Round 4: China 2014 - Review

Greetings Internet, 

And cue the litany of complaints and whining about how uninteresting and dull the sport has turned into, even after how exhilarating the Bahrain GP was only a fortnight ago - naturally the event would fall the way of the Malaysian GP as the venues are so similar. Despite the superficially stagnant nature of this mornings events, there was a lot intrigue bubbling and boiling beneath the surface - tense radio conversations and some very close calls on that opening lap. There need to be some high fives in and around the Williams garage because their suspension struts are indestructible as are the ones on Fernando's Ferrari. It was far from a tiresome race as some people might see it, but it fell considerably short - as we all suspected - of the thrills encountered in Bahrain. In a way it is a little ominous to think that no other team has lead a lap this season, and no factory Mercedes car has finished behind any other competitor - and only events like Bahrain will ever see a challenge for race victory in the foreseeable future. At least this time the competition for third place is exceedingly intense and encompasses so many different teams, drivers and manufacturers. Just today those teams and drivers were rather spread out and gave each other a wide berth.

The Race

Looking at the grid it might have been anticipated that things were going to get rather close on the run down to turn one. Red Bull would drop back, while Ferrari and Williams would get a strong launch off the start line. Insert into that mix the fact that Rosberg didn't have his car configured correctly due to a complete telemetry failure so the team had no idea what settings were in effect. 

So when the lights went out - it was no surprise to see Ricciardo, Alonso and Massa attempting to go three wide. Felipe coming slightly late to this particular party as Alonso was trying to close the gap - Massa's Williams bounced up off the Ferrari. Somehow that was the only contact and everyone stayed the course - in a lower formula someone would have been fired into the pitwall taking several other cars out along the way. After seeing this trio power past him and come so close to wrecking Nico Rosberg was slightly distracted and didn't see Bottas in another fast starting Williams appear on his outside. Nico made wheel to wheel contact with Valtteri and again - somehow - both cars were completely undamaged. Someone needs to make body armour out of the same stuff that suspension is on all the cars involved. Magnussen tried his very best to take out the pair of Toro Rosso cars in turn six but managed to get his wayward McLaren out of the way just in time.

Hamilton was all by himself out front even on the first lap - well clear of the DRS danger zone back to Vettel and Alonso. While further back others were trying to recover from a less than optimal start - Button made a well orchestrated pass on the inside of Jean-Eric Vergne in turn one. Rosberg had to pull back some of the places he lost due to the telemetry blackout - firstly passing Hulkenberg and then making even lighter work of Felipe Massa on the back straight. The most momentous development of the opening few laps was that Maldonado had passed four cars without turning anyone upside down... however he was now only a few places behind Esteban Gutierrez, and we all know how well that worked last race. The other Sauber reported technical difficulties and indicated that contact was involved - although we never saw who or what hit Sutil and was forced to retire the car for the third consecutive race.

It wasn't long before the first series of pit-stops took place, as on the 'green' track tyre wear and graining was higher than anticipated - resulting in large amounts of 'marbles' offline. In Nascar we'd be under safety car for weeks for that amount of debris on track... But Massa had bigger problems, when he came in for his stop the team considered mixing things up a bit and brought out soft rear tyres and medium fronts. To make matters worse the left rear wheel was difficult to change - potentially a legacy of the contact with Fernando, even though it appeared the front wheel took the brunt of the hit. Several of the Mercedes powered cars cycled through their stops, while Hamilton - to rub salt in the wounds - called over the radio stating his tyres were fine and everything was going perfectly to plan... oh dear, oh dear...

Due to pitting earlier than Vettel - Alonso leap-frogged the Red Bull into second place, Sebastian discovered he had the same problem Ferrari had in Bahrain - no straight line speed. Even with the help of the DRS and a the slipstream effect Fernando just eased away in a straight line. I can only assume that making Dominicali 'resign' was the one and only reason the car is working now... Nevertheless Vettel phoned up the Red Bull team and declared passing the Ferrari impossible and opted to drop back and save tyres. Things like this do make you wonder about severe performance imbalances yet the overall laptimes are comparable... unless you include Mercedes that is. This was the first element of Sebastian Vettel's morning of discontent.

To be honest there was nothing going on, so I went and made another mug of tea and consumed more chocolate than I really should have done. The final few cars completed their opening stops - Hamilton taking the tyres very close to the end of their usable lifespan. Despite losing some time through the longer stint he was still comfortably ahead of Alonso in second. Having finished complaining about straight line speed Vettel suddenly found Nico Rosberg appearing large in his mirrors. Sebastian could pull out a seemingly unassailable gap from Nico on the exit of turn 13 - but Rosberg through pure power drove up and alongside the Red Bull taking the place into the bottom hairpin. This was not going to be the end of Vettel's displeasure - and because no-one else was being interesting we got to spend more time pointing and laughing at his increasing level of irritation. But a slightly strange story was emerging - Bottas had also lost telemetry as well as Rosberg. Yet the on-screen graphics managed to capture Nico's fuel consumption percentages while the team had to ask Rosberg himself to read out the dashboard display. In contrast even the TV display couldn't figure out what is going on in Bottas' car...

We tried to look elsewhere for some activity - but we come back to Vettel and his ever degrading day, because Daniel Ricciardo had now caught up to the back of the German Bloke. This could only result in more tense radio conversations - and so it did. Vettel was asked to allow Ricciardo through, and Sebastian proceeded to interrogate the team about the Australian's strategy. In Bahrain Vettel allowed Daniel through because the latter was on the softer, faster compound. Not so this time, so Vettel very succinctly denied the team order with the response 'Tough luck' and continued to defend the position. Unfortunately the for the German, the team persisted and Vettel didn't defend as robustly as he could when Ricciardo made a move down the inside of turn one.

