IT'S HERE! 2016 F1 SEASON (played through Grand Prix 2)! [Archive]

rjbetty

30th January 2016, 06:34

ROUND 1 - AUSTRALIAN GP (continued) - RACE DAY

GO! Bottas shoots into the lead but Vettel gets an even better start and takes the lead into turn 1. Rosberg gets pushed wide and is all the way down to 8th, while Alonso and Verstappen get great starts into 4th and 5th! Chaos behind as Perez and Magnussen have crashed and are both out! On the run to turn 3 Hamilton takes 2nd from Bottas while Kvyat runs into the back of Raikkonen, pushing him off track while Rosberg gets past them both for 6th. Raikkonen is all the way to last.

Manors have had a good start running 14th and 17th with Gutierrez 15th for Haas.

After 5 laps, Vettel leads Hamilton by 1.4sec. Rosberg gets past Bottas for 3rd while Verstappen has dropped from an early 4th to 9th. Button and Hulkenberg fight for 10th while Raikkonen chases Gutierrez for 17th.

By lap 10, Vettel now leads by 2sec while Rosberg catches Hamilton. Kvyat is making progress, having dispatched Alonso for 5th and now closes on Bottas. Raikkonen takes Wehrlein's for 14th, but is now 23sec off the lead. Gutierrez has retired, making it 19 runners now.

On lap 13, Rosberg takes Hamilton for 2nd, but Vettel now has a 5sec+ lead over both Mercedes cos of traffic.

Lap 19 and here are the pit stops, a flurry of them as Rosberg pits first, followed by Bottas, Kvyat and Raikkonen, who had made it up to 9th. This leaves Alonso 3rd (the giddy heights!) On the next lap, Vettel and Massa pit from 1st and 5th, leaving Hamilton leading Alonso by 12sec.

Suddenly on lap 23, a shocking development - Rosberg's name drops down the order - he's OUT with transmission failure!

Now the halfway point on lap 29, and Alonso makes his only scheduled stop from 2nd, while Verstappen does the same from 5th. They exit 7th and 12th. Hamilton now leads fellow one-stopper Ricciardo while Vettel is 3rd, 23sec down.

Hamilton makes his stop a lap later, then so does Ricciardo from 2nd, but unbelievably Ricciardo collides with a stray Caterham on the pit lane entry (Forza Rossa and Caterham fill the grid to the mandatory 26 cars, and with old cars and engines they are nowhere remotely near the pace of even the Manors and Haas). Ricciardo spins back out onto the track and into the pit entry. But most astonishingly, Sainz and Button now try to pit and can't get round Ricciardo so they end up trapped against the wall.

Even more belief is beggared when Button is trying to reverse, then Hulkenberg comes flying into the pit entry from 5th and smashes into Button sending him crashing to the last corner, only to be smashed into by Kvyat - all 3 are out! These are truly amazing events, and you have to see these screenshots to believe the carnage. Sainz also retired as he was unable to get his car started again. This leaves Pascal Wehrlein's Manor in 9th, Grosjean 11th and Haryanto 12th, with Ricciardo the final runner 2 laps down in 13th. You couldn't make this up.

Meanwhile, Hamilton had exited the pits behind Vettel but got past him for the lead. This is a lucky break for Raikkonen who is now a clear 5th. Vettel isn't giving up though and holds onto Hamilton over the next laps. On lap 38 he brilliantly retakes the lead through backmarkers! However he has to stop again while Hamilton doesn't...

Vettel makes his final stop exiting 3rd behind Hamilton and... Alonso! Then suddenly, he's in the turn 3 gravel! He crawls out 5th behind the Williams', but Massa is about to pit. Bottas should be easy work.

With 15 laps to go, all the stops are done and the order is Hamilton, Alonso, Bottas, Vettel, Raikkonen, Verstappen, Massa, Nasr, Wehrlein and Ericsson in the points, with Grosjean, Haryanto and Ricciardo the final runners.

There are to be no more crazy events now, and Hamilton eventually takes a straight-forward win, one of the few straight-forward things about this race. Alonso comes home an overjoyed (by his standards) 2nd, while surprisingly Bottas does keep 3rd ahead of Vettel. And joy of joys, Pascal Wehrlein brings his Manor home 9th for only their second points finish ever. Grosjean was 11th on his Haas debut, only 21sec down on the points, but 48sec down on Wehrlein, suggesting some work to do for Haas. This just shows how Manor need a decent driver in one of their seats. Raikkonen took a surprise fastest lap.

Race Result
1.Hamilton
2.Alonso +27.722
3.Bottas +40.092
4.Vettel +41.114
5.Raikkonen +51.433
6.Verstappen +1:09.606
7.Massa +1:19.295
8.Nasr -1 lap
9.Wehrlein -1 lap
10.Ericsson -1 lap
11.Grosjean -1 lap
12.Haryanto -2 laps
13.Ricciardo -2 laps
R.Kvyat - DNF
R.Hulkenberg - DNF
R.Button - DNF
R.Sainz - DNF
R.Palmer - DNF
R.Rosberg - Transmission
R.Gutierrez - Engine
R.Magnussen - DNF
R.Perez - DNF

Fastest Lap Top 3: Raikkonen, Rosberg, Hamilton

So there we have it, what an amazing race that couldn't have been forseen. Let's hope the rest of the season is just as exciting. I will try to post some screenshots I took but the photo site I use is down.

rjbetty

30th January 2016, 06:50

ROUND 2 - MALAYSIAN GP
Right then I'll try to get as much done as I can as I don't know when I'll get the time to do more. Here we go then, Round 2 - Malaysia.

Qualifying
Of the early runners, Hamilton goes fastest, but Vettel is very quick indeed, but falls short in the final sector. Later on, Alonso is very quick again, still coming 3rd despite being held up by Magnussen slightly. Ricciardo had a shocking lap, and only improved to 10th next time round. Kvyat suffered badly too. Rosberg was quicker than Hamilton in sector 1 but comes across Wehrlein and his lap is ruined. He hits another backmarker on his next lap and is stuck in 4th. Kvyat tries to improve from 15th but runs out of time as the session ends! And I don't know how he did it, but Kevin Magnussen gets in the top 10.

Starting Grid
1.Hamilton
2.Vettel +0.124
3.Alonso +0.458
4.Rosberg +0.962
5.Raikkonen +1.100
6.Sainz +1.417
7.Button +1.559
8.Bottas +1.568
9.Magnussen +1.604
10.Ricciardo +1.680
11.Verstappen +1.801
12.Hulkenberg +2.022
13.Nasr +2.137
14.Massa +2.292
15.Kvyat +2.564
16.Perez +2.710
17.Ericsson +3.595
18.Palmer +3.810
19.Grosjean +4.015
20.Gutierrez +4.533
21.Wehrlein +4.810
22.Haryanto +6.079

rjbetty

30th January 2016, 07:49

ROUND 2 - MALAYSIA - Race Day
Hamilton keeps the lead but Vettel and Rosberg swap positions. Rosberg is all over Hamilton and tries to get him into the tight turn 9 but fails to make it stick. Later on, into the final corner, Rosberg gets through while Vettel fails to do the same to Alonso.

Then down the start-finish straight, Hamilton retakes Rosberg while Vettel gets Alonso for 3rd. Grosjean has made it up to 15th in the confusion as somehow, Roberto Merhi's Caterham gets up to 14th, holding up others really badly.

The top 4 run closely until the Mercedes pull away as Vettel and Alonso fight. Raikkonen joins in and takes Alonso for 4th.

By lap 10, Rosberg is finally through for good and has pulled out a slight gap. Hamilton is also under pressure from Vettel now. Palmer and Grosjean are the first retirements.

Suddenly, a huge shock as into the turn 9 hairpin, Hamilton's suspension fails, sending him into the gravel - he's OUT!

On lap 17, Raikkonen takes Vettel for 2nd! Both are 3.3sec behind Rosberg with Alonso a similar gap behind in 4th. Carlos Sainz is a massive 23sec behind Alonso in 5th, but he has a close group of Red Bulls, Williams, Button and Hulkenberg behind him.

On lap 22, Rosberg and Raikkonen pit giving Vettel the lead as Alonso retires from 4th. Vettel makes his stop on lap 29, and he's trying a counter-strategy. He will go to the end and is only 10sec off the lead. Rosberg and Raikkonen have to pit again. This could get really interesting if Vettel can hold on. Verstappen retires with his car on fire.

Rosberg pits on lap 37 but Vettel is only 16sec behind in 3rd. Rosberg exits 8 sec behind. Now with 15 laps to go, Rosberg is 6sec behind and catching quickly.

Kvyat is a great 4th, but well over a minute down, having run 18th on lap 1, but he pits with an electrical failure. Dropping to 12th he immediately gives chase to the cars in front, colliding with Nasr into turns 7-8.

Raikkonen is 3rd, 15sec down but fastest of all. Vettel's lead is now under 4sec and looking perilous. Amongst all this, Massa is somehow 4th with Magnussen behind.

Vettel loses 2 sec behind a Caterham with smoke pouring out of it's engine. Rosberg is only 1.5sec behind with 10 laps to go now. Raikkonen is down to 12sec off the lead, as Gutierrez spins off from 15th behind that Caterham. 4th-10th are separated by 11sec with the Force Indias and Nasr close behind that group.

Button quietly starts picking up the pace and dispatches Magnussen's Renault for 5th, and sets off after Massa. Rosberg is now just over 1sec behind Vettel with 5 laps to go, but makes a mistake dropping 8sec!

Button is doing a great job and gets Massa with 3 laps left while Magnussen throws away his good work with a mistake, dropping to 10th.

Vettel laps Massa for 5th on the last lap to take the win, while just a few seconds behind, Ricciardo just fails to overtake Bottas. Behind this Kvyat does grab 8th from Sainz at the death while Magnussen holds on for the final point just ahead of Nasr and the Force Indias. Button grabs another amazing result for McLaren with 4th. Raikkonen gets fastest lap again!

Result
1.Vettel
2.Rosberg +9.079
3.Raikkonen +14.922
4.Button +1:39.948
5.Massa -1 lap
6.Bottas -1 lap
7.Ricciardo -1 lap
8.Kvyat -1 lap
9.Sainz -1 lap
10.Magnussen -1 lap
11.Nasr -1 lap
12.Perez -1 lap
13.Hulkenberg -1 lap
14.Ericsson -1 lap
15.Wehrlein -2 laps
16.Gutierrez -2 laps
R.Haryanto - Engine
R.Verstappen - Oil Leak
R.Alonso - Engine
R.Hamilton - Suspension
R.Grosjean - Transmission
R.Palmer - Transmission

Fastest Lap Top 3: Raikkonen, Vettel, Rosberg

Championship Standings after Round 2
Drivers
1.Sebastian Vettel - 37pts
2.Lewis Hamilton - 25pts
3.Kimi Raikkonen - 25pts
4.Valtteri Bottas - 23pts
5.Nico Rosberg - 18pts
5.Fernando Alonso - 18pts
7.Felipe Massa - 16pts
8.Jenson Button - 12pts
9.Max Verstappen - 8pts
10.Daniel Ricciardo - 6pts
11.Felipe Nasr - 4pts
12.Daniil Kvyat - 4pts
13.Pascal Wehrlein - 2pts
14.Carlos Sainz - 2pts
15.Marcus Ericsson - 1pt
16.Kevin Magnussen - 1pt

Constructors
1.Ferrari - Ferrari - 62pts
2.Mercedes - Mercedes - 43pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 39pts
4.McLaren - Honda - 30pts
5.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 10pts
6.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 10pts
7.Sauber - Ferrari - 5pts
8.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
9.Renault - Renault - 1pt
10.Haas - Ferrari
11.Force India - Mercedes

rjbetty

30th January 2016, 08:28

I'll see if I can do one more.

ROUND 3 - CHINESE GP
Qualifying
Alonso is quick yet again before Rosberg takes half a second off. Several drivers are badly held up but improve on their second laps, notably Hamilton from 15th and Raikkonen from 21st. Look how well the McLarens have done.

Starting Grid
1.Rosberg
2.Vettel +0.231
3.Hamilton +0.382
4.Alonso +0.504
5.Kvyat +0.583
6.Button +0.663
7.Ricciardo +0.973
8.Bottas +1.051
9.Massa +1.127
10.Raikkonen +1.219
11.Sainz +1.362
12.Verstappen +1.367
13.Hulkenberg +1.447
14.Magnussen +2.225
15.Nasr +2.268
16.Perez +2.308
17.Gutierrez +2.340
18.Ericsson +2.353
19.Grosjean +2.506
20.Wehrlein +2.545
21.Palmer +2.694
22.Haryanto +5.249

RACE DAY
The top 3 keep their positions off the start but the McLarens lose two places each. Palmer and Nasr have collided and both are off at turn 1 but both continue at the back. Gutierrez has gotten up to 12th.

