Ricciardo scores Red Bull’s 50th win while Mercedes duo clash

Ricciardo Spa 2014

Daniel Ricciardo achieved his third career victory at Spa-Francorchamps, as the Formula 1 championship protagonists Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided.

The Red Bull Racing driver made a habit of picking up the pieces when the Silver Arrows trips up, and the Australian produced another flawless race to fend off the recovering Rosberg by just 3.3 seconds to score his second consecutive win.

Rosberg extended his championship lead after a recovery drive to second, while Mercedes team-mate Hamilton posted his third retirement of the season.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen looked set to score his first podium of the season, but ultimately lost out to the Williams of Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages of the Belgian Grand Prix.

As for the defending Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull driver won a thrilling late battle for fifth from the McLarens of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button, and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

The Mercedes drivers locked out the front row by some distance in wet qualifying, but collided on lap two, as slow-starting poleman Rosberg attempted to re-pass Hamilton for the lead on the run to Les Combes.

Rosberg had a look around the outside of his team-mate but clipped Hamilton’s left-rear tyre as he backed out of the move and tried to tuck back in.

Hamilton limped back to the pits with a puncture and floor damage from a brief excursion, and spent the rest of his race battling a lack of pace in his W05.

Lewis pleaded with his team to retire his car to save engine mileage. He eventually retired to the pits with five laps to the flag.

Rosberg was told to stay out with a damaged front wing endplate after the incident.

That made the championship leader vulnerable, but he retained the lead as the top six ran in close formation early on, before the German dived into the pits to begin the first round of stops on lap eight of 44 and took a new front wing.

That dropped him behind Raikkonen’s Ferrari, which stopped on the same lap as Rosberg and leapt up from sixth to second as the first round of pit stops played out.

The pit delay ultimately left Rosberg fourth, behind Vettel’s Red Bull, while new leader Ricciardo (who crucially passed his Red Bull team-mate when the reigning Vettel saved a wild moment on the exit of Pouhon on lap five) eased away from Raikkonen at the front.

Rosberg switched to an alternative three-stop strategy over the conventional two, and dived into the pits for an early second stop on lap 17, having failed to pass Vettel and fallen behind the Williams of Bottas.

The Mercedes driver used his second set of medium Pirelli tyres to good effect, despite concerns over a front vibration, and rose back up to second when the other frontrunners made their final stops.

Rosberg had to pit for a third time with ten laps to go, which relieved the pressure on Ricciardo and dropped the Mercedes back to fourth, behind Raikkonen and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, which slipstreamed past on the run to Les Combes.

Rosberg was quickly back through to third on his fresh set of tyres, passing Bottas at Blanchimont and then nailing Raikkonen easily on the Kemmel straight on the following lap.

The championship leader trailed Ricciardo by just under twenty seconds with eight laps to run and needed to be around 2.5 seconds per lap faster than the Australian to overhaul him, but he ultimately fell short by 3.3 seconds at the finish.

Bottas claimed his fourth podium of the season in third, while Raikkonen recorded the best result for Ferrari in fourth.

Vettel had been in podium contention, but had to come back through the pack after switching to a three-stop strategy.

He took advantage of the battling between Magnussen, Alonso and Button to claim fifth, while Magnussen just held off McLaren team-mate Button for sixth.

But after the Belgian Grand Prix, race stewards have decided the Kevin Magnussen was to aggressive in fending off Fernando Alonso and decided to penalise the McLaren driver with a twenty-second penalty.

Alonso – who incurred a five-second penalty for his Ferrari mechanics being late away from the grid – damaged his Ferrari in the late battling, which included a three-abreast moment at Les Combes, and trailed home eighth after starting fourth.

Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat rounded out the points scorers in ninth and tenth, with Kvyat just holding off Perez’s Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg by 0.3 second.

The second Williams of Felipe Massa finished a disappointing P13, behind the second Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne.

So a dramatic race at Spa-Francorchamps with the main talking point over that racing incident between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The fault lies in the championship leader as he mis-judged the move on his team-mate.

It’s going to be fascinating what Mercedes will do to prevent this incident occurring again. Team orders could come into play but the drivers are still fighting for the title.