At the half way point it looked as if we were going to see the first point for the Lotus team in 2014 as Grosjean was running in 9th place, trying to chase Raikkonen and Bottas in front of him. But it was all going a little pear shaped when Romain was informed that his 4th gear was ruined, and it wasn't too long before the car was forced to retire. Even more distressing was the news that Gutierrez was embroiled in a battle with the other Lotus of Pastor Maldonado... This time the contest was far more civilised and the Lotus driver, through the assistance of DRS, managed to pass the Sauber without throwing anyone through the air. In fact Pastor had managed to gain the most positions - by virtue of starting last - without hitting anyone, that has to be a miracle.

After a few laps staying away from Vettel's misfortune it was time to tune back in as we hear another troubled radio message from the German. This time he was complaining about Kamui Kobayashi - who unlapped himself in the Caterham. Sebastian demanded someone to get Kamui out of his way - but on fresher tyres the Caterham was faster than the Red Bull to the tune of over a second. This was a rather glaring indication that it was time for Vettel to complete his second stop and discard the set of tyres that had been passed by so many cars. If Red Bull were are ruthless as Ferrari - Vettel's side of the garage would suddenly announce their 'retirement' under no element of coercion at all....

I suppose it is worth pointing out that Hamilton was still leading the race, and by a substantial margin from Alonso - and Fernando was seeing his grip on second place weaken as Rosberg approached. Despite dropping down the field at the start, and hitting a Williams, Nico's Mercedes was still an unstoppable force slicing back up towards the front almost effortlessly. But the German still had to update the team on his fuel usage manually, even if it was displayed to millions of people on the international television feed... Reading out the remaining fuel weight apparently annoyed Nico, and decided that at 38kg remaining he wasn't going to make any more announcements. Looks like it was turning into an irritating day for the German drivers - although Hulkenberg was having an anonymous day further back.

Rosberg was considerably faster than Alonso, and what was poised as one of the few remaining battles in the final quarter of the race was over and done with before it began. Nico once more had such a car advantage such that he was able to power alongside before reaching the DRS activation point on the back straight. So he was uncontested on the approach to the hairpin at turn 14, before sailing off into the middle distance, Nico didn't stand a chance at catching Hamilton as Lewis was in the only car Rosberg didn't have a crushing performance advantage over. And thus the podium positions were set. Alonso received some late attention from Daniel Ricciardo but as Vettel experienced the Red Bull has nowhere near the necessary top speed to pass the Ferrari. 

In reality that was it for the race, the final ten laps or so saw everyone settle into their positions. Even the race organisers were a little disillusioned with the race content and waved the chequered flag a lap early - and from all reports didn't wave it at Hamilton either... Therefore the result was officially declared at the end of lap 54, for the most part that didn't really matter. The points positions and the top 16 cars were in the same position they were two laps later. However the countback counted against Kamui Kobayashi who claimed the lead of the lower team battle from Bianchi on lap 56. But because laps 55 and 56 were deemed not to exist... neither did Kamui's overtaking manouvre.

So in the end Hamilton claimed a pedestrian, uncontested victory, miles ahead of the other Mercedes piloted by Rosberg. Another 1-2 and once more no Mercedes (that finished) has been beaten on race day. Fernando scored Ferrari's first podium of 2014, and I can only imagine how many people attribute this to Stefano's 'retirement'. Riccardo's charge in the final laps came to nothing as the Red Bull isn't fast enough, and those laps were only a figment of our imaginations. A considerable number of seconds further back was a moderately grumpy Sebastian Vettel in the second Red Bull, thus ending the list of cars that made any significant TV appearance. In the realm of anonymity was Nico Hulkenberg and Bottas in 6th and 7th place, ahead of Raikkonen who was well beaten by Fernando today. Rounding out the points were Sergio Perez and Daniil Kvyat's even unnerving death stare which didn't get quite so much coverage this weekend, so I can't comment as to it's intensity this time.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Just like in Malaysia I sit here and wonder just who deserves some bonus points, Mercedes  had it far too easy and straight line speed differences cancelled out several battles. But points must be awarded and so here are the winners from the Chinese GP

• 25pts - Fernando Alonso - Today closest contender to the Mercedes dominance coming off a terrible weekend in Bahrain.
• 18pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Another race, another kicking for Vettel
• 15pts - Kamui Kobayashi - Has to have points for passing Vettel and compensation for having those laps taken away
• 12pts - Nico Rosberg - Even with a car advantage, it was a strong recovery drive 
• 10pts - Lewis Hamilton - I suppose winning scores some points
• 8pts -  Romain Grosjean - If it wasn't for mechanical dilemmas, there would have been points for Lotus
• 6pts - Max Chilton - For not coming last, which I don't think has happened this far this season.
• 4pts - Felipe Massa - Another strong start and came so close to passing Daniel and Fernando as well
• 2pts - Pastor Maldonado - Made up the most places without any contact
• 1pt  - Williams - What on earth are those suspensions made of...

The Penalties Championship

In a race where next to nothing happened, you do run out of reasons to instigate penalty points, but I shall persevere and issue the following penalties:

• Ferrari - They claim that Dominicali's departure is a retirement but I suggest there was some enforcement involved
• Mercedes - Get a penalty point for turning up at Red Bulls appeal tribunal requesting a three race suspended ban... not cool guys...
• Citroen - A retrospective penalty for last weekend where they applied team orders on lap one of the WTCC event at Marakech - I haven't seen the Paul-Ricard races to see if that pattern continues.
• Chinese GP Flag Official - Waving the flag and effectively cancelling the race two laps early and cancelling out Kamui's pass

Looking Ahead to Spain

The season effectively crosses onto home turf as it returns to Europe where the teams are based and the majority of the races are held. The first stop is the Spanish GP in Barcelona - conventionally the home of the bulk of the pre-season testing. However this time around all those tests were conducted in Bahrain - but it doesn't change the significance of this phase of the season. The first race of the European season is where the major updates are brought to the cars, because the factories are closer to the action, it sends the development race into overdrive. Making it the starting point for the colossal comeback everyone needs to make to claw back the deficit between them and Mercedes. This development also needs to come from the engine manufacturers (I reckon several fingers are pointed at Renault right now, most notably Vettel's presently unused celebratory finger). 