Raikkonen makes up about 5 places on lap 2(!) while Haryanto retires and Massa makes a mistake dropping down the back, 45sec off the lead.

After 5 laps, the top 3 are circulating very closely when suddenly Vettel snatches the lead from Rosberg. Hamilton tries to do the same but doesn't pull it off. Gutierrez still holds 12th for Haas.

The two Mercedes fight, which allows Vettel to pull out a lead as Hamilton gets through to 2nd, but Vettel makes a mistake and loses the gap, as Button has problems and drops right out of contention to 20th.

Gutierrez is doing a great job on lap 15, still 11th just 2sec off the points, while Raikkonen continues his climb, taking 4th from Kvyat. On lap 23 though, suddenly Raikkonen pulls off track coming onto the back straight and is out.

Hamilton is first of the leaders to pit on lap 25, dropping to 5th.

On lap 33 Alonso pits having led the race for 2 laps. Gutierrez is still 12th only 7sec off the points and not stopping again. Button is making good progress back up the field but Massa languishes.

Gutierrez seems to de dropping off the pace a bit now and is 14th. Everyone has pitted now with just under 20laps left and Vettel now holds a 10secc lead.

Vettel holds on to take another win while Alonso gets another good result for McLaren. Button just missed out on the points in the end while Gutierrez finished a good 14th (beating Massa!) considering there were only 3 retirements, the final one being Magnussen on the last lap. Force India open their points account meaning only Haas are yet to score now.

Result
1.Vettel
2.Hamilton +9.219
3.Rosberg +30.122
4.Alonso +39.829
5.Kvyat +41.839
6.Bottas +1:20.426
7.Hulkenberg +1:24.725
8.Ricciardo +1:25.317
9.Verstappen +1:26.559
10.Sainz +1:38.517
11.Button -1 lap
12.Perez -1 lap
13.Ericsson -1 lap
14.Gutierrez -1 lap
15.Massa -1 lap
16.Wehrlein -1 lap
17.Grosjean -1 lap
18.Nasr -1 lap
19.Palmer -2 laps
R.Magnussen -3 laps
R.Raikkonen - Loose Wheel
R.Haryanto - Electrical

Fastest Lap Top 3: Vettel, Rosberg, Alonso

Championship Standings after 3 Rounds
Drivers
1.Vettel - 62pts
2.Hamilton - 43pts
3.Rosberg - 33pts
4.Bottas - 31pts
5.Alonso - 30pts
6.Raikkonen - 25pts
7.Massa - 16pts
8.Kvyat - 14pts
9.Button - 12pts
10.Verstappen -10pts
11.Ricciardo - 10pts
12.Hulkenberg - 6pts
13.Nasr - 4pts
14.Sainz - 3pts
15.Wehrlein - 2pts
16.Ericsson - 1pt
17.Magnussen - 1pt

Constructors
1.Ferrari - Ferrari - 87pts
2.Mercedes - Mercedes - 76pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 47pts
4.McLaren - Honda - 42pts
5.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 24pts
6.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 13pts
7.Force India - Mercedes - 6pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 5pts
9.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
10.Renault - Renault - 1pt
11.Haas-Ferrari

rjbetty

30th January 2016, 09:19

Just one more to complete the flyaway races before bed...

ROUND 4: BAHRAIN GP
Qualifying
In the early running, Massa, Button and Hulkenberg are fastest with Raikkonen and Alonso only 8th and 9th out of the initial 12 runners. Mercedes, Vettel and Red Bull are yet to set a time however. Hamilton goes almost 0.6 quicker than Massa with 3 mins left then Rosberg, who was slower than Hamilton in the first two sectors, suddenly snatches provisional pole. Vettel has a shocker of a lap, 22nd, but then a huge upset as the session ends before he can correct this - this means the runaway championship leader is down the back of the grid - with Raikkonen also failing to improve his time from 16th! This leads to a slightly mixed up grid.

Starting Grid
1.Rosberg
2.Hamilton +0.064
3.Massa +0.652
4.Button +0.893
5.Sainz +1.059
6.Ricciardo +1.095
7.Hulkenberg +1.236
8.Bottas +1.516
9.Verstappen +1.525
10.Nasr +1.561
11.Kvyat +1.638
12.Ericsson +1.914
13.Perez +2.071
14.Palmer +2.222
15.Grosjean +2.505
16.Raikkonen +2.618
17.Magnussen +2.765
18.Alonso +3.049
19.Haryanto +3.708
20.Wehrlein +3.751
21.Gutierrez +3.753
22.Vettel +5.471

Race Day
Lights out! Massa blasts into the lead and Hulkenberg into 3rd with Saubers 6th and 8th.

So after 5 laps, and the Mercedes cars are stuck in a pattern where they overtake the car in front (Hamilton/Massa and Rosberg/Hulkenberg) into the last corner, only for the overtaken car to blast back past them down the start/finish straight. So Massa keeps the lead while Nasr and Ericsson run 5th and 6th!

Lap 10 and the top 4 are still the same with Massa and Hulkenberg holding off the Mercedes. Hamilton loses it in frustration and spins off. After trying to extricate himself his engine has stalled and he is sensationally out of the race!

Rosberg has finally got past Hulkenberg for good while Raikkonen is past the Saubers. Vettel has made it up to 9th now.

Lap 18 and Hulkenberg pits from 3rd. Grosjean is out too now having not featured in the race. A lap later and Massa finally pits and relinquishes the lead. The McLarens are having a miserable time down the field; neither can get past the car in front as they still both lack some grunt.

After 20 laps the top 10 are only covered by 12sec - watch out for Vettel at the back of this field, he's a deceptively short time gap from the lead... Rosberg has made his stop but comes out behind Massa again, and now Ricciardo too. But he is ahead of Ericsson and Bottas who have yet to pit, and Hulkenberg who has.

WOW Nasr, Button and Palmer have all collided at the pit lane entry and are all out! Rosberg has caught up to Massa while Vettel is now 6th, only 10sec off the lead - still 36 laps to go...

Now Ericsson and Raikkonen crash into each other from 4th a Ericsson tries to enter the pitlane while Raikkonen is passing him. Kimi half spins across the track, being overtaken by Vettel, only for Raikkonen to retake him down the pit straight. Ericsson is in the gravel, his good drive wasted, but somehow still running despite having hit the wall hard.

Raikkonen has a great scrap with Vettel but it loses both time, until Raikkonen bins it losing 30sec and dropping to 9th. Rosberg has got past Massa by now and is almost 4sec clear. Vettel can't get past Hulkenberg for 3rd for the same reason the Mercedes couldn't earlier, but he finally makes it stick, but is now 24sec down. With 20 laps remaining, Rosberg pits from the lead to 3rd.

Vettel makes a late stop with 11 laps left, dropping to 3rd. He immediately sets a searing pace but is 26sec down. A trio of Spanish speaking drivers all retire at the same time, Alonso, Sainz and Gutierrez. I don't know if anything happened cos I was on accelerated time.

Vettel blasts past Massa for 2nd and is 14sec behind Rosberg with only 4 laps left. On the final lap, what's this? Championship leader Vettel, coming down the final straight retires and pulls off the track! A final sting in the tail which promotes Kvyat to a surprise podium. As in Malaysia, Ricciardo just fails to get past Bottas. Sauber rue their pointless race having both run right up there early on.

Result
1.Rosberg
2.Massa +19.588
3.Kvyat +29.045
4.Hulkenberg +37.594
5.Bottas +1:00.666
6.Ricciardo +1:01.823
7.Verstappen +1:11.608
8.Raikkonen +1:19.389
9.Perez +1:33.839
10.Vettel - Brakes
11.Ericsson -1 lap
12.Wehrlein -2 laps
13.Magnussen -2 laps
14.Haryanto -2 laps
R.Alonso - DNF
R.Gutierrez - Engine
R.Sainz - DNF
R.Nasr - DNF
R.Button - DNF
R.Palmer - DNF
R.Grosjean - Engine
R.Hamilton - DNF

Fastest Lap Top 3: Vettel, Kvyat, Hamilton

Championship Standings after Round 4
Drivers'
1.Vettel - 63pts
2.Rosberg - 58pts
3.Hamilton - 43pts
4.Bottas - 41pts
5.Massa - 34pts
6.Alonso - 30pts
7.Raikkonen - 29pts
7.Kvyat - 29pts
9.Hulkenberg - 18pts
10.Ricciardo - 18pts
11.Verstappen - 16pts
12.Button - 12pts
13.Nasr - 4pts
14.Sainz - 3pts
15.Perez - 2pts
16.Wehrlein - 2pts
17.Ericsson - 1pt
18.Magnussen - 1pt

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 101pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 92pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 75pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 47pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 42pts
6.Force India - Mercedes - 20pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 19pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 5pts
9.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
10.Renault - Renault - 1pt
11.Haas - Ferrari - (best finish 11th)

So that's it for now. Hope it's been fun. :)

jens

30th January 2016, 09:35

Insane season as per usual. I am sure the real season won't be that crazy.:D

By the way, out of interest. What are the performance values you have used for the season? McLaren looks insanely strong with at least one of their driver qualifying in top 4 in each round!

rjbetty

30th January 2016, 10:21

Hi Jens, I was gonna wait till the end of the season but I will post the top 12 now

QUAL
1.Hamilton
2.Rosberg +0.05
3.Vettel +0.34
4.Raikkonen +0.82
5.Bottas +0.84
6.Ricciardo +0.97
7.Massa +0.98
8.Kvyat +1.07
9.Alonso +1.09
10.Sainz +1.12
11.Verstappen +1.14
12.Button +1.20

Yes this is crazy stuff which is great, but I think it will settle down to some normality. The 2015 season I did was a bit rubbish with Hamilton winning 10 races, Rosberg 5 and Ricciardo sneaking 1 while 2014 had Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel on 3 victories, Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Rosberg on 2 each, with 1 for Magnussen! Hopefully we can still get some 'genuine' shock results. I think with McLaren it's more a case of other drivers not managing to set their absolute best time while one or both McLarens do so and punch above their weight.

So far McLaren's qualifying is like this:

Alonso - 6th 3rd 4th 18th (average = 7.8)
Button - 14th 7th 6th 4th (average = 8.3)

jens

30th January 2016, 11:42

The 2015 season I did was a bit rubbish with Hamilton winning 10 races, Rosberg 5 and Ricciardo sneaking 1 ---

Rubbish? In the real F1 season Hamilton did win 10 races, and Rosberg 6. So I'd say basically spot on. :p:

rjbetty

30th January 2016, 12:03

Since I'm struggling to sleep, here's two more:

ROUNd 5: SPANISH GP
Qualifying
Rosberg fails to get a good time in while Vettel goes quickest. Hamilton tries but... doesn't make it so Vettel grabs pole! Look at the McLarens taking row 2.

Starting Grid
1.Vettel
2.Hamilton +0.046
3.Button +0.287
4.Alonso +0.350
5.Raikkonen +0.725
6.Ricciardo +0.801
7.Sainz +0.907
8.Rosberg +0.989
9.Kvyat +1.203
10.Bottas +1.394
11.Massa +1.714
12.Ericsson +1.829
13.Verstappen +2.125
14.Grosjean +2.956
15.Hulkenberg +3.037
16.Palmer +3.268
17.Perez +3.275
18.Nasr +3.278
19.Gutierrez +3.592
20.Wehrlein +4.354
21.Haryanto +5.678
22.Magnussen +6.111

Race Day
A less interesting one this, except for the result. Rosberg has a shocking start to 11th while the McLarens fare even worse running 8th and 9th after a few laps. Alonso retires before half distance and not much else happens save for Kvyat retiring.

There were two big happenings though. Hamilton losing a stack of time mid race and having to climb back up through the field, then a similar but lesser thing happening to Rosberg. He even gets overtaken by Button before eventually getting back past some time later. This all leaves Vettel out in the lead again, seemingly running away with the championship! Another good finish for McLaren with 5th for Button. Oh, and Max Verstappen retired from 10th on the last lap.

