Round 4: Bahrain 2013 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Well done Bahrain, that was rather entertaining - and for most drivers the right balance of tyre compound allocation and degradation resulted in some rather entertaining racing, although it got a little too close for some of the people involved. I think there needs to be a video made of this race, placed on DVD and mailed directly to Ross Brawn and Christian Horner, with a accompanying note stating 'this is how team-mates should race each other' signed McLaren - because that was brilliant. Previous seasons have seen this being a sedentary race for a large proportion, because of the configuration of the track and the amount of dust and debris offline. But GP2 has helped clear some of the track in the morning, opening various overtaking opportunities even aware from the designated DRS areas - which helps if that special wing device decides to fail... It seems odd that after an entire year of racing has passed, so many changes and the form has oscillated the results of one of the most enthralling races at the track since it's arrival on the calender in 2004 - the top results are an exact match to those one year ago...

The Race

Some races have an air of anticipation about them as the cars sit on the grid, the likes of Spa, Monaco, Australia and Suzuka - Bahrain has never really been part of that list, it is not a lap that has minimal overtaking or races that are completely stagnant, but it is just missing something. To think that there are some motions floating around considering making this venue the opening round of the season. It has been done before and it was not really that impressive, especially in 2010 when is was paired with the completely unnecessary 24h extended track layout.

As soon as the lights went out Vettel went to take the lead from Rosberg, but in the process was passed on the outside of turn one by the Ferrari of Alonso - a position he immediately re-took in turn four. In the middle of the pack Perez learned from the last race where he saw Raikkonen go well without front wing elements and used Button to trim off the entire endplate in the first corner - not that this was picked up by SKY tv. In fact throughout the entire race they failed to notice the damage to the car... oh dear.. There was some more contact round the remainder of the lap as Felipe Massa biffed Adrian Sutil off at turn four giving the German a puncture and a damaged wing.Gutierrez also broke another front wing on the back of a Marussia. But the largest collision befell Jean Eric Vergne who for some reason was in the middle of the track - there was no enough footage to see if he span the car around there or something but was collected by the Caterham of Charles Pic. The Torro Rosso was ruined but made it to the pits and Pic needed complete new nose section from the damage.

Back at the front Vettel was on the attack, his first attempt on the outside of turn four didn't pay off so instead he repeated the move he made on Alonso on the first lap to take the position away from Nico Rosberg...and the German bloke was never seen again. Rosberg was starting to see a queue forming behind him now lead by Alonso and remarkably Di Resta - an inherent lack of race pace in the Mercedes saw both Fernando and Paul go sailing by in the DRS zone on the main straight. Once Alonso got to the front of the train he was immediately caught by the Force India and everyone else, because the rear wing flap was jammed open. The Ferrari was forced to pit twice to correct the problem dropping him well out of contention.

As the first round of stops began Di Resta cycled through to the lead ahead of Raikkonen both of whom were on two stop strategies allowing themselves some clean air, which worked out better for Raikkonen being able to exploit the race pace of the car. Things were going well for the other Lotus to, after making a poor start, Grosjean was making forward progress passing Perez and closing in on Massa. Remember that German Bloke from before, well he decided he didn't like not being up front, despite it only being part of the natural strategy fluctuation - and caught an passed Raikkonen on the alternate strategy as Di Resta pitted from the lead. Things were going from bad to worse down at Ferrari as Felipe Massa suffered a tyre failure similar to Hamilton's in FP3, however an investigation suggested that shrapnel was the cause of the failure... but lightning can't strike twice, surely.

Button found himself battling with his team-mate Perez and what ensued was some of the entertaining wheel to wheel racing of the year - the sort of thing you'd see in BTCC (which I've recorded but haven't seen yet) banging wheels and running each other off the track at various corners in the first sector. Focussing their battles at anywhere between turns 1 and 6, everywhere else was declared a cease fire zone. Sergio was instructed after China to be a bit more assertive in his overtaking, and well.. it certainly paid off it was brilliant - not that Jenson seemed awfully pleased about the battle. But the best thing is that it was allowed to happen, Mercedes and Red Bull have put their respective feet down on in house competition and battling but down at McLaren open warfare is completely allowed and that is great. The same principle did put Hamilton in the wall in Canada in 2011 but well played all round. Perez did push the envelope a little far at times - easing across on the straight before turn 4 and making contact. Followed up by the Mexican running into the rear of Jenson's car with the shattered end of his front wing risking a puncture.

Speaking of punctures, Massa was approaching the points once more and therefore the Ferrari team were due some more misfortune based on the way this race was playing out for them - and sure enough on exiting the final corner Felipe's rear tyre seemed to completely tear in half. Suffering an even more comprehensive failure than the first time sending the car back down the field. Where Alonso was battling with the Williams team and doing surprisingly well for a car without the use of the DRS, because if he considered opening the flap it would jam again. But managed to work his way past both Bottas and Maldonado over a series of laps and back into the points - where another queue was starting to form. Once more behind Rosberg in a Mercedes which was going through tyres like me in an all you can eat buffet. It was a convergence of several different strategies and cars on different paces, all of those paces seemed to be faster than Rosbergs...

A little further up front Raikkonen had caught back up with Di Resta following their round of stops in the battle of the those on the two stop strategy - and the battle for second considering there was a German Bloke miles out front... like we haven't seen that happen before...In this little conflict there was only one victor as Kimi opened the DRS and coasted past. A collection of cars all found themselves on the same stretch of tarmac again including both Mercedes', both McLarens, Webber and Alonso - with the Australian at the head of the queue. Because this battle wasn't populated enough Grosjean pitted exited the pits right beside Jenson Button easing the McLaren wide in turn one and set off after Webber's Red Bull catching mark within a matter of laps on the fresher tyres. It was the two McLaren drivers who found them selves at war once again as Perez was preoccupied racing with Rosberg - Jenson gained a draft from both cars and was close to going three wide on the main straight but decided against risking more contact

Webber had the other Mercedes for immediate company, along with Alonso and the McLaren drivers eyeing up more pieces of carbon fibre to knock off each other. At first it seemed that Hamilton made light work of the Red Bull capitalising on Webber's lack of traction out of turn one and took the place - but Mark re-took the place on the main straight the following lap. Both cars were running short on tyres but took part in an epic duel for a series of laps - Webber driving the widest Red Bull ever. Button and Perez were at it again and this allowed Alonso back into proceedings passing Jenson into the often unused turn 8 - because not having DRS doesn't matter in that part of the lap. Fernando's crusade against Perez was not as simple, given the current day the Mexican was having, Alonso's first attack in turn four saw him running off the circuit as the McLaren driver didn't leave too much room on the exit.

