Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Not Bad for a #2 Driver

Like it or not, the Formula One World Drivers’ Champion is the driver who scores the most points over the course of the season. Sure, older championship formulae saw some low results eliminated so only the best finishes counted but that’s not the system we have now. You have to be consistently fast to be the WDC today.

While Lewis Hamilton may be the fastest driver in F1, he wasn’t always at or near the front of the field. Love him or hate him, that’s why he isn’t the champion for the third-straight year. The consistency, speed and luck of Nico Rosberg won him a well-earned first Formula One World Drivers’ Championship.

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F1 Brazilian Grand Prix: Drowning

This weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix was an absolute masterclass of driving. The safety car led 28 laps having led the field on five occasions during the race. Well, that and there was this Lewis Hamilton bloke who led the rest of the way on a daring no-stop strategy as rain, safety cars and red flags fell his way. While Hamilton did his part for his championships, so did Nico Rosberg who finished 2nd on the day despite not being well-regarded as a wet weather driver.

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F1 Mexican Grand Prix: Time Won’t Give Me Time

The 2016 Mexican Grand Prix will be better remembered for what happened in the Stewards’ office and over the radio than it will be for what happened on-track. Lewis Hamilton stormed away with a boring victory having escaped a penalty on Lap 1. All the real fun happened behind two Mercedes as a late battle between Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo stole all the headlines.

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F1 United States Grand Prix: What Needs to be Done

The plan for Lewis Hamilton is quite simple. All he can do at this point is win every race from here to the end of the season and hope for some luck to go his way. For Nico Rosberg, the counterattack is also quite simple. Finish first or second from now through Abu Dhabi and he wins his first World Drivers’ Championship. Both men did what they needed to in Austin, Texas, at the US GP but that means that it’s still advantage Rosberg.

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F1 Japanese Grand Prix: Better Lucky than Good

When you make a mistake or get caught up by someone else’s mistake, skill doesn’t really play a deciding factor in getting you through the field. Rather, it’s about the pace of your car relative to the competition and how much luck falls your way. So after complaining about luck in Malaysia, it all fell Lewis Hamilton’s way.

No, he didn’t win the race. That honour went to Nico Rosberg who dominated the entire weekend. Hamilton finished in 3rd which was the best he could have expected after an appalling start.

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F1 Belgian Grand Prix: Taking Opportunities

f1-2016-belgium-rosberg-victoryWhen you’re handed the perfect opportunity on a silver platter, your only choice is to take it. Take the two Mercedes drivers. Lewis Hamilton’s extra engines gave Nico Rosberg the perfect opportunity to win the race. Crashes and red flag gave Hamilton an opportunity to claw his way back from the back of the grid. In both cases, they capitalized on the opportunity to score the results they needed.

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F1 German Grand Prix: The Race to 2017

Is it a home victory if the manufacturer wins rather than the driver? In Italy, that is certainly the case as we know that Ferrari is a religion there. I can’t help but feel that Germany wouldn’t be as open to a foreign driver winning for the domestic constructor. That was the situation at Hockenheim after the German Grand Prix that saw Brit Lewis Hamilton take home the win for Germany’s Mercedes.

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F1 British Grand Prix: A Bronx Cheer

f1-2016-britain-hamilton-crowd-surfingThe British Grand Prix started behind the safety car because of standing water on the track. Fans complained about the overly cautious start to the race but little did they know that this start to the race would make for the most exciting part of the afternoon. Changing conditions made for some exciting moments as drivers coped with a track that was too wet for inters and then too wet for slicks.

Lewis Hamilton ended up winning his home grand prix in a race that will likely be remembered for the first penalty from F1’s radio rules.

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F1 Austrian Grand Prix: Here We Go Again

In racing, it’s not who leads the first lap, the halfway lap or even the most laps. Nico Rosberg led the most laps of the Austrian Grand Prix but he didn’t taste the winner’s champagne. In fact, he turned out to be a villain of Maldonado-ian levels after the chequered flag flew. A last lap collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton while defending the lead left Rosberg worse for wear, as is often the case when this occurs, and handed the win to Hamilton.

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F1 Monaco Grand Prix: Better Lucky than Good

f1-2016-monaco-hamilton-victoryTwenty years ago, the Monaco Grand Prix featured a downpour, changing conditions and only three cars running at the end of the two-hour time limit. Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix looked like it could go the same way but the difference was that 15 cars finished. A series of strange moments throughout the race saw Lewis Hamilton luck his way into his first win of the 2016 World Championship.

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