2012 Chinese Grand Prix

[Ross]

I've edited the OP with a link to the results if anyone doesn't have time to catch the highlights.

 

[UK-Gamer]

Well, what a good race. One thing that stood out for me was Hamilton pushing Raikkonen towards the pit crews when they were released at the same time. Third year in a row that he's done this to someone in China. Luckily the pitlane is quite a large one, but I don't like to see this kind of thing happen. Yet again he gets away with it.

Well done to Rosberg. Good race. Shame about Schumacher, Raikkonen and the Saubers.

But then, might it have been an unsafe release by Lotus? I mean Hamilton was a good half a car length in front by the time Kimi was released.

 

[F1 fan]

But then, might it have been an unsafe release by Lotus? I mean Hamilton was a good half a car length in front by the time Kimi was released.

That's for the stewards to decide. Not Hamilton. Being half a car length ahead does not give you the right to squeeze the other guy. It's just dangerous.

 

[UK-Gamer]

That's for the stewards to decide. Not Hamilton. Being half a car length ahead does not give you the right to squeeze the other guy. It's just dangerous.

Squeezing is dangerous, yes, but don't you think how the incident could be avoided instead of how Hamilton can be punished? If Kimi was fed out behind Lewis instead of beside him then the whole saga is avoided. Like you said that's for the stewards to decide but then isn't Hamilton squeezing something the stewards should decide on swell?

 

[SilverArrow]

That's for the stewards to decide. Not Hamilton. Being half a car length ahead does not give you the right to squeeze the other guy. It's just dangerous.

I don't see why your complaining, no one else saw this as an issue which is why no one was under investigation. The pit lane is wide enough to allow for this racing, I don't remember anyone being penalised for being side by side in this pit lane and there weren't any pit crews out in the first place.

 

[NINE_HUNDRED]

Ferrari are obviously focusing on Alonso to produce the results and are putting him on the best strategy, whilst Massa has been put on the backburner and is there simply to aid Fernando. Give them both a chance, with strategies that will work and see what the result is. If Massa scores points then we know he has potential, if not then they know what to do.

Exactly. They don't really give him a chance, they leave him out for so long and by the time they do finally pit him, it puts him miles behind.

I'm not even a Massa fan, but I don't really agree with how they use him during races. Give him a good strategy like you said, if he doesn't do anything with it then fair enough.

 

[Dennisch]

Awesome race, shame about Schumacher.
Does anyone know the attendance of the Grand Prix? There were a lot of stuffed stands!

 

[MagpieRacer]

Great race, very exciting indeed all the way to the finish. Well done to Rosberg as well, was a stunning drive and proved the Merc doubters wrong for sure.

Roll on Bahrain, and some sensible times to wake up! 1pm race start I believe for GMT.

 

[JBanton]

One question, i noticed they maxed out at only 313 km/h on the back straight the whole weekend (and it's long enough to reach the max speed).

Question of the F1's this year, or gear ratio setup? Because i remember 330 being more or less the max speed on the longest straights a couple of years ago.

Perez in the Sauber Ferrari was clocked at 325 km/h at one point in the speedtrap. O_O

I'm happy with today's outcome, Nico Rosberg gets his first win 👍 More importantly McLaren increase their lead in the constructors' championship, both Button and Hamilton on the podium and Hamilton now leads the drivers' championship.

 

[gorsad]

Massa impressed me today, he had good pace and drove consistantly, if the tyres had fallen off the cliff like Kimi's did for more of that group with the long last stint Massa would've scored points.

True, I'm glad he's getting back on top of the situation. The only problem is that finishing 7 seconds behind your teammate is now the difference between finishing in the points and being outside the top 10.

He wasn't that bad in 2010, but he completely dropped off in 2011. His best finish was 5th, I still want him to do well though.

 

[joetoml1n]

One thing that stood out for me was Hamilton pushing Raikkonen towards the pit crews when they were released at the same time. Third year in a row that he's done this to someone in China. Luckily the pitlane is quite a large one, but I don't like to see this kind of thing happen. Yet again he gets away with it.