Result
1.Vettel
2.Ricciardo +36.305
3.Raikkonen +46.160
4.Rosberg +53.377
5.Button +55.549
6.Hamilton +57.235
7.Perez -1 lap
8.Sainz -1 lap
9.Massa -1 lap
10.Hulkenberg -1 lap
11.Bottas -1 lap
12.Ericsson - 1 lap
13.Magnussen -1 lap
R.Verstappen - Retired
15.Nasr -2 laps
16.Palmer -2 laps
17.Gutierrez -3 laps
R.Wehrlein - DNF
R.Kvyat - Transmission
R.Alonso - Suspension
R.Haryanto - DNF
R.Grosjean - Suspension

Fastest Lap Top 3: Vettel, Raikkonen, Ricciardo

Championship Standings after 5 Rounds
Drivers
1.Vettel - 88pts
2.Rosberg - 70pts
3.Hamilton - 51pts
4.Raikkonen - 44pts
5.Bottas - 41pts
6.Massa - 36pts
7.Ricciardo - 36pts
8.Alonso - 30pts
9.Kvyat - 29pts
10.Button - 22pts
11.Hulkenberg - 19pts
12.Verstappen - 16pts
13.Perez - 8pts
14.Sainz - 7pts
15.Nasr - 4pts
16.Wehrlein - 2pts
17.Ericsson - 1pt
18.Magnussen - 1pt

Constructors
1.Ferrari - Ferrari - 132pts
2.Mercedes - Mercedes - 121pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 77pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 65pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 52pts
6.Force India - Mercedes - 27pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 23pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 5pts
9.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
10.Renault - Renault - 1pt
11.Haas - Ferrari (best finish 11th)

ROUND 6: MONACO GP
Qualifying
Not much of a mixed up grid this time but some minor surprises

1.Vettel
2.Hamilton +0.156
3.Rosberg +0.479
4.Button +0.837
5.Sainz +1.215
6.Ricciardo +1.286
7.Bottas +1.391
8.Verstappen +1.423
9.Alonso +1.578
10.Hulkenberg +1.690
11.Massa +2.011
12.Kvyat +2.020
13.Nasr +2.059
14.Wehrlein +2.241
15.Raikkonen +2.314
16.Haryanto +3.012
17.Grosjean +3.241
18.Palmer +4.479
19.Gutierrez +4.509
20.Ericsson +4.631
21.Magnussen +5.512
22.Perez +7.302

Race Day
GO! The top 3 keep their places while Sainz and Button swap. Wehrlein, Haryanto and Grosjean all make up 1 place but Gutierrez retires early. Hamilton pressures Vettel but on lap 10 Rosberg bins it dropping to 19th! Now Sainz runs 3rd with Wehrlein 11th. A lap later he nips past Nasr thru backmarkers to run 10th on merit as Hamilton runs wide at the final corner but continues.

Suddenly on lap 19 Vettel is out from the lead! This puts Hamilton in a 22sec lead from Sainz, Button and Bottas. Wehrlein now runs 9th while Rosberg is now 15th but almost 40sec off the lead.

Now Massa spins from 8th into Portier and is almost now being lapped by Hamilton and in 19th. Rosberg has pitted early and is now 19th ahead of only Haryanto. Will this be a good move to jump up the field as others pit, or will he be held up and get frustrated?

Lap 26 and Wehrlein and Nasr pit from 7th and 8th. Nasr tries to jump Wehrlein but doesn't make it. Grosjean makes a mistake coming out of the final turn and Magnussen nabs him. They come down the pit straight, out comes Wehrlein and Magnussen actually hits the back of him it's so close, but the Manor just holds on to 12th. To show how close these cars are running, Nasr was right behind Wehrlein yet exits 16th.

A lap later and Sainz finally pits from 2nd, rejoining 10th and having to stop again.

Hamilton easily leads but many people have a go at running 2nd: Bottas, Kvyat, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Button etc. Wehrlein makes his way up to 8th like this, but had already been passed by Raikkonen. Verstappen monsters him but spins at Portier.

Through all this, Alonso is quietly not stopping anymore having not really featured. As everyone else ahead of him needs to pit again, could Alonso even be on course to bag a shock 2nd? As this is being pondered, Hamilton comes to lap him coming out of the tunnel and OH MY FREAKING GOSH HAMILTON CLIPS HIM AND ABSOLUTELY FLIES UP- INTO THE AIR AND BOTH HE AND ALONSO SMASH INTO THE CHICANE AREA!! Hamilton's car is broken in half, while somehow Alonso continues again in 12th. The runaway race leader, leading by almost a minute, is sensationally out! This puts the likes of Button, Sainz and Bottas in a shock fight for victory, you couldn't make it up.

Sainz leads, chased by Raikkonen who is all over him just like Mansell and Senna 92, and they both pit at the same time, as does Rosberg from 5th. Raikkonen does it and beats Sainz out of the pits but Button has gone through. So has Bottas, and Ricciardo, and Hulkenberg too - and they're all pitted to the end! Wehrlein has just overtaken Alonso on merit and is in the points, and as Rosberg pits he comes out between them. It could be more points for Manor in 9th. Wehrlein hounds Verstappen and Perez in front of him, a real David and Goliath moment this. During all this, Kvyat unspectacularly crashed out at the final turn...

Button now leads Bottas by 11 seconds and with 26 laps to go, could be on course for a fairytale victory for McLaren-Honda.

Verstappen gets past Perez for 7th with Wehrlein all over him, and Rosberg behind him. Suddenly Rosberg comes steaming into the chicane, and batters Wehrlein out of the way and takes 9th - what an unbelievable b*****d!!! Wehrlein now loses momentum and is repassed by Alonso now putting him out of the points again. Raikkonen clips the final turn but survives
and takes Ricciardo for 3rd later on. While chasing Bottas he also hits Haryanto like Hamilton did coming out of the tunnel but avoids it, just locking up. Rosberg is past both Perez and Verstappen now into 7th.

Button has now built up a 20sec lead with 20 laps to go! 5 laps later and Sainz nabs Hulk for 5th only for Hulk to return the favour. Rosberg is all over both of them while Raikkonen shadows Bottas for 2nd. Wehrlein has now been passed by Massa too.

In the next 10 laps. Rosberg takes Sainz for 6th, Perez is passed by Alonso, Verstappen spins again falling to 12th just ahead of Nasr. Massa takes Perez for 9th.

As we come into the final laps, it becomes clear that most cars do not have enough fuel to make the finish due to consumption being too high in this track slot for Monaco (slot 6). This means a flurry of pit stops, but a few try to eke their way to the finish. I wish I'd remembered to sort this beforehand but oh well, I guess it makes up for other realistic factors like safety cars and penalties not being accounted for.

So what happens? Jenson Button, with a 30second lead and a few corners to go, retires, that's what. Bottas has pitted, so now we are left with this completely ridiculous situation where we are waiting for a winner to come round, and we don't seem to be getting one (does that sound familiar - yes, amazingly this actually has happened at the Monaco GP in real life! So Bottas is out of the picture. Next enter Kimi Raikkonen, and yes he has just enough in the tank and he's done it, he's won!

Perez pulls up as does his team mate Hulkenberg and Ricciardo. And now Palmer's out, as is Grosjean, crashing into the wall, as that cheater (yeah I know I know!) Rosberg, after being nowhere, gets 2nd. Now Sainz is running out of fuel on the pit straight and Bottas swoops for 3rd, but misses, and Sainz gets the final podium place. Wehrlein is now set for 5th but he too pulls up at Rascasse, so through comes Alonso followed by Massa, then some way behind, Max Verstappen.

Right, now sorting through all that the final classified result is this:

Result
1.Raikkonen
2.Rosberg +9.766
3.Sainz +21.040
4.Bottas +21.437
5.Alonso +44.967
6.Massa +52.391
7.Verstappen +59.285
8.Button -1 lap
9.Ricciardo -1 lap
10.Hulkenberg -1 lap
11.Perez -1 lap
12.Wehrlein -1 lap
13.Nasr -1 lap
14.Palmer -1 lap
15.Ericsson -1 lap
16.Haryanto -1 lap
17.Magnussen -2 laps
18.Grosjean -2 laps
R.Hamilton - DNF
R.Kvyat - DNF
R.Vettel - DNF
R.Gutierrez - Transmission

Fastest Lap Top 3: Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso

Championship Standings after Round 6
Drivers
1.Vettel - 88pts
2.Rosberg - 88pts
3.Raikkonen - 69pts
4.Bottas - 53pts
5.Hamilton - 51pts
6.Massa - 44pts
7.Alonso - 40pts
8.Ricciardo - 38pts
9.Kvyat - 29pts
10.Button - 26pts
11.Sainz - 22pts
12.Verstappen - 22pts
13.Hulkenberg - 20pts
14.Perez - 8pts
15.Nasr - 4pts
16.Wehrlein - 2pts
17.Ericsson - 1pt
18.Magnussen - 1pt

Constructors
1.Ferrari - Ferrari - 157pts
2.Mercedes - Mercedes - 139pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 97pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 67pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 66pts
6.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 44pts
7.Force India - Mercedes - 28pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 5pts
9.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
10.Renault - Renault - 1pt
11.Haas - Ferrari - (best finish 11th)

Right now that's definitely enough for today! Well it's been great fun. Tune in to the next episode soon.

jens

30th January 2016, 13:00

rjbetty

31st January 2016, 02:12

ROUND 7: CANADIAN GP
Qualifying
Sainz causes a stir by taking provisional pole only for Rosberg to set an identical time. Then at the end Raikkonen goes quickest only to be beaten by Hamilton with a couple of mnutes left.

Starting Grid
1.Hamilton
2.Raikkonen +0.215
3.Rosberg +0.251
4.Sainz +0.251
5.Vettel +0.384
6.Ricciardo +0.464
7.Bottas +0.501
8.Verstappen +0.547
9.Kvyat +0.623
10.Alonso +0.708
11.Hulkenberg +0.795
12.Massa +1.007
13.Magnussen +1.038
14.Nasr +1.173
15.Button +1.372
16.Wehrlein +1.468
17.Perez +1.715
18.Ericsson +1.877
19.Palmer +1.915
20.Grosjean +2.500
21.Haryanto +2.536
22.Gutierrez +2.962

GO! As others get in each other's way and Palmer is out minus one wheel, Hamilton and Raikkonen blast away from everyone, and Kimi hounds Hamilton all lap, and takes him into lap 2! But Hamilton gets him back. Suddenly on lap 3 Hamilton retires! That's the 4th time in 7 races - what?! Now Raikkonen leads Rosberg by 0.8sec. Rio Haryanto has fallen from the giddy heights of 12th and now his team-mate Pascal Wehrlein is the highest running representative of the backmarker teams in 15th.

Lap 5 and Alonso is swarmed by cars as his is on fire. Raikkonen continues to lead Rosberg by 0.6sec. 2 laps later and Rosberg takes the lead and now Button and Gutierrez are out too while Hulkenberg has spun from 7th at turn 6. Now Wehrlein, Grosjean and Haryanto are 13th, 14th and 15th with only 17 cars left already.

Ricciardo is fast and makes his way past Vettel then Raikkonen to 2nd but pits early. Nasr is on fire from 7th down the final straight and as Wehrlein dodges in 9th, Massa clatters into the back of him grabbing his position by cheating! Raikkonen spins at the hairpin while Grosjean also now runs 12th.

Sainz has to make an extra pit stops as the Ferraris one stop. It looks to work for Vettel as he gives chase to Rosberg but then his pace is a bit disappointing and he falls behind his team-mate and even Bottas for a while. Not that much else happens today so Rosberg takes the win.

Result
1.Rosberg
2.Raikkonen +18.720
3.Vettel +28.641
4.Bottas +30.965
5.Ricciardo +55.560
6.Kvyat +1:00.994
7.Massa +1:14.016
8.Verstappen +1:18.900
9.Hulkenberg -1 lap
10.Sainz-1 lap
11.Magnussen -1 lap
12.Wehrlein -1 lap
13.Perez -1 lap
14.Grosjean -1 lap
15.Ericsson -2 laps
16.Haryanto -2 laps
R.Nasr - Engine
R.Gutierrez - Engine
R.Button - Suspension
R.Alonso - Engine
R.Hamilton - DNF
R.Palmer - DNF

Fastest Lap Top 3: Raikkonen, Rosberg, Vettel

Championship Standings after Round 7
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 113pts
2.Vettel - 103pts
3.Raikkonen - 87pts
4.Bottas - 65pts
5.Hamilton - 51pts
6.Massa - 50pts
7.Ricciardo - 48pts
8.Alonso - 40pts
9.Kvyat - 37pts
10.Button - 26pts
11.Verstappen - 26pts
12.Sainz - 23pts
13.Hulkenberg - 22pts
14.Perez - 8pts
15.Nasr - 4pts
16.Wehrlein - 2pts
17.Ericsson - 1pt
18.Magnussen - 1pt

Constructors
1.Ferrari - Ferrari - 190pts
2.Mercedes - Mercedes - 164pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 115pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 85pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 66pts
6.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 49pts
7.Force India - Mercedes - 30pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 5pts
9.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
10.Renault - Renault - 1pt
11.Haas - Ferrari - best finish 11th

rjbetty

31st January 2016, 02:19

ROUND 8: AUSTRIAN GP

Starting Grid
1.Rosberg
2.Hamilton +0.176
3.Perez +0.711
4.Ricciardo +0.759
5.Verstappen +0.852
6.Bottas +0.899
7.Vettel +0.943
8.Hulkenberg +0.994
9.Raikkonen +1.029
10.Massa +1.072
11.Kvyat +1.174
12.Grosjean +1.176
13.Alonso +1.391
14.Button +1.400
15.Nasr +1.670
16.Sainz +1.707
17.Magnussen +2.063
18.Gutierrez +2.572
19.Palmer +2.628
20.Haryanto +2.853
21.Wehrlein +3.072
22.Ericsson +6.139

Race Day
GO! Verstappen is up to 2nd while Sainz crashes out. Alonso crashes out part way through the race as Massa spins down the field. Vettel eventually gets by Perez for 3rd while Grosjean runs near the top 10 throughout. In the end he holds on by a few seconds to beat Button on merit and fantastically takes a maiden point for Haas! Force India secure a bumper result too while Rosberg extends his championship lead.

