Crown

Mercedes explains where it went wrong in the first 2 races

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/brawn-mercedes-to-sacrifice-qualifying-pace-for-race-benefits/

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Hamilton gets a 5 position grid penalty in China for having to change the gearbox on his car for the race.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17686441

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Schumi quickest in practice ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17698808

Lotus's argument against Mercedes's rear wing fails

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/lotus-protests-mercedes-front-wing/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17688784

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The DRS zone in China is very short -

During practice and qualifiying the Mercedes will be very quick because because DRs can be used anywhere on the track.  The additonal advantage of their DRS + 'body turbo' (my name for it) is compounded during these sessions ONLY. 

During the race the advantage will be very small because they will only be in a very short DRS zone. 

Makes me wonder how much gain they expected with this system or if it is primarily intended for Qualifying advantage - which is huge!

Obviously the engineers look over the rules carefully and realized that using the DRS during the entire lap for qualifying called for an additional exploit of DRS functionality.  Good for them!

Sadly we are now looking at improvements that not only add little performance during the race but would have little applicabillity to the cars we drive on the streets.  I wish the rules would encourage tech that can be used later on the streets - like the good old days.  Maybe I'm wrong and the future is in little aero gimmicks for road cars but I doubt it.

Still - I love MS - GO GO GO.  I am happy, happy, happy to see him running well.

+ 1000 Leawood. Mercedes victory this weekend

Practice lap times

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/9706299.stm

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What a perfect lap from Rosberg !

With Hamilton's 5 place grid penalty, it's a Mercedes front row.

Ferrari still struggling in qualification.

Vettel going out in Q2 and beaten by Webber.

What an interesting qualification session ...

Looking forward to tomorrow's race :)

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Fundamentally, I think Mercedes was so strong in qualification because Shanghai has long straights so the controversial DRS system that Mercedes has developed gave max advantage (since it can be used multiple times on qualification laps) and the temperatures were gradually falling by the time Q3 began (and Mercedes generates more tyre temperature).

But this only explains IMO why Mercedes were so competitive. What it doesn't explain is why Rosberg was so much faster than Schumi, especially considering that Schumi has had the upper hand in the first two races of the season.

It just shows what a fantastic performance Rosberg put in. Bravo!

I think a lot of drivers are slightly dreading starting behind Kobayashi ... since he has a reputation for being combative ... and finishing the race without getting into first corner crashes is vital for the championship. The last thing one wants is someone like Kobayashi to collide with.

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Seems the asfalt conditions changed at the very end of the Q3 and the tires according to Gene have a very very small temp performance window, and so the drivers that finished their lap before were able to improve their time and those that did their lap right at the end could not and all the lap times went for the worse, explaining the big gap in lap times between drivers and sort of misleading starting grid positions. 

Vettel didn't even make the Q2 with a RBR and Webber with the same car had no problems at all... seems like he is braking under pressure again and not so good now that his car is not longer in another league compared to his rivals... thats the difference between real champions like Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Alonso... and championship winners like Vettel, Button, Villenueve, Hill, Kimi, etc.

Alonso barely scrapes into the Q3 and Massa is useless. I hope Ferrari is not expecting another miracle, even if Alonso has a good race, you need a heavy dose of good luck as well, and they have already been lucky in the two first races. This race may be a reality check for Ferrari team I think, and seems like they need one.

With such a mix in the starting postions tomorrow, its going to be an interesting start.

Silver Arrows up front, what a lovely Q. Focus here from Vettel to Nico and Schumi. Nico is the 8th German to get pole in F1. A great reward for his good performance even compared to the king Schumi himself. I hope they have serious race pace tomorrow to drive home some podium finishes.

Carlos, just worth noting that Vettel has an older rear exhaust design on his car, Webber has the latest one. Vettel chose not to have it. I expect he will accept it for the next race.

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easy_rider911:

Carlos, just worth noting that Vettel has an older rear exhaust design on his car, Webber has the latest one. Vettel chose not to have it. I expect he will accept it for the next race.

