But Lewis felt the rain round the back of Copse, went off the circuit, and took the gamble. There’s always a risk that can go against you. Here his judgment was correct. Whether it’s a one-off or a newfound decision-making capability, we’ll have to wait for the next dodgy race conditions and borderline pit stops.
Nico Rosberg rounds Club
As far as the championship goes, it’s incredible to think that pretty much halfway through the season they’re still within a win of each other. I was extremely impressed with how Nico Rosberg performed in Austria. It seemed as if the run of results had gone his way. But it can always swing in a moment.
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That said, Nico simply won’t go away. He’s a worthy adversary, coming up short at the moment but not by much. Lewis remains my favourite for the title yet that is not to say Nico can’t win the championship. He is oh so close to beating a double world champion in both qualifying and the race. He needs to up his game consistently if he is to make the final step.
Elsewhere, the poor starts for both Mercedes might cause them a bit of a headache for the rest of the year. From Belgium onwards, the drivers will be left to fend for themselves much more during the start procedure. That will be a concern for the team.
Unlike for Williams, who flew off the line. It’s very easy to be wise after the event, but they had a genuine chance of winning the race if they had done things differently. It is not nice to order one driver past another, but it seemed as if Valtteri Bottas had more speed than Felipe Massa and could have extended the lead. Red Bull have employed a similar strategy in the past. As it was, the Williams car was unsuited to the wet conditions at the end of the race.
Williams should have instructed Felipe Massa to let Valtteri Bottas past
As I have said before, as far as McLaren go we almost have to ignore them until they are anything like competitive again. It is incredibly frustrating and we can see tempers are starting to fray. I noticed Ron Dennis called my BBC colleague a “village idiot” in the build-up to the race.
Ron Dennis’s insults are quicker than his cars
Eddie is many things but he is definitely not an idiot. Where many others failed he ran a very successful Formula One team and sold it for a considerable profit. I don’t expect Ron to like it but you fight fire with fire. What he’s done is fight fire with insults. It’s difficult to imagine they’re going to make inroads between now and the end of the year.
But that did not take the gloss off a great weekend for Lewis, and a great weekend of sport all round.