Mahindra Win Prevented by Vettel

Qualifying:

Results

Report:

Grey clouds were ready to empty the masses of dihydrogen monoxide on the race circuit owned by Red Bull, as F1 continues its search for the 2017 World Champion. Rain is bound to shake up the order and did just that, both in qualifying and the race itself. In qualifying, it was Simon Pagenaud who took his chance and managed to slide right into the pole position, ahead of Jules Bianchi.

Regrettably, Sauber’s day started good, but only became worse. First was a quick end to the race for Pastor Maldonado, who was in Sebastién Bourdais’ way, then followed a bad strategy for the race leader. Simon Pagenaud was called in too late in the first round of stops, causing him to lose out to both Jules Bianchi and Daniel Ricciardo in the Mahindra-Mercedes.

The latter man was ready to take advantage of his chance and managed to flush himself straight into P1, looking like a likely race winner. However, behind him, Sebastian Vettel had fought his way through the field, starting from P9. Thanks to the Judd engine and great driving, he could get close to the Australian world champion and managed to secure the win with a pass into the Red Bull Mobile corner.

Outside of Vettel having the toughest of his 10 wins in this season, other teams must have been pleased with their outing: Mahindra still secured 18 points, getting the better of Valerian in the WCC, who themselves got a double points finish. Pierre Gasly got Red Bull two attractive points as well, with Ferrari overcoming their slighty-below average qualifying to get some more points.

Race:

Results

Fastest Lap:

Sebastian Vettel – 1:21.292

Infinite Improbability Drive Of The Race:

Daniel Ricciardo – Almost winning in a Mahindra is what this award is all about.

Reject Of The Race:

Sauber-Judd – Bad strategy and getting taken out on lap 1, not a great afternoon for the Swiss team.