Hopefully they won't rip it off Webber's car to put it on Vettel's like they did that time with the front wing 

Christian Horner downplayed the effect of the exhaust systems on Q times.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98809

"Form follows function"

Qualification lap times

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/9706302.stm

Starting grid

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/9706300.stm
 

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First 5 laps, the gap between each of the 24 cars is less than 5 seconds. Can't remember seeing that for a very long time.

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What a thrilling race! Lots of overtaking (albeit much of it DRS enabled) ...

Rosberg was serene from start to finish. He has finally come of age. What a magnificent drive.

So sad for Schumi ...the poor pit stop cost him a possible podium finish.

Great action between the McLarens, RBRs etc. So exciting!

Very happy for Sauber and Williams too ...

Again, a big gap between Alonso and Massa ... Di Resta still outperforming Hulkenberg ...

It was shocking to see Raikkonen lose so many places on 1 lap ...

Disappointed by Toro Rosso ... they are slipping behind ...

Just thrilled overall for Rosberg!

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I think, even without the long final pit stop for Button, it would not IMO have been possible for Button to win. Rosberg was just too good today.

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A Mercedes 1-2-3

Will today's Mercedes GP  form continue? Rosberg was surprised himself at the Chinese GP pace. Was it a fluke?

Also, why is Rosberg listed as German instead of Finnish?

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"Form follows function"

As a sportscar guy, I take my hat off to F1 for this GP. It was exactly what racing should be about. 

Wow that was a fantastic race, one of the best in recent years.. so exiting throughout. Imagine the epic battle for 2nd and 8th at some point, lots of overtaking and most everything of it clean. No crashes and DNFs apart from poor Schumi.. when will his luck turn, he could have easily made a podium today.

Congratulations to Rosberg for doing a superb race, managing the sensitive tires with a chassis that wore them quickly.
He really held the race pace from his amazing Q times and was very consistent pulling away from a race pack that was very damn close in pace... hence the battles for 2nd. A big congrats to Mercedes and Brawn, a new era perhaps

IMO the best couple of drivers today were:

1. Rosberg - with amazing pace and consistency, a good strategy and a cool head.
2. Button - for winning 2nd from the pack despite a poor last pit stop setting him back big time.
3. Vettel - for keeping cool and coming back from 15th all the way to 2nd with cool driving, no mistakes and good strategy.

Hamilton and Webber also showed good pace and very solid overtaking today. Hamilton did this particularly well imo.

Kaikonen showed his skills holing 2nd despite very shitty tires, sadly their strategy did not work out well in the end.

Alonso was just so-so. He made a few mistakes and didn't shine as much as i thought he would. At least Massa still behind.

It appears that Ferrari is fighting with Williams now and Sauber is well above them in pace currently... wow.

3 races in, 3 winners is all a very good start to the season. Hoping for Mercedes success and more points!!
 

easy_rider911:

I think, even without the long final pit stop for Button, it would not IMO have been possible for Button to win. Rosberg was just too good today.

I agree, he was unbeatable today. Just shows that Schumi is not back, Mercedes is, Schumi could not macth Rosberg with the same car today.

And there is the wake up call for Ferrari. And with this long straight and their slow top speed, it even magnified it even more, as well as a less than optimun race strategy today. They are behind McLaren, Mercedes, RBR, Sauber and Lotus... pathetic for a team with those resources.

Webber outshines Vettel once again, both in qualification and in the race... "not bad for the second driver". Hats off to Webber for sticking with it inspite all the BS in his own team, keeping cool and showing everybody what he can still do.

And the McLarens are back in their natural position of 1 & 2 places in the championship, question is who will take the tittle, Button or Hamilton... Mercedes may catch up but I just don't think they have the driver's to challenge McLaren for a championship which is very long.

I feel so sad for MSC :(

And Button had bad luck too :( I would bet that if Button was not losing so much time in the pit he would put pressure on Nico and with the faster Mercedes tires degradation in such situation my money was on Button.