Result
1.Rosberg
2.Hamilton +18.211
3.Vettel +23.691
4.Perez +27.534
5.Hulkenberg +47.188
6.Kvyat +58.835
7.Raikkonen +1:00.554
8.Ricciardo +1:11.822
9.Verstappen +1:22.151
10.Grosjean -1 lap
11.Button -1 lap
12.Massa -1 lap
13.Magnussen -1 lap
14.Ericsson -1 lap
15.Haryanto -2 laps
16.Gutierrez -2 laps
17.Palmer -2 laps
18.Nasr -3 laps
R.Bottas - Transmission
R.Wehrlein - Suspension
R.Alonso - DNF
R.Sainz - DNF

Fastest Lap Top 3: Rosberg, Hamilton, Perez

Championship Standings after Round 8
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 138pts
2.Vettel - 118pts
3.Raikkonen - 93pts
4.Hamilton - 69pts
5.Bottas - 65pts
6.Ricciardo - 52pts
7.Massa - 50pts
8.Kvyat - 45pts
9.Alonso - 40pts
10.Hulkenberg - 32pts
11.Verstappen - 28pts
12.Button - 26pts
13.Sainz - 23pts
14.Perez - 20pts
15.Nasr - 4pts
16.Wehrlein - 2pts
17.Ericsson - 1pt
18.Magnussen - 1pt

Constructors
1.Ferrari - Ferrari - 211pts
2.Mercedes - Mercedes - 207pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 115pta
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 97pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 66pts
6.Force India - Mercedes - 52pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 51pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 5pts
9.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
10.Renault - Renault - 1pt
11.Haas - Ferrari - best finish 11th

rjbetty

31st January 2016, 04:15

I don't understand, what have you done in the game, so that cars run out of fuel LOL. Once upon a time I played GP3 and AI was certainly smart enough to always have enough fuel on board.

That Monaco is like a race from the 1980s!

It's because Monaco was run in slot 6 (i.e. round 6) instead of it's default 1994 slot 4. Each track slot has different inbuilt settings and slot 6 (Canada) has too high fuel consumption for a track like Monaco according to the physics of the game, so I forgot to fix this. In their default slots, each track runs properly with fuel consumption etc, but when I install other tracks in the slots, sometimes the characteristics don't match up. Well I guess it makes up for other realistic random factors that aren't in the game, such as rain, safety cars and penalties.

And with that...

ROUND 9: BRITISH GP
Qualifying
After the initial first laps Hamilton is quickest, but Raikkonen is a quarter of a second faster in the first sector. only to miss out by +0.050. Rosberg is only 8th, +0.002 ahead of Haryanto as the McLarens are also badly baulked. On their second runs Hamilton improves only by 3 hundreths while championship leader Rosberg improves by almost 0.9sec but is still only 8th!

Alonso improves by over 5.5sec but is still only 11th and last so far. Ricciardo just avoids being held up at the end of his lap and almost takes pole. Vettel is baulked badly in sector 1 to go only 11th, yet he was fastest of all in sectors 2 and 3 - a tale of what if, but what can he do on his second lap which will be clear? He is 0.038sec down after sector 2 - it's going to be so close - he slipstreams Max Verstappen on the start/finish straight to go fastest by almost 0.2sec! Botttas is trying to improve from 18th but has a lock up, he goes only 15th!

Both Saubers are in the top 10 while Palmer just misses out on a best ever top 10 grid slot, while Haas score a double Q2 for the first time.

Starting Grid
1.Vettel
2.Hamilton +0.174
3.Raikkonen +0.260
4.Ricciardo +0.289
5.Sainz +0.710
6.Perez +0.917
7.Verstappen +1.338
8.Nasr +1.420
9.Ericsson +1.549
10.Hulkenberg +1.630
11.Palmer +2.087
12.Kvyat +2.247
13.Button +2.627
14.Grosjean +2.841
15.Bottas +3.045
16.Gutierrez +3.266
17.Massa +3.303
18.Rosberg +3.465
19.Haryanto +4.347
20.Magnussen +4.559
21.Wehrlein +4.717
22.Alonso +5.226

Race Day
Lights out and Raikkonen slots into 2nd behind Vettel while Toro Rossos are 4th and 6th. Grosjean slots into 9th between the Saubers while Rosberg remains 18th and Alonso 22nd. Button tries to get 11th off Palmer into Stowe only to fail and get taken by Hulkenberg and almost Kvyat too. Bottas is 19th after a big slide after being hit by Massa off the start line. Hamilton passes Raikkonen into lap 2.

On lap 7, Grosjean finally relinquishes 10th to Button while Rosberg is up to 13th. Kvyat is a disappointing 15th. Vettel leads Hamilton by 4sec. A lap later and Grosjean is disappointingly 143th and under pressure from Hulkenberg while Palmer is now all the way doewn to 18th behind his team-mate.

By quarter distance Rosberg is up to 9th but 42sec down. Vettel leads Hamilton by 7.7sec.

Grosjean retires on fire joining his team-mate Gutierrez and Ricciardo.

By lap 20 Vettel has pitted from the lead to 4th, the same for Hamilton 2 laps later. This leaves Raikkonen on a one-stop leading his team-mate by 10sec, and it's very interesting that Vettel isn't really cutting into the gap - and they both have to stop once more. Rosberg pits from 5th only losing 1 position to Sainz but quickly retakes it. Alonso is still only 18th and looking to be lapped soon.

Raikkonen makes his only stop on lap 29, but being held up by a lapped Bottas who is only 14th. He had led Vettel by 8sec... Kimi has to avoid Palmer's stricken Renault on the pit lane exit. A lap later at half distance, Vettel is baulked badly by Alonso while lapping him and now leads Hamilton by 4.9sec. Raikkonen is 3rd 23sec down, but the two leaders have to
pit again in 7 and 9 laps respectively.

Disappointingly, Raikkonen has dropped to 31sec off his team-mate's lead when Vettel pits on lap 37, and Raikkonen only just nips ahead only for Vettel to immediately draft past him down the Hangar straight. Hamilton pits to 3rd and Rosberg to a net 5th.

On lap 43, Rosberg takes Perez for 4th as Verstappen retires. Rosberg looks like he might be the fastest out there today but for a bad qualifying, but he starts to drop off the pace a bit. With just 6 laps to go, Raikkonen's name drops to 3rd on the timing screen behind Hamilton, and there's smoke pouring out the back of his car and he's out. The Williams and Kvyat are having a great fight for 9th while Sainz stays ahead of the Saubers who are running in formation.

And so Vettel wins again, while Button takes more good points for McLaren and Perez gets another good result having suddenly hit good form. Nasr beats Ericsson to 7th by 0.9sec (their fastest laps were 0.007 apart) while Bottas has a suspension failure from 11th on the slowing down lap! Hulkenberg is a disappointing 14th having so nearly been lapped by Perez.

Result
1.Vettel
2.Hamilton +14.934
3.Rosberg +46.930
4.Perez +57.619
5.Button +1:01.952
6.Sainz -1 lap
7.Nasr -1 lap
8.Ericsson -1 lap
9.Massa -1 lap
10.Kvyat -1 lap
11.Bottas -1 lap
12.Magnussen -1 lap
13.Alonso -1 lap
14.Hulkenberg -1 lap
15.Haryanto -2 laps
16.Wehrlein -2 laps
17.Raikkonen - Engine
R.Verstappen - Oil Leak
R.Palmer - Engine
R.Grosjean - Engine
R.Ricciardo - Engine
R.Gutierrez - Engine

Fastest Lap Top 3: Vettel, Hamilton, Rosberg

Championship Standings after Round 9
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 153pts
2.Vettel - 143pts
3.Raikkonen - 93pts
4.Hamilton - 87pts
5.Bottas - 65pts
6.Massa - 52pts
7.Ricciardo - 52pts
8.Kvyat - 46pts
9.Alonso - 40pts
10.Button - 36pts
11.Perez - 32pts
12.Hulkenberg - 32pts
13.Sainz - 31pts
14.Verstappen - 28pts
15.Nasr - 10pts
16.Ericsson - 5pts
17.Wehrlein - 2pts
18.Magnussen - 1pt

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 240pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 236pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 117pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 98pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 76pts
6.Force India - Mercedes - 64pts
7.Toro Ross - Ferrari - 59pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 15pts
9.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
10.Renault - Renault - 1pt
11.Haas - Ferrari - 1pt

rjbetty

1st February 2016, 08:11

ROUND 10: HUNGARIAN GP
Qualifying
Hamilton sets the early pace with only Button anywhere near. Ricciardo is super fast and comes close to pole. Rosberg is hugely quick in sector 1 but is blocked. On his second lap his tyres have already gone off and he has to settle for 4th. Max Verstappen is 5th despite losing time on his lap.

Starting Grid
1.Hamilton
2.Ricciardo +0.160
3.Button +0.235
4.Rosberg +0.366
5.Raikkonen +0.724
6.Verstappen +0.761
7.Vettel +0.845
8.Alonso +0.961
9.Massa +1.277
10.Nasr +1.405
11.Ericsson +1.482
12.Hulkenberg +1.879
13.Magnussen +2.081
14.Wehrlein +2.122
15.Perez +2.132
16.Palmer +2.235
17.Grosjean +2.921
18.Gutierrez +3.321
19.Bottas +3.686
20.Haryanto +3.721
21.Sainz +3.811
26.Kvyat +25.228

Race Day
Verstappen is up to 3rd at the start with Rosberg down to 6th. Haryanto has made another of his good starts to 13th while Bottas, the Haas and Kvyat fill positions 23-26! Grosjean spins off at turn 4 to last.

Rosberg climbs to 3rd challenging Ricciardo but pits first on lap 18 to 11th.

On lap 27 Haryanto is the first retirement as Hamilton pits. Since Ricciardo already pitted from 2nd two laps earlier, this promotes Button to the race lead, which he holds for 6 laps until his stop! Rosberg is massively quicker, at least 2sec per lap, and Nico now takes the lead. Button and Vettel are both trying an audacious strategy of pitting till the end of the race - a very long time. Button has now fallen behind Vettel in 6th.

Now Hamilton is quickest and has relieved Rosberg of the lead. Ricciardo is now challenging Rosberg but suddenly spins from 3rd at the penultimate corner. He loses 45sec to 6th. Hulkenberg, Wehrlein and the strongly performing Saubers are all out by now (lap 37).

Suddenly we have a very weird situation where a backmarker (a Forza Rossa) will cause everyone who tries to lap it to suddenly start driving really weird lines all over the place and being slow. This is a bug that happens once in a while, but I consider it fair game, as it's now effectively... a wet race!! Raikkonen spins from 3rd, so does a lapped Massa, almost hitting Vettel. Hulkenberg spins at the final turn, then so does Bottas. He spins across the track and is smashed into by Button, and Grosjean too. All 3 are out. Magnussen flies off the track and Ricciardo has another excursion. Sudden excitement here as this bunches up the field and creates unpredicatbility otherwise lacking in an AI game. Magnussen has now retired too.

Rosberg gets past Vettel for 2nd as Verstappen goes off at turn 5. Ricciardo spins a few laps later and is hit by a lapped Massa, then Kvyat too. Contact is gentle and all 3 continue. But there are now only 13 runners left. Gutierrez is the only one from the bottom 2 teams left.

Perez retires from 13th and last in an unrelated failure while Ricciardo and Massa have got past the troublesome backmarker. Things haven't righted themselves yet as Alosno goes wide at the final turn being passed by Kvyat for 6th.

Now Hamilton has caught the backmarker but after a few wobbles makes it past and his lines are auto-corected. Alonso struggles and Verstappen passes him, but Alonso repasses. Now Ricciardo has crashed with a completely different backmarker and both are out. There are now only 11 runners left. Alonso and Palmer get through the backmarker but now it's Rosberg's turn. He is 14 sec ahead of Vettel but has to pit again in 10 laps or so. But things have righted themselves back to normal again it seems as everyone is lapping normally. It's a dry race again.

Things are more normal now and Hamilton finally takes his first win since Australia, but only cuts 7pts into Rosberg's lead.

