Chinese GP 2012 - Shanghai

[Moanlower]

Massa's flatspot

[WhiteBlue]

Vettel 1:36.160 on soft yellow tyres. That should be near the level of McLaren or Mercedes. I just hope that ther is not more than 7 tenth between the tyres.

[NathanOlder]

keep praying buddy, 36.1 not fast enough in my opinion.

[raymondu999]

Vettel 1:36.160 on soft yellow tyres. That should be near the level of McLaren or Mercedes. I just hope that ther is not more than 7 tenth between the tyres.

Hembery said it would be 0.5 on average.

keep praying buddy, 36.1 not fast enough in my opinion.

No one's running flat out in this session - none of the practice times will be quick enough

[WhiteBlue]

Hamilton was pink in the first two sectors. He may be sandbagging there. It is fun to watch Schumacher when his car is fast. He really drives the wheels off it. Again Rosberg is 0.65 behind him.

[Princey]

We should see times dip into the 1:34's by q3 the track should continue to improve and lower fuel etc

[raymondu999]

McLaren seem to be running loads of front brake bias. They're locking both fronts into 14.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

If they prepare for a cold race now, they may be faced with warmer temps on Sunday.

This is the dilemma of the W03, which appears to be set up sensitive with regard to the use of its tyres.
Lotus GP issued a radio message to Raikkonen explaining that they expected warmer temps on race day. So I think Mercedes will be waiting until the very last minute of FP3 before deciding which direction they will go regards set up.

Also, even the though the car has no visible updates, Schumacher was still competitive on his race sim on soft tyres compared to Hamilton and Webber. And this without DDRS.

Come race day, I think we will see what this car can really do without street surfaces(Melbourne) or climatic conditions(Malaysia) masking the cars performance.
Either that or the team has run its list of excuses(temprature excuse aside... )

[Lycoming]

They don't seem to lack downforce, S2 times look quite good. S3 times are mighty. But if they still need to figure out how to get the tyres working right, the ambient temp today will probably not have helped them.

[myurr]

McLaren seem to be running loads of front brake bias. They're locking both fronts into 14.

Lots of drivers have been. There's a bump right at the braking point which is unsettling the cars.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

McLaren seem to be running loads of front brake bias. They're locking both fronts into 14.

Lots of drivers have been. There's a bump right at the braking point which is unsettling the cars.

Apparently due to the whole track complex sinking!(subsidence)

[Mestrades]

Good for Michael. I think that he will be on pole tomorrow. But in race he will finish 6th or 7th. The tyre problem persists on the car and the low track temperature doesn't help.

[Pandabeer]

We will see, i also think that there's a good chance for pole, either for Michael or Rosberg. Schumacher also did a 1:42,5 at the end of his longrun, not that constant like McLaren or RB, but anyway.

[Lycoming]

McLaren seem to be running loads of front brake bias. They're locking both fronts into 14.

Why does that imply lots of front bias?

[Raptor22]

set up seems fine. Rosberg still struggling with wear but Schumacher seems to be ok.
Its also notable that Schumachers car seems softer overall with more roll through the corners.
He ending the session fastest on the softs and with fuel on board is encouraging. Tomorrow is forecast to be warmer so lets see how they adapt the set up to the changing conditions.
Brawn seems pretty confident that they have moved forward wrt set up and opening the tyre performance window and it appears to be the case with Schumacher at least. 0.644 sec faster than Rosberg is pretty impressive