CookinFlat6 I have a question... do you think Rosberg got spanked or do you think it was really
that close?
I ask because sure Rosberg got the better of Hamilton over the season in qualifying (partly due to some silly mistakes here and there by Hamilton) but we all know Hamilton was the better driver all season long especially with the retirements.
Hamilton should have won at Australia but his car let him down in the worst way possible, later on in the season it's less of a thing but the first race this was a team problem.
He owned the next 4 races, including at Bahrain where he should have lost if Rosberg was good enough.
We get to Monaco and Rosberg by this stage is losing 4-1 and behind, now Rosberg does the dirty in Q3 meaning Hamilton didn't get to complete his second run and chances are he would have gone more than 1 tenth faster especially since his banker lap is in and now can go all-out. We get to the race and Hamilton follows Rosberg comfortably for many laps until he gets rubble get into his visor and suddenly (yes it's visible on the timings) he drops off and Riccardo starts to catch.
Hamilton should have won at Canada, He was comfortably quicker all weekend except for Q3 where he had a few lock ups and I'm sure over the whole race he would have come out on top for sure).
He should have won at Austria, you think he was only under 2 seconds behind at the end of the race after starting in P9 when his quali lap got disqualified when it was so obvious that he didn't gain from going wide and it wasn't intentional, he lost the rear of his car, otherwise he would have started P4.
You might say Nico should have won at Silverstone but Hamilton was the faster driver and even before they did their first pit stops Hamilton was gaining ground fast, he pitted and even before Rosberg's car died it was game over for Nico.
The first race Rosberg won comfortably was Germany, he lead with ease although it was made easy by hamiltons brakes giving up in Q1, Rosberg cruised but cruised fast during the race however Hamilton's fastest lap was impressive, based on Hamiltons fastest lap compared to Quali times it shows Hamilton had the pace exceed Rosberg.
We get to Hungary and Hamilton's car gives up again, safety cars mess up the race which should have been a win for Rosberg BUT we all saw Hamilton out-race Rosberg by just looking at each driver trying to overtake other drivers.
At Spa Nico had the jump on Hamilton in qualifying and Rosberg won this qualli fair and square with relative ease, Pole isn't really a huge "must" at Spa because the you can be overtaken fairly easily on the first lap. Hamilton got past and then Nico did the dirty again!
Rosberg went into Italy on a downer after being told of by his team, Hamilton meanwhile dominates up until the start of the race where he has another car problem but even after that he manages to get it working again and still manages to outdrive Rosberg.
Singapore was in the bag from the start of practice for Hamilton, unfortunately we missed out on a potentially awesome race because Rosbergs car died on him. Hamilton's crotch adjustment got him that 0.007 extra to get pole.
At Japan I honestly expected Rosberg to win but it was a wet race and Hamilton is better in the wet, If it was a dry race Rosberg would have won but it was wet :/
Russia was just a dumb, easy track and Nico's lockup into turn 1 ruined it for him although from the get go again Lewis Hamilton was dominating, possibly the easiest weekend for Hamilton
We get to Russia and Rosberg smashes Qualifying, by far his best qualifying in 2014. However Hamilton managed to stick with Rosberg and did a beautiful overtake that was borderline too far so it was a perfect overtake, I was surprised Rosberg didn't win this one.
At Brazil Rosberg was very fast all weekend and dominated up until Q3 where he only just managed to get pole even with Hamilton having two rather big lockups on his quali lap, Hamilton had it in the bag up until his team made him stay out for a second hammertime lap which ended up in a mistake losing him 10+ seconds when he was ahead just before the spin (he had made up the second he needed to) but he didnt give up and chased Rosberg down got it back down to under 2 seconds. We saw again Hamilton's overall pace was far superior.
Dubai was an interesting race, Hamilton appeared to have it comfortable up until Q3 when Rosberg somehow pulled out an awesome lap, I expected Hamilton to come home in second place but unfortunately for Rosberg he had a pathetic start (might have been related to the car problem that came in later on) but at the same time Hamilton got a stupidly good start, one of the best starts without aids cough Renault
.
For me overall I think Hamilton outrace Rosberg in all bar like 2 races... and minus both drivers silly qualli mistakes/cheating again Hamilton did better (Rosberg won with cheating and eachothers mistakes) but then again qualliying is 1 lap, a race is 60+ laps so 1 lap pace isn't good enough, you need consistency.As for this thread, sorry for my offtopic I think Mercedes will show some speed this test, Williams too followed by a tight mix of Ferrari, Red Bull, Sauber, Lotus, McLaren and Toro Rosso (no specific order). I think Hamilton will get the fastest lap of the test but I think Rosberg will do the most laps (again)
Mercedes
Ferrai
Renault / Honda
^ Engine Order (We still don't know if Honda have pulled it out the bag, the wildcard status is frustrating!)
Mercedes
Williams
Red Bull / Ferrai
Lotus / McLaren / Toro Rosso
^ Constructor Order
