Formula One: Build-up to the finale
The 2014 F1 World Championship has been a heated battle between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The ferocity of the rivalry between the two has been compared to the legendary duels between Senna and Prost. The Mercedes F1W05 Hybrid has been utterly dominant in terms of engine power and even the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari can’t challenge them. Thus the championship has been fought solely between Hamilton and Rosberg, with Hamilton having twice the number of wins Rosberg has, but reliability problems have meant he was only 4 points ahead as the F1 championship moved to the Japanese round. With only 5 races ago, the contenders needed to beat each other in Japan to begin the final sprint towards the driver’s championship.
The first two Practice sessions were routine in the sense that Mercedes once again topped the sheets. However in the 3rd practice round, Hamilton crashed and had to have his car rebuilt, which cost him in qualifying. Nico Rosberg took pole, Hamilton took second. The Williams cars were right behind, followed by Alonso in Ferrari.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel shook the F1 world by announcing that he would be leaving Red Bull after 2014, most probably going to Ferrari. This fuels rumors of Alonso returning to Mclaren. Whether Kimi Raikkonen will stay at the Italian team remains to be seen.
Race day was marred by the onset of Typhoon Phanfone, which resulted in the start being delayed. The first 3 laps of the race were run under safety car, but the race was red flagged due to conditions worsening. The race was restarted after about half an hour.
Nico Rosberg quickly sped away into the lead, with Hamilton chasing. The German driver led the race for 29 laps, but Hamilton was on the attack, aggressively looking for an overtake and trying to force a mistake. The overtake came on lap 29, when Hamilton used DRS to close in on Nico Rosberg on the main straight. Rosberg attempted to block him off by taking the inside of the turn, but Lewis forced past him on the outside of the turn and maintained the lead till the end of the race.
Meanwhile, the battle for third place was being fought between McLaren and Red Bull. Jenson Button held third for a good number of laps, but was forced to fall behind Vettel due to a faulty pit stop. Sebastian Vettel maintained 3rd place till the end of the race. Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo managed to overhaul Button a number of laps later.
However, tragedy struck on lap 41, when Marussia driver Jules Bianchi suffered a horrific accident. The typhoon had raged unabated, and conditions progressively became trickier as the light died out and the circuit became wetter. Even the best drivers took trips to the gravel as they wrestled their cars around at the limit. On lap 37, Sauber driver Adrian Sutil crashed into the barriers, leading to a tractor being used to pull the wreckage off the track. However, a few laps later Bianchi’s Marussia hydroplaned at the exact same spot and hit the tractor head on.
The medical team reached the spot within minutes, and decided that Bianchi was in a critical condition that required immediate attention. The race was stopped with nine laps to go, with Hamilton being declared winner, Rosberg second and Vettel third. Currently, Jules Bianchi is recovering in intensive care after a successful surgery.
Following the Japanese GP, the F1 circus moved, for the very first time, to Russia. The Sochi Grand Prix took place on a circuit built around the Olympics venue. Due to Russia’s aggressive behaviour in Ukraine, there had been calls to scrap the grand prix for the last several months, but Bernie Ecclestone managed to push it through regardless.
In contrast to the Japanese race, Sochi proved to be uneventful and predictable. In qualifying, Lewis Hamilton got pole, Rosberg took second and Valterri Bottas followed up on third. They finished the race in the exact same order - Hamilton won his 31st grand prix, equaling Nigel Mansell’s record for most wins by a Brit. Nico Rosberg destroyed his tyres on the first lap by locking his wheels under braking, but managed to fight back from last place to claim second. Surprisingly, Rosberg managed to complete the entire race on his second set of tyres, which is incredible considering that the Pirelli tyres are designed to deteriorate quickly. The Mercedes is simply that fast. Bottas could not match Nico’s pace, but finished third, thus continuing the superb form that Williams has displayed throughout the year.
With yet another 1-2 finish, Mercedes jumped ahead in points and have gone completely out of reach of the other teams. Thus, at the Russian Grand Prix of Sochi, Mercedes AMG F1 were crowned the 2014 F1 Constructors champions, the first title they have won in F1 in 60 years.
However, the battle for the driver’s championship is still wide open. Lewis Hamilton has been incredibly fast and totally relentless, resulting in 9 wins this season. However, poor reliability and bad luck has kept him within reach of Nico Rosberg. The next 3 races will decide the champion, with the fight probably stretching all the way to the grand finale at Abu Dhabi.
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