Belgian Grand Prix race results, after 44 laps:

1. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault        1h24m36.556s
2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                +3.383s
3. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes       +28.032s
4. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                 +36.815s
5. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        +52.196s
6. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        +54.580s
7. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 +1m01.162s
8. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes    +1m04.293s
9. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault      +1m05.347s
10. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes    +1m05.697s
11. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault      +1m11.920s
12. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes        +1m14.262s*
13. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes       +1m15.975s
14. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari          +1m22.447s
15. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari          +1m30.825s
16. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari        -1 lap
17. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault        -1 lap
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari        -5 laps

*Twenty-second penalty for forcing a driver off track

Retirements:

Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                 38 laps
Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault            332 lap
Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault            1 lap
Andre Lotterer        Caterham-Renault         1 lap

Drivers’ championship:

1. Nico Rosberg         220
2. Lewis Hamilton       191
3. Daniel Ricciardo     156
4. Fernando Alonso      121
5. Valtteri Bottas      110
6. Sebastian Vettel     98
7. Nico Hülkenberg      70
8. Jenson Button        68
9. Felipe Massa         40
10. Kimi Räikkönen       39
11. Kevin Magnussen      37
12. Sergio Pérez         33
13. Jean-Éric Vergne     11
14. Romain Grosjean      8
15. Daniil Kvyat         8
16. Jules Bianchi        2

Constructors’ champiuonship:

1. Mercedes               411
2. Red Bull-Renault       254
3. Ferrari                160
4. Williams-Mercedes      150
5. McLaren-Mercedes       105
6. Force India-Mercedes   103
7. Toro Rosso-Renault     19
8. Lotus-Renault          8
9. Marussia-Ferrari       2
10. Sauber-Ferrari         0
11. Caterham-Renault       0

Next race: Italian Grand Prix, Monza. September 5-7.

12 thoughts to “Ricciardo scores Red Bull’s 50th win while Mercedes duo clash”

  1. Belgian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo admitted that this result will raise ambitions. Autosport.com has the news story.

    Daniel Ricciardo says his Belgian Grand Prix victory is a promising sign that his Red Bull Formula 1 team may be strong again in Italy.

    The Milton Keynes-based squad did not expect to be able to pose a challenge to the leading Mercedes-powered at tracks like Spa or Monza due to their high-speed nature and the lack of power from its Renault engine.

    However, Ricciardo took his second F1 consecutive victory – and his third of 2014 – after beating Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg at Spa.

    “I see good things ahead if we can collect maximum points around here,” said Ricciardo. “It gives us a bit more hope for the circuits that are going to come later in the season, Singapore, Suzuka, just a couple to mention.

    “It is great – we are really motivated right now and it has been a really good day for us on a track where we didn’t expect to get maximum points.

    “I’ll keep smiling for a while but I still stay grounded. Monza I know will be tricky again bur the package we bought here was pretty racy, so we’ll try to take something from here to Monza, and Singapore, Suzuka will be pretty good for us.”

    The win allowed Ricciardo to close the gap on second-placed Lewis Hamilton to 36 points and to championship leader Rosberg to 64 with seven races to go.

    The Red Bull driver said he is not giving up on fighting for the title despite Mercedes’ dominance of the season.

    “If I am within 50 coming into Abu Dhabi then yeah,” said the Australian when asked if he felt he had a championship shot.

    “There are still a few races to go. Definitely while it is still mathematically possible we will keep fighting.

    “To come and steal some points where we were not supposed to is nice. What is important now to look ahead is to capitalise on the circuits we can be strong on – if we can take maximum points at a couple of those it is never over.”

  2. Championship leader Nico Rosberg says the clash won’t sour their rivalry. Autosport.com has the details.

    Nico Rosberg is adamant that his collision with Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate and world championship rival Lewis Hamilton will not wreck their relationship for the rest of the 2014 season.

    Rosberg brought his lead in the title race back up to 29 points by finishing second at Spa while Hamilton retired with damage related to contact between them on lap two.

    The German had been trying to pass his team-mate for the race lead on the outside at Les Combes when they touched, leaving Hamilton with a puncture.

    Asked if the incident meant the end of any hope of Mercedes team harmony, Rosberg replied: “I am confident that we can keep it. It is always going to be an intense battle, that was clear from the outset and there will always be difficult moments.

