A two stop strategy for Kimi Räikkönen set up a great duel between himself and Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso in the closing laps of the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend. A slow stop due to a malfunction in the front jack set Kimi’s strategy for the rest of the race. Still trying to fight Williams for third place in the Constructors’ Championship, Ferrari knew they had to do everything they could to keep both cars in points paying positions and so the Finn had no choice but to stretch his race into a two stop race. The two Ferrari wheelmen battled through several corners before Alonso who was on much fresher rubber eventually got the better of his partner and the two went on to finish sixth and seventh.
Ferrari Brazilian Grand Prix review
The Mercedes duo finished one-two yet again this weekend though this time it was Nico Rosberg besting Lewis Hamilton for the win. Unfortunately for Ferrari but to the delight of his home crowd the Williams of Felipe Massa rounded out the podium coming in third. The second Williams car of Valtteri Bottas was having plenty of trouble throughout the race and looked for a while like he wasn’t going to make it into the points at all but eventually clawed back into 10th, one lap down. The one point from Bottas was just icing on the cake for Williams as Massa’s podium finish was enough to outscore both Ferrari’s combined. Their lead in the Constructors’ Championship extended another two points now 44 points ahead of Ferrari. Ferrari held steady against McLaren-Mercedes keeping the gap at 49 points for fourth place.
Räikkönen’s two stop strategy was particularly impressive as tyre wear was an extremely difficult point for the teams to manage. The soft tyres wore off incredibly quickly and most teams ran nothing but the medium compound aside from the mandatory run of at least one set of softs. Räikkönen ran the final 36 laps on one set of medium tyres, about twice as many laps as anybody else on the grid. It was absolutely brilliant tyre management from the Finn.
Alonso was able to stick to the three stop strategy that Ferrari was more comfortable with and in the end it was what made him able to pass his teammate in those later laps. The fresher rubber is why Räikkönen eventually succumbed to the Spaniard. Except from the duel with his teammate Alonso had a fairly uneventful run in Brazil but was able to move up to sixth from his eighth place starting position.
The real action for Alonso will most likely come in the next few weeks leading up to the double points finale in Abu Dhabi. In a recent article from Sky Sports they are expecting a deal and an announcement coming from Alonso regarding his addition to the McLaren-Honda team for the 2015 season to come before the race in Abu Dhabi.
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