Team Mate Battles - Canadian GP

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Marussia
Bianchi was quicker in qualifying, quicker in the race, and was lapped one less time than Chilton. Neither driver collided with a front runner. Jules did well to be the first of the backmarker teams home, beating his team-mate and the two Caterhams. The Caterhams appear to have a slight edge in quaifying right now, but on raceway, the Marussias appear to pip them home. Hardly riveting stuff right now, but Bianchi increases his lead in the team-mate tables.

Fastest lap: 1-0 to Jules Bianchi
Qualifying: 1-0 to Jules Bianchi
Race: 1-0 to Jules Bianchi


Caterham

Very much a hero to zero weekend for Van Der Garde. After a clean sweep against his team-mate on the streets of Monte Carlo, Giedo qualified plum last (but ahead of Grosjean following his penalty), and potentially cost Red Bull a 1-2 finish, thanks to some idiotic driving shortly after Webber had completed the hard work of passing Fernando Alonso. Giedo, who had already been lapped by Vettel & Hamilton and thus should have been alert to the fact that the frontrunners were lapping him, let Mark through at the hairpin before turning into a late apex and colliding with the Australian. Considering the fact that the Red Bull didn’t magically appear out of nowhere, you have to wonder why Giedo was so wide of the corner apex, and so slow if he wasn’t letting Mark through at that point. If he wasn’t letting him through, his driving is terrible. If he was letting him through, his driving was terrible, as well as stupid.

Charles Pic handled the tricky weather conditions well on Saturday to outqualify his team-mate and the Marussias, but got boxed in at the start to fall behind his team-mate. However, he stayed out of trouble to be well ahead of him by the time Giedo was colliding with Nico Hulkenberg, picking up a grid penalty for Silverstone in the process.

Fastest lap: 1-0 to Charles Pic
Qualifying: 1-0 to Charles Pic
Race: 1-0 to Charles Pic

Toro Rosso:

Jean-Eric may have to make Ted Kravitz his lucky charm after Canada. Maybe a pre-race head rubbing for good luck or some other nefarious ritual, as Jean-Eric brought home Toro Rosso’s best ever result since Vettel’s victory at Monza 2008, as well as his own personal best result. It was a result of pure merit too, qualifying in seventh place and staying there throughout, never once looking in danger of losing out to the perceived faster cars behind of Raikkonen & Di Resta. Sutil’s penalty saw him elevated to sixth, and that was where he finished. Daniel Ricciardo looked out of sorts by comparison, and suffered with tyre issues. He needs to address the issue of his team-mates recent form and up his game, as this is Vergne’s second clean sweep of the Team-Mate Battles.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Jean-Eric Vergne
Qualifying: 1-0 to Jean-Eric Vergne
Race: 1-0 to Jean-Eric Vergne

Sauber:

Hulkenberg’s mentality this year is very much one of resignation, but he appears to have adjusted to the fact that he is not in the running for points positions on a regular basis. Never was this more evident than his post race comments about his race ending collision with Van Der Garde, who Nico was lapping at the time. He was reluctant to go hard on the Dutchman, and stated ‘these guys are racing too, just like us’. Very philosophical of the German, who was running in 14th, and felt he didn’t have the pace to do any more. If it had been for 4th position, his response to Giedo’s driving may have been a little different! Gutierrez had a poor race, with the durable Pirellis being decidedly undurable on the Sauber, before Esteban locked up leaving the pitlane on his second visit, much like Montoya did back in 2005. This set off the chain of events that led to the tragic death of a race marshal, and it has been disgusting to see Esteban receiving abusive Tweets on Twitter for ‘his part’ in the death.

While Esteban is certainly not to blame for the accident, his actions set off the chain of events, and one would hope that this doesn’t play on his mind, and he has a strong showing in Silverstone.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Nico Hulkenerg
Qualifying: 1-0 to Nico Hulkenberg
Race: 1-0 to Nico Hulkenberg

Williams:

Valterri Bottas’s qualifying performance certainly caught the eye on Saturday, but unfortunately for the Finn, it was very much a result that flattered to deceive. The tricky and slow FW35 fell backwards through the pack at a meteoric rate, despite the heroic efforts of Bottas to hold off the likes of Alonso & Webber. An excellent drive under pressure from Valterri, who knew when to give up, but didn’t make life easy for those passing him. Pastor Maldonado appears to have let his head drop this year, and doesn’t seem to be handling the fact that this year’s car is a dog.

