Once upon a time, the head of Mercedes team promised Hamilton’s mom that everything was going to be just great… He was definitely not lying about this, as this season Lewis has already clinched fourth victory in a row! Meanwhile, Rosberg is getting closer, while Daniil Kvyat was only 14th to cross the finish line this time.
Before the race, FIA announced that it had dropped plans for a budget cap in 2015. Smaller teams — Marussia, Caterham, Sauber, and Force India — immediately sent a letter to FIA and European Union saying it was not the right decision. Only Bernie Ecclestone has responded so far — he suggested meeting with teams’ representatives at Heathrow Airport in London. What were they talking about on the take-off strip? As reported by f1news.ru, teams’ bosses suggested extending paddock curfew, which limits the amount of time a team can spend to work on the car during the racing weekend; banning of tyre-warmers; gradually crossing over to the use of standardised components, including the active suspension homologated by FIA; using 18-inch tyres. However, the two sides have not come to an agreement regarding these issues yet so the negotiations are to be continued.
In spite of these events, teams are upgrading their race cars and brought many premieres to the race in Barcelona. David Greenwood, Chief Engineer at Marussia F1 Team: “During the weekend in Barcelona we can see clearly well if there is anything wrong with the car. What concerns car adjustments, they are not different from those we used in Malaysia from the point of view of downforce. The car has to cope with high-speed corners. It’s always a pleasure to come to Barcelona as here you can get honest answers to all your questions regarding the car’s behaviour”.
Practice session went on almost without a hitch, the only incident happened to Toro Rosso’s driver Jean-Éric Vergne who lost a wheel. Nevertheless, the team’s chief engineer Laurent Mekies said he was pleased with the tests: “Overall, until five minutes to go, it was going quite well today. We had a solid Friday with pretty much all of our test items completed. Unfortunately we had an issue with Jev's pit stop at the end of his long run, when we lost a wheel as soon as he left the pit lane, but luckily no one was injured".
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) was not able to take part in Friday’s practice session due to an electrical problem that had damaged the wiring loom. It all went well for the rest of the pilots. All of them were in competitive spirits; Daniil Kvyat said he was ready to score some points, Nico Rosberg was eager to overtake Lewis Hamilton: “Every weekend is really important. Lewis has come off three wins now, so it is important to try and break his momentum, turn it around, and get the win myself this weekend, so I am aiming to do just that”.
Lewis Hamilton: “I’ve been participating in different races held on this track since 2006. It was then when I got really close to scoring victory — that was back in GP2. But now the situation is even better — we’ve got the best car and the best team which keeps moving ahead and gives us a chance for a victory”. Here’s what Lewis said about the competition with his teammate: “Both of us really enjoy such keen competition. That is why I love karting — you have to fight constantly there, overtaking in each corner. It is getting more and more difficult to do it as you move forward to serious categories because the downforce increases. We had a great fight with Nico in Bahrain”. Well, Nico doesn’t seem to be so happy about this competition.
Sauber and Toro Rosso broke the curfew on Saturday night before qualifying — both teams stayed at the track between 2 and 8 a.m. which is forbidden according to the rules. However, no sanctions were taken as teams have six individual exceptions permitted during the season.
Nico Rosberg was first in qualifying (his results were 1:26.764, 1:26.088, 1:25.400), however Hamilton managed to demonstrate best time (1:27.238, 1:26.210, 1:25.232). Ricciardo was third on the grid, while Daniil Kvyat was only 13th.
A series of misfortunes of the defending world champion Vettel seems to continue — he was hit with a gearbox problem during qualifying. By the way, Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) had crashed his car again but marshals still admitted him to the race. Apparently, there were enough of approval letters prepared for Pastor for the entire season.
The race followed the regular scenario. Lewis Hamilton, who had told journalists about the ‘inspiration’ he had during this Grand Prix, was first to start and was keeping the lead. Rosberg was chasing him, Bottas (Williams) passed Ricciardo, Gutiérrez (Sauber) won back three positions for tenth place. Magnussen (McLaren) went off the track on the second lap and hit Vettel’s car when coming back. Luckily, it was of no consequence: “I went into Turn 13 and went wide onto the marbles. As I came back onto the circuit, Sebastian hadn't seen me, and our cars briefly touched. Luckily, there was no damage to either of our cars, so we could both carry on without problem”.
Sure enough, Pastor Maldonado had to serve a five-second stop-go penalty. He caused a collision with Ericsson (Caterham).
Kvyat overtook Gutiérrez (Sauber) on lap three for 11th place. On the next lap Esteban was also passed by Button (Williams) and Vettel.
What concerns two pilots from Mercedes, by lap four Hamilton had a 2-second gap from his teammate. By the way, Mercedes used different tactics for the drivers — Lewis got Medium tyres for the second section, while Nico’s car was wearing Hard compounds. As a result, Hamilton had a 3-second gap from Nico, but when the latter also got a softer compound, the situation had changed.
The race was actually rather calm, all the overtakings could be called loyal. Vergne had to retire when the engineers reported on problems with the exhaust system. Second retirement was made by Kobayashi (Caterham) due to brakes issues.
On lap 38 Alonso (Ferrari) overtook Magnussen, while Vettel also managed to overtake Massa (Williams) and then Magnussen.
But let’s get back to the title characters of the race. Six laps before the finish the gap between Mercedes drivers was less than a second — Rosberg used his DRS overtaking aid but Hamilton picked up the pace as well.
The drivers from Mercedes were fighting for the first place, Vettel was attacking Bottas in their duel for the fourth position, while Alonso was attacking Räikkönen to become third. Eventually, both Vettel and Alonso passed their closest competitors.
Fernando Alonso: “In a way we've had this situation since the first races, because we finished a minute behind the leaders with some safety cars. Here we didn't have safety cars so this minute was actually a minute and a half”.
On the finish line, there was just a six-tenths of a second gap between the drivers from Mercedes! Hamilton managed to keep the lead: “Although today I lacked a bit of speed — Nico was faster. The car had serious problems with balance, so I had to rely heavily on engineers: they helped me to get on the free track, were advised where I can add. Today, we have won a fourth consecutive double victory — it's just fantastic!”
Nico Rosberg: “If I had one more lap, I would try to beat him. Unfortunately, by the time the race was over, so I'm a little upset”.
Daniel Ricciardo was third this time: “Mercedes is far ahead of all. But when we went to Barcelona, then realized that we would have been preferable to such a "boring" race, not eventful. In the end, we finished relatively comfortable in this position, controlling tire wear and race. I am pleased to get on the podium!”
Daniil Kvyat has not scored any points this time and was only 14th: “We lacked pace, even though I must say that the first stint was quite positive and it seemed possible to even fight for some points. In the end, tyre wear was quite heavy and together with the lack of pace, it turned out to be a tough race”.
Next race will be held in Monaco and the teams have a lot of work to do. Meanwhile, Formula bosses should come to some final decisions regarding the teams’ budgets because it doesn’t seem that anyone can catch up with the pilots from Mercedes and it’s not only about the skills of drivers and engineers here.
