2014 Austrian Grand Prix - Red Bull Ring

[tim|away]

One thing no one has mentioned so far (as far as I've seen) is Rosberg again making a mistake in the race, which could've been very crucial. When Bottas was on his tail in the second stint, Nico overcooked the first turn and went wide over the sausage kerb. Thankfully for him, Bottas was sleeping on the job and couldn't really capitalize on that mistake apart from harassing him a bit.

Imho this shows that when pushed, Nico makes the odd mistake. It was the same in Canada when Hamilton was chasing him (if there wasn't anything wrong with Nico's brakes, that is).

At the end of the day, all drivers are human beings and make mistakes - including Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. No single driver will ever be perfect, but the real challenge is to minimise mistakes as much as possible - at least the costly ones. Hamilton's mistake in quaifying was more costly than Rosberg's mistakes combined this weekend, as reflected in the outcome of the race.

At this point it depends on which side of the fence you are sitting on. You can believe that...
a) Hamilton is incredibly unlucky again / Rosberg is incredibly lucky again
b) Rosberg has an ability to avoid costly mistakes
c) a combination of the above.

[astracrazy]

I think lewis can be happy with that. End of the day he saved himself with a good race and great first lap. He sort of saved his season here. He knows where it was lost.

Championship is far from over. A dnf for nico in the last race could be his bad luck for example. You never know. Its far from over.

[zoro_f1]

[SamH123]

Rosberg has to lead Hamilton by more than 14 points going into the final race to be favourite for the championship (especially as Abu Dhabi is normally so good for Hamilton)
Hamilton has the rest of the year to catch up by 15 points to Rosberg, I would still make HAM slight favourite for the title.

I thought it was interesting that Bottas could have feasibly won the race today if Williams had got the pit stops perfect. The pace difference to the Mercs along with how good the Williams cars were on the straights means he could have possibly held the Mercs if he had kept track position.
I didn't see it discussed after the race at all but I think the Mercs had heavily compromised pace today because of brake issues? At times the midfield lapped as quickly as the leaders

[Glyn]

To me this was a lot like Bahrain or Canada but in reverse, with the guy in 2nd arguably quicker but - for whatever reason - just not able to get past.

Completely off topic, but when I see how closely matched Rosberg is with Hamilton i still can't help thinking how fast a 43 year old Michael must have been in 2012. Puts the whole comeback in a different light, for me.

There were multiple instances in that year where Michael made Rosberg look very pedestrian. Especially with racecraft

[basti313]

To me this was a lot like Bahrain or Canada but in reverse, with the guy in 2nd arguably quicker but - for whatever reason - just not able to get past.

Well, and Monaco and Spain. So every race except Malaysia it looked like "2nd arguably quicker"...
This is just not due to the driver, but down to race strategy.

[SectorOne]

There were multiple instances in that year where Michael made Rosberg look very pedestrian. Especially with racecraft

Monaco was particularly impressive! Old man showed he still can do it.

But i´d say over three years, Rosberg basically retired Schumacher for the second time.
He was never going to win anything as long as a young hungry Rosberg was in the other seat.

[Shrieker]

So Hamiltons little mistakes are inconsequential??? And dont forget, even with the use of DRS, Hamilton could still not get past Nico.

I'm afraid your argument betrays itself. We're talking about being pressured from behind. I can only recall one instance where Hamilton went completely off track whilst leading this season, iirc it was in China and he wasn't being pressured for anything - in fact he had a sizable gap to second. In Bahrain he got pushed all the way and didn't put a foot wrong, likewise in Barcelona.

Nico went twice off the track while he had someone chasing in close proximity in as many races, both times he got away with it. That's something he needs to have a look at, because if he keeps that up sooner or later it'll come back to bite him.

[Unc1eM0nty]

Disappointed to see the Merc's limping home again, the same cooling & brake issues they said they said they had fixed only 3 days ago, it robbed us of a proper fight today

I was surprised how hard it was to overtake today, I though it would be a breeze up that hill with DRS.

[henra]

I was surprised how hard it was to overtake today, I though it would be a breeze up that hill with DRS.

In a way that was a nice change compared to those circuits where DRS leaves the one in front almost defenseless. Overtaking takes race craft on this circuit. I consider this a plus in all honesty. I prefer this circuit over most if not all the desert Tilke dromes.

[zeph]

I thought it was interesting that Bottas could have feasibly won the race today if Williams had got the pit stops perfect. The pace difference to the Mercs along with how good the Williams cars were on the straights means he could have possibly held the Mercs if he had kept track position.

I think it's interesting you thought Bottas could have won when Massa got pole and led the race without trouble until Williams botched up his pit stop. Massa went from leader to P4, and I hear none of the pundits (on tv or here on the forum) comment on that.

[SectorOne]

Alonso and Ricciardo towards the end of the second stint.
I´m guessing they were somewhat aware of what the other guy was doing for times lol.

[basti313]

I thought it was interesting that Bottas could have feasibly won the race today if Williams had got the pit stops perfect. The pace difference to the Mercs along with how good the Williams cars were on the straights means he could have possibly held the Mercs if he had kept track position.

I think it's interesting you thought Bottas could have won when Massa got pole and led the race without trouble until Williams botched up his pit stop. Massa went from leader to P4, and I hear none of the pundits (on tv or here on the forum) comment on that.

Because he messed it up himself.

[SectorOne]

Here´s the two mercs and the two Williams.
I´m not entirely sure why Williams decided not to react to Mercedes. Rosberg pits to make the undercut and Williams decide to wait 3 laps and 5 laps until they have pitted both cars.

[nacho]

I felt Williams made some slightly bad decisions again. Track position was everything if they wanted to keep Mercedes behind. This time they had enough gap to other teams to afford small mistakes unlike in some races where they are punished much more severly by pitting too early or late.