Frances Fry, F1Insider78 - "This weekend's race was in no way short of thrills and excitement, living up to the reputation Spa has earned through the years, being one of the most anticipated races on the calendar. Following in the tracks of previous world champion, Vettel, Hamilton had shot past his team mate, Rosberg, and stolen first place by the first corner. On the second lap, the two Mercedes drivers experienced contact. Both Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff have since expressed much concern on the matter.
The first few laps are consistently the most thrilling. The start gives the drivers a chance to shuffle around in order. This is why Hamilton was kept out after asking for retirement for 20 laps. As mentioned over the team radio, the team were waiting, hoping the safety car would make an appearance in order for a mock start to occur.
Although this is without a doubt a clever tactic, you can't help doubting their decision to keep him out on the track. After the race Lewis said he had already used several aspects of the power engine and didn't see the point in putting himself at risk of a 10 place grid penalty, which is given to a driver after they have a new power unit aspect five times. It was a decision that was justified whatever the decision. What would you have done? Kept him out, hope for a safety car or brought him in and kept the power unit in a good condition?
In other disappointing news, Lotterer, who was driving Kamui Kobayashi's Caterham on his Formula 1 debut found himself retired after his car simply broke down on the side of the track. The 32 year old shrugged at the camera before continuing on his way back to the pit lane, practicing sporting maturity and quite possibly earning a few fans.
Now, on the more positive side of the event, Sauber have quite clearly brought some improvements to the team with both Gutierrez and Sutil finishing the race. Adrian Sutil was in 14th with Esteban Gutierrez in 15th, one of their most promising finishes of the season! Things are certainly looking up. Despite this, after qualifying on Saturday Gutierrez said that it was "Not acceptable to have a weekend like this" before going on to say that he believes the team has already lost too many sessions due to technical issues. He clearly feels he is doing all he can. Hopefully we can see Sauber win some points in Monza next time to give them something positive to concentrate on.
Speaking of positive, my driver of the weekend was without a doubt, Valtteri Bottas, taking Williams to the podium yet again! I can do nothing other than praise this man. Congratulations to him and his team, I can't wait to see how far he can take them!"
Amy Hawk, F1Insider78 - "First of all, I'd like congratulate Daniel Ricciardo on another well-deserved win. This race was definitely another exciting one. Fans got to experience the wheel-to-wheel racing that they arrived for.
Where the situation at Mercedes is concerned, I don't really want to comment on it at the moment. I think what happened is now in the past. I do feel bad for Lewis though, you could clearly see the disappointment after the race. It was tough.
As for Force India, after Kevin's (Magnussen) penalty, the team came away with another double-points haul which is great. Also, the team is only a handful of points away from surpassing their record points-tally, which will be a great accomplishment.
Sauber is obviously improving and I couldn't be happier to see both cars finishing and in the top 15. It's a better pace than in the previous race and I think Monza will be another good weekend to show the improvements. I think in this later-half of the season there is a chance of points.. You can't count it out, nothing is impossible.
So, yes, Italy is next and it's one of my favourite races, so I'm really looking forward to it."
Article Posted By: Amy Hawk
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