Result
1.Hamilton
2.Rosberg +23.511
3.Vettel -1 lap
4.Kvyat -1 lap
5.Raikkonen -1 lap
6.Verstappen -1 lap
7.Alonso -1 lap
8.Massa -2 laps
9.Palmer -2 laps
10.Sainz -2 laps
11.Gutierrez -3 laps
R.Ricciardo - DNF
R.Perez - Transmission
R.Button - DNF
R.Bottas - DNF
R.Magnussen - DNF
R.Grosjean - DNF
R.Wehrlein - DNF
R.Ericsson - DNF
R.Nasr - DNF
R.Hulkenberg - DNF
R.Haryanto - Water Leak

Fastest Lap Top 3: Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo

Championship Standings after Round 10
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 171pts
2.Vettel - 158pts
3.Hamilton - 112pts
4.Raikkonen - 103pts
5.Bottas - 65pts
6.Kvyat - 58pts
7.Massa - 56pts
8.Ricciardo - 52pts
9.Alonso - 46pts
10.Button - 36pts
11.Verstappen - 36pts
12.Sainz - 32pts
13.Perez - 32pts
14.Hulkenberg -32pts
15.Nasr - 10pts
16.Ericsson - 5pts
17.Wehrlein - 2pts
18.Palmer - 2pts
19.Magnussen - 1pt
20.Grosjean - 1pt
21.Gutierrez - best finish 11th
22.Haryanto - best finish 12th

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 283pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 261pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 121pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 110pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 82pts
6.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 68pts
7.Force India - Mercedes - 64pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 15pts
9.Renault - Renault - 3pts
10.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts
11.Haas - Ferrari - 1pt

rjbetty

1st February 2016, 08:12

ROUND 11: BELGIAN GP
Qualifying
A crazy day today as though Rosberg sets the first time, which remains unbeaten, he spins off on his second lap. Many drivers are held up and by the time the second wave of drivers come out, the session has almost ended and in the end 5 drivers didn't even manage to set a time - one of them Lewis Hamilton! The grid is therefore fairly mixed up.

Starting Grid
1.Rosberg
2.Bottas +0.529
3.Perez +1.075
4.Alonso +1.562
5.Verstappen +1.600
6.Sainz +1.690
7.Raikkonen +1.714
8.Button +1.719
9.Vettel +1.761
10.Massa +1.874
11.Gutierrez +2.499
12.Hulkenberg +2.863
13.Magnussen +3.191
14.Kvyat +3.560
15.Ericsson +3.892
16.Nasr +4.585
17.Wehrlein +5.597

20.Hamilton - No Time
21.Ricciardo - No Time
22.Palmer - No Time
23.Haryanto - No Time
24.Grosjean - No Time

Race Day
Bottas grabs the lead and his straightline speed keeps Rosberg at bay. Perez in 3rd is tantalisingly close to slipstreaming Rosberg in the early laps. On lap 2 Kvyat goes off at Pouhon but quickly rejoins, losing a place. On lap 3 Vettel does the same trying to overtake a McLaren and beaches it - he is out! After 3 laps, Sainz in 4th is already 10sec down while Bottas continues to lead. Kvyat goes off again but again quickly rejoins as Hamilton is now up to 16th.

Massa is making quick work of everyone and is challenging Sainz for 4th. On lap 10 Rosberg makes a mistake and Perez grabs 2nd. Kvyat and Hamilton are now up to 12th and 13th but 30+sec down now.

On lap 11 Hamilton pits down to 17th. Verstappen does the same but is going to the end of the race now - a daring strategy! He is 12th. A lap later Perez pits but has a 30sec lead over Massa in 4th, who has finally got past Sainz. Perez is still an easy 3rd - perhaps one of his podiums today?

On lap 14, Bottas finally pits from the lead relinquishing it to Rosberg, but comes out 2nd ahead of Perez. A lap later and Rosberg is in from the lead, as is Gutierrez from 6th! Kvyat is right behind and dives in the pits too. Kvyat jumps Gutierrez in the pits but both have seemingly ruined their races by going to the end like Verstappen, who is making no progress in 12th.

Suddenly Rosberg and Perez have collided and are both out!! This leaves Bottas leading his team-mate Massa by 37sec. Hamilton is the only big name down in 5th and 52sec off the lead! Suddenly Alonso has crashed out of 5th with a Caterham, Hamilton then taking 5th.

Remarkably Gutierrez is 9th and holding onto Verstappen and Kvyat in front, all running to the end, as Raikkonen is in the gravel at Les Fagnes losing a huge stack of time, and is nowhere. Now Grosjean is off on lap 24 at Pouhon, losing massive time, but wasn't in contention anyway.

On lap 28, Bottas pits from a 45sec lead over Massa. Perhaps today he can finally win his maiden race, having just failed to do so at Monza in last year's simulation?! Hulkenberg is 3rd and Hamilton still only 4th and 57sec off the lead, having struggled to get through the pack.

Button can't get past Sainz for 5th while Massa pits from 2nd, dropping to 4th. Hulkenberg and Hamilton pit, Hamilton emerging ahead. Now Massa spins at Eau Rouge losing over 10sec and now Hamilton is right behind him for 2nd.

Sainz has lost time in the pits and Button beats him, so does Verstappen but Sainz gets his team-mate. With 12 laps remaning Gutierrez remains 10th and is 12.6sec ahead of Nasr on much fresher tyres. What will happen?

Suddenly, an almighty smash at Pouhon eliminates both Toro Rossos and Button from 6th, 7th and 8th! Button had clipped a backmarker on the inside, gone into the gravel then back onto track into the Toro Rossos who were nose and tail. Haryanto was already in the gravel so there's 5 cars in the gravel!

Now Hamilton makes a mistake and drops to 4th behind Hulkenberg, who is pressuring Massa for 2nd like crazy. Bottas now leads by over 1 minute with 11 laps remaning. Now Hamilton slips up behind Kvyat who was quietly catching the group for 2nd, as Hulkenberg is through and scampers away.

Raikkonen is finally out of his misery from a nowhere 13th with 6 laps remaning. Hamilton has got past Kvyat for 4th, who was pressuring Massa hugely, but Hamilton goes wide almost losing 4th again. This gives Massa some breathing space in 3rd for a bit as Palmer crawls to a halt with a loose wheel from 12th.

Wehrlein is now 11th, 20sec behind Ericsson in the points, but Gutierrez is holding 7th and actually pulling away from Nasr to 15sec. With 3 laps left, Hamilton gets 3rd from Massa and gives chase to Hulkenberg, seeking his maiden podium, who is 3.3sec ahead. There are just 13 runners left now and a points finish for one of the bottom 2 teams is almost guaranteed since all 4 are still running and almost completed 90% distance.

Hamilton takes a massive 2sec out of Hulkenberg to be only +1.3 down with 2 laps remaining. But Bottas is on his final lap now with a 1:12sec lead, having lapped Nasr in 8th. Watching him complete his final lap, Hamilton gets past Hulkenberg into Les Combes, then Bottas comes through the bus stop onto the straight, and WINS! Others pass the line but Massa is under huge pressure from Kvyat but just holds on for 4th, with Ricciardo a few seconds behind in 6th. Now Esteban Gutierrez is coming up the hill, onto the pit straight and takes 7th place for Haas! Sauber get another double points finish, they have only had double points finishes this season and Renault get another couple of points.

Result
1.Bottas
2.Hamilton +1:12.059
3.Hulkenberg +1:13.446
4.Massa +1:17.725
5.Kvyat +1:18.694
6.Ricciardo +1:26.898
7.Gutierrez +1:52.453
8.Nasr -1 lap
9.Magnussen -1 lap
10.Ericsson -1 lap
11.Wehrlein -1 lap
12.Grosjean -2 laps
13.Haryanto -2 laps
R.Palmer - Loose Wheel
R.Raikkonen - Oil Leak
R.Sainz - DNF
R.Button - DNF
R.Verstappen - DNF
R.Alonso - DNF
R.Rosberg - DNF
R.Perez - DNF
R.Vettel - DNF

Fastest Lap Top 3: Bottas, Rosberg, Hamilton

Championship Standings after Round 11
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 171pts
2.Vettel - 158pts
3.Hamilton - 130pts
4.Raikkonen - 103pts
5.Bottas - 90pts
6.Massa - 68pts
7.Kvyat - 68pts
8.Ricciardo - 60pts
9.Hulkenberg - 47pts
10.Alonso - 46pts
11.Button - 36pts
12.Verstappen - 36pts
13.Sainz - 32pts
14.Perez - 32pts
15.Nasr - 14pts
16.Gutierrez - 6pts
17.Ericsson - 6pts
18.Magnussen - 3pts
19.Wehrlein - 2pts
20.Palmer - 2pts
21.Grosjean - 1pt
22.Haryanto - best finish 12th

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 301pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 261pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 158pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 128pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 82pts
6.Force India - Mercedes - 79pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 68pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 20pts
9.Haas - Ferrari - 7pts
10.Renault - Renault - 5pts
11.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts

rjbetty

1st February 2016, 10:14

ROUND 12: ITALIAN GP
Starting Grid
1.Hamilton
2.Rosberg +0.263
3.Bottas +0.547
4.Raikkonen +0.919
5.Vettel +0.925
6.Verstappen +1.037
7.Massa +1.048
8.Kvyat +1.207
9.Ricciardo +1.212
10.Hulkenberg +1.284
11.Alonso +1.336
12.Sainz +1.366
13.Button +1.789
14.Magnussen +1.991
15.Wehrlein +2.116
16.Palmer +2.322
17.Ericsson +2.402
18.Perez +2.821
19.Grosjean +3.068
20.Nasr +3.103
21.Haryanto +3.442
22.Gutierrez +3.485

Race Day
Lights out! Raikkonen flies into the lead ahead of the Williams and Vettel while Manors are 8th and 10th. Rosberg soon shoots up to 3rd though. Grosjean has already crashed out.

Sadly Wehrlein bins it on lap 5 dropping to last except Palmer has done even worse, running further back and now Bottas spins down to 19th from 3rd.

Rosberg is very fast and on lap 8 takes Raikkonen for the lead. He pits early though as Ricciardo spins to 17th, and Nico is now 13th. He doesn't make enough progress in traffic and remains 31sec off Raikkonen who is enjoying a 12sec lead over Massa.

Suddenly Hamilton goes off at Parabolica having been forced off by a backmarker and drops to 11th. Shortly after, that weird thing with a backmarker is happening again like in Hungary but only a few drivers get affected as most pass easily. Unfortunately Raikkonen is one, but he soon pits for his only stop.

Hamilton suffers again behind the backmarker while Wehrlein has gone completely out of the picture now while Ericsson is stuck in the gravel for several laps! A shame as Wehrlein had a great chance of good points again today.

Alonso gets to lead before his pit stop, and when he does Rosberg takes over. He leads Raikkonen by 16.4sec but he has to pit again while Raikkonen doesn't.

Sainz is only the 2nd retirement on lap 34 but suddenly Alonso is now out too. Rosberg pits and drops to 3rd behind Raikkonen and Massa who aren't stopping again. He is 14.6sec down with 19 laps left, but he exited the pits ahead of Hulkenberg and Vettel who is subdued today. Hamilton is 6th.

Vettel and Hulkenberg keep slipstreaming and passing each other over 4th which allows Hamilton to pass and catch them both. Vettel finally gets clear of Hulkenberg who is falling back into Bottas now. Verstappen retires from 8th.

Now with 10 laps left Rosberg is still only 3rd, 13sec off the lead but is catching Massa. Massa locks up into turn 1 allowing Rosberg to catch and pass him. Then with 5 laps to go Massa goes off at Curva Grande, throwing away a certain podium and is now out of the points. Raikkonen still leads by 11.8sec as Wehrlein is out for good.

Button's pace drops off as he falls from 7th to 9th but on the final lap grabs 8th back from Kvyat in an opportunistic move. But Raikkonen comes round the final corner, onto the pit straight, and WINS his second race of the year! Hamilton makes a great recovery to 3rd, not all that far off, while Vettel was beaten by Bottas in the end, so both lose more ground to Rosberg in the championship. With only 1/4 of the season to go, it's looking like Rosberg's championship at the moment, but what we have learned is that anything can happen in this season.

Result
1.Raikkonen
2.Rosberg +10.485
3.Hamilton +23.048
4.Bottas +33.937
5.Vettel +35.359
6.Hulkenberg +40.722
7.Nasr +1:01.807
8.Button +1:05.436
9.Kvyat +1:05.891
10.Perez +1:09.088
11.Massa +1:18.902
12.Magnussen -1 lap
13.Ricciardo -1 lap
14.Palmer -1 lap
15.Gutierrez -1 lap
16.Haryanto -1 lap
NC.Ericsson -8 laps(!)
R.Wehrlein - Transmission
R.Verstappen - Puncture
R.Sainz - Puncture
R.Alonso - Engine
R.Grosjean - DNF

Fastest Lap Top 3: Hamilton, Rosberg, Bottas

Championship Standings after Round 12
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 189pts
2.Vettel - 168pts
3.Hamilton - 145pts
4.Raikkonen - 128pts
5.Bottas - 102pts
6.Kvyat - 70pts
7.Massa - 68pts
8.Ricciardo - 60pts
9.Hulkenberg - 55pts
10.Alonso - 46pts
11.Button - 40pts
12.Verstappen - 36pts
13.Perez - 33pts
14.Sainz - 32pts
15.Nasr - 20pts
16.Gutierrez - 6pts
17.Ericsson - 6pts
18.Magnussen - 3pts
19.Wehrlein - 2pts
20.Palmer - 2pts
21.Grosjean - 1pt
22.Haryanto - best finish 12th

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 334pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 296pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 170pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 130pts
5.Force India - Mercedes - 88pts
6.McLaren - Honda - 86pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 69pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 26pts
9.Haas - Ferrari - 7pts
10.Renault - Renault - 5pts
11.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts

rjbetty

1st February 2016, 11:41

ROUND 13: JAPANESE GP
Qualifying
Verstappen sets the early pace out of the first 11 runners, but Bottas goes almost 0.5sec quicker and Sainz nabs 2nd. Vettel is only 4th and Ricciardo only 7th after hitting traffic but Gutierrez is 6th.