With only a few laps remaining this is time traditionally when things have calmed down - in Malaysia the entire race had virtually been called off, this time, not so much - except for Vettel of course - he was far enough ahead he'd probably won already. Raikkonen was also safe in second, but Di Resta was not... the promise of his first podium was dwindling under the threat of a charging Lotus - Grosjean was ripping seconds out of the advantage the Force India had. On lap 52, Romain drafted up behind Paul and made the pass look easy, Di Resta probably could have fought some more but it would only be delaying the inevitable. The other car experiencing late race tyre dramas was Mark Webber, coming under attack from Hamilton with Perez waiting in the wings. Lewis was finally able defeat the Australian down in turn one, as a result the car was much slower on the exit allowing Perez to get a run also passing Webber in turn four - there would have been time to recover the lost positions but this happened to be the final lap and there was no coming back.

Vettel took an easy win out front, followed some time later by the two Lotus cars, Raikkonen first - in a complete replica of the same race last season, although it was much more fun this time around. Di Resta taking a career equalling best fourth place, ahead of Hamilton who somehow found himself in fifth place at the end of the race. Sixth was Perez after having a very active race, delivering the sort of racing we need every weekend, passing Webber on the final lap who finished 7th. Alonso recovered from his DRS dramas early in the race to score the only points Ferrari were getting today. At the end of the points were the two drivers forced through tyre wear to make four stops - Jenson ahead of Nico Rosberg.

The Bonus Points Championship points winners

This race, there were plenty of nominees for the major points some for speed and performance, while some for general entertainment through out the race so here are the winners:

• 25pts - Romain Grosjean - from outside the points to the podium, passing people without hitting them and recovering from a bad start - decent day all round
• 18pts - Paul Di Resta - lead the race and almost made his first visit to the podium
• 15pts - Sergio Perez - For being massively entertaining and competing with stongly with a weaker car
• 12pts - Jenson Button - The other half of that brilliant battle, but lost out on tyre wear later in the race
• 10pts - Sebastien Vettel - That was dominant, and a great early pass on Alonso
• 8pts - Kimi Raikkonen - A well executed strategic race onto the podium
• 6pts - Fernando Alonso - Who needs DRS...
• 4pts - Charles Pic - Beating a Sauber on pace, and not being lapped until six laps from home
• 2pts - Nico Rosberg - Gets a couple of points for not giving up in the many battles he faced today.
• 1pt - McLaren - That is how you run a team people...

The Penalty Points championhip

Because there were miraculously no official penalties issued today - Webber only handed a reprimand for the contact with Rosberg in turn two, because the incident was so minimal. There was also an investigation into an unsafe release for Van Der Garde late in the race, but nothing seems to come from that either. Additionally because there was so much great, close and well behaved racing today there is very little that I need to penalise - today has been a good day, through the BTCC probably has some penalty point worthy driving going on there waiting on the recorder for a later time.

I am only going to give one point to Jean Eric Vergne who appeared to crash into Van Der Garde on the opening lap, seemingly pulling into the path of the Caterham - if alternate evidence comes to light that point might be revoked.

Looking ahead to Spain

We are heading back to Europe, and aside from the opening race of the season this is considered one of the most important race of the season, because this is where all the season defining updates and upgrades start coming to the cars. Parts that could make McLaren a race winning car again, making up for the early season lack of pace in the fly-away races - they could also bring Caterham off the back row, Pic has made massive strides with the current updates, so who knows what the bigger steps will bring. The race order can be completely redressed, especially in the midfield where the smallest changes can make the biggest positional ground, aiming to catch Force India at the top of that part of the field.

In a sense the Spanish GP is less of a race and more of an exhibition event to demonstrate what those upgrades are, in an effort to re-establish supremacy and make progress on their immediate competitors. The track is primarily a testing facility for pre-season testing and therefore everyone knows the venue in great detail and is more of a driving circuit than a racing one - which is why that appalling chicane was slapped on the end of the lap... in an attempt to increase overtaking and make it more raceable. Yet we've seen fantastic races on tracks that don't encourage it - Valencia 2012 is the ultimate example of that, even today unleashed some fantastic battles, as the Indycar Grand Prix of Long Beach is on now, I shall bid you all farewell from Blog HQ...

Round 4: Bahrain 2013 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

Well, well, I can say I failed to see that one coming, all throughout the run up to today's session there was a lot of theories and predictions as to who was going to line up on the front of the grid, all of the key representatives were put forward. Yet the car that is sitting there on pole for tomorrow's race never came up any of those conversations, but those conversations did thankfully step away from the inherent discussions of controversy and of life on the other side of the barriers in real Bahrain. It was feared that nothing else would be mentioned, but things seem contained and allowing us to focus on the track action instead. Action this weekend which gained an interesting dimension towards the end of final practice, as tyres were questioned once more, even through Pirelli had decided not to bring the softer compound and replaced that selection with the mediums. It could be considered that the decision is a reflex action based on how badly they degraded in China - managing 22 miles before being useless. But GP2 are using the softer tyres, and those lasted 14 laps on admittedly slower cars. Everything came under scrutiny when Hamilton suffered a significant tyre delamination failure, which  subsequently ruined the suspension and broke the gearbox. Replacing the gearbox mid-weekend incurs a 5 place grid penalty.

Combined with Gutierrez's penalty for crashing into Sutil and Webber's penalty for crashing into Vergne and there was going to be re-arranging of the grid once the session was complete. Today we actually saw drivers taking to the track for the majority of the session unlike the barren nothingness that took place for some the session in China. Another issue sparking more complaints at the tyres and throwing more accusations at Pirelli and to the organisation of the current qualifying format. So how did things play out today.

Qualifying

This time last week as the green light came on, we all took off to make some tea because no-one really felt like taking part, today was different, as there was only a couple of minutes of dead time before the first cars left the garage. It was the Sauber team, paving the way clearing the road of any dust and sand that settled from the wind since FP3 - a lack of early grip showed through in Hulkenberg's opening lap sliding the car through the middle sector and running wide through turn 8.  There were confused faces down at Lotus, probably, not that we saw any of them, but the pace the car had in practice had gone missing and their initial times place them close to relegation.