The Spanish GP may not be one of those races known for action, in the same way that the Chinese GP isn't - and wasn't today - but it's outcome and result could be pivotal to the outcome of the championship. The first few fly-away races are complete and so begins the core of this season's competition - bring it on.

Round 4: China 2014 - Pre-Race

Greetings Internet,

Another race weekend and another session as the same result seems to pull through - four consecutive poles for those silver cars and barring an apocalypse tomorrow we'll have similar result this time tomorrow. If it hadn't been for the rainfall, the other teams wouldn't be anywhere near as close as they were today... if you consider 0.6s close... But as we saw last race, one team running in a dominant position can be quite a lot of fun - and I think a video of that race should be emailed to the Citroen WTCC team who in an equal position of dominance refuse to let their drivers race each other... shame on you.

Qualifying  today has been relatively interesting, the challenging conditions meaning the cars tended to move around a lot under traction and the drop in downforce in 2014 saw several drivers running off the track. The most hilarious moments befalling current villain - Pastor Maldonado - in the practice sessions. In FP2 Pastor managed to crash the car coming into the pit lane, and even more hilariously in FP3 he had a spin when twiddling with some knobs in turn 7... and the less mentioned about this the better. However we were denied a third opportunity of Maldonado madness as his car was ruled out of qualifying due to an oil leak in the engine which now takes hours to solve due to the complexity of the power units.

Q1

As in any wet qualifying session the drivers lined up in the pit lane - one of the few occasions where Caterham and Marussia appear ahead of other cars - if the universe imploded after the first three minutes of qualifying we'd have Kobayashi on the front row. At the time Vergne had stolen the lead from the green machines - those drivers towards the back were having a go on the intermediates while the main contenders ventured out on the full wets. Ricciardo came on the radio saying conditions were extreme, which to be honest was gross exaggeration - but really referred to the tyre compound Red Bull fitted to the car. Wet conditions help Red Bull as it reduces the deficit to Mercedes and pronounces their aerodynamic influence - such that Vettel was able to go 0.445s ahead of Rosberg. Unfortunately for them there was another, faster Mercedes which could crush everyone else at will - and Hamilton duly did so to end Q1 in the lead.

Down in the relegation zone, it was the usual suspects not making it through into Q2, despite Caterham trying to capitalise on the conditions with the intermediate tyres - Kobayashi and Bianchi remain the two leaders of that particular struggle. Joining them was the gymnast from Bahrain Esteban Gutierrez, which places him dangerously close to Maldonado at the start of the race. Grosjean in the other Lotus was much further up the field then usual.

Q2

The rain had subsided, slightly such that it was intermediates all round and it was Adrian Sutil who was feeling pleased with himself at setting the fastest time to start things off - although Hamilton knocked four seconds off that very quickly... The conventional Mercedes 1-2 was in effect as Rosberg mover easily into second place. So we had to look at the opposite end of the top ten to find anything going on where we had Raikkonen and both McLarens struggling to make it through into Q3. Normally we'd see all of the Mercedes powered machines lining up towards the front but the wet weather means that the power advantage the likes of Williams and McLaren had is dampened down. We saw Massa slowing to find some space behind Vergne in the Toro Rosso - backing into Raikkonen in the process - to which the Ferrari driver refused to stay in line and started passing people. Probably deserves an ice cream for that

With session coming to an end those coming in for a fresh set of intermediates rocketed up the field, Vergne moved into the top ten and Hulkenberg split the Mercedes to go second for Force India - while Perez dropped out of Q2. Yet McLaren and Raikkonen couldn't make any improvements and therefore were relegated. As it turned out Raikkonen had gear shifting problems and couldn't get the most out of the car. But once again Grosjean made it through - which in itself if miraculous given the reliability of that machine.

Q1

In the technical world of F1 the precipitation had intensified - because raining harder isn't simple enough for the boffins on the pitwall. But in reality it had merely drizzled fractionally more... anyway questionable weather reports aside Vettel temporarily claimed the lead and provisional pole position. The German bloke could have taken the first non-Mercedes pole position in 2014, if the Mercedes team had left the country that is. As Hamilton immediately dethroned Vettel to the tune of six tenths of a second. Rosberg followed Hamilton home in second place.

Time for the second runs, and Vettel was able to pass Rosberg for second place - and then Ricciardo defeated his multiple champion team-mate for second place. Hamilton however just trundled round to extend the lead even further - over a second ahead of Rosberg... payback for Bahrain. How was Nico doing, well by the end of sector two he was fastest, heading for pole position - but locked up into the hairpin. Rosberg had one final shot and due to a miscommunication somewhere didn't realise he was going even faster and span in the final corner trying to recover a deficit that didn't exist. So we ended up with another Hamilton pole position. 

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Following another rain affected qualifying session, there are some points to be awarded and here are the winners from today:

• 10pts - Romain Grosjean  - A Lotus inside the top ten on this season's form, well done indeed  
• 8pts - Daniel Ricciardo - On equal terms, on equal tyres and the same conditions beating Vettel by a significant margin
• 6pts - Massa/Bottas - Both cars in the top ten when they're normally weaker in the wet conditions
• 5pts - Fernando Alonso - Secured a record number of 5th place starts defining his place as best of those cars outside the top two teams.
• 4pts - Adrian Sutil - Beating a McLaren and Bahrain podium finisher Perez in the Sauber
• 3pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Gets some points for powerslides in the final sector
• 2pts - Kimi Raikkonen  - Have a couple of points for not choosing to wait for space with Massa
• 1pt - Pastor Maldonado - For crashing into the pit lane, and being distracted by twiddling his knobs... because it was hilarious

Looking to Tomorrow

The forecast is for the race to be dry, therefore we expect Hamilton to drive off into the distance never to be seen again - and Rosberg should be able to make it past the Red Bulls and lead an equally lonely race in second. The time lost with Ricciardo and Vettel will prevent another titanic battle between the two teammates once again. The change in conditions will redress the balance of power, where McLaren, Perez, Raikkonen should making their way forward - whereas Vergne, Grosjean and potentially the Red Bulls will begin to struggle and drop back down the field. This might mean that the two groups meet in the middle in some gigantic battle with overtaking and mayhem... and as long as Maldonado stays several hundred miles away no-one will be upside down. 