Pastor, much like Nico Hulkenberg, risks becoming one of F1′s forgotten men, as his team-mate is matching and beating him with relative ease, despite his lack of experience. His slight collision with Adrian Sutil’s rear wing was clumsy but didn’t merit punishment. Even without the resulting penalty, he was unlikely to beat Bottas.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Valterri Bottas
Qualifying: 1-0 to Valterri Bottas
Race: 1-0 to Valterri Bottas

Force India:
Deja vu on Saturday for Paul Di Resta, with a furious Scotsman failing to make it out of Q1 again. Unflatteringly, yet again he was quick to lay the blame at his team’s feet. It is doubtful that the team would berate him quite so hard should he ever crash or spin out a race, so he really should learn that F1 is a team effort. He did, however, put in a great race performance, eking out 54 laps on his first stint, a performance that netted him decent points for a seventh place. Adrian Sutil will feel very hard done by after his race though. A spin early on while attempting to bully past Valterri Bottas was clumsy, but Adrian recovered well to be all set for a sixth place when he was judged to have ignored the blue flags and failed to let a lapping car through. Who was the car he was judged to have ignored the presence of? Lewis Hamilton.

Curiously, Kimi Raikkonen was another driver who visibly blocked a leader for quite some time, with the Finn failing to let through Vettel for more than half a lap around lap 40. Kimi escaped punishment, Adrian did not. Despite finishing behind, I have awarded the Team Mate point to Sutil, due to this harsh penalty.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Adrian Sutil
Qualifying: 1-0 to Adrian Sutil
Race: 1-0 to Adrian Sutil


McLaren:

Neither car made it into the top ten in qualifying, and neither car made it into the points, even failing to beat a Force India with a time penalty, and a Lotus with dodgy brakes on a track where brakes are quite useful. Neither car enjoyed their stints on the option tyres, and, at a circuit where they have won 4 of the last 5 occasions they raced there, didn’t even score a point. Perez outqualified, and beat, Button home, which won’t please Jenson, but right now, McLaren are not a front running team, so even solitary points will be scant consolation.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Sergio Perez
Qualifying: 1-0 to Sergio Perez
Race: 1-0 to Sergio Perez

Lotus:

The wheels came off the Lotus title challenge to a certain extent in Montreal. At the halfway point of the race, Raikkonen, the 2nd placed man in the Championship, was lapped. After the race, Kimi explained that the Lotus was suffering brake issues, with very little pressure in the pedal, making it difficult to control his level of braking. Together with a dodgy pitstop where the trolley jack slipped out from under the car, and some very mediocre pace, Raikkonen was lucky to bring the car home in the points. Grosjean fared little better, making up good ground during the race, but requiring an extra stop due to harder tyre degradation.

Alan Permane has admitted that Lotus have fallen behind in the development race, and on a day where Lotus were slow, as well as inefficient, if Kimi has a Red Bull contract to sign, the day might have arrived where the Finn signs it. At this point in time, Lotus look like they may get lost completely without Raikkonen.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Romain Grosjean
Qualifying: 1-0 to Kimi Raikkonen
Race: 1-0 to Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen has scored 88 out of 114 points for Lotus, 77% of their points.
Romain Grosjean has scored 26 out of 114 points for Lotus, 23% of their points.
Romain Grosjean has scored 29% of Kimi Raikkonen’s points total.

Mercedes:

While Mercedes still suffered from tyre wear issues in Montreal, they were nowhere near as bad as the problems they had at earlier races. Nico suffered far more than Lewis did, with the German revealing the call had been made to run the supersofts for the second stint, a decision he regretted afterwards. Due tot his decision, Nico ended up making an extra pitstop to ensure he made it to the end of the race, and ended up fifty seconds behind his team-mate. Lewis put in a consummate performance to battle with Fernando Alonso late on in the race but ultimately could not hold him off. If Van Der Garde hadn’t turned in on Mark Webber, second place would have been very possible, if not likely, for Lewis.

