Half season review - Part 2 - Testgate and Punctures

After the Monaco Grand Prix followed a big discussion if this tyre test in Barcelona was legal or not. Red Bull and Ferrari protested these topic before the race and FIA had to investigate what is going to happen. It also was THE TOPIC at the following Canadian Grand Prix...

Beside the politics the teams and drivers had to face the race in the Montreal. In the rainy qualifying Valtteri Bottas surprisingly managed it to be 3rd. Vettel took the pole ahead of Hamilton.

The German was also able to win a superior race for the first time - even with a few mistakes like missing the braking point into Turn 1. Alonso came from behind and beat Hamilton with a nice overtaking move at the start-finish straight and finally finished second.

Unfortunately a marshal died while recovering a crashed Sauber car.

Ahead of the next Grand Prix Mercedes and Pirelli had to go to court. In the end Mercedes and Pirelli were reprimanded and the German team was suspended from the Young Driver Test (YDT) in July.

The following British Grand Prix showed us that they should argue if a tyre test is legal, more that such a test is necessary.

Hamilton was leading the first couple of laps and than suddenly his left rear tyre was destroyed. He lost his lead, returned into the pit lane to get a new tyre and found himself back at the end of the field.

Massa who had another strong start and gained a lot of positions also became a victim. He lost control in the middle of a corner and spun.

After another tyre failure of Jean-Eric Vergne Charlie Whiting decided to deploy the Safety Car.

All drivers were ordered to avoid using the kerbs to prevent further tyre problems.

At this time Vettel was leading the race ahead of Nico Rosberg. But the German had to stop because of a gearbox failure and caused the next Safety Car deployment. Most of the cars made another pit stop for the final laps at that time.
Shortly after the Safety Car came in Perez got a tyre failure and the parts of the rubber almost hit Fernando Alonsos head who was attacking him.
Mark Webber came closer and closer to Rosberg but he would have needed a few more laps.
The German driver won his second race of the season.

Apart from all these tyre issues announced Mark Webber before the British Grand Prix his retirement at the end of the season. That was the start of the Silly Season....

Half season review - Part 1 - From Multi21 to "Testgate"

We have seen a first half of a season with many twist and turns - but still with Red Bull and current world champion Sebastian Vettel in the lead. Let's take a look back what has happened so far.

The season began as usual in Melbourne, Australia and we saw Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus very strong, also Mercedes and Force India seemed competitive. McLaren hadn't only lost Lewis Hamilton, also their competitiveness. Also Sauber wasn't as strong as in 2012.

The race itself ended with a winner who didn't need to overtake someone on the track to win. 
Kimi Raikkönen simply won with one stop less than Alonso and Vettel.

In the second race in Malaysia we have had the first controversy of the season. After the last pit stops of the race we saw both Red Bulls very close together, but Mark Webber in front.
Because of uncertainty about the stability of the tyres both drivers were ordered to keep their positions with the now famous command Multi21.
Webber turned the engine down, but Vettel continued trying to pass Webber. He ignored the order and passed Webber in a battle through the first sector. Vettel later excused for disobeying the team order, but weeks later he turned back that he Webber hadn't really helped him in the past.

Also Mercedes had a similar issue in the race, but Rosberg obeyed the order and didn't pass Hamilton ahead and stayed at the fourth position.

In the following we saw Mercedes very strong in the qualifying in China. Lewis Hamilton took his first Pole Position for his new team. Later in the race he saved the third position and Fernando Alonso won his first race of the season.

We came to Bahrain and we saw another Pole Position for Mercedes - this time it was Rosberg. But that was the only highlight for Mercedes that weekend. In the race the German lost many positions in the first stint - he struggled with the tyres in the heat. Vettel eventually won the race ahead of both Lotus which came from bad grid positions from behind.


Then we came back to Europe and Nico Rosberg achieved another Pole Position. Lewis Hamilton completed the silver first row with the second place. But in the race it looked like in Bahrain. Both Mercedes lost positions, Hamilton don't even got any points. Nico Rosberg was able to lead longer than in Bahrain but still just scored a few points. Fernando Alonso finally won his home race ahead of Kimi Raikkönen.

Two weeks later the legendary Monaco Grand Prix took place. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton filled the first row once again. 
The race had some moments: First, Felipe Massa made the same crash into Turn 1 as the day before in the qualifying. It followed the first Safety Car deployment of the year.
Lewis Hamilton let a too big gap between him and the leading Rosberg and lost his second place at the pits. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber overtook him this way.
Some laps later a crash between Max Chilton and Pastor Maldonado caused a red flag, because there pushed a barrier at the track.
Sergio Perez who gained a position from Fernando Alonso before the restart because the Spaniard cut the chicane had later an intense fight with Raikkönen. 
The Mexican tried several times to pass the Finn at the chicane, Raikkönen always covered his position until one optimistic move from Perez where both clashed. 
Raikkönen got a puncture, dropped back out of the points. Perez had to give up because he destroyed his brakes.
But the Finn came back, overtook in the last laps both Sauber and his compatriot Bottas and at least scored one point for 10th place.

Rosberg eventually won the Monaco Grand Prix, 30 years after his father Keke.

But the victory had negative connotation because the information that Mercedes conducted a Pirelli tyre test with 2013 cars after the Barcelona race became public...