Interesting facts – Chinese Grand Prix

After the thrilling two rounds in Australia and Bahrain, Formula One did not stop for a moment and returned to action in China with its first Far Eastern race of the year.

With two victories in the opening two races, Sebastian Vettel leads the Drivers’ Championship. The German secured the pole position for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix with a commanding lap in front of his team mate Kimi Räikkönen.

Lewis Hamilton is by far the most successful driver at the Chinese Grand Prix. The Briton has won the event five times. The quadruple champion won two times for McLaren while he brought triumph for Mercedes on three different occasions.

Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg have secured two triumphs while Kimi Räikkönen, Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button are one-time Chinese GP winners.

As for the pole positions, Hamilton started the race from the first place on six occasions, Vettel secured pole four times with his today’s pole-setting time.

This weekend Valtteri Bottas is set to make his 100th grand prix start. The Finn made his F1 race debut at the 2013 Australian Grand Prix for Williams.

Nish Shetty, Danny Sullivan and Michael Masi are the race stewards of this year’s Chinese Grand Prix.

The Shanghai International Circuit has a total capacity of 200000 spectators, of which 29000 people can sit on the main grandstand. The media centre and commentator booths are placed above the track.

The Shanghai International Circuit is the third track of the season and the third very differing layout. It is recognised as a ‘front-limited’ circuit that puts high levels of stress on the front tyres, especially through the opening tight and twisting complex of corners known as the ‘Snail’, where the emphasis is on good balances and downforce. However, the back straight of the track propels the setup into another direction, prompting the teams to reduce the drag of their cars.

The maximum uphill slope is 3 per cent, the maximum downhill slope is 8 per cent. The track is made up of 16 corners, of which 7 are left-handed ones. The length of the circuit is 5.45km. The longest straight is the back straight with its total length of 1.175m. The total length of tyre barriers is 6500m while the length of the guardrails is 11700m.

The site that was chosen in the Jiading district, 20km from Hongqiao international airport and 30km north-west of the city centre in an area being developed as Shanghai International Auto City, along with an automobile manufacturing base, exhibition and sales facilities.

China's capital is Beijing, but Shaghai which hosts the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix is the largest city in the state. Shanghai literally means the city by the sea. It is bordered on the north and west by Jiangsu Province , on the south by Zhejiang Province, and on the east by the East China Sea .

Before Shanghai was liberated in 1949, it only had a population of 5.2 million. According to the Shanghai Statistics Bureau, Shanghai's population of residents with permanent residence registration had grown to 24.15 million by the end of 2015.

Shanghai is a metropolis with unique charms. This 150-year-old city has a lot of memorable “tastes” that make people linger. As one of the world’s most food-savvy cultures, Shanghai is where culinary creations from all over the world converge. In traditional shanghai cuisine, foods are mainly braised in red sauce and stir-fried in rich oil.