@genius83
Yes that happened, Mercedes did send him out again. It was between lap 43 and 45 where it all happened. Heard the team radio on lap 45 saying RFA, their name for DRS, is open/failed caution caution and Schumacher at that time had missed the turn and gone onto the grass, suppose it was turn 7. As you know the team radio is delayed, so it might have been from the previous lap but we got to hear it on lap 45.
As for Alonso, again the only thing Ferrari can be held at fault for was that they had Massa out on those tires much earlier and they had some reference point. Then again he is Massa and they thought Alonso could manage to pull it off. There was hardly any choice to pit after Vettel had pitted because the lap Vettel did after his stop was Alonso's worst lap of the race, a 1:21 something and Vettel did a 1:17 something lap. Alonso went back into doing 1:19s after that. The gap to Vettel was already lost. He was going to come out behind Vettel after his stop.
Again, Grosjean and Perez made it work, yes that could be a totally different argument as to how they managed it but, once Ferrari didn't pit right after Hamilton, when they had a 14.8 seconds lead, the chance was gone and even then if they had pitted, Hamilton would have passed him on his out lap in the DRS zone. Ferrari needing 3-5 laps to switch on the softs as you could tell when Hamilton passed him and Vettel ran close to Alonso for a few laps too. He would have been behind Vettel, Grosjean, Perez and Hamilton. Hardly ideal to pass Vettel who was on new tires too.
He usually plays down expectations but three very different tracks, Spain, Monaco, Montreal and the Ferrari has been pretty competitive on all three. A coincidence? Possible. Maybe a combination of tires, track temperature etc and a couple of drivers who should have been on pole being demoted but even with that, he would still have been competitive. I think they are on the right track and that is why they went for a win and no damage limitation because they know where they stack up against the rest. They have one of the fastest cars in race trims, not qualifying though.
In early season they could not get into Q3 and Massa had trouble getting into Q2. They were right about damage limitation at that stage because what else could they do. It's a little different now i suspect. It's a pretty good car now and that you should know by looking at where Massa is qualifying and racing compared to the start of the season.