Down in this relegation zone change was afoot - Caterham had brought some new parts to the car, and they were working on Pic's car - the only one with the new bits, running almost a second quicker than Bianchi's Marussia. Van Der Garde in the older spec car, was having a tougher time of it, and had noticeably less grip, powersliding out of turn seven - but was able to beat Chilton in the duel of the people with more money than ability than speed at the back. Speaking of people who are here due to money, Esteban Gutierrez was not having a good day, again - losing lots of time to Hulkenberg and being well and truly locked in relegation behind the Williams team. An interesting scenario had developed at the Williams as both drivers set exactly the time down to a thousandth of a second - but Bottas set the time first so lined up ahead of Maldonado. The situation was then made more interesting by Ricciardo - who went faster then the Williams pair and into Q2, meaning Maldonado was knocked out on the same time as a car that wasn't Joined by Gutierrez and the four bottom cars.

Off and into Q2, and we saw cars heading out onto track from the start once more, and competitive cars at that - with Red Bull, Lotus and Mercedes leaving the garages. From the bunch it was the Red Bull team who went to the top of the timesheets first, Vettel beating Webber's base line time, and the Australian was running with fuel and four tyres this afternoon. Then the order took an interesting turn... Paul Di Resta went fastest for Force India and held that position for quite a while. Down in the relegation zone it was the usual suspects struggling to get any further up the grid, featuring Torro Rosso who didn't have the same speed as in China, none of them were going to make it out of the relegation zone. Neither was Bottas who only made it through by luck rather than anything else, but the question of who was going to join them was a little more hotly contested.

Di Resta's time had finally been beaten at the front by the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso - even if it was only by 0.019s, a job that was much more comprehensively done by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg who found almost half a second over the rest of the field. Back at the opposite end of proceedings and Lotus were still off the pace, with Grosjean out of Q2 on current pace, and Raikkonen only just a few places further up. As the positions fluctuated in the final part of the session it was McLaren who showed they were well off the pace... again, but having less of a good time than in China, Jenson only barely managed to make into Q1, which is why Grosjean wasn't. As for One-Stop Perez, things were not so fortunate as the Mexican was unable to make any progress on 12th, joining Romain, STR and Hulkenberg in relegation

Next up it was Q1, and there were cars at the beginning because tyres were not as much of an endangered species as they were in our last foray in China, allowing teams to opt for two runs, an opportunity a few partook of. Force India, Mercedes and Alonso left the pit lane to set an opening lap time, and despite the results of Q2, it seemed that Fernando remained the favourite from this subset of competitors. The Ferrari driver did set a strong opening lap, but it was only good enough for second place, because there was a Mercedes in front of him - in contrary to the team order in that particular garage it was Rosberg again leading his team-mate, and finishing the first run on provisional pole. However neither of the Red Bulls or FP1 pace-setter Massa had been out...

After a brief intervening period the cars set out again, all ten cars went out, with the prospect of me not having to give out penalty points for not setting a time seeming promising. What was also more interesting was that Felipe Massa left the pits on the harder tyre, Ferrari were certainly up to something on that side of the garage. A plan that when revealed later was even more inspired, as the team realised that any time and grid position deficit would be countered by driver penalties and leave Felipe with a stronger race strategy. Vettel tried and failed to beat the Mercedes and lines up 2nd, ahead of Ferrari pairing, lead by Fernando. The third row belongs to the Force India team both benefiting from penalties for Hamilton and Webber, gaining two places in the process. Webber is 7th after qualifying 5th, one of his penalised places erased by Hamilton's penalty. Raikkonen has lost some pace and was only able to reach 8th place having qualified 9th, but has potentially very consistent and strong race pace. Lewis' final grid slot turned out be 9th following the five place grid drop, ahead of his old team-mate Button who failed to set a lap. Leaving Rosberg with pole position, his second for the team.

The Bonus Points Championship points winners

We have had a little more running this afternoon and therefore, some more reasons to hand out the all important bonus points:

• 10pts - Paul Di Resta - Very strong performance today, into the top 5 (penalty assisted) as well as strong Q2 showing despite shouting at his team in the process
• 8pts - Nico Rosberg - Not bad for a number two driver down at Mercedes
• 6pts - Charles Pic - Defeated all of the bottom teams and finally someone beats Bianchi, the updates are working there
• 5pts - Felipe Massa - Well played there, well played indeed ending up 4th on the harder tyres
• 4pts - Adrian Sutil - Another strong Force India performance 
• 3pts - Giedo Van Der Garde - For not being last, and much closer to the other Marussia car
• 2pts - Williams - Two cars on an identical time, that's consistency and equality right there 
• 1pt - Alexander Rossi - Turns up in GP2 for the first time and ends up on the podium, while the very highly rated Frijns had contact and didn't finish well.

The Penalty Points Series

Although Hamilton was handed a grid penalty today, it was for a technical infringement due to a gearbox replacement from the tyre failure this morning in FP3. So there are no driving infringements to add to the table, we move swiftly onto the penalty points series. There is only one penalty to add to the list and that belongs to Jenson for the simple problem of not completing a lap in Q1.

Looking ahead to tomorrow

Just as I said in China, Bahrain never inspires monumental amounts of excitement, but it is a track where positions can, and will change - with the dual DRS zones, the second of which is an interesting prospect. On the exit of a corner where errors are common leaving the defending driver even more vulnerable. The penalties have left some drivers out of position, especially Hamilton considering the speed that Nico has got out of the sister Mercedes putting it on pole. I think that this race could well be more interesting and intriguing than most races on the small island, with tyres being more durable and resilient than those brought to China. So until then, this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.

Round 4: Bahrain 2013 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

It is that time of the season again, the height of controversy has arisen once more as the season arrives at the small middle eastern nation of Bahrain - a country which has become infamous for unrest and government oppression. A conflict that forced the cancellation of the race in 2011, and has never quite managed to escape the constant political stigma plagues the event and every year since that cancelled race. Once more a series of MPs have claimed that the race should not be going ahead again, but conveniently too late to make an actual difference, because in the end all they are doing it chipping in to pretend that they have some form of moral high ground. There is no real intention of actually making any moves to prevent the series heading to the country and the race being held. Things in the country are calmer than they were in 2011, and arguably calmer than issues some teams faced in 2012 - but they are far from serene. Continual claims of potential protesters being pre-emptively arrested, on the vague off-chance that they may say something or do anything marginally out of place. Which doesn't come across as being particularly friendly to me.

