2015 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 10-12

[jericho]

Nice pace for the Mclarens! Still great improvement

[Vasconia]

Why on earth have they laid asphalt down there!? Surely can't be for safety reasons so it should have remained gravel to punish any silly mistakes.

Agree. How silly.

Absolutely annoying, they have taken some stupid decisions in the name of safety.

[evered7]

Don't they do long runs in FP2? FP1 is mostly about getting the setup right I suppose. Didn't watch FP1, so I might be wrong.

[dans79]

Wow, that was an interesting spin. I bet massa was wondering what just happened.

[Harsha]

Wow, that was an interesting spin. I bet massa was wondering what just happened.

Either rear lock or BBW failure or very rare Rear Suspension failure

[iotar__]

Lotus, team principals 2-3/5 on Palmer:

"Driving in FP1 in Shanghai will help both his progress as a driver and the team's development programme with the car", "For the first two races, it made sense for our race drivers to get as much time as possible in the car, but now we can start exercising some of Jolyon’s talents in the FP1 session and we’ll see him out in action quite a few times over the course of the year".

- How is it going to help to develop the car apart from the fact that when it's not running you can't develop it?
- It made sense for drivers to drive, really? As much as possible? No, a driver that is their best chance for results misses two days of testing, one practice session in each of the first three GPs and 50% of the races. Now enough is enough, they don't need to drive anymore?

In 2012 they didn't need money, in 2013 results, 2014 engineers and now they don't need drivers, brilliant .

[max_speed]

Wow, that was an interesting spin. I bet massa was wondering what just happened.

i guess it ruined soft run for alonso.everyone is improving in range of 1.5 seconds on soft. i expected mclaren's to be in mid 1.38's

[Vasconia]

Ferrari PU has got some power on the loud pedal. Impressive speeds. V10s were doing ~320-330 If I remember correctly.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CCMyZOUUEAA3aDQ.jpg

dont forget that what level of downforce you're running has a major effect on top speed...ferrari may just be running less downforce

Its clear that Sauber is running with a very low downforce but I have my doubts with Ferrari. Anyway Mercedes has a very high downforce car so I am sure that they could go much faster on the straights if they would want it.

[Vasconia]

Nice pace for the Mclarens! Still great improvement

A reasonable lap time with the mediums, and an important improvement. Lets see whay they can do with the softs tyres.

[f1316]

Raikkonen a lot closer on softs and ricciardo too. From Ferrari's perspective, I'd suggest that the same kindness to tyres that helped them in Malaysia is likely hurting them getting the prime up to temp - seems like they have a lack of grip on that tyre.

However option is easier to get up to temp and in the race this trait of theirs may still help (OOP versus OPP for Mercedes maybe?). Reminds me of 2011!

[George-Jung]

I really hope that Ferrari is playing the 'smart game'.. by letting Mercedes think they have an advantage of 1 to 0,5 seconds (depending which Merc. driver you are looking at).. and than comes quali and boom, Ferrari hits back..

How great would that be! =D>

[raymondu999]

Ferrari's stint lengths in FP2 were downright monster!

[Harsha]

Ferrari's stint lengths in FP2 were downright monster!

How many laps Seb did on softs that will be the key to strategy

[Andres125sx]

Wow, McLaren 10th just 2 seconds behind Hamilton.... Never expected that

[Vasconia]

Wow, McLaren 10th just 2 seconds behind Hamilton.... Never expected that

If only they could finish the race in those positions....or at least finish it whatever the result is.