Same strategy as Hamilton nets Ricciardo fastest lap

25 comments on “Same strategy as Hamilton nets Ricciardo fastest lap”

1. 

   PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
   24th May 2015, 18:10

   Lotus still seriously in trouble so it seems, even with the new engine. Weekend to forget for Williams too…
   1. 

      Polo (@polo)
      24th May 2015, 18:38

      I recall Lotus saying that their car’s strength was on the straights, as they had designed it to be slippery in a straight line (like Williams last year).
      So I would expect Monaco to be pretty much their weakest track. We’ll soon see if Monaco was just a one-off for them though, as Canada is up next, which is one of the circuits where straight-line speed is most important.
   2. 

      Breno (@austus)
      25th May 2015, 15:54

      All Williams have is engine, if/when Renault and Ferrari catch up they’ll go back to fighting Toro Rossos and Saubers.
2. 

   Polo (@polo)
   24th May 2015, 18:19

   Look at the lap times of Hamilton and Rosberg: apart from the period where Hamilton was managing brakes (where he was equalling Rosberg), Hamilton was pretty much 0.2-0.3s faster almost every lap. He benefited a bit from backmarkers (probably around 2-3s) but he was well over 20s ahead of Rosberg before the safety car (27 seconds IIRC?). I think this was Hamilton’s most dominant race relative to Rosberg since they became teammates. Shame about how it ended.
   1. 

      Polo (@polo)
      24th May 2015, 18:27

      It was particularly impressive given that Hamilton apparently wasn’t even pushing that much:
      “It was a great feeling in the race, I had so much pace. I didn’t have to push too much.
      I could have doubled the lead if I needed. I’m grateful for that pace and I’ll come back to fight another day – at the moment I can’t think of anything else.”

      Rosberg meanwhile didn’t even to be able to get further than 1.5s ahead of Vettel for most of the race. Even when Tony Ross told Rosberg to push and close the gap to Hamilton (when Hamilton was managing brakes), he didn’t really seem to get any closer.
      1. 

         Polo (@polo)
         24th May 2015, 18:30

         didn’t even seem to*

         I’m surprised that Hamilton had such an edge, given that Monaco is always mooted as one of Rosberg’s best tracks. Last year Hamilton was on Rosberg’s gearbox for almost the entire race (until he got dirt in his eye or w/e).
         1. 

            Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
            24th May 2015, 18:49

            @polo Best? Well, he he was beaten by Schumi in 2012 for pole? Nico is always a bit less consistent, so it’s hard to say. China was his first pole, so perhaps that suited him a bit like Alonso last year.
3. 

   Miguel Sampaio (@gordess)
   24th May 2015, 18:29

   So does this mean that Ricciardo has the lap record for Monaco?
   1. 

      Polo (@polo)
      24th May 2015, 18:35

      Well the previous lap record was Schumacher from 2004, being 1:14.439.
      Ricciardo’s 1:18.063 was considerably slower, but since the layout of the track has changed I guess it’s the fastest lap on this particular layout?
   2. 

      evered7 (@evered7)
      24th May 2015, 18:36

      @gordess F1.com agrees with you.

      Monaco
4. 

   L.G
   24th May 2015, 18:33

   Why wasn’t Mr.Smiley punished like Fernando was??. Exact same move, only difference Kimi didn’t lose a front wing. Talk about inconsistency.
   1. 

      George (@george)
      24th May 2015, 19:53

      I agree, I think he should have been given a 5sec penalty. You can clearly see he’s barely alongside at the turn-in point (his front wheel is level with Raikkonen’s rear wheel), general etiquette is that you need to be halfway alongside at the turn-in point (ie with your wheel alongside your opponent’s cockpit) to have the right to the corner.
      1. 

         kenneth
         24th May 2015, 23:56

         beg to differ there. i have just seen a photo posted on the F1i website showing ricci’s front wheel at the beginning of the turn in mid point of the ferrari. at that stage raikonnen should have given ricci’s room but he didn’t. at the worst it was a ‘racing incident’ and the stewards read it correctly as evidenced in their decision. an audacious move which livened up the race and it was well controlled by both drivers.
         1. 

            Greg
            25th May 2015, 2:32

            If that was a racing incident, then so was Alonso’s. Fernando was actually ahead going into the turn whereas Ricciardo was making a dive in the braking zone and touched his front wheel to the rear wheel of Kimi. I think their decisions were overly influenced by the results. Alonso had the position but Hulk had damage, so it’s a penalty. Daniel punts Kimi but Kimi saves it, so it was okay. That’s not the way to officiate.
            1. 

               kenneth
               26th May 2015, 7:54

               @ greg…no, wrong again. look at the replays of both incidents and you will see the differences. the stewards got both decisions right.
   2. 

      Bob Down
      24th May 2015, 20:45

      Maybe they’d realised by then that they shouldn’t have penalised Alonso in the first place.
5. 

   Ivan B (@njoydesign)
   24th May 2015, 18:48

   Interesting that only 14 cars bested the fastest lap from GP2 race.
6. 

   tmax (@tmax)
   24th May 2015, 20:11

   Watching Indy 500. so much of wheel to Wheel racing and overtaking makes me wonder whats wrong with F1 today.

   Montoya actually moved from 30th to 1st through the race. If had stayed back in F1, he would have be a Champion atleast once by now.

   And as we speak a Huge crash in Indy… Hope everybody is okay.
   1. 

      wsrgo (@wsrgo)
      25th May 2015, 9:22

      @tmax That’s a terrible correlation. It’s obviously a lot easier to pass on ovals than on Monaco.
7. 

   Andy (@andycz)
   24th May 2015, 20:12

   What do you (anybody) think about this: If Lewis manage to pass Vettel, do you think Merc pit wall would tell Nico to let go Lewis? As McLaren did in Australia 98?
   1. 

      tmax (@tmax)
      24th May 2015, 20:20

      and why should they ? What did Rosberg do wrong ??? Lewis has newer tires. He is supposed to be best driver in the world. So he should better overtake Rosberg and not ask for team orders.
      1. 

         Andy (@andycz)
         24th May 2015, 20:22

         Because of pit wall fault… But it’s true that it was also Lewis’s call… It’s bit different than Australia 98.
8. 

   Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
   24th May 2015, 21:11

   I don’t fully get what happened that HAM came out of behind Ros. If we look at times:
   HAM: 79.4 93.05 131.32 121.14
   ROS: 81.17 99.58 103.38 121.59

   80-sec lap pre crash – HAM had about 20 sec lead
   +1 – VSC and then safety car but all drive to min lap time – HAM gains 6 sec = 26sec LEAD
   +2 – lap when HAM pits and loses 28 sec.
   +3 comes out behind – lost lead by 2sec.

   Pit stop loses you 19sec, but that’s in race conditions. given ROS couldn’t go flat out pit stop loss is probably much less. Does this mean Safety car picked HAM up in the last sector therefore slowing him down considerably comparing to ROS and did not pick ROS up after that?
   1. 

      Michael Brown
      24th May 2015, 22:00

      Yes, Hamilton did indeed catch the safety car at the last sector, which cost him enough time to lose his lead.
   2. 

      Nathan
      24th May 2015, 23:43

      Hamilton also sat in box waiting for a car to pass him

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