June saw two races with almost opposite outcomes for the Mercedes duo. Nico Rosberg entered the month leading the championship as they headed to Canada for the seventh round of the championship, and was still leading as the paddock prepared for the Austrian GP at the start of July, but it wasn’t a simple month for the German.
It looked to begin with as if neither Mercedes would take a win in Canada, despite locking out the front row in qualifying. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who started third, shot away from the line and, in a blink of an eye, he was speeding off into the distance, leaving Rosberg and teammate Lewis Hamilton – the pole sitter – to scrap.
The battle for second saw Rosberg pushed wide at the opening corner and drop down to ninth. Whilst Hamilton was able to speed off after Vettel, Rosberg struggled to make his way up through the field. His challenge was made even harder when he was forced to pit early due to a slow puncture.
Hamilton was undisturbed in second, but he wouldn’t have been able to snatch the lead of the race had Ferrari not made a crucial strategic error.
About ten laps into the race, just as a virtual safety car period ended, Vettel was called into the pits. Supersoft tyres were strapped onto his car, which committed him to a second stop, as it was mandatory to run soft tyres on the Canadian track.
Hamilton was able to take the lead of the race as Vettel stopped for a second time and, though Vettel tried to push to retake the lead, he couldn’t quite close the gap.
Rosberg eventually finished fifth after a failed overtake on Max Verstappen sent him spinning into a run off area.
Europe would be a different race though, and a different result.
The European Grand Prix was being held for the first time in Baku, Azerbaijan. The new track, a street circuit with plenty of corners, got the drivers’ approval, but fans were still a little unsure.
It was a mixed qualifying with walls seeing plenty of action. A poor time in Q2, with Hamilton having to back off of one of his flying laps due to a spinning Nico Hulkenberg ahead of him, but the reigning champion right at the bottom of the top ten, and he almost didn’t make it into the final qualifying session.
In Q3, the Brit collided with a wall on his second flying lap, putting him in tenth on the grid whilst his teammate was able to secure pole position. Force India’s Sergio Perez set the second fastest time of the session, but a gearbox penalty meant he would start seventh and Daniel Ricciardo was promoted to the front row of the grid. Carlos Sainz and Kevin Magnussen were also handed five place grid penalties due to gearbox changes.
Rosberg was in a race of his own in Baku. The German got away from the line without any trouble, and wasn’t troubled throughout the race. At the end of the 51 lap race, he took his fifth win of the season and his first since Russia.
This time, it was Hamilton’s turn to have a difficult race. Starting tenth, he climbed up to fourth before a de-rating problem with his ERS forced him to slow down. The car was in the wrong settings and, though the engineers knew how to fix it, they wouldn’t be able to tell Hamilton due to the radio restrictions. Hamilton eventually solved the problem, and finished the race fifth.
Vettel would again finish second, and Ferrari would again be left frustrated about “what could have been”, but this time it was Kimi Raikkonen who had missed out. The team looked set for their second double podium of the season when Raikkonen was handed a five second penalty for crossing the line at the pit entry without pitting.
To keep third, he would have to stay five seconds ahead of Sergio Perez in fourth. Perez had other ideas, closing in on Raikkonen. An ERS problem for the Finn only made things harder, allowing Perez to pass Raikkonen and take third on the track.
June ended with the F1 circus preparing for the Austrian GP.
Ahead of Red Bull’s home race, there was a driver announcement to be made by their junior team. Toro Rosso had decided to keep Spaniard Carlos Sainz junior for a third season. There was no news on Sainz’s new teammate, though Christian Horner did say he expected Daniil Kvyat to be retained too.
Rosberg finished June 24 points ahead of Hamilton, whilst Vettel was only 21 points behind the Brit and, with two second place finishes in a row, the Ferrari driver looked like he could be a serious threat through the rest of the season.
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