lebesset wrote:face facts ....mercedes could have recoevered from their mistakes if they had a set of options to put on for the last stint , hamilton would have caught vettel easily , if I was him i would be spitting with rage at the team's performance
personally I am delighted , we need ferrari back in the hunt
Well, not much facts in there
"Catching easily" on the option tire is a big if. They didn't opt for Hamilton to use Mediums, on last stint, because he would do more laps than Rosberg did.
Hamilton was 10s behind Vettel by lap 10, when he had cleared the slower cars on old tyres and got to 2nd. Afterwards, Vettel had to progress on older Mediums and took 2 pit stops using Medium and Hard. Hamilton also did 2 pit stop afterwards and also used Medium and Hard.
In the end, Lewis finished the same 10s behind(penultimate lap as Vettel cruised on finish line). So no significant pace advantage by Mercedes. Albeit Lewis was on Hards after the SC, it was fresher than Vettel's Mediums, so that kind of evens things a bit.
In summary, there is no factual evidence suggesting Mercedes was faster than Ferrari. All in all, they were pretty matched. That is, Vettel's race pace was pretty even with Hamilton's after lap 10.
Rosberg was faster than both, though, the problem for him was that Ricciardo and Massa were between him and Hamilton and not only they have faster cars but were using fresh rubber too.
And I'm not guessing here. Rosberg cleared the field, to reach 3rd, by lap 14, and was 9s behind Hamilton and 18s behind Vettel, then. Rosberg used the same combination of the other two, after the second pit stop, but in reverse(Hards, then Mediums). Nico finished 4s behind Hamilton and 12 behind Vettel, so a better pace once on clean air.
PS: When he and Hamilton had the same compound on the same stint, from lap 14 to 24, and both were on clean air, Rosberg reduced his gap from 9s to 7,2s, despite using more his tires to pass faster cars like Massa and Ricciardo
