Mercedes have announced on their Twitter page that the fans of Formula One will be deciding there team orders policy. A lunch time tweet stated that the fan will choose if they want Free Racing between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton liken the Bahrain Grand Prix or whether they want Team Orders to come into play to prevent incidents like what happened at last weekends Belgian Grand Prix. The Mercedes tactic therefore implies that the fans can have no complaints of what happens out on track, probably to prevent the immense 'Boo's' received by Nico Rosberg for hitting team mate Lewis Hamilton while battling for the lead on lap 2 of the race. The shock move my the championship leaders is similar to a system being bought into Formula E with 'Fan Boost', showing the raw power of social media. Team Orders would appear to suit Nico Rosberg with his 29 point championship lead but that isn't necessarily the case with Team Orders being implaced on a race by race basis. But the worry is if the fans choose to let Mercedes intervene with the racing how early into a race would they come in with the Mercs being in a 1-2 position for most likely the whole race. Team Orders has been a hot topic with the team as Lewis Hamilton `ignored` a team order in Hungary, which as one reason for the contact in Belgium. But certainly #TeamBossThursday is going to be crucial to the outcome of the 2014 season.
Daniel Ricciardo won his 3rd Grand Prix of the season to put his name into the hat for the 2014 Championship. The opportunity for the victory came about when on lap 2 when Nico Rosberg hit his team mate Lewis Hamilton at Les Combes. It was a clumsy move by Rosberg which damaged his front wing and gave Hamilton a puncture taking him out of the race as he couldn't recover from the damage. Rosberg also had to make an early stop to change his front wing. A revelation following the race revealed that in a private meeting Rosberg had said he let the collision happen to 'prove a point', the F1 community expects this story to continue for a while. Hamilton and Vettel had both made excellent starts both beating Rosberg the pole sitter into turn 1 then the run along the Camel straight to Les Combes was nearly a repeat of 2013 as Vettel pulled alongside Hamilton but ultimately was run wide by the Brit dropping him back to 3rd. Lotus' Pastor Maldonado had an engine failure early on while Caterham debutante and Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer had a suspected gearbox failure ending his F1 debut. At La Source on the first lap the Lotus of Romain Grosjean hit and punctured the tyre of Marussia's Jules Bianchi which ultimately caused his DNF. With the Spa circuit being dry for the whole race the Williams of Valtteri Bottas showed his true pace. Sadly his team mate Felipe Massa couldn't do this as debris got caught in his front wing destroying his balance in the car. When Hamilton had tried to return to the pits he had shredded the punctured tyre all over the track. A piece of the Kevlar then attached itself to the ariel of Rosberg's car giving him a few laps of poor vision and annoyance. With the Mercedes in the wars Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen came alive and the pair were P1 and P2 for a big chunk of the race. Fernando Alonso was struggling after receiving a 5 second stop-go penalty for having team personal on the grid after the 15 second signal. Ferrari controversially chose the lesser of two evils by putting the personal on track instead of starting Alonso from the pits. Ricciardo took second place after the Hamilton incident when team mate and World Champion Sebastian Vettel lost the back-end in Pouhon gifting the place. With the early pit stop Rosberg had to convert to a 3 stop strategy while rival Ricciardo kept on a 2 stop which left the German with 10 laps on brand new option tyres to chase down the leader in similar circumstances to Hungary. But just like 4 weeks ago Rosberg ran out of time. The main action at the end of the GP was for 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th as Kevin Magnussen, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso. On Lap 42 under pressure Magnussen put Alonso on the grass on the Camel straight which allowed Button to pass Alonso before being pushed off the track by Magnussen promoting Alonso and Vettel. 1 lap later Alonso tried the same move as Button, tom the same result now giving Vettel a go at Magnussen who executed a move at La Source but also got a shove from Alonso damaging his front wing. However after the race Magnussen's move on Alonso earned him a 20 second penalty dropping him out of the points. But the Rosberg collision will remain the talking point for some time esspecillally now the lead is 29 points.
1. Daniel Ricciardo 1:24:36.556 2. Nico Rosberg 3. Valtteri Bottas 4. Kimi Raikkonen 5. Sebastian Vettel 6. Jenson Button 7. Fernando Alonso 8. Sergio Perez 9. Daniil Kvyat 10. Nico Hulkenberg 11. Jean-Eric Vergne 12. Kevin Magnussen 13. Felipe Massa 14. Adrian Sutil 15. Esterban Gutierrez 16. Max Chilton 17. Marcus Ericsson Jules Bianchi DNF Lewis Hamilton DNF Romain Grosjean DNF Pastor Maldonado DNF Andre Lotterer DNF |