Oh give it a break. We get it, you obviously dont like Lewis. There was nothing wrong with a move like that! Kimi was behind, and didn't have to move right at all as Lewis was squeezing right. This shows that Lewis was just making sure Kimi knew to feed back in behind him, and wasn't trying to force Kimi off anywhere. There was atleast a cars width to the right of Kimi and he was no where near the white line marking the edge of the track.
And above all else, it was at 60mph! Making it far safer than when every driver tries to squeeze each other at 200+mph down the straight!

 

[Lizard]

.

Roll on Bahrain, and some sensible times to wake up! 1pm race start I believe for GMT.

I see Bahrain being interesting. Dispite being a boring circuit, with the DRS down the main straight I assume, we should see some good racing into the first corner.

 

[disinfected]

Awesome race, shame about Schumacher.
Does anyone know the attendance of the Grand Prix? There were a lot of stuffed stands!

I also saw a lot of empty stands on the far reaches of the circuit.

Stayed up late to catch this one while riding out the storms here in Oklahoma. Not the finish I particularly would have wanted, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

 

[chromatic9]

Really intense race at times. absolutely loved it. Hope Bahrain can serve up something half as good.

Be interesting to see how the Mercedes is there. McLaren must slightly annoyed now they can easily match RedBull but they now have another team half a second quicker ahead possibly. Anyway, pleased to see peoples Mercedes drop off predictions turn out wrong, the sector 2 times and the number of laps in qualifying suggested to me that Mercedes had improved and they weren't going to fade quickly.

 

[Timppaq]

Great race, nice to see a Finnish passport taking the win Just joking, I think Vettel is more Finnish than Nico tbh, at least speaks more fluent Finnish

Congratulations for Nico, amazing performance through the weekend and almost faultless execution in the race. 👍

Wasn't Kimi's day today sadly but the race was a great one to see, one of the best I've ever seen live for sure!

 

[F1 fan]

Squeezing is dangerous, yes, but don't you think how the incident could be avoided instead of how Hamilton can be punished? If Kimi was fed out behind Lewis instead of beside him then the whole saga is avoided. Like you said that's for the stewards to decide but then isn't Hamilton squeezing something the stewards should decide on swell?

It's not his place to squeeze another driver outside the line. There was no need for it.

I don't see why your complaining, no one else saw this as an issue which is why no one was under investigation. The pit lane is wide enough to allow for this racing, I don't remember anyone being penalised for being side by side in this pit lane and there weren't any pit crews out in the first place.

THIS pitlane was wide enough for it, which I already mentioned, but it still isn't up to Lewis to do this. He should have kept straight. He was half a car ahead, would have reached the limiter line first and drove away.

Oh give it a break. We get it, you obviously dont like Lewis. There was nothing wrong with a move like that! Kimi was behind, and didn't have to move right at all as Lewis was squeezing right. This shows that Lewis was just making sure Kimi knew to feed back in behind him, and wasn't trying to force Kimi off anywhere. There was atleast a cars width to the right of Kimi and he was no where near the white line marking the edge of the track.
And above all else, it was at 60mph! Making it far safer than when every driver tries to squeeze each other at 200+mph down the straight!

I never hide the fact that I despise the man. Yet again, it was another shining example of what a dirty driver he is. There was no need for him to do it. He just squeezed Raikkonen out. Had Raikkonen not been paying attention, it could have resulted in a little pitlane shunt. So how can you defend it as being an okay move? Why should Lewis have done it? Why shouldn't he just have kept straight.

 

[Famine]

It's not his place to squeeze another driver outside the line. There was no need for it.

THIS pitlane was wide enough for it, which I already mentioned, but it still isn't up to Lewis to do this. He should have kept straight. He was half a car ahead, would have reached the limiter line first and drove away.

I never hide the fact that I despise the man. Yet again, it was another shining example of what a dirty driver he is. There was no need for him to do it. He just squeezed Raikkonen out. Had Raikkonen not been paying attention, it could have resulted in a little pitlane shunt. So how can you defend it as being an okay move? Why should Lewis have done it? Why shouldn't he just have kept straight.

I... I don't even... There was no squeezing. Both cars remained fully on the apron at all times.

The only thing you can - and should - have a go at Lewis for this race was the double-move on the pit straight after passing Vettel.

 

[F1 fan]

The only thing you can - and should - have a go at Lewis for this race was the double-move on the pit straight after passing Vettel.