The FIA Tribunal into Tyregate will take place prior to Silverstone, and barring any unforeseen punishments, Lewis will hope to continue this form at the British Grand Prix, as it really is the first time that Lewis has looked significantly stronger than Nico.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Lewis Hamilton
Qualifying: 1-0 to Lewis Hamilton
Race: 1-0 to Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton has scored 77 out of 134 points for Mercedes, 57% of their points.
Nico Rosberg has scored 57 out of 134 points for Mercedes, 43% of their points.
Nico Rosberg has scored 74% of the points total of Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari:

Fernando Alonso lapped Felipe Massa, despite the latter having no significant issues. True, being unable to get past the slower Kimi Raikkonen in the early stages did hold Felipe up, as well as being unable to clear Adrian Sutil, but Felipe really should have been ahead of Raikkonen before Lap 69. Another crash in qualifying for Felipe put him under pressure yet again, but Felipe claims he was ‘very happy’ to have finished eighth. Ferrari don’t look quite as strong as the Chinese and Spanish races made them appear, with Fernando being passed by Mark Webber during the race, as well as having to hunt down and pass Lewis Hamilton in the latter stages, a car that is arguably quite a bit slower on race pace than the Ferrari.

The title hunt is fading away from Fernando, the next few races are crucial to establish if a title challenge is really there or not.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Felipe Massa
Qualifying: 1-0 to Fernando Alonso
Race: 1-0 to Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso has scored 96 points out of 145 for Ferrari, 66% of their points.
Felipe Massa has scored 49 points out of 145 for Ferrari, 34% of their points.
Felipe Massa has scored 51% of the points total of Fernando Alonso.

Red Bull:

When the tyres didn’t have to be micro-managed to an inch of their lives, and the drivers were let off the leash, Vettel shows just how far ahead of the game himself and Red Bull are. A dominant and controlled display from Sebastian, despite one or two errors while pushing so hard. Minus the mistakes, as well as getting held up behind the Raikkonen/Bottas argument, Sebastian could have been closer to thirty seconds ahead by race end.

Mark Webber was doing well, passing Fernando on the track, until he chanced upon a meandering Giedo Van Der Garde. The damage to the car didn’t seem to affect the pace of the car, but did lead to the Australian making more mistakes, with Webber missing several braking points under pressure from Alonso. As blameless as Mark was for the incident, when Mark is under attack from another driver, you never get the feeling he can hold them off. Based on percentages, Sebastian is beating Mark to the same extent that Fernando is beating Felipe.

Forum and Twitter talk indicates that Fernando Alonso is lauded for this performance deficit due to his driving, while Sebastian is that much better than Mark due to his car. Watching Vettel smirk and ignore the booing he received on the podium, the impression is formed that Sebastian doesn’t give a damn what is said about him, as long as he continues to be a dominant winner.

Fastest Lap: 1-0 to Mark Webber
Qualifying: 1-0 to Sebastian Vettel
Race: 1-0 to Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel has scored 132 points out of 201 for Red Bull, 66% of their points total.
Mark Webber has scored 69 points out of 201 for Red Bull, 34% of their points total.
Mark Webber has scored 51% of the points total of Fernando Alonso



Totals:
Marussia: 19-2 to Jules Bianchi
Caterham: 15-6 to Charles Pic
Toro Rosso: 13-8 to Jean-Eric Vergne
Sauber: 15-6 to Nico Hulkenberg
Williams: 16-5 to Valterri Bottas
Force India: 13-8 to Adrian Sutil
McLaren: 12-9 to Jenson Button
Lotus: 16-5 to Kimi Raikkonen
Mercedes: 12-9 to Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari: 15-6 to Fernando Alonso
Red Bull: 19-2 to Sebastian Vettel

Until the British GP…