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.
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