Who impressed at the Red Bull Ring and who had a stinker
Monday 2 November 2015 15:44, UK
An emphatic victory was a fitting conclusion to what was a near-faultless weekend for Nico Rosberg.
The deserved victor, Rosberg's only blemish occurred on the final corner of the final lap in qualifying with a spin which cost him pole position. Ultimately, it mattered not. At all other times, Rosberg had the measure of his world champion team-mate with his move on Lewis Hamilton representing the first occasion he has bested the Englishman on track since the start of last year. Better still, he is improving and learning.
“When you get in front after the start, it is really difficult because we have the same car so unless someone makes a mistake you can’t really get past," a jubilant Rosberg said afterwards. "But I was very happy to have the race pace today because l needed to work on that last year and I’m pleased it is coming good.”
With momentum on his side and as the man in form, Rosberg has, courtesy of his third victory in four races, closed to within ten points of the title summit. It’s game on again.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
Second best and second-placed. Lewis Hamilton’s searing lap in qualifying – which was then immediately followed by a spin – was the exception to prove the rule that he simply isn’t dialled into the Red Bull Ring circuit. Dominant in Canada, the world champion looked out of sorts all weekend and his race engineer Peter Bonnington was on the mark when he counselled immediately after the race: “Not the best result, but we’ll take it.”
The implicit message was loud and clear: this was damage limitation as Hamilton just didn't have an answer to Rosberg's pace this weekend. All will be forgiven and forgotten if he bounces back at Silverstone in two weeks' time in front of his home crowd – but his faltering title lead will also be all-but wiped out if he doesn't.
Rating out of ten: 6.5
While Felipe Massa’s third place in Austria may have owed a substantial debt to Sebastian Vettel’s botched pit-stop, it would do the Brazilian a disservice to depict his podium as a fluke. Felipe was only in the right place to capitalise on Ferrari’s gift courtesy of a strong performance in qualifying and solid start to the race. Caught by Vettel in the closing stages, he then used all his experience and skill to keep the Ferrari at bay. As remarked wryly by Rob Smedley over the Williams team radio: “Not bad for an old man”. There's plenty of life in the old dog yet.
Rating out of ten: 8
On balance, Sebastian Vettel deserved better in the Austrian GP than the fourth place he was restricted to due to the excellence of Massa’s defence and a sticky wheel-nut on his first pit-stop. But the German’s sanguine response to his misfortune after the race, telling his crew not to fret and thanking them instead for the car they had produced, perhaps betrayed Vettel’s inner-acceptance that Mercedes are too far in front for such setbacks to make much of a difference.
“I was trying to create something but it didn’t happen," Sebastian later told Sky F1, "but I ran out of magic!” The former world champion continues to impress and lead from the front at Ferrari, but as far as the world championship is concerned, it’s now a lost cause.
Rating out of ten: 8
How different Valtteri Bottas's weekend might have been if only he hadn't run into the yellow flags that the spinning Mercedes cars caused during that barmy end to qualifying. Had he not been obliged to ease off, Bottas would surely have qualified ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and very possibly Massa as well. From there, a podium, as Massa subsequently discovered, was eminently achievable.
Still, in the event, fifth place for Bottas despite a persistent brake issue wasn't a disaster – not least because by further reducing the gap between Williams and Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship, the prospect of Valtteri replacing Kimi Raikkonen at the Scuderia for 2016 has taken a significant leap forward as well.
Rating out of ten: 7
If Nico Rosberg is the F1 driver in form at the moment, Nico Hulkenberg is very much the motor-racing driver of the moment. Fresh from his Le Mans triumph a week ago, the German produced the lap of this weekend as well in qualifying by hustling his Force India car to fifth on the grid while his team-mate was eliminated in Q1.
The Hulk's race-day display was typically accomplished and efficient, even giving Bottas a decent fight for fifth before the Williams' superior aerodynamics eventually prevailed. It was a conclusion which may have carried prophetic resonance as well – might a route back to Williams open up for Hulkenberg at the end of the year?