Round 4: China 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

After the mesmerizing events in Bahrain the F1 world as gone a little mad in the past two weeks people have been fired, people have resigned and appeals were rejected - so it is safe to assume that there will more scared faces wandering around the Shanghai paddock for fear of being the next to go. The biggest announcement of all was the news that Stefano Dominicali from Ferrari has resigned... to which I suggest he was forcefully booted out of the door by the Ferrari overlord Luca Di Montizemelo. I assume he wanted answers to why his cars were being passed so easily in Bahrain and generally failing to capitalise on having two supreme world champion drivers. Instead of working on updates and making the car more competitive, Luca disposed of Dominicali in some grandiose gesture - very mafia-esque. It's veering dangerously close to F1 becoming much like football - the team is under performing, so fire the manager instead of curing the underlying problem... Personally I don't agree with the decision, because I don't think the cars and the team will miraculously improve - Stefano is being made an unnecessary example of.

In lighter and far more positive news - new teams are on the horizon for the coming years - two bids have been made to join the grid and have been tentatively accepted by Bernie and his minions. The most interesting one is Haas F1 - an american team currently active in Nascar as Stewart-Haas (if this the right Haas, there are two and I get confused). Gene Haas (or Carl... I can't remember) has said that he want's to base the team in the US in a building where the Nascar team has moved out of and wants a driver pairing consisting of an experienced driver and a young American. The second entry is from a team called "Forza Rossa" which appears to be another incarnation of the Stefan GP team that tried to enter with HRT the last time the grid was bulked up. That time round the deal didn't quite make it to fruition, little is know this time (or maybe it is and I haven't looked) but rumors of this being the Ferrari equivalent of Toro Rosso have been suggested. Colin Kolles is apparently on board, who was involved with HRT and ran a pair of R10's at Le Mans - so definitely has racing knowledge, we shall just wait and see.

The Venue

The next in the chain of Tilke dominated tracks is Shanghai - a track based on a Chinese character... clearly the best thing to engineer a layout from. Sadly I can't really see this configuration genertating quite the same amount of intrigue as Bahrain managed, as it shares a lot in common with the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia... and we all know how the world responded to that race. It almost seems as if Mr Tilke started with the template of the Malaysian GP and just stretched some of the corners out a bit and stapled an excessive straight to the back of it. But like Sepang, it does have sections that work well - albeit fewer of them than the host design.

At the start of the lap we are introduced to a series of corners where the designers couldn't quite decide when enough was enough - it starts off so well with a high speed entry which gradually constricts through the radius of the corner. At this point it should have been called a day but no... someone decided it would be a brilliant idea to fold this corner into a hairpin pointing the track back at the main straight. Like the later levels of historic arcade game 'snake' the lap has to make another horrifically awkward hairpin to avoid colliding with itself... Why Tilke...Why?

Anyway eventually you'll escape this tirade of opposing spirals and accelerate out towards the turn six hairpin (the corner numbering is also a little odd) one of the prime overtaking locations - and one of the few places where Maldonado can unleash his special brand of overtaking. I'd recommend a spare batch of rollhoops be dispatched forthwith. After the hairpin we are presented with a pair of sweeping corners, where the second is fractionally slower feeding into a double apexed turn... straight out of the Malaysian playbook that one, yet it remains one of the more enjoyable elements of this racetrack.

When we come to the end of the shorter back straight, it all starts to unravel again - another example of how a track built without a consideration of it's drivability can have some truly horrific corners. Turn 11 is a prime example - it almost resembles Oschersleben's turn one, regarded as one of the worst corners in all of the universe. Because it isolation it would be an average low speed corner, but the exit is constricted by the next turn making it much tighter, unnecessarily so, such that you can't drive the corner without compromising the next one. It slightly redeems itself further on as it opens into a high speed banked sweeping turn. Winding up onto a more than excessive back straight.

This straight, sculpted for DRS ends in the slowest corner on the track - perfectly designed for having accidents and if you feel like it, overtaking. As illustrated last season as Gutierrez crashed into the back of Sutil's Force India - with these lower noses that could be a far more dangerous situation, like the Kobayashi/Massa accident in Australia. The end of lap is marked by a deceptive and interesting corner, it taunts you to throw the car in faster than it can be done, but on the whole the track is a hive of inconsistency as have been the races held here.

The Form Guide

Well, to be honest if something other than a Mercedes takes pole and walks away with the victory and by some margin on both counts, this is race four and thus far no other team has achieved such a feat. But I think the advantage won't be quite so significant in China because it isn't a track defined by top speeds as much as Bahrain, therefore Red Bull and Ferrari won't be so swamped. Illustrating that firing Dominicali was a rash reaction to a much wider problem. Inversely those other Mercedes cars will have far more competition - Williams, McLaren and Force India won't have all the freedom to pass at will as they did in Bahrain it will be harder and hopefully it will bunch the pack up towards the bottom end of the top ten.

Lurking just on the other side of that top ten will be Toro Rosso - and points may be back on the cards for Vergne and his frightening team-mate, morning briefings must be terrifying in that garage. Moving on to Sauber and I still see points being dependant on attrition and luck for Sutil and Gutierrez - the car isn't capable of keeping up with the bulk of the grid, which ever way up it happens to be this time. Sauber however are no longer alone - Lotus have caught up with the Swiss team and have manufactured some reliability along the way. Of course this does mean Maldonado is in range of other cars now... and we saw how that worked out last time....