    “But after Hungary we had a discussion again, we will discuss this again today, review it and then move on.”

    He denied that he had been driving more aggressively because he was unhappy at the outcome of the team’s discussions after the Hungarian GP team orders row.

    “We had a very good discussion after Hungary, it was reviewed and clarified, and then we adapted our agreement to move forward and that was really behind us,” rosberg insisted.

    “To be honest I was very relaxed this weekend and looking forward to it with this awesome car.

    “My frame of mind was not thinking of the championship, just wanting to win this race with the Silver Arrows.”

    Rosberg insisted he could not talk in detail about the Spa collision “in the heat of the moment”, but admitted it had been very costly for Mercedes.

    “I am very disappointed from a team perspective because we could have done a lot better than finishing in second place as our car was really, really special this weekend,” he said.

    Informed that team chiefs Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda had already been critical of him in television interviews, Rosberg replied: “I haven’t heard it myself from the people you mention but I will respect their opinion.

    “All I know I was faster and I gave it a go, the inside was locked so I gave it a go around the outside.”

    His appearance on the podium was greeted by boos from a section of the crowd at Spa, which Rosberg said he understood.

    “I respect the opinion of British spectators and they were not happy – so that doesn’t feel good. That is very clear,” he said.

  3. Lewis Hamilton says he does not understand Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Nico Rosberg’s driving in their Belgian Grand Prix collision.

    The F1 world championship rivals came together on the second lap of the Spa race as Rosberg tried to pass Hamilton for the lead on the outside at Les Combes.

    Contact between Rosberg’s front wing and Hamilton’s rear tyre gave the Briton a puncture.

    “I didn’t really understand what happened – I felt a big thud at the rear,” said Hamilton.

    “I gave the guy space. I don’t really understand it.

    “It’s really gutting for the result and for all my team.

    “We’ve had such a tough year, not just the guys on my side of the garage, but the whole team in general.

    “This is not good for the team. We could’ve easily had a one-two.”

    While Rosberg recovered to finish second after a front wing change, Hamilton ultimately retired his car.

    He was heard over team radio repeatedly asking if he could pull in, and insisted the damage to his Mercedes from the puncture meant saving engine life was more sensible.

    “It’s not a giving up thing, I lost at least 40-50 points of downforce,” Hamilton insisted.

    “I could do nothing. I was driving the arse off the car and the thing was all over the place.

    “I couldn’t catch Romain Grosjean. It didn’t even matter if the safety car came out, I wouldn’t have been able to pass. [Adrian] Sutil was pulling away from me.

    “I burnt up an engine in the last race. I already have one less engine than Nico.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  4. McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen has lost his fifth place finish following an incident with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. Autosport.com has the details.

    Kevin Magnussen has been handed a 20-second post-race penalty following an incident with Fernando Alonso during the Belgian Grand Prix.

    The duo were fighting for fourth position with two laps to go when Magnussen forced Alonso off the track at the Les Combes corner.

    Alonso eventually dropped down to eighth place, but was elevated to seventh after Magnussen was found guilty of not leaving enough room for his Ferrari rival.

    “The driver of car 20 was defending his position on the straight between Turns 4 and 5 [Raidillon and Les Combes], a significant portion of car #14 was alongside car #20. The driver of car #20 did not leave enough space for car #14 and forced the car off the track,” said an FIA statement.

    Alonso was relatively unflustered by the late-race incident, saying: “When you are fighting for lower positions, sixth or seventh or whatever, it’s a little bit less important.

    “You just try to have fun, with safety as well, but it was not a big deal.”

    The penalty drops Magnussen from fifth to 12th and out of the points.

    Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat moves up to 10th and gets the final point.

  5. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff warns of Nico Rosberg ‘consequences’ following a dramatic Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Autosport.com has the news story.

    Mercedes’ Toto Wolff believes that a slap on the wrists may not be enough for Nico Rosberg after his Belgian Grand Prix collision with Lewis Hamilton.

    Rosberg clashed with Formula 1 title rival Hamilton in a fight for the lead at Spa-Francorchamps in a move that Mercedes chiefs say was unacceptable.

    And although Mercedes will wait for the dust to settle on the weekend before holding a crisis meeting, Wolff has assured Hamilton that a simple telling off is unlikely.

