have taken him out but they went either side.

I think Vettel did very well to avoid that actually, he was about to turn into the corner, then hit the brakes and steered away, if he turned into the corner normally. It would have been race over.

 

[TomysF1]

Absolutely excited with this race. Wow! I love it. I am going to watch replay now!

 

[Josh]

Best race of the year so far imo. Here's a gif of the Massa/Pèrez crash from Vettel's onboard camera.

 

[olegg]

I'm very sorry another technical trouble for Hamilton.
But this race was very interesting.