2012 Chinese Grand Prix

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SagarisGTB
Arguably, Button's pit botch didn;t affect his finishing position. Schumacher's certainly did.
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Not so sure as if the pit stop had went well Button would have avoided a good deal of traffic and the finish might have been closer. Rosberg surely had the advantage though.
 
Predicting the top 5 for these races is getting tough. I mean a McLaren is the easy thing maybe even both. But other than that...I have no idea.
 
So I've been waiting for Rosberg to take his maiden race victory for years now. Now that he finally does it, I've missed the entire race... This is sad.
 
SagarisGTB
Arguably, Button's pit botch didn;t affect his finishing position. Schumacher's certainly did.
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Maybe, but I think Button would have won without the bad pitstop. There is no reason to suspect Rosberg's tyres wouldn't have gone off like the other two stoppers did.

Having said that, If, but and maybe don't win races and crossing the finishing line first does.
 
What on earth happened to Raikkonen? 2nd to 14th in 2 laps because he went on the marbles once, epic.

A very good race for Nico. Slightly irked that we're forced to listen to the German national anthem again (Bit of a trend this last decade or so, hopefully it won't continue too much this year). I knew the Mercedes would do well now that they know their tyre issues, and I know Nico runs well at Shanghai but I didn't expect the Mercedes to have the underlying race pace regardless, I thought they were poor on heavy fuel.

Sad to see the Saubers so far down, they were immense in qualifying and Malaysia already proved they have decent race pace, I just think a few mistakes from the drivers such as Kobayashi's start and Perez's pit strategy (Though that one was possibly down to his race engineer) lost them quite a few points today.

Glad to see The two Mclaren's on the podium at least. I was also quite impressed with both of the Williams, they both did well today. I feel like Maldonado (Who I loathed last season because he drove like an amateur, even disregarding the incident at Spa) has really matured into quite a good driver, much like Petrov did in 2011. They certainly have the pace to challenge the Ferrari and the Sauber, so the Constructor's table will be interesting at the sharp end of the midfield. Mclaren and Red Bull will probably lead the standings with Renault and Mercedes following suit. After then, it's anyones guess.

Good finish for Grosjean too, now that he's managed tp pull of a clean race, good on him. Hopefully he can continue the way he is and at least match Kimi.
 
Parobably one of the most open and exciting race that I have ever witnessed! While things were going well for Rosberg, it was a war at the back. Shame about some drivers who were strong at the start then reached the cliff at the end.

One of them is Sauber who were extremely impressive at the start and mid-race but began to drop towards the end. Perhaps a mistake in the strategy but nevertheless a good place to finish and just about behind of Alonso. Savage for Red Bull and Vettel really. Impressive from Williams to finally score some more big points with both finishing in point positions.

I'm pretty sure everybody noticed this but wow, could've been a super-cold-feet moment for Webber, running wide at the enterance of the back straight and uuuuh... Almost Valencia 2010!

Too many things to talk about but congratulations to Nico for his first win and Mercedes for also their first win after almost 57 years! Looking forward to Bahrain!

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I want to talk a bit about McLaren but yes Button could have won the race if not for the pit chaos but in the end that Mercedes is still faily fast around here. Lewis is the biggest winner here. Three consecutive 3rd place finish and now I think he leads the championship by 2 or 3 points. McLaren is still looking very strong.
 
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Tired Tyres
Maybe, but I think Button would have won without the bad pitstop. There is no reason to suspect Rosberg's tyres wouldn't have gone off like the other two stoppers did.
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Rosberg pitted for the last time with 22 laps to go, well after Vettel and Raikkonen did. Button pulled in for his last stop only 5 laps after Rosberg did, so his tires wouldn't have been that much fresher, say in comparison to Vettel's.

Button would have had to make up 12-15 seconds on Rosberg in 17 laps to get near Rosberg on only slightly fresher rubber. And then he would have had to pass the fast in a straight-line Mercedes. Possible, but not likely.
 
Seismica
What on earth happened to Raikkonen? 2nd to 14th in 2 laps because he went on the marbles once, epic.
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Tyres went off so he ran wide onto the marbles and just never had any grip after that. Pretty much everyone drag raced him out of the corners.
 
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ExigeEvan
Tyres went off so he ran wind onto the marbles and just never had any grip after that. Pretty much everyone drag raced him out of the corners.
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Same as happened to Vettel really, just a bit early for Kimi! Had absolutely zero chance with the tyres going off with 8-9 laps to go.
 
homeforsummer
Really? I thought he had an overwhelmingly average race. He struggled to pass anyone for most of it and really only hopped positions when everyone else pitted. His strategy was also poor and ended up losing a great 2nd position towards the end as his tyres went off. Mixture of poor team strategy and really underwhelming driving. The only great thing he did really was not moan about it post-race.
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you should know that I'm incredibly biased torwards Vettel. :p
 
homeforsummer
Really? I thought he had an overwhelmingly average race. He struggled to pass anyone for most of it and really only hopped positions when everyone else pitted. His strategy was also poor and ended up losing a great 2nd position towards the end as his tyres went off. Mixture of poor team strategy and really underwhelming driving. The only great thing he did really was not moan about it post-race.
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I wouldn't say underwhelming, he made his way from 11th to 5th at the end, and was just caught by bad tyers at the end.

