Chinese GP 2012 - Shanghai

[Maelstrom]

Mine would be:

1)Hamilton
2)Kobayashi
3)Button/Webber
4)Schumacher
5)Rosberg
6)Raikonnen

I believe that Schumacher has greater race pace and if he gets a good start he'll pip Rosberg. Kobayashi could also get a good start and pull away from both Mercs.

The McLarens are very strong in race pace and Hamilton is hungry for a win. This might be his race.

I believe you're very right about Hamilton. I'm very curious in seeing just how race-pace oriented Michael's setup is. If the weather is indeed even somewhat sunny tomorrow, I would wager Nico is going to overheat his tires while Michael would fit right into that 'window' because during qualy today I could easily tell Michael didn't have the same heat in his tires Nico had. Nico was just blistering in Q2. Same goes for Hamilton, not the same level of heat/grip in the rubber.

Any idea of the latest weather forecasts for tomorrow?

[astracrazy]

Can someone fire Georgie already?

It actually makes me uncomfortable seeing what looks like someone who knows nothing, pretending that anything she does say that sounds knowledgable is a canned line.

I just find her input to be painfully useless and "tacked on" tbh.

i know what you mean. Shes out of her depth. Shes gone from just reading the sports news to having to report on something specific and in detail (which she clearly doesn't know about)

"Is this the best pole lap you've ever seen?"
Seriously...clearly never watched F1 before this season to ask that question. I thought at that moment, oh dear.

[Pandabeer]

Should be dry. Formula1.com and wetter.com says "mostly cloudly" at least in the morning and midday.

[Ganxxta]

Notice when Nico set his fastest Speed in comparison to everybody else.
It was on his last lap in Q3, while everybody else was faster when it was a little warmer in the beginning of the Qualifying.

So I believe they made a setup change for Q3 for the colder conditions, wonder how that will work out if its warmer tomorrow...

[Unc1e_M0nty]

After a couple of laps the Mercs will be backing everyone up, while Kamui & Kimi are tripping up over the mercs Button, Webber & Hammy will pounce.

[clipsy1H]

my top 8 for tomorrow.
Dry race
1.Butto
2.Webber
3.Hamilton
4.Rosber
5.Kimi
6.Vettel
7.Alonso
8.Schumacher

Wet Race.
1.Vettel
2.Alonso
3.Button
4.Webber
5.Rosberg
6.Hamilton
7.Schumacher
8.Kimi.

And what i dream to be.
1.Schumacher
2.Kimi
3.Alonso

[siskue2005]

Its known from a russian source that Nico made the setup "gamble" before Q1

i think the setup "gamble" made by Nico is some what similar to what Vettel did at Monza...He might have optimized his gears for better accleration , that might be the reason he was bouncing on the revs half way through the back straight

come race day this will only pay if he can get 1 sec gap to P2 before the DRS gets activated

[Fred444]

MS had the same top speed, so the gamble was not ratios.

I think he went for more downforce.

In qual he had the same top speed as MS because of the DRS.

In the race he will pay the price on the straights.

If he could do a Vettell 2011 and pull away then fair enough - but he cant!

So I expect him to finish 4th or 5th and yet again MS will beat him in the race and finish on the podium.

[WhiteBlue]

It will indeed be very interesting to see how the A-Spec performs in the race. In the after quali interview Vettel was not upset, just speechless about the lack of performance. He's done very identical laps, very close to the limit, showing there was not more in the car than he delivered. And it was just plainly too slow. Webber on the other hand had more performance, but very inconsistent, he could not do 2 identical laps, he had the lucky shot with that 35,7, but fell back to 36,2 in Q3. The B-spec has to reach a certain level of consistency to be competitive, for Webber as well.

I was thinking along the same line. Vettel may have the slower but more consistent solution. While you can push it in qualifying for a few laps it remains to be seen if Webber has an advantage in the race. I think that Red Bull and Vettel were simply caught out by the incredible closeness of the field this year. In Q2 there were only 3 tenth between first and eleventh place. I'm looking forward to Vettel vs Alonso which I think will come pretty soon in the race. Fingers crossed that nothing bad will happen in turn1.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

. I'm looking forward to Vettel vs Alonso which I think will come pretty soon in the race. Fingers crossed that nothing bad will happen in turn1.

Grosjean seriously has me worried. You should be worried too. I fear what he might do, who he might take out on the first lap/s.

[Echo]

Want to just update everybody the situation in Shanghai.

Im going to the race and it is very foggy. You can´t see anything from the sun. But dont worry. Clouds here in Shanghai is very normal. 99% of the time there is so cloudy because of the gases (dont forget there is over 2 million cars here) so I don´t think any rain will fall down.

Couple of days ago it rained alot (monday, tue, wed) but yesterday when I was playing football, 3pm or so it started to drop a little bit.

[Websta]

I hope they don't under-fuel Rosberg again like they did last year.

[Moanlower]

also Michael can't understand how Nico find 0.500 probably nico have a dry setup!

I found his reaction funny when the pits told him nico done a 35.1 .. "oww...ok "

[raymondu999]

I think the start will be fantastic. Nico will probably be a bit nervous, with it being his first pole position, and Schumacher I suspect will understand better the track position and racing aspect of starting from the front. I think he'll just do as good a start he can, and just go straight into Turn 1 to just focus on the run down. I think Schumacher's got quite a good chance of leading into Turn 1.

The Sauber speedtraps are interesting. They'll be track position king methinks. Even with DRS you'd be hard pressed to overtake them. And even without DRS, if they got close enough they could probably overtake you.

I thought Rosberg's line through T13 was interesting too. It's the 3rd different variation of the line I've seen there. His line through 13 is very similar to Vettel - he kisses the apex of 12 then gradually feeds the throttle and gradually moves away from the center of the corner to the outside. A bit like old Club corner, or Parabolica. Alonso runs up high after he kisses 12, then tucks the nose sharply in to kiss the 3rd and last kerb on 13 for a sort of late apex line. A bit like the line one would take at Pouhon. Button takes two bites at the apex - he kisses T 12, but stays pretty close to the center; and kisses the second kerb at the middle of the 12-13 complex. Somewhere between the Alonso variation and the Vettel/Rosberg variation.

Vergne's starting from the pitlane as they use his race as a parts-test session

[Mr.S]

Notice when Nico set his fastest Speed in comparison to everybody else.
It was on his last lap in Q3, while everybody else was faster when it was a little warmer in the beginning of the Qualifying.

So I believe they made a setup change for Q3 for the colder conditions, wonder how that will work out if its warmer tomorrow...

My 2 cents -> Mercedes both the drivers have sacrificed a Gigantic Amount of time for Downforce. Gigantic loss. They will be the slowest of there about in the straight without DDRS.

In the high downforce S2,No one is within 3 tenths of Nico's time bar Michael.

Although Mercedes have a fantastic sidepod design they dont have as good an exhaust as Mclaren or Sauber. Mercedes' best bet is to pull away a 1 second gap after 2-3 laps & hope both the drivers are 1-2