Sky F1's Martin Brundle feels that Brazilian GP was won on Saturday
Tuesday 7 April 2015 13:48, UK
What strikes me looking back at Sunday’s Brazilian GP is that the race was won and lost on Saturday in qualifying.
But for locking up his front tyres going into Turn Ten, Lewis Hamilton would in my opinion have grabbed pole position out of Nico Rosberg’s grasp – as it was, he only missed out by a tenth of a second. Had Hamilton started the race on pole position ahead of Rosberg, I expect he would have gone on to win the race.
Lewis was the slightly faster driver on Sunday, even when tucked up in his team-mate’s slipstream around a circuit where tyre degradation on the fresh tarmac was quite nasty. Had he got away from pole and into clean air, he was capable of driving away from Nico and winning by a few seconds, although Rosberg, with track position, had him covered.
As it transpired, the race was a very close battle between the Mercedes team-mates, and if he hadn’t spun off just before his second pit-stop, Lewis might have still won the race. It would have been a very tight as to whether he would have come back out in front of Rosberg and, by keeping him out for a second extra lap, his side of the garage clearly believed it could make the difference.
The first lap after Rosberg pitted from the lead was the fastest of the race up until that point and the Mercedes pitwall assumed that, with the timing screens turning purple indicating best race sectors, Hamilton was capable of doing another. Unfortunately what they didn’t realise was just how much grip Lewis had used up on that lap and how much energy he’d taken out of already heavily-used tyres. The second lap was one too many.
Mercedes have taken some flak for that misjudgement but these types of strategy decisions are a two-way street and the driver can still call in that he needs to pit. Lewis’ committed driving style demands a lot of his tyres and brakes, and he sometimes asks for more than the rear axle grip can deliver. We've seen it a few times this year and the electrical 'harvesting' must sometimes feel like pulling the handbrake on too when over the limit.
But all that said, the mistake was ultimately a consequence of his error in qualifying. Lewis was only pushing because he needed to recover the position he’d lost to Nico. Qualifying was where the race was decisively won and lost – and now it remains to be seen whether he loses the World Championship because of that slip as well. He shouldn't do.
Although I still regard Lewis as the fastest driver, Rosberg has tended to have the upper hand in qualifying this year. It must have become a bit of a mental issue with Lewis because we’ve often seen him dominate in practice, although absolutely not in Brazil, and then make a mistake when it matters most on a few occasions through the season. True, whereas Nico has enjoyed a clean bill of health on Saturdays, Lewis suffered reliability issues in both Germany and Hungary on qualifying day, but the bottom line is that Nico has done a better job on Saturdays and I suspect that his raw speed has wrong-footed Lewis, as it did Michael Schumacher.
But while nobody can begrudge Nico his season pole position trophy, there will be a lot of people saying ‘this is not right’ IF he wins the World Championship with six wins to Lewis’ ten. In general, Lewis has had the better pace on race day and his race craft has been better, too – we’re still yet to see Nico overtake Lewis on the track and make it stick this season.
Nevertheless, Nico can still win the title and he would have gone to bed on Sunday night happier than Lewis. He’s right when he says ‘it’s out of my hands now’ and he needs a Red Bull or a Williams to step up in Abu Dhabi, but he’s put the pressure back on Lewis and narrowed down his team-mate’s options. If Rosberg wins the final race, only second place would be good enough for Hamilton to win the championship. If Hamilton retires, Rosberg only needs to be in the top five.
However, such is the superiority of the Mercedes car over the rest of the field, I can’t see how a silly mistake – such as a slow pit-stop or a stop-and-go penalty – or getting stuck in traffic for a while, would be sufficiently damaging to prevent Lewis doing enough in Abu Dhabi to win the title.
In those sort of circumstances the dominance of the Mercedes W05 should still mean he’d have enough in hand over the field to recover to second place. It’s only unreliability or contact which can stop Lewis winning the championship on November 23rd.
Unfortunately, no review of the weekend could fail to reflect on the off-track arguments and accusations that, even on race day, overshadowed events on the track. Frankly, I was underwhelmed and very disappointed by it all. All we’re hearing at the moment is more confrontation and bitterness with claim and counter-claim. As Mr E likes to say, 'life's a game and money keeps the score'. Well it's time to look at the bigger picture; the situation has become confusing and destabilising – and thus damaging to Formula 1.
With so many fires being lit in the paddock, and so few being put out, we have to assume that the current instability is intentional, and we'll have to wait to find out the true agenda.
