[Race] Team Mate Battles - Spanish GP

[ottostreet]

External link to full article on FormulaSpy.com

Marussia
Jules Bianchi continues to live up to his early season reputation and expectation. Faster than his team-mate throughout the weekend, but blotted his copybook by damaging his front wing on the opening lap. After pitting for repairs, he set about catching the Caterham of Charles Pic, and closed up throughout the race, but was unable to do anything about Pic in the final stint of the race. Max Chilton was behind Bianchi, as usual, but his pace has improved as he adjusts to the sport. The question mark is whether it is experience or talent and speed that has given Bianchi such a cushion early on, but it will be interesting to see whether Chilton can eventually set about matching Jules throughout the season.

Fastest lap: 1-0 to Jules Bianchi
Qualifying: 1-0 to Jules Bianchi
Race: 1-0 to Jules Bianchi

Caterham
Caterham looked a step ahead on pace against Marussia this weekend, and Van Der Garde put this to good use, outqualifying his team-mate by almost half a second, and leading him on track when his race, and wheel, came undone. Operational errors such as not attaching wheels properly may be costly points and championships-wise for the big teams, such errors can mean the difference of survival for the likes of Marussia and Caterham. While points were unlikely for Van Der Garde, he felt the car was excellent and was displaying good pace, and battling with the two Williams cars, as well as Jenson Button, at the time of his problems. Marussia & Caterham are fighting for the highest position they can get, which means millions in prize money. Wheels falling off won’t help in the bid for financial survival. Pic looked the slower man all weekend, qualifying plum last, but produced a decent race to finish ahead of the Marussias.

Fastest lap: 1-0 to Charles Pic
Qualifying: 1-0 to Giedo Van Der Garde
Race: 1-0 to Charles Pic

Toro Rosso:
Regardless of circumstances, it looks as though Ricciardo is beginning to put a little bit of a gap between himself and Jean-Eric Vergne. While both drivers looks capable of good pace, Ricciardo is avoiding drama and trouble just a little bit better than Jean-Eric at the moment. There was nothing between them in qualifying, with Daniel pipping Vergne in Q2 to line up in front. Both drivers lost places at the start, but just seemed to have issues with warming their tyres, as both drivers reported that grip improved through the first stint. As the race wore on, it appeared that Daniel may snatch a few points, but the Toro Rosso faded towards race end, and he barely held on to take tenth place. Vergne got Saubered in the pit lane, and then suffered a tyre delamination and ultimately had to retire.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Daniel Ricciardo
Qualifying: 1-0 to Daniel Ricciardo
Race: 1-0 to Daniel Ricciardo

Sauber:
Just like that, Gutierrez goes and puts in a cracking weekend. Fastest lap of the race shows the Mexican does have some pace, and matched his team-mate throughout the weekend, even if he was a little down in Q2, before his penalty. Even snatching the lead for one lap while the other cars pitted, and showing that he could handle the pressure that has been put on him to start showing some talent, Esteban must be applauded for rising to the criticism levelled at him. Hulkenberg looked very average. As alluded to in the Sky commentary, when he saw that he had been unsafely released, why didn’t he slow to avoid the collision with Vergne? Frustration looks like it may be creeping into Nico’s game, as he didn’t look any better than Gutierrez this weekend.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Esteban Gutierrez
Qualifying: 1-0 to Nico Hulkenberg
Race: 1-0 to Esteban Gutierrez.

Williams:
It feels wrong to open continuously with the assessment of Williams’ weekend with ‘Dear, oh dear’, even if the sentiment remains the same. Spain really exposed the fall from grace that Williams have had, with the contrast of euphoria in 2012, and utter despair in 2013, with both cars barely keeping clear of Caterham. Bottas outqualified Maldonado to be a position ahead at the start, but made a bad start, while Pastor didn’t. Neither car really made progress, and both finished well outside the points. Pastor compounded a miserable afternoon by getting himself a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, but still finished ahead of Bottas, who complained afterwards of having absolutely no grip. Watching the Williams being manhandled in qualifying, it’s hard to argue against him.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Pastor Maldonado
Qualifying: 1-0 to Valterri Bottas
Race: 1-0 to Pastor Maldonado

Force India:
It was a race of what could have been for Adrian Sutil, who appears to be challenging Mark Webber for the title of Unluckiest Man in F1. Sutil made one of the starts of the race to jump from 13th to 8th place, before suffering the same issue that he had in Malaysia, with faulty wheel nuts. Sitting in the pit lane with his engine off while his team sorted the problem was never going to help his quest for points, but when the German rejoined the track, he put in a stupendous effort, and recovered to finish thirteenth, and closing in on Lewis Hamilton, a front row starter who didn’t sit in the pit lane, motor off. Paul Di Resta outqualified Adrian, and put in a good race to finish seventh. It would have been fascinating to see both Force Indias run without trouble, as the impression formed is that Sutil had the better pace.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Adrian Sutil
Qualifying: 1-0 to Paul Di Resta
Race: 1-0 to Paul Di Resta

McLaren:
McLaren didn’t look any better at this round, with Button eliminated in Q2, and running around in 17th place in the early part of the race. While he recovered from there to ultimately finish ahead of Perez, Sergio out qualified Jenson for the first time as team-mates, and had a veiled team instruction not been issued, would have finished comfortably ahead of Button. It was interesting to hear Martin Whitmarsh praise Jenson so highly in post-race interviews, when it was his young Mexican charge that produced the goods to a greater extent this weekend. The pressure is on Martin after a disastrous start to the campaign, and maybe he feels he must defend his choice of lead driver? Sergio is growing in confidence and looks as though he can handle a bad car better than his World Champion team-mate, a situation which won’t be unfamiliar to Jenson’s former team-mates. A notable moment from the weekend which indicates Jenson’s current mentality, was when he called for a penalty for the Williams that blocked him. He was the only driver to call publically for a penalty for qualifying blocking, yet his was the only incident that lead to no punishment. Penalising your competitors is not how a driver should want to beat them.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Sergio Perez
Qualifying: 1-0 to Sergio Perez
Race: 1-0 to Sergio Perez