    “Today we’ve seen the limits of the slap on the wrist,” he said. “Maybe the slap on the wrist is not enough.

    “If Lewis has said that it’s going to be a slap on the wrist, and that there’s going to be no consequence, then he’s not aware of what consequences we can implement.”

    When asked what the team could actually do to rectify the situation, Wolff said: “A lot. But I’m not going to comment on this right now.”

    He also clarified Hamilton’s comments suggesting that Rosberg had admitted to crashing on purpose “to prove a point”, explaining: “Nico felt he needed to hold his line. He needed to make a point.

    “He (Rosberg) didn’t give in. He thought it was for Lewis to leave him space, and that Lewis didn’t leave him space,” added the Austrian. “So they agreed to disagree in a very heated discussion amongst ourselves, but it wasn’t deliberately crashing. That is nonsense.”

  6. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso reckons a podium finish was possible at Spa-Francorchamps. Autosport.com has the details.

    Fernando Alonso believes he was on for a Belgian Grand Prix podium without the penalty his Ferrari team incurred at the start of the Spa Formula 1 race.

    Alonso had to take a five-second stop/go penalty within his first scheduled pitstop as some of his mechanics were still working on his car after the signal to clear the grid had been given.

    The Spaniard’s Ferrari had refused to fire up due to what Alonso suspected was a battery issue, but team boss Marco Mattiacci put down to a problem with the starter itself.

    As Valtteri Bottas eventually finished third for Williams, Alonso reckoned the fact he had led the Finn prior to his penalty boded well for his podium chances.

    “The battery at the start was the biggest problem we had because I was in front of Bottas when I stopped, and Bottas finished third,” said Alonso.

    “We would have probably been around those positions.

    “I felt more or less competitive all through the race. We knew that straightline speed was probably our biggest problem and when you have that penalty and you start fighting for lower positions, that lack of speed has a higher price.

    “But I felt more or less competitive and more or less happy with the balance of the car.”

    Mattiacci said the grid incident left him frustrated.

    “We made a mistake that penalised Fernando,” he admitted. “That’s something that I’m really not happy about.”

    “We did not understand immediately what was going on.”

    Alonso ultimately crossed the line in eighth, gaining one position to seventh when Kevin Magnussen was penalised for squeezing him off the road during their late battle.

    With Kimi Raikkonen taking fourth, Alonso was defeated by his team-mate for the first time in the 2014 F1 season, but was relaxed about this.

    “He had to anticipate to overtake us at the first stop,” he said.

    “I had the penalty, so on whatever lap we stopped we would have exited behind the traffic, so my race was probably over there.

    “We tried to optimise Kimi’s race to have the maximum points – it’s normal.”

  7. As for Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion admitted that he needs a clean race after a troubled start to his 2014 season. Autosport.com has the story.

    Kimi Raikkonen says his season-high fourth place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix was simply down to the fact that it was his first clean race of the 2014 campaign.

    The Finn, who has endured a troubled season so far for Ferrari, said he has had a “better feeling” in the car for a few races now, and that his fourth-place finish at Spa is more about having a clean race than he and Ferrari finding more speed.

    “The race was clean, no issues like in the past, we always had something happen,” he said.

    “It was probably the first [clean] race of the year. That helps. We could do our own race, and the result was a bit better.

    “At the last few races we had a better feeling, but a lot of things happened in qualifying and the races.

    “We had some damage on the wings by getting hit by other cars, and it compromises your race because you can’t run your own speed.

    “The main thing is we had a clean race with no issues. We could push. There was still difficulties with the car handling-wise, but we expect that.

    “Sure there are things that we have to improve, but the feeling has been there for a while, it’s just been comprised by the mistakes or things happening to us.

    “Hopefully we start getting more clean weekends. It would make life easier, and probably the results better.”

    Raikkonen added that fourth was the best he could achieve today, and that he did not consider himself to be battling with Valtteri Bottas for third place, given the Williams’s superior straightline speed.

    “Not much of a fight, really,” he said. “In a straight line they are much faster. One lap he almost got me, but I could keep him behind, then on the next lap there was no chance. For me, it doesn’t count.