Of the second wave of drivers, Massa sets the first time; after two sectors he is +0.003 slower than leader Bottas - he crosses the line, and it's a... 2nd, +0.083 down. Alonso goes 6th. Ricciardo is having another go as Raikkonen takes 5th.

Button is fastest of all in the first 2 sectors, and comes round, but his 3rd sector was slow and he goes only 3rd behind the 2 Williams. Perez is very quick in secotrs 1 and 3 but badly held up in sector 2 to go 15th. Kvyat is fast challenging for pole but he to is slower in sector 3, going 4th. It must just be the Williams' great straightline speed. Ricciardo is trying to improve from 13th so far, and he goes... 8th.

Now Rosberg is coming through, quickest of all. Hamilton is even quicker but gets stuck behind Button. Rosberg goes fastest and Hamilton only 6th - with an identical time to Kvyat, he gets 5th after all. Perez improves from 21st to 10th in the final minute. In the final 2 seconds Sainz improves but falls just 0.004 short of grabbing 5th and remains 7th.

What a dreadful session for title contenders Vettel and Hamilton, with Rosberg on pole no less. And this is a track notoriously hard to overtake on in this game.

Starting Grid
1.Rosberg
2.Bottas +0.239
3.Massa +0.322
4.Button +0.414
5.Hamilton +0.569
6.Kvyat +0.569
7.Sainz +0.572
8.Verstappen +0.689
9.Raikkonen +1.056
10.Perez +1.212
11.Ricciardo +1.220
12.Vettel +1.300
13.Alonso +1.569
14.Hulkenberg +1.775
15.Gutierrez +1.898
16.Nasr +1.940
17.Magnussen +2.457
18.Palmer +2.545
19.Ericsson +3.109
20.Grosjean +3.109
21.Haryanto +3.225
22.Wehrlein +6.563

Race Day
GO! And Rosberg is mugged off the line by both Williams who brilliantly sweep around him, Massa ahead. And Hamilton has had a stormer grabbing 3rd ahead of his team-mate.

The Ferraris have a miserable time in the early laps, Vettel and Raikkonen only running 13th and 14th. Massa scampers into the distance as The Mercedes can't beat Bottas' straightline speed. Hamilton hesitates and Rosberg nabs him only for Hamilton to return the favour a few laps later. Suddenly Button flies off at turn 1 from 6th while Nasr has smoke pouring out of his engine from 9th. And now Hamilton trips over Bottas into the chicane dropping to 20th! Surely it's all over for him and Vettel now. Seb has gotten up to 9th but he needs more progress.

As they come to backmarkers on lap 9, Rosberg takes his chance and sweeps past Bottas. Now he is free to catch Massa, but Felipe is 10sec up the road already. Vettel is now 7th but 21sec down.

Massa is driving the race of his life, and builds up a 15sec+ lead. He pits early but brilliantly still comes out 4th. He isn't really that fast after his stop though and even comes under pressure from Vettel and Kvyat. Hamilton is now 11th while Perez is edging closer to Bottas in 2nd.

Vettel makes his only stop from 3rd on lap 25 exiting 6th, but Bottas has spun from 2nd! Perez pits from 2nd meaning Massa is back there, 12sec down on Rosberg, but Rosberg has himself spun, down to 11th, losing 5osec and now 2 places behing Hamilton. Vettel is now a grateful 5th as Perez exits the pits just ahead of Vettel - and he too won't be stopping again.

Massa leads from Kvyat and Bottas but all must pit again. Perez and Vettel fight for 4th but are effectively leading the race as the others ahead have to pit. What an interesting strategical race this is.

On lap 32, Kvyat pits from a close 2nd exiting 6th just behind Sainz, who then pits himself. But Hamilton nabs 5th from Kvyat. Rosberg pits from 7th dropping to 11th as Bottas pits from 2nd to 4th. This leaves Massa in the lead by 20sec but he has to stop again. Perez and Vettel continue to run closely in 2nd and 3rd.

Hamilton and Ricciardo pit together and Hamilton leaves in 9th but Ricciardo just JUST edges Rosberg for 10th by the skin of his teeth.

Suddenly on lap 37 of 53, Bottas crashes out at 130R, ripping a wheel off. Hamilton has got past Sainz for what is now 7th. Raikkonen is ahead but needs to pit again soon.

Alonso is rudely barged off track at turn while racing Ericsson. On the next lap Ericsson almost takes race leader Massa out!

On lap 40, Vettel is closer than ever to Perez, just 0.203sec, but both have lost time in traffic, giving Massa a 24sec lead and Felipe needs to pit next lap - what is going to happen?? It's going to be close...

Suddenly as Raikkonen is about to pit, he crashes into Kvyat at 130R and both are out! This puts Gutierrez in the points, and he doesn't have to stop again, but is bad for Vettel as it helps the Mercedes drivers get more points. Hamilton puts just one wheel off at turn 1 and spins off! As Massa now pits for his crucial stop - it's all happening here!

Massa is in, quickl;y into his pit box, and waits, waits and waits. He's released and with great nerves goes down the pitlane. He is still leading, but where are Perez and Vettel?? They have only just left the chicane and are coming round the final bend onto the straight. Massa is passing the last pit garage now but still has some pit lane to go. Perez and Vettel come down the straight. Massa is free of the pit limiter and starts speeding up, but Perez and Vettel are crossing the line. And Massa does it! By less than 1 second. He has kept the lead and now has fresh tyres for the final 12 laps!

And now Verstappen is off at Spoon curve dropping from a great 4th to 9th. What a crazy amount of incidents in this race! Massa is flying and quickly builds up a 7sec lead in 3 laps.

Hamilton is easily fastest of all and is catching Rosberg hand over fist who can't get past Ricciardo for 5th, but suddenly he does into 130R, only for Daniel to brilliantly snatch it right back into the chicane! Now Hamilton is almost right behind both of them.

Suddenly Vettel is looking racier against Perez and is trying harder to pass him for 2nd. And now Hamilton gets a huge slipstream off Rosberg up the hill and blasts past him into 130R. Now Ricciardo is just ahead of them and all 3 of them have almost caught Sainz in 4th.

Alonso has caught Ericsson again and infuriatingly tries to pass for several laps but is frustrated. Massa's pace is dropping off now and the others eat into his 8sec lead, and there are 6 laps left. Vettel is very racy against Perez and is surely going to pass at some point, desperate for the extra championship points.

Hamilton and Rosberg have both passed Ricciardo for good now and run 5th and 6th, but 45sec off the lead.

Hamilton is now all over Sainz hugely, and Sainz makes a mistake before going under the bridge, and Hamilton, Rosberg and Ricciardo all are through. But it's allowed Rosberg to close up and he gets back past Hamilton into 130R as immediately behind Sainz does the same to Ricciardo. Just 4 laps left now.

Verstappen has lost more time, and now Wehrlein is just a few seconds behind him, tanatlisingly out of the points. Meanwhile, Alonso has got past Ericsson for 12th and catches them both, determined to grab a point himself.

Just 3 laps to go now as, OH NO, Gutierrez is off at turn 1 from 9th, dropping to 15th. But this allows Wehrlein into 10th, just 6sec ahead of Alonso... Hamilton is also back a head of Rosberg again! Massa continues to lead, back up to 8sec again, but what's this? Vettel is through for 2nd!

2 laps to go, and Rosberg is back past Hamilton through a backmarker, as Alonso can now see Wehrlein ahead of him for 10th, but he is about to be lapped by Massa maybe, costing him one last crucial lap.

As Massa crosses the line into his final lap, suddenly ahead of him Wehrlein IS SLOWING DOWN! He has a problem, and up the hill, Alonso gets him, as Hamilton is AGAIN ahead of Rosberg. This is the very final lap no less, but suddenly the camera shows Hamilton off the track, a wheel ripped off his car! What's this? All 4 drivers, Hamilton, Rosberg, Sainz and Ricciardo were absolutely nose to tail through the esses as a backmarker suddenly spins off and crashes into Hamilton also taking Rosberg and Sainz off and Ricciardo who avoids it all immediately goes from 7th to 4th in one corner. Rosberg is stuck against the backmarker in the gravel. Through all this, we almost miss Massa coming out of the final turn, down the straight, to superbly WIN his first race for so long! Vettel crosses the line just 6sec behind in the end followed by poor Wehrlein with his stuck throttle and Perez in 3rd! And how Gutierrez must be heartbroken, having realised if he hadn't gone off with just 3 laps left, he would probably have come 6th - as it is, he is a lapped 15th. Rosberg recovers to 7th while Hamilton is classified 10th.

Result
1.Massa
2.Vettel +6.123
3.Perez +8.508
4.Ricciardo +1:00.164
5.Hulkenberg +1:16.566
6.Sainz +1:18.512
7.Rosberg +1:20.538
8.Verstappen +1:27.954
9.Alonso +1:41.691
10.Hamilton - DNF
11.Wehrlein -1 lap
12.Ericsson -1 lap
13.Button -1 lap
14.Magnussen -1 lap
15.Gutierrez -1 lap
16.Grosjean -1 lap
17.Palmer -1 lap
R.Kvyat - DNF
R.Raikkonen - DNF
R.Bottas - DNF
R.Haryanto - Engine
R.Nasr - Engine

Fastest Lap Top 3: Massa, Vettel, Hamilton

rjbetty

1st February 2016, 11:49

Championship Standings after Round 13
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 195pts
2.Vettel - 186pts
3.Hamilton - 146pts
4.Raikkonen - 128pts
5.Bottas - 102pts
6.Massa - 93pts
7.Ricciardo - 72pts
8.Kvyat - 70pts
9.Hulkenberg - 65pts
10.Alonso - 48pts
11.Perez - 48pts
12.Sainz -40pts
13.Button - 40pts
14.Verstappen -40pts
15.Nasr - 20pts
16.Gutierrez - 6pts
17.Ericsson - 6pts
18.Magnussen - 3pts
19.Wehrlein - 2pts
20.Palmer - 2pts
21.Grosjean - 1pt
22.Haryanto - best finish 12th

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 341pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 314pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 195pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 142pts
5.Force India - Mercedes - 113pts
6.McLaren - Honda - 88pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 80pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 26pts
9.Haas - Ferrari - 7pts
10.Renault - Renault - 5pts
11.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts

rjbetty

2nd February 2016, 09:28

Rubbish? In the real F1 season Hamilton did win 10 races, and Rosberg 6. So I'd say basically spot on. :p:

No I was quite happy with the realism of last season, but I meant it was a bit boring... :p
This season has just turned out crazy all along. I hope it's a sign of a more interesting and closer season in real life.

So here's round 14 of 16 then:

ROUND 14: RUSSIAN GP
Qualifying
Kvyat impresses by going quickest for a good while early on, before Hamilton beats it later on while Rosberg also jumps ahead. But a huge shock with 3 minutes to go as none other than Alonso goes quickest. Rosberg tries again but doesn't improve enough so a McLaren takes a shock pole.

Starting Grid
1.Alonso
2.Hamilton +0.074
3.Rosberg +0.202
4.Kvyat +0.237
5.Ricciardo +0.357
6.Vettel +0.526
7.Verstappen +0.677
8.Raikkonen +0.760
9.Sainz +0.801
10.Button +0.921
11.Magnussen +1.039
12.Bottas +1.080
13.Massa +1.155
14.Nasr +1.171
15.Hulkenberg +1.804
16.Perez +1.815
17.Wehrlein +1.885
18.Palmer +2.090
19.Grosjean +2.335
20.Gutierrez +3.016
21.Ericsson +3.063
22.Haryanto +4.107

Race Day
Alonso keeps the lead but is pressured by Hamilton who gets by after a few laps. Hamilton flies but pits on only lap 10 as does Kvyat who was harrying Rosberg for 3rd. They exit 11th and 17th. By lap 14 Alonso leads Rosberg by almost 4sec but home hero Perez is already over 1 minute down after an incident, and last.