Lotus:
A one sided affair in Barcelona for the Enstone squad. While Romain didn’t do anything wrong, he was outqualified and outraced, yet again, by Kimi Raikkonen. Flashbacks of 2012 returned when a stricken Lotus came crabbing down the pitlane, but it emerged that Romain had just suffered a rare mechanical failure. The Frenchman had lost several positions at the start, and never looked like he was going to be able to keep up with his team-mates pace. While Grosjean has cut out the crashing, he doesn’t appear to be on the same level as his illustrious team-mate, who continues to show him up every weekend. Kimi utilised a three stop strategy to great effect, but Lotus must stop relying on conservative strategies. A flying Kimi on the same strategy as Fernando could have pushed the Ferrari driver harder, and Lotus must start to think like race-winners, and not the eternal bridesmaids that they are right now.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Kimi Raikkonen
Qualifying: 1-0 to Kimi Raikkonen
Race: 1-0 to Kimi Raikkonen

Mercedes:
An implosion of epic proportions this weekend for Mercedes. While they may be the car that is able to unlock the most pace on a single lap around a given circuit, this results in them eating their tyres in a way that the other cars don’t seem to do to the same degree. Watching Lewis Hamilton plummet like a stone down the running order will be depressing for his fans, but the other teams are not having this issue, and F1 is a team sport. Nico appears to be able to handle the degradation better than Lewis, but then again, he does have three years experience of handling a design philosophy that doesn’t appear to have changed over the seasons. One gets the impression that Mercedes will have a similar race in Monaco, with the pertinent question being ‘Who will the Mercs impede on raceday?’, instead of ‘Can the Mercs win on raceway?’. Mercedes will not win a race, based on their current form, and how long can Lewis handle that? Right now, Nico looks the superior driver.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Nico Rosberg
Qualifying: 1-0 to Nico Rosberg
Race: 1-0 to Nico Rosberg

Ferrari:
Massa may have been at, or at least close to, the top of his game on Sunday, but it’s still nowhere compared to Alonso’s top of the game. Speaking after the race, Alonso explained his first lap manouevres by saying that he held back on KERS approaching Turn One, and then went for it when he saw Kimi Raikkonen boxed in on the inside of Turn 3, behind Lewis Hamilton. Either way, the move saw Alonso freed up immediately to challenge for the lead, and while it took another while to get there, there was never any question of it being Alonso’s lead when he jumped Vettel through the pitstops. There was a brief period where it appeared that Raikkonen may be able to usurp the Ferrari and spoil the home win, but the conservative Lotus strategy, and resulting pace, meant that Alonso was comfortable at the front. Massa required his usual psychological massage through the race, but put it to good effect, jumping ahead of Vettel and even looking like he may be able to spoil Raikkonen’s second place, but it wasn’t to be. However, even though Massa was driving well, he still finished almost thirty seconds down on an Alonso who wasn’t pushing hard in his final stint. It was a good recovery from ninth place.
Alonso’s famed ‘luck’ also was on display, with the revelation, post race, that the Spaniard actually had picked up a puncture just prior to his final stop, and would have delaminated if he had continued for even one more lap. Part of a driver’s repertoire is his ‘luck’ and Fernando certainly has it in abundance.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Felipe Massa
Qualifying: 1-0 to Fernando Alonso
Race: 1-0 to Fernando Alonso

Red Bull:
Red Bull’s dislike of the Circuit di Catalunya continued, with Webber qualifying lower than he should have, and Vettel looking a pale imitation of himself on Sunday. It appeared we were on for an epic three way battle between Alonso, Raikkonen & Sebastian after the first round of stops, but it wasn’t to be, with the Red Bull fading away from Fernando’s rear wing, and then the Lotus of Raikkonen passing him in a move that suggested damage limitation for the German. After the race, Sebastian was philosophical about the situation, and didn’t appear to be too down. It appeared as though he was resigned to the fact victory wasn’t to be there this weekend, and he, quite rightly, pointed out that Lotus and Ferrari are using the same tyres, but using them better. There won’t be despair from Red Bull, based on their pace in Bahrain, but they won’t want too many races like Spain. Mark Webber never looked hooked up, and dropped out of the points on the opening lap. He recovered to score points, but Mark hasn’t been at the races since Malaysia.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Sebastian Vettel
Qualifying: 1-0 to Sebastian Vettel
Race: 1-0 to Sebastian Vettel

Totals:
Marussia: 15-0 to Jules Bianchi
Caterham: 12-3 to Charles Pic
Toro Rosso: 8-7 to Daniel Ricciardo
Sauber: 10-5 to Nico Hulkenberg
Williams: 10-5 to Valterri Bottas
Force India: 8-7 to Paul Di Resta
McLaren: 10-5 to Jenson Button
Lotus: 9-3 to Kimi Raikkonen
Mercedes: 8-7 to Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari: 8-4 to Fernando Alonso
Red Bull: 14-1 to Sebastian Vettel

[Born Racer]

Thanks ottostreet. Yes, Jenson looks a bit at sea with a dodgy car, but what else is new? It's hilarious seeing those who were so quick to jump on Perez eat their words (or just go very quiet, it's as though they lost the use of their mouth).

I think Kimi's driving very well because I don't think Romain is any slouch.

Vergne isn't showing much.