    “We are a bit down on power. For sure we don’t have the horsepower or the engine that they have, and the recovering that they can achieve, and that’s the bigger problem right now.

    “But we’ve improved that, for sure it is better than at the beginning at the year.”

  8. Lewis Hamilton claims that Nico Rosberg told the Mercedes Formula 1 team that he deliberately allowed their collision to happen at the Belgian Grand Prix “to prove a point”.

    Mercedes F1 chiefs were left furious when their drivers clashed with each other while fighting for the Spa race lead.

    But Hamilton added a fresh twist to the events when he revealed on Sunday night that Rosberg confessed to having intentionally not backed out of the move on lap two because he wanted to teach his rival a lesson.

    “We just had a meeting about it and he basically said he did it on purpose,” said Hamilton.

    “He said he could have avoided it. He said ‘I did it to prove a point’. He basically said I did it to prove a point.

    “And you don’t have to just rely on me. Go and ask Toto [Wolff] and Paddy [Lowe] who are not happy with him as well.”

    Hamilton said he had no doubts that he was an innocent party in the incident because he had the inside racing line.

    “You know, and you can ask Fernando [Alonso] and you can ask all drivers, when a car is less than half a car length alongside you and you are on the inside, it’s your racing line,” he explained.

    “It’s not your job to go massively out of your way to leave extra, extra room. And it wasn’t one of those corners where there’s a wall there or anything.

    “Look at Sebastian [Vettel]. He was actually further up [in a lap one move] and he knew he wasn’t going to go out the other side. He was sensible about it.”

    Although there has been speculation all season that at some point the Mercedes drivers would collide, Hamilton insists that it was not as clear cut.

    “We’ve been good at racing wheel to wheel, closely,” he said. “I think I heard someone say that it was inevitable we were going to crash one day but I don’t feel that today was that inevitability.

    “I took the inside line and had the corner, we braked very deep into the corner because if I’d braked early he would have come down the outside, which would have meant he was alongside me through that section.

    “But we went in very deep but I still made the corner as the same normal line that I would do normally. And then he was in my blind spot. But I can see quite far behind me and I knew he was behind so when I continued my line.”

    Hamilton said he was surprised the stewards did not look into the clash.

    “I thought for sure there would be an investigation or something like that,” he said.

    “I’m mostly disappointed for the team – and of course for myself because I’d lose points and that makes my championship a lot harder.

    “I was gobsmacked when I was listening to the meeting. You need to ask him what point he was trying to make because he just came in there and said it was all my fault.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  9. Toto Wolff believes Nico Rosberg’s collision with Lewis Hamilton was misinterpreted. Autosport.com has the full details.

    Mercedes Formula 1 team boss Toto Wolff believes Nico Rosberg’s comments about his Belgian Grand Prix collision with Lewis Hamilton have been misconstrued.

    The 2014 F1 title battle erupted into a new controversy at Spa when Hamilton alleged that Rosberg had admitted to deliberately triggering their lap-two tangle to “prove a point”.

    But while confirming that Hamilton’s account of Rosberg’s phrasing was correct, Wolff said the German was suggesting he had simply not backed down when they were wheel-to-wheel, rather than confessing to deliberately hitting his team-mate and championship rival.

    “Nico felt he needed to hold his line. He needed to make a point, and for Lewis, it was clearly not him who needed to be aware of Nico,” said Wolff.

    “[Rosberg] didn’t give in. He thought it was for Lewis to leave him space, and that Lewis didn’t leave him space.

    “So they agreed to disagree in a very heated discussion amongst ourselves, but it wasn’t deliberately crashing. That is nonsense.”

    Although he dismissed the allegation that Rosberg had hit Hamilton on purpose, Wolff said that did not mean his fury towards his driver had subsided.

    “It doesn’t change the scenario at all because the incident, as I see it, is not acceptable for us,” he said.

    “What we saw there was that Nico was not prepared to take the exit, and that caused the collision.

    “That is not something we want to happen.

    “We had a collision that could have been avoided, a second-lap collision, it was Nico who attacked and he shouldn’t have done it.

    “It was also to show he was not prepared to give in.

    “With hindsight, if he could turn back time, Nico would probably not do it again in the way he did.”

