Williams surprised by Mercedes pace

2014 Russian Grand Prix lap charts

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Having given them a scare in qualifying, Valtteri Bottas was hopeful of taking the fight to Mercedes in the race.

But he wasn’t able to take advantage of Nico Rosberg’s first lap mistake to beat him to second place.

“We went into the race today with the mentality that we were going to fight Mercedes for the win,” said Bottas, “but their pace in the race surprised us a bit and in the end we need to be satisfied with third place and another podium.”

Williams delayed Bottas’s pit stop until his tyres had dropped a long way off, and after pitting he came out of the pits just over a second ahead of Rosberg. But the next time by the Mercedes passed him at the first corner.

“My [medium] tyres were taking a good ten laps to switch on so he would have caught me regardless,” Bottas said, though he tried to catch Rosberg towards the end of the race.

“I was closing in the final laps as my tyres were getting better but he had managed to create too big a gap.”

Russian Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Use the controls below to show/hide different drivers:

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2014drivercolours.csv

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53
Lewis Hamilton 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Nico Rosberg 2 6 20 20 19 18 17 16 15 15 14 14 13 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 9 9 9 7 7 7 5 4 4 4 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Valtteri Bottas 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Jenson Button 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 9 8 8 6 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Daniil Kvyat 5 8 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 12 15 15 15 15 14 13 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
Daniel Ricciardo 6 10 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 11 17 17 16 16 16 16 15 15 15 14 14 14 12 12 11 9 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
Fernando Alonso 7 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 4 9 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
Kimi Raikkonen 8 11 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 6 6 7 11 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9
Jean-Eric Vergne 9 5 5 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 14 13 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 13 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
Sebastian Vettel 10 9 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 4 2 2 2 4 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
Kevin Magnussen 11 7 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Sergio Perez 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 10 14 14 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 12 11 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Esteban Gutierrez 13 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 12 11 11 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
Adrian Sutil 14 19 17 17 17 16 16 17 18 18 18 18 18 20 20 20 20 20 20 19 19 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
Romain Grosjean 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 16 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17
Marcus Ericsson 16 16 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 17 17 17 16 16 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 16 16 16 16 15 15 16 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19
Nico Hulkenberg 17 14 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 13 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 13 13 13 13 16 16 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 14 14 13 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
Felipe Massa 18 17 21 21 20 19 18 18 17 16 16 15 14 14 13 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 11 10 9 8 8 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 13 13 13 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
Kamui Kobayashi 19 20 18 18 18 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20
Max Chilton 20 21 19 19 21 21 21 21 21 21
Pastor Maldonado 21 18 16 16 16 17 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18

Russian Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap. Use the controls below to show/hide different drivers:

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2014drivercolours.csv

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53
Lewis Hamilton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Nico Rosberg 5.179 29.748 30.386 30.981 33.893 34.671 36.051 37.689 38.675 39.433 40.131 40.611 41.802 42.741 43.162 43.448 44.052 44.521 45.488 45.909 46.365 46.892 46.857 46.659 46.952 45.981 41.393 19.5 19.84 21.065 20.259 19.774 19.798 19.492 18.852 17.489 16.085 17.321 17.607 18.538 18.645 18.763 18.796 18.996 19.019 18.908 18.782 19.08 18.74 17.829 16.602 15.1 13.657
Valtteri Bottas 1.637 1.936 2.228 2.135 2.523 2.576 2.765 2.912 2.951 2.776 3.326 3.509 3.958 4.057 4.562 4.751 5.477 6.36 6.845 7.982 9.34 10.97 12.507 14.02 15.878 21.733 40.002 18.357 19.16 20.594 22.148 22.412 22.384 23.195 23.323 22.648 22.771 23.354 23.413 24.095 24.147 23.582 23.963 24.346 23.899 24.008 23.886 24.188 23.122 22.645 21.195 19.925 17.425
Jenson Button 2.566 3.412 3.958 5.334 6.411 7.631 8.737 9.563 10.869 11.998 13.466 14.308 15.089 15.787 16.964 17.857 18.723 19.451 20.182 21.334 22.092 27.417 48.806 49.454 50.021 50.282 46.149 24.664 25.172 25.403 25.414 25.816 25.833 26.39 26.881 26.523 26.302 27.857 28.159 29.495 30.079 30.047 30.361 30.946 31.475 32.361 32.132 33.405 33.067 32.555 31.652 31.128 30.234
Daniil Kvyat 6.782 10.584 12.355 15.209 19.117 20.979 22.554 24.486 26.334 27.669 29.58 30.963 32.585 34.082 35.641 37.05 39.418 40.856 42.403 48.999 73.916 75.25 76.147 77.631 78.898 79.18 75.835 55.247 55.842 56.734 57.846 59.428 60.802 63.088 67.629 69.654 78.669 101.491 104.453 105.482 105.551 105.983 105.764 106.37 106.616 106.894 107.138 107.949 107.547 106.912 106.15 105.31
Daniel Ricciardo 7.526 9.607 11.793 14.197 15.672 18.38 20.265 21.623 23.39 25.112 31.718 53.983 55.571 56.242 57.117 58.06 59.182 60.349 60.694 61.714 62.223 63.656 64.266 65.084 65.572 65.704 62.102 40.324 40.227 40.794 40.822 41.66 42.489 43.585 44.382 44.499 44.815 46.497 47.753 49.654 50.552 51.601 52.837 54.538 55.941 57.254 58.239 60.098 60.628 61.015 61.492 62.158 61.812
Fernando Alonso 3.308 4.545 5.109 6.036 7.182 8.289 9.747 11.978 14.315 15.498 16.698 17.133 17.867 18.645 19.552 20.362 21.482 22.458 23.16 23.989 24.647 25.456 25.878 26.48 32.725 59.933 57.083 36.452 37.529 38.344 38.884 40.109 40.912 41.908 42.774 42.999 43.738 45.619 46.975 48.807 49.753 50.901 52.123 53.799 55.267 56.316 57.553 59.173 59.734 60.149 60.454 61.233 60.016
Kimi Raikkonen 8.116 11.192 13.073 15.557 18.056 20.034 21.732 23.835 25.468 26.929 28.804 30.136 31.852 33.316 34.776 36.048 37.79 38.877 39.782 40.999 42.089 43.422 45.051 45.54 46.376 52.743 70.288 49.315 50.044 51.205 52.041 53.935 55.127 56.94 59.196 60.897 62.659 65.706 66.81 68.7 69.609 70.614 71.655 72.685 73.327 74.468 75.342 76.797 77.121 77.582 77.985 78.456 78.877
Jean-Eric Vergne 5.151 7.004 11.082 14.855 17.437 19.353 21.002 22.712 24.701 26.103 28.09 28.981 30.662 32.11 33.555 34.669 35.695 36.741 37.773 39.224 40.547 42.792 48.726 72.907 74.189 74.914 71.936 51.536 52.996 54.214 55.441 57.313 58.891 60.962 62.506 63.463 64.681 69.554 71.597 74.685 78.085 80.168 81.879 83.924 85.306 87.542 89.507 92.209 94.267 95.62 95.442 98.141 97.295
Sebastian Vettel 7.142 8.756 11.426 13.265 15.019 17.829 19.339 20.638 22.14 23.328 24.861 26.184 27.298 28.457 30.096 31.674 33.166 34.108 34.959 36.132 37.3 38.607 39.014 39.939 41.185 41.587 38.031 17.169 18.348 24.444 47.878 49.675 50.527 51.399 52.05 52.191 52.352 53.938 54.546 56.228 57.037 57.597 58.695 60.462 61.499 62.819 63.976 66.005 66.362 66.397 67.129 66.951 66.185
