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...
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.
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