Rating out of ten: 9
That's the thing about F1 top-ten finishes: you wait ages for one, and then two come along at once. After previously failing to trouble the scorers this year, Pastor Maldonado has registered back-to-back seventh-place finishes in Canada and Austria to provide a timely reminder that beneath the recklessness is a very handy racing driver.
Dear Pastor, a little more of the Dr Jekyll and less of the Mr Hyde in the future as well please. He was given a helping hand this weekend by the technical gremlins which struck Romain Grosjean's car, but after the bad luck he suffered at the start of the year Maldonado was due a stroke of good fortune.
Rating out of ten: 7
Young but no youth, Max Verstappen has become such an excitement-magnet that even the overtakes made on him tend to provide riveting viewing. In an otherwise lacklustre race, the moves on the Toro Rosso driver by Bottas and Maldonado were arguably the highlight – with the latter even featuring a tank-slapper for the Lotus along the start-finish straight before Verstappen's brakes boiled over.
Toro Rosso's backroom staff deserve a pat on the back, too. Despite dire warnings that they would be "sitting ducks" after electing to add extra downforce to their cars, Verstappen had competitive pace throughout and could have kept Maldonado's Lotus at bay but for losing precious seconds behind the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat.
Rating out of ten: 7.5
After being just 16th fastest in Q1, a race-day finish of ninth amounted to a very decent result for Sergio Perez. It helped, of course, that demotions at Red Bull and McLaren meant the Mexican actually started from 13th, but the Force India's fast getaway was just as critical as Perez leapt ahead of the two Lotuses before running for nearly 40 laps on his first stint.
The only shame of his race was a slowish pit-stop without which he might have even finished ahead of Verstappen. But as a recovery from his Q1 elimination, ninth was more than sufficient to end up in the file marked 'a good day's work'.
Rating out of ten: 7
Their owner, unimpressed with the impertinence of somebody else winning, may be ready to throw in the towel, but the fighting spirit of the Red Bull racing team remains undimmed. Tenth exceeded all pre-race expectations as a marathon 52-lap opening stint by the indefatigable Daniel Ricciardo trumped a crippling lack of straight-line speed and a five-second timed penalty when he made his one and only stop of the afternoon.
Remarkably, Red Bull calculate their well-drilled pit-stop operation only lost a mere tenth of a second from their optimal routine when they switched Ricciardo's wheels after he had served his 'hands off' penalty. But for their engine supply...
Rating out of ten: 8
And the rest of the finishers...
But for being narrowly beaten to the final points-paying position when he was overtaken by Ricciardo with ten laps to go, Felipe Nasr would have had a credible claim to be considered the driver of the weekend. The young Brazilian continues to comprehensively overshadow team-mate Marcus Ericsson, beating the Swede by almost a second in qualifying, and defying a reoccurring brake issue to all-but snatch a point for Sauber at what was effectively their home race.
Don't judge Daniil Kvyat's performance in Austria too harshly. The young Russian's car was badly damaged during a first-lap collision with Sergio Perez when he hit the back of the Force India and lost most of his front-wing in the process. It was tough price to pay after an excellent effort on Saturday when he out-qualified Ricciardo by six places.
“I think he’s been every bit as much a star as Verstappen and Sainz,” said Martin Brundle of Nasr after he passed Kvyat on lap 41. He subsequently dropped out of the points again but still showed far more fight than Marcus Ericsson, who spent another afternoon in the middle-to-lower reaches of Nirgendwo-stadt. Not that the Swede can be faulted for his keenness – he jumped the start after all – but he was once again bested by his Sauber team-mate.
It’s getting better all the time for Roberto Merhi, who outqualified team-mate Will Stevens for the second time in as many races and went on to claim Manor Marussia’s best result of the season with 14th. The Englishman can count himself unlucky that an oil leak brought early retirement but his Spanish team-mate is making hay while the sun shines. And who’s to say it won’t continue? “It feels like I have some real momentum now,” Merhi, who is still driving on a race-by-race basis, said afterwards.