  10. Williams driver Felipe Massa says tyre debris from Formula 1 rival Lewis Hamilton’s punctured Mercedes was to blame for his disappointing run to 13th in the Belgian Grand Prix.

    Massa started ninth, but collected debris from the controversial collision between title protagonists Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Les Combes on the second lap of the race.

    The Brazilian says this robbed his FW36 of downforce, which cost him the chance to challenge for points while team-mate Valtteri Bottas raced to a fourth podium in five races.

    “On lap two or three of the race I picked up tyre debris from Lewis and it was stuck in the floor of my car,” Massa explained.

    “I was complaining in the first stint that something was wrong because the car was impossible to drive.

    “I could feel I was missing a lot of downforce. I was maybe two seconds slower every lap.

    “They didn’t remove it at the first pitstop, so I did another 12 laps doing the same – two seconds off every lap – so for half the race I lost maybe 30s or more compared to what I was supposed to be doing.

    “I was still complaining the whole stint and at the second pitstop they saw the tyre and removed it, and I was two seconds quicker every lap.

    “It was really a shame. It was really tough because it was possible to fight for points today.”

    Williams’s performance chief Rob Smedley expressed disappointment at failing to get both cars home in the points on a weekend where his team was expected to challenge the works Mercedes cars.

    “What happened with Felipe today was just extremely unlucky,” Smedley said.

    “I’m disappointed we missed out on a boat-load of points with Felipe, but you can’t mitigate for a big bit of debris going under the car.

    “It was a huge piece of tyre from Lewis’ car that got stuck under the car for half the race, which we could only just about get out at the second stop.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  11. Championship leader Nico Rosberg has called the whole clash with his team-mate a racing incident. Autosport.com has the story.

    Nico Rosberg insists that he was not to blame for his clash with Formula 1 title rival and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the Belgian Grand Prix.

    The German insists that their lap two collision was simply a racing incident – and reckons the fact the stewards did not take action proves he did nothing wrong.

    AUTOSPORT understands that the race stewards did discuss the incident during the race, but decided that there was no sign of the collision having been caused deliberately.

    Asked for his opinion about the crash, having watched video replays, Rosberg said: “I have seen it and I don’t want to say – but definitely, as the stewards judged it a racing incident, that is the way one can describe it.”

    Although Hamilton claims that Rosberg told him in a post-race debrief that he deliberately did not avoid the incident because he wanted to “prove a point”, the German was more circumspect about his actions when speaking to the media.

    He was adamant that the move was not risky at all, and dismissed any suggestion he should have waited another lap until DRS was activated.

    “I was quicker at the time and there was an opportunity, so I gave it a go around the outside as the inside was blocked,” Rosberg said.

    “I didn’t see any risk in overtaking, or trying to overtake, so why should I not try? The opportunity was there even without DRS because I was so much quicker, so I gave it a go.

    “Inside was not possible, so I tried around the outside. Should I have waited? That is very hypothetical. Who knows what happens afterwards?

    “The opportunity was there and, for me, it wasn’t a risky situation.”

  12. Hey Leafy Dude!!! :P,

    We’ll discuss this later but all I’ll say for now is similar to what Eddy Jordan said, Nico is frustrated because he just doesn’t have Lewis’ skill in a wheel to wheel match-up and so ‘made a point’ by risking both of their races as a show of strength, simple as that. I like Nico, I do, but that was an uncharacteristically stupid thing to do. He DID get away with it, in the sense he managed to finish, and 2nd at that, putting him in a really strong position points wise, but he was doubly lucky the stewards didn’t look into it afterwards in spite of that.

    If Nico does end up winning the championship, I’m pretty sure it won’t be a popular win with a lot of people, and those last comments of his kind of explain why. If he had said ‘I thought it was worth the risk’, then fair enough, I can 100% understand that, he IS a racer after all. But ‘it wasn’t a risky situation’!?!? Pfffft, come on, either he’s not as smart as I gave him credit for, is being extremely arrogant (possibly as a self defense mechanism) or he’s being willfully ambiguous as to his true intent. Either way, not cool dude, not cool.

    In other news… that new guy is killing it though!!!! O_O Ricciardo is a bada$$!!!!! Poor Vettel though, it’s as if his team mate took his wings!!!! (sorry, had to make that joke >_<)

Leave a Reply to admin Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *