Chinese GP 2012 - Shanghai

[SiLo]

My guess is that grid slots 5, 6 & 7 will occupy the podium, I'm going for Hammy, Webber ,Button.

The grid looks fantastic and it should be a great first stint for overtaking.

I think the same, although the Sauber long run pace is apparently very good. If the track is dry tomorrow, which I think it will be, hopefully we can see some clean racing.

Vettel will have to make up positions quickly, and is far enough down the grid to be brave at the first corner, but he may risk losing it all and crashing, will be interesting to see. If I was racing I would want to be on the outside into turn one for the better line into turn 2.

[raymondu999]

Why would you want the inside of 2? I'd rather take it around the outside of 2 to cut the other guy off at the inside of 3.

I'll assume you made a mistake of the corner numbers and we're talking of the same thing.

Hard to do though. Vettel was half a car ahead of Rosberg around Turn 1, then when the turn tightened into 2 Rosberg had a much better route that they were side by side into 3.

[marcush.]

I did not understand Schumacher being not optimistic .He said -I had no clean races yet this year and don´t know how i would have coped with the tyres -to me he this suggests he thinks Rosberg has more trouble than he has.
Rosberg was stating that colder temps have played into their hands and I think this is what we will see if it remains cold Mercedes has a decent shot at a win if not it´s maybe a Sauber ?? I would love both alternatives.A sauber Mercedes only podium will fit my bill very well.

[marcush.]

I had the impression Rosbergs car looked more planted than Schumachers and it was Rosberg himself who said they tweaked the setup after FP3 in the right direction.
Schu was asking for Nicos lap time in Q3 and was pretty much astonished when told what nico had managed to crank out .

[Maelstrom]

I had the impression Rosbergs car looked more planted than Schumachers and it was Rosberg himself who said they tweaked the setup after FP3 in the right direction.
Schu was asking for Nicos lap time in Q3 and was pretty much astonished when told what nico had managed to crank out .

I think I agree with this. They took a chance with Nico and it paid off.

[Mandrake]

You're probably right to a degree but not necessarily. In Malaysia Vettel was a couple of tenths off Mark's qualifying time and it's only three tenths here. So it could be that Vettel just cannot get the quali setup right with this car. In the race if he has a better balance, for him, with the old style exhausts then that could make a difference with the long run pace and tyre degradation.

I actually think we could see Vettel try and two stop whereas the front runners will be more aggressive. But the beauty of not having refuelling is that they can now adapt their strategy depending on the progress they make. So if Vettel doesn't make much headway then they'll adapt and put him on a contra strategy.

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

With the current RedBull it will be almost impossible to become WDC this season, the competition has just become too good.

[Websta]

Is Sauber's good performance circumstantial or did they bring a lot of updates? They were off the pace in Malaysia and Australia during qualifying, so where has this performance come from? Ccould it be possible that they have compromised their excellent race setup by optimising their qualifying package for this race?

[Hangaku]

Also consider that Lewis is happy because his good friend Nico has taken his first pole. I would also be happy for one of my good friends, even when competing with with him.

Conditions are really playing their part this year, which is why the grid is so mixed. It shows this year how susceptible the respective cars are to changing conditions, and to me that's a good thing - no two races are the same, so I'm hoping for a full year of mixed grid, and no single driver running away with the championship.

[Hangaku]

Just a thought: perhaps Lewis is happy because Mercedes are showing more promise all the time, and that opens up the realisation that a seat in Merc next season would still give him a fighting chance to be competitive (assuming he doesn't renew his McLaren contract, ofc...).

Massa, he's really not feeling the Ferrari this year, and I'm not sure that Ferrari are feeling him much either. So to speak. This is going to be an interesting watch for the season. He really needs to change something fast, or he'll be without a drive. Maybe he will do better in Nascar? ;P

[myurr]

I actually thought Massa put in a stronger performance in qualifying today than he has been recently. He's only a couple of places behind Alonso and was only a couple of tenths off his quickest time. He's stuck it on the grid next to Vettel, and actually had a smaller gap to Alonso than Vettel had to Webber.

[myurr]

Conditions are really playing their part this year, which is why the grid is so mixed. It shows this year how susceptible the respective cars are to changing conditions, and to me that's a good thing - no two races are the same, so I'm hoping for a full year of mixed grid, and no single driver running away with the championship.

I think that's always been the case it's just that the grid is a lot tighter this year so small changes in relative performance is equalling several grid positions. This is a good thing

[Ferraripilot]

If the W03 super-DRS gives around .300 at this track, I believe Nico's flawless lap proves W03 has excellent pace on its own merit minus super-DRS as well. Hope Nico's changes don't fry the tires as his race pace has been out of whack lately.

[motobaleno]

Alonso will be faster than them? Really? Massa will be lucky to get P10. I think you were not watching the same qualifying session that I was.

I did. I wonder if you watched last two races...
though I agree with you about massa

[Mr.S]

Michael & Nico are 1-2 in the high downforce in Sector 2 & are about 8-9km slower than Sauber in the straight even with the DDRS. That says a lot. They did well in colder conditions whereas Jenson struggled.

It is well known that both Mclaren & Red Bull have more downforce than Mercedes so Mercedes have sacrificed a HUGE HUGE amount of Top Speed for downforce. The extra downforce will make them much quicker through the corners & will help lessen tyre degradaion. Also the extra downforce combined with the tyre performing well in colder conditions could mean that the car will be possibly very quick in the rain if they have mechaniclly set it right.


I am prediciting a Mercedes win if there are no Accidents or rain or some surprising accidents. A possible P1-P3 or P1-P2 for me.

[Guisson]

Race Predictions :

1st: MSC (if Tyres issues fixed..eventually)
2nd: ROS
3rd: BUT
I don't exclude a possible Podium for Kimi, LH or Webber
6th/7th: SV ( wrong choice..cost him a lot.)