At the back of the grid is doesn't appear that either team has a consistent advantage over the other - mere luck and attrition elsewhere decides how well their afternoon plays out. Neither Marussia or Caterham can compete with the other teams - even Lotus now have fixed their car and taken off ahead of them - I'd imagine they'd have to wait for Haas racing to arrive to give them someone to race against.


One the whole the Chinese GP isn't a key point on the calendar that jumps out as being particularly interesting or entertaining - much in the same way as the Malaysian GP doesn't. That race is the closest comparator as how we expect this weekend to play out, and just like that race in Sepang there will be many reams of complaints and scorn over how uneventful the action is... people are fickle like that even after the show Bahrain put on...

Round 3: Bahrain 2014 - Review

Greetings Internet,

Do you all remember, this time last week when so many people jumped up on their nearest soap-box proclaiming that this new F1 is boring and a failure... I like to try and see someone try and make that argument after seeing that race. Last year the Bahrain GP was one of the few highlights in a generally unimpressive season, featuring the internal battle at McLaren at the time - this time around the race was a carbon copy of that event... on steroids. When we saw that Mercedes had an all conquering car with a huge advantage - connotations of the Vettel dominance were initially brought to the fore, today proved beyond all reproach that it won't be quite so one sided. Team-mates were within millimetres from wiping each other out of the race yet managed to give each other just enough room - even in a contest right at the head of the field.

From one extreme to the other in comparison to the Malaysian GP, those 57 laps in the darkness were a veritable buffet of overtaking... and overturning. It was a good day for so many and a terrible day for others - and one where we question whether it really was a good idea to give Maldonado a car capable of running in the vicinity of anyone else. The Venezuelan was accused of 'trying to kill' Vergne and testing Esteban Gutierrez's gymnastic abilities.

The Race

At the start of the day we knew the battle out front was going to be intense as Hamilton stole the lead from Rosberg by the time the field made the apex of turn one. Massa cleaved through the field with a blistering start, much to the surprise of Bottas who suddenly found his team-mate very close in the first corner. Having seen the GP2 support races, where in each instance the pole-sitter lost ground, seeing Hamilton lead lap one was no great surprise. Further back Magnussen attempted an impossible move on the inside of Raikkonen, clipping the Ferrari for the second successive race, even further back an incident off camera saw Maldonado make contact with Jean-Eric Vergne. The Frenchman dropped to last with a shredded rear tyre, and was less than complimentary about Pastor's driving claiming he was crazy, mental and trying to kill him... can't imagine the Venezuelan would be friends with Gutierrez either, but more on that later.

For the moment the two Mercedes drivers were playing nice, so we take a look back at how Ferrari's day was going, and as it turned out it wasn't going very well - Hulkenberg was able to breeze past Alonso on the main straight. The red cars had a severe straight line speed deficit and had no defence to the anything with a Mercedes engine.In fact everyone was having difficulties keeping in touch with anything powered by the German engines - out of the 8 cars with the superior unit seven of them were running at the front of field, only Magnussen was a few places back. In some eerie reverse foreshadowing towards the back of the field Pastor Maldonado passed a Sauber without contact... lightning doesn't really strike twice.

Speaking of Saubers, Bianchi was having difficulties with the one containing Adrian Sutil who was out of position due to an early stop. To start off with Sutil had his second episode of push and shove of the weekend and served Jules off the track on the exit of turn four rather forcefully. But Bianchi wouldn't take that lying down and went back on the offensive, launching the car down inside of turn one - locking up and crashing into the side of the Sauber. Sutil was forced to retire due to the accident and Bianchi was given a drive through penalty for his involvement in the latter part of the tussle.

After the earliest round of pit-stops it was two by two throughout most of the top ten - Mercedes, Williams, Force India leading the way for those with Mercedes power. The top two hadn't stopped and had closed up on each other again - and the battle royale resumed - Nico had a lunge in turn one and stole the lead, Lewis issued almost immediate payback cutting back inside the German almost making contact in the process. Rosberg made another attempt in turn four and was forced wide on the exit again. On the next lap Nico launched another attack, a more successful one which saw him lead the race for all of four corners before being re-passed. This titanic struggle was interrupted when Hamilton came in for some new tyres.

Behind the Mercedes team, there was overtaking everywhere - mostly against Ferrari's Bottas for example was so much quicker than Raikkonen in a straight line he almost put the Williams in the wall avoiding it at the end of the main straight. In a role reversal of Malaysia Bottas now found himself under pressure from Massa - and this time no team orders were sent down the radio system, but as the duo fought for an advantage the two Force India's running in formation closed in. Adopting an attack strategy that proved successful for the Renault Squadron when they existed - and one that paid off for Perez in this case. Sergio watched Hulkenberg try and pass Massa and picked an opportunity to capitalise on his team-mate being distracted to take the position. Perez then repeated the same move to the inside of the high speed turn five against Massa, to claim the highest place achievable for a non-Mercedes car in 3rd. Meanwhile Ferrari were losing more places as Vettel, in a car known for being slower in a straight line drove past Raikkonen with ease.

Those running the three stop strategy came in for their second stop which shuffled the pack once more, which merged Williams with Red Bull, and Hulkenberg appeared behind Raikkonen and the second Red bull of Vettel. Within three corners the Hulk dispatched two world champions to get back on terms with Perez in the other Force India in the battle for third place. Bottas had to re-pass Raikkonen - everyone was passing Ferraris today - and then followed that up with a pass on Ricciardo. The Australian had also just been allowed past Vettel by team instruction a few laps earlier, and here was everyone thinking that Ricciardo would be a distant number two in the Red Bull team, it certainly wasn't playing out that way.

