There’s a lot that has been spoken about Lewis Hamilton being denied his second consecutive win due to a pit stop gaffe by his McLaren Mercedes team. But was that really the case? 
Heiki Kovalainnen who started P2 ended up crossing the chequered flag in P4. Did his drive cost him a podium finish? Or was it a bad pit stop strategy?
Hungary was a surprise win and a much deserved one too. Lewis and Mclaren executed a near perfect race and hence deserved to win. Valencia too was expected to be a circuit that favours their machinery – specifically due to their start-stop nature; which typically means that there is lesser dependence on aerodynamics for the cars, an area where the Mclaren’s haven’t really performed this season.
Come Saturday and qualifying, the Mclaren drivers drove a perfect Q3 session to lock the front row. Of course the pole should’ve been Kovi’s considering that he was on a heavier fuel load and still managed a faster lap than Lewis, only to lose it all in the end. The last corner of Valencia is a perfect corner – separates the men from the boys, technically! You enter the corner with a fast left-right sequence with your right side bearing the gravitational load. To further brake and turn left, you need to neutralize the load on the car and then let gravity load the left side – which is why you usually see drivers locking their left front tyre at corner entry. However, Kovi chose to take it a step further, he managed to fish tail his exit, which lost him time on Hamilton. So much for some learnings in the lower formulae! [Bundle of nerves too, I’d say!]
Come Race Day, the Mclarens made a perfect get-away – leading 1-2 till the first round of pit stops. Rubens managed to jump Kovi to second place after Ross Brawn showed his might on the pit wall. A perfect Brawn strategy!
Just when we thought that Lewis had victory in the bag, two very unusual occurrences took place. First, Rubens not only matched, but beat Lewis’ pace during his in-laps. He was close to 4 secs down on Lewis and he managed to eat it all back within just 3 laps to his pitstop.
Second, Mclaren goof-ed up! The pit-stop call was too close for them to handle – something that Lewis too declared in the post race conference. When Lewis hit his pit-lane speed limiter, the Mclaren pit crew were still struggling to find his right front tyre. As a result a 6 second pitstop turned into a 15 second-er!! Lewis re-joined the action only in second place and with a 7 second deficit. Gross error indeed!
So the question is did the pit-stop really cost Mclaren victory? Mclaren fans believe that it did so – while of course there is a benefit of doubt here the truth is that Rubens drove a near perfect race. While Lewis was out in front trying to stretch his lead, Rubens maintained consistent pace and distance to the Mclaren driver. The Brazilian veteran mounted his attack when his British rival pitted and managed to crawl back the deficit – something that Brawn strategies are famous for – but something that Rubens is surely not! The faulty pit-stop did dent Lewis’ attempt to challenge Rubens to the line, but a spirited Rubens and a calculated Ross Brawn ensured that they didn’t leave it to any Mclaren error to snatch Rubens’ first win in 5 years.
Come Spa and the Mclaren team is already worried about their race pace – a conventional racing circuit with fast flowing corners is expected to expose their aerodynamic flaws. Will they fall like Humpty Dumpty or will we see some Lewis magic!
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a guest
said:
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... ha! We all saw the race buddy... McLaren did goof up... or may be Hamilton did??? do u think the pit crew was sleeping when Hamilton came in... or did Hamilton come in a bit too sooner than expected!!! Any which ways... its ok, such things happen! |
a guest
said:
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... well the pit-call was too 'last minute' and even more - I think Mclaren realised that Rubens was piling fastest laps one after the other and their best bet was bringing in Lewis as earliest as possible. Oh well - disaster indeed! |
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