It was an eventful Chinese Grand Prix but that’s bound to happen when you toss the leaders into the midfield or worse. Having started from Pole position, Nico Rosberg’s momentum continues with another win putting him squarely in the championship lead and represents his 3rd win this season and he did it with over a 30-second lead on Sunday.
His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, chose to start the race on the back of the grid and ran in to early trouble with a broken front wing in turn one. He later made five stops after running as high as 3rd on the day. His strategy didn’t work and his tires gave out toward the end of the race leaving him adrift of a podium finish. It turns out the keel of the car may have been damaged and this prevented the car from creating the much-needed downforce on the front of the car.
The start of the race was already punctuated by the presence of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo but it was the diving pass of teammate Daniil Kvyat into turn one that squeeszed Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel into his own teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, causing damage to both of the red cars. Ferrari executed a recovery drive to finish in the points. Vettel and Raikkonen put their cars in 2nd and 5th respectively.
Meanwhile, Ricciardo suffered an exploding tire and yet managed to recover and give the team a dual points finish in 3rd and 4th. The chassis looked very hooked up on the tight sections and even racy down the long straights.
Win
A big win for Rosberg who continues his march toward a possible championship and Mercedes who read the tea leaves correctly and handed Rosberg his 6th win in a row.
A win for Ferrari who had a first-corner debacle and managed to recover and score big points with Vettel putting in arguably the drive of the race.
A win for Daniil Kvyat who finished on the podium even though criticized by Vettel for his aggressive diving move at turn one which caused Ferrari’s woes on the day. Regardless, Kvyat has taken a page from the Vettel and Hamilton playbook and made aggressive driving pay off with a podium position having suffered a bad start to the season as well as establishing that he can run with teammate Ricciardo or any other driver on track. The interaction between the two wasn’t the most pleasant:
Sebastian Vettel: You ask what happened at the start? If I didn’t go the left you’d crash into us and we’d all three go out!
Daniil Kvyat: Well…
SV: No, no ‘well!’ You came like a torpedo!
DK: Well that’s racing.
SV: If I keep going the same line then I crash.
DK: Then don’t keep going…
SV: But there was a car on the left also, that’s why I hit the other car.
DK: I couldn’t see all the three cars man, come on. I have only two eyes.
SV: You’ll crash driving like that.
DK: But we didn’t, so…
SV: Yeah, you didn’t! I know it’s racing but…you need to expect that when you’re packed up it’s crazy. You were lucky this time.
DK: Well I’m on the podium, you’re on the podium. It’s fine.
I’ll be honest, I like that kids answer…then don’t keep going.
It was a win for the Toro Rosso duo as they brought home the final points-paying positions in 9th and 10th and while the intra-team battle didn’t materialize in the waning laps, the duo did a good job.
A win for Daniel Ricciardo for a great recovery drive for sure. Oh, a big win for Kai’s pants too.
Fail
A fail for Force India who were running in the points and managed to garner a 5-second penalty for Hulkenberg’s slow driving in pit lane which forced Vettel to pass him on pit entry. Perez was running in the points but managed to fall backward and out of the top ten and the team feel they should be doing better than they are.
A fail for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton and not because of anything Lewis did, he drove a hard race, but just circumstances of the engine change, grid start and the inability to get the car on the podium having ran as high as third at one point.
Renault also had a tough day with Kevin Magnussen finishing 17th and Jolyon Palmer 22nd and not the kind of result they wanted or the kind of result the Renault power unit produced in the Red Bull skin.
WTH
Is this a more realistic glimpse of where we thought Haas F1 would be in 2016 or just a one-off and bad day at the office? It’s hard to know but the team had a miserable day with Grosjean even asking to park the car as it was not drivable. Tracks can make all the difference but the first two races of the season have been both road course and purpose-built circuit but Shanghai is a tough circuit and difficult to master.
Pirelli’s tire pressures and some of the numerous tire issues over the weekend have been scuttled as a real “issue” on the tire company’s part but the marble build up was interminable and lends credence to the fine line the tires were possibly running on this circuit.
McLaren doesn’t get a WTH for a bad day and while they weren’t in the points, they were able to be competitive and had decent straight-line speed which has plagued them in the past. A competitive McLaren could cause a WTH comment from those who have been long-suffering fans.
Results:
| Pos | Driver | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1h38m53.891s |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 37.776s |
| 3 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull/TAG Heuer | 45.936s |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/TAG Heuer | 52.688s |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m05.872s |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m15.511s |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m18.230s |
| 8 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1m19.268s |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 1m24.127s |
| 10 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams/Mercedes | 1m26.192s |
| 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m34.283s |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren/Honda | 1m37.253s |
| 13 | Jenson Button | McLaren/Honda | 1m41.990s |
| 14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas/Ferrari | 1 Lap |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India/Mercedes | 1 Lap |
| 16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1 Lap |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1 Lap |
| 18 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor/Mercedes | 1 Lap |
| 19 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1 Lap |
| 20 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber/Ferrari | 1 Lap |
| 21 | Rio Haryanto | Manor/Mercedes | 1 Lap |
| 22 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1 Lap |
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | 75 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | 39 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | 36 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | 33 |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | 28 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | 22 |
| 7 | Daniil Kvyat | 21 |
| 8 | Romain Grosjean | 18 |
| 9 | Max Verstappen | 13 |
| 10 | Valtteri Bottas | 7 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | 6 |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz | 4 |
| 13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | 1 |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | 0 |
| 15 | Sergio Perez | 0 |
| 16 | Jolyon Palmer | 0 |
| 17 | Marcus Ericsson | 0 |
| 18 | Fernando Alonso | 0 |
| 19 | Jenson Button | 0 |
| 20 | Pascal Wehrlein | 0 |
| 21 | Felipe Nasr | 0 |
| 22 | Esteban Gutierrez | 0 |
| 23 | Rio Haryanto | 0 |
CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
| Pos | Constructor | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercedes | 114 |
| 2 | Ferrari | 61 |
| 3 | Red Bull/TAG Heuer | 57 |
| 4 | Williams/Mercedes | 29 |
| 5 | Haas/Ferrari | 18 |
| 6 | Toro Rosso/Ferrari | 17 |
| 7 | Force India/Mercedes | 6 |
| 8 | McLaren/Honda | 1 |
| 9 | Renault | 0 |
| 10 | Sauber/Ferrari | 0 |
| 11 | Manor/Mercedes | 0 |
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I’ll give a “WTH” to Vettel for not paying attention. He was easily my “Donkey”.