But here at blog HQ we... well I... intend to steer away from the political unease and complaints - being merely aware that it exists and it will be a major media talking point this weekend. Instead there have been other goings on the the past week between races, firstly the bubbling conspiracy theories against Red Bull. Indeed the issues Webber has faced in China may be anomalous and occurred just after an internal battle in Malaysia, but sabotaging a car is bad for the constructors points and the team already declared that as the massive priority. But there is better news... Heikki is probably coming back. Catherham have brought Kovalainen in for FP1 this weekend and that might be the start of a race seat instead of Van Der Garde - a move probably instigated by the fact that Bianchi in the Marussia is pummelling the team. Therefore in order to beat them, Caterham need a bit of extra pace and experience. Oddly Marussia have gone the other way and are bringing Rodolfo Gonzalez for the same session, who scored a massive 6 points in GP2 last season, while Van Der Garde scored 160 in the same season...It stands to reason that Mr Gonzalez has a lot of money behind him, just like Chilton has.

The Track

The Sakhir circuit is another of those Tilke creations, just like Sepang and Shanghai were before it this  season but unlike those venues this one is much more angular in nature, an almost aggressively shaped and designed circuit. Where China was for the most part irritating in its layout and peppered with completely pointless corners which served no real purpose other then to try and convey some unnecessary shape. Bahrain is different, the majority of the corners do have a purpose -  with the exception of the complex around turns 9 and 10, which are a little daft. The main problem is that the track is frankly dull, a lot the the lap is mostly boring - a repetitive sequence of longish straights into lots of similar hairpins. This track looks like something out of my painting repertoire which is simply an exercise in geometry rather than art.

At the start of the lap there is an encouraging corner, a billion times more exciting that the diabolical excuse of a turn we were forced to deal with last week - which opens doors for overtaking under normal circumstances... makes you wonder why the powers that be placed one of those DRS zones on the main straight. Following this the track manages to repeat itself - as another straight leads to a virtually identical corner which feeds into the middle sector which (barring turn 9-10) is once again the best part of the lap. Tilke does seem to like the middle sector. Which is where the second DRS zone is hiding, and for once this is actually a good idea, placed somewhere useful, instead the penultimate straight where it was threatened pre-season.

Sector three is mainly just the final straight and another generic hairpin corner to end the lap, this one is a little wider and opens out slightly on the exit but is not too entertaining. The problem with this track is sand, which is something the Bahraini desert is not short of - and then for some reason the run-off areas are made out of some artificial sand coloured grit glued to the floor. Because the track is barely used during the year, probably due to the local tensions, all this sand and grid gets everywhere and come race day is brushed offline. Leaving a single racing line which is usable and everything else is covered in the discarded particulates.

Now it is time to release the video, this week there was a minor technical issue, at where I managed to absent mindedly delete from this machine, and the plot thickened when it turns out the source mod is no longer present on the host servers because they upgraded to the 2012 and 2013 versions for which the templates don't fit. But I could not allow Myria's end to come about so soon, especially not by my own hand, so I scoured the internet for something to bring her back, and come hell I was going to succeed. And I did... but first I took an alternative vehicle to Bahrain, for Myria's safety, and this one can go over 88mph and doesn't need roads...

What to expect

At this point in the season, no-one can truly tell, there is a clear subset of cars operating at the front of the field, but their order seems to change not only per weekend, but per session in a single weekend. This time the temperatures in the middle of the desert should be higher and therefore will re-shuffle the order once again, in 2012 that made Lotus very powerful and they scored a double podium behind Vettel. Now there is a stronger Mercedes team and a very quick Ferrari pairing at the front of the field as well making competition up at the front that bit more competitive where the obvious losers will be the McLaren team still struggling to update the car and make up for lost ground. This will be the final race before the boatload of updates and new parts hit the cars at the Spanish GP, when they return to the familiar turf of Europe.

If the front of the grid is a confusing and unpredictable group of cars, then the mid-field is even more so, especially considering that Torro Rosso have joined the proceedings with Ricciardo leading the entire mid-field in China. This group has it's losers too and that falls to the Williams team who have fallen a long way from where they were this time last season, considering the team won the next race in Spain. Here they are at the bottom of the mid-field and are not too safe from the power of Bianchi in the Marussia who while being further afield in China has often been inside a second of the next team.

Down at the back things are a lot less populated than they used to be when HRT were around, and Marussia are clearly the fastest team in this block, which is why Caterham have brought Heikki back at least in a testing role at this stage in FP1. But right now no-one can contain the pace of Bianchi although Pic remained close throughout the Chinese GP, so change might be afoot coming into this weekend.

The Bahrain GP, like China is not one that pop's up as a season favourite, but being so early in the season where no-one has fully adjusted to their cars, and who they are racing against, so there things may be unpredictable. Everyone likes some unpredictability, even though Pirelli have decided not to bring the rapidly disintegrating, softer compound - leaving instead the medium and harder on the trailer to be flown out to the middle east. I think there is something more to this weekend than a dull procession in the middle of the desert, just like China had a whole different dimension to it and 20 laps of chaos, here's hoping we can turn things up a notch in the desert heat. So until Saturday this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.

Round 3: China 2013 - Race

Greetings Internet,

Well, well, well... there were several layers to today's event, most of which were going on underneath the actual race itself. All the pre-race ramblings of team-orders and the balance of power in a certain front running team have all transfused into the rather convoluted realm of endless conspiracy theories. Theories that started flaring up following the session yesterday morning from qualifying, where a car from a certain leading team mysteriously ran out of fuel, and was subsequently sent to the back of the grid. In this multi-million pound industry you would think that putting fuel in the car would be one of the basic things to get right, alongside other rudimentary things like putting wheels on the car. Having both of those things happen to the same car in the same weekend would be considered ludicrous and bordering on the very thinnest edge of impossibility.

Today was a day when aerodynamasists are probably very confused, because missing parts of a front wing don't seem to destroy overall race pace - except in the cases where said front wing is virtually vaporised and lying alongside an also dislodged series of suspension parts... but that is a different story. Oddly the threatened oncoming storm of complaints about tyre conditioning never quite materialised, most people had planned for the inevitable degradation and hadn't come across any unforeseen surprises. Out of those that had the tyres still attached to the car, which as it turns out, is not as assured at it would seem. You'd often forget that there was an actual race going on, on top of all these little sub-stories. As it has been with Chinese GP's that have come before this one, the main event may not have been a flood of action (although there were plenty of metaphorical showers of the stuff) but it was far from dull and bland. So to the events of the latest instalment in the 2013 season.

The Race

We were promised with the first completely dry weekend of the season and the morning weather was ensuring that came to fruition - coverage here was delayed by some localised football match, which I've been told is of regional significance... At the conclusion of which people decided to beat each other up, which  explains of course why I sit here conducting dealings with a more civilised sport. Well civilised in comparison to anywhere that isn't a Red Bull garage because I doubt civilities are in mass supply in that part of the world.

Anyway, there were a couple of pre-race concerns with a fuel leak on Di Resta's Force India - it is always interesting that certain key issues manage to manifest themselves on different occasions down the pit lane. It was issues affixing wheels back in Malaysia (an issue not quite resolved as it would seem today) and now some fuel technicalities were creeping into the equation, but the Scot's car was repaired in advance of the start and didn't have to begin the race from the pit lane behind Webber in the ever so slightly aggrieved Red Bull car.

Off the line it was the Ferrari pairing that made the immediate gains - engulfing Raikkonen's Lotus and bearing down on Hamilton's Mercedes - everyone was playing it safe through the miserable set of opening corners, holding station for the most part. Van Der Garde ran a little wide when battling with Chilton but that was about it for the vast majority of the first lap, up until the final hairpin when a little bit of disorder broke out. Not too much disorder, but the two Force India team-mates were making contact on the exit - Sutil deciding that Di Resta doesn't need to be on the track as much as Scot thought he deserved to be. After the last race, the last thing we need is more teammates on the brink of plunging into another disagreement. Before DRS was enabled the top four drove away in a little group with Rosberg holding up the second train, everyone just waiting for the gadget to be available.

As soon as the DRS was given the green light Hamilton's lead was added to the endangered list, as he was mugged by both Ferraris - one either side - on the front straight, leaving Raikkonen to do battle with the Mercedes. In the second race within the race, those on the harder tyre, Hulkenberg took the lead of that battle from the Vettel once more through the power of DRS. Somewhere in the melee, Ricciardo managed to damage his front wing, so we where told, but no visual evidence made it onto TV. Speaking of wing damage, as the early stops for those wishing to rid themselves of the degrading softer tyres, Adrian Sutil came in with askew rear wing, which proceeded to catch fire for good measure. A series of replays confirmed that it wasn't the result of a mechanical failure from the earlier intra-team contact with Di Resta but pointing the finger very firmly at Esteban Gutierrez. The Sauber driver while running side-by-side with Perez momentarily forgot that there is a hairpin at the bottom of the straight and smashed into the back of the Force India. Obliterating the front of the Sauber but because all the shards of wing and suspension and the car itself were off track there was no need for a safety car intervention.

With the cars on softer-tyres out of position the race was now lead by Hulkenberg, from Vettel and the two McLaren drivers on the harder compound. The most disadvantaged of which was Massa who ended up behind Webber - who was up to 11th from the back of the grid having not stopped. It was this stage when the previous front runners had to carve through those staying out, most of that was made very easy in the DRS zone - Felipe used the back straight to pass Webber and Bottas. Making the most of the fresher tyres was Alonso, scything through cars on an imperious charge, starting with Di Resta and making in-roads towards Perez - using the second DRS zone. In the vein of being slightly rebellious Raikkonen decided to go round the outside of turn one when dealing with Vergne, just to be that little bit different. It was Massa's turn to pass the Torro Rosso and once more the DRS came to the rescue making it a formality rather than anything else...

If only Webber had the same pass so easy, selecting turn five as the overtaking zone didn't go quite as planned. Both he and Vergne converged at the same point and contact was made, damaging Mark's wing and spinning the Torro Rosso - of all the cars to run into, his boss's junior team... oh dear. Webber pitted for a new wing and four new tyres, well that was the intention, cars do tend to work best on four wheels but the Red Bull team only attached three of them correctly. By the time Webber made it down to the bottom hairpin before the rear wheel parted company, rolling with beautiful irony  into the path of Vettel. Oh the hilarity that would ensure if it had taken out the German bloke but the loose wheel missed everyone - if anything was closest to taking out Hulkenberg - and rolled to safety on the inside guardrail.

Now were things going to calm down - no was the answer to that one - as One-Stop Perez who hadn't stopped yet (some vague signs of old there) was not making any new friends as the former leaders were making headway towards the front. Making it difficult for drivers to make it through, with some questionable changes of direction, it is nice to see someone actually defending position today because no-one else was. But both Alonso and Hamilton were slightly cross at the weaving that Sergio was doing on his fading tyres, those two drivers made it past without incident - the next car in the line, not so much. Kimi Raikkonen came up on the McLaren on the exit of the dismal first corner complex and made a run on the outside of turn 4. Perez thought the Lotus looked a lot better off in the grass forcing Kimi wide, there isn't quite the grip and braking potential off track and so the Lotus ended up going into the back of the McLaren earning Raikkonen some nose cone ventilation, and missing wing elements.

Once we reached the halfway point calm had finally descended, which was a bit of a shame, madness and things are much more entertaining. Jenson lead the race as the last car to stay out from Fernando the net leader of the race. Raikkonen and his modified Lotus was running just behind Hamilton, track order retained after both cars pitted together. Signifying the start of the next round of pit-stops placing cars out of position once more - this time with a lot less contact and angry radio calls because an odd phenomenon was developing. No-one cared about their position, instead driving to a delta time and running their own race, if a contender wanted past there was no defending. Jenson Button specifically asked his team if he was supposed to fight Hamilton off for position, but in the end he virtually gift wrapped the position and pulled over to hand the present over. It was most disconcerting, a combination of DRS making things very, very easy and no-one fighting to retain their place. Alonso for example was simply driving up the inside of people in the long turn 13 before the excessive straight, including temporary race leader Sebastian Vettel.

It was all strategy from the two thirds distance onwards, with a few passes going on in the DRS areas, Ricciardo was making a sneaky comeback after apparently losing a wing against Rosberg's Mercedes in the first 10 laps. Getting in to the points after passing the Lotus of Romain Grosjean - on the back DRS straight. A couple of better passes came from Vettel after his second stop, instantly dive bombing Massa in turn five and then taking care of Di Resta in turn 13 of the same lap in an attempt to fight his way onto the podium. Pitting out of this battle Massa ended up duelling two wide in the lane with Hulkenberg - the Ferrari taking the high ground on the exit. In this bout of stops there was a change at the front, not the very front because that belonged very securely to Alonso. Raikkonen pitted before Hamilton and used the fresher tyres to jump the Mercedes up into second place. Hamilton was able to close to just inside the DRS window behind the Finn but wasn't quite close enough to mount an attack.

Things remained stable up until the very last set of stops when those who started on the harder compound had to make the change onto the softer options in accordance with the regulations. The key member of this club was Vettel who at the point was running second, and dropped back to 4th after stopping. But was now armed with four fresh soft tyres - which all stayed on the car in contrast to his team-mate's set - and as a result was very fast in comparison to the two cars he was chasing further up the road. Taking up to three seconds a lap out of Hamilton set up the opportunity for a very close grandstand finish, made even more intense by the additional variable of two lapped cars in the middle of the battle. Raikkonen was able to pass Pic's Caterham to give him a safety buffer from the charging German, Hamilton did not have such security in his position - calling over the radio looking for blue flags to move the green car out of the way. On the final lap Vettel was right behind Hamilton and both were behind Pic, while Kimi had escaped and passed Bianchi's Marussia, just to make sure.

On the short straight before turn 11, Hamilton passed the Caterham and then Vettel threw it into the corner to follow suit, but ran fractionally wide - and because the corner is horribly engineered it was impossible to get the car into turn 12 properly either. These two little mistakes granted Lewis a stay of execution into the back straight, and immunity from a DRS attack into the hairpin, both sailing through the smoke and haze from a locked wheel from the Marussia ahead of the pair. Lewis got a little out of shape, locking a front left himself in the final corner, but it was enough to hold the position despite Vettel virtually pushing the Mercedes across the line. Alonso won the race, 11s clear of Raikkonen's damaged Lotus and the Lewis/Vettel battle. Jenson Button scored some decent points in the McLaren on the same alternate strategy as Vettel, an early time delay for Massa locked him in 6th. Ricciardo managed to work through an additional stop for a front nose, to end up exactly where he started, ahead of Romain Grosjean and the remaining Force India of Paul Di Resta.

The bonus points championship points winners

China managed once again to fit many talking points into a race where the majority of it was fairly routine - fitting all the madness and collisions into a 15 lap period at the beginning of the race. From it all here are the points winners.

• 25pts - Fernando Alonso - Not so much for winning, but for being able to scythe through cars on an alternate strategy especially when pulling away from Hamilton mid-race
• 18pts - Jenson Button - Making the alternate strategy work in an car which is not on the same pace as those around him
• 15pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Managed not to lose any ground depite losing a front wing at some point 
• 12pts - Kimi Raikkonen  -Proving that all those fancy wing vanes and a complete nosecone are overrated constructs making it onto the podium regardless of the damage
• 10pts - Sebastien Vettel - A spirited final charge and supreme pace, with some decisive moves alon the way
• 8pts - Paul Di Resta - For being probably the only car that held off an attacker later in the race, when battling Massa
• 6pts - Nico Hulkenberg  - For holding off Vettel and initially being the leader of the alternate strategy contingent
• 4pts - Charles Pic - Someone able to stay with Bianchi, in the Caterham which appears to be the slowest car on the grid
• 2pts - Ferrari - Get two points for the dual pass on Hamilton once the DRS was activated.
• 1pt - Scott McGlaughlin - Scoring his first win in only race five of his V8 supercar career at the redesigned Pukekohe circuit in New Zealand

The penalties championship

We might have gotten away with penalising people in the first part of the weekend and, for the most part the season as a whole has been fairly clean. Only one penalty was handed to Raikkonen for blocking in Malaysia - well that list is expanded today, it would be much longer if the eight yellow flag DRS penalties went out. But that is down to an electronic telemetry problem instead. 

• Mark Webber - Gets a three place grid drop for spinning out Jean-Eric Vergne early in the race
• Esteban Gutierrez - Gets a five place grid drop for wiping out Sutil and demolishing his Sauber in the process

The penalty points championship

This weekend the authorities didn't really miss anything, waving the Perez, Raikkonen collision as a racing incident and everything else as telemetry problems that have plagued the FIA all season. So there is little for me to catch up... but:

• One-Stop Perez - Not so much for forcing Raikkonen offline but for weaving a when competing with both Alonso and Hamilton as they came through the field.
• Red Bull - I would think the team that has won three consecutive constructors and drivers titles knows how to manage two of the most basic parts of a car - fuel and wheels, today was a bit of an embarrassment.
• Newcastle and Sunderland - Shame on both of you, it is only football - neither of you can be absolved of the violence. I've been displeased at a race result but never decided to go out and throw things at fans of other teams... I despair...

Looking ahead to Bahrain

This coming week is going to be a very pensive one, where every potential protesting and government oppresion story from the middle eastern nation is going to rise to the surface. Since it's involvement in the Arab Spring F1's visitation to the small country has been veiled in controversy and complaints, Force India pulled out of some of practice last season just to make it back to the hotel safely before nightfall. Rumours of cars being held up at gunpoint and armed personnel (and general public) walking around naturally cause great concern. This year things seem much quieter, but far from silent - stories of potential protestors being rounded up 'just in case' have been filtering through the media, and I fear whatever happens next weekend will be marred by the setting and the conflict we are wandering into. F1 is a very public event, when the whole world is watching, making it the perfect time for any protesters to get their message out - we've had track invading protesters before in Germany and the British GP. But in a nation with such arms floating around, things are a lot more tense and balancing on a knife-edge. In all reality nothing will take place, or like last season will be screened away from the media, cutting off their power and intent. But it only takes a small catalyst for anything to erupt, if only the on track action could topple any unrest, because the Sakhir circuit could do with a decent race in the current climate. So until then this is farewell from me here at blog HQ.