Another thing he is guilty of for a third year in a row. And if you watch it again, you can see Lewis moving over towards the white line on the right.

 

[SilverArrow]

THIS pitlane was wide enough for it, which I already mentioned, but it still isn't up to Lewis to do this. He should have kept straight. He was half a car ahead, would have reached the limiter line first and drove away.

They moved the mechanics closer to their garages so that 2 cars can run side by side in the pit lane, you're just ridiculously biased and haven't even got a valid argument. In 2010 it was hamilton in raikkonen's position against vettel and you say that was lewis' fault, this just shows you haven't got a clue.

 

[F1 fan]

They moved the mechanics closer to their garages so that 2 cars can run side by side in the pit lane, you're just ridiculously biased and haven't even got a valid argument. In 2010 it was hamilton in raikkonen's position against vettel and you say that was lewis' fault, this just shows you haven't got a clue.

So now you're making assumptions. I don't have a clue? Care to test out my F1 knowledge and back it up?

My point was that after having been in similar incidents over the last three years, he should know better. He is a world champion and should behave like one.

 

[TopGearFTW]

I for one know you are extremely knowledgable about F1, it's letting bias cloud your judgement that seems to be the problem. Not liking Lewis is fine, but blaming him for every single little thing that happens that remotely involves him is just silly. Don't worry, I'm not in the crowd of people who believe he can do no wrong, he was an idiot for most of last season, but you have to at least try and see things objectively.

It works the other way though, I agree that the staunch Hamilton fans are some of the quickest to jump in to defend their driver when someone calls them out on something (I used to be the same, not so anymore though), but that's no worse than flat out blaming him for something that happens very regularly, and between all drivers on the grid (jostling in the Pit Lane)

 

[SilverArrow]

So now you're making assumptions. I don't have a clue? Care to test out my F1 knowledge and back it up?

Is it against the rules to run side by side in the pit lane?

 

[gorsad]

I didn't actually see any squeezing from Lewis at all, and from the stewards reaction (which was nothing) I guess they didn't see any squeezing also.

 

[Ardius]

Perhaps some people have got so used to the stewards over-penalising Hamilton that they somehow expect that every tiny movement that could be bent into an infringement of the rules, should be penalised?

Didn't really see anything in this race that deserved a penalty, possibly the cleanest F1 race? Only questionable incidents were:
-Senna getting caught out by Massa/Lotus slowing at the start in the first corner.
-Possible un-safe release by McLaren releasing Hamilton when Raikkonen was so close - but these kinds of pitlane incidents are very close-calls and its difficult to judge whether it was close because the release was too late or if Hamilton was simply a little slower leaving the pitbox than the mechanic judged?
-Hamilton weaving to break the tow from Vettel.
-Perez pushing Kobayashi onto the grass.
And all of these were pretty tame really, not worthy of penalty.

 

[Crushed]

So.... why is Vettel doing so badly? Is it the car or is he just not good anymore!? What happened!?

 

[TopGearFTW]

So.... why is Vettel doing so badly? Is it the car or is he just not good anymore!? What happened!?

The car seems to suit Mark a lot better than it does him at the moment. Perhaps something to do with no off-throttle exhaust blowing any more? I dunno.

As someone who found last season pretty boring, it's nice to see him struggling though, lets other drivers take the top spot.

 

[Ardius]

So.... why is Vettel doing so badly? Is it the car or is he just not good anymore!? What happened!?

Well, how do you explain a driver being "not good anymore" after only a few months?

 

[Alex p.]

So.... why is Vettel doing so badly? Is it the car or is he just not good anymore!? What happened!?

He simply can't handle stress. The car's performance and the results of it cause stress in his case.

 

[F1 fan]

Don't worry, I'm not in the crowd of people who believe he can do no wrong, he was an idiot for most of last season, but you have to at least try and see things objectively.

I still don't see the point of him squeezing Raikkonen out like that. I wish there was a video of it to settle this.

Is it against the rules to run side by side in the pit lane?

Did I ever say it was? That was some response there by the way.

 

[SilverArrow]

So.... why is Vettel doing so badly? Is it the car or is he just not good anymore!? What happened!?

I wouldn't say he's driving badly, the car isn't as dominant as last year and he struggled to overtake because the car is the third slowest car in the speed traps. He did well to get up to fifth after the bad start.