Kevin Magnussen 5.689 7.639 10.129 11.145 12.644 14.088 15.295 16.394 17.755 18.604 20.094 21.629 22.593 23.753 24.748 25.406 26.115 26.461 26.783 27.303 28.639 29.58 29.922 30.083 30.76 35.576 52.165 30.51 30.896 31.572 32.219 32.837 33.628 34.767 35.671 35.55 35.859 37.385 38.543 40.579 42.165 42.778 43.66 44.662 45.809 47.07 49.1 51.035 51.76 52.852 52.988 53.649 53.616
Sergio Perez 9.337 12.121 14.395 16.442 19.867 22.147 24.11 26.198 28.17 29.635 31.51 33.001 34.887 36.615 38.309 39.839 41.518 43.166 44.926 48.052 49.663 51.146 52.462 53.627 59.231 80.268 76.319 56.064 56.62 57.378 58.481 60.068 61.412 63.752 64.635 64.66 65.358 67.027 69.133 70.836 71.633 72.241 73.257 74.464 75.386 76.436 77.167 78.571 78.904 79.412 79.844 80.246 80.067
Esteban Gutierrez 9.85 12.588 14.969 16.911 20.343 22.928 25.381 28.087 30.975 32.989 35.303 36.866 39.488 42.166 46.049 47.878 50.129 51.683 53.164 55.107 57.036 59.226 60.898 62.275 63.822 64.89 62.984 42.849 44.094 45.398 48.845 50.896 52.823 54.896 56.758 58.374 61.648 65.135 75.35 100.558 104.011 106.849 108.625 110.838 112.636 115.294 117.344 122.256 124.453 128.173 129.905 131.188
Adrian Sutil 13.434 18.214 22.385 26.508 30.542 33.794 37.83 41.758 44.991 47.89 51.369 58.329 82.44 83.851 85.573 87.381 89.383 92.586 94.812 96.847 98.6 100.429 101.887 104.716 106.465 108.035 105.457 93.03 93.72 94.726 95.623 97.229 98.715 101.085 104.519 106.208 108.117 110.337 111.534 113.61 115.09 116.117 117.807 122.217 124.523 128.805 130.765 133.851 138.421 141.118 144.186 147.689
Romain Grosjean 11.685 15.118 20.76 22.992 26.073 29.184 32.047 35.1 37.697 40.874 45.093 47.318 49.691 51.891 54.035 56.068 58.342 61.397 63.775 70.493 93.434 96.17 98.65 100.984 104.929 107.294 104.988 87.539 89.604 91.667 93.63 95.968 98.128 100.356 102.775 105.675 107.694 112.489 115.347 118.625 122.598 124.884 128.582 131.101 133.715 137.844 140.377 143.281 145.132 146.971 148.705 150.764
Marcus Ericsson 12.413 16.356 21.42 24.679 27.918 31.109 34.723 38.902 42.704 45.624 49.299 52.049 55.08 59.045 62.172 64.748 67.829 70.69 73.22 76.178 78.783 81.437 83.374 85.404 87.802 89.804 94.063 98.596 101.571 107.046 109.269 112.475 115.318 118.348 123.049 126.973 130.98 137.616 141.185 147.126 152.217 157.608 166.758 193.588 195.663 197.993 199.867 202.24 204.895 208.191 211.371
Nico Hulkenberg 10.808 13.565 16.041 18.024 21.002 23.625 27.742 30.219 32.8 35.099 37.754 39.515 42.803 45.836 48.612 50.472 52.703 54.408 56.069 57.772 59.54 61.452 63.061 68.383 89.719 90.248 85.759 64.642 65.193 65.879 65.777 66.066 66.284 67.07 68.312 70.209 70.021 71.058 72.354 75.225 75.839 76.079 76.46 77.227 77.761 78.814 79.587 80.785 81.125 81.147 81.155 81.407 81.309
Felipe Massa 12.944 33.4 33.66 33.516 35.566 36.911 38.169 39.401 40.078 41.253 42.062 42.313 43.423 44.124 45.346 45.669 46.018 46.171 46.676 48.743 50.483 52.059 53.396 54.578 56.222 57.396 59.175 58.66 58.897 58.617 59.028 60.596 61.93 64.198 65.366 65.436 65.811 67.664 69.946 71.48 72.323 72.951 73.897 75.209 76.072 77.17 77.856 79.252 79.743 80.052 80.614 80.903 80.877
Kamui Kobayashi 14.259 19.67 24.906 29.519 36.132 40.884 45.721 50.37 55.452 59.512 63.803 67.832 72.198 76.212 80.551 84.407 88.237 92.128 97.701 102.121 112.419
Max Chilton 14.701 20.944 26.8 37.387 64.685 68.884 73.483 77.869 100.844
Pastor Maldonado 13.047 17.652 21.985 26.325 33.359 38.429 42.838 47.036 50.931 54.45 58.586 62.347 66.06 69.793 74.528 78.045 82.405 86.465 89.879 93.552 101.534 125.782 128.043 132.717 136.537 137.989 135.965 116.162 117.937 119.501 120.632 124.263 128.017 131.911 134.365 135.177 137.345 142.378 143.881 147.693 150.337 151.769 153.575 155.749 161.878 163.984 165.846 170.699 172.122 173.489 174.941 178.44

2014 Russian Grand Prix

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14 comments on “Williams surprised by Mercedes pace”

  1. Mercedes could use this car to win the ’15 titles aswell, that is how dominant this car is. You could almost be that harsh and say it’s a small failure they did not win those three races in Canada, Belgium and Hungary. Only Canada was really out of their hands.

    1. @xtwl, Not sure if they could win it, but I agree, they would probably be competitive even with this years car next year. Especially their race-pace is amazing. Hamilton was just chillin’ today.

      1. Hamilton must have saved some engine mileage too. Because he was never pushed too hard. If Rosberg was there with him they tend to put too hard.

        1. I agree, he looked after that engine and gearbox so there should be reduced ware and tare. Might help reliability later in the year.

          1. I was listening to an interview on sky with one of the guys from Mercedes , he said cruising or pushing the engine hard doesn’t really make any difference to the lifespan of the engine .

  2. Lots of teams let the drivers way to long. Bottas time’s are clearly climbing from lap 17, he should have pitted by lap 19. That would have saved him 15 seconds.

    1. It’s fair to say they were cautious after making an error at Singapore. With an earlier stop, Bottas could have tried to hold Rosberg back.

      1. @fastiesty Well, RIC pitted on lap 12 from behind VET and when the latter pitted he was a good 8 seconds behind RIC. So that was the situation with similar cars. I’m pretty sure had Williams brought in Bottas earlier he could’ve hold him off longer but I doubt with the ever lasting tyres he would’ve finished in P2. Rosberg would’ve gotten past sometime somewhere as the Mercedes is just the quicker car. Bottas is the faster driver no doubt, for me.

    2. I was thinking perhaps the Williams wasn’t doing well on the medium tyre as an explanation for Massa’s odd strategy and the overly long stint for Bottas on the softs, but then Bottas actually seemed to perform reasonably well on the mediums.

      Or perhaps Bottas overcooked the tyres trying to hang on to Hamilton in the early phase of the race. Just like he did in qualifying. These tyres are not meant for extracting the maximum out of the car. Even on this track where they did seem to go for quite a lot of laps.

      Either way Williams really need to work on their strategy. They seem to get it wrong way more often than right.

  3. Mr win or lose
    12th October 2014, 23:33

    “Williams surprised by Mercedes pace”
    Actually Hamilton was surprised by Bottas’ pace. However, Bottas’ tyre problems are interesting. Probably he overcooked the tyres in his fist stint and then in the second stint his tyres took very long to get up to temperature. If that’s true, it’s very strange. Apart from that, this race was very similar to most races in 2010, when drivers made an early switch to the rock-solid hard tyre, so probably Bottas should have done the same thing as Ricciardo, who didn’t suffer at all in his very long second stint. Christian Horner was really fascinated by the lack of tyre degradation.

  4. Rosberg’s drive today definitely wasn’t a recovery drive. No one called Vettel’s race in India last year one.

    1. This was sort of a ‘recovery’ drive, he had to come through the field one way or the other in order to finish 2nd.
      And Vettel’s race in India last year was indeed not a recovery drive. He started on pole, never looked back and finish 30sec clear of the rest of the field (and snatched the drivers title by doing so)

  5. We all know that Mercedes is quite easy on fuel use, but is it possible that Mercedes fuelled the cars full, despite expecting a SC?
    The reason for that could be that they had not wanted to be in a position to have to tell either driver to slow down in the case of a race long battle going on, as it would be likely to hurt one of them more than the other? Because even though Rosberg was driving to save his tyres, we never got any indication he was told to save fuel, despite barging through the field.

  6. Lucky for Rosberg the car seemed so far ahead the tyres were not under much pressure. I can’t believe he hasnt come in for more criticism over the incident on the decline corner. It appeared there was a ‘cats chance’ of making the corner , good job the run of area was so obligingly designed .

Comments are closed.