Round 3: China - Qualifying

Greetings Internet,

In stark contrast to all other comments and coverage that will be strewn all over the TV and internet this weekend the terms 'team orders' are not planned to occur in every other sentence because there were more important matters on the table. Those important things are those black round things, where everyone has been questioning the tyre allocations for the weekend, especially the inclusion of the soft compound which is only estimated to last 5 or 6 laps before disintegrating. The general consensus is that the the cars behave completely differently on the two compounds and require different setups to compensate for. Free practice has cast some throwbacks to the previous Chinese GP, as Mercedes were competitive towards the front alongside Ferrari and an outside shot for the Lotus team with Raikkonen.

Taking all that into qualifying posed an interesting prospect this morning - or this afternoon when I got round to playing the recording, other things tend to get in the way in these flyaway races out in the east. There were two competing trains of thought, that the softer tyre was considerably faster but would be close to useless for completing any significant race distance. So potentially there could be more running in qualifying as this would be the time most suited to the yellow rimmed compound, leaving all the harder tyres for the race itself. Anything to try and detract away from the intra-team battling and fighting that is still stirring at the front of the grid - the complaint has transcended the root causes of orders and favouritism and into less than subtle tensions and general animosity. Probably for the best that this... antagonism isn't taking place towards the front of the grid this time round, leaving the front row for a new pairing this season...

Qualifying 

The first main session since the conclusion of the Easter break and there was some anticipation over the concept of the first completely dry qualifying session unaffected by pending weather. Whether this would be the most realistic representation of relative pace is another matter, given the nature of the track and tyre wear playing an equally as domineering role. So domineering in fact that as Q1 opened in the small hours of the morning absolutely nothing happened, there have been times when teams are reluctant to take to the track but this was taking it to a new level. Almost representative of the single 1hr sessions of old where the first half of it was spent staring at an empty track veiled in silence and dwindling energy. 9 of the 20 minutes elapsed before the first engine powered up and made a bid for freedom in the back of Bianchi's Marussia, followed by Ricciardo and Chilton.

Out of the opening batch Jules went fastest beating both Torro Rossos and the Caterhams as well as his team-mate. That was of course until Rosberg came out and swept easily to the front of the grid, to joined quickly by the second Mercedes at the front. As the session continued the battle at the bottom to avoid relegation early on in the day, interestingly Bianchi was surviving, and in contention to make it through into Q2... well that didn't last too much longer. Both STR cars bounded well inside the safety zone dropping Gutierrez out, Bottas tried to escape in a single run at the end of Q1, but a slide in the horrific opening corner trapped the Williams in relegation with both Marrussias, Caterhams and Gutierrez.

Onto Q2 and it was that German Bloke who took to the track not too shortly after the green light started the session and immediately went fastest followed by Webber, and at this point in time there was no angry stares and glances across the pitwall. Hulkenberg set the third fastest time in the Sauber because no-one else was around to take the spot off him. As Ferrari surrounded Vettel's time at the front the other Red Bull was seen parked on the inside of the final hairpin with an apparent fuel issue. In this climate of heightened suspicion and tension I wouldn't surprised if Vettel stole Webbers fuel so there would be no problems this time round. Webber would be later sent to the back of the grid under the same fuel issues that Hamilton faced in Barcelona last season.

Among the cars that were left almost all of drivers from the top 5 teams had maintained a stranglehold on the promotion places up to Q3, with the exception of Perez who was still having difficulties with the McLaren and was half a tenth away from making it through in 12th. Leaving two places in the top ten for mid-field teams, normally these would be dominated by the Force India team on current form, but neither of those were present in the safety zone. One of which was defeated by Hulkenbergs Sauber who was the top of the division in Malaysia - as for the other Force India it was bumped out of the top ten by an Australian, and as Webber was out with no fuel it was Ricciardo who dragged a car that has struggled to leave Q1 was now in the final shootout.

Ten cars, ten minutes as the final session started once more with Vettel taking to the track - but only to complete a couple of sectors before scurrying back to pit lane, after that fleeting visit to the real world, all went quiet. It was Q1 all over again because no-one wanted to use their precious tyres, and worse still not wanting to start the race on tyres that had done a full pace qualifying lap. Having lost more then half the session sitting around waiting and making tea - the one advantage of blog HQ, tea when not much is happening, there was only time for one run left. So out they came, a queue of cars chasing one goal and the top of the timesheets, lead by Raikkonen, the first man to break through the metaphorical picket line. Kimi's time was quite impressive, the fastest of the day so far, a time that resisted the attacks of Rosberg, Alonso, and Massa.

Grosjean and Riccardo crossed the line a long way short of the Lotus out front, leaving only three contenders, Vettel, Button and Hamilton, the former two trying an interesting strategy of using the harder compound. Yet in Jenson's case he endeavoured to complete one of the slowest qualifying laps in a very long time, over two minutes of sauntering around just to set something on the board. As for Vettel he ran wide at the hairpin and decided to abandon his second incomplete tour of the circuit and failed to set a time and will start 9th, ahead of Hulkenberg who also didn't complete a time. So there were two battles, going on a battle to use as little tyre as possible and one to secure pole - a battle that fell to Hamilton vs Raikkonen at the end of the session. Lewis ensured that the Mercedes team scored  a second consecutive Chinese pole taking it away from the Lotus driver by a quarter of a second.

So Hamilton is on pole, from Raikkonen and Alonso, Rosberg and Massa. Grosjean is in 6th ahead of a strong performance from Ricciardo, the last driver to bother setting a representative time - Jenson did a sort of time in 8th while Vettel and Hulkenberg didn't bother.

The bonus points championship points winners

Even though so little went on for close to half of the entire session, there has to be some points assigned for qualifying in China.

• 10pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Gets some points for dragging the Torro Rosso out of Q2, because the events of Q1 were rather stunted 
• 8pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Almost claimed the first pole for the Lotus team in it's current guise 
• 6pts - Lewis Hamilton - First pole of the season for Mercedes and another one in China  
• 5pts - Jules Bianchi - For on the being fastest of the first bunch of cars to leave the pits including both STR drivers
• 4pts - Jenson Button - For dragging the off-pace McLaren into the middle of the top ten in Q2 before driving really slowly in Q3
• 3pts - Valtteri Bottas - For being the top rookie even though they all got relegated in Q1 
• 2pts - One-Stop Perez - Gets points for crashing in the pit lane entry road, a-la-Hamilton because it was mildly amusing in FP1 
• 1pt - Suzie Perry - Not bad for a first live session since Humphry defected to some lesser sport over the winter.

