The 2015 F1 season has delivered some exciting races, although Mercedes continues to dominate the show, with eight victories in the first 10 races of the season. Ferrari have emerged as their closest competitors, with Sebastian Vettel winning races in Malaysia and Hungary, bringing an end to the victory drought that dates back to the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
1. Australian Grand Prix
The 2015 F1 season got underway at the Australian Grand Prix with reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton taking top honours from Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg. Although Hamilton only had a second’s worth of gap at the chequered flag, he was never in danger of losing his lead during the entire duration of the race.
Behind the Mercedes pairing, Sebastian Vettel secured a podium finish on his debut for Scuderia, having switched from Red Bull over the winter. Felipe Nasr’s graduation to F1 was just as impressive, with the Brazilian finishing fifth for Sauber, despite starting well outside the top 10.
Only 11 drivers made it the chequered flag with Jenson Button finishing dead-last in an underpowered McLaren-Honda.
2. Malaysian Grand Prix
After a dominant one-two finish in Australia, most insiders had written off 2015 as another Mercedes washout. However, an early race safety car in Malaysia threw the race wide open, allowing Sebastian Vettel to take Ferrari’s first victory since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.
While all top runners pitted under the safety car, Sebastian Vettel sticked to his strategy and enjoyed the benefits of a clean track ahead. Mercedes drivers, in stark contrast, burned their tyres in heavy traffic, and failed to put a challenge to the German, eventually coming home in second and third places.
Kimi Raikkonen’s charge from back of the grid to fourth further underlined the leapways Ferrari had made over the winter and it was clear by then that the Scuderia was back in the hunt after a winless 2014 season.
- Chinese Grand Prix
After Ferrari’s breakthrough win in Malaysia, normal proceedings resumed in Shanghai with Lewis Hamilton leading home another Mercedes one-two finish. Sebastian Vettel finished on the podium for the third race running while Kimi Raikkonen was not far behind in the other Ferrari in fourth place.
During the race, Rosberg accused Hamilton of backing him into the clutches of third-placed Sebastian Vettel, although the latter denied intentionally slowing him down to gain an unfair advantage in the championship fight.
- Bahrain Grand Prix
The Bahrain Grand Prix saw Lewis Hamilton hold-off a fast charging Kimi Raikkonen to extend his lead at the top of the drivers standings.
Hamilton had done exactly what he was supposed to do over the weekend: put his mighty W06 Hybrid on pole position and develop a significant buffer over his rivals come Sunday. However, a different strategy by Kimi Raikkonen put him in contention for victory, with the Finn coming within 3 seconds of the Brit after two breathtaking final stints on the prime and option tyres.
Behind the two, a resurgent Nico Rosberg took third after showing some feisty skills to overtake Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari. Only a late-issue with his car’s brake-by-wire system made him vulnerable at the end of the race.
- Spanish Grand Prix
Rosberg carried his Bahrain breakthrough performance to the Spanish Grand Prix, which marked the start of the European leg of the season.
Having started from pole position, Robserg controlled the proceeding to take the first victory of his 2015 campaign, declaring that the championship fight was far from over.
His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, had a troubled start and was down to third place behind Vettel’s Ferrari. His inability to overtake Vettel on track forced Mercedes to put him on a three-stop strategy, which allowed him to take second at the chequered flag.
- Monaco Grand Prix
The prestige and the glamour surrounding the Monaco Grand Prix leads to high TV ratings and media coverage that is bested by not many grands prix around the world. However, races around the Principality tend to lack excitement, with its tight and twisty streets being a major hindrance to overtaking.
And it looked like the 2015 edition of the race was going to be no different until a collision between Romain Grosjean and Max Verstappen brought out the safety car and spiced up an otherwise dull race.
In the midst of the chaos, Mercedes made the baffling decision to pit Hamilton for a fresh set of tyres, something that dropped the erstwhile race leader to third in the live timings.
With just six laps of racing left after the safety car came in, a charge on the option tyres went futile, with a disgruntled Hamilton failing to overtake Rosberg and Vettel, who took 1st and second places respectively as the chequered flag dropped to signal the end of the race.
- Canadian Grand Prix
At the next round of the season in Canada, Hamilton came back from the setback to register his 4th win of the season, showing the kind of maturity that was lacking during the tender years of his F1 career.
It was his typical lights-to-flag win, although Rosberg was breathing down his neck until brake issues forced him to back off.
Valtteri Bottas notched Williams’ first podium finish of the season ahead of the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.
- Austrian Grand Prix
At the Austrian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg capitalised on Lewis Hamilton’s poor start to take his third win of the season, cutting the gap to his teammate to just 10 points in the championship.
Felipe Massa, meanwhile, fended off a charging Sebastian Vettel to take third place on a track he scored pole position last year.
The two Red Bull-owned outfits endured a torrid day with Max Verstappen finishing eighth and Daniel Ricciardo collecting the final championship point in 10th place.
The race was marked by a first lap pile-up involving former teammates Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Both of the drivers emerged unscatched from the scary incident.
- British Grand Prix
F1 gave a timely response to its critics with a enthralling grand prix at Silverstone, amid the never-ending criticism of the current engine formula.
At the start of the British Grand Prix, Massa and Bottas made a rocketing start from second row of the grid, deposing the Mercedes pairing of Hamilton and Rosberg to third and fourth places respectively.
However, a conservative strategy by Williams allowed Hamilton to retake the lead after the first round of pitstops, with Rosberg also getting his nose ahead as the rain started to fall on the circuit.
A well-timed pitstop by Sebastian Vettel put him on the podium from nowhere, while Williams found themselves in fourth and fifth places, after struggling on intermediate compounds.
- Hungarian Grand Prix
The curtain to the first half of the 2015 F1 season fell down with the Hungarian Grand Prix, with unruly driving making for a chaotic but exciting race.
The two Mercedes drivers were again slow of the line, with the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen being the beneficiaries. Worst still, Hamilton ran wide at the chicane and fell down to 10th place.
By the time he had recovered to move up to fourth place, the front wing of Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India failed spectacularly, bringing out the safety car.
When the racing resumed, Hamilton made contact with Daniel Ricciardo, with two additional stops for a change of front wing and to serve his drive through penalty dropping him out of points scoring positions.
However, he was able to recover to finish sixth and keep his championship lead intact after Rosberg himself had to dive into the pits, following a collision with Ricciardo.
At the front, Sebastian Vettel kept his calm to take Scuderia’s second win of the season - the target set by boss Maurizio Arrivabene during pre-season testing- with Daniil Kvyat securing a career best second and Ricciardo locking up the final spot on the podium.
While Hamilton has been a dominant force during the first half of the season, his error-strewn race in Hungary gave another glimpse of his fragile nature that nearly cost him the title in 2008 and resulted in an off-colour 2011 season.
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