Brought to you by TJ13 Courtroom Reporter & Crime Analyst: Adam Macdonald.
[For those who are new to the page; TJ13 attempts to remove certain aspects of the race to give a fairer reflection of the race result.]
A refreshing change from the usual dominant weekends, where a complete change in pace for the qualifying and race led to an unexpected result. More controversy surrounded the Ferrari DRS, but family affairs dominated the news after the race instead. Nobody quite knows where the Spaniard will end up, but Daniel Ricciardo is looking less and less likely to be in the Red Bull seat next year.
Tyres, once again, were expected to play a major role in the weekend’s proceedings. They were not quite so critical, as the Kevlar belted tyres lived up to their billing of not overheating quite so much. This leaves Mercedes GP in a great position. With a much better Sunday car now, they can realistically fight for wins, and perhaps even the WDC and WCC. However, Ross Brawn did concede that the fastest car (the RB) had not won the grand prix.
Who wants Champagne?
So what really happened?
Adrian Sutil: The German failed to finish his 100th GP thanks to a hydraulic leak. Really not much the Force India man could have done. It was caused by a racing incident; the contact with Felipe Massa. Sutil is awarded 7th position.
Nico Rosberg: The Mercedes GP man finally felt how it was to be on the other side of the garage when your teammate wins the race. A difficult afternoon started after contact with Felipe Massa on the opening lap, where he was forced off the road and re-joined in 12th. An engine failure forced him to retire on lap 64.
Valtteri Bottas: The first point of the season (Maldonado), as the Williams GP team finally got the season started also saw the first retirement of the year for Bottas. A hydraulic failure forced him out, stopping on track on lap 42. He is awarded 17th place.
Just waiting for a mate
Esteban Gutierrez: The young Mexican was forced to retire after just 28 laps. It was a gearbox problem that forced him out, culminating in a difficult weekend for the Sauber team as Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th after taking a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Gutierrez is awarded 17th place.
The Verdict
This leaves the revised results table looking like this:
| Revised Race Position | Driver | Result comparison | Points | Points Difference | Grid Position | |
| Start | RevisedPosition | |||||
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | = | 25 | = | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Kimi Raikkonen | = | 18 | = | 6 | 2 |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | = | 15 | = | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | Mark Webber | = | 12 | = | 10 | 4 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | = | 10 | = | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | Romain Grosjean | = | 8 | = | 3 | 6 |
| 7 | Adrian Sutil | RETIRED | 6 | +6 | 11 | 7 |
| 8 | Jenson Button | -1 | 4 | -2 | 13 | 8 |
| 9 | Nico Rosberg | RETIRED | 2 | +2 | 4 | 9 |
| 10 | Felipe Massa | -2 | 1 | -3 | 7 | 10 |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | -2 | 0 | -2 | 9 | 11 |
| 12 | Pastor Maldonado | -2 | 0 | -1 | 15 | 12 |
| 13 | Nico Hulkenberg | -2 | 0 | = | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | Jean-Eric Vergne | -2 | 0 | = | 14 | 14 |
| 15 | Paul Di Resta | -2 | 0 | = | 18 | 15 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | -3 | 0 | = | 8 | 16 |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | REITRED | 0 | = | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | Esteban Gutierrez | RETIRED | 0 | = | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | Giedo van der Garde | -5 | 0 | = | 20 | 19 |
| 20 | Charles Pic | -5 | 0 | = | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | Jules Bianchi | -5 | 0 | = | 21 | 21 |
| 22 | Max Chilton | -5 | 0 | = | 22 | 22 |
Below, the revised World Drivers’ Championship:
| Driver | Revised WDC | WDC Points Difference | |
| Position | Points | ||
| Sebastian Vettel | 1 | 183 | +25 |
| Fernando Alonso | 2 | 140 | +7 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 3 | 118 | -16 |
| Mark Webber | 4 | 110 | +5 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 5 | 103 | -1 |
| Nico Rosberg | 6 | 91 | +7 |
| Felipe Massa | 7 | 66 | +5 |
| Romain Grosjean | 8 | 51 | +2 |
| Adrian Sutil | 9 | 39 | +16 |
| Jenson Button | 10 | 34 | -4 |
| Paul Di Resta | 11 | 24 | -12 |
| Jean-Eric Vergne | 12 | 12 | -1 |
| Sergio Perez | 13 | 11 | -7 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | 14 | 5 | -6 |
| Nico Hulkenberg | 15 | 2 | -5 |
| Esteban Gutierrez | 16 | 0 | = |
| Valtteri Bottas | 17 | 0 | = |
| Pastor Maldonado | 18 | 0 | -1 |
| Jules Bianchi | 19 | 0 | = |
| Charles Pic | 20 | 0 | = |
| Giedo van der Garde | 21 | 0 | = |
| Max Chilton | 22 | 0 | = |
*Those with 0 points will not be ordered
What they would have said
The Grosjean drive-through penalty masked another poor weekend for Ferrari. Alonso’s position in the WDC is higher than it realistically should be. The car simply not kept pace with that of its rivals which must be very worrying for anybody who is involved with Maranello.
This weekend has cost Force India badly. Now only 4 points ahead of McLaren in the WCC, they will surely lose 6th position. The new tyres have been blamed, but it is important to remember this is FI’s 3rd non-point scoring weekend of the year.
Quote of the Day
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was a famous Irish writer and poet, well known for his critical assessment of situations and vivid imagination.
He once said, “When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.” Lewis Hamilton has now ‘got the monkey off his back’ by winning for the first time in 10. However, no sooner had he done so was there more pressure being heaped on by the media trying to draw him into talking about his WDC chances. It’s funny what one good result can do!
Just supposing Gutierrez weren’t a pay-driver, just for a minute in time…..his gearbox problem might then have become a letterbox problem?
The cheque wasn’t in it………
LOL 🙂
Though I have some sympathy for him, I’m not quite sure why you feel Rosberg should be bumped back up to 9th, as it’s arguable that he was the author of his own misfortunes.
It was noticeable during the race just how much Vettel held back when chasing cars in front in order to prevent engine overheating. Might Rosberg have finished had he done the same – or should the team be blamed for not so instructing him ?
The Ferrari have clearly lost performance in the last couple of races and it must be a big concern for them. But at the start of the season they were considered the best package. When you compare all of the teams against each other they have all had races were their cars were not really that competitive. Mercedes were not that good Australia, Bahrain, Spain and Germany. Lotus were not that good in Malaysia, Monaco, Canada and Britain. Ferrari have not been good in Monaco, Britain, Germany and Hungary. It all equals out between Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus when they are directly compared against each other.
The only team who has consistently been good is Red Bull.
She may be getting on a bit but it seems a little unkind to describe Nicole Scherzinger as a monkey.
(Or did I miss something?)