Hamilton is on an absurd strategy that leaves him only 7th after his final stop on lap 32. But Alonso keeps the lead 2.7sec ahead of Rosberg with Vettel a further 2.7sec down in 3rd. Wehrlein is holding onto 11th with a train of cars catching him.

Now Hamilton passes Bottas for 5th but is 27sec off the lead. Rosberg is edging closer to Alonso.

With 19 laps to go Hamilton is up to 4th 23sec off the lead and closing on Vettel soon. Alonso is looking very good indeed, his lead up to almost 6sec over Rosberg, but suddenly... he slows down and is out! What a heartbreak. To make matters worse, Button pits with mechanical problems on the same lap.

Hamilton is unable to get past Vettel so with this cr@p Mercedes strategy stuffing it up for Hamilton, this means he is now officially out of the title race as Rosberg wins!

Result
1.Rosberg
2.Vettel +7.772
3.Hamilton +8.709
4.Raikkonen +19.476
5.Ricciardo +22.356
6.Bottas +49.461
7.Kvyat +50.350
8.Verstappen +1:07.686
9.Hulkenberg -1 lap
10.Magnussen -1 lap
11.Sainz -1 lap
12.Nasr -1 lap
13.Wehrlein -1 lap
14.Palmer -2 laps
15.Button -2 laps
16.Grosjean -2 laps
17.Ericsson -2 laps
18.Perez -3 laps
19.Gutierrez -3 laps
20.Haryanto -3 laps
R.Massa - DNF
R.Alonso - Transmission

Fastest Lap Top 3: Raikkonen, Hamilton, Rosberg

Championship Standings after Round 14 of 16
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 220pts
2.Vettel - 204pts
3.Hamilton - 161pts
4.Raikkonen - 140pts
5.Bottas - 110pts
6.Massa - 93pts
7.Ricciardo - 82pts
8.Kvyat - 76pts
9.Hulkenberg - 67pts
10.Alonso - 48pts
11.Perez - 48pts
12.Verstappen - 44pts
13.Sainz - 40pts
14.Button - 40pts
15.Nasr - 20pts
16.Gutierrez - 6pts
17.Ericsson - 6pts
18.Magnussen - 4pts
19.Wehrlein - 2pts
20.Palmer - 2pts
21.Grosjean - 1pt
22.Haryanto - best finish 12th

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 381pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 344pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 203pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 158pts
5.Force India - Mercedes - 115pts
6.McLaren - Honda - 88pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 84pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 26pts
9.Haas - Ferrari - 7pts
10.Renault - Renault - 6pts
11.Manor - Mercedes - 2pts

jens

2nd February 2016, 10:27

P1 & P3 - Mercedes
P2 & P4 - Ferrari
P5 & P6 - Williams
P7 & P8 - Red Bull
P9 - Force India
P10 - McLaren
etc

Some race results have been weird and Hamilton has had unrealistically much unluck, but looking at championship standings, it seems very realistic, how the teams are positioned. Almost like last year.:p:

rjbetty

2nd February 2016, 11:02

ROUND 15: UNITED STATES GP
Starting Grid
1.Rosberg
2.Vettel +0.038
3.Button +0.393
4.Hamilton +0.514
5.Raikkonen +0.680
6.Ricciardo +0.680
7.Sainz +0.760
8.Perez +0.833
9.Massa +1.066
10.Bottas +1.079
11.Verstappen +1.114
12.Kvyat +1.267
13.Alonso +1.349
14.Ericsson +1.390
15.Hulkenberg +1.513
16.Wehrlein +1.872
17.Grosjean +2.064
18.Palmer +2.147
19.Magnussen +2.228
20.Nasr +2.271
21.Gutierrez +2.903
22.Haryanto +4.022

Race Day
Hamilton bursts into the lead but Vettel eventually reels both Mercedes in and passes them into the lead.
He pits early but still comes out just behind Rosberg who has been really slow today and is only 6th!

And now Raikkonen is challenging Hamilton for 2nd, but on lap 22 as Vettel comes to race his team-mate, they collide and are both out! A catastrophe! This means Rosberg can win the title today by finishing 5th.

There are quite a lot of retirements again but Rosberg makes it home in 2nd - and is champion! Well I was hoping this could have gone to the last race but oh well, it's much better than Hamilton's whitewash last year. Manor score another point at last and Mercedes also take the constructors championship with a race to go!

Result
1.Hamilton
2.Rosberg +22.985
3.Ricciardo +40.053
4.Massa +50.632
5.Button +53.066
6.Kvyat +1:12.662
7.Verstappen -1 lap
8.Sainz -1 lap
9.Bottas -1 lap
10.Wehrlein -1 lap
11.Palmer -1 lap
12.Gutierrez -2 laps
R.Magnussen - DNF
R.Alonso - Engine
R.Hulkenberg - DNF
R.Vettel - DNF
R.Raikkonen - DNF
R.Ericsson - DNF
R.Perez - DF
R.Nasr - DNF
R.Haryanto - DNF

Fastest Lap Top 3: Vettel, Ricciardo, Hamilton

Championship Standings after Round 15
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 238pts
2.Vettel - 204pts
3.Hamilton - 186pts
4.Raikkonen - 140pts
5.Bottas - 112pts
6.Massa - 105pts
7.Ricciardo - 97pts
8.Kvyat - 84pts
9.Hulkenberg - 67pts
10.Button - 50pts
11.Verstappen - 50pts
12.Alonso - 48pts
13.Perez - 48pts
14.Sainz - 44pts
15.Nasr - 20pts
16.Gutierrez - 6pts
17.Ericsson - 6pts
18.Magnussen - 4pts
19.Wehrlein - 3pts
20.Palmer - 2pts
21.Grosjean - 1pt
22.Haryanto - best finish 12th

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 424pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 344pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 217pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 181pts
5.Force India - Mercedes - 115pts
6.McLaren - Honda - 98pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 94pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 26pts
9.Haas - Ferrari - 7pts
10.Renault - Renault - 6pts
11.Manor - Mercedes - 3pts

Bezza

2nd February 2016, 15:22

rjbetty

7th February 2016, 03:09

RJBetty, loved reading all these. I hope the real season is as exciting!

Wanted to know though what you did to simulate the F1 season. I remember having Grand Prix 3 and downloading an editor which allowed you to alter team performances accordingly - you could set highs and lows and also how much the performance could fluctuate. GP3 was based on the 1998 season but I also had skins for 2001 season.

Does your game do all this - I would be interested if you could get 2015/2016 skins for these old classic games!

Thank you very much, hopefully it's provided some fun in this quiet period while waiting for testing. :)

Yeah I get all my utilities from this place http://grandprix2.de/

I use Steven Young's GP2edit which is quite comprehensive; Driver performances and fluctuations, team reliability, how easily cars get damaged and have to retire, championship points and much more.

I also use GP2 Slot/Magic Data Editor which is also on the utilities page on that site. You can set for each track the likelihood of driver mistakes, fuel consumption, tire wear, AI performance for that track and more. They have a 2015 carset up, plus for every other year.

As for this season, I found the damage was slightly high, more like what you'd get 15 years ago. In real life these days, cars are so strong they can survive a pretty good clattering into each other and just continue whereas in the past it would be instant DNF for both drivers. Other than that, this crazy season has just gone this way by chance. It wasn't artificial. I had realistic settings as for the previous 2 years I did this but it's just turned out this way. There have been an unusually high occurrence of bugs, such as the one where cars following a backmarker start driving all over the place till they spin or go wide. It's quite rare and I consider it fair game when it does happen.

For example, Japan was fantastic and chaotic, yet only had an AI mistake rate of 50, which is light/moderate only, yet just by chance we got a crazy race. Overall it's just been a crazy season. The US race was too artificial though which is my mistake, but the rest of it hasn't been.

Final round in Brazil coming up...

rjbetty

7th February 2016, 04:15

ROUND 16 - SEASON FINALE: BRAZILIAN GP
So this is it, the final race. The title race may have sadly been decided already, but there is plenty that can still happen and the standings can be finalised for good.

Qualifying
The Williams are first to set a time, Bottas first. Then Massa goes just 0.075 quicker. Max Verstappen posts a time 0.065 quicker than Massa. Then Button sets an identical time to Bottas. The Saubers are also very competitive here. Rosberg, Kvyat, Sainz, Perez and Vettel don't get good times in but they will get another chance.

Perez improves to 9th, while Vettel goes 4th, but only 0.074 off provisional pole, in this very tight grid so far. Kvyat, Rosberg and Sainz hit more traffic and neither improve their laps, so they are stuck in only 11th, 9th and 12th out of 12 cars so far!

Of the second wave of cars, Gutierrez comes first, and after 2 sectors, he is raising eyebrows greatly by being only 0.3s off! He goes a stunning 7th! Hamilton is 3 tenths up on polesitter Verstappen in sector 1 alone, and an enormous 6 tenths up in sector 2, but he is about to catch Grosjean. He doesn't however and it's a clear run to provisional pole almost 1sec quicker! Surely no-one can beat that now...

Raikkonen has a shocking sector 1, ending up only 12th quickest but he will get another lap. Meanwhile Ricciardo is hugely quick, only 0.034 down on Hamilton after sector 2, but the final sector is for powerful engines only... Sure enough he's 2nd, but only slightly short. Grosjean goes 17th as Kvyat, having another go, improves from 16th to 3rd. Alonso looks very quick in sector 1 but is held up by Palmer (who himself sets a lap over 10sec off the pace!), Alonso goes 8th. Kimi's much awaited second lap is almost completed, and he shoots up to 3rd.

Max Verstappen is having another go, and improves his time, but is 0.001 down on Kvyat and only slightly further off Kimi. Wehrlein goes 10th and Alonso improves to 3rd.

Starting Grid
1.Hamilton
2.Ricciardo +0.142
3.Alonso +0.605
4.Raikkonen +0.794
5.Kvyat +0.872
6.Verstappen +0.873
7.Bottas +1.013
8.Button +1.013
9.Vettel +1.022
10.Massa +1.088
11.Ericsson +1.295
12.Wehrlein +1.396
13.Gutierrez +1.400
14.Nasr +1.401
15.Hulkenberg +1.439
16.Rosberg +1.634
17.Haryanto +1.786
18.Magnussen +2.085
19.Perez +2.469
20.Grosjean +2.545
21.Sainz +3.579
22.Palmer +9.748

Race Day
GO! Hamilton keeps the lead, but Wehrlein jumps way up into 7th! Vettel is only 13th and needs to get a move on if he's to hold on to 2nd in the championship ahead of Hamilton. What a shame Wehrlein (and his team-mate) is on what I can tell is the wrong strategy, as well as Gutierrez, both having qualified so well.

Wehrlein moves up into 6th past Kvyat at turn 3(!) while Vettel is up to 11th. But Ricciardo has gotten through to take the lead! Coming into the second lap, now Alonso is challenging Hamilton and he too passes him into turn 1, as Massa comes from way back to fly back past Vettel in a great move. But Vettel retakes him into turn 3.

Into lap 3, and Wehrlein finally surrenders 6th to Bottas while Massa has got past Vettel again! Nasr grabs an impressive 8th from Kvyat, the Saubers running well today. A lap later and Nasr is past Wehrlein but Rosberg is only 17th and Vettel still yet to break into the top 10. Hamilton is now down to 4th, he too on the wrong strategy, behind Raikkonen. This could give Vettel a chance later on...

It takes till lap 8 for Wehrlein, on a too slow strategy, to finally fall out of the top 10. Rosberg is still only 15th despite a good trategy, but suddenly he puts a wheel wrong and has a spin! He drops to 20th as Bottas retires.

Lap 15 and Ricciardo is the first to pit, in from the lead. He drops to 7th as unfortunately Wehrlein has dropped well down the field with problems. He would have been back into the top 10 during the stops... Alonso is now leading for 7 laps until he and Raikkonen pit on lap 22, as does Nasr from 4th(!) Gutierrez is 10th now but is relieved of his position by Rosberg, who himself pits exiting only 19th and close to being lapped by Hamilton, now the leader. Gutierrez is back into 10th for a bit. Massa soon gets past but then Hulkenberg retires on the back straight from 9th, smoke pouring out from his engine, giving Gutierrez another chance in the top 10.

Hamilton makes his only stop on lap 35, dropping to 5th behind Ricciardo, who is now running pretty disappointingly and is passed by Vettel for 3rd. Gutuerrez gets another go in 10th for a few laps before his only stop. Rosberg is still only 13th at this halfway stage and has caught Ericsson.

On lap 38 Rosberg breaks into the top 10 but Button retires from the points elevating Rosberg another position. On lap 47 Raikkonen pits from 2nd while Hamilton takes Vettel for what will become 2nd. A lap later and Alonso is in from the lead, having led for 12 laps. Alonso comes out 2nd but is only 4.3sec behind Hamilton on fresh tyres - it could be a sensational win after all these frustrating times!!