It seems that this year Webber is going to be a lot more competitive with Vettel, he's out qualified him at all three GP's so far. Vettel's turn to find out how hard it is to drive an average f1 car, not one on rails lol
 
Jiggins
I wouldn't say underwhelming, he made his way from 11th to 5th at the end, and was just caught by bad tyers at the end.
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I'd rate Vettel's performance today as fairly good. He was on a 2 stop strategy and that's why he was able to make his way up to 3rd behind Raikkonen who were on a similar strategy while the rest were on a 3 stop. They then both fell off the cliff towards the end of the race - just Raikkonen suffered that much earlier.
 
Absolutely fantastic race. Really happy for Nico, was getting perilously close to earning a record no-one really wants.

Really glad to see Hamilton's charge(s) through the field to take third yet again, never thought I'd be describing Lewis as Mr Consistent :lol:

This season is shaping up to be fantastic... dare I say it? 1982 all over again? Could well be.

Three races, three different winners, none of those three currently leading the Drivers' Championship, just amazing.
 
My preseason wish came true. Nico finally won a GP! That was a fantastic race. The second half was especially exciting. Lots of wheel-to-wheel racing. Schumacher was very unfortunate, again.

Did anyone else see the Chinese Ferrari fan that was interviewed on the BBC Forum? He took a nice jab at Sky Sports. It was hilarious. :lol:
 
astrosdude91
you should know that I'm incredibly biased torwards Vettel. :p
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You are!? I never noticed. :D

It was a good race. I actually think that one more lap had meant 8:th instead of 5:th for Vettel, but unlike homeforsummer I think that it was good race strategy that landed him in 5:th instead of 10:th or so where his race pace would have put him.
 
Jiggins
I wouldn't say underwhelming, he made his way from 11th to 5th at the end, and was just caught by bad tyers at the end.
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The reason he made up the grid was his strategy though, not skillful overtaking - he passed the majority of those people when they were in the pits. And then the strategy screwed him over anyway as his tyres went off...

Anghammarad
but unlike homeforsummer I think that it was good race strategy that landed him in 5:th instead of 10:th or so where his race pace would have put him.
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It was strategy that put him there, but poor strategy that didn't realise he'd fry his tyres in the last few laps.

Strategy or not, his actual drive was fairly average. Not the Vettel we saw last year, that's for sure.
 
Vettel really has a lot to prove this year. He matured through 2010 and 2011. Everyone was saying he will only prove how good he is once he's no longer in the fastest car. He looked very promising in Australia and he was doing ok in Malaysia before his incident with Karthikeyan. Today it was a bit mixed; if it weren't for his bad start he would've had more freedom with his pit strategy and could've held his place towards the end, but you have to admit it was a fantastic drive by him.

I loved Button's overtake on Vettel, he stayed on the racing line and veered out as Vettel braked. Vettel didn't see the need to defend because Jenson wasn't attacking him; he was lured into a false sense of security :D He then defended aggressively against Hamilton but honestly, if you're going to be aggressive back to Hamilton you're going to end up Massa-d. Had he managed to keep Jenson behind for another lap or two he could have finished on the podium, all he had to do was defend a little.
 
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.
 
GOTMAXPOWER
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
mister dog
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.
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One explanation could be that since the car have less grip this year, they had to put more aero with wings, more aero with wings = less top speed. That could be a part of the explanation.
 
mister dog
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.
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The cars have been getting gradually slower in terms of top speed for quite a while now, I think they did lower the max. rev limit the other year though.
 
mister dog
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.
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Its their setup as they don't want the car to be too sluggish in the twisty part hence them hitting the limiter. The fact you remember 230 is probably from when they had v10 engines.
 
As you can probably tell, I'm a McLaren fan. Great drive by the both of them, Button's stop did it cost him the race..meh, hard to say, for sure though after Jenson's stop even if Nico decided he wanted the security of "safe" tires then he could've come in with a good 5-6 second lead.

Lewis Hamilton, Mr. Consistent, you would put that tag next to his teammate however Lewis has been driving okay- for his standards (there is no doubt that when he is on his game and has the right mindset he is near unstoppable) two 3rd finishes. Even though he was behind Felipe and I was just like "no".

On to Mercedes, my probably second favourite team (it helps to have 2 of my favourite drivers and personalities) unlucky Schumi, but sublime Nico. Whoever said the Merc couldn't make his tyres last? He was probably right but that doesn't matter when you've got a 20 second gap between you and second.

Also congrats to Williams.
 
Hamilton actually has three 3rd positions thus far. Someone must've been giving him consistency lessons.

I cringed when I saw him lining up a pass on Massa, amazed that nothing came off either car whatsoever.
 

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