Sunday 14 April 2013

Shanghai Grand Prix

The Dragon and the Prancing Horse

So the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix is over, and after a very lackluster qualifying where it seemed no one particularly could be bothered to even set a lap, because tyres do that now, we had a very interesting race that went right down to the wire. The race was all about strategy and therefore Force India were never going to get good results because they make the word's strangest decisions.

Top 5

Less awkward than Malaysia
Commandingly winning the race was Alonso, he got himself up into first and just controlled it. If he needed to go faster he could, likewise he would slow down and look after his tyres. 

Kimi came second, and although he had Hamilton right behind him nearer the end he was able to pull away, despite missing a sizable chunk from his nose (his car not his actual nose) after running on some grass and grating his nose against Perrez's rear left tyre (again not his actual nose, that would really hurt) so all in all an effective race from him, showing how good that Lotus actually is.

Hamilton came in a very close third, he had a dynamic race and seemed to be jumping up and down the running like a madman but his strategy worked and ended up quite nicely in third, although he did have a determined German chasing him right at the end.

Vettel started 9th but because he did not set a time but he was able to choose to start on the softer tyre, this was an interesting point because it meant that he could run further than most people in front of him and it did meant that he was able to go to the super fast but super degrading Option tyre just 5 laps before the end, which meant that he could claw back the 10 seconds gap in about 3 laps, he was phenomenally close to passing Hamilton but a few uncharacteristic mistakes meant he couldn't quite pass him.

Jenson Button had a similar strategy to Seb, but the McLaren is not nearly as fast and was just able to scrape 5th place. Although he did do over 20 laps on the harder compound tyre, maybe this McLaren car is very good with it's rubbery grip makers.

Other moments

Spot the missing component
Webber started last after his team didn't put enough fuel into his car in quali and was given a penalty, then he drove slightly into the side of a Torro Rosso, which meant he had to pit to fix his wing. In his pitstop his rear right tyre wasn't seated correctly and was basically just resting on the wheel hub, then Red Bull told him to drive back to the pits slowly (Which is a really dangerous thing to do when you think about it), and not surprisingly his tyre came off and the three wheeled car came to rest in the inside exit of a chicane. Then to add insult to injury he was given a three place penalty for next weeks race for crashing into Vergne. All this compiled on what happened three weeks ago has made the conspiracy theorists come out in droves about how Red Bull would purposely sabotage one of their own cars, frankly the money that you would loose from that is ridiculous and it won't ever happen but people seem to like to think it would.
At least they remembered to brake for this corner

Esteban in the Sauber forgot to brake at a corner and just drove into the back of Sutil ending both their races, something that may have cheered up Scotsman Paul Di-Resta after being punted off the track and loosing about four places on the opening few laps by his own teammate.

A shout out to Ricciardo, he continued Torro Rosso's improving force to get 7th, and Grosjean again didn't crash!

All in all it was an entertaining and strategic race, and one that will keep the forums a-buzz for another week until Bahrain. 

2 comments:

  1. I make jokes about all the conspiracies but some people take it too far. It makes no logical sense to sabotage one driver, there is no need, team orders are legal now, but we do all know that Mark is definitely #2 at Red Bull!

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    1. Oh I agree, we've known Webber was #2 since Silverstone 2010, and the amount of money a team would loose is astronomical, so it's very rare they would sabotage a driver if they've got nothing else to gain (see crashgate)

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