With 20 laps to go, Alonso is right behind Hamilton, only +0.453 behind! And Raikkonen less than 4sec behind Alonso! Rosberg is now 8th just over a minute down, but is 6sec behind Verstappen. 5 laps later and the top 3 are 1.Alonso 2.Hamilton+2.4 3.Raikkonen+4.8 Rosberg is still 8th and now 4sec behind Verstappen.

Just 10 laps to go and Hamilton is now pegging the gap but Kimi is dropping back a little and may even be under threat from Vettel. Rosberg is up to 7th with Kvyat in his sights.

Now with just 2 laps left Hamilton is catching Alonso again but is almost 2sec behind. Rosberg is 6th. Into the final lap and Alonso still leads by 1.7sec, and coming round the final lap, he does it, and becomes the 7th different winner of this amazing season - what a turnaround for McLaren after all their hard times, and Alonso after so many missed results this season! Hamilton is just 1.4sec behind in the end. Kimi, then Vettel cross the line next, followed by Nasr and Ericsson in another double points finish for Sauber in a lapped 9th and 10th.

Gutierrez crosses the line 13th, just 16.9sec out of the points, and on a bad strategy to boot... Wehrlein comes 16th, +35.1sec out of the points, having lost at least that amount of time earlier on, and also on a bad strategy...

Race Result
1.Alonso
2.Hamilton +1.404
3.Raikkonen +7.046
4.Vettel +13.500
5.Ricciardo +30.327
6.Rosberg +1:02.364
7.Kvyat +1:09.273
8.Verstappen +1:15.720
9.Nasr -1 lap
10.Ericsson -1 lap
11.Massa -1 lap
12.Perez -1 lap
13.Gutierrez -1 lap
14.Magnussen -1 lap
15.Haryanto -1 lap
16.Wehrlein -1 lap
17.Grosjean -2 laps
18.Sainz -3 laps
19.Palmer -8 laps
R.Button - Suspension
R.Hulkenberg - Water Leak
R.Bottas - Transmission

Fastest Lap Top 3: Ricciardo, Vettel, Raikkonen

rjbetty

7th February 2016, 04:54

FINAL 2015 PREVIEW SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Drivers
1.Rosberg - 246pts
2.Vettel - 216pts
3.Hamilton - 204pts
4.Raikkonen - 155pts
5.Bottas - 112pts
6.Ricciardo - 107pts
7.Massa - 105pts
8.Kvyat - 90pts
9.Alonso - 73pts
10.Hulkenberg - 67pts
11.Verstappen - 54pts
12.Button - 50pts
13.Perez - 48pts
14.Sainz - 44pts
15.Nasr - 22pts
16.Ericsson - 7pts
17.Gutierrez - 6pts
18.Magnussen - 4pts
19.Wehrlein - 3pts
20.Palmer - 2pts
21.Grosjean - 1pt
22.Haryanto - best finish 12th

Constructors
1.Mercedes - Mercedes - 450pts
2.Ferrari - Ferrari - 371pts
3.Williams - Mercedes - 217pts
4.Red Bull - Tag Heuer - 197pts
5.McLaren - Honda - 123pts
6.Force India - Mercedes - 115pts
7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari - 98pts
8.Sauber - Ferrari - 29pts
9.Haas - Ferrari - 7pts
10.Renault - Renault - 6pts
11.Manor - Mercedes - 3pts

So there we have it - what an unexpectedly exciting and fantastic season that turned out to be - so much better than last year. Now we have a new champion and 7 different winners, and so many drivers were able to shine at some point this season. I don't expect the real season to be like this, but hopefully it's some sort of a sign of more interesting things to come. :)

So while I'm at it, here are my quick(ish) predictions before any testing starts.

1.Mercedes - Mercedes
Yes yes huge shock, but this year is possibly the least certain out of the 3 under these regs so far. Rosberg is being talked up again, but I just don't see him beating Hamilton on merit over a full season, unless Hamilton has a 2011 repeat. Maybe talk of a 'radical' car can upset things a bit with reliability...

2.Ferrari - Ferrari
Seem pretty set for 2nd again. Hopefully they won't enter many years of domination from 2017 though. Vettel will get the job done, whatever job is possible to do with his great consistency (he's fast too). Apparently Ferrari are having a pushrod suspension like everyone else now, so this should help Kimi. But sadly we have heard this before and I think regardless of anything else, Kimi is simply past his best now and just ain't wot 'e used to be. Hopefully he can grab a swansong win somewhere if the car really is that competitive.

3.McLaren - Honda
I just don't learn do I? Anyone who has seen my predictions will know that every single year without fail, despite being nothing of the sort of a McLaren fanboy, I always manage to predict big things for them, only for them to spectacularly fail every time. Well I say to you, if I keep doing this, one of these days I'm going to get it right. So I'm going to stick my neck out and state, that McLaren in 2016 will be (to some extent) the Williams of 2014 and the Ferrari of 2015 This ranking is dependent on reliability, which I am in no way confident in - otherwise I will put them 4th or 5th. They will get that podium this year Taz.

4.Williams - Mercedes
A 'radical' design being talked of apparently? This more often than not results in cars which are... 'difficult', so it's a risk. With Mercedes pegging back their performance as they see fit, I don't see much more than a slight step if any. And with other teams catching up, they could be in the pack a little more. Will still probably get 3rd by sheer accumulation of points, while not really looking that impressive doing it. 2015 can be excused for Bottas with a bad back possibly, but if he doesn't finally fully assert himself over Massa this time, he will be keeping Hulkenberg company in nearly man's land.

5.Red Bull - Tag Heuer
I guess they might pip Force India by the skin of their teeth maybe. Kvyat has more experience and Ricciardo is capable of a little more, but Newey steps back further and it depends on what they can do with that lump in the back. Doesn't look like a huge amount maybe.

6.Force India - Mercedes (what's happened to that Aston Martin thing then?)
I can't see them beating Williams, but they could possibly beat Red Bull if Red Bull don't improve much as they say, and McLaren turn out to not be so great (which does always happen) so 4th is possible. But I will say their usual 6th place in the end, although a pretty strong one.

7.Toro Rosso - Ferrari (2015)
How will they manage fitting the Ferrari into their car? I don't at all think it will be this huge boost, but maybe a small one, even over a 2016 Renault possibly. Both drivers will be quicker in their 2nd year, and I expect Verstappen to race very strongly, and if the car allows I fully see a Vettel 2008 kind of season happening, with a lot of points being accumulated. Sainz was quick against Verstappen last year but I expect he may be left behind somewhat this time with a similar points difference as in 2015, but this time being representative.

8.Sauber - Ferrari
Simply through experience I will put them above Haas in points, though this isn't certain. Money troubles mean missing the first test which is never a good thing. Drivers more experienced and quicker now though. I'm guessing 8th, but by default really.

9.Haas - Ferrari
Another huge unknown alongside McLaren. The negatives are Dallara, who I don't rate, and simply being so new. However, Dallara are being given much more to work with this time, and they aren't solely responsible for everything. History is also in their favour as teams which have had a full year of preparation (think Stewart and Toyota) always seem to be respectable. They also have some experienced people and a driver who I believe is VERY quick in Grosjean (I expect him to have a full half-second on Gutierrez). I don't think they will sink without trace at the very back. In fact, I reckon they could very well be able to beat Sauber, but too many opportunities lost through inexperience will probably put paid to this.

10.Renault - Renault
Oh dear. The chassis was better in 2015 but tbh I think the main difference was simply having a Mercedes engine. That's gone now, and with not having the strongest driver line-up on the grid, I think it's back to 2014 for this lot and they will do pretty well to simply beat their 2014 total of 10pts. Renault input is probably too late and money was SO bad throughout last year...

N.B. Maldonado is gone now and while many are rejoicing and the criticism die get out of hand rbh, I can't really blame anyone since he brought that reputation on himself. He seems quite nice and polite out of the car and there was a decent chance it was actually coming together for him. However, he had 5 years to show what he can do, which is long enough at this level where there are a surplus of so many good drivers and precious few opportunities available.

11.Manor - Mercedes
Well this is it - works Mercedes engines and some decent tech people. Though a Williams rear end and the rest of it can't hurt, I don't set too much store by this since Caterham had Red Bull parts (when RBR were good) and Marussia had McLaren tech support but it didn't vault them up the grid. A 2016 Mercedes over a 2014 Ferrari should be a HUGE boost, plus a new chassis. Judging by 2014, if they had a Mercedes engine they would have been matching Sauber on pure pace so it looks good. Weak pay drivers will let them down badly though, and even if points are scored (they should be if you consider they got 2x12th places in 2015) it won't be enough to overhaul anyone else sadly.

rjbetty

7th February 2016, 05:45

Summary of podium finishes in season

AUS
1.Hamilton
2.Alonso
3.Bottas

MAL
1.Vettel
2.Rosberg
3.Raikkonen

CHI
1.Vettel
2.Hamilton
3.Rosberg

BAH
1.Rosberg
2.Massa
3.Kvyat

SPA
1.Vettel
2.Ricciardo
3.Raikkonen

MON
1.Raikkonen
2.Rosberg
3.Sainz

CAN
1.Rosberg
2.Raikkonen
3.Vettel

AUT
1.Rosberg
2.Hamilton
3.Vettel

BRI
1.Vettel
2.Hamilton
3.Rosberg

HUN
1.Hamilton
2.Rosberg
3.Vettel

BEL
1.Bottas
2.Hamilton
3.Hulkenberg

ITA
1.Raikkonen
2.Rosberg
3.Hamilton

JAP
1.Massa
2.Vettel
3.Perez

RUS
1.Rosberg
2.Hamilton
3.Vettel

USA
1.Hamilton
2.Rosberg
3.Ricciardo

BRA
1.Alonso
2.Hamilton
3.Raikkonen

Total Winners: 7
Vettel - 4 wins
Rosberg - 4 wins
Hamilton - 3 wins
Raikkonen - 2 wins
Massa - 1 win
Alonso - 1 win
Bottas - 1 win

Mercedes - 7 wins
Ferrari - 6 wins
Williams - 2 wins
McLaren - 1 win

Total Podium Finishers: 12
Rosberg - 11 podiums
Hamilton - 10 podiums
Vettel - 9 podiums
Raikkonen - 6 podiums
Massa - 2 podiums
Alonso - 2 podiums
Bottas - 2 podiums
Ricciardo - 2 podiums
Perez - 1 podium
Kvyat - 1 podium
Hulkenberg - 1 podium
Sainz - 1 podium

Mercedes - 19 podiums
Ferrari - 15 podiums
Williams - 4 podiums
Red Bull - 3 podiums
McLaren - 2 podiums
Force India - 2 podiums
Toro Rosso - 1 podium

Table of results

3.Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1 R 2 R 6 R R 2 2 1 2 3 10 3 1 2
1.Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) - R 2 3 1 4 2 1 1 3 2 R 2 7 1 2 6

2.Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) - 4 1 1 10 1 R 3 3 1 3 R 5 2 2 R 4
4.Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 5 3 R 8 3 1 2 7 R 5 R 1 R 4 R 3

5.Valtteri Bottas (Williams) - 3 6 6 5 11 4 4 R 11 R 1 4 R 6 9 R
7.Felipe Massa (Williams) - 7 5 15 2 9 6 7 12 9 8 4 11 1 R 4 11

8.Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull) - R 8 5 3 R R 6 6 10 4 5 9 R 7 6 7
6.Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) - 13 7 8 6 2 9 5 8 R R 6 13 4 5 3 5

13.Sergio Perez (Force India) - R 12 12 9 7 11 13 4 4 R R 10 3 18 R 12
10.Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) - R 13 7 4 10 10 9 5 14 R 3 6 5 9 R R

18.Kevin Magnussen (Renault) - R 10 R 13 13 17 11 13 12 R 9 12 14 10 R 14
20.Jolyon Palmer (Renault) - R R 19 R 16 14 R 17 R 9 R 14 17 14 11 19

11.Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) - 6 R 9 7 14 7 8 9 R 6 R R 8 8 7 8
14.Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) - R 9 10 R 8 3 10 R 6 10 R R 6 11 8 18

15.Felipe Nasr (Sauber) - 8 11 18 R 15 13 R 18 7 R 8 7 R 12 R 9
16.Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) - 10 14 13 11 12 15 15 14 8 R 10 R 12 17 R 10

9.Fernando Alonso (McLaren) - 2 R 4 R R 5 R R 13 7 R R 9 R R 1
12.Jenson Button (McLaren) - R 4 11 R 5 8 R 11 5 R R 8 13 15 5 R

22.Rio Haryanto (Manor) - 12 R R 14 R R 16 16 15 15 R 13 16 R 20 R 15
19.Pascal Wehrlein (Manor) - 9 15 16 12 R 12 12 R 16 R 11 R 11 13 10 16

21.Romain Grosjean (Haas) - 11 R 17 R R 18 14 10 R R 12 R R 16 R 17
17.Esteban Gutierrez (Haas) - R 16 14 R 17 R R 16 R 11 7 15 15 19 12 13