The Penalty Points Championship

Because there were no driving penalties this morning - Webber's was a technical penalty, and no word yet on any potential penalty for Raikkonen for apparently blocking a Force India in Q1, we skip ahead to the penalty points. 

• Sebastien Vettel - For not setting a time in Q3
• Nico Hulkenberg - For not setting a time in Q3
• Jenson Button - Nice try, but that wasn't really a lap now was it...

Looking ahead to tomorrow

There are races that are often worth setting the alarm and waking up at the crack of dawn just to see live... this is not one of them... The Chinese GP has never inspired much anticipation in terms of racing or in terms of out and out excitement, most of that is the layout and the rest of it is down to the configuration of the cars. Yet is it not above being a surprise, just like Valencia last season, because of the uncertainty with tyres and strategy calls before teams and drivers decide to disagree again. This time round there are some elements of intrigue peppered throughout the field, both of those happen to be Red Bull based... for the second race in a row. Because Vettel is 9th on a devious strategy, and Webber is last on the grid, Mark has gone from 18th to 3rd, here in 2011 and received full bonus points for the race so a strong drive is definitely possible. This might not be the most highly anticipated race of the season, but there is enough to turn that around tomorrow morning, so until then this is farewell from Blog HQ.

Round 3: China 2013 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

We've two intriguing races so far, followed by an elongated break to allow all those bad feelings to stew over Easter, I can imagine there are still some cold stares and very tangible tension floating around the Red Bull garage. It is going to be one interesting weekend, and probably a very quiet one in certain parts of the pitlane, with issues up at the front of the grid then in house political ramifications could very well take centre stage dominating the proceedings, as it has all over the internet in the intervening period. What is most interesting, the potentially less ethical situation down at Mercedes has been glossed over, subverted underneath the other goings on elsewhere. The fact that Hamilton has been given some form of presidency in that motorhome, and there is not so many people questioning that particular decision in the final phase of the race last time out. Those things did not sneak past blog HQ, and the penalty points were awarded accordingly. The handling of the case at Red Bull has been rather bad, especially on Vettel's side - issuing some empty apology afterwards just to satisfy the world's media without simply stating that he wanted to win the race. Defying team-orders is fine by me, because the idea is irritating, but lying, but not coming out and stating the actual intention behind it is petty.

I don't think such things will plague this weekend - because those responsible would not want to relive the fallout and repercussions of their actions once more, however the power of the teams seems to supersede ethics and sportsmanship in favour of money. Boo and Hiss all round there. But in other news, Bahrain is approaching and naturally the vast sea of controversy is slowly washing across the internet and news feed - claims of raids and other anti-protesting plotting and planning by the government. A way of getting anyone the authorities might consider 'problematic' out of the way before the F1 circus rolls round - it all seems mighty suspicious, but I assume more will seep out of the woodwork as the event draws closer. For now there is a slightly more immediate race on our hands as we prepare for the Chinese GP.

The Track

We had just escaped one of those generic Tilke specials in Sepang and yet we manage to stumble across another one which is some respects is virtually identical, except in this case the whole thing is quite a bit worse. There are times when I look at the map, and when I'm pottering around in the simulator when I seriously question the logic and reasoning that went into designing and then building this circuit. For example the opening sequence of the lap is even more insane than the double hairpin we faced three weeks ago. It has been quoted as being a novelty feature, something distinguishing and  representative of the track - replicating some Chinese character as a design baseline - and here is the thing, that's not necessarily a good idea. A giant loop-the-loop would be a defining characteristic, but that doesn't mean Mr Tilke should go and build one into his next crazed scheme. A race track is precisely what is says on the tin, not an excuse to draw some deranged shapes on a blueprint and call the job done.

The middle sector of the lap is, once again, the most redeeming part of the lap - once exiting the appalling opening sequence the track actually becomes both function and worthwhile. Offering a valid overtaking opportunity into turn 6, away from all the artificial DRS enabled zones that are everywhere else in this new era. Following that there is a sequence of acceptable corners exiting towards a small back straight - not the really long one yet - and it is at this point the decent part of the track is called off before virtually before it began...

Turns 11 and 12 are less pointless than the first four, but none the less irritating - it is another feature of the lap that makes you despair at the long lost art of circuit design. To finish the lap off is the virtually obligatory oversized straight, something that is forced into almost every Tilke design - Sepang was even given two of the things. Yet for some reason the powers that be have decided that the most suitable place for passing under normal circumstances needs even more help with the DRS, off all the places why is it on the longest straight into the slowest corner, where overtaking is actually possible normally. As a result I can foresee drivers just breezing past each other effortlessly in before the breaking zone. But as dark and miserable as the track is, there is one thing that will always make is better and that of course is Myria, in the introductory video.

What to expect

The Chinese GP has provided some great races, which is odd considering the track is painfully annoying in places, and generic in others - but it's location at the start of the season in these uncertain times with tyres and limited testing the cars make up for the circuit. Some of that is due to the unpredictable conditions, with cold temperatures and the occasional rain shower, none of which is predicted this weekend. So it becomes a battle among the teams - and inside them at the moment - and the same faces will probably be up front, if Webber and Vettel haven't punched each other by the time the race comes around.

Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes are likely to make up the greatest proportion of the top 10 only leaving two remaining places for those from the mid-field to strike. And it still seems weird to be considering McLaren as a member of the mid-field even if they are competing at the very front of that group of cars, but still not anywhere near where they needed to be to have any chance of winning races and anything else. But that is not the most disturbing thing about McLaren is the impact it is having on Mr Perez - he can no longer complete a race on a single stop, such a problem is borderline criminal. Someone down there at Woking needs to get on that straight away.

Elsewhere the speed of the chassis will delimit the field, this isn't the sort of track where a driver can make too much ground - so Williams will struggle to beat any of the other established teams and could be under threat from Jules Bianchi out-performing the Marussia again. Force India and Sauber will be annoying McLaren and Torro Rosso will be floundering around in the middle of all that somewhere.

All in all this probably will not be one of the most memorable races of the season, but the constant complaints about tyre wear and inter-team grumbles could add an interesting layer to a threateningly dull event. That underlying unfriendliness that is bubbling up could easily erupt this race, and that sounds fun to all involved - so until the first session is played out, thankfully on the BBC this weekend rather than the SKY drivel they try and spruce up with shiny graphics... this is farewell from my here at blog HQ.