This weekend, we saw a rather sedate Grand Prix with very little action other than at the start and during the final 3 or 4 laps.
It seems like inconsistent rules with regards to the start have come to the fore, with Bottas winning the race after a very controversial start which saw his Mercedes’ wheels start turning before the lights went out:
This annoyed fellow drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel, who proceeded to grill Bottas before and during the podium ceremony – both convinced that he had gained an unfair advantage off the line.
The stewards tended to disagree with the two hot shoes, and Bottas escaped any form of punishment. According to the rules, drivers are allowed to edge forward at the start before the lights are extinguished, as long as their wheels do not cross the edge of their starting box. Should make for some interesting starts in future, now that this rule is fresh in drivers’ minds!
Thus, Bottas got the PERFECT start. It’s always fun and interesting to see drivers get great launches off the grid – let’s look at a few, shall we?
Jarno’s Trulli amazing start
First up, we have Jarno Trulli’s immense start in Spain 2004. Watch him start from fourth and edge past Schumi by the first corner! It’s no secret that the mid-2000s Renaults had amazing traction, and this is a very graphic example of that:
Fernando’s Fantastic Ferrari… Flies?
Next, we have Alonso – the 2011 Ferrari was a bit underwhelming as a racecar, but Alonso managed 2 astounding, heart-in-the-mouth starts during the F150 Italia’s tenure in F1 – with both of them involving grass being thrown into the mix. We’ve included both for your amazement, because we’re cool like that.
Above is Spain, below is Italy.
Vitaly’s Vital… I’m going to stop with this now
Now, not many of you will remember Vitaly Petrov, the Russian who took part in F1 between 2010 and 2012, but he had a big impact at times during his short career – Australia 2010’s (very wet) start was no exception:
The Renaults demolish the competition
Finally – we’ve spoken about this one before… One of the most impressive displays off the line has to be what we witnessed at the 2005 Canadian GP, where Alonso and Fisichella both stormed into the lead in their Renaults by the first corner (skip to 3:11).
The rest of the field appeared sluggish in comparison, and even though Alonso seemed to go into anti-stall as the lights went out, he still climbed 2 positions to rejoin behind his teammate. Sadly, neither Renault would finish the race.
That’s it for this article, can you think of any more scintillating starts?