Win – Danny Ric’s recovery.
Fail – Pirelli needing to run road car tyre pressures… At least they are staying “road car relevant”.
WTH – China’s version of the A-Team van parked in the pit entry (I know it wasn’t the race).
Drive of the race – Richard (RIC).
Pass of the race – Pretty much everyone, on everyone at one point.
Donkey – Mercedes, they can’t follow other cars like the rest.
Is my bias showing?
Wow. Some Ferrari blinkered-ness showing there NC. So I’d better even up the ledger.
Pfft. Vettel wandered wide, left a gaping door open for Kyvat on the inside, then “jinked left” like a frightened kitten as the young Russian schooled him in full control… AND as usual Vettel went into ‘petulant blame shifting mode’ for Marchionne’s benefit.
LOL…You’ll need to read my piece on Vettel walking back his criticism. I agree with Kvyat and defend his move for sure.
I eagerly await it. LOL
Yeah, a win for Ferrari is a bit generous, recoveries are lovely and all, but let’s not forget the goal is to avoid the need for a recovery.
Pass, Vettel in the pit entry, actually knowing the regulations that none of the others appeared to.
Donkey, Vettel for jumping left into his team mate when surprised by Kvyat going for a gap that he left.
Drive, Ricciardo for getting back to fourth place despite the issues early on.
That’s 3 races now where the extra choice of tires has helped produce interesting racing. Until & unless such time as teams start to converge on one strategy, which should be a few years away yet given the wheel sizes etc change next year, I’d have to say this has been an excellent rule change. As a Ricciardo fan it was heartbreaking seeing his tire blow out – and then the safety car introduced before he could make up ground on new boots, but he did an absolutely stellar job moving up through the field. I expected Hamilton & Kimi… Read more »
I wonder if Haas will regret not retiring Grosjean’s car. Certainly Romain was keen to do so (they would get a penalty free change of gearbox)and it struck me that it may have been operational inexperience by the team that resulted in him continuing to the end of the race.
I wonder if they kept him out just so they wouldn’t have been the only team with a retirement. For all the crazy on the track, everybody finished.
Possibly, but it may cause them problems if the gearbox fails in the next three race weekends.
You forget: Gene Haas is from the “NASCAR” line of thinking: You drive until either the engine explodes or the tires fall off. ;-)
Agreed the tires made it interesting. I think this race was interesting for two reasons – first the track has mulitple lines. They’re inviting enough these guys can’t resist, but then when you’re on them they’re very hard to hold. The result is passes, carnage, and the rare chance to see who’s a better driver, not just who has more HP. The second reason is I think these high tire pressures exagerrated the first reason, i.e. made the alternate lines icier and put a greater emphasis on feel. Perfect Dan Ricciardo territory.
Interesting strategy game by Mercedes, pitting Lewis twice during the safety car, to give him free choice of tyres for the rest of the race. Although I don’t understand the first switch, from used softs to another set of used softs. The second and third stops (to super softs and back to softs) makes sense for that strategy, but the first? Anyway, it cleared him of the obligation to run the super softs – but couldn’t he have run two compounds by going to the mediums? Or did the regs somehow mandate a run on the super softs? I must… Read more »
I must be missing something here wrt Vettel’s pass in the Pit Entry lane. If the course is under a safety car, which is a full course yellow, and no passing is allowed, how is Vettel’s pass in the Pit Entry legal?
It is off the race track and after the safety car line, but before the imposed pit lane speed limit line. It is to allow cars in the pit lane to pass cars going on the circuit behind the safety car without penalty, it also applies on the way out of the pits in the short distance between the end of the speed limited part of the pit land and the main circuit.. Alonso did something similar to Mass a in their first year as Ferrari team mates. The surprising thing was that only Vettel appeared to know the rule.
Thanks.
Vettel might have overreacted a bit but it’s only natural. I also see it as a racing incident, albeit one with a somewhat reckless Kvyat. Vettel’s instincts told him to swerve to the left but had he stayed on his line and collided with Kvyat, we’d be talking about the Maldonadoesque maneuver by Kvyat. Though in general I’m not a fan of all the penalties we see as of late. I rather see drivers risk something. So while I appreciate Kvyat going for it, I can totally see Vettel’s point and don’t blame him for it either. As for the… Read more »
I have a question:
You say, “I’ll be honest, I like that kids answer…then don’t keep going”
If he wasn’t a kid but, say, 32 years old, would you say the same thing? Isn’t all this just a bit patronizing coverage because of his age?
Not at all, Lewis said it in Austin and I said the same thing, Peter. I said the same thing when Vettel did it as a multi-champ. Age has nothing to do with it. I defended Schumacher when he was a weathered veteran.
Okay, I understand… you have said that consistently. I wonder what Paul (the racer) has to say about Vettel’s racing line?
I reckon Kyvat’s best response would have been: “I watched that race from 2010… the one in Turkey… seems like you have a habit of crashing into your teammates”