Miles out in the lead, Hamilton and Rosberg were now on alternate strategies, running the opposite tyre compounds - which allowed a gap to form between the pairing, as entralling as the Williams and Force India battles were... and they were. The lead battle had calmed down a little - so we needed an intervention, something like a safety car. But with massive amounts of run off and space in Bahrain safety cars are very unlikely - only one instance in the nine previous runnings of the race. It would take something pretty mental. Mental just happens to be Pastor Maldonado's speciality. So in one of his biggest acts of complete lunacy the Lotus driver exited pit-lane and drove straight into the rear wheel of Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber. Gutierrez was flipped up and over in quite a violent roll. The slow motion replay made Esteban's flight look quite graceful and he did land the right way up, but it is another example of Maldonado losing the plot. We did however get our safety car. And Gutierrez merely commented on team radio "Wow, what was that" before getting out of his ruined Sauber under his own power.

Several laps later, after Pastor had the book justifiably thrown at him, we had a restart and an already marvellous race shifted up at least three gears. Rosberg now on the softs attacked Hamilton immediately, behind them Perez pounced on Hulkenberg almost taking both Force India's off in turn one. The safety car also brought the Red Bull's to life - Ricciardo was on an immense charge and both Red Bull's mugged Jenson Button with ease. McLaren had already lost Magnussen under the safety car due to a mechanical failure, and Jenson's car seemed to be on it's last legs, as both Williams cars found it equally easy to dispatch the struggling McLaren.

Within a couple of laps, Mercedes had a six second lead and once more paid more attention to fighting each other, for about three laps Nico consistently threw the car down the inside of turn one but couldn't hold a tight enough line to retain the position. Hamilton then defended his lead on the run up to turn four and aggressively, but fairly, left no room for Rosberg to go round the outside at the top of the hill. A huge battle for the lead wasn't enough, Ricciardo was aiming for a podium, and his first obstacle was multiple world champion and team-mate - Vettel. Daniel was squeezed towards the wall on the pit straight as he made his way past but was determined to prove he was more than a match for the German bloke. His next target was Hulkenberg in the first of the Force India's holding onto 4th place.

Only four laps to go and Rosberg was throwing everything at Hamilton and was denied on every effort, how clever and forceful car placement the only thing keeping the German at bay. Ricciardo was having a similar problem with Hulkenberg - the Force India was too fast in a straight line for the Red Bull to overtake, but Daniel was better in the corners and made the pass stick round the outside of turn 11. Only one more car between him and the podium position, and Ricciardo was comfortably faster than the second Force India that held that all important position.

Sadly before anymore battles could reach their conclusion we ran out of laps - Rosberg's tyres lost their edge and couldn't wrestle the victory away from Hamilton. Likewise Perez was able to hold on to that final podium spot as Ricciardo pulled to within half a second of the Mexican in fourth. Hulkenberg brought his Force India home in 5th place, holding off Vettel who ended the race hampered by more technical gremlins. After having a very strong opening half of the race, Williams finished 7th and 8th - Massa in front - after the safety car compromised their strategy. Ferrari had ran out of cars to lose positions to and rounded out the points in 9th and 10th just keeping Kvyat's death stare out of the points this time.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Where do I even begin with a race like that, so much overtaking and so much action throughout the race which was only intensified after the safety car intervention, so here are the points winners from today:

25pts - Sergio Perez - Many, many great passes and precision cutting through the field and reminding Hulkenberg that he can compete with his highly rated team-mate
18pts - Daniel Ricciardo - From 13th to 4th while coping with a straight line speed deficit to those around him
15pts - Hamilton/Rosberg - Have to have many points each for truly epic wheel to wheel racing without making any contact
12pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Landed the flip and walked away from one of the least gentle roll overs of recent times
10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Almost had the podium spot despite not making it into Q3
8pts - Felipe Massa - For an astonishing start slicing through the field as if it didn't exist
6pts -  Max Chilton - Still manages to finish in a chaotic race and moves Marussia ahead of Caherham
4pts - Valtteri Bottas - Excellent avoidance skills keeping it out of the wall and missing Raikkonen
2pts -Lotus - Their first double finish of the season, and for building a sturdy car too
1pt - Martin Brundle - For noticing from the damage to Gutierrez's car that it had been over before seeing the replay, didn't spot that one from here in Blog HQ

The Penalty Points Championship

When a race is that good there are fewer opportunities to issue some penalty points because most people should be applauded for racing fairly and without contact... but there are some exceptions:

• Adrian Sutil - Has to have a point for forcibly bumping Bianchi off, before Jules repaid the favour in turn one
• Pastor Maldonado - I know the FIA have imposed their sanctions on the wayward Lotus already but Blog HQ needs to had over a penalty point for his latest infraction. Yuji Ide disappeared from the sport after causing a similar accident at imola in 2006 when he flipped Cristjan Albers' Midland car.

Looking ahead to China

Well, you have a really tough act to follow Shanghai after that one, but I can't see that challenge been fulfilled, because the Chinese GP has a lot in common with the Malaysian GP - and we all know how much fun that was. However in recent years tyre strategy has turned the tables on that prognosis and delivered some brilliant racing - Webber's 18th to 3rd place charge being a key example. Also because we're away from the desert there is always a chance that the weather can return to play a part in the proceedings. This new F1 isn't half bad now is it?

Round 3: Bahrain 2014 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

Today was the first night qualifying session in Bahrain, and like the other night events in Singapore and Abu Dhabi - the artificial lighting makes everything look very shiny. It is very easy to forget how much we hated the look of F1 2014 when every car glistens and looks magnificent, especially in HD - and I noticed that the cars do seem to sound a lot better on Sky, which is probably blasphemy but only goes to serve how much money they've used to rip the sport away from the BBC and over-engineer their coverage. 

Our new age of dominance continues, as the field is crushed week in, week out by those two silver cars out front. Interesting revelations suggested that this substantial advantage has something to do with some clever tinkering that Mercedes have done with the positioning of the turbo unit and air compressor, or some such engineering gubbins. Whatever their secret is, it is certainly working exceptionally well - in many of the sessions this weekend opening up a second over the rest of the grid. But beyond those two, the rest of the grid is very interesting, as the gap between 3rd and around 13th was less than half a second in the middle of Q2, so the sport is a lot more competitive than it used to be, just not at the sharpest end of the grid.

Q1

It almost seemed as if Mercedes were mocking the opposition in the first part of qualifying, they had a margin of over a second from those behind them - initially that being Esteban Gutierrez in the Sauber - to make matters worse they did that on the harder of the two compounds. With only six cars scheduled to be relegated in Q1, four of which belonged to the bottom two teams, you'd think more teams would have enough of an advantage to make it through comfortably. But as we reached the mid point of the session we had Magnussen and Raikkonen sitting in the relegation zone with both Toro Rossos. This meant that the Lotus team were looking at two cars in Q2 and Kamui Kobayashi was up in 14th place for Caterham - a team who were slower than the GP2 junior team in practice.

It may have been a nice thought to see the form book torn up even more, but some degree of normality won through. Ricciardo proved once more to be the closest competitor to the Mercedes cars on raw pace, using the soft tyres to set a faster time. To demonstrate how difficult things were in the other side of the Red Bull garage - the once all powerful Vettel couldn't defeat the Mercedes when using the softer and faster tyres. Towards the back, the Toro Rossos, Raikkonen and Magnussen comfortably escaped the relegation zone. Maldonado made it into Q2 at the expense of Adrian Sutil, but Grosjean in the second Lotus beat Pastor by 0.009s to steal the last qualification place. 

At the very end of the session, we saw a strange incident where it appeared that Adrian Sutil was defending his position from Grosjean before the final corner - almost forcing the Lotus off track, which is presently under investigation.

Q2

Because it was dry for the first time in 2014, we got to see the new Q2 regulations where drivers who made it into Q3 will have to start the race on the set of tyres they completed their fastest Q2 time on. Because the FIA have an obsession with adding complexity to stupid rules instead of just removing them in the first place. None of this made any difference to the Mercedes team - but a comeback was emerging. Having being comprehensively beaten in Malaysia by Hamilton, Rosberg was starting to issue some payback - taking two tenths off Lewis' time. At this point it Mercedes called it a day and didn't need to bother setting another time such was their advantage...

More Mercedes power towards the front as Hulkenberg and Jenson Button lined up third and fourth but they were still over a second behind the two front running cars. Alonso was immediately flying the flag for anyone not running with the German power plants. After the team order issues in Malaysia in the Williams garage, the pairing made sure that Valtteri Bottas was not faster than Felipe - or the other way round - by setting identical lap times, down to the thousandth of a second. 

Positions shuffled quite a lot towards the end of the session, some for the better... others less so. Sergio Perez made significant gains in comparison to Hulkenberg who dropped out of the session in a reversal of intra-team form. Vettel also failed to make it through, while Ricciardo went third fastest  - it is an odd state of affairs at Red Bull.

Q3

This season Q3 is two minutes longer, yet for the opening two minutes nobody did anything completely defeating the objective of extending the session... Eventually there was some track action as the first of the nine cars doing two runs took to the track. Bottas set the benchmark time, only to be completely blown away by Rosberg's time - Hamilton tried his best to compete with Nico, but could only come within quarter of a second of the German. How the tide had turned after last weekend. Bottas and Perez being the closest competition at this point in the session.

Raikkonen joined the hunt as it was time for the second run, and as much as we would have liked some big, action packed climactic conclusion to qualifying, it didn't quite materialise. Hamilton ran off the circuit at turn on handing the pole to Rosberg who didn't need to complete his final run. Ricciardo jumped up to third place, but with the penalty from Malaysia will be dropped down to 13th anyway. Other than Raikkonen making it into 6th place (5th on the grid) no-one really improved their position - and that was that frankly... 

The Bonus Points Championship Points Championship

You'd think the first dry qualifying session would be a return to the uneventful tales we've encountered in the past, but in this new era the cars look so much more entertaining when driven on the edge. And there were some general contenders for bonus points this time around, so the winners are.

• 10pts - Sergio Perez - A strong comeback after being consistently beaten by the Hulk
• 8pts - Valtteri Bottas - Equalling his best ever grid start, and the closest car to the factory Mercedes team
• 6pts - Nico Rosberg - Take that Hamilton, that is all
• 5pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Who thought Vettel, in a functioning car would be this far behind the new Austrlian
• 4pts - Kamui Kobayashi - Spent a long time outside the relegation zone and leads the bottom division.
• 3pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Finally managed to out-qualify Alonso
• 2pts - Felipe Massa - For achieving true neutrality in Q2 no-one is faster or slower than Felipe
• 1pt - Stoffel Vandoorne - Dominant performances now in GP2, demonstrating that McLaren know how to find quick drivers.

Penalty Points Championship

As the stewards haven't published anything thus far with regards to Sutil on Grosjean - I shall take matters into my own virtual hands and issue Adrian with a penalty point. Looking at the incident, the only explanation I can think of is that Adrian moved over to the inside to let Romain past at the same time as the Lotus was trying to make a pass down that same side. The last time that sort of thing took place - Chris Van Der Drift was fired up into the side of a bridge at Brands Hatch and ended up in hospital. Yes there is less scenery in Bahrain, but it is a dangerous situation.

Looking to Tomorrow

Here's hoping this race is miles better than the Malaysian GP that never quite materialised last time out, but under the lights and with cross winds affecting the circuit even a dull race will look prettier. That said Bahrain was the stand-out event of 2013 and has some act to follow up with - but it does have the potential to capitalise on the opportunities presented to us. 

The whole world is expecting the Mercedes team to run away with it and barring any retirements and mechanical dramas, there is nothing to stop them doing so. There is only one place on the podium realistically up for grabs and a lot of cars fast enough to challenge for it, Bottas, Perez and Button with Mercedes power are in the immediate running. But we also have the likes of Vettel and Hulkenberg and now Ricciardo from outside the top ten with cars several rows faster than their starting position suggests. To make matters easier a night race means that this will be the first live race here in Blog HQ... bring it on.

Round 3: Bahrain 2014 - Preview

Greetings Internet,

Only a few days after wrapping things up in Malaysia, the season moves on to Bahrain - out into the middle-eastern desert. A location that has come under so much protest in the past - such that it was cancelled back in 2011, and it was that cancellation that allowed this corner of the internet to come into being. So there you have it - an anti-government uprising is directly responsible for the amount of inaccurate nonsense that I continuously pour into cyberspace - so you know who to blame on that one. But Bernie does like going to places with a little bit of controversy behind them, every time we arrive in the Gulf we're reminded of the past conflicts, and made aware of potential human rights issues in China, economic difficulties in India and gang violence in Brazil. Wouldn't it be awkward if we were going to have a race anywhere near Crimea or the Black Sea...

Back to Bahrain and this next stage in the season represents a third unique challenge - replacing the humidity and monsoons of Malaysia with the sand and dry heat of the desert. Which again causes difficulties with anyone with reliability issues in the cooling department, further compromised by the sand drifting into the internal organs of the fragile racecars. However information coming through twitter from the teams setting up in Sakhir claims that the temperatures are much cooler than they'd expect - but still a lot more than temperatures here around Blog HQ.  Cooler conditions will also be more of a factor this season as the race has now been scheduled as a night race for some reason...There were even some images from earlier in the week showing some rainfall in the area, although the race weekend as a whole looks to be the first completely dry one of 2014.

The Venue

The Bahrain International Circuit tends to divide opinions, because it is a very polarising layout some of it makes use of the limited amount of elevation that the barren desert provides, while other elements fall into the generic 'required elements' too many of the Tilke designs have. I refer to the spate of long straights feeding into hairpin corners - because at the time it was developed that was the recipe for overtaking... allegedly, which then conveniently played right into the hands of the evil force of DRS. But in Bahrain's most recent appearance on the calendar it produced arguably one of the best races of the season, including a superb intra-team battle at McLaren.

The layout of the track does consist of potentially one too many straights and hairpins, which only serve to break the flow of the lap. The start straight for example is longer than it needs to be - at one point holding the accolade for the longest straight all season - ending in a three part complex, initiated with the first hairpin of the lap. Turns 1-3 were engineered to allow cars to pass and immediately re-pass one another before exiting onto straight number two. Straight number two leads into hairpin number two at one of the higher points of the circuit.

On the descent down the other side, it feels like someone in the design office was allowed a faintest fraction of creativity unleashing a series of sweeping corners, which with the new downforce configuration should be a lot more interesting. But that creativity is cut short by hairpin number three pointing cars at straight number three. At the end of this latest straight we have the most interesting hairpin (to the extent to which a hairpin could ever be interesting...). It is hidden on the other side of a slight kink and a gentle descent, if any one corner in the world has burned through the most locked front tyres it's this one.

After an unnecessary sequence of corners - no matter how interesting they may be - that bloke who drew the initial sweeping corners was briefly let back into the room for a couple more additions to the layout. Taking advantage of the curvature of the land to build an ascending sequence of corners terminating in a blind sweeper at the highest point of the circuit. Just as the track curves back towards the end of the lap - the regular designer returned and deciced that the best way to take the track from the highest point back to the finish line is another long straight and a pseudo hairpin... such imagination...

The Form Guide

To be honest if we don't see at least one Mercedes on the podium - one of those on the top step - something miraculous will have taken place. It looked comfortable in Australia, but Malaysia was a display of unstoppable dominance - crushing the opposition while turning the engine down from about half distance. On top of that Red Bull seem to be alone in second place behind the all conquering Mercedes team - but Ricciardo will have to make up some ground after the stewards threw every volume of the rulebook at the Australian. We have to drop even further back to find the first does of competition, where Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Hulkenberg are in the same league, waiting for those ahead to retire or earn every penalty under the sun. In the dry, on a track with a lot of straights the gap between this group and Red Bull could be a lot smaller as the Mercedes engines claw back the aerodynamic advantage Newey's creations have. So Williams, McLaren and Force India could be a problem for Ferrari making the points positions very crowded.

The mid-field at the moment consists of Toro Rosso - armed with the frightening death stare of Daniil Kvyat - and whoever finishes out of Lotus and Sauber, both of whom have had questionable reliability thus far. It can be said that Lotus are slightly towards the back of the group on single lap qualifying pace, but in race trim, if the car survives, can run up with Sauber and well clear of the bottom two teams. In Malaysia Grosjean was able to hold off Raikkonen in a damaged Ferrari for the final phase of the race, so all is not lost for the Endstone team,.

We do have to consider what is going on down at the very back of the grid, and like so many seasons before neither Caterham or Marussia can compete with the cars ahead of them on a regular basis - Caterham tried in Malaysia. Kobayashi battled to hold off Grosjean and Raikkonen, but was outclassed by the superior machinery of those around him. Chilton retains his record of finishing every race of his career - albeit as the last classified runner of both races in 2014. As the season and development race continues, perhaps, just perhaps they can close the gap.

Just like Malaysia a few days ago Bahrain isn't noted as being as one of the highlights, the sort of race you circle in the calendar as being particularly exciting - last race didn't prove that theory wrong - but Bahrain has contravened that tradition before. Most notably last season, as noted earlier, it was unusually entertaining. The new downforce levels in those few corners that deviate from the strict diet of straights and hairpins, would make the track more challenging, and those hairpins aren't calibrated to the high torque turbo engines. So wheelspin under acceleration on an abrasive surface may turn this event into a tyre conservation event, as well as a high fuel consumption event... but we'll just have to see how it goes in Bahrain's first night race weekend.