And Kimi... :( 10 places lost SO fast :( and I am not a fan...

Vettel did the best he could today, giving the equipment he has.

Perez strategy was not best...

There is no try. Just do.

Rosberg was born in Germany.

Carlos from Spain:

easy_rider911:

I think, even without the long final pit stop for Button, it would not IMO have been possible for Button to win. Rosberg was just too good today.

I agree, he was unbeatable today. Just shows that Schumi is not back, Mercedes is, Schumi could not macth Rosberg with the same car today.

And there is the wake up call for Ferrari. And with this long straight and their slow top speed, it even magnified it even more, as well as a less than optimun race strategy today. They are behind McLaren, Mercedes, RBR, Sauber and Lotus... pathetic for a team with those resources.

Webber outshines Vettel once again, both in qualification and in the race... "not bad for the second driver". Hats off to Webber for sticking with it inspite all the BS in his own team, keeping cool and showing everybody what he can still do.

And the McLarens are back in their natural position of 1 & 2 places in the championship, question is who will take the tittle, Button or Hamilton... Mercedes may catch up but I just don't think they have the driver's to challenge McLaren for a championship which is very long.

Carlos, 

after the last pit stop Alonso was behind Hamilton. What happened with him, he should have finished after Weber, should´t he?

AM
www.aldo-yachting.de

ALDO:

Carlos, 

after the last pit stop Alonso was behind Hamilton. What happened with him, he should have finished after Weber, should´t he?

Right! He was in line to finish 5th, but he lost several positions while trying to pass Maldonado towards the end of the race. After Hamilton passed Maldonado, when it was Alonso's turn, in the scuffle side by side, Alonso got onto on the dirty side of the track and loss all grip and ran out of the track, after that he lost places and time and could no lon ger catch the 5-8th pack only make 9th. Hamilton on the other hand continued on and passed the pack cleanly and made the P4.

That was pone of the problems with the track, it was so dirty that there was only onle clean line and if you stepped out of it your gone, and with Alonso having such a low top speed (up to 10km/h less than Perez's car for example) he could not make use of the straights like other drivers to make overtakes so he was forced to risk more on the bends to do so, and it cost him in one of the passes..  

With the car he had and this track, Ferrari/Alonso should have gone with a two-stop strategy, Alonso later admited that while in Malaysia they were spot on in the strategy, on this race they made a mistake. Still 5th pplace would have been the most they could have aspired for even if they ahd all the lcuk in the world.

Unfortunately, next race is Bahrain were the Ferrari will strugle again due to lack of grip and lack of top speed bith which the Bahrain track particularly needs. Ferrari says they will try to make some improvements on the car for the following GP in Spain, but the problem is that the other teams will do as well so...

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I really thought that since the race had started at 2am local time, and I didn't get home and settled until about 2:25am, it would thus give me pently of time to fast forward the DVR through commercials and I would catch up to live broadcast by the end.  There were so many parts I had to replay, just beautiful. I did feel bad for Schumacher's pit and Raikkonen's tire strategy     But overall a very satisfied F1 fan with an extra nod to Nico, because they left him out on those tires for so long, I thought he would also have a "Raikkonen" event.  

BBC's Andrew Benson on Rosberg's win

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17720140

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/rosberg_answers_critics_in_emp.html

BBC's Gary Anderson's views

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17721821

Race result

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/9706262.stm
 

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Superb analysis from James Allen of the race IMO

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/where-mercedes-found-the-race-pace-and-why-shanghai-race-turned-out-as-it-did/

Interesting analysis on Webber vs Vettel by Andrew Benson

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/04/how_webber_turned_tables_on_ve.html
 

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It bought some of the camera angles were strange.  I think the track is so big and the cameras placed so far away that certain camera perspectives made the cars look slow. 

As far as the race it was fabulous.  I love having to watch every minute of the race to understand who is where and what happened to put them in that result